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Republicans' March Madness - March 11 GNR + a poll! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-11
Good Day and Happy Tuesday, Gnuville. There’s so much today, let’s just get straight to it!
😡 🤯 Republicans in Disarray 🤡 😩
My stars, they are in such disarray.
The dodgy gang that couldn’t shoot straight
Trump's attempt to clean up after Elon Musk backfires, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, March 7, 2025.
'A lot of damage control' at the White House after Musk blow-up: MSNBC's Lemire, Tom Boggione, Raw Story, March 10, 2025.
"But as I reported this is, this was coming, weeks in the making," he added. "First of all, President Trump had really soured on some of the bad headlines. Really, we know how much he pays attention to the media coverage of this, dating all the way back from that moment, we've discussed on this show, when Jesse Watters on Fox News sort of almost very emotionally said, 'Hey, be more careful with these cuts,' talking about a friend of his who was going to be eliminated from the Pentagon, a veteran, saying this needs to change how we're approaching this."
"Other Cabinet secretaries for days, for weeks now, have complained to the White House and to their own staff, saying Musk is disturbing our power; they should be our decisions on hirings and firings," he elaborated.
He then noted, "'I'm told White House officials are seeing these legal challenges, and they've been on the losing end of some of them, in part because there's questions about whether Musk has the authority in DOGE."
Transcript: Fiasco for Musk as Trump Advisers Erupt in anti-DOGE Panic, Greg Sargent, The New Republic, March 10, 2025.
An interview with New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff about the alarm Trump’s agency heads are experiencing about Elon Musk’s DOGE—and why this problem will only get worse for Trump.✂️ Aronoff: I think it’s been clear how little coherence there is to anything that’s happening within the Trump administration, in that to even describe it as an administration gives it too much credit. What we’ve seen is that there are various agency heads, which may or may not have very much power, and then Musk goes in and mucks around in everything that they’re doing. That became very clear in this meeting today. And that generates, obviously, a lot of dissensus and chaos both within the agencies and within this thing called the Trump administration, which at any given point looks very different.
A Dissenter?
Credit where it is due. Rep. Bacon is speaking the truth here, and it could cost him with his comrades.
x GOP Rep. Don Bacon: "We were the leader of the free world, but it appears to many leaders and people all over, to include Republicans in Nebraska, that this administration is walking away from that legacy."
[image or embed] — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Trump’s Mass Firings Throw Huge Wrench in His Mass Deportations, Edith Olmstead, TNR, March 7, 2025.
x This is self-destructive behavior that needs a goddamned intervention: Trump wants to get rid of the CHIPS Act, which will lead to thousands of jobs in the US in places like Ohio, Texas, and Indiana, just because it was signed into law by Biden. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/t...
[image or embed] — The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Here’s Your Government-Slasher on Drugs, Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, March 6, 2025.
Elon Musk mocked for failure trifecta as Twitter suffers 'major outage', Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, March 10, 2025.
"Last week: SpaceX ship explodes, shutting down a huge chunk of Florida airspace. Today: X completely down. The last month: Tesla stock price down by a third. Gotta hand it to Musk: He really is running the government like he runs his businesses," said Georgetown law and politics professor Josh Chafetz.✂️ "Twitter is down again, despite its owner trying to hijack an FAA upgrade...pun intended," quipped Amee Vanderpool on BlueSky. "Elon wreck Twitter," cracked journalist and media monitor Aaron Rupar. The Atlantic's Chris Vannini noticed at one point that the domain completely stopped loading altogether, showing a "timeout." "Oh, so Twitter is like DOWN down now," he said with a screen capture.✂️ Musk has claimed that the outage was the result of a large-scale cyberattack although he hasn't yet posted any evidence to back up this assertion.
Yesterday’s stock market bloodbath included Tesla down $40.52 (that’s over 15% of stock value lost in a single day). I don’t know if the Tesla shareholders can censure Elon the Terrible in any meaningful way (he is the major shareholder), but you have to think there are a lot of people who are very unhappy with him right now. Good. It’s well-deserved. What a jerk.
