January 13, 2018

"That pimp and hooker thing you did, wow!" — said Trump to James O'Keefe in 2013.

Writes CNN (drawing on O'Keefe's about-to-be-released book, "American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News").
According to O'Keefe, Trump "suspected Obama had presented himself as a foreign student on application materials to ease his way into New York's Columbia University, maybe even Harvard too, and perhaps picked up a few scholarships along the way."...

"'Nobody else can get this information,'" O'Keefe quoted Trump as saying. "'Do you think you could get inside Columbia?'"

O'Keefe said he explained to Trump that the request did not fall into his "line of work".... "Trump shook my hand, encouraged me to keep up the good work, and half-whispered, 'Do Columbia.'"
ADDED: Trump — if O'Keefe's story is true — seems to have had some idea that Obama's getting into Columbia and Harvard is evidence that he claimed to have been a "foreign student." But I've served on admissions committees at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and I do not think that being "a foreign student" would be very helpful in getting into Columbia or Harvard, compared to having precisely the life story that Obama claimed in "Dreams From My Father" and relied on as he ran for President. And how, in any plausible version of the facts, could Obama have presented himself as "a foreign student"? Let's imagine that he had been born in Kenya, he'd still at most be an immigrant, not a "foreign student."

But who came up with the term "foreign student"? Trump? O'Keefe? CNN?

By the way, who says "foreign student" these days? Inside the educational institution, I only heard "international student." I've long considered that a misnomer, but it seems to have become politically incorrect long ago to say "foreign student" or to call someone a "foreigner." But we call students who come to a school from another state "out-of-state" students not "interstate" students.

I looked up "foreign" in the OED to see if I could find a reason to feel averse to that word, and I discovered that the oldest usage of the word is: "Out of doors; outside. a chamber foreign: a privy (cf. branch B.). foreign darkness = ‘outer darkness’. Obs."
1297 R. Gloucester's Chron. (1724) 310 In to a chambre forene þe gadelyng gan wende.
The word is otherizing. Later meanings include away from home (the opposite of "domestic"), excluded, not part of one's family, and "Alien in character; not related to or concerned with the matter under consideration; irrelevant, dissimilar, inappropriate":
a1642 R. Callis Reading of Statute of Sewers (1647) ii. 103 The Lord of the Copyhold is not to be taxed for the Soil of the Copyhold; for although he might come to it by forfeiture committed, yet that is a forain possibility.
There's the idea of a "foreign object," which often comes up in the context of surgery. And when the word is used to refer to what is outside of one's country, the OED tells us that in British use, it didn't ordinarily apply "to (former) colonies chiefly inhabited by English-speaking people."

132 comments:

MacMacConnell said...

Well we do know Obama posed as a Kenyan to sell / shop his books.

Mark said...

Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports in mainstream newspapers about Trump.

Althouse has gone from being around first class young minds to uninformed demented brains.

It must really depress her

Curious George said...

"Do Columbia"

Awesome.

Chuck said...

If only O’keefe had gotten the story on how Obama, while married to Michelle, got his lawyers to pay off a couple of adult film stars. Days before the presidential election.

No, wait; that’s not right...

tim in vermont said...

Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports in mainstream newspapers about Trump.

Maybe because the mainstream newspapers were shown by Wikileaks to be puppets of the Democrats, bought off with a few glittering parties, lent glamor by Hollywood stars, probably arranged by Harvey Weinstein.

The whole “birther thing” started from Obama’s own publicity for his book. Would you like a link to an image of the promo from his publisher?

For added glee on my part, you can go to Snopes and see the “True” checkmark for yourself:

https://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp

tcrosse said...

Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports in mainstream newspapers about Trump.

Fine young minds will believe anything they read in the newspapers.

Chuck said...

Why didn’t Trump send his own private investigators to Columbia?

You know; the same ones that went to Hawaii for Trump and who were finding out things that they could not believe...

tim in vermont said...

If I were going to shake down a billionaire, days before the election would be a good time!

I will care about this exactly as much as my betters in the Democratic Party care about the rapes at Oxford, Yale, and Little Rock (The ones we know of) perpetrated by His Nibs Billy Blythe Clinton. What a name, BTW. Could have come from a ham handed writer! Like the “Social Activist” I read about named “Budjinski”!

tim in vermont said...

Still feeling butt hurt because Cruz will never be president, Chuck? Or was it Jeb? I notice that you were right on top of this story as it broke, Where did you read it, the Dally. Kos? Democrat Underground? TPM? See it on Rachael Maddow? All of those places where LLR’s get their news first?

Darrell said...

Markie Post can join us and tell us about fucking Clinton in the White house when he was President. The MSM--Mainstream Shithole Media would print it if it weren't the most biased in the World. That's from a new Pew study, for our friend needing citation.

tim in vermont said...

