President Obama is about to shuffle off the stage next week as his term finally comes to a close. He has been spending the last weeks of his presidency celebrating himself. This has included giving himself some awards and giving a farewell address that no one bothered to watch. He and his old lady have been popping up on every liberal TV chat show, and sitting with even minor reporters, for farewell interviews. All of which is supposed to be a victory lap, but it feels more like last call at a local dive.
All of this is being done while members of his cult rend their garments and cry out to the void where God used to exist, asking for deliverance from what they imagine comes next. Moonbats from around the nation have been doing what they can to draw attention to their grief over the end of the age of Obama. The last week has been a weird celebration of what will be remembered as an unremarkable time in the nation’s history. In the long run, putting an exotic weirdo in the White House will not seem very significant.
Naturally, the press is feverishly working on their hagiographies about the Obama age, but they are finding the material to be resistant. Obama’s signature achievement is a big bureaucratic nightmare that most people see as a mistake. Everyone in Washington understands ObamaCare has to be removed, root and branch, but the debate is how to do it without hurting the feelings of The Cult. The political class knows they have to do something about the spiraling insurance costs set off by ObamaCare, so it will eventually be repealed.
The rest of the Obama record ranges from the narcissistic to the pointlessly petulant. Normalizing relations with Cuba is probably the only thing he can point to that makes any sense. The Cold War has been over for 25 years. No one is putting missiles in Cuba so there’s no point in maintaining the embargo. The Iran deal promises to be a fiasco in the long run, but for now it is just a big giveaway to his coreligionists in order to spite the Jews. US oil companies also got a big giveaway as they are now allowed to do business with the mullahs. Otherwise, it changes nothing.
Modern presidents get too much credit and too much blame for what happens in their time. To be fair to Obama, he inherited a mess from his predecessor. The Bush Klan blew up the Middle East and left the economy a smoking ruin. You can debate the last part, as that seems like a disaster created by the political class in general, rather than the work of just one party. But, Bush started too unwinnable wars and left them for Obama. The best you can say about the Obama foreign policy, though, is he did not start a third unwinnable war.
Even so, Obama will not go down as the worst president in the post-WW2 era as his legacy is mostly nothing. Like the disco era, this will be a time that people describe with, “You really had to be there to understand why it was important.” Once the people who lived through are gone, no one will have any reason to talk about the first black president, other than on whatever day his cult venerates him. That’s the funny thing about being the first to do anything. Most of the time, being the first is the only thing you did worth mentioning.
The reason Obama was a do-nothing President is he was always just a symbol, rather than a man with his own ideas and agenda. The Cult selected him because he ticked all the boxes, with regards to their fantasy of the perfect black guy. He was black, but you know, not really black. Most important, he confirmed all of their opinions about themselves and their ideology. The Cult of Modern Liberalism never cared much about Obama the man, they only cared for as a symbol on their coat of arms.
Obama came to power with an extraordinary opportunity to pass his agenda. He had a huge majority in the House and a 60-seat majority in the Senate. His first big act was to let Nancy Pelosi pass a massive package of freebies for the Democrat Party supporters. Then he sat by and let them turn health care in to a circus of incompetence. His party’s leaders made clear from the onset that his job was to be their pitchman. They had no interest in what he had to say. His job was to sell their plan to the public.
That’s something the liberal media will skip over as they write their re-imagined histories of the Obama years. The other thing they will skip is the very superficial appeal of Obama. He was always just a black guy. Liberal whites and blacks supported him because he was a black guy, not because of anything he said or proposed to do as President. It’s why no one ever quotes an Obama speech. He was always the smiling black guy on the brochure. His efforts to promote Democratic candidates failed because that narrow charm is never transferable.
All of this belies a greater problem with the Left in the technological age. It is mostly just symbolism and ritual. It has nothing concrete to offer in the digital age because it is an ideology crafted in the industrial age. In 2008, the Left promised an anxious public that this gift to the void where God once stood would usher in the glorious future. Instead it was eight years of a stagnant economy, terrorism and droning speeches from a man who, in the end, had only one thing to say that mattered to anyone.
Good riddance.
