Is Obama as Shallow as He Seems?

"Perhaps it’s time for me to conclude that Obama is too fixated on himself and his image to be other than shallow."

Power Line Blog  "Yesterday, writing about former president Obama’s hack remark to David Letterman about the absence of “a common baseline of facts” shared by Americans, I asked whether Obama really is as shallow a thinker as he appears to be. It was not a rhetorical question. To be sure, Obama has failed to display appreciable depth since he wrote his fictionalized autobiography, Dreams From My Father.

"His signature pronouncements and phrases are banal and borrowed. “The audacity of hope,”borrowed from his spiritual mentor the Reverend Wright. “Just words,” lifted from Deval Patrick. “You didn’t build that,” the obnoxious contribution of Elizabeth Warren. “Right side of history,” the conclusory rallying cry of countless Marxist hacks.

"Yet, I’ve always suspected that Obama has a gear in reserve, one he’s never been called on to display given the desire of so many to anoint him on sight (I assume his Harvard law professors called on him to display his full intellect, but we don’t know his law school grades). First gear will suffice with David Letterman and his audience. Second gear was always good enough for the mainstream media.

"But after the Letterman interview and his chat with Prince Harry, perhaps it’s time for me to conclude that Obama has no gear beyond second. Perhaps it’s time for me to accept Rich Lowry’s assessment:

[T]he deepest truth about Obama is that there is no depth. He’s smart without being wise. He’s glib without being eloquent. He’s a celebrity without being interesting. He’s callow.

"And that of Kevin Williamson:

Barack Obama doesn’t speak a foreign language or play a musical instrument, exhibits no sign that any great book has left a mark upon his mind, has never, so far as the printed word can document, uttered an original thought or put forth an interesting idea.

"Perhaps it’s time for me to conclude that Obama is too fixated on himself and his image to be other than shallow."

Obama Uses Photo of Himself for Christmas Card That Doesn’t Say Christmas

Eight Times When Obama Honored People With Photos of Himself

Like golfer Arnold Palmer for instance:

And John F. Kennedy:

Quoting Rich Lowry in The Callow President:

[T]he deepest truth about Obama is that there is no depth. He’s smart without being wise. He’s glib without being eloquent. He’s a celebrity without being interesting. He’s callow.

Pandemonium and Rage in Hawaii

See also: Brain-Dead Lefties Blame Trump for False Missile Alert by Rick Moran.   It's not nice to tick off Hollywood personalities.

The Atlantic

A false alert of an impending missile attack highlights just how unprepared the country is for nuclear disaster.

"Why would my 22-year-old brother be calling so early on a Saturday morning? I’d ignored the first call. But the second time the phone rang, I picked it up. He was panicking, his voice trembling uncharacteristically: He’d just received the emergency alert warning of a ballistic missile that was heading for Hawaii, where I’m from, and where he and my family still live. “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the alert read. My brother was alone, and had no idea what to do or where to go. And he wouldn’t have had much time to figure out a game plan—some estimates suggest a missile from North Korea could reach Hawaii in 20 minutes.

"People across the state were terrified. Many assumed they would die, but sought shelter anyway. They took cover in mall bathrooms, bathtubs, drug stores—even a storm drain. Hawaii has very few shelters, and houses with basements are rare. There were reports of people speeding down highways and running red lights to reunite with family members. Others called one another to say “I love you” one last time.  

"The alert turned out to be false, an epic—almost unbelievable—mishap. A state employee had accidentally triggered the Emergency Alert System message at 8:07 a.m., during what should have been a routine internal test. It took officials 38 minutes to announce their mistake, and to confirm that the warning had been a false alarm. Those 38 minutes were the 38 worst minutes of many Hawaii residents’ lives. And they were just as horrifying for people outside of Hawaii who, like me, felt helpless as they contended with the prospect of never seeing their loved ones again." . . .

The Hawaii worker who 'pressed the wrong button' has been reassigned

Ige released a statement on Sunday saying that "steps have been taken" to improve the alert process and that a false alarm "will never happen again."

