From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize an Ally Tuesday
Due to a collision of priorities, this week C&J shines the spotlight on two allies, one of them addressing a long-term problem with an exciting new initiative and the other addressing an immediate and worsening catastrophe.
Because you count on me to remind you of these things, let me be the first to say: “Happy Voter Registration Day!” (Or as Kris Kobach likes to call it, Nothing To See Here Please Move Along Day.) Last year over 750,000 Americans were registered on VR Day, and organizers are hoping to break that record handily today. It’s a good reminder to take a moment to make sure you’re registered to cast your vote against the Trumpbot horde at every available opportunity.
Last week the ACLU dropped a welcome bombshell on the voter rights front. Because their membership quadrupled and contributions poured in after Trump was sworn in, they’re now fully funded and ready to launch a 50-state initiative called Let People Vote:
In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, People Power activists will play a crucial role in campaigning for voting rights policies tailored to their state.
These actions include restoring the right to vote for people with prior criminal convictions; creating independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions; enacting early voting periods; and implementing automatic voter registration, online voter registration, and Election Day registration.
Activists will also be fighting back against voter suppression laws, like the unnecessary and discriminatory photo ID requirements, that have been pushed by Kobach and others. While Trump tries to quash voting rights, People Power is taking action to expand access to the ballot and make our democracy more representative.
The campaign launches this Sunday, October 1st in---where else?---Kris Kobach’s Kansas.
Normally I would send you to our featured ally’s donation page, but the ACLU has plenty of money to work with at the moment. But poor Puerto Rico sure doesn’t. There are over 3 million Americans living---no, more like barely existing---on the hurricane struck territory (it should be our 51st state by now) of the United States. President Trump and Republicans in Congress are all but ignoring their frantic pleas for help. This is Trump’s Katrina. He is fucking this up, folks. He’d rather call black athletes sons of bitches than deploy adequate rescue teams.
So please give what you can to Puerto Rico relief. Virtually the entire Island is still without power, 60 percent still don’t have potable water, and they’re going to need Herculean support from us just to improve their situation to “barely-livable” status. Daily Kos goddess Denise Oliver-Valez recommends donating to the Hispanic Federation’s “Unidos” campaign. The link to their donation page is here. (In the lower right-hand corner is a drop-down menu marked “I would like to designate this gift for”---choose “Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief.”) What happened to Houston and Florida was a nightmare. What Puerto Rico is going through is a nightmare on steroids. Let’s show ‘em they’re not forgotten.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Note: Senator Bill Cassidy’s 60th birthday is Thursday. I’ve got the perfect gift: a Viking funeral for his health care bill. I’ll bring the gasoline. You bring the matches.
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Thanksgiving in Canada: 13
Days 'til the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival in Boston: 4
Favoral opinion of the Democratic and Republican party, respectively, in a new CNN poll: 41%, 29%
Estimated amount of taxpayer dollars HHS Secretary Tom Price has blown on at least 24 private jet trips to posh resorts for bullshit “health conferences”: $400,000
Number of months the opioid crisis is shaving off of the lifespans of Americans born in between 2010 and 2015, according to the CDC: 2.5
Number of U.S. senators in their 70s or 80s: 23
Number of senators in their 30s or 40s: 15
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Baby’s first words…
-
CHEERS to the arrival of the cavalry. The one and only public hearing on Trumpcare 3.0 (aka Graham-Cassidy shit casserole 2.0) was held yesterday afternoon. But hours before the Senate Finance Committee---yes, Finance, not Health, go figure---met, the hallways were jam-packed with protesters, including our friends from ADAPT. Their message was simple: Lindsey get a boyfriend, Bill get a life, and both of you leave the ACA alone:
The usual disclaimer applies: with only two hard “nos” on record (McCain’s and Collins’s---I don’t trust Ted Cruz’s or Rand Paul’s as far as I can throw ‘em), we’re still one short. So keep those calls coming. And don’t be afraid to toss in a…oh, let’s say a “gift” to entice your senators to do the right thing. (I agreed to mow Susan Collins’ yard and massage her bunions. But it was the “Governor LePage is a Dick” mudflaps that put her over the top.)
JEERS to snot-nosed hypocrites. Hillary got pilloried over her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. Donald trump led his orcs in chants of “Lock her up” over it. FBI director James Comey’s public pronouncements about it cost her the freakin’ election. In February we learned that Trump White House officials were using private chat programs “to circumvent record-preservation laws.” Earlier this month we found out that members of Trump’s “election integrity” commission were using a private email server to conduct official business. And now guess which senior nincompoop associated with the Trump administration also got caught using a private email server for official business. His son-in-law Jared Kushner. Writes Yuri Gripas at the Maddow Blog:
Under normal circumstances, missteps like these would barely raise an eyebrow.
