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OPINION:

Apparently the architect of the American socialist machine and the Biden collective has crawled out from under his slimy, multimillion-dollar rock on Marthas Vineyard. Former President Barack Obama has a lot to say suddenly, and it just so happens to be coming right before the midterm elections. Laughingly, Mr. Obama has selected misinformation as his focus at precisely the moment when his minions are awash in their own political promises. Lying and deceiving are what Mr. Obama does best, and now he is doing it as well as he ever has. The Stalinists are pulling out all the stops to prevent a red wave, and that is why Mr. Obama has slithered out of his taxpayer-funded crevice. He obviously thinks that his underlings have failed, so he has to do the job himself.

But America is wiser now. It understands that Mr. Obama lies and has rejected him along with his plans and confederates.

JEFFREY H. DISSELL

Gainesville, Florida

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Letter to the editor: Obama can't save the Democrats - Washington Times

President Joe Biden vowed to attendees at the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles to build on the work started by the Obama administration to help U.S. neighbors invest in clean and renewable energy technologies.

Biden frequently harkens back to his tenure in the Obama administration, during which he was vice president, as evidence of his ability to advance liberal proposals, but his comments Thursday come as his own approval ratings have slipped to their lowest point since he entered the White House in January 2021.

BIDEN'S THREADBARE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE UNDERSCORES COMMUNICATION FAILURES

By contrast, former President Barack Obama consistently polls atop the ranks of modern Democratic politicians and remains a global figure following his departure from the White House in January 2017.

"We're committing to not just the energy transition but to make sure communities that have been historically marginalized are able to share equally in the gains with equitable access to both good-paying jobs we'll create and the affordable clean energy that will be made available," he commented at the top of the summit's plenary session. "I'm going to continue to work just as I did when I was vice president, with Barack Obama, to promote trade and investment in clean energy, including using the United States International Development Finance Corporation to help countries that need assistance to assess financing and to help the region reach ambitious renewable energy goals by 2030."

"The bottom line is this: The Western Hemisphere is home for all of us," he added near the tail end of his remarks. "Back in 2013, when I was vice president to Barack Obama, he asked me to lead our engagement with the region, and I said we should be talking about the hemisphere," he added.

"Over the past decade, our region has changed. The challenges we face have changed, and so our policies and our solutions have to change as well," the president closed. "But I want to be very clear: My fundamental view and my approach to the atmosphere has not changed. I still believe what I said then. I hope that you do too."

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Listen to Biden's remarks in full below:

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Biden gets nostalgic about Obama days at Summit of the Americas - Washington Examiner

Former Obama administration Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted the United States will enter an economic recession and suggested the possibility of yet higher gas prices than the country is currently seeing.

I think the optimists were wrong a year ago in saying we have no inflation and I think they are wrong now if anyone is highly confident that we are going to avoid recession, he said on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday, adding thatTreasury Secretary Janet Yellens and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powells predictions are too optimistic.

A combination ofhigh inflation and low unemployment is always followed within two years by recession, Summer said, adding,I think there is certainly a risk of recession in the next year and I think given where we have gotten to, it is more likely than not that we will have a recession in the next two years.

In an exchange with CNBC last week, Yellen said, I dont think were going to have a recession in response to a question about stripper-turned-rapper Cardi Bs recent Twitter post that asked, When yall think they going to announce that we going into a recession.

Dont look to me to announce it, Yellen said, adding,We have a very strong economy. I know people are very upsetand rightfully soabout inflation. But theres nothing to suggest inflation if a recession is in the works.

With gas prices officially hitting an average of $5 per gallon across the United States, the Department of Labor confirmed that inflation rose 8.6 percent year-over-year for Maya number not seen in four decades. Thats a 0.3 percent increase from April, which saw a year-over-year increase of 8.3 percent.

The Biden administration and Democrats have struggled to deal with the price jump, blaming it on supply chain issues and Russias invasion of Ukraine as President Joe Biden recently signed a $40 billion deal in new aid to Kyiv. Biden and other Democrats have suggested that Americans mitigate the cost of fuel by purchasing electric vehicles, which may be cost-prohibitive or impractical for many.

Republicans say that the problem is being exacerbated by Bidens policies, including a series of sweeping executive orders he made at the outset of his term that targeted the oil and gas industries. Within a few days of taking office, Biden signed executive orders that suspended new oil drilling on federal lands, blocked the Keystone XL pipeline, directed federal agencies to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels, rolled back the Trump administrations move to end restrictions on methane regulations, and more.

