Cheers and Jeers for Thanksgiving 2025
Note: As for the rest of the C&J posting week, nothing formal tomorrow, although we'll post a "Who won the week" poll in the diaries around 7:00pm ET. Back Monday. Have a great holiday and may your end of the wishbone be the long one, even if you have to concoct a wishbone tampering scheme so devious that it puts you on the radar of the Senate Intelligence and/or Judiciary Committee.
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December 14th
Days 'til Christmas: 28
Days 'til the National Menorah lighting in D.C.: 18
Date of Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation: 10/3/1863
Number of NFL games today: 3
Population of Turkey, Texas (hometown of Bob Wills): 396
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: 9
Number of Americans who intend to eat human brains for Thanksgiving dinner, up from 6,138 last year and spreading rapidly from northwest to southeast (stay tuned to your short-wave radios for updates and lock your doors): 6,386
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
The Progress Report has come up with some dandy things to be thankful for, starting with American troops. It also lists:
- 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
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Shelter pets at PAWS Chicago’s Kocourek Medical Center enjoy a feast...
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And now my world-famous annual…
Things For Which I Am Thankful: 2025 Edition
Our republic, which went another year without perishing from the earth (though next year looks iffy)
The Democrats who fought and won their 2025 races, which is pretty much every Democrat who ran for anything.
Virginia voters, who gave Democrat Abigail Spanberger a turn as governor in a landslide, elected Ghazala Hashmi Lt. Governor, Jay Jones as Attorney general, and expanded the House of Delegates’ Democratic majority from 51 to 64. The old capital of the confederacy looks lovely in blue.
Mikie Sherrill (D), the new governor of New Jersey.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic-socialist who made “affordability” the centerpiece of his New York City mayoral candidacy and ran away with a victory (and, weirdly, Donald Trump’s heart).
The Californians who voted for Prop. 50 to cancel out the effect of Texas’s rude mid-decade gerrymandering scheme.
Latino voters, who quickly realized that voting MAGA last year was a terrible mistake and helped Democrats win everywhere this year.
Grassroots Democratic organizers and voters, especially in red states and doubly-especially women of color
Young voters who see through the MAGA bullshit and gaslighting
Campaign volunteers, ride sharers, and polling place workers
Maine’s state government, for spending another year with Dem control of the state House and Senate, and Democratic Governor Janet Mills
Doctors, nurses, and hospital administrative workers
Vaccines and the mad scientists behind them
The first responders and relief organizers who went above and beyond in the wake of this year's hurricanes, floods, and wildfires
Caregivers
The indigenous people of North America
Ukraine, for continuing to bleed Russia dry, and the bloggers here at Daily Kos keeping us all up to date on the latest developments over there
NATO
Bana Alabed, 15, of Syria who won the 2025 International Children’s Peace Prize for her work reuniting displaced children with their families, rebuilding schools, and providing hope through education and advocacy.
The Nobel and Pulitzer winners
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
The inflatable frogs on the front lines of the anti-ICE protests
Wind turbines and solar panels
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The pressure campaign to release the Epstein files
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The legacy of President Joe Biden’s cabinet: the most capable, diverse, motivated, and scandal-free in my memory, especially when compared to the current crop of incompetent fascist nincompoops
Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, South Park, and even SNL, for continuing the renaissance in late-night political humor
Freedom of the press
The Democratic senators who reminded the president that our military—and it is ours, not his—is not above the law.
Freedom of—fuck Trump fuck Stephen Miller fuck Pete Hegseth fuck Kristi Noem—speech
The federal and state judges who are acting as effective guardrails against the lawlessness of the Republican party
The #5 thing on internet lists that actually SHOCK me
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Canada
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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 so many court cases against state and federal shitbags who are trying to subvert democracy
David Waldman’s Kagro in the Morning podcast
Naomi Klein, Marcy Wheeler, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Daniel Dale, David Corn, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace
Atrios, Digby, 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, Sandy Hook Promise, Indivisible, MoveOn, Leaders We Deserve, Run For Something, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, IAVA, ACLU, and the many other advocacy organizations that prevent the worst of the MAGA cult’s abuses, often in coordination with each other
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (RIP)
Bill and Hillary Clinton
Barack and Michelle Obama
Joe and Jill Biden
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DRAG QUEENS
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My partner, Michael, for growing old with me (32 years and counting)
All of my bosses (if you’re reading this, you’re one of them) at Daily Kos
The rest of the progressive blogosphere, for having the wisdom to follow all of the orders issued by “Keyboard Kingpin” Markos “Mouse Tits” Moulitsas
Netroots Nation and its organizers, for putting on another great convention in New Orleans
Those amazingly upbeat Good News Roundups and pootie/woozle diaries
Dirty Fucking Hippies. We must breed more of them.
My doggie. My pootie.
My liberal neighbors
My squirrels: Teddy and her daughter Millie, Larry, Nutsferatu, Henry, Janet, Bailey...and Tank.
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Books
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Wineries
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
Reese’s Sticks, this year’s post-Halloween addiction
Snow Snow Snow
Evolution
Electric cars
High-speed rail
NASA
Unions
Diversity
Maine’s proximity to safe haven Canada (just in case)
Peace. (Yeah, it's a word. Really. I looked it up.)
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 on a blog spent three hours listing all the stuff he was thankful for.
And, say it with me...
Every American Standing Up to The Wannabe King
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Pass the taters ‘n gravy.
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