Hey, kids, welcome to a very special Phile for a Friday. Haha. President Obama is today's pheatured guest today. Man, I should just wrap up the Phile today. But I won't. That'll be in September still. Okay, so, I have to talk about Star Wars first. I don't know what I think of this... Many Star Wars fans want to see changes done to the storyline of The Rise of Skywalker. Fans were upset by Kylo Ren’s death. Another particularly upsetting event was the major backlash on Rey’s final comments when she announced that had become a Skywalker. However, the changes will not be made in a film but rather in a span of three seasons.
Ever since the film was released, rumors have abounded the Star Wars sequel trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens will undergo a reboot. Not only will it undergo a reboot, but a leaker also stated that the reboot will feature some unused footage of Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo. Doomcock, a YouTube Star Wars leaker, posted a video claiming that the rumors are true. He was also the person who stated that there is some unused footage of the iconic Star Wars character that will be revealed in the rumored reboot. The remake of the sequel trilogy is reportedly going to be on Disney+. Fans expecting that the reboot will once again happen in three full-pledged films might be disappointed in this development. Nonetheless, a series will have a better chance of fully fleshing out the storylines without feeling rushed. The leaker claimed that the plan for the reboot is to spread the story over three seasons and ten mini-series episodes. It will reportedly include the 10-minute scene with the three iconic characters which was supposed to be included in The Force Awakens, only to be dropped before the release. Other reports added that George Lucas will return as a director.
Doomcock stated that the three full seasons will remake the original trilogy with eight to ten mini-series episodes in each season. Since it’s a trilogy, there will likely be three seasons for each film. If proven true the first season will remake The Force Awakens, the second season will remake The Last Jedi, and the third one will reboot The Rise of Skywalker. Personally I hope it's not true, but we'll see.
When pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, five people died in the immediate aftermath. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick was beaten to death by the mob. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was shot and killed by U.S. Capitol Police while invading the Speaker’s Lobby. Rosanne Boyland sustained injuries, which proved fatal, after being trampled by fellow rioters. Kevin Greeson and Benjamin Phillips succumbed to a heart attack and stroke, respectively, driven by the surrounding chaos. But those five Americans were not the only victims of the siege on the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. When mayhem broke out at the U.S. Capitol, live coverage kept Americans watching, horrified by the events unfolding. Most people upon viewing the shocking footage, had one question, “Why is no one stopping them?” By the looks of it, on-duty Capitol Police allowed Trump supporters to take the building by force. The nearby rally in support of then-President Donald Trump should have alerted local authorities to double down on security. Instead, a violent riot was successfully incited; Trump now faces a Senate impeachment trial for his role. As new information comes to light, the extent to which the D.C. law enforcement was also responsible remains hotly debated.
The subsequent suicide of Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, who was present at the scene on January 6th, 2021, showcases the complex police response. Liebengood was 51-years-old and had guarded the Capitol’s Senate Division since 2005. On January 11th, Capitol Police union chairman Gus Papathanasiou confirmed the committed suicide.
Presumably plagued by his involvement in the mass tragedy, Howard Liebengood’s death reaffirmed just how woefully ill-prepared the U.S. Capitol Police was. USCP made only 14 arrests on January 6th. In some videos, it looked as if officers were actively aiding rioters into the Capitol building. So far two Virgina officers have been suspended for this reason. Conspiracy theories have abounded following the officers’ botched response. Unsurprisingly, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund quickly resigned. Yogananda Pittman is now the acting chief of the Capitol Police. In addition to Howard Liebengood, it was announced this week that MPD officer Jeffery Smith has also taken his own life following the traumatic attack on the Capitol. Acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Robert J. Contee III said, “Five people lost their lives on January 6th... Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and four others. And tragically, two officers who were at the Capitol on January 6th, one each from the Capitol Police and MPD, took their own lives in the aftermath of that battle. We honor the service and sacrifices of Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, and Jeffery Smith, and offer condolences to all the grieving families.”
Jeffrey Smith had worked in the District of Columbia for the Metropolitan Police Department for 12 years. Further details regarding his suicide are unknown, as his family could not be reached for comment. Additionally, Robert Contee said the MPD “is working to support the emotional well being of our officers” following the unprecedented insurrection.
