From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Netroots Nation is only >> SEVEN << weeks away
Just a couple things this week as we await the announcement of keynoters and starting drag-race positions on Peachtree Street. The panels were announced last week, and they look great, says Mary Rickles:
Resistance organizing is front and center this year. You’ll find lots of great sessions on how progressives are pushing back on this administration’s policies and fighting for our families, our communities and our democracy.
Our panels feature activists from across the country, members of Congress, top practitioners, and those at the forefront of the latest Resistance efforts. Hope to see you in Atlanta!
Among them (adding that 69 percent of the speakers are people of color this year):
- Unkoch My Campus! Resisting the Political Corruption of Higher Education
- States Resisting: Working with State Lawmakers to Fight the Conservative Agenda
- Resistance Through the Courts: Our First Line of Defense Against Trump’s Agenda
- Pivoting Left: How We Win by Standing Up for Working Families and Embracing Progressive Values
- Nuts and Bolts Live: Down Ballot Campaigns 3.0
- Leaving It All on the Field: The Midterm Elections in the Resistance Era
- Take the Donkey by the Tail: How (and Why) to Take Over Your Local Democratic Party
You can check out the complete Netroots Nation agenda by clicking here.
Kossack Ed Tracey shared this great story in last Friday's C&J:
If you need another incentive to attend Netroots Nation in two months---even if you can only attend on a day-pass or so---I offer this flashback to when it was held in Minneapolis back in 2011:
On the Thursday of that event, I went to a baseball game at noon, which ended quickly (2:05 or so) and upon returning to the hotel (to find my room was being cleaned at the time) I went down to the hotel bar for a beer. I was the only one there at 3:00 PM, but the front of the bar was open, overlooking the hotel lobby. The woman working the hotel bar asked me if I was with “this group” and when I replied that I was, here is what she told me:
“Sir, we get a lot of conventions and groups that come in … but I can’t ever remember a group where so many people arrive with luggage to check-in but don’t reach the front desk before someone calls out their name, then runs over to hug them.”
The hug-a-thon starts in 49 days.
► Sign up for volunteer discounts and the scholarship program here.
► 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.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, June 22, 2017
Note: Thius mornbing I'm blogging in myy new Wells Lamont worjk glovges. hOOtay! No morew callkuses!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til War for the Planet of the Apes: 22
Days 'til the Roswell UFO Festival: 14
Trump's Gallup approval rating 5 months after taking office: 37%
Percent of Americans who do not want President Trump to halt or otherwise interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probes, according to a new CBS News poll: 81%
Percent in the same poll who believe Mueller’s investigation will be impartial: 56%
Number of the 10 European Union countries whose residents overwhelmingly support the EU, according to Pew polling: 9
Number of grey seals along coastal Massachusetts twenty years ago and today, respectively, according to The Portland Press Herald: 2,000 / 50,000
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom you can decide you don’t much care for.
Is the person who prescribes your eyeglasses qualified to do so? How deep will you be buried when you die? What textbooks are your children learning from at school? What will happen if you become seriously ill? Is the meat you're eating tainted? Will you be able to afford to go to college or to send your kids? Would you like a vacation? Expect to retire before you die? Can you find a job? Drive a car? Afford insurance? Is your credit card company or your banker or your broker ripping you off?
It's all politics, Bubba. You don’t get to opt out for lack of interest.
---October, 2002
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to being born! A hearty "Happy Birthday and many blessings on your camels" to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who turns [hffrrhffrrhrrr] today. Republicans fought tooth and nail to keep her from getting elected to the seat once occupied by the mighty Ted Kennedy, and it's easy to see why: her brains, common sense and willingness to expose the banksters as the scum-sucking vampire squids they are have made her the ideological North Star for the Democratic party and a huge swath of independents. Here she is in action last week:
Our official C&J birthday gift to Senator Warren: a newpair of shoes with spikes in the toes.
JEERS to getting a glimpse inside the dumpster. Oh, joy, kids, can’t ya just feel the anticipation. The mighty Old White Man's Health Care Plan will be released so we can all gaze our eyes upon its brilliance in solving our nation's shortage of money distribution among rich people:
In a political exercise that is coming down to the wire, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that a "discussion draft" of the bill that would repeal and replace Obamacare---which has so far been kept closely under wraps---will be released this Thursday.
The aim is to send final legislation to the Congressional Budget Office this week so that the CBO can review the bill and issue a report early next week before a vote that would likely happen next Thursday, June 29.
