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Colleen Barry: Michelle Obama Meets US Troops In Italy; Recalls Charleston
Michelle Obama’s thoughts turned to those grieving for nine people killed in a U.S. church as she visited Friday with American soldiers and their families stationed in northern Italy. “We have seen too many tragedies like this,” Mrs. Obama said of the attack in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. “There is something particularly horrifying about something that happens so senseless in a house of worship.” She added: “I pray for a community that I know is in pain with the hope that tragedies like these will one day come to an end.” The U.S. first lady was visiting at the U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza, thanking hundreds of the troops and their families for their service.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday had expressed anger and sadness over the slayings at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. “As my husband said yesterday, simply saying our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and community of Charleston does not convey the heartache,” Mrs. Obama said. Her time with the troops and their families included reading a book to children, and visiting with about 30 expectant mothers to discuss the challenges faced by military families overseas. The families live in an area that includes housing units and an elementary and middle school. She spent a good half hour giving hugs and shaking hands. Her daughters Malia and Sasha helped her scoop out ice cream. About 500 people were attending a barbecue on the middle school’s athletic fields.
More here
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First Lady on #Charlestonshooting: "I pray ... with the hope that tragedies like these will one day come to an end."
amp.twimg.com/v/42e72c22-20c…
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ABC News (@ABC) June 19, 2015#MichelleObama @MichelleObama speaking about #CharlestonShooting in #Vicenza http://t.co/LpN8FZh4A5
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CC-LovesOnikaQueen (@CCS_IAmAwesome) June 19, 2015****
The Obama Diary 
http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/wildlife/study-without-any-significant-doubt-sixth-mass-extinction-is-here
Congrats MP on First 😊
Congrats……The 1 percenter don’t care if they can’t turn a buck.
Congrats on 1st MP!!
Thank you, NW, for such an uplifting post. Our First Lady and Family never disappoint, always inspire, and are a bottomless fount of love.
Thank you NW – for this post and your last one – this family is such a bridge over troubled waters
And congrats for 1st MP
Great way to put it – *bridge over trouble waters* – that they are!
Just gorgeous Nerdy, massive thank yous for this lovely post.
I would really like to hear what MC said
Now they had Prince play at the White House, please don’t say MC will be next. 🙂
MC is a preacher now, I used to see him on TBN christian station all the time. He did have a church, I’m not sure if he still do.
MP – congratulations! Thanks for this beautiful post, Nerdy Wonka!
GM
Ain’t he cute 😊
psycho’s go to your room and think about what you did moment.
What did he do? 😟
peed in my bedroom.
you want pics? … I have pics.
You didn’t take him out in time and you blame him? /smh
nibbling at your toe one minute, peeing on your floor the next minute. you try it.
GOOD DOGGIE!!! Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap….
THAT does it. I am e-mailing the psycho to you. Good luck.
‘sup amk? :):)
Sweetie! No, not you.
oh, yeah? you can have him then.
Good morning amk 🙂
Good morning, Bob.
via bj
Indeed.
who are the effing cowards?
all of them, katie.
I just want to hold this baby and never let her go.
Nerdy, this is a glorious post that brightens the whole day. Any time we get to see our beautiful FLOTUS interacting with people is a good time for all of us. The photos, the little looks that pass from mother to daughter, her obvious love of military families–it all brings smiles to our faces.
How beautiful to see the first ladies. They remain an inspiration to many. Thanks for the post Nerdy.
thank you for the pics of our wonderful FLOTUS.
This is so beautiful Nerdy – thanks. May their souls rest in peace.
{{{{{{{{{ Nerdy Wonka }}}}}}}}}
perhaps that’s why I’ve always loved the pairing of this song with these images. It captures that “long-running story” and ends with the moment that sparked the both the hope and the threat that Remnick described. We just need to add a clause at the end…”to be continued.”
Thank you for this prettyfoot. I’m done for the nite….this has brought forth more water works and I thought my well waas empty.
“was”
take care sailor – there are yet more tears to come – this one HAS to make a difference
I wish I had your optimism…..GN Trish
PBO has taught hope – I’m hoping.
Sleep well
That was so beautiful prettyfoot.
Absolutely wonderful Pretty Foot! “Lift every Voice and Sing” goes to the heart of Black folks’ experience and their ability to transcend all the relentless efforts to dehumanize us. Ignorant white supremacists, who continuously demand their country back, don’t even know that the vast majority of African Americans are descendants of people who came to America long before the ancestors of the vast majority of the so called white people. For example, South Carolina, from its inception in the 17th century, was always a majority black colony/state until the 20th century. When Charleston’s AME church was first destroyed in 1822, Black folks in Charleston outnumbered whites 2:1.
