Michelle Obama visits a DC high school classroom bringing with her so much awesomeness that the students are overcome with emotion.

Always love visiting DC schools. Thank you for hosting me today @BallouSTAY. Stories of students #reachinghigher continue to inspire me. pic.twitter.com/MPbctWThRF

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) February 28, 2017

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

When former first lady Michelle Obama walked into a D.C. high school classroom, the stunned students erupted in tears. One student even darted out of the classroom to regain her composure before she could sit next to her. 

Obama, who still lives in Washington, made a surprise visit Tuesday to Ballou STAY High School to speak with 14 students for two hours. Upon arriving, she hugged each of them before taking her seat in the circle. 

“Once she came in, it was an inspirational feeling,” said Alliyah Williams, 18. “She was so sweet and warm. She was like a mom.”

After visiting the public alternative high school in Southeast Washington, she tweeted “Always love visiting DC schools. Thank you for hosting me today @BallouSTAY. Stories of students #reachinghigher continue to inspire me.” The tweet referenced the White House initiative “Reach Higher” she launched to encourage students to continue their education.

“Mrs. Obama had an emotional and heartfelt discussion with the students,” Caroline Adler Morales, a spokeswoman for the former first lady, wrote in an email. “There were tears, laughs and lots of hugs.”

I'm sorry but do you know how much cool you have to have to make high school kids, who are saturated with indifference, lose their shit like this?

I think only a handful of folks could have this effect, Beyonce, Michelle Obama, and maybe Jesus, but I am not even sure about that last one.

Could you even imagine Melania Trump inspiring this kind of response? From anybody?

I used to think that the one person that I would like to have a dinner with would be President Obama who I admire greatly.

But fuck that noise, I would much rather have a meal with Michelle Obama and just talk about parenting, education, and the future of the country.

It would be epic.

(P.S. Of course if Michelle is too busy I would certainly not say no to the big "O." Just throwing that out there.)

Sometimes the news is so terrible that even reporters have trouble holding it together.

Courtesy of Mediaite: 

CNN’s Kate Bolduan is a reporter who asks tough questions and is often expressive and emphatic when she does it. Today, however, she was expressive in a very different way. While sharing a video of a five-year-old Syrian named Omran Daqneesh sitting in the back of an ambulance with blood and soot all over him, Bolduan was tasked with explaining that he and his family were pulled from the rubble that was once their house. She said that there had been an air strike — which is common, as the country has been embroiled in a violent civil war for years — but had to stop and compose herself a few times.

I started seeing this little boy's image all over cable TV and the internet today and I have to admit that my reaction was very similar to Ms. Bolduan's.

Here is more about the little boy courtesy of the New York Times: 

In the images, he sits alone, a small boy coated with gray dust and encrusted blood. His little feet barely extend beyond his seat. He stares, bewildered, shocked and, above all, weary, as if channeling the mood of Syria. 

The boy, identified by medical workers as Omran Daqneesh, 5, was pulled from a damaged building after a Syrian government or Russian airstrike in the northern city of Aleppo. He was one of 12 children under the age of 15 treated on Wednesday, not a particularly unusual figure, at one of the hospitals in the city’s rebel-held eastern section, according to doctors there. 

But some images strike a particular nerve, for reasons both obvious and unknowable, jarring even a public numbed to disaster. Omran’s is one.

Unbelievably sad, and this little boy is just one of many innocent victims in a war not of their making.

Now if you will excuse me it seems I have something in my eye. 

President Obama talks about the first time he ever saw Secret Service agents cry.

So I guess according to the Right Wing that the Secret Service agents were faking it so that President Obama can grab their guns.

Or perhaps they simply believe that he would talk about this publicly if it were not true?

I have to say that as macho as I like to think I am, if I were standing in a room filled with parents grieving the loss of their five and six year old children, while holding the hands of those dead children's brothers and sisters I would be bawling like a three year old.

And I would not be embarrassed to be seen doing it.

The "Draft Biden" SuperPAC releases its first advertisement. I don't know how I feel about it.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Draft Biden, a super PAC encouraging Vice President Joe Biden to run for president, released its first advertisement on Wednesday. 

The 90-second ad, “My Redemption,” first released on the Internet, uses Biden’s own words from his commencement address at Yale this year to describe how the tragic loss of his wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car accident made him a better parent and a stronger person. Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, survived the fatal accident, which occurred just a few weeks after Biden’s election to his first term in the Senate. 

“The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through,” Biden intones, as we see images of his Senate swearing-in by his sons’ side in the hospital. “But by focusing on my sons I found my redemption.” 

The ad then shows images of Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in late May at age 46.

Okay let me just admit up front that his ad bothers me.

Now it took me a bit to really understand what about it was bothering me, but now I think I know.

It's the fact that the ad seems to use the numerous tragedies in Joe Biden's life to sell him as a potential Commander-in-Chief.

