KC

[Willie Ross Jr. Knee Deep @RossKneeDeep]

I think it was just hate.

By Sincerely, American:

"Trump supporters say, 'We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.'

Fair enough. Let’s take a look.

The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.

General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.

While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.

Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans. He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.

Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.

He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.

His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.

He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.

For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.

Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.

All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.

While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.

He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting ground breaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.

Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.
Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.

Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.

Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”

Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns........

He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.

He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?

If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish: May we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more."

[KC @kcluvstc]

@Tironianae 🤮

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

SHOCKING CLASH: Donald Trump CALLS POPE LEO XIV “AN INSULT TO JESUS” — THE POPE’S RESPONSE STUNS THE WORLD

Donald Trump believed he could score easy political points by calling Pope Leo XIV “an insult to Jesus,” after the spiritual leader once again spoke out in defense of peace, compassion, and human dignity. However, he was challenging a voice rooted not in politics, but in moral authority.

Standing before a solemn gathering at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV did not respond with anger. Instead, he delivered a powerful and deeply moving message grounded in faith, responsibility, and truth.

“The President of the United States has said that I insult Jesus,” Pope Leo XIV began, his voice calm yet firm. “But let us reflect honestly — what truly insults the teachings of Christ?”

Then, with quiet intensity, he answered:

“You want to know what truly insults Jesus? It is when we turn away from those who suffer, when we close our hearts to the poor, and when we choose power over compassion while others cry out for mercy.”

He continued:

“You know what insults Jesus? It is forgetting the dignity of every human being, ignoring the pain of families in crisis, and refusing to hear the voices of the most vulnerable among us.”

His message then deepened, becoming not just a response, but a moral call that reached far beyond the moment:

“You know what insults Jesus? It is creating division where there should be unity, spreading fear where there should be hope, and turning away from justice when we have the responsibility to uphold it.”

This was not merely a political rebuttal — it was something far more profound. Pope Leo XIV, known for his humility and steadfast commitment to peace, transformed the confrontation into a reflection on conscience rather than conflict. Instead of escalating tensions, he elevated the conversation to a universal moral level.

“I do not claim to be perfect,” he admitted. “But I strive each day to walk the path of compassion — to serve, to listen, and to love as we are all called to do.”

Then came the line that resonated far beyond the walls of the Vatican:

“If we truly believe in a world shaped by peace and mercy… then why do we not work harder to bring that reality into our lives — here and now, for one another?”

That was his response. Not with anger. Not with division. But with conviction — and grace.

Trump sought to challenge him. Instead, Pope Leo XIV delivered a message now echoing across millions, reminding the world that true strength is found not in power alone, but in conscience, humility, and love.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Robert Mueller died last night.

He was 81 years old. He had a wife who loved him for sixty years. He had two daughters, one of whom he met for the first time in Hawaii, in 1969, on a few hours of military leave, before he got back on the plane and returned to Vietnam. He had grandchildren. He had a faith he practiced quietly, without performance. He had, in the way of men who have seen real things and survived them, a quality that is increasingly rare and increasingly mocked in the country he spent his life serving.

He had integrity.

And tonight the President of the United States said good!

I have been sitting with that word for hours now. Good. One syllable. The thing you say when the coffee is hot or the traffic is moving. The thing a man who has never had to bury anyone, never had to sit in the specific silence of a room where someone is newly absent, reaches for when he wants the world to know he is satisfied. Good. The daughters are crying and the wife is alone in the house and good.

I want to speak directly to the Americans reading this. Not the political Americans. Just the human ones. The ones who have lost a father. The ones who know what it is to be in that first hour, when you keep forgetting and then remembering again, when ordinary objects become unbearable, when the world outside the window seems obscene in its indifference. I want to ask you, simply, to hold that feeling for a moment, and then to understand that the man you elected looked at it and typed a single word.

Good.

