Obama: "Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents using tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators."
Obama on voting rights: "We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting."
The U.S. Navy's first Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot will receive her "Wings of Gold" during a ceremony in Kingsville, Texas on Friday. https://t.co/YDWAqIs0qH
.@BarackObama's speech honoring John Lewis's life was centered around the importance of voting rights, which Lewis devoted much of his life and career to fighting for. https://t.co/RaPT1MMdzh
Thank you for today. For the truth telling eulogies, the love, memories, celebrations of our dear John Lewis.
Thank you Honorable John Lewis for loving us so very much. May we carry on your legacy of kindness and action. And may you bring light to all the worlds.
There's no more appropriate way to honor the life and legacy of John Lewis than by fighting to expand the rights he almost died for. As @BarackObama said, let's keep marching. pic.twitter.com/xgUI7pAaMv
It was so refreshing to hear our forever best President speaking today to honor John Lewis. So eloquent, so inspiring and needed! Thanks for sure for keeping TOD going for us to gather in action for our Democracy.
BREAKING: America's economy just had its worst quarter on record. The US economy contracted by 32.9% between April and June, its worst drop on record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.
Winfrey says, “What I know for sure: We can’t be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice… I cry for justice in her name.” #JusticeForBreonnaTaylorpic.twitter.com/nMKxoNTG5u
“This Was a Different Barack Obama. A Stick-Swinging, Old-Testament Obama.”
“—direct, forceful, and utterly uncompromising, taking on the malignancy in the White House, and the party that made that malignancy inevitable, without ever mentioning any names, situating all of them at the wrong end of the bridge across which the country once followed John Lewis, the one that passes through chaos and gets us to the other side.”
(https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33473426/barack-obama-john-lewis-eulogy/)
…PBO: Stunning.
We don't talk nearly enough about uterine fibroids, which affect millions of women across the US. So today, I'm introducing legislation to fund uterine fibroid research and education so women get the information and care they need. https://t.co/1F1Br5yALu
A brilliant, revolutionary concept, reframing the idea of “founding fathers” (and mothers) from a dusty feature of the distant past into a challenge to all of us to do the hard work required to establish a more perfect union that actually lives up to America’s greatest ideals. https://t.co/VtpPHIuWxY
Trois Gymnopédies: Première Gymnopédie · Daniel Varsano · Erik Satie (Philippe Entremont)
(–Un hommage à John Lewis…cette musique est étrangement issue du moment le plus heureux de ma vie.)
If indeed John Lewis is recast in the image of a “Founding Father” as President Obama intimated. He would be born from former slaves to become a living breathing testament of our most highest ideals.
Human trafficking is an unconscionable attack on the dignity of the most vulnerable among us. Action can’t wait — on this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we’ve got to join together and commit to ending trafficking. #EndHumanTraffickinghttps://t.co/5UJHwaMRQI
finally new signs that US intelligence is beta-testing how to communicate directly to American voters on threats that target them in the information domain.
I’m still digesting all the greatness of the homegoing of The Honorable John Lewis. What a beautiful salve to our 4 years of battered souls! My spirit rose! 💞
Thank you NW for this magnificent space, & thank you TOD Fam for all the updates/links.💞
The whole Home going Celebration from Troy, Al to the Atl was tasteful, loving and dignified.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw President Obama do his “Barack walk”.
Lawrence O’Donnell has asked Morgan Freeman to read John Lewis’ final op-ed from the NYT (printed in today’s newspaper) at the end of his show tonight (airing currently on MSNBC). Wow.
JOHN LEWIS:
“More than anything my faith helped me, held me together. And I couldn’t give up, could not give in.
I thought, when I had been beaten on the bridge, I thought I saw death, I thought I was going to die, and I said a little prayer, said “Lord let me live. I want to stay here, I want to be around.”
And I believe it was the grace of God , and praying witnesses that have that saved me.
And so today I feel more lucky, more than lucky, more than blessed but to be here,
to see the changes that have occurred.
