Archive for March 20th, 2015
20
Mar
15
Chat On
20
Mar
15
A Tweet Or Two
President Obama on the passing of Lucy Coffey, who was America's oldest living woman veteran. http://t.co/gRL8QxpeZg
—
The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 20, 2015Lucy Coffey was a pioneer for women in the armed forces, and her legacy will live on. I was honored to meet her. -vp http://t.co/ScpZ1yZ8bB
—
Vice President Biden (@VP) March 20, 2015****
Japanese tea for two. go.wh.gov/ot3JNV http://t.co/CiqW5qi229
—
The First Lady (@FLOTUS) March 20, 2015In Kyoto, the First Lady tried her hand at taiko drumming. Check out her travel journal→ go.wh.gov/ot3JNV http://t.co/tjVKCcrmTw
—
The First Lady (@FLOTUS) March 20, 2015****
President Obama on American citizens detained or missing in Iran → go.wh.gov/xc8US4 http://t.co/oRO756tcPt
—
The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 20, 2015Watch all 15 of the Official Selections from this year's #WHFilmFest → wh.gov/FilmFest youtu.be/N6IsVgVesqQ
—
The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 20, 2015****
BOOM. Bet you won’t hear this on networks and cable
Change in deficit from 1st to last year of presidency: Reagan +$72-B; GHWB +$113B; Clinton -$522B; GWB +$1.5T; Obama -$1T (projected)
—
John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 20, 2015See how President Obama's #trade deal will protect our environment and tackle illegal fishing: bit.ly/1GAbMoo http://t.co/L2apd0oM81
—
USTR (@USTradeRep) March 20, 2015****
Obama administration requires companies to disclose chemicals used in fracking bit.ly/1BbLi8g
—
Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 20, 2015Obama unveils new rules for fracking on public land. Covers about 11% of gas and 5% of oil drilling: wsj.com/articles/frack…
—
brad plumer (@bradplumer) March 20, 2015****
Ohio man to receive $1 million after spending 39 years in jail for a murder he did not commit: reut.rs/1I4UqRJ http://t.co/r6OvhfHxKI
—
Reuters U.S. News (@ReutersUS) March 20, 2015The U.S. accounts for 5% of the world's population and 22% of the world's prison population. That's a shameful statistic. #AmnestyM2M
—
Notorious TSF (@MsFlowersTweets) March 20, 2015****
O.M.G.
Martese Johnson was also put in shackles like he was a monster! He's an educated black man; not a monster! @CNN http://t.co/12d7iqjDOs
—
We Stand for Martese (@Justice4Martese) March 19, 2015My middle daughter heading to prom with #MarteseJohnson 3 years ago. Prayers going up. http://t.co/a311GhyEDt
—
Juliana Stratton (@JulianaStratton) March 19, 2015****
There's only on difference between the Benghazi conspiracy and structural racism: Structural racism actually exists. nationalmemo.com/late-night-rou…
—
The National Memo (@NationalMemo) March 20, 2015More evidence that our "national conversation" on race is really 2 separate conversations bit.ly/1CxQwAB http://t.co/2wIplx2xYm
—
Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 19, 2015****
10 things black people fear that white people simply don't have to slnm.us/gWUXTnz http://t.co/5QdEDfHGDQ
—
Salon.com (@Salon) March 20, 2015Vice principal caught saying 'I just don't like the black kids' -- on video -- put on paid leave lat.ms/1CBTIv2
—
Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 20, 2015****
Johnson was sober? Wow. buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/m…
—
Blair LM Kelley (@profblmkelley) March 20, 2015As I was saying... #MustREAD: No, "Hands Up, Don't Shoot"; was not "built on a lie" newrepublic.com/article/121322… via @tnr
—
(@Only4RM) March 20, 2015****
President Obama tells Democrats to stick to their guns on Lynch. “You don’t hold AG nominees hostage” huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/20/oba…
—
Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) March 20, 2015France: "new roofs must be covered in plants or solar panels".. 👍 thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/0… #climate #solutions http://t.co/mziQIE3ENW”
—
coolmyplanet.org (@coolmyplanet) March 20, 2015****
Me: it's not ever ok to threaten to rape someone.
