Good Day, Gnusies. I’m not gonna lie — it is really hard to write a Good News roundup right now, as every newspaper, every tv news program, every kind of news media is dominated by terrible stories about the delta covid resurgence or the dreadful events unfolding in Afghanistan.
Luckily, I had arhpdx’s GNR yesterday to inspire me and if you missed it — here is a link: Good News Roundup for Tuesday, August 17, 2021 — What can we do with our bleeding hearts?
Reading arhpdx’s encouraging opening remarks (and the great list of things we can actually do) was balm to this sad heart. And having read GNRs and DK posts and most of all Gnusie comments over the past several days, it is a great relief to know I am not the only one feeling this unsettling depression over recent events. These are the kind of times when the meanings of our oft-quoted mantras really get tested.
Like — What does it mean to put our bleeding liberal hearts into it?
There are probably as many answers to that as there are liberals with aching, bleeding hearts, of course, but for me — like so many gnusies — it means doing something. It’s on dark days that a little act of progress can lift us out of the fog of anxiety. When the challenges facing our world seem insurmountable, that’s the day to take out one postcard and get it written. That’s the day to hold a door for a stranger, pick up something that someone dropped, give a child a smile, pause to let that car into an endless line of traffic. It’s a good day to make a small donation to a progressive cause.
The feeling that we individuals can’t do anything about Afghanistan or Global Warming or whatever can almost overwhelm us on the days when so many awful news items are blaring from every media platform. But, the truth is yes we can. We can make a difference. Our small contributions in our own communities do make a difference, In fact, it is the little differences that each of us can make in our own little worlds that ripple outwards and cause lasting societal change, even global change.
If you find events getting you down, do one little thing today to help someone else. No matter how small an act, you will make a difference in at least one person’s life, which will make one thing better in the world today. That’s worth doing.
🎶 Music for Tough Days 🎶
Some good news for Afghans seeking asylum:
😊 Democrats are Great 😊
Joe Biden is pro-labor
Biden’s 180-Degree Shift on Trade Policy, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, August 17, 2021.
Last week, something revolutionary happened in the history of U.S. trade policy. The government used trade law to help labor, not to help capital.
Government switching sides gives a whole new political meaning to globalization. Global trade, with the right politics and policies, doesn’t have to produce a race to the bottom. It can even start a race to the top. Who knew? ✂️
Under an ingenious Rapid Response mechanism, the brainchild of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), if worker rights at a plant in Mexico are denied, the U.S. can slap tariffs on the factory’s exports and U.S. Customs can block them from entering the U.S. entirely. ✂️
Does it get any better? For those of us who care about the use of trade law and policy to advance rather than retard worker rights, the government is at last in friendly hands. Some of these international labor rights could even spill over domestically, where worker rights to choose unions are honored in the breach.
Note to my grumpy lefty friends: This kind of thing is why some of us are genuinely enthusiastic about the Biden administration, not because we are captured pushovers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been following all this very closely, and is mightily upset, having long been accustomed to USTR as a lapdog.
On voting rights
Democratic AGs, too
Democratic CTC polls well
The Child Tax Credit Breakthrough, Democracy Corps, August 2021.
New poll in 2022 Senate and House battleground
Key Findings:
•The Child Tax Credit gets a very warm reception from those receiving it. It is received very positively by Blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans, Millennials and unmarried women in the Democratic base, but also parents, especially white parents, and younger white working class voters. That disrupts the usual pattern of support for the modern safety net.
•When described as a tax cut for every working family to deal with high costs and taxes (and attacked because of deficits, dependency and discouraging work), support for the Child Tax Credit grows in the Democratic base but much more in the white working class groups: younger white working class, white parents, the white disabled and former Democrats.
•When we add “new welfare queens” to the attacks, the GOP wins this debate by 3 points, but that is much weaker than their attacks on defunding the police and crime. And critically, white parents and younger white working class voters still sticks with the expanded Child Tax Credit.
💉 Health News 💉
Democratic Leadership on Protecting the Vulnerable
Florida
This fool had a platform to spread his anti-vax/anti-govt nonsense. Here’s hoping he is using it now to undo some of the damage he’s done:
As The Coronavirus Surges In Florida, Some Vaccine Skeptics Change Their Minds, NPR, August 17, 2021.
