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TFG is melting down, with good reason! - Wednesday Good News Roundup [1]
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Date: 2022-08-31
We’ve needed to confront this problem for a long long time. As awful as TFG is, and as terrible as things are because of him and his Republican enablers, it seems like there’s a good chance that the country is finally going to confront it. We’ve kind of been forced to, but I’ll take that. It’s been so long coming.
x Once again Lindsey you have it wrong. When Trump gets indicted the world will be dancing in the streets — Patti LuPone (@PattiLuPone) August 30, 2022
A last word (tee hee) on this from Lawrence O’Donnell. I could not cut this opening monologue from Monday down to size — and it is worth watching the whole thing if you have about 20 minutes — but the important part for this introduction starts at 7:38. There, Lawrence points out the fact that TFG’s 74 m voters will not “riot in the streets” if he is prosecuted, any more than they rioted in November 2020 when he was defeated or on August 8 when the FBI executed the search warrant at Mar A Lago. He went on to point out that the largest protest in Washington DC history was a protest against Donald Trump (the women’s march, the day after TFG’s inauguration) and combined with the enormous marches all over the USA and around the world, THAT was the largest protest in the world!
WE have the numbers, WE have the energy and commitment to protest peacefully for democracy and for justice. There will no doubt be pockets of rabid extremists who will perpetrate violence on behalf of TFG and Republican fascism — and we must all be prepared and on our guard, for that is reality and they are violent — but they will not win because they are vastly outnumbered by brave patriots committed to democracy and the American dream. Us.
🚨 The DOJ “Speaking” Court Filing 🚨
While we waited for the DOJ filing, several prominent Republicans filed a brief urging the judge not to approve TFG’s request for a special master (this could also go under “Republicans in Disarray” but I think it ought to stay with the rest of this story):
GOP legends urge judge to reject Trump’s Mar-a-Lago special master, Bob Brigham, Raw Story, August 30, 2022.
Prominent establishment Republicans filed an amicus brief on Tuesday urging federal Judge Aileen Cannon to reject Donald Trump's efforts to appoint a special master to review the documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago after the FBI executed a search warrant. The friend of the court filing was submitted by Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts who was assistant attorney general for the criminal division in the Reagan administration and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman," Reuters justice correspondent Sarah Lynch reported. "It was also signed by former New Jersey Attorney General John Farmer, Jr., who spent 90 minutes as acting governor in 2002." "Amici all served in Republican administrations and collectively have decades of experience prosecuting cases involving sensitive materials or advising on matters regarding the proper scope of executive power and executive privilege," the group wrote. "It is clear that there is no legal support for the relief requested by the former President," the group argued.
No wonder TFG was melting down.
It finally was filed shortly before 11PM CT. Here is a good, not too long, thread explaining it:
x I have read the entire Government filing. I spend all day, every day, litigating against the Government, so some of this is familiar stuff to see. This particular brief is very well-done.
Here are the highlights:
1) The facts. NARA negotiated in 2021 for the missing — Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 31, 2022
The filing included the release of a photograph of secret and top secret US govt. documents, strewn on the floor of TFG’s office or bedroom at Mar a lago. Infuriating. And also very revealing and damning.
OK, the newspaper articles are starting to trickle out now:
Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden or moved classified papers, Devlin Barrett, Washington Post, August 31, 2022.
Former president Donald Trump and his advisers repeatedly failed to turn over highly classified government documents, even after receiving a subpoena and pledging a “diligent search” had been conducted, leading to an FBI raid of his Florida home that found more than 100 additional classified documents, according to a blistering court filing by federal prosecutors late Tuesday. The filing traces the extraordinary saga of government officials’ repeated efforts to recover sensitive national security papers from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club. It charges that some of the boxes held in a storage room “were not returned prior to counsel’s review” of the material — suggesting that while the government was demanding all classified material be secured in that storage room, someone was continuing to move or hide papers. When agents conducted their court-ordered search on Aug. 8, they found material so sensitive that “even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents," the filing says. x pic.twitter.com/GLczABYuU4 — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 31, 2022
Trump team likely sought to conceal classified docs at Mar-a-Lago, DOJ tells judge, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Politico, August 31, 2022.
