Hanging With The First Lady

Click on the first tweet to watch the full event

LIVE on #Periscope: Michelle Obama will be speaking at WWDC pscp.tv/w/bAV3RTMyNjQw…

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Nick Takayama (@ntakayama) June 06, 2017

Thank you @MichelleObama for sharing your views on diversity & innovation, and for encouraging developers to make… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

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Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 06, 2017

Greg Mitchell: ‘When Crybaby Interviewed the President’

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Greg Mitchell: A lot of outrage, and not-so-gentle mockery, this morning over a classic Politico piece by editor Jim VandeHei and chief reporter Mike Allen complaining about President Obama manipulating the press….

So John Cook, editor of Gawker, just performed a public service by posting on Twitter every question Allen chose to ask President Bush when he did get full access back in 2008. You may remember 2008 – the economy was about to collapse and we were still in a full shooting war in Iraq …. these below catch the spirit. Keep in mind that Allen wrote today that Obama avoids Politico reporters in part because they “ask tough, unpredictable questions.”

Q: Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol’s charity show, “Idol Gives Back.” And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?

See the full unmissable post here

And read Charles Pierce here

the kennedy honorees

L-R: Broadway actress Barbara Cook, singer and songwriter Neil Diamond, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz musician Sonny Rollins and actress Meryl Streep

The Kennedy Center Honors reception at the White House, December 4

famous five

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Bill Clinton pose with the 2011 Kennedy Center Honorees, front row from left, Sonny Rollins, Barbara Cook, back row from left, Yo-Yo Ma, Meryl Streep and Neil Diamond at the State Department following a dinner and reception on Dec. 3

President Barack Obama will host the five recipients of the 34th Kennedy Center Honors at a White House reception before attending the evening gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

… with Yo-Yo Ma

…. with Sonny Rollins

‘what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is negotiable’

Charlie Cook (National Journal): Remember the old joke that ended with the punch line, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable?” That seems to be the Republican position in the debt-ceiling debate now that House Speaker John Boehner has been forced to renounce any tax increases and, for that matter, any net revenue increases….

…Republicans don’t seem to understand the symbiotic relationships in this negotiation. Democrats hate entitlement cuts just as much as Republicans despise tax hikes. Likewise, just as Republicans dislike defense cuts, Democrats dislike domestic spending cuts. Yet, both are necessary. If Republicans expect Democrats to go along with entitlement cuts, the GOP has to be willing to go along with some revenue increases. If Republicans expect Democrats to swallow deep hits to domestic spending, the GOP has to swallow deep hits to defense. Instead, the Republicans’ position seems to be that they should be allowed to stand on their principles while Democrats are required to compromise theirs.

A deal to raise the debt limit will surely pass, and the United States will probably avoid default …. Republicans will be able to smugly walk away from the table knowing that they didn’t give an inch, but President Obama may well come out the winner. The public will see the president as having tried to negotiate a balanced approach whereby each side allowed its own ox to be gored and made sacrifices for the broader national good.

… What has happened is that the New Republican Party has come to hate taxes a lot more than it hates deficits and the country’s growing indebtedness. It has rewritten history to omit any acknowledgment that President Reagan, when it was necessary, went along with tax increases….

… To be sure, Obama would have had a very hard time selling real entitlement cuts and deep domestic spending cuts to the House and Senate Democratic caucuses that have grown more liberal by attrition and election losses over the past decade. Maybe he wouldn’t have succeeded. But we will never know, and the blame for Washington not stepping up to the plate will fall not on the Democrats but on the Republicans who flinched first….

Full article here

Thank you kinona