An anguished confession by “President Baruch O Bema,” as channeled through Phil Wolfson:

When I took office, I had convinced many of you that I would be honest, forthright, for democracy for all, against big corporate and financial interests and would champion an economic, emotional, cultural and political resurgence and rectification after the greed and near fascism of the Bush years. Many of you thought I would bring honesty back to politics and that I was made of other stuff — good stuff. There was great enthusiasm for my administration and me and I made promises, even vows, that my presidency would be different and usher in a new era of intelligence, capability, and justice. I had spoken clearly and frequently about the environmental crisis, about international corporatism’s grip on the political system, about the need for campaign finance reform.

I have to confess: I was posturing to get elected and had no intention of doing anything but supporting the system as it was, promoting U.S. imperial ambitions abroad, supporting global finance corporatism and making sure that the rich folks I truly admired and who helped me out, many of them information age capitalists, would have their interests served. So here we are, approaching three years into my term and things are a wreck. I have to come clean.

My positions, my dishonesty, my political affiliation with the right of center, my useless courting of the Republicans, my pandering to giant financial institutions, my failure to practice democracy, to be a true populist, all of this has, is and will wreck the America I said I would represent and care for. I have to come clean or lose any sense of who I am as a human being — forget being the president. I have to come clean because I have brought the wrecking ball into the American house and it is knocking down the walls, and the foundations are cracking and sinking. Oh! The so-called patriots, the truly lying, manipulating, self-serving politicians you have elected–and for sure that is almost all of them — they are nearly all on the dole, getting the big bucks from lobbyists and right wing foundations to buy their votes — being a politician is a fantastic wealth path — with job stability once you leave office in big corporations for whom you have done great favors — for sure I will be flayed alive and impeached for breaking with my own awful betrayal. I don’t expect anyone to join me, well maybe Bernie Sanders and a few others who are a near extinct breed thanks to me.

Yes, I am driven to this confession because I am causing a great mental illness in the U.S. — a delusional state so that you the people cannot see clearly and are being ripped off under your noses. I hate my cowardice. I have not even defended my name against the minority of racists and hate mongers who forget their own names are foreign to anyone else who is not from their own background. I hate myself for not trumpeting my love for all people of all names. Names are from roots, work, relationships, and origins and I wrote of how proud I was of my roots and then I didn’t stand up for myself and all people — not even for my name. So what if it sounds Muslim to some. Bachmann and Schwarzenegger are of German origin and some Germans were Nazis who slaughtered tens of millions of humans, but we don’t put them down for their names. And Italians had their Mussolini, Chinese their Mao, and who knows the roots of English names — Smith was a guy with a forge — could have been Anglo, or Norman. Who cares about names anyway? I should have stood up and said I am Baruch O Bema of the people with many roots and we all come from the great mothers who grew up in the Horn of Africa one of whom crossed the Red Sea and mothered all of the rest who didn’t stay in Africa. That would have been leadership and another blow to the creationists who have grown stronger during my administration because of my failure to lead against racism and hatred. There is so much more hatred in this country since I came into office and I have failed to provide a vision for all.

I can hardly conclude this confession with a now vibrant defense of my name and all names. That would be like my old self — going for what is the least important, the most superficial, hiding behind my own façade. No, if I am to be America’s promised leader, if I am to find a new belief in myself, I must stop posturing and hiding. In truth, all of that created the Teabaggers and my blunder — of many — is in raising the possibility of completely deconstructing the social welfare system that FDR created for combating the Great Depression. He could not rely on corporations and finance capital to create jobs. He had to create them through progressive government, like the WPA, the Works Progress Administration that built the roads, bridges and national monuments we still are using. I have trumpeted the totally false notion that private corporations will pull the US out of the financial crisis that drags on without an end in sight. I am fully aware that trans-national capitalism is sending jobs abroad like the Mississippi river flowing to the sea. I have glimpsed the waste lands of our cities, the ruin of skilled workers, the lack of hope for millions of the ceaselessly unemployed and the impact on families, accelerating stupid alcohol and drug use, addiction and crime. Say ‘glimpsed’ because when it comes to experiencing what my people are experiencing, I have stayed away, watching from above like an emperor. That happened with the BP oil spill — I never put my feet in the muck or near muck, touched a dead bird or sea creature–and I couldn’t wait to get offshore oil drilling back on the approval table fully knowing I had overseen the world’s greatest oil spill and that more will surely come. But that has been me — above it all.

