From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
When history books are written about the Trump era (assuming we survive it), among the heroes will be the everyday folks who weren't afraid to laugh right in the faces of the Trump cultists. August's honors, hands down, belong to Alex Kack, field organizer for Tucson's People's Defense Initiative. His viral crackup at a city council meeting over the booting of some racist hecklers earned him the nickname "Green Shirt Guy." I believe I speak on behalf of all Americans still capable of independent thought when I say: Thanks…we needed that.
Now that he has our attention, Alex has a few words to say about the subject of that meeting—namely, a sanctuary city voter initiative called "Tucson Families Free and Together" that’s on the ballot this November. If passed, it'll be the first time a municipality became a sanctuary city as a result of a people's vote. Yesterday Newsweek posted Alex’s account of his moment of gut-busting glory, and also the whys and wherefores of Prop 205:
Here in Tucson, our community has long been on the front line of resistance against repressive immigration policies and institutions, while Arizona has been a petri dish for anti-immigrant policy and xenophobic rhetoric. […]
Prop 205 would put in place strong directives against racial profiling and protections for undocumented victims of crime by drawing clear separations between our police department and federal immigration agencies. … Beyond that, adoption of Prop 205 would ensure that local police are better able to prioritize their role as first responders over the enforcement of civil immigration matters, as dictated by SB 1070. Sanctuary would ensure that all Tucson residents, regardless of their immigration status, are provided equality under the law, safety and justice. […]
We live in times where violent, exclusionist rhetoric continuously rears its ugly head. Now more than ever, local communities need to band together to reject hate in a strong and unified voice. Cities around the nation are taking a stand and proclaiming that they will not take part in any federal effort to terrorize our beloved immigrant neighbors. I am confident that Tucson will do exactly that this fall.
C&J is happy to have the chance to shine our Tuesday "Energize An Ally" spotlight on the Tucson initiative, and also add a sawbuck or two via the Tucson Families Free & Together donation page here. If you're able to help out, they'll love it. Even better, if you’re able to help out, the racists Alex laughed out of the room will hate it.
More info via:
» Tucson Families Free & Together site here, twitter page here, Facebook page here.
» Alex's Twitter page
» Get your own “Green Shirt Guy” tee from the People's Defense Initiative.
P.S. The latest lucky duck to laugh Tucson’s haters out of the room? A Superior Court judge.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Note: A reminder that today is World Mosquito Day. I got mine a tiny pair of Garfield-eating-lasagna socks. So cute!
-
By the Numbers:
Months 'til Star Wars Episode IX opens: 4
Days ‘til the 132nd Piscataquis Valley Fair in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine: 2
Percent of registered voters who plan to and don’t plan to, respectively, vote for Trump next year, according to a new NBC News poll: 40%-52%
Percent of registered voters in the same poll who believe America is moving in the right direction: 33%
Number of original 2019 movies that aren't a sequel or part of an established franchise that have topped the box office this year: 3
Portion of Americans who get their drinking water from the Colorado River: 1-in-10
Percent of non-LGBT Americans who said they were comfortable interacting with LGBT people this year, up from 45% in 2016, according to Harper's Index: 63%
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Latest episode of So You Think You Can Dance!
-
CHEERS to nabbing some nutbag Nazis. Lest we think that Trump's troops have carte blanche to run around the country willy-nilly shooting up anything that moves, here's a quartet of reminders that our men and women in blue are keeping a sharp eye out for trigger-happy terrorists looking to get a special shoutout from Laura Ingraham at the next GOP convention (links here and here):
Ohio, Part I 20-year-old James Patrick Reardon was arrested for allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting at a Youngstown Jewish community center. An Instagram account belonging to Reardon shared a video that showed a man firing a gun. [T]he post was accompanied by a caption that read, "Police identified the Youngstown Jewish Family Community shooter as local white nationalist Seamus O'Rearedon"—Seamus being a Gaelic version of Reardon's name.
Ohio, Part II When agents raided the Boardman, Ohio, house where Justin Olsen was living they recovered 15 rifles, 10 semi-automatic pistols and roughly 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Olsen, who wrote under the name "ArmyOfChrist"…discussed supporting mass shootings, and assault and/or targeting of Planned Parenthood."
Florida Tristan Scott Wix of Daytona Beach, Florida, was arrested in a Winn-Dixie parking lot on Friday after he sent his ex-girlfriend a series of disturbing texts in which he allegedly threatened to commit a mass shooting. [T]he 25-year-old said he wanted to open fire on a large crowd of people, the sheriff's office said in a news release. "A good 100 kills would be nice," one message allegedly read.
Connecticut 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol was arrested after authorities said he had expressed interest in committing a mass shooting on Facebook. He faces four charges of illegal possession of large capacity magazines, and is being held on a $250,000 bond. Authorities received a tip that Wagshol was trying to buy large capacity rifle magazines from out of state…and had allegedly posted on Facebook about his interest in committing a mass shooting.
In response, Melania Trump will send the four young conservative white men a "Be Best" pamphlet while her husband has a staffer prepare their official pardon documents. Y’know, if POTUS and FLOTUS ever have dinner together again, I bet it's gonna be awkward.
CHEERS to do-gooders of yore. As part of his War on Poverty, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act 54 years ago today. It included funds for vocational training, establishment of a domestic version of the Peace Corps, and community action programs. Or as modern-day Republicans call them: Bleh, Feh and Ick.
JEERS to getting an F- in messaging. This is your semi-regular reminder that, as a general rule, politicians do nothing without forethought. So it's not exactly encouraging to read that the current Democratic primary frontrunner's new campaign slogan appears to be "Very Fine People On Both Sides":
White House hopeful Joe Biden doubled down on his vow to cooperate with Republicans should he be elected president, saying he successfully worked across the aisle as vice president.
