Good Day, Gnusies! Tons of good news today, so I’m going to jump right in and see how much I can stuff in this GNR before I run out the clock!
Let’s kick off with some good election news: Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat, Cruises in New Mexico House Race, Jonathan Martin, New York Times, June 1, 2021.
Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat, won a landslide victory in a special House election in New Mexico on Tuesday, claiming the seat previously held by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and easily turning back a Republican effort to make the race a referendum on rising crime in the Albuquerque-based district.
Just after midnight Eastern time, Ms. Stansbury, a state representative, had captured 60 percent of the vote, while her Republican rival, Mark Moores, had won 36 percent.
Her dominating performance represented an early vote of confidence in the Democratic-controlled White House and Congress in a heavily Hispanic district and could quiet some anxiety in the party about its prospects going into the 2022 midterm elections.
As always, turnout was the key:
😎💙 Here’s What Joe Biden Did Yesterday 💙😎
First president ever to acknowledge the Tulsa Massacre and delivered a speech long overdue.
Biden Speaks in Tulsa Marking 100 Years Since Race Massacre: Great Nations ‘Come to Terms With Their Dark Sides’, Josh Feldman, Mediaite, June 1, 2021.
Biden held a brief moment of silence for the victims and said, “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot. This was a massacre. Among the worst in our history, but not the only one, and for too long forgotten by our history.”
He talked about a “clear effort to erase it from our memory” and how schools were not teaching this significant part of American history. Biden also talked about members of Congress who were also open members of the Ku Klux Klan.
We do ourselves no favors by pretending none of this ever happened or it doesn’t impact us today because it does still impact us today. We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do. They come to terms with their dark sides, and we’re a great nation. The only way to build a common ground is to truly repair and to rebuild. I come here to help fill the silence, because in silence wounds deepen.
Voting Rights
Biden names Harris to lead administration's effort to protect voting rights, Dartunorro Clark, NBC, June 1, 2021.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the administration's push to protect voting rights as federal election reform legislation faces steep hurdles in the closely divided Senate.
In remarks commemorating the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Massacre, Biden said that with Harris in charge, voting reforms would "address what remains on the stained soul of America."
"With her leadership and your support, we're going to overcome again," he said, speaking to community leaders and survivors on the 100th anniversary of the bloody attack on Tulsa's Black residents. ✂️
Biden asked voting rights groups to "redouble their efforts now to register and educate voters," and he said his administration will be "ramping up efforts" to counter the "unprecedented assault" on voting.
Immigration
Update on Alaska Arctic Refuge drilling leases
Remember the Arctic Refuge drilling leases that the TFG failed to sell to big oil?
“They held the lease in ANWR — that is history-making. That will be recorded in the history books and people will talk about it,” said Larry Persily, a longtime observer of the oil and gas industry in Alaska. “But no one showed up.”
Biden suspends oil leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge, Matthew Daly, AP, June 1, 2021.
The order by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland follows a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities imposed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office. Biden’s Jan. 20 executive order suggested a new environmental review was needed to address possible legal flaws in a drilling program approved by the Trump administration under a 2017 law enacted by Congress.
After conducting a required review, Interior said it “identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives″ required under the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law. ✂️
The drilling mandate was included in a massive tax cut approved by congressional Republicans during Trump’s first year in office. Republicans said it could generate an estimated $1 billion over 10 years, a figure Democrats call preposterously overstated.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a longtime opponent of drilling in the refuge, accused the Trump administration of trying to “shortcut environmental laws.″ The effort “fell apart when exposed to the facts that federal scientists say Arctic Refuge drilling cannot be done safely and oil companies don’t want to drill there.” Cantwell said.
🎶💙 Music 💙🎶
⚖️ Justice ⚖️
Big Justice section today, Gnusies. That’s GOOD NEWS!
TFG is in trouble
‘This is different’: Legal expert says for Trump ‘all signals are toward indictment’, David Badash, New Civil Rights Movement (via Raw Story), June 1, 2021.
