Good Day, Gnusies!
I hope you’re staying warm if you’re in the polar vortex zone like me and CG! 🥶🐩
Before I jump into today’s Good News Roundup, I’d like to write a few words about maintaining our equilibrium as this election year gathers steam.
This is going to be a consequential year in history — ours and the world’s. We all know that and so it is natural that this reality brings up both hope and fear. Something that seems to crop up with tiresome regularity is the unnecessary reminder from concerned posters who respond to our reporting of good news with comments along the lines of “don’t be complacent!” or “if you’re not terrified, you're not paying attention!” .
Listen, Gnusies, we can’t always avoid people who seem incapable of dealing with their own panic and fear and who seem compelled to spread it around. What we can do is manage our own fears sensibly. And how can we do that? I think we do it by acknowledging reality — the scary bits AND the hopeful bits — and reminding ourselves constantly that our primitive brains want to assign greater weight to the scary bits, even if they are not actually the more powerful events right now.
That primitive brain reaction is what causes the gloom and doomers to persist with their compulsion to tear down every optimistic moment with cries of “you’re too complacent!”. They are driven by unchecked fear — fear that stops them from recognizing the complete picture.
Nobody here is “complacent”. What we are is realistic optimists who recognize the dangers AND the truth that we have the power to overcome those dangers, with enough organizing and effort. The difference between realistic optimists and G&Ders is that we make ourselves interrupt the uncontrolled fear response of our primitive brains. We work hard to stop that unchecked reactivity, by making a conscious decision to get the full picture — via GNRs, other sources of good news and conversation with other Gnusies. That’s the first step to taking positive action.
And as for being ‘terrified’ by events, just no, absolutely not! I am heartily sick of that kind of fear-mongering — and the implication that anyone who isn’t quaking in their boots at MAGA and TFG and the rest of the reich wing fascists must be too stupid to understand the threat. I am a 62 year old grandmother and I’ve been through some things. I recognize the danger that TFG and his vicious supporters pose to our democracy, to vulnerable populations, to women and yes, to me personally as a liberal progressive. And I will be damned if I will cower in fear before them!
Perhaps these G&Ders think they’re using the apparently successful conservative playbook. How often have we heard that the Rs play on the ‘fears’ of their base? Or that fear is the great motivator? It’s a constant refrain and it is only partially correct. Fear is the spark, but the engine for change has been something else. Adam Serwer pointed to it when he wrote The Cruelty is the Point. MAGA is emboldened by anger and hatred. They are not cowering in fear at rallies or in diners, they are sneering and laughing at liberal tears and furiously seeking to cause more and more pain to people not like them.
Fear paralyzes. Anger propels action.
In my case, I am declining the hatred portion but hell yes I will use anger to propel me to keep fighting for a better world. The way MAGA enjoys hurting others makes me angry, not afraid. And when people on our own side chastise us for not being more ‘terrified’, my reaction is 🙄Oh, brother! with a touch of anger thrown in there for good measure. I don’t engage, I just redouble my efforts to fight fight fight for democracy, for equality, for women’s rights. I want to leave a better world for my grandchildren, and I am not going to wait for them to do the work for me! The young people are going to do great things, and I plan to do my part to mitigate some of the harm of the last 50 years as well.
Anyway, that’s how I feel about that and I encourage all the Gnus in Gnuville to consider declining fear and embracing healthy anger and action. When someone tells me we should be terrified, I say, “You go ahead and be terrified; I’m going to take action”, and then I write postcards, write GNRs, register people to vote, do what I can with my time and energy. I refuse to hand my power over to MAGA by letting them terrorize me. When people on our own side start urging us all to fall into a fear spiral, they are inadvertently handing themselves over to MAGA. Let’s not help MAGA hurt us.
Whenever you start to feel the fear spiral happening — because of the MSM’s relentless focus on the negative, or because other people keep running around with hair on fire, chastising you for being ‘complacent’ just because you choose to also acknowledge our reasons for hope — I encourage you to mentally put up a stop sign, take a moment to recalibrate and check out a positive news source to regain your balance. The scary stuff is real, but so is the strong hopeful stuff. Try to recognize when various sources are triggering your primitive brain and make sure to interrupt that cycle of fear.
Never forget these facts:
We are the majority.
Most people want a better world, and
We are organizing to make that happen.
