Hey there, We are Blossom Themes! We are trying to provide you the new way to look and use the blogger templates. Our designers are working hard and pushing the boundaries of possibilities to widen the horizon of the regular templates and provide high quality blogger templates to all hardworking bloggers!
And now Trump will issue a statement saying he’s never heard of the place.
Cheers and Jeers forTuesday, December 29, 2020
Note: For those of you wondering, it was a lousy Christmas in our house. I sold my head so I could buy my dear, loving partner Michael a new treadmill, but he sold his legs so he could buy me a new fedora. I'm sure I'll laugh about it one day. But not today. Mainly because at the moment I have no head.
-
By the Numbers:
Voting ends in 7 days!!!
Days 'til voting ends in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections: 7
Percent chance that an American has been stricken with Covid-19: 1-in-1,000
Newsroom jobs lost in 2020: 16,000
Percent pay raises for our men and women in uniform that Trump vetoed over the weekend: 3%
Drop in immigration-related arrests in 2020, due mainly to fewer border crossings and reduced operations: -27%
Year by which Japan says it will be carbon-free: 2050
Percent chance that President-elect Biden told The New York Times that “I’m going to be able to get stuff done on the environment you all are not going to believe”: 100%
JEERS to whiplash: kicking people when they're down edition. With his failed presidency nearly behind him, it's worth reminding ourselves—as if we need to—that Donald Trump remains dumb as a box of hammers. (Apologies for any hammers offended after reading that.) In four years he never sat down in public or private to discuss policy on any issue in detail. Not the environment, not health care, not foreign policy, not guns…nothing. Either his barely-literate handlers made him read their words off a prompter, or he simply promised generic "big, beautiful plans that will happen very quickly" followed by the weasel phrase, "we'll see what happens." His ignorance was on full display again when he signed the combined budget and Covid-19 relief bills, but only after demanding that he had "red line" veto power to strip things out he doesn’t like. And that's going about as well as you'd expect:
Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire, filling in as guest co-host for MSNBC's "Morning Joe," said the president ended up getting none of the changes he had demanded after the bill passed last week.
"The president didn't get anything here outside of a bunch of cable chyrons and frantic tweets," Lemire said. "There's no real suggestion that the two houses of Congress here are going to make any changes to the bill.”
Politico's Anna Palmer agreed, and said Trump's gambit made little sense. "Trump got taken to the cleaners, based on a crisis of his own making," Palmer said. "I think it's a real fitting coda for the Trump presidency where you have a leader who didn't know Washington."
If by Washington you mean "anything," I completely agree.
CHEERS to the new kid under the Capitol rotunda. With all the other crap on his plate, California Governor Gavin Newsom also had the critical task of choosing VP-elect Kamala Harris's replacement in the Senate. "Pick me!" "Pick him!" "Pick her!" After weighing all the whys and wherefores, he chose the state's first Latino to sit at a desk in the upper chamber. Here are some Things You Must Know Or So Help Me You're Grounded about Alex Padilla:
» Born in 1974 in Los Angeles of parents who emigrated from Mexico
» Mechanical engineering degree from MIT
The next junior senator from California.
» Previously an L.A. city councilor (elected at age 26) and member of the state senate. Currently California's Secretary of State
» Oversaw the Voter’s Choice Act, which allows ballots to be mailed to all registered voters.
» Says USA Today: "Padilla's appointment gives a new level of representation to Latinos, who make up the state's single largest demographic group at nearly 40% of the population. But Newsom's choice of Padilla also means there will be no Black women in the 100-member Senate."
Now Gov. Newsom gets to pick Padilla's replacement and also California's new attorney general, since Biden picked Xavier Becerra for the same post at the federal level. Unsolicited suggestion from the kiddie pool: pick two black women.
CHEERS to Texas. America's 28th State—sorry, I won’t call all y'alls a republic because your heads are big enough as it is—celebrates its 159th birthday today. Yeah, we remember the Alamo...and also that every governor elected by you since Ann Richards has been all hat and no cattle. On the other hand, you're the stomping grounds of Molly Ivins, LBJ, Jim Hightower, Beto O'Rourke and them gol'durn Castro brothers, and even Dwight Eisenhower spent his first two years there, so points for that, as well as for continuing to march toward purple-state status. In the crock pot this evening: Armadillo stew. But not real armadillos. We only serve tofudillos.
TALLY HO! to finally taking the plunge. After conservatives brexited Britain out of the European Union, they promptly got down to the business of not knowing how the hell to make the split a reality. So, much like Democrats have to do in this country with Republicans, the EU had to take Britain by the hand and patiently explain how it would be done, and that it would hurt a lot and chaos would reign across the kingdom. Lo and behold, yesterday the deed appeared to be sealed:
At a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels, the 27 member states gave their support for the 1,246-page treaty to be “provisionally applied” at the end of the year. The decision will be formally completed by written procedure [today].
Brexit in one picture.
A spokesman for the German presidency of the EU, organising the bloc’s affairs, said the treaty had been given the “green light”. […]
Speaking on Monday morning, the cabinet minister Michael Gove hailed the deal but said British businesses faced a “bumpy” period from 1 January. “Businesses will need to make sure that they’re ready for new customs procedures and we as individuals will need to make sure that our passports are up to date because they need to have at least six months before expiry on them in order to be able to travel abroad,” he said. “I’m sure there will be bumpy moments but we are there in order to try to do everything we can to smooth the path.”
