.@EkpeUdoh—I saw your tweet about A Promised Land and thought I’d respond. For me, the title of my book is about the work we need to do to realize the promise of becoming a more perfect union, even if we don’t get there in our lifetimes. Glad to see your book club is reading it! https://t.co/aVRMxwt5JH pic.twitter.com/Uz3LMAWD2z
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 27, 2021
154 Responses to “The Work We Need To Do”
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Obama White House.gov
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WH Tumblr
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The People’s View
- Follow me at my new venture: Reclaim the Fight
- Ignore the bait: Why it’s the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesn’t matter.
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul
- Rule 44: Why Obamacare is not lost even in a deadlocked Supreme Court, but only if Biden wins
- Time to suit up. This is war.
- BREAKING: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed
- Bothsidesism comes to fact-checking: CNN's “fact-check” calling Biden ad 'misleading' proves the opposite
- Pardon me: How Donald Trump's stooges conspired with Julian Assange to exonerate Russia and undermine US Intlligence
Smartypants
- Durham to Right Wingers: "Blame Hillary"
- That Time When Refusing to Negotiate With Hostage-Takers Worked
- The Other Christian Nationalists: Leonard Leo and Opus Dei
- Hawley Demonstrates That He's an Ignorant Liar
- DeSantis Board Votes to Counter-Sue Disney Over Something...Anything
- Hunter Biden's Laptop Is a Total Nothingburger
- What DeSantis Couldn't Say in Response to Disney's Lawsuit
- Disney Skewers DeSantis With His Own Words
- Populism Without Civil Rights Is Fascism
- Glenn Greenwald gets triggered by smart competent women like Rep. Stacey Plaskett
Steve Benen
- Biden has once again defied expectations from haters and his own party: Joe
- DeSantis ramps up his attacks against Trump
- Steve Rattner: The White House deserves a victory lap on the debt deal
- 'It's a joyous time': Stars of Broadway's '& Juliet' nominated for Tonys
- Chris Matthews: It was the right decision for Biden to put his weight into debt deal fight
- Chris Matthews: The two middles met on the debt ceiling
- Andrew Weissman: If the audio exists, a question of when there will be charges
- 'Default was never an option': House GOP member on why he voted 'Yes'
- Majority of Americans comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads, report finds
- Special counsel obtains audio of Trump discussing classified doc after leaving office: Report
The Obama Diary 
Happy Saturday, Nerdy Wonka! Thank you! Have a beautiful weekend, Beloved! 😘
You, too fearless Dudette!
Greetings Warrior Queen Judith! 😁👋🏾
Morning everyone
Good news to hear about the Judges
Very good news!
Good West Coast morning Nerdy & TOD family. 😎💖
Congrats sister Dudette on First 💃🏾
Good morning all. Good and blessed day wished for all. Stay safe!
Thanks Darling! 😘
Good morning, good day, a big hug to each of y’all TODoBots, you all make my world a better place, each and every day!
Thank you, NW, thank you TOD!
🕊🙏🏼🕯💙🕯🙏🏼🕊
Don’t worry most of those white people will be in Hell anyway.
Knock knock …..
Knock knock ….
So glad to see you didn’t leave. I am following you on twitter. My handle is @bbkenn92. It’s always good to read your tweets. I value your opinions.
Thank you Betsy.
Had no intention of exiting TOD!
Just decided, as noted elsewhere, that I’ll no longer post anonymously.
So happy Nerdy opened the TOD door for me!!
Cheers!
Cheers!
It is because Black people have mostly been the victims. It is always a wink and a slide when white people terrorize Black people because the perpetrators are their people. They are all shocked, hurt, and paralyzed when it happens to them. Black people have been saying all along that what the world saw last year and this year is the truth of life in America. We looked with scorn at all of the liberals who kept saying this is not America, or those who have said that they want things back the way they were. What they want is the ability to believe again this this is a just country where everyone has a chance to live out their dreams. We say build back better; replace rather than restore; re-imagine rather than return to the status quo, The country is where it is today in large part because so many whites looked the other way when injustice and terror was visited upon non-white citizens. Time and again congress refused to codify lynching as a hate/federal crime and then had the nerve to be so appalled when a noose was put in outside of the capitol, its target the white republican vice president and any others who would not disenfranchise Black and minority votes. I have heard the description “domestic terrorism and terrorists more in this first month of 2021 than I have in all of my several scores of life. Black people always say that nothing matters in this country until it happens to white people and this month is the greatest illustration of that sorry truth. Most Black people consider the events of this month to be white folks’ mess that they brought onto themselves. We are not surprised or even that sorry that all of this is happening. There is a nodding of heads, a rolling of eyes and shoulders shrugged. No one listened to us or cared and now the monster is bloated after being fed with indifference on one hand and lies on the other and it is loose seeking more to devour.
