Good Day, Newsies, and happy Tuesday!
I am writing this at just shy of 2AM because I ran into problems with my first draft being to big and had to rejig things. I wanted to include pictures from rallies in all 50 states, but that was too much data for a single DK draft. So, I put it all into another draft which I can hopefully post around the same time this one posts (and if it works, I will put a link in here)> EDITED to ADD: Welp! The other draft would not load. I guess there were just too many embedded pictures. Sorry folks! Mostly I am sorry for myself as I spent 6 hours gathering those pictures! 😩
So, without further ado, let’s get to the rest of the good news!
But first, music!
🤬 😖 Republicans in Disarray 😫 😡
TFG gets shut down (politely) by PM Carney, so he takes his toys and goes home
Canadian PM 'shuts off' Trump as press conference heads 'off the rails': CNN, Jennifer Bowers Bahney, Raw Story, June 16, 2025.
As Trump began to rehash his usual talking points, claiming former President Joe Biden allowed "murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails," into the United States, the Canadian leader — and host of the meeting which is being held in Alberta — stepped in.
"If you don't mind, just — I'm going to exercise my role, if you will, as G7 chair, since we have a few more minutes with the president and his team, and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of these big issues," Carney said.✂️
(Last month),"The longer that Donald Trump took questions, the more aggressive it got, the more tense that Carney got in that meeting in the Oval Office. Here, he set the boundaries. He set the timeline. And, you saw the president there. He would have continued to take questions. Carney stepping in to say, 'We're moving forward now. We need to finish our conversations, the behind-the-scenes.'"
'I have to leave': Trump abruptly jets out of G7 summit, Daniel Hampton, Raw Story, June 16, 2025. (That F’ing Guy couldn’t care less about people in Iran or anywhere else. The one true thing he said was “I have to leave”, because he absolutely could not stay one more minute among those people who were having none of his nonsense.)
Senate GOP leader warns party to avoid 'big mistake' with Trump's megabill, Erik De La Garza, Raw Story, June 16, 2025.
A Republican civil war over President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is brewing on Capitol Hill, as Senate leaders rejected key House provisions and warned that trying to reconcile the two versions could be a “big mistake.”
That’s according to Axios, which reported Monday that top Republicans in the Senate are bracing for a showdown over Trump-supported tax cuts, Medicaid spending, and high-stakes tax provisions. While neither chamber in Congress wants the undertaking of a formal conference, Senate GOP leaders say the path forward is already appearing bleak.
“That would be a big mistake," Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Axios about the idea of a full conference between the House and Senate. "That would drag this thing out."
Senate Republicans cool to Finance Committee’s tax plan, JORDAIN CARNEY, LISA KASHINSKY and MIA MCCARTHY, Politico, June 16, 2025.
Signs of discontent within the Republican Conference came as Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo privately briefed his colleagues Monday night on his portion of the megabill central to enacting key elements of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. Crapo’s committee is responsible for some of the most politically consequential components of the party-line package, including changes to Medicaid, the fate of clean-energy energy tax credits and the state-and-local tax deduction that is important to high-tax state House Republicans.✂️
“We’re not doing anything to significantly alter the course of the financial future of this country,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told reporters Monday evening, adding that the current Senate Finance proposal “does not meet the moment” and that he would vote no if it came to the floor as is.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has drawn public red lines over any overhauls to Medicaid resulting in potential losses in benefits, described himself as “alarmed” by the committee’s new plan, which would go further than the House bill on making changes to the health care safety net program.✂️
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), in describing Crapo and Thune’s messaging at the briefing, said, “They’re really patient. They are listening to everyone’s ideas. And they’re still working on it — it’s still a work in progress.”
Trump Accidentally Reveals a Dark MAGA Truth—and Hands Dems an Opening, Greg Sargent, The New Republic, June 13, 2025.
Trump plainly grasps that his deportations are now perceived—accurately—as needlessly targeting good people who are contributing vitally to our economy and society, and not primarily the violent “criminal migrant” class that Trump and Stephen Miller keep insisting they’re removing.