"Why do I say that? First you've got the fight over former President Trump's tax returns. Then you've got the hiring of a very high-profile prosecutor, who is brought in to basically oversee this case. He leaves a very cushy job in private practice, to come in and work in the DA 's office just on this case, this is his expertise, and now you've got this special grand jury, that's been empaneled typically you don't get a special grand jury, like this, unless they believe they have evidence of a crime. So, all the evidence all the signals are towards a likely indictment of someone, if not more than one person."
Co-host Joy Behar expressed concern that Trump has "gotten away with" numerous misdeeds and always escaped strong accountability. ✂️
"This is different," he said. "In each one of those cases, there was a lane, right? When you talk about impeachment, you talk about specific rules that relate to impeachment of a president and what is the standard, when should someone be impeached? With Mueller, he was in a very specific lane on the Russia investigation, etc. Told you can't veer beyond that, this Manhattan DA in particular can investigate whatever potential crime comes across his desk and here, we're not talking about Donald Trump as president, with the protections that the President has, we're talking about what Donald Trump as private citizen did with regard to real estate deals and possible bank fraud, etc. So in this sense he's being treated just like everybody else, which makes this a very different kind of investigation than every other one you mentioned."
Possible Flipper?
The Justice Department Is Dropping A Capitol Riot Prosecution For The First Time, Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeedNews, June 1, 2021.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors disclosed Tuesday that for the first time they’re dropping one of the 450-plus cases filed against people accused of descending on the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
Christopher Kelly of New York was arrested two weeks after the insurrection and charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, which is a felony crime, and several misdemeanor counts for illegally entering the Capitol. More than four months later, a prosecutor notified the judge in Kelly’s case that the government wanted to withdraw the charges; they didn’t offer details about why, only saying that it “serves the interests of justice.” ✂️
Kelly was allowed to go home while his case was pending. In April and then again in May, the government asked the judge to extend deadlines in Kelly’s case; in the May request, the prosecutor said they had engaged in “substantial plea discussions” with Kelly’s attorney. A dismissal without prejudice means the government could bring charges against Kelly again in the future. The parties are due in court tomorrow to update the judge on the status of his case; the judge will have to approve the government’s request to dismiss it.
While Kelly’s is the first case the Justice Department has dropped outright, more cases could be headed for a conclusion soon as prosecutors negotiate plea agreements with other alleged rioters.
👀
Remember KY’s FG’s pardon spree?
Matt Bevin went on a pardoning spree before the people of Kentucky booted him out of office and some of those were shocking enough to make the news. Now the feds are recharging some of those offenders, and it looks like SCOTUS precedent may overrule the state “double jeopardy” clause:
Matt Bevin pardoned a convicted killer. Now feds have recharged Patrick Baker with murder, Billy Koban, Joe Sonka and Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier-Journal, June 1, 2021.
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted Baker for using a firearm to murder Mills’ during a drug trafficking offense, namely a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. The crime is punishable by death.
Although the Constitution’s protection against double jeopardy says no person shall be prosecuted twice for the same crime, the U.S. Supreme Court says state and federal prosecutors may do just that if the same act is an offense against both governments. ✂️
Bevin's pardon of Baker — one of hundreds issued at the end of end of the governor's term — became particularly controversial when The Courier Journal reported Baker's family had hosted a fundraiser at their Corbin home the year prior to retire debt from Bevin's 2015 gubernatorial campaign. ✂️
The Supreme Court ruled as early 1922 that a person can be convicted in state and federal courts of the same acts because each government is a “separate sovereignty.” The court has been asked to overrule the dual sovereignty doctrine in a number of cases and has repeatedly declined to do so.
🚨There is so much of significance in this story: 1) the new indictments of vicious criminals who had been pardoned for state crimes by a corrupt former governor (justice!), 2) the spotlight on the corrupt pardons themselves (justice!) and 3) the clear connecting lines that can be drawn between these state pardons (and subsequent workaround by the federal DOJ) and the corrupt pardons of TFG (justice!). The Garland DOJ’s approach hasn’t pleased everyone anxious for quick justice, but perhaps the strategy is better thought out than some have understood? Food for thought.