The 36-page filing was the department’s most detailed account yet of its evidence of obstruction of justice, raising concerns that Trump and his attorneys sought to mislead investigators about the sincerity and thoroughness of their effort to identify and return highly sensitive records to the government. “The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” Justice Department counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt wrote. “That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter,” he added.
👀!! MAGA*
*Make Attorneys Get Attorneys… (see also: ETTD)
x Seems like Trump’s lawyers need lawyers.
And not just any lawyers, but lawyers who are much better lawyers than they are.
https://t.co/mGhYQKe8k3 — Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) August 31, 2022
This all looks very bad for TFG and the people around him. It seems there may have been an informant that told the FBI/DOJ that Corcoran and Bobb’s representation (that all documents had been handed over and there was nothing left) was false, which led to the search warrant.
This case is not going to go away. It gets worse by the day for TFG and his confederates. I grow more confident by the hour that there will be indictments and prosecutions. Maybe even by the end of the year for some. However, since it is a sprawling criminal enterprise with national security implications, it could take awhile and with little to no public revelations. Be prepared for that, but this is a very encouraging sign.
HAHA and we have TFG to thank for even THIS knowledge — because he could not stop himself from blasting out the news that he’d been searched on August 8. When psychologists say that narcissists “tell on themselves” this is the sort of thing they mean.
Also, in preparation to make sure the DOJ is utterly above reproach as they carry out this huge, sensitive investigation: Garland tightens the reins on Justice Dept. employees' political activities, Washington Desk, NPR, August 30, 2022.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has set new restrictions on the political activities of some Justice Department employees, while also strongly reminding them of already established limits. ✂️ Garland in an Aug. 30 memo said that he was ending the long-standing policy of allowing appointees to attend those events if they participated passively and obtained prior approval from the department. He added that from now on, appointees will be barred from attending political events during presidential election years, even if the event is for a family member, and they cannot attend political events on the evening of Election Day in a personal capacity. "As Department employees, we have been entrusted with the authority and responsibility to enforce the laws of the United States in a neutral and impartial manner. In fulfilling this responsibility, we must do all we can to maintain public trust and ensure that politics — both in fact and appearance — does not compromise or affect the integrity of our work," Garland wrote.
🎶 Music for Traitors 🎶
😎🔥 Joe Biden is on fire! 🔥😎
If you saw some clips from that speech, you know that President Joe drew a sharp line between supporting our democracy and the rule of law / calling the January 6th insurrectionists “patriots” or attacking the FBI.
Biden blasts ‘MAGA Republicans,’ ‘sickening’ attacks on FBI, CHRIS MEGERIAN, MARC LEVY and SEUNG MIN KIM, AP, August 30, 2022.
I simply must use this excellent pic
created by Progressive Muse! In remarks initially billed as a crime-prevention speech, Biden seized on comments from allies of former President Donald Trump who have called for stripping funding from the FBI since it executed a search warrant at Trump’s Florida residence. Biden’s remarks were the first substantive defense he has made of the FBI since the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago, which triggered not just withering criticism of the agency but threats of violence against its employees.✂️ It was a notably different tack for Biden, who has steered clear of extensively commenting on any element of the Justice Department’s investigation since federal agents conducted the search at Trump’s estate. Biden also appeared to call out — without naming him — recent comments from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who warned of “riots in the streets” should Trump ultimately face prosecution.✂️ The speech Tuesday continued Biden’s aggressive rhetoric against the GOP ahead of the midterms, as Democrats enjoy a slightly brighter political environment buoyed by significant legislative accomplishments and a presidential approval rating that has trended slightly upward. During a political rally in the Washington suburbs last week, Biden likened Republican ideology to “semi-fascism.” He is set to deliver a democracy-focused speech on Thursday in Philadelphia that the White House has said “will make clear” who is fighting for democratic values.
And last week’s rally was also pretty invigorating! FA (with women’s rights) and FO!
x "MAGA Republicans don't have a clue about the power of women. Let me tell you something -- they are about to find out" -- Biden pic.twitter.com/87m9CMLDrt — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2022
President for all the people
x White House: "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency."