Tesla shares plunge 15%, suffering steepest drop in five years, Lora Kolodny, CNBC, March 10, 2025.
Tesla’s selloff on Wall Street intensified on Monday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker plunging 15%, their worst day on the market since September 2020. On Friday, Tesla wrapped up a seventh straight week of losses, its longest losing streak since debuting on the Nasdaq in 2010. The stock has fallen every week since CEO Elon Musk went to Washington, D.C., to take on a major role in the second Trump White House. Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla shares have lost over 50% of their value, wiping out over $800 billion in market cap. Monday marked the stock’s seventh worst day on record. Tesla led a broader slump in U.S. equities, with the Nasdaq tumbling almost 4%, its steepest decline since 2022. The downdraft in Tesla’s stock on Monday was tied to uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s plans on tariffs. Canada and Mexico are key markets for automotive suppliers, and increased tariffs, with the potential for a trade war, will likely impact production and lead to higher prices.
📉 Note: I didn’t see a story on this, but another of the top five losers yesterday (Tesla was the top loser) was Palantir — fascist Peter Thiel’s company — down more than 10%. Another 4%+ in after hours trading. Good.
Fox News Host Begs Trump for Tariffs Clarity—as He Makes Things Worse, Hafiz Rashid, TNR, March 7, 2025.
Trump 2.0 is leaving investors ‘overwhelmed’ — and strategists warn the volatility isn’t over, Chloe Taylor, CNBC, March 7, 2025.
x “The scariest words in the English language are ‘I’m from the private sector and I’m here to maximize efficiency.’” — A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Pro-Trump techies enraged by president’s crypto reserve announcement, causing early rift, Ari Levy and MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC, March 4, 2025.
The Trump-tech alliance is showing its first real sign of distress. And it’s because of crypto. President Donald Trump counted on crypto execs and investors for a hefty portion of his 2024 campaign funds. He promised to reward them handsomely if elected by slashing regulations and by turning the U.S. into “the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.”✂️ It’s not JUST a bitcoin boondoggle anymore While those moves were lauded by the most vocal techies who backed Trump’s candidacy, over the weekend the president took it a step too far in their view. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump announced the creation of a strategic crypto reserve for the U.S. that would include not just bitcoin but several other digital currencies — ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token and Cardano’s ADA. For the most part, Trump’s crypto backers all wanted a strategic bitcoin reserve. Such a move would entail using cash to buy bitcoin, which is widely viewed by crypto enthusiasts as a smart way to deploy capital into a decentralized currency that’s an alternative to hard money. As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X, bitcoin offers a “clear story as successor to gold.” By going well beyond bitcoin, the critics say, Trump would be using U.S. taxpayer money to buy much riskier assets that have unproven value and have the potential to bolster the net worth of a select few investors who own the coins. That’s all the more problematic to those who want to axe government spending by trillions of dollars, in support of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting mission at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
🎶 Music cleanser from truly MAD men 🎶
💪🏼 💪🏾 Resistance Rising 💪🏻 💪🏽
Dems Electoral Results hold a surprise
During Joe Biden’s presidency, his party lost fewer state legislative seats than any president’s party since 1921. That’s good for our side so let’s keep that up!
x During Biden’s presidency, Democrats lost a net 92 state legislative seats, reducing the party's overall share of state legislative seats from 3,309 to 3,217, or one percentage point. This was the fewest seats that any president’s party lost since 1921. 🧵
[image or embed] — Ballotpedia.org (@ballotpedia.org) March 10, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Dems in Congress firing back
'Traitor?' Mark Kelly fires back after Elon Musk accuses him of treason, David Edwards, Raw Story, March 10, 2025.
