The Orion | Obama's Shadow Presidency FrontPage Magazine Former President Obama is waging war against the Trump administration through his generously funded agitation outfit, Organizing for Action, to defend his monumentally destructive record of failure and violent polarization. It is a chilling reminder ... Obama trumped the media |
The Obama Foundation, the not-for-profit developing the first African-American president's library and museum in Jackson Park, was criticized by a local alderman Monday for not sharing enough information on how South Side residents will benefit from the high-profile project.
"My primary concern is how the Obama Foundation plans to engage the community in the transformation of these neighborhoods," Ald. Leslie Hairston, whose 5th Ward includes the library site and portions of neighboring communities, said in an open letter to the foundation. "Residents would like to know what is the plan for community outreach."
The letter also called for integrating the planning for the presidential library with a proposal to convert the Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses into a PGA-caliber destination.
"Residents would like to have a comprehensive picture of how transportation, park use and recreation will be addressed," she wrote.
In issuing the letter, Hairston becomes one of the most prominent community members to call for greater transparency in the development plans for historic Jackson Park plans that are led by private interests. Others include Friends of the Park and Jackson Park Watch, an ad hoc community group.
Hairston noted that a number of community groups are already meeting and planning to make community benefits demands of the Obama Foundation.
"Without communication from the foundation, this can be detrimental to the Obama Presidential Center and the city of Chicago," she said in the letter. "This is not what anybody wants or what the foundation needs."
Michael Strautmanis, the foundation's vice president of civic engagement, said the organization welcomes Hairston's ideas and call for community involvement.
"While our work has only just begun, we are committed to gathering robust community input at every step of the process," he said in a statement. "The Obama Presidential Center will be transformative for our community, creating jobs and spurring economic development across the area."
Hairston said residents are seeking jobs in planning, architecture, construction, operations and professional services; job training programs for positions in construction, customer service, event planning and independent contracting; concession and retail opportunities; and early childhood education in science, technology and math.
A number of community groups are pushing for a written benefits agreement, something the Obama Foundation has not embraced.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Byron Brazier, pastor of the Apostolic Church of God in neighboring Woodlawn, is taking a less confrontational approach, soliciting community ideas for an economic development plan to foster revitalization of the surrounding communities.
Twitter @kathy_bergen
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Alderman calls for more transparency on Obama library planning - Chicago Tribune
The Last Week Tonight host appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss President Trump and why hes so annoyed with seeing Obama living it up with Richard Branson.
The last time comedians John Oliver and Seth Meyers saw each other was the night after the presidential election. They were tasked with performing stand-up at a charity event benefitting the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy non-profit. And it was, given the shock victory of then-President-elect Donald Trump, a tough night for laughs.
I was also very concerned that, you know, again, its a great environmental group, but there were parts where I wanted to say, Tigers may need to just move down the pecking order for four years, because humans are endangered again, Oliver told Meyers on Monday night.
Oliver, the host of the Emmy-winning HBO series Last Week Tonight, was the main guest on Meyers increasingly vital Late Night program where the two pals chatted about a variety of topics, from Olivers decision to blow up a 2016 sign during his last show of 2016 to how being glued to the news for his job makes him feel like a heroin addict not being able to disengage from heroin.
Meyers lightly addressed fan concerns that the notoriously hard-working Oliver, during his two months off, was kicking back on a beach sipping on pina coladas while Trump ran roughshod over the country.
Im not sure Ive ever kicked back in my life, joked Oliver, before throwing a few surprising jabs at former President Barack Obama for living it up on vacation with billionaire Richard Branson at his private oasis in the British Virgin Islands.
I tell you who, I would argue at the moment, should kick back a little lessand this might be controversial: Im a little sick of seeing photos of President Obama on vacation with Richard Branson, said Oliver. Just tone it down with the kitesurfing pictures. Im glad hes having a nice time, [but] America is on fire.
He added, I know that people accused him of being out of touch with the American people during his presidency. Im not sure hes ever been more out of touch than he is right now as hes kind of pushing [Branson] on a surfboard.
