Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
I finally went to the doctor and got antibiotics for what turned out to be pneumonia. You can say that I was stupid for not going before, but I reasoned I couldn’t have something contagious because my husband didn’t have it. But he, who is over 65, received a vaccination, whereas I did not. He only mentioned this after I got the diagnosis. What other magic stuff happens at 65?
Anyway, antibiotics are wonderful! What a difference! So glad those spores landed on Alexander Fleming’s petri dish!
Speaking of Alexanders, Alexander the Great slashed through the Gordian knot with a blade. Gordon Sondland, who is not that great, but is certainly OK, has been tying up his pals and co-conspirators with his Gordon testimony. They were all in the loop! Trump, Pompeo, Pence, Mulvaney, and a whole bunch of others!
The impeachment hearings are also wonderful! I haven’t listened nonstop, because, naps and food and some work, but I have heard quite a bit. We have terrible people in office — I usually turn off the radio when MosCOW Nunes starts to speak — but we also have great people.
And none of this would be happening if it were not for the great blue wave. That’s all of us, baby! So plunge on in and be assured that our country still contains many great folks.
Do you sometimes have trouble finding the GNR? Follow me and the other authors (names to be found in the welcoming message) and the diaries will drop into your activity stream.
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, the chaos, 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! WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE DEMORALIZED!
💙 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 🐻
So much news! Here’s a brief glimpse into the impeachment inquiries from just this week:
Lt. Col. Vindman had the most touching moment NBC News
Vindman, whose father brought their family to the United States from Ukraine almost 40 years ago to escape Soviet oppression, addressed him in his opening remarks, after noting "In Russia, my act of expressing my concerns to the chain of command in an official and private channel would have severe personal and professional repercussions and offering public testimony involving the president would surely cost me my life."
He later added, “Dad, my sitting here today, in the U.S. Capitol talking to our elected officials, is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of America in search of a better life for our family. Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.” ✂️
That brought applause. I also appreciated this exchange:
Rep Jim Himes, D-Conn., later asked Vindman, “Would you call yourself a Never Trumper?” as Trump himself has implied in derogatory tweets. “Representative,” Vindman replied, “I’d call myself never partisan.”
Another key shift in his testimony came with respect to whether this effort was a political one. Volker has testified that he didn’t push for an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter; he now says that he should have connected the dots between the Bidens and Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian company that employed Hunter Biden.
He also said the entire effort was wrong.
“In retrospect, I should have seen that connection [between Burisma and Biden] differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections,” he said.
Of course he knew.
🚌 Gordon Sondland threw everyone under the bus The New Yorker
On Wednesday morning, an obscure millionaire from Portland who was such an amateur at international diplomacy that one of his colleagues compared him to a car careening down a mountain road without a G.P.S. or guard rails, came as close as anyone has yet to blowing up the Presidency of Donald Trump.
Gordon Sondland, a genial hotelier whose million-dollar contribution to Trump’s Inauguration committee bought him the ambassadorship to the European Union, did not hold back when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry. The Ukraine scandal was Donald Trump’s, from start to finish, Sondland told the panel, and his top advisers were all aware of it, enablers and facilitators of his scheme to pressure the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to launch investigations that would help Trump politically. Sondland said he worked with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to try to force Zelensky into probing former Vice-President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian role in the 2016 U.S. election, because the President told him to. “Everybody knew what we were doing and why,” Sondland said. “Everyone was in the loop.” Vice-President Mike Pence knew. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knew. The chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, knew. The national-security adviser, John Bolton, knew. But, in the end, this was Trump’s show, and the price of their service in his Administration was complicity, willing or otherwise, in his scheme.
“We followed the President’s orders,” Sondland said.
Sondland has been an interesting character in all this. He donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign, so he certainly can’t be called a Never Trumper (although I expect he’s a Never Trumper now; Trump just keeps making more of them). Also, Sondland started out his first deposition by not recalling everything, this time he showed up with receipts! He’s not the true-blue patriot like Lt. Col. Vindman, and he likes himself a little too much — but he’s a truly rich man who is not planning to spend any time in prison for the sake of Donald Trump.
Joy Reid, in one of her comments after Sondland’s testimony, wanted to know why Bolton isn’t appearing. Bolton knows a lot, and pretends to be a patriot.
Pentagon official — Laura Cooper — offers evidence that that Ukrainians knew early on that there was a hold on the money Politico
Laura Cooper shared some startling information during her opening statement in Wednesday’s impeachment inquiry hearings: evidence that Ukrainian officials may have known about a hold on U.S. assistance well before news of it broke in late August.
The Pentagon official said that as early as July 25 — the same day President Donald Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — her staffers received two emails indicating the Ukrainians were aware of the hold.
The revelations could undermine efforts by Republicans to paint Ukrainians as being ignorant of a hold on the aid, and thus arguing that they could not have felt pressure to conduct investigations of Trump’s political rivals as a result.
How does anyone think they could not know? I mean, when I ordered my Ruth Bader Ginsburg action figure, I tracked the package nearly every day. And although the action figure is cool, it is not vital to convincing the Russian army to stay out of my back yard.
Dr. Fiona Hill calls out the Republicans (from her opening statement)
Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against this country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.
The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan Congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.
The impact of the successful Russian campaign remains evident today. Our nation is being torn apart. Truth is being questioned. Our highly professional and expert career foreign service is being undermined.
Amazingly, it even reached the FOX news chryon:
I have an acquaintance who has met Dr. Hill, and confirms she is just as formidable in person as she is on TV.
The depressing thing — is how determined the Republicans have been to spread lies and conspiracy theories. I wish they — especially Nunes, Jordan and Stefanik — could be forced to go under oath.
However, no one can follow what they’re saying:
😄 Now, for a few other things!
