The Obama presidency will go down in history as all blather and double talk without meaningful reform or action, while catering to vested interests which have taken over the government.  

1.  Hillary Clinton’s undeserved praise of Israel’s settlements policy and backtracking on a genuine freeze, has sunk the peace process and driven the Palestinian Authority to desperation. Abbas who was a quisling and a puppet has announced that he will not run again for the leadership. This will strengthen Hamas and lead to an impasse. Israel’s capture of a ship carrying arms tells the world that Hamas and Hizbollah are probably gearing up for an armed struggle.
    
2.  The US Congress condemning the UN report of Judge Goldstone, a Jew and a Zionist with unimpeachable credentials and integrity, sends an unmistakable signal to the Arab world that the US cannot be a just and honest mediator and the only solution open to the Arabs is confrontation.
     
3. The foolish and farcical statements by the administration about Afghanistan, the leaking of the McChrystal report, the 180 degree conflicting pronouncements on the Karzai election and the procrastination on policy decision will only strengthen Taliban resolve and push Pakistan to continue its duplicity and covert support of Taliban, while pretending to attack them.
     
4. The resurgence of violence in Iraq, inability to settle the differences between the Kurds, Sunnis and the Shiite government, assures a fight to the death as soon as American forces withdraw. Their continued presence will bleed the US further and longer.
     
5. All these quagmires emboldened Iran to continue to play the game of agreeing to ship its LEU to Russia and then reneging, to buy time. It knows that Russia and China will delay or dilute the sanctions and the US does not have enough manpower to start a military attack. It is in such bad economic straits that a new third war will further sink its economy, balloon the budget deficits, sink the dollar and send interest rates skyrocketing.
    
6. At home unemployment increases, consumer spending which constitutes 70% of the economy is in a free fall, debt and budget deficits are ballooning. Democrats lost the governorship of New Jersey and Virginia. The healthcare bill has been neutered as has the oversight bill to regulate banks and protect consumers and the passage of both is being postponed to next year. The BRIC countries are getting rid of dollars from their reserves.
     
7. The trade conflicts with China are worsening and next week Obama’s trip to China may be a failure.
     
8. The final shoe or last straw which breaks the camel’s back may occur soon as interest rates rise. Australia and Norway have raised interest rates. India will do so soon. ECB has given notice that it will withdraw its stimulus and China will follow. That will be the drop of the curtain and the finale of the US tragedy.
     
9. Technical charts suggest that the market indices are at a definitive fork. A failure to register new highs by the end of November or as early as the end of next week may signal the end of this dead cat bounce of a bear market, engineered by the Fed opening all spigots and the kiting by proprietary trading of the big boys borrowing from the Fed window at zero percent to speculate. Markets have been propped up by arm twisting the Financial Accounting Standards Board to suspend mark to market accounting. 
     
10. The same smoke and mirrors are being extended to the Commercial Real Estate loan portfolios of banks. Corporate insiders are bailing out of stocks while they use the corporate cash to buy back shares and kite share prices higher. Gold is on an upward tear as are other commodities. Corporate and public pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation have shortfalls of over 500 billion dollars. The FDIC, Fannie, Freddie and other government agencies return every quarter to the treasury with hat in hand asking for tens of billions. Medicare, medicaid have unfunded liabilities of over 50 trillion dollars and the Congress and presidents have swept it under the rug for over twenty years.

Our allies in ISAF and NATO want out of Afghanistan but we are building new bases and mega embassy fortresses all over the world and replacing our enlisted men’s jobs and responsibilities by private contractors given total immunity and payments of a thousand dollars a day per person in return for hefty campaign contributions to our elected leaders’ campaign chests. The media amuse us with celebrity gossip, titillate us with T & A and fake wrestling, while we sit on our sofas, keep munching and grow obese watching athletes and gladiators exercise and fight.