The picture of FLOTUS and the girls are beautiful. I know I saw them earlier today, but this trip to England and Italy our FLOTUS, Malia, Sasha have shine on this stage like superstars. They have represented this country very well.
Love them and are so proud of them. Mrs. Robinson too.
so nikki haley is trying to impress everybody and get maximum national/international attention by emphasizing how tough she is on punishment instead of having made maximum effort to prevent this and similar tragedy;
next, she is will be proclaiming that she will personally go into the death chamber and supervise /operate the final moments of the punishment that the legal system may decide on;
Not impress with Nikki Haley or Tim Scott at all.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so mean, with the people who lost their loved ones showing such compassion. And the family of Dylann Roof express their sorrow for what their son did.
I’m surprised that she made such a statement before even jury selection.
Wearing hoods, fire-bombing black churches in the thick of the night, murdering unarmed inside a church. These murkan racists sure are profiles in courage, aren’t they?
And, it’s because of just how endemic and pervasive the systemic racism in this country is that rarely are the cowards ever punished.
Just look at what this POS judicial branch member of America’s white supremacy had to say, today and more than a decade ago ….
Disgusting. How is he even a judge? But then, you have the ‘roberts court’, so ….
YUP re: ‘roberts court’!!!!
Look out, world. GOLF.
bbl ….
Knoller needs the exercise much more than pbo
Thank you for all your wisdom Bob
What an ass this guy is. Consistent, and an ass. Needs a major makeover, inside and out.
Utah baseball team cancels ‘Caucasian Heritage Night’.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33209329
of course, they apologized ‘cos their intentions have been ‘misconstrued’.
WTF?
heh, it’s all fun over ‘race’, no biggie.
I didn’t even want to read that article – some people are just nutso!!! I can’t fit that much crazy into my brain. And it’s not just in Utah, of course.
WTF indeed! Are these people so clueless? For more than four centuries, U.S. history has all been about valorizing “Caucasians”?
Clueless, stupid, and sickening!
I tweeted Angels to ask y it isn’t called EUROPEAN night. I mean all the countries they mentioned were in Europe. This is the way white racists deny the history of how they came to be in America.
President Barack Obama is sharing how the presidency has made him a better father in an essay published in More magazine, which hits newsstands June 23. First lady Michelle Obama, the guest editor of the July-August issue of the magazine, convinced the president to give his thoughts on fatherhood, just in time for Father’s Day.
“People often ask me whether being President has made it more difficult to spend time with Michelle and our girls. But the surprising truth is that being in the White House has made our family life more ‘normal’ than it’s ever been,” Obama wrote, noting he and his wife work to make “blocks of family time that are sacrosanct.” One of those blocks starts at 6:30 p.m., when Obama heads to the dinner table with his family. “My staff knows that it pretty much takes a national emergency to keep me away from that dinner table,” Obama wrote. Obama said he’s “already dreading that empty seat at the table table when Malia goes off to school next fall.”
For some reason original tweets went into spam…sorry if they duplicate!
Wonderful family – one of the moans of the Washington set – the President isn’t out on the town wining and dining with them.
Good night TOD.
I’ve had a long day at work today so I’m just now settling in for bed cause I’ve got work tomorrow.
I wasn’t gonna write anything on my personal blog about the shooting in Charleston, but I posted the following comment at another blog earlier today while on break from work and I decided to make it into a longer personal blog post.
You can check out the “longer” blog post here if you’d like:
http://nellybellsplace.com/2015/06/19/dear-white-people-time-to-deal-with-your-shhhhhh/
Good night guys!
Good night lamh36 thanks for sharing…..
I’m sure that’s true. On one blog, it felt like at least half the members dreaded their holiday dinners or getting e-mails because of their racist / RWNJ / Fox News-watching ‘fill in the blank relation’.
I’m sure many people have already heard what this murderer said – at their parties, at their dinner tables, sitting around bs-ing with their friends. I hope it gives many of them nervous pause.
VC? Are you here? Have you had a chance to source the MORE magazine in your area? You promised to let me know. ❤ {{{ VC }}}
Hi, MP! I haven’t looked yet as it’s not supposed to be available until June 23. There’s no sense my checking early because in my area we’re never ahead of the game. Will let you know once I know. Thanks.
