Obama Wins JFK Profile in Courage Award for being a Nice Warmonger
Obama has done it again, winning an award for COURAGE!
"Former U.S. President Barack Obama was just named the 2017 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, “the most prestigious award for public servants.” Named after JFK’s 1957 book, Profiles in Courage, it is awarded annually by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation to “public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences.”
http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/obama-awarded-jfk-medal-courage-8-ye...
Here's part of the reason.
“Faced with unrelenting political opposition, President Obama has embodied the definition of courage that my grandfather cites in the opening lines of ‘Profiles in Courage’: grace under pressure,” Schlossberg said. “Throughout his two terms in office, he represented all Americans with decency, integrity, and an unshakeable commitment to the greater good.”
Obama is being recognized for “his enduring commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of political courage in a new century,” the foundation said, citing the expansion of health care options for millions, restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and leadership on an international climate change agreement.”
I don't know what to say. I know there are people who really believe this, probably including Obama himself, who think he deserves a medal for "courage". I saw a chickenshit, lying conman who bombed seven countries, started three wars (Libya, Syria, Yemen), initiated a drone war as Assassinator in Chief, caused the deaths of over a million people and the displacement of millions, and is smiling all the way to the bank. I wouldn't call that courageous.
But that's just me. Maybe in a few years Trump will win the KKK Profile in Courage Award.
Comments
I still maintain that Obama's Nobel Peace Prize should be
revoked and awarded to Julian Assange.
As to Obama's purported courage in the face of opposition, that's yet another example of rewarding style over substance.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti
I guess at this point it's too late for that.
When they gave it to Kissinger and let him keep it, that pretty much made it an absurd human practice. Now with Obama it's a laughable exercise any self respecting peace activist should shun.
Ya, they used words like decency, integrity, and "greater good" like a typical American propaganda commercial.
@Big Al Le Duc Tho refused the
Le Duc Tho refused the Nobel. He didn't think either deserved it. The war wasn't over [yet].
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Peace Prize
It's always been just that, Big Al.
Remember its background: Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was castigated in an erroneous obituary published in France in 1888 for creating a means of killing more people, faster, than ever before in history. Nobel funded the Prizes bearing his name to try to buy back this piece of his reputation. To quite a large extent, the obit hit the mark: Nobel didn't just invent dynamite, but he also was a major owner of businesses trafficking in the arms of war to all nations.
So, as they say, plus le change.....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Looks like it backfired on him.
Now the Nobel Peace prize actually endorses and in effect perpetuates war.
Style is ALWAYS rewarded over substance!
Style is always rewarded over substance. Always. Substance is usually punished, in fact. Traffickers in substance have this nasty habit of being/becoming problematic to the Powers That Be.
Examples: Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Kshama Sawant, Bernie Sanders.....
I include that last example because (1) he was punished before our eyes for trafficking in substance over style and function over form; and (2) the odium he cast to the PTB was so bad that he had to be pro-actively neutralized, again "in front of God and everybody".
My own experience is another example. I don't have (and never have had) the wherewithal to traffick in form and style. Lacking all physical grace, form and style from me required not just or primarily effort, but money. And I never had that kind of money. Result: an adult life lived almost entirely without prosperity. Employers and prospective mates alike made it profoundly clear that men like me, with only substance to offer and nonzero needs to be met, were dime-a-dozen. And, of course, these infallibly chose the "stylers", even in the complete absence of any substance at all! Gak!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Big Al, I often made images
Big Al, I often made images reflecting the current news.
Here`s one about the FISA vote I was livid about.
I`m already against the next war
@Knucklehead A bit off topic, but I
A bit off topic, but I always like to know who agrees with my comment/ image. How do I see those of like mind. I never know. It`s always nice to know who your`d allied with. I`m only directing this in a comment, although I could bother my old friend Johnny The Conqueroo & mess with him to tell me how I find out.
Johnny, you keep changing the formats, but we`ve never changed our friendship.
Bring it home & tell me you still love me, my old bud.
I do hope you are well. You want to get involved with our old conspiracies again???
I`m already against the next war
F##k.
As I said, f##k.
First the Nobel (not nobel at all) and now this sh!t.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Nobel Peace
Are you saying that this application of the Peace Prize was ignobel?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Heh, I thought this was a joke when I read it
The article is very good at picking apart the reasons for why he shouldn't have received this reward or the Nobel Peace prize.
