Cheers and Jeers is a mom-approved weekday post from the great state of Maine.
Energize An Ally Tuesday
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch said, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” All along, my conscience has been my guide. But voting my conscience does not require courage—it simply requires doing what I know is right. Growing up in Alabama I learned right from wrong. What the President did was more than wrong. Someone has to stand up and say so. I will fulfill my oath and vote in favor of both articles of impeachment. […] Ultimately, we will be judged to be on the right side of history.
—Senator Doug Jones (D-AL)
Choosing to put Senator Jones (follow him on Twitter here and Facebook here) in our Tuesday spotlight is a no-brainer. He could've left his spine in the cloakroom and wimped out for political expedience. But he's a leader, not a cultist. So today we make a donation to his reelection campaign and we invite you to follow suit here, if you’re so inclined. He’s a good guy, works hard, and has earned our support. Plus: the last thing we need is Jeff Sessions back in the Senate. Gack.
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Note: This is a friendly reminder that February is officially designated Bird Feeding Month. Please remember to fill your bird feeders all the way to the top every day with a fine assortment of nuts and seeds. Especially cashews and almonds. In fact, you can skip the seeds, actually. Nuts would be perfect. Thank you for your attention in this matter. In fact, you should go fill it right now. Go, bird feeders hooray! —The Squirrels
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary, respectively: 11, 18
Days 'til the Naperville Ale Fest in Illinois: 13
Percent of American adults surveyed by Gallup who say they want Democrats in Congress to determine the nation’s direction, versus 43% for Trump: 49%
Number of health care jobs added in January: 35,000
Job growth in the mining sector in January: 0%
Recorded temperature in Antarctica last Thursday: 64.9F
Year Skee-Ball was invented and patented by Joseph Fourestier Simpson: 1908
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Puppy Pic of the Day: If the Bassett Hound comes out in a Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe tonight, this show is over…
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CHEERS to the joyful noise coming from next door. We're very happy that the New Hampshire primary will be over in a dozen hours, mainly because it'll mean an end to all the political TV and radio ads that have bled over into Maine for the last several weeks. As for the outcome, this tidbit we plucked from The Colbert Report circa 2012 sums up just what kind of barometer the proceedings are today:
Clip of Jon Huntsman TV interview: They pick corn in Iowa. They actually pick presidents here in New Hampshire.
Stephen Colbert: Yes, New Hampshire picks presidents. Just ask Presidents Pat Buchanan, Paul Tsongas and Estes Kefauver.
Also: Presidents Hart, Lodge, Romney, and Muskie. So keep that in mind. The person who you think is going to win might not win. This is, after all, New Hampshire, so don’t take anything for granite. Ha Ha Ha!!! That goes out to my peeps in the igneous rock community. We’re close.
P.S. Earlier this morning, at the stroke of midnight, the five voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire cast their ballots. The biggest winner, as usual: the guy at the door selling coffee to the bleary-eyed media for ten bucks a pop.
CHEERS to fresh paneling. A timely reminder that time is ticking down to the February 28 deadline for panel, workshop and screening submissions for the Netroots Nation convention—co-sponsored by Daily Kos—in Denver August 13-15. Mary Rickles says the goal is to highlight hot topics in the progressive community by bringing activists, analysts, political leaders and audiences together for 90 minutes of exhilarating discussion and illumination. Here’s a closer look at what they’re looking for this year:
» Strategic conversations about how we'll work together as a movement to win in 2020, from local races to the White House
» Sessions about how to govern and enact progressive policies after we've won
» Panels focusing on the intersections of racism and electoral justice, environmental justice/climate change and disability justice
» Trainings that help new activists grow into successful organizers and candidates, and advanced trainings that focus on cutting-edge tools and techniques
Submissions are judged by internal panels and then by the public. The link for all the panel submission info is here. If you have a panel in mind but you want some live assistance, there are two webinars: one today at 3pm ET and one on the 25th, for which you can register at this link. Deadline is 17 days from today. Last year I attended a terrific panel called How to Promote Netroots Nation Panel Submissions in Cheers and Jeers Without Really Trying. Aced it.
CHEERS to joining the resistance. Friday night the head of the Trump crime syndicate decided to take out his wrath on a few of the folks who testified during the House impeachment inquiry. One of them, EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, I could care less about—a Republican stooge who paid a million bucks to knowingly work for a narcissistic lunatic in a position whose job description he dumbed down to: "Live in European mansion. Do rich guy stuff." Fuck him.
