Chapter 4

Welcome To Jonestown

The Record Of President Obama

It is difficult to objectively speak about President Obama's record in large part because Obama and his inner circle have no capacity for objectivity. If every criticism, no matter how minor or how gentle or how legitimate is met with a counter charge of racism, civil discourse will not flourish.

Let's put the ACA, Dodd-Frank, the merits and demerits of deficits, Middle East Policy--all the left brain stuff—let's just put it aside for now. President Obama's most sensational achievement, for lack of a better term, is his elimination of civil discourse. We might take it a step further and say that Barack Obama destroyed civility.

Barack Obama is the most divisive figure in then history of America. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with playing the race card, a personal attack on the accused.

How would you objectively assess Sarah Palin's record as governor of Alaska? It is a conversation we cannot and will not conduct. You see her as an object of hate and ridicule deserving of all vocal heretics. I see her as a victim of religious bigotry.

The ghost of Saul Alinsky hovers above us as a toxic cloud. The loyalists in the media have protected Obama to the degree that we don't know much about his philosophical influences except for Saul Alinsky and a mysterious man named Frank. Let's put Mr. Davis aside briefly and discuss Alinsky.

Saul Alinsky is one of those retched figures whose appeal will always mystify me. He advocated personal attacks over civil discourse as a means of influence. For whatever reason, Barack Obama took Saul Alinsky's methods to heart. For Barack Obama, it is all personal, all the time. There is no exchange of ideas.

What was the undefined change, Barack Obama promised America? It turned out to be unbridled hate, bigotry and intolerance for dissent. Change really has come to America. Change tens of millions of people can believe in.

Barack Obama worked hard to develop a cult of personality, a cult of worship. Part and parcel to his deification is the implicit—and at times explicit—notion that all who oppose Barack Obama are evil. Mysticism is unifying. Reason is divisive. There will be no exchange of ideas unless otherwise specified.

The Tea Party is an informal political movement that originally concerned itself with government overreach and fiscal responsibility. It sprang up after CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli launched into a spontaneous rant about his objection to bailing out reckless borrowers.

There was nothing anti-Obama in the origins of the Tea Party. Most of the early protestors probably expected a warm reception from the new administration. Wouldn't a community organizer be sympathetic to the plight of oppressed peasants? One would think.

The Tea Party would be met with surprising hostility. Obama's media thugs would do their darnedest to assassinate the character of the movement. There was the repeated insinuation of racism. A lot of, “not everyone in the Tea Party is racist but...” Ultimately the press would settle on “extremist” as the slur of choice.

What is key—and this goes to the heart of what has changed in America—is not the specific ideas the Tea Party advanced that threatened Barack Obama. Originally, there was a hodge podge of disparate resentment being expressed. It was the idea of the idea that threatened Obama. The concept of idea. The premise of idea. There would be no rational discourse. Change had come to America.

Contrast this reaction to Obama's embracing of the obviously AstroTurf Occupy Movement. YouTube offers hours and hours of woefully inarticulate interviews with Occupants who simply cannot express what they were protesting. It was a theater of fuzzy resentment performed by political puppets with trust funds. Intellectually, the movement never rose to the level of an idea. Reason is divisive. Barack Obama voiced his support for these protestors.

We would witness Barack Obama reject discourse whenever there were budget stalemates. Rather than jumping into the fray, the president would take his show on the road. He would conduct pep rallies where he would insult Congress and generally misstate Republican positions.

This was puzzling behavior to many of us. The captain of the ship abandoning the helm and screaming at the crew with a bullhorn from a lifeboat. Those of us who thought we had seen it all were deplorably amazed. This guy will do anything to avoid the exchange of ideas (and anything to bask in the adoration of a crowd.)

There has been a lot of speculation about the ideology of our international man of mystery. Frank Marshall Davis was a card carrying Communist and young Barry, as he called himself, spewed Marxism as a student at Occidental. He has been called a socialist but his indentation is more suggestive of fascism, which is to say, socialism with loopholes. But the ism that best defines Barack Obama is authoritarianism.

The authoritarian manner in which President Obama pushed his agenda will forever eclipse his legacy. Good or bad, the Obama agenda has never been a mandate from the voters. The administration preferred to use executive order or bureaucratic fiat or the courts to impose its will. Even when the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress, they operated in secrecy. One of the most enduring quotes of the Obama era is Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's instructions about the Affordable Care Act. “We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it.”

That is not how the system is supposed to work. Something I did not know until well into adulthood is that our Congressmen do not usually read the bills they pass. A 2,700 page bill that was voted on roughly two days after its final draft took shape was probably not read by a single legislator. It's not even certain who wrote the gargantuan document, although a few wonks have come out of the shadows to claim their input.

It is unlikely the president read this leviathan prior to signing it into law. To make matters more confusing, the bill was written with provisions to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to modify the law. The cherry on top was the president himself using unilateral power to delay implementation and to grant waivers as he saw fit. The ACA did not provide funds for one more doctor, nurse, hospital or medical school but it did call for additional IRS agents to collect all the new taxes and fees.

Every bit as Byzantine is the 3,000 page Dodd-Frank bill that was passed in the guise of financial reform. Its impact has yet to be fully felt. It may or may not improve our economy but it will certainly increase the power of political appointees.

The defining characteristic, the trademark of the Obama Administration is the near doubling of our national debt. I hold the strong conviction that debt does indeed matter. If it does not matter, why should anyone ever be required to pay a penny of taxation? We all know the answer to that question. Debt matters greatly!

I admit my bias as a fiscal conservative. Having stated that, I also hold the belief that “stimulus funds” are not all of the same merit. Some spending is simply more prudent than other spending.

