Good Day, Gnuville! I was not even thinking about a theme for today’s GNR but one just popped into view when I opened the morning paper. 😃 In an article written by Ben Jealous (you’ll find it below in the Lightning Roundup — first item), this quote (emphasis mine) jumped out at me and I knew what I would talk about in today’s GNR:
I remain deeply committed to passing forward all that knowledge and insight, so hard-won by folks who preceded me in ways that paved my road. For me, that starts with listening to young leaders and organizers, both to understand their perspectives as well as to give them space to air what they are compelled to get out. For me, change starts with listening.
What I hope to impart are the big ideas that were passed along to me, like Powell’s lesson that finding the one common cause we can share can be much more powerful than a hundred things that we may disagree about.✂️
That’s an optimistic view, I know. One that I get genetically perhaps. Just before my grandmother died, she took a call from Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who had been a graduate student in social work decades before when my grandmother was creating Child Protective Services in Baltimore. It was that long arc in view. It was my grandmother who gave me the perspective that still guides me. “Baby, it’s true. Pessimists are right more often, but optimists win more often,” she told me once. “In this life, you have to decide what’s more important to you. As for me, I’ll take winning.”
Ben Jealous, incoming executive director of the Sierra Club and professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Grandmother Jealous was right. Those Doom and Gloomers are always going to be able to stoke their misery by predicting D&G because human nature is such that there will always be awful stuff going on somewhere, even as we celebrate good things happening. That’s not going to change quickly in a complex world full of human beings only barely evolved past hunter/gatherer/fight or flight. Our primitive psychology — and the ease with which malign forces can manipulate that psychology into wanting what’s bad for us — keeps us vulnerable to self-destructiveness.
But as a species, we are evolving. We have evolved a critical thinking ability which helps us to step back and assess our problems without always reacting with blind (usually fearful or enraged) emotion. Humans have the capability to learn what works from experience and to then apply that knowledge to new situations, with an expectation of success. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the expectation ( you might call it optimism) based on similar prior experience is how we find the will to persist and solve new problems. Many humans still do react without thinking, but enough of us have the ability to think first and then take (appropriate, positive) action. It is people like us who have enabled all of humanity to progress as it has since the stone age.
Pessimism also persists. It takes that same ability to learn from experience, but it filters that through the primitive part of our evolving psychology (fear/anger) and decides that past experience is full of terrible events so it is only logical to expect more. It’s true, as Grandmother Jealous said, they will be right about that more often than anyone wants.
But here’s the deal 😎 Pessimism leads to hopelessness and that saps human will. If you’re convinced (and you convince others, too) that the worst is always about to happen, or that anyone would be foolish to expect success in anything, then what incentive is there for you to try to fix anything?
Whereas optimists — who know at least some things went right before — have a reasonable expectation that some things will go right again. So they work to make that happen.
When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020, some of the D&Gs on our side criticized his cheerful approach and talk of the possibility of bi-partisan achievements. Joe was too naive, they scoffed, too out-of-touch, too stuck in a rosy past world when congress worked as it should, with collegiality and conviviality. Huh. Actually, there was never any such rosy past congress and the guy who has been an elected member of congress since the 1970s knows that very well! But he also knew how to make friends across the aisle and his experience told him that with effort (and strategies honed over decades), he could rely on some friends some of the time to help get stuff done.
And lo and behold! Naive, out-of-touch, optimistic Joe has accomplished more in just two years than any other recent president. Oh, and some of those accomplishments are bi-partisan, too!
By “keeping the faith” (as Joe would say), working hard and not giving up, optimists make good things happen. Optimism wins.
That’s Joe Biden. That’s Nancy Pelosi. That’s our whole dynamic Democratic progressive party. Working hard to build back a better world. We won’t solve every problem, but we will damn well solve some problems and make things a whole lot better for a whole lot of people!
I’m with Grandmother Jealous: As for me, I’ll take winning!”
🎶 Music for Optimists 🎶
Democrats Deliver (and they rock!)