👂 We learned that Trump’s hearing sucks:
This tweet was made because of the testimony of David Holmes, who overheard Sondland’s call with Trump on a terrace. But many of us know that we hear much better than others, and have often heard both sides of a phone call, even when we were trying not to.
We still don’t know what’s going on with the creature’s health. What happened at Walter Reed last weekend? Did you realize Agolf Twitler hasn’t golfed for a month? There’s also video of him using the little stairs to leave Air Force One.
Oh, and there’s other stuff going on:
Hiding behind the Trumps may not work! From the article:
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization is scrutinizing the actions of one of the president’s oldest and most trusted deputies, ProPublica has learned.
The focus on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, a 72-year-old accountant now running the business with Trump’s two adult sons, stems from his involvement in arranging a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which Trump has denied).
Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, or SDNY, contended that the Trump Organization had improperly booked reimbursements for the hush-money scheme as “legal expenses,” with the aid of sham invoices. They granted legal immunity to Weisselberg and later closed their 18-month investigation with the guilty plea of one Trump associate, Michael Cohen. But Weisselberg’s immunity deal applied only to federal proceedings.
Now Vance’s state grand jury is examining whether Weisselberg, among others — and even the Trump Organization — should face state criminal charges for falsification of business records, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Neither Weisselberg nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment. Vance, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
🐊 Draining the Swamp 🐊
Netanyahu indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust Axios
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face indictments in all three corruption cases against him — for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
Why it matters: This is the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister will face criminal charges. Israeli's attorney general sent the indictments to Netanyahu's lawyers and to the speaker of the Knesset — Israel's parliament — in order to begin the process of stripping him of his parliamentary immunity, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
The backdrop: The most painful charge for Netanyahu stems from "Case 4000," which concerns he and his wife's relationship with Israel's leading telecommunications tycoon.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
MosCOW Nunes is certainly deep in it.
Representative Eric Swalwell got this into the record on Thursday.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
Governor Mills of Maine welcomes new citizens WGME
READFIELD (WGME) -- Dozens of people can now call themselves U.S. citizens, after a naturalization ceremony in Readfield Friday morning. ✂️
The 35 new citizens come from 25 different countries originally. ✂️
“Some of them have spent years and years earning this certificate, earning the right to take this oath, we should never take them for granted and we should never take our oath and our citizenship for granted,” Governor Janet Mills said. “We welcome them here."
Governor Whitmer of Michigan and opioid task force announce efforts CBS Detroit
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and other members of the Michigan Opioids Task Force announced Thursday a slate of steps the state is taking to combat the opioid epidemic.
The state’s strategy addresses three key areas: preventing opioid misuse, ensuring individuals using opioids can access high-quality recovery treatment and reducing the harm caused by opioids to individuals and their communities.
The state is announcing new actions in all three areas; the beginning of a multi-year blitz to cut opioid-related overdose deaths by half in five years. In 2017, Michigan recorded more than 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths and more than 7,000 Michiganders have lost their lives to this epidemic in the last five years.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
Trump official resigns after being caught with fake Time cover American Independent
A week after NBC News exposed her inflated qualifications — which included a fake TIME magazine cover — Mina Chang resigned on Monday from a top position at the State Department.
Chang served as the deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, a job that came with a six-figure salary. In her resignation letter, first reported by Politico, Chang claimed she was leaving after a "character assassination" and complained that State Department officials "refused to defend me, stand up for the truth or allow me to answer the false charges against me." Chang denied the NBC News allegations of embellishing her resume.
Chang attacked the "toxic environment" within the State Department, claiming the department is facing the "worst and most profound moral crisis confronting career professionals and political appointees in the Department's history."
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️ ️
So many oathkeepers deserve medals this week, starting with Lt. Col. Vindman, ending with Dr. Fiona Hill. But the person I want to honor is Chairman Adam Schiff, who organized these testimonies and kept them on track.
Something Schiff said before this (in case you don’t want to listen) is that the difference between Nixon and Trump is that Congress is different now — meaning, obviously, that Nunes and his cronies are either being bribed or extorted, that they are all putting party above country. If you do want to listen, start at about 5 minutes in.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
❤️ Border activist Scott Warren was found not guilty. KVOA
A jury in Arizona has acquitted an activist on charges he illegally helped two migrant men from Central America evade authorities.
Scott Warren was charged with harboring for his role in providing shelter to the men who had crossed the border illegally in January 2018.
The trial was the second for Warren, who maintained he was fulfilling his mission as a humanitarian when he provided basic medical care to the men.
A jury in June deadlocked on charges against him in the first trial.
Note that the love comes from Scott Warren, but it also shows that people in Tucson — the jurors — are too loving to convict him.
❤️ And this woman took the shirt off her back to rescue a koala!
And this:
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
Al Gore launches 24 hours of climate talks around the world Ecowatch
Former Vice President Al Gore kicked off 24 hours of climate talks in the U.S. and 77 other countries around the world Wednesday night.
Remember, before we had Greta, we had Al Gore!
Oh, and this:
Pelosi indicated the House is on board.
Gates has been secretly funding super solar power research Good News Network
A secret clean energy startup backed by Bill Gates has just gone public with the announcement of its new technology that uses concentrated solar energy to exceed temperatures greater than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit)—and it could be a game-changer in the fight against the climate crisis.
For perspective, that kind of heat is about one-quarter of the temperatures found on the surface of the sun. At that temperature, the energy company—Heliogen—can replace the use of fossil fuels in critical industrial processes, including the production of cement, steel, and petrochemicals, dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from these activities.
This singular scientific achievement was accomplished at Heliogen’s commercial facility in Lancaster, California.
Not all billionaires are all bad!
💙 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.
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.