Welcome 😄 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
I admit that I’m tired. Not just of Trump, but literally. I seem to have incurred three physical issues in a row. I tested my tolerance for gluten (I proved to myself that I don’t tolerate it); I had a headache that wouldn’t go away for days (but I knew it wasn’t a brain tumor because my husband had it too); and yesterday, Thursday morning, I was rummaging under the sink for the Sudafed because my body is in the initial stages of a cold. I did find it, however, and the pills are helping, allowing me to climb out of bed and type these words for you. Better living through chemistry!
But others have persisted under far more difficult conditions. Elijah Cummings, who signed documents only hours before he died. And Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who persists despite her many bouts of cancer. We need to be inspired by them. We have to persist as well.
Persistence pays off. We had this affirmed this week with important wins in Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and even in Indiana.
Folks, we’re in a fight for our democracy. We are woke and we are clawing it back, but they are determined to cheat and cheat some more. We can never assume that they will stop, alas, but by working hard we can push them back. We have made real progress. We will keep pushing them back some more.
Note: some readers have reported difficulty locating the GNR, especially later in the day. You can find it more easily if you follow me and the other authors. If you do that, all you need to do is to look in your activity stream, and scroll down until you find what you’re seeking.
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 🐻
Trump ordered to pay $2 million as penalty for Trump Foundation abuses Washington Post
A New York judge on Thursday ordered President Trump to pay $2 million in damages for misusing funds from a tax-exempt charity — taking the charity’s money to pay debts for his for-profit businesses, to boost his 2016 campaign and to buy himself art, according to court documents.
That order, from state judge Saliann Scarpulla, settled a lawsuit filed against Trump last year by the New York attorney general.
The lawsuit — based on information first uncovered by The Washington Post — alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, where Trump served as president for 32 years.
We have to thank Letitia James, the current Attorney General of NYS, and probably someone else who should have an action figure of her.
💛 You know who doesn’t deserve an action figure? John Bolton. Now he’s leaking that he’s willing to defy the White House if the courts so rule. Washington Post
Former national security adviser John Bolton is willing to defy the White House and testify in the House impeachment inquiry about his alarm at the Ukraine pressure campaign if a federal court clears the way, according to people familiar with his views.
Bolton could be a powerful witness for Democrats: Top State Department and national security officials already have testified that he was deeply concerned about efforts by Trump and his allies to push Ukraine to open investigations into a political rival of the president’s while the Trump administration held up military aid to that country. ✂️
“We regret Mr. Bolton’s decision not to appear voluntarily, but we have no interest in allowing the administration to play rope-a-dope with us in the courts for months,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Rather, the White House instruction that he not appear will add to the evidence of the president’s obstruction of Congress.”
If he truly was a patriot, he would show up and testify. Maybe he could ask for a friendly subpoena. But to await the courts? No.
I have more admiration for Senator Richard Burr, who broke with Trump and lapdog Lindsey and said the whistleblower should not be exposed. Talking Points Memo
On Thursday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) said the whistleblower who sparked the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump should stay anonymous to the public.
“We protect whistleblowers,” the Republican senator told reporters, according to The Hill. “We protect witnesses in our committee.”
Unlike President Donald Trump and Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Burr said he “never” believed that the whistleblower’s identity ought to be revealed to the public.
Pence aide testifies that Trump call was not normal CNN
(CNN) Jennifer Williams, an aide in the vice president's office and a long time State Department staffer, said the phone call did not have the normal tone of a diplomatic call. Williams did not raise concerns about the call with her superiors.
She was asked by lawmakers in her closed-door deposition what Pence knows and she testified that she never heard him mention anything about investigations of the 2016 election, Burisma -- the Ukrainian natural gas company on whose board Joe Biden's son Hunter sat -- or the Bidens. She did not know of any request from Trump to Pence to bring up investigations during a meeting the vice president had in Warsaw with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 1. ✂️
Williams testified that she had limited information about why military aid was being withheld from Ukraine. She was puzzled about it, but was kept in the dark about the decision-making process. She described herself as someone who stayed in her lane and wasn't pushing to understand why the aide was withheld.
🍿Stock up on popcorn for next week!
