Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
It’s raining shoes
👞👠👡👢👟
in Trumpland.
So much stuff has dropped in the last few days, that I have decided not to bother with the pep-talk / homily / reflection, but just to plunge right in.
Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the very bad stuff that is happening. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💚 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. We have to keep demoralizing them. Name, blame and shame! IT IS WORKING!
💙 The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
💙 Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters 👎 & Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻 and the Middle East
👨 👨 👨 The third man. When Michael Cohen and David Pecker were talking about ways for the National Enquirer to help Donald Trump quash negative stories during his campaign, a third man was in the room. Who was that third man? Donald Trump! This is a BFD. 👟
💰 WSJ (via TPM) Feds Open Criminal Investigation into Trump Inauguration Committee
Trump’s inaugural committee is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York over whether donors handed over cash in exchange for access to government officials and into whether funds were misallocated, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Documents seized during raids of former Trump attorney and current felon Michael Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room in April 2018 led to the investigation, the newspaper reported, which is focusing on whether the record $107 million the committee raised was given “in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, policy concessions or to influence official administration positions.”
Many of us can’t get through the Wall Street Journal paywall, so I’ve linked to the Talking Points Memo article. But it is interesting that it was picked up by the WSJ, owned by Murdoch, the creep responsible for FOX News.
Also, Rachel Maddow has been talking about this ever since some of the numbers popped up. Kudos to Rachel for keeping a focus on that.
Also again, we know that the Southern District of New York is not going easy on criminals. 👢
👉Interesting take on the Butina guilty plea — why it’s so bad for Trump 👀
I had been assuming that Butina was in trouble with Putin — but what if she isn’t?
...what Trump should really be worrying about is what Butina’s guilty plea says about his friend Vladimir Putin in Russia. Butina was obviously operating as an intelligence agent of the Russian state, and she wouldn’t be agreeing to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators for Mueller or anyone else if she hadn’t been given the go-ahead by her bosses back in Moscow. Butina faces a sentence of zero to six months under the federal statute she was charged with, and even if she ends up serving time, she will be deported immediately upon her release from prison.
Marina Butina wouldn’t have anyplace to go in Russia if her handlers at the Kremlin hadn’t told her it was okay to tell U.S. prosecutors everything she knows about how her attempt to influence American politics worked from 2015 through 2016. If Putin has decided to cut Butina loose, he’s cutting Trump loose as well.
Trump’s BFF doesn’t love him any more? Hey Donald — Vladimir never loved you.
I’ll also be happy if Butina helps take down the NRA and the hypocrites at the National Prayer Breakfast. 👢
🌴Mueller connection poised to connect Trump to the Middle East 🔍
Over the past year, the indictments, convictions, and guilty pleas have largely been connected, in one way or another, to Russia. But now, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office is preparing to reveal to the public a different side of his investigation. In court filings that are set to drop in early 2019, prosecutors will begin to unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence American politics, three sources familiar with this side of the probe told The Daily Beast.
In other words, the so-called “Russia investigation” is set to go global.
While one part of the Mueller team has indicted
Russian spies and troll-masters, another cadre has been spending its time focusing on how Middle Eastern countries pushed cash to Washington politicos in an attempt to sway policy under President Trump’s administration. Various witnesses affiliated with the Trump campaign have been questioned about their conversations with deeply connected individuals from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, according to people familiar with the probe. Topics in those meetings ranged from the use of social media manipulation to help install Trump in the White House to the overthrow of the regime in Iran.
Some Republicans are starting to concede Trump might be guilty of something. From the Maddow Blog — NBC News has a report:
Some Republican lawmakers have signaled cracks in what has been a solid wall of support for Trump amid intensifying federal investigations after prosecutors said Friday that Trump directed Cohen to arrange illegal payments to two women alleging affairs.
"Am I concerned that the president might be involved in a crime? Of course," Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told reporters Tuesday. "The only question is, then, whether or not this so-called hush money is a crime," he added.
💐Of course, in private, most of Republican politicians can’t stand Trump. Claire McCaskill gave an exit interview:
Do you think that the other Republican members—I mean, virtually all of them were against Trump in the 2016 primaries and, you know, there’s endless citations by people like me of all the times they called Trump a kook and unsuited to be President and the like. But have these folks fundamentally changed their minds? Is it purely opportunistic? I mean, are they just no longer free traders anymore, or they’re just waiting him out?