Everyone knew that Kev had traded revenge — and his soul — to eke out enough votes to grasp the speakership. So, he did that last night (denying Schiff and Swalwell their rightful seats on the Intelligence Committee), but the House Dems — led by Hakeem Jeffries — will make sure the American people know just how low and nakedly corrupt the Rs are. These Dems fight back, but not dirty like Rs:
Hakeem Jeffries To Kevin McCarthy: Wanna Fight About Adam Schiff And Eric Swalwell? Let's Go. Evan Hurst, Wonkette, January 24, 2023.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is not taking any shit from Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he is treating McCarthy's threats to refuse to seat Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee with all the respect they deserve. McCarthy has been just cold making up shit about Schiff lying to the American people in Donald Trump's first impeachment, and making silly little insinuations regarding the secrets the FBI tells in briefings about Swalwell. It's all as credible as McCarthy is.✂️
Jeffries writes to McCarthy that his denial of these seats to Swalwell and Schiff "runs counter to the serious and sober mission of the Intelligence Committee." He recounts why Greene and Gosar were removed from their committees, in bipartisan votes that "found them unfit to serve on standing committees for directly inciting violence against their colleagues."
He dryly noted that neither Schiff nor Swalwell have ever "exhibited violent thoughts or behavior." In other words, our people are not a problem. Your people are a problem. Oh yeah, and speaking of your people, McCarthy had no problem with putting "serial fraudster George Santos" on committees. Hakeem Jeffries is not being extremely subtle here.✂️
Ergo, the fact that Jeffries is doing this and sending this letter loudly says, "Oh yes please, let's have this fight. Let's have it right where America can see it."
The Biden Wins from 2021-22 are paying off
Reclaiming U.S. Industry, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, January 24, 2023.
Now, under Joe Biden, we have a potentially transformational shift of ideology and policy. Stimulated by the COVID recession, the supply chain crisis, and the urgent need for renewable energy, Biden’s administration has sponsored an industrial policy, actually several industrial policies, intended to reclaim technological leadership and domestic manufacturing.✂️
One marquee piece of legislation, the CHIPS and Science Act, will spend $13 billion to subsidize semiconductor research and another $39 billion to build more production facilities (known as fabs) in the U.S., using grants, loans, and tax credits. Spending $52 billion (over five years) sounds like a lot, but a single semiconductor fab can cost $5 billion or more, and Intel says that their new Ohio research and manufacturing complex will cost between $60 billion and $120 billion over a decade. All told, chip manufacturers had planned to invest on the order of $200 billion in at least 23 new U.S. semiconductor factories, even before the new legislation passed. Government needs detailed performance standards for these subsidies for maximum public benefit.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes even more money for clean-energy security and climate change mitigation, $369 billion over a decade. Much of this is via tax credits to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels for heating and cooling to heat pumps and electricity generated by wind turbines and solar panels, as well some direct subsidies to promote domestic manufacture. There are also tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles made in the USA.
And the bipartisan infrastructure law, with about $600 billion of new money beyond the usual appropriations for highways and public works, includes major outlays for green projects, including $73 billion to update the nation’s electricity grid to carry more renewable energy, $7.5 billion for electric-vehicle charging stations (on which accelerated EV sales depend), and $7.5 billion for clean buses and ferries. These outlays also promote domestic production and jobs.
Arizona Dem will turn tables on R fraudsters
Arizona’s new attorney general to use election fraud unit to boost voting rights, Rachel Leingang, the Guardian, January 21, 2023.
A unit created under the former Republican attorney general of Arizona to investigate claims of election fraud will now focus on voting rights and ballot access under the newly elected Democratic attorney general.
The Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, told the Guardian that instead of prosecuting claims of voter fraud, she will “reprioritize the mission and resources” of the unit to focus on “protecting voting access and combating voter suppression”. Mayes won the attorney general’s race in November against election denier Abe Hamadah by just 280 votes, a race that went to a state-mandated recount. Mayes also plans for the unit to work on protecting election workers, who have faced threats of violence and intimidation. And she intends for the unit to defend Arizonans’ right to vote by mail, which has been attacked by Republican lawmakers and the state GOP in recent years despite being the most common way Arizonans of all political parties cast their ballots.
Texas Dem does what Texas Rs won’t do
Texas senator proposes gun laws allowing school shooting victims to sue state, impose firearms tax, Patrick Linehan, Kate Holland, and Lucien Bruggeman, ABC, January 24, 2023.