Yikes, looks like the New York Police Department has a lot to explain. Turns out an NYPD officer was arrested on Thursday morning in Long Island on child pornography charges for allegedly soliciting explicit videos and photos from underage girls. According to the law enforcement officers, Carmine Simpson is assigned 75th Precinct in East New York. The 26-year-old allegedly used Twitter to convince minors to send him sexually explicit pictures and videos of themselves. The officer allegedly also told dozens of children to physically hurt themselves.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Farrel, “The defendant verbally abused children online, encouraged those children to physically abuse themselves, and intentionally persuaded numerous minors to produce sexually explicit photographs and videos of themselves and send them to him via the internet.” She continued, “Most disturbingly, the defendant was not only verbally abusive but he also encouraged certain victims to engage in destructive behavior, such as cutting themselves with a knife, choking themselves with belts and hitting themselves.” The FBI stated that between April and November of 2020 Simpson used social media to converse with 46 different children between the ages of 13 and 17. He would then move the conversation from Twitter to TikTok, Snapchat, or Discord, and would try to FaceTime the kids in order to have phone sex. The police officer allegedly messaged a 13-year-old girl in September 2020 convincing her to send him videos of her inserting a hairbrush into her vagina. One of the messages read, “Babygirl don’t stop… Keep the videos coming for me.”
Another 15-year-old girl sent Simpson around 50 files of child porn which included separate videos he had asked for in which she is choking herself with a belt and masturbating. The cop also targeted a 13-year-old transgender child asking them to slap and gag themselves, while drawing their body with a sharpie. Prosecutors stated his destructive behavior extended beyond soliciting violent child porn. The officer, who had a police-issued weapon, told a minor that he liked “gunplay.”
That same day the Brooklyn officer told another child, "I literally want to hold a gun to a girl’s head and tell her 'this better be the best orgasm of my life or I’ll blow your brains out.'" He told another child that he wanted to carve words into their skin with knives. According to the feds, they sent a letter to a judge that Simpson should be held in jail pretrial due to the disturbing allegations.
The NYC officer was charged with production of child pornography and is now facing a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted. He was ordered held without bail during his arrangement in Long Island federal court. Simpson has been an officer in the 75th Precinct in East New York since October 2018.
Police officers are giving credit to a woman for helping them stop a thief from getting away with a robbery, using an unusual method. So how did she do it? Well, she performed a sex act on him, keeping him distracted and in one place until the officers could show up, as they reported.
A 24-year-old armed robber was holding up a Shell gas station in Bratislava, Slovakia, early Wednesday. He was forcing the petrol station’s staff member to hand over all the cash they had in the cash register, which resulted in the employee escaping to the back office after he got punched in the face by the gunman. Enter this mystery woman, who came in to apparently save the day. The unidentified 36-year-old Czech woman had entered the petrol station through the backdoor with promises to help the employee stall the thief until police arrive. So what did she do? She started performing oral sex on the armed robber, right there in the gas station to stop him from going anywhere. The gas station employee already called the police, but when they arrived, they found the robber lying naked on the floor.
It’s still unclear if the woman performed the sex act because she might’ve feared getting assaulted by him, but according to local media, when police came, the woman told them, “Take him, I can’t anymore”
Bratislava police spokesperson Michal Szeiff told TASR, “In one of the rooms, the officers saw the man receiving sexual services from the young woman,” and explained that the thief did resist arrest, forcing officers to use force to detain him. Regardless of why the woman did it, everyone is thankful that she helped catch the criminal.
It’s confusing to feel a certain way about this because, if this was the only idea you could come up with to help stop a crime, would you do it? I mean, hey, there’s no room to judge here, especially if that meant that crime could be stopped one blowjob at a time.
Well, it looks like PETA is back at it and is ready to stir the pot in 2021. Because well, let’s face it, that is what PETA does and will never stop, especially during a pandemic. Basically, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, are being mocked on social media for a tweet they posted on Twitter, saying that calling someone animal names like “pig,” “snake,” or “chicken” is hurtful to the animals themselves. The animal rights organization when on Twitter to explain, tweeting...
