After watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Friday night, I stay tuned for a documentary called “As I See It.” It is a great show and I urge you to look for it as it will likely be repeated.
It’s the story of Pete Souza, the White House photographer for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Lots of unscripted moments with both, behind the scenes banter, intimate photos.
When Pete starts talking about Obama, he shows pictures that bring back vivid memories: Obama playing with his daughters. Obama bending down so a little black boy could touch his hair and see it was just like his. Obama visiting with families two days after the Sandy Hook massacre, hugging a bereft mother. Obama addressing the nation about the slaughter of 6-year-olds and wiping tears from his eyes. Obama at the Charleston church where Dylan Roof murdered the minister and members of a prayer group, speaking to a packed house and singing “Amazing Grace.” Obama meeting with the families of military who died in combat and sharing their grief.
What comes through strongly is that we have a president right now who is incapable of empathy, incapable of consoling a grieving parent, incapable of bantering with a child, incapable of any human feeling.
it is a very moving documentary and I urge you to find it and watch it. It reminds us of what compassion, intelligence, and humor in the White House looks like.
I think Trump is an Android. Or is that an insult to Androids?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A beautiful, moving documentary on the photographer, with portraits of Reagan and Obama showing all the wonderful characteristics that Trump sorely lacks..
I saw this extended video essay with exquisite photographs.
I highly recommend it. There will be no comparable record for this president and his family even though he is surrounded by photographers and craves the attention that any photoshoot gives to him.
Pete Souza said in the documentary that Obama gave him freedom to take pictures anywhere anytime. Souza said that all Trump photos are staged. No spontaneity. No candid snapshots.
I saw it, and it brought back memories of when a whole human being occupied the White House and led the country with class, dignity and reason. Those were eight years with no scandals or indictments. That was a time when wearing a tan suit was considered controversial. The Obama family was caring, loving and full of joy. Michelle knew that being first lady would take up a great deal of time so she asked her mother to live with them to help her girls with the transition. They even had a dog. Michelle Obama was one of the best, most down to earth first ladies that I can remember. She and Jill Biden worked directly with gold star families. Her big controversy was that she wanted America to feed its children better and started a garden at the White House.
Unfortunately, in the under belly of our country racism surged during the eight years in response to having a black president. It explains why we now have now, a more divided nation full of hate and anger. Trump has brought out the worst in this country, and we remain polarized. There is no pet in the White House, just a den of vipers. We are suffering from a pandemic and Trump fatigue, and they are both horrible and relentless. We need relief. We need to go to the polls and vote for “Mr. Rogers” without regard to politics. Biden would be a welcome change from all the scandals and conspiracies.
What does one make of the fact that the people who Trump relies on to secure his presidency are the conservative religious
– on his campaign staff
– on his WH staff
– who he appointed to the judiciary, federal agencies, the military and, the executive branch?
Off topic-
How many churches would attract male members if the church’s agenda included treating them as 2nd class citizens?
Reince Priebus rejoined the campaign to elect Trump.
Various articles describe Priebus as a member of Archons, a group of Orthodox Christian men. The Archons.org site has the banner, “Home- Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle”.
Promotion for the annual Archon’s weekend is described as focusing effort on “securing religious freedom for the Mother church”. The site features a photo of Mike Pompeo and the Chuch’s head bishop. Priebus identified “three things that get him through the day, Greek Orthodox Liturgy, the Republican Party Platform”, and a sports team.
Linda,
Since there is no Republican Party platform, Preibus really has only Greek Orthodox liturgy and his sports team. In 2020, the GOP did not write a platform. Literally, it could be summed up as “whatever Trump wants.” Or tweets.
Leonard Leo, William Barr, Neil and Ann Cockery, Mercedes Schlapp (and, husband), the Knights of Columbus, Notre Dame’s Rev. Jenkins, Lou Holtz and Amy Barrett, the USCCB, Mike Pence and his crew are a few who know what they want.
Priebus’ return to aid Trump’s election is presumably more of the same.
Convenient for their agenda to get financing from the despot, Charles Koch, via his contributions to the GOP.
