Econoclast notes that the Obama administration’s monumental, intentional and criminal failures with respect to the fallout from the most serious socio-economic crisis (2008-2011) since the Great Depression–as well as other shortcomings–laid the basis for a billionaire buffoon–aka Agent Orange–to move from the penthouse to the White House in 2016. Econoclast further suggests that the Republican Party, the vehicle used by Cult 45 to get to the top, has for a half-century been engaged in what can only be described as a homicidal/suicidal trajectory in both rhetoric and action.

In legal terms, the Republicans have been involved in the equivalent of first degree murder in which there is premeditation and/or extreme cruelty and in which especially vulnerable people are victimized. Wars of aggression (e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq), encouraging fossil fuel corporations to literally pollute and destroy the biosphere and those living in it, the violent repression of oppositional movements and groups and the incarceration of millions of poor and working people, the deregulation of food supply and pharmaceutical businesses and the weakening of environmental protections, etc. have produced and are producing deaths and injuries in the millions.

The Democrats, for the most part, have been key partners and accomplices of the Republicans at every step. But they have also have been perpetrators of second degree murder, i.e. intentional killings that are not premeditated, and some killings that result from conduct so reckless it shows grave indifference to the sanctity of human life or the welfare of others. In addition the Democrats over the past half-century have been engaged in involuntary manslaughter, i.e. injury or death by means of unlawful, reckless, or grossly negligent actions resulting from a failure to perform a legal duty expressly required to safeguard human life (https://murphylawoffice.org/john-murphy-law-office-blog/77-what-s-the-difference-between-homicide-murder-and-manslaughter.html; https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/murder-vs-manslaughter).

That’s the long and short of it, Smokey.

Average folks already know that, it’s only the self-appointed know it alls that comprise the Media Borg who believe otherwise.

MODUS OPERANDI: blah, blah, blah?

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Thus, there is a difference between Thurgood Marshall, the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Judge who fought for civil rights and equal protection for Blacks and all people his whole life and Clarence Thomas, the second Black judge on the Court who has consistently opposed affirmative action, opposed abortion as a right, opposed federal protections for LGBTQ persons and supported military commissions established by President G.W. Bush without congressional authorization (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thurgood-marshall?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-biography; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas).

Likewise, Condoleeza Rice and Angela Davis are both Black women public intellectuals born in Birmingham, Alabama. Do their identities or outward appearances tell me which one was a main architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003—and, therefore, a war criminal—and which one has actively opposed U.S. imperialism and engaged in international solidarity movements nearly all of her adult life? These differences matter a great deal to everyone, especially to Black people who endure the brunt of economic, political and social inequalities in our society.

By these criteria, naming a street in San Jose after Barack Obama is an affront. To honor a politician who studiously used his connections to wealthy and powerful Chicago elites to build a political career to serve those same elites, while chiding and chastising Black Americans’ (and others’) economic and social demands would be a grave injustice (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/ politics/11chicago.html; https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-obama-deception-why-cornel-west-went-ballistic/; https://thehill.com/video/administration/183737-obama-to-black-caucus-stop-complaining-grumbling-crying; https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-speech-on-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington/2013/08/28/ 0138e01e-0ffb-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html).

How are we enriched or how is our city distinguished by honoring a man who brokered his identity to further the neoliberal nightmare in which we have been living for nearly half a century (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot)? Just consider the depths of depravity to which that administration descended and the sophisticated deceit in which it engaged, with the connivance of the corporate media and the elite “liberal” class:

1. The Obama Justice Department gave a free pass to Bush administration officials involved in corruption and crimes, including torture (https://theintercept.com/2018/10/09/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-bush-administration/) while embracing Bush’s “state secrets” privilege to block torture and rendition victims from seeking legal redress in the courts;

2. Obama, despite his campaign rhetoric, did nothing to reduce the corrupting influence of money on politics (https://theintercept.com/2016/02/10/obama-celebrates-nine-years-of-doing-nothing-about-money-in-politics/);

