From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday: Let’s Go Three-For-Three
Last June, Daily Kos endorsed three exceptional Democratic candidates---two running for special elections and one for a Democratic primary. In July, Kevin Cavanaugh won his state Senate seat in new Hampshire in an upset. In November, Manka Dhingra’s win in Washington tipped the balance of power in the Washington state Senate, and with the Republican obstructionists out of the way they’ve gotten all kinds of overdue legislation passed.
Today we go three-for-three by dropping the hammer on the worst Democrat in Congress and replacing Dan Lipinski with Marie Newman in Illinois’ 3rd District. What David Nir wrote last June is still fresh today:
Rep. Dan Lipinski is one of the worst Democrats in the House. He supports amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage; he voted to overturn a regulation preventing states from withholding funds for Planned Parenthood; and he even reportedly sent some of his precinct workers to help a vocal pro-Trump mayor win re-election earlier this year.
Lipinski also voted against the Affordable Care Act, opposes the DREAM Act, calls progressives “the tea party of the left,” and refused to support fellow Democrat Barack Obama, one of America’s greatest presidents, for reelection in 2012. We need him representing Democrats like we need a hole in the head.
Last week C&J asked you to send positive vibes to Pennsylvania’s 18th district, and the mojo-saturated atmosphere there propelled Conor Lamb to victory in that GOP- gerrymandered district. Today we’re asking you to put your fingers to your temples, close your eyes (but not while driving or operating heavy machinery, please), and send your vibes to IL-03. It’s long past time to replace the old blue dog fossil with a progressive whose values are much more representative of the district.
Good lord willing and the creek don’t rise, tonight we’ll greet the news that Marie Newman is our Democratic candidate. And then we can set our sights on helping her defeat a Republican Nazi (is that redundant these days?) in the Nov. 6 general.
Go, Marie, go!
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Note: I really should take the Christmas lights down. Nah, maybe tomorrow.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Easter: 12
Days 'til Cheesetopia in Milwaukee: 19
Percent of voters who favor expanding and increasing Social Security benefits, according to PPP: 66%
Number of jobs for which U.S. employers advertised in January, the most in 17 years: 6.3 million
Estimated number of smokers likely to quit within a year if nicotine levels are lowered under proposed FDA rules, according to The New England Journal of Medicine: 5 million
Portion of every dollar spent online that is spent at Amazon.com: 44 cents
Estimated number of US private schools receiving public funding that teach a Christian curriculum, Islamic curriculum and a curriculum inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, respectively, according to Harper’s Index: 5,071 / 70 / 5
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Running his own course…
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CHEERS to Spring! 'Bout effing time, huh? I don't care if we’re still up to our knees in snow. At exactly 12:15ET this afternoon, I'm still gonna put on my tutu, strap on my fairy wings, go outside and romp barefoot through the barley fields with the wee village folk. If the past is any guide, I'll end up stepping on many of them, because they’re really wee and I always forget my reading glasses. (It’s okay, though---they all have wee Obamacare silver plans.) We hope your weather outlook is a little springier than ours. But we're not complaining: as of today, we can official feel the circulation in a toe.
CHEERS to the Un-gerrymanderers. Another reason to vote out every Republican running for office this year: they’re all a bunch of vicious orcs who whine like little sissy babies when they don’t get their way. Case in point: Pennsylvania, where their refusal to redraw obviously-racist district maps prompted the state Supreme Court to do it for them. Naturally, the GOPers whined and cried like---say it with me---little sissy babies, after which they threatened the state’s top bench with impeachment and took their case to court. Yesterday a gaggle of federal judges told them to go pound the sand between their ears:
In a ruling released Monday afternoon, the three judges said the plaintiffs, including eight Pennsylvania Republican congressmen and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, lack the standing to block the map imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month. […]
The judges ruled that the state and congressional Republicans did not have standing to seek the injunction, for different reasons. As for Corman and other state plaintiffs, the judges said the U.S. Supreme Court already addressed their complaint, saying the high court’s “precedent is clear---a legislator suffers no… injury when alleged harm is borne equally by all members of the legislature.” […] In addition, they said legal deficiencies in their case would render an appeal “futile.”
And in late-breaking news, the Supreme Court says it won’t step in and keep the Republicans’ thumb on the scale. Not sure what the state GOP crybabies will try next, but you can bet it won’t include the thing they hate doing most: running an honest race in an honestly-drawn district.
CHEERS to trolling leprechauning on steroids. America’s current Dick-Cheney-minus-the-charm-but-with-extra-bigotry Mike Pence got lapped twice over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. In the first instance, equality-loving patriots in Savannah, Georgia followed him as he marched in the St. Paddy’s Day parade there, ensuring that virtually every photo taken of him had pride colors in the background:
Then on Sunday night, John Oliver of HBO’s Last Week Tonight scooped the release of Pence’s children’s book about his pet bunny rabbit “Marlon Bundo” [groan] by releasing a separate version in which the critter is gay. It sold out within hours at Amazon, and the proceeds are going to the Trevor Project and AIDS United:
“We were lucky enough to get the call,” said Sarah Malarkey, Executive Editorial Director at Chronicle Books. “Because we wholeheartedly agree with the message of inclusiveness, we leapt at the chance to partner with the hilarious and brave team at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
“This book has an important message for all LGBTQ youth: That they are worthy of love and should be proud of who they are. That’s a message we can all believe in,” said Amit Paley, the CEO of The Trevor Project.
