The Midnight Actions of Obama's "Scandal-Free" Presidency vs. Trump's Well-Received Get-Down-to-Business Beginning

We may have seen the last of Barack Obama lecturing us from the Rose Garden but he is anything but forgotten -- by Palestinians, that is. • • • OBAMA'S FINAL GIFT TO THE PALESTINIANS. The Obama administration -- through Secretary of State John Kerry -- announced that it "released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority in its final hours on Friday, as President Obama prepared to leave the White House for the last time," according to the Associated Press. The outgoing Obama administration formally notified Congress of the decision just hours before President Trump was inaugurated. Kerry had told some lawmakers about the decision to release the money on Thursday, the AP reported, apparently confirming that the $221 million sent to the Palestinian Authority is intended to provide humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank, to support support political and security reforms, and to help prepare for good governance and the rule of law in a future Palestinian state [Really???], according to the written notification sent to Congress dated January 20, just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of office. • Congress had initially approved the Palestinian funding in budget years 2015 and 2016, but at least two GOP lawmakers -- Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee -- had placed 'holds' on it over moves the Palestinian Authority had taken to seek membership in international organizations. Congressional 'holds' are generally respected by the executive branch but are not legally binding after funds have been allocated. The Obama administration had for some time been pressing for the release of the money for the Palestinian Authority, and acted to release the funds to the Palestinian Authority without the congressional 'holds' being lifted. • The Palestinian funding is likely to anger GOP members of Congress, as well as the Trump White House. Trump has vowed to be a strong supporter of Israel and has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington next month. Inside the Trump administration there continue to be differences of opinion about just what forms the new strong support for Israel will take, especially concerning Trump's promise to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Trump’s UN ambassador, said Wednesday that she would back the embassy move, while Trump’s already sworn-in Defense Secretary, retired Marine General James Mattis said he would “stick to US policy” regarding Jerusalem. Trump’s next ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, supports Israeli settlements and other changes to US policies in the region, and Friedman said he looked forward to carrying out his duties from "the US embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem," even though the embassy is now in Tel Aviv. Trump advisors have said that the President will follow through on his call for moving the embassy, but at at press beirfing on Monday, Trump press secretary Sean Spicer said the negotiations concerning the move are in their "very early" stages. • The Obama administration also notified lawmakers last Friday morning that it would release $6 million in foreign spending, with $4 million of it going to programs to fight climate change and $1.25 million to United Nations organizations -- two more midnight funding actions by Obama that are sure to irritateTrump, who has voiced skepticism about climate change in the past, and is a critic of the UN. • The Kremlin media outlet RT also reported that Obama on Friday morning released $1.05 million to the State Department's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan office and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs -- a funding release not mentioned in US mainstream media reports of the Obama funding action on Friday morning. RT also reported in fuller detail the reason for the 'hold' on the Palestinian funds placed by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce -- in a July 2016 statement, Royce said the Palestinian Authority uses US aid money as a “martyrs’ fund” to pay “the families of Palestinian prisoners and suicide bombers.” Royce concluded : “It’s hard to see how this ‘pay to slay’ policy wouldn’t put them on the state sponsor of terrorism list.” This is just one more important fact that the MSM will not report because it favors Trump and puts Obama in a bad light. • • • OBAMA MAKES CLIMATE CHANGE PAYMENT. In yet another 'midnight funding' action by Obama not widely reported in the US, EurActiv.com, the EU online news and policy online outlet, reported last Wednesday that Obama took steps to shore up the Paris Agreement with a last-minute $500 million payment. EurActiv said President Obama's eleventh-hour transfer to the Green Climate Fund will likely annoy his successor, "who is expected to cease any further payments when he takes office." Obama was heeding calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris Agreement by transferring a second $500 million installment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he left office. That leaves $2 billion of the US $3 billion commitment by Obama unpaid as Donald Trump takes office -- a sum not likely to be paid by President Trump's administration. And, in one more Kerry action carried out without congressional support, the money was drawn from the State Department, in the same way as the first transfer, allowing it to be done using executive powers without congressional action. As Senate Majority Leader Irv Dirksen said many years ago in his tongue-in-cheek style : "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." And it is those billions that Americans want President Trump to ride herd on. • • • ARAB STATES DON'T WANT MONEY, THEY ARE JUST GLAD TO SEE TRUMP. Reuters reported Monday that Gulf Arab states are quietly applauding the arrival in the White House of a hawkish leader opposed to their adversary Iran, even if they suspect Donald Trump's abrasive tweets may at times heighten tensions in the tense Middle East. Reuters said : "While many countries around the world listened with concern to his protectionist inaugural address, Gulf Arab officials appear optimistic. They see in Trump a strong president who will shore up Washington's role as their main strategic partner in a region central to US security and energy interests. In Gulf Arab eyes, that involves above all checking what they see as a surge of Iranian support for paramilitary allies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon and for fellow shiite Moslems in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province....Saudi Arabia in particular appears relieved at the departure of Barack Obama, who it felt considered Riyadh's alliance with Washington less important than negotiating a deal in 2015 to neutralize Iran's nuclear program. The relationship is a pillar of the Middle East's security balance. But it has suffered since Riyadh took issue with what it saw as Obama's withdrawal from the region, and a perceived inclination towards Iran since the 2011 Arab uprisings. There [also] have