They’re waiting him out. I mean, this guy would be, he should hear the way these guys talk about him behind his back. You know, I’m sure that would unleash all manner of tweets, but—and I would never name any names—
But I’m sure it’s people including many Missouri Republicans.
Oh, no question. Oh, no question. And this is the thing. I mean, the danger for my Republican colleagues that know that many of the things that Trump has done are not their values, it’s not the way they see governing. It’s now his party. Period. And I believe there will be a time down the road that some of them will rue the day that they did not speak up more forcefully, did not say, “Wait a minute, this idea of using national security as an excuse for a really aggressive trade war with no exit plan”—and how about the deficit? You know, they’ve just abandoned any attempt. And that is really going to hurt us sooner rather than later because, as interest rates go up, that budget process is going to get more and more difficult. So it is frustrating to watch. I understand it on an intellectual level. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not sad.
I will miss McCaskill. And this exit interview of hers was brilliant, because it will demoralize Trump, reminding him (as Pelosi said) that he doesn’t have the votes. It’s also a reminder that:
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
🌽 Paul Ryan ended up lying to members of his own party
Speaker Paul Ryan will go down in history as one of the weakest and most inconsequential House speakers ever to wield the gavel. ✂️
In an attempt to gin up support for a compromise farm bill, Ryan told Republican colleagues that the bill included his long-desired goal of imposing stricter work requirements on people who receive food stamps.
“There is just one catch,”
Politico noted. “It does no such thing.” ✂️
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the head Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, told Politico he has received standing ovations in Democratic caucus meetings because he “stared [Republicans] down” on this issue.
Under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, Democrats unanimously opposed the House version of the farm bill over the summer, leading to its initial defeat — and one of Ryan’s many embarrassments as Speaker. A subsequent version eventually passed by just two votes.
Democrats come out pretty well, too… I guess there’s a reason that Paul Ryan’s unfavorability rivals Dick Cheney’s.
🌻 Demographic changes hurt Republicans, not Democrats
But Ron Brownstein points to another demographic shift that hasn’t gotten as much attention.
In [Public Religion Research Institute] surveys, [Chief Executive Officer Robert P. Jones] notes, evangelical Christians have declined from about 21% of the total population in 2008 to 15% this year. That erosion, Jones says, has been “asymmetrical,” with younger and better-educated members becoming the most likely to leave the faith. That’s left behind a group that is older and more uniformly conservative.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that the shrinking group of older white evangelical Christians is Trump’s base of support.
Mike Podhorzer, AFL-CIO’s political director, suggests that if we want to have a better understanding of white, non-college educated voters, we need to stop lumping them into one, catch-all category. What really distinguishes a Trump-supporting white voter from one who doesn’t isn’t education or even gender, it’s whether or not that voter is evangelical.
Sometimes I think these people must simply like being in a state of cognitive dissonance.
💛 Republicans fear that life in the minority will lead to a lot of retirements 👣
House Republicans are about to serve in the minority for the first time in eight years, and speculation is already swirling that some members will dislike it so much that they’ll choose to retire in 2020. After Democrats took the House in 2006, over two dozen Republican incumbents decided to depart in 2008—a record until 2018—and some GOP operatives fear a similar exodus this cycle. In particular, Roll Call’s Bridget Bowman names four Republicans who are rumored to be considering jumping ship: Michigan’s Fred Upton, Ohio’s Steve Chabot, and Texas’ Pete Olson and Kenny Marchant.
Or perhaps it’s not just the minority position, although that’s gotta suck. Maybe they read the changing demographics. Or maybe they’re aware of some of the high crimes and misdemeanors of their party and they would rather not stick around.
💛 Republicans are already practicing running away 🐰
There was some big talk on Wednesday from House Republicans about how they totally have enough votes to approve the $5 billion in border wall funding Individual 1 is demanding the government be shut down over. They so much have all the Republican votes they need, they were definitely going to have a vote on that this week.
