An astounding summary of President Barack Obama's accomplishments while in office.

 This is a Facebook post by Stuart Rogel shared from an earlier post by Kent Garry. It was written by Teri Carter of the Lexington-Herald Leader. Teri Carter is an opinion columnist who writes about rural Kentucky politics and issues for publications including the Lexington Herald-Leader. As of October 2025, she also contributes regularly to the Kentucky Lantern.  

It's an astounding summary of President Barack Obama's accomplishments while in office.

Sandspur

"Trump supporters say, 'We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.'

Fair enough. Let’s take a look.

The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.

General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.

While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.

Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans. He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.

Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.

He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.

His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.

He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.

For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.

Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.

All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.

While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.

He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting ground breaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.

Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.

Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.

Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.

Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”

Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns........

He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.

He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?

If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish:

may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more."

by Teri Carter, Lexington Herald-Leader

Former Speaker Byrd, please understand, regulators don't regulate just to regulate

Settle in, I've got a lot to say here. You've read my Facebook October 3 response to Johnnie Byrd's comment and some have asked to know if he responded. Well he did. And here is my response to his response. (No, this exchange will not go on any further.

So here was Johnnie's response to my October 3 post:

"Sonny, I know trusting individuals to make their own choices is hard for those who have spent a career as government regulators steeped in bureaucratic power to compel compliance from the populace. Deregulation can be scary but freedom is what makes us a great country."

And here is my response:

Johnnie,
Your comment is clearly trying to paint my public service career as antithetical to personal freedom. Nothing could be further from actuality.

I served 13 months in Vietnam as a U. S. Marine helicopter pilot where I flew over 200 combat missions and served as Forward Air Controller for the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, on the ground, where my job was to call in air support when my unit was under fire. My service to my country — whether in Vietnam or with the St, Johns River water Management District, or the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority — attests to my dedication to public service and a free American Democracy and should not be confused with any uneducated thoughts to the contrary.

Nevertheless, let me share some thoughts for you to consider.

I appreciate your passion for individual liberty—it's THE cornerstone of our democracy. Having spent decades in water management, I can tell you firsthand that responsible governance isn’t about controlling people. It’s about protecting the freedoms we all depend on, i.e., clean water, public lands, access to natural resources that aren’t owned by any single individual or corporation, etc.

Regulation, when done right, isn’t a power grab—it’s a safeguard against exploitation, short-sighted development, and the erosion of shared assets (see Tragedy of the Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons).

I’ve seen what happens when deregulation goes unchecked: polluted and disappearing springs, dried up lakes and wetlands, saltwater intrusion, loss of access to public lands, and communities left to foot the bill for someone else’s profit or unintended mistake.

And let me be clear: I’ve never met a regulator who regulates for the sake of regulating. The professionals I’ve worked with—scientists, engineers, planners—don’t wield personal authority. They operate within frameworks created by elected officials, tasked with implementing laws passed through democratic processes. As you know, in Florida, as elsewhere, regulatory authority is not self-generated, it’s provided through laws and rules propagated by the legislature or other elected bodies.

In fact, if memory serves, you were the Speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives, the very institution from which water management regulatory authority emanates pursuant to Florida’s Constitution. So you are very much aware that the rules we subsequently developed weren’t dreamed up in a vacuum. They were guided by your statutes and further guidance by administrative dictates of the Governor’s Office and State departments AND, then debated at an advertised public forum, voted on, and enacted by water management Board members appointed by the Governor.

So, when we talk about regulation, there’s no regulating just to regulate. We’re talking about the will of the public expressed through laws, laws designed to protect the long-term interests of Floridians, not to stifle them.

Freedom isn’t just the absence of rules. It’s the presence of fairness, accountability, and shared responsibility. That’s what I’ve spent my career defending, not bureaucratic control, but the kind of thoughtful balance that, hopefully, will keep Florida’s natural heritage and sensitive natural systems intact a little longer for future generations.

Sandspur

Former Speaker Johnnie Byrd comments and Sandspur Responds

In response to my post of October 3, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Johnnie Byrd, https://www.facebook.com/johnniebyrd, asked me this question:

"Sonny I am wondering if you could spell what a great job Kamala would be doing if elected other than to bring in another 10 million undocumented Democrats …"

Photo courtesy of

The Florida Bar

Here's my response:

Dear Johnny,

Thank you for your interest in my post written by Heather Cox Richardson who provides a factually documented - and frightening - summary of events that are threatening the very essence of our American Democracy.

I find it unfortunate that you, a person of significant stature, would choose to ignore Ms. Richardson's extraordinary assessment of the dangers facing the future of our country and instead pose a meaningless and blatantly untrue tired political trope to score some kind of point.

