Welcome ☀️ to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
I end each of my Friday GNRs with these four words: Truth Matters. Love Matters. I also have a section devoted to each, in which I highlight a brave, insistent truth teller, or a soul (not always human) who has shown love far beyond the normal bounds.
This week, when the news gods are a little light, I am highlighting some of my favorite truth stories from the past year. I still have the other sections when there’s something relevant, but this is where I want to finish 2021, with a reminder to all that truth matters. Without truth we cannot function. We honor the truth tellers, who defied others, sometime those they loved, to tell the truth.
Standing up for truth can be a lonely business, but often — not always — those who do are joined by others who value integrity. Consider all those who defied the insurrectionists. Those who stepped forward to put Derek Chauvin away.
Come on in, gnusies, and read about some of the honest heroes of 2021.
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, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. 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 from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💙 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 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, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
🗽 Biden as President!🗽
Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Well, a bit less hard this week. Here are the last week’s posts at the White House briefing room.
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: Background Press Call by a Senior Administration Official on President Biden’s Call with President Putin of the Russian Federation
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Biden’s Call with President-elect Gabriel Boric of Chile
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Biden’s Phone Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: A Proclamation on National Stalking Awareness Month, 2022
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: A Proclamation on National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2022
- Thursday, December 30, 2021: A Proclamation on National Mentoring Month, 2022
- Wednesday, December 29, 2021: President Biden Announces Key Regional Appointments for USDA, HUD, and SBA
- Wednesday, December 29, 2021: Background Press Call by a Senior Administration Official on President Biden’s Upcoming Call with President Putin of the Russian Federation
- Wednesday, December 29, 2021: Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
- Wednesday, December 29, 2021: A Proclamation on the Death of Harry Reid
- Wednesday, December 29, 2021: Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on President Biden’s Upcoming Phone Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia
- Tuesday, December 28, 2021: Statement by Vice President Kamala Harris on the Passing of Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
- Tuesday, December 28, 2021: Statement by President Joe Biden on the Passing of Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
- Tuesday, December 28, 2021: A Proclamation on Revoking Proclamation 10315
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Remarks by President Biden at COVID-19 Response Team’s Regular Call With the National Governors Association
- Monday, December 27, 2021: A Proclamation on Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States
- Monday, December 27, 2021: A Proclamation on Adjusting Imports of Aluminum into the United States
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Call with Polish National Security Bureau Chief Pawel Soloch and Head of the International Policy Bureau Jakub Kumoch
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Memorandum for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Maximizing Assistance to Respond to COVID-19
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Statement by the President on S. 1605, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Remarks by President Biden Before Marine One Departure
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Readout of President Biden’s Call with the NGA on COVID-19 Response
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Bill Signed: S. 1605
- Monday, December 27, 2021: Bill Signed: H.R. 1664
- Sunday, December 26, 2021: Remarks by President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden in a Virtual Meeting with Service Members on Christmas Day
- Sunday, December 26, 2021: Statement by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on the Passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu
- Saturday, December 25, 2021: Statement by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Christmas
- Friday, December 24, 2021: President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Arkansas Disaster Declaration
According to the CDC, as of December 30, 2021, 85.5% of US adults have received at least one anti-covid jab.
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
This is from the transcript for the December 24, 2021 The Rachel Maddow Show , which she devoted to people standing up for what they believe in. Sometimes they made a difference, sometimes not.
Over the course of the last year, I think it remains one of the most under- covered things about the politics of the moment on this earth. There has been an explosion of peaceful, dramatic, direct action from all kinds of people, from all kinds of places on all kinds of issues, calling on other people`s consciences, trying to move people to do the right thing.
Sometimes it does happen with big groups of people standing together, finding safety in numbers. But sometimes it happens in ones and twos, people standing up really all alone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name`s Hannah, and I am here, the world`s largest coal port. I`m here with my friend Diana, and we are stopping this coal terminal from loading all coal into ships and from unloading all coal from coal trains.
This is part of the largest coal port in the world, and we`re here with Blockade Australia stopping the operation.
This is humans trying to survive this is humans trying to this is humans trying to overcome the system that is killing us, that is enslaving us, and we are trying to induce the social tipping points which will give us a chance at another generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: What a wild thing to want. Those two young women in Australia, they rappelled off this giant piece of machinery at the largest coal port in the world this year. They were protesting Australia`s use of coal, as well as a major coal exporter and that port and its role in distributing coal all over the world.
