Happy Wednesday Good Newsies, Gnusies, regulars, and not so regulars, is it Wednesday, hump day, a day, oh holy heck does it matter, all that matters is we are here together again for another Good News Roundup.
First I want to say my heart is with all of you. I am missing some dkos peeps and I am hoping all the writers and contributors to the conversations are safe and well. I consider you all “friends” and I give you all a virtual {{hug}}.
Now this:
Yup. I needed tissues too.
You know I never really had lessons in my childhood on how to deal with tough times. I was pretty spoiled and it took me a long time to grow up and realize the world did not revolve around me, (great parents really but I was a late life and well you can guess the rest), the passing of my mother brought me pretty hard down to Earth but I still had some very selfish tendencies. My second husband, and realizing how negative my first was, was the first steps for me showing OUT LOUD my feelings for others. Granted, I have always been a liberal but how I approached that and pronounced that is much different today than when I was young. What is the point of sharing this? People do learn from experiences, they grow, they realize there is a whole world of people out there and we are all connected.
The bad news, the current occupant of the White House nor any of his enablers will ever get there. The good news, we are there and we will prevail because the good will beat the bad in the end. Look around you, there is good everywhere right now. People helping people, people caring for one another, people ready to make the change through service and ensuring the change will come at the ballot box.
We will get through this, together. It is hard and heartbreaking but we will get through this. I have your back and I know you have mine.
Onward!
BTW our contributors here at kos are doing amazing things, from making masks to providing a safe space for people with disabilities to talk, to offering a place to talk about anxieties in this time, to providing actual scientific knowledge and so much more to support each other. I could not be more touched at the outpouring of humanity here.
Okay let’s see what is in the news.
Rachel predicts a blue tsunami but we cannot sit on out laurels there will be work to do to make it come true. You can check out her full analysis here, but it is a long read, be fore warned.
Each day I relive Ground Hog Day, I am more flummoxed that the only thing that changes is what outrageous new “thing” the rethugs can dream up to make matters worse rather than, ya know caring.
Democrats dismiss McConnell's 'sad' new coronavirus offer
Democratic leaders are panning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's offer to marry new liability protections with aid to state and city governments, signaling a tough fight for Congress' next round of coronavirus aid.
"I don’t think at this time, with the coronavirus, that there’s any interest in having any less protection with our workers," Pelosi said on Tuesday afternoon of McConnell's argument. "We don’t need any prescription from anybody about mythology or just excuses not to do the job. It’s really sad — it's disgraceful, because there is such tremendous need."
Schumer said he didn't understand exactly what McConnell was proposing but urged McConnell to "stop putting barriers in the way" of more money for local governments. McConnell and the Trump administration fought the inclusion of $150 billion in state and local aid on last week's $484 billion coronavirus bill, the fourth bill responding to the crisis.
"Is he saying if an owner tells a worker they have to work next to somebody who might have coronavirus, without a mask or PPE, that that owner wouldn't be liable? That make no sense," Schumer said.
I know you have probably all seen this but I love this women.
Hillary scorches Trump in Biden endorsement
Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden for president Tuesday in an event designed to showcase women’s issues during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you to be our president,” she told Biden during a webcast from their respective homes. “Just think what a difference it would make right now if we had a president who not only listened to the science — put facts over fiction — but brought us together, showed the kind of compassion and caring that we need from our president and which Joe Biden has been exemplifying throughout his entire career.”
"Think about what a difference it would make if we had a real president, not just one who played one on TV," she said.
Ouch! The mango maniac is going to need a lot of diet coke to get over that burn.
The SCOTUS may be boohooing that they may actually have to make a decision about doofus’s taxes but remember there are so may more cases being heard about so much corruption.
Appeals court grills Trump administration over McGahn case
Federal appellate judges grilled the Trump administration on Tuesday in its dispute with the House over former White House counsel Don McGahn's refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena for his testimony.
In perhaps the most high-profile court hearing since the coronavirus pandemic forced the judiciary to hold virtual proceedings, the Trump administration and the House delivered oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the McGahn case as well on a dispute over whether the administration can use Pentagon funds to build a border wall.
”It just seems a little bit odd that we would create a regime in which, in order to protect the separation of powers, the incentive, the impulse would be to go down a road that would create a greater separation-of-powers conflagration in the form of a detention of an executive branch official," said Judge Sri Srinivasan, an Obama appointee. "Not saying that’s realistic, not saying that anyone’s suggesting that’s on the horizon, but in terms of the implications for doctrine, that’s where we’d wind up."
I wish I could post the whole article. The response from the DOJ is ridiculous.
I stared with Rachel, but know that we really have the advantage now, do not take it for granted by any means, but the maladministration has f’d this up so bad the energy that existed before this horror show is amplified to the tenths now.
USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll: Six months out, Biden jumps to lead over Trump amid coronavirus concerns
A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll shows the former vice president leading Trump nationwide by 6 percentage points, 44% to 38%
Joe won Ohio last night too.
Stupid dRump quote of the day:
President Donald Trump continues to baselessly claim the coronavirus will simply “go away” even as the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. skyrocket under an administration fumbling its response to the pandemic.
“This is going to go away,” Trump said of the deadly virus at the White House on Tuesday. “And whether it comes back in a modified form in the fall, we’ll be able to handle it, we’ll be able to put out spurts, and we’re very prepared to handle it.”
Okay enough. Are you bored, would you just like some good news? Maybe some stuff to come to back later and watch when you have time? I am here for you.
Michelle Obama Reveals Her New Life Path in Netflix Documentary Clip
Netflix has released the first look at Becoming, an original documentary that follows former First Lady Michelle Obama on a 34-city tour around the country. The film premieres May 6th on the streaming platform.