Austin, Texas -- After multiple mass shootings across the country this week, Uvalde families gathered Tuesday as Texas legislators introduced four new bills that would tighten gun laws in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting last May.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, introduced bills that, if enacted, would empower survivors of school shootings to sue Texas state agencies, allow Texas law enforcement officials to be sued for their on-the-job conduct, create a permanent compensation fund for victims of school shootings by imposing a tax on state gun sales, and repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a federal law that shields gun sellers and manufacturers from liability.✂️
Gutierrez told ABC News that none of the proposed bills currently have a Republican willing to co-sponsor, but that all of them would eventually have companion bills in the Texas House of Representatives. “Most of these are nonpartisan issues,” he said.
🎶 Music for Joe and the Dems (and all of us!) 🎶
Republicans in Disarray
Republicans only have a small minority (even smaller with Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) out for a few weeks recovering from a fall), and now 3 of them are signaling to Kev that they may not play along with his kickball:
'I will not be part of this charade': McCarthy bleeding votes to boot Democrats off committees, Matthew Chapman, Raw Story, January 24, 2023.
The path for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to follow through on his promise to boot various Democratic House members off their committees was complicated on Tuesday when, according to Axios, one member of his caucus came out against the idea: Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz.
"Spartz, in a statement, cited her votes in 2021 against kicking Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) off their committees," reported Andrew Solender. "'Two wrongs do not make a right. Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process,' she said. 'As I spoke against it on the House floor two years ago, I will not support this charade again.'" This comes after Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and David Valadao (R-CA) also expressed opposition to McCarthy's plan. ✂️
Greene was expelled from her committee assignments in 2021 following reports that she endorsed the execution of prominent members of Congress on social media. Gosar was censured and stripped of his assignments later that year after he attended a white nationalist convention and posted an anime video of himself murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with a sword.
Best of luck to ya, Kev!
Senate Republicans Wish House GOP Well In Their Debt Ceiling Fight And That’s About It, Emine Yucel, TPM, January 24, 2023.
It appears Senate Republicans don’t want to touch House Republicans’ plans to hold the debt ceiling hostage with a 10-foot pole.
As new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the rest of his caucus threaten to breach the debt limit if they don’t get their way on spending cuts to vital programs like Medicare and Social Security, Senate Republicans are making it clear that this is a McCarthy problem.
A handful of Senate GOPers helped raise the debt ceiling twice in 2021. Four of those members told Politico on Monday they are staying out of it this time around to let House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Republicans figure out their own mess. Senate Republicans also just tackled negotiations on a very separate but complex omnibus spending package that keeps the government funded until September, making upper chamber Republicans hesitant to get involved in the House GOP’s hostage taking, Politico reported.
You hate love to see it
'Not president anymore': Haberman says Trump insiders stunned they can't get Republicans to 'show up for him', Tom Boggioni, Raw Story, January 24, 2023.
Donald Trump is headed to Columbia, South Carolina this week to jump-start his 2024 presidential bid and, with reports that it is off to a rough start, the New York Times Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN to report that his close advisers are taken aback by how bad things are going.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that Trump's close allies were working the phones trying to round up attendees in South Carolina and finding no takers.✂️
"I think they are also finding, his team, that people are not swelling around him in the Republican Party in these states the way they had believed," she added. "Now he still has supporters and still has his operation, it's pretty small. I think they thought they would be able to get all of these people to just show up for him."
🚨 From TPM:
Story: ‘Decisions imminent’ in Trump election case, Atlanta district attorney says, Chris McGreal, the Guardian, January 24, 2023.
The judge overseeing the hearing (on whether or not to make public an investigative report on the actions Trump and his allies took to baselessly challenge the legitimacy of the election), Robert McBurney, reserved his decision on whether to release the special purpose grand jury’s report before any announcement about prosecutions in what he described as an “extraordinary” case, leaving Tuesday’s hearing without a final conclusion.
Willis’s office is holding the only copy of the results of the grand jury’s investigation into a series of alleged crimes, including criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering. The Fulton county district attorney said she wanted to keep the grand jury’s recommendations on who to prosecute, and on what charges, under wraps until she has decided whether to pursue charges for crimes that potentially carry significant prison sentences.
