Saturday, January 23, 2021

Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?

 Maybe he has now done it, although I have been unable to find any reports of him doing so.  But almost alone among world leaders, I think joined only by Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Mexicos's President known as "AMLO" did not basically immediately congratulate Joe Biden on his inauguration. Even very pro-Trump Brazilian President Bolsonaro did, expressing a hope to have good and beneficial relations between the US and Brazil, and although it was rather perfunctory and unenthusiastic, so did Russia's President Putin.  But nothing out of AMLO, at least not right away. 

Supposedly he somehow thinks that Biden is going to be less friendly than Trump.  The one report I saw on this said that he views Trump as having taken a "hands off" approach with him, although I remember Trump making demands that he crack on migrants passing through Mexico from Central America with threats of tariffs at odds with treaty agreements.  This is hands off?  Anyway, somehow he supposedly thinks that Biden will interfere in Mexican affairs and try to tell him what to do, although I am completely unaware of a shred of evidence that Biden has said anything at all that would suggest that, although it is possible that he has and I simply have not been aware of it.

I posted here awhile ago about how it seemed that AMLO was favoring Trump, visiting him in the White House in September and making highly favorable comments. At the time I speculated that this might because he shares some authoritarian tendencies we have seen in Trump, with those only having become much clearer with his serious effort to overturn the US presidential election. Does AMLO's delay in congratulation Biden mean that AMLO approved of these actions by Trump?  I do not know, but this adds to my concerns about AMLO.  I was criticized by some commenters for making this point about AMLO, who is mostly a political progressive and certainly has carried out some progressive policies in Mexico.  But I see nothing good for people in Mexico in having their president alienating the incoming US president for what appears to be no good reason whatsoever.

Barkley Rosser

17 comments:

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Picky, picky, picky.

Is That a Rolex on Biden’s Wrist?

NY Times - January 22

President Biden may cast his arrival in the White House as a return to business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but there’s at least one way he’s breaking from prevailing presidential tradition: he wears a Rolex.

At his inauguration, Mr. Biden laid his hand on the family Bible wearing a stainless steel Rolex Datejust watch with a blue dial, a model that retails for more than $7,000 and is a far cry from the Everyman timepieces that every president not named Trump has worn conspicuously in recent decades. ...

Bill Clinton seemed to thumb his nose at aristocratic gold timepieces by wearing a Timex Ironman, a “plastic digital watch, thick as a brick and handsome as a hernia,” as The Washington Post wrote in 1993.

His successor, George W. Bush, went even more down market, wearing a Timex Indiglo, the kind once sold at drugstores. ...

Barack Obama, too, avoided heirloom-level timepieces. During his presidency, he opted for mid-priced all-American watches by Shinola, the Detroit-based brand, or a sporty watch by Jorg Gray, based in Southern California, that cost less than $500.

This may come as a shock, but Mr. Trump shattered those norms. He remained on-brand during his term, flashing mogul-worthy gold (what else?) watches by Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Vacheron Constantin. ...

---

(Why not a Timex for Joe? Indeed...)

Timex is Bringing Watchmaking Back To US

Timex has launched a new collection of watches to commemorate its 165th anniversary. Known for their reasonably priced watches, Timex has been headquartered in Connecticut since 1854.

The collection, called “American Documents”, is entirely made in America–apart from the Swiss quartz movement. This is a huge milestone for American manufacturing and watch-making in general. Although Timex Group USA is an American company, they haven’t made watches entirely in the U.S. for almost 20 years. In 2001, they closed their last American manufacturing plant in Little Rock, Arkansas. “It’s all about efficiencies,” said PR manager Jim Katz ...

Along with outsourcing to the Philippines, Timex also brought production to other countries like India and China, where they ship internationally. ...

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Hmmm. A Timex 'Easy Reader' watch is
available for under $50, whereas those
from their 'New American collection' run
about ten times that.

Big numerals on the 'Easy Reader' too.

Way less than a Rolex, either way.

Calgacus said...

But the authoritarian tendencies are shared by both sides. Of course Trump finally managed to clearly outdo his rivals in insanity in this sphere.

For Russiagate - a vacuous and fabricated affair was nothing but an effort to reverse the results of an election too. Also motivated by nothing but spite. Russian hacking just didn't happen, there never was any evidence of it, and that was known years ago.