If you can’t wait, you can read — or read up on — the transcripts. This is about the one from George Kent. Talking Points Memo
The House Impeachment inquiry on Thursday released a transcript of the testimony of George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs. Reports emerged after Kent’s testimony last month that he was told to “lay low” after criticizing Rudy Giuliani’s involvement in Ukraine policy.
In his testimony, Kent revealed more details on Giuliani’s attempts to meet with two Ukrainian prosecutors in the U.S., both of which never happened. ✂️
It was previously known that Rudy Giuliani had sought unsuccessfully to get a visa for Victor Shokin — a former Ukraine prosecutor who was key to the smears being peddled against Biden — to travel to the U.S. Kent gave the backstory on why the State Department resisted granting the visa. Kent’s colleagues were told that Shokin “wanted to come to the United States to share information suggesting that there was corruption at the U.S. embassy.”
“Knowing Mr. Shokin, I had full faith that it was bunch of hooey, and he was looking to basically engage in a con game out of revenge because he’d lost his job,” Kent testified.
I love the use of the word hooey.
Bill Barr has a limit. I wonder why. Washington Post
He was willing to launch a Trump-requested investigation into the origins of the probe into Russian election interference that his predecessor resisted. ✂️
The Washington Post’s Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig broke a big story on Wednesday night, reporting that Trump had inquired about Barr holding a news conference in which he would absolve Trump of any guilt for his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
So why is this what Barr won’t do? It can’t be ethics; he doesn’t have any. Has something changed and Barr wants to hedge his bets?
Prosecutors aren’t simply painting Stone as a liar. They also took time Thursday to portray him as a jerk. Much of the evidence they presented related to Stone’s interactions with Credico. In October 2017, Stone told the Intelligence Committee that Credico was his intermediary with WikiLeaks. This wasn’t really true. Starting in late August 2016, Stone asked Credico, who was friendly with a WikiLeaks’ lawyer, to confirm information Assange had announced publicly about his plans, and pushed Credico to seek other information. But Stone had earlier received seemingly more significant information from Corsi. On August 2, 2016, Corsi—who was in Italy at the time after traveling to London—emailed Stone: “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.” Stone immediately began touting those messages. In other words, Corsi was Stone’s original and most important connection to WikiLeaks—information that Stone hid from the committee.
Just for your enjoyment: Giuliani was going to star in Ukrainian commercials! The Daily Beast
As Rudy Giuliani upended U.S.-Ukraine relations with a campaign of shadow diplomacy that landed his client, President Donald Trump, on the verge of impeachment, he was also exploring a gig as a television pitchman for an anti-fraud company run by two of the men he enlisted to dig up dirt on Trump’s political foes in Ukraine.
The company was called Fraud Guarantee, and it was run by Lev Parnas and David Correia, who were both arrested last month and charged with criminal violations of campaign-finance law—charges to which both have pleaded not guilty. Parnas and Correia had used Fraud Guarantee to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Giuliani, with whom they worked closely as he sought to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine and advance their own business interests in the country. ✂️
Both sources described a key part of the plan: a television infomercial featuring Giuliani extolling the virtues of Fraud Guarantee and its services. Parnas and Correia wanted the ad campaign to start airing on U.S. cable-news channels shortly after Giuliani was finished representing Trump in matters pertaining to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation. The probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election concluded earlier this year.
What is wrong with these old men? They are so vain.
And there’s this:
Most of the speculation for the reason centered on his not being able to handle it, either because he’s too upset, because of the two million dollar fine, because he has dementia, or some other physical reason.
🐊 Draining the Swamp 🐊
Governor Pritzker (Illinois) promises lobbying reforms Chicago Sun-Times
Vowing to help lift the cloud of pay-to-play politics over Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday told Cook County Democrats that he plans to return to Springfield next week to help craft legislation that would shed more light on lobbyists as the first in “a series of ethics reforms that are frankly long overdue.”
Expressing his anger over corruption has become a recurring theme for the rookie governor as a sprawling federal investigation ensnares state legislators, aldermen and county officials. After general vows to help “root” out illegal activity, Pritzker on Tuesday pledged to take the first step in next week’s fall veto session.