In general I agree with your summary that Obama was a “Dindu Nuffin” president who was only elected because he was a nice looking black man. You know, tall, thin, not too black, trimmed short hair style (nothing threatening), and he wore a suit well. And then all the fawning over his supposed “speaking” ability. I for one, could speak circles around this clown sans teleprompter, extemporaneously and put him to shame. He was a complete put-on and I am disgusted by fellow Americans who are so stupid that they think with their asses rather than their God given brains.… Read more »
LetsPlay – “The man was not American and nothing he did was to help America or it’s people. Everything he did was to hurt America, at home and abroad.” Amen, you are exactly correct. And not to pile on here but “Z” states, “The reason Obama was a do-nothing President is he was always just a symbol, rather than a man with his own ideas and agenda.” I have to very respectfully disagree with that. Obama always had an agenda, for the U.S. and the world, and that was (and remains) the islamification of the globe. Aristotle, I think, “Give… Read more »
Anyone who works in a corporate environment, where the attributes and faults of the people directly above you and directly reporting to you largely determine your career fate and whether or not you like your work, will easily understand how corrosive an incompetent or angry and destructive person in leadership can be. Politics does not seem to have the “bottom line” financial checks and balances that a business environment does. When the P & L hits the fan, the housecleaning begins. Politicians seem to excel at doubling down on failure without blinking an eye. I am hoping that a business… Read more »
obama’s great service was to radicalize the core of American citizenry to act in a wildly unpredictable fashion. this is no small thing. Hillary was the killing phase of the left’s lifecycle…but it was prevented and now the counter reaction will leave an overall stronger country. obama was only a symptom, Trunp is the actual cure for the root “disease”.
“Trump is the actual cure for the root ‘disease’.”
PART of the cure. The real cure has to come from Americans themselves. Self-government takes commitment and dedication. Do enough of us still have that?
But it’s true that at least Trump gives us some breathing room. We’d all better get real serious, real quick, in taking advantage of this time. If We the People don’t turn things around in 4 years, we’re sunk.
Consider the “bad hand” GWB inherited from Billary, political, social, economic, and geopolitical. That includes Somalia and America’s commitment to African stability, and the legacy of “Monica’s War, and other barely addressed episodes of terrorism, and our intervention into ex-Yugoslavia. GWB’s biggest mistake was his refusal to defend himself from political attacks, or to defend his programs or supporters. Using some hare-brained doctrine about protecting the grandeur of the Presidency, he sacrificed that grandeur. He tried to reign instead of govern, which would have been suitable for a figurehead monarch. Strange, but if we recon Washington as America’s first George,… Read more »
Bush may have wimped out faced with hostile press and Congress, but nothing compared to McCain and Romney who pretty much threw their elections.
Don’t forget that bottom dweller Lindsey “panty waist” Graham.
McCain stands up against Republicans and NEVER EVEN TRIED to stand up against 0bama when he was running “against” him.
or maybe he was a dumb ass all along, and got in way over his head?
He was driven by resentment and did a lot of idiotic and very harmful things based on his contempt for America, his love of Islam and his foolish redistributive/retributive “ideology.” The one good thing he did was to rouse the populist American giant. He oversaw the transformation of the Democrat Party from the “We’ll give you stuff in exchange for your vote” party to the “Boys can pee in the girls’ bathroom party,” while the Republicans morphed from the “Small government, i.e., we won’t give you anything for your vote” party to the Make America Great Again party. He thought… Read more »
You make a lot of good points but a few I will disagree with. You say Obama did not start any unwinnable wars. How did we win in Libya or Syria? Libya has led to north Africa becoming completely destabilized. Nothing was won by Obama’s bombing campaign that led to the overthrow of Gaddafi. It added to the migrant crisis in Europe. The same is true of Obama giving material support to moderate rebels in Syria that in all reality led to the rise of ISIS as a well armed and funded power. Syria has not been won in any… Read more »
I’m old fashioned in that I still think of a war as troops on the ground fighting other troops on the ground. The whole “war on concepts” thing just does not work for me. That said, I guess you can hang North Africa and Syria on Obama, but it’s not an easy case. The Europeans lead the way in Libya. Guys like McCain and Graham were ripping Obama for not invading and letting the Italians get the glory. The neo-cons were also pounding the war drums over Syria, which is a byproduct of the idiotic Iraq invasion. A better issue… Read more »
More accurate to say that he was talked into filling Cabinet posts with incompetent political hacks like Hillary – then couldn’t be bothered to supervise their work. I doubt he spent 10 minutes thinking about the pros and cons of taking down Qaddafi. He just signed off on it when Hillary told him what a great idea it was, then headed off to the golf course.
