Say hey Good Newsies, whatcha ya got that’s good news, how’s about sharing some good news with me, hey sweet newsies, don’t ya think maybe, we could find us a new president someday. Anyhoo!
I have made a vow today as the news continues to tick me the heck off. I am not going to mention it’s name, give it a color or an object reference, refer to it’s emotional state or that of it’s cohorts. I personally need to walk away from the 24/7 news cycle that it occupies and focus on the good that is out there.
Still. it’s name may come up in news snippets, but you can just replace it with it.
On that note, today will have just few current political news, I need a break and I think you all do to. Fell free to share in the comments. As always you are the best!
Onward!
Political stuff I thought worth sharing:
President 'I'm F*cked' Entirely F*cked, According To Polls
Replace it with it, makes it much more tolerable.
Bad news for Donald Trump and Bill Barr and the government of the Russian Federation, because the American people are not buyin' it.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after the release of the heavily redacted Mueller report shows Trump with one of his lowest approval ratings ever, 37 percent. Reuters notes that's down from 40 percent a little over a week ago and 43 percent just after Bill Barr circulated his initial mash note that cleared Trump of all Russian and obstruction crimes past, present and future. If only Bill Barr wasn't a dipshit with the face of a syphilitic gopher who's really bad at cover-ups!
Lest you think this poll is an outlier fake news poll from the Deep State, Politico/Morning Consult finds similar results, putting Trump's approval at a measly 39 percent, which is also a steep drop from their poll last week, where Trump had 44 percent approval. Politico notes that this ties its lowest poll result ever for Trump, which just really makes you wonder why Trump and his minions kept saying the day of the Mueller Report release was the best of his presidency.
If his poll numbers are already this bad and we've only had Mueller's report -- the redacted one Bill Barr drew dicks all over with his big Sharpie marker -- in our hands for approximately five minutes, imagine how bad things will get for Trump in the next few months. In other words, YEP, HE'S FUCKED.
A little rough with your first cup of coffee, sorry had to be said. Really this will be short on this kind of news today, like that is pretty much it.
Another judge sets back Trump attempts to open up federal lands to fossil fuels
On Friday, a federal judge in Montana District Court dealt the Trump Administration another setback pertaining to leasing out federal lands for fossil fuel extraction.
In an order (PDF), the judge said that the US Department of the Interior (DOI) had to conduct a review of the impacts of its decision to lease federal land for coal mining under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Under the Obama Administration, the DOI placed a moratorium on leasing federal land out for coal mining.
In 2017, however, Trump Administration Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued an order to remove the coal leasing moratorium for federal lands. The government began processing requests for leases, and several states as well as the Northern Cheyenne Tribe sued the DOI in hopes of stopping it from granting 20-year leases that would create more environmental disruption and greenhouse gas emissions.
The DOI argued that it didn't have to open up any time-consuming NEPA-related reviews because "the Zinke Order did not constitute a major federal action that triggered NEPA." Instead, the DOI said its rollback of the moratorium was a mere "policy shift."
But the Northern Cheyenne Tribe said that its only recourse to fight the moratorium rollback was through procedures prescribed under NEPA, and the tribe argued that it is entitled to a formal consultation about the environmental impacts of re-opening coal leasing on federal lands.
The setback is another major one for the Trump administration, after a federal judge in Alaska recently ruled that President Trump couldn't reopen waters that former President Obama closed to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic.
It keeps winning and it is awesome.
Well about time, am I right...although tip of the iceberg:
Feds charge Rochester Drug Cooperative and CEO in first criminal case over opioids
Federal prosecutors charged drug distributor Rochester Drug Cooperative and its former CEO with drug trafficking charges Tuesday -- the first criminal charges for a pharmaceutical company and executives in the nation's ongoing opioid crisis.
The charges signify a groundbreaking move by the government to try to combat the opioid epidemic, which kills 130 Americans every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the first time, a pharmaceutical company and white collar executives were charged like street dealers and traffickers.
