Mediaboss Marketing

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stand next to their newly unveiled portraits during a ceremony Monday at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stand next to their newly unveiled portraits during a ceremony Monday at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Brand new portraits of former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama wearing matching calm, strong expressions were revealed on Monday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Kehinde Wiley painted Barack Obama sitting in a chair, elbows in his knees, leaning forward with an intense expression. The background, typical of a Wiley painting, is a riotous pattern of intense green foliage.

"Pretty sharp," Obama said with a grin.

Amy Sherald, a Baltimore-based artist, painted Michelle Obama sitting in a floor-length gown, chin on her hand, looking directly at the viewer with a calm, level gaze.

Celebrities from Shonda Rimes to Steven Spielberg, former administration officials from Josh Earnest to Eric Holder, and members of the media filed into the Portrait Gallery's expansive, glass-covered central courtyard for the ceremony. Kim Sajet, the director of the gallery, told the audience that a portrait was not truly finished until a viewer, a member of the public, had a personal encounter with it.

Then came the unveiling quite literally, as fabric covers were pulled off the portraits on a small stage.

The paintings exemplify the two artists' trademark styles.

Barack Obama gazes at his wife's newly unveiled portrait on Monday. The painting of Michelle Obama will be on display through November in the National Portrait Gallery's "Recent Acquisitions" section. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Barack Obama gazes at his wife's newly unveiled portrait on Monday. The painting of Michelle Obama will be on display through November in the National Portrait Gallery's "Recent Acquisitions" section.

"Wiley typically portrays people of color posing as famous figures in Western art," the Portrait Gallery writes. "Through this practice, he challenges the visual rhetoric of power that is dominated by elite white men."

Barack Obama said he admired how Wiley's photos "challenge our conventional views of power and privilege."

But he said he rejected Wiley's ideas that involved him, for instance, riding a horse.

" 'I've got enough political problems without you making me look like Napoleon,' " he remembered telling Wiley. " 'You've got to bring it down a touch.' And that's what he did."

"How do you explain that a lot of that is just simply not true?" Wiley said, when he took to the lectern. Then he got more serious.

"The ability to be the first African-American painter to paint the first African-American president of the United States is absolutely overwhelming," Wiley said. "It doesn't get any better than that. I was humbled by this invitation but I was also inspired by Barack Obama's personal story."

Sherald, "known for her stylized, archetypal portrayals of African Americans," survived a heart transplant in 2012, the museum notes. "A personification of resilience herself, Sherald conveys the inner strength of her subjects through a combination of calm expressions and confrontational poses," the gallery writes.

"I am a little overwhelmed, to say the least," Michelle Obama said in a speech, after helping Sherald reveal her work. "As you may have guessed, I don't think there is anybody in my family who has ever had a portrait done, let alone a portrait that will be hanging in the National Gallery at least as far as I know, Mom," she said. "But all those folks who helped me be here today, they are with us physically and they are with us in spirit."

"I'm also thinking of all the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who ... will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution," she said. "I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls."

It was a point Sherald echoed minutes later, when she emphasized that her portrait of Obama was conceptual and archetypal, bigger than just one model.

"You exist in our minds and our hearts in the way that you do because we can see ourselves in you," she said, turning toward Michelle Obama.

Obama stands between the portraits. His will be permanently installed in the "America's Presidents" exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Obama stands between the portraits. His will be permanently installed in the "America's Presidents" exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

The National Portrait Gallery, a member of the Smithsonian Institution, has worked with outgoing presidents to commission a new portrait of each one since 1962.

More recently it began collecting portraits of first ladies as well. The National Portrait Gallery, a member of the Smithsonian Institution, writes:

"Official portraits are interesting beasts because they are, of course official: they signify the status and attainments of the person portrayed. But they also are deeply personal, even revelatory, portrayals that say something of the character of the man or woman who shows their face to the public. The style of the portrait the pose, the colors, the setting, as well as facial features (in the 19th century stern and forbidding was definitely the default expression) all convey a measure of the sitter."