Cabinet appointments were not particularly relevant in ObamaWorld because everything was expected to be run from within the White House.
“run from within the White House” — i.e., by Valerie Jarrett, our de facto president these last 8 years, the Rasputin to Obama’s Tsar Nicholas.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2012/08/obamas_strange_dependence_on_valerie_jarrett.html
Not only did he act like an ovary he was led by some as well. Wonderful.
Upon setting the conflagration, it is unnecessary to personally supervise each and every burning structure.
Here’s a speculative theory for you: W was really trying to undo the strategic errors of his father in Iraq dating from 1991. That error was to neither crush and eliminate Saddam and his Sunni cadre immediately in 1991 or to conciliate his Sunni cadre successors following his public demise. That would have been the old imperialist way, starting well before the Romans; So just too icky for the Cloud. As it was, he left Saddam in a very expensive box, costing us something like $2Bil/day, IRRC, consisting of oil sanctions and no-fly zones to prevent the crushing of the… Read more »
The fact is, in August 1990, Kuwait was not America’s ally but a neutralist nation. It was also hte single largest financial supporter of the PLO. We had no military treaty obligations to defend Kuwait. Iraq’s swallowing Kuwait may have been an affront to the international status quo and to the United Nations bureaucracy, but it is unclear how that was a threat to our national interests. We should have expressed our armed neutrality and allowed we would “respect the solution” arrived at by the United Nations Organization so long as we remained a member. And then sent out for… Read more »
Ah but you forget that with Kuwait in Saddam’s hands our friends the Saudis were then under threat from Saddam’s recently battle hardened and not inconsiderable Russian trained and equipped army. Now, IIRRC, the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) rational for our intervention in 1991 was that then a terrible ME tyrant would be able to control far too much of the world’s oil supply (of course this was already true – Saudis). This was nonsense of course because oil has always found its way to the market and if we were willing to pay the world price we… Read more »
In August 1994 while in Moscow on a military history tour, I spoke with a Colonel from the Malinovsky Tank Academy, and observed that while the Iraqis were using Soviet Equipment, they did not seem to be using Soviet operational doctrine according to Marshal Ogarkov. The Colonel told me I was correct, adding “If ‘someone else’ had been commanding, the outcome would have been somewhat different.” The textbook solution would have been for Saddam to push his tanks forward at GHWB’s first threat, capturing the potential landing fields before our first airborne brigade could have deployed. At that time an… Read more »
Schwartzkopf’s plan was designed to face Saddam and his military and was executed accordingly. If he was planning on facing a Russian led military, I am sure, damn sure, the plan would have been different. Sun Tsu “Know your enemy.” We, the US had eight years of war doctrine, strategy and tactics of what the Iraqi Army would most likely do from their recent experience in Iran.
You are also correct in pointing out that having gone to war against Saddam, it was an even worse mistake to commit “victory interruptus”. This was the mistake which guaranteed that Clinton, or GW Bush, or someone else eventually would be forced to complete the third act of the drama. Muslims hold grudges across the ages. But that was a mistake shared with St. Colon Powell, our First Black Chairman of JCS, who enjoyed wearing the uniform more than making war. A Perfumed Prince and another Historic First. I think I see a pattern here.
Rurik, you have nailed it. Politicians going to war with half-hearted intent and stupid ROE’s. We send our troops to war to WIN. Period. People will debate the definition of “win” but when you invade another country, that definition should be pretty damn clear.
The butcher’s bill will> be paid, the longer you delay, the more the compound interest will increase. In November 1965 The JCS recommended the measure which Nixon ordered in late 1972, mining the harbors, destroying the air defense system, and major military bases, and bombing factories and Hanoi. In 1965 DRVN air defense had only a few old jets and no SAMs, what worked in 1972 would have worked in 1965 but quicker and at far less cost to both ourselves and our enemies. And Lyin’ Lyndon could have gotten on with his precious WOP (War On Poverty).
Who says no one quotes Obama speeches?
“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” will be quoted to illustrate why no one believes political promises for years to come.
Agree. This will go right up there with, ” Read my lips. No new taxes.”
Everything seems to forget it was the tax lie:
Doctor
Plan
Decrease price
TAX
He said it WASN’T a tax – the Supreme Court said it IS A TAX.