“How many churches would attract male members if the church’s agenda included treating them as 2nd class citizens?”
Assuming that they were of a privileged class, very few, but that’s a lot of assuming. You forget that the church began with what would be considered 2nd class citizens on a good day.
A Catholic writer observed that when American Catholics became haves instead of have not’s, party affiliation changed.
A quote from a commenter at this blog, “Democrats care about people. Republicans care about property.”
My kids were in activities with the black boy (and his brother) who wanted to touch Obama’s hair. The mother was mortified that her son asked if he could do that! They had practiced and rehearsed their dialog and questions for days and then the youngest son came out with that the day of the meeting. She didn’t realize just how meaningful that was for both of her sons until after they had left the WH. It showed just how human and down to earth Obama was.
Obama is human.
He has a brain, a heart, a soul.
Trump does not have any of those so he is pathologically jealous of Obama.
I was one of those white folks who thought racism was out the door because Obama was elected. Yeah, typical middle class white bubble young adult, I know. I swallowed that and was so surprised when people I’d known my whole life had racist jokes that were increasingly edgier, and the slurs came more and more. I was totally confused, and when I started hearing people say that crappy phrase “those people,” I knew it was a far deeper problem than I’d imagined and I think that’s when my anxiety really kicked into gear.
Suddenly people who made fun of FUX news all the time before were tuning in to get their 2-minutes hate…which turned into 2 hours minimum once Dump started getting out there. I was surrounded by folks who turned into grumbling spiteful bigots and barely hid it. I didn’t know them anymore.
I’m barely in contact with any of them now. I was always better with pets than people, anyway, so it’s not that big a loss in my opinion. It’s like all these folks were waiting for Obama to fall on his face and when a black president dared to speak well and be polite and the country didn’t burn to the ground, they had to face their life-long prejudice against black folks and their work ethic head on, and they didn’t like it. And then what do we have now? Easily the worst still breathing human being, because he’s incapable of being human.
Trump is an Android.
Incapable of empathy.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Obama got way ahead of the lowest white men and they didn’t like it. Heck, he got ahead of some of the highest white men and they didn’t like it either.
Trump wants to destroy everything Obama accomplished. He tried for years to prove that he wasn’t a legitimate president.
The wealthy hid what they really thought about Obama by saying, “never again will a community organizer fly the plane”.
People like Charles Koch and Heather Higgins (inherited the VapoRub fortune) guard their money out of fear of colonialist uprisings.
With justice, their fears will be realized and they will be humbled.
It requires the religious turning on them. They are counting on it not happening, looking at the Great Hunger in Ireland when 1 million starved to death for a reassuring example.
One day they will thank Obama for giving them 8 years of peace.
I was trying to remember who said that. Figures it would’ve been LBJ. People don’t believe me when I say that was a real sentiment, and that it was actively encouraged by upper and middle class whites so as to minimize class griping. I’ve got primary source collections that mention it.
Trump is not an Android. He is a Goa’uld. To understand how horrible that is, you would have to watch the Stargate TV series.
The majority of the Goa’uld are genocidal, megalomaniacal, and barely self-aware of their behavior as they enslave, torture, and murder anyone that does not obey them totally.
https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Goa%27uld
Actually, I think Trump is worse than the Goa’uld.
As I sat with my wife watching Peter Souza’s documentary my thoughts turned to the joys of decency and respect. I pray that our nation learns a lesson after the Trumps are thrown out of our house. Elections ,education , and respect matter.
Read up on NPD. The trump lacks the critical brain wiring essential for empathy, compassion and a wide range of human emotions and character qualities. This is about defective brain structure rather than changeable behavior. He may have also been wounded and twisted by his early life experiences but the sick part of sick and wounded is the dominant brain damage. What we see is all there is … this creature can’t be expected to express anything but the predatory behavior he has honed for a lifetime. Expecting him to change, learn or evolve is a fundamental misdiagnosis of what is possible for this kind of brain. There is nothing surprising in his behavior. Expecting change from such a brain is like expecting humans to breathe water without gills.