“We have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights,” she said. “We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and we say for future defendants to be treated fairly it’s not appropriate at this time to have this report released.”
Willis then added: “Decisions are imminent”.
A Guide to the Possible Forthcoming Indictments of Donald Trump, David Graham, the Atlantic, January 24, 2023.
At some point this year, perhaps as soon as this month, the former president of the United States may be charged with a serious crime. After a years-long elaborate dance with the law in which he usually stayed just one step ahead, Donald Trump now faces at least three serious investigations that could produce criminal charges. He denies wrongdoing in all cases, but many legal experts think that prosecutors have grounds to charge him and will. Others believe that Trump shouldn’t be charged, or that prosecutors might choose not to charge him even if they can.
What actually will happen is unpredictable. We don’t know what pieces of evidence—or even what investigations—might exist that aren’t public, we don’t know how prosecutors will wield the discretion the law affords them, and, of course, we don’t know how a jury might fall on any charges that end up being tried. But the mountains of evidence already before the public—about Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, about his handling of government documents, and about his previous interactions with the justice system—suggest a fierce conflict to come. “He has learned that due process is the Achilles’ heel of liberal democracy,” Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor, told me. “He’s weaponized the court systems all of his life.”✂️
If Trump is indicted and convicted, the charges are ones that could very well lead to incarceration, as Willis herself has noted. “If someone were convicted of one of these serious crimes, a prison sentence would be likely,” McQuade told me. But other observers think it’s doubtful that Trump will ever see the inside of a jail cell, given the complications and the length of probable appeals.
About that weaponizing of the court system
Courts are on to TFG’s game:
Trump withdraws second lawsuit against New York attorney general, John Wagner, Washington Post, January 24, 2023.
Trump first filed the lawsuit in federal court in Syracuse, N.Y., claiming James was violating his rights and that of his company by pursuing a politically motivated investigation. After a judge in May found “no evidence” that James had acted with bias, Trump appealed the ruling.
Tuesday’s withdrawal of that appeal was the second time in five days that Trump had abandoned litigation against James, who is pursuing a $250 million lawsuit against Trump. It accuses the former president, three of his grown children and executives at his company of flagrantly manipulating property and other asset valuations to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax authorities into giving them better bank-loan and insurance-policy rates and to reduce their tax liabilities.
On Friday, Trump — who has announced a bid for the presidency in 2024 — withdrew a separate lawsuit filed in Florida that had sought to bar scrutiny by James of his revocable trust. A one-page filing in a federal district court provided no reason for that withdrawal, either.
In his 46-page judgment, Middlebrooks cited the lawsuit against James as among those that demonstrated “a pattern of abuse of the courts” by Trump.
Phew! There’s a lot of disarrayment in the R world! Let’s take a music break...
🎶 Music for TFG and his GOPers 🎶
Speaking of investigations of creeps
🤞Maybe that documentary at the Sundance festival will have legs:
"Disturbing new evidence" in Brett Kavanaugh documentary sparks call for DOJ probe, Brett Wilkins, Salon, January 24, 2023.
Doug Liman's Justice premiered Friday as a last-minute addition to the lineup of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. According to Free Speech for People, the film "includes important new details about specific allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh" and "also reveals disturbing new evidence of misconduct by Kavanaugh and his associates" surrounding the right-wing justice's 2018 Senate confirmation hearings.
This includes "evidence that Kavanaugh may have knowingly perjured himself" and that the justice's associates engaged in what his friend referred to as "a cover-up."✂️
The letter(to the DOJ and the Senate Judiciary Committee)states:
Most disturbing, however, is new evidence of conduct by Kavanaugh and his associates (perhaps even before his accusers came forward) concerning the 2018 Senate hearing itself. For example, the film shows a 2018 text message discussion amongst mutual acquaintances of Kavanaugh and Deborah Ramirez, regarding Ramirez's soon-to-be-public allegations that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her. According to the text messages shown in the documentary, Kavanaugh asked a mutual friend to go on the record to defend him. Another friend referred to it as "a cover-up." This indicates consciousness of guilt—and therefore evidence that he may have knowingly perjured himself in the confirmation hearings—and a potential conspiracy to obstruct and defraud the Senate by coordinating a false information campaign.
