Presidential Puppetry

[Rayaan]

Interest groups are not "secretive organisations".

Interest groups have an agenda - hence "interest" groups. In order to aid their particular interests, and to influence others, they may coordinate their activities in a secretive manner and that is when they become "secretive organizations." Interest groups are not necessarily secretive, but they can be if they wanted to, especially if they have some kind of a devious agenda.

One example of a secretive organization is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC or FISA), which carries out secret hearings in a a secretive process to decide whether or not to issue a warrant. This body of law was later revealed by a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden. That's why he is oftentimes a called a "whistleblower," who is especially famous for being the whistleblower of a surveillance computer system called XKeyscore which can search and analyze millions of Internet data and communications that enter or leave the US.

Another secretive organization - though not an interest group - is called the Central Intelligence Agency (or CIA). Most of you already know that such an organization exists, but it is still secretive because the members of this organization are involved in highly covert operations; the secretive part is what they do and how they do it.

CIA and FISA are two examples of secretive organizations in politics. There could be many more that we don't know about.

There is no conspiracy controling the US goverment and using it`s presidents as puppets.

It was an exaggeration to call the President a "puppet," obviously, but I've posted several links and quotes in my OP which suggest that President Obama is enormously influenced by cash-hoarding organizations that are basically using him in order to encourage their own, self-centered agendas in ways that are mostly unknown to the public.

Not only the President, but even the whole Congress can be manipulated by the CIA and this has happened repeatedly since 2001.

Panetta Testified CIA Has Misled Congress Repeatedly

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director Leon Panetta recently testified to Congress that the agency concealed information and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001, according to a letter from seven House Democrats to Panetta made public Wednesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/08/cia.congress/

Merely interest groups who achieve their goals through lobbying.

Yes, and lobbying is a type of political control, but that doesn't disprove my argument that the President is dominated by the interest groups that I mentioned. Rather, it seems to support what I said. And lobbyists are not secretive organizations, but they do and have been influencing the President to a great extent.

President Obama, in his first term, said that he proposed a plan to limit and regulate the influence that lobbyists and special interest groups have on the government, known as his "campaign finance reform." He said that he would get all the dirty lobbying money out of Washington, but guess what happened later? Precisely the opposite. Washington lobbyists, interests groups, Wall Street bankers, and campaign contributions were just getting more and more powerful in their influence, and now the American banks are virtually neck deep in money.

All these groups are involved in the business of influencing governmental decisions at the expense of the American people - and they are winning.

Among Top Obama Fundraisers, Influence Seekers Abound

RESOLVED: President Obama doesn’t (really) care about campaign finance reform

Obama Backers Tied to Lobbies Raise Millions

Discussing conspiracies should remain amongst the braindeads who believe Alex Jones and in the Arab world and it`s braindead population.

But you didn't support your claim that these are conspiracies, whereas I proved otherwise.

* * * * * * * * * *

There are more puppeteers. Let me introduce them to you.

President Obama has appointed a whole army of "czars" - at least 32 were identified in 2009 (and currently the number could be higher) - in his staff who are given the task of advising the President on various political issues.

Just to name some of them, his administration includes a Bailout Czar, Terrorism Czar, Middle East Czar, Afghanistan Czar, AIDS Czar, Drug Czar, Intelligence Czar, Homeland Security Czar, Sudan Czar, Weapons Czar, Tobacco Czar, Urban Czar, War Czar, Water Czar, Pay Czar, Information Czar, Technology Czar, Health Insurance Czar, and the list goes on.

And, amazingly, these czars have the power to control and design major polices for the country even without Congressional approval or oversight:

"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States." -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008

To say President Obama failed to follow through on this promise is an understatement. By appointing a virtual army of "czars" -- each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House -- in his first six months, the president has embarked on an end-run around the legislative branch of historic proportions.

Obama relies on them heavily and that's why they are able to influence him so much (which I call Presidential puppetry). And he spends huge amounts just to keep this elitist bubble of puppet masters around him while the US checks and balances is crippling. I read that Bush had a higher number of czars than Obama has (35 at least, which is slightly larger), so he had a lot of guys pulling his puppet strings as well, apparently.

