April 23, 2016


News and Views


https://gma.yahoo.com/11-old-girl-may-reason-harriet-tubman-chosen-183909670--abc-news-personal-finance.html#

11-Year-Old Girl May Be the Reason Harriet Tubman Was Chosen for $20 Bill
Good Morning America
By CATHERINE THORBECKE
21 hours ago

Play video Ben Carson, Donald Trump Say Harriet Tubman Should ….
Play video -- 11-Year-Old Girl May Be the Reason Harriet Tubman Was Chosen for $20 Bill (ABC News)
Related: Here's How People Reacted to the New $20 Bill
Related: Harriet Tubman to Replace Andrew Jackson on the Face of the $20 Bill


An 11-year-old Massachusetts girl may have been the driving force behind the Treasury Department's move to put a woman on the $20 bill.

Sofia wrote a letter to President Obama two years ago asking why there were not any women represented on U.S. paper currency, her mother Kim told ABC News today.

"She came home from school one day and she said, 'Mom, I need to write to the president' so I gave her a piece of paper and that became the really famous letter," Kim recalled. "She really is just a regular, average, little girl who noticed something that was unfair and decided to do something about it."

In the letter, Sofia, who was then a third grade student, makes a few compelling points for why a woman should be put on U.S. currency, including the astute observation that "if there were no women there wouldn't be men."

The precocious preteen also included a list of potential female candidates. Harriet Tubman was on her list.

On Wednesday she got a call from Treasury Sec. Jack Lew who told her directly that Harriet Tubman will be put on the $20 bill, according to Kim.

Sofia also had a long phone call with President Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who tweeted Sofia's letter.

"She's overjoyed," Kim said.



“In the letter, Sofia, who was then a third grade student, makes a few compelling points for why a woman should be put on U.S. currency, including the astute observation that "if there were no women there wouldn't be men." I can see why the big boys in Washington paid attention to this girl’s letter. The video says that she also wrote on the (rather scrambled up) letter a list of women who would be good choices. Sophia for president in another 15 to 20 years! Do watch the videos on this Yahoo website. They’re all good.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tennessee-lawmakers-to-vote-on-override-of-bible-bill-veto/2016/04/20/8fd9e372-06e3-11e6-bfed-ef65dff5970d_story.html?tid=hybrid_content_1_na

Veto of Bible as official Tennessee book survives challenge
By Erik Schelzig | AP
April 20, 2016


Photograph -- Members of the House of Representatives debate overriding Gov. Bill Haslam’s veto of a bill seeking to make the Bible the state’s official book, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. The House voted not to override the veto. (Mark Humphrey/Associated Press)


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee has a state reptile, a state rock and a state song in the moonshine-themed “Rocky Top.” For now, though, the Bible will not be its official state book.

Gov. Bill Haslam had vetoed a bill that would elevate the holy book’s status, and lawmakers trying to override that veto fell seven votes short of the 50 they needed in the House on Wednesday. Only 43 members voted in favor of the bill after two hours of spirited — and spiritual — debate.

The Republican governor last week turned back the bill over constitutional concerns and because of concerns the measure “trivializes” what he considers a sacred text.

Supporters argued that the measure seeks to honor the economic and historical impact of the Bible in Tennessee history, rather than a state endorsement of religion.

Republican Rep. Jerry Sexton, a former Baptist minister who was the main House sponsor of the measure, urged colleagues to follow what he called the “will of the people” in rejecting the veto.

“It doesn’t force anyone to read it, it doesn’t force anyone to buy it, it doesn’t force anyone to believe it,” said Sexton, a former Baptist minister. “It’s simply symbolic.”

Six Republicans and five Democrats who voted for the bill when it passed last year did not support the override on Wednesday. They included Democratic Rep. Johnny Shaw, a Baptist pastor.

“We can put it all over the billboards of any corner in Tennessee, but if it is not in your heart we are doing nothing but mocking God,” Shaw said.

Earlier in the session, the Legislature approved a resolution to add the .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle to the state’s official symbols, like the Tennessee cave salamander, the eastern box turtle and the channel catfish — plus nine state songs.