To live to see a young man, a young friend,
my president Barack Obama become President of the United States of America.
It was worth the pain and it is my belief that we cannot give up, cannot give in, become bitter or hostile.
And to see all of the people, all of the young men, not just men of color, black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, all of the young women standing up, speaking up, being prepared to march.
They’re going to help redeem the soul of our America, and save our country and maybe help save the planet.”
President Obama, John Lewis, Bryan Stevenson, Leon Ford Jr, LeQuan Muhammed.
MBK Alliance Town Hall Series: June 5 2020: “Mental Health and Wellness in a Racism Pandemic”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B0ILD1wB88)
On Lawrence tonight, last segment, tears! Morgan Freeman read Hon. John Lewis’s NYT last op-ed, photos of his life w/ Morgan’s voice. Am sure link will be available soon. 💞
One of the most powerful essays I've ever read and heard. I only hope our fellow citizens heed this highest calling with the urgency it demands. #GoodTrouble#NecessaryTrouble
I need some help. I swear I saw somewhere that because of the purposeful slow down at USPS and the want to sabotage the election that we should mail our ballots by October 13 to assure on time tally… did anyone else see that? I need to share the source of that information and thought I knew where I saw it but alas…. I was wrong:(. Help please!:)
I think I might have saw it on a tweet or somewhere else but I definitely saw it. If I had a mail in ballot I’d mail it in as soon as possible just to be on the safe side.
DF, I think I saw that in previous TOD posts. Not sure if that claim is legit. Sorry, I’m becoming super cautious. There’s so much disinformation that’s hitting us now, & it’s going to become far, far worse between now & October. Best is for all of us to do extra special CSI on everything that flies thru social media. Source the source. Every Time! 😘💞
Head in the sand, butt in the air is not a winning stance when facing an enemy that’ll kill you even if you’re looking straight at them and don’t have the courage to resist them, relentlessly and peacefully.
2) Four years later, Trump is openly indicating he will do all he can to hold power via illegitimate means.
And it falls to Obama to remind a distressed country we have recourse, with a robust defense of free elections, of full participatory democracy.https://t.co/C4h2MdyrrU
In a special Last Word, Morgan Freeman reads the words of John Lewis’ final essay, which he requested be published in the New York Times on the day of his funeral: “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”
Just finished watching Obama’s moving eulogy for John Lewis.
It occurred to me that it would be worth reading a collection of the eulogies he’s delivered: Ted Kennedy, Beau Biden, Clementa Pinckney, Rep. Lewis, the Tucson shooting victims.
“Denying access to the polls, questioning the legitimacy of the results, throwing up legal challenges, forcing voters to stand in long lines: these have all happened, in our lifetimes,in the US—we don’t have to look to foreign tyrannies for examples”-
@sbg1
“Trump Is the Election Crisis He Is Warning About”
…Amid the coronavirus pandemic and widespread remote voting, Donald Trump said that it would be the most “INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” Why shouldn’t the U.S. “Delay the Election,” he asked, “until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
It was not the first time that the President has raised this particular canard—and a canard it is, a radical move that is not within his power to make happen—but it was by far his most inflammatory, destabilizing, and provocative attempt yet to call into question the legitimacy of the November election, in which he is trailing the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in virtually every poll. Has there ever been a President who has done more to undermine American democracy? Trump himself has become the crisis of confidence in our political system that he warns about. He is his own self-fulfilling prophecy.
Georgia’s top leaders have embraced the idea of removing the figure of Alexander Stephens from the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and replacing him with a likeness of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. https://t.co/lRhQAMJlnx
Ahmaud Arbery’s death prompted Georgia lawmakers to pass a hate-crimes law, which strengthens the punishment of those who commit crimes against certain people based on bias. https://t.co/X5jqbLoTQU
ACT EARLY…Apply for Absentee Ballots EARLY…Return Absentee Ballots EARLY whether by mail or by drop off (especially by mail)… Take advantage of in-person EARLY Voting where available
WaPo: The U.S. Postal Service is experiencing backlogs of mail after a top Trump donor running the agency put in place new procedures, alarming postal workers who warn that the policies could undermine their ability to deliver ballots on time. https://t.co/MSZCDebDEO
Angela Stanton-King, a former reality TV star and current Republican congressional candidate running in the late Rep. John Lewis’s district, posted a conspiratorial tweet on Thursday suggesting foul play in the death of Herman Cain, who earlier in the day passed away from COVID-19.