However, Democrats and environmentalists would criticize Biden if he took steps to increase U.S. oil production, saying that such moves would undercut their climate-related efforts.

At the end of March, Biden announced another draw from the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down gasoline prices. The average price per gallon has jumped 77 cents since then, which analysts say is partly because of a refining squeeze.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.

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Obama Treasury Secretary: US at 'Risk of Recession' in the Next Year - The Epoch Times

When the heat is on, some of us go to the beach, others retreat to air-conditioned movie theatres, and a few smart souls seek out the cool quiet of a museum. After all, when temperatures rise, theres no better place to get out of the summer heat plus, theres art!

And this summer, there are plenty of shows worth visiting, and for more than just the air conditioning. Whether it be an exhibit featuring the playful fashions of designer Patrick Kelly, welded steel sculptures inspired by ancient Nubian sites, or the final stop of the national tour of the Obama presidential portraits, youll find nothing if not variety.

Here's a look at the summer art lineup.

As the ice melts and seas and temperatures rise, nothing could be more appropriate than visiting an exhibit built around recycling. In this show, reuse and reclamation is the basis for immersive installations by six internationally known artists: El Anatsui, Madeline Hollander, Ibrahim Mahama, Karyn Olivier, Ebony G. Patterson and Joe Wardwell. From Ghana-born Anatsui, who collects bottle caps and refuse to create glittering sculptures, to Trinidad and Tobago-born Olivier and Ghana-born Mahama, who collect, respectively, used clothing and crates to build monumental sculptures, we see how ingenious artists make use of discards to build magical works that make powerful points around labor and persistence. Perhaps a better tomorrow is within sight if we only set our minds to it. [Read more about the exhibit here.]

Theres a certain art to giving birth. Now, MAAM explores that art, looking at human reproduction specifically through the lens of design. Tracing breast pumps, forceps, maternity clothes, baby monitors and other accoutrements of motherhood from the 19th-century through the present day, the show features more than 200 pieces reflecting changing reproductive rights and societal norms. Everything about birth and motherhood has evolved in the last 150 years, including contraception, pregnancy, the actual experience of giving birth and postpartum life. This show provides an unusual opportunity to re-examine the material culture surrounding our most primal and essential human experience. It is also an opportunity to visit MAAM, which had suspended new exhibits during the pandemic. Welcome back, MAAM!

Surreal, dream-like and psychedelic, the mixed-media collages of Lunenberg artist Bridie Wolejko take center stage in Hypnagogia. That term refers to that not-quite-asleep but not-quite-awake stage most of us have experienced, sometimes just before drifting off at night, and sometimes just as we wake in the morning. In Wolejkos hypnagogic reverie, dancing figures morph and fuse, only to disintegrate again in collages recalling a Hieronymus Bosch painting. She says shes inspired by fantasy, science-fiction, horror, the occult and nature, and sources the images used in her collage from vintage books, magazines and antique wallpaper. (She also paints.) Wolejko, who was the first prize winner in last summers 85th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft at the museum, leans into the absurd, keeping things light-hearted while also touching on pressing issues of the day.

In the world of fashion, hot new designers come and go about as fast as the trendy fashions they create. But even in a world of rotating fashions and designers, there is one young designer who managed to create a legacy despite a sadly abbreviated career. Patrick Kelly (1954-1990) was a celebrated self-taught African American designer who took the fashion world by storm in the 1980s. His playful, colorful designs, influenced by time he spent both in New York and Paris, pushed boundaries by remaining firmly rooted in exuberant love and joy, even while pointedly subverting images found in racist memorabilia repurposed in some of his designs. The exhibition includes more than 75 runway ensembles created at the high point of Kellys career, along with footage from his fashion shows. Making its debut at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014 before moving on to San Francisco, the show finally allows New Englanders a chance to appreciate Kellys high-energy vibe.

