On This Day: President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Malia and Sasha join young “elves” for a photo prior to the “Christmas in Washington” taping at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)
****
Today
11:25: The President delivers remarks at a naturalization ceremony, The National Archives Building, Washington
White House.gov
You’re all a bunch of sleepy heads :roll:
Not ‘all’ of us. I’m up. :) My Manna House (food pantry) day, then lunch with a group of lady friends.
:-) Gooooooood morning Super Early Bird Tnmtngirl - have a fabulous lunch!!!!
FURST.
So, AMK, have you given your speech yet? If you already gave a report, I missed it.
Oh, it was over last week. Kept short & sweet. So no shoes were thrown at thus avoiding dumbya’s ‘victory lap’ fate.
This is true, oh great and powerful one! The sleep monster pounced on me and wrestled me into the pillow while I was in the middle of posting. Some nerve!
Well, geez. I was just about to thank you for the glorious Christmas photo. Trying hard to get “in the spirit” this year, but I must not be doing something right. Love the way our FLOTUS always looks ready to party.
Another Super Early Early Bird - moooooooooorning Jackie!!!
So, Chips, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? What’s at the top of your wish list?
I’m mega organized this year Jackie, I plan to have it all done by the 23rd :cool: My wish list is quite short, all I want is for Manchester United to win a game. That would be lovely - but might be beyond Santa’s powers.
How about you?
(Taking the Danster for an early walk, back in a bit!)
Good for you, Chips!! I’m doing pretty well and would love to have an indefinite and long term President Obama in the White House. I want him to be there when the girls graduate from college, get their first jobs, become great successes and then marry and give him the grandchildren he would love to have. Somehow I don’t think Santa can deliver that one either. Every year Mr. G gives me an Obama calendar for my wall, but they won’t be making them after this year—SIGH!!!
Good Tuesday, Chipsticks…TOD Family!
Delurking to say I’m still checking in, though I seem to be playing catch-up a lot. Still appreciating all that you, NW, the BT’s and all the contributors do to keep us informed— and keep us sane amidst all the insanity the GOP and media are throwing at us.
Everyone have a FANTASTIC day!
{{{{{ swbluega }}}}}
Hi there, Neighbor!!!
{{{{{ Dudette }}}}}
Given Trump, Cruz, Carson, et al, is the GOP admitting to *building* that? Every time my husband watches the daily pandemonium, he thinks about that GOP convention theme and laughs. I’m sure that they never expected Trump to remain the frontrunner for as long as he has been…and wish that Cruz was not in the position that he is in. At this point, they are having to focus their efforts on salvaging the party. They’re not even attacking HRC much these days.
Good Morning TODVille.
In addition to what your husband is thinking, add the insulting empty chair from the actor that shall remain nameless.
Yes, the GOP built all that. From the simpleton of Alaska to the enraged and racist T-baggers against the stimulus that brought the economy and jobs back, the countless lies and constant demonization of the ACA, the fabricated warnings that Obama is coming for their 2nd Amendment Rights, to the fever of two mid term elections, and a Congress that can’t govern so much so that it pushed its Speaker out, to now having and entire cast of aspiring presidents straight out of a Cuckoo nest with the most flamboyant, the most inflammatory, the vilest of them all getting not only the international community but the GOP elite on edge… to the Lunatic calling the Maniac out, yeap, they built that!
NCLB, I agree with everything you said, except for the fact that I don’t think Trump is actually the vilest of them all. That honor belongs to the particularly poisonous, odorous and evil, Rafael Cruz.
“…the vilest of them all. That honor belongs to the particularly poisonous, odorous and evil, Rafael Cruz.”
I have to agree with you on that one, JackieG. Not only do I hate hearing him speak, but when I look at him, I think of someone who is constantly scheming to do something evil, with no care of who is negatively impacted by the outcome. Even his Republican cronies are leery of him.
