America's "Real" Christian Values

"I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for His purposes."

 Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Taking scripture out of context, like this beauty from Jeff Sessions, is a cornerstone of repressive evangelical ideology. If we were to draw this misreading of scripture to it's most logical conclusion then the crucifixion was just, Paul's four trips to prison for emulating the life of Jesus and spreading the Gospel were just, and yes America's enslavement of Africans was just. This is the kind of regressive Christianity that continues to poison people against the church.

Religion and patriotism have always been good disguises for bigotry. There are very real issues to be resolved with our immigration system, but snatching babies off of their mother's breast and detaining kids in makeshift prisons isn't the answer. It's painfully obvious, to anyone who isn't emotionally invested in the myth of America, that this kind of treatment has always been reserved for racial minorities. This is an empirical fact. America has always mistreated those with "problematic" identities. This is just another version of that.

In 25 years the people who are supporting this foolishness will have to pretend they were always against it. They are, coincidentally, the same people angry about nonviolent protests against police brutality. These are the descendants of the people who defended southern police departments when they were spraying protesters with hoses and beating unarmed people with nightsticks. It takes some of our fellow citizens a generation or two to see the humanity in people who don't look like them.

Here's some free advice: be very careful around people using the Bible to justify vicious and cruel behavior. The same people using scripture to dehumanize the "other" will use the same Bible to find a verse to legitimize your mistreatment.

There's a rich history of Christians who have been martyred for disobeying unjust laws. I wish Jeff Sessions was as well versed in what Jesus was doing when he was calling out Pharisees and running money changers out of the temple. Maybe if Mr. Sessions had paid more attention to what Black people were rebelling against when he was a young man he would know the state isn't always doing things in accordance with the principle of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

No Negotiations Without Preconditions

No Black person with a prominent platform should meet with Donald Trump or representatives from the Trump administration without preconditions. The United States government has a long-standing policy of setting preconditions for negotiating with hostile state actors. This is a policy Black America should employ as we move into the age of Trumpism. The duplicitous nature of Donald Trump’s rhetoric has damaged any credibility his words have. If he’s serious about his outreach efforts (something I doubt) his next move needs to be his best move. The CDC and Pfizer couldn’t make a panacea capable of eradicating his past racial transgressions, or the racially insensitive attacks on Barack Obama, but taking some bold steps in the right direction would be a good start to open the space for future negotiations.

First, he should withdraw the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. It was painfully obvious watching his confirmation hearing testimony that Sessions sees more law enforcement as a viable solution to problems facing the inner-city. More police on the streets does not address the socioeconomic factors that push kids into a life of crime. Redoubling the presence of law enforcement in struggling communities and giving them carte blanche to violate the civil rights of Americans based on race and ethnicity might offer short-term relief to those looking at these problems from the safety of their television screens, but it would further exacerbate the mistrust between police departments and the communities they work in. Stop-and-Frisk was a net failure that emboldened bad officers and put good officers in harm’s way. Jeff Sessions' inability to give clear and succinct answers about investigations into municipalities and police departments with problematic racial histories was, to me, more disqualifying than his alleged racism. If he can’t or won’t acknowledge the abuses of police power Federal probes have uncovered inside cities like Ferguson and Chicago how can those communities trust him to do what’s in their best interests?

Next, Donald Trump should ask for Steve Bannon’s resignation and publicly disavow, in unambiguous terms, the white supremacist elements inside the Alt-Right and other fringe groups he helped elevate. He can’t have it both ways. His most loyal supporters have the rare ability to parse every Trump tweet, and defend his almost weekly indefensible statements, but the majority of Americans, irrespective of race, don’t have this ability. Donald Trump is too comfortable with people who use terms like “feral” and “subhuman” to describe ethnic and racial minorities. Whatever talents or skill set Steve Bannon has to offer is offset by the platform he built for racists. Saying Trump is not a racist doesn’t negate the racism he and Steve Bannon benefited from. Steve Bannon not only provided a platform for racists to espouse their beliefs, but he profited from it. Once someone knowingly benefits from racism it doesn’t matter if they are racist or not.