So, absolutely no, we have done nothing to salvage the economy except to print more money and let the rich keep on making money — more and more. I am the Greed Man, allied with the ‘far too much’ men and a few women, supporting corporate greed, supporting the endless parasitic capacity of finance capital to make money on money which actually comes out of your hides, lying to you that the rich will invest in America and that they and their corporations will help you the people by paying taxes, even at the criminally low rates that I have supported as a continuation of the Bush era giveaway. I watch as the division in wealth between the classes enlarges obscenely and I pretend to be a friend of the poor and working people, and the middle class. Not! Things are getting worse and will get worse. Remember I am the guy who saved the banks and the financial institutions from their own criminal train wreck, didn’t prosecute any of them, didn’t support fundamental controls that would control their egregious behavior. None of you are in my administration but plenty of them — right from the beginning, the Goldman Sachs boys who run our government’s so-called regulatory undersight, the Fed, the Treasury, every part of my government. I have kept the good boys club booming and it has been a great party for them and me. They grew their multiple houses to 10,000 square feet plus, while you were forced out of yours and had to find landlords. Be clear, there is no end in sight. Unless I and you support a world welfare system and control profiteering and invest in all people, your jobs will go to the legions of poor worldwide who are working for next to nothing, instead of nothing, who have no protection from injury at work, who are not allowed to organize for their own protection from exploitation. They are lining up to work for some unknown time determined by systems and bosses not by humane considerations, working to feed hungry bodies, and they will be thrown out after being used up. Unless there is a worldwide WE, big business will continue as usual and they will jack up food prices, make you pay more for all things and try to privatize your water and even your air. I know. I have been a big supporter.

But it is not just the mess I have made that threatens everything–the debt ceiling that I gave away to Teabaggers to determine and threaten me with, even to throwing out my terrible health care bill, or other humane programs for the sake of giving everything to the rich. No, it is the love of life itself. I know — and the scientists I trust provide overwhelming evidence — that we are past the climate’s tipping point. Earth is certainly heating up and the consequences are horrific even if not yet visible in each detail. And yet I do nothing to take leadership for reducing the speed of earth destruction. I know full well that millions even billions of people will be displaced and massive dislocations will occur in my lifetime — I am young with two relatively young children — and yet I have acted as if this is a dream that only wild crazies of the left, only whacko environmentalists envision while we your so-called leadership wildly pursue the same energy consuming green house gas proliferating way of life — all in the name and influence of corporate greed and profit. I have done little to rein it in, to make clear to you that you may enjoy your Cadillacs and SUVs now, but are dooming so many–including your children — to unknowable catastrophe. I give lip service to alternative energies, which remain at a fraction of 1% of energy sources and are expanding far too slowly to replace carbon fuels. Even after the horror of the Japanese nuclear crisis I come out supporting nuclear energy. I am so sorry to be so bad. I can see clearly in this moment. I am trying to keep you blind and uneducated, caught up in the crap of political personalities and stupid political trivialities, like gay marriage, as if anyone yes anyone, can’t have a marriage if they want it. We already know that means profits for lawyers who pursue the too frequent divorce litigations that occur because we have lost our center, our spirit paths — in fact, there are as many paths as there are humans — no one has the right to oppress others with their view as a dominating political reality. I know church and state must be separated and so much violence comes from this merger, even after thousands of years of proof of this by religious war and violence–that all people have a right to determine their own minds as long as they do not harm others.

I don’t call for exploring drug legalization when everyone I know who knows speaks of whole nations being destroyed from within while our nation toots its way to nowhere. People are suffering everywhere and I do not stand up for taking the dollars out of drugs and putting them into jobs, education and culture. I am co-dependent in the extreme!

So I know what is true and loving, what perfects societies and yet I have taken nearly every wrong turn. And there is so much more to own and confess. Hopefully, I will continue to reveal what should be obvious to everyone. Oh yeah-health care — we are the wealthiest nation on earth and we do not have health coverage for all. I came out for health care and then barred any representatives from Medicare for All organizations from the discussion. I wouldn’t even allow it on the table. And yet that is the only choice. Even Taiwan has national health insurance. Cuba, Canada, the UK, Italy, so many countries. Yet, I handed even greater control to the insurance companies. Hold me accountable. There are criminalities here. People die because of my actions and the rule of the insurance industry. Everywhere in our country, lawyers are parasitizing endeavor and resistance. If you want to make a great living become a lawyer, a corporate executive, or a politician. The money will flow.

