Just You Wait

My prediction still stands. Joe Biden will call the Butterball Hotline at least once during his presidency. He just gives off that vibe. As we wait for our 46th president to prove me correct, here’s another POTUS—“Joe Bethesenton”—doing the deed:

YouTube Video

My annual list of thanks, a Molly Ivins bon mot, and a few more goodies below the fold. Then let’s eat.

Cheers and Jeers for Thanksgiving 2021

Note: As for the rest of the C&J posting week, nothing formal tomorrow, although we’ll post a “Who won the week” poll—the greatest ever—in the diaries around 7pm ET.  Back Monday.  Have a great holiday and may your end of the wishbone be the long one.

Sunday!!!

Days ‘til Christmas: 30

Days ‘til the National Menorah lighting in D.C.: 3

Date of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation: 10/3/1863

Number of NFL games today: 3

Population of Turkey, Texas (hometown of Bob Wills): 378

Percent of Parade readers who believe calories don’t exist on Thanksgiving: 69%

Number of Thanksgivings during which Eric Trump has gotten his head stuck in a can of cranberry sauce: 7

Number of Americans who intend to eat human brains for Thanksgiving dinner, up from 5,641 last year and spreading rapidly from northwest to southeast (stay tuned to your short-wave radios for updates and lock your doors): 6,039

Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:

Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., for showing it's patriotic to speak your mind.
The 90 senators who stood up to Cheney to say that torture is not an American value.
The 79 senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.
That Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.

Consider these additional delights: Tom Delay is under indictment, Heckuva Job Brownie is no longer on the public payroll, and for some inexplicable reason, the administration found a Republican prosecutor in the Plame affair who seems to care more about the law than politics. […]

There’s music in poor bleeding New Orleans again, Ted Koppel and his hair put in a commendable 25 years, some terrific new films are out, my puppy has not eaten a shoe for an entire month now, and the Mountain West is moving from red to purple. So let’s all loosen our belts and get right down to the all-American tradition of overeating on Thanksgiving. It’s still a great country, even if it is a little strange. I am grateful for all my fellow citizens—how would we know it was America if we didn’t hear regularly from the nincompoop faction? Happy turkey to you all.

—Thanksgiving 2005

Puppy Pic of the Day: Suck it up, Buttercup…

And now my world-famous annual…

Things For Which I Am Thankful: 2021 Edition

The Democrats who fought and won their 2021 elections—even the off-year ones matter

Grassroots Democratic organizers and voters, especially in red states and doubly-especially women of color

Campaign volunteers, ride sharers, and polling place workers

Nancy Pelosi, without question in the pantheon of most positively-consequential Speakers of the House

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, for wielding real power in the house for progressives

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Katie Porter, and all the other kickass-style House Democrats

The House Jan. 6 Select Committee—yes, including Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger—for investigation the Trump coup with efficiency and dead-seriousness

The end of the 20-year Afghanistan War and the withdrawal of our troops

Maine’s state government, for spending another year with Dem control of the state House and Senate, and Democratic governor Janet Mills navigating the Covid-19 crisis with skill and compassion

Doctors

Nurses

Hospital administrative workers

Dr. Fauci and the now fully-functional NIH and CDC

Essential workers

The Covid-19 tracers and trackers

The vaccines and the mad scientists behind them

The 200 million Americans who have gotten vaccinated, including 95% of federal workers

The governors and state health officials making difficult decisions and sticking to them despite the efforts of the ignorant and often violent anti-vax narcissists to thwart them

New Zealand, for showing the world how a country can fight a pandemic as a team and win  

Vihaan and Nav Agarwal of India, winners of Desmond Tutu’s 2021 International Children’s Peace Prize

The Nobel and Pulitzer winners

The first responders and relief organizers who went above and beyond in the wake of this year’s hurricanes, floods, and wildfires

Employers who give their employees Thanksgiving off

Employees who don’t get the day off so they can keep vital services running while the rest of us do

Teachers

Immigrants

Caregivers

Wind turbines and solar panels

AMERICANS WHO VOTED IN THE OFF-YEAR ELECTION

Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, SNL, and the return of Jon Stewart, for continuing the renaissance in late-night political humor

Freedom of the press

Freedom of speech fuck Trump

The diverse slate of Biden’s 28 federal judges confirmed by the Senate, with many more to come  

The #5 thing on internet lists that actually SHOCK me

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Joy Reid, Bishop William Barber, Al Sharpton, Charlie Pierce, Charles Blow,  John Nichols, Howard Dean, E.J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, David K. Johnston, Paul Krugman, Elie Mystal

Marc Elias at Democracy Docket, for winning a gazillion court cases against the MAGA lawyers trying to steal elections

The Kagro in the Morning radio show

Naomi Klein, Marcy Wheeler, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Trump money-follower David Fahrenthold, Daniel Dale, David Corn, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid

Atrios, Digby, Charles M. Blow, Americablog, John Cole, Joe Jervis, Michelangelo Signorile, Dan Savage, Leonard Pitts, Lizz Winstead

Media Matters, The Hispanic Federation, The Southern Poverty Law Center, PFAW, PFLAG, 350.org, RAICES, March for Our Lives, Indivisible, Black Lives Matter, Run For Something, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, IAVA, ACLU, and the many other advocacy organizations that prevented the worst of Trump’s abuses, often in coordination with each other

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

Bill and Hillary Clinton

Barack and Michelle Obama

Joe and Jill Biden

My partner, Michael, for growing old with me

Obamacare, now more affordable and accessible than ever thanks to #44’s VP, aka #46

All of my bosses (if you’re reading this, you’re one of them) at Daily Kos

The front-pagers and diarists here, for explaining stuff I don’t know boo about

My morning front-page blogger neighbors: the Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, morning cartoonists, and Elections Morning Digest

The rest of the progressive blogosphere, for having the wisdom to follow all of the orders issued by “Keyboard Kingpin” Markos “Mouse Tits” Moulitsas to…the…letter

Netroots Nation and its organizers, for executing another great virtual convention when the pandemic prevented the in-person one from happening in D.C.

Those amazingly upbeat Good News Roundups

Dirty Fucking Hippies. We must breed more of them.

My doggie. My pootie. My squirrels. (Mostly my squirrels, according to my squirrels.)

Books!!!

Distilleries

Breweries

Teriyaki sauce

Mayochup yes I said mayochup!

Taco Tuesdays

Excedrin Migraine. Next to the epidural, God’s gift to pain relief.

Blueberries

Candy corn

Snow Snow Snow

Evolution

Electric cars

High-speed rail

NASA

The imminent return of net neutrality

Our return to the Paris Climate Agreement

Unions

Diversity

The Resistance

Maine’s proximity to safe haven Canada 

That magic moment every day at 6am when the Bacardi 151 crosses the blood-brain barrier.

Microwave ovens, which are excellent for re-heating food that gets cold because some idiot spent three hours listing all the stuff he was thankful for.

My excellent memory

And, say it with me… 

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Pass the taters ‘n gravy.