Good Day, Gnusies! I am still on the road, taking care of some family matters, so I will get straight to the news:
Joe and the Democrats Deliver!
Joe Biden Is a Phoenix, Molly Jong-Fast, the Atlantic, August 12, 2022.
Since Biden was elected, right-wing critics have desperately tried to portray him as Jimmy Carter 2.0. And Biden has been saddled with some of the same terrible late-1970s circumstances, many of which are beyond his control—for example, high gas prices. But after a spring and summer of being told that his presidency is dead, it was the moment when all looked darkest that Democrats passed the largest federal climate bill ever, the CHIPS bill, and the burn-pit legislation.
Earlier this year, negative media coverage (following Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal) helped get Biden to shockingly low approval ratings (as low as 36 percent). But the media loves an underdog, and it’s possible that some of the constant ragging on Biden contributed to his weird rise in popularity in some corners of the internet. Like Choco Tacos, people didn’t know how much they wanted him until he was at risk of being taken away.
Biden has been an underdog numerous times in his political life. Even in the 2020 presidential primaries, it looked like Biden might not eke out a win. But perhaps that’s the magic of Dark Brandon, king of hell, with his glowing eyes, on his throne of skeletons. Perhaps the secret of the Biden presidency is that the moment all looks darkest, the moment he’s left for dead, he rises like a phoenix from the ashes and does a pretty good job of getting stuff passed.
Biden signs massive climate and health care legislation, Zeke Miller and Seung Min kim, AP, August 16, 2022.
The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.
The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.
In a triumphant signing event at the White House, Biden pointed to the law as proof that democracy — no matter how long or messy the process — can still deliver for voters in America as he road-tested a line he will likely repeat later this fall: “The American people won, and the special interests lost.”
Sure, let’s talk about it some more! What’s in big Biden bill? Health, climate goals become law, Lisa Mascaro, AP, August 16, 2022.
Approved by the divided Congress, the bill brings the biggest investment ever in the U.S. to fight climate change. Also in the legislation is a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients as well as a new 15% corporate minimum tax to ensure big businesses pay their share.
And billions will be left over to pay down federal deficits.
All told, the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” may not do much to immediately tame inflationary price hikes. But the package, an election year turnaround after loftier versions collapsed, will touch countless American lives and secure longtime party goals.
Democrats alone supported the package, as Republicans lined up against it. Republicans deride the 730-page bill as big government overreach and point particular criticism at its $80 billion investment in the IRS to hire new employees and go after tax scofflaws.
4 underrated parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, Rebecca Leber, Vox, August 16, 2022.
Most of the focus has been on the new law’s billions in clean energy tax credits and electric vehicles, a mix of which will go to consumers, utilities, and manufacturers. In terms of emissions cuts, boosting zero-carbon energy from its current 20 percent of the grid will pack the biggest punch of the IRA’s emissions reductions. Other investments in electrified transportation and industrial energy efficiency stand to pay off in the longer term.
But the law also covers a lot of ground, including some policies and programs that are fascinating in their own right but are usually lumped together under the law’s broad “climate” category. Here are four that shouldn’t be missed.
1) $3 billion for highway removal and community cleanup
2) Direct payments to retire coal right under Manchin’s nose
3) Big influx to states to clean up climate emissions however they want
4) Tackling climate change the natural way through forests and soils
😤😰 Republicans in Disarray 😫🙃
Looks like Rs are having trouble raising money. Gee, with candidates like theirs, is it any surprise?
The Republicans’ Senate campaign arm cuts TV ad buys in 3 states, Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, August 16, 2022.
The Republicans’ Senate campaign committee has slashed its television ad reservations in three critical battleground states for the fall, a likely sign of financial troubles headed into the peak of the 2022 midterm election season.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has cut more than $5 million in Pennsylvania, including its reservations in the Philadelphia media market, according to two media-tracking sources.
Reservations in Wisconsin, in the Madison and Green Bay markets, have also been curtailed, by more than $2 million. And in Arizona, all reservations after Sept. 30 have been cut in Phoenix and Tucson, the state’s only two major media markets, amounting to roughly $2 million more.
So far around $10 million had been canceled as of midday Monday, though more changes to the fall reservations were in progress. The states where ad reservations have been canceled are home to three of the nation’s most competitive Senate contests.
Opinion -The GOP is paying the price for Trump’s loopy Senate candidates, Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, August 16, 2022.