President Biden's emergency declaration comes the same evening Gov. Reeves requested it.
https://t.co/WkmumnW6pW — Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) August 31, 2022
Biden’s USDA encouraging farmers to start “double cropping” to help alleviate food shortages
US asks farmers: Can you plant 2 crops instead of 1?, Scott McFetridge, AP, August 30, 2022.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture instituted new policies to encourage American farmers to begin growing two crops on one piece of land, one after the other, a practice known as double-cropping. By changing insurance rules to lessen the risk of growing two crops, the USDA hopes to significantly increase the amount of wheat that U.S. farmers could grow every year, lessening the reliance on big wheat producers like Ukraine and Russia and eliminating bottlenecks. ✂️ Double-cropping isn’t new in parts of the South and southern Midwest, which have the key advantage of longer growing seasons. Those warmer temperatures let farmers squeeze in a fall planting of one crop — usually winter wheat — that is dormant over the winter and then grows and can be harvested in late spring, just as farmers plant a second crop — typically soybeans. The problem comes when cool weather delays the spring harvest of wheat, which in turn delays the planting of soybeans. And that’s where the USDA’s new effort could ease the risk of a costly planting backup. ✂️ In announcing its effort, the USDA said it was aiming to “stabilize food prices and feed Americans and the world amidst continuing challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.” The USDA didn’t mention climate change, but the agency and other experts have long said warming temperatures will spur farmers to rethink what they grow and how.
Joe will ban assault weapons again if we give him unified government
We did have an assault weapons ban once. It was passed in 1994 during the Clinton administration and expired in 2004 during the GW Bush administration.
x Assault-style weapons are designed to kill the most people in the shortest amount of time.
They have no place in our communities. — House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) August 30, 2022
😎 🌩 LOL 😎🌩
The Dark Brandon meme continues and it is giving life to Democrats everywhere!
x The clouds in the sky shifted from pure white to darkest black.
A chill wind sliced through the bones of all assembled.
The change in weather, sunny and bright just moments before, heralded his arrival.
Dark Brandon had landed. And there would be no more malarkey.
https://t.co/LX6xpjAQyw — Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 30, 2022
🎶 Music for Dark Brandon 🎶
😫🤬 Republicans in Disarray 🥸😖
RNC has had it with NARA-Lago
RNC cuts off Trump and makes him pay for his own lawyers in Mar-a-Lago documents mess: report, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story via Salon, August 30, 2022.
ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl wrote in his post-Donald Trump administration book that on Jan. 20, as Trump was flying from the White House for the final time, he spoke to the head of the Republican Party and threatened to start his own party. RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel reportedly told Trump that if he started a third party that the RNC would stop paying his legal bills, which were costing the party millions. Politico reported Tuesday, however, that that decision has ended. According to the report, any legal fees having to do with Trump's retention of government documents are not being paid by the RNC. ✂️ "A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the Republican National Committee is not paying for Trump's legal fees related to the FBI's investigation and retrieval of documents at Mar-a-Lago," Politico reported. "That's a departure of sorts from the past. The RNC has, for example, paid for Trump's legal bills involving New York Attorney General Tish James' investigation into the former president's private businesses. The committee would stop paying Trump's legal fees should he formally declare his candidacy for president in the 2024 election — a step he has hinted at but has yet to take."
Also — did you notice the reminder that the RNC had said it would also stop paying legal fees if TFG were to declare himself a candidate for 2024? Dead ends every way he turns. Goo
x Ann Coulter just put out an article saying “Trump is done.” Laura Ingraham said it’s time to “move on” from Trump. Ben Shapiro said Republicans need to stop “talking about Trump.” The establishment is turning on him before his indictment. Rats scurrying off the sinking MAGA ship. — Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) August 30, 2022
‘There’s enormous frustration’: Trump forces Republicans off-script… again, MERIDITH MCGRAW, ANDREW DESIDERIO, NICHOLAS WU and KYLE CHENEY, Politico, August 30, 2022.