So basically, the animal rights group wants you to stop saying anti-animal slurs and animal insults because it hurts animals’ ears.
The organization also shared a chart in the Tweet, with examples of several animal-related insults that they felt were inaccurate and harmful. It included rat for a snitch, chicken for a coward, pig for someone who is repulsive, snake for a jerk, and sloth for a lazy person. PETA also urged its followers to consider, in a general sense, not to insult anyone whether be an animal or human.
But, social media being social media, quickly came at them as soon as the organization posted the chart. One Twitter one user went on to comment, “Animals aren’t oppressed by those words because they don’t understand our language. And have no concept of words and their meaning.” Another user told PETA, “6 years vegan, please stop making us look ridiculous.” Other comments dusted off their crazy pun skills, saying that sloths were literally named after the concept of sloth. This isn’t the first time that Twitter has a field day with PETA. Last year the organization claimed that the term “pet” is derogatory to dogs and cats and other household animals. The animal advocacy group often makes provocative statements such as “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur Campaign” that feature several celebrities posting nude on billboards around the United States. But despite the hilarious jokes from social media users and people who follow them, their social media team continues to engage with its commenters.
Because well, you know the Internet likes a good fight. For example, one Twitter user wrote, “come back to me about being less superior than animals when an anteater builds a house” to which PETA answered, “Building houses is a skill humans excel at, yet there are plenty of skills and talents other animals have humans can only dream of... birds can soar through the sky at ease, ants can organize their labor towards a collective goal, and salmon can swim upstream to find their home!” As I said, they like to stir the pot, and they do it well. I’ll give them that.
So, today's guest is President Obama, and that's such a big deal. He has such a great sense of humor, as does his wife Michelle. I mean, look at their shirts they wore recently...
That might or might not be photoshopped. I dunno. If I had a TARDIS I would love to go to their wedding but knowing my luck I'd get there too late...
Hahaha. Do you know what I love? When people reenact old pictures old pictures of themselves, like this one...
Haha. So, Trump left a note for Biden in the Oval Office desk, and I was lucky enough to get a copy of it...
Hahaha. So, it seems Bernie has a new gig now as I don't think he'll ever run for election again...
Fee chicken for everyone. That's so stupid. That's as stupid as...
Man, that's a stretch. Here's another dumb thing that happened in 2021 so far...
Here are the photo evidence. So, Trump has this button that when he pushed it he'll get a Diet Coke delivered. Well, Biden has done something better...
One of the things I like to do when I'm not writing my third book, or making TikTok videos or researching for this blog is looking up the word "Foghat" on Twitter to see what people are talking about. This is a Tweet I saw recently...
Okay, as you probably know my normal "costume" I wear is t-shirts and either jeans or shorts, sneakers or flip flops. But I was thinking of changing up my style, how about with something like this?
Valentine's Day is around the corner and if you're looking for a card to get someone how about this one?
Okay, so, President Obama's book os the 144th to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club, and Cicely Tyson's book was supposed to be the 145th book... she was going to be on the Phile in a few weeks, but unfortunately she passed away yesterday. So, in honor of Ms. Tyson I will show the book that was gong to be the 145th book in he Phile's Book Club...
Parenting can be hard, especially when kids start growing up and being more independent.
Some parents struggle with letting go of control of their kids and find themselves fighting with them more frequently.
One dad pointed out this problem in his own home in an email to the Phile when his wife and son disagreed.
He found himself angering his wife after siding with their son.
But after seeing her reaction, he wondered if he was wrong for saying anything.