SCOTUS
Good news for people who have been harmed by big corporations. One caveat is that two pro-corp justices recused because of conflict of interest (Alito and Kavanaugh), reducing the conservative majority of the court, but the end result is a hopeful sign that the possibility of future lawsuits like this being successful may reign in corporate indifference to public harms they cause:
Supreme Court Says A $2 Billion Verdict In A Baby Powder Cancer Case Should Remain, NPR via AP, June 1, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using Johnson & Johnson talc products.
The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting Johnson & Johnson's appeal. The company argued that it was not treated fairly in facing one trial involving 22 cancer sufferers who came from 12 states and different backgrounds. ✂️
But the company faces thousands of lawsuits from women who claim asbestos in the powder caused their cancer. Talc is a mineral similar in structure to asbestos, which is known to cause cancer, and they are sometimes obtained from the same mines. The cosmetics industry in 1976 agreed to make sure its talc products do not contain detectable amounts of asbestos.
The lead attorney for the women during the trial, Mark Lanier, praised the court's refusal to hear Johnson & Johnson's appeal. "This decision sends a clear message to the rich and powerful: You will be held to account when you cause grievous harm under our system of equal justice under law," Lanier said.
🎶💙 Musical Break 💙🎶
New Vatican Effort to Hold Abusers Accountable
Vatican law criminalizes abuse of adults by priests, laity, Nicole Winfield, AP, June 1, 2021.
The most significant changes are contained in two articles, 1395 and 1398, which aim to address shortcomings in the church’s handling of sexual abuse. The law recognizes that adults, not only children, can be victimized by priests who abuse their authority. The revisions also say that laypeople holding church positions, such as school principals or parish economists, can be punished for abusing minors as well as adults.
The Vatican also criminalized priests “grooming” minors or vulnerable adults to compel them to engage in pornography. The update represents the first time church law has officially recognized as a criminal act the method used by sexual predators to build relationships with victims they have targeted for sexual exploitation.
The new law, which is set to take effect on Dec. 8, also removes much of the discretion that long allowed bishops and religious superiors to ignore or cover up abuse, making clear those in positions of authority will be held responsible if they fail to properly investigate or sanction predator priests.
Deb Haaland May ensure that violence against Indigenous Women is addressed, finally
Here’s How Deb Haaland Wants to Address the Crisis of Violence Against Indigenous Women, Piper McDaniel, MotherJones, June 1, 2021.
Haaland’s newly invigorated Missing and Murdered Unit will boost funding for the operation from $1 to $6 million, bolstering the efforts of Operation Lady Justice, a task force created under President Trump in 2019 that brought together the Department of Interior, Health and Human Services and other agencies to develop some strategies to address the outsize number of MMIW. The increased funding will add personnel and expand 7 MMU offices in Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska. The new offices will specifically target MMU cases and collaborate with existing law enforcement to solve them.
Haaland also announced that she would implement the “Not Invisible Act,” a 2020 bill mandating the coordination among law enforcement agencies to address disproportionate rates of violent crime against Native Americans, an effort that hasn’t been particularly effective in the past, but under Haaland’s watch could be pivotal for law enforcement in solving MMIW cases.
Haaland’s initiatives mark a new commitment to addressing what many consider to be a crisis for Native women. In 2016 alone there were 5,712 instances of missing or murdered indigenous women. According to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, Native women are ten times more likely to be murdered and more than half experience sexual violence in some form. The National Crime Information Center notes that of the 5,712 reports in 2016, only 116 cases were logged in the US Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database. Plus, non-native perpetrators can’t be prosecuted on tribal lands, which becomes a big problem because Indigenous women are commonly attacked by non-native men. A separate study found that of those who experience sexual violence, 96% of them had a non-Native perpetrator. Nicole Matthews is the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition and has seen this dynamic play out in her client population in which, she says, “of the rates of violence victimization of Native women, primarily over 70% are white offenders [or] non-native offenders.”
California to study reparations
California task force launches study of slave reparations, Janie Har (AP), ABC, June 1, 2021.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A first-in-the-nation task force in California to study and recommend reparations for African Americans held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, launching a two-year process to address the harms of slavery and systemic racism despite the federal government's inaction.