The most depressing aspect of reckless spending is that we have nothing to show for it. At over $7 trillion, we could have repaired every bridge and roadway and everything else that was said to be crumbling when Bush was in office but is not often mentioned with Obama in office. We could have the world's best passenger rail system. We could have colonies on the Moon. At $200,000 per home (slightly higher than the median price) we could have built 35, 000,000 houses. Full employment, no more homeless shelters, no more homeless people, real estate surplus.

So what do we have to show for our $7 trillion debt (the actual expenditures exceeded $20 trillion)? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

The administration has probably raised tax rates beyond the optimum rate of return. Should we decrease corporate and individual tax rates, we would probably have more government revenue, not less. Nonetheless, the Obama Administration will never advocate for a decreased tax burden. They lust at every prospect to punish successful people.

The good news about the economy is that America is undergoing an energy renaissance. Hydraulic fracturing is producing an abundance, possibly even a surfeit, of oil and natural gas. The bad news is that the Obama Administration has been openly hostile to fossil fuel production. The degree of resistance with which the Obama Administration opposes oil, coal and natural gas will largely determine the prognosis for America's economic revival.

On foreign policy President Obama often appears dwarfed by circumstance. He reminds one of a college sophomore who returns for Thanksgiving to pronounce old friends, family and everyone in his hometown hopelessly unenlightened. Suddenly, the college sophomore is thrust upon the world stage, advising Israel on the location of their borders, drawing a red line in Syria, leading from behind in Libya, making tsk tsk sounds at the Kremlin, offering encouragement to the Muslim Brotherhood, writing off ISIS as a JV team, calling ISIS, “ISIL”, and upgrading them to varsity status, candidly admitting that we have no strategy for dealing with ISIS and ultimately...he looks like a college sophomore thrust upon the world stage.

We cannot summarize the Obama years without commenting on the Zeitgeist. Barack Obama is a cult leader. He asks and receives unending loyalty from his minions. The citizens of his country who are not blindly faithful are treated as infidels. They are treated with scorn and ridicule, hostility and intimidation. We have witnessed IRS intimidation, DOJ intimidation, fraudulent warrants used to silence reporters, and domestic spying on a scale Stasi could only dream of.

Barack Obama makes every political discussion personal. In so doing, he has spread rancor far and wide. He has split families and ruined friendships. Barack Obama has defiled the spirit of America. It could take a long time for that to be restored.

The Personality Of Barack Hussein Obama

Grandeur:

Barack Hussein Obama is an exotic personality. We tend to think of successful people as having large scale personalities and that is often the case. That is, they are much like us but their drives are stronger, their endurance greater, their will power unwavering. In the words of Scrooge McDuck, they think a little faster and jump a little quicker.

Barack Obama's personality is a radical departure from that template. If there is but one word to define our forty fourth president, that word would be grandiose. A man who cultivates his own deification is a dangerous man.

Let us just skip the self-comparisons to Mandela and Gandhi and self-rating his administration no worse than fourth ('with the possible exception of Lincoln, FDR, LBJ) on foreign policy and legislative achievements. And let us just ignore the underachieving lawyer who held the lofty position of community organizer writing an autobiography (the material discrepancies are addressed elsewhere) and let us forget that Candidate Obama readily played the role of the embodiment of “Hope” and adopted the word as an uncopyrighted logo.

John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all liked to be the center of attention. They loved the spotlight but at no time did they promote worship of themselves. No halos or fainting damsels for these men. Had their handlers tried to elevate to objects of worship, the aforementioned would have rejected it. Efforts to encourage religious devotion would probably embarrass them as it would most normal personalities, even personalities who seek attention.

The deliberate promotion of self-deification separates Barack Obama from every other puppet as well as most public figures. The president's personality is similar to that of a religious cult leader such as Jim Jones or David Koresh. If that assessment seems too harsh, ask yourself this: Dating back to the age of Constantine, what Western Civilization public figure would request that references to Christ be shrouded prior to his arrival? Can you name even one?

That is exactly what Barack Obama did in April 2009 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. “IHS” the ancient symbol for Jesus was covered, prior to the new president's arrival. Sadly, the faux Catholics at Georgetown complied with the White House's request.

At the time many of us saw this as the president's first gaffe. In retrospect, the obliteration was no blunder, it was much more sinister than that. It was part of Barack Obama's ongoing effort to cultivate his worship. There was only room for one deity on stage and we know who that happened to be. His followers shall have no gods before him.

Incidentally, the news media only reported this story after it was volleyed around the blogosphere and radio host, Michael Savage reported on it. Reluctantly, a few members of the Fourth Estate stuck their toes in the water and offered some lame excuses for their preferred deity.

Barack Obama profoundly believes that his very essence is more significant than his actions. Sadly, he sold this belief to his followers. June 3, 2008 following an Obama victory in the Democratic primaries: “ this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Barack said it. They believe it. That settles it.

Barack Obama, as well as his followers, believes that his presence in the White House would somehow improve America's standing in the world. Obama believes he projects irresistible charm and of course the Arabs, the Russians, the Iranians and the Chinese would all revel in his unending brilliance.

Barack Obama believes that actions similar to those taken by his predecessor might yield vastly different results. George W. Bush spent money recklessly. (“Two wars on a credit card” repeated ad nauseum). Obama sincerely believes that he is metaphysically different from Bush and other mortals as well. Obama's profligacy would yield prosperity and balance budgets. Most of America bought this perspective as well.

Clinically speaking, I don't think this guy has all of his oars in the water.