Meyers and Oliver then cracked a few jokes about how Obama should, at the very least, be requesting that people not take (and circulate) photos of him having the time of his life while were all stuck with the daily anxiety of life under President Trump.
[Obama] should be saying, Dont take pictures! Im not sure this will play well when Im going, WEEEEE! WEEEEE! Isnt this fun? Were losing public schools! WEEEEE! Youre fiddling while Rome burns? WEEEEE! Billionaires are fun people to be around!
Later in their fairly lengthy chat, Oliver aimed his ire at President Trump.
Hes always acted like the most powerful man in the worldthats how he carries himself, Im sure through his childhood as well. He dons the disposition of the most powerful man in the worldnow he actually has the power to go along with that, said Oliver. Its like The Secret was real and it worked for one person, and unfortunately it was him.
Oliver then joked: What Im saying is: Trump is Oprahs fault.
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John Oliver Is Sick of Obama's 'Out of Touch' Vacation Photos - Daily Beast
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
President Trump has often said that Barack Obamas nuclear weapons deal with Iran was a terrible deal. Hes right. But whatever he decides to do about it, the opposition is apparent and will only grow both here and abroad.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, said he would set the agreement on fire if Mr. Trump tried to change it. Iranian President Rouhani said his nation wont let Mr. Trump change the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Obama deal is formally known.
Any proposal to renegotiate or cancel the deal wont receive warmer receptions from Russia, China, England, France and Germany, which signed it with the United States and Iran.
From the political upheaval in reaction to his temporary immigration ban, the president will have learned to prepare the political battlefield before taking such major actions.
Regarding the Iran deal, perhaps the most effective way to do that is for Mr. Trump to reveal what Mr. Obamas agreement actually provides.
Most international agreements are accompanied by confidential side agreements that are classified or concealed from the public for diplomatic reasons.
We dont even know how many of them Mr. Obamas deal with Iran has. Under the Corker Amendment, which enabled Mr. Obama to claim the Senate had approved the deal, although it had not, all side agreements were required to be submitted to the Senate. That was never done, as a senior Republican senator told me months ago
Many of the most puzzling aspects of Mr. Obamas deal could be explained by Mr. Trumps publication of the side deals.
For example, Iran is permitted to limit how and when international inspectors can inspect some of its nuclear weapons sites. What side deal enables Iran to evade the supposedly intrusive inspection plan?
Bizarrely, Iran is permitted to self-inspect some of its nuclear weapons sites. One example is the Parchin site at which Iran is permitted to collect its own forensic samples and turn them over to the U.N.s purblind nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Parchin may be the heart of Irans nuclear weapons development. Unsurprisingly, the IAEA on the basis of the samples provided by Iran says that everything at Parchin is just peachy. How does Mr. Obamas deal permit this ridiculous self-inspection? What other sites are exempted from real inspection?
At one point during the negotiations of the deal, Iranian opposition to inspection of military sites was to be decided by a panel of arbitrators comprised of representatives of Iran and each of the P5+1 nations. They were to have about three weeks to decide whether the inspection could proceed. Of course, those three weeks were more than enough time for the Iranians to conceal what was going on. Is there a side deal that effectuates the arbitration idea?
These are only two of the known problems that arose from the side deals. We dont know how many more there are.
Our P5+1 allies will be embarrassed by publication of the side deals because it may show how badly they were duped. The Iranians whose opposition Mr. Trump can comfortably ignore understand that publishing the advantages theyve gained in secret will result in a backlash supporting Mr. Trumps demands to renegotiate or cancel the deal.
Mr. Trump will be told that we cant risk undoing the nuclear weapons deal because of Irans strengths in Syria and Iraq. Iran is Russias principal partner in Syria and will, with Russia, control the outcome of the Syrian war. Both could prove to be obstacles to Mr. Trumps plan to destroy ISIS, but publication of the side deals is immaterial to their action on ISIS.
