Well, I Think AG Bondi’s Filing Cabinet May Overtake This One As The World’s Most Famous… in Peace & Justice History for 7/12

July 12, 1974

John Ehrlichman, former top aide to President Richard Nixon, and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate a citizenโ€™s civil rights. Ehrlichman had approved a recommendation for a covert investigation of Daniel Ellsberg in 1971 by writing on a memo: “If done under your assurance that it is not traceable.” Looking for information to discredit Ellsberg, agents of Presidentย Nixonโ€™s re-election campaign broke into the office of his psychiatrist.

John Ehrlichman

Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst, had been responsible for public release of The Pentagon Papers, a collection of documents outlining the U.S. history and strategy in Vietnam, that had been classified as secret to avoid public scrutiny. The world’s most famous filing cabinetย 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjuly.htm#july12

Tom Homan rips violent clashes at California pot farm where illegal minors were working, blames Demsโ€™ โ€˜Naziโ€™ rhetoric

There is a video at the link below.ย  I watched this.ย  ICE went in to terrorize and prove they could.ย  They had a military style attack helicopter.ย  This is going to get worse.ย  ย They are the tRump admin Gestapo, armed thugs who follow no rules attacking people who have violated no criminal laws.ย  Even if they were undocumented they had broken no laws as crossing the border illegally is a civil offense like speeding.ย  Hugs

https://nypost.com/2025/07/11/us-news/tom-homan-rips-violent-clash-at-california-pot-farm-as-proof-ice-protests-will-turn-deadly-blames-dems-nazi-rhetoric/

Political cartoons / memes / and news I want to share/ 7-12-2025

#im a muffin from Little By Little

 

Image from Progressive Power

 

 

 

#republican assholes from Social Justice In America

Dick Wright PoliticalCartoons.com

 

 

 

 

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

#are we the baddies? from Liberals Are Cool

#are we the baddies? from Liberals Are Cool

#gavin newsom from Liberals Are Cool

#deplorables from The Iron Snowflake

#immigration from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from No-Longer-Just-Another-Bondi-Blonde.

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

 

Via people magazine:

โ€ข โ€œIn 1983, a request came in for a presidential telegram congratulating Trump on the grand opening of his eponymous tower on Fifth Avenue. A lawyer in the counselโ€™s office wrote โ€˜NOโ€™ and explained internally that it would be inappropriate because it was a โ€˜commercialโ€™ venture.

โ€ข In 1984, Trump requested that Reagan attend a gala to honor Vietnam veterans in New York City and said he would schedule it for any day that worked on the presidentโ€™s calendar. The White House said no.

โ€ข In 1988, the New York Board of Trade gave Trump an โ€˜outstanding executiveโ€™ award. The head of the group sent the White House a letter asking if POTUS could come. โ€˜Advanced word is that Mr. Trump will have some stimulatingly interesting comments to make during his talk at the dinner,โ€™ he wrote. The scheduling office never seriously entertained the idea.

โ€ข Around the same time, Trump sent a glossy pink invitation to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue inviting the president and first lady to an 11 p.m. LaToya Jackson concert at his Atlantic City casino. This was ignored.

โ€ข Back in 1983, Trump snagged a picture with the president during a photo line at a White House event. The president, not paying close attention, signed it โ€˜Reagan Reagan.โ€™ Five years later, Trump included the image in his book The Art of the Deal. An aide in the social secretaryโ€™s office noticed the mistake. She sent an apologetic note and a corrected picture โ€“ signed with an autopen.

Trump appears to have embellished his relationship with the former president in multiple interviews over the past year (2016). During an interview with Good Morning America in August 2015, he said of Reagan, โ€œI have great respect for him. I helped him. I knew him. He liked me and I liked him.โ€

โ€œI didnโ€™t know him well,โ€ Trump later admitted to The Wall Street Journal, insisting, however, that friends told him Reagan was a fan. โ€œHe felt very good about me,โ€ Trump said. โ€œFrankly, he liked my attitude.โ€

Reaganโ€™s son Ron, a political analyst noted for his liberal views, said in a recent radio interview that his father โ€œdidnโ€™t know Donald Trump and wouldnโ€™t have cared for Donald Trump.โ€

