Losing My Perspicacity, August 1, 2025

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(Photo by Teodor Drobota on Unsplash)

Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for starting your day with LMP.

I take a restorative yoga class once a week with a really good instructor. Not only does she do a wonderful job leading the class through poses that help our bodies remain strong and flexible, but she also has a way of steering our minds from chaos and stress back to a path of serenity and peace. I look forward to it every week.

Today, while we were in savasana, she told us a story that I want to share:

A professor gave his class a test, consisting of a single piece of paper, face down on their desks. When the time to begin the test came, the professor told his students to turn over their papers and describe what they saw on the page. The page didn’t have a single question on it. Instead, the page simply featured a single black dot. Nothing else.

After the students turned in their papers, the professor read each of them aloud. Paper after paper described a single dark spot: the size of it, the location on the page, the potential meaning of the dot, even the shade of black the dot consisted of. The professor read each paper to the class, and each description was nearly the same, with minor differences.

After he had finished reading all the tests aloud, the professor pointed out to the students that, while each of them had focused on the dark spot on the page, not a single student had taken notice of all the light/white around it.

The moral of the story is that we often spend our time focusing on the darkness and forget to see the light.

We exist in dark times right now. Many of us have spent the last seven or so months doing all we can to push back against the cruel and tyrannical agenda of Donald Trump and the Project 2025 crew. The bad news has come so fast and so furiously that we often don’t know what to focus on. That’s by design. It affects our mental health, our sleep, and how we move through the day. There’s a sense that every safety net we thought was in place has failed us. The norms that have governed this country for 250 years have fallen by the wayside. We’ve been gaslit by an entire political party.

It’s exhausting.

It’s during times like these that intentionally noticing the light is crucial to our mental health. Of course, being able to walk away from the darkness is a privilege. So many people aren’t able to do that — those trapped in Gaza, those being held by ICE, those stuck in the endless cycle of poverty. Being able to see the light is a gift.

To paraphrase Stan Lee, with great privilege comes great responsibility. To whom much is given, much is expected. But this is a marathon, not a sprint. Once Donald Trump and these congressional Republicans are gone — and at some point they will be gone — we’re going to have to try to put this country back together. Getting there is going to require perseverance, courage, and strength, and those things require some self-care.

On Monday, I’ll go back to writing about all the things going wrong in this country, and we’ll try to figure out what we can do to stop it. But for one day, let’s ignore the darkness and look for the light.

Today: Proof of life from someone in the White House Press Corps; California farm workers are banding together and using their voices; A “Big, Beautiful Bill” win that flew under the radar; A win for environmentalists in Georgia; The Digital Resistance; and The High Note.

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Let’s get to it.

The White House Press Corps lives!

Look, I am sick to death of talking about Jeffrey Epstein. Every day, the facts get worse, and what should be a victim-centered story is instead being used as a political football. BUT. In the spirit of looking for the silver lining, we got proof of life from someone in the WHPC:

As you will no doubt recall, on Wednesday, Trump claimed that he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein because he “stole” employees, including an underage Virginia Giuffre, from Mar-a-Lago’s spa. Yesterday, a reporter asked Trump, “What do you think Epstein was stealing those women FOR?”

It’s not much, and it’s the kind of pushback we used to see from White House reporters regularly. But given the way the WHPC has comported itself thus far, I’ll take it. At least someone was bold enough to ask. My kingdom for a new Helen Thomas.

More of this, please.

California farm workers may strike

Farm workers perform grueling, demanding, back-breaking work that most of us couldn’t do. Don’t believe me?

Yeah…I could not do that. Neither could any of the people sneering about sending farm workers “back where they came from.”

You wouldn’t know that farm workers are feeding our entire country, given their treatment by the federal government, especially ICE, which has been targeting agricultural workers in recent raids. Some workers have said the community feels “hunted,” and we’ve all seen the videos of ICE chasing migrant workers through fields.

Now, agriculture workers are banding together to fight back:

Obviously, the proposed strike dates have already passed, but I wanted to bring it to our attention so that we can be prepared to support them in future actions. Many of these people are risking their jobs, homes, personal safety, and families by coming forward as undocumented. It’s enormously brave, and it should give us all courage. If the most vulnerable among us can organize and speak out, so can we.

And, if you’re in the Ventura, CA area on Saturday:

Did you know this?

Pushing back works. I had no idea this had been removed from Trump’s budget bill. Following a public outcry, the provision that would have allowed the federal government to sell off millions of acres of federal land was taken out.

We take our wins where we find them.

A win for environmentalists in Georgia

The resistance exists in red states, too. A conservation group in Georgia has managed to halt a mining project near a national wildlife refuge and buy the property themselves.

Like I said, sometimes screaming into the void works. But screaming at your elected representatives is better.

The digital resistance rises

A quick video from MSNBC about all those stepping up and putting their time, energy, and money on the line to stop ICE.

You can download ICEblock in the Apple App Store (I don’t think there’s an Android version, yet). I check it daily and share where ICE is active on social media.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Believe me, these Playing for Change videos are keeping me going right now.

The next two weeks will be a little wonky, as I’ll be on a desperately needed vacation from August 6 to August 13. Seven months of covering Trump daily really takes its toll on a girl. But I will have some LMPs during that time, because I have ads set to run and because a week feels like way too long to be out of the news cycle. There will be at least two LMPs in that time, live from the lake cabin in Minnesota — dates TBD.

Survive and advance out there, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Have a great weekend.