Good evening, Kibitzers! I’m giving notice up front that there’s a ferocious line of thunderstorms going through here as I write this Tuesday evening. Now I have finished writing, but if I lose power, I may not show up in the thread!
I had the good luck to attend Netroots Nation in New Orleans last week, as most of you know. When I go to such things, I try hard not to see the whole thing through a camera — it’s easy for OCD Girl to get way too focused on getting pictures of everything, and fail to be in the moment. So I missed photographing lots of sights and lots of well-loved people, and I hope some of my deficiencies will be made up in diaries by other attendees.
I did take enough pictures that I am splitting the food, and some restaurant-related sights, out into next week’s diary, so this one will focus more on Netroots itself. Only a couple have appeared in an earlier New Day Cafe (a title I have to reach for because I always think of it as “New Day Tea”). Please join me for my vacation pictures, which I hope is not as obnoxious as it sounds. And also, please note that next year’s Netroots Nation is in Philadelphia on July 11-13, 2019 (presumably with C&J Dinner on July 10), and that you can register now and save money on the limited early-bird rate. (Special hotel rates will open up later.) Please come!
When I booked a hotel room in the convention block, I found that one could get a “river view” room for a little extra, so I went for it. The room had such a nice view that people had to come up and look.
Some of us got there on Tuesday so we’d have a bit more time in the city. A group went to dinner Tuesday night at a fabulous place called Tujague’s, the second-oldest restaurant in New Orleans (founded in 1856). A dish of theirs will appear next week, but this week, you get the diners.
The arch gets built on Wednesday afternoon, and the convention opens Thursday morning.
Some sponsor (I’m thinking maybe Working Families Party?) arranged for a “Second Line” parade through the exhibit area on Thursday afternoon. I’m not sure you can exactly have a Second Line without the First Line, since the First Line is supposed to be the official parade, while the Second Line dances along after it and observers are encouraged to join. However, this event was billed as a Second Line, and it had a brass band and some dancers in beautiful costumes, and people did indeed join in and have fun!
Our own Neeta Lind appeared on a Native Women’s panel with, among other distinguished women, our terrific candidate for US congress in New Mexico, Deb Haaland, who could use your help at that link to get elected. Why yes, that is Meteor Blades in the front row.
At another panel, I made the acquaintance of Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, former bass singer of 70s doo-wop revival group Sha Na Na. (Their name comes from the song Get a Job.) If you are too young to be familiar, this Blue Moon performance from the early 70s, featuring then-25-year-old (Julliard-trained) Bowzer doing his full-on schtick, including his trademark mugging at the end, will explain much for you about my shot of 70-year-old Mr. Bauman below.
In any case, Mr. Bauman is not only a very nice man but a very active California Democrat, who was in fact leafleting for today’s OH-12 special election at the time I approached him.
Later, I went to the registration desk because I wanted to get a pic of our well-loved MsSpentyouth, who works her butt off at that desk at every NN. It turned out that she was deep in conversation with Mr. Bauman and Christine Pelosi. It seemed rude to ask those two to step aside, so I came back later.
And there she was, MsSpentyouth! This wonderful woman is not just sick as a dog, she is sicker than a dog could probably even get. But she never gives up, she never stops smiling, and she never, ever stops her political activism, not for a minute. We need about a million of her. If you happen to have a few extra bucks, her health situation is pretty dire. I see that the YouCaring links in her diaries I’ve linked don’t work (because YouCaring has been sucked up by GoFundMe), but I bet she’d answer a kosmail.
The lovely Cathedral of St. Louis is the iconic backdrop of Jackson Square in the French Quarter, a public space that has been there literally since the streets in New Orleans were laid out. The park was later named in honor of Andrew Jackson, owing to his success in the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. I had to walk halfway around the damn thing just to get a shot of the pretty cathedral without Jackson in it, and managed to get one that includes only his horse’s ass (at left), which I think is about right.
Finally, no NN is complete without a first night “toes” photo, which, uh, stands on its own.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by and tell us about your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
|
🌟 GOTV 🌟
🌟 POSTCARDING: If you are looking for a way to help and can’t do things like canvassing or phoning, consider hand-writing postcards asking people to vote. It’s easy because you’re given specific talking points from the campaign you’re working with, so you don’t have to think up what to say, and no one will be coming back at you with questions. And if you like to color, you can get creative decorating the cards. Note that you are responsible for buying postcards (and stamps if you don’t use pre-stamped ones.) Postcard stamps are 35 cents each; pre-stamped postcards from USPS are 39 cents each; two pretty designs. To get started:
🌟 CONFIRM YOU ARE REGISTERED, REPEAT REGULARLY, AND GET YOUR FAMILY AND OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!!
- Many kossacks have been surprised to find that their or a family member’s registration has mysteriously disappeared, even though it had been active. Don’t wait until too late to catch and correct this bullshit.
- HEADCOUNT.ORG will direct you to your state’s Department of State/Division of Elections (or similar) webpage, which is the horse’s mouth, as it were. My state page shows me as registered at my current address, for example.
- VOTE.ORG looks you up in its own database, which they admit is older than states’ databases. They do not show me as registered at my current address.
- Or, google something like “am I registered to vote” plus your state, and go to your state government’s page directly.
🌟 FOLLOW Yosef 52: Several times every day, the dauntless Yosef 52 posts GIANT resource diaries, containing links for virtually every Democrat who is running this November for just about anything north of dogcatcher. At the end, there are links to online tools for taking a wide variety of action. Please rec and share these diaries as you can, to get more eyes on these resources, and also, don’t forget to make use of them if you’re looking for a candidate to help or a way to help them!
|
It is now Day 68 of the new hurricane season.
Puerto Rico has already sort of dodged one hurricane, although Beryl’s remains did knock out power to 60,000 customers. Mind you, this was a storm that the NWS declared no longer anything and quit tracking over the weekend, but its remaining rain and wind were enough to black out 60,000 customers of the jury-rigged grid.
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI. Denise’s most recent Puerto Rico diary is here. She generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads, as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos. See also his lovely and heartbreaking poem.
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
|