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Good News Roundup for Tuesday, September 13, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-09-13

We're blue and we're standing tall!

Greetings, all! There’s good news popping up all over the place, so you’re in for another one of my long GNRs. Unless you have lots of free time this morning, I advise taking it in small bites! 😉

Without further ado, let’s get to it. And since so much of the news is about being on the verge of victory (in the midterms, in Ukraine, and more), I’ve chosen opening music about victory.

Opening music

People get ready it's time to show

What you got… You must feel that victory, release that

Energy and ride like the wind

Fire in your eyes shake those

Butterflies, go ahead and go

For the win now

x YouTube Video

* * * * *

Good news in politics

Biden names director of new research agency for biomedical innovation

From The American Independent:

President Joe Biden on Sept. 12 announced that he would appoint Dr. Renee Wegrzyn as the first head of a newly created government agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H. According to a White House statement introducing Wegrzyn, ARPA-H is "a new agency established to drive biomedical innovation that supports the health of all Americans. On the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's Moonshot speech, Dr. Wegrzyn will join President Biden today at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston as he discusses his bold vision for another American Moonshot: ending cancer as we know it." The statement said ARPA-H will support and fund efforts to seek cures and medications for "some of the most intractable diseases," including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease, using a model similar to the government-led process that created the internet and GPS technology. "ARPA-H will embrace proven models of tapping talent and expertise from across industry, academia, and government to bring new ideas and approaches, as well as the ability to marshal resources through public-private partnerships," the White House said. The diseases ARPA-H is being positioned to address affect large numbers of Americans.

Americans are finally feeling better about the economy

This is one of several stories in today’s roundup that Gnusie T Maysle found first and added to recent GNR comments. 🎩 to T, and an official nomination for the post of Gnusie Chief Curator!

From The Washington Post:

After months of gloom, Americans are finally starting to feel better about the economy and more resigned to inflation. Consumer sentiment, which hit rock bottom in June, has begun inching up in recent weeks. Gas prices are down. Decades-high inflation appears to be easing. And at the same time, Americans are making small changes — buying meat in bulk, for example, or shifting more of their shopping to discount chains — suggesting that many families are learning to deal with higher prices. “While consumer sentiment is still fairly low by historic standards, we’re starting to see pretty dramatic improvements,” said Joanne W. Hsu, an economist at the University of Michigan and director of its closely watched consumer surveys. “It’s very much being driven by a slowdown in inflation, particularly with the decline in gas prices.” That’s particularly good news for the White House, which has been hammered by criticism that it hasn’t done enough to address inflation.

Schumer promises Senate vote on same-sex marriage bill 'in the coming weeks'

From CNN:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that he intends to hold a vote on a bill to codify same-sex marriage into federal law "in the coming weeks," and hopes there will be enough Republican support to pass it. Schumer also said he would prefer to bring it to the floor as a separate piece of legislation, and not attached to a must-pass government funding bill. "Let me be clear a vote will happen -- a vote on marriage equality will happen on the Senate floor in the coming weeks, and I hope there will be 10 Republicans to support it," Schumer said at a news conference on Capitol Hill. The Senate returned to Washington after the August recess this week and Democrats, who control the chamber, must decide how and when to hold votes on several key items ahead of the upcoming November midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake. The main must-pass legislative item on the to-do list is a bill to extend government funding past a September 30 deadline and avert a shutdown , but Democrats are also pushing to hold a vote on same-sex marriage. There have been questions over whether the same-sex marriage bill could be attached to the government funding measure, but prominent supporters of the bill have pushed back and argued it should take place as a stand-alone vote. Schumer on Wednesday said of the same-sex marriage legislation, "we would prefer to do it as a separate bill. We hope there are 10 Republicans to help us with that," when asked if it would be attached to a must-pass government funding bill.

This is a win-win move for the Dems. Here’s Beau to explain why:

x YouTube Video

And here’s more reason to force the Rs to vote on same-sex marriage:

Same-Sex Marriage Support Inches Up to New High of 71%

From Gallup News:

Seventy-one percent of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage, which exceeds the previous high of 70% recorded in 2021 by one percentage point. These data are from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 2-22. When Gallup first polled about same-sex marriage in 1996, barely a quarter of the public (27%) supported legalizing such unions. It would take another 15 years, until 2011, for support to reach the majority level. Then in 2015, just one month before the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision, public support for legalizing gay marriage cracked the 60% level, and last year it reached the 70% mark for the first time. Rising national support for legal same-sex marriage reflects steady increases among most subgroups of the population, even those who have traditionally been the most resistant to gay marriage. Adults aged 65 and older, for example, became mostly supportive in 2016 -- as did Protestants in 2017 and Republicans in 2021. Americans who report that they attend church weekly remain the primary demographic holdout against gay marriage, with 40% in favor and 58% opposed.

