Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
In my section on “regular scheduled programming,” I have stuff about being demoralized, and how it’s a weapon of the right. But if you’ve been here many times before, your eyes may no longer focus on those words.
The right wants us to lose our will to fight. Because when we do, it makes it a lot easier for them to win.
Sure, it’s more fun to feel optimistic. But even when/if we don’t, we must fight on. First, by doing that instead of wallowing, we feel better. Second, when we fight, we never know, but sometimes we win!
Do you remember The King and I ? It has a song that always inspired me: Whistle a Happy Tune. The lyrics start with:
Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect
I’m afraid.
The result of this deception, is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people I fear, I fool myself as well.
For once, some music...
So, get fortified in this safe place, then get back to work. This is not a sprint, but a marathon. Or rather, it’s a relay race (thanks, Julian Castro), where one group runs for a while, then stops to regroup, while others carry on. Then, when the first group has recovered, it gets back in. None of us is alone. You may feel that way, but you are not.
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 🐻
Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy and with the British police
Six years, nine months and 24 days after walking into the Ecuadorian embassy in London and declaring asylum, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was dragged back out onto the streets by British police officers. ✂️
The dramatic expulsion follows a year of ratcheting tension between Assange and his Ecuadorian hosts, culminating in Wikileaks publicizing a leak of hundreds of thousands of hacked emails mysteriously stolen from the inboxes of Ecuador’s president and first lady. It was this last move that finally set Ecuador’s government firmly against Assange, who was by then already being treated less like a political refugee than an inmate—albeit one who was free to leave at any time. ✂️
Assange, who has an outstanding warrant for jumping bail in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, was taken into custody after officers were invited inside by embassy officials. It’s a relatively minor charge, but Assange’s imminent freedom is far from assured. Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, have been working to build a case against the Australian cypherpunk for nearly a decade, and a paperwork error last year revealed they have a sealed criminal complaint at the ready in anticipation of this moment.
📈Americans — not just Democrats — want the full Mueller report released
Today, Daily Kos announced key findings from a nationwide survey of Americans commissioned through Civiqs. The poll of 1584 registered voters was conducted online from April 6-9 and reveals that a whopping 70% of Americans believe Robert Mueller’s full report should be released to the public, while 53% think Trump’s Justice Department is trying to conceal information contained in that report.
Why is this good news? Because it means that the Rs are not getting away with this crap. And other polls show higher numbers.
🔎 Pelosi confident that we will see the full Mueller report ☀️
In an interview with the AP today, she said she simply doesn’t trust Barr to act independently:
“He is not the attorney general of Donald Trump. He is the attorney general of the United States,” Pelosi told AP. “I don’t trust Barr, I trust Mueller.”
Oh, and as for getting the entire Mueller report, without redactions? Pelosi has our back. And I, for one, trust her.
Barr said Wednesday he expects to release a redacted version of the Mueller report next week, but Pelosi said it’s only a “matter of time” before the full report is made public.
“We will see it,” she said.
👿 This author thinks Trump should be worried about the Mueller report
So, lo and behold, Mueller appears to have looked directly into the question whether “the President was involved in an underlying crime.” And Barr now suggests the final report’s conclusions involved prosecutors’ familiar binary decision of “charges or no charges.” In other words, Mueller was apparently somehow able to reach these standard questions despite the president’s anything-but-standard immunity from indictment.
That should worry the White House to no end. That’s because back in Manhattan, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York appears to have significant evidence that Trump may have been involved in a criminal conspiracy to make hush money payments in violation of federal campaign finance laws, and the scheme for making those payments may have involved federal tax and other financial crimes.
🔎 New York Lawmakers are also after Trump’s tax returns
And that could get them to Congress…
Now, with top Trump administration officials indicating that they won’t honor a lawful demand for Trump’s tax returns, New York could play a pivotal role in putting Trump’s tax filings in the hands of Congress—and, potentially, bringing them into public view.
There are at least three possible ways that some or all of Trump’s tax filings might make it out of the Empire State and into the possession of congressional investigators. First, and most straightforwardly, the House Ways and Means Committee could subpoena Trump’s tax records from state officials. Second, New York state lawmakers could authorize the state tax commissioner to share Trump’s tax information with the House Ways and Means Committee. Third, state lawmakers could vote to release Trump’s tax filings to the public—potentially as part of a more comprehensive tax-transparency package—which, of course, would allow Ways and Means members to see them too.
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
💙 Just one of many reasons to support Democrats
And here’s another
Just one of many reasons to get rid of Republicans: Mitch McConnell is going along with Trump’s plan to kill healthcare
Turtle did an interview on Fox (State TV) and I can’t believe it but he actually said this quote
Not as long as I'm majority leader. It ought to be Medicare for none.
Even better the Fox News [ch]ryon went up and said “MEDICARE FOR NONE”
Well, that ought to get the attention of some seniors, as long as the Democrats have the sense to use it. And it was on FOX.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
🌻 No guns for domestic abusers — at least not in Pennsylvania
A new law restricting firearms ownership by domestic abusers takes effect in Pennsylvania today, and it's a real improvement over the measure it replaces. Gov. Tom Wolf, who signed the law last October, called it the state's "first law in 14 years to address gun violence." He added that he hoped it would be just the first of several needed reforms, including universal background checks.
