Special Opinion to the Cape Charles Mirror by Paul Plante
Yes, people, it is true, or at least it appears to be true, from all the rumors in the press, that the second coming of Barack Hussein Obama to American politics is immanent, but then, it would have to be, wouldn’t it?
Afterall, with his superstar appeal to his adoring fans, can anyone imagine Obama staying out of the limelight without a soap box to make his political pronouncements to the masses from?
As to the second coming of Obama, in the Newsweek article “Obama Is Returning to Politics in 2018, and Trump Should Be Worried” by Sam Schwarz on 1/17/18 at 9:29 AM, we are told as follows:
If President Donald Trump and the Republican Party were already worried about defending their majorities in the House and Senate come November, they will now have another major factor to contend with: Barack Obama.
End quotes
See what I am saying about rumors of Obama’s immanent return in the press?
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of Obama!
He is coming to trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored in Trump Tower and Mar-A-Lago!
He will loose the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword and his truth will be marching on, Glory!
Glory! Hallelujah!
Getting back to Newsweek:
The former president enjoyed a busy year since leaving the White House but has largely stayed under the radar.
End quotes
Actually, that is not true.
We all have seen Obama out there enjoying the “good life,“ after leaving the White House with a net worth of $12.2 million, with First Lady Michelle Obama not far behind with a net worth of $11.8 million, jet-setting around the world, rafting rapids and climbing mountains and hang-gliding and partying, so the dude has hardly been under the radar; he’s just been having himself a real good time, is all, as Newsweek makes clear as follows:
The president spent part of 2017 jet-setting around the globe and making the most of some time off after eight years of nonstop scrutiny and governing, but he always maintained that he would never leave politics behind.
End quotes
And now, he is coming back.
But why?
Let’s see what Newsweek has to say on that subject:
Now, Obama is reportedly planning to return to politics in 2018, setting the stage for a prominent role in the lead-up to the crucial midterm elections.
End quotes
Ah, “reportedly planning to return.”
See what I am saying about rumors of his immanent return flying around like bats in a feeding frenzy in a church belfry?
But that is so Obama, isn’t people?
The sense of drama, I mean.
Milk that drama for all it is worth; that is the secret of a successful politician in America today, and Obama is a master at that, so we shouldn’t be surprised at the drama build-up here, kind of like the edge-of-the-seat excitement people in America experience this time of the year as they wait to see who is going to be in the Superbowl.
The real question for all of us in America to consider is this: What is this “prominent role” Obama is going to play in the lead-up to the crucial midterm elections.
This is what we have from Newsweek on that subject:
Obama will “continue to be politically active in 2018, with more endorsements and more campaigning,” his spokeswoman Katie Hill told The Chicago Tribune.
Before leaving office, Obama vowed to remain politically relevant and work with and endorse candidates who sought to preserve his legacy and signature accomplishments.
End quotes
Ah, yes, people, Obama wants to be relevant and have his legacy preserved.
But what on earth does that mean?
What really is Obama’s legacy beyond the $9 trillion in federal debt added during the 8 years Obama was in office and the huge humanitarian crisis he and Hillary Clinton created in the Middle East with their cock-a-mamie scheme to remove Basher Assad of Syria from power using an army of terrorists to do so?
According to Douglas Brinkley of Rice University, among the presidential historians who had met with Obama for dinners, Obama wants to be remembered on the scale of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, but isn’t that just wishful thinking on Obama’s part?
As for “legacy,” that can be defined as “money or property given to another by will,” or “something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past,” as in “a legacy of religious freedom,” i.e., heritage, or “an individual who is either an applicant to an educational institution or a matriculated student and is the child of an alumna or alumnus.”
So what is Obama talking about with his “legacy,” then?
In an article by Dylan Stableford for Yahoo Politics on September 20, 2015, we had this hint from Hillary Clinton:
“I obviously am running because I think it’s better for the country if a Democrat who has the kind of approaches and values that my husband had and Barack Obama has follows this presidency.”
End quotes
Does that give us comfort, people?
Should that give us comfort?
As to Obama as the coming Messiah, Newsweek gives us this thought to consider:
In a September poll, 52 percent of respondents to a poll said they wished Obama were still in office.
End quotes
Is Obama an avenging angel then, a Caesar for our times crossing the Rubicon with his club and pipe-wielding, masked Anti-Fa legions at his back to drive evil from our land, along with everyone in Hillary Clinton’s basket of deplorables?
Or is he simply coming back to do what he does best, which is acting as a pitchman or barker for the Democrats, doing infomercials for them with a Captain America costume on, to pitch the Democrat’s socialist agenda to the American people gullible enough to believe the Democrats are going to provide vital services such as health care, child care, education from pre-K through higher education, shelter and transportation to everyone on demand, free of charge, and further, in order to ensure that the enjoyment of full citizenship was not tied to ups and downs in the labor market, the Democrats are going to ensure that everyone in America would also receive a universal basic income, that is, a base salary for every member of society, regardless of the person’s employment status?
That, people, is the Democrat “Better Deal,” and if there is a pitchman to sell that unrealistic tripe to the gullible people in America to get them to embrace the Democrat’s socialist agenda, it is Barack Hussein Obama, the pitchman’s pitchman, a dude of who make “Devil Bill” Rockefeller proud to make his acquaintance.
So stay tuned for more, America, because this story is just breaking and it has legs, so there is sure to be much more to come, so stay tuned and don’t change that dial!
Paul Plante says
It is an axiom, I think, that to understand the future, you often have to look to the past, which might be a corollary of that saying that those who don’t know history are at its whim, and here to perhaps better understand the return of Barack Hussein Obama into not only our national, but our local political races as well, if you consider a congressional district as being “local,” as I do, a look to the past is instructive as to Obama’s outright meddling in New York state politics while he was president to push his socialist agenda, as he is coming back to do, once more if all the rumors flying around are true.
As to that meddling, in the New York Times article, “Paterson Says He Will Run, Rejecting Call From Obama” by Raymond Hernandez and Jeff Zeleny on September 19, 2009, we have as follows:
Gov. David A. Paterson defiantly vowed to run for election next year despite the White House‘s urging that he withdraw from the New York governor’s race.
Appearing tired and agitated at a parade in Harlem on Sunday, the governor told a crowd of reporters that he would not abandon his campaign to seek a full term.
end quotes
Now, consider that while a sitting American president has absolutely no authority, jurisdiction or discretion as to who a state governor is going to be, nonetheless, he took it upon himself to flaunt the Constitution, which is so Obama, so he could meddle in our state politics to put a lackey or toady of his choice in our governor’s mansion to “preserve” Obama’s “legacy.”
Also consider that David Paterson, who Obama was telling not to run, to make way for Obama’s choice of Young Andy Cuomo, was a blind, black man, or blind African-American.
According to the New York Times, President Obama had sent a request to Mr. Paterson that he withdraw from the New York governor’s race, fearing that Mr. Paterson cannot recover from his dismal political standing, according to two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation.
The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the administration officials said.
end quotes
They chatter on about Russian meddling in our politics, but what about White House meddling, or more specifically, Obama meddling?
What country does he think this is anyway, where a sitting president decides who can or cannot hold state office?
What kind of corrupt, third-world ***hole does Obama think this is, anyway?
Getting back to the NY Times:
“Is there concern about the situation in New York?”
“Absolutely,” the second administration official said Saturday evening.
“Has that concern been conveyed to the governor??
“Yes.”
end quotes
Translate that as Obama strong-arming blind, black David Paterson.
According to the NY Times, Obama’s request was conveyed to the Mr. Paterson by Representative Gregory W. Meeks, a Queens Democrat, who has developed a strong relationship with the Obama administration, they said.
And here the NY Times makes my point for me with respect to Obama’s meddling in New York State Politics as if he were a party boss instead of a sitting American president:
The move against a sitting Democratic governor represents an extraordinary intervention into a state political race by the president, and is a delicate one, given that Mr. Paterson is one of only two African-American governors in the nation.
end quote
Focus on the phrase “extraordinary intervention,” people, and add the word “egregious” in front of it, and you will have it right.
Getting back to the NY Times:
“The message the White House wanted to send — that it wants Paterson to step aside — was delivered,” said the Democratic operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were intended to be confidential.
“He is resistant.”
end quotes
Sounds like lines from a movie about the Mafia.
And here comes the interesting part, where the politics of yesterday give us a glimpse of what the politics of tomarrow just might be, and the Democrats look beyond 2018 to 2020, and a re-capture of the White House:
Leading Democrats in the state have expressed deep concern about Mr. Paterson’s ability to hold on to the office.
But most have been wary of openly suggesting he step aside.
The White House move could give them cover to abandon Mr. Paterson and endorse another candidate, most likely Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been debating for months whether to take on Mr. Paterson in a primary.
end quotes
Ah, yes, Young Andy Cuomo, who already is promoting Obama’s socialist agenda in New York state with Young Andy’s “free” college tuition program, which is not really free, at all, but is packaged to make it appear that way.
Look for Young Andy to be promoted by Obama as the next Democrat presidential candidate.
Getting back to poor David Paterson, who was elevated to governor from lieutenant governor in March 2008, in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation after a prostitution scandal, according to the NY Times, in the intervening months, White House officials have watched the deteriorating political fortunes of Mr. Paterson with growing alarm, as his popularity plunged and he committed a series of missteps that raised questions about his ability to govern.
In addition, the relationship between Mr. Obama and Mr. Paterson has been shaky, dating to the governor’s selection of a replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton, who resigned from the Senate to become secretary of state.
White House officials had received assurances from Mr. Paterson that he would not pick Kirsten E. Gillibrand, then a little-known Democratic congresswoman from a heavily Republican district outside of Albany, according to a prominent Democrat who discussed the matter with a senior White House official.
The White House and Democratic House leaders were concerned that her sudden departure from the House would give Republicans a prime opportunity to reclaim the seat.
Aides to the president conveyed those concerns to the governor, according to Democrats who have discussed the matter with Mr. Obama’s aides.
In the end, Mr. Paterson selected Ms. Gillibrand anyway, infuriating White House officials and Democratic leaders in Washington.
Making matters worse, the governor also publicly snubbed Caroline Kennedy, a close personal friend and ally of Mr. Obama’s, who announced in December her wish to be chosen as Mrs. Clinton’s replacement, but then withdrew her name from consideration in January, citing personal reasons.
end quotes
Today, of course, Kirsten Gillibrand has become one of the Democrat party’s rising stars, and she too is being touted for president, albeit by a different faction that that of Obama, so that adds an interesting dimension to this second coming of Obama, as well.
Getting back to the NY Times, the move by the White House to dump David Paterson will probably bring new attention to Mr. Cuomo, now the most popular Democratic figure in the state.
And here where the politics of race enter into the picture:
The situation between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Paterson has been a complicated one.
Mr. Cuomo is still haunted by the fierce backlash he stirred in 2002 when he decided to run in the Democratic primary for governor against H. Carl McCall, the first serious black candidate for governor.
Now, Mr. Cuomo effectively has the blessing of the nation’s first black president to run against New York’s first black governor.
That will probably neutralize any criticism he may face among the governor’s prominent black allies, including Representative Charles B. Rangel of Harlem, who warned this year that the party would become racially polarized if Mr. Cuomo took on Mr. Paterson.
end quote
So what can we expect this time around?
All I can say is stay tuned, as always, and don’t touch that dial!