After having decried the FBI’s search of the ex-president’s home, many Trump defenders went silent upon the release on Friday of the probable-cause affidavit that revealed the extent of Trump’s efforts to hold onto the top-secret documents. GOP worries about the developments of the case and Trump announcing a 2024 run before November are giving way to a subtle, broader warning about putting the former president too much on the ballot this fall. ✂️ Some top Republicans acknowledge the growing angst and concern, as it’s become clearer that Trump may have been warehousing some of America’s most sensitive secrets in an unsecured basement — and even refused to turn them over when the National Archives and Justice Department tried to recover them. One top Republican fundraiser asked to describe the mood among donors, said, “There is enormous frustration.” ✂️ When news first broke that the FBI had gone into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, many Republicans called it a politically motivated witch hunt. But on Capitol Hill, at least, Trump’s backers are starting to climb down from their initial anti-FBI clamor and offering a hodgepodge of potential explanations as more details of the investigation emerge.
Uh, yeah, because they were all in on it
Arizona GOP chair says ‘thousands’ will be implicated if J6 committee looks at her phone: report, Bob Brigham, Raw Story, August 30, 2022.
The chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party argued that thousands could be implicated if a federal judge does not quash a subpoena from the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. "That will inevitably lead to the questioning of, and further subpoenas issued to, the thousands of Republicans in contact with plaintiffs," Kelli Ward attorney Alexander Kolodin argued in a new filing, the Tuscon Star reported Tuesday. U.S. House of Representatives' general counsel Douglas Letter noted the Department of Justice was not seeking the content of conversations, just the meta-data. "There can be no greater interest than investigating the first attempt to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power of its kind in our nation's history," Letter argued. x True. But in as much as they are experts at deflection, remember the bottom line:
The DOJ won't go away.
Thus, they are SCARED
FRIGHTENED
TERRIFIED
NERVOUS
PANICKY
ALARMED
INTIMIDATED
PANIC- STRICKEN
HORRIFIED
PETRIFIED
Rats caught in a trap, soon to gnaw their own feet off
https://t.co/o3yaQxVHlM — Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) August 30, 2022
Meanwhile in Colorado:
x NEW: Mesa County DA Dan Rubinstein (R) says he's concluded his joint investigation with AG Phil Weiser (D) into Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) and election system tampering. Rubinstein says he's asked the US AG's office to look into federal charges. #copolitics — Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) August 30, 2022
Trump is in a NPD decompensation spiral
Luckily, TFG is a lazy, ineffectual loser so he alone cannot do what he wants to do:
Trump is losing it on Truth Social as his legal troubles continue to mount, David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement (via Raw Story), August 30, 2022.
Donald Trump is having a meltdown on his Truth Social platform. The former president, believed to be under multiple criminal investigations, is lashing out at his opponents, rapidly reposting memes from his supporters celebrating him and attacking President Joe Biden and the Democrats, and promoting falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and vaccines. Trump’s meltdown, which includes dozens of posts and reposts per hour, comes amid his baseless demand on Monday to either be named president again or have the nation hold a new election “immediately.” “Trump is spending his morning on Truth Social directly posting 4chan and Q messages, a day after calling to be reinstated as president. He’s doing explicitly what he used to try to shade or use coded language for,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney observes, offering several examples. ✂️ “This is distraction at its purest—no one is going to redo the 2020 election—but it no longer works,” (Heather Cox Richardson) notes. “As Trump has lost the power to command attention, his demands have gotten more and more outrageous.” x Google barred Trump’s Truth Social from their app store due to a lack of moderation of hate. There’s one big reason why this can never be fixed: the main spreader of that hate is Donald Trump himself.
https://t.co/tAMQxVKV6j — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 31, 2022
D’Souza’s disinformation trash pulled by publisher
Dinesh D'Souza Mule Book Had ERROR In It? HOLD THE F*CKING PHONE!, Liz Dye, Wonkette, August 30, 2022.
Pour one out for Dinesh D'Souza, whose book 2,000 Mules: They Thought We'd Never Find Out. They Were Wrong will not be appearing on bookstore shelves today as planned. Instead, it's getting pulped by conservative Regnery Publishing, as first pointed out by independent journalist Nancy Levine, who says she got the information from a "book vendor for Walmart." "Due to a publishing error, the publication date of 2000 Mules has been postponed to October 25, 2022. We look forward to publishing '2000 Mules' by @DineshDSouza this fall," Regnery tweeted, confirming the reporting. Multiple journalists reached out to the publisher for elaboration, but none was forthcoming. ✂️ "There is an elaborate sausage-making process that goes into a book," he tweeted, as if anyone wanted to think about what goes into D'Souza's D'Sausage. "Somehow a significant error got missed by the publisher. It is now corrected but my book '2000 Mules' is pushed back to October. The book is explosive so I’m glad it’s being done right. It will be worth the wait!" Sure, he as the author, included a "significant error" in his manuscript "somehow." But that's on the publisher, who "missed" it, so now they're recalling it and putting off the release until October 25. Try to contain your anticipation. x Don’t tell me Regnery cancelled him. That could never happen.
