Let’s Check the DK Ukraine Relief Tote Board
As we do every other week or so, let’s check in on the Daily Kos relief fund for the Ukrainian civilians (and animals) affected by Russia’s daily war crimes. As of this morning, you’ve contributed:
$2,672,086.30
If you'd like to support the five chosen groups—the World Central Kitchen, AmeriCares, the International Rescue Committee, Razom for Ukraine, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare—click here and ActBlue will help you take care of the rest.
It's predictable but still frustrating that the media appears to have largely moved on as Russia’s war morphed from “easy victory by military genius” to “gross self-own by genocidal doofus.” But it’s still raging as ragey as ever, and our help is still essential for the civilians caught in the middle. So thanks for your continued support for Ukraine, and your continued middle fingers for Putin.
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Note: Today is Daiquiri Day. Daiquiris are the brainchild of Jennings Stockton Cox, who invented the drink in the Cuban mining town of—are you sitting down?—Daiquiri. Today in the C&J cantina we’ve got beer. Sorry, no daiquiris. We drank ‘em all last night. Bad planning. Oops. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til National Chili Dog Day: 6
Days 'til Maine's Union Fair and Wild Blueberry Festival: 8
Current national average price of gas: $4.50
Portion of Arizona swing voters focus-grouped by Axios who believe Trump should be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the attack on the Capitol: 10-in-13
Portion of Wisconsin swing voters who believe Trump should be prosecuted: 10-in-14
Years as of Sunday since Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine (none of the Russians involved have taken responsibility for it): 8
Percent of waste water that's recycled aboard the Space Station: 93%
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Support your local support dog…
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JEERS to not living up to the hype. Texas law enforcement before the Uvalde massacre of schoolchildren:
"We're badass Rambos, motherfuckers! Don’t mess with Texas! We're good guys with guns and we take out the bad guys with guns! That's right—we'll charge in and take you out with surgical precision, motherfuckers. We're ninja judo warriors with badges wooooooooo!!! Fund the police and own the libs! Lone Star State law enforcement kicks…your…ass!!! P.S. REMEMBER THE ALAMO, PANSY ASSES!!!"
And Texas law enforcement as of last Sunday night:
Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed, according to a damning investigative report released Sunday. […]
The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building—and it is “almost certain” that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered, according to the report, which laid out in detail numerous failures.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said. [...] “It’s a joke. They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazar, who was among those killed, said Sunday.
But by all means, feel free to continue remembering the Alamo.
CHEERS to getting the goods. Sorry to have to break the news, but you can add the once-venerable Secret Service to the list of American institutions that seems to have gone to shit. Boozing, whoring, lying, incompetence, MAGA cheerleading…in my opinion they've become just another hive of scum and villainy no longer deserving of anyone's trust, let alone the president's. But at least the text messages they deleted after the Jan. 6 Republican insurrection will see the light of day today, followed later this week by another prime time hearing on Thursday:
Investigators gave the Secret Service until [today] to turn over the documents, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the committee, said on ABC News’ This Week that they expect to receive them on time. … “I was shocked to hear that they didn’t back up their data before they reset their iPhones—that’s crazy. I don’t know why that would be. But we need to get this information to get the full picture.” […]
[W]hile Thursday’s hearing is the last in this “tranche” of eight hearings, Lofgren said the investigation could go past the elections this fall, and there might be another round of public hearings later this year.
"This is going to open people's eyes in a big way," [Rep. Adam] Kinzinger said. "If I was a president sworn to defend the Constitution—that includes the legislative branch—watching this on television, I know I would have been going ballistic to try to save the Capitol. He did quite the opposite."
The season one grand finale is Thursday night at 8. Please: throw shoes at your TV and/or streaming device responsibly.
P.S. Steve Bannon’s trial for blowing off the Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoena started yesterday. If convicted, he’ll be given the harshest penalty he could imagine: six months in a bathtub-shaped prison cell made out of bars of soap.
CHEERS to one of South Dakota's biggest moral compasses. Disproving the theory that only the good die young, World War II hero (35 combat missions as a B-24 pilot), former Senator and Democratic presidential contender George McGovern—whose gravestone lists his first accomplishment as humanitarian—would’ve been 100 today.