Paul Plante says
To help put the second coming of the Messiah Barack Hussein Obama into its proper perspective, about a year ago now, on February 1, 2017, the GOTHAMIST, a New York City newspaper, ran an article entitled “New Yorkers Put Schumer On Blast: ‘Stand Up Or Get Out Of The Way’” by Raphael Pope-Sussman, wherein was stated as follows:
Hundreds of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures Tuesday night on Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza at a rally calling upon U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to take a firm stand against the Trump administration.
Hae-Lin Choi, of the Democratic Socialists of America and Resist Trump NY, took the stage first, announcing herself as an immigrant and telling the crowd why organizers had called for the protest.
“Senator Schumer must be bold and stand with the working class,” she cried over the loudspeaker.
“He has to champion the resistance or get out of the way and we’ll find someone that will.”
end quote
A year later, Charley “CHUCK” Schumer has shut down OUR government, the government of We, The People Of The United States of America, because of his loyalty to the Democrat Socialists of America, and people who are not citizens of this country, which seems to me a form of treason, to hold our government hostage for the sake of people from other countries, but hey, that is just me, and yes, I know, I know, patriotism is so anachronistic these days, it just is not funny!
The point right now isn’t whether Charley “CHUCK” Schumer is a traitor to this country, or a tool of some foreign powers intent on changing our republican frame of government to a socialist frame of government.
The point is how much political power this Democratic Socialists of America crowd have gained over our federal government by their capture of Charley “CHUCK ” Schumer a year ago on February 1, 2017.
And that talk of “resistance” last year by Hae-Lin Choi of the Democratic Socialists of America who screeched out “He (Charley “CHUCK” Schumer) has to champion the resistance or get out of the way and we’ll find someone that will” as they broke Charley “CHUCK” to their will with their “struggle session” for him last year takes us back half a year before that to the section entitled “Electoral Organizing” of “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016,” posted to the internet to inform the world by William Thompson on 06.25.16, wherein we have as follows:
Achieving our goals (imposition of socialism in the United States of America) will require grassroots organizing and “street heat,” but it will also require a critical mass of political office holders to implement them.
end quotes
Enter Barack Hussein Obama, people, to help them obtain that “critical mass” of political office holders to implement their socialist agenda for them, as Young Andy Cuomo, rumored to be our next president, is doing for them in New York State, with his “free” college tuition program which is straight out of the Democratic Socialists playbook, as follows:
A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016
Free public higher education is a key example of what we might call a “transformative” reform that helps to popularize the idea of socialism and to make further, more dramatic reforms possible in the future.
Beyond its inherent benefits, such a campaign would also show people that socialist policies are both desirable and achievable.
Gaining free public higher education could serve as a crucial step in making democratic socialist politics more attractive to a wider cross-section of the U.S. public.
end quotes
Expect to hear a lot more about that, people, as Obama makes his second coming to help popularize the idea of socialism with a campaign to gull the unwitting, the unwary, and the just plain, garden-variety “brain-dead” and lead them down the garden path into thinking that socialist policies are both desirable and achievable, using Young Andy Cuomo’s “free” college plan as a crucial step in making democratic socialist politics more attractive to a wider cross-section of the U.S. public.
Getting back to the position of the Democratic Socialists of America on “Electoral Organizing,” we have:
Although elections in and of themselves will not bring about major political, economic or social reforms — let alone establish a pathway to socialism — it is difficult to imagine how we could achieve any of our objectives in the United States without taking part in the electoral process.
In the short term, we need to engage in electoral activity for several important reasons: to defend existing rights; to put forth new demands for social and economic justice that could change public conversations and thereby create openings for more fundamental structural reforms down the road; to attract new members to DSA and thereby build our capacity as an organization; and to build and sustain non-electoral activism.
The nature of our electoral activism will vary based on local political conditions.
But it will include supporting progressive and socialist candidates running for office, usually in Democratic primaries or as Democrats in general elections but also in support of independent socialist and other third-party campaigns outside the Democratic Party.
In the medium-to-long-term we will work to build the organizational capacity necessary to run candidates of our own to forge larger socialist electoral coalitions both within and outside of the Democratic Party and ultimately to create a majoritarian electoral coalition in support of socialist political and economic reforms.
end quotes
The Democratic Socialists of America wear the Democrat party, the party of Schumer and Pelosi and Obama and HILLARY and Young Andy Cuomo, the way Native American hunters used to wear the skin of an animal to allow them to get close to their prey, as their stalking horse.
So there is some necessary background here to understand exactly what it is that the Messiah Barack Hussein Obama is coming back to do – it is to help create a majoritarian electoral coalition in support of socialist political and economic reforms.
Will those socialist political and economic reforms be good for America?
Stay tuned, for that is the subject of another up-coming episode of the INTERNET THRILLER hosted by the Cape Charles Mirror called “THE RETURN OF THE MESSIAH,” so don’t touch that dial!
Paul Plante says
By way of some more background here, as the Democratic Socialists of America make their bid to gain more control of our government through their use of the Democrat Party as their stalking horse, with Barack Hussein Obama as their chief water carrier, we need to go to the section entitled “Building DSA and the Socialist Left” of “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016,” posted to the internet to inform the world by William Thompson on 06.25.16, as follows:
DSA’s role in building progressive social movements is essential to our work; regardless of what we gain as an organization from this work, it is an end in itself.
Additionally, through our coalition work and community organizing we learn invaluable organizing skills and discover countless ways to improve the work that we do.
However, in order to be effective in this work, as well as to build broader-based, independent socialist organizations that we hope will grow over time into a powerful political force, we need to dramatically increase the ranks of the socialist movement in the United States.
end quotes
That last is what Obama is coming back to achieve – dramatically increasing the ranks of the socialist movement in the United States, and since that is the case, given his messianic, rock star status in the United States, it behooves us all to understand what this socialist in the United States of America is really all about.
Getting back to the Manifesto of the Democratic Socialists, we have more as follows:
While DSA has expanded significantly since 2010, there is still tremendous room for growth, especially in the wake of Sanders’ Political Revolution, which exposed countless young people to the idea of democratic socialism for the first time.
end quotes
Now, that is some important background we should wrap our minds around here, people – the Sanders’ Political Revolution exposed countless young people to the idea of democratic socialism for the first time, and that socialist train in the United States of America has now left the station.
But to where will it take us as a nation, given that the “young people” of today are not noted for an ability to engage in critical thinking?
That is the question being raised in here.
Getting back to the Democratic Socialist Manifesto and the role Barack Hussein Obama will play in 2018, we have as follows:
In order to take advantage of this potential, DSA chapters will use a range of tactics to help expand our activist and membership base.
First, we will place a greater emphasis on our critique of capitalism and positive vision of democratic socialism in our coalition, public education and community organizing work.
We will also devote more resources to developing new leaders through individual mentoring, skills training and educational programming.
Finally, we will engage in regular and intensive assessments of our organizational progress, while always working to recruit as many new members from a diverse an array of backgrounds.
Success across this spectrum of struggles should lead to a period when we can talk seriously about the transition to democratic socialism through reforms that fundamentally undermine the power of the capitalist system (often referred to as “non-reformist reforms”), such as the nationalization of strategic industries (banking, auto, etc.) and the creation of worker-controlled investment funds (created by taxing corporate profits) that will buy out capitalist stakes in firms and set up worker-owned and -operated firms on a large scale.
end quotes
There, people, is the Obama political agenda for 2018 and beyond laid out in simple terms an common American should be able to comprehend and understand – making the the transition to democratic socialism through reforms that fundamentally undermine the power of the capitalist system,
As the Democratic Socialists say in their Manifesto:
While it may sound premature to begin discussing such long-term objectives before we have achieved our more modest (though ambitious) short-term goals, it is critical that we advance a clear vision of our short-, medium- and long-term objectives and a credible account of how we might move from each stage of struggle to the next.
If we are not clear about where we are heading, we risk both losing track of the importance of our socialist identity and making strategic errors for the sake of short-term tactical gains.
For the foreseeable future our primary focus will be on building a vibrant, independent democratic socialist movement and helping to cultivate progressive coalitions capable of wielding political power at all levels.
But we should never lose sight of the democratic socialist vision that serves as the guiding thread tying together the many struggles for freedom and equality in which we are constantly engaged, day in, day out.
end quote
Hence, the return of the pitchman Obama, who is to American politics what the late, great and much loved Billie Mays was to the infomercial in America.
Paul Plante says
And OMG, people, the excitement is building to a literal fever pitch as
VOX.com reports in the story “Bernie Sanders has begun talking to top advisers about a possible 2020 run” by Rachel Wolfe on 25 January 2018, that those hoping for another chance to “Feel the Bern” in 2020 could have good reason to be optimistic about Bernie Sanders’s odds of running for the presidency.
According to VOX.com, while speculation has been rampant — and the Vermont senator has never ruled out the possibility of another go at the country’s top office when asked — there’s yet been no official word on what a campaign would actually look like until Saturday, that is, when a meeting between Sanders and his top political advisers explicitly discussed the possibility.
Part of the conversation, according to VOX.com, included a discussion of other possible candidates and strategies for how to beat them.
Other candidates, of course, that Bernie would have to beat would include New York state’s governor Young Andy Cuomo, who stepped aside in 2016, at Barack Hussein Obama’s urging, to give Hillary Rodham Clinton her turn at it, and who has been implementing socialist policies in New York state in the hopes of being the flag bearer for the Democratic Socialists of America, and New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.
As VOX.com reminds us, as if we had already forgotten, the Democratic race was effectively only between Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016, after all, making 2020’s expected free-for-all a different game entirely.
VOX.com tells us that Sanders’s staff declined to comment when they reached out, but implications of a possible Bernie candidacy are far-reaching.
As Matthew Yglesias explained, Sanders could be considered the most popular politician in America.
He’s also “Democrats’ most in-demand public speaker, and the most prolific grassroots fundraiser in American history.”
Sanders is currently beating Donald Trump in the polls.
According to multiple Democrats, the senator hasn’t yet made a decision about 2020 but thinks beating Trump is the most important thing for this country.
So how about that news, people?
And whoever thought American politics were going to be dull after Hillary lost and Trump won sure missed the bet on that one, alright.
Redd Foxx says
The best thing about about Barry being our first Half-Black President is that he has made sure it will be a cold day in Hell before We The People ever give a real black man a chance.
Paul Plante says
Do We, The People really exist anymore as a “people?”
If so, it is as a very divided “We, the People” as we can see from “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016” posted by William Thompson on 06.25.16, wherein We, The People are informed as follows:
2016 was a game changing year for leftists and progressives.
We are finally reemerging as a vital and powerful force after an extended period of stagnation and demoralization, and we face a political landscape more favorable than perhaps at any time since the 1960s.
end quotes
With the return of the Pitchman, Barack Hussein Obama, are leftists and progressives in this country going to become the dominant political force in this country?
In that case, for those of us who are not leftists, and don’t intend to become leftists, will we be omitted from “We, the People” as political outcasts?
It is said that history is written by the winners, so let us ponder the version of history the Democratic Socialists of America are selling to the American people in support of their cause, which is also the cause of Bernie Sanders and Young Andy Cuomo of New York state, to wit:
For roughly 30 years after the end of World War II, the United States and non-Communist Europe experienced solid economic growth, declining inequality, expanding social services and increasing working-class power, coupled with landmark advances toward racial, gender and sexual equality.
In countries such as France and Sweden, labor and socialist movements even made significant (if fleeting) progress toward a democratic socialist transition.
