From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize an Ally Tuesday
The year is 2016. Americans have just elected an avowed and unrepentant "pussy grabber" to be President of the United States. If you're waiting for a punchline, you'll be staring at your screen for eternity. Donald Trump is, I think it's fair to say, going to be a menace to women on a scale that makes his beauty-pageant behavior ("I can bust down the dressing room door and stare at the chicks' ta-tas because I own the joint. But I'm a very classy ogler, believe me.") look quaint.
So thank god there are some battle-tested allies who will fight back hard when the He-Man Womanhater party tries rolling back women's rights by a century or more. This week we're highlighting and supporting the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose president Nancy Northup has this to say about the incoming groper administration:
“Make no mistake: Donald Trump’s proposed policies pose a direct threat to the constitutional protections recognized by Roe v. Wade and resoundingly reaffirmed in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Our country now stands perilously close to a return to the dark days when women were forced to put their own lives at risk to get safe and legal abortion care.
President-elect Trump has publicly pledged to overturn Roe and promised punishment for the one in three American women who will have an abortion in her lifetime.
When a woman decides to end a pregnancy, she needs safe, high-quality care--not a prison sentence. The Center for Reproductive Rights will continue to harness the momentum of the recent victory in Whole Woman’s Health and is ready to bring the full force of the law in order to oppose any attacks on reproductive freedom in the courts and Congress.”
The Center's mission is "dedicated to reproductive rights, with expertise in both U.S. constitutional and international human rights law. Our groundbreaking cases before national courts, United Nations committees, and regional human rights bodies have expanded access to reproductive healthcare, including birth control, safe abortion, prenatal and obstetric care, and unbiased information." If you're able and so inclined, here's the Center's donation page. The sooner we help our allies shore up their defenses for the coming shitstorm, the better we’ll all be able to push back against the orcs at the gate.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Note: Today is random drug test day. Please find a random drug and test it. If it makes you smell colors and taste sounds, please share! ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Festivus, Christmas and Kwanzaa: 17, 18, 19
Days 'til Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: 10!!!!
Number of U.S. businesses out of 887 surveyed that achieved a perfect 100% score for LGBT equality in the workplace, up from 407 last year according to the Human Rights Campaign's 15th annual Corporate Equality Index: 517
Percent of U.S. hotels that stuffed Bibles in their guest bedside drawers in 2006: 95%
Percent of hotels that continue the practice now, according to a survey by STR: 48%
Percent of U.S. adults in 1939 who thought that the ideas of "big businessmen" and the Roosevelt administration, respectively, should be followed more to reduce unemployment according to a Gallup poll: 55%, 45%
Percent chance that Republicans in Congress have any idea what they're going to replace the ACA with if they repeal it next month: 0%
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Puppy Pic of the Day: No! Not the latkes!!!!
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CHEERS to the end of a real Tar"heel". (See what I did there? Wordplay!) It's finally over. After crying voter fraud (and election worker fraud and every other kind of fraud including fraud fraud), forcing recounts, crying in front of judges and threatening to go to the legislature to cheat his way to a second term, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory finally admitted that there was a great big voter boot up his ass and he wasn't ever going to be able to pull it out. This is THE silver lining of the 2016 election, and look at it sparkle…
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory announced Monday that he’s conceded the election to Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general, and will support transition efforts. […]
With the concession, McCrory becomes the state’s first governor to lose a re-election bid since a constitutional amendment in the 1970s gave governors the ability to seek more than one term. His defeat followed the nation’s second costliest gubernatorial race and North Carolina’s most expensive ever.
McCrory lost votes in urban areas because of his strong support for House Bill 2, the controversial law that among other provisions requires transgender people in government facilities to use the bathroom that corresponds to their birth certificates. … McCrory also fared poorly in Charlotte’s Republican-leaning northern suburbs around Lake Norman. Much of the opposition to the governor there didn’t involve bathrooms: Voters were upset that McCrory wouldn’t stop a plan to build toll lanes on Interstate 77, the main commuter route in the area that has some of the region’s worst traffic jams.
Also this:
As if things couldn’t get even worse for McCrory, now he has to take the elevator down below the earth's crust and inform his billionaire benefactor, Art Pope, that he failed in his mission to put down the rebel alliance led by Reverend Barber. When he returns, McCrory's neck will be one inch in diameter. (The Sith are poor losers.)
