From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Molly Ivins Pegged it a Quarter Century Ago
We may not be the slowest culture on the "entire" planet. But we're certainly in competition for the blue ribbon when it comes to putting weapons of war into the hands of right-wing fanatics and delusional armchair Rambos who think they can stop them. Molly wrote this in 1993. It could’ve been written yesterday:
“There is more hooey spread about the Second Amendment. It says quite clearly that guns are for those who form part of a well-regulated militia, i.e., the armed forces including the National Guard. The reasons for keeping them away from everyone else get clearer by the day.
The comparison most often used is that of the automobile, another lethal object that is regularly used to wreak great carnage. Obviously, this society is full of people who haven’t got enough common sense to use an automobile properly. But we haven’t outlawed cars yet. We do, however, license them and their owners, restrict their use to presumably sane and sober adults and keep track of who sells them to whom. At a minimum, we should do the same with guns.
In truth, there is no rational argument for guns in this society. This is no longer a frontier nation in which people hunt their own food. It is a crowded, overwhelmingly urban country in which letting people have access to guns is a continuing disaster. Those who want guns—whether for target shooting, hunting or potting rattlesnakes (get a hoe)—should be subject to the same restrictions placed on gun owners in England—a nation in which liberty has survived nicely without an armed populace.
The argument that “guns don’t kill people” is patent nonsense. Anyone who has ever worked in a cop shop knows how many family arguments end in murder because there was a gun in the house. Did the gun kill someone? No. But if there had been no gun, no one would have died. At least not without a good footrace first. Guns do kill. Unlike cars, that is all they do.
For years, I used to enjoy taunting my gun-nut friends about their psycho-sexual hang-ups—always in a spirit of good cheer, you understand. But letting the noisy minority in the National Rifle Association force us to allow this carnage to continue is just plain insane.”
Twenty-six years later, the carnage continues. And we still have to post things like this (HT to noweasels for the links):
Donations are being accepted by the El Paso Community Foundation for the victims of the terrorist attack. EPCF will waive administrative and credit card fees for all donations. Donate here.
The Paso del Norte Community Foundation has established the El Paso Victims Relief Fund to support the victims and families. Donate Here.
For the Ohio victims and their families, you can donate to The Dayton Foundation website.
Damn video games.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Note: Thank you for all the birthday wishes yesterday. I particularly enjoyed the Barack Obama Pez dispenser President Trump sent to me in the envelope marked "Return to Sender." It's awesome and I hope you liked the one I sent you, too, sir!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the New England Patriots season opener against the Steelers: 33
Days 'til the Iowa State Fair: 2
Percent of registered voters who believe a Green New Deal that invests government money in green jobs and energy efficient infrastructure is a good idea, according to a PBS/NPR/Marist poll: 63%
Percent of Democrats, independents, and Republicans, respectively, who believe rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement is a good idea, according to the same poll: 81%, 53%, 18%
Amount Kentucky Democrats raised in their first day of selling Moscow Mitch T-shirts and other merchandise: $120,000
Percent of adults who die with outstanding debts, according to Experian: 73%
Number of times the average pair of human lungs expand and contact over the course of a day according to one of the internets I read: 20,000
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Over yonder in Windham, Maine, prisoners hope to reduce recidivism through the Paws in Stripes program…
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JEERS to trading one dirty dealer for another. This is kind of a good news-bad news item. The good news: Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló, who so deftly mixed corruption with racism and bigotry that Dick Nixon is adding a bunk for him down in his special circle of hell, is out. The bad news: the guy he appointed to replace him—Pedro Pierluisi—is apparently a real ash-hole:
Pierluisi…worked as a corporate lawyer at O’Neill & Borges in San Juan, where he represented AES Corporation, the coal-fired utility giant that polluted groundwater with toxic ash and sent cancer rates soaring, and the unelected eight-person Financial Oversight and Management Board imposing painful austerity cuts on the island.
Now, if he survives a Senate confirmation vote this week, Pierluisi will oversee the previous administration’s effort to sell off the island’s publicly-owned utility to private companies at the board’s behest.
“This is an outrage,” said Ruth Santiago, a lawyer and community activist in Salinas, one of the cities on Puerto Rico’s south coast that AES’s coal ash pile polluted. […] At a hearing in Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives on Friday, Pierluisi defended his work for AES and argued that coal ash and a construction product made from it called Agremax are, in fact, safe.
Those massive demonstrations that booted Rosselló? Just a hunch, but I don’t think you've seen the last of them.
