From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Oh! More Things I Know:
President Obama has been on fire lately.
The Texas GOP's shiny new platform plank endorsing reparative therapy to turn gays straight could've been pared down to two words. Gays: disappear.
Something else I know: this is an
Eric Cantor selfie taken this morning.
It’s Charlie Rangell's 84th birthday! [ClapClapClapClapClap!!!!]
Joe the Plumber didn’t write an angry, classless letter informing Las Vegas that "your dead cops don't trump my constitutional rights" because he only pulls out his pen when he gets offended by the grieving parents of dead kids.
You are either a TRAITOR or a HERO, there is no in-between, you scumsucking mongrel or titan of all that is just and good.
Energy companies will never transport wind by train because a single derailment could blow down an entire town.
Wisconsin is the latest gay marriage state for Fox News to completely ignore.
Only one man can save Iraq now. Curveball.
The nutballs aren't mad at Obama for negotiating with the Taliban. They're mad at the Taliban for negotiating with Obama.
Daily Kos: just a fad since 2002
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Note: Please don’t cut the blooms off of flowers growing in people's gardens. Reince Priebus already called dibs. Thx. ---Mgt.
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2 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til America's 238th birthday:
23
Days 'til
Polish Fest in Milwaukee:
2
The last year when small business confidence was as high as it is now:
2007
(Source:
Reuters)
Number of living WWII vets in 2014:
1,002,466
Estimated number of living WWII vets in 2040:
88
(Source: VA Veteran Population Projection via
USA Today)
Degrees that Maine and Vermont have warmed over the past 30 years:
2.5
Number of states that have warmed more than that over the last 30 years:
0
(Source: National Climactic Data Center)
NBA Finals:
San Antonio Spurs lead the Miami Heat 2 games to 1
Stanley Cup Finals:
Los Angeles Kings lead the New York Rangers 3 games to 0
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 186 (including 4 Tribulation Temples and thousands of grasshoppers from Heaven). Soul Protection Factor 32 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: The Great (Dane) Awakening (Or Not)
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Eric Cantor would've
lost to a ficus tree.
CHEERS to the primary bombshell heard 'round the world. I can't believe I'm writing this…pressing these letters in this exact sequence…as if on the direct orders of the One True Unicorn of the Universe:
Eric Cantor lost his primary in a landslide to an unknown teabagger:
Economist David Brat of Randolph-Macon College has upset House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary, a stunning defeat for the veteran congressman who appeared next in line to become speaker of the House. Brat, a professor with little name ID toppled a Republican titan who had not faced a close challenge since he was first elected in 2000.
Never forget, America: this was the further handiwork of the gays, feminists and pagans. And, boy, are we having fun getting acquainted with the awesomeness of our power.
CHEERS to saving our spaces. Yesterday I posted about a local issue that affects how easily the city can sell off our valuable public spaces. You can read about it
here. I'm happy to say that the Yes-on-1 campaign got the coveted "Billy Bounce" at the polls yesterday, and the referendum
passed 51.5%-48.5%. From now on we the residents will decide, through referendum votes, whether or not the city can put our squares, parks and plazas on the chopping block. So score a little victory for David over Goliath. Nice to know the ol' slingshot still works once in a while.
JEERS to this week's International Roundup. The latest:
A blue dot with
anger issues.
Egypt? Don't ask.
Iraq? Don't ask.
Syria? Don't ask.
Israel/Palestine? Don't ask.
Brazil Don't ask.
Nigeria? Don't ask.
Afghanistan? Don't ask.
Ukraine? Don't ask.
Any questions?
George W. Bush painting from
memory of how Clinton staffers
trashed the White House in 2001.
JEERS to lies and the lying liars who tell them. Do you remember this bit of nonsense as well as I do? Shortly after George W. Bush's installation as president by the Supreme Court in 2001, White House staffers accused Bill Clinton's people of tearing the White House apart before they left---even going so far as to remove the "W" keys from all the computers. Remember that? That was our first concrete clue that conservatives without conscience (to use John Dean's phrase) were running the show. Well, it was twelve years ago today that Congressional investigators released a report on the "scandal." Their conclusion:
Don’t you have anything else to do besides wasting our time? Tragically, they did: hire incompetent cronies, invade Iraq, ram No Child Left Behind through, give no-bid contracts to Halliburton and free passes to polluters, run up record deficits, let a major city drown, authorize torture...and so on and so forth.
