Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
When the USA was starting — nearly 250 years ago - a woman asked founder Benjamin Franklin what kind of country we would have. “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Franklin was warning us that a democracy for the people requires the action of the people. It’s not something we can take for granted.
The great news is that Americans are no longer taking it for granted.
Protests are happening with great frequency. Elections — in places such as Texas and Nebraska — are kicking out the craven GOP enablers.
We see, too, that pushing back on tRump and his evil regime works. He caves easily. On many programs. Many people are standing up. The courts. A few surprises in the GOP. And many, many on team blue.
We cannot stop our resistance efforts. We need to keep it up. So that means continuing to contact representatives, to go to protests and to rallies, and to do whatever else we can think of to help fight back.
We can be learn from our own history. History may not repeat, but it rhymes. Fascists have tried to take over our country before. It’s true that this time they have the presidency, but tRump’s actions are so corrupt that even members in his own party are speaking out against him.
We can have hope. Rachel Maddow, in an interview with Stephen Colbert (see below), said that after her first 100 days, she was much more heartened than she ever expected to be at this point. As she says, “We’re not going to be the generation that loses democracy.”
So put in the work, when you can, and encourage others to do so as well. Then spend the rest of your time living your best life.
Keep it up, gnusies, and come in and see what some of the good guys are doing!
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.
🗽 Report on the Resistance 🗽
People are turning out to protest when they can, Here are some examples:
And of course, taking down Tesla:
Reminder to join a protest if you can on 6/14, the day tRump is using our tax money to give himself a parade.
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣
tRump is the most corrupt politician ever, so much so he’s getting pushback from Cruz. Cruz!
Lawrence O’Donnell thinks the bribe, in the end, will not happen.
Chaos!!! No wonder small businesses are worried. Rs cannot govern:
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
Take a look at Omaha! Yes, Omaha, Nebraska!
Senators going to the House:
Governors such as Pritzker stepping forward to really address the price of groceries:
💜 Unity?💜
The title of this GNR was inspired by the following segment of Maddow’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Yes, she’s pushing her book Prequel, but there’s a lot of great stuff:
*
And if you don’t want to watch, let me summarize:
- Colbert (who works at CBS) explains how CBS leaders were told to lay off tRump — and how they did not pass that information to the news division. Maddow says leadership is hearing inappropriate political pressure and making sure the people beneath you in the organization don’t have to deal with that pressure themselves.
- Maddow talks also how people and some elected officials are pushing back to protect Head Start, Social Security offices and more. Not just the courts, but tRump finding himself alone on the wrong side of every argument.
- Fascism has threatened the US before, but other generations fought it off successfully (although it was never in the White House).
- No one single bullet; we need to do everything, everywhere, all at once.
- Need to protect journalists, courts, lawyers, and demand more of elected officials.
- Americans seem to finally realize tRump wants to be a dictator.
- Maddow says we need to stay engaged, but she’s much more heartened after 100 days than she ever thought she would be.
This is good! Obviously, not everyone agrees, but if we have a few Rs, that’s a good thing indeed.
📥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 😈
Forgery? I’m shocked, shocked...not
x
JUST POSTED:
Trump-Kushner Hotel Project in Serbia Hits a Snag: Alleged Forgery
Serbian authorities say an official admitted to forging a document allowing a protected site in Belgrade to be demolished and replaced with a Trump hotel.
Fate of project is now up in the air.
nyti.ms/3YLwORG
— Eric Lipton NYT (@ericlipton.nytimes.com) 2025-05-15T02:06:04.696Z
Yes, Ewing won in Omaha, but it’s also that Jean Stothert lost — despite her very maga culture wars. Samantha Riedel Them
Stothert was generally favored going into Election Day, as a 12-year incumbent who won her last election with a whopping 64% of the vote. But in the final weeks of the campaign, Stothert and a conservative PAC blitzed Ewing and the Democrats with anti-trans ads similar to those seen in the 2024 presidential election.
One TV ad from the Stothert campaign claimed that Ewing “stands with radicals” in favor of “boys in girls’ bathrooms and sports,” according to the
Omaha World-Herald. Separately, a mailer paid for by the newly-formed PAC Omaha Leadership Fund — itself funded by another
right-wing, anti-abortion PAC called “Common Sense Nebraska” — claimed that Ewing wants to “transition minors without their parents’ consent” and is “backed by radicals who will allow men in girls’ sports and bathrooms,” as seen in what appears to be a photo of the mailer posted to the
r/Omaha subreddit last week.
Ewing’s campaign called Stothert’s claims “utterly false” and demanded that the TV ad be pulled, per the
World-Herald. In a statement to the newspaper, Stothert said she had no knowledge of the mailer before it was released, but stood by the TV ad. The claims in that ad were not connected to any statements by Ewing himself, she said, but were instead based on his endorsements from the Nebraska Democratic Party and the Nebraska Stonewall Democrats, the party’s LGBTQ+ caucus. Stonewall Dems
oppose LB89, a
Republican bill in the state legislature that would ban trans students from using bathrooms or locker rooms, or competing on sports teams, that match their gender; legislators voted to advance the bill last month, after a similar version died as the result of a filibuster in 2024.
Vance is 0 for 2 with popes. But the reproducing public doesn’t like him either:
My uncle Donald has been dead many years, but I regret his name as well.
White rural reckoning Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman Public Notice 🎩 Nanny Ogg
More than 100 days into his second term, however, Trump’s policies are starting to wreak havoc on the very rural white citizens who have been his most loyal geo-demographic voting base. If they voted for Trump last year hoping he’d make their lives better, they’re quickly finding out they made a mistake. ✂️
A stunning PBS/NPR/Marist poll released earlier this month showed Trump’s support in rural America since taking office cratering. His February approval rating of 59 percent — a figure that includes both Trump-loving white rural citizens and far less supportive non-white rural citizens — fell 19 points to just 40 percent.
