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President Obama Proclaims Today Is Women’s Equality Day

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY, 2011


BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution tore
down the last formal barrier to women’s enfranchisement in our
Nation and empowered America’s women to have their voices heard
in the halls of power. This Amendment became law only after
decades of work by committed trailblazers who fought to extend
the right to vote to women across America. For the women who
fought for this right, voting was not the end of the journey
for equality, but the beginning of a new era in the advancement
of our Union. These brave and tenacious women challenged our
Nation to live up to its founding principles, and their legacy
inspires us to reach ever higher in our pursuit of liberty and
equality for all.

Before the Amendment took effect, women had been serving
our Nation in the public realm since its earliest days. Even
before they gained the right to vote, America’s women were
leaders of movements, academics, and reformers, and had even
served in the Congress. Legions of brave women wrote and
lectured for change. They let their feet speak when their
voices alone were not enough, protesting and marching for their
fundamental right to vote in the face of heckling, jail, and
abuse. Their efforts led to enormous progress — millions upon
millions of women have since used the power of the ballot to
help shape our country.

Today, our Nation’s daughters reap the benefits of these courageous pioneers while paving the way for generations of women to come. But work still remains. My Administration is committed to advancing equality for all of our people. This year, the Council of Women and Girls released “Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being,” the most comprehensive report in 50 years on the status of women in
our country, shedding light on issues women face in employment,
crime, health, and family life. We are working to ensure that
women-owned businesses can compete in the marketplace, that
women are not discriminated against in healthcare, and that we
redouble our efforts to bring an end to sexual assault on
college campuses.

On the 91st anniversary of this landmark in civil rights,
we continue to uphold the foundational American principles
that we are all equal, and that each of us deserves a chance
to pursue our dreams. We honor the heroes who have given
of themselves to advance the causes of justice, opportunity,
and prosperity. As we celebrate the legacy of those who made
enormous strides in the last century and before, we renew our
commitment to hold true to the dreams for which they fought, and
we look forward to a bright future for our Nation’s daughters.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested
in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States,
do hereby proclaim August 26, 2011, as Women’s Equality Day.
I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the
achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of
gender equality in this country.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord
two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.

BARACK OBAMA
###

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News

‘Ghoulish and Repugnant’: Congressman Slammed for ‘Joke’ About JFK Assassination and RFK Jr.

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Less than one week after being pummeled for praising college students mocking a Black woman by making monkey sounds, a sitting U.S. Congressman is once again being criticized, this time for “joking” about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, amid news about presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, last week posted a video on the social media site X, which appeared to show college students at the University of Mississippi, “Old Miss,” taunting a Black woman protestor by making money sounds, a longtime racist trope. They also called her “Lizzo,” and chanted, “lock her up.”

Congressman Collins commented on the video, writing: “Ole Miss taking care of business.”

Outrage was strong, coming from social media users and even the White House. The NAACP called for Collins to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

“Which part is your favorite, Mike?” asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. “Is it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like she’s a threat? I’m trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?”

READ MORE: Johnson Goes After Nearly Non-Existent Non-Citizen Voting

Collins finally issued a statement on his remarks, but neither apologized nor removed his post, as Popular Information reported.

On Wednesday, the Georgia GOP lawmaker, responded to news that RFK Jr., as The Washington Post reported, had “contracted a parasitic worm that got into his brain years ago and ate a portion of it before dying.”

“You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain,” Collins posted to his official government account on X.

Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), now running for the U.S. Senate, scolded Collins: “TIL [Today I Learned] this is an actual congressman, not a parody account. I’d seen some of the posts and honestly thought it was trying to portray an exaggerated version of an awful congressman.”

READ MORE: ‘Scratch Off the Georgia Trial’: Second Trump Case Likely Delayed Past Election Experts Say

David Simon, the well-known author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer, observed, “There is a vast universe in which we can joke robustly about RFK Jr. asserting a brainworm problem without ever going anywhere near the sick, soulless void where this gutter trash wants to enjoy a laugh.”

Retired Naval Intelligence Officer Travis Akers said, “This is the most disgraceful post I have ever seen from a sitting member of Congress. Absolutely ghoulish and repugnant.”`

Author and well-known political commentator Charlie Sykes wrote simply, “You, sir, are really a sick fuq.”

Journalist Ron Fournier wrote: “Cruelty is the brand.”

Political strategist and mass shooting survivor Parker Krex responded, “Gun violence is never, and should never, be a punchline. Embarrassing.”

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley
 

 

 

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Johnson Goes After Nearly Non-Existent Non-Citizen Voting

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is promoting new legislation to make it illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, despite an existing law that does just that.

After his joint press conference last month with ex-president Donald Trump on “election integrity,” the embattled Speaker is teaming up with former top Trump official Stephen Miller, the architect of the previous administration’s family separation policy that led to thousands of immigrant children being ripped apart from their parents and siblings. Other Trump orbit guests present included Cleta Mitchell, Ken Cuccinelli, and Hogan Gidley (full video below).