Man: But what if there was a nuclear bomb + wizard.
Me: ... http://t.co/P6siEhwbZ5
—
Jamie Bernstein (@UAJamie) December 11, 2014No, Queen, we dislike Aaron Schock bcos he consistently voted against LGBT folk's civil rights and his lack of ethics
—
Geir Scott Henriksen (@ScottyBurberry) March 20, 2015****
Obama has spoken directly with some GOP senators re: Loretta Lynch's delayed confirmation vote, says Earnest.
—
jennifer bendery (@jbendery) March 20, 2015Holder talked Lynch w/ MSNBC today. Says it's "a little strange" that GOP holding up Lynch when she's qualified & they don't like him much.
—
jennifer bendery (@jbendery) March 20, 2015****
Q: Why not take Netanyahu on his word on two-state solution? WH spox Earnest: "Which one?"
—
jennifer bendery (@jbendery) March 20, 2015BREAKING: Speaker Boehner announces plans to travel to Israel during Congress' recess later this month.
—
The Associated Press (@AP) March 20, 2015****
Earlier this week, Starbucks—in a misguided PR stunt—announced that it would direct its employees to initiate conversations on race with customers.
The company received much derision for this initiative. It seemed less of an honest effort to engender difficult conversations than as a way to make the company look good to its core clientele. And the idea of forcing $8/hr baristas to initiate fraught conversations with people who might either not be receptive or violently hostile had an air of feudal lords imposing extra work on their serfs.
If Starbucks were truly interested in starting discussions on race, one place to start would be why its executive positions are staffed mostly by whites.
However, the hamhandedness of #RaceTogether does bring up one glaring point: We ignore the elephant in the room.
Continue reading ‘On #RaceTogether and conversations we don’t have’
****
GlobalCitizenLinda
Now that I have halted my crying, I can tell my story – when you hear/read all those stories of unarmed civilians being shot/harmed/killed by law enforcement, you, as a racial minority, wonder when you will find yourself in that situation and what you would do to come out of it alive.
Just over two hours ago, I found myself being placed in the back of a police cruiser and answering questions from 3 police officers who had pulled out behind my car in two police vehicles.
What was my crime: apparently someone (the only person I had last seen in my vicinity was a middle-aged white male) had called the police and told them that I was trying to steal a car packed in the parking lot of an auto-mechanic shop.
How did I end up in this situation: my car was having problems so I dropped it off at the workshop of my regular mechanic. This repair shop is just a street away from where I live and a few feet from where I can catch and get off that public city bus.
The neighborhood is at the edge of the largest public university and so the majority of the residents are students, university employees, or those who work in the two very large hospitals (university hospital and a huge private hospital); my mechanic’s shop is just opposite the offices of the city’s local NBC TV affiliate; multiple restaurants and eatery/restaurants of different price structures abound …
… so people are always walking around and this would not be a good place to commit a robbery in broad day light from a shop that is adjacent to a fast food joint.
I started the day very early (5.00 a.m.) so that I could get my two buses to get to work on time; my car was at the mechanic’s shop during the course of the day, the mechanic gives me a call and says the repairs have been completed and that I could pick up the car any time. I inform him that the bus would get me to the shop after hours and he offers to leave the car key hidden in a place where I could pick it (spare one was at home) when I got off the bus.
A few hours later, I get to the shop, call the mechanic and he guides me to locate the car key; I am seated in my car talking to my mechanic telling him that whatever repairs he had made were not sufficient as the car had refused to start & that I would leave it on the lot for him to look over; just then I see two police cruisers pull up behind me.
Two officers approach my car – one on either side of the car; one police officer asks to me to roll the window down while another asks me what I am doing and is touching the belt where his pistol is hanging.
I am confused at this time about who to answer first; at this time all the recent episodes of police interaction with minorities are flashing through my mind. One persistent thought was that “hey, whatever you do, don’t make any sudden moves that will get you killed, you have to get through this situation alive”.
Of course, this is when I realize that whatever trouble was happening to the car meant that the automatic windows could not roll down, so I decide to open the driver’s door. I made sure that my hands could be seen and that I repeated each question from the officers; was asked what I am doing – I said I came on the bus and I am picking up my car. One officer asked me are you sure that this is your car because someone called you in that you are trying to steal cars here…. this is not your car … you are trying to steal two cars …. how come car won’t start?