The good news you need today: Honolulu Zoo is celebrating the birth of 2 lemurs
“The Honolulu Zoo is pleased and excited to have twin newborn lemurs to expand our lemur collection and help further the conservation of this endangered species,” said Honolulu Zoo Director Linda Santos.
“Both babies and mother are doing well together with the entire family.”
The lemurs are most known for their black and white banded tails and are typically found in Madagascar.
Feeling a little trapped in your isolation? Laugh a little.
I have seen this happening at my very small library in my very small town.
Little Free Libraries have become Little Free Food Banks
My neighborhood is full of Little Free Libraries, and over the years, I’ve probably taken far more than my fair share of books from them—though I’ve always been careful to cull my own shelves several times a year to make up for it. Most recently, while walking my dog the other morning, I rescued a copy of a post–World War II travelogue of Czechoslovakia and a translation of a medieval French romance by Chrétien de Troyes that I’d read and enjoyed back in college. My most prized score, however, remains a copy of Sweet Valley High #100: The Evil Twin, the volume all Sweet Valley experts agree is the greatest achievement in the entire Sweet Valley universe. That’s the beauty of a Little Free Library: you never know what wonders you’ll find.
A few weeks ago, someone began putting canned and paper goods inside the Little Free Library nearest to me along with a sign urging anyone in need to take them. (It probably goes without saying that they did not need to be replaced.) Initially I thought that this was part of this Little Free Library’s legacy of having been built by the owners of a hippie restaurant and grocery store that have now been demolished. But now I’ve learned that this is part of a national movement that also includes this public refrigerator in Brooklyn. Or at least other people and other cities had the same idea simultaneously and are all trying to take credit for it.
There has been lots of news of farmers having to dump milk or let crops rot in the fields, but then there is this.
Kind of amazing what a pandemic can do (should have been done before but again here we are).
This Rural School District Has Been Asking for Wi-Fi for Years. Now It’s Finally Getting It.
Since the March shutdown of schools across Illinois, teachers at one rural southwestern district have been stuffing 800 manila envelopes with learning packets and mailing them to students’ homes because many families in the area don’t have computers or high-speed internet.
Trico District 176’s remote learning challenges were highlighted in a ProPublica Illinois and Chicago Tribune story last month that exposed a digital divide across Illinois as schools shifted to remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. State agencies later released a map touting publicly accessible Wi-Fi hot spots at about 250 locations; none are in the 250 square miles that make up the Trico district.
That’s about to change. A local internet provider is installing Wi-Fi service to connect families to the district network. An anonymous donor pledged to donate a dozen hot spots. And a school district in Chicago’s suburbs said it would ship about 250 used Chromebooks to Trico when the computers are replaced after this school year.
No matter what I never lose faith in people.
'This is no damn hobby': the 'gangsta gardener' transforming Los Angeles
The garden seduces me,” says Ron Finley, who is known around the world as the “gangsta gardener”. “I’ll get out there at 9am and next thing I know it’s 7pm … gardening takes your mind off things. Everybody should have a garden to cultivate.”
For Finley, self-isolation means getting lots of jobs done in the garden. Some things he can control (such as bearded iris, which are in bloom) and some things he can’t (pesky cabbage moths). He didn’t expect his 2010 protest to end up like this. “The world came to me,” he says.
In light of the pandemic, governments must invest more in encouraging people to be self-sustaining, he says. “I don’t like to use ‘hope’, I like to use the word ‘opportunity’. To hell with hope. It’s not for hope to change it. It’s the opportunity to make shit happen … A lot of the governments and municipalities need to put money into this, which they haven’t,” he says.
Hyper-local planting is a reminder that life continues – it’s a distraction that can help maintain mental and physical health in a time when just popping out for milk could be deadly.
“People looked at my garden like ‘your little hobby’ or something, now people realise this is no damn hobby, this is life and death. This is our revolution,” says Finley..
The hubby and I argue about cooking all the time now. It should be fun but somehow it is like a chore in these times.
Who does not remember The Goonies, or at least watching it with the youngsters.
A song for you.
Your weekly to-dos
- Take the People's Agenda Pledge. Hold your Representative accountable when they vote on the next coronavirus relief package -- if the bill doesn’t put people first, they should vote no.
- Call your representative and demand they vote 'no' on the next bill unless it includes the People's Agenda principles. We need a package that puts people first -- which means keeping people on payrolls, providing financial relief for people, protecting public health, and defending democracy with national vote by mail and election security support. Call your representatives now to hold them accountable.
- Tweet at your representative and demand they vote 'no' on the next package unless it puts people first. Use our new tool to tweet at your representative about the People’s Agenda Pledge. We’re hearing right now that social media is a more effective tool to engage with your members of Congress than usual because of remote working and social distancing.
- Email your representative after you've called and tweeted to follow up. This new tool allows you to email your representative about the People’s Agenda Pledge -- meaning you can let them know you’re paying attention.
- Record a People’s Agenda Pledge video and send it to your representative on social media. Don’t forget to say your name, where you’re from, and that you demand your representative take the People’s Agenda Pledge -- meaning they pledge to vote no on the next coronavirus package unless it means real relief for all people. Upload it to social and tag them!
- Register for our upcoming National Activist on May 7th. The National Activist Call is a monthly space for Indivisible leaders, members, and other activists to hear updates and connect with one another.
Stay safe everyone!
Share all the news I missed in the comments. I will try and pop in. Working from home is harder than I thought.
Even though Green Day calls this No Fun Mondays and this is Wednesday, I am signing off with this.
Peace!