"Am I wrong for snapping at my wife about her parenting? Me and my wife have 16-year-old son. My wife is a very… overprotective mom. This particular incident happened 2 days ago. Our son got home with a pink hair dye, and when my wife asked what that was about, he said he was going to dye his hair pink, of course that was followed up by 3-hour fight. My wife’s reasoning is that he’ll ruin his hair color (naturally he has really light, almost white hair and it’s pretty long). I think its fine, its hair, it’ll grow again it’s not gonna run anywhere. They argued for hours and our son ended up locking himself in his room. This is not the first time something like this has happened and I’m honestly just as tired as my son is, he has to argue with my wife about everything. I mean if a 16-year-old wants to wear some ripped shirt and spiky necklace, he shouldn’t have to fight with her mom about it. Everyone wore dumb shit like that in their teenage years. When I stand up for him my wife berates us both and acts like I’m against her. I’ve talked to her multiple times calmly but it doesn’t seem to work. So after they finished fighting I told her she was just acting ridiculous now and it was getting to the point that her own son doesn’t want to talk to her anymore. I told her that I’m his parent too and if she has a say in his decisions, I have as much of a say. She got extremely upset and started crying about how I should always stick up for my wife.”
There’s a big difference between disagreements and accountability. I have to wonder why the mom/wife is fighting the kid so hard on every little thing. Where is that coming from? It shows that you have been so beaten down by your wife’s behavior that he cannot openly disagree with her. That is troubling. You need to show your son that you think she is being unreasonable. He needs to know that she is not a dictator. You have allowed him to grow up afraid of her. Control issues and/or having an image in her head of how her child should be. The fact that her child is a person independent of that view is irrelevant to her and is causing her to lash out. We’re in a fucking pandemic! Everybody’s dying their hair pink! There’s a fine line between co-parenting and completely disregarding a kid’s feelings. But parents and children equally deserve respect, even when there are disagreements. You are not wring, sir. If you have a problem you'd like my opinion on then email me at thepeverettphile@blogspot.com.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jefferson, shall we?
Look at those clouds! And it's 16 degrees there... brrrrrr. And I thought it was cold here in Florida.
Donald Trump may seem like a hazy memory at this point, like the bad guy in a 4-year-long horror movie we all watched while drunk. But he's a real person who exists, even now that he can't express his every thought on Twitter. And although he's no longer the President, he apparently has no plans to stop pretending he is.
In a press release shared earlier this week, Donald Trump announced that he has established the Office of the Former President in Palm Beach, Florida, where he and former First Lady Melania are currently in residence.
He reportedly plans for this "office" to serve as home-base for future public appearances and other “official activities to advance the interests of the United States.” Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...
Top Phive Things Said About Trump Establishing The Office Of The Former President
5. For the Officer of the Former President... please press 1. For reservations at the Donald Trump Presidential Library Steakhouse... please press 2. If you are a Collection Agent... please press 3.
4. Conservatives: Participation trophies for kids are stupid and wrong. Also conservatives: show respect for the made-up "Office of the Forner President" to help Trump feel better.
3. Trump's Office of the Former President is located on the 4th floor of my Hey, I Used to be on the "West Wing" Building.
2. Office of the Former President... that's like if the Miss Universe runner up went home, made her own crown and called a press conference to put it on.
And the number one thing said about Trump establishing the Office of the Former President was...
1. If it's going to be named Office of the Former President, people should spam this with mail for Obama, Clinton, and Bush.
Cicely Tyson
December 19th, 1924 — January 28th, 2021
On a trip to a place WAY less bountiful.
Cloris Leachman
April 30th, 1926 — January 27th, 2021
She posed nude on the cover of Alternative Medicine Digest in 1997. THAT'S why she was famous.
I guess the state of Florida is welcoming former President Donald Trump with more than just open arms as Rep. Anthony Sabatini announced that he is supporting an amendment to rename a major state highway after the 45th president of the United States. On Wednesday, Jan. 20th, 2021, Trump had skipped the presidential inauguration and flown straight out of the Oval Office into West Palm Beach from the White House, just before now President Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the nation’s 46th president.
The Florida lawmaker is sponsoring a bill to rename U.S. Highway 27, which is a 481 mile-long roadway that runs from Miami, north through Central Florida, through Tallahassee, and the Florida-Georgia border, to the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.” He sent out a tweet on social media, saying, “Looking forward to working on this important designation honoring one of the greatest Presidents in American history.” The state representative isn’t shy about who he supports. His Twitter is full of tweets that support Trump policies and the former Republican president, along with harsh criticisms of the new president just sworn into office. Many of the replies to his tweets have been more supportive that critical, attesting to the audience that supports him.
