From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
You’ve been so well-behaved this week…
We gave Republicans a good scare in Kansas, clobbered ‘em in local elections in Illinois, kept the energy flowing to the campaigns of Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Rob Quist in Montana, fought the power in town halls, continued reminding America---with reams of hard evidence---that Trump is #NotNormal, and, hell, we’re on the cusp of a holiday weekend. Consider this your FREE SPACE on the Bingo card of life. SPOILER ALERT: I peed my pants six times the first six times I watched this:
And may the Peeps be with you.
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, April 14, 2017
Note: Due to Billy's new religious objection to working on Monday, there will be no C&J on Monday. But because he believes in redemption, he will rise again to post on Tuesday and, Me willing, the rest of the week. Your lights may flicker for a few seconds. This is normal. ---God, via Skype
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the March for Science in D.C. and around the country: 8
Days 'til the Nihon Matsuri Japan Festival in Salt Lake City: 14
Minimum age of the slave cabin moved from the Point of Pines Plantation in South Carolina to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History in D.C.: 166
Percent of Americans who say communities should be allowed to build their own internet networks to compete with the giant ISPs, according to Pew Research: 70%
Number of food safety violations, including broken coolers and undercooked fish, found in the kitchen at Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort just days before he hosted the Japanese prime minister there, according to The Miami Herald: 13
Number of the violations that were deemed "high priority": 3
Diameter of the "Great Cold Spot" found at the top of Jupiter by British scientists: 15,000 miles
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Bo and Sunny with their adopted family---Easter 2015:
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CHEERS to number crunchers on the march. Remember that amazing women's march in January which was famous for attracting twice as many people to D.C. as the lame-ass inauguration of What's-His-Nuts Drumpf? There was a bit of a lull after that (although the packed town hall meetings certainly took up the slack), but now it's time to lace up yer shoes again. Tomorrow the weather will be partly-sunny and 71 for the Tax March on D.C. (and tons of other cities):
The Tax March, which falls on the nation’s traditional April 15 deadline to file taxes, is expected to be one of the most high-profile demonstrations of the Trump era since protesters around the world participated in women’s marches---marches that served as an unprecedented rebuke to Trump’s presidency on his first full day in office. […]
Jennifer Taub, a law professor specializing in business at Vermont Law School, said that after she attended a Women’s March protest on Jan. 21 in Boston, she felt optimistic about the power of organized resistance. It spurred her to action the next day when she heard counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway say on national television that Trump wouldn’t release his tax returns because people don’t care.
Taub tweeted that the nation should plan a march on Tax Day to show the White House that the public does care. [T]he march...has garnered the support of nearly 70 progressive organizations. […] Marchers in Washington are expected to be joined by those in more than 100 other cities across the country and world, including New Orleans, San Antonio, Nashville and London, organizers say.
Go to taxmarch.org and scroll down just a bit to find the march nearest you. (Portland, Maine’s starts at noon at City Hall.) Pussyhats are absolutely welcome. But if you want to dress in the official attire, come wearing green eyeshades and penny loafers.
CHEERS to The Great Orange Satan: Battering Ram for Democracy! How nice of someone---in this case, Ryan Grim of Huffington Post---to notice that Daily Kos is made up of a not-so-small army that can make a difference in elections. Exhibit A: the $160,000 our ragtag band kicked in to help James Thompson in Kansas' 4th District come perilously close to beating a deep-red Republican in his deep-red stomping grounds. Grim's article is a solid historical analysis of Daily Kos's place in politics, including the cantankerous Bernie-Hillary tug-of-war of 2016 (and beyond). Oh, and he also differentiates us from the establishment:
The DCCC and Daily Kos are in some ways fun house mirror images of each other. The DCCC is a centralized operation that ultimately takes orders from Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. Democrats in Congress, sitting in a drab building that reeks of dirty laundry, go through a daily ordeal known as “call time,” where they dial the numbers of rich people around the country, hitting them up for four-figure checks. […]
Daily Kos works in the opposite direction. “The way we look at it is, we have a huge advantage over everybody else because we have this huge focus group, hundreds of thousands strong. We can’t make them do what they don’t want to do. We give them a menu of options and if they run with something, then we pile on,” said [Markos] Moulitsas.
Chris Bowers, who runs Kos’ email program, and [Elections Director David] Nir said it was clear very early on that their readers wanted to get involved in special elections at the state and federal levels. Nowhere was that more clear than in Georgia, where they broke all their previous records for fundraising.
That would be Democrat Jon Ossoff's attempt to flip current evil EPA director Scott Pruitt's seat from red to blue next Tuesday. Oh, look---it's Jon's Act Blue donation page! <---Really, it is! Amazing coincidence.
