Paving The Way

Tom Englehardt rhetorically asks

Can there be any question that, in the 15-plus years since 9/11, what was originally called the "Global War on Terror" has become a permanent war across the Greater Middle East and Africa (with collateral damage from Europe to the Philippines)?  In those years, staggering sums of money -- beyond what any other country or even collection of countries could imagine spending -- has poured into the U.S. military and the arms industry that undergirds it and monopolizes the global trade in weaponry.  In the process, Washington became a war capital...

Additionally, he notes

.... the president, as Michelle Obama indicated recently when talking about Trump’s victory with Oprah Winfrey, became, above all, the commander in chief.  (“It is important for the health of this nation,” she told Winfrey, “that we support the commander in chief.”)  The president’s role in wartime had, of course, always been as commander in chief, but now that’s the position many of us vote for (and even newspapers endorse), and since war is so permanently embedded in the American way of life, Donald Trump is guaranteed to remain that for his full term.

He could have added that Donald Trump's credibility (his legitimacy, presumably, already having been established) was enhanced when the First Lady (shoveling it, second video below) referred to him as "commander in chief" as she argued

... because no matter how we felt going into it, it is important for t he health of this nation that we support the commander-in-chief. Wasn't done when my husband took office but  we're going high and this is what's best for the country.

So we are going to be there for the next president and do whatever we have to do to make sure that he is  successful because if he succeeds we all succeed.













He will not be Commander in Chief for Michelle Obama, myself, nor probably for you because he is entrusted under the Constitution to "be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States."  That leaves out most of us. Questioning our President, we learned in junior high civics class, is our patriotic duty.  Questioning the "Commander in Chief," however, can be distorted as practically treasonous. Good thing we won't have an authoritarian in the position.

Pledging loyalty to President Trump is not surprising coming from an Obama. As seen in the video below, The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur recognizes "the Obamas don't want to rock the boat. They hate to rock the boat. It's like their least favorite thing on earth."

Not only like their least favorite thing, it is their least favorite thing, as the last eight years and the transition have demonstrated.   Uygur concedes the Obamas must be civil, even helpful, during the transition but thereafter Uygur wants

to fight back against these dangerous ideas- and again to be fair to the Obamas, it's a super tough line to walk. But you know sometimes I get the  sense from the Obamas that you know we're comforable. We tried to fight them and we did our best but we're going oto be O.K. Good luck to the rest of you.

He is

hoping that when it is appropriate President Obama speaks out and speaks out clearly and loudly... that he just doesn't retire to a corner and have the Republicans yell at him "remember, ex-presidents aren't allowed to say anything."

A sentient being the past few decades, Uygur refers to Limbaugh's warning to Obama that he not criticize Trump after the inauguration  and notes "we've seen this trick a thousand times."

Having observed President Barack Obama for over 2900 days, we have reason to conclude: good luck with that thing about ex-President Obama speaking out "loudly and clearly."













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