If you doubt this, then go listen to vulnerable House Republicans on the matter. In a new letter that’s gotten almost zero media attention, six of them effectively reveal that they now see Trump’s deportations as a political problem along exactly those lines.✂️
But this is nonetheless a revealing moment. To see why, note that Miller, who is reportedly raging about lagging arrests and deportations, isshrieking wildly at ICE officials, commanding them to round up as many migrants as possible by searching for day laborers in Home Depot parking lots.✂️
Which is what these Republicans are obliquely criticizing. In so doing, what they’re really demonstrating is that Trump-Miller-MAGA propaganda is failing.✂️
The public is even souring on deportations more broadly. And as NBC’s Natasha Korecki reports, headlines about deported families and other deeply sympathetic cases are growing more common. If this weren’t becoming a major political problem, vulnerable Republicans would not have to distance themselves from all of it.
🤷🏼♀️ Rumor mill churning out speculation that Ernst’s career may be a goner
None other than the Wall Street Journal reporting this. Not counting on anything of course, but it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving ghoul:
Joni Ernst’s Sick Response to Medicaid Cuts Has Tanked Her Career, Edith Olmstead, The New Republic, June 16, 2025.
Several Republican aides, consultants, and strategists told The Wall Street Journal that there was widespread speculation Ernst would not seek another term in the Senate.✂️
As it turns out, Iowans didn’t appreciate the Republican senator getting existential, and now the embattled senator has delayed her annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser until October. Typically, Ernst—who has been in office since 2015—holds the event in June.
Ernst’s “political ascent within the GOP has stalled,” the Journal reported.
🎶 Music for tumultuous times 🎶
😌 ✌🏼 Dems in Array 😊 🤝
Dems lead in generic (House) ballot
New poll: Trump and deportations unpopular, Dems up 8 in House vote, G. Elliot Morris, Strength in Numbers, June 16, 2025.
Americans broadly disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president and favor Democratic U.S. House candidates for the 2026 midterms by 8 points, a new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds. The president is underwater on 10 out of 11 issues we tested with voters.✂️
If the 2026 midterms were held today, 45% of U.S. adults say they would back the Democratic candidate in their local congressional district, versus 37% for the Republican.
It’s still early, so an expectedly high 17% of respondents say they are not sure who they would vote for.
Special elections show that the lead mentioned above is real:
‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump, Steve Benen, MSNBC, June 16, 2025.
Headed into last week’s state legislative special elections, Democrats were confident about a contest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The state House race was in a district that Kamala Harris carried by 19 points, and the party’s candidate, Amanda Clinton, appeared well positioned to do at least as well.
The good news for Democrats was that their candidate prevailed. The better news for Democrats was the margin: Clinton won a 69-point landslide, easily surpassing expectations.
In elections and special elections throughout the country, results like these have become rather common lately. After last week’s special elections in multiple states, The Downballot reported, “Overall, in 29 special elections this year, Democratic candidates have run 16.4 points ahead of the 2024 presidential results on average.” G. Elliott Morris, the former director of data analytics at FiveThirtyEight, published a related analysis that pointed in the same direction.
Sen. Tina Smith tells Mike Lee off, righteously but MN nicely
Mike Lee confronted by Minnesota colleague over shooting comments, Jordain Carney and Calen Razor, Politico, June 16, 2025.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, a friend of murdered state Rep. Melissa Hortman, spoke to the Utah Republican in a hallway off the Senate floor during evening votes.
“I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state, and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters afterward. “I don’t know whether Senator Lee thought fully through what it was — you have to ask him — but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague.”✂️
Smith’s personal confrontation was among a wave of criticism directed at Lee from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday demanded he remove the posts and apologize to the victims and their families, calling them “reckless and beneath the dignity of his office.”✂️
Separately, a top aide to Smith wrote an email to members of Lee’s staff lambasting the senator for having “exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats.”
“Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination—is that a successful day of work on Team Lee?” Ed Shelleby wrote. “Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?”
California State Senator introduces legislation to address the masked goon squads kidnapping people:
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We’re announcing new legislation — the No Secret Police Act (SB 627) — to ban local/state/federal law enforcement, w/ some exceptions, from covering their faces when interacting w/ the public & require them to wear identifying info.