Though these gains were tainted in countries such as the United States by the racialized and gendered manner in which they were distributed, this period represents the high-water mark of working-class strength and security in the 20th century.
end quotes
In many ways, this reads like a version of “A People’s History Of The United States” by Howard Zinn, which I have read, and if all one ever read of American history was “A People’s History Of The United States” by Howard Zinn, they would end up with a very skewed and distorted picture of what America is really all about, just as one gets a skewed sense of history from that section of “Resistance Rising” above, where we are told “these gains were tainted in countries such as the United States by the racialized and gendered manner in which they were distributed.”
HUH?
The radicalized and gendered manner in which they were distributed?
Distributed by who?
But don’t expect and answer to that question any time soon, and anyway, that is pure political HOGWASH.
But that is a discussion for another day.
Getting back to “Resistance Rising,” which it clearly is in this country, in the section “The Rise of Neoliberalism,” we have some more Democratic Socialist history of America coming, so let’s not tarry here over inconsequentials, and see what it might be:
Starting in the 1970s, however, in a movement that would become known as neoliberalism, economic elites in these countries began mobilizing politically to lower taxes for the rich and corporations, to eviscerate democratic decision-making both in the workplace as well as at the ballot box, to slash spending on essential social services such as education and social security, to deregulate industries across the economy and to open up flows of capital across national borders.
These “reforms” enabled corporations to evade virtually all forms of accountability either to the workers they employed or to the communities in which they operated.
end quotes
I was alive back then, so I will not argue in here whether that is true or not, because the history of those times is now easily accessible and anyone engaged in critical thinking will bother on their own, as I do, to independently verify that account for their own mind.
Getting back to “The Rise of Neoliberalism” as the Democratic Socialists see it:
In the United States neoliberalism was aided by racialized attacks on social service provision in which African American and Latino recipients of welfare and other anti-poverty programs were portrayed as an “undeserving poor” whose lifestyle was being subsidized by (white) taxpayers (even though whites constituted the largest group of welfare beneficiaries).
The success of neoliberalism across the United States and Europe differed based upon the relative strength or weakness of left-wing political parties and trade unions – leaving working people in traditional bastions of social democracy such as Sweden relatively better off than working people in countries such the United States where trade unions and the Left have been weak historically.
But by the early 2000s the historic gains made across these countries in the post-World War Two period had been rolled back dramatically.
This, combined with the fall of Soviet and East European Communism and the marketization of the Chinese economy by the early 1990s, led most pundits and politicians to proclaim the ultimate triumph of neoliberalism: “there is no alternative” to the free market became the mantra of policy makers around the world.
end quotes
And that takes us to “Insurgent Responses to Neoliberalism,” to wit:
Given the profound and sustained defeats suffered by the Left and progressive movements during this period, by the mid- 2000s socialists and progressives in the United States and Europe could boast of virtually no examples of successful resistance to neoliberalism.
Many turned their eyes to South America, which during this time was practically the only democratic leftist political stronghold in the world.
end quotes
Now, pardon me, but does that give anyone here any level of comfort that these Democratic Socialists of America want to model our government in this country on some tin-pot dictatorship in some banana republic or repressive ****hole in South America?
Why not model it on Idi Amin Dada’s Uganda instead, or maybe Kenya or Zimbabwe?
Getting back to “Insurgent Responses to Neoliberalism:”
Only a few short years later, however, the situation in Europe and the United States looked completely different: the Left had finally galvanized significant support in the electoral arena, and had pulled the terms of political debate significantly leftward through creative social movement organizing.
To name but a few electoral examples, in Greece the left-wing Syriza party came to power in 2014, in Spain the left-wing Podemos party emerged from antiausterity protests in 2014 and only two years later it was the third largest party in the country.
Even more surprising were the rise of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the British Labor Party in 2015 and the phenomenal success of Bernie Sanders’ “political revolution” during the 2016 United States’ presidential election.
These electoral successes have been paralleled by, and to a large degree made possible by, the rise of a new generation of progressive social movements committed both to thoroughgoing critiques of capitalism, racism, sexism, xenophobia and other forms of oppression, as well as to the creation of an ecologically sustainable, democratic and egalitarian future.
To take the United States as one example, the progressive offensive against neoliberalism began in earnest with the Occupy protests of 2011 and the resistance to Governor Scott Walker’s anti-labor offensive in Wisconsin, which put the issue of inequality at the center of U.S. political discourse and cultivated a new generation of activists that have been crucial in more recent movements.
In the wake of Occupy, powerful new movements arose to challenge brutal immigration policies (The Dreamers), the shamefully low federal minimum wage (Fight for $15), the epidemic of police brutality and structural racism (Black Lives Matter) and inequality (the Sanders Political Revolution) to name a few.
These movements have opened up space for a serious discussion of capitalism, male dominance and racism in our society that has not existed in decades, and which provides unique opportunities for the growth of a democratic socialist movement that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all of the struggles and the structural character of the reforms needed to make real and lasting change.
end quotes
Isn’t that some real fancy language that just tugs at your heartstrings – these movements like the Sanders Political Revolution have opened up space for a serious discussion of capitalism, male dominance and racism in our society that has not existed in decades, and which provides unique opportunities for the growth of a democratic socialist movement that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all of the struggles and the structural character of the reforms needed to make real and lasting change.
That is WE versus THEM, not WE, The PEOPLE.
And what are these “reforms” needed to make “real and lasting change?”
Change from what to what?
And who makes those determinations besides the Democratic Socialists of America?
Any thoughts, anyone?
Paul Plante says
With this political season just starting to heat up with the return of the Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama to get the Democrat troops all heated up for another assault on control of our federal government, what challenges, if any, to making that happen, does the Pitchman Obama have to overcome?
In the section “Democratic Socialist Challenges Facing the Left and Progressive Movements,” “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016” posted by William Thompson on 06.25.16, we are told as follows on that score:
Yet we must not overstate the strength of progressive and leftist politics today, and likewise we must not understate the extent of the challenges that lie before us.
While a new wave of social movement organizing appears to be underway, and while younger people especially are increasingly open to radical alternatives, the Left and progressive movements remain weak.
end quotes
Focus on that phrase “younger people especially are increasingly open to radical alternatives,” as you ponder our political future in this nation.
“Radical alternatives” to exactly what?
And where is it that these “radical alternatives” are being drawn from?
What political philosophy guides these “radical alternatives?”
Where have they been tried before, besides the failed Soviet Union?
But don’t expect any answers to those question from the Pitchman Obama, who I have come to think of as the Jimmy Lampwick of modern American politics.
Getting back to the Democratic Socialists:
Today we celebrate more the possibility of political openings than the achievement of significant concrete gains.
end quotes
Political openings, people, that is what the Pitchman is returning to exploit.
And once again, back to the Democratic Socialists:
Beyond our relative lack of resources, the structural barriers placed in our path by the nature of the U.S. political system and the extraordinary power of individualist ideology to undermine collective action, Leftists and progressives face a groundswell of racist and antiimmigrant political organization — represented most dramatically by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
end quotes
Now, that is a sentence that bears a lot of scrutiny, especially this part – “the extraordinary power of individualist ideology to undermine collective action.”
Think very carefully about what that phrase is really saying – the open mind of the individual is a threat to the closed-mindedness of the GROUPTHINK necessary to sustain this vision being put forth to the gullible and ignorant and those who are simply braindead by the Progressives and Democratic Socialists of America of a socialist paradise on earth where the Democratic Socialists and Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Young Andy Cuomo of New York are going to provide vital services such as health care, child care, education from pre-K through higher education, shelter and transportation to everyone on demand, free of charge, and further, in order to ensure that the enjoyment of full citizenship was not tied to ups and downs in the labor market, the Democrats are going to ensure that everyone in America would also receive a universal basic income, that is, a base salary for every member of society, regardless of the person’s employment status.
And how exactly is that going to happen, people?
How are the Democratic Socialists and Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Young Andy Cuomo, governor of one of the most, if not the most, highest taxed states in the nation going to provide vital services such as health care, child care, education from pre-K through higher education, shelter and transportation to everyone on demand, free of charge?
Where is the money going to come from to do all of that?
Or are the Democratic Socialists and Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Young Andy Cuomo going to do away with money altogether, and go with some system of credits?
Think about it, people, afterall, it is your grandchildren’s future they are deciding.
And there for the moment I will rest.
Paul Plante says
By way of review with respect to “free” college tuition, in “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016” posted by William Thompson on 06.25.16, we are told as follows on the subject:
Free public higher education is a key example of what we might call a “transformative” reform that helps to popularize the idea of socialism and to make further, more dramatic reforms possible in the future.
Beyond its inherent benefits, such a campaign would also show people that socialist policies are both desirable and achievable.
Gaining free public higher education could serve as a crucial step in making democratic socialist politics more attractive to a wider cross-section of the U.S. public.
end quote
Said another way, it is fancy cheese baiting a trap.
As to “free” public higher education serving as a crucial step in making democratic socialist politics more attractive to a wider cross-section of the U.S. public, consider the Huffington Post article “New York Set To Offer Free Tuition At 4-Year Colleges” by Lydia O’Connor on 10 April 2017, as follows:
In a major victory for the movement to improve access to higher education, New York is set to become the only state that offers free tuition at four-year colleges.
Deemed the Excelsior Scholarship, the free tuition plan is included in the $163 billion state budget approved Saturday by the Democrat-controlled Assembly.
end quotes
Talk about jumping way out ahead of the Republicans with 2020 not that far off, there the Democratic Socialists have scored a great coup with Young Andy’s “free” college tuition plan, for what have the Republicans got that can match that?
What are they giving away that is free?
See how this works, people?
Tell people you really love them, and you want government to work for them by handing them all kinds of free things, starting with college, but if they really want those free things, then they have to elect Democratic Socialists into office, and nobody is going to ask exactly where it is that all those “free” things are really going to come from.
And look at these great lines Young Andy Cuomo’s high dollar political speech writers gave him for that Huff Post article:
“Today, college is what high school was—it should always be an option even if you can’t afford it,” Cuomo said in a statement Saturday.
“There is no child who will go to sleep tonight and say, I have great dreams, but I don’t believe I’ll be able to get a college education because parents can’t afford it.”
“With this program, every child will have the opportunity that education provides.”
end quotes
Now, people, seriously, reading that, wouldn’t you want to have the Democratic Socialists in power here as opposed to the Republicans, who have never in their lives given anything away free?
But is it really “free” as advertised?
Let’s look further and see for ourselves:
While the program is similar to what Cuomo first proposed in January, a recent addition to the tuition plan requiring students to live and work in New York after graduation for the same number of years as they received the scholarship is alarming to some student aid experts, the magazine Inside Higher Ed noted.
If students breach that, the scholarship will be converted to student loans, though some exceptions may be provided in cases of extreme hardship or out-of-state graduate programs.
end quotes
Hey, wait a minute, people!
Bait and switch here.
Yes, perhaps you can in fact get a “free” education in the state of New York, but if you do, then your liberty is curtailed by the fact that you have to live and work in New York after graduation for the same number of years as you received the scholarship, which is a form of indentureship that seems to butt up hard against §17 of Article I of the New York State Constitution, the Bill Of Rights, as follows:
§17. Labor of human beings is not a commodity nor an article of commerce and shall never be so considered or construed.
end quotes
Except now, with this “free” college plan of the Democratic Socialists in New York state, labor of human beings has become a commodity or an article of commerce, but hey, who really cares, because we do not use “constitutions” anymore in the brave new world and new world order Young Andy Cuomo and Barack Hussein Obama and Bernie Sanders and the Democratic socialists of America are leading us to.