Malignant Narcissism

Let me state that I am reluctant to pin clinical diagnoses on other people. Having worked in the mental health field, I can tell you that clinical diagnoses can be judgmental, imprecise and at times downright fictitious. I have seen psychiatric evaluations performed on the same patient by different evaluators in a short time frame yield vastly different conclusions. I have seen clinicians who fixate on a single diagnosis and assign that diagnosis to just about everyone they meet (This is especially true of clinicians who have undergone drug or alcohol treatment and thereafter see most of humanity as addicts and alcoholics in various states of denial). I have seen patients rubber-stamped with anxiety or depression to expedite the process and allow the writer to sooner punch the clock.

Clinical terms are often trendy. OCD, ADD, or bipolar disorder is featured in the news and the ailment de jour arrives in clusters. For better or worse, the hottest, trendiest diagnosis is narcissism. It was featured on “Dr. Phil” and “Coast to Coast” radio, a show that usually deals with UFO's and Sasquatch sightings. I personally know a clinician who pins the “N” word on every patient who is anti-social. It's the fashion, man. Get with it.

So I am hesitant to apply clinical terms to others and I am especially hesitant to label anyone a narcissist. With those disclaimers out of the way, let me state unequivocally that Barack Hussein Obama is a textbook narcissist. This is not my diagnosis. I am citing Samuel Vaknin on this matter. Vaknin is not a mental health professional but he is a self-professed narcissist. He is one of the most prolific writers on the subject and he was way ahead of the curve in identifying this disorder. As one who spends forty hours a week with mental health professionals, I trust Vaknin's analysis more than I respect the opinions of degreed people.

Vaknin identifies seven characteristics of narcissists that can be found in Barack Obama:

1. Magical thinking. We have already touched on this. Barack Obama seems to believe that his presence determines outcomes more than his actions. Unfortunately, this delusion is reinforced by his ardent followers.
2. Barack Obama's worldview is one of perceptions, not of substance. In his mind, the message is all. If the Affordable Care Act seems unworkable, get the right people—pop stars and athletes—to sell its merits. Bring a bunch of doctors to the Rose Garden and hand out lab coats. Problem solved.
3. Imperturbability. I part company with Vaknin on this one. Yes, the president is described as cool, aloof and detached but he is quick to show disgust. He might not pound the table but he did scratch his chin with his middle finger as Hillary Clinton talked. He quietly but visibly seethed when Paul Ryan challenged him on the premise of national health care and later when Benjamin Netanyahu told him that Israel had no intention of returning to their 1967 borders.
4. Pronoun density. According to Vaknin the average person uses I, me, myself 15-20% of the time. Barack Obama uses those pronouns 70% of the time. This might need some clarification but Vaknin is not alone in recognizing this habit. According to The National Journal December 22, 2012, “ President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word speech, Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times.”
5. Barack Obama sees people as unimportant props in his own movie. In Vaknin's words, the narcissist sees people as “cardboard cutouts” or “non-people.” Obama has no sense of empathy. This is ironic because when asked which politician cares more about people like them, would-be voters overwhelmingly chose Obama over his opponent.
6. Barack Obama displays a false modesty that masks haughtiness.
7. Barack Obama likes to play the eternal adolescent.

Additionally, narcissists believe they are omniscient and infallible. You are either one hundred per cent with them or you are against them. The slightest disagreement will result in conflict. Perhaps most importantly, when they go down, they take everyone with them.

Chronic Dishonesty.

Barack Hussein Obama is a tightly-woven gestalt. It is hard to say where one facet ends and another begins. He is a chronically dishonest human being. With that said, if one lies boldly and frequently, knowing that he will probably be called on it later, one has to wonder if that person can distinguish fact from fantasy.

When a political figure who seeks the White House writes an autobiography with at least thirty-seven “material discrepancies”, he has to expect to get caught. Nope. But getting caught never even slowed down Barack Obama. No embarrassment. No shame. Move on. Re message.

Barack Obama lied repeatedly that people could keep their preferred doctor under the Affordable Care Act. How many times did he repeat this falsehood? That question was posed at various message boards including “Yahoo Answers.” There is no consensus but someone said “about twenty.” A YouTube montage has the president saying this seventeen times. He also made false claims that ACA would result in lower premiums and lower overall costs.

It would be no exaggeration to say that it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of pages to chronicle Barack Obama's falsehoods. Factor in broken campaign promises or the sliding scale of honesty we allow politicians (“The failed policies of George Bush” Specifically which policies?) the misquoting or misstating of his rivals' positions, pulling numbers out of thin air and the accumulation of falsehood is overwhelming. With an obsequious press unwilling to call their beloved leader on his chronic deception, we have become a Land of Babble. Nothing is believable and everything is believable. It's all the same.

A few quick highlights of Obama's ongoing efforts to deceive.

1. Operation Fast and Furious. Complementing the president's positive falsehoods are his administrations efforts to obstruct, distract and impede. The Obama Department of Justice successfully stonewalled a Congressional investigation. Give an assist to the president for extending Executive Privilege to his Attorney General for matters that clearly did not involve Executive Privilege.
2. Benghazi. Falling back on the repeated success of a deliberate, outlandish lie, the entire administration advanced the idea that the attack on the Benghazi, Libya consulate on September 11, 2012 was the result of a protest against a not much viewed YouTube video that insulted Islam. A spontaneous protest that that got out of hand is more politically palatable than an Al Qaeda terrorist attack.

3. The IRS Scandals. Lost and broken hard drives, private emails, foggy memories, the Fifth Amendment, a promised FBI investigation that never got off the ground and a president who goes on television to announce “there is not a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS as his Justice Department conducts a non-investigation.

4. Voter ID. The Obama Administration fought states' effort to require a photo ID prior to voting. Every position is arguable except perhaps this one. There is but one reason to fight the integrity of the electoral system and that is to allow and institutionalize widespread cheating.