My response was that whatever repairs the mechanic made failed and I just informed him of the same … do you want to talk to him? Officer: no, why are you picking up your car now when mechanic is not here? Me: because the bus got here after hours and I really need to run errands so mechanic told me to take it – errand in this case being trying to go to a money transfer place and send my family money because my father was hospitalized.
Another officer: can we see your ID? Which was inside my bag … so I asked for permission to get it. When I handed them the ID, then I was ordered to step out of the car and one officer pulled both my hands behind my back and took me to the back of one of the police cruisers and closed the door – thank heavens I was not hand cuffed.
Police officers call in my information for a check about the registration of the car and also if I have any outstanding legal issues or tickets. Police record comes back clean. Once again, they tell me that a person called me in as a suspicious person stealing cars but that all my information checked out and so I could go. I left my car there and I walked away crying & asking myself this question:
What about me made someone immediately think that I am a thief rather that a “damsel in distress?”
If I had looked different, could the person who called in the police report have first thought that maybe I was having car trouble rather than the first thought being that I am a thief trying to steal two cars …. all by my lonesome self?
Questions, questions…questions.
Something that has always bothered me about these incidents in the news about fatal shootings of unarmed people (especially racial minorities) is the role that ordinary citizens played in bringing about the subsequent killings.
Who do we immediately think of as suspicious and how is this feeling influenced by our biases and stereotypes? Of course I could not go to send money to my family to help with my hospitalized father. I just proceeded walking home to resume the errand tomorrow because I think my luck for today may have just run out.
That is a day in the life of this immigrant.
Yes, of course, I am crying again.
First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Manaka Hirose after playing the Taiko with the Akutagawa high school Taiko (Japanese traditional drum) Club at the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto
****
Today (all times Eastern)
12:0: White House Press Briefing
2:25: The President hosts the Second-Annual White House Student Film Festival; East Room
****
@FLOTUS: Flying over Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, on the way to Kyoto.
****
AP: First Lady gets taste of Japan’s ancient culture in Kyoto
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama was treated to a serene classical Noh performance and then tried the taiko drums as she ended her visit to Japan on Friday with a taste of traditional culture in Kyoto, one of the country’s ancient capitals.
Mrs Obama viewed the Noh performance at Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple founded in 780 that is one of the most famous sights in Japan, sitting on a forested hill overlooking the city.
Local college students in kimono performed a brief piece of Noh, a classical Japanese musical drama that usually employs elaborate costumes and stylized masks to symbolize roles of women, ghosts and other characters.
While at Kiyomizu-dera, a UNESCO World Heritage site, whose name means “clear water,” Mrs. Obama observed a traditional tea ceremony. She then traveled across town to the 1,300-year-old Fushimi Inari shrine, a place of worship for Japan’s other major religion, Shinto….
There she watched a rousing performance by the award-winning Akutagawa High School Taiko Club, who drummed, jumped and gesticulated with all their might…. The students then invited Mrs. Obama to join them, and performed a number as she and a student drummed on a big, round taiko drum.
Soon after, Mrs Obama left Japan, one of Asia’s richest nations, for Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest.
More here
****
@FLOTUS: Taking in a beautiful view of Kyoto from the Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist Temple with Ambassador @CarolineKennedy
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama & Jack Schlossberg, son of Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, visit the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama, US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, Kennedy’s son John Schlossberg and Buddhist monk Eigen Onishi watch a Noh performance, a form of classical Japanese musical drama, on the main temple stage as they visit at Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple in Kyoto, western Japan
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama watches a student perform a Noh play during a visit to the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto
****
@FLOTUS: Japanese tea for two
****
****
****
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Manaka Hirose after playing the Taiko with the Akutagawa high school Taiko
****
The First Lady waves goodbye on leaving Haneda International in Tokyo before flying on to Cambodia
****
First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at Siem Reap International Airport, Cambodia
20
Mar
15
Early Bird Chat
On This Day: The First Family visit Corcovado to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 20, 2011
****
MoooOOOooorning!
The Obama Diary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.