From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
A bit of environmental activism history was made earlier this month when the League of Conservation Voters did something they'd never done before. Namely, sue…
Late last month, President Trump signed an Executive Order potentially opening all of our coasts to offshore drilling, which would put at risk marine life, coastal economies, ways of life, and our global climate. For the first time in our 48-year history, the League of Conservation Voters has filed a legal challenge to the Executive Order. […]
Buried within Trump’s Executive Order that would radically expand offshore drilling is a section purporting to reverse President Obama’s permanent protections for the Arctic and Atlantic. The problem is, there is no provision in law authorizing a president to revoke those protections---that’s what we’re challenging.
So why are we suing for the first time in our history? In a country where conservation and environmental safeguards are at risk as never before, we simply cannot afford to leave any tool in the toolbox. We will continue to see you at the ballot box, in the states and the streets, and in the halls of Congress. But now we will see Mr. Trump in court, too.
You can read more about the LCV lawsuit here. For breaking with tradition and going straight after the bloated climate-change-denying slumlord currently occupying the Oval Office, it was a no-brainer for C&J to put the League of Conservation Voters in this week's Energize An Ally spotlight.
If you'd like to help fund their litigation operation---we kicked in $35 and our endorphins did a happy dance thinking about yet another victory against Lord Dampnut---just click on their donation link here. In the immortal words of their tote bags and t-shirts: "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. #Resist."
Follow LCV on Twitter here and on Facebook here.
Meanwhile, Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Note: We hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. As promised, I'm happy to show you my fresh Jarts tournament wounds: here….here…here, here and here. Final score, as usual: 0-0.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Wonder Woman opens: 4
Days 'til the 15th annual Fiber Frolic in Windsor, Maine: 5
Number of people killed by opiates and alcohol, respectively, each year: 30,000 / 80,000
Maximum number of people killed by marijuana, per NYU Langone Medical Center's Dr. Orrin Devinsky: 50
Number of leaks the Dakota Access oil pipeline has sprung this spring: 2
Number by which fewer Mainers would have health insurance by 2026 if Trumpcare is signed into law (out of only 1.3 million residents who live here): 116,700
Rate at which Americans snarf down hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day: 818 per second
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NEW Tuesday Feature! "Georgia On My Mind"
Brought to you by the 2017 Netroots Nation Convention in Atlanta August 10-13. Certainly one of the must-see landmarks in Atlanta is the neighborhood where Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up and is now entombed:
The King Library and Archives in Atlanta is the largest repository of primary source materials on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement in the world.
The collection consists of the papers of Dr. King and those of the organization he co-founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as well as the records of 8 major civil rights organizations and of several individuals active in the Movement. The archives also include more than 200 oral history interviews with Dr. King’s teachers, friends, family and civil rights associates.
The King Center is at the hub of a 23 acre National Historic Site which brings one million visitors each year. Free attractions include the birth home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the crypt of Dr. and Mrs. King, exhibits at Freedom Hall, gift shop/information facility, and reflecting pool.
The Atlanta Streetcar is close to the convention site, so you can easily catch it and glide on over to the King Center. Let’s plan to do that.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Riptide gets ripped…
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CHEERS to order in the court. Lord Dampnut got his giant head handed to him yet again last week when the 4th Circuit Courtof Appeals ruled his Muslim Travel Ban 2.0 unconstitutional:
The ruling is the most bruising the White House has suffered in its attempts to defend the ban, as it was rendered by 13 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit---which deemed the case important enough to skip the usual three-judge process that the vast majority of cases go through.
U.S. Chief Circuit Judge Roger Gregory wrote that the text of Trump’s executive order, which was challenged in courts across the country for targeting members ofa particular faith, “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
“Laid bare, this Executive Order is no more than what the President promised before and after his election: naked invidious discrimination against Muslims,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge James Wynn in a concurrence.
Gee, I wonder if Trump is bored with all the winning yet.
JEERS to the little spy who couldn't. Jared Kushner finds himself in hotter water this week, after The Washington Post published a report indicating that Trump's son-in-law and senior aide tried to use Russian communications facilities to hold secret talks with Vladimir Putin and a Russian bank. Kushner says no, no, people, you've got it all wrong, I was just going to use the Russian facilities to talk with the Russians and the Russian bank about Syria---nothing to see here, please move along. The response to the bombshell is predictable: the left and the center are screaming bloody murder, and the right has circled its wagons so tight a fart couldn’t get in. If you're still wondering how what Kushner did is different from a normal "back channel," here's George Takei to explain:
Except in this case the "wives" have nukes. Three words: Divorce. Papers. Stat.