The co-owner of the Westside Journal weekly newspaper used his voice as a columnist to widely share his doubts about the vaccine and his mistrust of the health experts in the U.S. who have been urging everyone to get it.
"I do not trust the Federal Government," West wrote recently. "I do not trust Dr. Fauci, I do not trust the medical profession, nor the pharmaceutical giants."
But something happened to change his mind: Two of West's close friends became ill with the virus, and a third died. Rattled and stressed, he prayed for guidance. Then, when his mother and another relative both urged him to get vaccinated, he took it as a sign from God. West drove to the Winn Dixie supermarket and rolled up his sleeve for the first of two injections of the Moderna vaccine.
"All of a sudden, it hit real close to home," he said.
Texas
You’ve probably already heard that Texas Gov. Abbott has tested positive for Covid — and that he is being proactively treated with Regeneron AND he had already had a third (booster) shot of the covid vaccine AND he exposed dozens of Rs at a fundraiser last night...but still is anti-mask, anti-vaccination for others and is still pushing to have unprotected children attend school. In other words, an abundance of caution for ‘me’, but not for thee. It’s beyond the pale. Will enough Texas voters wake up? I guess that remains to be seen, but for now, there are some sensible Texans who are trying to do the right thing (Democrats among them, of course):
Judge Hidalgo has really been a bulwark against madness for Harris County (Houston):
Maybe Texas voters are waking up!
🙄😫 Republicans in Disarray 😫🙄
California Democrats need to GOTV to defeat this stupid recall, but it’s good news that the Rs are incompetently attacking each other:
California Republican candidates turn gubernatorial debate into inter-party battle, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, August 17, 2021.
California Republicans met for a debate Tuesday in their efforts to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom. But what should have been about attacks on Democrats, Republicans turned inward to wage their own internal war on each other.
Politico reported that the Sacramento debate focused primarily on frontrunner and Larry Elder, who didn't attend the debate.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox attacked the Black radio host saying, "we don't need more media personalities who don't show up to meet the press."
"I sure wish Larry were here to defend this position, and he should be," Cox said when asked about Elder's call to abolish the minimum wage.
LOL This Loser Again
Trump-Loving Senate Candidate Ready To Bone GOP In Nevada, Liz Dye, Wonkette, August 17, 2021.
How many Senate races can Trump screw up for the Republicans?
A fair few! And today we can add Nevada's to the pile, since Trump's lackey Adam Laxalt has officially announced he's running against Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto next year. ✂️
In 2018, he lost the gubernatorial race to Democrat Steve Sisolak, which wasn't exactly a surprise in a state which currently has two Democratic senators, substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature, and went for Hillary Clinton by five points in 2016. But Laxalt couldn't even get the endorsement of the then-sitting Republican Governor Brian Sandoval. ✂️
But Donald Trump loves an ass kisser, so it's a pretty safe bet that Laxalt is going to get the nod from the Big Man, virtually assuring him a primary victory. ✂️
Meanwhile, John Ralston, the OG Nevada political reporter, noted on Twitter that "Repubs here get that if Laxalt is the nominee, it makes it less likely GOP can win. Dems want him." 😁
Colorado GQP county clerk under investigation
That this person was able to attempt this kind of sabotage is bad, but the good news is she was caught! And is being investigated. And the compromised equipment will not be used in the next election.
Investigators: Mesa County Clerk Allowed Unauthorized Person To Compromise Voting Equipment, Bente Birkeland, CPRNews, August 12, 2021.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the Mesa County Clerk allowed an unauthorized person into a secure facility during an annual upgrade to the county’s election equipment software.
That security breach means Mesa County will not be able to use the equipment for its fall election, and the clerk, Tina Peters, could be in legal trouble. ✂️
(SOS Griswold) has prohibited Mesa County from using the current Dominion Voting equipment for the next election. The county can replace it and install new equipment in the next few weeks or do a hand count this November. ✂️
(note: Peters (attended) a ‘cyber symposium’ last week in South Dakota hosted by Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow.)
