A Comeback for Chattel Slavery? Remarkable Revelations from a Top Obama Aide
Printer-friendly version
by Geraldine Winstanley, AN political writer
Hot off the presses: slavery is about to stage a return engagement, by presidential decree. “This and the president’s repeated visits to Africa have helped him develop a sense of slavery’s rich contribution to the development of what he calls ‘this magical place the United States.'”
A Comeback for Chattel Slavery? Remarkable Revelations from a Top Obama Aide
by Geraldine Winstanley, AN political writer
Associated Newswire (AN) – 30 minutes ago
WASHINGTON D.C. Looking for a new way to appease the American Right and giving a provocative new twist to his definition of “sound, centrist policy,” Barack Obama is considering an executive order that would bring "the experimental reintroduction of slavery” to the United States.
Housed in Alleys Behind K Street
According to a top administration aide in an exclusive and extensive interview, one program currently under consideration would be dubbed “Freedom in the Homeland.” It would begin in two selected ghetto neighborhoods in predominantly black Washington D.C., the United States’ most unequal city. Unemployed men and male high-school dropouts in those neighborhoods would be purchased by a joint public-private consortium and housed in alleys behind the city’s leading financial, insurance, and “defense” industry lobbying firms on K Street near the Capitol. The program would fall under the wing of a little-known office in the Department of the Interior.
“Unemployed men and male high-school dropouts would be purchased by a joint public-private consortium and housed in alleys behind the city’s leading on K Street near the Capitol.”
The slaves would perform a broad number of tasks for senior members of those firms: shining shoes, washing cars, picking children up from day care, doing laundry, helping lobbyists’ older parents’ dress and clean themselves, growing vegetables and tending plants in lobbyists’ gardens, doing car maintenance, working in sweatshops owned by lobbyists, and more. In return, the young black inner-city males would receive food, clothing, and shelter along with what the top aide calls “a feeling of being at the real center of power in the world’s greatest Empire – priceless. It should move a bunch of them off that destructive, personally irresponsible inner-city culture that the president has been criticizing for years.”
“Knowing that Barack Obama stands behind this program will be useful for garnering cooperation from the young men selected for service to their country. It will help them see bondage as an opportunity for growth,” the administration official said.
"What Are They Gonna Do, Elect Frederick Douglass?"
While he is related (through his white mother Ann Durham) to the Southern slave Confederacy’s president Jefferson Davis, Obama is himself married to a black American descendant of slaves. “This and the president’s repeated visits to Africa have helped him develop a sense of slavery’s rich contribution to the development of what he calls ‘this magical place the United States.' ”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official hastened to add that Obama’s “vision on this” remains “color-blind and post-racial.” The program might initially target inner-city blacks, but the White House’s program would “ultimately reach out in a spirit of inclusion to Latinos, Asians, and poor Caucasians.”
The extreme poverty of the city’s ghettoes (which “just happen to be 99 percent black”) and the lack of federal political representation for Washington D.C. are the main reasons for the initial site selection. As one administration official joked during a recent West Wing meeting: “what are they going to do, elect Frederick Douglass to the U.S. Senate?”
Prospective Private and Public Partners
After a year of close “outcomes evaluation” by highly connected research firms experienced in assessing “welfare-to-work” and "workfare" programs that have been supported by Barack Obama in the past, the White House would work with various public and private-sector partners to expand the 21st century chattel-slavery program beyond the District of Columbia and across the nation.
A number of Obama’s top corporate and financial sponsors, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Exelon, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wal-Mart, and Exxon-Mobil, have expressed interest in partnering with the White House on the “Freedom in the Homeland” program as it develops in coming years. Already practicing essential elements of slavery at home and abroad, the Pentagon and the nation’s sprawling prison-industrial complex would likely come on board. So will immigration agencies, which interdict and detain a large number of stateless workers.
Not "Exactly Our First Big Orwellian Moment"
Anticipating political fallout from the potential irony of nation’s first black President reintroducing the widely hated system of chattel slavery (if only on "an incremental" scale), the Obama aide noted that “it wouldn’t exactly be our first mind-blowing ‘Orwellian’ moment, would it?” In a candid comment, the White House official said: “Look, let’s be clear. We ran on cleaning up Washington and came in here and cut one deal after another with big corporations, with concentrated wealth. Look at the Wall Street bailouts – we went well beyond Bush and Paulsen. Look at how we did the bidding of the energy companies and sabotaged the Copenhagen climate talks. Look at the ‘health reform’ we just passed – it’s a corporatist joke, a giveaway to the insurance and drug companies with a few bones thrown to our so-called ‘progressive base.’ Remember how we said we’d broadcast the healthcare negotiations on C-Span? We were really going to do that while the President is cutting a behind-the-scenes deal with the insurance mafia to keep the public option (which we campaigned on) out of any final bill – sure.”