The candidates in each of these states — Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Sen. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and Blake Masters in Arizona — are all Trump favorites. Johnson seems to have never met a MAGA conspiracy theory he didn’t like. Masters is a flat-out election denier and crank. Oz, a millionaire known for hawking snake-oil medical cures, unsurprisingly turned out to be a rotten candidate who has been mocked as a carpetbagger for his ties to New Jersey.✂️
Some of these candidates might still prevail, given the demographic and partisan balance of their states. But Senate races — and other statewide races, such as for governor, attorney general and secretary of state — pose key tests for the MAGA-conquered GOP, since Trump’s blend of delusion and narcissism might not work outside the right-wing media bubble and deep-red states.✂️
For the GOP as a whole, underwhelming performances in statewide races by handpicked Trump candidates would be a clear signal that Trumpism remains a minority faction dependent on antidemocratic rules (e.g., gerrymandering, the filibuster). There’s no certainty such results in November would impair Trump’s chances of winning the nomination in 2024, given Republicans’ fidelity to the former president over democracy and truth. But it would mean that refusing to cut Trump loose is a recipe for perpetual minority status.
LOL: No matter how this election turns out, this is just desserts:
Rubio Could Be In Trouble, Josh Marshall, TPM, August 16, 2022.
A new poll shows Val Demmings leading Marco Rubio by 4 percentage points. (University of North Florida, Demings 48%, Rubio 44%.) I suspect that this poll is an outlier. But it is actually on trend, with a group of recent polls showing a relatively close race. It’s the first independent poll of the race in a month and the first real known-quantity poll since the beginning of 2022. Given the rightward drift of Florida, I would not be getting my hopes up that this is a Democratic pick up. But it is a strong indication that this is a seat Republicans will have to fight to hold on to. Indeed, I suspect some of retrenchment from races in Arizona and Pennsylvania we mentioned yesterday is to defend seats like these.
The Mar-a-Lago ‘Raid’ Put Ron DeSantis in a Box, Elaine Godfrey, the Atlantic, August 16, 2022.
In another universe, last week’s FBI search could have provided a perfect opportunity for a wannabe party leader like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to set himself apart. A reckless has-been running off with nuclear secrets? Not my president! But in this universe—and given this particular cult of personality—DeSantis has parked his wagon next to all the others encircling Trump. ✂️
Some strategists told me that DeSantis might even try to challenge Trump in a primary by arguing—carefully, respectfully—that the MAGA movement does not belong to just one man. “Before the Mar-a-Lago raid, I was of the mind that it would be a crowded primary” in 2024, David Jolly, a former GOP representative from Florida, told me. “DeSantis has been so strong that he could say, ‘Enough voters are asking me to get in the race; I’m going to stand. But if Trump wins, I’ll support him.’”
'They’re turning on you': Lincoln Project pokes at Trump's freakout over their last ad, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, August 16, 2022.
The new ad is also only appearing on Fox News in Bedminster in a further move to target Trump himself and trigger his emotions.
“We told you that you’d lose, and you did," the ad continues, "that Mike Pence would stab you on the back on Jan. 6, and he did … how Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were using your name for money and power."
It went even further, saying that they told him Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was coming for him, "and now he thinks he's bigger than you."
“They’re turning on you. All of them,” the voiceover closes. “We’d tell you we’re sad for you, but we always tell you the truth.”
⚖️ Legal News ⚖️
A reminder that voting matters — in the law, too!
Of course it did:
Trump’s Big Mouth Sets Up Top-Secret Case Against Him, Jose Pagliery, Daily Beast, August 16, 2022.
“It is poetic how much of this litigation—were he to be charged—will be determined by his own actions,” said Kel B. McClanahan, a national security lawyer who teaches at George Washington University.
That’s because of the way Trump while president tweeted many promises to declassify documents, then retreated and used the Department of Justice to vigorously defend the sanctity of the way the government classifies documents. He has essentially trapped himself, as he now faces an FBI investigation into whether he put the American people’s security at risk by mishandling government secrets and potentially violating the Espionage Act.
Essentially, Trump’s freewheeling style on Twitter forced the administration to take a harder stance on just what it means to declassify a document—forcing the government to emphasize the rigorous, multi-step nature of the bureaucratic process. He can’t now say it merely takes a wave of his hand.
FBI Interviewed Top Trump White House Counsel About Missing Classified Documents, Summer Concepcion, TPM, August 16, 2022.
Thus far, Philbin is among eight former and current Trump employees who have been contacted by the FBI following the formation of a grand jury earlier this year, according to the Times. Investigators also reportedly interviewed Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary whose last day was in Dec. 18, 2020. Although he does not have knowledge about how the boxes of material were packed as the former president prepared to leave office, Lyons had information about how records were transmitted in the Trump White House and how Trump handled the material.