Lawmakers in both chambers had passed the bill despite a warning by the state’s attorney general that it would violate both the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions, the latter of which states that “no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.”

Haslam told reporters after the vote that he was grateful that lawmakers had decided against an override of the veto.


“I felt like it trivialized the Bible to put it on the same level with the state bird and insect and so many other things we have,” Haslam said.

“The Bible is either the inspired Word of God or it’s not,” he said. “We shouldn’t honor it for one reason when it’s really for another.”



These “symbolic” moves strike me as being just a matter of greater and greater encroachment on our basic democratic principles by those who would destroy us, and the worst of it is that they are not foreign enemies, but our own people. Those guys ain't foolin’ me one bit!!



http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/dramatic-changes-have-come-to-california-s-long-depleted-reservoirs-672032835621

VIDEO – Wet Weather Not a Drought-Buster
See video of great improvement in CA water situation.



http://la.curbed.com/2016/4/20/11475522/california-water-restrictions

The Drought is Over! Say Some California Water Officials
Despite the no-show El Niño in SoCal, some officials say California doesn't need water restrictions anymore
BY BIANCA BARRAGAN
APR 20, 2016, 4:50P

Related -- California water agencies to urge regulators to ease drought restrictions [AP]
It's Record-Breakingly Hot in Los Angeles Again [Curbed LA]
Will Los Angeles Get Any of That Sweet NorCal Rainwater? [Curbed LA]
Graphics – Drought Monitor


In the midst of an unwelcome hot snap and on the tail end of a no-show El Niño, SoCal is basically clamping down for a hot, dry summer. But not everyone had a disappointing winter, and now some of those folks are grumping about saving water. The Associated Press reports that some water officials feel that this past winter sufficiently supplied the entire state with snow and water, in effect easing the five years of drought the state's faced, and that it's time to chill out on the water-saving.

One of these officials, a project manager for the Association of California Water Agencies, says in a letter to state regulators that the "heroic" conservation efforts of Californians should be rewarded, and that that reward should be fully throwing out the current water cutback measures. "It is time to end the State Water Board's mandatory water-use restrictions statewide," he writes.

Um, statewide?

Drought Monitor

Not everyone's in a great place to do that, the Drought Monitor would indicate, though it's true that many northern parts of the state did get heartily drenched over the winter. And, probably in light of that, state water regulators are considering adjusting future water conservation goals according to regional water supplies and drought levels.

But in another letter from multiple environmental organizations, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council brings another perspective: the long one. Warning that conservation should basically be the new normal, she notes that with no assurances that another wet winter will be in store next year, it makes sense to adjust but not abandon the water restrictions in place. "California's water challenges are immense and extend far beyond the current drought," Quinn writes.

All this comes as the State Water Resources Control Board prepares to have a workshop to "chart the future of urban water conservation measures tomorrow." It's possible that the board could decide to make changes to the rules, and that those changes could go into effect as soon as next month.



I’m glad to see that not everyone in California is feeling free and easy about water resources. "’California's water challenges are immense and extend far beyond the current drought,’ Quinn writes.” Much of the west is actually in this same boat, and global warming is only going to make it worse. See the Mercurynews article below. Think back to all those Western movies and TV shows – how dry everything looked. That wasn’t staged for Hollywood. It’s real. Are we ready for a 200+ year-long drought? Luckily California is doing work toward desalisation plants, as Israel and other Middle Eastern nations have. It’s not that humans have too little intelligence; it’s that we haven’t had to use it and we don’t want to start now!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

Desalination
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Desalination or desalinization is a process that removes minerals from saline water. More generally, desalination may also refer to the removal of salts and minerals,[1] as in soil desalination, which also happens to be a major issue for agricultural production.[2]

Salt water is desalinated to produce fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. One potential by-product of desalination is salt. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, this is one of the few rainfall-independent water sources.[3]

Due to relatively high energy consumption, the costs of desalinating sea water are generally higher than the alternatives (fresh water from rivers or groundwater, water recycling and water conservation), but alternatives are not always available and rapid overdraw and depletion of reserves is a critical problem worldwide. Additionally, there is an environmental cost. Quoting Christopher Gasson of Global Water Intelligence, "At the moment, around 1% of the world's population are dependent on desalinated water to meet their daily needs, but by 2025, the UN expects 14% of the world's population to be encountering water scarcity. Unless people get radically better at water conservation, the desalination industry has a very strong future indeed."[4]

