Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 15, 2025 · 4:49 AM PDT

2025/07/15 · 04:49

Cheers and Jeers is a weekday coping mechanism from the great state of Maine.

Energize An Ally Tuesday

The moment a voter-suppression law gets passed by some MAGA-led legislature, one guy is always right there to fight back and win. And win. And win. If the name Marc Elias sounds familiar, it's because he's that guy—the election lawyer who seemingly never sleeps as he beats back the forces of evil in court. And with Trump back in office, those forces are more evil than ever.

Marc's organization is Democracy Docket, and the second the red-hatted cult tries to do pull a fast one, Marc is faster than a Jeopardy! champion’s clicker thumb in announcing “We’ve just filed papers in court to stop this.”

This morning Democracy Docket is in our weekly Energize An Ally spotlight because without strong national voting rights protections it’s up to individuals like him, and groups like his, to save our asses.

Founded in 2020, Democracy Docket is the leading digital news and information platform covering voting rights, elections, and the courts—from an unapologetically pro-democracy standpoint.

Five years of defending voter rights.

Tracking election and democracy litigation is central to our mission. But today’s battles over democracy—access to voting, gerrymandering, executive overreach, the rule of law, and more—also play out in Congress, in the administration, and in states around the country. Through our comprehensive coverage, we’re committed to the fight to protect and strengthen U.S. democracy at a time when it faces grave dangers.

Five years after our launch, we now have nearly 400,000 subscribers and over 1 million social media followers across all platforms. To each of you, thank you for giving Democracy Docket your time and attention.

The fight for democracy is far from over. There will be ups and downs, good days and bad. Through it all, I promise that Democracy Docket will continue to provide unvarnished opinion, information, and analysis to help you make sense of it all.

Marc will continue spending whatever time it takes to do his part to save our tattered democracy. In addition to court filings, that includes election monitoring and lessons that can be applied to defang the Republicans and their suppression tactics in the future.

C&J is happy to cough up a donation from our Helping Little Old Ladies Cross The Street Tip Fund for Marc, and we encourage you to add to the pot if you’re willing and able. The donation link is here. You can also follow Marc Elias for updates on BlueSky here. Many thanks.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

500 votes Show Results

Is it smart for the Pentagon to spend $200 million to use Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot, when just last week it described itself as an anti-Semitic "Mechanazi"?

500 votes Vote Now!

Is it smart for the Pentagon to spend $200 million to use Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot, when just last week it described itself as an anti-Semitic "Mechanazi"?

Yes

8 votes

22 votes

Hell no

464 votes

Not sure/No opinion

6 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Monday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 14, 2025 · 4:49 AM PDT

2025/07/14 · 04:49

A Trip in the Wayback Machine

This morning we note that during this week in 1948 President Harry Truman accepted the nomination for another term at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. And, man, talk about sounding like a broken record—his words expressed a frustration at Republican cruelty and obstruction that could've been sounded by any Democratic president in the 77 years since:

“On the Labor Department, the Republican platform of 1944 said, if they were in power, that they would build up a strong Labor Department. They have simply torn it up. Only one bureau is left that is functioning, and they cut the appropriation of that so it can hardly function.

I recommended an increase in the minimum wage. What did I get? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Spoiler Alert: He won.

I suggested that the schools in this country are crowded, teachers underpaid, and that there is a shortage of teachers. One of our greatest national needs is more and better schools. I urged Congress to provide $300 million to aid the States in the present educational crisis. Congress did nothing about it

Time and again I have recommended improvements in the Social Security law, including extending protection to those not now covered, and increasing the amount of benefits, to reduce the eligibility age of women from 65 to 60 years. Congress studied the matter for 2 years, but couldn't find time to extend or increase the benefits. But they did find the time to take Social Security benefits away from 750,000 people, and they passed that over my veto.

I have repeatedly asked the Congress to pass a health program. The Nation suffers from lack of medical care. That situation can be remedied any time the Congress wants to act upon it.

The GOP: grand old pricks since forever.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

517 votes Show Results

Is this the week Attorney General Pam Bondi releases the information on the Epstein files that are "sitting on my desk right now"?

517 votes Vote Now!

Is this the week Attorney General Pam Bondi releases the information on the Epstein files that are "sitting on my desk right now"?

