Willie Mays wasn’t just a singular athlete, blessed with an unmatched combination of grace, skill and power. He was also a wonderfully warm and generous person – and an inspiration to an entire generation. I’m lucky to have spent time with him over the years, and Michelle and I… pic.twitter.com/tpO3O9B9yc
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 19, 2024
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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
- Trump's attacks on Biden are no accident
- The root of the problem is a theology that enables sexual abuse
- Dear Byron Donalds: The terror of Jim Crow was NOT good for Black families
- When it comes to the presidential race, are polls all that matter?
- 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
Steve Benen
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The Obama Diary 
Hi, All! I made it 🙂 Everyone going to watch the debate tomorrow? Like a flipping train wreck, you just have to look. I wish there was a way to black out the felon and mute him. I can’t stand the sight and sound of that idiot.
Ayyy mp!! Yes 9 ET tonight and happy for the rule about mic muting. We’ve a wonderful president…see thee and everyone there!!
The Rules for the Biden-Trump Presidential Debate on CNN
Here is an overview of the rules that the two campaigns have agreed to with CNN, the evening’s host.
Maggie Astor: (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/politics/cnn-presidential-debate-rules.html)
Pride Month Celebration
First Lady Jill Biden hosts a White House Pride Month celebration on the south lawn.
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at the White House Pride Month Celebration
The South Lawn
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/06/26/remarks-as-prepared-for-delivery-by-first-lady-jill-biden-at-the-white-house-pride-month-celebration/)
—last night !
‘Politics does not have to be a slog’:
Pod Save America’ hosts pen how-to guide on getting involved
The hosts behind “Pod Save America” are setting their sights on saving democracy, with a new how-to guide on becoming politically engaged.
“Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps,” Tommy Vietor said, is for “a person who wants to get more involved in politics, is concerned about the state of the country or democracy and doesn’t know how.”
“We will walk you through a series of steps from the easiest, lightest lift, to how to get good information, to voting, to donating, to volunteering,” said Vietor, who co-hosts “Pod Save America” along with fellow former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Lovett.
“The goal is to just sort of put all this helpful information in one place, but do it in a way that it’s fun and funny and reminds people that politics does not have to be a slog, even if sometimes it can feel like it.”
Judy Kurtz: (https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4739419-pod-save-america-tommy-vietor-jon-favreau-dan-pfeiffer-jon-lovett-biden-trump-cnn-debate/)
Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps
Authors: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor
—-out now, campaigns across country will benefit as a donation.
Dr. Jason Johnson
—–Black Music Month continues.
Readout of White House Roundtable with Latino Business Leaders
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/25/readout-of-white-house-roundtable-with-latino-business-leaders/
FACT SHEET: Vice President Harris Announces First-of-Its-Kind Funding to Lower Housing Costs by Reducing Barriers to Building More Homes
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/26/fact-sheet-vice-president-harris-announces-first-of-its-kind-funding-to-lower-housing-costs-by-reducing-barriers-to-building-more-homes/)
The White House
—President Biden beat the NRA when he signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years. Today, this legislation is helping reduce gun crime and save lives.
SHEILA JACKSON LEE
—-Gospel Music Heritage Month bill.
–magically appeared here instead of below!⚡️
TAMMY DUCKWORTH
—-SIT-IN WITH JOHN LEWIS AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE.