I had thought you might see the current issue on the stand and know where to find the new one on the 23rd. No worries, you will let me know… I sourced it last week, to be sure I can get one (or two!) ❤
😀 I never go into a bookstore, or a corner store, unless I have money, or unless I’ve been told there’s a good magazine due out. 😀 😀
My computer is acting kind of weird, I think I will leave off now and catch up with you wonderful, kind and compassionate folks tomorrow. I hope the President of the United States enjoys the heck out of his time on the links, no one deserves a day out in the air and the light than this hard working man. God Bless him, and God, please lay a special hand on VPBiden and his beautiful wife, and their family. The pain is so deep and intense. They are so loved. Bring our First Ladies home safe and sound to us, we are devoted to them all. ❤ Nite Nite.
Beautiful, MP! Rest well.
http://www.juancole.com/2015/06/donate-mother-emanuel.html
Interesting. He has stayed there on many occasions but businesses had complained so much about the traffic and loss of business that he stayed last time at another location. I guess it probably depends on the time of day, too.
It makes me nervous when it’s reported where he’s spending the night. Luckily, there’s so much security, I guess I shouldn’t worry.
Kind of hard to keep that a secret given the enormous preparations,the impact just getting him anywhere has on a city and its people, and of course, the proliferation of instant communication and news devices in just about everyone’s pocket.
All we can do is trust the army of professionals who’ve been hired to protect him really know what they’re doing. I think he’s in good hands.
Yes, thankfully, he’s in very good hands.
How do they do that especially in the “open carry” states…
Ya think?
This country is steeped in sickness.
and stupid
i’m sick to death of this. america, are you awake?
‘ A judge has declared a mistrial in the retrial of a former South Carolina police chief charged with killing an unarmed man. ‘
need i add, the one killed was an unarmed black man?
http://t.co/chb493uYxS
Southern white supremacist judges are so predictable!
“The two had an ongoing dispute that began when Combs pulled over Bailey’s daughter in March of 2015 for a tail light violation. During the stop, the daughter called her dad to the scene to give proof of insurance. Later, Combs would say he felt intimidated by the man being there, but no charges were filed that night.”
A Police chief felt intimidated because a young lass calls her FATHER – talk about policing based on skin color!!!! – He had no right to be a police chief if a daughter calling her father is intimidating!!!
From what I’m reading this was murder – nothing but!
In the West Wing Week video, you can see VP Biden wearing his rosary on his left wrist. He is working very consciously on his healing. My heart goes out to him.
I have a feeling that he will announce that he won’t run for President. I think the toll of losing Beau was too much and the stress on the entire family would be too much.
I think so too. Too many tragedies in his life. And all the bile and hatred from the rwnj’s aka goppers and their media ass kissers if he gets into the race and most likely bs from his own party too. He doesn’t need that kinda shit any more. He has made his legacy and will probably be happy to retire happily.
I will understand If VP Biden decides not to run. He has suffered so much from personal losses of loved ones. I am sure he needs all the time to spend with his family as he tries to heal. As much as I love and respect VP Biden, I think It would be selfish of us to expect him to run for President at this time. In my book, he is still the best VP in history. And, contrary to the media nonsense, If he decided to run he would be THE MOST QUALIFIED person in history to run for President.
All that you guys have said re VPJoe probably not running makes sense and I, in fact, do not disagree with any of you. The one question that does come to mind tho, is what would he do? He doesn’t strike me as being someone who would want to take up lobbying. He has always been a public servant, wouldn’t he have too much time on his hand (to ‘mope’) if he stopped after this round? Can a VP go back to being a senator – would he want to?
My heart goes out to him, too. Such an unbearable burden, after the burdens he’s already faced.
It looks like they may be in PBO’s museum in Moneygall! Wish we could see more of it.
I’ll read that, but it’ll be sad, I’m sure. Thanks for posting, Dudette!
Thanks Dudette for sharing Dr. Gates’ marvelous tribute to this incredible young man. Like Dr. King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and countless other brilliant black men and women, the brilliant Rev/Senator, Clementa Pinckney, was taken away from us at a very young age. What the racist, white supremacist, don’t realize is that they will never exterminate Black brilliance. Moreover, 30+ millions of African Americans whose ancestors, besides the Native American ancestors,, have been in America longer than any ancestors of various European ethnic groups, will never be exterminated.
Thank YOU nath!
That image will never be far from my thoughts ….
good night TOD
~~ 😕 ~~
Morning!
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/06/20/the-presidents-weekly-address/