Scheduling Note: C&J will post tomorrow morning as usual before heading out tomorrow night to endure scorn and ridicule for wearing a tan suit without a flag pin on New Year's Eve, resulting in our fleeing to the basement to sob over humanity's cruelty. But we'll return Thursday morning both bright-eyed and bushy-tail, thanks to my success in finally drinking the right serum that turns me into a human-squirrel hybrid. If you won’t be here tomorrow, we pre-wish you a safe and happy New Year's Day.
And now, the envelopes, please...
January
The first winners of the new year were chosen after several tense moments holding our collective breath: the flight crew and passengers who helped everyone make it out of Japan Airlines Flight 516 alive after it collided with another plane and caught fire at the airport in Tokyo. Sadly, the mini bags of pretzels were a total loss.
For another year, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) continued flummoxing MAGAs on the House Oversight Committee with one brain lobe tied behind his back. Winner!
The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee won the second week, for deftly using the Republicans' own previous words and actions as a rhetorical scalpel to slice and dice their hypocrisy and selective amnesia during the pointless Hunter Biden contempt hearing.
President Joe Biden took one WWTW trophy in January, for targeting excessive bank overdraft fees, leading the response to attacks on shipping by Houthis (remember that?), and forgiving $5 billion in student debt. (Although there was some lingering bitterness because all $5 billion in forgiveness was just for one student.)
And Judge Lewis Kaplan rounded out the month for fulfilling his commitment to keep Trump on a tight leash during the E. Jean Carroll damages trial, co-owning the week with the jury who made Trump cough up $83 million in damages.
February
The winning streak of President Biden carried into the first and last week of February, when you rewarded him for:
» Dropping inflation numbers
» Visiting autoworkers in Michigan
» Bypassing a dithering Congress to send Ukraine more aid
» Forgiving another 150,000 student loans
» Responding with righteous anger to Alexei Navalny’s murder
» And landing at #14 on the latest list of the greatest presidents as the economy continued to hum
But you spread the love around the rest of the month, including:
Rep. Al Green (D-TX), for showing up in his hospital gown and socks after abdominal surgery to vote against the bogus impeachment of DHS Secretary Mayorkas, crushing GOP hopes of a cheap victory lap.
And both New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron, for doling out the punishment the Trump crime syndicate deserved for tax fraud: $364 million and a ban on doing business in New York for three years.
March
The first week of March saw thousands of courageous Russian citizens turn out for the funeral and burial of Putin’s #1 political foe Alexei Navalny, easily earning the most votes in the WWTW poll.
Biden knocked another State of the Union outta the park. Winner!
The next two weeks were owned by President Biden for announcing construction of an emergency-relief port on the Gaza coast, delivering a fiery State of the Union address that earned him rave reviews, and presiding over an employment report that surprised everyone by adding a boffo 275,000 jobs.
Also winning in March: House Democrats, for ruining the MAGA-run Biden impeachment hearing and then providing the votes to overcome MAGA obstructionists and keep the government funded.
The final week was won by MSNBC viewers and hosts, who unleashed a mighty torrent of outrage that resulted in reversal of the dumb-on-steroids hiring of insurrection cheerleader and pathological liar Ronna McDaniel as a “correspondent.”
April
The month began with horrifying footage of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge being struck and felled by a container ship. The crews who began the immediate, round-the-clock efforts to clean up the mess (which they did, ahead of schedule) were chosen our winners for the first week.
The rapid cleanup and reopening of Baltimore Harbor was a textbook example of government being the solution, not the problem. Winners!
Week two went to President Biden, who announced more student loan relief, closed the gun show loophole, and wined & dined the Japanese prime minister at the White House, all while overseeing an economy that was chugging along nicely..
You chose Judge Juan Merchan the following week for presiding over Trump's criminal election-interference trial with an efficient, no-nonsense attitude. With the jury seated, the trial was ready to start.
And lest we forget, Russia’s criminal war against its neighbor continued throughout the year. You chose Ukraine as the final winner of April, for finally getting the military and humanitarian aid package from the U.S. that the Putin-humping MAGA cultists had blocked for half a year.
May
May saw two weeks—the first and the third—won by President Biden, for...
» Restoring Health Protections for LGBTQ people
» Signing the Ukraine aid bill
» Welcoming another solid jobs report
» Awarding the year’s Medals of Freedom
» Slaying the audience at the White House Correspondents Dinner
» Overseeing another decent inflation report
» And officially moving to reclassify marijuana from a Class I to Class III drug
Stormy Daniels, the star witness who calmly revealed her sexual encounter with Trump, whose cover-up ultimately led to the election-interference indictments against him, won the second week.
Another win for Judge Juan Merchan, for owning his courtroom and brooking no shenanigans during the Trump election-interference trial, and gold star also to the prosecution for making a solid case with preparation and skill.
I didn’t realize how stingy I was with my “All of the Above” option this year until I noticed my first use of it wasn’t until the end of May, with all the candidates that week connected to Trump’s guilty verdict on 34 counts of fraud.
June
As we entered the sixth month, you wisely chose to honor the first week’s WWTW trophy to the D-Day veterans who returned to France one more time to mark the 80th anniversary of the invasion that led to victory over the Nazis.
President Biden and Jill greet a World War II veteran during ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The Allies = winners!
Hey, remember the undercover audio featuring hack partisan Supreme Court Justice Alito and his flag-obsessed MAGA wife shitting on democracy and the Constitution? That audio was obtained by Lauren Windsor ("Lady Libertine" here at Daily Kos), and she won the second week of June for snagging and publishing it.
The undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens who stood to benefit under the executive order President Biden issued during the third week made them the well-deserved winners.
And the WWTW trophy for the final week of June went to the thousands of LGBT veterans wrongfully discharged for same-sex intimacy as far back as the 1950’s, all pardoned by President Biden, and all allowed to regain lost benefits.
In conclusion...
If you thought the gold medalists of the first half of 2024 were worthy, wait’ll you see the winners from the second half. So join us tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion.
#5 will SHOCK you.
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