From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
What??? Only >>> 10 <<< Weeks 'til Netroots Nation?
Yupper—70 days 'til the July 11-13 convention in Philadelphia, and things are starting to come together. Here are some tidbits to kick off our weekly Thursday C&J countdowns to the big event, which—spoiler alert—will likely be even bigger this year given that it's happening smack-dab in the middle of the primary season:
» Training sessions have been announced and, as usual, they're top-notch. Among the topics:
★ Open Canvassing: Tech and Techniques Developed During Ocasio 2018
★ Messaging and Media 101: Sharing Your Vision in a Fast-changing Media Landscape
★ Equity in Tech: Building Leadership of Women and People of Color
★ Creative Digital Advertising
★ The Power of the Pod: Podcast Activism
★ Security 101: Securing Your Organization Against Hackers, Trolls and Bad Actors
★Rapid Response Communications
Click here to see the full list of training sessions and their moderators. The full list of panel sessions will be announced soon.
» Congratulations to new NN board chairwoman Cheryl Contee. Cheryl is the first woman of color to serve as board chair. Says Executive Director Eric Thut: "If you don't know Cheryl, she has been involved with Netroots Nation—and the broader Netroots community—since the very beginning. She's served on our Board, been a speaker and trainer at numerous conferences, volunteered her time and resources, and even moderated a keynote conversation with Nancy Pelosi in 2010." Read more about her impressive background here.
» In case you missed it, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who took time out of his schedule to join us at the conventions in Las Vegas in 2006 and 2010, sent along his thanks for the community quilt he received from Daily Kos in March. (Reid is battling pancreatic cancer.) This moment—and its aftermath—from the 2010 conference remains one of the most memorable in the 13-year history of Netroots Nation, and still packs a punch. That’s our own Joan McCarter talking with Reid at the beginning:
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» Important links: Registration link here. Volunteers and scholarships link here. Hotels link here. NN19 Twitter link here. Evil Facebook link here. Lance Link link 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, May 2, 2019
Note: Happy Birthday, Jed Lewison, wherever you are! And many blessings on your camels.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Lost Sock Memorial Day: 7
Days 'til the Reno River Festival: 9
Percent of registered voters who favor and do not favor, respectively, a public option in Obamacare so they can go with a government health insurance plan instead of a private plan, according to an AP-NORC poll: 53%, 17%
Voter turnout among Democrats aged 18-29 in the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, respectively: 20%, 36%
Percent chance that the company that makes Toblerone and Cadbury chocolate will start being made with 100% sustainable cocoa: 100%
Number of the late John Singleton's movies that were scored by John Williams: 1 (Rosewood)
Latest date by which Burger King will be selling its vegetarian Whopper nationwide: 12/31/19
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
In another interesting development from President Bush's news conference, if you make more than $20,000 a year, you are wealthy.
That's what the president said -- "wealthy."
Would you hire this man as an investment consultant? Bush said, "I know some Americans have reservations about investing in the stock market, so I propose that one investment option will consist entirely of treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government."
These are exactly the same treasury bonds that currently guarantee Social Security and have been described by Bush, including in the very same press conference, as a cabinet full of "worthless IOUs."
---May, 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: If you insist…
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CHEERS to poll dancing. I know, I know. It's early. Polls don’t mean anything. They're just a snapshot of the past, not the present or the future. Those who live by the poll, die by the poll. All true. But if you take some good drugs these results are FREAKIN' WILD, MAN…
Poll #1 Nearly a third of self-described conservatives and 1 in 6 Republicans say they will not vote to give Donald Trump a second term as president,according to a poll released Monday. The ABC News/Washington Post numbers are the latest evidence Trump will have a tough time remaining in the White House beyond January 2021, GOP critics of the president said. “He’s hemorrhaging Republicans and conservatives,” said John Weaver, who ran former Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 2016 campaign.
Poll #2 Wisconsin voters were asked: "Would you definitely vote to reelect Trump, probably vote to reelect Trump, probably vote for someone else or definitely vote for someone else?" 42 percent said definitely/probably Trump. 54% said definitely/probably someone else. (Marquette University Law School poll)
Poll #3 President Trump’s career average approval rating remains the lowest on record for a president at this point in office in polls dating to the Truman administration in the mid-1940s. (Langer Research-ABC News)
Margin of error for all three polls: the distance between Trump's ears.
