From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
For the Win
Mallory Ortberg imagines Ayn Rand reviews of children's movies in The New Yorker:
“The Little Mermaid”
A young woman achieves all of her goals. She finds an object of value—in this case, a broad-chested brunet man—and sacrifices as much as she believes necessary (the ocean, talking, etc.) in order to acquire him. —Four stars.
"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"
An excellent movie. The obviously unfit individuals are winnowed out through a series of entrepreneurial tests and, in the end, an enterprising young boy receives a factory. I believe more movies should be made about enterprising young boys who are given factories. —Three and a half stars. (Half a star off for the grandparents, who are sponging off the labor of Charlie and his mother. If Grandpa Joe can dance, Grandpa Joe can work.)
“Up”
A man refuses to sell his home to serve the convenience of others, which is his right as an American citizen. He meets a dog, which neither finds food for him nor protects him from danger. He would have been better off with a cat. There are no cats in this movie. —Two stars.
Read
the rest here. Assuming you find it in your self-interest to do so.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, December 22, 2014
Note: Here's the schedule for the rest of the week:
Today: No C&J unless it happens via immaculate conception. [Update: Wow---it's a C&J miracle!!!]
Tomorrow: A Very Special Regular C&J As Usual
Wednesday evening: Join us around 8pm ET for our traditional A Very Special C&J Christmas Eve Bean Supper and Conspiracy Theory Nudeblogging
Thursday and Friday: A Very Special Day Off
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26 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til 2015:
10
Days 'til the
Windless Kite Festival in Long Beach, Washington:
26
Average interest rate on a 30-year fixed home loan, the lowest level since May 2013:
3.8%
(Source: Freddie Mac)
Average amount Americans will spend this year on holiday presents:
$781
(Source:
Forbes)
Amount cut from the IRS budget by Congress, which the IRS commissioner describes as "a tax cut for tax cheats":
$346 million
(Source: AP)
Score, out of 10, that MD, MA, TN, VT and VA received for their ability to handle the outbreak of infectious diseases, making them the most prepared states:
8
(Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report via McClatchy News)
Amount by which Time-Warner Cable is raising its monthly rate on all subscribers Jan. 1 just for sports programming, whether they watch sports or not:
$2.75
Totally Random NFL Score:
New England Patriots 17 New York Jets 16
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Your Monday Robin Williams Moment
"Do you get the feeling with Sarah Palin, in high school, she was voted least likely to write a book and most likely to burn one?"
"Taking Viagra after open heart surgery is like a Civil War re-enactment with live ammo. Not good."
"You've got to cut W. some slack, man. He comes from a family where the smart brother is named 'Jeb.'"
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Puppy Pic of the Day (via Patience): Cats are so kneady…
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CHEERS to a Frank opinion. Former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank---the Frank in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law---writes a weekly column for the Maine Sunday Telegram, and this week he gave a not-horrible post-mortem on the federal budget that undid part of the watchdogging of the banksters:
Barney Frank. And a deer.
There is more good news than bad in the events surrounding the passage of the provision in the omnibus appropriations bill that weakens one provision of the financial regulations we adopted in 2010. The bad news is that the assault on the financial reform bill came earlier than I expected and, distressingly, with less resistance from the president than I assumed would be the case. [...]
But as disappointed as I was at that outcome, and as strongly as I tried to lobby my former colleagues to vote no, I am more optimistic than not about the future, based on how this played out. The most relevant point is that there was a sustained public outcry against this, dispelling my fears that conservative efforts to dilute the bill by focusing on relatively obscure provisions would go unnoticed. The fate of financial reform going forward very much depends on whether or not public opinion will focus on the efforts by the Congressional allies of the financial industry to weaken it. [...]
I believe...[e]ven with the Republicans controlling both Houses, it will be very difficult for them to move further in this direction next year.
Though lord knows they'll try.
Obama makes history on
the phone with Raul Castro.
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CHEERS to the start of something better. Ever since President Obama
announced a resumption in diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, there's been some predictable whining from the right, but mostly a big "it's about time" from the rest of the country (and the world). But anyone who thinks we're going to become all buddy-buddy right away is delusional. It's not going to be an easy transition because there are many ugly issues on the table to be dealt with, including torture, mass-incarceration, an over-intrusive surveillance state, failing to maintain adequate infrastructure, and massive income inequality. And, on the other side, the United States has similar concerns about Cuba.
CHEERS to the Meeting of the Titans. Seventy-three years ago today---two weeks after America was attacked at Pearl Harbor---President Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Churchill in Washington, D.C. to plot their strategy against Germany and Japan. They came up with the following plan:
Busy as they were, Roosevelt and Churchill did
find time to light the National Christmas tree.
>> Declare war on Canada
>> Send too few troops to the field of battle
>> Let lawless private mercenaries do much of the heavy lifting
>> Allow companies formerly run by the vice president to win no-bid contracts and rake in obscene profits while providing shitty services
>> Ask for no sacrifice from the people and tell them to go shopping instead
>> Don't give the troops the equipment they need to win battles and protect themselves
>> Allow wounded troops to wallow in mildew and filth at military hospitals
>> Botch the reconstruction
>> Cut taxes at the same time
>> Leave office in disgrace, having failed to finish the job
The rest, as they say, is history.
