From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Headlines You Won't Read This Morning
Republicans on House Benghazi committee reveal evidence that sinks Clinton presidential aspirations
Christian conservatives discuss transgender issues calmly, rationally
1990s Trump publicists Miller and Braddock emerge, hold joint press conference
Lead pipe replaced in Flint
Family Research Council goes ten minutes without claiming something is being shoved down their throats
Republicans introduce jobs bill
Oil companies working feverishly to make drilling safer
Women achieve pay parity with men
Senate leadership does its job, schedules Merrick Garland confirmation hearings
Maine Senator Angus King worried about possible re-election challenge from Maine Gov. Paul LePage
Trickle-down economics puts Kansas on path to prosperity
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Note: In our ongoing effort to thwart radical extremism locally, C&J reported the following to the Portland police this morning: two illegally parked cars; one raucous late-night party by the college kids across the street; one hydrogen bomb hidden in a recyclables bin; four discarded cigarette butts in our driveway; one stray Burger King wrapper; old lady across the street wielding garden rake in menacing manner. Our next report at noon. Vigilance, people.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Star Trek: Beyond: 66
Days 'til the Newport Beach Jazz Festival in California: 17
Estimated percent of U.S. bee colonies that were lost last year, according to the Bee Informed Partnership: 44%
Date on which Google will no longer accept ads for payday lending companies: 7/13/16
Value of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's stake in BP, which they just sold off: $187 million
Length of the pipeline in Bruges, Belgium that will carry beer from the De Halve Maan Brewery to its distribution center at a rate of 1,057 gallons an hour: 2 miles
Surviving credited cast members from Casablanca still living after the passing of Madeleine LeBeau at 92 this month: 0
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
The commenters at Fox Nation react to billionaire Sheldon's pledge of $100 million to Donald Trump:
"no wonder they're laughing at us overseas, a couple of casino operators wanting to run the USA......shame on us, shame........."
"There goes one of the few good things I could say about Donald Trump: that he couldn't be bought. Watch for the Donald to start kissing up to Israel and talking about Pacific partnerships that just so happen to support Adelson's business interests."
"GOD BLESS MR ADELSON AND GOD BLESS ISRAEL."
" Kudo's to this man... An American that believe's as we do that America can be Great again after what the closet queen has put her through.... eat yer heart out killary, it's over... save yourself the embarrassment an consed..."
All together now: 1…2…3… Class'y!
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to the primary punch-out, Round 20. In this corner, weighing [redacted] pounds and sporting Ben & Jerry boxing shorts: the finger-wagging democratic-socialist bird-whisperer from Vermont…Berrrrrrnie Saaaaanderrrrrrs! And in this corner, weighing [redacted] pounds and sporting a sensible red, white and blue pantsuit: the too-loud yet too-quiet Democratic centrist from New York…Hilllarrrrrry Cliiiiiiiintonnnn! At stake: delegate hauls in Kentucky (61) and Oregon (74), plus all the bragging rights they can stuff into their fanny packs. Polls close at 6 ET in the Bluegrass State, and town halls close at 11 ET in the Beaver State. Be sure to check in with the Daily Kos elections team for complete coverage. They’ll be the ones in the orange helmets with the inch-thick calluses on their fingers.
JEERS to living in an easy-bake-oven world. The global warming myth continues:
Another month, another climate worry.
This year the Earth experienced the warmest April on record, keeping 2016 on track to be the hottest year yet and by the biggest margin ever.
New data released by NASA put this April's land and sea temperatures at 1.11 degrees Celsius warmer than average April temperatures between 1951 to 1980, which NASA uses as a reference point to study recent climate change. It was the seventh month in a row to rise by at least 1 degree Celsius above the 1951-80 reference averages.
"Obviously greenhouse gas emissions are doing Obama's bidding by shilling for Big Wind and Big Solar," said James Inhofe from behind the snow fort in his walk-in freezer.
CHEERS to Adam and Steve & Adele and Eve. We'll be hoisting a glass of champagne tonight to toast a notable event in American history: the day twelve years ago when America's first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples. And the lead attorney who so deftly shaped the arguments that convinced the state Supreme Court (and later the federal Supreme Court) to rule in equality's favor was---and still is, for many more years we hope---a Mainer. A couple years back Mary Bonauto remembered that wild day in Massachusetts:
Sharpshooters were on the roof of Boston City Hall as Bonauto escorted three couples to get marriage licenses on May 17, 2004. Police led her to their weddings through the throngs of well-wishers and protesters.
