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Barack Obama

Thursday January 21, 2021

January 28, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 21, 2021

Ford appeals to U.S. president-elect Biden for help securing more COVID-19 vaccines

Ontario’s premier appealed directly to U.S. president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday for help securing more COVID-19 vaccines, a request that came as the province learned it would receive none of the doses expected next week.

April 28, 2020

Premier Doug Ford expressed frustration about a delivery slowdown of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot that means Ontario will receive thousands fewer doses over the next month. 

The province said that could mean its goal of immunizing all long-term care residents in the province by Feb. 15 won’t be achieved.

“My American friends … you have a new president, no more excuses, we need your support” Ford said. “That’s a direct message to President Biden. Help out your neighbour. You want us all to get along, hunky-dory, kumbaya – help us.”

Canada’s doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are coming from a factory in Belgium that is being upgraded to ramp up production in the coming months.

Pfizer, however, also makes the COVID-19 vaccine at a facility in Michigan.

Ford appealed to Biden, who will be sworn in as president Wednesday, to share a million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot from that plant.

June 15, 2018

“We’re the third largest trading partner (to the United States),” he said. “The least you could do in Kalamazoo where the Pfizer plant is, great relationship-building, give us a million vaccines.”

Ford also expressed frustration with Pfizer executives about the vaccine delays and urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ramp up pressure on the company to deliver more of the shots to Canada.

“If I was in (Trudeau’s) shoes … I’d be on that phone call every single day. I’d be up that guy’s yin-yang so far with a firecracker he wouldn’t know what hit him,” he said of Pfizer’s executives. “I would not stop until we get these vaccines.”

January 20, 2017

The federal government said shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to get back to normal levels in late February and early March. 

Canada was to get more than 417,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week and next, but will now get just 171,093 doses this week and nothing the next week.

Trudeau said earlier Tuesday that his procurement minister, Anita Anand, has been on the phone with the company every day, a fact she confirmed in a briefing later. (Toronto Star) 

 

Posted in: Ontario, USA Tagged: 2021-03, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Capitol, Doug Ford, George W. Bush, inauguration, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Ontario, USA, Vaccine

Thursday April 6, 2017

April 5, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 6, 2017

Donald Trump’s response to Syria gas attack: blame Obama

The scale and horror of Tuesday’s gas attack on civilians in Idlib highlighted the vacuum in the Trump administration’s foreign policy making: the incident was met first by silence, then by criticism of Barack Obama.

 

April 10, 2012

Donald Trump described the attack, which killed scores of victims, including many children, as a direct “consequence” of his predecessor’s Syria policy.

 
“These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution,” he said in a statement. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.” 
 
The reflex illustrated Trump’s enduring sense of being in his predecessor’s shadow, reinforcing the impression given by his obsessive tweeting of unsubstantiated claims that Obama wiretapped him.
 

September 13, 2014

As with healthcare, Trump’s policy on Syria has been defined by the desire to unpick Obama’s legacy – without a clear picture of what would replace it.

 
In the absence of a clear vision, the initial response to on Tuesday was silence. 
 
The Idlib attack was swiftly condemned by western capitals and congressional leaders, but the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson – who was visiting neighbouring Jordan at the time – ignored a press question about it, retaining his customary silence in the face of daily world events.
 
He recently described himself as “not a media press access person”.
 
On Tuesday morning, Trump addressed a builders’ conference, but made no mention of the attack.
 
It was only later in the day that the White House spokesman read out a statement from the president, in which Trump used the occasion to score a domestic political point against the Obama administration. (Source: The Guardian) 

 

Satire is fake news, according to some. pic.twitter.com/H8BQwJ1XIh

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) April 6, 2017

Posted in: International, USA Tagged: Barack Obama, chemical, civilian, Donald Trump, Geneva, politics, Syria, USA, Vladimir Putin, weapons, world order

Tuesday March 7, 2017

March 6, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 7, 2017

Trump turns to Congress on wiretap claim, Obama camp denies it, FBI disputes it

President Donald Trump turned to Congress on Sunday for help finding evidence to support his unsubstantiated claim that former president Barack Obama had Trump’s telephones tapped during the election. Obama’s intelligence chief said no such action was ever carried out, and a U.S. official said the FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute the allegation.

Republican leaders of Congress appeared willing to honour the president’s request, but the move has potential risks for the president, particularly if the House and Senate intelligence committees unearth damaging information about Trump, his aides or his associates.

Trump claimed in a series of tweets without evidence Saturday that his predecessor had tried to undermine him by tapping the telephones at Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where Trump based his campaign and transition operations, and maintains a home.

Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said nothing matching Trump’s claims had taken place.

“Absolutely, I can deny it,” said Clapper, who left government when Trump took office in January. Other representatives for the former president also denied Trump’s allegation. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: Barack Obama, bugging, distraction, diversion, Donald Trump, Moscow, Russia, ship, sinking, USA, water skiing, wiretap

Friday January 20, 2017

January 20, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Live Sketch – Acceptance Night – July 23, 2016

Inauguration Day

By Graeme MacKay

January 20, 2009

I’ve Hemmed and hawed about writing this commentary about the passing of one president to a new one but I’m resigned to do so because my 14-year-old daughter asked me what I thought when Barack Obama became president of the United States eight years ago. Lo and behold, and perhaps much to her dismay, I was able to tell her exactly how I felt because I had written about it in this very space. 

In 2009 the talk was all about change. In 2017, it’s all about change but for a different sort of change – change of turning the clock back, and of undoing everything from the previous 8 years. The pendulum is about to swing, and now it’s time for the right to take over Washington. The mood, by contrast to 2009, is somber and somewhat hysterical based on the impression one gets from the news networks, by the entertainment sector, and by the multitudes of liberals either in denial of a Donald Trump Presidency, or ready to pounce on it with massive protests to dampen festivities.

November 4, 2008

In 2009, the celebration was all about an African American becoming president of the United States for the first time in that country’s history. There was an electric feeling in the air that we were witnessing a huge event in the history of a nation so racked by conflict between a white majority and it’s black minority. With all the hope and change promised, and ushered in at the time, there was a strong sense that expectations were set too high to be met. On inauguration day in 2009, there were efforts made upon citizens to be satisfied simply with the fact that a black man had been elected president, and that that achievement on its own merit might be the only thing to surf on at a time so turbulent thanks to the ongoing war on terrorism and the meltdowns in the auto and the global financial sectors. Now all but memories in the mists of time they haunted the dying months of the George W. Bush administration, but were quickly dealt with and remedied by the new one.

January 3, 2014

In 2017, there are a number of problems facing the United States that desperately call for attention that the Obama administration has failed to turn around. Gun-violence and the proliferation of firearms is a battle he surrendered doing anything about half a term ago, as the death tolls from mass shootings and black on black, and police shootings on unarmed blacks made headlines through the years. While poverty and unemployment numbers have been gradually falling under his watch, there are still wide swaths of Americans out of work, living in squalid conditions and feeling left abandoned by the 44th President. Under Obama’s watch the gap between rich and poor widened dramatically, and with it came the Occupy Wall Street movement, which gave rise to the likes of the anti-establishment Senator Bernie Sanders who championed taboo concepts of socialism and wealth distribution to offset economic inequity. It has become widely regarded that this along with the quiet movement of so called fly-over-state Americans, forgotten as their life qualities declined over the past 8 years, rejected a continuation of the status quo in DC, and voted in billionaire reality TV star Donald Trump as a last stitch wild card President who might turn things around.

April 10, 2012

While on the foreign front Barack Obama called back US soldiers from quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan leaving lawless craters only to be filled by Islamic terror groups, born and which grew under his watch. We are reminded that this administration took out Osama bin Laden, a terror fugitive at the time, with little power beyond being a symbol, as a far more dangerous group called ISIS was gaining strength. Now Syria, 5 years into a bloody civil war, marks a terrible legacy left from soured Arab Spring movements, and unmet declarations that American might would take action if redlines were crossed. Today, the dictator still stands in Syria, tens of thousands of his people are dead, and millions more have been displaced and live as refugees half way around the world.  Meanwhile, the old tensions between the U.S. and Russia grow as the competing powers bicker over the future of the region. Guantanamo Bay detention camp never closed as Obama promised 8 years ago, but deadlock in Congress prevented him from doing so here, as it did with many other policies of his administration.  

March 29, 2016

While the challenge was before Barack Obama in 2009 to make good on soaring rhetoric and meet seemingly impossible high expectations, the opposite seems to be true of his successor. Donald Trump carries with him a promise of unknown expectations, where “Hope and Change” becomes a 37 year old slogan recycled from Ronald Reagan to “Make America Great Again”. Ironically, change, now means turning back the clock and undoing much of the achievements of the past administration, namely, killing off affordable health care and derailing the course Obama began of bringing to the USA a universal standard commonplace in the rest of the G7 world. Going to battle with old allies also seems to be a new mantra heralding change as in building walls meant to stem the flow of migrants, be they those trying to enter through Mexico, or refugees seeking safety from bombardment by western fighters and U.S. drone missiles showering down on their countries. Barriers to trade, in concert with the advocates of Brexit, shows a growing resistance to globalization, with aims to win better deals with little concern about costs to consumers in the aftermath. Ending the post World War II alliance known as NATO will satisfy a gripe over membership dues for the price of throwing European security to the dogs.  

