The world needs you to make a big donation today. But not money. Just a bucketful of positive “Big-D” vibes sent in the general vicinity of—[gestures wildly with index fingers]—the United States, where elections big and small are happening today.
To be clear: you vote in a voting booth, not in that guy’s butt.
Yes, it’s finally here: the 2021 contests that the giant media machine tells me are the bellwether—the moss on the tree, the entrails in the dish, the Ouija Board in the dark, the signpost at the intersection, the fuzz on the caterpillar, the Magic 8 Ball in my toy box—for what will happen in next year’s midterms. If Democrats can unleash some whupass, then 2022 will be…something something something I don’t believe the media machine and neither should you.
Positive vibes especially for Terry McAuliffe and all the Dems competing in Virginia, please.
It’s health care, jobs, education, fact, science, and empathy versus ignorance, incompetence, racism, and violence. To all the candidates of Team D mixing it up with their unhinged rivals from Team R, we wish you much luck and victory confetti.
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Note: An urgent reminder to grease and re-string your catapults and soak your leftover 2020 holiday fruitcakes in gasoline this morning, as the opening assault in the War on Christmas starts promptly after today’s polling places close. As usual, stragglers will be punished by spending the day in solitary with that Jan. 6 antler’ed whackadoo and a bitter old Furby.
—Generalissimo Billeh
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By the Numbers:
Lightscape Chicago starts in 10 days!!!
Days ’til Thanksgiving: 23
Days ’til the start of Lightscape at the Chicago Botanic Garden: 10
Percent by which unemployment claims are down since Joe Biden became president by a landslide: 60%
Estimated number of tourists visiting Maine between May and August this year, a big recovery from 2020 and even beating pre-pandemic 2019: 10 million
Percent of tourists to Maine who traveled from New England in 2020 and 2021, respectively: 83%, 44%
Distance the $169,000 Lucid Air Dream Edition electric car can go on a single charge, the farthest of any passenger vehicle according to the EPA (115 miles further than a Tesla): 520 miles
Years the International Space Station has been continuously staffed with astronauts (10 right now) as of today: 21
CHEERS to Election Day! We said a few words above the fold to buck up the troops for today’s races. But if you’re wondering what the headline grabbers will be on the morrow, here are some (but far from all) of the races on the radar today for Team D:
Maine The elephant in the room on our ballot today is Question 1, a voter referendum asking us if we approve (or not) of cutting a swath through our wilderness to connect electric transmission lines between Canada and Massachusetts—theoretically giving New England some clean energy from hydropower.
The ad saturation on Question 1 has been nuts.
I was leaning toward voting for the power line (counter-intuitively a “No” vote), but supporters have been saturating the airwaves with ads that say nothing about the issue, but instead try to scare people by focusing on the innocuous word “retroactive” in the question. Then they sent out mailers with Donald Trump’s giant head on it, essentially saying, without any elaboration, that to vote “Yes” is to vote the way The Thing would. That’s an obfuscation too far for me. So I’m voting “Yes” to table the power line until supporters of it can be more honest about what they’re up to.
Virginia Tonight we find out of Terry McAuliffe can keep the commonwealth’s executive branch in Dem hands, and likewise the legislature. The blue wave has been fantastic for Virginia—and McAuliffe has already demonstrated he’s a fine governor there—but it may turn out that citizens there are just too uninformed and apathetic to realize that turning the keys over to the other guys means a brand new pandemic of MAGA trolls. God help ya.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has been a breath of fresh air after Chris Christie stunk the place up for eight years. So he’s in good shape to trot to another term.
Eric Adams, poised to become NYC’s next mayor.
New York CityThe disappointing (and kinda weird) Bill de Blasio mayorship is coming to an end, and today his successor will be chose from the following: capable and intelligent Democrat Eric Adams…or that Guardian Angels dude from the 70s who runs around in a raspberry beret—the kind you find at a secondhand store. I’ll go out on a limb and predict a good night for Adams.
BostonThere’s no limb to go out on here, because both candidates for the mayor’s race (to replace Biden’s Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh) are Democrats. Michelle Wu will likely become the city’s first elected mayor, and it’s about time.
For the full scoop and scope of today’s elections, click here for Jeff Singer’s detailed post. And as you rub the sleepies out of your eyes, I’ll leave you with this advice: vote early and vote often. (Mainly because I’m dying to know what you look like in a mug shot.)
