The Obama Presidency: An Unfolding Disaster

Written by Larry Pinkney Friday, 02 July 2010 04:35

by Larry Pinkney
“You must be the historians who keep this lesson alive because this story isn’t about one day, one event, one person, or even one lifetime… Pass this knowledge. Don’t forget. Not ever.”
- Leonard Peltier
A vast amount of this nation’s populace is as addicted to media hype as they are to oil. In this instance however, it is the government and the corporate media who are the kingpin pushers and the U.S. populace who are their hooked junkies.

Corporate government media spin, subterfuge, diversion, and outright lies are the continuing hallmarks of this nation’s institutions and of this present dishonest and insidiously pathetic Barack Obama presidency of unmitigated disaster. The Government and corporate media would not tell the truth even if their lives depended on it. Unfortunately, it is not their lives but those of everyday Black, Red, Brown, White, and Yellow peoples in this nation and throughout the world, who daily are being sacrificed on the bloody alter of chicanery and political expediency, on behalf of the wealthy elite.

Pertaining to the election and installment of Barack Obama as U.S. president almost a year and a half ago, a recent article disingenuously lamented that “we voted for a [hybrid Toyota] Prius but instead got a tank.” However, the fact is that the instant that virtually the entire U.S. corporate media and corporate / military establishment began throwing their support behind the then U.S. presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, even a dead man could have smelled a rat. In yet another recent article, a so-called ‘progressive’ bemoaned the lack of serious coverage of the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan, by the “mainstream” media, totally disregarding the obvious reality that this nation does not have a “mainstream” media. It has an embedded corporate-stream one.

As this Nobel “Peace” Prize holding conjurer, Barack Obama, has intensified the corporate empire’s war in Afghanistan, heightened the war in Pakistan [complete with unmanned killer drone missiles], and continued the war in and occupation of Iraq; corporate media pundits endlessly spin their webs of deceit. Even as Obama’s smug arrogance, his lack of governmental regulation and oversight of avaricious corporations, and his de facto servitude to the corporate elite has spawned the largest environmental, ecological, and concomitant economic oil-volcano (Gulf of Mexico) disaster in the history of this nation, corporate media pundits continue spinning their webs of diversion, omission, and deceit.

It was not enough that as president, Obama fully supported the criminal bail-out of the Wall Street elite, but he then went on to torpedo much needed single payer universal health care for the everyday populace of this nation - at the behest of the massive corporate insurance industry’s elite. If the Bush / Cheney regime was the inarticulate ‘Ivan the Terrible,’ then the Obama / Biden regime is assuredly a very articulate ‘Attila the Hun’ dipped in noxious perfume, which translates into more pain and blood of everyday people in this nation and around the world.

Think about it! Our schools, libraries, transportation, and public & private sector jobs, etc. are being eliminated while billions upon endless billions of dollars are spent on U.S. wars abroad which do not stop “terrorists” - but in fact enhances and gives birth to “terrorism.” This of course, is notwithstanding the fact that U.S. actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere are in themselves state sponsored terrorism, with everyday people as the corporate / military cannon fodder; and terrorism begets terrorism. This is nothing more than cynically calculated disaster against the poor and what there is left of the U.S. middle class. Continuing the economic horrors of his predecessor in all but name, Obama is steadily in the process of wiping out the middle class in this nation - all in the very name [and rhetoric] of protecting it. As the gap rapidly widens between rich and poor in this nation, Obama, grinning like an articulate, cunning, Cheshire cat lauds his fake accomplishments, as if he has actually brought about some kind of “change we can believe in.” What rubbish! This is just more of the same - only worse.

Moreover, in the fairly recent debacle with U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, Obama did not simply ‘miss’ the opportunity to change the course of the war and begin a withdrawal of the U.S. military and corporate mercenaries from Afghanistan. He flagrantly and studiously ignored and avoided it! Obama knew precisely what he was doing.