https://t.co/D0YmoI7ixD — Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) August 29, 2022
And September is Coming
The January 6 Committee will resume hearings. 😊
🎶 Music for September Hearings 🎶
🌎🌍 International News 🌏🌎
x BREAKING: The EU is set to unite around cancelling the expedited visa scheme for Russians — Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) August 28, 2022
x “It is inappropriate for Russian tourists to stroll in our cities, on our marinas,” a senior EU official involved in the talks said. “We have to send a signal to the Russian population that this war is not OK; it is not acceptable.”
https://t.co/Fsh8bNC4VA — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) August 28, 2022
🌍 Togo achieves ‘major feat’ of eliminating four neglected tropical diseases, Jasmine Gadhavi, the Guardian, August 25, 2022.
Togo has been praised by the World Health Organization for becoming the first country in the world to eliminate four neglected tropical diseases. The WHO presented the west African country with an outstanding achievement award this week for eliminating Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, sleeping sickness and trachoma in just 11 years. “Togo has achieved a major feat,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa. “This achievement is an example for the rest of Africa and shows what is possible when health is made a priority.”
🌱 Environment and Health News 🌱
This story brings up an intriguing strategy: communities could sue the oil companies for harming them by funding global warming denial, lobbying against green energy initiatives to keep profiting off drilling and consumption practices that actively harm the environment:
After Deadly Fires and Disastrous Floods, a Canadian City Moves to Sue Big Oil, Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, August 29, 2022.
The heat that started the inferno in Lytton killed 619 people in the province last year and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. It has sent government officials scrambling for policies, tools and approaches they can use to steer the province away from more disasters by stemming the effects of climate change, which scientists believe contributed to the extreme heat and other destructive weather events of the past year. Now, the region is fighting back. Vancouver’s City Council took preliminary steps in July toward suing major oil companies, seeking damages for the local costs of climate change. The move, in a city that has been a leader of the environmental movement in Canada and was the birthplace of Greenpeace, would be the first lawsuit of its kind in the country against the fossil fuel industry, whose carbon emissions contribute to global warming.✂️ The lawsuit’s proponents argue that energy companies should be held responsible for their share of Vancouver’s climate costs because they knew about their industry’s effects on climate change decades ago, but covered up evidence and lobbied against climate action. They point to a series of a catastrophic and rare weather-related events in the past year in the region as evidence. x Vancouver has become a center of climate change in Canada, hit hard last year by the heat dome, king tides, the polar vortex and other extreme weather events. Now it’s fighting back and getting ready to sue Big Oil.
https://t.co/XY9n82CUhZ — New York Times World (@nytimesworld) August 29, 2022
Sorry, I don’t have a subscription to WSJ and they have an unbreachable paywall. Keep an eye out for the story elsewhere — maybe post it in the comments!
MUCH Faster EV Charging coming within a few years
Soon electric vehicles could charge faster than your iPhone, Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, August 27, 2022.
In a report released this week, government researchers said they have found a way to charge electric car batteries up to 90 percent in just 10 minutes. The method is likely five years away from making its way into the market, scientists said, but would mark a fundamental shift.✂️ The methods they’ve found can charge an electric vehicle battery up to 90 percent in 10 minutes, Dufek said, but they hope to do better. In the next five years, Dufek’s team is striving to find a way to charge batteries up to 20 miles per minute, far surpassing the performance of top performing super chargers, which hover around 10 to 15 miles per minute.✂️ But the bigger benefit, he said, would be if this method spurs car companies to make electric vehicles with smaller batteries, since they’d now have batteries that could be charged quicker and allow consumers to feel less worried about stopping periodically to get a quick recharge. “Smaller batteries are cheaper cars,” he said. x
https://t.co/88ym4XVTS6 — Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) August 28, 2022
This is just cool
A bit scary, too — but cool!
x Drone footage looking down into a volcanic eruption from above 🌋 pic.twitter.com/fkOiCRe9li — H0W_THlNGS_W0RK (@wowinteresting8) August 25, 2022
Norway study of e-bike use encouraging!
