‘Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House’ elevated Trump, Obama book says

BY CHACOUR KOOP
NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally as he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, in Miami. Obama will release a memoir on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) LYNNE SLADKY AP

Barack Obama’s highly anticipated memoir says President Donald Trump seized on fears of a Black man in the White House to succeed politically, reports say.

The former president’s latest memoir “A Promised Land” will be released next week, a 768-page book spanning Obama’s “political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency — a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil,” according to publisher Penguin Random House. It will be the first in a volume of presidential memoirs to be published by Obama.

Though Obama’s book ends after his first term, it includes references to his successor and the false “birtherism” conspiracy theory Trump seized upon, according to an excerpt obtained by CNN.

“It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted,” Obama wrote, according to CNN. “Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety.”

The memoir ends as Obama watches the raid to kill Osama bin Laden, NPR reported. It was in the hours before this operation that Obama served up jokes at Trump’s expense at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, mocking the ”birther” conspiracy to the laughter of many in the room except the would-be president.

As NPR editor and correspondent Ron Elving points out, the book is more than “Obama’s answer to four years of Trump’s rhetorical assaults and policy reversals.”

A review in The New York Timesdescribes the memoir as ”nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places” as Obama describes his career — from early campaigns to the SEAL team raid. Though focused on politics, the book also includes personal stories about his daughters and wife, Michelle Obama, according to The New York Times.

“The story will continue in the second volume, but Barack Obama has already illuminated a pivotal moment in American history, and how America changed while also remaining unchanged,” author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes in the New York Times review.

The book will be released Nov. 17.


CHACOUR KOOP is a Real-Time reporter based in Kansas City. Previously, he reported for the Associated Press, Galveston County Daily News and Daily Herald in Chicago.

Contentious Stonehenge tunnel gets UK government approval

A road tunnel near the prehistoric monument Stonehenge has been given the go-ahead despite widespread backlash. The $2.2 billion scheme will not get underway until the second half of 2022 at the earliest.



The British government approved a $2.2 billion (€1.86 billion) tunnel under Stonehenge on Thursday, overruling the recommendations of planning officials.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, administered a development consent order which will allow the conversion of the part of the nearby segment of the A303 road into a two-lane underground tunnel. Currently, the short stretch around Stonehenge is a rare single-lane segment on the A303, which starts suddenly in a hilly area with poor visibility — it's often the site of tailbacks and accidents.

"The Secretary of State agrees the benefits of the development would include enabling visitors to Stonehenge to see the stone circle without the visual and aural distraction of road traffic," Shapps said in a letter giving the green light for the operation.

As well as easing congestion at a site serving double the traffic it was designed for, Highways England argue that the project will restore tranquility to the mysterious circle of stones in southern England by removing the sights and sounds of traffic nearby.

One of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments, Stonehenge includes a 5,000-year-old ditch and a Neolithic stone circle with early Bronze Age burial mounds nearby. It was inscribed on the World Heritage Site list in 1986.



A window into the past
Sometimes the earth reveals them voluntarily, sometimes they are found by chance and often they are searched for - archaeological riches. Excavation sites around the world offer fascinating insights into the origins of our cultures. 12345678910111213

Backlash

But the decision by the UK government goes against the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate, which warned of "permanent" and "irreversible" harm.

VIDEO https://www.dw.com/en/contentious-stonehenge-tunnel-gets-uk-government-approval/a-55580399
The Stonehenge Alliance's Kate Fielden reacts to the decision

Some archaeologists and local residents also oppose the project. They say the tunnel is too short and will damage the archaeological surroundings. They have called for a deep-bored tunnel of at least 4.5 km (3 miles) in length.

Meanwhile, Stonehenge Alliance, a group of non-governmental organizations set up to protect the site, said it deeply regretted the government's decision and would discuss its options.

"This is a World Heritage Site. It is five and half kilometers across. The tunnel is only 3 kilometers long," Kate Fielden from Stonehenge Alliance told DW. "So although the central part of the World Heritage Site will be more attractive to visitors once the scheme is in place, it will absolutely devastate the land to each side. And there will be a huge loss of archaeological remains."

There is now a six-week period in which the proposals may be challenged in the High Court, Highways England said.


FROM STONEHENGE TO CARNAC: 10 MEGALITHIC SITES
The mystery of Stonehenge
This place radiates a magical energy to many. It is still unclear why people erected the structure some 4,500 years ago: Was it a temple, a coronation site or an observatory for the sun? Stonehenge continues to cast its spell, with tens of thousands of visitors making the pilgrimage to the site every year, especially for the winter solstice. 12345678910

jsi/msh (AP, Reuters)

Jason Momoa claiming he was broke and 'starving' after Game of Thrones sparks debate about fame
Posted 1 day ago by Louis Staples 

Getty

The creative industries are going through a very tough time right now.

