Obama with dogs. Do I really need to say anything else? https://t.co/GJsVf4IIQW
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Baby Animals (@BabyAnimalPics) November 09, 202512
Dec
16
107 Responses to “Chat Away”
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The Peopleâs View
- Money Trumps Misogyny: Media Coverage of Bernie's Rollout Exposes Privilege and Complicity Spandan Chakrabarti
- Shall We Call It Christian-Caucasian Terrorism? | News Break Spandan Chakrabarti
- Universal Health Care Across the Globe: A Series | Preface Spandan Chakrabarti
- Vetting Bernie: A Resource of The People's View in Regard to the Candidacy of Bernie Sanders. Trevor LaFauci
- Trump Upset Cabinet Officials Discussed Following Constitution | Presidentsâ Day News Break Spandan Chakrabarti
Smartypants
- Obama: "The Best Is Yet To Come"
- What We Should Be Talking About on the Anniversary of 9/11
- Parallels with JFK
- A Tale of Two Ground Games
- How President Obama Moved the Overton Window to the Left
Steve Benen
- Thursday's Mini-Report, 2.21.19
- Judge imposes sweeping gag order on Roger Stone
- US allies ignore Trump's appeal for troops in Syria
- Thursday's Campaign Round-Up, 2.21.19
- Spotlight turns to the White House's dubious non-disclosure agreements
Evening TOD folks! PBO is wonderful with everyone and every living creature that has a heart. There I should so much goodness in his.
Good evening!
The most beautiful voices, coming to you from the Soweto Gospel Choir:
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Iâm humbled by their magnificence.
Thank you Gazelle, for posting this beautiful music. You are filling in for Dudette. Hope she gets well soon.
Youâre so welcome, MTMarilyn! Music heals my troubled soul! Every song I post is a prayer for Dudette! đ
I listened to all you posted again this morning. Keep them coming!
Driven by disbelief and hyper-disgust, I actually wanted to know (choking on all the aberrations) has this non-human trumpf EVER been seen with a dog? I GOOGLED (I know) Trump+dog and all that came up were dogs dressed up with silly trumpf hair wigs for fun AND photo-shopped donalds to look something like a dog. Iâm sure heâs terrified of and hates dogs. I mean, it fits perfectly, right?
Maybe thatâs better as he probably would be someone that hurts animals as a prelude to abusing people. He is sadistic so I am glad he avoids pets.
[FLOTUS, always a super class act. Damn, Iâm in tears too, right along with the staffers, feel their pain.]
First lady Michelle Obama reportedly left White House staffers in tears after she took them out for her farewell final holiday pizza party this week.
Obama, who is set to leave the White House ahead of Donald Trumpâs inauguration on 20 January, threw a final Christmas party at We The Pizza restaurant in DC, later moving on to Bernaise, at an event that became emotional after she delivered a thank you speech to staff.
A source told The Hill how her words âleft everybody in tearsâ as they celebrated the final holiday party and the past eight years in the White House at the restaurant, which is supposedly a favourite of the first ladyâs. […..]
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http://proudemocrat.com/michelle-obamas-speech-reportedly-left-white-house-staffers-in-tears/
Dude sheâs taken, ok? đ
Before I turn in and *try* to sleep, want to bring this over. It is a response to gcl asking if anyone elseâs faith has been tested through this mess.
Oh my gosh, gcl. YES! I onât know if you saw my post from a few days ago (donât remember when) about this being as difficult as when we lost our grandson. Of course, it is different, but in some ways, it is the same and in some ways even worse. One difference is that I knew that was âthe end.â He was gone. He was out of pain and suffering. Thisâit just gets worse every day and it wonât be over for years! One of the main themes, for lack of a better description, for our church is HOPE. Hear it on a consistent basis and I have always had HOPE, even during Walkerâs death. I never blamed God. Never blamed anyone. Now I donât have that hopeâŚâŚabout anything. ThisâIt is affecting the way to look at SO MANY people at church. Last night, our Life Group met for the first time since election. One of the women I had to unfollow on Facebook. She has posted so many thingsâEx. âPut God back in the White House.â Two of those and one of them, Trump was holding the sign!!!! Posted something few days ago saying that President Obama âforbid using the word ChristmasâŚ..â I could hardly look at her the entire night. I just donât have the same respect for those I know voted for Trump or those I strongly suspect did. Keep in mind that includes my husband. Respect and trust and judgmentâdefinitely changed. I am having a VERY difficult time doing my morning devotions and prayer time. First time that has EVER happened to me. So, a big YES. My faith has and is being tested. I see no end in sight. đŚ đŚ đŚ Thanks for asking that. Itâs good to share with those I know understand.
â¤ď¸(((HUGS)))â¤ď¸
I so agree Tnmrngirl. I have problems with my “Christian”” friends and their reason for voting for Trump. Itâs very selective for their views. I am solid in my God. It still doesnât help me sleep at night or not worry about what is happening. Just know you are not alone.
I have had lots of experience with being shocked at the decisions and motivations of those I had considered friends and also my immediate family. The first steps had to do with seeking help for domestic violence and then its been years of one revelation after another. It all amounts to grief and then revulsion at the actions and the selfishness of these people. I have come to forgive but I never act out of amnesia anymore. I use tools to cope and that gives me empowerment which is just another form of hope. One thing that helped me was reading Scott Peckâs People of the Lie. Self centeredness can hit anywhere in oneâs interactions. Peck explained that revulsion is a normal and healthy response to seeing extreme self centeredness in others. Thatâs been a big help to me. Another is help with dealing with personality disordered people. You canât change those things in others when you find them. Thatâs a big wake up call.
I am sorry for the grief you will have to go through but knowing the truth is better than denial or lack of information.
I know all of us are in deep grief over this. I am very thankful for my pastor who has been a great help to our congregation after this. He is one who keeps us going. His sermon the Sunday after was a masterpiece, and he and our associate have continued to encourage us. There are no easy answers for us, but he says we have to stand up and resist this horror. If we donât stand up who will. He gives very concrete suggestions to us, and always leaves us with hope. Without this, I donât know what I would do.
tnmntgirl, mtmarilyn, catrst, carolemaewy and all those who are struggling with your faith or with close family and friends who voted for this monster because of lies and fake news about PBO all I can say is keep praying for them and our country. I pray for all my TOD family and the world who is dumbfounded as why Americans would do this. Every reason they give are lies….DT is not religious, this is NOT a Christian country that would harm our fellow humans for NO reason, starve families to give money to the wealthy, this is not an America that they want to be “great again”. Whatâs so great about giving millionaires and billionaires tax cuts and bankrupting their grandchildrens futures?
Me too tnmtngirl. I felt God had died Nov 8 and itâs been really hard trying to understand whatâs happened since. Iâm the lowest Iâve been in a long time and am not getting better.
This is a lovefest of FLOTUS:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/michelleobama/photos/?ref=page_internal
Is There a Russian Coup Underway in America? Why we urgently need a special prosecutor to investigate Russiaâs meddling in the election.
YES!!!! How canât everyone fucking see it????
I think they see it and they donât care. These enablers and conspirators are in on this and donât care.
ON MY FB……………………WHEN YOU TOSS GOD OUT OF A COUNTRY..THE CESSPOOL LID FLIES!
Yes. The coup is real. Everyone should read Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll. ExMo is a transnational company and when the O administration placed sanctions on Russia for Ukraine it interfered with ExMoâs lucrative deal with Russia. ExMo is so powerful that they have own “foreign policy” strategy. Now think about that for a minute in the context of the Middle East.
The Presidentâs on The Daily Show as I write this … â¤
Excellent interview!
A peek:
No comment. Mmmmm.
Memories … fab memories!
Thanks be that I wasnât invited. I would have embarrassed all my TODers! You know, dancing on the chairs, tables, etcetera! Just kidding! đ
Badass musician, Nina!
Just finish watching POTUS being interview by Trevor of the Daily Show.
The Great Otis, forever:
Have had several folk ask about hacking an election and why what Comey did was actually central to a successful hack.
Itâs all about margins. The wider the gap, the more manipulation required to shift the ‘winâ to the cheater candidate.
Two weeks before the election a hack would have been so easily detected as to make it impossible because HRCâs substantial lead was being confirmed over and over.
Something had to be done and itâs been obvious since the day Comeyâs letter became public that it would impact HRCâs lead especially in States like FL, WI, MI, OH & PN - “swing States.”
For an analogy I chose milk and a plate of cookies đ
——————
âCookies & Milk: Winner Take All
Imagine 2 glasses and the respective owners competing for plate of cookies.
They each must convince others to add milk to their glass.
Whomever wins gets all the cookies.
One of the competitors is a cheat.
Cheater knows that as the game approaches the deadline, if the glasses âlookâ almost equally full then itâs much easier to sneak a few extra drops before the judge measures the milk volume from each glass.
As the competition progressed the cheater realized heâd have to sneak adding way more than a few drops in order to win.
So he found a way to convince some of the folk to refuse to add their milk to his competitorâs glass.
In doing so he narrowed the difference in the volume of each glass enabling only a few drops to be sufficient to âwin.ââ
———————
Itâs perfectly obvious that Comeyâs letter had precisely the effect it was intended to have.
The margins narrowed in several swing States considerably making the hack much harder to detect without robust auditing of every ballot and every ballot tally file. The cheater was more than prepared to do everything possible to prevent such an audit.
Weâve witnessed just that since 8 Nov 2016.
But, Iâm not convinced we know why Comey did what he did and it remains possible that the reason could emerge as a very big surprise.
Goodnight TOD …
Clear enough now?
Hereâs the Newsweek Bombshell by Kurt Eichenwald
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/12/23/donald-trump-foreign-business-deals-jeopardize-us-531140.html
Donald Trump hasnât been sworn in yet, but he is already making decisions and issuing statements to world leaders that radically depart from American foreign policy, all to the benefit of his familyâs corporate empire. Because of this, the next president of the United States is already vulnerable to undue influence by other nations, including through bribery and even blackmail.Given the vast scope of the clashes between the Trumpsâ extensive business dealings and the interests of America, the president-elect vowed during the campaign to eliminate potential conflicts by severing ties to his companyâyet, with only weeks to go until he takes the oath of office, he hasnât laid out a credible plan. Trumpâs sole suggestion to dateâa âblind trustâ run by his childrenâwould not eliminate the conflicts, given that the money generated would still go to his family. Moreover, such a trust would be anything but blind: If Trump Tower Moscow goes under construction, Trump will see it while in Russia and know that his kids are making millions of dollars from it. That is why foreign leaders hoping to curry favor will do everything they can to help Trumpâs family erect more buildings, sell more jewelry and make money through any means possible. Even if the family steps away from its company while Trump is president, every nation on Earth will know that doing business with the Trump Organization will one day benefit the family. The only way to eliminate the conflictsâsell the company, divvy up the proceedsâhas been rejected by Trump, whose transition team refused to respond to any questions from Newsweek for this article.
All the praise of McCain….if you watch this video, its weak and naive
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/politics/gop-russia-hacking-trump/index.html
IN addition, he seems to think that this administration hasnât done anything to combat cyber security. Maybe he was napping…
https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cybersecurity
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/09/fact-sheet-cybersecurity-national-action-plan
Thereâs more where this came from!
With full Russian coup, Trump is now a threat to sovereignty of the United States
Spandan Chakrabarti
December 11, 2025
There are many reasons why Donald Trump cannot legitimately serve as president of the United States, even if we leave aside his devastating loss in the popular vote. Trumpâs clear attempts to help his business from his position of governmental power, his payments from foreign governments. his blowing off of intelligence briefings, his monumental screw-ups on international diplomacy and his transition teamâs coup attempt of the US government by installing foxes to guard henhouses are just a few such reasons.
