Percent decrease in the racial gap among inmates in state prisons since 2000, due to a decrease in Black imprisonment rates, according to the Council on Criminal Justice: -40%
Rate at which Black adults were locked up in state prisons back in 2000 relative to the rate of white Americans: 8.2x
Percent chance that the guy who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was groomed by Donald Trump and other rich, privileged 1 Percenter Republican fucks to dive down the MAGA/Q rabbit hole and self-scramble his brain into mush: 100%
Increase in the Dow Industrials in October, the largest one month increase since 1976: 14%
Years the International Space Station has been continuously staffed with astronauts (7 right now) as of today: 22
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Mid-weekRapture Index: 187 (including 5 moral standards and 1 baptism in…pickle juice?). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
CHEERS to Obamacare: Year 12. 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 2023 ACA enrollment period for health insurance has begun. As always you can get info and shop around at healthcare.gov or your state exchange for the most bang for your buck. (Very exciting times here in Maine, as we now have our very own 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 2023 Open Enrollment Period is the best ever for the ACA for several reasons:
First, the expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren’t previously eligible, are continuing for at least another 3 years via the Inflation Reduction Act;
Second, because several states are either expanding or retooling their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;
There’s also expanded carrier & plan offerings in many states/counties, and as always, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.
If you prefer not to sign up for an Obamacare plan, 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 to today’s edition of Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!! Courtesy this morning of NBC News:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to quash a grand jury subpoena in a Georgia prosecutor’s probe into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Wow, Lindsey. That’s the size of the violin I’m playing for you now, too.
The decision is a victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office is investigating phone calls Graham made to Georgia election officials at a time when then-President Donald Trump was contesting the result. … The decision means Graham could face questioning as soon as Nov. 17, according to his lawyer’s court filings.
This has been today’s edition of Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!
CHEERS to saving the rainforest. Globally speaking, that’s the biggest positive to come out of Sunday’s elections in Brazil, where South America‘s Donald Trump got booted after one disastrous term. So what do we know about his left-leaning replacement, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva? I’m glad you asked! I know absolutely nothing about him, so let’s race over to Wikipedia for the skinny:
»Born 1945 in Caetes, Brazil. Moved to Sao Paulo when he was 7.
» Almost no education. Dropped out of school after 2nd grade to help his family pay the bills.
» Became a union leader in the 1970s. Jailed for a month for leading a strike.
»Helped found the progressive Workers Party in 1980.
Also, Lula apparently is the host of The Graham Norton Show.
» Won his first seat in Congress in 1986. Lost elections for president in 1989, 1994, and 1998. Won his first term in 2002 and was reelected in 2006.
» Invested in eliminating hunger in Brazil (childhood hunger dropped 46% under his leadership), creating affordable housing, and upgrading infrastructure.
» Made major inroads in paying off Brazil‘s debt. Created conservation areas and indigenous reserves, resulting in far less deforestation starting in 2004.
» Spent 580 days in prison for corruption in 2018-19, but was released by the Brazilian Supreme Court and eventually annulled all his convictions. Don’t even ask me what it’s about because it is complicated.
» Married three times. Five children.
» Against abortion personally, but recognizes it as a public health issue.
And last but not least: his 2022 win over Donald J. Bolsonarump, at least for now, saved the freaking Brazilian rainforest. Not bad.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERSandJEERSto Ol’ Mullethead. Happy 227thbirthday toJames 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 withMexico(something about the “smoking gun that could come in the form of an exploding burrito”) and stoleTexasas 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 forgive 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 the 157th birthday of another POTUS: womanizing gambling addictWarren Harding—one of the worst presidents in history along with Buchanan, Pierce, Andrew Johnson, George W. Bush, andThe 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.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 2, 2012
JEERS to the idiots among us. Have you noticed how quiet the “tea party” movement has been lately? Wanna know why? It’s because they were always just the Republican base who took a shine to tricorn hats. And now that there’s an election on, they’ve gone back to being garden-variety Republicans again, which is to say garden-variety morons who, as Atrios explains, appear to be in the process of fucking themselves over yet again:
While our liberal media coddled and adored them, the truth was that the Tea Party never actually had anything to be angry about. Obama didn’t take their guns, or raise their taxes, or give free Cadillacs to strapping young bucks. He did continue to be black, so there’s that I guess. They couldn’t be mad at the Wall Street bailout, because that’s who was funding them. The only thing that kinda sorta made ideological sense was the auto bailout. So that became their thing.
Romney—the self-described “car guy”—strapped his campaign to the roof of Rush Limbaugh’s station wagon and all that’s left is to wait for the loud “Crunch!” as it veers into the ditch five days from now. I coulda told ’em: friends don’t let friends drive Republican.
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And just one more…
JEERSto four more years of torture. Eighteen Years Ago today, 121,480,019 voters (give or take) went to the polls:
The dust had not yet settled on the most narrow election victory by an incumbent president in the history of the republic. Bush’s edge was 2.5 percent, smaller even than Woodrow Wilson’s pathetic 1916 victory margin of 3.2 percent. [It] really chapped my ass when Cheney claimed a “broad nationwide victory” and a “mandate” for Bush’s “clear agenda.” —From Al Franken’s bookThe Truth (with Jokes)
Looking at the utter train wreck that was Bush’s second term, the post-election conservagasm just seems downright silly in retrospect…
“Bush now has a mandate.” —Bill Bennett
Still a good question.
“This time, of course, his claim of a popular mandate is incontrovertible.” —TIME magazine
“It is a mandate.” —Tucker Carlson
“He has, I would argue, a mandate now.” —Peggy Noonan
“Mr. Bush has been given the kind of mandate that few politicians are ever fortunate enough to receive.” —The Wall Street Journal
“In one sense, we think it an even larger and clearer mandate than those won in the landslide reelection campaigns of Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1984, and Clinton in 1996.” —William Kristol
For his part, Bush displayed his trademark modesty:
“Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign—political capital—and now I intend to spend it.”
Turns out it was just political fistfuls of mud. From racing back from Texas to sign the “Let’s Meddle in Terri Schiavo’s Family Business” order, to not racing back during Katrina…from watching his Social Security-gutting scheme fail, to watching bin Laden elude him for another four years…from ignoring Afghanistan to ignoring the recession…from unfunded mandates to unfunded wars…his political capital bought him, and us, exactly one thing: disaster. I’d like my refund now, please.
Have a happy humpday. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today’s Shameless C&J Testimonial
Oklahoma GOP DA Candidate Pretty Sure Bill In PortlandMaine Is Never Wrong, Ever
