Dr. King’s commitment to equality and justice inspired generations to fight for civil rights. His words continue to resonate around the world, and #MLKDay serves as a reminder to all of us to keep building on his legacy. If you can, take a moment today to think about how you can…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 15, 2024
73 Responses to “Equality & Justice”
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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
- Bill Barr explains why Christian nationalists are so loyal to Trump
- Did Zelenskyy play a role in Speaker Johnson's about-face on aid for Ukraine?
- Why did Speaker Johnson change his mind about aid to Ukraine?
- Israel owes Obama a huge debt of gratitude
- Trump doesn't care about abortions
- Right wingers use racism to deny systemic racism
- Why Christian nationalists fear freedom
- "I'd much rather be us than them"
- Right wing disinformation is fodder for fascism
- Sure, Trump is unfit for office. But his agenda would also be a monumental disaster!
Steve Benen
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The Obama Diary 
Hello TOD. Thanks, NW, for keeping this door open for us.
Yesterday, I heard an interview on the John Fuglesang show (Sirius) with Dr. Hendricks. He has a new book, Christians Against Christianity. One of his main focuses was that we have lost the struggle for the common good. He mentioned “Common good” numerous times. The core of Christianity IS social justice which = the common good. Jesus told us how to ACT, not what to believe. Dr. King was trying to radically change our economy…….how his poor people’s campaign was all about addressing inequality. Dr. King wanted a real revolution just as Jesus was revolutionary. They both wanted the same thing and they were both killed because of that. We must keep pushing and struggling because we have no choice. I took a full page of notes, but these points were his main ones.
Hi Nerdy and the rest of The TOD Family!
Hope you all are well! We have something to celebrate! Happy Birthday to Forever FLOTUS today! 💐💙
This is what 60 looks like! ❤️💙😍
🌸🌹 wishing our forever MO a beautiful year. Happy birthday !!
❤️❤️ love.
like wow
First Couple
MO AND OPRAH
THE LIGHT WE CARRY
On the final tour stop for her 2022 bestseller The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama unpacks her toolbox for navigating life during uncertain times. Opening up to good friend Oprah Winfrey, for a special event of hearty laughs, personal stories, hard-won wisdom, and practical advice.
Love and Happiness: An Obama Celebration
Final White House concert hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama: BET’s Love and Happiness.
—-MO and JC
amazing
President Biden
First snow
President Biden
–bringing leaders together
The White House
Cutting the average bank overdraft fee
Yes the Biden economy continues to overperform…..
Chris Hayes: “Will the reality of the situation overcome the propaganda?”
Trump Moves to Quash Hopes of Ukraine-Border Deal in Congress
Front-runner weighs in as Senate moves to migration compromise
McConnell says Democrats will stonewall Trump if he’s elected
Erik Wasson:
(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/trump-moves-to-quash-hopes-of-ukraine-border-deal-in-congress)
Remarks by Vice President Harris at NAACP South Carolina State Conference on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
South Carolina State House
Columbia, South Carolina
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/01/16/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-at-naacp-south-carolina-state-conference-on-martin-luther-king-jr-day/)
Michelle Obama Turns 60: 6 Life Lessons From the Former First Lady
Shinan Govan: https://everythingzoomer.com/celebrity/2024/01/17/michelle-obama-turns-60-6-life-lessons-from-the-former-first-lady/
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at an Event to Celebrate Educators and Highlight the Importance of Educator Wellness
West Valley City, UT
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/01/16/remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-first-lady-jill-biden-at-an-event-to-celebrate-educators-and-highlight-the-importance-of-educator-wellness/)
U.S., Japan, and Republic of Korea Launch Cutting-edge Quantum Collaboration
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/18/u-s-japan-and-republic-of-korea-launch-cutting-edge-quantum-collaboration/)
ABC News cancels New Hampshire debate
ABC News said Tuesday that it was cancelling its New Hampshire primary debate, hours after former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley said she would not debate unless former President Trump also did.
