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DNC Convention 2024: Day 1

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

The Democratic National Committee Convention 2024 opened today at United Center in Chicago IL.

Expect both the traditional and the unconventional given the attendees and keynotes as well as the organizers behind this four-day event.

Here’s today’s convention schedule (times shown are Central Time):

7 a.m.-9:30 a.m.: Delegation breakfasts
9 a.m.-10a.m.: Morning press briefing
9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Black Caucus meeting
9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Hispanic Caucus meeting
9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: AAPI Caucus meeting
9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Native American Caucus meeting
9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Ethnic Council meeting
12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: LGBTQ+ Caucus meeting
12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Small Business Council meeting
12 p.m.-1:30 p.m.: Labor Council meeting
1:45 p.m.-3:15 p.m.: Environmental & Climate Crisis Council meeting
5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.: Main programming

Main programming has already begun.

Best channels on which to catch the majority of this evening’s programming:

• C-SPAN will carry the entire convention uninterrupted for all four days.

• CBS News’ primetime coverage of the convention will air Monday through Thursday from 8-11 p.m. ET and be anchored by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell.

…

• CNN will provide nearly 24/7 live on-air coverage of the DNC, including special live coverage each night from 8 p.m.-midnight ET with “CNN Democratic National Convention.”

• NewsNation will have special primetime coverage entitled “Decision Desk 2024: The Democratic National Convention,” which will air each day from 8 p.m.-midnight ET. It will be co-anchored by Chris Cuomo, Elizabeth Vargas and Leland Vittert.

…

• MSNBC will air special coverage from 8 p.m. to midnight each night and will also livestream all four days of the convention on its YouTube channel, the New York Times reports.

(source for schedule and channel lineup: USA Today)

The other networks including MSNBC’s parent have highly abbreviated coverage.

Tonight’s speaker line up already in progress (via ABC channel 6):

5:15 p.m.

• Call to Order: Minyon Moore, chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee, Jaime R. Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee
• Invocation: Cardinal Blase Cupich, archdiocese of Chicago
• Land Acknowledgement: Zach Pahmahmie, Tribal Council Vice-Chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and Lorrie Melchior, Tribal Council Secretary of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
• Presentation of Colors: Illinois State Police Honor Guard
• Pledge of Allegiance: William Harrison, 9, and Charles Harrison, 5
• National anthem: Soul Children of Chicago
• Remarks and video introduction: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
• Presentation of the Convention Agenda: Jaime Harrison joined by vice chairs Keisha Lance Bottoms, Ken Martin, and Henry R. Muñoz III, Treasurer Virginia McGregor, and Finance Chair Chris Korge
Confirmatory and Ceremonial Vote for the Vice Presidential Nominee: Minyon Moore

6 p.m.

• Welcome remarks: Peggy Flanagan
• Welcome Remarks: Jaime Harrison
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters
• Joint Remarks: Derrick Johnson, President & CEO of the NAACP and Melanie L. Campbell, President & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
• Honoring the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr, accompanied by Jonathan Jackson and Yusef D. Jackson.
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood
• Video: Rich Logis: former Donald Trump voter
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia
• Remarks: Brian Wallach and Sandra Abrevaya, health care advocates and founders of I Am ALS
• Remarks: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
• Remarks from Arizona: Dutch Martinez and Ryan Ahern, The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA)
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty
• Joint Remarks: Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Brent Booker, general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Kenneth W. Cooper, international president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Claude Cummings Jr., president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Elizabeth H. Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
• Remarks: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
• Performance: Mickey Guton
• Joint Remarks on “Investing in the Future”: California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin A. Davis, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sarah Rodriguez and Harris County, Texas Judge Lina Hidalgo

7 p.m.

• “Project 2025-Chapter One: Introduction”: Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schutz
• Remarks: U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler
• Remarks: U.S. Rep. Linda Haskins
• Remarks: Lt. Jeremy Warmkessel, President of Local 302 IAFF Allentown Firefighters, Pennsylvania
• Remarks: Maria-Isabel Ballivian, Executive Director of the Annandale Christian Community for Action Childhood Development Center, Virginia
• Remarks: Deja Foxx, reproductive rights activists and content creator
• Performance: Jason Isbell
• Remarks: Gina M. Raimondo, United States secretary of commerce
• Remarks: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul

8 p.m.

• Remarks: Steve Kerr, Team USA men’s basketball coach
Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers
• U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez
• Remarks: Stacey Johnson-Batiste and Doris Johnson, childhood friends of Kamala Harris
• Hillary Rodham Clinton, former United States secretary of state
• U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn
• U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin
• U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett
• U.S. Rep. Grace Meng

9 p.m.

• Joint Remarks: Amanda and Josh Zurawski, Texas; Kaitlyn Joshua, Louisiana; Hadley Duvall, Kentucky
• Remarks: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear
• Remarks: The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, Georgia senator
• Remarks: U.S. Sen. Chris Coons
• Remarks: First Lady Jill Biden
• Performance: James Taylor
• Ashley Biden
• President Joe Biden
• Benediction: Rabbi Michael S. Beals and Pastor Cindy Rudolph
• Gavel out: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan

Some of the DNCC’s events noted above were conducted at McCormick Place earlier in the day, including these speakers:

• Black Caucus featuring Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Jahana Hayes
• Hispanic Caucus featuring Miguel Cardona, House Democratic  Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Rep. Maxwell Frost
• AAPI Caucus featuring Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
• Native American Caucus featuring Tucson Mayor Regina Romero
• Ethnic Council featuring Lisa Ann Walter and former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
• LGBTQ+ Caucus featuring Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, BenDeLaCreme, and Peppermint
• Labor Council featuring Miguel Cardona, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Rep. Tom Suozzi, Rep. Donald Norcross, and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler
• Small Business Council featuring Rep. Morgan McGarvey
• Environmental and Climate Crisis Council featuring Rep. Ro Khanna and AFT President Randi Weingarten

As media coverage of the convention begins, take heed:

Laffy @[email protected]

Via Richard Stengel:

A word of caution to the press: a political convention is the place where more journalists are in one place in search of fewer stories than any other situation. The tendency is to blow up something small because it’s new, not because it’s important. Don’t do that. #DNC2024

Aug 19, 2024, 01:56 PM

Expect bullshit coverage. In addition to likely puny-matters-blown-up for the clicks, there’s a raft of crap being strewn by right-wing media outlets right now, all of which looks like so much spaghetti thrown at the wall to see what will stick. Don’t help them.