Obama successfully seeded middle America with hundreds of islamic enclaves. Somalis, Syrians, zillions of various moslem “refugees” from the war zones: none of these communities will assimilate into the great American middle-class. All of them will form insular moslem outposts. Religion trumps all other loyalties. Moslems are mandated to spread the virus through stealth and deception when powerless, force and intimidation when they have the power to use them. For the first time in American history we have a permanent islamic faction who will now and always be agitating for greater moslem influence in law and culture. This is treason.… Read more »
The fiction is that economic opportunists and radical jihadists have been labeled as “war refugees”. What a load of crap.
It also helps explain why we have had eight years of non-stop war. Bush’s strategy was”take it to them on their turf, not ours”, and the “democracy building” trope. Obama’s unspoken strategy has been to keep the wars percolating so the “war refugees”, (almost always young men, not the women, children, and old people, which is the traditional war refugee population), could continue to be infiltrated into the West.
Thank you, JWM, for voicing what so many ignore or deny. We are leaving our children an unstable and dangerous America…. I don’t know a good way to solve this problem, but CLOSING the damn mosques that are provably promoting violent jihad would be a good first step. Something like 80% of American mosques receive Saudi funding and promote Wahhabism. Shut ’em down! Free speech and freedom of religion are one thing, but promoting the violent overthrow of the United States is prosecutable treason. Steven Emerson’s investigation of American mosques came out 13 years ago. https://www.amazon.com/American-Jihad-Terrorists-Living-Among/dp/0743234359 What’s been done about… Read more »
jwm, Dutch, Kathy: I agree 100%. I’m praying Trump will stop this influx permanently. In the meantime, it would be nice if the FBI would actually lock up the jihadists it identifies before they commit their murders. (“before” should be in italics, but I don’t see a way to do it).
And then this “clown” will invite them to Canada as refugees, paid for by a bullshit carbon tax:
https://youtu.be/XFahG31aobQ
Trump will have to build a northern border wall as soon as the southern wall is complete.
Adding $10 trillion to the national debt isn’t an insignificant feat.
Actually, it was “par for the course” for our golfer-in-chief.
I think he will be remembered, though for not the reasons that the Left wishes. I think his time will be seen eventually as a case study where a man fills the world’s most important job (mostly with himself, though maybe there wasn’t much else to offer) but the press — in the fashion of emperor’s new clothes — wouldn’t see what he was nor did they want to reveal how little he could do. That he was ineffectual is pretty much apparent but he mirrors our shallow time, whereby celebrity pretence was regarded as a glowing achievement by a… Read more »
Good riddance, but the best moment will be when the reality hits the horde of regime sycophants and it discovers not just are they out of a job but they are unemployable. After what their ideology and agenda has done to so much of this country, it will be just desserts. Those lucrative government paychecks are fake employment wages outside the beltway. Maybe they will get a stark first hand look at the consequences their policies have created. $8 dollars an hour, having to choose between gas to get to work in your beater with bald tires and no heat… Read more »
If only that was true. Eric Holder should have been disbarred for his disgusting time as Top Cop of the USA. And to see the questions put to Sen. Sessions about upholding the rule of law for “All Americans” is pathetic. Now they, the libtards care about the Constitution? Hardly! It is just a convenient tool to beat people up with. Holder now gets his pay from a CA law firm to fight President Trump. So these clowns don’t really lose. At least the “well connected” ones. But they are still traitorous scum.
