By Larry Pinkney

Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. - Frantz Fanon

When ideology trumps reality what remains is insanity.

The Democrat and Republican parties are two peas from precisely the same pod, and as the perpetuators of a system based upon human greed rather than human need, they incessantly engage in fake skirmishes with one another that serve to perpetuate a corrupt, unjust, corporate-dominated, fear and war-driven emaciated nation and economy. Thus, the masses of ordinary, everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in the United States, are held as perpetual political and economic hostages by the systemic evils of the two lessers, i.e. the Democrat and Republican parties (and their allies).

Therefore, it comes as no surprise in 2011, that Barack Obama's “hope and change” rhetoric was and is nothing more than a rebranded/repackaged version of corporate hegemony, manipulation, economic austerity, subterfuge, political repression, and foreign wars—with everyday people (here and abroad) as the hapless victims and de facto cannon fodder. In actuality, the ideology of both the Democrat and Republican parties is self perpetuation and the continuance of a political system that ensures their continued blood sucking existence.

Contrary to myth, Barack Obama is neither spineless, stupid, nor weak. He is politically treacherous and knows exactly what he is doing and whose interests he is actually serving. Obama and his Republicrat [i.e., Democrat and Republican] cohorts deliberately create one debacle after another for the specific purpose of keeping everyday people in this nation blind-sided, manipulated, and divided. Meanwhile, the already bloated filthy rich, including the corporate/military elite, become financially richer as everyday people of all colors increasingly suffer joblessness, home foreclosures, judicial injustice, and war, etc.; with its concomittant deep physical and psychological scars.

The shredding of the U.S. Constitution and the economic and political emaciation of everyday people in this nation is continuing full force, aided and abetted by the constant drivel emanating from the groveling corporate-stream “news” media and so-called “educational” institutions.

This nation has no universal health care and every day, ordinary people are literally dying as a result. The criminal, trillions of dollars “bailout” of the Wall Street barons and accompanying blood suckers, the government health care give-a-way to multi-national pharmaceutical and insurance corporations, and this latest “debt-ceiling” debacle, all protect and coddle the rich while gagging, smothering, and burying the legitimate needs of everyday people. This is Barack Obama's “hope and change,” and that of his Democratic and Republican party cohorts.

Not only has this constitutionally-trained U.S. President Barack Obama legislatively further shredded the U.S. Constitution beyond the boundaries of his inarticulate predecessor, George W. Bush, he has directly engaged in the impeachable offense of unconstitutionally ordering military attacks upon the sovereign nations of Pakistan, and most recently Libya. These unconstitutional acts make the people of this nation and of other nations less safe, not safer. But Obama's outrages do not end there.

As if to add insult to injury, and under the guise of supposedly protecting the people of the United States, the Obama administration has codified into law the previously illegal and egregious constitutional and civil liberty abuses by the U.S. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), et al, carried out under the auspices of the infamous COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) against political dissident citizens of the United States. COINTELPRO was established by the U.S. Government to “discredit, frame, neutralize, imprison, and often murder” dissident political activists, including many well known organizations and persons ranging from the Black Panther Party, to Daniel Ellsberg, to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is Barack Obama's “hope and change”—more and increased political repression and dirty tricks. It is noteworthy that the corporate-stream “news” media has been overwhelmingly silent about these latest repressive actions under the Obama administration. The July 29, 2011, article by Kevin Gosztola, titled, FBI Director's Term Extension Ensures Neo-COINTELPRO Operations Will Prevail, is of paramount importance.

Being ignorant of these chilling realities will not change them. Indeed, before a situation can be successfully challenged or changed, it must first be recognized for what it really is.

What now?

An increasing number of people of all colors in this nation are becoming aware of Barack Obama's repeated betrayals, political treachery, and unconstitutional actions; and they have begun to legitimately oppose his policies. If you are among the growing amount of conscious and concerned people in this nation who oppose Obama's betrayals, treachery, and/or unconstitutional actions and you happen to be White, it does not mean that you are being racist! To the contrary, it means that you are a critical thinker who understands that anyone of any color or either gender, who is in a systemic position of power, can facilitate economic and/or political disenfranchisement. And it is this disenfranchisement and/or emaciation that we, all of us, must actively and forthrightly oppose.

To reiterate, before a situation can be successfully challenged or changed, it must first be recognized for what it really is.

The situation affecting the people of this nation and planet is dire, and it will not change of its own accord, nor will it be changed by those who have caused the situation. As our planet is dying, politicians are lying. Barack Obama is not the only purveyor of lies, austerity, wars, and the killing of our planet—Mother Earth. It's just that for the moment, he is, as the mouth and face of the corporate/military U.S. Empire, the most dangerous politician on earth. Yet, his Democrat and Republican party cohorts are also dangerous as they continue to serve and drink from the trough of their corporate masters and play their phony games with each other in order to fake-out the people of this nation. It is time to utterly reject the two lessers [i.e. the Democrats and Republicans] and the systemic evils which they represent and perpetuate.

Our human obligation and responsibility is to spread the message. To remind ourselves, each other, and yes, even those that we may not yet know—that it does not have to be this way and it must not be allowed to remain this way!

We must collectively and creatively take back this nation and this planet from the avaricious corporations and the purveyors of wars, and global environmental disaster. We must work with our everyday brothers and sisters around the globe, for this nation is not an island; it is a part of the human family. And it is time that we reclaim that humanity.

Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!

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http://www.blackcommentator.com

Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)