Patricia Butler. 🇵🇷 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🐳 🦋

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

The Lessons I Learned from My Dad

I am not the man my father is.
I am trying. Some days closer. Some days farther.
He never sat me down and explained these lessons. He lived them. I’m still learning them.

Show up.
The kitchen table. The hospital room. The funeral. The picket line. The call from the son who won’t answer.
Show up.
Most days that’s the whole job.
My whole life I watched him do it. Not for cameras. Not for headlines. Not because there was something in it for him. He showed up because someone needed him.

I learned that grief doesn’t make you special.
My father buried a wife and daughter. He buried a son. Yet he never treated grief as a claim on other people’s sympathy. Instead, it made him notice theirs.
A mother who lost a child. A father sitting beside a hospital bed. A kid scared about what comes next. A son who lost his mother, his sister, his brother.
He always noticed.

I learned that power is not the point.
The people who chase power eventually confuse the office with themselves.
My father never did.
Whether he was a county councilman, a senator, vice president, or president, he was the same man.
The title changed.
He didn’t.

I learned that family comes first.
The train from Wilmington wasn’t symbolism.
It was every night.
He read to us. Showed up to games. Sat through hospital rooms. Waited up for children who were lost.
And when the day came that the country and the family could not both have him at full strength, he chose family. He relinquished the last chapter of how he wanted to be remembered. And he never complained about it.

Most of all, I learned that love is not soft.
Love is discipline.
Love is showing up at one in the morning when nobody is watching.
Love is answering the phone.
Love is staying.
Love is getting back up after life knocks you down and doing it all again tomorrow.
That love saved my life.
I’ve failed at many of these lessons, sometimes in very public ways.
He loved me anyway.

That’s the last lesson.
I am not trying to become my father.
I am trying to carry what he gave me.
And if I can do that, even imperfectly, that will be enough.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I love you.

[Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 @4HumanUnity]

.@TulsiGabbard Let me get this straight.

You waited until your last day, when you can't be questioned under oath, face zero accountability, and can't be challenged on a single claim, to call an 84-year-old man a mass murderer on your way out the door.

That's not courage. That's cowardice.

Dr. Fauci served this country for 54 years under seven presidents, yours included. He treated AIDS patients in the 1980s when colleagues told him it was career suicide. He helped save 25 million lives in Africa through PEPFAR. He personally treated Ebola patients instead of delegating. George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

This man has lived under armed security since 2020 because of exactly this kind of reckless accusation. At least two credible plots to kill him have already been confirmed.

And you chose to release this, with maximum political nonsense and zero chance for him to respond, on your final day.

Some of these documents may deserve serious investigation. But the way you did this? Dropping a political bomb on an 84-year-old man's life and walking away?

That's not transparency. That's a drive-by because he resisted your president's nonsense.

Dr. Fauci should sue you for every penny.

54 years of saving lives deserves better than your last-day hit job.

[Michelle Obama @MichelleObama]

Barack: You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life. Of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.

Eight years in the crucible, and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence: your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

To everyone who helped bring the Obama Presidential Center to life, thank you. Michelle and I are so grateful for all your dedication and hard work over the years.

I got a little teary-eyed tonight thinking about my mother-in-law, Marian Robinson.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:

Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.

You won’t.

You won’t because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.

That is not who we are.

My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the coward’s way out more times than I can count.

For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.

I no longer believe that.

Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.

And it sure as hell ain’t the critic that counts.

That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.

Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.

Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.

Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?

We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.

So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.

You won’t.

The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.

That is the only definition that matters.

[Patricia Butler. 🇵🇷 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🐳 🦋 @trishb317]

@donkoclock 💙💙💙💙

[(((DeanObeidallah))) @DeanObeidallah]

Today Stephen Colbert's Late Show ends after 11 seasons. He was cancelled by CBS to make Trump happy. And now the scumbag Trump is celebrating the end of Colbert's show. What Trump doesn't get in his demented mind is that Colbert will be more popular and effective going forward off corporate TV!

