Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
I usually try to be positive here, and I promise, this diary has a lot of good news. But I also always point out that we are not naïve. So before we get to the good news, some serious words.
Many people don’t seem to realize we have been invaded, far more successfully than Ukraine has been invaded. We need to learn to fight as smartly and as scrappily as they have. (Note, some people do know this — I think Jen Psaki has a bit about the hostile takeover of the government.)
And, what is frustrating, is that much of the world blames us for this. OK, we deserve some blame, because we gave the felon his job back, even after he sent an armed mob into the Capitol and absconded with national state secrets. But the felon had help — from Putin and from oligarchs such as Musk and Thiel, who knew how to manipulate us and the system. Anyway, because they rightfully blame us for falling for these cons, other countries are not inclined to help us.
So, how do we fight more scrappily? More effectively?
First we need to recognize and work with people as they are, and not always as they should be. Human brains have evolved in certain ways, and we need to understand that and use that. For example, negativity works. We need to understand that many humans are bad at math and logic. We need to repeat things until people get it. We need to understand there’s an innate fear of the other — whether a different people or a different language — and overcome it or work with it.
And although I always emphasize the importance of Truth and Love, Lies and Hate are being used against us. We need to work more effectively. The most simple thing to do is to improve our messaging. Short and sweet. Repetition is good!
We also need to work for the long term. Our foes did that, with their foundations that kept working until they turned SCOTUS to the point that some of its members feel they can ignore the Constitution. Although instant gratification feels wonderful, we’re not always going to get it.
You don’t want to fight? I get it. I don’t want to either.
But I can’t accept what they are doing. We need to find the courage to change the things we cannot accept.
And don’t think this can’t be won. Ukraine was supposed to collapse in 3 days. More than 3 years later, even the felon thinks they just might get back all their territory.
This week I heard Kimmel say that “irreversible decisions” often are reversible, no matter what they tell you.
Please check the Unity section to see how Robert Reich thinks the shutdown will end.
Sorry for ranting! Come on in and see what the good guys are, then take off your gloves, or elbows up, or whatever it is you need to do in this fight against fascism.
Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, and the chaos. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country and the planet from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know.
Remember:
💜Although they lie all the time, reality matters. And our goals — based on reality — are more popular.
💙 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, make sure to protect yourself, your family and your friends, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
🗽 Reports on Resisters 🗽
Get scrappy! As it’s so important, this is the time to be contacting your senators and representatives. About the shutodwn. I am including most of Jess Craven’s email from yesterday:
We’re on day two of a government shutdown, and hoo boy, the lies are flying thick and fast. To deflect from the fact that they’re on the losing end of the messaging war, Republicans are using one talking point to defend their position over and over again. Since that talking point is categorically false, I thought I’d pass along the DPCC’s fact check so you can be armed with the facts.
Here it is:
FACT CHECK: REPUBLICAN LIE ABOUT HEALTH CARE FOR “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS”
Republican Lie: “Democrats are shutting down the government to provide health care to illegal immigrants.”
Facts:
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicare and Medicaid, and they are also not eligible to purchase coverage on the ACA Marketplace.
Republicans continue to knowingly lie about eligibility for these programs with the hope that repeating this lie will keep the American people from realizing that their very own health care is under attack.
The over 24 million people who rely on the ACA are not illegal immigrants or fraudsters, they are working people and families with no other access to affordable insurance. Nearly 90 percent of the total growth in the ACA Marketplace since 2020 has occurred in states that Trump won during the 2024 election. Nearly half of the small business owners and employees in America buy their coverage through the ACA, as do over 25 percent of American farmers, and the vast majority of these people purchase their coverage using enhanced premium tax credits.
Hopefully that helps!
If Congress does not extend the enhanced premium tax credits immediately, four million people will lose their health care and 24 million Americans will see their costs skyrocket. Current estimates show Americans would see their out-of-pocket premiums increase by 114% -- more than double -- if Republicans refuse to act.
