Setting up a foundation centered on the library created in your honor seems like a popular post-presidency activity. Got to get good value out of those years before NARA runs it as a regular part of the national archives.
So far, Mr. Obama has raised just over $5.4 million from 12 donors, with gifts ranging from $100,000 to $1 million. Michael J. Sacks, a Chicago businessman, gave $666,666.
Huh, maybe Obama is the Antichrist after all.
Anyway, there is one vague reference to climate change in the article, so it still seems to at least be in the running for things he'll focus on. He's coming to Alaska in a couple weeks, and climate change is likely to be a major focus of the trip based on the limited information available so far.
If non-disgraced presidents are going to start up big foundations as the sphere of plutocratic attention around themselves, what's the point of also making a huge-ass library?
I guess that doesn't really work since 1 is about the foundation instead of the library. I guess the real answer is, why not? If people are willing to give you a billion dollars, you have to spend it on something.
When someone asks, "Are you interested in having more money than God?" you say yes.
I didn't actually read the article before posting 1. I may or may not have now read the article.
Jim Simons is now "a technology entrepreneur"? I guess that sounds more glamorous than "hedge fund manager."
He could dedicate his time to enduring Bush, Cheney, and Blair spend the rest of their natural lives in jail, pour encourager les autres.
Shouldn't a globally popular politician who might have a billion dollars to spend maybe think for a minute about the ways in which technology threatens things we hold dear (like privacy, sleep, and time) instead of thinking "neato?"
You're suggesting that Obama devote his post-presidential career, and a billion dollars in funding, to solving that most crucial problem facing the human race "my smartphone keeps waking me up when it goes beep"?
I'd say that he needs to pick a target that would actually affect human welfare and (crucially) that doesn't already have a huge high-profile foundation behind it. So immunisation is a great one, but it's already taken (GAVI, the Gates Foundation etc). Landmines are really good too (and a personal favourite) but they're taken as well.
In terms of human welfare the biggest missed opportunities are probably traffic safety and indoor air quality. Especially the latter. Traffic safety is a big killer but vehicle manufacturers are making great improvements (under governmental pressure) already.
Almost no one in the West even thinks of IAQ as a problem, but it's IIRC the fourth or fifth biggest cause of morbidity and mortality in the world (according to a WHO friend of mine who was working on the issue). Women cook over open fires or inefficient stoves indoors, and get sick; they're minding the kids while they do it, so the kids get sick. And open fires are terrible in fuel efficiency terms so they have to spend hours getting firewood. ("Hewers of wood and drawers of water" is what the Bible calls slaves, and there's a reason for that.)
It's a particular problem in Africa, and among women and children more than men (who spend more time out of doors). It's under-addressed, because it's not really known about and it doesn't threaten people in the West who think that smartphones going beep are a crucial problem. It's unfashionable. But all that means that there are presumably lots of easy strides to be made.
One of the greatest benefactors to humanity in 19th century Britain was celebrity chef Alexis Soyer, and not the least of his inventions was the Soyer Stove, a wonderfully robust, efficient and simple bit of kit that was still in use by the army over a century later. If the Obama Foundation could roll out some sort of updated Soyer Stoves (Obamacookers) to a hundred million households, what a legacy that would be!
Plus it would wind up Huckabee. "Ovens? I'll give you ovens!"
Conflict prevention is another good one. There is simply no worse thing that can happen to you, as a country, in human welfare terms than to have a war happen on your territory. Even having Communists in charge is not nearly as bad as long as they can restrain themselves from going to war. It was really bad being a Ukrainian (for example) in 1932-39, but it got even worse in 1941.
But, again, there are lots of organisations out there already trying to address this (the UN, for example) with some success, so it's not clear how much extra the Obama Foundation could add.
so it's not clear how much extra the Obama Foundation could add
'Ninja'* assassins, obviously.
'Thinking of starting an aggressive war?'
[sound of throwing star, blow-pipe, whatever.]
'Think again.'
Sudden cut to 'Times of London' front-page:
'Cheney and Blair both mysteriously found dead. Police mystified.'
* arguably ninjas never existed, but, you know, it's a trope ...
The clean, fuel-efficient, cheap-to-make stove, though, is a good one.
I like the stove idea. Ideally with an option to power it with the cheap disposable solar panels that are now coming on stream.
Can somebody explain presidential libraries to me? What goes in them. State documents presumably remain state documents and stay on file in the relevant department. Any interesting memos are presumably confidential, so what's left? A bunch of used envelopes inscribed, "M - if you're calling out for pizza tonight can I get a 4 seasons with extra pepperoni. Love you, B"? I'm sure they're worthy historical institutions, but I've never understood how they work.
I should point out that the cheap stove thing is not completely neglected even at present. As Google will reveal, there are charities out there already pushing various designs of cheap stove that can be put together in an hour by a Malawian roadside welder from an oil drum (or similar). But there's still, I am sure, lots of room for improvement. Though this would leave him open to criticism for being a TED-deviationist who doesn't realise that the only real way to make poor people's lives better is to launch a revolution and kill loads of people.
15: "he had come to believe that while assassination was worse than diplomacy it was definitely better than war, which most people regarded as the same thing only louder" - Terry Pratchett, "Pyramids".
