Biden Honors 19 With The Presidential Medal Of Freedom

President Biden is honoring 19 people with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - our nation's highest civilian honor. Here are the honorees.

From The New York Times:

José Andrés

Aside from his fame as a celebrity chef, Mr. Andrés’s philanthropy work became a highly visible element of the war in Gaza during Mr. Biden’s presidency, as his aid group, World Central Kitchen, assumed a dangerous role bringing food into the region after the war displaced the majority of its 2.2 million residents. Last year, seven people working for World Central Kitchen were killed by Israeli airstrikes while working in Gaza, drawing attention to the risk of famine during the war and the dangers facing aid workers.

Bono

The Irish singer-songwriter, whose band, U2, the president has described as a “bridge between Ireland and America,” has enjoyed a close friendship with Mr. Biden during his tenure. Mr. Biden personally introduced the band at the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors and hosted Bono at his 2023 State of the Union address.

Ashton B. Carter (posthumous)

Mr. Carter, a Rhodes scholar and trained physicist, served as defense secretary under President Barack Obama. He assumed the post after a lengthy Pentagon career and used his influence as defense secretary to expand military eligibility for women and transgender service members. He died at age 68 in 2022.

Hillary Clinton

As vice president, Mr. Biden served alongside Mrs. Clinton under Mr. Obama after competing with her for the presidential nomination.

Michael J. Fox

Mr. Fox is known for roles in the film “Back to the Future” and the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties.” He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 29 and has become a leading voice for research on the disease through his foundation.

Tim Gill

After founding the tech company Quark, which produced novel layout and design software through the 1980s and ’90s, Mr. Gill sold his stake to concentrate on charity work aimed at L.G.B.T.Q. rights and advocacy. His foundation has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns to shift policy on issues such as marriage equality and bullying in schools.

Jane Goodall

The scientist and activist, who turned 90 this year, is known for her breakthrough work on the study of primates and human evolution.

Fannie Lou Hamer (posthumous)

Ms. Hamer, a civil rights activist and the co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, fought for equal representation in politics after being born into sharecropping in the Jim Crow era. She died at age 60 in 1977.

Earvin Johnson

A five-time N.B.A. champion and basketball star known as “Magic,” Mr. Johnson became an influential voice off the court after publicly announcing an H.I.V. diagnosis in the early ’90s and helping to destigmatize living with the virus. He was also a close supporter of Mr. Biden during his presidential campaign, stumping for the president in Michigan.

Robert F. Kennedy (posthumous)

Robert F. Kennedy had a storied career in Democratic politics as a senator and the U.S. attorney general before his assassination in 1968. His son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has embraced the G.O.P. and President-elect Donald J. Trump, and is Mr. Trump’s pick to be health secretary.

Ralph Lauren

The 85-year-old, whose clothes have been a favorite of Jill Biden’s throughout her time as first lady, is the first fashion designer to receive the Medal of Freedom.

Lionel Messi

The Argentine soccer superstar was included on the list just under two years after retiring from the heights of international soccer to play for Inter Miami. His presence in the American league has brought a surge of viewership and revenue to the club.

Bill Nye

Implanted in the psyche of millions of children through his role as the host of “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” Mr. Nye re-emerged after the show ended in 1999 as a popular personality on TikTok and an advocate for science and climate policy.

George W. Romney (posthumous)

A former chairman of the American Motors Corporation, Mr. Romney, a Republican, later served as a three-term governor of Michigan and as President Richard M. Nixon’s housing secretary. As governor, he embraced a range of progressive policy stances including supporting civil rights initiatives and opposing the war in Vietnam. He died at age 88 in 1995.

David M. Rubenstein

The billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group has donated to fund work on some of the best-known spaces around Washington, including the Washington Monument and the National Zoo.

George Soros

An ally of Mr. Biden and a fierce supporter of liberal causes, Mr. Soros is among several prominent Democratic figures to receive the award during Mr. Biden’s presidency. A billionaire and Democratic megadonor, Mr. Soros has become a polarizing figure in American politics, often vilified by conservative commentators.

George Stevens Jr.

