Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Haven’t you enjoyed some of the news this week? The Tulsa flop has had me grinning for days. Here are some of the reasons why:
The tRump campaign can’t be competent. Teenagers pranked it, for sure. Now Parscale and his team may have weeded out thousands of fake sign-ups. But I think they missed tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of fake sign-ups. They
Lack of enthusiasm. Yes, 6200 supporters showed up. But they were predicting 50,000 or so, because they actually had an overflow area set up, which they then had to hastily dismantle.
They’re not as dangerous as they pretend to be. tRump has been trying to gin up a mob to ruin the country if he loses (remember, he works for putin). He has tried to do practice runs at this. That’s why their fake armed protesters stormed the Michigan capital. That’s why he cleared real protesters using our own forces against us (our side has real protesters). But, with visuals like we’ve seen, it’s going to be even harder to muster enthusiasm on their side.
And these things are making some people flip, either in their support for the Rs, which will lead to many flips (or so I believe) in the future.
Of course, no complacency! No taking of anything for granted, ever again! But this is the best things can be, this far out from the election.
(And yes, there is some super sucky news, too. We’ll try to look at the bright side — or the faintly glowing side, if there is one.)
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 👎
tRump was spreading Covid in Arizona this week, as well as the usual lies. Here’s a fact:
We need to get this fact out there, folks.
Now, one of the most worrying things during these last few years has been the perversion of the DoJ, and how it now seems more the Department of Injustice rather than justice. And Barr has gotten away with, and is still getting away with, far too much, such as quashing the Flynn sentence. (ABC News), although Judge Sullivan has been fighting back (Daily Kos).
However, Barr is not invincible, and more and more people are fighting back. This includes Aaron Zelinsky, who testified about corruption at the DoJ.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Tex.) at one point asked Zelinsky whether Barr had abandoned the rule of law. She cited another withdrawn prosecutor from the Stone case, Jonathan Kravis, who wrote a Washington Post op-ed last month saying of his 10-year tenure in the DOJ, “I left a job I loved because I believed the department had abandoned its responsibility to do justice in one of my cases, United States v. Roger Stone.”
Garcia asked Zelinsky whether he agreed with that statement, and Zelinsky was direct.
“I do.”
Furthermore, Barr is weaker than he was before. I think this is a result of several things, such as his role in the Bible photo op (I’m not going to put in the photo of him, but he looks like an old fat guy in a wrinkled suit, and not a man of power) and tRump’s serious slide in the polls.
Even Barr seems fallible and incompetent The New Yorker
In a startling act of defiance, Berman called out Barr’s lie: at 11:14 p.m., he issued his own statement, declaring, “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position.” (A Justice Department official said that phrases such as “stepping down” are used as a courtesy when officials are removed from their posts.) The federal prosecutor then made a remarkable—and historic—plea for the other two branches of government to confront and restrain an out-of-control President. And, in this case, his out-of-control Attorney General, too.✂️
In a sign of how quickly Trump and Barr’s political standing is shifting, one of Trump’s most fawning backers in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, indicated on Saturday that he would not support the nomination of Clayton, who has no experience as a prosecutor. Graham is locked in a tight reëlection race with Jaime Harrison, the Democratic challenger, in South Carolina. After other Senate Republicans declined to support Clayton, Barr agreed to appoint Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, as an interim U.S. Attorney, following standard practice. Former federal prosecutors in New York said that Strauss, like Berman, would defy pressure to quash politically embarrassing investigations. “None of the office’s work will be compromised,” Samidh Guha, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the office, told the Washington Post.
Bolding mine.
And if you’re not a fan of of the elegant prose of the New Yorker, here it is the earthier argot of Wonkette, “Is anyone even scared of Bill Barr anymore?”
Rachel Maddow ticked off a bunch of Barr's recent failures yesterday evening, starting with when Barr tried to do a Friday Night Massacre this past weekend at the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Barr tried to remove Trump appointee Geoffrey Berman as US attorney — most likely to try to damage/thwart ongoing investigations into Trump associates like Rudy Giuliani, and maybe even Trump himself, and maybe as a favor for Trump's dictator pal in Turkey — and replace him with some pant-licker sycophant from New Jersey named "Craig." Unfortunately, Barr is such a fuckup that he completely lost the game of chicken with Berman, who, though he is still obviously fired, managed to make sure his successor would be his longtime deputy, Audrey Strauss, whom SDNY actually respects, until a permanent nominee is confirmed. Not the pant-licker from New Jersey named "Craig."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, who continually battles with Barr for the employee-of-the-month parking space inside Trump's ass, responded to the Berman firing by saying he will respect home-state Democratic senators' right to "blue-slip," or veto, Trump's new Manhattan US attorney nomination, which is theoretically supposed to be current SEC chair Jay Clayton, except for how Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are like "Eat this bag of New York dicks, they're really weird and foldy like New York pizza, so you'll need a buncha napkins."