“Absurd and atextual”: Ketanji Brown dissents over Supreme Court gutting of anti-corruption law
Justice Jackson dissented, calling the reading “absurd and atextual”
The case, Snyder v. United States, is the latest in a string of decisions weakening anti-corruption laws. Most notably, last year the court scrapped fraud convictions in two cases against aides of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Marin Scoten: (https://www.salon.com/2024/06/26/absurd-and-atextual-ketanji-brown-dissents-over-gutting-of-anti-corruption-law/)
Mark Joseph Stern:
Justice Jackson is throwing buckets of shade. I don’t think her opinion can be read any other way. She is eviscerating the majority’s vision of a good government, where public servants can get soft kickbacks for their official acts and that’s just fine. She’s saying this vision is fundamentally corrosive to a democratic government in which elected officials are supposed to be responsive to their constituents and to the citizenry at large, not to a narrow slice of wealthy people and corporations who happen to be in a position to reward them for their official acts. She explains how the court is basically just legalizing a form of bribery that’s done with a wink rather than a handshake. And by doing so, the court is undermining Congress’ ability to protect our collective right to a government that’s responsive and not corrupted by the wealthy and moneyed interests. It is still a profoundly corrupt act for a public servant to accept a “gratuity” with a knowing nod after doing a solid for his rich friend.
(https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/06/sam-alito-clarence-thomas-yacht-bribery-kbj-dissent.html)
—the Biden White House successfully found the middle ground, congrats!!
—Trump tried to put Assange on trial for espionage.
Robert Reich: Trump At The Business Greedtable – OpEd
The Business Roundtable is an association of more than 200 CEOs of America’s biggest corporations, their most powerful voice in Washington.
Last Wednesday, its chair, Joshua Bolten, told reporters that his group planned to drop “eight figures” while “putting its full weight behind protecting and strengthening tax reform.”
Translated: It’s going to pour money into Trump’s campaign to ensure that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — most of which benefit big corporations and the rich — don’t expire in 2025, as scheduled.
(https://www.eurasiareview.com/19062024-robert-reich-trump-at-the-business-greedtable-oped/#google_vignette
Judge in Trump Documents Case Rejected Suggestions to Step Aside
Two federal judges in South Florida privately urged Aileen M. Cannon to decline the case when it was assigned to her last year, according to two people briefed on the matter. She chose to keep it.
Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer: (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/us/politics/aileen-cannon-trump-classified-documents.html)
—Americans have the right to a speedy trial. Turns out if she fails to rule or set a date, this can be a Mandamus.
—By playing the delaydelay card Cannon keeps on brazenly showing her hand. If not now as this world changing election looms, when will stop her?
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
—-Gospel Music Heritage Month bill.
Supreme Court has another embarrassing misstep in the release of an abortion opinion
AILSA CHANG, host:
“At the Supreme Court today, another embarrassing misstep in the release of an opinion about abortion. Bloomberg News reports that this morning, as the justices were announcing opinions on other matters, the court briefly posted a decision that would reinstate a lower court order allowing hospitals in Idaho to perform emergency abortions to protect the health of the mother. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports on today’s actions.”
Nina Totenberg: (https://www.npr.org/2024/06/26/nx-s1-5020319/supreme-court-has-another-embarrassing-misstep-in-the-release-of-an-abortion-opinion)
Melissa Murray
—don’t be fooled.
—a delay not a win.
John Roberts Tried to Clean Up Clarence Thomas’ Mess. He May Have Invited More Chaos.
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern:
(https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/06/supreme-court-john-roberts-clarence-thomas-guns-mess-second-amendment-chaos.html)
Nancy Pelosi
—-press conference with reproductive rights leaders.
Secretary Blinken
—SelectUSA Summit – The Vibrancy of the U.S. Economy
—The stunning U.S. economy is truly the envy of the world. Plus we now know the Biden economy lifted up the entire globe in recovery from the Covid pandemic.
11th Hour
—Steve Rattner on trump economic plan: “Completely irresponsible”.
The Conspiracy to End America
by Stuart Stevens
Supreme Court rejects controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated a controversial bankruptcy deal involving Purdue Pharma, maker of the highly addictive painkiller Oxycontin, and members of the Sackler family who owned the scandal-plagued drug firm.
Brian Mann, Nina Totenberg: (https://www.wwno.org/npr-news/2024-06-27/supreme-court-rejects-controversial-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-deal)
Rep Shontel Brown
—Biden Admin protecting pensions.
