Extra! Extra! 2/16 🎈🎈
Read all about the GOOD news!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday.
It’s been another brutal week, but, surprise surprise, we’ve also seen a bunch of wins, some truly courageous behavior from patriotic Americans, and a LOT of new protests. I’m liking it! I look forward to seeing more people in the streets this week—especially tomorrow! In the meantime, let’s take a break from doomscrolling to read about some of the good stuff that happened while we weren’t paying attention.
I’ve popped an 🪓 next to every item that everyday activists like you helped make happen, and a 🪣 next to every one that got done by lawmakers or administrations that we helped elect.
Read This 📖
This Alberto Rios poem, A House Called Tomorrow, is exactly what I needed today. Hope it helps you, too.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The world has passed peak air pollution.
More solar and battery storage were added to Texas’ grid than any other power source last year.
200,000 people marched against fascism in Germany. 🪓
A federal judge continued the pause on the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal employees.
The National Treasury Employees Union has filed two lawsuits against the CFPB’s acting director, Russell Vought.
Activists have purchased land in Kentucky with plans to rewild the site and prevent a prison from being built. 🪓
House Democrats have formally established a Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group. 🪣
Attorneys general representing 22 states sued the Trump administration, asking a federal judge to temporarily block a major policy change by the NIH that would substantially limit payments for research overhead to universities, medical centers, and other grant recipients. Within hours, a federal judge in Boston, Angel Kelley, issued a temporary order halting the controversial policy within those 22 states. 🪣
About 30 New Yorkers protested outside of the Tesla showroom in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District to rage against Elon Musk and his meddling in the U.S. government. Similar protests happened all across the country yesterday. 🪓
Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to ‘We Build the Wall,’ an online fundraiser for Trump’s signature project during his first term, in exchange for a sentence without prison time.
Pope Francis published a new letter condemning the Trump administration's demonization of migrants and plans for mass deportation.
Bedaquiline, a critical drug used in the fight against tuberculosis, just got 54% cheaper.
Phone calls to congressional phone lines in the U.S. have increased by 4,000%. 🪓
Tesla shares have tumbled 27% since peaking in December. Their U.S. sales fell 11.5% in January and in Europe their January sales collapsed by at least 40%. (Read this to see why a Tesla boycott could actually really hurt Musk, by the way.) 🪓
Organizations and companies that contract with USAID announced a legal challenge to the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency.
A joint venture co-founded by some of the world’s leading automakers will move forward with plans to deploy 30,000 EV charging stations around the U.S. by 2030, despite Trump’s attempts to freeze billions in federal charger funding.
Dozens of American students at a U.S. military installation in Germany walked out of their middle school on Tuesday as part of protests aimed at an official visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 🪓
Eight inspectors general fired by President Trump in late January filed a lawsuit against the administration alleging their termination violated the law.
Virginia Senators Kaine and Warner held a telephone town hall and 55K people were on the line. 🪓 🪣
Indivisible Rockland in NY state had their first-ever meeting. So many people showed up—over 300!—that they had to create a Zoom overflow room for the people they turned away. 🪓
A judge ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must restore online access to websites with data and guidance on HIV monitoring, health risks for youths and assisted reproductive technologies.
Students at UNC Chapel Hill put up a sign on campus that reads: “Tell us something good that happened to you today.” It’s an effort to focus on the bright spots in such dark times, and it worked. Here’s an awesome video of the responses.1 🪓
In a major win for trans students, the New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division issued two unanimous rulings blocking forced outing policies in school districts across Morris and Monmouth counties.
The first ever Super Bowl ad making a plea for immediate climate action was seen by millions.
Senate Democrats launched a whistleblowers intake form for federal employees. 🪣
According to its co-founder, more than 19,000 people have signed up with Run For Something to consider running for local office just since Election Day - 6000 of them just in the last three weeks. 🪓
Democrats Dan Cruce and Ray Seigfried were elected to the Delaware State Senate in two special elections on Saturday. 🪓
A DC Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to overturn a temporary order reinstating ethics watchdog Hampton Dellinger after his dismissal by Trump. The decision was 2-1.
OpenAI’s board has unanimously rejected Elon Musk’s takeover offer.
Amazon has agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle charges that they subsidized their labor costs by taking tips their delivery drivers received from customers.
The US’s largest solar cell factory is now online in South Carolina.
Detroit is on pace to record the fewest criminal homicides since 1965, while carjackings have plummeted to the lowest level since the Detroit Police Department began tracking the crime in the 1990s.
Democratic endorsed candidate Steven Tyler ousted the conservative incumbent in the mayoral race of Norman, Oklahoma, defeating the Republican incumbent by a whopping *26 POINTS*! 🪓
In Bethany, OK, Democrat Amanda Sandoval also won her mayor’s race. She will become the first Latina mayor in Oklahoma! 🪓
The Trump administration’s passport policy and trans girls in sports policy are both facing new legal challenges.
Shopify has officially taken down Kanye West’s website for violating its terms and selling t-shirts with a swastika on them.
