From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
High Above Planet Cuckoo
A few of astronaut Scott Kelly's recent pics---including a first-ever event---from the International Space Station, where he's rapidly approaching the end of his year in space. Today is Day 300.
More on gardening in space here.
I know that my tax dollars go to pay for a lot of worthwhile and necessary things. But nothing I help pay for is as cool as NASA. Not even close.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, January 21, 2016
Note: Surprise! It's random drug-testing day. Choose a random drug and quiz it on the events leading up to the War of 1812. This will count as one-third of its final grade.
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Mardi Gras: 19
Days 'til the Fish Creek Winter Festival in Wisconsin: 15
Date on which the Nepal government officially started reconstructing up to a million buildings in the wake of the April, 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people: 1/16/16
Amount of foreign aid pledged for the rebuilding, according to AP: $4.5 billion
Estimated number of viewers for Sunday's Democratic primary debate, the second-highest of the four held so far: 10.2 million
Percent chance the Virginia legislature voted to continue making adultery a crime in the state: 100%
Donald Trump's net favorability among self-identified independents over the last six weeks, according to Gallup polling: -27
-
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Over at attorney general, we find Greg Abbott---a guy opposed to abortion even in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
The former state supreme court justice is also the author of a notable opinion saying it is legal to fire an employee injured on the job for seeking legal redress for his injuries if the employer does not subscribe to workers' comp. Not only a friend of women, but of the workingman, as well!
How can you not love Texas politics? You pick up the paper in the morning and it's kind of like finding Fidel Castro in the refrigerator
---January, 2003
-
Puppy Pic of the Day:
-
CHEERS to a brief happiness interlude. Yeah, the stock market is blowing up, a winter storm is blowing in, the Hillarybots and Berniebots are blowing hot air at each other, beloved celebrities are blowing this popsicle stand in droves, and Michigan's water-poisoning governor is blowing smoke up Flint's tuchus. Not the best month we've ever had here on the blue marble. So leave it to Senator Al Franken to drop this awwww-worthy moment on the world:
Neither can we. But this next item should fix that...
JEERS to John Q. Corporation: Super Citizen!!! Six years ago today, five conservative activist judges on the Supreme Court delivered their verdict on our system of government: it's for sale to the highest bidder. Citizens United is now a four-letter two-words to anyone who values clean and fair campaign financing. But we now know that there's a rather sizable silver lining in the wake of that decision. Those idiot Justices, who agreed that "corporations are people," pissed off so many people that the billionaires and their Super PAC lapdogs got run over by a grassroots stampede in 2012 and 2016 is shaping up the same way (coughJebBushIsToastcough). Money is still huge and often decisive, hence the need to do something to curb the tidal wave of cash. But it's not a bell that automatically makes us drool over a candidate when Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers ring it. Unless, of course, the candidate's name is Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard.
CHEERS to the Dad-in-Chief. He didn’t go to Flint yesterday, but President Obama put the lead-poisoning crisis there front and center during his speech to UAW members in Detroit, including a shot at Governor Rick Snyder's disastrous legacy of running the government like a business:
"If I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself that my kids' health could be at risk. … Yesterday I met with Mayor Weaver in the White House, and I told her that we are going to have her back, and all of the people of Flint’s back, as they work their way through this terrible tragedy. It is a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people, and that we, together, provide as a government to make sure that public health and safety is preserved.”
The president is back in Washington today bracing for a major snowstorm that'll pass. Governor Snyder remains in Michigan mired in a major shitstorm that won't.
JEERS to baking our planet. We knew that the first eleven months of 2015 were the warmest on record. Now we have December’s numbers, and we can officially say that the entire year was one for the sweaty record books:
Last year was the Earth's warmest since record-keeping began in 1880, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA said Wednesday.
It's been clear for quite some time that 2015 would steal the distinction of the hottest year from 2014, with 10 out of the 12 months last year being the warmest respective months on record -- and those records go back 136 years.
While it wasn't necessarily a surprise that 2015 finished in first place, its margin of victory was startling---it lapped the field, with the average temperature across the entire planet 1.62˚F above the 20th century average, more than 20% higher than the previous highest departure from average.
To put that in perspective, that’s nearly as hot as Sarah Palin’s brain activity gets when she tries to connect a noun and a verb.
CHEERS to letters from the C&J letter-writing department. Dear Republicans: When you propose votes on legislation that discriminates against LGBT Americans, you are now officially going against the wishes of a majority in your party. Here’s a helpful chart from Gallup to show how out of touch you are:
Then again, a majority of Republicans also want more gun control measures passed and you ignore them on that, too. So never mind. You’re just irredeemably terrible. Hugs, Billy
CHEERS to the suds of our lives. Eighty-one years ago this week, canned beer made its debut in Richmond, Virginia:
In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.
Which reminds me: I just finished reading Atlas Chugged, and I've taken its message to heart. Today I think I'll ditch the rum and Coke and "go malt."
-
Ten years ago in C&J: January 21, 2006
JEERS to that muthereffingsunuvabitch. Pardon my French, but it was just awful to hear the screechings of Osama bin Laden (make sure you pronounce it Rumsfeld's way: "bin LAY-din") again. He says he's going to attack us...but he also wants a truce. Seizing on this gaffe, the Republican spin machine immediately labeled him a flip-flopper. Meanwhile it's been 1,525 days since President Bush said he wouldn't meet with Jack Abramoff, fall off a bicycle or wear Laura's pantyhose until he captured Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." A trifecta of broken promises.
-
And just one more…
JEERS to the Deep Thinkers of America gathering to think deeply. Here's one of my all-time favorite facepalm-worthy moments from the beltway, via the January 21, 2007 edition of the now-defunct The Chris Matthews Show. Funny how the pundits never had an exchange like this before Huckabee or Christie entered the race:
David Brooks: I've heard no evidence that Al Gore wants to run for office, and unless there's a sharp increase in sales of Slim-Fast…
Chris Matthews: HA!!! Ha Haaaaa!!! That's what I say!! That's what I say!! Can a black man win the presidency? Can a woman win the presidency? Can a fat white man win the presidency is the other question!
Brooks: I'm not one to talk, of course...
Matthews: You're not overweight, not compared to him!
Brooks: And finally, you know, [Democrats have] stars running for office. They've got three real stars.
Matthews: OK---if we see a plummeting in the scales of Al Gore this summer, a super Slim-Fast diet, does that say this guy's getting back in there?
Howard Fineman: It will be front-page news. Al Gore buys a package of Slim-Fast. But, y'know, I don't know...
Matthews: Norah, what do you think? Are we going to watch the scales here to see how it's going?
Norah O'Donnell: I think that's unfair. But I think...
Matthews: There's always somebody to put me in the position of bad guy!!! I'm going for the white guy! You're talking about the black guy!
The obvious conclusion: liberal bloggers are poisoning our civil discourse.
Oh, and today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Watch out for packs of drunken dogs running through the street---this is their high holy day. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“If Bill in Portland Maine met one or two of the constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency then they may well tell him that he is a wazzock.”
---Minister of Parliament Victoria Atkins
-