The nine members of the task force, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, include the descendants of slaves who are now prominent lawyers, academics and politicians. The group's newly elected chair is a young lawyer who specializes in intellectual property, and their vice-chair is a longtime civil rights activist arrested with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a lunch counter sit-in in 1961. ✂️
Members of the task force pointed out that Black Americans have heard all their lives that they need to improve themselves, yet the truth is that they’ve been held back by outright racism and discriminatory laws that prevented them from getting conventional bank loans and purchasing homes. Their neighborhoods in San Francisco and Los Angeles were razed in the name of development.
“We have lost more than we have ever taken from this country. We have given more than has ever been given to us,” said task force member and state Sen. Steven Bradford. He would like to model a reparations program on the GI bill, allowing for free college and assistance with home-buying.
A better way for Formerly Incarcerated People
“Agency records show that not one of the 176 people who have passed through the houses in the past six years has returned to prison”
The difficulty of re-entry into society led to a 42% recidivism rate in Louisiana, so a group of formerly incarcerated people decided to offer real help:
Reforms are emptying Louisiana’s prisons. This group makes sure no one goes back. Katy Reckdahl, Washington Post, May 26, 2021.
In 2019, Girtley came home again. He faced the same struggles — “no place to stay, no education.” But this time, his starting point was a pair of modest one-story brick houses on Perdido Street, across the street from the New Orleans city jail. The houses are run by the First 72+, a reentry agency founded and operated by formerly incarcerated people. Agency records show that not one of the 176 people who have passed through the houses in the past six years has returned to prison, an achievement that has caught the attention of state officials. ✂️
When released prisoners touch New Orleans soil, many of them head straight to the First 72+, a beehive of advice and assistance where someone can secure a ride, food, a bed or lightly used clothes. The phone number for the First 72+ is posted in many prison dorms and jail cell blocks. In addition to walk-up clients, the organization receives formal referrals from public defenders, probation and parole officers and prison officials. ✂️
Since 2017, the prison population in Louisiana has fallen by nearly one-quarter, from more than 35,000 to 26,517, thanks to a bipartisan legislative package, though the state continues to lead the nation in per capita prison population. The incarceration rate in New Orleans tops 1 in 100, according to a recent analysis.
AND
🎶⚖️ Music For Justice ⚖️🎶
🩺 💉Health 🩺 💉
Kudos to Naomi Osaka — this took courage and I am glad she did it. It remains to be seen what, if anything, helpful the Grand Slam leaders mean by “addressing” the problems Naomi Osaka has drawn attention to by taking this stand, but the fact that they had to say something is a bit of good news for mental health:
Grand Slam leaders pledge to address Naomi Osaka’s concerns, Howard Fendrich, AP, June 1, 2021.
The leaders of the four Grand Slam tournaments reacted Tuesday to tennis star Naomi Osaka’s stunning withdrawal from the French Open by promising to address players’ concerns about mental health.
The pledge came in a statement signed by the same four tennis administrators who threatened the possibility of disqualification or suspension for Osaka on Sunday if she continued to skip news conferences. ✂️
Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the U.S. at age 3, said she would “take some time away from the court now, but when the time is right I really want to work with the Tour to discuss ways we can make things better for the players, press and fans.” ✂️
In a separate statement issued Tuesday to the AP via email, International Tennis Federation official Heather Bowler the sport will “review what needs to evolve” after Osaka “shone a light on mental health issues.”
‼️😃‼️
This is a BFD! Nevada could lead the way!
Renaming the covid variants to dial down stigma
A sensible idea; let’s hope it works:
Alpha, Beta Instead Of Britain, South Africa. Why The WHO Is Renaming COVID Variants, Jason Breslow, NPR, June 1, 2021.
The World Health Organization is hoping to simplify the way the public talks about the growing number of variants of the coronavirus. It will start assigning different letters of the Greek alphabet to each new mutation of the virus.
The new system takes the names of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and moves them away from what can be sometimes confusing scientific nomenclature, or shorthand that puts heavy emphasis on where the variants were first discovered.
For example, under the new system, the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the U.K., will be known as Alpha. The B.1.351 variant, first spotted in South Africa, will be called Beta, while the variant initially found in Brazil, known as P.1, will go by Gamma.
