President Barack Obama speaks during a fundraiser for Washington Governor Jay Inslee at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington
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The People’s View
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Smartypants
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The Obama Diary 
GM Nerdy
Morning!
Goooooooooooooooood morning…TOD…..
Bless you Nerdy Wonka for your tireless and inspired efforts…
Blessssss you Ms Chips…keeping you in my prayers
Thank you so much, PF.
You are so welcomed…so very welomed
For Kaiser, it’s as much the president’s actions as it is the historical link he embodies. “It’s especially appropriate that the designation of this neighborhood as a national monument is being made by this president,” Kaiser said. “First, because Barack Obama has done more for LGBTQ people than all of his predecessors put together; and second, because he is our first African-American president, and most of our success as a movement is the result of our explicit emulation of the black civil rights model.” A model that had Bayard Rustin, an openly gay black man, as the chief architect of one of that model’s most revered events, the 1963 March on Washington.
Thanks for this comment and sharing PF. It is about time our President has gotten credit for all he has done for the LGBT community. Bless him and Joe Biden.
Bless him….
Nerdy, what wonderful eye candi this morning thank you. Chips, sending prayers to you and your family. ((((hugs)))) to you all.
And thank you Nerdy for keeping this place going while Chips is out taking care of Momma Chips. You are just an awesome TB to do this and all of us at TOD really appreciate it. XXXOOOO to you too.
Ditto! Nerdy you have a place with the stars. Our Shero! Thoughts and prayers for Chips and her mom
Thank you so much, Taiping1.
Thank you so much, Roberta.
LH, I hope this statement by Hank Paulson gets widespread coverage and millions of retweets. There’s little or no hope that the Republican Party would put their country over their party, but it’s helpful when sober people who know what they’re talking about call them out on it.
All these comments are setting the stage for a coup at the Republican convention
It’s encouraging to read this by someone who is highly respected in the GOP party.
❤
Once again, thank you, Nerdy, for your hour by hour coverage of all the news that’s important and for your incisive tweets. In the midst of all the ugliness, bigotry and willful ignorance in this world, we have the light, intelligence and compassion of President Obama. As the leader of the only remaining still functioning branch of the federal government, he’s doing everything he can to keep hope alive and preserve us from a massive and fatal retreat into another dark ages. Most Americans don’t even begin to know how much we owe him.
And to empower young people to be the next leaders of the free worlds on the globe. Bless him for his unwavering respect for the younger generation to bring the world to a better place. Good Morning TOD Family. off to the Farmers Market and big Pharma. Company coming tomorrow for an overnighter. BBL.
Thank you, Jackie.
This brief article from The Atlantic is worth reading because it offers a positive take on how immigration is changing the US and how small towns even in Kansas are adapting in good ways. It’s a nice counter to all the ugliness and will take less than three minutes to read.
http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/06/a-note-about-trumpism-from-the-real-america/488789/?utm_source=feed
GM JackieG.
Thanks for the link.
From the article:
“A white man who grew up in this area, and works in construction, told us a few days ago: I wasn’t sure about the change in town. It’s different. But these people want to work. They want a better life for their children. We need them. Without them, we would shrivel up.”
And (from before #Brexit vote results stomped on all other news):
Thanks so much for sharing this. Yesterday, I had a very disturbing conversation with two people, immigrants, who came from war-torn Liberia like me. They attend a mega church here in town. I suspect they were parroting the their peers there. They talked about Muslims coming to “our” country, and should be kept out, distorting the Koran, and just all sorts of things, including undocumented people living here.
I was like really? I told them that an untold number of Liberians today, are undocumented. I told them that after I concluded my studies, although I came here with a legitimate visa, I became illegal by virtue of the law. I had no papers to work and worked illegally, until Reagan’s amnesty. I was already in the U.S. when the civil war ravaged Liberia. But ironically, these people were still there, and fled here to safety. So, I asked them, that by their logic, should they have been denied entry to the United States? Because one of their arguments was that killers are among refugees coming into the country and are not being vetted. The stories were wild and so Right Winged, I told them they were giving me a severe migraine.