The 32 czars are Obama's secretive alliance. They constitute a type of "shadow government" because we have no idea what they are doing, not even the Congress:

The point here is not that President Obama's reliance on czars is illegal (although it does raise significant, unresolved constitutional issues). Nor is it that these czars are bad people. It's that we have not been able to vet them, and that we have no idea what they're doing. It's that candidate Obama made a pledge to keep Congress in the light. Yet less than six months after his inauguration, the president appears intent to keep Congress more and more in the dark. Dozens of czars at a time.

I don't mean to say that this is extremely bad, but I think it demonstrates that the leaders of America are far less powerful than they used to be. They are allowing themselves to get more and more influenced by such specialized, elite circles who coordinate their activities behind masks of secrecy. These groups lead from behind (i.e. secretly) and that's why most people don't know who they are or what they are doing. Many people don't even know anything about them.

If you still think that these are just conspiracies, then, you simply don't know well enough.

But I hope you learned something now.

[Minimalist]

they may coordinate their activities in a secretive manner

There is nothing secretive about the agenda of the tea-bagging scumbags and their crooked libertarian allies.

They will tell anyone who listens that they waging war on the poor for the benefit of the upper 1% who hold their leashes.

[A Theist]

Do you think it is possible that the actions and decisions of the President of America, Barack Obama, are mostly controlled by a group of very powerful people in the government, or by some secretive elites? That Obama is really not the person who makes the decisions that come out of his mouth?..............

What are your thoughts on this?

Hmmmmmm....very possible.

[Doubting Thomas]

People would realize this if their minds weren't clouded by chemtrails.

[Rayaan]

There is probably a more influential puppeteer behind Obama that I haven't brought up: Valerie Jarrett, Obama's closest advisor and closet friend.

One former senior White House official said that Jarrett is "the single most influential person in the Obama White House." According to interviews and reports, she "functions as the eyes and ears of Obama" and she is the "brains of Obama." Amongst other comparisons, she has also been called "Obama's Rasputin."

A Chicagoan who helped Mr. Obama navigate his rise through that city’s aggressive politics, Ms. Jarrett came to Washington with no national experience. But her unmatched access to the Obamas has made her a driving force in some of the most significant domestic policy decisions of the president’s first term, her persuasive power only amplified by Mr. Obama’s insular management style.

From the first, her official job has been somewhat vague. But nearly four years on, with Mr. Obama poised to accept his party’s renomination this week, her standing is clear, to her many admirers and detractors alike. “She is the single most influential person in the Obama White House,” said one former senior White House official, who like many would speak candidly only on condition of anonymity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/us/pol...wanted=all

Jarrett functions as Obama’s de facto conduit to the business community. Among the president’s economic team, only Jarrett, the former president of a Chicago real estate development firm, has actually run a multimillion-dollar business. (“The pendulum has swung from an administration that had a lot of experience in business to one that’s filled with regulators and academics,” one of Wall Street’s most prominent chief executives told me recently.) Her street cred with the private sector is an obvious asset to a president confronting a major recession. That said, Valerie Jarrett’s exquisite business connections have been important to Obama since his political ambitions first took hold more than a decade ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazi...wanted=all

As Edward Klein’s #1 bestseller The Amateur makes clear, it is Obama chief advisor Valerie Jarrett that sits in on all meetings, weighing in on everything from the humdrum to what suspected terrorist should be taken out. It is Jarrett who decides who sees Obama and who does not. It is Jarrett who is the eyes and ears of the White House, determining who is loyal to Obama and who is not, and who needs to be taken out.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/woman-b...e-jarrett/


Similarly, Jarret has been depicted as Obama's puppet master.

[CapnAwesome]

Well is it controlled by secretive people or do you know who those people are. It's contradictory to claim both at once. The president doesn't have that much power because he never has. There is a limit to presidential power and contrary to your claim those powers have been expanded, not reduced. The most important things that he does is appoint supreme court justices (which rarely happens) and his power of veto. Basically that's what the constitution allows the president to do and even that is held in check by congressional veto. To say that the president doesn't have total control over things as though it is a bad thing seems to long for the good ole days (or modern days in some countries) of dictators and kings.

All the stuff that I read that you quoted are very regular presidential activities (such as appointing the heads of committees) given scary sounding names (Czars.) Not very spectacular proof if you ask me.