Unfortunately, the propaganda was massive and incessant enough that it made people, even wise and reasonable ones here, discard normal standards of evidence and logic. And discard normal standards of evidence and logic when thinking about one's standards of evidence and logic.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Fred,
A Rolex? Oh, must be all that money Hunter got from China. Time for impeachment for sure.

Cal,
Um, sorry, but "Russiagate" was not a hoax. You claiming that shreds you of having anycredibility. !05 encounters documented by the Mueller Report, several Trump aides convicted of lying to the FBI about their Russian contacts, several of whom Trump then pardoned. So, are you kidding?
And are you suggesting this recent hack attack was not from the Russians? Really? You think US intel agencies are all a bunch of Deep State fakers? It was completely reasonable of Trump to never criticize Putin once ever in his entire presidency, while lambasting the heck out of people like Trudeau and Merkel? Really? As far I was concerned the original statement by Trump that made me think he was utterly unacceptable to be president dates back to before he ran when someone asked him about Putin having critics assassinated, and Trump's response was that this showed how "strong" Putin was. That pretty much said it all right there.

On Lopez Obrador and his strange ignoring of Biden, I think this confirms my worry from my previous post on him that he has the real potential to pull what Trump did when his term is up. I still do not know what if anything Biden ever did that makes AMLO somehow think Biden is going to somehow order him around. But I do note that in 2006 he refused to accept his defeat in the presidential election, continuing to do so long after it was over and everybody else moved on, which certainly provides grounds for him being sympathetic with Trump's refusal to accept his defeat. That AMLO seems to be continuing in this sympathy I find more disturbing since the events of Jan. 6.

Fred C. Dobbs said...

Biden and his Rolexes...

That must be what this is all about.

Congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene announces articles of impeachment against Biden

Anonymous said...

I did read that Biden was upset with López Obrador because he forced The US to free General Cienfuegos and return him to Mexico. Since then, it has only got worse: Last month all DEA agents in Mexico were stripped of their immunity and some days ago López Obrador accused the US of fabricating accusations and shamed the Justice Departement by making public its investigation and evidence, which I read, and it's a disgrace and a joke. The Justice Dept. then acussed Mexicans of being untrustworthy. A few hours after Biden was inaugurated, all DEA agents in Mexico were ordered to leave.

All this has been a super scandal in Mexico and I am surprised that Americans know nothing about what is happening and ascribe the tense realtionship to López Obrador being authoritarian and not knowing what is best for the people who elected him.

Anonymous said...

Biden's first two calls were to Trudeau and López Obrador. I suppose Trudeau felt a bit alienated because the pipeline was cancelled. Lopez Obrador, however, was not alienated in the least since Biden is joining his project to tackle the root causes of emigration and promised four billion in investmets for development in Central America.

Lopez Obrador said Biden had been very respectful during the call.

Anonymous said...

Please notice the date of the phone call:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-mexico/mexicos-president-says-spoke-by-phone-with-u-s-president-elect-biden-idUSKBN28U00D

December 19, 2020

U.S. President-elect Biden, Mexico's president vow to cooperate on immigration
By Anthony Esposito - Reuters

MEXICO CITY - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday committed to work on a humane strategy to regional migration by addressing its root causes in Central America and southern Mexico.

The two leaders in a phone call “discussed working together on a new approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States,” a summary of the call provided by Biden’s team said....

Anonymous said...

Please notice the date of still another phone call:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/23/readout-of-president-joe-biden-call-with-president-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-of-mexico/

January 23, 2021

Readout of President Joe Biden Call with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico

President Biden spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday to review bilateral cooperation on a range of bilateral and regional issues, particularly regional migration....

Anonymous said...

Barkley Rosser

"Why Has AMLO Delayed Congratulating Biden On His Inauguration?"

President Obrador spoke to President-elect Biden, and has already spoken to President Biden. There were no delays and the conversations were properly cordial.


Fred C. Dobbs said...

How vaguely related is this?

The inauguration of Biedermeier

via @BostonGlobe - January 20

How a mid-19th-century German term became a catchall for
a kind of governance that many Americans would welcome about now.

Over 15 years as leader, Angela Merkel presided over a political culture that, if not called boring outright, was often labeled Biedermeier. It's the closest any modern nation has come to this vision of a bland yet steady state of affairs.

Imagine if national politics were orderly and sedate, perhaps even boring. Sober and civic-minded elected officials would, with efficiency and without drama, run the government, sticking close to the uncontroversial political center. The people would let them, ignoring day to day happenings in the nation’s capital, and contenting themselves with private affairs. Imagine, in other words, a near opposite of recent US politics.

