Obama’s Working Overtime

Barack Obama’s working harder his last month or so in office than he has his last eight years in office. When you’ve got a legacy to manufacture, and Donald Trump to set up for failure, hard work comes easily I suppose. The examples are many and new ones are being added almost daily.

Take for instance his order to scrap a registry program designed to identify and track potential terrorists. He had eight years to abolish it but somehow only got around to doing so in December 2016?

Same goes for the sudden round of hysterics over Chinese military movements in the South China Sea. We’ve heard more about a Chinese military build-up in that part of the world these past few weeks than we’ve heard in years, even though the build-up isn’t anything new.

Then there was the unprecedented failure by the US ambassador to the UN to vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Like R.E.M. once sang, “silence means approval”, so abstaining from the UN vote was condemnation of Israel under another name.

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There’s Russia. Heaven only knows what Obama has up his sleeve to make sure Trump’s administration starts out on difficult footing with the Russian regime.

It All Makes Sense…Unfortunately

If the media wants to paint Trump as the embodiment of the maniacally bellicose caricature they said he was, they need only take whatever policies he adopts with regards to China that differ from Obama’s position and blow them out of proportion.

If the media decides to portray President Trump as an Islamophobic heathen – oh wait, replace “if” with “when” – they’ll use a restored registry program to do it. And they’ll use Trump’s policy towards Syria and Iraq. For good measure they’ll throw in Trump’s Israel policy too.

Like it or not, there is a US-Russian relationship. As an increasingly important player in world events, Moscow can’t be ignored. Rest assured, as Trump tries to reset this relationship, the media already has their fake news ready to go. They’ll use any and every Trump administration overture towards the Kremlin as proof that “Russia hacked the election because Trump and Putin are friends”.

There Will Be More

Obama will be setting traps and hiding policy IED’s to try and hinder Trump’s Presidency all the way up to Inauguration Day. It’s sad but that’s what happens when the most arrogant, petulant, spoiled brat ever to serve as President ends his tenure in the White House with nothing to show for it but “hope”. That’s not me saying that. Michelle Obama said as much in her recent Oprah interview.

It’s dangerous too. There are game changers waiting in 2017 that nobody’s even talking about yet.

Like Iran. They are supposed to hold elections in the spring. Will there be a movement that rises up and tries to take power from the mullahs like we saw in 2009?

Or North Korea. An American citizen has been imprisoned there for more than a year – unlike previous similar situations with previous Kims, Kim Jong Un doesn’t seem to be holding out for a deal so much as he seems more than willing to hold an American in captivity.

What happens when Venezuela totally collapses? Will global oil prices spike if their production drops off until the country is stabilized?

Did everyone forget about Libya? The recent hijacking of a flight from Sabha to Tripoli, Libya was peculiar. The hijackers flew the old solid green flag of the Qaddafi regime. Qaddafi was a socialist – he called his Arab-themed version of it the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”. It’s a given that Libya is unstable – but is it more unstable than anyone realizes? If so, how will this affect Europe overall and Italy in particular. Europe depends upon Libyan crude oil because it’s properties are well- suited towards refinement into a product that easily meets European environmental standards. A crisis in Libya would push refugees north towards Malta, and the Italian Sicily and Sardinia.

If there’s one saving grace it’s that after eight years of letting the man-child lead from behind, adults are moving into the White House come January.

Image: photo credit: APEC PERU 2016 _FOT6140_apec_O via photopin (license)