AOC’s Fight for the Future

A long and wonderfully informative profile of AOC. Do read the whole thing.

From GQ:

“Sometimes people ask, ‘Oh, what’s the point of protest?’ ” she told me later, recalling [June 24, the day the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision]. The act of protest, she said, creates community. And participation by political leaders sends a message. “It’s really important for people to feel like their elected officials give a shit about them,” she said. “Not from on high, but from the same level.” I’d arrived at the Supreme Court a few minutes before Ocasio-Cortez to interview protesters, and watched as she maneuvered in her plaid pink pantsuit past a small circle of antiabortion demonstrators and then waded into the sea of women and men who’d gathered to mourn. AOC is the first female politician to be featured in the cover profile in GQ Soon, she was speaking into a borrowed megaphone, helping to lead the call-and-response. “Into the streets!” Ocasio-Cortez shouted, pumping a clenched fist in the air. Within minutes, a sobbing young woman found the congresswoman and threw herself into her arms. “I’m so scared,” she wept. “I’m so scared.” For a fleeting moment in front of the Supreme Court, it was possible to see the full, complicated public totality of the woman we’ve come to know as “AOC”: a 32-year-old second-term congresswoman representing one of the country’s most diverse districts. A certified celebrity. Arguably more famous than any other person in American politics without the last name Obama or Trump; beloved and loathed at competing ends of the political spectrum. Constitutionally opposed to sitting down, shutting up, and conforming to the patriotic play-theater of Washington. The right wing’s night terror in the flesh. To many foot soldiers of the fractured, contradictory coalition that is the progressive left, she represents something singular: the future. A revolutionary on the rise. The clear heir to an ascendant progressive movement. The best and possibly last—depending on how quickly some combination of fascism, religious fundamentalism, and climate change comes for us all—chance; a source of hope that things can get better in their lifetimes.

🍿 Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin 🍿

Prominent Republicans endorse Democrats over GOP candidates, citing 'extremism'

From The American Independent:

A growing number of prominent Republicans across the country are ditching their party's nominees in the midterm elections in favor of Democratic candidates, and many others are withholding endorsements, citing the need to fight back against "dangerous extremism." The endorsements come as the midterm election season heads into the home stretch. More than half of voters in the United States, or 60%, will have a candidate on their ballot who either falsely denies the results of the 2020 presidential election or who won't say President Joe Biden was legitimately elected, according to FiveThirtyEight. ✂️ On Sunday, a Republican state senator in Texas endorsed Democrat Mike Collier for lieutenant governor over incumbent Republican Dan Patrick. ✂️ In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Monday that 150 Republicans, including former lawmakers, business leaders, and staffers to previous Republican governors in Michigan, are endorsing her for reelection over her opponent, Republican Tudor Dixon. ✂️ In Pennsylvania, more than a dozen Republicans have endorsed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro over Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, citing Mastriano's "extremism." In July, nine Republicans backed Shapiro, calling Mastriano and his far-right views "dangerous" and "divisive," and another seven Republicans endorsed Shapiro's bid on Aug. 30.

GOP leaders at a literal loss for words about Biden-era job growth

From MSNBC:

The problem is not that congressional Republican leaders are unaware of current events. In late July, for example, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that gross domestic product fell 0.9% in the second quarter, it took House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy just 22 minutes to announce that the United States is now “in a recession.” The California Republican took the same message to the airwaves soon after.✂️ Late last week, Americans received more great employment news: The economy added another 315,000 jobs in August, bringing the total for the year to 3.5 million jobs, with several months to go. This is a total more in line with what we’d expect to see in a full year, not eight months into the year. It also outpaces any individual year from Donald Trump’s term. But wouldn’t you know it, GOP leaders on the Hill responded to the job numbers by saying literally nothing about the good news. No press releases, no tweets and no public comments. They literally found themselves speechless. These same Republicans were similarly at a loss for words a month ago. And the month before that. And the month before that. And the month before that. And the month before that.

Trump’s Post-Election Fund-Raising Comes Under Scrutiny by Justice Dept.

