Editor’s Note: “Cheers and Jeers” is a very-long-running column at Daily Kos, written by Bill in Portland, Maine. Originally, it served a simple purpose: a safe place for newbies to Daily Kos to post a comment, since there was nothing controversial about the column. (Thus the “Kiddie Pool” moniker.) It still serves that purpose, but also contains some Grade-A Snark, which I enjoy. I’ve gotten permission to cross-post it every weekday, so I would ask two things of all of you:
– Let me know if you enjoy it, or if the style is off-putting.
– Please add your own cheers and jeers in the comments (such as “Cheers to Bruce for bringing this to Forward Kentucky” 😉). You can see what people leave on that day’s C&J on dKos by following the link at the end.
(PS – All the links are in bold.)
A Brief Update
Via the NEW and IMPROVED Department of Health and Human Services, here are the most recently-listed items on the most recent list of causes of autism officially and recently listed by our crack team of non-doctors:
- Solar panels
- Windmills
- Jimmy Kimmel
- Plan B
- Antifa
- The United Nations
- Cryptocurrency that isn't TrumpCoin
- Bibles that aren't Trump Bibles
- Illegal immigrants
- Legal immigrants
- Democrats
- The fake press
- Anyone who wants to see the Epstein files
- White Collar Crime Laws
- Russia on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
- Golf resort health inspectors
- Portland Oregon (obviously)
- And asheffle… Acephelpl… Aceddogrpl… Tylenol!!!
For more information, call the toll-free number the next time you see or hear a commercial for FDA-unapproved dietary supplements. They might work! Please have your credit card ready. Use promo code “IBELIEVE.”
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
::
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, September 29, 2025
Note: Due to the looming government shutdown, we may not be able to complete this sente
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the next full Harvest Supermoon: 7
Days 'til Twin Cities Oktoberfest in St. Paul: 4
Revised GDP for the 2nd quarter: 3.8%
Estimated percent of delegates at the U.N. General Assembly who stuck around to hear genocide-mad Israeli dictator Benjamin Netanyahu's speech: 20%
Minimum number of countries (the U.S. is not one of them) that now recognize Palestine as an independent state: 150
Approval rating of FCC chair Brendan Carr among voters polled by Quinnipiac: 14%
Number of views on You Tube of Jimmy Kimmel's return to late-night TV last Tuesday: 21 million
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Because they're Newfoundlands, silly …
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CHEERS to the Epstein files. Hip-hip hooray! We finally got some seemingly-new stuff released to the House on Friday. And, hoo-boy, the names are starting to drop:
Democratic lawmakers on Friday released documents from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein that may show interactions between the disgraced financier and prominent conservatives, including Elon Musk, Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel. […]
Copies of Epstein’s calendar released by the committee’s Democratic minority show a breakfast planned with Bannon, an influential Donald Trump ally, in February 2019. Other schedules mention a lunch with Thiel in November 2017 and a potential trip by Musk to Epstein’s private island in December 2014.
Pointing to the significance of the latest records’ release, Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for the oversight committee, said: “It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world. Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims.”
In a sign of real anti-pedophile-ring courage, House Speaker Mike Johnson is delaying the swearing-in of newly-elected Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, thus delaying (again) a vote on forcing the release of more Epstein files. It's what Jesus would do. If Jesus was Mike Johnson.
JEERS to the gaslighters: economy edition. Saturday morning, while drinking from my miniature shot glass Ferris Wheel (greatest gift I ever bought myself, and the batteries were even included), I came upon a story about how Americans are increasingly skeptical about the Trump economy. And embedded in the NBC News article was this steaming turd of propaganda:
“Joe Biden’s reckless policies destroyed the economy, but President Trump is fixing it in record time to usher in the Golden Age of America,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.
Drawing upon my steel-trap memory, I ran to the C&J archives and plucked some inconvenient news items that were hot off the press a mere one year ago:
✔ Progress on inflation without a sizeable deterioration in the labor market has created a “classic ‘Goldilocks’ scenario,” Columbia’s [Brett] House said.
✔ Through August 2024, the employment report indicated positive job growth for 44 consecutive months, putting the current streak in 5th place of the longest job streaks in US history (since1939).
