President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House Summit on Working Families at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. President Obama, as part of efforts to make the U.S. workplace more accommodating for employees with families, will on Monday direct federal agencies to step up efforts to give workers more leeway in determining their schedules.
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"When women succeed, America succeeds, so there's no such thing as a 'women's issue.'" —Obama #FamiliesSucceed http://t.co/Sxoy8D1PAb
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 23, 2014****
More women are breadwinners in US households. It's time for workplace policies that match. #FamiliesSucceed http://t.co/ySj0Mt6t8X
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US Labor Department (@USDOL) June 23, 2014****
President Barack Obama is introduced by Lisa Rumain of Martinsville, N.J., at The White House Summit on Working Families
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WorkingFamiliesSummit.Org
On average, women are still paid less than men for doing the same work.
It's time to change that → WorkingFamiliesSummit.org #FamiliesSucceed
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 23, 2014****
Christina Hendricks knows the 9 facts about families and work, you should too #FamiliesSucceed whitehouse.gov/sites/default/… http://t.co/ychpjsYiPc
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Betsey Stevenson (@CEABetsey) June 23, 2014****
President Barack Obama sits with, from left, Mark Weinberger, Ernst & Young, Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson and Johnson, Shelia Marcello, CEO of Care.com, Debra Lee, Chairman and CEO of BET Networks, and Dave Lissy from Bright Horizons during their meeting at the White House Summit on Working Families
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Marlei Martinez: Obama Seeks ‘Good, Strong, Healthy Families’
President Barack Obama is encouraging Congress and the country to focus on issues here at home — namely how to improve the livelihoods of working families.Here are the five things we learned from our sitdown with the President: 1. The goal of the summit is … “… to lift up the conversation that everybody is already having individually and let people know you’re not alone out here,” Obama said. Priority one: Paid family leave According to a survey from the United Nations’ labor agency, of the 185 countries and territories with readily available information, only three do not provide paid maternity leave. And, you guessed it, the United States made that list. The other two countries are Oman and Papua New Guinea. “Paid family leave, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t have it,” the President said. “It doesn’t make any sense. There are a lot of countries that are a lot poorer than we are that also have it.”
"I take this personally because I’m the husband of a brilliant woman who struggled to balance work and raising our girls." —President Obama
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The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 23, 2014Priority two: Workplace flexibility The President said he’s pushing for workplace flexibility to give parents the opportunity to become more involved in their children’s lives and education. “We always say that we want parents involved in our kids’ education,” he said. “There are millions of families out there who can’t even imagine taking time off to go to a parent-teacher conference.” This type of workplace flexibility is a practice that he and the first lady believe will improve employee morale and motivation. Priority three: Child care. “We don’t do a very good job providing high-quality, affordable child care, and there are a lot of countries, a lot of our competitors do it,” Obama told Bolduan. “That means that it’s a lot easier for women to be in the workforce and not have to make choices that ultimately mean they’re, in some cases, getting paid less or having less opportunities. And it also means, by the way, that our kids are more likely to thrive.” Add to that list: Equal pay for equal work.
More here
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President Barack Obama mimics someone handing him a baby
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President Barack Obama walks down Calvert Street NW to have lunch at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Washington, before they attended the White House Summit on Working Families. Walking with President Obama, from second from left are, Shirley Young, Shelby Ramirez, Lisa Rumain, and Rodger Trombley
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President Barack Obama with Shelby Ramirez
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Robin Roberts and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House Summit on Working Families
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The Obama Diary 
Good evening!
Good stepping, Alycee.
Just turned on downstairs computer and poof there it was!
And you grabbed the opportunity! Way to go! 🙂
How *are* you, my dear?
Hanging in there. Allergies are kicking my a**, so it is really difficult getting the yard and house ready for 4th of July. My garden is a mess as I was unable to be outside last summer. Thank God I have the O2 this year. Have discovered that the “weird” vine growing over top of my ornamental cherry tree is a grapevine! Clusters of green grapes! Can’t wait to find out the variety; if they are any good, I’ll dig it up and transplant it in the fall. Talk about making lemonade…
Today was sort of productive; was up at 8:00. worked until 2:00. relaxed until 3:30, then took an hour and a half power nap. Now, I’m going to make dinner and put my kitchen back to normal…
Everything here sounds good! Terrific, Alycee! 🙂 🙂 Hope you get some sweet grapes.
Alyceeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Chiiiiiiippppppppsssssssss!!! Hope you saw my comment the other day re: Jan 20, 2017. We’ll still need TOD to cover the post-presidency. If the #newstainers don’t cover the President, they damn sure AIN’T going to cover his post-presidency! Hopefully, TOD will cover the post. Sure some other blogger will develop one to cover the next Dem Pres/administration.
Congrats Alycee!!!
Spectacular, NW!!!!
Thank Bob! BTW, your tweets have been kick-A**; an honor to retweet you!
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks, Bob.
And, to be fair to both members of the First Couple, Mrs. Obama looks younger and happier every day. 🙂
I can’t get ENews, if I could I would be watching FLOTUS.
Good synchronicity with Melanie! 😀
Okay, I’m sure this is all very important. But, truth be told, I can’t get past the suit. Cannot get past the suit. Sigh.
Congrats on 1st, Alycee!
Thanks, JOB!
I agree, JO’B, it is a very, very nice suit. And PBO wears it well, quite well, indeed!
Quite. Indeed! 🙂
1st!
Um…time to do some fact-checking on this claim…
I’m doing my John McCain impersonation, where up is down and down is up, where the last is first and first is last. Besides, its true if I believe it to be true.
Fair enough, Don, just please don’t shove your head up you-know-where like McDipstick does, okay?! 😉
PBO is wearing shades because he’s so dazzled and awed as he looks at me…
Isn’t that Cookemom’s line? 😀
I don’t know what you’re talking about vc. PBO just sent me a text.
Ah, the ‘sent me a text’ defense. Well, since there’s no way I can check that, I’ll simply smh.
I woke up in time to catch the end of the leaders panel and ALL of FLOTUS. Caught the tail end of PBO’s speech this afternoon; will have to go to the tape when I get a few minutes.
It seemed to have been a very full day, Alycee, yet participants at the end sounded lively. I have to say that I found the parts I heard quite interesting.
It was worth listening too, and of course the stars of the show was POTUS and FLOTUS.
Did you follow along the entire day, Annieb? I dropped in from time to time.
What about that new cbs poll that Mark Knoller is trolling about?
He seems so glee.
See my comment below Jovie. 🙂
Posted it on previous, before realizing y’all had long abandoned me… http://themetapicture.com/hubble-telescope-zooms-in-at-a-small-area-in-space/
#TrustBarack and GIVE HIM A BLUE 114th Congress!!!
Here’s the correct tweet …
Au for Alycee. Congrats.
Excellent Post NW. Job well executed. Thank You.
CBS/NYT released a poll today claiming PBO’s “approval” is at 40%. Mark Knoller was just tweeting breathlessly but had no response when I demanded to see a link to the crosstabs. Well I did my own research and come to check the poll (and as I suspected) they have ZERO information about the race/ethnic/gender/age breakdown of the respondents. If you don’t believe me, you can check it out for yourself. I’ve provided the link right here.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-americans-say-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-the-costs-poll/
Meawhile, they heavily weight the sample towards so-called “Independents” who are known to lean mostly conservative/Libertarian.
As I said early, enough with the dam polls.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s important that people know what fraudulent methods are used with the polling. I see some Obama supporters (who should know better) repeating those polls as if they were valid.
We have to keep pushing back and refuting with the same aggression and frequency that the MSM is trying to shove these damn polls down our throats.
Ms. Nerdy Wonka — THANK YOU for the great work you do here! Whenever I have faint doubts about young folks, I look to you and know that our future is in good hands! Once again, thank you!
Thank you so very much, Alycee.
President Obama spoke with Russian President Putin today about the situation in Ukraine. President Obama welcomed President Poroshenko’s peace plan and urged that Russia and separatist leaders work closely with the Ukrainian government to take concrete steps to implement it. The President called upon President Putin to press the separatists to recognize and abide by the ceasefire and to halt the flow of weapons and materiel across its border into Ukraine. The President emphasized that words must be accompanied by actions and …………………………….
