From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Coming Soon to the Flickers
It was looking like a better-than-average year for movies. Then August came along and the celluloid offerings shriveled up and died. Fortunately, it looks like things are poised to pick up this fall. Before Star Wars Episode VIII blows everything else away in December, there are some political-themed flicks that, god willing, will live up to their potential. One of them is Marshall, with Chadwick Boseman playing civil rights titan Thurgood Marshall during his early years as a scrappy NAACP attorney:
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Meanwhile, the story of one of the most bizarre events of the 70s---the tennis match between legend Billie Jean King and publicity hound Bobby Riggs---plays out in theaters this Friday when Battle of the Sexes opens to glowing reviews (79% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes). Emma Stone and Steve Carell look like they were born to play the pair, who in their diametrically-opposed ways brought the women’s rights movement into America’s living rooms:
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Later this month: Liam Neeson in full-growl mode as Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. In November: Rob Reiner’s biopic LBJ with Woody Harrelson. And from across the pond, Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in Victoria and Abdul, which contains the soon-to-be catchphrase of the year: “This mango is off!” Happy viewing.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Note: Our food service vendor has informed us that the yogurt served in the C&J cafeteria on Monday contained live active cultures that, instead of aiding digestive health, actually cause the sprouting of long hairy tentacles from your head. We regret the inconvenience. (On the bright side, no more problems retrieving items from those high, hard-to-reach shelves!) ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
10 days!!!
Days 'til Festivus: 94
Days 'til NC Pride at Night in Raleigh-Durham: 10
Percent of Americans who want Republicans to stop trying to repeal the ACA, according to a Qunnipiac poll: 60%
Consecutive days, as of yesterday, that Trump’s approval rating has been in the 30s via Gallup’s daily tracking poll: 70
Percent of Americans who support globalization and isolationism, respectively, according to a new Morning Consult-Bloomberg poll: 47%, 25%
Percent who believe that when other major countries do well economically it makes it easier and harder, respectively, for the U.S. to do well: 48%, 20%
Number of Emmys Julia Louis-Dreyfuss now has after her latest win for Veep: 8
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 184 (including 5 gogs and 3 days ‘til the Rapture Watch becomes obsolete, so get packing). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In Place Fell, England…SAVED!!! (P.S. Bracken = “a cluster or thicket of ferns; an area overgrown with ferns and shrubs”)
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JEERS to the elephant in the operating room. Yes---Trumpcare 4.0 (aka the Senate Graham-Cassidy amendment) is still alive and kicking…as in, champing at the bit to kick people off of Medicaid, the ACA exchanges, their nursing home beds, their dialysis, their chemotherapy, their meds and, prematurely, their planet. Minority leader Chuck Schumer is going to try and use all the stalling tactics at his disposal to prevent a vote, but it all comes down to a tidal wave of anger from constituents. I know I sound like a broken record, but if you have a Republican senator and you haven’t made your daily call yet (202-224-3121), go ahead and do it now. If not for you, if not for your family, at least do it for this guy…
That’s gonna leave a mark.
JEERS to storm of the century. The winds coming from the monstrosity were absolutely fierce yesterday, scaring the crap out of millions and portending destruction that could level entire towns, leaving lasting destruction for decades, and nobody could do anything but sit there and watch the slow-motion apocalypse unfold. But enough about Trump’s U.N. speech. Hurricane Maria is still active and about to take a hammer to the United States:
Forecasters warned that the storm could leave some parts of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands uninhabitable for months. […]
The current Cone Of Woe.
NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins highlighted that Maria was one of the fastest intensifying hurricanes ever recorded. It blew up from a tropical storm into a major Category 5 hurricane in barely more than a day. […] With Maria producing maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, hurricane warnings were in effect for Puerto Rico, its satellite islands of Culebra and Vieques, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
With hurricane-force winds likely to continue across both territories for as long as 24 hours, forecasters said, Maria was shaping up to be even more destructive than Hurricane Irma, which killed at least 70 people across the Caribbean and the Southeastern United States beginning in late August.