Yes

17 votes

479 votes

Not sure/No opinion

21 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday July 11, 2025 · 4:15 PM PDT

2025/07/11 · 16:15

Late Night Snark: Oh What A Lovely Mess Edition

“The problem in our country isn’t the sliver of able-bodied people who are somehow coasting on the medical coverage they may or may not use, but the millions and millions of people in this country who work f*cking hard at full-time jobs and still need food and medical assistance. That’s the system that’s broken."

—Jon Stewart, on the Republican "Screw the poor" law

“The measles are back. There have been over 1,200 cases of measles in the U.S. this year alone. But RFK Jr. is hoping to get that number way up.”

—Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host Anthony Anderson

The Amazing Racist
Friday Night Whites
Third Reich from the Sun
Illegal Alien vs. Predator
Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Roadkill Kitchen
Dumbf*ck Dynasty
White-ish

—Shows on Trump's new Truth+ streaming service, via Jimmy Kimmel Live

x
See, this is why you always read the app update notes
— The Daily Show (@thedailyshow.com) 2025-07-09T17:16:31.529Z

-

“[Attorney General] Pam Bondi was supposed to release the [Epstein] pedophile list. If we wanted an attorney general to cover up sex crimes, we would have stuck with Matt Gaetz.”

—The Daily Show's Ronny Chieng

“At the White House today, President Trump met with leaders of five West African countries. Things got off to a rough start when he congratulated them on winning the NBA Finals.”

—Anthony Anderson

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

638 votes Show Results

Who won the week?

Wisconsin's LGBTQ community, as the state Supreme Court rules that the Republican attempt to subvert a law banning "conversion therapy" is unconstitutional

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), for personally confronting the ICE goons in MacArthur Park and ordering them out

The "Elbows Up" rallies along the U.S.-Canadian border by Americans reaffirming their gratitude for having Canada as such a great neighbor

The universities & institutions around the world, including France's "Safe Place for Science," giving American academic researchers safe havens to continue their work after being defunded here by Republicans

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, for temporarily stopping Mad King TACO from revoking Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood

The rescue and recovery teams in Central Texas working in terrible post-flood conditions under incompetent Republican leadership

Europe's clean energy revolution, as Ireland announces it will become the 15th country without coal in its energy mix

America's traveling tootsies, as the TSA announces that the rule making airline passengers take their shoes off for security screenings may be scrapped after 20 years

Federal judge Joseph LaPlante, for again preventing the Mad King from enforcing his order limiting birthright citizenship and allowing a class-action lawsuit to proceed

638 votes Vote Now!

Who won the week?

Wisconsin's LGBTQ community, as the state Supreme Court rules that the Republican attempt to subvert a law banning "conversion therapy" is unconstitutional

9 votes

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), for personally confronting the ICE goons in MacArthur Park and ordering them out

170 votes

The "Elbows Up" rallies along the U.S.-Canadian border by Americans reaffirming their gratitude for having Canada as such a great neighbor

15 votes

41 votes

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, for temporarily stopping Mad King TACO from revoking Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood

18 votes

The rescue and recovery teams in Central Texas working in terrible post-flood conditions under incompetent Republican leadership

195 votes

Europe's clean energy revolution, as Ireland announces it will become the 15th country without coal in its energy mix

22 votes

America's traveling tootsies, as the TSA announces that the rule making airline passengers take their shoes off for security screenings may be scrapped after 20 years

7 votes

Federal judge Joseph LaPlante, for again preventing the Mad King from enforcing his order limiting birthright citizenship and allowing a class-action lawsuit to proceed

161 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 10, 2025 · 4:51 AM PDT

2025/07/10 · 04:51

Potent Quotables

This week’s Top 10…

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

—Carl Sagan

"There is but one way for a newspaperman to look at a politician and that is down."

—Frank H. Simonds

“Thanks to Trump I got to hear my grandma say Stupid Motherf*cker.”

—Facebook comment

"The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out it's just sort of a tired feeling."

—Paula Poundstone

"Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep."

—Gandhi

"I'm in favor of liberalized immigration because of the effect it would have on restaurants. I'd let just about everybody in except the English."

—Calvin Trillin

“Howard Hughes was able to afford the luxury of madness, like a man who not only thinks he’s Napoleon but hires an army to prove it.”

—Author-historian Ted Morgan

"All right, brain. You don’t like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer."

—Homer Simpson

“The trouble with born-again Christians is that they’re an even bigger pain the second time around.”

