"What else can I do this term?"
"Go to Kenya, call yourself 'Barack Hussein Obama,' and mention your dad?"
"Hahaha… Wait, really?"
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 25, 2015
But seriously, folks…
Omar Muhammed, at Quartz Africa, on “Why Africa Loves Obama“:
… Let’s be honest. Obama’s election as America’s first black president and his family connections to Africa will forever afford him tremendous good will on the continent. But Africans’ deep affection for Obama is not based entirely on his race or ancestry.
It’s his engagement with the wider world—and not just Africa—that sets him apart in the minds of many. More than any previous US president, Barack Obama exhibits a true global sensibility. Yes, he is first and foremost an American and he acts to advance his country’s interests. But his recognition that there are other perspectives in the world is what makes him unique. Both stylistically and substantively, that has come to endear him not only to Africa but many other people across the world…
People who argue that Obama has been a disappointment to Africa view the situation from a very different perspective. Politico suggested that Obama’s decision not to direct vast sums of direct aid to Africa are proof of his failure: “Africa’s a continent where politics is all about patronage, and a president of the United States with Kenyan roots seemed to many Africans like the ultimate political patron.”
Well, not really mate. The Obama years have coincided with the extraordinary shift in Africa’s thinking about the present and the achievable future. Africans, like no other time before us, have come to believe in our ability to shape our future without the patronage of others.
This is something that Obama understands. And Africans love the fact that he gets it: What we want is not a patron, but a true partner.
Davis X. Machina
Don’t they even care about single payer?
ruemara
Oh, GOPolitico. The Obama as disappointment thing is not universal outside the pundit zone and that includes left right and center pundits.
I’ve found the trip interesting, both for the further discussion of Kenyan family & naming and because too many people fail to comprehend how metropolitan & tech areas of Africa are. Yes, there’s areas where money would be welcome, but being treated like a respectable equal is more welcome. How interesting, blacks wishing to be spoken to and respected like they have opinions and agency. Fancy that.
rikyrah
I love watching how other countries respond to the President.
Belafon
If we can’t patronize Africa, what are we going to do? //
There are plenty of people here who need Africa, and other continents and countries, to depend on us. There’s a reason Gingrich is able to talk about Obama’s anti-colonialism without any hint of irony.
Amir Khalid
I’m impressed that Barack Obama can go to Ireland, to Kenya, or to Indonesia, and be received as a son of the nation. Not a lot of people can manage anything like that.
Belafon
@Amir Khalid: It’s coming home that’s the problem.
Cervantes
Not something one could pay a Republican to understand.
gelfling545
@Amir Khalid: Yes, it’s only in his native country that he is perceived as something “other”.
NobodySpecial
@Davis X. Machina: They’re more happy he didn’t appoint Geithner to run THEIR economy.
Bobby B.
That dark minority audience was bussed in by ALEC’s international cadre.
Cervantes
@NobodySpecial:
!
Randy P
@rikyrah: We were overseas during the summer of 2008. The hopey-changey mood was palpable. One German language mag had a big cover photo of Obama with the caption “The next president of the US… Probably”. In JULY!
Betty Cracker
The entire world’s relief at that recognition after the disastrous presidency of Incurious George explains PBO’s early Nobel prize, which he has been busy earning ever since.
Shakezula
Politico conflates an enormous and diverse continent that could swallow the U.S. without burping with one medium-sized country located in that continent and suggests that Obama out of all presidents should direct money or support or patronage to a continent (or a country) because he has roots there. (I’m assuming I didn’t miss the time various other presidents have favored particular European countries because roots.)
Right. Because it isn’t like we still don’t have right wing oozing all over the place and darkly muttering about how Obama plans to give everything to African-Americans (or Muslims, depending on whether Jupiter is in retrograde).
And if he had taken this odd and unprecedented step, Politico totally wouldn’t have shat the bed and shrieked about racially divisive behavior.
What a bunch of dishonest dumblefucks.
BR
@Randy P:
Funny, we were too and I remember that. I remember a conversation on a train in Germany with one German and two South Africans who just didn’t believe it when I said (this was early summer 2008) confidently that Obama would win. They were so down about 8 years of Bush that they didn’t believe America would elect him.
Betty Cracker
@Shakezula: Not to mention that the coffers were somewhat depleted thanks to the multiple trillion-dollar fuck-ups perpetrated by said dumblefucks…
Cacti
I’ll never forget having credulous right wingers tell me that Obama was actually an Arab rather than African, because Muslim, or some such rubbish.