Or not. They're leaving town today, with no votes scheduled now until next Wednesday afternoon, two days before the partial government shutdown deadline. They are on standby to return if needed. But they're not slinking off because they don't have the votes to back up Trump, Republicans insist. Nope, they could totally do it, they just don't see any point. "Do we have the votes for a measure that includes $5 billion for the wall? Yes," says Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC), one of the leadership team, but "The question of whether to do it is a question of wisdom and strategy and tactics, and it’s highly debatable about whether that’s the right move." Uh-huh.
“They do not have the votes to pass the president's proposal," Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said of the $5 billion wall plan. Believe her. If they had the votes, they would have passed it months ago. So they seem to be at an impasse, with nominal House Speaker Paul Ryan ditching any responsibility for getting a deal made in the next eight days.
💙 Nancy Pelosi is setting a trend in smackdowns — and fashion 👠
She then emerged from the White House, slipped on her sunglasses and strode to the awaiting media, her rust-colored coat's stand-up collar buttoned high, just below her chin.
It was, as they say, a fashion moment.
In fact, such a ruckus was caused over the popularity of Pelosi's coat that the designer has decided to reinstate it. The coat, called the "GLAMIS," was last sold in 2013 by Max Mara, but the Italian design house late yesterday said it will re-release it in 2019 in a variety of colors. Max Mara coats typically retail $1,000-2,000, but can go as high at $4,000 and up.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
We’re not usually the type of people who take joy in the misery of others — unless it's the misery of those who have taken joy in inflicting misery on others.
🍎 From the Maddow Blog
More people don’t want to be Trump’s chief of staff:
"President Trump has told Rep. Mark Meadows, considered one of the front-runners for the White House chief of staff job, that he wants him to remain in Congress, a White House official said on Wednesday."
Or rather, Mark Meadows has told Trump that Meadows prefers to remain in Congress. Trump is now considering Newt Gingrich. Or Jared Kushner. That is desperation.
🐍 John Kelly’s reputation has been ruined by his service
John Kelly’s forthcoming departure as White House chief of staff is a reminder of an important but underpublicized distinction among those who have chosen to support or work for Donald Trump.The distinction is between those whom Trump has made bad, and those who have been revealed as bad through their association with this man.
As we all know, Kelly has been revealed as bad from this. May his stars tarnish and fade.
🐍 Neo-Nazi EMT suspended without pay
A white supremacist podcast host has been placed on unpaid leave from his job as an EMT this week, after statements he made about people of color have created substantial doubt about his ability to care for patients who are not white. Alex McNabb, 35, created an alter ego for the “Daily Shoah” podcast, and as “Dr. Narcan,” he told stories from his work as a first responder in Patrick County, Virginia. As Dr. Narcan, McNabb compared black patients to gorillas, mocked patients with racial slurs, and told a horrifying story wherein he “terrorized” a young black boy.
🐍 Sean Hannity has been flushing away tweets 🚽
Fox News host Sean Hannity has been quietly deleting tweets he previously wrote about disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen. ✂️
With the sentencing for Cohen coming up later today, Hannity appears to have deleted more than 270 tweets, including a number of them concerning Cohen.
The deleted tweets were picked up by the automated Twitter bot, Screenshot Bot, which collects and archives tweets as they are deleted.
Of the 281 tweets deleted, 268 of them were between 29 March and 23 April.
The tweets seem to focus on denying that Cohen was really Hannity’s lawyer. So one has to assume that Cohen really was Hannity’s lawyer, or why bother to delete them?
Unless this is part of the FOX News strategy of going into a hole and hiding everything.
Anyway, lovely to think of Hannity squirming and that we might be able to put a 🔪 into FOX News.
Now, turning away from FOX:
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️
🌻 Fact-checkers call foul on Facebook
Journalists working as fact-checkers for Facebook have pushed to end a controversial media partnership with the social network, saying the company has ignored their concerns and failed to use their expertise to combat misinformation.
Current and former Facebook fact-checkers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said Facebook’s hiring of a PR firm that used an antisemitic narrative to discredit critics – fueling the same kind of propaganda fact-checkers regularly debunk – should be a deal-breaker.
“They’ve essentially used us for crisis PR,” said Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of Snopes, a fact-checking site that has partnered with Facebook for two years. “They’re not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck … They clearly don’t care.”