Sen. Kelly poses with a Ukraine soldier on an earlier visit to Kiev. "Traitor?" Kelly shot back on Monday. "Elon, if you don't understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do." ✂️ It's not the first time Musk has used X to go after Kelly. In February the face of DOGE accused the senator of being a "shill." "Look — he can go to war behind his keyboard all he wants," Kelly responded. "It's a free country. But I've launched into orbit 4 times, I flew 39 combat missions in Desert Storm, and I held my wife's hand in the hospital after she was shot in the head. I don't scare easily, and I don't really care what he thinks of me." "What I do care about is that he is gutting our government, illegally firing federal workers, illegally dismantling independent federal agencies, spreading conspiracies, and empowering extremists," he added. "I'm going to defend working families and the middle class against President Trump and Elon Musk with everything I've got. But I can't do it alone. So please, make a donation to my campaign to help keep up the fight." "And Elon: When you finally get the nerve to climb into a rocket ship yourself, give me a call."
Watch Rep. Ilhan Omar fire back at CNN for downplaying MAGA racism, Walter Einenkel, DailyKos, March 10, 2025.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has long been subjected to racist attacks from Republican lawmakers and is not afraid to call out the MAGA movement’s blatant xenophobia—even when CNN anchors try to downplay it. Omar, a Somali-American who was the first African refugee elected to Congress in 2018 as well as one of the first two Muslim women in the chamber, appeared on the news network Monday, where she was asked to respond to bigoted attacks from Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas. Gill sent out a fundraising email that included a petition calling for Omar to be deported because she advised immigrants in her district on their legal rights if questioned by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. “I mean, again, you know, these are people who have really stopped caring about our institutions, really stopped caring about our Constitution,” said Omar, who has been a U.S. citizen since 2000. “I know that it is red meat for his base that are xenophobic and racist, to say to them that I am going to find a way to arrest and deport a member of Congress.”
ATTENTION DEFICIT AND DEFIANCE DIVISION OF LABOR: THERE’S STUFF HAPPENING WHERE YOU’RE NOT LOOKING, Marcy Wheeler, EmptyWheel, March 7, 2025.
As I’ve been puzzling through the, in my opinion, catastrophic distraction of Democratic in-fighting over how to respond to the SOTU, I came to realize one source of the general frustration. A lot of people still don’t understand there’s a natural division of labor in who should fight fascists how, one which is similar to those five areas of sabotage. As a result, there’s a demand that the national Democratic Party (appear to) take the lead on everything, a demand that invites those complaining to outsource their own agency completely, as if they simply hire people to do their politics for them every two or four years. The demand that Hakeem Jeffries take the lead on issues that really aren’t central to his job breeds passivity and frustration and distracts from stuff being done by others better positioned to do so. The national Dems are not the best suited for some of this, partly because civil society has more freedom and standing to sue, partly because within the Democratic party, local parties (and future candidates) should take the lead, and partly because polarization is going to be a big barrier to effective mobilization elsewhere. If a Black or Jewish Democrat from New York pushes an issue, those we need to mobilize will be far less likely to respond because their very identities have become defined in opposition to urban America (and all the euphemisms that entails). Moreover, the Democratic Party’s job is to shepherd legislation and win elections, and the fight against fascism is both broader than and more urgent than elections 20 months away. I want to use this post to lay out what I mean by that, and also as a way to catalog some of what has been done, but also some areas where more needs to be done by precisely the kind of people who spent a week screaming at Democrats.
“Liberal” Media Fighting back
Media Matters sues Elon Musk's X over 'libel tourism' legal assault, Bobby Allyn, NPR, March 10, 2025.
Media Matters, the liberal watchdog organization that billionaire Elon Musk has sued in multiple lawsuits around the world, is going on the offensive. The group on Monday sued Musk's social media platform X for breach of contract over Musk bringing suits against the nonprofit in Texas, Ireland and Singapore in a legal maneuver Media Matters calls "a vendetta-driven campaign of libel tourism." Lawyers for the advocacy group are challenging Musk on technical grounds, arguing that since X's terms of service at the time of the suits required the complaints to be filed in San Francisco, the actions violate Musk's own policies, which were changed months after after the suits were brought.