And to close out the Huff Post article:
With similar free community college programs already in place in Tennessee, Oregon and Minnesota, New York’s plan to extend tuition coverage to four-year universities builds upon the college accessibility efforts championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign.
Last week, Sanders introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would provide free tuition to all public colleges and universities for families earning less than $125,000.
end quotes
Eat cake, suck eggs and pound sand, Republicans, looks like your days are numbered!
And the beat goes on!
Paul Plante says
And getting back to the Newsweek article “Obama Is Returning to Politics in 2018, and Trump Should Be Worried” by Sam Schwarz on 1/17/18 at 9:29 AM for the moment, where we were told Hussein Obama will “continue to be politically active in 2018, with more endorsements and more campaigning,” and before leaving office, Obama vowed to remain politically relevant and work with and endorse candidates who sought to preserve his legacy and signature accomplishments, the Dow Jones right now is down 445.96 points, which is part of Obama’s legacy that is being preserved, whether Hussein Obama wants it that way or not.
It’s got to do with excessive federal debt and bond yields, which are rising and increasing borrowing costs for the speculators and stock market touts.
Consider the Marketwatch Bond Report “10-year Treasury yield hits 2.78%, 30-year above 3% on signs of accelerating economy” by Mark DeCambre published Feb 1, 2018 3:43 p.m. ET, to wit:
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield renewed its sharp climb on Thursday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note traded as high as 2.783%, tacking on a remarkable 7 basis points, in New York, according to Tradeweb data.
end quotes
That is what has the stock market touts and speculators so worried, because as the ten year yield rises, borrowing costs for a host of things like mortgages also rise, and right now, as was the case back in 1929, margin debt is at record levels, as we were told in the Business Insider article “The stock market is sitting on a powerful time bomb, and the Fed is starting to worry” by Wolf Richter on Nov. 30, 2017, to wit:
Margin debt in the stock market hit another record, $561 billion at the end of October, up 16% from a year ago, the New York Stock Exchange reported on Tuesday.
Margin debt and the stock market move together.
And even on an inflation-adjusted basis, the surge has been breath-taking.
end quotes
As to our ballooning federal debt, according to an analysis on the website “the balance” entitled “U.S. Debt by President: By Dollar and Percent” by Kimberly Amadeo updated December 01, 2017, it was under President Obama that the national debt grew the most dollar-wise.
He added $7.917 trillion, a 68 percent increase, in seven years.
Obama’s budgets included the economic stimulus package which added $787 billion by cutting taxes, extending unemployment benefits, and funding public works projects.
The Obama tax cuts added $858 billion to the debt in two years.
Obama’s budget increased defense spending to between $700 billion and $800 billion a year while federal income was down, thanks to lower tax receipts from the 2008 financial crisis.
end quotes
People in this country cheered Obama’s “borrow like crazy and spend like a drunken fool stimulation plan” as if the money he was spending was free money that came out of thin air with no strings attached, but that was far from the case as a Bloomberg article entitled “Obama’s Stimulus Plan Made Crisis Worse, Taleb Says” by Frederic Tomesco on September 25, 2010 10:36 AM informed us as follows:
U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration weakened the country’s economy by seeking to foster growth instead of paying down the federal debt, said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.”
end quotes
There is Hussein Obama’s “legacy” to America right there, people – he ****** this country royally, and now, we are stuck with the bill while Hussein Obama jet-sets around the world and enjoys the good life, knowing he will never be held to account for the lasting damage he has done to this country.
Getting back to today, where the stock market is in the toilet right now, in a Marketwatch article by Greg Robb published Jan 12, 2018, it was reported as follows:
Dudley (head of NY Fed) had said last month that he was not a big fan of the Republican tax bill and his comments Thursday indicate that he has not warmed up to it.
“While this does not seem to be a great concern to market participants today, the current fiscal path is unsustainable,” he said.
He noted the Congressional Budget Office now projects that the debt service costs in 2027 will be more than $800 billion, more than double today’s costs.
end quotes
There is the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama staring us in the face – massive debt that is going to drag us down to third-world, banana republic, ****hole nation status.
And ironically, that brings us back to the Democratic Socialists of America making their bid to gain more control of our government through their use of the Democrat Party as their stalking horse, with Barack Hussein Obama as their chief water carrier, and the section entitled “Building DSA and the Socialist Left” of “Resistance Rising: Socialist Strategy in the Age of Political Revolution – A summary of Democratic Socialists of America’s Strategy Document – June 2016,” posted to the internet to inform the world by William Thompson on 06.25.16, as follows:
In order to take advantage of this potential, DSA chapters will use a range of tactics to help expand our activist and membership base.
First, we will place a greater emphasis on our critique of capitalism and positive vision of democratic socialism in our coalition, public education and community organizing work.
end quote
Their critique of capitalism, people, has been greatly aided by the fiscal policies of Barack Hussein Obama which today has the Dow Jones down right now to 533.17 from where it was when I started writing this post.
Looks like a bloodbath right now on Wall Street, which takes us back to the Democratic Socialists, as follows:
Success across this spectrum of struggles should lead to a period when we can talk seriously about the transition to democratic socialism through reforms that fundamentally undermine the power of the capitalist system (often referred to as “non-reformist reforms”), such as the nationalization of strategic industries (banking, auto, etc.) and the creation of worker-controlled investment funds (created by taxing corporate profits) that will buy out capitalist stakes in firms and set up worker-owned and -operated firms on a large scale.
end quotes
Thanks to the Obama legacy, the power of the capitalist system, which is the stock market, is being greatly undermined today, where as of now, it is down to 577.
Are the Democratic Socialists cheering?
Stay tuned, more is certain to come.
Paul Plante says
As an aside here, has anyone bothered to notice how similar these times we are in right now, thanks in part to the fiscal policies of the Messiah and Democrat Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama, the “Billy Mays” of American politics, are to the times in the 1920s preceding the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression, which my parents both lived through?
Using the essay “Causes of the Great Depression” by Sarah Carroll as our guide, let’s take a look and see what it is we see:
The stock market crash in October 1929 is believed to be the immediate cause of the Great Depression, but there were many other factors and long-term causes that developed in the years prior to the depression.
The 1920’s may have been prosperous for some Americans, but the growing prosperity was actually weakening the economy.
Many US citizens were never participating in the boom from the start.
There were some wealthy individuals, but 60% of people were living below the poverty line.
end quotes
As of 2014, according to the U.S. News article “The New Faces of U.S. Poverty” by Max Van Zile, Staff Writer, on July 6, 2016, nearly 15 percent of the population – or roughly 46.7 million people – lived below the poverty line in 2014, which figure, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was up from about 11 percent in 2000.
According to The Center For Poverty Research at UC Davis in California, the poverty rate as of 2016 was as follows:
The official poverty rate is 12.7 percent, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 estimates.
That year, an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty according to the official measure.
According to supplemental poverty measure, the poverty rate was 14.0 percent.
Historically, the official poverty rate in the United States had ranged from a high of 22.4 percent when it was first estimated for 1959 to a low of 11.1 percent in 1973.
Since its initial rapid decline after 1964 with the launch of major War on Poverty programs, the poverty rate has fluctuated between around 11 and 15 percent.
end quotes
Consider that in 1929, the population of the U.S. was 121.8 million, so 60% of that number was 73.o8 million, or about twice what we have now in poverty, so on that score, we are better off today.
Getting back to the essay:
The American farms and factories produced large amounts of goods and products during the prosperity before the Depression.
On average, people’s wages stayed the same even as prices for these goods soared.
ends quotes
According to the Marketwatch article “U.S. productivity dips 0.1% in fourth quarter, ends 2017 on sour note” by Jeffry Bartash published: Feb 1, 2018 10:21 a.m. ET, “hourly compensation for workers rose 1.8%, but after adjusting for inflation, compensation actually fell 1.8%.”
So there is a similarity to consider.
And back to the essay:
The factories and farms still continued to produce at the same rate, but demand for their products was decreasing.
There was a major unequal distribution of income that led to the richest 1% of Americans owning approximately 40% of the country’s wealth (Matthews, 2).
end quotes
According to the CNN article “Record inequality: The top 1% controls 38.6% of America’s wealth” by Matt Egan on September 27, 2017, we are there all over again, to wit:
The richest 1% of families controlled a record-high 38.6% of the country’s wealth in 2016, according to a Federal Reserve report published on Wednesday.
That’s nearly twice as much as the bottom 90%, which has seen its slice of the pie continue to shrink.
The bottom 90% of families now hold just 22.8% of the wealth, down from about one-third in 1989 when the Fed started tracking this measure.
The numbers paint a stark picture of the inequality problems gripping the country and the ability of politicians, like President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, to attract voters by arguing that the system is “rigged” in favor of the rich.
end quotes
And back to the essay:
In the 1920’s more people invested in the stock market than ever before.
Between May 1928 and September 1929, the average prices of stocks rose 40 percent.
Stock prices rose so quickly that at the end of the decade, some people became rich overnight by buying and selling stocks (Matthews, 3).
end quotes
According to the CNN article “The Obama bull market: A 140% jump in the Dow” by Paul R. La Monica on January 10, 2017:
But as anyone who follows stocks closely knows, the market bottomed in March 2009 and has been off to the races ever since.
The Dow has gone up more than 140% since Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.
If you look at how the Dow has done since it hit its low point on March 6, 2009, it’s up 210%.
end quotes
In a Marketwatch article by Sue Chang and Mark DeCambre published Jan 25 2018, one finds this quote concerning the elevated process of stocks today:
“While we remain bullish for the year as a whole, this (stock market prices) is beginning to look a little too frothy for our liking,” said James Barty, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategist, in a note on Thursday.
end quotes
Time is a wheel and as that wheel turns, the past becomes the present all over again.
Getting back to the essay:
People could buy stocks for only a 10% down payment.
Between 1920 and 1929 the number of shareowners rose from 4 million to 20 million (Temin, 45).
With artificially low interest rates and a booming economy, people and companies invested in over-priced stocks.
During 1928 and 1929, the prices of many stocks went up faster than the value of the companies the stocks represented.
“It was like pouring gasoline onto a fire – the flames rose up, no lasting fuel was added, but the economy sure looked great” (Matthews, 3).
end quotes
Doesn’t that sound like today all over again?
And back to the essay:
Buying on credit was huge problem in the 1920’s.
end quotes
In 1929, consumer debt was $3 Billion.
As of 2017, Americans’ total credit card debt climbed to an estimated $905 billion — a nearly 8% increase from the previous year.
And back to the essay:
Since the 20’s was a period of great economic boom, not many people took the future into consideration.
end quotes
That is us today all over again.
And back to the essay:
Many people bought expensive luxury items using money they did not have.
Installment buying allowed people to make a monthly, weekly, or yearly payment on an item that they wanted or needed.
Buying on credit and installment buying left millions of people in debt.
end quotes
That is where we are, right now today.
Looking to our future based on our past, the essay continues as follows:
Installment buying allowed lenders to repossess an item if the borrower missed just one payment.
People may have stopped making new purchases to reduce the risk of losing things they already had bought on credit.
There was a big drop in consumer spending, which lowered prices, which meant that farmers, businesses, and nations could not repay their debts.
Rising debt led to restrictions on new loans, which led to scarce credit, less borrowing, lower prices, more bankruptcies, and so on (Samuelson, 1).
The spiral downward of trade, investment, people’s confidence, and the economy began.
end quotes
Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished its freefall at a loss of 665.75 points.
