BEWARE THE FALSE SIGNS OF SPRING IN AMERICA

As the manic huckster Barack Obama travels the country raising almost 30 million a month for his re-election while campaigning on an old and badly tattered theme of hope and change that is just over the hill ~ millions of economically distressed Americans are saying “Are you kidding me“ and are rightfully refusing to be Obamanized: Allen L Roland

President Obama is in full campaign mode and his annoying high pitched daily entreaties to voters that recovery is just around the corner ( if you’ll just spend and re-inflate the debt bubble that burst four years ago) are falling on millions of deaf ears ~ except his true base, Wall Street and the global corporate elite. Here’s a great example in the form of a five minute video from just a normal American guy, who is part owner of a small business ~ commenting on the clowns, including the president, who are running this political circus and are messing this country up. Video: Are You Kidding Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8SGyVNippvA

As we speak, every possible thing will be done by the Obama administration to post a cheery spring like picture or billboard that America is rising from the dead and is built to last despite the economic cliff that lays directly ahead.

Please note that Barack Obama was the ultimate Manchurian candidate ~ selected and elected by Wall Street and the global elite for these three reasons; Maintain the status quo, Don’t punish Wall Street for their excesses of power and greed and finally Maintain the military empire and sweep the Cheney/Bush abuses of power under the rug ~ if not utilize them himself.

In case you’re still Obamanized ~ here’s an extensive list of Obama’s accomplishments and primary failure which might bring you to your senses (courtesy of Russell Means Freedom)

Signed the National Defense Authorization Act – authorizing indefinite detention of U.S. citizens

- Reneged on promises to close Guantanamo Bay

- Expanded executive authority to include assassination of U.S. citizens

- Waged war on Libya without congressional approval

- Started covert, drone wars in Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia, Iran, without congressional approval

- Escalated the proxy war in Somalia

- Escalated the CIA drone war in Pakistan

- Signed into law legislation that authorizes use of drones within the United States, against U.S. citizens

- Has maintained enormous mercenary U.S. presence in Iraq even after “ending” so called war ( Occupation )

- Sharply escalated the war ( Occupation ) in Afghanistan

- Increased use of secret evidence and secret courts (FISA – Foreign Intelligence Security Act)

- Secretly deployed US Special Forces to 75 countries

Signed the USA Patriot Act extension into law

- Approved the Justice Department prosecution of environmental, anarchist and animal rights groups as “domestic terrorists” under the USA PATRIOT Act, using secret investigations.

- Continued Bush warrantless wiretap program, and gave immunity to telecom companies that collaborated.

- Expanded use of secret National Security letters for domestic investigations by FBI and CIA.

- Continued Bush’s extraordinary rendition program.

- Obama’s identical use of Bush administration’s use of “State Secrets” defense to prevent war crimes prosecutions in U.S.

- Obama’s persecution of whistleblowers such as Wikileaks, and prosecution of BradleyManning ~ this is no different than Nixon-Kissinger re: Ellsberg

Full report: http://www.russellmeansfreedom.com/2012/obamas-accomplishments-and-u-n-vetos/

Obama’s primary failure, to millions of Americans, was to advertise himself as an agent of hope and change and then promptly, upon election, reveal his true allegiance to the corporate elite and literally break everyone of his campaign promises. As such, his new promises sound vaguely hollow and false and are largely falling on deaf ears ~ once bitten, twice shy.

As Bill Finch writes, regarding false springs in the plant world ~

“ So if you’re betting that all this warm weather means that winter is over, and we’ll not have another frost, you might get very, very lucky, and we won’t have another frost. But you’re betting mighty long odds.

In short, this is a false spring. And the longer this false spring lasts, the more likely it is that even the mildest of frosts will do severe damage.

Plants have to get ready for cold. They have to make all sorts of interior preparations ~ battening down the hatches, so to speak ~ before winter comes. They essentially create antifreeze, converting easily frozen carbohydrates in their stems to freeze-resistant sugars, and they quit producing the kind of young, tender growth that will be most vulnerable to spring. But as this warm spell continues, plants aren’t battening down the hatches, they’re throwing them wide open, and putting on flowers and new growth like summer was just around the corner… . Sorry for ruining your false spring. But there’s good reason for recognizing it for what it is. You can’t change the weather patterns that have gotten us here, but you can do a little to keep your plants from over-reacting. Plants are confused already, so don’t make things worse.”

