Happy 20th blogiversary to the persnicketiest band of muckrakers and misfits in Blogger Land . It all started when a dirty effing hippie named Markos Hemp Flower Rainbow Moonbat Moulitsas emerged from his deep-state law school cocoon, flapped his tie-dye wings on May 26, 2002 , and proclaimed: “I am progressive. I am liberal. I make no apologies.” It's been all high-quality blah blah blah ever since.
"The" Daily Kos percolated for several months before I discovered it (via the Dean for America blog) and got addicted to the weekly 2004 primary “cattle calls” (which were revived for 2020 , delighting audiences around the globe). After that, all hell broke loose and it's been a sprint for world domination ever since. (Monaco signed its surrender papers yesterday and, in keeping with our time-honored custom, we ransacked the presidential palace and used the spoils to buy several tons of arugula and chardonnay.)
Today Daily Kos has an amazing Elections Team, affiliation with Civiqs polling, dulcet-toned David Waldman and Justice Putnam on the radio, an activism and community-building arm, talented front-page and diary contributors (of note lately: Kos’s and Mark Sumner's Ukraine updates and Joan McCarter's laser-focus on the doings in the Senate), and groups within the community that focus on everything from environmental issues and labor to pooties and the day's top comments.
We also continue to raise a ton of money and generate grassroots support for campaigns at the local, state, and federal level. Among our registered members: Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, John Fetterman, Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, and Stephen Colbert.
We even caught the eye of late luminaries like Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid (may they rest in a hereafter with no fucking filibuster rules). Tonight we pour out a splash of drinkey in their honor, and all the beloved DK community members—too many, dammit—who have left us.
Despite the meta wars, sigh-inducing GBCWs, and the sheer crazy volume of information that gets posted every day, The 'The' "The" Daily Kos is still a vital national source of netroots-level analysis, opinion, issue-vetting, fundraising, snarking, storytelling and flying furniture. Only a fool would try to herd our breed of cats. So from all of me to all of you—especially you, Kos, our mighty Keyboard Kingpin and your “squadrons of rabid lambs” —Happy #20 from user ID #2574. May your hearts remain progressive, and your hands always be filled with pies.
And now, our feature presentation…
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 26, 2022
Note: Just a quick heads-up that C&J will not appear in the pages of this online supermarket coupon clipper Monday, so that we may commemorate the Memorial Day holiday and also incur our first self-inflicted Jarts wounds of the summer of aught two and twenty. Back Tuesday with our annual praise for the ACA's extensive puncture-wound provisions.
Days 'til the start of LGBTQ Pride Month: 6
Days 'til the Vermont Dairy Festival in Enosburg Falls: 7
Portion of U.S. adults who say they're "doing okay" or "comfortable" financially, according to the Federal Reserve: 8-in-10
Percent annualized real income growth over the last two years for Black households: 7.5%
Expected percent increase in baby formula production in June by "big 4" manufacturer Reckitt because President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act: 40%
Percent of Americans who believe the coronavirus pandemic is over, according to Gallup : 34%
Number of hot dogs consumed every second from Memorial Day to Labor Day: 818
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
The Old War Criminal is back. I try not to hold grudges, but I must admit I have never lost one ounce of rancor toward Henry Kissinger, that cynical, slithery, self-absorbed pathological liar. He has all the loyalty and principle of Charles Talleyrand, whom Napoleon described as "a piece of dung in a silk stocking."
Come to think of it, Talleyrand looks pretty good compared to Kissinger, who always aspired to be Metternich (a 19th century Austrian diplomat). Just count the number of Americans and Vietnamese who died between 1969 and 1973, and see if you can find any indication he ever gave a damn.
As for Kissinger's getting the Nobel Peace Prize, it is a thing so wrong it has come to define wrongness—as in, "As weird as the time Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize."
Puppy Pic of the Day: Is it me or does Dad look a little baked?
CHEERS to a lovely lede. Courtesy of NBC News yesterday morning as Tuesday’s primary results were being pored over. Hee hee…
It was the night the lights went out in Georgia for Team Trump.
Former President Donald Trump's favorites were dismissed up and down the ballot Tuesday, as Republican voters handed him a book-end rebuke to his 2020 re-election bid loss in the state.
I don’t know what's more hilarious. That Trump got his endorsement ass kicked, or that the reporter actually put the words "Trump" and "Team" in the same sentence.