On the other hand, it is scary how Trump has gone from being an amusement to being taken seriously by a large number of GOPers. That he can say whatever and somehow it’s okay…that the other candidates and GOP leadership are so hesitant to reel him in (he obviously has something on all of them)…that you can turn to any newstainer channel at any given point and he will most likely be the topic of conversation…
Sadly, they have built something that will be hard to tear down. But then again, I don’t think they really want to tear it down. They just bemoan that they’ve lost control of their creation.
I agree with you on this jackie. I think Trump is evil but it always seems an act. Cruz truly IS evil.
Morning:) Happy Tuesday!
{{{{{ Sweet flower of the desert! }}}}}
Any questions? Any questions at ALL? This needs to go viral. Disgusting is too mild a word.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/trump-supporter-yells-light-the-motherfucker-on-fire-as-prot?utm_term=.lryqr0NZX#.qqg5BnARN
There is video. I’m just not going to post it here…go to the link
Happened at the same rally…
I would not want to be in an area crossing path with the people coming out of an Il Touches event. The people, and their dear leader, are scary.
Good morning Ms. Chips, Danny and TOD family, I hope all is well with everyone this lovely Monday morning. Congrats Tnmtngirl, on being first this morning.
To all, I hope you display your spirit of generosity and magnanimousness, today. <3 <3 <3
Thank God that President Obama is still the President of The United States of America. ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆
Should say “Tuesday”
Good Morning, Everyone :)
OMG, BBC fans, This SO needs to happen!!!!
ohhh I’m so with you on this meta- allll my favorites :) :)
SQUEEEEEEEE!!
Is this true. Love them all.
I’m so ready, I love all of them!!!
My cousin is a BBC murder mystery fanatic of the highest order. She.will.explode in ecstasy when she sees this! 😀
As am I and I love how the BBC took it straight to the edge!!
Dayum BBC’s marketing dept is kicking ass!
Ponder this… http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-14/how-trump-has-neutralized-super-pac-cash
Good morning TOD :)
Thank you Chips!!
A bit of the obvious ….
Other updates in the sidebar as I have time …
Wishing all of you a most excellent Tuesday!
#Hope4ALL
Along with the update, including some important tweets about the progress being made on dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program, thought I’d feature a couple of ‘historical’ tweets :)
And ….
Oh well, I guess my other comment will appear sometime. In the meantime …
What a delicious morning greeting! Thanks Bob!
And he will never take responsibility for any of this. He is unfit to be a human, much less a president
and neither will the press hold him accountable….the purveyor of racist hate speech is never held accountable in this country…if they were…it might reduce some of the virulence that is allowed to flow in airways…folks will say that everyone has the right to say whatever they say…and perhaps they do…but they should also be held accountable for the consequences that the hate speech brings…
DON’T FORGET MY EX-PASTOR AND HIS LOVELY TERRORIZING WIFE…FOR 6 YEARS I HAD TO LISTEN TO HER HATE AND DRIVEL!
http://www.juancole.com/2015/12/36barrel-democrats-presidency.html
he price of petroleum fell Monday to levels not seen since the crash of 2008, at one point hitting $35 a barrel in New York.
There is every reason to expect prices to remain low for a few years, and they could easily go lower as Iranian crude comes back on the market with the end of UN sanctions early next year.
One question here is whether low gasoline prices help the Democratic nominee?
I say they do, significantly. People know how much it takes to fill up, and having that sum steadily fall makes them happy. All kinds of commodities are trucked around in the US, so even soup cans get less expensive when gasoline is cheap. For the millions of Americans living on the edge, lower gasoline prices are an immediate salary pay-raise.
Thanks, Df, From the US media, you wouldn’t even know there were Dem candidates running for president, much less would would help them.
True…they’re all so busy giving the hatemonger his free air time to spout more venom… At least the SuperPAC $$ is useless buying the Presidency now….and they never seem to go after Hillary or Bernie or Martin….All Trump, All the Time.
How many millions of dollars of free publicity and air time for the horrible thugs? Thanks bill for yet another fuck up.
Exactly!