Yes, politicians and fishermen are notorious for their outrageous claims. Is Barack Obama less honest than other politicians? Yes, absolutely. What is different about Barack Obama is that the fawning press has downplayed, excused, covered and even facilitated their cult leader's falsehoods. It is all about the worship.

I could pile on but you get the point. A web search of “Obama's top lies” will get you hundreds of sites. No, they do not all repeat themselves. Obamalies.net provides a greatest hits, of sorts.

Three personal favorites. One, Obama stating that the new administration had no idea how bad the country's financial situation was until they took office. This was a falsehood to appeal to idiots who believe that George Bush kept a set of secret books under his bed and a key to a giant vault. The country's finances are a matter of public record and a sitting Senator can get just about any financial information he wants with a wave of his hand.

Two, the false biography. I never put a lot of stock in that Kenya birth certificate thing (but the administration and the loyalists in the press actually kept the subject alive.) When a middle-aged man takes a much younger wife, he usually does not bring her home to meet his original family. Even it such practices were common, I doubt if most late stage pregnant women would want to fly to Kenya during the 1960's. I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

It would later be revealed that a young Barack Obama would solicit the services of the literary agency, Acton & Dystel in 1991. The agency would circulate brief biographies of their clientele, usually about four sentences long. “Barack Obama, the first African-American President of Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii...” Oops

Jay Acton and Jayne Dystel have refused to answer questions about Barack Obama, as has former staff biography editor, Miriam Goderich. Of course, the Cult of Obama members employed in the Fourth Estate did not try all that hard to unravel this mystery. Could it have been a simple miscommunication?

The United Kingdom's “Daily Mail” reports that Acton and Dystell maintained the “born in Kenya” assertion about the junior Senator from Illinois on their website as recently as 2007. If there was an original miscommunication, it would probably have been corrected over sixteen years of updates. As with the “material discrepancies” in “Dreams From My Father,” the Barack Obama persona was subject to revision to better suit audience preference.

The loyalists screamed “Foul!” at the slanderous Birthers. Obama loyalist David Gregory ambushed both Michele Bachmann and John Boehner with Birther questions, even though neither of them had ever broached the subject. Of course there would be allegations of racism leveled against anyone who questioned the official version of the nativity.

Yes, the born in Kenya rumor was one big lie. Ironically or not, the lie seems to have originated from the lips of Barack Obama. Barack Obama is the real father of the Birther Movement.

Perhaps there are more sensational lies but one oft-repeated Obama lie carries the day for its pure unadulterated sleaze. Drum roll, please. The number one lie spread by Barack Obama is the oft-repeated fable that his mother died at the hands of greedy insurance barons.

Barack Obama used that much-repeated falsehood to sell his Affordable Care Act. That mendacious testimony dragged all of us into the sewer. Stanley Dunham's life and death would be just one more occasion for political theater. Call me old fashioned but in my day a man did not pimp his mother's memory to promote his own career.

Constant Adulation.

This aspect might seem benign but it could also reveal something disturbing. Barack Obama has never performed the duties of a president as they were normally performed. He skips meetings and security briefings. He does not regularly meet with his Cabinet and he hates to meet with Congress for any reason. Such things involve confrontation, disagreement and work. Barack Obama hates all of those things.

Barack Obama loves to speak to adoring fans. He loves fundraisers and teleprompter speeches and the love of an adoring crowd. It seemed odd to may observers that he kept on campaigning after getting re-elected in 2012. With each budget subsequent budget fight, Barack Obama left Washington to take his message to the faithful. There he would vilify the Republicans and generally misstate their objectives. The loyal press cheered him on with each prompt of the tele.

There is speculation that Barack Obama will not leave office in 2017 as he is required to do. Some people think he will create an emergency, perhaps a war or even a civil war to extend his term. That used to seem farfetched. Now, it is plausible. I am not sure he can give up his addiction to praise and celebration.

Petulance

We have already discussed abuses of power and we had to shorten the list for brevity's sake. There is a lot of suspicious activity that is just par for the course with these people.

Were Republicans targeted in Chrysler and General Motors dealership closures? Were non-union employees also targeted? Did FEMA deny disaster-area status to a wildfire-scorched Texas because they were under Republican leadership? Did the Obama Administration target Standard and Poor's for downgrading the US government's credit rating? Was Trump University targeted by a Democratic state government because of repeated criticisms of the White House leveled by Donald Trump?Was the government's response to Hurricane Sandy slower in Staten Island due to their citizenry having the audacity to elect a Republican to serve in Congress?

Dozens such questions have gone unanswered. What is certain is that the Obama Administration has done its utmost to intimidate all but staunch loyalists. We also know from the president's ongoing budget battles that he has no qualms about using innocent people as political pawns.

The spending conflicts of 2013 were ugly events with even uglier results. Obama would win the war decisively. He bypassed Congress altogether and took his message directly to his hand-licking media.

The puppies would deliver the day for their master. This would be no budget crisis or impasse or stalemate involving two sides who could not reach an agreement. Oh no. This would be presented as an irrational act by the anti-government bomb throwers and extremists in the Republican Party. Once more, the press coverage could not be more lopsided.

There was just one little obstacle. The sequester just was not painful. It involved but a drop in a trough of red ink. No one seemed to notice. But the cult leader was not to be defied. Compromise was for mortals.

To win the challenge to his supremacy, Barack Obama deliberately inflicted hardship on innocent people. An embarrassing email to a low level USDA employee named Charles Brown advised Mr. Brown that he should, “make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.” In other words, if we say it's an earthquake, tremble till you drop.

