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Barack Obama Tag

NBC News released a hit piece on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) on Monday about slave owners in his family history since he stands against reparations. This is not journalism. This is not reporting. NBC News can legitimize (sort of) if the network investigates every senator's family. Something tells me the reporters will not take that action because they will find information about President Barack Obama and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).

On Saturday we celebrated National Best Friends Day because everything has a day. I guess former Vice President Joe Biden thought he could seize the day to remind people that he served next to President Barack Obama for eight years by posting their friendship bracelet. Cringeworthy doesn't quite cut it. Even some of Obama's closest aides rolled their eyes. Do you know what I find hilarious? The media, the left, and the right loved the Obama-Biden bromance... until now.

Outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is no friend to President Donald Trump, criticized President Barack Obama's administration over its handling of Russia hacking in 2016 and called out former FBI Director James Comey at the Public Servants Dinner of the Armenian Bar Association. From Fox News:
“The FBI disclosed classified evidence about the investigation to ranking legislators and their staffers,” he said. “Someone selectively leaked details to the news media. The FBI director [Comey] announced at a congressional hearing that there was a counterintelligence investigation that might result in criminal charges. Then the former FBI director alleged that the president pressured him to close the investigation, and the president denied that the conversation occurred.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed former U.S. President Barack Obama in Berlin on Saturday. The meeting was closed to the press. The German government spokesman, Steffen Seibert, declined comment on the content of the talks, calling Obama's visit to the Chancellery in Berlin a "private meeting."

The title of this article by Holman Jenkins intrigued me: "Politicians Never Lied Before Trump," and so I clicked on it. I was almost certain that the title was sarcastic---of course, politicians lie often, and have done so since time immemorial---and sure enough, the title was indeed meant as sarcasm. It seems completely obvious to me that one of the most common activities of politicians is to lie. To some extent, politics almost demands it, depending on how one defines "lie." Is a bragging exaggeration a lie? Is an optimistic promise a lie? How exaggerated does it have to be before it becomes a lie rather than mere hyperbole?

The US Secret Service intercepted packages sent to the homes of the Clintons in New York and President Barack Obama in Washington that contain "possible explosive devices." The Clintons and Obama didn't receive the packages "because of screening procedures." CNN then reported the NYPD has responded to a suspicious package outside at Time Warner Center in New York, the home of the network. Law enforcement also intercepted a package meant for the White House at Joint Base Bolling in DC, but now reports say "that there was no suspicious package addressed to the White House."

When I first heard that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) explicitly stated that he did not want President Trump to attend his funeral, I was taken aback not only by his petty smallness but by the abrupt change of tune since his insistence that Obama be treated with respect simply because he occupied the Office of the President of these United States. Asking President Trump not to attend was an extraordinary request because the lack of invitation to the sitting and duly-elected President to read a eulogy at the funeral would have been a significant rebuke.  And more than sufficient.  McCain chose the low road.

President Donald Trump's decision last week to withdraw the United States from Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has occasioned a lot of hand-wringing by his critics (and by fans of his predecessor Barack Obama). After all, the storyline goes Iran was adhering to the deal, so the United States was damaging its credibility by trashing a deal that it had entered into. Of course, that doesn't tell the whole story. President Obama, knowing that he couldn't sell the deal to the American people and their representatives, made an executive agreement. But governing effectively means playing by the Constitution's rules even when it's inconvenient. (Funny how none of Obama's acolytes, who tell us that Trump is destroying our democracy, seem the least bit bothered by Obama's blatant disregard of the Constitution.)

An editorial in The New York Times on Monday blasted President Donald Trump for not having a plan for Syria. I don't know if Trump does or doesn't have a plan for Syria. What I do know is that Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama did have a plan for Syria - and it is the reason we keep seeing carnage there. What's worse, The New York Times enthusiastically supported Obama's plans affecting Syria.