Netroots Nation '22 Update: Panels Announced
After successfully going all-virtual the last two years due to the pandemic, the Netroots Nation organizers are bringing back their live, in-person event this year—NN22 is happening August 18-20 in Pittsburgh.
Everything that makes the convention one of the wonders of the modern world is on the schedule: practical training sessions, A-list keynoters, and blue-ribbon panels featuring experts with an amazing amount of smarts between their ears. If you're wondering what kind of panel sessions are on the schedule this year, look no further than below the fold, because they've just been announced and we've got a preview and the magic link to all of ‘em.
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Goddess Mary Rickles delivers the goods...
This year's event includes conversations about the upcoming midterms and strategies to win; conversations about protecting democracy both here and abroad; and sessions digging into pressing issues—from abortion access and police reform to climate change and gun reform.
Here is a sampling of our panels for 2022 (you can view both panels and trainings here):
- Big Tech's Threat to Democracy: The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media
- Solving the Climate Crisis Starts With Combating Disinformation
- Building a Movement for Gun Violence Prevention
- Factory Towns: How to Win Back the Toughest Demographic Clusters
- Disinformation and the Vote: Defending the Ballot Box in a Post-Truth World
- Defenders of Democracy: The Battle for Choice at the State and Local Level
- Our Voices: Fathers of Children Killed by Law Enforcement Speak Up
- Starbucks Workers United, Young Workers, and the Future of the Labor Movement
Stay tuned for keynoters and other fun stuff in future updates. Until then, make sure your reservations are locked in and your walkin' shoes are getting properly broken in. And follow NN on Twitter here and on Facebook here.
And now, our feature presentation...
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Cheers and Jeers for Monday, June 20, 2022
Note: Major mishap at shaving cream factory. Foam at 11.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the midterm elections: 141
Days 'til the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival in Dover-Foxcroft: 5
Number of days in 2022 when police didn’t kill someone: 4
First-time unemployment claims reported last week, 3,000 fewer than the previous week and the lowest since 1970: 229,000
High temperature in Portland, Maine yesterday: 55F
Years Internet Explorer was active before it was retired last week: 27
Age of the Leap-the-Dips rollercoaster (the world's oldest) in Altoona, Pennsylvania: 120 yrs.
Stanley Cup Finals
Colorado leads Tampa Bay 2 games to 0.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Guardian Teddy…
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CHEERS to little pricks for little pricks. Those darn kids, with their Sesame Street, their Barney, their Teletubbies, their Chutes and Ladders, and their Ovaltine. All they do is take take take, getting their way every damn time as our country spirals down the plastic potty-training commode thanks to their unfettered greed. And now they're coming for our Covid-19 vaccines with help from the obviously-bribed-with-candy federal government that's been in the pocket of their OshKosh B'Goshes since the beginning:
On Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on Covid vaccines for the youngest Americans. Her endorsement means shots can begin immediately, finally ending the two-and-a-half year wait on the part of parents of children under 5.
President Biden responded to the announcement Saturday hailing it as a "monumental step forward."
"For parents all over the country, this is a day of relief and celebration," Biden said. "As the first country to protect our youngest children with COVID-19 vaccines, my Administration has been planning and preparing for this moment for months, effectively securing doses and offering safe and highly effective mRNA vaccines for all children as young as six months old."
I'm planning a Million Geezer March on the National Mall this summer to stop this malignant transfer of serum from the grizzled doers and makers to the doe-eyed moochers and takers. Sign the petition!
VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE: I've just been informed that these children will one day be paying into our Social Security fund, so upon reflection we have decided that they should not only get the Covid vaccine, they should get a double dose along with cookies and cake and Ovaltine.
VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE TO THE VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE: Okay, fine. And you can play on my lawn. When did we start sending these little fuckers to negotiation pre-school?
CHEERS to bad news for invisible bearded sky dude no one has ever seen. Sorry-not-sorry, God, but we're just not that into You anymore. Perhaps it's because there are so many versions of You, each with contradictory rules and "laws." Perhaps it's because of all the rank hypocrisy, as not a day passes where some church "leader" who claims to speak for you gets busted for being a hypocritical lowlife grifter or sex fiend. Perhaps it’s because of the grotesque way in which organized religion on the right being used to promote massive lies and overthrow the government. Whatever it is, Americans are tired of the bullshit and are breaking up with You in droves:
A new Gallup poll out on Friday shows that Americans’ belief in God has dropped to its lowest level since the poll began asking the question in 1944.
The poll summary notes that between 1944 and 2011 more than 90 percent of Americans believed in God. The 2022 numbers, gathered between May 2-22, found that 81 percent of Americans currently say they believe in God, a 6-point drop since 2017—when the poll was last conducted. […]
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[R]ural Americans saw the largest drop in belief in God. “Town/Rural residents” saw a 7 percent decline in belief in God between 2017 and 2022—going from 89 percent to 82 percent.
