Good Day and Happy Wednesday!
I had a big long thing written, but it didn’t feel right, so I deleted it. Let me just say this: if you have friends who are reading popular influencers on social media telling them what a failure AG Garland is and he should be fired, please consider that disinformation campaigns have not only been directed at MAGAs. The aim of nefarious groups seeking to destroy the country is to sow the seeds of doubt and distrust in our democratic institutions. Try to encourage your friends and family to maintain a healthy skepticism about the G&D brigade. These are complicated crimes and dangerous criminals. It will not do to act rashly. This administration is less than one year old, and the disruptors have been operating for years. It’s frustrating, but I’d rather we get them all (or as many as possible) — and that’s going to take careful preparation, gathering of evidence and planning.
Having said that — I think we are getting closer to a breakthrough. 🤞
Anyway, here’s the news!
BIF and BBB News
Folks, the Infrastructure Bill Is Way Better Than You Realize, Nitish Pahwa, Slate, November 8, 2021.
Let’s get this out of the way: Even in their original, gargantuan multitrillion-dollar forms, neither BIF nor BBB was going to save the world or even fully decarbonize the U.S. Still, the passage of BIF means that some of the biggest climate spending measures this country has ever negotiated, along with some provisions that have been long out of reach, will soon be a reality. It’s worth looking not only at what climate activists have won, but figuring out how they can maximize and extend the bill’s impact for decades to come. ✂️
• $47 billion in unprecedented resilience initiatives to protect communities from disasters like wildfires, floods, and droughts;
• $21 billion to clean polluted environments, especially those that hurt communities of color, while also capping abandoned gas wells and repurposing lands previously used for mining; ✂️
• $65 billion to repair and protect the electric grid, build new transmission lines for renewable power, and develop nuclear energy and “green hydrogen” and carbon capture tech;
• $39 billion to continue and expand current public transit programs, including by helping states and cities purchase zero- or low-emission buses and improving accessibility standards;
(and much more — read the rest at the link!)
Now, what progressives wanted (and most of us here, I am guessing) was for the BIF bill to be linked inextricably with the BBB bill, to create a historic combined investment to strengthen ALL of our infrastructure over the coming years. It was disappointing that the wedding hasn’t happened quite like that (yet), but I’m not giving up on Nancy Pelosi NOR on Joe Biden! Somehow, some way, I believe they will get these two bills hitched!
🎶 Music from BBB to BIF 🎶
Cool stuff in BBB
Here are a few really good things for people, the economy and the environment that you may not know are in the BBB bill. Call your representatives and urge them to pass it (202-224-3121 — Call now! Operators are standing by!)
Five Things You Didn’t Know Were in “Build Back Better”, Dan Spinelli, Mother Jones, November 7, 2021.
A safety net for new mothers: Preventing new moms from being cut off Medicaid for a year following a birth
More than $1 billion toward pandemic prevention
A huge grant to study the supply chain crisis
A commitment to mental health treatment and suicide prevention (talking real money: including 2.5 billion to address community violence and trauma interventions).
Nearly $100 million for programs to increase composting
In defense of fully funding BBB
Biden’s recovery is on track and that’s no reason to reduce Build Back Better, but every reason to fully fund it.
Biden’s Recovery Is on Track, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, November 9, 2021.
Almost lost among all the other weekend events is the surprisingly good news on the economic-recovery front. Once Democrats finally get the infrastructure and budget deal done, the strong recovery along with the concrete benefits in the budget package should help Biden resurge politically.
The Labor Department’s monthly summary released Friday reported that the economy added 531,000 jobs in October, cutting the unemployment rate to 4.6 percent. The Congressional Budget Office had forecast that unemployment would not fall to that level until 2023, so the Biden recovery is two years ahead of schedule.
And it indeed deserves to be called the Biden recovery, because these rapid gains are due in substantial part to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of last March, which not only stimulated the overall economy but put money directly in people’s pockets via expanded unemployment comp, the near-universal child allowance, and other measures. As a result, we had the unheard-of experience of the poverty rate declining during a recession.
🌱 Environmental News 🌱
Biden strikes down Trump-era plan to remove northern spotted owl habitat, Gabrielle Canon, the Guardian, November 9, 2021.
In a victory for the northern spotted owl, the Biden administration has struck down a Trump-era plan that would have removed more than 3.4m acres of critical habitat for the imperiled bird and opened the old-growth forests where it lives to logging.
The population of the small chocolate brown owl, which lives in forested areas in Washington, Oregon, and northern California, has been in decline for decades and has already lost roughly 70% of its habitat. Its numbers have plummeted 77% in Washington state, 68% in Oregon, and close to half in California, according to studies by the US Geological Survey, and biologists fear that further habitat reduction would put them on the path to extinction.
A controversial decision made by Trump’s interior secretary just five days before leaving office was widely viewed as a parting gift to the timber industry. The Fish and Wildlife Service has since found that there was “insufficient rationale and justification” to reduce the threatened owl’s habitat.
Activists and leaders connect climate crisis to gender inequality
“Climate crisis cannot be ended without the empowerment of women, politicians and campaigners tell summit”
Leaders and activists call for investment in women and girls, who are disproportionately impacted by climate disasters and whose empowerment likewise disproportionately improves life in their communities. As Nancy Pelosi said in her remarks, “when women succeed, the world succeeds.”
‘World designed by men has destroyed many things,’ Cop26 warned, Damian Carrington, the Guardian, November9, 2021.
Sturgeon said: “When world leaders gathered here last week, of the 120 or so, a tiny minority were women – that needs to change and it needs to change quickly. There is no doubt, we must ensure that climate change is a feminist issue. [But] women are not pleading to be supported. We’re demanding to be empowered.”
Alok Sharma, the UK minister and president of Cop26, said: “We know from our efforts to tackle climate change that it is more effective when we put women and girls at the heart of those efforts.” ✂️
Per Olsson Fridh, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation, told Cop26: “Women are not the polluters of this world, yet, they carry the consequences of climate change on their shoulders. Without a gender perspective, we miss out on invaluable knowledge needed for a sustainable green transition. A feminist approach is simply the only smart thing to do.”
Pelosi said: “If I ruled the world, the one thing that I would do is invest in the education of women. When women succeed, the world succeeds.”
Obama speaks at COP26
Keep fighting, Obama urges young climate activists, Ellen Knickmeyer, AP, November 9, 2021.
Young people were finding it hard to believe a climate movement that had mobilized so many could fail, Luisa Neubauer, a leader of Thunberg’s movement in Germany, told Obama.
Neubauer told Obama she feared disillusionment was undermining peoples’ faith in democracy, “as people, especially activists, lose confidence in their governmental pledges, in what often turns out empty promises, in the lack of honesty about past failures.”
Stay the course, Obama told climate activists.
“Don’t think that you can ignore politics,” Obama said earlier, in a speech at the talks site that saw the former president draw short standing ovations.
“You don’t have to be happy about it, but you can’t ignore it. You can’t be too pure for it,” Obama said, devoting much of his speech to the young activists he said he came to Glasgow to be with it.
“It’s part of the process that is going to deliver all of us,” he said.
Renewable Energy Growth!
Renewable energy in the U.S. nearly quadrupled in the past decade, report finds, Tik Root, Washington Post, November 9, 2021.
The proportion of electricity the United States gets from solar and wind nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2020. While geothermal generation remained relatively flat, the three technologies combined for an annual increase of nearly 15 percent over that stretch.
“The pace of progress is continuing to pick up,” said Emma Searson, an author of the new report. “That’s exactly what we need to see in years to come.”
Even Russia acknowledges the climate crisis
Russia comes in from cold on climate, launches forest plan, Tanya Titova and Frank Jordans, AP, November 9, 2021.
A Russian island north of Japan has become a testing ground for Moscow’s efforts to reconcile its prized fossil fuel industry with the need to do something about climate change.
More than two-thirds of Sakhalin Island is forested. With the Kremlin’s blessing, authorities there have set an ambitious goal of making the island — Russia’s largest — carbon neutral by 2025.
