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A Policy So Bizzare, So Obama
Townhall.com ^ | July 23, 2014 | John Ransom

Posted on 07/23/2014 4:45:46 AM PDT by Kaslin

Obama has a new get-tough policy with Russia.

It’s called the War on the Billionaires.

The United States is using narrow sanctions against Russian billionaires—private persons presumably-- some of whom Obama supposes supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. And the policy isn’t just bizarre; it’s Obama.

He’s seen our war on millionaires here at home, and raised them a war on billionaires in Russia.

“The U.S. and Europe are gearing up for a new round of sanctions expected to be announced this week that will impose travel bans and business sanctions against several Russian billionaires with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” reports CNBC. “In a phone call last night, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Putin that his ‘cronies’ will face sanctions unless Russia withdraws its support for the separatists in Ukraine.”

It tells you something about where Obama—and current world leadership-- believes real power resides in any country. It also tells you why Obama has been so anxious to take care of the oligarchs here at home: Zuckerberg, Gates, Soros, Buffett, Kaiser, Pritzker, Stryker.

Yes, you can throw up now.

I’m disturbed by the precedence, the message, the legality of targeting private individuals for their political views whether it happens here at home—as it has—or in Russia. Private property should be inviolate, subject to due process in the same way anything else we have been endowed with by our Creator is subject to due process.

Imagine if Obama, instead of pushing sanctions, used drones to attack and kill these oligarchs via missile strikes. Oh, and the oligarchs in Russia too.

Because really, it’s the same thing legally.

Now it’s one thing to sanction a state for pushing war, but to be judge and jury of the private political aims of private men of property…well that’s Obama in a nutshell isn’t it?

Wall Street, and the oligarchs who make up Wall Street, get a bailout, but not without some serious threats, extortion, and pressure politics put on it by the administration.

What Obama giveth, Obama can take away, and his power—at least in his own mind—recognizes no borders. You know? Except, of course, the border with Mexico which, he assures us, is secure. And the constitution, which he tells us he’s an expert on.

But like a lot of policies coming from Obama, the War on Russian Billionaires is more style than it is substance.

“Russia's richest men are unlikely to feel much pain,” says CNBC. “That's because Russia's richest men won't be targeted. And many of the rest of the Russian elite have already stashed much of their fortunes overseas, where they are safe from any sanctions.”

"You can't just target someone because they are a Russian worth 10 figures," said a European policy expert quoted by CNBC. "The aim here is to target people who supported this military campaign [in Ukraine]."

Well you CAN just target a Russian worth ten figures.

And doing that, would be so Obama. And so Eric Holder. And Nancy Pelosi. And Harry Reid.

How do you think they raise so much money?

But here’s something for American oligarchs to ponder: Russia can go after you too. Makes me wonder if there wasn’t an American heiress aboard MH17. Because Putin has shown a real willingness to call Obama’s threats a bluff and respond with that ultimate arbiter of power: Force.

That’s why Obama’s policy is so hollow. And in being that way, it’s soooo Obama.

You have to preserve the unities after all.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Russia
KEYWORDS: barack0bama; mh17; sanctions; ukraine; vladimirputin; waronbillionaires

1 posted on 07/23/2014 4:45:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Obama is trying to think of some way he can get into their wallets.


2 posted on 07/23/2014 4:51:50 AM PDT by Fido969 (What's sad is most)
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To: Kaslin

guess obammy is proof ya should never hire nor trust a quota boy.
Dumbass doesn’t begin to tell his story.


3 posted on 07/23/2014 4:52:25 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) obammy lied and lied and lied)
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To: Kaslin

Obama entire presidency has been bizarre


4 posted on 07/23/2014 4:53:49 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Kaslin

The ‘smallness’ of this mentality is pathetic


5 posted on 07/23/2014 4:54:20 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Kaslin

——the War on the Billionaires.——

The wimpy action clearly illustrates that Obam is not really a player. He is already a footnote in the book of current history. He is reduced to getting headlines by the implementation of Faux Policy. That is news print policy that is pretty much meaningless.

Obama is vindictive in his policies for America but abroad such action is not effective. He is shown over and over to be a fool, a wimpy koala bear.


