President Obama appeared on the WTF podcast with Marc Maron (one of my favorite comedians and podcasts, and had a long, thoughtful, and useful conversation about race in America, which included this point:
“We’re not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 or 300 years prior.”
An excellent point, among many. Anyone want to guess what the media is focusing on?
Three quick thoughts.
1.) Make sure you listen to the podcast and if you have any sense whatsoever, start listening to all of them. It’s one of my favorites.
2.) I haven’t blocked out, said “the n-word,” or used ****** to block out the word “nigger.” Why? Because you guys aren’t children and aren’t going to take it out of context, because I am quoting the President, and because it’s an ugly god damned word and I think when people do that “n-word” stuff it makes it easy to not take it as seriously as one should, and the best Presdient of my lifetime is using it to make a damned point, so let’s let him. I vacillate back and forth on this, and probably in the future will go back to the “n-word,” but for this situation I think it is appropriate. Also, this (salty language, as it is part of an extended bit on the “n-word,” faggot, and the c-bomb):
3.) Finally, some more Marc Maron love. If you have netflix, you absolutely have to watch his Thinky Pain special. You’ll start laughing at the Bill Hicks story and not stop. It’s awesome. My personal favorite is how he was cured of hypochondria. I also just love his rambling narrative style, because that’s kind of how I think and talk- easily sidetracked but still plodding forward. it’s ok to be sidetracked and embrace and be amused by the weird while still being straightforward.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Thank you. This has been eating at me all day.
There is a blatant racism to FOX News’ employment of these African Americans to denounce President Obama and misrepresent what he says. 95% of African Americans support the President yet FOX News employs every single one of the 5% who don’t. It would be like if I ran a news station and the only white people I had on air were toothless, sibling-buggering, bigots.
gbear
We will never have a president as cool as Obama again.
I can’t wait for his first post-presidential book.
Imagine what he’ll have to say when he gives even less of a shit about the media than he does now.
SiubhanDuinne
Nikki Haley just started talking. She sounds like an automaton. I hope she says the right words and does the right thing vis-à-vis the CBF flying on SC statehouse grounds, but she’s reading her speech as though she’s a wind-up doll.
Haven’t heard the WTF podcast yet, but am looking forward to listening to it a little later. Also, Marc Maron is going to be Terry Gross’ guest on Fresh Air later today, and I am eager to hear that interview.
Edit: Yes, as expected, Nikki has called to remove it from Capitol grounds, although there’s a fair amount of weasel language. Still … baby steps, and symbolically very significant. All told, this is a Good Thing.
srv
Finally, a third way:
Montysano
As the volume of information grows ever larger, context dies a slow death.
The Maron interview was excellent, and Terry Gross’ subsequent interview with Maron is also highly recommended.
JPL
Nikki Haley is doing a good job.
Major Major Major Major
Haley just threatened an emergency session if they don’t get rid of the (what are we calling it today?) Symbol of Traitors this month.
ETA: I’m going to sound a little grad-schooly for a second but hear me out, John. That word makes me uncomfortable. I don’t even like typing it. I also don’t say cunt, spic, kike, gook, heeb, tranny, etc. This is because I’m not a member of any of those groups so I don’t feel like I have the authority to weigh in on what those words mean.
I do say faggot, though. Boy do I ever say faggot. But that’s my only minority group (you fucking breeder).
jl
Pedant trigger warning:
Obama mentioned it. Obama said, or uttered, the word in the course of mentioning it. Obama did not use it. We have no evidence that he uses it.
Edit: if Obama has said ‘N-word’ it would be very clear he was mentioning or referring to it, rather than using it (and I suppose by using it, being some sort of hypocrite because he could ‘use it’ but poor widdle white me could not, yadda yadda yadda BS BS BS derp derp derp). But we would probably still have to put up with a lot BS about it from white bigots, concern trolls and cynical political manipulators.
JPL
Now Fox has to pretend they supported the decision to remove the flag all along.
Punchy
@JPL: I have little faith she’s doing this expecting a good outcome. SC is right in the heart of Cleek’s Law Country, where the more the flag pisses off pansy libs and couch fainters, the better. In fact, I’m pretty sure the Confed flag ONLY flies to adhere to Cleek’s.