Three Things: Dial M for Michigan

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

It was a big week for the Mitten State which I call home — big ups and equally big downs, like a roller coaster.

Must admit the low points which made the high points possible made me nauseous and sick with dread.

~ 3 ~

High point: Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow had a breakout week with a kick-ass-and-take-names speech on the senate floor this past Tuesday.

The wretched low point: state senator Lana Theis’ hateful fundraising email which I won’t share; the 22nd state senate district which includes Livingston County and smaller portions of Genesee, Shiawasee, and Ingham counties have a lot to answer for having elected this hater.

McMorrow how every Democrat should do it: cede not one inch to the right-wing and its unrestrained hate when Democrats are doing everything which makes our cities, states, nation livable. Push back hard against the corrupting, toxic hate.

GOP voters in Michigan need to snap the hell out of their hate spiral and take a good look around them — as the motto says, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice. These peninsulas aren’t just theirs alone and they’re pleasant because we occupy it together, cooperatively and collaboratively. Hate did not make this state great.

~ 2 ~

Another high point: Michigan state senator Erika Geiss also blew the doors out of the state senate chambers with her heartbreaking appeal on Wednesday:

The sickening low point: yet another Black person’s life was lost to excessive police force on April 4, when a routine traffic stop ended with a Grand Rapids officer shooting a 26-year-old driver at point blank range in the head. It is absolutely unacceptable that a traffic stop results in a driver’s death, even when the driver attempts to grab an officer’s taser. If the officer could manage to pull his gun and shoot he had enough control of the situation to restrain the driver.

This abuse by police cannot continue. Citizens deserve far better public safety. How many times do we have to demand this before change happens?

Senator Geiss and every BIPOC resident in this state and nation should not have to fear for their family members’ safety in public or private from the very people they employ to keep the public safe.

~ 1 ~

Sickened by Senator Lana Theis’ hateful rhetoric against people who don’t fit her personal model, sickened further by the shooting death of an unarmed driver, the Michigan GOP served up another dose of noxiousness with its convention this weekend.

You may already have seen Rudy Giuliani sliming his way out of the Grand Rapids airport via retweet by Marcy, but in case you haven’t:

The MIGOP convention was an event important enough to warrant Giuliani sliding into Michigan, perhaps to network with his fellow co-conspirators about the attempt to fraudulently foist different electors on the state, or a future attempt to do so. They would have been easy to meet in one location considering their respective roles in the MIGOP apparatus.

Perhaps it was important for Giuliani to see how other efforts to enable an illegitimate GOP stranglehold on power — like the selection of Big Lie

A loop-de-loop: it’d be nice to know if former MIGOP Randy Bishop attended the MIGOP convention. He’s suddenly flipped parties and is now running as a Democrat for the state’s 37th senate district. He’d run in 2010 as a Republican in the same district, which includes Antrim County now as it did before redistricting. The Detroit News ran an article about Bishop’s filing to run (paywalled); unlike most of the state legislature candidate filings, Bishop’s was noteworthy because he’d said on his “Trucker Randy” radio show last month that “A family should be a white mom, white dad and white kids.”

Why he thinks that will win over even the few Democrats in his majority white district isn’t obvious; it’s not just overt racism but a rejection of cities down state like Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Benton Harbor, and Muskegon which have larger percentages of BIPOC residents and provide substantial amounts of state tax revenues. The 37th district, while 88% white, is home to a substantive number of Michigan’s Native Americans including Bay Mills Indian Community (Chippewa), Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa/Chippewa Indians. The tribes bring in a lot of tourism dollars to a very rural district.

Bishop’s rhetoric is just plain hateful and has no place in the Democratic Party in any state, and certainly not in Michigan’s 37th senate district. He must surely know this, which makes his candidacy look like a ratfucking operation of some sort.

Remember that Antrim County, home to roughly 23,000 Michigan residents, was at the center of the attempted election fraud in November 2020, when human error led to false claims the voting tabulators counted votes incorrectly. A judge dismissed claims of fraud by the GOP last May.

MIGOP’s canvasser Aaron Van Langevelde certified the election for Biden, refusing to cooperate with the conspiracy theory that the Dominion tabulators flipped votes. In January 2021 when Langevelde’s term expired, he was not re-nominated as canvasser by his party.

During the lawsuit filed by Antrim County resident Bill Bailey over the alleged ballot tabulation fraud, his attorney Matthew DePerno questioned the legitimacy of all future elections.

Which makes DePerno’s Trump-supported nomination as MIGOP’s candidate for Michigan’s secretary of state quite the joke: if the elections can’t be trusted, could this election be trusted if he should win?

Such ridiculously bad faith by MIGOP to nominate a Big Lie proponent who would have supported the fraudulent electors’ conspiracy to overturn Michigan’s election.

~ 0 ~

Finally, a high point — some of the diversity which makes Michigan great.

Treat this as an open thread.