Remember, Republicans acted quickly to pass tax cuts for billionaires this summer, despite them also expiring December 31 of this year. Americans are already getting notices about skyrocketing costs and deciding now if they can afford to keep their health coverage.
Where is Republicans’ urgency to lower health care costs for middle class families, farmers, small business owners and veterans? They have none. In fact Republican lawmakers have almost all left town. Meanwhile Trump is threatening more mass layoffs, and has already started withholding funds from federally funded projects in blue states.
Y’all, it’s vile. But instead of getting mad let’s get busy. Remember: every campaign for which we volunteer, every phone call we make, every protest at which we show up, every Trump-supporting company we boycott, all of it matters. Trump is weaker than he appears—and if you don’t believe me listen to AOC above; she explains where we are perfectly. The TLDR: Yes, it’s bad. AND YES WE CAN BEAT HIM.
But only by getting to work. So let’s do that.
Call Your Senators/Reps
Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I’m calling to urge the Senator to oppose any federal budget deal that doesn’t extend the ACA premium tax credits and stop Trump’s illegal budget cuts and impoundments. Congress needs to hold firm during this shut down and refuse to give yet another blank check to an authoritarian. [H/T]
I’m also furious that Trump is threatening to fire tens of thousands of federal workers during this shutdown. These are real people with real families and real bills to pay. The fact that Trump’s gleefully using them as leverage in a shutdown fight just shows how out of touch he is with the pain Americans are feeling. I want the Senator to make a statement opposing these firings.
A great piece by MA State Rep Mike Connolly (at Robert Reich’s Substack) on how a sanctuary community operates:
Last Saturday, a little after 10 am, I was gearing up to head out for a jog when I got an urgent call from an East Somerville constituent.
Three individuals had just been detained in the vicinity of Foss Park, and ICE and Homeland Security agents were now staging in SUVs near the East Somerville Community School.
Neighborhood and community leaders sent out a call for help. I immediately amplified that call on my social media and jumped in my RAV4 hybrid, making it over to East Somerville within the hour.
Somerville Stands Up for Immigrants
The first thing I noticed as I arrived on Pearl Street was how various residents were staked out on different corners, watching for ICE and communicating updates via text message.
Witnessing this brave, grassroots response filled me with an enormous sense of gratitude for our community — despite the ongoing nightmare that is the Trump Administration — here we were, collectively standing up for the most vulnerable among us!
As I drove toward the corner Pearl and Florence Streets, I found a parking spot across from an unmarked SUV that local residents were photographing and monitoring. Members of the LUCE Network and City Councillors Matt McLaughlin and JT Scott were also present. We also got word that the Somerville Police Department had just confirmed that these were in fact federal agents.
Next big rally day is October 18: No Kings and No Troops on Our Streets
Here’s another initiative: getting local governments to support local news Alex Frandsen, Sept 17 2025, Next City
Amid the federal chaos and industry doom, a sharp reality has come into relief: We need bold action from local levels of government. High-quality local news and civic information are true public goods, and right now, the market simply cannot (and will not) create these goods at the scale that our communities need. This moment calls for new public infrastructure to support informed communities, and cities are uniquely equipped to be on the frontlines of this burgeoning movement.
In a few cities, this work is starting to get underway. In New York and Chicago, city officials enacted measures that require half of government advertising budgets to be directed towards community news outlets, and the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco has adopted a similar resolution. In Washington, D.C. and Seattle, advocates and city leaders have pushed for a publicly-funded news voucher system, in which residents are issued vouchers to donate to local outlets of their choice.
And there have been exciting initial discussions of even more substantive solutions. The Community Information Cooperative has proposed that local policymakers set up “info districts” to fund media initiatives that meet local information needs. These would be similar to other kinds of established districts (business improvement and library districts are two examples), and they would operate similarly – funded by a local tax and governed by a public board to ensure accountability.