It’s almost like the climate is trying to tell us something. But Republicans say it’s too soon, so we’ll just think of rainbows and tax cuts instead.
CHEERS to the end of an era. Here’s a bright spot on an otherwise ugly day. Six years ago today, official word came down from the U.S. Army that openly-gay and lesbian Americans were now entitled to serve in our nation’s armed forces:
Today marks the end of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” The law is repealed.
From this day forward, gay and lesbian Soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve. Our rules, regulations and politics reflect the repeal guidance issued by the Department of Defense and will apply uniformly without regard to sexual orientation, which is a personal and private matter.
Obama signs the DADT repeal in 2010.
For over 236 years, the U.S. Army has been an extraordinary force for good in the world. Our Soldiers are the most agile, adaptable and capable warriors in history---and we are ready for this change...
Meanwhile, transgender Americans, thanks to Obama, were all set to be allowed to serve openly starting this year until Donald “Five Deferments” Trump, who promised to “love the LGBT community” like no other president in history, pulled the barracks cot out from under them (in a series of tweets, no less). But unlike when the discriminatory DADT was enacted, this time there’s been fierce blowback from Congress, the military, and the public. In fact, by putting the ban on hold so it can “study of the issue,” the Pentagon is trying to figure out how it can politely give Trump’s ban a middle-finger salute. To be continued...
Remember this useless thing?
JEERS to the nexus of fear and politics. On today's date in 2001, Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania was named by President Bush to head the new Office of Homeland Security. During his tenure the color-coded terror alert system was created and, depending on which Tom Ridge you believe, the system was either manipulated by the Bush administration to influence the outcome of the 2004 election or not manipulated by the Bush administration to influence the outcome of the 2004 election. Hint: The second Tom Ridge tied up the first Tom Ridge and locked him away in the attic with a rubber ball in his mouth and he was never seen again.
JEERS to today’s edition of Oh Yes, It Gets Worse. Via Bloomberg:
Equifax Inc. learned about a major breach of its computer systems in March---almost five months before the date it has publicly disclosed, according to three people familiar with the situation. […] In a statement, the company said the March breach was not related to the hack that exposed the personal and financial data on 143 million U.S. consumers, but one of the people said the breaches involve the same intruders. […] The revelation of a March breach will complicate the company’s efforts to explain a series of unusual stock sales by Equifax executives.
This has been today’s edition of Oh Yes, It Gets Worse.
True fact: I still get Chester Arthur and Captain Kangaroo mixed up. This is...Arthur?
JEERS to slacker presidents who weren't elected. On this date in 1881, Chester Alan Arthur of the gilded and foppish Republican party was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, following the unexpected meeting of an assassin's bullet and James Garfield's spine. The Chicago Tribune wrote of Arthur what it could easily be writing today about our current president: "It requires a great deal for him to get to his desk and begin the dispatch of business. Great questions of public policy bore him. No President was ever so much given to procrastination as he is." In Arthur’s defense, he suffered from an energy-robbing condition called Bright’s Disease, and he died of it shortly after leaving the White House. Trump, on the other hand, suffers from an even worse condition. It’s called Being Donald Trump.
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Ten years ago in C&J: September 20, 2007
CHEERS to creative advertising. The service: a Kentucky reproductive health clinic. The headline: "Because I refuse to wear a condom." The one saying it: a bulldog. Bob Barker would be proud.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to minor edits. Following Harvey, all of the living U.S. presidents got together to raise money for hurricane relief through the One America Appeal. But Donald Trump wasn’t invited to take part in the ad and, golly gee, that hurt his fee-fees bigly. So the production crew at Jimmy Kimmel Live did their magic, and now everybody’s happy:
Oh, yes. Much better.
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:
Mock Cheers and Jeers Crew Emerges from Kiddie Pool in Hawaii After 8 Months of Isolation
---Space.com
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