#pennsylvania convention center

[joehills]

Pax Unplugged has a retro theme this year, so I wasn’t surprised to find a real payphone in the wall.

I was, however, deeply disappointed that it produced no dial tone.

[pixel-alchemy]

Pennsylvania Convention Center

[worldtravelerbuff]

As The Sidekick from the AU world of Generation Loss, Nicole found herself back in PA and at Erie ComiCon while avoiding any potential ShowFall Media sightings without being caught. She must now find a way to get back to Ranboo alone.

Attended my third visit to Erie ComiCon earlier this month at the Bayfront Convention Center and decided to take these photos for my Generation Loss AU debut character of The Sidekick.

[coyotydave]

Leonard and Listig by Coyoty Via Flickr: Rabbit and Fox cosplayers at Anthrocon 2019 in Pittsburgh, PA.

[cleolinda]

"We are here on a very important day, before a very important election and we are here, more than anything, to speak about protection of an election, making sure that the election that occur tomorrow will be free, will be fair and it will be final," [Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner] said.

He said that the task force, which, Krasner, a Democrat, noted was operating on a non-partisan basis -- "We do not care who gets your vote. We care that you get to vote," he promised -- would be on the lookout for any election concerns throughout the day.

Though they don't believe there will be issues, Krasner said the task force will be looking out for "people working in polls or close to polls who will bring frivolous challenges to voters."

"Anybody who thinks they are going to play those games in Philadelphia, you're going to do it in bad faith -- I got no problem with doing it in good faith -- but, if you're going to do it in bad faith, there is an election court, there are judges, they have orders and, those orders are going to say, in essence, 'get out of the polling places,'" he said. "Anybody who doesn't get out, you're going to be arrested."

And, he warned that anyone who think it's will be fun as they plan to interfere in Tuesday's elections, they might find out otherwise.

"You can have your fun in a jail cell, cause that's what's coming," he said.

In fact, Krasner took a moment to superficially warn anyone who has any plans to interfere with the city's electoral process -- like the two men who came to the city and were arrested after being found with weapons outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center when votes were being tallied there in 2020 -- would simply 'F around and find out."

"Anybody who thinks it's time to play militia, F around and find out. Anybody who thinks it's time to insult, to deride, to mistreat, to threaten people, F around and find out," said Krasner. "We do have the cuffs, we do have the jail cells, we do have the Philly juries and we have the state prisons. So, if you're going to turn the election into some form of coercion, if you're going to try to bully people, bully votes or voters, if you're going to try to erase votes, if you're going to try any of that nonsense, F around and find out."

[deadpresidents]

do you think the democratic nominee will end up being kamala for sure and if it is who do you think will be her vp and who would you choose if it was up to you?

I received about 90 (that's not an exaggeration) different versions of these questions yesterday, but like I said, I wanted to give President Biden's remarkable act of political courage and patriotism some room to breathe and be appreciated in the hours after he stepped aside on Sunday. Now we can get down to business, however.

First of all, I'm pretty confident that Kamala Harris is going to be the Democratic nominee for President. I think the Democratic National Convention is going to be an open convention in that President Biden will release his delegates to support another candidate on the first ballot of the convention, but considering how quickly most leading Democrats coalesced around Kamala on Sunday, I think there's a very good chance that she'll be nominated on the first ballot anyway. Nearly all of the candidates who had been talked about as potential challengers for the nomination against Vice President Harris endorsed her as the Presidential nominee almost immediately. I think most Democrats have felt that the campaign has been chaotic enough in the wake of the debate debacle and ensuing questions about whether or not President Biden would drop out of the race and feel that it's in the best interests of the party to not have a potentially messy battle for the nomination in next few weeks before the convention in Chicago. I was actually (pleasantly) surprised in how quickly the leading Democrats across the ideological spectrum of the party unified behind Kamala in just a matter of hours. Most of the people mentioned as potential candidates in an open convention didn't even seem to dip their toes in the water after President Biden dropped out of the race, and I think that type of unity is a very strong signal that the party is going to be in a good place by the time the convention kicks off in Chicago in a little less than a month.

