Saturday Open Thread | ‘Love on My Mind’ Week

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63 Responses to Saturday Open Thread | ‘Love on My Mind’ Week

  1. eliihass says:

    I want to cry…

    I’m going to say this again…FLOTUS deserved so much better…she deserved better quality staff…(dedicated, competent, seasoned, savvy staff…especially folks who weren’t actively undermining her…or the dubious political hires from various spheres of the Democratic orbit – or ‘donors’, ‘bundlers’ circle… or Chicago folks who tout more their ‘friendship’ with the President…or those who felt that working for the black FLOTUS was beneath them – but took the job as a leaping stone to the West Wing…or those who felt that they were there co-sharing or auditioning for the FLOTUS position themselves…

    The historic first black FLOTUS deserved so much better and superior coverage…the historic black FLOTUS deserved to be better positioned at all times…better looked out for in every way …and at all levels…

    I can’t begin to tell you how horrified I’ve been at some of what I’ve learned and observed …and read from others who share some of the same observations, frustration and anger…

    I’m going to try to find it, but I read somewhere – either on Instagram or an open Facebook posting, where some South African woman was going off…she was fuming about how it was obvious that our FLOTUS was being undermined by folks in the White House…she was very upset about some photographs …she’s a professional photographer and she said that it bothered her that the White House would utilize some of the photos they did…She even pointed out the AARP photo they tweeted out when FLOTUS turned 50 and posed with her card…

    It isn’t right…this FLOTUS deserved so much better…and as many folks are now begining to speak up and say as much, I completely agree….she has sadly, been greatly undermined in every way by her own husband’s White House..

    That folks not just here in America, but from other parts of the world, come away with the sense that our historic first black FLOTUS is treated less than …and in ways none of her predecessors have ever been…dismissively and with condescension by some of the President’s own staff, and the White House in general, is very bothersome…

    And we are talking two-bit idiots who wouldn’t have the nerve…had this been any of the other previous white First Ladies…

    I will have more to say about this … but if this is happening to the first black FLOTUS fam..and everyone is pretending it’s all completely normal and acceptable…imagine how little regular black folks matter in the scheme of things…
    —————————————————————————————————————————

    Excerpt:

    PRESS CALL BY TINA TCHEN, CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE FIRST LADY,
    BEN RHODES, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, AND MARY BETH GOODMAN, SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR
    DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL ON THE FIRST LADY’S LET GIRLS LEARN TRIP TO LIBERIA, MOROCCO AND SPAIN..

    Q Hi, thanks for taking the question. I have two quick ones. Who is paying the expenses for both actresses to join the First Lady on her stops in Africa? And secondly, I was wondering if somebody could just talk a little bit about why the First Lady is going to Spain when the President, as Ben mentioned a little bit ago, will be stopping there in a couple of weeks himself. Thank you.

    MS. TCHEN: So the expenses associated with the CNN documentary are being covered by CNN. So that would include — for Freida Pinto and Meryl Streep, as well as Isha Sesay.

    And Spain for — much like our trips — prior trips that included Japan and Cambodia, our trip to the UK, it’s an opportunity — as we did also in Argentina — to speak to an audience in the developed world about the importance of focusing on the 62 million girls.

    From the very beginning, with Let Girls Learn, it has been — included a prong that was awareness-raising. We have a robust set of efforts here in the United States through Girl Scouts and Girls Inc. and with media partners to elevate the issue of the 62 million girls — that’s why the First Lady was at the Global Citizens concert in New York last September — so that the developed world — whether it’s the U.S., Spain, Japan, the UK — that young people here understand the issue confronting the 62 million girls around the world, and take action and use their voices to support them. And that’s the message she’ll be conveying in her speech in Spain.

    MR. RHODES: I will add to that, Tina, that Spain is a country that the President has not yet visited. It’s the largest European country that he has yet to visit. And he felt it was important in his last year to travel to Spain for that purpose, and also because we have worked hard to try to restore greater economic growth to southern Europe, even as, of course, the President has been engaged deeply with northern European countries, including the Nordic countries.

