Tough Love for Kenya, Goodbye Luther

Out of Africa: President Obama delivered a flattering but tough speech in Nairobi today, telling Kenyans they’ve come a long way in the world but that they still need to clean out corruption, shore up their shaky democracy, and end discrimination against women and ethnic minorities. He urged Kenyans to “choose the path to progress.”

The president was greeted by thousands of people wearing Obama t-shirts chanting, “Obama, Obama, Obama.” He told his audience, “Kenya is at a crossroads, a moment filled with peril but also enormous progress. You can seize the moment.”

In a press conference with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, Obama also went to bat for gay rights in a country where homosexual sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. He said, “When you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they’re doing anybody but because they’re doing different, that’s the path whereby freedoms begin to erode, and bad things happen.”

In a somewhat tense moment Kenyatta said, “It’s very difficult to impose that on people that which they themselves do not accept. For Kenyans today the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue.”

Nation: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she did not send or receive classified email over her private email server while she was secretary of state. “I am confident that I never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received,” she told reporters. The Inspector General’s office said its inspectors found at least four emails that contained classified information.

World: Paris police today opened fire on a car that tried to break through barriers set up for the arrival of the Tour de France. The car and its two occupants got away in an incident that remains unexplained.

> Bitcoin has become the international currency for ransom and computer shakedown payments, the NY Times reports. Criminals demand payment in the virtual currency that are sent to untraceable accounts. There’s no way to put exploding red die in the money that exists only as digits in computers.

Small Screen: Bad news for fans of some of the sharpest comedy on television. The “Key & Peele” skit series on Comedy Central is airing its fifth and final season ending in September. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele say it’s time to end the show and do other things. Few comedians have tackled race and social issues with as much insight and hysterical humor as Key and Peele. Their most famous bit has been “Luther the anger translator,” who says what President Obama can’t.

What Happens in Vegas: A fire yesterday on the pool deck of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas that sent guests scrambling was fed by artificial plants, palms, and cabanas. The only thing real was the flames.

Friday, March 29, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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