CHEERS to...Lindsey Graham??? At yesterday’s grilling of Attorney General William Barr, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said all that needed to be said. They could’ve packed up and gone home after this moment. CAUTION: Lindsey Graham is using his smoke-filled-back-room words, so this is not safe for work:
I hear it took half an hour and an entire box of smelling salts to revive Senator Feinstein.
P.S. Barr begs your forgiveness, but he won’t be able to make it to today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing. His exact words, according to his statement: ”Bwok bwok bwoooook.”
CHEERS to standing up to the haters. The first Somali-American and one of the first Muslims to serve in Congress is tired of Trump and the way he stokes the mad-cow-addled brains of his violence-prone rally attendees and twitter followers (the ones that aren’t Russian bots, anyway). So this week she and her allies held a rally on the steps of the Capitol and spoke a little truth-to-corrupted-power:
“We are collectively saying your vile attacks,your demented views are not welcome here,” Omar said at a rally.
“The thing that upsets the occupant in the White House, his goons in the Republican Party, many of our colleagues in our Democratic Party, is that ... they cannot stand that a refugee, a black woman, an immigrant, a Muslim shows up in Congress thinking she’s equal to them.” […]
The event on Tuesday featured several notable allies of the Omar, including civil rights icon Angela Davis and activist Barbara Ransby. Omar said it wasn’t meant to be a “pity party” for herself, but organizers wanted a show of strength.
“This is for us to say that if you come after one of us, you come after all of us,” Omar said. “If I survived militia, I certainly can survive these people.”
If it's any help, ma'am, I have at my command a platoon of Ninja squirrels highly trained in---this is from page 78 of Sun Tzu's The Art of War---gnawing the nuts off nincompoops at night. Just say the word and I’ll chatter the coordinates.
CHEERS to the days of lollipops and surpluses. On May 2, 1997, President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years. Said Newt Gingrich of the bipartisan agreement: “This is a great moment for our children and our grandchildren and our country, and we are proud to be part of that.” Fourteen years later, as a presidential candidate, Gingrich foolishly raised his hand when asked if he would veto a budget with ten dollars in cuts for every 1 dollar in revenue increases. But in fairness, he did also offer jobs to our children and grandchildren. As janitors. On the moon. Amazingly, he didn’t become president.
JEERS to fiendish falsehoods. According to the Christian site Charisma News, the rise of technology such as 5g and Siri will bring about the rise of the anti-Christ in the near-future. It's a bold claim, so I had our crack team of researchers look into it (in exchange for a few handfuls of kibble), and we've concluded that we have no choice but to rate this claim PANTS ON FIRE. After all, Mitch McConnell has been with us since 1942.
CHEERS to legendary ledger keepers. Economist and “unabashed liberal” John Kenneth Galbraith died 13 years ago this week at 97. He served as an adviser to presidents from Roosevelt to Clinton, and left behind some snarky bits, too:
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.”
“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”
“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.”
“Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative.”
Painfully aware indeed. Brother, you said a mouthful.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 2, 2009
JEERS to confounding the congresswoman from Minnesota...again. How much do we marvel at the astonishingly small number of neurons firing in Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann's head? We're still counting the ways. Here's #392: Monday she accused Franklin Roosevelt of causing the Great Depression by ramming through the "Hoot-Smalley tariffs". Um...not quite:
Here's what really happened: When Franklin Roosevelt took office, unemployment was already about 25%. And the tariff referred to here was actually the Smoot-Hawley bill, co-authored by Republicans Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah and Rep. Willis Hawley of Oregon, and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.
I'm sure Ms. Bachmann regrets the error and will refresh her memory by reviewing her 5th-grade history book. Or as she calls it: "My trusty doorstop."
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And just one more…
CHEERS to clearing up the confusion. If you’re mind is a tangled mess over all the goings-on in Game of Thrones, which we’re all now legally-obligated to watch, you’re not alone! I watched Sunday night’s big battle with the white walkers and it was so muddled and dark I had no idea what was going on or who it was going on to. So kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for alerting us to the help-line that’s available to clear it all up:
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I called and got my question answered right away. I was floored. Who knew the walrus was actually Ringo?
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
GOP senator "not enthused" by Bill in Portland Maine's Cheers and Jeers: "I think it's ridiculous"
---The Hill
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