Memories of the 28th Century

Recently Obama declared that he had agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba. There didn't seem to be any conditions on that, and I found that strange, because by law the U.S. cannot have normal relations with Cuba until the conditions in the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 (http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title22/chapter69A&edition=prelim) will be fulfilled, and Cuba has consistently refused to even consider paying for the seized property. This is a case where U.S. law is completely in agreement with international law. It is simply illegal to take property without paying for it, but Castro ignored that and took a great deal of land and industrial and commercial property mostly from U.S. investors and Cuban citizens. There isn't much that can be done for the Cubans who were robbed, but the U.S. is committed to ensuring that U.S. citizens be paid, regardless of what Obama may think.

What I wonder is why Obama decided to do this. He should have known that he doesn't have a legal foot to stand on, and it won't buy any votes, because the people involved are generally committed to one party, and they are not going to be bought cheaply. Feelings in these matters are closely held, because there are financial consequences in addition to mere feelings.

It is interesting that on the following day the first court decision on Obama's immigration moves was handed down, and that called his action unconstitutional, so maybe he just wanted some more courts to waste time making decisions that are clear. Why he would that I do not understand. Where I come from people are willing to accept that there are limits to their actions, but even without Congress backing him up, Obama may be so stupid that he thinks that something will work just because he wants it to work.

Is Obama looking for some way that he can show that he has great power without opposition, so that he will be able to say: See I can do it. No one opposed me. If so, then he should be opposed for the sake of limited, constitutional government. We cannot permit chief executives to put themselves above the law, and this isn't just a domestic U.S.A. issue. Every constitutional republic has the same interest in keeping its leaders from making themselves dictators. We should keep pointing out the limits to presidential power until Obama realizes that George Washington had it right, when he spent most of his last two years as President on his farm avoiding government and politicians as much as possible. Obama should find a nice house where he can retire and stay out of the public view. Opinions probably will start to moderate after a few months of Obama not doing anything bad.

Obama is alleged to have been a professor of constitutional law, so he should know that his actions are violations of federal law and of his oath of office, so maybe his trying to get out of office early, or something else. Or maybe he really is stupid enough to think that he has not been trying to ignore existing law; that would say some nasty thing about higher education.


22 U.S. Code Chapter 69A - CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD)
http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title22/chapter69A&edition=prelim

Obama's immigration move unconstitutional
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/politics/judge-obamas-immigration-move-unconstitutional/