From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
And They All Lived Reunitedly Ever After…
Walled-off Brandenburg
Gate circa 1980
In 1976, when I was but a strapping lad, our family moved from Ohio to then-West Germany for five years. Our
international school took occasional field trips to West Berlin, and I'll never forget the feeling of dread and darkness that hung over the east side of the Berlin wall---aka the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart." Tour buses could venture into East Berlin for some state-approved sight-seeing---a museum here, a Russian World War II memorial there, all very serious, very dreary, very lifeless. We were nervous. We'd never seen so much weaponry at the ready in one place before---a Ferguson PD wet dream. And all this oppression appeared to be permanent. It felt like the Brandenburg Gate would forever be inaccessible…always on the "other side."
Or not.
Twenty-five years ago this Sunday, the world witnessed a surreal scene: Berliners hacking away with pickaxes and hammers at the wall that had divided their city for decades---a mind-blowing moment that briefly galvanized the planet in celebration. And what sparked it wasn't the pope or the U.N. or even ex-president Saint Ronald Reagan---it was this awkwardly-delivered comment by Politburo member Guenter Schabowski:
Freedom!
"Therefore...um...we have decided today...um...to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic...um...to...um...leave East Germany through any of the border crossings," said Schabowski.
He appeared scarcely to believe his own words and we were all dumbfounded. What did he just say? Schabowski was asked when the new rule would take effect. "That comes into effect...according to my information.... immediately, without delay," Schabowski stammered, shuffling through the papers spread in front of him as he sought in vain for more information.
As crowds gathered at checkpoints, and after getting no clarification from the top brass, East German Lieutenant Colonel and member of the dreaded Stassi secret police Harald Jaeger was the first person to
free the people:
President Obama with
Chancellor Merkel last year.
At around 11:30 pm, he gave the fateful order. "Open the barrier!"
Initially, his men stood glued to the spot, dumbfounded, and so he repeated his instruction. Even 25 years on, recounting the tale from the sofa in his small two-room apartment in a village north of Berlin, he becomes emotional as he remembers the white and red barrier being opened. "I had never seen such euphoria, and I've never seen it since," Jaeger said, smiling.
But he was quick to add that the credit goes to the power of the people who had gathered that night. "The only thing I can be credited with is that it happened without any blood being spilled."
If you're looking for a way to break out of your post-election funk for a moment, check out these images capturing
the euphoria of the moment when a great evil fell. It was an astonishing thing to watch. Happy 25th reunification anniversary, Germany. Let's all drink beer!
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, November 7, 2014
Note: Due to the high rate of voter turnout among seniors, Mitch McConnell announces that his first act as Senate majority leader will be an expansion of early bird specials. Film at 11.
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8 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til 2015:
55
Days 'til the
Makahiki Festival on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii:
8
Overall turnout in, respectively, the 2010 and 2014 elections:
40%, 37%
Maine voter turnout in, respectively, 2010 and 2014:
56%, 59%
(Source:
U.S. News)
Percent increase since 2000 in 24 to 34 year-olds with a college education who live within 3 miles of a city center:
37%
(Source:
The New York Times)
Minimum number of nuclear-arsenal commanders or officers who have been fired in the last year for misconduct or negligence:
16
(Source: AP)
Number of paper poppies made in Britain this year to commemorate Armistice Day on November 11th:
45 million
(Source: AP)
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NEW! Michele Bachmann Departure Countdown
Michele Bachmann and her googly eyes leave Congress in 57 days. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean we won't still have to endure sentences like this from the lamestream media: “Hi, I’m Michele Bachmann,” she said with a singsong voice and a smile that could crush diamonds.
Gag.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Dirds
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CHEERS to fewer idle hands. John Boehner likes to ask, "Mr. President, where are the jobs?" Well, Mr. Speaker who hasn't created a single job since taking the gavel, here's your answer: "Government reports the economy added 214,000 jobs in October. Official jobless rate fell to 5.8%." Plus the jobs numbers for August and September were adjusted upward:
So there ya go, Boehner. Now you can go back to doing your job. Once you get back from your ten-week vacation, that is. No rush---I wouldn’t want you to smear a tan line.
JEERS to a bump in the road. Yesterday the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals---well, a 3-member panel of it---ruled that interracial marriage is unconstitutional because it's really up to the citizens to decide the issue by popular vote and besides it goes against tradition dating back thousands, possibly millions of years. Ha ha, I'm kidding. Two of the three judges were actually making those arguments about same-sex marriage in their district (Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky). You could almost hear the third judge, Martha Craig Daughtrey, chewing through the drywall in her study as she wrote her dissent:
[Ding Dong!] "Yes, who is it?"
"It's the gays again. Hellooo!!!"
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The author of the majority opinion has drafted what would make an engrossing TED Talk or, possibly, an introductory lecture in Political Philosophy.
But as an appellate court decision, it wholly fails to grapple with the relevant constitutional question in this appeal: whether a state’s constitutional prohibition of same-sex marriage violates equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. […] If we in the judiciary do not have the authority, and indeed the responsibility, to right fundamental wrongs left excused by a majority of the electorate, our whole intricate, constitutional system of checks and balances, as well as the oaths to which we swore, prove to be nothing but shams.