From The New York Times:

A federal grand jury in Washington is examining the formation of — and spending by — a PAC created by Donald J. Trump after his loss in the 2020 election as he was raising millions of dollars by baselessly asserting that the results had been marred by widespread voting fraud. According to subpoenas issued by the grand jury, the contents of which were described to The New York Times, the Justice Department is interested in the inner workings of Save America PAC, Mr. Trump’s main fund-raising vehicle after the election. Several similar subpoenas were sent on Wednesday to junior and midlevel aides who worked in the White House and for Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. The new focus on Save America was reported earlier by ABC News. Among the roughly half-dozen current and former Trump aides in the White House and the 2020 presidential campaign who are said to have received subpoenas this week were Beau Harrison, an aide to Mr. Trump in the White House and in his post-presidency, and William S. Russell, who similarly worked in the West Wing and now for Mr. Trump’s personal office, according to several people familiar with the events.

Republicans to Trump: Pony up more cash in battle for Senate

The Tortoise thinks he can separate tfg from any of his precioussss hoarded money? Good luck with that.

From Politico:

Mitch McConnell is indirectly nudging Donald Trump to help Republicans try to flip the Senate, part of a broader GOP campaign to get the former president to open up his well-stocked coffers for the rest of the party. ✂️ The private push to get Trump to financially engage in a number of battleground states comes as the former president sits on roughly $99 million, stored in his PAC. That unused cash is drawing increased attention from GOP leaders as the midterms approach, with Trump’s own endorsed candidates lagging in polls and trailing their Democratic opponents in fundraising. As Republicans openly bemoan Democrats’ money edge across the Senate map, McConnell allies hope Trump will see his candidates’ races as referenda on his own brand — that a win could prove he’s still a kingmaker, and a loss will stain his political record. Many Trump-backed Republican candidates, like J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, are facing serious money woes compared to their Democratic opponents.

Rick Wilson “double dog dares” tfg to sue the Lincoln Project

x Donald Trump is "Truthing" that he's going to sue @ProjectLincoln.



I have words for him. pic.twitter.com/0Cnyu5xQ3W — Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 8, 2022

* * * * *

Good news from my corner of the world

A Nehalem [Oregon] Rescue Aids Pets and Families Fleeing Ukraine

From Hipfish Monthly:

[Lee Blackmon, founder of Animal Haven by the Sea Rescue, was] “listening to the news about Ukraine and all the animals displaced by the war...They need so much help. So I decided to go.” ...[After arriving in Warsaw with] no translator and no personal contact on the ground, Blackmon joined the thousands strong effort of volunteers from around the world. “Nobody had much English and I don’t speak any other languages,” he says, [A news article about Animal Haven] was all I had to show them who I was and what I was trying to do.” ✂️ [Blackmon’s plane ticket, medical supplies, and hotel and food expenses were covered by businesses and individuals in Nehalem.] ✂️ Blackmon and the Polish rescuers, as well as other international volunteers, met Ukranian refugees as they disembarked from the trains. ...The rescuers immediately supply food and other necessities. “We met a woman with her daughter in her arms and a Siamese cat clinging to her shoulders. The cat was traumatized. I was able to calm her with some...special calming drops. ... We were able to outfit her with a carrying harness and the Polish volunteers rigged a litter box. The cat wouldn’t go without one and hadn’t relieved herself for days,” he laughs, “I’ve never been so happy to see a cat take a crap.” A Ukrainian man arrived with a stressed Belgian shepherd...She hadn’t eaten and refused

all the treats rescuers offered until Blackmon pulled out some “sacred Rainer Farm beef jerky for humans, which had been given to me for my own snacking, along with some of their famous chews for dogs,” he says. “She almost took my hand off, she was so happy for something she craved.” Blackmon cherishes the moments of watching “four-leggeds” relax when their stress eases and their hunger is appeased. ✂️ Blackmon was able to communicate despite his language deficit. “Language doesn’t really matter,” he says, “there’s no barrier with animals. Once they sensed we were there to help, they relaxed.” Blackmon has always communicated easily with animals. That gift facilitated communication in a country he’d never visited, with people who spoke little or no English. “I have no idea how to speak Ukranian or Polish,”he says, “I just tuned into the animals.”

