Good News in the Resistance
'Sanctuary' cities are getting their grants despite threats
The Republicans have been doing everything they can to vilify immigrants and refugees, and taking action against cities that have declared themselves as sanctuaries. But these cities have been fighting back. And winning.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — About 18 months after the Trump administration threatened to withhold law enforcement grants from nearly 30 places around the country it felt weren't doing enough to work with federal immigration agents, all but one have received or been cleared to get the money, the Justice Department said.
In most cases, courts chipped away at the crackdown that escalated in November 2017 with letters from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to 29 cities, metro areas, counties or states it considered as having adopted "sanctuary policies" saying those policies may violate federal law.
Of those 29 jurisdictions — which include cities as large as Los Angeles and as small as Burlington, Vermont — only Oregon has yet to be cleared to receive the grants from 2017, a Justice Department spokesman told The Associated Press this week.
Tens of thousands march in anti-racism rally in Milan
I selected this article to highlight, partly because of this picture. This is the end of a march in Milan where estimates of 200,000 people marched against racism. As they finished their march, in front of a cathedral, the crowd formed hearts with their hands.
Tens of thousands of people have marched in Italy's financial capital against policies by the populist government that they say promote racism.
The Milan city official in charge of migrant policy, Pierfrancesco Majorino, put the number of marchers under the banner "People First" at 200,000.
France is protesting, too.
French Rally Against Anti-Semitism Draws Thousands After Sharp Spike In Attacks
Thousands of people attended nationwide rallies against anti-Semitism in France on Tuesday night, after a recent spike in anti-Semitic attacks heightened concerns among the country’s Jewish community.
The massive demonstration, organized by French Jewish groups and the country’s major political parties, united crowds in the streets of Paris and other French cities under the theme, “That’s enough,” The Associated Press reported.
Good News in the Environment
These Floating Trashcans Are Being Deployed Around the World So They Can Suck Up Tons of Ocean Trash
You know those two surfers on MSNBC who are trying to clean up the world’s oceans? Their Indigogo effort raised $250,000 to manufacture and deploy these floating trash bins. Each bin can collect 44 pounds of trash, including plastic microbeads. The bins make a sound as they operate which scares away fish so they don’t go out with the trash.
Senate Passes Biggest Public Lands Package of the Decade With Sweeping Bipartisan Approval
And more good National Park news.
Legislators from both sides of the aisle are rejoicing in the sweeping bipartisan approval of the biggest public lands package of the decade.
Earlier this week, the Senate passed a 662-page measure that will designate over 1.3 million acres as nationally-protected wilderness and create four new national monuments honoring Civil Rights and Union heroes.
The bill was passed in a 92-8 vote, and White House officials have divulged that the president has agreed to sign it, according to The Washington Post.
In addition, the new law provides allotments to Alaska Natives who served in the Vietnam war, bans mining practices around two national parks and expands the boundaries of six national parks.
It’s a Super Bloom Year!
At this time of year, in a good year, Californians will awaken to find the state flower, the California Poppy, spontaneously blooming in their lawns and alongside roads and freeways where you never expected to find flowers.
Thanks to the spring rains this year, this is going to be a very good year for wildflowers. Good enough to be called a “Super Bloom”, where the hillsides are covered in blossoms like a carpet of orange. It will be amazing as the bloom sets in. I’ll try to forward pictures as it develops. This one was taken not too far from my home.
Good News in Corporate Responsibility
Facing Public Pressure, Amazon Pulls Anti-Vaccine Content From Prime Video
As the US battles measles outbreaks in several states, Amazon has responded to a call from Congressman Adam Shiff to pull three anti-vaccination films from the catalog.
As BuzzFeed first reported, controversial documentary titles including “Vaxxed,” “Shoot ’Em Up: The Truth About Vaccines” and “We Don’t Vaccinate!” are now listed as “currently unavailable” on Prime Video. The three anti-vax movies were axed from the site on Friday ― mere hours after Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff sent a letter to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos excoriating the tech giant for “surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children.”