“I am furious watching public officials — some from our own party — betray the public trust,” the governor said, according to prepared remarks. “I am disgusted that some people in politics seem to think that the old way of doing politics is the right way of doing politics.”
💙 Democrats Are Great 🌊
Republicans 🐘 Got Nothing 👎
Senate Republicans discover the silver impeachment bullet may not do what they expected it to do. Daily Kos
It wasn't supposed to be like this. After House Democrats opened an impeachment inquiry, Republicans were supposed to be able to flail around wildly while hurling words like "witch hunt" and "socialist" and "Soviet," at which point frenzied GOP voters would rush to the polls and deliver whopping, stinging electoral defeats to Democrats. That was the plan—and even the conventional wisdom—until Tuesday, when Democrats bested Republicans in yet another off-year election as we move toward the all-important 2020 presidential contest.
Actually, voters did go to the polls in droves but, if there was a motivating factor, it seemed more about sending Trump the signal that many, many Americans are damn sick and tired of watching him defile our republic. There is simply no other way to read the results in Virginia, where turnout surged from 29% in 2015 to nearly 40% four years later and delivered control of both legislative chambers to Democrats. Some observers wondered whether scandals that have plagued Democrats in Virginia's executive branch might offset some of the anti-Trump fervor. Nope. The issues were also clearly on the side of Democratic candidates in Virginia, but the notable spike in turnout seems to be as much a product of anti-Trump rage voting as anything else.
And in Kentucky, no amount of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's railing against impeachment and Trump begging voters to protect his reputation could save a candidate who Kentuckians despise, though Bevin has not conceded defeat to Democrat Andy Beshear yet. Turnout also surged in Kentucky to 42%, 11 points above what the secretary of state had projected. And while it's true that Bevin was a uniquely unpopular governor (i.e. basically, the worst), it's also true that Trump's appeal to anti-impeachment resentment failed to buoy Bevin in a state that Trump won by nearly 30 points three years earlier.
What Senate Republicans are most unnerved by—and rightly so—was their trouncing in the suburbs in basically every state, including not just Kentucky and Virginia, but also Pennsylvania and Mississippi. But Tuesday wasn’t just a one-hit wonder, the suburbs have turned on Republicans almost entirely over the course of a mere three years since Trump was elected.
This is encouraging:
And Republicans continue to piss off women, especially in the suburbs Daily Kos
Need more? Renowned pollster Ann Selzer, who conducted a national poll for Grinnell College just last month, pointed to a stunning data point in her polling.
Suburban women especially appear motivated to make their disapproval felt: Eighty-eight percent of suburban women said they would definitely vote in the 2020 presidential election, 10 points higher than voters overall.
“This to me is striking not so much in that they are aligning against President Trump, but the degree to which they are aligning against President Trump,” Selzer told The Hill. “That is sort of the pin in the hand grenade. They have the opinion and they’re more likely to vote.”
Anecdotal, but this has to happen one voter at a time
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
Great news in Oklahoma, of all places Wonkette
The state of Oklahoma freed 462 inmates from prison yesterday after their sentences were commuted, in what's widely being called the biggest single-day release of prisoners in US history. We should note, however, that the New York Times fastidiously says it's merely "one of the largest," because what about that time Andrew Johnson pardoned all the Confederates? Either way, it's a huge step toward reform for Oklahoma, which the Times notes "continues to vie with Louisiana for the highest per-capita imprisonment rate in the country." ✂️
Oklahoma isn't just kicking people out the prison doors and wishing them good luck, either. To help them reintegrate into their communities, the state is making sure released inmates are issued a state ID or driver's license, and also held over 20 "reentry fairs" in prisons to get soon-to-be-released folks hooked up with social services and other resources. Churches and nonprofits also took part in the fairs to help people connect with housing, and education, and jobs.
Beyond the basic fairness of getting people out of prison for minor, nonviolent offenses, there's also the considerable fiscal savings for the state. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said the state Department of Corrections anticipates having some 2,000 empty beds by the end of the year, at a savings of just under $12 million a year. And no, we didn't see any reports that every penny of that will go into drug treatment/rehab. This being Oklahoma, color us doubtful?
