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I’m often asked what I’m reading, watching, and listening to, so I thought I might share a short list from time to time. There’s so much good writing and art and variety of thought out there these days that this is by no means comprehensive – like many of you, I’ll miss “The Americans” – but here’s what I’ve been reading lately. It’s admittedly a slightly heavier list than what I’ll be reading over the summer:
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging, by Alex Wagner
I once wrote a book on my own search for identity, so I was curious to see what Alex, daughter of a Burmese mother and Iowan Irish-Catholic father – and a friend of mine – discovered during her own. What she came up with is a thoughtful, beautiful meditation on what makes us who we are – the search for harmony between our own individual identities and the values and ideals that bind us together as Americans.
More here
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The Obama Diary 
Splendid:) Look at his radiant smile….and a curious learner! Imagine that!
Morning everyone.
Congratulations, desertflower. Mourning extra hard on this awful news day for what we lost and what we are about to lose.
What a great ad:) I just saw this. I wish her well as she moves on.
Truth
There comment section will bring a smile to your face …here is one…Thanks Nerdy
there=the
Any questions?
G’day y’all! {{{{{ ❤️ TOD ❤️ }}}}}
Full Moon tonight: 6♑️28 at 9:53pm PT, early tomorrow morning 0:53 ET.
This supreme test we are living through in an agony of concern and caring, will be democracy’s finest hour. Light shall drive out the Darkness, and Love shall conquer hate.
Keep you all the ❤️ heart.
Yes, we can.
Big hugs all around,
W/MPW
Thank you for this encouragement, pamela. Much needed right now.
♥️
Thank you Pamela for those words. Today is a very sad day.
I am so completely sickened by this disgusting display.
Good trouble.
I can’t imagine a world without John Lewis.
🙂
God Bless Him!
Public sector unions…Teachers….municipal workers such as sanitation workers…office workers….etc will be impacted by this SCOTUS decision on Unions…a lot of these workers are blk workers…it was how blk folks became part of the middle class…the trade unions such as the Building Trades Union….blocked a lot of blk folks from entry by requiring that you had to have a family member in the union in order for you to become a member…the public sector was the way middle class status was achieved…federal…state…. city…… public workers….Boooooooom!….what now???
i saw a stat that said that 43% of union workers voted for trump…not sure how many of the public union workers went for him….but every time i read a stat like this…i think of Ta-Nehisi Coates…piece…The First White President…he said that Trump..won every demographic of white person…because it was about racism…white supremacy and white privilege…even now while Trump kicks the Harley workers in the mouth with these trade tariffs…they still cling to him…because if they did not…where would they go…what would they do…
OooooooooooWeeeeeeee.
My son is an attorney- for 13 yrs he has worked for a union representing social security employees. He is losing his job because of this- these employees will no longer have this representation.
Just thinking that Michael Jacksons’ father died today. Look what that father’s verbal and physical abuse did to a beautiful being like Michael. Trumputin is verbally and physically abusing ordinary Americans however he can. Step by step by step he and his handlers will be dismantled.
Moment to moment the relative world disappears and reappears and he has No power over that.
thanks Sir Avenatti for caring so much, love, me.
And me. ❤
Heartbreaking. This country is moving in the wrong direction to the point where so many Americans are okay with kidnapping and caging children while tearing families asunder. This is a nightmare.
HOLY SHIT
I think these last decisions did him in…but he is like the so called moderates in Congress who rail against Trump but continue to vote his way,,,
Exactly!!!!!
Another Immigration House GOP Bill goes down in defeat…..not surprised…they cannot govern….but what i am proud to see is the not one Dem voted for this disaster of a bill…Once again I am impressed by Nancy Pelosi being able to hold her caucus together…..
I wish Schumer would. Not one Dem better enable any SCOTUS nominee by this illegitimate POTUS until after both midterm election and unfettered completion of #MuellerInvestigation.
They are surely coming for Roe V. Wade.
This is surely the end of Roe v Wade. And likely the end of free and fair elections. All challenges to Trump will now be taken to the Supreme Court, including the next presidential election.
The RWNJs and Berniecrats and Jill Stein dead-enders have done long term historic damage to our judicial system and to women and POC and to all who are vulnerable. We are very, very screwed.
We’re also stuck with Citizens United and worse.
the collusion is total – with the SCOTUS announcement;
sickened by it all
here was my TOD comment from earlier this morning;
globalcitizenlinda
June 27, 2018 at 7:57 am
here is my fear but it won’t surprise me if justice kennedy has secretly worked the homegrown demagogue and mcconnell to retire at the end of this SCOTUS term and be quickly replaced by another corrupt gop extremist judge.
I do not know how many of us remember what has been written about Kennedy’s personal relationship with the traitor trump’s family
I remember reading that post and feeling a knot of dread in my stomach. And now you’re right and I can’t breathe right now.
Appalling! Worst day since the election travesty!
Trump and Putin “summit” deal was made today.