(https://www.axios.com/2024/01/16/new-hampshire-republican-debate-cancel)
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
By Tim Alberta
(One of PBO’S Fave Books of the Year)
Reverend Sharpton
New Baltimore Sun owner insults staff in meeting, says paper should mimic Fox45
In a tense, three-hour meeting with staff Tuesday afternoon, new Baltimore Sun owner David Smith told employees he has only read the paper four times in the past few months, insulted the quality of their journalism and encouraged them to emulate a TV station owned by his broadcasting company.
Cody Boteler, Lee O. Sanderlin and Giacomo Bologna:
(https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/economy/baltimore-sun-david-smith-sinclair-owner-F77S3D47ORD7LNEPZ7PJCXSLWM/)
Brian Steltar
On the Baltimore Sun’s new owner:
—-Brian Steltar advising us to support alternatives like The Baltimore Banner.
Conservative Justices Appear Skeptical of Agencies’ Regulatory Power
The Supreme Court considered whether to overrule the seminal 1984 Chevron decision, which requires judges to defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed inclined on Wednesday to limit or even overturn a key precedent that has empowered executive agencies, threatening regulations in countless areas, including the environment, health care and consumer safety.
Adam Liptak: (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/us/supreme-court-chevron-case.html#)
“The doctrine takes its name from a 1984 decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most cited cases in American law. Under it, judges must defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes.”
Senator Sanders on Israel Resolution
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about his resolution requesting information on Israel’s human rights practices during its war with Hamas in Gaza.
(https://www.c-span.org/video/?532923-5/senator-sanders-israel-resolution)
…….
PREPARED REMARKS: Sanders Forces Unprecedented Vote to Begin to Address Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza
January 16, 2024
(https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/elementor-89424/)
WASHINGTON — A resolution proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., requesting that the State Department prepare a report on allegations of human rights violations in Gaza was essentially killed when the Senate voted to table it 72-11.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined 10 Democrats in supporting the resolution.
Had it passed, the State Department would have been required to produce a report within 30 days or have aid to the country frozen.
In his resolution, Sanders requested that the report include a “summary of arms and munitions provided to Israel since October 7,” information on “actions the U.S. has taken to limit civilian risk in Israeli military action” and any “credible allegations of the violation of internationally recognized human rights in Gaza.”
Sanders has been outspoken about his opposition to further U.S. military aid to Israel. He has said that “the Netanyahu government’s current military approach is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States must end our complicity in those actions.”
—-13 year old boy taking care of 7 siblings in Gaza.
“In October, his mother was killed in an airstrike and his father disappeared. Mohamed, 13, is doing the best he can to care for seven siblings, including his sister Toleen, who’s just months old.”
NO NO NO !!
—THIS SHOULDN’T BE HAPPENING.
imho,
this is why I couldn’t even speak on here for 3 weeks. Anyone could see this coming from the beginning. I also have in-laws in Israel on the Lebanon border.
(And related…my daughter who lives here has separated from her new husband.)
Mehdi Hasan
Standing up for democracy
After three years on the air, The Mehdi Hasan Show has come to a close. Mehdi looks back at some of the best moments of the show these last three years while announcing his departure from the network.
——Mehdi is one of my all-time faves.
ANDREW WEISSMAN
https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1747471208445051247?s=20
—Trump trying to distract from already found guilty of sexual assault and defamation.
https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1747741236008542697?s=20
https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1747358518070374436?s=20
—Trump trying to distract from already found guilty of sexual assault and defamation.
https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1747741236008542697?s=20
https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1747358518070374436?s=20
Judge Threatens to Kick Trump Out of Court
E. Jean Carroll testified on Wednesday that the former president’s attacks against her have resulted in “scores and scores” of threatening messages
Throughout Carroll’s testimony on Wednesday, Trump maintained a stream of commentary and reactions from his place at the defense table. During a break in which the jury was excluded, Carroll’s attorneys told the judge that if they could hear Trump’s comments, it was likely the jury could as well. When the trial resumed, Kaplan asked that the former president “take special care to keep his voice down when he’s conferring with counsel so that the jury does not overhear it.”
Trump clearly didn’t get the message, because shortly after Kaplan threatened to have him outright removed from the courtroom.
