". . . One of the biggest themes of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address — and one of the biggest themes of his reelection campaign — is that he inherited a weak economy from President Barack Obama and turned it into a strong economy by implementing his own policies. . . "The years of economic decay are over," he told the joint session of Congress on Feb. 4, 2020. "The days of our country being used, taken advantage of, and even scorned by other nations are long behind us. Gone, too, are the broken promises, jobless recoveries, tired platitudes and constant excuses for the depletion of American wealth, power and prestige.". . . Trump added, "If we hadn’t reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witnessing this great economic success.". . . When we reached out to the Trump campaign, they offered several statistics showing Trump has notched greater gains than Obama did, such as manufacturing job creation, the unemployment rate, and economic growth. We found those statistics, and other specific facts Trump cited during the State of the Union, were accurate, or largely so. . .However, unlike Obama, who inherited the Great Recession, Trump inherited an economy that was already getting back on its feet. Overall, we found a continuation of the favorable trend lines Trump inherited from Obama. . . "
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". . . Barack Obama’s GOP detractors seemed absolutely convinced that the Democratic president had done real damage to the United States’ international standing. The opposite was true, but GOP officials nevertheless argued, with unnerving vigor, that America had forfeited the admiration of the world – and it was Obama’s fault. . . During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, for example, Jeb Bush insisted that during the Obama era, “We have lost the trust and confidence of our friends.” Around the same time, Scott Walker and Trump had a chat about “how poorly” the United States was “perceived throughout the world.” (In 2014, Trump also tweeted, “We need a President who isn’t a laughing stock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!”) . . . Mitt Romney added, “It is hard to name even a single country that has more respect and admiration for America today than when President Obama took office.”’ . . . It wasn’t true then, but it is true now, and it’s poised to become part of the 2020 debate. . ."
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. . . that the ancestors of both Barack Obama and Mitch McConnell ("none of us currently living are responsible" for what happened 150 years ago) were slave owners brings the point home that we, as a society, must seriously consider real, meaningful reparations. We are all accessories.
(from How Did This Happen: The Election of 2016 by P.J. O'Rourke)
". . . Trump is under the illusion that he's thirty-five time richer than he is. He thinks childhood vaccination caused the movie Rain Man. He believes Obama was born to the queen of Sheba in Karjackistan and raised by Islamacist wolves in the remote forests of Harvard Law School. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Khamenei, ISIS, the Taliban, and Hamas will be paralyzed with fear. Trump is crazier than all the other candidates put together. Who knows what this lunatic will do?. . ."
". . . "We have very fast airplanes, we have very good cargo planes," the president said. "We can come back very quickly, and I'm not leaving. We have a base in Iraq, and the base is a fantastic edifice.". . . Brennan pointed out that Trump had criticized former President Barack Obama for announcing military moves and asked if Trump likewise was telegraphing the U.S. retreat. . . "I'm not telegraphing anything," Trump said. "No, no, no. There's a difference. When President Obama pulled out of Iraq, in theory we had Iraq. In other words, we had Iraq. We never had Syria because President Obama never wanted to violate the red line in the sand.". . ."Being in Iraq was a mistake, okay," he added. "Being in Iraq — it was a big mistake to go — one of the greatest mistakes going into the Middle East that our country has ever made. One of the greatest mistakes that we've ever made.". . ."
". . . The Dow. . . set an all-time high 70 times in 2017—once every five days—while the unemployment rate has neared an all-century low. . . Is this happening because of President Trump? Yes, according to President Trump. . . Like so many miracles, this is revisionist history. . . Even if Trump’s first 100 days had produced a bevy of new legislation, it typically takes about a year for policy to affect national economic statistics. But Trump’s first 100 days produced no major legislation, despite effectively unwinding Obama-era regulations for labor, environmental, and consumer protections. Instead, Trump is treating the U.S. economy the way he might treat the licensing of a fully built hotel: He has slapped his surname on the facade and shifted around the interior decor. But the foundation, scaffolding, and architecture of the thing either preexisted his term or are beyond his control. . . The most important reason for this global boomlet is somewhat boring: After eight years of central banks printing money to help businesses and companies recover from the global financial crisis, the entire world finally seems to be growing. Global trade in 2017—which has little to do with White House policy—has grown at its fastest pace in the last five years. . . Claiming individual credit for global phenomena is a risky long-term strategy for any president. If the price of energy plummets, the White House will find that the Trump miracle will end, through no fault of Trump. Between 2010 and 2014, Obama presided over a 30 percent boom in mining jobs, thanks to a burst in energy demand and a fracking revolution whose technology was decades in the making. Two years later, all of that net job growth had disappeared, as the global price for natural gas plummeted. Obama wasn’t the captain of the global market for energy; he was merely a powerful bystander. That’s just how it is: The president depends on the economy far more than the economy depends on the president. . ."