Federal Judges holding firm
Even the DOJ did the right thing here!
Trump’s January 6 pardon doesn’t cover FBI murder plot conviction, judge rules, Rachel Leingang, the Guardian, March 10, 2025.
A man pardoned by Trump for his role in the January 6 insurrection who also was convicted of plotting to kill federal agents investigating him is still legally liable for the plot, a judge ruled on Monday.✂️ In Kelley’s case, the justice department argued he was not pardoned by Trump for the plotting charges. In Monday’s ruling, the US district judge Thomas Varlan deniedKelley’s motion to dismiss the charges, saying the case “involved separate offense conduct that was physically, temporally, and otherwise unrelated to defendant’s conduct in the D.C. Case and/or events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021”. The plotting charges stemmed from “entirely independent criminal conduct in Tennessee, in late 2022, more than 500 miles away from the Capitol”, Varlan wrote.
And this judge has barred the enforcement of the felonking’s EO on DEI funding:
x JUST IN: A federal judge clarifies that his order barring enforcement of Trump EO on "DEI" funding applies to *all* federal agencies, not just those named in the lawsuit. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
[image or embed] — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM
States Stepping Up
Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon announces new DEI initiatives, Emmanuel Camarillo, Chicago Sun Times, March 10, 2025.
Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon said her office is reinforcing its diversity, equity and inclusion measures amid “threatening rhetoric and cruel policies” from the federal government that are creating uncertainty for marginalized communities. That uncertainty has led to a surge in requests this year for vital records, particularly birth certificates and marriage licenses, Gordon said at a news conference Monday marking her 100th day in office at the Cook County office building in the Loop.✂️ Gordon announced that she will appoint the office’s first deputy clerk of diversity, equity and inclusion, a position that she said will be tasked with making sure “everything the clerk’s office does is rooted in equity.” “Every resident of Cook County deserves to have their cultural and personal identity acknowledged, and I’ll be working to ensure that this office reflects that spirit,” Gordon said.
Throwing Lifelines to Federal Workers, Gabrielle Gurley, The American Prospect, March 7, 2025.
In a bid to soothe the sting of unemployment, Hochul has teed up 7,000 vacancies in state government. New York needs educators, engineers, and health care workers. Attorneys, engineers, nurses, and IT specialists are also in high demand. Career services are on offer and dismissed New York residents can apply for unemployment insurance. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor super commuters and casual travelers can expect to see similar appeals on digital billboards in New York’s Moynihan Station and Washington’s Union Station, two of the busiest stops on the national rail network.✂️ With nearly 690,000 federal employees, the Washington metro area is one of the country’s hardest-hit areas. In 2023, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) pledged to fill thousands of vacant state jobs and has continued to pursue new workers despite a $3 billion budget shortfall. Now, with some of Maryland’s 10,000 probationary federal employees facing unemployment, Moore aims to recruit 1,600 of them for teaching and other state positions. He’s also ordered state agencies to expedite Maryland’s long and complex hiring process and have people hired in 45 days or less. Some 450 laid-off feds have already filed for unemployment insurance in Maryland.✂️ This new job market isn’t limited to states. Cities like Atlanta and Honolulu also are eager to snap up well-trained federal workers—who, in turn, are similarly eager to be snapped up. Howard County, Maryland, which is north of Washington, held a career fair for federal workers, contractors, and residents for the first time at the end of February: 600 people attended. Meanwhile, even though the Oklahoma City area has an Air Force base and an FAA training station that may lose people, Mayor David Holt (R) believes they’d be able to find jobs locally. He’s one of the few sanguine local leaders out there. That’s not the case in Kansas City, where officials fear that the metro area won’t be able to provide employment for the college graduates who get laid off.