Hate really does warp the mind.
MattF
Politico is presumably baffled and annoyed by the concept that anyone outside the US of A would read and criticize the partisan garbage they’re publishing. Using English! How dare they!
Chris
@Cacti:
I love the fact that they thought it mattered… but they’re not racist. No, sir. They have black friends.
Jeffro
Here are some other choice words from President No-Fuxx-Left-To-Give:
http://wonkette.com/592121/president-obama-politely-suggests-republicans-are-bunch-of-a-holes
Well, he will help unify their party w/ stuff like that, that’s for sure! lol
shell
Also loved Obama’s response to Huckabee’s crapola last week. Even mused that perhaps he’s just trying to grab the headlines from Trump.
MattF
OT, NYT sorta says oopsie wrt Hillary story.
raven
@MattF: Send it to Mornin Jihad Joe.
Chyron HR
I support Obama’s decision to visit Kanye. Hopefully he can get him to stop sampling good songs in the middle of his bad songs.
Cacti
@Chris:
Or that they had to rack their tiny brains to try and invent a worse (in their view) ancestry for him. “He’s not even African, he’s actually half-Arab” (read: half-terrorist).
Patricia Kayden
“Politico suggested that Obama’s decision not to direct vast sums of direct aid to Africa are proof of his failure”
Because just throwing vast sums of money at African countries has worked so well in the past.
Tommy
This is the Obama I wanted when I voted for him. I do feel like he is doing what he wants and to hell with anybody that doesn’t agree. I can proudly say my family came from the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Nobody finds that strange. Obama and many others ought to be able to say they came from Kenya and be proud of it. Just saying respect!
Iowa Old Lady
@MattF: I suppose that explanation of the Times screw up is better than nothing, but given how easily the story was proved false, they treat themselves much too kindly.
Patricia Kayden
@Cacti: They must not be aware that there are millions of African Muslims. Sigh.
Tommy
@Patricia Kayden: Yes or there are a fair number of Jews living in Africa. I think to most small minded people the world would be so amazing to them if they just opened up and looked around. Sad thing is I don’t find that happening anytime soon.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
… Or that there are many people who are both Arab (i.e. Arabic speakers and culturally Arab as well) and African.
Tommy
@Amir Khalid: Africa is a huge and diverse place. I am no expert on the place but don’t really assume you can place a label on this nation this group of people. Assume you know I am thinking that is about half the problem we have with their nations/culture.
Cacti
@Tommy:
If McCain’s campaign staffers are to be believed, a certain former Vice Presidential candidate thought Africa was a country.
I doubt she is alone in that belief among the US population.
piratedan
@MattF: just surprised that the NYT didn’t simply link to this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7D8A7e4TEY
perhaps if they had simply switched out Politicians with Journalists
SatanicPanic
The saddest thing about the 2016 election is that we won’t have Obama as president anymore. We’ll never see another President like him
NorthLeft12
@Cacti: I was talking to my son-in-laws parents the other day about our different experiences travelling abroad, and the subject of discussions with Americans about politically related topics came up.
They related a story about the trip they took in early November 2008, which included the night that Obama was elected. One American woman, who had loudly predicted that McCain was easily going to defeat Obama, was so upset at the result that she retreated to her room and did not come out until they docked back at Miami. Her [long suffering husband] brought her all her meals for the last few days of the cruise.
Possibly one of the earliest cases of President Elect Obama Derangement Syndrome?
Tommy
@Cacti: I reread what I wrote and clearly I know it is a continent and not a nation. I might have not been totally clear on that. I don’t for a second think this. I do think she is crazy enough to think this. Crazy shit.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: Since both Rice and Powell used private e-mails, the fact that Clinton did should have been a non-issue. The NYTimes has been pushing a non story for months.
Cacti
@Tommy:
I wasn’t referring to you. Apologies if you thought I was. I was just observing that many Americans have a provinicial view of the outside world, up to and including our political class.
Amir Khalid
@Tommy:
Sarah Palin wasn’t being crazy when she called Africa a nation, but careless. It was unbecoming in an adult, let alone a politician at her level: one would expect better of a ten-year-old.
MattF
@piratedan: WaPo blogger notes that conservatives are angry. About the NYT story and the ensuing semi-retraction, that is. Next up, water is wet.
maurinsky
If Obama did rain money on Africa, I’m pretty sure Politico would hate that, too.
cosima
Scotland = overwhelmingly positive toward President Obama. Every time Trump says something horrible about him, they are likely more inclined to admire him. Wish that that were so in the U.S. Scots have a special sort of loathing for Trump thanks to his golf course & all of the drama associated with that.
