Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Radio host suggests Malia and Sasha aren’t Obama’s kids as he criticizes Barack’s parenting – AOL

One of the strangest conspiracy theories about former President Obama just resurfaced thanks to radio host Alex Jones.

Writer Mike Cernovich was a guest on The Alex Jones Show Friday. The two were talking about the former first family, when the conversation turned to Obama and his daughters.

"He's completely abandoned his daughter who is making her rounds through the New York party scene," Cernovich quipped. "Remember when Jenna Bush went out and drank a little bit of beer, I think actually in Austin, Texas."

SEE ALSO: Report: Secret Service confronts suspicious man over allegedly watching Malia Obama

"It was the end of the world," Jones responded.

"Obama's basically an absentee father, abandoned -- a lot of sad things going on there," Cernovich replied.

Jones took it further when he brought up a conspiracy theory that says Sasha and Malia Obama aren't the former president and Michelle Obama's real children.

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Malia and Sasha Obama through the years

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Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Democrat Barack Obama (2nd R), wife Michelle and their daughters Malia (R), 3, and Sasha (L), 6, spend time in their Chicago hotel room, November 2, 2004. Obama faces Republican candidate Alan Keys in the first Senate race with two African American candidates.

(REUTERS/John Gress)

Michelle Obama and her daughters Sasha and Malia (R) listen as her husband Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, July 4, 2007. REUTERS/Keith Bedford (UNITED STATES)

Sasha Obama walks from Jorge's Sombrero restaurant after a meal with her father U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and her sister Malia and mother Michelle in Pueblo, Colorado November 1, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is cheered by supporters after winning the Democratic Iowa caucuses in Des Moines, Iowa January 3, 2008. Obama is seen with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia (L) and Sasha.

(REUTERS/Jim Young/UNITED STATES)

'U.S. first lady Michelle Obama laughs while her daughter Malia reads a book to patients at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Also is Obama's other daughter Sasha.

(Photo by Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images)

U..S President Barack Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha Obama watch the inaugural parade from their father's reviewing stand in Washington January 20, 2009. Barack Obama became the first black U.S. president on Tuesday and declared it is time to set aside petty differences and embark on a new era of responsibility to repair the country and its image abroad.

(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/UNITED STATES)

Sasha Obama, the youngest daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, smiles as she looks at her sister Malia as they wait to collect takeout lunch at Nancy's restaurant in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, August 26, 2009.

(REUTERS/Jason Reed/UNITED STATES POLITICS)

U.S. President Barack Obama's daughters Malia (L) and Sasha play with the first family's dog Bo as they wait for Obama's return to Washington after a day trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he participated in economic rallies, September 15, 2009.

(REUTERS/Mike Theiler)

President Barack Obama speaks onstage as Michelle Obama, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama look on during TNT's 'Christmas in Washington 2010' at the National Building Museum on December 12, 2010 in Washington, DC.

(Theo Wargo via Getty Images)

Malia Obama and Sasha Obama attend the first White House Dance Series with their mother, First Lady Michelle Obama, in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2010 in Washington, DC. The dance event was a tribute to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Judith Jamison, a famous modern dancer, choreographer and muse to Alvin Ailey.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama enjoys a "shaved ice" with his daughter Malia at Island Snow Hawaii while on vacation in Kailua January1, 2010.

(REUTERS/Hugh Gentry)

U.S. President Barack Obama walks with his daughter, Sasha, as they look at the White-Handed Gibbon at the Honolulu Zoo in Hawaii January 3, 2010.

(REUTERS/Larry Downing)

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, sit for a family portrait in the Oval Office, Dec. 11, 2011.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

(Photo by Pete Souza/White House/Handout/Corbis via Getty Images)

11/23/12- The White House- Washington, DC

First Lady Michelle Obama, first daughters Malia and Sasha and first dog Bo receive the 2012 Christmas Tree.

(Photo by ImageCatcher News Service/Corbis via Getty Images)

11/21/12- The White House- Washington, DC

President Barack Obama and his daughters Malia and Sasha.

