Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Obama-linked activists have a ‘training manual’ for protesting Trump – New York Post

An Obama-tied activist group training tens of thousands of agitators to protest President Trumps policies plans to hit Republican lawmakers supporting those policies even harder this week, when they return home for the congressional recess and hold town hall meetings and other functions.

Organizing for Action, a group founded by Obama and featured prominently on his new post-presidency website, is distributing a training manual to anti-Trump activists that advises them to bully GOP lawmakers into backing off support for repealing ObamaCare, curbing immigration from high-risk Islamic nations, and building a border wall.

In a new Facebook post, OFA calls on activists to mobilize against Republicans from now until Feb. 26, when representatives are going to be in their home districts.

The protesters disrupted town halls earlier this month, including one held in Utah by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who was confronted by hundreds of angry demonstrators claiming to be his constituents.

The manual, published with OFA partner Indivisible, advises protesters to go into halls quietly so as not to raise alarms, and grab seats at the front of the room but do not all sit together. Rather, spread out in pairs to make it seem like the whole room opposes the Republican hosts positions. This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus. It also urges them to ask hostile questions while keeping a firm hold on the mic and loudly boo the the GOP politician if he isnt giving you real answers.

Express your concern [to the events hosts] they are giving a platform to pro-Trump authoritarianism, racism, and corruption, it says.

The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda, and to prime the ground for the 2018 midterms when Democrats retake power.

The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda

Even the safest [Republican] will be deeply alarmed by signs of organized opposition, the document states, because these actions create the impression that theyre not connected to their district and not listening to their constituents.

After the event, protesters are advised to feed video footage to local and national media.

Unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating for Republican lawmakers, it says, when shared through social media and picked up by local and national media. After protesters gave MSNBC, CNN and the networks footage of their dust-up with Chaffetz, for example, the outlets ran them continuously, forcing Chaffetz to issue statements defending himself.

The manual also advises protesters to flood Trump-friendly lawmakers Hill offices with angry phone calls and emails demanding the resignation of top White House adviser Steve Bannon.

A script advises callers to complain: Im honestly scared that a known racist and anti-Semite will be working just feet from the Oval Office It is everyones business if a man who promoted white supremacy is serving as an adviser to the president.

The document provides no evidence to support such accusations.

Protesters, who may or may not be affiliated with OFA, are also storming district offices. Last week, GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher blamed a mob of anti-Trump activists for knocking unconscious a 71-year-old female staffer at his Southern California office. A video of the incident, showing a small crowd around an opening door, was less conclusive.

Separately, OFA, which is run by ex-Obama officials and staffers, plans to stage 400 rallies across 42 states this year to attack Trump and Republicans over ObamaCares repeal.

This is a fight we can win, OFA recently told its foot soldiers. Theyre starting to waver.

On Thursday, Trump insisted hes moving ahead with plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which has ballooned health-insurance premiums and deductibles. Obamacare is a disaster, folks, he said, adding that activists protesting its repeal are hijacking GOP town halls and other events.

They fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, the president said. But theyre not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.

As The Post reported, OFA boasts more than 250 offices nationwide and more than 32,000 organizers, with another 25,000 actively under training. Since November, its beefed up staff and fundraising, though as a social welfare non-profit, it does not have to reveal its donors.

These arent typical Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street marchers, but rather professionally trained organizers who go through a six-week training program similar to the training steeped in Alinsky agitation tactics Obama received in Chicago when he was a community organizer.

Chicago socialist Saul Alinsky, known by the left as the father of community organizing, taught radicals to rub raw the sores of discontent and create the conditions for a revolution. He dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer. Michelle Obama quoted from the book when she helped launch OFA in 2013.

Obama appears to be behind the anti-Trump protests. He praised recent demonstrations against Trumps travel ban. And last year, after Trumps upset victory, he personally rallied OFA troops to protect his legacy in a conference call. Now is the time for some organizing, he said. So dont mope over the election results.

He promised OFA activists he would soon join them in the fray.

Understand that Im going to be constrained in what I do with all of you until I am again a private citizen, but thats not so far off, he said. Youre going to see me early next year, and were going to be in a position where we can start cooking up all kinds of great stuff.

Added the ex-president: I promise you that next year Michelle and I are going to be right there with you, and the clouds are going to start parting, and were going to be busy. Ive got all kinds of thoughts and ideas about it, but this isnt the best time to share them.

Point is, Im still fired up and ready to go, and I hope that all of you are, as well.

