From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Energize An Ally Tuesday
Today's the big day: the day I finally stick a crowbar in my wallet and make a contribution to the campaign of the candidate poised to knock a most unlikable senator---a Republican creep who even Donald Trump calls "an all-talk, no-action pol [who] has accomplished absolutely nothing for Texans"---off his perch. While Ted Cruz hurls half-baked insults about "tofu" and "hair dye," Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke is captivating Texans in every county with his intelligence and boundless energy. So I'm in.
And so is this mega-site. Calling the Texas Senate race "one of our marquee targets this cycle," Daily Kos is all-in for Beto. Markos counts the ways he's "freakin' proud" to help win this unexpectedly winnable race for Team D:
★ Ted Cruz would be out of the Senate!
★ It would boost Democratic chances to take control of the Senate. Democrats need two seats to take the majority. We're looking good in Arizona and Nevada. Our endangered incumbents thus far appear to be holding their own, but by adding Texas to the Democratic column, it would give us the ability to lose one of those red-state seats and still win the majority.
★ It forces Republicans to spend money in an expensive state. Money spent here is money that isn't spent in our endangered red-state seats.
★ Beto would bolster our southern-state Democratic ranks. If we genuinely force Republicans to compete in the South, they will truly be f'd for a long time.
★ Beto is a legit Democrat. O'Rourke is a legit progressive. And while he may not wind up voting as consistently well as blue-state Democrats, his record will be solid---worlds better than Ted Cruz, who, you may have noticed, would be out of the Senate.
This is a big one. So let’s make it easier for Beto to focus on his live campaigning that’s captivating the state instead of dialing for dollars. C&J is proud to shine our Tuesday “Energize An Ally” spotlight on O’Rourke and kick in $25. We challenge you to follow our lead if you’re able, but even a few bucks spread across our million-plus community will help a lot. The Act Blue donation page is here.
Follow Beto O’Rourke on Twitter here, on Instagram here, and the evil Facebook here.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Note: From the Eyewitness News desk: today is No News Is Good News Day. No film at 11.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Greenpeace Day: 4
Days 'til Farm Aid 2018 in Hartford, CT: 11
Excluding incumbents, percent of 2018 Democratic House nominees who are women: 50%
Percent of Republican House nominees who are women: 18%
Number of advanced missile launchers featured in North Korea's 70th anniversary parade: 0
China's trade surplus with the U.S. in August, up from $28 billion in July: $31 billion
Percent chance that cases of Lyme disease in Maine are lower than last year, due to deer ticks having more difficulty surviving the hot dry summer: 100%
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Current Hurricane Florence Forecast Map
More info from NBC News here.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: 95 pounds, six-feet tall…and he's still a puppy.
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CHEERS to primary madness. It's voting day in New Hampshire, and C&J's message to Democrats is to get out there and do your civic duty---don't take anything for granite ha ha ha! There are two races sucking up most of the oxygen:
Governor's Race: The current occupant in the governor's log cabin is Chris Sununu, and Dems will be choosing his challenger---either Portsmouth Mayor Stave Marchand or former state Senator Molly Kelly. CBS News says Kelly has the momentum, given her financial advantage and "endorsements from New Hampshire's two Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, as well as Planned Parenthood and EMILY's List."
1st Congressional District: With Carol Shea-Porter's retirement, every citizen in New Hampshire not names Chris Sununu, Steve Marchand or Molly Kelly is running to fill the seat. Ha ha, that's not really true---Hiram McGillicutty is sitting this one out because of a bad back. Among the 11 Democrats: Bernie Sanders' kid Levi. Among the five Republicans: eh, who cares?
As usual, New Hampsters will also be voting on their perennial ballot question: "Live free or die?" Also as usual: the suspense will kill no one.
JEERS to the 9/11 of 9/11s. And here we are once again. That day. That date. Seventeen years ago. Ugh. But at least the guy who made it such a horrible moment in our national consciousness (Saddam Hussein…right, Bush?) finally met his fate in the raid of the century, and a new tower stands like a middle-finger salute to al Qaeda at Ground Zero. What better time than now to dig up the C&J time capsule and remind ourselves of the truths that all the right-wing spinners in the world will never be able to whitewash:
» Most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, yet that country has paid no price for producing and harboring terrorists. (To the contrary---one of Trump's first acts was to share a glowing orb with the Saudi royalty.)
» The PDB said: Bin Laden determined to Strike in U.S.
» Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq.
» Sitting in a classroom for seven minutes after being told "America is under attack" is a poor display of leadership, especially if you're the President of America.
» After holding up a vial of baby powder, Secretary of State Colin Powell, the most trusted man in the administration, told the United Nations: "My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence." I believe his soul is now buried in a landfill somewhere.
» Donald Trump did not see thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the fall of the towers as they came down, but he did brag about his was now the tallest building in Manhattan after the towers fell.
» There were no WMDs. Not "in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat," and not even in the Oval Office"somewhere."
» Four and a half years after declaring that "major combat operations have ended," major combat operations had still not ended.
» Taunting the insurgents by sneering "Bring it on" was really dumb because the insurgents, who were not "in their last throes" brought it on.
» Osama bin Laden was not caught by Bush dead or alive. He continued making videos, plotting more attacks and feeding his porn addiction until President Obama nailed him.
I sometimes wonder how the 9/11 hijackers reacted when they found out the 72 virgins they met in the afterlife had orders from Allah to beat them with shoes for eternity? We'll never know. But I bet it was a Kodak moment.