CHEERS to Ol' Marble Butt. On May 30, 1922---eight years after construction began and nine years after the original chocolate one melted---the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, and immediately classed up the joint by 800 percent:
Lincoln's statue was sculpted by Daniel Chester French (1850-1931); plaster casts of Lincoln's hands and face were used to make the statue.
The statue is over 3 times actual size; if the statue could stand up, it would be 28 feet tall. The murals were done by Jules Guerin. The 36 Doric columns represent the 36 states of the Union at the time of President Lincoln's death in 1865.
You can go all panoramic at the very cool National Park Service site. Honest Abe weighs an astonishing 120 tons. It'd be a lot less if you tourists would quit feeding him chili dogs.
CHEERS to poll dancing. The round-the-clock campaigning by Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia's 6th congressional district, along with the anti-Republican wave, appear to be paying off. With three weeks until election day, an Atlanta TV station partnered with Survey USA to get a handle on voters' current preference, and it appears the middle-of-the-roaders are clearly in Ossoff's camp:
Independents in the 6th District prefer Ossoff by 20 [points---57% to 37%].
What about those who identify as moderates? In the 2016 Presidential race, they favored Clinton by 17 percentage points. Now, in the 6th District, they favor Ossoff by 47 percentage points [69% to 22%].
These trends even hold with topics like attending church. Typically, folks who never go tend to trend Democrat; those who regularly go trend Republican. But those who go occasionally? In the Presidential race, it was a near-tie among Georgians. In this race, Ossoff has a 19-point advantage.
Of course, the Lord A'mighty might just be toying around with our heads, so if you're in Georgia-06 go here and volunteer if you're able. And if you're not in Georgia-06, go here and donate if you're able. And if you’re Jon Ossoff, find a reporter to body slam. I hear that works.
CHEERS to affairs of states. During this week in 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the U.S.Constitution. And in late May of 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state to become "one of U.S." (See what I did there? Huh Huh?) In the C&J cafeteria today, the best of both: hot wieners with cheese, snail salad with cheese, jonnycakes with cheese, and coffee milk with cheese. Please add 50 cents for extra cheese.
CHEERS to little life lessons. Today’s lesson: “Make America Great Again” hats can cause brain damage. Click...
This is also true of graduates of Liberty University. Here endeth the lesson.
CHEERS to fresh ink. On this date in 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Post was first published by Benjamin Towne in Philadelphia, PA. It was the first daily paper in the U.S. Coincidentally, it's also the 234th anniversary of the first "hint" from Heloise (and to this day we still use sprigs of lavender to deodorize Ye Olde Chamber Pot).
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 30, 2007
CHEERS to healthy choices. Barack Obama unveiled his health plan for America yesterday. It's a two-prong program: you can either pay 500 bucks a month for standard hospital insurance...or you can waive that and opt for a free lifetime supply of miracle algae. I have to admit...he's got my attention.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the religious right's worst nightmare. On May 30, 1993, my partner Michael and I first met at a bar in Saginaw, Michigan, where we spent a wild passionate night...playing cards. A few days later we ratcheted up the heat at...The Olive Garden. And we knew it was fate when we took the plunge and...held hands during Jurassic Park. Today we celebrate 24 years of sin and depravity together.
To put that in perspective: we met during Bill Clinton's fifth month in office. And here we are, grayer and crankier and creakier (COPD for him, colon cancer for me) but still reasonable approximations of our younger selves as Donald Trump lords (or, more like bloats) over the country. What's the secret to our longevity, you ask? I think it boils down to three things: love, shared responsibility, and accepting the fact that neither of us hears half of what the other one says. But that's okay---we're quite smooth at the art of "yupping" and texting each other from our respective ends of the couch.
In a tradition I started a few years back, here's the annual posting of a smug snippet from "The new apostle of sanity in sex," David Reuben, MD. Forty-eight years ago, in 1969, his mega-seller Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask---a copy of which I once found in my grandparents' attic---was published and treated as gospel (in fairness, he later took a chill pill and lightened up on us):
What about all the homosexuals who live together happily for years?
What about them? They are mighty rare birds among the homosexual flock. Moreover, the "happy" part remains to be seen. The bitterest argument between husband and wife is a passionate love sonnet by comparison with a dialogue between a butch and his queen. Live together? Yes. Happily? Hardly.
For the record, in our household the proper pecking order endures: the cat's the queen, the dog's the butch, and Michael and I are their humble servants. Scandalous, I know.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Trump Tweets He’ll Decide Next Week Whether to Withdraw from Cheers and Jeers Kiddie Pool.
---Mediaite
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