—trump wants to overturn marriage equality.
btw, when looking at trump I someone who separated nursing babies, terrified toddlers and children of all ages from their parents at the border, and put them in cages.
= Unfit for the Oval then and now.
Kamala Harris
We must re-elect President Biden – with you kind sir !!
—Debate tonight at 9ET.
Biden-Harris HQ
https://twtter.com/BidenHQ/status/1806378667573936332
Biden-Harris HQ
—Reality show character trump + convicted felon trump desperately want you to believe everything is a conspiracy.
POD SAVE AMERICA
https://twitter..com/PodSaveAmerica/status/1806501874884866070
CROOKED MEDIA
Fact checking the CNN presidential debate
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off during CNN’s presidential debate in Atlanta Thursday night.
Below are some fact checks of their claims:
(https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/27/politics/fact-checking-the-cnn-presidential-debate/index.html)
Politifact–
2024 presidential debate fact-check: How accurate were Joe Biden, Donald Trump?
(https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/jun/28/2024-presidential-debate-fact-check-biden-trump/)
“Trump, meanwhile, repeated numerous falsehoods, including that Democrats want doctors to be able to abort babies after birth.” (politifact)
imo – can we put this nasty gop prop to rest because ending the life of a newborn is called ‘murder’. And while figuring things out can we 3D the torrent of trump fabrications, fantasies and lies across the news.
Maddow: Biden unable to avoid ‘the debating incumbent curse’
Rachel Maddow looks back at past incumbent presidents and finds that nearly all of them struggled in their first presidential reelection debates, and talks with Michael Steele.
CA Governor Gavin Newsom on President Joe Biden’s performance in the first 2024 presidential debate, Donald Trump’s prolific lying, and the need for Democrats to rally around Biden and advocate for his reelection based on his record.
V.P. Harris: Donald Trump attempting to create ‘fear based on fiction’
Vice President Kamala Harris joins MSNBC panel to share her assessment of the first 2024 presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump.
btw,
haf some insightful suggestions for President Biden’s team…wondering where to send.
I wish I knew. I have sent a number of emails to the WH and also tweets to a list of people on his campaign staff. Certainly seemed a waste of my time. I even made the point in a last message that yes, they are all ‘experts’, but they might want to consider what the folks out here in America, (red area btw) think and talk about amongest ourselves. Some good ideas, but I feel no matter if they get your suggestions, it won’t matter. Personally, I think his team really failed him in how they advised him. One example is agreeing to have him on the side where they had him. It was all a mess. CNN failed something awful. Trump was his lying ugly self and well, Biden had a bad showing. Just now in NC, he was ON FIRE!
–Hi tnmtngirl1 really good to hear from you 🌹maybe the campaign will think about inviting feedback, why not.
Biden-Harris HQ
Biden tells reporters: “It’s hard to debate a liar.”
—he’s only right.
imho, thinking how President Biden was expected to cope in that format with the endless lies pouring out of trump’s mouth! The mentally sick (evil) trump character seamlessly fabricating his world before our eyes. After everything we know how are trump-putin-bannon still wasting our time. In a thousand ways trump is done. Already done!
Statement from President Joe Biden on Iowa’s Abortion Ban
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/28/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-iowas-abortion-ban/)
Barack Obama
Senator Cortez Masto
–thank you Sen. Cortez Masto.
Erin Reed
🎈🎈SB 458 overturned!
–I know a lot of people who watched the Biden-Trump debate are feeling helpless.
A Trump presidency would alter the course for LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people,
for the next 30 years. His policies amount to adult bans on transition and targeting LGBTQ+ people in schools.
Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Requires Public Schools to Teach the Bible
The state superintendent, Ryan Walters, said the Bible was a “necessary historical document.” The mandate comes as part of a conservative movement to infuse Christian values in public schools.
The move comes a week after Louisiana became the first state to mandate that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, which was quickly challenged in court.
The Oklahoma directive could also be challenged and is likely to provoke another fight over the role of religion in public schools.
