August 29, 2012

"2016: Obama's America"

From my movie review in Taki's Magazine:
The last thing I had expected of Dinesh D’Souza’s first Michael Moore-type political documentary, 2016: Obama’s America, was that it would prove one of August’s aesthetic delights. Yet this anti-Obama film’s sumptuous digital cinematography—featuring majestically saturated colors and handheld camerawork that’s never jittery but instead swoops indolently to the edge of trance-induction—ranks it behind only Oliver Stone’s hedonistic drug flick Savages as the psychedelic movie of the summer.

Read the whole thing there.

31 comments:

  1. Obama’s presidency has been increasingly reclusive.

    He's on the down-low.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe Obama is so confident that he'll win reelection that he doesn't even care and isn't trying. Maybe he knows something we don't.

    It's not like Big Men care or try very hard. Big Men in Africa don't even care about feeding their own populations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jimmy conway8/29/12, 6:47 AM

    i dont think there's any danger that obama's going to capitulate to the russians. and if he did, so what? putin isn't a threat to any body except feminist punk rockers

    ReplyDelete
  4. "...but not because I fear that Obama will intentionally surrender. Instead, I’m concerned that, one on one, the formidable Putin would drink our president’s milk shake."

    God bless Putin. The Russians are so lucky.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shakes The Clown8/29/12, 8:05 AM

    Hey Steve,

    Do they usually list you and your reviews as one of the "official" film critics at Rotten Tomatoes?

    I went to movie with my wife. She had read the book and I liked it. She didn't care much for the movie and I had to struggle to keep my eyes open.

    I do think the movie did seem to make Dinesh's claims more reasonable to a wider audience.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mormonism is not Christianity. It's an American Abrahamic religion that has a family relationship to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    Unlike those other three religions, its myths are not shrouded in hoary antiquity, and therefore are rightly subjected to heightened scrutiny and yes, ridicule.


    America would be electing yet another minority in Romney, though it is highly unlikely he will unseat the encumbent.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Russian economy is smaller than California's and Russia poses NO THREAT whatsoever to US foreign policy. Global Zionists rule the world and Obama is their kid. Obama is just gonna follow orders.

    ReplyDelete
  8. putin isn't a threat to any body except feminist punk rockers

    Easily the dumbest thing I've read all week.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The famous Kennedy debacle in Vienna with Kruschev had less to do with Kennedy's health I think than his basic unpreparedness for high office.

    Dan Quayle stepped into it in his VP debate when he mentioned that he had had more experience than JFK. After the assassination Kennedy had become a saintly figure. But Quayle was right, Kennedy had been playboy dilettante senator. He had never held a command position higher than PT Boat commander. He had had no real experience with negotiating with tough capable opponents. He was in over his head.

    Tip O'Neill patronized Reagan at first but soon learned that Reagan was no push over. Reagan had dealt with a hostile legislature before and he had negotiated with studio bosses. I think he claimed that the Communists were not as tough as he had found the Hollywood moguls to have been.

    Poppa Joe Kennedy wanted the White House for his son but no one expected frivolous Jack to be that son. He was sickly - it's true - but more importantly he was non-serious. So when he met with Kruschev he was treading on new ground.

    Obama is similar. Much fun is poked at him over the teleprompter but another device looms larger in my mind when I think of him. Obama doesn't seem to know how to use the telephone.

    After Romney chose Ryan he called up all those who had been considered but passed over. Where did he learn to do that? Maybe when he had to work with a democratic legislature. Maybe when he ran a company. Maybe when he ran the Olympics. Obama simply has not had those kind of experiences. Lyndon Johnson proved that what the Kennedy legislative agenda really needed was a bunch of after dinner phone calls to members of Congress from the most powerful man on earth. Obama simply has never learned how to do that anymore than Kennedy had.

