Raw Thought, ein Blog von Aaron Swartz, bringt eine schöne, ermutigende Geschichte über Barack Obama:
An Obama Story
John Comaroff is a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, where Barack Obama used to teach. Obama still lives in the neighborhood, Hyde Park. Recently, on the radio show Open Source, Comaroff told this story:
We have a cleaner in our building — 70-something-year-old African American guy; sweet, sweet guy. And every evening he comes into our office about six and takes our garbage and stuff. … He didn’t come in on Tuesday — I was up late, working until I went to see election results. (…)
So [on Wednesday] the guy comes into my office and I say „So, where were you yesterday?“ „Ah,“ he says, „I was in Grant Park [where Obama gave his victory speech].“ „Grant Park?“ „Yeah, right near the front — I could have touched Barack Obama.“ „How did you get there? It’s tough to get tickets.“
He said „You don’t understand. A few years back, I worked Law School, I cleaned the Law School. And Obama’s office was on my run. He worked late many nights and he was really interested. I’d come by cleaning and he’d always stop me for a chat. Sometimes he’d share food with me — he always brought food in — and the thing was, he sat down and he talked to me. He said ‘Tell me about your community. Tell me what’s going on out there. I wanna know. I wanna know what’s out there on the streets. I wanna know how America is living.’“
And one got the sense that this guy, alienated from the political process, alienated from the work process, found in Obama a real human being.
In einem fiktiven Interview eines Fernsehjournalisten mit einem Investmentbanker liefern John Bird und John Fortune, zwei englische Komiker, die ultimative Erklärung, wie es zur Finanzkrise kam.
People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history. Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers.
The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:
That is $686 billion less than the cost of the credit crisis thus far.
The only single American event in history that even comes close to matching the cost of the credit crisis is World War II: Original Cost: $288 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $3.6 trillion
The $4.6165 trillion dollars committed so far is about a trillion dollars ($979 billion dollars) greater than the entire cost of World War II borne by the United States: $3.6 trillion, adjusted for inflation (original cost was $288 billion).
…erklärt ein anonymer Insider en detail im Blog von Joe Nocera (New York Times). Bankcomputer errechnen die Kreditlinien aufgrund einiger Kundenangaben, die nicht weiter überprüft werden. Im Endeffekt bestimmen die Kunden somit ihre Kreditwürdigkeit selbst, zumindest die Linien ihrer Kreditkarten. Wenn der Kunde regelmäßig einen Mindestbetrag tilgt, setzen die Bankcomputer die Limite zudem fortlaufend weiter hoch.
Per Mail werden den Verbrauchern weitere Kreditkarten angeboten – sogenannte „prescreened offers“. „Buy now, pay nothing“ lautet eine Reklame, kleingedruckt steht dann irgendwo „until April“.
Wie wär’s, wenn man derartige Werbepraktiken als ebenso toxisch ansehen würde wie die Tabakwerbung – und ebenso behandelte?
Nach dem Debakel mit den Subprime-Hypotheken droht nun ein ähnliches Desaster mit Kreditkartenschulden, die nicht zurückgezahlt werden können. „The Worst Is Yet To Come“ hat Joe Nocera seinen Artikel daher überschrieben.
„In the United States, the members of the U.S. Electoral College are elected by the people in November once every four years; in December, they are in session and in turn elect the President of the United States; finally, the President of the United States assumes office in January. One is officially the president-elect only after being chosen by the Electoral College, but unofficially the person chosen in the November general election is called the President-elect even before the Electoral College meets; more accurately he is the president-designate until the electoral college meets and votes. An example of the practical effect of the official status is found in the U.S. Constitution’s provision that if the President-elect dies, then the Vice President-elect becomes president on Inauguration Day. That rule takes effect only after the meeting of the Electoral College. If the person unofficially called the President-elect dies before that meeting, then the Electoral College would have broad discretion to choose some other person.
Nevertheless, there is a nearly ubiquitous perception that a president is chosen by the general elections and not by the electoral college, which did much to power the consternation and impatience for quickly resolving the situation involving the Florida recount during the Bush/Gore election in 2000.
US Presidential elections are held in November, but the President’s term of office does not expire until January 20 of the following year. Presidents, and/or other politicians, will usually assemble a ‘presidential transition team’ of some sort, to prepare for a smooth transfer of power following the inauguration. The President often works closely with the President-elect on important policy matters during the last three months of the President’s term, so as to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of operations that have significant national interests. The historical failure of James Buchanan to do this when he was President and Abraham Lincoln was the President-elect is considered one of the reasons leading up to the American Civil War. The problem was made worse by the fact that before 1936/37, the President-elect did not assume office until March, five months after the popular election.“
Außerdem analysiert der „Spiegel“ eine Persönlichkeitseigenschaft Obamas – seine besondere Form „cooler“ Gelassenheit.
„Obamas Coolness hat ihre Wurzeln nicht in Europa, sondern in Afrika. Sie ist eine Eigenschaft, die untrennbar mit dem schwarzen Leidensweg in den USA verbunden ist. „Brothercool“ ist eine seit Jahrhunderten praktizierte Überlebenstechnik für schwarze Männer.Seit dem 17. Jahrhundert mussten schwarze Sklaven damit leben, dass ihre Herren sie misshandelten und töteten, ihre Familien auseinanderrissen und sogar Kinder als lebendige Verkaufsware missbrauchten.
Wer da seine wahren Gefühle nicht im Griff hatte, lebte gefährlich. Schwarze Männer, die offen rebellierten, die ihre Wut zeigten, riskierten ihr Leben. Diejenigen aber, die sich trotz unwürdiger Bedingungen absolut unter Kontrolle hatten, ohne sich innerlich der Außenwelt zu unterwerfen, hatten gute Chancen, ihr Schicksal zu überstehen – und am Leben zu bleiben.“