Tree growth will absorb as much planet-warming carbon dioxide as the island’s half-million residents and its businesses produce, an idea the Russian government 4,000 miles to the west in Moscow hopes to apply to the whole country, which has more forested area than any other nation.
“The economic structure of Sakhalin and the large share of forestland in the territory and carbon balance distribution reflect the general situation in Russia,” said Dinara Gershinkova, an adviser to Sakhalin’s governor on climate and sustainable development. “So the results of the experiment in Sakhalin will be representative and applicable to the whole Russian Federation.”
🎶 Music Break 🎶
Election News: Republicans in Disarray
This awful poser:
Damaged J.D. Vance Ducks Debates and Blows Financial Report Deadline, Roger Sollenberger, Daily Beast, November 9, 2021.
With his poll numbers sagging and the criticism raging, venture capitalist and Senate hopeful J.D. Vance’s campaign appears to be dodging the spotlight.
The Daily Beast has learned the tech investor has now backed out of two upcoming debate appearances pitting him against the GOP primary field. The news comes as Vance falls more than a week behind his personal financial disclosure filing due date, which itself had already been extended for 90 days.
Asked why Vance ducked the debates, campaign spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk said in an email that Vance already had “prior commitments when we found out about the dates of the forums,” adding that “the campaign was not notified of the days of the forums until October 25.”
But emails reviewed by The Daily Beast challenge that claim.
Infighting is inevitable with TFG, but that’s what Rs signed up for 🤷
They’re desperate to change the focus from 2020, but TFG won’t let them — oh well, lie down with curs, etc.
Trump blasts Christie for telling Republicans to stop ‘wasting time’ talking about 2020 election, Jonathan D Salant, NJ.com, November9, 2021.
Trump said that Christie “was just absolutely massacred by his statements that Republicans have to move on from the past, meaning the 2020 election fraud. Everybody remembers that Chris left New Jersey with a less than 9% approval rating — a record low — and they didn’t want to hear this from him.” (Actually, Christie’s approval ratings only dropped as low as about 15%, which still was a record.) ✂️
“For all people who say they’re supporters of President Trump, the line begins behind me,” he said. “I started that.”
But with an eye on 2024, Christie broke with the former president over Trump’s repeatedly disproven claims of a stolen election. And he told the RJC that the party needed to move away from continuing to litigate the 2020 election.
CNN’s David Gergen Slams GOP’s ‘Descent Into Madness, Says ‘It’s Committing Hara-Kiri’, Michael Luciano, Mediaite, November9, 2021.
During a discussion about Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-AZ) utterly bizarre tweet featuring an anime video depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY), the former adviser to several presidents said today’s Republican Party has lost the plot.
“I think they’ll continue their descent into madness,” he said. “They now think maybe after this recent election that they found a magic formula. Stick with Trump up to a point, but then put out a few new things. But I think it’s still on the fringes. These people are mad. And they’re so denigrating to our politics. I just can’t tell you, the drop in quality from what you and I were used to, what we grew up with, to what now represents the Republican Party. It’s just so sad. It’s so tragic and it’s really dangerous.” ✂️
Gergen concluded, “We really need a center-right party in this country just as we need a center-left party and when you go to the extremes the way Republican Party is now doing, it’s committing hara-kiri on what was once a very honorable party.”
And another significant election story that flew under the radar
Republicans lose best chance to flip NH Senate seat
I’m not saying Maggie Hassan now has it in the bag or anything, just saying that this news was a blow to Rs:
Sununu to Seek Re-election as New Hampshire Governor, Rejecting Senate Bid, Trip Gabriel, New York Times, November 9, 2021.
Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, a Republican, surprised his party on Tuesday by announcing he would not run for U.S. Senate next year, rejecting a full-court press from national Republicans who tried to recruit him to compete for a Democratic-held seat that the G.O.P. believed could determine control of the Senate. ✂️
National Republicans had seen a Sununu challenge to Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, as one of their best shots to upend the Senate’s 50-50 partisan split, which gives Democrats control with the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. ✂️
Unlike other Republican governors of blue states, such as Maryland or Massachusetts, Mr. Sununu supported Mr. Trump’s re-election, declaring at one point, “I’m a Trump guy through and through.”
