From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energizer POTUS Keeps On Keepin’ On
Taking a moment from fixating on the high crimes and misdemeanors of the 45th president to say "Happy Birthday" to the 39th.
If you don’t count George Washington's fake choppers, Jimmy Carter—who turns a sprightly 95 today—owns the most famous set of presidential teeth in history. That Jimmy grin was what the country wanted after the Watergate mess. (The leading 2020 Democrats set to take over after Ukrainegate all have impressive pearly-whites of their own.) And although his one term isn't considered a rousing success, he kept us out of war, focused our attention on energy policy, protected huge amounts of land of land, was at the helm during the creation of eight million jobs, brokered peace between Israel and Egypt, and brought honesty and integrity back to the White House.
Carter's post-presidency is where he really shines—like leading the charge to eradicate guinea worm disease in Africa—and he warrants every accolade we can throw DailyKos member 81380's way. His motto at the Carter Center says it all: "Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope." Done…done…and done. (He can also add: kicking brain cancer’s ass.) And he’s still keepin’ on keepin’ on...
Two generations removed from the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty that he helped to broker and his landmark work to normalize relations with China, the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient slows down only when forced to. Next week, he will spend six days building affordable housing in Nashville for Habitat for Humanity.
“I have been blessed with good health, and I have been blessed with adequate vigor and a good mind,” Carter said. “I would say that, except for my physical limitations, I don’t see any real differences in my older years than I did earlier." […]
Carter seems optimistic about the future. He mentioned that he had been following Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist.
Thunberg and young activists “are tackling the right project and going about it very effectively,” Carter said. “It was exciting to me and inspirational. The project in which they are working is worthwhile for all adults to adopt. I am sorry that Republicans have not adopted global warming as one of their challenges.”
Happy birthday, Jimmy. You're an amazing American and one of many reasons I’m proud to call myself a card-carrying Democrat.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Note: Anyone know if the second Civil War has officially started? I hope so. I've been bayoneting people all morning.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Festivus: 83
Days 'til the annual Floresville Peanut Festival in Texas: 8
Percent of Americans in a CBS News poll who approve of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump: 54%
Percent in the same poll who believe Trump's abuse of power with Ukraine was either improper or illegal: 72%
Number of people name-checked on Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire," which came out 30 years ago Saturday: 59
Number of those people who are still alive: 5 (Queen Elizabeth II, Brigitte Bardot, Chubby Checker, Bob Dylan, and Bernhard Goetz)
Percent of annual candy corn production that will be eaten between now and Halloween: 75%
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Andy Richter introduces a mystery baby to his pooch…
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CHEERS to October. Busy month ahead! Fall kicks into high gear for leaf-peepers, cider-lovers and, for a lucky few, ski-slope schussers. (Hellooooo, Montana.) The Supreme Court, complete with a conservative porn addict, a conservative drunk crybaby with a wandering penis, a conservative who thinks it's cool to sass back at Democratic presidents during State of the Unions, a conservative smartass who thinks employers should be able to let their employees freeze to death in the back of trucks, an exasperated conservative chief justice watching his legacy circle the drain, and four liberals who go through gallons of Purell whenever they're in the vicinity of the conservatives, gavels itself into session. Pink ribbons proliferate for breast cancer awareness month. The Nobel Prizes are announced starting the 7th. On the 15th, twelve Democratic candidates will share the stage at my alma mater Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, home of world-famous Schneider's Bakery. Plus:
Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate their 27th anniversary Thursday. Full moon (a "Hunter's Moon") rises on the 13th so watch out for werewolves. Advocates for the right to keep and bare arms—lots and lots of arms—will celebrate World Octopus Day on the 8th (this year's theme: Sweet Dreams), and later that evening is the start of Yom Kippur. It's LGBT History Month and the 11th is "Coming Out Day," which will be preceded the previous evening by CNN's LGBT-themed town hall with a dozen Democratic presidential candidates. Plus it's also “ex-gay awareness month” during which we’ll all reflect on how there aren't actually any ex-gays to be aware of. Columbus Day (the 14th) becomes more of an unwanted relic as more communities replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day. United Nations Day is the 24th. Daylight Saving Time for European Union countries ends on the 27th.
