Hispanic Federation Fund for Puerto Rico Relief Link
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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Whoa!
A week ago I posted a modest notice here on Day 1 of the 2018 enrollment period for health insurance on the federal healthcare.gov exchanges. The Trump administration doesn’t want you to know about this, I said. Get yourself covered, I said. Do it now, I said. And, Bam! America listened...
More than 200,000 Americans chose a plan on Nov. 1, the day open enrollment began, according to one administration official. That's more than double the number of consumers who signed up on the first day of enrollment last year. More than 1 million people visited HeathCare.gov, the official federal website, this official said, which amounts to a roughly 33 percent increase in traffic compared to 2016.
To be fair, I really can’t take credit for more than, oh, say, maybe seventy percent of those signups at best. So I just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone responsible for the other thirty percent. Together we kicked Trump’s ass.
With one week behind us, let’s move on to week two and break some more records. Here’s your weekly C&J reminder---graphic courtesy of Charles Gaba (aka brainwrap) at ACA Signups, who as usual is doing phenomenal work as a one-man education/tracking machine and deserves our financial support for his efforts:
Facebook this post. Tweet it. Email it. Flying-monkey it. And if you rely on the federal exchange for your health insurance (like I do), go and git ‘er done. It’s the law, and it’ll make Trump really really mad.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Note: LAST CALL to donate items for the Netroots Nation fall online auction. Collectibles, political memorabilia, books, autographs, artwork, jewelry, pet toys, human toys (but not the sex kind, please), and yummies for tummies are all excellent ideas. So round ‘em up and upload a brief description to the auction site here. (See the “Donate Items” button on left-hand side). If you have questions, e-mail auction poobah Karen Kolber at Karen [at] netrootsnation.org. All the proceeds go to help fund the annual convention, which is in New Orleans next August. Bidding starts thursday, THURSday,THURSDAY!!!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the special senate election in Alabama: 34
Days 'til the Wild Arts Festival in Portland, Oregon: 10
Rise in anti-Semitic “incidents” in the first 9 months of this year, according to the Anti Defamation League: 67%
Number of incidents of harassment, including 162 bomb threats: 703
Value of the 9.6-billion-pound U.S. commercial seafood catch last year, up 2.1% from 2015: $5.3 billion
Term for which Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker just announced he’s running for: 3rd
Percent chance that the princes and other poobahs arrested in Saudi Arabia are staying at the detention hellhole known as the…um…Ritz Carlton Riyadh: 100%
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 185 (including 4 ecumenisms and 1 potty-mouth savior). Soul Protection Factor 8 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Forgive me for posting this, but I can’t resist… (Here, cleanse your palate with this.)
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CHEERS to votin’ day. And a grand time was had by all yesterday at voting places across America. And by “all” I mean all the Democrats who showed up to deliver an off-year shellacking of Republicans, who are now staring into the abyss of a 2018 mega-thumpin’. Here are some results of note:
New York City: Bill de Blasio gets a second term…easily.
Virginia: Democrats were focused, on-message, energized, and rarin’ to kick Ed Gillespie to the curb. That’s exactly what they did. Ralph Northam easily won the governorship, guaranteeing eight years of Democratic leadership following Terry McAuliffe’s successful term.
Bonus: The Virginia House of delegates’ newest member Danica Roem becomes the first transgender person to be seated in any state legislature in the country. She destroyed rabidly-anti-LGBT 12-term Republican Bob Marshall. Karma, baby.
Minnesota: Andrea Jenkins becomes the first transgender woman of color to win a U.S. election (Minneapolis City Council) to public office.
New Jersey: Democrat Phil Murphy will have the task of cleaning up Chris Christie’s mess, which will take a minimum of two four-year terms. He defeated Kim Guadagno easily. BONUS WIN: Ravinder Singh Bhalla becomes the first turbaned Sikh to become an American mayor. Congrats, Hoboken!
Pennsylvania: In bright red Delaware County, a Democratic sweep! And in Bridgeville, say hello to 83-year-old Mayor Aunt Betty.