President Joe Biden has his work cut out from him as he still has to deal with the COVID pandemic and the country is still recovering from the siege on the U.S. Capitol. According to WFLA, the Florida Legislature meets every year for 60 days, and this year, the state’s lawmakers are set to meet on March 2nd, 2021. And within his first day in office, President Joe Biden has signed more than a dozen executive orders, beginning his administration without hesitation.
I guess we can all wait to see what will happen as a new age for the United States begins.
Where do I begin? Today's guest is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. His memoir A Promised Land is the 144th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Please welcome to the Phile... Barack Obama!
Me: Hello, sir, Mr. President, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Barack: Hello, it's great to be here. I'm doing good.
Me: I interviewed you before and Michelle when I had a few politicians on the Phile years ago, but it's so cool to have you here officially. Your memoir A Promised Land is the 144th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. You were the 44th President of the United States so I thought it made sense. Hahaha. What is the book about, sir?
Barack: The book begins with my last day as president. I literally was on the plane flying out of that job.
Me: So, even though President Biden won the election and is now President, what do you think of the fact that more than 71 million Americans have voted for another four years of Donald Trump?
Barack: Well, look, this is a divided country and it's not unique to America. I think we've seen this kind of right wing populism resurgent in Europe. You see nationalist or tribal impulses assert themselves in a lot of countries. There are a lot of factors that contribute to that. Part of it is responses to globalization, responses to technology. I've talked a lot about the degree to which the splintering of the media has created, I think, an ecosystem of conservative media that is very hard to penetrate. And so if you are consuming that news, if that's your source of what's happening in the outside world, then you would think that Donald Trump has not only done great work as president, but you would think that he's justified in taking the positions he's taking. So there are a lot of factors involved. It's important, I think, to remember that. Eighty million people rejected an incumbent president, and that's not something that typically happens, it's only happened a handful of times, modern in modern times in the United States. And so how we bridge that gap between those who I think strongly opposed this president and those who still support him is going to be a big challenge for my good friend Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in office.
Me: How important is it, do you think, for Democrats to try to understand why people voted for Donald Trump?
Barack: I always think it's important because it's hard to get big stuff done if the country is this polarised and there are features of the American system that are different than a typical parliamentary system, you can't just move your platform forward if you've got the majority there. All kinds of ways in which a determined opposition can block everything, not just some things. So I think Joe is going to have to try to arrive at areas of potential compromise. But I think the issues that are taking place now and I write about these in the book, go deeper than just one election or electoral politics. You've seen growing divisions, some of which are deeply rooted in questions of race and gender and date back to the founding of this country, some of which are a result of a changing economy in which, for example, metropolitan areas have seen very different rates of growth than rural areas. And that has created frustrations and resentments that can be harnessed and channelled by populist or faux populists like Donald Trump.
Me: Let's talk about your time in that office. You made clear in the book that Michelle was not all that interested in you running for president of the United States. Am I right?
Barack: She wasn't really that interested in me even running for state senator.
Me: Haha. But you knew you had her vote right?
Barack: No. She said that she couldn't guarantee that I was going to get her vote.
Me: Ha! When she asked you why you wanted to be president what was the answer you gave her?
Barack: In the book I set the scene. We had gone through the process of evaluation. We had determined that I could win. We had determined that the family could probably survive it, even if it wasn't Michelle's preference.
Me: I totally forgot that President Biden and Hillary Clinton were running at that time, sir. What did you think you could bring that they didn't?
Barack: But remaining question was, why are you, Barack, instead of a bunch of other Democrats like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, who were also running at that time? And I indicated that there was some sense that at that moment in 2008, the Democratic Party needed the capacity to excite young people, to excite non-traditional voters, and that maybe I spoke a language that some of these other candidates didn't speak.
Me: Did you tell Michelle or anybody else that if you won things would be better or different? How did you convince the Democratic party?