    But what I’d tell you is that their agendas are very different. The President is going really to discuss our security cooperation, the value of our NATO alliance, the ways in which we cooperate in transatlantic institutions, whereas the First Lady is going with a message focused on what we can do together as a national community to empower women and girls.

    So they are able to speak to very different issues. And I think that that demonstrates the comprehensive nature of how we approach global engagement. Government-to-government relations are critical. Engagement with publics are critical. And the cooperation on foreign policy and security issues is important, but also benefits from a focus on what we can do in countries or together as developed countries to support women and girls around the world.

    Q Thanks for having the call. Just a couple of basic questions. When is the actual departure date from D.C., and when is the return date? And how many people will be going in Mrs. Obama’s party? Lastly, can you all give us a list of all the Let Girls Learn foreign country stops Mrs. Obama has made prior? Thank you.

    MS. TCHEN: So we depart D.C. Sunday morning. We’ll return to D.C. Friday evening. I think we’ll be in Liberia on Monday and Morocco Tuesday and Wednesday, and Spain Thursday and Friday.
    We’ll get back to you, we can send you the list of the prior trips and the stops. That’s probably easier to do on the trip. And I don’t — people traveling with us will be our usual staff of our communications team, our foreign policy team, myself, and just the general support that we have with security. But I don’t have a total count for you.
    Q Yes, hi. Thanks for taking my call. Just two quick questions to confirm — in how many countries does the Let Girls Learn initiative work in? And how many countries has the First Lady in Africa visited as First Lady before this trip?

    MS. TCHEN: As to her prior trips to Africa, we can get that to you separately as well, afterwards.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/24/press-call-first-ladys-upcoming-let-girls-learn-trip-liberia-morocco-and

    How can FLOTUS’ chief of staff not know offhand how many trips FLOTUS has made to Africa…? You can count them on one hand…I know that …and I don’t even work for the White House…As a matter of fact, someone rightly pointed out somewhere that this historic FLOTUS is the least traveled of all modern First Ladies…They pointed out that Laura Bush visited 76 countries …yes 76…as First Lady…including trips she made with her husband…Hillary traveled to even more countries than Laura Bush…and they actually said that Jill Biden has traveled more as second lady than the historic FLOTUS has…turns out V.P Joe’s wife even gets to sign bilateral agreements with foreign governments as she was said to have done in Argentina 2 days ago…she is currently on a 4 country tour to Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, Panama…she was also at some UNESCO event in Paris the week before from where she did her pre-recorded speech to the United State of Women.. Rosalynn Carter did more than travel and State visits…President Carter actually sent her to represent him at summits..and she also traveled in place of her husband to several high-level meetings abroad…and at one, the president of some country wouldn’t speak to her because she was a woman and the wife…and President Carter called to tell him that Rosalynn was an extension of him…that she spoke for him…and that if he wanted a deal, he’d have to speak to Rosalynn…LOL…

    As someone jokingly said, hard to remember any previous First Lady before our historic first black FLOTUS who’s had to share what should be an exclusive position… with any other women in or outside the administration…or had to contend with so many acting First Ladies…

    But I’m not laughing…none of this is funny in the least…my FLOTUS deserved so much better…

    • Liza says:

      You’re right, Eliihass. FLOTUS does deserve better.

    • eliihass says:

      If the Princeton and Harvard educated black FLOTUS is not even seen as worthy …and is generally treated condescendingly and dismissively and constantly overlooked and disregarded and seen as less than….in her own husband’s White House and administration…by folks hired by and to work for her husband…how does that bode well for regular black folks in general…

      I don’t care about the supposed racism and xenophobia that motivated Brexit and Brexit voters…

      I do care deeply about how my historic first black FLOTUS is being treated and covered by her husband’s White House…

      Especially as her predecessors have been the exclusive and final word on all things First Lady, East Wing, State Dinners, Receptions, Hostessing…Lady of the manor…etc…

    • Ametia says:

      I feel you, eliihaas. I’d love to have a sit down FLOTUS, after she leave the WH.

