From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment
Hard to believe that ten years ago this week America lost Molly Ivins (who considered Daily Kos one of her favorite blogs) at 62. Cancer got her, but she was full of fight right to the end. In their must-read (or, if you already own a copy, must-re-read) biography, Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life, Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith describe her as "a latter-day Mark Twain-meets-Will Rogers...the wisecracking social commentator who gleefully teed up on anyone whose boot heels clicked across the marble floors in the House of Power."
Every week I take an exhilarating swan-dive into the Ivins archive pool to retrieve a relevant snippet for our "Thursday Molly Ivins Moment," and I'm always amazed how little her writing has aged. Her progressive take on health care, civil liberties, war & peace, the environment and Republican jerkitude remain fresh and relevant. This morning I thought I'd highlight a thing or two she had to say about the hot topic du jour: immigration (bolding the last paragraph so Trump and Netanyahu won’t miss it)…
[I]t was '83 or some year right around there [at the Terlingua Chili Cookoff] when we held The Fence climbing contest. See, people talked about building The Fence back then, too. The Fence along the Mexican border. To keep Them out.
At the time, the proposal was quite specific---a 17-foot cyclone fence with bob wire at the top. So a test fence was built at Terlingua, and the First-Ever Terlingua Memorial Over, Under or Through Mexican Fence Climbing Contest took place. Prize: a case of Lone Star beer. Winning time: 30 seconds.
I tell this story to make the one single point about the border and immigration we know to be true: The Fence will not work. No fence will work. The Great darn Wall of China will not work. Do not build a fence. It will not work. They will come anyway. Over, under or through.
Some of you think a fence will work because Israel has one. Israel is a very small country. Anyone who says a fence can fix this problem is a demagogue and an ass. [Link]
And this...
House Republicans, who know a good socially divisive issue when they see one, are perfectly happy to blame illegal workers for everything.
Trade policy, repealing taxes for the rich, corruption in Congress—it’s all done by illegal workers. Everywhere you look in this society, there’s a bunch of people named Gomez and Ramirez, all of them making decisions from the top---in charge of the Pentagon, heading the military-industrial complex, deciding the rich need tax relief, in charge of this stupid [Iraq] war, making decisions on Wall Street. […]
[I]mmigrant-bashing is such an old American tradition. Back at the time of the Revolution, many Anglo-Americans worried about the terrible number of Germans engulfing the country. Since then, we’ve managed to work up a snit over the Irish, the Jews, the Polish, the Swedes, Bolivians, Bavarians, Bosnians, Russians, Italians, Sicilians, a great variety of Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, Maltese (sorry you missed that one---the Maltese once overran New York City deli counters), Cubans, Puerto Ricans and so forth. [Link]
Molly’s succinct review of Pat Buchanan's culture-war speech at the 1992 Republican convention is just as applicable to last month’s inauguration speech by President Bannon and his low-level assistant Donald Trump: "[It] probably sounded better in the original German."
Molly always maintained that "The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.” And in the face of that confusion, let’s remember her advice from her last column…
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous...hit the streets...we need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"
You can revisit an addictive plethora of Molly's columns here at AlterNet and here at Creators Syndicate. Meanwhile, director Janice Engel has the latest update on her Ivins documentary Raise Hell here. Cheers, Molly, wherever you are, and thank you for providing us with such an enduring moral compass.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, February 2, 2017
Note: Today's White House lunch menu includes emolument stew, shredded civil rights salad topped with fascist croutons and a light spray-on-tan dressing, alternative fact filets sautéed in a tangy battery acid reduction. And diet Coke. Served angrily.