The secret police behavior we’re seeing destroys trust & must end🧵
— Senator Scott Wiener (@scottwiener.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
House Democrats are demanding answers about our data:
Top House Democrat asks Microsoft about DOGE code allegedly tied to NLRB data removal, Stephen Fowler and Jenna McLaughlin, NPR, June 16, 2025.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is asking Microsoft to share information about a Department of Government Efficiency staffer's account on a Microsoft-owned website that allegedly hosted what the lawmaker called "bespoke code" designed to remove data from a sensitive case management database used by the National Labor Relations Board.
In a letter first shared with NPR and addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., the acting ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, cites reporting from NPR and a whistleblower disclosure about DOGE's activities in his request for records "as part of Committee Democrats' ongoing work to prevent the theft of government data for private purposes."✂️
The request is the latest step in efforts by government watchdogs and House Democrats to investigate the explosive disclosure made by NLRB whistleblower Daniel Berulis and exclusive reporting from NPR that found about 10 gigabytes of data left the agency's NxGen case management system before a similar large spike in outbound traffic left the network itself.✂️
House Oversight Democrats, who do not have subpoena power without approval of the Republican majority, have also asked watchdogs for the NLRB and Labor Department to investigate the whistleblower filing. More than 50 House Democrats in the Congressional Labor Caucus also signed a letter asking the NLRB for more information about DOGE's activities at the independent agency, which investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices and protects U.S. workers' rights to form unions.
NY mayoral candidates unifying to try to block Cuomo:
Progressive Unity in New York, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, June 16, 2025.
New York’s mayoralty race is increasingly becoming a proxy for the national debate over what Democrats should stand for. Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who now stands a better than even chance of beating Andrew Cuomo, has come up with just the right one-line slogan for Democrats: The cost of living is killing working-class New Yorkers.✂️
Among the most competent and diligent (and progressive) public servants in New York is the elected city comptroller, Brad Lander, who is currently running third in the polls, behind Cuomo and Mamdani. Last Friday, Mamdani and Lander did something extremely cool: They cross-endorsed.
Under New York’s system of ranked-choice (instant runoff) voting, a voter ranks candidates in order of preference. As the bottom choices are dropped, votes get reallocated. Mamdani and Lander urged voters to rank one of them first and the other second, depending on whom they preferred, to maximize progressive voting power and defeat Cuomo.
This is in welcome contrast to 2021, when progressive disunity allowed the corrupt and inept Eric Adams, now the incumbent, to narrowly win. This time, the left is united.
🎶 Music Time 🎶
🇺🇸 🚶🏽♂️➡️💪🏾 We, the People, are mobilizing for Democracy! 💪🏼 🚶🏼♀️🇺🇸
We turned a corner this past weekend, and now our job is to keep up the momentum and build on the sense of shared purpose that so many of us felt on Saturday.
"No Kings Day" protests turn out millions, rebuking Trump, G. Elliot Morris, Strength in Numbers, June 15, 2025.
As of midnight on Sunday, June 15, we have data from about 40% of No Kings Day events held yesterday, accounting for over 2.6m attendees. According to our back-of-the-envelope math, that puts total attendance somewhere in the 4-6 million people range. That means roughly 1.2-1.8% of the U.S. population attended a No Kings Day event somewhere in the country yesterday. Organizers say 5m turned out, but don’t release public event-by-event numbers.✂️
With our preliminary counting, the turnout at yesterday’s No Kings Day events nationwide rivals, and may exceed, turnout for the 2017 Women’s March. The 2017 Women’s March drew between 3.3 and 5.6 million people, depending on the estimate, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Our early numbers suggest No Kings Day may be in that range.
Total turnout in the No Kings Day protests is likely to fall short of the famous 3.5% population threshold for forcing action via mass protest. But the cool thing about that work is that the scholars find that smaller mobilizations of 1-1.5% of the population still have a 40-60% chance of accomplishing their goals.
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Our unofficial crowdsourced estimate of yesterday’s protest turnout is rising to 4.2-7 million as we gather more data. At this point potentially the second-largest single day of protest in U.S. history! www.gelliottmorris.com/p/no-kings-d...
[image or embed]
— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) June 15, 2025 at 12:07 PM
It sure looks like anti-Trump protest fatigue has vanished, Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC, June 16, 2025.
Millions of Americans peacefully participated in “No Kings” protests Saturday, demonstrating against — in the words of the organizers — “authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy.” They came out in massive numbers in hundreds of locations, from urban metropolises to small towns to rural areasacross the country. Together the attendees dwarfed the sparse crowds at President Donald Trump’s military parade the same day in Washington, where the crowds fell far below expectations.