—San Francisco columnist Herb Caen

"If aliens from outer space ever come and we show them our civilization and they make fun of it, we should say we were just kidding, that this isn't really our civilization, but a gag we hoped they would like. Then we tell them to come back in twenty years to see our real civilization. After that, we start a crash program of coming up with an impressive new civilization. Either that, or we just shoot down the aliens as they're waving good-bye."

—Jack Handy

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

482 votes Show Results

In addition to being the incompetent Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy has just been appointed the head of NASA. This'll end well, right?

482 votes Vote Now!

In addition to being the incompetent Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy has just been appointed the head of NASA. This'll end well, right?

Sure

18 votes

Nah

135 votes

Only if the Space Station has enough food for 3 and a half more years

329 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 09, 2025 · 4:50 AM PDT

2025/07/09 · 04:50

In the interest of giving you a brief moment of respite from the nuttiness that has enveloped this crazy planet, this space contains no hurricanes, conservadem handwringing, sadistic Republican bureaucrats, climate change, Elon Musk ketamine binges, bumbling ICE raids, mind-numbing super PAC ads, raging wildfires, income inequality, Fox News gibberish, phony-Christian Speakers of the House, racism, J.D. Vance smirks, concern trolling, intra-party squabbling, ocean acidification, torture camps, slo-mo drug commercials, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, fearmongering, humidity, LGBTQ-condemning evangelical grifters, unemployment worries, asteroids hurting straight for us, inbox-clogging money begs, mansplaining, effing MAGA hats, effing MAGA bibles, effing MAGA crypto scams, effing MAGA shoes, effing MAGA cologne, anti-health and anti-human services Health and Human Services directors, hate crimes, car trouble, tariffs, broken tariff deadlines, foreclosures, wars on women, melting ice caps, sharks in electric boats, gerrymandering, Ted Cruz vacations, mulligans, tar sands, “great deals on day one,” skyrocketing tuition bills, droughts, floods, methane pockets, or any version of MacArthur Park.

Courtesy of the management. Stay as long as you like.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

422 votes Show Results

Are you looking forward to going through airport TSA checkpoints without having to take your shoes off anymore?

422 votes Vote Now!

Are you looking forward to going through airport TSA checkpoints without having to take your shoes off anymore?

Yes

153 votes

23 votes

Whatevs

246 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 08, 2025 · 4:49 AM PDT

2025/07/08 · 04:49

Fingers, Fingers Everywhere

As a courtesy to our C&J readers, here's today's list of who or what is being blamed for the floods in Texas by the Republicans in charge who could've and should've prevented the death toll:

"They did it, not us!"

"No, they did it, not them! But, yeah, definitely not us!"

"Chemtrails!"

"Weather shifters!"

"Cloud seeders!"

"California, for opening their giant spigot and aiming it at Texas!"

"Local forecasters!"

"State forecasters!"

"Federal forecasters!"

"This was Joe Biden's flood!"

"The deep state, which is still totally a thing!"

"Democrats, of course!"

"Needless to say, illegals had to be involved!"

"T'was God's vengeance for DEI. (Let us pray.)"

"Windmills!"

"Solar panels!"

”MSNBC!”

“Vaccines!”

"That New York City mayoral candidate!"

“Canada!”

The party of personal responsibility rolls merrily on.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

648 votes Show Results

In the wake of the Texas floods, do you think Republicans will realize their mistake and restore the funding and staffing they slashed from the National Weather Service?

648 votes Vote Now!

In the wake of the Texas floods, do you think Republicans will realize their mistake and restore the funding and staffing they slashed from the National Weather Service?

Yes

15 votes

627 votes

Not sure/No opinion

6 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Monday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 07, 2025 · 4:50 AM PDT

2025/07/07 · 04:50

The Week Ahead

Monday  In the wake of the “July 4th Massacre”—aka the American King signing into law Project 2025’s Puritan Plan for the Pius Promotion of Pestilence, Pillaging and Poverty—federal agents begin pushing grandmas off of cliffs, stealing candy from babies, pulling life-support plugs, enforcing the new ban on laughter, torching farmers’ fields, and requiring all pregnant women to spend six hours a day reading the Bible to their fetus. Today’s top story in The New York Times: why aren’t Democrats doing enough to help real Americans?

Today is World Chocolate Day. You know what to do.

Tuesday  The Small Business Optimism Index is released. Forecasters expect it to fall by two rah-rahs and a hooray.

Also Wednesday: the James Webb space telescope gives us our first glimpse of the creator of the universe.