Haley’s gunna get death threats, I’m afraid. SC will go unhinged if she pushes this.
White Trash Liberal
The rightwing media complex is grasping at anything to distract from the consequences of their rhetoric. Whenever these assholes excoriate the “Muslim community” for not calling out their extremists, I wish their hypocrisy would wrap around their collective throats and squeeze just enough to take their words away. For good.
Brachiator
“Press corps desperately reach for, find, stupid excuse to avoid talking about racism in America. Details at 11.”
Major Major Major Major
@Punchy: Nah. Flag’s gone. I mean you’re playing chicken with the legislature when you threaten an emergency session, but they’ll roll over this time. One of their own was killed.
Damned at Random
As usual, the media focuses on a sideshow
Try using n-word in an August Wilson play:
“Why didn’t God strike some of those crackers down? Cause He’s a white man’s God. That’s why. God ain’t never listened to no n-word’s prayers. God take a n-words prayers and throw them in the garbage”
Absurd. The problem isn’t a slur, it’s the culture that gave birth to it.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I will admit she got a bit better as she went along. And I only heard audio on MSNBC in my car — didn’t see her deliver the statement. Like the Kennedy-Nixon debate, there may be different perceptions between radio and TV. (It could also be just because I don’t like her, and am inclined to be dubious about anything she says or does.)
schrodinger's cat
Obama is smart, and he doesn’t treat us like children, for some reason the MSM bots just can’t stand it.
jl
I guess we could take a page from gun nut playbook on nonsense over N-word and confederate flag to stop having to put up with endless yammering and BS from teabagger and bigot kin and acquaintances
“You are hopelessly confused about use and mention. If you cannot even understand the simplest things about use and mention, I’m not going to waste my time trying to talk about racial and cultural semiotics with you. Have a good day……. I SAID, have a good day.”
bnmng
I’m wondering which politician or pundit is going to use the word next, in a less appropriate context, and cry racism because he’s not allowed to use the same language Obama is allowed to use.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: She was smiling the whole time. It was kinda weird.
JPL
@Punchy: She’s pushing it and pushing it hard. I think her handling the situation will put her in the forefront for being a v.p.
Dan Garfinkel
Thanks for the love for Mark Maron. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but beyond his talents as a comic, he has become of the very best interviewers in any media on WTF. The long form, the sympathetic tone he manages, and his curiosity about the foundations of his guest’s work make the podcasts incredibly compelling. As for our president, voting twice for Barack Obama are two of the greatest moments of my life. If he had majorities in both houses, this would be a far better nation today.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: “So what, now we’re conflating Bosphorus and Phosphorus? Is Bruce Wayne now the same as Batman? Don’t even get me started about ontology.”
Germy Shoemangler
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
You’ve been watching my local sinclair-owned station?
Haydnseek
@bnmng: I’m waiting also, and I’m sure it won’t take long. They will lap that shit up like it’s gun-flavored ice cream.
jl
@bnmng: I don’t think so. Doing or saying anything that will give their bigot/racist wedge issue tactics away is radioactive to them.
And example is the Rih Santorum ‘blah’.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: That was my vibe.
Major Major Major Major
@bnmng: Rush.
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: Bet she gets death threats. She helped feed the beast, and it’s feeding time again.
Eric
1) the whoosh sound is Obama’s point going right over their heads
2) #1 is further evidence proving his point
Poopyman
And you guys give VDE a hard time.
Meanwhile, in local, breaking news:
Marylanders are desperately trying to remember the name of their Lieutenant Governor at this time (despite it being right in the article).
But seriously, despite my not supporting nearly anything he stands for politically, this sucks balls.
Brachiator
@JPL:
Interesting bit of speculation. This would really be an unexpected outcome if that happened.
Keith G
First of all…I will be sending my support to Gov Haley’s office. The list of her choices that I do not like is very long, but today she gets my thanks.
On my Instagram page is a photo of Marc Maron and me. Meeting him was a bucket list event. He is so generous with his time.
