ABCs of the outgoing/incoming POTUS

by B. R. GOWANI

President elect Donald Trump (left) and President Barack Obama during their first meeting at the White House PHOTO/Los Angeles Times/Google

Obama’s hopeful entry

Every ethnic, racial, national, religious, or any group of people belonging to a particular caste or gender, feel utmost happiness when one of their own is elected to the highest office. It happened in January 2009 at the swearing-in ceremony of Barack Hussein Obama (a Christian), when he became the first black President to assume office and thus interrupted the monotony of white Christian men ruling the country since 1776. It was a great symbolic and exuberant moment for colored people. But the exuberance was to end there. Hopes for a better existence in life were dashed, not much was achieved. His color was a hindrance, no doubt, in getting his agenda materialize. The hatred and lack of cooperation he faced was humongous.

In 2010, I stopped at a small convenience shop with very old style non-functional gas pumps in a northern suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. The very old white lady behind the counter had her photo with George W. Bush framed on a wall behind her. I asked her what she thought of the current president. With a loathing she replied:

“You know, the day he took his oath of office, we didn’t turn on our television sets in the area. It was our another 9/11.”

Obama’s pathetic exit

Due to his color, Obama faced many and great problems. But to a great extent Obama himself is to be blamed too – he acted out the role of a good/gentle/educated/articulate black who could get along with all the white people to the extent that he had difficulty opening his mouth, even when white police officers were shooting black men, women, and children. Nor did he do much for the blacks and Latinos rotting behind bars. He never came out forcefully for the minorities, and all the economic victims of the unjust system.

Blacks are 13% of the US population but in companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter they amount to less than 2%. Latinos are not doing much better. Obama could have asked his tax evading tech buddies to hire blacks and Latinos, if not more than at least equivalent to their population ratios. (Or, in Trump style, threatened them with dire consequences if they fail for, at least, Obama had a genuine reason for the threat.) Obama had once asked Apple’s Steve Jobs about bringing back jobs to the US. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” was Jobs reply.” Imagine if Trump was the president then. He would have used all the foul words he knew, and threatened to punish him punitively, unless he did some favor for Trump.

During Obama’s reign, the poverty level rose and income inequality widened. The new Oxfam report points out this reality in stark figures: 8 super wealthy persons (6 from the US, 1 from Spain, and 1 from Mexico) have the same wealth, as do the poorest half of the world’s population!

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, lamented the fact:

It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day. …

“Across the world, people[‘s] … health and education services are cut while corporations and the super-rich dodge their taxes; …”

Instead of brooding over and responding to the hopelessness among these masses, this guy who came to power with a message of hope, decided to support an establishment candidate Hillary, one of the three women to drag him into the Libyan War, and whose husband, former president Bill Clinton, was responsible for mass incarceration of blacks and Latinos. At that time, black civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson had questioned Bill’s intention and lamented:

“[President Bill Clinton had a chance] with one stroke of your veto pen, to correct the most grievous racial injustice built into our legal system.”

It was Bill who supported “100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack versus powder cocaine” users. Blacks suffered 100 fold more punishment than whites!

If Obama was a revolutionary he would have gone after the Wall Street criminals, openly challenged the racism prevalent in the country, and so on. At the most, he would have gotten killed. But he would have become a true hero to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. But alas, Obama was an establishment person and still is. Why would Obama go after Russia even after the election was over and Hillary had lost – and they both, Hillary and Obama, had accepted the results. Because after leaving office, he’ll be staying in Washington D.C. to “offer counsel” on political matters, i.e., advocate the disastrous neoliberalism. Obama wants to stay close to the establishment, write books, give speeches, make tons of money, give little bit to charities, but keep intact the image of him as a gentle soul. (Obama and Hillary accepted the election result because they didn’t want to disturb the capitalist system. If they had refused to accept the result, and Hillary had asked her supporters to be out on the streets of US cities, imagine the looting and destruction and the riches to rags reversals of rich oppressors and corporations.) Obama could have done a lot. As Cornel West puts it:

“The age of Barack Obama may have been our last chance to break from our neoliberal soulcraft.”

Even if Obama had supported Bernie Sanders bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination, it would have been seen as a kind of belated repentance for his failure to do much for the people. But he didn’t.

It’s an irony and a great tragedy for the people, within and without the United States, that the first colored person elected as a candidate of hope – in the wake of the departure of one of the most hated US presidents, George Bush Jr., and the immense financial crisis – became a lame transitional figure to pave way for a loud mouth, lewd, inarticulate, anti- almost everyone except himself, neo-fascist named Donald Trump.