(https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/alina-habba-admonished-e-jean-carroll-trial-1234948261/)
—-At the same time, the judge knows that is what trump wants.
Dr. Jason Johnson
Talking with Rep Maxine Waters
Opinion | Trumpism Is Devouring the Evangelical Movement
About 117,000 results (0.35 seconds)
“The forces of political identity and nationalist idolatry — long latent, now fully unleashed in the form of Trumpism — were destroying the evangelical church,” wrote Alberta in his book. All over the country, he reported, “pastors had walked away from the ministry. Congregations had been shattered by infighting.
Michelle Goldberg: (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/opinion/maga-evangelicals-iowa.html#)
Senator Elisabeth Warren
tax cheats
Senator Elisabeth Warren
More than 250 billionaires and millionaires on Wednesday renewed their call on elected representatives of the world’s leading economies to introduce higher taxes on the very richest in society.
In an open letter to political leaders gathering at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the rich signatories said that they wished to deliver a clear message: “Tax our extreme wealth.”
It comes shortly after Oxfam said the world’s five richest men have more than doubled their vast wealth since 2020 and warned that the world could have its first trillion
Sam Meredith:
(https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/17/mega-rich-renew-call-on-global-leaders-at-davos-to-tax-our-extremewealth.html#)
Proud to pay more: letter to global leaders gathering at Davos.
Our message at Davos is simple:
Elected leaders must tax us, the super rich.
We’d be proud to pay more.
Letter: (https://proudtopaymore.org)
Pod Save America
–new pod
Crooked Media
POD Save America:
Now Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
–“We filled the fkn broadcast and we’ll do it again!”
MANU RAJU
Averting shutdown
Rep Dan Goldman
Censuring Stefanik
imho
as sometimes happens,
seemed so-so,
and then we noticed her little
pointy teeth.
Sorry for random teeth line…it might be taken from Beatrix Potter…used in our family as a comic way to describe ‘cattiness’!!
John Prine Tribute Concert *Full show*
Bonnie Raitt-Angel from Montgomery
Statement from President Joe Biden on Today’s Justice Department Report on the Uvalde School Shooting Response
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/18/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-todays-justice-department-report-on-the-uvalde-school-shooting-response/)
Be A Hero
Remembering the amazing Ady Barkan and his beautiful family.
carolynhoran4379
Fantastic, powerful, re-fueling, hopeful, strengthening celebration of Ady’s life, his family, his friends, fellow activists, and Be A Hero. Easy to see what you mean to each other and how you fight with and for us. And the Gospel was incredibly recharging. Thank you for grieving and rejoicing with all of us. Lyn Horan
Ady Barkan
Not Going Quietly
—-Ady died on November 1st.
You Should Go to a Trump Rally
For many Americans, the former president has become an abstraction. They should see for themselves what his campaign is really about.
McKay Coppins: (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/01/trump-rally-iowa-2024-election/677119/)
Senator Warren speaking about
a Mother with a badly formed fetus
and the doctor asking
if she is close enough to death
to be able to give her an abortion.
“What it means to live in Donald Trump’s America where politicians decide.”
Nine-year-old Iyas, unable to see or speak, expresses his pain through muted whimpers and cries. NBC News first met Iyas in October at the Mabarit Rahme Orphanage in Gaza City, where nearly two dozen children, many with severe disabilities, were living. As northern Gaza grew more dangerous, the orphanage staff moved the children south. Some, including Iyas, are now sheltering in a garage in Rafah.
Having debilitating complex needs, Iyas requires regular medication and treatment. But, with only limited medical care, his condition is worsening.
“We’re telling the world that things are getting worse and worse. Our needs are growing, and we can’t meet them,” said Abdullah Mohamed, Iyas’ caretaker. “We could lose Iyas at any moment.”
MARC SMITH: (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna134047#)
Who won Emmy Awards for 2024? See the full winners list here
Jordan Freiman: (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmys-winners-2024-list/)
NASA
Artemis II and Artemis III
ACLU OF MONTANA CHALLENGES SB 458, BILL DEFINING SEX, AS BOTH “FOOLISH AND DISCRIMINATORY”
Alyssa Kelly, ACLU of MT.