One final note: while I urge you to try hard not to be dragged down into the spiral of fear when G&Ders spread their panic around (there’s no need to engage), I also encourage all of us to have compassion for them. We are all vulnerable to the cycle of fear because we are all human. It takes effort to force ourselves to pause so we can switch away from our strong primitive reactions and pay attention to our more recently evolved enlightened brains. None of us succeeds all the time. Most of us can do it some of the time. Some of us can manage it most of the time. A few of us almost never succeed at controlling our fear responses. Let’s try to hold some love and understanding for our brothers and sisters who cannot stop themselves from spreading their fears around.
Here’s some opening music and then it’s on to the good news!
🎶 💙 Opening Music 💙🎶
💙 Progressive Initiatives Work 💙
To get fresh vegetables to people who need them, one city puts its soda tax to work, Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR, January 15, 2024.
This program is part of a growing wave of nutrition incentive projects across the country. The goal is not just to get food to people who can't afford it, but to allow them to buy and choose their own nutritious food. The federal government pays for many of these programs, but they are often supplements for federal benefits that aren't available to everyone, including people who are undocumented. Some places, like Boulder, are generating their own funding through a local soda tax, which has the added benefit of making unhealthy food less appealing.✂️
"We really noticed that there were still a lot of folks that were kind of falling through the cracks," Arndt says. Often they didn't qualify for SNAP because of their immigration status, or they made a bit too much money, but they still couldn't afford to buy fresh produce.
"So we started the Fruit and Veg program in 2019 after we had passed the Boulder Sugary Drink tax," she explains.
Now, the program serves about 580 families in both Boulder and neighboring Longmont. Most families are of mixed immigration status.
More US pharmacists can now prescribe birth control, and soon, some patients won’t need prescriptions at all, Jacqueline Howard, CNN, January 12, 2024.
As of Monday, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, 29 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing pharmacists to prescribe or provide contraception without a doctor’s prescription.
Those states are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.✂️
In the next few months, Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill approved in the United States, may also be an option for some people.
“If you think about access in general — access to contraception and anybody being able to access it whenever they need it — as a big puzzle, pharmacists prescribing is one piece of that puzzle. Availability of contraception over the counter without a prescription is another piece of that puzzle, and there are several others too, but without one of those, you don’t have this complete picture of access,” Long said.
“Neither one on its own is going to be a panacea for access, but together, they do improve access,” she said.
😩🤬 (More) Trouble for TFG 😫😡
They can claim to have the “best legal team ever”, but talk is cheap. Free, actually, if you are working for TFG, who will probably never pay you. But the ones who want to be paid — or who want to salvage their legal careers — are walking away:
Trump loses key lawyer as cases against ex-president loom: report, Kathleen Culliton, Raw Story, January 15, 2024.
A key attorney on Donald Trump’s legal team has withdrawn from two New York Court cases, one a criminal trial tied to porn star hush money accusations and the second a civil defamation trial appeal, a new report shows.
Joseph Tacopina will no longer represent the former president in the falsified business records case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, tentatively slated to begin in March, according to the New York Times report.
Manhattan fraud case
Lots of G&Ders were wailing about TFG being allowed to do his rant after all in the Manhattan fraud case. But he did himself no favors.
Trump Didn’t Improvise Manhattan Courtroom Bitch Tantrum. That Was REHEARSED. Evan Hurst, Wonkette, January 12, 2024.
Trump was supposed to be shutting his insolent mouth yesterday. (More background on that below if you’re not up to speed.) Instead his lawyer Chris Kise begged the judge to please let Trump talk, pleaaaase? Judge Arthur Engoron said, “Do you promise to just comment on the facts and the law?” Trump just started babbling without making any such promises.✂️
Oh my fucking God, Donald, get a grip, and prepare to lose everything you’ve ever worked for lied, cheated, stolen, frauded, crimed for and/or had handed to you by your ugly dead daddy. Also maybe your freedom. But that would be a result of the 91 felony indictments, which are unrelated to this civil case.
The punchline?
Trump rehearsed that pathetic shit. Nikki McCann Ramirez and Asawin Suebsaeng report at Rolling Stone that Trump rehearsed it for DAYS.
Judge Engoron was unfazed by TFG’s tantrum and indeed may have signaled the possibility of a surprising penalty during the closing arguments phase of the proceedings:
In a possible bad omen for Trump, his NY fraud judge asked the AG's lawyers to compare him with Madoff, Laura Italiano, Business Insider, January 11, 2024.
