Obama and The Black Prophetic Tradition

[georgephillip]

Any honest linkage between the words "Obama" and "prophet" requires the latter to be spelled "profit."

Cornel West argues that Obama's prophecies have more to do with Wall Street's plantation profits and Booker T. Washington's commitment to accommodation than with Martin King's revolution.

"'The black prophetic tradition has been the leaven in the American democratic loaf,' West said. 'What has kept American democracy from going fascist or authoritarian or autocratic has been the legacy of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Martin King, Fannie Lou Hamer. This is not because black people have a monopoly on truth, goodness or beauty. It is because the black freedom movement puts pressure on the American empire in the name of integrity, decency, honesty and virtue...'”

"It is understandable why this tradition frightens Obama.

"It exposes him as the ideological heir of Booker T. Washington, a black accommodationist whose core message to black people was, in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, 'adjustment and submission.'

"The wide swath of destruction Obama has overseen on behalf of the corporate state includes the eradication of most of our civil liberties and our privacy, the expansion of imperial war, the use of kill lists, abject subservience to Wall Street’s criminal class and the military-industrial complex, the relentless persecution of whistle-blowers, mass incarceration of poor people of color and the failure to ameliorate the increasing distress of the poor and the working class.

"His message to the black underclass in the midst of the corporate rape of the nation is drawn verbatim from the Booker T. Washington playbook. He tells them to work harder—as if anyone works harder than the working poor in this country—and obey the law."

Chris Hedges: Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Laws that were written by those who depend on the richest 1% of Americans to fund their election campaigns and retirements.

 

[Old Rocks]

LOL. What the 'Conservatives' here are deathly afraid of is that at the end of President Obama's two terms we will look back and see a President that inherited one hell of a mess, domestically and internationally, and, eight years later, leaves us with an economically far stronger nation, and one with far more respect and stature on the international scene. And they are doing all they can do to prevent that, no matter what the cost to this nation.

 

[georgephillip]

LOL. What the 'Conservatives' here are deathly afraid of is that at the end of President Obama's two terms we will look back and see a President that inherited one hell of a mess, domestically and internationally, and, eight years later, leaves us with an economically far stronger nation, and one with far more respect and stature on the international scene. And they are doing all they can do to prevent that, no matter what the cost to this nation.

I hope you didn't just call me a conservative.
Do you think Chris Hedges is confused about the following?

"The wide swath of destruction Obama has overseen on behalf of the corporate state includes the eradication of most of our civil liberties and our privacy, the expansion of imperial war, the use of kill lists, abject subservience to Wall Street’s criminal class and the military-industrial complex, the relentless persecution of whistle-blowers, mass incarceration of poor people of color and the failure to ameliorate the increasing distress of the poor and the working class."

I think we would all be better off to look back in 2016 and ask ourselves if we're more free than we were in 2000.

 

[Pete7469]

Saying anything negative about the moonbat messiah doesn't make you a conservative. I'm suprised old socks didn't just call you a racist.

 

[georgephillip]

Saying anything negative about the moonbat messiah doesn't make you a conservative. I'm suprised old socks didn't just call you a racist.

Goldman Sachs picked the right horse in 2008:

"“He is a shell of a man,' West said of Obama. 'There is no deep conviction. There is no connection to something bigger than him. It is a sad spectacle, sad if he were not the head of an empire that is in such decline and so dangerous. This is a nadir.'"

Chris Hedges: Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

 

[Pete7469]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

 

[georgephillip]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

 

[georgephillip]

Chris Hedges: Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

"The most pernicious development is the incorporation of the black prophetic tradition into the Obama imperial project,” West said. 'Obama used [Martin Luther] King’s Bible during his inauguration, but under the National Defense Authorization Act King would be detained without due process. He would be under surveillance every day because of his association with Nelson Mandela, who was the head of a "terrorist" organization, the African National Congress.

"'We see the richest prophetic tradition in America desecrated in the name of a neoliberal worldview, a worldview King would be in direct opposition to.

"'Martin would be against Obama because of his neglect of the poor and the working class and because of the [aerial] drones, because he is a war president, because he draws up kill lists. And Martin King would have nothing to do with that.'”

 

[Sunshine]

Any honest linkage between the words "Obama" and "prophet" requires the latter to be spelled "profit."