But the biggest reason is this: it has now been conclusively proven and accepted by the CIA that Russia deliberately helped Donald Trump win the election. In explosive reports over the last couple of days, the Washington Post and the New York Times have reported on not only Russian goal of helping Trump but their method: hacking both DNC and RNC emails, but only releasing DNC (and Clinton campaign) emails through Wikileaks. I have chosen my words carefully here in saying Russia released the emails through Wikileaks rather than to Wikileaks: I want to leave no doubt that there is no longer reason to believe that Wikileaks is anything more or less than an effective propaganda arm of Kremlin.
Combine this with the fact that Russians generated hundreds and thousands of fake news and clickbait sites and stories to push this propaganda (and other complete lies) on American social media channels in what now appears to clearly be a concerted, coordinated effort.
Tell that truth, POTUS
POTUS in the next issue of The Atlantic, about the Republicans sudden aversion to public spending.
Good morning, dear NW and TODville.
President Obama, ever thoughtful and appreciative.
thanks for this find.
it needs to be shared to those who may not know it existed.
have you seen it in tweetable form?
My President Was Black
https://twitter.com/lawalazu/status/808688263225544708
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/my-president-was-black/508793/
One more time.
Hereâs the whole thing:
http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/dd2z7w/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-december-12-2016—president-barack-obama-season-22-ep-22036
The interview only:
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/zwlq5r/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-exclusive—barack-obama-full-interview
Iâm happy to see this. Tom Perez is a good candidate for this job.
Yes, He is an excellent choice and I really hope he succeeds. I do not like David Corn setting this up as a “fight”.
I work with people like this, the government has provided every opportunity for them to succeed but yet they bad mouth the government on a daily basis.
Me too Don. I worked with a guy who works exclusively for state government, gets a good paycheck, yet complains about other state workers as being “lazy” ( I now wonder if these lazy state workers were minorities..heâs white). He complains about “unions” yet he is protected and avails himself to their protections from over zealous managers who fired him for get this, “NOT WORKING”. When he lost his job, he was fortunate enough to get “Obamacare” and complained about it. I had to remind him that without “Obamacare” he would have NO insurance because he has a pre-existing medical condition. When heâs stocks took a dive in 2008 and PBO prevented the worst economic disaster and his stocks are back where they were pre-2008 he did not give PBO the credit…..it was his magnificent knowledge in all things financial. If DT takes the oath in January and he Fâs up the country so badly which he will, I wonder what these ass hats will say then? They will be just like the people who voted twice for W but will not admit to it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is prepared to meet President-elect Donald Trump at any time. http://abcn.ws/2hoUebX
Just rushed in and rushing right back out, just a quick note, Friend your enemy and stifle all opposition, hence Carly Fiorino, Rick Perry and who did i miss, hold on to your seats this is going to be frighteningly frightening. Russia choosing US Cabinet, DJT was truly picked and groomed for this position, Back to lurking, hope everyone is ok, stay warm in the cold and snow, get well Dudette and anyone else who is not well, back to an extremely busy rest of the week, lurking when i can commenting when i can
Hello TOD.
WH Presser is scheduled for 12:30 PM EDT, presiding is the Hon Press Sec: Josh “The Voice” Earnest.
đ¸ to our ever efficient NW. Thanks a Billion.
Congrats to all the Gold â winners since last Night.
You are always on my mind, dearly beloved ⤠Chips ⤠Please come back soon. đ
How come there are NO lawsuits to block DT from taking office? Why isnât Hillary or her campaign fighting? Is it because she saw what they did to AL Gore? This needs to go to the SCOTUS to make these states count all the ballets. This is insane!
A: She will be crucified by the 40% RWing Echo Chamber & the 58% MSM not to mention, some in the Progressive movement as Bitter, Sore Loser, Etc.