JEERS to sore losers. Late last Friday Clarence Thomas had the unpleasant task of delivering the bad news to Florida's bigots: the Supreme Court had green-lighted same-sex marriages to start two weeks from tomorrow. The official Wikipedia gay marriage map now shows the Sunshine State a lovely shade of light blue:
Naturally, there's a potential snag: a memo written in July by a (oddly enough, pro-gay-marriage) state-hired law firm
said, "if a state or federal judge threw out Florida’s gay-marriage ban, the ruling would apply only to the parties in the lawsuit---not the whole state," followed by a warning that court clerks who disobey that provision may be thrown in jail. So what can we expect when couples line up at the door to get their marriage license? Arguments, finger-pointing, confusion, anger and
lots of legal maneuvering. Sounds more like divorce to me. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Thank you---I'll be here all week.
What she said.
CHEERS to the Great Pale Yellow Goddess. How cool is it that Digby is on our team? WAY cool, that's how cool. She is one of the sharpest, most observant bloggers you'll find on the lefty tubes (and this year the Sidney Hillman Foundation
reinforced that assessment with a Hillman Prize), and when you combine that with her Molly Ivins-like wit it's easy to see why "What Digby said..." has become an often-used blogosphere catchphrase. She's in the middle of her annual fundraiser now so she can keep chasing after the bad guys. If you feel so inclined to send a little holiday cheer in her direction,
here's the linky dinky. (The donation buttons and snail mail address are on the upper left side of her page.) You won’t get much in return, though...just the equivalent of a Ph.D. in political truth telling.
JEERS to Bad Moments in Self-policing. The CIA investigated itself for hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers during the making of the torture report, and you'll never guess what they decided! Well, okay, you probably will:
[I]ts decision not to recommend anyone for disciplinary action is likely to anger members of the Intelligence Committee, who have accused the C.I.A. of trampling on the independence of Congress and interfering with its investigation of agency wrongdoing. The computer searches occurred late last year while the committee was finishing an excoriating report on the agency’s detention and interrogation program.
The computer search raised questions about the separation of powers and caused one of the most public rifts in years between the nation’s intelligence agencies and the Senate oversight panel, which conducts most of its business in secret. It led to an unusually heated and public rebuke by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is the committee’s chairwoman.
In fairness, the accused CIA hackers didn’t get off completely scot-free. This week they have to stay behind to answer the phones during the agency Christmas party. And let that be a lesson to 'em.
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Five years ago in C&J: December 22, 2009
CHEERS to slamming the door on a killer for Christ. Dr. George Tiller's killer got his request to use the "necessity defense" denied yesterday. So I guess they'll just have to go with the "You have no defense, you horrifically misguided right-wing wacko who's not insane because you knew exactly what you were doing so don't even think of using that as a defense either" defense. Good luck!
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And just one more…
CHEERS to saving our celluloid. Twenty-five movies from yesteryear have been inducted into the National Film Registry. Some of them---The Big Lebowsky, Saving Private Ryan (but not its porn version, Saving Ryan's Privates), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version)---are mainstream hits. Others are less known but just as important, such as…
Gene Wilder Willy Wonka delivers a
message to Johnny Depp Willy Wonka.
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Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
In 1913, a stellar cast of African-American performers gathered in the Bronx, New York, to make a feature-length motion picture. The troupe starred vaudevillian Bert Williams, the first African-American to headline on Broadway and the most popular recording artist prior to 1920. After considerable footage was shot, the film was abandoned. One hundred years later, the seven reels of untitled and unassembled footage were discovered in the film vaults of the Museum of Modern Art, and are now believed to constitute the earliest surviving feature film starring black actors.
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000)
Just prior to World War II, a rescue operation aided the youngest victims of Nazi terror when 10,000 Jewish and other children were sent from their homes and families to live with foster families and in group homes in Great Britain. This Oscar-winning film was directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, writer and director of another Oscar winner, "The Long Way Home," and was produced by Deborah Oppenheimer, whose mother was among the children evacuated.
Please Don’t Bury Me Alive! (1976)
The San Antonio barrio in the early 1970s is the setting for writer, director and star Efraín Gutiérrez’s independent piece, considered by historians to be the first Chicano feature film. ... He tells his story in the turbulent days near the end of the Vietnam War, as a young Chicano man questioning his and his people’s place in society as thousands of his Latino brethren return from the war in coffins.
As ever, I remain hopeful that the all-time greatest movie ever---
Cats and Dogs---will one day find itself nestled among the NFR's pantheon of greatness for its message of universal truth in a world gone mad: "Dogs drool, cats rule."
Have a tolerable Monday. And happy It's Still Hanukkah Day to all. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Most of us will never be Bill in Portland Maine---sorry to break it to ya---but we can at least pretend to be in Cheers and Jeers.
---engadget
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