As for running mates for Kamala Harris, I still think her best bet would probably be a moderate/centrist Governor from either a battleground state or a red state where that Governor has demonstrated an ability to win statewide elections in a place that Democrats don't usually win and haven't carried in recent Presidential elections. Here is what my shortlist would be for Vice Presidential nominees alongside Kamala Harris: •Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania: This has been the name mentioned by nearly everybody in the past few days, and it makes a lot of sense. Shapiro is a popular Governor in a tremendously important battleground state. He's only been Governor for less than two years, but he's one of the fastest rising stars in the Democratic Party. •Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky: One of the most popular Governors in the nation, and a two-term Governor (he also won a statewide race as Attorney General) in an otherwise solid red state (Bill Clinton is the only Democrat who has carried Kentucky since 1980) with a Republican supermajority in their state legislature. •Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg: Another one of the Democratic Party's young rising stars. Like Beshear, Buttigieg would help symbolize the long-awaited generational shift in Democratic leadership. A Harris-Buttigieg ticket would excite the progressive base of the party and energize voters in a way that North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper or Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker could not. •Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona: Kelly checks pretty much all of the boxes for a running mate that balances the ticket. He's a moderate Democrat from a battleground state who could appeal to voters in the center. He's not only a military veteran with significant combat experience, but he was an astronaut. He knows the dangers of the current climate of political extremism because he's married to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. I'd just be very hesitant in risking losing a safe Senate seat in a state where it's very difficult for Democrats to win, especially when the margin for majority control of the Senate is razor-thin.

But if I was personally asked to choose Kamala Harris's running mate, who would I pick?

•Admiral William H. McRaven: Anybody who has been following me for a while knows that I've spent over 10 years suggesting and promoting my belief that retired Admiral William McRaven is the type of candidate for President or Vice President who could truly reach voters from both sides of the aisle and possibly change the current trajectory of American politics by being an Eisenhower-like figure. McRaven is well-respected by political leaders across the ideological spectrum, and has a resume that no politician can deny being impressed by (except, of course, for Donald Trump). A former Navy SEAL with 40+ years of combat experience and the longtime Special Operations commander, McRaven just happened to plan and implement the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. McRaven also oversaw the capture of Saddam Hussein, the mission that killed Saddam's vicious sons Uday and Qusay, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, and scores of other missions that we'll probably never hear about. McRaven literally wrote the book on Special Operations warfare. I think McRaven would open the door to voters that might otherwise stay home in November and, in my opinion, a Harris-McRaven ticket would be borderline impossible for Trump-Vance to defeat.

[wilwheaton]

Current data debunks the conventional wisdom that younger Americans don’t vote (and therefore can be ignored). Young voters turned out where it mattered most in 2022, namely in swing states with competitive races. The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tuft University’s post-2022 election study found that youth turnout in Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania exceeded 32 percent. Atrocious turnout rates below 20 percent in states such as Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia dragged down the national youth turnout rate. The significance of the youth vote shouldn’t be underestimated. “If the elections had been decided by voters 45 and older, Republicans would have won the House by an even greater margin and likely taken the Senate,” polling analyst John Della Volpe wrote in the New York Times after the election.

Tennessee's expulsion of two lawmakers might reshape politics - The Washington Post

If America is going to be saved from Fascism, we will have Zoomers and Millennials to thank for it.

I’m just one Old, but I’m here to support y’all. Just tell me where the barricade is and I’ll show up.

[thislovintime]

With Jennifer McLeod at the Hands Across America chain on May 25, 1986. Photo by Maryellen Fleming.

“Taking a stand in Pennsylvania to help the hungry and homeless were Peter Tork of the Monkees, stationed atop Laurel Mountain.” - Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 27, 1986 “Starting at the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, the home base of the organization, the human chain will proceed through the Southwest and Midwest and enter Pennsylvania near Beaver Falls. It will continue through Pittsburgh and leave the state near Waynesboro on its way to Washington, D.C. […] [and to] the final destination of New York City. […] Celebrities on the line in Pennsylvania will include singers Dionne Warwick and Teddy Pendergrass, actors Kevin Bacon and James Darren, and musicians Grover Washington Jr. and Peter Tork.” - Indiana Gazette, May 23, 1986 “All of us [fans] joined the line at 3:00 p.m., and afterwards Peter went to a clearing to sign autographs and pose for pictures for a half hour. At 3:30 p.m. Peter went back down the mountain to the center of town. A local group called The Bitter Route was playing, and Peter jumped on stage with them to perform ‘Kansas City.’ He then spoke briefly about the worthy cause and signed autographs for nearly two hours until the last person in line had gotten an autograph! […] It was really wonderful that Peter and Jennifer took the time out of their hectic schedules, especially during the very busy pre-tour period, to take part in this kind of an event!" - article by Maryellen Fleming, fanzine, 1980s “Look at those of us here, right now. We are incredibly fortunate, we’re really very, very lucky. All of us know — I mean, just to take care of the physical side of things — we all know, you know, where we’re going to eat next, and where we’re going to sleep next, and a lot about who our friends are, and a lot about what we’re going to be doing for the next few days, if not weeks, months, and years. And there are people in this world who don’t have any of that. […] [In society] it’s like, ‘I’m taking mine, I’m cutting…, I don’t care what anybody else…’ And it’s like, I don’t know where this all came from, but it seems to be happening everywhere. […] You know, I see… what I think I see is people, they have homes and money, and they think that makes them more human than people who don’t.” - Peter Tork, Q&A at the 1989 Monkees Convention “Those of us [in the ‘60s] who were truly interested in liberty, fraternity and equality, however, knew we were onto something good and real. What had been called democracy was, and to some extent still is, a pretext for wrapping the will of the greedy and aggressive in a mantle of public acquiescence. Now, the business of wresting power away from those who make a specialty of wielding it will be a long and protracted struggle, with a lot of setbacks along the way. The outlines of the new style of governance are only dimly perceivable, and won’t become clear for a long time to come. In the meantime, our job is to practice the principles of fairness and service to the extent possible. One thing is clear: there is a much higher joy in service than there is in acquisition of wealth. (Remember that it isn’t money that’s the root of all evil, it’s the love of money.) Hanging together in brother — and sisterhood is so happy-making you want to sing right out loud.” - Peter Tork, Ask Peter Tork