Does that really mean anything?
Hard to say, but as the Marketwatch article “S&P 500, Dow suffer biggest weekly decline in more than 2 years” by Anora M. Gaudiano and Barbara Kollmeyer published: Feb 2, 2018 tells us, something certainly has the stock market touts and speculators nervous, to wit:
Stocks took a hit as global government bond yields, which have dogged stocks this week, continued to climb on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to a four-year high above 2.83%.
end quotes
As to where we might be going, the Marketwatch Bond Report “10-year Treasury yield notches biggest weekly climb since Trump’s election” by Rachel Koning Beals and Sunny Oh published: Feb 2, 2018 4:23 p.m. ET, gives us these hints:
Investors also contended with the Treasury Department’s announcement that auctions for debt maturing beyond one year were set to increase this quarter, marking the first time the federal government will increase the size of such bond sales since 2009.
Widening budget deficits and President Donald Trump’s tax cuts could have led analysts to estimate a fresh influx of $1 trillion of government paper in 2018.
end quotes
Will that Trump debt added to the Obama debt be the straw that breaks this camel’s back?
Stay tuned.
Paul Plante says
By returning to American politics to promote people who will in turn promote his agenda and preserve his “legacy,” the Messiah Obama is making this up-coming mid-term election a referendum on him and his profligate fiscal policies which is certainly fine with me.
I am very much for that as an American citizen – holding Progressive Democrat Barack Hussein Obama to account for his so-called “legacy,” which in my opinion was one of weakness and failure, and hence, nothing to be proud about, or want a repeat of.
Let’s go back to the beginning of his fiscal “legacy” with the Associated Press article “It’s wait and see after Bush signs rescue plan” by Jim Abrams on Oct. 4, 2008, as follows:
WASHINGTON – After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress has passed and President Bush signed a massive plan to save the financial industry and the economy at large from an unthinkable free fall.
Now, the world holds its breath, seeing if it will work.
Passage of the $700 billion financial rescue package came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at a meeting last month shocked congressional leaders into action by warning of pending economic collapse without immediate congressional intervention.
Democrat Barack Obama spoke to many in the Congressional Black Caucus and helped persuade 13 to switch their votes.
Nine freshmen Democrats also switched to “yes” votes after a conference call with Obama in which he promised an economic stimulus bill would be a top priority if he is elected.
end quotes
How to go, Obama, use our federal treasury as a personal piggy bank to buy yourself some love!
And yes, Barack, I know, I know, they all do it, so why shouldn’t you.
As to using our federal tax dollars to buy himself some love with, we have the Yahoo News article “Solyndra’s bankruptcy: ‘Political catastrophe’ for Obama?” from September 1, 2011 to consider, as follows:
Obama said Solyndra would demonstrate the effectiveness of his economic policies, and it did — the company never made a profit, and instead of creating jobs, it sent 1,100 people into the unemployment line.
Clearly, there were better ways to spend the stimulus:
If Obama really wanted to create jobs, says Logan Penza at The Moderate Voice, he should have targeted companies based on their “ability to compete.”
But he didn’t want to anger Democrats, so he saddled taxpayers with debt to help green companies that liberals can love.
Obviously, the economy would have been better off if he had spent the money in ways that were “cost-effective instead of merely politically convenient.”
end quotes
There is the “legacy” Barack Hussein Obama is returning to protect and preserve – a legacy of fiscal irresponsibility and bad judgment.
Do we want that for America?
In Obama’s New Nationalism Speech of 2011, we were fed this fractured version of American “history” that apparently underlies Obama’s fiscal policies, to wit:
America was built on the idea of broad-based prosperity, of strong consumers all across the country.
end quotes
Where on earth Obama came up with that from, God alone knows.
It is probably something one of his speech writers thought would sound catchy as a sound bite, and so Obama said it, as if it were true.
But when America was formed in 1787, people were considered citizens and patriots,not consumers like they are today, although Obama wouldn’t know that, and people were largely self-sufficient.
But those are points I have found over time that it is simply impossible to argue or debate with a die-hard Obama follower, because they know even less about America and its history than Obama does, and they believe that because he said it, it has to be so, end of subject, and so it is, in their minds, anyway.
Moving right along, we come to an essay former Congressman Chris Gibson, currently the Stanley Kaplan Distinguished Visiting Professor of American Foreign Policy at Williams College and the author of “Rally Point: Five Tasks to Unite the Country and Revitalize the American Dream,” had in the Albany, New York Times Union on January 20, 2018 entitled “Chris Gibson: Stop fiscal madness – Lack of political will to control spending by government threaten’s nation’s future,” where he stated as follows about our economy:
The Dow is at record highs.
GDP is now over 3 percent.
Unemployment is at 17-year lows.
One might imagine America is poised for a new golden age.
end quotes
Just the other day, in fact, on February 2, 2018, in the CNS News article “Schumer Says Trump Must Thank Obama for Economic Growth” by CNSNews.com Staff, we were told by Progressive Democrat Charley “Chuck” Schumer that Obama is returning to American politics to claim credit for that so-called “growth,” which is very much an illusion fueled by excessive debt, as we shall see:
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) said in a Senate floor speech delivered before President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union Address this week that Trump should thank President Barack Obama for the economic growth that took place in 2017.
“Here are two words we will not hear President Trump say tonight about the economy—‘Thanks, Obama!’—because much of the growth in 2017 was created by President Obama’s policies and, by many measures, the growth under President Obama was better than under President Trump,” Schumer said.
end quotes
There is the message we are going to hear touted again, over and over and over and over – thank Obama, people, for your economic prosperity!
But what if the economy tanks as a result of Obama’s debt?
Who gets the credit for that?
Here is Schumer’s statement about Trump owing the good economy to Obama:
“Mr. President, tonight the President will address a joint session of Congress in his first official State of the Union.”
“I want to talk about what I expect the President to say and also what I suspect he will not.”
“The President will be eager to defend the accomplishments of his nascent administration and take credit for a healthy American economy, pointing to low unemployment, job growth, and a soaring stock market, but the truth is, these trends were present before Donald Trump took office.”
“President Trump was handed an already healthy economy by his predecessor.”
“Like many things in his life, he inherited the healthy economy.”
“Here are two words we will not hear President Trump say tonight about the economy—thanks, Obama—because much of the growth in 2017 was created by President Obama’s policies and, by many measures, the growth under President Obama was better than under President Trump.”
end quotes
Getting back to Chris Gibson:
However, these encouraging signs conceal real and present systemic economic dangers.
Without a significant course correction, the United States is heading towards bankruptcy, which would mean the end of the republic as we know it.
It’s coming fast and could be upon us inside of a decade, threatening our exceptional way of life even as we near the 250-year celebration of its inception — the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Both major political parties are to blame for this condition.
end quotes
Ah, now there is quite a bit different message from the one Progressive Democrats Charley “Chuck” Schumer and Barack Hussein Obama are trying to feed us.
But who to believe?
Getting back to Chris Gibson:
Beyond the fiscal, we also suffer a leadership deficit.
end quotes
Boy, is he right on that score.
The Gibson essay then continues as follows:
There is still time to resolve our crises and get back on solid fiscal footing, but this will only happen if we the people demand it of our leaders.
Without that pressure, politicians (in both parties) lack the will to do what must be done.
Even as we approach this existential precipice, they continue to one-up one another, making promises to give us more of what we simply don’t have.
They won’t talk straight to us that the only way out of this mess will require our best effort and some pain and sacrifice from all of us.
end quotes
Yes, people, we will be encountering a lot more of that this year.
And back to the Gibson essay:
The American Dream has always meant both the individual pursuit of happiness and setting up our children and future generations to be better off than we have it.
Yet today, we (baby boomers and Gen Xers) run the risk of being the first generations to leave our kids in a worse position than we inherited.
Thus, enacting necessary reforms is as much a moral imperative as it is an economic one.
Our present situation is daunting.
We are already over $20 trillion in debt.
Consequently, we pay nearly $500 billion in annual interest costs just to service that debt.
That is an onerous opportunity cost for a society with so many competing priorities: providing for national security, fixing roads and bridges, investing in the education and training needs of our young, and fulfilling sacred obligations to our senior citizens.
Every dollar spent on interest comes out of programs like these and without major changes, annual interest payments alone will be over a trillion dollars within a decade — this at a time when interest rates are historically low.
If the economy heats up and we see noticeable inflation over the next couple of years, interest rates will likely rise significantly, resulting in further spikes in debt servicing costs and irreversible debt accumulation until bankruptcy.
History has not been kind to nations that operate in this way.
end quotes
We won’t be hearing that kind of serious talk from Obama or Schumer.
From them, we can expect another slew of pure partisan political bull**** intended to gull the unwitting and unwary so they will vote Democrat, thinking the Democrats are going to make them rich.
As to his experience as a Congressman while Obama was in power regarding our fiscal condition, he provides us with this in his essay:
The political circumstances were challenging because President Barack Obama had different priorities, and he was committed to a Keynesian economic philosophy that believed significant government spending was the answer to our economic challenges.
end quotes
Go no further than that, people, for right now – Obama is a committed Keynesian when it comes to economic philosophy, so Obama believed significant government spending was the answer to our economic challenges, and so he borrowed not billions, but trillions, to do that with – spend borrowed money like a drunken fool on worthless projects like that Solyndra fiasco, and now, we, the American people, are left holding the bag, while Obama skates and enjoys the good life as a jet-setter with the millions he left office with.
There is the Obama legacy.
Do we want more of it?
That is what the Messiah Obama is returning to find out, so stay tuned, more is yet to come.
Violet Browne says
When Obama, or whatever his real name is, loses the protection of the National Security Letter that has protected him from background investigations, he’ll find himself in front of a military court, facing a life in prison.
Poor Barry…
Paul Plante says
586.17.
That is how much the Dow Jones is down as I write these words.
Some chaos in the markets these days that is the legacy of the Keynesian economic policies of the Progressive Democrat Messiah Barack Hussein Obama and his Fed chief, the bearded buffoon Ben Bernanke, who has the distinction of being asleep at the switch when the GREAT RECESSION was going down.
It is the unwinding of his policies while Fed chief that is causing all this chaos, along with the ramifications of all of Obama’s profligate borrowing to spend.
As to the Keynesian economics of Obama and Bernanke, Keynesianism comprises various macroeconomic theories about how in the short run – and especially during recessions – economic output is strongly influenced by aggregate demand (total spending in the economy).
In the Keynesian view, aggregate demand does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy; instead, it is influenced by a host of factors and sometimes behaves erratically, affecting production, employment, and inflation.
end quotes
Neither Obama or Bernanke ever really seemed able to grasp that last, that aggregate demand, which has never been in the control of the federal government or the federal reserve, does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy but instead is influenced by a host of factors neither the federal government nor the federal reserve have any control over, and sometimes, in fact most times now, aggregate demand behaves quite erratically, affecting production, employment, and inflation, and so they threw TRILLIONS of dollars at the economy and essentially produced nothing but the bubble that is coming apart now that the “easy money” days of Obama and Bernanke are over.
That is why there is so much chaos in the stock market right now.
Wikipedia tells us the theories forming the basis of Keynesian economics were first presented by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the Great Depression in his 1936 book, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.”
Keynes contrasted his approach to the aggregate supply-focused classical economics that preceded his book.
The interpretations of Keynes that followed are contentious and several schools of economic thought claim his legacy.
Keynesian economists generally argue that, as aggregate demand is volatile and unstable, a market economy will often experience inefficient macroeconomic outcomes in the form of economic recessions (when demand is low) and inflation (when demand is high).