Cornel West argues that Obama's prophecies have more to do with Wall Street's plantation profits and Booker T. Washington's commitment to accommodation than with Martin King's revolution.

"'The black prophetic tradition has been the leaven in the American democratic loaf,' West said. 'What has kept American democracy from going fascist or authoritarian or autocratic has been the legacy of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Martin King, Fannie Lou Hamer. This is not because black people have a monopoly on truth, goodness or beauty. It is because the black freedom movement puts pressure on the American empire in the name of integrity, decency, honesty and virtue...'”

"It is understandable why this tradition frightens Obama.

"It exposes him as the ideological heir of Booker T. Washington, a black accommodationist whose core message to black people was, in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, 'adjustment and submission.'

"The wide swath of destruction Obama has overseen on behalf of the corporate state includes the eradication of most of our civil liberties and our privacy, the expansion of imperial war, the use of kill lists, abject subservience to Wall Street’s criminal class and the military-industrial complex, the relentless persecution of whistle-blowers, mass incarceration of poor people of color and the failure to ameliorate the increasing distress of the poor and the working class.

"His message to the black underclass in the midst of the corporate rape of the nation is drawn verbatim from the Booker T. Washington playbook. He tells them to work harder—as if anyone works harder than the working poor in this country—and obey the law."

Chris Hedges: Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

Laws that were written by those who depend on the richest 1% of Americans to fund their election campaigns and retirements.

"corporate rape of the nation"??? Seriously dude?. Couldn't you find something a little more melodramatic?

.

 

[Pete7469]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

I disagree.

This country became incredibly rich in just 200 years BECAUSE we had a government who's power was limited more than any other. Hordes of people both destitute and rich fled the confines of Europe to enjoy the freedom this country offered.

If your premise was correct;

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government"

Then the Soviet Union would have "liberated" us from "the chains of capitalism" in the 1960's. That's not how things worked out.

 

[Pete7469]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

I had to take a dump before I could finish this response, but I addressed the first part of your post earlier. To address how the moonbat messiah can be

"a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." [and] qualify as a leftist

I have to first reject the idea that the people on wall street are "oligarchs" since there are no "oligarchs" in this country. There are far too many incredibly rich people who do not all agree on policy that own the careers of so many politicians. Plutocrats? OK, I agree with that.

Now, regarding how the moonbat messiah can be a "leftist" and a tool of a plutocracy, well that's simple.

Even the Bolsheviks were funded and supported by rich banking interests that wanted to rid themselves of the obstruction of the Czar and end the instability and rioting among the hordes of starving peasants. The Nazi party was also financed by wealthy industrialists who just wanted someone to finally whip the labor force into submission and suppress the commie genie that shouldn't have been loosened upon the earth.

Now modern plutocrats don't give a damn about "right or left". When you own the media and the political whores, the laws don't pertain to you. Obozo can go ahead and regulate everything he wants, his owners won't have to worry about compliance, their competition will. For these assholes a leftist is the perfect tool to secure their grip on power.

It's only because there are a few much maligned rich people who still value individual liberty and free enterprise that we even still have a republic.

 

[Moonglow]

Still smells like your full of shit.

 

[georgephillip]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

I disagree.

This country became incredibly rich in just 200 years BECAUSE we had a government who's power was limited more than any other. Hordes of people both destitute and rich fled the confines of Europe to enjoy the freedom this country offered.

If your premise was correct;

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government"

Then the Soviet Union would have "liberated" us from "the chains of capitalism" in the 1960's. That's not how things worked out.

Those hordes of poor people fled Europe for the US because of free education provided by the government. If you think our government's power was ever limited, you haven't consulted too many Indians or Mexicans. Rich people from the dawn of civilization have used government as a club to privatize profits from war and the private creation of money at interest and socialize their externalities on the backs of working people. I don't understand what point your making about the Soviet Union liberating us from the chains of capitalism in the 1960s. Are you under the impression there were no rich people in the Soviet Union at that time and that they did not exert control over their government?