The abbreviated schedule is a dramatic bet that Republicans can secure the 51 votes they need to pass a bill that could hurt them politically with no guarantee it will ever become law. A failure would also be another setback for President Donald Trump, who has had few legislative wins to show in his first five months in office.
The good news: Democrats say they'll use every tool at their disposal to fight and defeat the giant money grab disguised as a health care bill. The bad news: their tools consist of a rusty hoe, a cheese grater, and a Garden Weasel with three tines missing. Once more unto the breech!
CHEERS to brain buds…from a tree! If you like olive oil (I love the stuff), here's some more good news on its health benefits:
Temple University research shows extra-virgin olive oil protects against memory loss, preserves the ability to learn and reduces conditions associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers at the college's Lewis Katz School of Medicine found mice with EVOO-enriched diets had better memories and learning abilities compared to the rodents who didn't eat the oil. […]
Also, olive oil reduces brain inflammation and activates the autophagy process, whereby intracellular debris and toxins are removed. Such debris and toxins are firm markers of Alzheimer's disease.
It’s the perfect substance to ingest for your health care. Specifically, to help you remember that Republicans took your health care away.
P.S. A little trick for remembering to buy the “extra-virgin” variety of olive oil: just picture a young Republican activist under 30.
CHEERS to supporting the troops. 73 years ago today, President Roosevelt---he of the super-awesome Democratic Party---signed the G.I. Bill of Rights:
Although World War II was far from over, FDR was determined to plan ahead for a smooth transition to peace, both abroad and at home. The President proposed to Congress a way to level the economic impact of the war’s end and to integrate returning veterans back into American society.
It rewarded servicemen for their sacrifices with low-cost loans, educational subsidies and other benefits. Kind of like what George W. Bush wanted to do for servicemembers during his wartime presidency...minus the low-cost loans, educational subsidies and other benefits. (But double the deployments!)
CHEERS to quick recoveries. The married lesbian Capitol Police officer who saved the life of homophobic racist Steve Scalise gets back in the game at the Congressional Women’s softball game:
The group raises money to fight cancer. Or as Republicans now call it: a pre-existing condition, oops, sorry, coverage denied.
JEERS to punishment via dumbstick. And then there's this little bit of scientific wankery, courtesy of the Catholic Church of yore. On June 22, 1633, Galileo Galilei was told that he had to "abjure, curse, and detest" his view that the earth revolved around the sun. Let's review the church's decree, shall we?
The proposition that the Sun is the center of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture.
The proposition that the Earth is not the center of the world and immovable but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith.
It took the Vatican over 350 years to admit their heads revolved around their asses. But they had a very good reason why: they were, like, busy with stuff.
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 22, 2007
CHEERS to bouncing toward the dustbin of history. Say this about George W. Bush: you might not like him but at least ya know where he stands. And right now he stands at 26 percent, the lowest approval rating of any president except Richard Nixon. But I gotta give him credit---he's working damn hard to earn it. You think destroying a republic in eight years is easy? He must be plumb tuckered out by now, and yet you know he won't be satisfied 'til he's in single digits. My money's on 9-point-9 by next April.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to a lifetime of teh funny. Hard to believe it was nine years ago when we got the news that George Carlin had died at 71. Seems appropriate to remember him with some of his zingers, of which this is, oh, maybe one-zillionth-of-one-percent of 'em:
I don’t believe in road rage; I prefer the gentle rebuke. If I don’t like the way someone is driving, I pull up alongside the other car and say, "I hope your children turn out poorly."
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You know what would have been a smart thing to do in these developing countries that need electricity? To have tried large-scale experiments with alternative energy sources: solar, wind, geothermal, etc. We could have tested and tried to perfect these technologies on a large scale in places that need it. That would have been smart. That's why we didn’t do it.
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People who see life as anything other than pure entertainment are missing the point.
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When it comes to God's existence, I'm not an atheist and I'm not an agnostic. I'm an acrostic. I'm puzzled by the whole thing.
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There's a message window that comes up on my computer screen whenever I type a command the computer doesn’t like. It says, "Fuck you, I don’t do that."
Oh, and it never hurts to revisit his decidedly un-work-friendly thoughts about those 7 famous words. Like a vuvuzela blast into the ear of a Puritan.
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:
Two-and-a-half miles below the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool, there is crushing pressure, total darkness and a collection of some of the strangest creatures on the planet---if you're willing to go find them.
---The Washington Post
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