He was the first president who held weekly meetings to see what 'terrorist' would be lucky enough to be picked for assassination by drone including 3 Americans who were killed because one was talking about who knows what but he was determined to be an imminent threat to our country and he had to be killed before anyone was killed in America because of what he was saying, his son had to be killed because he should have picked a better father. (I don't remember when I made the decision to be born to an abusive , violent alcoholic father)
The rest of the article is a great read and spells out why he shouldn't have received any of those prizes
Thanks BA for the link to the article.
After Kissinger won it the bar for any candidate for it was set very low.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
All of these awards
Nobel, Kennedy etc. have become as meaningless as The Academy Awards, Obama should have been nominated and won in the best actor category and given an Oscar as well. He definitely gave the performance of a life time.
Ha. Your acting comment brought the image:
of Obama the method actor asking the director:
"What's my motivation?"
Yeah. You and me both, never figured that one out.
Obama should get the STP award for being the most
slippery president of them all.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Slippery and sticky at the same time!
STP is exactly right!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
This Was One of the Best Editorial Cartoons EVER About Obama
In 2009, Cartoonist Lloyd Dangle drew this prescient cartoon. It encapsulated all of the excuses made by Obama's supporters over the next eight years and reminded everyone who Obama really was and what he was going to do in terms of policy.
In other words, another example of a politician whose soaring campaign rhetoric was just that: rhetoric. Importantly, in subtle ways, this cartoon detailed the wide gulf between Obama, the 2008 presidential candidate, and Obama, the 2009-2017 President of the United States. The first would barely recognize the second!
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Wake up Sheeple
Are you swooning with the spirit of the mood here? Bashing Obama's legacy is pointless, kind of like, when Trump starts our war with Iran, pointing out the fact that Russia planted him in the office will be pointless.
https://xkcd.com/1013/
Focus, people.
Bernie is a win-win.
We have a fact-based community, here.
It's frequented by the consciously evolving branch of homo sapiens.
We make it a practice to adapt to the reality that humankind has collectively witnessed; to allow it to expand our awareness.
Intellectual honesty. It's not for everyone.
Clinton was set on war with China....
So war with Iran, shitshow that it will be, is still the LotE, amirite?
Trump is doing most of his harm to the US, working hard to remove the Super from Super Power. Bannon's work on destroying the administrative state should continue the ritual of seppuku and then tangle the US up for a decade or so recovering. Gives the world 15, 20 years without the US interfering as effectively as it could had Clinton won.
Once you remember that the USA is the world's bad guy, then Trump's actions diminishing the US's power transforms into an act of goodness.
Facts matter. Reality matters. Neither is ever pointless,
especially when an attempt to bs us is in progress. As long as we pretend that Obama legacy's is one worth of the effusive praise and awards he has been given, or even the rationalizations of his behavior made on his behalf, we defeat ourselves.
What is pointless: whitewashing Presidents or bashing them mindlessly. In both cases, we lose sight of what actually matters.
BTW, in JFK's book, he described people who took major risks because of their conscience that put their lives and/or careers at risk, things that we very unpopular with a majority of people. This award is supposed to honor politicians who take those kinds of risks, not people who simple serve out the terms they desperately wanted us to give them. The Nobel Peace Prize is for making a major contribution to the cause of peace. Al's point is that Obama doesn't deserve either of those awards. Can you explain why you think he does deserve them?
If Al said something specific that is factually, cite it and refute it. Aside from the irony, attempting to silence criticism of Obama by calling us sheeple and accusing Al and others of bashing Obama's legacy doesn't strengthen whatever point you may have.
Didn't JFK start the Vietnam War
and authorize the Bay of Pigs. The award doesn't seem that inappropriate in perspective.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Nope on both. Plus, JFK, with help from RFK, averted
mutually-assured destruction with Russia rather brilliantly, despite loads of pressure from his advisors. So, both Kennedys earned a peace prize for that alone, though I don't think either of them was ever awarded one.
Vietnam-our involvement began when the French were still there, with funding (Truman). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_the_United_States_in_the_Vietnam_War We escalated through Truman and Eisenhower, with "advisors," a euphemism for boots on the ground. By the time JFK took office, we were already engaged, but JFK certainly increased the number of military we had there by a lot. However, word is that JFK was shutting it down. http://bostonreview.net/us/galbraith-exit-strategy-vietnam *
Bay of Pigs--again, by the time JFK took office, this was well under way, thanks to Ike, Nixon and the CIA. The new President was told it was all set and it needed to happen. Being a newbie, he went with that advice from people he thought knew better than he did. It was not his idea, though that does not excuse him totally. However, it was not comparable to ordering drone killing every Tuesday or starting numerous wars, not in intent nor scope of casualties.