Now, firearm ownership by people convicted of domestic violence is already illegal under federal law, but the new law, Act 79, provides extra safety measures by requiring that defendants subject to a final protection from abuse order (PFA) give up their guns and ammunition. In addition, those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence have to turn their guns over to law enforcement within 24 hours of the conviction. The previous state law allowed them 60 days to give up their guns. (What could have gone wrong with that?) Also, victims can request an automatic extension of the protection order if it goes into effect while the abuser is in jail, meaning victims will have at least 90 days of protection if the person is back out on the street.
👎 Idaho governor vetoes bill
The Idaho State Legislature passed two bills in the past week that were an attack on the rights of Idaho citizens to put initiatives and referenda on the ballot — rights that are protected explicitly in the Idaho constitution. But Reclaim Idaho, the group that led the successful fight to put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot last year, channeled public outrage by calling on the public to sign a petition asking the Governor to veto the bills, and to phone and email the Governor directly.
The petition alone garnered thousands of signatures, which Reclaim Idaho’s team presented to the Governor’s office.
An ardent opponent of both bills, Reclaim Idaho executive director Rebecca Schroeder said she presented the governor with a petition of more than 11,000 signatures, representing every county in Idaho, asking him to veto both.
"He listened intently, and I believe he is really struggling with this decision," she said. "The phone in his office is ringing off the hook."
🌻 Last voter fraud case falls apart
Kris Kobach had long proclaimed he knew something about voter fraud — that it was widespread and tearing our democracy apart. He promoted wild conspiracy theories, quickly debunked, regarding thousands of illegal voters. Kobach had demanded that his office have prosecutorial powers to chase down all of these illegal voters. In the process, however, what he discovered was mostly elderly Republicans who, had little ill intent, but a lot of confusion.
Brad Cooper at the Sunflower State Journal — if you’re a Kansan, it’s worth a subscribe — pointed out this week, the last of Kobach’s cases of voter fraud prosecution would come to an end, not with a bang, but a whimper.
Local prosecutors have dropped the last voter fraud case brought by former Secretary of State of Kris Kobach because of a lack of evidence.
🏫 Conservatives in Michigan try to ban democracy in schools — but fail
In Michigan, conservatives just tried to literally erase the word "democracy" from their statewide teaching standards. Fortunately, they failed.
Conservatives swung for the fences, proposing a far-reaching revision to how teachers instruct about history, economics, civics, and geography. The proposal, helmed by former Republican state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, would have removed all reference to LGBT people in the civil rights section. It would have also prevented teaching about Roe v. Wade.
By far the worst part of the Michigan proposal was one that Colbeck personally pushed for. He wanted a provision that required Michigan teachers to explain "how the expansion of rights for some groups can be viewed as an infringement of rights and freedoms of others."
Unfortunately this has already been done successfully in some states. We need to be vigilant.
💙 Virginia has been ungerrymandered — new map helps Democrats, or rather, helps the people
This fall, Virginia’s entire 100-member House of Delegates is up for election, and Democrats have a good chance to turn their 51-49 deficit into their first majority in 20 years. Importantly, this will be the first election held under a new court-ordered map that will be used in place of the previous GOP gerrymander, which federal judges struck down part of for discriminating against black voters. But just how much better for Team Blue is this new map than the old one? Daily Kos Elections has crunched the numbers to find out.
Under the old lines, which were last used in 2017, Hillary Clinton carried 51 of 100 seats, despite defeating Donald Trump statewide 50-45. Republicans represented three of those 51 Clinton seats, while Democrats held a lone Trump seat. Under the new map, by contrast, Clinton won 56 districts. Republicans now sit in seven seats Clinton won, while the one Trump seat occupied by a Democrat now would have gone for Clinton.
💛 From the Maddow Blog
* And in Mississippi, Andy Taggart, a Republican candidate for state attorney general, raised a few eyebrows last week by calling for his home state to adopt a new flag – which, he said, should no longer include the Confederate battle flag. Taggart, a longtime fixture of GOP Mississippi politics, is running in a primary against two other Republicans. (Statewide elections in Mississippi are this year, not in 2020.)
Isn’t that nice, that someone in the Republican party, in Mississippi, thinks the Confederate flag is a bad idea?
💛 Bills giving Arkansas DACA recipients some rights signed into law
In a major victory for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients in Arkansas, two bills that would allow them to access nursing licenses and in-state tuition rates at public universities were signed into law by the state’s Republican governor this week. "Without DACA nurses passing,” said Aldair Guerrero, “I would have had to transfer to another state and Arkansas is all I've known. I wanted to stay here and help Arkansans.”