Fine young minds will believe anything they read in the newspapers

RIght, it’s all about reading comprehension and effective absorption of the propaganda! Critical thinking is a white man’s tool, and you will never tear down the master’s house with the master’s tools! <<-- That’s rhetoric, rhetoric is language that sounds like logic, but it’s not. But it does have an undeniable power of its own. Just don’t fly on an airplane that was designed by somebody who believes in it over logic.

Darrell said...

Cruz could be giving us "Smart Amnesty" right now.
Fuck him.

Earnest Prole said...

I will care about this exactly as much as my betters in the Democratic Party care about this war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson.

Chuck said...

Blogger Tim at large said...
Still feeling butt hurt because Cruz will never be president, Chuck? Or was it Jeb? I notice that you were right on top of this story as it broke, Where did you read it, the Dally. Kos? Democrat Underground? TPM? See it on Rachael Maddow? All of those places where LLR’s get their news first?

Oh I knew about Stormy Daniels shortly before Althouse did, I am confident. I was itching for her to post on it.

I got it because I am a WSJ subscriber.

tim in vermont said...

war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson.

Did he beat her up? Doesn’t sound like it. Did he cause her to bleed and leave her in her hotel room crying with torn clothes to be found by her friend, who testified to the fact under threat of imprisonment for lying? Just like the other four contemporaneous witnesses were all under the threat of imprisonment for lying to federal investigators?

Is it really the same thing, if, for a moment, and just, you know, as a hypothetical, you assume for a fact that the six of them were not lying to Federal investigators, just hypothetically... Is it the same thing?

PackerBronco said...

Blogger Mark said...
Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports
using anonymous sources in mainstream newspapers about Trump.

FIFY

tim in vermont said...

Chuck’s first pet: “Stormy,” Street he grew up on: “Daniels Ave.” It’s his drag queen name! No wonder he is so excited!

Earnest Prole said...

The Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media (but I repeat myself) has freed me to believe anything I wish.

Etienne said...

O'Keefe is an admitted liar, and has paid significant settlements to people affected by his manipulated exposées.

Everything he says is disinformation unless proven otherwise. I have no dog in the fight. Just saying...

holdfast said...

Markie Posr?! I loved her on Night Court. One of the very few sitcoms that I ever enjoyed.

David said...

When will those Columbia records come out?

Never. My guess is that they have been destroyed and are no longer in the school's archives. The hive is a instinctively protective mechanism.

While I have long concluded that Obama is a con man of the first order, AAA Grade, I also do not doubt that he was born in Hawaii. He could have pulled off that con, but he did not need to.

Obama is not the worst president we have ever had. The tragedy is that he could have been one of the very best.

tim in vermont said...

My favorite line from the Clinton camp on the Broaddrick rape, and you can read this in Slate, is that she was probably beat up by her husband, because he might have been violent, so since she had an abusive husband, well, you can’t believe anything a whore like that says! OK, I added the very last part.

In what world would a wife going through a divorce, who is assaulted by the man she is divorcing, not bring it up to the whole fucking world! Judge in the case first? The Clinton “Say Anything” World. He had a party to go to with Harvey Weinstein, and some new talent in town looking to make it big in the movies!

Big Mike said...

Althouse has gone from being around first class young minds to uninformed demented brains.

Like yours, Mark.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Mark said...

"Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports in mainstream newspapers about Trump."

So all information published in the mainstream media is true? There's no fake news?

Is it a problem that Trump was hoping to substantiate un-sourced rumors? Is that a bad thing?

Is it a fault that Althouse posts controversial items and allows them to be openly discussed and possibly refuted on her Blog?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Mark said...
Folks here will believe unsourced rumors about Obama but not published reports in mainstream newspapers about Trump.
Althouse has gone from being around first class young minds to uninformed demented brains.
It must really depress her

Tim at large said...
The whole “birther thing” started from Obama’s own publicity for his book. Would you like a link to an image of the promo from his publisher?
For added glee on my part, you can go to Snopes and see the “True” checkmark for yourself:
https://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp


From the linked site:
Is this booklet evidence that Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya? Not even the site that published it made that claim, noting in a disclaimer that:

Andrew Breitbart was never a “Birther,” and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of “Birtherism.” In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.

The editor of the biographical text about Barack Obama which was included in the booklet maintained that the mention of Kenya was an error on her part and was not based on any information provided to her by Obama himself.

It must really depress her.

tim in vermont said...

The Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media (but I repeat myself) has freed me to believe anything I wish.

Sorry if that is what you came away with. For me, it’s more that they reminded me that I need to think critically about everything they say, and to consider all sources of news, and judge them based on my own critical analysis. But if you came away thinking that you may as well live in dreamland, that’s really too bad.

Chuck said...

Yeah, the damned Wall Street Journal and their anonymous sources.

I think Trump should sue them.

Same way he sued the women who falsely accused him of sexual misconduct.

Or the guys who bitch-slapped Don Jr. at a NYC comedy club. Or Lawrence O’Donnell. Or Bill Maher. Or a thousand others.

tim in vermont said...

The editor of the biographical text about Barack Obama which was included in the booklet maintained that the mention of Kenya was an error on her part and was not based on any information provided to her by Obama himself.

