(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Thursday [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-02-23 Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, February 23, 2023 Note: A quick heads-up that there will be no C&J on Monday, but we'll be back bright and early on Tuesday. Also a quick heads-up that in 50 trillion years the universe will explode in a giant fireball that will morph into a massive black hole and eat itself. So plan accordingly. - By the Numbers: 5 days!!! Days 'til spring: 25 Days 'til the 36th annual Iowa Hawkeye Farm Show in Cedar Rapids: 5 Minimum number of Americans who die each year from (mostly opioid) overdoses, according to the CDC: 100,000 Number of train derailments in the United States last year: 1,049 Percent of 60 companies in a trial of 4-day workweeks who say they want to go back to 5-day workweeks: 4% Year the iPhone was introduced: 2007 Winning bid on an original iPhone in its original sealed, shrink-wrapped box: $63,356 - Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment: As regular readers know, I call upon the Lord rather frequently myself, often for patience in dealing with those who presume to speak in His name. To whatever extent each of us is affected by religion, I suppose we inevitably bring that into the public sphere. But I seriously question the wisdom of doing so in any organized or deliberate fashion. Drag God into politics, and you'll ruin His reputation in no time. Again, this may be a matter of taste, but I have seen too many Psalm-singing, Bible quoting, Holy Joe hypocrites in politics to think these frauds improve the moral tone of our public life. Getting snookered by some canting humbug is even more depressing than getting snookered by a plain old crook. —June, 2004 - Puppy Pic of the Day: Woof and farewell to famed Boston Marathon cheerdog Spencer… - CHEERS to special election MADNESS!!! Holy freaking bamboo fibers, Batman. Forty-eight hours ago Democrats in two states and one commonwealth turned out in robust numbers to vote for democracy, decency, and [insert your inspirational d-word of choice here]. Behold the results that left the MAGAs' butts red, swollen, and very painful… Wisconsin Democrats got the state Supreme court matchup they wanted. When the primary votes were counted (and Dem turnout was thick as a fine cheddar cheese spread), liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz (pronounced "Smith") and 2020 election denier and MAGA weirdo Dan Kelly came out on top out of four candidates. The general election is April 4 and the prospects of tipping the balance of the court leftward rose exponentially Tuesday night. Credit goes equally to the tireless work of activists on the ground in Wisconsin and my early endorsement tour on a unicycle with sparklers. Jennifer McClellan makes history. Virginia: History was made when Democrat Jennifer McClellan won a seat in Congress representing the 4th district and became the first Black woman from Virginny to take a seat in the House. She'll take the oath and get down to business after she signs some paperwork and gets vaccinated against the Marjorie Taylor Greene virus. New Hampshire: To settle a tie from last year in the Rochester-4 race for a seat in the state House, Democrat Chuck "Knoll" Grassie won, leaving the chamber with a razor-thin 201-198 majority (with one vacancy) for Republicans and prompting the question: how the hell does a state with 399 residents have a 400-seat state House??? Sounds like a job for them Cyber Ninjas to unravel, if you ask me. And here's even more good election news: popular Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester terminated the suspense and announced he's all in for reelection in 2024. Thus explaining the exhale-related high-wind alerts issued across the country yesterday. CHEERS to naming names without naming names. After seven grueling months in the weeds of an investigation into Trump's failed vote-stealing scheme, the plucky foreperson of a Georgia Grand jury spoke out this week. I don’t want to say that Emily Kohrs sounded a bit giddy over the jury's recommendations, so I'll let the tone of her barely-encrypted words do that for me: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” Emily Kohrs told the [New York Times] Tuesday. “You won’t be too surprised.” […] And the 2023 Tease of the Year Award goes to... “I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist. You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.” Trump and his allies infamously leaned on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a January 2021 phone call nearly two months after Joe Biden won the presidential election, with Trump asking Raffensperger to “find” him just enough votes to tip the results in Georgia in his favor. Fearless prediction: if her [wink wink, nudge nudge] hint drop fulfills expectations, Emily Kohrs won’t have to buy her own drinks ever again. CHEERS to memorable moments in shutterbugging. On February 23, 1945, during one of humanity’s countless wars, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they attached an American flag to a section of pipe and raised it like a middle finger to the Japanese troops hiding in the caves below them. The Pulitzer-winning photo taken by Joe Rosenthal actually shows the second flag-raising. Here's the first. This morning C&J raised the stars & stripes in honor of the 78th anniversary of the event. Tomorrow we'll go back to flying the universal modern-day symbol of distress: an upside down wallet. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - JEERS to really crappy odds. On February 23, 1836, three thousand Mexicans attacked 182 Texans at The Alamo. By this account, it was intense: Brandishing his assault rifle, Six-star General Ronald Reagan and his second-in-command, Colonel Donald Trump, took turns picking off the attackers as Dan Crenshaw and Ted Cruz loaded and fired the two functional cannons. Only known photo of Reagan saving the Alamo. After Democrats fled in panic, Louie Gohmert and members of the House Freedom Caucus arrived in the nick of time to save the day. The surrender ceremony was conducted on a battleship, followed by a ticker tape parade featuring all the tanks and missile launchers in the glorious American freedom arsenal. That's why today San Antonio is the capitol of the United States and God hates libturd moonbats. Um, Texas school board textbook committee? I think we need to have a little chat. JEERS to inaction in action. Oh noes! China sent a Mars rover to go rove Mars, but apparently it hasn’t moved in nearly a Chinese new year: The solar-powered rover went into a hibernation state in May 2022 thanks to a dust storm and cold conditions. A sequence of images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the rover hasn't moved since at least early September 2022. Not to rub salt in the wound, but Team USA has a chopper on Mars. Still works, too! Zhurong arrived on Mars in May 2021 as part of the Tianwen-1 mission, which included a lander and an orbiter. China became only the second country to successfully operate a rover on Mars, putting it in good company with NASA's rovers. The country’s leadership has gotta be pretty steamed over the rover's flagrant display of disloyalty to the Chinese state. But not to worry. Their official space agency says they're preparing Plan B to get it moving again: sending child labor to Mars to pull it around on a string. - Ten years ago in C&J: February 23, 2013 (A classic) BOOM CHICKA BOOM CHICKA BOOM to lasciviousness in Lobster Land. Okay, okay, I surrender. I admit I haven't written anything about the prostitution scandal involving that Kennebunk Zumba instructor and, apparently, half the men in southern Maine. The trial is now underway, and this is just too awesome not to seal in the pixelated amber of recorded history: The manager of a pizza shop next to the Zumba studio in Kennebunk where Alexis Wright allegedly ran a prostitution business testified Thursday that when he delivered food to her home, Wright dropped the towel she was wearing and stood naked in front of him. "It got a little awkward. She was just standing there in front of me, naked," he said. "It was really awkward. She proceeded to walk over to me and handed me the money. It was $40 or $50. I told her the bill was only $8, and she told me to keep it." When the story broke, both the pizza guy and the Zumba instructor were immediately inducted into the Cheesy Porn Cliché Hall of Fame. - And just one more… CHEERS to our favorite candy turds. On this date in 1896, the Tootsie Roll—not quite fudge, not quite chocolate, but as addictive as both—was introduced by Leo Hirshfield. This would probably be a good time to present the latest data on how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop: Purdue University licking machine: 364 licks Purdue University students: 252 licks University of Michigan human licking machine: 411 licks Swarthmore Junior High students: 144 licks Bellarmine University: 175 licks I still make a point to eat a few Tootsie Rolls every day. They keep my ulcers plugged. Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial “When Bill in Portland Maine was 24 — 23, 24, 25 — it was crazy. He was a wild animal, not only because his kiddie pool was huge. With time, with experience, he changed a lot, but he keeps that wild, wild animal Billeh that is always there." —Gustavo Dudamel - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2154261/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Thursday 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/