(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cheers and Jeers: Thursday [1] [] Date: 2024-01-11 A Brief Note of Thanks Dear Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), On Tuesday evening you tweeted: More than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border in FY 2023. That is enough to kill every American 18 times. I just wanted to thank you for reminding the nation that Democratic President Joe Biden’s steadfast and tireless leadership saved the lives of every American 18 times in one year, and that such selfless devotion to the citizens of our great country easily warrant another four years as our accomplished and compassionate chief executive. Again, thank you for such a ringing endorsement of our 46th president. For what it’s worth, I think he’s doing a pretty good job, too. Sincerely, Billeh Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, January 11, 2024 Note: You can also call today’s date “January Hockey Sticks.” Try it on your friends—they’ll be green with envy because you thought of it first. As you are now with me. —Mgt. - By the Numbers: Days ‘til National Bagel Day: 4 Days 'til Bean Day 2024 in Fargo, North Dakota: 8 New estimated date of the postponed Artemis manned lunar mission: 9/2026 Size of the recreational marijuana industry in Maine in 2023, up 36% from 2022: $217 million Expected number of individual tax returns that will be filed this year, according to the I.R.S.: 129 million Percent of U.S. households lacking complete indoor plumbing in 1950: 30% Percent lacking complete indoor plumbing now: <1% - Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment: Here comes everyone's favorite season: The tree is down, the bills are due, January, February, Ry-Krisp and cottage cheese. T'is the festive season for one of our nation's leading industries—dispensers of diet advice. Since we all spent a couple of months home with mac and cheese even before the holidays, it could be a growth year for the stationary bicycle. Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are still out there somewhere, with Judge Crater and Chandra Levy. Now that we've won the war, all the king's horses and all the king's men have to put Afghanistan back together again—warlords and all. —January, 2002 - Puppy Pic of the Day: Woody comes home… - JEERS to that giant sucking sound. I'd be shirking my Pulitzer-snubbed duty by not making an effort to keep track of what Joe Biden's fierce primary competitors are up to. So let's check in and see how their siphoning of votes from the President is going in the must-win state of New Hampshire: Democratic presidential hopefuls Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Marianne Williamson took part in a primary debate Monday night in a downtown Manchester ballroom in New Hampshire. Biden didn’t attend, and neither did many other adults. The crowd was mostly made up of seventh graders, according to Politico. The Phillips/Williamson debate took place in this Manchester ball room. The no-shows continued Tuesday when zero people showed up for a campaign event hosted by Phillips in New Hampshire. In response to the late developments, the Biden campaign shifted their primary spending in New Hampshire from TV ads to free pizza for all seventh graders. JEERS to trying to pull a fast one. It's bad enough discovering that our nation's passenger aircraft appear to be held together with spit and baling twine (although, to be clear, industrial strength spit and baling twine). But with the new year upon us, the TSA has published its annual report on what they discovered in people's pockets, pants, purses, pouches, parcels, and portmanteaus. We’ll file this, as we always do, under Idiots Who Fly Among Us: An explosive hidden inside an energy drink can and a knife inside a prosthetic foot were two of the most bizarre items Transportation Security Administration officials discovered last year. Each year, the agency releases its annual list of the top 10 "best catches." […] Passengers also tried to sneak illicit items in food products. A knife hidden inside a loaf of keto bread and a bag of methamphetamines in a container of crab boil seasoning powder made the TSA's "best catches." It slices! It dices! It also has no business being here! "The most bizarre item on the list for me would have to be the giant bullet," [TSA press secretary R. Carter] Langston said about the 35 mm projectile found in a passenger's bag at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. Also found: 17 bullets inside an Arkansas man's diaper, which we hear were discovered when he farted in the security area and took out a plate glass window. The main takeaway message from the TSA’s annual report: I love Amtrak. CHEERS to clearing the air....and the lungs. 