From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
MLK90
C&J won't be around tomorrow, which is Martin Luther King's 90th birthday (his official holiday is next Monday), so we’ll say a few words today to kick off the celebration. Once again we're thankful and rather awestruck by what he accomplished---and how he accomplished it, with an able assist from master tactician Mahatma Gandhi---for black civil rights in his tragically-short life. He was flawed, as we all are. But he had that stubborn 'ol dream. And come hell or high water (or fire hoses or guns or nightsticks or jail time or whatever else the bigots could throw at the movement) he refused to shut up and sit down, or match violence with violence. Some vintage King...
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
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The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character---that is the goal of true education.
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"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring a real order of justice."
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A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.
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Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
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"Morals can’t be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color my skin."
And one just for you, Donald J. Trump:
“Let us build bridges, not walls.”
As fate would have it, King and I coexisted on this tiny blue speck in the middle of nowhere, if only for three-and-a-half years. The older I get the cooler that fact gets. So I’m retroactively putting it on my bucket list. Sue me.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, January 14, 2019
Note: Yes, we're posting early today. I only have a moment or two to say "Good morning!" and update you on the posting schedule for the week before heading off to Mercy Hospital for another exciting 48-hour round of chemo. (Number 8 out of 12---hooray, the end is in sight.) So no C&J tomorrow. We'll probably be back Wednesday morning, and definitely Thursday and Friday. If you behave yourselves today and tomorrow, Billy might bring you all a box of chocolate-covered fluorouracil balls. If not, I'll bring you all a nun with a ruler. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Michael Cohen rats on Donald Trump in an open hearing of the House oversight committee: 24
Days 'til the 39th Toy Train Show in Utica, New York: 6
Estimated number of people hit with the flu so far this season, according to the CDC, of which around 75,000 have been hospitalized: 6-7 million
Percent approval of Sen.Jeff Flake, according to a Morning Consult-Politico poll, making him the least-popular senator at the end of the 115th Congress: 28%
Percent approval of Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin when she left office, making her the least popular guv at the end of 2018: 16%
Number of consecutive years that the rate of cancer in the U.S. has declined: 25
Number of recs Keith Olbermann got after posting his first diary at Daily Kos 11 years ago today: 1,677
Totally Random NFL Score
New England Patriots 41 Los Angeles Chargers 28
Other winners: the Rams, the Chiefs, and the Saints.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Reunited and it feels so good…
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CHEERS to hangin' out with my Great Orange Homies. A reminder that if you're in the greater New England area on Saturday, February 2nd, consider this your invitation to our New England Daily Kos meetup starting at noon. The place: The Farm Bar and Grille at 57 State Street in Kittery (Maine's southern-most town). The food's great (get the pulled-pork sandwich, I beseech you) and we'll all be in a festive mood as we celebrate our state and federal blue wave victories under the whirling ceiling fans of freedom. To RSVP or get more info, email our intrepid organizer "nhox42" at nhox42[at] yahoo.com. Casual attire. But don’t wear a tall hat---those #!!%*#! ceiling fan blades are sharp.
CHEERS to locking in another piece of the "No puppet, no puppet, you're the puppet" puzzle. Rather sizable bombshell published in the frequently-frustrating-but-far-from-failing New York Times: turns out the Mueller investigation was created when it dawned on the FBI that the sitting president of the United States was…oh, let's just say a very, very bad boy:
Law enforcement officials became so concerned by President Donald Trump’s behavior in the days after he fired FBI Director James Comey that they began investigating whether he had been working for Russia against U.S. interests, The New York Times reported Friday. […]
The inquiry forced counterintelligence investigators to evaluate whether Trump was a potential threat to national security, and they also sought to determine whether Trump was deliberately working for Russia or had unintentionally been influenced by Moscow. … Trump’s behavior in the days around Comey’s May 2017 firing, specifically two instances in which he seemed to tie Comey’s ousting to the Russia investigation, helped trigger the counterintelligence part of the investigation, according to the Times’ sources.
To make matters worse, on Saturday Trump's Fox News BFF Jeanine Pirro asked him point-blank whether or not he's a Russian asset. The word "no" (or “nyet” for that matter) never left his mouth hole. We’ll take that as a yes. (Or “da” for that matter.)
CHEERS to stopping with all the shooting and the banging and the bayoneting and whatnot. 235 years ago tomorrow, on January 14, 1784, Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, officially ending our War of Independence. It also included earmarks for a pantaloon museum, a giant biodome for the study of butterfly flatulence, and a bridge to nowhere. Say this for Congress---they learned quickly.
JEERS to getting it wrong...again. Ya gotta love "the experts." Their predictions so often have to be downgraded to "worse than expected." The effect of the GOP tax cuts for the rich: "worse than expected." Their opioid-addiction numbers: "worse than expected." The effect of humans on animal species around the world: "worse than expected." The trump presidency: “worse than worse than we expected.” (Still waiting for that piviot, pundits!) And now, here are two more you can throw on the pile: retail sales figures are worse than expected, and the rise in ocean temperatures is worse than expected. This can mean only one thing: we need to hire better expecters.
CHEERS to today’s edition of Thank God Nothing Like THAT Could Ever Happen Today! Courtesy of political historian and national treasure Michael Beschloss:
This has been today’s edition of Thank God Nothing Like THAT Could Ever Happen Today!
JEERS to the “kumbaya caucus.” Where does the time go? It was six years ago this week when No Labels 2.0 launched with a BIG HAPPY MEETING in New York. The goal of the organization, of course, is to bring liberals and conservatives together in a happy circle of effortless getting-alongness. My problem---besides knowing that “far left” Democrats believe in policies the vast majorities of the public believe in, while the “far right” is a Nazi-KKK slumber party---is that the head of the group, Mark McKinnon, is a former W. Bushie, and the No Labels co-chairs are Republican Jon Huntsman from red state Utah and Republican senator with a "D" after his name, Joe Manchin, from red state West Virginia. But maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about them and maybe, just maybe, they’ve accomplished a ton in the last five years! So I went to their site to see if they'd updated the"Victories" tab that I check every year. And this year---oops---it's disappeared. We’ll check back next year. Until then, I’m sticking with my usual label for the "new" No Labels: no sale.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 14, 2009
CHEERS to Hillary Clinton. She aced her confirmation hearing yesterday and there's zero suspense about whether or not she'll be confirmed as Secretary of State. And get this: she says the Obama administration wants to sit down with people we don’t necessarily like and do something radical: talk about stuff. It's just crazy enough to work.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to cool science. It should've been the United States (if not Pink Floyd) that landed the first rover on the dark side of the moon, but instead China beat us to the punch. Harumph. Harrumph! Obama let this happen! Obama and George Soros and the Deep State! Lock Them Up!!! Okay, now that my legally-obligated white nationalist MAGA tantrum is out of the way…the pics the probe sent back last week are awesome, no matter whose country took 'em. In fact, they're craterrrrrific…
To fulfill their mission, the lander and the rover "will collect scientific data about the lunar environment, cosmic radiation, and the effects of solar wind on the Moon’s surface." The Roomba stowaway will take one look around and immediately short circuit.
Oh, and congratulations to the Democratic governors who will be sworn into office today, including Kate Brown (re-elected) in Oregon, J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, and especially Laura Kelly in freaking Kansas. How cool is that? Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"Cheers and Jeers" is not without its laughs, even if they're at the expense of Bill in Portland Maine. For a bad blog post, you could do a lot worse.
—Adam Graham, The Detroit News
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