And Veterans
In case you cannot see the Bluesky post, veterans and others protested in WI. They also brought up the concerns to Sen Ron Johnson (R-ussia), on a phone “town hall” (the coward) and he blustered that he didn’t know of any personnel changes and the VA budget was going UP. So that is information that should be put about, since either he was lying OR the lie that it is about reducing costs is exposed yet again. Here is the story: Milwaukee veterans, workers speak out against proposed cuts to the VA Department,
MILWAUKEE — Around 200 people rallied outside the Milwaukee Zablocki VA Medical Center on Friday to oppose proposed cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Earlier this week, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced that the department plans to cut 80,000 workers, or roughly 15%, reducing the workforce to just under 400,000. "It's unfair what they’re doing to the employees of the United States government, let alone just the VA," said Norbert Kniedler, a veteran who receives care at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center.✂️ "The time is now. We've got to save it. We have to speak out and talk to our representatives to make sure that we preserve VA health care," McBride said. The issue of workforce cuts came up at a tele-town hall Thursday with Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. He told a caller worried about staffing cuts that the VA budget is going up this year. x St. Louis is next! www.tmj4.com/news/milwauk...
[image or embed] — Fred Wellman (@fpwellman.bsky.social) March 8, 2025 at 11:04 AM
🎶 Music that makes you smile 🎶
🌱 Environmental News 🌱
The People still have power
Even Under Trump, Americans Can Fight Climate Change, Sandeep Vaheesan, The American Prospect, March 10, 2025.
Instead of picking between Big Tech and private utilities to lead, we should put public power at the forefront of a national decarbonization program. Through these institutions, ordinary Americans and our elected officials can control the climate transition and ensure it is both rapid and just. Without shareholders to answer to, publicly owned utilities do not face constant demands from financial interests for larger dividends and stock buybacks. They can also often borrow money at lower rates than their private counterparts. And as FDR articulated in 1932, public power can function as a yardstick and competitively pressure private utilities to do better on rates, reliability, and decarbonization, especially if more states and cities start to view public control as a superior alternative to investor ownership. For proof of concept, Washington state has a mostly carbon-free grid thanks to public investment. The Grand Coulee and other publicly owned dams on the Columbia River, built in the mid-20th century, supply zero-carbon hydropower to municipal utilities like Seattle City Light, which resell it to households and businesses at some of the lowest rates in the country. In 2023, the New York legislature empowered the publicly owned New York Power Authority to construct large-scale renewable projects. Now, NYPA should go big in its wind, solar, geothermal, and energy storage build-out. It should take the lead in helping the Empire State meet its climate goals and show the entire nation how to do public decarbonization.
Chart: US is set to shatter grid battery records this year, Dan McCarthy, Canary Media, March 7, 2025.
Last year was fantastic for battery storage. This year is poised to be even better. The U.S. is set to plug over 18 gigawatts of new utility-scale energy storage capacity into the grid in 2025, up from 2024’s record-setting total of almost 11 GW, per Energy Information Administration data analyzed by Cleanview. Should that expectation bear out, the U.S. will have installed more grid batteries this year alone than it had installed altogether as of 2023.
Illinois is charging ahead on renewable power
After groundbreaking bills on jobs and solar, Illinois tackles the grid, Kari Lydersen, Canary Media, March 3, 2025.
Since 2017, sweeping legislation in Illinois has sparked a solar-power boom and launched ambitious energy-equity and green-jobs programs. Now, for the third time in under a decade, state lawmakers, advocates, and industry groups have their sights set on ensuring that clean energy momentum. The focus this legislative session is the electric grid. Stakeholders worry the state’s clean energy progress will stagnate if it can’t expand and fortify its infrastructure for moving and storing electricity. Advocates are backing a wide-ranging bill known as the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, or CRGA, which they describe as the successor to the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act and the 2021Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Solar and energy-storage industries are backing another bill that includes even more ambitious goals for building out new transmission and energy storage.
Illinois proves states have a lot of power to advance clean energy, Kathryn Krawczyk, Canary Media, March 7, 2025.