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Rather at Steady:

If their national convention didn’t motivate Democrats to register, volunteer, donate, and vote, perhaps the prospect of a widespread voter suppression plan at the hands of the Republican Party will. Just listen to Marc Elias, one of the foremost election lawyers in the country, who recently said that the “Republicans are building an election subversion war machine.” Last week, Elias began working with hundreds of lawyers and thousands of volunteers already teamed up with the Harris campaign to combat the Republican voter suppression effort. He will focus on recounts and post-election litigation.

This is not a new tactic for the MAGA right, but in this election cycle, “the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared [than ever before],” Elias told Rolling Stone magazine. Here’s the Republican playbook, according to The Brennan Center for Justice. “Over the last 20 years, states have put barriers in front of the ballot box — imposing strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, restricting registration, and purging voter rolls.” But this election cycle, new MAGA tactics seem even more insidious — including delaying or refusing vote certification. So if someone in, say, Georgia doesn’t like the election results, Republican officials could question the count, seriously slowing down or stopping the process of announcing results. That’s a very big deal. The 2024 pre-election period has already seen dozens of lawsuits filed in 25 states by Republicans trying to manipulate or change laws to, among other things, make it easier to challenge ballots and voter eligibility and to deny election certifications.

In an investigation of local election boards, Rolling Stone found 70 pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theorists working as election officials in key counties in battleground states. Since 2020, Republicans have refused to certify results at least 25 times. I know I may sound like a broken record saying Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy. But he is, and this is a terrifying example of his cult leader-like ability to get others to do his undemocratic bidding. At an Atlanta rally, he recently called out pro-Trump members of the Georgia State Election Board as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.” Seriously. In 2020 he primed the voter suppression pump before the election, knowing he was likely to lose the race, and then promoted the “Big Lie.” Hundreds of lawyers, dozens of lawsuits, and an insurrection later, he still lost, but all those efforts laid the groundwork for a more organized Republican push, or perhaps putsch is a better word. Fortunately the Republicans aren’t the only ones gearing up for this battle. The Harris campaign has assembled the largest Democratic legal team ever to protect voting rights. It is 10 times larger than the 2020 team. Ten times.

[...] The Democrats’ voter protection program is focused on eight battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and four states of interest: Florida, Maine, Minnesota, and Virginia. Their pre-election efforts are two-fold: First, protecting voters’ ability to register to vote while also having unfettered access to the ballot box. They are doing this by fighting all the legal challenges Republicans are launching. Second, they are educating voters. All of this is a serious shift in how elections are run in this country. “The expansive new Democratic legal team, and the opposing group at the Republican National Committee, is a reflection of the legal arms race that is the new reality of American elections since Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2016. The battle over whose votes count — not just how many votes are counted — has become central to modern presidential campaigns,” explained Nick Corasaniti of The New York Times.

The Democrats are learning to fight the battle to ensure that the votes from this election are counted properly to ensure that a repeat of 2020 doesn’t happen.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Rowe

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 31, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 01, 2024

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context. But they weren’t. The tape is clear. Johnson said that Republicans want “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” Johnson laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

MAGA Utah senator Mike Lee reposted the video of Johnson and commented: “Kill Obamacare now[.]”

Trump today posted on social media that he never mentioned repealing the Affordable Care Act, “never even thought of such a thing.” But this was either a memory lapse or a lie, because in 2016 he ran on repealing the ACA and his 2016 platform called for “a full repeal of Obamacare.” Within hours of taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order weakening the law, and when the Republican-dominated House voted to repeal the law, Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden and declared the ACA “essentially dead.” 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) bucked Trump to protect the ACA then, and Trump began this year’s campaign with a promise to get rid of it before backing off. Even still, the vague promise in the 2024 platform to “increase Transparency, promote Choice and Competition, and expand access to new Affordable Healthcare” sounds a lot like Johnson’s promise to restore “the free market” to health care. 

While Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Trump today held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state President Joe Biden won by almost 11 points in 2020 and that Democrats are likely to win in 2024. Trump had to hold the rally at a private airplane hangar after city officials refused to rent the Albuquerque Convention Center to the campaign because it still owes Albuquerque almost $445,000 from a similar rally in 2019.  

Once there, he made it clear he was trying to repair some of the damage caused by the extraordinary racism and sexism on display at his Sunday rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

Courting offended voters, he said: “Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.” That outreach might not be enough to bring back the voters lost after the Madison Square Garden event.

The campaign is seeing other weaknesses, as well. Meredith McGraw and Jessica Piper of Politico reported today that nearly half of the ballots already cast in Pennsylvania have come from voters over the age of 65, and although the numbers of registered older voters are divided evenly between the parties, registered Democrats have made up about 58% of Pennsylvania’s early votes, compared to 35% for Republicans. Those numbers might well simply reflect different approaches to mail-in ballots, but they also might explain why Trump is already claiming fraud in Pennsylvania. 

He is also seemingly nervous about Pennsylvania because women are voting there at a much higher rate than men in the early vote: 56% to 43%. And Democratic women are the biggest group of new voters in the state. New voters who were too young eight years ago to hear the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, have been hearing it on TikTok lately, as younger users record their reactions to it and call out their older male relatives for voting for anyone who would talk as Trump did. 

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her…. I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p*ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

The Harris campaign and pro-Harris organizations leaned into the history of women’s suffrage today with videos highlighting those who fought so that women could vote and reiterating: “We are not going back.” To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret. A Democratic advertisement voiced by actress Julia Roberts powerfully makes the point that women do not have to tell their husbands how they vote.

Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk have expressed alarm at the gender gap in voting. As well, there has been a right-wing backlash to the idea that women will vote for Harris while letting their husbands assume they’re voting for Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who famously cheated on both of his first two wives, expressed dismay at the idea that a woman might need to keep her vote secret from her husband. “For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption,” he said. “How do you run a country…saying wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives? I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”

On the Fox News Channel’s The Five this morning, host Jesse Watters said that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair…. That violates the sanctity of our marriage.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

Tonight, at an event with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump seemed to move beyond misogyny to murderous intent. He turned his increasingly violent rhetoric against former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has urged Republican women to vote against Trump. “She’s a radical war hawk,” he said, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”  

Carlson is friendly with authoritarian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has undermined democracy in his own country and is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Today Orbán posted that he had “Just got off the phone with President [Trump]. I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed[.]“

Meanwhile, a lot more major endorsements for Harris have been coming in. 

Today basketball legend LeBron James released a powerful one-minute ad with clips of Trump’s many racist statements and drawing a straight line from him back to the most violent days of the civil rights movement. “HATE TAKES US BACK,” it says. In a post sharing the video, James wrote: “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!” James has 53 million followers on X. 

The Economist today endorsed Harris, warning that “a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.” Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg also posted on social media that he had voted for Harris “without hesitation,” and added that he hoped undecided voters would join him. “Trump is not fit for high office,” he wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed. He praised Harris’s positive vision and bipartisan outreach. 

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, titled: “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump.” The former president is unfit for office, Luttig wrote. “When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us.” Luttig assured readers that “[t]here  could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate” Trump.

He reminded his fellow Republicans that they had always “proudly claimed they would be the first to put the country above all else when the time came. That time has come…. ​​All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives.” “The choice for America next Tuesday,” Luttig wrote, “could not be clearer.”

Ever since Vice President Harris tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic governors have been demonstrating their support for one of their own. Today, for Halloween, Democratic  governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Janet Mills of Maine, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey each dressed to match a photograph of Walz.

“No tricks this Halloween!” Whitmer posted. “Just dressing up as our friend [Tim Walz]—excited to elect him and [Kamala Harris]. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote: http://iwillvote.com[.]”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[therogerclarkfanclub]

Roger's* 2024 Comic Con Schedule

Interested in knowing if Roger is coming to your city or town? Check the listings below. Updated as new info becomes available.

If you've been waiting for the opportunity to meet Roger & The Gang, or you would like to meet him/them again, feel free to bookmark ("Like" 😉) this post if you want to keep up with Roger's Comic Con appearances. I will update and reblog this list as soon as new info becomes available.

Alternatively, you can always keep tabs on Roger's social media for the latest dates.

*This is listing is not limited to just Roger, it will also include any other cast members attending a specific Con.

