Ben Rhodes reacting to Hillary Clinton's hilarious defeat in 2016 is the funniest part of the new Obama Documentary on HBO.— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 30, 2018
What makes it even better is throughout the documentary he brags how she is going to win. pic.twitter.com/MGBQNE5ATY
... and it made me check out a bit of "The Final Year," but I thought it was such a bad documentary. They didn't seem to have any good footage of anything. Mostly shots of various people, e.g., Samantha Power, musing flatly in dull language. I amused myself briefly by testing out the theory that people were paraphrasing the stock line "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Anyway, I bailed out and went looking for some reviews and found "7 Funny, Fawning Reviews of HBO's 'The Final Year,'" which expands the scope of the badness — the media's mediocrity on top of the filmmaker's.
I like this: "HBO's Dishonest Obama Documentary Is Fantasy Foreign Policy Puffery" (Reason).
In reality, it's less a documentary than a wet goodbye kiss to Obama, as well as a personal PR document for a few key members of his foreign-policy brain trust, employing that term loosely....
The Obama team repeatedly boasts that its three signature achievements are the Paris climate accord, the rapprochement with Cuba, and the Iran nuclear deal. But of how these agreements were reached, or who opposed them and why, there's not a word.
And even less is there an explanation of why, if they were so important, the Obama administration let them stand on a foundation of executive orders, rather than seeking congressional approval to make them law.
The consequence of that decision is that barely a year after he left office, practically nothing is left of what Obama policy-makers regarded as their most important works. ...
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71 comments:
Just wait for the "stories" "curated" by the Obamas.
Thank you for sharing my article. Too many movie reviewers today don't even bother to hide their biases. I don't mind that from a Nation or National Review critic. Other outlets, particularly those trying to be neutral? That's a different story.
When will the Left admit that Obama’s two terms were a complete failure other than it paved the way for Trump?
They should have just named it "Bumblefuck."
The consequence of that decision is that barely a year after he left office, practically nothing is left of what Obama policy-makers regarded as their most important works.
Thankfully.
I saw the film in a theater in West LA some months back. I agree it was dull, but for the crowd it seemed to be a cathartic experience. People who follow this blog can never seem to get it that a lot of folks love that guy.
No drama Obama just can’t be as exciting as Trump. It’s not his fault.
Hang Him High would be a good title if Obama is convicted of treason.
"When will the Left admit that Obama’s two terms were a complete failure other than it paved the way for Trump?"
That Obama's two terms paved the way for Trump--as it did--is the undeniable proof that Obama's presidency was a complete failure.
"'Hang Him High' would be a good title if Obama is convicted of treason."
Obama didn't commit treason. He did commit war crimes, but he didn't commit treason.
readering,
"People who follow this blog can never seem to get it that a lot of folks love that guy."
I get that. I have no problem getting that. I have gotten it since 2004.
People who love that guy can never seem to get it that you can not love that guy, unless you're some sort of loser or racist or both. That if you don't share their love and didn't in the first place, you weren't going to be won over on the substance of his accomplishments.
And he himself never seemed to get it; always spoke as if everyone agreed he was right, and only the stupid or the stubborn or the bought-off would oppose anything he recommended.
Perhaps the documentary would have had more impact if Werner Herzog did the narration. He could occasionally opine about the dark forces of nature and the sunny optimism of these fools........The Romanov Dynasty lasted over three hundred years. Not one person alive during their dynasty noticed the arc of history bending towards justice, and then, of course, things got ever so much worse under the Bolsheviks. That quote about history bending towards justice is a prime example of American exceptionalism.
I know the actual topic of this post is the "7 funny reviews" article ... but the hook is the clip of Rhodes' reaction - and that is laugh-out-loud terrific! It's the feel-good clip of the week, if not the entire year. No kidding, check it out! You just can help but grin from ear to ear while watching it!
his foreign-policy brain trust, employing that term loosely
A finer pack of preening, supercilious nitwits I can't imagine. I'm generally not a sadistic person, but watching the great orange vulgarian ruin all their "accomplishments" has felt pretty good.
"I can't, I can't even put it into words"
Lemme help out. "Your frappin' lefty lunatic loon LOST"
"And the country is soooo much the better because she's gone"
Did it have anything about Susan Rice's son being president of the College Republicans at Stanford ?
People who follow this blog can never seem to get it that a lot of folks in West LA love that guy.
FIFY
I read Samantha Power's book long ago. It alarmed me. Rightly it would seem.
And even less is there an explanation of why, if they were so important, the Obama administration let them stand on a foundation of executive orders, rather than seeking congressional approval to make them law.
I actually like this as a pushback against the Imperial Presidency. For a while there in the Obama Presidency, it seemed like America wasn't really governed by laws anymore, just executive orders, memos, and Dear Colleague letters. Did Obama have a single piece of legislation pass after 2010?