6-23-14
Josh “The Voice” Earnest at the WH presser.
Why does Jon Karl get to ask so many questions?
POTUS and FLOTUS was on their “A” game today. I could have listen to FLOTUS and Robin talk for another hour. And I don’t want to see another question about FLOTUS running for the Senate, she answer that question today. Please put it to rest. The last thing FLOTUS want is to be involve in politics. And I don’t blame her.
Took Danny for a walk, sprained my foot, has a sad, seriously can’t be let out of the house.
Okay, carry on.
So sorry that you sprained your foot Chips. Take it easy.
COS, I think I’ve sprained every part of my anatomy over the last few months, I really need to be locked up 😆
Some days are the same with me. Sometime, I can be my own worst enemy. 🙂
🙂 Needless to say COS, it was Danny’s fault – I was retrieving a ball he had deposited in a neighbor’s garden.
Danny’s fault. ….. Not sure what to say, CC, other than take care, and in future leave the ball retrieval to the younger ‘uns.
I’m only 22.5!!!!!!
You know, Chips (being mathematically challenged myself) I can actually identify with you being confused mathematically by the points, as in .this or .that. FTR .5 = ½ You were 22 almost an entire year ago!!!!
I knew it, you ARE Mark Knoller!!!!!
All Hopefruit’s doing!
Oh no – hope your foot heals quickly. Rest, ice, elevate, and I forgot the other one – starts with a “C” I believe. 🙂 {{{Chips}}}}
Compression? RICE
Ah…you got it vc! Thanks 🙂
{{{{{Chips sprained foot}}}}}
So 😦
I will survive Nena!! 🙂
Oh, no! I’ve sprained my ankle more than a few times and it’s soooooo painful. Please ICE it!
Ha, I will Meta, thank yoooou, I’m an eejit!!!
So sorry, Chips! Poor baby!
Poor Chips!
A special order of naughty mats for me please I need instant delivery after that last photo with the shades
Reporters or pundits (even Joy) who send out questions without context because they can’t think of anything else to report about … are getting a bit jarring to me.
BOOM! That’s the correct answer – on both levels! 🙂
Ha. Then she tweeted out “use the hashtag” – doesn’t she have staff to gather up her responses?
Not sure why, but the media types are really annoying me today, and I’ve only been online an hour or so. It’s reminding me of an older gentleman I used to work with, a couple of decades ago … I usually saw him every morning, and would ask him, “How’s it going?” or something like that. He answered each time, dead serious, “It’s a daily struggle.”
Think I just had to catch up with him in age, perhaps. It’s a freakin’ daily struggle!
Well, now I’ve amused myself, again, so maybe not.
They are as annoying as ever. That was a stupid question in the first place and I’m glad you gave her the correct answer.
Thanks. All she’s doing is giggling over the whole thing, like she has no idea how she’s coming across. No observant ego.
I don’t get it.
THIS.
Someone said BB king and she’s all over that. I mean really? BB King is an entertainer – he makes no hard decisions about important domestic and foreign policy issues.
Well, B.B. King’s tour bus once passed me on an interstate 20 years ago, doing 20 miles above the speed limit (I swear to God I took off in hot pursuit because I saw it go off an exit, but I couldn’t catch up!), so maybe I should call in to her show and that’ll be good for another 5 mins. of conversation for her. And then MSNBC can switch over to the next news reader.
Well, some days are worse than others.
Joy Ann Reid’s whole question is really ridiculous. That train has left the station.
Yes, ma’m.
That whole conversation is pissing me off. I’m so sick and tired of people who infantilize PBO and armchair criticize his presidency every freakin’ day.
I just wrote a comment here to hf2, similar to that! Every freakin’ day. It’s a daily struggle!
So sorry Chips. Please be careful. I noticed that it does not take much to sprain, bruise, twist, and tweek any part of my body.
It pays HER rent which is all that matters to her. I am so sick and tired of the media. I thought she would be different. It just does not matter..woman, minority, gay, straight, young, old… Corp masters controls the content that’s put out there. They destroy President Carter in the media, Ford too…thus is their m.o.