They strung themselves up by those harnesses. They hung there are if hours, and it did halt the export of coal at that giant port for at least a little while. Eventually they were brought down and they were arrested.
💣 Republicans in Disarray 💣
🍑 The Civil War rages on — in the Georgia GOP Bob Brigham, Raw Story
Republicans in Georgia are ending 2021 in a "civil war" after a chaotic year of failure, infighting and lies.
"A race for governor dominated by Donald Trump’s election-fraud conspiracy theories. A scramble for the U.S. Senate and statewide offices shaped by the former president’s influence. And Republican critics of Trump’s false narrative left weakened or sidelined. Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was 'rigged' against him triggered a civil war within the Georgia GOP that’s raging still at the dawn of a new election year," Greg Bluestein wrote in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Perchance this is going on in other state GOP parties?
💙 Democrats Being Cool 💙
What you get with a D trifecta:
For example, this:
I am looking forward to seeing what they do:
💜 Unity? 💜
Fairer maps in Michigan Clara Hendrickson Detroit Free Press
A yearslong effort to bring an end to gerrymandering in Michigan — the practice of drawing voting districts to benefit one political party — hit a key milestone Tuesday when the members of the state's inaugural citizen-led redistricting commission adopted new congressional and state legislative districts.
In 2018, 61% of Michigan voters adopted a constitutional amendment to wrest control of the redistricting process from state lawmakers who drew lines deemed some of the most politically skewed in the country.
The amendment charged a group of randomly selected voters with crafting the new boundaries instead.
Note the new maps still favor the Rs, but not to the same extent of the deep gerrymandering of 2011.
Trickle-up economics works Evan Hurst Wonkette
As we dog paddle the last lap of the year through the toxic waste lagoon that is America's political and civic discourse, let us just peek our head above the brown water for a moment and breathe in some clean air. Perhaps even haul ourselves out of the muck and touch grass, if you will. Because, thanks to Democratic stimulus bills shepherded by President Joe Biden, the economy is actually in pretty great shape.
Turns out, putting money in the hands of people who will actually spend it actually stimulates the economy. Who knew!
As a recent Bloomberg piece by its former editor Matthew Winkler noted, "Corporate America is booming because the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccination programs and $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan reduced the jobless rate to 4.2% in November from 6.2% in February, continuing an unprecedented rate of decline during the Covid-19 pandemic."
In plain English, when ordinary people have a little more cash in their pockets and feel like things are moving in the right direction, they buy shit. A lot of shit. Unlike rich people, who take their stupid tax cut and sock it away to make sure their grandchildren will never fly coach. (Or corporations, who buy back their own shares.)
Everyone is better off.
📥 Actions You Can Take 📤
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. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy.
🏃 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. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection.
👎 Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists, and their current approach to supporting or not supporting 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 😈
Michael Cohen retaliates against Bill Barr (the case is about Barr violating Cohen’s rights by sending Cohen back to prison when Cohen was preparing to publish an anti-tRump book):
This case, by the way, is important! From the Maddow Blog:
As Rachel explained on Friday night's show, we can't have a system in which a corrupt president can use the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice to retaliate against a political critic. Imprisoning Cohen because he wrote a book Trump didn't like, as is alleged in this case, appears to be indefensible in a country that takes the rule of law seriously.
Hope some nasties are nervous:
This really is fun. Go, Canada!
And there’s this:
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
📣 (A January 2021 GNR) Dr. James Phillips spoke out against tRump’s covid joy ride NPR
Dr. James Phillips, the Walter Reed physician who criticized President Trump's decision to greet supporters outside the facility where he was being treated for COVID-19, has worked his last shift at the hospital. "I stand by my words, and I regret nothing," Phillips wrote on Twitter.
The doctor's pending removal from the work schedule at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was reported in early December – two months after Phillips slammed the president's refusal to isolate himself. His announcement that he has now stopped working at the medical compound brought a new round of praise for Phillips, both for his work as a doctor and for speaking out.
Dr. Phillips was a contract worker, so it’s not exactly a firing, but hey, it’s a firing. Hope he gets a new contract.