Azza El Siddique is a sculptor and mixed media artist known for her room-sized installations confronting difficult themes like entropy, impermanence and mortality. Interestingly, considering the ephemeral nature of her subject matter, El Siddique, a Sudanese-born artist who now works out of New Haven, has chosen very concrete materials for her investigations. That includes welded steel and ceramic vases, urns and fragmented figures made of glass. Her inspiration is the ancient forms seen at Nubian sacred sites, including ritual and funerary temples. El Siddique has added the element of impermanence by allowing water droplets to drip onto her pieces, slowly eroding the clay and rusting the steel. In some works, heat lamps allow the scent of sandalwood oil, (used to prepare bodies for Muslim burial), to waft about the room, evoking Islamic mortuary rituals. In this show, El Siddiques first solo at an institution, viewers are invited to contemplate the transitory nature of everything.

Rose B. Simpson creates mesmerizing sculptures incorporating clay, metal, wood, leather, fabric and found objects. Her work is centered around complex psychological states including spirituality and womens strength. Born in New Mexico, receiving her MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011 and another MFA in creative non-fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2018, Simpson moves easily between genres, incorporating performance and writing into her work. Simpson writes in her artist statement, My life-work is a seeking out of tools to use to heal the damages I have experienced as a human being of our postmodern and postcolonial era objectification, stereotyping, and the disempowering detachment of our creative selves through the ease of modern technology.

Embroidery is not what most of us think of when we think of fine art, yet Jordan Nassar defies those preconceptions by using traditional Palestinian craft techniques in complex works that examine home, land and memory. Nassar is the son of a Polish mother and a U.S.-Palestinian father. Although Nassar himself grew up in New York City, he feels tied to his familial home and turns to Palestinian embroiders and craftspeople to help create his embroidered geometric patterns and abstracted landscapes. His work speaks to beauty and hope while simultaneously exploring the relationship between craft and history.

Climate capitalism and colonial erasure are the subjects of this exhibit featuring the work of Puerto Rican-born, Oakland-based conceptual artist Sofa Crdova. She moves between performance, music, video, photography, sculpture and installation with ease, creating pieces that consider such diverse themes as science-fiction as an alternative history, the liberating nature of dance music, as well as the idea of revolution and its interplay with, gender, race and late capitalism. This solo exhibition includes a newly commissioned installation GUILLOTIN WannaCry Act Green: Sauvage, Savage, Salvaje and video works from Crdovas series SIN AGUA and dawn_chorus.

Curated by writer and curator Sara Raza, this show is a collective featuring the work of 11 contemporary artists whose mixed-media installation, film, sculptures and performances touch on issues surrounding the changing landscape around science, philosophy, biology and economics. The show title was inspired by both a fable and medieval miniatures depicting the signs of the hour leading up to the Day of Judgment. According to its organizers, the show captures the importance of arts role in inspiring dialogue and reassessing political futures and structures.

When the Obama portraits first made their debut in 2018, legions of Americans lined up at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where a perpetual mob gyrated and stirred endlessly around the portraits throughout the day. People not only gawked at Kehinde Wileys stylized work of President Barack Obama but snapped pictures of themselves in front of Amy Sheralds equally stylish portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama. After the original unveiling and time in D.C., the portraits traveled the country, finding as much acclaim as a touring rock band. Finally, the portraits arrive in Boston on their seventh and final stop of the national tour that began June 2021.

Both portraits are a dramatic departure from the usual official presidential portraits. Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, the works reflect a distinctive artistic vision that makes them uniquely appealing and approachable much like their subjects.

In a literal jewel of a show, sculptor and metal worker Daniel Jocz presents a survey of his playful and irreverent jewelry designs incorporating aspects of sculpture, painting, architecture and the decorative arts. On view will be 50 jewelry works along with a selection of sculptural pieces. Jocz never took a formal class in metals and learned his skills through trial and error, which may account for his playful pop-art inspired candy wear and his freestyle improvisational approach to design.

I do ask myself many times why I am doing jewelry, Jocz once told the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Seeing his work pretty much answers that question.

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11 art exhibits to heat up your summer - WBUR News

The political ground beneath the leaders of both Israel and the U.S. looks shaky.

In Israel, the year-old coalition government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett appears to be losing its grip on power amid several defections including one from a member of his own party.

In Washington, President Joe Biden and the Democrats face a potential walloping in the midterms amid sky-high inflation.

But despite political turbulence at home in the U.S. and the Middle East, the state of the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong, experts agree. And they credit Bennett and Biden with working to calm the once-rocky waters of a relationship that had in the past been driven by strong personalities in both countries.