But recent circumstances are anything but normal. Much of the political world, including Republican officials and every major news organization I can think of, recently spent two years telling the American electorate that compliance with government-mandated email protocols was possibly the single most important issue facing the nation.
If Clinton’s emails deserved to be the single most dominant issue in the 2016 race, what kind of attention should be paid to similar email practices on Team Trump? Will the hysteria be comparable?
Boy, that’s a good question.
-
-
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. In his report on the Jared Kushner email scandal, Yuri Gripas of the Maddow Blog compares it to the Hillary Clinton email scandal and asks: Will the hysteria be comparable?
No.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
-
-
JEERS to close calls. Sixty-two years ago this week, in 1955, stocks dropped like a rock…the fastest rate since 1929. The numbers sound positively quaint today:
The Dow Jones dropped 6.5%, 32 points, to 455, with a total paper loss of $14 billion, the largest ever.
Reason: Eisenhower's heart attack. Stocks quickly recovered, though, when the country realized he was still the president. Or, to be perfectly accurate, when the country realized that Richard Nixon wasn't.
JEERS to evil viper wrestling. Big Republican senate primary in the Banjo On My Knee state today. The contenders are vying for the chance to face Democrat Doug Jones on December 12, and the choices couldn’t be more stark: candidate #1 is a radical white supremacist wacko extremist who believes Trump walks on water and won’t rest until America’s social safety net is shredded to ribbons on the orders of Mitch McConnell, and candidate #2 is a radical white supremacist wacko extremist who believes Trump walks on water and won’t rest until America’s social safety net is shredded to ribbons on the orders of God. What else is there to say? May the wackiest wacko win…so we can whack him.
CHEERS to signs of life. Here’s a little good news in the wake of Hurricane Irma: C&J’s home away from home Key West is back up and running. That means cruise ships are unloading thousands of tourists eager to spend, and the fresh economic activity is a welcome sight:
Key West Mayor Craig Cates said he agonized over the appropriate time to welcome tourists again to his city, which was spared from the worst of Irma’s wrath. But he said the entire region will benefit by tourists coming back.
Rich Fox, operations manager for Old Town Trolley Tours, said his employees up and down the Keys have been clamoring to get back to work.
That also means that relief and rebuilding crews can work from both ends of the Keys, making it easier to help people at the lower end of Route 1. Meanwhile, there’s a positive sign from the mainland: the waters have finally receded enough that Governor Rick Scott can slither back up onto his favorite sunning rock and catch some rays. It’s the little things.
CHEERS to famous firsts. On September 26, 1789, Thomas Jefferson became America's first Secretary of State and John Jay became our first Chief Justice. Today it's Rex Tillerson and John Roberts. That's what's known among historians as slippage.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: September 26, 2007
CHEERS to playing by His rules. One of Televangelism's pioneers, Rex Humbard, has gone to the great revival in the sky at 88. A lot of what he spouted was nonsense to my ears, but I give him credit for knowing which line was better left uncrossed:
Unlike Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other televangelists, Mr. Humbard avoided the political messages of the religious right. "For me to preach about the Vietnam War," he said in the early ’70s, "would be like going to a blacksmith to get a tooth pulled." If Jesus were preaching today, he said a decade later, "He would never get into politics." Don Humbard underscored that conviction. "Dad is strictly a minister," he said last year, "and he always said, ‘I hate for politics to get into religion and for religion to get into politics.’"
But chocolate and peanut butter? No problem.
-
And just one more…
JEERS to programming America was not clamoring for. Megyn Kelly (rightly) got tired of all the groping going on over at sex cult Fox News, so she jumped ship and landed at libturd NBC. Her first effort, a prime time “news” show, was so bad they yanked it before its ten-episode run was over. And on Monday she began spoiling breakfasts from coast to coast as host of a new morning show. Washington Post critic Hank Suever watched Megyn Kelly Today so we wouldn’t have to, and he reports it “was like watching a network try to assemble its own Bride of Frankenstein.” Which is totally unsurprising. Kelly isn’t a people person, she’s a walking right-wing finger wag, as John Oliver so helpfully reminded us Sunday on Last Week Tonight:
-
When NBC realizes the error of their ways and gives her the boot, I shall paraphrase the words of the Bride of Frankenstein’s suitor: “Fire…goooood.”
Oh, and apparently we’re at war with North Korea again. Y’all have a sunshine day now, ya hear? Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Bill in Portland Maine’s underwear is now see-through because whatever.
---Gizmodo
-