In a possible bad omen for Donald Trump, the judge in his New York fraud trial interrupted Thursday's closing arguments to ask a lawyer for the New York attorney general's office to compare him with Bernie Madoff.
"I often say I don't enforce morality, I enforce the law," New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge presiding over the three-month nonjury trial, said at the end of daylong closing arguments — which included a surprise statement by Trumphimself.
"But in a case like this, there is some place for morality, for how bad things are, what kind of activities," Engoron continued.✂️
"If you, you know, could get away with it, you could become a difficult counterparty for a bank to necessarily take action against," and the end result, may be you'll "get away with it," Wallace said.
"The point is, we established that there is fraud and it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in loans," that Trump committed fraud to get, Wallace said.
"And if you could lie to a ban and get that much revenue," he concluded, "we would view that as a very significant issue."✂️
The judge has said he hoped to render a verdict by the end of January.
In addition to $370 million in financial penalties, the AG is asking for a permanent ban on Trump ever running a business in New York, along with shorter bans on his buying or selling real estate in the state.
🎶 Music Time! 🎶
In case you need a refresher on all of the cases pending against TFG, here is a handy guide (gift link):
The Cases Against Trump: A Guide, David Graham, the Atlantic, January 2024.
In all, Trump faces 91 felony counts across two state courts and two different federal districts, any of which could potentially produce a prison sentence. He’s also dealing with a civil suit in New York that could force drastic changes to his business empire, including closing down its operations in his home state. Meanwhile, he is the leading Republican candidate in the race to become the next president—though lawsuits in several states seek to have him disqualified from the presidency. If the criminal and civil cases unfold with any reasonable timeliness, he could be in the heat of the campaign trail at the same time that his legal fate is being decided.
Here’s a summary of the major legal cases against Trump, including key dates, an assessment of the gravity of the charges, and expectations about how they could turn out. This guide will be updated regularly as the cases proceed. (Go to the gift link above)
And remember Jack Smith will persevere for justice
Experts: Jack Smith’s "dramatic new proof" so "overwhelming" reluctant witnesses may decide to flip, Areeba Shah, Salon, January 8, 2024.
A significant portion of the information in the report comes from interviews with Dan Scavino, Trump's former deputy chief of staff and current senior adviser to his reelection campaign. Scavino, who refused to cooperate with the House select committee's probe on Jan. 6, citing executive privilege, had his claims rejected by a judge last year and was informed he had to comply with a grand jury subpoena. Essential parts of his testimony were disclosed to ABC News.
Other White House advisers and top lawyers also spoke with Smith’s team, providing new details about Trump’s statements and demeanor on Jan. 6, 2021, the news outlet reported.
The report describes a president “shockingly derelict” in immediately intervening to stop the “most serious invasion” of the Capitol by domestic terrorists in the nation’s history, Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, told Salon.✂️
“It seems that as Smith’s prosecution team keeps building its case with dramatic new proof, the case appears to be so gaining momentum and appears to be so overwhelming that reluctant or scared witnesses might decide to cooperate and avoid getting themselves entangled in the case as defendants,” Aganga-Williams said.
Meanwhile, even diehard MAGAs know that TFG is a loser
Yes, TFG is the GOP “frontrunner” because there isn’t a word for the only guy anyone believes is actually after the nomination. He will win in Iowa (I am writing this Monday evening), no surprise there. However, the support is soft and squishy. Some are half-heartedly looking for an alternative who can “win”. ‘Supporters’ know he is a loser.
Iowa Republicans who’ve changed their minds this cycle are searching for a Trump alternative, Alexandra Marquez, NBC, January 15, 2024.
According to the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, 65% of likely GOP caucusgoers said they have supported their first-choice candidates through the whole campaign, while 27% said they at one time supported different candidates from the ones they plan to support Monday.
Follow live results from the 2024 Iowa caucuses
Several of the likely caucusgoers who’ve switched candidates told NBC News they once supported Trump but are now ready to move on, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as their leading options.
“I still like [Trump]. I think I’m just worried about all the trials and having to go to these events. And, you know, I think it’s going to take up a lot of his time,” said Larry Gagen, 54, who supported Trump before he planned to caucus for Haley in Dallas County.✂️
Mary Davie, 59, plans to caucus in Mills County for DeSantis, though she said she’s a fan of Trump, too.
“I supported Trump … but he was doomed from the start,” Davie said, adding: “I’m just at the point that I think we need something winnable. … We have to look at somebody who can actually win an election.”
