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US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama make their way to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on August 6, 2016. MANDEL NGANAFP/Getty Images

Barack Obama is living up to his promise of taking Michelle on a "very nice vacation ."

After the inauguration , the former First Couple took a trip to Palm Springs , but then traded in the desert sun for the warm Caribbean waters. He and Michelle traveled to the British Virgin Islands specifically Necker Island, which is owned by billionaire Richard Branson and are embracing all aspects of beach bum lifestyle, according to Elle .

The Obamas' new laid-back vibes becomes most apparent in their sartorial choices. The former president has always been an avid proponent of wearing baseball caps, but he took that enthusiasm one step further while on vacation. A Twitter video shows Barack and Michelle walking along the beach looking just like any other casual beach-goers. The former First Lady looks stylish in short shorts, a fedora and braids. But it's Barack who is the real surprise as he sports a backwards hat.

If he's wearing a backwards hat now, what does this mean about dad jeans ?

Read the rest here:
Barack Obama's Now Mainly Focusing on Wearing This Casual Backwards Hat - TIME

Donald Trump has selected Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuchto take a seat that constitutionally was President Barack Obamas to fill.

The Senate should have seated Obamas nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, and then turned to Trumps nominees as vacancies occurred. But that does not appear to be the political world America lives in, where Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have stolen an open seat that would have tilted the courts balance away from a right-wing majority.

In their New York University Law Reviewarticle,The Garland Affair: What History and the Constitution Really Say About President Obamas Powers to Appoint A Replacement for Justice Scalia, Robin Bradley Kar and Jason Mazzone comprehensively review virtually every past Supreme Court nominations in our history and compile the data cited below.

There have been 103 prior cases in whichlike the case of President Obamas nomination of Judge Garlandan elected President has faced an actual vacancy on the Supreme Court and began an appointment process prior to the election of a successor, they write. In all 103 cases, the President was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement Justice.

Lets get down to some numbers that put Senate Republicans judicial coup in context.

293:Number of days Republicans stonewalled President Barack Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court before the Senate term expired.

103:Number of Supreme Court vacancies filled by elected presidents. Thats right, 103 in a row.

8:Vacancies filled during election year. Eighttimes in our history, Supreme Court vacancies occurred during an election year and the elected presidents nominees were approved.

6:Number of unelected presidential Supreme Court vacancy nominations denied.Supreme Court vacancies were denied when the sitting president was notelected: Vice President John Tylers nominations after death of President William Henry Harrison; VP Millard Fillmores nominations after the death of President Zachary Taylor; and VP Andrew Johnsons nominations after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. President Obama was elected by the people, twice.

3:Lame-duck nominations denied.There were also three nominations made by sitting presidents post-election day, after the new president had been elected. John Quincy Adams tried after Andrew Jackson was elected; James Buchanan tried after Lincoln was elected; and President Hayes tried after James Garfield was elected. All were denied. President Obama made his nomination of Garland long before the election of Donald Trump.

84:Years since last election-year nomination. The last time there was a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year, President Hoovers nomination was approved.

9,498:Average days in the tenure of recent Supreme Court justices (since 1970).Thats right, since 1970, Supreme Court justices who have retired, had tenures averaging 26.1 years. So, this is a quarter-century: a big time decision.

1,461:The number of days Democrats should be willing to wait for the Senate to approve President Obamas rightful nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

1,151:Number of days Democrats will have to wait during Trumps term for Republicans to respect history and the right of every elected president to fill vacancies to the Supreme Court that occur during their term. Since Republicans have invented a new, first-time-ever, no-election-year approval precedent, Democrats will only be waiting 1,151 days

2:Number of balls and ovaries most Republicans have when it comes to something as important as the next Supreme Court vacancy. Precedent be dammed, they simply were not going to allow President Obama to appoint another Supreme Court judge that could shift the court. Period. Republicans have basically said to Democrats, when we are in charge, lets play by the rules, and when you are in charge, all is fair in love and war. Translation: our way or the highway.