been tensions over Syria, where Obama dismissed Gulf Arab urgings to give more aid to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, who has survived thanks to Iranian and Russian backing." • For the Gulf Arab world : "Perception is important : Trump does not look like the kind of guy who will bend towards Iran or anyone else," according to Abdulrahman al-Rashed, a veteran Saudi commentator who spoke with Reuters, "If he behaves as he says, then we will see another Ronald Reagan, someone all the forces in the region will take seriously. That's what we have missed in the past eight years, unfortunately." Others worry that Trump's spontaneous tweets may add to the instability in an already unstable Middle East. Faisal al-Yafai, a columnist with The National newspaper of Abu Dhabi, said that while his use of social media could be a problem, Trump was unlikely to change : "At some point down the line something will happen in the world that will require a careful response, a careful policy, and Trump will react emotionally. That is always going to be the worry. But that's his attitude. That's who he is. Those who like Trump like that aspect of his personality." • Arabs percieve Trump as a new Reagan in part because both campaigned using the slogan, "Make America Great Again." They also see Reagan's strong backing for the military in Trump. Not many Gulf observers expect Trump to end the Iran nuclear deal despite his threats to do so, but most want Trump to pressure Teheran to stop what Gulf Arabs see as subversion in fellow Arab states : "I think he is going to be very, very tough on Iran. He will be decisive," a Gulf Arab businessman told Reuters. The Gulf Arab world also likes Trump's promises to defeat "radical islamic terror groups" and to develop a "state of the art" missile defense system to protect against attacks from Iran and North Korea. And, since the Trump team in charge of those taks will be Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, and CIA chief Mike Pompeo, all well known to Saudi officials, there is Arab confidence in the future. Mattis in particular, a retired Marine General known for his distrust of Iran, is well-known by Gulf Arab rulers, who appreciated his saying in his Senate confirmation hearings that Iran was "the biggest destabilizing force in the Middle East and its policies are contrary to our interests." • This is not to say that all will be smoothe. The Saudi Abdulrahman al-Rashed said : "We hope Trump can correct (Obama's) policy, and while we are not sure of that yet, his choices to run the administration all sound experienced." The issues that could cause problems for Trump with Gulf Arabs include Jerusalem, oil policy, perceived anti-Moslem prejudice, and a US law allowing lawsuits against Riyadh over the 9/11 attacks. • • • FRANCE'S FILLON WEIGHS IN ON RUSSIAN SANCTIONS, SEEMING TO SIDE WITH TRUMP. The Gulf Arabs aren't the only potential Trump fans. France's Francois Fillon told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday that European Union sanctions on Russia are pointless. Fillon, the frontrunner in France's presidential election, warned in Berlin that Russia and the United States under Donald Trump could forge links that exclude the EU. The conservative Fillon said the EU is "despised by major powers" because of its divisions and must better defend its economic interests. Fillon also pushed for an equal relationship between France and Germany -- something he considers essential, saying that the two countries must be open about their differences : "We have differences? Let's accept them instead of denying them. We have divergences on the issue of refugees or on economic policy? Let's face them to better overcome them." • The biggest difference is about Russia, where Germany has taken a hard line in favor of EU sanctions over Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Fillon told reporters on Monday : "I am convinced that the economic sanctions are totally ineffective. We must find another way to talk." But, Fillon, sounding a lot like Trump, added that a gesture from Russia would be needed before sanctions could be lifted, saying : "I do not want (US President Donald) Trump to talk with Russia at our expense. It would be damaging for Europe if Trump went above our heads, which is not inconceivable." However, Fillon said he and Merkel were "on the same page" on the need not to let the United States impose its laws that have cost European banks billions of Euros in fines and other settlements over violations of US sanctions against other countries. • So, President Trump has a potential partner, even if he is wary, in Fillon, should he become president of France in May. That could give Trump an entrance into the inner workings of the growing group within the EU that, while repsecting the need for Germany's financial support, are increasingly restive about the German penchannt for dictating EU policy and refusing democratic nation-based decisionmaking. • • • DEAR READERS, looking at the EU, the Gulf Arab world, and the obvious changes in US congressional thoughts about where US funding is and is not appropriate, it is clear that the Trump era has begun in earnest. The mainstream media and Progressives may rally and rant in public about Trump, but he is taking the reins of power swiftly and decisively. Barack Obama is still trying to aribrush his presidency, calling it "historically free of scandal" and spouting other political fantasies. But, we all know why Donald Trump was elected -- Obama's distortion of the Constitution; unilateral actions that ignored, changed or rewrote federal law as if he were king; Operation Fast & Furious; the IRS harassment of conservative groups seeking tax- exempt applications; Benghazi, where we still do not undertand fully why Amabassador Stevens was there or why he was abandoned to be assassinated by Obama and Hillary Clinton; the biggest data breach in the federal government’s history when Chinese hackers at the Office of Personnel Management exposed the personnel files of millions of current and former federal employees and Obama gave them not even a wrist slap; the Bergdahl prisoner swap; the payment of a 'ransom' for American hostages held by Iran, with $400 million sent to Iran secretly on pallets in an unmarked airplane; the VA catastrophe; and the Grandaddy scandal of them all - Obamacare. • Thus, we may take the recent Obama claim that his presidency was scandal-free with a laugh and a tear -- because Obama and his administration co-conspirators did more damage to America's Constitution, its reputation, and its credibility with Americans than any presidency in US history. And, if my list isn't enough for you, consider the comment of an Obama internet critic : "Let's not forget the withdrawal from Iraq and subsequent rise of ISIS the 'JV,' the overthrow of Qaddafi and destabilization of Libya, and Obama's overt attempt to influence the election in Israel. Obama, the narcissist, simply has to say something is true to make it true. And with the undying support of the sycophants in the mainstream media, why should we expect anything different now." • Farewell, Barack Obama. We will not miss you.