I’m thinking it’s time to break up Facebook. I admit I have an account, but I rarely post. But kudos to fact-checkers who refuse to be used. And who are giving up money to call out FB.
☀️ The Times person of the year honors journalists who have risked and sometimes lost their lives to speak truth to power
In a sign of our tumultuous times, Time magazine has named journalists who risked their lives taking on despots and dysfunctional politicians —“the Guardians” in the “War on Truth”—as its Person of the Year. It is telling that half of them were murdered. It’s the first time since the magazine launched the year-end feature, in 1927, that some of the honorees were no longer alive. Even more striking, the largest number were murdered in the United States, which now ranks as the fourth deadliest country in the world for journalists—tied with Mexico, where reporters have long been targeted.
💜 And the Senate actually unanimously passed a resolution condemning Saudi Crown Prince of the murder of Khashoggi.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
⛽ A story about an interaction between strangers
When we met, it would have been before my second round of chemo or maybe just after.
I was bald at that point and wearing a bright, exquisite headscarf that my best friend had sent me. I wore that all the time instead of wearing a wig.
I was pumping gas, trying to maintain as much normalcy in my life as possible.
You walked up to me and said, "Excuse me, I'm wondering if you have breast cancer."
I just looked at you, shocked.
First off, most people don't come up and talk to me like that — they might feel uncomfortable or not know what to say.
Secondly, that's a strange question.
"Why would you ask me that?" I blurted out.
You told me that your wife had just gone through surgery and you wanted to be able to tell her that you'd seen someone with breast cancer who was living life.
You told me I was beautiful. You asked if you could tell your wife about me — tell her that, like me, she'd be fine — to give her hope in her struggle.
I walked away feeling great.
📚 Grandmothers going to school in India — a school just for them
The students at “grandmothers’ school” in the village of Fangane are elderly women who are getting the chance to learn to read.
“I love going to school,” Kamal Keshavtupange, 60, told Reuters as she washed clothes outside her home in the village, 120 km (75 miles) east of the financial capital, Mumbai. ✂️
At Aajibaichi, afternoon classes in the one-room school are held six days a week for two hours. The lessons are timed so the women can finish their chores, or their work in the fields, before attending class.
One of the few requirements is that all students are at least 60 years old.
This story is from 2017, except like so many stories of good deeds, it’s one where it continues every day, and so in a sense it is timeless. My husband and I were watching a countdown of big picture ideas and this one had us both in tears so I decided to include it today. The women even have a school uniform — a pink sari.
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
💙 ❤️ 💜 A good bill got signed this week
On Tuesday, something odd happened in Washington: A bill became a law. It passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and voice vote in the House (typically taken when a measure faces no significant opposition), and was signed by President Donald Trump.
This wasn’t a trivial, “let’s rename a post office” bill either. The bill reauthorized PEPFAR — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — through 2023. PEPFAR provides billions in annual funding and technical support for antiretroviral treatment, HIV-preventing male circumcisions, and other efforts to treat and prevent HIV.
PEPFAR is one of the best government programs in American history, probably the best since the Great Society. Studies examining its impact on the AIDS crisis abroad suggest that the programs saved the lives of at least a million people, and has done so cost-effectively.
The article, from usually gloomy VOX, points out this was a truly bipartisan bill.
⚖ Federal judge says lawsuit over Trump’s travel ban may proceed ✈
A federal judge said Thursday that a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of denying almost all visa applicants from countries under President Trump's travel ban will proceed.
The case is "not going away at this stage,” U.S. District Judge James Donato said, according to the Associated Press.
✉️ New way to get low income students into great colleges
A new working paper suggests that removing those barriers with a promise of financial aid can significantly increase the number of low-income students who apply to and enroll in a selective college. Researchers at the University of Michigan designed an experiment to see how a relatively low-cost intervention could affect where high-school seniors went to college. The school sent personalized mailers to high-achieving, low-income students, their parents, and their principals, telling them that if the students got into UM they’d get full tuition because they qualified for a High Achieving Involved Leader Scholarship.
