Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Happy Ides of March day! Most readers are aware that this was the day in which Julius Caesar, who was usurping power in ancient Rome, was murdered in the Senate by other elite in Rome.
Julius Caesar was, in many ways, far more competent than Trump. He was a brilliant general, fortifying Rome’s holdings in Gaul (mostly France) and extending Rome’s boundaries into Britain. So Julius Caesar was not a coward, and his victories were realities, not fakeries. Of course his conquests were devastating for the people living in the areas he invaded, as many of them were killed and others captured and sold into slavery.
Caesar, not too long before his murder, had just managed to declare himself Dictator Perpetuo; in English that’s basically king for life. This greatly offended the senators, who did not want to yield their own power (and sources of income) to a dictator, and so they banded together and stabbed him. The autopsy report (the earliest to come down to us) reported 23 different wounds. Despite all those wounds, Caesar did not die at once but may have taken hours to bleed to death.
Trump, although a physical coward, has a few things in common with Caesar. Trump is as proud as Caesar, and Trump wants to be a dictator the way Caesar wanted to be a dictator. There may be some similarities, but there are also differences, between Rome and the United States. No one is going to take a literal knife to Trump, but the many investigations — all legal, not conspiracies in the dark — are making Trump bleed. They are weakening him considerably. This dictator-wannabe will be taken down, and we will still be a democracy after Trump is taken down.
Oh, another similarity between Trump and Caesar? Both apparently had thinning hair and were very vain about it.
Another tidbit about the Ides of March: it was a day on which the Romans typically settled their debts.
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 🐻
☀️ Revelations in Russia saga add up to bad day for Trump
🏠 House passes resolution calling for release of Mueller report: 420-0
In a Thursday morning vote, the House passed a non-binding resolution calling for the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller's final report to the attorney general by a vote of 420 to zip. ✂️
Yes, it’s a non-binding vote. But actual legislation to this effect is working its way through the pipeline.
A similar bill would have likely passed in the Senate. It also had broad bipartisan support and was authored by Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Richard Blumenthal. However, Mitch McConnell blocked that legislation from coming to the floor. Because protecting Trump and keeping the nation ignorant is what McConnell is all about.
But it is very, very clear that this is what the people want. Only four Republicans voted present:
Four Republicans — Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Justin Amash (Mich.) — voted present.
⚖ Court rules that defamation suit against Trump can move forward.
Donald Trump's legal team suffered a blow Thursday when a New York appellate court rejected its efforts to get a defamation lawsuit against Trump dismissed. The civil suit against Trump stems from former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007. Make no mistake, Thursday's ruling against Trump, who has repeatedly sought to block the lawsuit, is a strike for the rule of law and the principle that no one is above the law. Allowing Zervos's lawsuit to proceed now opens up the possibility that Trump could be deposed.
⚖Roger Stone’s trial has been set for November 5. Pencil it in; these dates change a lot.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
💛 GOP Senators beg Trump not to embarrass himself over fake crisis
On the eve of an expected smackdown from the GOP-controlled Senate over his fake national emergency, Trump on Wednesday night received a surprise visit from a trio of Republican senators. According to the Washington Post, they begged him to find some way to propose new wall funding and not get totally embarrassed.
It's unclear what exactly the three senators — Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska — proposed.
Sorry, Republican senators, but Trump embarrassing himself is a feature and not a bug. Time for you to grow vertebrae and talk against him. Note that the resolution passed, 59-41, with 12 GOP senators voting for it (and against Trump). Those senators are:
Note that none of the supplicants (Cruz, Graham and Sasse) did anything more than beg.
💜 Senate votes again to end US support of war in Yemen
The Senate just voted to end America’s involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen — rebuking President Donald Trump and likely forcing him to veto the measure within days.
Despite a Republican majority, the resolution passed 54-46. It will now go to the House of Representatives, where it’s very likely to pass, as Democrats control the chamber. That means Trump will have to veto the measure to be able to continue US support in the conflict.
The US helps the Saudi-led coalition’s war effort by providing intelligence and selling arms and ammunition to fighters from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Which means that the US has played a critical role in the conflict — one that has left tens of thousands dead and millions more suffering from starvation and disease.
Note that the Senate had to vote on this a second time, as Paul Ryan never bothered to call it up for a vote when he was in the House.
💙 Lawrence O’Donnell analyzes why Mitch McConnell may not run (from 3-12-2019 transcript)
O`DONNELL: No majority leader of the United States Senate has ever had it worse than Mitch McConnell. Even the majority leaders of the Senate who had presidents of the opposing party, they were all treated with more dignity and respect and professionalism by the president of the opposing party than Mitch McConnell gets from Donald Trump. ✂️
Mitch McConnell has the distinction in history of being the first Senate majority leader attacked by a president of the United States on Twitter. Six months into the Trump presidency, the president tweeted, “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed repeal and replace for seven years couldn`t get it done.” ✂️ Mitch McConnell has repeatedly thought that he has made a deal with President Trump only to discover that the president`s word meant nothing, that he changed his mind because of something he just saw on T.V.
