March 16: What Really Happened Last Week

Budget showdown, history of resistance, and lots of good news

Hello friends!

Four Leafed Clover by Rhian /Flickr

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I’m a journalist with two decades of experience. I’ve covered technology and policy in depth, and I have a special interest in media literacy and mental health—how we experience the news, and what it does to us.

This is my weekly, highly curated list of relevant news, bright spots, and action steps, getting you through the mayhem, and focusing on the topics of this newsletter: caregiving, youth, climate change, human rights, mental health.

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My criteria for this news roundup:

• Real events that have real consequences for real people now.

• I’m trying to avoid pseudo-events, purely symbolic gestures and speculation. That means I’m leaving out some stuff you’ve probably seen elsewhere.

• I am presenting impacts alongside responses and solutions.

• I want to model healthy, balanced news consumption. I don’t know that I can become the only news you read, but I can at least point the way to a better news habit. I believe this is going to be crucial to our mental health and our ability to show up for others, including our kids, in this accelerating polycrisis.

In this issue:

1. Senate showdown

2. Darkness for the Ivory Tower (and K-12 too)

3. Federal employees reinstated

4. Instant history of resistance

5. Good news/wildcard (x3!)

1.Senate showdown

The headline drama this week was Senate Democrats deciding whether they were going to A) shut down the government, or B) vote for a bill handing over more of their Congressional authority to the Trump/Musk DOGE coupwagon, so they can do more of what they are already doing (which includes dismantling the federal government and firing lots of people).

Would you like dog poo or used kitty litter? Yum yum.

The bill was technically known as a “continuing resolution,” a stopgap measure to temporarily fund the government for this current fiscal year. It’s a stopgap because regular appropriations bills haven’t been passing through our sclerotic, dysfunctional Congress.

The House Republican version of the bill did not include the usual directives on federal spending, giving Trump and Musk expanded powers to redirect money, for example, from clean energy to fossil fuels. Or to put it another way, legalizing Congressional powers they have grabbed unlawfully.

This was a real event because the federal government provides services we all rely on, which I think we’re all learning. But it was also a symbolic episode. The principle being tested was whether opposition leaders in Congress are willing to treat an emergency like an emergency, and willing to risk something so that they can be seen fighting for us.

Here are the 9 Democrats and 1 independent who voted for the bill.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.)

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

Response: 11 members of Sunrise Movement were arrested outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office.