“We can pretty much do what we want and call it ‘reasonable’ and ‘sound’ and ‘centrist’ and ‘pragmatic’ and to make anyone who opposes our program look like a carping crackpot and ‘extremist.’”
“We ran on ending the Bush ‘war on terror’ police state and we’ve totally sustained all that. We told a bunch of our ‘progressive’ voters we were basically antiwar and we’ve passed a record-setting Pentagon budget and we have if anything expanded militarism in South Asia and around the world. Ask the people – the survivors – in Bola Boluk. And what did Obama get? The Nobel freaking Peace Prize, just like Dr. King.”
“We ran against offshore oil drilling and look at what the president just called for in front of a fighter jet, yesterday -- offshore oil drilling.”
“I could go on. Let’s face it, we can pretty much do what we want and call it ‘reasonable’ and ‘sound’ and ‘centrist’ and ‘pragmatic’ and to make anyone who opposes our program look like a carping crackpot and ‘extremist’ --- an ‘ideologue.’ You guys in the media will find some way to spin it and make it sound 'sensible' for us. You’ll make our critics look like whack-jobs. We’ll crack the whip and make ‘the Left’ play ball with us. Welcome to the U.S, political culture!"
“And remember, we intend to include all races in this program. It’s like the president said in 2004: he doesn’t wanted to represent ‘Black America’ or ‘White America.’ It’s about ‘the United States of America.’”
"What's 'the Big Fucking Deal'?'"
The administration official added something else. " This is pretty unpleasant and most people don’t want to hear it," he said, "but if there’s one thing this administration is about it is realism, okay?. And here’s a harsh reality that ordinary hard-working people know about in the heart of hearts in this great country. Most Americans already live under circumstances of de facto slavery – wage-slavery, salary-slavery, debt-slavery, mortgage-slavery, insurance-slavery, car-slavery and so on – as it is. That's a harsh fact. Let’s be clear about this: we’re all pretty much slaves to the corporate state anyway. I mean, that’s how we feel in the White House, for God’s sake. Our price is pretty high and we live a lot better than most but we certainly know who are masters are, that’s for sure. We love it but we have no illusions."
"So what’s the ‘big fucking deal,’ if I might quote Joe Biden? A lot people and especially ‘the Left’ are going to get a little crazy about this program for a while, but...they’ll get over it. They always do.”
No Comment From "The Left"
Officials at MoveOn, the AFL-CIO, Change to Win/SEIU, LaRaza, the NAACP, the National Urban League, and other "liberal" and "progressive" organizations did not respond to this reporter’s query as to how they would feel about any moves towards the reintroduction of slavery in the U.S. on the part of the Obama administration. The recent historical record suggests that they could be expected to make initial noises of complaint and then fall into supine acquiescence to "their" “progressive” and “liberal” President. An ACLU officer left a message "questioning the constitutionality" of the proposed program in light of the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, passed in the wake of the Civil War. He noted, however, that the current administration has, like its predecessors, showed a "clear propensity to disregard domestic and international law." He also added that only a small number of Americans are aware of those amendments and their content. “I’d hate to see slavery make a comeback,” the ACLU officer said, adding that “if anybody could put it back on the policy table, it’s Barack Obama.” The ACLU, the NAACP, and many other groups would certainly offer “serious legal challenges” to the “Freedom in the Homeland’ plan if and when it goes public.
This satirical article originally appeared on Znet.Paul Street is a veteran radical ex-historian in Iowa City, IA. Street's books include Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2004); Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the Post-Civil Rights Era (New York: Routledge, 2005); and Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, September 2008), which can be ordered at: www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=186987.