🌵 Arizona border community fights back against immigrant vigiliantes
Davern watched as Meyer and the other Veterans on Patrol volunteers left La Gitana and started filming the first video. Toward the end of the video, she stepped out of the bar to confront them. “We’ve been hearing about you for a long time,” she said, as Meyer turned the camera on her. “I’d appreciate if you don’t come in anymore.”
Banning Veterans on Patrol, Davern told me, was an easy decision: “We have a strict no-militia policy at the bar because of the history of militia violence in this town.”
🌵 More good news from Arizona 💛
According to my local Tucson.com, Arizona Governor Ducey just signed legislation ridding AZ schools of the so-called “No Promo Homo” legislation that prevented Arizona educators from giving homosexuality a positive image. Per the Tucson.com article entitled, “Governor signs off on repeal of Arizona's "no promo homo" law”:
Arizona's controversial "no promo homo" law is on its way out.
Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday signed legislation repealing sections of the state sex-education law that prohibit teachers from promoting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle. The same law also spells out that if schools teach about "safe sex" they cannot say there is any such possibility when it involves homosexual conduct.
His action came less than an hour after a 19-10 vote by the Senate; the House approved the same measure Wednesday on a 55-5 margin.
What’s heartening about some of the stories above — Idaho, Mississippi, Arizona, Arkansas — is that it shows that some of the Republicans who are not on the national stage can be reached. Can be reasoned with! Now, I know some of them seem beyond the pale, well, yes, lots of them, but this is the happy whistling space so I’m not reporting on them here.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
💰 Hedge fund that controls AMI wants to sell National Enquirer
The hedge fund that controls American Media Inc. has become increasingly “disgusted” by the National Enquirer’s reporting practices and AMI is actively looking to sell the tabloid, The Washington Post reported.
After the tabloid and AMI CEO David Pecker became embroiled in a scandal associated with the President and hush money payments to keep a former Playboy model quiet about her alleged affair with President Trump, the company’s board of directors started exploring ways to get rid of National Enquirer.
They may not like the treatment of Jeff Bezos, either.
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️
In honor of the Black Hole imaging… in a galaxy far, far away
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
❤️ 12 middle-school boys talk a woman out of suicide
The 12 young heroes, all of whom are members of the boys volleyball team from Kepler Neighborhood School in Fresno, California, had been jogging through the streets for their training when they saw the woman climb over the edge of a bridge.
Had she let go, she would have fallen 100 feet onto the train tracks below – but luckily, the boys took action.
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
⚡️ Electricity may be used to stimulate old brains
A new study shows that electricity can potentially be used to improve the way that human brains work. Researchers Robert Reinhart and John Nguyen of Boston University published some promising findings on electrical stimulation of the brain with regard to memory function. With a test group of 42 older adults and 42 younger folks, the researchers used transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS, on the older group to stimulate and tune their brains before and after having them perform short-term memory tests. The results showed that before the electrical stimulation, the older group’s recall rate was around 80 percent, compared with the younger group’s rate of 90 percent. After as little as 10 minutes of stimulation to the brains of the older participants—while their younger counterparts wore caps that provided only a light current, as a placebo—the elder test subjects were able to score 90 percent on the same memory tests.
🍺 Irish soil may hold keys to fighting superbugs
The soil of Northern Ireland has always been reputed to have healing properties – and while it may have previously just been the stuff of local folklore, scientists have found that there is actually some truth to the legends.
Upon analyzing the fabled Irish soil, a team of researchers discovered that it contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria that is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics. ✂️
The soil they analyzed originated from an area of Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, which is known as the Boho Highlands. It is an area of alkaline grassland which has long been fabled to have healing properties.
New Zealand Parliament passes law banning semi-automatic weapons
Less than a month after a deadly mosque shooting by a white nationalist, New Zealand passed a law Wednesday banning the most types of semiautomatic weapons. Parliament voted 119-1 to make permanent what were temporary restrictions imposed in the aftermath of the shooting that killed 50 people in the city of Christchurch. The law covers military-style semiautomatic weapons, like the AR-15, which used in the Christchurch attack as well as in a number of mass shootings in the U.S., including the Parkland school shooting last year.
It will signed into law by the prime minister immediately. And again, I’m tempted to move to Middle Earth.
🔥 Louisiana church fire suspect arrested
Authorities in Louisiana are looking into the black metal music interests and pagan worship of a suspect arrested in connection with three fires at historically black churches in St. Landry Parish, according to the state fire marshal.
Holden Matthews, 21, of Opelousas, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in connection with fires, authorities said. He is the son of Deputy Roy Matthews.
🌺 More than 1 million gardeners unite for pollinators
Over 1 million homeowners and gardeners from around the world have joined the fight to save dwindling pollinator populations – and you can join the team too.
The National Pollinator Garden Network has surpassed their goal of registered pollinator gardens with just over 1,040,000 gardens now registered with their Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.
Though most of the registered pollinator gardens are concentrated in the United States, the ambitious project has also recruited members in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The registered spaces, most of which are comprised of private yards and public gardens, all add up to a network of approximately 5 million acres of enhanced or new pollinator habitat.
💙 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.