Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Here’s a picture of me and three of my personal heroes—Simon Rosenberg, Rachel Bitecofer, and Tom Bonier—in the Network NOVA green room yesterday. Man, what a blast to meet them!
I share the picture because I know lots of you love them, and I’m hoping, too, that the snapshot carries just a tiny bit of the energy, enthusiasm, determination, and fight I absorbed from hanging out with them backstage. Not to mention how inspiring it was to meet so many of you! WOW! What a rush! If I was nervous or fearful on Friday morning that’s over now. The gang of amazing activists, ferocious organizers, and inspiring speakers at the summit has restored my faith completely.
No one there was expressing anything but complete confidence in Joe Biden, by the way. Folks like Rachel, Simon, and Tom, as well as Heather Booth, Danica Roem, and many others had already moved on from the debate. So, I think, should we. But even if you haven’t, I hope you’ll enjoy the below list of things that Biden and many others have helped to bring about, because it’s a long one!
By the way, 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.
Enjoy, and please share widely! Americans don’t hear about the good news unless we tell them about it! So let’s do that!
Read This!
This list of recent Democratic accomplishments from the new Substack Democrats Deliver will lift you up. I highly recommend subscribing. Heather H. always brings the 🔥.
Watch This #1! 👀
I saw an amazing speech last night towards the end of the Women’s Summit. It was by a woman named Phyllis Randall—she’s Chair-at-Large of the Loudon County, VA Board of Supervisors. It was so good I asked her to replicate it for me in the hallway afterwards. She did, and it was just as good the second time.
Celebrate This! 🎉
A conservative, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-DEI public school board president in Temecula, CA lost a recall vote and is out! 🪓
A new poll found that 61 percent of Americans think it is “a good thing” for companies to take up DEI programs.
The FTC blocked another merger, this one between Novant Health and Lake Norman hospital. 🪣
Run For Something candidate Alyia Gaskins, currently a city councilmember, has won her primary and will likely be Alexandria, VA’s first Black woman mayor. 🪓
In what one conservationist called “the greatest recovery of a cat species ever achieved through conservation,” the Iberian lynx has been brought back from the brink of extinction. 🪓
Early in 2023, Colorado began enforcing a 10-penny charge on all single-use plastic and paper bags at major retailers in the hope it would encourage the use of reusable ones. A new report from 9News claims that Colorado used 1.5-1.8 billion fewer plastic or paper shopping bags since the implementation of the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. It also generated $5 million in revenue. 🪓 🪣
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis and called on the nation to address it with the same vigor used to reduce deaths and injuries from tobacco and motor vehicle crashes. 🪣
The Black mayor of a small Alabama town will finally be able to hold office after being physically blocked from town hall by his white predecessors, pending a signature from a federal judge on a legal agreement.
Solar power now provides an estimated 20 percent of global electricity during the Northern Hemisphere’s sunniest moment, which is the summer solstice midday peak on June 20.
The youth plaintiffs in Navahine F v Hawaii Department of Transportation got an unprecedented settlement from the state of Hawaii.
The world has more trees than it did 35 years ago.
In Zambia, over a period of just four years, conservation activists and farmers have been able to restore over 1,240 acres of the Katanino Forest Reserve, which had lost more than 58% of its forest cover in 2019. 🪓
By double-digit margins, Americans now support legislation that protects the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination, and oppose elected officials who aim to limit freedoms.
A district court in Texas dismissed ExxonMobil’s lawsuit against the activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This for the alleged offense of filing climate-focused shareholder proposals, finding that the fossil fuel giant had no case because Arjuna had already rescinded its proposal.
Investments in clean energy will almost double that of fossil fuels this year, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. 🪣
The IRS announced it will crack down on wealthy individuals and businesses moving assets between corporate entities in an attempt to avoid paying taxes. Closing this tax loophole will raise about $50 billion over the next 10 years, according to the agency.1 🪣
Vice President Kamala Harris announced new actions by the Biden administration to increase access to affordable, high-speed internet across the United States. 🪣
A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
The Biden administration said it will impose inflation penalties on 64 prescription drugs for the third quarter of this year, lowering costs for certain older Americans enrolled in Medicare. 🪣
The Biden-Harris administration’s push for electric vehicles is stimulating a booming micro-economy in Nevada, with 12,400 new jobs and $15.4 billion in private sector funding for battery manufacturing and charging stations. 🪣
A Wisconsin judge will allow voters with disabilities to request and receive accessible absentee ballots via email during the November 2024 election following a lawsuit from disability and voting rights groups.