Indeed, it was the "Bay of Pigs Fiasco" as it came to be known, that prompted JFK to turn away from the war-mongering advice that he was getting about the Cuban missile crisis from McNamara and the rest of the cabinet, the Pentagon, the National Security Council and other advisors and instead to closet himself with his brother and work things out with Nikita to avoid nuclear war. His brother was the only person officially in his administration that he felt he could trust to give him pure advice in that situation, with no other agenda, unlike the MIC.
Thank heaven JFK was a fast learner. It took only the Bay of Pigs to teach him a lesson or it all could have been toast over fifty years ago.
But, I may be missing your point: JFK (or Ted Sorensen) wrote a book about politicians who had the courage to follow their conscience to do something unpopular, though it may have been dangerous to their career or their lives. (Apparently, JFK did in fact do something dangerous to his life, though no one seems to be 100% certain what it was. Rather, many are certain, but disagree with each other.)
After JFK died, his heirs created an award, supposedly based on the book. What does JFK's Presidency have to do with Obama's deserving the Profiles in Courage award created by JKF's heirs? Let's say JFK did get an award that he didn't deserve. Would that change anything about Obama's getting two awards (and counting, most likely)that he doesn't deserve?
*Galbraith:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith
It's not like Obama walked into a world of peace and prosperity
He did inherit 2 wars and a financial crash, even if he didn't do much to stem the profit and influence of the MIC and the other big profit-over-people players. What's with the "droning every tuesday" thing?
Beware the bullshit factories.
The "droning every Tuesday" thing
refers to the fact that he had a meeting most Tuesdays in which he personally approved drone strikes on targets from among a list provided by the military.
FDR didn't walk into a world of prosperity and peace.
And, as I stated, FDR accomplished more in his first 100 days than Obama did in eight years. Not all of it good, but then again, Obama did a lot of bad things, too. And FDR had no template whatever for the New Deal. FDR and his buddies had to invent it. Obama had a template, but chose to go another way, an anemic, very slow way. A way that absolved banksters.
Lincoln didn't walk into a world of peace and prosperity, either . Neither did Truman. Neither did LBJ. Neither did George Washington. In fact, not many Presidents have. Yet, some of them managed to accomplish great things. Obama did not.
I don't understand what you are asking about drone Tuesdays.
But, what Obama walked into is not the point of this thread. The point is, what, if anything, did he do to deserve a Profile in Courage award, based on how Kennedy's (or Sorensen's book) set out the criteria? Your comments about JFK and what Obama walked into don't address that point.
To be fair, as his second term progressed, he
did begin sounding more liberal than he had since 2008. By then, of course, he had the excuse that the Republicans were stonewalling all his efforts. Democrats generally sound more liberal when they clearly have that excuse. It's only when they are in the majority in both Houses, as they were in 2007-2011 that they seem unable to tell right from left.
We in New York know this play very well
Cuomo has been running this sham/scam for many a year!
When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!
Democrats everywhere, I suspect, except where their majority
in the legislature is so huge that they can override any Republican Governor's veto that they choose to override.
Then "We would have enacted Medicare for All, but the bad Republicans stopped us" can't work.
heh, Al, love makes you blind, (edited spelling mistakes, sorry)
and if it happens you don't want to admit it. Therefore you need to reinforce all the "good: things you fell in love with - be it for Obama or anybody else. And you create peace prizes, courage prizes, best something prizes for all those, who we fell in love with, to cover up that we erred. I mean there are even people who love Trump. He is up for the Profile in Courage of Twitter Wars award.
It's a good sign if prizes are for sale and get sold out. They are so cheap nobody wants to have them anymore. Problem solved.
https://www.euronews.com/live
No
I don't see
I see a pretty good guy who tried and succeeded in specific areas. Jesus, WTF Big Al. Are you looking for Superman? Because that's what is required here. You write as if Obama wished for these things secretly, and it gave him glee when he succeeded. I dispute that. I think he, being a supreme compromiser in a era of extremism, obtained the best deal for the most Americans that he could. He was a faithful president as far as he could be, at least that's how I see it. We have to have a change, but besmirching Obama is a shitty tactic, sorry.
My HO
Bernie is a win-win.
you get the Profile in Courage Award for Shooting Obama Love
at the wrong blog warriors.
https://www.euronews.com/live
That's parallax for you,
viewing the same thing from a different angle.
Going by his actions, Mr. O is a two-faced lying hypocrite who made a lot of pretty promises just to get elected that he had no intention of ever keeping. We needed a real statesman, and we got just another goddamn sellout politician.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
That is what Reverend Wright said.