(A January 2021 GNR) This week’s medal for truth goes to acting AG Jeffrey Rosen, and the other attorneys who stood up to the ex-president during his attempted coup. New York Times
The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.
The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?
The answer was unanimous. They would resign.
(A Feb 2021 GNR) This week I want to honor Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary.
Some may say that she does not deserve it, because as she’s working for the side that has been committed to truth all along, her speaking truth does not require especial courage.
That is one way to view it. However, most of us know that no one — especially no one in a position of power — can go through life without being pressured with respect to the truth.
Besides, I think it’s time to honor those who have been speaking truth all along, instead of those who have lately discovered lines they cannot cross.
Finally, after years of lies and more lies — or no press briefings at all — Psaki is such a joy! Here is an excerpt from one of the press briefings this week.
MS. PSAKI: Go ahead, Kristen.
Q Thank you, Jen. President Biden has been very clear that one of his core promises to the American people is to try to unify this country. How can he take steps to unify the country while the impeachment trial is going on next week?
MS. PSAKI: Well, he can focus his efforts, which is exactly what he’s doing, on delivering necessary relief to the American public and using his forum to talk about how he’s going to reopen schools; how he’s going to get shots in the arms of Americans; how he’s going to ensure that the one in seven American families, who are concerned they can’t put food on the table, can do exactly that. That’s how he’s spending his time as we started this briefing and how he will continue to spend it moving forward.
Q What’s his message to Republicans who say that the very trial itself undercuts any efforts at unity?
MS. PSAKI: He invites Republicans to work with him on bringing relief to the American public, and that’s why he invited them here — many of them here on Monday and why he will continue to engage with them moving forward.
Q And you talk about his agenda. President Biden has been signing executive orders, speaking to the American people almost on a daily basis. Obviously, the focus is going to shift to the Senate next week. How concerned is he that the Senate trial will undercut his momentum?
MS. PSAKI: I think the President has been clear there is an urgency to delivering relief to the American people. And it’s important and vital that the House and Senate work quickly to get this bill packet passed.
Q Do you see it wrapped up within a week, when you say (inaudible)?
MS. PSAKI: I’m not giving a deadline; I’m just conveying what he has stated many times publicly. And we are confident they have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Q And finally, one more question. There’s discussion on the Hill about stripping Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. Does President Biden believe that she should be stripped of those assignments?
MS. PSAKI: We’ve resisted speaking of her in this briefing room, and I’m not going to do that today.
Q Why not weigh in on her assignments though, Jen?
MS. PSAKI: Because it’s up to the Hill to make that determination.
(A Feb 2021 GNR) There’s another time when telling the truth is difficult, however: when you think it won’t matter.
Nearly everyone agrees the Rs in the Senate will refuse to convict as they shut their ears and eyes and their brains and their hearts and ignore their own dangerous experiences as well as the attempted murder of the vice president (Mike Pence ought to be much more grateful to Ds, who tried to make him president 2x, and who cared a lot more about his safety than his own party).
Yet Jaime Raskin and the House Impeachment managers, have gone ahead.
(A Feb 2021 GNR) We honor Jaime Herrera Butler, who told the truth about McCarthy and tRump Vox
New details emerged Friday about a call between Trump and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy in the midst of the attack. First recounted in January by Washington state Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who was one of just 10 House Republicans to vote for impeachment, the call gives insight into Trump’s state of mind on the day of the insurrection and suggests his sympathies lay with the rioters.
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump reportedly told McCarthy as rioters stormed the Capitol.
The defense had argued that “the president would never have wanted such a riot to occur because his longstanding hatred for violent protesters,” but Trump’s conversation with McCarthy — as well as his long history of inciting violence well before the attack on the Capitol — flies in the face of that claim. ✂️
And Herrera Beutler, who reaffirmed her account of the call in a statement Friday, said that “you have to look at what [Trump] did during th
(A March 2021 GNR) R️epresentative Zoe Lofgren Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a House manager for the second Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, recently completed a major project. CNN reports that Lofgren “quietly posted a nearly 2,000-page report documenting social media posts by her Republican colleagues who voted against certifying results of the presidential election on January 6.”
