***
***
BREAKING: Obama issued 42 new commutations today, 20 of whom were facing life sentences. https://t.co/2Kh84wtoEg w/ @ryanjreilly
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) June 3, 2016
***
With the 42 new commutations just announced, @POTUS has now commuted the sentences of 348 people – more than the past 7 presidents combined
— Liz Allen (@LizAllen44) June 3, 2016
***
Today, the President announced 42 additional grants of clemency to men and women serving years in prison under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws. The individuals receiving a presidential commutation today have more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance. To date, the President has commuted the sentences of 348 individuals — more than the previous seven Presidents combined. He remains committed to using his clemency power throughout the remainder of the Administration to give more deserving individuals that same second chance.
***
.@POTUS has now granted clemency to 348 people—more than the past 7 presidents combined. https://t.co/Auh3QGjdPD pic.twitter.com/cSs4uzLhA7
— Brandi Hoffine (@Hoffine44) June 3, 2016
***
As the President has said, part of this effort includes lifting up the stories of the men and women who have been granted clemency and are now making the most of their second chances. Watch the stories of Norman Brown
….three clemency recipients who served unduly harsh sentences for drug crimes.
***
Thanks to @POTUS, 58 men and women will get a second chance: https://t.co/Dl2oXBCOHjhttps://t.co/NGRVpOLBB0
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 6, 2016
***
You can read more about their stories here.
***
The Obama Diary 
Why am I locked out?
I’m not sure? I was updating the post….are you still having issues 😕
Let me check lp.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I do hope DWS gets canned from this job. She has done a terrible job for PBO.
Thanks, LPlains.
My God, her story makes this grown man cry.
This woman’s story is gut wrenching. To be sentenced to life for a nonviolent crime and to be effectively misled into signing a plea agreement. This is a twisted ‘justice’ system that’s out of control. Thank God she’s been given a second chance by President Obama after losing 21 years of her life. I hope she really does get a second chance with a job and a welcoming community.
“…During that game, while his mother and grandmother were serving long prison sentences for drug-related charges, Thomas caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from Tim Tebow on the first snap of overtime to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. In many ways, it marked a major chapter in his life. And this week has now done the same. In the shadows of national sports news about Thomas’ new five-year, $70 million contract with Denver, something else miraculous happened two days earlier in what might be one of the most rewarding three-day spans that a man can expect to ever experience….
…On Monday, President Barack Obama granted commutations to 46 federal prisoners locked up for non-violent drug charges, noting “their punishments didn’t fit the crime” and that they would have received lighter terms under new sentencing guidelines. In a press release from the White House, which lists those 46 names of otherwise unrecognizable citizens, the 33rd name is equally undistinguishable: Katina Stuckey Smith, sentenced to 292 months of prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base. Yes, Smith is Thomas’ mom. And she’s coming home to Thomas in November. “These men and women were not hardened criminals, but the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years,” said Obama, invoking what he called one of the most profound powers of the Presidential office. “Fourteen of them had been sentenced to life for nonviolent drug offenses. So their punishments didn’t fit the crime.” Thomas was in just the sixth grade when police raided his home to arrest his mother and grandmother, which means Nov. 15 (when the Broncos play the Chiefs in Denver) marks the first chance Thomas’ mother will have to watch him play football in person. To this point, she has only seen him play on a grainy prison television….continued”
“ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos’ trip to the White House next week holds special meaning for one player in particular. The Super Bowl champions will visit the White House on Monday and wide receiver Demaryius Thomas plans to deliver a hand-written thank-you note to President Barack Obama for commuting his mother’s drug sentence last summer. Katina Smith was able to attend the Broncos’ 24-10 win over Carolina in Super Bowl 50 four months ago after Obama cut short her sentence as part of his push to reduce the prison population of non-violent drug offenders. “I don’t know if I’ll say something to him. I might give him a letter,” said Thomas, who figures it’s going to be a quick meet-and-greet and the president won’t have much time to chat with the champs. “There’s going to be a lot of people there, so I can’t waste his time.” Thomas’ mother was released five years early from a minimum-security prison in Florida. She had been serving a 20-year sentence after refusing to testify against her mother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, who is serving life….continued”
LP, did you see this? Kinda interesting!
http://www.cnet.com/news/golden-state-warriors-use-their-tech-advantage/
That was a very interesting article. I love hearing how all this tech allows sports to get better without hurting the body.