Update Aug. 16 at 10:15p.m.: The Secretary of State announced Monday clerk Tina Peters will no longer be allowed to oversee the election this fall. Secretary Jena Griswold said her office has confirmed an additional security breach, finding that in May, on a Sunday evening after hours, Peters brought an unauthorized person into a secure room where Mesa County’s election equipment is stored. According to Griswold, it appears copies of the county’s election management software and passwords were shared with people who believe the 2020 election was rigged.
Even later-breaking update: FBI assisting in investigation of QAnon-Colorado video, Joseph Choi, The Hill, August 17, 2021.
Courtney Bernal, an FBI spokesperson for the Denver field office, told CNN that the agency is assisting Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein's office "on the forensic review and analysis of county voting systems to determine if there was a potential federal criminal violation."
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) launched an investigation last week into photos that appeared to show passwords for Dominion Voting Systems software specific to Mesa County's voting system posted online. The photos were posted on a QAnon-affiliated Telegram channel as well as on a conservative blog.
Dominion told The Hill that the company is also "fully cooperating with authorities on this matter."
Maybe there is a lot more going on behind the scenes to roll up the vast rightwing conspiracy that has been undermining our democracy for a long time (yes, Hillary was right about that, too). Vast, complex conspiracies cannot be unwound in a few months or through rash, hasty arrests/cases that won't stick or worse, that only capture the fringe element instead of getting to the root of the conspiracy. I am hopeful that our side is working on much more than we know publicly.
And I'd like to remind everyone of the Obama administration's efforts to preserve evidence in the waning weeks of his last term. I have to believe that there is more going on than can be made public yet.
🎶 Musical Reprise 🎶
(played this a few weeks ago, but it’s needed today, IMO)
⚖️ Good Justice News ⚖️
Excellent news re OAN vs Rachel Maddow
The malicious lawsuit is going to cost ‘em. Good.
And in Illinois
I’m sad that Judge Katz has retired, but he's left a legacy that will now hopefully flourish after the passage of SB64 last month by Illinois’ Democratic-controlled legislature:
Restorative Justice Won’t Work Without This Crucial Piece, Madison Pauly, Mother Jones, August 13, 2021.
Cook County Associate Judge Stuart Katz wanted to try something completely different. The Illinois juvenile court judge was sick of the usual options: locking up young people or sentencing them to community service. More “creative” approaches, like mentoring or drug treatment programs, helped the kids who had been prosecuted, but they did little for the people those kids hurt, Katz says. “You also want to give back to the community,” he explains, “and back to the victim.”
So in 2011, he launched a program to give convicted youth the option to participate in a restorative justice process, in which people who cause harm, and those affected by their actions, are brought together for a facilitated dialogue. Together, they reach an agreement about how to repair whatever damage has been done. For a hungry child who stole a bag of Cheetos from a Target, such an agreement might involve a community nonprofit helping his family get food stamps, says Patrick Keenan-Devlin, executive director of the Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, an Illinois juvenile defense and social work nonprofit. In a hypothetical case of sexual assault, it might involve a perpetrator fully admitting their guilt to a survivor. Kids who successfully participated in the process set up by Katz, which was facilitated by a local Catholic restorative justice group, received community service credit that counted toward their sentence. ✂️
But it wouldn’t last. Before long, public defenders started declining Katz’s offers for restorative justice, worried that whatever their young clients admitted during the process might later be used against them in court. “Just like any other criminal defense lawyer, they’re not going to allow their client to incriminate themselves,” says Amy Campanelli, the former chief public defender in Cook County. Restorative justice, Campanelli explains, involves an open discussion about why a person did what they did, to get to the root causes of a harmful behavior. But if, for example, a participant arrested for selling heroin to an undercover cop says they dealt drugs for years to support an addiction, what’s to stop a prosecutor from tacking on additional possession and trafficking charges? Even when restorative justice practitioners use their own confidentiality agreements, “people can drive Mack trucks through loopholes within those,” Keenan-Devlin says.
With its new law, Illinois joins a small group of states—including Delaware, Nebraska, and Tennessee—that have created special protections for what’s said in a restorative justice process, according to a database maintained by Shannon Sliva, a professor of social work at the University of Denver. But Illinois’ may be the broadest, because it recognizes not only “victim-offender dialogues” used in the criminal legal system, but also grassroots processes that aren’t directly associated with the courts, such as peace circles run by schools, nonprofits, or individual practitioners. Sliva, who has tracked over 240 pieces of restorative justice legislation passed from the 1970s to 2019, says the law’s definition of restorative justice is unusual because it uses the language of restorative justice practitioners rather than that of the criminal legal system: It references “parties who have caused harm” rather than “offender,” as well as trauma and a goal of strengthening community ties.