Here is a perfect instance in which the First Amendment protects the right of these
more than 100 Republicans to say what they please on social media, but they nevertheless must be held to a higher standard of conduct imposed by their oaths of office. ✂️
The record Lofgren assembled is replete with Republicans’ lies about election fraud and their attacks on the electoral vote. (Many also went on the record by signing a brief that sought to disenfranchise millions of voters and throw out electoral votes from certain states that went for President Biden.)
Lofgren’s report comes during the same week that, as CNN reported, “Federal investigators are examining records of communications between members of Congress and the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol, as the investigation moves closer to exploring whether lawmakers wittingly or unwittingly helped the insurrectionists, according to a US official briefed on the matter.” This data suggests “contact with lawmakers in the days around January 6, as well as communications between alleged rioters discussing their associations with members of Congress.”
(A March 2021 GNR) Biden C️DC Director unf*cking the agency, Wonkette, Evan Hurst
Some of the bad, fake, anti-science shit the Trump administration put the CDC's name on is gone now, and the rest will be deleted and replaced with good information in coming days. Thank you, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who promised to fix it, and now she is.
The Washington Post reported late Monday:
Federal health officials have identified several controversial pandemic recommendations released during the Donald Trump administration that they say were "not primarily authored" by staff and don't reflect the best scientific evidence, based on a review ordered by its new director.
The review identified three documents that had already been removed from the agency's website: One, released in July, delivered a strong argument for school reopenings and downplayed health risks. A second set of guidelines about the country's reopening was released in April by the White House and was far less detailed than what had been drafted by the CDC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A third guidance issued in August discouraged the testing of people without covid-19 symptoms even when they had contact with infected individuals. That was replaced in September after experts inside and outside the agency raised alarms.
One of the saddest things about the tail end of the Trump administration, after the pandemic hit, is the way they moved to undermine and destroy the freaking Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps the one agency we and the rest of the world sort of assumed could always be trusted.
(March 2021) Jane Mayer and her secret recorder Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
Mayer gets incredible scoops 🍨 sometimes, and this one is super, super important. This is the messaging the Ds need to use in order to pass the Voting Rights Acts, which in turn protects democracy.
Kyle McKenzie, the research director for the Koch-run advocacy group Stand Together, told fellow-conservatives and Republican congressional staffers on the call that he had a “spoiler.” “When presented with a very neutral description” of the bill, “people were generally supportive,” McKenzie said, adding that “the most worrisome part . . . is that conservatives were actually as supportive as the general public was when they read the neutral description.” In fact, he warned, “there’s a large, very large, chunk of conservatives who are supportive of these types of efforts.”
As a result, McKenzie conceded, the legislation’s opponents would likely have to rely on Republicans in the Senate, where the bill is now under debate, to use “under-the-dome-type strategies”—meaning legislative maneuvers beneath Congress’s roof, such as the
filibuster—to stop the bill, because turning public opinion against it would be “incredibly difficult.”
He warned that the worst thing conservatives could do would be to try to “engage with the other side” on the argument that the legislation “stops billionaires from buying elections.” McKenzie admitted, “Unfortunately, we’ve found that that is a winning message, for both the general public and also conservatives.” He said that when his group tested “tons of other” arguments in support of the bill, the one condemning billionaires buying elections was the most persuasive—people “found that to be most convincing, and it riled them up the most.”
McKenzie explained that the Koch-founded group had invested substantial resources “to see if we could find any message that would activate and persuade conservatives on this issue.” He related that “an A.O.C. message we tested”—one claiming that the bill might help Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez achieve her goal of holding “people in the Trump Administration accountable” by identifying big donors—helped somewhat with conservatives. But McKenzie admitted that the link was tenuous, since “what she means by this is unclear.” “Sadly,” he added, not even attaching the phrase “cancel culture” to the bill, by portraying it as silencing conservative voices, had worked. “It really ranked at the bottom,” McKenzie said to the group. “That was definitely a little concerning for us.”
️(An April 2021) This week let’s honor all of those who participated in what resulted in the conviction of Derek Chauvin. President Biden speaks about these people:
Let’s also be clear that such a verdict is also much too rare. For so many people, it seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors: a brave young woman with a smartphone camera; a crowd that was traumatized — traumatized witnesses; a murder that lasts almost 10 minutes in broad daylight for, ultimately, the whole world to see; officers standing up and testifying against a fellow officer instead of just closing ranks, which should be commended; a jury who heard the evidence, carried out their civic duty in the midst of an extraordinary moment, under extraordinary pressure.️
I also think all those who have gone out and demonstrated in support of Black Lives Matter deserve to be honored, because they helped create an atmosphere in which truth could prevail.
