Trickle Down Tyranny

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Trickle Down Tyranny (ISBN 0062084003) is a book written by conservative radio host and commentator Michael Savage published in 2012 as a sequel to his 2010 book Trickle Up Poverty. Like its predecessor book, Savage again exhibits stopped clock mindset in a sea of conspiracy theories and some blatant lies against the Barack Obama administration, including accusations that Obama is anti-Semitic based on Obama's policy towards Israel and Obama not condemning alleged bigotry at Occupy Wall Street protests. Savage rightfully does condemn the Goldman Sachs creep into the federal government and the financial elites' takeover of the U.S. economy.

Chapter-by-chapter evaluation

Chapter 1: "Advice to the Next President: A Savage Worldview"

Chapter 1 reviews recent political developments and previews further chapters.

The book begins: "The loss of a nation's honor is something not even centuries can repair. The next president must love America...He must be a man of high character and strong commitment to American values, because he will be facing problems and issues that no U.S. leader has had to face since the years leading up to World War II. In the late 1930s—only a few years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—our economy was still trying to recover from the Great Depression in the face of the policies of a big-government president, our military had been depleted, and our enemies were gathering strength and threatening war on many fronts." Savage then compares the way the Roosevelt administration and other European leaders ignored the threats of Hitler and Tojo to Obama ignoring America's problems.

Savage makes three claims about the U.S. economy and military under the Obama administration:

• The administration's financial analysis excludes energy and food prices to downplay inflation caused by the administration's own economic policies.
  • According to Dick Morris, the Federal Reserve excluded food and fuel prices from the core inflation rate due to "instability" of those commodities. However, the overall Consumer Price Index does include food and fuel unlike the core CPI, and in May 2011, those commodities accounted for most of the 0.4% rate of inflation from the previous month.
• The Navy has fewer than 300 ships, the smallest number of ships since the end of World War I when the Navy had 774; the "problem is getting worse" under Obama.
  • The Heritage Foundation article cited by Savage reports: "Washington’s self-imposed budget restraints on defense raise significant questions about the future of the U.S. Navy, composition of the fleet, and ability of the military to carry out fundamental responsibilities we’ve all come to take for granted." It also links to the U.S. Navy's Active Ship Force Levels data. Savage's claim "Bill Clinton decimated our military forces during the 1990s" is true, as the Navy retired about 100 ships during the Clinton years (1993 to 2000), according to Ship Force Levels. During the Bush years (2001 to 2008), active Navy ships went down from 316 to 282 (only 24 vs. Clinton's reduction of near 140). However, the Navy has been losing ships under every administration since George H. W. Bush, during whose presidency the Navy retired about 120 ships from 1989 to 1992. In 2007, the number of ships reached 278, the lowest since the 19th century. Available data shows that the number of active Navy ships during the Obama administration has been relatively stable: 285 in 2009, 288 in 2010, and 285 in 2011.
    • The point is somewhat moot, as even those 285 ships mean the US Navy's total displaced tonnage is greater than the next THIRTEEN largest navies in the world COMBINED[1]... and it's not like that's due to rowboats and runabouts either. The US Navy operates:
      • 10 fleet aircraft carriers - the entire rest of the world can manage seven. America's most likely opponents, China and Russia, have ONE each.
      • 18 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - between them, China and Russia have 10.
      • 53 nuclear-powered attack submarines vs 47 operated by all the rest of the world's navies combined.
      • 62 guided missile destroyers to China's 26 and Russia's 14.
      • And so on down the line...
• The world's governments, banks, and brokerages collectively owe about $600 trillion in debt, ten times the annual world GDP $60 trillion and about 40 times as much as the US GDP $15 trillion. That debt is to blame for the 2008 economic crash that "sealed the deal for the election of the first Marxist president of the United States."

Savage implores the next president to "laugh at the lunatic fringe pushing the theory of global warming." Then he suggests: "We will very likely not survive as a free nation after four more years under Obama's rule."

Regarding Obama ceasing installation of missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, Savage complains about "the Obama foreign policy" being "one of appeasing Islamist dictators and bowing to the Chinese and the Russians." However, Savage ignores other parts of his cited source about the missile defense system:

“”The US president said "updated intelligence" on Iran's existing short- and medium-range missiles showed they were "capable of reaching Europe". He added that the US would continue its efforts to end Iranian attempts to develop an "illicit nuclear programme". He said: "To put it simply our new missile defense architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter, swifter defenses of American forces and America's allies." During a visit to Moscow in July Obama indicated he was ordering a 60-day review of the scheme. According to today's Wall Street Journal, the findings, to be released next week, conclude that Iran's long-range missile programme is progressing more slowly than previously thought. Citing US officials, the paper said the White House believes Iran's short to medium-range programme poses a more potent and immediate danger.