The new names won't officially replace the scientific names already assigned to new variants, but the WHO said it is making the change in an attempt to avoid fueling stigma towards nations where new variants arise.
National Doughnut Day is June 4, in case you were wondering! 😋
mRNA Vaccine Holds Wider Potential
🗳🗽 Dems Defend Democracy 🗽🗳
This is one battle won, but the war over voting rights continues. We all need to keep working hard on that, but for now, enjoy the momentary respite brought to you by Texas Democrats.
How It Happened: The walkout That Saved TX Voting Rights — For Now, Paul j Weber, HuffPost via AP, June 1, 2021.
It was 10:35 p.m. Suddenly, every Democrat still on the floor got a text message.
“Members, take your key and leave the chamber discreetly. Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building.”
The walkout was a go, and minutes later, Senate Bill 7 was dead. Left without enough House members to conduct business under the rules before a midnight deadline Sunday, Texas Republicans were forced to abandon for now an elections overhaul they had crammed with previously unseen restrictions during closed-door negotiations, including one prohibiting Sunday morning early voting — a time widely used by Black churchgoers in “souls to the polls” campaigns.
It was a dramatic, last-ditch revolt: One by one, Democrats headed for the exits and disappeared down corridors. The voting machines on their abandoned desks were locked. In the unlikely event of a “call of the House” — an extreme remedy to secure a quorum, mobilizing state troopers to forcibly bring absent members back — Democrats chose a hideout that was unmistakable in meaning: Mt. Zion Baptist Church, a Black house of worship more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) away.
Democracy Docket-Kansas
We Have Excellent Candidates
I hope Charlie Crist follows Stephanie Murphy’s lead, withdraws and instead works hard to hold his FL congressional seat.
Nikki Fried, Florida’s Highest-Ranking Democrat, Announces Run For Governor, Daniel Marans, HuffPost, June 1, 2021.
Fried, 43, an attorney, is currently Florida’s only statewide Democratic elected official. She is due to compete for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Rep. Charlie Crist (D), who previously governed Florida as a moderate Republican. ✂️
As agriculture commissioner, Fried, a former lobbyist for Florida’s medical marijuana industry, has overseen the state’s legalization of the commercial hemp industry, and taken steps to shield Florida’s waterways from pollution and depletion.
In her capacity as head of the department that approves concealed-carry gun permits, Fried has also ended the state government’s close coordination with the National Rifle Association. ✂️
“We’ve had two decades of Republican governors,” Fried said. “It’s time for something new.”
“What you see is what you get from me. I haven’t changed my positions or what I believe in,” she added.
Fried also believes that she is the best-equipped Democrat to oust DeSantis. In 2018, a year when every other statewide Florida Democrat lost their race, she prevailed.
Val Demings For Senate!
And, in case you didn’t see this earlier, there is some pretty solid evidence that Val Demings has a decent shot at defeating Rubio in 2022!
Rising Democratic star Val Demings wants to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio. Could she win? Ashley Daniels and Pearl K Dowe, Washington Post, May 25, 2021.
We expect Demings will have a good chance, given her strong fundraising history and her connection to Black female voters in community and civic organizations. Our research finds that Black women’s organizations are critical in mobilizing support and votes. ✂️
In a recent journal article, one of us (Dowe) found that Black women’s political ambitions have often been misunderstood and underestimated. Interviews with 30 Black women across the country who are serving or have served as elected officials revealed that behind Black women’s ambition lies a broad network of community cultivation and support, including local and civic organizations and such institutions as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Black churches. These spaces often socialize Black women to lead and provide service, while offering supportive and insular spaces protected from racism that enable them to cultivate strategies to be successful candidates. ✂️
Black women consistently support Black female candidates with their votes and are more likely to view Black female candidates favorably than other demographic groups. When a statewide Democratic candidate takes full advantage of these networks, engaging regularly with Black female voters, that constituency can give her a competitive edge — at times enough to win historically Republican states. That’s what we saw in 2017, when Doug Jones won the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, backed by Black women. And it’s what we saw when both Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff won the 2021 Senate runoffs in Georgia. In these races, grass-roots Black women-led organizations such as Black Girls Vote, Woke Vote and the New Georgia Project were vital in helping mobilize support for Democratic candidates, getting voters registered, persuading them to vote and ensuring that they did.
