From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
Sometimes we're not sure who our featured ally will be from week to week. But, good gravy, this one's a slam dunk, and it couldn’t be simpler: help the Democratic Coalition Against Trump put up this, um, cutting billboard near all three of Paul Ryan's offices in Wisconsin:
Nicely done. Simple, stark, brutal. The donation link is here. As with all our featured allies, C&J is in for $25. Good lord willing and the creek don’t rise, the extraction of the Worst Speaker Ever from the House body will be achieved without complications, followed by a long and steady national recovery.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Note: "You got your avocado in my toast!" "Well YOU got your toast in my avocado!" [brief pause] "Heyyyy….this ain't half bad!"
---This note sponsored by National Avocado Toast Freedom PAC
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the solar eclipse: 20
Days 'til the 71st Central New York Scottish Games & Celtic Festival in Liverpool: 11
Number of Daily Kossacks who made phone calls and sent letters, respectively, to Republican senators since July 8 regarding the insanity of Trumpcare: 547,000 / 500,000
Percent chance that, during President Obama's two terms in office, the rate of school violence dropped from 40 incidents per 1,000 students to 27, according to the Dept. of Education: 100%
Amount it would cost to deal with a Katrina-force hurricane that hits Tampa Bay, one of the ten most at-risk areas in the world according to The Washington Post: $175 billion
Approval rating of Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who is up for reelection next year, according to PPP: 29%
Number of ER visits between 2002 and 2014 related to people swallowing metal grill brush bristles according to WebMD: 1,698
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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. Our last edition of GOMM before next week's convention is dedicated to beer, because of course it is. Atlanta Beer Festivals offers some suggestions for quenching your thirst with their local sudsy goodness…
Sweetwater Brewing The state’s largest brewery is based right here in Atlanta, GA. The new site has the capacity to brew 100,000 barrels of beer a year---all while reminding folks “Don’t Float the Mainstream.”
Jailhouse Brewing Offering an accessible year-round lineup including Slammer Wheat, Mugshot IPA and Breakout Stout, Jailhouse Brewing Company brings a lot of fun to the Georgia craft beer scene. All the beer is, in fact, brewed in the old Hampton jailhouse.
Red Fish Brewing Georgia’s oldest operational craft brewery---Red Brick---was founded in 1993. Known for its Laughing Skull and Blonde Ale, the brewery has undergone several transformations. A new era of experimental brews began to pour out of the brewery in 2013, offering new regional favorities such as Hoplanta IPA and A-Town Brown.
Monk's Mead We are Georgia’s first, and only, Meadery. We have one simple goal – create the best tasting mead in the world for everyone to enjoy. Our mead is a bit different from any other mead that you might have tried. It is clean, crisp, and dry with a nice touch of carbonation.
C&J reminds you to please drink responsibly---out of a leak-proof container.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "Step by step, inch by inch…"
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CHEERS to August. The dog days. The month everybody, not just Congress, should be allowed to take off for vacation. (Right, France?) The month everyone wears out their whites because they know Labor Day's just around the corner. The 13th is the high Trumpian holiday known as "Blame Someone Else Day" and the next 31 days will also see National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, Watermelon Day, Ice Cream Sandwich Day, Mustard Day, Potatoe (I prefer the Dan Quayle spelling) Day, Cherry Popsicle Day and Trail Mix Day, to be followed on September 1st with "Honey, Where Did We Put The Treadmill?" Day.
August movies are headed up by Kathryn Bigelow's harrowing Detroit, which is getting boffo reviews (opens Friday), and Al Gore's similiarly-well-reviewed An Inconvenient Sequel (also opens Friday). Loni Anderson and I (but, sadly, not Neil Armstrong,except in spirit) blow out our birthday candles on the 5th, a day after Barack Obama turns 56. Of course, it's also the month in which you never want to introduce a bogus war based on lies to the public, but there'll be plenty of bloodshed around the world all the same. Cosmically speaking, on August 7 you'll see a full moon, and the religious grifters will have a Rapturrific time selling their End Times trinkets as they prepare the gullible…er, faithful…for a solar eclipse on the 21st. And keep your eyes peeled, because rumor has it Mitch McConnell is going to make another run at the Affordable Care Act. Oh, for the good old days when August used to be boring.