Mr. Stevens is a filmmaker, a producer and the founder of the American Film Institute and the Kennedy Center Honors. His writing and producing credits include the 1998 film “The Thin Red Line” and a play about the life of Thurgood Marshall. Outside of film and the stage, his work has focused on preserving American cinematic heritage.

Denzel Washington

An acclaimed actor and the national spokesman for Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 30 years, Mr. Washington was selectedby Mr. Biden to receive the award in 2022 but missed the ceremony after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Anna Wintour

Ms. Wintour is the editor in chief of Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. A key fund-raiser at the center of Democratic celebrity circles, she has also served as the co-chairwoman of the annual Met Gala.

Donald Trump Desecrates The Nation's "Medal Of Freedom"

(These caricatures of Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh are by DonkeyHotey.)

The Medal of Freedom has traditionally been reserved for people who have contributed to making the United States a better country for all its citizens. In the past, this has been true for both Democratic and Republican presidents who have given the medal.

Donald Trump is different. For him, the medal is a reward for loyalty to him and for celebrities that he likes. And his latest awarding of the medal is nothing more than a desecration of it.

During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to the most undeserving person ever to receive it -- Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh is a drug addict, a liar, a spreader of conspiracy theories, and a bully. If Limbaugh is deserving of the medal, the the medal no longer has any meaning.

Through his job as a radio personality, Limbaugh has spread lies that divided this country.

Here, from PolitiFact, are a few of his most outrageous lies:

"Obamacare is . . . the largest tax increase in the history of the world."

This is Pants on Fire. The Affordable Care Act did include limited tax increases, but they were much smaller than tax increases signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Obamacare is not the largest tax increase in American history and therefore cannot be the largest in the history of the world.

"11 straight years of no major hurricanes striking land" in the United States "bores a hole right through the whole climate change argument."  

This is Pants on Fire. Looking only at major hurricanes that hit the United States ignores storm activity around the world. Also, storm frequency does not strictly correlate with rising temperature. Finally, many other data points prove that climate change is real.

"Climate change is nothing but a bunch of computer models that attempt to tell us what's going to happen in 50 years or 30. Notice the predictions are never for next year or the next 10 years. They're always for way, way, way, way out there, when none of us are going to be around or alive to know whether or not they were true."

This is False. Earth is the hottest it has ever been, and the impact is observable. Also, climate change predictions from decades past have largely been borne out. Some models project out into the future because it shows trends. But scientists also have near-term projections available.

President Barack Obama "wants to mandate circumcision."

This is Pants on Fire. Limbaugh in 2009 cited a Fox News story about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studying circumcision as a way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, because studies showed the procedure reduced the transmission of the disease from women to men. The recommendations have been under discussion since 2007, when George W. Bush was president, and Obama had never spoken on the issue. 

People "can't go fishing anymore because of Obama."

This is Pants on Fire. In 2010, an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was studying regional water policy. Limbaugh took that early discussion about the use of waterways and twisted it to make it sound like a ban on fishing. 

Says House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump "doesn’t feature the opposition party, it doesn’t feature cross-examination."

This is False. Republicans on the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees — 47 in total — participated in hearings organized as part of the impeachment inquiry. Those members asked questions and actively critiqued the House Democrats’ actions. 

"You can't read a speech by George Washington . . . without hearing him reference God, the Almighty."

This is False. There are several public comments from Washington that don’t reference God, most notably Washington's second inaugural address. It had no references to God, direct or indirect. Nor did Washington's Second Annual Message to Congress, the sort of speech that would come to be known as the State of the Union.

Washington admired religion in general, saying in his 1796 farewell address that of all the habits that lead to political prosperity, "Religion and Morality are indispensable supports." But he feared religious sectarianism. He wrote that religious disputes are "the most inveterate and distressing," that they could "endanger the peace of society," and the Constitution established "effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny."

Says Obama shut down NASA space flights and turned the agency "into a Muslim outreach department."

This is False, but it’s an exaggeration of a real incident. New NASA chief Charles Bolden said in 2010 that Obama had made improving relations with the Middle East a priority and that Obama had told Bolden "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering." The White House later clarified Bolden’s remarks, with spokesman Robert Gibbs saying, "That was not his task, and that's not the task of NASA."