Given the limited number of rural residents in all but the biggest national surveys, that poll could be an outlier. But it suggests doubts may be emerging in the places where Trump got his strongest support — and which are now being punished for believing that he actually cared about them.
It took three presidential election cycles, but perhaps rural Americans are beginning to realize that Making America Great Again is only going to make their lives far worse.
The piece discusses the ways that white rural residents are losing: chaos in farms, OSHA being slashed (bad for miners), and support being withdrawn so that they will lose libraries and hospitals and broadband. And yes, they actually chose this fate, so I do feel a little Schadenfreude. However, I also hope they learn their lesson because that would be better for all of us.
And, we should remember they have been manipulated into this:
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Meiselas: They’re going through this because people like Trump and others are the ones doing it to them. And the people causing the pain have managed to convince the people they’re inflicting it on that they’re actually helping them. They’re not.
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T22:32:12.276Z
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
The ACLU has had a place here before, and they’ll be here again. Getting a scholar released Press Release
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal court today ordered Dr. Badar Khan Suri released from detention on bond eight weeks after immigration authorities arrested him in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech and associations. He will be able to return from Texas to Virginia, where his case challenging the constitutionality of his arrest is proceeding, and where he lives with his wife and three children.
“Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” said Dr. Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh. “I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again. Speaking out about what’s happening in Palestine is not a crime. Let’s show the world that this country is still a place where people can and do express their beliefs without fear.”
Dr. Khan Suri, an Indian national, is a lawful visa holder married to a Palestinian-American U.S. citizen. Prior to his arrest, both were doxxed by the extremist blacklisting websites Canary Mission and CAMERA. Federal immigration agents abducted Dr. Khan Suri outside his home on March 17th for speech in support of Palestinian rights and family ties to Gaza, then secretly transported him 1,500 miles away from his family and his attorneys.
After being transferred to five different ICE facilities across three states in just four days, Dr. Khan Suri arrived at an immigration detention center in Texas, where he spent nearly two weeks in a room without a bed and with a television blaring twenty-one hours a day. He was observing the holy month of Ramadan, but ICE officials denied him water and food to break his fast. He was issued used underwear, as well as a bright red high-risk uniform reserved for people alleged to pose the greatest security threats.
“The Constitution protects us all – regardless of citizenship – from being targeted by the government for our political speech and our family associations. The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr. Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” said ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Eden Heilman. “Dr. Khan Suri’s arrest and detention far away from his family is part of an extreme and unprecedented attack by this administration designed to punish students and academics for their views, and we won’t stop fighting until Dr. Khan Suri gets justice.”
Last week, the judge rejected the Trump administration’s request to dismiss Dr. Khan Suri’s habeas case or move it to Texas, keeping it in Virginia. Separately, Dr. Khan Suri’s immigration case, in which the Trump administration is seeking to have him deported, is proceeding in Texas. The next immigration hearing is scheduled for June 3rd.
Today’s ruling adds to mounting losses for the Trump administration in cases in which it has arrested immigrant students and academics for criticizing U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In the last two weeks, federal courts have similarly ordered Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk released from detention.
I also want to honor unknown leakers:
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
Because Mother’s Day was last Sunday, we’ve a mom and her boy here:
📎Odds & Ends 📎
Eating more fiber can help you flush out forever chemicals Cristen Hemingway Jaynes EcoWatch
A new study has found that eating higher amounts of dietary fiber can reduce the levels of two of the most common per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals.”
The researchers discovered that fiber was most effective at reducing perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), each of which can remain in the human body for years, reported The Guardian. Federal data has shown that the chemicals are present in the blood of almost everyone on the planet.
“The general public is exposed to PFASs via ingestion of contaminated food and drinking water and use of consumer products that contain PFAS,” the authors of the findings wrote. “Despite the growing concerns about the toxicity of PFAS, specific interventions to reduce PFAS levels in the body are limited. Recent epidemiological studies suggest one potential strategy. Investigation of dietary patterns and PFAS body burdens show that the consumption of fruits or vegetables and fiber-rich diets are associated with lower serum-PFAS concentrations in both adults and children.”
Just had sauerkraut with my dinner, before I found this. Another reason for sauerkraut.
What dedication to a cause can achieve:
Uganda stopped an Ebola outbreak. And the link here shows that Africa — at least parts — may be able to manage things themselves.
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Uganda stopped a Sudan Ebola virus outbreak in under 3 months.
No chaos. Just fast action, local leadership, and a rapidly implemented vaccine trial.
Maybe the problem isn’t capacity in Africa after all—maybe it’s the story we keep telling about it.
open.substack.com/pub/bktitanj...
— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) 2025-04-30T13:18:10.854Z
Research shows it’s possible to end global poverty AND meet climate change goals Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch
As the world works to stop global heating by ending the use of fossil fuels in accordance with climate objectives, ensuring that everyone on Earth has a decent standard of living is possible if the world quickly and decisively implements emissions reductions, new research has found.
The study, led by research scholar Jarmo Kikstra with the Energy, Climate and Environment Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), looked at energy scenarios that line up with both the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ✂️
“Our findings challenge the notion that eradicating poverty and protecting the planet are conflicting goals. In fact, the energy needed to ensure basic human dignity is small compared to what is currently consumed globally,” Kikstra explained. “Even so, such a sustainable development trajectory means growth rates in low-income countries are much higher than we have seen. It requires appropriate development efforts and international support.”
🐦 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:
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.
