The National, Andy Beshear, and More
Attended The National Sports Collectors Convention, discussed transphobia in America, and scrutinized Netanyahu's impact on US-Israel relations.
I attended The National Sports Collectors Convention for a few days over the past weekend, aka The National. I started going in 2023 when a friend mentioned it. Before then, I had only known it was happening but never attended. It usually rotates between Chicago and other venues but luckily, it’s here for three years in a row through 2027.
I ran a few pieces about The National over on Dugout Dirt.
Two years after booking my October 2023 tour of Coors Field, I finally got around to writing about it. Much of this is because of the post-October 7 headspace and then it just became a case of just putting it off. Anyway, it’s now online and I’ll have pieces on my Comerica Park and Great American Ball Park tours running in due time. Rogers Centre is set for next month when I’m in Toronto for TIFF. I’m not sure which, if any, ballparks that I get to next year for tours but I’m looking at hoping to take care of some on the west coast.
The Cook County Democratic Party officially announced this morning that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is headlining the annual cocktail reception. It’ll be exciting to see Andy for the first time in nearly 11 years to the date in which we met.
According to NBC News, nearly one in four transgender people live in states with bathroom bans. The NBA and NCAA were among the many organizations and businesses pulling events out of North Carolina because of HB2 being signed into law in 2016. Now? Rather than fight back against discrimination, organizations and businesses are more than happy to bend their knee and capitulate to discrimination.
I’m a sports fan. I have a goal of getting to all 30 MLB stadiums. There are baseball teams located in states that have transphobic laws on the books, such as Texas and Florida. Though surprisingly, states like Georgia and Texas don’t have any kind of bathroom ban. Rather, their transphobia comes in the form of banning trans athletes or targeting trans healthcare in some manner. As such, how am I supposed to step foot in Arlington, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, or St. Petersburg and feel comfortable in doing so? The same goes for Ohio with its ban in schools and some government-owned buildings. It’s easier said than done. I’m especially not keen on traveling to Florida any time soon.
It’s not just sports though. President Clinton’s library and museum is located in Little Rock, Ark. The state has a ban in place for all government-owned buildings. As much as I want to see his presidential center, traveling to Arkansas is unlikely to happen. Speaking of Arkansas, their attorney general is perfectly fine with antisemitism.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has singlehandedly ruined the bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship. Rep. Ritchie Torres is a pro-Israel Democrat, but he currently has no relationship with the Israeli government. His comments came while in conversation with Chuck Todd.
“If you’re a Democrat, and if you’re a Democrat of color and if you’re a Black Democrat, you take immense pride in Barack Obama. He represents one of the greatest achievements in politics. We take great pride in his presidency,” Torres said. “To see a foreign leader visibly disrespect him in the manner that Bibi Netanyahu did, I feel did irreparable damage to the relationship with the Democratic Party.”
CNN has more on how pro-Israel Dems are breaking with Netanyahu.
Fearing Zionism could die among Democrats, many party leaders are explicitly breaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to stop anti-Israel attitudes from becoming a litmus test for next year’s midterms and the 2028 presidential primaries.
Is the damage already done? This is something that we’ll see playing out for quite a while. My top three issues right now are antisemitism/Jewish safety, trans rights, and American democracy. Yesterday was the first day in Illinois that candidates could start getting signatures for their campaigns. Candidates running for lower-level offices don’t have to place their foreign policy positions in their issues section. That being said, I still want to know where they stand on issues that matter the most to me.
I’ve met two of the three candidates running for U.S. Senate in Illinois. However, there are issues that matter the most to me and this is where we’re seeing how Bibi is causing Democrats to give pause when it comes to supporting Israel. When the IDF Chief of Staff is saying that Bibi’s plans to re-occupy Gaza are wrong, Bibi should listen. It will not lead to total victory, whatever the hell that means anymore. Bibi doesn’t want a ceasefire. He doesn’t want to bring the hostages home. The time to do that was last year. He just wants to keep his corrupt tuchas in power.
A candidate’s position on military aid is going to become a litmus test. Of the two events that I attended, only one brought up foreign policy and what’s happening right now. I understand where one of them may be coming from but I still have my own disagreements. When I vote at the ballot box, I want to know that my own views will be heard and voted upon in Washington.
In other political news, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is now a Democrat. He’s joined a few other previously elected Republicans in joining the Democratic Party.
The BBC has some serious issues when it comes to trust and credibility. A leaked email shows that orders coming from the top are to take a slanted approach in coverage. It’s just another reason why I have a tough time trusting news outlets when it comes to their coverage of the Middle East.