I hope nobody is counting on an end to the lunacy once the malignant mulatto is gone. My take on the situation is that the Cloud was counting on Hillary as another front person to keep the complex Media-DCN-Fed Gov-NGO cyclic grift, however unsustainable in the long run, going in the short run. Since this continuity looks to be interrupted (articles have already surfaced that displaced Hillary Campaign and Obama WH staffers job prospects are bleak), look for the lunacy to be intensified as the Collective Cloud tries to restore what they see as the proper world order (Ancien R`egime_?)… Read more »
A relative of mine is dating a guy who works for a big-time Dem who is very likely to lose his position in the next couple of years. She brings him to family get togethers and we try to refrain from talking about politics, but a couple of the guys just can’t help but wear MAGA hats and leave copies of The Art of the Deal laying around. It doesn’t help that I have a shrine to Reagan near the entryway (literally). This guy just keeps looking less and less enthusiastic every time I see him. Reality is setting in… Read more »
Your assessment of the Left’s obsession with make-them-feel-good symbols is spot-on. But I disagree with your idea that Obama has not had much of an impact in the Middle East. The “Arab Spring” was completely his baby — and we will be suffering the repercussions of that for a long time to come. Obama’s friends had a big hand in destabilizing Egypt (see http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2011/01/29/did-muslim-brotherhood-learn-day-of-rage-egypt-protest-tactics-from-obama-allies-bill-ayers-and-code-pink/) and in making Gaza even more hateful and violent than it already was (see http://nation.foxnews.com/gaza-flotilla-raid/2010/06/01/obama-friends-bill-ayers-code-pink-top-activists-behind-gaza-flotilla). Obama’s recent backstabbing of Israel at the U.N. will have appalling effects; thank God that at least Israel has Netanyahu at… Read more »
“President Obama is about to shuffle off the stage next week as his term finally comes to a close. He has been spending the last weeks of his presidency celebrating himself.” Didn’t he pretty much spend all of his public career celebrating himself? “All of this is being done while members of his cult rend their garments and cry out to the void where God used to exist, asking for deliverance from what they imagine comes next. ” Right now it looks like they’ve been completely losing their minds; I remember all the hullabaloo when Bush II was in office… Read more »
The war Bambi left to us is the Muslim invasion of Europe and the US. 75% of the so-called refugees are males of military age. That is an army of occupation.
A symbol only. The Dem’s leadership’s lawn jockey.
perfect.
How ’bout a hundredd thimbs up to all. I don’t think I’ve ever been so anxious for January 20 to get here and I’ve been around for a long time, lived through some punky presidents – Carter comes to mind. On a serious note I do fear for Trump and I pray he can survive this. The ‘other side’ is just nuts.
Hundred thumbs up – hmmmm – just had cataract surgery – getting used to being able to see.
I live in a university town. I’ll tell you right now. This is better than Reagan.
That’s a high bar, too. The Reagan freak out on my college campus in 1980 was a sight to behold. The memory warms the cockles of my heart to this day, but it also gives me with a rather low opinion of the “educated elites” of this country.
It is my understanding that no one in Washington particularly likes the man (maybe that says something positive abut him) as he had no time to bother listening to anyone because he knew more about everything than anyone. But he did do what he could to welcome to this country as many possible dangerous immigrants (legal and illegal) set back race relations, hamper the economy with a mountain of regulations and wasted nearly 100 million dollars on lavish vacation for himself and his family. And NO major accomplishment. Not even a failed presidency as he was not that effectual. Be… Read more »
The economic mess he “inherited” was accurately politician-inflicted. To say any one man “saved” the economy is precisely what one would expect to hear at the altar of Obama. It must be tiring to lift such heavy gods every four years.
WW1 gave us communism, Vietnam gave birth to their heirs radicals on the left and Iraq put them in the Oval office. In all three cases the left (in various incarnations) won the moral argument. Trump must win that argument and everything else like the economy follows naturally . The rest is just grifters riding a government gravvy train fueled by debt. Same thing for Europe , it is not enough to identify problems but a moral argument must be made to counter the moustacchio from Austria . Trump might just be the catalyst bcs indigenous european solutions are to… Read more »
Obama had one speech, with different phrases from “Things to say in a speech,” and “folks” thrown in now and then so we would know he was really one of us.
Way back when he got his Nobel, I read his acceptance speech. I was amazed at the general incoherence. He had one section where he does the old false dichotomy routine so popular with liberal politicians. They create two straw men and then reject them in favor of their solution, casting themselves as the middle option. In Obama’s speech, he spent a few lines describing two world views, then said he rejected both and then, changed the subject. I found some video of it and it was clear that the point was not to argue in favor of anything, but… Read more »
I would point out that looking at an English translation of any and all of Adolf’s rousing speeches, one is left incredulous at the poverty of content. It is as if someone has substituted a false translation to parody Hitlerism. It’s sort of like opera, I like it better in any language I do not understand.
Obama, as you have pointed out, was a more sophisticated dissembler. Adolf liked to come right through your front door, Barry is a back door guy. But that is characteristic of the left.
Tocqueville–The parent of all illusion is enthusiasm.
Barry is a back door guy. Said Reggie Love.
I would bet money that “reach around” reggie was the top in that relationship.
i guess you had to be there in person at one of hitler’s speeches to “feel” the power, etc. after hearing what a powerful piece of propaganda “Triumph of the Will” was I watched it…meh.