For the first time in recent history, female protagonists reached parity with men in 2024’s top-grossing films.
A private company has saved purged government data on health, climate vulnerability, chronic illness etc. and is making it accessible. 🪓
Deforestation levels in Colombia last year were among the lowest in over two decades.
Abortions are set to resume in Missouri after a judge blocked regulations that had restricted providers even after voters approved enshrining abortion rights into the state’s constitution. 🪓
Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, and five high-ranking Justice Department officials resigned after she refused an order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
A coalition of U.S. cities and counties filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to force so-called sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate with his immigration crackdown and mass deportations.
Bernie Sanders is launching a “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour, beginning this weekend in Omaha and Iowa City. 🪣
Seattle voters approved funding for a social housing agency. 🪓
Democrats held the county executive position in a special election in New York's Westchester County. 🪓
A federal judge blocked parts of two executive orders issued by President Trump that collectively seek to restrict gender-affirming care. Woot!
A new roster of grocers has signed up to receive SNAP benefit payments through local delivery app DoorDash.
According to a subscriber, “1000 people showed up at our Indivisible Town Hall here in Santa Barbara!” Amazing. 🪓
Trump’s and Musk’s approval ratings continue to decline.
The NAACP has published a spending guide for Black consumers showing companies that have rolled back their DEI initiatives and others that have maintained their commitment.
The Associated Press is refusing to bow to Trump’s “Gulf of America” edict. GOOD. Let’s support them!
A judge temporarily blocked Musk and Trump from firing top officials at the CFPB.
Singer-songwriter Victoria Canal played the Kennedy center and, at the end of her set, donned an “Anti-Trump AF” shirt. She got huge applause, and her set broke the record for highest viewership of any Kennedy Center livestream. She also gave 100% of her fee to a trans rights org.
A man got swallowed by a humpback whale and then spat back out! CRAZY.
Remember This! 👀
Find yours here.
Also “What a Day”
If you go to protest seriously consider face covering to thwart face recognition software. We can’t be too careful.
[Updated Sun. 2-16-25] Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre"--where two lawyers resigned in protest--became famous as part of Tricky Dicl's own forced departure. Trump now has his own enhanced, explosive "Thursday Afternoon Massacre" where not two but seven DOJ lawyers resigned in their protest against dropping the quid pro quo criminal action against NY Mayor Adams. This week's heroes ("Lighthouses in the Storm" h/t Armand Beede@Blue Note) are: Danielle Sasson, John Keller, Kevin Driscoll, Rob Heberie, Jenn Clarke, Marco Palmieri, and Hagen Scotten. They resigned after Acting deputy Attorney Emil Bove issued a directive to drop the Adam's case.. These heroes in pursuit of justice and the rule of law are now included in the lionhearted below fighting against authoritarianism, Trump cruelty, and for pre Trump/Musk. democracy.
Numerous undaunted truth-to-power fighters have been added per viewer's inputs and recent Trump and DOJ actions. Besides upstanding lawyers and law-abiding honorable (present and former) judges, here's a growing list of Profiles in Courage men, women, and advocacy groups who refuse to be cowed or kneel to the force of the Trump/Musk intimidation.]
These heroes in pursuit of justice and the rule of law are now included in the lionhearted below fighting against authoritarianism, Trump cruelty, and for democracy--pre Trump/Musk.
I'll begin, again, with Missouri's own undaunted Jess[ica] (à la John Lewis's "get in good trouble") Piper. Then, in no particular order, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Karen Pence, Pope Francis (re cruel migration treatment) , Ruth Ben-Ghait, Dan Rather, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes, Robert Reich, Jim Acosta, Jen Rubin and the Contrarians, Steve Brodner, Brian Tyler Cohen, Jonathan Bernstein, Simon Rosenberg, Rachel Coyle, Jessica Craven, Sharon McMahon, Scott Dworkin, Ron Filipkowski!, Anne Applebaum, David Frum, Susan H. Glassser, Jane Mayer, Lucian Truscott IV, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren, Tim Snyder, Harry Litman, Jay Kuo, Robert B. Hubbell, Ben Meisellas, Steve Schmidt, David Pepper, Judd Legum, Kristin Du Mez, Jeff Tiedrich, Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Andy Borowitz, Rich Wilson, Jeff Danziger, Ann Telnaes,͏ ͏Juan Cole, Will Bunch, Cher, Kevin Costner, Jon Hamm, Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Rebecca Gordon/TomDispatch, The Dean's List/Dean Obeidallah; American Bar Association, Blue Missouri, Indivisible, Sunrise Movement, Third Act, Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, Democracy Index, Democracy Docket, Democracy Now, ACLU, America, America/Steven Beschloss, David Pepper/ Saving DemocracyThe Action Network, The Freedom Academy et al. (Suggestions welcome.)
And, as Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together"--or via Jess Piper, from rural Missouri: "Solidarity." FIGHT BACK! WE ARE NOT ALONE, WE Grow BY the MINUTE--Every Time Trump/Muck tries to destroy our Democracy.
( Google any name above for more info if you are unfamiliar.)