My very close Scottish Jewish friend (there are only about 3000 Jewish people in all of Scotland now) asked me what I thought of “his” deal with Iran. That was a shocker. Fortunately myself & her husband (a law professor who used to work with the UN) were able to educate her about that, but she is clearly getting her info from pro-Bibi faction in the U.S. (her brother is a professor in the U.S.). We recently had some American expats over for dinner with those same friends in attendance (I was trying to facilitate some Jewish outreach here!), and when it became known that he is a member of “Glocks & Bagels” or “Bagels & Glocks” — a facebook group you have to see to believe — my outreach ended and all the remained was my will to remain polite for the remainder of the evening…
Most poisoning of feeling toward the President over here in Scotland stems from oil people. Hate to say it, as we are included in that number.
MomSense
@SatanicPanic:
I agree.
cosima
@Tommy: I recently read “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” and that author has some interesting parts in her book(s) about her mother’s ties to Skye. I really loved that book. It’s a really honest look at the white South African attitude/experience too.
We are still here in Scotland if you want a home base if you come to visit! We’ve moved into our new lovely house in a fabulous little village!
dogwood
@cosima:
That’s a great book. I’m pretty sure she lived in Zimbabwe and not South Africa, however.
pamelabrown53
@MomSense:
I, too will greatly miss President Obama. I’m having a hard time generating any enthusiasm for this primary.
Amir Khalid
Off-topic observation: A country that lets someone this stupid out of custodial care without supervision ought to be ashamed of itself.
Mike in NC
@maurinsky: The only thing the wingnuts want to rain on Africa is bombs, though they feel that way about pretty much the rest of the outside world as well.
Germy Shoemangler
GregB
Capitalist George W. Gets praise for throwing money at Africa.
Obama the socialist is dinged for non monetary engagement.
What a world.
cosima
@dogwood: I think you’re right, although her family did do a lot of wandering around so it was hard to keep track! I’ve read three of her books now, and loved them all. I’ve got “Scribbling the Cat” on the shelf, haven’t been able to talk myself into reading that one, as it’s going to be pretty brutal, and I’m needing some positive thoughts!
Dogs & “…Under the Tree of Forgetfulness” are like “Glass Castle” (a must-read, if you liked Dogs) from a white-settler Rhodesia/Zimbabwe perspective, rather than the American experience.
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: “Praising McCain’s heroism, Obama said the Republican Party was shocked at Trump’s remark, but added that it grew out of a culture where those types of comments are tolerated.”
Yep. Talk about reaping what you sow.
pamelabrown53
@cosima:
I have a “feels like home” spot in my heart for Scotland. Possibly because of my son loves researching his Scottish heritage (paternal side). I hope I’ll be able to share a trip to Scotland with him and his wife. On my bucket list.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: But… but… the glasses! With big frames!
MattF
@Germy Shoemangler: Gosh. It’s almost like he’s been hearing this stuff all along but refrained from saying anything about it.
Hal
Maybe this is somewhat unfair to politico, but I can’t help but think they look at the black president with Kenyan roots, then look at rating that aren’t 9000% approval, and to them that means Obama is seen as a failure in Africa. If he were white with ratings as high as they are, politico would be asking why there aren’t monuments being erected in his name all over the continent.
Germy Shoemangler
@Patricia Kayden: ““When outrageous statements are made about me, a lot of people outraged about McCain were pretty quiet,” Obama added.”
This is the part that makes me look forward to any book he writes post-2016.
@MattF: I think Obama’s enjoying speaking his mind.
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: I’m enjoying Obama speaking his mind. I understand why he didn’t when he first went it to office because we were on the verge of a depression. Plus you had asshole parents complaining if schools celebrated the first black President.
RaflW
Well, it is harder to be patronizing without the patronage. Count me among the unshocked that Politico fails to grasp that Africa is a continent, with all the variations and differences that suggests, and not just vast jungles and deserts laden with rural, benighted &/or corrupt people.
RaflW
Also, too, I love that Barack Hussein Obama is just openly trolling the GOP now.
Jeffro
@Germy Shoemangler: When the President can point out Huckabee’s, Cruz’s, and Trump’s lunacy…by defending John McCain…you know it is time to up the popcorn futures in your portfolio.