The state’s path to climate action began eight years ago with the Future Energy Jobs Act, which devoted millions of dollars to clean energy jobs training, pushed utilities to create energy-efficiency programs, created a community solar program, and drove investment in renewables across the state. President Donald Trump had also just been sworn in for the first time, reinvigorating climate skepticism and renewable energy resistance on the national stage. Despite the federal challenges, FEJA found success, and in 2021, it inspired the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which went even further on phasing out fossil fuels. The results have been clear: Illinois had only installed a tiny 80 MW of solar power statewide before FEJA’s passage and has since installed more than 3,500 MW, according to the state.✂️ So now, state lawmakers are working on another pair of bills to make sure things keep rolling, Kari reported this week. They aim to evaluate the state’s current power grid, make it easier to expand the transmission system, and add a ton of new battery storage to make sure the grid can handle a mandated transition to 100% clean energy by 2050. Illinois is already on its way to meeting that goal, as it has one of the cleanest grids in the nation thanks to bountiful nuclear power. “In a Trump world, nothing feels certain,” Andrew Rehn, climate policy director of the environmental group Prairie Rivers Network, told Kari. “But this feels real.”
Will you see the Lunar eclipse this week?
The upcoming lunar eclipse will be visible in the western hemisphere. Here in Illinois, it will begin just before midnight on Thursday night and be at its peak in the wee hours of Friday morning.
What You Need To Know About the March 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse, Caela Barry, NASA, February 6, 2025.
The Moon will pass into Earth’s shadow and appear to turn red on the night of March 13 or early in the morning on March 14, depending on time zone. Here’s what you need to know about the total lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it appears red-orange. Lunar eclipses are sometimes called “Blood Moons” because of this phenomenon.You don’t need any special equipment to observe a lunar eclipse, although binoculars or a telescope will enhance the view. A dark environment away from bright lights makes for the best viewing conditions.
Daylight Saving Time
The name is a bit misleading, because of course we cannot “save” daylight or increase it in any way. What DST does, of course, is shift the clocks so that an hour of daylight is taken away from the morning and tacked onto the evening instead. Some people love it and some hate it, but nearly everyone hates the switching twice per year.
Should we pick one time and make it permanent? And if so, which one? (Hmmmm….. I feel a poll coming on)
Here’s an article discussing the pros and cons of DST versus standard time: Chasing daylight (Canadian story, sorry 😁)
And here’s an NPR story with USA perspective:
Daylight saving time has started. Here's how to adjust, Sarah Boden, NPR, March 9, 2025.
The circadian rhythm exists in almost every cell of the body. Hasler likens it to an orchestra of clocks, with the conductor directing from the hypothalamus, a small region within the center of the brain. This clock orchestra not only determines when we sleep but also regulates our metabolism, body temperature, our emotions, aspects of cognition and several hormones. And switching from standard to daylight saving time throws our clocks out of tune, much like jet lag, making us irritable and tired. Because our circadian rhythm is synced with the sun, having less light in the morning and more in the evening makes it harder to be alert during the day and sleep at night. Therefore, some sleep even later during daylight saving compared to standard, says Dr. Indira Gurubhagavatula, who specializes in sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Gurubhagavatula told NPR via email that people usually feel back to normal after a week or so. But warned the time change sometimes triggers chronic sleep issues that persist for months.✂️ To adjust, we need to help that symphony of circadian clocks get in sync with the new time as soon as possible. Much like adapting to jet lag, we can adjust by taking advantage of external cues that reset our inner clocks, including light exposure, exercise and even what we eat and drink. Probably the most powerful of these cues is light. When you wake up, go outside into the morning sun as this bright light exposure tells your body it's time to be awake. Hasler says for this to be effective people need to be in the natural light for at least 20 minutes, though more is better. But Harvey says any amount can help. If it's still dark out when your alarm goes off, Harvey suggests turning on all the lights in your house to signal to your brain that day is starting. Still, outside light is far brighter, even on a cloudy day, so try to get outdoors as soon as the sun's up.