Meantime, I’m hoping that Hillary has learned from experience and is working a good ground game because that will make all the difference in the true primary (as opposed to caucus) states. I say Hillary because I can’t stomach Bernie and because I don’t think O’Malley has a chance.
It doesn’t seem to be working to muzzle the Donald. New thing happened today. I walk every morning with a Republican. If she brings up something about policy I try to interject an opinion as graciously as possible. I know she can’t abide Trump. Anyway she made a general anti government kind of comment and I gave her my elevator speech on how in a democracy, we are the government. I always throw in my hook on autoimmune disease versus a good immune system when I talk about “government”. Then she told me she was a registered Republican which I knew all along and said in a defensive tone that she wasn’t a racist. Actually she’s half Cherokee and her family mostly lives in Oklahoma. There was just something about the unsolicited disclaimer as if she needed to state that for the universe to hear.
My point is that maybe the exposure of Trump’s obvious bigotry and xenophobia is making Republicans feel very uncomfortable about themselves. Dog whistles are one thing but the open fascism is another. I guess I hope there is some change in self awareness in the average GOPer that comes out of this. I think they have been living on their past identify as the party of Lincoln and haven’t faced the changes.
thanks for sharing catrst.
I always wondered, where are the “sane” Republicans and how do they feel about all this.
This is one evil azz soulless muthaphucka.
period.
h/t BJ
………………………..
Pharma Bro’s Latest Move Targets Latinos
The infamous pharmaceutical executive is jacking up the price of a treatment for Chagas disease, which in the U.S. affects mainly Latin American immigrants.
After dropping $2 million on a Wu-Tang Clan album, the pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli has found a new project: making an essential treatment unaffordable for poor immigrants from Latin America.
Shkreli, otherwise known as “pharma bro,” gained notoriety earlier this year when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, increased the price of a drug used to treat AIDS patients from around $13.50 to $750. He’s now the CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which recently announced its plans to submit benznidazole, a treatment for Chagas disease purchased earlier this month, for Food and Drug Administration approval next year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 300,000 people in the United States have the deadly disease. Most of them are immigrants from Latin America, where as many as 8 million people are infected
………………….
Right now, doctors in the U.S. obtain benznidazole free of charge through the CDC. According to Rachel Cohen, the regional executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative in North America, the drug sells in Latin America for somewhere between $60 and $100 for each course of treatment. Both of these would change the moment the FDA approved benznidazole from any company—and Shkreli, in particular, seems determined to price this drug out of reach of the people who need it. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, KaloBios wrote that it expects to price the Chagas drug similarly to antivirals for Hepatitis C, which can cost almost $100,000 for a single course of treatment in the United States.
“You’re talking about a 100,000 percent or 150,000 percent price increase” from the current cost in Latin America, Cohen said.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-chagas-fda/420249/
I hope the FDA can do something about this. It should be illegal.
Evil
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks & TOD family. It is currently 37 F degrees outside my neck of the woods, Yikes!!!
Here’s my good news - I have my White House Christmas card from the First Family!!! 💕💕
GGail, good for you. I haven’t gotten my White House card yet and I’m feeling left out. I think those of us in Central Pa, have stolen your LA area weather. It’s been spring like and balmy here, with temperatures in the 60’s. Our trees and perennials are totally confused and opening up flowers and the migratory geese are going nuts, not knowing whether they should stay or fly away.
Same here in Atl - freakishly warm for this time of yr. But no complaints from me. 😁
ME TOO…AND I LOVE IT…TIS ADDED TO MY ‘O’ COLLECTION!
I’m going to add a bit of good news to start the day, although it isn’t political. When my great nephew (niece’s son) was three years old, he was stricken with leukemia and the poor kid went through hell with long hospital stays and aggressive chemo, plus years of followup treatment. Now-at 10 years old-he has officially been declared cancer free! Fantastic way to begin the holiday for our family.
JackieG, that is great news about your nephew.
Now, give me back my warm weather! 😊
Such wonderful news!
