From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
This Has Not Been Edited in Any Way*
The 60 Minutes interview that you may have missed Sunday:
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*Allegedly
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, October 18, 2018
Note: [Loads cannonball with the words HAPPY HOLIDAYS on it into catapult]
[Launches in direction of Fox News.]
It is time. Begun, the War on Christmas has.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the midterm elections on Nov. 6: 19
Days 'til the Gilfeather Turnip Festival in Wardsboro, Vermont: 9
Length in miles of the Northern Ireland (UK member) and Ireland (EU member) border and the number of road crossings along it, respectively: 312/ 250
Rough amount of time commercial vehicles would be stopped at those checkpoints as part of Brexit details, causing a virtual standstill along the border, according to AP: 10 minutes
Date on which Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power during high-wind situations to cut down on the wildfire risk: 10/14/18
Drop in flying insect counts in German nature preserves over the last few decades, according to the National Academy of Sciences: 76%
Percent chance Stormy Daniels' new nickname for President Trump is "Tiny": 100%
MLB Championship Playoffs
Red Sox lead the Astros 3 games to 1
Dodgers lead the Brewers 3 games to 2
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Everybody and his dog in the political commentating trade now agrees the Bush administration is experiencing hard times---the going is getting tough, and Bush is getting testy. Bush always gets testy under stress. This is not news.
It seems to me what we are looking at was put best by noted journalist Billy Don Moyers, formerly of Marshall, Texas, who was home last week and observed that the Republican right came to Washington to start a revolution and stayed to run a racket. It has become a game of ideological flim-flam, a scam in which all manner of distracting hoo-hah -- abortion, judicial activism, even "the war on terra" -- is used to obscure the fact that the government has been taken over by people who are using it to make money for themselves and their friends.
In the business world, this is called "control fraud," and it refers to an organization, like Enron or Tyco, that is rotten at the head.
---October 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: NBA season is on…
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CHEERS to the rising blue gubernatide. Nate Silver (I still have an autograph from him signed with his old Kossack name: "Poblano," and keep it in a locket that hangs around my chest) of FiveThirtyEight dropped a Great Big Happy in our lap yesterday. His team of human-computer hybrids popped out their governor's forecast for 2018, and there's good news for our side:
In FiveThirtyEight’s gubernatorial forecasts, which we (finally!) launched on Wednesday, the gubernatorial news is good for Democrats. They are projected to wind up with governorships in states representing about 60 percent of the U.S. population, compared with 40 percent for Republicans. […]
Among the nine states with populations of 10 million or more that will elect new governors next month, Democrats are clear favorites in five(California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan) and modest favorites in a sixth state (Florida). Republicans are clear favorites only in Texas, where incumbent Greg Abbott is likely to be re-elected. The Ohio and Georgia races are toss-ups.
Even if Republicans win all the toss-up races and all the races our model currently rates as leaning Democratic, they’d come up a little short of a population majority given the states that Democrats have in hand already. Accounting for each state’s population on a probabilistic basis, Democrats currently project to have 194 million people under their control after the election, or about 60 percent of the population, compared with 135 million for Republicans.
One notable check-mark on Nate's list is welcome news for this here Mainer: they rate our governor's race between tough-as-nails state AG Janet Mills (D) and scratch-n-dent magnate Shawn Moody (aka Paul LePage, Jr.) as "Likely D." Not that we're taking anything for granted, but it at least gives us a sign that we should probably go ahead and order that extra crate of Glade for the governor's office fumigation team. (Boy, are they gonna be busy little bees in January.)
CHEERS to high times in the Great White North. Unlike the nickel-and-dime bullshit half-measures-only United States, when Canada does something, they do it right. From a modest military, to universal health care, to beating us to women's and LGBT rights by a mile…they really don’t deserve to have our sorry ass sitting so close to theirs. The latest groundbreaking move: legalizing marijuana in all the provinces. But it goes deeper than just allowing citizens to toke up. Check this out:
Ottawa will introduce legislation by year’s end to allow the thousands of Canadians with criminal convictions for possession of small amounts of pot to apply for pardons, said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
On the day when the recreational use of marijuana became legal in Canada, Goodale confirmed Wednesday that the federal government will now move to grant pardons to those with previous convictions. “Now that the laws on cannabis have changed, individuals who previously acquired criminal records for simple possession of cannabis should be allowed to shed the burden and the stigma of that record,” Goodale told a news conference.
