Gag me with a spoon. The Times this week published yet another dreamy, worshipful portrait of Barack Obama…
… along with the kind of journalistic fawning we became used to during his eight years of weak and feckless leadership:
“A Promised Land” uses his improbable journey — from outsider to the White House and the first two years of his presidency — as a prism by which to explore some of the dynamics of change and renewal that have informed two and a half centuries of American history. It attests to Mr. Obama’s own storytelling powers and to his belief that, in these divided times, “storytelling and literature are more important than ever,” adding that “we need to explain to each other who we are and where we’re going.”
Has the Times ever published a single paragraph, much less an entire article, about the current President with such an admiring tone? Has anyone published a photo like that of President Trump, rather than one which made him look sinister, manic or brooding? I’m trying to think back and determine if any President has been as insufferably smug as Barack Obama, or acclaimed despite such a dearth of positive accomplishments. Clinton would be the closest in the first category, Kennedy in the latter.
1. Don’t encourage him. Donald Trump will be a disqualifying 78 years old when 2024 rolls around. He will have no business running for President at that age, but if trend hold, he will do it anyway, essentially playing Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 and letting his unrestrained ego wreck any chances the Republican might have of finding new leadership and defeating whoever the Democrats run. Trump will be back where he was in 2012 and 2016, running for President without any concern for the damage it may do.
2. Garbage journalism, exemplified: From NBC: “Fourteen organizations designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center or the Anti-Defamation League have received funding from the Paycheck Protection Program totaling $4.3 million, according to data released last week by the Small Business Administration, revealing who benefited from the pandemic federal relief funds.”
A. The Southern Poverty Law Center is itself a “hate group.” It is neither an authority nor trustworthy, and makes its money by pandering to progressive biases. The fact that it calls any organization a “hate” group means nothing and proves nothing.
B. Is NBC really calling for federal funds devoted to assisting law-abiding organizations and their employees to be withheld on the basis of political and social opinions? It probably is.
C. A competent news organization might point out to readers that the government doing this would almost certainly be unconstitutional.
3. Signature significance 1. Joe Biden is appointing Susan Rice to some position or other; it doesn’t matter which. She is a proven ethics villain; there are few worse. This tells us all we need to know about the ethical orientation of the Biden Presidency, and also that the blather about being a unifying force is just that—blather.
4. Signature signifcance 2. Biden also has appointed Congressional Black Caucus stalwart Marcia Fudge as his Housing and Urban Development Secretary. Read all about her, here. The Daily Caller also reports that in 2015 she vouched for an Ohio judge, Lance T. Mason, who faced felony charges for brutally beating his wife. Fudge wrote in a letter to Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty that Mason was “a good man who made a very bad mistake.” That mistake including attacking his wife in front of their two daughters, who were 4 and 6 years old at the time, punching her 20 times, slamming her head against the dashboard of ther SUV, and choking her. Three years later, Mason (who was black, of course: you think Marcia Fudge would ever defend a white man?) , fatally stabbed Aisha Fraser at their home outside Cleveland.
5. And now, a song! A friend challenged me to write a pandemic parody to the tune of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland.” It wrote itself:
Walking in a Wuhan Wonderland
There’s a cough
Did you hear it?
See the crowd?
Don’t go near it!
Get it through your head
Wear masks or you’re dead
Walking in a Wuhan wonderland!
Gone is live entertainment
What remains is containment.
Just shelter in place
And don’t touch your face
Walking in a Wuhan wonderland!
Just make sure your nose and mouth are covered
If you still can breathe the mask’s too thin
You don’t know what viruses have hovered
A HazMat suit is what you should be in!!
Never mind your complying
All mankind will be dying
Just be sure on your day
You’re six feet away…
Walking in a Wuhan wonderland!
We should build a shrine to Dr. Fauci
And pretend that he’s not raving mad
Restaurants and Christmas make him grouchy
But having science guide us can’t be bad…
A vaccine
May be coming
In between we’ll be humming
We’ll frolic and play
The Omega Man way,
Walking in a Wuhan wonderland!
.
Ethics Alarms 
I can hear Bing Crosby now !
Prologue: Be prepared for the same reverence for Kamala Harris. Biden? Biden who?
1. Ego he may have, but age is not on his side and he may or may not be living when the time comes. At least TR was still in the prime of his life when he made his bid to run.
2. Amazing how this organization got elevated to supreme authority status in this country. It must be nice to be able to point a finger at a group of people and be able to label them with impunity.
3/4 This isn’t Biden’s presidency anyway. His picks are being made for him, no question. Gotta fill out out those diversity checklists, right?
5. Brilliant! Your parody songs generally come along right about the time I need them.
That particular tune, for some reason, is one of the easiest songs to write parodies of in all of music. I think this was my third or fourth version of it. Just to show how long I’ve been doing this, the first version was called “Walking in a Sinai Wonderland” about the Israel-Palestine conflict in 1978 and had the line, “In the desert we will build a deli…”
Today, hysterics would call the deli line a microaggression. But, oh, I bet that whole parody was a hoot.
1. God, I hope he just wanders away and plays more golf. Another campaign by him would begin immediately and give the Dems a pinata to beat in order to cover up all the screw ups of the impending Obama Restoration over the next four years. I’ve seen articles suggesting the Dems need to come up with a message and agenda beyond “Trump!” But if he stays in the game, they won’t have to come up with anything.