A University of New Hampshire poll in September found that support for Mr. Sununu was eroding, but still high. Fifty-seven percent of New Hampshire adults approved of the job the governor was doing, including his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the share of independents who approved of his performance as governor fell for the third consecutive month.
Meanwhile even Fox is trying to bat away TFG
Fox & Friends Cautions Trump on Possible 2024 Run: He ‘Needs to Tone it Down’, Colby Hall, November 8, 2021.
After meeting roughly 1,500 people recently while promoting his book, Kilmeade said that the number one question he heard by far was “will Trump run again.” Ainsley Earhardt put her co-host on the spot by asking if those asking wanted him to run, which caused Kilmeade to pause a moment before eventually providing a candid answer.
“Yeah,” he affirmed before adding some caution, perhaps cautious of aggressive Mediaite headlines. “But I saw a lot of people say ‘yeah, but, he has got to tone it down. It can’t be the same way.'”
It’s not clear when, but at some point in his answer, Kilmeade seemed to stop quoting the 1,500 people he met at his book tour, the vast majority of which were presumably Fox News viewers. It appeared at the end of his spiel he was speaking for himself when he added, “I think the president’s got a get better. He has to learn from the last four years.”
🎶 Music Music Music 🎶
⚙️⚖️ The Wheels of Justice ⚖️⚙️
Trump Inauguration Corruption Case Involving Ivanka and Don Jr. Moves Ahead, David Corn, Mother Jones, November 9, 2021.
Donald Trump’s expanding legal worries stemming from investigations in New York and Scotland have received much attention in recent months. But one Trump case, in which his 2016 inauguration committee and the Trump Organization were accused of a million-dollar grift, has been proceeding for almost two years without drawing much notice, and this week, a judge issued a major ruling indicating the case is likely heading to trial. And that could mean that Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who have each been deposed in this civil case, could end up on the stand and questioned about their involvement in an alleged brazen rip-off of nonprofit funds.
In January 2020, Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization and the Presidential Inaugural Committee (Trump’s inauguration committee, a nonprofit known as the PIC). He alleged that the PIC misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family. As Racine put it, “The Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with the Trump family to grossly overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel…The Committee also improperly used non-profit funds to throw a private party [at the Trump Hotel] for the Trump family costing several hundred thousand dollars.” In a way, Racine was saying that one of the first post-election actions of the Trump gang was to illegally use the inauguration to make a buck—a lot of bucks. ✂️
The case has already presented Ivanka Trump and Donald Jr. in a negative light. As Mother Jones previously reported, evidence submitted in the lawsuit indicated that Trump Jr. testified falsely on crucial points during his deposition. Ivanka too, testified inaccurately during her deposition. If either is called as a witness in the trial, prosecutors could highlight these discrepancies.
January 6 committee issues 10 more subpoenas, including to Stephen Miller and Kayleigh McEnany, CNN, November 9, 2021.
The subpoenas follow
six others that were announced Monday. Tuesday's recipients are being asked to turn over documents to the committee on November 23, and depositions are scheduled throughout December. They are:
- Nicholas Luna, former President Donald Trump's personal assistant
- Molly Michael, Trump's special assistant to the President and Oval Office operations coordinator
- Ben Williamson, Trump's deputy assistant to the President and senior adviser to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows
- Christopher Liddell, former Trump White House deputy chief of staff
- John McEntee, Trump's White House personnel director
- Keith Kellogg, national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence
- Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary under Trump
- Stephen Miller, Trump senior adviser
- Cassidy Hutchinson, special assistant to the President for legislative affairs
- Kenneth Klukowski, former senior counsel to Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.
👀!!
Trump schooled by judge in overnight denial of attempt to block National Archives docs, Travis Gettys, Raw Story, November 9, 2021.
The twice-impeached one-term president filed the emergency request late Monday night, and Judge Tanya Chutkan responded just after midnight and gave Trump's attorneys a brief lesson in basic courtroom procedures.