CHEERS to sum' sum' summertime. A good time was had by all over the weekend at our New England Kossack meetup at Mayim's fabled cottage on the lake near Oxford, Maine Saturday. Weather, as pre-arranged with the gays, feminists and pagans: sunny and 80. The pie: blueberry…
The rubber ducky brigade included: DtheO, Debbie in ME, Simple, Vacationland, Common Sense Mainer, Yours Truly, host mayim, and Haley the Wonder Dog. Great food, feisty political conversation and unbeatable scenery ruled the day. Thanks again for your hospitality, Mayim. By the way, if your own little corner of heaven is having a Kossack meetup, let us know so we can help you get the word out. They're fun, nutritious and, best of all knowing you're having a good time always drives the Puritans crazy.
JEERS to smoking guns that really were mushroom clouds. In all the history and social studies classes I took in school, World War II always seemed to end when the Germans surrendered. It was like we studied all the details up until May of 1945, and then we were given a quick, "Oh, and then we dropped a couple bombs on Japan and our troops came home to ticker tape parades." Well, the bomb that fell on Hiroshima 74 years ago today vaporized 140,000 people. In addition to solemn remembrances, the mayor of Hiroshima is calling on Tokyo to step up its game:
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui says he will step up pressure on the Japanese government to join a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons at a ceremony this week in the city to mark the 74th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing.
Matsui said that he will ask the central government to "accept A-bomb victims' calls for Japan's signing and ratification of the treaty" in the city's peace declaration at the ceremony on Tuesday.
The mayor has stopped short of explicitly urging Tokyo to join the 2017 treaty for the past two years. […]
Japan has refused to participate in the treaty, along with the world's nuclear weapon states and other countries under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
Two ways to think about today in context. The optimist in me says, "Nukes haven't been used in warfare for 74 years." The pessimist in me says, "Nukes haven't been used in warfare for only 74 years." And with Whatshizorangeface at the helm, we'll be lucky to make it to 75.
JEERS to the growing GOP disabled list. D.C. Republicans aren't faring very well these days. A dozen of their House members, including the only black representative, are calling it quits after their terms expire in 2021. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tripped at home and fractured his shoulder. Senator Rand Paul had part of his lung taken out. And Donald Trump continues to suffer from a chronic case…
…of being Donald Trump.
CHEERS to taking your sanity and going home. Predictions that Boris Johnson would turn out to be an incompetent, feckless hack as Britain's new prime minister are turning out to be…well, about the easiest predictions anyone could ever make. Not only has he already lost a seat in parliament (leaving his majority hanging by a one-seat thread), but now chunks of the ever-shrinking empire are threatening to tell parliament where they can stick their no-deal Brexit plans:
Voters in Scotland would vote for independence from the United Kingdom, a new poll has suggested. […] Of the 1,019 voters polled,46 percent said they would vote for independence and 43 percent said they would vote against. When those who said they did not know or would not vote are excluded, the result swings to 52 percent versus 48 percent in favour of secession. […]
[Scottish First Minister and Scottish National Party leader Nicola] Sturgeon hailed the “phenomenal” poll, adding: “A broken Westminster system means Scotland is being dragged towards a no deal Brexit, regardless of the heavy price we’ll pay for lost jobs and lower living standards. That project is being led by Boris Johnson—a prime minister Scotland didn’t elect and who has no mandate to tear Scotland out of Europe with all the damage that will entail.”
Not that I would tell Scotland how it should go about defeating King Boris and taking its rightful place as an independent nation, but I do have one proven suggestion that might make it easier: surround the redcoats at Yorktown, get the French to prevent the Royal Navy from rescuing them, lay siege, capture the redoubts, and accept their surrender with a curt "Whatevs." And if that doesn’t work, go to plan B: a border wall made of haggis.
CHEERS to great moments in human dampness. On August 6, 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first American woman to swim the English Channel. It took her 14½ hours. Because she kept stopping to check her makeup! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! This misogynist message brought to you by the National Consortium of Republican-Controlled State Legislatures, whose members just snorted milk out their noses.
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Ten years ago in C&J: August 6, 2009
CHEERS to The Big Bill & Jong Il Chill. Wow—this is a feather in the Obama administration's and Clinton legacy's caps. Bubba flew to Pyongyang, did some grippin' 'n grinnin' with North Korea's oddball regime, and returned with the two journalists who otherwise would've spent a dozen years breaking big rocks into little ones. Amazing what can happen when you reactivate an evil dictator's Netflix account. Stand by for the GOP whining in 3...2...1... Pop!
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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 nights gazing yonward and dreaming. And to help you figure out what's what up there, here's NASA's Preston Dyches with an August preview:
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And don’t forget to go outside, think of Neil Armstrong, and wink at the full moon on the 15th. It's the law.
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
“Bill in Portland Maine, needless to say, three years ago I was truly hoping to sing at your funeral.”
—Barbra Streisand
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