“This prosecution is the first of its kind: executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking, trafficking the same drugs that are fueling the opioid epidemic that is ravaging this country.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York charged Rochester Drug Cooperative (RDC), one of the country's largest distributors of opioids, with "knowingly and intentionally" violating federal narcotics laws "by distributing dangerous, highly addictive opioids to pharmacy customers that it knew were being sold and used illicitly," according to a press release.
Did you all catch that? The SDNY is on this, what else do you think they are on….hmmm.
Can we all do a hedoublehockeysticks yeah:
MJ Hegar Is Running for Senate Against Big John Cornyn
The Air Force veteran behind one of the most viral videos of the 2018 campaign is back. MJ Hegar—who last year nearly knocked off a longtime GOP congressman in a heavily Republican district—announced Tuesday that she will challenge Texas Sen. John Cornyn in 2020.
Oh yeah, bye bye Johnny boy.
Come on.
Even Mega Millionaire Abigail Disney Realizes the System Is Broken
Abigail Disney is on a tear. After calling Disney CEO Bob Iger’s 2018 pay “insane” on a panel hosted by Fast Company Thursday, the granddaughter of company co-founder Roy Disney and heiress to a vast fortune unleashed a tweet-storm Sunday about the structural obstacles facing workers at businesses like the one bearing her family's name.
According to her own calculations, Iger’s $65.6 million in total compensation was so vast that, in a moderately less dystopian alternative universe, he might have pocketed a mere $10 million and still had enough left over to award Disneyland employees an across-the-board 15 percent pay bump.
Good on her, right?
Unions work:
Stop & Shop workers win pay, benefits concessions after 11-day strike
New England grocery store workers have won significant concessions from the Dutch firm that rules their day-to-day lives after an 11-day strike, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) announced Monday.
More than 30,000 Stop & Shop employees walked off the job on April 11 after negotiators from Netherlands-based multinational food retailer Ahold Delhaize spent weeks insisting the grocer’s frontline workforce would have to absorb higher health care costs and major changes to retirement benefits.
It is a good read and it was not just political support that helped them achieve this.
Yo, Vermont you are so lucky to have Ben & Jerry’s, they are cool and I love the cookie dough ice cream and I want it all:
Ben & Jerry’s founders celebrate 4/20 by encouraging lawmakers to expunge pot convictions
April 20 used to be a day in which pot fans celebrated their favorite vice merely by partaking of weed, possibly in a large college quad, to enable more contact highs. But as the pot legalization movement has grown, even 4/20 has become more mainstream, now tied to marketing efforts like $4.20 Lyft rides, $4.20 cheeseburgers with CBD, or social media statements by various pro-decriminalization politicians.
Part of that wave is the world’s most progressive ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, makers of flavors like Phish Food and the Grateful Dead homage Cherry Garcia. B&J’s sent out the following video on 4/20, calling on lawmakers to expunge “everybody’s cannabis convictions”:
Some environmental news:
Researchers Create ‘First-of-its-Kind’ Roadmap for Saving Earth From Climate Change Years Before 2050 Deadline
A Finnish university has published a comprehensive global road map on how the world can reduce its carbon emissions before the 2050 deadline – and the research says that it is quite feasible.
The report breaks down exactly how the world’s different regions can transition to 100% renewable energy as a means of preventing the more catastrophic outcomes of irreversible climate change.
The study is the first of its kind to outline a cost-effective international strategy to keep the planet’s carbon emissions at 1.5 degrees Celsius. Not only that, it is the first study of its kind to suggest a global strategy that does not involve carbon-capture technology.
And this is amazing:
Nepalese Army Removes Two Tons Of Waste From Mount Everest
The Nepalese Army has removed two tons of waste from Mount Everest under its Mount Everest cleanup campaign.
There is so much waste there it is truly disgusting.
You all know I am an animal lover:
Why the ‘Selfie of the Year’ Might Do Wonders for Endangered Gorillas
We’ve all had enough of our social media being flooded with heavily filtered faces and hashtags that say #WokeUpLikeThis; However, the newest selfie doing the rounds is really as wild as it gets.