Barack: What I also said was, "Look, if I win, on the day I take office, the children across America, black and brown kids, kids who don't feel like they're on the inside, they'll think of themselves differently."And as I write Michelle said it's a good answer. And I I do believe that there was some truth to that, that it's interesting. Now, I'll meet 18 year olds or 20 year olds, not just black, but white or Hispanic or Asian, who tell me they took for granted that. A black man could be president, the United States, because I was the only president we knew when they were growing up, and that meant that them as Hispanic or black or Asian, felt that that door was open to me, too. And there's real value in that. I also write, though, towards the end of the book about the fact that that symbolism doesn't replace the need for concrete policies, some of which I got done, some of which I fell short in giving every child a good education, alleviating poverty, making sure that they've got decent housing. So I don't want to overstate the symbolic value. I think when we're dealing with issues like the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and systemic inequality, symbolism only takes you so far.
Me: When you moved into the to the White House, right at the very beginning, one of the butlers who is an older black gentleman says to you, "You don't understand what this means to us." As the first black president, a mixed race man in that office, what do you think was expected of you by the black community?
Barack: You know, it was interesting. That scene was representative of the incredible kindness and generosity of the White House staff and as I describe it, what was interesting was that the White House had maintained a tradition that was common in Washington, D.C., back in the 50s, the 40s, the 30s, where the service crews, the staff, the butlers, the waiters were mostly African-American. That butler who you spoke of had had started with Richard Nixon. So he had long memories and as I described in many ways, was just like one of Michelle's uncles generationally in terms of their experience, their understanding, I think the African-American community was very generous to me in recognizing that. As a first in a tough situation, we were under a different set of pressures, Michelle and I and our girls, that we were going to be scrutinised differently. And as a consequence, I think they were very protective of us. Now, there were exceptions of folks who would challenge my policies and say, what have you done specifically for the African-American community? Or would get frustrated with my insistence that using universal language or pursuing universal programs rather than targeted programmes, oftentimes, as a practical matter, allowed me to build broader coalitions and get more stuff done, including delivering more for the African-American community. And that's a debate that I think all of us in the United States and probably around the world are constantly wrestling with to what extent do I. Aspire to trying to build multiracial coalitions, which means that I then have to compromise and accommodate interests that are not just unique to the African-American community or the black community or mixed race communities in other parts of the world. And to what extent is it important for me to be a champion specifically for a group that has suffered from historic discrimination? And that's a balance that most of the time I felt I got right, but I'm sure there were times where folks were frustrated that I wasn't championing specific issues as focused away as they would have liked.
Me: You were heckled quite a bit, right? How hard was it for you to live through the expectations?
Barack: I meet Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, and he says that I have been coerced with people's high expectations.
Me: What do you say to people who invested certain things in you because of those expectations and they felt as though you'd let them down in that position?
Barack: Part of the reason I wrote the book and probably why I go into more detail on some issues than the average reader might prefer is to try to give people a sense of the choices I was confronting as I'm trying to get various things done. So I use the example of the big health care fight to get the Affordable Care Act passed in America, as you know, is as unique amongst advanced Western democracies in not providing universal health care. And as I describe my preference and the preference of a lot of progressives and folks on the left here in the United States, if I were starting from scratch, would be to set up a single payer plan of some sort. It's more efficient. It's easy to administer and understand Medicare, our version for older Americans is essentially a single payer plan, but it's only for people over 65. And the problem is that wasn't possible. We have a legacy of private insurance in this country. And to try to unwind, one sixth of America's economy would have met too much political resistance, even within my own party. And so we come up with this new system. And to this day, there are Democrats who are disappointed that we didn't get everybody covered. We got 20 million people covered. We didn't completely eliminate the private insurance system, but we tried to make it work as best we could and fill some of those gaps. And what I try to do is describe why that is the right choice to have made because it turns out in any political system, you are rarely going to get 100 percent of what you want. You get 30, 50, if you're lucky, 70 percent of what you want, you leave something on the table and then you go to fight another day in the future, and I think that the danger for someone like me who was elected with outsized expectations and a lot of symbolism is that sometimes your supporters feel as if you're going to wave a wand and it's all going to get done.
Me: And that's not possible?
Barack: And it's not possible.
Me: There's a really powerful passage in the book you write, "It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep seated anxiety. The natural order had been disrupted for millions of Americans, spooked by a black man in the White House. Trump promised an elixir for their racial anxiety." Donald Trump was one of the leaders of the birther movement painting you as a foreigner in the office of the president. Do you think Donald Trump is a racist?