She is writing a book on POTUS that is due out in Jan 2015. Her TL and conversations with others were mostly about the crude ways Today’s GOP are behaving towards POTUS. Some conversations involved how Dems wanted cohesion and worked with Reagan and GW Bush but the GOPers would not.
I didn’t read it all. But Content matters.
Another one trying to make money off POTUS.
‘because they can’t think of anything else to report about … are getting a bit jarring to me.’
Only now JO’B? Hat tip to your longsuffering spirit. This has bothered me from way back when, my disdain triggered first by Ed S and his Text A for yadi and B for yada. I saw it as pure and simply a way to cheat audience, making them do the work while avoiding having to do any real research themselves. Avoiding in fact, *their* responsibility (inherent in their job) to enlighten or inform. I feel the same when MSM (or whomever, planning an interview) send out a call for questions they should ask – do your own preparation you parasites! [I consider a politician doing a townhall, etc and asking for questions from voters a different thing.] What I find further annoying is that after going this route and getting all kind of responses back, they then build an entire, and generally useless, discussion around the topic/question they chose, creating a furor that in the end is virtually meaningless. Or, creating a consensus that the treat as gospel. In essence, they can walk out of the office, do nothing by way of research and preparation, then walk back in next session and expect social media to provide data for them to play with. Very, very irritating!
Well said!
TY. The idea has been in my head for a long time. The truth, IMO, is that a lot of the kind of poor reporting we are discussing is due both to ignorance AND a lack of interest in being knowledgeable, plus having airtime that needs to be filled. It’s why people like Gregory etc do not do push-back when guests spread myths, share discounted stories, or make up their own facts. The hosts/esses haven’t bothered to ferret out the facts themselves (yes Joy is more knowledgeable than most), and I bet you they rarely LISTEN to the speaker of the moment. They grant the other person time to speak (sometimes), while preparing to make their own next comment. We are not really hearing dialogues anymore, merely a back and forth in the most literal sense. It’s really more a kill time technique. [WHpresscorps = very visible model of talking but not listening]
I repeat (for lack of any better words!): well said!
And I agree with your every word, and then some.
^5
Great Question Joy.
Who can figure out those sick minds Joy?
Democracy in action.
Thanks for posting this photo Donna.
Every week I get inspired by these people who stand up for what they believe in. They never give up and they never give in to cynicism. It’s very encouraging.
Awesome! Thanks for informing Us with these uplifting Photos.
Oh my…folks had better plan to take the day off from work (or call in sick, or work from home or whatever) this Thursday because I see that “USA vs Germany on Thursday” is already trending on Twitter…and it’s just Monday, y’all.
🙂
I will be more than happy if we hold Germany to a draw. Then we both advance.
I’m happy we made it this far. I don’t think we did last year. Of course any further wins will be icing on the cake.
A nine-year-old boy in eastern Kansas who decided to open his own little front-yard library and share books with his neighbors has been shut down for violating a city zoning ordinance.
Spencer Collins lives in Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. Like many precocious children, he loves reading. “It’s kinda like a whole ‘nother world, and I like that,” he told KMBC.
Last month, Collins had an idea for how to share his passion for literature: a little free library. The Little Free Library Movement began in 2009 when Todd Bol of western Wisconsin built a mailbox-like structure that held books and placed it in his front yard with a sign to “take a book, return a book.” Little free libraries have since popped up around the world.
On May 11, Mother’s Day, Collins put out his own little free library, complete with children’s classics like Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Roald Dahl’s The BFG.
But a month later, his parents received a letter from officials saying the library violated the city’s zoning ordinance and needed to be removed or they would be fined. …………………….//
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/06/23/3451818/9yo-boy-little-library/
I read that this morning. Pathetic!
However, the storey did remind me that I said I would install a library in my yard this summer.
You’d better check the town ordinances. 😉
I have a lot of curse words to use about the people citing “zoning laws” but I won’t write them here out of respect for all;
where is the (legal?) boundary for reading and sharing books????????
What struck me about it was the thought that the very neighbours quick to phone about the library probably wouldn’t have been worried if the kid had been playing with guns. No rationale for my thoughts except that was what I did think on reading the article.
