Fuck Obama

[justdrew]

Obama will come around.

Fuck me. Fuck us all.

He's the first Democrat I've never voted for. In fact, the first president since I turned 18 that I did not cast a vote for period.

I was and still am fascinated by the double bind. However, 2008, I was particularly fascinated by the fact that you could not disassociate my anti-Obama rants with those of a racist. Thus, I did not partake of the glorious freedom I have to elect a minion of the double bind and pure, unadulterated liberal mind control -- I called it with everybody in those years -- Obama is the worst thing to happen to civil rights, foreign policy, the "wars" ever. I've said it a trillion times. But if all my friends were all about getting me on the Obama bandwagon and yet said friends couldn't be bothered to join me in anti war marches, rallies, just really, the frame of mind I was at some 6 to 8 years earlier and now Obama is a savior, then there was no getting through. And there wasn't any getting through. They aren't all "stoked" on Obama anymore, but they certainly think he's "doing the best that he can".

Fuck this shit.

And the fucking tea party "wing of the republican party"? Fuck that shit. Where the fuck is our Green Party? We turned out in droves in 2000 -- Key Arena was packed. Yet, the "tea party" figured prominently in the NBC special last night where they went "behind the scenes" on capitol hill and witnessed "how it really works". The "tea party" is stocked with a bunch of sunken cheeked used car salesmen motherfuckers desperately trying to hold onto their youth and a gaggle of ex-miss america contestants.

Jesus. WTF is wrong with this place? Why the fuck is the tea party EVEN being talked about in any seriousness? Why are we focusing on the "old skool" rethuglicans having to make amends with their "tea party" wing?

we need a new thread. FUCK THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

it is absolutely clear that any alternative, any "progressive" or just plane sensible discussion is completely out of bounds in the "national media" - our voice will not be presented. for obvious reasons. destroying the mainstream media is the ONLY thing left worth doing. Until that's done, no inroads, no real politics will EVER be possible.

listen to this:
http://www.wfmu.org/flashplayer.php?version=2&show=41327&archive=70961

[Jeff]

Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive

...The popular take is that Obama is a weak leader of a weak party who was pushed around by canny right-wing extremists. Observers like pollster Sydney Greenberg portray Obama and the Democrats as a group of politically tone-deaf bureaucrats who fail because the public associates them with a corrupt government that benefits the rich and connected.

The Democrats, Greenberg argues, could change their situation by showing the public that they genuinely represent the interests of ordinary working people....

I think everything Greenberg says is true -- except for the part about it being possible. His list of solutions would make sense as advice to a real political party.

But to a bunch of hired stooges put in office to lend an air of democratic legitimacy to what has essentially become a bureaucratic-oligarchic state, what good does such advice do? Would it have made sense to send the Supreme Soviet under Andropov or Brezhnyev a list of policy ideas for enhancing the civil liberties of Soviet citizens?

The Democrats aren't failing to stand up to Republicans and failing to enact sensible reforms that benefit the middle class because they genuinely believe there's political hay to be made moving to the right. They're doing it because they do not represent any actual voters. I know I've said this before, but they are not a progressive political party, not even secretly, deep inside. They just play one on television.

For evidence, all you have to do is look at this latest fiasco.

The Republicans in this debt debate fought like wolves or alley thugs, biting and scratching and using blades and rocks and shards of glass and every weapon they could reach.

The Democrats, despite sitting in the White House, the most awesome repository of political power on the planet, didn't fight at all. They made a show of a tussle for a good long time -- as fixed fights go, you don't see many that last into the 11th and 12th rounds, like this one did -- but at the final hour, they let out a whimper and took a dive.

We probably need to start wondering why this keeps happening. Also, this: if the Democrats suck so bad at political combat, then how come they continue to be rewarded with such massive quantities of campaign contributions? When the final tally comes in for the 2012 presidential race, who among us wouldn't bet that Barack Obama is going to beat his Republican opponent in the fundraising column very handily? At the very least, he won't be out-funded, I can almost guarantee that.

And what does that mean? Who spends hundreds of millions of dollars for what looks, on the outside, like rank incompetence?

It strains the imagination to think that the country's smartest businessmen keep paying top dollar for such lousy performance. Is it possible that by "surrendering" at the 11th hour and signing off on a deal that presages deep cuts in spending for the middle class, but avoids tax increases for the rich, Obama is doing exactly what was expected of him?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/bl ... e-20110801

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Logic suggests that most of Congress, just a few hundred people, are either mil-intel agents or corrupt or leveraged by blackmail pressure.
In fact, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said as much at a pre-event lunch I attended with her.

Republicans are mostly spooks and psychopaths.
Democrats are mostly secret Republicans with a few real 'blue-flamers' allowed to maintain the illusion of an opposition party ala Kucinich/Feingold.

Where I got the expression, 'blue-flamers':
FBI Colleen Rowley told me of the institutional presence of honest high-integrity 'blue-flamers' (implying FBI agents like her) at a peace activist conference breakfast a few years ago. Sadly, they serve as cred-props for the Real Bad Guys Up in the Pyramid.