Executive agencies weren't even issuing rules, because of the need for notice and comment periods.
A good strong norm that executive orders don't survive the end of the administration would be a nice counterweight that would help to reinject Congress into the lawmaking process.
Thanks for commenting, Toto.
If the 9:08 comment by Toto is indeed the man behind the hollywoodintoto.com website I must commend him for his work.
One of the few websites I read on a regular basis. Informative and funny. Like, authentically funny, not just proto-buzzfeed 'funny'.
The recent article "WHY ‘SOLO’ IS PAINT-BY-NUMBERS ‘STAR WARS’ FAN FICTION" ties well into Althouse's solo post from a day or two ago.
Althouse should check this site out....
-LWL
Obama didn't commit treason.
We'll see. Spying on and initiating a coup against a seated Presdient, using international intelligence resources pretty much fits the bill.
I read that last week. The headline was a grabber and Mr. Toto seldom disappoints. But watch it over and over. No.
When a man loves a President, can't keep his mind on nothin' else
He'd sell out the world for the fantasy he's found
If Prez is bad, he can't see it - Prez can do no wrong
Turn his back on Joe the Plumber
If he put Prez down
Yes when a man loves a President, he'll spend his neighbour last dime
To make the State bigger, regardless of need
He'd show up all with his virtue, and call for more executive orders
If Prez said that's the way it ought to be...
I'm sure someone could as quickly trot out lines for Trump. As it should be.
The possible problem is when there is a clear inconsistency in the allowances. As it should NOT be.
"...but I thought it was such a bad documentary. They didn't seem to have any good footage of anything. Mostly shots of various people...musing flatly in dull language."
Isn't that all documentaries are these days? No narration, just "reality TV" formatting? Like "investigators" telling each other what they read about on the internet, pretending they've discovered something.
The "pen and phone" governing style is too prone to radicalism. Only the President's supporters get to write the order, and they tend to be people who are totally focused on that one issue. So you get things like the campus rape tribunals, because the people who wrote the Dear Colleague letter had no interest in judicial procedure, just advocacy for rape victims.
It's much healthier for a democracy to hash these things out before a policy goes into effect than to try and fix things afterward.
People who follow this blog can never seem to get it that a lot of folks love that guy.
Almost as many as the number of people who can't seem to get the fact that half the American people love Trump.
The scene I want to see is Hillary's reaction when they finally told her she had lost. Again.
"A finer pack of preening, supercilious nitwits I can't imagine. I'm generally not a sadistic person, but watching the great orange vulgarian ruin all their "accomplishments" has felt pretty good."
Same here.
Trump may ruin the GOP and the future of conservatism, but he gave us that day, that defeat of Hill and the Rhodesians, that ruination of their "accomplishments." He made their final year the final year. For that, I thank him.
The bottom line is that Obama is boring.
However, Althouse likes boring.
So, there's that.
So you mean to say that emotional airheads like Ben Rhodes had positions of authority in the Obama Ministration? Sad!
My last comment was for Toto too.
The consequence of that decision is that barely a year after he left office, practically nothing is left of what Obama policy-makers regarded as their most important works."
I wouldn't say that. There is a lot of rot left to be removed and perhaps not enough time to do so.
R Cook was spot on about Obama. For those who have a accurate and functional crystal ball, what will be left of Trump's works a year and a half after he is gone? I suspect that if the Republican's retain the Congress in November even a one term Trump might have more lasting in a positive way effect than Obama's eight years.
Caution: Viewing this video may induce an eight-year schadenboner.
That clip of Rhodes...He needed Don Corleone to grab him by the lapel and slap the snot out of him, "Be a man!"
readering, crybaby beta boys like Ben Rhodes being appointed to oversee the security of our nation is another reason why so many of us have such disdain for those of you who love Obama.
And Hollywood in Toto, hooray! Always enjoy your reporting.
That Ben Rhodes bit was fucking hilarious. Remember, these were the serious people in the Obama Administration. As much as I despise the man, I can guarantee you that Obama wasn't choking and tearing up that night.
Like Loren, I am also a regular reader of Hollywoodintoto- it is one of my 50 frontpage bookmarks. A site I am happy recommend given this chance.
Gahrie:
"The scene I want to see is Hillary's reaction when they finally told her she had lost. Again."
I had hoped we would get to see video of that evening in the Clinton suite by this point in time- you can be absolutely sure someone was assigned to record as much as possible, but it is becoming abundantly clear that it was well enforced rule that no one else was allowed to record that evening with Hillary! And the official recorder has assuredly had his recording confiscated by 11:00 p.m. November 8th 2016.