These can be mitigated by economic policy responses, in particular, monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government, which can help stabilize output over the business cycle.
end quotes
Now that sounds like a lot of gibberish, and in the end, it is, because monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government are always AFTER the fact.
The government has no agility to act before an economic crisis happens, especially as our politicians, and this applied to Obama, are fixated on how well the economy is doing under them, and therefore are incapable of admitting there are serious problems.
Keynesian economists generally advocate a managed market economy – predominantly private sector, but with an active role for government intervention during recessions and depressions, and there is where it breaks down, because government managed economies are not in the end efficient, which is what contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Even the Chinese are having trouble keeping theirs going, based as it now is on excessive debt to keep it operating.
Keynesian economics served as the standard economic model in the developed nations during the later part of the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war economic expansion (1945–1973), though it lost some influence following the oil shock and resulting stagflation of the 1970s.
Notwithstanding, both Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke remained staunch believers.
As to Bernanke and Obama, the advent of the financial crisis of 2007–08 caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought, which continues as the new Keynesian economics which is causing all the chaos in our financial markets today.
666.11, that is what the Dow Jones is down right now, and Charley “Chuck” Schumer says to thank Obama for that, so thank you, Barack, for undermining our American economy as you have.
And stay tuned for more is yet to come on the insanity known as Keynesianism which has brought us in this country to where we are today, down 654.83 as I come to this close.
Paul Plante says
As we ponder the legacy of the Billy Mays of American politics, the Progressive Democrat Pitchman for the Democrat “BETTER DEAL”and Keynesian economist Barack Hussein Obama, it is informative by way of background to consider this following excerpt from a Marketwatch article by William Watts published: Feb 5 2018 2:14 p.m. ET, where is stated as follows with respect to where our American economy is today:
The narrative around the stock-market selloff that accelerated Friday centers on the notion that the specter of wage-driven inflation will prompt the Federal Reserve to raise rates more quickly than expected, risking a dreaded “monetary policy mistake” that sends the economy into recession and kills the bull market.
But this time around, the bigger risk may actually lie on the fiscal policy front, said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, in a Monday note.
There is a risk, he writes, that the tax-cut bill signed into law in December proves “dangerously inflationary” and contributes to a Treasury market selloff.
end quotes
That sell-off is what we are observing today, as we were told in the Marketwatch Bond Report entitled “10-year Treasury yield holds on to rise even as stocks tumble” by Sunny Oh published: Feb 8, 2018 4:05 p.m. ET, as follows:
Investors said the fresh budget deal could add a bearish impetus to Treasurys trading.
Under the pact struck between congressional leaders, the $300 billion increase in federal spending over the next two years could further widen the budget deficit, adding to already burgeoning projections for issuance next year.
“Poor Treasury auctions means investors are demanding higher and higher yields and it’s those higher yields that spooks stock investors,” said Bryce Doty, senior portfolio manager for Sit Fixed Income Advisors, referring to a lackluster 30-year bond auction that reignited selling later in the afternoon.
end quotes
Getting back to the original article, Colas highlighted concerns over a fiscal mistake as one of several factors investors are wrestling with in the wake of last Friday’s selloff, which he said wrote the obituary for the previous market narrative centered on continued corporate earnings growth and low, stable interest rates.
But Colas argues that fiscal worries “neatly explain” the rapid rise in Treasury yields seen since the beginning of the year.
“The tax bill passed at the end of 2017, just as money managers were window dressing and in no mood to make major portfolio moves.”
“As the calendar has turned to 2018, however, they have taken stock of the full effects of tax reform.”
“And they don’t like what they see,” he said.
The worry is that by putting more money into consumer wallets when the U.S. economy is near full capacity, the stimulus will cause a “hockey-stick” ramp in price levels, he said.
Also, by funding that expansion with federal borrowing, the tax cuts add more than $300 billion to Treasury issuance this year at the same time the Federal Reserve is becoming a net seller of Treasurys as it continues to unwind its balance sheet.
end quotes
That reference to the Federal Reserve becoming a net seller of Treasurys as it continues to unwind its balance sheet is a direct reference to all the federal government bonds the federal reserve bought under Bernanke as he printed off Trillions of dollars of funny money to monetize Obama’s deficit spending.
And now it is those chickens that are coming home to roost with all the chaos in the stock market that is the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama and the bearded buffoon Ben Bernanke who was asleep at the switch when the GREAT RECESSION went down.
Paul Plante says
By way of review, for those just joining the discussion, as was stated above, it appears to be true, from all the rumors in the press, that the second coming of Barack Hussein Obama to American politics is immanent, which it would have to be, when you think about it.
Afterall, again as was stated above, with his superstar appeal to his adoring fans, like Gwyneth Paltrow, can anyone imagine Obama staying out of the limelight without a soap box to make his political pronouncements to the masses from?
As to Gwyneth and the appeal Obama has to powerful Hollywood figures such as herself, which makes all the difference in the world if you want to be an American president, the Spokane Conservative Examiner from October 10, 2014 provides us with the following on that subject, to wit:
If actress Gwyneth Paltrow had her way, Barack Obama wouldn’t just be the president — he’d be a full-fledged dictator with all the power to do whatever he wanted without Congress.
end quotes
And Gwyneth is far from the only one who feels that way, that Obama, who was famously quoted as saying “That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want,” as if the Constitution did not apply to him, which it didn’t, shouldn’t just be the president, but instead should be president for life like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or “Papa Doc” Duvalier of Haiti – a full-fledged dictator with all the power to do whatever he wanted without Congress, which of course would requite throwing our Constitution in the crapper.
Getting back to the Spokane Conservative Examiner:
“It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass,” she said of Obama during an introduction the Associated Press said was “punctuated by ‘ums.'”
end quotes
But would it really be wonderful if we were to give Barack Hussein Obama, or anyone for that matter, that kind of unbridled power over us?
Getting back to Gwyneth, she also told Obama, “I am one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest, and have been since the inception of your campaign,” and when she handed Obama the microphone, she told him, “You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly.”
end quote
Thus do we see Obama’s cult-leader-like power over his followers right there in plain sight in the person of poor Gwyneth, who can’t speak properly because she thinks Obama is so handsome.
And because she can’t speak properly in Obama’s presence because to her he is so handsome, she is easy, as are so many of Obama’s cult-like followers, for Obama to lead by the nose down the garden path to wherever it is he might take her, which earns Obama the sobriquet of the “Jimmy Lampwick” of American politics – “Follow Obama to where he is taking you, and you’ll find yourself turned into a donkey.”
So there on full display is the very formidable political power that Obama is bringing to bear on the nation as he, like Caesar crossing the Rubicon with his legions, makes his triumphant return to American politics.
Will the nation survive his assault?
For that answer, stay tuned, for more is yet to come in this on-going cyberspace drama of the story of Barack Obama, an American youth who made good by getting over, and ended up president of the United States of America as a result, the first to ever do so, thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow.
Paul Plante says
As the nation breathlessly awaits the immanent return of progressive Democrat and Pitchman and Messiah Barack Hussein Obama to the American political scene, it is interesting to go back through the extensive dossier on Obama compiled over the years of the Obama political regime, to see if we can glean some clues as to what to expect this time around.
And that musing takes us back in time to a CNN article entitled “Liberals want Obama to be a king, not a president” by Dean Obeidallah, Special to CNN, on Friday, June 8, 2012, as follows:
New York (CNN) — Can liberals ever be happy?
I keep asking myself this question as I hear an increasing number complaining about President Obama.
There seems to be a Greek chorus of liberal whining:
“I’m disappointed by him.”
“I expected more.”
“I thought he would be different.”
end quotes
Wow, people, how about that now?
They wanted more of a Messiah than apparently Obama was able to give them, at least at that time.
But of course, there is always more, as follows:
Earlier this week, singer Jackson Browne, a vocal 2008 Obama supporter, lamented that President Obama is “…just as beholden to the people who put him in office as any of the Republicans would be.”
end quotes
Now, there is a very revealing statement, alright.
And it keeps going, as follows:
Matt Damon, who had very publicly supported Obama in 2008, has now very publicly attacked President Obama.
Others turning on Obama include John Cusack, comedian/actor Jon Lovitz, and even the distinguished professor Cornel West, who called Obama:
“A black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”
end quotes
I confess to not knowing who Cornel West is, but he sure does have a way with words there, in my estimation, anway, which brings us to ,perhaps the heart of the matter as it stands today, and tomarrow, since we are looking to the future with the past as our guide in here,to wit:
What’s clear is that the liberals speaking out don’t want a president, they want a king.
Albeit a liberal king — but still a king, who would be unrestrained by Congress as well as the checks and balances enshrined in our Constitution.
These disenchanted liberals apparently wanted Obama — upon taking office — to have instantly transformed every campaign promise into law by the simple wave of a pen.
Or maybe they would have preferred Obama to have walked out onto a White House balcony where, in a scene reminiscent of the musical “Evita,” he would be greeted by adoring throngs waiting below, and on the spot, declare that all his ideas were now the law of the land.
end quote
Which of course takes us back to Gwyneth Paltrow and the appeal Obama has to powerful Hollywood figures such as herself, which makes all the difference in the world if you want to be an American president, as the Spokane Conservative Examiner from October 10, 2014 tells us, to wit:
If actress Gwyneth Paltrow had her way, Barack Obama wouldn’t just be the president — he’d be a full-fledged dictator with all the power to do whatever he wanted without Congress.
“It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass,” she said of Obama during an introduction the Associated Press said was “punctuated by ‘ums.’”
end quotes
Which takes us back to the CNN article, as follows:
But here’s the problem.
Barack Obama is not a king, he’s the president of the United States.
end quotes
And in my extensive experience of liberals and Democrats going back in time to 2004 and Kerry V. Bush, that is what really galls them, that all Obama really ever was, was nothing more than president.
In their minds, he might have been their king and Mahdi and Messiah and Taiping, but by our constitutional system, he was none of those things, nor did we want him to be.
Which again takes us back to CNN:
To me, the liberals who are so very disappointed with President Obama either had unrealistic expectations for him, viewing him as a messianic figure who would magically solve all of our nation’s woes, or simply refuse to grasp the reality of our American political system.
In either case, the answer is:
The problem is not Obama, it’s you.
end quotes
Is that a truth that today they can handle?
Frankly, I continue to doubt it, but hey, that is just me.
Paul Plante says
So, if the Democrat Messiah and Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama is actually returning, then my goodness, where is he?
And that answer, at least according to The Hill article “Obama speech leaks after attendees were barred from sharing its contents” by Jacqueline Thomsen on 1 March 2018, is that Democrat Messiah Obama is returning like a thief in the night, to wit:
A publication has obtained a recording of former President Obama’s address at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), despite attendees being barred from sharing the contents of the speech.
ehd quotes
HUH?
Shades of Hillary Clinton here with this “secret” speech by Hussein Obama to a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
What is up with that, one must wonder.
Does The Hill give us any further insights into what Hussein mis up to here?
Let’s go back and see:
Reason published the recording of Obama’s speech on Monday, writing that “the most newsworthy thing about it is the simple fact that the public wasn’t supposed to hear it.”
end quotes
That is so Obama, isn’t it – the dude can give a long speech in which he ends up using at of words to say nothing at all.
But what about all the secrecy then?
Let’s go back to The Hill and see:
Those attending Obama’s speech at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) on Friday, including media covering the event, were banned from publicly sharing information about the address.