Brown would not be the only government employee to receive such a directive. The administration warned of “maximum pain” and other departments fell into line. Florida congressman John Mica accused the administration of orchestrating airport delays across the entire country. More than 2,000 illegal immigrants, many with criminal records were released to the street due to phony budget shortfalls. The administration even used kids with cancer as political pawns. When it was revealed that an NIH-funded program was being discontinued due to the sequester, the GOP offered to fund the experimental program. Obama promised to veto any such measure. Let them eat chemo.

The Obamacist media remained faithful to their leader and he pushed onward. When it seemed there was not enough pain, President Obama called pressed our park rangers into service. The National Park Service barricaded places that needed no service or immediate government funding to stay afloat. War memorials were barricaded. The privately-funded World War II Memorial was blocked off and when veterans, some in wheelchairs, invaded the memorial, the president responded by placing armed guards around the perimeter. That's right, additional spending to make phantom spending cuts seem painful. The National Mall in Washington, DC would be shut down but briefly re-opened to host an immigration rally.

The National Park Service tried to prevent tourists from viewing Mount Rushmore from an access road. They used their muscle to close roughly one hundred privately-managed parks at a financial setback to their non-government employees, as well as depriving the federal government of revenue. American Forces Network suspended broadcasting, army chaplains were furloughed and warned not to perform services gratis and the USDA website went black.

To recap, the Diva-in-Chief won the day and our titanic National Debt grew even larger. Humanity has witnessed worse atrocities than sequester bullying but has humanity ever witnessed petty vindictiveness played out on such a broad stage? Not that I can think of.

Control

Politics is largely about control but it is also about humility. The Obama Administration has never met an industry they did not want to dominate. Health care, health insurance, auto manufacturing, student loans, education, personal finance, banking, energy...you name it, they want to grab it, twist it and shape it to their liking.

The impulse to control is rooted in conceit. Anything you can do, I can do better. I am simply wiser than you in all respects, therefore I should be the captain of the ship. Every ship.

Managerially speaking, Barack Obama is a hands off micro-manager. He wants absolute power but he does not want to be bothered by details. Micro-managers are not optimum performers but they have strengths. They are hands on, detail oriented control freaks. They can be difficult to work for and work with but they are familiar with the minutia of their domain.

The hands off micro-manager craves power but he does not like minutia. His finger is never on the patient's pulse, he does not care to see the patient but he insists on supervising his treatment anyway. Outside the world of kings and clergy, the hands off micro-manager is a rare bird. Their obvious flaws are recognized early on and their talents are diverted to a non-managerial track.

It is not coincidence that Barack Obama never had an executive position prior to his inauguration. He is ill-suited for leadership but he is blind to his deficiencies. So to, are his followers.

Greed

People who rail against greed are invariably greedy. Barack Obama is no exception. His late Aunt Zeituni Onyango lived in South Boston, Massachusetts despite being denied political asylum based on ethnic violence in her native Kenya. Barack Obama likes to brag about his wealth and his commercial success as a writer. There is no evidence that he helped his destitute aunt but the US taxpayer picked up the slack. Aunt Zeituni was placed in public housing where she would live out her years free from the burdens of employment.

Regardless of who picked up the tab, someone helped Zeituni Onyango. The same could not always be said about the president's half brother, George. George Obama lived in a hut in Kenya. By almost any definition he was poor. A hundred dollars a month would have gone a long way in Kenya and would have significantly elevated his living conditions. For whatever reason, Barack Obama refused to help out his less fortunate brother.

When George Obama's son needed medical attention he called filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza in New York to help him out. Barack Obama could not be bothered. Yes, the president is greedy but that is not his worst attribute. His is not a lust for wealth, it is the pursuit of superior wealth. He wants to rub his good extravagance in the face of the less fortunate.

Lavish vacations. Two-jet vacations. The family dog airlifted on Marine One. Hobnobbing with the beautiful people in mansions. Two hundred rounds of golf on exclusive courses. Living the good life for all to see and envy.

Despite his excessive “fair share” verbiage, Barack Obama took elaborate measures to assure that he only pays about a twenty per cent rate on his income taxes. Yes, the president's secretary pays taxes at a higher rate than the chief executive. Barack Hussein Obama is among other things, a miser.

Summary

Anyone who takes an unbiased gaze at our forty fourth president will view an unflattering portrait. Without nitpicking, without holding him to a ridiculous standard of perfection, without fabrication or even exaggeration, an unusually flawed character is revealed. Deification did not occur because Barack Obama is so gosh darn awesome that his charisma was plainly self-evident. Oh no, Barack Obama has proffered and promoted and advanced his own worship. He is as megalomaniacal as every other dictator, as self-important as every other cult leader.

As the grim legacy of the Obama Administration starts to take form a few public figures have rationalized their support by saying that Barack Obama had offered us hope. So too did Charles Ponzi and Glenn Turner and figures much more nefarious. Every con artist offers hope. It's what they do. Delivering on their promises is not something they do quite as well.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Barack Obama's personality is his lack of empathy. The man may or may not have sympathy for political pawns, but he has zero compassion for any and all who do not bow down before him. Lacking the capacity for empathy, he cannot put himself in another person's shoes.

“If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?” You might ask for another ten years of viability but President Obama prefers you receive palliative care. You might ask to just be left alone, or at least have your insurance plan left alone. You will be handed a serpent. Your preferences are moot. In Barack Obama's eyes, people are stupid and therefore deserve to be treated like livestock. Call it arrogance or vanity or conceit. It is the most dangerous facet of Barack Obama's personality and we are all affected by it.

The Future Of Jonestown

I don't like politics but I have become obsessed with the subject. Growing up, politics was discussed at the dinner table and it was something I could have done without. It was not intrinsically interesting to me. Politicians seemed like timid people who tip-toed through life, avoiding people and places that might someday be viewed as a political liability.

I made a point to mingle with political liabilities and I have never regretted that decision. I was wary of what politics might do to one's personality. This suspicion would be confirmed when Rush Limbaugh became a sports analyst. Hours into the job, Limbaugh injected politics into a discussion about football. I had seen something like this happen on smaller stages. I had witnessed politics consuming people. Now I saw it consume Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh saw everything through a political lens, even something as deliberately escapist as professional football.

A learned lesson was reinforced. Rush Limbaugh seemed like a decent guy who was so obsessed with politics that he could never turn it off. He was not unlike the sidewalk preacher pedestrians crossed the street to avoid. I did not want to be like the sidewalk preacher or the guy in the office who turns every conversation into political discourse. Not me.

That is not to say that I was without core values or opinions. I was born a freedom-loving, anti-authoritarian guy who was suspicious of bureaucracy and even more suspicious of propaganda and mind control. Generally, you would not know my political beliefs unless you asked. I was more likely to express an opinion about a movie or a basketball coach. Political discussion was something I usually avoided.

Years went by. We would witness a major terrorist attack, a bloated and often destructive bureaucracy, an ever-expanding police and surveillance state and a national debt that threatened our social and physical well being. Into this mix came Barack Obama.

I was suspicious of Obama from the onset. Who was this guy? It is a question we still ask daily. We thought the news media would eventually provide factual information about this mysterious character. We did not think our our relatives, even the stupid ones, would blindly pledge their allegiance to a man they did not know or care to know. We did not expect our lifelong friends to put on their blinders and guzzle the Kool-Aid. But it happened. America had become Jonestown.

Over the next six years I grew obsessed with finding out who Barack Obama really is. As to the reflexive charge of “You just don't like him,” in all of its implied racism, that was not the case at all. I judge a man on his actions and “like” and “dislike” do not mean much to me. Things like “respect” and “believe” are much higher on my scale than a Facebook judgment.

I gave up or greatly reduced the following activities:

Spectator sports. I used to love watching sports on TV so much that I would have to take measures to limit my viewing time. After Obama came to power I would click on the dial during a commercial break, go to a news channel and forget all about the game. I don't even read the sports page anymore.

Music: Completely replaced by talk radio.

Fiction: I used to read a lot of fun books. Now I read books like “Culture of Corruption,” “The Amateur,” and “The Great Destroyer.”

Movies: Hollywood and I were already drifting apart. The remake did a number on me. Why should I pay to see “The Longest Yard” when I can see a better version at home for free? In Jonestown, movies no longer delivered the two hour escape. Gone. All gone.

Socialization: I have always been an introvert and something of a loner. Those qualities have grown more pronounced in Jonestown. I submit that my isolation is largely self-imposed. Reading and writing and blogging are solitary pursuits. I do not dislike Obamacists but I do have a hard time respecting anyone who pledges allegiance to a cult leader they do not know and do not care to know. Solitude serves me well.

I did not plan on becoming politically obsessed. Then again, I did not plan on living in Jonestown.

American became Jonestown but can Jonestown become America? The press will never vet Barack Hussein Obama. They will tell us how brilliant and how concerned and how sophisticated and how praiseworthy he shall ever be. They will tell us he is principled but they will never elaborate on the principles he embraces. They will tell us he is misunderstood but they will not help us understand his occluded personality. Mostly, they will turn the criticism on the critics. We never supported him. We never gave him a chance. Implied racism. More implied racism. Insinuations of racism. More insinuations of racism.

We know Barack Obama has friends in high places who can make things like passport records disappear. A benefactor probably funded his education. Despite what Michelle Obama might have said about student loans, no such debt was ever mentioned in any of his election filings. Will we ever learn of the identity of this mysterious sugar daddy?

Here and there talk radio would host a caller who would tell the listeners that Barack Obama will not leave the White House after two terms. The comments section that follow YouTube videos sometimes have statements to that effect. Those comments used to seem silly to me. They no longer do.

2012 reminded us that Barack Obama's record was not on the ballot. However, Barack Obama's divine essence was on the ballot and it carried the day. He was not just a bad president he was duplicitous, tyrannical and corrupt. All irrelevant. Unconditional love.

Then a series of scandals surfaced in 2013 such as the IRS targeting political dissidents and the NSA spying on average Americans. These and other abuses of power were circulated around the Internet but kept out of the mainstream media until after the 2012 elections. Now that they came to light maybe the Obamacists would see what kind of bully and cheater and....Nope! Unconditional love. Unending worship.

Then there was the budget wars where Obama used dying children and hobbled veterans as props in his one man play. For what purpose did the president resort to such Machiavellian tactics? To inflate our national debt. To assert his supremacy over mortals. To punish those who dared to mock him. Maybe now the spell would be broken. Nope! Barack Obama is still a god to tens of millions of Americans, perhaps hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

As previously mentioned I started the blog, Post Obotomy Syndrome, shortly after the 2008 elections. It was not intended to be one more Us vs. Them hot spots. It was an effort to spread more light than heat. This site would primarily focus on the unacknowledged religiosity of the overnight cult of personality. Yes, I thought if I could reveal the magician's secrets, I could effectively deprogram the masses. I greatly underestimated the length and the strength of the cult's tentacles.

What distinguishes Obamacism from every other religion is that this is the first and only media-created religion. As concern our forty fourth president, the Fourth Estate can be divided into two categories: the Obamacist Cheerleaders and the Silent Majority.