June 9, 2016

When the pendulum swings there is meant to be a rebalancing of policies past and present, not a wholesale annihilation of the previous administration, or indeed, treaties and alliances that have existed for a multitude of Presidents. The optics of a rich, white wolf in Republican clothing, slayer of the first woman party leader, torch bearer for Islamophobia, with the support of white supremacists like no other candidate in recent history, taking over from the first black President will be the first lasting legacy of this historic transfer of power. The wrecking of all that was built may almost certainly symbolize an executive form of lynching unlike anything we’ve seen before. How humiliating it must be for Barack Obama to watch the very man who challenged him on his birth certificate be given the keys to the oval office before a high powered spray wash from this germaphobe. 

November 11, 2016

Donald Trump enters the White House with a dismal 37% approval ratings. He comes in with a commanding electoral college win, but a popular vote which gave the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton almost 2 million more votes. Much of what we’ve read in advance of the new President is speculation and conjecture and based on unconventional comments candidate Donald Trump has made since becoming a politician only 18 months ago. While in his victory speech he spoke of healing the divisions caused during the election and being a President for all Americans, he has been anything but that during the transition months, sniping at the media, and using Twitter as a bully pulpit, and surrounding himself with far right advisers, and arch-conservative and billionaire cabinet heads. He has been the subject of ridicule and finger wagging by leaders around the world, a direct result of his inability to nuance his thought patterns. 

December 17, 2016

Time will tell how Donald Trump will put his own words to action. If there is any remnant of hope passed on from the previous President it is that his successor will feel the full weight and prestige of the office he inherits and honours the words of his victory speech. The first and foremost change he will bring in is the appointment of a conservative to the Supreme Court which will challenge progressive social causes for, perhaps, years to come.

My first ever drawing of Donald Trump was when I was a student at the University of Ottawa and drew this to headline the Comics page in the March 1, 1990 issue of The Fulcrum.

Is Trump really as conservative as he claims to be? Is he as chummy with Vladimir Putin as we’ve been led to believe? Does he have a plan to replace Obamacare? Will he rewrite or end NAFTA? Can he destroy ISIS? Will he bring peace to the middle east? Is the door of diplomacy between Cuba and the U.S. about to be slammed shut? How will he bring well paying jobs back to the United States and rejuvenate the burned out centres of the rust belt? How will he bridge the racial divides and bring harmony to the United States with walls and law and order? There is change in the air, and the soaring rhetoric of Trump may be more unattainable than ever. We have entered a period of unknown expectations and whether one is old establishment Republicans, new Republican, or even a son or daughter of Donald J. Trump, knows who the new President is except for the real Donald J. Trump himself. There are low expectations that this man will ever be a great President, but when one find oneself in the shoes of an editorial cartoonist the future feels very promising indeed.

Available for purchase…

Posted in: USA Tagged: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, inauguration, sketch, USA

Friday January 20, 2017

January 19, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 20, 2017

President Trump’s Twitter plans: Tweet as usual

President-elect Donald Trump is well on his way to be an entirely new kind of “Tweeter in Chief,” with no plans to cut back on his frequent use of Twitter despite the disapproval of the majority of Americans and a range of security risks.

January 20, 1997 second inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Graphite sketch (Prisma filtered)

He’s tweeting despite the fact that this week a new NBC/WSJ poll reported that 69 percent of Americans believe Trump’s Twitter habits are a “bad thing” and want him to cut back. Just 26 percent of respondents said Trump’s use of Twitter is good, agreeing with the statement that “it allows a president to directly communicate to people immediately.” It’s no surprise that Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s tweets — just 8 percent say it’s good. And Republicans are divided, with 47 percent calling his tweets a bad idea.

January 20, 2001

Though Trump will inherit the @POTUS handle President Barack Obama established in May 2015, along with its 13.2 million followers, Trump won’t give up his personal account, which has 20.3 million followers, and plans to keep tweeting from it. The Obama administration’s “digital transition” team will wipe the timelines clean of @POTUS accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and will archive all that content. (Source: CNBC) 

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: Barack Obama, communications, Donald Trump, inauguration, media, Melania Trump, Mike Pence, social media, twitter, USA, Vladimir Putin
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