      Although I don’t think she’d ever reveal the HARD CORE UGLINESS she’s had to endure during her tenure as First Lady. She has shared only minute details through some of her commencement speeches. And you are on point, in that smart folks get it. WE get it here at 3 Chics.

      But we can see and know that she was not held in the highest esteem as the previous First Ladies. Through it all, I don’t believe that FLOTUS has ever felt undeserving, no matter how underhanded some of these folks in the West Wing and the Washington incrowd have tried to overstep, sidestep, undermind, sabotage, and dismiss.

      The one thing these fuckers can never do is ERASE the fact that Michelle LaVaughn Robinson is now, and forever will be the 44th FRIST LADAY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA..

      • eliihass says:

        You know Ametia…it’s one thing for folks on the outside to treat her that way…it’s quite another for folks in her husband’s White House and orbit to do so …and it is not only tolerated, it practically seems to be approved of…

        I’m going to confess that it has sometimes caused me to resent the President quite a bit for allowing it…

        It’s his White House…she’s his wife…it’s his call…he is the first, last and only word on matters pertaining to his White House and those employed there..

        As the South African woman said in her post, people treat your wife how you permit them to treat her…if you treat her as valuable, precious and worthy, and insist that she matters and that she is respected…everyone will follow suit…If you trivialize, patronize and dismiss her…and allow every Tom, Dick and Harry to trample on her…no matter how unconsciously or not on purpose…people will also follow suit…getting the sense that she doesn’t matter…

        In what world do people like Robert Gibbs and David Plouffe and Josh Earnest and so many others remain close to the President even when they dislike, disrespect and demean his wife..

        That Reid Cherlin that former White House assistant press secretary who never worked for FLOTUS, but still did a hit piece on her..that he remains pals with Josh Earnest and Tommy Vietor another asshole former White House staffer who’s one of the biggest Hillary trolls on Twitter ..and others…is very telling…

        Clearly, there are absolutely no repercussions for disrespecting the black FLOTUS…instead folks get promoted and touted as even more important…Folks see this stuff ..and folks – even non-Americans…are starting to talk about it in various forums…

        It really breaks my heart…

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      Eliihaas,

      I simply ignore the her detractors. They reveal their smallness when they do not acknowledge that our First Lady is fabulous. She is my favorite First Lady of all time. In my mind, no one can dim the light of our brightest, shining star of a First Lady.

      Because all of Michelle Obama’s great works and outreach are guided and originate from her kind and caring heart, she will always be untouched by her detractors. Michelle Obama’s success and greatness as First Lady will always have my deepest admiration and appreciation.

    • rikyrah says:

      You have always been right in how you’ve seen this.

      You have always been on the money.

      • eliihass says:

        Thanks for saying that Rikyrah…It has bothered me so much …but I always hoped the White House treatment of FLOTUS wasn’t so terribly blatant …but these days even random folks are expressing their dismay and anger…

        Just look at the West Wing Week videos for starters…FLOTUS and her events are blacked-out even as every Tom, Dick and Harriet is played up …

        On the rare occasion they reluctantly do show FLOTUS, it’s never her best and most substantive moments or speeches…it’s a shot of the back of her head …or her in the most unflattering angle…

        3/4s of Americans don’t even have the slightest clue all the great substantive work she does…The White House will play up only the most ridiculously random silly thing…but somehow manage to hide the great speeches…and the wonderful moments…

        Heck when most of America…including black America didn’t even know she went to Princeton and Harvard until someone put it up as a meme on social media …in their 7th year in office…

        How is that even possible..?

