Three Wins Today: Sept 18, 2025
Social media is not your personal diary
It is very like, like almost 7pm late, I never get this post out this late, but I had a very busy day, including a briefing with Cory Booker and a less fun dentist appointment.
So, here’s today’s very short and sweet intro.
Social media is not your personal diary, or your group chat, or your friend you get coffee with. It is very public and you never know who is going to read what you say.
Sure, you might feel like the world is over, and I get it, times are really scary right now. But when you say that out loud, someone you never met may be impacted by those words and decide they are just too scared to keep fighting, or maybe they decide they don’t think voting matters anymore.
I know that my words have an impact, but this is just a reminder that yours do too.
That can also be a positive. You never know how many people will be inspired by what you say.
So just be careful, and use your voice for good.
Onto the wins!
California
Fri, Sept 5 - CA joined the Northwest Wildland Fire Fighting Compact. The compact was formed in 1998 in partnership with Canada. It includes Alberta, Yukon Territory, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Hawaii, and Nevada just joined this year as well.
The compact is able to provide resources each state doesn’t have on their own.
Joining the NW Compact gives California additional access to firefighting resources and expertise during major wildfire incidents. It also allows California’s firefighters to gain experience assisting with fire suppression efforts in other member regions, experience that strengthens readiness at home. Nevada joins the NW Compact alongside California in 2025, bringing the total member states and provinces to thirteen.
California governor, Gavin Newsom said:
While the Trump administration retreats from firefighting, California is proud to join forces with our northwestern neighbors to fight catastrophic wildfire. We’re all on the front lines of this worsening wildfire threat – and by joining our collective resources together, we will be even more effective in protecting our communities.
It’s important to remember that as we become more divided as a nation your vote, especially at state and local level matters more than ever. A Dem Governor can’t make everything better, but there are steps they can take to keep you safer that Republicans refuse to.
New Mexico
Mon, Sept 8 - New Mexico announced they will be the first state in the nation to have free universal childcare. For the average family, childcare costs $12k per child. This new program removes the income eligibility requirements for financial assistance. There is a certain income bracket that is always considered too well off to get services, but they’re not well off enough to be able to afford it on their own. That will no longer be the case in NM.
And they are also going to work on expanding childcare services, through a loan fund for facilities, creating more flexibility for working parents, recruiting licensed providers and increase reimbursement rates to reflect the actual cost of care.
Early Childhood Education and Care Department Secretary, Elizabeth Groginsky, said:
By providing universal access and improving pay for our early childhood workforce, we are easing financial pressure on families, strengthening our economy, and helping every child learn in safe, nurturing environments. This is the kind of investment that builds equity today and prosperity for the future.
You can watch the full press conference below!
Nationwide
Wed, Sept 3 - Trump’s Climate Working Group, which just spread Climate Crisis denialism, has been dissolved. There are two incredibly important factors in this.
The first: The Lawsuit.
On August 12, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union for Concerned Scientists filed a lawsuit against the working group, which until May was secret, as were their findings which is very illegal.
Judith Curry, one member of the five person group even said on Sept 2:
Owing to a lawsuit that has been filed against the DOE by the Environmental Defense and Union of Concerned Scientists, activities of the Climate Working Group are currently on hold.
Though she is still convinced that their work will go on in secret:
Curry told CNN in an email that while the group has been disbanded, it is “still working independently,” and plans to “issue a revised report and respond to any serious comments.”
The second: The Comments
Andrew Dessler is a climate researcher at Texas A&M University and he organized a public comment call to action against the initial report. Over 2k people sent in comments. He told CNN:
My interpretation is they’re waving the white flag. How do five people respond to thousands of comments? They don’t hav
e the arguments or the knowledge in a lot of areas. Any attempt to respond would have revealed how unscientific the report actually was.
So, this is yet another example that proves that Trump acts strong, but he is very weak. All it took was a lawsuit being filed and a couple thousand public comments and that scared him enough to tell Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright to shut the whole thing down.
Now, Curry could be right, they might just go right back to working in secret, but, as far as I can tell the lawsuit hasn’t been withdrawn. And the public comments still exist, so nothing has changed.
I’m inclined to believe Dressler. The push back worked, as it so often does. And now have more evidence of the power of public comments, and the mere existence of a lawsuit.
So I hope these wins helped offset your fear from yesterday. It’s okay to be scared, as long as you use it to generate hope and fight back.
Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!
Thank you so much for doing these. I felt pretty lost after yesterday but reading this reminded me that we still need to keep fighting. Their job is to make us feel like nothing matters, while our job is to show them that we haven’t lost
Thank you.