From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
I Have No Words
People keep asking me what I think of Ted Cruz running for president, and what will happen to his campaign as the giant throbbing GOP primary machine switches on. I'll save you the reams of verbiage and just go straight to the video:
It's a metaphor, you see. Either that or I just wanted to post that amazing video. (Hey! Can we throw in the Straight Talk Express next...for old time's sake?)
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Note: Today's C&J features four hidden auto-play car company ads simultaneously playing acid rock, bagpipe metal, opera and a cover band wailing on Starship's We Built This City because Walt in Nissan's marketing department came back with focus-group data showing it's become retro-cool again. Sorry, but the volume control is stuck on 11. Update: That was a lie. We're not really sorry.
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16 Days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the next
total lunar eclipse:
10
Days 'til the
Rhythm 'n Blooms Music Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee:
16
Height of the transmission pole erected in Windsor, Maine Monday that completes the first upgrade (cost: $1.4 billion) of the state's power grid in 40 years:
101 feet
(Source:
The Portland Press Herald)
Portion of the $68 billion in grants and tax credits given to businesses over the last 15 years that have gone to large corporations:
2/3
(Source:
The Washington Post)
Average tax-preparation fee in 2014, according to AP:
$273
Odds of a cow
giving birth to four calves, as one did in Texas recently:
1-in-11,000,000
Amount Wilson Sporting Goods is paying for the Louisville Slugger baseball bat company:
$70 million
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 180 (including 5 tribulation temples and 1 glimpse of what the end will really look like). Soul Protection Factor 8 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: This is pretty much the same reason why I only lasted one season in Little League…
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CHEERS to a victory for veterans. You stick your neck out for America, you should get post-military health care that doesn’t make you travel to the ends of the earth for it. So hooray for this:
True fact: the eagle on the
seal is a full-bird colonel.
Responding to pressure from Congress and veterans groups, the Department of Veterans Affairs is relaxing a rule that makes it hard for some veterans in rural areas to prove they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site. The change comes amid complaints from lawmakers and advocates who say the VA's current policy has prevented thousands of veterans from taking advantage of a new law intended to allow veterans in remote areas to gain access to federally paid medical care from local doctors.
The VA said it will now measure the 40-mile trip by driving miles as calculated by Google maps or other sites, rather than as the crow flies, as currently interpreted. The rule change is expected to roughly double the number of eligible veterans.
That's another item crossed off the must-do list for making VA operations more efficient and less calcified. Next item that will help the organization immensely: get us the hell out of all the war zones.
JEERS to lame-duck laziness. First I politely asked this question. Then I asked it more bluntly. Now, since no one can give me a good answer (or any answer), I'll just primal-scream it: WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DID YOU LAME-DUCK SENATE DEMOCRATS NOT APPROVE MORE JUDICIAL NOMINEES, INCLUDING LORETTA LYNCH, IN YOUR LAME DUCK SESSION LAST FALL?!!! It was the lowest-hanging of the low-hanging fruit, and they just packed up and went home to decorate for the holidays without a care in the world. And so now we get press releases like this one from the Alliance for Justice:
You can put your hand down.
No oath for you anytime soon.
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The process of confirming federal judges has ground to a standstill since Republicans took control of the Senate, delaying justice for millions of Americans, according to a new report from Alliance for Justice. “There have been no judicial confirmations in the Republican-controlled Senate despite a near doubling of judicial emergencies since January,” said AFJ President Nan Aron. “It appears to be part of a political strategy to leave these seats open, no matter the cost.”
It was absolute malpractice on the part of Harry Reid, and now it's biting our judicial system in the ass. Obama might as well withdraw all his nominees and take 'em all golfing or to Camp David to make s'mores around the campfire. Great job, Democrats. Mitch McConnell thanks you kindly.
CHEERS to walkin' the walk. On March 25, 1965---a few weeks after "Bloody Sunday" during which police set upon peaceful civil rights marchers with fire hoses, clubs and dogs---Martin Luther King, Jr. led thousands of marchers to the State Capitol in Montgomery for a rally. Looked something like this (that's Congressman John Lewis second from the left):
The marchers got three things out of it: Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a permanent place in civil rights history and, much less publicized, aching bunions.
CHEERS to more March Madness! The NCAA thingamahoochie continues. Here are some random scores, which will reinforce your wise decision to rely on C&J for timely information:
Let there be no doubt: this
is a basketball scoreboard.
91-55
73-70
76-64
77-67
88-70
68-47
86-76
73-44
The current bracket
looks like this. I think the men are playing too, but between you and me…[
boooring].
JEERS to the dark ages of labor exploitation. Today is the 104th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that, in 18 minutes, killed 146 garment workers in New York City. The workers in that shithole had gone on strike a couple years earlier for better pay and safety improvements, but management decided that, no, we'd rather be dicks. And as so often happens, it took a catastrophe to finally wake people up. In her centennial anniversary column four years ago, Laura Clawson wrote:
Great job there, management.
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We don't…have fire alarms and sprinklers and adequate exits and other workplace protections because big employers want us to have them. We don't have them solely because of tragedy. We have them because workers have joined together and fought for them. In 1911, workers' struggle was the context that made the Triangle fire something other than a meaningless accident, that showed a way to prevent similar tragedies. […]
"Government regulations" and "workplace safety laws" sound like dry terms, but this is what they're about: nothing less than people's lives. And that is something to remember when you hear the likes of Scott Walker and John Kasich arguing that employers oughtn't be bound by those pesky government regulations.
Yeah. What could go wrong?
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Ten years ago in C&J: March 25, 2005
CHEERS to garbage in, garbage out. From Esquire magazine we learn that watch hands in advertisements are always positioned at 10:10. Why? Because it frames the watchmaker's name and makes the equivalent of a smiley face. The second hand---for no reason in particular---is always at 7. Why is this important? Because it's the factoid that finally knocked the memory of Joe Lieberman singing Oklahoma out of my brain. I can live again!
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And just one more…
CHEERS to sharing the view. I'd like to have that Elon Musk fella over to the homestead for supper one day. He just seems like a smart, conscientious young fella. He's doing wonders for electric cars and space travel, and he's even made all of his Tesla data open to everyone---threw the patents right out the window. Now, in that same spirit, he's putting all of SpaceX's photos into the public domain, for use anytime, anywhere by anyone. You can check 'em out at their site here or their flickr page here. A couple purty ones:
Oooh!!!
Aaaah!!!
Have a nice Wednesday. And cheers to Gloria Steinem---today's her 81st birthday but we'll just call it the 42nd anniversary of her 39th. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"The Internet is too important to allow Bill in Portland Maine to make the rules."
---Tom Wheeler
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