Here are some of the things I came up with. Let me know if you have things to add.
Record numbers of kids and families on food stamps
Record numbers of Americans on welfare
Lowest labor participation rate in over 40 years
Rampant criminality on Wall Street that went unpunished and even rewarded
Unprecedented wealth and income inequality
Trillion dollar corporate giveaways while passing cuts to safety nets and social spending
Decaying infrastructure
Trillions to banks while at the same time, record number of Americans who lost their jobs and homes
Out of control police brutality and consequent social unrest
Exploding homelessness and poverty
Continued NSA spying
Iraq in chaos
The rise of ISIS
Libya
Ukraine coup
Record numbers of Americans on welfare
Lowest labor participation rate in over 40 years
Rampant criminality on Wall Street that went unpunished and even rewarded
Unprecedented wealth and income inequality
Trillion dollar corporate giveaways while passing cuts to safety nets and social spending
Decaying infrastructure
Trillions to banks while at the same time, record number of Americans who lost their jobs and homes
Out of control police brutality and consequent social unrest
Exploding homelessness and poverty
Continued NSA spying
Iraq in chaos
The rise of ISIS
Libya
Ukraine coup
28 comments:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/05/23/obama_were_out_of_money.html
To be fair, Iraq and ISIS are a legacy he was handed by Bush, and given the institutional constraints (Pentagon, State and Congress) he couldn't do the right thing even if he wanted to. To resolve the situation would further undermine US power in the region. Bush really did a number on US power!
On the domestic stuff and the NSA, you're right - he's been terrible. But what did you expect? Roosevelt? Obama has pretty much held up his commitments, which were for the most part pretty vague. Instead, he droned (no pun intended) on about "hope" and "change" and other nice sounding stuff, and people lapped it up like a dehydrated dog finding a puddle of stagnant water. Obama preyed on people's desperation. If you simply and objectively listened to what he was saying and dropped all your illusions about him, he was clearly Mr Wall Street.
To be fair, Iraq and ISIS are a legacy he was handed by Bush, and given the institutional constraints (Pentagon, State and Congress) he couldn't do the right thing even if he wanted to. To resolve the situation would further undermine US power in the region. Bush really did a number on US power!
On the domestic stuff and the NSA, you're right - he's been terrible. But what did you expect? Roosevelt? Obama has pretty much held up his commitments, which were for the most part pretty vague. Instead, he droned (no pun intended) on about "hope" and "change" and other nice sounding stuff, and people lapped it up like a dehydrated dog finding a puddle of stagnant water. Obama preyed on people's desperation. If you simply and objectively listened to what he was saying and dropped all your illusions about him, he was clearly Mr Wall Street.
But Hey, no one's perfect! It could have been worse.
It's bipartisan. The GOP has done everything it could think of to undermine Obama just like they did Clinton. This goes way beyond the accustomed limits of the opposition in a liberal democracy, since it was aimed not just at the administration but the entire country. I give the GOP a bigger fail than the Dems, even though both performed miserably.
Romney probably would have been worse, but not by that much. McCain certainly would have been worse.
In any case, five years from now the question will be: "Is Trump/Bush/Clinton the worst president in history?"
They're at the mercy of world events, many decades old political and economic forces that have been dormant are starting to rise to the surface with a vengeance, the empire is starting to come apart, the so-called barbarians are at the door.
There's only two explanations possible for someone to lay this at Obama's feet - either they get all their 'understanding' from Faux News or they've been in a coma for decades.
And as Tom says, the GOP would rather burn the Democrats abode down than live in the same tenement, thereby taking the whole US down at the same time.
Hence Bruce Bartlett's unusually frank denunciation of the GOP as stupid and crazy, and why so many prominent and elite Republicans voted for Obama.
Jobless Claims in U.S. Hover Near Lowest in Four Decades http://bloom.bg/1MRUbOe This article is from early August.
But Hey, no one's perfect! It could have been worse.
At the time of the 2008 election I said that if McCain were elected it would result in catastrophe (war), whereas if it was Obama, only disaster would result. At least Obama didn't start any big new wars — yet. He still has a chance, though.
Obama's legacy is secure in any case just from having been successful getting a health care bill passed and implemented.
The size of the achievement is indicated in all the failed votes to repeal it and the promise of most conservative politicians to continue trying to do so.
Is Obama the Worst President Ever?: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/03/is-obama-the-worst-president-ever/
According to Richard Wolff, average private health care deductible in 2006 was $600 per year. Now it is $1300. Thanks Obama!
At least Obama didn't start any big new wars — yet. He still has a chance, though.
Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen ... not big wars, Tom? Ukraine and Syria have the real possibility of a US-Russia nuclear confrontation.
WhatI was thinking of is war with Iran, which the neocons and war hawks are lusting after and John McCain would have delivered. A war with Iran would have been a big war.
Ukraine can still turn into a big war. As we speak, the US and Russia are readying tactical nuclear weapons in the theater, and both are upgrading strategic nukes and delivery capabilities, too, as well as defenses agains missile attack.
Syria is not yet a big war. Libya wasn't either. Yemen is a blip. Syria could have been a significant war by now but Putin has managed to defuse it.
All out war in Ukraine, or Iran would be big. It's looking like war with Iran is off the hot burner for now.
but it will be back on high if a Republican wins the general.
