Tag: President Obama

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Barack Obama On World AIDS Day 2017

Former President Obama made this video message for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s special World AIDS Day event encouraging folks to take part in supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“This World AIDS Day, everyone has a role to play. Jimmy Kimmel’s not just a talk-show host, he’s an activist. Bono’s not just a musician, he’s ring master of a whole shopping extravaganza,” Obama says in the video. “And me, I’m not just a former president, I’m a husband who hasn’t done his Christmas shopping yet.”

“When it comes to the fight against HIV/AIDs, there’s some genuinely good news to share,” Obama said. “For the first time in history, more than half of all people living with the virus are on life-saving medication.”

And he’s right. But those kinds of changes only happen when people actually DO something.

Hit the video below and find out what you can do this World AIDS Day, Friday December 1, 2017.

p.s. Remember what it was like to have a smart, dignified president who spoke about important issues like saving lives…?

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Middle-Class Incomes In 2016 Reached Highest Level Ever Recorded

Here’s President Obama’s final report card on the economy for the last year of his presidency.

And the news is good.

According to the Census Bureau, middle-class American incomes reached the highest level ever recorded in 2016.

From the Washington Post:

Median household income rose to $59,039 in 2016, a 3.2 percent increase from the previous year and the second consecutive year of healthy gains, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The nation’s poverty rate fell to 12.7 percent, returning nearly to what it was in 2007 before a financial crisis and deep recession walloped workers in ways that were still felt years later.

“There’s a danger that this is as good as it gets,” said Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts. “We are already at a 16-year low in unemployment. The likelihood of significant job growth from here is limited.”

Trump promised that a combination of tax cuts, infrastructure investment packages, renegotiated trade deals and the repeal of Obama administration regulations would deliver a burst of job creation and attendant economic growth.

So far, no such boom can be found.

In Trump’s first seven months, the U.S. economy has added about 25,000 fewer jobs per month than it did during the last seven months of Barack Obama’s presidency.

It’ll be interesting to see how the next three years go under Trump having been handed a healthy U.S. economy.

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Barack Obama Sets Record For Most ‘Liked’ Tweet In History

President Barack Obama

This is certain to drive Donald Trump insane.

As he displayed an appalling lack of moral courage taking days to denounce the white supremacists’ violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend, an uplifting tweet from President Obama became the most “Liked” in Twitter history.

On Saturday evening, Obama shared a Nelson Mandela quote: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…”

It became the tweet seen ’round the world.

At this writing, the tweet has been ‘Liked” over 3.1 million times, and retweeted by 1.2 million people.

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Obama: Decision To Withdraw From Paris Climate Agreement An “Absence Of American Leadership”

Addressing President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement today, Barack Obama issued a rare statement calling the move an “absence of American leadership.”

Additionally, Obama zinged, “This Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future.”

Here is President Obama’s full statement:

A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.

It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America’s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar – industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.

Simply put, the private sector already chose a low-carbon future. And for the nations that committed themselves to that future, the Paris Agreement opened the floodgates for businesses, scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation on an unprecedented scale.

The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.

The 2015 agreement was adopted by 195 countries seeking to decrease carbon emissions and combat climate change.

Only two other countries, Syria and Nicaragua, are not part of the agreement.

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Video: President Obama Accepts The 2017 Profile In Courage Award

Remember when, just a few months ago, America had a real president.

Dignified, intelligent, well-spoken and thoughtful.

A president that oversaw the greatest expansion of economic growth in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

And a man who inspired millions during a difficult time in American history.

Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, present the 2017 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to former President Barack H. Obama as part of the centennial celebration of John F. Kennedy’s birth.

Watch below.

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Trump’s Congressional Speech Pulls In 17% Fewer Viewers Than Obama’s First Address

Well, you know this is going to irritate some thin orange skin in the West Wing.

From Mediaite:

Well, the overnight ratings are in from Nielsen, and as expected, President Donald Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress drew a significant television audience. However, it didn’t do nearly as well as President Barack Obama’s first address in February 2009.

Looking at seven networks that carried the speech live — ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC — the address pulled in a combined household rating of 27.8 in the overnight ratings of Nielsen’s metered markets.

In comparison, Obama’s first presidential address nabbed an early rating of 33.4, a difference of 17%. Those early numbers for Obama turned into a final audience of 52.4 million across the broadcast and cable networks. Comparably, George W. Bush’s first address grabbed 39.8 million viewers.

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President Obama Hits The Waves In Post-White House Days

(images by Jack Brockway)

While President Trump tangles with pushback on executive orders and insulting the media, Barack Obama is riding waves with billionaire, Sir Richard Branson, of the Virgin business group:

One of the first stories Barack told me when he and Michelle arrived on Moskito Island was how, just before he became President, he had been surfing on a dangerous break in Hawaii. When he came in from an exhilarating session, the new head of his security team turned to him and said: “This will be the last time you surf for eight years.” For the next eight years he didn’t have the chance to surf, enjoy watersports or do many of the things he loved.

So it was tremendous to offer him the chance to learn to kitesurf. The sport has really taken off in the past decade and we have the perfect conditions and team to help anyone learn. I have also wanted to learn foilboard surfing. So we decided to set up a friendly challenge: could Barack learn to kitesurf before I learned to foilboard? We agreed to have a final day battle to see who could stay up the longest.

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Trump’s Pre-Super Bowl Interview Falls Far Short Of Obama’s Ratings

The Donald will not be pleased to hear that, once again, he got beat in the ratings by President Obama.

According to Variety,  President Trump’s pre-Super Bowl interview with Bill O’Reilly drew 12.2 million viewers.

President Obama’s first pre-Super Bowl interview, back in 2009 with NBC’s Matt Lauer, garnered 21.9 million viewers. That’s 9.7 million more than Trump.

In 2011, fresh off his re-election win, Obama’s 2011 pre-game chat with Bill O’Reilly drew 17.3 million. That’s still more than 5 million more than Trump.

Even during non-election years, Obama pulled better numbers than the Trumpster.  In 2016, Obama’s interview drew 14.9 million; in 2015, 16.4 million; in 2014, 18 million.

Cue the Twitter rant in 3, 2, 1…