Friday Open Thread | President Obama’s Cute Nephews Join Him For His Last Turkey Pardon

Posted on November 25, 2016 by SouthernGirl2

president-obamas-cute-nephews-join-him-for-his-last-turkey-pardonPrior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Barack Obama participated in his final turkey pardon as our president, and much to the dismay of his daughters, he is promising to continue the festive tradition as a private citizen.

During the annual tradition, a turkey is “pardoned,” receiving a blessing to continue leading a long life and keep a safe distance from being served on someone’s Thanksgiving dinner table. This year, Obama brought along his adorable nephews to participate in the tongue-in-cheek ceremony.

“Of course, Thanksgiving is a family holiday as much as a national one,” Obama addressed those gathered with a grin. “So for the past seven years, I’ve established another tradition: embarrassing my daughters with a corny-copia of Dad jokes about turkeys.”

From there, the president elaborated that his daughters were happy to miss this year, mentioning that they had a scheduling conflict.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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70 Responses to Friday Open Thread | President Obama’s Cute Nephews Join Him For His Last Turkey Pardon

  1. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 25, 2016 at 11:48 pm

    Breaking News: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died. He was 90 years old.

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 7:55 pm

    Education expert David Johns muses on how the Obama administration (and family) made education “cool.”

    Written By David Johns

    There is something unique that happens when I enter a room filled with people of all races and ethnicities, socio-economic status, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, or disabilities and proudly say—

    “On behalf of our President Barack Hussein Obama, our First Lady Michelle Robinson Obama, and my colleagues throughout the federal government, I thank you for supporting the learning and development of African American students.”

    “The Obama effect,” as some researchers have called it, is especially apparent when I am in community with young people. Black children, in particular, sit up a little taller, smile warmly with glittering eyes, and lean in whenever I talk about the efforts of the First Family to support their learning and to provide greater access to opportunity. For youth who have grown up with Obama, the image of the American president will never be the same. And unlike any other time I can recall, our First Family has managed to make education cool.

    From the very beginning, President Obama has championed the importance of education. With stellar academic careers at Columbia University and Harvard Law School, President Obama firmly believes in the power of a quality education. His stance on education has remained consistent: If our nation makes the investment in education, children will have greater opportunities to compete in a global market and lead happy and productive lives.

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      November 25, 2016 at 8:35 pm

      Looks like the “replacement kids” have been having a great time.

      All things have their season, I suppose. But the end of the Obama years is just too sad given the outcome of the election.

      Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 7:38 pm

    uh huh

    uh huh

    Civility starts at home, Trumpies
    Friday
    Nov 25 2016
    Posted by willykay

    As an antidote to post-election despair coupled with disgust at the endless exhortations to be civil and strive for unity with an opposition that elected an ignorant, narcissistic grifter to lead the country, I wrote a letter to the editor (LTE) of the St. Louis Dispatch that was published on November 16. It was subsequently republished on the blog, Occasional Planet. The letter itself is not the subject of this post, however, but rather the chilling nature of the response it generated.

    A few days ago, I received a phone message from a representative of the Post-Dispatch inquiring about whether or not I had received any “blowback” from the LTE since a gentleman in the same suburb in which I live had been receiving lots of unwarranted and unpleasant attention based on the mistaken perception that he had authored the letter. The mistake is easily explained. My first name “Willy” is a shortened version of a feminine name, and the gentleman in question is named “William,” shares my last name, and lives in the same suburb. Evidently some rabid Trumpie with more anger than brains had tried to look me up by name and city, the only identifiers printed in the paper, and jumped to the conclusion that the first likely name he found was the anti-Trump offender who he/she needed to silence.

    In a subsequent conversation with the Post-Dispatch representative, I learned that the harassment was repeated over time and had reached the level of stalking. The Trumpie thug had informed his “lefty” victim that he knew the type of car he drives and would be watching him. This sort of implied threat, according to my informant, had left the poor man understandably nearly distraught.

    I have never spoken to this man and cannot think of anything to do to help alleviate the distress he is experiencing because of my opinions – which I will, however, continue to express. In the future, however, I will use my full first name in order to avoid implicating the many innocent Williams in the area. Of course I know that small potatoes are the ones that grow in the future when the problem is here and now.

    It’s also true that I don’t want to invite the attentions of this or any other unhinged rightwing crackpot; we’ve already experienced random if minor vandalism on our property in past years and, thanks to the NRA, people have far too much leeway in Missouri to shoot whenever emotion moves them. I also hope that the victim of these implicit efforts to violently repress free speech reports them to the police. If nothing more, we need to establish an official record of threats that are delivered in Trump’s name.

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    Walking While Black….

    Officer, pedestrian bump shoulders. Now the pedestrian may face charges
    By Nestor Ramos GLOBE STAFF
    NOVEMBER 22, 2016

    Cleon Hodge was walking toward the Porter Square T station on his way home from work last month, glancing down at a text message conversation a few minutes after 6 p.m., when he banged shoulders with another pedestrian.

    “You gotta say ‘Excuse me’ if you’re going to try some cute [stuff] like that,” Hodge, 21, recalled telling the middle-aged man he’d collided with.

    But the man was an on-duty plain-clothed police officer, Cambridge Detective Sergeant Thomas Ahern, and soon he was clutching Hodge by the sweatshirt while a small crowd gathered and a woman recorded the encounter.

    Each man believed the other had initiated the contact — a fact of life in a crowded city, the type of encounter that typically ends in little more than mutual annoyance. But now Cambridge police are seeking assault and other charges against Hodge and a woman who tried to intervene, and pursuing a lesser charge against a second woman who recorded the incident with her cellphone.