“All the celebrities and Democrats catch COVID and magically heal,” Stanton-King wrote on Twitter. “But Herman Cain is dead! I swear I hate it here. I was right there with him. We were perfectly fine!!! This is WAR!!!”
“Since COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Black people can someone explain to me how Herman Cain caught it around a bunch of white people,” she wrote. “And why none of the Democrats at George Floyd’s funeral caught it with thousands of black ppl and a dead body that was Covid positive?”
3. Were asked in Jan. by Philips if they needed more vents. A new contract wasn't cut until April, well after peaks in NY/MI and after govs there were warning of shortages
4. Deal was negotiated by Peter Navarro, formalized by a former Kushner roommate. Maj. of the correspondence was between Philips and a recent college grad assisting Navarro.
5. Oversight Democrats call this "fleecing" and say the $$ should be clawed back.
.@AmbassadorRice calls Pres. Trump’s uncertainty if he’ll accept the results of the upcoming election “concerning and disturbing”: “It’s clear that Donald Trump will stop at nothing to try to stay in power. However illegal, dishonest or unbefitting the office.” pic.twitter.com/a188Ej2PbT
Former Obama national security adviser @AmbassadorRice to @TheView: "We prepared the [Trump] administration with a pandemic for dummies playbook… So the fault here, the tragic loss of 150,000 Americans and counting, is on Donald Trump and his gross mishandling of this pandemic." pic.twitter.com/ODP2TJ3NRp
Rest in peace, Buddy 😢 The first pet dog to test positive for COVID-19 has died. In an exclusive interview with National Geographic , the Mahoneys talked about their 6-year-old German Shepherd‘s fight with the virus. 💔https://t.co/PWcHza3aPrpic.twitter.com/tDsUceur7s
Wanna see how disregarding facts and believing Trump and the GOP's BS can kill you?
A thread:
First of all, I can barely watch any cable news channel talk about the coronavirus because they keep giving us whole numbers, which means absolutely nothing.
The Obama Diary 
Such appreciation for you, Nerdy Wonka, for keeping this sanctuary going. Today refueled me for the long march ahead. XOXO
I second all of this. Thank you Nerdy!
thank you NW for your kindness.
I loved every bit of PBO’s eulogy.
It was just the voice we needed at this moment, every word of it. Magnificent.
What a balm for our souls.
Thank You, NW for your continued dedication & service for out TODville Community.
😍🤗🙇♀️👒💁♀️🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
your remarkable postings all day today Dudette…
Thanks brp 😘
Thank you! 😘
Thank you for today. For the truth telling eulogies, the love, memories, celebrations of our dear John Lewis.
Thank you Honorable John Lewis for loving us so very much. May we carry on your legacy of kindness and action. And may you bring light to all the worlds.
A beloved hero gone to
Final rest after decades of ‘good trouble’ creating change. ❤️
It was so refreshing to hear our forever best President speaking today to honor John Lewis. So eloquent, so inspiring and needed! Thanks for sure for keeping TOD going for us to gather in action for our Democracy.
I’m now learning more about this Beautiful man, James Lawson. What a man.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4896653/user-clip-john-lewis-remembered-legislative-director-jamila-thompson
John Lewis remembered by Legislative Director Jamila Thompson:
“If you are of age, and eligible, for the love of god please vote.”
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4896658/user-clip-john-lewis-remembered-legislative-director-jamila-thompson
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4896658/user-clip-john-lewis-remembered-legislative-director-jamila-thompson
ah well. not finding any other link.