Johnson, now fending off a small but loud faction of his conference threatening to oust him, on Wednesday held a press event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to promote his Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

READ MORE: ‘Scratch Off the Georgia Trial’: Second Trump Case Likely Delayed Past Election Experts Say

“We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that’s easily provable. We don’t have that number,” Johnson falsely told reporters.

Commenting on Johnson’s remarks that  “intuitively” we know that “a lot of illegals are voting,” Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, wrote: “It’s already very, very illegal. Many systems in place. Punishment including jail or deportation. That Cleta Mitchell, a conspirator (on ‘find 11,000 votes’ call) & Stephen Miller stood there says it all. It’s the Big Lie in legislative form.”

The Associated Press last month also reported on non-citizen voting.

“There isn’t any indication that noncitizens vote in significant numbers in federal elections or that they will in the future. It’s already a crime for them to do so. And we know it’s not a danger because various states have examined their rolls and found very few noncitizen voters.”

Calling “cases of noncitizens casting ballots…extremely rare,” the AP added: “Those who have looked into these cases say they often involve legal immigrants who mistakenly believe they have the right to vote.”

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

Johnson, standing in front of a “small handful of Republicans,” said his legislation “will prevent” undocumented immigrants from voting, “and if someone tries to do it, it will now be unlawful,” he added, despite a decades-old law that already makes it illegal.

“If a nefarious actor wants to intervene in our elections all they have to do is check a box on a form and sign their name, that’s it, that’s all that’s required,” Johnson continued, while not disclosing known facts.

“It’s a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections,” the Brennan Center for Justice reported last month. “It’s also a crime under every state’s laws. In fact, under federal law, you could face up to five years in prison simply for registering to vote. It’s also a deportable offense for noncitizens to register or vote. And sure, people make bad decisions and commit crimes all the time. But this one is different: by committing the crime, you create a government record of your having committed it. In fact, it’s the creation of the government record — the registration form or the ballot cast — that is the crime. So, you’ve not only exposed yourself to prison time and deportation, you’ve put yourself on the government’s radar, and you’ve handed the government the evidence it needs to put you in prison or deport you. All so you could cast one vote. Who would do such a thing?”

Johnson went on to falsely claim that “Joe Biden has welcomed millions and millions of illegal aliens – we think the number, I believe the number is probably close to at this point 16 million illegals who have come into this country since Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office.”

Claiming there are “sophisticated criminal syndicates and agents of adversarial governments, here, in our borders, and even on humanitarian parole,” Johnson said: “And that means the millions that have been paroled can simply go to their local welfare office or the DMV, and register to vote here.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the policy director for the American Immigration Council, noted, “multiple state governments have engaged in large-scale efforts in recent years to find evidence of noncitizen voting, and in every single case haven’t been able to find more than a tiny handful of cases, usually a few dozen or less, spread out over years.”

Watch the full video of Speaker Johnson’s event below and clips above, or all at this link.

READ MORE: ‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely

 

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‘Scratch Off the Georgia Trial’: Second Trump Case Likely Delayed Past Election Experts Say

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The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to take up Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case in her RICO prosecution of the ex-president for election interference.

Legal experts were quick to declare this will delay the trial so far that it’s likely it will not take place before the November election. The news comes less than one day after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, announced she was postponing the Espionage Act/classified documents trial indefinitely.

Professor of law, MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst Joyce Vance posted the Georgia court’s order and her initial response.

“You can scratch off the Georgia trial too now. That’s not happening before the election either,” declared national security attorney Brad Moss.

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

“It is entirely possible that the Manhattan case is the only one that makes it to verdict before the election,” Moss added, pointing to the current falsification of business records, hush money, and election interference case prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“Georgia and the MAL docs cases are almost certainly delayed at this point,” he continued, referring to the Mar-a-Lago Espionage Act/classified documents case. “The DC election fraud case hinges on how and when SCOTUS rules. It is possible but by no means certain that the Fall campaign could see that trial take place. Or it could remain bogged down in legal fights too.”

Georgia State University College of Law constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis put it bluntly: “There will be no Georgia trial before 2025. Period. Full stop.”

But he also offered more insight.

“It’ll be a summer of Willis and Wade,” wrote Kreis, referring to Willis’ special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who had a romantic relationship with Willis and resigned after a judge ruled Willis could remain on the case if she corrected certain issues. “Whether the appeals court is more interested in the relationship and the underlying conflict claim or the issue of forensic misconduct over the church speech Willis made in response to the disqualification motion— or both— remains to be seen.”

READ MORE: Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’

But Kreis also attempted to tamp down negative reaction to the Georgia Appeals Court’s decision.

“For everyone complaining about the Fulton County case appeal, let me just say that our Georgia Court of Appeals has incredibly smart, hard-working, and serious judges. They are good and decent folks by and large. So cool it on your hot takes and conspiracy theories there.”

Meanwhile, former federal prosecutor of 30 years, Glenn Kirschner offers some small hope to those wanting to see the trial move forward.

“Judge McAfee said the case will keep moving forward EVEN IF the appeals court grants review,” Kirschner wrote.

Judge McAfee vowed to “continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions, regardless of whether the petition is granted within 45 days of filing, and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court.”

READ MORE: ‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely

 

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