Right, and the “underage hookers” who accused Sen Bob Menendez - D New Jersey recanted too!

I bet it does depress her to be. roadkill along the tracks of the Obama train. Didn’t this “porn star” deny it too?

tim in vermont said...

It doesn’t mean, BTW, that Obama was born in Kenya. It is more likely, as Trump suggested, that he lied about it to sell books.

tim in vermont said...

In fact, her “denial” is not inconsistent with her picking up this “random” piece of information from “information” about his academic background.

None if this is inconsistent with him lying to get into a better school than he could have qualified for, even though he attended an elite private school in HI.

Amadeus 48 said...

I am glad CNN brought up Obama's college records again. Inquiring minds want to know, what is Barry hiding? If there were no problems, his records would have been released long ago as proof of his genius from the cradle.

I have always thought that his grades were fine--he has that old BS-er swagger we all remember from college. So I think Trump was on to something on the self-identification line. Don't you think Barry IDed as a Kenyan or an Indonesian somewhere along the line as an admissions or financial aid strategy? As Mac McConnell noted above, his publisher's bio said he was Kenyan for years.

Who knows? Not the public. Thanks to CNN for bringing it up again even if they were just casting shade at Trump (and O'Keefe).

Chuck said...

Damn I love I when the Althouse commentariat goes Full Birther.

I forget, if “Full Birther” requires Meade’s participation or blessing.

narciso said...

What is o'keefe lie about, he was trying to verify why landrieu want accepting feedback re the Louisiana purchase. The npr thing was genuine.

Compare that with Kurt eichenwald he misrepresented a texaco human resources exercise to paint the management as racist, and he kept getting book contracts

readering said...

If anyone really cares about Obama and Columbia read the David Barrow bio.

readering said...

Garrow

Chuck said...

Blogger Amadeus 48 said...
I am glad CNN brought up Obama's college records again. Inquiring minds want to know, what is Barry hiding? If there were no problems, his records would have been released long ago as proof of his genius from the cradle.

Release Trump’s transcripts. And his tax returns.

Trump is the least forthcoming president in the modern era.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Oh noez! Throw them both in jail because it is illegal to point out leftwing lies.

narciso said...

New that a senseless tree murder almost as base as remnicks the bridge.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Obama-Oprah-Menendez-Harvey-McAuliffe-Weiner 2020

Kevin said...

So the O’Keefe book, with all the tales of media misdeeds, will be about birtherism.

In the media, I mean. Chucks presence ensures everything is about birtherism on this blog.

AllenS said...

Poor Chuck, 7 more years of him bitching every day about Trump.

Amadeus 48 said...

Chuck--
I really don't understand how you think about this Trump thing. Sure, we all know what Trump is: a crude, vulgar blowhard who organized his business life along the lines of a P. T. Barnum sideshow. He is pushy, brash, braggadocious, and transparently phony about a lot of things. He has cheated on his wives in the past.

In office, he has been surprisingly effective so far at delivering a conservative governing philosophy. We all know that could change tomorrow.

Why are you so vehemently, continually deriding him? He isn't my cup of tea at all, but we'll have him in office until at least 2020. Why not appreciate and support the good things he has done? It isn't as though he as president has been materially worse that Bush 41 or Bush 43. Who knows what Dole, McCain, or Romney would have done?

I would ask the same question of Bret Stephens, Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, David Frum, etc.

Kevin said...

I’m surprised Chuck wasn’t pointing out yesterday that Trump suspected Obama came from a shithole country.

A real missed opportunity it was.

narciso said...

Yes has the David frum, doing a bad yosemite Sam impression. So the failure of ballot security in dc epistemic closure at npr, issues not even considered by the state run rizzotto press.

chickelit said...

Obama didn’t need to con anyone into getting Kenyan citizenship; it was his paternal birthright. All he had to do was deny it later on. I don’t think most Americans know how dual citizenship actually works.

narciso said...

Much like they pumped up list lectureship in alinsky power dynamic a constitutional law professor, he merely embellished. While his actual job was selling gun confiscation at Joyce foundation and looting the Chicago school system through the annenberg project. His lawsuit against citibank was the stick that enforced subprime bank compliance.

chickelit said...

If Chuck didn’t exist, Althouse would have to invent him. It’s kinda how the comment section works around here.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Pookie Number 2 said...
Chuck: This is why I hang on to these things. To be able to come back and say "I told you so."

Really? Your life is so empty that you gain pleasure from claiming that you've won pointless arguments over absolutely meaningless minutiae?

.
.
.

Actually, that explains quite a lot.

Amadeus 48 said...

By the way, no birther I. Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural born US citizen. The issue is Barry-embarrassment, not qualification for the job.

wwww said...

Don't you think Barry IDed as a Kenyan or an Indonesian somewhere along the line as an admissions or financial aid strategy?


No. For financial aid purposes, identifying as a foreign student is a problem. you're excluded from consideration. Foreign students are also excluded from certain scholarships.

wwww said...