Obama, Trump, and the Silliness of Spielberg's The Post

CNN did, however, see fit to review O'Keefe's new book, American Pravda, which hits the bookstores on Tuesday.  Although the book is a thoughtful exploration of historical and modern reporting – in a just world, it would be a staple in journalism schools – CNN chose to headline its review thusly: "James O'Keefe says Trump asked him to go on birther-linked mission."

Jack Cashill  " 'The way they lied," says the Ben Bradlee character in Steven Spielberg's preposterous new film, The Post, "those days have to be over.  We have to be the check on their power.  If we don't hold them accountable – my God, who will?"

"This is the same Ben Bradlee, by the way, who retrieved the diary of his sister-in-law, Mary Pinchot Meyer, after she was murdered and burned the pages having to do her affair with Bradlee's pal, President John Kennedy.  The murder took place less than a year after JFK's assassination and three weeks after the release of the Warren Commission report.  Meyer's ex-husband was CIA.  Bradlee collaborated with the CIA to destroy the evidence.  Thanks in no small part to Bradlee's intervention, the murder was never solved.  This is just one of the minor ironies that render the movie absurd.

"A larger irony is that the movie should have been rightly called The Times, since it was the New York Times that ran all the risk in publishing the Pentagon Papers that contractor Daniel Ellsberg had pilfered, not the Washington Post.  "It's as though Hollywood had made a movie about the [Times'] triumphant role in Watergate," said James Goodale, the Times' in-house attorney when the papers were published.

"As is painfully obvious, Spielberg made the movie to rally the liberal troops against President Donald Trump and his perceived threat to the First Amendment.  The silly, subversive part of it all is that Spielberg elevated the role of the Washington Post only because the Post had a female publisher and thus a juicy role for Meryl Streep.  The Times reviewer, paying deference to feminist sensibilities, still dared to write the following: "It is an unfortunate irony that the makers of a film dedicated to the pursuit of truth took dramatic license with Mr. Sulzberger, who died in 2012, in their worthy elevation of Ms. Graham, who died in 2001."  He refers here to the Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger and the Post publisher Katherine Graham.  Only among allies in political correctness would so basic a corruption of the truth be considered "worthy.' " . . .

Trump & Sarah Sanders Just Found White House Leaker, Now They’re Making Him Pay BIG TIME

Conservative News  "If you’re one of the millions of Americans who have no idea who Rep. Schiff is, Daily News Briefing provided a solid summary of his background:

If you are familiar with Adam Schiff at all you know that he has no interest in the truth or working across the aisle. He’s a partisan who only cares about advancing his liberal agenda and bashing Trump. He also loves being on TV. Every time there is a camera around you will find Adam Schiff running with the phony Russia narrative or hurling some wild accusation at Trump.

"Yep, that pretty much sums up Adam Schiff.

"After rumors began spreading over the past few months that Schiff was the one who has been leaking sensitive White House intelligence to the public, President Donald Trump blatantly called him out in a Thursday interview with The Wall Street Journal.

“ 'All I see of these Democrats, like Adam Schiff — it’s all he does, he’ll have a meeting, and then he’ll leave, and he’ll call up the meeting, and then I’ll have a meeting and then he’ll leave,” said Trump." . . .

Complaint reveals Google employees have zero tolerance for intolerance

Bookworm Room

Damore’s and Gudeman’s lawsuit against Google reveals an Orwellian world in which intolerance = tolerance and intellectual diversity = thought violence.

 . . . "When not writing in character for his novels, Orwell’s essays described what totalitarian “thought leaders” were doing and the consequences flowing from their linguistic manipulation and misleading slogans:

'Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”“Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

"I won’t belabor the point. You get the drift.

I mention Orwell because Google, a company that has a disproportionate hold on the flow of information in America and that willingly misrepresents and censors information caught in its net, is a company that has achieved Orwellian perfection among its upper echelon employees. This is not guesswork on my part. I know this because I took the time to read the 161-page complaint that James Damore and David Gudeman filed against Google claiming workplace discrimination against them based upon race, gender, and diversity of thought.