 

[Trajan]

LOL. What the 'Conservatives' here are deathly afraid of is that at the end of President Obama's two terms we will look back and see a President that inherited one hell of a mess, domestically and internationally, and, eight years later, leaves us with an economically far stronger nation, and one with far more respect and stature on the international scene. And they are doing all they can do to prevent that, no matter what the cost to this nation.

are you living in a bubble? No, seriously? thats just disconnected from reality....

 

[georgephillip]

I probably only agree with West that the moonbat messiah is person without virtue or substance and of a character most of us prefer behind prison walls. He managed to scam his way into the WH like any other con artist.

However CW still holds the wealthy in contempt because that's what he's programmed to do. He may have enough independence of thinking to see through obozo's facade, and isn't interested in joining the cult of personality. CW wants the leftist agenda advanced. He wants certain rich people limited by a massive authortarian government that has management over every dollar in the country.

The moonbat messiah is mostly concerned with his own wallet, he uses the leftist platform as a vehicle since it will enrich him more, and weaken the country he was raised to hate.

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

I had to take a dump before I could finish this response, but I addressed the first part of your post earlier. To address how the moonbat messiah can be

"a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." [and] qualify as a leftist

I have to first reject the idea that the people on wall street are "oligarchs" since there are no "oligarchs" in this country. There are far too many incredibly rich people who do not all agree on policy that own the careers of so many politicians. Plutocrats? OK, I agree with that.

Now, regarding how the moonbat messiah can be a "leftist" and a tool of a plutocracy, well that's simple.

Even the Bolsheviks were funded and supported by rich banking interests that wanted to rid themselves of the obstruction of the Czar and end the instability and rioting among the hordes of starving peasants. The Nazi party was also financed by wealthy industrialists who just wanted someone to finally whip the labor force into submission and suppress the commie genie that shouldn't have been loosened upon the earth.

Now modern plutocrats don't give a damn about "right or left". When you own the media and the political whores, the laws don't pertain to you. Obozo can go ahead and regulate everything he wants, his owners won't have to worry about compliance, their competition will. For these assholes a leftist is the perfect tool to secure their grip on power.

It's only because there are a few much maligned rich people who still value individual liberty and free enterprise that we even still have a republic.

If "oligarchy" is when the government is controlled by a small group, and "plutocracy" is when the government is controlled by the wealthy, does that imply all plutocrats are oligarchs but not all oligarchs are plutocrats? Could you name any of those "few much maligned rich people who still value individual liberty and free enterprise..."?

 

[Moonglow]

those not in government.

 

[georgephillip]

"'We are talking about crimes against humanity—Wall Street crimes, war crimes, the crimes of the criminal justice system in the form of Jim Crow, the crimes against our working poor that have their backs pushed against the wall because of stagnant wages and corporate profits going up,' West said. 'Abraham Heschel said that the distinctive feature of any empire in decline is its indifference to criminality. That is a fundamental feature of our time, an indifference to criminality, especially on top, wickedness in high places.'”

Chris Hedges: Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

In one important aspect today's US government is just as wicked as most others throughout history: it has no wall of separation between the influence of private wealth and the state. Until that changes, your vote is next to meaningless.

 

[Pete7469]

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government" that's run by corporate tools like Bubba, Dubya, and Obozo. West made the initial mistake of thinking the latter was different, but his eyes are open now:

"West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be 'a war president with a peace prize'; West further retracted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, stating that Obama is 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.'"[61][62][63]

"In November 2012, West said in an interview that he considered Obama a 'Rockefeller Republican in blackface.'"

How does "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs..." qualify as a leftist?

I disagree.

This country became incredibly rich in just 200 years BECAUSE we had a government who's power was limited more than any other. Hordes of people both destitute and rich fled the confines of Europe to enjoy the freedom this country offered.

If your premise was correct;

Rich people don't exist without "a massive authoritarian government"

Then the Soviet Union would have "liberated" us from "the chains of capitalism" in the 1960's. That's not how things worked out.

Those hordes of poor people fled Europe for the US because of free education provided by the government. If you think our government's power was ever limited, you haven't consulted too many Indians or Mexicans. Rich people from the dawn of civilization have used government as a club to privatize profits from war and the private creation of money at interest and socialize their externalities on the backs of working people. I don't understand what point your making about the Soviet Union liberating us from the chains of capitalism in the 1960s. Are you under the impression there were no rich people in the Soviet Union at that time and that they did not exert control over their government?

