(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday [1] [] Date: 2023-06-28 Hmm. It’s almost like there’s a difference between Republicans and Democrats... x Biden’s administration proves they are the antithesis of their predecessors. Instead of hollow talk and tweets, they produce results and America is better for it. pic.twitter.com/3cJTksvYII — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 27, 2023 But what could it be, Spock? What...could...it be? Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, June 28, 2023 Note: Great news! Yesterday morning's lottery was another rousing success for the community. Our thanks to the late Tessie Hutchison and the townsfolk for upholding our motto: "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." (And don’t skimp on that butter—ha ha ha, right?) - 8 days!!! By the Numbers: Days 'til the new Indiana Jones movie opens: 2 Days 'til the Ossipee Valley Fair in South Hiram, Maine: 8 Minimum percent by which the number of murders have dropped this year in major U.S. cities: -12% Portion of Americans polled by Quinnipiac University who say that discrimination against LGBTQ people is a serious problem today, versus 2-in-10 who say it is not: 6-in-10 Number of anti-LGBTQ+ nationwide incidents motivated by hate between June 2022 and April 2023, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD, over 1/3 of them targeting drag shows and performers: 356 Factor by which the amount of furniture sent to landfills has increased in the last 35 years: 2x Year John Flanagan's portrait of George Washington started appearing on the "heads" side of the quarter: 1932 - Mid-week Rapture Index: 183 (including 4 volcanoes and 1 beer that brought down human civilization). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today. - Puppy Pic of the Day: In San Diego County, California: Saved!!! - CHEERS to The Great Un-upending of Aught 23. And what did we learn yesterday, kids? Well, we learned that 1 + 1 = 2, puppy breath is the best breath and, to our great relief, the Supreme Court hasn’t gone completely off the MAGA deep end. For the time being, red state Republicans can't cherry-pick their election winners: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in a case that threatened to upend state election laws nationwide. “Toilet’s clogged.” “Again?!! Dammit, Clarence.” It involved who gets to decide when, where and how Americans vote—and whether state courts can provide a check on the process. A 6-3decision by Chief Justice John Roberts rejects a broad interpretation of the independent state legislature theory … which contends the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides state legislators alone the power to govern federal elections unencumbered by traditional oversight from state constitutions, courts and governors. Phew! With that pesky gnat out of the way, the only 2024 election issues we have to worry about now are GOP voter suppression, gerrymandering, polling-place intimidation, cumbersome voter registration laws, Russian cyber-warfare, red state "voter fraud" Gestapos, Democratic voters passing out in the heat because they have to wait hours in line, and Rudy Giuliani's leaky hair dye. I like our chances. JEERS to sweeping the rebellion under the rug. In the wake of the biggest threat to his existence, Vladimir Putin went on Russian TV and THUNDERED his condemnation of the armed insurrection led by Evil Curly, promising to dole out swift, harsh JUSTICE to the evildoers who dared besmirch Mother Russia's reputation. And……..no: While Putin apparently sought to project authority and power after Prigozhin’s aborted “march of justice,” which saw Wagner mercenaries come within 150 miles of Moscow, the Russian government sent mixed signals on Tuesday, with security services closing a criminal investigation into the rebellion with no charges. I told 'em hiring Robert Mueller to lead the investigation was a bad idea. Told 'em I did. CHEERS to the other American Revolution. On June 28, 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. 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, and its footprint is being expanded: The National Park Service has announced its intention to open a nearly 3,700-square-foot LGBTQ historic center next door to New York City’s Stonewall Inn in 2024. The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will be the first LGBTQ visitor center within the NPS’ system of parks and monuments — and it’s being sponsored by some of the best known queer entertainers and allied companies in the nation. If you’re gonna have a revolution, you could do worse than to have it at a place where fine rotgut is served. The center pledges to provide an “immersive experience” by hosting tours, exhibits, and lectures on LGBTQ culture and history. The center will also serve as an office for park rangers overseeing the eight-acre Stonewall Inn national monument which includes the bar, Christopher Park, and the surrounding streets involved in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. The uprising marked the start of the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement. It's been a wild 54 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 huge majority of Americans embraced their LGBT family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. LGBTers were allowed to serve openly in the military. The ban on transgender enlistees was tossed in the dustbin of history. The vast majority of businesses began openly supporting LGBT employees and many of them sponsored LGBT 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 2023, and we're back to being labeled pedophile groomers, moral degenerates, and godless heathen. That moral arc of the universe is apparently a corkscrew. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - x Sometimes art is just a simple interaction between spontaneity and technology [📹 madelineandstephen: https://t.co/rhmj5VrgIy]#MotivationMondaypic.twitter.com/Jg0uDzpcxU — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 26, 2023 - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - CHEERS to Ol' Shortypants. James Madison, who at 5'4" holds the distinction of being the U.S. president with the lowest center of gravity, died in Montpelier, Virginia 187 years ago today. Also in Madison’s corner: a rather smokin’ missus. He was the chief architect of the United States Constitution, and today he's rolling in his grave over the GOP's manhandling of it. The book Rating the Presidents (a survey of 700 historians and political analysts) sums up his legacy as one of "courageous leadership as president, guided by the principles of the Constitution, which he played so large a part in framing. All Americans owe him a great debt of gratitude." Pay your respects here. But don't tell him how Republicans have been using his sacred founding document as toilet paper. He’s got enough problems as head of the Dead Presidents’ Condo Association. (“Dammit, Polk, For the last time, get your stuff out of President Arthur’s storage unit.”) JEERS to the biggest mouth belonging to the dumbest head attached to the doughiest body. To coin a phrase: Lordy, Lordy, there are tapes. I'm not a big CNN fan, but I gotta give 'em the win for snagging this eventual inductee in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry: CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify. God bless the humble tape recorder. The recording, which first aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” includes new details from the conversation that is acritical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information, including a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran. […] The audio recording comes from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster resort for people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance---a writer, publisher and two of Trump’s staff members---were shown classified information about the plan of attack on Iran. If Mark Meadows ends up being the guy who brings down his former boss, I'll be...well…totally unsurprised. (Trump only hired the very dumbest people, believe me.) - Ten years ago in C&J: June 28, 2013 CHEERS to promises revisited. Lest we forget, at 10:07am on this date last year the Supreme Court—including John Roberts (!)—ruled that the Obamacare mandate was constitutional on "taxing authority" grounds, not Commerce Clause grounds. And that means it's time for our annual reminder that America's #1 blowhard is a little closer to being forced to make good on his blood oath: Rush Limbaugh, March 2010: "I'll just tell you this: if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented—I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica." Obamacare is being implemented. And Limbaugh has one year and nine months to build his ark. But we're keeping a rubber raft on standby, just in case. 6/28/23 Update: His plans seem to have changed… I guess he should’ve signed up for Obamacare. - And just one more… CHEERS and JEERS to the weather. Here's…the weather: And that’s…the weather. Now back to you. Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial You heard of the Boston Tea Party? This is the C&J Kiddie Pool Party. Give us Bill in Portland Maine or give us death.” —"One Man" - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/28/2177808/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Wednesday 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/