Savage then criticizes the Obama administration for not doing enough to defend the international waters of the South China Sea against Chinese militancy, citing an AFP report. Additionally regarding foreign policy, Savage blames Obama policy for the Arab Spring causing a rise in radical Islam in the Middle East, for example the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Egypt after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and Libya becoming more unstable after the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi. In response to Obama calling on the US Senate to "soften" economic sanctions against Iran, Savage called on the next president to "institute real economic sanctions on Iran" and "stand with Israel in support of preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear weapon production sites." (Ever heard of forgetting and repeating history?) Savage claims that Obama never mentioned the Iranian nuclear weapons program and objected to Obama wanting softer sanctions against Iran. However, Savage did not consider that Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak has expressed skepticism of the "real sanctions" Savage prefers that came from the UK. Pres. Obama also said in December 2011: "...if they are pursuing nuclear weapons, then I have said very clearly, that is contrary to the national security interests of the United States; it's contrary to the national security interests of our allies, including Israel; and we are going to work with the world community to prevent that." Obama's Iran policy has been described as "containment".

The 2012 defense budget represents only 3.4% of US GDP, the lowest percentage since the Clinton administration. Savage calls on the next president to increase defense spending and restore American world superpower rather than the "new George Soros-defined world order" of the Obama administration due to "continuing danger" in Iraq and Afghanistan and nuclear capabilities of Iran and North Korea.

On Obama's environmental policy, Savage writes that the Environmental Protection Agency wants to keep the US "dependent on foreign oil" and has "all but permanently banned offshore drilling in the United States." Savage omits that crude oil production in the US has actually increased every year since 2008. Savage also raises panic about energy shortages citing the October 2011 New England snowstorm and Southern California power blackouts in contrast with "Obama's assault on coal-fired electricity generation." Again, more myth-making. Savage continues to summarize POVs he will expand on in later chapters, such as supporting the Keystone XL pipeline, restoring a gold standard, repealing ObamaCare, privatizing Medicare, and securing the borders.

Chapter 2: "Tyranny of a Naked Marxist Presidency"

This chapter actually starts off well with a scathing passage about Section 1021 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as well as a warning that the drone strike assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki threatens Americans' civil liberties. Savage takes Ron Paul's POV on the Awlaki case, in contrast with other conservatives like Charlie Dent, a Republican Representative who introduced a resolution calling on the US government to revoke al-Awlaki's citizenship, and Rep. Peter King, another Republican member of the US House and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. While Savage states Awlaki was worth killing, Savage then asks, "what's to stop Obama from using the same premise to take out other Americans with whom he disagrees?" Savage also wonders why Obama would conduct an extrajudicial killing of Awlaki while advocating for civilian trials for foreign terrorists (a.k.a. "enemy combatants").

Savage then complains about the privatization of vote tabulation to SOE, a company owned by Spanish company SCYTL, and fears that this move will corrupt the 2012 election. While vote-counting is a legitimate debate in the US, sources like Snopes and (gasp!) Michelle Malkin (yes, the real Michelle Malkin!) have dismissed such fears. Furthermore, where were Savage, Malkin, and other right wingers back in the 2004 election when questionable circumstances with electronic voting affected results in Ohio and helped George W. Bush win re-election?

Savage then claims Obama is engaging in "Chicago-style politics" as president, with examples:

• Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made "the same sort of voluntary surrender" of their law licenses that "Bill Clinton made after he lied under oath." That's a lie: the Arkansas State Bar actually suspended Clinton's law license in a settlement with Clinton after the Lewinsky scandal. In contrast, the Obamas personally requested their law licenses be considered inactive as they entered positions not requiring law licenses.
• And then other examples that Savage will explore in more detail in later chapters, including: Fast and Furious, Obama administration "czars" (never mind that "czars" in presidential cabinets have existed since the FDR administration and have surged under the George W. Bush administration), Occupy Wall Street, Wisconsin union protests, and GM and Chrysler becoming union-run.

Savage then attacks professor whom he calls an "ultra-liberal political scientist" Brendan Nyhan for claim "Obama set a record earlier this month for most days without a scandal of any president since 1977" in the fall of 2011. Savage ignores Nyhan's methodology that considers a scandal a Page One Washington Post article that uses the word "scandal". Nyhan has also predicted in 2011, "the likelihood of a presidential or executive branch scandal before the 2012 election [is] quite high."