Donald Trump has proven that he’s incapable of going more than a few days without saying or tweeting something offensive. He needs to build some trust. Anyone surprised that he would tweet out such a ridiculous statement about Representative John Lewis on MLK weekend must have forgotten about a guy named John McCain. Donald Trump’s inability to process critique of any kind will be a hindrance to his ability to govern; this deficiency will affect all Americans, but If Trump wants to show Black America he’s serious about his outreach, he will quit trying to win us over with celebrities. Maybe he could seek the counsel of the best and brightest Black people in America instead of the richest and most entertaining. If he were to come up with policy proposals capable of improving the lives of people affected by decades of bad trade agreements and centuries of systemic racism, he could use his concrete actions to build the bridge he destroyed with his mouth and Twitter account. Donald Trump’s symbolic Black celebrity photo op outreach campaign is failing miserably. When he asked Black people, “what the hell do you have to lose?” It was obvious he didn’t listen to what we were saying about Trayvon, Tamir, Sandra, Freddie, Walter, or Philando. His rhetoric and cabinet appointments are symptoms of his tone deafness.   

If you look hard enough you can see the shame!

The Commerce Clause and Rising Oil Prices

Article I - The Legislative Branch
Section 8

Clause 3:

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

“The authority to regulate commerce includes the right to control nearly all areas of the national economy.”

Chief Justice John Marshall 1824

The Commerce Clause was never clearly defined until 1824 when the Supreme Court heard the case of Gibbons v. Ogden. The case was the result of exclusive rights to the steamboat industry in the state of New York. The court ruled that the federal government, not the states had the power to regulate commerce across state lines. This case and the majority opinion was the birth of bureaucratic government regulatory agencies.

The 115th Congress was sworn in on January 3rd with the goal of repealing Obamacare, rolling back regulations on businesses and capital markets, and restoring law and order. The Commerce Clause, at its best, is a reactionary tool used to protect citizens from the criminal intent of those in the business of increasing the profits of large corporations and financial institutions. In theory, once a particular form of graft has been detected, congress would investigate the inner workings of said criminal activity and produce laws preventing others from being injured by such behavior in the future. None of this is likely to happen under the Republican leadership.

A decade after signs of the impending crash of the real-estate backed securities bubble started emerging, the GOP leadership has promised to eliminate many of the regulations put in place by the Obama administration. Based on the last 6 weeks of activity in capital markets, Wall Street is feeling pretty good about their prospects for 2017. We’re likely to continue seeing value added to capital markets throughout the calendar year, but what kind of long-term pain are the American people in for once the band stops playing?

I’m certain oil prices are going back to 2008-2009 levels in the next 18 months to two years. I offer two points to support this claim: 1. Donald Trump’s pro-Russian sensitivities combined with the fact his cabinet is filled with plethora of pro oil climate change deniers make it likely he will use executive orders to lighten regulations on the oil industry. 2. We have a Republican congress that can roll back regulations on financial market speculations. I think we are going to see synthetic CDO’s based on oil futures drive oil prices up. The price of a barrel of oil closed at $53.99 on 1/6/17 that’s almost twice as high as the low mark in 2016. In fact, 2016 was the cheapest year at the pumps since 2004.

Cheap oil prices are hurting Russia and Iran, (as well as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria) but Russia is better situated to benefit from a Trump administration. Russia is likely to get sanction relief while Iran is likely to face more sanctions. Both nations would benefit from higher oil prices, but for the Russian economy to get relief oil only has to reach $100.00 dollars a barrel; Iran needs oil to get to $130.00 a barrel to put their annual budgets back in line. I believe the Trump administration will use more sanctions and tough talk against Iran to distract the media from their efforts to help the Russian economy. I also believe the media will continue doing a poor job of covering the stories that have an impact on the lives of most Americans. While the right hand is working with the Russian government the media will be busy covering the left hand tweeting.

We will have a Presidential cabinet in place that has largely avoided the kind of congressional scrutiny we’ve seen in the past. According to Joy Reid’s reporting, “many of the key appointees haven’t filled out ethics and financial disclosure forms for proper vetting to take place.” Jeff Sessions is a great example of a useful distraction; while his confirmation hearing is likely to be the one most covered by the media, his agenda for the Justice department could be easily fulfilled by a number of less known and controversial white supremacists. In other words, what we know about him and his racism will ultimately be less damaging to the long-term financial health of our nation than what we don’t know about the economic interest of Donald Trump and many of those around him.

Anyone with oil holdings in their portfolio will see a real boom before the next bust. We’ve been down this road before. Over the next few years we could very well see a continuation of the Obama recovery. The Federal Reserve will incrementally raise interest rates, but the cheap money policies that fueled the recovery will be replaced with pro-business deregulatory policies that offer favorable returns to those at the top of the economic ladder while providing little, if any, relief to those of us who will be paying for the impending tax cuts and the border wall with Mexico. The 115th Congress will use their ability to create or destroy regulations to shape the next decade. Based on the Republicans historical record that should give all of us pause, but then shake us into action. Instead of ruminating on 2016, maybe it’s time to come up with plausible strategies for our fight in 2017?