🎶 A Moon Song 🎶
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ A video of podcast worth listening: Ways to Change the World: Gary Stevenson on taxing the rich and why you're getting poorer | WTCTW podcast, Channel 4 News (UK), YouTube, March 5, 2025.
⚡️ Democrats Should “Do Something.” And They Are. Bill Scher, Washington Monthly, March 7, 2025.
⚡️ Life in Activism Special: You Can Do a Lot Better than Just Saying, "Do Something!", Chris Bowers, Wolves and Sheep, March 8, 2025.
⚡️ Be funnier? Democrats Are Failing to Deliver a Key Ingredient of Effective Protest, Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, March 10, 2025.
⚡️ 🇨🇦🔥: "Canada will never ever be part of America": Trudeau's replacement immediately takes it to Trump, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, March 10, 2025.
⚡️ Weak Strongman, There is a reason why Trump backs down, Matt Kerbel, Wolves and Sheep, March 10, 2025.
⚡️ Why Putin’s Trump Flirtation Threatens His Own Grip on Power, Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast, March 7, 2025.
⚡️ Shares of Starlink’s European rival Eutelsat have tripled. CEO says it can do the job in Ukraine. Barbara Kollmeyer, Marketwatch, March 10, 2025.
⚡️ Schadenfreude 🙄 : Trump Supporters Regretting Their Votes After DOGE Cuts, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic, March 10, 2025.
⚡️ THE GREAT SALT SHAKE-UP, Ellen Cushing, the Atlantic, March 8, 2025.
⚡️ These both do good work: Give to the Night Ministry by giving to the Sun-Times, Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun Times, March 10, 2025.
💙 🐩 CG’s Picks 🐩 💙
Hello Everybody, it’s me Curlygirl! How is everybody this week? Me and Mama are very happy because it has been sunny and milder (but not hot — I don’t like hot weather so PHEW!).
I fetched FIVE stories for you today and THREE of them are about birds! How about that?
But first, a couple of dog stories.
🐕🦺 Do you understand your dog?
Research reveals humans struggle to accurately read dogs' emotions, Arizona State University, Phys.Org, March 10, 2025.
I think Mama knows what I am feeling
I L😍VE you, Mama! "Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself," added Wynne, an ASU psychology professor who studies dog behavior and the human–dog bond. Adding to the misunderstanding is a human projection of their feelings onto the dog. This "anthropomorphizing" of the interaction further clouds truly understanding what your dog's emotional state actually may be, what she is trying to tell you. ✂️ "Every dog's personality, and thus her emotional expressions, are unique to that dog," Molinaro explains. "Really pay attention to your own dog's cues and behaviors." "When you yell at your dog for doing something bad and she makes that guilty face, is it really because she is guilty, or is it because she is scared you are going to reprimand her more? Taking an extra second or two to focus on your dog's behaviors, knowing that you need to overcome a bias to view the situation around the dog rather than the dog himself, can go a long way in getting a true read on your own dog's emotional state, leading to a stronger bond between the two of you."
🐶 We Rate Dogs made a show!
x WE MADE A SHOW! A whole hour of dogs because they were simply too good. The Dogs Were Good (again) Episode 1 is out now. Please enjoy ❤️ youtu.be/DExOqlVdgEw
[image or embed] — WeRateDogs (@weratedogs.com) March 6, 2025 at 12:28 PM
🦅 Steller’s Sea Eagle returns to Newfoundland
I had this story once before but this wandering eagle from Siberia seems to have decided that Newfoundland is her new home! Last summer, “Stella” even built a nest! I feel kind of bad for her because there certainly are not any other Steller sea eagles in the north Atlantic for her to find a mate.
I wonder if Steller sea eagles can find a mate amongst other eagle populations? I know there are a LOT of Bald eagles in Newfoundland. Maybe there will be a scientist in the comments who can tell me!
Rare and Giant Steller’s Sea Eagle Spotted Thousands of Miles From Home in Eastern Canada Park, Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, January 3, 2025.
