A Few Words from the September Birthday Kids' Table
“I'm trying to get people to see that we are our brother's keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.”
—B.B. King
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
—Elie Wiesel
"Fighting aging is like the War on Drugs. It's expensive, does more harm than good, and has been proven to never end."
—Amy Poehler
"Every scientist in the world understands that climate change is real, and caused by human activity. If we don’t get a handle on it, it will only get worse. Donald Trump believes that climate change is a hoax created in China. That is insane."
—Bernie Sanders
-
"I don't have a good work ethic. I have a real casual relationship with hours."
—Janeane Garofalo
"I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs, and bring tourists to town."
—William Howard Taft, the only president born in September
“I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream.”
—Bruce Springsteen
"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do; and for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.’”
—Bob Newhart
"Oh! My luggage!"
—Dr. Ben Carson
To the above and those in our Daily Kos community who completed another trip around the sun this month, in person or in spirit: happy birthday and many blessings on your camels.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, September 25, 2025
Note: Due to a failed cloture vote, today's note has been kicked back to sub-committee where it will be morphed into a rider to an amendment before being put before the full committee. We regret any immaturity on your part as you deal with this inconvenience. —Mgt.
-
Saturday!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of Yom Kippur: 6
Days 'til New York's Saratoga Giant Pumpkinfest: 2
Percent of American men and women, respectively, polled by Gallup who say they feel safe walking outside at night in the area where they live: 84%, 58%
Percent of Dutch men and women who say they feel safe walking outside at night in the area where they live: 95%, 69%
The last year that summer Canadian hotel occupancy was as high as it was this summer: 2014
Percent of ejections among major league baseball players, managers, and coaches so far this season that were related to umpires calling balls and strikes, according to MLB: 60.3%
Current ocean temperature off the coast of Portland, Maine: 59 F
-
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Jimmy Carter needs no defense from me. The man is enough to give Christianity a good name. Following the Christian doctrine of works as well as faith, he has done immeasurable good in the world, and no mean-spirited attack from a petty pundit [like Bob Novak] can diminish him.
The only reason I bother to note Novak's nastiness is because it left such a bad taste with me. I was traveling on the West Coast that day, and all through the airports and in cabs and hotels, people were saying to one another with real pleasure: "Jimmy Carter got the Nobel Peace Prize. Isn't that nice?" A genuine piece of good news in a world with little of it lately.
Even the right-wing Wall Street Journal managed a negative editorial on what it feels are the inadequacies of Carter's approach without demeaning the man or his accomplishments.
The implicit criticism of President Bush in the Nobel Committee's selection (made explicit by the chairman) should not detract from this recognition of how long and how hard Jimmy Carter has worked for peace and human rights. I think he is an invaluable asset to the nation. Like Nelson Mandela, he has unique stature, and wherever he goes to help with an election or to try to work out a problem, he is welcomed and listened to. In this season when the dogs of pre-emptive war are running loose, it is good to hear Carter pointing out the obvious: that we would be better off working with the rest of the world to disarm Saddam Hussein rather than annihilating his whole country.
—October 2002
Jimmy's 101st birthday is next Wednesday.
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Meet cute…
-
CHEERS to the price of censorship. The MAGA cult that celebrated the blatant assault by the FCC on the First Amendment rights of Jimmy Kimmel, and danced in the streets when they thought his show had been permanently canceled, is now spending its time in Rageville following his triumphant and classy return. Overcaffeinated CNN number cruncher Harry Enten delivers the goods:
“Let’s take a look at YouTube views. Jimmy Kimmel Live video views: the six-month median video only gets 240,000. Look how many views Tuesday night’s monologue already has: 6.7 million. That’s over 25 times as large as the median Jimmy Kimmel video normally gets, and I was looking—it is by far the largest video in at least six months. So if Donald Trump’s idea was to give Jimmy Kimmel more press and more viewership, he absolutely did so. Of course, I don’t think that is what Donald Trump intended to do,” he added.
“He did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
“Trump didn’t break Kimmel; he energized him. Viewership of Kimmel’s monologue has already broken records.”
I have only six words for the president: Please—try and cancel me next!
JEERS to the Ready-Fire-Aim administration. Now that the teenage efficiency experts of DOGE have completed their assigned task of making our federal government operate like a well-oiled machine, let's sit back for a moment and marvel at their brilliant work:
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk's cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.
Final grade for the DOGE class of 2025.