6 posted on 07/23/2014 4:57:59 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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7 posted on 07/23/2014 5:03:21 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Kaslin

Not a fan of this policy.

However, I think it’s entirely reasonable to note that a billionaire in Russia did not acquire or keep his wealth in the same way a US billionaire did.

Here, AFAIK all billionaires acquired their money legally and more or less morally, by providing goods and services others wanted to buy. Or perhaps, like the Walmart guys, they inherited their money from somebody who did.

In Russia most of them prior to the collapse of USSR were either mafiosi or political bigwigs, and they grabbed the suddenly available state assets more effectively than others. IOW, they were better thieves. To keep their money they must be in bed with Putin, or at least not oppose him openly.

Russia is at present the very definition of crony capitalism, more so even than China. It is morally repugnant to portray those who acquired vast wealth under such a system as equivalent to those who acquire wealth under a somewhat more free market system.


8 posted on 07/23/2014 5:15:46 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: SMARTY

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind,. . “ Romans 1:28

this is what is now ruling over us,


9 posted on 07/23/2014 5:32:20 AM PDT by captmar-vell
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To: Kaslin
Darth Vlader Deluxe
10 posted on 07/23/2014 5:41:33 AM PDT by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
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To: Fido969

Someone needs to post a picture of Michelle holding a hashtag asking “where’s our Russian billionaires”...


11 posted on 07/23/2014 5:46:45 AM PDT by fatez ("If you're going through Hell, keep going." Winston Churchill)
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To: captmar-vell

Maybe this petty, immature ‘See Spot Run’ approach is what passes for diplomacy in US foreign policy, now.


12 posted on 07/23/2014 5:48:14 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Sherman Logan

Behind every fortune is a crime?


13 posted on 07/23/2014 5:49:22 AM PDT by urbanpovertylawcenter (the law and poverty collide in an urban setting and sparks fly)
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To: Kaslin

When you are unwilling to unleash the dogs of war because you have been emasculating them, then this is all you have left.


14 posted on 07/23/2014 6:05:09 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: Kaslin

Obama knows that his position is owed to a cabal of billionaires whose interests he serves so he figures everyone is in the same position. He knows that were Pritzker, Soros, Steyer, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Buffett, et. al., strangled financially they would come screaming to him to ‘fix it’. He figures he can pressure Putins billionaires to react likewise.


15 posted on 07/23/2014 6:08:41 AM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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To: urbanpovertylawcenter

In Russia, pretty much.

The quote has actually been pretty accurate down through most of history. One of the best things about free market rule of law capitalism, as it has developed over the last few centuries, is that it made possible the acquisition of wealth without oppressing others.

Indeed, it facilitates the creation of new wealth whereby everybody wins.

The traditional classical (Roman/Greek) way to acquire great wealth was to invade your neighbor, steal all their stuff and sell the survivors into slavery. Julius Caesar, for example, invaded Gaul with no decent excuse. About 2M of the 6M population died in the ensuing 10 year war. JC sold another 2M Gauls into slavery for his own personal profit, making him fabulously wealthy.

The wealth of the nobility in Europe was based on title to land acquired by ancestors who were the biggest and most effective thugs around. To be fair, the biggest thugs around were able to give protection to others in many cases, providing value to them.

Great wealth was accumulated by successful sugar and cotton planters from the 16th thru 19th centuries in the Americas. Their success was of course built on slavery and the slave trade.

The wealthy in Latin America got their wealth, till recently, by either playing crony capitalism successfully or being descended from those who did.

Same was generally true in China and other civilizations.

There were of course exceptions in all these periods, but the general rule is fairly accurate.

Jesus noted this when he commented on how difficult it would be for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I believe this was to at least some extent not because of the wealth itself, but because of how that wealth was often acquired. For instance, in the Judea of His day, by collaborating with the Roman oppressors of the Jews, as in tax farming.


16 posted on 07/23/2014 6:08:52 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Uncle Chip

Aren’t these the “bills of attainder” the gummint is NOT SUPPOSED TO ISSUE???


17 posted on 07/23/2014 6:10:04 AM PDT by Flintlock (islam is a LIE, mohamuud a PEDOPHILE, sharia is POISON.)
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To: Flintlock

No —


18 posted on 07/23/2014 6:13:44 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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