Our fearless leader is back and looking tired. Of course he is tired. He is actually trying to do work, something he has never before done in his life. Plus, he has gotten no results as usual. At what point does this man realize that being liked and getting things done have nothing to do with each other. The world is laughing at this guy behind his back. Actually, they are laughing at him right to his face.It is a very simple concept. Every country in this world does what is in their best interest (other than the US of course). The best interest of these countries is rarely in the best interest of the US. Thus, foreign countries will support and like a President who is bad for the US, as that is good for the foreign countries. Accordingly, when we see the world gushing with love for our Clown in Chief then we should assume it is because they have already surmised that he is in their best interest, not our country's.
Der Spiegel gets it, and they are German. Why don't we get it?
The world has no respect for the United States anymore. They know we are bankrupt and can not pay our debt. Moreover, they know that with our crony political system we do not have the resolve to do what is necessary to save ourselves. Interest rates must be increased immediately. Spending must be slashed by a minimum of 50% across the board. Anything less than this will result in our country being crushed by the financial tsunami that is currently a mile off our coast and closing in fast.When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.
There were only a few hours left before Air Force One was scheduled to depart for the flight home. US President Barack Obama trip through Asia had already seen him travel 24,000 kilometers, sit through a dozen state banquets, climb the Great Wall of China and shake hands with Korean children. It was high time to take stock of the trip.
Barack Obama looked tired on Thursday, as he stood in the Blue House in Seoul, the official residence of the South Korean president. He also seemed irritable and even slightly forlorn. The CNN cameras had already been set up. But then Obama decided not to play along, and not to answer the question he had already been asked several times on his trip: what did he plan to take home with him? Instead, he simply said "thank you, guys," and disappeared. David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, fielded the journalists' questions in the hallway of the Blue House instead, telling them that the public's expectations had been "too high."
The mood in Obama's foreign policy team is tense following an extended Asia trip that produced no palpable results. The "first Pacific president," as Obama called himself, came as a friend and returned as a stranger. The Asians smiled but made no concessions.
While Rome Burns...
ReplyDeleteHoward Schweber Associate Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Posted: November 30, 2009
Jobs, Mortgages, Food Stamps -- Where Is The President?
Obama has been talking about a lot of things, lately. Like long-term structural changes to our health insurance markets, and cap and trade bills to address global issues of climate change. And of course there was the TARP bailout for the financial sector, the stimulus package, cash for clunkers, a whole raft of other things. Every so often there has been a White House summit: in fact, there have been eleven of them not counting the beer summit. Not to mention all the international summits and meetings, and let's not forget the Olympics.
Now, after eleven other summits, we are told it is time to have a summit to focus specifically on jobs. You think??
The administration and its cheerleaders insist that the first year has been a rousing success. Jacob Weisberg, over on Slate, cites pending health care legislation, the stimulus, and the reshaping of America's image abroad. The health care bill is important just because it will be passed; it doesn't matter if the bill isn't actually very good. On the stimulus, Weisberg quotes a McCain economic advisor as saying that without it unemployment would be over 11%. And on foreign policy ... well, he doesn't mention the Nobel Prize, but that's the basic idea.
All of which might be cause for celebration of the situation were less dire. But it is dire, and getting worse. Sunday's New York Times leads with a story about dramatic increases in the numbers of Americans who have to rely on food stamps. One in eight Americans uses food stamps today ... and one in four American children. In 2008 14.4% of American households experienced "food insecurity." That's 49 million people, among whom about a third experienced "very low food security." And that was when unemployment was at 7.2%, not 10.2%. But 10.2% is only the formal unemployment rate. If you include not only those collecting benefits but also those who are "discouraged" (no longer seeking work), those who are forced into part-time employment but want full-time employment, and so on, you get an effective unemployment rate of just over 17%.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-schweber/jobs-mortgages-food-stamp_b_373541.html
Does Obama even know she exists?
ReplyDeleteAmerica Without a Middle Class
Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.
The contrast with the big banks could not be sharper. While the middle class has been caught in an economic vise, the financial industry that was supposed to serve them has prospered at their expense. Consumer banking -- selling debt to middle class families -- has been a gold mine. Boring banking has given way to creative banking, and the industry has generated tens of billions of dollars annually in fees made possible by deceptive and dangerous terms buried in the fine print of opaque, incomprehensible, and largely unregulated contracts.
http://tinyurl.com/ydrteeq