E-Bikers Ride Much Farther and More Frequently Than Regular Bikers, Lloyd Alter, Treehugger, August 27, 2022.
I have tried to make the case that e-bikes are often used differently than regular bikes, that people use them more often and go much farther, and have quoted a study which finds that e-bike riders get as much exercise as riders of regular bikes because they ride farther. Now a new study, "Do people who buy e-bikes cycle more?" gives us real numbers, and they are huge. Not only that, but the e-bikes are replacing cars more than they are replacing bikes. ✂️ The people who bought e-bikes increased their bicycle use from 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) to 9.2 kilometers (5.7 miles) on average per day; a 340% increase. The e-bike's share of all their transportation increased dramatically too; from 17% to 49%, where they e-biked instead of walking, taking public transit, and driving. The researchers call this the "e-bike effect," but worried that people might be riding so much because they just bought the bike and there is the novelty of it, so they are using it a lot, similar to what happens when people buy fancy gym equipment. They discounted this because in fact, people rode their e-bikes more the longer they had them; "it confirms previous findings indicating that people tend to go through a learning process where they discover new trip purposes for where to use the e-bike." x The “E-Bike Effect:” Those who bought e-bikes increased their average daily bicycle use from 2.1km (1.3 miles) to 9.2km (5.7 miles), a 340% increase. The e-bike share of all their transportation increased dramatically too; from 17% to 49%. Via @Treehugger
https://t.co/NOH2tw5wLm — Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) August 27, 2022
🎶 Music for this beautiful morning 🎶
Order your free covid tests today!
Reminder:
x 🚨🚨🚨
The federal government has announced that the USPS program for free rapid tests will be ending on Friday Sept 2.
Anyone who hasn't placed their maximum number of orders needs to do so in the next 6 days.
Order your rapid home test kits here:
https://t.co/nPzdDqClEg
1/2 pic.twitter.com/7AecttpH2e — Sharyn Blum (@sleepyknave) August 28, 2022
Psychology news
This is a fascinating finding about human interaction reducing antipathy. Check out the video below!
x Major academic research project finds that the intervention that most successfully reduced partisan animosity and anti-democratic attitudes was watching this Heinken ad, I kid you not.
So watch it already. And pass it around. I mean why not?
https://t.co/Bx4tf1HPzl https://t.co/Wyib7jm4fY — Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) August 29, 2022
Spending time with people — especially working on a shared project — tends to open minds and hearts to greater acceptance of others’ differences. I am convinced that lots of people living and working together in busy, diverse communities is the reason why cities tend to be more liberal and progressive (and tolerant) than rural areas. The experiment is sort of “built in” in cities. Here’s the video:
💪🏠 Labour and Housing 🏠💪
Support for unions growing
Americans’ support for labor unions at highest in nearly 60 years, Erum Salam, the Guardian, August 30, 2022.
A new Gallup annual Work and Education survey found that Americans’ approval of labor unions is at its highest in nearly 60 years. Seventy-one per cent of US residents approve of unions, as high as in 1965. The 1950s saw the highest support for unions, at three in four Americans, according to the polling firm. Labor unions’ approval rate has been steadily climbing in recent years, from 64% before the pandemic to last year, when it was at 68%.✂️ Of the union members surveyed, 65% cited better pay and benefits as the top reason for joining a union. The second-most-chosen reason was employee rights and representation. x Americans’ support for labor unions at highest for nearly 60 years
https://t.co/BgFWYMGBFG — Guardian US (@GuardianUS) August 30, 2022
Unions and YIMBYs unite for affordable housing!