. . . 

"The reason it is such a disturbing document is because it’s very clear that a significant majority of Google’s upper management — and it goes without saying that these employees are all products of modern academia — are hard Leftists and vigorous Social Justice Warriors. They subscribe enthusiastically to a world  that uses censorship in the name of “freedom,” “peace,” and “knowledge.”

. . . 

Orwell could not have imagined anything better. Allow me to paraphrase the first highlighted paragraph: “If we’re going to have true diversity and inclusion, then this company must exclude, through firing or discipline [whips? chains? starved dogs?] all people who challenge our diversity.”Altman’s second paragraph does not need to be rephrased. It is the essence of Orwellian purity: “This will send a message that we have zero tolerance for intolerance.” Altman only forgot to add “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” and “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” to complete the thought.

". . . This is supposed to be a 'wave year' for Democrats. All we are seeing is sludge."

I’ll be interested to see whether any “Manning for Senate” lawn signs pop up in my neighborhood.

With Chelsea Manning, Democrats are scraping bottom in their 2018 lineup

Chelsea Manning is the latest to join this clown cavalcade, filing to run for a seat in the Maryland Senate.

. . . "It's an astonishing development, given the scope of Manning's crimes. While in a position of trust, Manning downloaded 700,000 government secrets and then forked them over to Wikileaks for global distribution, endangering U.S. agents and nullifying countless intelligence operations. He was then caught, sentenced to 35 years in Leavenworth, whined about not liking it, got special treatment in a government-funded sex change, and then received a pardon from President Obama, which he has since used to taunt the last two administrations and America in general, free and unaccountable for his crimes. He took to writing columns for the Guardian and living the celebrity lifestyle, taunting his detractors in Twitter, communicating almost exclusively in emojis." . . .

McCain claims,"The Taliban went after and murdered" people identified in the Chelsea Manning leaks. Politifact disagrees, if you trust them.

Senator Chelsea Manning?  . . . "Manning received a commutation from President Obama. During the trial and sentencing, Manning’s lawyers blamed Manning’s gender dysphoria for leading to his crimes, and in 2016 then-Bradley Manning declared in a commutation application, “I am Chelsea Manning, a proud woman who is transgender and who, through this application, is respectfully requesting a first chance at life.” Since then, Manning has been feted by elite society as a symbol of trans heroism and overcoming hardship.' ”

Manning's Twitter account

The President and Naughty Words (Updated)

Leftist Toilet Mouths Condemn Trump as They Corrupt Nation  . . . "As for Trump, his alleged potty-mouth moment was reported by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a scoundrel with a history of lying about White House meetings,according to Daily Wire. But whatever the president said, he said in private. This is far different from Durbin, who introduced the story. It’s far different from ex-California Democratic Party chairman John Burton, who led a “F*** Donald Trump!” chant at California’s Democratic Party convention in Sacramento early last year. And it’s far different from CNN and the rest of the effluent-stream media, which, like an exhibitionist, just revel in the chance to flaunt publicly what excites them privately." . . .  Called "Dick Turban" by some, do not trust what the man says.

Patricia McCarthy simply declares, Dick Durbin is a jerk . . . "Dick Durbin gets away with the murder of facts.  He is a well known liar.  He's lied before about private government meetings.  Jack Hellner lists many of his crimes against the American people here.

"Durbin lied incessantly about Obamacare, as did all the Democrats, and he lies now about immigration.  He is on record opposing chain migration in 2010.  Now whoever opposes it is racist." . . .

Democrats would never lie; just ask Harry Reid: Take a step back: Did Trump really even say the s-word?  . . . "Democrat politicians care no more about low-skill legal immigrants and illegal aliens than they do about inner-city blacks.  So long as they get the votes, Democrats are more than willing to watch the people they supposedly stand up for live horrible lives in miserable conditions." . . .

S***hole S***storm distracts from valid questions on immigration policy
"Seems Democrats would rather talk about Trump’s *alleged* potty mouth than whether expansive immigration from failed or dysfunctional countries is in our interest."