Says the Obama administration "planned the influx of illegal alien children at the border."

This is Pants on Fire. The reasons for the 2014 surge of children from Central America at the U.S.-Mexico border were outside the control of the administration. The actual causes were rampant violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; limited capacity in this country to quickly send these children home; and a belief in Central America that if you get over the border, you can stay in America. No expert we reached gave any credence to the idea that the administration planned it. 

The children coming across the southern U.S. border "were never examined after they got here and quarantined if they had a disease. They were just sent out across the country. Many of them had measles ... We now have an outbreak of it all because of our immigration policy."

This is Pants on Fire. Limbaugh was one of several voices linking illegal immigration to measles in 2015. The idea was that the children had measles and Washington took no precautions before allowing them to stay. But the federal government did examine the children; the protocol, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, was to provide "vaccinations to all children who do not have documentation of previous valid doses of vaccine." Three years later,  a measles outbreak in the United States was largely attributed by the CDC to a lack of vaccination in the Orthodox Jewish community.

Vice-President Joe Biden Receives The Medal Of Freedom

(Photo is by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images in The Washington Post.)

On Thursday, President Obama gave Vice-President Joe Biden a huge surprise. Biden went to the White House believing he was to attend a function honoring his service as vice-president. He was honored -- with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that is bestowed by the United States of America.

I think it was an honor that was well-deserved. Biden has a long and distinguished history of service to this country.

21 People Receive The Presidential Medal of Freedom

Yesterday, President Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 21 people. The medal (pictured) is the highest civilian award of the United States, and is awarded to individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".

Here is what President Obama said about this year's recipients:

"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is not just our nation's highest civilian honor - it's a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better.  From scientists, philanthropists, and public servants to activists, athletes, and artists, these 21 individuals have helped push America forward, inspiring millions of people around the world along the way."

And here are the individuals who received the medal yesterday:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorer who helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to five championships and the Milwaukee Bucks to another. During his career, Abdul-Jabbar was a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 19-time NBA All-Star. Before joining the NBA, he was a star player at UCLA, leading the Bruins to three consecutive championships. In addition to his legendary basketball career, Abdul-Jabbar has been an outspoken advocate for social justice.

Elouise Cobell (posthumous)

Elouise Cobell was a Blackfeet Tribal community leader and an advocate for Native American self-determination and financial independence.  She used her expertise in accounting to champion a lawsuit that resulted in a historic settlement, restoring tribal homelands to her beloved Blackfeet Nation and many other tribes, and in so doing, inspired a new generation of Native Americans to fight for the rights of others.  Cobell helped found the Native American Bank, served as director of the Native American Community Development Corporation, and inspired Native American women to seek leadership roles in their communities.

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres is an award-winning comedian who has hosted her popular daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, since 2003 with her trademarked humor, humility, and optimism. In 2003 Ellen lent her voice to a forgetful but unforgettable little fish named Dory in Finding Nemo. She reprised her role again in 2016 with the hugely successful Finding Dory. Ellen also hosted the Academy Awards twice, in 2007 and 2014. In 1997, after coming out herself, DeGeneres made TV history when her character on Ellen revealed she was a lesbian. In her work and in her life, she has been a passionate advocate for equality and fairness.

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro has brought to life some of the most memorable roles in American film during a career that spans five decades. His first major film roles were in the sports drama Bang the Drum Slowlyand Martin Scorsese's crime film Mean Streets.  He is a seven-time Academy Award nominee and two-time Oscar winner, and is also a Kennedy Center honoree. 

Richard Garwin

Richard Garwin is a polymath physicist who earned a Ph.D. under Enrico Fermi at age 21 and subsequently made pioneering contributions to U.S. defense and intelligence technologies, low-temperature and nuclear physics, detection of gravitational radiation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer systems, laser printing, and nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. He directed Applied Research at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Harvard University. The author of 500 technical papers and a winner of the National Medal of Science, Garwin holds 47 U.S. patents, and has advised numerous administrations. 

Bill and Melinda Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, the foundation focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, the mission is to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. The Gates Foundation has provided more than $36 billion in grants since its inception.

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is one of the world’s leading architects, whose works have helped define contemporary architecture. His best-known buildings include the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Dancing House in Prague, and the Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao, Spain. 

