Did you actually bother to read behind the headlines of your links? I suggest that you do before drawing any more conclusions. You are just indulging in confirmation bias.

I didn't claim that Obama care was universally popular. The alt right and their pawns hate it.

Obama recognised the need for international cooperation on climate change and was moving the country towards accepting that change was needed. This isn't easy in the USA but he started. Trump has just abandoned it purely for political reasons, leaving future generations around the world to a much worse future.

Obama inherited the worst economic downturn since the 1930's as a consequence of the banking crisis and, despite being opposed at every turn by a GOP Congress in both Houses, managed to oversee a sustained recovery which happened earlier and faster than in the rest of the developed world. It is the continuation of that recovery that Trump claims the credit for but which he is in the midst of destroying with stupid tax cuts and trade wars.

Obama care was only ever a first step towards making the US health system efficient and free at the point of use, as is the NHS. That it suffered some teething problems with the insurers doesn't change that. Any health care system which exclusively operates on the profit motive is not fit for purpose and the US one provides great facilities for the rich but crap for the poor. As your health is something that society should take responsibility for this is unacceptable in any modern, developed country. That you think it should have been just abandoned, rather than nurtured into delivering what was intended speaks volumes.

Obama signed the Paris Accord and started the process of changing the mindset of Americans on climate change. He was bringing the country into line with the rest of the developed world, along with much of the third world. This wasn't "virtue signalling" at all. It was part of a process which he understood had to be accomplished in stages. Trump is doing his best to ruin that, although I am heartened by the efforts of some States to refuse to be pulled out of playing their part by him.

Foreign policy is largely determined by events and not really made by one person. You can criticise, with hindsight, some of the decisions taken by the USA during the Obama years but that is true of every POTUS. What he didn't do was interject his own prejudices and lack of understanding into foreign affairs as Trump does. He didn't allow himself to be played like a fool by the likes of Kim Jong Un or Putin, support Israel without considering the implications or suck up to murderers in Saudi.

Obama behaved as a POTUS should, with dignity and a sense of fairness for all. He oversaw dragging the USA towards the kind of inclusive social democracy that every modern developed needs and should aspire to. He was rightly respected and admired around the world and as such the President I most admired since Kennedy.

So... tell me how many countries have met their Paris Accord pledges?

Without checking I don't know but it's not the point is it?

Unless you start a journey you will never finish it. Of course some will stumble and there will be obstacles that mean things take longer but this is a process and not an objective in itself.

The USA deciding not to participate, deliberately rejecting the science because of their obsession with their money God and allowing vested interests to spread propaganda, sends completely the wrong message to the rest of the world. It is irresponsible and needs to be called out for the selfishness it is. The sooner the sensible people in the USA regain control the happier I will be. If ever there was a reason why there ought to be a conspiracy to replace Trump then this is it.

It won't impact me (or Trump) because i will be long dead before the projected affects really bite but it surely will my grandchildren and their heirs. We really must do better than that.

This is a double standard you are holding the US to.

All nations are selfish and all nations pursue their own national interest.

The Paris accord is a giant wishful thinking nothing burger which holds no country to actual account for actions.

The US by pulling out is actually being honest which gets criticism from you but you can't point to any major nation in the world which has done anything of note on climate change. And that will continue to be the case.

Indeed, the US is the only superpower which any of us can seriously look to on the technological front in this regard with all the major work on practical commercial alternatives on a mass scale originating from there.

Edited by Stirlingsays (27 Mar 2019 12.53pm)

Seeing as you haven't been keeping up with the Paris Accord and the environmental issues, I will tell you. Virtually every country has failed to meet their targets.

Trump was not prepared to allow factories to shut down and thousands of American workers to go on the dole for a virtue-signalling project that is meaningless if by far the largest polluters China and India don't play by the same rules.

He said: "I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris."

In fact, US government regulation and innovation from the free market has significantly lowered carbon emissions since the 1980s.