P.A. Farruggio

Activist Post

Ok, Barack, from one Brooklyn boy to one Chicago boy, let’s talk straight and pull no punches. I don’t care how nice of a guy you may be, or how intelligent and articulate… ya blew it kiddo! Just like with your predecessors, especially Clinton and Junior Bush, you simply are a stooge of the wizards who control this empire.

Now, having said that, I’m no fool Barack. I realize that a president does not have the power that our phony media and our hot air academics have been selling to us for who knows how long. I know that. Yet, even with all the conspiracy info that I possess, I do know that even the wizards cannot keep any president from making some headway against this empire of greed, war and imperialism if the president had the will to change things.

Here five things that prove to me that your “hope and change” was a fraud, and that you’re a stooge for the elite:

Continuing The Iraq & Afghanistan Debacles: You knew that our invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan went against every moral compass you claim to possess. You knew the Iraq thing was all about lies and disinformation. You knew we had no legal or moral justification to bomb the hell out of that country and then invade and occupy it. You could have told Congress and the American people that funding such a disgrace would bankrupt us financially and spiritually… as it has. As president, you could have and should have used the bully pulpit to alter the conversation and push for a withdrawal of forces and funds immediately.

Yes, you would have gotten slack from it, yet with folks like Republicans Ron Paul and Walter Jones, and Democrats like Dennis Kucinich and many others, the case would have been one of a bipartisan nature. The fact is, Barack, that most Americans would have agreed with you, despite the bought-and-paid for mainstream media with its phony left-and-right slants. As far as Afghanistan, this whole ‘get those who did 9/11’ (if they were even the real culprits) action should have been part of a United Nations policing effort… not a vendetta or revenge act of imperialism. By now you should realize that it really had very little, if at all, to do with Bin Laden or Al Qaeda. It was about extending our power to that region. History should have taught you, the scholar, that no foreigners have ever successfully colonized or occupied Afghanistan. How many of our own former military officers and CIA analysts do you need to tell you that?

Increasing Funding For This Military Empire: You have turned out to be the same as that jackass who you followed into the Oval Office. Instead of drawing down our 800+ bases worldwide and cutting this outrageous military spending, you give us halfhearted political stunts. The military spending last year was over 560 billion dollars…and that does not include the black budget that even you probably know very little about (so much for who runs things Barack). Ten years ago, the military spending was almost half of what it is now! We now spend, and you know this, Mr. President, 56 cents of every federal tax dollar on it… and you say we need economic stimulus!? Now, you are being forced, along with Congress, to cut spending. The plan you are selling us is a joke Barack, and you know it! It comes out to less than 8 % a year over 10 years. Ron Paul says all the cuts should be completed in one year! How many more foreclosures, lost jobs, homeless, hungry, medically untreated and underwater Americans need you see before you ‘Get it’?

Bailing Out the Rich and Not the Public: Have you seen the new film Margin Call yet? Watch it and understand what really went down, just in case your so called economic advisors have kept the truth from you. You could have stopped the TARP program, or at least put pressure on Congress to revamp it. How?

Well, that money could have gone to having Uncle Sam negotiate the purchase of all the bad mortgage paper at fire-sale prices. Then, the homeowners could have been given a choice to make a much lower payment each month, which would still go towards what they owed on the original mortgage. That way, even if it meant a longer time to finally repay the mortgage, the homeowner would not have to leave or lose the house. More important, the home would be off the market and all the rest of our homes would slowly increase in value. Instead, your advisors told you to continue the bailout of the rich investment sharks and let the rest of us struggle because of their recklessness.

Now, in a reelection bid, you say you finally ‘see the light’ and understand that the super rich need to contribute more by way of federal taxes. Yet, just like your phony party, you go ‘halfway’ on all good ideas. Your way is to make sure those millionaires pay 30%. You must know that in 1960 when JFK took office, the top bracket for federal income tax was at 90%. When Reagan took office, I believe it was around 77%, we both know that no one actually pays that high a rate, what with how accountants can nibble away here and there. Why not a simple Surtax with NO deductions? You cannot do it because your wealthy handlers won’t like that Barack, would they? I bet even your new poster boy Warren Buffet would not go for that much leaving his pocket either.

Keeping Health Coverage With the Sharks: On this one you really blew it kiddo. You made sure that the Public Option of buying into Medicare was taken off the table. Why? Because it made sense! Instead, you push through this phony Health Care Reform (oxymoron) that not only opens the door for the Private Insurance cartel… it forces us all to go there! You really think that the clown who runs United Health Care, and made over $60 million in one year for himself, isn’t going to circumvent any reforms you push on his industry? Even if they were forced to cover pre-existing conditions and keep premiums reasonable (another oxymoron), they would simply raise co-pays and deductibles to the roof! Who knows what they would do concerning repayment schedules for the doctors and hospitals.

You blew it Barack! All you had to do is what Newnan, Georgia did in regard to cable television in the1990s.The franchised cable provider kept raising rates and playing games, so the town went into the cable business… nonprofit. Why couldn’t Uncle Sam simply offer any American under age 65 who wished to buy into Medicare to do just that? No reform bill, no nothing, just good old American spirit of competition. Oh, guess what? When Newnan, Ga. opened their own cable business, the private company decided to… lower rates and increase service.

Defense Authorization Act & Other Acts of Aggression: How dare you, the guy who spoke of ‘Hope and Change’, continue on the same course as the Bush gang? You send drone attacks into a sovereign nation, Pakistan, without approval of their government. These attacks kill many innocent civilians and destroy our good name. You allowed your NSA to authorize the bombing of Libya when it was involved in a manipulated civil war. You allow extraordinary rendition to continue. You allow Gitmo to stay open, and keep those prisoners from having their day in court. You push and sign this latest Defense Authorization Act that allows Uncle Sam to detain American citizens without the right of Habeas Corpus.

Who will determine whether someone is a terrorist or supporter of such groups? Let’s play the game What if: What if your daughter was friends with an Arab kid? This kid has a cousin who is on some terrorist watch list, and the cousin visits her here. Your daughter befriends the cousin, and sends and receives emails to him. She hangs out at parties at the cousin’s apartment etc. One night, the SWAT teams come and sweep all of them up in a raid. What if your daughter is not the daughter of the president, rather the daughter of a professor… a very ultra-liberal professor who speaks out quite a bit against Israel and our empire? Suddenly, the daughter is refused habeas corpus and detained… indefinitely. How can this still be called the land of the free?

Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a freelance columnist (usually found on the fine Dandelion Salad site), an environmental products sales rep and an activist. Since 2010, Philip is a spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at [email protected]