CHEERS to the shortest item C&J has ever posted. Ready? Here we go: Hello, Mooch. Goodbye, Mooch. And…fin!
CHEERS to the rarest of all creatures. Namely, the Republican lawmaker who understands how the Affordable Care Act works and refuses to sabotage health insurance for millions of lower-income Americans. Once again, Maine Senator Susan Collins gets a gold star for taking a bold stance by acting all smart and stuff, and earning extra credit for taking direct aim at the evil executive branch:
In an appearance on the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” Collins was asked by host Chuck Todd whether Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was trying to undermine the ACA. She said the attempted rollback of subsidies is destabilizing insurance markets. […]
“I hear this described by some [i.e. Trump's tweets] as an insurance company bailout,” said Collins, who was one of three Republican senators to vote against and help defeat the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the ACA early Friday. “That’s not what it is. It’s vital assistance to people who make between 100 and 250 percent of the poverty level and allows them to afford their out-of pocket costs.
“And the uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of insurance markets. And that’s what Congress needs to end.”
In response, Mitch McConnell immediately enclosed Collins' senate seat inside a glass quarantine box, so her acute case of Factitis wouldn't infect the others.
JEERS to spitting into the wind. No doubt Lord Dampnut is on terra firma with his base when it comes to his ban-by-tweet of transgender servicemembers. But the vast majority of Americans (including GOP leaders like John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Joni Ernst) are reacting with appropriate revulsion, as evidenced by a new Reuters-Ipso poll showing that nearly 60 percent reject the ban. (And even less than half of Republicans support it.) Now a former Navy doctor says she'll even perform transition surgeries herself for free:
Dr. Christine McGinn, who is also transgender and was once nominated for the Navy’s flight surgeon of the year award, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday:
“If the commander-in-chief won’t take care of our veterans, our veterans will. I will do surgery for free on the number of people that I have already lined up for surgery,” she said.
She added that she’s “more than happy” to do so. … “It’s obvious discrimination,” McGinn said. “I think any fifth-grader could see that.”
Yes. Any fifth grader could see that. But a grown-up toddler? Not so much.
CHEERS to remembering that time when the Republicans were awesome!!! Yup---three years ago this week the House Intelligence Committee released the findings of their Benghazi investigation. And just like Trey Gowdy's "select committee" sideshow, what they found was a whole lotta nothin'…
…there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.
The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public. Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."
As Joan McCarter noted three years ago, Gowdy swore on a stack of Brylcreem that his committee's investigation---quoting here---"would be an objective search for facts, not a partisan attempt to smear Democrats ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race." And since his lips were moving at the time, naturally he was lying. I still think House Democrats oughtta demand a select committee investigation into the select committee's investigation, and conduct it at an appropriate venue: under a circus tent.
CHEERS to the Democratic message in 2½ minutes. One of the frustrating things about losing the election last November was the fact that the Democratic convention had absolutely wiped the floor with the Republicans’ shit show. There were so many showstoppers among the speakers that it's hard to say one was better than any other. Instead of letting their moments of fame go down the memory hole, the Human Rights Campaign has assembled many of them for a one-year-later reunion of sorts. It's really good. Enjoy…
Not to be outdone, the RNC is working on a rebuttal video from their convention. I believe they're calling it It's A White, White, White, White World.
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Nine years ago in C&J: August 1, 2008
JEERS to advice that no organization should need to write, no reporter should need to report, and no newspaper should need to publish. But---[sigh]---this is the United States of America, so I guess there are people out there who need to be told:
The American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation is issuing a back-to-school warning to young people about a rise in injuries and deaths related to sending text messages at inappropriate times, such as while walking, driving, biking or rollerblading. "People are texting and they trip and fall on their faces---usually people in their 20s," Dr. James Adams, chair of the department of emergency medicine at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine tells the group.
There's a word for dopes like them: future members of Congress. [8/1/17 Update: Given that texting-related mishaps are more rampant than ever, I guess today we are all members of Congress.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to life's little life lessons. Here's one for White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, or Sarah Sanders Huckabee, or Sanders Huckasarah Bee or whoever: don't wear green to work…
Here endeth the lesson.
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:
FDA aims to lower snark levels in Cheers and Jeers to combat addiction
---Eyewitness News
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