What is Obama Doing?

I have no idea what Obama is doing any longer.

He can organize endless lavish lunches and go out of his way to make billionaire teenagers feel important but they will never support his party. All this is achieving is alienating the Democratic base.

I mean, read the linked article and tell me if you feel happy and eager to vote for the Dems in November as a result. Or do you think, instead, “Vomit, vomit, vomit. These politicians are all the same and all have their tongues stuck deep into the billionaires’ anuses”?

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48 responses to “What is Obama Doing?”

danmillerinpanama

April 20, 2014

Just out of curiosity, why do you want the Democrats to win the November election? True, the Republican establishment is obnoxious as well, but it may be on the way out. At least I hope it is.

Meanwhile, the United States of Obama is increasingly trashing freedom in the United States and trying to do the same elsewhere. I find that more than a tad undesirable.

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

But maybe, maybe if we give the Dems the presidency, the House and the Senate, maybe then they will get something done, finally? One last chance? 🙂 🙂

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1. danmillerinpanama
  
  April 20, 2014
  
  Something? What?
  
  “Something” can be worse nothing. Having watched what happened when the Dems held the presidency and both houses of the Congress from 2009 until 2011, I am more than moderately leery about what they might do again with both the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    April 20, 2014
    
    “Having watched what happened when the Dems held the presidency and both houses of the Congress from 2009 until 2011, I am more than moderately leery about what they might do again with both the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government.”
    
    – Yes, I know. That was an enormous letdown. Enormous. But until the Republican ditch the religious fanatic wing (which is long overdue), they will still be an even worse option. It’s sad that ll we have is bad and worse. And my feeling is it’s like that on both sides. People vote not before they are enthusiastic about a candidate but because they see the alternative as even worse.
    
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Sean Patrick Hazlett

April 20, 2014

Wow!

That’s for posting this. This does make me want to vomit. These clowns have done nothing to deserve an audience with the president. They’re only there because of their silver spoons.

For “fair share” liberals, this is the height of hypocrisy. These people didn’t earn their wealth. If I were in their place, I would be embarrassed to attend such an event.

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

“These clowns have done nothing to deserve an audience with the president. They’re only there because of their silver spoons. For “fair share” liberals, this is the height of hypocrisy. These people didn’t earn their wealth. If I were in their place, I would be embarrassed to attend such an event.”

– EXACTLY. That’s exactly what I’m saying here.

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cliff arroyo

April 20, 2014

Gladhanding those with the money is a long, long tradition and it’s hard (for me) to hold that against a politician and I honestly can’t criticize Obama for smooching up the well off to fill up the donation box. That’s how we do things in America, comrade.*

it’s the rest of the time that i don’t think much of him as president. I’ve always felt he was essentially an empty suit (or human rorschach onto which the pubic projected weird race fantasies). I’m still not convinced he even wanted to actually be president in terms of doig all the tedious things a president has to do (as opposed to being elected president if that makes any sense).

*very, very obscure pop culture reference and I’ll offer immense respect to anyone who gets it.

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

But it’s not even like they will donate anything. Some of these people are not even old enough to donate money. They are so obviously not the Dem base, what’s the point of wasting time on making them feel important?

As for the reference, I got like 4 on the typical American quiz, so what is the likelihood I’d get it? 🙂 I think it involves movies.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  April 20, 2014
  
  The parents, he’s angling for donations from the parents (remember the first season of Mad Men when they didn’t fire Pete because they didn’t want his parents badmouthing them?) You don’t mention the parents (that would be too obvious) you just make a fuss about how special their (mostly not very special at all) kids are and he donations follow.
  
  “I think it involves movies”
  
  (looks around embarrassed, not knowing quite what to say)
  
  No…. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting you to know it – I thought maybe some other reader had wasted as much time on pop culture ephemera as I have (though, come to think of it, it’s very much up your alley, one of the very best american tv takes on the bildungsroman….)
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    April 20, 2014
    
    “one of the very best american tv takes on the bildungsroman”
    
    – Seinfeld?
    
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David Bellamy

April 20, 2014

“That’s how we do things in America, comrade.*

*very, very obscure pop culture reference and I’ll offer immense respect to anyone who gets it.”

What is obscure about it? This is how people in the Communist Party USA addressed each other as recently as the 1950’s or even 1960’s. It was used ironically, with a bit of contempt, by others. If there is some other meaning, then I lose out on the immense respect.

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cliff arroyo

April 20, 2014

“Seinfeld?”

No. And here’s a major, major hint: the main character was a female misfit (whose first appearance was as a minor character in a much more favmous tv show which wasn’t nearly as good).

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

All of my American references are post-1998, so. . . Buffy? OK, I know that can’t be it.

