From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
>>> 4 <<< Weeks 'til Netroots Nation 2019
We can finally say it: America's #1 annual progressive convention begins in one month (July 11-13 to be precise) in Philadelphia. Some big news in our weekly update, starting with this announcement from organizer extraordinaire Eric Thut:
“We’re partnering with Daily Kos to host a joint Presidential Candidate Forum during Netroots Nation. You’ll get a chance to hear from top 2020 hopefuls including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Gov. Jay Inslee—and we’ll be adding more candidates in the coming days. Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of Daily Kos, and Cheryl Contee, chair of the Netroots Nation Board of Directors, will moderate the forum, which is scheduled for Saturday, July 13.”
Read more about it in Carolyn Fiddler’s post. But before the forum, there'll be some excellent panels and training workshops. To see the list, click here. And for an overview of all the convention activities, including the legendary Chairman’s Pub Quiz, click here.
Late-Breaking Update! VIPs just announced: Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Deb Haaland, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Sen. Jeff Merkley, and Sen. Sherrod Brown. Damn. We may have a quorum.
► The Daily Kos/C&J Dinner is happening the evening before the start of the convention at Aqimero.
It's always a great time to catch up with old DKos friends, meet new ones, and together plot the socialist takeover of all the red states so we can force a miserable life of decent health care and livable wages on them. RSVP required: let Neeta know you're going via kosmail by clicking here. And you can see if your RSVP has been confirmed by checking the master list in her diary here.
► Cheesesteaks! Earlier this week we asked Daily Kos contributing editor, Netroots Nation board member, and proud Philadelphian Adam Bonin (aka “Adam B”) to recommend the best spots to nosh on Philly's signature vittle. He says...
Near the Convention Center: any of the stands at Reading Terminal Market will be fine (though, really, the roast pork and roast beef sandwiches at Dinic's are even better). A short cab ride away: Jim's South Street (4th and South). Great steaks, and also because things like this tend to happen there at 2-3 am.
A hike, during the day, but my goodness it's worth it: John's Roast Pork in South Philly. The gold standard. Absolutely transformative.
AVOID the neon Cheesesteak Junction with Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's. It's a tourist trap; the sandwiches are not that good. And especially avoid Geno's: while the owner who put up the sign saying "This is AMERICA, when ordering, speak English" passed away and the sign eventually came down, you can do better—morally and culinarily.
And it's important to understand the lingo. "Wit" means with onions, “widdout” means without onions. And don’t forget to specify your cheese: American, provolone or Cheese Whiz. (If you want the latter with onions, it’s “wiz wit.”)
► Sign up for volunteer discounts and the scholarship program here.
►Registration info is here. Hotel info is here.
► Follow Netroots Nation via Twitter here and evil Facebook here.
28 days and counting. Time to start finding alternative housing for the squirrels living in my steamer trunks. Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, June 13, 2019
Note: Today is Thursday the 13th. Not as unlucky as Friday, but we still recommend you take your lance with you when you leave the house. There's crazy people out there. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the first Democratic candidates debate (in Miami): 13
Days 'til the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, Michigan: 14
Trump's current approval rating among women, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll: 35%
Number of cases decided and pending, respectively, during this session of the Supreme Court: 45/24
Number of months Boeing has gone without any orders: 2
Current surplus of mangoes in the Philippines: 4.4 million pounds
Years as of today since analog television signals have been extinct: 10
Stanley Cup Final
St. Louis beats Boston 4 games to 3
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Another splendid example of how not to handle a problem was set by our Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Manners himself.
The Iraqi National Museum was looted by thieves after the DOD ignored pleas from archaeologists who had repeatedly warned of just that danger. At which point, any civilized government would say, "What a terrible thing: We're so sorry that happened. Even though it was not our fault, we--like all civilized people--regret and mourn the irreplaceable loss to the history of civilization." That's all that was needed.
Instead, Rumsfeld became defensive and then sarcastic, trying to belittle the loss. "My goodness," he said, affecting astonishment, "were there that many vases? Is it possible there were that many vases in the whole country?"
Is that what one says about the loss of artifacts from 7,000 years of civilization? Is this really the face of America we want to show the rest of the world?
---June 2003
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Oh fer…..
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CHEERS to fun with numbers. We don’t talk a whole lot about polling here in C&J, other than quick mentions in our "By the Numbers" section. But there's a ton of—oh, let's say interesting—polling at both the primary and general-election level, and I'd be shirking my duty as the world's #1 historitarian if I ignored what's happening out there, so let's recap in that inimitable Bill in Portland Maine way that has earned us zero Pulitzers:
Quinnipiac: The top six Democrats all beat Trump in a head-to-head matchup—Biden by a whopping 13 points.
Morning Consult-Politico poll (via email): "Joe Biden performs best against President Trump (44%-33%) in a hypothetical match-up. Bernie Sanders also performs strongly against Trump (42%-32%)."
Economist-YouGov poll: Nationally, Biden leads the primary contest at 26%, followed by Elizabeth Warren (16%) and Sanders (12%). But in an interesting twist, voters were asked who they'd be least enthusiastic about winning the nomination. In that contest, Sanders (21%) and Biden (19%) would be the most disappointing, while Kamala Harris (8%) and Warren (9%) would be the least-least-disappointing contenders.
Monmouth poll: Among likely Nevada caucus-goers, Biden tops the poll at 36%, followed by Warren (19%) and then Bernie (13%). The rest of the pack is in single digits.
Daily Kos Straw Poll: Elizabeth Warren tops the list for the first time, trouncing Bernie at 35% to his 26%, followed by Biden (11%) and Mayor Pete (10%).
And last but not least: Trump's own internals show him getting walloped next year. His handlers say that's totally false—he's actually getting "blistered." Duly noted. Beg pardon.
CHEERS to gun deaths. No, I don’t mean humans killed by the gun companies, I mean gun companies getting killed by humans. In this case, a gold star goes to the 2016 popular vote winner:
Firearms distributor United Sporting Cos. loaded up on guns ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, expecting a surge in sales would follow the election of a Democrat. Then Hillary Clinton lost. The miscalculation sparked a multi-year decline that has reached the courthouse steps in Delaware, where United filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. […]
The company had to discount its bloated inventory to stay competitive, trimming already thin margins, court papers show. It also lost discounts and volume rebates from top vendors as its heavy debt burden pressured the company’s balance sheet.
What can we say? Thoughts and prayers.
CHEERS to the anti-Clarence Thomas. On June 13, 1967, in an act of equal parts courage and smarts, Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. His 24 years on the bench worked out very well for America, and his previous work wasn't chopped liver, either:
After amassing an impressive record of Supreme Court challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, including the landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In this capacity, he wrote over 150 decisions including support for the rights of immigrants, limiting government intrusion in cases involving illegal search and seizure, double jeopardy, and right to privacy issues. [...]
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Marshall to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. Before his subsequent nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, Thurgood Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. Indeed, Thurgood Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.
And no one ever—ever—found a pubic hair on his Coke can.
CHEERS to having a good ear for—oh, what's the word?—listening. Less than a day after Jon Stewart and cancer-ridden 9/11 first responders made their heartbreaking plea for funding in front of a House subcommittee Tuesday, Democrats swarmed and sent the bill (providing 70 years of funding) through the Judiciary committee at the speed of light, with a full floor vote pending. Then Democrats will zap it over to the Republican-controlled Senate, where Mitch McConnell said yesterday, "We've always dealt with that in the past in a compassionate way." Let's pop into the wayback machine to 2015 and see that ol' McConnell compassion at work:
Frustrated first responders to the Sept. 11 terror attacks who have long-sought reauthorization of a program aimed at helping provide them with health care camped outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Wednesday to demand a vote on the measure. The move came after Senate Democrats accused McConnell of single-handedly blocking the legislation from being included in the long-term highway bill,
“It’s absolutely disgusting that we have to keep on coming back down here and to keep on begging, it’s like we’re beggars,” Anthony Flammia, a retired New York City Police Officer and 9/11 responder said outside McConnell’s office.
Word to the wise: don’t ask McConnell what he means when he explains how he deals with something"mercifully." You’re likely to find yourself with a grenade down your pants.
CHEERS to timely reminders. With Donald Trump's presidency in a death spiral of incompetence, intolerance, repugnance, malfeasance and aberrance, it's worth looking back and reminding ourselves—as political cartoonist Pat Bagley does—just how deep in it the previous president was in June of 2010:
I remember those dark yellow days and that smear-on-bread campaign. Such an ugly impeachment. Obstruction of ketchup. The republic was saved.
JEERS to the definition of sanctity in a right-wing marriage. Fifteen years ago, Rush Limbaugh's wife filed for divorce after 10 years. (He wanted to start having sex with the lights on, and she bolted like a filly in a lightning storm.) He's currently on wife #4. And with God as my witness, I am so sorry for that visual.
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 13, 2009
JEERS to the hits of the hater. Domestic terrorist James Von Brunn is resting, we hope, most uncomfortably in a D.C. hospital after killing a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum Wednesday. As his sorry background is being pieced together, C&J—in a crafty bit of blogger investigative reporting that should buy us a few months of silence from our traditional media critics—offers this exclusive look at the contents of his iPod, which we found buried under back issues of Goering's Girth-busting Gourmet Secrets:
White Christmas, The White Album, White Wedding, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Everything's Turning to White, White Hot, Nights in White Satin, White Horse, White Rabbit, Ride a White Swan, Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), and versions of Black or White and Ebony and Ivory edited down to remove all the words except "white" and "ivory"
And I'd pay good money to see the look on his face when he finds out that his favorite artist, Barry White, was really a black dude. They should probably have a defibrillation machine charged and ready. Or...not.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to everyone's favorite Uncle Arthur. Today marks the late comedian---he would prefer "comedic actor"---Paul Lynde's 93rd birthday. Regular C&J readers know I boast about him because he and I share the same hometown—Mt.Vernon, Ohio—and also a general distrust of politicians: "They talk in generalities and lies, and I think they’ve caused all our grief. … I hate thinking this because my dad loved politics." Paul wanted to be a serious actor, but he couldn't utter more than a few lines before everyone busted a gut...so that pretty much told him which way his winds of fortune were going to blow. Here are some classic zingers from the barely-closeted Center Square who, as Peter Marshall said,“made the world safe for sissies”…
Peter Marshall: Pride, anger, covetousness, lust, gluttony, envy, and sloth are collectively known as what?
Paul Lynde: The Bill of Rights.
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Peter Marshall: Can you get cheese from a buffalo?
Paul Lynde: Only at gunpoint.
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Peter Marshall: Nathan Hale, one of the heroes of the American Revolution, was hung. Why?
Paul Lynde: Heredity.
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Peter Marshall: According to the Constitution, what is the proper term for our form of government?
Paul Lynde: At the moment? Shaky.
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Peter Marshall: What was your grandmother probably trying to do when she drank a mixture of kerosene, sugar and onion juice?
Paul Lynde: We’ll never know. She blew up.
Want more? Here are 16 glorious minutes of Paul in action on Hollywood Squares. Gone but, as long as I'm around at least, never forgotten.
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
Fox News reporter startled by Trump’s Bill in Portland Maine-bashing rant: “I asked him a question about the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool and he just went off.”
---Raw Story
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