Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 5-10-16 Online Edition

President Obama Points Out Delegate Math To Sanders
On Mother's Day, Pres. Obama Wants To Talk To You About The ‘Diaper Gap’
In a post over the holiday, Pres. Obama explained that many low-income families struggle to afford diapers for their young children, a trend that can lead to health and well- being issues for not only the children but for the mothers.
"I can't imagine what it would have been like to be a parent that has to choose between dia- pers and other basic expenses," he wrote. "Access to clean dia- pers isn't just important for a child's health and safety. Re- search has shown that mothers who are unable to afford diapers for their babies are more likely to suffer from maternal depres- sion and mental health issues."
According to Pres. Obama, 740 nonprofit locations around the U. S. are now part of the "Community Diaper Program," which helps provide free diapers for low-income families.
Businesses donated more than three million diapers to diaper banks in March, he added, and other businesses have since donated an addi- tional one million diapers.
Pres. Obama stressed the bipartisan nature of this issue, and thanked all the organiza- tions involved in working to ad- dress the problem.
"Whether a Republican or Democrat, in the private sector or in public service, we all have a role to play in keeping our families and communities strong," he wrote. "So today, in addition to saying thank you to all the mothers out there--look- ing at you, Michelle!--I want to recognize all the companies, nonprofits, community organi- zations, and American citizens that have banded together to ad- dress the diaper gap."
Pres. Obama Grants Clemency To 58 Nonviolent Offenders
Pres. Barack Obama on Thursday granted clemency to 58 nonviolent drug offenders.
“It just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison. An excessive punishment like that doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not serving taxpayers, and it’s not making us safer,” Pres. Obama wrote in a blog post announcing the decision.
With his most recent com- mutations, Pres. Obama has now commuted the sentences of more than 300 federal pris- oners — more than the previ- ous six presidents combined.
The clemency initiative is part of a broader push by the White House to reduce the size of the nation’s prison popula- tion and reform the country’s sentencing laws. More than two million Americans are be- hind bars, many for drug of- fenses. Most, however, are serving time in state prisons where Pres. Obama has no jurisdiction to offer pardon or commutations.
Pres. Obama Tells Howard Graduates Something More University Students Need To Hear
speakers with a different point of view, or disrupt a politician’s rally. Don’t do that — no matter how ridicu- lous or offensive you might find the things that come out of their mouths. Because as my grandmother used to tell me, every time a fool speaks, they are just advertising their own ignorance. Let them talk. Let them talk. If you don’t, you just make them a victim, and then they can avoid ac- countability.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge them. Have the confidence to chal- lenge them, the confidence in the rightness of your position. There will be times when you shouldn’t compromise your core values, your integrity, and you will have the respon- sibility to speak up in the face of injustice. But listen. En- gage. If the other side has a point, learn from them. If they’re wrong, rebut them. Teach them. Beat them on the battlefield of ideas. And you might as well start practicing now, because one thing I can guarantee you — you will have to deal with ignorance, ha- tred, racism, foolishness, tri- fling folks. (Laughter.) I promise you, you will have to deal with all that at every stage of your life. That may not seem fair, but life has never been completely fair. Nobody promised you a crys- tal stair. And if you want to make life fair, then you’ve got to start with the world as it is.
As Bernie Sanders pledges to take his presiden- tial campaign all the way to the Democratic National Con- vention in Philadelphia this July, President Obama ap- peared to imply that Sanders' efforts are all but over – even if he won’t explic- itly call on Sanders to drop out.
Asked whether he believes the Vermont senator should end his campaign given the current delegate count, he replied, “I think on the Dem- ocratic side, just let the process play itself out. You mentioned the delegate math. I think everybody knows what that math is.”
According to ABC News’ estimates, Hillary Clinton has 2,205 delegates compared to Sanders' 1,401 delegates.
Nevertheless, President Obama commended Sen. Sanders for “an extraordi- nary job raising a whole range of issues” that are important to Democratic voters.
PRESIDENT OBAMA And SEN. BERNIE SANDERS
“I know that at some point there is going to be a conver- sation between Secretary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about how we move towards the convention,” Pres. Obama predicted.
The President acknowl- edged that while “everybody starts getting a little chippy” in the course of primaries, “the good news is that there is a pretty strong consensus within the Democratic Party on the vast majority of is- sues.”
“You know, I've been through this. It's natural,” he continued. “Sometimes, even more with the staffs and sup- porters than with the candi- dates themselves.”
President
Howard University Washington on Saturday.
160,000 Jobs Added In April
The longest streak of private-sector job growth on record con- tinued in April, with businesses adding 171,000 jobs, well above the pace necessary to maintain a low and stable unemployment rate. U.S. businesses have now added 14.6 million jobs over 74 straight months of job growth.
Most importantly, average hourly earnings for private employees have increased 3.2 percent at an annual rate so far in 2016. Never- theless, more work remains to sustain faster wage growth and to ensure that the benefits of the recovery are broadly shared, includ- ing investing in infrastructure and job training, implementing high- standards free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and raising the minimum wage.
at Howard University’s com- mencement ceremony Satur- day. Among other things, Pres. Obama spoke about the importance of listening to those with whom we disagree. This is too often ignored on college campuses today.
Another Howard alum, Zora Neale Hurston, once said — this is a good quote here: “Nothing that God ever made is the same thing to more than one person.” Think about that. That’s why our democracy gives us a process designed for us to settle our disputes with argument and ideas and votes instead of vi- olence and simple majority rule.
So don’t try to shut folks out, don’t try to shut them down, no matter how much you might disagree with them. There’s been a trend around the country of trying to get colleges to disinvite
Obama President Obama spoke
at in
Pres. Obama Weighs Visit To Hiroshima Or Nagasaki
WASHINGTON — When President Obama first vis- ited Japan in November 2009, he said he hoped someday to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the United States dropped atomic bombs during World War II.
With his fourth and likely final visit to Japan as Presi- dent scheduled this month for a group of 7 meeting for lead- ers of industrialized nations, the White House is deciding whether Pres. Obama will follow through. No sitting American President has ever visited the cities, because of concerns that such a trip would suggest that the United States was apologizing for the attacks.
“The memories of Hi- roshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point dur- ing my presidency,” Pres. Obama said in 2009.
The calculus for a visit is particularly complicated for Pres. Obama. Political op
Pres. Obama with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan in Washington last year.
ponents have often falsely ac- cused him of undertaking an “apology tour” of world capi- tals in his first year in office, so anything that even hints at atonement would feed that criticism.
On the other hand, Pres. Obama has made curbing the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons and lowering the risks of nuclear attack a signa- ture issue of his presidency, an important reason he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
White House News
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