Yeh I tried too.
Wait… here it is! Yay!
“This Was a Different Barack Obama. A Stick-Swinging, Old-Testament Obama.”
“—direct, forceful, and utterly uncompromising, taking on the malignancy in the White House, and the party that made that malignancy inevitable, without ever mentioning any names, situating all of them at the wrong end of the bridge across which the country once followed John Lewis, the one that passes through chaos and gets us to the other side.”
(https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33473426/barack-obama-john-lewis-eulogy/)
…PBO: Stunning.
This.
Beautifully stated.
Trois Gymnopédies: Première Gymnopédie · Daniel Varsano · Erik Satie (Philippe Entremont)
(–Un hommage à John Lewis…cette musique est étrangement issue du moment le plus heureux de ma vie.)
…and if you plan to vote in person and it’s available, EARLY VOTE!!!
If indeed John Lewis is recast in the image of a “Founding Father” as President Obama intimated. He would be born from former slaves to become a living breathing testament of our most highest ideals.
This is getting really tedious and every minute that passes is one less minute Putin has to wait to OWN America.
thanks Joe – doing great work.
Thread
I’m still digesting all the greatness of the homegoing of The Honorable John Lewis. What a beautiful salve to our 4 years of battered souls! My spirit rose! 💞
Thank you NW for this magnificent space, & thank you TOD Fam for all the updates/links.💞
Ali Velshi reporting that an American is dying every minute.
Is there any number Doomsky would respond to? – pick any number.
No.
He does not care.
The whole Home going Celebration from Troy, Al to the Atl was tasteful, loving and dignified.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw President Obama do his “Barack walk”.
Thank you Nerdy for keeping the lamp lit. 😘
Lawrence O’Donnell has asked Morgan Freeman to read John Lewis’ final op-ed from the NYT (printed in today’s newspaper) at the end of his show tonight (airing currently on MSNBC). Wow.
I have my box of Kleenex ready. I know tears will overflow listening to Freeman read his essay.
Posted below, J’OB, before seeing your post. I was once again looking for tissues. I hope there’s a vid of that segment soon.
Thank you and bless you, Nerdy and TOD, for your covering of today’s homecoming for John Lewis.
JOHN LEWIS:
“More than anything my faith helped me, held me together. And I couldn’t give up, could not give in.
I thought, when I had been beaten on the bridge, I thought I saw death, I thought I was going to die, and I said a little prayer, said “Lord let me live. I want to stay here, I want to be around.”
And I believe it was the grace of God , and praying witnesses that have that saved me.
And so today I feel more lucky, more than lucky, more than blessed but to be here,
to see the changes that have occurred.
To live to see a young man, a young friend,
my president Barack Obama become President of the United States of America.
It was worth the pain and it is my belief that we cannot give up, cannot give in, become bitter or hostile.
And to see all of the people, all of the young men, not just men of color, black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, all of the young women standing up, speaking up, being prepared to march.
They’re going to help redeem the soul of our America, and save our country and maybe help save the planet.”
President Obama, John Lewis, Bryan Stevenson, Leon Ford Jr, LeQuan Muhammed.
MBK Alliance Town Hall Series: June 5 2020: “Mental Health and Wellness in a Racism Pandemic”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B0ILD1wB88)
I would beg to say that “Virus45 wipes out decades of growth”. Yup! 😞
On Lawrence tonight, last segment, tears! Morgan Freeman read Hon. John Lewis’s NYT last op-ed, photos of his life w/ Morgan’s voice. Am sure link will be available soon. 💞
Here it is. Get some tissue. 😢
This was so powerful. Do have kleenix near. I’ve had them close all day yesterday. The service was so heartfelt. Hearing Obama heals the soul.
Come to think of it, I kinda like it better with Lawrence’s intro & closing.
SO incredibly stirring.