(April 2021) F️ighting against scammers! I saw this link in a comment by gnusie Andrew F. Cockburn. This week’s virtual medal goes to the vigilante Jim Browning (not his real name) who exposes scammers. Doug Shadel and Neil Wertheimer, AARP
A relative of Jim's had told him about warnings popping up on his computer, and Jim, too, was besieged with recorded calls saying his computer was on the verge of meltdown, and that to prevent it he should call immediately. As a software expert, Jim knew there was nothing wrong with his system, but the automated calls from “certified technicians” didn't stop. One night that spring, his curiosity got the better of him. “It was part nosiness and part intellectual curiosity,” Jim said. “I'm a problem solver and I wanted to get to the bottom of what these people wanted.” So he returned one of the calls.
The person who answered asked if he could access Jim's computer to diagnose the problem. Jim granted access, but he was ready; he had created a “virtual computer” within his computer, a walled-off digital domain that kept Jim's personal information and key operations safe and secure. As he played along with the caller, Jim recorded the conversation and activity on his Trojan horse setup to find out what he was up to. It took mere moments to confirm his hunch: It was a scam.
Intrigued by the experience, Jim started spending his evenings getting telephone scammers online, playing the dupe, recording the interactions and then posting videos of the encounters on YouTube. It became, if not a second career, an avocation—after-dinner entertainment exposing “tech support” scammers who try to scare us into paying for unnecessary repairs.
"Listening to them at first, honestly, made me sick, because I realized right away all they wanted to do was steal money,” Jim would later tell me. “It doesn't matter if you are 95 or 15, they will say whatever they need to say to get as much money out of you as possible.” Jim saw, for example, how the callers used psychology to put targets at ease. “They say reassuring phrases like ‘Take your time, sir,’ or ‘Do you want to get a glass of water?’ And they will also try to endear themselves to older people, saying things like ‘You sound like my grandmother,’ or ‘You don't sound your age—you sound 20 years younger.’ “
A fascinating article, if you have the time
(May 2021) The journalist from Belarus, Roman Pratasevich, deserves the medal of truth for this week. The below is from President Biden’s words on the matter. (Note I have seen his name spelled both Raman and Roman. I have not asked him which he prefers.)
Belarus’s forced diversion of a commercial Ryanair flight, traveling between two member states of the European Union, and subsequent removal and arrest of Raman Pratasevich, a Belarusian journalist traveling abroad, are a direct affront to international norms. The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr. Pratasevich. This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press. The United States joins countries around the world in calling for his release, as well as for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners who are being unjustly detained by the Lukashenka regime.
I join the many calls for an international investigation to ascertain the complete facts of the case. I welcome the news that the European Union has called for targeted economic sanctions and other measures, and have asked my team to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible, in close coordination with the European Union, other allies and partners, and international organizations.
For months, the Belarusian people have made their voices heard—demanding democracy, respect for human rights, and the preservation of fundamental freedoms. I applaud the courage and determination of Belarusians fighting for basic rights, including journalists like Raman Pratasevich and opposition leaders like Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski. The United States will continue to stand with the people of Belarus in their struggle.
(June 2021) Paxton Smith, valedictorian in a Texas high school:
(June 2021) ProPublica had one of the most important scoops ever
ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits.
Taken together, it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year. ✂️
ProPublica’s data shows that while some wealthy Americans, such as hedge fund managers, would pay more taxes under the current Biden administration proposals, the vast majority of the top 25 would see little change. ✂️
ProPublica is not disclosing how it obtained the data, which was given to us in raw form, with no conditions or conclusions. ProPublica reporters spent months processing and analyzing the material to transform it into a usable database.
(June 2021) ABC Reporter Rachel Scott challenged the liar Putin — Putin, who murders journalists — at his core. There’s an article in Daily Kos about her.
(August 2021) T️his week we must honor (again) Jeffrey Rosen and the other attorneys at DOJ such as Richard Donoghue who stood up to tRump when he was attempting the coup. Not only did they stand up to rescue to our country, when Barr had bailed before, they went to Congress to tell all as soon as it was cleared by the DOJ. His haste was also because he did not want to give the tRump team any opportunity to object. Kevin Johnson, Bart Jansen, USA Today
Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, a central witness in multiple investigations into former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, spoke with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators for seven hours Saturday.
