From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Bigly Blast from the Past
Trackdown was a TV series that ran from 1957-59, and took place in the fictional Texas town of Porter following the Civil War. The great Robert Culp plays Ranger and de facto Sheriff Hoby Gilman. I'd never heard of it before until Kossack Thinking Fella sent me a link to this clip from a 1958 episode (“The End of the World”) in which a con artist named---wait for it---Trump rides into town and tries to---wait for it---bamboozle the citizens into buying into a---wait for it---big beautiful wall to protect them from---wait for it---non-existent threats. This is really something:
You can watch the full episode here. Nothing much to add except: freaky.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Note: The Department of Tyranny Resistance reminds you to change the batteries in your bullshit detector before Friday at noon, and to test its operational ability by saying "Donald Trump will drain the swamp" until it screeches. Thank you and have a fact-filled day. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Women's March on Washington: 3
Days 'til the Oregon Truffle Festival in Eugene: 2
Approval rating of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, respectively, in the days before they were sworn in, according to CNN-ORC polling: 84%, 40%
Minimum number of Democratic members of Congress who are boycotting the Trump inauguration: 43 50
Year in which the first poet spoke at a presidential inauguration (Kennedy's): 1961
Number of presidents sworn in by a woman (Johnson, 1963--- U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes): 1
Number of presidents who have affirmed rather than sworn their oath (Pierce and Hoover): 2
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Mid-week Rapture Index:
184 (including 4 kings of the east and 1 Trump inauguration prayer shield). Soul Protection Factor 45 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Wait here…
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CHEERS to debt reduction. I have to admit---I did not expect President Obama to knock down Pvt. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning's prison sentence for espionage from 35 years to seven. He'll be released next May. Author and former Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchell says his 2013 post on what Manning's whistle-blowing revealed---in handy list form---remains one of his most popular, and provides a timely reminder that the United States is hardly the exceptional nation the robotic flag-wavers insist it is---our government is guilty of some awful stuff, much of it outright sadistic, and occasionally bathing the skullduggery in sunlight is important. (May it happen every damn day during the next president's regime.) Charlie Pierce at Esquire weighs in on why this is an appropriate commutation, especially when contrasted with how everyone in the Bush-Cheney inner circle got off scot-free:
Since her conviction, she has been incarcerated at Leavenworth, including long stretches of solitary confinement. She has attempted suicide twice. If you think she got off easy, you're out of your mind.
[Scooter] Libby got off easy. Oliver North got off easy. The people who gave Libby and North their orders got off easy. Once again, the president has turned his big bag of fcks inside out only to discover that it's still empty. … [T]here is no serious argument about whether or not Chelsea Manning's punishment was sufficient. Solitary at Leavenworth is as sufficient as it gets.
By the way, Wikileaks anarchist and, now we know, Trump/Putin lapdog Julian Assange said he would allow himself to be extricated from his embassy hideout if Manning was set free. Gee, I wonder if he'll keep his word. More likely, he'll be changing it to nyet.
CHEERS to a wiser use of time. Democratic members of Congress---at least 50 so far---are bailing from the inauguration left and right, mainly because they don’t want to legitimize a sadistic, lying imbecile who's probably never read the Constitution and who was elevated to office with help from Russia and a sympathetic FBI director. I was happy to find out Monday that my congresswoman, Chellie Pingree is among them. She makes clear that it's not sour grapes over the election results:
I fully accept the outcome of this presidential election. And, under normal circumstances, I would have no question at all about participating in this important ceremony, whatever party the incoming President was from.
But these are not normal circumstances. Throughout the election, Donald Trump proved so, making disparaging comments about everyone from women to minorities to the disabled. But what he’s done since the election goes to another level. He’s shown no interest in holding a foreign power accountable for interference in our democracy; he’s put his business interests ahead of the country’s; he’s tweeted threats about people’s civil liberties; and he belittled civil rights hero Representative John Lewis.
President-elect Trump’s actions go beyond any kind of reasonable debate---they threaten the constitutional values our country is based on. I won’t dignify or normalize those threats by standing by at his ceremony.
But you will see her standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a few hundred thousand allies Saturday in the Women's March on Washington. By the way, there's a 90 percent chance of rain on inauguration day and barely a 10 percent chance of rain for the Women's March---a little meteorological gift from the gays, feminists and pagans. But please note that any strategically-placed lightning bolts on Friday are strictly God's doing.
CHEERS to great moments in saying stuff. Scientists say that, by studying the crude grunts and growls of modern-day baboons, we may be able to get a glimpse into how humans formed their very first grunt-and-growl language skills that eventually led to modern speech. They say that if you don’t have time to pore over the research, you can get a sense of what we sounded like 25 million years ago by listening to five minutes of Rush Limbaugh.
CHEERS to today's edition of Al Franken Makes A Republican Education Secretary Nominee Look Very Stupid In One Hundred Seconds. Trump's hand-picked edukashun gal Betsy DeVos has trouble grasping that which she should have no trouble grasping:
This has been today's edition of Al Franken Makes A Republican Education Secretary Nominee Look Very Stupid In One Hundred Seconds. Sponsored by public education teachers everywhere.
CHEERS to getting a move on. After months of dithering and lollygagging and sipping tea and tallyhoing and whatnot, British Prime Minister Theresa May finally announced how her government is going Full Brexit and will make a clean break with the European Union:
Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all."
Mrs. May used her much-anticipated speech to announce her priorities for Brexit negotiations, including maintaining the common travel area between the UK and Irish Republic and "control" of migration between the UK and the EU. […] For months, some ministers have privately whispered about complex solutions that might keep elements of membership---the choices not being binary, mechanisms that might give a sort of membership with a different name. Well, no more. The simple and clear message from Theresa May's speech this morning is that we are out.
So, to sum up: Great Britain got fed up and declared its independence from inflexible tyrants interfering with their way of life from across a wide body of water. Fifty-two years on this earth and I have to admit: I did not see that coming.
JEERS to the end of an era. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is folding up its tent and disbanding. They're blaming it on the elephants. I think that's the circus’s code for "we couldn’t compete with the Republican party anymore."
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 18, 2007
CHEERS to conservation conservatives. Get this: they're proposing an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. In Great Britain. Here in America they're still pouring crude on their Corn Flakes.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to staying in touch. God love him, President Obama has taken the high road big-time by making sure Donald Trump and his transition team have what they need to take over on Friday. That includes phone calls between #44 and #45, like this latest batch intercepted by Conan O’Brien...
In two days the highlight of Obama’s day will be deleting Trump’s number.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"It's like life is a giant weenie roast and Bill in Portland Maine is the biggest weenie!"
---Betty White
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