Other companies are responding to pressure to remove anti-vax content. YouTube is demonetizing videos that promote anti-vax content. Facebook reports that that it is taking “steps to reduce the distribution of health-related misinformation” on its site.
But there is still a lot of work to do, since initiating a search for “vaccine” into Amazon still reveals 15 anti-vax books for sale, including the first one at the top of the list, a sponsored ad, which means Amazon got money for it, and the title is available for free download to Kindle members.
Good News for Our Future
I’ve watched the entire 7 ½ hours of Cohen testimony three times already. The Republicans are in a panic that they could say NOTHING in defense of Trump other than “Cohen bad”.
Michael John Dean Cohen, the mob thug with a heart, won us all over with his sincerity and his ability to maintain a calm face in spite of GOP shenanigans. I can’t wait to read his book.
House Democrats launch massive obstruction of justice and corruption probe aimed at Trump
Oh, my, my. 81 people and organizations getting document requests, and that is excluding the ones that the still under wraps from the Southern District of New York.
So, who are on the hot seat this time?
- Trump’s business and family
- Donald Jr.
- Eric
- Jared
- Allen Weisselberg
- more …. (where is Ivanka?)
- 2016 campaign and transition
- Corey Lewandowski
- Paul Manafort
- Steve Bannon
- more ….
- Inauguration
- Inaugural committee
- Tom Barrack
- Administration
- Reince Priebus
- Sean Spicer (you can’t lie it all away this time, Sean)
- Jeff Sessions
- more …..
- Russia
- Jerome Corsi, Julian Assange
- Trump Tower Moscow
- the NRA
Thank heavens for C-SPAN.
Some Republicans are getting the message:
GOP Lawmaker: Trump’s National Emergency Violates ‘Our Constitutional System’
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Sunday bashed President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally declare a national emergency to secure funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We have a system of separation of powers under our Constitution,” Amash, a member of the House oversight committee, said on CNN’s “State Of The Union.”
He added that Trump could have vetoed past spending bills if he truly felt there was a border security crisis that lawmakers needed to address.
“He’s never vetoed appropriations legislation and now he wants to declare an emergency to do something Congress has already debated and discussed,” Amash said.
Rand Paul Says He’ll Oppose Trump’s Emergency Declaration On The Border Wall
With Rand Paul voting correctly (for once), Trump will have to get out his veto Sharpie for the first time.
“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said in a speech at Western Kentucky University on Saturday, according to The Bowling Green Daily News. “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”
Good News from My Hometown
With the Gnumap project showing where everybody grazes, I thought I’d tell you a bit about my city, San Bernardino (unofficial motto: “We are a city, not a metaphor for terror”).
We are a medium-size city east of Los Angeles with spectacular views of mountains on all sides. There was a time, 30 years ago, when we were the smogpit of Southern California, but with California’s strict emission rules, this picture is what I see from my office every day. (Regulations are a good thing, Republicans!) We are the county seat of San Bernardino County, the largest county in area in the US, a landmass bigger than Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. Within the boundaries of our county is the Joshua Tree National Park, which is why I have it as my Good News avatar.
That is the good news. The bad news is that we are a low tax base, high-crime urban area whose greatest advantage is that because of those things, property is still quite cheap here. Our city government had been in the hands of very crooked Republicans for as long as I can remember. Our previous unofficial city motto was: “Yes, we are the largest government bankrupcty ever. What about it?”
The amount of outright theft that was perpetrated upon the populace by our GOP mayor and city council should really be major news, but as we all know, IOKIYAR. I may do a series here about it some day. But as of the last election we finally now are completely blue, and that is the really good news. With competent leadership, we hope to bring San Bernardino into parity with the neighboring cities of Riverside and Redlands (home of CD-31 Rep Pete Aguilar).
New proposed city motto: San Bernardino, you should see us now!
Gnus are encouraged to post good local news in the comment section. This should be interesting.
And with that, I release the herd. The comments are always the best part of these diaries.