In San Francisco, meanwhile, a local coalition of independent media leaders facilitated by Common Cause California is starting up a drumbeat for a public grantmaking program to support local news. This idea, which is increasingly being taken up by state lawmakers, is perhaps best modeled by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. The consortium is an independent 501(c)(3) that receives annual public funding from the legislature, with grantmaking overseen by a diverse board of community stakeholders and media experts. The New Jersey initiative has distributed more than $10 million in public funds to newsrooms and organizations working to plug the most critical info gaps across the state, with a focus on sustainability and communities underserved by our media system.
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes, Chaos and Cowardice💣
Brutal new polls show the felon’s unpopularity Greg Sargent, The Daily Beast via The New Republic
Sargent: So I’m just going to start with some numbers. The new Quinnipiac poll has Trump’s approval at an abysmal 38 percent, while 54 percent disapprove. The new Associated Press poll has him at 39 percent approving to 60 percent disapproving. The new Gallup poll has him at 40 percent to 56 percent. Reuters has him at 41 percent, and the new Economist/YouGov poll has him at 39–56. Lakshya, those numbers are bad. What’s your reading of these findings?
Jain: Oh, they’re horrible. And you know, this is as bad as I can remember it being for a first-year president, so to say. This is the second term, but it’s still the period in time at which the president’s approval ratings are generally at their highest. You know, Joe Biden ended his tenure extremely poorly in the court of public opinion, but it’s really important to remember that Biden was not this unpopular at this point in time in his first year. Trump is at levels that have only really been approached by Trump 1.0. That’s it.
That’s the only historical comparable. But Greg, what’s interesting to me, if I may, is that the disapproval this time is of a completely different nature, and I would argue a far more damaging nature than the first time around, because the first time around, it was centered around his abuse of the office, or so to say, people thinking he was unfit to lead the country. But people liked the economy. People really liked the economy under Trump. His economic numbers were consistently positive or break even the first time around. This time, what’s happening is people really hate Trump not for the abuse of office. They hate him for the economy.
Here’s what he said, according to the link above:
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said, “ There’s a Republican majority in the House. There’s a Republican majority in the Senate. There’s a Republican in the White House, and they couldn’t pass the bills to keep the government running. They control everything.” ✂️
I mean, it’s really as simple as that. And all you have to do is look at the fact that the last time we were in this situation, the last time we had a government shutdown was in Trump’s first term.
So he has a habit of shutting down the government over whatever is his issue of the day. And right now. He is shutting down the government because he doesn’t want to do something to fix this healthcare system that he really broke. I mean, look at the big ugly bill that was passed. 17 million people being kicked off their health insurance.
Now we have this Affordable Care Act tax subsidy expiring. What does that mean? It essentially means that for 25 million Americans, they’re getting letters that are being sent out today. They’ll tell them that their healthcare premiums are going to go up anywhere from 50 to 300%. And what we’re saying is, let’s fix that. ✂️
Republicans are doomed on this shutdown. Either they cave and give Democrats a big win, or they refuse and increase health insurance premiums on the American people.
By fighting for the American people, Democrats have already won.
Frost, in that same interview, also said that although some of the Rs want to do the right thing, they are just too scared of the felon.
Cowards, so many of them. And LIARS, trying to blame the Ds for what is happening. If you have R senators / reps, contact them and let them know what you think — this is what I just sent to Ciscomani, who wrote to me blaming the Ds for the shutdown.
This is BS. Ds did not create the shutdown. You did, by voting to strip healthcare from millions of Americans so you could give money to billionaires.
Also, the Rs know that the felon is unwell and that his speech to the generals was alarming:
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MADELEINE DEAN: The president is unhinged. He's unwell
JOHNSON: A lot of folks on your side are too
D: Oh my god, please. That performance in front of the generals?
J: I didn't see it
D: It's so dangerous! Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a POTUS who's unwell.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-10-02T00:40:13.886Z
Notice the “too”. Johnson knows the felon is failing.
Also, that unhinged speech to the generals might be evidence in their reason for ignoring the felon’s illegal orders.