Both Cipollone and Philbin testified before the Jan. 6 Select Committee in recent months that they were among a group of top Trump advisers who pushed the then-President to issue a strong condemnation of the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 — which Trump was reluctant to do.
News of the FBI’s interviews with Cipollone and Philbin come a day after Politico reported that former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann was subpoenaed for documents and testimony by a federal grand jury investigating the insurrection. Herschmann, who served as a senior adviser to the former president, drew public attention in recent months for his frankness during taped depositions that were aired during the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings. Herschmann testified about pushing back at other Trump aides and advisers who boosted efforts to steal a second term for Trump.
Trump stuck with the D-list as experienced lawyers refuse to help him with FBI investigation, Matthew Chapman, Raw Story, August 16, 2022.
"The struggle to find expert legal advice puts Trump in a bind as he faces potential criminal exposure from a records dispute with the National Archives that escalated into a federal investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other statutes," reported Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig, Jacqueline Alemany, and Rosalind S. Helderman. "'Everyone is saying no,' said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations."
"Ordinarily, the prestige and publicity of representing a former president, as well as the new and complex legal issues at stake in this case, would attract high-powered attorneys. But Trump’s search is being hampered by his divisiveness, as well as his reputation for stiffing vendors and ignoring advice," said the report. "'In olden days, he would tell firms representing him was a benefit because they could advertise off it. Today it’s not the same,' said Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump who was convicted of tax evasion, false statements, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in 2018. 'He’s also a very difficult client in that he’s always pushing the envelope, he rarely listens to sound legal advice, and he wants you to do things that are not appropriate, ethically or legally.'"
According to the report, the legal team Trump is stuck with is less than prepared to help him with such a high-profile legal battle.
Colorado judge says Jenna Ellis must appear before 2020 election scheme grand jury probe, Tierney Sneed, CNN, August 16, 2022.
A judge in Colorado said on Tuesday that Jenna Ellis, an attorney who represented Donald Trump during and after the 2020 election, must appear before the Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury investigating the former President's election schemes. ✂️
Wooten said the investigation had five areas of interest in seeking her testimony: investigators' belief that she was involved in planning hearings before Georgia lawmakers where Trump allies pushed claims of mass election fraud; legal memos Ellis authored advising that then-Vice President Mike Pence could disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's win; her social media posts promoting election fraud claims; her participation in media interviews where she made those allegations; and any "unique knowledge" she would have about how Trump's associates were coordinating. ✂️
Ellis appeared virtually at the hearing, but she did not testify. She had obtained permission from the court to not attend in person, telling the judge in a court filing that she had travel planned in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC, this week.
Lammons, as he explained why he had concluded that the grand jury testimony did not pose an undue burden on Ellis, noted that her travels on the East Coast put her closer to Georgia than if she had been traveling from Colorado.
Giuliani is the target of a Georgia election probe, his lawyers are told, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, New York Times, August 15, 2022.
ATLANTA — The legal pressures on Donald J. Trump and his closest allies intensified further on Monday, as prosecutors informed his former personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Mr. Giuliani was a target in a wide-ranging criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia.
The notification came on the same day that a federal judge rejected efforts by another key Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to avoid giving testimony before the special grand jury hearing evidence in the case in Atlanta.
One of Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers, Robert Costello, said in an interview that he was notified on Monday that his client was a target. Being so identified does not guarantee that a person will be indicted; rather, it usually means that prosecutors believe an indictment is possible, based on evidence they have seen up to that point.
🎶 Musical Break 🎶
💉🌱🩺 Health and Environment News 💉🌱🩺
A possible lifeline for rural hospitals
The closing of rural hospitals has been a growing emergency in several states. Local governments have flailed around trying to keep these struggling hospitals running — though they lacked the necessary healthcare education, staffing and financial expertise (with predictable results). These desperate measures taken by towns and counties have resulted in failure almost across the board. Outdated, rundown facilities riddled with debt and unable to attract doctors or nursing staff are eventually abandoned and yet another town or county is without a hospital.
Now here’s a story about a doctor who had some savings and came into some inherited money who has decided to try to make a go of a rural hospital system that will invest in modernizing these broken down real hospitals, get them running again and build networks to share staff and supplies, while will hopefully ease the shortages and the waste. I’ve got my fingers crossed for this initiative!
Buy a rural hospital for $100? Investors pick up struggling institutions for pennies, Blake Farmer, NPR, August 16, 2022.