Obamacism is for now an unacknowledged religion. Practitioners might identify as Catholic or Jewish but their loyalty and their worship is extended to their cult leader. Here and there the cheerleaders will trip themselves up and tell us that Obama, “is kind of like God,” but they don't feel it's safe to place both feet out of the closet just yet.

The Silent Majority has pledged omerta for their leader. Maybe they don't have secret handshakes and maybe they don't don robes and burn incense but if you want to continue to report on barking dogs in Dacron, Ohio, you had better keep mum about your social superiors. Thou shalt not connect the dots.

The Lame Scorpion President

The Silent Majority might not care to discuss their leader's core values but a picture is coming into focus. First, if Barack Obama's core values were popular with the American people, he would advertise them. His secrecy on these matters speaks loudly.

Barack Obama might not be anti-American but he certainly is not pro-American. Barack Obama might not be anti-Israel but he is certainly not pro-Israel. Barack Obama is opposed to the premise of free enterprise. He likes rich people who give him money and he resents rich people who do not give him money.

Barack Obama is not enthusiastic about protecting religious freedom, at least not for Christians. He goes out of his way to see that Islam is never offended. He might be less of an Islamic sympathizer and more of an OPEC sympathizer. The Oil Producing Exporting Countries have helped promote the global warming/climate change/climate disruption hoax, possibly to impede American energy independence.

Who purchased Al Gore's Current TV? Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. Who financed Matt Damon's anti-fracking movie, “Promised Land”? Image Nation Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, based in United Arab Emirate. Who quietly purchases stock in western news companies? Mideast oil interests who have a vested interest in keeping energy prices high and preventing a worldwide energy glut.

The Lame Scorpion President might use all of the resources at his disposal—the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, The Department of Justice, the IRS, Federal courts—to hobble domestic energy production. In some circles there is the belief that an American renaissance, fueled by energy independence, is inevitable. That might not be case if OPEC has its way.

An OPEC shill might not be the worst case scenario. We need to re-examine John Drew's insights into the mind of a young Barack Obama. It should concern one and all that the future president was a fervent Marxist-Leninist. It might concern us even more that the Occidental student was enthusiastic about the inevitability of a worldwide revolution. Our grandiose president might take extreme measures to ensure that he is not omitted from the history books.

Perhaps the most successful anti-achievement of the Obamacist Media is the removal of budgetary issues from the news cycle. We stopped talking about our colossal debt that spelled Armageddon throughout the Bush administration when it was one third to one half of what it is now. America cannot pay off $18trillion in debt as well as tens of trillions more in unfunded liabilities.

Both political parties have contributed to the fiscal crisis but the Republicans could make the case that theirs was the slower road to ruin. They have become the party of lesser evil, silver medalists in the destruction competition. Siss boom bah.

I reiterate: We are told that deficits do not matter as we are also told that we must raise taxes. We are being conned.

Taxes are not always generated to pay for deficits. Deficits are sometimes created to raise taxes. I know of no country the Marxists/Leninists/Maoists/Communists or even the Socialists or Progressives have made rich, but they have made billions of people poor. Leftists might not be able to deliver Heaven on Earth, but they can give all of us a taste of Hell.

Leftists perversely view destruction as a virtue. Not what Schumpeter called creative destruction where the word processor destroys the typewriter and an MP3 player destroys the compact disc. No, the leftist takes pride in destruction minus the creativity.

I am afraid that Barack Obama shares the leftist view of destruction as virtue. He has upgraded the status of the apparatchik class and a few Wall Street/K Street insiders to the exclusion of just about everyone else. Barack Obama is driven by something. What exactly? It might be his desire to dismantle (or as he says “fundamentally transform”) America.

Some people have suggested that the president will start a war or allow a terrorist attack prior to the 2016 elections. Others have gone so far as to state that he wants to start a civil war. Those sorts of extreme measures might not be necessary. The crushing debt coupled with an economy deliberately crippled by Washington might provide sufficient social unrest to extend Barack Obama's second term.

Maybe Barack Obama is deliberately spending us into oblivion. It looks like the Federal Reserve did what it could to numb the pain in the short term, delaying the day of reckoning until after the 2014 midterms. They can't keep the plates in the air forever. Bernanke and Yellen have had more success at elevating stock prices than elevating stock earnings. At an average P:E ratio that exceeds 15, Wall Street is on shaky ground.

Do not lose sight of Barack Obama's heightened sense of grandeur. He would love to preside over a nation in turmoil. He likes chaos. He would love to dispense food here and withhold water there. The petulant child would love to reward loyalists and punish infidels.

Remember too, this man's addiction to adulation. If there is any way to keep the crowds cheering, our diva will find it. If there is a large scale cyber attack or the crippling of our nation's electric grid, the crowds will just have to chant “Yes we can” by candlelight.

A major crisis, orchestrated or spontaneous, would serve Barack Obama's personality but something more pragmatic might make the dominoes fall. His administration is rife with crime. The Obama DOJ can only obstruct justice as long as they are the Obama DOJ. A Republican DOJ might not be as willing to overlook abuses of power, graft, perjury and other forms of corruption. It is doubtful that a Hillary DOJ would be any more merciful. The Clintons despise all things Obama.

So yes, it is conceivable that a crisis might be generated by senior Obama Administration officials who fear indictment. Which is to say there is a long, long, long list of people who want to lower the curtain—at least until the statues of limitations expire.

In fiction we sometimes say things we can't otherwise say. This is especially true of movies and television where executives do not want to offend large segments of the viewing audience. In, “The Twilight Zone,” Rod Serling tells parables about racism using aliens as characters. No need alienating the Deep South.