CHEERS to Obamacare: Year 11. After all the Republican “repeal and replace” nonsense, not to mention The Thing’s four-year campaign to sabotage a law he took an oath to “faithfully execute,” HHS and my non-profit health insurance provider wasted no time in letting me know yesterday that the 2022 ACA enrollment period for health insurance has begun. As always you can get info and shop around at healthcare.gov for the most bang for your buck. (Very exciting times here in Maine, as we finally get our very own state exchange, thanks to our Democratic governor Janet Mills.) Here’s the always reliable Charles Gaba (brainwrap here at Daily Kos) at ACA Signups, who seems positively giddy about this year’s prognosis:
The 2022 Open Enrollment Period is by far the best ever for the ACA coverage, with dramatically expanded financial help for millions more people (including many who weren’t eligible last year), reinvigorated experts, unbiased assistance, more choices in many states and counties, and FREE policies for more people than ever before.
Enrollment this year is gonna go through the roof.
If you’ve never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it years ago but weren’t impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP), it’s a whole different ballgame. […]
Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be passively auto-renewed. Between the massively expanded & enhanced subsidies thanks to the ARP, the dramatic increase in carrier participation in many states, the supplemental financial assistance being provided to many enrollees in nearly a dozen states, the seemingly counterintuitive pricing structure caused by “Silver Loading” and a host of other factors, you should absolutely NOT let yourself be “auto-renewed” this year!
If you prefer not to sign up for an Obamacare plan (it’s only mandatory in five states now), don’t forget that there are a few inexpensive options available under the very beautiful Republican McConnellcare: a do-it-yourself rusty scalpel surgery set (rag soaked in ether sold separately), bag of mystery pills found on pharmacy floor after closing time, and 8×10 “Jesus is My Vaccine” poster. Cash in advance, please. Sorry, no checks.
CHEERS and JEERS to Ol’ Mullethead. Happy 226th birthday to James K. Polk, the only Speaker of the House to become president and one of 12 to own slaves. Despite protests from some members of Congress, he “exaggerated” his way into a war with Mexico (something about the “smoking gun that could come in the form of an exploding burrito”) and stole Texas as part of Operation Jade Helm 14½. But he definitely walked the walk while he was in office. In the book Rating the Presidents, over 700 historians and political scientists rank Polk 11th-best:
Polk’s outstanding success was no accident. He assiduously planned his moves and carried them through to fruition.
We’ll pardon Mexico if they don’t sing “Happy Birthday.”
Former president Harry Truman summed it up in his own concise way in 1960. When asked what he thought about Polk, he replied, “A great president. He said exactly what he was going to do and he did it.” Quite an achievement for a president of any era.
Yeah, but a few months after he left office he was dead at 53. Consider that a heads-up, workaholics.
P.S. Today is also the 156th birthday of womanizing gambling addict Warren Harding—one of the worst presidents in history along with Buchanan, Pierce, Andrew Johnson, George W. Bush, and The Thing. One attribute he shares with fellow Republican Dubya is his abuse of the English language, as when he said: “I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved.” And then he’ll put food on your family and wings will take dream.
JEERS to today’s edition of Meanwhile, in MAGALand. Courtesy of the ink-stained fingers over at the Huffington Post:
The campaign of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)mistakenly identified her as a representative of Utah in a report submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.
This has been today’s edition of Meanwhile, in MAGALand.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 2, 2011
CHEERS to kickin’ it up a notch. All eyes will be on northern California today as Occupy Oakland, joined by unions and other allies, calls a general strike and “mass day of action” that will be visible from space. There will also be Kossack meetups during the day, and you’ll find details in jpmassar’s diary. Remember the golden rule: no hitting, spitting, whacking, smacking, kicking, punching, or destroying property just to prove you’re some kind of badass. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you, Oakland Police. The rest of you: wear comfortable shoes and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to this thing you Earthlings call politics. As the last grains of sand slip from the top of the 2021 election hourglass to the bottom, a few words of wisdom from a few wise wordsmiths:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” —H.L. Mencken
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” —George Bernard Shaw
“There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.” —Will Rogers
“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other” —Oscar Ameringer
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” —Napoleon
“The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning ‘blood sucking parasites’.” —Larry Hardiman
Unfortunately, the political kind of tick is harder to get rid of and ten times as ugly.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today’s Shameless C&J Testimonial
”If you come to Cheers and Jeers loving Bill in Portland Maine, there’s much to continue loving here. Endless clever turns of phrase and the most miniscule, perfect kiddie pools everywhere you look. ”