If he'd been elected in '72, the Vietnam War would've ended sooner, progressive values would've sunk their roots deeper into the American consciousness, and the integrity of the office of the President would've held fast. Instead we re-elected a corrupt, paranoid, scheming, power-obsessed Republican loon who ended up trashing the office of the presidency. Thank god we learned our lesson from that experience, huh.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to the one-man early warning system. Among those who brought down Nixon during the Watergate scandal, John Dean rained down the mightiest blows, and then went on to become a teacher of the lessons we all—especially the federal government—should've learned from the debacle. But perhaps more important, he's a seasoned whistleblower on the conservative movement's descent into madness, and it sure would've been helpful if his warning that we stumbled on from July of 2006 (from a now-defunct Common Dreams link) had been taken more seriously:
Candid and knowledgeable Republicans on the far right concede—usually only when not speaking for attribution—that they are not truly conservative. They do not like to talk about why they behave as they do, or even to reflect on it.
Nonetheless, their leaders admit they like being in charge, and their followers grant they find comfort in strong leaders who make them feel safe. This is what I gleaned from discussions with countless conservative leaders and followers, over a decade of questioning. [...]
What I found provided a personal epiphany. Authoritarian conservatives are, as a researcher told me, "enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, antiequality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian and amoral." And that's not just his view. To the contrary, this is how these people have consistently described themselves when being anonymously tested, by the tens of thousands over the past several decades.
In their defense, we must never forget that authoritarian conservatives brought us such innovations as the...uh...the uh... Sorry, all I got is Freedom Fries.
CHEERS to champagne and confetti!!! Sure, things suck in America these days. We're following the descent-into-Nazism playbook almost to the letter. Inflation is pissing everyone off. The coronavirus and monkeypox have teamed up to give our immune systems even more shit to worry about. We're letting ourselves get cooked to death by ignoring climate change. Healthcare remains a frustrating and expensive patchwork of patchworks. The Supreme Court is one session away from holding actual witch trials. And nothing's being done about anything. So thank god we can all take enormous joy and comfort in this feel-good moment for one of our most-cherished mom 'n pop shops:
Goldman Sachs is clearly still the top dog on Wall Street. The investment banking powerhouse reported earnings and revenue Monday morning for the second quarter that easily topped analysts' forecasts.
Goldman Sachs posted a profit of $2.9 billion, or $7.73 a share, during the three months ending in June. ... The bank also generated revenue of $11.9 billion.
And we all lived happily ever after. By which I of course mean they all lived happily ever after.
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Ten years ago in C&J: July 19, 2012
CHEERS to feeling pic'y, pic'y pic'y. After eight and a half years relying on nothing but the printed word to entertain you, C&J has finally taken a creative leap by adding some visual stimulation. For that we thank the elves working behind the scenes at Daily Kos, who have made photo embedding as easy as picking your nose. Now, I'm a newbie at this, so it'll take me a bit to figure out how to incorporate visuals into C&J. My criteria will be very strict: 1) Does it advance the narrative? 2) Does it avoid breaking Markos's beloved blog? And/or 3) Does it have animated creatures doing zany things? I look forward to stretching the boundaries of this column through—[Jazz Hands!!!]—the magic of visual media, and I hope you enjoy the results. So, uh, anyone know of any good public domain porn sites?
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And just one more…
CHEERS to home sweet home. U.S. News & World Report released its latest list of the Top 10 Best Places to Live in the United States. It's populated by cities like Boulder CO, Portland OR, Raleigh/Durham NC…and this humble Maine hamlet of only 66,000 on the northeast Atlantic coast checking in at #8:
The most populous metro area in Maine holds the same No. 8 spot from 2021 due to its quality of life, fairly steady job market and growing reputation as a desirable place to live.
For quality of life, factoring in college readiness among high school students, proximity to quality health care, crime, air quality, average commute time and residents' overall well-being, Portland ranks 10th out of the 150 metro areas on the list. Portland ranks No. 4 for its low rates of property crime, violent crime and murder, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and No. 12 for air quality, based on the EPA’s Air Quality Index.
Sounds right to me. Then again, I’ve only lived here for 29 blissful years. More study is needed.
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
"Cheers and Jeers manages some scattered laughs but is only minimally clever or charming."
—Todd Jorgenson
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