Over the weekend, a selfie involving two gorillas with on-point poses posted by their caretaker Mathieu Shamavu—a park ranger at the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who rescued them when they were babies—went viral real quick, gaining almost 40,000 likes on Instagram and more than 20,000 shares on Facebook. And while the adorable upright animals that identify as mountain gorillas have got a great selfie game, there's a bigger reason these natural posers deserve all our attention.
The mountain gorilla is a critically endangered species and these two "cheeky gals" happen to be two of the 1,000 remaining ones in the world, most of which can be found inhabiting this park. This species was on the edge of extinction because people wouldn’t stop poaching and destroying their natural habitats.
And ever since this wholesome selfie—called 'Selfie of the Year' by Yvonne Ndege, a former BBC journalist now working for the UN in Kenya—began breaking the internet, there’s been a whole lot of love being sent their way with many realizing the importance of the work by these wildlife conservationistsand pledging to donate to their cause.
Well, I am in a non-political aww mood:
Spreading Kindness: 7th Grader Recognized For Epic Volunteer Effort Gathering School Supplies
A 7th grade student from Cleburne ISD made it her job this year to supply students and teachers with the tools they need to get through the school day.
Paige Cook’s simple gesture is now earning her state-wide recognition.
According to her teachers, Paige, 14 years old, is known as the Mary Poppins of school supplies.
When she walks into class, she can usually pull out of her bag anything a student or teacher needs.
Through the Wheat Middle School Pencil Pals page on Facebook, Paige promotes her project. She receives donations of school supplies from all over the country, and even uses her own money to go out with her mother to make purchases.
Paige is now planning to set up a “Kindness Closet” at her school, where students and teachers can choose from a range of supplies they may need. Her pencil program is continuing as well.
Posted without comment:
Remember what it was like to feel good about politics with this Knock Down The House trailer
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time—around, say, 2008—when caring about politics could actually be exciting and fulfilling. Give or take eight years later, though, politics became a nightmare pit of nothing but hellish misery, where the most sane of us would rather scoop out their eyes with burning spoons than to try and think about politics with any level of seriousness. In the 2018 midterms, though, some pioneering candidates decided to try and change that by bringing back some of that “hope” and “change” we bought into a decade ago. Filmmaker Rachel Lears followed four of these candidates for her documentary Knock Down The House, and now Netflix has released a trailer for the surprisingly hopeful political film.
So as to the heading of this post, here is this for entertainment purposes only.
From Indivisible:
Your 5 weekly to-dos
- It’s time for your MoC to support impeachment hearings. Donald Trump has committed numerous impeachable offenses. Even if he hadn’t committed obstructive actions during the Mueller probe (which he clearly did), he would still deserve to be impeached for his corruption and his unforgivable cruelty against immigrant families. Take action by sending a letter to your MoC telling them to support Rep. Tlaib’s impeachment resolution.
- Tell your MoC to support H.R. 1046 to lower prescription drug prices. Last Friday, HuffPost ran a story about how House Democratic leadership might cut a bad deal with Donald Trump to weaken legislation designed to lower prescription drug prices. But it doesn’t have to be like this -- H.R. 1046, Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s proposal, would force Big Pharma to make drugs more affordable while also protecting patients’ access to crucial medicines. Check out our H.R. 1046 explainer here.
- Call your MoC to support H.R. 1046. We can’t let Democratic leadership cut a bad deal with Trump. Call your MoC and tell them to support strong legislation to lower drug prices.
- Tell your MoC to co-sponsor and vote for H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act. Nearly every House Democrat has co-sponsored this critical legislation, which would provide permanent relief from the threat of deportation to Dreamers, TPS holders, and DED holders. Call your MoC and tell them that you expect them to vote for this bill, and against any Republican motion to recommit.
- Sign up for our May national activist call! Join us on Thursday, May 2 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT for our monthly national call. Make sure to register here so you don’t miss out!
Follow Yosef52 for all the ways to kick the bums out in 2020.
That is it for me, as usual I will try to catch you all around 8:30ish, depending on work.
Did you watch Fosse/Verdon last night? If my dad were alive he may say good but meh.
Happy hump day all!
Peace!