😎 💙 Joe Biden Raises Cool $97 million 💙😎
Biden rakes in $97 million in fourth-quarter haul, Arlette Saenz, CNN, January 15, 2024.
President Joe Biden raised more than $97 million for his presidential campaign and the Democratic Party in the fourth fundraising quarter last year as he readies a sizable campaign war chest to face off against a Republican opponent in November.
Biden’s reelection campaign, along with the Democratic Party, ended the year with $117 million, which the campaign notes is the highest cash-on-hand figure for any Democratic candidate at this point in the cycle.
The Biden campaign’s announcement marks the biggest fundraising haul of the president’s reelection bid and comes as Republicans are set to kick off their primary contests with the Iowa caucuses Monday evening. Biden has spent the start of 2024 ramping up his attacks on former President Donald Trump, who Biden’s advisers view as his likely opponent.
Joe Biden is providing student debt relief — as promised
Psst: Joe Biden Has Solved the Student Debt Crisis, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, Washington Monthly, January 10, 2024.
Hunched over my laptop, I took a leap of faith, unsure if it would help me—especially because my debt burden had grown by 43 percent and I was earning double the salary I had been before the COVID payment pause. To my relief, I was notified that I’d owe zero dollars a month until the plan automatically renews in September 2024. Then, my payments would cost roughly $227 a month—37 percent less than I’d be paying under the old plan.
After digging deeper into SAVE’s details, I learned that the plan is more than an extra-lenient repayment program—it’s President Joe Biden’s vehicle for delivering billions in forgiveness after the Supreme Court defeated his $430 billion debt cancellation plan this summer.
Under other repayment plans, the average borrower ends up paying more than the original amount they borrowed because interest accumulates. But the average undergraduate borrower who uses SAVE will repay only 60 cents on every dollar they borrowed. For low-income borrowers, the entire balance will be forgiven.
There’s never been a program like it. For millions of Americans, SAVE will be debt cancellation in the form of debt repayment. In other words, the large-scale debt relief activists have spent years fighting for is finally here—it just didn’t arrive in the packaging anyone expected.
🌏 Reports of Global Doom are Exaggerated 🌎
Yesterday, I saw breathless reporting/diaries/posts on social media declaring that Guatemala was in the midst of a coup. Cue the G&Ders; “The entire world is lurching toward autocracy!”. The attempts by right wing extremists in Guatemala to prevent the inauguration of Bernardo Arevalo bore some resemblance to the tactics used by American conservative extremists to do the same thing to Joe Biden in 2021. And, like in the USA, the plot in Guatemala failed.
Reformist Arevalo sworn in as Guatemala's president despite opponents' efforts, Agence France-Presse (via Raw Story), January 15, 2024.
Anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in as Guatemala's president in the early hours of Monday after a chaotic inauguration that was delayed for hours by a last-ditch attempt by Congress opponents to weaken his authority.
The latest in a series of legislative setbacks triggered by opponents underscored the challenges Arevalo faces as leader of Central America's most populous nation, to which he has pledged to bring sweeping reforms and tackle the rising cost of living and violence, key drivers of migration to the United States.
Arevalo won August elections by a landslide and about 9 hours after his inauguration was scheduled to start, he took the oath as president, replacing conservative politician Alejandro Giammattei whose government has been engulfed in corruption scandals.✂️
Guatemala's attorney general, an ally of Giammattei, has made several attempts to hinder Arevalo's transition to the presidency, including trying to strip Arevalo and his vice president of legal immunity, attempting to suspend his Semilla party and annul the election.
The attorney general's office has defended its actions as within the framework of Guatemala's laws.
Arevalo's inauguration was thrown into disarray after the Supreme Court allowed opposition lawmakers to maintain their leadership of Congress, and forced members of the president's Semilla party to stand as independents, further diluting its presence. Semilla holds only 23 of the 160 seats in Congress.✂️
The international community, including the United States, had piled vast pressure on Giammattei's administration to proceed with the transition of power.
Germany: Hair on fire reports of right wing extremists seizing control in Germany are also a bit premature:
Several thousand demonstrate in Berlin against right-wing extremism, DPA International (via Raw Story), January 14, 2024.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday against right-wing extremism in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, the city's police department said.
The police estimated the crowd at "several thousand," according to a spokeswoman, while the climate protection group Fridays for Future, which had called along with others for the demonstration, put the number at 25,000. There were initially no incidents, the police said.
