By telling her story, Natoma Canfield helped us pass the Affordable Care Act. She was an inspiration to me and so many others, which is why her letter still hangs in my office. Michelle and I send our condolences to Natoma’s family. https://t.co/QwII5NNM4P
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 23, 2021
143 Responses to “An Inspiration”
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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 Spandan Chakrabarti
- Ignore the bait: Why it’s the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care Spandan Chakrabarti
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census Spandan Chakrabarti
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesn’t matter. Spandan Chakrabarti
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul Spandan Chakrabarti
Smartypants
- How our presidential politics have been tied to Putin's desire for revenge in Ukraine
- What we can learn about right wing politics from the response to SVB
- I, for one, am proud to be part of the "woke mob."
- Matt Taibbi: Challenge Accepted
- To avoid slouching towards Gilead, it's time for liberals to connect the dots
Steve Benen
- Joe: There is no post-truth world when it comes to the court system
- Reporters on the front lines in China tell their stories in new book
- 'There's no politics in safety,' says senator ahead of rail safety hearing
- Sen. Menendez: Putin has become President Xi's junior partner
- NPR's Ari Shapiro focuses on optimism and hope his new book
The Obama Diary 
I so wanted to be furst
😽
You are, MP! You are! Morning everyone. Condolences to the Canfield family for this loss. She moved this country to a better place and we all mourn her loss.
Good morning DF 🙋🏾♀️😘
Good morning to you, gg:) Hope all is well
Yes. Let’s touch base this weekend. 🙂
Wonderful idea:) Let’s. Talk soon:)
👍🏾
🕊😽🕊
Congrats! 😁
😹💞
I marvel at your accomplishment, Pamela! Congratulations on your win. Happy many returns.
😹still rockin’ it! 😹
Congratulations ☺
🕊😹🕊
Good West Coast morning Nerdy, & TOD family. Amk has had me talking already today before I had time to greet the day. LOL!!
Congrats lady Pamela on First 💖💃🏾
Ms. Canfield died ten days ago.
PBO invited her to a health rally in March 2010. Due to leukemia treatment Natoma couldn’t attend. She’d sent a letter asking for help, no longer able to cover the 25% (then 40%) increase in health care premiums. Thanks and love to Naomi Canfield, her family, and PBO for his fierce commitment.
Natoma, Natoma…
France has held its second round of regional elections, with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) again failing to take power anywhere.
President Emmanuel Macron’s party also suffered bad results, while the centre-right Republicans and the Socialist Party both received surprise boosts.
Turnout for Sunday’s elections was at a record low, with under 35% of eligible voters casting their ballots.
It comes ahead of French presidential elections due in April next year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57631418
Glad that at least french are resisting the rwnj abyss.
This needs more attention.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPFEd56fMHo)
‘Motivated by discriminatory purpose’:
DOJ joins groups suing GA over voter suppression
“Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Georgia voter suppression law targets Black voters and other groups and what it means that the DOJ has joined the case.”
Good.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/scientists-report-there-isnt-enough-water-vapor-in-clouds-of-venus-to-support-earth-like-life/
Oh but maybe they are…came back in time to study the warming of planet Earth!!
Plus the infantile idiocy and greed of Homo sapiens.
Eh have they been visiting
since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution?
(Either than or Dr. No is having a good laugh)
George Takei Celebrates Pride Month As Fight To Defend LGBT Rights Continues
“The importance of Pride month and the ongoing need to defend of LGBT rights are discussed by actor and activist George Takei in conversation with Joy Reid.”
lol. what heat wave? (from an indian)
Congrats, Pamela, and endless thanks to President Obama for staking his Presidency on passing the ACA. Stay cool, all of my fellow sufferers under the Pacific Northwest heat dome. Gonna hit 116 in Portland today. Our house is not air conditioned, so I escaped to my brother’s home in Salem. Only slightly cooler here.
Stay safe, Judith! It’s dangerous heat you have up there…especially considering you all don’t have AC like those of us in the desert do. Keep your curtains and shades drawn and drink plenty of water… if it gets too ridiculous, get a cool drink, a good book and just plop yourselves in the cool bathtub! Not kidding. I know what 116 feels like and it’s not good. Pace yourselves, check on others and keep water (like gallons of it) in your car. Never know. Do the errands in the early am or later at night when the sun goes down…. hopefully this weather will break for you soon. Thinking of you
Great suggestions! I’m using them here in Missoula too. Was 100 today, hotter tomorrow. In all my 40 years here it has never been this hot in June. This whole week it’s to be over 100. But there’s no climate change.