"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
You don't really need to see the video of Hillary's reaction on Election Night, if you've ever seen the viral meme clip from Downfall. Just like that, except perhaps with more booze involved.
"Obama didn't commit treason. He did commit war crimes, but he didn't commit treason."
I think Cook is likely correct, though maybe for other reasons. Just like it is almost impossible for Trump to have obstructed justice. The answer to both is that these aspects of govt are left to one person, the duly elected and inaugerated President, under The first phrase in Article II of our Constitution. The President, and the President alone, gets to determine most of foreign policy. Part of this is determining who are enemies and allies are. That determination was clearly different between Obama and Trump. Which is to say that it is hard for a President to consort with our enemies, since he is the one with the power to determine who are enemies are. Under the same Article II Executive Power, Trump can't obstruct justice by firing Comey, or telling him who not to investigate or prosecute. In both their cases, the solution is political, not legal - impeachment.
As for the "war crimes" - that is what we pay them the big bucks for. It's not like the UN is going to send a bunch of cops, or even troops, to the White House to arrest our President for protecting our country as he sees fit.
I can't believe it. I go night fishing one time and Toto shows up.
I took one semester of political science. It was real basic stuff. How governments are organized, why they work (or not), without going much into policy. It was plain vanilla, the coursework didn't get into left & right stuff.
But we were taught that in a democracy with the constitution of the United States, if you want to make a major change in policy, you have to have a solid majority behind you. Not a super majority, but a solid majority of people who are willing to buy in, and you have to not piss off the opponents of the policy too much. The greater your supporting majority, the more you can afford to piss off the opposition.
And 2008-2016 I saw the Dems, led by Obama, do things the wrong way according to the textbook. They passed massive legislation with narrow majorities, cursed the opposition as being racists or the kind of people who push their grandmother off a cliff to save money on her care.
And that was before the GOP took congress. After 2010 I saw Obama use executive orders to implement controversial policies that should have come from lawmakers.
And the MSM cheered him on.
They are all idiots. The predictable thing happened. There was a backlash, Obama's policies are in ruins.
The problem lay with Obama himself. Look at his background, for God's sake. He grew up profoundly alienated from the American mainstream. He was raised as an elite in Hawaii, an incredibly corrupt, one-party state. Everything in Hawaii is decided within the Democrat party, not by the voters. He was also raised in Indonesia at a time when it was a dictatorship. He got into politics in Chicago, a city run by machine politics. Voters in Chicago are cynically manipulated, they aren't catered to.
Everything Obama achieved in life he achieved by appealing to a liberal intellectual and political elite. Why the Hell would anyone expect him to understand how this country works?
And without the media we would not have had Obama.
David Begley said...
When will the Left admit that Obama’s two terms were a complete failure other than it paved the way for Trump?
I did not know, 7-8 years ago that it would be Donald Trump.
I did know that President Obama was paving the way for someone. I thought perhaps a Paul.
Had Romney won in 2012 would we be better or worse off today.
I don't know if it was by fiendishly clever design or boneheaded stupidity on president Obama's part. I go back and forth.
From my point of view (classic libetal) I think Obama may turn out to be our second best president ever.
I think DJT will be number 1.
Untired!
John Henry
Just to be clear, Obama's presidency was a success BECAUSE it paved the wsy for President Trump
John Henry
I think a lot of people voted for Obama with very good intentions. Obama had an unprecedented opportunity to make things better. He didn't take that opportunity because he had a mindset that couldn't even see it. When it comes down to it, Obama is a very narrow person stuck in a parochial mindset.
Oh Dear God -- is Ben Rhodes and actual, functioning adult? Not according to that clip.
the Paris climate accord, the rapprochement with Cuba, and the Iran nuclear deal
What about Cash for Clunkers? Surely that was one of Obama's major accomplishments!
"The Obama team repeatedly boasts that its three signature achievements are the Paris climate accord, the rapprochement with Cuba, and the Iran nuclear deal."
Wasn't there something else they 'accomplished'?Oh, what was it.?. something from the first term when they had the supermajority in the Senate for like a day and half?
"The Obama team repeatedly boasts that its three signature achievements are the Paris climate accord, the rapprochement with Cuba, and the Iran nuclear deal."
Wasn't there something else they 'accomplished'?Oh, what was it.?. something from the first term when they had the supermajority in the Senate for like a day and half?
"Darrell said...
They should have just named it "Bumblefuck."
Was Clusterfuck already taken?"
"As for the 'war crimes' - that is what we pay them the big bucks for. It's not like the UN is going to send a bunch of cops, or even troops, to the White House to arrest our President for protecting our country as he sees fit."
Nothing done by any of the several presidents during our endless War of Terror has been for the protections of our country. Our War of Terror itself is not for the protection of our country. None of the many wars we've fought in 70 years has been for the protection of our country.