He's a politician, I'm a pastor.
sellout politician
Were Mr. Obama what he advertised himself to be, something like this is what he would have done:
DAY 1: Contacted Senate Majority Leader Reid and informed him that he would veto every bill that landed on his desk until the necessary rules changes were in place in the Senate (principally, floor-only, talking-only filibusters) to insure that only 51 votes, not 60, were required to get a bill through the Senate. Issue orders using his military powers to shut Gitmo down at once, even if that means shipping current "detainees" back home forthwith. Issue military orders getting us the fuck out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the entirety of the Levantine area (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, etc,)
FIRST 100 DAYS: Get a QE/Stimulus package passed and implemented. This includes restoring traditional protections for the American labor market. Pass bills taxing the crap out of industrial and other outsourcers to help pay for it. Minimum $25 trillion or so, and NONE to banksters, the military, or war armament makers.
CRASH OF 2007-2009: Arrest, convict, imprison, and completely amerce all responsible banksters. Bail out the banks involved, but make them US Property permanently, phasing their corporate existence out and transferring assets and liabilities to a new Federal agency created for that purpose, or to the Federal Reserve System. Same thing with the auto industry bailout, except permit the nation's shareholdings to be sold back to the American public. Bail out ordinary mortgagees with as few strings attached as possible.
"AFFORDABLE" CARE ACT: NOT to be written by health insurance companies. Public Option (Medicare For All) immediately, with an express phase-in of single public payer.
All of these items and more lay in Mr. Obama's grasp on his first day in office in 2009. He did NONE of them. NONE.
So, Bluesee, with all due respect to you, we're giving Mr. Obama criticism that he is well due. He sold himself as being "hope and change"; he was neither, but merely the third and fourth Presidential terms of Dumbya Bush.
And we have every right -- and some obligation -- to call him out on it.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I would like to steal this comment
and use it as a sig line - - - but it won't fit.
I had to take a break from besmirching Trump,
and I kind of missed besmirching Obama. This was kind of for old times sake.
But clearly we see things differently when you are able to excuse war crimes and crimes against humanity as something that was the best deal for Americans. I won't get into that kind of nuance when it comes to U.S. imperialism. To me murder is murder.
Your comment is like a cartoon
it hit almost all of the apologist's lines in J&H's cartoon. I'll grant you this Obomber was a master at cutting deals. However when it came to passing off his nasty backroom deals by playing the victim, he was pretty transparent by the end of his first term he didn't even bother to uise his soaring rhetoric to sell his sell out. After hearing him do his routine 'after careful consideration I've decided I'm really good at killing people and letting
banksterssavvy businessmen, rob you blind, and do not get sanctimonious about torturing some folks' for the umpteenth time you had to really be a sucker to believe a thing that came out of his lying mouth. As for the lame excuse of saying it was an 'extremist era' he was elected by a clear majority to counteract the extreme Bushies.People were sick and tired of 'free market' austerity and endless illegal bloody wars on 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family'. Maybe loving or hating pols and making it be all about their projected scripted persona is a bad idea in a democracy. Then again the Obama administration normalized and made legal all of the extremist Bush era abuses of power especially in the area of the unitary executive. He also re-upped the odious Patriot Act and added a new secret super dupper sauce. There was nothing moderate about the Obama administration. It was an extension of the extremist drift we've had since Raygun? Nixon?
Even during his campaign show he cut dirty deals and called them Yankee Doodle Dandy. He voted for FISA and sent his messenger to Canada to assure them that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric was nothing to worry about. So here we go again making it be about the persona of the pols in this unbelievable by-partisan political theater. He ended it all by helping to set up the Russian's did it scenario. Blind adoration for war criminals and con men thieves posing as pols makes era's of extremism 'inevitable'. None of the pols are courageous if they were they wouldn't be allowed to be elected, drummed out of office for actually being 'progressive' or they would be dead hero's.
Al's post contained a number of specific facts--some, but by
no means all, actions actually taken while the buck stopped at Obama. Your post contains your opinions and conclusions, but no specific bases for them. Sorry, but what you imagine Obama's feelings and emotions to be is not relevant. Let's try to work with facts, including Obama's actual deeds.
Good guy? Who forced him to drone weddings and funerals?
Looking for Superman? FDR, a paralyzed man, did more in his first 100 days than Obama did in eight years. And please don't give me huge majorities. First, Republicans had a majority during part of FDR's terms. Second, the Democratic Party was so divided then, north and south, east and west, urban and rural, etc., whereas they tend stick together now, even when they should not.
