From North Carolina. Monday:
Dear all,
We had a really great time at the meetup tonight, such a good time that there is talk of another NC one in a month. For those curious, that’s me, Libby’s Person, Ken the Hen, then Elizabeth, Comrade Jake, and JD Rhodes. Corry joined us a little bit later.
Just speaking for me, I’m so glad we did this. So many interesting lives and histories and stories; it all went so fast and there are still so many things I’d love to talk about with this group.
So for those who couldn’t make it, hopefully the next time will indeed be soon.
Cheers,
Summer
With the North Carolina General Assembly finished for the year, protesters brought their Moral Monday demonstration to Asheville.
The Ashville Citizen-Times reported that police estimated more than 5,000 people had gathered in Pack Square Park for the Mountain Moral Monday rally by 6 p.m. Later estimates doubled that amount.
The rally at the Buncombe County Courthouse was the first away from Raleigh.
The NAACP and other groups hosting the protests promise to go to all 13 of North Carolina’s congressional districts for the protests of what they said is the Republican-majority legislature and governor’s rollback of progress in education, social and economic equality, and voting rights.
“You can’t do wrong in Raleigh and then hide back home,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP.
Several dozen of the more than 930 people – including at least 68 from Western North Carolina – arrested during the 13 weeks of protests in Raleigh were brought on the stage in Asheville as the crowd chanted “Thank you.”
“This group of jailbirds and I believe in the Golden Rule: that we should treat people the way we would want to be treated. And politicians should live by the Golden rule, too,” said Heather Rayburn, who was arrested at the July 15 protest.
Barber said taking the protests out of Raleigh will prove there is support for what the protesters want. He told members of the crowd they must get more people registered to vote and let their elected officials know they are angry with the direction the state is moving.
“This is no momentary hyperventilation and liberal screaming match,” Barber said. “This is a movement.”
celticdragonchick
Here’s hoping I can make the next one
imonlylurking
We need a Twin Cities meetup. Maybe August 24?
cleek
hey, that’s the place they shot that annoying Sam Adams commercial, isn’t it? :) the one where they pretend to trick all the beer snobs into trying Sam Adams and everybody’s like “OMG such great beer! why did i never try this before?!”
i’d go, but i’m a lazy anti-social layabout.
BGinCHI
No way that’s a Balloon Juice meetup. Look at those nicely dressed, smiling, sociable people.
What have you done with our jackals!!??
libarbarian
I know I’m late saying this, and probably far from the first, but calling these get togethers “BJ Meetups” totally throws weird images into the heads of people when they skim through this place.
libarbarian
RIP Tunch.
Ben Cisco
Looks like a good time was had by all. Thanks for keeping our fight in the spotlight too.
FlipYrWhig
@cleek: that commercial confused the hell out of me. I couldn’t tell if they were trying to say that Bud/Miller/Coors people would be pleasantly surprised by the upgrade to Sam Adams, or that hipster doofuses who thought Sam Adams was for major-label sellouts would be pleasantly surprised it wasn’t a downgrade. Very confusing. They aren’t hipsterish enough for the intention to be obvious.
Summer
@libarbarian: I’m sure our host, reminiscent of no one so much as Bartleby’s narrator, never considered the possibilities of the acronym.
I stopped in to share a blog that seems to be keeping track of Moral Mondays and other things NC:
http://progresivoblog.wordpress.com.
schrodinger's cat
@BGinCHI: You should see them during the full moon.
raven
What a nice group!
geg6
Okay, now I’m really starting to get pissed. The entire goddam country has had a BJ meetup. I live an hour away from the blog host, not much further than that from a couple of the front pagers, and there are numerous commenters who are either right here in Pittsburgh or not very far away.
And I can’t get a meetup set up for the life of me. Come on, people! Especially you, John Cole. I’ll bring Koda. Or even better, we can have it at my house. I have a big deck. And a wine fridge.
p.a.
@geg6: Ah, but will it be drunk weekend dyspeptic John or pet rescue anything for my babbies John? You should probably dress up as frat boys. He likes that.
Amir Khalid
@geg6:
At least you live in America, where the chances of a Balloon Juice meetup being within easy travelling distance are not so bad.
gbear
@imonlylurking: We should meet at the fairgrounds!
(just joking)
That weekend should work for me, and anywhere is fine as long as it’s pretty cheap and not too loud.