Then, Savage compares Michelle Obama to Imelda Marcos, the wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos who once owned 3,000 pairs of shoes, for taking a separate flight to Martha's Vineyard in 2011 and for going on vacation for 42 days from fall 2010 to fall 2011 and citing a tabloid Daily Mail article "Expensive massages, top shelf vodka and five-star hotels: First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations." (The Daily Mail is not known for being a reliable news source.) Whining again about the Obamas' vacation costs, Savage complains about the $4 million cost of the First Family's December 2011 vacation to Hawaii. This is without noting that the cost includes accommodating the White House press corp's costs unlike George W. Bush's vacation budget.

With another non-factually based claim about Michelle Obama, Savage claims she whispered to Barack during a 9/11 memorial ceremony, "All this over a flag?" (This quote is a fabrication originating from shoddy lip reading by anti-Obama zealots on the Internet. Michelle's spokesperson also responded: "The First Lady was commenting to the President on how moving and powerful it always is to watch all that America's firefighters and police officers do to honor the flag.")

Savage proceeds again to exaggerate Michelle Obama, citing the Potter Williams Report: "She's in favor of having schools feed our children...in agreement with Marx and Engels, who favored eliminating the role of the family in raising children. Michelle argues that the government 'should provide clear, actionable guidance to...families on how to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and reduce screen time.'" Does Savage not realize he defeated his own argument through that quote, which only says "guidance", not compulsion, and it does not cross the mind of those individualist conservatives like Savage that not all families understand healthy living. (Won't the children of those parents who don't understand the importance of physical activity et al. later be a burden on taxpayers and thus "takers" instead of "makers"?) Furthermore, the National School Lunch Program originated in the post-WWII years as many men were rejected from the military due to diet-related health problems.

Citing passages in the Declaration of Independence that condemn abuses of power by King George III, Savage declares Obama guilty of "trampling on the rights of individuals and state governments" for suing Arizona over SB 1070 immigration law, "creat[ing] more boards and special commissions than any other president since FDR," and bypassing Congress to declare war in Libya.

Savage then cites two examples of the Obama administration manhandling the media, both of which are over-hyped:

• Regarding the Boston Herald being "excluded" from covering a 2011 Obama visit to Boston, the Herald actually reported that while it was excluded from pool coverage unlike its more liberal rival Globe, "His afternoon speech in the South End’s Cyclorama is open to all media, but only a selected pool can attend other aspects of his fund-raiser."
• On Orlando Sentinel reporter Scott Powers being "locked in a closet for several hours by presidential goons" during a Joe Biden fundraiser, Powers wrote in his account of the incident: When I arrived I was told I would not be able to speak with any of the people at the party, and that I was to wait in a room until Biden and Nelson arrived. I went in willingly, with the understanding that I was free to leave -- but if I left I'd probably have to leave the house entirely, and not get to cover the speeches...The vice president's press secretary, Elizabeth Alexander, e-mailed me an apology, which I accepted. (Today we talked and she said that the choice of rooms was a screw-up by an inexperienced staffer and would never happen again.) Ginsburg called me with an apology, saying he had known nothing about what happened and was very upset by it, and I accepted his apology too. Aside from a couple other e-mails and phone calls, I'd pretty much forgotten all about the event and moved on to other stories I was working on."

In another non-example of "Obama tyranny", Savage claims that Houston National Cemetery director Arlene Ocasio "impose[d] her atheist will on our military veterans' families" by banning "God" and "Jesus Christ" from funeral services and requiring cemetery approval of prayers, without a citation (a "citation needed" doesn't exist in the book, unfortunately). As with most "persecuted Christian" stories, this Ocasio story is BS when the details are revealed. Savage makes another uncited claim: "...the president has further destroyed American culture by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to promote 'bilingual education' programs that discourage immigrants from learning English and learning about our country's unique history and culture." A former member of the US Commission on Civil Rights has commented that the Obama administration has "avoided this issue of children who need to learn English and also need to learn in a timely fashion the entire content of education."

Chapter 3: "Tyranny of the Government-Media Complex"

Opening the chapter, Savage states that he dislikes Rupert Murdoch because the Murdoch-owned Fox News Channel ignores his speeches and radio shows. Savage then reprints part of a speech he gave to the Commonwealth Club of California on March 12, 1998 criticizing both liberal and conservative media bias in certain issues and the relationships between reporters and government. Given the way modern mainstream media has degraded into Kim Kardashian-obsessed tabloid infotainment, Savage actually makes a good point that journalism was better when it "was a working-class trade" with "few Ivy League graduates in the newsroom" in another era. Thus, journalists were a "skeptical jury of ordinary citizens with extraordinary access and information." Savage goes on to name media figures from both the left and right who have worked for politicians or in government.

