Three Wins Today: Sept 11, 2025
Breathe, you're okay.
No matter how you’re feeling today, it’s okay and you are valid. I just needed to say that, in case you haven’t heard it yet.
It’s okay to feel scared, anxious, angry, sad, happy, even hopeless. It’s okay to not want to be online or just look at cute animal pictures. It’s okay to feel multiple things at once and be conflicted. We are now in a time of change. The way you show up and resist may not be the same going forward as it was on Wednesday morning.
You might be part of a community that felt safe, or safer than others and now doesn’t, as a Jewish person, I feel that one a lot right now.
Whatever you’re going through is okay. However long it takes to get back up is okay, as long as you do get back up.
We all need to support each other. This is a time when we can collectively take a deep breath and act like people with a common goal, the goal of saving Democracy, of making political violence unacceptable again. Getting to place where we don’t have to fear for our lives when we disagree. It’s the best time possible to end the circular firing squad. Let’s have this be the moment that makes us stronger.
Breathe. You’re okay.
On that note, here are three wins that will hopefully make you breath a little easier.
Nationwide
Wed, Aug 26 - Kaiser Family Foundation released a study that found that 700 grants, awarded during COVID have been shut down, and most of those are in Red states and Red cities.
It’s not that the Red states and cities were targeted, it’s that the vast majority of Blue States and Blue Cities have gotten their cancellations reversed.
In fact, without the lawsuits, 40% of grants would have been terminated, but, because of our incredible Democrats, it’s only 16% across Blue states and districts.
Colorado, which joined the lawsuit, had 11 grant terminations at first, but then 10 were retained. Meanwhile, its neighboring states that didn't sue — Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma — collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.
This ALONE should be able to make Democrats popular. And it’s not because no one really knows about it. We talk about each individual lawsuit as they come, and hear how many lawsuits were won, but it doesn’t click the same way as a graph like the one above does.
For some reason “the Dems” always means congressional leadership, when it is so so much more. Shitting on Dems has become second nature, but when the results look like this, how can you reconcile that?
Also, a real reminder of the power of our votes, especially for AG and City Attorney. The second one being an office most people probably don’t even realize is on their ballot.
Barnsley, England
Fri, Aug 29 - A blue plaque has been placed on Darfield Museum, which was once a convenience store, or off license, as they call it in the UK, run by a gay couple Maurice Dobson and Fred Halliday who were publicly together back in the 1950s, when being gay was punishable by castration and prison.
The plaque reads:
Maurice Dobson & Fred Halliday lived & worked here as a loving couple from 1957 until their deals, defying convention and earning the trust and respect of the people of Darfield. Let their pink sun never set.
Darnfield Labor Councilor, Kevin Osborne was there for the unveiling and told local paper Barnsley Chronicle:
It was great to attend the unveiling of Darfield Museum’s blue plaque. A moving tribute to Maurice Dobson and Fred Halliday - two men who lived with courage, love, and quiet defiance. Their story reminds us that pride and authenticity deserve not just acceptance, but celebration. This was no secret love - as the plaque declares ‘Let the pink sun never set.
I know this isn’t a big win like a law being passed or a lawsuit being won, it’s just a plaque, but a new physical reminder that gay people lived, worked and loved here when it wasn’t even legal to do so, is more hopeful now than ever.
New Hampshire
Thu, Sept 4 - Obama appointee, Judge Landya McCafferty has issued a TRO (temporary restraining order) against the implementation of New Hampshire’s DEI ban:
At this provisional stage—and especially in light of (1) the impending September 5 certification deadline for K-12 schools that the department of education continues to insist upon, (2) the complete lack of any authority known to the court or the parties that would permit the department to insist on that deadline, and (3) the crippling penalties facing schools for even “unknowing” noncompliance with the anti-DEI laws—the court finds that all of these factors weigh in favor of a TRO pending a decision on plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion.
If you remember, this is, as far as I can see, the most extreme DEI ban in the country. It doesn’t just bar teaching and learning about gender, sexuality and race, but also disability.
Zoe Brennan-Krohn, Director of the ACLU Disability Rights Program, said in a statement:
Students with disabilities in New Hampshire are entitled to special education services, inclusion, and accessibility, all of which were targeted by this law. While we await a preliminary injunction decision, this temporary order rightly recognizes New Hampshire’s law as an expansive and illegal assault on the rights of all students, including students with disabilities. The state cannot undermine the rights and protections enshrined by federal disability rights laws. We’ll keep fighting to ensure no student is denied equal access to their education under this law.
So as Brennan-Krohn stated, this is the first step, the TRO can be extended, but hopefully by the time it expires, in a week, there will be a more permanent injunction in place.
I still can’t fully wrap my head around the fact that this became law at all with little to no national fanfare against it.
I’m so glad there’s a TRO and I hope I have more god news soon.
Thank you. I've been on the verge of tears for days.
Excellent. When we fight, we win.