Regarding the current Obama perpetrated economic false spring ~ look no further than the real ( unreported) unemployment rate of close to 12%, the foreclosure abuse that is still running rampant across the United States ~ where here in San Francisco the audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by SF on Wednesday. Report: http://reut.rs/z2FTva

In short this is a politically motivated false economic spring ~ with the obvious objective of reelecting Barack Obama. According to the Federal Reserve, median household debt in America has risen to $75,600. Many Americans have spent decades caught in the trap of debt slavery and large numbers of them never even escape ~ so how can an economic recovery sustain itself when the vast majority of Americans are still deeply in debt. Consumer borrowing rose by another $19.3 billion in December. Right now it is sitting at a grand total of $2.5 trillion according to the Federal Reserve. Overall, consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971~ so people are obviously using their credit cards to survive and what will happen when that bubble bursts?

So the longer this false economic spring lasts, the more likely it is that even the mildest of economic frosts will do severe damage to an already badly chastened Main Street. Much of the interior preparations ~ battening down the hatches, so to speak ~ downsizing and cleaning house has not been done during this economic winter and the Administration, Wall Street and millions of Americans remain in economic denial ~ as we watch our civil liberties slowly become dead weeds in a barren wasteland.

One person seems to have a handle on Battlefield America and that is Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute ~ who has been right far more than wrong for the past several years and now lives in France. Here’s his recent 12 minute interview on RT where Celente declares that Obama blew his only chance for true change in 2009; that the U.S financial system is rapidly collapsing with the eventual possibility of economic martial law; that 2012 will bring to a head the will of the people versus the will of the government ~ and that the only true wild card in the 2012 presidential race is Ron Paul.

12 Minute Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PG6Fh0SWMJs

What if America does not really need more of Obama’s feigned optimism and his cheerful false signs of spring but instead a heavy dose of reality from truth tellers like Judge Napolitano ~ who went from favorite to fired in 5 minutes on Fox TV ~ after airing these self evident truths. 5 Minute Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOaCemmsnNk

I rest my case ~ it’s still winter in America and spring will not appear until we refuse to be Obamanized and look for and willingly accept the winter rains of truth on the frozen soil of America’s battered psyche and wounded soul.

"What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise." Barbara Jordan

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/beware-false-signs-of-spring-in-america.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

THE PARTY’S OVER, THE BUBBLE HAS BURST, LET’S CLEAN UP THE MESS

Detroit's former Lee Plaza Hotel closed in the '90s. (photo: Marchand, Meffre /TIME)

The Party’s over for America, the greed bubble fueled by excessive debt has finally burst. Its time to clean up the mess started by the Bush/Cheney administration, perpetuated by the Obama/Biden administration and which is now a deserted ballroom ~ strewn with broken dreams, broken promises and economic devastation: Allen L Roland

As 2011 crawls to a close, the true reckoning of the financial devastation wrought by the policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations and perpetuated by the Obama administration have yet to be fully revealed ~ but the economic devastation by these political actions and inaction is now fully felt and experienced by millions of Americans.

Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, Vanity Fair, brilliantly summarized this devastation on December 25, 2011 ~ “It has now been almost five years since the bursting of the housing bubble, and four years since the onset of the recession. There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling-the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997... The Bush and Obama administrations justified a bailout on the grounds that only if the banks were handed money without limit-and without conditions-could the economy recover….The banks got their bailout. Some of the money went to bonuses. Little of it went to lending. And the economy didn't really recover ~ output is barely greater than it was before the crisis, and the job situation is bleak. The diagnosis of our condition and the prescription that followed from it were incorrect … In the end, bank managers looked out for themselves and did what they are accustomed to doing..“ Read full article ~ http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/9092-the-book-of-jobs

Stiglitz correctly makes this important point ~ “The fact is the economy in the years before the current crisis was fundamentally weak, with the bubble, and the unsustainable consumption to which it gave rise, acting as life support. Without these, unemployment would have been high. It was absurd to think that fixing the banking system could by itself restore the economy to health. Bringing the economy back to "where it was" does nothing to address the underlying problems.”

And therein lies my point ~ for re-inflating the same debt bubble that eventually burst in 2008 is not going to succeed when personal debt and unemployment are at such historic heights and real income is below the level it was in 1997. In other words, the financial elite are telling people to keep spending, keep borrowing by using your credit cards, keep the mirage of financial stability in tact, keep wishful thinking and, by all means, keep the debt party going ~ even though the economic dance hall is in shambles.

Here are the facts ~ 42% of all financial wealth is controlled by the top 1% in that 400 Americans have more money than the other 155 million Americans. Add to that, the fact that the billionaire Banksters, who wrecked the economic well-being of millions for pure profit, have apparently got off scot-free. Is it any wonder that a growing nonviolent Occupy movement has risen to decry those acts of greed as unjust, immoral and undemocratic.