Nevertheless, here some facts you might want to consider:

The claim that Kamala Harris would “allow 10 million illegal immigrants to enter the country” is not only misleading—it’s factually baseless and politically inflammatory. As someone who has spent years working in public policy and community advocacy, I believe we, you and I, owe it to whomever might read this to separate rhetoric from reality.

The facts:
Kamala Harris has never proposed an open-border policy. In fact, her immigration stance would blend enforcement with reform. As Vice President, she supported a bipartisan border security bill that would have added over 1,500 Border Patrol agents, expanded detention capacity, and increased the number of immigration judges to reduce backlogs.

As Vice President her primary assignment on immigration was diplomatic: to address the root causes of migration from Central America. She worked with leaders in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to reduce violence, poverty, and corruption—factors that drive irregular and illegal migration. It was a long-term strategy aimed at stabilizing the region, not encouraging unlawful entry.

The “10 million” figure you cited actually refers to cumulative border ENCOUNTERS—not successful entries. Many were repeat attempts, and the vast majority are processed and either expelled or detained. According to Customs and Border Protection, THE ACTUAL NUMBER OF MIGRANTS ALLOWED TO REMAIN IN THE U.S. SINCE 2021 IS CLOSER TO 2.4 MILLION—a far cry from your hyperbolic claims.

Finally, Ms. Harris has stated her support for creation of legal pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, long-term undocumented residents, and essential workers. This approach is consistent with long held American values and economic interests, not partisan manipulation.

Many believe that a Harris administration could “chart a new course” by restoring asylum protections, managing the border humanely, and recognizing immigrants’ contributions to our communities. That’s a far more nuanced and responsible vision than the extreme and hurtful measures now underway by the radical right.

For your consideration.
Sandspur

OUR COUNTRY IS IN REAL DANGER

 https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

MY FRIENDS.
PLEASE, PLEASE, READ THIS.
THEN CALL, WRITE, SPEAK UP.
DO SOMETHING!
OUR COUNTRY IS IN REAL DANGER.

Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian who works as a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Sandspur
___________________________________________________________
October 2, 2025
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

OCT 3

At about 1:00 on Tuesday morning, federal agents from Border Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) raided an apartment building on Chicago’s South Shore Drive. Using helicopters and large vehicles, as well as flash-bang grenades, and dressed in military fatigues, agents broke down the doors of the residents of the five-story building and pulled them from their homes in zip ties, some of them naked. Agents left the people tied up outside for hours before letting all but 37 of them go. The apartments residents returned to were trashed.

Cindy Hernandez of the Chicago Sun-Times reported on the raid, noting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said some of those arrested ““are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes and immigration violators.” It also said the neighborhood was “a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua members and their associates.”

But, as Hernandez reports, DHS did not offer any evidence to support its assertions. Some of the people detained during the raid are U.S. citizens.

Eyewitness Eboni Watson told Cate Cauguiran, Craig Wall, Tre Ward, and Lissette Nuñez of ABC News 7 that the people “was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other. That’s all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where’s the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, ‘f*ck them kids.’”

Eyewitness Darrell Ballard told the reporters: “We’re under siege. We’re being invaded by our own military.”

Today, Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration informed congressional committees that the president has decided the U.S. is in a formal “armed conflict” with the drug cartels the administration has labeled terrorist organizations. If the U.S. is engaged in such an armed conflict, the administration said, those suspected of smuggling drugs for the cartels are “unlawful combatants.”

This declaration backfills the administration’s justification for striking three boats in the Caribbean in September, killing 17. According to international law, Savage and Schmitt explain, in an armed conflict it’s lawful for a country to kill enemy fighters even when they don’t pose a direct threat.

This redefinition is problematic not just because most overdose deaths in the U.S. come from fentanyl from Mexico, not drugs from Venezuela, the home base of the boats the administration struck. Legal experts say that trafficking an illicit consumer product is not the same as armed conflict. It is problematic also because the administration did not identify any of the drug cartels it claims it is engaging in armed conflict, who must be engaged in organized armed combat to be part of an armed conflict.

Even more problematic, as retired judge advocate general (JAG) lawyer Geoffrey S. Corn, who was the Army’s senior advisor for interpreting the laws of war, told Savage and Schmitt, the administration’s declaration is an “abuse” that crosses a major legal line. “This is not stretching the envelope,” he said. “This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart.”

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, posted: “Every American should be alarmed that Pres[ident] Trump has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he labels an enemy. Drug cartels must be stopped, but declaring war & ordering lethal military force without Congress or public knowledge—nor legal justification—is unacceptable.”

The declaration means that the administration is laying claim that the U.S. is in an active armed conflict, which would give the president extraordinary wartime powers. This dovetails with the September 17 demand of DHS that the “media and the far left” must stop “the demonization of President Trump, his supporters, and DHS law enforcement.” It also supports Trump’s warning to military leaders on Tuesday that “[w]e’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy,” followed by complaints that “Venezuela emptied its prison population into our country” and a vow to “straighten…out” the cities “run by the radical left Democrats.”