The official National Portrait Gallery paintings of George and Laura Bush both featured relatively casual, relaxed poses, with small smiles.

The gallery's portrait of Bill Clinton, by Nelson Shanks, was controversial after Shanks said he'd hidden a reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the canvas. A different portrait of Clinton, a Chuck Close painting of the former president's grin, is on display in the museum.

The new paintings of the Obamas will be on view to the public beginning Tuesday.

Wiley's painting of former President Obama will be permanently installed in the "America's Presidents" exhibit (The Portrait Gallery has the "only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House," the museum said in a statement.)

Sherald's painting of Michelle Obama will be on display through November in the museum's "Recent Acquisitions" section.

Link:
Presidential Portraits: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama ...

Pinterest

Reddit

LinkedIn

An official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama was unveiled at the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery Monday morning.

The painting was done byBaltimore artist Amy Sherald, who is known for her social justice painting style.

Lets just start by saying, Wow, again. Let me just take a minute. Its amazing. Wow, Obama said after the portrait was unveiled. The moment was met with a gasp and applause.

All presidents and first ladies have their portraits done and hung in the Portrait Gallery.

Artist Amy Sherald and former first lady Michelle Obama participate in the unveiling of Mrs. Obamas portrait at the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery in Washington, February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

REUTERS/Jim Bourg

(Photo: Screenshot/MSNBC)

(Photo: Screenshot/MSNBC)

Whatcha think? she asked her mother, Marian Robinson. Its pretty nice, isnt it?

Obama said that she and President Barack Obama interviewed several artists for their portraits, and that she bonded with Sherald because of all the time they spent together.

The comments on twitter were equally disapproving:

Ouch.

Read the original here:
Michelle Obama Official Portrait Unveiled | The Daily Caller

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski

by John Nolte10 Feb 20180

Despite the disgraced American medias best and most cynical efforts to bury the truth, and to even stop the truth from ever seeing the light of day, this poll (and another addressed below) demonstrate that the American people are almost entirely tuning the partisan, mostly-hysterical news media out and looking to alternative media for the truth.

There is simply no other way to explain these poll results, which unambiguously prove that a majority of the public believe the exact opposite of what an unceasing, coordinated media campaign wants them to believe which is that President Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 campaign and that the heroic FBI is being unfairly smeared by Trumps eeeevil defenders.

Well, despite more than a year of this relentless propaganda coming from all four corners of the mainstream medias fabricated reality, here are the results from all four corners of actual reality

A clear majority of 55 percent believe it is likely that the Obama administration improperly surveilled the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.That includes 31 percent of Democrats, 87 percent of Republicans, and 55 percent of Independents.

A clear majority of 54 percent want a special counsel to investigate whether the FBI and the Department of Justice improperly surveilled the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Only 44 percent said no. The partisan breakdown shows that 74 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of Independents want a special counsel as do a full 44 percent of Democrats.

In this particular poll, one fairly positive result for the FBI and Justice Department is that only 35 percent believe these institutions attempted to outright frame President Trump for colluding with the Russians.

A just-released Rasmussen poll, however, shows that a full 50 percent of Americans believe its at least somewhat likely senior federal law enforcement officials broke the law in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency. Only 40 percent disagree.

Another Rasmussen poll from this week shows that only 42 percent of Americans believe Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election more than the FBI. Moreover, a full 34 percent believe the FBI meddled more than the Russians, while 24 percent are unsure.

In other words, we now live in a country where 58 percent of Americans either believe our own FBI meddled in a presidential election more than a hostile foreign government, or are not sure the FBI did not.

Meanwhile, Trumps approval rating is running ahead of former-President Obamas at this point in his failed presidency.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

Continued here:
Poll: Americans 'Overwhelmingly' Believe Obama 'Improperly ...

On Saturday, Trump expressed support for the belief that he saw on Fox News, that the Russia investigation is an Obama conspiracy to get him.

