2020 was a year of uncertainty and unrest. But it was also a year where hope led the way, as new leaders stepped in to confront challenges with hard work, creativity, and empathy, and showed us how hope can turn anguish into action.
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) August 17, 2021
Read our 2020 Annual Report to learn more:
156 Responses to “Confronting Challenges”
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Obama White House.gov
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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
Steve Benen
- Shooting at Nashville Christian school leaves 3 children and 3 adults dead, officials say
- Claire McCaskill: Democrats need to run on banning weapons of war
- Michael Tomasky: Unlikely Trump will retake WH, but unlikely isn't impossible
- Politicians need to follow will of the people, says gun safety group president
- A majority of Americans think Trump investigations are fair, polling shows
The Obama Diary 
Morning everyone. Happy Friday. It’s a good day to wear a mask, get vaccinated and check your voter registration.
OK, just throwing out random bits, gotta start day somehow, outside of exhausting talking heads on my teevee, etc.:
🎵🎶🎵🙋🏾♀️💝 Gazelle
Finally feel like I will survive this. The Regeneron infusion caused my antibodies to go on OVERLOAD. Sickest I have ever been in my life, hands down. Still a long way to go. My daughter and granddaughter haven’t been as sick as me.
tnmtngirl1, please continue to take care of yourself. You and your family are in my prayer chain.
And in mine as well
🕊💙🕯🙏🏼🗝🙏🏼🕯💙🕊
Gaining is a pita, ain’t it? Glad that kids are doing fine. 👌✔
here’s something to cheer you up.
((((( tnmtngirl )))))
Glad to hear your update. Wishing you and your family a speedy recovery.
Good West Coast morning Nerdy & TOD family.
Wonderful to see a Foundation share it’s Annual Report in such a manner. Refreshing!
WOW. That is so amazing.
And she took over $233,000 in relief funds for her effing gun saloon, grifter is too kind a word for this type of low level imitation human
I am finding out what it’s like to be without a phone. Yesterday my phone went black. It still worked, I got some calls but I couldn’t answer them. I went to Verizon, thankfully it wasn’t my fault so I will be getting a new phone this evening. Now I am using my husbands phone to do all my work. We have so much going on. Our son Heath is still waiting on paperwork from our State Department and from the Chinese Embassy. If he’s still here he’ll start teaching on the internet Sept. 1. It has been so wonderful having him home all this time. He’s grown into such a great young man.
Tahnk you NW for keeping this wonderful place going. Whenever I get depressed I come here and get hope.
I love every single person here. Let’s keep fighting.
We love you back, mtmarilyn 🕊💕🕊
thanks for being here mtmariyn, eh a new phone!!
Be very careful when you promote yourself over qualified candidates
Please let it be LeVar!
that’s us of a I know.
what happens next, how do they manage, must be bewildering and a relief – with love to them all.
IRAP, International Refugee Assistance Project
(https://refugeerights.org)
—what we do with our universal love.
Yay Maryland!!
Iowa … ? Hmmm … thats Steve King territory, gotta say, I am surprised.
Glad to see the states are open to accepting them.
#metoo4
Thanks meta!
SCOTUS says “nah!”
From the beginning, this group has attempted to thwart the construction, taking the organization to court…over and over again…and they have not won any of the cases…this was a last ditched effort…and i am glad to see that they were not successful this time either,..
This is an interesting article about Lobbyists and negotiations.
Wow!
Or Scrapple!
Lawrence O’Donnell explains that no army has ever evacuated from a lost war without leaving anyone behind.
“As of tonight,
President Joe Biden is managing the most successful
American military evacuation from a war that America lost.
As of tonight, the Biden Administration and the American military
have managed to evacuate 7,000 people from the Afghanistan,
after the capital city of Kabul came under control of the people who won the war.
In Vietnam in 1975 after Saigon, then the capitol city of South Vietnam,
fell under the complete control of the North Vietnamese army,
Republican President Gerald Ford was able to get absolutely no one out of Vietnam,
no one.”
President Biden today:
“We’ve already evacuated more than 18,000 people since July.
And approximately 13,000 since our military lift began on August 14th.
Thousands more have been evacuated on private charter flights facilitated by the U.S. government. “
Thanks brp. I was just watching this video.
Seems to me a boatload of media ppl are ever ready to pile on the president. I hope PB refuses CNN’s townhall meetings etc. They are just simply horrible.
I ❤️ Jaime!
Agreed.
I sometimes wonder who raised GQPers? How did these idiots grow up to be so wrong?
It’s one thing to be wrong, but those folks revel in their wrongness.
I totally agree with you Dudette
CDC works with the hard evidence at that time.
Science moves quickly, maturing, sometimes boomerangs as more evidence comes to light.
Trusting selfish, dishonorable people to be honorable has nothing to do with science. That’s just poor judgement.