Barack: I think that Donald Trump I don't know what's in his mind and what's in his heart. What I can say is that his rhetoric. Has oftentimes tapped into. Themes that have been used in this country for years in order to block. Of the full participation of African-Americans in our country's lives, he is more than happy to fan racist sentiments and that from a leader, much from anyone who has a public platform, much less the president of the United States, is a problem. This is the kind of rhetoric that whether he believes it or not or he just thinks it's expedient to get him more attention and more power unleashes some dark forces and now is turbocharged in the Internet and we've seen an increase in those kinds of attitudes that have rendered them more acceptable.
Me: So, already since Biden and Kamala here taken office from the get go you can tell there's a different tone, right?
Barack: I think yes, there's a different tone. But what is absolutely clear is that we have seen what used to be or had had been relegated to the fringes of Republican Party rhetoric, now moved front and center, this fear of the other, this suggestion that somehow there's real Americans and then there are people who I guess are fake Americans and somehow the fake Americans tend to look like me.
Me: Can you unleash that? If you're him, can you unleash that without being a racist?
Barack: I mean, I know I just wonder whether it matters whether he's identified, whether he's defined as a racist or whether he's just involved. I guess that's my point, Jason. It doesn't really matter. Right? I don't, I'm not interested in his motivations. I'm not interested in what's in his heart. I'm interested in what he does. You know, I remark in the book the fact that in my first two years in office, he was actually quite complimentary of me, right, at a time when he perhaps thought that was expedient. Then he decides, well, maybe taking this approach of being a right wing populist and xenophobe is to my advantage and that the impulses that he taps into those existed well before he decided to run for president. As I described we have a prototype in Sarah Palin.
Me: I remember hearing Trump saying your friends in Chicago were part of a group that, "launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Man, these are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes." What was take on that?
Barack: He was not an originator of this. But as I said, whether he cynically riding that wave to achieve his ends or whether it taps into something he actually believes. Here's what I can't say for certain that he does not consider it his job to fight against racist sentiments. He does not consider it to be one of the goals of any leader, American or Canadian or otherwise, to try to tamp down those kinds of darker impulses. And that, to me, is a failure of any leader who is complicit, whether by commission or omission, in the kind of thought processes and actions that lead to racist behaviour discrimination or worse, then they're not doing their job.
Me: You're bruised by this, but as you write about in the book, I mean, Michelle is really affected by some of the stuff that comes out. Why do you think that was?
Barack: Well, Michelle and I temperamentally are different. She is somebody who maybe is naturally inclined to be a little less optimistic about human nature. Our experiences are different. She grew up on the south side of Chicago. I grew up in Hawaii. Hawaii is not a perfect place, but it does temper your cynicism when it's 80 degrees outside and there's a beach five minutes away and I'm growing up in a multicultural society that has its own tensions, but they're very different than the kind that is experienced in Chicago in the 60s and 70s. But I I think that Michelle and I are in some ways sort of the yin and yang of the African-American experience generally, which historically has been, I go back and forth feeling as if, you know what, there's real progress that's being made and we can get to the promised land and there are times where things look bleak and it looks as if the country is backtracking. And Michelle may articulate certain doubts or frustration or anger or hurt more than I might, but on any given day, I obviously there are times where I'm feeling exactly like she is and and there are times where she's the one who has to pump me up and get me encouraged.
Me: Okay, so, what do you think President Biden's to mend after the Trump administration?
Barack: I think we've got some bigger problems in terms of managing America's role internationally because we ceded a lot of that leadership most recently on how we deal with the pandemic and recovering our credibility around basic things like science and our role in public health around the world. That's going to be a tough one to to dig ourselves out of a hole on.
Me: On your desk in the Oval Office, you had a plaque and the plaque said "hard things are hard." Clinton could've had the same plaque. Hahaha. What did that phrase mean to you as the president?