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By the Numbers:
Days ‘til the season premiere of John Oliver's Last week Tonight on HBO: 10
Days 'til the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival in Rockville, Maryland: 14
Date on which recreational use of marijuana officially became legal in Maine: 1/30/17
Unemployment rate above which there's a noticeable increase in the frequency of school shootings, according to a new study published in Nature Human Behavior: 5.7%
Estimated number of people who signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage on the federal exchanges, up 100,000 from last year according to FiveThirtyEight: 8.8 million
Amount for which the EPA is being sued by Flint residents over the water-poisoning of their city: $700 million
Number of Michigan's 300 publicly-funded charter schools that are for-profit, meaning all purchases made by them with taxpayer dollars become private property: 240
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Hot off the press---Little Kids and Their Big Dogs
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CHEERS to Mainers in the spotlight. The pussyhat revolution is in full swing as women all across the country embrace the iconic headwear to protest the misogynists in our government doing their damndest to keep the United States' menfolk a rung or three higher than them on the opportunity and equality ladder. Time magazine featured the pussyhat on its cover last week, and The New Yorker followed close behind with this artistic take that was created by---we hate to brag, but we will---an artist who lives right up here in the Pine Tree State:
Abigail Gray Swartz’s painting of Rosie the Riveter wearing a pink pussyhat will grace the coveted spot when the Feb. 6 issue begins circulating Tuesday.
Swartz, 36, made the painting after attending the Women’s March in Augusta on Jan. 21 in solidarity with people who have adopted the pink hat with cat ears as a symbol of resistance to President Trump. “To see all those pink hats was really striking,” said Swartz, a freelance illustrator and mother of two. “I knew it would be an iconic visual image.” […]
“Art and artists are very necessary, especially during times of turmoil,” she said. ... For The New Yorker, Swartz turned Rosie the Riveter into a black woman wearing a pink hat. The original Rosie is a cultural icon from World War II, when women took jobs in factories making arms and armaments while men went off to fight.
Beats the hell out of the other side’s tricorn hats.
JEERS to America's oiliest Secretary of State ever. Big black "X" marks have been placed next to the names of Democrats named Warner (VA), Heitcamp (ND) and Manchin (WV), thanks to their votes to confirm ExxonMobil baron Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State yesterday. But other than those three stooges, Democrats were on board, and for darn good reasons:
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said he opposed Tillerson’s confirmation because “negotiating oil deals does not prepare you to be a diplomat advocating for American values.”
He faulted Tillerson, 64, for saying during his confirmation hearing that he needed more information before he could respond to senators’ questions about whether women suffered human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. The answer is known to every school child, Heinrich said.
Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., said he would vote against Tillerson because as chief of ExxonMobil, he did business with countries that were at odds with the U.S., like Russia, Iran, Syria and Sudan. “Putting a company’s interest before American interest is inexcusable and a disqualifying characteristic for America’s next secretary of State,” Donnelly said.
During his confirmation hearings, Tillerson left little doubt that, as a member of the Trump cabinet, he'll have no idea what he's doing. Meaning he'll fit right in.
CHEERS to furry fortunetellers. If this morning feels like yesterday morning, Surprise!!! It's Groundhog Day! Let's take a spin and find out how the rodents did this morning:
Shubenacadie Sam (Nova Scotia): Early spring!
General Beauregard Lee (Lilburn, GA): Early spring!
Staten Island Chuck: Early spring!
Wiarton Willie (Ontario): Early spring!
Dunkirk Dave (Dunkirk, NY): Six more weeks of winter
Punxsutawney Phil: At Gobblers Knob, PA, the "official" groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter.
Buckeye Chuck (Marion, OH): Six more weeks of winter
Final verdict: the majority says early spring! (Disclaimer: only if Trump doesn’t cause an early nuclear winter first.)
CHEERS to bold leadership. Sixty-nine years ago today, in 1948, President Harry Truman urged Congress to adopt recommendations by a presidential commission on civil rights. It's almost breathtaking in scope. He ended his message to Congress with this, a statement that resonates just as loudly today:
[W]e must protect our civil rights so that by providing all our people with the maximum enjoyment of personal freedom and personal opportunity we shall be a stronger nation---stronger in our leadership, stronger in our moral position, stronger in the deeper satisfactions of a united citizenry.