The Chapman Elementary School swift viewing is back

From The Oregonian:

About 10,000 Vaux's Swifts gather to roost inside the chimney at Chapman Elementary School in Portland, September 17, 2018 If you’re unfamiliar with this bird phenomenon, about an hour before sunset, thousands of Vaux’s swifts fly around Chapman Elementary school in Northwest Portland as they prepare to roost in the chimney for the night. They’re said to be quite the talented aerialists, according to Portland Audubon. The swifts at Chapman have been returning to their chimney roost there since the 1980s. It is one of the largest known roosting sites for swifts and thousands of people gather every year to watch them do their thing. They flock to the school from late August through early October before they migrate to Latin America for the winter. However, in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, the public swift viewing was canceled. There were no resources in place for parking, crowd management or garbage pickup. But this September, it’s all back.



* * * * *

Good news from around the nation

Princeton will cover all tuition costs for most families making under $100,000 a year, after getting rid of student loans

From Business Insider:

On Thursday, the New Jersey Ivy League school announcedit would be expanding its financial aid program to offer free tuition, including room and board, for most families whose annual income is under $100,000 a year. Previously, the same benefit was offered to families making under $65,000 a year. This new income limit will take effect for all undergraduates starting in the fall of 2023.✂️ According to Princeton, about 1,500 students — or 25% of the undergraduate student body — will benefit from this additional aid. Also beginning next year, the University will increase the allowance for personal and book expenses to $4,050 from $3,500 in financial aid packages to allow for more flexibility to cover those miscellaneous charges. This is just the latest action from Princeton to make its cost of attendance more affordable. In 2001, it became the first school in the US to eliminate student loans from its financial packages and replace them with grants to ensure students do not have any debt to pay back post-graduation. A growing number of colleges have since adopted the policy. Amherst, Harvard, and Yale have pivoted to offer grants only, and smaller schools and HBCUs have been using stimulus funds from President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan to wipe out tuition-related student debt for its students.

Parents Beg to Differ With Cataclysmic Views of Schools

Another story curated by T Maysle, who added the following comment: “how local politics are different from national..” True.

Bottom line politically is that this is good news for Dems.

From Gallup News:

One might expect that parents of school-aged children would have become much less satisfied with their own children's education over the past two years. Many parents were affected by the discombobulation caused by school closures and the need to make alternative arrangements for kids' learning. And now, there is evidence that nine-year-olds lost ground on reading and math. But surprisingly, parents appear to be just as satisfied with the quality of their kids' educations now as they were before the pandemic. As my colleague Lydia Saad reported in her recent analysis of Gallup's August 2022 Work and Education survey, "Parents of children attending kindergarten through grade 12 remain largely content with their oldest child's education. The 80% who are completely or somewhat satisfied is slightly improved from the 73% measured a year ago and exceeds the average of 76% that Gallup has recorded since 2001." (The exact question wording Gallup tracks is as follows: "How satisfied are you with the quality of education your oldest child is receiving?") In short, despite all the disruptions of the past two years, there is no sign of a pandemic-era drop-off in parents' positive views of their children's schooling.

MLB to voluntarily recognize minor league players' unionization with MLBPA

From ESPN:

Major League Baseball will voluntarily recognize minor league players' efforts to unionize with the MLB Players Association, commissioner Rob Manfred announced Friday. The move by MLB would formally accept the MLBPA as minor league players' bargaining representative and helps to fast track the unionization effort. It's also a key step that will lead to collective bargaining for minor leaguers. The union and MLB are working on an agreement on whom the bargaining unit will consist of and they hope to accomplish that by next week. The MLBPA launched the unionization drive Aug. 28 and told MLB on Tuesday it had obtained signed authorization cards from 5,000 to 6,500 players with minor league contracts, which exceeds the 50% threshold required to show a majority interest in unionization. If MLB had declined to accept the union, the players' association's next step would have been to ask the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an authorization election. "We, I believe, notified the MLBPA today that we're prepared to execute an agreement on voluntary recognition,'' Manfred said during a news conference to announce on-field rules changes for next season. "I think they're working on the language as we speak." Both sides were exchanging language Friday. Players with Dominican Summer League contracts will not be included in the bargaining unit. Players on 40-man rosters who are on option to the minor leagues have been represented by the union since 1981. The vast majority of minor leaguers, though, have not been previously represented by the union, which intends to form a separate bargaining unit with its own dues and governance structure, such as player representatives and an executive board. MLB raised weekly minimum salaries for minor leaguers in 2021 to $400 at rookie and short-season levels, $500 at Class A, $600 at Double-A and $700 at Triple-A. For players on option, the minimum is $57,200 per season for a first big league contract and $114,100 for later big league contracts. In addition, MLB this year began requiring teams to provide housing for most minor leaguers.

