From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
"Always the Tallest Guy in the Room"
Don’t forget to say "Happieth Birthdayeth" to George Washington today---284 years old and still alive! (Disclaimer: actual aliveness limited to the hearts of his countrymen. See warranty for details.)
From the day he took office, Washington knew that corruption and special interests would be a fact of life in the halls of power. Today Republicans would obstruct him at every turn because "We’re still troubled by all the unanswered questions about that cherry tree” and then Jason Chaffetz would hold 18 months of committee hearings. I think he'd be horrified at the guy sitting in the big chair 220 years later:
As president, he was particularly sensitive to the diverse interests of the new country and fervent in his efforts to prevent its fragmentation. [...] He promoted roads, canals, the post office---anything and everything that would bind the different states and regions together. […]
Never taking the unity of the country for granted, he remained preoccupied throughout his presidency with creating the sinews of nationhood. … Washington, more than anyone, promoted the sense of Union that Lincoln and others would later uphold.
---From To the Best of My Ability, edited by James McPherson
Roads. Canals. Postal service. Or as GOPers called them throughout the Obama years: handouts for the takers that will create uncertainty for the job creators. But thank god the lamestream media was on the case to call Washington out on his caliphatic socialist agenda:
[H]is critics believed he wanted to become another "King George."
The Philadelphia Aurora, one of the major opposition papers, in 1796 editorialized: "If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington. If ever a nation was deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington."
---From Rating the Presidents by William Ridings, Jr. and Stuart McIver
Washington wasn't perfect. He lied when it suited him. He schemed with the best of the opportunists. He could be a tantrum-prone hardass. Plus there was that whole humans owning other humans thing that does nothing positive for his legacy. But considering he didn’t have much of a POTUS playbook to work with, and no predecessor whose brain he could pick over an evening of bowling and beer, he did okay. Now shine up yer buckles and pay your respects to "#1" here. And then go take advantage of his awesome mattress sales.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Note: There is no i in Sweden. But there is a we. Discuss.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til daylight saving time begins: 18
Days 'til the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival in Ann Arbor: 10
Estimated annual gross domestic product predicted by the Trump administration, which is cooking the books to come up with such a rosy scenario: 3-3.5%
Number of British citizens who signed a petition demanding that Trump's "state visit" be downgraded to an ordinary one without all the pomp and pizzazz: 1.8 million
Percent of Americans who, when they hear about someone committing violence in the name of Christianity, respond that "that person wasn’t really Christian" according to the Public Religion Research Institute: 75%
Percent of Americans who, when they hear about someone committing violence in the name of Islam, respond that "that person wasn’t really a Muslim": 50%
Pounds of scallops, which are now fetching over $20 a pound, caught by Maine fishermen last year: 450,000
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Mid-week Rapture Index:
180 (including 3 occults and a light scattering of “devil-worshiping, Luciferian, demon-possessed maniacs”). Soul Protection Factor 12 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to dropping a hot potato like a hot potato. (Because how else would you drop a hot potato?) pay attention, every Democrat within the sound of my pixels screaming from your screen: elections have consequences so VOTE! Last November North Carolina booted a truly destructive Republican and put in a truly sensible Democrat. Here's just one of the ramifications:
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who narrowly unseated Republican Pat McCrory in November, announced Tuesday that he is reversing course in a major voting rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state will no longer defend a series of voting restrictions passed in 2013 by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed by McCrory that a federal appeals court has ruled constitute unconstitutional "race-based vote suppression."
Since 2013, the state has fought to implement a law that eliminated same-day voter registration, cut a full week of early voting, barred voters from casting a ballot outside their home precincts, scrapped straight-ticket voting, and got rid of a program to pre-register high school students who would turn 18 by Election Day. That law also included one of the nation’s strictest voter ID requirements. [...] “We need to make it easier for people to exercise their right to vote, not harder, and I will not continue to waste time and money appealing this unconstitutional law,” Cooper said.
Unless Republicans come up with a way to throw a wrench in the works, they'll be forced to do the thing that terrifies them more than anything: actually have to work for their votes.
JEERS to shitty people and the shitty shit they do. The Trump administration hasn’t exactly given the neo-Nazi movement in America an unfettered green light to do their dirty work on non-Aryan citizens. Its more like they've given them a yellow light that's juuust on the cusp of turning red, meaning some neo-Nazis will stop short of criminal activity but others will put their pedal to the metal and plow through the intersection of Law and Order. This is what the latter looks like:
Over 100 headstones in Chesed Shel Emeth Society Jewish Cemetery, located in University City, Missouri, were subject to vandalism or property destruction over the past week.
The destruction comes as a rash of threats against Jewish Community Centers around the nation occur, and in a state where threats against the Jewish community have been far too frequent.