Rosen, who repeatedly rebuffed Trump's efforts to cast doubt on the election results in the final days of the administration, appeared in a closed session of the committee, a panel spokesperson said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was at the session Saturday, said he was "struck by how close the country came to total catastrophe.”
Blumenthal said information was presented that hasn’t been publicly revealed before.
(August 2021) The Afghan women in the media Rachel Madow The Rachel Maddow Show, 8/17/2021 transcript
But look at this. This is something that you should see. This is something that should burn into your retinas from these days.
This is an interview that took place today, Tuesday, in Afghanistan live on Afghan television at the studios of TOLO, the independent and very, very popular TV network in Afghanistan. That is a top Taliban official that you see on your screen right there being interviewed live on set by a female anchor for TOLO, whose name is Beheshta Arghand. She`s doing a one-on-one, face-to-face interview with him live in studio at TOLO.
Afghanistan has excellent female reporters and anchors and journalists, and they have been singled out by the Taliban and other extremists for particularly intense threats and intimidation and even murder. News organizations the world over face all kinds of challenges, including intense threat environments for their journalists for all kinds of reasons right now.
But with TOLO in Afghanistan, this incredibly successful, incredibly popular and trusted network in Afghanistan, they have got their -- which has been set up since 2004, since the U.S. -- since after the U.S. invaded in 2001.
TOLO, this incredibly important cultural force in Afghanistan, like I say, very, very, very popular, they have got their female anchors and their female reporters and their female journalists out there face first as the Taliban literally take over their country. It is inspiring and terrifying in equal measure. I do not envy them the bravery it takes to do their work right now.
(August 2021) S️omeone speaking the truth about covid. We need more of these, please. Thanks, Nurse Sushi!
(September 2021) Testifying against Nassar and the system that enabled him BBC. Medals for all these women for stepping forward, again and again.
Elite US gymnast Simone Biles has testified before the Senate about abuse she suffered at the hands of disgraced former team doctor, Larry Nassar.
Former teammates Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney also appeared before the committee, along with FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The committee is examining shortcomings in the FBI's investigation into Nassar, later convicted of sexually abusing girls.
He is serving a life sentence in jail. ✂️
The four athletes were among more than 200 women who gave powerful impact statements to a court in 2018, detailing Larry Nassar's abuse as the sports doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team.
In total, Nassar was accused of sexual abuse by more than 330 women and girls at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.
These women came forward again and agains, and they are finally being heard. Often you have to repeat the truth.
(September 2021) Anonymous hackers. You have probably heard this story, but here’s the recap: some anonymous hackers are exposing the Proud Boys and some other far-right websites. Drew Harwell, Craig Timberg, Hannah Allam Washington Post
Epik long has been the favorite Internet company of the far-right, providing domain services to QAnon theorists, Proud Boys and other instigators of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — allowing them to broadcast hateful messages from behind a veil of anonymity.
But that veil abruptly vanished last week when a huge breach by the hacker group Anonymous dumped into public view more than 150 gigabytes of previously private data — including user names, passwords and other identifying information of Epik’s customers.
Extremism researchers and political opponents have treated the leak as a Rosetta Stone to the far-right, helping them to decode who has been doing what with whom over several years. Initial revelations have spilled out steadily across Twitter since news of the hack broke last week, often under the hashtag #epikfail, but those studying the material say they will need months and perhaps years to dig through all of it.
(September 2021) Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for all sorts of things: keeping the country safe from a coup, from making sure we didn’t start a nuclear war, and for putting up with the s**t from the Rs. Helene Cooper, The New York Times
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended his actions in the tumultuous last months of the Trump administration, insisting that calls to his Chinese counterpart and a meeting in which he told generals to alert him if the president tried to launch a nuclear weapon were all part of his job duties as the country’s most senior military officer.
“My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give,” he said. “I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle essential to this republic and I am committed to ensuring the military stays clear of domestic politics.”
General Milley used the ending of his opening remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee to address the turmoil of recent revelations in the book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. He said he was directed by Mark Esper, then the secretary of defense, to make a call on Oct. 30 to his Chinese counterpart because there was “intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States.”
