Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The revolution will be supervised.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Happy Belated Birthday, Barack!

Open Thread: Happy Belated Birthday, Barack!

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Barack Obama.  Coolest President ever?  Or coolest President ever?

Alison Rose and MomSense were talking in a thread last night about replies their family members got after they wrote to the President.

⭐️

Alison Rose’s mom sent these to Barack:

And she received this response:

How cool is that?

⭐️

MomSense wrote about a letter that her son sent Barack, and there are pics, but they are up in the attic.  When she digs them out, we will share another happy Obama memory.

My son sent him a picture he drew of him with a note and got a handwritten note back plus a bunch of cool kid things like a coloring book, stickers, a picture book history of the presidents, pencils and some other fun things.

⭐️

This is something that I posted on the Obama blog in early 2008.  We had a thread on the Obama blog called “Dear Barack” and many of us wrote little notes to him.

This is what I posted.

Dear Barack,

I am writing to let you know that you have been upsetting my dog and my cat.

When I watch a video of you making a speech, the crowd will often cheer wildly at one point or another during your speech. When this happens, my dog inevitably jumps off the couch and looks at me nervously, and my cat darts to safety in some corner of the room.

I explain to both of them, each time, that everything is okay, that we are listening to our next president speak about things of great importance, and that what they are hearing is the sound of HOPE coming from people all across America.

This calms them considerably.

With love and thanks,
WaterGirl, Bailey and Quiver

⭐️

Happy belated Birthday, Barack!  We love you, and we know you still love us back.

 

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    My dear friend, who had to move to Australia with the woman she legally married in New York, wrote him and he replied.

  3. 3.

    Steeplejack

    This will have to do for open-thread material.

    Things finishing with a bang at Mike Lindell’s cyber symposium.

    There’s been a bit of drama at today’s “cyber symposium” as Ron Watkins aka CodeMonkey (who is likely Q) read a statement from his lawyer that they need to stop their “data review” because hard drives may have been “taken without authorization” from Mesa County.
    pic.twitter.com/nSf4HqrHl6

    — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 11, 2021

    This all revolves around Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who is under investigation for an election security breach. She is likely the “whistleblower” that provided CodeMonkey with his so-called “bombshell” Dominion video.

    Tina Peters, who is a featured guest at the symposium and lauded as a “whistleblower,” denies that Conan James Hayes is in possession of any hard drives.

    At the same time, an audience member wonders if the deep state is actually the one taking hard drives to protect Dominion.

    The person who Ron Watkins’ attorney is saying provided Conan Hayes with physical Mesa County hard drives is Sheronna Bishop, who just so happens to be Lauren Boebert’s campaign manager and appeared on stage last night with Tina Peters.

    It’s wingnuts all the way down.

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    He got my mom to change her registration from Republican to Democrat. I don’t think she had voted for a R for a long time, but it was a big step to make it official. She saved the front page of the LA Times from the day after the election, and our yard sign, the first she had ever had. We both cried when whatever network we were watching called it, and we are not criers, or at least not where someone else can see.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    I’ll tell you…this was probably the most exciting day in our family, like ever. I was living with my parents at the time and when this showed up in the mail, we were all jumping around and just yelling with joy. We took the letter and picture to get framed and I told my mom I want it left to me in their will :P

  7. 7.

    Steeplejack

    Bro’ Man wrote a letter to President Obama saying that he would not have his husband or his adopted children without Obama’s work on same-sex marriage rights. He got back a semi-personal letter (auto-signed, I’m sure), which he treasures.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    Bailey and Quiver are gone now, but that’s not what makes me cry when I read the note that I left for Barack.  It’s that we were so filled with HOPE and when I think about those times I can feel exactly how I felt.  When I watch Pete Seeger and The Boss and Pete Seeger’s son on that stage at the inaugural event, with camera shots of Barack interspersed, I can feel the joy and love and hope that I felt then.

    We have a long fight ahead of use before we can get back there, but I think we can do it.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: I still have the letter that Barack sent to me after I went to Iowa for 10 days before the caucus on Jan 3, 2008.