CDC is long time world renowned. It took a big hit under Trump and we all suffered.
But now we have a new situation. Same with the DOJ.
We have Joe. It’s been a very hard road we’ve all walked, a lot of sadness.
We have to trust again in order to move forward.
–with you Dudette, please don’t be bitter.
Not bitter at all. Just calling it like I see it. CDC leadership was still full of Trump cronies when the decision to ease mask guidelines was made. My BF works for them as a contractor. I listened to her talk about how rank in file were upset with that decision but had to keep quiet. It was a dumb call then. Still is.
yes unraveling the psychotic Trump sabotage is ongoing.
“The Biden administration will use a federal civil rights office to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms.”
Education Secretary Cardona:
““I’ve heard those parents saying, ‘Miguel, because of these policies, my child cannot access their school,
I would be putting them in harm’s way,’” Dr. Cardona said. “And to me, that goes against a free, appropriate public education. That goes against the fundamental beliefs of educators across the country to protect their students and provide a well-rounded education.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/us/politics/biden-masks-schools-civil-rights.html)
Misty Russel, parent:
“When I was walking away from dropping my daughter off,
I was literally almost in tears thinking is this the right thing?
Because you kind of know that these people are not recognizing the risk that`s going on here.
It`s almost like knowing the house is going to catch on fire, but we`re going to let our kids sit in there and burn.
I feel like the governor is definitely trying to make a political statement
and my daughter and other kids are just the collateral damage to that political statement.”
(per Zerlina Maxwell)
👍🏿
NOW:
Also – https://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-3
Shameful behavior for so-called professionals… these people have no sense of propriety, no clue how they demean themselves with this shouting and screaming as the President departs the room.. shame on them all.
President Biden responds to questions:
“I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world…as a matter of fact the exact opposite.”
“You’ve known my position on this war for a long, long time. It’s time to end this war.”
“And by the way before I made this decision, I was at the G7 as well met with our NATO partners. And I told them all. Every one of them knew and agreed with the decision I made to jointly end our involvement in Afghanistan.”
Joe Biden Is Cleaning Up Donald Trump’s Mess In Afghanistan
“Officials say that Trump committed the US to leaving Afghanistan but had no plan in place for the withdrawal, which means Afghanistan is another Trump mess.”
“The defining characteristic of the Trump presidency was not having a plan for anything.”
(politicus.usa)
Trump left the Kurds high and dry, no or very little warning. With Stephen Millee at the helm, did we take any Kurds in? I heard very to NO complaints from the GOP, NO THREATS OF IMPEACHMENT. I heard some Kurds were murdered. You tell me Faux News.
“The insurrection isn’t over…”
Clint Watts, fmr FBI Special Agent, served on Joint Terrorism Taskforce, author “Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News” talks to Zerlina Maxwell, concerning the Trump supporter from NC who claimed to have an explosive device in his truck:
“So clearly he picked this location for a reason.
I think the other point is it speaks to the power of the insurrection.
Many months later, this is now the second incident around the Capitol where we`ve seen people show up.
This becomes like a magnet essentially, for people that have anti-government views.
So, that`s very clearly what he had….”
“He did not have an actual device even though he`s making lots of claims. Or at least a functional device.
And so ultimately, what I noticed about it is he created a spectacle and drew attention to his case. And when you look at his social media feed, he was talking about other rallies and other locations. He listed one particularly in North Carolina.
So I think ultimately, what we see is the insurrection isn`t over in terms of the aftermath
and the effects that it has on our country.”
Governor Jay Inslee has instituted a vaccine mandate for all school employees
and brought back an indoor mask mandate.
Governor Inslee:
“Well there’s two things that we care deeply about. That is we want our schools open
because we know our kids need to be in school this year and we want them safe when they`re in school.
And there are two tools that are absolutely necessary to achieve both of those ends.
Those are masks on our children and the people around them. And those are vaccinations on the people who serve them, our educators, our bus drivers.
It would be the height of irresponsibility not to use both of those tools to protect our children.
These children are now showing up in our Emergency rooms in greater numbers.
Just 10 minutes ago I was reading an article about a 9-year-old child who is struggling for breath.
Think about that, a child nine years of age struggling for breath because adults would not wear a mask or get vaccinated that was safe, effective, and free.
I cannot understand why people think that is fulfilling our responsibility to our children.”
Qismet Amin is trying to get his family out.
“Afghans have good reason to fear being targeted at Taliban checkpoints on the way to the airport,
because of their connections to the U.S. Military. Qismat Amin — a former interpreter for American troops who now lives in Texas — is doing everything he can to get his family out of Afghanistan. Amin joins Joy Reid to discuss.”