It’s satisfying that such a vast number of Americans came out — many of them in rain, andmany of them as first time-protesters — to reject Trump’s autocratic agenda. It’s even more satisfying to notice that taking to the streets is emerging as a habit of the body politic: Mass protests are becoming more common, and fatigue from resisting Trump seems to have ebbed in a definitive way.✂️
Activist fatigue is a very real thing, and I can understand why Trump’s second inauguration was met by more of a grumble than a shout. That the anti-Trump coalition is getting its footing and establishing a rhythm with wide-scale protests may be a sign that some have gotten a bit of rest — or have decided that, tired as they may be, the pace of democratic backsliding is intolerable. Whatever the reason, momentum is building, and when public protest movements become big and loud enough, they can be a source of energy and inspiration unto themselves.
But the birthday boy’s Washington “perade” was a flop:
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Real striking visual contrast today from people looking empowered and joyful at all of the "No Kings" rallies and the embarrassing turnout at Trump's narcissistic, wasteful birthday military parade
— Jonathan Cohn (@jonathancohn.bsky.social) June 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM
(My stars, how revolting is that man? No need to answer — we know! 🤢)
'He sulked, he slouched': Analyst claims 'puny' parade left Trump miserable, Krystina Alarcon Carroll, Raw Story, June 16, 2025.
Americans “really let President Donald Trump down on June 14," USA Today columnist Rex Huppke mocked on Monday.
With more than five million people rallying at various ‘no kings’ protests, Huppke wanted those demonstrators to know how “hurtful that was for a man who just wanted to have a cool birthday parade that would make him feel like a powerful dictator?”✂️
The columnist later added that Trump “looked like a kid who wanted a Nintendo Switch 2 for his birthday and instead got a desultory military parade.”
“He sulked. He slouched.” Huppke said of the Commander-in-Chief’s disposition at the parade.✂️
“For shame, Americans,” Huppke wrote sarcastically. “President Trump has been working tirelessly to enrich himself and not do any of the things he said he would do, other than the be-cruel-to-immigrants thing, and this is how you repay him?”
“By making his parade seem puny and sad while making your own grievances seem widespread and legitimate?”
“Look what you all did! You made the poor man completely lose his mind and start babbling like a maniac who capitalizes words For No reason!” Huppke added, “I hope you’re happy with yourselves. I certainly am.”
Trump ‘Reamed Out’ Hegseth for Flop Birthday Parade: Author, Julia Ornado, Daily Beast, June 16, 2026.
President Donald Trump was unhappy with his sparsely attended military parade over the weekend and blamed it on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, biographer Michael Wolff revealed.
Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump wanted a “menacing” show of force to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday on Saturday—but got a “festive” parade instead.
“He’s p---ed off at the soldiers,” Wolff said. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”✂️
Publicly, Trump has insisted that his parade was a “tremendous” success even after it was overshadowed by “No Kings” demonstrations across the country, which drew in millions of Americans who protested against the president’s sweeping immigration agenda.✂️
The parade was still on the president’s mind on Monday as he bragged about it to his Canadian counterpart at the G7 Summit.
“We had the parade the other day. They said 100 percent chance of rain. It didn’t rain,” Trump told Mark Carney as the Canadian prime minister smiled politely.
The Biggest Loser: The Public is Rejecting Trump’s Degenerate Police State Antics, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, June 16, 2025.
On Saturday, watching the President’s birthday celebration/Army parade I commented that it seemed like it was going so poorly and Trump seemed so grumbly that I was afraid he might occupy a few more cities with the tantrum he was going to throw as a result. Of course “going poorly” can mean a lot of different things. I didn’t watch a lot of the parade. But the moments I did catch gave me some reason for confidence in the durability of the America I know. The soldiers manning the tanks trundling down the city streets were all smiles, waving at the admittedly sparse crowd, saying ‘hi’ to kids. I don’t think that’s the kind of parade Trump wanted. That’s not what a strongman’s military parade looks like. The soldiers are impassive. Their eyes are fixed on El Jefe. This wasn’t that.