Trump himself probably finds such treatment grossly unfair, since to him “unfair” coverage is anything that doesn’t portray him in the most glowing terms. But it is perhaps ironic that after all this time of wondering how to cover this most unusual candidate, Trump has shown the press that the best way to do it is to cover him like every candidate should be covered. That means not just planting a camera at his rallies and marveling at how nuts it all is, but doing to work to fully vet his background, correcting his lies as swiftly and surely as they can, exploring what a Trump presidency would actually mean, and generally doing their jobs without letting him intimidate them.
If they can keep doing that, they’ll bring honor to their profession — and I doubt Trump’s candidacy could survive it.
There are a lot of “ifs” in this story. But even IF reporters starting doing their jobs, it seems a little late in the day. Had they reported Trump’s lies from the beginning, he would not now be the presumptive nominee. So I doubt there’s going to be any “honor” brought to a profession that now been sullied beyond repair.
Yes, jackie. Kept thinking the same as I read that. Even if the media continues to “do their job”, it’s doubtful it will make much difference over the long haul.
Agree totally Jackie.
🙌
Love them!
WP has eaten my posts…maybe it was so offensive that it wasn’t meant to be. (DT being his racist self)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/06/03/trump-look-at-my-african-american-over-here.html
If you’re watching the remake of Roots that translates to “look at MY negra”
You are not alone df. Mine just disappeared too.
Then I’m not crazy:) Hey there, Ladyhawke!
You are not alone X2 – I was – as usual – on the previous thread – spent forever writing a post & it disappeared to the land of WP food.
Lost another one to WP!
So yesterday I has something very disturbing happen…. I replied to two of insane Trump’s tweets, and almost instantly, I had to change my Twitter password.
I’ve never ever had anything like that happen before, so I did a little search, and I’m not alone.
Has anyone else experienced this? It’s fucking scary!
That is scary Tally. I think Trump is going to bring out the crazies and hacksters. Do you have the same twitter name?
Yes, I just had to change my password.
hmmmmmm…
i have had to change my password twice….wondered what was happening
I had to change my password for the first time in maybe five years.
Kansas Democrats Step Up Recruiting Efforts
Democrats running for every State Senate seat
June 3, 2016
“The Kansas Democratic Party will field candidates in every State Senate district this year, for the first time in 30 years,” KAKE-TV reports.
“The Democrats announced Wednesday they also will have candidates in about three out of four state House districts. But the filing deadline apparently passed with no Democrat running for Tim Huelskamp’s seat in Congress.”
yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!
Rarely Has An Argument Refuted Itself So Comprehensively
June 3, 2016 | Scott Lemieux
The headline is…instructive:
Why Some of the Smartest Progressives I Know Will Vote for Trump over Hillary
You must know a lot of really dumb, or at least really uninformed, people. I’m reminded of one of our commenters, who is fond of citing all of his unnamed friends and colleagues who totally agree with positions like “Maureen Dowd is a deep thinker and sparkling prose stylist” and “someone who, coming out of rural southern Washington, became a Sterling Professor at Yale Law in his early 30s and was tabbed by FDR to head the SEC was an imbecile of no professional accomplishment.” To the extent that these friends aren’t apocryphal and you’re stating their views correctly, so much worse for your friends!
……………………………….
“I don’t want to vote for Trump. I want to vote for Bernie. But I have reached the point where I feel like voting for Trump against Clinton would be doing my patriotic duty. … If the only way to escape a trap is to gnaw off my leg, I’d like to think I’d have the guts to do it.”