(Photo by ImageCatcher News Service/Corbis via Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama celebrates with first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia (R) and Sasha at their election night victory rally in Chicago, November 7, 2012.

(REUTERS/Jason Reed)

Sasha (L) and Malia Obama, daughters of US President Barack Obama, take a photo of themselves during the Presidential Inaugural Parade on January 21, 2013 in Washington, DC.

(JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama speaks to a cashier as he pays for books with daughter Malia at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington on November 30, 2013 as part of Small Business Saturday.

(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama walks from Marine One with his daughter Sasha as they return to the White House in Washington January 5, 2014. Obama and his daughters were returning from a two week holiday vacation.

(REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

Malia Obama and Sasha Obama speak onstage at TNT Christmas in Washington 2014 at the National Building Museum on December 14, 2014 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

U.S. President Barack Obama's daughters Sasha (L) and Malia listen to their father during the pardoning of the National Thanksgiving Turkey "Cheese" at the White House in Washington November 26, 2014.

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

Sasha Obama, daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, participates in the turkey pardoning ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House November 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. In a tradition dating back to 1947, the president pardons a turkey, sparing the tom -- and his alternate -- from becoming a Thanksgiving Day feast. This year, Americans were asked to choose which of two turkeys would be pardoned and to cast their votes on Twitter.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Malia Obama (R) and Sasha Obama after arrival at Malpensa Airport in Milan, on June 17, 2015.

(Photo by Andrea Spinelli/Corbis via Getty Images)

Malia Obama, daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, participates in the turkey pardoning ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House November 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. In a tradition dating back to 1947, the president pardons a turkey, sparing the tom -- and his alternate -- from becoming a Thanksgiving Day feast. This year, Americans were asked to choose which of two turkeys would be pardoned and to cast their votes on Twitter.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Malia and Sasha Obama attend the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse south of the White House December 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. The lighting of the tree is an annual tradition attended by the president and the first family.

(Photo by Olivier Douliery- Pool/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama and daughter Malia make their way to board Air Force One before departing from Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on April 8, 2016. Obama is heading to San Francisco to take part in a Democratic National Committee roundtable discussion and to attend a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser.

(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia (L) and Sasha (R) walk to Air Force One as they depart from Roswell, New Mexico, U.S., June 17, 2016.

(REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

U.S. President Barack Obama and his daughter Malia walk from Marine One to board Air Force One upon their departure from O'Hare Airport in Chicago April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

U.S. President Barack Obama and First lady Michelle Obama's youngest daughter Sasha (C) picks up her food at the Z-burger chain during the "I'm with Hillary" promotion in Washington, U.S., October 28, 2016. Customers using the password received a free hamburger today. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Sasha (L) and Malia Obama, the daughters of U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama walk to Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., June 17, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Malia Obama attends the 2016 Budweiser Made in America Festival at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 4, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Anheuser-Busch)

HAVANA, CUBA - MARCH 22: (L-R) Malia Obama, Sasha Obama, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama react to the first run scored during an exhibition game between the Cuban national baseball team and Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the Estado Latinoamericano March 22, 2016 in Havana, Cuba. This is the first time a sitting president has visited Cuba in 88 years.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Malia Obama (L) and Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco attend an Iftar dinner at the royal palace in Marrakech, June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

Sasha Obama, daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama, attends her first State Dinner in honor of the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau at the White House in Washington March 10, 2016.

(REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Malia Obama attends a State Dinner at the White House March 10, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Hosted by President and First Lady Obama, the dinner is in honor of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and First Lady Sophie Gregoire Trudeau of Canada.

(Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia (R) and Sasha (L) board Air Force One at Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, U.S., August 21, 2016.

(REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

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"The word is those aren't even his kids," Jones said in response.

Jones didn't give any evidence to back this claim up.

Rumors suggesting that the Obama daughters were not biologically conceived by the former president and first lady have emerged before. The claims came primarily on fringe anti-Obama message boards, with users primarily dissecting photos of the girls to suggest neither look like their parents.