The hospitals Braden Health is taking over sit in one of the worst spots in one of the worst states for rural hospital closures. Tennessee has experienced 16 closures since 2010 — second only to the far more populous state of Texas, which has had at least 21 closures. ✂️
Since buying that Lexington hospital in 2020, Braden Health has signed deals for three other failing or failed hospitals and has looked at acquiring at least 10 others, mostly in Tennessee and North Carolina. Braden Health's strategy is to build mini-networks to share staff and supplies. ✂️
The Houston County hospital is valued at $4.1 million by the property assessor. But the final sale price was just $20,000 — and that wasn't for the land or the building. Kopec said the amount was for a 2016 ambulance with 180,000 miles — deemed the only equipment with any remaining value. ✂️
Kopec contends the value for each property is essentially negative given that the hospitals require so much investment to comply with health care standards and — according to the company's purchase agreements — must be run as hospitals. If not, the hospitals revert to the counties. ✂️
He said there's no secret sauce, in his mind, except that small hospitals require just as much diligence as big medical centers — especially since their profit margins are so thin and patient volume so low. He wants to improve technology in ways that health plans reward hospitals, limit nurse staffing when business is slow, and watch medical supply inventories to cut waste.
Mental Health Professionals Really Can Assume Some Police Duties, Will Norris, Washington Monthly, August 16, 2022.
After the racial justice uprisings of 2020, a handful of cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, and San Francisco, started experimenting with this civilian responder model, first pioneered in Eugene, Oregon, in 1989. Progressives saw these programs as a component of their “defund the police” agenda, but in practice, they have been implemented without diverting funds from law enforcement and have largely been embraced by police departments. “Nobody became a cop because they were really excited about dealing with drunk people, because they really wanted to talk to a schizophrenic person who thinks the FBI is pursuing him,” says Keith Humphreys, a behavioral science researcher at Stanford. These programs are meant to relieve this burden.
But are they working? The data out of New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere has been promising, but until recently, no studies had examined the cause-and-effect relationship between such a program and crime, cost, and outcomes for people in crisis.
That changed in June when Stanford University researchers Thomas S. Dee and Jaymes Pyne published a study in Science Advances on a civilian responder program in Denver called Support Team Assisted Response, or STAR. The study found that STAR’s pilot program contributed to a 34 percent drop in low-level crime while reducing arrest rates and possibly saving the city money. These findings represent the best argument yet for federal funding of a novel approach to law enforcement that might reduce not only crime, but also the political temperature of the crime issue.
Hearing Aids
Millions of Americans will soon be able to buy hearing aids without a prescription, Rachel Treisman, NPR, August 16, 2022.
That's thanks to a final rule issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday and set to take effect in two months, following years of campaigning by lawmakers and advocates. It creates a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids, which the Biden administration says will make the devices more accessible and affordable for millions of Americans. ✂️
Until now, the high cost of hearing aids and exams — which are not covered by basic Medicare and often not covered by insurance — has been prohibitive for many people. The devices alone typically range from $1,000 to $6,000 per ear, and consumers must spend additional time and money getting examined and fitted by a specialist (even though, the White House says, experts say medical evaluation is not necessary).
The Biden administration estimates the new rule will lower the cost of hearing aids by hundreds or even thousands of dollars. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told reporters on a press call that the FDA is working with manufacturers to ensure the over-the-counter devices are of "good quality" and meet the agency's performance criteria.
Next generation Covid vaccines
The U.K. approved omicron-specific booster shots. They're coming to the U.S. soon, Becky Sullivan, NPR, August 16, 2022. (using a bit more quote than usual because it is NPR and that’s public):
The Moderna shot approved in the U.K. is "bivalent," meaning it's a mix of two versions of the vaccine: Half is targeted at the original strain of COVID-19, and half is a new formulation designed to fight the original omicron variant, also known as BA.1. ✂️
Researchers in the U.K. found that the Moderna-made omicron booster "triggers a strong immune response" against both the original 2020 strain of the coronavirus and the original omicron variant, which emerged late last year. ✂️
Here in the U.S., the FDA has asked vaccine developers to target the omicron subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5 — the two strains that currently make up the vast majority of cases here — rather than focus on the original omicron variant, which swept across the country last winter. ✂️
"Hopefully, that will be close enough to whatever variant evolves as we get into the fall and into the winter," Fauci said in an interview with NPR late last month.
When will the omicron boosters be available in the U.S.?
Officials have signaled that omicron-specific boosters will be available to Americans sometime this fall.