Today is International Town Crier's Day. Also known as Susan Collins every day.

Wednesday  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene undergoes emergency surgery after accidentally getting a verified fact stuck in her skull cavity. Ironically, the removal procedure is performed by a Jewish doctor with a laser.

The conservative Supreme Court justices celebrate the end of their wrecking-ball session by getting together at John Roberts' summer place to play a few rounds of Stare Decisis Jenga. The first one to cause everything to collapse into a pile of smoldering fascist rubble wins. (Sam Alito abstains, as he and his wife consider the forces of gravity demonic.)

Thursday The boys of DOGE order the National Weather Service to switch their main forecasting method from reading satellite data to reading chicken entrails. Says RFK Jr.: “Oh, hey, throw those in the street for me when you’re done—them’s good eatin’!”

Friday Several alligators at Alligator Alcatraz sneak up on sleeping ICE agents to eat them but change their minds after the first alligator to snatch one in its jaws says it tastes like shit.

For yet another week, the only one to make good on a promise of delivering change to the planet is the climate.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

527 votes Show Results

Do you plan to join Elon Musk's new "America Party"?

527 votes Vote Now!

Do you plan to join Elon Musk's new "America Party"?

Yes

3 votes

431 votes

Only if his candidates' #1 campaign promise is "A fistful of ketamine in every pot and a Cybertruck in every garage."

93 votes

Cheers and Jeers: July 4, 1776 Edition

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday July 04, 2025 · 4:50 AM PDT

2025/07/04 · 04:50

Cheers and Jeers: a reliable weekday online post from the great state of Maine for 249 years.

Still the best history lesson on the founding of our country I’ve seen. In fact, it’s certified “100% Texas School Board approved”:

YouTube Video

Our annual posting of the original Cheers and Jeers from July 4, 1776—discovered gathering dust and mold behind some rotten drywall at the farm of Phinneas Pawpatch on July 5, 1776—starts below ye olde folde.

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 03, 2025 · 4:49 AM PDT

2025/07/03 · 04:49

“You should be ashamed”

AOC sums up the Big Ugly Rich People Scam in less than 90 seconds...

AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-02T15:37:44.212Z

They scammed, stole from, and fucked over 99 percent of us in broad daylight.

Happy birthday, America. Enjoy your ~~cake~~ crumbs.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

511 votes Show Results

With the first half of the year over, at what speed is 2025 going for you so far?

511 votes Vote Now!

With the first half of the year over, at what speed is 2025 going for you so far?

Fast

291 votes

Normal/average speed

112 votes

Slow

108 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 02, 2025 · 4:50 AM PDT

2025/07/02 · 04:50

Cheers and Jeers is a weekday coping mechanism from the great state of Maine.

Intermission

Holy Crosstabs! Thanks to the primal forces of nature, 2025 is finally halfway over. The second quarter ended Monday, and that means it's C&J number-crunching time. Every few months we post results of some recent C&J polls to give you a snapshot of what you pesky gnats from the Great Orange Satan think about this and that, while also reminding ourselves of some of the high/lowlights from the past 90-odd (or, if you prefer, 90 odd) news cycles. Here we go...

✌ 99 percent of you support labeling the Trump tariffs separately as "Republican Tariff" on price tags and purchase receipts.

✌ After Pope Francis was murdered (many people are saying) by J.D. Vance, 80 percent of you said he was an above-average pontiff. Only one percent thought he was below average.

✌ 32 percent of the Daily Kos community lives in the state in which they were born.

✌ 59 percent of you say you’re excited by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s boast that America's economic revival will come in the form of "an army of millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones." 40 percent said they were too busy honing their little screw screwing skills to weigh in.

All C&J polls are certified “Bananas” by Ted.

✌ 100 days into his second term, 46 percent of you rated Trump’s performance as “Putin’s butt,” while 36% rated him “Flaming bag of poo” and 16 percent rated him “As successful as his casinos.”

✌  If someone from a foreign country asked how safe you think it is for them to visit the U.S. now, 41 percent say it’s “not very safe,” 40 percent say “totally not safe,” and only 17 percent say it’s somewhat or totally safe.

✌ 94 percent believe the media should stop using the soft word "unrest" to describe the Republican party's choreographed, violent, armed assault on peaceful American citizens by its own military.

✌  Have you ever literally thrown a person to demonstrate how far you don't trust them? Eight percent of you say you have. (And I believe you!)