Um, your “high income friends” who would rather see Trump become president than Clinton are willing to have other people get their metaphorical legs gnawed off. For themselves, they won’t have their health care taken away or be affected by food stamps getting slashed and they/their wives and/or mistresses and/or daughters won’t have any problem obtaining safe abortions, and they’ll get a nice fat tax cut out of the deal. They’re willing to sacrifice nothing. Oddly, the people upon whom the contradictions will be actually heightened tend to find this kind of logic less persuasive.
1st
😀 😀 #always
Love it! Thank you, meta:)
Such a pleasure to watch these each week!
It really is:)
Niceeeeeeeeeee
Scientists Slowly Reintroducing Small Group Of Normal, Well-Adjusted Humans Into Societ
NEWS
March 25, 2016 [THE ONION]
ITHACA, NY—In an ambitious attempt to revive a population long considered to be on the brink of extinction, scientists announced Friday they have slowly begun to reintroduce normal, well-adjusted human beings back into society.
According to officials at Cornell University, where for the past 18 years conservation researchers have operated an enclosed sanctuary for humans who are levelheaded and make it a habit to think before they speak, the endangered group is being cautiously reintegrated into select locations nationwide in hopes that they can reestablish permanent communities and one day thrive again.
“We’ve worked for years to stabilize our society’s dwindling population of sane, generally reasonable people, and within the safe confines of our refuge we’ve finally seen their numbers start to bounce back a little,” said Josh Adelson, head of the Cornell research team, which moved the remaining members of the group into a protected habitat in 1998 to keep them from dying off completely. “Now, we can very gradually begin to release this rare breed of rational humans back into the general public. With luck, they can survive and prosper.”
“Our hope is that within a century or so, the traits for making sound long-term decisions and being able to tolerate people different from oneself will propagate and begin to reemerge within the species at large,” he continued.
Prior to the conservation efforts, it is believed that even-tempered people with sound judgment and the ability to put the needs of others before themselves had dwindled to less than 150 within the country’s borders, ……………………..
…………………………………………………//
http://www.theonion.com/article/scientists-slowly-reintroducing-small-group-normal-52632
150? they have overcounted.
😀 😀
Seeing as how my mind works weirdly, I read the title, got to the bit about Cornell University and the idiot Cornel West immediately sprang to mind. I don’t know why. 😉 😉
one l is enough for loony.
I know. 😀
So sad…..
Every day, it’s another fiasco.
I remember reading somewhere this last week that a tv spokesperson Trump surrogate alluded that Trump would have an active VP to take on the duties he did not want to deal with. Another words he would run the Administration Branch of the US Government like he runs his businesses irregardless of the US Constitution.
suck on it, kentucky.
So Trump comment about the judge, what a disgrace Trump is.
AMAZING.
My President built this foundation.
the friggin’ kenyan. building
wallslives.And will they vote democrat for President?? Probably NO.
I. Can’t. Get. Trump’s. Words. Out. Of. My. Head…”There’s my African American friend”
WTF!
Was it you he was pointing at?
(Seriously, I actually try to ignore Trump in my own foolish attempt not to give him any credence. Truth is, given some of the absurdities that have happened in some elections over the past 8 years of *my* involvement, Trump’s presence at this level makes me a bit nervous. My confidence in the US electorate as a whole is not top notch.)
I just saw a story on my phone that the man he said that to didn’t take offense to that …WTH!
Then he’s an ass too
I’m sorry to tell you (and I could be dead wrong), but I heard him say it twice and I didn’t hear him include the word friend — I heard him say: “Look at my African American over here.” At least at the end of whatever drivel he was saying.
Grrrr.
