From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
ONE itty bitty week 'til Netroots Nation Atlanta!
Our last mega update on the 12th annual convention that got its start right here at li’l old Daily Kos. Deep breath and…..
► Added to the VIP list, which includes Senator Elizabeth Warren, Al Gore, “IronStache” Randy Bryce, the Indivisible team, and U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, Keith Ellison, Mark Pocan, Raul Grijalva and Jan Schakowsky, are former NAACP president and Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous, labor leader Dolores Huerta, environmental activist Tom Steyer, Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley, Washington AG Bob Ferguson, and former EPA environmental justice head Mustafa Ali.
► Among the film screenings is Atticus v. the Architect, which "exposes the underbelly of political corruption that led to what many call the malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman." Don will be there to host a Q&A session---the first time he's spoken publicly since his release from prison. There's also a screening of Dolores that will be attended by the legendary Dolores Huerta. Full list of screenings is here.
► On Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., EMILY's List is hosting a half-day training for pro-choice Democratic women thinking about running for office. Run to Win 101 includes topics like fundraising, building your brand, and developing your story. Interested in joining? Fill out this short form.
► The legendary Pub Quiz, sponsored by NextGen America, is Friday at 7 p.m., and the conference will close Saturday night with the annual karaoke party sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
► Your official Local's Guide to Atlanta is right here.
► Netroots Nation weather forecast for Atlanta: Thursday---Partly sunny and humid with scattered thunderstorms and highs in the mid-80s. Friday through Sunday---See Thursday.
► Here's Kossack Vicki's super-helpful and Nobel Prize-winning Netroots Nation spreadsheet, with all the panels, workshops, screenings and extra-curricular events. Click here to see it. For detailed info on the panels and panelists, click here.
► The Daily Kos caucus takes place in the Piedmont Room on Thursday, August 10th at 2:30. If nominated I will run. If elected I will serve. If offered a Twinkie I will nom nom nom.
► Public transportation (aka MARTA) info is here.
► The registration options include day passes if you can’t make it for the entire convention. Locals get a substantial discount, too. Click here for info.
► Official hotel room info is here.
► Follow Netroots Nation via Facebook here and Twitter here.
Whew! Fair winds and following seas to everyone heading to Atlanta for the big event. Don’t forget to tip your Pullman car porter.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, August 3, 2017
Note: Because of that damn blogger conference, C&J will be off next week. Back on Tuesday, August 15th. During our absence, feel free to drop by the Abbreviated Pundit Roundup and give 'em an earful, then listen to KagroX on Daily Kos Radio as he conquers the world with airwaves. (Benevolently, we hope.) Oh, and help yourself to the ripple.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til autumn: 50
Days 'til the Fancy Farm Picnic in Kentucky: 2
Drop in the annual limit of refugees allowed to enter the United States under Trump, down from 110,000: 50,000
Percent of voters (including 63% of Republicans) who support redrawing congressional district lines by a non-partisan panel, according to PPP: 68%
Amount by which a subject's waist size in a British study expanded when they only got six hours of sleep versus someone who got nine hours: 1.2 inches
Amount of sleep that resulted in the lowest waist circumference: 12 hours
Ground speed of this month's solar eclipse lunar shadow when it sweeps through central Nebraska: 1,747 mph
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:
1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it’s a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.
2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.
3) Single-payer health insurance.
This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.
---March, 2006
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Branch manager and assistant branch manager...
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CHEERS to the tightening of the vise. Oh, boy. Keeping track of Lord Dampnut's Dampnuttery is proving to be as tough as actually snagging a prize from one of those coin-eating claw machines. The latest bombshell---for the moment, anyway---reveals that he himself wrote the misleading "dog ate his homework" excuse note providing cover for his son Butthead's pre-election meeting with a gaggle of Russians who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. This despite his personal lawyer's insistence that Trump had nothing to do with the now-discredited press release or the meeting itself. CNN comes up with five questions that investigators will no doubt be pursuing:
1. What did Trump know [and] when?
2. Why did Trump attorney Jay Sekulow say Trump had nothing to do with the statement?
3. How did Trump construct such a carefully-worded [yet deliberately misleading] statement?
4. Why did Don Jr.'s lawyer say they "were fully prepared and absolutely prepared to make a fulsome statement" about the meeting [but were overruled by Don Sr.]?
5. Why did Trump feel the need to weigh in?
The revelation sinks the president's huge, oafish feet even deeper in the swamp muck. This shows he both knew about the Russia meeting and covered up his son's (and pretty boy Jared's) real motive for attending it. Today in the C&J cafeteria: obstruction pie a la moron.
CHEERS? to the new g-man in town. Look out, thugs, goons and other assorted bad guys! The Senate approved DOJ lawyer Christopher Wray as America's new FBI director this week, and he's ready to put you out of business with an up-armored snowplow and a little thing we like to call THE LAW! His most high-profile task will be to cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump campaign collusion with Russia (and whatever other horrors they dig up, including bodies). This HuffPo report gives me reason for cautious optimism:
Wray vowed in his confirmation hearing last month to remain independent and not be swayed by politics or pressure from the president. He also praised Muller as the “consummate straight shooter.”
He also worked with Comey on the government’s case in the Enron Corp fraud scandal in the early 2000s.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, both Democrats who served under President Barack Obama, endorsed Wray.
Wray's first official act, per FBI tradition: driving to the nearest county fair shooting gallery and blasting the red paper star out with a real Tommy gun while yelling, "Eat lead, Baby Face!!!"
CHEERS to reality-based pioneers. Today is John T.Scopes's 117th birthday. He's the Tennessee high school teacher who was taken to court (the famous Scopes Monkey trial) for teaching evolution in class. His Kentucky gravestone labels him "A Man of Courage"---the understatement of the century. Anyway, pay your respects here. It'll drive the fundamentalist wackos so crazy they'll be flinging poo at each other all day.
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA's site to see if Newt Gingrich has colonized the moon yet. Sorry to say the answer is no, so we'll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming. This month’s big event is the eclipse on the 21st, and here's NASA's Jane Houston Jones with a preview:
And don’t forget to go outside, think of Neil Armstrong, and wink at the full moon on the 7th. It's the law, and violators WILL get a visit from Christopher Wray and his snowplow.
JEERS to flinging poo at the People's House. Trump's law of quality assurance clearly states that "Anything that I don't personally own is crap, believe me." So naturally that extends to the national treasure known as the White House, which he described to a golfing magazine as "a real dump." While his base supporters get busy rewiring their brains to rationalize his outrageous and demonstrably-false statement, President Barack Obama's White House photographer Pete Souza fires back:
Although, in fairness: knowing that there are Sarah Palin, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent cooties still floating around, the atmosphere will stay kinda dumpy until Trump leaves office and the staff can fumigate the place. So BillyFact reluctantly rates his claim "half-true."
CHEERS to the world's greatest living crooner. Look up'class' in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Anthony Dominick Benedetto, aka Tony Bennett. I met him back in the early 90's when the Saginaw, Michigan radio station I worked at co-sponsored one of his Christmas concerts. He couldn’t have been more accommodating or charming. And he's also quite popular with the species Lumbricus terrestris:
Better yet, he's a card-carrying Democrat because "…the Hoover Administration left everybody so stranded. I have never gotten over that.” Bennett turns 91 today. We wish him many blessings on his camels, and we're glad he still wants to be around. Presumably long enough to watch Republicans pick up the pieces next year when somebody breaks their heart. (hint: rhymes with schmemocrats.)
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Nine years ago in C&J: August 3, 2008
CHEERS to happy choices. Yesterday on the DKos front page there appeared a series of posts about how the 2008 election resembles specific ones from the past. DHinMI says it's like 1932, Smintheus says it's like 1968, Devilstower says it's like 1976, and DemFromCT says it's like 1980. The overarching message: conditions are ripe for a Democratic landslide. Personally I hope it's like 1972 because that's the year I got a new bike for Christmas. Don't laugh---it had a banana seat.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the birth of a meta legend. And here we are in August, 2017. Police violence against blacks? Clusterfuck. North Korea? Clusterfuck. Republican-led government? Clusterfuck. Immigration reform, infrastructure, equal pay for women? Still a 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 today's date in 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 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.
Oh, and on August 3, 1996, ‘Macarena' started its 14-week reign at #1 on the Billboard pop chart...and changed our way of life forever. 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 has the voice of this country. The people of this country love him. Why wouldn’t they get in line?”
---Eric Trump
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