Slogans saying the far-right Alternative for German (AfD) party is "not an alternative" could be read on banners and well-known climate activist Luisa Neubauer gave a speech.
Right wing extremism will probably always be with us. It has been theorized that about 30% of human populations have an authoritarian mindset, so that’s a lot of neighbors in a lot of neighborhoods here and around the world. This might explain the constant struggle to maintain liberal democracy and human progress. Nevertheless, 30% is a minority and as long as the rest of us can come together and cooperate for the greater good, we can stop that minority from forcing their authoritarian fantasies on the rest of us.
In Guatemala and Germany, people stood up to say No! to right wing extremism. We are never alone in these fights — people everywhere share our hopes and dreams and are prepared to fight for them, just like we are.
Meanwhile, global companies realize that saving the planet is good for business!
Haha, we were saying this a few years ago. Eventually, with enough public pressure and determination to demand greener choices, corporations will decide that going green will bring them more ‘green’ (💵💰💵)
‘Cheaper to save the world than destroy it’: why capitalism is going green, Ajit Niranjan, the Guardian, January 15, 2024.
“Capitalism cannot be the solution to climate change,” Rathi told the Guardian. “But there can be a form of capitalism that we have seen working – in many different parts of the world, in big and small ways – that if we can use and deploy in other parts of the world, we really can use this tool to the advantage it provides us.”
In Climate Capitalism, Rathi runs through stories of success and failure that have helped people invent clean technologies, develop them into profitable products and build them at scale. His search takes him from an industrial park in Fujian, China’s electric battery capital, to a vast solar plant on former farmland in Pavagada, a drought-stricken region in India, to drill-scarred fields that may soon store carbon in Texas, the heart of the oil and gas industry in the US.
In each case, he says, capitalist systems are being moulded to push money and people away from pollution.
In the US, the government passed the Inflation Reduction Act to throw money at clean technologies. In Europe, where support for climate action is broader, the EU has been able to punish polluters as well as subsidise clean alternatives – though with less money and more bureaucracy than in the US.
🎶 Music Break 🎶
☺️ You Can Improve Your Quality of Life 😊
Want to stress less in 2024? A new book offers '5 resets' to tame toxic stress, Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, January 4, 2024.
Stress and burnout — a syndrome of chronic workplace stress — are both at "unprecedented levels," says Nerurkar, who for many years counseled patients in her clinical practice for stress-related health issues.
"But our brains and bodies were not designed to sustain this high level of stress and burnout with no respite or recovery," she adds. "Rest and recovery are not just nice-to-have luxuries. They are essential for our brains and bodies to thrive."
Her book is intended to be a "road map" for anyone struggling with chronic stress and burnout, she says. The tools she offers are ways to incorporate rest and recovery into people's daily routines.
Here are her five resets:
1. Find what matters most to you
2. Stop scrolling and carve out some quiet time
3. Harness the mind-body connection to lower stress
4. Take breaks between tasks
5. Quiet the nagging, negative voice of a stressed-out brain
Bonus: The Resilience Rule of Two
(Read lots of helpful detail at the link above — no paywall, it’s NPR! 😍)
New Year’s Resolutions for the Anxious, Christina Caron, New York Times, January 9, 2024.
For those who already struggle with anxiety, these heightened expectations can be even more distressing. Especially because research suggests that many of us don’t complete our New Year’s resolutions.
So we asked several psychologists for resolutions specifically tailored to people with anxious tendencies. And we broke them down into bite-size steps so you can notch your successes along the way.
1. Resolve to confront one of your fears.
2. Resolve to focus on your values instead of your anxiety.
3. Resolve to seek a different perspective.
4. Resolve to take care of yourself.
(Details on how to do these resolutions at the FREE gift link above)
The 6-Day Energy Challenge, Jancee Dunn, New York Times, January 1, 2024.
Welcome to the 6-Day Energy Challenge!
This week, we’ll be bringing you small ways to feel good by focusing on five science-backed ingredients for energy: rest, exercise, socializing, eating and finding enjoyment in your daily tasks. Start by taking our quiz to assess how you’re currently doing on each front, then follow along as we suggest simple daily exercises. (Consider grabbing a notebook to keep track of how each one goes — what sticks with you and what works best.)
(Go to the free gift link to check it out!)
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello, Everybody! I am back with a few more stories like I promised!
🐎 First, a thrilling horse rescue by a very brave young woman! WOW!
This Cold Snap is a Good Reminder
🐩 There’s a few things we dogs would appreciate our humans keep in mind when the weather turns cold!