Margaret H. Hamilton

Margaret H. Hamilton led the team that created the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo command modules and lunar modules. A mathematician and computer scientist who started her own software company, Hamilton contributed to concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and priority displays, and human-in-the-loop decision capability, which set the foundation for modern, ultra-reliable software design and engineering.

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is one of the Nation’s finest actors and filmmakers. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role five times, and received the award for his work in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.  Those roles and countless others, including in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, and Cast Away, have left an indelible mark on American film. Off screen, as an advocate, Hanks has advocated for social and environmental justice, and for our veterans and their families. 

Grace Hopper (posthumous)

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, known as “Amazing Grace” and “the first lady of software,” was at the forefront of computers and programming development from the 1940s through the 1980s. Hopper’s work helped make coding languages more practical and accessible, and she created the first compiler, which translates source code from one language into another.  She taught mathematics as an associate professor at Vassar College before joining the United States Naval Reserve as a lieutenant (junior grade) during World War II, where she became one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and began her lifelong leadership role in the field of computer science.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes of all time. Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards; he is currently a principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets.  During his career, he won six championships, five Most Valuable Player awards, and appeared in 14 All-Star games.

Maya Lin

Maya Lin is an artist and designer who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and since then has pursued a celebrated career in both art and architecture.  A committed environmentalist, Lin is currently working on a multi-sited artwork/memorial, What is Missing? bringing awareness to the planet's loss of habitat and biodiversity.

Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels is a producer and screenwriter, best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live, which has run continuously for more than 40 years. In addition, Michaels has also produced The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and 30 Rock, among other popular, award-winning shows. He has won 13 Emmy Awards over the course of his lengthy career.

Newt Minow

Newt Minow is an attorney with a long and distinguished career in public life. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Minow served as a Supreme Court clerk and counsel to the Governor of Illinois. In 1961, President Kennedy selected Minow, then 34, to serve as Chairman of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC), where he helped shape the future of American television and was a vigorous advocate for broadcasting that promoted the public interest. In the five decades since leaving the FCC, Minow has maintained a prominent private law practice while devoting himself to numerous public and charitable causes. 

Eduardo Padrón

Eduardo Padrón is the President of Miami Dade College (MDC), one of the largest institutions of higher education in the United States. During his more than four decade career, President Padrón has been a national voice for access and inclusion. He has worked to ensure all students have access to high quality, affordable education. He has championed innovative teaching and learning strategies making MDC a national model of excellence.

Robert Redford

Robert Redford is an actor, director, producer, businessman, and environmentalist. In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute to advance the work of independent filmmakers and storytellers throughout the world, including through its annual Sundance Film Festival. He has received an Academy Award for Best Director and for Lifetime Achievement.  Redford has directed or starred in numerous motion pictures, including The Candidate, All the President's Men, Quiz Show, and A River Runs Through It.  

Diana Ross

Diana Ross has had an iconic career spanning more than 50 years within the entertainment industry in music, film, television, theater, and fashion. Diana Ross is an Academy Award nominee, inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Grammy Awards highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Ross was a recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors.  Diana Ross’s greatest legacy is her five wonderful children.

Vin Scully

Vin Scully is a broadcaster who, for 67 seasons, was the voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.  In Southern California, where generations of fans have grown up listening to Dodger baseball, Scully's voice is known as the "soundtrack to summer."  In 1988, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Scully's signature voice brought to life key moments in baseball history, including perfect games by Sandy Koufax and Don Larsen, Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series, and Hank Aaron's record-breaking 715th home run.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen is a singer, songwriter, and bandleader.  More than five decades ago, he bought a guitar and learned how to make it talk.  Since then, the stories he has told, in lyrics and epic live concert performances, have helped shape American music and have challenged us to realize the American dream.  Springsteen is a Kennedy Center honoree and he and the E Street Band he leads have each been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.   

Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson has performed on the stage, on television, and on the silver screen.  She has won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and is known for her performances in Sounder, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and The Help.  In 2013, she returned to the stage with The Trip to the Bountiful, and was awarded the Tony Award for best leading actress.  Tyson received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015.