Movies include Joker, Zombieland II, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's wacky hijinx in a secluded Maine beacon in The Lighthouse, and Eddie Murphy's triumphant return in Dolemite is My Name. And as of this month only two months ‘til the next Star Wars flick!!! Finally, if you don’t have your Halloween costume done yet, you officially have permission to panic. This year I'm dressing up as the scariest thing I can think of to terrify Republicans: Adam Schiff with a gavel in one hand and Barry Berke in the other.
JEERS to missing pieces. It's a basic tenet of journalism that the crucial elements you need in any given story are: who, what, where, why and when. That last bit is proving elusive regarding the 2020 Gun Safety Forum hosted by Gabby Giffords' advocacy organization and March for Our Lives. I mean, I know it's tomorrow on MSNBC ("one day after the second anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in recent American history") in Las Vegas, but I have no idea what time it starts. The ten candidates who took part in last month's debate—Biden, Warren, Booker, Harris, Buttigieg, Castro, Sanders, O'Rourke, Yang, and Klobuchar—will be on hand:
The 2020 Gun Safety Forum will provide the candidates with the opportunity to directly engage voters and present their plans to address America’s gun violence epidemic. Forum attendees will include survivors of gun violence, students, family members of those impacted, elected officials and gun violence prevention advocates.
Shootings in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX, Dayton, OH and Odessa, TX—not to mention other gun tragedies that did not make news headlines—have made it clear that state and federal policymakers must act immediately and with a sense of urgency to prevent future gun deaths, [which] have reached their highest level in almost 40 years.
I even checked our cable company's programming guide, and the start time isn't listed. So we're gonna have to do this in shifts. You start watching MSNBC tonight at midnight, stay glued to it (no bathroom breaks) until the forum starts, then let me know via kosmail and I'll take over from there. That's what's so great about this blog: the teamwork.
CHEERS to comeuppance. Rep. Chris Collins was the first member of the House to endorse Donald Trump for president. And, boy oh boy, he was sittin' on top of the world, with access to Trump Tower's golden thrones, Trump resorts' golf courses, and the Oval Office it's own bad self. Wine! Women! Cigars! Stealing from the poor to give to the rich! Hours of laughing like Dr. Evil! And the late nights unpacking cheeseburger wrappers for his golden-maned hero made his endorphins feel giddy as a schoolboy. But then the clock struck midnight, and…
Rep. Chris Collins plans to change his not guilty plea in the criminal insider trading case against him, federal court records showed Monday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick scheduled a court hearing in the case for Tuesday.
Moments after that docket entry was filed, a second appeared, indicating that Collins’ co-defendants—his son Cameron Collins and Cameron Collins’ prospective father-in-law, Stephen Zarsky---plan to change their not-guilty pleas as well. A hearing in their case is set for Thursday.
All three men are charged with fraud, conspiracy and lying to the FBI. They were arrested in August 2018 in connection with an alleged insider trading scheme involving Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech.
And while we're on the subject of famous firsts, you remember who the first senator was to endorse Trump? Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. A moral of the story seems to finally be emerging after three years: those who give the clown prince two thumbs-up best be prepared to live the rest of their life with 8 fingers.
P.S. Whatsizface (I’ve forgotten his name already) submitted his resignation yesterday. To Nancy Pelosi. Tee hee.
JEERS to today's cars. Call me a nostalgic fool, but none of them have the simplicity or the...um...blackness of the Model T, which was introduced 111 years ago today. Cost: $850. Place in automotive lore: priceless.