Gov Whitmer in MI raises age of juvenile offenders Michigan Radio
Starting in October 2021, 17-year-olds will no longer automatically be treated as adults in Michigan’s criminal justice system.
Michigan will join the vast majority of other states that treat 17-year-olds as children. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bills Thursday.
Democratic Senator Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit) was a bill sponsor. She said the change will save taxpayers money in the long run. And that money can go toward other things, like education.
Governor Sisolak of NV addresses State Board of Pharmacy background failure My News 4
A state law passed in 2005 requires the Board to submit fingerprints to the Central Repository for Nevada Criminal History for criminal checks of applicants for wholesale pharmacy licenses and renewals.
Nevada Department of Public Safety Director George Togliatti informed the Governor’s Office that the BOP has failed to submit fingerprints as far back as 2007. The Governor’s Office was also notified that the Board had been collecting fees from applicants for the processing of fingerprints cards since 2005, despite not submitting the actual fingerprints.
Governor Sisolak issued a moratorium when he learned of the issue and initiated an investigation into BOP practices regarding fingerprinting requirements. ✂️
“When I became Governor just 10 months ago, I committed to doing all I can to protect the health and safety of Nevadans, and I take that obligation seriously,” the Governor said. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked when I learned of this issue and the fact that it had taken place for so long without being addressed.”
Bolding mine. And I have another question: what did they do with the collected fees?
Solar panels going up at governor’s mansion in Maine Maine Public
The installation of solar panels at the governor's mansion in Augusta got underway Tuesday, fulfilling a vow by Gov. Janet Mills to lead by example in the state's effort to dramatically reduce carbon emissions by 2050. ✂️
Mills's office says the project costs $63,000 and will reduce the mansion's electricity bill - roughly $11,000 last year - by about 25 percent in the first year.
Installation began a day after Mills addressed a symposium of government leaders and scientists about climate change impacts on the Gulf of Maine.
🐍 Schadenfreude 🍎
GOP paid $74,000 in one week so that Trump could get booed by sports fans ShareBlue
The Republican National Committee spent a reported $74,000 over one week on tickets for Donald Trump and Republican members of Congress to attend two different sporting events.
Trump was booed by the public on both occasions.
The RNC told the Washington Post that it spent about $14,000 for 30 seats at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., so Trump could attend Game 5 of the World Series on Oct. 27. ✂️
Trump's cage-side seats for "UFC 244" at Madison Square Garden in New York City reportedly set the RNC back $60,000.
Despite Trump’s visits to his properties, some show evidence of financial decline Washington Post
The Chicago event exemplifies a pattern of the Trump presidency: It was another presidential trip that brought Trump private benefits. The hotel was paid about $100,000 for the lunch, according to a Republican official who helped coordinate it.
Trump’s presence also gave a boost to a property that, like some of his others, is suffering from financial decline.
Profits fell 89 percent from 2015 to 2018, from $16.7 million to $1.8 million, according to documents filed with Cook County, Ill. Trump’s hotel struggled even as other Chicago hotels held steady or thrived.
Note that BeeD mentioned the above yesterday, but as I already had this in my GNR, and because not everyone reads everything every day, I decided to keep it.
📣🏅 Let’s Honor Truth 🏅☀️
Today I’d like to honor CREW, the citizens for ethics and reponsibility in Washington. Groups like these keep collecting facts and promoting them, something which we can all appreciate these days. This piece takes account of the spending of special interest groups at Trump properties: CREW website
Private prisons, payday lenders, fossil fuel companies, and dozens of other special interests have learned one important truth about influence in the age of Trump: If you want to gain favor with the president and his administration, it doesn’t hurt to hold lavish events at the properties he still owns and profits from. In the past, special interests have tried to ingratiate themselves with administrations by making large political donations, but in the Trump era, they can do so by personally enriching the president.
The evidence is overwhelming. According to CREW’s tracking of Trump’s conflicts of interest, special-interest groups—many of which are trying to secure favorable policy decisions from various agencies in the Trump administration—have hosted or sponsored at least 100 events at Trump properties. That amounts to roughly one special-interest event at a Trump property every 10 days he has been in office.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ ️
❤️ Nurse adopts man with autism so he could get a heart transplant Good News Network
Lori Wood, who is an ICU nurse at Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Georgia, first met Jonathan Pinkard after she was assigned to his care back in December 2018.
