Live! From Chicago...

... it's the Democratic National Convention, and two live Fifth Column shows, and your trusty reporter getting ready to mix it up in the streets

The destination has always been known - Chicago, for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, August 19-22. And maybe that’s going to be interesting. I’ve spoken with several of the protest organizers, people helping to corral an estimated 30,000 arrivistes, bringing their various demands - against climate change, for trans rights, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights and, most vocally and desperately, to stop what they see as the unmitigated carnage in Gaza.

Anyone following the war since October 7 knows the numbers of dead and wounded coming from various agencies can be unreliable, and I did not know what to say when a very nice Communist (“I prefer the term multinational”) told me that “the Lancet Medical Journal from Britain reports 168,000 is probably the amount of people dead” and further cited "widespread sexual assault of Palestinian detainees, where you have torture of Palestinians so bad that people are having their legs amputated, these people who are being kidnapped from their homes in Gaza."

So he will be on of the people out in the streets, streets the city of Chicago, after a months-long legal battle with various rights’ groups, has seen fit to segment off, trying to corral protesters into a mile-long corridor that will axiomatically turn into a human parking lot.

"We represented a coalition of organizations operating under the name, Bodies Outside Unjust Laws," Ed Yohnka of the Chicago ACLU told me. "The group sought a permit to march on the Sunday afternoon before the Convention begins – marching close to downtown hotels where media and delegates would be staying during the event. They were denied that route and offered an alternative that did not allow them to reach their intended audience."

Ergo, even before the convention starts, you have frustrated people. And it's August, when temperatures can rise into the 80s, and tens of thousands of people hemmed into an area where they cannot move freely if move at all, people who ultimately have little control over what chaos may erupt, on the fly or deliberately instigated by those who see the rightness in burning the whole thing down.

But I get ahead of myself! We’ve taken a week to drive here, New York City to Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh to Grand Rapids, which was the first place we saw, and in a fancy neighborhood, any Harris/Walz signs. We passed two hundred Trump/Vance signs, one billion stalks of corn, ate fantastic sandwiches at Black Napkin and Choo Choo Grill, and went out on a pontoon boat on and slept within eye-line of Reed’s Lake, which makes me think that, very soon, I need to be living next to water all the time.

Also did some grocery shopping at our friend Peter’s place.

We rolled into Chicago pre-convention because the Fifth Column guys booked two live shows, one last night and one tonight. Mike Reed, who owns Constellation Chicago, opened his doors and I doubt there has ever been a nicer and more considerate host; what a doll.

The guys were fantastic per usual, we heard a lot about Kmele’s testicles, about why no one on the top of either political ticket is worth a can of piss and, from Ben Dreyfuss, why Europe bites and USA rules. We all drank a little Malört because Chicago, and I played merch-and-mic girl and received a ton of love from the crowd. There’s a live stream if you want to catch the show tonight. Bonus video of pregame soundcheck, on the topic Milli Vanilli, as one does.

Not to bury the lede, but my new book went on presale two days ago and seems to be doing pretty well. Kindle version out now, paperback drops in a minute. You can take it to #1!

I’m heading out in a few to pick up a press pass that will have me marching and observing and writing about activists who’ve told me, for instance, "If people choose to do things that maybe get labeled as violence or are more disruptive? I'm not advocating for that, I'm not planning for that, but I understand the feeling of people wanting to express their outrage at this genocide and having very, very few ways to do so."

And you know I have some experience covering that. Become a paid subscriber and you won’t miss any of the action xx