SEE ALSO: Twitter erupts over Trump's 'awkward' handshake

Earlier this year, a fake news story which falsely reported that a man had filed a lawsuit claiming he was the biological father of Obama's daughters made the rounds on social media.

President Trump has repeatedly praised Jones. The president even appearing on his show before he was elected.

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Radio host suggests Malia and Sasha aren't Obama's kids as he criticizes Barack's parenting - AOL

DeVos Halts Obama-Era Plan to Revamp Student Loan Management – New York Times


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DeVos Halts Obama-Era Plan to Revamp Student Loan Management
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DeVos Halts Obama-Era Plan to Revamp Student Loan Management - New York Times

Five Obama-era tech policies on the chopping block – The Hill

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is wasting little time undoing Obama-era regulations.

In a little over two months as chair, he's scaled back a program on internet subsidies, ended a probe into companies' phone data plans and scrapped a report on broadband funding for schools.

And he's gotten help from President Trump and GOP lawmakers, who repealed privacy rules that would have restricted what internet service providers can do with customer data.

Pai, though, is only getting started. Here are five regulations or policies he's working to roll back.

1. Net neutrality

When the FCC adopted its landmark net neutrality rules in 2015, requiring internet providers to treat all web traffic equally, Pai issued a 67-page statement blasting the order as regulatory overreach that would stifle the internet economy.

The rules rankled Republicans and the broadband industry because they reclassified internet service providers as telecommunications services, opening them to regulation similar to public utilities.

Pai has been meeting with industry representatives in recent days to lay out his plan to roll back the rules. The details still aren't public, but would reportedly involve Pai no longer treating internet services providers as public utilities. In exchange, broadband companies would voluntarily include net neutrality principles in their terms of service with customers.

The idea is that the Federal Trade Commission, and not the FCC, would be in charge of policing companies. The FTC is largely responsible for taking action against companies that engage in deceptive practices like violating their terms of services.

But critics worry internet providers could renege on their agreements and change their terms of service after the net neutrality rules are eliminated.

Some also say the process for repealing the rules, which generated a record amount of public comment in 2015, could take years.

2. Business data regulations

In the much nearer future, the FCC chairman is looking to deregulate the business data service (BDS) market an area former Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also tried to reform.

The services, also known as special access lines, allow businesses to securely transmit large amounts of data.

Wheeler had proposed new rules that he said would encourage competition in the market, but dropped that plan after Trump's election.

At the agencys open meeting on Thursday, the FCC, will vote on more deregulation of the market.

Where this competition exists, we will relax unnecessary regulation, thereby creating greater incentives for the private sector to invest in next-generation networks, Pai wrote in a blog post last month.

Some small business groups have criticized his plans, saying deregulation could drive up prices.

The Small Business Administrations Office of Advocacy wrote a letter to the FCC asking them to delay the vote, warning the proposal may result in reduced choices for small businesses.

3. Broadband subsidies

Pai was quick to take on the FCC's Lifeline program, which provides broadband subsidies to low-income households.

In February, he drew widespread criticism from proponents of the program when he revoked internet service providers from participating

Democrats accused him of breaking his promise to help expand broadband access to poor and rural Americans.

In a public blog post, Paidefended his moves.

Hyperbolic headlines always attract more attention than mundane truths, he wrote. For example, a story detailing how the FCC was undertaking further review of the eligibility of 1% of Lifeline providers wouldnt generate too many clicks.

Last month, Pai went further, announcing the FCC would not approve any new companies to enter the program, and letting states pick their own participants. He also said the agency would no longer fight a legal challenge from states over how the FCC approved companies to take part.

By letting states take the lead on certification as envisioned by Congress, we will strengthen the Lifeline program and put the implementation of last years order on a solid legal footing, he said.

4. Media ownership limits

On Thursday, FCC commissioners will also be voting on a proposal to undo an Obama-era change to media ownership rules, which made it harder for major TV broadcasters to buy up local stations.

Broadcasters are currently limited to serving 39 percent of the countrys households. In August of last year, the FCC voted to do away with the "UHF discount " which let broadcasting companies count just half of the audiences of certain channels they owned toward the 39 percent limit.

