KEEP ON THE SUNNY SIDE- Kitty's Good News

     Every month Kitty Roedel, a member of our Progressive Miami resistance group, compiles the “good news” from the previous four weeks and she reads it at our monthly meetings.

There are many smiles and much applause after each item is read. 

We need all the good news we can get.

I thought I’d share Kitty's latest list with you.

                      

   
               Kitty’s Good News – May-June, 2017

America’s Eagle Scout, Jim Comey calls Trump a liar five times in congressional testimony (June 8th)

Progressives won a big victory in Great Britain. The right wing no longer controls Parliament (June 8th).

Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel on Trump/Russia connection.

Jared Kushner is under investigation for Russian ties, along with Flynn and campaign manager Paul Manafort.


Investigators discovered Eric Trump took $1.2 million from a  charity golf tournament that helps kids with cancer, to rent his family's golf course after claiming that he was donating the course for free.

Republican Rep. Chaffetz calls for Justice Dept. Inspector General to probe 45’s firing of James Comey.

Congress' temporary funding bill includes zero dollars for Mexican wall and keeps funding for Planned Parenthood and

other programs.

The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land (Call your congressman today to keep it that way!).

45’s second nomination for Army Secretary, Mark Green, drops out.

Dozens of students and families walk out during Pence graduation speech at Notre Dame (in the state where he

was once the governor).

Nearly 100 eighth grade students refuse to take class picture with Paul Ryan.

Betsy Devos is booed at historically black Bethune-Cookman University graduation ceremony.

James Runcie, Chief Executive Officer at Dept. of Education, in charge of trillion-dollar student loan program,
resigns in protest of Secretary Devos’ appointment.

Miami billionaire Mike Fernandez starts a legal fund to help immigrants.

Appeals court refuses to reinstate 45’s revised Muslim travel ban.

DNC creates commission to protect American democracy from Trump administration’s efforts at voter

suppression.

Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo and other Republicans say the words ”impeachment for obstruction of justice" for the first time.

Rep. Al Green makes a speech on House floor calling for 45’s impeachment.

Hillary Clinton joins the resistance and forms new group, Onward Together, with money from her leftover

campaign funds.



The world rallies around Paris Accord after 45 withdraws.

Many U.S. cities and states respond to 45's failure to fight climate change by pledging to combat the horrific problem themselves.


Polling reports that 59% of Americans oppose pulling out of Paris Accord.

  In the aftermath of the London tragedy, the world rallies around London, and it's mayor, after the fool in the White House called him a weak loser.




    Mike Bloomberg, as UN Climate Change Special Envoy, pledged to honor our Paris Accord agreement andto provide the $15 million that was lost from Washington.



Republican Senators McCain, Graham, and Collins vote against removing Obama regulations for oil and gas 
drilling

on federal lands and capture of methane.



US Supreme Court upholds a lower court decision striking down district lines as illegal racial gerrymanders.



Alabama Governor signs law giving thousands of felons their voting rights back.



Campus gun law bill defeated again in Florida.




New York Artist Robin Bell projects “Pay Trump bribes here” on side of Trump’s Washington DC hotel and a KKK image of Jeff 
Sessions on Dept. of Justice building. 



  Art leads the way!

                   ____________________________________________________   

MARCHING FOR TRUTH

  Yesterday dozens of cities across the country had "Marches For Truth". They were sponsored by Women's March Miami. In this town the summer heat turned the march into a "rally" and torrential rain turned that into a tent revival.


 
 
 Whatever.  The rain did let up for an hour. Hard-core resistors were there to protest having a chronic liar in the White House. 

   Guest speakers included South Miami's
 
Mayor Phil Stoddard,
 
 Andrew Gillum (Mayor of Tallahassee  now running for governor), 
 
and the Democratic superstar from Texas, former mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro. 

