From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz---who, spoiler alert, I want to be the next President of the United States---was on The Late Show last week to give an update on the Puerto Rico situation. It will come as no surprise that things are still dicey, especially when it comes to power and water. It’s a frustrating-as-hell Catch-22: ninety percent of the island now has water, but they still need to boil it to make it usable, but half the island is still without power, so a whole lot of stoves can’t be used for the task.
That’s why this week we’re shining our C&J “Energize An Ally” spotlight on Operation Agua, a relief effort led by the American Federation of Teachers with a mission that couldn’t be simpler or more urgent:
The AFT, in partnership with Operation Blessing International, AFSCME and the Hispanic Federation, launched Operation Agua to provide safe drinking water to families across Puerto Rico.’
Operation Agua’s initial goal is to purchase and distribute 100,000 individual water filtration systems for households and classrooms, and 50 large-capacity clean-water devices to a network of nonprofit organizations, union offices, schools and other community-based groups to provide stable and reliable sources of safe water.
So here’s the deal: 30 bucks buys, ships, and delivers a water filter to a Puerto Rican household that “filters up to two liters per hour, [and] can produce 5,000 liters of water before a new filter is needed.” Needless to say, you don’t have to kick in 30 bucks---a swarm of Daily Kossacks pooling just few bucks each will provide a lot of filters and, just as important, a lot of hope.
(For the record, C&J is donating to buy a filter and, using our Jedi powers, it will be delivered to the home of a family whose daughter will grow up to win Nobel Prizes for both curing cancer and eliminating nuclear weapons. We’re preemptively beaming with pride.)
The donation link is here. And you can learn more about Operation Agua via their twitter hashtag here. Despite all the Republican-manufactured dumpster fires we’re fighting here on the mainland, we can’t let the suffering of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico fade from our consciousness. So, hey, let’s not.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Note: Today is random drug test day. Please find a random drug and test it. If it makes you smell colors and taste sounds, please share! ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the enrollment period for health insurance via the healthcare.gov exchange ends: 10
Days 'til the lighting of the National Menorah in Washington DC: 7
Amount the federal government and California, respectively, are spending on marketing their respective health insurance exchanges during this enrollment season, according to CNN: $10 million / $45 million
Median age in the European Union and the Unites States, respectively: 43 / 38
Number of humans who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award (competitive, not special, awards): 12
Date of the “eggnog riot,” when West Point cadets (including Jefferson Davis) got drunk on spiked eggnog made with smuggled whiskey and rioted until Christmas: 12/24/1826
Year Christmas became an official holiday, delayed in part because of the fallout from the eggnog riot: 1870
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Saved!!!
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CHEERS to hot takes from #44. Anytime the last adult to occupy the Oval Office speaks, I print:
Barack Obama said he believes more future leaders should be women.
The former U.S. president was in Paris over the weekend, speaking to a group of media leaders,financiers and academics known as Les Napoleons. During the speech, he announced that it was time to put more women in power “because men seem to behaving some problems these days,” AFP reported. […] “Not to generalize but women seem to have a better capacity than men do, partly because of their socialization,” Obama said.
He also took a swipe at President Donald Trump’s administration, saying that there was a “temporary absence of American leadership” on climate change. Earlier this year, Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
Whenever the shit gets too thick and the craziness too much to bear, just remember that beautiful word---“temporary”---and clutch it like a life ring.
JEERS to supreme courting. Two depressing cases in the spotlight this morning regarding the highest court in the land. First, SCOTUS refused to hear an appeal of a Texas Supreme Court decision that ruled states are not obliged to treat married same-sex couples the same as straight married couples in terms of taxpayer-funded benefits, despite the 2015 Obergefell ruling. (Separate but equal, anyone? Or as Ruth Bader Ginsburg would say: “Skim milk marriage, anyone?) And today a half-baked case that never should’ve made it into the oven gets the oral argument treatment. At issue: whether or not a business (a bakery) that “opens its doors to the public” can deny service to gay customers because Jesus. AP’s Mark Sherman points out the similarities between this case and a ‘60s case involving a business that also happens to be my safe word: Piggie Park…
When two African-Americans parked their car at a Piggie Park drive-in in August 1964 in Columbia, South Carolina, the waitress who came out to serve them turned back once she saw they were black and didn’t take their order.
In the civil rights lawsuit that followed, Piggie Park owner Maurice Bessinger justified the refusal to serve black customers based on his religious belief opposing “any integration of the races whatsoever.”
