Energize An Ally Tuesday
Call me crazy, but I've never been a fan of the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping event known as Trample Your Neighbors At The Mall Friday. Now that I'm finally out of the coveted 25-54 demo, I can kick back at home and let the young 'uns do the trampling instead. (I’m told it wasn’t as bad as last year, but still...no thanks.)
I much prefer Giving Tuesday, started in 2011 as "an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season." It's a good time to stop and appreciate the many fearless, well-run organizations that go out every day and defend the country from the internal orc army known as the MAGA cult. Plus there tends to be less trampling.
Here are some groups on which we've cast our Tuesday Energize An Ally spotlight over the years. If you feel like tossing a few bucks their way, they'd appreciate it. And if you have a group that you'd like folks to know about, let us know in the comments.
The ACLU The civil liberties titan preventing the GOP from treating the Constitution as a glorified snot rag
League of Conservation Voters Working to make life hell for the polluters and the fossil fuel addicts (but I repeat myself).
Democracy Docket Marc Elias runs the leading progressive source for information, analysis and opinion about voting rights, elections and democracy, and he spends a lot of time in courtrooms around the country winning cases against the election deniers.
Run for Something Extremely effective at recruiting and training thousands of young progressives to run for office since the day Trump took office...and a lot of ‘em have been winning.
Indivisible Former Obama staffers who literally wrote the how-to manual on "cultivating a grassroots movement of thousands of local groups to elect progressive leaders, realize bold progressive policies, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the MAGA agenda"
Leaders We Deserve Founded by David Hogg and Kevin Lata, this is a newly-hatched grassroots organization dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda and advance a progressive vision for the future.
To all the organizations fighting the good fight, and the dedicated advocates who staff them, Thank You for doing what you do. It is most excellent.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Note: The great thing about C&J’s notes is that when one lett r goes out the rest stay lit. That’s high-tech electrical engineering you can count on. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
11 days!!!
Days 'til the December full "cold" moon: 12
Days 'til the 18th annual Currier and Ives Cookie Tour in New Hampshire's Monadnock region: 11
Amount Ben Wikler, now running for DNC Chair, has raised over the last five years for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, more than any other state chair: $200 million
Expected number of jobs created in November when the employment report comes out Friday: 183,000
Weekend ticket sales for Moana 2, an opening-weekend record: $221 million
Percent chance that Moana 2 was originally slated to be tossed onto the Disney+ streaming service: 100%
Number of previous times a portion of the AIDS Quilt had been displayed on the White House lawn before President Biden had it done Sunday for World AIDS Day: 0
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "That little periscope of hope popping out of the chaos…"
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JEERS to the mighty Wurlitzer of dumb playing on. Let's check in and see how the various outbreaks of senseless violence are going as of five minutes ago:
"I hate you!"
"I hate you more!"
"Dumbhead!"
"Stupid britches!"
"Bleh bleh bleeeehhhh!!!"
"Floo floo flooooooo!!!"
"You're what's wrong with this country!"
"You're what's wrong with this planet!"
“Die in agony, mother-[bleep]-er!!”
“I’m doxxing you and your family!”
"Now I hate you even more!"
"Well I hate you even more more!!!"
But enough about MAGA infighting over Trump’s cabinet nominees over here. Anyone know how things are going over there?
CHEERS to crossing the finish line (with just a few gobs of seaweed up our nose). Southerners and East Coasters rejoice! After nearly going through the entire alphabetic roster of names, as of 5pm last Sunday your 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended. Here's the National Weather Service's 2024 "spaghetti map" charting what turned out to be a fairly average season. You’ll notice that my supreme powers as one of “the gays” kept the calamities away from Maine:
Meanwhile, the NOAA 2025 hurricane season forecast comes out next May. So other than blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, nor'easters, mudslides, droughts and everything that happens after January 20th, we're in the clear.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to another joyous noel at The People's House. First Lady Jill Biden unveiled the White House holiday decorations this week, and the work done by her and her 100 volunteers from all 50 states continue to resonate as an optimistic contrast to the four years of darkness and dystopia thrown together by the previous president's demon-eyed mate, aka Mrs. "who gives a f*ck about the Christmas decorations." Wanna see? Huh huh huh? Ya wanna?
A carousel-themed tree sits in the Blue Room, which was named after President Blue.
Among the decorations are those that include the name of every state. Meanwhile, the tree at Mar-A-Lago will be festooned as usual with the Trump family's favorite states: chaos, carnage, confusion, delusion, rage, and denial.
CHEERS to seeing stuff up close. On this date in 1621, Galileo perfected his new invention. He called it the telescope. The following day the lady next door perfected her own new invention. She called it the window blinds.
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 3, 2014
CHEERS to locking "matter horns." Being descended from the Swiss, I like to Google the birthplace of my DNA every ten years or so—it helps me maintain the bond that I cherish with my non-committal roots. And, boy howdymeister, did I hit the jackpot this time!
Turns out Switzerland was about to go the Full Ron Paul by putting a measure on the ballot that would require the country to hoard a fifth of its monetary reserves in gold—1,650 tons worth totaling $60 billion. As America's tea party held its breath in anticipation of a victory that would influence our own monetary policy, the votes were counted and…the measure got crushed. And then, adding insult to injury, they refused to go The Full Sheriff Joe Arpaio by rejecting this:
Voters in Switzerland have decisively rejected a proposal to cut net immigration to no more than 0.2% of the population. The country's 26 cantons rejected the proposal, with about 74% of people voting no in Sunday's referendum. … Around a quarter of Switzerland's eight million people are foreigners. The measure would have required the government to reduce immigration from about 80,000 to 16,000 people a year.
Next year the Swiss will vote on building a twelve-foot-tall dark-chocolate fence around its border to control the immigrant population. Being made by a peace-loving peoples, it won’t exactly hurt you if you choose to climb it. But the experience is guaranteed to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA's site to see if our new Space Force is conquering every ball of gas and rock in the known galaxy. Sorry to say the answer is “not yet,” so we'll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming of death stars and cloaked Klingon vessels. This month’s major events include fun with triangles and the moon playing footsies with our planetary neighbors. Here's NASA's Preston Dyches with a preview:
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And remember: if space aliens with lasers land and demand to know who’s responsible for the giant mess down here, blame Baby Jesus. Let’s see how the li’l prick wriggles out of this one.
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
Australia passes Cheers and Jeers minimum age law, cracking down on kiddie pool use by kids under 16
—USA Today
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