From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Lordy, Lordy, Look who’s [redacted]!
On the birthday of one of the most [insert all the coolest adjectives here] First Ladies in American history, we take our annual opportunity to say: thank you, Michelle, for being such an amazing role model---not only in terms of your own humor and intelligence and optimism and down-to-earth authenticity (I'll stop there for space reasons---my list of attributes is 12 pages long, single spaced, triple-column), but also for throwing open the doors of the White House and making it feel more like the "People's House" than any time I can remember. (And bonus points for having the grace to avoid wearing jackets that flip the bird to America with sayings like "I Really Don't Care, Do U?" on them.)
I know there's no job description or requirements for the role of presidential spouse, but I think it's fair to say that you set the bar just about as high as it can go. You rocked it.
In conclusion: Happy happy happy (I'll stop there for space reasons---my list of happys is also 12 pages long) birthday, Michelle Obama. The most admired woman in the world, for darn good reason.
P.S. And her, too---she’s 97!
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, January 17, 2019
Note: Today is "Take Your Note to Work Day." Here's my little feller, Note, Jr. with today's note. Take it away, Junior. note: Poo poo pee pee ha ha! NOTE: A chip off the old block, ain't he! One day I expect he'll make it onto a refrigerator at Harvard.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the next full moon and MLK Jr. Day: 4
Days 'til the Jack Frost Festival in Spooner, Wisconsin: 16
Number of teachers in L.A. that went on strike Monday for a wage increase, “far more hiring,” and a guarantee that new positions be funded for more than a year: 31,000
Sweden's and the United States’ employment rate, respectively, according to Bloomberg: 77.5%, 71.5%
Marginal tax rate in Sweden after the first $79,000: 67.9%
Average rate of economic growth in Sweden and the U.S., respectively: 2.7%, 2.2%
Cost at Costco of a 27-pound slab of mac and cheese with a 20-year shelf life: $89.99
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Contrary to the paranoid fantasists on The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, populists are not motivated by some burning resentment of the rich---we don't spend our lives in an envious funk that someone else is better off than we are. "No skin off my nose" is the general attitude, with others coming in at "Lucky them" or "Good for them."
The problem is that the rich are screwing up our democracy. Less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all itemized campaign contributions for the 2002 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. According to the Houston Chronicle, just 48 wealthy Texas families provided more than half the campaign funds for the major Republican state candidates this fall.
How dumb do you have to be not to be able to connect the dots here? Law, policy and regulation are consistently shaped to favor the rich over the rest of us, and that, dammit, is not fair, it is not right, it is not the country we want and for which we are asked to sacrifice.
---January, 2003
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Puppy Pic of the Day: The First Lady will be a bit late as she has been unexpectedly detained…"
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CHEERS to previews of coming attractions. I always wondered what it would take to get me to sign up for Netflix. Now I know:
President Donald Trump’s proposed space force may debut on Netflix before it actually makes it to space. Variety has learned that the streaming giant has ordered a comedy series from “The Office” alums Steve Carell and Greg Daniels titled “Space Force.” It is described as a workplace comedy centered around the people tasked with creating a sixth branch of the armed services.
If they have an actual character based on Trump and make him the biggest buffoon on the force, I may have to consider shifting my sci-fi allegiance away from Star Wars. No, I can’t believe I just wrote that. Chalk it up to irrational exuberance.
JEERS to thinking like a worm. As the government shutdown steamrolls toward the one-month mark, one major argument against Trump's great wall-fence-slats-hedge demand is the fact that, just as he claims a wall is a "great medieval tool" that never goes out of style, so too is the humble ancient…shovel:
One tunnel is about 50 feet long, unfinished, and stretches across two countries. It starts along the drainage channels that a U.S. border town shares with Mexico, and abruptly ends underneath a parking lot in Arizona. […]
These tunnels, which authorities suspect were built to smuggle illegal contraband or people across the border, were found just within the past month, as President Trump continues to demand $5.7 billion to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico. […]
A physical barrier, whether it’s fencing, steel slats or a concrete wall, would keep out people who are willing to play by the rules. But for those who aren’t or can’t afford to, walls are mere temporary inconveniences, said David Shirk, an international relations professor at the University of San Diego.
As the shutdown continues over the border hoax that a huge swath of the country ain't buyin' (but are mostly blaming him for), Trump is proving quite adept at digging something of his own with unerring efficiency: his political grave.
JEERS to turning a deaf ear. On this date 58 years ago, during his farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower warned us all against the rise of the "military-industrial complex." (Although we’re quick to point out that Ike himself helped contribute to it, so his hands aren’t exactly clean. But, hey, c’mon---he did D-Day.) Every year, as his warning appears ever more prescient, this speech ranks right up there with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or FDR's Four Freedoms speech:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,by the military-industrial complex.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Let's see how that's working out: We did let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties and democratic processes.We did take it for granted. And we the ignorant and apathetic citizenry did not compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty are now fighting like rabid dogs. Other than that...Thumbs-up!
JEERS to real time fact-checking. Not a good look for our vice president:
WEDNESDAY CLAIM Mike Pence: "The caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated."
WEDNESDAY REALITY ISIS has claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed four Americans---two US service members, a defense contractor and a Department of Defense civilian---in the Syrian city of Manbij on Wednesday, according to the US military. All four US personnel that were killed were Americans, according to Commander Sean Robertson, a spokesman for the Pentagon.
We're sure the vice president let out a little "oopsie" in private before going back to his job of being dumb.
CHEERS to Ben Franklin. The Founding Father, publisher, diplomat, philosopher, and the only American to invent more things than Ron Popeil turns 313 today. He has a few words for the fake news-addled wreck that has become the Republican party:
“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.
When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
Responded Fox News: “Fake founder! Fake founder!”
JEERS to yesteryear's sleazebag. On January 17, 1997, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich---the guy who promised to cleanup Washington—accepted a reprimand by the House that included a$300,000 penalty as punishment for ethics violations. Four days later the House voted 395-28 to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct. If memory serves, the sun was shining and the birds were singing that day.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 17, 2009
JEERS to a big waste of TV time. Speaking to the nation by himself would have made him look too pathetic, so George W. Bush---looking older at 62 than his 84 year-old dad---had to fill a room with cronies and people props (a marine! A firefighter! A prison inmate who will one day share a cell with him!) last night as he said b'bye to America. I just kept saying "Shut up, shut up, please just shut up." Thirteen minutes later, he did shut up! I wish I could've been that influential on him eight years ago.
P.S. Keith Olbermann observes: "He didn't say the words Americans wanted to hear most: 'Sorry' and 'Goodbye.'" Or, I would add, "It was all just a bad dream."
P.P.S. Even Cheney fell asleep during it. For once he and I are in total agreement.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the giant round swirling ice thingy that’s giving our ducks merry-go-round rides. This scientist-stumper formed this week in the Presumpscot River in the Maine community of Westbrook, and everyone’s gone all slack-jawed over it:
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According to researchers with clipboards and stopwatches, “temperature changes in the water below a small ice disk could be the source of some of the rotational force. When the water cools to 39.2 degrees, it begins to sink and creates a vortex in the water, producing a small force that spins the ice.” Or, going by Occam’s Hatchet, where the simplest explanation is usually the right one: we believe it’s the work of Satan.
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
Democrats decline Cheers and Jeers meeting in kiddie pool: 'It's kind of a mess'
---CNN
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