    Albertosaurus

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mormonism is not Christianity. It's an American Abrahamic religion that has a family relationship to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    I can argue that Protestantism is not Christianity either.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hapalong Cassidy8/29/12, 12:41 PM

    I am disappointed that d'Souza chose to go the route of "Obama is soft on defense". A big part of why Obama got elected was that centrist voters had had enough of endless war in the Middle East. Of course, Obama has done little or nothing to improve the situation in that regard. And rather than try to attract those same centrist voters who feel betrayed by Obama's foreign policy, the Pubs are essentially saying that they will go back to his predecessor's foreign policy. Only this time, it will be different because they will gut other government spending to pay for their bloated defense budget. More war, less government services, and lower taxes for the 1%. And the Pubs will have the nerve to act surprised when they lose this November.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Steve, you could not be more wrong on Obama and "Big Man" ism and his national security objectives.

    Taking the latter, Obama has made it clear he wants to unilaterally disarm the US, particularly with nuclear weapons. If re-elected, he would abolish by fiat our nuclear weapons and therefore "make right" ... by inviting attack and punishment by any nuclear force our past racial sins. That's his entire objective, predicated on the view that only White Americans do bad things and that thuggish ex-KGB operatives with a heavy dose of Russian Mafia can be trusted (along with the Chinese and North Koreans and Iranians) with America's security.

    As for Obama being a "Big Man" ... he is. But only with White people. Valerie Jarrett has to constantly pump up his ego to toxic levels, you see this where he boasts he's the smartest guy in his administration and has the most skills and does everything better than the mere mortals he is surrounded with. In addition he has his overt Enemies List, where he punishes those who have donated to Romney by siccing the IRS, DOJ, and EPA on them. As well as encouraging harassment by Democrats with the website public list.

    With even go-along guys like Boehner, his response to everything is "I won" and has done more to energize and unify Republicans by "stick it to them" Big Man-ism than anything Republicans have actually done.

    Obama struts around like Mussolini with his chin in the air, has fake-Greek columns behind everything, while the man is know among his OWN DONORS as being both cold and extremely arrogant and condescending.

    Obama is the typical Black politician: toxic levels of self-esteem mixed with absolute incompetence at doing much of anything and a lack of fear of failure or disaster driving any additional effort or reassessment of anything.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes Obama does not take care of immediate family, leaving that for the people of the United States (Aunt Zeituni, and his drunken driving arrested equally illegal alien uncle, his half-brother rescued by Dinesh D'Souza).

    But that does not mean he is not a classic "Big Man." He is. Look at how his ego has to be pumped up by Jarrett all the time. Heck look at Jarrett's mere presence -- a nothing hack who failed even in Chicago (getting caught taking kickbacks and fired by Daley) but who as you note has connections to the Black Ascendancy in Chicago.

    Look at his Il Duce chin in the air, look at Obama's snubbing, reflexively, of people as diverse as Lech Walesa, British Prime Ministers, etc.

    THEN look at his obsequious bowing to: the Saudi King, even kissing his ring, while other world leaders look on and LAUGH at him; the Chinese Premier, the Japanese Premier.

    OF COURSE OBAMA WILL SELL OUT AMERICA. That's his whole purpose in life. Obama sees himself as the tribune of the Third World and Black America out to punish Whitey. He'd happily destroy the entire nation and consider it a job well done, because Obama is not in this for money. But emotional satisfaction.

    In that he's a classic African Big Man. Of the type that will forgo billions in easy kick-backs, bribes, and consultancies in order to steal a few million NOW and assuage his ego.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hey Steve, I'm sure the Anarcho Tyranny – USPS “SureMoney® (DineroSeguro®)” thing is very old news to you, but I just found out about it. Heh, this gov't is really something, boy.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Obama is a "child soldier" in every sense of the word.

    Child soldiers just want to please the adults, so they will be accepted. They are not accountable.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Who found and killed bin Laden?

    Who authorized the shooting of Somali pirates?

    Who doubled down in Afghanistan?

    Who got rid of Gaddafi?

    Who saved America from a second Great Depression?

    Who saved the American auto industry?