⭐ LAST UPDATED: October 01, 2024 ⭐

JAN 07 - Added: Fanboy Expo

JAN 25 - Added: FANEXPO Cleveland

JAN 31 - Added: RetroGameCon

MAR 04 - Added: Fanboy Expo Orlando

MAR 06 - Added: Washington Gaming Expo

APR 10 - Added: Florida Supercon

APR 21 - Added: Stellar Con York

APR 22 - Added: Sci-Fi Valley Con

MAY 04 - Added: Fanboy Expo Orlando (Alex, Roger)

MAY 04 - Added: WonderFest 2024

MAY 07 - Added: Rob to Sci-Fi Valley Con

MAY 15 - Added: New York Comic Con

JUL 02 - Added: Brasil Game Show

JUL 26 - Added: Pittsburgh Gaming Expo (Roger)

JUL 28 - Added: Pittsburgh Gaming Expo (Benjamin)

AUG 06 - Added: FanEXPO San Francisco (Rob)

AUG 11 - Added: Soda City Comic Con (Roger)

AUG 26 - Added: Rhode Island Comic Con (Alex)

AUG 31 - Added: Comic Con North East (Roger, Rob)

OCT 01 - Added: Rhode Island Comic Con (Benjamin, Roger, Rob)

─────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────────

🌟🌟 Animate! Raleigh 🌟🌟

Dates: January 5-7, 2024 City: Raleigh, North Carolina Venue: Raleigh Convention Center 500 S Salisbury St. Raleigh, NC 27601 Confirmed attendees: Roger, Benjamin, Peter Cancellations: Rob

🌟🌟 Fanboy Anime Toy Gaming Knoxville 🌟🌟

Dates: March 9-10, 2024 City: Knoxville, TN Venue: The Knoxville Convention Center 701 Henley Street Knoxville, Tennessee 37902 Confirmed attendees: Roger, Rob

🌟🌟 GameOn Expo 🌟🌟

Dates: March 15-17, 2024 City: Phoenix, Arizona Venue: Phoenix Convention Center - North Building 100 N 3rd St. Phoenix, AZ 85004 Confirmed attendees: Roger & Rob

🌟🌟 Washington State Gaming Expo 🌟🌟

Dates: March 29-31, 2024 City: Puyallup, Washington Venue: Washington State Fair and Events Center 110 9th Ave SW Puyallup, WA 98371-6811 Confirmed attendees: Roger & Rob

🌟🌟 FANEXPO Cleveland 🌟🌟

Dates: April 12-14, 2024 City: Cleveland, Ohio Venue: Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland 300 Lakeside Ave E Cleveland, Ohio 44113 Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 PopCon Indy 🌟🌟

Dates: April 26-28, 2024 City: Indianapolis, Indiana Venue: Indiana Convention Center 100 South Capitol Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46225 Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 WonderFest 2024 🌟🌟

Dates: June 1-2, 2024 City: Louisville, KY Venue: Crowne Plaza Louisville Airport Hotel 830 Phillips Lane Louisville, KY 40209. Confirmed attendees: Rob

🌟🌟 Sci-Fi Valley Con 🌟🌟

Dates: June 7-9, 2024 City: Altoona, PA Venue: Blair Country Convention Center One Convention Center Drive 100 South Capitol Ave. Altoona, PA 16602 Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 Stellar Con York 🌟🌟

Dates: June 15, 2024 City: York, Pennsylvania Venue: York Fairgrounds 334 Carlisle Ave York, Pennsylvania 17404 Confirmed attendees: Roger

🌟🌟 Black Hills Redemption 🌟🌟

Dates: June 21st - 23rd, 2024 City: Deadwood, South Dakota Venue: The entire town of Deadwood Panel will be held at: Homestake Opera House Meet & greet sessions: Saloon No. 10 Confirmed attendees: Rob, Steve, Benjamin, Robert Bogue, Mick, Peter, Alex, Jim Santangeli, Howard Pinhasik, Kaili, Meeya, Jim Pirri, Curzon, Roger, Samantha, Jo, Gabriel, Penny O'Brien, John Hickok, Sophia Marzocchi Cancellations: Gabriel

🌟🌟 Florida Supercon 🌟🌟

Dates: July 12 - 14, 2024 City: Miami Beach, Florida Venue: Miami Beach Convention Center 1901 Convention Center Drive Miami Beach, FL 33139 Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 Comic Con Wales 🌟🌟

Dates: August 10-11, 2024 City: New Port, South Wales Venue: International Convention Centre Wales Coldra Woods Newport South Wales NP18 1HQ United Kingdom Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 Soda City Comic Con 🌟🌟

Dates: August 24 & 25, 2024 City: Columbia, South Carolina Venue: Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center 1101 Lincoln Street Columbia, SC 29201 Confirmed attendees: Roger