Savage then advocates the balance fallacy, such as complaining about the media trumpeting the "benefits of diversity" while ignoring "crimes committed by illegals", covering global warming much more than Climategate (it's like Savage wants evolution and creationism to get equal time in the media), and media reporting about poor people while ignoring "welfare cheats or 'homeless' criminals" (don't we need the media to push back against right wing smear tactics like Ronald Reagan's "welfare queen"?). Savage then cites an article by the Independent Institute to claim that the average federal government worker earns nearly twice as much as private sector workers. However, when comparing public and private sector pay, there should be an "apples to apples" comparison taking in account education and job skill level.

Framing a "Soros-Murdoch Media War", Savage then goes on an extended attack on George Soros and Media Matters and accuses Media Matters of putting Savage "through a year of legal hell defending myself against their lies" and speculates that Media Matters helped get Savage banned from entering the United Kingdom. Also, Savage blames Media Matters for the cancellation of Glenn Beck's Fox News show after Beck went on an anti-Soros streak on air (Beck would later host a TV show on his own The Blaze TV network). Savage complains about Soros funding Media Matters, NPR, and other media outlets and watchdog groups. Nothing though about billionaires like Richard Mellon Scaife funding right wing media or campaigns like the Media Research Center (Savage cites the MRC and MRC-owned CNS News throughout his book). Savage claims that Media Matters has "a paid staff of 90 people arrayed in a war room near the White House". Savage compares Media Matters' "war room" strategy to cordon sanitaire that Soros allegedly uses in Europe to suppress far-right political parties such as the anti-Muslim Vlaams Belang party in Belgium...but Savage's cited source doesn't blame Soros for suppressing Vlaams Belang. Does Savage also not realize that Vlaams Belang with its Flemish independence platform is the Belgian equivalent to American secessionist parties like Confederates or the Alaskan Independence Party that Sarah Palin's husband was once a member of?

Addressing the News Corporation phone hacking scandals, Savage defends News Corp papers for exposing pedophiles living in British neighborhoods near children and blames Soros for wanting to take down Murdoch. But Savage misses a "Government-Media Complex" initiated by News Corp in that News Corp employees bribed British police officers. Savage also expresses paranoia that Soros's minions want government control of Fox News in response to a Newsweek article calling on a US federal investigation of News Corp for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Michael, RTFA. Citing the 2006 "What price privacy now?" report by the UK government, Savage correctly finds that News Corp did not commit most alleged phone hacking violations and that the top violator was a "rival of Murdoch"...that violator being the Daily Mail (that Savage cited earlier in the book to trash Michelle Obama) and most other violators being lowbrow tabloid publications in the UK such as Sunday People and Daily Express.

Again in conspiracy theory mode, Savage cites an Above Top Secret message board post to claim Obama "control[led] the press" directly on November 9, 2011 by using the Emergency Broadcast System then rant about "another takeover of our rights as citizens" and "a test by the government to make sure they can shut down communications." Astounding how somebody who's been in the radio business since the 1990s does not know what the Emergency Alert System is!

Savage goes on to accuse The New York Times of violating the Espionage Act for leaking classified information and derailing the War on Terror, in the articles:

• "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts" (December 16, 2005)
• "Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror" (June 23, 2006)
• "A window into CIA's embrace of secret jails" (August 12, 2009)

But never mind Bush-era media classified info leaks that favored US missions like the War in Iraq.

Savage sensibly closes the chapter reflecting on Anders Behring Breivik, standing up against the Islamophobia present in most right wing media, and openly admitting that Breivik is a Christian terrorist! Savage also reveals about his religious views: "...I'm not religious. Do I believe in God? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't." Savage tries to contrast "the left" by comparing Breivik to Al-Qaeda rather than Timothy McVeigh or the Unabomber because Breivik wanted to "polarize society and spark a civil war." Has Savage not heard of The Turner Diaries and its possible influence on McVeigh?

Chapter 4: "Tyranny of the Treasurer"

This could be another sensible chapter if not for Savage's blatant dishonesty in interpreting Obama's words and certain statistics and comparing Obama to Vladimir Lenin.

Early on, Savage argues that Obama does not want Americans to be self-reliant, but he should NOT have quoted Obama:

“”The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, "you are on your own...If you get sick, you’re on your own. If you can’t afford college, you’re on your own. If you don’t like that some corporation is polluting your air or the air that your child breathes, then you’re on your own. That’s not the America I believe in. It’s not the America you believe in.

Savage cannot deny that everyday Americans who listen to his show do suffer these consequences. How Americans who get screwed by corporations are supposed to find a "self-reliant" solution Savage does not explain. The invisible hand, maybe?