. . . . The single largest desalination project is Ras Al-Khair in Saudi Arabia, which produced 1,025,000 cubic meters per day in 2014,[4] although this plant in Saudi Arabia is expected to be surpassed by a desal plant in California.[6] The largest percent of desalinated water used in any country is in Israel, which produces 40% of its domestic water use from seawater desalination.[7] See diagram: Plan of a typical reverse osmosis desalination plant

Methods[edit]

The traditional process used in these operations is vacuum distillation—essentially the boiling of water at less than atmospheric pressure and thus a much lower temperature than normal. This is because the boiling of a liquid occurs when the vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure and vapor pressure increases with temperature. Thus, because of the reduced temperature, low-temperature "waste" heat from electrical power generation or industrial processes can be minimized.[citation needed]

Photograph -- Reverse osmosis desalination plant in Barcelona, Spain

The principal competing processes use membranes to desalinate, principally applying reverse osmosis technology.[8] Membrane processes use semipermeable membranes and pressure to separate salts from water. Reverse osmosis plant membrane systems typically use less energy than thermal distillation, which has led to a reduction in overall desalination costs over the past decade. Desalination remains energy intensive, however, and future costs will continue to depend on the price of both energy and desalination technology.[9]


TO KEEP US ON OUR TOES, SEE THIS ARTICLE ABOUT CALIFORNIA: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_24993601/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more

California drought: Past dry periods have lasted more than 200 years, scientists say
By Paul Rogers
POSTED: 01/25/2014 04:21:50 PM PST | UPDATED: 2 YEARS AGO

Gallery -- water line photographs 2014
Photograph -- The low water level reveals two chairs at the Almaden Reservoir in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014. (Nhat V. Meyer)
VIEW 360 DEGREE VIEWS OF ALMADEN RESERVOIR -- Panorama 1, Panorama 2


California's current drought is being billed as the driest period in the state's recorded rainfall history. But scientists who study the West's long-term climate patterns say the state has been parched for much longer stretches before that 163-year historical period began.

And they worry that the "megadroughts" typical of California's earlier history could come again.

Through studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence, researchers have documented multiple droughts in California that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years -- compared to the mere three-year duration of the current dry spell. The two most severe megadroughts make the Dust Bowl of the 1930s look tame: a 240-year-long drought that started in 850 and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another that stretched at least 180 years.

"We continue to run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to encounter is about seven years," said Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. "We're living in a dream world."

California in 2013 received less rain than in any year since it became a state in 1850. And at least one Bay Area scientist says that based on tree ring data, the current rainfall season is on pace to be the driest since 1580 -- more than 150 years before George Washington was born. The question is: How much longer will it last?

A megadrought today would have catastrophic effects.

California, the nation's most populous state with 38 million residents, has built a massive economy, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and millions of acres of farmland, all in a semiarid area. The state's dams, canals and reservoirs have never been tested by the kind of prolonged drought that experts say will almost certainly occur again.

Stine, who has spent decades studying tree stumps in Mono Lake, Tenaya Lake, the Walker River and other parts of the Sierra Nevada, said that the past century has been among the wettest of the last 7,000 years.

Looking back, the long-term record also shows some staggeringly wet periods. The decades between the two medieval megadroughts, for example, delivered years of above-normal rainfall -- the kind that would cause devastating floods today.

The longest droughts of the 20th century, what Californians think of as severe, occurred from 1987 to 1992 and from 1928 to 1934. Both, Stine said, are minor compared to the ancient droughts of 850 to 1090 and 1140 to 1320.

Modern megadrought

What would happen if the current drought continued for another 10 years or more?

Without question, longtime water experts say, farmers would bear the brunt. Cities would suffer but adapt.

