(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Cheers and Jeers: Thursday [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-13
Today’s Civics Lesson
The Daily Show gains unprecedented access to the mind of the president as he prepares to sign an executive order. This is 100 percent real, I’m told by experts.
Viewer discretion is advised:
The glory of fascism, boys and girls. How did we get so lucky?
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, February 13, 2025
Note: Today is Thursday the 13th. No need to take any special precautions, except perhaps an extra dollop of hand lotion. And stay away from woodchippers.
-
By the Numbers:
7 days!!!
Days 'til Mardi Gras: 19
Days 'til the Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin: 7
Amount USAID partner Chemonics has in unpaid invoices by the Trump administration: $103 million
Value of USAID-ordered medication, food and other goods from Chemonics now stalled in the supply chain: $500 million
Percent chance that Steve Bannon officially deemed himself guilty in a court of law for scamming suckers via his fake border wall scheme: 100%
NASA's estimate in December on the chance that an asteroid will strike Earth within a decade: 1.3%
NASA's estimated likelihood now: 2.1%
-
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
A subject of apparently endless fascination to the press corps is [Howard] Dean's "anger." What about Bush's? Bush becomes testy whenever he's so much as asked a challenging question at a press conference. Of course he cusses, including one memorable ass-chewing of a woman state senator who had to fall back on the "As a lady, I resent that" line. On another occasion, Bush walked out on the senate floor to ream out a Republican senator who'd flaked on him (the issue was vouchers). On a rather larger issue, we find the media questioning whether any Democrat can compare with Bush on national security. Uh, has anyone looked at Bush's record on national security? In case you hadn't noticed, he got us into what seems to be a hopeless situation in Iraq by lying to us. Our ports aren't protected. Our nuclear plants aren't protected. Our chemical plants aren't protected. And our first-responder drills indicate a gross confusion and lack of coordination. Also, Osama bin Laden has come out of his cave again. —February 2004
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: A li'l squeeze…
-
CHEERS to sticking around. One of Joe Biden's best picks for his administration was Deb Haaland, who spent four years promoting conservation and Native American rights as head of the Department of the Interior. Like Pete Buttigieg at Transportation, Deb will be remembered as one of the most effective cabinet members in modern times, faithfully promoting and preserving our public lands and waters. And now she wants to continue her dedication to public service as the next governor of New Mexico:
-
More on Deb’s announcement here at NBC News. True fact: the governor of New Mexico is in control of where to send swarms of the official state insect, the tarantula hawk wasp. If she pledges to make their first stop inside the pants of ICE agents, she’s got our full support.
JEERS to the idiot behind the curtain. Oh, sure. Mighty Emperor Musk can hire a bunch of evil nerds dealing with their first wave of acne and the dawning realization that they'll never get laid to destroy the government from the inside. That's easy. But can Elon fulfill his assistant Donald's #1 pledge to tame inflation in the greatest country on earth, the Jesus States of The Gulf of America? Let's find out:
Inflation saw a surprising increase last month, as the price of groceries, gasoline and shelter all climbed. Oops. Consumer prices in January were up 3% from a year ago, according to a report Wednesday from the Labor Department. That's a bigger annual increase than the previous month. Forecasters had expected to see some moderation in price hikes, but inflation remained stubbornly high. The news sent stock markets tumbling, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 350 points in the first half-hour of trading. Egg prices saw their biggest jump in nearly a decade last month, rising more than 15%,
We'll mark that down as a no.
CHEERS to the world's most famous Bug. It sucks that such an enduring icon has to be associated with a genocidal maniac, but what can ya do? It was 89 years ago this week that Adolf Hitler announced the introduction of the Volkswagen (German for "Grind it 'til ya find it").
The idea behind the Volkswagen was to stimulate the German economy into the modern era by putting as many Germans as possible behind the wheels of automobiles on the new Autobahn, something the US didn't get around to until the 1950's. The Volkswagen, originally known as the KDF car (Kraft-Durch-Freude or Strength Through Joy), was designed to be affordable to the average consumer, and so was the financing.
It was small and noisy, but if its battery died you could roll it down the street to get it goin' again. Or as my friends used to call it: me after the bars closed on Saturday night.
-
BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
-
END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
CHEERS to a bit of per-speck-tive. Today seems like a good day to step back and ponder our place in the universe. And when I say step back I mean waaaaaay back—like 3.7 billion miles back. This week marks the 35th anniversary of the famous "pale blue dot" photo snapped by the Voyager probe in 1990 as it took one last look back at our sorry asses. Thanks to advances in imaging technology, in 2020 NASA unveiled a new, clearer image that we recommend you and a mixed drink or toke of wacky tobbacky spend some time with in quiet contemplation tonight, as Carl Sagan so eloquently did:
“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
As we can all plainly see, it's a reminder—simultaneously placid, eerie, and awe-inspiring—that no matter how insurmountable our problems may seem or how big the assholes are who rule us, we're just an annoying itch on the universe's butt, and one day, whether humanity is still here or not, we're going to get scratched. Also as we can also plainly see, would it kill ya to pick your underwear up off the floor? The universe hates a slob.
JEERS to failing up. We've been shirking our duties lately when it comes to the assembly of Trump's cabinet. So let's take a moment and fill in some blanks. These are his confirmed picks this far:
The friend of Vladimir Putin The friend of Bashar al Assad The friend of Kim Jong Un But none are friends with Dr. Evil because they find him “not evil enough.” The friend of Xi The friend of Orban The friend of Kanye The friend of the ghost of Hitler
And soon: a Senate vote to confirm the friend of polio. You are now up to date. God bless America.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: February 13, 2015
JEERS to the Edsel of House committees. As Trey Gowdy's Benghazi investigation limps toward its inconsequential conclusion, it's worth reminding the world that one year ago today the non-scandal 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.
Meanwhile, the 36-year Republican committee investigation of Jimmy Carter's alleged 1979 plot to create an army of killer swamp rabbits is close to releasing its final report. They say they decided to fast-track it due to Carter's age.
-
And just one more…
JEERS to Gun FAIL 101. It Seems Like It Was Only—[BLAM!!!]—yesterday. Nineteen years ago today, after the Cheney team sat on the news for 24 hours, America finally learned that the vice president went hunting and bagged himself a lawyer:
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a campaign contributor during a weekend quail hunt on a friend's South Texas ranch, local authorities and the vice president's office said Sunday. Whittington shows off his birdshot scars. He lived to be 95, passing away in 2023. The wounded man, 78-year-old Harry Whittington, was in intensive care at a Corpus Christi hospital after being hit by several pellets of birdshot Saturday afternoon, hospital spokesman Peter Banko told CNN. Whittington, an Austin attorney who gave $1,000 to President Bush's 2000 campaign and $2,000 to his 2004 re-election bid, was among a handful of people accompanying the vice president when the accident occurred Saturday afternoon.
That was the signal to unleash the hounds of late night:
"Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, was shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird." —Jon Stewart "But all kidding aside, and in fairness to Dick Cheney, every five years he has to shed innocent blood or he violates his deal with the devil." —Jimmy Kimmel "To the vice president's credit, he did own up to it. On FOX News he said the fault was his, he can't blame anybody else. It's amazing—the only time you get accountability out of this administration is when they are actually holding a smoking gun." —Bill Maher
I bring this up not only to mark one of many jaw-dropping milestones during the Bush II presidency, but to remind you that Deadeye Dick is still alive and roaming the countryside. We suggest you lock your doors and count the children.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial When it comes to turning around a “meh” day, there’s nothing quite like going for a splash in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool. —Well + Good
-
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/13/2303179/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Thursday?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