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
Democrats are speaking out, which is what they need to do right now. We win this fight by winning the narrative:
People mostly know the truth:
Also, the felon wants to hide a probably very lousy jobs report
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Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling on the Trump administration to release the September jobs report on Friday despite the ongoing government shutdown, a Senate aide told CNN on Thursday
— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-10-02T18:01:04.02714109Z
💰 Some leading Ds are putting their money into progressive efforts: good job, Senator Murphy and congratulations to Indivisible.
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"Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy is donating $100,000 from his political fund to the progressive organizing group Indivisible — the latest in a series of donations he says total nearly $1 million to grassroots groups taking on the Trump administration..."
www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...
— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.msnbc.com) 2025-09-29T18:08:54.072Z
💜 Unity?💜
✈️ How the shutdown ends — in the unfriendly skies Robert Reich, Substack
Friends,
I don’t have a crystal ball, but I have a good idea how this shutdown ends. Trump and Republicans will cave (he won’t admit he’s caving, of course, but he will cave).
Here’s why: Air traffic controllers.
Like other federal workers, the controllers aren’t being paid now (they’ll get back-pay when the shutdown ends). But unlike most other federal workers, their workloads and stress loads have been soaring.
Recall the last big shutdown that started in late 2018 and went on for 35 days — a record. What ended it? Air traffic controllers.
In January 2019, several controllers at a facility near Washington, D.C., that handles air traffic for most of the region, called in sick.
As a result, flight delays along the East Coast began to stack up. The delays quickly cascaded to Atlanta and beyond.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association issued a statement saying essentially, “We told you so.”
“In the past few weeks, we have warned about what could happen as a result of the prolonged shutdown. Many controllers have reached the breaking point of exhaustion, stress, and worry caused by this shutdown. Each hour that goes by that the shutdown continues makes the situation worse.”
Until that happens, it is up to us, each and every day, to make sure the world and especially our fellow citizens to blame the Republicans for their corruption, their chaos and their cowardice.
Pope speaks out about US RW hypocrisy Anthony Failoia, Victoria Craw, Washington Post
“Someone who says, ‘I am against abortion,’ but says, ‘I am in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life,” he said. “Someone who says that, ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life. So they’re very complex issues.”
“I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them, but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another,” he continued, “and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics, to say we need to really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward as a church.”
Jobs being created by the World Bank Andy Corbley, Good News Network
In the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, a program funded by the World Bank aims to create 100,000 jobs that will help protect these sensitive and biodiverse areas for the posterity of fishermen, urbanites, and animals alike. ✂️
The World Bank’s $212 million Strengthening Coastal Resilience and the Economy (SHORE) Project in India will provide the necessary resources to help states implement their coastal zone management plans in a way that matches demand for economic expansion with the needs of smaller communities and wildlife.
“This Project will help states tap into private sector sources to mitigate the impacts of plastic pollution and to foster eco-tourism in selected areas,” said Paul Procee, the World Bank’s Acting Country Director for India. “For example, private sector intervention can help to strengthen plastic waste value chains and establish environment-friendly beaches while also creating economic opportunities for coastal communities.”
I love it when the world works together for good!
📥Actions You Can Take 📤
Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying?
Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are),you can support and contact these organizations:
ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union
Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election.
Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams
🌱Grass roots. Join with local communities to make a difference. It could be your local Dems. It could be your school board or your library. Reach out to people. We all need each other these days.
🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can help.
👎 Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others.
🐍Schadenfreude 😈
Here’s last week’s Elephant in the Room, from Rick Wilson
In case you don’t want to watch — and it’s 31 minutes, so I understand, here is what you find in the notes with the show:
Ukraine is hitting back harder than ever, as its military pushes Russia out of key regions and puts Moscow’s most significant targets in range—all while Russian gas prices skyrocket to a staggering $25 a gallon, deepening Putin’s crisis. At the same time in the U.S., late-night TV is on fire: ABC’s controversial decision to reorder Jimmy Kimmel Live! sparked massive backlash, wiping $4 billion off Disney’s market cap before Kimmel triumphantly returned to air. From Ukraine’s fight for freedom to Disney’s Wall Street disaster and Kimmel’s comeback, this episode dives into the global headlines shaking both the Kremlin and Hollywood.