JEERS to the hucksters in our midst. Bob Herman at Axios waded into the world of "Trumpcare" health insurance plans—the el cheapo ones stripped of their ACA-required patient protections that give you peace of mind right up until the moment you need it—and they're as confusing, inadequate and downright sleazy as you'd expect:
For people who buy health insurance on their own instead of receiving it through an employer, searching for a plan is already challenging.And deceptive marketing only makes it harder, especially when these plans will leave consumers on the hook for potentially ruinous medical bills. […]
What they're saying: "These websites that are selling 'Trumpcare' are capitalizing on the fact that very few people know what's going on," said Louise Norris, an independent insurance broker in Colorado. […]
"It's impossible to expect consumers to discern between the good guys and the con artists," said Sabrina Corlette, a health insurance researcher at Georgetown University. "And it's not the good guys that pop up on the first page of your Google search results."
There's your argument for Medicare-for-All right there. When the government's looking away, the rats will play.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 1, 2009
CHEERS to friends in brassy places. So, there's this magazine, see. Not one you'd likely find among the offerings at your local dentist or doctor's office, however. No, this is called Joint Force Quarterly, and from what I gather it goes out to the military personnel who have the most stars and other assorted hardware pinned to their uniforms. Inside the latest issue is an article—personally reviewed by Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen before publication—that pretty much discredits any lingering support for 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell':
"After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly," writes Colonel Om Prakash, who is now working in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. "Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban."
Pretty simple, really. Step 1) Repeal it. Step 2) See Step 1.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to people who don’t suck. Every Friday our C&J poll asks, "Who won the week?" It's become such an extraordinary polling tradition that Gallup, Pew, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac and PPP have all named commodes in their executive terlets after it. The WWTW poll is a little reminder that all is not lost on the third planet from the sun—the occasional saint does indeed occasionally walk among us. The gold chalice winners for the third quarter of 2019—including an unprecedented but well-earned two representing "All of the above" (which we've linked to so you can see them all) are ready to take a collective bow. The envelopes, please…
July 5 ABC, CBS, & NBC, for refusing to air Trump's July 4 D.C. Me-A-Thon
July 12 The SDNY, for arresting Trump's pal Jeffrey Epstein and arraigning him on charges of sex trafficking teenage girls and causing Labor Sec. Alex Acosta to resign
July 19 Miami Herald journalist Julie Brown, whose reporting on the Epstein child-sex ring has exploded into one of the biggest scandals of the year
July 26 The Puerto Rican people, for forcing the resignation of their corrupt, disgusting governor Ricardo Rosselló
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August 2 All of the above—each nominee pushed back against Trump's racism in some tangible way
August 9 The "Moscow Mitch" campaign, which is getting under McConnell's skin.
August 16 The tens of thousands of protesters standing up to their authoritarian governments in Russia and Hong Kong, the largest such protests in years
August 23 Denmark and Greenland, for treating Trump's obsession with buying Greenland in the appropriate way: mockery
August 30 The 19 states that filed suit to prevent Trump's attempt to alter a federal agreement so it can terrorize immigrant children in cages longer
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September 6 The 3-judge panel in NC that struck down GOP gerrymandering of state House and Senate districts, and ordered new district maps for 2020
September 13 The tidal wave of current and retired meteorologists who criticized the Trump-ordered statement criticizing the Alabama National Weather Service office for correcting his false info about Hurricane Dorian
September 20 The intelligence community whistleblower who reported Trump's abuse of power—threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine if it didn't dig up dirt on a political rival—to the Inspector General, who deemed it "credible and urgent"
September 27 All of the above—nominees related to the official impeachment inquiry into Trump, plus teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg
Who will bring home the gold in the fourth quarter? I could kill you, but then I'd have to tell you.
And a quick programming alert: Rachel Maddow talks with Stephen Colbert tonight on The Late Show about her new book (out today) called Blowout. 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
“Should Bill in Portland Maine, and only Bill in Portland Maine, decide whether or not we are eligible for a mortgage or candy corn or what surgery or medicines we should receive? Are we doomed to a cold and heartless future in which Billeh says yes or Billeh says no with the grim finality of an emperor in the arena?”
—Boris Johnson
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