Pinkard was in desperate need of a heart transplant—but since his grandmother passed away several years earlier and his mother was in rehab, he was ineligible for the transplant list.
This is because—with thousands of people waiting on transplant lists every year—doctors require organ recipients to have stable support systems so that patients are guaranteed to have someone to take care of them after an operation.
Pinkard and Wood quickly bonded over their love of football and Family Feud—and as the 57-year-old nurse became more and more familiar with her patient’s circumstances, she knew she had to help him.
📎📎Odds & Ends 📎📎
💉 Blood test can predict breast cancer — 5 years before there are other signs Good News Network
Breast cancer could be detected up to five years before there are any clinical signs of it, using a blood test that identifies the body’s immune response to substances produced by tumor cells. ✂️
In a pilot study, the researchers took blood samples from 90 breast cancer patients at the time they were diagnosed with breast cancer and matched them with samples taken from 90 patients without breast cancer (the control group). ✂️
A similar test for lung cancer is currently being tested in a randomized controlled trial in Scotland, involving 12,000 people at high risk of developing lung cancer because they smoke. They have been randomized to have (or not) an autoantibody blood test called ELISA (Early CDT-Lung). Participants who test positive for the autoantibodies are then followed up with a CT scan every two years in order to detect lung cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat.
An orangutan called Sandra was granted non-human personhood The Guardian
A 33-year-old orangutan granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina is settling into new surroundings in central Florida.
Patti Ragan, director of the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, said Sandra the orangutan is “very sweet and inquisitive” and adjusting to her new home. She was born in Germany and spent 25 years at the Buenos Aires Zoo before arriving in Florida on 5 November.
“She was shy when she first arrived, but once she saw the swings, toys and grassy areas in her new home, she went out to explore,” Ragan said. “She has met her caregivers here and is adjusting well to the new climate, environment and the other great apes at the center.
After all, if our corporate overlords are people, then why not our primate cousins?
🐘 World’s toughest ban on ivory moves forward in court Ecowatch
The UK instituted the world's toughest ban on ivory last year which eliminated all sales of ivory and rankled collectors and dealers. Antique dealers sued in court to be able to continue to sell existing ivory and argued that the ban violated European law. The high court in the UK, however, struck down that argument earlier this week and said the UK's ban is fully legal, as The Guardian reported.
The ivory trade leads to illegal poaching and the slaughter of nearly 20,000 African elephants every year, according to The Sun. However, the Friends of Antique and Cultural Treasures Limited (FACT) — a group of dealers and collectors — argued that the law was unnecessarily overbearing and impinged on their rights to collect and sell cultural heritage objects, as The Art Newspaper reported.
The collectors also argued that trading cultural heritage objects does not support or influence the market for illegally poached ivory. Conservation groups countered that if the ban were watered down at all, it would breathe new life into the illegal poaching trade, as The Guardian reported.
🌵 This diary describes work being done to insure Native Americans, especially in Arizona, can vote. Daily Kos
Native American organizers are spreading out through the sprawling Navajo and Apache Reservations of Arizona to find the votes needed to thwart President Trump’s Electoral College hopes and return the U.S. Senate to Democratic control.
The Navajo Reservation is the size of West Virginia and the two major Apache Reservations have an area the size of Connecticut. Though hard to reach, their population of approximately 200,000 in Arizona can provide the votes needed to swing Arizona’s crucial 11 electoral votes to the Democratic candidate. Trump has no path to victory if he loses Arizona. Also, Mark Kelly, former astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, will be elected to the U.S. Senate with a strong Reservation vote.
With the help of 1,900 individual small donors from throughout the U.S., organizers are now on the ground in Tuba City and Window Rock on the Navajo Reservation and Whiteriver and Cibecue in Apache country. Rollouts this year will bring additional Native organizers to the Navajo communities of Chinle and Kayenta.
💙 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. However, given that we have taken back the House, the tactics moving forward need to be different. Indivisible has ideas to share.
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 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 to feel 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.