And I wasn’t wrong about the tantrum.✂️
It’s hard to quite capture the scale of the ‘No Kings’ protests over the weekend. Current, conservative estimates put the turnout at between 4 and 6 million people, decentralized and actually avoiding any effort at the center of the action in Washington, DC. It wasn’t just overwhelmingly peaceful but generally buoyant. And it’s not just demonstrators, who in theory might amount to a tiny but extremely motivated minority. Polls show the President’s support tanking in a way that is comparable to the nadir of voter panic over his tariffs.
Notably, Trump’s support is falling specifically on his deportation policy. This has shown up in a number of polls over the last week. But I wanted to focus on a poll that came out this morning from G. Elliott Morris’s Strength in Numbers site. The poll shows Democrats with an 8 point lead on the generic ballot and Trump at 40% public approval (56% disapproval). On specific issues he’s underwater basically everywhere. But I wanted to focus in on immigration because it’s a catchall that tends to obscure more than it illuminates. When Stephen Miller first pushed ICE to dramatically up the pace and intensity of its raids many argued that this was perilous ground for Trump is strong on ‘immigration’. But the details, again, are revealing. On “Border Security” he remains popular: 53% support to 42%. But on “immigration” he’s underwater by 3 points and on “deportations” he’s underwater by 4 points, 46% to 50%. This poll doesn’t look specifically at Trump’s militarization orders. But other polls I’ve noted shows the military deployments in Los Angeles are distinctly unpopular. The American public is down on everything we’ve seen over the last ten days.
🎶 Music Break 🎶
🚧 🩷 ❣️ How Can You Help Build a Better World? ❣️ 🩷 🚧
I’m going to share some of the excellent links and suggestions from GoodNewsRoundup and chloris creator. Repetition is good!
🎩 GOODNEWSROUNDUP:
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas.
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If you can, I strongly recommend going to an in person meeting in your area.
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Join the truth brigade! Grassroots-powered lie-stopping. Person by person; mind by opened mind
- Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
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The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
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Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
🎩 CHLORIS CREATOR:
I know it’s tough to see the path forward. And I can’t guarantee that there is a path forward. But people who are smarter and braver than I have seen ways to move ahead.
Their (the fascists’) plans really are dark, but many of them are also dumb, in the sense that they don’t make sense. So many of them cannot succeed.
Here are some quick hits.
- Stay involved. Yeah, that’s tough. I want to look away too, but by taking simple actions you can make a difference. Keep contacting your representatives, both in DC and at home.
- Support causes that will fight. Send money if you can. Also, spread their news with clicks and conversation.
- Slow them down. Oppose and block at every turn.
- Make tRump unpopular. Doing this weakens him. And it should not be that difficult. The GOP made a lot out of Biden is old and eggs cost too much. Well, tRump is older than Biden was at the beginning of his term and tRump has no policies that are going to bring down inflation. And a host of other problems, like he’s a convicted felon.
- Divide the GOP from each other. They are a coalition based on contradictory promises, so there’s plenty to work with.
- Keep telling the truth and showing love.
- Make sure to pace yourselves in this marathon and to practice self-care.
Other Actions
I alternate between PTV Etsy shop postcards (now on sale for May!) and other pretty postcards that I find on Bookshop.org like these flower ones.
📞 Call your Congress critters and register your concerns!
(202) 224-3121 is the main switchboard number for Congress. They will ask for your city and state or your zip code and connect you with your representatives. It’s easy and it does make a difference.
📪 Write postcards to help Democratic candidates and progressive judges get elected:
Postcards to Voters3️⃣ Check out
Third Act Actions page — there might be something there that you can do.
🚨 NEW! 🚨
Thanks to arhpdx for this link:
🧵 Share your favorite news sites, podcasts or vloggers in the comments! The GNR comments section is a bonus reason to read GNR every day!!
💪🏼 Resistance RoundUp 💪🏼
Keep an eye on these sites for future events:
... bring your American flags to every protest or march. Every time. Fly a flag, get it out there that WE are all ‘real Americans’. Take that flag BACK from people who hate us, hate this country, hate the cities and blue states that subsidize the rest of the country, and are hell bent on destroying us AND the US.!
