From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
“Why not sell a kidney while you’re at it?”
Jimmy Kimmel on the outrageous way unpaid members of the Coast Guard are being advised on their personal finances as their own government screws them over:
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“I am proud to shut down the government.”
“I will be the one to shut it down.”
— President Donald J. Trump —
The Trump shutdown stretches into month two. Is America great again or what?
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Note: Due to the government shutdown this note, which otherwise would be working as a posted reminder about proper trash disposal at a national park, has been forced to spend another day at home in its bathrobe throwing shoes at Joe Scarborough on the TV. We regret the inconvenience . ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Weeks 'til Fat Tuesday: 6
Days ‘til the annual Low country Oyster Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, starring 80,000 pounds of shucked oysters: 5
Factor by which those over 65 share false information, aka debunked fake news, more often than those in the 18-29 age group, according to a Princeton-NYU study: 7x
Percent of the world's wild coffee species that are "at high risk" of extinction due to the effects of global warming: 60%
Length of a day on Saturn, as scientists finally solve the riddle: 10 hours, 33 minutes, 38 seconds
Minimum percent of Americans who can’t tell if a British person is calling them an idiot: 50%
Number of treats-in-one in a Charms Blow Pop: 2
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Rest in peace, Boo…
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CHEERS to one more lectern on the debate stage. In a move that was as celebrated as it was expected, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced her candidacy for president yesterday. (She'll hold her first campaign rally Sunday in Oakland, California.) Unlike fellow contenders Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, I don’t know a whole lot about Harris except she's the former attorney general of California and makes smarmy witnesses squirm like worms in committee hearings. So here's an abbreviated version of what she'd like us to know about her from her new web site:
» Daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India
» Graduate of Howard University and earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law
» introduced or co-sponsored legislation to provide tax cuts for the middle class, address the high cost of rent, raise the minimum wage to$15 an hour, make higher education tuition-free for the vast majority of Americans, reform the cash bail system, protect the legal rights of refugees and immigrants, and expand access to affordable, quality health care with Medicare for All
» During the Great Recession helped thousands of families stay in their homes and passed one of the nation’s strongest anti-foreclosure laws
» Led the team that helped bring down California’s Proposition 8 at the U.S. Supreme Court
» Fought to require for-profit companies to provide their employees with health insurance that covers contraceptives and protect patients’ access to reproductive health clinics
» Established the first Office of Recidivism Reduction and Reentry and pioneered the nation’s first open data initiative to expose racial disparities in the criminal justice system
More on her run here. I see that one of her goals as head of the executive branch is "restoring dignity and responsibility to public office." Given the crooks in charge now, I don't think that'll be a high bar to clear.
CHEERS to a quiet little verdict that people hardly ever mention anymore. Roe v. Wade turns 46 today. Pro-choice advocates will mark the occasion with events to remind Americans that women should be in control of their own bodies and that health care decisions should be between them and their doctor, not them and their nearest right-wing legislature.
Anti-choice advocates will mark the occasion by reminding Americans that microscopic bits of blastocyst matter are people too, with full rights including voting and marriage (as long as they're not gay). And the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court will, as usual, mark the occasion by licking their chops. (Respecting precedent is sooooo yesteryear.)
JEERS to little shits doing shitty things. For reasons beyond my comprehension, a Kentucky Catholic school for rich kids bused their little bundles of testosterone up to D.C. to take part in a woman-shaming anti-abortion march over the weekend, and promptly found themselves living down to the reputation of the MAGA hats on their heads. One little shit in particular decided to stare down a Native American Vietnam veteran (who was there for a separate indigenous peoples event) who had stepped between the kids and a fringe pro-Israel group to ratchet down the animosity between them. Nathan Phillips tells CNN why he chose to act as peacemaker during the fracas at the Lincoln Memorial:
"I [believe] that we need[ed] to use the drum, use our prayer and bring a balance, bring a calming to the situation. I didn't assume that I had any kind of power to do that, but at the same time, I didn't feel that I could just stand there anymore and not do something. It looked like these young men were going to attack these guys. They were going to hurt them. They were going to hurt them because they didn't like the color of their skin. They didn't like their religious views. […]
I started going forward and that mass of groups of people started separating and moving aside to allow me to move out of the way or to proceed, this young fellow put himself in front of me and wouldn't move. If I took another step, I would be putting my person into his presence, into his space and I would've touched him and that would've been the thing that the group of people would've needed to spring on me. […]
What they were doing wasn't making America great...the whole idea, the spirit of America, that wasn't it. That wasn't [the] American spirit there that they were putting out there."