    I think Dinesh D'Souza is indulging in Limbaug/Beck/Fox type of rabble rousing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's interesting how many Christian Indians are playing important roles in the Republican Party as politicians and pundits: Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Dinesh D'Souza, Ramesh Ponnuru....

    While Indian-Americans as a group vote for the Democrats.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dinesh D'Souza loves colonialism. He wishes the British were still ruling India. It bothers him so much that Obama is anti-colonialism that he wrote a book and made a movie to warn Americans about it. Has it occurred to him that the American Republic was founded as an anti-colonial enterprise?

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Obama doesn't seem to know how to use the telephone."

    I actually agree with the rest of your comment, Pat, but that is a puzzler. Care to elaborate?

    ReplyDelete
  20. jimmy conway8/29/12, 5:10 PM

    Paul Mendez:

    Easily the dumbest thing I've read all week.

    easily the gayest thing i've read all week

    ReplyDelete
  21. "Anonymous said...
    Dinesh D'Souza loves colonialism. He wishes the British were still ruling India. "

    I assert without fear of contradiction that they would do a better job.

    ReplyDelete
  22. irishman:
    I I assert without fear of contradiction that they would do a better job.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

    how many famines has india had since 1947?

    ReplyDelete
  23. The video is great, Dinesh asks George O. three times if he is offended that Barry did not help him out of his predicament when he lived in a tin shack; 3 times George responds, "no, I am my own man, he is not responsible for me". Dinesh asks him a FOURTH TIME.

    ReplyDelete
  24. how many famines has india had since 1947?

    About the same as had Ireland after 1921.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Steve is the go-to guy for all things authentically Obama. Linked and riffed here, as usual:
    http://ex-army.blogspot.com/2012/08/2016-still-havent-seen-it.html

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wouldn't India have had a big post-independence famine if it weren't for Norman Borlaug and his Green Revolution?

    ReplyDelete
  27. >>It's interesting how many Christian Indians are playing important roles in the Republican Party as politicians and pundits: Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Dinesh D'Souza, Ramesh Ponnuru....

    While Indian-Americans as a group vote for the Democrats.

    Because the Republican base is at its core Evangelical Christian, and most Indians are not. Indian-Americans were much more comfortable with Reagan's nationalistic and secular vision and gave him signiificant money at a time when they were far fewer in number. At one point, 25% of Reagan's "soft" money came from Indian-Americans (physicians, mainly).

    Like Jews, Indian-American get annoyed when the unctous guys with the Bible show up at their door, unannounced.

    Interestingly, Republicans are much better for India. Also, Obama has really put the shackle on work visas in the name of "American workers".

    On the other hand, Obama loves Indian-Americans, and has recruited some for big positions, including a recent appointment to the US Court of Appeals. He appointed his best friend from college, an Indian-American, Ambassador to Belize.

    ReplyDelete
  28. On the other hand, Obama loves Indian-Americans, and has recruited some for big positions, including a recent appointment to the US Court of Appeals. He appointed his best friend from college, an Indian-American, Ambassador to Belize.

    You are getting off on an ambassadorship to Belize?

    Obama appointed a chinese-american to the most important ambassadorship: to China. He has appointed 3 asians to his cabinet, none of them indians. Judge Koh who presided over the Apple vs Samsung case was appointed by Obama. Its pretty clear that he favors east asians.

    At one point, 25% of Reagan's "soft" money came from Indian-Americans

    I call that the usual BS. There is nothing on the internet to support your claim.

    ReplyDelete
  29. easily the gayest thing i've read all week

    easily the gayest AND dumbest thing I've read all week

    ReplyDelete
  30. Obama does not care for Indian-Americans and as the ethnic group with the highest per capita houshold income in the US, they should be natural Republicans. Instead, they are voting for their own and India's oblivion. Useful idiots, if there ever were any.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Wondering if you can get into a screening of "The Master" for review--I've got this funny feeling it might hit distribution problems & I'll never see it theatrically where I live; whereas you ought to be able to find a way (play the 1970s Valley trivia card if necessary)

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated, at whim.