Trump tweeted:

What is an avid Fox News viewer like Trump to do when the Special Counsel is closing in on him, and the Russia scandal is about to hit the fan? He pulls a page out of the Fox News playbook and blames Obama. The belief that the Russia scandal is a conspiracy against him follows along with Trumps belief that Obama wiretapped him in Trump Tower.

Trump has mentally walled himself off from his own Russia crimes and has convinced himself of his own innocence, even though his refusal to release his tax returns and information about his business dealings.

The Russia investigation is the byproduct of Trumps own actions and efforts to obstruct justice. Congress must act to protect Robert Mueller, and it is time for serious Americans to demand Trumps removal from office.

Original post:
Fox News Convinces Trump That He Is A Victim Of An Obama ...

[1]

One of the revelations that we will learn more about in the coming months is the sheer extent of Obamas illegal spying program within the US.

[2]

Apart from new sunlight on his abuses of the NSA Prism program (see above), we also have last years important criticism of Obamas widespread abuse of the FISC to illegally spy on innocent Americans:

Full report here

[3]

Heres a good overview on Obamas NSA/FISC abuses in this McCarthy article :

[4]

Theres also evidence that Obama was building his OWN database, presumably inputting NSA & FISA intelligence as well as intel he gathered from other sources. We know this because Maxine Waters opened her stupid mouth, back in 2013: [5]

This is a genuinely frightening statement (note how much she LOVES the idea): That database will have information about everything on every individual in ways that its never been done before. And Maxine the Idiot said that back in 2013.

What we DONT know yet is how many Americans Obama illegally spied on, or how his administration was able to attribute classified intel to citizens in this database, without their consent. Or in what ways Obama used the intel he illegally gathered. We DO know that Obama targeted reporters, Congress members and groups of citizens (eg Tea Party, conservative groups). We ALSO know he was more than happy to spy on powerful citizens such as Donald Trump.

So Obama WAS spying on and targeting innocent Americans. We know this with the FISA abuse we are seeing now. Obamas dogs knew what they were doing. It was a very sophisticated operation that they had clearly executed before. But against whom? How many citizens did Obama spy on in Trumps orbit? Did they target their families?

See what I mean? Where did it end? And more fundamentally, how many citizens were spied on illegally, but never targeted between 2008-2016? Did Obama have a secret file on say 1000 citizens? 10,000? 100,000? 1 million? More?We have a right to know. Dont you think? Thing is, we still know next to nothing.

[6]

Now imagine what Trump knows about Obamas hidden police state. It would be chilling, Im sure. One of the issues he will be thinking about is how much transparency he will allow. One example that may end up being useful is the excellent system set up by the Germans, in the wake of the collapse of East Germany.

Of course, the East German state was communist, with a well known secret police & surveillance system (the Stasi), that reached into every citizens life. Informers were rampant, including children informing on their parents.

Obamas system wasnt on that scale, of course. BUT Americas population is vast & Obamas spying was ideological and targeted. It will be far more widespread than we know.

Also, the USA is a Democratic Republic. NO innocent citizen should be spied on. EVER. Anyway, the system theyve set up allows any citizen to apply to see their Stasi file, should they want to. It also encourages a public discussion about what should and should not be permitted.

The Stasi revelations have been disturbing:

[7]

We need to swallow our pride. Sadly, Obama WAS spying on innocent citizens in a widespread, organized way. This was a great crime against the American people.

We need to know what went on. Dont you agree? IMO, any citizen who wants to see Obamas file on them should be able to. If Germany can do it, surely America can.

If Obama had a file on YOU, wouldnt you want to know what he and his goons had gathered? And how it might have used it against you?

I would.

ADN Related Articles:

The Red Pill Chronicles Part 3 Weaponized Spying on YOU!

Is the United States Global Surveillance Still Necessary?

Is the FISA Court AMERICAs Silent Supreme Court Unconstitutional?

SOURCES:

[1] Twitter

[2] Circa

[3] Scribd

[4] National Review

[5] Daily Caller

[6] BSTU

[7] Spiegel

[8] Featured Image Credit: Tom Heneghan

Link:
Obamas Illegal Spying is Still Illegal | American Digital News