"Federal Rule of Civil Procedure allows temporary injunctive relief "[w]hile an appeal is pending from an interlocutory order or final judgment,'" the judge responded. "This court has not yet entered any such interlocutory order or final judgment and thus a request for relief under Rule 62(d), which plainly requires an interlocutory order of final judgment before considering such motions, is premature."
Trump's attorney, Jesse Binnall, had asked Chutkan to approve the "administrative stay" of her own ruling before she issued it so the former president could appeal the decision before the Archives started turning over documents, and he also warned the judge that he would ask an appeals court to step in if she didn't rule by Wednesday.
Update:
Trump White House records can be turned over to House Jan. 6 investigative committee, judge rules, Spencer S Hsu, Washington Post, November9, 2021.
A federal judge in Washington ruled late Tuesday that hundreds of pages of Trump White House records can be turned over to a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol despite the former president’s objections.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan clears the way for the release of government records requested by Congress, with a deadline of Nov. 12. Attorneys for Trump vowed to immediately appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
“The court holds that the public interest lies in permitting—not enjoining—the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on January 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Chutkan wrote in a 39-page opinion.
More here:
Trump loses bid to keep Jan. 6 records from House committee investigating riot, Pete Williams, NBC, November 9, 2021.
In Tuesday's ruling, Chutkan wrote: "At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President. And the Supreme Court has already made clear that in such circumstances, the incumbent’s view is accorded greater weight."
“Plaintiff does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President’s judgment. His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity,’" the judge went on to say. "But Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. He retains the right to assert that his records are privileged, but the incumbent President ‘is not constitutionally obliged to honor’ that assertion.” ✂️
Biden, however, determined that the privilege should not apply in this instance. White House Counsel Dana Remus said the documents "shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6 and bear on the Select Committee's need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal government since the Civil War."
🎶 Music Time! 🎶
💉 Health News 💉
Biden to continue FEMA virus aid for states until April 1, Zeke Miller, AP, November 9, 2021.
On a conference call Tuesday morning, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients informed governors that Biden is approving the extension of Federal Emergency Management Agency support to help continue FEMA-backed efforts like vaccination clinics and public education campaigns surrounding the shots.
The extension also continues 100% federal reimbursement for National Guard personnel deployed to help combat the virus, including those tasked with assisting local hospitals treating coronavirus cases. ✂️
“This is an extension of the order the president signed on his second day in office and will ensure you continue to have the resources you need to get shots in arms and fight the virus,” Zients told the governors, according to the official.
Texas federal judge refuses to block United Airlines’ Covid-19 vaccine mandate, David Lee, Courthouse News, November 8, 2021.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth denied a motion for preliminary injunction filed by United employees based at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. They sued the Chicago-based airline in September for civil rights violations after it became the first major U.S. carrier to impose such a mandate. Under the policy, United offers unpaid leave for employees who are granted exemptions for religious of medical reasons. Employees who do not comply and who lack an exemption face the threat of termination, with United CEO Scott Kirby stating last month that 232 employees are to be fired for noncompliance.\
United has argued none of the plaintiffs can claim disability discrimination because they do not have a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In denying the motion, Pittman rejected the employees’ theory that either taking the vaccine in violation of their beliefs or going on unpaid leave would amount to an “impossible choice” and cause irreparable harm.
“United exempted plaintiffs from the mandate; plaintiffs are not required to violate their religious beliefs,” the 15-page opinion states. “United’s employees claimed they faced an impossible choice: get the vaccine or endure unpaid leave. But they have chosen the latter. Their dispute thus centers on United’s response to their choice.”
And this, too (🎩hpg):
Pfizer asks FDA to OK COVID-19 booster shots for all adults, Lauren Neergaard, AP, November8, 2021.
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older, a step that comes amid concern about increased spread of the coronavirus with holiday travel and gatherings.
Older Americans and other groups particularly vulnerable to the virus have had access to a third dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine since September. But the Food and Drug Administration has said it would move quickly to expand boosters to younger ages if warranted.
Pfizer is submitting early results of a booster study in 10,000 people to make its case that it’s time to further expand the booster campaign.
While all three vaccines used in the U.S. continue to offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 illness and death, the shots’ effectiveness against milder infection can wane over time.