✔ [The] 12-month inflation rate [is] 2.5%, down 0.4 percent from the July level, slightly below estimates and at its lowest level in 3½ years. … Food prices rose just 0.1%,while energy costs slid 0.8%.
✔ 3.8% year-over-year increase in worker wages, over a point above inflation.
✔ 19-million small-business applications submitted during the Biden-Harris administration.
$ Solid 3.3% GDP for the third quarter of 2024.
$ Lowest unemployment claims in four months.
$ Highest stock market level ever.
Since last week's United Nations general assembly has put me in a civil and diplomatic frame of mind, I'll just don my sash with the puffy ribbon and say this to the current occupants of the White House with all due respect: fuck off.
CHEERS to great inventions. 179 years ago this week, in 1846, Boston dentist William Morton used ether as an anesthesia for the first time. It worked really well. But he had even better success the next day when he used it on the patient.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to one of the great troublemakers. Lech Walesa, electrician, founder of the anti-Communist Solidarity Union, President of Poland, and Nobel Peace Prize winner turns 82 today.
My memory of his most rebellious time—the late 70s and early 80s—is kind of grainy, but I do remember how I felt back then, living in then-West Germany as I was and occasionally visiting East Berlin as part of a school or family trip, and feeling the oppressiveness of the Russian influence over everything. So when I saw what Walesa was doing, I felt like, Wow, that is one gutsy electrician. Despite his anti-abortion views, whenever I hear his name, that's still what I think—one gutsy electrician. In his honor, today: no light bulb-changing jokes.
JEERS to today’s edition of Huhuhuhhhuh, The Ocean Has Boobs Now.
This has been today’s edition of Huhuhuhhhuh, The Ocean Has Boobs Now.
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Ten years ago in C&J: September 29, 2015
CHEERS to a welcome skedaddle. Well, they gave it the old college try, but apparently there just isn’t enough opportunity in the Arctic for a massive oil disaster, so goodbye:
In a setback for dreams of Arctic oil riches, Royal Dutch Shell announced early Monday morning it will indefinitely suspend its Arctic drilling off the Alaska coast after finding insufficient oil and gas in one of its exploratory wells to justify costly development. [...]
It highlights the tremendous costs and risks of drilling in the Arctic frontier, which is thought to have vast oil reserves but where little exploration has taken place so far. Daunted by the task, half a dozen companies had already put their Arctic plans on ice...
Don’t let the unspoiled wilderness hit ya where the good lord split ya.
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And just one more…
JEERS to the attack of the million-email army. Gird your loins—the political fundraising operations will be cranked up to “11” today and tomorrow. Yes, these are the last remaining days of the quarter and political candidates from every nook and cranny of the nookandcrannysphere are going to be turning you upside down and shaking you until some loose change eventually falls out of your pockets. Despite this being an “off” election year, you’ll still get a torrent of email appeals, each with an increasingly-urgent subject line. As a public service, C&J offers you a preview of what you can expect if you don’t have your spam filter set to "nukular":
Hey! Only 48 hours left to hit our goal!
Hey! Only 24 hours left to hit our goal!
Oh no! Only 18 hours left to hit our goal!
Help! Only minutes left to hit our goal!
We're down to seconds now!
My campaign manager is having chest pains. Give now!
Now I'm having chest pains! Fork it over!If I lose this race it's your fault for not giving!
Puddle of tears! It's all over!
I will club a baby seal if you don’t give NOW, you stingy bastard! WE HATE YOU!!!
Sorry about that last subject line. But dammit, we need your donation or we’re going to have to sell the campaign Volvo!
Bags packed. Headed for ice floe. All is lost.
We can’t feel our toes. Polar bear ate ‘em.
Followed by Wednesday's headline: WE DID IT! THANK YOU! WE'RE GONNA WIN THIS THING! (Yeah, I'll cry—I love happy endings.)
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“We become loyal to Cheers and Jeers when it consistently delivers for us and when we feel excited by it. Part of that comes from the idea of discovering something new but also from the comfort of knowing what you are going to get.”
—Professor Lauren Beitelspacher
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Got your own cheers and jeers? Leave them in the comments below!
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