Excerpt from:
Obama-linked activists have a 'training manual' for protesting Trump - New York Post

This Tucson woman received a presidential pardon from Barack Obama – Arizona Daily Star

When De Anne Dwight got the news about her presidential pardon in January, she was also told not to tell anyone yet.

This after a 28-page application, a document hunt for decades-old papers, an FBI interview and months of waiting as the end of Barack Obamas presidency ticked nearer.

So she put on some makeup, donned a huge smile and began her shift as a registered nurse at Banner-University Medical Center.

People wondered why she was so happy. Oh, its just a good day, she told them. A very good day.

Im always smiling with my cute little makeup, Dwight, 47, says. People would never believe I have a mug shot.

After about 17 years of sobriety, she feels she has lived two lives.

She devotes this life, her second chance, to giving other addicts hope. Thats what this pardon is all about for her. She believes God already forgave her, but the pardon is about showing others that recovery can happen, does happen.

A presidential pardon doesnt erase the past or imply innocence. But it does remove the civil limitations that can follow a conviction and indicate the presidents recognition of a life turned around and responsibility taken.

Dwights first life came sputtering to a halt on the cement floor of a holding cell on the Mexican side of the border. It was June 1999 and she was under arrest with two life sentences potentially headed her way: one for possession with intent to distribute and the other for the importation of a controlled substance.

She got caught smuggling crystal meth across the border not to share, not to sell. It was all for her, she says.

Raised by her grandparents in Baltimore, with a father who was basically an alcoholic and a mother who died too soon, Dwight says she threw herself into sports and school.

Everything changed when she attended a party with a different crowd.

It seemed innocent at the time: Put everything you can find in your grandparents liquor cabinet and put it in a Tupperware and bring it to a party, she recalls.

Dwight had her first drink there and got sick. She was raped at that party.

I went to this other party the same day, where I was really supposed to be, she says. And I went to that party and they were playing spin the bottle. I remember sitting on the steps looking down into the basement thinking I could never play that innocent game again.

Sitting today in the kitchen of her Tucson home, sun streaming through a window, Dwight marvels about her 17-year marriage to Jeff Dwight. Every five years, the couple renew their vows.

I would never have guessed in a million years that I would be faithful to one man and love him, you know? she says. Thats a big deal.

Thats because that first party launched her into years of addiction to alcohol, drugs and relationships.

As a 17-year-old, she ran away and was later emancipated, drinking and partying through her last year of high school.

She began a relationship with an older man, with whom she started doing cocaine.

Pretty much the first time we were together, he was abusive. We ran out of drugs and he tied me up and put a knife to my neck and said, You better be here when I come back.

Despite the abuse, Dwight stayed. At some point, crystal meth entered the picture.

When the couple moved to Florida, Dwight, then 25, fled to a womens shelter.

I wanted to join the merchant marines, because my grandmother always talked about the merchant marines, but I couldnt find their number in the phone book, Dwight says. So I called the Marine Corps and said, Do you guys have the number for the merchant marines? They said, No, but if you come down here, well help you find it. Literally, I was in boot camp three days later.

Dwight loved the Marine Corps.

She graduated from boot camp at the top of her class, was expert with a rifle and was going to be an air traffic controller, she says.

It was the first time I felt like I belonged, like I had a purpose, she says. I felt safe at the time away from him.

The Marine Corps taught her lessons that would later apply to her recovery.

In the Marine Corps, you get up and make your bed. Unmake your bed. Polish your boots. Polish your gun. Take your gun apart. Put your gun back together, she says. I remember in boot camp you walked around the island for three days. Why did we do that? Because somebody told you to. And someday it might save your life.

Its the same thing she tells recovering addicts.

Read the book. Call a friend. Go to a meeting, she says. Why? Because I said so. Because one day it might save your life.

When Dwight was stationed in Memphis, the man she had escaped found her. She gave him another chance and married him. But life began to unravel again when the Marine Corps moved her to Yuma. She says her husband continue to abuse her and at one point drugged her drink at a party.

The Marine Corps didnt tolerate drug use.

It was horrible getting kicked out, she says. I wanted more than anything to stay. I always tell people the Marine Corps is what saves my life literally today.

The end of Dwights career as a Marine also brought an end to her marriage.

Men bounced in and out of her life. And then so did crystal meth.

But this time it was different, she says. It was like I couldnt stop doing it. There wasnt enough to keep me high enough.