I figured he would stick the Obama interview and he did. Yes Obama did filibuster a bit and Marc let him because he is the President. Yet Maron was able to find angles that gave us just a smidge more insight into the marvelous human who is serving as our president.
Poopyman
@Brachiator: VP of the modern Confederate Party? Not a chance.
Peale
Went to see Dope this weekend and the press is behaving like those shocked well-meaning white people in the film who keep trying to come up with excuses to use the word. Its more subtle than my write up is, but two of the young white guys are fixated on the fact that they can’t say that word. I can just hear the “shocked” newsroom reporters just cussing right now because someone got to use the word that they aren’t allowed to say and in the end their coverage of this is just a reflection of an anxiety about something most people moved on from after they turned 9.
Old Dan and Little Anne
I listened to the podcast earlier and loved every second of it. As I’m watching MSNBC now I am reminded why I quit watching it months ago. My favorite part was when PBO dissed fox. I tried to find it for the exact quote but using the time slider on my iPad is a pain in the ass. An hour of important issues and all the media cares about is the n-bomb. Fucking useless.
serge
Why, why, why, why, WHY, WHY is Harold Ford in the television tube saying ANYTHING? (Sorry, more caps than I’d use in a given month.) That mealy-mouthed snake has no place in any discourse, not even in a bad joke.
Roger Moore
@Poopyman:
My suspicion is that reality is going to catch up with him once he starts getting treatment. He thinks it’s going to be manageable, so he’ll be able to carry on his duties while he’s not actively being treated, but once they’re started he simply won’t have the energy to do much but recover before the next round. I wish him the best of luck, but he’s not helping his own chances by promising to work through it.
Jay C
@JPL:
Fixt
Belafon
@Roger Moore: I had a college teacher in her 60s go through chemo during my class and she kept on teaching.
serge
@Major Major Major Major: I believe you’re correct; our SC legislature may be chock full of bigots, but they tend to be pragmatic bigots. They’ll turn this to their benefit, hell…they’ll be claiming the initiative was theirs all along. They will remain, however, bigots.
Chat Noir
@Keith G: What did he filibuster? I thought the President gave thoughtful, interesting, and intelligent answers. This is the first I’ve listened to Marc Maron — he’s an excellent interviewer.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
@Brachiator:
I’ve actually thought for a long time — a year or more — that she might well be the VP nominee in 2016. And for the crassest of reasons: she’s a minority female from the old Confederacy. She ticks a lot of boxes just because of who she is and where she’s from. It will be interesting to see how the flag thing ends up playing among the base.
Steve
I really like this interview, I think you can feel Obama’s resignation to what he can or can’t do in this interview, and it makes him sound like a normal person. The media freak out about that one word, said by a black man is ridiculous.
Also Marc Maron’s IFC show has really hit it’s stride this season, the first two seasons didn’t quite hit the right tone (too mean sometimes). But this season is fantastic especially the episode about Internet Provider tech support and the one about Marc’s new agent.
Ruckus
@JPL:
Had the same thought. So of course I’m going to say that you must be……..
Steve in the ATL
I’m interested to see what SC does with this. Georgia has some true believers in the legislature, but at the end of the day business always wins. SC is far deeper into true believer territory. It would send a powerful message to the racists around the country if the most unreconstructed state dropped this symbol.
Betty Cracker
Reading through the wingnut reactions to the president’s use of the word during the interview is instructive. It literally does not matter to PBO’s detractors what he said, what the context was, what the larger message was.
Of course, years of blogging have taught me about people’s propensity to hack phrases here and there from the thicket of a paragraph and use them as strawman stuffing. But damn. There’s some willful obtuseness on display at the Memeorandum links.
Chuckles
For anyone who doesn’t know the difference between naming a word and using that word, a brief scene from a spelling bee:
BillinGlendaleCA
@serge: He’s a regular on Morning Ho. Every time I hear him speak, I’m happy he lost his Senate bid. He have been the Joe Lieberman from TN.
Belafon
@serge: Because all black men speak for other black men. If they can’t talk to the president, they’ll talk to the black guy who might have thought about running for president.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was surprised and disappointed to hear, just now, Eugene Robinson singing from the same page as DLC Harold Ford. “That word”, it was too informal, it’s the wrong time, what’s the message being sent? I wonder if Ta-Nehisi Coates just doesn’t like to do TeeVee, or if he just doesn’t get the phone calls.