Winter safety tips for dogs: Expert advice to keep them healthy and warm, Jacqueline Martinz, CBC, January 11, 2024.
As we navigate another ... winter, it's important that we keep the safety of our dogs in mind. After all, the frigid season poses a range of risks for pets, from jagged pieces of ice on the sidewalk to antifreeze from cars dripping onto the ground.
-Remember that if it's cold for you, it's likely colder for your dog
-Look out for signs of discomfort
-Consider the needs of older dogs
-Use the right winter gear
-Prep for accidents and emergencies
-Stay safe on winter hikes
-Watch for weight gain and boredom
Dogs are smarter than humans think!
🐕 Even though Mama says that I am the smartest dog in the world, I think she maybe just tells me that because she loves me. I mean, yes I AM smart, but I hear tell that some of these border collies are super duper smart — even smarter than poodles! I was skeptical, but then I found this video and I have to admit this dog seems to be in a league of her own.
A happy ending for a lonely goose
🦢 Some kinds of birds mate for life, which is pretty cool. For instance, geese mate for life. But what if one of the geese in a mated pair dies? I think the surviving goose might feel awfully lonely! This next story shows what happened when some humans noticed a lonely goose who was missing her mate and it has a nice happy ending!
But wait! There’s More!
Another goose story! These birds don’t mess around — when they say “mate for life”, they really mean it!
A wild goose was taken to an animal hospital. His mate knocked on the door to find him. Annie Reneau, Upworthy, January 14, 2024.
To save his foot and help him survive, the staff knew they had to amputate one of the digits and suture the other wound closed. They gave him antibiotics and pain meds and prepped him for surgery the following morning.
Then his mate came knocking.
"Today, as we prepared to sedate Arnold and get him ready for surgery, we heard a faint tapping at the clinic door," the center wrote. "We turned to see that his mate had waddled up onto the porch and was attempting to break into our clinic! She had somehow located him and was agitated that she could not get inside. She remained there throughout the entire procedure, watching us work, never moving from the doorway."
Surgery went well, and once Arnold woke up the staff decided to let him recover by the doorway so he and his mate could see each other.
"We opened the door and gave Arnold his flow-by oxygen in the doorway. His mate immediately calmed down and began to groom him through the door. They both seemed much more at ease in each other's presence."
"Arnold will likely need several weeks of treatment in our hospital before he is ready to rejoin his mate in the wild," they added. "He will need to be kept inside for the majority of this time in order to keep his wound sterile and prevent infection. We will do our best to get him back out quickly and will perform bandage changes and treatments in view of the doorway when possible so that his mate can check up on him. ❤️"
I really liked these stories and I hope you did, too!
That’s all I have for this Tuesday. Thanks for reading. Bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ To honor Martin Luther King Jr., pick a cause in 2024 and run with it, Chicago Sun✶Times Editorial Board, January 15, 2024.
⚡️ How to prevent shingles and what to do if you get it, Hallie Levine, Washington Post, January 15, 2024.
⚡️ The GOP Is Dying. Time for a Whig Revival?, Timothy Noah, The New Republic, January 12, 2024.
⚡️ The Iowa Way: The state is fiercely proud of its role in sending presidents to Washington. No one wants to admit that it’s all fallen apart. Ben Jacobs, Slate, January 14, 2024.
⚡️ Surprising good news from Idaho: Idaho Governor Proposes $2 Billion in Funding for School Buildings Over Next 10 Years, Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman via ProPublica, January 9, 2024
⚡️ After centuries of erasure, Native tribes fight to preserve culture through language, Joe Duhownik, Courthouse News Service, January 12, 2024.
💗 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 a while ago. I am borrowing and adding the latest ones to it 🎩
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.
Share Goody’s Boosting Biden series on social media — Boosting Biden Series
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Tuesday, Gnusies. Remember to take good care of yourselves — your country needs you and you deserve to be healthy and strong to enjoy the better world we are working toward.
Get some rest, eat nutritious food and please try to get outdoors every day for no other reason than to take a breath of fresh air and look up at the sky for a mental break. If you can take a nice long walk, so much the better, but all you need is 5-10 minutes to refresh yourself if you are able.
It’s likely to be a tumultuous year — as most election years are, plus extra thanks to MAGA — and I think we are up to the task of riding out the ups and downs and staying focused on winning the election.
We’ve got this, Gnusies! Happy Tuesday!