🕊💞🕊
Officer Fanone:
“When you’re that obsessed with gaining power that you’re willing to trample over a bunch of police officers,
that’s sickening.”
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore (Ret), Commander of Joint Task Force Katriana, speaks to Chris Hayes.
Hayes: “General, what do you make of the invective now being directed at the United States military, of all institutions, as essentially being excessively captured by far left race and diversity obsessives?”
Lt. General Honore:
“That’s a quite an interesting approach that the opposition is starting to take to singularly attack
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not only to question his integrity in a Committee here, but then to have that same group that they hang with over on the animal channel, say disparaging remarks about the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff when he answered the question that they asked. Concerning race.
Concerning why were these topics being taught. But I’m most impressed with the way the Chairman and the Secretary of Defense dealt with those challenges in the House Chamber.
It was impressive to see these two boomers, take these young Gen X`s out to the woodshed
and literally lay some wood on that a-s-s.
He handled them with distinction, with authority.
He didn’t use notes and he wasn’t quoting something he heard on the animal channel. He was talking facts.”
Hayes:
“General Milley has been in the news about more than this. Because there has been reporting coming out about June of last year, of course. A that’s when there were protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. And there were folks in the street, there were folks outside the White House. Of course we all remember that photo op of the (former) president walking across. But there’s new reporting that New York Times has detailing how the president’s aides had prepared an Insurrection Act Order during debate over the protests. The president wanted and kept urging. Essentially he wanted the military deployed in American streets to put down the protests. There’s a book coming out that says that he was telling them to ‘shoot people and crack skulls’. And that Milley was one of the key figures resisting that.
As someone who led troops into New Orleans with this humanitarian mission, what is your reaction to hearing how close it appears we came to having them deployed essentially against Americans?”
Lt. Gen. Honore:
“Yes that’s scary. Good thing that horror show is over with. But that truth needs to be told.
Because as you say it came that close to the commitment of federal troops, to achieve a political objective inside the United States. Federal troops are designed to achieve political objectives outside the United States, not inside the United States.
When you look at the Oath we swear to the Constitution. And it does say ‘defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic’. But that is in very select situations that we must defend ourselves if we have to, inside the United States.
But it was clear to everybody. The scenario that we were being led down the trail that was not consistent with the Constitution. It started off ugly. I’m glad it happened early. General Milley and Secretary Esper at the time spoke up, pushed back, put the military back into the camp, and said ‘Hell no we’re not doing that’.
And they had the power and the authority to do it vested in them by the Constitution, given to the chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense.”
Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré (Ret),
Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina.
Thanks to General Milley for his passionate defense of reading and the actual study of history.
For which that stone carving Carlson called him names. Ingraham proposed defunding the military.
And let’s not forget C-O-C (as was) trump calling the military “Losers” and “Suckers”.
How it SHOULD be done:) I’m crying:)
I didn’t realize the pilot said something until about the fifth or sixth time I watched the tiktok.
Same. Had to keep listening. Smart pilot though.
Hey Don…good to see you…i hope that you are enjoying your retirement
I’m loving it, I get up in the morning and go walk three to four miles a day and come back home and have breakfast and then get online to find places to get banned from. Life is good!
Oh, so your eyes control what your ears are able to hear??? LOL
My kind of Pilot 👏🏽👏🏽
Scientists Use NASA Satellite Data to Track Ocean Microplastics From Space:
“Scientists from the University of Michigan have developed an innovative way to use NASA satellite data to track the movement of tiny pieces of plastic in the ocean.”
(https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt2021/scientists-use-nasa-satellite-data-to-track-ocean-microplastics-from-space)
A cataclysmic cosmic collision takes center stage in this image
taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
“The image features the interacting galaxy pair IC 1623, which lies around 275 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Whale).
The two galaxies are in the final stages of merging, and astronomers expect a powerful inflow of gas to ignite a frenzied burst of star formation in the resulting compact starburst galaxy.”
Be startled here:
(https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/hubble-images-a-dazzling-dynamic-duo)
Eh can we get along on planet Earth = the microdot in the heavens?
