(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday [1] [] Date: 2023-09-20 A Few Words from the September Birthday Kids' Table “I'm trying to get people to see that we are our brother's keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.” —B.B. King “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” —Elie Wiesel "Fighting aging is like the War on Drugs. It's expensive, does more harm than good, and has been proven to never end." —Amy Poehler Continued... "There’s one thing I’m really good at, and that’s hitting the ball over a net, in a box. I’m excellent." —Serena Williams "Let [Senator] Barrasso go to the folks in Wyoming and ask them whether they think it's a good idea that they should be paying a third of their income in child care. Ask elderly people who don't have any teeth in their mouth whether they should be able to get dentures through Medicare. Ask the scientific community whether the time is now in a big way to deal with climate. Ask the ordinary American consumer whether we should take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which charges us the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs." —Bernie Sanders "I don't have a good work ethic. I have a real casual relationship with hours." —Janeane Garofalo x How many computer scientists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. It’s a hardware issue. — Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 16, 2023 - "I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs, and bring tourists to town." —William Howard Taft, the only president born in September “I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream.” —Bruce Springsteen "I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do; and for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.’” —Bob Newhart "Oh! My luggage!" —Dr. Ben Carson To the above and those in our Daily Kos community who completed another trip around the sun this month, in person or in spirit: happy birthday and many blessings on your camels. And now, our feature presentation… - Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, September 20, 2023 Note: [Today’s note is written in invisible pixels. To reveal the secret message above, rub lemon juice over your screen until it appears. Is it worth all the fuss? If you consider “Drink more Ovaltine” your prime directive, we say YES! —Mgt.] - By the Numbers: 7 days!!! Days 'til the full "Harvest" moon: 10 Days 'til the 74th annual Grundy County Corn Festival in Morris, Illinois: 7 Percent increase in car prices and car company CEO compensation over the last four years: 30%, 40% Percent increase in CEO pay and the typical autoworker's pay, respectively, since 1978: 1,460%, 18% 2022 compensation for Ford CEO Jim Farley, double what he made in 2020: $21 million Percent chance that Russia and China are skipping the U.N. General Assembly this week: 100% Odds of having a heart attack if you're age 50-64: 3.5-in-100 - Mid-week Rapture Index: 187 (including 3 famines and 5 beauty secrets for idiots, by idiots). Soul Protection Factor 8 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today. - Puppy Pic of the Day: In earthquake-ravaged Morocco: Saved!!! - CHEERS to Joe Biden: International Man of Mystery. Yesterday the most powerful man on Earth strapped on Jetpack One and blasted off for the United Nations, where he delivered a barnburner, a stem-winder, and a rabble-rouser all at the same time. His message was a simple one: Putin is a very bad humanoid, no joke ladies and gentlemen, no joke... "We strongly support Ukraine in its efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution that delivers just and lasting peace," Mr. Biden said Tuesday. Biden fights for democracy. "But Russia alone, Russia alone bears responsibility for this war. Russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. And it's Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because the Russians' price for peace is Ukraine's capitulation, Ukraine's territory and Ukraine's children." "Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feeling confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?" Tonight the Republican House Freedom Caucus members will issue an official rebuttal to Biden’s outlandish attack on their leader. CHEERS to the democracy preservers. As the MAGA cult continues squashing voter rights in their red states, blue state Democrats continue standing up to defend them. The latest to earn a gold star: Pennsylvania, where voter registration will no longer be as much of a door-to-door slog as it's been in the past: Eligible voters getting a new driver’s license or ID card in Pennsylvania will now be automatically registered to vote, Commonwealth officials said. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, announced the change Tuesday, touting it as good for democracy. PA Governor Tom Wolf (D) done good. “Automatic voter registration is a commonsense step to ensure election security and save Pennsylvanians time and tax dollars,” Shapiro said in a statement. “Residents of our Commonwealth already provide proof of identity, residency, age, and citizenship at the DMV—all the information required to register to vote—so it makes good sense to streamline that process with voter registration,” he added. Pennsylvania becomes the 24th state to implement automatic voter registration, according to a tally from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Now the commonwealth can move on to its next major challenge: making it so that everyone who gets a driver's license automatically becomes a good driver. Ha ha ha!!! I ask the impossible!!! CHEERS to filling in for your boss. On September 20, 1881, Chester Alan Arthur of the gilded and foppish Republican party was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, following the unexpected meeting of an assassin's bullet and James Garfield's spine. (Or, more accurately, Garfield’s spine and his medical team’s unwashed hands.) Arthur The Chicago Tribune wrote of Arthur what it could easily be writing today about our previous president: "It requires a great deal for him to get to his desk and begin the dispatch of business. Great questions of public policy bore him. No President was ever so much given to procrastination as he is." In Arthur’s defense, he suffered from an energy-robbing condition called Bright’s Disease, and he died of it shortly after leaving the White House. Trump, on the other hand, suffers from an even worse condition. It’s called Being Donald Trump Disease. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - x A brilliant painting technique that uses forced perspective to make the painting itself disappear [📹 tcmss1.0 on Douyin]pic.twitter.com/2b5Wgfx46d — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 18, 2023 - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - JEERS to the nexus of fear and politics. On today's date in 2001, Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania was named by President Bush to head the new Office of Homeland Security. During his tenure the color-coded terror alert system was created and, depending on which Tom Ridge you believe, the system was either manipulated by the Bush administration to influence the outcome of the 2004 election or not manipulated by the Bush administration to influence the outcome of the 2004 election. Hint: The second Tom Ridge tied up the first Tom Ridge and locked him away in the attic with a rubber ball in his mouth and he was never heard from again. CHEERS to pre-buttals on wheels. When I heard that the previous president—the one currently facing 91 state and federal charges for crimes both big and bigger—plans a visit to Detroit to woo union members, I nearly rolled off my kiddie pool floaty chair. Good luck with that, buddy—your party abandoned unions nearly half a century ago. And the president of the UAW isn't letting anyone forget ahead of Lord Dampnut's arrival: “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in an emailed statement. Detroit, last Friday. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.” Also: it doesn’t help when the guy trying to relate to blue collar autoworkers has never driven around, but has only been driven around. So, yeah. Good luck with that, Captain Gilded Golfcart. - Ten years ago in C&J: September 20, 2013 JEERS to intimidation nation. This is how pathetic things have become on the gun fetish front. The CEO of Starbucks is drawing a red line by demanding that his customers…um…please consider maybe not bringing your guns inside, but if you still want to you can but gosh it'd be great if you didn't, pretty please??? Cue the sound of the lead balloon doing the opposite of taking flight. - And just one more… CHEERS to the wisdom of Notorious RBG. We lost one America’s most beloved Supreme Court Justices three years ago this week. Time to revisit some of her own words as we continue to endure the backward-looking bullshit of our current six conservatives on the Court who would make the Salem Witch Trials gang urge them to ease off the evil. The first quote is one of those “your lips to God’s ears” gems: "Dissents speak to a future age. It's not simply to say my colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way, but the greatest dissents do become court opinions." “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” “Every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does not.” Gone but hardly forgotten. "The number of women who have come forward as a result of the MeToo movement has been astonishing. My hope is not just that it is here to stay, but that it is as effective for the woman who works as a maid in a hotel as it is for Hollywood stars." “Throwing out [the Voting Rights Act] when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” “The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.” “All of the incentives, all of the benefits marriage affords would still be available. So you’re not taking away anything from heterosexual couples. They would have the very same incentive to marry, all the benefits that come with marriage that they do now.” "I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has." I don’t think that'll be a problem, ma'am. See you upstairs. Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial “As with any food, it's best to consume Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool algae as part of a balanced diet that includes a variety of nutrients. If you have specific dietary concerns, it's always a good idea to speak with a registered dietitian.” —Kat Benson, registered dietician - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/20/2194079/-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/