[from https://www.quora.com/What-has-Barack-Obama-done-that-gets-so-many-people-angry, Darrell Roberts, Writer/Owner of @ TheDR.World (2017-present)]
". . . (Former President Barack) Obama is guilty of:
Forging a fake American birth certificate (as so many strangely looked past the FACT that Obama’s mother was an American—yet, they failed to realize that Ted Cruz was actually in the proposed Obama situation. As in, Cruz’s father was not an American citizen, his mother is an American, but he was born in Canada).
He managed to get every illegal vote that has ever been cast—like millions of illegal votes—no proof required to back up that claim.
He ruined W.’s economy. You know, once he took over—the economy continued to tank. In fact, it was the 2nd worst economic crash in American history—all Obama’s fault. Let us ignore the long road of economic shennanigans and the crash that began under Bush—it only got worse—you know, because Obama.
Obama also worked secretly with his Brotherhood friends to bring Sharia Law to the U.S.—look around, Sharia started in Dearborn, Michigan—now, Sharia everywhere—until Trump came along. Now, Sharia everywhere is no longer mentioned—thanks Trump.
Obama also was responsible for creating ISIS. Let us not forget that ISIS formed under his watch. Of course, it’s because he pulled the troops out of Iraq. It had nothing to do with the Bush agreement to withdraw troops based on the then-Iraqi leaders populist position to not renew the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) that would protect American troops while in Iraq. The Iraqi populists wanted the power to try and sentence American troops for criminal activity in the Iraqi system (and not under the guarantees that SOFA affords).
Obama also took everybody’s guns. Everybody’s guns are all gone. As a result, everyone went out and bought a lot more guns, lots of guns, a record number of guns.
Obama also used Walmart to build secret FEMA camps to “house” all those folks after he took their guns.
Obama said you can keep your doctor—which apparently is a guarantee for life to everyone, under every circumstance. As such, and without much proof, a few stories came out (some were not even verified for accuracy) that proved one or 12 people lost their doctor—because Obama. Let us ignore a GOP systemic effort to impede the Affordable Care Act—by naming it Obamacare. Of course, they demonized the program at every opportunity, voted over 50 times to kill it, and some red states simply refused to implement the program knowing that their shitty systems would hurt their people while helping their anti-Obama healthcare political deception. Apparently, trying to give poor people insurance is the worst thing any politician could ever wish to do. More guns = good, more education or increased health care coverage = bad. This problem is further compounded by not allowing insurance companies to refuse coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. That’s socialism!
Obama also spoke on the divisive nature of Fox “news”—you know—thus, killing the first Amendent through his brutal attack on the media.
Obama spoke compassionately on such issues as race relations and religious tolerance. Instead, he should have done the “right” thing and called each individual within such groups a “son of a bitch” while urging more brain-damage in the NFl, and of course, highlighting that not all white supremacists or wannabe nazis are bad. In fact, some of them are “great” people.
Obama also failed to address Russia’s meddling. Of course, he took action to thwart the Russians (to include intelligence agencies contacting and warning individual states but the Congressional and state-level GOP knew it was all an Obama overstep—just a trick). Perhaps, things would have been different if Obama never criticized nor sanctioned Russia and Putin. After all, you think our country is so innocent?
Obama also had the audacity to politicize the Sandy Hook tragedy by appearing on TV and crying during his address. All a trick, as Alex Jones uncovered the Sandy Hook hoax—it was all actors—so Obama could take everyone’s guns. NOTE: In my book, Alex Jones shall be forever be known as a piece of shit human being for being a prime pusher of this conspiracy. The level of pain he helped to inflict upon an already suffering families is unforgivable. . . the ridiculousness of the claims waged against Obama by many that seemed to have joined an American Revolutionary LARP or something was so outrageous. In fact, it made legitimate concerns . . . seem bland in comparison—and fell on deaf ears. After four or five years, it became impossible to actually highlight any policy disagreement with the Obama administration—because the rhetoric was way past reason. . . Ironically, Trump seems to possess damn near every trait that Obama haters claimed about Obama. . . "
While there is nothing I'd like to see more than our government working properly, resolving issues of importance to the American people, in a non-partisan fashion for the betterment of all, I fear that this is, in actuality, impossible. The partisan divide, which began with the presidency of Barack Obama (read McConnell: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.") and continues today, in an even more toxic fashion (if that is imaginable), with the presidency of Donald J. Trump. The reasons for the current situation's dire prognosis are varied and many, but the point is that we do our country and our population no service by perpetuating the current political situation. Both 'sides' must either work together on government (and not waste precious time choosing sides about petty, superficial topics brought to our attention by small, superficial personality flaws) or we must take necessary action for which provision was made in the U.S. Constitution and simply 'get back to business.'
