Cheers and Jeers for Thanksgiving 2024
Note: As for the rest of the C&J posting week, nothing formal tomorrow, although we'll post a "Who won the week" poll in the diaries around 7:00pm ET. Back Monday. Have a great holiday and may your end of the wishbone be the long one, even if you have to concoct a wishbone tampering scheme so devious that it puts you on the radar of the Senate Intelligence and/or Judiciary Committee.
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December 7th
Days 'til Christmas: 27
Days 'til the National Menorah lighting in D.C.: 27
Date of Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation: 10/3/1863
Number of NFL games today: 3
Population of Turkey, Texas (hometown of Bob Wills): 396
Percent of Parade readers who believe calories don't exist on Thanksgiving: 69%
Number of Thanksgivings during which Eric Trump has gotten his head stuck in a can of cranberry sauce: 9
Number of Americans who intend to eat human brains for Thanksgiving dinner, up from 6,138 last year and spreading rapidly from northwest to southeast (stay tuned to your short-wave radios for updates and lock your doors): 6,342
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
The Progress Report has come up with some dandy things to be thankful for, starting with American troops. It also lists:
- Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., for showing it's patriotic to speak your mind.
- The 90 senators who stood up to Cheney to say that torture is not an American value.
- The 79 senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.
- That Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.
Consider these additional delights: Tom Delay is under indictment, Heckuva Job Brownie is no longer on the public payroll, and for some inexplicable reason, the administration found a Republican prosecutor in the Plame affair who seems to care more about the law than politics. […]
There's music in poor bleeding New Orleans again, Ted Koppel and his hair put in a commendable 25 years, some terrific new films are out, my puppy has not eaten a shoe for an entire month now, and the Mountain West is moving from red to purple. So let's all loosen our belts and get right down to the all-American tradition of overeating on Thanksgiving. It's still a great country, even if it is a little strange. I am grateful for all my fellow citizens—how would we know it was America if we didn't hear regularly from the nincompoop faction? Happy turkey to you all.
—Thanksgiving 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Suck it up, Buttercup...
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And now my world-famous annual…
Things For Which I Am Thankful: 2024 Edition
Our republic, which went another year without perishing from the earth (though next year looks iffy)
VP Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, for putting together an amazing team on very short notice and campaigned their hearts out
The Democrats who fought and won their 2024 races, including enough in the House to make MAGA pervert Mike Johnson’s job nearly impossible
Our new Democratic senators: Adam Schiff (CA), Elissa Slotkin (MI), Ruben Gallego (AZ), Andy Kim (NJ), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), and Angela Alsobrooks (MD).
The now all-blue Oregon legislature
Grassroots Democratic organizers and voters, especially in red states and doubly-especially women of color
Young voters who see through the MAGA bullshit and gaslighting
Campaign volunteers, ride sharers, and polling place workers
Maine’s state government, for spending another year with Dem control of the state House and Senate, and Democratic Governor Janet Mills
Doctors, nurses, and hospital administrative workers
Vaccines and the mad scientists behind them
The first responders and relief organizers who went above and beyond in the wake of this year's hurricanes, floods, and wildfires
Caregivers
The indigenous people of North America
Nila Ibrahimi, who won the 2024 International Children’s Peace Prize for her courageous efforts to advocate for the rights of Afghan girls
The Nobel and Pulitzer winners
Employers who give their employees Thanksgiving off
Employees who don’t get the day off so they can keep vital services running while the rest of us do
Teachers
Immigrants
Wind turbines and solar panels
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EVERYONE WHO VOTED BLUE IN THE 2024 ELECTIONS
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The Biden cabinet, the most capable, diverse, motivated, and scandal-free in my memory
Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and even SNL, for continuing the renaissance in late-night political humor
Freedom of the press
Freedom of speech fuck Trump fuck Elon Musk fuck Clarence Thomas
The diverse slate of Biden’s 221 federal judges confirmed by the Senate, with a few more to come
The #5 thing on internet lists that actually SHOCK me
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Ukraine’s continued humiliation of Russia
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Ta-Nehisi Coates, Joy Reid, Bishop William Barber, Al Sharpton, Charlie Pierce, Charles Blow, John Nichols, Howard Dean, E.J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, David K. Johnston, Paul Krugman, Elie Mystal
Marc Elias at Democracy Docket, for winning so many court cases against MAGA lawyers trying to steal elections and subvert democracy
David Waldman’s Kagro in the Morning radio show
Naomi Klein, Marcy Wheeler, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Daniel Dale, David Corn, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace
Atrios, Digby, Charles M. Blow, Joe Jervis, Michelangelo Signorile, Dan Savage, Leonard Pitts, Lizz Winstead
Media Matters, The Hispanic Federation, The Southern Poverty Law Center, PFAW, PFLAG, 350.org, RAICES, Sandy Hook Promise, Indivisible, Leaders We Deserve, Black Lives Matter, Run For Something, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, IAVA, ACLU, and the many other advocacy organizations that prevent the worst of the MAGA cult’s abuses, often in coordination with each other
Jimmy and Rosalynn (RIP) Carter
Bill and Hillary Clinton
Barack and Michelle Obama
Joe and Jill Biden
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DRAG QUEENS
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My partner, Michael, for growing old with me (31 years and counting)
All of my bosses (if you’re reading this, you’re one of them) at Daily Kos
The rest of the progressive blogosphere, for having the wisdom to follow all of the orders issued by “Keyboard Kingpin” Markos “Mouse Tits” Moulitsas
Netroots Nation and its organizers, for putting on another great convention in Baltimore
Those amazingly upbeat Good News Roundups
Dirty Fucking Hippies. We must breed more of them.
My doggie. My pootie.
My liberal neighbors
My squirrels: Teddy and her daughter Millie, Pierre, Nutsferatu, Clefty, Janet, Snippy...and the two babies.
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Books!!!
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Wineries
Distilleries
Breweries
Teriyaki sauce
Mayochup yes I said mayochup!
Taco Tuesdays
Excedrin Migraine. Next to the epidural, God’s gift to pain relief.
Blueberries
Candy corn
Kit Kat bars, this year’s post-Halloween addiction
Snow Snow Snow
Evolution
Electric cars
High-speed rail
NASA
Unions
Diversity
Maine’s proximity to safe haven Canada (just in case)
Peace. (Yeah, it's a word. Really. I looked it up.)
That magic moment every day at 6am when the Bacardi 151 crosses the blood-brain barrier.
Microwave ovens, which are excellent for re-heating food that gets cold because some idiot on a blog spent three hours listing all the stuff he was thankful for.
And, say it with me...
ALL OF DARK BRANDON’S INFRASTRUCTURE WEEKS!!!
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Pass the taters ‘n gravy.
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