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‘Like a Klingon prison’: inside Barack Obama’s audacious, near-windowless, $850m presidential library
The Guardian ^ | 06/02/2026 | Oliver Wainwright

Posted on 06/03/2026 12:22:26 PM PDT by DFG

The Egyptians had their pyramids. The Anglo-Saxons had their barrows. And the Americans have their presidential libraries – the chief difference being that the leaders the US venerates are usually still alive at the opening.

Lacking a royal family or a state religion, the US presidency has swelled to fill the void, transforming over the decades into a national personality cult, complete with its own secular temples to these powerful men. The latest pharaonic edifice is about to open on Chicago’s south side, where it looms on the skyline as a towering totem to the 44th president, Barack Obama. He might have seemed humble in office, but in his post-presidential, Netflix-producing afterlife, Obama has erected the largest, costliest and most audacious complex of them all. Behold the $850m Obamalisk – or, as it sometimes feels morbidly like, the Obamausoleum.

Previous presidential libraries have taken many forms, reflecting the values of their creators. Franklin D Roosevelt began the tradition in 1940, building a library in Dutch colonial style alongside his grave in upstate New York, which he hoped would be swarmed with “an appalling number of sightseers”. Since then, every president has followed suit in their quest for immortality, dreaming up ever larger museums and archives, conceived as hallowed places of pilgrimage. Lyndon B Johnson commissioned a brutalist hulk for Austin, Texas, a fitting symbol, its architect Gordon Bunshaft remarked, for “an aggressive … big man”. Ronald Reagan opted for a sprawling California hacienda, with a dedicated hangar for Air Force One, while Bill Clinton conjured a cantilevered metallic box in Arkansas – a literal interpretation of his promise to “build a bridge to the 21st century”.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: ghobehomhadibah; hutlhqaplayinlijqip; klingonprison; library; lol; majqadenibqatlh; metallicbox; obama; obamalisk; obamanation; obamausoleum; osamaobama; ozymandias; yntyalagochukof
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To: JZelle
Is that the Pave Paws radar at Otis AFB?

Picture caption says Alaska.

41 posted on 06/03/2026 12:59:06 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: DFG

Reminds me of the alien HQ in Cowboys vs. Aliens (a fun movie).


42 posted on 06/03/2026 1:00:47 PM PDT by piytar (NEVER FORGET Ashli Babbitt, Rosanne Boyland, Corey Comperatore, Iryna Zarutska, and Charlie Kirk!)
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To: Red Badger

Yup. That’s it from Cowboys vs. Aliens.


43 posted on 06/03/2026 1:01:47 PM PDT by piytar (NEVER FORGET Ashli Babbitt, Rosanne Boyland, Corey Comperatore, Iryna Zarutska, and Charlie Kirk!)
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To: DFG

Official Obama portraits (by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald) are also disappointing.


44 posted on 06/03/2026 1:02:59 PM PDT by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Just needs a little graffiti.


45 posted on 06/03/2026 1:04:40 PM PDT by Baldwin
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To: The Antiyuppie

Nazi flack tower.


46 posted on 06/03/2026 1:06:14 PM PDT by spokeshave ( Angry Dads. Grumpy Grandads, Curmudgeons & old Geezers)
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To: ComputerGuy

Looks like a high-rise bomb shelter.


47 posted on 06/03/2026 1:06:18 PM PDT by Veto! ((Trump Is Superman))
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To: DFG

I’ve always said it looks like what one would think a Borg’s penis would look like.


48 posted on 06/03/2026 1:07:22 PM PDT by nesnah (Infringe - act so as to limit or undermine [something]; encroach on)
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To: DFG

Dig deep under it.

Is there a place for a gold-plated Obama mummy?

Will they bury him with still-alive Michelle?

Get Geraldo on it now.


49 posted on 06/03/2026 1:09:00 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob ( My pronoun is EXIT. Generally full of /S -- Living with Havana Syndrome -infected from Main Stream)
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To: Liz

Clinton’s library gets the fewest visitors of all presidential libraries according to the Ntl Archives which operates them.


What about the massage parlor and brothel in the penthouse?


50 posted on 06/03/2026 1:09:49 PM PDT by nesnah (Infringe - act so as to limit or undermine [something]; encroach on)
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51 posted on 06/03/2026 1:10:34 PM PDT by Who is John Galt? ("...mit Pulver und Blei, Die Gedanken sind frei!")
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To: DFG

As I understand this monstrosity is not his presidential “library.” It is just the “Obmunism center” to spread his evil ideology.


52 posted on 06/03/2026 1:11:28 PM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: ComputerGuy

Everything about Obama was ugly. Marxists like him adore ugliness. Look at the ugly portraits. The ugly decoration of the oral orifice. The ugly faggotry and trannies.


53 posted on 06/03/2026 1:13:01 PM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: Liz
That statue reminds me of this.


54 posted on 06/03/2026 1:18:01 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: nesnah

What about visitors to the massage parlor and brothel?


Bill is the best customer there......./s.


55 posted on 06/03/2026 1:19:31 PM PDT by Liz (Winston Churchill: “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”)
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To: DFG

Residential Lieberry und Flakturm


56 posted on 06/03/2026 1:23:53 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: DFG
Reminds me of Kronus the energy absorbing monster:

Kronos | Rotten Tomatoes
57 posted on 06/03/2026 1:25:28 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Drain the Swamp. Build the Wall)
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To: Red Badger
Like a Nazi Flack tower

Or from star wars


58 posted on 06/03/2026 1:29:31 PM PDT by spokeshave ( Angry Dads. Grumpy Grandads, Curmudgeons & old Geezers)
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To: Liz

I’d be afraid of picking up an STD just walking through the door.


59 posted on 06/03/2026 1:31:39 PM PDT by ryderann
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To: Liz

The bridge to nowhere.

Ironically it sits by a river with an old, rusty train bridge nearby.


60 posted on 06/03/2026 1:36:16 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
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