🌍🌎 Good News from Around the World 🌏🌎
Joyous news from the UK:
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel laureate and girls' education champion, gets married, Vanessa Romo, NPR, November 9, 2021.
Yousafzai is 24 and is known around the world simply as Malala. She is a global advocate for girls' rights and education who has sat with presidents and prime ministers to push for change.
She became a target of the Taliban as an 11-year-old living in the city of Mingora in Pakistan's Swat Valley for her refusal to obey orders banning girls from school. At age 15 she survived an attempted assassination by a Taliban gunman who shot her in the head and two other friends on a school bus. That same year she also launched the Malala Fund, a global girls' education charity. At 16, she delivered a speech at the United Nations on the need for gender equality. Then at 17, after writing a memoir about her life and experiences and becoming an international best-selling author, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
In June of last year, she graduated with honors from the University of Oxford with a degree Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
It took 240 people 54 hours to rescue a man trapped in a Welsh cave, As It Happens, CBC, November 9, 2021.
Berry was just one of more than 240 rescuers who joined forces, forming a human chain to extricate a cave explorer who lost his footing and stumbled in the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave, also known as the Cave of the Black Spring, in south Wales. ✂️
The rescuers had to make their way through about three kilometres of cramped and winding underground tunnels — sometimes climbing peaks, navigating sharp bends or wading through freezing cold streams and waterfalls — all while carrying the injured man on a stretcher.
Berry said it was like navigating a "3D vertical maze." ✂️
The victim, a 40-year-old man, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, including a broken jaw and leg, as well as spinal injuries. He's now recovering in hospital.
This is pretty ingenious!
The climate solutions making life better for people and the planet, Martin Wright, Glasgow-Positive News, November 9, 2021.
Uganda’s neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is home to the world’s largest expanse of intact rainforest outside the Amazon. But it too is under threat. In the remote region of Mai Dombe, 300km north of the capital Kinshasa, though, hope is at hand. Studies have shown that giving indigenous people rights to their forest homeland is one of the best ways of ensuring its protection. In Mai Dombe, Congolese NGO Mbou Mon Tour is doing just that.
Set up by village chiefs, it has succeeded in winning ‘community forest concessions’, which give people rights to their local forests – along with the responsibility to keep them intact. Like YICE, Mbou Mon Tour helps them improve farming practices so that they no longer need to use ‘slash-and-burn’ methods. Many of those they work with are women – like Adeline Ngamombele.
“I now have a garden,” she says. “I grow cassava, corn and sweet potatoes… I can feed myself and my children”. Other villagers have set up eco-tourism enterprises, focused around the rare bonobo ape, boosting both their prospects and the creature’s chances of survival.
🎶 More Music 🎶
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello, Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirl! Mama says I can put in my picks right here.
First, here is an interesting story about a man who has a pet horse who comes into the house. Which seems normal enough to me? But apparently, it isn’t actually normal to have a horse who comes in the house, so oh well! But it’s a good story and my FAVORITE part is that there are also two poodle dogs in that family! Really, the story should have mentioned them, but I spied them (the first poodle you will see is black and later you will see a white one!) while Mama was listening to the man tell his moving story:
Now, don’t tell Mama, but one of MY favorite dog breeds is the Labrador (they like to fetch almost as much as me! and they share nicely, too). And also Goldens (so friendly and gregarious!), so this next story is right up my street — and I’d like to say that dogs in general are pretty great!
When their owner collapsed on a mountain trail, these dogs coordinated a rescue plan, Tod Perry, Upworthy, November 4, 2021.
A 71-year-old man was walking his two dogs, a golden retriever and a black labrador, on Saturday when he became unconscious and collapsed. The man and the dogs were hiking through Braithwaite How, a mountain summit in the Cockermouth to Newlands region in the northern part of the country.
After their owner fell to the ground, the two dogs broke up into a rescue team. The black labrador ran down the trail and found a hiker who had walked past them a few minutes before. The labrador barked and motioned for the woman to follow it down the trail.
While one dog was out getting help, the loyal golden retriever stayed by the man's side to protect him and keep him company. How's that for teamwork?