And above all, hang on to your belief in us and your hope that we can build something better:
We here at the GNR are sometimes accused of purveying delusional “feel good” hopium — accusations which I can only assume are coming from people who never read a GNR. Because our mandate is to encourage people to hang on to hope as they do the work for building a better world. We see our job as lifting peoples’ spirits with solid good news as the relentless onslaught of evil threatens to convince us that we are in a hopeless situation. And to that end, we always recommend building community to fight for something better — exactly what Belle here is describing:
💡 Good Ideas 💡
Social Housing in Vienna a blueprint for other cities?
Please go and read this article at NPR (or listen to the podcast): it is packed full of so much amazing information, I cannot do it justice here.
Could this city be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change? Julia Simon and Ryan Kellman, NPR, June 15, 2025.
About half of Vienna's 2 million residents live in social housing. Average social housing rents are about $700 for a large one-bedroom apartment, says Gerald Kössl, researcher at the Austrian Federation of Limited-Profit Housing Associations. Schublach pays more for his four-bedroom — with utilities, it's around $1,700 per month. "Which is not 'cheap, cheap,' but it's definitely affordable," he says.✂️
The lack of affordable housing and the growing threat of global warming used to be thought of as two distinct problems. Now that's changing, and politicians in U.S. cities like Chicago and Denver are looking to tackle the housing crisis while simultaneously combating climate change. They see Vienna's green social housing as a roadmap.✂️
Vienna has two main types of social housing: city-owned and city-subsidized. Vienna owns and operates about 220,000 apartment units. Some date back to the period from 1919 to 1934 when, amid a postwar housing crisis, the newly elected left-wing Social Democratic Party built more than 60,000 brand-new, high-quality apartments for its citizens, says Eve Blau, architecture and urban history professor at Harvard. Today the city also subsidizes about 200,000 apartment units.
As Vienna makes an aggressive push to completely move away from climate-polluting natural gas by 2040, it's starting with much of this social housing, says Jürgen Czernohorszky, executive city councilor responsible for climate and environment. City-owned buildings are now switching from gas to massive electric heat pumps, and to geothermal, which involves probing into the ground to heat homes. Another massive geothermal project that drills even deeper into the earth to heat homes is also underway.
The city is also powering housing with solar energy. As of a year and a half ago, Vienna mandates all new buildings and building extensions to have rooftop solar. And Vienna's older apartment buildings are getting climate retrofits, says Veronika Iwanowski, spokesperson for Vienna's municipal housing company, Wiener Wohnen. That includes new insulation, doors and windows to prevent the city's wind from getting in the cracks.
🎶 Mr Music, Please! 🎶
🐩 💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩
Hello Everybody, it’s me, CurlyGirl! I have a LOT of stories for you today!
The first story is certainly nice. I mean, it is not really scary, I guess. It is nice that the humans helped the bear cub, but boy I find it a little teensy bit scary that they have their faces so close to the bear cub, who is — after all — still a bear!
🐻 Orphaned bear cub cared for by humans dressed up as bears, Morgan Severson, CNN, June 6, 2025.
Gloves, a fur coat and a bear mask. This outfit might sound like avant-garde fashion, but it’s actually the uniform of caretakers at the San Diego Humane Society who are raising an orphaned black bear cub.
Campers in California’s Los Padres National Forest found the cub in April. Biologists from the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife tried looking for the cub’s mother for several days. After no sign of her, the humane society took him in.✂️
The goal is to eventually release the cub back into the wild, so the bear costumes worn by his caretakers reduce the risk of him imprinting on humans.
This next story is the best news!! We have a new baby dolphin in Chicago! The video below shows the baby dolphin being born (so if you are squeamish about that kind of thing, it’s OK to skip the video!)
🐬 Video shows dolphin calf birth and first breath at Chicago zoo. Mom’s friend helped, AP News, June 7, 2025.
CHICAGO (AP) — A bottlenose dolphin at a Chicago zoo gave birth to a calf early Saturday morning with the help of a fellow mom, in a successful birth recorded on video by zoo staff.
The dolphin calf was born at Brookfield Zoo Chicago early Saturday morning as a team of veterinarians monitored and cheered on the mom, a 38-year-old bottlenose dolphin named Allie.✂️
It is natural for dolphins to look out for each other during a birth, zoo staff said.