(rental plan only)
Looks like the treasonous, traitorous, seditious thug, his disgusting ‘family’ and his entire venal cabal of ‘cabinet’ will all get away with it with zero consequences for any of them. No wonder Bobfr got disgusted and left. Time to pull a Bobfr.
Where did Bobfr go? I haven’t been online much nor watched much tv for the last 4 + months.
I miss him.
What am I, chopped liver?
No … never 🤣
Hold the line, keep you The Heart, look at the fine print, headlines are often bs to catch a reader:
https://mobile.twitter.com/glennkirschner2
Get some rest, we are on the Cusp of the Ages, leaving the Age of Pisces as we approach the Age of Aquarius, the death throes of the human corrosion over the last 2000 years are hard to witness, but the darkness is gasping for air, throwing a long shadow, as the Light becomes closer..
Trust in kindness, in love, in compassion, the good will persevere, we can only do our best each day, anchoring Light in the heart chakra, letting it stream outward, for those who may be able to see and feel it.
“Be diligent, don’t be afraid” ~ remember these words of transition, from a great man, one who saw it all coming, we will find the way through.
Goodnight, be careful. Do no harm.
🕊💞🕯💙🕯💞🕊
Thank you so much for these words of Light🌟🌟
A remembrance back to Amanda Gorman
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Amanda lifted me right out of my seat while reading on Inauguration Day, I believe I felt the entire country rise that day! Thank you, Sheila, for holding out your hand, with a lamp to shed Light everywhere! 🕊💞🕊
🤲🏽🕯🕯
So well said Pamela 👏🏽👏🏽💗🌹
My heart going out to the families and loved ones of those who may still be under the rubble after 6 long days.
Also to the families of Portland, Salem, the young folks i know there trying to make it through, here and everyplace you just cannot cool off.
Need TONS and TONS of cash for climate in this Infrastructure bill for proactive and reactive climate measures!!
Going Green, managing CA forests, e.g. shoring up NY subways takes a lot of cash.
–No Climate No Bill.
thx.
Talking about via the reconciliation bill, Dems only.
Only finding ref to $300 Billion.
–Don’t think that number would get anywhere close to what’s desperately/dangerously needed.
Bravo! Remove hate from the halls of Congress!
Like the boring news.
This is so cool. 💙💙 it.
FLOTUS shines on the cover of Vogue
❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙👏🥰💞
President Biden heads to Wisconsin today.
Of course not 😏🪴
Jenny from the block out here wilding out, insurrections and weed.
Ha! Right?
Toyota supports insurrectionists
Most definitely canceled.
Niagara Falls lit up the falls for Pride Month! Looks amazing! Trying to find article which has that photo! 🌈💞
Good!
… Except
Yep
I read every word of that story. How utterly delightful! We are Blessed!
President Biden tours municipal transit utility in La Crosse, Wisconsin – https://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-3
He’s right! Venus deserves better!😡
😏
If this is true, it will not end well for Herschel Walker. And the reveal of who he really is will disappoint a whole lot of football fans – especially Black ones. Don’t do it Herschel, just don’t do it.
Rev will demolish him.
Oh, for sure.
More on the vote to remove confederate statues from Congress
120 Republicans voted to keep confederate statues in the Capitol Building.
Good Morning TOD Family! Have a beautiful day! 🌸🌺🌷🌻🌼
🗣Heads up Georgia! 🗣Check to see if you’re on the list to be purged from voter rolls.
No need to go in person anymore. They can have their Russian strategy sessions by Zoom.
Yay Randy! 👏🏾
This is spot on!
This is good. Now, how about Chuck Schumer move on them?!?!?!?!
I LOVE Pete Souza 💖😎
Me too!
😍
Atlanta: Yeh we got some stuff. ☺️
Congressman Adam Schiff: “There is no rehabilitation for Bill Barr.”
To Joy Reid, “I don’t think there’s anyone in the modern history of the Justice Department who has done more damage to that institution.’
“And it is astonishing that you have the Attorney General of the United States essentially conferring
with a partisan legislative leader to try to direct the Justice Department, in a way that will help either the GOP or the president. And you’re absolutely right. He violated Department of justice Policy
and he did it repeatedly. He was even willing to let Durham announce his investigation results in the weeks leading up to the election in violation of another DOJ policy.
And for him now to try to rehabilitate himself, there is no rehabilitation for Bill Barr.