Barack: Well, it started as a joke. David Axelrod, one of my top political advisers, we were sitting in the Oval Office, I think it was during the health care fight, but it was on one major issue and Axelrod, we were going around the room and Axelrod wanted to make a point about the political perils of a particular thing that we're trying to do, and he said, "Hard things, Mr. President, are hard." And I laughed. I said, "Well, that's a brilliant insight." For my birthday he then gave me that plaque, but it actually turned out to be a useful one to remind myself, I have to have that mindset as president and probably for a lot of other stuff, which is sometimes stuff, I just have to put elbow grease to it and sometimes I have to recognize that the problems I am addressing are tough. There are not perfect solutions. As I write in in the book, if if a problem is easy, somebody else has solved it. The only problems that landed on my desk as president were problems that nobody else could solve and there are a lot of smart people out there in the federal government. So if it got to my desk, it meant that one way or another there was going to be issues, problems, and you were dealing with probabilities. What I might try might not work, I might fail, but what that plaque reminded me of is, is that I try anyway. I go at it, that's me. I take some maybe perverse pleasure in taking responsibility for doing hard things, understanding that it's not always going to work out exactly the way I want.
Me: Do you think that sentiment has been missing in the last four years?
Barack: I think so, yes.
Me: So, what was the best perk of being in the White House?
Barack: Apart from the plane, the best perk of being in the White House is being able to invite musicians to come in and perform in my house. And so I had Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan and Lin-Manuel Miranda and the list goes on and on and on.
Me: Next to you as one of the biggest guests I had on the Phile in the years was Paul McCartney, sir. Can you tell me about the time that Paul McCartney came in and serenaded Michelle at the White House?
Barack: That was lovely. This was Paul McCartney had been awarded the Gershwin Prize, which each year is given to a renowned composer. And so there was a celebration of McCartney's music, but he was in attendance. And at the end, he then performed several songs. We're sitting on the front row of myself, Michelle, our daughters and my mother-in-law.
Me: What did he sing to her?
Barack: "Michelle." He's strumming on the guitar and singing this to her and she's blushing a little bit.
Me: That's crazy! What was that like? She must've loved it!
Barack: All the attention and eyes are on her, and I, I tried to imagine what her parents would have said when she was born back in 1964. So let's say she's I don't remember exactly when that song comes out, but it's, she's probably two, three, four-years-old. And they're living on the south side and somebody knocked on their door and told them someday she's going to be the first lady of the United States and one of the Beatles is going to be singing that song to her. They would have called the police.
Me: Hahahahaha. What did you think of it?
Barack: It was so improbable and I think it was an indication, a lovely indication of where she had travelled and Paul McCartney could not have been more gracious. He's since that time become a friend and usually when we get together, he likes performing. He's a natural entertainer.
Me: It's not many people who can say usually when we get together about Paul McCartney. Is there anything about the job you miss?
Barack: I miss the camaraderie. I think I've said that there are rare instances outside of wartime where we are with a collection of people where the stakes are so high and the stresses that great and we forge a bond and that feeling of a team and everybody rowing in the same direction to get hard things done is invaluable. And I paint a lot of portraits of members of my staff who became great friends and who who took courageous steps to help the American people. And and there are times where I do miss the the just the mental. Exercise of figuring out hard policy problems, I joked, somebody asked once, would I have liked to have served a third term if I could have? And I say I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have wanted to be out front, but if somebody had said, you can sit in your basement in your sweats and there's somebody else who's playing the president with a microphone in his or her ear, and you can just kind of give suggestions and policy then I might have enjoyed doing that, the pomp of the presidency I don't miss. And I do think that there's a benefit of term limits in getting fresh legs in there and because the job is enormously tough. But having a chance to just look at big problems and saying, all right, how do we solve this? How do we apply logic and reason and compassion and imagination to big issues like climate change or inequality? I enjoyed being part of that process.
Me: So, are you gonna write another book? I wrote a science fiction book last year and about to come out with my second book.
Barack: This is only part of the story. The second volume still to come.
Me: Well, get it out soon, Mr. President. I'll be ending the Phile in September and love to have you back.
Barack: Thank you so much.
Holy shit. Hahaha. That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks of course to Barack Obama! The Phile will be back on Monday with Beck. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain!
Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...
