Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News! And Happy Neighbors Day!
No one here is naive; we are aware of the very bad stuff that is happening. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including ourselves) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. Because sometimes the good news, which can be incremental, gets lost in the deluge of the click-bait bad. Because we need to fortify ourselves before returning to the fight. Because we sometimes get ideas about how to fight while here. And also — because we’re a community 💙 ❤️ 💙 — we like to be here.
Neighbors Day is a thing, at least in Europe, where it is celebrated the last Friday in May. What a great idea! The US has something similar, National Good Neighbor Day, on September 28.
Also, my ❤️felt thanks to niftywriter for filling in for me for the last two Fridays!
💙 Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻
— and Other Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters
💙 Congressional Democrats hit back on some of Trump’s latest lies
Congressional Democrats say that a briefing held Thursday for top leaders about the FBI's investigation into President Trump's 2016 campaign did not offer evidence that supports the allegation that an intelligence agency placed a spy in the campaign.
"Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intel agency placed a spy in the Trump campaign," said a statement Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., read to reporters on behalf of himself, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
🐻 According to the WSJ, Roger Stone personally solicited dirt on Hillary Clinton from Julian Assange in 2016
The Wall Street Journal has reviewed emails revealing that Donald Trump’s longtime ally and former campaign adviser Roger Stone personally sought out dirt on Hillary Clinton from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through an intermediary.
Stone is a Trump surrogate and Assange is a Putin favorite.
And, something no one ever seems to mention, given all the hacking, is there any wonder that Clinton preferred to use a private server?
✊ Bowing to pressure ✊, White House decides to brief both Rs and Ds 🌹
The White House is planning a separate meeting for bipartisan House and Senate leaders to receive classified information related to the Russia investigation, responding to pressure over a decision to exclude Democrats from a highly anticipated Thursday briefing.
The group, known as the Gang of Eight, will huddle with officials representing the Justice Department, law enforcement and intelligence on Thursday afternoon — two hours after the same group of officials will hold a solo meeting with Republican lawmakers.
Hmm, I expect some Rs put pressure on Trump for this, because what he did makes the entire R party appear complicit. And many of them are...
🐍 Giuliani is an incredibly bad lawyer 💩
Now he’s trying to argue that the stolen emails and other stuff from Russia was a gift and so can be ignored… If you’re saying, Say What? you’re right because it is a nonsensical argument. Giuliani is also saying Trump wants to talk to Mueller, and that Giuliani’s good with that, because it makes his client happy. But he is also saying that it’s more likely that Trump will talk to Kim than to Mueller.
And this is all from the most recent 36 hours, when I was putting this diary together.
❤️ Pompeo says he won’t tolerate Russia meddling in the 2018 midterms 🐻
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday morning that the administration will not tolerate Russian interference in 2018 elections and will take "appropriate counter measures" against any ongoing efforts.
Why it matters: This is a harder line stance than the President has taken on Russian interference in the election to date, who has expressed skepticism about the level of meddling from Moscow.
Another reason it matters: even while Rudy is going around implying that no one cares if Russia interfered, at least some Republicans (in Trump’s cabinet) are still acting as if it’s a bad thing.
⚡️ Russia-linked malware infects half a million routers 💻
Cisco's Talos research group outlined a malware threat that has already infected 500,000 routers in 54 countries from a variety of manufacturers, with code substantially overlapping with known Russian attacks.
Why it matters: The threat, nicknamed VPNFilter, can infect Linksys, MikroTik, NETGEAR and TP-Link small business and home office routers as well as network storage devices. It can steal web site credentials, monitor commands to industrial systems and launch destructive attacks against the devices it infects. And it can do all of this beyond the reach of many types of network defenses that don't protect routers.
OK, NOT good news, but I want everyone here to know so that they can protect themselves. And spread the word, because if the general public thinks poorly of Russia, that helps take down Trump. Malware is about as unpopular as herpes.
To end this section on a better note:
🌻 Mueller is following lots of leads that the public does not know about 💜
Special Counsel Robert Mueller stressed that his investigation into Russian election meddling was ongoing and consisted of “multiple lines of non-public inquiry,” in a court filing Wednesday evening in a lawsuit brought by media companies seeking the release of certain records related to the probe.
“Many aspects of the investigation are factually and legally interconnected: they involve overlapping courses of conduct, relationships, and events, and they rely on similar sources, methods, and techniques,” the special counsel said. “The investigation is not complete and its details remain non-public.”
Go, Bobby, go!
💙 Tales from the Swamp 🐊
⚡️ FBI Raids Ex-GOP Ohio House Speaker’s Home 🐊
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Federal agents searched former Republican Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger’s southwest Ohio home and a nearby storage unit Wednesday, apparently part of an investigation into the money behind his international travel and lavish lifestyle while serving as one of the state’s most powerful politicians.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
❤️ A war has been brewing among the Rs about DACA. Some Rs in the House want to force a vote on the matter. Now a GOP donor is threatening to cut off support for the Rs unless they support it.