Of course, hate and bigotry are learned behaviors, so the real question here is: where are their wealthy, privileged Republican parents as the fallout falls out? My guess: they're sitting down with their kids for long, frank conversations to demand that they make this right. By which I of course mean sitting down with their lawyers and P.R. people for long, frank conversations to demand that they make this go away.
P.S. Over to you, Charlie...
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CHEERS to more tick-tock to lock in your doc. A quick heads-up: if you live in New York, Massachusetts, D.C., or select hurricane-hit counties in Georgia, Alaska and Florida, you still have time to sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage. Charles Gaba (aka brainwrap here at Daily Kos) has the details here at his invaluable ACA Signups site. It's been awhile since we took a peek at the overall 2019 enrollment picture, and I'm happy to see that the nonstop campaign of Republican sabotage hasn't been able to smother the popularity of President Obama's signature achievement:
At least 13 states have now exceeded their 2018 Open Enrollment performance, 7 of which use state-based exchanges: Idaho, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Colorado, Rhode Island, Florida, Maryland, Hawaii, Wyoming, New York and Utah
Also worth noting: Four states (Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Minnesota) are part of the "Five Year Club"...all four have managed to break their previous enrollment records for five years in a row. Mazel Tov! […]
I'm guessing another 60K - 70K will be added from the other incomplete state-based exchanges (SBEs), for a grand total of just barely over the 3.0 million mark for SBEs...virtually identical to last year (again). If so, that would bring the grand total up to just a hair over 11.4 million QHP selections nationally.
And keep in mind this is during the first year without the mandate to be insured. (A key provision of the ACA that was stupidly struck down by Republicans last year as part of their daylight robbery of the middle class posing as a tax cut.) So once again, the American people, along with a slew of state governments, have proven that access to affordable, non-employer-based health insurance is very important. Meanwhile, we note here that the head of the Trump crime family is due for his annual physical this month. Here's a reminder of how last year's went:
This year's result will likely be similar but with one notable difference: the brain turd is no longer smiling.
JEERS to frozen assets. Oh, we have been spoiled the last couple years---here in Maine, at least---with what seemed like winters that zipped right along. But this week we---and a big swath of the republic for which we stand with our tongue stuck to a flagpole---have been thrust once again into a long-term deep-freeze.
How cold is it? It's colder than Mike Pence at a civil liberties convention. It's colder than a Koch brother at a union rally. It's colder than the glares the on-air staff gives the lone fact-checker at Fox News. Oh yeah…it's cold.
JEERS to a stain on America’s soul that we just can’t seem to scrub out. Ten years ago, newly-minted president Barack Obama signed an order that was intended to close the prison at Guantanamo within a year:
"The orders that I signed today should send an unmistakable signal that our actions in defense of liberty will be just as our cause and that we, the people, will uphold our fundamental values as vigilantly as we protect our security.
Once again, America’s moral example must be the bedrock and the beacon of our global leadership."
A bunch of cowards in Congress and state houses---Republicans and Democrats, to our party’s great shame---got the vapors and said no, America isn't smart enough or strong enough to handle those detainees ON AMERICAN SOIL!!! So, a decade later, Gitmo is still open for business, and the president can still have American citizens arrested without probable cause and black-helicoptered there, too, if he chooses. And now it’s even worse: during the government shutdown, no tater-tots.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 22, 2009
JEERS to Dais do-overs. Yesterday Barack Obama took the oath of office a second time because Chief Justice John Roberts blew it on Tuesday by accidentally inserting the words "looka them boobies" into it.
Other than the massive invasion of America by China's amphibious fleet and the collapse of the Dakotas into a giant sinkhole created by The Kraken, the one-day power vacuum was uneventful. Please go about your business.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the pre-the-envelopes-please envelopes, please. The Academy Award nominations will be announced this morning around 8:30ET. I have no idea who the leading contenders are—none whatsoever—so we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, we've just received this breaking news from the C&J anchor desk:
BlackKklansman was reading the Green Book to a group of Crazy Rich Asians and a Beautiful Boy on the Isle of Dogs when out of the blue---Bam!---A Star is Born! First Man to hear it said, holy cripes, If Beale Street Could Talk it would say that was the greatest version of The Favourite Freddie Mercury song Bohemian Rhapsody it had ever heard belted out by a Black Panther. Unfortunately, the performance was cut short when A Private War broke out in Roma, but I'm sure it'll all get resolved when Mary Poppins Returns and scrubs the city of Vice, after which everyone will ask each other, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"
Film at 11.
Have a Tinseltowny Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
Bill in Portland Maine has made Daily Kos a global joke. How will we rebuild our reputation?
---John Kampfner, The Guardian
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