B: She did concede on 08Nov16.
C: Dems are Never a Fighting Party where GOP is concerned on Voting & Casting of Votes. E.g. In 1996, in FL Dems knew about hanging chads. They knew even before that. They did nothing to fix the problem. They allowed JEB & Kathleen Harris in FL & GWBush in TX to take over 2 huge States. Same thing in WI and watch, PA & MI will end us as such. In a supposedly 2 Party System, In practise, Itâs actually a OnePartyRule. GOP dictates & DNC follows w/o much fight. Hence a disjointed Party loyalty at the Grassroots.
D: HRC allowed Trump to call her Names; Crooked, Liar, Pay for Play, etc. Political rule=when attacked wickedly, Silence is acceptance.
Excellent summary, Nena. Agree with all of it. đŚ đŚ
I am a senior citizen and Obama Care has been good to me. I get free annual check-ups. For almost five years, I am paying almost 1/3 less from my blood pressure prescription than I did in 2011. Iâve also had to deal with allergy issues that resulted in severe sinus infection. The cost for antibiotics was agiain much, much lower than Iâve paid in the past. If Obama Care is repealed, seniors, like me,will be faced with severe increase in the price of drugs they rely on for survival
Yep it is exactly their plan. Thing is, republicans have been threatening/planning to do this for years.. and they finally have everything in place to accomplish it.
đ đ đ “Thereâs A Gay Guy Dressing Up As Mike Pence Collecting Money For Planned Parenthood”
.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kassycho/mike-hot-pence?utm_term=.gadJQkVoL#.hiNXq851g
How Repealing Obamacare Will Affect Medicare
by Nancy LeTourneau
December 13, 2025 10:24 AM
For the moment, it appears that House Speaker Paul Ryan may have decided to table his plans to privatize Medicare, at least for right now. But Republicans continue to be united in their desire to make the repeal of Obamacare their number one priority next month â even as they struggle to find agreement on how to go about doing that.
We are hearing a lot of talk about how the repeal of Obamacare will affect â not only the 20 million people who have gained coverage since the law was enacted â but insurance companies, hospitals and entrepreneurs. Weâre hearing less about how it will affect seniors who rely on Medicare â or the solvency of the program in the near future. The two programs are actually intimately intertwined and so repealing Obamacare weakens Medicare in some fundamental ways.
The one thing seniors would notice immediately if Obamacare is repealed is that the donut hole in Part D prescription drug coverage (enacted under President Bush) would reappear. In case you are unfamiliar with that, under the original plan, the 25% limit seniors paid for prescription drugs disappeared annually once total spending reached $2,800 and didnât go into effect again until it reached $4,550. Within the donut hole, seniors were responsible for 100% of the cost of prescription drugs. Under Obamacare, the percentage paid by seniors in the donut hole was capped at 50% beginning in 2011 and continued to drop annually until the hole disappeared in 2020.
The Commonwealth Fund reported recently that, since 2010, 8 million seniors saved over $11.5 billion on prescription drugs due to the closing of the donut hole.
Medicare recipients might also notice another change when/if Obamacare is repealed. The law requires that all insurers provide free preventative care (including flu shots as well as screenings for cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases). Since 2013, it is estimated that 37 million Medicare beneficiaries have benefited from this provision.
This has infuriated me since Day One: Seniors got benefits IMMEDIATELY from ACA, & yet vote overwhelmingly for GOP. They were quick to believe the lies, and refused to believe the truth. And Iâm talking about liberal seniors that I know. It was like pulling teeth to get them to accept the truth.
Sibelius should have found a way to send official government notification of what ACA was doing for seniors. GOP cut funds, but there had to have been a way to stem the spread of the lies. The percentage of seniors who know that their improved benefits come from ACA is ridiculously low.
Sibelius could have gone door to door and some of those seniors still would have voted for Trump.
