From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
This week marks five months of highlighting a candidate or organization every Tuesday that stands in solidarity with us in our all-hands-on-deck, flashing-red-light prime directive to limit the damage inflicted by Trump’s toxic swamp emissions and, well, save the republic. Thanks to all of you who have supported our featured allies, financially or otherwise. It makes a real difference.
Hat tip to Kossack greenbird for suggesting that we shine this week's EAAT spotlight on---weird as this sounds---sunlight. As in, the Sunlight Foundation, whose mission you heard shouted a lot during last weekend’s marches: transparency, transparency, transparency:
The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses technology, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all. Our vision is for technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation. Our overarching goal is to achieve changes in the law to require real-time, online transparency for all government information.
We were part of a coalition that passed historic reforms to the Freedom of Information Act...fundamentally changing how the public is informed about federal spending, and now are pushing for the passage of the OPEN Government Data Act.
Among many other things, they're all over the West Wing's recent decision to drop a tarp over the White House visitor logs:
While this action is no surprise for a President whose tax returns remain secret, who has proclaimed the free press the enemy of the American people, and who has refused to fully divest from his businesses, the White House’s failure to disclose visitor logs demonstrates again that American leadership on open government will not come from this Presidency. Congress, the courts, activists and the press will all have to represent our expectations for transparency. President Trump has chosen consistently to conceal and protect his own private interests over public interests. Congress should mandate disclosure of the visitor logs to help hold the Trump administration accountable.
If you feel so inclined you can make a donation at this link. They're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and contributions are tax deductible. Orgs like the Sunlight Foundation are and will continue to be super-important going forward, because we all know well that Lord Dampnut is hiding a lot of really sleazy and likely impeachment-worthy shit. The Sunlight Foundation is helping overturn the rocks so we can get a good look at what the cockroaches are hiding unerneath.
Follow them on twitter here and on Facebook here.
More Cheers and Jeers below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Note: If you need a MOAB, take a MOAB. If you have a MOAB, leave a MOAB. Very gently, please.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the National Math Festival in D.C.: 4
Days 'til Blacksburg Fork and Cork in Virginia: 11
Years, as of April 14, since Boko Haram abducted 267 girls, 195 of whom are still missing: 3
Minimum number of states (including Maine) that are suing the Trump administration over its delay in implementation of energy-efficiency standards: 10
Expected average price of gas this summer, according to the Energy Information Administration: $2.46 per gallon
Drop in retail sales in February and March: 0.3%, 0.2%
Sunday’s high temp in Portland, Maine: 86F
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NEW Tuesday Feature! "Georgia On My Mind"
Brought to you by the 2017 Netroots Nation Convention in Atlanta August 10-13. Let’s start out real basic with some fun facts, for which my #1 source is, of course, Georgia Public Broadcasting. Georgia…
…is the largest state east of the Mississippi River (in terms of land area).
…was the 4th state to join the Union in 1776.
…is home to the invention of the Cherokee written alphabet.
… became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18 (in 1945).
…has the largest swamp in North America (the Okefenokee in south Georgia).
…became the first state to charter a state-supported university on January 27, 1785 when the University of Georgia was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly.
Oh, and this: Georgia is the home base of Georgia Public Broadcasting. What a coincidence!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Jungle puppies? Jungle puppies!!!
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CHEERS to pandemonium among the peach trees. All eyes are on Georgia's 6th District as Democrat whippersnapper Jon Ossoff (heavily funded by the unwashed rabble here at Daily Kos) faces down a small army of Republican lunkheads in today's special election to park a new butt in the House seat Tom Price occupied before becoming the worst health secretary in American history. It's a red district and I'm under no illusions that an outright Ossoff win today is anything but virtually impossible, and a runoff win in June is…well, virtually impossible. But we'll see. The reason we're all biting our nails is because we love our miracles, and this would be a big one. And now, with a slightly more optimistic assessment, I give you Kossack Poblano's---aka Nate Silver's---take:
As of Sunday evening, betting markets gave Ossoff about a 40 percent chance of eventually being the next member of Congress from Georgia 6, whether by winning a majority of the vote on Tuesday or prevailing in the June runoff. While that isn’t a ridiculous assessment, it looks too pessimistic on Ossoff. If the polls are right, the outcome of a runoff is more like a true 50-50 proposition---plus, there’s an outside chance that Ossoff could win outright on Tuesday. …
I generally think the conventional wisdom has been too slow to catch up with the fact that midterm and off-year elections are often problematic for the president’s party, and especially when the president is as unpopular as Trump. What might seem like an extraordinary feat---Democrats flipping Gingrich’s old seat---is going to be more commonplace in an environment like this one.
Polls close at 7, followed by the results, followed by a lot of exhaling.
CHEERS and JEERS to paying for vital services (and, unfortunately, non-vital congress critters). If you're part of the 99 percent, today is the day you need to make sure you've sent enough money to the IRS to pay your income taxes. If you're in the top one percent, however, today is the day you need to make sure you've sent enough money to the Cayman Islands to dodge your income taxes.
