Free Republic

Philon Green was forced to move out of Woodlawn because of skyrocketing rent prices. He wanted to stay at Jackson Park Terrace — down the street from the under-construction Obama Presidential Center — but his landlord raised the rent from about $800 to $1,300. Green said the property wasn’t in the best condition, but he enjoyed the area. Being priced out of the neighborhood was a concern shared at a protest Tuesday morning by other Woodlawn and South Shore residents, who now fear rental prices will rise if a proposed luxury hotel gets city approval. “When you got people’s rent...

The gorgeous Martha's Vineyard getaway where Barack and Michelle Obama used to spend their summers has found a buyer - just six weeks after it was put on the market for $39 million. Known as Blue Heron Farm, the sprawling Massachusetts property played host to the Obamas for three consecutive summers starting in 2009, with reports at the time suggesting that the family paid a staggering $50,000 a week to rent the abode. But the family was forced to find an alternative summer sanctuary when the Chilmark, MA, home was sold to a new owner—who carried out extensive renovations on...

New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom said Friday that former President Barack Obama will not be coming to Democrats' collective rescue as the party struggles to find national leadership in the wake of their stinging defeat in 2024. Cottom argued that Democrats desperate for Obama to save the party are "undignified" and weak, asserting that change will not come from above, but rather from "the streets." "We must start asking how we can save ourselves. We are seeing the start of that in places like Los Angeles, San Antonio and Raleigh, N.C.," she wrote, referencing the anti-ICE protests occurring...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is facing backlash after saying that creating life is “the least” of what a woman’s reproductive system does. On the latest episode of the podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” the former first lady and her brother were joined by OB/GYN Dr. Sharon Malone, whose husband, Eric Holder, served as Attorney General under former President Barack Obama. During the discussion, the former first lady lamented that women’s reproductive health “has been reduced to the question of choice.” “I attempted to make the argument on the campaign trail this past election was that there’s...

He’s got jokes. Michelle Obama said her husband, Barack Obama, joked she was “next up” after her mom, Marian Robinson, passed away at age 86 in May 2024. During Wednesday’s episode of the former first lady and her brother Craig Robinson’s “IMO” podcast, Michelle recalled a conversation she had with the 44th president of the US. “I guess if anything, with mom’s loss, I think that — thank God you’re my big brother and I have a husband who’s older,” she told Craig, 63. “Barack was saying, you know, ‘Well, you’re next up.’ I was like, ‘I’m not really ready...

Former President Barack Obama was spotted going out to dinner with his daughters in Los Angeles on Saturday night — but former first lady Michele Obama was nowhere to be found as rumors of marriage problems continue to swirl. Obama, 63, with daughters Sasha, 23, and Malia, 26, broke bread at upscale Japanese restaurant Hamasaku on Santa Monica Boulevard, which has been a favorite of the family since at least 2022, according to images of the dinner. Despite the conspicuous absence of Michelle, eagle-eyed relationship monitors noticed that the former president was wearing his wedding ring.

Barack Obama has lost his mojo and ruined his brand. It used to be said that Joe Biden was serving Obama’s third term, that his former boss was controlling him from the home he had bought in DC’s ritzy Kalorama neighborhood, two miles from the White House. The feeling was that Obama was the real leader of the Democratic Party and his wife Michelle was the secret weapon they would whip out in 2024 to replace Biden and trounce Donald Trump. Well, none of it came to pass, and judging by his irrelevant poll numbers, Obama’s star has long faded....

Former President Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the Democratic Party after leaving it in shambles following his departure from the White House, according to a new book. The book, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” published by William Morrow and Company, claims that Obama was never a Democratic Party loyalist. Instead, the authors allege, Obama curried favor from a group of “black professionals” for his campaigns, unlike former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former President Joe Biden. Additionally, Obama’s creation of Organizing for Action — a...

Former President Barack Obama reportedly advocated against Democrats nominating Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential election — because Obama didn’t think Harris could win, according to an upcoming book. The 44th president reportedly argued for an open convention rather than anointing Harris as the nominee after Biden’s shocking drop-out, despite her having support from other Democrats, according to reporter Jonathan Allen, co-author of “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.” “President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to...

A veteran real estate developer and friend of former President Barack Obama is vying to build a 26-story hotel blocks away from the incoming Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. The developer, Allison Davis, submitted a rezoning application to City Council last week for a parcel of vacant land he owns at 6402-20 S. Stony Island Avenue. The plot, currently zoned for a community shopping district, needs council approval to get rezoned as a planned business development, clearing the way for the hotel’s construction. Davis is an attorney who co-founded the law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where Obama...

