Obama: Bush 2.0

Dan Froomkin, re-introducing himself at  at Glenn Greenwald's The Intercept, has enunciated the reasons why I never looked back after jumping off the Obama bandwagon five years ago.

In some cases, Obama has set even darker precedents than his predecessor. Massively invasive bulk surveillance of Americans and others has been expanded, not constrained. This president secretly condemns people to death without any checks or balances, and shrugs as his errant drones massacre innocent civilians. Whistleblowers and journalists who expose national security wrongdoing face unprecedented criminal prosecution.

In a few cases, Obama publicly distanced himself from Bush/Cheney excesses, but to little effect. He forswore torture, and promised to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. But by actively covering up what happened in the U.S.’s torture chambers, and by refusing to hold the torturers and their political masters in any way accountable, he has done nothing to make sure that the next time a perceived emergency comes up, it won’t all happen again. And Gitmo, which he treated as a political rather than moral issue, is still very much open for business.

It's pretty damning stuff IMO, and the reason as we know that Democrats nominated Obama in 2008 is because he wasn't Hillary Clinton.  So brace yourselves for Bush 3.0 in 2016.

As surely — if not as enthusiastically — as his predecessor, Obama has succumbed to the powerful systemic pressures that serve the needs of the military-intelligence-industrial complex.  Secrecy is rampant. Politics drives policy. There is no accountability. Congressional and judicial oversight have become a bitter joke. And the elite press gets tighter and tighter with those to whom it should be adversarial.

I really don't want to spend any more time mentioning anything about 2016 for a couple more months.  It is simply worth noting that one of the most powerful voices for holding our leaders accountable just got himself a new soapbox.  I'll be following along.