High Comedy at West Point

President Obama gave the commencement address at West Point the other day, as presidents are fond of doing, particularly Democrats, who always make a great effort to show how much they adore our warriors. I have a transcript of Obama’s remarks before me and it makes for amusing reading, and also proves the contempt the American political class has for the people. When I read this line, “And through it all, we’ve refocused our investments in what has always been a key source of American strength: a growing economy that can provide opportunity for everybody who’s willing to work hard and take responsibility…” Is he kidding? The hardest working people in America are among the poorest, the most stressed-out, and the most despairing – precisely because the harder they work the deeper they sink. The American economy is growing, albeit sluggishly, but even so, all the income gains accrue to the people who least need them because the system has been engineered that way. The rich become richer and the poor become poorer.

Someone should tell Obama that wage growth for working people is, and for years has been, flat.

Another amusing line: “Our military has no peer.” Really? Might this be because the United States spends more money on its military than any other nation on this beleaguered planet? Obama went on to say that our alliances, “from Europe to Asia,” are unrivaled in the history of nations. Of course they are. When you point overwhelming military and economic strength at lesser countries, they will typically do what you ask, even if what you ask is not in their interests. Most people call this extortion – the U.S. calls it diplomacy. I’m sure by “alliances” Obama also meant the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that gargantuan, secret trade agreement that is sure – if ratified -- to impoverish millions of people while making a relative few very rich.

By now I’m chuckling heartily, barely able to contain myself. The cadets are lapping it up; after all, Obama is the Commander in Chief and the man who nailed Osama bin Laden after more than a decade of futile searching. Obama is warming to his subject now, preparing the audience for an extra thick layer of BS: “I also believe we must be more transparent about both the basis of our counterterrorism actions and the manner in which they are carried out.” This from the man who leads one of the most secretive and opaque administrations in American history, the man who asserted the right to kill American citizens if he suspected they were involved in terrorist activities, the man who promised to close the travesty that is Guantanamo and failed to deliver, the man whose administration has cast a chill over the practice of investigative journalism.

I’m laughing so hard now I’m choking. Obama chooses to pile it on, reminding the cadets of America’s benevolence after World War II when it supported creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Ah, how I enjoy a well-spun fairy tale. The World Bank and the IMF were created with only one aim: to make the US dollar the supreme currency and to open markets for US banks. If benevolence was a thought at all, it was an afterthought.

But Obama isn’t done, oh no, there’s more, he must talk about the amazing results the US has produced in Afghanistan after thirteen years of occupation. This is the good stuff, people, the pure gold. Did you know that Afghanistan is our partner in the War on Terror? And that from our stronghold in Afghanistan we – along with our beloved partners, of course – have delivered killer blows to Al Qaeda? Hold back thy tears because it gets better. On the US taxpayers’ dime, we have trained thousands of Afghan soldiers, quite a few of whom enjoy turning their weapons against us. But no matter – when the US perceives a threat to its interests (meaning economic or strategic interests like oil, minerals, natural gas) it reserves the right to bomb the shit out of someone.

Running an Empire is heady stuff!

I’m about to pee my pants when Obama goes over the top: “So the United States is and remains the one indispensable nation.” Yes! There it is, American exceptionalism in all its glory. We’re #1 people! We lead the world in handgun murders, drug addiction, incarceration, income inequality, we’re way up there when it comes to child poverty and infant mortality and obesity and depression and anxiety. If the United States is the one indispensable nation does that mean every other nation is dispensable?

Like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama is a snake-oil salesman without peer. His gift is his ability to sound like he’s on the side of the common people when in fact he is a dedicated servant of the ruling classes.

Hail to the Chief!