Then we have the obvious hypocrisy of Pope Benedict, cloaked in gold and jewels, holding his solid silver staff, showing Jesus hanging on the cross, sardonically telling 1.3billion Roman Catholics “ Look through the glitter of Christmas “ http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1549/5/NL/Bejeweled_Pope_Says_Look_Through_The_Glitter_Of_Xmas.html

It’s all a blatant illusion, folks ~ and as far as the Obama administration is concerned, the ballroom is still operating, it’s only intermission and the music will resume at any moment. Just keep drinking my oratory Kool Aid, and re-elect me next year and then I’ll deliver on the many promises I never fulfilled because of the evil obstructionist Republicans (chuckle).

In other words, I’m your known political betrayer of your moral values and the constitution (which I swore to defend), so why replace me with an unknown betrayer of those same values and the constitution?

It’s all a big lie ~ Everything is rigged to give the illusion that things are fine; Illegal occupations are glorified as wars; Body counts are falsified ~ only those killed on the battlefield are listed as KIA ~ if you died from your wounds while in transit to care or in care, you are not listed as KIA ( Courtesy of Bush/Cheney ); Unemployment figures are falsified where large numbers of workers have supposedly left the labor force and they are not counted as unemployed; The core cost of living index does not include food and energy costs (thanks to Bill Clinton) ~ thus distorting the true inflation figures and robbing seniors of needed social security income; the stock market is rigged ( think plunge protection team ) whereas unregulated high speed trading as well as derivatives give the false impression of stability in a highly leveraged crap game fierce with insider trading. Regarding the still unresolved mountain of Derivatives ~ “Contrary to popular belief, which blames the global financial crisis on subprime borrowers, it was the derivatives, based upon the likelihood that those borrowers would pay their debts, that were the primary catalyst triggering the global economic crisis of 2008. Back then, the derivative obligations of AIG (AIG) imploded the insurer. Under the pressure of fear-mongering from the Federal Reserve and the financial industry, the U.S. government committed hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out AIG's counter-parties, including the biggest banks of Europe and America. Had the government not stepped in, virtually all the banks on Wall Street would have gone bankrupt. A host of European and Asian banks would have followed……Even if we net out the notional value of the derivatives involved, down to the net potential obligation, the amount is so large that the United States could not hope to pay it off without a major dollar devaluation…..” See story ~ http://seekingalpha.com/article/301260-bank-of-america-dumps-75-trillion-in-derivatives-on-u-s-taxpayers-with-federal-approval

The name of the game is to maintain the status quo and Obama was chosen by the global financial elite to do that very thing ~ and it is one of the few promises that he has kept. Meanwhile, almost 50% of Americans are in poverty or at a "low income" level ~ a claim based on a report by the Census Bureau that includes health care, transportation, and other essential living expenses in the poverty calculation.

The party’s over, the Bubble has burst , there’s no music and no one reveals this truth more knowingly than Gerald Celente ~ In his latest interview Celente discusses a variety of different topics ~ from Iran and Europe to domestic militarization and the economy ~ and warns that our worst fears will soon be realized.

“ Bottom line? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet ~ This (National Defense Authorization Act) passed the Senate by 93-7. I’m mentioning this because all the pieces are in place now; The economy is going to crash. There is going to be chaos. Economic martial law will be called. Banks will close. And, chaos will ensure. The law is now in place for the military to come in and take over. Fascism has come to America.”

Celente Warns Of 2012: Economy Will Crash, Banks Will Close, Chaos Will Ensue, Military Will Take Over | Before It's News http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1519/121/NL/

Meanwhile, the slow beat of corporate fascism continues on ~ While on Christmas vacation in Hawaii, Obama tapped Jerome Powell to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Powel served as the undersecretary for finance under president George H. W. Bush and was a partner of The Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group is a massive private equity firm and one of the largest defense contractors in the world. See story ~ http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1556/379/NL/

There is a solution and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has offered it as a Constitutional Amendment to the Constitution to exclude corporations from First Amendment rights to spend money on political campaigns. The Sanders amendment is co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), and a similar amendment has been proposed in the House by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.).

Watch and listen to one of our true constitutional patriots make his impassioned case that Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights; that corporations are subject to regulations by the people; that corporations cannot make campaign contributions and that Congress and the states have the right to regulate campaign finance. 12 minute video http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29930.htm#.TuRfMsr974w.email

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.” Robert F. Kennedy

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/partys-over-bubble-has-burst-lets-clean.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net