Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

I Feel Pretty and Witty and…

A few final words as we say farewell to Pride Month:

“In the words of Detroit native [rapper] Lizzo: it’s about damn time! Bigotry is bad for business. Come to Michigan, you will be respected and protected under the law.”
—Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), during the signing of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which expands protections for the LGBTQ community.

“If this Legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I’m going to make it painful for everyone. If you want to inflict pain upon our children, I am going to inflict pain upon this body. I have nothing but time, and I am going to use all of it. I will burn the session to the ground over this bill.”
—Nebraska state Senator Machaela Cavanaugh (D) earlier this year as she began a filibuster of all Senate business to stop a bill banning gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Continued…

You are now below the fold. Beware of rogue yankee doodles
and their macaroni feathers of destruction.

“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 LGBT civil rights pioneer Frank Kameny

“The reason I support trans kids, trans grown-ups, gays and lesbians, is because I know when I was growing up, I didn’t fit in anywhere. That it was because of the clothes I wore, what my hair looked like, the music I listened to. Those are all things I can rectify—I can comb my hair, I can listen to jazz, I don’t know what. But to be somebody who’s gay, lesbian, and especially trans, I don’t know what it feels like to be trapped in a body that I don’t feel I belong in. That is why I support that.”
—Pro-wrestler CM Punk (aka Phillip Brooks) to a cheering arena full of wrestling fans this month on the premiere episode of AEW Collision, which aired live on TNT.

“If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would be pretty much left with Let’s Make A Deal.”
—Fran Lebowitz

“The movement for LGBT rights, and the resulting expansion of state and local laws to secure gender and sexual minorities’ full and equal enjoyment of publicly available goods and services, is the latest chapter of this great American story. LGBT people have existed for all of human history. And as sure as they have existed, others have sought to deny their existence, and to exclude them from public life. Our Constitution contains no right to refuse service to a disfavored group. I dissent.”
—Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, on today’s decision granting haters legal permission to LGBT Americans as second-class citizens

“They screamed! They yelled! They ran over and kissed me. ‘Would you talk to my mother?’ ‘Wow, if my mother saw me here.’ … They just couldn’t believe that a parent would do that.”
—The late Jeanne Manford, recalling the response to her first march, in New York City, for the civil rights of her gay son leading to the formation of PFLAG 50 years ago this year.

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…

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Cheers and Jeers for Friday, June 30, 2023

Note: Here’s ye olde July 4th holiday schedule for C&J.  Regular C&J on Monday. Tuesday morning we’ll post our annual July 4, 1776 edition.  (Fair warning: we link to a painting that shows a woman’s boob, so be sure to gather all the children around to read it with you.)  And the rest of the week will be our sub-par crap as usual, except with large tubs of aloe for our various fireworks wounds. Message: we care.  —Mgt.

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By the Numbers:

Days ’til Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s 77^th wedding anniversary: 7

Days ’til the 32^nd annual Strawberry Festival in Billings, Montana: 8

Minimum number of Americans who use a CPAP machine to help them sleep: 8 million

Estimated portion of Americans believed to suffer from sleep apnea: 1-in-15

The last year Georgia‘s peach crop was as bad as it is this year: 1955

Age of Mel Brooks as of Wednesday: 97

U.S. towns with Independence in their name: 11

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Weekend plans…

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CHEERS to killing the unkillable beast. If Dark Brandon’s vision pans out, we’ll finally be able to order a gravestone for the zombie economic policy known as “Trickle-down economics” that has bamboozled the poor and middle class for decades. Instead of bulldozing all the money to the rich and then trusting them to let it “trickle down” on the rest of us, President Biden wants to try something new: removing the spark plugs from that stupid bulldozer…

Bidenomics stands on three legs, Biden explained. The first is a reinvigoration of public investment in domestic industry, research and development and infrastructure. Second, the empowerment of workers by protecting and expanding labor unions. And, third, increasing competition through antitrust enforcement and policy. […]

In a key part of his speech, Biden touted the public investment his administration has undertaken in legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress in his first two years, including the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and the Inflation Reduction Act. These included investments in building new manufacturing facilities, providing broadband internet access, removing lead water pipes from schools and homes, upgrading power grids, and on, and on.

Beyond the laundry list, Biden made a notable argument aimed at the heart of the old economic consensus. “Under trickle-down economic theory was that public investment would discourage private investment. Give me a break!” Biden said. “Public investment declined here at home. Industries that we invented started to move overseas like semiconductors. … Over time, we went from producing 40{dec8eed80f8408bfe0c8cb968907362b371b4140b1eb4f4e531a2b1c1a9556e5} of those chips to producing 10{dec8eed80f8408bfe0c8cb968907362b371b4140b1eb4f4e531a2b1c1a9556e5}. Not anymore! Bidenomics means that industries of the future are going to grow right here at home.”

 And that, kids, is why the Word Of The Day is: Finally.

CHEERS and JEERS to gettin’ outta Dodge. Triple-A (Motto: “Three times more A’s than the leading A”) is out with its July 4th weekend holiday traffic prediction. A record 50 million people will be driving, flying, and riding the rails to get to their vacation destination at exactly the same time and at exactly the same place as you. That’s up from last year as…

…travel demand has been steadily increasing since 2020, and this summer is poised to be one for the record books. … Gas prices are well below what they were one year ago—the national average for a gallon of regular was $4.80 on July 4^th, 2022. Gas prices have remained steady the past couple of months, with the national average hovering around $3.50 to $3.60 a gallon, thanks to the lower cost of oil.