The first year has brought about a complete makeover of U.S.-Israel bilateral ties, said Scott Lasensky, who served as a senior adviser to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro.

Biden and Bennett do not have a close personal relationship, although Biden has traveled to Israel many times throughout his career, with another visit to Israel reportedly planned for next month. Instead, both leaders have deputized their respective cabinet members to form close working relationships that have rarely drawn headlines.

After meetings between American and Israeli officials, both sides generally release readouts describing the close security coordination between the nations and the ironclad U.S.-Israel bond. Leaks from either side on disagreements have been kept at a minimum.

All the parties, both American and Israeli, deserve credit for managing the relationship without letting personality interfere with policy, said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Youre able to work through the disagreements, and some of the disagreements are profound, but you can do it quietly without a lot of fanfare.

Thats a departure from both the strained relationship between former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Barack Obama, and then the close personal friendship between Netanyahu and former President Donald Trump.

Israelis still feel slighted by the [Barack] Obama administration and the hangover from that in the same way that I think Democrats feel anger from the Bibi [Netanyahu] administration and the hangover from that, said Michael Koplow, Israel Policy Forums chief policy officer.

Disagreements between Obama and Netanyahu on issues ranging from Iran to the Palestinians were often public and persistent. Early in Obamas presidency, he visited Egypt and gave a speech in which he vowed to support the Palestinians in their quest for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own, which upset the Israelis. In December 2016, weeks before Obama left office, the U.S. abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded Israel cease building settlements in the West Bank. The U.S. refusal to veto the resolution allowed it to pass in the Security Council.

As Obamas administration negotiated the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu came to Washington in 2015 to address a joint session of Congress about why Israel strongly opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who had not informed the White House. Democrats in the U.S. viewed the speech as a slight against Obama, and some did not attend for that reason.

Then, Donald Trump became president and strengthened an existing friendship with Netanyahu. He pursued many policies that were long seen as priorities of the pro-Israel community in the U.S., such as moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. But many Americans who opposed Trump also opposed his strong-armed approach to Israel and his support for Netanyahu.

Its worth noting that we do have a Democratic president, and we do have a Democratic Congress, and its no secret that the Israeli government had some work to do with Democrats, given the legacy of the Obama-era years and given the legacy of Trumps policies on Israel, added Koplow.

Like Obama, Biden has policy disagreements with Israel.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the U.S. disagreed with Israels approach to the conflict and its slowness in showing support for Ukraine. Eventually, on Washingtons urging, Israel signed onto a UN resolution targeting Russia. Bennett sought to be a mediator between the countries, at times corresponding directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides has tried to quell reports of a dispute on the matter, saying in March that the Biden administration is in hourly contact with the Israelis on the war in Ukraine.

Biden has been more critical of Israels approach to the Palestinians than Trump, andhas worked to halt settlement construction and advance peace prospects for the Palestinians. Israel has not stopped all construction, but the Biden administration approach of stern, targeted criticism coupled with collaboration has yielded some results.

Were going to see Israeli construction no matter what. I think the question is, To what extent does that construction happen and where does it happen? asked Koplow. I think there are clear signs that the administration has communicated its reservations to the Israelis and the Israelis have been receptive.

On Iran, Bennetts government opposes the Iran nuclear deal that Biden is intent on reentering, although negotiations have been stalled for several months.

A lot of the perceived evolution in relations between the current and former U.S. administrations and Israeli governments is spin and theatrics, because the Biden administration has a clear political interest in making it seem like Israels position on the Iran nuclear deal has changed, said Jonathan Schachter, who formerly served as an advisor to Netanyahu. Israels government may have changed, but its opposition to the JCPOA is clear and the same as it was in 2015.

U.S. officials have praised the Bennett coalition publicly and privately. I really respect this government. Its working, Nides said at an Atlantic Council event in May. I was anxious and thrilled working with them in a difficult situation. I am a big fan of this government, and we hope to continue working with them.

The strong working relationship on display the past year may not continue if Israels political situation deteriorates and the country moves to new elections.

Its brought a sense of normalcy back to a normally crazy place, said Dubowitz. Youre not getting the same daily crises and nonsense that has gone on in the past. But how long that lasts I mean, theyre holding it together by the skin of their teeth.

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The view from Washington on the one-year anniversary of Israel's groundbreaking government - Jewish Insider