Was Obama a supreme compromiser or supreme caver? How do you know that Obama always got the best deal available to him? Simply because he did not get a better one? Stories about what FDR and LBJ and Reagan did to get what they wanted out of Congress abound--the schmoozing, the flattery, the wheedling, the arm twisting, the deal cutting, etc.
Where are those stories about Obama? All we heard was how he wouldn't socialize with people or even meet with those who had opposing views, including the Progressive Caucus of his own party. "You take Mitch McConnell for a drink." He gave away most of Obamacare to Big Medical and Big PHRMA before it ever got to Congress. He put Social Security and Medicare on the table for Boehner and Cantor without their even bringing up either one.
BTW, if you think 2009-2017 was an unusually divided time in the history US politics, you are mistaken.
You need glasses.
Obama bailed out banks. He could have used the money, and the fact that the titles to many of the mortgages were not clear, to pressure banks to lower the principal on mortgages. He didn't. He could have prosecuted individuals for bank fraud. It was a Justice Department matter. No congressional approval required. He didn't.
He made deals with the pharmaceutical companies. One of the most productive ways to lower the cost of medical care is to negotiate the price of drugs. He never put it on the table.
Have you looked at the people he put in his cabinet? He established the Simpson Bowles Commission. He was all set to reduce Social Security COLAs. He had enough Democrats to put it over the top with solid Republican support. Only the Tea Party stopped him.
I suggest that you go back to JekellnHyde's cartoon and pick the panel that applies to you.
Awards are just politics now.
At least as far as the humanitarian ones.
Has nothing to do with anything other than the "message" that is being sent.
In this case, the message is-
"Obama is GOOD. Blame everything bad on Trump.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
awards
As I pointed out earlier/above? the Nobels were just politics from second 1.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
One hand washes the other. Caroliine Kennedy Schlossberg, like
her Uncle Ted, supported Obama in the 2008 primary and, very likely, was a big donor to his primary and general campaigns. He put her on his transition team and made her an Ambassador. Now he gets a profile in courage award, apparently for having served two terms he very much wanted to serve. That's how it works in the Big Club You Ain't In.
Did he really? And, shouldn't we simply expect that of all Presidents?
So, it has become a participation award, so what!
*PatOnBack*
Not according to its title or official description, it hasn't.
It is not, after all, called the "Participation Without Any Particular Courage or Other Requirement Award."
Nor is it called the "Thanks for the Ambassadorship That Caroline Kennedy Wanted Award."
People gotta live up to their own description or at least be called out for not living up to it, no?
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Events-and-Awards/Profile-in-Courage-Award.aspx
Snark . . . Snark and more Snark
In a world where "literal" is just another word for "figurative", I can see no reason to care (hence the "so what") about these fluff awards.
In a world were our "leaders" do not, nor are expected to, live up to any "elitist" standards (we certainly wouldn't want to be seen as advocating for a meritocracy, would we?), I can see no reason to care (hence the "so what") about these fluff awards.
You know, agencies like the EPA should be run by and answer to the scientific community, politicians should be used for compost, literally and, I can see no reason to care (hence the "so what") about these fluff awards.
I am certain that when it is his turn Trump will be given some God Damn Award sponsored by some august group and, I can see no reason to care (hence the "so what") about these fluff awards.
I don't use "literal' and "figurative" interchangeably and
refuse to answer for those who do (even to you). The one time someone thought he caught me using "literally" incorrectly--a pet peeve of his, too--I grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the "hole in the wall, literally" to which I had referred. He had to laugh and admit I had used the term correctly.
Thing is, the Profile in Courage Award was once true to its name. It should not have become a fluff award. If it is, let's call it an honorary degree or something. Let's not corrupt the word "courage." I can't think of much that Obama did that lives up to that standard, not as a state senator or a U.S. Senator or as POTUS.
ETA: One reason to care, I think, is that the Big Lie has consequences.
I definitely agree with this.
Wrong spot (despite the warning). Sorry!
Unshakeable committment
to his friends they meant, not to humanity or God forbid, the little people. He did what was expected of him so of course he gets an award for it! Integrity? YES, he did indeed have integrity - he promised those bankers he'd protect them and he by God did that. And that droning, why that was just to keep Murka safe, never mind the blowback from it, we MUST keep doing it, it is his legacy after all and saves American lives, at least in the short term. Long term prospects, who cares, he's free from worrying his pretty face about such things as long term prospects for this nation.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
It all makes me want to puke
"Turns out I'm really good at killing people. Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine."
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley