I think this is the best way to end our Thanksgiving day.

Some much needed comic relief. Take a minute to remember all the best moments from Barack Obama's turkey pardons. 😍

Happy Thanksgiving!!! pic.twitter.com/iRyaCPUJBH

— Kanisha Jackson (@Kanisha1Jackson) November 22, 2017

Yeah, THAT'S the way a real President acts in public.

And here is Obama's greeting for this Thanksgiving.

From the Obama family to yours, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving full of joy and gratitude. pic.twitter.com/xAvSQwjQkz

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 23, 2017

For his part Trump's Thanksgiving message to the troops was to attack Obama and to accuse him of not supporting the military.

Donald Trump is one fat fowl POS that should NEVER be pardoned.

The Father's Day tweet that I think we all deserve to read today.

Happy #FathersDay @BarackObama. Our daughters may be older and taller now, but they’ll always be your little girls. We love you. pic.twitter.com/SGZMmXaQ3a

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 18, 2017

Here was Obama's response.

Of all that I've done in my life, I'm most proud to be Sasha and Malia's dad. To all those lucky enough to be a dad, Happy Father's Day! https://t.co/ya1YAJignC

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 18, 2017

I don't know about all of you but there are times when I feel numb after reading and writing about Donald Trump, his presidency, and the various investigations being conducted around them both.

And it is at times like these that I think back to a simpler time, when a man we could all admire was the leader of this country.

It just gives me hope, that if we were smart enough to elect someone like him twice, that we will be that smart yet again, hopefully the very next time we get the opportunity.

Happy Father's Day Mr. Obama.

And thank you.

"The only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world." President Obama's comforting words to his daughters about the election will comfort us all.

 The President talking about his daughters, "But what we have also tried to teach them is resilience, and we've tried to teach them hope, and that the only thing that is the end of the world is the end of the world."

I found that oddly comforting.

Especially right now when it certainly does feel like the end of the world.

The President also added this toward the end of his answer.

"I believe in this country. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad."

I have to say that if a man who just watched the arrogant asshole who hounded him for years about his birth certificate get voted into office by a bunch of voters too ignorant to understand what they stand to lose, still has this kind of confidence in the American people, I guess I should as well.

But I don't.

In fact my opinion of my fellow Americans has never been lower.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate his optimism.

I'm just not buying it.

However I do agree that overall our trajectory is toward progress and that ultimately we will get there.

In many ways Donald Trump is just an orange tinted, morbidly obese, monosyllabic bump in the road. I get that.

However my hope in that progress is probably not going to kick back in for at least another four years.

Until then my plan is to resist, to fight, and to dog this pompous POS until his last day in office.

(P.S. If you want to watch the entire final press conference you can do that by clicking here.)

This final People Magazine interview with the Obama's will make your heart break at the very idea that they are leaving the White House.

I swear every time I think I am coming to terms with losing Barack Obama as our President, and Michelle Obama as our First Lady, something like this comes along to remind that I am not even close to being  okay with that fact.

The dignity, the gravitas, the sheer humanity of this couple makes me so very proud that I voted for them and supported them these last eight years.

They deserve their privacy and to have their lives back even though it sometimes seems we will be lost without them.

Perhaps one of the saddest things you will see all day, the Obama's last Christmas card as the first family. Update!

This is the last one, gonna miss them... #realtears #Obama #Potus #flotus #firstfamily

A photo posted by Akilah (@arensley) on Dec 9, 2016 at 5:28am PST

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

It’s safe to say we’re going to miss the Obamas a hell of a lot when they leave the White House. Seeing their 2016 White House Christmas card — their last one! — only made that sinking feeling come a lot sooner. They chose to include a picture from the Canada State Dinner that took place this past spring, featuring President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters Sasha and Malia, smiling their contagious smiles and bringing us a whole lot of Christmas cheer.

I think this may be one of the saddest Christmases of my life.

And I actually had a dog die right before Christmas once.

Update: Unbelievably Sarah Palin just attacked the First Family for not including the words "Merry Christmas" on this card.

A raving jealous bitch until the end.

President Obama, the Father-in-Chief.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

For Obama, one of the most welcome byproducts of gaining the highest office in the land at the age of 47 was that he could finally differentiate himself from his own absentee father, Barack Obama Sr., and become the child-centric parent he had always longed to be. This hands-on dad, who helped coach Sasha’s grammar school basketball team, puts a high premium on both connecting with and providing direction to his girls. 

As Obama has often said, the president “lives above the store” and has no commute. No longer has his hectic travel schedule required constant separations from his two girls. Malia was a summer baby — born on the Fourth of July in 1998 — and for the first three months of her life, Obama was glad to help his wife, Michelle, by changing diapers and rocking Malia to sleep. But once fall came, the state senator and part-time law professor had to be away from the family’s Chicago home at least half the week. And by early 2007, when he was both a U.S. senator and a full-time presidential candidate, Obama was forced to hand off just about all of the parenting responsibilities to Michelle. 

He was eager to reconnect with his family. Soon after being inaugurated, Obama established what New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor has called “an unusual rule for a president.” As he informed all his aides, he vowed to have dinner with his family five nights a week. That left just two nights a week for out-of-town fundraisers or dinners with fellow politicians. 

At 6:30, Obama and his wife sit down with the girls for a family dinner without any outsiders — not even Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, who typically retreats to her own “home” on the third floor of the White House. 

The evening meal, observed Obama’s former body-man Reggie Love, was treated “like a meeting in the Situation Room. There’s a hard stop before that dinner.” While aides sometimes call him back to work at 8:30 or 9, they rarely dare to go upstairs to bother him during the sacred dinner hour. 

On most days, Obama also eats breakfast with his daughters. And as part of his commitment to his girls, Obama has been reluctant to visit Camp David, since various school activities typically require the youngsters to be in Washington. In sharp contrast to his own neglectful father, this president with the perfect attendance record at his daughters’ parent-teacher conferences has emerged as a model father. 

Out of his own feelings of loss and alienation, which he described in “Dreams from My Father,” has come a road map for personal and social transformation. “I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that,” the president told a panel on Overcoming Poverty at the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit held at Georgetown University in 2015. “And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence, I think my daughters are better off.”

There are very few traits that I find as admirable as a man who prioritizes being a good father. 

Much like our President I am also the product of a broken homes and an absentee father, and I can admit that when I became a dad it was all consuming for me, and quickly made almost everything else seem insignificant by comparison.

There is no job more important in my opinion, not even the job of President of the United States.

So recognizing that the President feels the same way, only makes me admire him that much more.

The perks of being a member of the First Family are really too numerous to mention.

I like how Malia throws the thumbs up sign as Sasha tries to suppress her giddiness.

Hopefully I don't have to point out that the gentleman in question is Ryan Reynolds who is currently attracting women to their local theaters in droves to actually watch the R rated superhero flick "Deadpool."

Something tells me that Sasha has already seen it. Right along with every other Ryan Reynolds movie ever made.

Well it's the day before Thanksgiving which means it's time for President Obama to do another one of those ridiculous holiday rituals again.

Of course, as the President pointed out, this is a silly ritual, but he accomplishes it with good humor, and the support of his daughters.

His daughters by the way are growing into fine young women, and you can certainly see how mature they have become, and how strong their relationship is with their father.

P.S. Yes I know that some of you are impatiently awaiting ANOTHER infamous turkey pardoning ceremony. And to you I say be patient, after all it is NOT Thanksgiving quite yet. 

I'm a little Easter'd out, but I thought this needed to be shared.

Photo courtesy of The Obama Diary.

The Obama family also attended services at the Alfred Street Baptist Church, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Today of course will be the traditional Easter Egg Roll at the White House.

Pretty into Easter for a Muslim born in Kenya, don't you think?

By the way for a little more good news this Monday morning, President Obama was also chosen by the American people as the Most Admired Man for the seventh year running.

And THAT'S not bad for a guy who has been under constant political attack and smear campaigns since the very day of his inauguration.

A Deficit of Dignity.

I read this New York Times article this morning by Timothy Egan that is ostensibly about the disrespect shown by Elizabeth Lauten toward the First Daughters. However the article makes the case that this is the kind of disrespect the President, and his entire family, have been receiving since the day he took office.

Here. take a moment to read what he says: 

We know President Obama wants a lasting deal on immigration, something to make taxes fairer, a little help from a caveman Congress on climate change. If he’s lucky, he might get some of the above. But one thing his worst opponents have never given him, and probably never will, is respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. 

From the day he took office, his legitimacy has been challenged, his American birth has been suspect, and he’s been personally insulted, lectured, yelled at and disrespected in public, by public figures, in a way that few if any American presidents have ever faced.

At this point Egan discusses the Lauten incident, which I think we all know quite a bit about so I will leave that out and instead share what he says a few paragraphs down:

I want to believe this is not about race, but it sure looks that way. Barely nine months into his presidency, a Republican congressman, Joe Wilson, shouted out “You lie!” at the president in the decorous setting of a joint session of Congress — a flagrant show of disrespect for the man and the office. For this, Wilson became a hero in conservative media. 

The biggest slap at the president was the smear about his birth. It’s insulting and humiliating that Obama — alone among presidents — has been forced to release his long-form birth record to satisfy a clutch of fact-deniers. Leading the attack on the president’s very citizenship is the professional vulgarian Donald Trump, who gets away with the kind of preposterous, race-based comments granted few black public figures. 

Trump’s displays of idiocy on Fox News are a staple of that network. I wait for the day when something Trump says that is both stupid and incendiary is held up as representative of all white people — and he’s asked to apologize for his race. 

Also on Fox, Sean Hannity recently blamed President Obama for the troubles in Ferguson — because, I guess, he’s black. 

The list goes on and on: Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, wagging her finger at President Obama while lecturing him on an airport tarmac, as if he were some errand boy and not the commander in chief. The complete fraud of the Benghazi nonstory — as even a Republican House panel had to conclude recently. The endless millions spent finding nothing scandalous about the president on Benghazi proved just one thing: how grass-roots conservative hatred of the president drives Republican congressional action.

The article goes on to talk about the disrespect demonstrated toward Michelle Obama as well, which included this rather satisfying paragraph: 

The first lady cannot go on vacation without the Drudge Report hyping elaborate travel bills, playing to race insinuations. But when the family of Sarah Palin was involved in a beer-fueled, fist-flying brawl in Alaska this year, conservative media did not call them out for bad white family values, or failures as role models.

Yeah, I always love when the brawl shows up in an article just to remind all of us that despite all of her attempts to make it go away this thing stuck to Palin and her family, like a dingleberry on a dog's ass.

I don;t know about the rest of you but I found myself yelling "Goddamn right!" over and over as I read this article.

And that is really the thing after all. When people argue that this President could have done more, or  that he failed to keep all of his campaign promises, or that he is "ineffectual," I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them vigorously while yelling "What could YOU have accomplished with this level of disrespect, obstructionism, and  partisan entrenchment?"

In light of what this President has faced since the very day of his inauguration, he is a fucking miracle worker.

His list of accomplishments is actually quite staggering, even without considering that he is piloting the country into unrelenting partisan headwinds that essentially never let up.

I told my brother during Thanksgiving that history is going to completely exonerate this man, and that he would hardly recognize his presidency in ten to fifteen years. After the historians get the chance to wipe way all of the mud that is being thrown at him everyday by the Right Wing politicians and conservative media, they are going to reveal some amazing accomplishments of which I really think most Americans are not even completely aware.

Ultimately, and I think this is going to anger the racists most of all, President Obama might really turn out to be the "Magic Negro."

GOP staffer who criticized Obama daughters to resign.

Courtesy of MSNBC: 

A GOP staffer has been forced to resign after launching a verbal assault on Malia and Sasha Obama in the wake of their appearance at their father’s annual turkey pardoning ceremony at the White House. 

Elizabeth Lauten, who served as a communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher, criticized the two girls in a Facebook rant which eventually went viral. “Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events,” wrote Lauten. 

She went on the call the first children, who largely stay out of the limelight, “classless.” 

Many have argued Malia and Sasha were behaving like typical teenagers at the event. They appeared unamused by President Obama’s corny jokes and at one point Malia declined to pet the Thanksgiving turkey by simply saying, “Nah.” 

This is far from the first time the president’s daughters have been singled out for ridicule on the right. 

I think we all knew this was coming. 

Especially with so much pressure coming from all corners to fire her.

President Obama takes those "disrespectful" daughters of his shopping.

Courtesy of Steven Garcia: 

President Obama, went shopping Saturday at Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in the capital, joined with his daughters. Going out the Saturday after Thanksgiving has become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for the first family. 

The president and his daughters, Sasha and Malia, chatted with customers before buying 2 bags full of books from the local store. This is the same store that they shopped at this time last year.

In the video you can hear the President talking about Chuck Todd's new book. In response Malia, the eldest, calls Todd  "sad" and the President jokingly agrees.

This was reported on by the New York Post:  

“Oh, Chuck Todd!” Obama exclaimed. “Let’s see what Chuck has to say here!” 

“How is he writing a book already? asked his 16-year-old daughter, Malia. “Sad.” 

“He’s just sad,” the president joked in response.

However the Post also goes on to say that the President has every right to be frustrated with Todd's book which paints the President as "detached" and characterizes him as a "flip flopper" as well as blaming him for his inability to work with Republicans.

Of course that last part seems incredibly unfair as the Republicans gathered on the night of Obama's inauguration to plan how they would undermine his presidency and ensure his defeat in 2012.

Really not much the President could do in an environment like that, as I think most rational people would agree.

Gee I wonder if the ways the two girls are dressed, and conducted themselves, finally meets with Elizabeth Lauten's approval?

Communications Director for Tennessee Congressman trashes the First Daughters. Immediately regrets that decision.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A staffer for Republican Rep. Stephen Fincher (TN) took to Facebook this week to attack Sasha and Malia Obama, President Barack Obama’s daughters, for failing to show what she deemed to be sufficient respect for their father’s annual pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey. 

According to Gawker, Elizabeth Lauten, former new media political director for the Republican National Committee, wrote an open letter to the two girls, attacking their facial expressions and clothing choices. 

“Dear Sasha and Malia,” wrote Lauten, “I get that you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part that you play. Then again your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.” 

She continued, “Nevertheless, stretch yourself, rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.” 

For the pardoning ceremony, elder daughter Malia wore a long-sleeved sweater, a plaid schoolgirl skirt and opaque tights. Sasha Obama wore a mini-dress that hit her at mid-thigh with a long-sleeved cardigan sweater. 

Both girls rolled their eyes when their father made a joke, as teen girls typically do when their father says something he thinks is funny.

Seriously?  Lecturing the Obama girls for acting their age?

That seems like a REALLY bad idea.

And guess what, it was:

Nine hours after her initial post, Lauten had a change of heart or, more likely, her boss called and flipped on her, or she was tired of getting cursed out on social media. In any case, she removed the initial post and apologized, also via Facebook: 

"I wanted to take a moment and apologize for a post I made on Facebook earlier today, judging Sasha and Malia Obama at the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony. 

… I reacted to an article and quickly judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager. After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents and re-reading my words online, I can see more clearly how hurtful my words were. Please know that these judgmental feelings truly have no pace in my heart. Furthermore, I’d like to apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words, and pledge to learn and grow (and I assure you I have) from this experience."

Gee I had no idea that daughters of Presidents were held to such high standards. 

I wonder what Ms. Lauten would have had to say about this?

Or about the antics of a daughter from a certain famous half term Governor from Alaska?

Kind of makes folded arms and an eye roll seem sort of innocuous, don't you think?

President Obama expertly trolls the Republicans while performing the Thanksgiving traditional of pardoning two turkeys.

President Obama could not resist poking a little fun at the opposition while providing amnesty to Mac and Cheese, two potentially delicious undocumented main dishes.

Here is more from TPM: 

This year he used the official pardoning ceremony as an opportunity to comment on and poke fun at the conservative backlash over his recent executive actions on immigration. 

"I am here to announce what I'm sure will be the most talked about executive action this month," Obama said. "Today, I am taking an action fully within my legal authority, the same kind of action taken by Democrats and Republican presidents before me, to spare the lives of two turkeys, Mac and Cheese, from a terrible and delicious fate." 

"They'll get to live out the rest of their days respectively at a Virginia estate with 10,000 acres of roaming space,” Obama continued. “I know some will call this amnesty."

Stupid tradition, but at least the President makes the most of it. 

President and Mrs; Obama want their daughters to work minimum pay jobs. What, no reality show?

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama want their children to experience the virtues of hard work at minimum-wage pay. 

“I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard work,” Michelle Obama said in an interview with Parade magazine published Friday. 

“We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun, not always stimulating, not always fair,” President Obama added. “But that’s what most folks go through every single day.”

I 100% agree with this sentiment, and applaud the first family for teaching their two girls the importance of hard work and the joy of independence. 

I mean with their connections they could easily put their girls on the path to easy street, with book deals, reality shows, buy them a beauty shop to work in, or simply pay them to stay out of trouble and not embarrass them.

But really what kind of crappy parent would do that?

This is how President Obama "played the race card" yesterday while celebrating MLK Day.

President Obama and daughter Sasha volunteer at DC Central Kitchen charity.

Michelle and Malia rolling burritoes.

As you can see the entire family was spreading racism through the distribution of Mexican burritos to an ethnically mixed group of homeless, and under privileged people.

The gall!

On the complete opposite side of the coin Sarah Palin weathered a well deserved firestorm of anger and ridicule for her hateful remarks yesterday.

In fact I don't think I have seen such universal revulsion directed at Palin since her now famous blood libel video came out.

