I'm not arguing the merits of either. I don't think Trump is a good man or President.

It's my firm opinion that Obama chose to play the long game, hoping that the anger over Garland not being confirmed would influence the upcoming election. He believed that they might take the Senate back and then either he or Hillary would then be able to get the nominee they wanted. Plus as @newtboy pointed out, there was no way any pick he chose was going to pass muster with the Republican controlled Senate. Picking another person would likely tarnish them and remove a good liberal pick from future selection.

I consider Obama a good person and a mediocre President. I voted for him the first time because I bought into his mantra of change. It didn't happen. He forced through the ACA on party line votes, fucking up my personal situation in regards to doctors and insurance. He further screwed up the situation with the middle east which directly led to the entire Syria/ISIS situation. He did authorize drone strikes that led to many non combatant deaths and some pretty reprehensible situations. That is including the fact that his administration considered any military aged male in strike zones to be enemy combatants UNLESS they could be verified otherwise after their death. So many of those were not counted. There are other issues I have with his Presidency, but those are some of the big ones.

He did kill Bin Laden. I will give him kudos for that. I also think that once he lost control of the Congress in his second term he had no way to get anything accomplished, so I can't say he wouldn't have done something I liked in his second term. He is also an amazing orator.

Actually, I remember Obama's speeches better than the comedians. I had completely forgotten about Larry Wilmore, Wanda Sykes and even Seth Meyers (who is the whole damn reason we have Trump!).

Obama killed it.... easily the best orator of the past few decades (for US presidents).

Actually, I'm with you.

Chomsky's a smart guy but he's a TERRIBLE orator.

He's like the anti-hitler (awful, evil ideas, but the asshole could give a speech).

Inaccurate comparison. Hitler was a much better orator than Trump.

You don't need high speed internet either, technically (I do, but I am a robot). Technically, you don't need a lot of things, it is all pretty much arbitrary when you talk in those terms. When you make people have to sign up for certain rights via some sort of process, it is the beginning of a real erosion of rights. I'll even meet people half way to say if you want to be in public areas with a gun, some kind of permit is needed like cars...I don't like it, but Ill give you that. But as long as I am not using it to commit crimes, your right to restrict my behavior is over...period. It might be that freedom comes with a hefty prices of dead people, innocent people, innocent people that we could of protected with ever increasing restrictions of social liberties. I mean, look at Saudi Arabia, lower murder rates than even some European countries of pretty good order. But they live in a totalitarian dictatorship, and I am not trying to make a scarecrow argument about totalitarian dictatorships and whatnot, what I am trying to say is people dying isn't the only important metric when talking about rights to do things.


It might be true that more people will die with lacks gun laws, it might be true that more people die because of lacks drug lacks, lots of things might be true about how freedom serves to make economics weak, countries less secure, more prone to internal strife and faction, it might be true that the seeds of freedom and the ability to self regulate cause harms that extend beyond ones self. Even so, I still don't think a better framework exists for conducting ourselves that doesn't cripple and stifle people who have done no wrong. If the price for a drunk driver is abolition, the price of a murder disarmament, the price of wreck less driving horse drawn carriage, then we have failed to address the underlying problem and snub out freedoms ability to creatively deal with complex social challenges via the creative process of problem solving.

I think history has shown that any attempts to snub out action instead of guide it fail miserably. Gun control starts and ends with people, not laws, I suggest we start there. Starting neighborhood gun responsibility programs, safety education for youths, ect...whatever, I don't know, I can't pretend to know what is the best way to address the complex issue of gun control for every community, the point is that is their bag, it can be done without force given the context of the USA. Not every country has that luxury, children roaming the streets with AK-47s is not a real problem in this country, nor would it be if gun control laws were more lacks. We do have problems, I don't want there to be any mistake about that, but I don't think the solution is wholesale elimination of thing that only CAN be dangerous, I mean, anything can be dangerous, ask the folks in Oklahoma about ammonia nitrate...you don't even need a licence to buy that stuff.

Point is, the world is dangerous, and I think freedom allows for a certain amount of that danger to exist. It is the price we pay. We should look to the unwritten code that manages us, the code of culture and community.

"The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace."

Pericles' Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War

Wow.

Regardless of your politics, you have to hand it to Obama. As presidents go, the man is the best damn orator since Kennedy.

>> ^luxury_pie:

>> ^quantumushroom:
This is the best the left can do, a serial abuser of women and likely rapist.
Sorry to crash the love-fest, but as Slick Willie told Monica when she complained about not getting enough hugs: Every day can't be sunshine.
But you can't argue with the fact that he is a fantastic orator... especially for a rapist/ serial killer/ abuser/saxophonist


You doubled up some of your catagorization. I fixed it for you.

>> ^quantumushroom:

This is the best the left can do, a serial abuser of women and likely rapist.
Sorry to crash the love-fest, but as Slick Willie told Monica when she complained about not getting enough hugs: Every day can't be sunshine.
But you can't argue with the fact that he is a fantastic orator... especially for a rapist/ serial killer/ abuser/ saxophonist

Thanks for this.

Agreed.


In reply to this comment by SDGundamX:
*quality oration.

*quality oration.

Videos like these should be the backbone of our educational system, instead of 55 minutes of oration with 0 visuals.

Obama...just another suave politician, saving his own ass while still doing the same old shit Bush Administration was doing. And that's why he was elected in the first place, to undo the damage Bush Administration has done. But nothing has changed. Only thing that's different is that he's a much better orator and he 'SOUNDS SMART', and that he's the first minority elected as president, which we've all mistaken for 'SYMBOL OF CHANGE AND HOPE'.

This is just too much irony I can handle for a day.... I gotta sit down... FUCK.

I don't know what you want this guy to do; suck your dick? He got on the innertubes, apologized and said they were taking measures to discipline the guy. Is every company man supposed to be a crack orator?

If I had an important urgent message to send, I would read it off carefully, too. Wouldn't you? >> ^shagen454:

Fuck FedEx. They treat their employees like shit and it's in my belief that that our government helped fuck the post office in order to help private companies like FedEx and UPS. FedEx is like a corporate Scientology, the way this guy speaks, completely disingenuous, stale, planned is exactly the way that company is all the way to the top.

My country has a long history of anti-intellectualism, but I don't think that Asimov's quote applies here, "our" reasons are different. I would believe it of the States though, despite my acute lack of either first hand knowledge or American studies... Hmm... am on shaky ground here
In reply to this comment by Trancecoach:
He's one of my very favorite orators... Always inspiring.

BTW, this particular clip reminded me of the famous quote from Isaac Asimov:

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

>> ^oritteropo:

That was rather entertaining. It didn't go in the direction I expected, and was far better for it... of course if I'd looked at the related videos section first I probably would've remembered who he was and would've been less apprehensive.

He's one of my very favorite orators... Always inspiring.

BTW, this particular clip reminded me of the famous quote from Isaac Asimov:

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

>> ^oritteropo:

That was rather entertaining. It didn't go in the direction I expected, and was far better for it... of course if I'd looked at the related videos section first I probably would've remembered who he was and would've been less apprehensive.