“SB 458 is ridiculous. I live my life as the man that I am, and that’s how people see me when I’m out in the world, but SB 458 attempts to erase that simple truth,” said Shawn Reagor, a transgender man, resident of Lewis and Clark County, and plaintiff in the case. “As a man who happens to be transgender, SB 458 could force me into women’s restrooms and locker rooms, the very thing this type of legislation claims to want to protect against.”
“For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have known what Western science has finally recognized: that the complex diversity of human experience includes many people who, like me, are neither male nor female” said Dandilion Cloverdale, a Two-Spirit individual, resident of Missoula County, and plaintiff in the case. “SB 458 is bad science and bad policy; the whole thing is just creepy.”
“It is invasive and inappropriate for the government to identify and define me by my reproductive capacity,” said Jamie Doe, a nonbinary person, resident of Lewis and Clark County, and plaintiff in the case. “As a public health professional, I know that effective public health relies on information accuracy. Far from increasing accuracy, SB 458 would force me to commit fraud and provide inaccurate information by misidentifying myself and other nonbinary people attempting to access health services.”
“I, like all humans with ovaries, was born with all the eggs I would ever have,” said Linda Troyer, a resident of Big Horn County and plaintiff in the case. “But SB 458 defines female humans, in part, as having bodies that ‘produce’ eggs during their life cycles, which, as a matter of medical science, something human females simply do not do. SB 458 also defines human females as having endocrine systems ‘oriented around’ reproduction, but I’m post-menopausal and scientifically, none of this applies to me now. According to SB 458, I’m no longer a female despite having birthed two children, which is absurd, aggravating and insulting. How am I to apply to renew my fishing license, let alone my drivers license? I’m required on the renewal form to swear, under penalty of criminal prosecution, that I’m female or male and Montana law now says I’m neither.”
“From the beginning, it was obvious that the legislature did not understand what it means to be intersex,” said Jane Doe, a resident of Montana and plaintiff to the case. “First we were left out of SB 458, then we were dismissed as anomalies. But I’m not an anomaly, I’m a human being and an intersex Montanan. This policy puts me in an absurd position: according to SB 458’s scientifically imprecise, over-simplified and erroneous definitions, I apparently cannot declare myself as either male or female. And it’s all thanks to elected officials who would rather prioritize partisan politics and polarizing debates over the constituents they’re supposed to represent.”
“The policymakers pushing SB 458 have given up on common sense, and seem to think they can simply legislate away the diversity of Montana’s residents,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director at the ACLU of MT. “By forcing Montanans into two specific boxes, Montana’s conservative movement is pushing a law that is both foolish and discriminatory. As if that weren’t enough, the bill falls short of numerous Montana legislative requirements, including accurate bill titles, specificity of legislative focus, and violation of due process. The whole thing should be thrown out.”
More: (https://www.aclumontana.org/en/press-releases/aclu-montana-challenges-sb-458-bill-defining-sex-both-foolish-and-discriminatory)
Norah Jones – Peace
This Language Was Long Believed Extinct. Then One Man Spoke Up.
Blas Jaime has spent nearly two decades resurrecting Chaná, an Indigenous language in Argentina that he learned from his mother.
As a boy, Blas Omar Jaime spent many afternoons learning about his ancestors. Over yerba mate and torta fritas, his mother, Ederlinda Miguelina Yelón, passed along the knowledge she had stored in Chaná, a throaty language spoken by barely moving the lips or tongue.
Natalie Alcoba: (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/13/world/americas/indigenous-language-chana-blas-jaime.html)
“It’s generations and generations of silence,” said Ms. Jaime, 46. “But we won’t be silent anymore.”
Archaeologists trace the presence of Chaná people back roughly 2,000 years in what is now the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Entre Rios, as well as parts of present-day Uruguay. The first European record of the Chaná was made in the 16th century by Spanish explorers. (nyt)
Mehdi Hasan
New post.
test….
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/F244/production/_132402026_gettyimages-1237018281.jpg.webp