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Cheers and Jeers: Thursday [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-16
An Announcement
In the interest of giving you a brief moment of respite from the nuttiness enveloping this crazy planet, this space contains no wildfires, conservadem handwringing, nimrod Republicans, voter suppression, climate change, Elon Musk belches, Nazis, convicted orange dotard felons, income inequality, earthquakes, Fox News gibberish, racism, J.D. Vance histrionics, concern trolling, intra-party squabbling, ocean acidification, slo-mo drug commercials, Proud Boys, Trump boys, fearmongering, LGBTQ-condemning evangelical grifters, worries over egg prices, asteroids hurtling straight for us, inbox-clogging money begs, mansplaining, effing MAGA hats, hate crimes, car trouble, foreclosures, wars on women, melting ice caps, invasions of Greenland, gerrymandering, Chuck Grassley fossilisms, mulligans, tar sands, truthers, skyrocketing tuition bills, droughts, floods or methane pockets.
Courtesy of the management. Stay as long as you like. We’ll deal with the asteroids tomorrow.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, January 16, 2025
Note: What kind of dancers do professional plumbers love most? Cloggers, of course. Thank you I'll be here all week.
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By the Numbers:
9 days!!!
Days 'til the start of the Chinese New Year (of the snake): 13
Days 'til The Chocolate Expo in Wilmington, Massachusetts: 9
Minimum death toll from the California wildfires so far: 25
Number of firefighters Ukraine offered to send to L.A.: 150
Bank failures in 2024, five fewer than the yearly average of 7: 2
Number of the top 25 jobs for 2025 that are in the health care sector, according to ZipRecruiter: 6
Age of Puerto Rican civil rights leader and founder of the Young Lords José "Cha Cha" Jiménez when he died last week: 76
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Alas, the Good Old Days came to an end as cries of "too much government regulation" echoed through the land and we de-regged everything from airlines to energy to communications to (most memorably) savings and loans. The unions went south, new technology shook up the old arrangements, and corporations began catering to the global market. According to Cook and Frank, the final villain in the piece was "out-sourcing," which is the kind of word you get when you let economists name villains. Under increased competitive pressure, corporations figured out that they could save money by going to outside suppliers for everything from raw materials to cafeteria services. When a secretary with a good salary and medical benefits is replaced by a series of temps with neither, the secretary's job has been "out-sourced." Meanwhile, the executives have seen their pay shoot heavenward. In one field after another—computers, professional sports, publishing, law, Wall Street—we end up with a winner-take-all economy. A few people get ungodly rich, and the rest of us fall behind.
—January 1996
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Hush li'l baby…
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CHEERS to a swell sendoff. President Biden delivered his farewell address last night. With four years of solid accomplishments that left the United States categorically better off than it was four years ago, it was part victory lap, part road map, part civics lesson, and all love of country. It’s tough to let him go after only one insanely-productive term. But take heart in this: on January 20th, Donald Trump may become a deeply unpopular, scandal-plagued president again. But Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will always haunt his dreams...as Dark Brandon.
CHEERS to justice at the speed of faster than our sorry-ass country. Speaking of deeply unpopular, scandal-plagued right-wing presidents…
Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was detained by South Korean police at his residence in Seoul on Wednesday local time, ABC News confirmed. The detention comes weeks after investigators first attempted to arrest the embattled politician over his short-lived declaration of martial law in December. […] “Book him, Danno...” A joint investigation team sought the initial warrant on insurrection and abuse of power charges after they said Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning. The court's decision to grant the warrant marked a first for a president in the country's history.
Dream on, United States. Maybe one day.
CHEERS to the war hawks’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Nine years ago—Saturday, January 16, 2016—one of the (many) significant events in Barack Obama’s presidency was etched onto the wall of history. It started when the White House announced that five American detainees, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, had been freed from Iranian prisons in exchange for a handful of Iranians we were detaining at the Hoboken Club Med (for violating the two-beach-towels-per-person-per-day rule). But that was just the warm-up act for this:
On January 16, 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has completed the necessary steps under the Iran deal that will ensure Iran's nuclear program is and remains exclusively peaceful. Obama announces the nuclear deal with Iran. Before this agreement, Iran's breakout time---or the time it would have taken for Iran to gather enough fissile material to build a weapon---was only two to three months. Today, because of the Iran deal, it would take Iran 12 months or more. And with the unprecedented monitoring and access this deal puts in place, if Iran tries, we will know and sanctions will snap back into place.
I remember it well: the American people were happy, the Iranian people were happy (they even lowered their catchphrase from "Death to America" to "slightly swollen ankles to the upper Midwest"), and all the other nations involved in the pact—China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the rest of the 28 EU states—were happy. But not Donald Trump. Drawing on his fine command of absolutely nothing related to foreign policy, he just had to pull out because diplomacy bad, bombs good. To be fair, though, it's what the coal miners wanted.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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JEERS to yesteryear's sleazebag. 28 years ago this week, in 1997, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich—the guy who promised to clean up 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.
JEERS to turning over the asylum to the inmates. With the 119th Congress poised for two years of thrilling MAGA non-accomplishments, Speaker Mike Johnson is tweaking his committee assignments, including the new re-labeling of the committees themselves. Here's a partial cheat sheet for you, courtesy of C&J:
Old name: Oversight and Accountability Committee. New name: Find Me A Democratic Scandal, Any Democratic Scandal Will Do Committee Old name: Foreign Affairs Committee New name: Leave Russia Alone Committee And the Don’t Kill Them Committee is now the Kill Them All By Any Means Necessary, Secretary Hegseth Committee. Old name: Science, Space, and Technology Committee New name: Flat Earth Committee Old name: Homeland Security Committee New name: Border Stunt Organizing Committee Old name: Judiciary Committee New name: Jim Jordan Did Nothing Wrong So Stop Asking Committee Old name: Natural Resources Committee New name: Drill Here, Drill Now Committee Old name: Hospitality Committee New name: Fuck Hospitality, We’re Invading Greenland Committee
Please note that the Ethics Committee is still called the Ethics Committee, but now it's funded through a giant pile of cash in the back room generously provided by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk.
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 16, 2015
CHEERS to the Big Appall. Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall reports that New Yorkers say they still love the NYPD in general, but not their tantrums:
New York City voters disapprove of police officers turning their backs on the Mayor at police funerals by 69% to 27%. 77% think police union President Pay Lynch's "blood on his hands" remarks were "too extreme" and no racial or gender subset of the population considers the comments "appropriate." Though there are big differences across the city's racial groups 47% of New Yorkers say [Mayor Bill] de Blasio's actions since he began his run for Mayor show he supports the city's police. 37% say the opposite.
And 98 percent of New Yorkers also say, hey, leave some doughnuts for us.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to an important reminder. With Very Bad Man taking office next Monday, our former democracy is about to get really, really loud. So as we gird our loins, Harrison Ford has four excellent words of advice as he advocates for the principles behind the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. When the shit gets too deep and the noise too ear-splitting, listen to the quiet...
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And for moments when you really want to enjoy peace and quiet, find Marjorie Taylor Greene and stick a sock in her maw.
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 "Mr. Hegseth, unfortunately, you lack the character and composure and competence to splash in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool." —Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
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[END]
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