She sat down and interrupted my breakfast discussion with an editor of an indie paper that outs CIA media, the Rock Creek Free Press, with her self-aggrandizing tales of taking on mafia families.
We couldn't get rid of her as she took over our table. A metaphor for y'all of 'Agenda-Setting.'

Pentagon counter-insurgency manuals from the 1960s cite the use of 'controlled opposition' as a social control tool.

Duh.

Obama's mother and father and step-father were CIA elites who met at a CIA front in Hawaii and he was groomed and greased for the position he's in.
CIA-Disney began priming The Audience in 2002 with a Hawaiian story about 'Lilo and Stitch.' Obama's Indonesian father was named Lolo.
Obama began planning his Senate run in 2002. And the rest is manufactured history.

[seemslikeadream]

Tell Me Again: Who's the Stupid/Weak/Incompetent One?
I've made this point numerous times before. I'll make it again, because, Jesus Fuck Me Christ, a lot of you are truly, deeply, stupefyingly dumb.

So we have the debt ceiling deal, yet another step on the road to the impoverishment, brutalization and death of all those who are not sufficiently blessed to be part of the ruling class or of the ruling class's endlessly helpful adjunct, the media-blogger complex. For the cognitively impaired, which seems to be most people, that complex includes all "leading" bloggers on both right and left -- that is, Instapundit and his fellow gangsters on the right, and Atrios, Digby, et al. and their fellow gangsters on the left. I use "right" and "left" as those terms are commonly used. Let us please skip the onanistic pleasures of analyzing at interminable length what might make up the "true" right or left: most of those who contemplate such matters are only perpetuating the existing system while pretending they aren't. If you regularly engage with the present political system, you're perpetuating it. The rest is details. More on that issue soon.

Lots of people are celebrating or moaning about the "triumph" of the Tea Party. Apologies: I meant to say the crazy Tea Party. Which triumphed! I betcha some of those who say they will fight to the death to defend Social Security, Medicare, etc. would like to be "crazy" like that. They might actually succeed! Well, they might if you assume their actual and proclaimed goals are the same. Usually, and almost always in politics, they aren't.

And lots of people are celebrating or moaning about Obama's "stupidity," "weakness," "incompetence," and so on. I must confess to having a weakness for the popularity of this self-deluding ploy. In the midst of horror, it's a wonderful momentary relief to enjoy a hearty laugh. I especially like the ongoing theme at Digby's House of Mirth and Lies: "If only Obama understood all these issues the way I do, if only he were smart like me, none of this would be happening!" No, I'm not providing links to all this crap. If you've been following the latest "crisis" in even a cursory fashion, you've seen scads of pieces repeatedly announcing all these themes. And, Jesus Fuck Me Christ, I'm not going to direct people to shitty sites. They have far too many readers as it is.

I'll say it again. I suggest you slowly sound out the words this time. Maybe you'll begin to understand what they mean.

When one considers the destructive powers of the weapons at his command, as well as the bloodily murderous enthusiasm with which he uses them, and when one contemplates the enormous powers he enjoys entirely apart from and in addition to those weapons, it will easily be seen that Obama is the single most powerful individual in the entire history of humankind.

I'll say it once more. I'll bold it. Again, sound out the words:

Obama is the single most powerful individual in the entire history of humankind.

This is the goal toward which Obama diligently worked for years. This is what he wanted: the power of life and death over countless millions of people, and potentially over all of humanity. During that time, he was bracingly clear about what he would do once he achieved that cherished goal. Some of us told you all about this in the summer of 2008, and even a year earlier. Obama told you exactly what he would do. Most people convinced themselves -- contrary to all the available evidence, even when that evidence directly contradicted their illusions -- that Obama would do precisely the opposite of what he himself said he would do.

But now that Obama continues to do exactly what he said he would do, most of those who voted for him and viewed him as "transformational," "transcendent," and blahblahfuckingblah, talk nonstop about his stupidity, weakness and incompetence. Therefore, I state again:

Obama is the single most powerful individual in the entire history of humankind -- and he's accomplishing exactly what he set out to do.

So tell me again: who's stupid? Who's weak? Who's incompetent? Who was outmaneuvered? (I note, and it's an important point, that many people made the same profound error with the monstrous George W. Bush.)

The fundamental problem for most people is a very simple one. They are unable to look at Obama, or any one of many similar figures, and say:

Impoverishment, brutalization, destruction and death are his aims. He has said so, repeatedly. Impoverishment, brutalization, destruction and death are what he wants to achieve. These are evil goals, and this is a deeply evil man.

Why are the vast majority of people unable to say this? I'll begin to explain why next time.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

"Impoverishment, brutalization, destruction and death are [fascist] aims."

Fascism, you're either with U.S. or against U.S.

