Good Morning
As we saddle up for a new week, a reminder of what we’re focused on:
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And she even has a spiffy new policy page.
It’s Monday. We ride.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, September 9, 2024
Note: Despite our best efforts in court, a judge has refused to grant our request to move today's C&J from a state kiddie pool to a federal kiddie pool. Naturally, we're appealing this brazen miscarriage of justice, and will stomp around accordingly until we get our way. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
4 days!!!
Days 'til Autumn: 13
Days 'til the Milford Irish Festival in Connecticut: 4
Increase in worker productivity in the second quarter of 2024: 2.5%
Year-over-year increase in worker wages, above the inflation rate of 2.9%: 3.8%
Amount raised by the Harris-Walz campaign in August, versus just $130 million for Team Weird: $361 million
Number of donors who contributed last month to the Harris-Walz campaign: 3 million
Number of members of the Actors' Equity Association union, now presided over by Brooke Shields: 51,000
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Sharing is…what again???
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CHEERS to the home of 55 Awesome Electoral Votes. Our first cheer of the morning goes out to our lefty-coaster friends: on September 9, 1850, California became the 31st state in the union and began its amazing journey to becoming the fifth-largest economy in the world. I have nothing but a “we’re not worthy” mantra to offer as you use your legislative and judicial guns to stymie the GOP fascists in D.C. at every opportunity when they have power. And you make pretty good movies sometimes, too, not to mention great vino. And being home to the Freeway Blogger is icing on the cake...
For showing us how to be a beacon of democracy and looking so good doing it (have you had work done?), C&J salutes the Golden State. And if there's anything, anything at all that the rest of us can do to make you more comfortable—like, say, dousing your wildfires or moving Kirk Cameron to Texas—just ask. We love you, California. We love you, we love you, we love you. Especially every four years in November.
CHEERS to jobs, jobs, jobs. The August employment report wasn’t the greatest, but still better than the previous month. 142,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2 percent. Some added details from Sir Billy McBride at Calculated Risk:
Construction employment increased 34 thousand and is now 665 thousand above the pre-pandemic level. Manufacturing employment decreased 24 thousand and is now 147 thousand above the pre-pandemic level.
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The 25 to 54 years old participation rate decreased in August to 83.9% from 84.0% in July. The 25 to 54 employment population ratio was unchanged at 80.9% from 80.9% the previous month. Both are above pre-pandemic levels and near the highest level this millennium.
Through August 2024, the employment report indicated positive job growth for 44 consecutive months, putting the current streak in 5th place of the longest job streaks in US history (since 1939).
Ugh. I'm so bored with all the winning. [Insert 5,000 smiley emojis and 1 American flag emoji here.]
CHEERS to putting on your best frowny face and getting down to business. Two more signs that summer vacation season has ended and folks are heading back to work: Congress is back in session this week and day cares are open again. There will be lots of crying and stamping of feet and screams of "Mine Mine Mine!" as a room full of whiny brats hurls childish insults and feasts on paste and magic marker fumes. And I bet the toddlers at daycare will be just as bad.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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JEERS to a very bad bench warmer. 32 years ago this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. He was, of course, the first billionaire-owned porn addict with a MAGA-traitor wife to be elevated to the nation's highest bench. As fate would have it, we also have the first beer-chugging alleged rapist (Kavanaugh), the first guy to rule that a semi truck driver stranded in frigid cold should freeze to death rather than unhook his disabled trailer and drive to get help (Gorsuch), the first 21st-century Puritan to invoke 13th-century witch hunters to make women second-class citizens as his wife flies MAGA flags in front of his home (Alito), and the first lady to be officially designated by her People of Praise cult as a "handmaid" (Coney Barrett). Y'know, that's what I love about this country—our commitment to diversity.
CHEERS to rolling up tax dodgers in high places. They thought they could outrun the long arm of The Law by hiding behind their walled-off mansions and army of lawyers. They thought filing taxes was an act for gullible sissies, and vowed they would never be caught evading them. Ohhhhhhhhhh, but they were wrong. They never counted on the Caped Dark Brandon to shine up his badge and send out posses to turn the scofflaws upside down and shake from their pockets that which they owed. And now, by god, the piper is being paid:
The IRS has collected $1.3 billion from high-wealth tax dodgers since last fall, the agency announced Friday, crediting spending that has ramped up collection enforcement through President Joe Biden's signature climate, health care and tax package signed into law in 2022. […]
Gotcha!
In 2023 and 2024 the IRS launched a series of initiatives aimed at pursuing high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay their tax debts. The IRS said the campaign is focused on taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. […]
[I]n the first six months of a new February 2024 initiative, the IRS collected $172million from 21,000 wealthy taxpayers who have not filed tax returns since 2017.
That huge pile money will go toward critical services that ordinary Americans depend on every day to keep a roof over their head and food in their belly. Right after Janet Yellen spends a few hours rolling around in it while shouting, “Wheeeee!!!”
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Ten years ago in C&J: September 9, 2014
JEERS to rattling the sabers and rallying the sheeple. War—what is it good for? I dunno, but we'll find out tonight when President Obama gives what the media are calling—say it with me—The Most Important Address of His ENTIRE Presidency. Tonight at 9, he’ll lay out his strategy for letting Congress lay out a strategy for dealing with the terrorist group ISIS. Apparently the deaths of two American journalists require a full-scale mobilization of our military-industrial complex, while the horrendous daily death toll from the terrorist group known as Big Gun in our own country warrants a yawn. Pardon my cynicism, but our collective fears have been manipulated, prodded, poked and milked by D.C. for so long that I can't get in the mood for more tin drives and victory gardens. For what it's worth, I have a suggestion for giving ISIS something to be really scared about: send in the Ferguson, Missouri PD.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to U.S. Mint'y freshness. The new American Women Quarter is here! The new American Women Quarter is here! Yes indeed, the latest in the series of U.S. quarters celebrating accomplished American women was released last month, and this one starrrrrrrrrrrs…..Celia Cruz!
Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American singer, cultural icon, and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century.
As the Cuban Revolution raged...she moved to the U.S. and married Pedro Knight, her longtime friend and trumpet player. She joined the Tito Puente Orchestra, a group central to the new sound developing in the 1960s and ’70s: salsa.
Cruz’s numerous honors and awards include four Latin Grammy awards, a Presidential Medal of Arts, and three Grammy awards, including a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy. She was inducted into Billboard’s Latin Music Hall of Fame and the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.
Cruz’s influence reached well beyond her music. She was a cultural icon, celebrating her Cuban culture, which helped other Afro-Latino Americans embrace their heritage.
Famous Cruz quote: “If I don't work, I'll be sitting on the couch watching TV, eating popcorn and getting like a cow.” Funny—if I do work, I’ll be doing all of those things.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are learning how to splash in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool is, maybe grandma and grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more."
—JD Vance
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