From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
In the wake of the Santa Fe massacre I knew I wanted to feature a gun-control ally in my Tuesday column, and I realized yesterday that I haven’t highlighted the Giffords organization yet. Hard to believe it’s been seven years since former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and 18 others were shot in Tucson by a lunatic using a semi-automatic pistol with a 33-round high-capacity magazine. Six people died. Giffords, whose demise was prematurely reported that January day in 2011, clawed her way back from near-death to make an incredible recovery, and today she and her husband (retired astronaut Mark Kelly) run the Giffords organization that works in three areas:
Shift Culture We work to foster a culture where Americans are informed about what makes them safer and inspired to fight for a safer future.
Change Policy We research, write and propose policies that make Americans safer and mobilize voters and lawmakers in support of safer gun laws.
Challenge Injustice We hold the gun lobby and any special interests who seek to profit at the expense of people’s safety accountable.
Says Gabby on the Santa Fe shooting:
“These students in Texas now have to reckon with the unspeakable trauma of a shooting at their school---the experience of calling their parents in a panic, hearing the shots ring out from a classroom, scrambling and running for their lives.
We need the courage to take on the special interests who say that nothing can be done, that these acts of evil are beyond our ability to control. They are not. The gun lobby and the politicians who receive the NRA’s checks must understand we will not tolerate another vote against our safety.
If this Congress won’t protect our kids and communities from gun violence, this November we will vote in a Congress that will.”
The group encompasses both the Giffords Law Center and GiffordsPAC. The latter works to keep gun-control advocates in political office while booting those who belong to the pathetic group that believes “thoughts and prayers” and “now is not the time” is the best response to our epidemic of gun violence. With the November 6th elections less than six months away (finally), I’m supporting GiffordsPAC with our customary “Energize An Ally Tuesday” $25 donation. If you have a few bucks to spare (click the Act Blue donation link here), they’ll be put to good use in making the November wave as blue as possible. Because this shit has Got. To. Stop.
Follow Giffords on twitter here and on the evil Facebook here.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold…
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Note: Today's commencement address, Honesty and Integrity: Your Road Map to Success, has been cancelled on account of the speaker began serving a ten-year prison sentence this morning for embezzlement. In his place will be a monkey playing the accordion. ---The Dean
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the primary elections in Maine: 21
Days 'til the Tupelo Elvis Festival in Mississippi: 9
Portion of gun owners who believe it’s essential to alert visitors with children that guns may be present in the home, according to a Pew survey: 1-in-4
Percent of gun owners who believe it’s essential to keep guns locked up when not in use, versus 90% of non-gun-owners: 66%
Percentage of prescriptions that are filled with generic drugs: 90%
Percent of U.S. adults who regularly follow Trump’s twitter feed, according to a Gallup poll: 4%
Increase in gas prices so far this year: 15%
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NEW Tuesday Feature: “I Love New Orleans!”
Brought to you by the 2018 Netroots Nation Convention in New Orleans, August 2-4. From what I read, people in New Orleans speak kinda funny. So before you head down there this summer, make sure you know how to communicate with the locals. Some examples:
Gout: When you grandma tries to get you to have a little taste or sip of something, she asks you if you want a gout, but the T is silent.
Mudbugs: Crawfish---which is basically the best food in the entire world, and the best kind of party you’ll ever be invited to.
Cher: A term of endearment, like “hon” or “dear.”
Wrench: To wash up under running water.
Green Bridge: The local name for the Paris Road Bridge, a bridge that is…gray.
But one phrase is as universally-understood in NOLA as it is in the rest of the country: “Make mine a double.”
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Yeah. Gary again…
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CHEERS to victory in coal country!!! They wanted Trump’s team to make America great again, so they voted him into office and, boy howdy y’all, it’s paying off for them in spades:
The Supreme Court dealt an initial blow to millions of workers Monday in the first of two major disputes this term pitting corporations against labor unions.
In a 5-4 decision controlled by the court's conservative wing, the justices ruled that employers have the right to insist that labor disputes get resolved individually, rather than allowing workers to join together in class action lawsuits.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the dissent, joined by the other three liberals. She summarized it from the bench, something justices do only rarely to signify their objections. "When workers charge their employers with unlawful conduct---in this case, violations of laws governing wages earned and hours worked---there is strength in numbers," she said. […] "Congressional action is urgently in order to correct the court's elevation of the Arbitration Act over workers' rights to act in concert," she said.
Yeah. Congress will surely fix it with all due haste. Hooray, Appalachia! Hooray, heartland! You’re all gonna get screwed by your employer even harder and the rich are now going to get even richer. But you’ll still look like a million bucks in your MAGA hats!
CHEERS to MORE victory in coal country!!! Boy, the hits just keep on comin’. You may have heard that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a really super awesome “truce” in our trade war with China that was started by Trump without a moment’s thought of the consequences. It’s so swell that Kellyanne Conway called it “swell,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “swell,” and even Vice President Mike Pence called it “swell, by golly, and Mommy agrees.” Super fantastic news:
"I think it's a lose-lose. There are no winners here," Mark Zandi told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday. "This is face-saving, because clearly they're not going come to terms on anything — at least, not in the near-team."
