From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Netroots Nation 2016: 9 Weeks and Counting
63 days 'til the July 14-17 convention in St. Louis, and the big story this week is the official announcement of the panels that were selected. Over to you, Raven Brooks:
After almost two months of reading and scoring hundreds of panel submissions, we're proud to announce the ones chosen to be presented at Netroots Nation this summer---and the most diverse group of speakers in our 11-year history.
Racial justice is front and center in our agenda this year. You’ll find sessions calling out the policies that cemented the racism that’s still prevalent today, as well as panels that highlight the powerful organizing being done around the country in the movement for Black lives.
Among the panels that were chosen:
Raven says there are also panels "covering the future of the Supreme Court and next steps for the LGBTQ movement, as well as sessions expanding and challenging the media narrative around issues like abortion and paid family and medical leave."
Two impressive statistics that demonstrate how the convention is working hard to be more diverse: 65 percent of the speakers and moderators are people of color, and 65 percent are women.
You can check out the complete Netroots Nation agenda by clicking here. Once again, my Anarchy 101 seminar was rejected because my proposal was too disorganized. Well…poo.
► If you're planning to be in St. Louis the day before the convention, please join us at the annual Daily Kos/Connect-Unite-Act/C&J Eat-'n-Greet at Mango (right near the convention hall). To add your name to the list, email Navajo and then circle Wednesday, July 13 on your calendar. No better way to get in the convention spirit and meet up with Kossacks from far and wide.
► Sign up to be a volunteer. Email Eric at: volunteers [at] netrootsnation.org.
► Registration info is here and official hotel room info is here.
► Follow Netroots Nation via Facebook here and Twitter here.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for the announcement of keynoters and other fun stuff in future updates. Meanwhile, Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 12, 2016
Note of Pain and Woe: Tis cottage-opening season in Maine, and C&J will be using a couple HR-approved vacation days so we can realize our annual dream of being knee-deep in dead flies, cobwebs and god knows what else we'll find over the next few days. So there will be no C&J tomorrow or Monday. If we find enough change in the sofa cushions from last summer, we'll buy you each a souvenir dead-fly snow globe from the gift shop. Back Tuesday. Meteor Blades has been hired to babysit during our absence. Make sure he earns that five bucks! ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the primaries in Oregon and Kentucky: 5
Days 'til the 3rd annual Vulture Festival in NYC: 9
Amount by which New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan's executive order cuts fossil fuel use at state-owned facilities by 2030: 50%
Percent increase in job openings by U.S. employers in March, its highest level in 8 months according to the Labor Department: 2.7%
Expected size of the corn crop this year, a record, according to the Department of Agriculture: 14.4 billion bushels
Sale price of Friendly’s ice cream manufacturing and retail business to Dean Foods: $155 million
Number of times the MVP of the NBA was selected unanimously before Golden State Warrior Steph Curry won all 131 first-place votes: 0
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
In another interesting development from President Bush's news conference, if you make more than $20,000 a year, you are wealthy. That's what the president said---"wealthy."
Would you hire this man as an investment consultant? Bush said, "I know some Americans have reservations about investing in the stock market, so I propose that one investment option will consist entirely of treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government."
These are exactly the same treasury bonds that currently guarantee Social Security and have been described by Bush, including in the very same press conference, as a cabinet full of "worthless IOUs."
---May 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to chicken soup for lots of souls. Here's an event coming up this weekend that we always promote in C&J. It's the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, and all you have to do is make a note to leave some vittles out for your postal carrier:
The National Association of Letter Carriers, in conjunction with the United States Postal Service, will be collecting non-perishable food items like canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice during the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on Saturday, May 14, to help families in need in our community.
You can help by placing your food donation at your mailbox on Saturday, May 14 before your letter carrier arrives with the day's mail. It will be taken back to the Post office and then delivered to local food banks or pantries. Please do not include items that have expired or those in glass containers.
There's more info at their official site. So be sure to put a Post-It reminder on your fridge reminding you to put a reminder on your forehead reminding you to leave a Reddit post reminding you to leave a text message reminding you to tweet a reminder to your Facebook status reminding you to leave a reminder pic on your Pinterest peg reminding you to knit a reminder into your tea cozy before you put it up on Etsy. God bless social media---it makes life so much easier.
CHEERS to cool science. Engineers with large brains and shiny hardhats tested out a component of Elon Musk's "Hyperloop" project yesterday, sending a thingamabob whizzing down a track at 300 mph. Check it out:
The ultimate goal: whisking passengers in pods through a tube at 700mph to get from point A to point B. To put that in perspective: that's fast enough to make the trip from L.A. to San Francisco in 30 minutes, but not quite as fast as it takes an Elizabeth Warren tweet to get under Donald Trump's skin.
