To compensate for his partially self-inflicted domestic impotence, he indulges in the power to kill. His drone campaign and assassination lists for example.
Then there was the ghoulish, voyeuristic watching on live video feed the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Imagine if Eisenhower had watched a live video feed of the execution of the Rosenbergs for his personal delectation. That is the parallel. Personally witnessing the killing of a political enemy smacks of the sadism of medieval rulers. Why would he want to do this? It's truly sick.
Of course, he's not totally impotent domestically. He has the power to oppress people within the borders of the U.S. too, which he has increased compared to his predecessor, Bush (just as he has increased overseas assassinations both in number and geographical reach). He has ramped up deportations of non-citizens struggling to survive economically, economic refugees from the southern tier of the U.S. Empire, to record levels. He has smashed up thousands of families this way. In a cynical bid for Hispanic votes, he recently claimed that from now on, “non-criminal” illegals would be spared deportation, and only “criminals” would be targeted. That turned out to be another lie, as a subsequent NY Times examination discovered. (Not that that genteel organ of the bourgeoisie would ever call a U.S. President a liar. You have to add up 2+2 for yourself, easy enough to do.) But going back to Bush all deportees have been branded “criminals.” We're meant to believe that murderers and drug kingpins are the ones getting deported, not poor peons struggling to survive inside a ruthless empire, coming from murderous places in the U.S.' “backyard” like Mexico and Guatemala.
Obama has also increased the repression of dissidents, unleashing the FBI and grand jury star chambers on peace activists and others. Under Obama, the secret police have been ramping up domestic repression, aiming to crush protests and stifle unrest, as in the targeting of the Occupy Movement, which aims at Obama's number one constituency, big bankers. Obama has targeted environmental activists such as Tim DeChristopher. Obama keeps signing more and more repressive laws passed by Congress. (Both corporate parties are accomplices in this evil assault on human rights.) Obama has also set a record for persecuting whistleblowers, outdoing Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, and all the rest. And government secrecy has arguably increased under Obama in other ways. Record numbers of documents (millions) are “classified“ each year. Natch, Obama pulled another double-cross here, after promising “transparency.” (Speaking of double-crosses, he also promised to make government decisions guided by science, yet his HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, vetoed FDA approval of over the counter sale of the morning after pill to teenagers in a futile attempt to curry favor with sex-hating “social conservatives.”)
The latest assault by Obama and the Congress on people's right to dissent or even to hold contrary opinions is the law attached to the Pentagon's yearly bloated budget allowing the President to imprison American “terrorists” (and remember, according to the FBI, peace activists and environmental protesters are “terrorists,” among others) indefinitely in the U.S.' military gulag archipelago. Non-U.S. citizen “terrorists” will automatically be so imprisoned for life, or until the U.S. dumps them in a foreign prison. A “terrorist” is of course anyone the U.S. Calls a “terrorist,” since there will no court proceeding, no judicial review, no need to present evidence. Mere assertion by the Government will suffice. There is no appeal and no escape.
This is far worse than Russia, or China, say, or even Iran, which still put political prisoners through legal systems, however biased. Evidence has to be presented, and can be challenged to some degree. Observers can see what is happening in some cases, especially in Russia, and draw attention to it. So the U.S. situation is now far worse than in those countries. And of course torture is routine in the U.S.' military gulag.
As usual with this double-crossing sleazebag, Obama initially “vowed” to veto this vile legislation, and of course he didn't. The same scummy pattern he's repeated over and over with horrible laws attacking basic human rights dating back to when he was merely a candidate for President and still a Senator. At that time, everyone had fair warning what he is as a person and politician when he vowed to filibuster an upcoming law granting immunity from civil suits to the telecom corporations that cooperated in the secret, illegal, warrantless vacuuming up of all telephone and Internet traffic in this country by the NSA. In other words, no one could so much as sue the companies. Not only did he NOT filibuster, he voted FOR the immunizing legislation. This barring of victims from any right to try and get legal redress is what the system proudly proclaims as “rule of law.” I guess “rule” is really the operative word here. Their law is how they rule us, oppressively.
Obama has finally achieved his goal of being a made member of the political nomenklatura. That's all he ever wanted, starting with his service as a loyal member of the corrupt and venal Chicago political machine. (A system that oversaw the tortured confessions of numerous blacks picked up by Chicago police torture squad and railroaded into prison and even onto death row, a scandal mostly ignored by the U.$. media and about which the “black” Obama has had nothing to say. Need more be said about Obama's utter selfishness, amorality, and unethical character?)
taboo-truths.blogspot.com
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