David MacNeil, who gave President Trump's inaugural committee more than $1 million, says he'll cut off funding to any Republican not in favor of a solution for keeping the so-called "Dreamers" in the U.S.
Hey, David! You know who consistently support the dreamers? 💙 DEMOCRATS!
💙 Democrats are planning to drain the swamp 🐊 and take steps to protect democracy.
Congressional Democrats have unveiled their pitch to voters in 2018: They’re calling bullshit on President Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp.”
House and Senate Democrats rolled out their campaign platform Monday, taking aim at corruption and pay-to-play politics in Washington under the Trump administration. ...
The plan is called “A Better Deal for Our Democracy” — a spin on their economic platform, “A Better Deal” — with proposals to protect and improve voting rights, new ethics laws, and campaign finance reforms, including policies that would make lobbyists’ activities more transparent and tighten rules around bribery and fraud convictions.
💙 Schumer & Pelosi want to give teachers 🍎 a raise by rolling back the tax cuts.
Teachers throughout the country have been making their voices heard and getting state governments to listen to their demands. It looks like some members of Congress are starting to pay attention too.
On Tuesday, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate made a bold promise: They will raise taxes on the rich to give teachers a raise. They just need voters to put them in control of Congress in November.
I think this is a great argument. And will remind the teachers who have sacrificed so much about the party that is on their side.
💙 PPP shows Superintendant Evers leading Scott Walker in Wisconsin
I have felt so bad for the people in Wisconsin.
📎📎📎 Odds and Ends 📎📎 📎
💚 Federal judge rules in favor of transgender kid
A federal court just revived a “bathroom” case that could wind up making lasting changes to transgender rights in America — far beyond which bathroom schools allow students to use.
US Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Virginia refused the Gloucester County School Board’s request to dismiss Gavin Grimm’s lawsuit against the school board on Tuesday. But Wright Allen went further — suggesting that Grimm is likely to win.
⚡️ Evangelical women take down a sexist leader
Paige Patterson, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and until today president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been removed from his seminary post, after an uproar about various sexist comments he has been alleged to have made over the years. The move comes shortly after the Washington Post broke the story that Patterson had encouraged a woman not to report her rapist: one of many controversial gender-based comments Patterson had made over the years.
💙 CT Governor signs bill aiming to get women and POC equal pay
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) signed legislation on Tuesday aimed at closing the gender pay gap in the state.
"Even as they work harder and harder, the pay gap between men and women who are doing the same job continues to grow — particularly among women of color, and that is completely unacceptable,” Malloy said, according to The Connecticut Post.
🌺 Carbon-capture momentum keeps up
Momentum keeps building for a bipartisan coalition supporting technology that captures carbon emissions from a range of industrial and power facilities.
Driving the news: A Senate committee passed a bill supporting the technology, a key think tank releasing a report looking for solutions and a new industry coalition fills out its agenda.
🌈 Support for same sex marriage at new high (Gallup)
The poll, released Wednesday, showed 67 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, a 3-point increase over last year.
⚡️ Twitter taking steps to improve election security ahead of midterms
💛 Facebook claims to be taking steps too
🌷 The Senate is modernizing its sexual harassment policy
😄 Judge rules that Trump can't block Americans on Twitter (thanks to a lawsuit filed by a Dkos staff writer!)
💜 West Hollywood celebrating Stormy Daniels Day, star of the resistance
🌻 The Irish are voting on easing abortion restrictions The vote looks close but the yeses are ahead at this point. We need to get rid of the damned patriarchy.
🌺 Good news on cancer rates and recoveries in the US
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
This is a marathon, not a sprint. We have to win back the offices — and despite the predicted blue wave 🌊 , this will be an uphill battle in some places -- and then we have to reverse the evil that has been wrought. This requires tremendous effort from all of us. Some suggestions:
Browse Yosef52’s diary for lots of ideas and links. Note that he has a lot about getting out the vote, and the first step is registration. Read somewhere that a lot of potential black voters in Georgia are not registered. Boy is this an opportunity.
Call or write your representatives!
Write postcards! Here’s the link to the PostcardstoVoters site.
Put up signs! WHY DOES THIS MATTER? Because you’re reaching people outside of our bubble! Freewayblogger explains how to do this. This is great and much easier than you think and you’re not likely to get in trouble.
2thanks usually has a whole bunch of suggestions.
Tell people. Write comments to online articles. When you speak, you encourage others to speak as well. You may even change some minds.
And if you have any other ideas, please put them in the comments!
REMEMBER:
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.
❤️ 💙 🌻 💙 ❤️