Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
I hope you got some rest and relaxation over the year end, because it’s time to roll up our sleeves, my friends! So come on in to this safe place and nutritious space, and fortify yourself for the fight. It’s the fight for good versus evil, truth versus lies, hope versus fear, and love versus hate.
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, 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. We have to keep demoralizing them. Name, blame and shame! IT IS WORKING! WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE 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.
💙 Toxic 🍄 Trump Matters 👎 & Russia, Russia, Russia 🐻
The biggest news on the impeachment front for the last two weeks or so has been the fact that Pelosi is slow-walking the articles of impeachment over to the Senate. There has been plenty of debate about whether or not this was a good move (or non move) by the Speaker of the House, and has opened up criticism by McConnell of “those articles must be very shoddy.”
But what else has it done? It has kept the focus on several things:
It has highlighted the partiality of some of the senators (McConnell and Graham) who declared their partiality, and compelled a few senators (Murkowski, Collins) to say that might not be such a good idea.
Neal Katyal has a twitter thread that says we should not be so despondent:
Now, I don’t agree that we’ll move many senators, but we might move more of the population.
It has highlighted the fact that McConnell wants no witnesses, so the Senate could rubberstamp tRump’s acquittal and tRump could cry “I’m exonerated” in all of the rallies. This has given time for editorials to be written in places such as Utah demanding a fair trial. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
From the top on down, Republicans who hold the Senate majority are not even pretending to be an impartial jury, or even to be willing to consider the facts and the law.
Led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is openly colluding with the White House, and followed by Sen. Mike Lee, the president’s campaign co-chair in Utah, the official Republican line is that they are out to reject the articles of impeachment as quickly as possible, asserting that their wholly partisan action will somehow balance what they see as a wholly partisan action on the part of the House. ✂️
Romney has been a rare bird among Republicans, being sometimes willing to criticize the president over specific actions and utterances, not just during the 2016 campaign but since the administration took office. In the current unpleasantness, he has at least tried to hold himself out as an impartial juror, attempting to not prejudge the matter before the evidence has been heard.
It would thus be helpful to his own cause if Romney could muster whatever influence he has to make sure that the Senate does, indeed, hear the evidence.
Oh, and if that trial is NOT fair, the Ds all have a great talking point. From the Washington Post
While the country remains evenly divided over removing Trump from office, there is a strong majority in favor of calling additional witnesses in the Senate (52 percent to 21 percent), and roughly a third think there will be a fair trial in the Senate.
In the meantime, more information keeps coming out, such as conversations between tRump, Bolton, Pompeo and Esper, where the latter three begged him to release the money to Ukraine. Guys who should be witnesses, and have to make the hard choice between supporting tRump and committing perjury, with the recollection that the FBI may shortly be in the mood to charge for that perjury?
Here is more evidence of that crime. Just security.
”Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.”
This is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, which has only been made available in redacted form until now. It is one of many documents the Trump administration is trying to keep from the public, despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation.
Earlier in the day on Aug. 30, President Donald Trump met with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the president’s hold on $391 million in military assistance for Ukraine. Inside the Trump administration, panic was reaching fever pitch about the president’s funding hold, which had stretched on for two months. Days earlier, POLITICO had broken the story and questions were starting to pile up. U.S. defense contractors were worried about delayed contracts and officials in Kyiv and lawmakers on Capitol Hill wanted to know what on earth was going on. While Trump’s national security team thought withholding the money went against U.S. national security interests, Trump still wouldn’t budge.
One fellow who is not prepared to do time for tRump is Lev Parnas, who is offering his e-documents and what-not to the House (his cooperation may help him in other ways; Parnas is not a patriot). Talking Points Memo
Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has asked a federal judge for permission to share newly available evidence in his case with congressional impeachment investigators.
Parnas has long sought to share evidence in his case with Congress. He and others have been charged with a conspiracy to funnel foreign money into American campaigns, but Parnas’ connection to Giuliani might mean that the information investigators recovered from him is relevant to
the case against the President.
In a
letter on Monday, Parnas’ lawyer Joseph Bondy said the government had finished processing “the complete extraction” of the iPhone Parnas was carrying when he and business partner Igor Fruman were arrested in October. The government was also prepared to produce documents seized from Parnas’ home, Bondy said.
“Review of these materials is essential to the Committee’s ability to corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas’ potential testimony,” Bondy wrote.
Giuliani is prepared to testify at the Senate trial…
Giuliani, the hand-grenade, would surely create more problems for tRump than he solves and possibly perjure himself as well. Please proceed, Mayor!
In the meantime, the slow walk of the articles is driving tRump crazy. We can see in the tweets that Pelosi is living rent free in his head.
