Free Republic

Former first lady Michelle Obama encouraged her followers to remember during the back-to-school season that girls around the world have limited access to attend school. Obama shared a photo from her school days as part of #WorldChairtyDay, while urging others to post #BackToSchool photos, support the Girls Opportunity Alliance and donate to its GoFundMe page. "As students here in the U.S. head back to school, let's remember that more than 98 million adolescent girls around the world don't have that opportunity," she tweeted Thursday. The Girls Opportunity Alliance is run by the Obama Foundation. They reported that out of 750...

President Trump on Friday lashed out at Democrats over their ongoing investigations into his administration, suggesting there should instead be probes into former President Obama's book deal and other activities under his predecessor. "They want to investigate, they want to go fishing and I watched Bob Mueller and they have nothing," Trump said of Democrats during an Oval Office gathering to announce an agreement with Guatemala. "It’s a disgrace," he continued. "We want to find out what happened the last Democrat president. Let’s look into Obama the way they’ve looked into me. From day one they’ve looked into everything we’ve...

Barack Obama asserted that the United States was founded on inequality, despite the Constitution enshrining equality into the law. Obama said: You know Brazil just thinks the United States was founded on inequality and we have to admit that even though the United States has a Constitution that says, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ At that time not only were blacks excluded, but women were excluded, and people who didn’t own property were excluded. Obama commented on his understanding of the founding of the United States during the VTEXDAY 2019 conference in...

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...

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...

The planned Obama presidential library "Presidential Center" that wants to grab priceless lakefront property from taxpayers for a vast campus that amounts to a cenotaph-like monument to the wonderfulness of the 44th president of the United States. The Obama Foundation decided to mask the identities of its mega-donors. With Obama out of office in 2017, I presume that federal restrictions and disclosure requirements also went by the wayside. Would it be too cynical of me to wonder if any foreign actors were among the mega-donors?

The Obama Foundation has pushed back the groundbreaking date for the Obama Presidential Center after the federal review process was delayed for a second time this summer, officials confirmed Friday. Instead of starting construction later this year, the foundation is now saying they plan to break ground for the half-billion-dollar project sometime in 2019. Officials avoided setting a specific date during the year. They also would not say if this will change their timeline for building the center, which was once slated to open in 2021. The federal review process has to be conducted because of Jackson Park’s historic status...

If former President Barack Obama wants the Obama Presidential Center to define his legacy, he’s going to have to let life go full circle. That means climbing off his presidential high horse and returning to his roots as a community organizer. Once Obama announced his library would be in Chicago, it was as if the former president had suddenly turned into a greedy real estate developer. And unfortunately, the manner in which the project was unveiled wasn’t inclusive. Jeanette Taylor, the education director for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Taylor said she asked the former president why he wouldn’t sign...

The Obama Foundation is trying to generate as much public support as possible ahead of the city of Chicago's first municipal vote to approve construction permits that would allow the Obama Presidential Center to be built on historic parkland. The foundation's chief engagement officer, Michael Strautmanis, emailed "friends" of the project late last week asking them to show up at City Hall at 5 a.m. Thursday to demonstrate to city officials that local residents are behind it. Attendees were told to pick up Obama swag — T-shirts and buttons — from the organization's local headquarters ahead of Thursday. Although the...

The Obama Foundation saw its largest donations so far this year come from repeat contributors who pledged to give even more money toward the organization’s vision, records show. The Crown Family, which owns a stake of the Chicago Bulls, real estate mogul and gay rights activist Mel Heifetz, and the Ford Foundation have made large million-dollar contributions before but agreed to repeat donations of more than $1 million each. The Obama Foundation reported one new donor of more than $1 million: Iger Bay Foundation, which is affiliated with the Disney family. The Obama Foundation was also given more than $250,000...

Former President Barack Obama says he aspires to create "a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas" who will pick up the baton in what he describes as the "relay race that is human progress." At a conference in Japan on Sunday, the former president spoke about how he hopes the Obama Foundation, a nonprofit formed in January 2014, will help achieve his post-presidential aims. "After I left office, what I realized is that the Obama Foundation could potentially create a platform for young, up-and-coming leaders, both in the United States and all around the world to come together, meet...

A panel of national and local experts, comprised mostly of African-Americans, lambasted Chicago city officials in a meeting Wednesday night for how they have worked closely with the Obama Foundation to build the Obama Presidential Center on public land despite criticism and serious concerns from representatives of the South Side neighborhood. "You have all this talk about collusion between Trump and Russia, right? To me, that sounds like collusion between the city and the university, and we see the same thing happening in relation to this," one of the panelists, Jawanza Malone, executive director of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, said....

Chicagoans in droves are venting their displeasure with former President Barack Obama’s planned library, calling it an “ugly waste of taxpayer resources” and a “dangerous precedent” for the preservation of historic public parklands. Recent letters to the editor published in the Chicago Tribune overwhelmingly have panned the Obama Presidential Center, which will consume nearly 20 acres from historic Jackson Park and cost taxpayers $100 million in renovations to the surrounding area.

The first community organizer to become president has managed to anger community groups so much with his planned personal monument, aka a "presidential center," that part of the plan was just scrapped. Lolly Bowean of the Chicago Tribune reports: Bowing to community pressure, the Obama Foundation has scrapped its plan for an above-ground parking garage and will instead build an underground facility below the presidential center in Jackson Park, officials said late Monday. The original plan would have grabbed a treasured part of Chicago's park system, the Midway (site of Chicago's World's Fair), for a two-story garage. The group Save...

Barack Obama may be the pride of University of Chicago, but a lot of heavy hitters there are strongly opposing current plans for his library. More than 100 U of C faculty members who say they support the location of an Obama Center near the campus nevertheless are opposing plans for it on economic and preservation grounds. They say the center’s proposed location lacks room to jump-start economic development, and its footprint will consume parts of historic Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. “Not only are public lands being given to a private entity but the public will pay to...

In their effort to break the mold, the planners of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago are taking heat for some less-than-lofty features in the sprawling complex. Namely, a “test kitchen.” Reports first surfaced last fall that the monument to the first black president’s legacy was taking on an activity-center vibe. There would be a museum – but also a basketball court, possibly a room for yoga classes, and a test kitchen to teach visitors “about the full production cycle of nutritious food.”

Looks like Barack Obama is going to have to learn to live with disappointment. He has prepared for his presidential library for years. It’s part of his legacy. When Obama was elected, Chicago treated him literally as if he was the second coming of Christ. He was their favorite son. Nine years later, not so much. They are beginning to see the real Barack Obama at long last. The citizens of Chicago are balking at the plans for Obama’s library. In its initial bid for the right to host the library, put forth on behalf of the city, the University...

Over dinner with convicted felon Peter F. Paul and Stan Lee in 2000, Hillary revealed her motive for the illegal email server she used from 2009 to 2013: to hide from investigators.

Former President Barack Obama embarked on an Asia trip this week, and Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs––a frequent defender of President Trump‘s––went off on Obama tonight for comments aimed at the current president. While in India, Obama offered this advice: “Think before you speak, think before you tweet.” He also invoked his own social media follower numbers compared to “other people who use it more often.” Dobbs slammed Obama for his criticisms of his predecessor, and guest Steve Forbes said Obama doesn’t realize he “doesn’t matter anymore.” Dobbs then said this: