Netroots Nation 2020: T-Minus 9 Days and Counting
This year's convention in Denver didn’t pan out thanks to the pandemic, so the big event is happening online this year. With less than ten days to go, we're posting the latest info below the fold with the links you need to get registered and ready.
C'mon down.
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Netroots Nation 2020: Just the Facts, Ma’am
★ Over 60 panels and training sessions are set to go, on issues like the upcoming elections, criminal justice reform, tackling white supremacy, and which brand and style of handcuffs will be the best as the Trump family is hauled off to jail next year.
★ 70 percent of this year's speakers are people of color, 70 percent are women, and 30 percent identify as LGBTQ.
★ The keynoters include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Stacey Abrams, Rep. Barbara Lee, Jamaal Bowman, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Deb Haaland, Rep. Joe Neguse, Rep. Debbie Dingell, and Rep. Ro Khanna.
★ There will be opportunities to collaborate and socialize, including virtual coffee meetups, happy hours, and morning yoga sessions led by MoveOn's Reggie Hubbard.
★ Yes! There will be daily livestreams of Lizz Winstead's popular Morning News Dump.
★ Adam B's annual Pub Quiz is happening Friday, August 14, at 7pm ET. You can form your own team or join an existing one.
★ Each day, they'll have a Virtual Hallway open, where you can pop in and start video conversations with friends old and new.
★ Everyone who registers will receive a swag box and official NN20 T-shirt.
★ To participate virtually: you’ll use their mobile or desktop app and website (they’ll send you login instructions).
★ You can check out the FAQ page on Virtual NN20 here.
★ Yes! Scholarships are available. For details click here.
★ To secure your online access to the event just click here and register.
★ You can also follow Netroots Nation on Twitter here and on the evil Facebook here.
More updates soon. We’re gonna miss Denver. But it’s cool that, with no travel or lodging restrictions this year, a lot more people will be able to participate. And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Note: If this blog's a' rockin’, what the hell are you people doing?
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By the Numbers:
Weeks 'til the general election: 13
Date on which the U.S. Navy's first Black female tactical aircraft pilot, Lt. j.g. Madeline G. Swegle, received her "Wings of Gold": 7/31/20
Percent chance that the Portland, Oregon protests are a lot more peaceful since Trump's unidentified Gestapo troops left: 100%
Latest matchup numbers in Minnesota via PPP for incumbent Senator Tina Smith (D-inc.) and GOP challenger Jason Lewis: 48%-39%
Estimated number of TikTok users in the U.S., all of whom are prepared to declare war on Donald Trump if he bans the social-media platform: 100 million
Americans' favorable/unfavorable opinion of China in 2010 and today, respectively, according to Pew Research: 49/36 , 73/22
Age at which Herman Cain died of complications from attending Trump's Tulsa hate rally: 74
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Puppy Pic of the Day: This puppy's never gonna run out of cars to chase…
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CHEERS to famous firsts. Four months after cops busted down the door to Breonna Taylor's apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, and shot her eight times at near-point-blank range, none of the trigger-happy Rambo wannabes have been arrested. And while the bullies with badges want the memory of the incident to go away, that's not happening. The latest to keep Breonna's name and murder top of mind: Oprah, whose face doesn’t appear on the cover of her magazine for the first time in 20 years:
“She was just like me,” Winfrey wrote.
“She was just like you. And like everyone who dies unexpectedly, she had plans. Plans for a future filled with responsibility and work and friends and laughter.” […]
“Imagine if three unidentified men burst into your home while you were sleeping,” Winfrey wrote, describing the circumstances of Taylor’s death, “and your partner fired a gun to protect you. And then mayhem ...
We can’t be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice. And that is why Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O magazine. I cry for justice in her name.”
Two words for the Louisville prosecutor's office: Tick Tock.
CHEERS to #44 at #59. Two score and 19 years ago today:
Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug. 4
—Honolulu Advertiser, 1961
Remember during the '08 campaign when the traditional media tried spinning the line that Obama was too young and wet-behind-the-huge-ears to be president? I laughed, knowing that his accomplished POTUSmates in the 40-something club include Teddy Roosevelt, James K. Polk, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Besides, a quick check of the highlights of his birth year, 1961, is enough to make your bones feel a bit creaky:
✓ None of the James Bond movies had been released; West Side Story won the Oscar for Best Picture
✓ John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president—Obama was #44
✓ The Grammy for best Rock & Roll recording: Chubby Checker, "Let's Twist Again"; Best R&B recording: Ray Charles, "Hit the Road Jack"
✓ The Dow Jones Industrials reached a high of...734.
✓ Median price of a new home: $17,200
✓ Harper Lee won a Pulitzer for To Kill A Mockingbird
✓ East Germany replaced its barbed wire barricades with a permanent wall dividing Berlin
✓ The Emmy for outstanding news program went to The Huntley-Brinkley Report
✓ Roger Maris hit 61 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record
✓ The price of a gallon of gas: 31 cents.
Certain policy and strategy differences aside, I consider Obama one of the greatest embodiments of what the U.S. presidency should be, and I'm ready to be adopted as soon as he and Michelle submit the paperwork. (What is taking so long???) So Happy 59th Birthday, Mr. President…and many blessings on your Marxist socialist Muslim Jade Helm Benghazi tan-suit-wearing gum-chewing camels.
CHEERS to smart war management. 159 years ago, in 1861, President Lincoln signed into law the first federal income tax. He felt it was fiscally responsible because we were waging a civil war. Today red-hatted Republicans would tar Lincoln as a tax-and-spend liberal and hold the surrender ceremony at Appomattox hostage until he backed down and repealed it. And after Abe got done with them there'd be a lot of weepy Republicans pulling their red hats out of their asses.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to timely departures. This little tidbit slipped through the cracks last week: the director of the American Gestapo (aka ICE) has resigned. Said Ubersturmunddrangfuhrer Matt Albence during his auf wiedersehen announcement:
"It as such a lonely job, you know what I mean? I just felt…I dunno…like I was in a cage without so much as a toothbrush or soap. Just pacing back and forth, back and forth, slowly losing my mind and knowing I was wasting one precious day after another. I barely had any time to see my family. It was so hot and stifling during the day, and then so cold and desolate at night.”
“You people in the press, you have no idea how claustrophobic it can get at the top. I haven't been able to buy new clothes in months—look at me, I'm practically in rags. It's so unfair. I want my mommy and daddy."
He'll be replaced by the new acting ICE director, Six Rabid Woodchucks Standing On Each other's Shoulders Under A Raincoat. You can just call them Gary.
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. With the lazy dog days of August here, I thought I'd head over to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory site and see what'll be up yonder this month as we drift down the nearest lazy river at night takin' in the starshine and other celestial what-nots. This month’s big event is the Perseid meteor shower, and here's NASA's Preston Dyches with a preview:
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Don’t forget to go outside, think of Neil Armstrong, and wink at the full moon tonight, followed by the tradition August post-wink mantra: "Ow! F*cking mosquitoes."
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Ten years ago in C&J: August 4, 2010
CHEERS to the summer of love. In California yesterday, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8—the citizen-passed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage—is itself unconstitutional. And believe you me, he understood the gravity of the moment. Walker set out to make his decision as clear and decisive as possible to ensure his ruling doesn't get overturned on appeal. Walker's words will not live in infamy. They will, however, live in You-Go-Girl'famy:
The evidence at trial regarding the campaign to pass Proposition 8 uncloaks the most likely explanation for its passage: a desire to advance the belief that opposite-sex couples are morally superior to same-sex couples. [...]
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
So what now? Appeals—first to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and then the Supremes. In the meantime, no resumption of gay marriages...yet. But one thing you can do is face Salt Lake City and give the Mormon leadership that funded the Prop. 8 stupidity an old-fashioned middle-finger salute. Extend it like ya mean it.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the birth of a meta legend. And here we are in August, 2020. Climate crisis? Clusterfuck. Pandemic? Clusterfuck. Republican-led executive branch? Clusterfuck. Immigration reform, infrastructure, the freaking postal service? Cluster, cluster, cluster-you-know-what. Well, I have something to snap us out of them clusterfuck blues. Thanks to wayback-machine technology, we take you to August 3, 2006, when life was simple, cherub-faced children played stickball in the streets, and Daddy came home to find his slippers, pipe, newspaper and supper waiting for him as the aroma of jasmine wafted on the warm summer breeze. Oh, and this ErrinF classic was at the top of the DKos charts:
I want out of this farce of a website. …
Like some sort of cult, I was welcomed in freely but am now being barred from leaving.
Since I can't delete my account myself, my only recourse is to be as abrasive and disruptive as I can be UNTIL MY ACCOUNT GETS DELETED.
As long as my account remains here, I do not feel comfortable leaving. Is it really such a tough request to delete my account so I can go? Just what kind of website lets you join up but won't let you leave? One that regards people as little more than statistics, that's what. How like the Democratic Party for Kos to view his site's members as little more than statistics.
DELETE MY FUCKING ACCOUNT, KOS.
And for a brief moment, if you close your eyes and take a deep breath, unicorns romp once again in the Fields of the Great Orange Satan. And I swear I'm catching a whiff of jasmine in the breeze.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"Bill in Portland Maine is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you’re in."
—Speaker Nancy Pelosi
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