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Cheers and Jeers: Monday [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-30
I Feel Pretty and Witty and… A few final words as we say farewell to Pride Month: "Pride is both a celebration and a protest, and in the last few years pride marches have become big business, raking in millions of dollars for their host cities. And when corporations heard all those ch'chings, they jumped in. But ever since Donald Trump started viciously attacking the LGBTQ community, corporate sponsors are now pulling back their pride support. As one corporate insider said: they 'never know if day-to-day they'll be targeted.' Wow---not knowing if you'll be targeted must be so hard for those companies. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for them to come out to their parents…as companies." —Stephen Colbert "I am proud to be gay, and I am very scared that the government wants to bring us down. I am very surprised that there are so many people—I want to cry." —Zolton (who only gave his first name), a 66-year-old attendee in Hungary's Budapest pride march, where tens of thousands showed up Saturday in defiance of Prime Minister Orban's threats to arrest participants "I am a gay veteran of front-line combat in Europe in World War II. I did not fight that war to return to second-class citizenship or back-of-the-bus status (or off the bus altogether) for me and my fellow gays. ... We seek not 'special rights and privileges' as you term them, but precise equality of rights and privileges in what is our America...as much as it is your America as non-gay Americans."
—The late LGBTQ civil rights pioneer Frank Kameny "[Anti-LGBTQ laws] are creating fear and misinformation for parents and are designed to demonize some of the most vulnerable people in our community. We need to show that our community supports LGBTQ rights.” —Frankie Miranda, the first openly gay president of the Hispanic Federation, one of the nation's largest Latino advocacy organizations, who draws upon his experiences to help fight laws and policies that target LGBTQ people. The Pride flag flies at the White House. (Needless to say, not a current photo.) "From the very first day it was: 'We're going to take back our identity. We're no longer going to allow society to label us. We will be out, loud, and proud, and in your face.'" —Mark Segal, participant in the Stonewall riots that started June 28, 1969 If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: Hello? Can't work today. Still queer.
—Robin Tyler "I'm glad that I believe very fervently that Jesus would not be on the side of the gay bashers."
—The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu "I do not think that any self-respecting radical in history would have considered advocating people’s rights to get married, join the Army, and earn a living as a terribly inspiring revolutionary platform."
—Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank’s response when he was once accused of having a "radical gay agenda.” A tip 'o the tiara to the legion of straight supporters here at Daily Kos for your unequivocal support of the LGBTQ community, especially today, both within and beyond these crazy orange walls. Achieving equality isn't possible without you on board, and every victory we celebrate is yours, too. So, thanks. I've begun the paperwork to adopt all of you.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, June 30, 2025
Note: Hooray, it's C&J's annual Independence Week Moment of Bunting...
And now it's over. Thanks. See you next year. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
5 days!!!
Days 'til Scare Animals With Fireworks Day: 4
Days 'til the Taste of Minnesota festival in Minneapolis: 5
Inflation rate in May, up a couple ticks from last May: 2.3%
Drop in personal income in May: 0.4%
Year Zohran Mamdani graduated from Maine's Bowdoin College with a degree in African Studies: 2014
Percent chance that Senator Susan Collins (Fascist-ME), current hemming and hawing over Trump's budget bill, will vote for it no matter how severely it crushes the lives of her constituents: 100%
Age of jazz and film composer Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible, Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry) when he died last week: 93
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Puppy Pic of the Day: To be fair, kiddo was just looking for a doorknob…
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JEERS to picking your battles un-carefully. Oh look…now the leopards think they can feed on our faces? Good luck with that (presumably some kind of lawsuit), Oberunterbegegungsfuhrermeister Bondi. Kos says he can't divulge details yet, but I will say this: if they mean to have a war, let it start here. We shall fight them in the skies (is anybody here a pilot?), we shall fight them in the seas (but we're gonna need a bigger boat), we shall fight them in the pootie diaries (claws out, everyone), we shall fight them in the Garden Blogging posts (your job is to figure out how to breed a human-size Venus flytrap), we shall fight them in the Abbreviated Pundit Roundups (don’t expect much here—pundits have notoriously soft hands), we shall nevuh…surrenduh. (But I will need next Tuesday afternoon off as I'm getting a pedicure and I'm not canceling it because I had to book six weeks in advance and my "piggy that went wee wee wee all the way home" needs a major file-down and lotion bath.) Excelsior!!!
CHEERS to Hugo, Oklahoma's finest son. Bill Moyers, a proud member of Team Blue and the conscience of representative democracy, kept his hand on the steady tiller of fact and informed opinion for decades. Just a few weeks ago we were celebrating his birthday, and sadly that will be the last time we do it with him still around to join in:
Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists, masterfully using a visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas, died Thursday. […] Bill Moyers never stopped brawling for democracy. Moyers’ career ranged from youthful Baptist minister to deputy director of the Peace Corps, from Johnson’s press secretary to newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for “The CBS Evening News” and chief correspondent for “CBS Reports.” But it was for public television that Moyers produced some of TV’s most cerebral and provocative series. In hundreds of hours of PBS programs, he proved at home with subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse. […] In a medium that supposedly abhors “talking heads”—shots of subject and interviewer talking—Moyers came to specialize in just that. He once explained why: “The question is, are the talking heads thinking minds and thinking people? Are they interesting to watch? I think the most fascinating production value is the human face.”
