So This Happened Yesterday
History. The first presidential nominee of a major party to march in an LGBT pride parade:
Though to be honest I can’t believe that Donald Trump didn’t do it first. After all, no one loves “the LBGT” as much as he does. (Uh huh.) Oh, and Barney Frank reminded me yesterday that Hillary is also the first First Lady to march in an LGBT pride parade, also in NYC:
How ‘bout them apples.
P.S. More pics in Scan’s post.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, June 27, 2016
Note: Great news! This morning's lottery was another rousing success for the community. Our thanks to the late Tessie Hutchison and the townsfolk for upholding our motto: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." (And don’t skimp on the butter, ha ha ha.)
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Democratic National Convention: 28
Days 'til the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan: 5
Rank of the UK among destinations for Maine exports, according to The Portland Press Herald: #9
Amount VW is forking over to settle its fraud claims from its emissions-cheating scam, according to AP: $10.2 billion
Number of owners who will be compensated: 482,000
Percent chance that the number of teen pot users in Colorado dropped from 25% to 21% since recreational pot became legal, according to The Washington Post: 100%
Amount over which Breitling Energy CEO Chris "frack master" Faulkner is being sued for defrauding investors, according to AP, including $30 million to "maintain a lifestyle of decadence and debauchery": $80 million
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NEW Monday feature: "Meet Me in St. Louis!”
Brought to you by the 2016 Netroots Nation Convention in St. Louis, July 14-17, which is being held in the 502,000 sq. ft. America's Center Complex. As we always do, we checked to see if it was an environmentally-conscious facility:
The America’s Center convention complex is making responsible choices to lessen their impact on the environment and helping to ensure that the positive benefits of the meeting and leisure tourism industry will long outweigh its impact on the environment. …
Low-consumption usage toilets and urinals; post-consumer recycled products such as “coreless” toilet paper and paper towels; and using Green Seal-certified phosphate-free, chlorine-free cleaning products throughout the building. … The America’s Center’s catering department uses renewable service items and leftover food items are used in the employee cafeteria or picked up by local food pantries. Instead of contributing to the number of plastic bottles in area landfills, the facility uses large containers or pitchers of water and glassware instead of Styrofoam cups. All Sterno and aluminum cans are recycled, along with all cardboard, electric cords and Cat5 cables.
The St. Louis CVC and America’s Center staff say these eco-friendly actions are not just a green initiative, but a social responsibility, and have committed to doing their part towards reducing, reusing, and recycling.
So we’ll mark that down as a yes.
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to sum' sum' summertime. A good time was had by all over the weekend at our New England Kossack meetup at Mayim's fabled cottage on the lake near Oxford, Maine Saturday. Weather: sunny and 75. The rubber ducky brigade included:
Debbie in Maine, rb608 (who motorcycled all the way from Maryland), rebereads, DtheO, nhox42, Knockbally, Susan, LoreleiHI, Simple, Actbriniel & Tim, nautical knots, Caroline, Common Sense Mainer, Yours Truly (officially apologizing here for spending 90 percent of the day pootie-whispering with Mayim’s adorable foster kittens), special guest Daily Kos Contributing Editor Susan Grigsby (formerly Susan from 29) from California…assorted pooties, woozles and a pair of large chatty loons that kept calling, "Beware the Tru-u-u-u-ump! Beware the Tru-u-u-u-mp!"
Great food, feisty political conversation and unbeatable scenery ruled the day. Thanks again for your hospitality, Mayim. By the way, if your own little corner of heaven is having a Kossack meetup, drop me a note and I'll give it some ink in C&J. (And also let the Connect-Unite-Act team know know so they can add it to their full meetup list.) They're fun, nutritious, and knowing you're having a good time drives the Puritans crazy.
JEERS to the bad kind of anticipation. To quote the great Corellian smuggler and galactic prophet Han Solo: I got a bad feeling about this. This morning the Scalia-less eight member Supreme Court is due to announce its most significant decision on abortion since those carefree aughts when George W. Bush was justifying torture and banning human-animal hybrids:
The court’s decision on whether a Republican-backed 2013 Texas law placed an undue burden on women exercising their constitutional right to abortion is one of three remaining cases for the court to decide on Monday, the last day of its term.
The law in Texas, one of a number of conservative states that have pursued restrictions on abortion, requires abortion doctors to have “admitting privileges,” a type of formal affiliation, at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the clinic. It also requires clinics to have costly hospital-grade facilities. […]
The court could split 4-4, which would leave in place a lowercourt’s decision upholding the law.
All online eyes will be focused on the excellent SCOTUSblog for the ruling, which will come down at 10am. Unless something comes up and they have to abort it. That would be awkward.