โ€œMy father would not have known Donald Trump if Trump stood up in his soup,โ€ Ron said.โ€

https://people.com/celebrity/ronald-reagan-snubbed-donald-trump-and-his-large-ego-white-house-files-show/

 

Image from Progressive Power

 

 

#medicare for all from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

John Darkow Columbia, MO

Whatcha Mean our Medicaid is Gone?!?! MAGA MAGA MAGA

image

 

Harley Schwadron CagleCartoons.com

Gatis Sluka Latvijas Avize, Latvia

Image from politics/atheism

 

Image from DARK SIDE OF THE SWOON

#MAGA from Progressive Power

 

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Progressive Power

 

 

Image from DARK SIDE OF THE SWOON

 

Political cartoon of the day

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

Image from DARK SIDE OF THE SWOON

 

 

#science from Republicans Are The Problem.

 

Dave Granlund PoliticalCartoons.com

 

Image from Good Stuff

SPEAKING ON THE BUDGET DEFICIT, THE PRESIDENT SAID "WE CAN SAVE BILLIONS IF WE ELIMINATE THE TWO SUPERFLUOUS BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT." 8 -SCHWADRM

#trump from Art de Trump

 

 

Image from Untitled

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

#copper from Liberals Are Cool

#copper from Liberals Are Cool

#copper from Liberals Are Cool

#copper from Liberals Are Cool

#kamala harris from Republicans Are The Problem.

 

 

political cartoon

 

 

Bob Englehart PoliticalCartoons.com

Image from Liberals Are Cool

#SCOTUS from Liberals Are Cool

#trump from Art de Trump

Image from DARK SIDE OF THE SWOON

#arizona from Saywhat Politics

Clips from The Majority Report on different subjects.

 

Mehdi Hasan vs. Spineless Democratโ€”Watch the MOMENT He Breaks

Hasan makes the point that democrats are play by tradition and old ways when the republican break all the rules with no consequence.ย  ย Hugs

So Reading the News Yesterday,

I see that our recycling center has closed until further notice. International Paper, downsizing, has closed its recycling plant in Wichita, laying off all those employees, I saw on the newscast from the station I linked. Their story links a release from IP about all their closures and their plans for the year. The release is dated Feb. 13, of 2025. There’s another release from the Wichita Business Journal about the Wichita plant, but it says little to nothing. (No link from them; they’re mostly Kansans and Americans For Prosperity, anyway.)

Earlier, I got the idea to search if IP’s downsizing is due to recission of tax cuts and to tariffs. Gemini (who always volunteers though I never ask, preferring to find a link to a known source) says that while it cannot state that those things cause the downsizing in full, it also cannot state that those aren’t in the mix. (Because I do skim Gemini’s stuff.)

So, this hurts a bit: the closing of our recycling facility, as well as the Wichita one. During the first Trump admin, when POTUS began that trade war with China, China reciprocated by, possibly among other things, refusing anymore plastic recycling from the US. Our facility couldn’t find a place that did the recycling; no one else does it. China does it very economically though of course there is the question of what it’s really doing with the plastic, but another story for another time.

Anyway, in those days, I was an active BPW member. One of the things we worked hard on was getting a recycling collection facility here in town. We lobbied hard, both the public and the council, for use of an unused building (the former firehouse,) and possibly the use of a big truck for hauling the recycling collected to the recycler. We asked for no funding, we had willing volunteers; all the civic organizations set up volunteer schedules. We just needed the facility and a way to haul. Before the facility came about, I became a member of the city Planning Commission, so I couldn’t continue in that effort until after it was decided by the council. But, it was a happy circumstance that there was a plan for recycling in the existing Strategic Plan, even then! That’s always a big help, when something’s in the Strat Plan.

So, this was not a thing that came before the Planning Commission. I was not on Zoning Appeals at that time, so I have no idea if they got it, but as it came to reality, that wouldn’t have been necessary. It was decided that that firehouse building would become the collection facility, it would be staffed with volunteers but with a city worker or two there because it’s city property and insurance insists on that, and a city worker would do the hauling. Yay! It was open each Saturday from 9 until noon, and people needed to bring their recycling, preferably sorted, to the facility where volunteers then helped getting things where they went.

