Three Wins Today: Aug 24, 2025

Generating hope, it is a renewable resource, afterall.

Hope is an action. It is not something that just happens, it’s something you have to work at. And it doesn’t mean you see the world through rose colored glasses either.

When I heard that TX State Sen Carol Alvarado’s filibuster had been stopped by Republicans twisting the Senate rules, I was heartbroken. It felt like a gut punch. I felt physically ill. Not because I ever thought the maps wouldn’t pass, but because using every tool matters and it would have brought even more light to the story. Not to mention, it would have forced them to pass the maps in the daylight, which is what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) was able to do through his Magic Minute with the Ugly TrumpTax Law. It makes a difference.

But my anger and pain doesn’t mean I’m hopeless. I know that the only way we can win is if we fight. We’re not going to win if we give up or wallow in our anger. Nothing changes unless we change it. So I work to find hope every single day and share it with all of you.

I chose wins that are more obscure because I want you to see ALL the wins, not just the three biggest ones that got national attention already.

Maybe we shouldn’t call it having hope, cause that does make it sound passive, maybe creating hope or sparking hope or generating hope, as if it’s a renewable energy source, is better, cause, it is.

Find what inspires your hope and hold on to it for dear life. Don’t let go no matter what he throws at us.

On that note, here are three things inspiring hope in me today.

And find out how Doomerella took this news at the bottom of this post!

by: Kate Grumke for St. Louis Public Radio

1. Fri, Aug 22 - Following a unanimous vote by the city council, St Charles, Missouri becomes the first city in the country to suspend data center applications for a year. The ban applies not only to creating new data centers but also expanding existing ones. Atlanta Georgia has banned data centers in parts of the city but, St Charles is the first to do it across the entire municipality. A new report by Exponent shows that this is a growing trend. These data centers are not popular and the populations of these cities are making their voices heard.

   This is just another reminder of the power of voting. When I say every election matters and is life or death for someone, I truly mean it. We are not helpless, we have the ability to make the world even 1% better every single week. The election for these city council seats was April 8. There are elections all year round and if you vote in every single one, this can be the outcome.

2. Wed, Aug 20 - Two Democrats on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners broke a court order that told them they “shall” approve two Republicans for the Fulton County Board of Elections, they voted no anyway. (Keep that “shall” in mind, the word choice was very intentional.)

   District 3 Commissioner Dana Barrett, and District 4 Commissioner Mo Ivory, blocked the appointments of Julie Adams, who is already on the BoE and refused to certify the 2024 presidential primary, and Jason Frazier, who has spent his time challenging thousands voter registrations.

   On Wed, three of the board members didn’t show up, so when Ivory and Barrett voted no, the vote was tied.

   Now this isn’t the beginning of this story. Back in May, the Commissioners voted 5-2 against Adams and Frazier being on the BoE. The Fulton County Republican Party sued, and the Judge agreed, the law is clear that there “shall” be two members of the majority party on the board.

   The Commissioners appealed on the grounds that “shall” leaves some wiggle room in a way that “must” would not.

   Ivory stated:

   No one should force an elected official or any voter to cast a particular vote. We’re opening up a very scary door to do that, no matter where your politics lies. Our residents deserve appointees who are unquestionably committed to fairness, transparency, and ethical standards in our election administration. This is not about personalities or politics, although that’s what grabs the headlines. It is about ensuring that the board of registrations and elections in Fulton County is held to the highest level of accountability and that our elections are fair.

   And both Ivory and Barrett are prepared for the consequences, with Barrett saying:

   It’s really hard to say. I don’t know what’s in the judge’s mind about that. He can choose jail or fines, I think, and that’s really going to be up to him. I think the jail thing is a little bit confusing because when it is a civil charge like this, the whole idea is that you’d be in jail until you solved the problem – which, we can’t vote from jail – so I’m not sure if it really works in this case, but I think he has the ability to do it. So making the vote, for me, I had to be prepared to face those consequences.

   There’s one more piece to this. On Tuesday, there is a special election for State Senate District 21 (and if you’re in that district, our candidate is Debra Shigley.) The question is, of course, if there’s a vacancy on the board, how do they certify the election. Well, here’s the best part, they certify it with whoever is currently on the board, which does include Adams. But, here’s the kicker, if Adams wants to contest the race, she has to admit “shall” creates some wiggle room and will therefore lose in court cause that’s the same word used for election certification.

   Final thoughts, this is the second win today that is only possible because people voted down ballot on November 4. Just something to think about.

3. Mon, Aug 11 - Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine will not retract their study proving the safety of aluminum in vaccines, even though RFK Jr. demanded it. The journal’s chief editor, Dr, Christine Laine, told Reuters: “I see no reason for retraction.”

   So here’s the story. For two decades, from 1997-2018, the Government of Denmark carried out a study on the effects of aluminum in vaccines. The anti-vax argument is that the aluminum in vaccines cause autoimmune diseases, allergies and, of course, autism. The study found that was bullshit, as have many other studies. And this study is being called the best on the subject.

   RFK has several arguments as to why this study is propaganda, but one of the most ridiculous is the fact that there is no control group. The reason there is no control group is that there aren’t enough people in Demark who are unvaccinated to have one, according to the study’s author Anders Peter Hviid. Hviid said only 2% of children are unvaccinated in the whole country.

   In an article for IFL Science, author Laura Simmons explains:

   Disagreeing with how a study was performed, believing that there are better methods, suggesting that further studies are needed – all perfectly valid, but not necessarily grounds for a retraction.

   This journal is doing something incredibly brave. By making this decision they’re putting a target on their back and they know it.

   The journal has decided not to respond at all, not to give air to RFK’s foolishness, not because it doesn’t deserve a response, but because he didn’t send it to the journal. They will instead be responding to people to did go through the right channels who agree with RFK. I will keep you posted if I learn more.

---

So those are three of today’s wins, I hope they inspire you to have hope (too many hopes in one sentence, I know). And I also hope they are the push you need to check when your next election is. It might just be Tuesday, and who knows, one of Tuesday’s elections could land a story on this list in a few months, and then you could leave a comment saying “I did that!”

Our votes and our voices are our superpower, but ONLY when we use them!