Now, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler has opened an investigation into the matter, and he is going to subpoena Barr for testimony. And when Barr receives that subpoena and uses it to wipe Trump's ass-skin off his lips before throwing it in the garbage? Appearing on Maddow last night, Nadler said he's totally prepared to DEFUND THE POLICE, by which we mean cut off the Justice Department's funding, if Barr refuses to appear.
Barr’s bad behavior has been noticed by his alma mater, and they are not pleased:
Can they revoke his degree? We can hope it will lead to this:
Even if we can’t send all these m***f**ers to prison, they are disgraced forever.
And this, with more truths coming out:
🐊 Draining the Swamp 🐊
A while back I expanded the swamp to include not just corruption but racism.
South Carolina, gnusies, South Carolina!
And just a bit north, in Wilmington, North Carolina! Talking Points Memo
Three North Carolina police officers were fired in Wilmington after a local sergeant reviewed video footage that showed one of the officers saying a civil war was necessary to wipe Black people off the map and that he was ready.
The department took action on Tuesday, firing Cpl. Jessie Moore and officers Kevin Piner and Brian Gilmore for violating standards of conduct, criticism and use of inappropriate jokes and slurs, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The video audit was conducted as part of a monthly inspection, according to police department documents reviewed by AP.
But there’s also corruption, this time caught early!
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
💙 Here’s one of many happy polls of late:
👎 tRump’s going to have a hard time turning things around Salon
The very fact that Trump routinely panders to the convulsive whimsy of his cult of Red Hat disciples, capping his appeal at around 43 percent of American voters, proves he's almost deliberately undermining himself, while simultaneously believing he can do no wrong. He thinks he's winning, despite enraging 55 percent of us. It doesn't make any sense until we realize that, yeah, Trump always makes things worse for himself.
Buyers’ remorse — or perhaps sellers’ remorse, as so many have sold out?
💙 Democrats are planning to be smart about their convention Axios
Democrats are trying to make a virtue of necessity by modernizing the rusty convention format for a mostly virtual gathering in Milwaukee in August, with up to 1,000 people in real life but extensive use of videos and remotes.
What's planned: The program will be shorter — 8 to 11 p.m. ET over four nights, instead of starting at the traditional 4 or 5 p.m. And there'll be fewer speeches, with a mix of live and taped segments from around the country.
- The emphasis will be on storytelling — what President Trump has done vs. what America could be under Joe Biden.
- It'll be billed as a convention for all Americans, with outreach to people who supported Bernie Sanders — and Trump 2016 voters who regret it.
And how do locals feel about the Republican convention? Florida Politics
A majority of Duval voters do not want the Republican National Convention in their city this Summer, according to a new poll.
The RABA Research poll commissioned by Republican Voters Against Trump found 49% of those surveyed did not support Jacksonville hosting President Donald Trump’s nomination speech in August. Only 39% said they supported it.
Further, 57% said they were concerned the convention would spur a new COVID-19 outbreak while only 43% said they weren’t worried.
Florida is currently one of the country’s worst hot spots. On Wednesday, they registered more than 5000 additional cases, their worst day ever.
Oh, and Biden seems to be making that virtual thing work...
💙 Dems introduce bill to stop big pharma price gouging EcoWatch
On the heels of polling that showed 88% of Americans worry Big Pharma will exploit the ongoing pandemic to hike drug prices, House Democrats on Monday introduced two bipartisan bills to prevent price gouging for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines and to strengthen oversight of federal spending on coronavirus research and development.
Public Citizen president Robert Weissman welcomed the legislation in a statement. "This is about way more than ensuring taxpayers aren't ripped off, as important as that objective is," he declared. "Promoting transparency and reasonable pricing of Covid-19 treatments and vaccines is a life-and-death matter."
Of course, McConnell calls himself the Grim Reaper, so he probably won’t do anything for this.
💜 Bipartisan Senate passes Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 Good News Network
In a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted 73-25 to pass the Great American Outdoors Act, a funding bill that one lawmaker called the “single greatest conservation achievement in generations.”
The Outdoors Act creates a fund into which not less than 50% of all revenues made from energy production on public lands—from oil and gas drilling and renewables—to be dedicated to finally funding over $20 billion worth of delayed maintenance projects in America’s national parks and public lands.
70% of the fund’s contents will go to the National Parks Service for projects in America’s national parks, encompassing over 400 places of historic, recreational, and scientific importance, from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to the Appomattox Courthouse and Statue of Liberty. Another 15% will go to the Forest Service, for maintenance on public lands, while 5% will be given to the Bureau of Indian Education, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Fish and Wildlife Service respectively.
For those going, but the Electoral College, there’s this:
And this…
If Biden wins Texas, it’s truly Bye-Don.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
💛 💙 Never Trumpers help in Montana The Maddow Blog
The Lincoln Project, a super PAC led by a group of anti-Trump Republicans, has vowed to go after the president's "enablers" in Congress, and to that end, the Lincoln Project will endorse Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) today. The governor is taking on incumbent Sen. Steve Daines (R) in one of this year's most closely watched U.S. Senate races.