@JPL: Huh. Bush-Haley, Walker-Haley… I can see it.
Harold Ford apparently wants a monument to Republicans election of Tim Scott.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think that it is a great vp political move on her part. If she is successful at this, it could be a turning point for the so called not as crazy part of the republican party. It will be played as throwing a bone to the minorities and shows some gravitas. It is a lot more of a reasonable political gesture than quitting a governorship half way through a term. The republicans need a symbol at vp that doesn’t alienate better than half the country. They don’t have one running for the top spot.
Bobby B.
I’m going to keep neglecting Marc Maron out of respect for that episode of “Louie”.
gogol's wife
@jl:
You are absolutely right. He wasn’t “using” the word.
I just want to explode when I see this stupidity in the media.
JPL
@gogol’s wife: Someone mentioned that he is the first President that didn’t use the word as a slur.
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
luckily for me i’m a chinese hindu-speaking communist gay black atheist jewish transgendered woman so i can say whatever the fuck i want. you polack bastard.
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: i’m czech, you asshole
ETA: the language is Hindi, the religious demonym is Hindu
ETA2: it’s spelled Pollack
mai naem mobile
Booby Jindal’s stomping his two little feet and screaming ‘ Why didn’t the shooting happen in Louisiana? Whhyyy not me? Waahhh. I coulda been somebody’
mai naem mobile
@chopper: dude, are you a chinese speaking hindu or a hindi speaking chinaman?
Brachiator
Downloaded the podcast and will give it a listen on the commute home. I confess that I don’t know much about Maron. I vaguely recall hearing that he interviewed “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross recently.
@Bobby B.
What’s the story on this?
Major Major Major Major
@mai naem mobile: The preferred nomenclature is Asian-American.
Tree With Water
@Ruckus: Why not? She’s as crazy as any of them. Which sums up my thoughts about the entire GOP presidential field. One will prevail, of course, that much is certain. But it truly doesn’t matter a lick which one… they’re all exceptionally dangerous people.
Keith G
@Chat Noir: Maron is.
During a normal Maron interview, you will notice a lot more (thoughtful) interruptions as Marc finds a path inside. He let the President talk. There were things that Obama said that I have heard him say many times before – the pat answers that all politicians have ready for play back. I get a bit glassy eyed, but in Maron’s case, I understand why he let those clips play out. It was a chill conversation.
And it was still a fantastic interview.
schrodinger's cat
@chopper: You mean Hindi, right? Hindu is not a language, Hindi is.
Kay
What’s been interesting about Scott Walker’s campaign so far is how often he tells lies. They probably know in Wisconsin but it really takes a national campaign to bring it out.
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
i have dyslexia you piece of shit. now you’re even more of an asshole!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator: They’re old friends who drifted apart as Maron’s career stalled and Louie’s took off– Maron used to do a joke about how he was taking steps in dealing with his narcissistic jealousy, he admits that the title of Louie’s show is not, in fact, “Fuck you, Marc Maron”*. LCK did the podcast and countered that as his career was taking off, his marriage was failing and he reached out to Maron as a friend and Maron blew him off. They both broke down and had it out, it was compelling. That podcast was recently rated the best ever by Slate. LCK took that situation and flip-flopped it in his show, making himself look like the bad guy.
*he also acknowledges that Jon Stewart’s success was never due to his haircut. Stewart has not forgiven. Apparently, and by his own admission, Maron had the reputation of a snarky bully in the alt comedy scene in the nineties. Patton Oswald calls him “my beloved frenemy”. A lot of his early podcasts spent a lot of time apologizing to comics reminding him of what a dick he was.
Peale
@Kay:O.K. Scott stands for taking the battle flag down from the Wisconsin State House? Real courage it takes there.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: “I’m also not opposed to integrated schools!” GOP 2016
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
also, as an actual polack myself i remember it was always spelled that way. unless you’re related to the painter in which case awesome.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
What’s the diff?
A Czech would misspell it.