Oops! More classified docs turn up — this time in Pence’s house!
When directly asked last August, Pence denied any “knowledge” of having any classified material:
Classified documents discovered at home of former VP Mike Pence, Azi Paybarah and Hannah Knowles, Washington Post, January 24, 2023.
A lawyer for former vice president Mike Pence, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, found what they called “a small number” of documents bearing classified markings during a search of Pence’s Indiana home, according to letters to the National Archives.
Gregory F. Jacob, a designated representative for Pence’s vice-presidential records, said Pence gave permission for the FBI to collect the classified documents from his home Jan. 19 while the former vice president was in Washington to attend the March for Life, the yearly gathering of antiabortion advocates. Jacob noted he would deliver the boxes in which those documents were found, along with other vice-presidential papers, to the National Archives on Jan. 23.✂️
Pence had been unaware that the documents were at his home and is “ready and willing to cooperate fully,” Jacob wrote. According to a Jan. 22 letter to the Archives, Jacob said four boxes contained “copies of Administration papers: the two boxes in which a small number of papers appearing to bear classified markings had been found, and two separate boxes containing courtesy copies of Vice Presidential papers.”✂️
The latest discovery undercuts the days of criticism that Biden has faced. Both men have cooperated with law enforcement. Former president Donald Trump, however, has been resistant while harshly criticizing the special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the former president’s handling of the documents.
More deets here: FBI reviewing how classified docs wound up at Pence’s house, CNN, January 24, 2023.
👎 Couldn’t happen to a more deserving network
Although this isn’t a sure thing, another R propaganda site may be going the way of OAN:
Remember OAN? Newsmax Could Be the Next Channel in Danger, Justin Baragona and Diana Falzone, Daily Beast, January 24, 2023.
According to a letter sent by House Republicans last week, cable television carrier DirecTV is on the verge of dropping conservative network Newsmax this week—essentially repeating the platform’s decision last year to boot pro-Trump channel One America News from its lineup.
While one GOP congressman told a right-wing news outlet that Newsmax would be removed from DirecTV by Tuesday night, several network insiders told The Daily Beast that they were unaware of any imminent departure from the service.
A DirecTV representative, meanwhile, told The Daily Beast that the network is currently seeking to charge way more money than the provider thinks is in the best interests of its customers.
All right, that’s enough Rs in disarray. Time for a palate cleanser...
🎶 Worth the 10 Minutes 🎶
🔬 Cool Science 🔬
“Research reveals these genes are not gone but muted, and the method used may pave the way for treating genetic conditions from baldness to cancer”
Humans still have the genes for a full coat of body hair, Mark Johnson, Washington Post, January 24, 2023.
Roughly a million years ago human beings lost most of their body hair, a key moment in evolution that involved major changes to the same set of genes that determined whether many of our fellow mammals kept or lost their coatings of fur, according to new research.
The study, published in the journal eLife, compared our genetic blueprints with those of 62 other mammals, including elephants, manatees and armadillos, examining how hairlessness evolved in different species at different times. The work also identified new genes and gene regulators linked to body hair, a discovery that may someday be used to treat millions of balding Americans.
The technique of comparing broad changes in the genetic codes of different mammals may also allow scientists to investigate questions with profound implications for human health: What genes developed to protect naked mole rats from cancer, and can they be manipulated in humans to treat or prevent the disease? What genetic changes have allowed bowhead whales to live for up to 200 years, far longer than any human, and can the knowledge be used to increase our life span?
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirly! Sometimes I like to say my name like a rhyme. 😃 Today I have just stories about dogs for you. The lady who watches me sometimes is getting a PUPPY! I’m sad that I won’t be able to go to her place to stay overnight anymore, but I am GLAD that she is getting a puppy and we are going to be friends! I can’t wait to meet the puppy in March! I L😍VE puppies!
Oh look! Here’s a dog who adopts a puppy!
Next: The story behind the dogs on the bus!
🚐🐕🦺🐕🦮 So, somebody else posted some kind of clock video last week about the dogs in Alaska who go to daycare on a bus and I thought that sounded really neat so I asked Mama to find a story and here it is!