Doubt he has ever spoken to someone other than a WASP except to issue orders – the “others” are his servants (or his wives). He is disgusting GGail – as the President says – don’t boo – vote – use that disgust to good purpose.
very sensible 😀
and they are cheaper by
dozenhundreds too.http://www.amazon.in/Official-Rainbow-Loom–Electric-Color-/dp/B00LG0RBBO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1465006908&sr=8-4&keywords=glow+in+the+dark+bands
smh
what? you gimme 100 bucks, I will give ya 600 of ’em.
I’ll pass thank you. Have no desire to go into business (with you, or alone)
#lachicken
Did you mean @cachicken? I’ll accept that as it’s true. [and yes I did know that you meant ‘la’ as in ‘la fille’.
#showoff
😀
egg.sack.lee
We don’t really want to know how many mental crazies there are????
donald j drumpf: Such an eminently punch-able face. Of course we abhor violence. But in this case, swift and fierce punches to that face are worthy and ideally televised and sensationalized as that eminently punch-able, puffy, bloated, spewing, reptilian, pasty face is now anyway, 24/7. I’m just kidding of course. Ha. Ha. I would never want that. Totally joking.
now tell us how you reeeally feel.
Totally kidding!!!
BAM! BAM!!! BAMBAMBAMBAM…. Kidding
Mine is jumping to conclusions. (Too corny?)
ha, beat that.
He’s a basket case.
So once Tapper calls him out & now he is a media hero – If the media had done their job, Trump would NEVER have been the nominee.
We love you Muhammad Ali. May your passage back or beyond be peaceful and righteous.
❤
Switzerland will become the first country in the world to hold a nationwide referendum on the introduction of a basic income on Sunday.
The proposal, if passed, would give every adult legally resident in Switzerland an unconditional income of 2,500 Swiss francs (£1,755; $2,554) a month, whether they work or not.
Supporters point to the fact that 21st-Century work is increasingly automated, with more and more traditional jobs, in factories, retail and even in finance and accounting, being done by machines. And they do not need salaries.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36443512
This could so work for me, I would be able to eat!! Not just pay rent and buy cat food! (For the cat, not for me)
Can you picture ‘the Donald’ anywhere is room……cringe worthy it is!
We all have to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Amen Brother.
aaand I am outta here.
Wait for me……..!
Enjoy your Saturday!
G’Night folks!
OMG. Good thing they can’t follow him farther than the vehicle. Do we really need “reports” like this?
In other words, Markie, just give us the photos!
Hay JER, can you post the part of FLOTUS speech today where she says that she wakes up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, as she watch her two beautiful black daughters wave good-bye to their father, who is the President of the United States,
JER you are amazing. I would love to meet you. I was just asking about this part of FLOTUS speech. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Love this First Lady.
You are very welcome, Bella. Maybe we will meet one day. Going to call it a night. But here is an oldie for now:
One of my favorite part of FLOTUS speech.
Muhammad Ali – RIP…….smh.
Oh no.
R.I.P
Sad news! 2016 has taken another legend from us!
RIP Mohamed Ali, the most wonderful human being I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I’m not into boxing, but he was my hero while growing up, and when I finally met him, he had such a delicious sense of humor and acute knowledge of all in his universe. Float like a butterfly … my hero, our hero. Godspeed.
He was the first real crush I had. Rest in Bless
2016 has sucked.
RIP Champ.
You stood up for what’s right when it was not popular. Thank you for all your fights, inside and outside the ring.
There will never be another like you.
Ali gave up his LIVELIHOOD for what he believed in.
his LIVELIHOOD.
none of these modern athletes, let alone the twitter kids, understand that.
let alone have that kind of conviction.
Principles.
Honor.
Character.
The G.O.A.T.
RIP, the greatest.