What a difference from TFG at treasury!
🎶💙 Music for our excellent Dem Candidates 💙🎶
✶ ✶ My Local News ✶ ✶
Making Voting Easier
Illinois lawmakers OK moving 2022 primary to June; governor still must sign, Rachel Hinton, Chicago Sun✶Times, June 1, 2021.
An amendment to Senate Bill 825 would, among other things: move the primary from the third Tuesday in March to June 28, 2022; make Election Day a state holiday for schools and universities; require high schools to allow on-site voter registration; change the dates for circulating candidate petitions. ✂️
Voters could request a 2022 mail-in ballot between March 30 and June 23. The proposal also requires the Illinois State Board of Elections to submit legislation establishing a system by which mail-in ballots could be sent electronically and allow those with disabilities to mark their ballots with assistive technology. ✂️
The bill would also allow sheriffs in counties with fewer than 3 million people — meaning all but Cook County — to open temporary branch polling places at county jails for detainees.
Illinois Freezes out ICE
Bill limiting immigration detention in Illinois advances to governor’s desk, Elvia Malagón, Chicago Sun✶Times, June 1, 2021.
A law from 2019 extended the state’s ban on private prisons to include detention facilities, which thwarted plans to build a private immigration detention facility in the state. Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said ICE could build and operate its own detention facility in Illinois, though the federal agency tends to pay others for detention services.
“ICE has been outsourcing its detention operations,” Tsao said. “We closed off any options for them to do so.”
If signed into law, the bill also stops local police from collaborating with ICE on immigration enforcement operations, sets up annual reporting requirements for law enforcement to report when ICE contacted the agency in regards to immigration enforcement and lets the Illinois attorney general investigate patterns of non-compliance with the law, Tsao said.
Illinois Finances Better Than Expected
Legislators pass fiscal plan in overtime session, Andrew Sullender and Rachel Hinton, Chicago Sun✶Times, June 1, 2021.
Earlier Monday, Harris had told the House Executive Committee that the Democrats’ proposed budget, Senate Bill 2800, has no tax increases and pays down $2 billion of the state’s $3.2 billion bill backlog.
“I will admit, and I own up to right away, that we were very fortunate,” Harris said, also praising President Joe Biden for his COVID-19 relief plans. “Our revenues came in far, far higher than our very conservative estimates we made.”
Harris said the roughly $1.5 billion in federal funds used in the budget is “one-time money,” and the budget uses it only to “pay one-time expenses.” ✂️
Expenditures for money from the American Rescue Plan Act in the proposed budget include $578 million in economic recovery for businesses, $183 million for public health infrastructure and $104 million in affordable housing.
Harris said the budget is relying on closing “a small handful” of what Pritzker called “corporate tax loopholes” in his proposed budget.
CTA Aiming for EV Bus Fleet
The Chicago Transit Authority is in the midst of its second, longer and broader test for the planned transition of the entire bus fleet to EVs by 2040. (That long timeframe is due to the fact that our fleet is huge (more than 1800 buses), and when the commitment was first made back in 2018, the city was mired in plenty of financial quicksand). I anticipate that — like nearly everything else that’s good for the environment, economy and human beings — the transition is likely to go much quicker than that. 2040 is the goal and I bet Chicago is going to beat that goal (I’m putting my $5 on “beats it by a decade”): Six electric buses enter testing with CTA, Mass Transit Magazine, April 5, 2021.
CTA first tested two electric buses in 2014 and the authority said both performed well in Chicago weather, which prompted the competitive procurement process to order additional electric buses.
CTA said the six buses entering service for evaluation puts the authority one step closer to its goal of “completely modernizing the agency’s bus fleet and making Chicago one of the greenest cities in the world.”
“The introduction of these new electric buses is just one example of how the CTA is committed to adding more green vehicles, addressing climate change and being more environmentally conscious,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “Once these prototype vehicles pass the testing phase and we purchase additional electric buses, CTA will be one step closer to its goal of having a 100-percent electric fleet by the year 2040.”