CHEERS to redemption. File this under "better late than never," but holy hell what a disgrace that this sexist injustice has been allowed to go uncorrected for decades, people…decades.
In 1974, Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s male PhD supervisor at the University of Cambridge won a Nobel Prize for a discovery that she was the first to notice. On Thursday, the 75-year-old acclaimed astrophysicist won a coveted science prize of her own---the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. […]
The award honors Bell Burnell for her discovery of pulsars---neutron stars that emit electromagnetic radiation from their poles.These rapidly spinning radiation beams sweep past the Earth at regular intervals. … Bell Burnell first noticed pulsars during a routine data collection in 1967, with the help of a radio telescope she was in charge of monitoring at Cambridge. Her supervisor, Antony Hewish, ended up winning a Nobel Prize for the discovery.
Back then, society functioned under the belief that scientific advancements were driven by men, Bell Burnell told the The Washington Post. Women, on the other hand, were expected to study cookery and needlework. “It was such a firm assumption that it wasn’t even discussed, so there was no choice in the matter,” the scientist said.
Excuse me while I take a moment to bang my head on the table. [bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!] Okay, let’s continue…
Bell Burnell went on to become one of the U.K.’s leading astronomers and a role model for female scientists. Her discovery of pulsars opened up a brand new branch of astrophysics.
She'll be donating her prize money to the Institute of Physics, but earmarking it specifically for women, refugees, and other minority students so they can achieve breakthroughs of their own: "I have this hunch that minority folk bring a fresh angle on things and that is often a very productive thing." Or as too many menfolk still say: a very scary thing.
P.S. And maybe the actual Nobel Committee could perform an amazing feat of physics by sticking a crowbar in their prize vault and giving her one retroactively for, y’know, actually being the person who deserves it? Don’t hold your breath.
CHEERS to commercials we actually like to see. The first round of the Emmy Awards happened over the weekend. These are mostly technical awards and statuettes for the more minor acting categories. Among the categories was the one for Outstanding Commercial, and the accolades go to Procter and Gamble (with production by The Corner Shop and BBDO) for its heartrending and oh-so-true-to-life ad called "The Talk." Take a look:
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Congrats to the winners. On a related note, two NFL players---Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson of the Miami Dolphins---took a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence against unarmed black citizens. My “the talk” I’d have with them would be very short: "Well done."
CHEERS to great moments in music. On September 11, 1962, The Beatles recorded their first singles for EMI, including "Love Me Do." Or as it's called today, The British Hairdressers' National Anthem.
CHEERS to America getting its head back in the game. Summer's over, the kids are back in school, vacations have been vacayed, and it's time to check in and see if We The People are following the pundits' oft-spoken "rule" that says we don’t really start paying attention to the midterm elections until after Labor Day. And since midterm elections are a referendum on the president, let's take a peek at the latest post-Labor Day poll and see if we can suss out a whisp of a clue or two:
[J]ust 36% approve of the way the President is handling his job, down from 42% in August. Among independents, the drop has been sharper, from 47% approval last month to 31% now. That's 4 points below his previous 2018 low of 35% approval among political independents in CNN polling, and 1 point below his previous all-time low among independents in CNN polling, reached in November 2017.
Trump's numbers have slipped amid the release of an op-ed in The New York Times and reports about the Bob Woodward book that will be released Tuesday.
Trump has also lost ground on several personal attributes, most notably perceptions of his honesty: Just 32% say they see the President as honest and trustworthy, the worst read in CNN polling. About a third, 32%, say he's someone they are proud to have as President, down 6 points since March and the lowest since Trump took office. Only 36% say he "cares about people like you," another new low. Just 30% say he'll unite the country and not divide it, matching his previous low on that measure from November 2017.
I'll go out on a limb here and say: I think we're paying attention now.
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Ten years ago in C&J: September 11, 2008
JEERS to Whack-A-Mole XXVII---The Wurlitzer Plays On. The Iraq war was crap from the start, and it continues to be waged crapeditiously. And even though neither the McCain nor the Obama campaign want to talk about it, there are developments that Americans should be furious about. Like the fact that we're withdrawing troops, but not enough to take us to pre-surge levels. Like the fact that Bob Woodward says our team has an amazing new weapon for catching al Qaeda thugs (my guess is it's the gay bomb), and yet General Saint Petraeus says Iraq remains the central front for al Qaeda terrorists. And then there's this outrage regarding our slipping success in Afghanistan, a blatant flip-flop that will thrill our exhausted troops, I’m sure:
[President Bush] said if the situation in Afghanistan becomes more critical, the U.S. could return to 15-month deployments [and] mobilize more reserve units.
But don’t let gays in or institute a draft so that all Americans can sacrifice for their country equally during this epic clash between human civilization and the Terminators. That would just be silly.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to a bright spot on an otherwise lousy day. Be sure to take a moment today to face Berkeley, California and shout,"Lordy, Lordy, look who's fortysomethinger!" Yes indeed, our malevolent kingmaker, troll slayer and, as of this year, professional pollster, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, turns another year wiser, and we wish him many blessings on his camels. On behalf of the C&J community, I got him the usual gifts: a new star pin for his Che beret, a new pair of "I brake for Libturds" mud flaps, and a renewal of his subscription to Popular Hispanic Hippie Commie Pinko Socialist Tax-and-Spend Moonbat Vegetarian Cyclists Monthly. It's the least we could do. So that's what we did.
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
Top Daily Kos official reportedly said Bill in Portland Maine has a likability problem that could cost him his Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool
---Vox
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