. . . from and article containing some real food for thought . . .
(https://ivn.us/2012/11/06/100-ways-republicans-are-just-like-democrats/)
A large number of Democrats and Republicans signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2012, which critics say allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens on U.S. soil without due process. President Obama pledged to veto the NDAA, but went back on his word and signed it into law with the indefinite detention provision included. Mitt Romney says that he would do the same.
The Bush-era Patriot Act, which allows for warrantless wiretapping, was passed with bipartisan support and recently extended by policymakers of both parties. Romney has voiced his support for the controversial legislation. Obama supported it as a senator and signed the extension into law as president.
Both the Republican and Democratic administrations have attempted to justify the use of extrajudicial targeted killing, the killing of people without trial or substantive due process, including American citizens.
The Democratic and Republican parties both generally support the vastly-growing use of unmanned aerial combat drones in the Middle East . . .
Both parties will also allow drones to patrol the skies of the United States. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which calls for the use of up to 30,000 drones in U.S. airspace, passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In an apparent direct conflict of interest, 130 Republican and Democratic congressional members have invested in company stocks while making legislative decisions that impact those same companies.
". . . Trump relentlessly congratulates himself for the healthy state of the US economy, with its steady growth, low unemployment, busier factories and confident consumers. . . But in the year since Trump’s inauguration, most analysts tend to agree on this: The economy remains essentially the same sturdy one he inherited from Barack Obama. . .Growth has picked up, but it’s not yet clear if it can sustain a faster expansion. Hiring and wage growth actually slowed slightly from Obama’s last year in office. Consumers and businesses are much more optimistic, but their spending has yet to move meaningfully higher. . .“I don’t see any noticeable break over the past year,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “We tend to overstate the degree to which the president has the ability to control the economy.”. . . "
. . . (part of the record) of the "worst president in the history of the United States" - labeled as such by the current president . . .
(http://www.factcheck.org/2016/01/obamas-numbers-january-2016-update/ - as of January 12, 2016)
-Homicides have dropped 13 percent, but gun sales have surged
-The economy has added more than 9 million jobs, and the jobless rate has dropped to below the historical median
-The number of long-term unemployed Americans has dropped by 614,000, but it is still 761,000 higher than at the start of the Great Recession
-Corporate profits are up 166 percent; real weekly wages are up 3.4 percent
-There are 15 million fewer people who lack health insurance
-Wind and solar power have nearly tripled, and now account for more than 5 percent of U.S. electricity
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. " -John Adams
(http://www.factcheck.org/2014/04/false-tax-claims/)
". . . Q: Did Democrats increase federal income tax rates in 2014 under Obamacare?
A: No. Tax increases mentioned in a viral email went into effect a year earlier, as part of a budget
"Is this information correct? I have tried to check it out but get terribly confused.
It came as an email from a friend in Colorado.
Viral email: THE FIRST THREE MONTHS!
Happy New Year America
Here is what happened on January 1st 2014:
Top Income Tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6%
Top Income Payroll Tax went from 37.4% to 52.2%
Capital Gains Tax went from 15% to 28%
Dividend Tax went from 15% to 39.6%
Estate Tax went from 0% to 55%
Remember this ‘fact;’ if you have any money, the Democrats want it! All these taxes were passed with only Democrat votes. Not one Republican voted to do these taxes. Remember this come election time. And make sure your friends and neighbors know this info too!
These taxes were all passed under the affordable care act, otherwise known as Obama care."
FULL ANSWER
We started getting dozens of queries about this one about three weeks before tax filing day. It’s nonsense. Some of these figures aren’t accurate, and none of these increases took effect on Jan. 1, 2014, or had anything to do with the Affordable Care Act. And the claim that “not one Republican voted to do these” is false.