“Following the panel, the sharing or reporting of its contents on public platforms, including social media, will not be permitted,” the notice sent to attendees read.
“Those who fail to adhere to this policy will be subject to removal from the conference and denied tickets to future SSAC conferences.”
end quotes
“Subject to removal from the conference” means having Obama’s security goons all over you to throw you to the ground before dragging you out, just to get the point across that when Obama says it is to be kept secret what he says, that is exactly what he means, or else.
So what was so secret?
Here is what The Hill tells us:
During the speech, Obama said his administration “didn’t have a scandal that embarrassed us.”
He said that while officials did make mistakes, there were no major controversies.
end quotes
It sounds like the dude, in imitation of Hillary Clinton when she had her concussion and couldn’t speak to Congress about Benghazi as a result, fell down and hit his head on something like Hillary did, and so had his mind wiped clean by amnesia, so he can’t remember a thing about being president, other than he was the best we have ever had in this nation.
And here is the Pitchman in fine fettle:
“Generally speaking, you didn’t hear about a lot of drama inside our White House,” he said.
end quotes
Which is a laughable statement, as we see from this following:
The Obama administration did face scrutiny for the “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking operation, as well as the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups.
end quotes
And why aren’t we adding Obama’s hair-brained scheme to remove Basher Assad of Syria from power using an army of terrorists, which botched-up and misguided effort resulted in Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) on December 8, 2016 introducing the “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” as a response to Obama using an army of terrorists to meddle in the internal affairs of Syria,
Her legislation would prohibit the U.S. government from using American taxpayer dollars to provide funding, weapons, training, and intelligence support to groups like the Levant Front, Fursan al Ha and other allies of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to countries who are providing direct or indirect support to those same groups.
The legislation was cosponsored by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT-AL), Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-48), and Thomas Massie (R-KY-04), and supported by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and the U.S. Peace Council.
In introducing that legislation, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups.”
“If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail.”
“Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.”
“The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.”
“This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo.”
“A recent New York Times article confirmed that ‘rebel groups’ supported by the U.S. ‘have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria, formerly known as al Nusra.’”
“This alliance has rendered the phrase ‘moderate rebels’ meaningless.”
“Reports confirm that ‘every armed anti-Assad organization unit in those provinces [of Idlib and Aleppo] is engaged in a military structure controlled by [al-Qaeda’s] Nusra militants.’
“A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that many rebel groups are ‘doubling down on their alliance’ with al Nusra.”
“Some rebel groups are renewing their alliance, while others, like Nour al-Din al-Zinki, a former CIA-backed group and one of the largest factions in Aleppo are joining for the first time.”
“The Syria Conquest Front—formerly known as the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front—is deeply intermingled with armed opposition groups of all stripes across Syria’s battlefields.”
“The CIA has long been supporting a group called Fursan al Haqq, providing them with salaries, weapons and support, including surface to air missiles.”
“This group is cooperating with and fighting alongside an al-Qaeda affiliated group trying to overthrow the Syrian government.”
“The Levant Front is another so-called moderate umbrella group of Syrian opposition fighters.”
“Over the past year, the United States has been working with Turkey to give this group intelligence support and other forms of military assistance.”
“This group has joined forces with al-Qaeda’s offshoot group in Syria.”
“This madness must end.”
“We must stop arming terrorists.”
“The Government must end this hypocrisy and abide by the same laws that apply to its’ citizens.”
“That is why I’ve introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists bill—legislation based on congressional action during the Iran-Contra affair to stop the CIA’s illegal arming of rebels in Nicaragua.”
“It will prohibit any Federal agency from using taxpayer dollars to provide weapons, cash, intelligence, or any support to al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist groups, and it will prohibit the government from funneling money and weapons through other countries who are directly or indirectly supporting terrorists,” concluded Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Paul Plante says
“The single most important thing I can do is to help develop the next generation.”
That was Progressive Democrat Pitchman and Messiah Barack Hussein speaking on Sunday at a conference in Japan where the former president spoke about how he hopes the Obama Foundation, a nonprofit formed in January 2014, will help achieve his post-presidential aims regarding his plans for the future of America’s youth according to the CNN article “Obama hopes to create ‘a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas'” by Clare Foran on March 26, 2018, where we were told as follows:
Former President Barack Obama says he aspires to create “a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas” who will pick up the baton in what he describes as the “relay race that is human progress.”
“After I left office, what I realized is that the Obama Foundation could potentially create a platform for young, up-and-coming leaders, both in the United States and all around the world to come together, meet together, create a digital platform where they could exchange information,” Obama said.
“If I could do that effectively, then I would create a hundred, or a thousand, or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas,” he added.
end quotes
God help the nation and the world if that happens is my thought.
The last thing we need today in the United States of America is an indoctrinated cult of adulation for Barack Hussein Obama that is a million members strong.
As to why that is, it is a question of values, as can be seen in The Daily Wire article “Obama Returns to Spotlight, Reminisces About Smoking Pot in the ‘Choom Gang'” by Joseph Curl on April 24, 2017, as follows:
Barack Obama has spent the last few months kite-boarding with a billionaire off the coast of a private island, hanging around on a super yacht in Tahiti with more billionaires and rock stars and mega-celebrities, and, we’re assuming, furnishing his five homes spread across the U.S.
But you know Obama: He just can’t stay out of the spotlight.
And so, on Monday, Obama showed up for his first big event since leaving office in January.
He participated in a discussion with students at the University of Chicago where he was once a visiting professor teaching constitutional law.
The avuncular Obama sat cross-legged on stage with a half dozen young people, musing about life, politics – and smoking weed.
Oh, and selfies.
“I would advise all of you to be a little more circumspect about your selfies,” Obama said to laughter (even though he was known to take a LOT of selfies).
“If you had pictures of everything I’d done when I was in high school, I probably wouldn’t have been president of the United States,” he said.
And then he segued into his days as a pot head in a group called the Choom Gang.
Lest you forget, David Maraniss’ biography Barack Obama: The Story details Obama’s days of smoking marijuana with his friends in Honolulu.
“A favorite hangout was a lush hideaway called Pumping Stations, where they parked their cars, turned up Blue Oyster Cult on their stereos, ‘lit up some ‘sweet-sticky Hawaiian buds,’ and washed it down with ‘green bottle beer.'”
“Once stoned, Maraniss alleges, the gang was often seen slipping past the ‘keep out’ signs at the gorgeous Manoa Stream and standing under a rock where water rushed overhead,” The Week reported in a review of the book.
“But that’s what teenage kids did at that age when I was where I was growing up.”
end quotes
As a grandfather, I personally think Barack Hussein Obama sets a damn poor example for the youth of America today.
His values are not values I would wish the youth of my community to have.
So let us hope for the future of this nation that he is not able to sway even one young person in America over to his way of thinking about life in America.
We already have a serious enough youth drug problem in this nation as it is, without Barack Hussein Obama trivializing and glamorizing his teenage drug use as he does, along with the art of getting over, which is how Barack Hussein Obama made his way through life.
One Barack Hussein Obama is already one more than we need in this pitiful nation, so we sure don’t need a million more of him.
Not by a longshot.
Paul Plante says
It appears that “Run silent, run deep and have a good time doing it” is the political philosophy Democrat Messiah and Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama is employing these days, as like Waldo, people wonder where he is, but while he might be out of sight, he certainly is not out of mind, a thesis proven by the recent New York Times article “How Trump’s Election Shook Obama: ‘What if We Were Wrong?’” by Peter Baker on 31 MAY 2018, where we learn as follows:
WASHINGTON — Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory.
“What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.
He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind.
“Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said.
“Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”
end quotes
Now, think about those words for a moment, people, and then pause to reflect just how out of touch with everyday reality in America Barack Hussein Obama, who came from what can be called a privileged existence where things were handed to him because he was special, really is.
Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe?
That what the Democrats want, so why would it be any different for anyone else in America, given that that is what people have been doing for millennia now, because that is what people do – they just want to fall back into their tribe and be left alone by politicians like Barack Hussein Obama, who thinks he knows better than anyone else in America what is good and right for the people of America, who can’t possibly know for themselves.
And talk about sycophancy and boot-licking on the hoof, coming in droves, here it is in spades, to wit:
His aides reassured him that he still would have won had he been able to run for another term and that the next generation had more in common with him than with Mr. Trump.
end quotes
Yeah, right!
“Hey, boss, you’re still the greatest, here, let me light your cigar!”
Getting back to the narrative:
Mr. Obama, the first black man elected president, did not seem convinced.
“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” he said.
end quotes
That right there is Obama’s “Messiah Complex” showing through loud and clear.
The dude was president, not our Messiah, or Mahdi, or Taiping, or savior, so what is up with this “I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early” crap?
And back to the narrative of Messiah Obama once again:
In the weeks after Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Obama went through multiple emotional stages, according to a new book by his longtime adviser Benjamin J. Rhodes.
At times, the departing president took the long view, at other points, he flashed anger.
He called Mr. Trump a “cartoon” figure who cared more about his crowd sizes than any particular policy.
And he expressed rare self-doubt, wondering whether he had misjudged his own influence on American history.
end quotes
Yes, Barack, that you sure did – you greatly misjudged your own influence on American history, which now has you as a footnote.
And back to it once again:
Few moments shook Mr. Obama more than the decision by voters to replace him with a candidate who had questioned his very birth.
end quotes
Oh, the drama!
And Trump didn’t question that you were born, Barack, he questioned where you were born – there is a huge difference between the two.
And to close, here we come to the best part of that story, as follows:
Mr. Obama and his team were confident that Mrs. Clinton would win and, like much of the country, were shocked when she did not.
“I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have seen it coming,” Mr. Rhodes writes.
“Because when you distilled it, stripped out the racism and misogyny, we’d run against Hillary eight years ago with the same message Trump had used: She’s part of a corrupt establishment that can’t be trusted to bring change.”
end quotes
And with that bit of truth, here I will leave off until the Democrat Messiah and Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama surfaces again.
Paul Plante says
So, where is Barack Obama?
If the Democrat Messiah and Pitchman is really returning, then my goodness, people, where can he be, and that answer is to be found in the pages of chic magazine Elle, where Obama can be seen giving advice to the lovelorn, as we learn from the article “Barack Obama Thinks You Should Ask These Three Questions Before Marrying Your Partner” by Alyssa Bailey on July 5, 2018, as follows:
Former President Barack Obama clearly knows a thing or two about finding lasting love.
One time, he generously gave some advice to his former communications director Dan Pfeiffer on whether Pfeiffer had found the right woman to propose to during the director’s last day on the job.
And in Pfeiffer’s new book “Yes, We (Still) Can,” Pfeiffer made it public.
end quotes
That, of course, is an interesting title for a book which incidentally and not surprisingly is to be found on the New York Times Best Sellers List – “Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump.”
According to a review, the book is from Obama’s former communications director (read Propaganda Minister) and current co-host of Pod Save America, and it is a colorful account of how politics, the media, and the Internet changed during the Obama presidency and how Democrats can fight back in the Trump era.
WOW!
Think on that, people – how the Democrats can fight back.
How exciting that sounds.
Getting back to the review:
On November 9th, 2016, Dan Pfeiffer woke up like most of the world wondering WTF just happened.
How had Donald Trump won the White House?
How was it that a decent and thoughtful president had been succeeded by a buffoonish reality star, and what do we do now?
end quotes
A decent and thoughtful president?
Obama?
Come on, Dan, get real here, dude – at best Obama was a mediocrity, in reality he was a caricature.