Hear! Hear!
And this is precisely why it is an honor to be in this place and learn from people that know of what they speak. Thank you, Imcae. Sometimes (most times) it’s best if people like me shut up and listen. Though I understood this to be true all along, you said this so eloquently. Immense thanks.
“No one listened to us or cared and now the monster is bloated after being fed with indifference on one hand and lies on the other and it is loose seeking more to devour.”
A few of us have been ‘listening’ for a very long time.
Unfortunately, not only did no one want to listen to us – they literally didn’t want us in ‘their family.’
Be that as it may, your assessment could not be any more accurate.
Sadly, it’s likely to get a lot worse for everyone until that beast – which is baked into the very ‘cake’ of our Constitution is Institutionally acknowledged and remedied.
Good place to begin, as has been noted in more than one of my TOD posts, is for white people to LEAD ‘Truth & Reconciliation’ not with more manifestos but with actions that reflect the scale of the harm done since early 17th Century ‘america’ to African slaves and Native Peoples.
This ^^^.
ME Too!!
LOL!
“Smoking Gun Texts Show Trump Campaign Planned Rally That Incited Capitol Attack”
(https://www.politicususa.com/2021/01/30/texts-trump-campain-rally-capitol-attack.html)
“As Republicans continue to try to sweep the attack on the Capitol under the rug,
and distance Trump from any responsibility for what happened,
evidence continues to surface that
Trump was involved
with every element of the rally
that led to the attack on the Capitol.”
This is just the beginning…do we understand that?
–For the safety of all Americans we must kick off with Convict and Disqualify.
Knock knock ….
KAZAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM💃🏽💃🏽
MAGA……Just that simple. Plus he didn’t need Russia help like Trump .
Work of art, this is.
This is our excellent FLOTUS!
Knock knock ….
😍
This is from our dear friend Bobfr (changed his profile name) … he’s hoping to get back on TOD soon!
Thank you Jacqueline!
Am ‘home’ and delighted to be back.
I’m late getting here today, but I’m so glad!
Will keep knocking, tomorrow.
Goodnight TOD.
THANK YOU NERDY for answering the TOD door and opening it for me!!!
Glad to see you made it, Dr. Bob! 😄
Thank you Dudette for your support!! 🙂
😘😘😘
Good Morning Everybody! Have a lovely day! ☀️🌅🌄🌇🌻😎🍳
😎✍️🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋🖋
… and an armrest!
Bruno Mars is in the HOUSE (aka Nursing home) 🙂
How adorable is this? 😍
A tribute to Jackie Robinson
#QuackonGreene gets a pass from the Arkansas Governor and it’s ‘like so what’s new’ ….
Ya think?
Good Sunday afternoon TODville.
Fully agreed Dudette. I don’t know what is in a school curriculum but if civics is not in it … bring it back.
A long time ago a friend and I were having a conversation / kvetching about ppl who do not line up for the bus etc etc … and I said that perhaps the local govts should require tv stations to run PSA ads on tv with civic themed positive messaging. I am sure tv alone is not enough but …
My friend said and I am paraphrasing… why? Because lining up for the bus ought to be common sense and that everyone should know this.
As much as I would like to have agreed with her … i do believe that sometimes nurture is just as important as nature.
I’ve been saying for YEARS that civics needs to be a graduation requirement for not just HS, but college as well. In every school in America. No exceptions
It was for a long time before curriculums became more about teaching to the state standardized test. back in the day we had Civics in 9th grade, World History in 10th, American History in 11th and a class about democracy that came under various names in 12 grade. They became more inclusive to tell the real story of America beginning in the early 70’s and beyond, but it was still by and large left to whether or not teachers would delve into the issues that make white people, especially those in the South uncomfortable. Having said that, the best History teacher at Highschool where I taught, was a white female who was in her late 20’s early 30’s. She went there with the unvarnished truth and understanding. I really feel sorry for government teachers now because of all of these trumper parents who are in denial.
