Life Lessons & Bon Mots from October Birthday Kids
“When the Supreme Court acts like an unelected super-legislature, ignoring precedent, misleading senators under oath and stripping away Americans' rights under the guise of an "emergency"—yes, it's absolutely fair game to question the integrity of the court.”
—Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
"God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is 'no.' Sometimes it's 'you gotta be kidding.'"
—President Jimmy Carter
Continued...
"There’s a reason white supremacy attacks history. Opposition to teaching bigotry’s history and where it leads—from the slave trade to the Holocaust—is about erasing society’s tools to recognize prejudice & prevent atrocity. Holocaust denial has no place in our society. None."
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY)
“Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion.”
—Bishop Desmond Tutu
“If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the women’s card, then deal me in.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton
“Leave every place you go, everything you touch, a little better for your having been there.”
—Julie Andrews
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"Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep."
—Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame."
—Oscar Wilde
“You're not really famous until you’re a Pez dispenser.”
—Carrie Fisher
"Moo."
—Devin Nunes
To all of the above and those in our Daily Kos community who made another trip around the sun this month: happy birthday and many blessings on your camels.
And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, October 20, 2022
Note: I’m thinking of a number between one and a hundred. I will be doing this all day. Please hold my calls.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til 2023: 73
Days 'til the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival in Laconia: 9
Percent drop in used car prices over the last year: 10%
Percent of the president's student loan forgiveness plan that will benefit those making under $75,000: 90%
Percent of voters polled by Fox News who say "lend me a hand" is the main message they'd send to the government: 52%
Percent who say their primary message is "leave me alone": 43%
Value of the harvest in the top 3 pumpkin-producing states: $113 million
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Meanwhile, in case you hadn't noticed, Iraq is in a state of full collapse. And Afghanistan is not far from it. Baghdad is worse off for water, sewer, electricity and infrastructure than it was before the war.
The R's have taken care of the whole problem with the brilliance we have come to expect from them—they have decided to abolish the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (which has exposed bribery, contracts to cronies, shoddy work, the loss of billions of dollars, the failure to track hundreds of thousands of weapons shipped there, and more). You must admit this is big, bold and brainy. This is Karl Rove problem-solving at its best.
This campaign has been like getting stuck in Alice's Wonderland for three months. "There is no use trying," Alice said, "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," replied the White Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
—October 2006
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Pootie Putin invades Woozlekraine…
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CHEERS to order in the courts. Stand back, everybody! The wheels of justice are turning and, boy howdy, you don’t want to get in the way when that machine comes barreling down on you at the speed of a snail with arthritis. Three actions to report on this morning as we gnaw on our yummy licorice gavel:
Donald Trump (Not-) Rape Trial Donald Trump raped a bunch of women, but slithered out from any accountability except maybe in this one case: a civil suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, which is actually for defamation. Yesterday the 45th president gave his deposition, which was basically one word—"Fifth!"—repeated for three hours.
The "Russia Hoax" In one of his many attempts to muddy the waters by smearing his enemies, Trump hired "Special Counsel" John Durham to expose a massive "deep state" plot to use the Steele Dossier as a way of taking down his 2016 presidential campaign. On Tuesday a jury acquitted the final litigant of all charges, leaving both Durham and Trump with nothing to show for their conspiracy theory except, as usual, hamberder crumbs and tear-stained orange face goo.
Kanye West The rapper, who changed his name to "Ye," which I believe translates to "Ignorant Fuckface," is shooting his mouth off in every sick direction, including at the family of George Floyd, who was kneed to death by a Minneapolis cop who is now banging out license plates in prison. But Ignorant Fuckface, not content to just shut up and sing (horribly), is now facing legal action by Floyd's family after he publicly amplified the MAGA claim that the real culprit was fentanyl. He could end up forking over $250 million.
If they're looking for ideas for what to do with the money, I have an idea. It involves a large stack of Kanye West CDs and a steamroller.
CHEERS to thoughtful parting gifts. If the gerrymandering and voter suppression don't sink him, I think Raphael Warnock is the likely victor in the Georgia senate election, especially since his opponent continues doubling down on his self-owns:
Herschel Walker was widely mocked and criticized for flashing an honorary deputy sheriff’s badge onstage at a Georgia Senate debate Friday after his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, called him out for pretending to be a police officer.
Get ready for more. … Walker’s campaign told NBC News that it has ordered 1,000 imitation plastic law enforcement badges that say “I’m with Herschel."
But in a gesture that shows his commitment to family values, Walker will be handing out half of the badges to campaign donors and the other half to each of his children.
CHEERS to the Birthday Bab. Today is Birth of the Bab day, honoring the founder of the Babi religion, forerunner to Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i faith. According to tradition, no work is to be done on this day. Great...now they tell me, after I've spent the last hour tying my work yak skins on.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to 86 decent years—and 4 that really sucked. Herbert Hoover got some company recently in the form of a certain "W" Bush and Donald Trump, who now join him on the short list of worst presidents ever. But Hoover was quite the humanitarian before his disastrous (and, boy howdy, do we mean disastrous) one term as president...and he was quite the competent humanitarian for 30 years after. But his time ran out when he kicked the bucket on this date in 1964 at the age of 90. Oh, and speaking of speaking of #31 and #43 and #45 in the same breath, there actually were people who roamed the planet named Donald W. Hoover. I think most of ‘em died of embarrassment.
JEERS to finding something where it don't belong. This is not good:
A considerable amount of radioactive waste was found at a Missouri elementary school near St. Louis, according to a new report.
The Hazelwood School District, where Jana Elementary School is located, said in a statement that it's aware of the report concerning the radioactive waste. "Safety is always our top priority, and we are actively discussing the implications of the findings," the district said.
After a thorough analysis, officials took immediate action and escorted Congressman Gaetz off the premises.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 20, 2012
CHEERS to takin' your Flintstones chewables. Wow—I've choked down a vitamin every day for decades but I mostly thought I was just pissing it away. Turns out I may be on my way to living forever:
Half [of the 15,000 male physicians over 50] took the daily multivitamin Centrum Silver; the others took a placebo. Men in the vitamin group had a modest 8% reduction in cancer cases compared to the others. […]
"Overall the study provides the first very nice piece of evidence that well-balanced—not overdose, not mega dose—combination of vitamins and minerals seems to have an effect at preventing cancer," said Dr. Boris Pasche, director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "But more research is needed to validate this."
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Meanwhile I recently made a dramatic health discovery of my own: eating more candy corn is an excellent way to overcome a candy corn deficiency. [Scribble Scribble Scribble] As of a few seconds ago my study is conveniently published on my cocktail napkin.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to foresight. Can you imagine being able to go back 37 years and gobble up the very first internet domain names like a kid in a candy store, and then turn around and sell ‘em for a gazillion bucks to their “rightful” companies? Remember those days? These were the first URLs back then:
Rank Create date Domain name
1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
But no. We waited too long and had to resort to Plan B for getting ahead in life: robbing banks. In hindsight, a poor career move. Sincerely, Inmate #321775439974.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
Probably the smartphones are making us all crazy, but for a weirdo like me, the ability to be in basically any city and get Cheers and Jeers is a true life improvement.
—Atrios
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