I don’t think most Americans know how dual citizenship actually works.


You have to make a claim on a passport or some other way.

Let's say a couple is vacationing in Florida from Sweden on a baby-moon. Mother goes into labor three months early. Gives birth in Florida. The baby is entitled to US citizenship. But if the baby or parents never apply for it, the baby is not considered by the US to be a US citizen & does not have to pay taxes in the US.

If they do get the baby a passport, then the baby has to pay taxes to the US, no matter where the baby lives or grows up.

Matt Sablan said...

Every professor, administrator and staff member at Columbia is collectively sweating right now trying to remember exactly what they said to who, even if completely not Obama related.

tim in vermont said...

The editor of the biographical text about Barack Obama which was included in the booklet maintained that the mention of Kenya was an error on her part and was not based on any information provided to her by Obama himself.

Do you think she sits around and wonders “How did I make a mistake like this?” How did a random bit of information like that flow out of my typewriter? Am I suffering from some kind of precocious dementia? How in hell did that happen? I know that exactly zero people in the Democratic Operative Core, err, I mean the media, ever asked themselves a question like that, but I bet the answer would have been interesting, or at least good entertainment! You know, like Nixon having his secretary explain how she accidentally deleted that 18 1/2 minutes of tape!

As for “Full Birther”? I happen to think that Obama was the child of an American citizen, and that is good enough for me. Same as McCain, born in the Canal Zone, and I think even Cruz, who was born in Canada. There are plenty of other reasons that those three never should have gotten even close to the Presidency. It’s the obvious inconsistencies in his story, and his bizarre inability to get into a top tier school, even though he graduated from a top college prep program, that is interesting. These are books that will never be written though! Unhelpful!

Matt Sablan said...

I wonder how much of these conspiracy theories could have been nipped in the bud by Obama not lying about being from Kenya to sell books, or more successfully destroying the evidence he did so. Again: I don't doubt he is an American citizen. However, this is kind of his own fault for trying to appropriate a different identity to sell some books.

Amadeus 48 said...

wwww--
Could be. I am sure that there were all sorts of angles that could have been played back then. Who knows what financial aid a worthy Kenyan or Indonesian student could have received from any number of resources funded by well-intentioned global thinkers or international corporate interests?

The point is, Obama kept us in the dark about his college records for some reason.

Barry Soetoro--international man of mystery.

tim in vermont said...

Foreign students are also excluded from certain scholarships.

Yeah, and eligible for others, like, ahem, from the Saudis, to name one. You guys look for just enough answers so that you can stop thinking about a question and settle on your pre-judged opinion. Even if those answers would not be satisfying to you in a question that did not involve your partisan interests.

Matt Sablan said...

"The editor of the biographical text about Barack Obama which was included in the booklet maintained that the mention of Kenya was an error on her part and was not based on any information provided to her by Obama himself."

-- That's laughably bad. If that's the case, how many other errors made it passed them all? If this was the same autobiography that included his composite girlfriend, the other possibility is the editor *knew* this was not entirely correct, but assumed that like several of the other less than true statements, was deliberately false to help make the story more interesting/saleable.

But, no. Obama is the author. Everything on or in that book is his decision. This isn't like a newspaper article that they may change your headline on; when you are a named author and you write a book, you are the final authority on what gets published. This is just classic politician behavior of shifting the blame.

Amadeus 48 said...

"his bizarre inability to get into a top tier school"

Too many bong hits with the Choom Gang and no basketball talent. Have you seen that You Tube video of him throwing up bricks? I bet John Rogers and Arne Duncan let him have five layups every game so he'll feel good.

tim in vermont said...

Does it bother anybody if I don’t care if Trump had a porn star in his hotel room and asked for a little snuggle, not demanded, not physically assaulted, like, His Nibs, Bill Clinton, but asked.

It does appear that Trump seems to kiss women without asking, but he doesn’t then grab their lip with his teeth and bite down to force their submission, like, you know Bill Clinton. He doesn’t get them into his hotel room under false pretenses, like Harvey and Bill, they could make a “buddy movie” porn movie! It doesn’t look like he ever told a girl to “put some ice” on it after forcibly raping her.

Chuck is going to sound off about something that happened between a man and his wife and was brought up during a big money divorce, for which the woman has forgiven him, and says it was just “lawyer talk,” but whatever. Hey, this publicist changed her story too, and now that is the new fact set!

MacMacConnell said...

Obama is the root and personally responsible for the "Birther" issue. First there is the book promotion literature. Second the secrecy of his transcripts, which continue. Third his continued lack of response when the issue came up to produce the birth documents. He purposefully slow rolled it for political reasons to pump the hysteria to his political advantage. How dare anyone ask for proof.

Jupiter said...

I have always supposed that foreign refers to a region in which a foe reigns. Just as a woman is a man with a womb.

Eleanor said...