Eventually it grew, and there weren’t enough volunteers every Saturday to keep the lines moving reasonably. It went before the council to staff another one or two. There would still be volunteers there to keep things moving without too much staff. (People here in town like nice things, but don’t like paying for them.) The council approved, and the facility also opened on Mondays from 11 AM to 1 PM. That way, downtown business, who go through a lot of corrugated cardboard and bubble wrap, could get theirs done without as many of the public. Also, the staffers could actually get the stuff loaded in time for it to go to the recycler.

I just went there last week to drop recycling. We usually accrue enough corrugated cardboard and chipboard to unload at least once per month. We’ve cut paper back a lot, and again, plastic hasn’t been accepted since Trump p.o.’d China last term, so that’s not so much. Even so, where we usually have a single trash bag to go out for pickup, I think we’re going to have more that now has to go to the landfill.

I may be taking it too seriously, but I feel the way I did when the SCOTUS overturned their own decision in Roe v. Wade. We worked hard for it, we had it, it was good for all, and now it’s gone.

I hope this hasn’t bored anyone very much. It’s more sentimental than I usually am when posting such stuff. Still, our recycling collection facilities closing, or really, any big companies downsizing, is happening everywhere, and is affecting many, many people. I feel for all the Wichita workers who will have no jobs just in time for school shopping. So, I thought I’d post, because we all have to keep our eyes open for this happening around us everywhere. Thanks for your time! ๐ŸŒž

A View From The Place Where It Happened

Important history in addition to what the Peace newsletter gives.

GOP budget bill poised to crush renewable energy in the US

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/gop-budget-bill-poised-to-crush-renewable-energy-in-the-us/

Say goodbye to clean-energy tax credits, hello to new oil wells.

Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate Newsย โ€“ย 

Far from the front lines of the climate crisis, 100 men and women in air-conditioned offices, 61 of them millionaires, are making decisions that could increase United States carbon dioxide emissions, and the warming of the climate they are driving, for decades to come.

In the latest political wrangle over energy and climate policy, a group of Republican senators over the weekend added provisions to the US federal budget bill that, as currently written, would end clean energy tax credits at the personal level and at utility scale and increase taxes on foreign-made parts for solar power equipment.

Ending federal subsidies for most renewable energy projects, including residential heat pumps, for example, would affect thousands of projects that are already in planning or development and jeopardize future investments in manufacturing renewable energy equipment.

Friday, June 27, hours before the Senate released the latest draft of the reconciliation bill just after midnight, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright claimed on the Department of Energy website that wind and solar are unreliable and that federal subsidies have made energy more expensive, although he did not cite any official reports or peer-reviewed studies to support that claim.

On the Department of Energy website, Wright wrote, โ€œwind and solar brings us the worst of two worlds: less reliable energy delivery and higher electric bills โ€ฆIf sources are truly economically viable, letโ€™s allow them to stand on their own,โ€ he wrote, ignoring that the fossil fuel industry gets annual subsidies of about $20 billion annually, according to estimates byย Oil Change International, a nonprofit watchdog group.

Butย hundreds of studies showย that renewable energy is much less expensive and, in a well-planned grid, can make energy supplies more secure.

โ€œThe proposed GOP tax on wind and solar is a danger to the United States,โ€ Mark Z. Jacobson, a Stanford University renewable energy researcher who has authored numerous studies on wind and solar power, wrote via email.

The new tax provisions โ€œlock in death and illness to up to 100,000 Americans every year due to fossil-fuel and bioenergy-fuel air pollution that wind and solar help to eliminate,โ€ he said.

An early evaluation shows the administrationโ€™s planned energy policies would result in the drilling of 50,000 new oil wells every year for the next few years, he said, adding that it โ€œensures the continuation of land devastationโ€ฆ the poisoning of soil and groundwater due to fossil fuels and the continuation of gas blowouts and fires.โ€

There is nothing beneficial about the tax, he said, โ€œonly guaranteed misery.โ€

Anย analysis by the Rhodium Group, and energy policy research institute, projected that the Republican regimeโ€™s proposed energy policies would result in about 4 billion tons more greenhouse gas emissions than a continuation of current policiesโ€”enough to raise the average global temperature by .0072ยฐ Fahrenheit.