The most important part is how Russia is losing the war against Ukraine, and how this is great news for the world but is terrible news for Maga. Ukraine, with its drones, is taking out Russia’s energy industry and their communication network. “Winter is coming” and in Russia, the season is serious. Gas at $25 a gallon means a cold winter. There are even rumors that Russia is having trouble bringing in the harvest. And, of course, Putin has sacrificed a generation of young men.
The felon, when he was ranting at the UN, said that Ukraine could get back all its 2014 territory. This is a complete turnaround from how the felon was behaving just 6 weeks earlier, when he made our troops (!!!) roll out the red carpet for Russia’s dictator. Wilson opines that this could only happen if the felon heard news that Russia was losing. The felon, of course, still wants Russia to win, but he also really, really hates being associated with losers.
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Trump shifting responsibility for ending Ukraine war from US to Europe — Tusk
“Trump stated that Ukraine could, with the support of the EU, regain all of its territory. This optimism conceals a promise of reduced US involvement and a shift of responsibility for ending the war to Europe.”
— Kyiv Post (@kyivpost.com) 2025-09-25T11:50:09.251Z
Of course, watch what the felon does, not what he says. And Russia may continue to be propped up by China, Iran, North Korea and even Cuba.
Note, Russia is going to have a tough time of it. Putin is purging more people. I think this is another sign of his weakness. As Rick Wilson says, Putin expects his end to come by being pushed out a window. The purge is surely a way to keep anyone with any power from doing the defenestration.
We should also learn from the scrappiness and determination and the innovations of Ukraine. (A lot of great diaries at DKOS on the war — here’s one.)
Rick Wilson also had some words to say about the silence of the generals
The lack of real applause wasn’t a production glitch; it was a temperature check. Those were not roaring ovations. For Trump, a man who needs crowds like a shark needs blood, that quiet had to sting. For Hegseth, it had to land like a brick. The fantasy of “I summoned the warfighters and they all swooned” died right there, under the fluorescents of that auditorium at Quantico.
📣 Let’s Honor Truth☀️️
SNOPES.
This site and these people are fantastic, doing fact-checking of all sorts of things. Here’s what Wikipedia says about them:
Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, including CNN,[41] MSNBC,[42] Fortune, Forbes, and The New York Times.[43] By March 2009, the site had more than six million visitors per month.[44] David Mikkelson ran the website from his home in Tacoma, Washington.[45]
Mikkelson has stressed the reference portion of the name Urban Legends Reference Pages, indicating that the intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmation as well.[46] Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.[47]
In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Internet as authority, Snopes assembled a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".[48] The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference to the internet slang term troll, meaning an online persona intended to be deliberately provocative or incendiary.[15]
In 2009, FactCheck.org reviewed a sample of Snopes's responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases.[49][50] In 2012, The Florida Times-Union reported that About.com's urban legends researcher found a "consistent effort to provide even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous reputable analyses of its content confirm its accuracy.[51
In fact, I just sent them a rumor I want checked out, to learn if the felon’s stay at Windsor produced the disgusting mess that was claimed in a British tabloid.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love❤️
I love this! And it allows young women to make love without getting pregnant before they’re ready.
📎Odds & Ends📎
Harnessing the relationship between plants and fungi to combat climate change Ben Seal Reasons to Be Cheerful
The soil in Bole Woods is part of a novel experiment in forest soil transfer that began when Cuyahoga County embarked on an effort to revive its declining tree canopy. In Cleveland, the portion of land covered by trees has fallen to 18 percent as a result of development and disease, with scientists suggesting 30 percent as a minimum target.