I do go on. So much to confess. So much more.

No doubt you have noticed that I have slightly altered my name. That is not to cause confusion or doubt about the authenticity of this confession. Some of my Jewish friends – no, not Lieberman — pointed out to me that Bema means “platform” in Hebrew and Baruch means “blessed” and to emphasize the point of all this–people are people — you can’t be sure I will stick to the truth and not revert–but if you know and bless a truly loving, caring platform that moves all of us to better, more vital lives, than you can sort out truth from baloney. So I like my new name, “Blessed O Platform.” And here it is — what I hold as a true and fair way forward that only the super-haves and the thieves in the old system will attack and attempt to dismantle. I am done with being pragmatic, ‘realistic’, which only translates into keep things the same and don’t ruffle up the vested interests or they will attack — for sure they will attack and aim all their resources at defeating popular, loving, just change. The people united will never be defeated — so lets unite for a personal and planetary future — lets help our kids and grandkids to a better world. And limit the damage that has been done — NOW!

The Blessed Platform:

A platform must have an orienting overview or it is just a string of ideas and positions that are empty and disconnected. It is straight forward, this overview — the United Nations endorsed and promoted it in the 1950s: All humans have a right to self-determination. One person, one vote. All humans have a right to adequate food, shelter, and health care. All humans have equal rights to self-expression and creativity. All humans have the right to be equal with all other humans in these respects. No human has the right to use force on another. And as we are both guardians and destroyers of this precious planet: All creatures have a right to exist and humans must reverse their planetary domination by drastically reducing populations and our load on earth. We must seek all possible remedies to turn our destructive domination into earth kindness.

Program:

1) We will be certain within 5 years that all humans have sufficient food to sustain a high quality of life. This means we will restrain profiteering and domination of distribution in the food channel. Basic staples will no longer be a commodity traded and hoarded for the benefit of wealth accumulation.

2) We will be certain that within five years, all humans will have adequate shelter to sustain and ennoble life.

3) We will start a world minimum wage and seek all countries’ participation in this. We will eliminate slavery and sex trafficking worldwide. We will establish an agreement for worldwide support for the elderly, the work-injured and for decent working conditions everywhere.

4) We will opt for a national health policy in the US and support health care for all worldwide.

5) We will seek a Constitutional Amendment that prohibits all campaign funding and lobbying by corporations and sets a maximum on an individual’s patronage. We will develop a system of low cost funding of political campaigns based on taxation of our citizens. No politician will ever be able to accept money in return for his or her vote. We will return democracy to the US citizenry.

6) We will establish a national and international service for the development of infrastructure and the restoration of productive industry in the US.

7) We will establish an international ecology service that serves our commitment to limit damage and renew the earth’s resources. We will fund and commit on a massive scale to renewable energy sources and with the United Nations develop a task force to assist those suffering from ecological catastrophe — present and coming.

8) We will regulate finance capital’s profiteering and influence and enforce taxation on corporations. We will tax goods coming from abroad and from our own country that rely on cheap wages and abhorrent working conditions to enable corporate profits and return those taxes to the international community’s workers.

9) We will participate in an international forum for the legalization of drugs and turn to education and treatment instead of incarceration.

10) We will seek the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

11) We will seek the elimination of nuclear power.

12) We will support the International Court for adjudication of criminal actions by sovereign states and participate in an international peace force. We will withdraw our forces from foreign countries where they are based and pursue a policy of support for development and democracy worldwide.

13) We will commit to education and culture instead of militarism. We will support the progressive development of our own welfare state. We will take drastic steps to limit our gun murdering culture and to reduce violence in all its forms.

This is my platform. We are a democracy that needs to have a backbone transplant. I am one person and need my community to help and inform me and clearly to keep me on the level. I apologize. If you do not re-elect me, I certainly understand. If there are some ones with an aspiration for the job, I will step aside — if they endorse the Blessed Platform. The Teaching is always more important than the Teacher. The Teacher exists for the transmission of wisdom and love. I have done so badly that I am totally willing for another to take this on and I will help — with all my being. Personal ambition is nothing, indeed. And if no one arises, the Blessed Platform is your guide to my honesty and performance evaluation.

Thanks for hearing me — I really don’t deserve it.