She stopped sleeping and lost her car. She stopped showing up to work.

Dwight became frustrated waiting for someone else to supply her the drug. Mexico, she thought, was the answer.

She remembers sitting in her closet during a party at her apartment, saying, God, Im tired.

I hadnt thought about God at all in the picture, she says. And then I joke that two days later, I was resting on the floor of a holding cell in Mexico.

When law enforcement stopped her at the border and discovered the drugs, they locked her up on the Mexican side, she says. It almost came as a relief to Dwight, then 29, who guesses she was awake for around 11 days on her last high. She crashed on the cement floor.

Nowhere in my mind did I think, What if Mexico keeps me? That would really suck, she says. I literally wasnt even in touch with reality.

She was taken to Yumas county jail before being moved to federal prison.

At the now-closed Vida Serena rehabilitation center in Tucson, her life began anew.

In treatment is where I started living and learning life lessons like you have to be flexible, she says. It doesnt matter what one person says; is it the right thing to do?

Eventually, a judge dropped the first sentence, and in treatment, Dwight began learning about her fears and anger issues and meeting with a 12-step program sponsor. She started going to church.

She began doing the next right thing and the next right thing. Just like in the Marine Corps.

People forget its that simple, she says. They are so worried about the steps and worried about what they have to do on the ninth step that they dont take time to do the first one: Just dont drink. Just dont do drugs.

A judge sentenced her to time served plus five years of supervised release. That meant the two weeks she spent in jail and the year and seven days she spent in treatment counted as her sentence. That was it.

When I look back on it, it makes me cry, Dwight says.

The Dwights own a home in an area that De Anne describes as drug central. People know that at the Dwights, they can find help.

I just hate that people relapse, she says. They keep putting themselves in that situation when theres hope and theres help.

Dwight never allowed herself to relapse. She fought the temptation during treatment by walking her prison circle a space about the size of a jail cell. She repeated her mantra: Drinking and using are not an option.

She met her husband, Jeff, in a 12-step program.

The truth is no one can understand the life that we have to live to keep this life other than someone whos living it, she says. I always say you either get drunk together or you stay clean together, so for 17 years, weve been clean together.

She started working in radio, going to Pima Community College, and working at her church.

Dwight comes from a family of nurses and earned her bachelors degree in nursing from Grand Canyon University. She was licensed as a registered nurse in 2010 and later earned a masters degree.

But still she has to check that box on applications. Yes, she is a convicted felon.

The presidential pardon doesnt change that she still has to check the box but now she has a powerful stamp of approval.

Since leaving treatment, Dwight has always volunteered with people, especially women, in recovery.

Its what she does in her everyday life now, says her friend Karen Wendling, a former childrens minister at her church.

Dwight invites the women she mentors into her home so they can see normal life dirty dishes in the sink, two crazy dogs, walls that will never quite be white. No drugs, no alcohol, no addiction. Hope.

She was bringing me over to her house, which was just amazing, because I just got released from prison, says Jennifer McPheron, who is now director of Miracle Center, a Christian nonprofit that supports homeless adults. It helped to save my life, and she didnt think twice about it.

McPheron, 38, approached Dwight at an AA meeting after the older woman shared her story. I was still on parole and knew if I used again, life would be easier in prison: They told you what to do and how to live. But when I heard D talk, I thought, Okay, if there is any hope that I could be like her, then maybe this is worth it and I can give it a shot, McPheron says.

Rachel Redman, a special education teacher in Sahuarita, is another woman who approached Dwight after hearing her story.

When I was coming out of one of the darkest times in my life, she really helped to guide me on to a path of integrity, where I was able to face my past and deal with the consequences of it and then grow, says Redman, 35.

Dwight hopes the other 63 men and women who received a presidential pardon on Jan. 17, 2017 take advantage of the opportunity to give someone else hope.

She is almost the poster child of someone who deserves this pardon, because she is a completely different person than she was when she committed those crimes, Redman says.

The formal letter Dwight received from the White House concluded with Obamas signature and these words: I applaud your ability to prove the doubters wrong, and to change your life for the better. So good luck, and Godspeed.

Original post:
This Tucson woman received a presidential pardon from Barack Obama - Arizona Daily Star

Trump: The Obama EPA was ‘clogging up the veins of our country’, Pruitt will fix that – Washington Examiner

President Trump praised his newly sworn-in head of the Environmental Protection Agency at his rally in Melbourne, Fla., saying he'll represent a "big difference" in reversing the actions of the Obama administration that were "clogging up the veins of our country."