An oil industry group is withdrawing its ballot challenge to a California law that bans drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, businesses and schools. (I’m adding an 🪓 because thousands of activists—including me—advocated for this bill!)
An astonishing marine fungus eating away at debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is providing hope as a natural solution to a common toxic plastic waste.
President Biden is pardoning US veterans who were convicted by the military over a 60-year period under a military law that banned gay sex. 🪣
Bailey Anne Kennedy was crowned Miss Maryland USA, becoming the first transgender woman to ever don the state’s crown.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that two states and five social media users did not have standing to challenge the Biden administration’s communication with social media companies over concerns about COVID-19 misinformation and election interference.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new initiative to lower housing costs and boost housing supply by allocating $85 million in PRO Housing funds to 21 communities. 🪣
The Vatican will run entirely on solar power thanks to a new solar plant.
First Lady Jill Biden hosted a Pride Celebration on the White House South Lawn. WE CAN’T TAKE THIS FOR GRANTED! It wouldn’t happen under a GOP administration. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ 🪣
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Steve Bannon’s request to delay the prison sentence he is facing after being convicted for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee. He must report to prison by July 1—TOMORROW!
The hour after the debate – 11 PM to 12 AM – was Team Biden-Harris’ best grassroots fundraising hour of the entire campaign, raising $14 million from grassroots supporters on debate day and the morning after. They’ve raised at least that much again since then. (Want to get in on the fun? Give here!)
Hawaii officials have announced a “groundbreaking” legal settlement with a group of young climate activists, which they said will force the state’s department of transportation to move more aggressively towards a zero-emission transportation system. 🪓
Amazon rainforest deforestation in Brazil has dropped 40% since last year and reached the lowest level since 2018, even during a rise in forest fires, trending closer to president Lula’s pledge of zero deforestation by 2030. 🪣
According to Biden’s campaign, more than three times as many people applied to work on the campaign in the 24 hours following the debate than apply on an average day.
Also, post-debate, across the battlegrounds, their rate of volunteer signups was more than three times as much as an average day.
The day after the debate, in North Carolina, Biden had his largest event of the campaign, with thousands of people turning out to hear the president give strong and forceful remarks. (The speech in Raleigh, by the way, has millions of views online; you should watch and share it yourself!)
A focus group from Univision in Arizona showed undecided Latino voters moved toward Biden following the debate.
President Biden has extended Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians through June 30, 2026. 🪣
There are no Fortune 500 CEOs who are supporting Trump.
An important economic measure for the Federal Reserve showed Friday that inflation during May slowed to its lowest annual rate in more than three years. 🪣
In what supporters are calling a “huge win for free speech,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free last Tuesday after a decade-long legal ordeal over his leaks of U.S. military secrets.
Consumers scored more than $285 million in refunds from consumer protection regulators investigating, reporting, and reaching settlements with companies that break the law. This is thanks to a Federal Trade Commission that has been emboldened under Biden! Woot! 🪣
The Social Security Administration will stop denying disability benefits to people for not getting jobs that have ceased to exist, eliminating 114 jobs like nut sorter and reptile farmer from its list of potential occupations. 🪣2
Starbucks workers in Cuyahoga falls and Reynoldsburg, OH won their union elections this week, joining two other Ohio stores in Lewis Center and Toledo and more than 20 stores this month! 🪓
Compelling climate narratives in television shows and movies can help shift attitudes on climate change, a new study finds!
The data from LA’s 2024 Homeless Count was released, and the City of LA saw the biggest drop in the number of people living on the street since it started gathering data in 2013! Correspondingly, sheltered homelessness rose significantly – by 18% – as LA added many new shelter beds, and the numbers of people placed into permanent housing increased significantly. Turns out that electing lawmakers who care about getting folks housed makes a difference! 🪣
Following the debate, the Philadelphia Inquirer released an editorial entitled: “To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race.” 🔥🔥🔥
Watch This #2! 👀
Thanks to reader Milo V. who sent this my way. Brilliant!
Not related to the great info here, but much on my mind: a study that says 75% or more of the population is not familiar with Project 2025. Wondering if there are groups tabling, for instance, at farmers markets and community fairs during the summer, with (for instance) Ask me about Project 2025 and have a ready hand-out for what it represents, and 5 talking points?
I wish President Biden was a good debater. I know he’s a good president. He tamed Covid. He passed infrastructure when Trump could not. He outmaneuvered McCarthy on the debt ceiling. His CHIPS and IRA have brought manufacturing jobs and factory investments to the USA, and have accelerated progress toward a clean economy — an economy that The Economist magazine describes as “the envy of the world.” His record speaks for itself.