From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize an Ally Tuesday
Really, President Lardbrain? Your budget threatens to send a torpedo into the side of Meals on Wheels so you can divert the money to pay for more actual torpedoes? Wow.
I knew a Meals on Wheels recipient back in Ohio. Mr. Paulson lived up the street. Late 70s, had lost his wife, had limited mobility because of injuries from the time he fell asleep in his chair with a lit cigarette in his hand. Me and other neighbor kids would mow his lawn and do other chores for a few odd bucks. Sometimes we'd watch TV with him in his den. Herculean farter---kept us in stitches. And every now and then we'd be there when the Meals on Wheels volunteer would show up. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but President Lardbrain's outright cruelty in threatening a funding source for it reminded me of Mr. Paulson and how he must've appreciated those MOW deliveries.
The backlash to the threatened cuts---and budget director Mick Mulvaney's idiot assertion that the program doesn't work---has been hearteningly fierce. Followers of the Meals on Wheels twitter account soared from 8,000 to nearly 90,000 in less than a week, and it seems like the whole country across the ideological spectrum has been in full "WTF" mode. It's not rocket science to figure out that helping seniors maintain their independence via delivery of nutritious meals with the added bonus of regular social interaction and a safety check FREAKING WORKS.
So this week it was a no-brainer for us to make Meals on Wheels our Tuesday Energize an Ally recipient. If you feel so inclined you can make a donation at this link. It'll help folks who really need it, and as a bonus it’s guaranteed to give you a full day’s serving of feelgoodflavin.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Note: As we mentioned yesterday, C&J posting will be a bit spotty for awhile as we gather our medical generals to plan the launch of our War on Colon Cancer (which is not nearly as fun as the War on Christmas, but the victory will be infinitely more satisfying). Today's going to be an off-site day, so no C&J tomorrow. Back on Thursday and Friday with latex-glove balloon animals for everyone.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til "Play Ball!": 13
Days 'til the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland: 3
Percent of Americans who say they see through Trump's border wall bullshit and are under no illusions that the United States will be paying the entire bill, according to a new Pew poll: 70%
Percent of 250 U.S. colleges and universities surveyed that reported a decline in applications from international students since Trump won the election, according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers: 39%
Percent of Americans who now believe climate change is driven primarily by human-related activities, according to a new Gallup survey: 68%
Percent who worry about the effects of climate change "a great deal" today, versus 41% in 2007: 62%
Number of African delegates able to attend a summit about African economic development at the University of Southern California because all of their visa requests were denied, according to FiveThirtyEight: 0
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Olly goes rogue….
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CHEERS to Donald Trump's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Whoa. President Barf got hit with two major broadsides yesterday during the House Intelligence Committee hearings. First, FBI director James Comey confirmed that the Trump administration has been the target of an EIGHT-MONTH-LONG investigation over coordination with Russia to influence the 2016 election. (Why the hell weren't we told about this before the freaking election???) Second, both Comey and NSA director Michael Rogers confirmed that Trump's iron-clad, no-wiggle-room "This is McCarthyism!/Worse than Watergate!" accusation that President Obama ordered a wire"tapp" on Trump Tower was a total lie. NBC News calls it a "political gut punch," while USA Today says it shrouds the White House in a "big gray cloud." And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, a former president of Mexico trolled him into oblivion:
If only.
CHEERS to getting your tiny hand caught in a very large cookie jar. During yesterday's Intelligence Committee hearings, Trump actually sent out a tweet on the subject, failing to realize that folks on the committee could actually read it and ask the witnesses for their real-time reaction. Priceless:
I swear to gawd. Most people do their utmost to avoid stepping in dog shit. Trump seems to believe it’s the object of the game.
CHEERS to the Nailbiter Heard Round the World. I remember it like it was just 2,555 days ago…mainly because I think it was. On March 21, 2010, after a huge amount of debate, number-crunching and input from the entire health care industry, the House passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And what a collection of moments we saw...from blue dog Bart Stupak's grandstanding over abortion, to John Dingell showing off his historic Medicare gavel, to the House leadership locking arms and walking through a canopy of teabaggers like the protagonists of The Wizard of Oz skipping down the yellow brick road, to the hecklers that created "mass hysteria" (Barney Frank's term), and finally the moment that nobody wanted to arrive because they were all having so much darn fun: the 219-212 vote shortly before midnight. There was still work to do in the Senate, but this was nothing less than historic. Today Republicans are trying to destroy it, claiming the ACA is killing the insurance industry. But Jeff Sommer at The New York Times begs to differ:
The numbers are astonishing. The Standard & Poor’s stock index returned 135.6 percent in those seven years through Thursday, a performance that we may not see again in our lifetimes. But the managed care stocks, as a whole, have gained nearly 300 percent including dividends, according to calculations by Bespoke Investment Group. […]
Basically, several analysts on Wall Street and in Washington said, the underlying businesses of the big managed care companies have actually done extremely well under Obamacare. They have run into some problems but are hardly in need of a rescue.
