Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
No one here is naïve; 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.
💙 Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻
— and Other Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters
Mueller is moving to protect confidential witnesses.
More witnesses are cooperating with the Russia probe than have been publicly revealed, and Mueller is working to make sure their information doesn't get into the wrong hands.
In a new court document filed Tuesday, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team revealed that there are additional cooperating witnesses in the Russia probe whose identities have not yet been made public.
The revelation comes from a court filing in which attorneys for Mueller asked a judge to limit how much evidence can be shared with a Russian defendant indicted on charges of aiding Russia’s ongoing election interference operation.
Always good to know there are more witnesses cooperating!
Evidently Sessions isn’t the only one recused from the Trump-Russia probe. Turns out WH counsel — the entire office! — is too. ⚡️
Last summer White House counsel Don McGahn recused his whole office from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe because many of the lawyers in his office had been “significant participants” in incidents that were at the center of Mueller’s investigation, former White House attorney Ty Cobb said Wednesday.
At a panel discussion at George Mason University, which Politico covered, Cobb said the White House made the decision because McGahn’s lawyers were heavily involved in the ousting of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and FBI director James Comey. McGahn’s recusal was part of the rationale for hiring Cobb to join the legal team, where his role was to deliver the official response to the Russia probe.
⚡️ New York State sues Trump and his three oldest kids for misuse of charity funds.
David Fahrenthold at the Washington Post is reporting that the state of New York has filed suit against Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump charging them with “persistently illegal conduct” in the operation of the fake charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
The Trump Foundation had been hovering in limbo for months after Trump admitted the foundation had engaged in “self dealing” and announced that he would close the foundation—notably within days of when Michael Cohen’s new LLC took over the job of paying Trump’s off-the-books actions. Since then the Trump Foundation has been held open by the New York attorney general’s office pending legal action. Now that action is here.
Wasn’t sure if that belonged in this section or the next, but it is sure about damned time!
🐊 Tales from the Swamp 🐊
Even ❤️ Republicans are sick of Scott Pruitt. 🐊
The latest Republican to question whether Pruitt should remain in office is one of his biggest patrons, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Pruitt previously served as Oklahoma’s attorney general, and the two have known each other a long time. One of Inhofe’s former aides, Andrew Wheeler, is now Pruitt’s second-in-command at the EPA.
But on Wednesday, in a conversation about Pruitt with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Inhofe said, “I think something needs to happen to change that, and one of those alternatives is for him to leave that job.”
And some Rs are trying to fund the EPA watchdog office, 🐶 to keep investigating Pruitt.
The Republican chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to ensure that the agency’s internal watchdog office has the funding it needs.
💛 People don't want to work at the White House. We’ve all heard rumors about how John Kelly and Huckabee Sanders are counting the days.
Yes, the White House appears to be so desperate for applicants to fill the plethora of positions now open, that they’re participating in a Capitol Hill Job Fair.
🐊 Missouri won’t pay Greitens’ legal bills
For those he was considering using for impeachment. Heh, heh.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
👎 GOP Senators are not enjoying each other’s company
A Republican Senate lunch on Wednesday devolved into bickering as senators unloaded their anger with President Donald Trump and each other, according to a Politico report.
👎 Pence not that popular with Southern Baptists 👎
More interesting than the speech, however, was the response in the convention hall. True, there were many moments of sustained applause and several standing ovations at red meat like “defund Planned Parenthood.” Early on, someone in the crowd of pastors yelled out “FOUR MORE YEARS!” But panning shots of the thousands of people in the room also captured many people sitting with their arms crossed through many applause lines. North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, the denomination’s newly elected president, tweeted that the speech sent a “terribly mixed signal.”
The Southern Baptists are not as racist as Trump and his groupies. And Pence can’t seem to overcome it.
💙 Ohio polling: Democrats in good shape 💙
Democrats should feel great about Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s chances of winning reelection in November and pretty darn good about their odds of retaking the governor’s mansion, according to two new polls on the Buckeye State’s marquee 2018 elections.
Quinnipiac University and Suffolk University (for the Cincinnati Enquirer) released back-to-back surveys on the Senate campaign between Brown and Republican Jim Renacci and the governor’s contest between Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray.
💙 Pennsylvania polling: Democrats way ahead 💙
The poll, released Thursday, shows Casey with the support of 44 percent of registered Pennsylvania voters, while Barletta has 27 percent. …
The poll also shows Gov. Tom Wolf (D) with a similar double-digit lead over his GOP challenger, former state Sen. Scott Wagner (R).