CHEERS to holiday fevuh! 2017 years ago today (or thereabouts), a bunch of Roman thugs nailed a rabbi to a cross while a filthy rabble with six teeth among them and a combined IQ of 12 watched the poor sap suffer and moan and dehydrate and bleed to death in the baking sun. I'll never understand why Christians call it “Good Friday.” Sounds more like Monday to me.
Then, two days from today is Easter Sunday, which is notable for two things: the day the aforementioned Christ the Savior rose from the dead, and the day Lenny the tomb attendant checked into rehab.
No matter how you celebrate the holiday, C&J reminds you: please gorge on Easter candy 'til you explode responsibly.
JEERS to wacko thespians. A hundred and fifty two years ago today, John Wilkes Booth shot a derringer ball into Abe Lincoln's head, snuffing out the life of a great (our greatest?) president. Fascinating pic via historian Michael Beschloss...
Tuck in your shirt and pay your respects here. They say that as an actor John Wilkes Booth was considered "the George Clooney of his day" when he killed Lincoln. As a human being? Not so much.
JEERS to Commander Cakeman. Donald Trump, activating "my military," ordered "my generals" to drop a $16 million MOAB---aka "Mother of All Bombs"---onto an ISIS stronghold nestled in the rubble of Afghanistan. Factoring in all the other associated costs, the 36 deceased bad guys were dispatched for a cool million apiece. (Sorry, Meals on Wheels, we're gonna have to cancel Grandma's meatloaf delivery next week.) The Pentagon says it's the biggest bomb our country has ever produced. Or as it's now called,the perfect metaphor for our current president.
CHEERS to wurds. 199 yeers agow tooday, Noah Webster puhbilshed the fuhrst (frist??) Amarrican dikshunery. It hellpd peeple spull bettor. (Sorry about that...this is the one day of the year that we let our spellchecker have the keys to the liquor cabinet.)
CHEERS to home vegetation. The elephant in the room on TV this weekend is the annual Easter-weekend airing of Cecil B. DeMille's bladder-buster The Ten Commandments tomorrow night---for nearly FIVE…freaking…hours---on ABC, featuring the mom from The Munsters as Moses' wife and music by the guy who also scored Animal House, Airplane! and Ghostbusters. (Spoiler Alert: Ramses chooses poorly.) For best results, watch with the sound turned down and create your own dialogue. If newer movies are more your thing, this week's home video slate includes the Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures and Lion. Jimmy Fallon hosts SNL. The baseball schedule is here (the Red Sox will "slay" the Rays Ha Ha Ha it’s funny cuz it rhymes!), the NHL schedule is here, and the NBA schedule is here. On 60 Minutes: parents of the children murdered at Newtown speak out, and eye surgeons in Burma relieve blindness. Sunday night at 10:30 on HBO, the best ensemble cast on TV, led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, saddles up for another Emmy-winning season of Veep, followed by John Oliver with a new episode of Last Week Tonight.
And here's your Sunday morning lineup:
This Week: National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
CNN's State of the Union: Bernie!!! Plus: Let America Vote president Jason Kander, former Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-SC), Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), and Iraq War cheerleader Bill Kristol shows off his new way-past-four-hours-old erection over war with North Korea.
Meet the Press: Sunday morning it's Chuck Todd's turn to babysit John McCain while Cindy goes shopping. Plus: Vaterland Security Secretary John Kelly, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), and religious muckety-mucks get pulled out of mothballs to perform their annual Easter “state of the faith” schtick.
Face the Nation: Former WH Chiefs of Staff Denis McDonough (Obama) and Ken Duberstein (Reagan); historian David McCullough (“John Adams”); religious muckety-mucks get pulled out of mothballs to perform their annual Easter “state of the faith” schtick; roundtable handwringing with WaPost columnist David Ignatius, WaPost White House reporter David Nakamura, CBS News’ Jamelle Bouie and The New Yorker’s Robin Wright.
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Rep Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on TRUMP’S BIG BADASS BUNKER BUSTER BOOM BOOMS THESE COLORS DON’T RUN YEAHHHHH SUCK IT JONG UN #MAGA!
Happy viewing!
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 14, 2007
JEERS to The Shirker in Chief. President Bush---apparently eager to spend more time with his GameBoy---appears to be trying to abdicate his responsibility as Commander-in-Chief by hiring a "war czar." Only problem is, nobody credible wants the job. Not that that's ever stopped him before. ("Hello, Brownie...?")
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And just one more…
CHEERS to #46. I like the cut of his jib…
Just one question. Where do I donate?
Have a great weekend. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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