This is not a country having a bad day. I need you to understand that. Countries have bad days. Elections go wrong. Leaders disappoint. Institutions bend. But there is a different thing, a rarer and more terrible thing, that happens when the moral center of a place simply gives way. Not dramatically. Not with a single catastrophic event. But quietly, in increments, until one evening a president celebrates the death of an old man whose family is still warm with grief, and enough people find it acceptable that it becomes the weather. Just the weather.

That is what is happening. That is what has happened.

The world knows. From Tokyo to Oslo, from London to Buenos Aires, people are not angry at America tonight. Anger would mean there was still something to fight for, some remaining faith to be betrayed. What I see, in the reactions from everywhere that is not here, is something older and sadder than anger. It is the look people get when they have waited a long time for someone they love to find their way back, and have finally understood that they are not coming.

America is being grieved. Past tense, almost. The idea of it. The thing it represented to people who had nothing else to believe in, who came here with everything they owned in a single bag because they had heard, somehow, across an ocean, that this was the place where decency was written into the walls. That idea is not resting. It is not suspended. It is being buried, in real time, with 7,450 likes before dinner.

And the church said nothing.

Seventy million people have decided that this man, this specific man who has cheated everyone he has ever made a promise to, who has mocked the disabled and the dead and the grieving, who celebrated tonight while a family wept, is an instrument of God. The pastors who made that bargain did not just trade away their credibility. They traded away the thing that made them worth listening to in the first place. The cross they carry now is a costume. The faith they preach is a loyalty oath with scripture attached. When the history of American Christianity is written, this will be the chapter they skip at seminary.

Now I want to talk about the men who stand next to him.

Because this is the part that actually breaks my heart.

JD Vance is not a bad man. I have to say that, because it is true, and because the truth matters even now, especially now. Marco Rubio is not a bad man. Lindsey Graham is not a bad man. They are idiots, but not bad, as in BAD! These are men with mothers who raised them and children who love them and friends who remember who they were before all of this. They are not monsters. Monsters are simple. Monsters do not cost you anything emotionally because there is nothing in them to mourn.

These men are something more painful than monsters.

They are men who knew better, and know better still, and will get up tomorrow and do it again.

Every small compromise they made had a reason. Every moment they looked the other way had a justification that sounded, at the time, almost reasonable. And now they have arrived here, at a place where a president celebrates the death of an old man and they will find a way, on television, to say nothing that means anything, and they will go home to houses where children who carry their name are waiting, and they will say goodnight, and they will say nothing.

Their oldest friends are watching. The ones who knew Rubio when he still believed in something. Who knew Graham when he said, out loud, on the record, that this exact man would destroy the Republican Party and deserve it. Who sat next to Vance and thought here is someone worth knowing. Those friends are not angry tonight. They moved through anger a long time ago. What they feel now is the quiet, irrecoverable sadness of watching someone disappear while still being present. Of watching a person they loved choose, again and again, to become less.

That is what cowardice costs. Not the coward. The people who loved him.

And in the comments tonight, the followers celebrate. People who ten years ago brought casseroles to grieving neighbours. Who stood in the rain at gravesides and meant the words they said. Who told their children that we do not speak ill of the dead because the dead were someone's beloved. Those people are tonight typing gleeful things about a man whose daughters are not yet done crying. And they feel clean doing it. Righteous. Because somewhere along the way the thing they were given in exchange for their decency was the feeling of belonging to something, and that feeling is very hard to give up even when you can no longer remember what you gave for it.

When Trump is gone, they will still be here.

Standing in the silence where the noise used to be. Without the permission the crowd gave them. Without the pastor who told them their cruelty was holy. They will be alone with what they said and what they cheered and what they chose to become, and there will be no one left to tell them it was righteous.

That morning is coming.

Robert Mueller flew across the Pacific on military leave to hold his newborn daughter for a few hours before returning to the war. He came home. He buried his dead with honour. He served presidents of both parties because he understood that the institution was larger than any one man. He told his grandchildren that a lie is the worst thing a person can do, that a reputation once lost cannot be recovered, and he lived that, every day, in the quiet and unglamorous way of people who actually believe what they say.