None of those facts outweigh Americas national security interest in preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons. Revealing the side deals can only benefit Mr. Trump. By doing so, he will be able to show Americans how bad the deal really is. He can build political support for the action he intends to take and may, with relative ease, be able to overcome the foreign and congressional opposition thats sure to erupt in Congress and the media.
It will be harder for him to overcome what former President Obama says in defense of what he and the media believe was his greatest diplomatic achievement. What Mr. Obama says will be published and republished hourly by Mr. Trumps media opponents, so Mr. Trump needs to be doubly prepared.
Mr. Trumps team should remember that Mr. Obama made an arms limitation agreement with Russia, the New START Treaty, which became effective in 2011. Like the 2015 nuclear weapons deal with Iran, Mr. Obamas treaty with Russia has unpublished side deals.
Whatever those side deals say, one gave rise to a Russian claim that the our anti-missile missiles (and the warheads on them) must be counted among our offensive missiles, warheads and bombs. Before Mr. Obamas treaty, we had never agreed to count purely defensive weapons as offensive ones. What does that side agreement say and what others did Mr. Obama sign, needlessly giving away American advantages?
Mr. Obamas deals with Iran and Russia are contrary to our national security and those of our allies. Mr. Trump can, and should, make that perfectly clear by publishing the side agreements.
Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration. He is a senior fellow of the London Center for Policy Research and the author of five books including In the Words of Our Enemies.
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Revealing Obama's deals - Washington Times
It was less than a year ago that Michelle Obama referred to it as her baby.
She wasnt talking about her youngest daughter, Sasha, or the Obamas pet dog Bo, but something undoubtedly dear to her during her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: the White House vegetable garden.
Her comments were made during her eighth and final spring planting, but hopefully, she added, this will not be the last one ever.
First lady Melania Trump confirmed that although the gardens founder may have vacated the premises, her beloved garden lives on. A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As a mother and as the First Lady of this country, Mrs. Trump is committed to the preservation and continuation of the White House Gardens, specifically the First Ladys Kitchen Garden and the Rose Garden, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser to the first lady, said in a statement to CNN.
[This is my baby: Michelle Obamas last spring planting at the White House garden]
The White House vegetable garden was supposedly the first of its kind since Eleanor Roosevelts in 1943, The Washington Posts Dan Zak reported in April.
The garden in the past has offered a varied menu that included Churchill brussels sprouts and Kentucky colonel spearmint, as well as garlic and fennel and shallots and endive. Thegarden was, at last count, 1,700 square feet in size, but for the past eight years it has occupied a much larger space symbolically, as Michelle Obama used her platform tofight childhood obesity and improve Americas eating habits.
Throughout that fight, health advocates said, the garden was a physical reminder of Obamas message.
The vegetables wind up in dinners for the first family, Zak noted. Almost 500 pounds of them have been shipped to homeless shelters. In 2010, they ripened into Obamas Lets Move! campaign, for which the first lady danced with Elmo and Jimmy Fallon in order to get kids off the couch and to the crisper. She has also nudged corporations to trim salt, sugar and fat from food products.
The garden located on the corner of the South Lawn more than doubled in area during the Obama presidency. The garden also includes an apiary and a pollinator garden for bees and other insects. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton told The Post that she intended to keep the garden if she were elected president, but Trump had not signaled whether the garden would survive until last week.
CNN reported that Trump toured the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Fla., with Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The visit gave the first lady striking a Michelle Obama-esque tone a chance to tout the health benefits and physical beauty that can be derived from a well-kept garden.
[Whether White House garden keeps growing, Michelle Obama has planted seed of healthy eating]
Both our countries histories and cultures are steeped in the nurture and nature of gardening, Trump said in a statement, according to CNN. Having knowledge of different cultures and customs is a wonderful way to learn and to explore. Gardening teaches us the fundamentals in care and the evolution of living things, all while inspiring us to nurture our minds and to relax and strengthen our bodies.
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One part of the Obama White House that will endure under Trump: Michelle's vegetable garden - Washington Post