At one point when they told me that the Koran is a religion whose chief premise is killing infidels. I asked to be shown exactly where it stated that. Nothing.
They claimed that Muslims want to kill everyone, take over the world. I love these people dearly. They go to church everyday and all that, but I was blown away by the twisted thoughts they had. And more importantly that they could think this way, given that they themselves could face similar ugliness by the very people feeding them this stuff under other circumstances.
Let’s not even talk about what they think PBO has done to the country. I know people tend to say it is not a goo thing argue about stuff like this, but I never allow such conversations to go unchallenged. I know I did not change how they think and will continue to believe, but I refuse to let them think it is OK. It is not, ever, and I won’t ever let anyone think it is OK.
I told them it was very unchristian to think that way.
Africa, I believe you planted seeds that will come to fruition in the future. Maybe not with every one of them, but at least one or two will let your knowledge into some of the cracks in their tautology, and will begin to change a bit. I admire you for speaking up rationally.
I often have very strong opinions when discussing politics with friends, relatives and strangers. I may not acknowledge some points of disagreement, but I almost always go over the conversations in my mind later. Sometimes, I change my point of view, because I’m not always right. (smile)
POTUS still in Seattle, return to DC this afternoon. FLOTUS and daughters leave for Africa and Europe trip Sunday.
Happy Saturday TODers!
Nerdy, thanks so much for keeping this space going in Chips’ absence. It is deeply appreciated.
Congrats on 1st Roberta!
Hello PF!!
😀 😀 😀
How sad.
So many UK voters thought they were just lodging a vote in protest of the EU…
And the US MSM is spinning it as a boost for Trump and a setback for PBO and for HRC’s campaign…just because Trump made a flippant remark upon being enlightened that Brexit existed and being given a brief explanation of what it was about…ignoring what we are shown over and over, that decisions made under a Trump presidency [gag] would not be based on what benefits the country but what benefits Trump.
Comment on BJ https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/06/25/open-thread-changing-the-direction-of-the-conversation-hopefully/#comment-5869164
So far, those congratulating the British on Brexit include Putin, Palin, Trump, Iran, ISIS and Marine Le Pen. Is there a pattern here?
———————————————————————————–
The US media aren’t going to get too far with their spin. I think the vote does indicate some folk will vote for Trump & deny to pollsters they are going it – but Hillary is going to be so far ahead in the polls their vote will be irrelevant.
Yep, GOP…he’s looking more and more presidential each day…
What a nominee Trump is???????????
Sure would be an interesting WH Press Corps – Fox (men only), MSNBC (maybe) and that’s about it.
And even *they* wouldn’t be guaranteed…with his thin skin and volatile temper…they could all be revoked and have to rely on his tweets for their daily briefing.
the press should boycott…Trump….just as they threatened to do so to the PBO…when he said that FOX was not a news agency
the press should boycott…Trump…
Ha! The guaranteed outrageousness of Trump is good for a daily sound byte. They are not going to give that up…not even threaten to do so.
US military ‘to lift transgender ban’
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36628288
Don’t know why bbc has this stupid policy of putting these news under quotes.
G’morning Nerdy & TOD! Congrats Roberta on #1 🙂 Happy Saturday everyone 🙂
Good Morning 😆, Everyone 😄
Off to swim 👙and run errands. 😇
Republican and Democratic senators who fell a handful of votes short this week on legislation to bar people on two key terrorist watch lists from buying weapons say they will continue to negotiate on a compromise proposal in the weeks ahead.
And in the House, a group of moderate Republicans are taking up companion legislation to the bipartisan Senate bill, sponsored by moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins…
In the Senate, a bipartisan group led by Collins and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) will push for a stand-alone vote on their measure, which would bar people who are not allowed to board airplanes or are required to undergo additional screening at airports from buying guns or explosives.
A parallel effort is being made by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers who introduced companion legislation Friday…Rep. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.), one of the Republican sponsors, said he notified Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) chief of staff of the group’s plans….The other sponsors include Reps. Bob Dold (R-Ill.), Peter King (R-N.Y.), Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and John Carney (D-Del.).