“By celebrating Marlon Bundo’s differences, the book’s authors have created a powerful tool for teaching young people the value of diversity,” said AIDS United CEO Jesse Milan, Jr.
You can order it as a hardcopy, e-book, or the seven-minute audio version featuring Jim Parsons, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jeff Garlin, Ellie Kemper, John Lithgow, Jack McBrayer, and RuPaul. Click here and take your pick. Here’s my prediction: when Pence wakes up this morning and logs on at Amazon to discover that gay Marlon Bundo is still at #1, while his Marlon Bundo is down at #5, he’s gonna be in a foul mood for hours. You might say he’s going to have…a bad hare day. I’m here all week.
CHEERS to the state of the union (mental-wise, anyway). New polling over the weekend from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal reveals that most of us are still in full resistance mode and in no mood to cut the right-wingers any slack. Among their findings: Democrats have a ten-point preference over Republicans in the generic congressional ballot (though actual voting results in special elections so far have shown more like a 16-17 point advantage); Republican voters are less motivated about the midterms than Democrats; Robert Mueller, the FBI and Planned Parenthood remain wildly popular; and Trump’s approval after 14 months on the job is...well, here’s a picture that’s worth a thousand words or, if you prefer, 2,000 documented lies and a crapload of incompetence:
To put that in perspective: the only bar lower than Trump’s is the one the news networks make him hurdle.
CHEERS to strategic cutting and running. On March 20, 1942, General Douglas MacArthur pulled out of the Philippines during World War II so his forces could live to fight the Japanese another day. His words made history: "I shall return." Not so historic were the words that followed: "Accelerator's on the right, Chumley. First hit the clutch...now give it some gas...a little more...great, now you've stalled, try it again. I swear, this is the last time I moonlight as a war zone driving instructor..."
JEERS to bad medicine. The gamey stench of decaying flesh and industrial-strength spray-on tan wafted over northern New England yesterday as Air Force One hauled President Trump’s bloated carcass to New Hampshire, where he fed his base yummy slabs of death penalty pie. Specifically, he wants to kill convicted drug dealers in the spirit of that nutball dictator in the Philippines. He said nothing, of course, about offing pharmaceutical company drug dealers and the unscrupulous doctors who foist their opioids on unsuspecting patients---totally-legal concoctions that we found out this month are great for getting you addicted, but lousy for actually relieving pain:
A yearlong study offers rigorous new evidence against using prescription opioids for chronic pain. In patients with stubborn back aches or hip or knee arthritis, opioids worked no better than over-the-counter drugs or other nonopioids at reducing problems with walking or sleeping. And they provided slightly less pain relief. […]
If they don't work better than less risky drugs, there's no reason to use opioids given "their really nasty side effects---death and addiction," said lead author Dr. Erin Krebs, a physician and researcher with the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
The results likely will surprise many people "because opioids have this reputation as being really powerful painkillers, and that is not what we found," Krebs said.
One year ago today I returned to the C&J helm after ten days recovering from emergency cancer surgery, and the folks at Mercy Hospital were very careful about dispensing opioids---a trend that needs to become standard as we deal with this crisis. But I don’t advocate the death penalty for medical professionals who abuse their positions to make the situation worse. That’s too easy. I recommend 20 years of trying to teach Eric Trump how to tie his shoes. That will be hell.
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Ten years ago in C&J: March 20, 2008
JEERS to being homeless. C&J feels bad for all the rank-and-file employees at Bear Stearns whose lives have been turned inside out, and we hope they get back on their feet quickly. But first things first---we must ensure that the muckety mucks are helped immediately. They're really taking it on the chin:
For James E. Cayne, the firm’s chairman and former chief executive, holding on to his Bear stock was a point of pride, and he rarely, if ever, sold. A billionaire just over a year ago when Bear’s stock soared past$160, his 5.8 million shares are now worth about $28 million at Monday’s closing price of $4.81.
There was talk Monday that with their life savings nearly depleted, some executives had moved quickly, putting their weekend homes on the market.
We hear that a few have even had to give out pink slips to their butlers. Sucks to hit rock bottom. Time for a telethon?
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And just one more…
CHEERS to a happy Persian New Year! File this under "Thanks, Obama." It was #44's annual Nowruz greeting (and the right-wing freakout that always followed) to the Iranian people (including Iranian-Americans) that made me aware of the holiday, and it's a tradition I'm happy to continue. As Firoozeh Dumas wrote in The New York Times last year, this is an especially good time to pause and send out positive vibes to our Iranian planet-mates:
Every immigrant group has given something to this country,and we Iranians are here to present you, dear America, with Nowruz. Here is a holiday that asks only one thing of you---to have hope. It has been around for thousands of years.
There is no controversy associated with Nowruz. No indigenous people were displaced, no wars were fought, and no one died for us to have this celebration. […]
So America, please find an Iranian and, for a moment, forget about the headlines that divide us. Ask about Nowruz. You will probably be offered homemade baklava or a chickpea cookie. Please do try the chickpea cookies. They may sound strange to you, but rum balls didn’t sound all that good to me, either. And while you are wondering why the cookies melt so quickly in your mouth (it’s the chickpea flour), let’s talk. You might be surprised to find out that we have more in common than you think. That should give us all hope.
And now, without further ado: [Fires glitter cannon.] "Nowruzetan Pirooz!" And many blessings on your goldfish.
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:
A White House Staffer Allegedly Left His Encrypted Email Login in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool
---Gizmodo
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