Let’s Check the DK Ukraine Relief Tote Board
Yikes. It’s been a month since we last revisited the Daily Kos relief fund for Ukraine’s civilians—and their furry friends—affected by Russia’s daily war crimes. As of this morning, you’ve helped hit a milestone: over 3¾ million dollars! Or, to be more accurate...
$3,858,331.17
If you'd like to support the four chosen groups—the World Central Kitchen, AmeriCares, Razom for Ukraine, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare—click here and ActBlue will guide you through the rest. I know the election here is on our minds right now, but they’re still going through hell over there, and it doesn’t help that Putin is hoping that his puppet Trump wins back the White House this year. So for our regulars and our many new visitors to Daily Kos, if you can spare a few bucks, it helps a lot. Many thanks.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Note: Please sign my petition for a constitutional amendment requiring all American flags to wear an American flag pin. But not American flag underwear, because that would just be silly and probably hurt if you sat down wrong. I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with you? Why would you even think of that? —Mgt.
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4 days!!! (P.S. A+ artwork.)
By the Numbers:
Weeks 'til 2024 election voting ends: 3
Days 'til the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck: 4
Percent chance that the White House physician to Vice President Kamala Harris says she's in "excellent health" and is fully able to take on the duties of president: 100%
Estimated amount the Boeing strike has cost the company so far: $5 billion
Percent of its workforce Boeing now plans to lay off: 10%
Age of equal-pay pioneer Lilly Ledbetter when she died over the weekend: 86
Time by which Maine's peak fall colors have been pushed back, relative to the 1950s, because of climate change: 1 week
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Ignoring a Labrador…
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CHEERS to sticking the landing. Joe Biden, you magnificent bastard, you did it, old man, no joke, no joke, hand to god, ladies and gentlemen. You got us through the pandemic, you fixed the supply chain, you brought back manufacturing, you bulked up our retirement accounts, you did everything we ever asked of you, and on Friday you plopped the cherry on top of your legacy:
Consumer and producer price indexes for September both came in around expectations, showing that inflation is drifting down to the central bank’s 2% target.
That’s the fact, Jack.
In fact, economists at Goldman Sachs think the Fed may already be there. The Wall Street investment bank Friday projected that the Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditures price index for September will show a 12-month inflation rate of 2.04% when it is released later this month.
If Goldman is correct, that number would get rounded down to 2% and be right in line with the Fed’s long-held objective, a little over two years after inflation spiked to a 40-year high and unleashed an aggressive round of interest rate hikes.
Thank you for flying Dark Brandon Airlines. We hope you enjoyed your flight.
JEERS, JEERS, AND A THOUSAND MORE JEERS to throwing a wet blanket over the truth. Shame on you, CBS News. Shame, shame, shame, and a thousand more pounds of shame for presenting the results of a poll taking inventory of what Harris supporters believe and what Trump supporters believe…but then failing to mention even once WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS FULL OF SHIT. Here's just one sorry snip, and the words in bold are mine to show how easily CBS News could've thrown some sunlight on the truth:
In the erroneous view of most Trump voters, hurricane relief is mainly going to people not impacted by hurricanes, and among them, there's wide but false belief in the claim that FEMA funds are going to people in the U.S. illegally.
Most Harris voters correctly think those claims are false, that funds are going to people impacted and relief efforts are moving about the right speed.
And on and on it goes, from views on the economy to immigration: an unforgivable decision to omit how Harris voters are the smart ones who can filter truth from bullshit, and Trump cultists belong in mental hospitals. Somewhere in the hereafter, Edward R. Murrow weeps.
CHEERS to cool science. Yesterday at lunchtime NASA's assistant manager for anti-gravity control pushed the giant red button marked MAKE GO UP NOW, and right on cue the space probe Europa Clipper touched the sky and soared to the heavens. Next stop: Jupiter's moon Europa. But it wasn't easy…
“It feels surreal,” said Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “There have been battles at every level, from early on with the initial concept for the mission, through getting approved, through each milestone and overcoming various problems along the way. To be at this point, watching the team get ready, is incredible.”
Ironic that liftoff takes place in a no-smoking area.
Europa Clipper is not embarking on a life-detection mission. Rather, it will study the composition of the ice-encased moon, along with its internal structure and geology. That information could help scientists confirm whether Europa has the right ingredients to support life now—or whether it did at some point.
“We are looking for a habitable environment,” said Bonnie Buratti, the mission’s deputy project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We’re trying to look for the necessities for life, which are liquid water—and we’re pretty sure that’s there—the right chemistry and energy, whether from active geology or something else, that acts almost like a battery to push life along.”
The good news: the launch was successful. The bad news: Ron DeSantis didn’t lap up the trail of pudding leading to the cargo hold fast enough, so we're still stuck with him.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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JEERS to America's #1 pubic-hair-on-Coke-cans expert. Thirty-three years ago today, in 1991, Clarence Thomas was confirmed by the Senate 52 to 48, making him the Supreme Court's first justice with a neatly-cataloged porn collection (#1 on his list: The Adventures of Bad Mama Jama). Today he sits on his fat ass all day, an aging, bitter, bloated pervert who hollers at the world the way Grampa Simpson hollers at clouds. Oh my god—I think that makes him my soulmate.
CHEERS to excellence in number crunching. They say that in life everything is timing, and this year's winners of the Nobel Prize for economics might as well have been plucked out of Central Casting for this year's democracy-vs.-fascism election:
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson [won] for research that explains why societies with poor rule of law and exploitative institutions do not generate sustainable growth.
The three economists “have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the announcement in Stockholm.
Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University of Chicago.
“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said. He said their research has provided "a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”
In addition to the iconic gold medal, the trio wins a cash award of $1.1 million. Next year I expect to be singled out for submitting my innovative and surefire economic solution for avoiding a serious financial crisis while securing economic prosperity: it’s called winning a Nobel Prize in economics.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 15, 2014
JEERS to the return of the Pyongyang Pipsqueak. He's baaaack! Looking a hale and hearty 66, 31-year-old North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eraserhead emerged after undergoing over a month's worth of surgeries to remove a quarter of the country's GDP in Swiss cheese from his body. Clutched in his hand: a new hickory “walking stick.” If you thought his generals were nervous around him before…
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And just one more…
CHEERS to campaign ads that throw a punch. Quite literally, since there’s a shot of Joe Lewis’s famous fist sculpture in this Kamala Harris campaign ad, which is one of the best state-centric ads of the election season. After her clueless opponent chose to slam now-resurgent Detroit while speaking to the freaking Economic Club of Detroit, this became the equivalent of an exploding cigar. Well done...
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And bonus points for the cuss word.
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
‘Oh No, Chris!’ CNN Panel Busts Out Laughing As Cheers and Jeers Remark Blows Right Past Chris Wallace: ‘Never Heard of It’
—Mediaite
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