I think he is going to have a flippin’ field day these next 18 months.
ruemara
@cosima: That’s my someday soon spot. Family blood, you know. Although how Scots wound up in Jamaica, I’ll never know but I bet it involves a dare & whiskey, like haggis.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
That chart. I wonder what Botswana thinks of our President.
dogwood
I watched the president’s sister, Auma, introduce her brother, and thought of their father, a tragic figure in so many ways. A man with endless potential, beloved by many, yet hampered by alcohol, stubbornness, and ego. His children have realized the potential of the father.
Belafon
@dogwood:
So you CAN be an American without being a citizen.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@ruemara: Is it possible that he was a merchant or sailed on a merchant ship?
My greatX5 grandfather, Cornelius Butler died in 1794 in the West Indies and was buried in that vaguely described place. He was captain of a merchant ship out of Massachusetts.
Germy Shoemangler
I wish Obama’s parents had lived long enough to see him elected president. I’ve always felt it was a tragedy they never witnessed it.
I’m not religious enough to believe “they’re looking down” and feeling pride from up in heaven. I wish I had that sort of faith, but I just don’t.
dogwood
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne):
We need to get Precious Ramotswe, or at least Jill Scott on the case tout de suite.
mtiffany
Largest thing in the Universe so far discovered is a void. A super-void. It’s probably caused by deficit spending and not respecting job creators. Thanks Obama.
RaflW
@MattF: The more I dig into the NYT f*up on the email investigation, the angrier I get. The NYT got royally played by partisan leakers, and Wemple has the goods on them.
I wrote to the public editor last night, and her piece up today (she got lots of emails I’m sure) was typical waffling public editor bullshit with some glimmers of notions of ideas of how things could be different, FFS.
Ajabu
@ruemara:
Although how Scots wound up in Jamaica, I’ll never know.
As someone with Jamaican heritage, my understanding is that they were brought there by the Brits as overseers during the slave trade.
We have an old Calypso song called “Some Stopped On The Way” that references that particular detour on the route to the states.
JPL
In another day of BLM, a group decided to interrupt a child’s party in Douglasville, GA. link
cosima
@ pamelabrown & @ruemara — Scotland steals your heart. I get that some people can’t handle the rain and the cold, but it is so beautiful & peaceful here that it had me from hello. No matter where we go, when we fly back into Scotland my heart is so happy to be home. We took the dog out for a walk today — across the road, onto the grounds of the local castle. Standing stones everywhere in this area. It’s all still magic after 11+ years.
I saw a link somewhere today about how people outside of the US are looking on at the political sh%tshow in horror. There was a link (that I now cannot find) to a news piece on some southern tv station with a girl (reminded me of the Miss Teen USA thing where the girl gave that crazy answer all of those years ago and was widely ridiculed) talking about President Obama not being willing to bomb the “desert” and there was a flag/flying eagle/etc in the background. Because bombing the “desert” is very patriotic, I guess.
I’d say that November 2016 cannot come soon enough, but I am actually so pleased with all of the no-forks-left-to-give nature of the President these days.
Origuy
@ruemara:
Unfortunately, it probably involves sugar and slaves. A lot of Scots went to the Caribbean to make their fortune in sugar.
@cosima: I’m guessing since you said you’re involved in oil that you’re in the Aberdeen area. I’ve been to Scotland twice, the closest I got to there was staying in a cottage on the Spey near Aberlour. Lovely area.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: Scots were the foot soldiers of the British Empire.
cosima
@Origuy: Yes, we worked (then) for ConocoPhillips — that was over 11 years ago. We’ve moved around a bit, and have settled 1+ hour drive from Aberdeen in a sweet little village just inside the Cairngorms. It’s amazing here. Mr. Cosima recently took a 4-day motorcycle trip (alone!) to Ullapool, and the photos are amazing. We never have enough time to see everything that needs to be seen here. Recently had friends visiting from the US, and they had big plans for what they wanted to see, but soon enough found they did not have near enough time (although here for 2+ weeks) to see it all. I told them many times that’s how it would be, but the driving here has to be seen to be believed. Lots of single-track. Slow going.
Gimlet
Bwahaha
Republican candidates for president should pledge not to run as a third-party candidate, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday.
The remarks come days after current GOP front-runner Donald Trump hinted that he might pursue a third-party bid if the national committee treats him poorly during the primary process.
