From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
In the interest of giving you a brief moment of respite from the nuttiness enveloping this crazy planet, this space contains no Cat-5 hurricanes (who knew there was such a thing?), deportations, nimrod Republicans, voter suppression, climate change, man-eating pythons or alligators in moats, ICE Nazis, Bubba Nazis, Gorka Nazis, mind-numbing Super PAC ads, orange dotards, rogue icebergs the size of Rhode Island, pie fights, income inequality, Fox News gibberish, racism, Lindsey Graham histrionics, Rudy Giuliani histrionics, Kellyanne Conway histrionics, multi-trillion-dollar deficits, tweets, ocean acidification, caged children, slo-mo drug commercials, generic fearmongering, LGBT-condemning evangelical grifters, Space Force, stupid debate moderator questions, forgotten passwords, inbox-clogging money begs, MAGA hats, mansplaining, hate crimes, car trouble, pumpkin spice, foreclosures, warm Trump-despot embraces, wars on women, police brutality, gerrymandering, mulligans, tar sands, evil squirrels, skyrocketing tuition bills, droughts, floods or methane pockets.
Courtesy of the management. Stay as long as you like.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, October 3, 2019
Note: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Longtime Daily Kos icon One Pissed Off Liberal (aka "OPOL," aka Randy Shields) died yesterday, two months shy of his 68th birthday.
Repeating what I wrote yesterday: He was a force of nature here. His diaries practically jumped off the screen. As is often the case with firebrand bloggers, in person (we hung out at a few Netroots Nations conventions) he was a portrait in humility and good humor. Although he hasn’t posted here in a few years, the effect he had on countless Kossacks, especially during the Bush years, will continue to resonate. He graced C&J with his presence frequently over many years, and we send our condolences to his family, especially son Daniel. May we meet again one day in a great weed field in the sky.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Canadian Beer Day: 6
Days `til Harvest on the Harbor in Portland, Maine: 14
Trump's approval rating on the economy, per a new CNBC poll: 42%
Years since U.S. manufacturing output has been as low as it is today: 10
Inches of snow that fell in Browning, Montana over the weekend: 48
Number of weeks protesters have taken to the streets of Hong Kong: 17
Years the Biddeford (Maine) Journal Tribune published before announcing it's folding due to lack of subscribers and advertisers: 135
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times—the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy. Bush always gets testy under stress. This is not news.
It seems to me what we are looking at was put best by noted journalist Bill Moyers, formerly of Marshall, Texas, who was back home recently and observed that the Republican right came to Washington to start a revolution and stayed to run a racket. It has become a game of ideological flim-flam, a scam in which all manner of distracting hoo-hah—abortion, judicial activism, even “the war on terra”—is used to obscure the fact that the government has been taken over by people who are using it to make money for themselves and their friends.
In the business world, this is called “control fraud,” and it refers to an organization, like Enron or Tyco, that is rotten at the head. One of the key figures in this web of malfeasance is Jack Abramoff, the super-lobbyist, top fund-raiser for Bush’s re-election and close buddy of Rep. Tom DeLay, himself the architect of the “K Street Strategy” to convert the entire business lobby into the fund-raising arm of the Republican Party in return for whatever legislative favors the major donors want.
—October 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Oops. Overslept…
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CHEERS to order in the courts. Four—count 'em one two three four—judgments handed down this week offer hope that at least one of our branches of government is still semi-functional:
Justice In a decision that's shocking because no one expected it, white off-duty Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was found guilty (and sentenced to 10 years in prison) by a jury of stumbling into the wrong apartment and murdering the unit's rightful owner Botham Jean, a black man. So after all this time fighting for equal rights under the law, we finally know of at least one black life in recent memory that officially matters in the eyes of the law. It's just too bad he’s not here to know that.
Net Neutrality The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC can give the telcos a green light to give faster and better internet service to the rich, while providing slow lanes and shittier service to the poor. BUT……states like California that pass their own net neutrality regulations are authorized to implement and enforce them, thus giving Americans one more good reason to live in a blue state: less buffering.
The Great Outdoors U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled—in so many words—that the fossil-fuel-loving Trump administration can go fuck itself. Three legal challenges to a federal effort that would turn Utah's Bears Ears National Monument into a fracker's paradise can proceed.
Reproductive Rights A federal judge ruled that Georgia's abortion ban, which kicks in after six weeks (before many women even know they're pregnant) is unconstitutional and fuck you Republicans for putting your conservative brand of Judgmental-Old-Man-In-The-Sky hocus pocus above medical science and women’s freedom. "By banning pre-viability abortions, H.B. 481 violates the constitutional right to privacy, which, in turn, inflicts per se irreparable harm on Plaintiffs," wrote District Judge Steve Jones.
Chocolate gavels all around.
JEERS to tubular obstruction. They're not calling it a heart attack, but it sounds like Senator and 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders, 78, may have had a mild one Tuesday. He's in a Las Vegas hospital recovering from the insertion of a couple stents in an artery, and has suspended his campaign events until he's fit as a fiddle and ready for love.
