Tuesday Topics: Frustrations, Flips, and Flight

By Robert A. Vella

Today, we’ll examine three current issues which are mounting concerns in the world.  The first reveals increasing frustrations within the Democratic Party about its political response to a rogue president who would have already been criminally indicted if America’s legal system worked properly, and who otherwise has committed more than enough abuses of power to warrant impeachment.  The second exposes President Trump’s erratic foreign policy moves which have no basis in either principle or on international norms, and which are totally reflective of his impulsive and irrational nature.  The third issue is symptomatic of a civilization in decline, where people’s anxiety about their safety and status keeps mounting year after tumultuous year.

Frustrations

From:  Trump’s lack of cooperation with Congress intensifies impeachment push in House

Frustration among House Democratic investigators is intensifying after President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with congressional inquiries, leading some to privately question whether they should try to pressure Speaker Nancy Pelosi into launching impeachment proceedings.

The chairmen and members of the six panels investigating the president are increasingly angered by the White House’s unwillingness to comply as they carry out their oversight role, according to several House Democratic officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely. But that anger extends into the ranks of Pelosi’s team as well, according to multiple leadership officials.

A recent threat by Attorney General William P. Barr not to show up for a scheduled hearing Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee has only exacerbated the situation after the White House last week vowed to block some officials from appearing for subpoenaed depositions or interviews.

From:  U.S. House intel panel to refer Trump backer Prince to Justice Department -chairman

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. House intelligence panel on Tuesday will send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for Trump backer Erik Prince, the committee’s Democratic chairman said, adding there was strong evidence he lied to U.S. lawmakers probing Russia.

See also:  Rod Rosenstein officially bows out — and bows to Trump

Flips

From:  ‘No coherent policy’: Trump’s scattergun approach plunges Libya deeper into peril

Egyptian and Emirati influence on Donald Trump has thrown US policy on Libya into turmoil at a moment when Tripoli is under attack and the country is on the brink of a full-scale war once again.

The state department went from encouraging a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire and an end to an offensive on the capital by the eastern Libyan warlord, Khalifa Haftar, to threatening to veto the same resolution a few days later.

The sudden change of policy followed a Trump meeting with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and a phone conversation with the Abu Dhabi crown prince, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Haftar’s principal backers.

[…]

In the days after the call, the US radically changed its position on Libya. The US mission at the UN threatened to veto a UK-drafted UN security council resolution calling for an end to Haftar’s offensive and an immediate ceasefire.

The threat came as a shock to US allies as the state department had, only a few days earlier, encouraged the UK to draft the resolution, and Pompeo had issued a formal statement opposing Haftar’s power grab.

[…]

The diplomat said the US was more adamant in its opposition than Russia, which had asked for amendments to make the resolution more “balanced” and less explicitly anti-Haftar, but did not go so far as brandishing a security council veto.

From:  Mattis ignored orders from Trump, White House on North Korea, Iran: report

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to carry out orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options in various attempts to prevent tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria from escalating, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest report of Trump’s own officials trying to check his worst instincts.

“The president thinks out loud. Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation,” a former senior national security official told The New Yorker.

“We prevented a lot of bad things from happening.”

Flight

From:  Millionaires flee their homelands as tensions rise and taxes bite

(Bloomberg) — The world’s wealthy are increasingly on the move.

About 108,000 millionaires migrated across borders last year, a 14 percent increase from the prior year, and more than double the level in 2013, according to Johannesburg-based New World Wealth. Australia, U.S. and Canada are the top destinations, according to the research firm, while China and Russia are the biggest losers. The U.K. saw around 3,000 millionaires depart last year with Brexit and taxation cited as possible reasons.

Wealth migration figures point to present conditions — such as crime, lack of business opportunities or religious tensions — but can also be a key future indicator, said Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth.

“It can be a sign of bad things to come as high-net-worth individuals are often the first people to leave — they have the means to leave unlike middle-class citizens,” he said.