That, to me, is not something which convinces me of a person's leadership abilities.

What's more it seems like an attempt to tap into the viewers emotions and elicit sympathy for Biden, which I assume is supposed to then translate into warm feelings about him as a person.

Well I have warm feelings about Joe Biden as a person, but this ad actually makes me suspicious that those feelings, which have a lot to do with Biden's authenticity and the recent passing of his son, are being manipulated for potential political gain.

And I can tell you that if true, my feelings will go from warm and fuzzy to extreme dislike in a matter of seconds.

I recognize that this is a SuperPAC, and not affiliated directly with Biden, but it might serve him well to make sure that point is understood by the public at large if he is actually considering throwing his hat into the ring. 

Suspect in Mississippi university shooting takes his own life. Motive for shooting may have been jealousy.

Mississippi shooter Shannon Lamb.

Courtesy of Fox News: 

An instructor at Mississippi's Delta State University suspected of killing the woman he lived with and a colleague -- possibly as the result of a love triangle -- died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound late Monday, authorities said. 

Local media, citing the Washington County Sheriff's office and other agencies, reported that Shannon Lamb, 45, was being chased by police in his black Dodge Avenger on Highway 1 near Greenville when he pulled the car over, bailed out on foot, and ran into some woods along the side of the road. Lamb had earlier spoken to police, telling them "he's not going to jail." 

Delta State University police chief Lynn Buford told the Associated Press that the pursuing officers heard a single gunshot before finding Lamb wounded. The suspect was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

....

Police believe that hours before Lamb shot and killed Schmidt, he murdered his domestic partner, 41-year-old Amy Prentiss, at the home the couple shared in Gautier, Miss., approximately 300 miles from Delta State's campus in Cleveland. 

Lamb, a geography and social science education instructor, allegedly believed Prentiss was also in a relationship with Schmidt. However, authorities early Tuesday declined to formally identify a motive for the crimes.

I said in an earlier post that the majority of the shootings that take place in this country have NOTHING to do with self defense and are usually the result of depression or anger.

However I obviously left out one motivation...jealousy.

These shootings were not due to mental illness as so many pro-gun folks would have us believe.

They were carried out by an intelligent, well educated individual who was temporarily unable to deal with his emotions.

Without an available weapon this would likely have been a case of one man punching another in the face. Everybody would have lived to someday put the incident behind them.

But when guns are readily available all it takes is one bad day, one bad hour, one bad minute, and everything changes forever.

Extra gum wants to moisten your eyes this morning.

Just between you and I, and please don't spread this around, let me tell you that I am a pushover for this kind of advertising.

My eyes tear up at just about every commercial that features parents and kids in heartwarming settings, and during tear jerker movies I am a damp eyed, snot encrusted basket case.

For that reason I usually avoid watching this stuff, but ever so often I see one that is so touching and sweet that I put on my big boy pants long enough to share it.

Now if you will excuse me I have to go watch some sports while working on a car engine.

Michelle Obama tears up while speaking to Chicago audience about need for stricter gun laws.

Courtesy of Mediaite: 

First lady Michelle Obama became emotional on Wednesday as she addressed a Chicago audience and urged their support for stricter gun laws. She described the shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who had sung at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration just days before her shooting death, and asked if the nation was doing enough for children like Pendleton. 

“I think my husband put it best when he spoke to the people of Newtown, Connecticut, back in December,” Michelle Obama began. “This is our first task – caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t’ get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say as a nation that we’re meeting our obligations?” 

“It was the question weighing on my heart when I met with Hadiya Pendleton’s classmates on the day of her funeral,” the first lady continued. 

She became emotional describing how Pendleton’s classmates remembered the slain teen at her funeral. “It is hard to know what to say to a room full of teenagers who are about to bury their best friend,” Mrs. Obama said. “I told them that there is a reason we are here on this earth. That each of us has a mission in this world, and I urged them to use their lives to give meaning to Hadiya’s life.”

Damn that got to me as well. Very emotional and clearly she was speaking quite honestly, and directly from her heart.

So stay tuned for the attacks from the Right Wing, because you KNOW they are coming!

Best First Lady ever!

Final picture of the day.

Through the Make-A-Wish foundation eight-year old Janiya Penny made a wish.

This is her reaction after having that wish fulfilled and getting to meet President Barack Obama.

President Obama becomes emotional thanking his campaign staff. "I'm really proud of all of you."

Such a great man, and we are SO lucky to have him.

Joe Biden gives the most heartfelt, emotional and amazing speech ever to the families of fallen soldiers.

I know this is long, but I guarantee that by the end of it your feelings about Joe Biden will have changed dramatically.

I don't think there are too many politicians alive who can express such a connection to the families of those who have lost loved ones. I swear Joe Biden's heart must be three times the size of most human beings.

Obama/Biden 2012!