I'm disappointed Obama is building a clubhouse instead of a presidential library. When you visit the JFK library, you can see his grade reports. Even someone who gets D in history and fails Latin can become POTUS. If Obama had grades to be proud of, he'd put a refrigerator in his new clubhouse and use a magnet to display his report cards. Since he's sealed his records, if there's no truth to his being born in Kenya or enrolled in college as an international student, the only other reason for not sharing his grades is he's ashamed of them. Kennedy was proud of his, even the bad ones, because they were a symbol of hope to slackers. If Obama had a 4.0, he'd be displaying his grades- unless the reports have something else in them to hide.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I'll not allow Trump to be convicted of Obama's many crimes. Best heed.

tim in vermont said...

“I trust the media completely, so now I am free not to think! Thinking is hard!” - Earnest Prole.

tim in vermont said...

Not having to think, is that one of the “Four Freedoms”?

wwww said...

You guys look for just enough answers so that you can stop thinking about a question and settle on your pre-judged opinion.


Or...maybe Althouse and I are familiar enough with admissions selection at prestige American schools to know what works in an admission application.

Althouse is right.

Obama's admissions story had a better chance with him being African American then w/ him being a international student. I know what they judge, and I know the high schools they look for, and I know what gets a kid in and what does not work well.

William said...

I think both Trump and Obama have gamed the system at various points in their lives to their advantage. They're both pretty slick. Not in the same league as Bill Clinton, but pretty slick nonetheless. I wouldn't expect CNN to exert much effort in discovering Obama's transgressions, but they do have a lively interest in Trump's failings. Their interest in O'Keefe is more on crippling him than in giving his stories legs....... Trump apparently never heard of Fusion GPS. That's how these things are done. Trump's an amateur.

MacMacConnell said...

All the literary forensic computer programs say Bill Ayers wrote Obama's books or that Obama wrote all Bill Ayers's books while Obama attended junior high.

Jupiter said...

Obama was not born in Kenya. Neither was his father.

narciso said...

His father was, cane in on the mooney fight in 1959, now frank Davis who was more his mentor yes he was born here.

narciso said...

Yes fusion operates in discrediting whistleblowers, (ie stem express, theranos, that Venezuelan blogger, bill browder) going after romenys man vanderslip that pro American emirate prince (that was Simpson and Schmidt's
First rodeo)

victoria said...


Really, people actually listen to the lies that O'Keefe tells? Again and again, he has proven to be nothing but a liar and an obfuscator.


Please

Vicki from Pasadena

Amadeus 48 said...

wwww- You are undoubtedly right, assuming the same practices used today were used when Obama applied to college.

The problem must be his grades.

tcrosse said...

In Britain in the pre-EU days goods not manufactured in the Commonwealth were labeled "Foreign".

Guildofcannonballs said...

Trump is the finest golfer ever to be potUS, a truly respected and amazing man. Really tremendous, at some fabulous courses.

chickelit said...

Jupiter said...Obama was not born in Kenya. Neither was his father.

Irrelevant if the sanguinis is juicy.

Francisco D said...

I doubt if Obama had bad grades in college, given that elite schools tend to give high grades ... because they only admit elite students. The average grade at Harvard is reputed to be an A-.

It's possible he never showed up to class because he was smoking dope and community organizing. He never struck me as a hard working person. Nonetheless, he is a Class A bullshitter and he could have bullshitted his way to good grades.

He may be embarrassed about the courses he took. Who knows?

Hagar said...

Barack Senior was a "foreign student" at Harvard.
In Junior's case I think it is more about Bill Ayers and his Weather Underground network. It is the mousy secretary that nobody notices, but she has been there forever that count - not the faculty committee.

Jupiter said...

narciso said...
"His father was, cane in on the mooney fight in 1959, now frank Davis who was more his mentor yes he was born here."

His father was not from Kenya, although I'm not sure he knows it. It's a wise child who knows who his father is. But if Obama claimed dual citizenship, he did so on false premises. His father was a Communist from Chicago, who made pornographic photographs of his mother. He didn't want to marry her, nor did anyone want him to. The Kenyan looked better on a birth certificate, and he was willing. I suppose being married to a US citizen helped him get into grad school at Harvard, or maybe they paid him. Anyway, he didn't stick around for long.

Wince said...

I think most people viewed the "birther" thing as a way of hoisting Obama on his own petard.

ARM dropped the second two paragraphs (below) from the Snopes post:

Andrew Breitbart was never a “Birther,” and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of “Birtherism.” In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.

… [W]e discovered, and now present, the booklet described below — one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review.

It is evidence — not of the President’s foreign origin, but that Barack Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.

trumpintroublenow said...

Most of the allegedly racist comments he makes are ambiguous and even though I dislike the guy I am generally willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But then I remember his birther crusade. And the lies he told to keep the story alive.

For example -- Today Show interview in 2011:

"I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding,” Trump told host Meredith Vieira.

“You have people now down there searching, I mean in Hawaii?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “And they cannot believe what they’re finding.”

So what did they find that was so remarkable? Nothing.

narciso said...

I don't think so, ymmmv:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-president-maryland-based-transportation-company-indicted-11-counts-related-foreign

Jupiter said...

Francisco D said...

"He may be embarrassed about the courses he took. Who knows?"

Nonsense. He was really tremendous, at some fabulous courses.

Jupiter said...

Steve Uhr said...

"So what did they find that was so remarkable? Nothing."

You seem to be fairly knowledgeable about this, Steve. I am therefore surprised that you don't know what is public knowledge. They found that what had been presented as Obama's birth certificate was an altered copy, not the original, and that the State of Hawaii was unwilling to release the original, or allow it to be examined.

Kevin said...

So what did they find that was so remarkable? Nothing.

So it's just like the Russian Collusion narrative?

Except the Russian thing has our taxpayer-funded federal agents breaking federal laws to intrude into the activities of private citizens using tools to fight foreign terrorism.

But hey, those comments a private citizen made about the president a few years back, now that's something to really delve into!

Lnelson said...

Chuck,
As long as it's mostly about you:
Why don't you just lay out the case for impeaching Trump?

Most of what you write about Trump is repeated by you as much as Trump himself repeats his own stories. Think about it.

Do you believe that most republicans thought that world famous playboy Trump was a choirboy and that your righteous duty is to inform them of their erroneous thinking?

n.n said...

Something similar happened as a segue to #MeToo, but it wasn't to expose the human and civil rights violations of abortion rites in selective-child and recycled-child, but to fill casting couches, and the pimps included female chauvinists ("feminist").

trumpintroublenow said...

Jupiter. Please cite me to a credible source that the birth certificate was forged. Something other than Inforwars.

Ray - SoCal said...

Stuff I would like answers on:

1. Who wrote Obama’s book.
2. DNA test on Obama. He looks just like the family friend...
3. Obama’s college grades and what he took
4. Explaining the Saudi connection.
5. LA Times tapes
6. Did he have plastic surgery on his nose?

Amazing the dirt dug up on Obama’s foes. Sealed divorce records, Romney’s grades high school , on Obama nothing...

n.n said...

Planned Parenthood is a leading advocate for selective-child (cultural one-child) and a corporate provider of recycled-child. This is neo-National Socialism, but everyone already knows that the abortion chambers exist, and about accompanying Mengele practices.

Jupiter said...

You know, Chuckles, I'm fairly sure that the LLR thing is a pose, and you are just another tool in Soros' shop, perhaps one of the sharper ones. You've got at least 20 IQ points on Igna. But on the off chance that you really are what you claim to be, you say that in 2016 you held your nose and voted for Trump, because the alternative was worse. Do you not see, that the force of that logic is in no way altered by Trump's winning the election? The alternative then remains the alternative now. Hold your nose, if your nose requires holding, but support the Republican President of the United States of America.

Quaestor said...

Vicki wrote: Please

Show us the proof.

Please.

But before you do, make sure you can find three examples of deliberate falsehoods promulgated by O'Keefe or his organization because if one or two is your standard for denouncing someone as "nothing but a liar and an obfuscator," then it is meet to warn your than if your standard were applied to others you may approve of, for example Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama, well ... what's sauce for the goose, as they say.

Jupiter said...

Steve Uhr said...
"Jupiter. Please cite me to a credible source that the birth certificate was forged. Something other than Inforwars."

Uh, Steve, what I would like to cite is a side-by-side comparison of the birth certificate that Obama's campaign released, and the one on file with the State of Hawaii. That would be pretty damned conclusive, wouldn't it? But I can't do that, Steve. Because the original is not available. Of course, if Obama requested a certified copy, it would be immediately forthcoming, and the comparison could quickly be made. Just as all those schools would release certified copies of his transcripts, if he were to ask. I know, I know, he has a right to his privacy. But you see, even a dyed-in-the-wool Obamist like yourself would like to see some evidence, rather than simply accepting the word of a deeply interested party. It is within Obama's power to supply that evidence, and he is unwilling to do so. My considered view is that he's a lying sack of shit, quite literally from the get-go.

tim in vermont said...

Obama's admissions story had a better chance with him being African American then w/ him being a international student. I know what they judge, and I know the high schools they look for, and I know what gets a kid in and what does not work well.

Cash paying students, with funding from some other source, anyways, get a sympathetic look too.

Quaestor said...

Quaestor predicts Vicki will not offer any justification for her denunciation of James O'Keefe.

That's her style, is it not? to swoop into the conversation to make a quick stab at someone's character, then disappear like a paid assassin.

Thank you, Victoria from Pasadena, for not ever failing to descend to my lowest expectations.

Dixie_Sugarbaker said...

I have always thought that Obama was born in Hawaii if for no other reason than why would some young girl want to go to Kenya to have her baby. However, I have wondered if Obama Sr. somehow greased the skids and got a fake Kenya birth certificate created contemporaneously thinking that Obama would one day be the Saviour of Kenya. If he had two, Obama would be free to use whichever one would be most beneficial given the situation..

FullMoon said...


