A Beautiful Friendship
President Biden's raging narcissist predecessor couldn’t have cared less who his vice president was. Mike Pence was just the whitest dim-bulb human bobblehead Jesus freak his handlers could find, and in the end he was so disposable to the MAGA cult that his boss had no qualms sending a mob to the Capitol to hang him. Feel the love.
What a difference a change in administration makes. Over the weekend Tommy Christopher posted a column at Mediaite on the emerging dynamics between Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. It's a quick, positive read, and confirms what we've all been seeing with our own eyes:
Continued...
Since taking office, the VP has been a fixture at the President’s side, “the last one out of the room,” as Biden says, and that dynamic is evident in the many photos that feature Biden in settings that presidents often handle solo—bill signings, Oval Office photo ops—with Harris right there as well.
This imagery alone is a thrilling message to every American who sees themselves or their daughters in Kamala Harris’ firsts—first woman, first Black woman, first South Asian woman to serve as vice president—secure in the knowledge she won’t be the last.
But Harris’ place at Biden’s side is more than symbolic, and this past week underscored that.
From being the first to comment publicly on the recent twin mass shootings, to taking the point on border issues, the vice president is fully engaged and immersed in the goings-on. But that didn’t keep a clickbait-obsessed CNN reporter from asking last week if Joe would keep Kamala on the ticket in 2024 (“I would fully expect that to be the case” responded Joe), prompting Mr. Christopher to end his column this way:
Yes it was a silly question, worthy of the mockery it received since no president ever (no real president) could possibly have answered differently, but the real answer was in Biden’s eyes, just as it is every time he talks about his VP, and she him. And whether the media is paying attention or not, to their supporters it is a beautiful thing.
Read the whole thing here. Oh, and follow our amazing vice president on Twitter here.
And now, our feature presentation…
-
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Note: April fool!!!!! Ha Ha Ha Ha, I got ya. April Fool isn’t until tomorrow. You’ve been so owned, I can’t believe you fell for it. Also I put cream cheese in your shorts a day early. Haaaaa Ha!!! —Mgt.
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Jazz Appreciation Month: 1
Days left in President Biden's first 100 days: 30
Date to which the CDC has extended the National Eviction Ban: 6/30/21
Percent efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in a real-world setting, according to a new study released by the CDC: 90%
Americans polled by Gallup who believe more resources should be devoted to developing solar and wind power, respectively: 72%, 66%
Percent of dust in the home that consists of shed human skin and hair: 70%
Amount of time you spent as a single cell: ½ Hour
-
Mid-week Rapture Index: 188 (including 5 nuclear nations and 1 sold-out line of Satan Shoes). Soul Protection Factor 666 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Mid-week tension...
-
CHEERS to order in the courts. He's tackling the Covid-19 pandemic with the stamina of a guy half his age. He's rebuilding America's reputation around the world with a diplomatic surge staggering in proportion. He's prepping the economy for an explosion in growth. Today—Live from Pittsburgh!—he's rolling out the most aggressive infrastructure overhaul in eons. And yesterday our 78-year-old speed demon president Joe Biden went all Zowie! Powie! KaBam! in the judicial arena, nominating more federal judges to the bench than his four predecessors had by this time in their presidencies by a factor of five. And the word uniting them: diversity…
President Biden on Tuesday announced plans to nominate 11 judges to the federal courts, including D.C. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace former D.C. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland, who is now U.S. attorney general.
The nominees include three Black women and, if confirmed, could result in the first Muslim federal judge in the country's history, the first AAPI woman to serve on the D.C. District Court, and the first woman of color as a federal judge in Maryland, according to the White House. […]
The nomination of Jackson will likely spur discussion about a potential nomination for the Supreme Court. Biden has said he will nominate the country's first Black female justice, and the D.C. Circuit Court to which Jackson is nominated is often viewed as a stepping stone for the highest court.
Read the official White House announcement here. Thanks to filibuster reform that Daily Kos's own David Waldman (aka KagroX, host of Kagro in the Morning) spearheaded during the Obama years, these nominees—and all of his others—should sail through with a 51-vote majority. And Republicans: I think you know where you can stick your "blue slips" this go-round.
