In July 2009, President Barack Obama made his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa and took his wife and daughters to the Cape Coast Castle, a ghostly whitewashed fort in Ghana that was used to hold and ship Africans to the Americas during the time of the Atlantic slave trade. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Obama compared visiting Cape Coast to visiting Birkenau: “The experience of slavery is like the experience of the Holocaust...
...; there exists a clash between those who wish to preserve the existing social fabric of various districts in the city, and those who desire progress, new structures, and economic development. Examples abound, but the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards is one of the best. Wedged between the historic districts of Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Clinton Hill, and Fort Greene, the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards is the target of the Forest City Ratner Corporation, which is lo...
...an of the NYTimes puts it: “When David Cameron became PM, and announced his austerity plans — buying completely into both the confidence fairy and the invisible bond vigilantes — many were the hosannas, from both sides of the Atlantic. Pundits here urged Obama to “do a Cameron;” Cameron and Osborne were the toast of Very Serious People everywhere. Now Britain is officially in double-dip recession, and has achieved the remarkable feat of doing wor...
...their continued ownership by the Japanese has been a sore point for hardcore nationalists in China for some time now. Imagine the ridiculous and baseless passionate rage surrounding the Falkland/Malvinas Islands in the South Atlantic. Now multiply the dispute between Britain and Argentina by one billion people. Add on the unsettled historical hatred left by World War II (not to mention a long history of other conflicts).Raise to the power of the...
...ooth (as they always do), but in Colorado his campaign would do well to advocate for greater moderation. Romney’s biggest hurdle in winning Colorado is an unusual one for a Republican candidate—comparatively weak funding. The Atlantic reported today that Romney’s Colorado television advertising budget is roughly half of Obama’s, that the Obama campaign have aired 1,800 more commercials than Romney’s, and that Obama boasts 59 Colorado-area campaig...
photo from Wikimedia Commons Every week I scroll through the news and keep an eye out for interesting articles pertaining to Europe so that I’ll have something to scribble about when my CPR deadline rolls around. This week, however, what caught my eye was not any article in particular but rather a gaping and comical discrepancy between two New York Times pieces covering America and Europe, respectively. People often discuss the different mental...
...ckily for the president, it seems like he just may have it. In 2008 and 2012 alike, Obama was known for his widespread grassroots support, which translated into sophisticated field organization. According to Molly Ball of The Atlantic, there is “little reason to believe Romney commands anything comparable to Obama’s ground operation.” Because these field offices work primarily to motivate voters to turn out at the polls, Wisconsin field support w...
...ate the Federal Reserve, Congress, mega-corporations, and the panoply of bureaucrats and government agencies that also effect the ups and downs of the economy. Nor can he change the economic policies of our friends across the Atlantic or our largest trading partner on the other side of the Pacific. There just might be a magic button for foreign policy, though. What the electorate is decidedly ignoring is the Commander-in-Chief’s unrivaled a...
From Wikimedia Commons The U.S. has S.E. Asia in its sights. A few months ago, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made waves with his declaration of the United States’ new naval “strategic pivot” from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. By 2020, the US aims to have the bulk of its navy in the Pacific, up from the current 50-50 split with forces in the Atlantic. Clearly the US powers-that-be think that a little more firepower sho...
...ct the most common-sense and essential policies millions need right now. Either way, it makes clear that we are the ones who have to be there for each other – not in charity, but in solidarity. After “the largest hurricane in Atlantic history,” the government focused on getting Wall Street up and running again while leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. But the lesson is not just the stark revelation of city and national politicians’ prio...
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