I never met him face to face, but when I reached out in 2007 to see if I could get him to chip in a few autographed books for a Netroots Nation online auction, he was more than happy to, and sent us more than we'd asked for. A real mensch. Moyers, possessing the finest first name of them all, was only 91. Too soon.
CHEERS to the right man for the right job at the right time. This week marks the 250th year since George Washington—freshly promoted to general by the constitutional mouseketeers—took command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1775. He won some battles, lost some battles (okay, a lot) and suffered mightily, but had the courage, smarts and fortitude to keep his army together and eventually claim victory by bottling up old Butthead Cornwallis at the Yorktown Municipal Airport. And he did it all while wearing knee stockings. Suck it, Patton.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to hittin' the road. Sixty-nine years ago today, radical socialist (and probably Kenya-born) President Dwight Eisenhower signed the controversial Federal Highway Act, which authorized the construction of 42,500 miles of freeway from coast to coast, in part to fulfill FDR’s vision of making it easier for people to move to new jobs, but mostly so that our military vehicles could move quickly across the country the way the Nazis’ could during World War II...and splitting up a lot of neighborhoods in the process. It wasn't an easy thing to accomplish:
Between 1954 and 1956, there were several failed attempts to pass a national highway bill through the Congress. The main controversy over the highway construction was the apportionment of the funding between the Federal Government and the states. Undaunted, the President renewed his call for a "modern, interstate highway system" in his 1956 State of the Union Address. Many highways carved up proud minority neighborhoods. Not cool, Ike. Within a few months, after considerable debate and amendment in the Congress, The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 emerged from the House-Senate conference committee. ... During his recovery from a minor illness, Eisenhower signed the bill into law at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the 29th of June.
Soon after completion, parents got their first earful of "Are we there yet?? Are we there yet?? Are we there yet??" Sixty-nine years later the most-popular answer remains: “Shut up or I’m turning this car around.”
JEERS to a supreme sock to the jaw. It's all over. The latest session of the Trump Star Chamber Supreme Court is over. As we limp toward our nation's birthday, let's review last week's final rulings that are now THE LAW OF THE LAND:
☠ The LGBTQ community is now and forever a bunch of Satanic weirdos unworthy of equal rights or anything else to which straight people are automatically entitled. Yes, yes, "those people"—"things" really—can still get gay-married for now, but they'll fix that next year. Unlike our impartial judiciary, the building still stands. ☠ Federal district judges ARE SCUM AND CAN ROT IN HELL!!! ☠ President Donald J. Trump is now and ever after to be referred to as His Excellency the Presidently Leader of All That Is Sexy, Holy, Beautiful, and Perfect, along with The Greatest Golfer Who Ever Lived. ☠ The citizenry can still access preventive health care until Justice Alito can figure out how to equate it with grand larceny and send all you sicko cancer incubators to prison. ☠ The phrase "Christians! Christians! Rah Rah Rah! Go-o-o-o-o Christians!!!" is now part of the First Amendment.
And then Chief Justice Roberts banged his gavel to splinters and proclaimed his the biggest dick in the tri-state area, even though that's not remotely true. They then adjourned to play a few rounds of "Pin the Subpoena on the Bailiff."
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 30, 2015
CHEERS to mo' money for mo' work. If it's not too inconvenient for you, low- and middle-income workers, our Democratic president, Barack Obama, has three words for your bosses: Overtime equality, bitches!"
We've failed to update overtime regulations for years—and an exemption meant for highly paid, white collar employees now leaves out workers making as little as $23,660 a year—no matter how many hours they work. This week, I'll head to Wisconsin to discuss my plan to extend overtime protections to nearly 5 million workers in 2016, covering all salaried workers making up to about $50,400 next year. That's good for workers who want fair pay, and it's good for business owners who are already paying their employees what they deserve.
Not to be outdone, Republicans responded by saying they have a plan of their own. It's called the "Stop Obama's Overtime Expansion Plan At All Costs" plan. SOOEPAACP for short.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the other American Revolution. 56 years ago, in 1969, a ragtag gaggle of customers at a seedy Greenwich Village gay bar run by the mafia—the Stonewall Inn—decided they'd had enough police harassment for one lifetime. So they got mad as hell, especially the drag queens who had no more fucks to give, tipped over a police car, hurled some rocks and gave new life to the LGBT rights movement.
If you’re gonna have a revolution, you could do worse than to have it at a place where fine rotgut is served.
As the deputy police inspector said: "For those of us in [the] public morals [division], things were completely changed...Suddenly they were not submissive anymore." The Stonewall is now a National Monument.
It's been a wild 56 years. Back in 1969 gays were labeled by the right-wingers as "pedophile groomers" and "moral degenerates" and "godless heathen." Then, over the decades, a majority of Americans embraced their LGBTQ family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. LGBTQers were allowed to serve openly in the military. The vast majority of businesses began openly supporting LGBTQ employees and many of them sponsored LGBTQ advocacy groups. And thanks, believe it or not, to the Supreme Court and the tenacity of the plaintiffs who argued their cases before it, marriage equality was made legal and employment discrimination was made illegal.
Now here we are in 2025, and we're back to being labeled pedophile groomers, moral degenerates, and godless heathen. Conclusion: that “moral arc of the universe” is apparently a corkscrew.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial “What I really love about Bill in Portland Maine is he knows how to enjoy this. At your age, man, I didn’t know how to enjoy kiddie pools.” —Brad Pitt
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