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President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

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Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#91

Post by ceejayoz »

almostApatriot1 wrote: post #69
cyberferret wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the fact that the President should probably not visit foreign cities unless absolutely necessary. In our case, President Obama (and I am a full supporter of his) visited our little town here in Australia (pop: ~100,000) back in 2011 to meet with our Prime Minister to ratify a deal to station about 10,000 US Marines in our town. He was on the ground here for about 6 hours. For the whole day (and most of t…

Sounds like an overreaction by your government tbh. Not Obama's fault. He comes to NYC fairly often, and there's usually more traffic in certain parts but 95% of people in the city wouldn't realize it.

The Secret Service would love to shut down NYC when the President visits. They just can't get away with it. Much easier to do with a 100k person city.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#92

Post by xenadu02 »

random_upvoter wrote: post #21
jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this. Compare…

US Presidential security is a result of a series of assassinations. For whatever reason a lot of people prefer to target the US President. As the US' role internationally has increased over the years the risk has also increased. When presidential security increased nutcases and axe grinders started targeting candidates. The risk is not hypothetical.

The people running the system do matter; change is effected slowly over time through the actions of the people holding office. It might seem like "the exact same politics" but history proves you wrong.

I don't think Trump's election is some reasoned attempt to "shake the tree", otherwise people wouldn't have voted straight-R and handed control of Congress right back to the same Republicans who have controlled Congress for the majority of the past 30 years and are the people actually responsible for the problems in government since Congress controls domestic policy far more than the President.

Trump's election was a combination of apathy of certain D voting blocs, gerrymandering, and people wanting to send a "screw you!" message to some perceived Not Real America™. The total number of votes required to change the outcome is far less than a million in just a few midwestern states.

Gerrymandering is probably the biggest problem we have right now. It's actual electoral fraud designed to disenfranchise the majority's will and I don't see how it is qualitatively or quantitatively different than other forms of electoral fraud like Putin engineering his own re-election.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#93

Post by lern_too_spel »

random_upvoter wrote: post #21
jankotek wrote: post #15

I hope Donald will stay at home. Every presidential visit brings multi-million city to a halt. It has similar effect as an earthquake, major fire or other natural disaster. It is recommended not open windows, there is risk of snipers. International airport is closed for several hours for a single airplane. And main roads are closed everyday while president is traveling. I still remember New Orleans. People could not…

A couple of years back I saw president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on TV talking to a group of people in Tehran. He just stood on the top of a car with a megaphone and a big crowd of people surrounded him. Sure there were a few bodyguards, but you if you wanted you could pretty much tap him on the shoulder. Now I don't want to overestimate the merits of Iranian democracy, but I was kind of impressed by this. Compare…

Iran requires a license for gun ownership, and gun licenses require background checks and passing a test on firearm safety and law.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#94

Post by zeroer »

sctb wrote: post #89
zeroer wrote: post #45

Chelsea Manning might be less free.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13408852 and marked it off-topic.

I didn't mean to troll. I just wanted to point out that it's not true that POTUS is the least free person -- kind of ridiculous to say it. I wanted a quick example of someone everyone knows who is incarcerated.

I don't actually have much of an opinion one way or the other about Manning.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#95

Post by dforrestwilson1 »

berdario wrote: post #46
dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high. I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here. Nifty visualization though.

Is the vetting truly that high? http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-am-on-the-us-kill-list... From what you write, I understand that you mean mistakes in targeting/dropping bombs, but not mistakes in assessing/choosing the target themselves. Or do you mean otherwise?

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/06/154443665/how-the-president-de...

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#96

Post by dforrestwilson1 »

3131s wrote: post #49
dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The statement that only 2% are high profile targets is kind of misleading. The vetting that goes into assessing whether military age males are actually doing bad things is surprisingly high. I am not saying mistakes were not made. Civilians and kids have died for sure, but the majority of those killed were combatants. Implying otherwise makes me doubt the veracity of the other claims here. Nifty visualization though.

How do you know? Internal documents concerning a five month period of airstrikes in Afghanistan showed that around 90% of individuals killed were not the intended targets.

Look at my profile.

Re: President Obama's International Visits from 2009 to 2016

#97

Post by 3131s »

dforrestwilson1 wrote: post #96
3131s wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know? Internal documents concerning a five month period of airstrikes in Afghanistan showed that around 90% of individuals killed were not the intended targets.

Look at my profile.

What about it? The SSL certificate on your personal site is broken.
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