Pai is now proposing to bring it back, and the proposal is expected to pass next week.

Critics say it means more media consolidation and less diversity in news outlets.

Further consolidation will ensure that there are fewer independent news outlets serving as a counter-balance to misleading or inaccurate information from other sources, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Pai on Thursday.

Pai has said he believes the UHF discount is outdated but disagreed with how the FCC repealed it. He wants the agency to explore raising the ownership limit before doing away with the discount.

Im proposing that we hit the reset button, returning the rule to the way it was up until last fall, he wrote in his Marchblog post. And then well launch a comprehensive review of the national ownership cap, including the UHF discount, later this year.

5. Television box reforms

Obama FCC Chair Wheeler had proposed reforming the set-top box market, allowing consumers to buy them from third parties and breaking what critics call a cable company monopoly.

One of Pais first actions as chairman was to withdraw the proposal, prompting an angry response from his predecessor.

Removing set-top box rule victory for Cablewood over consumers, Wheelertweetedin January. $200 million Pai Tax on helpless cable subs. Trump helping little guy??

Efforts to let consumers use third-party devices to access cable have run into staunch opposition from Republicans and the telecom industry.

When the proposal was considered last year, Pai argued that it would hinder efforts to develop technology that would do away with cable boxes. But how he'd change the market is still unclear.

My view is pretty simple, he said in a February 2016statement. Our goal should not be to unlock the box; it should be to eliminate the box."

And as many predicted, the proposal was dead on arrival under Republicans.

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Five Obama-era tech policies on the chopping block - The Hill

Obama said there was never a better time to be alive. Trump thinks a ‘nasty’ world offers nothing but problems. – Washington Post

Addressing the United Nations last fall, President Barack Obama took a moment to highlight for fellow world leaders what he called the most important fact about the state of global affairs: Human existence on planet Earth is good and getting better.

War is down, he said, while life expectancy is up. Democracy is on the march, and science has beaten back infectious diseases. A girl in a remote village can download the entirety of human knowledge on a smartphone.

A person born today, Obama concluded, is more likely to be safer, healthier, wealthier and better-educated and to see a path to prosperity than at any time in human history.

President Trump does not inhabit this world.

To Trump, the world is a mess, as he said during a White House news conference this week with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

(Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

In recent days, Trump authorized missile strikes on Syria, shifted rapidly to a tougher tone with Russia, and negotiated with Chinas authoritarian leader over what to do about North Koreas nuclear weapons program.

Its crazy whats going on, Trump said. Whether its the Middle East or you look at no matter where Ukraine whatever you look at, its got problems, so many problems.

Right now, he concluded, its nasty.

What a time to be alive.

To ordinary Americans, the gulf between the worldviews of the United States two most recent leaders could not be more vast.

But historians and foreign affairs analysts said that, despite their apparent contradictions, both things can be true. The world is always a mess. Bad things happen. There are crises. People die.

The question, they said, is how a president responds to the mess and how he frames the threat and the response to the public a challenge made more difficult in an age of immediate and nonstop news from across the world.

President Obama constantly reminded us that our own times are not uniquely oppressive, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and author at Rice University. Theres a feeling due to the 24-7 news cycle that everything is a crisis mode, when the fact of the matter is, Americans have it better now than ever before.

Throughout his campaign, Trump railed about the dangers and threats to Americans: inside the country in the form of undocumented immigrants and violent inner cities, and abroad in the form of Islamic State terrorists, swarms of refugees and rapacious U.S. trading partners.

Time and again, Obama sought to counter Trumps apocalyptic rhetoric by putting the purported threats in broader context and cautioning Americans not to succumb to fear or anger.

The Islamic State does not represent an existential threat to the country, Obama said in November 2015, just a few days after Islamic State terrorists killed 130 people in Paris. Rather, he said, they were nothing more than a bunch of killers with good social media.