(October 2021) Let’s honor Jennifer Jenkens, a woman elected to the school board in Brevard County, FL, who is standing up for sensible choices despite dangerous and illegal harassment by anti-maskers, etc. Here are some of her words from the October 13 edition of The Last Word.
JENKINS: It`s really difficult. The last protest where they came outside of my home, again, I`m not against people using their First Amendment rights. They`re on public property. That`s okay.
But I`m against them terrorizing my family. There was 25 individuals standing outside my home in a small beach town in Florida. They were there for hours. ✂️
I eventually went back inside, but they brandished their weapons in the parking lot in front of my neighbors, my daughter to this day at least twice a week, mommy are those mean people going to be outside again. It`s been really difficult.
Yeah, they did, they vandalized my property. They wrote obscenities in my grass with weed killer. They cut down some of my plants. They did the DCF claim which was really difficult for me. I had to take the DCF investigator to a play date of somebody who I am just an acquaintance of, I don`t even know very well.
So, here I am a school board member walking back to a play date I had just dropped her off to with a DCF investigator with no announcement for them to look underneath her clothes to see if she has burns. It`s a really uncomfortable position to be in, and unfortunately even though the police department is doing their best to have subpoenas sent to the state level to figure out who made that unfounded claim, there`s only so far they can go.
And so, currently, I still have a document that says I had an unfounded DCF claim against me. It`s not something that`s going to go away.
O`DONNELL: What did you tell your daughter about that incident with the DCF during that play date?
JENKINS: You know, the DCF investigator was fantastic. And so, she had no idea what was going on. I really appreciated that person understanding this was very unlikely an unfounded claim. The police department came with her and let her know what`s going on.
She handled it really, really well like a pro, and I was really happy that she was there.
(October 2021) Frances Haugen is the whistleblower on Facebook. Some more on Haugen and how she operated. Reed Albergotti Washington Post
She took a job at Facebook in 2019, a couple of years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, hoping she could help change the company from within, The Post has reported. Earlier this year, she leaked confidential documents to the Wall Street Journal, which published a series of revelatory articles that showed a disparity between the company’s internal research and its public statements on the societal impact of its products. Haugen has filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC. Should the agency bring a civil enforcement action, Haugen, under the Dodd-Frank Act, could receive between 10 and 30 percent of any fines or judgments Facebook is forced to pay. ✂️
Internal Facebook posts often contain confidential information. Documents reviewed by The Washington Post show Facebook employees commenting on internal documents the same way everyone else comments on their friends’ baby photos. Rather than download the documents or take screenshots, which would have been more likely to arouse suspicion, she apparently took photos with her phone.
Why would she want to take documents in the first place?
Haugen, according to her friend Leslie Fine, felt that her work to identify and rectify the social network’s problems wasn’t going anywhere. Rather than just quit, she decided to gather documents and release them publicly, hoping that public pressure would force Facebook to change.
Other FB employees were angry; Haugen did something about it. And she could receive a whistleblower reward.
(November 2021) Jean Peters Baker is a prosecutor in Missouri, who fought hard (and finally successfully) to get Kevin Strickland, a wrongfully convicted black man, released. This is from the 11/23/2021 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show.️
MADDOW: Then something happened that really never happens. The prosecutor`s office that brought these charges, brought the prosecution against him back in the day, the prosecutor`s office came out and said, that prosecution that we did, that was wrong. They came forward and said that they had independently investigated this matter, reinvestigated this crime, and they found that Kevin Strickland was factually innocent of this crime for which he had been convicted. They said the case never should have been brought.
The lead prosecutor in that office in Jackson County, Missouri, came forward publicly and abjectly apologized. She said Kevin Strickland should be immediately freed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN PETERS BAKER, JACKSON COUNTY, MO, PROSECUTOR: I`m here advocating for Mr. Strickland`s freedom and his conviction should be vacated. Most importantly, I`m advocating that this man must be freed immediately.
My job is to protect the innocent, and often prosecutors show hubris, right. You have probably seen me show some of that from time to time, and today my job is to apologize.
It is important to recognize when the system has made wrongs, and what we did in this case was wrong.
So to Mr. Strickland, I am profoundly sorry. I am profoundly sorry for the harm that has come to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Since that remarkable public statement, Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker who you saw there, she has been trying to fix this. We interviewed her here on the show and she told us she would fight until this was fixed.