[seemslikeadream]

Jon Stewart

You're not pinning this turd on us, Obama

[8bitagent]

Logic suggests that most of Congress, just a few hundred people, are either mil-intel agents or corrupt or leveraged by blackmail pressure.
In fact, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said as much at a pre-event lunch I attended with her.

Republicans are mostly spooks and psychopaths.
Democrats are mostly secret Republicans with a few real 'blue-flamers' allowed to maintain the illusion of an opposition party ala Kucinich/Feingold.

Where I got the expression, 'blue-flamers':
FBI Colleen Rowley told me of the institutional presence of honest high-integrity 'blue-flamers' (implying FBI agents like her) at a peace activist conference breakfast a few years ago. Sadly, they serve as cred-props for the Real Bad Guys Up in the Pyramid.

Makes sense...do you think this is by gillionare corporate giant GE's MSNBC allows Jeremy Scahill on the air regularly? Give it some "Street Cred"?
Hey, the system must be working if they allow rabble rousers on there!

Obama's mother and father and step-father were CIA elites who met at a CIA front in Hawaii and he was groomed and greased for the position he's in.
CIA-Disney began priming The Audience in 2002 with a Hawaiian story about 'Lilo and Stitch.' Obama's Indonesian father was named Lolo.
Obama began planning his Senate run in 2002. And the rest is manufactured history.

Couldn't agree more...and yet, if you dare bring this up or ask questions about his past, you get labeled a right wing racist kook by people. All too perfect.

Hugh, Im sure you remember this from the Fall of 2006 Time cover:



Osama, Obama...you can't make this stuff up.

Btw Hugh, did you see this new Pixar spinoff of Cars 2 coming out?

[Elihu]

I'd rather light a candle than curse your darkness - Gail Stokes

"Since outright slavery has been discredited, democracy is the only remaining rationale for state compulsion that most people will accept."
– Joseph Sobran

this is the twilight world we inhabit. unperceived for those still asleep and a maddening prison of frustrated desires hopes and dreams for those unlucky enough to have awakened. democracy is mob rule and mobs are easily led, even if they happen to be mostly inebriated, distracted, and lethargic. the usa has devolved (by design) into a democracy. it was conceived as a constitutional republic. a national government of limited and enumerated powers. how far we have come. as the great CS Lewis said, when you discover an error in your calculations, it cannot be corrected by continuing to figure. one must go back to the point of error, correct it and resume from there. might i suggest Article One sections eight and ten? x-ref the 16th amendment.

Whoever expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization expects what never was and never will be."
– Thomas Jefferson

[Simulist]

Elihu, I really like reading what you have to say. It's both interesting and also elegantly expressed.

And, to answer your earlier question: yes, I've frequently wondered if we were doing more harm than good. Citizens of the present civilization might likened to passengers on a train, steaming along an all-too-short trestle. If that's true, then what more harm can there really be?

[crikkett]

[During that time, he was bracingly clear about what he would do once he achieved that cherished goal.

That post reads like dialog from Sylvester the Cat.

I'll wonder out loud what this person thought Obama was so bracingly clear about, but I'd expect that it changes from day to day.

[Bruce Dazzling]

Using Obama as a tool to keep the left at bay while ushering in an oligarchic police state is the single most brilliant idea since masturbation.

Carry on.

[crikkett]

Logic suggests that most of Congress, just a few hundred people, are either mil-intel agents or corrupt or leveraged by blackmail pressure.
In fact, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said as much at a pre-event lunch I attended with her.

I wonder what they have on Nancy "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi.

[stickdog99]

It's unbelievable.

Our choices are Damon Thorn (D) or Anders Behring Breivik (R).

[barracuda]

I wonder what they have on Nancy "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi.

Daughter of the mayor and political boss of Baltimore, Thomas D'Alessandro, rumored to have extensive connections to Lucky Luciano's Sicilian Mafia during the period in which the mobs ran that city. It's probably downhill from there.

[stickdog99]

http://www.journalism.org/index_report/ ... _2531_2011

As the debt default clock ticked down to midnight, the state of U.S. economy received even more coverage last week than the near collapse of Wall Street in September 2008.

For the week of July 25-31, the economy accounted for 52% of the newshole, almost all of it driven by the debt debate, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

This was the second-highest level of economic news recorded since PEJ began regularly monitoring the media with its News Coverage Index in January 2007. The only week with more economic coverage (and narrowly so, at 53%) was March 16-22, 2009, when the public was outraged to learn that bailed-out insurance giant AIG had paid millions in company bonuses.

The burst of media attention punctuated a six-week period during which the economy has utterly dominated the news agenda, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all the coverage studied by PEJ through the period. The No. 2 story in during that span, at 6%, was the tabloid hacking scandal that enveloped Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

The extensive focus on the economy last week also illustrates a trend that has emerged in more than four years of NCI reports. Coverage of economic issues spike dramatically when there is a deadline-driven showdown occurring against a backdrop of partisan warfare. ...

On the morning of July 31, just hours before the agreement, the New York Times reported that “however the debt limit showdown ends…President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election… Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans' language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.”