3. and 4. Both make my point of an Obama Restoration. What a bunch of D.C. insiders. Just what got Trump elected in 2016. Talk about a flat learning curve. The Dems just can’t help themselves. It’s more clear than ever the Dem insiders engineered the primaries to get themselves all back in the cushy, self important jobs they consider their birthright. I wonder where Ben Rhodes will end up? Ambassador to Martha’s Vineyard, D.C. and Hawaii?
Love the parody. Can I post it on Facebook, with an attribution?
-Jut
Oh, sure.
I just sang it to my husband, we love it!
Re: Obama’s Preamble.
Am I a bad person because I find Pres. Obama loathsome? His writing is pedantic, preening and pretentious. I read some of his new autobiography. Man, my sixteen year old son can write better prose than that guy (or is ghostwriters). Will no one rid me of this meddlesome, pompous ass?
jvb
Watch out, John. Maybe someone in the Secret Service has seen “A Man for All Seasons.” But hey, I feel your pain.
I think he is loathsome. Very disappointing.
Plus, he is just like a male Mary Poppins — Practically Perfect In Every Way! Just ask him!
“His writing is pedantic, preening and pretentious.”
Accurate alliteration aside, take it up with William Ayers …..
Obama is a petulant prick, too.
Ayers may have, in fact, written “Dreams” because it is fairly articulate. Rumor has it Obama couldn’t quite get his dad’s dreams quite right so he asked Ayers to “edit” Barry’s most intimate and obvious homage to the man who meant so much to him as a boy during his formative years, guiding Barack’s personal and philosophical political development; the same man who showed him what it means to be a man; the very same father who taught St. Barack how to stand on his own two feet and to cherish hus mother’s sacrifies so that he could appreciate what it is to be a woman in this dastardly nation. So, Bill took up the challenge and applied his extensive knowledge and crisp writing style to capture Barry’s elusive dreams.
Given the great success of “Dreams”, and a big-ass advance, Barry set about to repeat his literary achievement (lightening strikes twice, ¿no?), which eclipses in sheer brilliance the Magna Carta and everything ol’ Billy Boy Shakespeare ever penned. Barack being Barack, he knew he didn’t need Ayers this time, so he put pen (Pilot V5 gel pens) to paper (standard issue 8 x 14 yellow pads) and delivered a modest work at an impressive 700 pages. Puts.
jvb
Erm . . . “putz”.
jvb
Jack said:
Gag me with a spoon. The Times this week published yet another dreamy, worshipful portrait of Barack Obama…
If ever there was a cult of personality, it is Obama. Trump maybe, too, but the media just cannot quit dreaming about a third term for the Anointed One. Even Jesus may be jealous by now.
1. Truly, but alas.
2. SPLC — Okay, so does that make the US government even more racist? Why, after Biden is inaugurated, perhaps he can claw back that money. That should be interesting…
3. Susan Rice — I think she should become the first member of a new category — Ethics Demon. Like the Satanic minions, she just keeps haunting our country, spreading her vile deceit.
4. Marcia Fudge — Ah, yes, the race-baiter extraordinaire. By all means, she is a perfect pick for a Biden administration. Why give in to ethics and pick someone who is actually qualified for one of the hack-iest cabinet posts we have? I can’t think of a reason.
5. Wuhan Wonderland — Nice! You’re fired, by the way.
3)I believe Rice is being appointed to a position that doesn’t require confirmation. That’s a tell, imho, that neither of them dare put her in front of a Senatorial committee. I don’t think it would be a pretty sight.
So you are criticising the NYT not for anything in their review (of The Promised Land) but for a lack of balance : ie in not writing anything similarly complimentary about President Trump? I wonder what you’d suggest? Has Mr Trump written anything similar that could be reviewed? Has he indicated any political philosophy that could be critiqued?
What is it that you would want the NYT to write admiringly about? Presumably you’d want admiration for DT’s actions rather than his philosophy? Like withdrawing from the Iran deal, moving the embassy to Jerusalem etc? The NYT has written plenty about such actions. And it has explained why is is not ‘fawning’ in admiration..
How about penning the balancing opinion that you would have liked to see? And sending it to the NYT for publication? And if they turn it down you could publish to EA?
I’m looking forward to reading The Promised Land and making up my own mind. It is on my Christmas list.
I don’t post often, but your comment irked me in the wrong way.
Jack points out the obvious. Barack Obama has been preened and fawned all over. Donald Trump has been bashed and dragged through the coals like no other president.
He has only ever asked for the same coverage of each president. The flat out truth. Nothing more. Nothing less. Bias has destroyed the media til the breaking point. We are teetering on a fine point waiting for the outcome.
Donald Trump is a boorish asshole, but he is a competent president. He has signed peace treaties that people have thought impossible. That alone pens him as competent.
Your derision is misplaced. Your sneakiness is misplaced. What you can do is pull that pineapple out of your ass and climb down from on top of that high horse you rode in on.
Are you still having trouble with finishing up the Grand Finale to “the Pandemic Creates a Classic and Dofficult Ethics Conflict”?
By the way, remember Andrew B. Chung? Here is what he write about lockdowns.
http://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/hRF2ip8ORmo/m/RDXljKZNAgAJ