Good things happened this week

Including: A new star is born, voting rights expand, and gun control moves forward

Welcome to a Saturday edition of Progress Report.

This was another landmark week in a new era of unabashed, state-sanctioned bigotry. Florida’s public education system continues to be stripped down and remade to please strict white parents who want their children to learn Latin. Tennessee is about to ban drag shows (and many other types of performances). Texas wants to ban gender-affirming care for kids and adults.

These laws have materialized with the sort of speed and efficiency you’d expect of a well-funded, nationally coordinated campaign — which is exactly what’s happening here, orchestrated by conservative organizations funded by billionaires. It’s hard to keep up with the unfolding calamities, in part because much of the national political media is not equipped for this fascistic moment.

The New York Times made it clear this week that it will continue to treat hysterical and cynical transphobic lies as legitimate lines of inquiry. The paper’s top reporters also made it clear that they’ll continue assuming good faith of bad actors and inventing flattering narratives for cynical goons in the interest of “objectivity.”

As I wrote earlier the week, the nihilists are winning. But it’s not at all hopeless. Today, we’re going to focus on the good things that happened this week. There were some big advances for working people, housing, abortion rights, and health care, so and more, and we’re going to run them down.

Oh, one more thing before we do it: Corporate lobbyist (and friend of Matt Gaetz) Nikki Fried narrowly won the Florida Democratic Party leadership election today and will chair the state party for the next four years… or until she decides to run for office again. Given the state of the FDP, Fried’s victory is not good news.

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New Hero Alert

All hail State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, the righteous shit-talker from Omaha, Nebraska.

Heartland Signal @HeartlandSignal

NE State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (D-Omaha) prepares to filibuster every bill on the legislative agenda unless Republicans pull their anti-trans bill. "If people are like, 'Is she threatening us?,' let me clear: Yes, I am. I am threatening you."

What I really love about this filibuster is that Sen. Cavanaugh first targeted an unrelated property tax bill simply because it was introduced by the legislator that’s also behind the ban on gender-affirming care. What’s made it even better is that she’s been churning out zingers the entire time.

Here are a few of my favorites:

“I don’t want to let her bills pass. I know it’s mean but so are the bills she’s introducing. I’ll be petty on behalf of our children.”

“Take your names off of that piece of poop LB574. Talk to the speaker — demand good governance. Be better. Be who the children of Nebraska deserve because they do not deserve this.”

“Day 33 of the legislative session and we still haven’t done a single thing to address our economic crisis and how our low-income wage earners are suffering in this state. But we have done a lot to talk about and address how to hurt our most vulnerable populations, how to attack public health writ large.”

The filibuster is only possible because Democrats staved off a Republican supermajority by winning the final open seat by about 82 votes. Cavanaugh’s filibuster is also targeting a strict abortion ban.

And now, on to a whole host of significant policy victories and innovative ideas from progressive lawmakers across the country…