At the Arlington Street Church, Bonauto witnessed Rob Compton and Dave Wilson, wearing classic black tuxes and matching red-striped ties, saying their vows, as they all fought back tears. "I was sitting in the church, and I just didn't realize I was gonna fall apart to see, OK, there are Dave and Rob, and they are finally getting married," she says. "I was sitting next to Rob's mother, and she kept handing me tissues. It was her son, and I was the one who was a total mess." … That had never happened before legally in this country. It felt like the cage had been lifted off, and it was just a different world from that point forward."
The good news: sharpshooters are no longer needed to protect gay couples during their weddings. The bad news: today red states are debating bills that would put sharpshooters on the roofs of port-a-potties to keep the transgenders out. We still have a ways to go.
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. Lauren Fox at Talking Points Memo asks: Can The GOP Hold The Senate By Pretending Donald Trump Doesn't Exist?
No.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
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CHEERS to Trey Gowdy's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The chairman of the Destroy Hillary Smear Cabal---aka the House Benghazi Committee---is not happy this morning after Democrats threw a wrench into his narrative:
The House Benghazi Committee’s chief counsel, before leaving the Republican-led committee earlier this year, said he did not believe the Pentagon could have done more to save American lives during the night of the attack, according to copies of his comments included in a Sunday letter from Democrats to Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
Three-star former Lt. General Dana Chipman told former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in a transcribed interview by the panel in January that "nothing could have affected what occurred in Benghazi" to prevent the deaths of four Americans in the immediate response to the attacks, the letter released by Democrats states. […]
Democratic leadership in the House on Monday called for the panel to be disbanded. “With every day that passes, the Benghazi Committee’s contempt for the truth becomes more blatant,” said Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spokesman Drew Hammill.
When the committee was set up two years ago this month, I remember news reports breathlessly holding Gowdy up as some wily prosecutor with a spring-trap mind who will trip ya up with his mental jiu-jitsu and nail your guilty ass to the wall. Now we know he's just a hack with a fauxhawk. He's a…fauxhawkhack. Coincidentally, that's the sound my cat makes when she coughs up a hairball, which, also coincidentally, is about the only thing useful that'll be coughed up by the Benghazi committee.
JEERS to the gate to end all "…gates." Since 1973, we've had Iran-Contragate, Travelgate, Monicagate, U.S. Attorneygate, Plamegate and, in the case of the Obama administration as seen through the right-wingers' lens: "Day-ending-in-y-gate." But the big kahuna of gates got underway 43 years ago today, when the televised Watergate hearings began. I remember them well, mainly because my mom watched every second of them (with triscuits and cheese washed down with a Schlitz or two) and they pre-empted my afternoon cartoons, gawdammit:
A month after the televised hearings, which started May 17, 1973, an astonishing 97 percent of Americans had heard of Watergate, according to the U.S. Senate website. And 67 percent believed that President Nixon had participated in a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington. Nixon never confessed and declared that “I have never been a quitter” right before he did just that.
To commemorate today's 43rd anniversary, Fox News will spend the day putting a "D" after Nixon's name.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 17, 2006
JEERS to the lunatic fringe. Gee, we didn't see this coming or anything: the immigration dustup has encouraged right-wing, ultra-conservative hate groups to slither out of their holes...
The debate over immigration "has been critical to the growth of the hate movement," says Mark Potok, editor of the [Southern Poverty Law Center's] quarterly report on extremists. "More and more groups are turning to immigration to help recruitment." Potok says the center has seen increasing signs that groups that have encouraged a particularly aggressive response to illegal immigration are working with neo-Nazi organizations to try to intimidate illegal immigrants.
But, in fairness, we hear they make the most delightful cinnamon-raisin swastika cookies.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to amazing transformations. Last year Bryan Cranston notched his first Oscar nomination for bringing blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo to life. And if he’s as good as he appears to be as LBJ in this preview of HBO’s All the Way, I dare say he could walk away with his fifth Emmy. Uncanny:
Airs Saturday night at 8. If it includes a scene of the 1964 phone call when Johnson ordered a new pair of Haggar slacks with enough room “down where my nuts hang,” I say give screenwriter Robert Schenkkan any damn award he wants.
Have a nice Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"It's not cool to not know what Bill in Portland Maine is talking about."
---President Obama
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