The year was 1991. Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi military forces were being pushed out of Kuwait by the United States and coalition forces. In a “scorched earth policy” Saddam ordered that approximately 700 oil wells be set ablaze as his troops exited. The environmental, economic, and health impact on Kuwait was devastating. It took months to put out the fires. The thick, black smoke could be seen from satellites in space.
The year was 2000. George W. Bush had beaten Al Gore in a very close election, and the Clintons were exiting the White House. Clinton staffers did thousands of dollars in damage: vandalizing typewriters by ripping out the W keys (George W. Bush), destroying and stealing cell phones, writing graffiti on the walls, damaging furniture, smearing Vaseline over desks, gluing desk drawers shut, smashing locks, recording obscene voicemail messages, and on and on.
Present day. The candidate Barack Obama campaigned for, Hillary Clinton, has lost to the hated Donald Trump. Soon-to-be-former President Obama vowed to cooperate with Mr. Trump. Historically, during the time between the election and the swearing-in of the new president, lame duck presidents have principally tried to keep the ship of state steady, put out any fires which may occur domestically or around the world, maybe pardoned some folks whom they deemed worthy of being pardoned, but not screwed things up for the next guy waiting to put his hand on the Bible.
But not Barack Obama. He’s been building roadblocks, setting traps, and laying mines, apparently hoping to thwart his successor, Donald Trump, and settling scores with foes.
The most egregious example of score-settling, in my view, was the Obama Administration’s shameful betrayal of Israel at the UN recently. Israel is perhaps our closest ally. We have shared values and interests. They are surrounded by enemies who wish to wipe them off the map. The UN spends half its time scheming against Israel, and over the years the United States has batted away resolution after resolution orchestrated by Israel’s enemies at the UN. But not this time. The UN, with the United States’ acquiescence, has now condemned Israel, declaring that even the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, which includes the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall), which is the most sacred site for Jews, belongs to the Palestinians. As Charles Krauthammer has said, it’s “as if the Security Council declared Mecca and Medina to be territory to which Islam has no claim.” In my view, this shameful action was taken out of Obama’s spite for Prime Minister Netanyahu. It’s a disgrace.
Other actions Obama has taken at the eleventh hour to tie Trump’s hands: he’s banned oil exploration in large areas off the Atlantic and Arctic coasts; in a major land grab for the federal government, he’s designated over one and a half million acres in Utah and Nevada as national monuments (over 65% of Utah’s land is already owned by the federal government, and over 80% of Nevada’s!); he’s banned states from denying federal funds to Planned Parenthood; and he’s continuing to empty out Guantanamo Bay – the safety of Americans or the civilized world be damned.
The good news is that because Barack Obama could never have gotten any of these miserable actions through a Republican Congress, he’s done them mostly through executive orders. And since Obama took these actions with the stroke of a pen, most of them can be undone with the stroke of a pen. And in 16 days, Donald Trump is going to be holding that pen.
One last thing. The new Congress (including me), was sworn in yesterday at approximately noon. There is a short period of time between the time the old Congress adjourns and the new Congress is sworn in. There was speculation in some quarters that President Obama might try to use that short window to make a recess appointment of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Apparently Teddy Roosevelt snuck through a bunch of appointments during this gap back in the early 1900’s (although not to the Supreme Court.) Anyway, it was only speculation, because Obama didn’t do it. (Had he tried, it’s unlikely that Garland would have been confirmed by a Republican Senate in any event.)
Anyway, hope 2017 is good for you and your family. On the political front, 2017’s going to be an interesting year.