[Andrew—#IAmTheResistance @AmoneyResists]

I’m going to post this video every single day between now and the midterms.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Trump called ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott a bitch, and I think we’re long past the point where anyone with a functioning conscience should be expected to shrug and mutter, “Well, that’s just Trump being Trump.” No. That phrase has done enough damage already. It’s the anesthetic we’ve used to numb ourselves to behavior that would have politically incinerated any other president in modern American history. Two professional lip readers independently confirmed what the video appeared to show: as Trump walked away from the press gaggle at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he muttered, “She’s a bitch,” in Rachel Scott’s direction. The White House, naturally, offered no clarification. No apology. No denial worth taking seriously. Just the usual strategic silence that follows whenever this man says the quiet part out loud and hopes the outrage cycle burns itself out by dinner.
And what exactly provoked His Fragile Majesty this time? Journalism. Rachel Scott did her job. She asked an entirely legitimate question about why this administration appears preoccupied with beautification vanity projects while Americans are dealing with spiking gas prices against the backdrop of yet another Trump-fueled geopolitical mess in Iran. A straightforward question. The kind reporters are supposed to ask. Trump’s response was the usual slurry of grievance and invented drama, claiming Scott “probably don’t see dirt,” insisting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had been some sort of national biohazard requiring “11 or 12 truckloads of garbage” to be hauled away, as though the place had been abandoned since the Eisenhower administration. That’s nonsense. The reflecting pool undergoes regular maintenance, including draining and cleaning, as part of standard federal upkeep. But facts have always been optional when Trump needs a dramatic set piece for his performance of wounded masculinity.
This is not just about one ugly muttered insult. This is about a man with a long, unmistakable record of directing particular venom toward Black women who dare challenge him publicly. Maxine Waters? “Low IQ.” Kamala Harris? “Low IQ.” April Ryan. Yamiche Alcindor. Abby Phillip. And now Rachel Scott. The pattern is not subtle enough to require forensic analysis. When Black women do their jobs with intelligence, composure, and precision in Trump’s orbit, he does not engage on substance. He lashes out. He demeans. He attempts to diminish. It’s the behavioral vocabulary of a man who sees confident women, particularly Black women, not as professionals doing their jobs, but as threats to be put back in their place.
And here’s the truly pathetic part: Black women are statistically among the most educated demographics in this country, which makes Trump’s lazy insult repertoire not just racist and misogynistic, but spectacularly ignorant. The man who confuses confidence with insolence and accountability with disrespect continues to reveal exactly who he is, and yet somehow we are still asked, by some corners of this exhausted country, to treat each new offense like an isolated misunderstanding instead of what it plainly is: a character flaw so deeply embedded it has become governing style.
No. We are done normalizing this.
This is not “Trump being Trump.”
This is a president of the United States behaving like a bitter, insecure bully every time an intelligent woman refuses to play decorative furniture in his presence. And yes, that matters.
—Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition

[Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 @4HumanUnity]

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t the problem. A comedian didn’t divide this country.

This started the day you and Trump came down that golden escalator. He built a movement on fear, lies, and grievance, over 50,000 lies, 98 per day.

And let’s be honest, the sad part, it was profit. You both benefited from it.

So spare us the outrage about "division."

He tells jokes. You all made hate a profitable business.

[Jonathan Reiner @JReinerMD]

I’ve heard the Sec say this before and it’s still extraordinarily offensive. Maybe it’s just that he’s never worked in a healthcare environment, never come into a hospital in the middle of the night during a snowstorm to take care of a stranger, or never seen a team of ICU nurses struggle to keep a critically ill patient alive. But, no one is incentivized to keep a sick patient sick. We have only one incentive. It’s getting our patients well.

[Tim Walker @ThatTimWalker]

I’m not a Catholic, but wouldn’t it be great if we could get #Ilovethepope trending as he’s plainly a good, decent, principled human being, and, on Musk’s platform, this will annoy a lot of powerful, evil people. Do please repost.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The Word of the Lord opens up new possibilities and brings about transformation and healing. It is capable of stirring our hearts, of challenging the normal course of events to which we so easily risk becoming accustomed, and of making us active agents of change. Let us remember this: God is newness; God creates new things. God makes us courageous people who, by confronting evil, build up the good. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

#Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbor as a brother or sister. We do not choose our brothers and sisters: we must simply accept one another! We are one family, inhabiting the same home: this wonderful planet that ancient cultures have cared for over millennia. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon https://t.co/bKteFZ3iWE

[Daniel Dale @ddale8]

NASA wasn’t “closed” before Trump. The US doesn’t pay NATO anywhere close to “trillions of dollars” or “hundreds of billions of dollars a year.” Trump hasn’t built anywhere close to “over 1,000 miles of wall.” Trump hasn’t “ended eight wars.” It’s not true that “nobody” else has ended a war. Trump didn’t achieve “no tax on Social Security.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg died weeks before a presidential election, not right after one. Senator Thom Tillis is still a senator.

And more. Quick fact check of some of Trump’s many false claims on Fox this morning:

https://t.co/RKmgICu3Tc

[Really American 🇺🇸 @ReallyAmerican1]

🚨 BREAKING: We're on the ground at Mayor Mamdani's Tax Day Forum in New York City — and history was just made.

New York just passed the FIRST pied-à-terre tax in state history.

Here's what that means: When billionaires like Ken Griffin buy a $238 million penthouse in NYC and leave it sitting empty, they pay ZERO New York income taxes. They benefit from everything that makes this city great — and contribute nothing back.

That ends TODAY.

This new annual tax on luxury second homes worth $5 million or more will raise $400 MILLION every year — money that goes straight to free childcare, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods for working New Yorkers.

Mayor Mamdani ran on taxing the rich. 100 days into office, he's delivering.

This isn't just a win for New York. This is the blueprint for the entire country.

Share this if you think billionaires should pay their fair share.

[Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 @4HumanUnity]

This kind of chaotic leadership, jumping from one outrage to the next, isn’t how you run a life, let alone the world’s largest economy. It’s like being constantly poked with a sharp object.

One outrage after another, Epstein, wars, insulting the Pope, on and on it goes, so you’re too distracted to think. Too overwhelmed to focus. Too exhausted to care.

Meanwhile, the real threats are right in front of us: climate change, AI replacing jobs, millions unable to afford healthcare or even a $1,000 emergency.

But we can’t focus, because the chaos is the point. One bigger distraction to cover another.

If we keep going down this path, and the outcome isn’t hard to see.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

The United Auto Workers union throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump by challenging him to work a 12 hour shift after he disparagingly says a “child” could do their job.
“I want to see you assemble parts ‘out of a box’ for 12 hours,” said union member Dawnya Ferdinansen in a newly released video. “Until you actually work a manual labor job, you keep the name of the UAW out of your mouth.”
“Solidarity y’all!” she added.
Trump made his offensive remarks during an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago—
“They build everything in Germany, and then they assemble it here,” he said. “They take them out of a box and they assemble them. We could have our child do it.”
Clearly, Trump is bitter against the UAW for endorsing Kamala Harris.
“Donald Trump is a billionaire who’s never worked a real job in his life,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.
“He doesn’t know the first thing about hard work, and he wouldn’t last a day in an auto plant,” he added. “He isn’t fit to be an autoworker, and he certainly isn’t fit to be the President.”
Oompa-Loompa

[Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 @4HumanUnity]

.@realDonaldTrump If you’re not too busy fighting with the Pope, would you like to congratulate President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people on their nomination for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize? :)

Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize https://t.co/ZYtUW4rKmX