He was the kind of American the world used to point to when it needed to believe the story was true.

He died last night. His wife is alone in their house in Georgetown. His daughters are learning what the world is without him in it. And somewhere in the particular hush that falls over a family in the first hours of loss, the most powerful man and the biggest loser on earth sent a message to say he was glad.

The world that loved what America was supposed to be is grieving tonight. Not for Robert Mueller only. For the country that produced him and then became this. For the distance between what was promised and what was delivered. For the suspicion, growing quieter and more certain with each passing month, that the America people believed in was always partly a story, and the story is over now, and there is nothing yet to replace it.

That is all it needed to be.

A man died. His family is broken open with grief.

That is all it needed to be.

Instead the President said good.

And the country that once stood for something looked away 🇺🇸

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[KC @kcluvstc]

@LauraLoomer @SouthwestAir Absolutely not true 🤬

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

He’s like a really bad actor in a 1980s B action movie that went straight to video.

[Pete Buttigieg @PeteButtigieg]

They cut Meals on Wheels for seniors, doctors for the VA, and food for American children - but send billions of taxpayer dollars to the Middle East for an unnecessary war of choice.

[𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐊𝐨𝐦𝐬𝐚 🇪🇺🇵🇱🇺🇦 @Tweet4AnnaNAFO]

@theliamnissan

[AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY @AfricanArchives]

I don't think people realize how young Medgar, Malcolm, and Martin were. Not one of them saw 40.

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

Always loved Cher

That now just moved up a level 🤣🤣

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

🚨NEW: The Department of Defense has announced it’s escalating its investigation into Senator Mark Kelly, signaling it intends to prosecute the 25-year Navy Captain.

RETWEET if you stand with @CaptMarkKelly against Hegseth and Trump!

[Variety @Variety]

Lupita Nyong’o honors Chadwick Boseman ahead of his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony:

“He is on an ancestral plane and the more we utter his name, the more his spirit stays alive. It’s hard to articulate without sounding grandiose. But there was something about him that you couldn’t explain why he moved you so much. It went through the screen and into so many people’s hearts... There was just a longevity to his spirit that made him seem almost invincible. I think that’s what really shattered so many of our hearts because it hadn’t occurred to me that Chadwick could die."
https://t.co/XC3L5MBtFD

[Gabrielle Giffords @GabbyGiffords]

RETWEET

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

This is Office David Rose, who was killed during a mass shooting at the CDC by an anti-vax extremist. Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who oversees the CDC, did not attend Rose’s funeral, but found the time to speak at Charlie Kirk’s memorial.

RETWEET to honor Officer Rose! ❤️

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

In a speech yesterday, Pete Hegseth told service-members that “diversity is not your strength.” This is Thomas Begay, one of the two living Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, who Hegseth previously removed from DOD websites.

RETWEET if you stand with Begay against Hegseth!

[The Extreme Music Enthusiast @TheExtremeMusi1]

You will live on forever in our hearts!
In memory of Eddie Van Halen ✨ January 26, 1955 - October 6, 2020 🎸🎶

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

"My parents have been married for 75 years but few have noticed. Most of their friends have died. I contacted 6 local news stations and the Union Tribune newspaper giving details so they could do a story on their lives. Not one response from anyone. I think living into your 90's and staying married 75 years is quite an accomplishment. If you agree, please like and share my post. I want to show them people do care."

Credit Eileen Atkinson

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

First they came for Stephen Colbert. Now they are coming for Jimmy Kimmel. If you think it'll stop here, you are fooling yourself.

RETWEET if you stand with Kimmel and Colbert!

[Lucas Sanders 👊🏽🔥🇺🇸 @LucasSa56947288]

Here’s Stephen Colbert earning a massive standing ovation at the #Emmys and jokes "Is anyone hiring?"

RETWEET if you stand with Stephen Colbert!

[michele r. ellen @freemanslady]

@Matthewtravis08 Proving once again MAGA’s
Ignorance Is Their Bliss