Three Simple Words Above the Fold This Evening Will Suffice:
Happy Birthday, Rosalynn.
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, August 18, 2023
Note: A teeny-tiny but obnoxious reminder that Sunday is World Mosquito Day. I got mine a tiny pair of Garfield-eating-lasagna socks. So cute.
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of World Water Week: 2
Days 'til the Fallon Cantaloupe Festival & Country Fair in Nevada: 7
Increase in industrial production in July: 1.0%
Percent chance that the latest economic forecast from the Federal Open Market Committee still projects a recession later this year: 0%
Age of Rep. George Santos's paid campaign fundraiser who was indicted on charges of wire fraud and identity theft for impersonating an aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy to get donations: 27
Rank of Barbie among Warner Bros. top-grossing domestic releases of all time, after topping The Dark Knight this week with $537 million: #1
Percent chance that the above number makes the misogynist MAGA cultists curl up into a little ball and cry: 100%
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Weekend plans...
-
CHEERS to being so good that even The New York Times has to admit it. Holy mother of Baby Fudiciary Jesus, Batman! Yesterday's morning email from the "newspaper of record" must've been a real bummer for them to write, because Bidenomics is humming along so well that even they had to admit it. Read it and weep, pessimists:
Over the past few weeks, sentiments about the economy have gone from bleak to optimistic.
Inflation is down. The U.S. is still adding jobs, but not so quickly that it is prompting fears of an overheating labor market. Wages are now rising faster than prices, but also not quickly enough to renew worries about higher inflation. In short: The economy is good, but not too good.
What does it all mean for you? The chances of a job-wrecking, wage-crushing recession appear lower than they have in years.
America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, has been working since 2022to cool the economy and, with it, inflation. Yet each step the Fed took to raise the cost of borrowing money carried risks—namely, going too far and causing an economic downturn. While it’s too early for the Fed to declare victory, economists are now more optimistic that the economy will make a so-called soft landing: Prices will stabilize without a recession
What can we say? Biden-Harris 2024.
CHEERS to mexed missages. Republicans used to be so good at marching in lockstep. But with 91 charges now leveled at their most-recent president and current undisputed head of the party (coughcultcough), they're all discombobulated. And there's no better example at the moment than these two Senate titans reading off different scripts in reaction to Trump's leadership role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection and how it should be handled:
Mitch McConnell’s BFF Lindsey Graham, this week: “This should be decided at the ballot box and not in a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail."
Lindsey Graham’s BFF Mitch McConnell, February 2021: "President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office. ... We have a criminal justice system in this country [and] we have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one."
Your GOP, ladies and gentlemen. There is no furniture of their own making that they won’t eventually bump into.
CHEERS to do-gooders of yore. As part of his 'War on Poverty,' President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act 59 years ago this week. It included funds for vocational training, loans to farmers and businessmen, establishment of a domestic version of the Peace Corps, and community action programs. Or, as modern-day Republicans call them: Ick, Blech, Yuck and Feh.
-
BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
-
END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
CHEERS to #23. Happy birthday Sunday to Benjamin Harrison, born on August 20, 1833 in North Bend, Ohio. As president from 1889 to 1893, he was the filling in the Grover Cleveland sandwich. And what a party animal! From Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien:
[I]n person the staunchly Presbyterian president was a virtual corpse.
Chilly, frigid, frosty—words like these were routinely used to describe the unpleasant experience of meeting privately with the man. [...]
Senator Thomas Platt was the one who coined the moniker "White House Iceberg." As Platt explained, "Inside the Executive Mansion, in his reception of those who solicited official appointments, [Harrison] was as glacial as a Siberian stripped of his furs. During and after an interview, if one could secure it, one felt even in torrid weather like pulling on his winter flannels, galoshes, overcoat, mittens and earflaps."
Even Harrison's handshake was a flop, likened to "a wilted petunia."
Like Mike Pence. Minus the charm.
