We’re almost a full year into the Obama regime, and over a year past his election. There is significant disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. I was widely pilloried for not joining in the choruses of “hope and change.” While I acknowledge that most Americans voting for a Black man for President represents something, I disagree with most people about what it represents. If nothing else, having a Black President highlights what Black people living in urban areas run by Black Democrats already know- Black Democrats are dangerous hustlers, charlatans of the highest order who prey on their own people. Illusions in Obama quickly shatter in light of the reality. Despite repeated attempts by craven apologists of Obama to represent him as some kind of significant break from the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush trajectory, the evidence is clear: Barack Obama is a political gangster, with few convictions outside of what is best for his corporate paymasters and the military-industrial complex.

If one were grasping at straws- as shameless apologists for the Democratic Party are wont to do- one might site Obama allowing photos of caskets as a clear break with Bush-era policy. That is, in fact, more likely a case of fait accompli. Everyone knows about soldiers coming home in caskets by the boatload. Sadly, showing pictures of the coffins isn’t going to shock anyone much at this point. However, more interesting is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates- a holdover from the Bush Administration and architect of the genocidal “surge” strategy in Iraq, a man who reports directly to Mr. Obama- barring the release of torture photos. I’m not terribly interested in seeing pictures of Americans torturing people imprisoned without right of habeas corpus. If such pictures were released, I would do anything in my power to avoid seeing them. However, I know, as does Mr. Gates, that the reaction of masses of Americans to such pictures would be that of disgust, revulsion, and outrage. Were Mr. Obama even the meager reformer his defenders claim he is, this would be a no-brainer. But he isn’t. In fact, American capitalism long since stopped being capable of the types of reforms championed by “progressive” Democrats.

Oh, and that troop buildup Obama’s gonna drop any day now (on top of his extant buildup  which tops Bush)? Gates came up with that on George Bush’s watch.


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Mr. Obama has also come out against a full and transparent investigation of the Ft. Hood massacre. I’m not an Alex Jonesite. I don’t think Barack Obama is trying to hide evidence of his birth certificate or secret Muslim hit squads infiltrating the Army. Mostly I’m just reminded that Bush gave us a similar line of horse shit surrounding the 9/11 attacks. It was part of a long series of blocked investigations by the Bush Administration. Obama has followed in his foot steps by moving to block torture investigations. But specifically, what I suspect he is trying to block by coming out against a Ft. Hood investigation is a full and candid exploration of atrocities committed by American soldiers abroad,  the PTSD epidemic among returning soldiers, and the highest military suicide rate in recorded history.

Ten prisoners from Gitmo, some of whom have been, quite literally, almost constantly tortured over the last several years, are being brought to the United States to stand in what can only be called show trials. This includes a young Canadian national who was 15 when he threw a grenade at invading American soldiers. If anyone can tell me how chucking a grenade at an invading army violates the laws of war, I’d love to hear about it. The treatment of this young man is nothing more and nothing less than another attempt by the United States to terrify the rest of the world into total submission. The “verdict” in the criminal trials is a foregone conclusion and a mockery of justice.

And on the domestic front? Well, there’s trillions of dollars to bailout the banks who caused the financial crisis. What is being done to address the financial crisis effecting millions of Americans, the crisis of jobs and living standards? Fucking zero. Except for some rhetoric, which I suspect the man himself considers “compassionate,” from Mr. Obama telling the American working class to suck it up, and some straight up lies telling us that the job market is going to get better any day now. Guess what? It isn’t. In fact, the job market is going to stay in its present state for the foreseeable future, unless things really go in the shitter. The fact that Mr. Obama considers speculative wealth to be “economic growth” and unemployment to be a “lagging indicator” should probably tell you everything you need to know about him. Mr. Obama’s recent announcement of a “jobs summit” is a total fraud. He has repeatedly shown his willingness to write blank checks for Wall Street and the Pentagon, while showing a reticence toward helping ordinary Americans bordering on pathologically compulsive.

Additionally, ten states are facing total budget collapse. Obama to country? Drop Dead. There will be no financial assistance to California or any of the other states facing massive budget crises. Once again, bankers who caused the current financial crisis are lavished with rewards, while average Americans are told to take a bite out of a huge shit sandwich. But hey- at least the rich are buying conspicuous consumption goods again, right?… Right?

The differences between workers under capitalism and the serfs and slaves of old are becoming increasingly trivial. There is nothing “democratic” about our system. Our political process is controlled by Wall Street with an iron grip. They have a “good cop” party and a “bad cop” party, and the difference between the two is increasingly difficult, if not impossible to tease out. But more fundamentally, no one asked me if I wanted to work this year and where I wanted to work. No one asked the people getting thrown out of their homes what they wanted, or how they wanted the crisis as a whole dealt with. No one asked people in cities with crumbling social services which hospitals they wanted closed- if any. Our system works just fine. It is set up for the benefit of the top .1% and their toadies who mostly occupy similar echelons of the socioeconomic pyramid. But the system does not work for us. Indeed, it isn’t even supposed to. The current economic crisis is laying bare the lie of American democracy. It gives me hope that more and more people are starting to see capitalism for what it is.

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