Lindsey Graham Said In 2013 That Not Everyone In ‘Hellholes’ Can Come To U.S.   Video

“The people coming across the southern border live in hellholes,” Graham said. “They don’t like that. They want to come here. Our problem is we can’t have everybody in the world who lives in a hellhole come [into] America. We're just gonna have to create order out of chaos. So, you've gotta do something on the southern border you don't do on the northern border, but if you don't agree that the difference is jobs, then we just don't agree. There are 11 million people coming through the southern border 'cause they come from countries where they can't find work and life is miserable."

Power Line asks, "S***HOLE OR NO S***HOLE?"  . . . "This story is a good illustration of the bizarre times in which we live. Trump made a good point in a private meeting with a small number of legislators. He may have used profanity while doing so, but he wasn’t making a speech. His political enemy, Dick Durbin, then ran to the press to damage Trump by quoting–probably misquoting–his private comments. The press jumped on the story eagerly, assuming Durbin’s account was correct and happily damaging America’s interests, as Democrats and Democratic reporters smugly told us was happening. " . . .

UPDATE: Senators Cotton And Perdue Specifically Say Trump Didn’t Say ‘S**hole Comments, Cotton Calls Durbin A Liar  Video at the link.
"They previously had been quoted as saying they “didn’t recall.” Now, they make it much clearer – they didn’t hear it and they were as close as Durbin. Durbin also lied about chain migration, calling it racist because Trump used the term in the meeting, after he, Durbin had himself used it in the past."

The streets of Iran seem pretty happy with President Trump

Silvio Canto, Jr.   "According to a certain network, it's "s-hole" 24/7.  I am not defending the use of that language.  And the selective indignation is going to backfire on Democrats and some of the folks in the media.

"We did get a report this week that the street in Iran is actually happy with President Trump.  This is from news reports:

They are risking their lives to bring freedom to Iran, and vow to continue their protests.

"These uprisings have just begun.  People are not at all willing to give up," one activist told Fox News from the streets of Iran.

"Their patience has come to an end and they have nothing to lose.  Iran will surely not fall down and people will not retreat from their demands."

The defiance comes as President Trump announced Friday that he is waving sanctions against Iran under the controversial 2015 nuclear deal one last time, and gave the European allies four months to change the terms of the agreement or he may seek to scrap it.

. . . 

The activists predict [that] stronger methods will work, and are thanking the president and the American public for keeping up the pressure.

"We thank you President Trump.  We call on all of the supporters of the people who press this regime from different fronts, to put pressure with you and overthrow with us," the activist told Fox News in broken English.

He and others said they are grateful that the Trump administration is expressing support for the resistance that has been staging many of the protests.  The demonstrations started Dec. 28, and the government claims that they have largely been quelled.

That is why the activists are looking to the United States for inspiration – and more help.

"Inspiration is right, and thankfully, President Trump is talking.

"By the way, I couldn't help but think of the NFL players when reading this article about Iranian protests.  Over there, you have real heroes risking their lives fighting a repressive government.  Over here, we have a clown, who can't play quarterback anymore, talking about injustice."

https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/11/branco-cartoon-america-held-hostage/

Letterman-Obama Netflix Interview Gets Negative Reviews: ‘Fawning,’ ‘Lackluster,’ ‘Bland’

Free Beacon

. . . "Letterman, who was a staple of late-night television for 33 years with "Late Night" and then "The Late Show," spoke to Obama for the first episode of a six-part series in which he speaks for an hour with people who he admires.

"The Obama interview, conducted at City College in New York City, touched on his post-presidency, Russian election interference, voting rights, race, family, and more.

"However, Letterman's obsequiousness, Obama's cautious answers—he never directly mentioned Donald Trump—and the fact that the interview was taped last fall made for a tepid viewing experience.