“There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there,” he said Saturday at a Massachusetts fundraiser.
“I get in trouble for saying that with Democrats, but the truth of the matter is, every time we ever got in trouble with our administration, remember who got sent up to Capitol Hill to fix it? Me.
Okay, first: he didn’t fix anything beyond the occasional clog in the Senate john. Republicans rolled the Obama administration like a cheap cigar. Second: I'm not sure actively wooing an opposition party hellbent on turning the United States into a one-party-starting-with-R dictatorship by any means necessary during a Democratic primary is a sound strategy among anyone but the unfortunate few residing in padded cells writing nursery rhymes with a crayon stuck between their toes. But what do I know? I'm just a dumb stupid halfwit blogger. Please proceed Joe…just without me, thanks.
JEERS to journamalism fail. The headline at a publication called International Business Times says "NASA Discovers Killer Asteroid Larger than Mt Everest on Collision Course, May Wipe Out Half the Life on Earth by 2027." Then you read the article:
NASA's asteroid-tracking unit has named this rogue space body 4953 (1990 MU), and they claimed that this menace from deep space has a diameter of about six miles.
If calculations are right, this giant space body will fly past Earth on numerous occasions within the next couple of years, and it will make its closest approach on June 6, 2027. On this day, this asteroid will come as close as 2.9 million miles away from the earth, and this distance is very small in astronomical terms.
I can't believe they've stooped to shameless, baseless fearmongering. That's my job.
CHEERS to statesmen who make us proud to be part of Club Democrat. True fact: state law requires every Mainer to either say "Happy birthday" to former Maine senator George Mitchell, who turns 86 today, or be banished to a life of misery in New Hampshire.
So: Happy Birthday Mr. Former Senate Majority Leader! (And a damn good one, especially compared to that piece of Kentucky traitor filth currently stinking up his the office.) After spending 14 years in the Senate, he brokered peace in Northern Ireland, headed up an investigation of steroid use in baseball, tried his best to thread the Middle East peace needle, and a few years ago year helped resolve issues relating to working conditions in Bangladesh's garment industry. Last week Mitchell was asked if he could broker peace between those who prefer the toilet paper to hang over the roll and those who prefer that it hang under the roll. The response: "Dammit, man, I'm a negotiator not a miracle worker."
JEERS to pandemonium across the pond. As American conservatives continue trying to turn our country into rotting, fetid shell of decay and hate, conservatives over in the UK are all like, "Hold me ale, lad"…
The UK will face a three-month meltdown at its ports, a hard Irish border and shortages of food and medicine if it leaves the EU [on October 31] without a deal, according to government documents on Operation Yellowhammer. […]
Medical supplies will be “vulnerable to severe extended delays” as three-quarters of the UK’s medicines enter the country via the main Channel crossings, and the availability of fresh food will be reduced and prices will rise, which could hit “vulnerable groups”. […]
Downing Street sources would not comment on the record about the leaked document but hit back at its accuracy, saying it was prepared under Theresa May’s administration and did not reflect the level of planning that had gone on under Boris Johnson.
And in other news: Downing Street sources spontaneously combust after using the words "planning" and "Boris Johnson" in the same sentence. Film at 11. If we're lucky.
CHEERS to #23. Happy birthday to Benjamin Harrison, born on August 20, 1833 in North Bend, Ohio. As president from 1889 to 1893, he was the filling in the Grover Cleveland sandwich. And what a party animal! From Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien:
[I]n person the staunchly Presbyterian president was a virtual corpse.
Chilly, frigid, frosty---words like these were routinely used to describe the unpleasant experience of meeting privately with the man. [...]
Senator Thomas Platt was the one who coined the moniker "White House Iceberg." As Platt explained, "Inside the Executive Mansion, in his reception of those who solicited official appointments, [Harrison] was as glacial as a Siberian stripped of his furs. During and after an interview, if one could secure it, one felt even in torrid weather like pulling on his winter flannels, galoshes, overcoat, mittens and earflaps." Even Harrison's handshake was a flop, likened to "a wilted petunia."
Like Mike Pence. Minus the charm.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: August 20, 2009
CHEERS to taking a gentler bite out of your ass. Today's the day that the first wave of credit card reform kicks in. Here are the changes: Number of days notice you'll get when they make changes to your contract: 45. Number of years you'll have to pay off your balance if you choose to cancel your card when they raise rates: 5. Watching credit card companies work every loophole their lawyers can find so they can keep the joint swimming in profits at your expense: Shameless.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to crack for headline writers. Seems like every year there's a summer movie—usually slickly-made, modest-budget popcorn fare with b-actors capitalizing on the legacy of Jaws---that demonizes sharks, and 2019 is no exception. A flick called 47 Meters Down: Uncaged debuted over the weekend and, the media had its usual field day with the clichés during its opening weekend:
• Uncaged drowns with weak $9 million opening
• Uncaged is a waterlogged creature feature
• Teens Sink or Swim (But Mostly Sink) in Toothless Sequel
• Uncaged wants to steal your last breath
• The last gasp of a shark saga that didn't need to come up for air.
• 47 Meters Down: Uncaged sinks
• Killer shark thriller quickly runs out of air.
• 47 Meters Down is a toothsome success
• Uncaged seems adrift
• 47 Meters Down: Uncaged would jump the shark, if it could imagine something half that entertaining
• Mark this one“Uncaged” and going down for the third time.
Not quite Sticks Nix Hick Pix caliber. But 'A' for effort.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“Three times Bill in Portland Maine said, ‘Let’s not be afraid of a little pond scum in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool.’ He kept slamming away at that. He wanted that to be your takeaway. That makes me nervous."
—Peggy Noonan
-