If the GOP leadership refuses to schedule a vote, they could move a discharge petition, which would need signatures from a majority of House members to force the issue to the floor.
Good morning, TOD! Nerdy, as always, THANK YOU! LP, ❤ last night's front page — thank you, also! Busy day today, wanted to leave this video with you — success or failure; the choice is our's…
Love it – thanks!
Did I just hear AF1 depart Seattle?
JER?
The Present
Disney offered a job to the student that created this animation. After watching it, I can see why at 0:54…
PRICELESS…………………………………………
Well deserved!
At least part of the Obama family is going to Liberia and I am just beside myself with happiness. I wish I could be a stow-Away on FLOTUS plane. Wow. If Liberia is anything like it was back in the day, they should get a rousing welcome.
Glad to see the First Lady and the girls going. Earlier this year, I wrote PBO, suggesting that he consider going to Liberia, given the historic relationship between Liberia and the U.S. Liberia was founded by freed slaves from the U.S., back in the 1800s, and the fact that he went all out to save us from Ebola. I thought if PBO went, it would also be a chance for Liberia, on behalf of Sierra Leone and other West African countries to thank him for saving us from the scrooge of Ebola.
I think I wrote here before that our first president was born in Virginia — Joseph Jenkins Roberts.
I am just tickled pink that FLOTUS is taking her girls there. I wonder if they will travel outside of Monrovia. I can’t wait to see how their visit unfolds. Of course, I can count on Nerdy and other Blog Tyrants here to track the visit. Thanks, in advance.
Wow. Welcome to Liberia, FLOTUS and Malia, and Sasha. Safe trip tomorrow.
BE ON YOUR TOES SS……………………….
Liberia is no longer a war state. We had elections and voted in a woman president more than six years ago, and we are fixing to have elections next year. The country is still pulling itself together, but gently and calmly doing so.
Pardon me, should say 10 years ago. She won a Nobel Peace Price in 2011.
GM AT2.
Was about to post this tweet in response to your reply upthread. Excited about @FLOTUS’ return visit to Africa, and thrilled that Malia and Sasha will join her.
Was surprised to hear about your conversation with fellow church congregants… how is it possible that they don’t love and respect President Obama and the entire First Family???? This makes absolutely no sense to me — in my lifetime, I’ve never heard anyone speak as eloquently and with genuine passionate about what America is… opportunity and welcome to all.
Don’t know the gender of your acquaintances, but find it hard to believe that they don’t embrace #LetGirlsLearn and the initiative’s best ambassadors — this week @DrBiden in South America, next week @FLOTUS and the girls in Liberia and other African nations.
They are actually friends of mine from Liberia. I don’t go to church with them, but they go to this mega right wing church, and I am sure this is where they’ve gotten the message about the first family. I could never sit in these churches around here and abide that kind of thing, so I don’t go. I didn’t even get into the Ebola discussion with them about how PBO worked to safe us, nor did I talk to them about FLOTUS going to Liberia, because I was still trying to set them straight about ostracizing Muslims, painting them all with a broad brush because of ISIS and Boka Harem.
Truly, it was exhausting, especially these were people who sought safe haven here because of our own civil war two decades ago.
I LOVE MY PRESIDENT..PRAYERS FOR A SAFE AND VERY HAPPY JOURNEY FOR FLOTUS AND THE GIRLS..HOWEVER..I DO WISH THEY WERE ALL GOING TOGETHER…<3
HOMELESS SERVE THIS MORNING…VERY EARLY…NOW..ERRANDS TO RUN..FEELS LIKE MIDNIGHT ALREADY!..LOL!
Thanks for always giving back, Sue. Don’t forget to breathe!
the ‘establishment’ is pushing theresa may for next pm. looks like boris fucking clown, for all the racist and hateful rhetoric he pushed over years, might not get his wish.
Good.