"He'll do so good," Trump told the crowd.

Trump said Pruitt may have projects that get "rejected," in what was probably a reference to the courts, but assured that they would be "rejected quickly."

"For the most part they're going to be accepted, they're going to be environmentally friendly, and he is going to be a great secretary," he added.

Stay abreast of the latest developments from nation's capital and beyond with curated News Alerts from the Washington Examiner news desk and delivered to your inbox.

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Taking aim at the EPA under President Obama, Trump suggested that Pruitt will work to undue many of the Obama-era environmental regulations that made it "impossible to navigate for companies" and promised that jobs would soon return to the U.S.

"It's going to be a big difference, Trump said, "because, they were clogging up the veins of our country with the environmental impact statements, and all of the rules and regulations."

Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, faced a contentious confirmation process in the Senate, with most Democrats faulting him for leading litigation efforts against some of the Obama EPA's signature regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's climate change agenda. He was also criticized for being a skeptic of climate change, doubting that manmade use of fossil fuels being its primary cause.

He was confirmed by a 52-46 vote and was sworn in Friday.

Trump's former head of the EPA transition, Myron Ebell, told media outlets that the administration is looking to cut the agency's staff by two-thirds, dropping from 15,000 to 5,000 employees.

Also from the Washington Examiner

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Trump: The Obama EPA was 'clogging up the veins of our country', Pruitt will fix that - Washington Examiner

11 Times Barack Obama Abused Press Freedom – Breitbart News

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Perhaps the mainstream media Brahmins have short memories or selective memories. Because when President Barack Obama took direct aim at the media and press freedom, few complained. And when they did, the media soon went back to giving him fawning coverage.

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Here are 11 moments Obama abused the press:

1. Campaign plane hijacking journalists. In 2008, the Obama campaign flew 25 members of the media to Chicago without telling them then-Sen. Obama was not, in fact, on board. CNN reported: [T]he press was essentially held hostage with no candidate and no choice but to fly to Chicago on a chartered plane.

2. Closing White House events to all but the official photographer. Obama barred the media from events including, ironically, an award ceremony where he was recognized for transparency and often restricted photographers access, only releasing images taken bythe official White House photographer.

3. Trying to shut out Fox News. The Obama administration targeted Fox News for isolation and marginalization, arguing that it was not a legitimate news organization but the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. That served as a warning to other potentially critical outlets.

4. Stonewalling FOIA requests. The Obama administration set a record for failing to provide information requested by the press and the public under the Freedom of Information Act. The low point was Hillary Clintons email scandal, where tens of thousands of emails were hidden on a private server and deleted.

5. Prosecuting journalists and their sources. The Obama administration pursued Fox News reporter James Rosens private emails then misled Congress about it. CNNs Jake Tapper to his credit pointed out that Obama had used the Espionage Act against leakers more than all of his predecessors combined.

6. Wiretapping the Associated Press.After the Obama administrations snooping on the AP was exposed in 2013, a senior NBC correspondent excused President Obamaon the grounds that he would not have been nasty enough to alienate one of the presidents most important constituencies, the press.

7. Refusing to hold press conferences.For long stretches of his presidency, Obama refused to hold press conferencesat all, going 10 months without a formal press conference in a critical stretch from 2009 to 2010. He heeled the lowest average annual number of press conferences of any president since Ronald Reagan.

8. Filibustering at press conferences. When Obama did, finally, hold press conference, he often limited the number of questions by delivering long, rambling, often condescending answers. He wastes reporters time by refraining from answering questions with any candor, Jack Shafer complainedin Politico in 2016.

9. Attacking tough questions. When a Major Garrett of CBS actually asked a tough question about why the administration seemed not to be trying hard to free Americans held by Iran, includingWashington Post journalist Jason Rezaian Obama scolded him: Major, thats nonsense, and you should know better.

10. Appearing on fringe outlets. While media elitesgripe about conservative journalists being given a chance, Obama often restricted his appearances to fringe media:Inside Edition; Funny or Dies Between Two Ferns (which was then nominated for an Emmy); YouTube stars; anda radio show called Pimp with a Limp.

11. Iran deal echo chamber.The Obama administrationcreated fake news to support the Iran deal, setting up what it later boasted was an echo chamber of experts who would comment in the media to support the White House narrative on the negotiations. Meanwhile, key details were hidden from the public.