KG
@Amir Khalid: as a politician, no, probably not. but there are plenty of Americans that can travel to a diverse set of countries like that and be accepted – at least on a personal level. the rise of inter-racial and inter-faith relationships is one of the things that gives me hope for the US going forward. it’s harder to denigrate various populations when your niece and nephew or grandchild is part of those populations.
mtiffany
@Ajabu:
Some Scots and Irish also wound up in Jamaica and the West Indies as slaves and indentured servants or were “transported for vagrancy“. Cromwell was a heckuva guy, apparently.
mikefromArlington
That space between my nutsack and sphincter is about the extent of politico’s meaningful worldview opinions.
mtiffany
@mikefromArlington:
When referring to bullshitico, that puts a whole new spin on the phrase “nuggets of wisdom.”
daverave
From everything that I have read, China has recognized the monetary vacuum in Africa and has stepped up to be their financial partner/patron in all sorts of infrastructure and resource extraction projects. The long-term social and environmental consequences, like in their own country, be damned.
mai naem mobile
A lot of Americans think of Africa as some sort of Tarzan and Jane contient. They have no idea how modern lots of parts of Africa are.Yes, there’s poverty and corruption but there’s corruption amd poverty in China,India,Brazil and Russia. I just wish Americans travelled more. We would be so much smarter as a country. I was in Singapore several years ago and their airport puts our airports to shame. Public transportation in Europe puts ours to shame. But we go along merrily thinking we are the best in everything. It makes me angry.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Cacti: The problem with a lot of people in the US is that many of them have never left their own state, let alone left the country. Hell I know some people around here who have never left the damn County. Yet these are the loud mouths you see at tea party rallies yelling U.S.A.! and screaming that the US is the best country in the world when they have no frame of reference and no way of knowing that. I have traveled to many countries in the world and I can safely say that each of them have their own unique values and strengths. Unfortunately when it comes to some really important things, like health care, family leave, women’s rights, etc., the US is in the absolute dregs of the world, worst than many so-called “third world” countries. Try telling that to the nut jobs and they just proclaim that those things don’t matter.
Tommy
@cosima: Wonderful to hear. My family came to the US from Scotland about 130 years ago. The Isle of Skye. We are kind of happy here. We dug in. But my parents always tell me where we came from.
Chris
@mai naem mobile:
@Litlebritdifrnt:
This. Regrettably.
Tommy
@Litlebritdifrnt: Yes. I have lived in Lousiana, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Lousiana, Maryland, Virginia, DC, Illinois. I’ve not lived many places or visited many places outside of the US. But lived many places inside the US, it will open your eyes to live many places here.
rikyrah
@Gimlet:
tee hee hee
Germy Shoemangler
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Kolohe
@Cervantes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/world/africa/bush-a-fond-presence-in-africa-for-work-during-and-since-his-presidency.html?_r=0
Litlebritdifrnt
@cosima: Especially when you have to wake the sheep up to get by :) We drove to Yorkshire over the Pennines when my US citizen husband was visiting. It just tickled him to death that I had to get out of the car and shush the sheep out of the way.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@dogwood: Jill Scott is a treasure, as is that short series of films.
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: Such a true statement. It also helps to live and work in a diverse community.
rikyrah
Because, this is who they are.
………………
Texas Supreme Court Rules Houston LGBT Rights Ordinance Must Be Put to a Vote—or Repealed
By Mark Joseph Stern
n a startling and dubious ruling on Friday, the Texas Supreme Court held that Houston’s LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance must be put to a popular vote—or repealed. The decision effectively revives the vitriolic, acrimonious campaign against the ordinance. And it sends Houston a clear message from the state supreme court: We don’t like your law.
Houston’s equal rights ordinance has had a troubled history from the start. In May 2014, the Houston City Council passed the ordinance to protect gay, bi, and trans people from discrimination in housing, employment, and city contracts. Opponents of the measure quickly gathered signatures to force a referendum on the law. At first, the city secretary found the petition to be valid. But further examination revealed some irregularities. A jury found that many of the signatures were forged, and a judge agreed, throwing out the petition because, when the forgeries were excluded, it had too few signatures to move forward. Following the judge and jury’s findings, the city attorney ruled the petition invalid.
Now, the Texas Supreme Court has reversed the decisions of the judge, jury, and city attorney. It does so under a thin veneer of law—but its decision is more of a policy statement than a legal ruling. The court states that the power of referendum “is the exercise by the people of the power reserved to them.” That’s undoubtedly correct. The court also notes that the city secretary initially certified the petition. That’s true, too. But the court then ignores the fact that a judge and jury found the petition to be fraudulent, holding that by not certifying forged signatures, “the legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored.”