Good West Coast morning TOD family. Thanks to you NW for being wonderful YOU💕
My prayers go out to Chipsticks & her Mom 😘
Thank you GGail for being so kind. It is appreciated. 😀
Lesson. Just ugly through and through. Morning everyone…Chips, thinking of you.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-25/brexit-leaders-prepare-to-disappoint-supporters-on-migration
Campaigners to get Britain out of the European Union won their shock victory by building an alliance of older and less-educated voters angry about the way globalization has changed their lives. Now they’re telling people they won’t get what they want.
Vote Leave explicitly targeted people concerned about immigration, warning them that millions of Turks were on their way to Britain. The morning after they won Boris Johnson, their leading spokesman and the favorite to succeed David Cameron as prime minister, began backing away from that message.
OMG, NW. Even I, an old chick, am ready to faint after seeing that first photo!
So, yeah … THANKS! Ha!
Hahahahaha…you’re welcome, Ms. J’OB.
Can you fine people make sure this gets sent along? Thanks!
More carnage…
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/2-dead-4-others-shot-at-fort-worth-dance-hall/255700418
Not a George Will fan, but well, well, well…..
Conservative columnist George Will told PJM he has officially left the Republican Party and urged conservatives not to support presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump even if it leads to a Democratic victory in the 2016 presidential election.
Will, who writes for the Washington Post, acknowledged it is a “little too late” for the Republican Party to find a replacement for Trump but had a message for Republican voters.
“Make sure he loses. Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House,” Will said during an interview after his speech at a Federalist Society luncheon.
He mentioned House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) endorsement of Trump as one of the factors that led him to leave the party.
Assholes like him built deadbeat donnie and now he is all acting sanctimonious? Fuck him and his ilk.
Yeah, it’s amazing all the shucking and ducking and hand wiping among the GOP …as if none of them had any hand in producing their presidential nominee.
The theme of their 2012 convention was full of bravado about what they had built. Keep owning it, GOP!!!
BOOM!
I hate that word, but it really fits in this case.
Yes, some words we must hold for “special occasions” – she nailed it in this case!
🙂 Agreed!
HA!
Good morning, good people. NW, thank you for being here for us in all the best ways, night and day.
My heart and hope for highest healing go out to Chips and her mother. We are holding you both near and dear. XOXOXOXO
Thanks, Meta.
Fitting…
Britain is apparently waking up from its hangover. Until Article 50 is invoked, nothing happens.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/25/article-50-brexit-debate-britain-eu
Britain’s Brexit vote does not require the government to pull the trigger immediately because the referendum is not legally binding.
But however much Europeans want to accelerate the process, there are scant legal means to jump-start it…There is no mechanism to compel a state to withdraw from the European Union. Article 50 is there to allow withdrawal, but no other party has the right to invoke article 50, no other state or institution. While delay is highly undesirable politically, legally there is nothing that can compel a state to withdraw.
=====
Does this mean that it is possible that Article 50 notification may never be triggered, especially with so many voters seeming to want a do-over?
Yes, it’s possible and perhaps looking quite likely. In some ways, this is feeling more like a coup by Johnson and friends to rise to power and Cameron buckled quickly. He should have talked to POTUS first!
But unless they either trigger the notification or announce that they will not be doing so, the uncertainty will continue to have a volatile impact throughout the world, especially economically. How long can this drag out before the impact diminishes? And has Johnson and company been hurt any… i.e., their rise to power…given some of the revelations that came to the surface/reneging on promises post referendum results? I suspect a number of Leave voters felt that they had been deceived.
Because they WERE deceived:)
“HOW TO DELIVER A SECOND REFERENDUM”
https://waitingfortax.com/2016/06/24/when-i-say-no-i-mean-maybe/
But could we have a second referendum after a Leave vote? And what might it take to bring such a thing about?
Let me begin my task by clearing away a little undergrowth.