🙂 Other Good News 🙂
Krewe of Red Beans crowdfunding initiative will hire New Orleans musicians to play your porch in October, Jake Clapp, nola.com, August 17, 2021.
A new Krewe of Red Beans initiative, Fest Fest, will help New Orleans musicians recoup lost work from the slate of canceled festivals by hiring them for small porch concerts around Orleans Parish in October. Here's how Fest Fest works: Anyone can donate to the Fest Fest initiative and will be entered into a gig raffle, and once a certain threshold is hit, the Krewe of Red Beans will pick a raffle winner and set up a porch or backyard concert for them with one of more than 80 musicians and bands. Performers will be paid at festival rates, Red Beans said, and all money raised will go to musicians.
Performances will take place Oct. 8-17 at homes around Orleans Parish and will be kept secret in order to minimize crowds amid the current surge of Covid cases — which caused the cancellation of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, French Quarter Fest and Lafayette's Festivals Acadiens et Creoles. Raffle winners outside of Orleans Parish can gift the performance to a frontline medical worker.
This next story was linked by a gnusie in the best comment section on the internet™, and I can’t remember who it was — so sorry! Thank you, whoever you are!
This town is the first in America to ban new gas stations – is the tide turning?, Dominic Rushe, The Guardian, August 17, 2021.
In March, Petaluma in Sonoma county became the first city in the US to ban future gas station construction or any new pumps on existing sites. In July Sonoma county’s Regional Climate Protection Authority voted to explore ways to support the nine cities in the county considering bans of their own. A final vote on the resolution is scheduled for September.
It’s the beginning of what could be a seismic shift. California now has the highest sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country. Close to 11% of all new car sales were electric in the first three months of this year and in 2020 the governor, Gavin Newsom, ordered all new cars and passenger trucks sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. General Motors and others have pledges to have an all electric vehicle lineup by 2035. ✂️
“Change requires early adopters and progressive communities,” she said. “But we are not unique. Everyone can see what’s going on. We need to change.”
👶 Joyous News 👶
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Yer Wonkette: Polls Say Pro-Virus Dickishness Not Big Selling Point Outside GOP Circles, Doktor Zoom, Wonkette, August 17, 2021.
⚡️ Biden Was Right, Daniel Silverberg, The Atlantic, August 16, 2021.
⚡️ If Liz Cheney’s Assigning Blame for an “Epic Failure” in Afghanistan, She Can Start With Her Father, John Nichols, The Nation, August 16, 2021.
⚡️ The Simple Steps You Can Take Right Now To Help Afghan Refugees, Deepa Shivaram, NPR, August 17, 2021.
⚡️ This Former Pastor Is Changing Evangelicals’ Minds on COVID Vaccines, Andrea Guzman, Mother Jones, August 17, 2021.
⚡️ What the New Census Data Means, Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, August 16, 2021
⚡️ The Bad Economics of Fossil Fuel Defenders, Paul Krugman, New York Times, August 17, 2021.
⚡️ A Stoic’s Key to Peace of Mind: Seneca on the Antidote to Anxiety, Maria Popova, Brain Pickings.
💗 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, Gnusies.
As always — actually even more than usual — I encourage you to take gentle care of yourself and those you love. These are trying times — exhausting, dispiriting, sometimes scary times — and we need you as strong and healthy as you can be. Together, we will work to keep this country moving forward. And by doing our little bits here, by making our own worlds a little better, we can help influence the wider world.
It’s a job well worth doing. With a little luck (and a lot of work), we may even see the global climate turnaround begin in our lifetimes. Certainly our work today will benefit future generations. It’s so worth doing.
So, get some rest, my friends! Eat nutritious food. Try to get outdoors every day and restore your spirit in nature. Sit near a window if you cannot go outside and gaze at the sky for a few minutes. That’s good for you!
Time for me and the Curlygirl to say Bye for now.
Happy Wednesday, Gnusies!
🎶 Closing Music 🎶