How an Alaskan 'puppy bus' went viral on TikTok, Carmen Molina Acosta, NPR, January 24, 2023.
Mo Thompson never planned to be a dog walker — and she definitely didn't plan to go viral on TikTok. But recently, her videos of the pups she walks have racked up millions of views, especially the ones showcasing how she picks them up: the puppy bus.
"They're getting on the bus and they get in their seat, and the Internet just lost it," she said. "50 million views. That was wild."✂️
Mo would take friend's dogs on trails with her, or out around town, to get exercise and keep her company in the wilderness. Once she got her own dogs and partnered up with friends, the groups got bigger and bigger. Eventually, people started calling her up for help with training, or behavioral issues.
"And it just kind of turned into like, All right, guys, I'm going through a lot of treats and a lot of poop bags," she said.
"Can you guys, like, throw me some money?"
She didn't always have a bus. She used to cart the dogs around in a van, and before the van, she corralled them on a humble bicycle.
"I've been known in my community for a while, but not on the Internet," she said. "That took the bus."
Gosh! Here’s another dog who adopts a puppy!
I do not believe that black and white dog is a Dalmatian. I believe he is a Great Dane! I knew a Great Dane once and she looked just like that big spotted dog in this video! Although... I don’t know any Dalmatians, personally, so even though that dog looks like a Great Dane puppy, maybe that’s what actual Dalmatians look like! Anyway, just look at the puppy he found! And his human let him keep the puppy and everything! 😍
That’s all I have for you today. Unfortunately, I do not have a puppy at my house that I could take cute videos of and show you like those other lucky dogs up above ⬆. But, never mind, I’ll soon be meeting a new little pup and Oh! did I mention that I played with a puppy on the street today? I wish Mama had taken a picture! I will ask her to be ready next time!
OK, that’s all for this Wednesday. Bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Milestones of progress show that we’re becoming a better country, Ben Jealous, Chicago Sun Times, January 24, 2023.
⚡️ From Wonkette’s “you can’t make it up” file: Trump Won An Entire Golf Tournament While He Was At Diamond's Funeral Whining. How? STAMINA! Evan Hurst, Wonkette, January 24, 2023.
⚡️ Really helpful article (be safe out there!): Are you shovelling the right way? Experts on how to avoid injury and even turn it into a workout, RJ Skinner, CBC, February 20, 2019.
⚡️ Just 10 minutes a day! One type of physical activity protects the brain more than others, study finds, Sandee LaMotte, CNN, January 23, 2023.
⚡️ Arthur Brooks has got you! Nothing Drains You Like Mixed Emotions, Arthur C Brooks, the Atlantic, January 19, 2023.
⚡️ Clutter really can get you down! (gift article): ‘Depression Rooms’ and ‘Doom Piles’: Why Clearing the Clutter Can Feel Impossible, Dana G Smith, New York Times, January 10, 2023.
⚡️How to declutter easy peasey! The decluttering philosophy that can help you keep your home organized, Andee Tagle, NPR, January 9, 2023.
⚡️ Have you ever read a movie review that reads like a gorgeous stand alone essay? Here’s one for you: How 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' captures my family's immigrant experience, Gary Duong, NPR, January 24, 2023.
⚡️ How Kevin McCarthy Became the Last “Young Gun” Standing, Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, January 24, 2023.
⚡️ They played themselves: How Big Tech Deluded Itself and Got Into This Mess, Anna Kramer, Slate, January 24, 2023.
⚡️ Can’t remember if I posted this last fall, but it’s worth a repost: It Didn’t Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy, David Corn, Mother Jones, Sept-Oct. 2022.
💗 How Can You 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! 🎩
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:
Let them know what matters to you!
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
And remember, all politics is local and personal! Let’s work to flip state and local elected positions Democratic! ↓
Sister District Project — organization that is working to help Dems win state legislature races.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s all from me and CG for another Wednesday. Take good care of yourselves and those you love. Get some rest, eat good food and try to get outdoors every day, if you are able. (check out that GMA video about walking benefits!)
Happy Wednesday, Gnuville! Here’s your classical music fix (I know it’s a repeat, but it’s one of my favorites):