Unknown: Democrat Senators with balls and ovaries.Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested to MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, when asked about the stolen Supreme Court seat, there would be some opposition to Republican nominations, but nothing near the absolute resolve expressed by Republicans.

Will Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Corey Booker, Al Franken and the Gang of 49 step up and start the fight for our country on the steps of the Supreme Court? Will they show the toughness that Americans respect from their leaders? (Voters care a lot more about conviction than facts and policy.) Will they say enough is enough?

The big picture: judicial coup

The Senate should approve Obamas rightful nominee, and respect 200 years of history and the last 103 nominations and the rightful balance of powers. When the next Supreme Court vacancy occurs, it becomes fair to approve one of your nominees. To be clear, Democrats arenot refusing to approve Republican Supreme Court vacancies, but they are now out of sequence and when they approve ours, we will approve theirs.

And waiting an extra 1,000 days, for a decision that will last 26 years, is not a problem. Well wait. The importance of this decision cannot be overstated.

Short of devastating Obamacare, climate legislation or World War III, this quite simply may be the biggest decision Democrats make during the Trump term. Republicans ignore history, put their boots on Democrats necks and stall a rightful nomination for 293 days, and then fully expect Democrats to bend over, start playing by the rules again and approve their nomination?

Two wrongs dont make a right, you say? You got it wrong. I am not suggesting Democrats refuse to approve a Trump nominee, when a Trump Supreme Court vacancy exists. I am simply saying, Republicans must fill the seat that is rightfully in the hands of President Obama, before that can happen. The only time in our history when an elected presidents nominations were denied, were when they were made after the new president was elected. Not relevant this time.

President Obamas pick still must be defended.

Yes, Democrats have rejected nominees.But when a nominee was rejected, the elected president always had time to make a second appointment, and the elected president always had one of his appointments approved103 times in a row. If Republicans dont like Merrick Garland, vote him down and President

Want to win back some Trump Democrats? Democratic senators can start by showing some gumption, some resolve, and some principles. History is on your side. Be tough and regain some respect in the heartland.

See the original post:
11 important numbers to remember how the GOP stole Barack Obama's Supreme Court appointment - Salon

No topic in the history of snopes.com has elicitedmore fact check queries than the life and presidency ofBarack Obama, about whom, at last count,we had posted more than 300 articles since he declared his candidacy in 2007. During his two termsin office notan aspect of Obama's lifewent untainted by rumor and gossip, from his religious beliefs to his citizenshipto his allegiance to his country. These were the most popular of all the Obamafact checks we completed:

False In August 2016, at the height of that year's U.S. presidential campaign, a satiricalnews site posteda spoof declaring that President Obama was seriously considering moving to Canada if Donald Trump won the election. All it took was a fewright-leaning websites reposting it without a "satire" disclaimer to prompt an all-out sharing frenzy.Read the full report here.

False Ironically, the same fake news sitethat managed to convince thousands that Obama mightflee to Canada racked up even more hitsthe followingmonth by claiminghe would refuse to leave office if Trump were elected. Doubly ironic was the fact that the same constituency that bought into the former bought into the latter, and made it go viral.Read the full report here.

False Two different fake newsarticles from two different web sites made the precisely same false claim in July 2013: that President Obama was on the verge of being impeached by Congress. The fact that not a single mainstream news source reported any such thingdid not discourage enthusiastic sharers; if anything, it had the opposite effect. Read the full report here.

False Groundless skepticism about the legitimacy of Obama's U.S. citizenship gave riseto "birtherism," a labyrinthine conspiracy theory holdingthat he was born onforeign soil, lied about being born in Hawaii, and produced forged documents when asked to release his birth certificate. None of these claims were supported by evidence. Read the full report here.

False Allmodern U.S. presidents have made prodigious use of the official directives known as executive orders to furthertheir agendas. By the end of his two terms, President Obama had issued fewer executive orders (279) than either George W. Bush (291) or Bill Clinton (308), but rumor nonetheless had it that the number topped 900 within Obama's first three years. Read the full report here.