When the woman found the man, the golden retriever was right by his side. She then called the emergency number, 999, for assistance.
Last but definitely not least! Mama and I love black cats and have you met OwlKitty? She is the smartest cat ever and also a movie star! She has been in lots of great videos like Jurassic Park and OwlKitty vs Godzilla and here is one of my favorites:
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ 2020 Election was a call to action: If Biden Doesn’t Govern Like FDR, Democrats Are Doomed, John Nichols, The Nation, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Think Democrats can’t talk about race effectively? Biden shows why that’s wrong. Magdi Semrau, Washington Post, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Spoiler: Not long!: Here's how long it may take Biden's infrastructure package to jolt the economy, Katie Lobosko, CNN, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Lots here! What went right this week: progress at COP26, plus more positive news, Martin Wright, Positive News, November 4, 2021.
⚡️ Fascinating and illuminating poll: What Moves Swing Voters, David Leonhardt, New York Times, November 9, 2021.
⚡️Almost nobody thinks *they* are racist, and it’s possibly true. The problem is systemic: What ‘Structural Racism’ Really Means, Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Helpful: 8 tips to follow if you're trapped in a crushing crowd, Bill Chappell, NPR, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Interesting interview: As companies look to bring remote workers back to the office, a writer asks: Why? Rachel Martin, Lisa Weiner, Catherine Whelan and James Doubek, NPR, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ More on NH, lol: Chris Sununu Won’t Run for Senate After Realizing What a Terrible Job It Is, Grace Segeres, New Republic, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Here’s Why the Bill Stepien Subpoena Is the Most Interesting of the New Batch, Daniel Strauss, New Republic, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ The Climate Summit Has Me Very Energized, and Very Afraid, Thomas Friedman, New York Times, November 9, 2021.
⚡️ Book Review: New book 'Dawn of Everything' upends assumptions about how societies develop, Noah Berlatsky, NBC, November9, 2021.
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
Put your beautiful bleeding liberal heart into it! 🥰
Democratic litigation hero, Marc Elias was the legal eagle behind the 60 Big Lie losses after the election. Here’s his website, Democracy Docket. You can find information about current cases he is fighting to defend voting rights around the country, as well as actions you can take to help fight voter suppression at the link!
Write to voters around the country with Postcards to Voters. Progressive Muse usually posts an update on current campaigns in the comments and you can also check out the website. It’s easy, fun and it really works to GOTV!
🎩 Also, Goody posted a great list of links and I am going to borrow it because it’s great! 🎩
The only way they can win is by keeping people from voting. They are working like heck to make that happen and we need to do all we can to keep 2022 from being a year when they grab the Senate and House back from us.
How do we do that? Fight voter suppression!
What can you do?
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS:
U.S. House of Representatives:* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Find your member of Congress and contact him or her:
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
And remember, all politics is local and personal! Let’s work to flip state and local elected positions Democratic!
Sister District Project — organization that is working to help Dems win state legislature races.
Finally, whenever you feel your hope fading, read this again:
The 3.5% rule: How a small minority can change the world — and recall that we are a majority.
Also check this out:
The Albert Einstein Institution’s 198 Methods of Non-Violent Action
There’s a multitude of people all over this country — in both so-called “red” states and “blue” — who feel just as strongly as you do about this world and its future. We can do this!
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Wednesday!
As always, thank you for reading, and please take good care of yourself — you are so important!
It’s a tense time while we wait for investigations and indictments and committees and courts and congress to all do their thing. It’s enough to rub your last nerve raw! So, self-care means: eat nutritious food, get some rest and try — I mean it! It can make a measurable difference in your mental health! — try to get outdoors every day for a little while, if at all possible. Without electronics or ear buds or anything like that. Just let your self be and let yourself breathe. Let yourself take in the sky and whatever nature you have around you.
Just today as Curlygirly and I were walking in the city where on some streets there is precious little “nature”, I noticed to my delight some hardy clovers and grasses growing in the cracks between the sidewalk and the cement of an open loading dock. Life is resilient! We can be, too.
Happy Wednesday, my dear gnusies! I am so glad you’re here!
🎶 More Mellow Music 🎶