The reason: Although many Californians think that population growth is the main driver of water demand statewide, it actually is agriculture. In an average year, farmers use 80 percent of the water consumed by people and businesses -- 34 million of 43 million acre-feet diverted from rivers, lakes and groundwater, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

"Cities would be inconvenienced greatly and suffer some. Smaller cities would get it worse, but farmers would take the biggest hit," said Maurice Roos, the department's chief hydrologist. "Cities can always afford to spend a lot of money to buy what water is left."

Roos, who has worked at the department since 1957, said the prospect of megadroughts is another reason to build more storage -- both underground and in reservoirs -- to catch rain in wet years.

In a megadrought, there would be much less water in the Delta to pump. Farmers' allotments would shrink to nothing. Large reservoirs like Shasta, Oroville and San Luis would eventually go dry after five or more years of little or no rain.

Farmers would fallow millions of acres, letting row crops die first. They'd pump massive amounts of groundwater to keep orchards alive, but eventually those wells would go dry. And although deeper wells could be dug, the costs could exceed the value of their crops. Banks would refuse to loan the farmers money.

The federal government would almost certainly provide billions of dollars in emergency aid to farm communities.


"Some small towns in the Central Valley would really suffer. They would basically go away," said Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.

"But agriculture is only 3 percent of California's economy today," Lund said. "In the main urban economy, most people would learn to live with less water. It would be expensive and inconvenient, but we'd do it."

Farmers with senior water rights would make a huge profit, he noted, selling water at sky-high prices to cities. Food costs would rise, but there wouldn't be shortages, Lund said, because Californians already buy lots of food from other states and countries and would buy even more from them.

FALLBACK PLANS

In urban areas, most cities would eventually see water rationing at 50 percent of current levels. Golf courses would shut down. Cities would pass laws banning watering or installing lawns, which use half of most homes' water. Across the state, rivers and streams would dry up, wiping out salmon runs. Cities would race to build new water supply projects, similar to the $50 million wastewater recycling plant that the Santa Clara Valley Water District is now constructing in Alviso.

If a drought lasted decades, the state could always build dozens of desalination plants, which would cost billions of dollars, said law professor Barton "Buzz" Thompson, co-director of Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment.

Saudi Arabia, Israel and other Middle Eastern countries depend on desalination, but water from desal plants costs roughly five times more than urban Californians pay for water now. Thompson said that makes desal projects unfeasible for most of the state now, especially when other options like recycled wastewater and conservation can provide more water at a much lower cost.

But in an emergency, price becomes no object.

"In theory, cities cannot run out of water," Thompson said. "All we can do is run out of cheap water, or not have as much water as we need when we really want it."

Over the past 10 years, he noted, Australia has been coping with a severe drought. Urban residents there cut their water demand massively, built new supply projects and survived.

"I don't think we'll ever get to a point here where you turn on the tap and air comes out," he said.

MEGADROUGHT NOW

Some scientists believe we are already in a megadrought, although that view is not universally accepted.

Bill Patzert, a research scientist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, says that the West is in a 20-year drought that began in 2000. He cites the fact that a phenomenon known as a "negative Pacific decadal oscillation" is underway -- and that historically has been linked to extreme high-pressure ridges that block storms.

Such events, which cause pools of warm water in the North Pacific Ocean and cool water along the California coast, are not the result of global warming, Patzert said. But climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels has been linked to longer heat waves. That wild card wasn't around years ago.

"Long before the Industrial Revolution, we were vulnerable to long extended periods of drought. And now we have another experiment with all this CO2 in the atmosphere where there are potentially even more wild swings in there," said Graham Kent, a University of Nevada geophysicist who has studied submerged ancient trees in Fallen Leaf Lake near Lake Tahoe.

Already, the 2013-14 rainfall season is shaping up to be the driest in 434 years, based on tree ring data, according to Lynn Ingram, a paleoclimatologist at UC Berkeley.

"It's important to be aware of what the climate is capable of," she said, "so that we can prepare for it."

Paul Rogers covers resources and environmental issues. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN.



"And they worry that the "megadroughts" typical of California's earlier history could come again. Through studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence, researchers have documented multiple droughts in California that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years -- compared to the mere three-year duration of the current dry spell. The two most severe megadroughts make the Dust Bowl of the 1930s look tame: a 240-year-long drought that started in 850 and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another that stretched at least 180 years. We continue to run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to encounter is about seven years," said Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. "We're living in a dream world."