✂️ Every other part of Mitch McConnell`s job is made impossibly difficult or just plain impossible by the worst and most erratic president in history. Why, why would Mitch McConnell want more of this, especially when Kentucky has no gratitude for the job that he`s been doing in the Senate?
Polling shows that Mitch McConnell has a 33 percent approval rating in Kentucky. That is a deadly approval rating for an incumbent senator. Sixty-one percent of Kentucky voters say that Mitch McConnell has been there too long and it`s time for someone new.
I think Lawrence O’Donnell is being a bit optimistic but the GNR is all about being optimistic.
💙 From the Maddow Blog:
In Michigan, the latest Emerson Poll found 56% of voters saying they don't plan to support Trump's re-election, while 44% said they are likely to vote for him. The Republican's surprise, narrow victory in Michigan in 2016 was his closest win in any state.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
🚗 Governor Gretchen Whitmer (MI) proposing a $0.45 gas tax
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer takes her case for a higher gas tax and other budget priorities to Detroit’s business leaders this week with an address Thursday to the Detroit Regional Chamber.
✂️ Business leaders ought to listen closely to her as she challenges their thinking about what’s best for the state. Because it’s clear by now that Michigan’s choice to become a low-cost, low-tax state hasn’t worked out as planned.
I must say she’s being bold — but it would happen in 15-cent increments — and is having more success than Governor Kelly of KS, whose proposals are being stymied by the still very red KS legistlature.
☀️ Governor Steve Sisolak (NV) announces that NV has joined climate alliance
At a press conference in Carson City, Gov. Sisolak announced that Nevada is the 23rd state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of governors that hopes to work together to achieve the following three commitments:
- Implement policies that advance the goals of the Paris Agreement, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission by at least 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025;
- Track and report progress to the global community in appropriate settings, including when the world convenes to take stock of the Paris Agreement, and;
- Accelerate new and existing policies to reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy deployment at the state and federal level.
The states in the Alliance are now more than 50% of US population and 57% of US economy.
🌵 Phoenix, Arizona has a new mayor — a Democratic woman
Kate Gallego is Phoenix's next mayor, beating opponent Daniel Valenzuela by a sizable margin in Tuesday's election.
“We overcame doubters, rain, dark money — and a lot of it," Gallego said in her celebratory speech shortly after the first numbers rolled in and as the crowd chanted, "Mayor Kate, Mayor Kate."
It’s not a party flip — the previous mayor, Greg Stanton, now in the House, is another Democrat — but a gender flip.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
🐍 Conservative activist busted for faking death threats against self
Conservative activist and noted Trump supporter Jacob Wohl has a habit of creating actual “fake news” and becoming the target of widespread mockery when his claims fall apart. ✂️ In late February 2019, Wohl did an interview with USA Today where he bragged about his social media influence and specifically talked about the fake social media accounts he created to promote lies and disinformation about Democratic politicians and progressive activists. The folks at Twitter didn’t take too kindly to his blatant violation of site rules, and they promptly banned him from the platform.
While Wohl appealed to conservative groups like CPAC to rally support to get himself reinstated at Twitter, one of those phony Wohl-linked Twitter accounts popped up on the radar of the Minneapolis Police Department after Wohl reported he’d received a death threat from the account. Wohl was filmed filing a police report related to the apparently bogus threat in a “documentary” he was making in an attempt to smear Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. ✂️
No word yet on whether Wohl is now under criminal investigation by the Minneapolis PD, but given the widespread media coverage, they are unlikely to brush it off—especially given the recent case of Jussie Smollett, who is currently facing 16 felony charges for allegedly lying to police about a fake hate crime.
Wohl is the guy who tried to claim that some women had been sexually harrassed by Mueller.
Reminds me of that time that woman carved BO backwards into her face (does she still bear a scar? that would be punishment enough). As Jessiestaf pointed out Monday, the Republicans have been making stupidity a feature and not a bug for their side, and so you get people doing some pretty stupid things.
And in case you missed it, here’s the second runner-up for the Schadenfreude winner: Nancy Pelosi evicts Vice President Pence from Capitol building. This was mentioned in Wednesday’s GNR, but I liked the reality and the symbolism so much!
Elections matter, right? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is exercising some of her reclaimed powers as the leader of the House’s Democratic majority. According to NPR, Pelosi has kicked Vice President Mike Pence out of the office space he was gifted by previous Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan gave the space to Pence as a symbolic gesture of how terrible their union would be for the country as they worked to gut the Affordable Care Act and give tax revenues to the rich. Pence didn’t use the office much.
According to the report, a House Democratic aide confirmed the office assignment change to the media outlet, and said that "Room assignments are reviewed and changed at the beginning of every Congress."
Besides, Ryan didn’t need the office space, given how little his Congress worked, whereas Congress under Pelosi is a whole different ball of wax.