Don, I remember the fight for ACA. I was well informed and passionate about its passage. Iâll never forget - it was the Thursday before the 2010 election and my husband got his Medicare materials in the mail. With all my engagement, I had no idea how much seniors were going to benefit, and that they would be the first Americans to benefit from the law. Those who are prone to fear and lies didnât stand a chance knowing how good the law was going to be for them. And unfortunately, we have learned the racism and misogyny beat someone voting for their own best interests.
Did anyone see that little video moment with Trump & Kanye? What is wrong with that young man? I just do not understand some folks, I understand no one that sucks up to Trump. At all.
PBO was right about him….heâs a Jackass.
I was thinking the same thing, jojo.
Iâll never forget that sherijr. It makes sense that DT likes this Jackass.
President Obama is speaking now.
The bill-signing ceremony was perfection. So glad we got to see the President and Vice President “in action” once again, helping to make lives better for all Americans.
In my Inbox today:
Tell Director Clapper: Brief the Electors
Daniel Brezenoff
CA
Dec 13, 2025 â With just six days until the Electors choose our President, itâs crucial that everyone who signed this petition takes action every day to STOP TRUMP.
Today, weâre calling on Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to provide intelligence briefings to the Electors.
Call Director Clapper at (703) 733-8600. You may have to wait on hold for a minute.
Trumpâs ties to Russia and Russiaâs meddling in the election are urgent national security issues. Please ask Director Clapper to brief the Electors so that they can fulfill their Constitutional duty to investigate and deliberate.
We are proud to stand with you in this fight,
Daniel and the ECP team
Need more proof that they have no integrity or care for right and wrong. Itâs all about the power and falling in line. They are all traitors of the highest order
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/rnc-trump-electoral-college-232537
The Republican National Committee is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trumpâs Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect.
Two RNC sources familiar with the effort said the committee â with the assistance of state Republican parties and the Trump campaign â have been in touch with most of the GOP electors multiple times, and has concluded that only one is a risk to cast a vote against Trump on Dec. 19, when the Electoral College meets.
The RNCâs elector head count, the sources emphasized, is standard practice in presidential election years. But this year it also serves as an early-warning system for potentially wayward GOP electors amid an intense push by Democratic electors to convince 37 of their Republican counterparts to jump ship. The Democrats are hoping that dozens of GOP electors â many of whom were picked at local conventions and party meetings dominated by Trumpâs opponents â are already primed to resist Trump.
âThe state Republican parties in the states that went for Trump are heavily invested in this process,â said one of the RNC sources. âItâs a matter of personal pride for a state party chairman and a state party to ensure that all the electors that their people elected vote, and vote in the manner in which theyâre supposed to.â
K.
The election results out of Pennsylvania are now official, with Donald Trump narrowly beating Hillary Clinton in the traditionally Democratic state by 44,292 votes. Green Party nominee Jill Stein ended up with 49,941 — more than Trumpâs margin of victory.
* On a related noted, the results from Wisconsin are also now official, and Trump won the traditionally Democratic state by 22,177 votes. Stein ended up with 31,006 — wihch is also more than Trumpâs margin of victory.
* Finally, the results are also official in Michigan, another traditionally Democratic state, where Trump ended up winning by 10,704 votes. Stein ended up with 51,463 — nearly five times Trumpâs margin of victory. (Note: Trump losses in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania wouldâve cost him the election.)
http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
donât know if I can continue these feelings of fury, but theyâre reignited with each dayâs revelations-this one has my hair on fire. effing purity voters!!!!!
Same here, Susanne, every day I have to wake up to this reoccurring nightmare.
ONLY because the state REFUSES to count ALL the votes in mostly AA and minority areas. DT DID NOT WIN!
Once again, the “holier than thou purity progressives” were complicit in enabling the election of Trump; just as they did in 2000 when they enabled the election of George W. Bush.
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/12/13/doing-good-for-the-planet/
Apparently at @Heritage today @newtgingrich gave away the game; said goal of Trumpism is to “eradicate FDR government.”â Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 13, 2025