" 'In basically ignoring the ever looming current President of the United States on another s**tstorm of a day, the pre-taped result from last fall was primarily a warm, fuzzy, and sauntering up on dull chat between two well-spoken men who obviously like and respect each other and didn't want to cause each other any possible grief," Deadline‘s Dominic Patten wrote. "This debut episode of ‘My Next Guest' was not scintillating television by any stretch."

"The Washington Post‘s Hank Stuever panned the interview as "flat," criticizing Letterman as too much "in thrall" of his guest. Letterman told Obama at one point that he is the only president who he has ever truly respected.

" 'Both men seem rusty at the art of banter," Stuever wrote. "They're off their game. The interview doesn't produce any surprising or newsworthy statements from Obama." 

The Boston Globe expressed annoyance with the format and said it did "nothing interesting at all.' " . . .

Singer Seal Trashes Oprah’s Hypocritical Golden Globes Speech Singer Seal Trashes Oprah's Hypocritical Golden Globes Speech

Western Journal  . . . "Samuel went even further in the post’s caption, indicating that Winfrey was aware of the rumors surrounding Harvey’s alleged wrongdoing, but remained friends with him anyway.

“ 'Oh I forgot, that’s right…..you’d heard the rumours but you had no idea he was actually serially assaulting young stary-eyed actresses who in turn had no idea what they were getting into. My bad,” the musician wrote, while adding the hashtag “SanctimoniousHollywood.”

"Samuel’s Instagram post echoed a trio of tweets posted earlier this week by actor James Woods, in which he also accused Winfrey of hypocrisy.

"Winfrey, who starred in The Weinstein Company film “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” in 2013, is shown hanging on his shoulder in one picture posted by Woods." . . .

The pathetic results of the NFL kneeling spree

There are bright lights, such as the Rev. Alveda King, the niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who will be honored this weekend.  She has identified these problems in the community for years and has absolutely refused to go along with the Democratic leadership package.

Monica Showalter  "What, exactly, did the NFL "take-a-knee" protests by wealthy black football players protesting racial injustice accomplish?

"Based on what most people could see, pretty much nothing, other than lost ticket sales.  People go to football games to be entertained, not to be lectured by their supposed betters in another dreary virtue-signaling game.

"This is why longtime cultural observer and critic Shelby Steele thinks black protests have lost their power in his must-read op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal.

The recent protests by black players in the National Football League were rather sad for their fruitlessness.  They may point to the end of an era for black America, and for the country generally – an era in which protest has been the primary means of black advancement in American life.

"The reason, he concludes, is that it's hard to protest The Man's power when you yourself are now the man.  As Steele puts it, freedom has arrived, and with freedom, accountability.  Black protesters must now be judged on the actual merit of their protests, instead of just the identity reality the protesters' black race, which up until now, has pretty much sent whites scurrying.  They aren't scurrying anymore in deference to the protests; they just aren't buying tickets.

"This demonstrates how hollow these protests from pampered, millionaire athletes, honored on the field for their talents – with no affirmative action to ensure white representation, which is how it would go if affirmative action were enforced in football – really fail to resonate among the captive audiences of live football games.  In the past, Steele notes, protests really did take courage.  Black protesters were fired, beaten, fined, jailed, and killed.  Today, anyone who goes out there as a black protester enjoys the pleasures of virtue-signaling and laps up the attention from the cultural elites." . . . 

The new American export: Trump Hate

darkangelpolitics

American Thinker   . . . "Like Coke and rock & roll, "Trump Hate" is a cultural export, a meme.  In some cases, it's a literal fashion statement.  Supreme, an avant-garde clothing brand, makes a fortune (internationally and domestically) selling designer shirts with a "[F---] Trump" logo; it's not alone.  Take a trip to Cabo, venture to the nearest gift shop, and you'll find a stand with "[F---] Trump" bracelets and shirts galore.  Around the world, Trump has become a universal anathema.  Accordingly, hating Trump is no longer strictly a political opinion; it's the new American fashion statement.

"In an age where Americans are weary of an ever impending geriatric descent into international disgrace and anonymity, Trump Hate should offer some hope – our media are so influential that they can make even our most historically soporific political dealings a front-page international affair."