News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 3, 2013: Yes money which is power defines Barack Obama’s world in many ways.
This week in a creative exercise, let’s examine that world in this new commentary from some very different aspects and see where it leads. I am as curious as I hope you are.
Once again I will employ my “partner” the New York Times at various points. I have no doubt if NYT management appreciates how I weave their material. I hope they do.
This first stop in Obama’s world of money of power does not require The Times. I watched it live Saturday night on CNN. Three thousand of Washington’s finest and a good number from other power and money capitals like New York City and LA. Mike Bloomberg was there – he is everywhere the spotlight shines. He’ll travel anywhere on his fleet of jets for attention and to be seen with other rich people. He is not alone.
Last Saturday evening was another fun nights for the Obamas.
They spent it with their kind of people.
The Washington and Hollywood elite and the just very rich too!
This time Barack didn’t have to waste our money flying on Air Force One to get there. The Shin Dig took place right in D.C., a brief long motorcade ride away. It was The White House Correspondents Black Tie Dinner, the biggest such gathering of the year round series of DC slugfests for the rich and powerful and some of the beautiful.
It is an orgy of power and money and influence. The three – one and the same.
Honored Guests #1 & #2 of course – Barack and Michelle – sitting front & center – raised up above the others on display at the head table as if on a stage looking over the power arrayed below and beyond them. They were above it all in regal splendor.
All around and below them the real work of the dinner was taking place – the 3000 rich and powerful under the watchful eye of the Obamas as the king and queen of the event – out of reach but their presence establishing the significance of this powerfest .. all the others prancing round the very big ballroom looking for others among their own special group to acknowledge and be acknowledged by, and in doing so reaffirm their status and stature among the power elite. It could be Imperial Rome. Hey it is!
The tables are very, very carefully arranged from front – nearest The First Couple – to all the way in the back, where the still important wannabes and the younger newly groomed by their fathers and mothers and others newly anointed elite sit, and dream of moving up closer next year. Then there is side to side seating, WHERE you are seated as you move closer to The Obamas – also highly significant how far away from the center of the room.
All this is extremely important so please do not take it lightly.
Guaranteed you would not be cavalier, even less laugh at all this, if you were in the room last Saturday night. Although again there is not all that much sitting unless you are truly “royalty” in DC – then others line up to have a moment with you. No one approaches The Obamas unless approved for a not-so cool tuxedo wearing, gun totting Secret Service agent will whisk you away.
Then there is the humor or what passes for humor after all the others have circulated through the room and then sat down for their filet mignon dinner. The President and this year Conan O’Brien were the entertainment. And the insider jokes and the self-effacing humor to let the rest of us know the joke they are playing on us but they don’t care.
They have all the money, power and influence in that room. It is their government and they will do what they want with it. You don’t like it tough. Get rich and ask to join them.
That is lesson #1 this week about Barack Obama and the power of money.
Let’s now travel very far from DC all the way to Afghanistan, Barack Obama’s favorite country to prove what a great foreign policy President he is. That could have been one of Obama’s joke lines in DC Saturday night. “Everyone here knows what a great foreign policy President I promised I would be proven in Afghanistan.” WILD laughter.
Anyway Obama did not tell that joke Saturday night. It is not the point of this lesson. Now I will turn to the NY Times for this story about money and Obama. This story appeared April 28, 2013, this week titled: KARZAI’S OFFICE GETS BAGS FULL OF CIA CASH and told about the bulging packages of $100 bills the CIA has been delivering to Kabul for one of the most corrupt “leaders” on Earth and big time Obama far away friend, Hamid Karzai.
Afghanistan is rated among the 6 most corrupt nations on Earth and it has kept its award winning position throughout Obama’s Presidency. More LAUGHTER!
It pays well. It turns out the CIA all through the Obama Presidency, week after week, has been bringing Karzai tens of millions, mostly likely hundreds of millions of dollars in $100 U.S. bills. The article does not make it clear if Karzai favors crisp new bills straight from the U.S. Treasury printing presses or if he prefers older well circulated bills.
Here is how the Times article begins …
“For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
That’s right Obama did not start this so call dollar diplomacy, he just decided to keep it going year after year without end. Obama appreciates money. See how he gives it away.
More from the article …
“The C.I.A. which declined to comment for this article, has long been known to support some relatives and close aides of Mr. Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing.”
“Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.”
Yes it’s time for another one of my rhetorical encores ….
“Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.”
That’s right the millions upon millions of cash Obama gave these corrupt murderous bastards got the U.S. absolutely nothing but more trouble in return. Thank you Obama! Our President not only knows how to party with money he knows how to waste it too.
Enough Afghanistan. Let’s leave this cesspool. Come back home for this next lesson about Obama and money. Ready for the journey?
In this next case, study the lack of it for most Americans. We already knew the incomes of almost 99% of Americans during Obama’s Presidency have stagnated or fallen while the top 1% have never had it so good and packed that glitzy dinner with Barack on Saturday evening to toast themselves. But now SURPRISE – its worst of all for African Americans!
Let’s call in my partner The New York Times again.
This one titled: WEALTH GAP AMONG RACES HAS WIDENED SINCE RECESSION, also on April 28th, the same day as the Afghanistan bags of cash piece ..
“Millions of Americans suffered a loss of wealth during the recession and the sluggish recovery that followed. But the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families, starkly widening the already large gulf in wealth between non-Hispanic white Americans and most minority groups, according to a new study from the Urban Institute.”
“It was already dismal,” Darrick Hamilton, a professor at the New School in New York, said of the wealth gap between black and white households. “It got even worse.”
Time for another rhetorical encore …
“It was already dismal,” Darrick Hamilton, a professor at the New School in New York, said of the wealth gap between black and white households. “It got even worse.”
What more do I need to add. Our Black President and his view of money for others?
I am going to close coming back where we began Washington, DC and Obama’s rich and powerful friends. One in particular – a very, very special one who played an absolutely major financial role in both Obama’s Presidential campaigns and even before taking care of the Obama’s in Chicago her and their home base.
President Obama today named the super, super rich Penny ‘Money Bags’ Pritzker to be the new U.S. Secretary of Commerce. What are her qualifications for this Cabinet position? She is very, very rich and Obama owes her Big Time, and for extra benefit wants her rich largesse again after he is no longer President.
In addition to these “qualifications,” she earned her wealth the hard way – Madame Pritzker inherited it all. Penny is the heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune. Her taxing job – much of it in offshore tax havens – has been to maintain and spend the family fortune as Obama knows so well.
So there you have it four different stories about Barack Obama and money in one Commentary all linked together by a common theme and a favorite Obama subject.
How much longer before Barack’s Obama’s second term is FINALLY over?