🐊 Draining the Swamp 🐊
Kentucky governor yanks no-bid contract done by Bevin WDRB
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration has canceled an $8.5 million no-bid state contract that officials in former Gov. Matt Bevin’s economic development cabinet awarded earlier this year to a nonprofit organization that those same Bevin appointees created and oversaw.
Beshear’s economic development cabinet said in a Dec. 26 letter that it is terminating the contract awarded to Commonwealth Center for Commercialization Inc., or C3, effective Jan. 25.
The Bevin administration used state resources to set up C3 in October 2018 in hopes it would be the state’s new long-term contractor for entrepreneurship and innovation programs.
What a difference having a democrat makes!
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
Democrats’ combined fourth quarter crushes tRump’s numbers DKOS
The combined fourth quarter fundraising hauls of Sen. Bernie Sanders ($34.5 million), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg ($24.7 million) and entrepreneur Andrew Yang ($16.5 million) alone have eclipsed Donald Trump's substantial $46 million haul. Though Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, among other candidates, have yet to release their numbers, the totals for Sanders, Buttigieg, and Yang alone add up to nearly $76 million.
As Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel noted, for all the hype about Trump's fundraising bump during impeachment, Democrats are poised to easily double what an incumbent president brought in. "That is really, really unusual," Weigel tweeted. "The 2012 GOP field and 2004 Dem field did not outpace incumbent presidents."
And I have met people who have not decided on any particular candidate, but are ready to work like mad for — and presumably donate to — the one who is blue. So that should also help.
I urge everyone to read this diary. tRump is a liar and has NPD. He almost certainly has dementia as well. DKOS
Nancy Pelosi knows it. Because of course she does. But she is not being loudly public about it. She is playing for time because when a degenerative disease is being covered up, time is on the side of truth. She wants the public to notice for ourselves so that accusations of partisanship against her will ring false.
It can only be covered up for so long. Obvious spasms like the one captured in this diary’s illustration are preserved forever on video, for minute examination. The tweets and rally speeches are getting more disconnected with reality each day. The corporate media, increasingly, are talking about it, as they are foot-draggingly realizing they have to. ✂️
Let’s look at the positives.
1) It could force his resignation. If his dementia becomes common knowledge and accepted as reality, he loses all credibility and all perceived power in the public eye. At that point, the Republican powers that be will tell him to resign or be convicted and removed in an impeachment trial, as they did Nixon, or removed by Article 25. They’ll have no choice.
2) It will tank his support. Why? Because his dementia is not his fault, or the fault of his supporters, so for them, resistance against cognitive dissonance isn’t in play. Because it’s not his fault, they don’t have to blame themselves either for supporting him before or withdrawing their support because of it. They can canonize him all they like for being a great and God-ordained president until he became unfit, but still opine that he should be removed without feeling guilty.
3) It is the absolute most terrifying thing for him, worse than being caught in crimes, revealing his taxes, being criticized for his venality (something I suspect he actually relishes, because he can play the victim) — even being impeached. Because it renders him irrelevant and unimportant, makes him no longer matter. It pushes him aside and denies him the attention that is his only emotional sustenance. Which is THE most soul-destroying thing for a narcissist. Insignificance feels to them like death.
4) Thus, just mentioning it disempowers him and empowers us.
Pelosi has already asked tRump’s family to intervene. She has said she is praying for him.
And how do the Rs look, supporting a demented man? How will the enablers look? This will be a black eye, especially for the doctors, but also for the Rs who knew.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
Good news from Pennsylvania:
More good news from PA:
Illinois governor pardons marijuana users DKOS
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pardoned more than 11,000 low-level marijuana convictions Tuesday in a move Chicago’s state prosecutor said was a step in the right direction toward criminal justice reform. "We are ending the 50-year long war on cannabis," Pritzker said in a news release Tuesday. “We are restoring rights to many tens of thousands of Illinoisans. We are bringing regulation and safety to a previously unsafe and illegal market. And we are creating a new industry that puts equity at its very core.
New Jersey sets aside money for women’s health DKOS
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Thursday intended to offset the dip in federal funding caused by Donald Trump's gag order preventing family planning clinics from referring women for abortions. The new law sets aside $9.5 million in funding for family planning services for clinics in the state that lost access to federal funding.
About 100,000 people in New Jersey, mostly women, received services through the family planning program Title X, according NBC News in New York. Many clinics, Planned Parenthood in particular, have chosen to forego the federal funding and defy Trump's gag rule.
Gov. Murphy said that many providers "made a conscious decision to continue providing health care information and resources at the expense of much-needed federal funding." For that reason, he said, the state was "stepping up" to make sure no residents would be deprived of critical services due to the federal rule.