CHEERS to today's edition of Thanks, Dan! While arguing over the usual false narrative concerning the difference between the two major political parties in America on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night, there was this brief exchange between actor Bryan Cranston and LGBT advocate and sex-advice columnist Dan Savage:
Bryan Cranston: Maybe it's time for a viable third party that is socially conscious but fiscally responsible. What happened to those people?
Dan Savage: Those people are called Democrats.
This has been today's edition of Thanks, Dan!
CHEERS to Republican Presidents with a conscience. 109 years ago this week, Teddy Roosevelt spoke at the Governor's Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources:
"The occasion for the meeting lies in the fact that the natural resources of our country are in danger of exhaustion if we permit the old wasteful methods of exploiting them longer to continue.
In the development, the use, and therefore the exhaustion of certain of the natural resources, the progress has been more rapid in the past century and a quarter than during all preceding time of history since the days of primitive man.
All these various uses of our natural resources are so closely connected that they should be coordinated, and should be treated as part of one coherent plan and not in haphazard and piecemeal fashion."
The Koch brothers issued a brief statement this morning to mark the occasion: "Teddy who?"
JEERS to a meeting of frauds. Speaker of the House and party boss Paul Ryan and Republican presidential candidate and party boss Donald Trump will sip tea, break bread, and pretend they're not both fucked this November. Seriously, these two idiots have no idea what they're doing---no map, no plan, no nothing. And now they're reduced to Politico coverage like this:
Donald Trump has seized control of the Republican Party, throwing verbal daggers in every direction, and offering little in terms of policy specifics as he waltzed through the GOP presidential primary.
They aren’t speaking different languages. They are from different planets. Ryan has never had a job outside of Washington; Trump hasn’t ever worked in Washington.
But now Ryan is having to contend with a reality: Trump is the party’s nominee, and there is nothing he can do about it. [...] There are two critical dynamics at play for Ryan in all of these decisions. Should he want another term as speaker of the House, he must keep in mind that he needs the support of 218 Republicans to keep the gavel. Hanging your party’s nominee out to dry is not the best show of unity.
Among those meeting with Trump today are Ryan's lieutenants Steve Scalise aka "David Duke Without the Baggage" and Kevin McCarthy, who blew his chance at the speakership by blabbing that the Benghazi hearings were just a Republican witch hunt against Hillary Clinton and, oh yeah, he also just became an official Trump delegate. There's your Daddy Party, America. Or, to be more precise: there's your Daddy Party staggering around drunk and asking lamp posts why no one loves him anymore.
CHEERS to the "Mad" Father of Broadcasting. 108 years ago today, Wireless Broadcasting was patented (#887,357) by Kentucky melon farmer Nathan B Stubblefield. It looked something like this. They called the early years of radio "golden" for a reason. Limbaugh hadn't signed on yet.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 12, 2006
JEERS to censoring the good guys. Reason #342-plus infinity why I hate the knuckledragger wing of the Republican party: Palm Beach County's school board has banned gay-friendly web sites like PFLAG and GLAAD...but “ex-gay therapy” sites are juuuust fine. But to be fair, liberal-dominated school boards all over the country have banned zero conservative web sites. See? It all evens out.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Thursday morning Carlin blogging. Raise whatever ya got handy and wish a Happy Birthday to the late George Carlin, who would've turned 79 today. He spent many a glorious decade dissecting language, culture, politics and human nature, wielding a comedic scalpal and jackhammer with equal dexterity. All the reason we need to take a moment to revisit a mere smidgeon of his comedic Esprit de George…
“It's the old American Double Standard, ya know? Say one thing, do somethin' different. And of course this country is founded on the double standard---that's our history! We were founded on a very basic double standard. This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.”
“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn---they will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.”
“One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, FLOOR.”
“The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and “Thou shalt not lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.”
“I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.”
“Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?”
“You know how you speed up baseball? Everybody gets one swing. That's it. One swing, fuck you, you're out, sit down.”
…and, of course, the (still not safe for work) seven dirty words you can’t say on TV. Nope. That’s what social media is for.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
It was a day of perceived gaffes for British leaders---both elected and royal. Just hours after Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on microphone labelling Nigeria and Afghanistan "fantastically corrupt," the monarch herself, Queen Elizabeth II, was heard disparaging Bill in Portland Maine.
---CBS News
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