(https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/afghan-allies-face-harrowing-journey-to-airport-for-evacuation-former-military-interpreter-says-119085637977)
Native America Calling:
Indigenous arts and the lingering pandemic
It’s a big week coming up in the Native arts world.
“The largest assembly of Native artists is resuming in Santa Fe on a limited scale. The Santa Fe Indian Market was an online-only event last year because of the pandemic.
A number of other in-person events are also scheduled, all featuring the talents of Native artists,
many of whom lost their primary or supplemental incomes over the last year. Native America Calling will get a look at what’s in store and hear from artists who had to find creative ways to stay afloat.
Here: (https://www.indianz.com/News/2021/08/20/native-america-calling-indigenous-arts-and-the-lingering-pandemic/)
Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III.
Tribal citizen nominated to lead National Park Service for first time in history
by Acee Agoyo
“President Joe Biden is once again making history with his choice to lead the National Park Service,
the federal agency that oversees millions of acres of ancestral tribal territories and treaty lands.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation who has worked in land management and natural resource fields for decades,
would be the first Native person to serve as director of the NPS, which is part of the Department of the Interior.
His nomination was announced by the White House on Wednesday.
“The diverse experience that Chuck brings to the National Park Service will be an incredible asset as we work to conserve and protect our national parks to make them more accessible for everyone,” said Secretary Deb Haaland, who is the first Native person to lead Interior and the first Native person in a presidential cabinet.
“I look forward to working with him to welcome Americans from every corner of our country into our national park system. The outdoors are for everyone, and we have an obligation to protect them for generations to come,” Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, said in a news release.”
(indianz.com)
Wave –
Alex Breitling
Stardate August 20 2021:
Wishing everyone a blue sky Friday!!
Here a little blue sky after weeks of unsafe smokey air, and people out stretching their legs, children playing.
THIS!
The Obamas for example are on it. Yes big crisis.
imo sometimes we need more time to deal with everything…the heart needs a little more time.
—at the same time it is urgent.
This is Simply Astounding!
It’s vaxx-only.
Bravo President Biden!
BRAVOOO!!!
Oh well.
I searched through several links in these articles and could not find any Named Insurance Plans that is no longer covering the cost.
Might wake some ppl up to see the benefit of having universal healthcare.
What does that mean?
Yay Pfizer!
Madam Vice President heads out for her second international trip on behalf of the United States.
I remember when BWD used to post tonnes of PBO photos … wonder where we can get pictures of MVP’s trips.
Sometimes the embassies and local english-speaking news outlets post stuff. Maybe look at the who the embassies follow on social media. There’s bound to be some stories and photos among them. I’ll keep an eye out.
The US Embassy in Vietnam isn’t on Twitter, but here’s their website and Facebook:
https://vn.usembassy.gov/
https://m.facebook.com/pg/usembassyhanoi/posts/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0
Thanks dudette sis
Thanks Dudette.
👏🏾👏🏾
I ❤️ Doug!
That is wonderful news. I watched that on tv. So sad that humanity can’t live happily all over the world. There is always turmoil somewhere at any given time.
and these minions used to clean up traitorous thug’s wordturds all the time.
I have no words for the media either other than no class. None.
abc – anything but class
that sounds about white.
so nice of fbi to give this traitor his own platform to do his thing instead of arresting his insurrectionist ass. pathetic
why are they not being airlifted to us of a? after all the by products of the war it started.
and yet the media minions kiss the traitorous thug’s fugly ass.
Exactly.
MVP is wheels up to Singapore!
AWESOME!!!!
WOW..INCREDIBLE…She deserves a Congressional medal for her life saving efforts…because she has truly saved lives…👏🏽👏🏽
Trump sabotaged the Special Immigrant Visas for Afghanis (SIV) Program
—is why even qualified Afghanis have been waiting for so long.
Olivia Troye,
Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Advisor to Mike Pence tweeted yesterday:
“There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan. He & his enablers across gov’t would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State.”
‘I tracked this issue personally in my role during my WH tenure.
Pence was fully aware of the problem. We got nowhere on it because Trump/S. Miller had watchdogs in place at DOJ, DHS, State & security agencies that made an already cumbersome SIV process even more challenging.(2/7)
“I met w/ numerous external organizations during my White House tenure who advocated for refugees & pleaded for help in getting US allies through the process. I got the phone calls & letters as the homeland security & CT advisor to Pence…(3/7)
“The system wouldn’t budge, regardless of how much this was argued about in National Security Council mtgs. The Pentagon weighed in saying we needed to get these allies through the process-Mattis/others sent memos. We all knew the urgency but the resources had been depleted.(4/7)”
“The fear of people across the Trump Admin to counter these enablers was palpable. There were numerous behind closed door meetings held-strategizing how to navigate this issue. The Trump Admin had FOUR years…(5/7)”
“Trump had FOUR years-while putting this plan in place-to evacuate these Afghan allies who were the lifelines for many of us who spent time in Afghanistan.