“A dream world …” America needs to wake up. Republicans encourage religious/rule following/group-think/and generally illogical mental patterns, and as a result many thousands of our citizens are gung ho behind military power and big business, but are lagging totally behind in science, history, sociology, and other such products of a decent education. That education should not have to come from a college, if our high schools were doing their jobs. Too many of our people are functionally illiterate, and they can’t read and analyze information, but unfortunately they won’t follow the leadership of our scientific minds either. We may be in serious trouble as a nation.



OBAMA APRIL 23, 2016 -- FOUR ARTICLES



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/obama-brushes-london-brexit-backlash-golf-shakespeare-n560966

Obama Brushes Off London 'Brexit' Backlash With Golf, Shakespeare
by ALASTAIR JAMIESON and JON SCHUPPE
NEWS APR 23 2016, 12:13 PM ET

Video -- Obama Defends Opinion on Britain's Status in the EU 1:18
Britain's newspaper The Sun reported Obama's Brexit intervention under the headline "BARACKMAIL." Alastair Jamieson / NBC News
Photograph -- Obama Defends Opinion on Britain's Status in the EU 1:18
Related: 'Brexit' Vote: Why Britain Could Quit EU and Why America Cares


LONDON — President Barack Obama played a round of golf with Britain's prime minister and visited Shakespeare's original theater Saturday, a day after his controversial intervention in the U.K.'s 'Brexit' referendum on European Union membership.

The president teed off at The Grove, an exclusive course that is due to host the British Masters tournament later this year.

It was a more relaxed affair than Friday, when Obama faced ferocious criticism from some senior lawmakers for urging British voters to choose to stay in the EU in the June 23 poll.

In an op-ed in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, Obama wrote that continued membership would benefit European coordination on intelligence sharing, counterterrorism and economic growth.

New York-born London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is leading the campaign for Britain to quit the EU, led a backlash by describing the president's comments as "incoherent" and downright hypocritical."

"The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or for their neighbors in their own hemisphere," he wrote. "Why should they think it right for us?"

"BARACK TURNS BULLY BOY," ran a Saturday headline in the conservative Daily Mail. The Murdoch-owned tabloid, The Sun, reported the president's intervention under the headline "BARACKMAIL."

Obama defended his intervention, saying, "I'm not coming here to fix any votes."

He told a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday: "I'm not casting a vote myself. I'm offering my opinion. And in democracies, everybody should want more information, not less, and you shouldn't be afraid to hear an argument being made. That's not a threat."

The president also responded to Johnson's accusation that Obama, whose father was from Kenya, a former British colony, harbored an "ancestral dislike of the British empire."

Johnson said that explained why Obama removed of a bust of Winston Churchill from the White House.

Obama answered by saying that a second bust of Churchill sat outside his second-floor office, where he sees it every day.

His intervention was welcomed by Cameron and others. Former British ambassador to the U.S., Christopher Meyer, tweeted: "Obama only restated what the US has already told us. A bilateral trade deal will take second place to finishing TTIP negotiations e.g. 2020."

Also Friday, Obama enjoyed a birthday lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, who turned 90 the day before, and met young Prince George, wearing a white bath robe.

On Saturday, Obama played golf after answering questions from young Britons at a town hall event, and toured London's historic Globe theater, which is marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.



“He told a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday: "I'm not casting a vote myself. I'm offering my opinion. And in democracies, everybody should want more information, not less, and you shouldn't be afraid to hear an argument being made. That's not a threat." …. His intervention was welcomed by Cameron and others. Former British ambassador to the U.S., Christopher Meyer, tweeted: "Obama only restated what the US has already told us. A bilateral trade deal will take second place to finishing TTIP negotiations e.g. 2020." …. On Saturday, Obama played golf after answering questions from young Britons at a town hall event, and toured London's historic Globe theater, which is marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.”


“Conservatives” in England are almost identical to those in the US, ranging from moderates to the far right. The EU was set up to provide a more stable economy and greater interchange of all kinds across Europe, and not “one world government.” That’s a good thing to me, but then I don’t have that ultra-nationalistic feeling about America that too many here do. Pretty soon the conservatives here will be calling it “the fatherland.”