The companies have notched profits---from expansion of Medicaid, for example, and from services aimed at cutting medical costs---while learning how to insulate themselves from parts of the law that have crimped their income.They have diversified, earning money from businesses that include data management, outpatient clinics and surgical services, as well as traditional health insurance.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has scheduled a vote to destroy the ACA on Thursday. He's facing a significant number of defectors, though, from his own party. But if they don’t play ball he's prepared to levy the harshest punishment he can think of: making them enroll in Trumpcare.
JEERS to how far we've fallen. On March 21, 1790, Thomas Jefferson reported to President Washington as America's first Secretary of State. Today a fatigue-prone, Russia-worshipping oil baron reports to President Donald Trump as Secretary of State. Still waiting for the punchline? That was the punchline.
CHEERS to the wind beneath America's energy wings. This'll blow a happy breeze into your shorts this morning: Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment has an update on wind energy in the U.S., and he's downright giddy about it:
[I]t has emerged in the US as the number one renewable energy source, generating more electricity than hydro-electric for the first time. … Wind generates 5.5 percent of US electricity today, a percentage that is destined to spiral up from there. [...]
The industry has created thousands of jobs. Megan Murat writes poignantly about these upwardly mobile West Texas working families suddenly able to send their kids to college and to afford new homes.
Think about it this way: All those things Trump promised American workers during the campaign and then reneged on? Wind really is fulfilling those promises! There are already 100,000 wind energy workers (only 80,000 coal workers), and that number will triple in the next few years. By 2020, only three years from now, Texas is slated to be the world’s fourth wind power giant after China, the US as a whole, and Germany.
Install a turbine inside the Texas legislature and it'll bump it up to third in a day.
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Ten years ago in C&J: March 21, 2007
JEERS to life on Pluto. A bill working its way through the Maine legislature would add domestic partners to the Family Medical Leave Act. And right on cue, our state's most annoying fundy loon---Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League---pops a few 'shrooms and takes quill to paper. [Sadly, link is no longer active---it was a real piece of batshittery, but at least we still have this snippet. ---BiPM]
[Defeating the bill] would simply uphold marriage as the chief building block of civilization. Leaders taking this stand would proactively work to make marriage the only warm hearth for sex. They would do this by teaching in a million ways that sex outside of marriage is immoral, it is wrong. Hearts would swell while children frolicked in their restored innocence.
Meanwhile Brett held Marcia in his arms, tightly. He could feel the heaving of her ample bosom as he gently laid her on the dewy grass. Stroking her hair, he started babbling on about Leviticus and ruined the moment.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to a happy Persian New Year! File this under "Thanks, Obama." It was #44's annual Nowruz greeting (and the right-wing freakout that always followed) to the Iranian people (including Iranian-Americans) that made me aware of the holiday, and it's a tradition I'm happy to continue. As Firoozeh Dumas writes in The New York Times, this is an especially good year to pause and send out positive vibes to our Iranian planet-mates:
Then came 2017, and one night, while lamenting the deeply divided nature of this country, I had an epiphany.
Every immigrant group has given something to this country,and we Iranians are here to present you, dear America,with Nowruz. Here is a holiday that asks only one thing of you---to have hope.It has been around for thousands of years. There is no controversy associated with Nowruz. No indigenous people were displaced, no wars were fought, and no one died for us to have this celebration. Unless winter comes up with some sordid revelation about spring, we are in the clear. While it is true that Nowruz has its origins in Zoroastrianism, one of the first monotheistic religions, who is going to argue with a religion whose maxim is “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds”?
So America, please find an Iranian and, for a moment, forget about the headlines that divide us. Ask about Nowruz. You will probably be offered homemade baklava or a chickpea cookie. Please do try the chickpea cookies. They may sound strange to you, but rum balls didn’t sound all that good to me, either. And while you are wondering why the cookies melt so quickly in your mouth (it’s the chickpea flour), let’s talk. You might be surprised to find out that we have more in common than you think. That should give us all hope.
And now, without further ado: [Fires glitter cannon.] "Nowruzetan Pirooz!" And many blessings on your goldfish.
Have a nice Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Cheers and Jeers named happiest kiddie pool of 2017
---CBS News
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