Through it all, President Obama regarded himself as a champion of press freedom, having run the most transparent administration ever.

Many mainstream media journalists ignoredthe Obama administrations abuses. A fewspoke out against them. But mostof them continued to paint him in glowing terms, regardless.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the most influential people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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11 Times Barack Obama Abused Press Freedom - Breitbart News

Obama and Race: Color-Blind Rhetoric Helped Forge Winning Coalition – Newsweek

This article originally appeared on The Conversation.

The relationship between black presidential candidates and potential voters is more complex than it is for their white opponents. Myresearchon historic firsts shows that white voters tend to ascribe characteristics to black candidates that place them at a disadvantage.

Thats why Barack Obamas presidency became synonymous with an end goal of the civil rights movement and a source of pride for so many Americans. His campaign experience, like that of predecessors Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson, suggests something about the extent to which African-Americans have gained acceptance as legitimate political actors.

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Obama more easily mobilized white voters because he was less interested in challenging the system, and more ideologically liberal than his predecessors. He also adapted to the political environment, recognizing key voting constituencies. Obama pulled together the type of coalition that Chisholm and Jackson had aspired to lead, composed of college students, hard-core progressives, organized labor and independents.

His departure from office is a time to look back and recall the historic impact of his candidacy and victory.

Presidentialcampaignslaunched by Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and Jesse Jackson in 1984 were aimed at forging interracial alliances. However, each of these candidates failed to build a coalition of historically marginalized groups. Instead, theirrhetoricprimarily appealed to African-American voters in locales where they comprised a majority, or near majority, of the population.

Percy Maimela, a self-taught artist, puts finishing touches to a portrait of former U.S. President Barack Obama, created using salt, at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, January 24. Reuters

As a result, they drew limited support from white voters. For example, by large margins, white votersviewed Jacksonas less knowledgeable, less fair, less likely to care about people like them and more prejudiced than his white opponents Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.

Like Chisholm and Jackson, Obamas candidacy in 2008 aroused fears, resentments and prejudices.

He was falsely accused of being a Muslim. Stereotypes werereinventedand popular images reanimated and parodied in blogs, email, tweets and other social media outlets. T-shirts were printed with animageof Curious George, a monkey from a well-known childrens book, inscribed with the words Obama 08, comparing African-Americans to apes.

The Tea Party Movement, a conservative wing of the Republican Party, alsoorchestrateda number of attacks on Obamas patriotism, religious beliefs and citizenship status through protest rallies and social media. Obamas racial identity and other personal traits remained a matter of public debate long after the general election.

Like his predecessors, Obama was perceived aslackingleadershipexperience. He was viewed as less competent, less knowledgeable of foreign affairs and more concerned with racial issues like affirmative action and immigration reform.

Because he was undeniably black, he was seen as an authentic representative of the African-American electorate, not the entire American electorate. His campaign had to overcome this notion.

Obama employed a race-neutral approach during his first presidential campaign. In his hallmarkspeechat the 2004 DNC he said:

Theres not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America, there is the United States of America.

His rhetoric aimed to satisfy diverse constituents across racial and ethnic groups. Obama used universal, color-blind language that appealed to most Americans.

He focused on quality-of-life issues, such as universal health care, equal educational opportunities and full employment for the lower and middle classes. Doing so increased the likelihood that more Americans would support his campaign. He was less interested in race-specific overtures that directly appealed to African-American voters. As I argue inmy book, Historic Firsts: How Symbolic Empowerment Changes U.S. Politics, Obama unified liberal white voters.

Still, pundits pondered whether a black man, elected by a white majority with support of African-American voters, represented a psychological, but not necessarily a substantive, triumph over race.

His predecessors Chisholm and Jackson had heavily relied on racial bloc voting and the stylistic influence of a Black Power traditionspeaking truth to power, dramatic confrontation and public spectaclefor electoral success. Obama was a successful candidate because he was neither righteous nor indignant. He ran a campaign that was racially and culturally inclusive.

Today, there is little question as to whether a black male politician at the top of a major partys presidential ticket can transform beliefs about African-American men in politics. The outcome of the 2008 American presidential election shows that the majority of American voters are willing to vote for a black Democratic presidential candidate.

However, it is a certain type of black presidential candidate who will find it easier, and others more difficult, to gain white support.

Evelyn M. Simien isAssociate Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut.

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Obama and Race: Color-Blind Rhetoric Helped Forge Winning Coalition - Newsweek