The overall budget bill was also panned in a June 28 statement by the president of North Americaโ€™s Building Trades Unions, Sean McGarvey.

McGarvey called it โ€œa massive insult to the working men and women of North Americaโ€™s Building Trades Unions and all construction workers.โ€

He said that, as written, the budget โ€œstands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country,โ€ potentially costing as many jobs as shutting down 1,000 Keystone X pipeline projects, threatening an estimated 1.75 million construction jobs and over 3 billion work hours, which translates to $148 billion in lost annual wages and benefits.

โ€œThese are staggering and unfathomable job loss numbers, and the bill throws yet another lifeline and competitive advantage to China in the race for global energy dominance,โ€ he said.

Research in recent yearsย shows how right-wing populist and nationalist ideologies have used anti-renewable energy arguments to win voters, in defiance of environmental logic and scientific fact, in part by using social media to spread misleading and false information about wind, solar and other emissions-free electricity sources.

The same forces now seem to be at work in the US, said Stephan Lewandowsky, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Bristol who studies how people respond to misinformation and propaganda, and why people reject well-established scientific facts, such as those regarding climate change.

โ€œThis is a bonus for fossil fuels at the expense of future generations and the future of the American economy,โ€ he said. โ€œOther countries will continue working towards renewable-energy economies, especially China. That competitive advantage will eventually pay out to the detriment of American businesses. You canโ€™t negotiate with the laws of physics.โ€

In 2025, why are men still afraid to come out in professional sports?

There are zero openly gay and bi men actively competing in Americaโ€™s top pro sports leagues. Whatโ€™s keeping the closet door shut?

This story was originally reported by Benjamin Land and Spencer Macnaughton, Uncloseted of The 19th. Meet Benjamin and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

This story was originally published in Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ-focused investigative news outlet.

When Jason Collins came out in a 2013 Sports Illustrated cover story, he broke down the long-sealed closet in menโ€™s sports by becoming the first openly gay active player in any major league sport. President Barack Obama called him to offer his support, saying he โ€œcouldnโ€™t be prouder,โ€ and Oprah Winfrey called him โ€œa pioneer.โ€

โ€œBy not having to hide who I am, just being able to live an authentic life, there’s something powerful about being the one to out yourself and step forward and speak your truth,โ€ Collins told Uncloseted Media. โ€œThere’s no greater feeling.โ€

Many thought that Collins’ announcement would lead to a slew of men coming out in professional sports; commentators called it a โ€œtipping pointโ€ and the moment โ€œwhen things really changed.โ€ But 12 years later, the silence is deafening. Today, there are zero active openly gay or bisexual players in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, PGA and ATP.

What makes these numbers particularly shocking is that more than 1 in 5 Gen Z adults in the United States identify as LGBTQ+. โ€œIt is a legit claim that the last closet for men is sports, especially in the North American context,โ€ says Charlene Weaving, a professor of gender studies at St. Francis Xavier University. โ€œIf you look at sport[s], it’s as if what’s happening in society is amplified. Sports is the worst place for sexism and homophobia. โ€ฆ There’s so much pressure to adhere to a heterosexual persona.โ€

So whatโ€™s keeping the closet door shut?

Coaching can help or hurt

Brian Burke participates in the 2025 Toronto Pride Parade on June 29, 2025.
Brian Burke participates in the 2025 Toronto Pride Parade on June 29, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario. (Harold Feng/Getty Images)

One key element in menโ€™s sports that can help or hinder someone from coming out is the mentors who surround them.

โ€œThe coaches create the culture, right? What you say, what you allow [in] your locker room, that’s all on us,โ€ says Anthony Nicodemo, a gay high school basketball coach in Westchester, New York.

He says he intentionally uses LGBTQ-inclusive language with his team to signal that thereโ€™s nothing wrong with being gay. โ€œIf we had a game on Saturday morning and it’s Friday night, Iโ€™d say, โ€˜Hey go home with your boyfriend or girlfriend tonight, stay in.โ€™ My kids would laugh, of course, but then after I said it a couple times, they didn’t even blink,โ€ he says. โ€œIf there was a gay kid on my team, that gay kid knows that he’s welcome.โ€

A 2016 study by the Journal of Sport and Health Science found that gay and bisexual male teen athletes feel particularly unwelcome when playing in formal sporting environments where there are coaches. The study also found that they were more likely to play on an informal team without a coach, which would lessen their chances of becoming a professional athlete.