        It’s as if these days the White House is going out of its way to downplay her, her importance…and any intimacy between her and POTUS…

        As someone said, it’s as if they want to keep women interested in POTUS …and easily cultivated for getting backing on policy stuff, by actively downplaying FLOTUS…and sterilizing their relationship…

    • eliihass says:

      are we also to believe that George the supreme racist Will is also ‘offended’ by Trump’s racism…

      LOL…

      George is a bleeding heart racist and Neocon …the neocons have their own separate agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with racism, immigration, offending Mexicans…or any number of perceived Trump sins…

      George Will did not leave the republican party after John McCain inflicted and unleashed Sarah Palin and the Tea party on America…

      This is not about Trump being ‘unqualified’ or ‘unprepared’…or any number of other ‘reasons’ the Neocons are presenting for being ‘offended’, viscerally put off by and not supporting Trump…

      Their only trouble with Trump is that he soundly beat their handpicked candidate…and absolutely won’t submit himself to them to be controlled by them…he is every bit a megalomaniac as they are …LOL..

    • Ametia says:

      BWA HA HA HA HA That RUG…hairpiece…..

      Everythang’s Trump’s fault now, RIGHT……

  2. rikyrah says:

    Side eye to this:

    https://twitter.com/people/status/746489367204626433

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    First off, please stop using “race card.” It’s insulting.

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    Yes, hard work and perseverance are important. But, let’s not act like there isn’t a huge gap when it comes to opportunities.

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    Have things gotten “better” than they were a few years ago? Yes. But, it’s dangerous for people like Kevin Hart to dismiss racial bias.

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    It’s so easy for these rich Black folk to forget the struggle. And, maybe they didn’t have to struggle. But trust, they were the exception.

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    But I see you Kevin. It’s good for “expanding” your brand to say irresponsible shit about racial bias in entertainment. Way to go!

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    “I’m rich. I don’t have race problem. What y’all complaining about? Just work.” Please, shut up!

    Kirk Moore @KirkWrites79
    There’s actual data about the lack of opportunities at the creative and executive level. But, Kevin Hart just wants us to do the work.

  3. rikyrah says:

    I really like him.

    ………………………………………….

    Like Clinton, Tom Perez Has Shown Himself to Be a Pragmatic Workhorse
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    June 24, 2016 8:56 AM

    Over the next month, the biggest news of the campaign season will be the vice presidential picks of the two candidates. As such, pundits are spending a fair amount of time these days prognosticating about the various possibilities.

    On the Democratic side, that talk has zeroed in on three potential candidates: Tim Kaine, Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro. What is interesting about that three-some is that each one appeals to a different constituency that has been highlighted during the primary. Kaine is the establishment favorite, Warren appeals to the Sanders constituency and Castro would mean having a person of color on the ticket.

    To the extent that Clinton herself is considered “establishment,” I previously wrote about how Labor Secretary Tom Perez – as a progressive Latino – covers both of the other two constituencies and has the potential to unite the divisions that have surfaced recently. While he isn’t gaining much notice from “insiders,” Justin Miller took a pretty deep dive into Perez’s background in the summer issue of the American Prospect.

    The article walks you through the accomplishments of Perez in the Obama administration as Secretary of Labor, including everything from the new overtime rule to removing the federal overtime and minimum-wage exemption for home-care and domestic workers.

  4. rikyrah says:

    Quick Takes: The Big Picture on Trump and Brexit
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    June 24, 2016 5:37 PM
    POLITICAL ANIMAL BLOG
    * Josh Marshall did a good job of connecting the dots between Trump and Brexit.

    Put simply, Trumpism and the greater arc of rightist politics in the US in recent years seems to follow this pattern. A declining but still very large fraction of the population which feels that it is losing power, wealth and something between ethnic familiarity and dominance to rising segments of the society. To map this on to the specifics of US society this pits a one group that is both older and whiter against another that is generally younger and less white.

    Two points are worth recognizing about this deep social and political cleavage. First, this rebellion on the right is based not on strength but on weakness, the loss of power, control, demographic dominance, privilege. Second, in key respects it is an accurate perception of the change overtaking America…

    The future electorate of the UK wanted to remain in Europe. This makes me suspect that for all the differences there is some elemental similarity in play between here and the UK.