Now that we have the first circuit court opinion going against all the previous circuit court rulings, it's off to the Supreme Court we go! You pack your bags. I'll strap the dog to the roof. And no stopping to pee, so bring your mason jar.
CHEERS to giving Hoover the boot. Eighty-two years ago tomorrow, on November 8, 1932, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt was elected president. A few verbal goodies from FDR...
"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."
FDR---a 1 percenter who
fought for the 99 percent.
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."
"Fool me once…shame on…shame on you. Fool me can't get fooled again!."
[
Memo to self: check source on that last one. Might be Tyler?]
CHEERS to power plays. The European Union has two big challenges when it comes to energy: cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting itself from times when Putin gets a burr up his butt and shuts off their natural gas supplies. What they've agreed to do is what our broken government would never do these days: go big…
Europe gets a Super Grid. We get Super Big Guips.
An electricity supergrid is being planned to connect all 28 European Union countries and provide them with insurance against power blackouts. Forty leading organisations from research, industry, utilities and grid operators are combining in a €63 million research programme aimed at incorporating all renewable energies into a supergrid that can balance intermittent sources of electricity and ensure uninterrupted supplies.
Part of the research taking place is into ways of using super-conducting cables and direct current in new grids so the power can be transferred long distances without losing voltage on the way.
Here in America, we have our own power supergrid too. Or as some like to call it: the seating chart of a luncheon between Republicans and oil executives.
JEERS to promises unkept. Fifty-two years ago today, back in 1962, Richard Nixon announced that he was leaving politics with the immortal words, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." Relive the smarm…
We did, in fact, have him to kick around some more. Then Ford kicked us by un-kicking him with a pardon. That was mean.
Bernie hangs with Billy
tonight on "Real Time."
CHEERS to home vegetation. You really should go outside and get some fresh air this weekend. Mostly because that way I'll get the couch and the TV to myself. After Rachel tonight, HBO's
Real Time with Bill Maher conducts a post-election post mortem with Senator Bernie Sanders, Robert Costa, Lisa Kudrow, Linda Tirado and Kristen Soltis Anderson. New
DVD releases include one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last movies,
A Most Wanted Man, and Angelina Jolie's evil turn in
Maleficent. Your NHL schedule
is here and the NFL games
are here. (No Patriots this week due to a pre-arranged manicure for Tom Brady.) Sunday on
The Simpsons, Springfield gets a visit from the cast of
Futurama. Aaron Sorkin's
The Newsroom starts its abbreviated six-episode final season at 9. And words probably can't do justice to the expected magnitude of Brit John Oliver's facepalm over the midterm elections on
Last Week Tonight, but if he suggests that America should go to a parliamentary system, sign me up.
On Bill Moyers & Company, a look at the way Chevron tried to buy the mayor and city council of Richmond, California…and lost. Now here's your Sunday morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Since no one is watching this show anymore, Chuck Todd spends an hour making armpit farts with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and throwing darts at a picture of President Obama.
Obama faces the
Schieffer Sunday.
Face the Nation: President Barack Obama talks about the issues facing America as he contends with an all-GOP-controlled Legislative Branch; President George W. Bush talks about the issues facing him as he hawks a book; Face the Nation turns 60 and the brightest bulbs they can find to celebrate are Peggy Noonan, Bob Woodward and David Gergen.
This Week: So far all they got is a roundtable with Mark Halperin, John Heilemann, Donna Brazile and Ben Smith. Also known as an excellent non-narcotic sleep aid.
CNN's State of the Union: No idea. They're out back smoking a doobie so they haven't updated their site. Thanks, Candy. You've let my readers down again.
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Chris Wallace takes his victory lap with Senators-elect Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Cory Gardner (R-CO); Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee Sen John Barrasso (R-WY) and Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA); roundtable with Brit Hume (cracking a smile for the first time in eight years), Carly Fiorina, Charles Lane and Kirsten Powers.
Happy ignoring all these shows!
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And just one more…
JEERS to the start of the silly season. The bodies from the 2014 midterms haven't even been whisked off the battlefield yet, but here we go, kids---the two-year-long 2016 campaign season is starting with the arrival of Dr. Carson's Crazy Clown Car:
Lovely.
[Ben] Carson, a famous pediatric neurosurgeon and conservative political star, will air a nearly 40 minute-long ad introducing himself to the American people this weekend, an aide to Carson confirms to ABC News. … An ABC News/Washington Post poll from last month of the potential 2016 presidential candidates showed Carson in seventh place garnering seven percent of the vote after other notables including Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio.
I have to say I'm puzzled. After all, Crazy Carson doesn't even think the elections will happen because of
"so much anarchy going on." I guess he's just a doe-eyed optimist. Carson, by the way, made his mark performing surgery on children's brains. So he enters the ring with one advantage: he'll have no problem getting along with Congress.
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Have a nice weekend. Next week we plan the Democratic tidal wave of 2016. Bring your hip waders. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?