โ€œThe hope is that you’re going to create inclusive environments that are ultimately going to allow those kids to get to the point in society where we feel comfortable with them coming out and eventually playing at the professional level,โ€ says Nicodemo, who worked with Collins at the Pride Centerโ€™s LGBTQ+ inclusion basketball clinic in San Antonio this March.

Nicodemo says we need more role models like Brian Burke, the former president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After Burkeโ€™s gay son passed away in a car accident in 2010, he made it his mission to explicitly advocate for gay men competing in pro hockey. โ€œIf you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you are welcome with the Pittsburgh Penguins,โ€ he said at a 2021 Pittsburgh Pride Revolution March. โ€œYou’re welcome to come to our games, you’re welcome to play for our team, you’re welcome to work on our staff. You are welcome.”

Research suggests all players want to participate in more inclusive environments. A 2021 study evaluated college coaches who identified as LGBTQ+, as allies, or as anti-LGBTQ+. In every context, students preferred coaches who embraced nondiscrimination, choosing the ally and the LGBTQ+ coach over the anti-LGBTQ+ coach.

Despite this, Nicodemo says he may be an anomaly when it comes to LGBTQ-inclusive coaches. In fact, a 2015 study concluded that the United States was the most homophobic country in the world when it comes to sports and 80 percent of the studyโ€™s participants reported witnessing or experiencing homophobia in U.S. sports.

Just this week, the Wake Forest menโ€™s baseball coach Tom Walter issued an apology after cameras caught him using an apparent homophobic slur during an NCAA game.

โ€œThere’s a lot of homophobia in our society. There is a lot of homophobia still in sports, in particular, male sports,โ€ says Collins. โ€œWe still have a lot of work to do as far as creating those environments that those athletes do feel comfortable to step forward [in] and share who they are. It’s about education and letting them know it’s okay to say, โ€˜I am gay,โ€™ โ€˜I am bisexual.โ€™ You know, you name it, but it’s okay. It’s okay to speak your truth.โ€

Are the leagues pulling their weight?

Beyond the coaches are the leagues. While some of them have taken steps to create inclusive environments, others have gone in a different direction by rolling back their LGBTQ-inclusive policies amid attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). In March, the MLB removed references to their โ€œDiversity Pipeline Program,โ€ which outlined their diversity-focused hiring initiatives, from their website.

This may have been in response to external pressure. In October 2023, the conservative public interest organization America First Legal, which was founded by Trumpโ€™s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, filed a formal complaint against the MLB, blasting the leagueโ€™s diversity pipeline and related initiatives as blatant examples of racial and sexist discrimination against white men.

And in 2023, the NHL banned all LGBTQ+ symbols from uniforms after a handful of players refused to participate in Pride Nights.

While the ban was lifted after pushback from sponsors, players and fans, Nicodemo believes it sent the wrong message to young male players. โ€œI believe wholeheartedly that Pride nights save lives. I think [about] a gay kid that is watching hockey at home and seeing the rainbow flag and how important that is,โ€ he says. โ€œGay kids need to see people representing pride. When I was coaching before COVID, when we used to actually wear suits when we coached, I wore a rainbow lapel in every game just to show it was okay.โ€

Some menโ€™s leagues have done more to promote inclusivity. NBA Cares, the social justice arm of the leagueโ€™s charitable programming, has prioritized including gay youth and men in their initiatives. Nicodemo has worked with NBA Cares, and Collins has contributed as an ambassador.

โ€œThis is very important for coaches, for those people in leadership positions, to think about as far as, โ€˜How do I get the best possible version of my athlete?โ€™ … One way you do that is by creating a team environment where everyone feels safe,โ€ says Collins.

Homophobia and misogyny in the menโ€™s locker room

A player with a ball his hand sits in a locker room.
A player with a ball his hand sits in a locker room. (Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images)

Unlike men’s leagues, women’s leagues are more accepting of LGBTQ+ players. Billie Jean King, Brittney Griner and Abby Wambach are some of the many women who have thrived while competing as openly gay athletes.