Really, people actually listen to the lies that O'Keefe tells? Again and again, he has proven to be nothing but a liar and an obfuscator.


Please

Vicki from Pasadena


O'Keefs modus operendi is to present part of an undercover video showing establishment in a bad light. MSM then accuse him of editing vid to make target look bad.
After a couple of days, O'Keefe releases more vid further confirming bad behavior by target, and making MSM also look stupid

Libs believe MSM lies and never actually look at his vids.
Current vid exposes twitter for shadow banning pro Trump and Republican views. Twitter shadow banned Scott Adams sometimes.MSM apparently not reporting on this censorship .




Quaestor said...

Steve Uhr wrote: Please cite me to a credible source that the birth certificate was forged. Something other than Inforwars.

Here it is. You will need to invest some time because this presentation is an in-depth forensic analysis of the document submitted to the public by the State of Hawaii and runs about an hour. The analysis has been denigrated by the usual suspects, but to my knowledge has never been objectively discredited.

Fair warning: Only a poltroon would resort to the genetic fallacy.

Gahrie said...

I've always thought that Obama's refusal to release his birth certificate and the sealing of his academic records was because he applied to college as Barry Sotero from Indonesia.

trumpintroublenow said...

Sheriff Arpaio That's the best you can do? -- Protecting the citizens of Arizona by investigating Obama's birth. Charged with criminal contempt. Pardoned by Trump.Can't get much more credible and objective than him.

Quaestor said...

Obama is not the worst president we have ever had. The tragedy is that he could have been one of the very best.

Yeah, too bad. If only Obama had been cloned from Theodore Roosevelt's DNA everything would have been jake.

Jupiter said...

Gahrie said...
"I've always thought that Obama's refusal to release his birth certificate and the sealing of his academic records was because he applied to college as Barry Sotero from Indonesia."

That explains the transcripts, but there's no way Soetero is on the birth certificate. I suspect it lists the supposed father's religion.

Quaestor said...

Steve Uhr wrote: Sheriff Arpaio That's the best you can do?

Posted ten minutes after mine, therefore it is certain you did not watch the video. Outstanding objectively there, Mr. Uhr.

So when do you plan on becoming something less poltroonish?

Quaestor said...

When offered evidence of forgery Steve Uhr shoves his metaphorical fingers into his metaphorical ears, chants "Nah-Nah-Nah! I'm not listening", and falls back on the genetic fallacy like it's a feather bed (a bed of nails to anyone with intellectual integrity).

Jupiter said...

Steve Uhr said...
"Sheriff Arpaio That's the best you can do? -- Protecting the citizens of Arizona by investigating Obama's birth. Charged with criminal contempt. Pardoned by Trump.Can't get much more credible and objective than him."

Did you look up "genetic fallacy" before you resorted to it? I note that you respond to Quaestor's evidence, but not to my observations on what can reasonably be inferred from the absence of evidence that Obama could easily supply.

Quaestor said...

Steve Uhr wrote: Charged with criminal contempt. Pardoned by Trump.

Some courts are contemptible, ask any African-American defense attorney. Ergo, isn't a presidential pardon in order in such cases?

Steven Uhr, having reviewed the evidence the Court of the Gimlet Eye, Judge Quaestor presiding, convicts you of intellectual dishonesty and sentences you to penal recreance for life.

Don't worry. Inga will pardon you.

Ann Althouse said...

"If Chuck didn’t exist, Althouse would have to invent him. It’s kinda how the comment section works around here."

If the comments section were a fictional creation of mine, which characters here do you think are most like what I would have written? Chuck?Why???

Earnest Prole said...

Oops, your commenters have fallen into the shithole again.

tim in vermont said...

Oops, your commenters have fallen into the shithole again.

Yes. It is far easier to call on your membership in a superior caste, our betters, and make disdainful noises than to refute our arguments.

tim in vermont said...

There must be a name for the logical fallacy of “argument by superior self-regard.”

Quaestor said...

If the comments section were a fictional creation of mine, which characters here do you think are most like what I would have written?

Quaestor has occasionally been accused of criminal non-reality, and now that I think about it my inability to turn quickly enough to catch a glimpse of myself typing away (Darn that Einstein, always one step ahead!) makes me suspicious of myself. Consequently, a sheaf of overdue bills is on its way to Madison via FedEx.

eddie willers said...

The editor of the biographical text about Barack Obama which was included in the booklet maintained that the mention of Kenya was an error on her part and was not based on any information provided to her by Obama himself

Easy to see how that could happen.

Who, when first talking to Obama, does not immediately think he is African? And not just from Africa but from Kenya. We are ALL familiar with Keyanian accents. I not only made the mistake he was from Kenya, but I also thought he was from Nairobi. The southside of Nairobi, to be exact. Easy mistake for any editor to make.

Francisco D said...

Jupiter said: "You know, Chuckles, I'm fairly sure that the LLR thing is a pose, and you are just another tool in Soros' shop, perhaps one of the sharper ones. You've got at least 20 IQ points on Igna."

