From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Oh! More Things I Know:
» On Tuesday Democrats celebrated a bill preventing discrimination, while today Republicans will celebrate a Trump executive order promoting discrimination. Our two parties in a nutshell.
» I find it puzzling that a fashion designer with no political experience is having trouble adjusting to co-running the most complex and powerful country in the world with her equally-inexperienced grifter dad.
» Dr. David Dao has settled with United Airlines for, ironically, a boatload of cash.
» Thinking of FCC chairman Ajit Pai is what ISPs do in a pinch when “the moment is right” but they’ve run out of Viagra.
» The 2017 Netroots Nation Convention in Atlanta starts in 98 days.
» Andrew Jackson didn’t mean he would prevent the last Civil War, silly. He meant he would prevent the one after that...which he absolutely did because, hey, did we have another Civil War? No!
» I found something good to say about Attorney General Jeff Sessions: he'll never sing "Let the Eagle Soar."
» Alan Grayson was right in 2009: the Republican health care plan is, “Don’t get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly.”
» I'm having fun watching the European Union taking every opportunity to tell Britain to go pound sand.
» You know who kills more people in America than people screaming "Allahu Akbar?" NRA members calmly saying, "Don't worry, it's not loaded."
» Billy finds it unnerving that the president likes to speak of himself in the third person. That's why Billy is digging a deeper bunker.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 4, 2017
Note: Happy Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you…
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the special House elections in Montana (Rob Quist) and Georgia (Jon Ossoff), respectively: 21, 47
Days 'til the 13th annual UFO Festival in McMinnville, Oregon: 14
Percent increase in deportation arrests by ICE between January and mid-March compared to the same period last year: 32%
Percent of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, who believe a mixing of cultures and values from around the world is extremely or very important to American identity, according to the latest AP-NORC poll: 66%, 35%
Democrats and Republicans in the same poll who believe a culture grounded in Christian religious beliefs as extremely or very important: 32%, 64%
Number of false or misleading claims made by Trump since his in---[throws up in mouth a little bit]---auguration, an average of 4.9 claims a day, according to Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post: 488
Number of colors the National Weather Service uses to communicate watches, warnings and advisories on its maps: 122
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment (Double play!):
Here in the National Laboratory for Bad Government, it's Duck and Cover time---the [Texas] Legislature is in session. The Can't-Shake-Your-Booty bill passed the House, saving us all from the scourge of sexy cheerleaders. But nothing else is getting done.
The state is being run by people who do not know how to govern. Keep in mind that based on past form, whatever lunacy is going on in Texas will eventually sweep the country.
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I often complain about the excess of irony in our national life, but this week, if you're not begoshed by the irony surplus, you haven't been paying attention. If we could just figure out a way to get energy out of the stuff, we'd be set for life.
---May 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: New cast members announced for the 4th season of Outlander…
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CHEERS to #44's new digs. Big day yesterday in Chicago, where the Obama Presidential Center and Library design was unveiled. It'll be nestled in Jackson Park on Chicago's south side. And unlike his predecessor's off-putting monstrosity, Obama's sounds downright inviting…
The campus will be open to the public and the Center will include both indoor and outdoor space “to gather, learn, create and collaborate,” with the hope of strengthening the community, creating opportunities and revitalizing the historic Jackson Park.
“The Obamas want to create a safe, warm, inviting place that brings people in, teaches them something new,and inspires them to create change in their own communities. The Center will be a place for doing, not just looking or listening,” said Marty Nesbitt, Chair of the Obama Foundation, in a statement. “The place we are developing will be integrally a part of Jackson Park. Our team’s approach is to weave the project into the park and use the Center to unlock the full potential of the park and engage the community in the Foundation’s work.” […]
The Obama Presidential Center will include an art museum, classrooms, labs and outdoor space where it will conduct programs to promote change in communities.
Meanwhile, architects have already begun work on conceptualizing the Donald J. Trump Library, a process that apparently involves drinking heavily starting at 8am and then spending the rest of the day curled up under a drafting table quietly sobbing.
JEERS to a knight in tarnished armor. Galloping into a Senate hearing room on his trusty steed "G-Man" Sir Comeylot dismounted, took his seat at the Not-So-Round Table, and proceeded to inform the world that, having just tilted a U.S.election in favor of a confirmed psychopath, he felt "mildly nauseous." Then Sir Comeylot mounted his steed and rode off into the sunset with a hearty "Hi Ho, G-Man! Awaaaaay!!!" And then he fell off the edge of the earth and was never heard from again. At least in my dreams.