CHEERS to Paul Krugman. The "third-way"-type ankle-biters are getting their knickers and bloomers in a twist lately over the occupant in the Oval Office, and the Krug is calling 'em out:
So distant!
He’s ineffectual, we’re told, a drag on his party, Democrats are complaining (although none on the record), and so on. By any objective standard, this is very strange. Obama’s signature initiative, health reform, made a stunning comeback from a rocky start and will almost surely be irreversible by the time he leaves office. He’s taken the most important step on environmental policy since the Clean Air Act. Financial reform is less sweeping and well short of what should have happened, but it’s still significant. If the point of being president is to do things with lasting effect, Obama has delivered. So why the bashing?
So aloof!
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Part of the answer...is that these are the wrong achievements. He was supposed to be serious in the approved way, slashing entitlements to deal with the fiscal crisis. The fact that there wasn’t actually a fiscal crisis, and that anyone who really cares about the long run should worry a lot more about carbon emissions than about the Medicare age, doesn’t change the bias; strong presidents are supposed to use that strength on behalf of the elite’s pet obsessions, not other stuff. […]
I wish that he and his circle had done more on a number of fronts in 2009-2010. But right now he’s doing what presidents are supposed to do: change the country significantly for the better.
Considering all the shit---and it was
deep---he inherited, I think he's done very well, and I expect his approval will only go up as his legacy starts cooling like a pie on the windowsill of a little farmhouse on the plains. (Ooh! I think I just did imagery!)
CHEERS to a good start. On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. Here are three of those members---Adams, Franklin and Jefferson---hashing out the particulars in the HBO miniseries John Adams:
The Declaration itself was nice, but what really floors me is: a committee actually did something useful.
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Five years ago in C&J: June 11, 2009
CHEERS to returning the favor. Wow. Several large banks are paying back $68 billion of their Bush-administration bailout funds, and we're gonna make a cool $1.8 billion profit! Whooooooo!!!!! Who's the suckers now, banksters? Seriously, as one of the patriotic and highly-intelligent citizen lenders who was willing to risk my hard-earned money knowing I might get nothing in return, I'd just like to say: Thanks for shopping with U.S. Taxpayers, Inc. I'll take my cut in gumballs, please. [6/11/14 Update: Today the banks are ripping off Americans more than ever, and enjoying all the virtually-free money from the government they can load into their wheelbarrows. It's good to be at the top of the oligarchy pyramid.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to keeping the party going. Netroots Nation may be the Big Kahuna of progressive sleepovers, but there are plenty of more modest meetups that bust out all year long. The next one here in Maine is Saturday, July 12 at Mayim's cottage by the lake about an hour northwest of Portland from roughly noon to six:
Mayim's corner of paradise.
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I’ll gladly cook and have beer and other assorted beverages. Lake should be warm enough for fun if anyone wants. We have a canoe, a kayak, and plenty of rocks to swim to (and to scrape knees on....). Dogs (well-behaved....) welcome, but Hobbs and Penn prefer to be the only kitties ;-). If anyone wants to spend Friday and/or Saturday night (for fun, or because it's a long drive.....), I've got room for several, plus some tenting space. For more information/exact directions or to RSVP, email me at killearnan at gmail.com or send a Kosmail."
It's a gorgeous location---quintessential Maine. Michael and I (and Haley the Wonder Dog) will be there along with other local Kossacks and we hope you'll be able to join us for what has become an annual DKos summer tradition. As a special bonus, we'll teach you how to skip stones across the pond and into Old Man McGillicutty's clam chowder. He turns a funny color when he's mad.
Have a nice Wednesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“I think if enough people take the discoveries of snark to heart, recognize its value of what it is to be cynical citizens of democracy, what it is to be armchair quarterbacks of our culture and our civilization, then maybe you’ll never need another Cheers and Jeers."
---Neil deGrassi Tyson
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