😭
30 of Muhammad Ali’s best quotes.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2016/06/03/muhammad-ali-best-quotes-boxing/85370850/
My favs
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
“I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
“A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” (the bestest imo)
“Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”
Obama: What Muhammad Ali meant to me
Barack Obama, Special for USA TODAY Sports
In 2010, in celebration of Muhammad Ali’s 50 years on the world stage, President Barack Obama penned for USA TODAY Sports the following essay on what Ali has meant to him:
It was the winter of 1959, six months before he would take the sport of boxing by storm at the Rome Olympics, and Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was on the move. Rising at 4 in the morning, before the first glimmer of daylight broke the horizon, Clay would put on his sweats, lace up a pair of old steel-toed Army work boots, and run out into the biting cold. He would crisscross his beloved Louisville, often racing the school bus for 20 blocks down Chestnut Street. “Why doesn’t he ride to school like everybody else?” one student asked. “He’s crazy,” replied one of Clay’s classmates. “He’s as nutty as can be.”
As the world would come to know, that young man would always chart his own course. I was too young to remember Clay before he became Muhammad Ali, when he was not only the heavyweight champion of the world but also at times the object of controversy and even scorn. And I was still in grade school when Ali made his extraordinary comeback after nearly four years of exile and later shocked the world by winning his title back.
It was this quality of Ali’s that I have always admired the most: his unique ability to summon extraordinary strength and courage in the face of adversity, to navigate the storm and never lose his way.
This is the quality I’m reminded of when I look at the iconic photo I’ve had hanging on my wall of the young fighter standing over Sonny Liston. And in the end, it was this quality that would come to define not just Ali the boxer but Ali the man — the Ali I know who made his most lasting contribution as his physical powers ebbed, becoming a force for reconciliation and peace around the world.
We admire the man with a soft spot for children, who, while visiting a hospital in Philadelphia many years ago, picked up a boy with no legs. Gazing into the child’s eyes, Ali said, “Don’t give up. They’re sending men into space. You will walk someday and do this,” and proceeded to do the famous Ali Shuffle with the giggling boy in his arms.
Awesomely Luvvie ✔ @Luvvie
Remember that Blackness. Because when the greats die, folks love to windex away their melanin. Nah. He was unapologetically BLACK.
More than his boxing talent, it was this ‘telling it as it is’ (fuck you donnie dreck and kkklowns) and the courage of facing up to the entire jingoistic gobinment power, that made him the greatest.
The sad part is they didn’t send Mormon boys to fight, they got to cheer the Vietnam war, go to France and right “I Love You” in the sand to their fiances, then run for President to be commander-in-chief. They hated Ali because he told the truth to the world about America and their fake war.
Here is the whole beautiful song from the 1996 documentary about The Rumble in the Jungle, 1974 fight with George Foreman
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Were_Kings
The Worlds Greatest
love it.
The Worlds Greatest……
Rest In Peace. I know that when you met your maker you could say you helped your fellow man…..
Nealy 2 million tweets already about the greatest.
LOL.
Good by to the Champ! Requiescat in Pace.
from the wapo link
Donald Trump may call him a “friend,” but boxing champion Muhammad Ali is clearly unhappy with the businessman’s politics.
Ali, one of America’s best-known Muslims, defended his religion as one of peace and criticized those who mischaracterize Islam for personal gain, in a statement aimed at the Republican presidential front-runner.
“We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,” Ali said in a statement first released to NBC News. “They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.”
/
In his Wednesday statement, Ali called on politicians to use their platforms to educate Americans on Islam.
“Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is,” he said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/10/muhammad-ali-on-donald-trump-muslims-have-to-stand-up-to-anti-islamic-speech/
This was from six months ago.
😪
I really hope the first and the second families attend his funeral.
My own perceptions of the greatest were from pre-teevee era from the indian newspapers (it was compulsory in our household then that all the kids read at least two english newspapers every day, which continues till date) and listening to bbc and voa radio. Good times.
Thank you amk & Dudette RIP Muhammad Ali
1996
Same here Dudette. We were all crying. It was so emotional.
Ha!
Just once could the media NOT report on what Trump says.
Sonny Liston’s nephew
Good Morning 😆, Everyone 😄
Off to swim 👙and run errands. 😇
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/06/04/early-bird-chat-the-always-inspirational-first-lady-michelle-obama/