President Obama will spoke at an interfaith memorial service on 12JULY for the five police officers murdered in Dallas last week. The Vice President and First Lady are also attending the service, as is former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush.

I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds.

Watch the full video here.

As a follow-up to June’s Political Wine, here is the distributed handout by our facilitator by Kenneth KINLOCK.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders . . . said a key reason why 63 percent of voters did not go to the polls in the last election and nearly 80 percent of young and low-income people stayed home is that "the Democratic Party, up until now, has not been clear on which side they are on on the major issues facing this country."

Read the full Michael BRIGGS' Sanders to Democratic Party: Whose Side Are We On? article here.

Outsiders and mavericks are often attractive to an American electorate chronically suspicious of political insiders, but the anti-establishment sentiments unleashed this election year of a different magnitude. The Trump and Sanders candidacies are both dramatic repudiations of politics as usual.

Read the full The Endgame Of 2016’s Anti-Establishment Politics article here.

So while it would be unwise to hold your breath waiting for President Hillary Clinton to act progressively, you could probably feel a bit safer doing so yourself than you would be with a Generalissimo Trump at the helm.

I’m looking forward to backing Sanders in Philadelphia and beyond. But I’ll vote for the Democrat either way.

Read the full I Will Vote For The Democratic Nominee article here.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will host a webinar Foreign Earned Income for U.S. Overseas Taxpayers
on June 29, 2016, 14h00(EDT) / 20h00(CET). The webinar will cover:

• Requirements for claiming the foreign income exclusion.
• Identifying which forms to use: 2555 vs EZ.
• Specifying information to include on forms 2555(EZ).
• Live Q&A with IRS subject matter experts.

Register here: Foreign Earned Income for U.S. Overseas Taxpayers to attend this webinar.  Attendees should log in 10 minutes prior to the start time.

The session will be recorded and made available at a later time on http://www.irsvideos.gov/.

Been here before and always loved it. This year a little different: Thunderstorms rolling through the region. Ceremony moved to high school gym. But still impressive. Congratulations to Mrs. Alison Libersa who manages the cemetery for the American Battle Monuments Commission. It still was a roaring success. 

Read the full blog posting by our attending members here.

It is unfair for us to judge her demeanor and delivery without acknowledging her challenges as a woman. I understand that to some she comes off as calculated and rehearsed, but there are reasons why she’s had to. Speaking authentically while being both respected and likeable as a female leader is like trying to climb Mt. Everest without getting your shoes dirty; possible, maybe, but highly unlikely.

Read the full Emily J. Smith blog posting here.

The U.S. Embassy in France informs U.S. citizens that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will host a webinar on “Overseas Filing for U.S. Taxpayers" on May 25, 2016 from 19h00–21:00 (13h00–15h00 EDT).

To register and attend this webinar, please use the Overseas Filing for U.S. Taxpayers webinar link.  Attendees should log in 10 minutes prior to the start time. The session will be recorded and made available later on IRSvideos.gov.

As a follow-up to May's Political Wine, here are two videos capturing Obama's perspective on the current situation on a Supreme Court nomination:

At University of Chicago Law, President Obama explains why Senate Republicans must do their job and consider his Supreme Court nominee, Chief Judge Merrick Garland.

View the full White House's Supreme Court 101 video here.

Senate Republicans are deviating from long-standing precedent to obstruct the President's Supreme Court nominee Chief Judge Merrick Garland at the expense of our Judicial Branch.

View the full White House's This Is What Presidents Do video here.

When I first met Richard Painter some months ago, I thought he must be the loneliest man in the Republican Party. He’s a conservative, and, of course, I’m not. But he believes, as I do, that there’s too much money in politics.

Listen to the full Bill Moyers' interview here.

Howard Dean says there's a deeper issue than numbers. Eventually the insurgent candidate needs to go from playing the role of agitating outsider to someone voters of all stripes can see as president. A speech with applause lines all your supporters can recite back makes for an amazing rally. "But it's also the thing that isolates you at the end, because you have to build a coalition."

Listen to full NPR report here.

One could argue that New York City is one of the most diverse places in the American landscape.  So how did the New York primary turn out demographically?

Check out this New York Times' interactive infographic for the Democratic Party.

Check out this New York Times' interactive infographic for the Republican Party.