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️
⚖ Judge Amy Berman Jackson has been lauded by others and will be honored by us for this sentence — and here I am talking about a sentence of words not years:
As she spoke about the context and background for the thinking behind her sentence, discussing the seriousness of the conspiracy and lying and witness tampering that occurred (and pointedly dismissing the dog-whistle jabber about "no collusion" as a "non sequitur" irrelevant to the case at hand), there was one particular phrase in her remarks that resounded with the hard smack of a gavel on wood:
"Court is a place where facts still matter."
Indeed they do. And should.
You may have read about how Manafort’s lawyer, directly after Paul got sentenced, went outside and talked about no collusion and lied about what the judge said. If you only read about it, you missed some stuff, because the people reacted loudly and negatively as the man lied.
Protesting can make a difference. And it is great to see how many people are pissed off by the constant lies. The judge. The protesters. And the people over at Forbes.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ ️
🐘 India has its first-ever hospital for abused elephants
Just months after India was given its first ever hospital for rescued elephants, the facility has already treated 26 recovering pachyderms.
This special medical center was established in Uttar Pradesh by the animal welfare group Wildlife SOS, a nonprofit organization that has been rescuing wild animals throughout India since 1995. ✂️
Since the hospital opened in November, the nonprofit has rescued a total of 26 elephants from abusive tourist attractions such as circuses, temples, riding camps, and private owners.
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
🌋A possible way to reverse the heating of the planet. Drastic, but interesting.
If you think pumping the sky full of chemicals sounds like a weird way to fight climate change, you’re not alone. Solar geoengineering — the idea of injecting aerosols into the high atmosphere to reflect sunlight back into space and make for a cooler planet — is very controversial. And not just because it seems so offbeat.
Although geoengineering is not yet being deployed in the real world, past computer modeling studies have suggested it could produce unintended effects like droughts. Some have worried that it might create new climate inequities, worsening the weather in some regions even as it improves conditions in others. It’s incurred so much backlash that until recently it’s been taboo among scientists, and even today, much less attention is devoted to exploring this strategy than to cutting emissions.
But a study published this week in Nature Climate Change argues that the strategy could be highly successful — it’s all a matter of how much geoengineering we use. Yes, spraying a huge quantity of aerosols aimed at totally eliminating global warming can produce unwanted effects. Yet applying the right “dose” — just enough to cut global warming in half — could do the trick without causing negative side effects, the scientists say.
Volcanos are one way that Mother Nature does this.
🍔 Another high-tech way to improve the planet with the impossible burger — growing meat from cells not animals
The Impossible Burger debuted in 2016 at New York’s lauded Momofuku Nishi, but it’s no longer so exclusive. The vegan patty can now be found at restaurants nationwide, and even the fast-food hamburger chain White Castle carries it. At my local bar, it is the most popular menu item, but also the most expensive for them to offer. Each Impossible Burger patty costs them roughly $3; a hamburger would cost about $0.50 (the bar is vegetarian). ✂️
Regardless, the burger is seen as a success story by other Silicon Valley companies eager to enter an environmentally friendly market about to explode. Last year, the nearly $30bn processed meat market grew by only 2%, while the $1.4bn meat alternatives market grew by 22%.
This is still in its infancy, and not yet really organic or healthy or completely devoid of hurting animals. But still interesting.
🏅Greta Thunberg has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Greta Thunberg, the founder of the Youth Strike for Climate movement, has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, just ahead of the biggest day yet of global action.
Thunberg began a solo protest in Sweden in August but has since inspired students around the globe. Strikes are expected in 1,659 towns and cities in 105 countries on Friday, involving hundreds of thousands of young people.
“We have proposed Greta Thunberg because if we do nothing to halt climate change it will be the cause of wars, conflict and refugees,” said Norwegian Socialist MP Freddy André Øvstegård. “Greta Thunberg has launched a mass movement which I see as a major contribution to peace.”
The Strike for Climate is today, March 15. Oh, and I don’t think Greta Thunberg had to beg anyone to do this for her (sorry, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe).
🌻 NYC Public Schools going to meatless Mondays
The New York City public school system, which is the largest in the nation, announced earlier this week that they will be introducing “Meatless Mondays” to fight climate change and child obesity.
Starting in the 2019 school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio says that all New York City public schools will begin serving up free, healthy vegetarian breakfast and lunch menus every Monday.
Following a successful trial period in 15 Brooklyn schools last year, the weekly menu change will now be implemented in all 1,800 city schools.
🔫 Remington can be sued over marketing with respect to the gun used in Sandy Hook massacre
Gun manufacturer Remington can now be sued for marketing the semiautomatic rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a ruling on Thursday from the Connecticut Supreme Court, AP reports.
The big picture: The ruling permits the lawsuit brought by victims' families to go to trial, which could force the firearms industry to turn over internal documents that it has fought to keep private. Gun control measures have been on the rise in at least 26 states since February, per the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. At the federal level, Congress considered its first gun control bill in 25 years last month.
💙 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.