🌟🌟 Fanboy Expo Orlando 🌟🌟

Dates: September 6-8, 2024 City: Orlando, Florida Venue: Orange County Convention Center - West Concourse 9800 International Drive Orlando, FL 32819 Confirmed attendees: Benjamin, Roger, Alex, Rob, Peter, Kaili

🌟🌟 Pittsburgh Gaming Expo 🌟🌟

Dates: October 4-6, 2024 City: Monroeville, Pennsylvania Venue: Monroeville Convention and Events Center 209 Mall Plaza Blvd Monroeville, PA 15146 Confirmed attendees: Roger, Benjamin

🌟🌟 Brasil Game Show 🌟🌟

Dates: October 09-13, 2024 (10th and 11th only for Roger) City: Sao Paulo, Brazil Venue: Expo Center Norte Rua José Bernardo Pinto, 333 Vila Guilherme São Paulo - SP 02055-000 Brasil Confirmed attendees: Roger

🌟🌟 RetroGameCon 🌟🌟

Dates: October 11-13, 2024 City: Syracuse, New York Venue: The Oncenter Convention Center 800 South State Street Syracuse, NY 13202 Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 New York Comic Con 🌟🌟

Dates: October 17-20, 2024 City: New York City, New York Venue: The Jacob Javits Convention Center 429 11th Avenue New York, NY 10001 Confirmed attendees: Roger, Rob, Benjamin, Peter, Alex, Kaili, Meeya, Mick, Curzon, Noshir, Robert Bogue, Gabriel

🌟🌟 Comic Con North East 🌟🌟

Dates: October 26-27, 2024 City: Newcastle upon Type Venue: Utilita Arena Newcastle Arena Way Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne & Wear NE4 7NA, UK Confirmed attendees: Roger and Rob

🌟🌟 Rhode Island Comic Con 🌟🌟

Dates: November 1-3, 2024 City: Providence, Rhode Island Venue: Rhode Island Convention Center & Amica Mutual Pavilion 1 Sabin Street Providence, RI 02903 Confirmed attendees: Alex, Benjamin, Rob, Roger

🌟🌟 FanEXPO San Francisco 🌟🌟

Dates: November 29, 30, and December 1st, 2024 City: San Francisco, California Venue: Moscone Center West 800 Howard Street San Francisco, CA 94103 Confirmed attendees: Rob

[jgroffdaily]

Lancaster Pride

Programs are printed and we are HYPED for Story Time and Pride & Pages tomorrow! 🤩

Thank you all for the support, we will see you tomorrow to celebrate and have some fun. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

#lancasterpride #prideandpages2024 #lancasterpa

**

They story time events at 11am and 1pm will be live streamed on the Lancaster Pride Facebook page.

There is a Lancaster Online article about the events, including:

Miss Amie Vanité will host two 45-minute, all-ages storytimes at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. with Groff at her side. Groff, an ardent supporter of LGBTQ+ causes, will then host a gala event benefiting Lancaster Pride and the library at 6 p.m. at the adjoining Marriott hotel.

Shirley said Groff contacted her in early April because he had seen news coverage of the threats surrounding the Lancaster Public Library event and said he wanted to help.

With Groff on the marquee this time around, enthusiasm is high.

“I was so excited and shocked,” Shirley said. “Lancaster is his home, and you would think sometimes people forget, but he doesn’t. He still calls Lancaster home.”

“I am so super excited,” Paolini said. “I am beyond over-the-rainbow.”

Paolini said he is honored and humbled to have Groff publicly supporting what he does as a drag performer. He has spoken with Groff about the story hours over the phone and what books and songs to perform.

Groff told Paolini to take the lead with his story hour plans and just let him know how he can help, Paolini said.

“If there was one song that I knew he would know and that he could sing with me, it’s ‘Getting to Know You’ from ‘The King and I,’” Paolini said. “And so when I mentioned that, he was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ ”

The two have not met in person, but Paolini will be at the convention center early Saturday, as he always is for a story hour. So if they need to practice together, they will have time to do so.

Brown has not yet spoken with Groff, but he imagines Saturday afternoon he will talk to Groff about the gala and any talking points Groff wants him to hit, he said.

Lancaster Pride is taking safety concerns seriously, Shirley said. The organization has hired extra security and will be doing bag checks and wanding everyone to detect metal objects.

“I am so excited for the community,” Shirley said. “The original event (in March) would have been great, and this will be even better.”

[beardedmrbean]

Vice President Kamala Harris has suffered a triple blow after two recently released surveys put her behind Donald Trump in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, while a third showed her trailing the Republican presidential candidate at the national level.