60 years ago today, in 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to your health. (This came as quite a shock to some of tobacco's most fervent supporters, like doctors and Ronald Reagan.) The report had quite the impact: The landmark Surgeon General's report on smoking and health stimulated a greatly increased concern about tobacco on the part of the American public and government policymakers and led to a broad-based anti-smoking campaign. … Surgeon general Luther Terry with his landmark report. The report was also responsible for the passage of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, which, among other things, mandated the familiar Surgeon General's health warnings on cigarette packages. If you're in the process of quitting or thinking of quitting, go for it. Your lungs and your bank account will thank you. - BRIEF SANITY BREAK - x “Call Elon, he’ll get you out!” pic.twitter.com/FTQA9sGBTj — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 8, 2024 - END BRIEF SANITY BREAK - CHEERS to the not-so-artful dodger. Happy 267th birthday to Alexander Hamilton. He was one of our country's youngest Founding Fathers, but he wasn't very good at avoiding controversy (adultery, skullduggery in the 1800 election) or ye olde musket ball. And here's something for the pootie diaries: People today still name their tomcats after Alexander Hamilton in deference to his infamous many extramarital affairs. Martha Washington was the first as she named her large carousing tomcat 'Hamilton.' Pay your respects here. Or just pull out a ten-spot and pat his head. CHEERS to the new kid on the block. Reaching into our bag of shameless stereotypes, this morning we don our beret, hang a cigarette from our bottom lip, scrunch our face up into a look of detached bemusement, and roll our eyes with mock disdain at the new prime minister of France who, if he was American, wouldn't be old enough yet to run for president: Gabriel Attal, the 34-year-old French education minister, has been named the country’s new prime minister, a history-making appointment by President Emmanuel Macron as he looks to jumpstart his government’s flagging popularity. Gabriel Attal is also the cutest-ever prime minister. Attal will be France’s youngest-ever prime minister and the first openly gay man to serve in the post—making him one of the world’s most prominent and powerful LGBTQ politicians. Attal mentioned education, inflation, the liberalization of the French economy, and youth development as among the country’s priorities in a speech after his nomination, but highlighted education as “the mother of our battles, the one which must be at the heart of our priorities.” This morning in the C&J café: baguettes served with attitude. - Ten years ago in C&J: January 11, 2014 JEERS to great balls of fire. Big Oil is thrilled that yesterday's news cycle was so insanely busy. Buried beneath the rest of the headlines was a story from Maine's eastern border with Canada involving yet another derailment—and explosion—of a train pulling a string of oil cars: Officials in Canada said a derailed freight train carrying crude oil and propane continued to burn Wednesday, and about 150 residents remained evacuated from their homes. There were no deaths or injuries. […] Later Wednesday, the Canadian National Railway said two of the cars carrying liquefied petroleum gas and one car carrying crude oil were on fire. “It is contained, but it is evolving,” said Claude Mongeau, the chief executive of CN. Or, as the drill-here-drill-now crowd likes to say, "It is creationisming." - And just one more… No line at the pharmacy? Yeah...in your dreams. CHEERS to America's dispensers-in-white. A reminder to rise and shine early tomorrow. It’s National Pharmacist Day, when we acknowledge a profession whose members quietly go about their task of filling prescriptions correctly, promptly and safely before ringing them up along with our peanut M&Ms, People magazine, Swiffer pad replacements and dental floss. (True fact: the first pharmacy in America was opened by Louis Joseph Dufilho, Jr. in New Orleans circa 1823. It’s now a haunted museum.) They'll celebrate as usual by inviting customers to pick a goodie from the giant bowl full of pills they found on the floor over the course of the year. (Note: if you grab the one shaped like a dodecahedron, allow yourself three days to come back down to earth.) Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today? - Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial When he finally published Cheers and Jeers, Bill in Portland Maine was strangely incomprehensible at times. He rambled, according to readers in attendance, and referred repeatedly to “Big F-ing Kiddie Pool.” —The Wall Street Journal - [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/11/2216439/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Thursday?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_11&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/