JEERS to America : land of the guns, home of the gun nuts. What happens in the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown Aurora Binghamton Tucson Santa Barbara Charleston Lafayette Roseburg Kalamazoo Orlando Alexandria Las Vegas Parkland Benton Pittsburgh Thousand Oaks Aurora Poway Highlands Ranch Virginia Beach Gilroy El Paso Dayton Midland/Odessa Fresno Milwaukee Atlanta Boulder Colorado Springs Chicago Buffalo etcetera etcetera Uvalde, Texas (21 dead—19 4th-graders, two teachers) is depressingly predictable: The community will grieve. Gun control advocates will wisely suggest that this might be a good time to review our federal and state firearms policies so that our nation's unconscionable record of gun violence might be improved upon. The right-wing gun nuts and media machine will claim it’s “just a lone wolf,” then blame Democrats (and their movies and video games) for the carnage and urge every living soul and their pets to arm themselves to the teeth, and the NRA will insist it's "too soon" to talk about gun control as they continue scaring politicians into looking the other way by informing them that, "We'll be scoring you on your response." Like I said, predictable. Depressingly. Again.
P.S. Remember when the NRA still held their convention in Denver just days after the massacre at Columbine High School, but they at least agreed to downsize it and tone down the rhetoric ever so slightly? This year’s NRA convention is this weekend in Houston, and not only will they not be downsizing or down-toning, they’ll be ratcheting up the vitriol to 11. For the children, of course. Always for the children.
JEERS to gaveling yourself into the doghouse. If you've been wondering how Americans are reacting to the Supreme Court's rapid transition from a kinda-sorta deliberative body to an unapologetic right-wing star chamber that controls every facet of your life and mine, wonder no more:
A majority of Americans—54%—now say they disapprove of the job the Supreme Court is doing following the leak of the draft opinion showing the justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
The Marquette Law School poll findings represent a dramatic change from how Americans viewed the court in March, the last time the survey was conducted. Then, 54% of respondents said they approved of the nine justices and 45% said they disapproved. Now, only 44% approve.
Horrified by their plummeting approval among the people they serve, the six conservatives on the Court dug deep inside their souls to try and rediscover their sense of fairness and judicial balance. And having failed, deemed it unconstitutional to publish any unfavorable polls about the Supreme Court in the future. (The Bill of Rights is more of a guide, anyway.)
Giant Sequoias with human for scale. via everchanginghorizon/ig https://t.co/8tFDJpxOmF pic.twitter.com/BHcT6qIZ73
CHEERS to anticipation. Hooray! Only one more day 'til the start of the Memorial Day Weekend and then it'll be July 4th and then back-to-school and then Halloween and then the midterm elections and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas 'n Hanukkah 'n Festivus and then "Happy New Year 2023" and then blessed winter and then spring allergies and then Easter and then only one more day 'til the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Oh, the joy of having been around the sun a few times.
CHEERS to the birthday legislator. Happy birthday to reliably progressive congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois ' 9th District, who turns hrffhrrf years old today. She won her first election in 1999 and has landslided (landslode?) her pitiful opponents to re-election ever since. Yesterday she told Ted Cruz where he could stick his thoughts and prayers:
How can you send your thoughts and prayers to those impacted by gun violence and then appear at an NRA convention the same week? Disgusting. How about you cancel your appearance and return the $$$ the NRA has sent you…didn’t think so. We need #GunControlNow. Period. pic.twitter.com/Cxwzwd9pAK
Today in the C&J cafeteria: Chicago-style deep-dish birthday pizza...and, of course, not a knife and fork in sight.
Ten years ago in C&J: May 26, 2012
JEERS to a boring fact boringly told. The President of the United States is an American citizen . Glad we cleared that up. For the eleventy billionth time.
CHEERS to today’s pop quiz. No peeking or Googling—if you try to cheat, I’ve inserted malware that will make your computer or smartphone start playing a never-ending loop of It’s A Small World After All, so fair warning. Here’s the question: who was the first senior Trump official—aka rat on the sinking ship—to flee the White House five years ago this week? Here’s a pleasant musical interlude while you’re thinking it over…
If you said Communications Director Michael Dubke , you win! Since that fateful day a mere 3 months after the stable genius who “only hired the best people” took the oath, the revolving door spun so fast that even Rachel Maddow gave up adding new names to her giant Departures Board . By the end of his massive fail in office, the only people left were the ones resigned to the fact that Trump was the godfather and they were all just minions taking turns hosing him down with spray-on tan, fetching his cheeseburgers, and shoving UV lights up his tuchus. I wonder if they’re sitting at home bored with all the winning yet. On second thought, no, I really don’t.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
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