In Conversation With Oprah, Michelle Obama Tells Men To 'Be Better'

The White House got in on the booming market for “women’s summits” Tuesday with

a conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center billed as the “United State of Women.” What made it stand out from all of the rest? Well, besides addresses from the president and vice president — yeah, those guys — the day wrapped up with an onstage “armchair conversation” between none other than first lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey. (Try to beat that, Mika Brzezinski and Tina Brown!)

The more than 5,000 women and a few men in the audience were giddy with excitement as Mrs. O and Ms. O entered the auditorium. “Walk, don’t run,” Tina Tchen, who leads the White House Council on Women and Girls, chided them at one point. The media mogul led the first lady into one of her “Super Soul Sunday” conversations, and Obama was full of advice for the next generation of women.

“He’s got the swag,” Winfrey noted of the commander in chief. “Did he always have that swag? Or has he gotten swaggier?”

“No, he was very swagalicious,” Obama replied. “Look, I told people this from the very start, when I started running, Barack Obama is exactly who he says he is. We both are. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people. Ain’t no surprises.”

The fact that she herself never experienced abuse at the hands of a man, Obama said, "is, sad to say, that's a rare reality. So men can be better at that."

Men can also be better husbands, do the dishes, "be engaged ... be a part of your families' lives." Obama also called on men to be "a better employer."

"When you are sitting at a seat of power, at a table of any kind, and you look around and you just see you — it's just you and a bunch of men around a table, on a golf course making deals, and you allow that to happen, and you're OK with that — be better."

Earlier in the conversation, Obama called on women to get to know themselves and learn to prioritize their own needs — the key to balance, she said. "You know why? Because [men] don't have to balance anything. Sorry. I hope that that is changing, but so many men don't have to do it all."

There were also lighthearted moments as Obama spoke about her attraction to her husband. "Good lord. Watching my husband walk off of Marine One and go to the Oval Office, it's like, mmm, mmm, mmm. And you know he's got that walk, right?"

John McCain: Obama Directly Responsible for Orlando Massacre

Sen. John McCain, one of the senior statesmen of the GOP, said Thursday that

President Obama's policies are "directly responsible" for the devastating Orlando nightclub terror attack that left 49 dead and dozens more injured.

McCain made the comments to a group of reporters in a Senate hallway and was responding a question about gun control, a particularly contentious issue since the Orlando attack, which was carried out with a legally purchased rifle. The perpetrator of the attack had pledged his allegiance to a number of Islamist terror groups, including ISIS, which is also known as ISIL.

"Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures," McCain said. When pressed about how the Obama was "directly responsible" for the attack, McCain doubled down on blaming the president's foreign policy.

"Directly responsible because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America, it's a matter of record," McCain said, according to an MSNBC reporter. "So he is directly responsible."

Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter, pledged loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State during a 911 call made while the hostage standoff at the club was ongoing. According to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Mateen also posted on Facebook the day of the shooting pledging allegiance to the group’s and claiming that the shooting was “vengeance” for airstrikes.

Officials have said that they have not found any signs that Mateen was directly tied to any kind of network, and the FBI said this week that it remains unclear which extremist group he supported. While he referenced the Islamic State multiple times on Sunday, Mateen has also made comments in recent years claiming that he had ties to ­al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, two opposing terrorist groups that have clashed repeatedly in Syria and that both predate the Obama administration. He has also referenced the brothers who carried out the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon.

To be clear, these groups named by Mateen are not allies. The Islamic State and al-Qaeda both derive their theology from an extreme view of Sunni Islamism, but in practical terms the pair split in 2014, with the more established al-Qaeda publicly disavowing the actions of the more extreme Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, often fights the Islamic State in the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist group. In Syria, it supports the government of Bashar al-Assad, effectively meaning it fights both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Comey suggested Monday that Mateen may have not understood the distinctions among the groups. Relatives have given mixed reports about the level of Mateen’s religiosity, with some suggesting he preferred working out to studying religion. He attended the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, though he is said to have rarely spoken. His Afghan father has filmed videos that appeared to offer support for the Taliban, a fundamentalist movement that also opposes the Islamic State, though his messages also were sometimes incoherent.

McCain’s statements offer a troubling look into the influence Donald Trump’s anti-intellectualism is wreaking on even the most trusted and respected stewards of the GOP (though McCain admittedly lost a lot of credibility for introducing the nation and world to Sarah Palin).

When pressed by reporters about his statement (specifically about the implication that Obama is “directly responsible) McCain added, “He pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked, and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It’s a matter of record, so he is directly responsible.”

And just like that, McCain demonstrated that he either doesn’t keep abreast of national security briefings or he’s yet another war hawk seeking to use a home grown homophobic terrorist to advance his warmongering agenda.

Obama meets Orlando massacre survivors, assails homegrown terrorism

President Barack Obama said Thursday that grief-filled parents in Orlando pleaded with him to take steps preventing the kind of gun violence that took their children. But he acknowledged, exasperatedly, that he could offer them few promises.

"Our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or even just a disturbed individual to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons, and they can do so legally," Obama said after meeting with families who lost loved ones in the Orlando nightclub shooting that took place Sunday.
"I held and hugged grieving family members and parents and they asked, 'Why does this keep happening?' And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage," Obama said. "They don't care about the politics. Neither do I."
The role of consoler in chief was a repeat assignment for Obama, was has now traveled to 10 American cities -- including four in the last year -- scarred by mass shooting events. In Orlando, he met at a downtown arena with both families of victims and survivors of the terrorist attack, many of whom suffered serious injuries but emerged from the massacre alive.
Prior to their meeting with families and survivors, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to local law enforcement officials to thank them for their actions in responding to the attack at Pulse nightclub, according to the White House.

During the shooting rampage the gunman, Omar Mateen, exchanged text messages with his wife, it was reported on Thursday, as well as posting on Facebook and placing a phone call to a television station. Police killed Mateen, 29, a U.S. citizen born in New York to Afghan immigrants.
Obama, who has visited mass shooting victims' families in towns from San Bernardino, California, to Newtown, Connecticut, since he has been president, laid flowers at a memorial for the victims of the attack on the Pulse nightclub.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but U.S. officials have said they do not believe Mateen was assisted from abroad. CIA Director John Brennan told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday that the agency had "not been able to uncover any direct link" between Mateen and militants abroad.
A married couple also claiming allegiance to Islamic State shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.

Tommy Mair: 'Loner' accused of killing British MP Jo Cox

Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and killed in an attack in West Yorkshire yesterday.

The 41-year-old mother of two was shot three times and stabbed just before 1pm in Birstall in her Batley & Spen constituency.

She was pronounced dead around an hour later, leaving her husband Brendan and two young children, aged 3 and 5.

West Yorkshire Police have arrested a 52-year-old man, named locally as Thomas Mair.

Jo, a rising star in the party. was elected last year. MPs from all parties have been sending their condolences.

It's not clear what motivated the attack, which came as the 41-year-old lawmaker campaigned for "Stronger In," a slogan backing the UK to remain in the European Union.
One witness, Clarke Rothwell who runs a cafe near where Cox was attacked, told the Press Association that he heard the attacker shouting "put Britain first."
"Britain First" is the name of a political party in the UK which has been campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union.
On Thursday, the party's leader Paul Golding, denied it was linked to the attack, calling the act "a downright despicable act of criminality."
"There's no evidence whatsoever that Britain First was shouted. Or putting British people first," he said in a lengthy video posted to Facebook.
"The media are acting grossly irresponsible to try and incriminate our organization Britain First in this heinous crime. We had nothing to do with it," he said.