โ€œIn the WNBA, [itโ€™s] not an issue,โ€ says Nicodemo, referencing that 29 percent of active WNBA players are openly lesbian.

Homophobia is more common among men. And in the locker room, it isnโ€™t always easy to spot, as it often masks itself in homoeroticism.

โ€œTwo male athletes will kiss each other on the lips. And that’s considered to be love and appreciation that you scored that big goal. โ€˜I’m gonna kiss you and it’s not at all viewed to be perceived to be gay and the grabbing of the bums or the testicle area.โ€™ This idea of showering together, slapping towels, that’s all considered to be like part of men’s sport,โ€ says Weaving. โ€œSo it’s this idea where players can be as โ€˜gayโ€™ as they want and in the context of the field or the locker room, they’re not perceived to be gay. But if they were to act that way outside of that sporting context, then they’re considered to be.โ€

Collins says this gender divide may be because of sexism and toxic masculinity. This kind of performative homoeroticism is only socially acceptable because it’s understood to be ironicโ€”a joke that relies on not actually being gay. When the behavior slips beyond the bounds of โ€œjust joking,โ€ it exposes an undercurrent of homophobia masked as camaraderie.

The financial cost of coming out: something to gain or lose?

Beyond all these pressures lies a monetary component for athletes who are considering opening the closet door while still in uniform. Cyd Zeigler, the cofounder of Outsports, wrote in a 2024 article that he knows โ€œfor a fact that agents have told gay athletes to stay in the closetโ€ and that his โ€œbest answer has pointed to the agents and managers whose livelihoods depend on athletes maximizing their earning potential in just a few years.โ€

Weaving agrees. โ€œThe general managers and the owners have more traditionally homophobic, sexist thinking. They believe [LGBTQ+ players] will harm viewership,โ€ she says. โ€œIt’s still taboo where athletes fear repercussions, predominantly, around sponsorships.โ€

The fear of losing out on money may be misguided. The first day Jason Collinsโ€™ number 98 jersey became available on the NBA website, one year after he came out, it was the top seller of all active NBA players. Carl Nassibโ€™s jersey became a top seller on the NFLโ€™s official online marketplace when he came out in 2021. And Michael Sam, the first gay NFL player, had the second-highest selling jersey in his 2014 rookie class of more than 250 draftees.

The Trump effect on the last closet

Perhaps the biggest factor keeping men in the closet is Americaโ€™s current political climate, where the Trump administration and corporate America have abandoned DEI and so-called โ€œwokeโ€ initiatives.

The Trump administration has also erased many references to LGBTQ+ people from government websites, and at least nine states have introduced measures to overturn marriage equality.

โ€œThe Trump administration asks districts to sign attestations to say that they’re not going to do DEI work in schools. That could be a pride flag hanging in the classroom,โ€ says Nicodemo. โ€œIf you’re not creating an inclusive environment for these kids, then these kids are never going to feel comfortable coming out.โ€

What can be done?

As all these factors create a challenging environment for men to feel safe coming out in sports.

Collins says what could move the needle the most is an increase in role models who will make young athletes feel like theyโ€™re competing in a safe environment. โ€œIt definitely got to very dark, lonely places because I felt like I was going through this alone,โ€ he says. โ€œWhen I was younger, I was constantly looking for those role models, of people who have sort of been down this path,โ€ he says.

Weaving agrees and says that a lack of LGBTQ-inclusive coaches can be more than just a deterrent for student-athletes seeking to grow their career.

โ€œFor many children, it doesnโ€™t only make things uncomfortable, it can push them out of sports altogether,โ€ she says. โ€œCoaches play a big role. Youth sport is the starting point. If you can create positive environments, inclusive cultures at that level, it continues and helps to shift the pro culture.โ€

Collins remains hopeful that there will be more visibility of gay men in professional sports but underscores the need for role models to step up.