The main complaint I have so far about the ease of interchange between nations is that dangerous individuals can simply move across the borders -- including into the US -- without even having to show a passport. At least I think that is still true – and some of them are coming across purposely to commit a terroristic act. The EU information exchanges should be tracking individuals who are suspect and arresting them immediately. Governments, likewise, should pay attention to the international intelligence and “nab the bad guys.” If we had done that on 9/11/2001 we would have caught at least a couple of them whose student visas were out of date. The degree to which we were unguarded that day would be embarrassing if it weren’t so tragic.



http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/23/politics/obama-presidency-transition-goodbye/index.html

Obama's long goodbye
By Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 9:26 AM ET, Sat April 23, 2016

Video -- President Obama Holds News Conference
7 photos: -- The Presidents club
RELATED: Obama heads into uncharted territory
Related: Personal greeting, royal chauffeur kick off Obama's visit to Windsor


Washington (CNN)The sun is slowly beginning to set on Barack Obama's presidency.

He is wringing every last ounce of power from his remaining time in office, nominating a Supreme Court justice, making a historic visit to Cuba and barging Friday into Britain's debate over whether to leave the European Union.

But the inexorable ebbing of time and influence that overtakes second term presidencies is becoming more noticeable with every week that goes by as some of his official duties begin to take on a poignant, valedictory tone.

"I still have a few more months," Obama joked during a town hall meeting with British young people in London on Saturday when asked how he viewed his legacy.

"Actually, eight months and 52 days -- not that I'm counting. I just made that up, I actually don't know," Obama said, adding that he would not have a good sense of his legacy for another 10 years.

In the most tangible sign yet of Obama's long goodbye, The New York Times reported this week that presidential aides have begun the process that will transition the mammoth U.S. government into the hands of the 45th President next January.

But there are also less formal signs that it will soon be time to cede the reins of power.

At times, Obama's trip to Britain seemed more like a farewell tour. He lunched with Queen Elizabeth II and reminisced with David Cameron about their years in power together.

"David and I shared an extraordinary partnership," Obama said at a Friday news conference with the British leader, who returned the compliment.

"I've always found Barack someone who gives sage advice," Cameron said. "He's a man with a very good heart and he's been a very good friend and always will be a good friend, I know, to the United Kingdom."

The President, meanwhile, presented the Queen with a 90th birthday gift: a book showing photos of her meeting with past U.S. presidents dating back to a 1951 encounter with Harry S. Truman when she visited Washington as a princess. The gift was a tacit admission that Obama's administration, like others before it, will soon pass into history.

Obama has already delivered his final State of the Union address, his last budget and hosted the annual St. Patrick's Day visit by the prime minister of Ireland one last time.

He recently presided over his final meeting of the nuclear security summit that was his brainchild amid doubts that the event -- now deprived of Russian participation -- would outlive his presidency. He will make his final tour of annual global summits later in the year, and embark on his farewell trip to Asia -- a region synonymous with his presidency.

Back home on Thursday, Obama will host one of the most treasured rituals of his presidency -- a Seder dinner to mark Passover with Jewish members of his staff -- for the last time. And next weekend, he'll take some pithy, parting shots at his tormentors in the press at his final White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

Rising approval rating

These milestones are happening at a time when there's some evidence that the public is viewing Obama -- whose presidency has been scarred by vicious partisan warfare in Washington -- more fondly. His approval rating as measured by Gallup recently hit 51%, its highest level in three years. Still, Republicans are also counting the days until the end of a presidency they view as characterized by executive over reach, and reversing the policies of the Obama years has been a theme at the center of the GOP presidential race.

The receding days of a presidency are poignant, but also serve as a reminder that a President still has much to do during their final months in office, said Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter who was at Bill Clinton's side during his last year as president.

"There is a sense always that the clock is ticking," Shesol said.

"The State of the Union is the first in a series of lasts and they are just going to follow one from the other until ... frankly after the summer, people stop paying attention to the White House," he said. "Everybody's focus shifts to what is happening out on the campaign trail."