Savage then accuses Obama of wanting to "confiscate wealth and redistribute it...to the financial elite who are rapidly gaining control of the economy." Who is that financial elite Savage speaks of? Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, George Soros, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, "Obama's egg-head college-professor financial advisors, and government agencies of the United States and Western European socialist nations." They've got a plan to reduce "all but the wealthiest...to poverty and dependence on our government." Savage then reprints a Wall Street Journal chart showing a 10% increase of people "living in a household receiving some government benefits". However, Savage only provided the JPG link of the chart in the footnote. In the actual WSJ.com article with the chart, the WSJ provides context for the results: "...14.5% lived in homes where someone was on Medicare (the health care program for the elderly). Nearly 16% lived in households receiving Social Security." There must have been a reason why Savage omitted the full article.

Savage also sees the 2009 stimulus as a "phoney from the start" written by George Soros as a conspiracy to fund public employee unions and other favored parties like green energy companies and Democratic-run states and comments about Obama's plan to extend unemployment insurance: "It is not now and never has been Obama's intent to reduce unemployment." Savage comments on Obama's September 2011 jobs proposal as "pork barrel projects designed to subsidize labor and public employees unions and upgrading 35,000 school science labs so educators can teach our kids how to put a condom on a cucumber more effectively." So much wrong here:

• Does the millionaire Savage not understand that life is absolute hell on unemployment insurance?
• Savage sneers at sex education with his "condom on a cucumber" comment and distracts from the legitimate need in the US to improve science education. It's not just science labs to be installed, also "Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas."
• The American Society of Civil Engineers (no known ties to Soros!) graded US bridges "C" and aviation "D" in 2011, a fact ignored by Savage.

Savage concludes his rant about dependence: "America, reach for the lubricant. The most corrupt president in American history is not going to let up in his campaign to bankrupt this country, and you'll be the next victims." Eww.

Savage then suggests that Obama is sidestepping the law in signing continuing resolutions rather than full budgets to fund the US government and presents without context the US Senate's 97-0 vote against Obama's 2012 budget proposal from May 2011. (Never mind all of the CRs signed by George W. Bush!) Savage then characterizes the president's Deficit Reduction Supercommittee as a "junta". Savage then reprints his USA Today op-ed article defending the U.S. Marines caught on video urinating on dead Taliban corpses after commenting on how the Supercommittee wants to defund the military. OK, maybe the Marines should not have videotaped the urination and just kept that incident as inner-circle gossip in order not to make a terror-recruiting TV commercial for the enemy.

Savage then attacks the Affordable Care Act "ObamaCare" as a "wealth confiscation plan" imposing many new taxes on Americans comparable to Lenin seizing Russian citizens' property and issuing waivers to favored parties such as high-end restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels in San Francisco (Nancy Pelosi's congressional district!) and labor union workers. He then shifts back to deep cover liberal territory and chastises Obama for hiring former General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head the council on jobs and competitiveness at the White House because GE evades corporate income taxes as do companies like PG&E, Wells Fargo, and HP...citing the left-wing Citizens for Tax Justice! Savage also criticizes Immelt and Bill Gates for selling technology to China; in fact, Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich called on Immelt to resign over the China deal!

The rest of the chapter goes on to attack the 2008 bank bailouts (along with allegation that hedge fund managers rigged the 2008 crash to help Obama win election), the revolving door between Goldman Sachs and the US federal government, the Bilderberg Group, the weakness of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, and inflation. Savage then advocates a return to the gold standard in response to inflation during the Obama years. Then Savage rightfully points out how big banks like Goldman Sachs manipulated markets and shielding European debt. Paranoid again, Savage considers Obama's America "the next Cuba" because "American workers are rapidly becoming the equivalent of tenant farmers in the rural South during the 1920s and '30s" due to relying on government for jobs, income, and goods. Savage also lies about the debt ceiling by claiming it lets "government...continue its unrestrained borrowing." In fact, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has summarized the debt ceiling: "The debt limit does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deficits or incur obligations. Rather, it is a limit on the ability to pay bills incurred."

Chapter 5: "Tyranny of Obama's Radical Accomplices"

An amazing disconnect here: Savage spent Chapter 4 attacking the financial elite only to turn around and trash Occupy Wall Street in Chapter 5 as:

• "unwashed, unshaven, uneducated vermin who think they are promoting the downfall of the rich"
• "well-fed products of comfortable middle-class homes, too stupid to know they're being used to promote a new communist society that they think will make it so they don't have to work for a living like the parents who are still supporting them do"
• "cutting classes from their $50,000-a-year elite colleges to defecate on cop cars and sit around in circles praising the likes of the real terrorists their professors have taught them to emulate
• "What they really want is to be able to live off the state for the rest of their lives."

This is typical right wing straw man argument about those who dare not just "be a good worker" and characterizing anyone who dares challenge the oligarchy as liberal leeches. Never mind how labor unions fighting for workers' rights have been Occupiers...but then again, they're not being good submissive workers who will eventually be helped by the Invisible Hand.