Miami's own Javier Jose Rodriguez spoke to the crowd (and the Monkey Man) as well. The Florida senator is campaigning to replace Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Congress. We need people like JJ in Washington!

 The Haitian dancers were a big hit as well.


    How long can we bear living in a country of lies?  



   Why do so many people still believe the bile coming out of #45's mouth, and others, love the guy despite his "alternative facts"?

    Coconut Grove's Fernand Amandi asked the crowd, "Who would have thought five months ago we'd be spending this Saturday morning downtown -in the rain- fighting for our country?"  He then encouraged us to do something about it.


     We are resisting and hope you are making those calls and writing to our congressmen. Those are two of the many things we do to fight for democracy.

    The Grove's resistance group, Progressive Miami, is having its next meeting on Tuesday, June 6th, 7 p.m., at St. Stevens church.  Join us but if you can't, do what you can to help win our country back.
                  ___________________

MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO

       My brother Clay loved gardening. He also loved how Monsanto's weed-killing product, "Roundup", made his life easier. In his mid-50's he was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually killed him. I blame it on the wonders of chemistry.
 
 A family gathering in Clay's final days

    Several other people I know who grew up around agricultural products have similar problems. Monsanto Inc., the world's largest purveyor of these chemicals, has a death grip on the world. 
 
  
    For five years South Floridians who want  a healthier planet have staged annual protests. Yesterday we met near the Arscht Center for another March Against Monsanto.

 
 
The Monarch Butterfly Brigade

      Marching for a mile along Biscayne Boulevard we told the world, "We want a healthier,more natural world for the bees, the butterflies, and our children".
            __________________________

ROXY LADY

           How many of us could get a Coral Gables mayor to sing at our funeral? Roxy Bolton made it happen this morning. 
 
 Former Gables mayor, Jim Cason, singing "Country Road", accompanied by John Denver on his I-phone
 
The tireless activist/feminist had made it to 90 when she died Wednesday. Ms. Bolton left a script for today's funeral and her friends followed it down to the parting words, "Carry on the important work I have dedicated my life to".
         Roxy was known for standing up for women's right and the downtrodden for sixty-five years. The list of her accomplishments is long.  She started the country's first rape treatment center here, help form the National Organization of Women and and was a thorn in the side of every politician "who needed direction". 
           I had admired Ms. Bolton from afar when I thought, "Why not make this local hero our honored guest in the 2006 King Mango Strut?".  I gave her a call and she invited me over for tea. We hit it off right away. 
     She was loved by thousands who saw her pass by in the parade.  They chanted "Roxy, Roxy...with love and admiration. 
      Those same feelings pervaded the many stories I heard at her funeral today. 
      Afterwards I stopped by the Grove's This n' That thrift shop. I use to see Roxy there a lot. The store manager told me she will miss her weekly visits to buy blankets for the homeless. 

   It's up to us now to carry on her work.
                        _________________

THE  GROVE'S  GOIN'  BRICKELL!
 There's Good News for Grovites tired trees, jungled houses, and quaint shops in their sleepy bayside village. CocoWalk is over all that, it is going to be Brickellized with soaring glass and steel.  I saw this in yesterday's Herald...

                         COCOWALK'S NEW LOOK
No more Tu Tu Tangos. Tearing down the old and building the new is expected to take two years.
                         _________________

MIAMI'S MARCH AGAINST THE PRESIDENT

         Last January a million of us marched to the White House, the home of our new, deranged president. Yesterday, a large group of us marched to Miami's closest thing to it, Trump's golf course in Doral.  Both protests expressed widespread disgust with 45's multiple failures as a politician, a leader, and as a decent human being.

       The City of Doral is new, big, and boring. It did all it could to make our well-planned, polite protest difficult. We were forced to park a mile away in the far corner of a desolate park. In July-came-early heat Miami Beach commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez gave us a pep talk.

Afterwards we wrote messages to the President on golf balls.