The most important duty for a President contemplating his retirement is ensuring the continuity of government as one administration ends another begins. That's especially important at a time when terrorism concerns are prevalent; former President George W. Bush set the gold standard when he handed over the White House to Obama in the first transition after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Obama on the death of Prince: 'It's a remarkable loss'

"What President Bush realized was that a sloppy process was too risky and dangerous to allow it to continue," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that hosted the Obama administration's recent retreat with the 2016 campaigns to discuss the next transition.

"In the post 9/11 world, they understood they had a vulnerability that could be exploited by dangerous people," said Stier, who also runs the Center for Presidential Transition. "It is a point of maximum risk when you have a baton handoff between governments."

Fading political light

Of course, every outgoing administration fights against the fading of its political light.

"There is a purposeful quality to a White House in its last year if that White House has the political strength to assert itself," Shesol said. "There is energy there for a last push, whether it lasts until June or July."

Obama has fought hard against the limitations of a lame duck presidency by using his waning years in office to pursue legacy initiatives like the Iran nuclear deal, the opening to Cuba and issuing executive orders on immigration and climate change.

He's used his bully pulpit to lash out at GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump's rhetoric on Muslims and questioning of U.S. alliances, which could be a preview of how he may run interference for the Democratic nominee in the fall campaign.

There's also a sense of creeping liberation about Obama. His robust intervention in the incendiary politics of the referendum in Britain on Friday was a bold step a president learning the ropes might have been hesitant to take.

And in a recent foreign policy interview with the Atlantic magazine, Obama left little unsaid, rebuking "free riders" among U.S. allies in Europe in the Middle East, and even jabbing Cameron over the aftermath of the war in Libya.

But the White House is also chafing at its waning clout.

Republicans are holding firm in their effort to deprive Obama of a third Supreme Court pick, insisting that late Justice Antonin Scalia's replacement must be named by the new president. The administration is locked in a stalemate with congressional Republicans, meanwhile, over funding for an effort to meet the growing threat from the Zika epidemic.

And Obama's hopes of marking his final year in office with the ratification of the vast Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal look questionable given the strong turn against such pacts that has roiled the politics of the 2016 campaign.

But history suggests Obama will emulate his predecessors in racing all the way to the finish line next year.

"There have been very few presidents who just wanted to get the hell out of there," Shesol said.



"I still have a few more months," Obama joked during a town hall meeting with British young people in London on Saturday when asked how he viewed his legacy. "Actually, eight months and 52 days -- not that I'm counting. I just made that up, I actually don't know," Obama said, adding that he would not have a good sense of his legacy for another 10 years. …. "David and I shared an extraordinary partnership," Obama said at a Friday news conference with the British leader, who returned the compliment. "I've always found Barack someone who gives sage advice," Cameron said. "He's a man with a very good heart and he's been a very good friend and always will be a good friend, I know, to the United Kingdom." The President, meanwhile, presented the Queen with a 90th birthday gift: a book showing photos of her meeting with past U.S. presidents dating back to a 1951 encounter with Harry S. Truman when she visited Washington as a princess. The gift was a tacit admission that Obama's administration, like others before it, will soon pass into history. …. And next weekend, he'll take some pithy, parting shots at his tormentors in the press at his final White House Correspondents Association Dinner. -- Rising approval rating -- These milestones are happening at a time when there's some evidence that the public is viewing Obama -- whose presidency has been scarred by vicious partisan warfare in Washington -- more fondly. His approval rating as measured by Gallup recently hit 51%, its highest level in three years. …. He's used his bully pulpit to lash out at GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump's rhetoric on Muslims and questioning of U.S. alliances, which could be a preview of how he may run interference for the Democratic nominee in the fall campaign.”


