Thursday 28th of March 2024

preaching to the faithful

patriotism

Commenting indirectly on religious issues in Indonesia, Obama noted that "If you are strong in your own faith, then you should not be worried about someone else's faith," a line that earned huge applause, according to the Guardian. Trump, on the same day, told a "Freedom Rally" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, that "we're going to start saying Merry Christmas again" in multi-confessional America.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201707021055167191-obama-bashes-trump-p...

depending on your point of view...

 

As the Democratic Party’s base has become increasingly progressive, its leaders have resorted to demonizing the “top 1 percent” and Wall Street bankers during campaign season. No one benefitted from such weaponized rhetoric more than Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. He smeared Wall Street “fat cats” time after time on the trail.

“I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” he said in December 2009.

Now, only months after he’s left the White House, Obama is set to receive $400,000 from those very same fat cats for a one-hour speech at a conference put on by the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald. That’s nearly 10 times more than the average U.S. yearly salary, just for one speech. It’s alsodouble the amount that the Clinton’s infamously charge for similar speeches.


Of course, Obama is a private citizen now and can do whatever he pleases to earn income; but the massive payment is the height of hypocrisy since Obama utilized anti-Wall Street remarks to propel himself into the White House. He had no problem trashing fat cat bankers when it was politically convenient; and now he has no problem accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from those same bankers when it’s financially convenient.

read more:

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/national-party-news/330806-obama-proves-democrats-anti-wall-street-rhetoric-a

 

The same hypocrisy can be noted in Obama's speech in Indonesia. His little drone war during his presidency was in total contradiction to his words. At least Trump talks shit but he does it without lying.

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31043

 

nice-ish...

 

The paradox of Trump’s insisting on his own niceness even while engaging in distinctly nasty conduct (political and otherwise) has a long history in the United States. In fact, Trump epitomizes the conventional version of American niceness, which assumes that Americans are fundamentally decent and benevolent people with the best of intentions, whose acts of aggression are reluctant and defensive necessities designed to protect us. (Or, as the office of first lady Melania Trump put it in response to the president’s latest Twitter tirade: “When her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder. [Gus link] ”)

In a sense, this is quintessential American niceness: a tendency to insist on one’s own affability and friendliness while dismissing all unwarranted or unnecessary acts of cruelty as necessary evils. This is the kind of amiability that obscures the shadowy side of American life. 

read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/americans-have-always-been-nice-but-is-it-just-a-sham/2017/06/30/672d8568-5cf6-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html

 

There is a point a which the niceness of the USA is not welcome: bombings, interference in other countries affairs, duplicity in its "diplomacy"... etc...