P.S. Speaking of the wheels of justice, the trial of Derek Chauvin got underway Monday. He's the Minneapolis Police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck for 9 minutes, killing him, according to all the videos that show him kneeling on George Floyd's neck for 9 minutes, killing him. The trial is expected to last for weeks, during which all questions will be answered except for one: why the hell is this open-and-shut case lasting for weeks???
CHEERS to keeping the faith (to yourself). The downward spiral of participation in organized religion continues in America, as a combination of church leaders behaving badly, outdated dogma (insert "got run over by my karma" joke here), and unwashed rabble with more important things to do lead to empty pews and dwindling coffers. And Gallup's latest number is, well, holy moly, Batman...
Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
U.S. church membership was 73% when Gallup first measured it in 1937 and remained near 70% for the next six decades, before beginning a steady decline around the turn of the 21st century.
Golly. I'm worried. If the bajillion different gods humankind has come up with over the millennia to scare humanity into unquestioning obedience ever decide which one of them will be the one to smite us for going rogue like this, we're in big trouble.
P.S. You have a speck in your eye! Ha Ha look at that speck! I mock you and your eye speck! Sincerely, Log Man.
CHEERS to champions of the little guy. Happy 94th birthday to the late Cesar Chavez. He founded the National Farm Workers Association, which gave a voice to migrant farm workers. He also had a spiffy motto that might sound familiar: "Si sepueda!" (Yes we can!) These days we could use all the Chavezes we can get. Pay your respects here. Today in his honor: total boycott of lettuce and grapes.
-
BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
-
END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
-
JEERS to the return of the king. Apparently our once-elected, twice-impeached 45th president is back online with a new web site. And its rollout is going about as competently as you'd expect:
Former President Donald Trump launched a new official website Monday, which says it is dedicated to preserving his “magnificent legacy”—apparently by cutting him out of several photos on the site’s landing page.
The site comically crops Trump partially or completely out of several of the photos. For example, only Trump’s chin is visible in the photo of his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the DMZ.
Thus answering the question: what happens when Daddy-in-Law refuses to hire any support staff for Jared?
CHEERS to fun in the sun. On March 31, 1917, the U.S. took possession of what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands (not to be confused with the inferior British Virgin Islands) from Denmark for $25 million. Residents there—who are considered U.S. citizens—are allowed to vote in presidential primaries but not the general election. Which is like your parents giving you a scoop of freezer-burned vanilla ice cream on your birthday while your siblings get a big bowl of Chunky Monkey with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, nuts, Oreos, and gummi bears wrapped in hundred-dollar bills. Damn. I thought I'd blotted that day out. Time to ring up my therapist on Zoom again.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: March 31, 2011
CHEERS to bad news for Republican jerks. I remember reading an article by Chris Hayes at The Nation a couple years back warning the world that Rick Scott would be one of the most destructive and opportunistic governors in Florida history. Florida voted him into office anyway. And now they apparently have buyers' remorse…big time:
Scott's approval rating is just 32% while 55% of voters in the state are unhappy with his work so far... [2010 Democratic loser] Alex Sink leads Scott 56-37 in a hypothetical rematch. Independents say they would vote for her by a whooping 32 point margin at 61-29 and even 21% of Republicans now say they'd vote for her, more than twice the 10% level of GOP support exit polls showed her winning in November.
I don’t know what the impeachment rules are down there, but you Sunshine Staters need to follow Billy's new Pottery Barn Rule: You Bought Him, You Break Him. [3/31/21 Update: And now he's a senator. One thing you can always count on in Republican Land: failing up.]
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to one last look. Just to make sure we weren't punk'd yesterday, let's check in a final time with the skipper of the container ship Ever Given and its cargo of all the world’s toilet paper for the rest of 2021 to see if it's really smooth sailing again in the Suez Canal:
Hooray. And we all lived—and wiped—happily ever after.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
”Our kids are being told that Cheers and Jeers is not only okay, it's ‘exclusive.’ But do you know what's more exclusive? Their God-given kiddie pool.”
-