That is what I call damning with faint praise.

buwaya said...

There is a good bit, potentially, to lie about.

The ban on his college records is very curious.

International scholarships possibly, though its possible his grandmother could have paid his way through Harvard. They had resources, though their sources of income are unclear. Punahou school is not cheap (>20K for K-12 now, and comparably so back then), neither were Occidental, Columbia or Harvard.

He had some curious alleged benefactors, particularly Saudi Prince Waleed. And some odd friends, at all times.

There are a heck of a lot of loose ends about that fellow, and everyone he had any connection to.

Chuck said...

Blogger Larry Nelson said...
Chuck,
As long as it's mostly about you:
Why don't you just lay out the case for impeaching Trump?

I wish there were such a case. I have often said that the only circumstance in which I want to see Trump forcibly removed from office is where the evidence is so clear that even the Trump monkey-butler Sean Hannity will stipulate to it.

Because I wouldn’t want Trump to ever be some kind of martyr to Trumpdom.

But I don’t see anything like that as of right now. Need a much better case; with irrefutable evidence.

buwaya said...

I am a fictional character, myself.
My autobiography is a would be novel, albeit unpublishable on account of being quite boring.

Quaestor said...

The Case of Western Civilization vs. Steve Uhr, Motion For Appeal (abstract)

Advocate Quaestor (no relation): We ask the Court to consider the proposition that Steve Uhr may be completely ignorant of the role of bias in the intellectual process of argument. He is apparently unaware that all researchers are biased ab initio. For example, Anne Elk theorizes all brontosauruses are thin at one end, much thinker in the middle, and thin again at the far end. She then presents objective evidence in favor of her bias for the honest evaluation by her peers in matters pertaining to the brontosaurus in expectation of hostile critique from those biased in favor of the contrary thesis. As an honest researcher, Miss Elk is obliged to discard her bias when presented with a brontosaurus with thick ends and a thin midsection. Joe Arpaio is biased, and he has presented evidence that favors his bias, as is perfectly normal in every formal argument.

Rusty said...


"If the comments section were a fictional creation of mine, which characters here do you think are most like what I would have written? Chuck?Why???"

OOOooo. I hate these kind of tests. Greater than 2? x = -1? The Peloponnesian War?

Quaestor said...

My autobiography is a would be novel, albeit unpublishable on account of being quite boring.

Not so! I'm on pins and needles about whether you'll have tomorrow morning's toast with marmalade or butter.

buwaya said...

Neither, no toast. I have always favored rice, eggs and corned beef. With soy sauce.

Or kippers, if I can get them.

My wife has always, er, looked askance.

Still, not good enough for a novel, that daily dispute about breakfast.

buwaya said...

The Pelopponesian war is a good answer to almost anything.
No, really.

Jupiter said...

Ann Althouse said...

"If the comments section were a fictional creation of mine, which characters here do you think are most like what I would have written?"

Whatever is the male-to-male counterpart of gallantry requires me to suggest, Meade.

I do like the question, it is very Althousian.

buwaya said...

It does have to be an essay question though.

Quaestor said...

As a fictional character buwaya will have medium brown toast with raspberry preserve for Sunday breakfast.

Relax. Submit to toast. It is preordained.

Kevin said...

Ann Althouse said...

"If the comments section were a fictional creation of mine, which characters here do you think are most like what I would have written?"


That could go a few different ways.

Characters unlike yourself you'd like to temporarily inhabit to see what you'd learn from inhabiting them, regardless of how they impacted the overall dynamic.

Or who you'd create to ensure the most people would find themselves wanting to join in the discussion, even those which might be necessary but whom you'd struggle to write because you have no interest in exploring their positions.

I guess how you answer that question is the first indication of how you see Ann's purpose: purely intellectual or cruelly commercial.

How do you choose to interpret her cruel neutrality?

buwaya said...

Breakfast.
This is why reality is better than fiction.
Its got a better imagination.

Jupiter said...

I can't speak for the rest of you, but I am certainly a figment of Althouse' imagination.

Darrell said...

I would be a poor choice for one of Althouse's fictional characters. My comments get disappeared by Blogger. And Althouse neglects to put them back until hours pass. Sometimes a day. Only a very latecomer to the thread will ever see them.

Lnelson said...

On a tangent: In the vets office yesterday I perused the Aug 2017 edition of National Geographic. Great article on space, but then I saw one on "Where to go", about what percentage of the world's population still defecates outside.
There was a map with graphics. Although India is the largest offender (50% of the world population that still defecates in the open) the other shitholes are right where Trump was talking about. You can download into a pdf for free at the NatGeo site.

Tim said...

Why would a college age Hawaiian, go to Pakistan with an unnamed traveling partner on a foreign passport? Especially when that country was "off limits" for USA citizen travel?

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Earnest Prole said...

Why would a college age Hawaiian, go to Pakistan with an unnamed traveling partner on a foreign passport? Especially when that country was "off limits" for USA citizen travel?

Isn't the real question why a Sunni Muslim would side with Iran?