The really dangerous situation in the offing is the US-China standoff, with Japan in the mix, too. It's not really threatening at the moment but both sides are preparing for war and China is furiously building up its capabilities, as is Russia, which some forget is also a Pacific power.
Looking forward, war clouds are gathering.
Tom: "It's looking like war with Iran is off the hot burner for now. but it will be back on high if a Republican wins the general."
Clinton too. Hopefully the top brass in the military and the more sane planners at State can talk her out of it.
Tom: "The really dangerous situation in the offing is the US-China standoff, with Japan in the mix, too. It's not really threatening at the moment but both sides are preparing for war and China is furiously building up its capabilities, as is Russia, which some forget is also a Pacific power."
It's the one few commentators talk about, yet it is the most dangerous. Anything can set it off, and Washington's "pivot to Asia" is provocative and dangerous. Cool heads are required, but hot heads are in the hot seat. Japan seems to be itching for some sort of confrontation, and China may get caught up in an unexpected tangle and be forced to give it to them.
I'm no fan of Obama, but c'mon, worse than Bush? You lost me there. The families of about a million dead Iraqis probably wouldn't agree either. Obama's foreign policy is bumbling, he did fuck Libya up pretty bad, and the Ukraine policy is insane. But the Iraq debacle takes the cake. The Iraq war was the greatest crime of this century so far. Cheney and Bush get into the same country club as hitler and stalin, not at the head table, but same building. Spectacularly evil men. Obama's a piker in the evil department.
Obama ran large deficits early on, kept things running. A Ron Paul like figure would have plunged us into a full blown depression. Cutting spending increases growth ya know.
As far as the NSA and the deep state goes, that's across both parties, Elites love that shit. Seems like it just operates on its own.
Joe: "But the Iraq debacle takes the cake."
It takes the whole patisserie, the mall the patisserie is in, the block the mall's in, and the city the mall's in, the country the city's in, and the planet the country's on. It was such a staggeringly, mindblowing gigantic fuck up, it could be felt in a parallel universe, leaving whatever lifeforms there dumbfounded by the unbelievable stupidity and criminality of it all.
The only "good" thing to come out of it is that it has severely diminished US power.
It takes the whole patisserie, the mall the patisserie is in, the block the mall's in, and the city the mall's in, the country the city's in, and the planet the country's on....
Amen, brother! Well put.
That was good Joe.
James Bamford interviewed earlier this month on Democracy Now:
James Bamford on the Arctic & the Next Not-So-Cold War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUu8PNzUybs
Also from Bamford in the Intercept today:
A Death in Athens: Did a Rogue NSA Operation Cause the Death of a Greek Telecom Employee?
“What the NSA really doesn’t like to admit, about 70 percent of NSA’s exploitation is human enabled,” the former [CIA] official said
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/28/death-athens-rogue-nsa-operation/
Mike's list of why Obama is the worst president in years is proof enough. Bush pretty much did what many expected, so no surprise there. However, Obama was simply the biggest political fraud I've witnessed in my 54 years on this orb.
Go Trump!
"...innocent deaths at the hands of liberators (US) with those of murderous dictators like Uday and Saddam."
The US and UK made it quite clear that Saddam could stay and butcher as many people as he wanted (as he did with US and UK support throughout the eighties) as long as he gave up his WMD. Liberation is your spin on it. The US and UK were specifically clear when they were drumming up support for war that this was not a war for the people of Iraq but a defensive war against Saddam.
"No one gave a damn about civilian deaths until the US got involved."
Completely untrue. Millions of people worked tirelessly, campaigned and demonstrated in order to bring attention to what was happening in Iraq.
In politics you have to take responsibility for your decisions. Invasion of Iraq on a knowing lie (WMD): approximately one million dead, countless millions wounded and dying from uranium poisoning and other war-related maladies, many millions displaced from their homes, and lastly the rise of ISIS who are now ripping the Middle East to pieces. That's quite an achievement.
Joe - if you think the US planners of the Iraq war were planning to "liberate" Iraq, well, I've got a bridge to sell you.. Altruism is not a part of geopolitics.
You have to realize there was a massive propaganda campaign that started before the invasion. It was decided that there would be a war, and the public needed to be brought along. Mushroom clouds anyone? In retrospect this is pretty obvious.
Joe Im embarrassed to share the same name. Where were you when Saddam was slaughtering Iraqis? No one gave a damn about civilian deaths until the US got involved. And your perverse sense of moral equivalence equates innocent deaths at the hands of liberators (US) with those of murderous dictators like Uday and Saddam.
I assume then that you think that the US should overthrow the Saudi monarchy and establish democracy there.
Oh, and why has North Korea been on the axis of evil list for some long without the US taking any overt action, when NK is actually a nuclear power boasting of a delivery system capable of striking CONUS and threatening to use it?
I could go on?
Why was the US so hellbent on Iraq and now Syria?
Is in the national interest and purview of the US to take down evil wherever it locates it?
It's now established beyond a doubt that the Iraq invasion was sold with a knowingly false narrative and an unrealistic projection of outcome.
Saddam Hussein could have done anything he wanted short of invading the United States -- such as attacking a US navy ship and getting away with it. Talk about privileges! But the fool got too cocky, so he had to go just like that other guy Noriega. Hey, nothing lasts forever ;)
USS Stark Incident (1987): 37 dead, 21 wounded and ... a seriously damaged frigate, of course.
I am getting my "Joes" confused :(
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