Free Republic

Former President Barack Obama placed blame on tech companies for failing to address the disinformation problem he said the industry has amplified during a speech Thursday at Stanford University. The new information ecosystem, fueled by the rise of dominant social media platforms, is “turbocharging some of humanity’s worst impulses,” he said in the roughly hour-long speech. “But not all problems we’re seeing now are an inevitable byproduct of this new technology. They’re also the result of very specific choices, made by the companies that have come to dominate the internet generally, and social media platforms in particular. Decisions that intentionally...

I urge those who still indulge the fiction that former President Barack Obama is a uniter and great statesman to read the transcript of his Democratic convention speech with an open mind and discerning eye. Obama proudly violated the long-practiced rule that former presidents shouldn't attack sitting ones. But he's Obama, exempt from the rules, and he was attacking President Donald Trump, whom the left considers fair game for any smear anytime anywhere, no matter how deceitful and malicious. Obama was petty, personal, dishonest and strikingly divisive while pretending to call for unity. He showcased the very qualities for which...

Barack Obama's speech at the DNC's misbegotten cyber-convention worked only for those Americans, including most in the media, who paid no serious attention to the eight years of Obama's presidency. As I document in my book Unmasking Obama, I and scores of other journalists, many of them unsalaried, did pay attention. What follows are some of the riffs that I, and likely they, found most entertaining. Obama began by telling us the Constitution "wasn't a perfect document," implying that he would have done better had he been there. Its redeeming quality was that it established "a system of representative government...

Without irony, Obama was describing himself. He was a famously lazy president, compared to the Trump dynamo, he massively enriched those close to him (especially Biden), and he used the presidency as a chance to rock with rappers and take exotic trips. Obama naturally blamed Trump for Wuhan virus deaths and unemployment. It’s as if it never happened that Democrat governors’ destroyed their economies with lockdowns and turned old age homes and care facilities into slaughterhouses. Having insulted Trump, Obama gave a trite and short homage to Biden. He touched upon Biden’s dead wife and children; Biden’s habit of treating...

It is a good thing that other congressmen did not follow Rep. Joe Wilson’s lead. If they yelled out every time President Obama said something untrue about health care, they would quickly find themselves growing hoarse.

On a Wednesday afternoon livestream, President Obama delivered an optimistic message about the protests gripping the nation in response to police violence: “There is a change in mindset that’s taking place,” he said. .@BarackObama: "There is something different here." We're witnessing “a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets, peacefully protesting…That didn't exist in the 1960s." In a town hall, organized through My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative he launched as president, Obama acknowledged that while the last few weeks have been “difficult, uncertain, and scary,” we are also living through “an incredible opportunity for people to be...

If you've been paying attention for the past 12 years or so, you may have noticed that Barack Obama tends to contradict himself. He'll say one thing at one point, and then at another point he'll say the complete opposite. And both times he really means it! I don't know how much of it is intentional and how much is just his own lack of self-awareness, but I call it Past Obama vs. Present Obama.Here's Present Obama just yesterday, good-naturedly but firmly scolding Past Obama about wokeness and callout culture: Watch President @BarackObama make an excellent point about call-out...

Have you ever wondered how far left the Democratic Party has gone since 2008, let alone 2016? Well, as an example, former President Barack Obama likely would have been chased off the campaign trail had he made some recent comments of his as a 2020 Democratic primary candidate. On Tuesday, President Obama told an audience at the Obama Foundation Summit that they need to get over being "woke" and realize that simply judging people and "casting stones" does not equate to activism. "This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff, you...

Former President Barack Obama implicitly criticized President Donald Trump’s media habits in a speech on Wednesday. During a Splunk tech conference, Obama said it was helpful as president to have a diverse staff offering a wide range of advice on the issues of the day. “The other thing that is helpful is not watching TV or reading social media,” he added pointedly, according to Axios. He warned about people living in “filter bubbles” of information, made worse by social media. “That’s not healthy for a democracy and it’s not healthy between countries,” he said. “That’s how wars get started and...