To combat sleep loss, California schools are pushing back start times

From The Hill:

..public high schools in California are starting later in the day in a statewide effort to help adolescents get more sleep and combat a national sleep crisis. California’s SB 328 went in effect July 1. The law requires public high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools no earlier than 8 a.m., citing the academic benefits of a later school start time. The American Sleep Assocation (ASA) recommends teenagers get eight to 10 hours of sleep every night, but many don’t. With busy schedules, active social lives and rapidly changing bodies, teens face varying reasons for their lack of sleep. One 2010 study found most teens are living with mild to severe sleep deprivation — with only 8 percent of U.S. high school students getting the recommended amount of sleep. Researchers found 23 percent of teens only got six hours of sleep on an average school night and 10 percent only got five hours. The study also noted that many teens often participate in more activities than they have time for, resulting in less sleep. It’s a cycle that worsens by the fact that some high schools start as early as 7:20 a.m., while research has shown that teens don’t function well before 9 a.m. Insufficient sleep takes a toll on academic performance, with the National Sleep Foundation poll finding 28 percent of students reported falling asleep in school at least once a week and more than 1 in 5 fell asleep doing homework with similar frequency. ✂️ Not getting enough sleep has serious consequences beyond poor academic performance, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noting it can lead to teens being overweight, lack of daily physical activity and taking on unhealthy behaviors like drinking, smoking tobacco and using illicit drugs. Lack of sufficient sleep is also linked to teens being more likely to suffer from symptoms of depression.

* * * * *

Good news from around the world

Starting with good news from and about Russia and Ukraine:

Is Putin circling the drain like his U.S. puppet is?

Russian Officials Demand Putin Resign Amid Ukraine Losses

From Newsweek:

Russian officials are calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to resign amid mounting losses in his invasion of Ukraine—a rare sign of frustration as the Kremlin cracks down on dissent. ✂️ In recent weeks, Ukraine has gone on the offensive in areas near Kherson and Kharkiv, taking back more than 1,000 miles of formerly occupied territory. The Kharkiv counteroffensive caught Moscow by surprise, and Ukrainian victories forced Russian forces to retreat from key cities such as Izyum over the weekend in which some Russian supporters described as the most "difficult" day of the war. These losses appear to be leading to increased dissent against Putin. Thirty-five Russian municipal deputies signed a petition demanding him to resign from office due to the "harm" inflicted onto Russia due to the invasion, tweeted Ksenia [Thorstrom] on Monday, who serves as a municipal deputy in St. Petersburg's Smolninskoye municipal territory. So far, municipal leaders from several important Russian cities, such as Moscow, have signed onto the demand. [Thorstrom] wrote the petition does not "discredit" anyone, an apparent jab at Russian authorities who have charged critics with discrediting the government.

kos highlighted this tweet in a diary on Saturday. This is bad news for Vlad.

x Today on Russian Telegram, we've seen conspiracy theories of Putin being Jewish, of Putin conspiring with Zelensky to destroy Russia, of Putin being betrayed by the Russian high military command, etc.



These channels are read by millions of Russians, including many soldiers. — Sergey Mohov ✙ (@krides) September 10, 2022

And Kossack highonthehill wrote a diary titled Bye-bye Putin?

Meanwhile, Ukraine is absolutely obliterating the RF forces. Here’s the latest from the Armed Forces of Ukraine FB page:

Ukraine Claims Russian Military Has Stopped Sending New Units

From Daily Beast:

Ukraine officials claimed Monday that the Russian military has suspended sending new units into the war-torn country, citing growing frustration with “combat conditions.” The announcement, which has not been confirmed by Russian authorities or independent sources, comes as Ukraine has walloped Russia in a recent counteroffensive, leaving Moscow reeling as it loses territory in the eastern region of Kharkiv. “The military command of the Russian federation has suspended the sending of new, already formed units into the territory of Ukraine,” Ukrainian officials said on the general staff Facebook page. Ukraine claimed the suspension was made partially made because volunteers have refused to serve in the current conditions, upset by inaccurate casualty information and a growing number of wounded. “In particular, in Russian hospitals, diagnoses and the nature of combat injuries are deliberately simplified and no time is given for rehabilitation in order to quickly return servicemen to the combat zone,” the statement said.