SFAW
@chopper:
The painter Sidney Pollack? Or Jackson Pollock?
Kay
I was talking to my 12 year old about the flag and he said “what if they had won“, in this kind of “whew, that was close” way.
I never in my life considered that possibility.
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: @SFAW: The painter is Pollock.
I learned ‘pollack’ growing up, out in Czech-ville. You know the thing where you’re on the highway and you want to pass some slow car but there’s another car in the left lane going the same speed right next to it? We called that a Polish Roadblock. I didn’t realize why, or that it was offensive, until I was like 20.
Kay
@Peale:
What? He was waiting for it to actually come down first.
Ruckus
@Tree With Water:
Oh I agree that she’s crazy. But either she sees this as something positive for SC or positive for her career. Given that she’s a republican, I go with career. As I said it puts her far ahead of gov half term in symbolic gestures, she is a woman so she won’t get the top spot unless she’s been in the second one for at least one term and maybe not even then, but conservatives seemingly like nothing more than symbolism in politics and this would put her high on the list of symbolic second place runners.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Well, there’s the problem.
chopper
@SFAW:
reginald.
hah!
Keith G
@SFAW:
My Hungarian elders (grand parents born in Hungary in the 1890s) used to spring forth with all manner of derision on the Slavic peoples who lived to their north.
Centuries of wars and hatred.
Never forgotten.
And when one of their daughter married a Pole…..Fun times.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Oh, come on. The country is thirsting – thirsting, I tells ya! – for a third party candidate who’s not a corporate shill, and who sees the two major parties for what they are: two sides of the same coin.
Just like in 2000, when Gush and Bore were exactly the same. Except that one of them you wanted to have a beer with, which made him the obvious choice.
SFAW
@Keith G:
Czechs are not Slavs, I believe.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s because you spelled “Hebe” and “Polack” wrong.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: It’s a slavic language to be sure. West slavic but still slavic.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
I guess I consider the Slovaks to be more Slavic, and separate from the Czechs.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: A thorny question, but basically they’re…
oh god don’t tell my grandparents
the same. Very little ethnic difference, very little linguistic difference, and very little genetic difference. That whole region wasn’t even chopped up that way until after the hundred years’ war.
gogol's wife
@SFAW:
Czechs and Slovaks are Slavs. Hungarians aren’t, that’s why they look down on us (especially us Slovaks, because we were their serfs).
gogol's wife
@Major Major Major Major:
But I’d say there’s a huge cultural difference based on the Czechs being in the German-speaking part of the A-H monarchy, and the Slovaks being in the Hungarian part. Religion too, as well as WWII experience (the less said about that, the better).
Sm*t Cl*de
Sodding bohunks.
Mandalay
@Ruckus:
Democratic strategists will be licking their lips if Haley is pushed a possible VP. Just eight months ago she ruled out getting rid of the flag, and she wasn’t even interested in talking about it last week.
Major Major Major Major
@gogol’s wife: I guess I just don’t feel the righteous anger that I probably would have a couple generations ago. WW2 is over, the Cold War is over, and there’s peace in Ireland… genetically speaking I don’t have anybody left to irrationally hate.
So I look at the Czech/Slovak thing as kind of an anachronism. Which is what it deserves to be.
mai naem mobile
@Major Major Major Major: seriously asian american covers such a ridiculously large number of people. Everything from Musleemy Afghans to Buddhist Tibetans to Taiwanese to Filipinos to Nepalis to the Japanese to Indian Tamils.
fuckwit
One of the most frustrating thing about America is its obsession with surface symbolism: which words are used or not used, which flags are displayed or not displayed. The symbolism does matter– offensive epithets shouldn’t be used, flags of traitors should not be displayed on public buildings– but it’s just SYMBOLISM. I think that is the point Obama was making and it very much needs to be said.
By the way, Obama has used that word in public before, in his autobiography. There’s also an audiobook of him reading it.. The context was a story about his only black friend in high school using it,and a story about his racist high school basketball coach using it.
As for that treasonous flag, though, there are so many reasons to tear it down that it should be a no-brainer. Get rid of it.