Obama’s legacy

By improving relations with Shia Iran, Obama did a great favor to world’s Muslims, provided that Trump maintains that relations, because this will perhaps somewhat reduce the Sunni Saudi Arabia’s influence among the Muslim countries. If that happens, then there would be a decrease in Saudi export of Wahabbi/Salafi brand of Islam which is the main creed of Sunni terrorists. (About 85% of the world’s Muslims are Sunnis and about 15% are Shias.)

One bold act Obama did was commuting Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning’s sentence. It was opposed by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. She deserved the Medal of Freedom for exposing the crimes committed by the military personnel against poor Iraqis, which Obama sadly gave to Vice President Joe Biden. Altogether, including Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, 1715 people had their sentences commuted. Many names were missing from the list, including Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange.

Although Obama’s hands are bloodied in the Syrian war, he resisted attempts by the Israel Lobby, the Republican Party, and many in his own Democratic Party, to expand the war which could have killed many more people.

Obama’s move to extend the healthcare to 20 million people was a good move.

Establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and removing destructive economic embargo against that tiny little island 90 miles off the coast of Miami, Florida, was a great thing.

There is no doubt Obama was graceful, articulate, intellectual, well read, an academic, whose speeches were spell bounding for many (most were lies, though).

But can the above things outweigh the heinous things Obama did during his two terms? The answer is NO.

During his reign, seven countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen), were bombed. Thousands of people died whose families will be affected for a long time. Also we should not forget the devastation which followed in the wake of bombings.

2.5 million people were deported by his government, more than any other president. What happened to those families, their dreams, their futures? How are they surviving? Are they safe in their countries? Who knows? And who cares?

Former US president Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed in the New York Times had recommended to Obama to

“… grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine, as 137 countries have already done, and help it achieve full United Nations membership.”

Obama didn’t heed Carter’s advise. One can understand: Obama is going to stay in Washington D.C. and wants to play some role in politics. So he’ll be coming face to face with the members of the powerful Israel Lobby whom he doesn’t want to annoy.

In February 2008, Obama as a senator had co-sponsored an amendment to curb government’s power to spy on its citizens. But the words out of Obama’s mouth in 2013 were totally different:

“You can’t have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience.”

The US National Security Agency (NSA) had tapped into records of foreigners, including leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff (when she was president), former French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, current French President Francois Hollande, and many others.

Trump’s arrogant enthronement

Hillary lost: maybe a damn good thing. Trump won: could be a dangerously bad thing. So from today our main focus should be on unpredictable Trump. Many times he acts just like the US soldiers threatening Iraqi detainees with consequence of electrocution, if they fell off the box they were made to stand on, or other such sadistic and brutal acts, as when he threatens to deport Mexicans, or not allow Muslims to enter the US, and so on. Any xenophobic move of Trump towards Mexico, as Laura Carlson observes, would create a great deal of misery for Mexicans in Mexico and those living in the US.

This doesn’t mean no attention should be paid to Hillary, Obama, the Democratic Party, the Washington Post and other news media, and the late night show hosts who are hell bent on preserving enmity with Russia.

What to expect from Trump

Two things are for sure: White House will be 50/50 Pussy-grabistan/Moneyslavia (nothing to do with lots of stans in South/Central Asia or Yugoslavia, Melania Trump’s birthplace). Trump will have constant change of temporary female friends and great supply of money, through innumerable means.

Other things are hard to predict. Will he go after Muslims? It is doubtful. He has got Trump Towers in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country. Another Muslim country Bahrain had its National Day celebration in Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. just last month. Muslim and other countries may invite this bully to build Trump Towers in their countries to maintain relations. Trump’s real religion is money after all.

As reported in yesterday’s The Hill, Trump administration is planning to cut, or reduce drastically, several government programs. His cabinet has people who are opposed to their own departments and want to maintain them in name only. Global Warming issue may become a non-issue. Who knows Noam Chomsky may prove right when he said:

“The [Republican] Party is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organized human life. There is no historical precedent for such a stand.”

Whose lie was undetectable, Trump’s or Obama’s?

Donald Trump is heard on tape saying to Billy Bush:

“And when you’re a star they [women] let you do it. You can do anything.”

Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.”

Elsewhere Trump says:

“[I have] “great respect for women.”

Nobody is going to believe this vulgar nasty person’s lie about respecting women. Almost everyone knows he is a born liar. (People voted for him for reasons other than his trustworthiness.)