But Obama has been trying the "targeted assassination" thing for some time, with considerably more resources than he would have post-presidency, and though successful it hasn't been entirely popular.
re: 18.last
Yeah, in my model, he'd be doing it with much more spectacular and romantic* methods, and targeting yer actual First World wankers.
* in the sense that people talked about novels as 'romances'.
I think he should take over the reigns of the Carter Center. It has all the infrastructure for do-gooding already in place, but, unfortunately, is going to need a new figurehead soon.
17.2: I think they get some official documents. Scholars go to them. I don't get why either. I'd blame the whole thing on Reagan's followed sublimated desire to worship his corpse, but I think Truman has one.
Gerald Ford sold out Nebraska with his choice of library location.
Just because he was raised in Michigan, educated there, represented it in Congress, and lived there most of his life doesn't mean his library shouldn't have been in Omaha. Then, when people were driving from the airport to downtown Omaha, they could see a sign saying "Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Birthplace" instead of just "Gerald Ford Birthplace."
Wasn't Ford a Yalie? It should have gone to New Haven.
That's even less Omaha-y than any place in Michigan except Michigan Stadium.
Aw, Moby, saw your comment in the other thread and responded there. As another option, the Gerald Ford brand fits better with MI's preexisting identity.
25: For law school, I think. BA from U Michigan. Played football there, maybe QB?
17.2: They usually have large archives for researchers which are accessible to the public. They contain copies of all nonconfidential archived records. Meeting notes, memos, etc. Have you seen the transcript floating around about LBJ ordering trousers from a tailor? There's a ton of material that isn't confidential. Second, they usually have a public museum dedicated to hagiography of the president and history of the era. Maybe an exhibit on fashion that includes some of the First Lady's dresses. Maybe an exhibit on technology with a TV replaying presidential debates. Signed originals of important legislation (as in, several duplicates are considered "original").
27.1: Yes. My bad. I was confused on the threads when I put the other comment there.
Played football there, maybe QB?
Are you crazy? No way he was smart enough to handle all that decision-making! He was center.
Wikipedia says center, long snapper, and linebacker.
To the OP, I think Obama should go back to Chicago and work as a community activist.
He could instead go someplace nice and work in Chicago by way of virtual reality goggles.
"my smartphone keeps waking me up when it goes beep"
I was thinking of the encroachment of work into life, but now that you mention it, it would be nice to have some post-presidential backing for solving the beeping problem.
Anyway, I think it's important to address "first-world problems," too, because the grinding nature of American work life, and the precariousness with which Americans live, provide the material conditions for Americans to act like assholes, which has effects all over the world.
The stove is a nice idea. I could be the only member of the Unfogged community who has actually had carbon monoxide poisoning (it's had no effect on my cognitive abilities, I assure you), with the additional twist that it happened due to indoor cooking...in the Netherlands.
I bet he's got enough money to buy a house in Upper Arlington that's close enough to walk to Graeter's and OSU golf course. That would be a nice retirement is you like golf.
You were cooking indoors in the Netherlands with an open fire?
I could be the only member of the Unfogged community who has actually had carbon monoxide poisoning.
Nope! I did back in 2004 when the furnace in the ancient house I lived in at the time started to leak fumes into the house. I was busy getting divorced at the time so intense headaches and a general feeling of not being able to do anything seemed like par for the course. It was a week of this before I realized something was up. I'm lucky it wasn't the deep of winter or I might have been posting this from beyond the grave.
Barack Obama's post-presidency is Michelle's pre-presidency. She'll be right around Hillary's age in 2032.
I bet he's got enough money to buy a house in Upper Arlington that's close enough to walk to Graeter's and OSU golf course
A nice joke sent our way, thanks.
I assume that my life experiences are close enough to universal that there is no such thing as an inside joke.
the grinding nature of American work life, and the precariousness with which Americans live, provide the material conditions for Americans to act like assholes, which has effects all over the world.
This is very funny indeed. No, the material conditions necessary are "being rich and powerful".
As a country, right, but the attitude of people in the country makes a difference. The only people here who give a shit about sweatshop conditions elsewhere are rich and comfortable. Everyone else doesn't think about it, because they're thinking of how to save their own asses.
42: hahahaha no. Just massively, obviously no.
I mean, come on, there are loads of people working on international labour standards in the US who are far from rich and comfortable.
Why is ajay being an asshole here? Did I miss something?
45 Ajay's being an asshole here? Did I miss something?
He's just upset that our colonialism killed a smaller percentage of subject populations than British colonialism.
48: give it time, Moby. I'm sure you'll get the last few Seminole sooner or later.
The rich don't care for anybody but themselves; it's only the poor who have feeling for the poor, and help them.
I'm generally with ajay and Twain on this. It's true that a lot of poor folks have been convinced that other poor people are their enemies, but rich people never started a union and they generally don't vote for socialists.
Shania Twain is deeper than the rest of us.
51: exactly. I mean, yes, there are lots of rich people* who are doing stuff about sweatshops - and well done them - but there are also lots of poor people doing stuff about sweatshops, both US-poor people in the US and actually-poor people in the countries where the sweatshops are.
*including culturally-rich people; students at high-class universities, for example, who might not be rich right now but are probably going to be
They better be. I'm non-dischargable.
It turns out Shania Twain never sang that famous song about cold summers in San Francisco.