As usual, kos and Mark Sumner and annieli are keeping the DKos community thoroughly informed, so be sure to check for their Ukraine diaries at least once a day. BTW, if the Pulitzer for war reporting goes to anyone but the DKos staff, it’ll be a true miscarriage of justice — they’re the only ones who’ve consistently gotten it right from the beginning.

Finally, the MSM seems to be seeing things a bit more clearly:

Amid Ukraine’s startling gains, liberated villages describe Russian troops dropping rifles and fleeing

From The Washington Post:

In the end, the Russians fled any way they could on Friday, on stolen bicycles, disguised as locals, abandoned by their units. Hours after Ukrainian soldiers poured into the area, hundreds of Russian soldiers encamped in this village were gone, leaving behind stunned residents to face the ruins of 28 weeks of occupation. “They just dropped rifles on the ground,” Olena Matvienko said Sunday as she stood, still disoriented, in a village littered with ammo crates and torched vehicles, including a Russian tank loaded on a flatbed. The first investigators from Kharkiv had just pulled in to collect the bodies of civilians shot by Russians, some that have been lying exposed for months. ✂️ The hasty flight of Russians from the village was part of a stunning new reality that took the world by surprise over the weekend: The invaders of February are on the run in some parts of Ukraine they seized early in the conflict. On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Russian forces had retreated from the Balakliia and Izyum area in the Kharkiv region, saying a decision was taken to “regroup.” On Sunday, Ukraine’s commander in chief, Valery Zaluzhny, said Ukrainian forces had retaken more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,864 miles) of territory, a claim that could not be independently verified, adding that they were advancing to the east, south and north. “Ukrainian forces have penetrated Russian lines to a depth of up to 70 kilometers in some places,” reported the Institute for the Study of War, which closely tracks the conflict. They have captured more territory in the past five days “than Russian forces have captured in all their operations since April,” its campaign assessment posted Sunday said. The apparent collapse of the Russian forces has caused shock waves in Moscow. The leader of the Chechen republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, who sent his own fighters to Ukraine, said if there are not immediate changes in Russia’s conduct of the invasion, “he would have to contact the leadership of the country to explain to them the real situation on the ground.”

And the same article noted Ukraine’s new position on negotiations:

Buoyant Ukrainian officials said they would no longer negotiate a peace deal that would let Russia keep an occupying presence in any territory, even in Crimea and part of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Russia or Russian-backed separatists for years. “The point of no return has passed,” Reznikov, the defense minister, said at the Yalta European Strategy summit in Kyiv on Saturday.

And from The New York Times:

Russian Retreat Prompts Rare Public Debate

As Russia suffered its most humiliating defeat since the initial stage of the war in Ukraine, cracks emerged in the official narrative as lawmakers and pundits on state television cast doubt on Moscow’s prospects. While some urged the Kremlin to start peace negotiations, others demanded that its forces double down. The divergence of views, even on tightly controlled state television networks, highlighted how Moscow’s narrative has quickly shifted from a conviction that it was only a matter of time before Russia subjugated Ukraine to a sense of alarm over the rapid progress of Kyiv’s forces. And it was a contrast from the muted response after Russia’s drive to take Kyiv failed in the spring. On Friday, as the Russian front line in northeastern Ukraine collapsed, Boris Nadezhdin, a Russian municipal lawmaker, told viewers of a political talk show on NTV, a state-owned television channel, what had once been unspeakable: Moscow cannot, under current conditions, win this war.

Zelensky clarifies the situation for the Russians

In his Ukraine Update on Sunday afternoon, kos posted this stunning quote from a statement Zelensky made to Russia on Sunday:

x Zelensky to Russia, tonight... pic.twitter.com/6Hgot3zKhY — Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) September 11, 2022

Other good news from around the world:

Pakistan’s First Female Architect Delivers Bamboo-Built Relief Shelters to Flooded Countryside

From Good News Network:

Yasmeen Lari, now 81, is the cofounder of a nonprofit called the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which is making bamboo huts for Pakistanis stricken by floods. Spending most of her career designing sleek, modern buildings for skylines, her retirement in 2005 was interrupted by a catastrophic earthquake that saw her helping locals to shelter themselves. This, she told Fast Company, is where she came up with the idea for her low cost, low carbon, conical shelters of bamboo. These 12×12 huts have room for 5 people, and can be assembled quickly with rope and reed mats for the roof. “You could not find other materials,” she said. “Everything was taking too much time, like bricks… You could find bamboo. And I said, ‘Okay, let’s give it a try.’” ✂️ Yasmeen Lari in front of her houses. Lari has had experience with floods before. In similar circumstances in 2010 she helped organize the building of thousands of these bamboo huts, which along with being progressively upgradable depending on the longevity of the displacement, can also easily be moved around as needs demand. These ended up withstanding floods in 2012 and 2013, at which point some had even been raised up on bamboo stilts. To facilitate the push for widespread adoption of this idea, Lari runs a training center for emergency architecture called Zero-Carbon Campus, where designs of the original bamboo hut have been upgraded with pre-fabricated bamboo panels that can quickly be fastened together with rope. A team of five artisans from the Campus can build around 8 of these shelters a day, and Fast Company claim they survived the current flooding. However the artisans aren’t needed to assemble the shelter, and the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan has released easy YouTube guides for those who need to learn fast.

Gaming the Climate

Turning gamers into climate activists is a great idea.

From Inside Climate News:

About 3 billion people around the world play video games, the digital content creation company Unity estimates. With such a huge population playing them, should video game designers be incorporating messaging about climate change into their products? A new survey suggests that it’s a huge opportunity. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication in partnership with Unity surveyed more than 2,000 video game players in the United States and found that their views on climate change largely align with the general American population—73 percent of video game players say global warming is happening and 56 percent agree it is caused by human activity. But they also found that video gamers are more willing to take action on climate change, like contacting government officials or participating in a campaign. “Video gamers represent this really untapped or under-explored audience for potential activism on climate change,” said Jennifer Carman, a researcher at the Yale program and co-author on a report that analyzed the survey’s findings. Another result from the survey showed that 22 percent of video gamers say they have seen climate change-related content in video games that they’ve played or watched on a video game stream, and 13 percent said they had taken action after seeing that content. Carman said she was completely surprised by this finding. The survey did not ask where, specifically, people were seeing climate content in video games. She hopes these findings will inspire video game creators to make climate change part of their games and for climate activists to utilize games to reach people with their messaging.

* * * * *

Good news in medicine

A malaria vaccine was declared ‘the best yet’

Malaria is one of the worst killers of young children in poorer nations. The news about the effectiveness of this vaccine is very exciting and very welcome.

From Positive News:

A vaccine developed by the University of Oxford provides the most effective protection against malaria yet, a study has shown. Scientists have been trying to develop a malaria vaccine for a century, and last year the first one was approved for use by the World Health Organization. However, a trial suggests that Oxford’s R21 vaccine offers greater protection (up to 80 per cent) than the existing RTS,S vaccine – and will be cheaper to deliver. Millions of doses could be rolled out as soon as next year. The need is urgent. Almost half a million children died from malaria in 2020. Gareth Jenkins, of the charity Malaria No More, said that infant malaria deaths could end “in our lifetimes” thanks to the vaccines.

Starving Melanoma of One Key Enzyme Could Lead to Several Different Non-Chemo Treatment Options

Excellent news about the possibility of effective treatments against one of the deadliest cancers.

From Good News Network:

Scientists say new treatments for the most severe form of skin cancer could be developed now that they’ve made a major breakthrough, discovering a way to inhibit a key growth enzyme in melanoma. When Glutaryl-CoA Dehydrogenase, (GCDH) was inhibited in tumors they weren’t able to survive long term. Potentially this is because it’s a key source of “food,” but also because it trigged a protein called NRF2 to acquire an ability to suppress cancer. GCDH deprivation is now being theorized as a potential treatment, both through targeting pharmaceuticals in the case of a GCDH-inhibitor, or as a dietary intervention. ✂️ Starvation as a treatment and/or cure for a variety of different cancers has been explored in oncology, as tumors grow fast but require tons of energy. Tumorous cells eat a lot of sugar, but also dine on growth factors produced through protein consumption. This could be something like IGF-1, or GCDH which the researchers have discovered is especially needed in melanoma, such that it alone among 6 key enzymes utilized by the tumors caused it to stop spreading. ✂️ Further exploration showed that inhibiting GCDH in an animal model gave the NRF2 protein mentioned earlier cancer-suppressing properties. “We’ve known for a long time that NRF2 can be both a driver and a suppressor of cancer,” says Ze’ev Ronai, Ph.D, and head of the cancer center at Standord. “We just didn’t know how we convert NRF2 from a driver to suppressor function. Our current study identifies the answer.”