Air travel is also expected to set a new record. AAA projects 4.17 million Americans will fly to their destinations Independence Day weekend, an increase of 11.2{dec8eed80f8408bfe0c8cb968907362b371b4140b1eb4f4e531a2b1c1a9556e5} over 2022.

INRIX, a provider of transportation data and insights, expects Friday, June 30 to be the busiest day on the roads during the Independence Day holiday weekend, with average travel times up nearly 30{dec8eed80f8408bfe0c8cb968907362b371b4140b1eb4f4e531a2b1c1a9556e5} over normal. Major metros like Boston, Seattle, and Washington, DC are expected to see the worst traffic.

INRIX recommends leaving in the morning or after 6 p.m. to avoid the heaviest holiday congestion.

Triple-A also predicts that it will rescue a couple hundred thousand motorists during the holiday period. For reasons that will eventually be traced back to blind devotion to their GPS instructions, half of them will be rescued from lakes, trees, and quicksand.

CHEERS to the turning point.  160 years ago tomorrow, on July 1, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg began, marking the high-water mark of the nasty old slavery advocates.  (For the record, Maine won the war for the Union, although we hate to brag because we’re modest.)  In a show of magnanimity—because, hey, what’s a little tyranny between friends—I bought the South a gift today, on account of I thought it was fitting for the occasion.  It’s an actual “Hour of Glory” Robert E. Lee cuckoo clock:

Instead of a cuckoo, a little toy cannon goes off every hour.  Who knew treason could be so whimsical?

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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CHEERS to the right man for the right job at the right time. This week marks the 248th 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.

CHEERS to home vegetation. Meh—it’s the middle of summer, so as far as TV goes, everything’s pretty much reruns at the moment.

The MSNBC crew will be competing tonight with the season premieres of PBS’s Washington Week and Firing Line (with tonight’s guest, the meh NYT columnist David French.)  Oh, and tonight at 8 me and my online Enterprise crewmates are live-tweeting—via hashtag #allstartrek—the classic episode of Star Trek (H&I network) where Kirk’s nemesis Harry Mudd commandeers a planet of androids.

The most popular movies and streamers, new and old, are all reviewed here at Rotten Tomatoes. (Indiana Jones and the Extra-tall Glass of Metamucil tops the list in theaters).  Sports schedules: MLB here and WNBA here. The U.S. Senior Open golf tourney airs on NBC tomorrow and Sunday afternoon. On 60 Minutes: encore reports on the state of the U.S. Navy and a profile of billionaire Rocco Commisso. And the weekend wraps up Sunday night at 10 with more Bible-thumpin’ hijinx on a new episode of HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones.

Now here’s your stupid-ass Sunday morning lineup:

Meet the Press: Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and JD Vance (The Cult-OH); Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Anne Milgram.

This Week: Most Irrelevant Man in the World Mike Pence (The Cult That Wants Him Hanged-IN); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).

CNN’s State of the Union: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Former Rep. Will Hurd (The Cult-TX); former governor Chris Christie (The Cult-NJ).

Face the Nation: Pete Buttigieg; Mike Pence; AI expert Lindsay Gorman.

Fox MAGA Talking Points Sunday: Stupid-ass nobody Nikki Haley (The Cult-SC).

Happy viewing!

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Ten years ago in C&J: June 30, 2013

CHEERS to all for one and one for all.  I made it ’til midnight, by which I mean watching the riveting filibuster in the Texas Senate by Democrat Wendy Davis to run out the clock on an abortion bill written by Republican monsters.  It was parliamentary procedure played out with the suspense of a Stephen King novel aided and abetted by Democratic senate allies and a gallery of Texans who were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore:

As the protesters raised the noise to deafening levels in the Texas Senate chamber late Tuesday, Republicans scrambled to gather their colleagues at the podium for a stroke-of-midnight vote on some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.  “Get them out!,” Sen. Donna Campbell shouted to a security guard, pointing to the thundering crowd in the gallery overhead that had already been screaming for more than 10 minutes.

“Time is running out,” Campbell pleaded. “I want them out of here!”

It didn’t work.

How typical.  That should be the new national slogan for the Republican party as it relates to citizens who insist on participating in our democracy: “Get Them Out!”  So, anyway, Davis and her supporters ran out the clock and the abortion bill was successfully scuttled for now.  Republicans will try and ram it through again, no doubt, but for now we can spend a few moments basking in the news of the Texas GOP’s collision with a brick wall.  May their Stetson repair bills be annoyingly high.

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And just one more…

CHEERS to our favorite constitutional monarchy! Happy Birthday, Canada!  As America prepares to celebrate the violent upheaval and protracted war with Britain that led to our own “Brexit,” tomorrow our neighbors to the north commemorate the cool, calm, and civilized “union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada [on] July1st.”

Awesome! Whoooo!!!  We luv ya Canada!  (Disclaimer: But not your tar sands or your wildfires.) Don’t get too crazy tomorrow—you could tear a rotator cuff politely waving at your neighbors.

Have a great weekend. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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