Why isn’t anybody helping me? Hello? Americans?

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  April 20, 2014
  
  “All of my American references are post-1998,”
  
  It started just before and lasted a few years. I can’t believe no one here knows this.
  
  extra hint: the whole glorious thing will probably never be on dvd because of licensing issues (that have royaly screwed up the few dvd releases so far).
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    April 20, 2014
    
    OK, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is available on DVD.
    So is Ally McBeal, and I don’t think it’s your thing anyway.
    
    Let’s keep thinking, folks.
    
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David Bellamy

April 20, 2014

OK, I won’t get this. I watch very little television, except for the Weather Channel and CSPAN.

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Titfortat

April 20, 2014

And youre only coming to the realization of ass licking now, interesting. 😉

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

Yes, what does it say about me that this practice is not immediately on my mind? 🙂

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1. Titfortat
  
  April 20, 2014
  
  The reality
  that youre not that much of a group dynamic individual. 🙂
  
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musteryou

April 20, 2014

And here’s another problem. A woman who is given an honorary doctorate is quoted telling girls not to worry about the weight:

http://www.buzzwok.com/meryl-streep-gives-advice-about-being-a-woman-after-receiving-honorary-doctoral-degree/

Is this how we should understand a doctorate?

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Clarissa

April 20, 2014

From her, this sounds SO TOTALLY convincing because she spent her life being obese and happy about it.

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1. musteryou
  
  April 20, 2014
  
  I don’t know either way, but one’s weight is not an intellectual issue and nor are the other issues typically associated with femininity.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    April 20, 2014
    
    This is a Hollywood actress. Intellect is not in the job description. 🙂
    
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    1. musteryou
      
      April 20, 2014
      
      So why was she given a token PHD? Really, I think we need to stop equating female intelligence with that of sprighly young girls and actresses talking about their body weight.
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        April 20, 2014
        
        “I think we need to stop equating female intelligence with that of sprighly young girls and actresses talking about their body weight.”
        
        – You don’t have to convince me. But it’s PR, I guess.
        
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        musteryou
        
        April 20, 2014
        
        It’s the way American women think about themselves. They aim very low in terms of demanding any recognition for their intelligence. Their strategies betray them.
        
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April 21, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to weigh the constitutionality of a U.S. law that was designed to allow American citizens born in Jerusalem – the historic holy city claimed by Israelis and Palestinians – to have Israel listed as their birthplace on passports.

The case revolves around the long-standing policy that the president – and not Congress – has sole authority to state who controls Jerusalem. Seeking to remain neutral on the hotly contested issue, the U.S. State Department, which issues passports, allows them to name Jerusalem as a place of birth, but no country name is included.

The law under discussion was passed by Congress in 2002, but has not been enforced by the State Department on the grounds that it violates the separation of executive and legislative powers laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.586555

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Clarissa

April 21, 2014

I thought it was already accepted that Jerusalem is Israel’s.

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1. el
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  USA embassy is in Tel Aviv.
  
  Haaretz (very Left paper) even has a hidden to non-payers column titled:
  
  The Jerusalem question: Will a U.S. court case trigger WWIII?
  If the U.S. decides to list ‘Israel’ as the country of birth of an American born in Jerusalem, the consequences are potentially huge.
  
  Of course, they like to exaggerate, but still.
  
  Another hidden columns are about:
  
  Palestinian professor who took students to Auschwitz responds to threats
  Denounced as a traitor and collaborator with Israel, Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi says students learned not to stand by human misery.
  AND
  Palestinian students condemned for Auschwitz visit
  Little sign that the trip might signal the start of a small but significant shift in attitudes between young Israelis and Palestinians.
  
  One reads something like that and begins hoping that one day we will have peace, even if not during my life.
  
  This sounds interesting:
  
  J-Streetophobia, and the U.S. Jewish right’s hatred for American Jews
  
  A new film was meant to be an expose of J Street. Instead, it sheds light on a message that marquee names on the U.S. Jewish right have for the vast majority of their fellow American Jews: You’re stupid. We hate you.
  
  Anti-/pro- Israel debate among American Jews.
  
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April 21, 2014

Thought you would like an article about some degree of success for Jews abroad (of Israel):

Epicenter of Holocaust now fastest-growing Jewish community
Berlin’s Jewish community has a tragic past – and a dramatic rebirth.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.584490

In general, haaretz is among the most intellectual Israeli newspapers, but being ultra-Left in every article prevents them from becoming The Israeli Newspaper. Unfortunately. Two general papers are on lower level, but not so biased. I hope you understand what I mean. 🙂

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el

April 21, 2014

OK, last here, have to destroy the good impression:

Teaching the Holocaust in Germany
Israeli professor Gideon Greif lectures before thousands of German students a year. But even he is sometimes rattled by their questions.

At the end of his lecture on the Holocaust to high-school pupils last fall, Israeli professor Gideon Greif asked the class whether they had more questions. A Muslim girl wearing hijab raised her hand and said, “Most of the Jews were cunning, right?” Several of her friends giggled in embarrassment. Others looked tensely at the teacher.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  This is a good teachable moment. The teacher says, “And this is precisely the kind of propaganda Nazis were spreading. Good job on spotting that, Annie! Everybody, pay attention to what Annie said because she has a crucial understanding of how this propaganda works. Annie, can you think of any other unfortunate stereotypes used about people of different ethnicities? Let’s do a little group assignment listing some of these stereotypes and figuring out which purpose each of them serves.”
  
  This is what teachers live for. 🙂
  
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2. Clarissa
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  Last week, a student said, “I hate this novel because it’s so far removed from the way I live and everything I know.”
  
  I praised her to the skies for the comment and used it for a little lecture on the entrance to modernity that I then published here in the blog. It’s precisely when the students are unhappy it disagree that the best teaching happens.
  
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3. el
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  You would be better than me. My 1st desire would be to describe how I hear the same about Arabs, being on the other side of the Middle-East conflict. Make her put herself in the same place somehow, but it probably wouldn’t work.
  
  Haaretz is ultra-Left, so if they give a girl in hijab as an example, probably more Muslim than German students ask such questions. German students may be antisemitic, but I think most know better than saying such, and Muslims bring very strong anti-Jew sentiment from their countries. Partly because of Middle-East conflict and partly because of having less tolerant societies.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    April 21, 2014
    
    Whatever students say or do, a teacher should never allow the though that she and the students might be on different sides to visit her. We are always firmly on the same side, and if everything a teacher does transmits that conviction, the students will believe it. The biggest mistake a teacher can make is to allow a split between “me” and “them.” It should always be “we, our, us”, together, joined in the same goal.
    
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cliff arroyo

April 21, 2014

Since no one guessed the reference, it was Daria, the animated spinoff from Beavis and Butthead.

While that doesn’t sound promising, it was far better than it had any right to be and is one of the few sitcoms to actually have something like character development (mostly in the last 2 1/2 seasons) that was realistic and believable and still in character.

About the only episode on youtube

Sounds weird because it’s speeded up (to get around copyright)

The quote in question came from s02e07 “The New Kid” when Daria realizes her sister had forced one of her orbiters to take her (Daria) out on a date she didn’t want.

Daria: You tried to buy my influence with a date?
Quinn: Well, that’s how we do it in America, comrade.

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Clarissa

April 21, 2014

Oh Daria! I should have known because I watched it a few times after people started telling me that Daria reminded me of them.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  “people started telling me that Daria reminded me of them”
  
  What were they basing that on?
  
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David Bellamy

April 21, 2014

I still think this is a humorous derivative of the usage I mentioned.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  Of course it is, but a “pop culture reference” is a reference to a specific tv show, movie, commercial or a scene or character (or recurring element) thereof (or to a song or video). That is it’s a reference to a specific work of popular culture.
  
  Shows like Community or Family Guy or the Simpsons rely heavily on pop culture references for their humor and if you don’t know the reference they’ll just seem random or weird instead of funny.
  
  To up the tone a little, Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni has a nice pop culture reference. At the beginning of the final scene when the musicians play fragments of popular arias of the day (including one from Mozart’s own Marriage of Figaro which one character says he knows all too well).
  
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April 21, 2014

// Last week, a student said, “I hate this novel because it’s so far removed from the way I live and everything I know.”

You made me curious. Is the novel modern, or the student? A good novel?

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Clarissa

April 21, 2014

A very powerful novel that allowed me to preach about Christianity. 🙂 Here it is in English: http://www4.gvsu.edu/wrightd/SPA%20307%20Death/SaintManuelBueno.htm

And the student’s comment did capture the essence of the novel because it is about the painful entrance into modernity, and those who have entered it already find the novel to be a text from a different planet. And that’s precisely why it’s interesting to read and discuss.

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1. NancyP
  
  April 21, 2014
  
  That’s interesting. I do think that disagreements, especially disagreements between “experts”, preferably two or more local professors, are good academic fodder. WHY is there disagreement? ARE there multiple reasonable solutions to this “problem”? How do you make a decision?
  When my fellow pathologists are split on a diagnosis, and discuss it publicly with the residents at our teaching conferences, the residents see different techniques of problem solving, different weights given to different factors in the decision making, the effect of varying personal experiences, and so on.
  