I too have issues with some of what you wrote Z, but others have fleshed out my thoughts to a T. The economic mess what the culmination of Democrat crap initiate in the 90’s by BJ Clinton and the Dems in the House and Senate and their ways with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They were all in on making a huge mess… and left it like a pile for Bush 43. When he attempted to even touch the pile, he was berated and shouted down. So it festered until it blew… just like many predicted it would. The Republicans… Read more »
So I was at PT today and the therapist said did you watch the president’s farewell address ?
” No, when I’m done I don’t wait to watch the toilet flush ” .
And what was the therapists’ response? Shock? Agreement? The rest of the story please!
‘Fart in Church’ level disapproval.
Followed by “Oh John!” I’m afraid they’re getting used to me. I’m in very blue Massachusetts, I had to change pubs after they banned talking against Barry in the run up to the election.
“He was always the smiling black guy on the brochure.” Sort of like the light-skinned black late middle-aged couple on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield brochures for Medicare supplemental policies. I have never seen this couple anywhere. Who are they? They must make a fortune doing these ads;-)
Via Instapundit, here’s another theory of the malignant mulatto’s course of action in the WH: https://aeon.co/essays/is-obama-the-first-javanese-president-of-the-us?utm_term=0_411a82e59d-ab285810d5-68641869&utm_content=buffer697c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Makes at least as much sense as many of the other theories and doesn’t contradict the idea that he’s just a frontman. In fact it illustrates why he’d be the perfect front man. Spoiler: A Javanese king expects things to be handled in background without any effort on his part. Why I don’t know. The biggest weakness in this piece is that for the Javanese King to be serene and appear unruffled at all times means SOMEBODY is handling everything. It seems against human… Read more »
That Javanese approach of just serenely reigning above it all sounds like what GWB was doing. Barky Owebwana was just choomed out much of the time.
Ever hear of Valerie Jarrett?
Back in the 1950s one of the popular daytime television shows was “Queen For a Day”. That may be how Owebwana is remembered.He indulged and promoted the sexually bizarre, and according to rumor may have personified it as well.
With is origin and his actual characteristics as uncertain as his “accomplishments”, he will remain a shadowy villain straight from a horror movie, an object of terror, ultimately to vanish back into the jungle, leaving behind only a sense of dread. He will be recorded as America’s Last Black President.
WORD.
I do believe however that the DRAMACRAP party DID start a new, unwinnable war:
Their War against The Donald.
The essay left in the comments by al from da north (or close to it) on Javanese royalty sent me off into hours of geopolitical exploration. Arrgh. https://aeon.co/essays/is-obama-the-first-javanese-president-of-the-us So what looked like ghetto cool was, in fact, something far deeper than that. What he learned as a kid in Indonesia formed him. What any of us learn at that age is formative. But now we also know why Momma sent him to live with her parents back in Hawaii – almost America. She chose getting nearer to the throne over her kid. Lots of wimmen betray for less. Too bad… Read more »
“Bush started too unwinnable wars and left them for Obama.”
Neither war was unwinnable. We had in fact won in Iraq. Then he handed it over to Paul Bremer and blew the victory all to hell. Afghanistan was also winnable, but not with the policies under which it was attempted.
As for lazy, stupid, ignorant, incompetent yet mouthy Obama; He is precisely the sort of man for which the “N-Word” was invented.
Yes, Good riddance.
This may be your most insightful, well written piece ever. As they say in Massachusetts, “wicked Pissah”.
[…] SOURCE […]
I do believe that we should give credit to Obama for not attacking Iran.
The saddest part is that the opinion polls indicate that Obama would have won a third term if he had been able to run.
Get ready for the sequel in 2020:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/unprecedented-move-sen-cory-booker-testify-jeff-sessions/story?id=44679221
Question – when you say “Bush started too unwinnable wars and left them for Obama” – did you mean as that as in “extremely” unwinnable or was that a typo for “two”?? In all fairness to President Obama, I would challenge you to argue how any candidate, either Republican or Democrat, could have possibly undone the damage left behind by the Bush administration. While I would agree President Obama certainly didn’t do himself any favors with his agenda and team he put together – who could have really done a better job? Given the circumstances he faced from a destabilized… Read more »
You can hang Iraq on Bush. Afghanistan is a tougher call as something had to be done. Symbolism is important. To be accurate, Bush started one foolish war and one justifiable one. His failure in Afghanistan was in not getting out as soon as the point was made. That allowed Obama to turn Afghanistan into a fiasco. Obama had a free hand for two years and he squandered it. There’s no excusing it. The claims that he was stymied by the GOP are nonsense. Even after 2010, guys like Boehner and Ryan were begging to cut a deal with the… Read more »
I have to agree with you. He certainly was the worst possible man at the worst possible time and for all the wrong reasons. I hope that for America, and Europe, Mr. Trump can turn things around.