Polls of likely voters in Pennsylvania conducted by Cygnal and Emerson College both gave Trump a 1 point lead in the battleground state, which comes with 19 Electoral College votes. Separately, a Napolitan News Service survey gave the former president a 1 point advantage nationally.

Harris quickly established herself as the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee after Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from the race and offered her his endorsement, on July 21. This initially resulted in a clear Democratic poll boost with Harris outperforming Trump in more than a dozen national surveys, and becoming the favorite to win in November with a number of leading bookmakers.

Between August 12 and 14, RMG Research polled 2,708 likely voters across the United States for Napolitan News Service, which found Trump leading Harris by 46 percent to 45 percent. When undecided voters leaning one way were included, Trump's margin extended to 49 percent against 47 percent, compared to the last RMG poll a week ago, which put both candidates on 49 percent.

A Cygnal poll of 800 likely voters in Pennsylvania, conducted on August 14-15, found 44 percent would back Trump in a presidential contest versus 43 percent for Harris and 5 percent for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump increased his polling by 2 points since the last Cygnal survey in July, while Kennedy saw his support fall by 4 points.

In better news for the Democrats, the survey gave incumbent Senator Bob Casey a 46 percent vs 42 percent lead over Republican challenger Dave McCormick. However, it also found Casey underperformed a generic Democratic Senate candidate by 2 points with all voters, and 8 percent with Democratic supporters.

Emerson College surveyed 1,000 likely voters in Pennsylvania for RealClearPennsylvania, on August 13 and 14. It found Trump had a 1 point lead with 49 percent of the vote against 48 percent for Harris. This extended to 51 percent against 49 percent once undecided voters who lean one way were allocated to that candidate. When Kennedy was included, Harris and Trump were tied on 47 percent, with the independent candidate on 3 percent.

The survey found voters aged under 40 backed Harris over Trump by 61 percent against 36 percent, while the Republican nominee's strongest lead was with those aged 50-69, where he led by 57 percent to 40 percent. Trump led among protestant voters by 58 percent to 40 percent, and Catholic voters with 60 percent against 39 percent. Harris enjoyed a 84 percent vs 13 percent advantage among atheist and agnostic voters, along with a 56 percent to 39 percent lead for those with no particular religious affiliation.

Newsweek contacted the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment on Monday by email outside of regular office hours.

The latest The New York Times/Siena College survey, of 1,973 likely voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, showed a 35 point gender gap between support for Trump and Harris. Among men, the Republican lead by 14 points, while with women the vice president enjoyed a 21 point lead. If elected in November, Harris would become the first female president in U.S. history. The survey was conducted between August 5 and 9.

From Monday to Thursday, the Democratic National Convention will take place at the United Center Arena in Chicago. The event is expected to be heavily protested by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

[coyotydave]

Tye Dye by Coyoty Via Flickr: Fox cosplayer at Anthrocon 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA.

[fishrpg]

Coming This December on FishRPG...

The Routes of '66!

Buckle up, because we're going on a road trip!

For the final month of 2024, I decided to roll twice among the remaining genres and combine them. The results were "Modern" and "Spooky," and I split the difference to come up with my own setting. We'll be exploring a network of roads in the US that don't quite align with how reality works. I'm also setting it in 1966 because I've really wanted to have an excuse to use some of the wonderfully-detailed tables from Daniel James Hanley's The Uncanny Highway.

I'll be creating some of my own lore, so hopefully this will exist as something that is distinct from the Uncanny Highway.

About The Routes

In 1966, the US Interstate system was a little over halfway complete and covered about 33,000 miles. Below is a map of the completed sections of interstate in use in 1966. Traveling across the country required many detours and long stretches across smaller state-maintained highways.

However, many of these non-interstate roads had mysterious junctions that lead to roads that didn't always correspond to reality. Distances could be much longer or much shorter than the odometer reading, and getting lost was quite easy to do. Most of these junctions appeared in rural areas, and didn't impact large numbers of people.

Such anomalies were known to a small group of engineers, travel enthusiasts, and surveyors as early as 1937. These individuals helped draft an initial proposal for an interstate highway system that largely avoided navigational inconsistencies and it was first described in Bureau of Public Roads report to Congress in 1939. In following years, those with knowledge of the most reliable paths often found employment with a small organization in the federal government known as the Bureau of Transportation Standardization and Consistency.

Eventually the BTSC proposed an expanded road system that did not exhibit distance anomalies that would be supported by executive order from President Eisenhower in 1955 and established in law by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.

One side effect of the growing interstate system was that travelers began visiting more distant places with more regularity. Informal interactions with fellow travelers at truck stops and gas stations disseminated bits and pieces of folk knowledge about the stretches of road outside the interstate that made trips faster and which junctions should be avoided. Such information is incredibly valuable for people who frequently travel long distances, just as it is valuable for smugglers and people looking to disappear. These alternate road networks became known to those familiar with it as simply "The Routes."

