Three Wins Today, Aug 21, 2025

If you've been feeling particularly doomery today, this might just be the post for you.

I just saw several comments today that felt very psyops. Someone was trying to diminish Maine Gov, Janet Mills in my comments, another person was trying to convince me that my wins don’t matter, and a third person was blaming Hakeem Jeffries for the oversight committee not following through, in the future on something they announced today.

So it’s a good time to talk about trolls.

Not everyone deserves a comment, and the reality is, when we give them more air, whether we’re agreeing with them or not, they’re succeeding.

If you think someone is asking something in good faith, respond once, and try to find common ground when you do, also acknowledge how they feel “I hear you, something you probably agree on here, but, here’s how I’m looking at it given that thing we agree on.”

If they continue on as they were, drop it, stop responding and move on.

It’s a hard skill to learn, and I haven’t fully learned it yet, but with this work I do, a lot of people are trying to tear me down. It’s harder for them to make people hopeless if someone like me exists, so I experience this a lot.

That said, some days are worse than others, and this seems to be one of them. So, take these wins, and find your own and spread them as far as you can. It’s a great day to drown them out.

And here are those wins now!

And you can find my conversation with Doomerella at the end of this post!

Proud Boys recruitment sign being removed in Clinton County IL. (Credit: KSDK)

1. Mon, Aug 18 - Rubella, also called German Measles, has been eliminated in Nepal. The vaccine was first introduced in 2012, by 2024, 95% of Nepal had at least one dose. The original elimination goal was 2023, but COVID pushed it back to 2026, and they beat the new goal by a year. This is the 6th Asian country to eliminate the disease.

   Mr Pradip Paudel, the Nepal Minister of Health and Population said:

   Nepal’s achievement of rubella elimination is yet another testament to the success of the national immunization program ahead of the regional target, which has long been one of the strongest pillars of our health care system.

   Now, I know this doesn’t seem like a win living in the US, cause our government is doing the exact opposite with vaccines. But, first of all, it helps to remember that while we are moving backwards the rest of the world moves forwards and we WILL be moving forward again too.

   Trump can do a lot of damage, but he can’t destroy progress in the rest of the world.

2. Tue, Aug 19 - The Proud Boys put up a recruitment billboard in Clinton County, Illinois. There was outrage from the community. First the billboard was just moved across the highway, but after 30 community members spoke up at the County Board meeting, the billboard has now been completely taken down.

   It probably didn’t hurt that Gov JB Pritzker made a statement either:

   Let’s be clear: the Proud Boys are a dangerous, violent extremist group that attempted to overthrow the United States government. The rhetoric they use and the actions they have taken have no place in Illinois and go against everything we stand for in this state and in this country. Fortunately, a few wasted advertising dollars will not change the fact that there are millions of Americans who, regardless of political affiliation, know them as an extreme fringe organization that does not reflect who the people of Illinois are.

   But the bottom line, as is usually the bottom line, using your voice matters. There are 37k people in Clinton, and it only took 30 of them speaking up for something to change. “See something, say something” is a saying for a reason. You can make a difference, and inspire other people to do the same.

3. Fri, Aug 15 - Obama appointee, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that ICE must immediately release Rickardo Anthony Kelly, a gay Jamaican asylum seeker, after they refused him due process. They abducted him at the courthouse, which is becoming commonplace, but instead of waiting until after his hearing, which would at least give the illusion of respecting the court system, they took him before. He was held in 26 Federal Plaza, the very same building that Nydia Velasquez (NY-07), Adriano Espillat (NY-13), and Dan Goldman (NY-10) have been fighting to conduct an oversight visit at for months now.

   Judge Torres was not having any of it:

   The suggestion that government agents may sweep up any person they wish and hold that person in the conditions in which Kelly was held without consideration of dangerousness or flight risk so long as the person will, at some unknown point in time, be allowed to ask some other official for his or her release offends the ordered system of liberty that is the pillar of the Fifth Amendment.

   It’s a slow process, but, for the most part, those who have get to have federal court cases win. The law and most Judges are still on the side of morality, even if we don’t feel it everyday.

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So take heart, just like every other day, there were wins today, and there will be wins tomorrow, and the next day, and we will get through this!

Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!