Not after what he did to the Justice Department,
not after misleading the country for weeks and weeks with false claims of potential fraud in the election, fraud with absentee ballots. He was singing the president’s song for a very long time. And the fact that he stopped singing it because he thought it would be more helpful to the party if he stopped,
when Mitch McConnell asked him, he gets no credit for that.”
Good morning dear TOD family. Hope everyone is able to stay cool this summer. Here in Montana we have had the hottest days for June in the 40 years we have lived here. Last night at 9pm it was still 93 degrees. We have always been able to keep out house cool. The afternoons have been over 100 and almost unbearable at home. I have not gotten much work done. It’s all very depressing fighting these Repubs. Of course there isn’t any climate change.
Brennan Center For Justice:
Congress Must Pass the ‘For the People Act’
SUMMARY: Bold legislation introduced in the House (H.R. 1) and Senate (S. 1)
would ensure that our democracy works for everyone.
Introduction:
“American democracy urgently needs repair. We now have a historic opportunity to bring about transformative change. In both houses of Congress, the For the People Act — H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate — was designated as the first bill, a top priority this session.
This historic legislation responds to twin crises facing our country: the ongoing attack on democracy — reflected in the assault on the Capitol on January 6 and the subsequent flood of vote suppression bills across the country — and the urgent demand for racial justice. It is based on the key insight that the best way to defend democracy is to strengthen democracy. If enacted, it would be the most significant voting rights and democracy reform in more than half a century.”
(https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/congress-must-pass-people-act)
shoulda keep posting or wait?
incredible heat is imminent so may go ahead…all the best to stay cool.
“As the death toll from the 13-story apartment building collapse in Florida rises to 12,
with nearly 150 people still missing, we examine how the disaster raises new questions about how rising sea levels will impact oceanside buildings in Miami and other cities.
“The reason this is so important is that either this is something unique to the building or this is a general problem that all the condos along the coasts of the world are going to have to deal with,”
says Harold Wanless, a professor in geography and urban sustainability at the University of Miami who leads a project called The Invading Sea, a collaborative effort by news organizations across Florida to address the threat of sea level rise.”
Transcript soon: (https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/30/florida_building_collapse_climate_change)
—-yeh building in flood zones and iffy places (Florida mafia) money talks.
Rep. Gosar’s Brother:
“You Don’t Get To Say You’re Not Racist When You’re Cavorting With Racists”
“And, first off, let me say I wish the media would start — stop using the words white nationalist,
because white nationalists suggest is just sort of a softer way of saying white supremacists.
These people are white supremacists.”
“Traitor to his country.”
howya doin’ jer44 —
Trying to stay cool.
Groovin’ On A Sunday Afternoon – The Rascals
very cute jer44!!
–stay coool.
NOW…
Also – https://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-3
Right away President Biden brought up compensating fire fighters properly. Due to climate change their work is now “a year round mission”.
One speaker saying we must get rid of our old timelines, and there are no republican or democrat thermometers. That we must invest in human infrastructure, transform our economy and move away from carbon. With urgency and a sustainability mindset, reimagine the future, that it’s all connected.
Also how much President Biden’s presence and leadership on this issue is appreciated.
JOE BIDEN OP-ED
(https://news.yahoo.com/biden-americans-can-be-proud-of-the-infrastructure-deal-214533346.html)
That crud-
Nick Fuentes (America first political action conference):
“If America ceases to retain that English cultural framework and the influence of European civilization,
if it loses its white demographic core, and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ, then this is not America anymore.”
Um separation of church and state?
Plus everyone here is either an immigrant or a descendent of an immigrant unless you are a Native American. Thus this is No white haven, no Homeland for white people. White people came here about 500 years ago. Before that this continent was inhabited by Native Americans who’ve been here for at least 15,000 years.
Oooo… Mrs. O will be chatting with museum curating rockstar Thelma Golden and artist Amy Sherald about that iconic portrait tonight!
It’s Asteroid Day! 🪨✨
This thread… My Heart! ❤️😭
O M G!
Some how I can see him suing but who? How come it took 2yrs to determine he was given a plea deal? It’s not that I want to see Cosby get released, I am thinking of others accused, given the same deal but go to jail anyway. How is it a judged allowed others to taint the jury? Our justice system is messed up.
House Republicans Voted to Defund the Police (Fox News).
