We were so lucky to have had Adam Schiff join us for a second time!
It was just as wonderful as the first time, a real delight once again, but in a totally different way.
Patrick (Adam Schiff’s chief of staff) and I had talked for about 20 minutes last Tuesday, and although he didn’t say it in so many words, I came away with the feeling that maybe we should shake things up for the second zoom, making it looser and edgier, with Adam getting to interact with more people. More questions, shorter answers. I asked Patrick whether he thought Adam would love that or hate that, and his immediate answer was “Let’s do it.”
So Curt and I put our heads together and decided that if what Adam wanted this time around was FUN and more interaction, that’s what we would give him. So we completely revamped the plan for the zoom with Adam and jumped off the cliff together.
Curt wondered if they might have felt comfortable going for more fun and more interaction this time around precisely because the first meeting had gone so well, with thoughtful questions and all of us on our best behavior. I feel pretty certain that Curt was right about that.
Once again, Curt (Almost Retired) did a masterful job of facilitating the conversation, even as people were free to jump in without being called on. We made sure to give MomSense a chance to ask what I’ll call “the dad question”, which turned out to be a most excellent question because Adam lit up when she asked it.
And, yes, there was profanity this time. Not to worry, Cole, Adam Schiff wasn’t swearing at us! But he was the one who dropped the F-bomb as part of a story. So we made him an honorary jackal!
And best of all, he volunteered that he would love to come talk with us again, thanked us for everything we are doing with our targeted fundraising for boots-on-the-ground organizing, and said we shouldn’t wait for another book to get together again!
In the spirit of a “party” rather than a “talk”, I went with the gallery view rather than speaker view for zoom, so that’s what you see in the video.
Oh, I should probably mention that the video doesn’t include the first couple of minutes where I welcomed Adam Schiff and posed the initial question to start us off. I warned you guys that I am not good at remembering to start recording! Of course, now that I know how to trim a recording, I guess it doesn’t matter if recording is turned on early before the event officially starts.
Our final Book Club zoom will be tonight at 8pm. No live-blogging since we don’t have a guest – it would be tough to live blog a 90-minute discussion without a guest speaker.
We will hold two final BJ book club threads – one this weekend and one next weekend.
Maybe we can do Jamie Raskin’s book next? I think he and Adam Schiff are buds, and maybe Adam would be willing to put in a good word for us. Jamie Raskin is someone that a lot of us admire; wouldn’t it be wonderful if he were willing to come talk with us?
Almost Retired
As a public service to this community, I have time-tagged the aforementioned “F-bomb” for you: 24:17. You’re welcome.
narya
Adam ALERT! Schiff was a guest on today’s “Daily Beans” podcast, and he said, hey, I’ve been joining Zoom book club meetings, etc. He wasn’t on long, but it will be of interest to book club members.
MomSense
Maybe we could do our next round of fundraising in honor of Jamie’s son – find out if there is a voting rights group or one of our current groups we could donate to.
Miki
Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay. Yay.
I’ve been waiting for the video for ages since I couldn’t figure out how to participate live, and I loved the book and love Adam Schiff. And his dad, especially.
This book club thang tweaked my cynical depression more than I would have thought possible. So thanks for that. Combined with the newish poodle puppeh I feel down right heppeh.
Baud
Can’t wait to listen.
Elizabelle
Good luck! About to take off for Germany, but may I catch up when you post it? Ciao.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: yesss!
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I put up the video in this post. You can find all the book club posts, including this one, in the link in the sidebar under Featuring.
The two with video say (Video) in the title and the one with just audio says (Audio) in the title.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: thank you. What an exciting morning you had. Cats. Step up your games.
Nancy
I love the idea of Jamie Raskin’s book next.
JoyceH
Hey, can someone explain to me how to put up an avatar of some sort when you turn off video? I’d like to put up a nice dog picture or maybe a book cover to show when I turn off video to take a smoke break.
JoyceH
And BTW, Abigail Spanberger dropped by my county Democrats meeting for a few minutes on Monday, so I zoomed with TWO congresspeople in one week! She was outside the Capitol building because they were waiting to be called to vote – I felt like I was participating in an MSNBC show.
MomSense
I think I might listen back on our conversations with him to listen for the action items that he said they (Democrats defending our democracy) needed from activists. There were several action areas. He said local voting rights and registration and also protection of county clerks and officials who are trying to protect voters. He talked about people in blue states donating and supporting efforts in places like Texas where they are disenfranchising voters. He also talked about pressure on Republicans who won’t cooperate with the Jan 6 committee and pressure on the media. I’d be interested in talking as a group about what we think we can do or joining forces with groups already doing those things.
UncleEbeneezer
Great job everyone.
That “Oh geez!” by Schiff, at the mention of a Representative from TN… ???
HeleninEire
@Almost Retired: Thank you! I love the F word. I can’t go through a day without saying it at least 10 times.
I’m fancy like that.
UncleEbeneezer
And just as I was watching this:
BREAKING: Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Peter Navarro — the former Trump senior advisor and Willard war room associate.
MazeDancer
Jamie Raskin, too?? Aim high!
Balloon Juice:
Come for the politics, stay for the Impeachment ⭐️ Managers!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Water Girl, thank you for posting these recordings. I am so sorry I had to miss the sessions. You all made us look good.
Spanky
“Gazpacho police” is trending. I’ll leave it at that, except to say that hilarity is ensuing.
WaterGirl
@Spanky: That Gazpacho video was the highlight of my day!
Another Scott
Thanks for this. Everyone did well.
Yes, get Raskin if you can. Of course! Give us time to read the book, and get books to those who want it.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Spanky:
“Mein Gott! There are canned tomatoes in my soup!”
jackmac
Damn. Sorry I missed him. But I did order his book and it arrives on Friday via Amazon.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Yeah, I was thinking about maybe early April or so to start.
Almost Retired
@Another Scott: Scott (and jackmac), this raises an interesting point, re book sales for when we reach out to Congressman Raskin or other authors.
I wonder how many books were sold as a result of Adam’s appearance on BJ?
Certainly, at least 100 directly from the participants, as well as dozens of others who wanted to read the book to follow the on-line conversation.
And then there are the friends and families of jackals, who bought the book on our recommendation (my Mom, for example). It’s not an insignificant number.
There are a lot of these in-the-moment political books out there. I suspect Midnight in Washington would have been on my “I’ll get to that” list. But the book club moved it up to “buy immediately.” Adam Schiff is no fool to participate in Zoom book clubs!
AJ
WaterGirl yuge thanks to you and the team for making this happen!!
What an honor and a pleasure for us to have these conversations and esp the recordings for those of us who didn’t make it live.
I predict these good efforts may land us in the top NINE thousand blogs if we keep it up.
J R in WV
Pretty exciting, huh? Thanks to everyone who makes good things happen here!!!