The General Services Administration has given the employees—who managed government workspaces—until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs—passed along to taxpayers—to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire. […]
“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”
To recap: the best plan the DOGE bros could come up with to eliminate wasteful, unnecessary spending in the federal government was to a) give an army of federal employees a free seven-month vacation, and b) rack up a bank vault's worth of wasteful, unnecessary spending that you and I have to pay for. Remember: when Republicans say the government is broken, they should know—they do the breaking.
CHEERS to Great Moments in Democracy. On September 25, 1789, the First Federal Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and FedEx'd them to all 50 states for ratification. Ten of those amendments became the Bill of Rights. Had this same event occurred in recent times, Republicans would've re-written them to please QAnon, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, Franklin Graham, and the remaining Koch brother, then rammed them through without any committee hearings or floor debate. But my point is: Ha Ha! They wore funny grampa socks back then! Seriously, those socks.
-
BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
-
END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
CHEERS to The Right Stuff: Class of 2025. In the immortal words of Buzz Aldrin when he first stepped onto the moon: “Oh, goody goody gumdrop!” A fresh slate of NASA astronauts—ten in all—was introduced this week for upcoming missions in the great up-yonder:
For the first time, there were more women than men in an incoming astronaut class. They included a geologist who worked on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover and a SpaceX engineer who’s already rocketed into orbit, flying on a billionaire-sponsored mission that featured the world’s first private spacewalk last year.
Gonna be a lot more cooties in space soon.
The six women and four men will undergo two years of training before becoming eligible for spaceflight. [...]
It is the 24th astronaut class for NASA since the original Mercury Seven made their debut in 1959. The previous class was in 2021.
If all goes according to plan, an 11th astronaut will be added to the lineup. Stephen Miller will be the “honorary” solo pilot of the first and only mission of the catapult-fired space pod named Quick Climb In Here Stephen There’s A Free Copy Of “Mein Kampf” Inside And Don’t Forget To Shut The Door Behind You.
CHEERS to the new kid on America's block. 236 years ago this week, in 1789, Thomas Jefferson was appointed America’s first Secretary of State. Actual transcript of Day One:
President Washington: Here's your employee ID badge and key to the executive shite house. Box 'o quills. W-2 form—be sure to sign and return it to Gary in Accounting by 5. There's your office.
Jefferson: So…what do I do?
Washington: Who knows? Just make sure you don’t park in Adams' spot or he’ll tow your horse.
Jefferson: Do we get Columbus Day off?
Washington: Hasn’t been invented yet, kid. But nice try.
History. Gives ya chills.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: September 25, 2015
CHEERS to a rock star welcome. It all started out so innocently yesterday morning at the White House gate:
[Ding dong!]
[Click] "Who is it?"
"Pope!"
"Hey, Francis! Hang on, I'll buzz ya in."
"Thanks, man."
"Sometimes the gate sticks. Give it a good tug."
[Bzzzzzzz….]
And then it was off to the races, with a state welcome, a tour of the National Mall (accompanied by the most inane cable news anchor blather I've heard in a long time. "The police are on motorcycles!" "The Pope is waving with his right hand…now with his left hand!"), a church service, and some good old-fashioned canonizin'.
Today Pope Francis, boldly wearing white after Labor Day, addresses a joint session of Congress where he'll tut-tut climate change deniers and Reaganomics supporters. If he makes it through the whole address without some obnoxious teabagger congressman shouting "You Lie!" they should make him a saint on the spot because that'll be a freakin' miracle.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to the day the Straight Talk Express jumped the tracks. It happened seventeen years ago today, and it's become a high holy day on the American political calendar ever since. It started when John McCain—back in his evil Iraq War-flogging days—“suspended” his presidential campaign so he could ride to Washington on a white stallion to stop the economic collapse that happened on his party’s watch, a much-mocked effort that consisted of a perfunctory appearance at the Bush White House. But that half-baked stunt quickly faded into the background when, with Keith Olbermann sitting beside him as a witness to history, David Letterman delivered the coup de grâce after catching McCain in a pasty-faced lie:
-
Barack Obama went on to successfully navigate eight years in the Oval Office, and McCain did not. So thank you, Dave, for being so quick that night. But more important: Thank you, John, wherever you are, for being so slow.
Oh, and a reminder that today is National Lobster Day. To make it especially memorable, breed them in your basement with radioactive isotopes until they weigh in at two tons each and then unleash them on an unsuspecting populace. Add a funny hat or water-squirting boutonnière if desired. Get creative! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
Dr. Oz Completely Walks Back Trump’s ‘Don’t Splash in the Cheers and Jeers Kiddie Pool’ Comments
—Mediaite
-