And he was hardly thoughtful, but that is a discussion for a different day, because here, we are talking about Obama’s presidential advice on love, which takes us back to the book review, as follows:
Instead of throwing away his phone and moving to another country (which were his first and second thoughts), Pfeiffer decided to tell this surreal story, recounting how Barack Obama navigated the insane political forces that created Trump, explaining why everyone got 2016 wrong, and offering a path for where Democrats go from here.
end quotes
I am not a Republican, and I sure as hell am not a Democrat, so the way I see it, it was the insane political policies of Barack Hussein Obama that resulted in the political backlash that gave us Donald Trump as president, as opposed to Hillary Clinton, who was the personal choice of Obama himself.
Of course, being partisan as he is, Dan Pffeifer will never be able to see that, or accept that, which leaves him making ridiculous excuses as to why the Democrats did not win.
Getting back to the book review:
Pfeiffer was one of Obama’s first hires when he decided to run for president, and was at his side through two presidential campaigns and six years in the White House.
Using never-before-heard stories and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, YES WE (STILL) CAN examines how Obama succeeded despite Twitter trolls, Fox News (and their fake news), and a Republican Party that lost its collective mind.
An irreverent, no-BS take on the crazy politics of our time, YES WE (STILL) CAN is a must-read for everyone who is disturbed by Trump, misses Obama, and is marching, calling, and hoping for a better future for the country.
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But hey, look at me wandering off into the toolies when the subject is presidential advice for the lovelorn, to wit:
A couple years ago, a now-viral story in the New York Times posited that there were 13 questions you should ask before getting married.
Obama just has three, according to Pfeiffer:
“Here’s the advice I give everyone about marriage—is she someone you find interesting?”
“You will spend more time with this person than anyone else for the rest of your life, and there is nothing more important than always wanting to hear what she has to say about things.”
“Does she make you laugh?”
“And I don’t know if you want kids, but if you do, do you think she will be a good mom?”
“Life is long.”
“These are the things that really matter over the longterm.”
Take it from a man who knows.
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And boy, does Obama ever, as came across in a Radar Exclusive By Radar Staff posted on Dec 20 2016 @ 6:57AM, as follows:
First Daughter Malia Obama vanished from the public eye for three months— sparking buzz she was shipped off to rehab!
In a bombshell exclusive, a source told RadarOnline.com, “Malia’s been caught up in a lot of scandal, and now she’s been MIA at a lot of family events.”
“People are wondering if she went to rehab or if she’s just hiding out.”
“She’s been an embarrassment to Barack and Michelle, so it’s no wonder they want her out of the picture,” added the source.
As Radar previously reported, the 18-year-old’s mysterious absence follows a summer-long spree that included twerking with a convicted felon, smoking a “funny-looking cigarette” and hitting a rave that was raided by cops.
On Nov. 23, Malia was MIA as her parents and sister, 15-year-old Sasha, served dinner to veterans at the Armed Forces Retirement Home on Thanksgiving Eve.
Earlier that day, both teens were no-shows due to “a scheduling conflict” when their father conducted the annual turkey pardon ceremony.
Even President Obama felt the need to awkwardly excuse their absence by saying they “just couldn’t take my jokes anymore.”
What’s more, Malia skipped the Obamas’ final Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 1.
But she surfaced at the weekend, arriving in Hawaii with her family for Christmas.
It was the first time she has been sighted in months.
Malia’s recent antics include attending a beer pong party that surfaced in a Snapchat on Sept. 12.
On Sept. 4, she was photographed at a college frat house with a giant marijuana bong on the table in front of her.
She was also snapped at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago on July 31, twerking with a pal who is a convicted felon and smoking a cigarette that looked suspiciously like pot.
In yet another incident, Malia’s Secret Service detail dragged her out of a house party on hoity-toity Martha’s Vineyard — just before local police swooped in for a raid!
“The Obamas didn’t raise their daughter to behave like this,” spilled the insider.
“Malia is at that rebellious stage, and doing the opposite of what her parents tell her.”
The troublesome teen — who’s in a “gap year” before enrolling at Harvard in 2017 — has added to her parents’ ongoing marital woes.
“Michelle blamed Barack for Malia’s wild behavior and pot-smoking, and said their daughter obviously got it from him,” said a source.
The Obamas are hashing out a deal to end their 24-year marriage as soon as they leave the White House — but the president is determined to go out with dignity.
“Barack has managed to avoid a major scandal, but Malia is doing a fine job making messes on her own,” said the insider.
“Keeping Malia out of the public eye is wise if he wants to keep his family from being dragged in the mud before he steps down.”
“It’s always good to take precautions.”
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You know, isn’t that just the truth – it is always good to take precautions, but all too many people sadly learn that lesson when it is just too late, and it is not good to be one of them, which is what comes across to me here, anyway.
And that is the latest of Democrat Pitchman and Messiah Barack Hussein Obama, appearing soon at a marriage counseling clinic near you with presidential advice on how to get married and what not to do if and when you do.
More to come if and when it happens, so be sure to stay tuned to this same station.
Paul Plante says
Isn’t American politics just wonderful, people?
I mean, where else can one get all of this entertainment for free?
Consider the Spokane Conservative Examiner on October 10, 2014 as follows:
If actress Gwyneth Paltrow had her way, Barack Obama wouldn’t just be the president — he’d be a full-fledged dictator with all the power to do whatever he wanted without Congress.
“It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass,” she said of Obama during an introduction the Associated Press said was “punctuated by ‘ums.'”
She also told Obama, “I am one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest, and have been since the inception of your campaign.”
When she handed Obama the microphone, she told him, “You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly.”
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And isn’t that just special, people?
And now, at least according to USA TODAY article “Barack Obama likely to avoid direct combat with Trump as he dives back into campaign mode” by John Fritze and Nicole Gaudiano on 4 August 2018, Democrat pitchman and Messiah Barack Hussein Obama, who has been skulking around behind the scenes while enjoying all the millions he walked away from the White House with, is about to return to the political lime light in America, as follows:
Barack Obama will significantly raise his profile in the coming months as he campaigns for Democrats in the November midterm elections but he is unlikely to take on President Donald Trump more directly, allies of the former president said.
The two-term Democratic president is planning to re-emerge as a regular fixture at fundraisers and on the campaign trail after Labor Day, but will continue to strive for an above-the-fray style, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss emerging strategy.
Avoiding direct confrontation with his successor — not to mention the bombast on Twitter that would inevitably follow — will give Obama more room to maneuver in states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania that Trump won in 2016 but that are now home to competitive Senate races featuring Democratic incumbents.
“He doesn’t have to be aggressive,” said Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor and one-time Obama surrogate.
“If he’s aggressive that would have the result of firing up Trump’s base.”
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What interesting statements concerning the man who was the choice of Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, not once, but twice, as we first see from The Telegraph article “Vladimir Putin praises Barack Obama and pledges strong rouble – Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that he has received ‘positive signals’ from US president-elect Barack Obama that could open the door to positive developments in Moscow’s relations with Washington” on 4 December 2008, as follows:
“Usually… when there is a change of power in any country, and even more so in a superpower such as the United States, some changes occur,” said Mr Putin, who served as president of Russia from 1999-May 2008, when he was appointed as prime minister.
“We very much hope that these changes will be positive.”
“We are now seeing these positive signals,” he said during a televised question and answer session with the Russian public.
The Russian prime minister said two issues in particular – Nato enlargement and US missile defence plans – had dogged relations with the US under President George W. Bush’s administration.
On Nato enlargement, fiercely opposed by Russia, Mr Putin said: “Speaking to people who are very close to the newly elected president and his circle – his assistants – we are hearing that there is no reason to hurry….”
“There is no reason to damage relations with Russia.”
And referring to US missile defence plans pushed hard by the Bush administration, he added: “We are hearing there is a need to re-evaluate the appropriateness of deploying the missile-defence system in Poland and corresponding radars in the Czech Republic.”
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WTF, people?
Putin has said that he has received ‘positive signals’ from US president-elect Barack Obama that could open the door to positive developments in Moscow’s relations with Washington?
President-elect Obama?
But wait, that means Obama was not yet the president.
So how exactly were these “positive signals” being sent from Obama to Putin?
And how was that being done?
Some kind of behind the scenes collusion between the Obama campaign and the Russians?
And more to the point, isn’t that what Trump stands accused of today by the Democrats?
Which takes us to a Moscow Times article on September 27, 2012, as follows:
In 2008, then-President Dmitry Medvedev expressed a desire to work with a “modern” U.S. leader rather than one “whose eyes are turned back to the past.”
He was referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
During Putin’s interview with RT state television, he also called Obama an “honest man who really wants to change much for the better.”
This comment was widely viewed as Putin’s most direct endorsement of Obama in the presidential race.
Obama’s decision to improve relations with the country and establish strong ties with Medvedev despite Russia’s war with Georgia in August 2008 was essential.
Despite all the Kremlin’s frustrations, it remains hopeful that Obama will be re-elected and that he will help to move U.S.-Russian relations forward.
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So HOLY ****, people, no wonder Obama has to be very, very circumspect about what he says about Trump, because Putin, the enemy of America and every single American in it, wanted Obama to be elected and then re-elected!
And how much meddling and interfering in our election process did he do back then to ensure that would happen?
Getting back to the USA Today story:
In his first substantial return to politics since leaving office 18 months ago, Obama endorsed 81 Democrats for state and federal office Wednesday.
Aides said he wanted to raise the profile of lesser-known candidates — part of an effort to build the Democratic bench — and focus on state races that could influence the 2020 redistricting.
Obama, who turns 57 on Saturday, backed Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois and Ohio, nearly two dozen House candidates and Rep. Jacky Rosen, who’s running to unseat a Republican incumbent senator in Nevada.
Those close to Obama said to expect many more endorsements.
Obama’s planned re-emergence comes as both parties are girding for a November election widely seen as a referendum on Trump.
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If Obama does make his return as is being forecast here, the November election will very much be a referendum on Obama as much as on Trump.
Getting back to the article:
Analysts said Obama’s post-presidential star status among Democrats will help drive turnout among African-American, Latino and young voters in key suburban House districts and cities.
They also said he is better positioned than almost anyone else in the party to raise huge amounts of campaign cash.
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And there is really what it is all about, people, raising gobs of cash to buy up the elections with.
That is something Obama was very, very good at when he was president – raising money for himself and the Democrats.
And once again, back to the story:
“As a broadly popular former president, President Obama looks forward to hitting the campaign trail for Democrats in earnest this fall,” said Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill.
“He wants to help Democrats win at every level this year.”
Hill declined to comment about Obama’s approach to Trump.
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And I say no wonder – she doesn’t want to remind people of Obama’s miserable record in office, which takes us back to the story as follows:
Jesse Ferguson, a former deputy executive director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, said Obama’s presence alone draws a contrast.
“It doesn’t escape voters, when they see President Obama, for them to be reminded that things don’t have to be like they are under President Trump,” he said.
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But for the American people to be reminded that things don’t have to be like they are under President Trump, they then have to remember how things were under Obama, and there is where it may well go south for Obama and the Democrats, as we see from this part of the story, to wit:
Republicans suggest another reason why Obama has engaged cautiously: His support could hurt Democratic candidates with some independent voters.
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So that is where matters stand right now.
As always, since this saga of the return of Democrat Pitchman Barack Hussein Obama is far from over, and in fact is just beginning anew, all I can say is stay tuned for further details as they happen, when they happen.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming after a break for station identification.