Obama’s Police-State Apparatus is in Place – Ready to be Unleashed

Published in Issue 482 of The Black Commentator on July 26, 2012
By Larry Pinkney

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them…”

-Frederick Douglass

Will we ever learn from the lessons of history or are we destined to perpetually repeat them?

Due to the lust for power and the insatiable greed of the super-rich and their puppets of all colors, economic austerity [de facto economic-apartheid] has become the lot of the vast majority of everyday ordinary people, even as the domination by the corporate elite accompanied by perpetual wars has Mother Earth and masses of humanity, teetering on the very brink of annihilation in this 21st century.

We must think and act for the collective good of all peoples, irrespective of pigmentation or gender.

Economic austerity is fueling the rise of ugly and vicious ultra-nationalism throughout much of the world, including the United States, and the European nations of Greece, Spain, and Germany. The super-rich are, of course, shielded from the horrors of this by their trillions of dollars of blood money and ill-gotten gains, as they and their puppets pimp the terrible pain of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout the world.

As the super-rich and their corporate-government puppets are exceedingly aware, the daily injustice and pain of economic-apartheid [i.e. economic austerity] can initially bring out the worst in many human beings who desperately look for scapegoats to deplore and blame for their wretched economic conditions. This of course, plays right into the cynical designs of the super-rich. The current war mongering, double-talking, predator drone missile, ‘kill list,’ corporate-owned U.S. president – Barack Obama – is also quite aware of this, and he has put into place in the United States, the apparatus for an Orwellian and repressive police-state. He has done this virtually in broad daylight under the fallacious veneer of combating the very ‘terrorism’ that his policies themselves enhance.

Obama has extended, escalated, and expanded the unconstitutional ‘Patriot Act,’ torture, and the subterfuge and horror of ‘extraordinary rendition.’ He also signed into law (on December 31, 2011 – New Year’s Eve) the draconian and unconstitutional NDAA (‘National Defense Authorization Act’ of 2012) which included the portion of that act that allows for the indefinite detention in this nation of U.S. citizens without the due process of charge, judge, jury, or legal defense. Additionally, he has taken unto himself the right to assassinate (also without due process) any (including U.S. citizens) who are on his so-called ‘Kill List.’ Moreover, on Friday, July 6, 2012, he quietly signed a far-reaching 2,205 word Executive Order titled, “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions” – which gives him the power to control (and/or shut down) all private communications in the United States in the name of ‘national security.’ Obama (and his Democratic and Republican party accomplices) have put into place in this nation a serious and very dangerous police-state apparatus. It should not be, nor does it have to be, something to which, in the words of Frederick Douglass, we “quietly submit.”

Having already waged an unconstitutional and bloody war on (Libya) North Africa, in defiance of international law and the sovereignty of nations, Barack Obama continues his overt and covert blood-letting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan with his infamous predator-drone missiles. There is no end in sight to his dangerous internal and external power-grabbing excesses.

The daily injustice and pain of economic-apartheid [i.e. economic austerity] can initially bring out the worst in many human beings
As ultra-nationalism, fueled by economic austerity, etc., rises in other parts of the world, sadly, much of Black America too, perhaps to a lesser but no less insidious extent – in its blind support for this war mongering, predator-drone missile president – has, for the historical moment at least, succumbed to a crude and dangerous 21st century form of ultra-cultural/color nationalism. By rationalizing for, or otherwise turning a blind eye to, Barack Obama’s indefensible actions both nationally and internationally, much (though not all) of Black America has become complicit in Obama’s reprehensible acts. As the late Frantz Fanon so profoundly noted: “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.” But this affliction of “cognitive dissonance” does not have to ultimately define those of us in Black America who are conscious and have consciences, for Fanon also correctly noted that, “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity”.

If we in Black America truly love ourselves, then we must also love the rest of humanity. This means we must think and act for the collective good of all peoples, irrespective of pigmentation or gender. This is not about the privileged individual known as Barack Obama. This is about Black America and all of humanity collectively.

Think about it and act accordingly – while there is yet time.

Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!

Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)