The agreement sailed through after the final rule was approved: anyone caught transporting haggis into Europe will incur the EU's harshest punishment: being forced to eat haggis.
CHEERS to changing times. On today’s date in 1852, Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for wearing pants. Today she'd be arrested for not wearing them. Discuss.
-
Ten years ago in C&J:December 29, 2010
JEERS to trying to have it both ways. Sarah Palin, who left the governorship of Alaska mid-way through her first term so she could fulfill her dream of becoming a Snooki-level celebrity, is mad. Mad mad mad. Specifically, mad at Wikileaks founder Orange Julius Assange, whom she calls "treasonous." But recently she got an opinion column on Iran published in USA Today, and guess what evidence she cites in the very first paragraph? Good guess:
Arab leaders in the region rightly fear a nuclear-armed Iran. We suspected this before, but now we know for sure because of leaked diplomatic cables. King Abdullah ofSaudi Arabia"frequently exhorted theU.S.to attackIranto put an end to its nuclear weapons program," according to these communications.
Wikileaks! So Sarah Palin is now relying on information provided by a traitor (a treasonous traitor, no less!) to build her foundation for a serious discussion on a major foreign-policy issue. That's funny as hell—the having a serious discussion with Sarah Palin on a major foreign-policy issue part, I mean. But palling around with a traitor? Tsk tsk.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to the do-gooders of 2020. When it comes to being chosen for the Excellent Year Hall of Fame, the one we’re about to wave bye-bye to doesn’t have a prayer. Which is too bad, really, because each inductee year gets a trophy, a certificate, and a choice of tie clip or brooch. Nevertheless, for each of the past 52 weeks, we at C&J have rounded up ten candidates—actual, worthy people or organizations—in our Friday "Who won the week" poll who sparkled like jewels amid the carnage and chaos. As we prepare to leave these 12 months of dumpster fires behind, let’s continue reminding ourselves of who you chose as the best of the bunch. Here's Part II, covering April, May and June. Because the pandemic swamped everything, the medical community overwhelmingly got the biggest props. So in those cases we’re also including the runner-up to give you an idea of what was bubbling underneath the covid elephant in the room:
April 3 "All of the above" related to the coronavirus heroes
April 10 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: The Democratic and moderate GOP governors, led by CA's Gavin Newsom and NY's Andrew Cuomo, working together to meet their medical needs in the face of federal dithering and stonewalling.
April 17 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: Progressive Judge Jill Karofsky and the Wisconsin voters who risked their health to elect her to the state Supreme Court, booting Scott Walker's guy Dan Kelly.
April 24 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: The fed-up nurses who literally put their bodies in front of the Trump cult protesters' shiny new pickup trucks in Denver, Phoenix and elsewhere to counter-protest their vicious ignorance
-
May 1 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for banning assault-style weapons after the worst mass shooting in the country’s history, a move that has the support of 80% of Canadians.
Dr. Rick Bright, one of many patriots who blew the whistle on the Trump administration.
May 8 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: Dr. Rick Bright, the senior administration health official who turned whistleblower after he was directed to carry out orders based on what Trump's cronies wanted, and watched health warnings get ignored.
May 15 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up (tie): Federal Judge Emmett Sullivan, for putting on hold AG William Barr's mad attempt to drop the case against Michael Flynn, and Drs. Anthony Fauci and Rick Bright, for using facts and science during Senate hearings to slow down Trump's race to open schools & businesses too soon.
May 22 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: President Obama, for his virtual commencement speech that aired on the major networks and was such a ratings hit that it caused his successor to lash out in a vein-popping tantrum.
May 29 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: The national backlash to George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and the president's threat to shoot protesters, is swift and deafening
-
June 5 The peaceful protesters, including Rahul Dubey, who sheltered 60+ people in his D.C. home at curfew, preventing them from attack by Trump's Gestapo who had trapped them
All of our winners receive their choice of a Trident nuclear submarine or a Ronco belly jiggler.
June 12 The wave of Georgia primary voters who hoisted their middle finger at the GOP voter-suppression machine, braving rain, coronavirus, and polling place disarray to cast their votes.
June 19 "All of the above," led by America's 800,000 Dreamers, as the Supreme Court upholds President Obama's DACA order...and The LGBTQ rights movement, as the Supreme Court rules 6-3 that employment discrimination is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
June 26 Medical and essential-business personnel. Runner-up: "Tik Tok Grandma" Mary Jo Laupp and her good-trouble makers, who screwed with Trump's Tulsa rally ticket process to help shrink the crowd size and mess up their data-mining operation.
Tomorrow: our winners from July through September. Spoiler alert: sadly, the list doesn’t include “Guy who pushed Lindsey Graham down a well” because that didn’t happen. But, hey, don’t give up hope...we’ve still got two days left.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“Well, there are some people that are so mendacious, I just wouldn’t put them on air. Bill in Portland Maine from Daily Kos, I would never book him. These are just people who splash in the kiddie pool the way that most people breathe. There is no value in that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment