Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
12 days until Biden is inaugurated.
I don’t know about you, but I always expected the crazy and the violent. tRump, who knows his bad deeds better than anyone (and I am sure there are more than we’ve heard about) and is terrified of losing immunity, has nothing to lose by trying to burn it all down. We were lucky that there wasn’t more violence, in DC and across the country.
I am disgusted and horrified by what happened, especially at the death of one of the Capitol police, but I am so proud of the Congress for getting back to work AT ONCE and completing the important task of certifying Joe Biden.
Here are some suggestions. If you have not already, contact your senators and your representative. Wish them and their staff well during this really, really difficult time. Acknowledge what they have gone through; they will appreciate it; commend them for supporting democracy (if they did). Some of them will still be freaking out over what happened. If they voted to certify, thank them for their bravery and for going back to work. Emphasize that this behavior has to be investigated and punished. tRump should be removed.
If they are traitors, oath-breakers, tell them to resign NOW. Get your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Remember, some fantastic things have happened over the past few days. 🍑 Georgia. 🍑 Oh, dear flying spaghetti monster, Georgia! The Senate!
Sit next to me, dear gnusies, and let’s prepare to watch the sunrise together.
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.
⌛ Time of Transition ⌛
Despite everything, Biden and Harris were certified.
Biden picks Merrick Garland for Attorney General New York Times
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to nominate Judge Merrick B. Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination Republicans blocked in 2016, to be attorney general, placing the task of repairing a beleaguered Justice Department in the hands of a centrist judge, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Strong Republican support for Judge Garland helped secure his place in the incoming Biden administration, which greatly values bipartisan support for cabinet choices even as Democrats secured the necessary seats in the Senate to confirm all of Mr. Biden’s nominees. ✂️
Mr. Biden also intends to nominate Lisa Monaco, a former homeland security adviser to President Barack Obama, as deputy attorney general; Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under Mr. Obama, as the No. 3; and Kristen Clarke, a civil rights lawyer, as assistant attorney general for civil rights, which is expected to be a major focus of the department under Mr. Biden.
Ms. Monaco spent much of her time in government service at the Justice Department, where she was a career prosecutor and the first woman to head the National Security Division, expertise that will be immediately called upon as the administration works to understand the full scope of Russia’s recently revealed hacking of the federal government, including the Justice Department’s own systems.
Garland may be a centrist, but Monaco and Clarke are strong civil rights advocates. Oh, and Garland has serious experience in prosecuting domestic terrorism, something this country needs to focus on. From Wikipedia
In that role, Garland's responsibilities included the supervision of high-profile domestic-terrorism cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing, Ted Kaczynski (also known as the "Unabomber"), and the Atlanta Olympics bombings.[5][27]
Other assignments meted out by Biden:
I agree with everyone that tRump still has too much power. However, he has less than he did before. He didn’t help the Rs in Georgia:
And since then, Pence defied him. McConnell defied him. Heck, even lapdog Lindsey defied him. Even little Marco! Yeah, too little, too late.
Facebook has an indefinite ban on tRump now. Talking Points Memo
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned President Trump from his Facebook and Instagram accounts “indefinitely,” after the President incited a violent mob into attacking Congress on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said that Trump “intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”
Zuckerberg said that the ban would extend at least for the two weeks until Biden’s inauguration.
Maybe the 6 of January was a little too much like Kristallnacht.
Here’s what is happening with Twitter BBC
US President Donald Trump has been allowed to Tweet again, after being locked out of his account for 12 hours.
Posting a more conciliatory message, he refrained from reiterating false claims of voter fraud.
Twitter said that it would ban Mr Trump "permanently" if he breached the platform's rules again.
And more and more people are calling for his removal. Sooner rather than later. Here’s one:
Here’s another. 🎩 hpg
The business community was not amused.
What about the 25th? What about impeachment? I have heard a possibility that the House will impeach again. Will the Senate remove? It doesn’t have to. By having the article of impeachment at hand, it can keep tRump under control with the threat of removal. I have seen headlines flash by on this where people are working on it, and other headlines flash by where Congress doesn’t plan to come back for two weeks.
🎩 hpg
Oh, and the chief of the Capitol Police has resigned and the House Sergeant-at-Arms has resigned.
And Elaine Chao (Transportation Secretary, also Mrs. McConnell) and Betsy DeVos (Education Secretary) have also resigned. Distancing themselves from tRump, but also keeping themselves from having to vote yay or nay on the 25th Amendment. Not acts of bravery, at all.
Some people have wondered why we haven’t heard from Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, lately. I expect he’s not saying much because tRump can still fire him. But the FBI is on the case.
Wonder if I can send in tRump’s name? I’m sure thousands already have.
Just saw this. And “tomorrow” is now today:
🍑 GEORGIA! 🍑
💙 🍑 💙 🍑 2 New D Senators!
We did it. 😄 Well, I didn’t do much, except for cheering and encouraging in these columns, but a lot of great people got out and voted, and many others, including some of you, sent postcards and donated money. I point out that perdue means lost in French (feminine version) and now it is true. C’est la vie, Perdue, tu as perdu. Loeffler, at least, has conceded.
Warnock! Ossoff! Wow. But pucklady did such a good job yesterday, comparing them to Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum of Independence Day, the black & the Jew who saved the world, that I’ll leave it at that, unless something comes up.
And what does this mean? The end of the Grim Reaper (McConnell, where bills went to die). Stuff getting done in the Senate. Imagine all the possibilities with our senators:
We won’t be getting Hunter Biden hearings, either, I expect.
Let’s also pay tribute to who enabled this. Stacey Abrams, of course; we’ll be praising her for decades. But let’s also remember the great late John Lewis:
💣 Republicans in Disarray 💣
Now that Rs have had the experience of a “school shooter,” some of them have changed their tune. McConnell. Lindsey Graham.
Half a dozen senators who were planning to vote for obstruction of certification changed their minds after tRump’s stormtroopers stormed their workplace, and even Hawley decided, after Arizona, not to drag things out.
They are not in lockstep. Washington Post
On the other end of the spectrum, Hawley and Cruz stumbled through nonsensical arguments. Cruz was concerned because there are so many darn people who do not trust the results. Hawley attacked Pennsylvania’s pre-election rule changes.
The response from Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) decimated Hawley. Hawley was seeking to “overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, and thereby deny the voters of Pennsylvania to even participate in the presidential election,” Toomey said. He pointed out that of the ballots arriving after Election Day, about 10,000 were excluded from the vote. He marched through a series of other claims, including the specious assertion that fraud that was not investigated. There was no such evidence to support the Trump lawyers’ claims.
And there’s this...
And Lindsey’s prediction has come true:
Oh, and this:
🐍 Schadenfreude 😈
After what happened in the Capitol, Pence has a sad.
Pence should have invoked the 25th amendment years ago. Even though he’s a fucking apologist for the tobacco industry, we would have lost far few people to the pandemic if we had had Pence running things instead of tRump.
Hey, Pence, you could actually do something about this, you know?
⚡️ Hawley’s book canceled by Simon & Schuster Daily Kos ⚡️ Yeah, someone else will probably offer him a contract. This is better:
Oh, and this:
⚡️ FBI gets help on identifications (hooray for the terrorists’ anti-mask attitude) Daily Kos ⚡️
Then there is this:
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️
Haven’t you often wondered at all the obvious lies, and the contradictions told by the tRumpsters? For example, storming the US Capitol while shouting USA but waving Confederate flags (anti-USA symbol). I have often wondered how they can tolerate so much cognitive dissonance. Then I realized it’s the only way they can sense anything aoing on in their brains on at all.
We’re not great fans of Romney, but he has shown integrity over the last few years when no other R would, and on Wednesday he gave a great speech, urging his fellow senators to tell the truth. “The best way we can show respect to the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth.”
Like it says, people broke out in applause.
Also, another R supports the truth.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ ️
Deescalation. Maybe we can start by no longer shooting each other? Good News Network
Newark police and city officials say their de-escalation training program is working, with not one officer firing his or her weapon while on duty in 2020.
The New Jersey police force faced huge challenges this year, with officers being exposed to COVID-19 while out working and the anti-police brutality protests of summertime taking its toll.
Through it all, says Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose, staff utilized their de-escalation training to keep the peace.
Perhaps a model for other districts?
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
🚲 The US building coast-to-coast bike trail Ecowatch
Stretching almost 6,000km and crossing 12 states, the Great American Rail-Trail will enable cyclists, hikers and riders to traverse the entire US.
The multi-use trail will run from Washington DC in the east to Washington state on the Pacific coast. Launched in May 2019, the route will eventually connect more than 145 existing paths. So far more than 3,200km of it has been completed.
Decades in the making, the project is led by the Rail-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), which has raised more than $4 million in public and private funds. It will serve 50 million people within 80km of the trail once finished.
🐦 Painted bunting spotted in DC area Washington Post
It was a male painted bunting, a bird known for its kaleidoscope of colors — blue heads, red underparts, and green backs. It’s a bird commonly seen in Florida and other parts of the South but rarely in Maryland.
It’s unclear why the bird made its way this far north, but the painted bunting is one of several species included in a recently published study from the National Audubon Society demonstrating that climate change is causing a shift in birds’ ranges during winter and breeding seasons.
The unusual sighting of the bird, along the Potomac River, was first documented last week on the popular birding website eBird. As word spread, via listservs and Facebook groups, excited birders poured into the park from across the region, hoping to catch a glimpse — or perhaps even a photo.
I agree, the fact that climate change has sent some birds up north is bad, but what a rare glimpse of beauty for those lucky birdwatchers!
I do a lot of other writing. My 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! Review or rate it positively!) 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.
Current projects:
Progressive Muse has postcard information. Also, let your representatives know you’ve been worried about them and their staffs. Unless your reps are insurrections, in which case you should tell them to resign.
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. We need to win some back.
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.