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Barack Obama's legacy: Top 10 achievements
November 13, 2016 - 10:44am
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Ok, I got stuck at Achievement #0.
First black President and that's it
He did pardon many non-violent drug offenders and he did try to pass health care reform. He was very much handcuffed by the obsctructionist Repugnicans for 8 years. If anyone deserves blame for the absence of progress since his Presidency,it's the right wing insurgency called the Republican Party.
Oh, I don't really think so. He commuted sentences. Example: Tim Tyler, sentenced to life at age 25, in 1993, for possession of LSD "with intent to deliver", had his sentence commuted by Obama. He is now set for release on August 31, 2018. Yes, you read that right. Conditional upon enrolling in "residential drug treament". Yes, you read that right also. I haven't researched all Obama's commutations, but that example is enough to hope that compassionate people like us should not spread stories painting Obama as being one of us. He is not.
No he didn't. Lyndon Johnson did - he passed single-payer universal health care coverage for persons over 65. Obama never proposed single payer, let alone "try" to pass it. The last time he maybe said anything public in favour of it was 2003 (yes, you read that right - and that's just a maybe). Here's a detailed account of his deceit and inertia on that front.
Oh and by the way, if U.S. presidents are so impotent that they can't make a single move without controlling Congress, why does anyone give a crap about who won the latest election?
In fact, Obama could have done lots - single payer, gun control, you name it - had he 1) cared; and 2) used the powers that the president actually has. Example: vetoing everything Congress passed until he got his way, with the overwhelming support of the population. Whoops, that sounds gutsy. Obama is a craven coward.
1. The Drone President killed more people - I mean civilians, wedding parties, blushing brides, etc. - with this impersonal killing technology than all his predecessors combined;
2. The "Yes We Scan" President presided over the development and expansion of the most remarkable police state in the history of the world, putting even the dreaded Stazi of the GDR to shame;
3. The Presidential enemy of Whistleblowers harassed, hounded, imprisoned more Whistleblowers than all his predecessors combined, shaming the USA by having an American citizen seek refugee status in .... Russia!
4. The Wall Street President, rather than help African Americans, and others, cruelly crushed under the boot of the Wall Street collapse, poured trillions of dollar$ into bailing out his Wall Street sponsors, and jettisoning his countrymen and women ....
5. During the watch of the first African American President, police in the USA went on a killing spree, blowing away THOUSANDS of Americans since the atrocity in Ferguson, MO, accompanized by the horrific militarization of the police across the land ...
That's just off the top of my head. Feel free to add.
Well,if you think Obama was bad,wait until the Trump Administration takes over.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/03/30/president-obama-has-now-commu...
You can say it's very little and not enough but it's more than the Trump Admistration will do. In fact once they pass a national stop and frisk policy,many,many more non-violent drug offenders will be imprisoned.
You don't knw what you got til it's gone
Wow, just noticed that, thanks A24! Sums up my views precisely, but Michael Moore got it right two years ago.
I don't want to do ten but I think his major contribution to American political culture will be his institutionalization of extra-judicial killings of anyone on the planet. I like the weekly routine of a specific time for deciding who dies because some spook deems them guilty. I am sure his successors will love the rush as much as he does.
Cut the unemployment rate by more than half.
The Iran agreement.
Unfroze relations with Cuba.
I am not as harsh as some on Obama. Perhaps it is also about expectations.
I do not think that anyone who could get to that office in that country with the politcs of that place (with and without GOP domination of the Senate and House) would be any better.
I don't think that they can do better.
In that context Obama is largely as good as they were going to get and now they will see what the other end looks like.
Don't try to change the narrative with facts.
Really? I mean, I know it would blow your lefty cred to say so, but not even the Iran Nuclear Agreement?
http://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/marchapril-2012/obamas-top-50-acco...
It used to be only evangelical Christians got off on hastening the end times, no matter not much people got hurt. If the number of revolutionaries cheering on Donald Trump is any indication, they are now getting a run for their money. So of course Obama is bad bad bad, going to worse worse worse, which is good news, I guess:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/its_worse_than_you_think_20161111
You mean, after it more than doubled after his inauguration?
Given time, Obama might get the rate down to George Bush levels.
Good one - yes, I'll grant you that.
Unless he lifts the embargo before Trump's coronation, zero points for that one. "Relations" mean nothing to me or Cubans, except infiltration.
Two years ago he called on congress to lift the embargo.
I don't like all the shit he has done either, but let's remember he has been fighting on two fronts.
Yeah, here was the vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 26, 2016 to end the embargo:
United States: ABSTAIN
Israel: ABSTAIN
All 191 other countries: YES.
This was "historic", because in all the other years of his reign (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015), the U.S. voted NO.
Congress didn't agree to change the U.S. vote to ABSTAIN. So what stopped Obama from instructing his delegation to vote YES? And to instruct the Israelis, while he was at it (oh wait, he had already signed off on their $38 billion in arms aid for the next 10 years - whoops, bad timing).
A vote to condemn, that carried zero weight. I am sure that would have persuaded congress to change their minds.
And that's the real reason that there haven't been as many bodies coming back in caskets under Obama as Bush. The Pentagon had long been involved in researching high-tech robotic weapon systems, and the technology bore fruit under Obama. Had Bush been able to run for more than 2 terms and was still the President, we would be seeing the exact same scenario playing out overseas.
Paul Jay commented during the 2010 mid-term elections about how Obama allowed the Republicans to rebrand themselves and come back, and I think Tuesday was a continuation of that trend. Jay's list includes:
People either gave up in desparation or ended up getting jobs that paid much lower than they were before. In both cases, when that happens you are no longer officially counted as "unemployed."
Correct. Poor impotent president, can't do anything without Congress. That's why he can't even vote his "heart" but has to abstain. Your logic is utterly overwhelming. How about my explanation? He's the abject servant of the U.S. ruling classes. Stands up better to the evidence.
I love Paul Jay - don't recall seeing this at the time - is it ever worth sharing today! Now I've got to check The Real News network to see if he's got anything as powerful as that. Thanks again, A24!
Right.
Our Mr, Harper was so much more competent in sidestepping parliament, using the unelected senate to override bills passed in the house, ignoring motions of contempt and concentrating power in the PMO.
So much better than playing by the books.
I can't believe no-one has mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize yet.
That would be on the rest of them, since no one honestly sees it as an achievement.
I told you what he could have done. After (pick one) Sandy Hook, he could have said: "I'm vetoing all money bills until Congress passes some feeble version of gun control. Go ahead, override me, and then watch what else I can do!" By the book. The elected president using his constitutional powers. The vast majority of USians would have supported him (yes, they would).
Your Harper analogy is interesting. Harper had nerve, Obama is a craven coward. And that's to Obama's credit? Beg to differ. As for Harper overriding this or that? Did he do something unlawful? He was once found in contempt of Parliament - and the craven cowards of the Official Opposition, Liberals, and BQ all let him get away with it.
Obama ought not to be forgotten. His disastrous failures should be remembered, and lessons learned.
Here's something a little more in the hagiography line:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/11/13/we-are-really-going-to-miss-him-sears.html
I don't think Obama had the overwhelming support of the population as almost half of the voters voted for McCain and then Romney and for most of Obama's time in office the Republicans controlled Congress.
Given the tenor of this conversation, more like someone who didn't dare to be a revolutionary saint and end it all by burning down congress and the white house, and turning everything over to the masses.
Since Harper is now someone to be praised for his nerve, and all. Not quite as gutsy as arresting all the communist members in order to secure a majority, but it did show he knew how to get stuff done.