False Hyperpartisan web sites managed to conflate separate news items about a 2015 Veterans Affairs budget shortfall in Congress and the funding of humanitarian relief efforts on behalf ofSyrian refugees scattered around the Middle East into a bogusreport accusing Obama of cutting billions from veterans programs and giving the money to Syrian immigrants inthe U.S. Read the full report here.

False Not ayear went by duringObama's term of office in whichrumors didn't circulatedthat he had canceled the National Day of Prayer, an official observance held every year since 1952. The rumors were baseless. Like his predecessors, Obama issueda public proclamation each year on the National Day of Prayer, though he observed the occasion privately. Read the full report here.

False As if by a miracle, a decades-old Columbia University student ID card cropped up in 2012 that seemed to prove what every "birther" had been saying for years: that President Obama was born outside the United States. Emblazoned on the card with Obama'sphoto were the words "foreign student." It was, of course, a Photoshop hoax. Read the full report here.

False As the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, the site of anatomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Japan in World War II, Barack Obama offered condolences for those who died. Social media users immediately condemned Obama for "apologizing" for the bomb something Obama did not do. Read the full report here.

False There is no better testament tothe awesome viralityof fake news than the fact that the most-accessed Obama fact check on snopes.com during his entire presidencywas arecurring spoofreporting that he banned the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. Why would he do such a thing? You'll have to ask the thousands who apparently believed this false story was true.Read the full report here.

Originally published: 01 February 2017

See more here:
Top Ten Barack Obama Fact Checks - snopes.com

New York Times

Obama, Out of Office 10 Days, Speaks Out Against Immigration Ban New York Times WASHINGTON Former President Barack Obama spoke out on Monday against President Trump's efforts to seal the United States borders against people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, siding with protesters around the country outraged at Mr. Obama Weighs In On President Trump For The First TimeHuffington Post Obama 'heartened' by protests, spokesman saysThe Hill Obama Rejects Trump Immigration Orders, Backs ProtestsNBCNews.com CNN -CNN International -TeenVogue.com -T.co all 917 news articles »

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Obama, Out of Office 10 Days, Speaks Out Against Immigration Ban - New York Times

United States president Donald Trump signed 18 executive orders and memos in his first 12 days in office, for an average of 1.5 executive actions per day. While that may seem like an unprecedented bombardment of policy, the number of actions signed by Trump is actually one short of his predecessor. In his first 12 days in office in 2009, Barack Obama signed 19 executive actions.

These figures include both executive orders and presidential memos. Both are powerful directives issued by the executive branch; a main difference between them is that presidents typically cite their legal authority in executive orders, but not in presidential memos (other subtle differences between the actions are laid out here). Between Inauguration Day and Jan. 31, Trump signed seven executive orders and 11 memos; in the same time frame, Obama signed nine orders and 10 memos.

Some executive actions are controversial, some are procedural, and some simply reverse orders signed by prior presidents. Each of the past four presidents, for example, have signed an executive action either repealing (Democrats) or reinstating (Republicans) whats known as the Mexico City Policy, a Reagan-era rule that withholds US funds from global organizations that provide abortion services. Trump reinstated the rule with a memo almost immediately after taking office.

Although Trump has signed fewer executive actions than Obama did in his first 12 days, Trumps have been more varied and impactful. Hes signed an order to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, put in place a temporary ban on all refugees and restrictions on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, inked an order that paves the way for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, green-lit two controversial oil pipelines, and signed an order that dramatically restructures the National Security Council.

By contrast, Obamas most scrutinized early orders sought to ban the use of torture in enemy interrogations, shut down the Central Intelligence Agencys overseas prisons, and close Guantanamo Bay within a year. And the idea of closing Guantanamo Bay created enough controversy that, by 2011, Obama had essentially given it up. Today a few dozen detainees still remain at the prison.

Below is a list of executive orders signed by each president since Bill Clinton in their first 12 days in office:

Read more:
Barack Obama signed more executive actions in his first 12 days than Donald Trump - Quartz