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Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-19

A Few Words From the February Birthday Table It was immigration that taught us it does not matter where you came from, or who your parents were. What counts is who you are." —Congresswoman Barbara Jordan "I have said this before, and I will say it again: the vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy." —Congressman John Lewis “If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” —Charles Darwin "I don't have a short temper, I just have a quick reaction to bullshit."

—Elizabeth Taylor "To me, the most important part of winning is joy. You can win without joy, but winning that’s joyless is like eating in a four-star restaurant when you’re not hungry. Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight, that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best." —Bill Russell "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves, in their separate, and individual capacities." —President Lincoln "The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." —Frederick Douglass "Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart." —Erma Bombeck "Guys, is this inauguration speech running too long? No? You sure? We're cool? Great. Okay, as I was saying…" —President William Henry Harrison And the classic: “You don’t need no gun control. You know what you need? We need some bullet control. That’s right—I think all bullets should cost five thousand dollars. Five thousand dollars per bullet. You know why? Cuz if a bullet costs five thousand dollars, there would be no more innocent bystanders.” —Chris Rock If you’re marking another year around the sun this month—including you lovable leap year babies—Happy Birthday and many blessings on your camels. And now, our feature presentation...

Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Note: There is no i in Sweden. But there is a we. Discuss.

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By the Numbers:

3 days!!!

Days 'til National Cherry Pie Day: 1

Days 'til The Chocolate Expo in Dover, Delaware: 3

Measles cases reported in West Texas last Tuesday and last Friday, respectively: 24 / 48

Percent chance that measles outbreaks are going to skyrocket under the approving gaze of insane HHS director RFK Jr.: 100%

Amount of PBS's annual budget that comes from the government, equal to about 16% of its yearly income: $535 million

Number of PBS stations: 330

Size of the coffee creamer industry last year: $5 billion

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Mid-week Rapture Index: 181 (including 5 nuclear nations and way too much playing around with Satan's botox). Soul Protection Factor 8 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Conductor's little helper…

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CHEERS to words of hope from Mark Ruffalo. Playing against type, the actor and progressive activist stars in a new sci-fi movie called Mickey 17, in which he plays " a villainous politician whose tyrannical actions threaten the human race." Sound familiar? Sound ominous? Sound like something freshly-ripped from the pages of today's newspaper? (Kids, ask your parents.) Well, you can stop your mind's further descent into Worst Case Scenario Land, because Sir Mark of Ruffalo has a note of optimism to strike on humanity's behalf:

[A]s he drew upon a range of real world despots to form the character, Ruffalo found himself considering how: “They all end the same way.” Ruffalo in “Mickey 17.” “I mean, it might be brutal on the way to getting there, but all of these guys end the same way. It’s not sustainable,” Ruffalo told CNN on the red carpet, in London’s Leicester Square. “And I think that’s kind of one of the nicer things about the movie, is that, in the end, the people always win. It just takes some time and some suffering—horrible, you know, terrible things. But we gotta remember that we always win and they always lose. They’re too selfish, they’re too self centered, they’re too arrogant, they’re too stupid, they’re too insane for them to triumph,” added Ruffalo.

Responded the despots currently trashing our country: "You take that back right now or we'll chase you to the ends of the flat earth or until our Tesla catches fire, whichever comes first!"

JEERS to today's edition of Lemme Guess: He’s Gonna Put Goldfinger In Charge Of The Place. Courtesy of ABC News:

[Elon] Musk has cast doubt on whether the gold remains at Fort Knox, writing on X: "This gold is the property of the American people. I sure hope it's still there!" "Who is confirming that gold wasn't stolen from Fort Knox?" Musk also posted.

This has been today's edition of Lemme Guess: He’s Gonna Put Goldfinger In Charge Of The Place.

JEERS to slowpokery. On February 19, 1986, the Senate approved a treaty that said genocide—y'know like what Trump and Netanyahu are planning for Palestine—was unacceptable.

The [UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide] was approved on a vote of 83-11. Written as a reaction to the Holocaust of World War II, the pact makes it an international crime to kill or injure members of national, racial, ethnic or religious groups. It has been approved by 96 other nations. […] Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI) was one of the biggest advocates of the genocide treaty, and gave thousands of speeches on the Senate floor in its defense. Author Elie Wiesel, chairman of the U.S.Holocaust memorial council, said, ″This is a historic event for America. It signals to the world how committed the people of the United States are to human rights.″

What's really amazing is that the treaty was first introduced in 1949...and was signed 37 years after the pact had first been offered up for ratification. Or, as the current Senate would call it: the speed of light.

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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JEERS to really bad ideas from really good presidents. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the order that would lead to the "relocation" (read: forced detention) of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals living here. How do we know it was a really, really bad decision? Because nutcase Michelle Malkin thinks it was a really, really good decision. Case closed.

CHEERS to defending the mothership. They say that sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us. Isn't that lovely? I think it is, with one small caveat: I sure wish asteroids were words instead of stones, because apparently the world is ramping up to deal with how they have the ability to turn our bones into a mush-like paste suitable for school papier-mâché assignments and/or home spackling projects:

China is recruiting for a planetary defense force to combat the threat of asteroids colliding with Earth. Also: apparently we’re in grave danger from colliding with a giant pickle. (Shame on you, Vlasic, and your secret lab experiments in outer space.) The successful candidates will be required to research tasks related to near-Earth asteroid monitoring and early warning systems, according to the job description for the three positions, among 16 posted last week by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), which oversees the country’s space activities. In recent years, China has made “significant progress” in asteroid defense, with engineering projects and telescope construction in the works, Li Mingtao, an expert at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the state-run China Science Daily newspaper in an interview published Feb. 10.

Not to be outdone, the Trump-Musk administration has announced its own asteroid initiative. It's called Let's Fire All The Asteroid People And Pass The Savings On To The Billionaires So They Can Build Their Asteroid-Proof Emergency Shelters Complete With Pedophile Sex Dens. Or, if you prefer, L.F.A.T.A.P.A.P.T.S.O.T.T.B.S.T.C.B.T.A.P.E.S.C.W.P.S.D. for short.

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Ten years ago in C&J: February 19, 2015

CHEERS to Bernie Sanders: standup comedian. Ladies and gentleman, give it up for the the junior senator from Vermont! Whooo…..

"If Republicans are serious about extending the solvency of Social Security beyond 2033…"

His Mark Twain Prize is in the bag.

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And just one more…

CHEERS to half a century of humorous hawking. SNL aired their 50th anniversary special Sunday night. It could be nothing less than an overly-jam-packed platter of hors d’oeuvres featuring samples of the hundreds of skits, monologues, and musical numbers by hosts and cast members through the years. We’d love to show you them all, but gosh we’re out of time. Now these messages...

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Maybe tomorrow.

Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial Bill in Portland Maine is all that and a bag of chips, so it's only fitting that we pay homage to his hubba-bubba sweetness in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool. —Lisa Stardust

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[END]
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