Now, again, the Republican governor in the state could easily fix this. He could pardon Mr. Strickland, commute his sentence but he refused to do anything to fix what had gone wrong here. So, Jean Peters Baker, among others, advocated for a new law in Missouri which just, in fact, went into effect this August. That new law lets prosecutors like herself file motions in court so a judge can fix wrongful convictions like this one.
Well, it finally worked today. After 42 years and 4 months in prisons, one of the longest times served in U.S. history in what is known to be a wrongful conviction, today, Kevin Strickland went free.
December 2021: The January 6th Committee Paul LeBlanc CNN
Much of the committee's work to this point has taken place behind closed doors, and with an interim report not expected until the summer, the panel has drawn more headlines for the twists and turns of its plodding investigation than the revelations it's produced.
But it hasn't been just closed-door interviews, document requests and legal showdowns. Here's what the panel has produced so far.
Meadow's texts
Donald Trump Jr., Fox News personalities and lawmakers unsuccessfully implored then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on January 6 to get President Donald Trump to stop the violence unfurling at the US Capitol, according to
text messages relayed by the House committee investigating the attack.
The messages were read by committee members on the House floor before referring a criminal contempt of Congress against Meadows to the Justice Department.
Trump Jr. "'He's got to condemn this sh*t ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,'" Trump Jr. wrote in one message to Meadows, according to the committee's vice chairwoman, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Cheney detailed that when Meadows had texted back that he agreed, Trump Jr. said: "We need an Oval office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand."
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
In all the other GNRs I write about someone showing love for others. This time I want to encourage all the gnusies to show some love and compassion to themselves. Why? Because it is good for you. This is from the Good News Network:
Middle-aged women who practiced self-compassion had a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, irrespective of other traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cholesterol levels.
“A lot of research has been focused on studying how stress and other negative factors may impact cardiovascular health, but the impact of positive psychological factors, such as self-compassion, is far less known,” said Rebecca Thurston, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, clinical and translational science, epidemiology, and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
The article talks about meditation and mindfulness, and how practice of these techniques have palpable impacts on health (there’s a Netflix series guiding you through meditation and I am sure there are a gazillion youtube videos too).
Anyway, you often know what you most need or desire, so take some time and give these things to yourself. I know you gnusies, and I know you deserve it. The last two years have been really hard, and many people are languishing.
📎Odds & Ends 📎
A dream vaccine is in the works! Omasu Tsukimori Japan Times
Researchers in Tokyo are developing a “dream” COVID-19 vaccine that offers lifetime efficacy, in what would be a game-changer as the fight against the coronavirus drags on into its third year.
At a time when it appears most COVID-19 vaccines will require periodic boosters due to a decline in recipients' antibody levels, the creation of a vaccine with lifetime efficacy could lead to huge financial savings globally and give the world an upper hand against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 270 million people and claimed more than 5 million lives around the world.
Soon after the pandemic began, in early 2020, Michinori Kohara, emeritus investigator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, wondered if it was possible to develop a vaccine based on the tried and tested smallpox vaccine — which helped the world eradicate the deadly disease. The vaccinia virus used in the smallpox vaccine is a subject he has worked on for over three decades, and Kohara knows firsthand how significant a vaccine that gives strong protection for life can be.
😄 The Good News Network has a set of 10 stories 2021 that will make you smile about the future of the planet. Here’s one about building solar farms on used landfills. Andy Corbley
One of the big knocks against solar panels is how much land they take up compared to how much power they generate. But what if there were a readymade source of open land nearby to cities and towns that was guaranteed not to be used for anything else?
As it turns out, landfills are becoming prime real estate for solar farms, and one nonprofit believes the U.S. could increase the nation’s solar energy capacity by 63 gigawatts, or approximately 60%, simply by building solar farms on landfills.
Solar firms are building these landfill solar farms all over the country, and while they present a bigger engineering and economic challenge then building one on flat ground, the appeal of refurbishing capped landfills and brownfields from their barren state into a new service for the community is deeply appealing.
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and the sequel, Scavengers of Mind. (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here.
💙 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.
Current projects:
Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters.
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
💙 “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.” 💙
President Joseph R. Biden
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.