Couldn’t agree more
Good point.
COVID relief is on the way!
Wooo Hooo!
OMG!
Just ordered mine!
I ordered it as well as the complete book of poems that will be available in the fall. So happy that the publishers put out a copy of the title poem earlier. It will join my copies of the Inaugural poems by May Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco (of course Robert Frost’s “The Gift Outright as well in a poetry anthology). I really enjoyed reading and studying these poems with my High School students before I retired from teaching. I almost wish I was still teaching to be able to share Amanda’s poem. I have been looking on Youtube at how professors, priests, and rabbis and so many others have talked about and analyzed “The Hill We Climb.”
I preordered copies for the young ladies in my family; going to go back and order for the young men, too.
I’ll be ordering some additional copies as gifts.
Mallence Williams Ted Talk
If we don’t get our act together and never allow Trump and Trumpians to escape accountability ….
CONGRESSWOMAN CORI BUSH: “I’m here to do a job.”
Rep. Cori Bush recounts how Marjorie Taylor Greene berated her in Congress:
“I moved my office because I’m here to do a job for the people of St. Louis. They deserve that.
And what I cannot do is continue to look over my shoulder wondering if a white supremacist in Congress by the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene or anyone else, cause there are others,
that they are doing something or conspiring against us.”
Hear here on ReidOut: (https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-reidout-with-joy-reid/episode/im-here-to-do-a-job-cori-bush-recounts-how-marjorie-taylor-greene-berated-her-81228486)
Greene bragged about being a gun-carryer when stalking and yelling at a peaceful and silent David Hogg.
She advocates for a “bullet to the head” of Speaker Pelosi.
Obviously Greene is a danger to Congress and needs urgent mental health treatment. Remove before she acts on her insanity.
Any news about which member(s) of Congress
were showing (what turned out to be) insurgents around the Capitol just prior to the January 6th?
There had been no tours for months due to COVID-19. How is it hard to identify who that was?
Charles Blow, author “The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto”.
Guest on Sree’s Sunday NYT Readalong earlier today.
—Plus a great interview with Joy Reid on Friday!
“So the idea of simply returning to where your grandparents are buried does not seem to me to be contraversial. The controversy to me is why they left in the first place. The idea that someone should terrorize you out of a space and that victory of terrorism should be allowed to stand. Or that we should be negotiating with the people who are…the people who are the descendants of the people who did the terrorizing. I don’t understand that.” (Charles Blow)
It’s not that some are unaware and doing their dang best to try to help the herd avoid the cliff …
There’s #GasLighting, and then there’s “#FinkLighting.”
Bob – It’s you! (Thanks to Nerdy! Yay!)
Yes it is!!!
Thank you and Nerdy so much.
cuteness😁
how kool is this..
Super cute…HA!
This is what Trump wanted to do here…amazing they use the same reason…Fraud in the Election….UNBELIEVABLE
Already running scared….
***PAUSING***
Maybe we did learn something…
It is called a democracy…folks want DEMs to be more like the GOP “UNDEMOCRATIC”..I do not know the answer…but when you come to the game and only one side plays by the rules…it is difficult…do we throw out the rules altogether…how do we navigate this..
New Rules???
It’s become obvious that the GOP will not go back to what Dems still consider to be the “norm”. For the GOP, the “rules” are whatever is convenient and beneficial to them. So the Dems should assume likewise…at least for now.
We are in crisis mode and Democrats should do whatever needs to be done to straighten out the chaos and put the country back on track.
US citizens should be reminded of this when travelling abroad. Too many ignore local laws and customs as if they are entitled to do whatever they want and be exonerated.
Few Republicans will call out their GOP colleagues unless they see their own re-election odds jeopardized. This gives us an opportunity to advance the narrative that the deranged factions of that party are indeed what the GOP is at its core.
Nancy Pelosi seems to have already started moving in this direction. This weekend, Speaker Pelosi smartly equated the GOP with QAnon. We can work to associate the nefarious actions of the most egregious Republicans with the party writ large, showing that those who don’t distance themselves from the lunacy are actually complicit.
Good Morning and Happy Black History Month! 😄
Nature’s Own Sitcom Stars: The Muppet and the Secretary
I am SHOCKED!!!!….NOT
Trixie and the bloody cat who thinks she is a bloody dog.
LOVE this. What a sweet thing to see when I open TOD. YEars ago, we had a cat that, as a kitten, was raised with a big dog. She always thought she was part dog. Displayed many of the same behaviors. It was weird.
Bloody lazee bums. (actually both are hyperactive playful bums).
Super pals!!!
One thing. They can’t make it IMPOSSIBLE to vote. It would most likely fail with a court challenge. Also, whatever they try to put in place would also affect GOP voters to some extent. But yes, we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill to keep them from even doing that.
ReidOut: The internet exploded’:
Huge backlash as Robinhood restricts trading on GameStop stocks
Regarding the internet backlash on Robinhood restricting trading on stocks like GameStop and AMC, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz says “I would say the internet absolutely exploded when Robinhood announced they were halting trades.”
(https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/-the-internet-exploded-huge-backlash-as-robinhood-restricts-trading-on-gamestop-stocks-100189253972)
—-the investor class doesn’t expect the rest of us to have financial literacy.
During Black History Month, there are individuals we always hear about. But what about the unsung heroes???
Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin.
Most people think of Rosa Parks as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. There were actually several women who came before her; one of whom was Claudette Colvin.
It was March 2, 1955, when the fifteen-year-old schoolgirl refused to move to the back of the bus, nine months before Rosa Parks’ stand that launched the Montgomery bus boycott. Claudette had been studying Black leaders like Harriet Tubman in her segregated school, those conversations had led to discussions around the current day Jim Crow laws they were all experiencing. When the bus driver ordered Claudette to get up, she refused, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”
Claudette Colvin’s stand didn’t stop there. Arrested and thrown in jail, she was one of four women who challenged the segregation law in court. If Browder v. Gayle became the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in both Montgomery and Alabama, why has Claudette’s story been largely forgotten? At the time, the NAACP and other Black organizations felt Rosa Parks made a better icon for the movement than a teenager. As an adult with the right look, Rosa Parks was also the secretary of the NAACP, and was both well-known and respected – people would associate her with the middle class and that would attract support for the cause. But the struggle to end segregation was often fought by young people, more than half of which were women.
President Biden last Tuesday:
“Today, I’m directing the federal agency to reinvigorate the consultation process with Indian tribes.
Respect the tribal sovereignty — respect for tribal sovereignty will be a cornerstone of our engaging with Native American communities.”
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/01/26/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-an-executive-order-on-racial-equity/)
“As Pandemic Rips Through Indian Country,
Indigenous Communities Work to Save Elders & Languages”
“We look at the fight to save tribal elders and Native language speakers as the pandemic rips through Indian Country, with Indigenous communities facing woefully inadequate healthcare, lack of governmental support, and the living legacy of centuries of colonialism.”
“Native Americans have died from COVID-19 at twice the rate of white people across the U.S.
To combat this crisis, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has prioritized elders who speak the Dakota and Lakota languages to receive vaccines.
Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, told The New York Times
the losses were akin to a “cultural book-burning.”
(Discussion: (https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/22/native_elders_indigenous_language_preservation_covid)
Nola Taken Alive on language:
“As far as prioritizing our elders, we want to make sure —
and this is something that dad always talked about, you know, as far as our language, and he’ll always say that our language is spiritual. When we talk about spiritual, we talk about our identity, of who we are. And, you know, it must be known, throughout the world, that Native Americans or American Indians weren’t granted Freedom of Religion Act until 1978. So, if you can think about that, I was only 1 years old, where our ancestors, or my parents, my grandparents, could actually pray and use our ceremonies in the open. Before that, it was outlawed. So, with our ceremonies also was our language. And also, we have to look back at the oppression that has happened to our people for generations, for centuries.”
Alex White Plume on the lockdown,
“On the Pine Ridge Reservation, about 90% of us can’t find employment, were unemployed. Imagine 17 people living in a house with no food, their electricity is ready to get turned off, and then you’re locked down. And then the tribe never went to pay the electric company’s bill, so lights were being turned off. It was really a negative impact on us.
At the same time, many Lakota speakers were just dying from this new disease.”
New post.
https://obamadiary.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/welcome-to-black-history-month/
I’m going to order mine now. What an beautiful young lady!