The real outrage lies in the double-removal from the National Security Council of the decorated Vindman twins: Lt. Colonel Alexander, who testified, and Lt. Colonel Yevgeny, who didn't. It was a petty, vindictive (Vindmandictive?) move that sparked a massive backlash, and Alexander is not going quietly:
[T]he Purple Heart recipient fought back on Saturday in a statement from his lawyer, basically calling Trump a petty liar who is trying to intimidate anybody who stands up to him.
“The President this morning made a series of obviously false statements concerning Lieutenant Colonel Vindman,” the statement read. “While the most powerful man in the world continues his campaign of intimidation … Lieutenant Colonel Vindman continues his service to our country as a decorated, active duty member of our military.”
The next time a Democrat steps behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, I expect "Reinstate the Vindmans" will be at the top of the agenda. Right after "Sandblast orange face paint stains out of Resolute Desk and restore honor and integrity to the Oval Office." So probably sometime in 2022.
CHEERS to the guy who really was the brightest bulb in the box. Happy 173rd Birthday—and many blessings on your tungsten filaments—to fellow Ohio native Thomas Edison. He invented the light bulb, the phonograph, the Snuggie and the ShamWOW! (the last two during his slow descent into madness). Pay your respects here. Today is also Sarah Palin's birthday—she turns 56. Or as she likes to put it: just another orbit of the sun around the earth.
JEERS to current events. Tuesday morning and the rotation of the earth is in no danger of stopping. But that's not necessarily the case with Atlantic ocean currents, which—stop me of you've heard this before—may be on the cusp of slowing down. Says NASA:
A major ocean current in the Arctic is faster and more turbulent as a result of rapid sea ice melt, a new study from NASA shows. The current is part of a delicate Arctic environment that is now flooded with fresh water, an effect of human-caused climate change.
Using 12 years of satellite data, scientists have measured how this circular current, called the Beaufort Gyre, has precariously balanced an influx of unprecedented amounts of cold, fresh water—a change that could alter the currents in the Atlantic Ocean and cool the climate of Western Europe.
"If the Beaufort Gyre were to release the excess fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean, it could potentially slow down its circulation. And that would have hemisphere-wide implications for the climate, especially in Western Europe," said Tom Armitage, lead author of the study and polar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The White House, horrified at the news, promised to deal with the situation promptly and decisively by firing all the scientists.
CHEERS to caffeine in the clear. On January 11, 1992, a study said that drinking three cups of coffee a day does not raise the risk of heart disease. But it does raise your risk of peeing like a racehorse every five minutes.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 11, 2010
JEERS to making it to the top. Tense moments on the observation deck of the newly-grand-opened world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. This gives me the willies just thinking about it:
Visitors who were on the viewing floor at the time of Saturday's incident told The Associated Press they heard a loud noise, then saw what looked like smoke but turned out to be dust seeping out of the crack in one of the elevator doors. …
About 45 minutes later, rescue crews arrived and pried open the elevator door, Timms said. The faulty elevator was caught between floors,so rescuers hoisted a ladder into the shaft to help those trapped inside get out.
Folks were eventually evacuated via a freight elevator. Several people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries sustained after getting their lips stuck to the hot pavement while kissing the ground.
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And just one more…
JEERS to the Edsel of House committees. True fact: if you're in Washington and you visit the dumpster next to the House parking lot, you'll still see smoke wafting up from the remnants of Trey Gowdy's Benghazi investigation. I think it's worth reminding the world that six years ago today, the non-scandal that Republicans and Fox News branded "worse than Watergate" jumped the shark:
In a new report released on Tuesday, the House Armed Services Committee concludes that there was no way for the U.S. military to have responded in time to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya to save the four Americans killed that night.
In doing so, the report debunks entirely a right-wing myth that says the White House ordered the military not to intervene. […]
Fox News cited reports of a stand-down order no fewer than 85 times during prime-time segments as of June 2013. As the new report—which the Republican majority of the committee authored—makes very clear in its findings, however, no such order ever existed.
Today the only reports Gowdy writes are the employee reviews down at the Pawpatch City Burger King. ("Gary still struggling with fry vat. Will scream harder at him to improve performance.")
That’s all I got. 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
Daily Kos readers blast Bill in Portland Maine after Markos Moulitsas escorted out of Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool: "The smallest man alive"
—Mediaite
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