Here’s what really happened, and when:
The top income tax rate went back up to 39.6 percent over a year ago — for singles making more than $400,000 a year or couples making more than $450,000. The increase was part of the “fiscal cliff” package that Congress passed on New Year’s Day of 2013.
Capital gains rates also increased in 2013 under the same “fiscal cliff” deal — but not nearly as much as this email claims. For long-term gains (on assets held more than one year) the top rate went from 15 percent to 20 percent (not 28 percent), and also applied to individuals making more than $400,000 and couples earning more than $450,000.
The top rate for dividends also went up to 20 percent (not 39.6 percent) in 2013 as part of the same fiscal cliff package, and also only for those with more than $400,000 individual or $450,000 joint taxable income.
It’s true that the estate tax was once effectively zero percent — but only for people who died in 2010, not last year. The top rate went back up to 35 percent for those who died the following year, and (under the fiscal cliff deal) to 40 percent for those who died in 2012 and thereafter. Furthermore, the rate is still zero percent for any individual who dies this year and whose estate is valued at less than $5,340,000. The threshold for filing an estate-tax return was set at $5 million in 2011, and is indexed for inflation each year.
The claim that the fiscal-cliff tax increases were “passed with only Democratic votes” is false. The deal passed by a vote of 89-8 in the Senate (including 40 Republican votes in favor) and by a vote of 257-167 in the House (with 85 Republican votes in favor). The package made permanent the 2001 Bush tax cuts for all but very high-income earners, avoiding tax increases that otherwise would have taken effect Jan. 1, 2013, when the “temporary” Bush tax cuts were scheduled to expire.
The email’s claim about “income payroll tax” is a head-scratcher, since no tax expert we know of uses such a term. Our best guess is that the anonymous author meant to refer to the combined effect of the federal income tax and the Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, and did not understand how these taxes work. No combination of payroll and federal income taxes would produce a top marginal rate of 52.2 percent, so far as we can figure.
Back in 2008, when Obama was first running for president, conservative commentator Larry Kudlow claimed that Obama’s tax proposals would amount to “a 52.2 percent combined income and payroll tax.” But even that claim was wrong, because of the simple fact that the top marginal income-tax rate applied at that time only to income above $349,701 and Social Security taxes applied only to wage or salary income below $97,500. Any income taxed at the top income-tax rate would incur zero Social Security tax.
And the same is true today: Taxable Social Security wages now stop at $117,000, and the top marginal income-tax bracket doesn’t kick in until $406,751 for singles and $457,601 for joint filers. All of these levels are adjusted for inflation each year.
Having said all that, we’ll note that taxes have gone up for some as a result of Obamacare. The law imposes a 3.8 percent tax on net investment income that applies to people who earn more than $200,000 a year for singles, or $250,000 for joint filers. It also levies an additional Medicare tax of 0.9 percent on wages, salaries and self-employment income for people in those income groups. However, these changes also took effect in 2013, not 2014.
— Brooks Jackson
Sources
Tax Foundation. “U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1862-2013 (Nominal and Inflation-Adjusted Brackets).” 17 Oct 2013.
Hollander, Catherine. “Here’s What’s in the Fiscal-Cliff Deal.” National Journal. 1 Jan 2013.
Fidelity Brokerage Services. “A taxpayer’s guide to 2013.” 27 Feb 2013.
Ruffenach, Glenn. “Navigating the Dividend Storm; Tax rates on corporate payouts are heading higher for some. Don’t just sit there.” Wall Street Journal. 10 Jan 2013.
Cook, Douglas C. “Current & Historical Federal Estate Tax Structure, Exemptions & Rates.” Cook & Cook law firm website. 17 Dec 2012.
U.S. Internal Revenue Service. “Estate Tax” Web page. 9 Apr 2014.
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 112th Congress – 2nd Session. “On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 8, As Amended ).” 1 Jan 2013.
U.S. House of Representatives. “Final Vote Results for Roll Call 659.” 1 Jan 2013.
Kudlow, Larry. “Obama’s Big-Government Vision.” National Review Online. 14 Feb 2008.
Social Security Administration. “Contribution and benefit bases, 1937-2014.” Undated Web page accessed 15 Apr 2014.
Internal Revenue Service. “Questions and Answers on the Net Investment Income Tax.” 5 Mar 2014.
Internal Revenue Service. “Affordable Care Act Tax Provisions.”
