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.
On July 26, my Kitchen Table Kibitzing diary was about ice cream. Atlas Obscura had published a list of their readers’ picks of great independent ice cream shops and I was so pleased to read about one in Portland, where I live:
Now, Portland, OR where I live is well known for foodie goodness and the famous Portland artisan ice cream you may have heard of is Salt and Straw. But no, no, no no, no — that is not the one on the Atlas Obscura list. Instead, they highlight Fifty Licks, an ice cream venture with two bricks and mortar locations here in the SE of the city, plus food trucks. As you will see, Fifty Licks deserves the spotlight — for its activism as well as the excellence of its ice cream. Here is the Atlas Obscura entry:
Portland, Oregon
“[They] serve a variety of beautiful and interesting flavors of ice cream, several non-sorbet vegan flavors, beer floats, and sorbet cocktails. Also, they parked their truck so it was blocking the driveway of the ICE facility and served free ice cream to all the protesters, with a big sign that said, ‘NO FASCISTS.’”
Recommended: “Pirate (banana, molasses, dark rum).”
— Sascha
Now, I could wax poetic about Fifty Licks’ ice cream. Strawberry, Strawberry, strawberry! Oh, sweet Ceiling Cat, Fifty Lick’s strawberry ice cream is 60% strawberries — and not just any strawberries. They come from Oregon’s Hood River area and this ice cream is to die for! But I digress…
My point is, Fifty Licks used their ice cream truck as an instrument of political protest. And it was effective.
And sweet.
Another way of using an ice cream truck as an instrument of political protest has come to my attention and I must share it with you.
Ben Cohen (the Ben of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream) has a fresh idea. A brilliant idea. A delicious idea. Imagine an ice cream truck used as an electronic billboard, parked in strategic (and photogenic) places in Washington, DC, serving free ice cream to the people. This the entire text of an email I received from MoveOn yesterday. I wouldn’t ordinarily do this but I think this is something that could be extremely effective — and I will explain why I think that after you take a look at this.
Hi there!
It's Ben. Which Ben? The ice cream guy … that one from Ben & Jerry's!
I can't tell you how sick I am of the big baby in the White House mouthing off about the Mueller investigation "witch hunt."
Because you know what? That investigation is working! Robert Mueller is uncovering crimes, netting indictments, and getting guilty pleas—including the bombshell announcement from Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort that he will cooperate with the investigation, announced just last Friday. The fact that the investigation is so effective, moving closer and closer to Trump himself, is probably why he's so bothered by it.
But Trump's tweets are the thing in the headlines, not all the news about how much muck Mueller is finding.
So let's change that.
Imagine an ice cream truck attached to a giant billboard keeping a running tally of the number of indictments, guilty pleas, and guilty verdicts, parked in strategic places in Washington, D.C.—outside the White House, across the street from Senate office buildings, next to the Watergate Hotel, and in front of the Russian embassy—shining a spotlight on all of the wrongdoing that Mueller's investigation is uncovering.
Now imagine if that billboard, along with news on the Mueller investigation, gave out free ice cream with flavors whose names call attention to the various indictments! (Everything is always better with ice cream, right?)
That ice-cream-slinging billboard could be a reality!
Right now, MoveOn is working to launch a democracy-defending, corruption-exposing ice cream truck in Washington, D.C., that will broadcast the latest count of indictments and guilty pleas in a real-time, social-media-friendly, visual, attention-grabbing way.
Imagine Americans from all walks of life sharing photos and comments about the truck wherever they see it, and the truck becoming a fixture on local and national news. And if the idea catches on, MoveOn will have even bigger impact by sending GUILTY PLEA-SURES on the road for a month this fall, before the midterms in November. Here is a sneak-peak of our new logo
Will you chip in $3 to help us go on the road to advertise Mueller's success, counter Donald Trump's and Giuliani's lies, defend democracy ... and have some delicious fun in the process?
MoveOn, its members, and allies are fighting to defend the Mueller investigation on many fronts: They're flooding Congress with calls, producing videos with legal experts that are being seen hundreds of thousands of times, and making sure that Republicans know that there will be political consequences for putting Trump above the law.
But we need to do more. So why ice cream?
- We need to break through the noise. Trump and Giuliani are loud. Noisy. They take up a lot of media space. So MoveOn needs to do something that gets attention. A mobile billboard in the nation's capital—that could travel to other media hotspots—can grab attention. And it will be designed to capture the public imagination—so folks will share, tweet, and post about it.
- We need public awareness. Right now, the investigation feels removed to too many Americans. So MoveOn will invite folks to have ice cream—meeting them where they are, engaging them directly in a discussion of the real criminal activity that the Mueller investigation is uncovering, and asking them to share on social media, so that the conversation spreads even farther.
- It's all about the numbers. Thirty six indictments. Fifteen guilty pleas. Eight felony convictions. The more people know these numbers, the more MoveOn will be able to protect Mueller's investigation and hold Trump and his cronies accountable.
- It'll drive the right wing crazy. Seriously: The funny, catchy ideas can grab attention—and drawing the right-wing media and even Trump himself into a social media scrape can only help promote the impact of Mueller's work.
MoveOn is launching GUILTY PLEA-SURES on top of all of the crucial work that it's already doing—to supplement the calls, actions, traditional media work, video production, and more. But to make this extraordinary, necessary ice cream truck a reality, we need your help:
Will you pitch in $3 now to get MoveOn's mobile-billboard ice cream truck on the road?
Thanks for all you do.
–Ben Cohen
Why do I think this will work? Because I have experience with large exhibits and I know that if they are well done, they have great power to inform and persuade. Once upon a time, many, many moons ago, I worked as a paralegal for a well-known DC law firm — and got to go to trial with one of the top litigators in the country. It was a big case — several former asbestos manufacturers suing pretty much the entire insurance industry for coverage of third party claims. It was tried in San Francisco and went on for over four years, pretty much a grand opera of law, with seats for about a hundred attorneys in an old high school auditorium (the case was far too big for a regular courtroom). It was there that I learned the value of enormous, colorful, clear and simple, very graphic trial exhibits. Heck, I designed some of them! Put up a big chart at the front of the room and no one can look at anything else, believe me. Leave it up there while the other side is presenting their case — and all attention will still be on that exhibit. Simple information, graphically presented, is the successful advocate’s good friend. People can’t help but look at it. It is extremely persuasive.
Now, envision an enormous, colorful, simple and clear electronic exhibit that also serves delicious ice cream? Pictures of which are sure to be shared across social media, posts that will go viral? Sheer Brilliance! People will not only see the sign, they will actively search for the truck.
Imagine something like this on that truck (my thought):
Mueller investigation, 9/20/18
INDICTMENTS: 36
GUILTY PLEAS: 15
FELONY CONVICTIONS: 8
and counting...
A series of photos of the truck over time would be striking. One could see the numbers steadily going up.
My opinion? This project deserves whole-hearted support!
The weekend begins now. Come in, be comfortable and share your day, your weekend plans, your menus with friends. This is an open thread.