✌ 99 percent of you support California's proposed law (SB 627) that would ban local, state and federal law enforcement officers from covering their faces when interacting with the public.

✌   And 81 percent believe that the plastic surgery industry would collapse if the membership of Mar-a-Lago stopped using them.

As always, thanks for participating in our polls. And please: use your superhuman brain power responsibly. For good, not evil. Except, of course, on National Use Your Superhuman Brain Power For Evil Day.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

509 votes Show Results

If you looked up "spineless" in the dictionary this week, would you find a photo of Senator Lisa Murkowski?

509 votes Vote Now!

If you looked up "spineless" in the dictionary this week, would you find a photo of Senator Lisa Murkowski?

Yes

491 votes

18 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 01, 2025 · 4:49 AM PDT

2025/07/01 · 04:49

Short and Sweet Above the Fold This Morning

Slava Ukraini!

If you feel so inclined, the Daily Kos humanitarian relief fund for Ukraine is here.

Thanks for your ongoing support, especially now. In your honor, Ukraine will catapult a rotten cabbage with your name on it into Red Square.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

512 votes Show Results

Where would you rather spend a week away from home?

512 votes Vote Now!

Where would you rather spend a week away from home?

Beach

173 votes

Woods

98 votes

Mountains

229 votes

Jungle

12 votes

Cheers and Jeers: Monday

Bill in Portland Maine

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 30, 2025 · 4:51 AM PDT

2025/06/30 · 04:51

I Feel Pretty and Witty and…

A few final words as we say farewell to Pride Month:

"Pride is both a celebration and a protest, and in the last few years pride marches have become big business, raking in millions of dollars for their host cities. And when corporations heard all those ch'chings, they jumped in. But ever since Donald Trump started viciously attacking the LGBTQ community, corporate sponsors are now pulling back their pride support. As one corporate insider said: they 'never know if day-to-day they'll be targeted.' Wow---not knowing if you'll be targeted must be so hard for those companies. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for them to come out to their parents…as companies."

—Stephen Colbert

"I am proud to be gay, and I am very scared that the government wants to bring us down. I am very surprised that there are so many people—I want to cry."

—Zolton (who only gave his first name), a 66-year-old attendee in Hungary's Budapest pride march, where tens of thousands showed up Saturday in defiance of Prime Minister Orban's threats to arrest participants

"I am a gay veteran of front-line combat in Europe in World War II. I did not fight that war to return to second-class citizenship or back-of-the-bus status (or off the bus altogether) for me and my fellow gays. ... We seek not 'special rights and privileges' as you term them, but precise equality of rights and privileges in what is our America...as much as it is your America as non-gay Americans."
—The late LGBTQ civil rights pioneer Frank Kameny

"[Anti-LGBTQ laws] are creating fear and misinformation for parents and are designed to demonize some of the most vulnerable people in our community. We need to show that our community supports LGBTQ rights.”

—Frankie Miranda, the first openly gay president of the Hispanic Federation, one of the nation's largest Latino advocacy organizations, who draws upon his experiences to help fight laws and policies that target LGBTQ people.

The Pride flag flies at the White House. (Needless to say, not a current photo.)

"From the very first day it was: 'We're going to take back our identity. We're no longer going to allow society to label us. We will be out, loud, and proud, and in your face.'"

—Mark Segal, participant in the Stonewall riots that started June 28, 1969

If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: Hello? Can't work today. Still queer.
—Robin Tyler

"I'm glad that I believe very fervently that Jesus would not be on the side of the gay bashers."
—The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"I do not think that any self-respecting radical in history would have considered advocating people’s rights to get married, join the Army, and earn a living as a terribly inspiring revolutionary platform."
—Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank’s response when he was once accused of having a "radical gay agenda.”

A tip 'o the tiara to the legion of straight supporters here at Daily Kos for your unequivocal support of the LGBTQ community, especially today, both within and beyond these crazy orange walls. Achieving equality isn't possible without you on board, and every victory we celebrate is yours, too. So, thanks. I've begun the paperwork to adopt all of you.

And now, our feature presentation...

Poll

584 votes Show Results

Which of these do you find more credible?

584 votes Vote Now!

Which of these do you find more credible?

Trump's attack on Iran only set back their nuclear weapons program by months

376 votes

Trump's attack on Iran "obliterated" their nuclear weapons program

0 votes

Trump's attack on Iran didn't set back their nuclear weapons program at all

208 votes

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