JEERS to itchy trigger fingers. Forty seven years ago today, National Guard troops fired on Vietnam War protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University, killing four students and injuring 12 in 13 seconds. The question that may never be answered: what possessed the Guard to use live ammo when they could've pacified the crowd with a plate of hash brownies? A permanent blemish on my home state's record.
P.S. Imagine if all the students had been walking around with concealed (or even open-carry) weapons, a concept that makes Republicans salivate every time they think about it. That would've worked out swell that day, huh. Real swell.
CHEERS to famous firsts. What does it take for the League of Conservation Voters to file their first lawsuit in 48 years? Of course you can already guess the answer: Trump. It takes a Trump:
For the first time inits history, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today filed a legal challenge to President Trump’s executive order purporting to reverse permanent protections from off shore drilling for the Artic and Atlantic Oceans. LCV will be the lead plaintiff in the case, which is brought by a coalition of conservation and Alaska Native groups. […]
“Never in LCV’s history have we taken this step,” said Gene Karpinski, President of LCV. “The permanent protections President Obama established for the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans were won with years of research, lobbying and organizing. Offshore drilling and the associated threat of devastating oil spills puts coastal economies and ways of life at risk while worsening the consequences of climate change. Now, President Trump is trying to erase all the environmental progress we’ve made, and we aren’t about to go down without a fight.”
And if we know anything about lawsuits against Lord Dampnut's executive orders, it's that they have a really good chance of succeeding. So good luck, LCV, and remember the #1 rule for keeping Trump's legal team dazed and confused: use big words.
HA HA HA HA!!! to impending doom. As in, Maine Governor and professional lunkhead Paul LePage is about to go down in flames yet again, thanks to his decision to do something very, very dumb: sue our state attorney general, who is very, very smart:
The Republican governor and Democratic attorney general long have clashed over legal issues, with [Attorney General Janet] Mills declining on several occasions to represent LePage in the lawsuits that he frequently joined with other Republican governors.
In a written statement, LePage said Mills has cost the state “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in private attorney fees because of her refusal to provide legal representation for the state. […] Mills countered that her office has represented the state in thousands of matters each year. She also noted that the attorney general is an independent constitutional officer whose duty is to represent the public interest. […]
Maine’s highest court has previously ruled that the attorney general is not obligated to defend the state in lawsuits. In a landmark case, the court upheld former Attorney General James Tierney’s 1991 decision not to defend the state on an issue that Tierney argued was contrary to the public interest.
Mills is going to win this contest, and I can tell you why in ten words: Paul LePage is an idiot, and Janet Mills is a Democrat. Okay, that's eleven. So sue me.
CHEERS to today's edition of Oh My God That's So Fucking Lame! The neo-Nazi running to be president of France just got busted for plagiarizing a speech by one of her right-wing opponents. The response…
Marine Le Pen deliberately plagiarized verbatim parts of an address from a former presidential candidate, as a “wink” to him and the voters she hopes to peel away in a runoff, her spokesmen said Tuesday. … Three separate spokesmen for Le Pen used the word “wink” to describe the extracts copied word for word from Fillon. At no point in the speech did she cite Fillon or acknowledge the source of the extracts.
This has been today's edition of Oh My God That's So Fucking Lame!
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 4, 2007
JEERS to screwing your friends. How inept is this administration? So inept that it couldn’t even figure out how to accept Katrina aid from other countries:
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only$40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction,according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.
Let me repeat that: the party of big money and big oil couldn’t figure out how to accept free money and free oil. My only guess is they must’ve been chewing bubble gum at the same time.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to jolly goods shows. These days awards season never ends. Tuesday it was Broadway's turn, announcing its nominations for the Tony Awards. You can see the whole list here. The musical starring Josh Groban called Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (based on War and Peace) got the most nods with 12, followed by the revival of Hello,Dolly! With 10. (Needless to say---my opinion, anyway---Bette Midler is the one sure lock among all the nominees because...she’s Bette Freaking Midler!) Among the other actors who got the call: Kevin Kline (Present Laughter), Cate Blanchette (The Present), David Hyde Pierce (Hello, Dolly), Sally Field (The Glass Menagerie), Condola Rashad (A Doll's House, Part 2), Danny DeVito (Arthur Miller's The Price), and Jane Krakowski for He Loves Me. The Tonys, of course, honor people for the dedication they put into carefully creating alternate realities on a stage, with performers reading carefully-crafted and memorized lines that fool the audience into believing what they're seeing and hearing is true when it's all just an illusion created as an opportunity to take people’s money. In other words, it's like a conservative political convention except with jazz hands.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are youcheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Bill in Portland Maine is incredible for his ability to piss off a diverse spectrum of people.
---Gizmodo
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