“And next weekend, he'll take some pithy, parting shots at his tormentors in the press at his final White House Correspondents Association Dinner.” I always enjoy news shots of this dinner. I’ll bet if I look there will be a full recording of it on Youtube. I don’t know if he writes his own material or not, but he certainly does deliver the lines well. As for where I fall in the Gallup Poll, I’m definitely a fan of Obama’s. I like the way he deals with people and with issues. The only people whom supposedly he didn’t get along with at all were Putin and Netanyahu, and I can understand both of those cases. Putin is totally untrustworthy and Netanyahu is unwilling to do the thing he most needs to do, make and KEEP some basic agreements with the Palestinians.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-black-lives-matter_us_571b9414e4b0d4d3f7238bb6

Obama Praises Black Lives Matter, But Says Activists Must Compromise
He said once elected officials are ready to meet with activists, organizers “can’t just keep on yelling at them.”
Sam Levine
Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post
04/23/2016 11:56 am ET

Video -- Barack Obama Speaks To Young People In London

President Barack Obama on Saturday praised the work the Black Lives Matter movement has done to highlight racial inequality, but also strongly cautioned activists that they needed to be realistic about their proposals and be willing to compromise.

Speaking at a town hall in London, the president mentioned Black Lives Matter specifically as he laid out his vision of how activists can achieve social change.

“As a general rule, I think that what, for example, Black Lives Matter is doing now to bring attention to the problem of a criminal justice system that sometimes is not treating people fairly based on race, or reacting to shootings of individuals by police officers, has been really effective in bringing attention to problems,” Obama said.

But the president went on to say that activists needed to be realistic about what could be achieved immediately and sometimes needed to compromise to achieve long-term goals.

“One of the things I caution young people about, though, that I don’t think is effective is once you’ve highlighted an issue and brought it to people’s attention and shined a spotlight, and elected officials or people who are in a position to start bringing about change are ready to sit down with you, then you can’t just keep on yelling at them,” Obama said.

Once activists get access to people in power, Obama said, they have a “responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable.” Organizers, he continued, “sometimes need to take half a loaf that will advance the gains that you seek, understanding that there’s gonna be more work to do, but this is what is achievable at this moment.”

Black Lives Matter activists met with Obama at the White House in February and the president praised their “degree of focus and seriousness and constructiveness.” But not everyone was happy with the meeting. Aislinn Pulley, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago, did not attend and called it a “sham,” writing in a column that attending would only “legitimize the false narrative that the government is working to end police brutality and the institutional racism that fuels it.”

Obama, who began his career as a community organizer, has frequently spoken about social change as something that comes gradually through the hard work of multiple generations. He often points to a quote linked to Martin Luther King Jr. and the abolitionist Theodore Parker that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Obama added that he often sees activists who are good at drawing attention to an issue but are unwilling to compromise at all.

“Too often what I see is wonderful activism that highlights a problem, but then people feel so passionately and are so invested in the purity of their position that they never take that next step and say ‘OK, well now I gotta sit down and try to actually get something done,’” he said.



“One of the things I caution young people about, though, that I don’t think is effective is once you’ve highlighted an issue and brought it to people’s attention and shined a spotlight, and elected officials or people who are in a position to start bringing about change are ready to sit down with you, then you can’t just keep on yelling at them,” Obama said. Once activists get access to people in power, Obama said, they have a “responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable.” Organizers, he continued, “sometimes need to take half a loaf that will advance the gains that you seek, understanding that there’s gonna be more work to do, but this is what is achievable at this moment.”


I agree with Obama that if BLM is not willing to “prepare an agenda” that is achievable, there’s no path to change at all. I was impressed with their website, but they are sometimes unruly, like some groups from the 1970s and like Occupy Wall Street more recently. They just don’t sit down with anyone and talk. Pressure is helpful, but a stance of no cooperation is like our favorite Tea Partiers in the attempt to pass laws. It just isn’t effective.


POLITICAL DEATH THREATS IN THE USA

For another upsetting political news story, see this, which is too long for me to clip.: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/delegates-face-death-threats-from-trump-supporters-222302

Delegates face death threats from Trump supporters
At the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting, delegates describe vicious missives demanding they support the GOP front-runner.
By Eli Stokols and Kyle Cheney
04/22/16 05:06 AM EDT

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/delegates-face-death-threats-from-trump-supporters-222302#ixzz46fj7kIx0
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook


This is the pits. If a threat is “viable” it seems to me it should be illegal and grounds for arrest. Freedom of speech only goes so far.