Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Many readers know I always end my diaries with two phrases: Truth Matters. Love Matters.
These days, when Trump and his team deal in lies and hatred, truth and love become weapons of resistance (as the greats, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, discovered before us). Today, let’s look at Truth.
Trump and the Republican machine before him have been filling people’s heads with lies for decades. Many people doubted climate change; they accepted trickle-down economics; they went to Hawaii in search of Obama’s birth certificate; and even bought the crap that Trump is a successful businessman. Other lies have been designed for click-bait, to keep our side scrambling, always playing defense. I believe that Trump and the Republicans have a portfolio of click-bait stories and insults at the ready to keep us and the media distracted. As many of them are complete nonsense, preparing for them is hard. So, how do we fight back? How do we strengthen the position of the truth? Here are some ideas:
- Have our own message. The Democrats ran successful campaigns (I’m still smiling). How did they do this? They realized before they started that they couldn't be running after Trump’s lies. Instead they talked about the things that mattered to people, such as health care, over and over. They stayed on point with their own message, controlling the narrative enough. So that’s one tactic: have our own message.
- Put pressure on the media. The media has been struggling with the assault on the truth for a while, running fact-checks but not refusing to broadcast the lies. Others (finally realizing that Trump is especially dangerous to the press) have come up with better approaches. I have heard both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell refuse to show clips of Trump or press secretary Sanders when they are lying. I understand that Joe Scarborough, the other day, insisted that a shot of a dishonest Trump tweet be taken down. CNN is suing with respect to the treatment of Acosta. That’s what we have to do. The media has to stop giving air time to stuff that is completely dishonest. Now, there’s a lot of media out there that I don't watch, but this is where we — and our friends and allies — can help. We can contact and support those outlets refusing to give much time to the lies, and complain and boycott those that do. So that’s another tactic: put pressure on the media.
- Insist on truth and honest dealing. We have to insist that truth is a good thing, and stand up for truth and honest dealing (truth isn't
just a matter of words, but of deeds). How you go this insistence will be different in every situation; sometimes just speaking up and calling attention to something, sometimes by protesting, other times actually using legal means. I have been awed by how Stacey Abrams has been putting pressure on the system to make sure the vote count in Georgia is honest. Her voice has caused others to be aware of the problems and Kemp looks worse than he did before. We have to name and shame and punish the liars and the crooks.
- Repeat. Repeat. I find this a little tiresome, almost a little rude, but repetition is how most people learn. Our brains — and the brains of something like 40% of Americans — have to be rewired so that truth becomes a priority.
The great news is that you can see lots of people stepping forward to support truth and honest dealing. Many people have had enough of lies and crooks. I’ve linked to a few examples below, but please share your own.
💙 🌻 💙 Regular Scheduled Programming 💙 🌻 💙
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the very bad stuff that is happening. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, and yes, even the bombs and the guns, the attacks on the legal process and the press. 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. We have shown them that!
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. We have to keep demoralizing them. Name, blame and shame!
💙 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.
Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters 👎 & Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻
👎 👑 Brexit appears to be in serious trouble. As this was another scheme trolled by the Russians to weaken the opposition, this is great news.
🔎 Rick Gates is cooperating with Mueller on several fronts
With some rare exceptions, court filings are typically the only occasions in which news gets out about the latest developments in Mueller’s probe — which has already racked up over 100 criminal charges against dozens of people, including guilty pleas from President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, former campaign manager, and multiple former advisers. ✂️
When Mueller’s team, which contains “a vast array of experience investigating financial fraud, corruption, money laundering, foreign bribery, organized crime, and more,” updates the courts on the status of cooperating witnesses like Gates, it provides a timeframe for the next notice. ✂️
However, on Wednesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, the ever-astute host noticed something new: The new update from Mueller’s team now mentions Gates’ cooperation in “several ongoing investigations,” a change from the singular “investigation” in August’s filing.
🎆 Trump has pulled another Lester Holt interview
President Trump has spent the last year and a half trying to walk back or gaslight the public about his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, wherein he admitted that his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey was about the Russia investigation.
On Wednesday, the president repeated that gaffe, essentially admitting that his decision to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and appoint a Trump-friendly “acting” attorney general was also about the Russia investigation.
What is about Trump? Why does he never stop talking? And does he think, even if he’s talking to the other side, that liberals have no ability to listen?
⚖️The DOJ is planning to go after Assange
🐊 Tales from the Swamp 🐊
And a connected story: There was an amazingly weird segment on Maddow the other night, involving 💩, a 🚋 and even Jeff Sessions. Here’s a link to it if you want to pursue it. Hold your nose!