CHEERS to must-see TV. Here we go, kids---today's the day we see just what kind of chemistry Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren have together on the campaign trail. And the swing state that has the honor of hosting it is…Ohio:
The senator from Massachusetts will accompany Clinton to a rally in Cincinnati that will focus on economic themes such as income inequality and Wall Street reform, just over two weeks after Warren endorsed Clinton and amid suggestions she could be her running mate. […]
Clinton has begun to increase her footprint in the states that will decide the presidential race in November. Her visit to Ohio will be her third this month. Trump did not hire a campaign manager in the state until this week and has not visited since the Republican primary in March. […] Regardless of Clinton’s final [VP] decision, the sight of her onstage with Warren will fire up the base. It will also be a contrast to Trump’s struggles to persuade high-profile Republicans to campaign with him.
The latest "high-profile" Republican to not be persuaded: multisyllabic poobah of conservative ideology George Will, who just a few years ago crossed the bridge from his perch at mainstream ABC News to join the spittle-flinging nonsensical fearmongers at Fox News. In response to his announcement, hospitals across the country were inundated yesterday by teabaggers with massive yawn-related injuries.
CHEERS to POTUS populi. Now that Barack Obama is into the last half year of his steady, intelligent, forward-thinking presidency, polls are showing that Americans are starting to pre-miss him. In addition to enjoying 50+ percent approval in the three-day Gallup tracking poll, there's this, which we'll file under "He who laughs last"…
CNN Poll: President Barack Obama's approval rating remains on the upswing, with 52% now approving of his performance as president…five points above the 47% who approved in January.
[…] At this stage of his presidency, Obama ranks as the most positively-viewed recent second term president. Both Clinton and Reagan were viewed favorably by just under half of adults in the spring or summer of their final years in office, while George W. Bush's favorability rating stood at 38% in summer 2008.
ABC News poll: Barack Obama’s job approval rating has gained 5 points, to 56 percent, matching its high since the early days of his presidency. That includes 55 percent approval specifically on handling the economy. […] Obama’s approval rating is similar to both Bill Clinton’s 57 percent and Ronald Reagan’s 56 percent at about this point in their presidencies, and far better than George W. Bush’s 29 percent.
The ABC News poll, by the way, also shows that Hillary Clinton has cracked open a 12-point lead over Donald Trump. Or as the beltway pundits called it: "A statistical tie how come she's not leading by a hundred points OMG big trouble emails Benghazi horse race so close!!!!" We'll file this under "Fresh ether arrives at Politico."
JEERS to God's slacker army. The Lord Almighty, speaking through the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), commanded that every able-bodied Christian conservative show up in Washington D.C. Saturday for a glorious several-million-person rally protesting last year's Supreme Court decision granting same-sex couples marriage rights. This was the actual scene, via Zack Ford at Think Progress:
The number who turned out was so small that Ford was able to bypass the National Park Service's estimate and count them all himself. Grand total: 237 people had nothing better to do than dress up and play morality police in the summer heat. But they'll get the last laugh, because witnesses say they saw God taking note of who didn't show up and emailed the names to Santa for his "naughty" list. So the real headline from this story is: Coal Industry Braces For Late December Boom.
CHEERS to workin' on the wire without a net. On June 27, 1846, New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires for the first time ever. Unfortunately people kept tripping over them, so the following week they invented the telegraph pole.
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Eleven years ago in C&J: June 27, 2005
JEERS to more of the same. President Bush will address the nation tonight from Fort Bragg, hoping to shore up his plummeting poll numbers with Frank Luntz-inspired catchphrases. Advance text: Blah blah freedom, blah blah tyrant, blah blah stay the course. And take a swig every time he mentions 9/11...we hear it's back in style.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the Greatest Moment in World History. I grew up with the bleeps and bloops of Atari games ringing in my ears, and to this day I see a shadow image of their iconic graphics every time I blink. Atari marked its first full day as a company 44 years ago today, and for that my inner geek thanks founder Nolan Bushnell (who waxes nostalgic in the documentary Video Games: The Movie.) My first addictions on this wacky planet, besides candy cigarettes and Hogan's Heroes, were Missile Command, Battlezone and Asteroids, each following Bushnell's formula of being "simple to learn but impossible to master." They retain their simple elegance and pulse-quickening qualities four-plus decades later. Go ahead..click here and release your inner nerd from captivity. Time spent with an Atari classic will not be deducted from your lifespan.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Conservative commentator and columnist George Will says he is leaving Cheers and Jeers because of Bill in Portland Maine---and he's advocating that others do the same. In a speech at a Federalist Society luncheon Friday, he told the audience, "This is not my kiddie pool."
---CNN
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