As one of the county’s partners on the project, Bashian-Victoroff, a fungal ecologist at Holden and a PhD student at Cleveland State University, has given some 600 new trees a boost by planting each of them with 50 grams of soil, gathered from the nearby old-growth forest and teeming with fungi ready to lend a helping hand. By utilizing soil from Bole Woods, she’s hoping to harness the power of locally-adapted fungi to help the trees grow bigger and survive longer. ✂️
Holden first experimented with soil transfer nearly a decade ago, using the method to help bring forest back to land that had been used for years as a golf course. It proved successful, establishing healthy new fungal communities that Bashian-Victoroff thinks of as “a great insurance policy for trees.” Because mycorrhizal fungi are small and supple enough to penetrate soil more effectively than plant roots, they offer myriad protective benefits to their symbiotic partners, including support in times of nutrient or pathogen stress, drought tolerance and shelter from toxic substances through the absorption of heavy metals.
Living with purpose can help stave off dementia Lisa Howard, Good News Network
Previous studies into regions of the world where people tend to live longer has shown that having a sense of purpose in life may help people live longer.
Now, new research from the University of California in Davis shows that having a sense of purpose in life may have another benefit as people age: reducing the risk of dementia. ✂️
Researchers found that people who reported a higher sense of purpose in life were about 28% less likely to develop cognitive impairment—including mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
The protective effect of having a purpose was seen across racial and ethnic groups. It also remained significant even after accounting for education, depression, and the APOE4 gene, which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. Newest offerings: Messing with the Myths — two books so far in this series. Older offerings: the Crow Nickels (chronicles), about crows who want to save birdkind from extinction (Hunters of the Feather). Mysteries based on Jane Austen’s novels, such as The Meryton Murders. Others based on history and Greek mythology, e.g., Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus. All titles also available through Kindle Unlimited. Want to support me but not interested in my books? Buy one and donate to a library.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time.
I know it’s tough to see the path forward. And I can’t guarantee that there is a path forward. But people who are smarter and braver than I have seen ways to move ahead.
Their (the fascists’) plans really are dark, but many of them are also dumb, in the sense that they don’t make sense. So many of them cannot succeed.
Here are some quick hits.
- Stay involved. Yeah, that’s tough. I want to look away too, but by taking simple actions you can make a difference. Keep contacting your representatives, both in DC and at home.
- Support causes that will fight. Send money if you can. Also, spread their news with clicks and conversation.
- Slow them down. Oppose and block at every turn.
- Make tRump unpopular. Doing this weakens him. And it should not be that difficult. The GOP made a lot out of Biden is old and eggs cost too much. Well, tRump is older than Biden was at the beginning of his term and tRump has no policies that are going to bring down inflation. And a host of other problems, like he’s a convicted felon.
- Divide the GOP from each other. They are a coalition based on contradictory promises, so there’s plenty to work with.
- Keep telling the truth and showing love.
- Make sure to pace yourselves in this marathon and to practice self-care.
Current projects:
We need just 3 seats to take back the House. GoodNewsRoundup (a.k.a. Goodie or Madam Mayor) has put together a page for donations via ActBlue. Note you can opt out of emails.
bilboteach has another fundraiser: Win the Majority 2026 – and here you can also opt out of all those fundraising emails.
Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters
And Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny Lessons:
(1) Do Not Obey in Advance; (2) Defend Institutions; (3) Beware the One-Party System; (4) Take Responsibility for the Face of the World; (5) Remember Professional Ethics; (6) Be Wary of Paramilitaries; (7) Be Reflective if You Must Own a Gun; (8) Stand Out (this means, speak up, even when others do not); (9) Be Kind to Our Language; (10) Believe in Truth; (11) Investigate; (12) Make Eye Contact and Small Talk; (13) Practice Corporeal Politics; (14) Establish a Private Life; (15) Contribute to Good Causes; (16) Learn from Peers in Other Countries; (17) Listen for Dangerous Words; (18) Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives; (19) Be a Patriot; (20) Be as Courageous as You Can.
🌻
💙 President Joseph R. Biden: “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.”
💙 Sir Winston Churchill: When you’re going through hell, keep going.
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.