What? The court’s grand pronouncements cloud the waters, but the facts here are pretty simple. In order to put a city ordinance to referendum, opponents must gather 17,269 signatures. Opponents of Houston’s nondiscrimination law didn’t do that. Instead, they gathered several thousand valid signatures and several thousand forgeries. Minus the forgeries, they failed to reach the minimum threshold of signatures. The Texas Supreme Court doesn’t care. Instead, it decided for itself that the signatures were valid. Then it ordered that enforcement of the ordinance be immediately stopped and compelled the city council to consider repealing it. If the council fails to repeal it, the ordinance must be put to a popular vote in the November 2015 election.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/07/24/texas_supreme_court_puts_houston_lgbt_rights_ordinance_in_danger.html
Tommy
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I would so like to have to do that. Make my day.
gbear
@Litlebritdifrnt: You can complain about the Teaparty yobs having a narrow worldview, but please don’t blanket-smear everyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to travel. I’ve lived in the same county all of my life (when I stand up in my office cublicle, I can see the hospital I where I was born). The work that I’ve done allows me to travel a lot within the 5-state area around MN, but I’ve never had the funds or time to travel broadly. Just because I haven’t travelled doesn’t mean that I’m a narrow minded bigot who can’t empathise with anyone other than my own kind.
rikyrah
those dumb enough to believe in Republican solutions…..
well….
The Middle Class at Risk
The Dangerous Gap Between the Rhetoric and Reality of Republican Prescriptions for the Economy
American families have experienced dramatic changes over the past few decades. It used to be common that one middle-class income was enough to meet the needs of an entire family—money enough to send kids to college, buy a home, and save for retirement. Today, most families need two incomes to make ends meet. But even as families are working harder and harder, they are struggling and feeling economically insecure.
Although corporate profits are at all-time highs and the richest Americans have seen the bulk of the gains in the recovery, working- and middle-class families continue to struggle. The lack of support for families and the challenges of stagnant wages and the ever-rising middle-class costs have placed tremendous strains on most Americans. The research bears out what families are experiencing. The Center for American Progress recently estimated that the real cost of middle-class security—that is to say, health care, college savings, child care, housing, and a retirement nest egg—rose $10,600, or 30 percent, between 2000 and 2012, a period when the median married couple with two children saw no real income growth. (see Figure 1) The result has been that American families are being squeezed more and more as middle-class costs rise faster than middle-class incomes.
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/general/report/2015/07/27/118103/the-middle-class-at-risk/
Litlebritdifrnt
@gbear: Not at all suggesting that, but that is because you choose not to be a narrow minded bigot. My problem is with the ones who choose to be narrow minded bigots based upon ignorance.
catclub
@Germy Shoemangler: Wasn’t Innocents Abroad about people doing their level best to learn nothing while traveling.
catclub
@rikyrah: That is a recap of the lecture Elizabeth Warren gave for years – which made her reputation. I think there is a version from about 2005, if not earlier.
Not T
@Tommy:
How about them apples. Not only have I been to Skye (I am American) but I got married on Harris. Small world indeed.
Tommy
@gbear: I don’t think anybody is slamming you because you might not travel. My grandfather gave birth to me. Kind of a small world. Mom didn’t like this. I noted I lived in a lot of places. That was not by choice. Just the way it was. But living places helps. Telling.
Mike J
@catclub:
When I worked in Stockholm, the only place the other American contractors ever wanted to go eat was Hard Rock Cafe.
bobbo
Sad reading the Quartz article because it made me realize we will probably not have another like BHO for a long, long time. I doubt I’ll live to see it.
dogwood
@rikyrah:
It is indeed who they are. They are relentless. I read today that a respected Choctaw activist who was arrested for unpaid fines has been found dead in his jail cell. Look away, look away, look away Dixieland.
cosima
@Litlebritdifrnt: Yup. I still don’t mind waiting for sheep to get out of my way in the highlands — gives me time to do some rubbernecking of the scenery. Or waiting for the farmers to move their cows from one pasture to the other. The farmer with cows in the pasture next to the house where we used to live walks them almost 2 miles along the roads (all minor roads & single-tracks) from that pasture to the one near his house (fall) & back again (spring). His wife helps him. They are both in their late 70s. Those are just a couple of the things that are regular day-to-day life here that make my heart happy & at peace.
redshirt
@bobbo: I’m already missing PBO. Best President of my lifetime.
Joel
@Patricia Kayden: Economists would argue that it’s the *best* solution to economic problems.
Sure beats invading some sense into people.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: My grandfather gave birth to me.