The last three US presidents will be remembered as the post-Cold War presidents. Both parties were built for a bygone era and the result was mismanagement for 25 years. Trump could very well be a disaster, but I suspect he ushers in a great reconfiguration of the political class.
Something similar is going on in Europe. You guys continue to labor under a system and mental framework built for a world that no longer exists.
“ushers in a great reconfiguration” <= this is why they fear him. Trump is making tons of moves simultaneously. he is totally inside their OODA loop. the hive has to take time to react to every individual action and can never get ahead of Trump. in fact most of the time they have no idea of what he is up to, and fall into a passive role of "waiting".
The fascinating thing about Trump so far is his self-awareness. He seems to have a fairly honest view of how these people see him. He is not interested in courting favor with them, but he is not Nixon either. Tricky Dick knew the Washington elite hated him, but he never really understood why and he seemed to think he could address it. That led to very serious errors of judgement. Trump, so far, seems to know why these people hate him and he is using it to his advantage. It also helps that so many in the media appear to… Read more »
If you just witnessed his first post-election press conference, your point about his understanding that these people hating him and using it to his full advantage was on full view. When was the last time you saw the President (okay, President elect, but he’s already MY President) tell the American people directly that he had a secret meeting with American Intelligence Officials that not even his own closest inner circle was aware of, and the details of that meeting were immediately leaked thereafter? What kind of cajones do you have to have to take on your own CIA and FBI… Read more »
It’s the old game of feeding different info to different people and seeing what surfaces. The source can then be identified. He is playing whack-a-mole and these guys don’t seem to know it. They think they still have the upper hand.
“…Tricky Dick knew the Washington elite hated him, but he never really understood why and he seemed to think he could address it. That led to very serious errors of judgement. Trump, so far, seems to know why these people hate him and he is using it to his advantage…”
This is really insightful and packages up nicely a lot of history. Pre-history in Trumps case.
Want to take wagers anyone, this era we are entering with the movement of rejection of the status quo, is a kind of a real politicks version of Martin Luther’s reformation and the reformation rolled into one in regards it’s effect on future history? The dirt people against the clouds schism? Just so it is clear I’m not trying to blow smoke up anyones butt, I believe if you look at the picture from far away, it couldn’t happen another way, and by saying that what is happening is a result of unintended consequences of the clouds elitist and statist… Read more »
God help me! I love this blog! It soothes my heart and soul in ways that I cannot express. Z Man, I cannot thank you enough. Her Horst, you give me faith in my origins. Danke Schon mein Herr. My Grandmother would adore you.
Yes – Afghanistan should never have been anything more than a grand raid in the style of the British Expedition to Abyssinia in 1868. As soon as the Taliban was beaten and Al Quada chased out, they should have issued a stern warning and headed home. Instead, they started unloading heavy equipment – that’s when I realized how lost the Neo-Cons were. I always thought Obama had everything backwards when he called Afghanistan the “good war”. Nation-building there is absolutely hopeless. Once we had Iraq, we may as well have stayed for a while – more hope of being civilized… Read more »
I have to enter an objection to the “two wars” meme, popularized by press and politicians.During the turmoil of 1939-1945, we never considered the fighting in North Africa and Italy to be one war, and the fighting in Northern Europe against Germany to be another. Nor against Japan. They were regarded as “different theaters” or “campaigns”, instead of separate wars. We would have been better off, militarily and politically had we recognized that both the Iraq and Afghan theaters were campaigns in the same war against Militant Islam.
Karl, this is one eight year occasion where you had to live in the middle of it to truly comprehend the insanity going around. The domestic US media has spun a fantasy world that is utterly insane. They have built this crazy facade from so many of the prejudices and guilts of American culture. That half of our countrymen buy into all of this makes it very difficult to deal with. Think of Trump as a cry from the wilderness from the other half of us. Just as I find it hard to truly understand how Frau Merkel and the… Read more »
@ Dutch – It’s always harder to see things from the inside looking out, than from the outside looking in. For Americans who have had to live under President Obama, we find it hard to understand what was going on or fully appreciate the impact to the average American in his/her daily life. In that same way, it must be confusing for Americans to understand what’s going on over here and why. But at the end of the day, I think we’re all wondering the same thing, just from different sides of the same ocean.