🐴 Kentucky, despite dire predictions, managed its voting well Washington Post
NOT EVERY election held during the coronavirus pandemic has been a disaster. See, for example, Tuesday’s vote in Kentucky, which saw a couple of problems but avoided the massive failures seen in the District, Georgia and Wisconsin, even as state political experts predicted record turnout. The November presidential election can be run credibly — if politicians recognize now the need to prepare and resist the temptation to manipulate the circumstances for political advantage.
Planning and bipartisanship were key to Kentucky’s primary day. Well ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, Michael Adams, and Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, agreed to allow all registered voters to cast absentee ballots, a first for the state. Massive numbers of voters signed up for mail-in ballots. In-person early voting was ramped up to reduce Election Day crowds. And in-person polling places were consolidated to limit the number of polling workers who would need to interact with voters and to ensure sanitary standards.
Polling place closures became controversial ahead of the vote, as Louisville shut all but one voting location, leaving a single polling place for 600,000 people and a large share of the state’s black population. Indeed, this became a problem at the end of the day, when a traffic jam at the entrance delayed several dozen voters, and a judge had to order the polling place to remain open for them to vote. But the rest of the day ran smoothly: Voters could get free rides to the Louisville voting center, where officials had established an enormous operation. Lines were brief, voting booths were sanitized between voters, and there was ample space for social distancing.
I remember how before the vote, when the single polling place was learned about, there was a huge outcry but Governor Beshear assured everyone it would be OK. And it mostly was. After all, Beshear is a Democrat; sometimes we need to have a little faith.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
🐀 🐀 🚢 🐀 🐀What is happening? 🐀 🐀 🚢 🐀 🐀
The fake cow 🐮 wins!
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️
Geoffrey Berman, despite being a tRump appointed attorney, stood up last weekend NBC news
Later that evening, Berman issued a statement of his own that was even more stunning. He stated that, in fact, he had “not resigned,” and that he would step down only when a presidential nominee was confirmed by the Senate. Berman vowed that until then, “investigations will move forward without delay or interruption,” that he would “pursue justice without fear or favor” and would “ensure that this Office's important cases continue unimpeded.” The strong implication of Berman’s statement was that Barr was trying to subvert those goals.
And who is running SDNY now?
I also want to give a truth medal to Aaron Zelinsky, mentioned earlier, who testified this week before the House Judiciary Committee, about the abuses Barr is inflicting on our system of justice. Zelinsky resigned from the Roger Stone case instead of succumbing to political pressure.
And let’s give a nod to John Dean:
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ ️
Black man afraid to walk in his neighborhood escorted by neighbors Good News Network
The 29-year-old has lived in the 12 South neighborhood of Nashville his whole life, after his family moved there 54 years ago. But over the course of his life, Shawn Dromgoole has seen the neighborhood change dramatically.
Rising home values priced out many of the black families who lived there. As they moved out to find more affordable housing, new families moved in, most of them white and more financially well-off—leaving Shawn feeling out of place in his hometown. ✂️ After George Floyd and other murders, Shawn posted in a community Facebook page how afraid he was to take a walk in his own neighborhood. ✂️ Shawn expected little beyond a few words of encouragement from friends, but what happened next was much more than he anticipated. Messages began pouring in from friends and strangers alike, saying that they would like to walk with him.
So he posted a time and place letting everyone know, in case they wanted to join him on his next walk. When he arrived, 75 people were waiting there to join him. ✂️
Last week ‘Walk with Shawn’ drew crowds of nearly 300 people, as word spread about the neighbors getting to know one another, according to WTVF News. And Shawn received messages from neighborhoods in Georgia, Minneapolis, Denver and Philadelphia, that they started copying his idea.
I just ran across this and liked it:
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
If you donate blood, the American Red Cross is currently testing for coronavirus antibodies!
For a limited time, the American Red Cross will test all blood, platelet and plasma donations for COVID-19 antibodies as an additional health service to our donors. This testing may provide critical insight into whether donors may have possibly been exposed to this coronavirus. The Red Cross is committed to helping others in meaningful ways during this pandemic.
Barcelona Opera House reopens … for 2000+ plants EcoWatch
A Barcelona opera house played its first concert since mid-March to an unusual audience: 2,292 plants.
The "Concert for the Biocene" at the Liceu opera house came the day after Spain finally lifted an emergency order put in place to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, Reuters reported. A string quartet played Giacomo Puccini's "Chrysanthemum," bowing respectfully before and after to its leafy audience.
"Nature advanced to occupy the spaces we snatched from it," Eugenio Ampudio, the conceptual artist behind the unique concert, said during a rehearsal Sunday, according to Reuters. "Can we extend our empathy? Let's begin with art and music, in a great theatre, by inviting nature in."
Human listeners were invited in too via a livestream.
You know, I’ve been talking a lot more to my plants lately, too.
😄 Then there’s this:
Others have linked to this in other diaries, but in case you missed it, from the Dixie Chicks:
A great reminder of how so many of us are making a difference.
💙 I do a lot of other writing besides the Friday GNR. Most recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction. (It’s really good! It’s really cheap! Buy it!) My less recent stories, based on Jane Austen novels and others on Greek mythology, can be found here.
💙 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.