    The Oct. 13 incident and its aftermath, captured in four video clips by two bystanders, should raise serious questions about both Ahern’s handling of the situation and the resulting possibility of criminal charges, according to two civil right lawyers familiar with police abuse cases who reviewed the footage. Both were incredulous: How, they wondered, could what both men described as a minor collision between pedestrians on a crowded city street possibly be construed as assault and battery?

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 7:21 pm

    East Bay hate-crime slaying has musician’s kin seeking justice
    By Sarah Ravani, Evan Sernoffsky, Jenna Lyons and Peter Fimrite
    Updated 8:19 am, Thursday, November 24, 2016

    One suspected killer was in custody and detectives were scouring the Bay Area on Wednesday for two alleged accomplices in the slaying of an African American musician who investigators said was targeted because of his race.
    Daniel Porter-Kelly, 31, of Richmond, was arrested Nov. 16 and charged with murder, robbery and the special circumstance of committing a racially motivated crime, which could bring the death penalty if he is convicted.
    He is being held without bail at the Martinez Detention Facility in the death of 28-year-old William Sims of Richmond, who was found beaten and shot on an El Sobrante roadway Nov. 12.
    Contra Costa County sheriff’s investigators believe Porter-Kelly and two other men — Ray Simons, 32, of Hercules, and Daniel Ortega, 31, of Novato — attacked and killed Sims outside a nearby pool hall.
    Simons and Ortega remained at large Wednesday. Porter-Kelly’s Berkeley-based defense attorney, Seth Morris, declined to talk about the case. All three men are white.

    Reply
  21. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 25, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    My Christmas tree

    my-christmas-tree-2016

    Reply
  26. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 25, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    RIKYRAH, AMETIA

    check email

    Reply
  30. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 25, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Chief loan officer at Regions Bank

    https://twitter.com/HGTomato/status/802211155817205761

    Me: We need answers @askRegions

    https://twitter.com/askRegions/status/802209783809970176

    Me: Thank you for moving swiftly.

    Reply
  31. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    November 25, 2016 at 11:47 am

    I just heard now this powerful song for the first time.
    (Written by Bernice Reagon and performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock)
    https://youtu.be/sUAbHhlOYhE&rel=0

    I don’t know how my mother walked her trouble down.
    I don’t know how my father stood his ground.
    I don’t know how my people survive slavery.
    I do remember, thats why I believe.

    I don’t know how the rivers overflow their banks.
    I don’t know how the snow falls and covers the ground.
    I don’t know how the hurricane sweeps through the land.
    Every now and then standing in a rainstorm, I believe.

    I don’t know how the angels woke me up this morning soon.
    I don’t know how the blood still runs thru my veins.
    I don’t know how I rate to run another day.
    Standing in a rainstorm I believe.

    My God calls to me in the morning dew.
    The power of the universe knows my name.
    Gave me a song to sing and sent me on my way.
    I raise my voice for justice I believe.

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 10:47 am

    Maddow had a segment on Wednesday about the last time that there was such a disparity between the popular vote and who was President. wait for it……..it was the election that ended Reconstruction. I just pursed my lips and went Uh Huh.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/long-reach-to-find-precedent-for-2016-popular-vote-gap-in-us-past-816737347527

    Reply
  37. Ametia says:
    November 25, 2016 at 10:22 am

    Good Morning, Everyone! 💁🏽😍💕🦃

    Reply
  39. SouthernGirl2 says:
    November 25, 2016 at 10:00 am

    Y’all see this? Let them keep on…. They’re gonna mess with the wrong one & it’ll be over.

    https://twitter.com/MadameRamotswe/status/802170205480697856

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 9:43 am

    Donald Trump and the Rise of Alt-Reality Media
    You think the truth took a hit last year? It’s about to get worse. A lot
    By CHARLES SYKES November 25, 2016

    Earlier this year, I argued that the conservative movement did not merely have a Donald Trump problem—it had a media problem. As Trump slouched toward the nomination he was backed by a conservative media that had successfully created an alternative reality bubble around his candidacy. When Trump claimed that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey had celebrated the attacks on 9/11, for instance, callers to my show lined up to provide supporting evidence the only source of which was an echo chamber of partisan bloggers; listeners chimed in with evidence they had seen on Facebook linking Ted Cruz’ father to the JFK assassination. Of course, we know the origin of that “evidence” was the National Enquirer. Crowd-sourcing has its limits.

    As a #NeverTrumper, I had hoped that the election would prompt a moment of reckoning and introspection, not merely about conservative values but also the role of the conservative media. As someone who has spent much of his career promoting conservative values on my radio show, I was depending on it.

    Clearly, that is not going to happen now. In fact, it’s going to get a lot worse.

    Trump’s victory means that the most extreme and recklessly irresponsible voices on the right now feel emboldened and empowered. And more worrisome than that, they have an ally in the White House. For years, Rush Limbaugh has gibed about what he calls the “state-controlled media”—the fawning liberal news outlets that Limbaugh has long decried for their lack of critical coverage of President Obama—but we may be about to see what one actually looks like—an alt-reality news outlet operating from within 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The new media will not only provide propaganda cover for the administration, but also direct the fire of a loose confederation of conservative outlets against critics and dissenters. Already, Fox’s Sean Hannity has urged Trump to freeze out the mainstream media and talk directly to the nation.

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 9:42 am

    RIP Florence Henderson.

    2016 – brutal

    Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 9:41 am

    done my Black Friday shopping. All hair stuff.
    Natural hair folks.
    Soultanicals – 50% off everything and free shipping
    Camille Rose -25% off everything
    Shea Moisture -30% off everything (hair, bath, etc) and free shipping

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    November 25, 2016 at 9:41 am

    Morning Everyone.

    Reply

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