People generally have a subjective view of the world around them, not an objective one. Louts and criminals will indulge those subjective interpretations for their own ends. Powerful forces have been using and exploiting people’s subjective attitudes for a long time now. Meanwhile, those largely false interpretations of human nature and the way the world actually works have been given support and free rein, and taken to ridiculous extremes. Add the “madness of the crowd” and people’s need to belong to something, and a very strange cultural brew is made. Once one understands this, the blinders are peeled away and… Read more »
Just to be clear, this cultural self-deception has been going on for years; BHO and HRC are part of the problem. Trump’s election is a stab at an antidote to all of this. His election is a big move in trying to get back to a “normal” cultural set of circumstances. Extreme times call for extreme measures. The Left are the ones going all Godwin this time around. They really do feel it to the core of their beings. I have learned that they are the masters at projection. They are afraid of Trump because they know what their side… Read more »
“Just to be clear, this cultural self-deception has been going on for years” I think that it had its start when the concept of “political correctness” reared its ugly head. Why “political”?? Why weren’t we more concerned about moral correctness or ethical correctness? Perhaps because much of the country had lost its concept of right and wrong. If it feels good, do it. My opinion is just as good as anyone’s. I have a right to do as I wish. It’s not fair. Equal rights means equality of outcome. I have a right to not be offended. I have a… Read more »
it is surreal in the extreme. they are steadily escalate their displays of grief. it wouldn’t be too difficult (for a master persuader) to tip them into mass action; ideally mass suicide.
It is not just surreal, It is extremely dangerous. Obama still has more than a week to hit the detonator, and the deep state has all their heavily armed minions from the DEA, FDA, DOE, Dept of health, etc all armed to the teeth for some reason – remember Obama’s desire for a Federal militia equal to the regular armed forces? Well they’re there and Trump threatens their paychecks.
Surviving the next week and the Inauguration may be a bit dicey.
Don’t be fooled. It isn’t the government pencil pushers who are going to be the “Fed Militia” it will be the BLM and illegal ME immigrants that Barry has been squirreling away in unknown parts of the USofA. They, once armed with the tools he has purchased through these depts’, will have the hate America/whitey agenda to carry out.
Obamacare is a disaster. You’ve overlooked all those people that were cut to part time, to escape the mandate. You’ve also overlooked all the insurance companies that have bailed on the state exchanges. I work for a small company. We’ve had new insurance every year since Obamacare passed, as companies bail on the Oregon market. They all have deductibles over $5k, so they are a form of catastrophic insurance. Since you say Obama couldn’t have done anything about companies leaving, please explain why Trump has been able to reverse that before he even takes office. All Obama had to do… Read more »
Just a big giveaway? How exactly is un-freezing the Iranians own money a giveaway?
I don’t even know why they are sanctions on them in the first place, what did they do?
And no, they don’t have a nuclear weapons program:
The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare with Gareth Porter
I’m afraid they are bad the same way Saddam had WMDs, don’t fall for it.
When a major policy plank of a country’s leadership is “death to America”, and many of the leaders appear to follow an apocalyptic approach to the world, then it is prudent to be very careful about all of it.
You posted the Gareth Porter link before and it bombed. Once, I can understand, twice and I start to think you’re a troll or an Iranian agent.
Definitely a troll, but i do not consider unfreezing assets a gift, not per se.
You mean like Trump is a Russian agent?
Long closely associated with the New Left, a practitioner of activist journalism. A lifetime as an Anti-American.
Fat chance, guest. They won’t have nuke the same way the NoKos don’t have nukes.
They’ve already bought some of the old Soviet nuclear arsenal from Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, years ago.
Not a peep from Clinton or Bush administrations- why not?
Probably. But why didn’t you include the Obama admin (the last 8 years)?
I don’t buy it. The US and Russians developed nukes in record time but the Iranians (and NorKo’s) have had decades “developing” their nuclear capabilities yet don’t have them yet? Give me a break! I don’t know what game is being played here but when these bad guys have help from the likes of France, the Pakistani’s, Russia, China, etc. on nuclear technology, bombs, delivery systems, just how can these people not have what they say they are seeking. I have been hearing about their programs since the ’70’s. And people want us to believe they don’t have anything YET?… Read more »