The efforts to bring religious texts into the classroom reflect a growing national movement among conservatives — particularly Catholics and evangelicals who oppose abortion, transgender rights and what they view as liberal school curriculums — to openly embrace the idea that America’s democracy needs to be grounded in their Christian values.
That movement had a major victory in overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago, and its supporters see ending abortion as only a starting point in a broader campaign to preserve and expand the presence of their Christian values in American life. Many conservative Christians see schools as a frontier of their fight, as they seek to shape the next generation.
Sarah Mervosh and Elizabeth Dias:
(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/oklahoma-public-schools-bible.html)
—Glad to know the Koran, Torah, Vedas, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Guru Granth Sahib, etc will be on the menu.
José Andres
—Bourdain Day!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Next Sec. General of NATO
Daniel Barenboim: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
“Daniel Barenboim’s belief in the unifying power of music is unshakeable.
Together with his musicians from Israel and Palestine,
he shows how peaceful interaction can work”.
Helga Rabl-Stadler, Former President of the Salzburg Festival
2024 Summer Concerts:
(https://west-eastern-divan.org)
Daniel Barenboim & West-Eastern Divan Live in Geneva: Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Verdi | Full Concert
From the Victoria Hall in Geneva: Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform the “Concert pour la paix”.
Friday is here again,
and wishing us peace in our hearts.
🌙
Now is it Saturday and the wish is the same. 🙂
–just so tnmtngirl1.
Joe Biden
–truth.
–how quickly you get up!
–your freedom, your democracy.
Dahlia Lithwick:
I have this lingering question about how the Trump-Biden debate, and presidential debates more generally, mislead and misdirect the conversation about how government actually works. Onstage, it looks like these two guys will personally be setting policy on veterans affairs and climate and immigration and everything else. That’s how the questions are framed and answered.
But that completely obscures the long march toward deregulation, and the attacks on voting rights, and the threats to the separation of powers—all coming from an aggressive, conservative judiciary. Look at the enormity of what’s going on at the Supreme Court, from Jarkesy to bump stocks to Loper Bright and beyond: Much more so than any presidential debate, that seems to me to be the story of what’s happening to our democracy. Can you reframe this for people who are distracted by the pomp and circumstance of a CNN debate?
Mark Joseph Stern: I think it’s illuminating to have had Loper Bright come down the morning after that debate. Joe Biden did not perform well Thursday night, and the reaction on the left was, in part, fear about whether this guy could still serve as the chief executive of the United States. I understand those concerns. But I think this popular vision of the president as basically running the country is so far removed from how government actually works.
At a certain point, it is actively misleading to put too much stock in, say, the performance of a candidate on a debate stage. The government is vast. It is run by a bunch of agencies, most of which you probably haven’t heard of, that are staffed with experts who have a deep knowledge and experience in a particular subject matter, alongside lawyers who want to make government work for the people. And they’re operating under political appointees who are accountable to the president, who’s accountable to the people. We rarely talk about these agencies, yet they’re the ones who are interpreting and executing the law, day in and day out. They’re approving or rejecting new drugs. They’re limiting pollution from some dirty factory in West Virginia that’s creating a cancer cluster in a majority-Black community. They’re the ones who are making sure we’re given the full scope of protections that Congress aimed to give us when enacting broadly worded laws.
More: (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/06/presidential-debate-fail-supreme-court-john-roberts.html)
Joe Biden
“Donald Trump is motivated by revenge and retribution.
But here’s the truth: Revenge and retribution never built a damn thing.”
—-trump doesn’t care about…
“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.
He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.”
—trump called them “suckers and ‘losers’.
Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | New York, NY
Manhattan Center
New York, New York
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/06/29/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-new-york-ny-8/)
Remarks by President Biden at the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center Grand Opening Ceremony | New York, NY
Stonewall National Monument
New York, New York
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/29/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-stonewall-national-monument-visitor-center-grand-opening-ceremony-new-york-ny/)
Biden-Harris HQ
—Congressman Garcia