From the Speaker’s Press Office:
House Republicans voted against the American Rescue Plan’s billions in funding available to keep police officers on the street – and Fox News is asking tough questions about it:
“This morning on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace
called out House Republicans for voting unanimously to defund the police.
Wallace: “You voted against that package, against that $350 billion just like every other Republican in the House and Senate. So, can’t you make the argument that it’s you and the Republicans who are defunding the police?…I’m asking you, there’s $350 billion in this package the President says can be used for policing…The President is saying cities and states can use this money to hire more police officers, invest in new technologies, and develop summer job training and recreation programs for young people…You and every other Republican voted against this $350 billion.
(See video): https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/62721
“How the “Abolition Amendment” Would End Constitutional Loophole That Allows Forced Labor in Prisons”
“American prisons are run by incarcerated labor,”
adds Jorge Renaud,
national criminal justice director for LatinoJustice,
who experienced forced labor
while serving 27 years in a Texas prison.”
(https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/30/abolition_amendment)
THE WORKING POOR OF CAPITOL HILL
“Lots of congressional staffers make ‘poverty wages’ starting in the low $20,000s.
8 Capitol Hill aides break down how they stretch their paychecks to survive in one of the nation’s most expensive cities,” by Insider’s Kristie-Valerie Hoang and Kayla Epstein: “An entire paycheck going to daycare. Vending-machine ice cream for dinner. Tossing hundreds of dollars at a decade’s worth of credit-card debt.
Relying on income-assisted housing to keep a roof over their head.
“These are the real-life budgets of Capitol Hill staffers, whose pay starts in the $20,000s
to work demanding jobs in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Ambitious young public servants often accept low wages in exchange for the opportunity to work on historic legislation or assist their communities. …
We received an outpouring of responses from staffers at all levels who felt compelled to speak up about what they considered a practice that hinders diversity, favors hires from privileged backgrounds, and drives talented minds to lobbying shops.”
(Politico playbook)
‘The water is coming’: Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise
“Officials prepare to elevate streets despite financial shortfalls, amid recognition that not every home
can be saved”
(https://grist.org/climate/the-water-is-coming-florida-keys-faces-stark-reality-as-seas-rise/)
While buildings on low ground in Florida continues…
In preparation for climate change, the wealthy have been building homes on the water, in enclaves,
for some time.
New Directors at NASA! 👏🏾👏🏾
“Jan. 6 Select Committee Should Subpoena Kevin McCarthy Says Congressman Krishnamoorthi”
“Joy Reid and panel also discuss skepticism of Republican participation on the select committee that will probe the Capitol insurrection.”
Congressman Krishnamoorthi:
“You know Kevin McCarthy made it very clear to his colleagues and he has not denied, that when he spoke to Donald Trump, you know, Donald Trump basically questioned Kevin McCarthy’s loyalty in terms of why he didn’t believe as strongly as the rioters and the insurrectionists in the Big Lie. And so that tells you his mindset. And perhaps helps to explain why the D.C. National Guard did not arrive on the scene for FIVE hours after the urgent pleas had originally been made by the Capitol Police, as well as the D.C. Police for assistance. So this is absolutely crucial Kevin McCarthy testifying.”
Elie Mystal:
“And Joy just to be fully clear I want to set the edge here.
I do not think ANY republicans should be allowed on this committee.
They did not vote for this committee. Some of them are co- conspirators. Why should a co-conspirator like Kevin McCarthy get to choose which of his boys get to be on the Committee? If they want on the committee, they can give something up, votes. I don’t know if they can do something to help justice go forward. If they’re not willing to go forward, they get nothing. That should be the starting line. They get NOTHING unless they do something to help.”
Mystal:
“So again. Republicans had an opportunity to disavow this white domestic terrorism. They could have said no, no, no, that’s not us, we’re not like those people. Instead they embraced those people, they’re hugging those people tight, they’re calling those people “tourists”. They’re in league with those people! Since they have decided to do that, the rational response is to exclude them from the investigation into the consequence of their actions.”
New post.
“New book offers fresh details about chaos, conflicts inside Trump’s pandemic response”
“At one point, the president mused about transferring infected American citizens in Asia to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba”
“Such insider conversations are among the revelations in “Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History,” a new book by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta that captures the dysfunctional response to the unfolding pandemic.”
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/21/abutaleb-paletta-book-nightmare-scenario-trump-covid/)