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NancyP

April 21, 2014

Well, we have the end of democracy looming if everyone sits on their asses and just votes for the best commercial, as opposed to examining actual policies and results. The Supreme Court of the United States has gutted any hope at campaign finance law reform, and news media are pretty much beholden to their conglomerate investors, as opposed to older models where news media were owned in small units (one or two newspapers, or a radio station) by individuals based in the community.

I happen to be from a reasonably well off family, a few orders of magnitude less well off than these kids, but I grew up with a powerful work ethic and ambition (science/medicine) that I likely would have had in any case, being a social misfit. Not all children from wealthy families have self-direction, or have interest in or knowledge of the world outside their own privileged circle.

It’s not a bad thing to point the wealthy youth toward philanthropy or toward social entrepreneurship that might not make huge amounts of money. If one of these kids provides seed money to an inventor that comes up with an affordable low-tech item that can make life better for poor in third world countries AND provide jobs for those same people, well, Obama may have spent his time wisely. (Solar stoves, cheap home water treatment, cheap local-materials sanitary napkins, solar battery powered lighting for schoolchildren, etc)

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Clarissa

April 21, 2014

Yes, these spoiled rich brats need a nanny and our country’s administration has no more pressing business than changing their diapers and helping them feel good about themselves.

I have every respect for people who made their own money, created something out if nothing. But worshiping the money aristocracy of those whose only achievement is to be born rich is beyond me.

Besides, isn’t the belief that the state should coddle the rich in hopes that they will throw a few philanthropic crumbs to the poor a Republican thing? If both parties will dedicate themselves to helping the rich tie their own shoelaces, who will be on the side of those of us who didn’t happen to inherit billions? Where is a party interested in representing me?

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NancyP

April 21, 2014

I view it as a bit of evangelism. I try to raise the consciousness of my much younger and rather clueless half-brothers about what life is like for the non-wealthy, about the social value of pink- and blue-collar workers that they reflexly look down upon, and for the great value of supporting public libraries, high quality public education, public parks, public cultural institutions, affordable health care, etc.

People born wealthy have the potential to do socially positive or socially negative things with their money. We no longer have the influence of the Church or of local public opinion impinging on the life of people whose money comes from local business. The globalization of money-making has made it even easier for the rich to not give a damn about their less wealthy neighbors. There is no shaming left for those who do not give appropriately to the community.

Yes, Obama is giving a pep talk that should have come from the parents, the priests or rabbis or imams, the teachers, and the community. Yes, it is an unfortunate waste of his time. Obama does have the pulpit, though, and maybe it is not such a bad thing that he spend a half hour calling these kids to join in and make the country or world better for everyone, not just for their country club mates.

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NancyP

April 22, 2014

Have I mentioned that the SCOTUS (Bush’s majority of Old White Republican Catholic Men, plus one Old Black “Oreo”* Republican Catholic Man) has recently declared “one dollar, one vote” – that not only can corporations donate to federal campaigns because they are “legal persons”, but both corporations and individuals can donate UNLIMITED amounts of money to political party committees and soon, no doubt, to individual candidates.

So, are we now the most corrupt country on the planet? Have Nigeria, Russia, (or fill in the blank for your favorite candidate) given up the crown? And did our good old country people so frequent in the South (including Southern Illinois, Missouri, etc), the (pro) Guns, (anti) Gays, and (think they are pro) God crowd just make it so? The bulk of the Guns/Gays/God voters are average income to poor. The poorest counties and zip codes in the USA tend to be rural.

And, this event that Obama hosted – is this just a recognition that the ordinary people are now toast, so it’s necessary to give the richest 0.01% the guilts?

http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2014/04/noblesse-oblige-or-one-of-consequences.html

* Yes, this is dismissive, and as a white person saying this, somewhat racist for assuming that Thomas is a wannabe-white and not just a “principled conservative”. But couldn’t Thomas have either married black or not dissed his whole black family-of-origin in public during and after confirmation hearings? Somewhere out there there are real live black conservative entrepreneurs who don’t trash their families or other black people. Thomas isn’t one of them.

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Clarissa

April 22, 2014

“And, this event that Obama hosted – is this just a recognition that the ordinary people are now toast, so it’s necessary to give the richest 0.01% the guilts?”

– And that’s my point exactly. We used to have a party that at least kind of somewhat sometimes pretended to be on our side. And now even that pretense has been dropped. We all know I’m not into apocalyptic scenarios but I can’t convince myself that this is not a very bad sign.

” But couldn’t Thomas have either married black or not dissed his whole black family-of-origin in public during and after confirmation hearings?”

– I didn’t know this. What a jerk.

“So, are we now the most corrupt country on the planet?”

– Getting there, for sure. I’m glad somebody shares my concern because these are very dangerous developments.

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