CHEERS to home vegetation. Quick roundup of TV fare for the weekend, starting tonight with Chris Hayes’ and Alex Wagner’s (in-)digestion of the Friday news dumps that landed in our collective lap today. Chris Christie unloads on Trump at 8:30 on PBS’s Firing Line. Or you can join me and the Trekkie Posse tonight at 8ET as we live-tweet the original series episode The Savage Curtain (via the H&I Network) at hashtag #allstartrek.
The most popular movies and streamers, new and old, are all reviewed here at Rotten Tomatoes. (The superhero movie Blue Beetle is getting good reviews, the R-rated animated Will Ferrell feature Strays not so much.) Tomorrow night at 8 on most networks there’s a star-studded Stand Up to Cancer fundraiser. The baseball schedule is here and the WNBA schedule is here. The Little League World Series is now underway, and the latest games air tomorrow and Sunday afternoon on ABC and ESPN. Oh, and there’s the Women’s World Cup Soccer final—England vs. Spain—that airs Sunday at 2 on Fox.
Sunday on 60 Minutes: Reports on stories that are so shocking they simply can’t reveal what they are until they air.
Now here's your Sunday morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Govs. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Doug Burgum (MAGA Cult-ND).
CNN's State of the Union: FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell; Sen. Bill Cassidy (MAGA Cult-LA); former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD); David Axelrod, Paul Begala.
Face the Nation: Gov. Josh Green (D-HI); Deanne Criswell; Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D); CBS polling guy Anthony Salvanto with new poll numbers; former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
This Week: Deanne Criswell; Mike Pence; former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Future cleaning lady with a cigarette butt hanging off her lip Nikki Haley; Gov. Kim Reynolds (MAGA Cult-IA).
Happy viewing!
-
Ten years ago in C&J: August 18, 2013
CHEERS to Queer Eye for the Tough Guy. Other than knowing that professional wrestling is mostly a highly-choreographed (and sweaty—lord how they sweat) stage show, my interest in it pretty much ended at the intersection of Andre the Giant Avenue and Rowdy Roddy Piper Boulevard. But I know WWE is Theatre of the Macho, so it's cool to see the organization's official reaction to headliner Darren Young's exit from the closet and on his way to pride parade grand marshaldom:
On TMZ this morning, WWE Superstar Darren Young (Fred Rosser) revealed to the WWE Universe that he is gay. WWE is proud of Darren Young for being open about his sexuality, and we will continue to support him as a WWE Superstar. Today, in fact, Darren will be participating in one of our Be A STAR anti-bullying rallies in Los Angeles to teach children how to create positive environments for everyone regardless of age, race, religion or sexual orientation.
The response from his fellow WWE stars reveals the big-hearted lugs they are. In fact, tonight I hear they'll do a group hug before they beat each other senseless with folding chairs.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to people with the greatest first name on the planet. 42nd President Bill Clinton turns 77 tomorrow. Some Clintonian fun facts:
✓ Clinton is one of 8 left-handed presidents. With lefty predecessors Bush I and Reagan, America was led by southpaw presidents from 1981 to 2001.
✓ In 1996, President Clinton became the first Democrat to be elected to a second term since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936. (16 years later Obama became the second.)
✓ He’s the only president who’s a Rhodes Scholar.
✓ Clinton was 16 when he shook hands with President John F. Kennedy in 1963, just four months before Kennedy’s death. Clinton later said he “muscled” his way through the line to meet JFK at the Boys Nation event.
✓ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech so impressed a teenaged Clinton that he memorized the entire speech right after it was given.
In his negative column: DOMA, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, DLC, Monica, repeal of Glass-Steagall, NAFTA, and I hear he reed-synched his sax solo on Arsenio. In his plus column: charming, scary intelligent, beat Bush I, Dole, and Perot, humiliated Gingrich, made the economy hum, beat his McDonald's addiction, post-Oklahoma City bombing speech was empathy writ large, busy humanitarian, won the Bosnian campaign, tore Romney apart piece by robotic piece at the 2012 Charlotte Democratic convention, and these days is just laying low and enjoying retirement. On the whole: a president whose camels deserve blessing. Oh, almost forgot: regards to the missus.
Have a great weekend. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-