NC ID law blocked (h/t tljdk)
Nevada dental board gets new members Las Vegas Review-Journal
Gov. Steve Sisolak appointed six new members to the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners on Friday, filling a board decimated by resignations and vacancies after a Review-Journal investigation exposed the board’s ethical lapses and failures to protect patients. ✂️
“These appointments will ensure the Dental Board will have a quorum to conduct the business of the Board,” the governor’s office said in a release announcing the appointments. “As mentioned previously, the Governor will use the interim period before the next legislative session to conduct a larger review of Nevada occupational licensing boards to develop a long-term solution that provides more transparency, oversight, and accountability.”
The board openings came about after an October 2019 Review-Journal investigation exposed ethical lapses, failures to revoke licenses of dentists who repeatedly injure patients and violations of open meetings laws.
Wisconsin governor looks back at his first year in office Star Tribune
... But Republicans maintained their majorities in the Legislature, creating a recipe for gridlock that proved largely to be true. Republicans started by cutting Evers' powers during a lame duck legislative session before he even took office. Most major Democratic proposals have been stymied, and Republicans have described themselves as serving as a “goalkeeper” to block Evers' agenda.
Still, Evers did sign a budget that hit many of his top priorities and campaign promises. He increased funding for schools and the University of Wisconsin, and put more money into roads and health care, but far less than what he wanted. He also cut middle class taxes by 10%, which Republicans strongly supported.
He cited the enactment of the budget as a highlight, calling it a “down payment on the future.”
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
And…
And… white nationalist arrested in FL Yahoo News
MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — A white nationalist who ran for the U.S. Senate in Florida and was a featured speaker during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, domestic violence and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Augustus Sol Invictus, 36, was arrested Monday at a Florida mall by Brevard County Sheriff's deputies on a warrant issued out of South Carolina, the Miami Herald reported. Jail records described him as an “out of state fugitive.”
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️ ️
Today I want to celebrate the Freedom of Information Act — the people who wrote it, the journalists and citizens who make use of it, and the judges who make sure its enforced. From the FOIA.gov website:
The basic function of the Freedom of Information Act is to ensure informed citizens, vital to the functioning of a democratic society.
This site can help you determine if filing a FOIA request is the best option for you and help you create your request when you’re ready.
FOIA was initially published in 1967.
The Just security piece above happened because of FOIA. Other important stories also came out during 2019 as a result of it, such as stories from CREW and American Oversight and many journalists.
The FOIA can also help people with green card requests. The American Bazaar.
It is covered in student journalist workshops. Detroit Free Press.
Anyone — even you and I! — can use it.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
Hospital janitor builds lasting friendships using LEGOs Good News Network
When two young hospital patients were undergoing treatment in isolation, their friendly custodian took it upon himself to help them form a lasting friendship through their shared love of LEGOs.
Ki-Jana “KJ” Upshaw is responsible for regularly changing the linens in all 82 of the patient rooms in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
Earlier this year, Upshaw befriended a 7-year-old patient named Cohen Bramlee who was always playing with LEGOs. Upshaw then noticed that there was another boy across the hall named Keagan Atkins who also spent his spare time building elaborate structures out of the toy bricks.
Upshaw believed that both of the boys were destined to be friends—but because of the hospital’s isolation rules, they were unable to visit each other’s rooms.
Upshaw then spent the following months helping the boys to forge a friendship by swapping messages and communicating between them about their LEGO creations.
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
Let’s go smash some guns! Swords to plowshares… or rather, Guns to Gardens
And, more gardening news — real gardening news:
Scientists use recycled water to make a 500-acre forest in Egyptian desert Good News Network
Desertification, also known as desert-creep or desert-spread, is a process that has caused much concern over the last decade—and it’s a major problem for the ancient land of Egypt, where 96% of the country’s landmass is desert.
So why is it that—if you drove a car 10 miles west of the Suez Canal—you would see bountiful forests of eucalyptus, teak, and mahogany trees limned against the orange sand and blue sky of the Sahara? ✂️
Serapium Forest is the most prosperous of Egypt’s 36 tracts of land that make up an ambitious program to combat desertification by creating sustainably managed commercial forests fed entirely by wastewater.
Some suggestions on how to keep NY resolutions, if that’s your thing EcoWatch
20 ways the world got better in 2019 Time, H/T to Getting1
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just anevery-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever youcan find time. However, given that we have taken back the House, the tacticsmoving forward need to be different. Indivisible has ideas to share.
Indivisible2.0
This Guide is for what comes next. The 2016 Indivisible Guide was aboutusing 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 havethe opportunity to use congressional oversight to hold Trump and his croniesaccountable. We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive visionrooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic — wehave to demand it of Congress.
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. Remember, a lot of them crossed over in the midterms! Get them tofeel good about being blue.
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.