🎶💙 Music For Chicago 💙🎶
😬😵😫 Consequences 😬😵😫
Ok, ok, maybe for this one, the old schadenfreude file ought to be resurrected, but good gravy you cannot make stuff like this up. Talk about instant karma! (no one was hurt, except maybe their pride, lol).
WATCH: Boat explodes just after passengers harass family with Pride flag, Matthew Chapman, Raw Story, June 1, 2021.
On Tuesday, Newsweek flagged a viral story making the rounds on Twitter and TikTok, in which instant karma befell three boaters who harassed a family sailing with a gay pride flag on Moses Lake, Washington.
"Twitter user @retro_ushi_, who identifies as trans and queer, told the story on social media and said: 'These people harassed my family because we were flying gay pride flags in Moses Lake, Washington, by racing around us and shouting gay slurs. Then, their boat literally blew up! #KarmaIsReal," reported Seren Morris. "They added: 'And just ONE more tidbit to really drive the karma in there. The driver literally s*** his pants and everyone saw when his shorts fell off in the water.'"
Ultimately, the offending boaters were rescued, and police doused the fire after the vessel had been charred black. According to @retro_ushi, the most likely cause of the fire was that "they were driving around us so roughly, they either damaged their carburetor or took in water and stalled. Then fumes built up and when they tried to speed away, the fumes ignited."
Karma, Take Two
This next story is obviously not good news, but it is most certainly an example of consequences catching up to someone who behaved foolishly while revealing his vicious hatred for millions of his fellow Americans:
Anti-vaxxer hospitalized with COVID-19 after claiming vaccine would 'wipe out a lot of stupid people',
Far-right Christian talk show host Rick Wiles has been hospitalized after contracting the novel coronavirus, less than a month after he said he would never get vaccinated.
Right Wing Watch reports that Wiles's TruNews website announced over the weekend that Wiles had come down with COVID-19 and was placed on oxygen while in the hospital. ✂️
""I am not going to be vaccinated," Wiles said, according to Right Wing Watch. "I'm going to be one of the survivors. I'm going to survive the genocide... The only good thing that will come out of this is a lot of stupid people will be killed off. If the vaccine wipes out a lot of stupid people, well, we'll have a better world."
Update: Good news! The fool is recovering and going home today! Still as hateful as ever, though. A Christlike Get-Well-Soon Card For Rick Wiles, Who Survived The COVID Genocide! Evan Hurst, Wonkette, June 1, 2021.
But fret not, children of the Lord, for Rick Wiles announced a few minutes ago that he has survived! He has survived the "CCP Covid genocide," and also the other genocide, the one that happens when you get vaccinated, because he ain't gonna get vaccinated! And later today, he's going home from the hospital! Glory hallelujah!
Before we go any further, we'd like to remind you that all commenting rules are in full effect, because we are not here to be dicks. We are here to tell Rick Wiles best wishes for his continued recovery. Saying anything else would be un-Christlike. We don't ever want harm, tribulation, or pestilence to befall our ideological opponents. We want them to become better, healthier, less batshit people.
Likewise, we imagine that if the shoe were on the other foot, and the Wonkette newsroom became a COVID cluster, Rick Wiles would be equally gracious, haha just kidding, no he wouldn't and also we're all vaccinated because we're not morons.
welp!
Tots and pears
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Yer Wonkette: Who You Gonna Believe? Michael Flynn Or All This Video Evidence Against Him? Evan Hurst, Wonkette, June 1, 2021.
⚡️Snap out of it! “They’re getting away with it all!”, Bill Palmer, Palmer Report, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ I’m Not Scared to Reenter Society. I’m Just Not Sure I Want To. Tim Kreider, The Atlantic, May 30, 2021.
⚡️ From local heroes to international superstars, meet 30 LGBTQ trailblazers, NBC, June 2021.
⚡️ Podcast and transcript at the link: Obama Explains How America Went From ‘Yes We Can’ to ‘MAGA’, Ezra Klein, New York Times, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ Opinion: Why Biden keeps talking about wanting GOP cooperation, Greg Sargent, Washington Post, June 1, 2021.