The referendum result creates a democratic imperative for the UK to depart but, as the great legal blogger David Allen Green has set out here, it doesn’t create a legal one. The legal one follows not from the referendum result but from our decision to trigger the exit procedure in Article 50 (which I turn to below). Some have mooted that our Parliament could simply ignore the referendum result. Although that may be right in legal theory I don’t, myself, consider it a practical likelihood. But, what democracy has commanded shall be done it can also command to be undone. Or, to put the matter less grandly, a second vote, this time for Remain, would undo the democratic imperative of the first.
How might such a thing be delivered?
I can see two routes.
First, were we to have an early General Election fought by one party on an explicit Remain platform and were that party to prevail it would, I think, amount to a ‘refreshed democratic mandate’. The electorate would have spoken such that the result of the Referendum would be superseded.
Second, even without such a General Election, Parliament might decide that circumstances had changed sufficiently, as in Ireland, to put the proposition to the electorate again.
They’ve really screwed themselves but good.
Lesson #2….
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/06/24/3792551/brexit-working-class/
Voters hoping for a shift in their fortunes when they opted for Brexit faced a rude awakening Friday morning. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union was celebrated by supporters as taking control of the economy — but while some are celebrating it as a victory against the elite, it’s clear that the effects of Brexit will likely hurt the working class far more.
Working class voters in the U.K. disproportionately voted to leave the E.U. and greatly influenced the outcome of Thursday’s vote. But if the working class enabled Brexit to happen, they had remarkably little to do with leading the revolt. The primary figures in the Brexit saga have been wealthy politicians, who have ridden the recent European wave of anti-immigrant sentiment and fears over refugees into a position of power — where they likely won’t suffer from the economic repercussions of Brexit in the same way that others in British society will.
I can’t get over how destructive this is.
It’s always about the $$$$$
The weight of the world:
❤ this kid's ingenuity!
These are the kids we should be seeing on the news – everyday!
Also like that he’s trying to be a good role model for his younger brother.
I heard George will left Republican Party Bc of trump?
Just so we are clear…
I trump came out and said he wanted to cut social security and endorsed Paul Ryan’s plan on entitlements… George will would do cart wheels down the street.😩😩😩🤔
It made me smile 🙂
Morning Must Read
http://washingtonmonthly.com/government-investment-opportunity-for-all
If there is one national goal that Americans can agree on, it is opportunity for all. However, the political parties have been sharply divided over the role of government in creating economic opportunity.
Since President Ronald Reagan, Republicans have advocated a simple and beautiful theory of how to grow the economy: the more you reduce government involvement in the economy, the more efficient markets become, and the more the economy grows. However, a beautiful theory can, as T. H. Huxley put it, be “killed by an ugly fact.” The beautiful theory of ‘free market’ or ‘laissez faire’ economics has, in the past 35 years, been killed not by just one fact, but by a torrent of contrary facts.
vc, check your email ❤
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I’n hearing Pres. Barack Obama is just leaving the Seattle Westin en route for SeaTac. I would avoid area roads for 30 min #komonews
Still plenty of air traffic, I guess they will clear soon.
THIS A ZILLION TIMES OVER!!
Good Morning Everybody.
Yay. Wah. We want him to stay. TY, JER.
https://mobile.twitter.com/KING5Seattle
I wonder why SEATAC and not Boeing Field
This morning listening to Rev. Jesse Jackson show on the the Word channel, his guess were talking down President Obama. Why go to Orlando, and Newtown, but not Chicago, that is one of their complaint. Roland Martin wanted a black woman nominated for the Supreme Court instead of that white guy. Of course they said Obama haven’t done enough for the black community.
wHY
I meant why don’t Jackson and Roland run for President, win and stop complaining. They have been singing this same old song for the last 7 years.
Why what? Are you asking why was I watching the show? Or why am I talking about it?
No, I meant why don’t Jackson et al. do something and my computer posted before I was done. 🙂
Michael Dyson , Jesse Jackson, Roland Martin was on the panel, along with sfeww others I don’t know.
a few others. One thing POTUS show learn, you can’t please everybody.
Envy is one of the Seven deadly sins!
And there it is.
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/06/25/defeating-the-nra-and-saving-lives-means-showing-up-everyday/