Good chilly morning TOD, Chipsticks, lurkers, et all.
What fantastic news jackieg about your great nephew. It will be a merry xmas and happy new year for your family indeed.
Fantastic news Jackie!!!
Awesome news jg! So happy for your nephew. The BEST, Most Wonderful holiday gift - the gift of good health!
YEA! Having e perienced the childhood cancer world (and lost the battle😥), I love hearing news like this.
Jackie that is so wonderful….. Thanks for sharing the joy.
STANDING O!!!!
More pondering….
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/12/would-ted-cruz-candidacy-be-good-for.html
I don’t know, Df. As my husband always says, once he’s the nominee, there’s a chance he’ll win and that’s just too nightmarish to risk. Might as well play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun.
CRUZ…ANOTHER EVIL BASTARD RIDES THE TIDE!
So sorry to hear this. What a dreadful time this must be for her.
Oh no!
So sad she is enduring this personal loss. I love Lady Mary.
Oh no! This is so sad.
Very sad.
RIGHT ON…AND DON’T FORGET TO SUPPORT ALL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WHO NEED EITHER A SHRINK OR REHAB!
Goooood Morning Village!
Important day today!
https://www.staradvertiser.com/breaking-news/michelle-obama-hawaii-is-first-family-favorite-holiday-tradition/
That link is broken for me, bella. Try this:
Michelle Obama: Hawaii is first family’s favorite holiday tradition - Honolulu Star-Advertiser
https://www.staradvertiser.com/breaking-news/michelle-obama-hawaii-is-first-familys-favorite-holiday-tradition/
Tweeted it too! Thanks for the heads up!
Merry Christmas! 😆
This is incredible. Glad I’m not their neighbors though, lol.
Me too! 😀
G’day I think….Los Angeles Unified School Dist….is shutting down due to an electronic threat……and all these toy drones must be registered or face a fine. Oh well, at least we can still get guns!
Apparently it’s a bomb threat to a board member…
I meant a bomb threat that was called in to a board member; so the board decided to close all schools just to be safe.
Pure speculation..
My niece is in the middle of her finals this week and had to stay home. The only good thing is my brother is retired and volunteers at her school.
Rev Graham on CNN fanning the flames against Muslims…….man of GOD——-FAIL!
Ugh!
the media aiding and abetting the spread of hate
<3
MY PRAYERS ARE UP FOR THE LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT…640,000 STUDENTS SENT HOME…THREATS BEIING VETTED.THIS IS NOT A GOOD DAY!
UH HUH
………….
CNN breaks own rules to elevate Rand Paul’s debate spot
Rachel Maddow explains how CNN disregarded its own rules for qualifying for the main stage at Tuesday’s Republican primary debate and allowed Rand Paul to move up from the kids’ table even though he doesn’t have the poll numbers to qualify.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/cnn-breaks-own-rules-to-give-paul-debate-spot-585969219717
BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT OF OUR FIRST FAMILY…AS MUCH AS THEY DESERVE A PRIVATE LIFE…I WISH THEY WERE STAYING!…FOUR MORE YEARS..NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
Heads up
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/12/15/president-delivers-remarks-at-a-naturalization-ceremony/
President Obama Delivers Remarks at a Naturalization Ceremony
https://www.whitehouse.gov/live
Have we not all been saying this?
………………………….
It’s time to face the fact that Republican voters are far enough into this process that they know what they’re getting with Trump, and they’ve decided that they like it, more and more all the time. What I’m genuinely perplexed by, though, is how it’s going to change the Republican Party — how it’s going to change what counts as normal and acceptable in that party — to have Trump as its standard-bearer.
Rachel Maddow: A leading presidential candidate embracing the fringe? That’s nuts — and new.
We know what the GOP is going to do. It is up to us. To vote like it matters, to filter out the Nader-istic b.s. from the Sanders campaign, and VOTE for every down ticket race. The GOP has sent a message with their reliable votes. It’s now critical that Dems get their act together.
Amen