⚡️This is exactly what workers need to be doing: Gig Workers of the World Are Uniting, Wilfred Chan, The Nation, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ The ‘Desk’ is gone! Did Donald Trump finally kill his blog?, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ Floridians are defying Ron DeSantis’s Jim Crow voter suppression law and it’s very inspiring. Blue Tuesday, DailyKos, May 31, 2021.
⚡️She’s got some better ideas: Pelosi rules out having Biden create Jan. 6 commission, Mary Clare Jalonick, AP, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ Really good interview: The deeper history of "defund": How the "get tough" policies of the '70s and '80s led to disaster, Paul Rosenberg, Salon, May 29, 2021.
⚡️ Why You Should Wait Out the Wild Housing Market, Derek Thompson, the Atlantic, May 28, 2021.
⚡️ Let’s demand better: Americans Don’t Want to Return to Lousy Low Wage Jobs, Daniel Alpert, New York Times, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ The history of RW boogyman “inflation”: How Inflation Became the Gasbags’ Favorite Moral Panic, Paul Rosenberg, MotherJones, June 1, 2021.
⚡️ The Radical Modesty of Biden’s Budget, Paul Krugman, New York Times, May 31, 2021.
⚡️ US Black-White inequality in 4 charts, Tami Luhby and Christopher Hickey, CNN, June 1, 2021.
💗Here’s How You Can Help Build Our Democracy Back Better 💗
Put your beautiful bleeding liberal heart into it!
Democratic litigation hero, Marc Elias was the legal eagle behind the 60 Big Lie losses after the election. Here’s his website, Democracy Docket. You can find information about current cases he is fighting to defend voting rights around the country, as well as actions you can take to help fight voter suppression at the link!
Write to voters around the country with Postcards to Voters. Progressive Muse usually posts an update on current campaigns in the comments and you can also check out the website. It’s easy, fun and it really works to GOTV!
🎩 Also, Goody posted a great list of links and I am going to borrow it because it’s great! 🎩
The only way they can win is by keeping people from voting. They are working like heck to make that happen and we need to do all we can to keep 2022 from being a year when they grab the Senate and House back from us.
How do we do that? Fight voter suppression!
What can you do?
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS:
U.S. House of Representatives:* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Find your member of Congress and contact him or her:
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
💙RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me for another Wednesday, Gnusies. I’m up against the clock now, and I haven’t covered all the good news out there. While we acknowledge that we are in a fight for the preservation of American democracy — and we have to continue the work — I really am starting to see a pattern of events which suggests to me that a lot more is going on out of public view. A lot more work on bringing criminals to justice is happening than perhaps we realise. The fight to preserve and protect voting rights continues all over the country. Democrats in every level of government are working hard to build a better world and when I stand back to take in what’s going on from a wider perspective, it seems to me that things are going better than we feared — and certainly better than the doom&gloom brigade would have us believe they are.
The work continues, because as Goody pointed out recently, this isn’t a job with a beginning a middle and an end. The work of keeping a democracy is continuous. It will have ups and downs and we’ve been living through the very lowest part of a down that has lasted for decades. Now we are on the upswing, but it is still fragile. The anti-democracy crowd are staging a last vicious desperate stand, because they know it’s the last time they will have so much power. For them, this is a battle for survival- of the vicious, cruel, racist, sexist America they know and prefer. Interestingly, we are also fighting an existential fight. We are fighting for the survival of our democracy and we are even more determined to win. So, whenever you hear D&Gers moaning about how powerful and evil and unbeatable the darker side seems to be, don’t buy it. We have the power of love, truth and justice on our side, and we are going to win.
As always, please remember how important you are to your loved ones AND your country. Everyone is needed in this effort, so take good care of yourself. Get enough rest, eat nutritious food and if you can, get outdoors every day. A little blue sky and greenery, even a small patch, can really lift your spirits. It’s scientifically proven!
Curlygirl and I are getting a kick out of the large number of small birds we are seeing each morning now feasting on seeds that someone keeps tossing out in the early morning hours. We don’t hear birds chirping very much in the city, but one certain block lately has a veritable chorus of chipper chirpers to make us smile every day! Nice few trees along that stretch, too!
Have a good day, everyone and thanks for reading!
HAPPY WEDNESDAY, GNUSIES!