Email this page
Comments
london ugg
UGG Bailey Button Triplet UGG Classic boots UGG Classic Crochet UGG Classic Mini UGG Classic Short UGG Classic Tall UGG Boots Nightfall UGG Boots Sundance II UGG Boots Whitely UGG Boots Suede UGG Boots Upside UGG Boots Sunburst UGG Boots Dakota Ugg Bailey Button Triplet Boots Black Ugg Bailey Button Triplet Boots Chestunt Ugg Bailey Button Triplet Boots Chocolate Ugg Bailey Button Triplet Boots Grey UGG Boots Nightfall Sand UGG Boots Nightfall Black UGG Boots Nightfall Chocolate UGG Boots Nightfall Chestnut UGG Classic Sundance II Chestnut UGG Classic Sundance II Sand UGG Suede Boots Black UGG Suede Boots Sand UGG Ultra Tall Chestnut UGG Ultra Tall Sand ugg classic short bailey button fancy ugg classic short bailey button sand ugg classic short bailey button chestnut ugg classic short bailey button black ugg classic short bailey button chocolate ugg classic short bailey button style 5803 grey
Well this aint satire...
BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE (Eugenics) HEALTH BILLS REQUIRE THE MICRO CHIPPING OF AMERICANS
http://goldfuture.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/both-house-and-senate-health-...
I also heard that we will all have a new God (You can't make this shit up):
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21748
Soros: It’s Not Easy Being God
By Joy Tiz Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control otherwise they might get me into trouble. -George Soros
Obama’s boss, George Soros discovered his own narcissism at an early age. Robert Slater, in his unauthorized biography of Soros—Soros, The Life, Times & Trading Secrets of the World’s Greatest Investor:
“Yet, what is one to make of a child who believed he was God?”
Slater posits that such grandiose thoughts in childhood, if they were the “fleeting dreams of a small child” might be understandable if Soros had given any indication as an adult that he had outgrown his delusions.
“Yet, as an adult, he offered no sign, no dismissive gesture, no footnote signifying that he no longer clung to such wild convictions, but only the suggestion of how difficult it was for someone to believe himself a deity.” (Pg. 15).
In other words, Soros figured out early on that his messiah complex wasn’t going to be well received in the real world and he should try to tone it down a bit.
He’s having mixed results with that.
There are those who still cling doggedly to the fabrication that Soros is some kind of “philanthropist” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The compassionate philanthropist has been pushing for human euthanasia for years.
The august altruist has long believed we made much too big of a fuss about 9/11, an event which he found inspiring: “Hijacking fully fueled airliners and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and its execution could not have been more spectacular.” (George Soros, “The Bubble Of American Supremacy,” The Atlantic Monthly, 12/03)
Poor George, like his current Jackal in Chief, has carried the burden of being a god throughout his life:
“A passage in his book The Alchemy of Finance, published in 1987, distinguishes Soros from all other financiers, ever. ‘I have always harboured an exaggerated view of my self-importance,’ he wrote. ‘To put it bluntly, I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes, or, even better, like Einstein. My sense of reality was strong enough to make me realise that these expectations were excessive, and I kept them hidden as a guilty secret. This was a source of considerable unhappiness through much of my adult life. As I made my way in the world, reality came close enough to my fantasy to allow me to admit my secret, at least to myself. Needless to say, I feel much happier as a result.’”
In 2003, Soros figured out that he could force his repugnant ideas on America more efficiently by simply changing the government than by pressing the actual issues:
“‘I’ve come to the conclusion,’ Soros told Fortune, ‘that one can do a lot more about the issues I care about by changing the government than by pushing the issues.’ In short, he has become the world’s angriest billionaire.” (Mark Gimein, “George Soros Is Mad As Hell,” Fortune, 10/27/03)
In 2006 and 2008, Soros made substantial progress toward his goal of changing the United States government:
“Though Soros and his Shadow Party failed to bring about ‘regime change’ in 2004, the vast network of interrelated Shadow Party groups would prove to be key players in the 2006 midterm elections that saw Democrats seize control of Congress. Of particular significance was Democracy Alliance, a non-tax-exempt nonprofit entity registered in the District of Columbia, which Soros had founded in 2005, and whose long-term objective was to develop a funding clearinghouse for leftist groups.”
“In 2008, Soros’ Shadow Party was again a major force in the movement that not only expanded the Democratic Party’s congressional majorities, but also delivered the presidency to Barack Obama.”
George Soros has orchestrated plenty of regime changes. Don’t be fooled by the mythology that Soros was instrumental in opposing communism in Eastern Europe. Soros places himself on whichever side is most likely to net him the greatest power.
According to Slater, Soros is fascinated by chaos. “That’s how I make my money: understanding the revolutionary process in financial markets” (Slater, pg. 47).
If it’s chaos Soros is looking for, he’s got the right cipher in the White House.
This should be in the Onion.
It's one of those things that you do a double-take over, because it's so bizarre, and yet ... it's so close to reality.