In this century there are seemingly fewer restrictions to viewer content. Profanity rules the day. So too, do references to bodily functions and more bodily functions and bodily functions we don't all share, thank goodness. And we can discuss sodomy and man to man love and blaspheme, GD, OMG...what if anything cannot be said on television?

We cannot make fun of Barack Obama or his mindless worshipers. Remember the Missouri rodeo clown? Do you think perhaps, the rise of Zombie shows that came to life during the Obama Administration, might reflect society's fears about brain dead Obamacists? Obama would not be a daunting figure without the massive hordes of walking dead who support him. Many of us fear God but not as much as we fear his followers. The same can be said for Obama and his zombies.

We have to come to grips with what stares us in the face. Jim Jones never had more than a few thousand followers in Guyana and California and he managed to get 923 people killed. David Koresh, with a following of a few hundred, was responsible for 85 deaths, not counting his own.

The Obamacists are not as tightly controlled as other cult members, not yet anyway. Are they as fanatical as other cultists? On average, no. But there are tens of millions of them in the US and many more of them spread throughout the world. Not all of them are as stupid or as pliable as the Occupy Wall Street marionettes but they are just as loyal. Some of them have the technical skill and the position to wreak cyber havoc. If they see their deity facing eviction, they might spring into action.

Unconditional love and undying loyalty are the hallmarks of Obamacists. With a little prodding, from their deity or the people around him, bedlam could be released. Let us be prepared.

How To Deal With An Obama Worshiper

Treat an Obama worshiper like a crackhead. Tell them you love them and care about them but until they can curb their idolatry and the willful self-delusion that accompanies cultism, you cannot associate with them. Holidays will be less stressful without the blanket charges of racism leveled against infidels.

If they can put down the Kool-Aid, welcome them back with open arms. You might introduce them to Judeo-Christian principles even if you are not particularly religious. Theological beliefs inoculate a person against manipulative leaders and The First Commandment serves as mosquito repellant to protect even the most succulent cult bait.

But what if I have Obamacists in my family? Get a new family. It will be worth the effort. Would you allow a practicing heroin addict in your home, even if he was once a loving brother?

A heroin addict will empty your bank book and max out your credit cards but they are not as spiritually draining as Obamacists. There is a refreshing honesty present in all junkies. They want to get high and they will do whatever it takes to get there. There is no pretense of enlightenment or better taste or superior judgment. Whatever else might be said about Opioid-Americans, they will not pass legislation in secret that raises your insurance premiums and restricts your choices in health care and forces you to pay for things you find immoral, repulsive and inhumane. Their evil has limits.

There is a part of the cultist's psyche that says, “Wait a second. Hold on a minute. Don't go to Jonestown.” The cultist must train himself to silence that voice. Theirs is a path of deliberate self-delusion. It is self-delusion as a chosen lifestyle. It is maintaining this constant self-delusion that allows for religious bliss, a bliss he has never known. The delusion that the community organizer is a god incarnate must be constantly reinforced. Doubt must be silenced.

From Sarah Palin to Larry Sinclair, from Dr. Ben Carson to Wayne Alan Root, from James Rosen to Sharyl Attkisson, we witness bad things happen to those who mock the cult leader. Bad actions for a good cause is a credo that is embraced from top to bottom in Jonestown. Does that evil lurk in the hearts of every Obama worshiper? Maybe not. But why take chances?

If you shun a practicing Obamacist, do tell them you like them, even though you are cutting them out of your life. They live in a world where like and dislike are paramount. It is safe to say that social approval means more to them than it does to you.

I used to dismiss outright the conspiracy sub-theories that stated that Barack Obama would not leave office after his second term as president. He would inflict some sort of emergency, some sort of pandemonium, that would allow him to temporarily suspend the electoral process. I no longer dismiss those ideas.

Barack Obama is addicted to adulation and luxury (Dick Morris circa 2008 stated that the perks of the presidency are worth about $50 million/year. Barack Obama likes to live large and his extravagant lifestyle has certainly exceeded Morris's estimate). He also loves chaos. That cannot be underestimated.

Please remember too, that President Obama's stranglehold on the Department of Justice has successfully impeded criminal investigations that might implicate high level officials. Chief amongst these is the widespread, ongoing abuses of the Internal Revenue Service. Faulty hard drives and foggy memories will not stop a determined attorney general who believes in the rule of law and the premise of justice. Our president's third term might extend until such time that the statutes of limitation prevail.

If asked to do so, Obama's followers would drink cyanide for him. They poured out in 2012 to re-elect one of the worst incumbents in American History, a man they love deeply and know superficially. They gave their time and money and votes to their deity and they will support him again and again and again. We are in Jonestown now.

Deprogramming is coercive and we cannot deprogram tens of millions of people. We must treat Barack Obama with kindness and respect but we must humanize him. If we could politely lead him to the deck of the Battleship Missouri and humbly request that he renounce his divinity to his countrymen....it ain't gonna happen!

Therefore, we must take it upon ourselves to humanize Barack Obama. Treat him with respect and kindness but finally, finally, finally let us discover who this man really is. Does he really have the highest IQ of any president? Then what is his IQ? What classes did he take as an undergraduate? Who were his professors? Did he write any papers? Why was he invisible at Columbia? Who financed his education? Why in the world would his family introduce a formidable teenager to Frank Marshall Davis? There are about a million loose ends here.

We are not in Kansas, we are in Jonestown. Reciting, “There is no place like home,” is not going to get us anywhere. The cult leader must be humanized once and for all. The wizard is not the man and the man is not the wizard. We must expose the abracadabra. Some will loyally divert their eyes but we must stand resolute. Only when the wizard is humanized will our country heal.

We must ask the question: Who is Barack Obama?