Obama characterized most undocumented immigrants as hard-working strivers. Globalization caused discomfort for some workers, Obama acknowledged, but he was quick to emphasize the opportunities it provided for American ingenuity in new markets overseas.

Yes, were going through large, structural changes ... [and] all these things are creating a new politics for the world, said Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, a liberal think tank in Washington. The challenge is not to be overwhelmed but to manage them for ones own benefit. Thats where Trump is so flummoxed. He is more fearful of the changes than he is understanding the goal of the president is to manage them for the benefit of the United States.

That might have been Obamas goal, but the president recognized during his final year in office that his optimistic message to Americans was at risk of being overtaken by the chaotic images from abroad.

During a town hall-style event with young people in Malaysia in September, Obama said that the flow of information bombarding news consumers on televisions, computers and smartphones makes it appear as if the world is falling apart.

A war here, an environmental disaster there, and suddenly everybody is shouting and everybody hates each other, Obama said. And you get kind of depressed. You think, Goodness, whats happening?

But, Obama emphasized, if you had a choice of when to be born and you didnt know ahead of time who you were going to be what nationality, whether you were male or female, what religion but you had said, When in human history would be the best time to be born? the time would be now.

Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard University, has written that voluminous data back up Obamas argument. But he acknowledged that the former presidents message did fail to resonate during a rapid-fire campaign news cycle.

He has the facts behind him, but to get those facts, you cant read the daily news, Pinker said. If you only look at bad things, there are always bad things. Trump is right that there is a lot of nasty stuff going on. There always is, and unfortunately there probably always will be. The question is, is there more nasty stuff? The answer is no.

Unlike Obama, Trump is a voracious consumer of breathless, hyperbolic cable news programming. In the White House, he has continued to react, on Twitter, to the partisan debate and unfolding horrors on his television screen.

His message has consistently been that America is being taken advantage of because of Obamas weakness. China and Mexico are beating the United States on trade. Middle Eastern refugees are flowing across borders, causing chaos and crime. Immigrants are taking American jobs. We dont win anymore, Trump said repeatedly.

In his inaugural address, Trump described in stark terms problems he saw across the country as he began his presidency and said, This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

To historian Rick Shenkman, author of Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics, Trumps rhetoric appeals to base human instincts, hard-wired from prehistoric times, to be on guard for constant threats.

While some critics have suggested Trump exploits public fears, Shenkman believes he more effectively leverages public anger.

People who are in an angry mood want change, he said. They will take risks for change ... Modern political parties, and Trump in particular, have learned that if you keep people in a state of nonstop anger, they stand by you.

Yet historians said Trump, like other presidents, would have to shift to a more upbeat message as his presidency matures. A presidency cant feed on failure, Brinkley said.

Others suggested that Trumps recent pivot away from some of his foreign policy positions from the campaign such as calling NATO obsolete and threatening to label China a currency manipulator reflects a leader coming to terms with how complicated the world is and how difficult it will be to address the global challenges without allies and partners now that he is in charge.

Right now, there is a fear, and there are problems there are certainly problems, Trump said at the White House. But ultimately, I hope that there wont be a fear and there wont be problems, and the world can get along. That would be the ideal situation.

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Obama said there was never a better time to be alive. Trump thinks a 'nasty' world offers nothing but problems. - Washington Post

Obama mourns death of Steelers chairman Dan Rooney – The Hill (blog)

Former President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaEx-Pentagon chief: Its not Trumps military Justice Department must act on Puerto Rico North Korean official warns of preemptive strike of its own MORE on Thursday mourned longtime Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who died Thursday at 84.

In a statement Thursday, Obama said Rooney was a great friend of his.

"But more importantly, he was a great friend to the people of Pittsburgh, a model citizen, and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage," Obama said in the statement.

The former president said he knew Rooney would do a "wonderful job" when he named him to the post of U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

"And I know the people of Pittsburgh, who loved him not only for the Super Bowl championships he brought as the owner of the Steelers, but for his generosity of spirit, mourn his passing today."

The Steelers confirmed Rooney's death on Twitter.

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Obama mourns death of Steelers chairman Dan Rooney - The Hill (blog)