North Carolina: Vi Lyles becomes the first black woman mayor of Charlotte and, says The Charlotte Observer, “Tuesday’s election results snuff out Republicans’ last ember of hope that Charlotte is something other than a solidly Democratic town.”
Washington: The state senate flipped back to Democratic control, and Jenny Durkan was elected Seattle’s first lesbian mayor (and also Seattle’s first woman mayor since the 1920s).
Maine: What a night for statewide ballot questions!!! Mainers shot down an out-of-state grifter’s attempt to build a casino in southern Maine by an 85-15 margin. Then we became the first state to ever vote to expand Medicaid under the ACA (60%-40%)---a huge defeat for Gov. Paul LePage and a major win for 80,000 low-income Mainers and our rural hospitals. Plus we approved major funding for infrastructure improvements and reinforced state pensions.
What a great night for Team D. Let’s do it again on December 12th in Alabama, and again in November 2018. Winning’s fun.
JEERS to dumb moves. Senator Rand Paul was tackled by his neighbor as he was mowing his lawn over the weekend. His ribs and lungs took a bit of a beating, which is unfortunate because as a libertarian he now has to set up a bake sale to pay for his ruggedly-individualistic health care---ouch! The motive is still unknown as of now, but I think I can take a wild guess: he didn’t ask to borrow his neighbor’s lawnmower.
P.S. This is why it’s not good to break your ribs: there are now five Eves running around Rand Paul’s backyard eating all his apples.
CHEERS to giving Hoover the boot. Eighty-five years ago today, on November 8, 1932, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt was elected president. A few verbal goodies from FDR…
"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."
"Fool me once…shame on…shame on you. Fool me can't get fooled again!!!"
[Memo to self: check source on that last one. Might be Fillmore?]
JEERS to unnecessary changes. Donald Trump just nominated someone---a white male---to replace Janet Yellen as head of the Federal Reserve. Since everything Trump does is based on what he sees from moment to moment on Fox News, please give a warm welcome to new Fed chairman: “Guy From Cialis Ad.”
CHEERS good readin'. On this date in 1731, Benjamin Franklin opened the first lending library---officially called "The Library Company of Philadelphia," an idea that sprang from his weekly meetings with tradesmen designed to expand their depth of knowledge. (For our Republican readers: a library is a place where people go to learn facts and logic and wisdom from things called books and computers!) The dedication ceremony was cut short, however, thanks to strict enforcement of the colonies' first ever "3 shushes and you're out" rule.
CHEERS to takesie backsies. Remember Desiree Fairooz? She’s the Code Pink activist who couldn’t help but let out a snicker during Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing (specifically, she guffawed---as we all did---when Alabama Senator Richard Shelby said Sessions had a “clear and well-documented” record of “treating all Americans equally under the law”) and was actually arrested and taken to court over it. The judge threw the first case out and the Justice department was about to try again when they realized they were being a total bag ‘o dicks and dropped her case. So that sorry saga is over. Sessions goes home with his possum tail between his legs and Fairooz gets the last laugh. I do love happy endings.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 8, 2007
JEERS to the myth of the dormant pecker. [Sigh] Here we go again. For the umpteenth time this decade, a new study shows that abstinence-only education does...not...work:
"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the [non-partisan National Campaign to Prevent teen and Unplanned Pregnancy] study concluded.
A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.
What? Government spending money on something that doesn’t work? Get...out!!
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And just one more…
JEERS to games from the GOP Arcade. Move over, Space Invaders and Centipede! There’s an addicting new video game to keep the masses busy for hours at a time! It’s so easy---just ask Paul Ryan! All you have to do is click the THOUGHT button and the PRAYER button as fast as you can for 30 seconds to prevent deaths from the next wacko-with-an-assault-rifle attack that sickens the nation yet again. But whatever you do, don’t press the BAN ASSAULT WEAPON SALES button because, c’mon, that’s not gonna help! So have a blast---click here and play Thoughts & Prayers now! Just don’t expect to win. It’s a Republican game. Nobody ever wins those.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“Daily Kos already has more money than it knows whatto do with. How else can you explain the existence of Cheers and Jeers? A post that literally nobody hasever read. Nobody. No human. No animal. Nobody.”
---John Oliver
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