The U.S. has purchased more than 170 million total doses of omicron boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. (That's not enough for all 330 million Americans. But only about two-thirds of Americans finished their initial course of the vaccine, and fewer than half of those have received booster shots.)
(Note that last paragraph helps explain the continued infection and hospitalization rates; it is not that the pandemic is so intractable, it is that people have refused to get vaccinated in sufficient numbers to reduce the rates).
🐩 💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩
Hello Everybody, it’s me CurlyGirl! Are you surprised to see me? I am not with Mama, because she had to go to help her aunty again, but I am with my pupsitter whom I love! And even so, I see Mama on the phone nearly every day and also I can tell her things to put in the GNR.
Today, I have a few stories. FIRST, from Cincinnati: Fiona the hippo has a new baby brother!!
Cincinnati Zoo names new baby hippo Fritz, brother to Fiona, Wendy Rice, AP, August 16, 2022.
Fritz is a little brother to the zoo’s already famous hippo, Fiona. Fiona was born six weeks premature and wasn’t able to stand on her own, though now she is healthy and happy at the zoo.
Staff at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden discovered the calf’s mother, 23-year-old Bibi, was pregnant around early April of this year. It came as a surprise because Bibi was on birth control.
“We also thought it was funny that it was suggested because Fritz is here due to Bibi’s birth control being ‘on the fritz’,” Rice said.
This next story is kind of alarming. I can’t understand how this dog’s human did not look in the cave! But luckily, some people went in the cave and found the dog and alerted its human and he raced over and got the dog back to safety! The dog was SOOO hungry! But now she is doing great!
Dog, missing 2 months, found alive inside Missouri cave, Jim Salter, AP, August 16, 2022.
“It was critical that we not give her any rough handling,” Haley said. In the rocky areas through small passageways, “We would carry her short distance, set her down, then kind of move in front of her, reach back, pick her up, and put her in front of us.” He described it as “kind of a leap-frog kind of thing.”
Soon after initially finding Abby, Keene briefly went to a few homes nearby to see if anyone was missing a dog. One neighbor reached out to Bohnert, who lives close enough to the cave site that he can see it from his home. ✂️
Abby normally weighs about 50 pounds (23 kilograms), Bohnert said, but he guessed she lost half her body weight in the cave. Since her rescue, she has regained weight and started to get back the voice she likely lost barking for help.
She’s also wagging her tail again, showing she’s putting the trauma behind her.
“It’s amazing how she’s springing back already,” Bohnert said. “She’s acting like herself again.”
💗 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:
Let them know what matters to you!
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.
NEW!! Goody set up this place to donate to elect Democrats in tossup House and Senate races:
On Saturday, Goodie introduced a new fundraising action for Gnusies with a goal of $38,000, and by the end of the day it had raised $31,000!!! As of yesterday evening, it had reached $37,210.50!
Did you donate yet? C’mon… it’ll make you feel great! 😁
ALSO NEW!! The States Project
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!
Here’s a visual to help us keep our eyes on the prize:
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ The US economy didn't get the recession memo, Matt Egan, CNN, August 15, 2022.
⚡️ What could the Inflation Reduction Act mean for you? Ellen Ioanes, Vox, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ “Record-keeping” 🙄: Inside the frantic, final days of record-keeping that landed Trump in hot water, DANIEL LIPPMAN, MERIDITH MCGRAW and JONATHAN LEMIRE, Politico, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ Opinion: Damning new Pence leaks reveal a big truth about Trump — and the GOP, Greg Sargent, Washington Post, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst, Matt Ford, The New Republic, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ Putin World Declares ‘Our Agent Trump’ Is Irreversibly Screwed, Julia Davis, Daily Beast, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ When someone tells you who they are, etc: Voters Are Realizing Republicans Mean What They Say, David Atkins, Washington Monthly, August 9, 2022.
⚡️ Uh-oh, Rs! Trump Is Back on the Ballot, David Frum, the Atlantic, August 16, 2022.
⚡️ How Progressives Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Inflation Reduction Act, Grace Segers, The New Republic, August 15, 2022.
⚡️ Have some late summer fun: The best card games to play with a standard deck, Sebastian Yue, CBC, December 10, 2020.
⚡️ Self-compassion makes you a better person. Here’s how to practice it. Sigal Samuel, Vox, August 2, 2022.
RoundUp WindDown
That’s it from me (too far from home) and CG (reporting from Chicago) for another week. Take good care of yourselves, Gnusies. We’ve got a ways to go, but I like our chances!
HAPPY WEDNESDAY!