CHEERS to speaking inconvenient truth to hypocritical power. With General David Petraeus still in the running to be Trump's Secretary of State, a frustrating double-standard is sticking out like a sore thumb. Namely, Petraeus' slap on the wrist with a scented hankie for spilling military secrets to his girlfriend, who could've used them to sabotage our troops in the field…versus the stealing of NSA secrets by Edward Snowden, who used them judiciously to expose massive government abuse of our civil liberties. The exiled Snowden makes this point crystal clear in this clip with Katie Couric in Moscow:
To voice your disapproval with this ridiculous kind of look-the-other-wayism, just type a stern message to the government in any program on your computer or mobile device and save it in any file that's handy. Don’t worry---they'll find it.
CHEERS to entering the civilized world. Well, Hallefrickinlujah! On today's date in 1865---89 years after we officially declared ourselves a nation where "all men are created equal" and 8 months after Lincoln was assassinated---the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was officially ratified, abolishing slavery and pissing off the south. You can view the document here. 151 years later, blacks are least likely to be hired, most likely to be targeted and killed by police, least likely to be in the minority among the prison population and most likely to be targeted for voter disenfranchisement by Republicans. But, on the other hand, how nice to know that blacks can now be oppressed in all those ways as a free people.
JEERS to Little Big Mouth. Donald Trump hasn't been office for a single day, yet he's already sparked a nasty diplomatic incident with China---planned in advance, we now know---by playing footsies with Taiwan. Personally, I think China's human rights abuses alone make it worthy of a middle-finger salute. But there's that "nukes" thing, and also that "they own a huge chunk of our debt" thing. We gotta be smart about our relationship with China, but Trump feels reckless world endangerment is the way to go. So does one of the scarier members of the Senate:
Trump spoke on the phone with President Tsai Ing-wen Friday, which has not been done since 1979 when the U.S. agreed to normalize relations with China and embrace the "one China" policy. China views Taiwan as an illegitimate government.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) praised him.
"America's policy toward Taiwan is governed by the Taiwan Relations Act, under which we maintain close ties with Taiwan and support its democratic system. I commend President-elect Trump for his conversation with President Tsai Ing-wen, which reaffirms our commitment to the only democracy on Chinese soil.”
Satisfied with his comments praising Taiwan's commitment to fair and open democracy in which all people have an equal say in the direction of the government, Cotton excused himself to go work on new ways to prevent non-Republican Americans from voting in elections.
CHEERS to the ex-POTUS of Steel. Pretty amazing anniversary today, and one that I don’t even think the guy celebrating it thought he'd live to see. But it was indeed one year ago that Jimmy Carter shared the good news with his Sunday School class:
Jimmy Carter's cancer is gone, the former president announced on Sunday.
"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," Carter said in a statement.
Stephanie Wynn, a 12-year member of the congregation, confirmed Carter's comments to CNN. According to Wynn, Carter said he'd gone for an MRI last week, and the scan's results showed that he is cancer-free. The congregation applauded the news, she said.
Earlier this year he was back to building homes for Habitat for Humanity, and as far as I know Carter is back to doing that Carter thing he does. Namely, leaving us young'uns in his dust.
JEERS to Pauley come lately. I don’t know why I bother documenting our governor's tired old shtick anymore. I mean, once he crashes through the guardrail of decency by leaving a voicemail calling a legislator "cocksucker" and then insisting he wants it re-played for everyone to hear, it becomes pretty obvious he's just another attention-hogging old drama queen:
Gov. Paul LePage questioned the integrity of the November elections Friday, citing the possibility of voter fraud without providing evidence of any problems with Maine’s balloting. […]
The governor’s staff did not respond to repeated requests on Thursday and Friday for more details or evidence of problems with the election results.
State Rep. Chuck Kruger, D-Thomaston, the outgoing House chair of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, said he’s given up trying to figure out what prompts the governor to do or say anything. “If I’d scratch my head every time he did something that didn’t make sense, my head would be a lot smaller,” said Kruger.
As opposed to LePage, whose head generates sparks when he scratches it.
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 6, 2006
CHEERS to colonizing the big cheese ball in the sky. Guess what, kids? NASA says we're going back to the moon by 2020! And this time we get to park our butts there in little love shacks. I hope that's within the Dominos/Netflix delivery area.
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And just one more...
CHEERS to delightfully twisted minds. Today is comedian, Oscar winner (1989 Best Short Live-Action Film for The Appointments of Dennis Jennings) and multiple Grammy nominee Steven Wright's 61st birthday. To describe him beyond the single word "deadpan" is futile, so don’t even try. Just feast on some of his brain food and feel your neurons tingle…
Go here and you can eat the whole bag---as long as you don't mind that your stomach hurts afterward. Oh, and extra points for including a Maine lighthouse (Cape Neddick) on the home page of his website. He always did like us best.
Have an interesting 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 got to go. And not because he’s ruining Cheers and Jeers. Because he’s ruining the entire kiddie pool.
---USA Today
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