The closest any modern nation has come to this vision of a bland yet steady state of affairs is Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel. Over 15 years as leader, and in particular early on, Merkel has presided over a political culture that, if not called boring outright, was often labeled Biedermeier, with more or less the same meaning.

The term Biedermeier has its origin in the name of a fictional 19th-century everyman — bieder means respectable and unadventurous in German — who loved his simple comforts and who embodied a good, if sedate, middle-class citizenry. The character was Weiland Gottlieb Biedermaier. (The spelling of Maier, a surname as common in Germany as Jones is in America, eventually became Meier.) Introduced to readers of a satirical weekly in Munich in the 1840s, “Biedermeier” became a catchall to describe the Central European culture that preceded it and ended at the mid-century. It was not wielded as a compliment.

Following the continental traumas of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, middle-class citizens of such cities as Berlin, Munich, and Vienna retreated from the public squares into their private parlors. They’d had enough upheaval and turned to the comforts of the home and pleasant design as their refuge. It’s for this reason that Biedermeier is also synonymous with the comfortable, simple furniture — bright woods, clean lines, soft cushions — that flourished in this period between the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, and the revolutions of 1848.

Biedermeier has a less cozy connotation when applied to modern politics. It implies that political leaders are lulling the middle class into political apathy. Yet Biedermeier also describes something more — a defense of state institutions against disruption.

When Merkel became chancellor in 2005, the travails of the Cold War and German Reunification still lingered in people’s minds. Institutional stability held strong appeal. The economy, too, was finally growing, thanks to labor reforms enacted in 2003 and an export boom. Many Germans were content to leave politics in the hands of experts.

What if such a moment is possible here and now, with Trump gone, the pandemic’s end possibly in sight, and an even-keeled new president in the White House?

Call it Bidenmeier.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Fred,

Yeah, maybe we shall have a bit of Biedermeier here in the US. I would not mind some toning down. I am frankly quite stressed out after all that, plus having had to deal with serious (non-Covid) health problems I shall not go into other than to say I have been seeing way too much of hospitals recently, although more recently from the outside as Visitors Not Allowed.

Anonymous,

Yes, AMLO is upset about the Cienfuegos matter, but that was the Trump admin, not Biden. I cannot see that being a reason for some sniping at Biden.

So Biden has called Lopez Obrador, on several occasions, but somehow that has not led to any public statements by AMLO even acknowledging, much less congratulating, Biden on being inaugurated. It may be he has now done so, but he definitely delayed way after others who like him delayed in congratulation Biden for getting elected, such as Bolsonaro and Putin. Did Biden say something inappropriate in his phone calls with AMLO? I do not know. The only speculation I have seen since posting this originally is that he may be worrying that Biden is going to give him a hard time on labor or environmental issues. Anyway, I find this both disturbing and still somewhat mysterious. I mean Trump bullied him, and he likes the guy. Sick.

Narciso Lopez said...

Amlo is a brilliant politician who knows how power politics work. Its surprising how people think that Amlo is anti-Biden. Amlo knows how the world of politics works and is clearly drawing a line in the sand that he's not anyone's puppet. He will not be pressured by any media campaign to be someone's lapdog; that can be brought to heel with silly threats that he is alienating the indispensable power.

He's savvy enough to understand that the US has its own interest and that most of the time they're not to Mexico's benefit. Just remember that "Rapid and the Furious" happened under Obama's watch. This operation was a complete violation of Mexico's sovereignty and only benefited the drug cartels.

Amlo is brilliant in how he's used the chaos in the US to clip the wings of the DEA in Mexico. He completely exposed the DEA lack of evidence against the general Cienfuegos. He published the so called evidence that the DEA said was "air tight;" lol, screen captures of text messages. Its obvious that the DEA was trying a power play that blew up in their faces.

Amlo is incredibly popular because he's transparent about his actions and in his press conferences answers any questions put to him. Amlo has been creating change slowly without violating the law. He's playing the cards he drawn with tremendous intelligence and politic acumen.

Amlo got most of what he wanted from Trump; non-interference in Mexico's internal affairs and a cooling down of attacks on Mexican by Trump (it's interesting how people ignore how Trump stopped bashing Mexicans once Amlo came to power). Trump did not in any way confront Amlo when he ended the all out war and kingpin strategy favored by the DEA. Nothing from Trump when he decided to rescue the state owned energy companies that were being plundered. The only thing he didn't get from Trump was any of the promised funding for development in Central American.