Traveling on these alternate roadways reveals an entirely different set of landmarks than a traditional map would indicate. Entire towns that don't exist in the "real world" could be found among The Routes, along with amusement parks, gas stations, and anything else someone might find on a remote stretch of road. Keep in mind, though, that any attraction on The Routes exists independently of the real world!

Most travelers along The Routes depict it as a hexagonal spiderweb that has 6 entry/exit points on the edges and another such point in the center. Each point emerges in a remote stretch of road in a different state: California, Georgia, Kansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wyoming. Once inside The Routes, a traveler doesn't usually get to leave unless they reach one of the abovementioned points. These paths have been honed over the years to balance ease of travel with speed. Even one of the longest trips possible on The Routes (a cross country trip from Pennsylvania to California) only takes about 28 hours of driving time (each hex on the map takes about 4 hours to drive across), while sticking solely to conventional roads will more than double the drive time.

Unfortunately, questionable reality of The Routes means they present some different threats than may be seen on traditional roads. Ghosts, cults, monsters, and even some kinds of magic may be found along The Routes.

Travel at your own risk!

[misfitwashere]

Do not move to the “center,” Democrats!

There’s nothing there.

ROBERT REICH

DEC 24

Friends,

In the wake of Kamala Harris’s loss to Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he isn’t going to criticize Trump’s nominees “because that’s all a distraction.” 

A distraction from what? Governing? 

Had 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez succeeded in her recent bid to become the lead Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, she would have represented a generational shift for the party and given it an energetic communicator with anti-establishment views. 

But the party wouldn’t have it. The position went instead to 74-year-old Gerry Connolly, a longtime representative from Virginia who was next in line.

Some Democrats are now even calling for Biden to pardon Trump. 

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn says a pardon for Trump would be a way of “cleaning the slate” for the country. Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman posted(on Trump’s Truth Social, no less) that the “Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate.”

Now, that’s bullshit. 

I’ve been around long enough to remember how Democrats reacted to Adlai Stevenson’s two defeats to Republican Dwight Eisenhower: They said it was time for Democrats to move to the center. 

When Humbert Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon, Democrats said it was time for Democrats to move to the center. When Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan? Move to the center! When Walter Mondale lost to Reagan? The center! When Mike Dukakis lost to George H. W. Bush? When Al Gore … When John Kerry … When Hillary Clinton … And on it goes: center, center, center. 

What has this refrain bought Democrats apart from campaign contributions from big corporations and the wealthy? A loss of purpose. 

Some Democrats warned along the way that a move to the so-called “center” would erode the party’s noblest goals. Ted Kennedy admonished Democrats at the 1980 national convention not to forget the fight for “the cause of the common man and the common woman.” 

Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote in The New York Times that “me-too Reaganism” would be disastrous for Democrats because “if American voters are in a conservative mood, they will surely choose the real thing and not a Democratic imitation.”

But Democrats didn’t listen. In the late 1980s they became “New Democrats,” almost indistinguishable from “Reagan Democrats.” In 1996, Bill Clinton said “the era of big government is over” — ending welfare, enacting a vicious crime bill, and deregulating Wall Street. 

Twenty years later, when Bernie Sanders tried to return the Democratic Party to giving voice to working people being shafted by CEOs and Wall Street, he was knee-capped by the Democratic National Committee to make way for Hillary Clinton — who lost to Trump. 

Democrats have been moving to the so-called “center” so long they’ve pushed the “center” toward authoritarianism. 

It’s more important than ever for Democrats to hold Trump accountable, even if doing so takes years. Democrats must also oppose any Trump move to prosecute those who have tried to hold him accountable. 

Democrats must commit to opposing Trump’s agenda of deporting millions of people who, although undocumented, have been longstanding members of their communities; substituting Trump loyalists for dedicated civil servants; and appointing dangerous wackos like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Peter Hegseth, who shouldn’t be allowed to get anywhere near our government. 

Now more than ever, Democrats should call out the multimillionaires and multibillionaires who are taking over our system by making gigantic campaign contributions and then seeking tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and exemptions to tariffs for their own businesses. Yes, I’m talking about you, Elon Musk. 

It’s time for Democrats to commit to getting big money out of American politics. 

Now is the time for Democrats to do what they used to do before the Democratic Party tried to move to the so-called “center.” Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Strengthen safety nets. Increase public investments. Pay for all this by raising taxes on the super-wealthy. 

This is no time for retreat. No time for compromise. 

There can be no center between decency and indecency, no center between democracy and authoritarianism, no center between a government of billionaires and a government of the people.