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While most Americans were watching football, or witnessing President Obama not-so-discreetly call Donald Trump an unruly child in need of parental discipline on 60 Minutes, or just doing Sunday evening-type stuff, America’s space program made history. At 7:27ET four astronauts—Americans Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Vic Glover, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi—became the first crew to get behind the wheel for the resumption of official service to the Space Station since the last Shuttle went up in 2011. Enjoy the countdown and liftoff...
The capsule was named Resiliance by the crew “in a nod not only to the pandemic, but also racial injustice and contentious politics.” The only glitch: Mike Pence failed to follow the trail of pork rinds into the cargo hold. Sadly, he still walks among us.
P.S. Our 46th president weighs in…
Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on today's launch. It’s a testament to the power of science and what we can accomplish by harnessing our innovation, ingenuity, and determination. I join all Americans and the people of Japan in wishing the astronauts Godspeed on their journey.
Note: From the Eyewitness News desk: New York prosecutors working on Trump fraud investigation treated for acute case of post-election chops licking. Film at 11.
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By the Numbers:
10 days!!!
Days 'til Thanksgiving: 10
Years since a Democratic presidential candidate won Maricopa County, Arizona, as Joe Biden did last week: 72
Net change in France's and Germany's approval of the United States since Joe Biden became president-elect, according to a new Morning Consult poll: +33%, +32%
Number of countries in the survey in which approval of the U.S. went down after Biden's win: 2 (Russia, China)
Daily shipping capacity in the U.S. during the holiday season, according to ShipMatrix: 79 million parcels
Expected number of parcels Americans will ship per day during the holiday season: 86 million
Percent of donations under $8,000 to Donald Trump's legal defense fund that, per the fine print, will actually go to Donald Trump's legal defense fund and not his own slush fund: $0
JEERS to keeping track of America’s fugliest numbers. Sadly, our top story this morning involves the mighty Covid-19 Wurlitzer, which plays on with 55 million cases worldwide—the usual 20 percent of them in the U.S, where the pandemic is now so out of control that "several dozen" members of the Secret Service are quarantining and even the governor of freaking North Dakota has instituted a mask mandate. Our weekly tradition of maintaining a benchmark of the awfulness for the C&J historical record continues, so let’s check the most depressing tote board in the world as our death toll now surpasses the population of America’s 89th-largest city North Las Vegas, Nevada:
6 months ago: 1.5 million confirmed cases. 90,000 deaths.
3 months ago: 5.5 million confirmed cases. 173,000 deaths
Yup. He frolicked on the golf course at his Virginia pleasure palace again last weekend.
1 month ago: 8.3 million confirmed cases. 224,000 deaths
This morning: 11.5 million confirmed cases. 251,000 deaths
To make matters worse, Trump emerged from his bunker Friday and saw his shadow, meaning we're in for ten more weeks of carnage and chaos. On the bright side, that'll be followed by ten years of trials and jail time.
CHEERS to throwing out the welcome mat again. When Congress wouldn’t fund his stupid border wall, impeached one-term president Donald Trump swiped money designated for military schools and housing so he could end up completing—[checks notes]—a whopping 12 miles of new wall, and throwing a coat of paint on the existing parts. Happily, Captain Xenophobia's dedication to barring non-whites from entering the country will soon grind to a halt under his successor, who possesses a smidgeon of decency:
President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday reaffirmed his commitment to raise America’s annual refugee admissions target to 125,000, reviving a program that endured deep, historic cuts under the Trump administration. […]
65 days.
Biden’s target, first proposed on the campaign trail, would set an even higher ceiling for admissions than the 110,000 slots approved by President Barack Obama in 2016.
“The U.S. has long stood as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden and oppressed, a leader in resettling refugees, in our humanitarian response,” Biden said in a video recorded for the 40th anniversary of the Jesuit Refugee Service. “I promise as president I’ll reclaim that proud legacy for our country.”
In the distance the Statue of Liberty reached down and high-fived the groundskeeper.