Of the students who received the letters, 67 percent applied to UM—more than twice the rate of the control group, made up of similar students who only got a postcard informing them of the school’s application deadlines. The group that heard about the scholarship was also twice as likely to enroll at UM; 27 percent of them did.
Personal letters work … we know that from postcards to voters and VoteForward.
🍃 Abandoned coal mines may be converted to indoor farms
With the ever-declining demand for coal around the world, there are over 150,000 coal mine shafts that are abandoned in the UK alone – but they might soon be given new life in the form of ultra-efficient indoor farms.
Though it might seem counterintuitive, coal mines are actually an “almost perfect” environment for farming. These underground tunnels naturally maintain consistent temperatures, and they are unaffected by weather changes, seasons, or the unexpected symptoms of climate change.
Furthermore, vertical indoor farms use up to 95% less water than regular land farming and no pesticides.
This is really important. Although it will be hard on the farming industry for sure, imagine converting some of the land being used for farms into land used for trees — how much CO2 that would take out of the atmosphere. Hope the Democratic senator from West Virginia is watching! Now coal mines may not always be suitable — but there are lots of other mines that are no longer being used. And other holes in the ground.
🏠 🎍 Affordable Bamboo Housing project in the Philippines (thanks to Getting1)
Could bamboo help solve Manila’s housing crisis? Earl Patrick Forlales believes it can. The 23-year-old Filipino architect recently won an international competition with his design for an affordable, eco-friendly housing project built on bamboo.
CUBO, as Forlales calls the concept, was the winning entry to the Cities for the Future Challenge. The contest seeks innovative solutions to rapid urbanization, climate change, and resource scarcity, awarding £50,000 (about $64,071) to the best idea. Forlales pocketed the prize money this year, which will help him begin construction next year.
“My ultimate dream? A Philippines with no slums,” he told Town & Country Philippines. “As for myself, I really just want to do something that would impact people's lives, and ideally that something would outlive me.”
⚡️ Tesla’s record-breaking mega battery saves Australia $40 million in first year
It has been one year since the world’s largest lithium ion battery was switched on in South Australia to combat costly statewide power outages – and this new report shows that it has performed astonishingly well.
The 100-megawatt Hornsdale Power Reserve, which was designed by Tesla, has saved over $40 million AUD in annual maintenance costs to the electrical grid, also known as frequency controlled ancillary services (FCAS).
🐦 Scientists praise 96-year-old Idaho man for his bluebird-saving efforts
The dedication of a 96-year-old citizen scientist has been an unparalleled lifesaver for his home state’s bluebird population.
Al Larson, also known as “The Bluebird Man”, first began his conservational labor of love after he read an issue of National Geographic that detailed how building bird houses could help to curb their declining populations. After seeing a bluebird going in and out of a dead tree on his property, Larson became inspired to start setting up little boxes that could serve as nests for bluebirds.
“I got carried away,” Larson told Audobon. “I settled on a simple design that [was] easy to build and easy to monitor. I kept adding more boxes on these trails, and these birds responded.”
Trees and birds. Always make me smile 😄
💫 If it’s not too cold where you are, look up at the stars
We on Earth get to take in the wonder of a meteor shower typically when our planet passes through the trail of a comet. The bits of rock and debris burn up when they hit Earth’s dense atmosphere and streak across the sky.
But the Geminid meteor shower — which will reach its peak Thursday and Friday night — is not typical. You’ll be witnessing bits of an asteroid break apart in the sky. It’s also one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time. However, given that we have taken back the House, the tactics moving forward need to be different. Indivisible has ideas to share.
Indivisible 2.0
This Guide is for what comes next. The 2016 Indivisible Guide was about using constituent power to defend our values, our neighbors, and our democracy. This Guide is about using our constituent power to go on offense.
Offense is exciting, but it’s more complex than defense. We have the opportunity to use congressional oversight to hold Trump and his cronies accountable. We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive vision rooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic — we have to demand it of Congress.
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters (especially if you are in Florida).
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. Remember, a lot of them crossed over in the midterms! Get them to feel good about being blue.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
🍀 “My experience has been that work is almost
always the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.” 🍀
Eleanor Roosevelt
🔥 If you’re going through hell, keep going! 🔥
Winston Churchill
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.