They’d been waiting a long time.
The process slowed to a trickle for reviews/other “priorities”-then came to a halt.(6/7)”
Trump Admin Deliberately Sabotaged Refugee Process, Stranding Afghan Allies: Former Insiders
“Rachel Maddow corroborates claims by former Trump administration insiders, including Olivia Troye,
who served as counterterrorism and homeland security advisor to Mike Pence in the Trump White House,
that the Trump administration under the guidance of Stephen Miller and those loyal to him, deliberately sabotaged the refugee visa process, including the system by which U.S. allies in Iraq and Afghanistan would be evacuated to safety.”
I watch Rachel Maddow show Friday night when she was talking about the Trump gang lead by that racist piece of crap Stephen Miller. Let’s hear the MEDIA talk about this .
Trump knew those Special Immigrant Visas for Afghanis would not be processed in time
for his May 1 deadline, which he bragged could not be stopped.
He had been ‘devastating the system’ at DHS and State over his 4 years in office.
He knew that Afghanis couldn’t get out after U.S. troops were removed and the Afghan government collapsing. Trump broke the system deliberately to leave them stranded with the Taliban.
—Looks Trump set President Biden up.
Will probably re-post the above on the next thread.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1028542798/afghans-refugees-in-neighboring-india-painfully-follow-news-of-their-home-country
Experts say India is home to about 18,000 documented Afghan refugees. That’s lower than other countries in the region such as Pakistan and Iran, and even the United States. Yet Afghans are one of the largest documented refugee groups in India, along with the Rohingya.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees operates an office in New Delhi, which grants refugee status to many Afghans and others, and issues them identification cards. The office has been closed since March 2020 because of the coronavirus, and the staff has been working remotely — which applicants say has exacerbated delays with their paperwork.
However, despite the UNHCR’s operations in Delhi, India has not signed onto U.N. refugee agreements. At times, the government has granted temporary protection to certain groups, including Tibetans and Sri Lankans. But it lacks an overall asylum framework. So even with U.N. refugee status, many Afghans struggle to make long-term plans in India.
“We cannot work [legally], we cannot study proper[ly],” says Muneer Ahmed Faiz, who fled his home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, eight years ago when he was 16. “In Afghanistan I saw lots of people … die in front of me. Like, there was blood. This was a very bad experience.”
Faiz says he’s appreciative of the Indian government for allowing him to live here, but he wants to do more than merely stay safe: He wants to work, study and prosper.
“It’s not like going to Europe or the U.S. where eventually you can become a citizen, or at least a permanent resident. In India, you don’t have that option, which means even after 10 years being an Afghan refugee in India, it can still be difficult to get formal employment or go to university,” says Hamsa Vijayaraghavan, a former UNHCR representative and lawyer who has represented Afghans and other refugees.
Vijayaraghavan says the reason India doesn’t have an asylum framework likely has to do with the fact it is a developing country itself, with high unemployment and low wages.
“We don’t need the human resource refugees could provide in Europe or U.S., for example. We don’t have those labor shortages,” she says. “So I don’t think the Indian government has felt the need for a formal policy.”
Better than the Biden admin dragging its feet.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReelectBarackObama/permalink/10159175443612419/
Stephen Miller Gutted Visa Programs So Afghans Couldn’t Come To The US
“Former Trump administration official Olivia Troye confirmed
that Trump and Stephen Miller gutted the Special Immigrant Visa program
so that Afghans couldn’t come to the US.’
(Easley: https://www.politicususa.com/2021/08/21/stephen-miller-siv-visa-gutted.html)
Olivia Troye (Trump Administration under Pence):
National Counterterrorism Center, the United States Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis:
“The Pentagon especially was vocal about the S.I.V, P2 people,
Iraqis people in Afghanistan who were helping our troops who still were waiting for years in the pipeline
and then it slowly starts to slow down to a trickle.
That is because the resources on the program were being gutted and moved around elsewhere.
Like I met with organizations. I met with refugee resettling organizations who work on the process.
They would come to me and say, we’re not seeing the contracts. We’re not seeing the funding.
What’s happening here?
And so there was a clear delineation of what was exactly going on
which is why it’s so frustrating to me to watch these revisionist history narratives happening right now
with some of these people that are pushing this rhetoric or saying that Trump would have solved the problem.”
doing good things…very proud.
Yup.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a famed civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, and his wife, Jacqueline, have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a statement Saturday.
Jesse Jackson, 79, is vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicized event as he urged others to receive the inoculation as soon as possible. He and his wife, 77, are being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Praying for their speedy recovery. 🙏🏾
Madam Vice President has arrived in Singapore.
From Singapore’s Foreign Minister
Same song, next verse
New post.