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
⛵️ Democrats flip another seat as the counting settles — this time in Maine
As promised, and allowed by the courts, Maine's secretary of state tabulated ranked-choice ballots in Maine today, and there is a clear winner: Democratic challenger Jared Golden. ✂️ Golden won by 2,905 votes in the end. He's the 26th Democrat to defeat a Republican incumbent. Now there are just seven House races still undetermined.
And this district went hard for Trump in 2016. Hope Susan Collins is nervous!
🌊 Katie Porter flips Mimi Walters
And although we want to consider this just because of the aversion that people have to Trump (and that’s part of it) we should remember the great tax scam which really penalized those already paying taxes in blue states.
I don’t have an update on the total count yet. Will leave for hpg.
In lesser races, let’s look at some of the consequences:
🍎 🌵 First Democratic superintendent of schools in Arizona in a long time
While eyes across the country were stuck on the battle between Reps. Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally to be Arizona’s next senator, which ended with Sinema’s win last night, another key race in the state was called Monday: Democrat and public school educator Kathy Hoffman will be the next superintendent for public instruction, proving the lasting power of the teacher movement that rocked the state earlier this year. A first-time candidate, Hoffman beat a charter school executive and former California congressman, Republican Frank Riggs, according to the Associated Press. She will be the first Democrat to serve as Arizona’s top superintendent in more than two decades. ✂️
Hoffman’s candidacy was a direct rebuke of the tenure of the current superintendent Diane Douglas. Douglas threatened to investigate teachers who walked out earlier this year, and she opposed an initiative (that was later pulled from the November ballot) that would have raised taxes on wealthy households to pay for school funding. She also tried to change the state’s academic standards to adopt a curriculum from the Hillsdale College, a private religious school with ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Doing so would have removed mention of evolution and climate change in the state’s science curriculum. After outcry from teachers, the state’s Board of Education ignored her attempt to overhaul the standards and moved forward with standards that did include mention of evolution. She ended up losing in the primary to Riggs.
The election is still going! Florida voters have until Saturday to fix signature problems
Georgia judge orders mail ballots without birthdates to be counted
🐍 Schadenfreude Files 🍎
🔫 ☕️ Apparently the NRA is suffering and no longer giving employees coffee and water
Hard to feel bad about that!
🌻 We Have Allies 🌻
People aren't taking the 💩 anymore. People are stepping up and demanding that that truth and honest dealing prevail. Here are some examples:
📷 🔫 Doctors are fighting the NRA. They are tired of pulling bullets out of people.
The NRA launched an attack on doctors, urging medical professionals to “stay in their lane” and not comment on gun violence. The ill-advised smear prompted outrage and for a week, doctors have been shaming and confronting the gun extremists by detailing why they deserve to be heard. ✂️
Doctors have been shaming the NRA for a week, and there are no signs that they intend to stop anytime soon. ✂️
Appearing on CNN to discuss the groundswell of opposition, Dr. Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a gun violence survivor, said, “This rhetoric by the NRA has really united the health care community.”
🔫 A neo-nazi’s family informed the police about a stash of weapons
Good for them!
✉️ Our own Goodie wrote about an amazing editorial — a letter to the editor. Where it becomes clear how corrupt the Republicans have been behaving in this election. And although we may not win every fight, it is clear that the population is woke. And pissed. And doing something about it.
📎📎📎 Odds and Ends 📎📎📎
⚡️ Latino turnout up 174% in the midterms
Not all voted for Ds, but most did. And it’s usually better when everyone votes.
⚡️ NRA candidates did terrible, but the NR8 did great.
Thanks to pr0gressivist
⚡️ Faster analysis and publication of research results
⚡️ NJ has just one R in Congress
⚡️ Fast optical fiber
⚡️ Sanctions on Eritrea lifted
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
Indivisible 2.0
This Guide is for what comes next. The 2016 Indivisible Guide was about using constituent power to defend our values, our neighbors, and our democracy. This Guide is about using our constituent power to go on offense.
Offense is exciting, but it’s more complex than defense. We have the opportunity to use congressional oversight to hold Trump and his cronies accountable. We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive vision rooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic — we have to demand it of Congress.
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can volunteer for recounts.
You can help register new voters (especially if you are in Florida).
You can help out with Mike Espy’s runoff campaign! (VoteForeward or Postcards to Voters if you’re not in Mississippi)
You can smile.
You can reach out to upset Republicans.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
🍀 “My experience has been that work is almost
always the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.” 🍀
Eleanor Roosevelt
🔥 If you’re going through hell, keep going! 🔥
Winston Churchill
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.