C&J wishes him a speedy recovery, and we have evidence that he’s well on his way: he's stopped calling the nurse's station to request pain meds and has started calling the nurse's station to demand Medicare for all.
JEERS to going medieval. The New York Times reports that President Trump said he envisions a place where poisonous snakes thrive in swampy conditions by spending their days wallowing in a large cement structure surrounded by a spiked fence while hissing and spitting at anything that comes near, always ready to sink their fangs into perceived enemies and happy to eat their own if it serves their interests. Then he said, "But enough about the White House, let's talk about my border moat."
CHEERS to a whole lotta shaking goin' on. The rover InSight, currently ruling all it surveys on Mars, is equipped with instruments to detect seismic activity on the red planet. The lovable nerds at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted this “Tube of You” in which you can actually hear the sounds of the ground vibrations, along with wind gusts and InSight's robotic arm moving around. Fascinating, and a little spooky, but it's got a good beat and you can dance to it:
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The likely cause of the seismic activity, according to experts: Mars just found out that Rachel Maddow just dropped a new book.
P.S.
We shall approach the mystery object with due caution.
CHEERS to 24 hours of vittles and gratitude. This country is so stingy with holidays and free time in general. It's like relaxing = slacking or something, and it's ridiculous. But at least Honest Abe Lincoln gave us a little respite when he was president. On October 3, 1863, he gave a speech in which he proclaimed the last Thursday in November as "Thanksgiving Day." Then the tryptophan kicked in and he fell asleep. Slacker.
CHEERS to the sound of the other shoe dropping. Here's something the most corrupt White House in History doesn't want you to know: there's a second whistleblower. And because the first whistleblower cracked open such a huge can of worms on the Ukraine arms-for-dirt-on-Biden scandal, this other one is now taking on a life of its own, and could be another impeachable offense in its own right. Even worse for Captain Cheeto, this one has to do with—paraphrasing here, but only slightly—my preeeeeecious:
House Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal, the House committee which has jurisdiction over taxes,tariffs, and other social assistance programs, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin saying that a "Federal employee" submitted an"unsolicited communication" on July 29, 2019, which alleged that there were "inappropriate efforts to influence" the mandatory Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit of Trump's and Vice President Mike Pence's tax returns.
In his August 8 letter, Neal argued that the allegations made by the whistleblower were "credible"and pointed to "evidence of possible misconduct."
"This is a grave charge that appreciably heightens the Committee's concerns about the absence of appropriate safeguards as part of the mandatory audit program and whether statutory codification of such program or other remedial, legislative measures are warranted," he wrote.
How badly do I hope this thing blows up into a major scandal that exposes the jaw-dropping extent of his racketeering? Let me count the ways. So far I’m up to 1040.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 3, 2009
JEERS to reaching...I mean reeeally reaching. Smug, elitist conservative George Will said yesterday on This Week that President Obama believes "...there are no problems that will not melt beneath the sunshine of his charm." His evidence: the president said "I" or "Me" 23 times in 13 paragraphs during his pitch to the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen last week. Let's take a look at a small sample of those egotistical statements:
"I come as a faithful representative of the American people, and we look forward to welcoming the world to the shores of Lake Michigan and the heartland of our nation in 2016."
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"On those Chicago streets, I worked alongside men and women who were black and white; Latino and Asian; people of every class and nationality and religion. I came to discover that Chicago is that most American of American cities, one where citizens from more than 130 nations inhabit a rich tapestry of distinctive neighborhoods."
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I ran for President because I believed deeply that at this defining moment, the United States of America has a responsibility to help in that effort, to forge new partnerships with the nations and the peoples of the world.
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I urge you to choose Chicago. I urge you to choose America. And if you do, if we walk this path together, then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud."
Scandalous. It's like he lives in a bubble. George Will, I mean.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to lovebirds with longevity. "Barack and Michelle...sittin' in a tree...K-I-S-S-I-N-G." President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary today. To put that in perspective, that's longer than any of Donald Trump's, Rudy Giuliani's or Newt Gingrich's three marriages…or Rush Limbaugh's four. Their genuine affection and support for each other (not to mention their kids) while in the White House was inspiring, classing up everything from haughty state dinners to raucous campaign rallies to public service campaigns to readings of Where the Wild Things Are at the Easter Egg Roll. You simply could not see these two having a great time together and not break your face smiling. During their tenure, the White House was transformed from Fortress Bush to its proper function as The People’s House. (You will never see a troop of Girl Scouts having a campout on the lawn during the current occupant’s reign.) To prove all of my points above, enjoy a few memories:
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I’m told that the anniversary gift for year 27 is “sculpture.” I’d say the two of them deserve to be immortalized in stone on the National Mall. Just to let ‘em know we didn’t take them for granite.
Oh, and Happy Happy Happy Birthday to Daily Kos front-pager Jen Hayden—aka “Scout Finch”—and many blessings on your camels. Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
Trump wanted Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool stocked with snakes or alligators, per stunning new report
—Mediaite
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