(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday [1] [] Date: 2023-10-31 Energize An Ally Tuesday One week ‘til election day 2023, and if you don’t have a local candidate or cause to help get past the finish line, Daily Kos Elections Chief Viceroy David Nir has a suggestion that’ll wipe a lot of smirks off a lot of MAGA and pundit faces if successful: “Daily Kos has identified five critical elections taking place on Nov. 7 where there's still time for us to make a huge impact in a major battleground: the Virginia legislature. Republicans currently control the state House by a narrow 52-48 margin, so we need to flip just three seats in order to deliver a hammer blow both to GOP dreams and pundit fantasies. The best part is, small-dollar grassroots donations get an enormous bang for your buck in races like these, which operate with tiny budgets compared to campaigns for Congress. So if you're looking to make a difference with one week to go—and you want to stick it to Republicans and the media alike—give to these five Daily Kos-endorsed Democrats ASAP.” If you’re able and willing, you can contribute to a very bad night for Governor Glenn Youngkin by flipping control his precious House. Click here for the Act Blue page. And may the best Thomas, Nembhard, Cole, Adams, and Feggans win. Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Note: Leaf unemployment surges as millions across the country are let go. Film at 11. - By the Numbers: 4 days!!! Days 'til Thanksgiving: 23 Days 'til the Atlanta Chili Cook Off: 4 Length of Mike Pence's presidential bid: 144 days U.S. economic growth in the 3rd quarter, well above forecasters' expectations: 4.9% Portion of the people on earth who will be African by 2050: 1-in-4 Percent drop in active users of Twitter since Elon Musk bought it a year ago: -30% Age of actors Richard Roundtree ("Shaft") and Matthew Perry ("Friends") when they died recently: 81, 54 - Puppy Pic of the Day: Patience is golden… - CHEERS to hittin' the gas and driving into the history books. Assuming the new contracts get approved, the United Auto Workers union will have notched a major victory for organized labor. Not only did the strike mark the first time a sitting president walked the picket line, it's also a win for a new approach to negotiating, courtesy of scrappy UAW president Shawn Fain: The United Auto Workers and General Motors have agreed to a deal that will put an end to collective bargaining talks between the union and Detroit automakers following more than six weeks of targeted U.S. labor strikes, sources told CNBC. […] “Stick with it,” said President Biden. They did. And they won. The proposed agreements are record-setting for the union, which was far more confrontational and strategic during the talks than in recent history. The union initiated negotiations with all three automakers at once, breaking from recent history when UAW leaders would bargain with each automaker individually, select a lead company to focus efforts on and then pattern the remaining deals off a leading tentative agreement. To mark the auto workers' victory, today Yosemite Sam mud flaps are half-off in the C&J gift shop. CHEERS to a very gassy cavalry riding to the rescue. Look, I know we all believe that global warming is cooking our planet to the point of no return, and that pretty soon survival will mean living underground in fireproof undies. But, in the immortal words of Congresswoman Virginia Foxx: "Shut up! Shut up!" The miracle that will help turn back the tide—"white hydrogen"—is more abundant than we thought. All we have to do is get at it: Hydrogen produces only water when burned, making it very attractive as a potential clean energy source for industries like aviation, shipping and steel-making that need so much energy it’s almost impossible to meet through renewables such as solar and wind. […] The white hydrogen will be hauled around in these giant dump trucks under plastic tarps. Ingenious. [Geochemist Geoffrey] Ellis estimates globally there could be tens of billions of tons of white hydrogen. This would be vastly more than the 100 million tons a year of hydrogen that is currently produced and the 500 million tons predicted to be produced annually by 2050, he said. “Most of this is almost certainly going to be in very small accumulations or very far offshore, or just too deep to actually be economic to produce,” he said. But if just 1% can be found and produced, it would provide 500 million tons of hydrogen for 200 years, he added. Someone tell the ice caps they can stop melting now—humanity is on the case. Now if we could just unearth a massive reservoir of gun bans. CHEERS and JEERS to monumental achievements. On this date in 1941, Mount Rushmore was deemed "complete" after 14 years of blasting and chiseling, but only because they'd run out of money. It's an eyesore and an insult to Native Americans, and it's more a testament to its creator's ego than anything else. Upon hearing that #45 is running again to be #47... Having said that, it's still quite an accomplishment and it sure sums up the #1 thing you need to be President of the United States: a really big head. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - x Judi Dench was on Graham Norton last night to push her new book about her life and work with Shakespeare. After making the point we quote Shakespeare daily without knowing it, this happened: pic.twitter.com/CIhP39b4Bs — Justin Sherin (@wychstreet) October 27, 2023 - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - CHEERS to Halloween. The weather will be colder than a witches tit in a brass bra face-down in a snow storm this evening, but we're hoping for a decent turnout as the BiPM household readies itself for the annual pitter-patter of li'l ghoul and goblin feet on the porch. (Bonus: our screen door makes an unnerving Squeeeeak when you open it…bwoo ha ha.) As we plop their exclusive treat into their little plastic pumpkins and bags, we'll offer our usual free advice: "When you've drained the bottle, kids, don’t forget to swallow the worm." CHEERS to uniformity. On this date in 1868, Postmaster General Alexander Williams Randall approved a standard uniform for postal carriers. He revised the look a year later because in the winter the assless chaps were giving too many carriers frostbite. - Ten years ago in C&J: October 31, 2013 CHEERS to seeing RED! Sorry, St. Louis, but it wasn't meant to be this time. Boston, wanting to make sure that the "Curse of the Bambino" was really, really really dead, won their third World Series in ten years last night—4-games-to-2—and brought the 2013 season to an awesome close by sealing the deal on their home turf for the first time since 1918. And now that that's over, we can all get on with our lives. At least until spring training. Which starts in 117 days. But who's counting? Not me! I'm just keeping track for a friend. His dog ate his abacus. - And just one more… JEERS to no-shows. Harry Houdini died 97 years ago today—yes, on Halloween—but not from one of his death-defying magic tricks. It was a ruptured appendix…but spooky nonetheless: Houdini was 52 years old when he died, the exact number of playing cards in a deck. Further, he was born 26 years before the start of the new century, and died 26 years into the next one—as if his "life's deck" had been deftly cut in half by Fate, the ultimate magician. After I die, if you smell Twinkies you’ll know I’m in the vicinity. For a full ten years after Houdini's death, his wife Bess conducted a séance on October 31.These séances were always attended by the top names in magic, as well as personal friends of the great magician. Houdini had told Bess that if it were possible, he would send a message to her "from beyond" in secret code. Though Bess herself stopped participating in the séances after 1937, members of the magic fraternity have kept the tradition. If you're conducting a séance on Halloween and you smell burnt cannoli, you'll know you've erroneously reached Antonin Scalia. Dog shit? Pat Robertson. Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial "You know, Bill in Portland Maine’s not very disciplined when it comes to what he says.” —Bill Barr - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/31/2202404/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Tuesday?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web 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/