    They had 2 people there for each precinct in Iowa, and you were the only 2 people in that precinct, day after day.

    I think there were 99 precincts in Iowa, so multiply that by 2, and that’s how many of us got those letters saying that without a win in Iowa the campaign wouldn’t have gotten off the ground, and thanking us for our work and for believing in him.

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    Upon retirement from the Navy I got a “Certificate of Appreciation for Service in the Armed Forces” with President Obama’s facsimile signature. Of course he didn’t sign the silly thing, but I still framed it and hung it on a wall.

  14. 14.

    MomSense

    There was a photo of Barack and Michelle at his birthday party, he in a gray shirt and she in a green patterned dress that was so beautiful.  My goodness they are an extraordinary couple.  I thought Barack was the most charismatic politician I’d ever seen until I got to see her and meet her in 2012.  Holy hell she is absolutely electric and about 5,000,000 times more beautiful in person.  Explains why Barack was so determined to go out with her.  They are the absolute best of us.

  17. 17.

    Martin

    CA has approved new ways to destroy our culture and way of life.

    Effective next year, all new commercial construction and renovation need to incorporate solar, be wired to accommodate all electric for heating, cooking and transportation, incentives for heat pumps for heating and battery storage.

    Applies to ‘family homes, apartment complexes, office spaces, restaurants, schools, grocery stores as well as civic structures like convention centers, auditoriums, and theaters.’ I believe it’s only ‘family homes’ in a rental situation since its part of the commercial, not residential code.

  20. 20.

    Shakti

    @MomSense: 

    It is very obvious to me she’s the perfect politician’s wife and Barack literally couldn’t have found a more perfect wife for his career.

    Have you seen Waffles + Mochi? Sure she’s acting but she radiates patience and understanding to curious puppets who just want to learn to cook!

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    Bonus present for President Obama: Louie Gohmert is on OAN telling viewers that solar farms cause birds flying overhead to explode, and THEREFORE, the Green New Deal must be opposed.

    Ol’ Louie the environmentalist – who knew?

  26. 26.

    Mary G

    @Martin: Oh, the horror!

    I am extremely pissed off. The vaccine numbers came out today for Orange County and I found the page where they give vaccines by zip code. Seniors here are at a respectable but not great 80.2% vaccinated, but the under 65s are only at 39.6%. So the whole town is only a bit below 47% vaccinated. Ugh. I had hoped to get out and about a bit after I have had the third shot, but apparently not gonna happen.

  31. 31.

    Martin

    @Mary G: Yeah, my city is a bit better, but it’s still disappointing. We’re fucking swimming in opportunities to get vaccinated and it’s just not moving enough.

    In other news, our city voted to become climate neutral by 2030, which is very cool. There will be many statements from yours truly to the city that if they are serious about this, they’ll start treating automobiles as an invasive species.

  32. 32.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: The Yankees are playing the White Sox in a stadium they built just for this game. The have rows of corn inside the stadium and the whole thing is plunked down right in a big cornfield. Kind of like where you live.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    @raven:

    His daughter lived across the street from me when I was a kid.  I babysat for his grandson who was going by the name Banjo at the time.  His daughter was a wicked hippie.

  35. 35.

    Martin

    @Mary G: Under 65 here is 73%. That’s a decent tick up than when I last checked. And 96.5% for over 65. Guessing that mostly due to the assisted living centers. They’re pretty good in my zip.

  38. 38.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Do you know that when Red Grange left Illinois after his Junior year he played on a barnstorming team that would play local teams and they would build temporary stadiums that held 100,000?

     

    DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Roman Weinberg, the director of operations for Go The Distance, sits in his back office and smiles as the topic of Major League Baseball’s specially constructed stadium nearby comes up.
    Go The Distance owns and operates the “Field of Dreams” movie site and will eventually take over the ballpark built for Thursday’s MLB game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox.
    Weinberg believes the new park brings a wealth of new opportunities to the movie site.
    He envisions Little League games, high school tournaments and college and minor league contests being played in the new park. But there’s one additional thing, out of all the possibilities on Weinberg’s list, he wants to see the stadium used for: a return of Major League Baseball.