If I were the owners of the Sportsman channel I would have been sending Palin e-mail after e-mail telling her to shut up and sit down before she drives away every potential viewer imaginable for her new "I'm pretending I know something about hunting" show.

Not that it would have helped. Some people's hatred is simply too ingrained in their personality for them to ever let go of it.

(Photos courtesy of The Obama Diary.)

Christmas in Washington with the Obamas.

Courtesy of the Obama Diary:  

President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, pose for photographs alongside children dressed as elves, who are or were patients at Children’s National Medical Center after they presented donated gifts to the Obamas to give to children at the hospital, as they attend a taping of TNT’s Christmas in Washington at the National Building Museum in Washington on December 15.

 My favorite part of posting pictures of the President and his family, especially with a Christmas theme, is that I know it drives the Right Wing crazy.

It messes with every ridiculous meme they have going about the President, from the "He's a secret Muslim" meme, to the "He is trying to destroy Christianity" meme, to the "He and his wife are in a sham marriage" meme.

Clearly this is a loving family that enjoys the Christmas holiday, and who recognizes that the season is one of giving, and not one of divisiveness and selfishness.

Christmas shopping with the President.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

President Obama is doing his part to support small businesses. 

Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha dropped in Saturday at Washington's Politics and Prose bookstore and purchased what he said was a "long list" of books that included The Kite Runner,Harold and the Purple Crayon, and The Sports Gene. 

The president said he bought a reader for every age, from 5 to 52 — his age. He paid by credit card. The total was not announced.

(Well I can tell you which book he didn't buy!)

I have to admit that I am feeling a little sentimental towards our President right now. 

After the holidays I might come back and bitch about the NSA or complain that the Healthcare.gov website should have been ready to rock and roll on day one, but right now I can't bring myself to do any of that.

During Thanksgiving the relatives waited until I was full of turkey and wine before going at me over Obamacare, but I am happy to report that I had little trouble knocking heads together and correcting talking points.

However at one point somebody said that President Obama was a failure, the worst President ever in fact, and I have to admit that I got pissed! Really pissed!

Instead of rationally explaining why that was incorrect, I lost my shit and demanded examples.

When they started throwing out talking points and quotes from Facebook I explained that if they were going to come at me with shit they read on Facebook they were going to walk away with stumps for arms.

I sat them in their chairs and went through the entire build up to the Affordable Care Act, from Hillary's attempt in the 90's, to the fact that it was really an expansion of Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan, to the steady stream of Right Wing attacks it has endured since its inception.

I also asked my family to consider the purpose of the law, and why they thought this man considered it important enough to risk his entire presidency on.

They stuttered for awhile, so I explained the benefits from the program, and even explained why THEY should  be building a damn statue to the man instead of running him down.

In the end I think they had their perspective shifted quite a bit, but I came away angry that the Republicans had been so successful that such a conversation had to take place.

So now I am just raring for a fight.

Who's next?

First Lady welcomes Christmas tree to White House along with Sasha and Malia. Right Wing immediately assumes it is a pagan socialist trick.

Courtesy of CNN:  

First Lady Michelle Obama, along with daughters Sasha and Malia and dogs Bo and Sunny, welcomed the official White House Christmas tree Friday. 

The 18.5-foot-tall Douglas fir will go in the White House Blue Room. Chris Botek, the third-generation Christmas tree grower from Crystal Spring Tree Farm in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, and his family, were at the White House when the tree from his farm arrived. Last year's tree was from a farm in North Carolina. 

A White House tradition, the tree was delivered by carriage to the North Portico. 

"We're honored to have it. This is the best part of the holiday season is when our tree comes," the First Lady said.

To be honest I usually avoid posts about these silly fluff stories about the President and First Lady, you know the whole pardoning the turkey, Easter egg hunt, and  Christmas tree decorating thing.

However this year with the Right Wing ramping up the War on Christmas, and the book by "She Who Must Not be Named" falling like a flaming turd down the Amazon best sellers list (Right now at #438 as of this posting), I think of this kind of thing as a giant FU to the forces of darkness who attack this President and his wife at every opportunity.

So yeah, the Obama's got themselves a big ass Christmas tree, just like most other American families.

And I am sure that once decorated it will be spectacular. Just like the family in whose home it will now reside.

Your Happy Thanksgiving wish from the White House.

Happy Thanksgiving! pic.twitter.com/R8RYLDN16i
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 28, 2013

I have to say, all partisanship aside, that I really like this family.

They just seem far more genuine than most of the political families that have occupied that  house.

But maybe that's just me.