Shakezula
I renew my call for a D.C. meetup. The Gubbermint Wage Moochers amongst us can regale everyone with tales of how they like to eat babies and despoil virgins.
gbear
@gbear:…and nowhere near the fairgrounds.
Belafon
@Amir Khalid: Well, at least you live in some place respectable. I live in Texas, in the Dallas area, no less.
I am not a kook
@Amir Khalid: Hey Amir, if you set up a meetup, I might dip into my 401K (retirement savings) to attend ;-)
On second thoughts, don’t tempt me. I don’t have much else going on right now, I might just…
cosima
Scotland BJ meetup!
imonlylurking
@I am not a kook: I was just thinking, given enough notice, some of us could manage a trip to Malaysia. In a year or three. Maybe.
imonlylurking
@gbear: I absolutely love the fair, but I don’t inflict it upon anybody else. (I take a day or two off and go during the week.)
Somebody mentioned a possible venue in a much earlier thread-can’t remember it now, though.
Comrade Jake
Last night was a lot of fun.
Fats Durston
If it’s any consolation (and it’s not), when I was a kid I hit the NC Senate sponsor of the “Woman’s Right To Know Act” in the head with a thrown rock.
Randy P
Philly anyone?
gogol's wife
@Amir Khalid:
I live two hours from NYC, but I’m too lazy to go to anything.
gogol's wife
@Amir Khalid:
I hope you have a satisfying Eid al Fitr!
gbear
@imonlylurking: Yes, I remember the mention a couple weeks back but I didn’t know either of the places.
I used to be a State Fair fanatic. I’d take the week off and visit the fair at least a half-dozen times, and each time I went, I’d spend 10-12 hours before I felt like I’d had enough. About four years ago I burned out (see Betty’s thread below) and I haven’t been to the fair since. I’m hoping I get the fair bug back again, as it really is (as Peter Sagal said) the most fun you can have in Minnesota.
Kay
@Fats Durston:
I love that story. Oh, and it is a consolation :)
gbear
If anyone in MN is into great burgers, Shamrocks on West 7th in St. Paul is a good place. Food is pretty darn cheap. I don’t drink so I’m afraid I don’t know how good the bar is.
JD_Rhoades
@Comrade Jake:
It was indeed. Looking forward to the next one. Sorry my enormous head is blocking people’s view of you, CJ.
Yatsuno
@Ben Cisco: Meet-up needs moar Emissary. Just sayin’.
@cosima: A British Isles meet-up is a definite possibility. With socialist train systems plus guaranteed holiday time it should be doable, plus we have several comnentors in the UK.
Comrade Jake
@JD_Rhoades: Heh – no worries!
Any NC folks catch this gem of an exchange?
http://mobile.rawstory.com/therawstory/#!/entry/tea-partiers-get-rowdy-at-town-hall-after-gop-rep,5201584ada27f5d9d00636cd
I haven’t heard of the particular University where this happened, but you have to love the wingnut logic at play.
MomSense
Beautiful photo of all of you!!
I thought I would post a video from a Moral Monday back in June. A friend of mine from Asheville is arrested and it is captured on video because a journalist was also being arrested. You can see her at 1:58. She has white hair and is wearing a black and white shirt.
She wrote a post on FB the day before saying that she was going to the General Assembly and felt very peaceful and good about the possibility of being arrested. That wasn’t the first time she had attended but it was the first time she was arrested. She continued to go and is very committed to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZYV2xsbuQ
JD_Rhoades
@Comrade Jake:
Small school, about 2400 students. Uptown in Myers Park. I went there a couple of times for various CLE events.
BillinGlendaleCA
@cleek:
Me too, but I went to the LA meetup when PSIfighter visited(it was 5 blocks from my cave) and had a blast.
Comrade Jake
Amos Lee will be at DPAC on 11/18 for those of you who might be interested:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XcqqCM4RVJM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXcqqCM4RVJM
Steeplejack
@Comrade Jake:
Linky no work. Clean one here.
Daniel
Do colored people read Balloon Juice?
the Conster
Aren’t the meet ups wicked fun? Can’t wait until we have another Boston one. I do want to know what the balloon colors represent though?