They left their homelands behind for "free" education? Do you really believe that?

While the government may have taken lands from indians, it did so with the consent of it's citizens. Nobody gave a shit about the feral savages who roamed about the wilderness. They were in the way. That doesn't mean the government forced companies to pay union wages, taxed them into bankruptcy and regulated them into china.

The Mexicans? I'm not even going to dignify that, because you must not have a grasp of historical facts.

If you don't understand my point about the USSR, you might be beyond help. There were a lot of rich people in the USSR, indeed they exerted complete control over the government and prevented people from climbing an economic ladder and become rich themselves.

 

[editec]

Those of you who do not understand how both parties are tools of the rich, are simply damned fools who do not pay attention to the facts that are everywhere for you to see.

This nation just underwent the grandest THEFT of all time, it was done under the auspices of BOTH PARTIES.

We are not a republic, we are not a democracy, we are not a socialist economy neither are we lving in a capitalist society.

We are living under the rule of a KLEPTOCRACY (rule by thieves)

Some of you on the right sense this when you complain about socialism (it isn't socialism, but it is theft by government)

Some of you the left sense this when you complain about corporations having rights (but when you complain about the "1%" you are telling us that you too are FOOLED by ideology of ENVY, too)

The KLEPTOCRATS granted themselves about TWO YEARS worth of GDP of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA (about 30 trillion busks). kiddies, and most of you damned fools (on the left or right) are so busy feeling superior to the opposition that you don't notice that you nation is captured by criminals.

Intellectuals on the RIGHT are telling us this..

Intellectuals on the LEFT are telling us this..

But meanwhile you partisan morons are so busy hating your neighbors, that you do nothing about the crooks who are running our economy into the shitter.

I truly hate you ignorant partisans.

I hate you all for your smug stupidity.

 

[georgephillip]

Those of you who do not understand how both parties are tools of the rich, are simply damned fools who do not pay attention to the facts that are everywhere for you to see.

This nation just underwent the grandest THEFT of all time, it was done under the auspices of BOTH PARTIES.

We are not a republic, we are not a democracy, we are not a socialist economy neither are we lving in a capitalist society.

We are living under the rule of a KLEPTOCRACY (rule by thieves)

Some of you on the right sense this when you complain about socialism (it isn't socialism, but it is theft by government)

Some of you the left sense this when you complain about corporations having rights (but when you complain about the "1%" you are telling us that you too are FOOLED by ideology of ENVY, too)

The KLEPTOCRATS granted themselves about TWO YEARS worth of GDP of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA (about 30 trillion busks). kiddies, and most of you damned fools (on the left or right) are so busy feeling superior to the opposition that you don't notice that you nation is captured by criminals.

Intellectuals on the RIGHT are telling us this..

Intellectuals on the LEFT are telling us this..

But meanwhile you partisan morons are so busy hating your neighbors, that you do nothing about the crooks who are running our economy into the shitter.

I truly hate you ignorant partisans.

I hate you all for your smug stupidity.

How much of Brother West's politics would you agree with?

"West has described himself as a 'non-Marxist socialist' (partly because he cannot reconcile Marxism with Christianity)[46] and serves as honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, which he has described as 'the first multiracial, socialist organization close enough to my politics that I could join'.[19]

"He also described himself as a 'radical democrat, suspicious of all forms of authority' on the Matrix-themed documentary The Burly Man Chronicles.[47]

"West believes that 'the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's ugly totalitarian regime was desirable,'[48] but that the war in Iraq was the result of 'dishonest manipulation' on the part of the Bush administration.[49]

"He asserts that Bush Administration hawks 'are not simply conservative elites and right-wing ideologues', but rather are 'evangelical nihilists – drunk with power and driven by grand delusions of American domination of the world'.

"He adds, 'We are [now] experiencing the sad gangsterization of America, an unbridled grasp at power, wealth, and status.'

"Viewing capitalism as the root cause of these alleged American lusts, West warns, 'Free-market fundamentalism trivializes the concern for public interest. It puts fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers. It also makes money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit – often at the cost of the common good.'"[50]

It seems likely to me we won't eliminate the gangsters in DC by "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican when we elect our congresscritters.