🦅 And speaking of raptors…
cc mentioned on friday that Jackie and Shadow’s 3rd egg had pipped. Now it has hatched and the newest chick is feeding well along with its (slightly) older siblings!
Big Bear eagles live cam shows Jackie and Shadow's eaglets, nest - LIVE, ABC eyewitness news.
The first eaglet arrived Monday night, popping out of its shell shortly before 11:30 p.m. The special moment was captured live during the 11 p.m. newscast of ABC7 Eyewitness News. The second chick hatched sometime in the overnight hours. The third egg appeared to be hatching, as well, about 1 p.m. Thursday. Jackie and Shadow are taking turns watching and feeding the baby birds, who won't be able to leave the nest for about 10 to 14 weeks. x YouTube Video
🐓 Chicken poop is really good fertilizer! Who knew?
This next story has it all! Animals (chickens!), recycling, environmental AND health benefits! Talk about a win win win win!
Retired hens revitalise Cyprus olive groves, Michele Kambas, Reuters, February 24, 2025.
AKAKI, Cyprus, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Organic farmers in Cyprus have recruited hundreds of retired hens to fertilize olive groves in a pilot project they say boosts yields, counters disease, and helps to manage food waste. Saved from slaughter after their egg-laying years, hens peck and poop to their hearts' content among olive trees at the organically certified Akaki Grove, on the green foothills of the Troodos mountains west of Nicosia. In a back-to-basics approach, farmer and grove owner Elena Christoforos and soil engineer Nicolas Netien have launched the Kot-Kot project. They collect food waste donations to feed hens, which in turn provide natural fertilizer for olive trees producing oil high in inflammation-busting polyphenols. x YouTube Video
🐩 That’s all I have for you this week. Thanks for reading! Luv, CG 💙🐾
🚧 🩷 ❣️ How Can You Help Build a Better World? ❣️ 🩷 🚧
I’m going to share some of the excellent links and suggestions from GoodNewsRoundup and chloris creator. Repetition is good!
🎩 GOODNEWSROUNDUP:
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas.
x The MAGA agenda is already hurting rural communities and we're not going to take it. Let's make Trump, Musk, and their MAGA puppets' lives hell until they learn not to mess with rural voters. Join our Rural Caucus kickoff call to learn how you can fight back. www.mobilize.us/indi...
[image or embed] — Indivisible (@indivisible.org) February 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
🎩 CHLORIS CREATOR:
I know it’s tough to see the path forward. And I can’t guarantee that there is a path forward. But people who are smarter and braver than I have seen ways to move ahead.
Their plans really are dark, but many of them are also dumb, in the sense that they don’t make sense. So many of them cannot succeed. Here are some quick hits. Stay involved. Yeah, that’s tough. I want to look away too, but by taking simple actions you can make a difference. Keep contacting your representatives, both in DC and at home.
Support causes that will fight. Send money if you can. Also, spread their news with clicks and conversation.
Slow them down. Oppose and block at every turn.
Make tRump unpopular. Doing this weakens him. And it should not be that difficult. The GOP made a lot out of Biden is old and eggs cost too much. Well, tRump is older than Biden was at the beginning of his term and tRump has no policies that are going to bring down inflation. And a host of other problems, like he’s a convicted felon.
Divide the GOP from each other. They are a coalition based on contradictory promises, so there’s plenty to work with.
Keep telling the truth and showing love.
Make sure to pace yourselves in this marathon and to practice self-care.
Other Actions
‼️ Check your voter registration ‼️ ← Seems obvious, but super important.
📞 Call your Congress critters and register your concerns!
(202) 224-3121 is the main switchboard number for Congress. They will ask for your city and state or your zip code and connect you with your representatives. It’s easy and it does make a difference.
Jessica Craven at Chop Wood, Carry Water provides scripts to help you if you worry about what to say.
📪 Write postcards to help Democratic candidates and progressive judges get elected: Postcards to Voters
3️⃣ Check out Third Act Actions page — there might be something there that you can do.
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