Savage then extensively characterizes Obama and the Occupy movement as anti-Semitic based on two...TWO!...protesters making Jewish banker comments and blasts Obama and Democrats for not condemning the movement's alleged anti-Semitism. In fact, the man quoted in Savage's Israel Today source saying "There is a conspiracy in this country where Jews control the media, finances..." has been a longtime troll in the Financial District before Occupy existed. His other evidence? Obama saying "If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew...uh, a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that."

In another attempt at fitting a square peg in a round hole, Savage attempts to define examples of Obama's "civilian national security force that's just as powerful...strong...well-funded" as the military as: Teamsters president James Hoffa Jr. introducing an Obama speech with: "President Obama, this is your army! We are ready to march!", unions taking ownership of GM and Chrysler post-bailout, and Occupy Wall Street. Savage says Occupy is being used by the Obama administration to promote the Occupy message and ultimately "clamp down further on our civil liberties." Never mind how police have already clamped down on Occupiers' civil liberties.

Again, more tying George Soros to Occupy, citing a Gateway Pundit article. Reuters issued a clarification article the day after Gateway Pundit picked up the initial Reuters report finding indirect links between Soros and Occupy. With more conspiracy-mongering, Savage suggests that "ACORN is still around" as "New York Communities for Change" and puppeteering the Occupy movement, citing a Fox News article that misrepresented NYCC employees as ACORN a year after ACORN had disbanded.

It doesn't cross Savage's mind that liberals can actually oppose Obama, based on his passage "The National Air and Space Museum in Washington was closed down on Saturday, October 8, 2011, by antiwar demonstrators who were protesting an exhibit about drone aircraft—the same aircraft the Obama administration these demonstrators support used to illegally kill American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki."

Occupy fizzled by 2012; none of Savage's crazy predictions such as "the emergence in America of a radical leader like Adolf Hitler" and "martial law" by Obama would come true.

Another disconnect: Savage actually accuses the Wisconsin labor unions of "hat[ing] middle America"! Umm, wasn't middle America the hotbed of the working class? Savage then blames teachers' benefits packages for bankrupting state and federal budgets. The book reveals Godwin's Law by page 115 by asserting that Obama is "tak[ing] a page from the Nazi playbook."

Savage then ties Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Hillary Clinton political tactics with Saul Alinsky and even brings up European Muslims too: "Taking advantage of the West's sense of 'fairness,' Islamists in the Netherlands have managed to get the government to require that the name of Christ be spelled with a lowercase c because Christianity is offensive to Muslims. In Britain, images of Winnie the Pooh have been banned so that Muslims don't have to deal with pictures of a pig, which would be offensive to their sensibilities." Well, in the USA, the Christian Right has introduced pseudoscience such as intelligent design in public school classrooms and banned "anti-Christian" books like Harry Potter in libraries. Doesn't religion poison everything?

He ends by calling on readers to take every chance to distrust and obstruct Democrats and on minorities to stop voting for Democrats.

Chapter 6: "Tyranny of Obama's Corporate Cronies"

Misleading title. Savage begins by dismantling Obama's "czars" such as: environment czar Carol Browner, banker pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, and regulatory czar Cass Sunstein. Savage attacks Sunstein's views on the First Amendment. While Sunstein is wrong in opposing hate speech protections, Savage twisted Sunstein's views on privacy by saying Sunstein wants "no more embarrassing stories about politicians and movie stars" when in fact Savage's source writes: "Political speech should be encouraged since it is essential to the functioning of democracy, while non-political speech should be less fully protected when it conflicts with other interests and rights, such as privacy." And Sunstein does write that the First Amendment should not protect commercial speech—a legitimate point as advertising does have the potential of being dishonest and thus cause harm. Savage again misrepresents Sunstein: "He likes the idea of banning political ads by independent groups 60 days before any federal election", referring to the 2002 campaign finance law...in fact the law refers to explicit endorsements "Vote for X" rather than issue-based ads.

Savage then attacks Leon Panetta, the former CIA director then Defense Secretary under Obama, for Panetta's "pro-Soviet" voting record and a longtime relationship with former U.S. House member and Communist Hugh De Lacy. Then regarding Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican who used to serve in the House, LaHood is responsible for infringing on Americans' liberties via the TSA and using the TSA to fund Obama's re-election via the American Federation of Government Employees.

In a bizarre comparison, Savage compares the arrest of IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York City with the Dreyfus Affair and suspects that Obama used Chicago lawyer Christine Lagarde to set up Strauss-Kahn for arrest in order to install Lagarde into the IMF. Great mixture of conspiracy-mongering and rape culture.