“That’s very common both in free-ranging settings but also in aquaria,” said Brookfield Zoo Chicago Senior Veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Langan in a video statement. “It provides the mom extra protection and a little bit of extra help to help get the calf to the surface to help it breath in those couple minutes where she’s still having really strong contractions.”
😆 tee-hee, Mr Conway made a punny!
🦬 Bison are returned to Illinois!
Just look at all the ways that restoring a prairie helps the entire ecosystem!
🐦🔥My last story is about one of my and Mama’s favorite birds. I think it’s the perfect way to end my section this week, so I will sign off right here. Bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾
"They say cardinals come at a bad time, to let you know that everything’s going to be okay.”
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Satire: My Super-Special 79th Was Not Super Special, Alexandra Petri, the Atlantic, June 16, 2025.
⚡️ Photo essay: From Los Angeles to Libby, Montana: How Americans Protested King Trump, Stephanie Heimann, The New Republic, June 16, 2025.
Oh! the subtle shade in the next two articles:
⚡️ Military parade and No Kings protests: A split screen of a divided America, Frank Langfitt, NPR, June 16, 2025.
⚡️ What the Anti-Trump Protests Mean for Democracy, Jonah Blank and Matthew Cooper, Washington Monthly, June 14, 2025.
⚡️ Hit them where it hurts: Loyalty to Trump is costing CEOs billions, Robert Reich, Raw Story, June 16, 2025.
⚡️ When MAGA Tries to Unlock Freedom with the Tools of Tyranny , The Rational League, June 7, 2025.
⚡️ The Real Democratic Civil War, Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, June 16, 2025.
⚡️ This is simply outstanding writing, with a clarity that many need: Winning the Middle, A R Moxon, The Reframe, June 8, 2025.
⚡️ The Tyrant Test, Adam Serwer, the Atlantic, June 16, 2025.
⚡️ 2025 graduation speeches give inspiration through activism and humor, Nia Dumas, NPR, June 16, 2025.
⚡️🎧 No Kings, Just Chaos, Washington Monthly editors podcast, June 16, 2025.
⚡️🎧 Could The 3.5% Protest Rule Stop Donald Trump? Pod Save America, June 15, 2025.
⚡️🎧 When the Revolution splutters, Anne Applebaum.
⚡️🎧 What Happened to Men? A Brutally Honest Breakdown, DarkBrandon, YouTube, June 15, 2025.
🥗 🍅 Resistance Fuel Recipes! 🍤 🥒
I’m going to include things I come across each week, not necessarily things I have already made at home. But things that sing, “This is food for your body and soul!”.
Tips: How to build a farmers market dinner, Joy Saha, Salon, June 9, 2025.
🎩 to ghostofjohndewey for the What’s for Dinner? suggestion:
Today’s pick: What's for Dinner? v15.02: Salads for Hot Nights
Anytime you want to check out the feed: What’s for Dinner?
I ran out of time for this section due to having to rewrite my GNR when the DK editor rejected my first draft. It is 1:24 AM as I am typing this sentence and I still have other sections to finish, but never fear! I will bring you more recipes next time!
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Tuesday.
Remember, take good care of yourself and those you love. Be gentle with yourself. Get enough rest, eat nutritious food and get outdoors every day if at all possible. Being outside for a few minutes can change your whole perspective — I mean it!
I saw this poem on BlueSky and I really liked it.
OK, that’s a wrap for another week. Happy Tuesday, Gnusies!
![Colorful sketch of a wildebeest by Starhawk, a side view of a happy, dynamic gnu dancing on one hind leg. A classic heraldric pose of a beast in rampant position. Image bears a hand-written title, "Happy Dance,". The lettering is joyful. Image created by Starhawk of Daily Kos. Uploaded 03-07-2021. Presented as a gift to all members of the Good News Roundup team. Tags Good News Roundups Gnus Gnusies Newsies gnhap](https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/924811/story_image/GnuHappyDance.jpg?1615144457 "Colorful sketch of a wildebeest by Starhawk, a side view of a happy, dynamic gnu dancing on one hind leg. A classic heraldric pose of a beast in rampant position. Image bears a hand-written title, "Happy Dance,". The lettering is joyful. Image created by Starhawk of Daily Kos. Uploaded 03-07-2021. Presented as a gift to all members of the Good News Roundup team. Tags Good News Roundups Gnus Gnusies Newsies gnhap")