Zandi was referring to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's announcement Sunday that a looming trade war was "on hold" as the world's two largest economies agreed to drop their tariff threats and discuss parameters for a wider trade agreement.
"When you get right down to it, what exactly are they going to do? Are they going lower the Chinese-U.S. bilateral trade deficit? It's just not going to happen. They're kicking it down the road because they really don't know what they want," Zandi said.
I’m so thrilled with all the winning that today I’m throwing open the C&J cafeteria doors. Y’all keep your money in your wallet. Today the coalburgers and freedom fries are on the house.
CHEERS to previews of coming attractions…in coal country!!! Fresh off his stint in prison for charges related to the deaths of 29 miners in an explosion at his Upper Big Branch mine, Don Blankenship shook off the coal dust from his defeat in the Republican senate primary and announced his bid for the seat as the “Constitution Party” candidate. C&J has an exclusive sneak peek at his first official ad:
“Cocaine Mitch is really a Chinaperson. He does all this Chinaperson stuff all the time, and does cocaine, too. People said I blew up the mine, then they said I blew up the mine again, then they said I’m crazy and mentally unstable but I didn’t blow up the mine. The Chinapersons really blew up the mine, and they’ll blow it up again with help from Cocaine Mitch. I’ll stop them from blowing up anything by sending them back to China, including the cocaine and all the illegals in this country. I’m doing this for the children.”
The disclaimer at the bottom of the ad reads: “We’re West Virginia Democrats, and we approve this message.”
CHEERS to Abraham "That's Using the Old Bean"-coln. On May 22, 1849, Honest Abe received patent #6469 for his design of a floating dry dock---in fact, he was the first president to receive a patent. Sadly, he never found the time to complete his follow-up invention: the floating wet bar. Our nation's loss.
JEERS to today’s edition of Ugh. Maine Democrats held their state convention last weekend, following the Republican convention a couple weeks earlier. It was a fine convention, heavily attended by an enthusiastic crowd. (Significantly larger than the GOP orc fest.) But among the candidates for governor, the difference between team D and team R is, once again, alarming. There’s just no place, apparently, on the left for brass knuckles in defense of truth and democracy:
All Republicans: “This is going to be a war, folks.”
The leading Democrat: It’s all about “trust, hope and love.”
This has been today’s edition of Ugh.
CHEERS to jump-starting the jalopy. 118 years ago this week, the first auto repair shop opened in Boston. Followed soon after by the first auto repair bill-induced cardiac arrhythmia.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 22, 2008
JEERS to unacceptable diagnoses. Doctors say 76 year-old Senate stalwart and progressive hero Ted Kennedy has a malignant glioma in his brain. I say he deserves a second opinion, and here it is: No, he doesn’t. And that's that. (Wow, this Ronco Denial-O-Matic works great.)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the mayor of Castro Street. Today marks the 88th birthday of the late San Francisco District Supervisor and gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.
“It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.”
“All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”
He was a talented politician---smart, witty, eloquent, tireless, eager to learn from his early mistakes, but not without his flaws and personal demons. He understood well the power of grassroots campaigning and consensus-building, which is an itty bit critical as we approach the mega-showdown in November. One of my favorite things Harvey wrote is his 10 rules on how to win a local election (from Randy Shilts' brilliant book The Mayor of Castro Street):
1. Interviews with all major papers. ['All' was underlined three times.]
2. Knock on all doors.
3. Ride buses
4. Visit non-gay bars during the daytime and any singles bars at nite.
5. Coffee shops and restaurants. Stop off early in morning and late at night.
6. Shake hands.
7. Shake hands.
8. As few meetings as possible---just meet the people.
9. Door to door of registered Demo's is very best thing you can do outside of media coverage.
10. Don't stop.
If he hadn’t been assassinated in 1978 at 48, he would've no doubt been a guiding force and leading fighter for full state and federal equality of GLBT citizens, and the steadily-rising poll numbers for marriage equality would've made him cheer as much as the Trump administration’s rollback of LGBT-friendly federal policies would’ve made him bristle. His now-famous core message of hope predated Obama's by 30 years, but is just as relevant today:
"It’s about the us’s out there. Not only gays, but the Blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us’s. Without hope, the us’s give up. I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. So you, and you, and you…you gotta give em’ hope.”
And while we’re on the subject of turning a year older, happy birthday to Daily Kos Contributing Editor Greg Dworkin (aka DemFromCT) and Director of Community Building Neeta Lind (aka Navajo), who turn hffrfrrrhrr years old today. And many blessings on your camels.
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Rep. Mo Brooks Does Science: Maybe Sea Levels Rise When Someone Drops Bill in Portland Maine In The Ocean
---Wonkette
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