FINALLY, on pages 141 to 144, Savage actually gets to some examples of corporate cronyism under the Obama administration. Amazingly he manages to write about such without mentioning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Chapter 7: "Tyranny of the Egghead Wars"

In ivory tower-stereotyping fashion, Savage opens by blaming Ivy Leaguers for screwing up America through Medicare (in the Lyndon B. Johnson years), the 1970s recession, savings-and-loan crisis (solely on Yale graduate George H. W. Bush as the S&L happened during his 1980s vice presidency when Ronald Reagan was president), eight failures to capture Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, "Hillarycare" (the precursor to ObamaCare...ironically Newt Gingrich running for president in 2012 would embrace the HillaryCare idea of an individual mandate as alternative to HillaryCare!) (all on Yale Law School grad Bill Clinton), and Yale/Harvard Business grad George W. Bush for losing the Iraq War and the 2008 crash. Savage credits Eureka College graduate (as he points out) Ronald Reagan for saving America, never mind Reagan's own foibles like the S&L crisis, Iran-Contra , supply side economics (thanks to Yale grad Arthur Laffer!) Making sure to use Obama's full name Barack Hussein Obama, Savage points out that Obama graduated from Columbia and Harvard Law and lists his sins as intervening in Libya and Uganda and enabling Iran to become an Islamist dictatorship via troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Because neither Obama nor Obama's "fellow Ivy League eggheads" ever served in the military, they do not understand how to deploy troops or make decisions quickly during conflicts. Savage then suggests Obama's foreign policy is "flimsy" because the three women who advise Obama's foreign policy, namely Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and "leftist policy wonk" Samantha Power, have turned the Obama White House into a "testosterone-free zone" where "real men are not welcome". (What? Does Savage not remember Condoleezza Rice joining Bush's "real men" in orchestrating the War in Iraq and those bad old days of cowboy diplomacy?) That sexist BS aside, Savage criticizes Obama's "responsibility to protect" doctrine as betraying American interests and very arbitrary as Obama chose to intervene when Gaddafi was killing his own people in Libya but not when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killing dissidents in Iran two years earlier. Who's behind this "responsibility to protect" doctrine? Of course, GEORGE SOROS. The Libya war was one of those moves that satisfied no one, as leftists have referred to that decision as a "NATO war for oil" and "mission leap." Savage then goes off more about Soros and "responsibility to protect" and Soros's International Crisis Group that Savage perceives as seeking "the political downfall of regimes in Muslim countries that maintain friendly relations with the United States," concluding: "The George Soros-Jimmy Carter-Zbigniew Brzezinski-Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton complex is out to neutralize any Arab leader who is no threat to Israel." The author never mentions that Gaddafi has a history of anti-Israel rhetoric and policies, even claiming Gaddafi is "not an enemy of the Jewish state." Creatively, Savage speculates "CIA operatives on the ground in Libya...were told to kill [Gaddafi] if they got the chance," not surprising given the CIA's history of meddling with international politics, bemoans the lack of due process (including a Hague trial) for the dictator, and even compares Gaddafi to Vince Foster in response to Hillary Clinton's "we came, we saw, he died" comment about Gaddafi's death.

Even crazier, Savage suspects a cover-up by Obama in the August 6, 2011 death of 31 Navy SEALs. Savage then reports on the LightSquared scandal, referring to a company developing a broadband satellite system that could interfere with military GPS. (I wonder what Savage had to say after years and years of war profiteering?)

Citing former Navy Secretary John Lehman's rant against "political correctness" in the Navy, Savage complains that the military has subverted "the good of the country...in the name of the good of minority groups" by "punishing what should be inoffensive behavior against social minorities" without naming one example (then again, such examples would come with denials & deflections from a right winger). Savage uses the Nidal Hasan case as alarmism about a Muslim "existential threat" against the US military.

Savage then criticizes Obama for repealing Don't ask, don't tell, citing a Frank Gaffney report questioning the validity of a USDOD survey that found that most service members had no problem with a gay fellow service member. As with most anti-gay doomsday predictions, Savage is talking hogwash.

Chapter 8: "Tyranny of Treating our Enemies like Friends and our Friends like Enemies"

Savage devotes this chapter to criticizing Obama foreign policy and begins (again) mocking academics as "eggheads" and "nerds" who have "an excess of IQ and a shortage of testosterone" who lack "real-world experience." Honestly what the hell is he trying to say here?