Former President Barack Obama slammed US gun laws on Thursday while speaking an event in Brazil by falsely telling his audience that 'anybody can buy a machine gun.' The gun laws "don't make much sense," Obama said before claiming anybody "can buy machine guns" while speaking at VTEX Day.But contrary to what the former president told his audience in Brazil, regulations make it difficult for anyone to own a machine gun.According to The Washington Free Beacon, its writer Stephen Gutowski highlighted the regulations after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

Here’s the breakdown of his personal pronoun use (based on a rush transcript of the event): “I” — 312 “Me” — 33 “My” — 43 “I’d” — 9 “I’m” — 61 “Myself” — 9 The former president’s comments began on his favorite topic: himself. “It’s been over ten years since I spoke to a slightly larger crowd in front of the Victory Column when I was running for president,” Obama said to a notably quiet crowd. “I had a little less gray hair then. And since then I’ve been back to Germany I think at least ten times. I’ve been...

Former President Barack Obama (D) appeared at a town hall event in Berlin on behalf of the Obama Foundation. One of the issues that came up with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and whether or not they're doing more harm than good, The Hill reported."One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States —maybe it’s true here as well — is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, 'Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be,' and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a 'circular firing squad,' where you...

It is a man-bites-dog story when I support or applaud something that former President Barack Obama says or does. You may recall President Obama started a mentoring organization called My Brother’s Keeper. This initiative attempts to provide a responsible, positive message for young African-American men, a demographic plagued by poor lifestyle choices like dropping out of school, having multiple kids out of wedlock with different women, drug and alcohol abuse, gang involvement, and criminal and obnoxious behavior. These urban pathologies have been triggered by what I believe is our most urgent social crisis in the black community—absent fathers.Recent empirical data shows...

Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday was presented with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award, which celebrates leaders “who have demonstrated a commitment to social change," the Associated Press reported. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I’ve been on this hope kick for a while now. Even ran a couple of campaigns on it. Thank you for officially validating my hope credentials,” Obama said during his acceptance speech. “If we summon our best selves, we can inspire others to do the same. It’s easy to succumb to cynicism, the notion that hope is a...

While speaking Tuesday at Rice University’s Baker Center with author Jon Meacham and former White House chief of staff, James Baker, former President Barack Obama discussed identity politics and its history regarding race in the United States. Obama said that America, particularly American elites, have had a history of “great smugness” when it comes to wealth and status, Partial transcript as follows: OBAMA: We did not adapt quickly enough to the fact that there were people being left behind. And that frustrations were going to flare up and that all of these changes that were happening were happening really quick,...

He’s not going away. We all thought Hillary Clinton had this problem because he was mostly in the basement after the 2016 election, but Barack Obama has become as insufferable as Lady Macbeth. Now, the bonus from both is that they animate Republicans. There are no other figures, besides Nancy Pelosi, that unite the GOP base. At the same time, we need to hear to their insufferable condescension about American social policy. The stench of elitism is overpowering—and one that shows the true arrogance of this political movement. Even when they lose, it’s not them or their awful views on...

Appearing far older than his years, with white hair, bent back, sunken eyes, and a shrill voice that often cracked and stuttered terribly while speaking, former president Barack Obama stood before an audience of just 500 and put on a display that left many wondering if he was okay. To have so few willing to see and listen to him these days has to be jolting for the political media darling. But then to have those few seeing him so diminished, so unable to even read from a teleprompter like he used to, has to be many times more discouraging.

FULL Title :"Media Hides Laughable Turnout For Obama’s Nevada Speech While Trump/Cruz Rally Saw Thousands In Attendance" The media has tricks it can use to make it seem like a Democrat has far more support than he or she actually does, and proof has recently surfaced to show just how true that is. Former President Barack Obama’s recent speech that attacked Republicans and the President — though he never mentioned Donald Trump by name — was widely covered by the media, seemed like it was a must-see/must-attend event for Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, currently struggling against incumbent Republican Sen. Dean...

"Alright, listen. Michelle, she's not running for president," Obama said on Monday. Former President Barack Obama told Democrats at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday that his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, is not running for president in 2020. “I know that people have been feeling anxious these days. People get frustrated, and they get angry. Folks come up to me and say, ‘Oh, Barack, what are we going to do? Oh, you know what about Michelle?'” Obama said. At the mention of Michelle, the crowd erupted into applause. “Alright, listen. Michelle, she’s not running for...

Former President Obama on Monday urged a crowd in Las Vegas to "remember who started" the current economic boom, reminding them that the country recovered from the Great Recession during his presidency. Obama echoed language from President Trump, who in July claimed his administration unleashed an "economic miracle" with tax cuts legislation. "When I walked into office ten years ago, we were in the middle of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes," Obama said at a rally for Nevada Democrats. "By the time I left office, wages were rising, uninsurance rate was falling, poverty was falling, and that’s what...