Internal Revenue Service. “Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax.”. . . "
Yes, I've left all the sources intact in case you want to read further. Scott Biao (and others) obviously have not burning desire to read much further at all.
(from http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/19/revealed-barack-obama-talked-directly-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-concerns/ . . . with commentary from me)
BB: "Obama was one of the instigators of the “fake news” panic that has put Facebook in the establishment’s CROSSHAIRS following the election of Donald Trump. "
ME: I realize fake news was addressed to, and originated with, both political 'camps.' "Panic" though? What panic? Why Breitbart (and fox also, I'm sure) panic, of course. In any case, I suppose those of us non-NRA members are not part of the establishment putting Facebook in the CROSSHAIRS! And though, no particularly ardent fan of Barack Obama, I believe these folks put forth an convincing argument (or any kind of thesis at all) with the first sentence accusing Obama of being one instigator of the 'panic' etc. to which I've already referred.
BB: "According to a major New York Times Magazine feature on the future of Facebook, he is also holding private discussions with Mark Zuckerberg."
ME: Meaning, I surmise, that I, as part of the aforementioned 'establishment' must be concerned for some reason?
BB: "Earlier that day, Zuckerberg’s staff had sent me a draft of a 5,700 word manifesto that, I was told, he spent weeks writing. The document, “Building Global Community,” argued that until now, Facebook’s corporate goal had merely been to connect people. But that was just Step 1. According to the manifesto, Facebook’s “next focus will be developing the social infrastructure for community — for supporting us, for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all.” If it was a nebulous crusade, it was also vast in its ambition.
ME: Nebulous, yes. But to which part of it did you object?
BB: "Facebook’s spokespeople then called the New York Times Magazine reporter to clarify the CEO’s comments, which the reporter interpreted as an attempt to counter the perception that the new manifesto was “partisan” and “anti-Trump.”"
ME: Seems the reporter possesses interpretation and perception issues.
BB: "Facebook’s spokespeople later called to stress that Obama was only one of many people to whom he had spoken. In other words: Don’t read this as a partisan anti-Trump manifesto. But if the company pursues the admittedly airy aims outlined in “Building Global Community,” the changes will echo across media and politics, and some are bound to be considered partisan."
ME: Now Facebook's spokespeople AND the reporter seem to have issues. AND, if this can in any way be viewed as a partisan issue, then my takeaway is that Obama and Facebook opponents (republicans? Trump-ites?) are anti-Global Community (read isolationist?).
(from https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/8190 - identifying details in parentheses are mine)
John (Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff)--
Attached are three documents:
-- A list of African American, Latino and Asian American candidates,
broken down by Cabinet/Deputy and Under/Assistant/Deputy Assistant
level, plus a list of Native American, Arab/Muslim American and Disabled
American candidates. We have much longer lists for most of the groups,
and the lists will continue to grow as we reach out further and more
openly, but these are the names to date that seem to be coming up as
recommended by various sources for senior level jobs. (I have tried to
include member of Barack's campaign and Senate policy staff, as well as
participants in the Transition project, as appropriate.)
-- While you did not ask for this, I prepared and attached a similar
document on women.
-- At the risk of being presumptuous, I also scoped out how the
Cabinet-level appointments might be put together, probability-weighting
the likelihood of appointing a diverse candidate for each position
(given one view of the short list) and coming up with a straw man
distribution. (Obviously, multiple permutations of this are possible.
This was just one example to show how it might pan out.)
Let me know when you'd like to discuss. I am around this morning until
about 11:30.
-- Mike (Froman, former President and Chief Executive Officer of CitiInsurance and head of Emerging Markets Strategy at Citigroup, managing infrastructure and sustainable development investments and later Assistant to President Barack Obama)
212-793-1987
(from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greene/is-donald-trump-mentally_b_13693174.html)
". . . (a) stunning letter to President Obama from a source, with written permission from Dr. Herman, Dr. Gartrell and Dr. Mosbacher . . . about Donald Trump’s alleged “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”. . .
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
November 29, 2016
Dear President Obama,
We are writing to express our grave concern regarding the mental stability of our President-Elect. Professional standards do not permit us to venture a diagnosis for a public figure whom we have not evaluated personally. Nevertheless, his widely reported symptoms of mental instability — including grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality — lead us to question his fitness for the immense responsibilities of the office. We strongly recommend that, in preparation for assuming these responsibilities, he receive a full medical and neuropsychiatric evaluation by an impartial team of investigators. . . "