  39. 39.

    Mousebumples

    I have Obama’s autograph in the Primary Debate Booklet for that 2008 campaign, and it was awesome to shake his hand afterwards. Totally nerdy, but I loved that my college hosted a debate, and I got at attend!

    Happiest of birthdays to an amazing President. I still love watching Lin Manuel Miranda do an early version of Hamilton at A White House Poetry Jam. So great to have him and his administration encouraging that kind of creativity and American excellence!

  41. 41.

    debbie

    I love that first paragraph in the letter Alison received. He’s got a quick and very astute wit. ?

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: I had no idea!  I only know about Red Grange because the restaurant The Ribeye had all the old time local sports hero’s on the wall.  My dad loved that place because of it.

  46. 46.

    germy

    My wife has two autographs from Hillary Clinton.

    The first one on a scrap of paper when she was campaigning for Bill’s first presidential run.

    The second on a book she wrote.  Not “What Happened” but the book before that.

  47. 47.

    CarolPW

    @Jeffro: Well, that is actually sort of true. At least one solar farm in the desert collects the light from the panels and beams it to a central tower (maybe molten salt?) for collection of the heat energy, and birds that fly into those beams pretty much explode except with more fire. I doubt anyone will be building any more of those.

  48. 48.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Martin: ​
      In a Dump county like Merced, only 41% is vaccinated. In a Biden county like Alameda, 81% is vaccinated.

    SMH

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Yeah, if I delete all my cookies, then I have to type in all my passwords to websites again.  I haven’t gone hunting for how to delete just that one cookie.

  50. 50.

    Almost Retired

    I am Obama’s age and have lived in Los Angeles for most of my life, as have many of my friends.  And I have yet to encounter anyone who went to Occidental College in 1979 who doesn’t claim to have known him.  Yet Obama’s books suggest he kept to a small circle, and did not go door to door in the dorms and the streets of Eagle Rock to introduce himself to everyone.  Oh well.  I’ll be would probably make the same claim at a cocktail party if I had been at Occidental at the time.

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    Barack Obama. Coolest President ever? Or coolest President ever?

    JFC, hasn’t anyone mentioned JFK? I mean, even if one only dimly remembers him (I was 9 when he was assassinated), I’d say there’s a considerable debate about who was the coolest President in my lifetime.

    OTOH, I’ve long thought Michelle Obama is ravishingly beautiful (not to mention extremely intelligent and a generally awesome human being), and edges out Jacqueline Kennedy for most beautiful First Lady.

  54. 54.

    Sloane Ranger

    @germy:

    Unfortunately, Fred Astaire was a Republican.

    Other times. They are both snappy dressers who can make almost anything look good on them.

  57. 57.

    Mike in NC

    @germy: Back in the 30s thru 50s, Hollywood was filled with standard issue Republicans like Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper who were not totally deranged like they grow them today.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    Oh, somehow I missed this thread!

    I got to shake his hand (before he was the nominee). It was a thrill!

  61. 61.

    lexilis

    @WaterGirl: Google “remove cookies button”. It is a browser extension you download. The button shows up on your address bar. One click and it removes the cookies for the current page displayed. It is amazing.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @lexilis: Does it work with Safari?  Or is it a Chrome or Firefox thing?  Because I don’t use either of those

    edit: it sounds like a nice feature, but not worth using Chrome or Firefox for.

  66. 66.

    Platonicspoof

    @WaterGirl:

    I have the impression that you’ve been involved in the nuts and bolts of computers for a very long time, so maybe you are trying to do something else regarding cookies from just one site.

    Individual cookies can be deleted by clicking the padlock in the address bar, then “cookies”, select the cookie(s), then “Remove” and/or “Block”. Refresh for “Block” to take effect.

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