  5. rikyrah says:

    The Obama Administration Makes Its Biggest Move Against For-Profit Colleges
    The nation’s worst college accreditor is about lose its own accreditation.

    by Paul Glastris
    June 24, 2016 7:55 PM

    With Donald Trump and Brexit wiping out all other stories, here’s one you’re likely to have missed—and it’s actually good news! Yesterday, in a surprisingly bold move, federal regulators voted to recommend shutting down the nation’s largest accreditor of for-profit colleges.

    The 10-3 decision, handed down Thursday by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity[NACIQI], effectively eliminates access to federal financial aid to hundreds of schools accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools[ACICS]that enroll nearly 800,000 students.

    Accreditors are nonprofits that are supposed to act as the watchdogs of higher education. They determine, among other things, which colleges are fit to receive federal student grants and loans. Some accreditors are tougher graders than others, however. ACICS is infamous in ed policy circles for being “the ‘rocks for jocks’ of accreditors,” Ben Miller of the Center for American Progress told me in a phone interview this morning. Now NACIQI, which is in essence the watchdog of the watchdogs, is recommending ACICS be euthanized.

    It’s not hard to see why. ACICS was the accreditor for Corinthian Colleges, the for-profit behemoth that went bankrupt two years ago after the Department of Education found it was falsifying job placement rates and misleading students about financial aid obligations and cut off its federal funds—an action that was the domino-like result of a Washington Monthly investigation. ACICS also gave its blessings to FastTrain, a Miami-based for-profit college chain whose owner was convicted last fall on multiple counts of theft of government property. FastTrain ex-employees testified that the college forged high school diplomas for prospective students who lacked the real thing and boosted enrollment “by hiring former strippers as recruiter, some of whom wore “short skirts and stiletto heels” to work.”

    Last year, ACICS’s then-president faced a withering interrogation by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But instead of admitting the organization’s gross dereliction of duty, he inexplicably defended the group’s quality control processes. To Elizabeth Warren.

  6. rikyrah says:

    really? seriously?

    Edward Hardy
    ‏@EdwardTHardy
    Spoke to ‘Leave’ voters who say result wasn’t meant to happen. They hoped to make a point, show frustration with EU, not cause Brexit #EURef

    • eliihass says:

      Unlike Darlene Superville, at least the folks at VOA know how to properly address and report on the First Lady…

      “…U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is scheduled leave Sunday for Africa and Europe to advocate for girls’ education.

      The six-day trip – to Liberia and Morocco, with a final stop in Spain – will highlight Let Girls Learn, one of Obama’s core initiatives. The first lady will be joined in her travels by daughters Sasha and Malia, and the girls’ grandmother, Marian Robinson.

      Let Girls Learn is a global initiative launched by the president and first lady in 2015. The program addresses obstacles – such as forced marriage, poverty and violence – that keep more than 62 million girls globally out of school…”

      http://www.voanews.com/content/first-lady-trip-to-africa-to-highlight-educational-obstacles-girls-face/3391976.html

  7. rikyrah says:

    A Note About Trumpism, From the Real America

    For the past week my wife Deb and I have been in western Kansas — Dodge City mainly, also Garden City, briefly Spearville. There will be a lot more to report in coming days on the economic, cultural, and political news from this part of the country. What you see above is something that touches all of those themes: me talking with Kevin Heeke, the mayor of Spearville, about the hundreds of wind turbines that have transformed the economy of the wheat- and corn-farming regions in this extremely windy part of the country.
    …………………………………………………………………..

    These cities of western Kansas, Dodge City and Garden City, are both now majority-Latino. People from Mexico are the biggest single immigrant group, and they are here mainly for work in the area’s big meat-packing plants. Others are from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, and more recently Somalia and Sudan, among other countries. You might think of Kansas as stereotypical whitebread America. It’s pure America, all right — but American in the truest sense, comprising people who have come from various corners of the world to improve their fortunes.

