Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Tuesday’s Roundup of Good News!
Welcome, gnusies! It’s not nifty but cc writing today. Twice as confusing for me as for you, I assure you.
In the spirit of the 4th of July, let’s talk a little about the power of the people. Sometimes, as individuals, we don’t feel as if we have any power. Sometimes our efforts don’t get noticed, and that can be so frustrating.
But sometimes they do. And sometimes the difference they make is enormous.
We have the power of protests. We are seeing this with the sustained BLM protests, which have toppled statues, most of which never should have been erected. These have highlighted terrible injustices in our society. These people have gotten flags taken down and spurred support in many areas, especially from corporations. Perhaps some of the corporations are doing only lip service, but some may be genuine and trying to change their ways. Even the Washington R***ins is considering changing their names.
Alas, protests sometimes come with a cost. Summer Taylor lost their life. Others have been sprayed and beaten and harmed.
We also have the power of the ballot box, which we have to use in November. Voting will be easy for some, but may require a sacrifice of time and effort from others.
Power often comes with a cost. Democracy does not just happen. We make it happen. We are making it happen.
And as for the other side? They don’t have the numbers. Come on in, my fellow gnusies, and take heart in our numbers versus their numbers.
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 👎
July 4: Donald Trump's National Mall Speech Draws Small Crowds, and Social Media Is Making Sure He Knows pop culture
WTOP's Ken Duffy reported that those on location weren't more than you'd see on an average day in Washington, D.C. and were smaller than we've seen in past July 4 celebrations.
"I was definitely expecting to see some more people just because of the other events I've been to down here before," attendee William Klein told the outlet just before 6 p.m. "But it is early, so maybe they'll be more later on." ✂️
Many took to social media to share their own first-hand experiences, while others just wanted to joke around about the poor turnout for the president's speech. While it was another highly divisive speech and earned plenty of criticism, the true eyes might be on Trump's ability to bring people out. The luster has seemed to wear off for many.
You want pictures? Here is a picture!
OK, I haven’t been in DC on the 4th for many decades, but when I was it was supercrowded. Obviously, no covid 19 then, which is a good reason for not turning out.
Here’s another:
But people do show up sometimes! Like here:
How tRump is turning off the elderly white voters The Guardian
But one reckless and controversial retweet from Donald Trump, featuring some ugly racism from a resident in a golf cart, and The Villages’ carefully crafted image as a peaceful utopia for retirees began to dissipate. As elderly white voters, one of Trump’s key voting blocs in 2016, show signs of abandoning the erratic president, some are even wondering if the door has been opened for Democrats here, an area that until now has been unashamedly “Trump country”.
“He’s definitely turning off some of the older voters in The Villages,” said Chris Stanley, president of the Democratic Club in the 32-square mile retirement community of 125,000, and a resident herself for almost six years.
“They’re concerned about his plans for Medicare and social security of course, but they also didn’t allow their children to behave like this, they don’t allow their grandchildren to behave like this, and they’re very much turned off by it.
“This is the generation that watched Walter Cronkite, had John F Kennedy, and Eisenhower, when politics was a whole different animal. When even if your party or your chosen candidate didn’t win, you were never afraid of damage done to your family or your country. And now? Whoever thought we’d see something like it is right now?”
You want numbers? Here are numbers! (thanks hpg)
Here’s some analysis Washington Post
In the meantime, the rest of the country seems finally to have had enough. The latest Gallup poll finds that “Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at a lower level after a sharp drop in late May and early June, with 38% of Americans currently approving of the job he is doing.” Since May, his approval rating has dropped 11 points. Now, “the current 89-point difference between Republicans’ and Democrats’ ratings of Trump is the largest partisan gap Gallup has ever measured for a presidential approval rating in a single survey.”
Even more striking, Trump has frittered away support from reliable segments of the Republican coalition. “Trump now has approval ratings below the majority level among groups that are typically more favorable to him, including non-Hispanic white Americans, men, older Americans, Southerners and those without a college degree.” He is in positive territory only with non-college-educated white males. He does not even have white non-college-educated women in his corner.
What is interesting is that the poll collapse occurred between June 8 and June 30, before the soaring coronavirus rates were fully recognized. June was the month of Black Lives Matter protests, the fallout from the assault on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square, the refusal to remove Confederate names from military bases and Trump’s staunch objection to taking down Confederate statues erected during the Jim Crow era. It was a month of cultural — really, racial — warfare. And Trump, it seems, has lost decisively.
Due to high demand, the publication of Mary Trump’s book has been moved forward The Daily Beast
Mary Trump’s highly anticipated book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, will be released next week—two weeks ahead of its planned release date. The book’s publisher Simon & Shuster announced Monday that “due to high demand and extraordinary interest in this book” by Trump’s niece it will now be published on July 14. Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, and the celebrity attorney Charles Harder have spent weeks trying to stop the release, filing legal actions in two courts only to have the lawsuits tossed by respective judges.
In the book, which is already number one on Amazon’s best seller list, Mary Trump is expected to “out” herself as the primary source for The New York Times’ Trump tax investigation that won a Pulitzer prize. It’s expected to contain many “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president and his family. “In addition to the firsthand accounts I can give as my father’s daughter and my uncle’s only niece, I have the perspective of a trained clinical psychologist. Too Much and Never Enough is the story of the most visible and powerful family in the world. And I am the only Trump who is willing to tell it,” Mary writes in the book’s prologue.
More tRump numbers:
🐊 Draining the Swamp 🐊
Crowds are draining the swamp.
Crowds New Yorker
With almost Marxian symmetry, the profit-making power of crowds, which the pandemic put a halt to, was swiftly reclaimed as political power through the Black Lives Matter movement. The protests of the past month have shown that, now as ever, the most immediate and dramatic way for people in a free society to register discontent and call for change is by massing in the streets. Those people, most wearing masks, gathered in frank and perilous defiance of social-distancing guidelines. (The protests do not seem to have resulted in a noticeable increase in cases, perhaps because the crowds were outside, and because the streets where they assembled were otherwise largely empty—or it may simply be too early to tell.)
The sheer size and civility of the protests created crowd images that stand in majestic contrast to the cell-phone video of George Floyd’s death. That video captures four officers of the law slowly and indifferently killing a man—a man all alone—and doing so as if they were out of public view; the images of the protests, seen by tens of millions of people, show tens of thousands assembled lawfully and peaceably, as Homeland Security agents surveil them from helicopters. The crowds are what made the moment feel transformative—at once new and a successor to the summer of 1968, a moment when, in the historian James Miller’s formulation, a generation felt that “democracy is in the streets.”
The protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1st had outsized significance, not just because they were outside the White House but also because the man inside it has staked his claim as a populist who derives his mandate from his ability to draw crowds and speak for them as well as to them. During the pandemic, Donald Trump, deprived of the rallies that stoke his ego and suggest that he has popular support, has withdrawn like a general in his labyrinth. When the crowd massed outside the White House, he sought to oppose it with a hastily mustered palace guard. On Twitter, he urged his supporters to rush to Lafayette Square in counter-demonstration. That crowd didn’t materialize. So he contrived to take his brand of populism to the populace, through a campaign rally, set for North Carolina and then moved to Oklahoma, where the participants would not be subject to physical distancing. Again, the crowd didn’t materialize. The six thousand people who did attend were just about the number who would have been there if the organizers had enforced distancing measures. In any case, it was an indoor gathering of exactly the wrong size: large enough to risk the transmission of covid-19 but not large enough to give the campaign the image of a crowd that the President craved.
I love, love, love how tRump expected supporters to rush to Lafayette Square and they didn’t show up. Although how could they? Were they supposed to risk being buzzed by a helicopter?
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
And what does The Economist think? (thanks, hpg)
There was a diary worrying about electors not fulfilling the wishes of their voters. But that isn’t legal:
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
💙 I love this ad targeting North Carolina:
🏀 Georgia voting in the primary was a mess. The NBA is stepping up. From a press release:
Fulton County is partnering with the Atlanta Hawks to create Georgia’s largest-ever voting precinct at State Farm Arena, starting with early voting on July 20 for the Georgia General Primary Runoff Election on August 11. This unique partnership will allow tens of thousands of voters to cast their ballots for upcoming elections while maintaining CDC-recommended social distancing requirements at the state-of-the-art facility. In addition, Fulton County Registration & Elections will conduct other elections support operations at the site, including absentee ballot processing and more.
Leadership from the Hawks offered use of State Farm Arena to Fulton County as a venue for early voting and other elections operations as part of their commitment to serving the community. The Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority, a government agency, is the owner of the property and leases the site to the Atlanta Hawks organization. In addition to offering the venue, hundreds of Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena full-time and part-time employees will be trained to serve as election workers to further support the operations.
“Fulton County is grateful to the entire Atlanta Hawks organization for being an outstanding partner,” said Chairman Robb Pitts. “Tony Ressler, Steve Koonin and their organization have once again demonstrated that the Hawks are True to Atlanta”
“When our ownership group purchased the Hawks & State Farm Arena five years ago, we were clear that we felt it was our responsibility to make sure the organization was an important civic asset to the city of Atlanta. Utilizing State Farm Arena and our incredible staff to make the arena an accessible and vital polling site in an important election year is a fulfillment on that promise,” said Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena Principal Owner Tony Ressler.
In February, State Farm Arena was named the Best New Concert Venue in the United States by Pollstar Magazine and prior to that was honored by the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) with the 2019 Venue Excellence Award (VEA). For the second consecutive season, the Hawks finished with the NBA’s top ranking in overall in-game experience, a wide-ranging category made up of the following areas where the team rated highly: arena ushers, in-game entertainment, in-arena technology, in-arena retail, in-arena food experience and more.
“State Farm Arena is an ideal solution to help us serve thousands of voters while maintaining social distancing requirements,” said Mary Carole Cooney, Chairperson of the Fulton County Board of Registration & Elections. “We appreciate the Hawks for coming to us with this creative solution.”