     Finally, we began marching in a long line to Trump's place escorted by wary Doral police officers. They did nothing to keep a five-year-old from coming at us repeatedly in a  high-powered go cart. Every three minutes he'd loop around and come at us on the sidewalk before veering off into the grass.
     When I complained to the city official following us he told me, "His parents have assured me that he is a very good driver". Any other city would have stopped the kid cold.  I assume he was the mayor's son.

 
 This young man was proud of the sign he had made.  His mother told us that before Obamacare she could not afford help for her autistic son.  She is afraid he with lose his Medicaid benefits under 45's health plan.


     After trudging through the heat we finally reached the Trump National. We had a grand time chanting things like "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!",  "You're a traitor, you're a spy. You can't stop the FBI" and my favorite, "Pants on Fire, Trump's a liar!".  

     The protest was produced by the Miami resistance group, Indivisible Miami. They did a great job  covering every detail that kept us from being arrested in up-tight, conservative, culture-less, Doral. Their leader, Mike Williams, gave a bucket of our Trump-hating golf balls to one of the golf course security guards. The rest are being mailed to congressional leaders.


     March we must; protests are essential.  We have more reasons than ever to protect our country from the fascist apprentice. The next protest will take place at Government Center on Wednesday, May 17th, at 12:30 pm. Our "Die-In" will protest Republican efforts to take decent healthcare from the citizens who need it most.  
    See details on the Progressive Miami Facebook page.  Join us if you don't mind being temporarily dead for a good cause.
     

IAN WALKS THE WALK

        Last Friday we drove five hundred miles to see our son, Ian, walk fifty feet.  He and 2200 other undergrads quickly crossed a FSU auditorium stage to pick up their college diplomas. Eight thousand of us watched while one man read a name every three seconds for two hours. This process was repeated at four other ceremonies so all of the 9000 graduates could have their three seconds of glory. 
      Sharing this happy occasion with our son was  thrill enough. I'm glad we didn't do what one parent letter had suggested, "It's going to be crowded so why not stay home and watch your child graduate online!".   
      Jeez.  I hope everyone ignored this suggestion.

      I like crowds. We saw our boy's years of hard work pay off in person. 
 
Ian with his big brother and four parents

Ian graduated with magna cum laude honors designated by colorful little ropes he wore proudly around his neck. 
     Here's to you, son, and your bright days ahead!

That's our Ian, the tiny dot under my finger, sitting with his fellow graduates. We stayed in touch during the 3-hour ceremony using cell phones and frantic paper waving.
                       _________________________________

ELIZABETH AND THE KING

      What would happen if President Trump hired Elizabeth Warren to raise his kids in the White House?  That's the basic premise of the "The King And I", the popular musical now playing at Miami's Arscht Center.  Things would get very weird the moment Liz started unpacking her bags. 
The show opened last night and plays through May 14th.

    Francesca and I enjoyed this latest version as the original was a Big Thing when we were kids. Yul Brenner, of course, played the King of Siam when it opened in 1951 on Broadway.  He returned to the role in occasional revivals for 34 years.
    Coconut Grove's Steve Dloogoff attended Brenner's final performance on September 30,1985. He told me it was an incredible evening.  Everyone knew lung cancer was about to kill him. Two months later the man who will forever be king was dead.

     Jose Llana plays the role now coming off Tony-award winning performances at Lincoln Center. Laura Michelle Kelly was excellent last night as the English governess, Anna.
The show is filled with lavish costumes, sets and music.  The Siamese version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (a ballet) is worth the price of admission alone.

    

  My wife and I grew up in houses that had The King and I soundtrack playing incessantly.  We couldn't get "Getting to Know You" out of our heads if we tried. We know Anna and the King quite well and
enjoyed seeing them spar (and later dance) once more.
    You can see them too by visiting www.Arscht Center.com .  Tickets start at $29.  Tell the Donald and Elizabeth that the Grove Guy sent you.
                    _____________________