JEERS to the buffoon in charge. Who knew Star Spangled Bannering could be so complicated? Yup, Trump managed to embarrass himself yesterday at the Easter Egg Roll, forgetting to put his hand over the place where his heart would be if he had one during the playing of the National Anthem. Melania had to nudge him. Take a look:
In fairness, though, he also had to nudge her after she failed to salute during the playing of the Russian National Anthem. A regular Ozzie and Harriett, these two.
CHEERS to being patriotismier than thou. Yesterday was Patriot's Day (yes, that's where the apostrophe goes up here), a commemoration of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord that sparked our War of Independence 241 years ago. Only three states are flagpinny enough to make it an official holiday: Maine, Wisconsin and Massachusetts, and we look down at the rest of you, as we should. The big Monday holiday event was the 121st Boston Marathon. The winners were clearly rigged by Barack Obama and his newly-formed marathon "Deep State":
Kenya's Geoffrey Kirui won the 121st Boston Marathon on Monday, pulling away from American Galen Rupp with about two miles to go to win in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 37 seconds.
Kenyan policewoman Edna Kiplagat won the women's race in 2:21:52, needing only one try in Boston to add it to wins in London, New York and Los Angeles. She pulled ahead of Rose Chelimo of Bahrain in the Newton hills to win by 59 seconds.
As usual, the winner of the jetpack division, clocking in at 2.62 seconds---was Geeky McNerd from MIT, who is expected to make a full recovery from a nasty case of windburn.
CHEERS to H-2-Oh That's Cool! I was alerted by my good friend Alan Alda* about this scientific breakthrough that could apparently go a long way toward solving that whole "dying of thirst" thing. And credit for this amazing doodad goes to the benevolent benefactors at the California-based Kavli Foundation:
“This is a major breakthrough in the long-standing challenge of harvesting water from the air at low humidity,” said Omar Yaghi, one of two senior authors of the paper, who holds the James and Neeltje Tretter chair in chemistry at UC Berkeley and is a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. […]
The prototype, under conditions of 20-30 percent humidity, was able to pull 2.8 liters (3 quarts) of water from the air over a 12-hour period, using one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF. Rooftop tests at MIT confirmed that the device works in real-world conditions. […]
“We wanted to demonstrate that if you are cutoff somewhere in the desert, you could survive because of this device. A person needs about a Coke can of water per day. That is something one could collect in less than an hour with this system.”
The secret is a powder called "metal-organic framework" (mof) that can be customized to an area's specific climate conditions to attract the most water molecules. Bingo! Fresh water from thin air. If there's a god, please let Him plant in their heads the secret to doing the same thing with Bacardi fumes.
* “I'm not really a good friend of Bill's. He saw me deliver a commencement address at Kenyon College once in the 80s, but that's it. And for the record, that speech killed.” ---Alan Alda
CHEERS to Saddle Sores for Freedom. On this date in 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott hopped on their Segways and scootered from Boston to Concord, Mass., warning the citizens of the approaching British army (Prescott was the only one with enough juice to make it all the way). Their focus group-tested talking point: "The British Are Coming!" Tomorrow: The thrilling conclusion…
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 18, 2007
JEERS to dumbass boys and their dumbass toys. The right-wing talking point appears to be: let's give every college student a standard-issue revolver as part of their freshman initiation packet. That way, if they hear shots fired, they can return fire and ask questions later. Gee, that would've worked out swell at Kent State, huh.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to "the best idea we ever had." Happy National Park Week! Yellowstone was #1 in 1872 (Thank you, U.S. Grant), and we've been adding 'em ever since. (Although under the current administration that will likely come to a screeching halt for four years.) Among other things, entry is free at all our N.P.s now through Sunday. While we’re all waiting for the results from the Georgia special election, feel free to daydream with some pics:
"The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship." — Theodore Roosevelt —
"The parks do not belong to one state or to one section. The Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon are national properties in which every citizen has a vested interest; they belong as much to the man of Massachusetts, of Michigan, of Florida, as they do to the people of California, of Wyoming, and of Arizona."
— Stephen Mather, NPS director 1917-1929 —
And a bonus, featuring our last legitimate president:
“I still remember traveling up to Yellowstone National Park [as an 11-year-old], coming over a hill, and suddenly seeing just hundreds of deer and bison for the very first time. That new scenery gave me a sense of just how immense, how diverse, and how important the vast array of wildlife is to understanding and appreciating the world and our place in it. That’s something I wanted my daughters to understand when I brought them back to the very same spot at Yellowstone a few years ago. It’s something I want to preserve for our kids, grandkids, and generations to come."
— Barack Obama —
Can I get an Amen?
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Gordon Klingenschmitt’s Advice To Bill in Portland Maine: ‘You Need To Get The Devil Out Of You’
---Right Wing Watch
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