With Trumputin openly doubling down on his guilty conspiracy with Russia. (Psychopaths do not break a sweat.) Elections are basically here
and the Criminal-In-Chief is still denying what every other nation in the world knows about Russian election interference and the illigetimate way he was elected. imo our gloves must really come off over this summit. The business deals, the Trump cover ups.
Evil must get its fat Arses kicked.
Yessssssssss!
That was McConnell’s argument for keeping Garland’s SCOTUS position unfilled for a year.
And OH the speculation that Mitchski McConnell knew the outcome of the November 2016 election ahead of time.
Watching the panic…dread…fear…that white folks are expressing on Twitter. re: Justice Kennedy’s impending retirement…i think that they are getting a small taste of what it feels like to be a black person in America
I see it all around me.
It’s a hell of a feeling to be at the top of the food chain and then come to find out that your world is about to be turned upside down. This Supreme Court is going to make the “moderate” finally choose a side. Upheaval does not bother me because I was born in upheaval, raised in upheaval. But some people don’t know upheaval, but they are going to learn about upheaval, soul crushing upheaval.
I wonder what President Obama is thinking
Michelle: B, you told them what was on the ballot.
Barack: I sure did.
Michelle: You want to order in or go out for dinner?
Barack: I’m good with whatever you want to do, Bey.
aww thanks for that.
hahahaha…yup
Well after all.,..it is only fair…..yup..
McConnell will want to hold the vote next week!
Drat and double drat…the McConnellski Rule.
From a poster on another blog about Kennedy:
All I know is that Lee Daniels better go borrow some money from Oprah and pay Damon Dash. Dash looks like he wanted to take it to that other place.
I know..that picture….uh uh uh
Chris Matthews ranting and raving….
i forgot to add the role that the press had in electing Trump…
took a lot to circumvent the will of the people…now we will see what the mettle of the American People is…
The balls on this guy, every goddamn night for the last however long he was on MSNBC this fucker played footsies under the table with the Republicans and now all of a sudden he’s so goddamn concerned about the will of the American people.
McCONNELL SET THE RULE: A Supreme Court nominee CANNOT be heard by Congress in an election year.
No need for the whatever media to write a thousand words or Matthews to burst a blood vessel.
Only 5 words needed:
= McConnell Rule Is In Effect.
Dems must play dirty like McConnell. Dirty as they have to play. No nominee doing election year.
McConnell will say he has the right to give Trump some names. Koch/Putin will tell him who to pick. There’ll be a public pretense.
But McConnell has already set the rule:
= NO NOMINEE IN AN ELECTION YEAR.
Who’s the most powerful person in DC?
Mr. Kochputin.
Nope. It’s not a thug, a congressional leader, lobbyist, donor, House or senate member, cabinet member, or the Special Counsel although he’s a very close third.
i meant what i said.
Forgot Bannon.
Nope. It’s the White House cook.
you mean Trump’s food taster.
Unfortunately, Democrats aren’t in a power position to stop McConnell from pushing a SCOTUS nominee through. They should fight hard to keep this from happening but I’m not all that optimistic. Given all that has happened since Trump’s election and all the people who have been hurt and will be hurt in the future, I really hope that third party voters have learned a hard lesson and won’t repeat their mistakes. We cannot afford a full term of Trump and I don’t want to think that he could be re-elected.
#Resist as if your life depended on it because it does as do the lives of minorities and migrants and LGBTs.
Matthews’ job is to make it all look so tenuous. It’s his job.
Mueller.
Pres Clinton wants to put Sanders in a good light. But isn’t it about who she represents every day: A violent regime that bullies babies,
and risks the lives of children. An illegitimate president who has made repeated calls for violence and incivility from his supporters.
And his response right there is exactly why I hesitated in voting for him again in the primary yesterday. (he won)
There have been SO many negative happenings in these last couple days and weeks I am feeling defeated and down. I needed to come here to boost myself back up so I can feel hopeful again. Three good likeminded friends that I could vent and talk with died in the last year, one of which unexpectedly died a week ago. My brother lives next door and is kind and generous in most of his life, but is totally hypocritical in his political life. He supports Trump unconditionally so we totally avoid political conversations. However, it wears on me as to how he can hold these views. This last year I had thought I was moving to another state to live with my daughter’s family who are Democrats. The positive part of that was that I would be away from my brother. I did not want to give up my independence and when it ended they had to move again I moved back which was mostly a good thing other than being next to my brother again. It makes me think of what the Civil War must have been like.
Kennedy could have hung around till we got rid of Trump.
So what do people like Susan Serandon have to say now. Those idiots who said that Trump was no worse then Hillary.
Meghan McCain talks about a lovely hand written letter she got from our President Obama when she got married. Check out the View.
Oh, Jesus.
they will literally be living in a police state.
FYI> Fuck civility. Lives are at stake.
It should not be some of these, but ALL of these remedies….including holding up the nominee until after the election
Hopefully this posts, The Magic of the Eff Word. It gave me a much needed LOL.
Would be fitting if these women stood firm for all women in coming generations
I known deep despair at different times in my life.