Um…
No, I won’t ask.
Tree With Water
@rikyrah: Obama is King Solomon-like compared to the wicked doofus that preceded him. Like people on every other continent, the Africans are fully cognizant of that fact, and grateful for it.
Remember when GW’s security detail slashed and tore away at one of Queen Elizabeth’s palace gardens- without first asking permission- so the Boy King’s helicopter could land? I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when she found out… (in mind’s eye, I picture Helen Mirren in a towering rage, only she’s not acting).
Bill Arnold
@Litlebritdifrnt:
There are people who believe that Barrack Obama traveled to Mars, during his formative teenage years The White House denies it. Of course they do.
dogwood
@redshirt:
I’m not missing him; I’m paying closer attention to him than ever. No two term president in my adult lifetime as remained as relevant as he. Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush all were mired in scandal or failure at this point (some much earlier). Obama refused to beat himself, and it’s payed off.
gene108
@mai naem mobile:
Putting American airports to shame is not much of a challenge. So much of the word – India, China, Dubai etc. – are building gleaming new airports, while once in a blue moon the U.S. renovates one built 50 years ago.
redshirt
@dogwood: Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m loving this feisty version of Obama. But I know our time is running out, and I am already thinking of a world post-PBO, and it makes me a bit sad to consider it. I love him and his family so much that their absence will hurt.
Origuy
@cosima: I was driving through Cumbria a few years ago on my way to Oban. At Lanercost Priory near Hadrian’s Wall, the chatty English Heritage woman told me how to get to Bewcastle, where there’s a 7th Century stone cross. The route involved several miles of single track through sheep herds. At least the sheep were awake when I got there.
Tree With Water
@dogwood: That’s interesting. I tend to credit more the fact that the GOP’s nervous breakdown was accelerated by his elections, and during this second term Obama has simply taken advantage of a disarray in republican ranks that none of his predecessors enjoyed. Fact is I’ll never get past Obama’s late, unlamented Grand Bargain proposal. Had republican disarray not rotted their strategic sensibilities, congressional republicans would have closed that deal in a heartbeat, and this country would have been in worse shape for it.
mai naem mobile
I know two people personally who are birthers. College educated women. I tried explaining the history of Kenya. I asked them on a personal level(theyre both women) if they would let their 8 mo pregnant daughters travel to a third world country which is in the midst of a war for independence. I know by their reactions that they still didn’t believe Obama was born in Hawaii. While we’re arguing over the confederate flag and wearing the US flag pin on pur lapels, China and India are eating our lunch all over the African continent. I hate the fucking GOP because Bushco created this disaster and when Americans vote in Obama to fix the mess the GOP holds everything hostage and retards everything. While Bushco got us stuck in Iraq, China made all kinds of friends in Africa and South America. We have an American president with African heritage which we should be taking full advantage of, but because of the bug fuck crazy GOP he can’t look like he’s doing too much with Africa because then it’s going to look like he’s playing favorites and favoring the country he was supposedly born in. Seriously, is.there anywhere in the world where people make fun of somebody(Kerry) because he speaks a second language? Any other democracy where the country considers voting for the brother of the most disastrous president ever?
gbear
@bobbo: I don’t think Hillary is going to be anywhere as inspiring as Obama has been, but I do think that Hillary has been taking notes. I believe she’s learned a lot over the last eight years after she and Big Dog thought they’d had the D nomination in the pocket (not sure that Big Dog has learned the same lesson though). I like the way she’s running her campaign now, and I like that she’s already has lots of experience with what a hate machine the media will be.
Ridnik Chrome
@rikyrah: My favorite TV moment from Election Night 2012 was when they showed people dancing in the street in Kenya after it was announced Obama had been re-elected.
Tree With Water
@mai naem mobile: Your birther friend puts me in mind of a brilliant Russian immigrant kid I met years ago. This guy had arrived here at the age of 12 without speaking a word of English, yet when I met him 6 or 7 years later he was fluent and well spoken. I actually lost a $5 bet with him over the spelling of a word (‘separate’, with two a’s). But one day out of the blue he asked me if I believed the moon landings were real. I couldn’t believe it. But that’s what he had been taught to believe when the Soviet Union was in business. I guess it boils down to who, and what, a person chooses to believe. I tend to think by now Max has wised up. But at the time, I know I did not (completely) convince him that, indeed, the U.S. has landed people on the moon. Although at this moment it makes me wonder what it is I believe that is equally preposterous.. or how many things. Hmmm..
gogol's wife
@bobbo:
I don’t expect to see it again in my lifetime (since I’ve waited quite a few years for it this time around). He is a truly great man. But we’ll see more from him, even if he isn’t president!
gbear
@gogol’s wife: It’ll be fun to read his first post-presidential book.