JEERS to missing the mark. They came so close—the "Million MAGA March" Saturday in D.C. I mean. But, y'know, as long as the few thousand who showed up at the latest Trump-themed super-spreader event had a good time, that's what's important, right? And, hey, at least they got to see the president mouth the words "Thank y…" as his motorcade plowed through them on the way to his Virginia golf course. Then it was back to, as NPR described it…
…a day of rallying to echo the false assertion that the presidential election was marked by fraud.
Sadly, not all the MAGA protesters made it to D.C.
[The] crowd…included the group Women for America First, right-wing activists and conspiracy theorists gathered in the city's downtown near the White House. Members of the Proud Boys, a white-nationalist movement designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, were also seen out on the streets of Washington. […]
Tammy Summers, who traveled to Washington from Missouri, said she was there to show her support from Trump as he continues to contest the election results. "We're here to tell President Trump that we totally support him," Summers said. "He should never give up the fight and never give in."
I agree, Tammy. He should never give up. We've waited far too long to see him dragged out of the White House kicking and screaming.
CHEERS to home where the buffalo roam. Happy Birthday, Oklahoma! The "Hey, that state looks like a skillet!" state—home of Mauree Turner, elected this month as the first Muslim legislator from Oklahoma and the first nonbinary legislator in America—officially nabbed the 46th star on the flag 113 years ago today. Fun facts: the state animal is the buffalo, the state insect is the honey bee, and the state flower is the Oklahoma rose, which is quite lovely:
Also: the state rock is "rose barite," which you'll find in the greatest abundance, as usual, between state dinosaur Jim Inhofe's ears.
CHEERS to America's new gatekeeper. The president may be the most powerful person in the universe, but the White House Chief of Staff ain't exactly chopped liver. Everything and everyone gets OK'd through the C-o-S office before reaching the president, and thankfully Joe Biden's pick is a whip-smart, experienced priority-juggler named Ron Klain, and here are some of his particulars:
» Born August 8, 1961 (four days after Barack Obama, whom he served as Ebola response coordinator) in Indianapolis
I look forward to working with Mr. Klain to convince President Biden that the lifting of candy corn tariffs is in the best interests of this great country in which we live.
» B.A. from Georgetown University and J.D. from Harvard
» Formerly chief of staff to VPs Gore and Biden
» Law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron White
» Married to attorney and environmental activist Monica Medina, former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, General Counsel of NOAA, and U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission.
Of course he'll be great. He's a Leo.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 16, 2010
JEERS to paraphrasing the pundits. And now a brief summary of the extraordinary illumination bestowed upon the unwashed masses via The Chris Matthews Show Sunday:
Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, John Thune, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Mitch Daniels or Mike Pence might win the 2012 presidential nomination for the Republican party. Or—and this is a risky, out-there-on-a-ledge, out-of-the-box supposition on the part of our blue-ribbon panel—they might not.
Yay! I learned stuff from the teevee!
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And just one more…
CHEERS to cleansing your cosmic soul. Hey, cast your eyes heavenward over the next few days and you might see some wowee-zowee fireworks in the sky. The Leonid Brezhnev meteor shower—which happens every time Earth crosses paths with Comet Tempel-Tuttle and its debris field—is entering its most Leonidiousy period starting tonight:
This annual meteor shower is responsible for some of the most intense meteor storms in history. Sometimes, meteors fall at rates as high as 50,000 per hour.
This is either the Leonid meteor shower, or Trump just pushed the nuclear button instead of the Diet Coke one.
These meteor storms only happen rarely, but viewers this year will see more Leonid meteors than in 2019, because the thin, crescent moon will be only 5% illuminated during the night of the peak.The best time to look in past years was before dawn around 3 a.m. EST on the morning of the peak, according to Jane Houston Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. … According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, without moonlight skywatchers can expect to see around 10-15 meteors per hour during the peak.
The Leonid meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Leo, where its meteors appear to originate. But you can look in just about any direction to enjoy the show, said NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke. If you directly face Leo, you may miss the meteors with longer tails.
As I like to say, everyone loves meteor showers because they’re beautiful, unite Americans in a delightful bonding activity, and make millions of people more curious about the universe and the wonders of science, thus explaining why Republicans in Congress are always trying to introduce a constitutional amendment banning all future meteor showers.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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