That assault is underway now, not only through raids like the one in Chicago on Tuesday, but also by administration figures who are using the government shutdown to hurt Democrats and their constituencies. Independent journalist Marisa Kabas reported this morning that the Department of Education changed out-of-office email replies for furloughed employees from generic messages to ones blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. Leah Feiger and Vittoria Elliott of Wired reported that when employees changed their out-of-office responses back to neutral language, the message changed back to blaming the Democrats.

Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought has vowed to cut $26 billion from projects in New York City that Congress approved, despite the illegality of such impoundments, and has vowed to slash the federal government, again without a lawful basis for such cuts. A shutdown gives Vought no more legal authority than he ever had.

Jordain Carney of Politico reports that even Republicans are concerned about the damage Vought is doing to their own constituents as he attempts to weaponize the government against Democrats. But, as Carney reports, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) says the Republicans have no control over what Vought might do.

The nation’s rapid advance toward authoritarianism is one story right now, but there is another: the administration is rotting from inside.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo reports that the groundwork required for the mass layoffs Vought has threatened is not apparent, suggesting the administration is trying to project power it does not have.

The Republicans are trying to pin the blame for the shutdown on the Democrats, but Trump is apparently so unstable he is hurting their cause. The Democrats are insisting they will not be complicit in slashing through Americans’ healthcare. The law the Republicans passed in July—the one they call the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act”—extended tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations but permitted the premium tax credits that subsidized the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) to expire at the end of 2025, and people are already seeing dramatic increases in their healthcare premiums.

On Tuesday, after his 70-minute incoherent speech to the nation’s top military leaders, Trump proved Democrats’ point when he told White House reporters that the administration intends to use the shutdown to cut programs the American people want, including ones that give them access to medical care.

Trump said: “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for [Democrats] and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like. And you all know Russell Vought, he’s become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way. So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown because because of the shutdown, we can do things medically, and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people out.” Then, as if recognizing that he had just proved the Democrats’ point, he added a non sequitur: “We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste, and abuse, and you know we’re cutting that.”

Trump reiterated his support for Vought’s program today, posting: “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

This is another unforced error, with Trump tying himself to Project 2025 after assuring voters before the 2024 election that he had nothing to do with it and knew nothing about it. An NBC News poll from late September 2024 showed that voters who knew about Project 2025 hated it. Only 4% of voters said they liked the plan. It was unpopular even among voters identifying as MAGA Republicans; only 9% of them liked it. As the administration has put Project 2025 into place, it’s unlikely people like it more than they did before. Government agencies are not “Democrat Agencies”; they are agencies that provide services and protections for all Americans. Cuts to them have been widely unpopular.

Yesterday, the day after Trump’s 70-minute rambling talk in front of the nation’s top military leaders, Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA) confronted House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). A camera caught the exchange:

Dean: “The president is unhinged. He is unwell.”
Johnson: “A lot of folks on your side are, too. I don’t control him.”
Dean: “Oh my God, please. That performance in front of the generals?”
Johnson: “I didn’t see it.”
Dean: “That is so dangerous! You know I serve on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations, this is a collision of those two things. Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell.”
Johnson: “I just left the Speaker’s apartment.”

Trump has been posting on social media often since Tuesday but has not appeared in public. Vice President J.D. Vance took the White House press briefing today to answer questions about the government shutdown.
—
Notes:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/trump-drug-cartels-war.html
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/17/dhs-calls-media-and-far-left-stop-demonization-president-trump-his-supporters-and
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-speech-department-of-defense-leaders-quantico-september-30-2025/
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/01/john-thune-interview-shutdown-00591176
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/10/02/congress/john-thune-russ-vought-warning-00591596
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/shutdown-dogs-that-arent-barking-russ-vought-abject-degeneracy-follow-up-edition
https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-federal-agents-surround-south-shore-apartment-building-dhs-requests-military-deployment-illinois/17908911/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-project-2025-broadly-known-severely-unpopular-voters-rcna172660
https://www.wired.com/story/government-workers-say-their-out-of-office-replies-were-forcibly-changed-to-blame-democrats-for-shutdown/
X:atrupar/status/1973066469165400441
Bluesky:
shipwreck75.bsky.social/post/3m27jtuhdb22e
reed.senate.gov/post/3m2a7c44nis2n
whitehouse.senate.gov/post/3m27tgwvz7c2d
thebulwark.com/post/3m27q5rdwdk2b
atrupar.com/post/3m26cxb7ixo2e
marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3m27ovc4xm22j
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© 2025 Heather Cox Richardson
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Heather Cox Richardson

 

"Making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination. While we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us.”   Heather Cox Richardson