Federal judges had little trouble dismissing Bessinger’s claim. “Undoubtedly defendant Bessinger has a constitutional right to espouse the religious beliefs of his own choosing, however, he does not have the absolute right to exercise and practice such beliefs in utter disregard of the clear constitutional rights of other citizens,” U.S. District Judge Charles Earl Simons Jr. wrote in 1966.
As always, be watchful for Justice Kennedy’s words. Also as always, be thankful for Justice Thomas’s absence of words.
CHEERS to sweet victory. On today's date in 1792, George Washington won reelection. It was a brutal campaign. His challenger was a real jerk named...um...George Washington. Watching him debate himself was actually a little creepy: "Shan't!" "Shall!" "Shan't!" "Shall!" "Thy wife weareth the boots of a paymaster in the Continental Army!" "Okay, okay...thou hast me there, I concedeth the point." "Then bullocks to you, I win!" Oh...Did I mention he owned his own distillery?
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The Irrationally Exuberant One Word Answer Man. Meteor Blades asks: Did the Commander-in-Tweet just admit via twitter that he committed obstruction justice?
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
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TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! to the original Animal House. On December 5, 1776, Phi Beta kappa,the first "scholastic" fraternity in America, got started at the College of William and Mary. It was immediately followed by the first pair of Dean Wormer’s underwear to be run up the flagpole.
CHEERS to high society. Well bless my doobies! This is an interesting discovery as marijuana becomes legally more and more accessible. And don’t think for a second that your friendly neighborhood liquor conglomerate won’t be whining to their members of congress to do something about the DEMON WEED when they see this study…
Alcoholic beverage sales fell by 15 percent after the introduction of medical marijuana laws in a number of states, according to a new working paper by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University.
The study adds to a growing body of evidence showing that marijuana availability can reduce alcohol consumption.
And, because experts generally agree that, on balance, alcohol use is more harmful to individuals and society than marijuana use, this would represent a significant public health benefit of marijuana legalization. […]
Because…
Unlike alcohol, marijuana has no known fatal dose---people don’t die of marijuana poisoning.
Relative to marijuana, alcohol is more addictive, far more likely to cause vehicle accidents and much more closely linked to violent and aggressive behavior. In the United States, excessive alcohol use kills nearly 90,000 people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And I’ll add that I can say with a thousand percent certainty, from firsthand experience, that pot performs miracles for stimulating the appetite in cancer patients. Y’know what alcohol does to cancer patients? It drops an anvil on your immune system. So kudos to the researchers at the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University for their study. Oddly enough, I’ll drink to that.
CHEERS to "Martin Van Ruin." Our 8th president turns 225 today (but he doesn’t look a day over 190). In the negative column, he sat around picking his nose during the depression and panic of 1837, did nothing about slavery, and was on duty during the time of the shameful Trail of Tears. In the plus column, he averted conflicts with Britain and Canada. In the "sleeping on the couch" column, he never once mentioned his wife, Hannah, in his autobiography. Interesting tidbit from The Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien:
Martin Van Buren was renowned for not taking a stand.
One story, which Van Buren admits to in his autobiography, tells how one senator accepted a bet that he could actually make Van Buren admit to something with finality. "It's been rumored that the sun rises in the east," said the senator to Van Buren. "Do you believe it?" "Well, Senator," came the reply, "I understand that's the common acceptance, but as I never get up till after dawn, I can't really say."
Oh, and before his one-way trip to the Alamo, Congressman Davy Crocket said: “Martin Van Buren is laced up in corsets, such as women in a town wear, and if possible tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or a woman, but for his large red and gray whiskers." Fox News would never hire Crockett as a pundit today. Too restrained.
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 5, 2007
CHEERS to adding fuel to the fire. Wheee! Just when you thought Senator Larry Craig might slink into obscurity as a Boise lounge singer---BAM!---the Idaho Statesman [link no longer active] says not so fast:
Four gay men, willing to put their names in print andwhose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen.Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention. They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay.
Fearless prediction: awkward Christmas at the Craig household.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA's site to see if Newt Gingrich has colonized the moon yet. Sorry to say the answer is no, so we'll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming. This month’s major skyward events (now that the Super Moon’s razzle-dazzle---to use the technical term---is over) are the Geminid meteor shower (120 per hour!) on the 14th and the Ursid shower on the 22nd. Here's NASA's Jane Houston Jones with a preview:
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And as you’re gazing up at the heavens, in the immortal words of the great philosopher Eric Idle, “pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere out in space cuz there’s bugger all down here on earth.”
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Only 10 days ‘til Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi!!! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or Cheers and Jeers.”
---Sen.Chuck Grassley
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