To add insult to injury, Obama and the corporate media are now telling us that we did not really hear that which we know Obama said concerning beginning a military withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011. In typical Obama obfuscated, double-speak fashion, he now disavows his statement that the U.S. would begin to “start the pull out” in July of 2011. [Reference ‘Obama Disavows July 2011 Afghan Drawdown Date’ ]

This is of course reminiscent of May, 2009, when Obama reneged on and reversed his pledge to release photos depicting the torture of prisoners by the U.S. military in Iraq. Had Barack Obama actually had real concern for the safety and well being of U.S. men and women military personnel, which concern he claimed prompted him to reverse his pledge to the ‘American’ people, he would have at bare minimum, begun the withdrawal of U.S. troops, instead of continuing the war and occupation of Iraq, and increasing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Clearly, Obama is a shrewd, calculating, pathological liar - albeit an articulate one. Make no mistake about it! Iran is the next military target for U.S. imperialism and Israeli apartheid-Zionism, further opening the gates of hell. A manufactured pretext will be conveniently provided, and a military attack will ensue against Iran sooner or later. Does anyone remember the U.S. manufactured ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ incident pertaining to the bloody, undeclared war against the people of Vietnam?! Does anyone remember the fabricated ‘weapons of mass destruction’ pretext for bloody war against and occupation of Iraq?! Does anyone remember just a few short weeks ago, when the Obama / Biden regime fabricated details surrounding the sinking of the South Korean warship ‘Cheonan’ as a pretext and an attempt to intimidate and provoke conflict with both North Korea and China?! Remember these things well. As wrongfully imprisoned American Indian Movement [AIM] Leonard Peltier so poignantly said it: “Don’t forget. Not ever.”

Yet, White liberals, phony so-called ‘progressives, and biologically Black misleaders continue to be apologists for, and collaborators with, the Obama / Biden regime, stoically ignoring the ongoing and increased human, economic, and ecological disasters that said regime is heaping upon the peoples of this nation and world as it reeks unholy havoc upon us.

Barack Obama is in fact, shrewdly facilitating and overseeing the dismantling, not of the U.S. corporate / military empire, but rather of the economic and political human rights and legitimate needs of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples in this nation. It is for this purpose that the corporate / military establishment and the corporate media ensured that Barack Obama was installed in the White House. This is an increasingly obvious disaster not for the wealthy elite who already have homes, villas, gated mansions, yachts, and cushioned financial holdings all over the world. It is however, a horrible disaster for everyday common folks in this nation and around this planet.

The July 4th, 2010, U.S. “Independence” Day celebration, is unfortunately and in reality, a macabre and equally blissful celebration of the successful corporate enslavement of everyday people of all colors in this nation. It is the theater of the absurd. Even as Barack Obama articulates hollow praises to the greatness of everyday common folks in this nation, he is busily furthering the political, economic, and ecological demise of them / us. Yes, it is the theater of the absurd and sad on so very many levels. We everyday people have yet to gain “independence” and freedom from the elite corporate / military masters of this nation.

So-called liberals, like their right-wing counterparts, have no stomach for addressing reality and struggling to bring about real systemic change. The war criminals remain embedded in the White House and Congress, and U.S. corporate / military wars are not only being waged upon people of other nations, but also upon the ‘American’ people themselves / ourselves. Wake up while there may still be time!

This nation has been subverted from bad to worse by Barack Obama, and his allies of the corporate elite who, in fact, financially own the corporate media.

Unhook yourselves from this government and its constant corporate media spin. Stop absorbing, believing in, and being diverted by the hype. Behold! Disaster has already been brought upon us, but there may yet be time to change the course of this nation and at lease minimize, mitigate, and ultimately reverse these unfolding catastrophes. It is our duty and right as humans to do this.

In the words of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, “feel the pain” of the everyday people (your sisters and brothers) and act accordingly; for soon that pain will be at your door and upon you and your family, if it is not already. Act now, for real systemic change, while there may yet be time! We must be both pragmatic and optimistic: Pragmatic enough to recognize the dire situation we are in, and optimistic enough to set out seriously to address and change it! This cannot and will not come about by osmosis. It must be brought about by the unrelenting struggle of everyday people!

Snatch the narrative from the corporate media! Tell your own stories, and organize locally and nationally to bring about real systemic change! You / we can do this. Indeed, we must do this for ourselves and the planet - Mother Earth - as a whole.

Onward my sisters and brothers! There is so very much work to be done. Onward!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.