I have noted that more frequently than I did before, I am often finding that, during my quiet time, I think in the same vein as this : Around the ninth hour, Jesus shouted in a loud voice, saying “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34.
I trust that this too shall pass but for the sake of all us, this period of despair and morose is shortened. As PBO and Forever FLOTUS taught us, this, we have to be hopeful of a better tomorrow and work as much as we can to make real the changes we seek ….. we are the ones that we have waiting for.
Dear brothers and sisters at TOD, let us hold on together for a better day soon
sorry for the typos, I am not my usual self …. now chin up Linda, tomorrow is a new day to start fighting all over
Big hugs to you, Linda!
Hang tough, dear Linda. A luta continua! Repubs have a consistent history of over-reaching & We-The-People will have to pound them back into obscurity. Again. That must be our mission till we’re 6 feet under & forevermore. We’re now deep in the fight of our lives. Let’s find courage in those who were in the fight of their lives before us. Those who fought & died need us to fight mighty-might right now, push those proverbial envelopes to mulch. ❤
This is, in my opinion, as important a reason to make the Senate wait until after the mid-terms than just to “pay back Mitch” for what he held back from President Obama. There’s more than one reason and THIS reason puts the blame squarely back on trump.
Excuse the language.
Does anybody know what books D. Trump is reading? Or Melania? I will even settle for Baron’s reading list.
Trump can’t read.
Horrible trump actually said – today I think – that his son likes soccer. How the hell would he know what his son likes? I guess he read it on the cover of the New York Daily News.
McConnell are you a Patriot? Yes or No.
-DO YOU WANT PUTIN TO DECIDE THE NEXT Supreme Court JUSTICE?
-DID PUTIN DECIDE THE LAST Supreme Court Justice?
(Maybe we should look into that.)
McConnell: imo you are one more Russian asset to add to the very long list.
1) Donald Trump is under investigation for committing Treason with the hostile nation that we’re 100% certain hacked our 2016 election.
2) President Obama wasn’t under investigation.
3) President Obama followed the Constitution.
4) You blocked his nominee for a year, even though Garland is a Republican and was recommended by top Republicans like Hatch.
5) You doubled down by Authoring and Passing a Bill that prevents the Hearing of any nominee by any party in an election year.
6) You stated as fact that the NRA decides on Republican Supreme Court Justices and I have the quote as well as the video.
7) The majority of Americans wanted the sitting President Obama to appoint the Justice he nominated, as per a century of protocols.
You have undermined the Constitution, protocols and norms of this country and the U.S. Senate, endangered our National Security and the good name of the United States around the world.
McConnell is focused on making Conservative donors happy. That’s it. He’ll break rules, change precedent, ignore decorum, etc., to get things done. He’s winning the battle so far. Let’s see if the American people win the war by flipping the Senate in November.
If he’s a Patriot he’ll want to see the outcome of the Investigation before allowing Trump to make any more critical decisions on our behalf.
And he’ll honor the McConnell Rule.
Within minutes of the SCOTUS decision, my inbox was flooded with donation requests from politicians and various organizations. I am ready to unsubscribe and label most of them as spam.
Exactly. I want to hear & see a plan. Talk doesn’t cut it. Can they refuse to provide a quorum? Can they not show up? It’s time to throw all rules out. McConnell did it at every turn. So sick of Dems laying down. Drastic action is needed NOW!
From another poster:
YES…
THIS IS WHO THEY ARE.
THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE…
Stop pretending otherwise, and we need to not let others pretend.
Morning everyone:) This may be easier than trusting a Republican in this day and age to put country over party
Democrats face Day 1 of winnable fight for Supreme Court’s future
Rachel Maddow outlines the position Democrats are in and what it will take for them to block Donald Trump’s next Supreme Court pick, noting the feasibility of a four-month plan to make it through the election.
Democrats aim to hold Trump to McConnell’s Garland standard
Senator Chris Murphy talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic strategy to block Donald Trump’s next Supreme Court pick until at least after the midterm elections.
Kennedy sacrificing legacy to Trump surprises court watchers
Dahlia Lithwick, legal correspondent and senior editor for Slate, talks with Rachel Maddow about Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement from the Supreme Court and the civil rights at stake for Americans if Democrats are not able to block Donald Trump’s next pick.
MUST SEE AND SHARE. YOU MUST HEAR WHAT MS. IFILL HAS TO SAY.
http://www.naacpldf.org/news/ldf’s-sherrilyn-ifill-discusses-justice-kennedys-retirement-all-chris-hayes
Trump SCOTUS threat to abortion rights prompts wave of organizing
Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Americans are already organizing to protect abortion and reproductive rights in the face of Donald Trump’s likely replacement for the retiring Justice Kennedy.
Judge to Trump: Give the children back!
Rachel Maddow reports on a federal judge who has ordered the Trump administration to reunite the children taken at the border from their parents, giving Trump 30 days to do so, 14 days for children under five.
Swish this around for awhile….
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2018/06/28/the-fight-still-matters/