Now let us consider Obama:

In March 2014, Obama addressed the European Youth. Here is an extract:

“[In Iraq, the United States] sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state that could make decisions about its own future.”

It would be hard to find a person who wouldn’t believe Obama, unless that person has historical knowledge and is thoroughly familiar with current affairs.

Obama is lying, totally. The reality is:

The United States twice waged totally illegal wars against Iraq (1991 and 2003 by Bush father and son), killed over a million people, destroyed that country, and all this brought Al Qaeda and other extremist Islamic groups to Iraq; and, later ISIS was born there. Also to mention the instability, Sunni/Shia sectarian wars, almost disappearance of their secular life, and restrictions on women. In simple language, the US absolutely detrimentally altered Iraqi life, that hasn’t yet recovered.

(A side note: One of the reasons given by George W. Bush for going to war against Iraq was that Saddam Hussein had tried to kill his father, George H. W. Bush. It would be ironic indeed if today, during Trump’s oath, Bush Sr. decides to die, as an act of revenge against Trump who had humiliated Bush’s son Jeb on stage during debates, in interviews, and tweets. Most of the world is mourning Trump’s victory, but Bush Sr.’s death would give the inauguration a real mourning aura.)

The ABC of Barack Obama

by B. R. GOWANI

President Barack Obama IMAGE/© Official White House Photo by Pete Souza/Twisted Sifter

Armed drones were my favorite toys. Now Trump will play with it
Blind to color I am, even my own, so not much action against racism
Cuba is now a friendly country, that’s a feather in my cap
Deporter in Chief I became by deporting 2.5 million people
Expected income, once out of White House, is about $242 million
Foreigners in 7 countries saw 10 bombs dropped on them daily
Gaddafi out, chaos/Islamists in – thanks to my monster trinity‘s ideas
Honduras’ Zelaya’s ouster was backed by Hellish woman and me
Iran and US got friendly; so hope less Saudi influence in world
Jobs were created many; although most were part-time/temporary
Kill List was prepared every week on “Terror Tuesdayto murder
Laos and 137 other countries now have U.S. Special Operations forces
Missile ships/weapons worth $115 billions I sold to S Arabia
Nobel Peace Prize, whenever dusty, I pissed on it to clean it
Obama Foundation, like Carter Center, will do some good work
Palestine recognition, as suggested by Carter, I chose to ignore
Qatar and S Arabia were funding ISIS and we just ignored it
Revolution was possible if I had thrown Wall Street crooks in jail
Surveillance of world’s people was perfected. The birther inherits it!
Target Africa under US Africom is going strong with military outposts
Ukraine’s government I overthrew and installed our man there
Venezuela is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” we declared
War end was my aim but increased war with new nations too (7)
Xanadu I am leaving for Kalorama, to continue neoliberalism
Yemen is now under direct US attack; thus US joined S Arabia’s war
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe we tried but couldn’t bring under control

The ABC of Donald Trump

by B. R. GOWANI

Donald Trump PHOTO/CNN/Google

Argentina congratulated me: I inquired about their building permits
Beauty paegents in the White House will turn it into Pussy-grabistan
China I threaten to get more deals and advantages
Drones of pleasant color will keep an eye on “unpatriotic elements”
Erect TT in countries; ask favors. Money & power: dual orgasms
Fascism I will introduce gently with piecemeal approach
Global Warming is a hoax because it’s very cold and I feel it too
Hotels Trump welcome with open arms public/private locals/foreigners
I am Donald Trump, me Donald Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump …
Japan, Mexico, China are beating and “killing us economically
Kenyan Muslim’s birth certificate helped me begin my campaign
Law and order will provide free residence for members of minorities
Money stack I’ll build so high I could reach the without rocket
News will come from the Supreme Leader’s Trump News Network
Oral member I have biggest, most uncontrollable, most ejaculative
Predictable I’m not, but my unpredictability has method to it
Qatar Airways and rich Arab states have business dealings with me
Russia’s a friend. Enemies? Islamic State. Perhaps China. …
Schooling of all will be handed over to the true teachers – capitalists
Tweeters are free missiles, I use a lot against those hurting my ego
U.S. I’ll make great with a team of millionaires and billionaires
Vietnam War I fought against vaginas “ for potential landmines
World War III may originate with my mighty tweet. It will be Great
Xenophobia of Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants I tried to normalize
Young, and “beautiful, piece of ass” I have, to hell with the media
Zenith of my reign: Trump Towers in every country of the world!

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

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