Baud
@Daniel:
They all left in protest after ABL started posting here. Apparently, she’s something of a pariah among people of color.
lojasmo
@gbear:
Works for me.
lojasmo
@imonlylurking:
I think i suggested either Sawatdee in St. Paul or the Bulldog in lowertown
mclaren
Hey, that’s a great description of Balloon-Juice:
“A momentary hyperventilation and liberal screaming match.”
Daniel
Good for you on the irony bit.
But perhaps the pariah among people of color is not ABL, but the self-satisfied smugness of cream-colored people, aged 40-60 who raise their glasses to salute their communal comfort.
Now, if that comfort translates to votes for the Democrats in 2014, then all is good.
But I have my doubts
Baud
@Daniel:
You have your doubts that most of the white people here will vote for Democrats in 2014?
Steeplejack
@the Conster:
“Green balloons” is in the Balloon Juice lexicon:
It has become a Balloon Juice catchphrase roughly equivalent to “TMI.”
Angela
@Randy P: Philly here.
Daniel
Good point. But they need to vote in West Virginia and Kentucky and Georgia, not just in Blue places. And in those places we need democrats of every hue to get involved. Sorry to sound like an asshole…long day.
Daniel
Good point. But they need to vote in West Virginia and Kentucky and Georgia, not just in Blue places. And in those places we need democrats of every hue to get involved. Sorry to sound like an asshole…long day.
Comrade Jake
@Baud: I suspect Daniel’s simply being a jackass.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Just got on my real computer and see those balloons aren’t (all) green. So forget what I said.
LT
@BGinCHI: @Baud:
I really doubt that’s true. For me – her return after proving –
ah just fuck it.
gbear
@lojasmo: Sawatdee is on Robert Street at 9th, right? I’d go for that.
LT
@BGinCHI: Do not be fooled: If you look closely at every person in that photo – closer…look – they ALL have the sick in their eyes.
Every one of those sumbitches would *cut* you in a hot second.
JD_Rhoades
@LT:
Believe that shit.
JD_Rhoades
@Daniel:
But perhaps the pariah among people of color is not ABL, but the self-satisfied smugness of cream-colored people, aged 40-60 who raise their glasses to salute their communal comfort.
Thank you for “cream-colored”. I’ve been working for weeks on that new skin-care regimen.
Summer
@Daniel:
But perhaps the pariah among people of color is not ABL, but the self-satisfied smugness of cream-colored people, aged 40-60 who raise their glasses to salute their communal comfort.
I’m with my friend Comrade Jake and with you. You’re being a jackass. And an asshole. In your condescension about black perception as well as about the people in our little NC meetup group.
@JD_Rhoades: A better response.
ruemara
@Daniel: Which specific colours? Chartreuse? Frankly, I see a lovely range from alabaster to light bronze in the picture. Who knew BJ had such beautiful NC people on it?
Libby's person
It was so nice to meet you all at last night’s meet-up! A very fun group.
@LT: Aw, shucks, you noticed; the eyes are the windows to the soul and all that.
@Comrade Jake: I’m pretty amazed that the GOP Rep actually had the nerve to stick to reality with this crowd. Since it’s Charlotte, he probably has more to gain by looking at least semi-reasonable than from going full tea party. Even so, it was nice to see it, anyway.
Comrade Jake
@Libby’s person: I assume you saw the video of the exchange? He looked pretty exasperated to me.
lojasmo
@gbear:
Yup. Not “cheap” per se, but the food is good, and they have a great bar.
ETA: Can’t remember who runs the meetup page, but a thread will be appreciated.
I’ll get green balloons, etc. At our previous seattle meetup, I had a napkin with B-J written on it. Sort of embarrassing.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
St. Louis metro area / southern Illinois?
jharp
Somehow I didn’t expect such a good looking group.
Cheers.
lojasmo
@jharp:
Just wait for the MN groupl I’m hideous.
metalgirl
It was my first BJ meetup and the people were awesome! The next one in our area will be held in Cary, NC in about a month. I enjoyed celebrating Tunch by wearing his shirt :)
Juju
@JD_Rhoades:
Are you an attorney? I used to date an attorney from Durham and on occasion go to legal gatherings with him, and you look familiar. Either that or I am imagining things, which could very well be the case.
Manyakitty
@geg6: Yes! Me too! I live in NE Ohio and would be glad to drive an hour or two for a meetup. I’ve been lurking forever; Tunch’s tragic demise brought me into the conversation. Let’s get one scheduled for these parts!