Projects are stalled, theatres are shut and many people – including freelancers –⁠ are out of work.
But Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa has revealed that, even before coronavirus changed the world, things were far from easy as an emerging actor.

Momoa said he struggled to find work after starring on one season of the HBO show. Things got so bad that his family was “starving” and “in debt”.

The actor, who now portrays Aquaman, told InStyle:

I mean, we were starving after Game of Thrones.

I couldn’t get work. It’s very challenging when you have babies and you’re completely in debt.

Momoa played Khal Drogo during the first season of Game of Thrones, but he was killed off before season 2. Back then, the HBO show wasn’t nearly the hit it ended up to be (with the huge reported per episode rates for its stars).

Momoa said after the show he went through a professional dry spell where it was difficult to get work.

He has since starred in the 2017 film Justice League and 2018's Aquaman

But it’s still prompted a debate about how, away from the glamour of red carpets and photo shoots, making it as a struggling actor is tough.

Just because someone is on TV, it doesn’t mean they’re rich.

But other fans thought it seemed insensitive to compare Momoa’s struggles to people working in normal jobs

One fan wrote on Twitter: “Try being a normal person,” and another said it was “insulting” of him to say he was starving when so many unemployed people across the US are starving right now.

But who is to judge what Momoa's circumstances were?

As one fan wrote:

Actors are like the rest of us. They don’t get work they can’t eat.

And isn't that the truth. Momoa won't be the first creative person to struggle financially, and he certainly won't be the last.

The furious debate around the controversial 'feminist' Mary Wollstonecraft statue, explained
Posted 1 day ago by Isobel van Hagen 

Getty
A memorial honouring the groundbreaking English philosopher and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft was 200 years in the making – although very few were actually pleased with how it turned out.

Known as the ‘mother of feminism’, the 18th century writer is perhaps most well-known for her 1790 work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. And so a sculpture marking her historical significance was finally unveiled on Tuesday in London, and its creators faced almost immediate criticism on social media.

The new silvery naked sculpture – a product of the 'Mary on The Green' campaign – prompted critics to call it 'sexist', 'insulting' and 'demeaning', asking why it did not directly depict Wollstonecraft and, specifically, why she had been 'reduced to a sex object'.

The uproar comes from a lack of awareness about objectifying representations of women as only 'sexy' bodies, something Wollstonecraft spent her life trying to draw attention to.

Feminist activist and author Caroline Criado-Perez, who played a key role in the campaign to erect a statue of women's suffragist Millicent Fawcett, called the artwork “a colossal waste” and “disrespectful to Wollstonecraft herself”.

Writer Tracy King, who was also involved in the Millicent Fawcett campaign, agreed: “It’s a shocking waste of an opportunity that can’t be undone. But hey, tits!”

Others were quick to note that famous male authors are never represented without clothes: “I’ve seen many statues of male writers, rights activists and philosophers and I can’t remember any of them being bare-assed.” One person said.

The artist Maggi Hambling defended her decision to depict Wollstonecraft without clothing, saying that people had "missed the point".

She explained the statue was meant to represent “everywoman” and clothes would have restricted her to a time and place, according to the Evening Standard.

But she added: “As far as I know, she’s more or less the shape we’d all like to be.” It hasn't gone down well

Bee Rowlatt, chairwoman of the 'Mary on the Green' campaign, also came to the statue’s defence saying: "This work is an attempt to celebrate her contribution to society with something that goes beyond the Victorian traditions of putting people on pedestals."

Prominent social commentator Mona Eltahawy refused this notion completely, saying: “Nudity is not the issue. What is being conveyed and for whose gaze is. Why, after years of so few statues of women, is the naked female form of statues being erected for & about women?”

Even so, some were in fact happy about the memorial, calling it 'epic' and 'radical'.

Historian Dr Fern Riddell explained her positive perspective on Twitter:

"I love it because to me it’s a massive combination of themes, I love the water like a raging wave, I like the mechanical aspect of the figure, it reminds me of how women are created in images that never match their thoughts," she wrote

But mostly, people were just confused to the point of hilarity.

As writer Hannah Jane Parkinson said, "I am genuinely crying with laughter at the new Hambling statue of Mary Wollstonecraft. The disrespect...I don't even know where to start."

SEE THE ARTICLE  FOR TWEETS 

https://www.indy100.com/article/mary-wollstonecraft-maggi-hambling-statue-twitter-debate-9724857

And still, the debate rages on...

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Caitlin Moran

@caitlinmoran

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Nov 10

If you want to make a naked statue that represents "every woman", in tribute to Wollstonecraft, make it eg: a naked statue of Wollstonecraft dying, at 38, in childbirth, as so many women did back then - ending her revolutionary work. THAT would make me think, and cry.

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