As a newly-ordained religious leader ("The Church of Billeh"), I believe the message is clear. Stop believing in God, people. Or He will smite you. Also send me lots of money. It’s called tithing. Look it up. Totally legit. I prefer pallets of twenties.
CHEERS to seals that can’t balance a beach ball on their nose. On June 20, 1782, the Great Seal of the United States was finally adopted by Congress. They sure took their sweet time getting there:
On July 4, 1776,the same day that independence from Great Britain was declared by the thirteen states, the Continental Congress named the first committee to design a Great Seal, or national emblem, for the country.
Similar to other nations, The United States needed an official symbol of sovereignty to formalize and seal (or sign) international treaties and transactions. It took six years, three committees, and the contributions of fourteen men before the Congress finally accepted a design (which included elements proposed by each of the three committees) in 1782.
Taking our annual inventory: 13 stars, 13 stripes, 13 arrows in the eagle’s talon,13 letters in the mottos "e pluribus unum" and "annuit coeptis," 52 total letters on it (which is divisible by 13), 13 olive leaves, 13 olives on the branch, 13 levels in the pyramid, and 13 sides showing on the ribbon. But designer Charles Thomson stopped short of including a black cat walking under a ladder. That would've been considered unlucky.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to leveling the playing field. 58 years ago yesterday, the Civil Rights Act of 1964—now extended to protect LGBTQ citizens—was approved by the Senate 73-27 after making it through a 57-day Dixiecrat filibuster:
"One hundred and eighty-eight years ago this week a small band of valiant men began a long struggle for freedom," [President Lyndon] Johnson told the nation.
"Now our generation of Americans has been called on to continue the unending search for justice within our own borders." The analogy was unmistakable. The president was comparing the work of the Founding Fathers with that of the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King, who was present at the White House signing ceremony, also had no doubts about the significance of the day or about Lyndon Johnson's role in making the civil rights bill law. "It was a great moment," King declared, "something like the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln."
When Johnson signed it he reportedly said, "It is an important gain, but I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come." A regular Nostradamus in a Stetson, that guy.
CHEERS to great moments in freedom. And speaking of civil rights, on June 19, 1862—aka the now-federal-holiday Juneteenth—slavery was outlawed in the existing and future federal territories. (See a handwritten order recently discovered at the National Archives here.) For such a groundbreaking event, the language was pretty straightforward:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the Territories of the United States now existing, or which may at any time hereafter be formed or acquired by the United States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
The good news: that was a long time ago. The bad news: not long enough.
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 20, 2012
CHEERS to Barack Obama: International Man of Diplomacy. Shortly after his supposedly "icy" meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, the Obama team announced that a cargo ship shuttling attack helicopters to Syria for use against the rebels was turning around and heading back home:
Ostensibly, the MV Alaed turned around after its insurance coverage was pulled. But the ship’s return coincides with a meeting between Obama and Vladimir Putin—a sign the two leaders may be starting to cooperate on what to do about Syria’s deadly war.
Here's what I think happened. Instead of looking into Putin's soul and swooning the way his predecessor did, Obama looked into Putin's beady eyes and used his smarts and sharp instincts to diffuse the situation…and both came out looking pretty good. That ain't icy. That's just cool.
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And just one more…
JEERS to the Night of A Thousand New Coronavirus Cases. Feel free to skip this—it has to do with "him." But there's no way we can't revisit June 20, 2020, a date which will live in infamy.
Two years ago our COVID death toll stood at 122,000 on its way, thanks to dithering and moronic Republican cult management, to over a million-plus. And what did our face-painted moron-in-chief decide would be a great idea in the middle of all the chaos and death? Of course—a MAGA rally with no mask mandate or social distancing rules because NO ONE TELLS REPUBLICANS WHAT TO DO THEY TELL YOU WHAT TO DO! Trump flew Air Force One down to Tulsa, having pre-boasted of "a million ticket registrations," only to discover that a few thousand bothered to show up.
Among the few in attendance for Trump's sweaty, nonsensical hour of gaslighting was former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, whom Trump rewarded for joining his merry band by exposing him to COVID and killing him. What a friend. Only the best thoughts and prayers, believe me.
As a disheveled and depressed Trump slumped across the White House lawn and back to his room for a night of rage-tweeting while the world laughed at his pathetic spectacle, this guy—Mike Brooks—was deemed the smartest one in the arena:
Seven months to the day later, Trump would again slump across the White House lawn, this time to board Marine One as the roundly-defeated one-term, twice-impeached ex-president whose approval never reached 50 percent and who almost died from COVID himself. And we all lived happily ever after. Except Herman Cain and 1,038,264 other Americans. The End.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
”Actually I suppose Bill in Portland Maine is colorfully masculine yet not at all manly—a screaming meemie instead of a steady bomber pilot.”
—Peggy Noonan
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