In all, 48 JCCs in 26 states and one Canadian province received nearly 60 bomb threats during January, according to the JCCA, an association of JCCs. [...] On Monday, another wave of bomb threats hit 11 JCCs across the country, bringing the total to 69 incidents targeting 54 JCCs in 27 states, according to the JCCA.
After a milquetoast tut-tut from President Trump, the Anne Frank Center responded that “The President’s sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration.” And then this happened (in mere hours) and helped illustrate why Steve Bannon’s Aryan fantasies aren’t going to be realized anytime soon:
The easiest of lessons, writ large: hold hands and stick together.
CHEERS to press conferences worth watching (via AKALib). You won't hear the media being declared the enemy of the American people or a Jewish reporter being told to sit down and stop asking such Jewy questions. No, today's press conference will be conducted coolly and professionally by NASA. And by the end of it you might feel compelled to start packing your bags:
NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 22, to present new findings on exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA. So what has NASA discovered? Some new exoplanet with a strong potential for life or some new info on one of the known ones?
Despite having all the inside dope on everything everywhere, I don’t want to ruin the surprise. But I will say this: if you present a jumbo bag of Reese's Pieces to the leadership of the exoplanet in question, they'll give you a ticker-tape parade and name a crater after you.
CHEERS to #44's new digs. Although President Obama may still be decompressing after his eventful and intense two-term presidency, planning on his new library and museumcontinues. The latest from our email in-box:
Obama Foundation Announces Exhibition Designers for Obama Presidential Center
Chicago, IL---The Obama Foundation announced that it has selected an interdisciplinary exhibition design team for the museum that will be part of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC).
The exhibition design team will be led by Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) and will ultimately include several firms and individuals with expertise in media, lighting, and acoustics. Several Chicago-based creative collaborators will play important roles in the exhibition design process, including the firms Civic Projects LLC and Normal, and the artists and educators Amanda Williams, Andres Hernandez, and Norman Teague.
Almost half of the exhibition design work for the Obama Presidential Center will be performed by minority-and woman-owned businesses.
The center will house a huge documents archive, thousands of artifacts and a full slate of programs and revolving exhibitions. As opposed to the Trump presidential center, which will house a hotel and casino and go bankrupt in three years.
CHEERS to the Miracle on Ice. We'll file this item under "Up Yours, Putin." Thirty-seven years ago today, on February 22, 1980,the U.S. Olympic hockey team out-skated and outwitted the "unbeatable"Soviet team at Lake Placid, stunning everyone by beating them 4-3. I walked around afterward in a t-shirt with a Russian bear getting knocked in the head by a puck and the caption: "Puck You, Russia!" (I'm still surprised my schoolmarms didn’t have a problem with the thinly-veiled F-bomb.) Thankfully, with maturity and the passage of time, I've traded in that ratty old shirt for a sensible Brooks Brothers button-down. It says "Hey, Remember When We Kicked Your Ass in 1980, Russia? That Was Puckin' Awesome!" Because, y'know, we all have to grow up sometime.
CHEERS to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The LGBT community is rightfully buzzing this week over a new study that quantifies the relationship between societal acceptance of LGBTers and…oh, what's the term…staying alive:
After states legalized same-sex marriage, researchers found suicide rates among young people dropped.
Anew study claims the legalization of same-sex marriage and the drop in suicide rates are linked,especially for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens.
The Guardian reports a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that implementing marriage equality is associated with a 7% drop in the number of high school students who reported suicidal ideation. For LGB students, the drop in suicidal ideation was even bigger at a 14% decrease.
These decreases were enough for researchers to say that having laws that allow same-sex marriage is linked with suicide rates, which props up other research that shows the more we accept people, the less depressed and likely to have suicidal thoughts they are.
Magical thing, self-esteem.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 22, 2007
JEERS to escalation fever! I'd tell you what was going on over in Iraq but you wouldn’t be able to hear me over all the explosions. So we'll just assume freedom is still on the march.
P.S. Great Britain---our biggest ally in the Coalition of the Gullible---is officially cutting and running. Be a good chap and leave behind a tin or two of Earl Grey, right-ho? Jolly good.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Massachusetts liberals. Ted Kennedy was born 85 years ago today and it goes without saying that he is missed on every imaginable level we can think of. I was tooling around the You Tube universe (the "Youbiverse," if you will) yesterday looking for some classic Ted, and I came across this clip. He's trying to get Republicans to stick a crowbar in our nation’s wallet and fund CHIP---the Children's Health Insurance Program. I love the routine: like a seasoned baseball player he steps up, knocks the dirt off his shoes, goes through his warm-up moves, and then…Thwack! Off he goes. Among other things, it's a great example of how to appeal to the mythical "working families" without coming off as pandering. But at the end of the day, I just love hearing Ted in righteous-bellow mode again…
Pay your respects here. Today in the Daily Kos cafeteria (of course): Boston cream pies and keep ‘em comin’.
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:
Bill in Portland Maine is a spineless beast.
---Live Science
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