To provide greater accessibility to voting, the Hawks Foundation will be providing free parking to individuals accessing the venue to vote. More than 1500 parking spots surrounding the arena will provide complimentary parking for vehicles with a voter.
(Note that press releases can be used without violating fair use.)
💛 Enjoy:
💙 Also, elections have consequences. Virginia, now blue, is seeing the difference. Daily Kos
Virginia continued to demonstrate the critical importance of state houses and governorships with a handful of new, progressive laws passed by the Democratic legislature and signed by a Democratic governor that came into effect July 1. Abortion rights, LGBTQ+ civil rights, the decriminalization of pot, an end to incarcerating juveniles for life—all happened in the state because of Virginia’s 2019 flip of the legislature to Democrats.
The Reproductive Health Protection Act overturns a number of abortion restrictions that had been on the books in the state. That includes the repeal of mandated counseling prior to an abortion, a mandatory ultrasound, and a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can have the procedure. Nurse practitioners will be available to provide first trimester abortions, making the procedure that much more accessible. The new law also removes a requirement that clinics providing more than five abortions a month be classified as hospitals, easing regulations for them. "It makes Virginia the first state in the south to proactively protect a woman's access to abortion care and reproductive health," said Democratic state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, a sponsor of the bill. "We want to be proactive in protecting the doctor-patient relationship and a woman's access to care." That's a big deal.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
Militias flocked to Gettysburg to stop a phantom antifa flag burning — but were punked Washington Post
For weeks, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge on this historical site on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical. ✂️
As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation’s flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary.
On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds — heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was not who the person claimed to be.
Biographical details — some from the person’s Facebook page and others provided to The Washington Post in a series of messages — did not match official records. An image the person once posted on a profile page was a picture of a man taken by a German photographer for a stock photo service.
But it was a hoax, just as the Idaho antifa gatherings were also hoaxes. These people sure like hoaxes!
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️ ️
This week the medal goes to Fauci, who has persisted in pushing sensible information in what must be a very difficult environment. Washington Post
The Post interviewed Fauci and other health experts about wearing masks. He was unequivocal. “It dominates everything I do. The only time I don’t wear one is when I am alone, when I am home with my wife, or when I am speaking in public — provided there is 6 feet between me and the people to whom I am speaking, as was the case when I answered questions at the recent congressional hearings.”
Last week the rate of infections spiked past 55,000 in a single day, and suddenly Republicans who had pooh-poohed mask-wearing and echoed Trump’s disdain for masks were speaking up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) finally proclaimed, “We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks when we leave our homes and come near other people. Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves, it is about protecting everyone we encounter.” Too bad he didn’t say that months or weeks ago — or tell Trump to stop discouraging mask use.
We seemed to reach a tipping point when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) finally put out a statewide order requiring masks. Other states fell into line as the infection and hospitalization rate soared. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) issued a shutdown order and encouraged mask-wearing as the virus threatened to overwhelm his state’s hospital capacity. Pennsylvania, Oregon and Kansas also implemented state mandates on mask-wearing. Even Vice President Pence — who refused to wear a mask when visiting the Mayo Clinic in late April — during his visit to Arizona called on Americans to wear masks. ✂️
By successfully cajoling lawmakers and ordinary Americans to wear masks, Fauci will save thousands of lives before a vaccine is ready. For his constant efforts, defying and ultimately breaking through the deadly fog of the Trump cult, we say, “Well done, Dr. Fauci.”
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
Afghan translator who saved US lives celebrates 1st July 4 as US citizen Good News Network
An Afghan translator who spent 9 years risking his life to assist U.S. forces in Afghanistan has just celebrated his first Fourth of July as a U.S. citizen.
Although his duties as a translator never required it, Janis Shinwari saved the lives of several U.S. soldiers—and one of them decided to return the favor, by offering to bring Janis and his family to the U.S.
If he would have stayed in Afghanistan, the translator “wouldn’t be alive today,” he told CNN Heroes in 2018.
Janis was aiding U.S. forces over a decade ago because he wanted his country liberated from the terror of Taliban rule. Although he knew he was risking his life, he did what he thought was right for his country.
I think it’s wonderful that people still want to be citizens of this country. Speaking of citizens, here are two great citizens:
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
Bovine-human duet
📎 Duke & Dominion cancelling Atlantic Coast Pipeline Daily Kos
Whoa, amazingly good news for a change (see Dominion’s press release, below)! I just wanted to break the news for now…will provide further thoughts later, but this is superb news, as this pipeline was a massive boondoggle, a big-time polluter, and completely stupid all around. Oh, and of course great work by all the attorneys, activists, etc. who fought the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) for the past few years! Also worth noting is that this is a perfect example of what can happen when you “think globally, act locally.” In this case, the “think globally” part was the climate crisis, and the “act locally” part was working to slow this thing down, make it as costly as possible, and ultimately force Dominion to cave. Which, amazingly, they did. Amazing…
And this!
📎 Just to enjoy … although I expect the tweeter got the gender wrong. Looks like a doe to me, and cookies aren’t the best food for deer. Still, enjoy.
😄 I do a lot of other writing. 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.