At the news conference Wednesday, cabinet ministers underscored the government’s goals in legalizing marijuana---to introduce a regulated regime that will be better able to keep cannabis away from young people and erode organized crime’s profits from marijuana sales.
Sadly, they seem to be holding off on coming out with an official audio version of their new national anthem: O Cannabis. Probably waiting for the ink to dry on Celine's contract.
CHEERS to other looming cutthroat election. Stand clear of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees, because their daggers are out and they are sharp:
Def Leppard, Devo, Janet Jackson, John Prine, Kraftwerk, LL Cool J, MC5, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks, the Cure, Todd Rundgren, Rufus & Chaka Kahn and the Zombies are all potentially up for induction at the March 29, 2019, ceremony in Brooklyn, NY, at Barclays Center.
While the RRHOF Class of 2019 is decided by an international body of more than 1,000 voting members, fans can impact the vote by going to RockHall.com and casting a ballot (one a day) for the artist they think needs to be in the Hall's ranks.
Voting starts Oct. 9 and goes through Dec. 9, 11:59 pm ET. The top 5 artists the public selects will comprise a 'fans' ballot' that is tallied along with the other ballots.
Fans can also vote in-person at the Rock Hall in Cleveland.
Dang. I'd love to vote in person, but my Hammacher Schlemmer blimp is still in the shop. But the link for online voting is right here, so you can do it that way. As usual, I'll be casting a daily write-in vote for John Williams for his disco version of the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Because…well, duh.
CHEERS to the Great Orange Satan: Super Action Power Team! Wow, you guys, that was impressive. When word got out that the Supreme Court had approved the voter suppression of Native Americans in North Dakota, this place went from a standing stop to a full gallop in less time than it takes Mitch McConnell to snatch a bug out of the air with his tongue. The original goal was $34 to raise money for North Dakota Native Vote, which issues new, valid ID cards. And, well, you people, I swear…
Over $200,000 raised---that reminds me of those great Howard Dean"bats" that we were constantly filling up in '04---and you can bet that, over and above the new IDs, the cash infusion will help NDNV upgrade and improve its operations. (You can find the donation link here at TealBomb's post.) So thank you, C&Jers, for your part in making that seat-of-the-pants rapid-response action such a success. Once again, we've risen to the challenge of doing our motto proud: Daily Kos: Just A Fad Since 2002.
CHEERS to news from across The Pond. [Beep Beep Beep Beep…Beeeep!] "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a breaking news bulletin, old chap: today marks the 96th anniversary of the BBC, which is properly pronounced, of course, 'Beh Beh Seh.' Since our founding we've maintained a reputation for being cool, calm, impartial, and accurate. So of course you Americans have no idea what to make of us.
Now stay tuned for The Goon Show, followed by Educating Archie and assorted ramblings from Her Majesty the Queen during her ceremonial Drinking of the Several Glasses of Sherry." [Beepity Beeeeep!]
CH'CHING to money, money everywhere. No one matched all the numbers in the latest Mega Millions jackpot, so the next pile of cash is worth the equivalent of 900,000,000 99-cent valu-packs of Brach's candy corn. If you play, C&J reminds you: please have a snowball's chance in hell responsibly.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 18, 2008
CHEERS to white flags of surrender. They seem to be popping up all over the place these days. This week the RNC announced that it's pulling out of Maine (Wisconsin, too). Their absence hasn't been particularly noticeable here. But our neighbors agree that it's nice the formaldehyde smell is gone.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to today's required legalese. With that dastardly FEC running around checking everybody’s ps and qs, we best be up front about our dark-money activities for at least one day this election season:
DISCLAIMER: The Concerned United National American Center Institute Chamber Enterprise Foundation Gateway Commission Gaggle Office Consortium Coalition Crossroad Fund Organization Citizens for the Protection Defense Sanctity and Advancement of Sensible Freedom Liberty Values Growth Hope Progress Prosperity Opportunity Responsibility Commerce Change Protection Mothers Fathers Children Families Puppies Patriots, Babies, Baby Wipes and Blue Skies But Against Fraud Waste Abuse Deficits Taxation Without Representation Treading On Me and Tyranny is responsible for the content of this blog post. To contact us, talk to the slobbering 150-pound rottweiler guarding our Cayman Islands P.O. box. His name is Fluffy.
For a complete list of our donors, go outside and wish on a star. If the names don’t magically fall out of the sky, well, we tried.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"We are each free to believe what we want, and it's my view that the simplest explanation is that there is no Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool, but Bill in Portland Maine directs our fate."
---The late Stephen Hawking
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