Obama lowered the sea levels and gave the Clintons a platform for international family foundation graft.
The mask is off. The ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS democrat party news media is just that.
None of the many wars we've fought in 70 years has been for the protection of our country.
Incorrect. Most of them were to defeat Communist oppression around the world, which is precisely why you hate them so much. We were locked in a struggle for existence with an evil ideology determined to destroy us fought through proxy wars. Almost all of the rest were attempts to end Islamic terrorism around the world, another struggle for existence with an evil ideology determined to destroy us.
You don't really need to see the video of Hillary's reaction on Election Night, if you've ever seen the viral meme clip from Downfall. Just like that, except perhaps with more booze involved.
I wanted to see her throw the champagne bottle at the big screen.
Meanwhile in spite of their efforts
https://mobile.twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/1002126060220239873/video/1
If you think of rhodes like kylo ren:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-29/bolton-adds-loyalists-to-national-security-council-staff
"Incorrect. Most of them were to defeat Communist oppression around the world, which is precisely why you hate them so much. We were locked in a struggle for existence with an evil ideology determined to destroy us fought through proxy wars. Almost all of the rest were attempts to end Islamic terrorism around the world, another struggle for existence with an evil ideology determined to destroy us."
Believing in children's stories does not make them true.
The problem with proxy wars is the enemy knows it get away with most anything hence Syria was the sanctuary for many of the scorpions in Iraq, same with PAkistan re afghanistan (obama chose a narrow rAnge of targets) we didn't go after Laos (som 719)
Till late inn the game, same with cambodia.
If I lived in a country with a population as stupid and evil as Robt. Cook seems to believe America has, I would have to leave. Jump over the fence if they wouldn't let me leave. Anyone who would stay in such a country would be implicit in its crimes.
"Believing in children's stories does not make them true."
Yes, Cooktard, as the poor inhabitants of Venezuela as well as every other shithole that bought into the writings of Karl Marx has found out.
Eat a bag of dicks, you unrepentant Stalinist douchbag.
Liked the clip. Have that shirt.
It was amusing to watch Rhodes discover that there are other points of view in America, but it left me unsatisfied. I'd like to see a two-hour documentary chronicling his long, slow descent into depression, madness, drug abuse and ultimately prison. It worries me to think that wretched little useless weasel is still out there, plotting a comeback.
Cookie wants to leave but he hasn't saved enough to move to Nicaragua and now those damned Nicaraguans are overthrowing the communists !
Is no place safe ?
Managua (AFP) - A week of brutally repressed anti-government protests in Nicaragua has killed at least 34 people, a leading rights group in the country said Wednesday.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) said it revised upwards its previous figure of 27 after finding more bodies in Managua's state morgue of people previously reported missing, and also adding people who succumbed in hospitals to wounds sustained in the protests.
President Daniel Ortega's government has not put out an official death toll since Friday, when it counted 10 deaths.
Most film critics are left-wing in a dumb sort of way. Like sports writers their politics aren't encumbered by many facts or much logic, but they're eager to prove they're "Smart" and "Know things".
Most of them didn't expect to end up in the "toy department" of Journalism, so they double-down on the Leftism.
Believing in children's stories does not make them true.
Just to get this straight and on the record:
1) You think it is a lie, or a "children's story" to say that that Communism had the explicit goals of destroying free market capitalism and democratic forms of government and replacing them with a worldwide Communist system?
2) You think it is a lie, or a "children's story" to say that Islam has the explicit goal of destroying Christianity and Western Civilization and replacing them with Islam and sharia law?
Gahrie,
I don't think Cookie has ever expressly supported Communism, or indeed any actual, existing government or form of government. His position seems to be one of placing himself above the fray, so that he can attack whatever displeases him, without having to defend anything at all. This is not a particularly useful position for serious political analysis, which requires weighing the desirable against the possible, but it is ideal for virtue-signaling.
I don't think Cookie has ever expressly supported Communism
I don't think he has ever denied being a Marxist, although he has claimed to have never read Das Kapital
I get where the mocking is coming from, and there is a lot schadenfreude going on here. I still giggle watching election night media melt down on youtube (the ones with Maddow predictions and morning after are the best).
Still, he KNEW he was being filmed. And I can't help but feel that he was trying not to do anything regrettable. I've had times (less public since there was no video) where I did not want the person I was talking to know what I was really feeling or thinking (didn't want to hurt/anger them -- usually family, didn't want it to be used against me -- say at work, what have you). And I probably sounded 92% identical.
See, if Roseanne had had Ben's filter, she'd still be a 1%er, at least in salary.
Hillary's Inner Traci Flick parody from the Reese Witherspoon movie Election is stll funny even a decade old.
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