Major Major Major Major
I keep ending up in moderation. What’s the FYWP-approved ways to talk about boomsticks, waterfowl, and doubleyou doubleyou two?
Major Major Major Major
@mai naem mobile: I was quoting Lebowski
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Can I wear my Mumia sweatshirt, too?
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
My grandmother explained to me, lo these many years ago, that they were not the same.
Of course, it may have been because her heritage was Czech, by way of Vienna.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Not unless you’re referring to Pollachius pollachius, the North Atlantic food fish of the cod family. For the ethnic slur, stick with “Polack.”
ETA: You bohunk.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Anyone else remember the OMG reactions when it came out that Jimmy Carter said (about Ted Kennedy’s challenge to him for the nomination) – “I’ll whip his ass!”. The TV anchors were shocked, shocked that Jimmy would say such a thing. And they were so happy to be able to (finally) use the word themselves.
This thing with Obama is the same, only moreso.
And, of course, they miss the point entirely. But sound-bites get shorter all the time, so there was no chance that Obama’s thoughts about issues of the day would get covered over the word.
Cheers,
Scott.
Keith G
@SFAW: Although they hate to admit it, that is their ancestry (Western Slavs)
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: Just because my grandparents were soybean farmers in Nebraska doesn’t mean my mom wasn’t one of the first female law professors in the country, asshole.
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
that reminds me of the one about the polack lawyer…
Kay Eye
LBJ stormed out of the oval office after an hours-long meeting with Deep South governors and snarled to Joe Califano, “N…N…N……! I want to wipe that word out of the English language!”
A guy
As long as race baiters like Obama keep it going it will last for another’s 200 years
cokane
this nontroversy is probably super great for Maron tho
theronware
I used to love Morning Sedition back in the day!
SFAW
@A guy:
This.
Despite the best efforts of the Party of Lincoln to treat darkies (a/k/a “the coloreds”) just like real people, give or take 40 percent.
EthylEster
The thing is: you can say nigger all you want. Go into your bathroom, close the door, and say it as many times as you want. Nobody gives a shit. It’s when you use it in public to denigrate black or brown folks, that it becomes a problem.
Why is this so hard to understand? Why do many people thing that the word has magical properties…like beetlejuice? I don’t see how it is any different from kike or cunt, words used only to injure or denigrate others.
john fremont
@Ruckus: So this may be spun as a Sister Soulja moment for her depending on how this all plays out?
AxelFoley
@A guy: Oh, here’s this goat-fucking turd again.
chopper
@A guy:
you forgot to work ‘pimp’ in there. bush league, chief.
SFAW
@chopper:
And “uppity”
Corner Stone
That was some of the most fucking boring shit I have seen.
I tried my best but that was nothing funny at all.
Corner Stone
?
slag
I heard that this morning, was surprised and impressed that he said it, and then thought how much the press was going to prove correct every negative thing he said about them in that interview by fixating on the fact that he said it.
Instead of complaining about him saying it, every news outlet should just headline: “You know all that shit that Obama said about us in that interview? He sure knew what the fuck he was talking about.”
VFX Lurker
@chopper:
For what it’s worth, I consider “Pole” more polite than “Polack.” So, I use the term “Pole,” myself.
Pseudonym
It’s been years since I’ve visited Memeorandum, but really, folks, including our gracious host, you shouldn’t be browsing it without installing the extension that color-codes the links according to political bias.
SFAW
@Pseudonym:
How un-American of you.
Procopius
If Obama is the best president of your lifetime you must be younger than me. I’d put LBJ, with all his faults, above Obama. Or Truman. I suppose you’re too young to remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but he died when I was 8. It’s hard to pick out one of Obama’s flaws, there are so many. Voting for the FISA revision with immunity for the telecoms was big, but it was before he became president. How about ordering the Department of Justice to continue using the State Secrets Doctrine in their defense against the people suing to try to get some accountability for torture? The “Grand Bargain” to chip away at Social Security is really trivial compared with the moral betrayal there. Or setting the precedent that the President of the United States has undisputed authority to order the death of any person accused of terrorist activity anywhere in the world without any review or legal process and without any possibility of offering a defense or plea of innocence?