His ceding to Trump on immigration enforcement dovetailed with the desire to protect immigrants from the drug cartels (they were murdering them if they didn't pay) while giving the newly created national guard experience with a low risk job. Overall, Trump was good for Mexico since he took a hands off approach and was satisfied with Mexico's immigration cooperation.

Biden is going to need immigration help since those caravans aren't going to stop all by themselves. Biden is going to learn the same lessen as Trump; Amlo is not anyone's puppet.

Anonymous said...

AMLO publicly congratulated Biden on the very day of his inauguration. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgxQOhHkHrs

As to Biden giving AMLO a hard time, that is to be expected; the US always gives a hard time to what it sees as its back yard. AMLO is a professional politician and dealt with Trump the same way all other heads of state did: by ignoring him, cooperating, or flattering him as he saw fit. He will do the same with Biden.

AMLO is definitely not sick nor mysterious. He gives a press conference every morning and answers all questions. I think you give far too much importance to the power of US presidents over the affairs and decisions of foreign countries. For example, AMLO offered political asylum to Assange and Biden said that AMLO should wait until he was inaugurated to talk about it. The next day, AMLO publicly reiterated his offer of asylum.

The US is no longer what it used to be.

Calgacus said...

But I do note that in 2006 he refused to accept his defeat in the presidential election, continuing to do so long after it was over and everybody else moved on, which certainly provides grounds for him being sympathetic with Trump's refusal to accept his defeat. That AMLO seems to be continuing in this sympathy I find more disturbing since the events of Jan. 6.

Don't think what AMLO thinks is very important. But there was a big difference. AMLO actually won that election, as Cardenas had done before. And it was blatantly stolen from both of them. Their protest was justified.

Trump, on the other hand is making up fairy tales - and there was a somewhat credible report that he had told a friend that he was just making up this fairy tale of the stolen 2020 election to get back at the Dem's fairy tale of the 2016 stolen election.

Like I said:
Unfortunately, the propaganda was massive and incessant enough that it made people, even wise and reasonable ones here, discard normal standards of evidence and logic.
And especially -
And discard normal standards of evidence and logic when thinking about one's standards of evidence and logic.

So I'm not trying to argue, because I just don't have the energy to defeat something that has clouded minds that usually think much more clearly.

But if one wants to begin understanding what actually happened with Russiagate, I suggest Consortium News.

I must be a Groucho Marxist. I only recommend websites that I have been banned from! :-)

Anonymous said...

Narciso Lopez said...

Amlo is a brilliant politician who knows how power politics work. Its surprising how people think that Amlo is anti-Biden. Amlo knows how the world of politics works and is clearly drawing a line in the sand that he's not anyone's puppet. He will not be pressured by any media campaign to be someone's lapdog; that can be brought to heel with silly threats that he is alienating the indispensable power....

[ Absolutely so. AMLO is simply superb and already has Latin American allies and will likely have more. ]

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

A.,

Not able to access your link, A., but I found that before Biden called him, Lopez Obrador made a public statement that at least recognized the inauguration, although it seems to have been largely marked by a lot of demands about US-Mexico relations. After their phone call both emphaisized cooperation and good relations, especially on economic, immigration, and pandemic policies (with both nations having poor records on the latter), while saying nothing about areas where things have really fallen apart (now dead cooperation on drug cartels due to actions by both nations recently) or possible ones such as the Assange matter, which looks to me not to amount to anything.

Yes, he is popular. His policies are a mixed bag as I have explained elsewhere. He liked Trump personally, who never got above a 6% positive rating in Mexico, always the worst of any nation in the world. But he seems ready to move on now.

Calgacus,

Wow, you have no credibility, although it does seem AMLO offered refuge to Assange, while I don't think Biden gives a phoo.

Sorry, nobody now buys that AMLO won the 2006 election. There were irregularities, but they do not seem to have been systematic. There was a recount of about a third of the ballots. Moved about 5000 votes to AMLO, but he lost by 243,000 votes, 0.58%, close but nowhere near razor thin.

Also Fast and Furious was something started by mid-level bureaucrats under Bush. Your comment on it looks like poor GOP propaganda, probably picked up by you from reading too much from the now completely worthless Glenn Greenwald.