We know that our democracy is not perfect. But we do know that it offers freer, happier life to our people than any totalitarian nation has ever offered.
If we wish to inspire the peoples of the world whose freedom is in jeopardy, if we wish to restore hope to those who have already lost their civil liberties, if we wish to fulfill the promise that is ours, we must correct the remaining imperfections in our practice of democracy.
We know the way. We need only the will.
Oh...did I mention he's a Democrat?
CHEERS to the dynamic duo. Credit where credit is due: both of my Maine senators, Angus King (I) and now---SURPRISE!---squishy, mealy-mouthed "moderate" Susan Collins (R) are both pledging to run education nominee, Amway scamster, and all-around weirdo Betsy DeVos out of town and back to Michigan hog-tied to a rail. Collins rationale:
“DeVos’ lack of experience with public schools will make it difficult for her to understand, identify and assist with those challenges, particularly for our rural schools in states like Maine,” Collins said during a speech Wednesday afternoon on the Senate floor. […]
Collins said her decision was a “very difficult one” to make but that ultimately she believes DeVos lacks the qualification to be the country’s top education official.
“This is not a decision that I have made lightly,” Collins said. “I have a great deal of respect for Mrs. DeVos. I believe that she is a good person. I know she cares deeply about the children of this nation.”
Translation: DeVos is freaking nuts. As for King, he summed up his decision to vote "Nay" this way: “My dad used to say that public schools are the idea at the heart of democracy." Translation: DeVos is freaking nuts.
P.S. Alaska's Republican senator Lisa Murkowsi also says she'll vote no on DeVos. Assuming that Democrats maintain a united front, that makes the current vote 50-50 (Pence would break the tie). Think we'll get one more Republican to flip? Stay tuned.
JEERS to weapons of mass annoyance. On February 2, 1991, during the Gulf War that a Bush actually won, Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia. Today school children read about it in their textbooks as the Battle of Yes Saddam Hussein Was That Dumb.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 2, 2007
CHEERS to declawing the deceivers. Senators Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama have introduced a bill that would levy stiff penalties for the jerks who try to bamboozle voters at election time:
Since 2000, civil rights groups have documented cases of voters receiving calls and fliers with false information about the location of polling places and endorsements, or that warned their voting could result in imprisonment of immigrants.
The unnumbered legislation would punish deceptive practices, including knowingly communicating false information about the time and place of an election or about voter eligibility rules, with criminal penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and/or five years’ imprisonment.
C&J's amendment: "...in a cell with Duke Cunningham and his all-you-can-eat beans & broccoli buffet cart."
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And just one more…
JEERS to getting picked over. In about 30 minutes, I'll be taken on a terror ride in a dilapidated taxi to my dentist's office. As I watch Fox News on the ceiling-mounted TV above me, the hygienist will take a sharp metal grappling hook to my gums and follow that with a miniature sandblaster that will make the same screeching sound as nails on a chalkboard. As a result of this abuse, my gums will bleed. The hygienist will take pictures of my bleeding gums and display them on the IMAX screen that I'll have to contort my body like a pretzel to see behind me. Then the actual dentist will pop in, tell me that he's concerned my gums are bleeding, and "strongly" recommend a $150 propane-powered toothbrush, a $400 nightguard, a $500 cap, a $1,200 crown, a new porcelain lower jaw, and whatever else he needs to tack onto the bill so he can buy a new Mercedes or, as the case may be, a Brazillian vacation. I'll walk away with some free dental floss along with a lingering taste of latex gloves in my mouth, and spend the rest of the day trying to uncurl my toes. Tonight for dinner: bag of fucking Oreos.
I hope your Thursday ends up better than mine is about to. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Facts are facts, and the fact is that Cheers and Jeers’ Bill in Portland Maine is unbelievably cute.
---Huffington Post
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