This is the power of the people working together!
x This was made possible by the usual housers like YIMBYs, Affordable Housing nonprofits, but also the incredible work of the Carpenters Union, SEIU, school dist. workers and more. Showing a clear path to victory from here on out.
https://t.co/pbqXJJ9k6R — Darrell Owens (@IDoTheThinking) August 29, 2022
🎶 Music for People Loving People 🎶
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirl! I went to the vet today for a checkup (I was under the weather last week but I am much better now!) and I met a very friendly golden retriever there. I find golden retriever's are almost always nice and friendly, don’t you? Anyway, this fellow was lovely and we had a nice little knuffle dance together.
When we got home, I asked Mama to find a nice video that shows how lovely goldens are and here it is!
x There is a new favorite in town, but these pups don't mind! 🐶💕 pic.twitter.com/GqFmzYB6vj — Humankind (@humankind) August 26, 2022
Did you see how the dog on the right went off and got his toy to give to the baby? That is goldens all over! Friendly and generous to a fault!
Next, I really enjoyed this video of all the animals at the London Zoo getting weighed:
x VIDEO: 🇬🇧 ZSL #LondonZoo begins its annual weigh-in, during which zookeepers entice nearly 15,000 animals onto the scales to be weighed and measured. The information is logged on an international system accessible to other zoos and conservation bodies pic.twitter.com/OR2bMlr4CK — AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 26, 2022
Finally, more from the stable where Queen Uniek and Rising Star live. Here is a little filly foal and her mother having a nice romp together. I could watch these horses all day long 😍
That’s all from me for another day! Bye! Love, CG 🐾💙
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
x Here's the plan to win the House:
https://t.co/Vo1TA2IwSj — Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) July 18, 2022
Here’s a visual to help us keep our eyes on the prize:
x How good you feel this week? Imagine that X1000 when we send these Trump Republicans scurrying back to their white nationalist corners and out of office. Write, call, give like it's 2018 or 2020. pic.twitter.com/9xphzVykrH — Anat Shenker-Osorio (@anatosaurus) August 26, 2022
x Have you been feeling the Democrats' momentum this week? Well, so have the nation's editorial cartoonists!! Check out this awesome collection of #cartoons about this past week:
https://t.co/tDjNtyOidX — Tokyo Sand 🗽 (@DHStokyo) August 27, 2022
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ I think this is true (take away the tension that is being used to rile up TFG’s base): Prosecute Trump — it will lower the heated political temperature, Amanda Marcotte, Salon, August 30, 2022.
⚡️ Spoiler: It was/is and Rs are protecting themselves, not him: What if Trump's conspiracy was way bigger than we know? Them Hartmann, Raw Story, August 30, 2022.
⚡️ Legal filing sheds light on missing Jan 6 text messages, Kaila Philo, Talking Points Memo, August 26, 2022.
⚡️ Don’t Succumb to MAGA Fatalism, Peter Wehner, the Atlantic, August 26, 2022.
⚡️ Opinion: Georgia judge to Republicans: You’re not getting out of testifying, Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, August 30, 2022.
⚡️ Food for thought: The Constitutional Flaw That’s Killing American Democracy, Jedediah Britton-Purdy, the Atlantic, August 28, 2022.
⚡️This is already outdated — it’s even better now: Yes, Special Elections Really Are Signaling A Better-Than-Expected Midterm For Democrats, Nathaniel Rakish, fivethirtyeight, August 30, 2022.
⚡️ Europe’s Plan to Wean Itself off Russian Gas Just Might Work, Matt Reynolds, Mother Jones, August 29, 2022.
⚡️ I (kind of) get it (a quiz, too!): Are you a bittersweet person? Take this quiz — then discover the power of sadness, Shereen Marisol Meraji and Claire Marie Schneider, NPR, August 30, 2022.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
Peek a Boo!
Welp, CG and I need to get some sleep! It’s 2:15 AM! It was worth it to get that filing into the GNR though! 😃
I’m pretty sure I misspelled Mar A Lago (?) a few times today. Oh well! 🤷🏼
As always, I encourage you to put your health and wellbeing first so that you will have the reserves to love and nurture your loved ones, too AND save the country! 😁
Get some rest, eat nutritious food, take breaks when you need them and then come back and join hands with our wonderful diverse beautiful majority to GOTV, save democracy and get the country on the rightest track it may ever have been on. It won’t be easy, but I know we can do this!
That’s it from me and CG for another week.
Happy Wednesday, Gnusies!
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