I think this is the only MK tweet I’ve ever RT’d ….
…. but it’s a good one 🙂
Then how on God’s green earth would the Support of what POTUS has done……Folks support it……yet POTUS’ approval is underwater? The math as HF2 said is whacked…… 😉 paraphrasing HF2’s post.
BTW, if any of you live in Maryland Senate District 35, I’d like to solicit your vote for Bridget E. Kelly (not to be confused with the NJ BK, although we had a great time teasing MD BK). Bridget is a personal friend, former principal of our H.S., and a devote public servant.
So Donna, when is Gov O’Malley’s last day in office?
Sorry I fell asleep early last night.
January 20, 2015 😦 The new governor takes the oath on the 3rd Wednesday in January following the election.
Thank goodness most people seem to know who the person most capable of uniting the US is.
Les East for President! The guy’s a reporter and tweeted that – and thanks for sharing it, hf2! Gonna follow what he has to say, for sure.
RT’d!
It’s such a vapid question because the real issue is, why is out country so divided? And the answer to that implicates our toxic media a great deal.
And of course instead of putting blame and focus where it rightfully belongs, she takes the facile and disingenuous route of of tacitly blaming the administration for the unprecedented obstructionism.
No Joy Ann, this is not “just politics” as you are claiming here. And NO ONE will ever convince me that it is.
OMG, this is so stupid. I despise the constant need to infantilize PBO, like he’s so much more naive than they are and if only he had their brains and their deep insights. It is his JOB to work with others and he always gives it his BEST. That is who he is. The fact that he is dealing with pure toxic idiocy does not mean he should match their behavior. That’s a sure sign of a loser. SO, I stand with POTUS and the hand he was dealt. He’s done an amazing job even in these unrelenting tough circumstances. And it’s a testament to his STRENGTH not his weakness.
Exactly meta – it is PRECISELY because PBO didn’t take this childish “eye-for-eye” approach that he is still President today, and has accomplished so much.
Have Phil Griffin and that two bit show gotten to our Joy?
I heard she’s writing a book about PBO to be released in Jan 2015, so she’s probably looking for an early buyer base…
Another unfortunate and yet unsurprising disappointment she is. While I didn’t expect her to devolve into this kind of vapidity so quickly, I did expect it; as soon as I read here at TOD that she was getting her own show. What’s troubling to me is her downplaying and “mainstreaming” of everything the Repugs have done since our illustrious Prez got into office as “just politics”. And that the onus was on PBO to “just adjust”. Yes! Of course! That’s all he had to do and to have done it faster. Major effing codswallop! Virtually all the members of one of the political parties plotting on inauguration eve to undermine and engage in unprecedented obstruction against the President every day he’s in office is “just politics”? Congress deliberately scheduling more time for vacation than days actually legislating; and then on the days they’re in session wasting taxpayers dollars holding bogus investigative hearings, voting to repeal the ACA 50 + times and naming post offices is “just politics” ? Congress shutting down the government to the tune of $24 billion, jeopardizing the full faith and credit of the United States, starving children, veterans, the middle class is “just politics”? The relentless blatant disrespect full of racial animus towards our President is “just politics”? Really?? Joy needs to have seat with this crap. The ONLY books I’m interested in reading are ones our President pens himself. We’ve also already got the best “book” chronicling the President and his administration right here at TOD; day in and day out; live and in living color and in real time. Anything Joy feels she can add to the subject holds ZERO interest for me. I trust that karma will serve up a little retribution and all these so-called “authors” will find their books in the 99 cent bins while history holds up President Obama as one of the greatest presidents of this country .
“The ONLY books I’m interested in reading are ones our President pens himself. We’ve also already got the best “book” chronicling the President and his administration right here at TOD;”
THIS!!!
SWEET!!
Thank you, meta! Just the kind of image we needed to see!
Inorite?!! So uplifting!!
The song Happy is swirling in my head. I ❤ this story. You, 90 yrs young WWII Vet. Bless his very being, Oh Lord.
ICYMI –
Hmmmm…..
Chat on!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/06/23/presidential-perks/