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A highly excellent suggestion, @Smartypants32 - done! :-) pic.twitter.com/AHfNVEO2GC
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 19, 2025
Posts Tagged ‘a
19
Jul
13
Chat Away
07
Jun
13
Rise and Shine
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Today - all times EST:
11:50 AM: The President delivers a statement to reporters on the Affordable Care Act, Fairmont Hotel, San Jose
White House Live * C-Span * CBS
12:25: Departs San Jose
1:35: Arrives Los Angeles
3:0: Delivers remarks at a DNC Fundraiser, Private Residence, Santa Monica
5:05: Departs Los Angeles
5:55: Arrives Palm Springs
8:0: Participates in a photo opportunity with President Xi Jinping of China, at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, Rancho Mirage, California.
8:05: Holds a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping
11:0: Holds a working dinner with President Xi Jinping
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Steve Benen: … The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, slightly better than expected, though the overall unemployment rate inched higher to 7.6%. As is usually the case, there was a gap between the two major sectors - America’s private sector added 178,000 jobs last month, while spending cuts caused the public sector lose 3,000 jobs.
One key figure to keep in mind, however, was local-government hiring, where 13,000 jobs were created. We’ve grown accustomed to municipalities doing the opposite, and if this holds up (and continues), it will strengthen the overall job market…
More here
We knew you wouldn’t make good on your threat MT @stevebenen I’m off today, but I posted monthly jobs charts anyway on.msnbc.com/17tLPJ6
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 7, 2025
PS Loved this: “Do you folks remember the last time Steve Benen took a day off? Yeah, we had to go back and look, too. I’m happy to report that Steve is taking vacation today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.”
But…. “Steve says he’ll be escaping vacation at least long enough to post the new unemployment report - and his famous bikini graph - on Friday morning.”
Yes, he took a break from his two day vacation to post on the jobs’ figures. He’s a hoot.
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Unemployment rate among Latinos was 9.1% in May. One year ago, it was 11%. bls.gov/news.release/e…
— mhugolopez (@mhugolopez) June 7, 2025
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U.S. stocks surge at open after jobs report: on.mktw.net/13KTL3t Dow +70 points, S&P 500 +7 points
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) June 7, 2025
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Some 420,000 people entered labor force in search of work. That pushed up unemployment rate to 7.6%, but it’s not a bad thing.
— Jeffry Bartash (@jbartash) June 7, 2025
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Socialism RT @ryanavent: Since February of 2010, private employers have added 6.9m jobs, government has shed 622k.
— Matt O’Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) June 7, 2025
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BLS needs to add new category: total jobs; non-farm private-sector jobs; and # that would have been created if GOP didn’t exist.
— Michael Tomasky (@mtomasky) June 7, 2025
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Must-read - although, Tomasky makes the mistake of suggesting the deranged hate only comes from the right:
Michael Tomasky: Nothing will stop Republicans from trying to turn the IRS scandal into Watergate. They simply despise Obama too much to settle for anything less ….. That’s all this is really about — their base’s rage at the continued existence of Barack Obama, and their own twisted craving to acknowledge and stoke it.
…. all that is to say nothing of the racist invective that is the constant background music of this presidency …. We in the media never discuss this, but it is a daily diet in this country — yes, daily — and nothing said about any president in history that I can think of comes close to matching its relentless and savage sickness.
…. The liberal base hated George Bush all right, but the hate wasn’t quite as existential, wasn’t quite as drenched in the same kind of suppurated derangement one finds in quarters of the right.
Besides which, Bush discredited himself through his uniform incompetence. Obama, clearly competent, has not done that and is unlikely to do it. So the Republicans have to do it to him. Tarnishing Obama is the only way they can emerge from these eight years not completely humiliated by him, so we’re just going to have to endure it.
Full post here
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24
May
13
A Transformative President
by Japa (@deaconmill)
In 2008, during the primary campaign, in an interview, then Senator Obama talked about how Reagan had been a transformative President and how he hoped to be the same. He was immediately attacked by many, included his main opponent as being supportive of Reagan’s policies. That attack, like many others before and since (clinging to guns and religion, they didn’t build that, etc.) was, of course, based upon a deliberate misreading and misinterpretation of what he said and meant.
If it isn’t obvious to everyone now, and it should be, President Obama represents the antithesis of everything President Reagan stood for. He has repeatedly called out the GOP for continuing the failed policies of Reagonomics. His approach to immigration reform is radically different than Reagan’s blanket amnesty with no follow-up policy. He does not see foreign policy as a case of who can puff up their chest the biggest, like Reagan and his successors did. He supports unions. He supports all human rights. He abhors the policies of racism. He truly recognizes the difficulties and nuances of decision making.
Yet, as much as Reagan Presidency was transformative in a negative way, President Obama’s is becoming transformative in a uniquely positive way. In fact, it may end up being the most positively transformative Presidency in the history of our country. And this is not due to specific legislation passed with his urging, although much of that legislation will impact this country and how it views the government’s role in helping its citizens for decades to come. Nor is it due to the fact that he is, probably, one of the top three President’s in terms of rhetorical skills. Nor is it because he is the first black President. All of those are important to his legacy, but they are not transformative in terms of how the country is run or how the President interacts with the other branches of government.
15
May
13
A Word from Donna
by Donna
I’ve been listening to Urban Talk radio of late during my drive in to work and on lunch break (Joe Madison in the morning and Rev Al at lunch).
Joe Madison has been blasting the Republicans and the media this week. It has been a thing of beauty to listen to. The callers to his show know the game as well and if these Republicans think that they are going to try and take this President down based on these bogus so-called “scandals” they are in for a rude awakening. The Republicans will feel their wrath like never before so let them keep overreaching…..
I’d like to say a word or two about a topic that he did touch on this morning (just as I arrived at work and couldn’t hear the end) was the WH’s response to these so-called scandals. I’m also seeing a lot of this in my twitter timeline. There seems to be this notion that the WH isn’t getting out in front of these issues as fast as some would like.
18
Apr
13
A word from Don
So John King is apoplectic that people are questioning if he’s a racist or not, too bad, he signed up for it when he went on national t.v. and said the Boston bombing suspects were black….I mean dark skinned. Let me tell you what I didn’t sign up for, I didn’t sign up to be followed around a department store, I didn’t sign up to have women clutch their purses as they walk in my direction, I didn’t sign up to hear the sound of car doors being locked as I crossed the goddamn street with bags of groceries in both arms, I didn’t sign up to walk in a bank to get some money out of my account and have the teller walk in a back room with my I.D. and have me wait for twenty fucking minutes just to get money out of my account, I didn’t sign up to have some white guy ask me I if was from this country just because I knew who Leon Panetta was, I didn’t sign up to have a realtor question me about my credit score and whether or not I’ve ever been arrested before I could finish saying hello, I didn’t sign up to have a waiter tell me the food in the restaurant I was in was expensive before he gave my wife and I the fucking menu. I’m not telling you these things because I’m looking for sympathy, I’m just telling you about the shit that the average black man has to put up with, so when John King gets upset at getting called out for an error he made, he should get on his goddamn knees and pray to his god that he doesn’t have to go through the same bullshit that the average black guy walking down the street does. Am I angry, hell yes, have I given up hope about the idea that a person should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, hell no.
27
Mar
13
Chat Away
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Thursday:
11:40: President Obama delivers remarks on gun control at the White House - he will stand with mothers who want Congress to take action on common-sense measures to protect children from gun violence. Law enforcement officials and victims of gun violence will also attend.
2:10: Meets with the leaders of Sierra Leone, Senegal, Malawi and Cape Verde
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President Obama checks Jane Hamsher’s accounts:
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Jane Hamsher owes me $51,000 for my work on her Black Reeducation Bus Tour.
— E. Mo Black (@EmoNegro1) March 28, 2025
I drove the bus, but I didn’t get paid.Now she files for bankruptcy and I’ll probably never get paid.
— E. Mo Black (@EmoNegro1) March 28, 2025