Social network Bluesky, an alternative to X built on open source technologies, has scored a big win in terms of attracting notable users to its platform. The company on Sunday confirmed that former president Barack Obama has joined its service. Bluesky OOO Rose Wang replied to a post where someone wondered if the account posting as Obama was legitimately him by writing “Confirmed!” In his first few posts on the platform, Obama celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), calling it “a reminder that change is possible when we fight for progress.” The former president maintains a...

*Barack Obama’s efforts to raise money to compete construction on his $830 million presidential center are reportedly in jeopardy. According to The Daily Beast, costly delays and worrying setbacks are hindering what should be a lasting tribute to America’s first black president. So much so that its raised questions among center fundraisers about the M.I.A. status of some of the center’s heavy contributors. To some, Obama’s struggle to obtain funds is music to their ears, considering fundraising for the center dipped more than 50% to $129,320,227. in 2023. IRS filings also found that more than $311 million in funds were...

Then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry put Iran’s interests ahead of American national security — service to a foreign power unprecedented in US history. A blockbuster new report from Sen. Charles Grassley’s Judiciary Committee shows that the Obama administration secretly worked behind the scenes to systematically protect Iranian agents and operations from federal investigators — for fear arrests and exposure would upset Tehran and so derail negotiations for Obama’s obscene Iran nuclear deal. Via newly released, unclassified emails, whistleblowers have revealed that Obama officials at Justice and State (and Kerry personally) stopped federal agencies from enforcing sanctions...

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has canceled the lease for the Barack Obama Presidential Library. The decision is not expected to significantly impact the center, as the lease was set to expire in 2025. As is customary for a former president, the building housed memorabilia of historic and cultural significance collected during the Obama administration. According to the Chicago Tribune, the current site, owned by Hoffman Estates Medical LLC, was a 73,000-square-foot former furniture store. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) paid $1.4 million annually to rent the space. NARA is responsible for archiving and cataloging thousands...

Democrat mega-donor George Soros, the lead financer of the institutional left in America, used U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) disbursements to fund color revolutions in the Balkans, according to U.S. spending hawks. USAID gave several Soros groups millions of American tax dollars that allegedly went toward stoking social unrest in the Balkan Peninsula, including collaborative efforts to destabilize Macedonia's democratically elected center-right government and ultimately overthrow it. Macedonia is a broadly conservative country with a flat rate tax of 10 percent, one of the lowest in all of Europe, and a governing right-wing party (VMRO-DPMNE), whose camp won the...

Bolting billionaires. Ballooning budgets. A racial discrimination suit from a thwarted subcontractor. Who needs Jussie Smollett? The Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is turning out to be Chicago's greatest hoax. Sprouting up on the city's South Side in 2021 like an Egyptian funerary complex, the Taj Barack has already taken nearly twice as long to build as any presidential library in history. And at an estimated cost of $830 million, it's the most expensive... by hundreds of millions. That's enough to make King Tut's mummy blush, but it's pretty standard when it comes to the modern gods of the Democratic party....

Construction of former President Barack Obama's long-awaited library and museum in Chicago began with ambitious plans for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) but is now plagued by huge cost overruns, delays and a $40.75-million, racially charged lawsuit filed by a minority contractor. From the outset, the endeavor touted DEI as a key part of enshrining Obama's legacy at the 19.3-acre site, where costs have ballooned from an initial $350 million to $830 million in 2021 based on its previous annual reports, with no publicly available figures available for updated projected costs. The project set out "ambitious goals" for certain construction...

Presenting the King and Queen of the criminal illegal invasion, Samantha Power (born in the UK) and her husband Cass Sunstein.. GPS—they met together and separately at Barack Hussein Obama II’s war room/mansion in Washington, DC hundreds of times during the Biden/Harris Regime, 19 times since the election and 4 times since President Trump took office. The circumstances surrounding the controversial financial and political of Samantha Power, a former USAID administrator, and her significant increase in net worth during her tenure in public office. Power’s wealth reportedly surged from $6.7 million in 2021 to $30 million by 2024, raises questions...

A shooting claimed the lives of two men and resulted in the injuries of five others, including a teen, on Friday night. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, deputies were dispatched to theSouth Los Angeles around 8 p.m. on a report regarding gunshot wound victims. While LASD gave the location of the shooting as Athens Park, the address provided by authorities is several blocks southeast of the park near Barack Obama Charter Elementary School. Arriving deputies found two men suffering from gunshot wounds; both of them were pronounced dead at a local hospital after being transported by first...

International investment banker Rahamim Shy, 47, travelled to Bedfordshire from New York in February 2024 to have sex with the girl following more than a month of planning. This followed correspondence with an individual describing herself as 'Debbie', the girl's grandmother. However, unbeknown to Shy, the girl did not exist and 'Debbie' was in fact an undercover officer with Bedfordshire Police. Shy, a US citizen, who lives in New Jersey, worked for the White House under president Barack Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Shy described in acute detail the disturbing acts he wanted to do to the girl...