Senate The 2nd Term of the Obama Administration: Facts, Opinions, and Discussions

For anyone who, like myself, isn't exactly peachy-keen with the sorry legacy of the Clintons and Mr. Hope n' Change Obama, may I direct attention to Counterpunch!, which, in the wake of Trumpolini's win, offers a treasure trove of invective and scorn.

Here's a good one from today, "Poor Liberals: No One to Blame But Themselves" by David Penner

Excerpt:

Poor liberals, for years you have toiled in vain for the betterment of humanity. Martyring yourselves for the greater good, you have attained a new level of sophistication and moral superiority, the likes of which we may never see again. It makes me weep such tears of bitterest woe, seeing your saintly queen of benevolence, fail to be anointed Queen Mass Murderer of The Planet Earth.

Every four years you come out of hibernation, and run about the country like so many chickens with their heads cut off, ranting and raving about how we all have to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, or else the world will come to an end. We will be enslaved to a redneck, who dropped out of high school and works in a gas station, or a KKK guy – or worse!

In actuality, the real problem is that when you look in the mirror, you see an educated person, a literate person, an articulate person. You see someone who is wise, cultured, unequivocally left wing, logical, and above all rational. This person you are looking at does not exist. This person does not exist, any more than if I were to look in the mirror, and believe I was looking at a hippopotamus or a water buffalo.

More at http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/11/poor-liberals-nobody-to-blame-but-themselves/

 

Unholy guacamole, that article sounded like it could have been written by Ender with as much condescension it had (and that's not necessarily an insult on Ender's part)

 

Obama good for America

• Unemployment: then 7.8%, now 4.6%, difference 3.2%
• Down Jones Industrial Average: then 7949.09, now 19170.42, difference 11,2221.33
• Gross Domestic Product Growth: then <-5.4%>, now 3.2%, difference 8.6%
• Consumer Confidence: then 37.4, now 107.1, difference 69.7
• Median Household Income: then 54,988, now 56,516, difference 1,528
• Americans Living Below the Poverty Line: then 43.6 million, now 43.1 million, difference <-500,000>
• Americans Without Health Insurance: then 49 million, now 29.8 million, difference <-19.2 million>
• Federal Budget Deficit: then <-$1.4 trillion>, now $590 billion, difference $1.99 trillion
• Federal Spending as a percentage of GDP: then 24.4%, now 21.4% (projected for fiscal year 2016), difference <-3%>
• Number of U.S. Troops in Iraq: then 139,500, now 5,200, difference <-134,300>
• Number of U.S. Troops in Afghanistan: then 34,400, now 9,800, difference <-24,600>

 

Ghost, is that you? Oh wait, no charts.

 

President Obama's Farewell Address will be tomorrow, Tuesday January 10th.

What can we expect?


Here was Bush's farewell address:


Here was President Obama's last State of the Union address, last year:

 

Well, I think we can say that President Obama will go down as the most inconsequential President of the modern era as everything he's done will be undone on January 21, 2017...

 

slow down appleseed

 

Nah, I'm Wocky Calling... it's like London Calling with 500% more clash...

 

http://theweek.com/articles/672548/how-obamas-failures-paved-way-american-socialism

 

I don't see the socialist revolution about to happen when 60% of Americans apparently believe that Trump will be good for the economy and good for jobs.

 

Nothing about a "revolution" in that article. Unless you're using revolution to mean something more peaceful.

 

And actual socialism pulls crap opinion with the US:



(that's 2016)

And the Democratic Socialist with supposedly high popularity lost by 4 million votes to someone with supposedly low popularity.

[Anti-Wocky]I mean, President Obama's going to go down as one of the least consequential Presidents of any era because everything he's accomplished will be immediately undone and his legacy will be dust on the wind...[/Anti-Wocky]

... but bringing about American Socialism is probably not in the cards.

 

It's much closer when polling those under 30 and under 40, I remember a poll that said millennials had a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/the-most-successful-democrat-since-fdr.html

Obama being the best Democratic president since FDR seems out there, but honestly it might be true. Clinton was a good president, but not consequential. Kennedy wasn't in office long enough, both LBJ and Truman had higher highs, but their low points were lower then Obama, and Jimmy Carter (god bless him) isn't in the discussion.

It is going to be a fascinating discussion about the Obama presidency in 15-20 years from now, especially as boomers die out and millennials become the care-takers of history.

 

1) How many of those 60% are gonna die soon either due to being old or not having proper developed country healthcare?

2) More serious response: Yeah, right now the terms themselves are what gets a lot of hostility towards socialism. But I suspect this is more a case of people being more favorable towards the content and not the term.

 

Every generation, the younger folks say "I like socialism!" and every generation (so far) that's been totally false when they get older.

You'll forgive me if I remain skeptical about long-term possibility here.

I keep saying, we need to sell UHC on its own, without waiting for Boomers to die because there's no guarantee the same thing won't happen...

 

So far we've really only seen the Boomers go from "I like socialism" (which is what they called the policies of their parents and grandparents) to "**** everyone else, I got mine" because they're the worst people imaginable. My generation, meanwhile, 1) has the most diverse generation with a lot more socialism friendly backgrounds and b) didn't have a great economy handed to us thanks to said worst people imaginable. I think there's reason to think things might be different.

 

Hey, take that back. Not all of us Boomers are like that - in fact, many of us "don't have all that," either. I believe your "Boomers" are a bunch of those who do have, not those of a certain age group. Boomers are as diverse as any group of generations.

 

There is also an aspect of that which is historical ignorance. I don't know whether anyone who believes the mistakes of the Soviet Union and PRC were overstated; not a risk if "we" go socialist; or not that big a deal is really stupid or really vacuous.

It's like the use of the term "kulak", incorrectly, to describe petty bourgeois behaviour. Stop it. It's not cute, socialism on its own fails because it's a bad system.

My hope would be instead that what David Simon advocated in his 2013 FODI lecture becomes a reality. Capitalism is the superior system on every index. However, as it is flawed too it needs socialism to tether it. The fathers of capitalism always envisioned some form of benevolence; if that is free health care, education, and an effective social net to ensure nobody slips through the cracks or get left behind, we'll be (UNINTENDED PUN TIME) richer for it.

To that end, I would argue Mr Obama made an exceptional mistake by using Keynsian spending to pull the US out of recession in 2008. None of the systemic issues were addressed, and instead of a cleansing 'fire' we got bandaids and more tension, more inequality, more populism.

It would have hurt his political career, but he was high minded enough to put a cause before himself. Rhetorically, I mean. Yes, people would suffer; but when the delayed bang eventually happens more will suffer, and they'll suffer in much harder ways.

Mr Trump's rise owes itself in large part to Mr Obama's response in to the GFC.

 

A) The JCC is so weird now. It seems like we're over run with a bunch of strange sex comments, and hostility and obsessing about Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump. It's good to see something approaching normal.

B) Game's post was actually more offensive, in suggesting it was "out there" for Obama be considered the greatest Democratic President of all time.

 

I love the door you left open for Lincoln to still be the greatest President.

 

Cornel West destroying President Obama's legacy, and blaming "his biggest cheerleaders"...

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...rack-obama-legacy-presidency?CMP=share_btn_fb

PS - I have my thoughts on this piece and it's probably more in line with Wocky's than not...

 

Definitely.