    Every single person we’ve met here — Anglo and Latino, African and Burmese and other, old and young, native-born and immigrant, male and female, well-educated and barely literate, working three jobs and retired and still in school—of all these people, we’ve asked the same questions. Namely: how has Kansas handled this shift in demography? And how does it sound, in this politically and culturally conservative part of the country, to hear the national discussion about “building a wall,” about making America “a real country again,” of the presumptive Republican nominee saying even today that Americans are “angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over, nobody even knows who they are.”

    And every single person we have spoken with — Anglo and Latino and other, old and young, native-born and immigrant, and so on down the list — every one of them has said: We need each other! There is work in this community that we all need to do. We can choose to embrace the world, or we can fade and die. And we choose to embrace it. (The unemployment rate in this area, by the way, is under 3 percent, and every business we’ve talked with has “help wanted” notices out.)

    This is in small-town western Kansas. And it is what we have heard in every discussion. I could give 50 examples, and eventually will, but here is one for now. A white man who grew up in this area, and works in construction, told us a few days ago: I wasn’t sure about the change in town. It’s different. But these people want to work. They want a better life for their children. We need them. Without them, we would shrivel up.

    • eliihass says:

      I just watched last weeks after watching this…and not a single shot or mention of FLOTUS at the United State of Women summit…nothing…

      I’ve told you time and again fam, I have a very serious problem with how the White House covers ..or better yet, blacks out the historic first black FLOTUS…

    • eliihass says:

      And folks are noticing too…

  8. rikyrah says:

    ‘He looked ashamed, hungry and broken’ Teen offers to carry groceries in exchange for food
    POSTED 12:40 PM, JUNE 23, 2016

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A 16-year-old boy in Tennessee is receiving an outpouring of support after he asked to help carry a man’s groceries for him in exchange for food.

    Memphis resident Matt White wrote about the experience in a Facebook post that has gone viral.

    White says that he was approached by a teenager while shopping for produce at Kroger. The boy introduced himself at Chauncy Jones, and he offered to help White carry his grocery bags in exchange for a pack of glazed doughnuts. “He looked ashamed, hungry and broken,” White said.

    Jones told white he lived with his mother and this was his only chance to get food that day. White ended up buying him a few grocery bags full of food.

    http://fox59.com/2016/06/23/he-looked-ashamed-hungry-and-broken-teen-offers-to-carry-groceries-in-exchange-for-food/

  9. rikyrah says:

    They should just admit it -all you gotta be is WHITE

    …………………………………………..

    found at POU:

    MonieTalks
    Y’all…

    The new angle spreading among white Evangelical America is that Trump has just accepted Christ…he is a “baby Christian” according to Dr. James Dobson.

    …….”How recent?” asked Anthony, clearly surprised and encouraged by Dobson’s statement.

    “I don’t know when it was, but it has not been long,” replied Dobson. “I believe he really made a commitment. But he’s a baby Christian. We all need to be praying for him, especially if there’s a possibility of him being the next executive officer.”

    Dobson underscored that Trump as a “baby Christian” simply doesn’t yet know how to speak about his faith.

    • Ametia says:

      Yes PBO has done more in his ADMINISTRATION.Period, which is why the powers that be and ignorant folks are screaming for their country back.

  10. Ametia says:

    LOL YOU HELPED BUILD IT, GEORGIE PORGIE! Now these MOFOs are jumping SHIP.

  11. OMG! Herman is messing with Haley this morning. Haley was discussing poverty. Herman was teasing her and told her we’re poor.

    Haley: Uncle Herman, we’re not poor. Poor is when you can’t afford to take care of yourself or take care of your family. “We’re middle class”. I mean she was arguing the case. Herman was just messing with her but she put forth the case. I had to smile at her and told Herman to leave her alone.

  12. Ametia says:

    Reposting this here, also too! Exhibit A-Z RAH RAH RAH for the Hillster

    https://youtu.be/1m24eRQS4ng?t=390

  13. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning 😆, Everyone 😄
    Off to swim 👙and run errands. 😇

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