โ€œIf youโ€™re a coach or if youโ€™re an athletic director or even a headmaster out of school, you have to seek out help. You have to bring other organizations who have expertise. And it can be as simple as a 30- to 60-minute conversation, but at least youโ€™re laying the groundwork down for educating those players, educating those athletes,โ€ says Collins, a two-time NBA championship finalist who married his partner last month.

Additional reporting by Sam Donndelinger.

The MOMocrats

There’s a podcast, as well as this written piece. The bit at the end is priceless!

Tragedy and Travesty by Donna Schwartz Mills

This week, we got to experience both. Read on Substack

We did not record a podcast last week because Donna was traveling to Austin, where her family was celebrating Fourth of July AND the arrival of a new baby (her grand-niece!).

She expected hot, humid weather. What she got was four days of torrential rain, and the specter of over one hundred deaths from flooding in the nearby hill counties – including children at a sleep away camp that was overcome by the deluge.

One week later, this tragedy is ongoing. People are wondering how much DOGEโ€™s cuts to the National Weather Service and NOAA factored into it. Journalist Marisa Kabas has reported that as of Monday, only 86 FEMA employees were on the ground in Texas (they usually deploy hundreds of people to disaster zones like this). โ€œWe are doing a lot less than normal,โ€ a FEMA staffer told her.

No shit.

In the meantime, $450 million from FEMAโ€™s budget has been allocated to that concentration camp in the swamps of Florida. And Trumpโ€™s big, ugly budget bill allocates billions to expand ICE and build more โ€œdetention centersโ€ throughout the country.

ICE continues to terrorize immigrant communities, kidnapping law-abiding parents, gardeners, day laborers, and others who just happen to have brown skin (including US citizens).Donna returned home to Los Angeles in time for a show of military cosplay in MacArthur Park. No one got hurt in that one – but it felt like a dress rehearsal for something worse.

We talked about that and more in this weekโ€™s podcast.

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We Can Be Heroes

We are living through history and it really sucks. Aliza says that the best way to deal with the continual onslaught of terrible events is to DO something. Anything. Volunteer in the community. Participate in events. Write postcards for candidates, donate to good causes.

And allow yourself the down time you need to muster up the energy to do it again.

We talked about some of the everyday heroes who are helping us all muster through this.

Like Joshua Aaron, the developer of the ICEBlock app that alerts people of ICE activity in their area. (Currently just for iPhones; we are anxiously awaiting news that this app will become available to Android users.)

The ACLU has done heroic work for over a century. After recording this weekโ€™s podcast, we were dismayed to learn that their Mobile Justice app Aliza has relied upon for years is no longer available.

To ensure compliance with a growing number of consumer privacy laws and the ACLUโ€™s own privacy policies and to minimize risk with surveillance technologies currently used by law enforcement, the national office has made the decision not to renew our contract with Quadrant 2, the vendor behind Mobile Justice, and shut down the app on February 28, 2025.

But the ACLU is still a source of valuable information. Here are a couple of pages that you may want to bookmark:

There are things you can do as a bystander, too. This Yahoo article talks about New York City, but much of it applies anywhere in the U.S. Itโ€™s completely legal to film an ICE encounter, and the article has great suggestions for how to narrate and what details to include. There is advice on how your video can help, but itโ€™s also important not to post your videos online without the consent of the person being detained.

The National Immigrant Justice Center is just one of many organizations with so much information on how to handle encounters with ICE or DHS, whether you are the target or a bystander.

The coalition of anti-authoritarian groups that has risen since the start of this regime continue to organize. The next big nationwide gathering is โ€œGood Trouble Lives On,โ€ which will be held in honor of the late John Lewis, around the July 17 anniversary of his death. Find an event near you here.

And in case youโ€™re one of those โ€œDO SOMETHINGโ€ people who love to bash Democrats, remember that they ARE doing something. A LOT. If you want to know what, you should follow Ariella Elm on any of the socials. She makes posts like the ones below, and daily posts like this one that list the wins for democracy and actions all over the country that are helping stem the tide of fascism, and we need to thank and elevate these soldiers for democracy.


One Last Thing

A camera decided it would rather check out than sit through another overheated tirade from Stephen Miller, as the White House deputy chiefโ€™s Wednesday night interview on Fox News faded to black midway through him extolling the virtues of a โ€œturbochargedโ€ ICE.