Savage believes that the Obama administration is backing anti-Israel, pro-Iran regimes while shunning pro-Israel regimes and even is an apologist for foreign dictators as long as said dictators are "pro-Israel". Hey, at least Savage is being consistent as a conservative, as St. Ronnie gave military aid to Central American dictatorships that killed their own people (such as Guatemala and death squads). Based on Obama's policy against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, whom Savage concedes was a totalitarian but at least kept the Muslim Brotherhood out of power, Savage calls Obama "pro-Muslim, anti-Judaism...[and] anti-Christian", citing attacks in Egypt against Coptic Christians after the fall of Mubarak. Savage also takes out of context the president's remark after violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt: "Now is a time for restraint on all sides so that Egyptians can move forward together to forge a strong and united Egypt." In fact, the president followed up this remark with: "We also note Prime Minister Sharaf's call for an investigation and appeal to all parties to refrain from violence. These tragic events should not stand in the way of timely elections and a continued transition to democracy that is peaceful, just and inclusive."

Regarding Libya, Savage correctly indicates that Obama helped free the Pan Am 103 bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi "so that oil giant BP could negotiate a contract with Libya." Again, the US beholden to Big Oil.

Savage then criticizes Obama for treating Pakistan as an ally as Pakistan had harbored known terrorists from the 1993 World Trade Center bomber to Osama bin Laden. However, the American alliance with Pakistan dates back to the George W. Bush years, as Pakistan was a non-NATO ally with the US during the War in Afghanistan, albeit a complicated, rough one.

On Cuba, Savage's "anti-Semite" radar again goes off in the case of Alan Gross, who distributed computers and telephones to elderly Cuban Jews to contact their US relatives. Obama didn't do enough to free Gross yet wants to close Guantanamo; thus, Obama is an anti-Semite! For someone who repeatedly condemns illegal immigration to the US, Savage has no problem defending Gross lying on his immigration form to get into Cuba! Savage downplays what the US govt has said about the Gross case only quoting National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor from 2011.

Savage criticizes Obama's alliance with Venezuela due to media censorship and seizure of US assets by Hugo Chávez , notably the Owens-Illinois raid. Savage even asserts (with no evidence) that Obama wants Chavez-like media policy in the US, "trying to shut down Fox News and conservative radio talk shows since he took office, through his appointment of an FCC transition czar, Henry Rivera...a radical leftist lawyer, a former FCC commissioner who's working to try to eliminate commercial talk radio" and wanting to replace talk radio with an "Emergency Broadcast System."

Finally directly on Israel, Savage criticizes Obama's proposal for Israel to return to 1967 borders and blasts US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman for an unspeakable truth: "A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned, and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians."

Regarding Britain's relations with Obama, Savage claims that foreign relations issues influenced Obama not being invited to the royal wedding of 2011. Never mind that some US presidents (Democratic AND Republican) in the past have not been invited to royal weddings, and it's just narrow minded "hate Obama" low-level thinking that Savage is showing. And how did this PRATT about Obama returning the bust of Winston Churchill to the British make it past the editors? In fact, Obama simply moved a copy of the Churchill bust outside the Oval Office and replaced it with an Abraham Lincoln bust, and the British government loaned the original Churchill bust to George W. Bush for Bush's time in office.

Savage ends by criticizing Obama for defending Manuel Zelaya, who was attempting a takeover of the Honduran government.

Chapter 9: "Tyranny of Green Energy"

Savage frets about "Holder's thugs" raiding Gibson Guitar in 2011 over recently illegal rare wood and extensively quotes Gibson's press releases as if he were Gibson's PR man. Savage, although an environmentalist, sees Obama's green energy initiatives as a sinister big government move. He then goes on to criticize the Obama administration's loan to failed solar company Solyndra and other examples of crony green capitalism and accuse the administration of intentionally blocking domestic energy production and causing energy prices to rise in order to promote green energy in a "beg, tax, and persecute" strategy. Savage even calls carbon dioxide a "benign gas" and "not a greenhouse gas." (Yes, it is. Claiming global warming to be a myth, Savage cites the discredited Oregon Petition signed by 9,000 doctoral-holding scientists as scientific consensus.

This is getting tiresome, but Savage again ties an interest of George Soros, specifically Soros's investment in destroying the Brazilian Cerrado, to the Obama agenda.

Chapter 10: "Tyranny of the Anti-Justice Department"

This chapter focuses on Obama's Operation Fast and Furious scandal, immigration policy, and policy towards the CIA and terrorist detainees. Savage sees the Fast and Furious project as part of a gun-grabbing agenda by Obama and accuses Atty. Gen. Eric Holder of committing perjury in the F&F hearings. However, Savage claimed that Obama's DOJ planned on prosecuting CIA agents who tortured detainees to gain intelligence, when in fact back in 2009 Obama chose not to prosecute the agents. In August 2012, after publication of this book, Holder closed the last possible investigation without any charges of CIA torture. He accuses Obama of stalling the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and considers it unconstitutional for civilian Atty. Gen. Holder to supervise a military court process.