3. The CIA assessed Obama to be just the right politician who could appeal to European citizens and governments to promote and solidify their support for the war in Afghanistan in particular. European leaderships, after eight years of Baby Bush’s war-mongering, expected Obama to draw down the conflict in Afghanistan in particular where European (NATO) soldiers were also fighting and dying. Instead, Obama used his appeal with the Europeans to promote the continuation of the longest war, that Biden is now bringing to an end (https://greenwald.substack.com/p/a-long-forgotten-cia-document-from);

4. Obama’s Defense Department accelerated assassinations of alleged “terrorists” using drones (including at least one U.S. citizen) while expanding the geography of U.S. live fire military operations from two countries to seven. The military under Obama was so violent and aggressive that at one point in 2015 they actually ran out of bombs to drop (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ 2009/02/09/state_secrets/print.html; https://www.wired.com/2012/09/bush-obama-war-on-terror/; https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/; https://www.cnn.com/ 2015/12/04/politics/air-force-20000-bombs-missiles-isis/index.html);

5. U.S. arms sales abroad more than doubled under Obama led by sales to Saudi Arabia in support of their aggression against the Yemeni people (https://www.defenseone.com/business/2016/11/obamas-final-arms-export-tally-more-doubles-bushs/133014/);

6. The Obama Department of Justice under Eric Holder did not prosecute any Wall Street executives for their roles in crashing the financial system that precipitated the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Rather, the administration bailed out banks, lied to the public about prosecuting bankers’ illegal activities, refused to implement promised reforms and covered up the crimes of these same bad actors. Furthermore, the administration adopted policies in the midst of the Great Recession that actually helped gut home ownership, especially among Black households (https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/28/obamas-big-lie/; https://thehill.com/policy/finance/ 248336-white-house-distances-itself-from-glass-steagall-push; https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eric-holder-banks-too-big_n_2821741; https://jacobinmag.com/2017/12/obama-foreclosure-crisis-wealth-inequality);

7. Obama backed down without a fight in addressing income inequality in the U.S., something he described as an existential threat to the country and that had intensified in the Great Recession of 2008-2009 (see first three minutes of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgSEwjAeno);

8. Despite his campaign promises and considerable financial and political backing from organized labor, neither Obama nor his Labor Department lifted a finger to advance the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would have enhanced the ability of workers to join unions and that was passed by the House in 2009, even though he pledged to do so in his 2008 campaign (https://web.archive.org/ web/20090910083515/; http://www.barackobama.com/2008/ 04/02/remarks_for_senator_barack_oba_3.php; https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/09/ AR2010020902465.html; https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ abandoning-efca-is-obamas_b_414209);

9. The Obama administration was deliberately and intentionally weak on environmental protection and mitigating climate change impacts, while pushing the largest increase in fossil fuel production in the modern history of the U.S. While mainstream media deliberately obfuscated the administration’s policies, in 2018 Obama publicly bragged about his role and responsibility for the surge in climate-destroying fossil fuels production (https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/4/28/15472508/obama-climate-change-legacy-overrated-clean-power; https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/21/investing/trump-energy-plan-obama-oil-boom/index.html; https://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/news/economy/obama-oil-boom/index.html; https://apnews.com/5dfbc1aa17701ae219239caad0bfefb2);

10. The Obama administration deported an annual average of about 383,000 persons–mainly Hispanics/Latinos–from the U.S. during 2009-2016, about 18 percent more per year, than Trump during 2017-2020. Many deportees had violated no domestic laws and were tax-paying workers. Furthermore, the Obama administration engaged in significant family separations as part of its deportation program (https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2019/table39; https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-deportation-machine-obama-built-for-president-trump/; https://theintercept.com/2017/05/15/obamas-deportation-policy-was-even-worse-than-we-thought/)

Obama’s associations, affiliations and allegiances have always been to elite centers of power, initially in Chicago, but later on a much broader, national level. To suggest otherwise is a conceit promoted mainly by wealthy White liberals who, through support for Obama and elite Blacks like him, can both assuage guilt while cynically using Black identity to further their own ends.

If we must name a street after Barack Obama–rather than, say, Harry Edwards (https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/san-jose-boasts-of-role-in-1968-olympic-protest-yet-ignores-racist-origins-of-iconic-moment/)–we should have found one in a wealthy neighborhood that is short, narrow and terminates in a dead end. Only such a road would truly reflect such a paradoxical and myopic figure.