I need some help. I swear I saw somewhere that because of the purposeful slow down at USPS and the want to sabotage the election that we should mail our ballots by October 13 to assure on time tally… did anyone else see that? I need to share the source of that information and thought I knew where I saw it but alas…. I was wrong:(. Help please!:)
I think I might have saw it on a tweet or somewhere else but I definitely saw it. If I had a mail in ballot I’d mail it in as soon as possible just to be on the safe side.
DF, I think I saw that in previous TOD posts. Not sure if that claim is legit. Sorry, I’m becoming super cautious. There’s so much disinformation that’s hitting us now, & it’s going to become far, far worse between now & October. Best is for all of us to do extra special CSI on everything that flies thru social media. Source the source. Every Time! 😘💞
This has some info on the USPS slow down:
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/how-trump-is-slowing-down-the-post-office-in-the-year-of-the-mail-in-ballot-88674373511
df, I did a search on twitter and there are plenty of results. Maybe one of them will help.
https://twitter.com/search?q=mail%20ballots%20by%20October%2013&src=typed_query
I love you guys:) thanks a bunch for helping me out.
Head in the sand, butt in the air is not a winning stance when facing an enemy that’ll kill you even if you’re looking straight at them and don’t have the courage to resist them, relentlessly and peacefully.
Goodnight TOD.
Love the passion and sense of urgency. I feel like I’m missing something though. What are they not doing that they should be doing?
Who’s the Imposter…PERIOD!!!
In a special Last Word, Morgan Freeman reads the words of John Lewis’ final essay, which he requested be published in the New York Times on the day of his funeral: “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”
Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted Alex Howard @digiphile
“Denying access to the polls, questioning the legitimacy of the results, throwing up legal challenges, forcing voters to stand in long lines: these have all happened, in our lifetimes,in the US—we don’t have to look to foreign tyrannies for examples”-
@sbg1
“Trump Is the Election Crisis He Is Warning About”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trump-is-the-election-crisis-he-is-warning-about
…Amid the coronavirus pandemic and widespread remote voting, Donald Trump said that it would be the most “INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” Why shouldn’t the U.S. “Delay the Election,” he asked, “until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
It was not the first time that the President has raised this particular canard—and a canard it is, a radical move that is not within his power to make happen—but it was by far his most inflammatory, destabilizing, and provocative attempt yet to call into question the legitimacy of the November election, in which he is trailing the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in virtually every poll. Has there ever been a President who has done more to undermine American democracy? Trump himself has become the crisis of confidence in our political system that he warns about. He is his own self-fulfilling prophecy.
Two astronauts set to return to Earth this weekend.
ACT EARLY…Apply for Absentee Ballots EARLY…Return Absentee Ballots EARLY whether by mail or by drop off (especially by mail)… Take advantage of in-person EARLY Voting where available
The plight of the US Postal Service needs to be headlined ALL DAY EVERY DAY…everything else is “BREAKING NEWS” all day. Why not *this*?!?!?!?
When I saw this yesterday, I couldn’t believe someone was stupid enough to *think* this, much less make those thoughts public. 🙄 🙄 🙄
Angela Stanton-King, a former reality TV star and current Republican congressional candidate running in the late Rep. John Lewis’s district, posted a conspiratorial tweet on Thursday suggesting foul play in the death of Herman Cain, who earlier in the day passed away from COVID-19.
“All the celebrities and Democrats catch COVID and magically heal,” Stanton-King wrote on Twitter. “But Herman Cain is dead! I swear I hate it here. I was right there with him. We were perfectly fine!!! This is WAR!!!”
“Since COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Black people can someone explain to me how Herman Cain caught it around a bunch of white people,” she wrote. “And why none of the Democrats at George Floyd’s funeral caught it with thousands of black ppl and a dead body that was Covid positive?”
Morning everyone. What would happen if postal workers ignored this and just did what they always have done?
Thread
Also here: https://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-4
New post.
https://obamadiary.wordpress.com/2020/07/31/together-you-can-redeem-the-soul-of-our-nation/