Iowa Old Lady
@gbear: I read a Kos sometimes, and there are a lot of anti-Hillary diaries. Maybe all those writers are just enthusiastic about Sanders and convinced Hillary’s positions are radically different from Bernie’s and evil. But it occurred to me today that some of them could be conservatives trying to lower the vote count for Clinton.
I’m really afraid people will go so far out on their Sander’s love (which, don’t get me wrong, I share) that they won’t vote for Clinton if she’s the nominee. How anyone who lived through Ralph Nader and the W presidency can do that is beyond me.
redshirt
I like to think of the effect Obama has had on the entire world from 2008 to now. In sum, it’s a calming, rational effect. Had McCain won in 2008 this world might now be cinders, but because Barry’s been in charge, we stand poised to enter the next phase of human evolution and hopefully we will do so in relative peace and harmony.
gbear
@Iowa Old Lady: I agree with you that some of the people writing rabid anti-Hillary screeds are conservative trolls pretending to be Saunders supporters.
I hope that all of the candidates for the D nomination work hard for a D win in the generals after the convention is over. We don’t need another Nader.
(Although it will be fun as hell if the 2016 Nader is Trump)
Origuy
@Tree With Water: I have a Russian-American friend who has been here most of her adult life, educated in Russia, who thought that the Soviet Union had put men on the moon. I don’t know if this is a common belief there, or if the US moon missions were so downplayed that she misunderstood in school.
Another Holocene Human
@SatanicPanic: Don’t harsh my buzz, bro. Not cool!
Another Holocene Human
@NorthLeft12: Some asshats had shitty “NOBAMA” stickers on their cars the first week. Saw them in the grocery store parking lot, white, and not even that old.
How much do you suck to not even concede the election? (2000 does not count.)
Somebody around town still has a NOBAMA sticker but I just laugh, yup, America is going to show BHO in 2016, right?
dogwood
@Tree With Water:
“I tend to credit more the fact that the GOP. . .”
I think your opinion is much more widely held than mine. For decades the default position in American politics among the media has been that republicans are the serious people in Washington. And no matter how crazy they get, conservatives are afforded the first and last word on most everything. Judging from the topics of most blog posts at this site, readers here are more interested in republicans than democrats as well. This default mechanism serves to make democratic president seem like reactors rather than the major players they are. As for your equating the “grand bargain” with the scandals that affected Nixon, Reagan and Clinton, I seriously doubt that would have engendered hearings, questions of who knew what and when. All presidents make some bad decisions, but it is scandal that brings them down. Self-inflicted scandal especially. W. Is the only president who brought himself down without a major scandal that captured the imagination of the American people. He’s the only lame duck who left office with no significant decent accomplishment. No opening China, no Soviet arms deal, no Irish peace accords. In a discussion a couple of days ago I said, and I stand by it, there is a tendency to see Barack Obama as a man who got to the White House because Hillary or McCain, or Romney made errors. Or the financial crisis was the only reason he won. He won because he was better, and because he doesn’t screw up. Republicans have always understood how dangerous Obama was. They’re dumb in many ways, but they knew he wasn’t some run of the mill opponent. I think the time will come when democrats will get over some of their beefs with Obama, and recognize him as an exceptional president. A president who didn’t always say things the way we wanted, or prioritize the way we wanted, but a president who had a clear understanding of the entire electorate, and an impeccable sense of the importance of timing.
Bill Arnold
@Tree With Water:
The “proposal” was made to the Republicans as they existed at the time.
Tree With Water
@Bill Arnold: You make it sound as though there is a substantive difference between today’s republican party and 2010’s. You might want to re-think that.
Another Holocene Human
@Origuy: Maybe it was the fact that the Soviet program had a lot of firsts, first man in space, first unmanned lander on the moon. They also planned a manned mission but it was never fulfilled.
stinger
@Ajabu:
:D
Matt McIrvin
@dogwood: I just read an article claiming that Bush’s anti-AIDS efforts in Africa saved so many lives that, from a utilitarian perspective, it outweighed all the bad things he did including the half-million dead in Iraq and made him mathematically not a bad president. (It also faulted Obama for not following through.)
The whole thing seemed somewhat trollish, but I suppose I can give GWB some credit for that.