💜 We have other allies, too (I’m sure you can join the stuff below)
Tom Steyer is launching a "Blue Wave" program to expand NextGen America's volunteer network from 11 states to all 50 states by creating an online community to help engage voters before November.
Why it matters: For all the impeachment tension between Steyer and Washington Democrats, this is just another way he's trying to help the Democratic Party take back control of the House this year.
The details: The program will create an online community of volunteers who will work to meet NextGen America's goal of texting 7 million voters and making 500,000 calls in the group's targeted congressional districts.
🌵 Seems like most of the troops who have been sent to watch the border are not, you know, watching the border.
They have been carrying out a variety of tasks assisting the U.S. Border Patrol in the months since their initial deployment, but all with one thing in common: They’re as far away from the border as possible. In reality, the hundreds of troops deployed in southern Arizona are keeping up the rear, so to speak; in one assignment, soldiers are actually feeding and shoveling out manure from the stalls of the Border Patrol’s horses.
📎📎📎 Odds and Ends 📎📎 📎
💛 The NRA has lost some cachet 🔫
The National Rifle Association has apparently pulled its old scorecards, which give letter grades to lawmakers based on how often they voted with the NRA's position, from the group's website. Why hide them from public view? "I think our enemies were using that," an NRA source told the Washington Post.
Yeah, we’re their enemies and we’re chasing them into hiding. First step, anyway.
And here’s another step 💜: US doctors want more gun control.
Delegates at the American Medical Association annual meeting voted to oppose arming teachers, to support making guns illegal to purchase for anyone under the age of 21, and to push for laws that allow family members to seek court-ordered removal of guns from the homes of suicidal people or those who have threatened imminent violence, among other measures.
And 💙 the NJ governor signs 6 gun control measures.
🌺 Argentina is considering decriminalizing abortion. It probably won’t pass, but it’s a big step in the right direction.
🍃 Electric heaters can help save the planet:
Increased use of electric space and hot water heating can cut carbon emissions from U.S. homes and buildings, a major source of greenhouse gases, a new analysis from the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute concludes.
The big picture: The report underscores how achieving extremely steep emissions cuts in the coming decades will require far more than just increased use of low-carbon power generation sources.
The details: The analysis concludes that in new construction, and existing buildings that currently use propane or oil, it's already cost-effective to use electricity instead. It may be economical for some homes already running on natural gas, but the results are less decisive.
🍃 Offshore wind energy gets blowing in the US
New England states are signing big contracts for offshore wind...Together, those two wind farms would boost US offshore wind capacity from 30 MW to 1,230 MW. Not bad!
💙 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. (And working on it will make YOU feel better, too.) 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.
Call or write your representatives! Donate! If you don’t want to donate to democrats, because you don't want your name out there, support Planned Parenthood or quality journalism.
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. And in this diary he explains how it’s both a Constitutional right and duty to protest in troubled times:
But I talked to my lawyer about this and he said if the President even just appears to be a traitor, I’m allowed to put up a sign on public property that says “Our President appears to be a traitor.” In fact, he said I can put up a hundred of them! How crazy is that? He was really animated about it too — said stuff like the First Amendment being created precisely for situations like the one we’re in now, and that they made the First Amendment intentionally broad so people could speak out as loud as they wanted — particularly when the nation was in peril. In fact, he said they kind of expected us to do it.
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.
What you do matters. You know the gazillion movies, where the stars are battling it out — but they wouldn’t make it, if it weren’t for the distractions and the support of the rest of the cast? Well, most of us are the rest of the cast. If you can be a star, that’s great too, but if not, you can still be a hero, even if your song is not as loud.
As pr0gressivist reported in Wednesday’s GNR, sometimes just one person makes a difference. And 25% is usually the tipping point.
And if you have any other ideas, please put them in the comments!
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.
I’m not the first one to talk about the importance of Truth and Love. Goodie, our founder, pointed out that Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King both did — in fact she put quotes them in her recent diaries. Beautiful, inspiring quotes. But also rather disconcerting, because of course they were both assassinated.
But not everyone who calls out for truth and love is in danger. I mean, a reason we remember the quotes of Gandhi and King is because they were assassinated.
So here’s a quote from someone who wasn’t assassinated, William Faulkner — and we can substitute LOVE for compassion:
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.”
William Faulkner
💙 🌻 🌹 💜 🌹 🌻 💙