‘Woman who can smell Parkinson’s’ helps scientists develop test

Good for these scientists for believing in Joy Milne’s unusual gift and using it to develop a simple, effective test.

From The Guardian:

Scientists have harnessed the power of a woman’s hyper-sensitive sense of smell to develop a test to determine whether people have Parkinson’s disease. The test has been years in the making after academics realised that Joy Milne could smell the condition. The 72-year-old from Perth, Scotland, has a rare condition that gives her a heightened sense of smell. She noticed that her late husband, Les, developed a different odour when he was 33 – 12 years before he was diagnosed with the disease, which leads to parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years. Milne, nicknamed “the woman who can smell Parkinson’s”, described a musky aroma, different from his normal scent. Her observation piqued the interest of scientists who decided to research what she could smell, and whether this could be harnessed to help identify people with the neurological condition. Years later, academics at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough by developing a test that can identify people with Parkinson’s disease using a simple cotton bud run along the back of the neck. Researchers can examine the sample to identify molecules linked to the disease to help diagnose if someone has it.

Pipes a Million Times Thinner Than Human Hair Could Deliver Personalized Therapies to Individual Cells

We’re seeing more and more medical research that seems like science fiction.

From Good News Network:

Pipes a million times thinner than a human hair could deliver personalized therapies to individual cells, according to new research. The ‘world’s tiniest plumbing system’ could transform medicine by funneling drugs, proteins, or molecules to precisely targeted organs and tissue—without any risk of side-effects. It comprises microscopic tubes that self-assemble and can connect themselves to different biostructures. US scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland engineered a way that ensured the pipes are safe from infinitesimally small leaks. ✂️ It’s a significant step toward creating the first network of its kind to combat a host of life-threatening diseases. The team worked with tubes two million times smaller than an ant and a few microns long—equivalent to a dust particle. They grew and repaired the tubes, enabling them to find and connect to specific cells. It is similar to an established technique that repurposes DNA as building blocks. They make ‘nanopores’ to control the transport of chemicals across lab-grown lipids that mimic a cell’s membrane. But short fittings alone can’t reach other tubes. The bio-inspired technology described in Science Advances address these sorts of problems. “Building a long tube from a pore could allow molecules not only to cross the pore of a membrane that held the molecules inside a chamber or cell, but also to direct where those molecules go after leaving the cell,” said Schulman.

* * * * *

Good news in science

Stunning New Images Show The Face of The Sun Like We've Never Seen It Before

From Science Alert:

A slice of the Sun's chromosphere in high-resolution, showing hair-like jets of plasma. A new portrait from the world's most powerful solar telescope has captured the face of our Sun in exquisite detail. Up close and personal to the giant star, at a resolution of just 18 kilometers, the middle layer of the Sun's atmosphere, known as the chromosphere, looks almost like a shag rug. Bright hairs of fiery plasma can be seen in the [first] image..., flowing into the corona from a sort of honeycomb-like pattern of pores, more easily visualized in the [second] image... These blistering blobs are known as granules, and each is about 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) wide. A close-up of the Sun's chromosphere, depicting individual granules, with the Earth overlaid to scale. Each of these portraits is about 82,500 kilometers (51,260 miles) wide, which is only a single-digit percentage of the Sun's total diameter.✂️ The mind-boggling achievement marks the one-year anniversary of the Inouye Solar Telescope – the most powerful instrument of its kind – and the culmination of 25 years of careful planning. The Sun's chromosphere, which sits below the corona, is usually invisible and can only be seen during a total solar eclipse, when it creates a red rim around the blacked out star. But new technology has changed that.

Evidence of Amputation from 31,000 Years Ago: Patient Survival for a Decade Shows Advanced Medical Expertise in Prehistoric Times

The more we learn about our prehistoric ancestors, the more impressive they become.

From Good News Network:

A child that lived in Borneo 31,000 years ago had its left foot amputated and survived for up to nearly a decade. It is the oldest evidence of surgical limb amputation and pre-dates the previous record by an astonishing 24,000 years. Those who removed the lower third of the young patient’s leg must have had detailed knowledge of anatomy and muscular and vascular systems to prevent fatal blood loss and infection. Scientists hypothesize they may have had access to a natural antiseptic from the rainforest’s rich variety of plants. The leg bone shows a clean sloping cut made with a “sharp tool.” The patient was an adolescent, aged 11 to 14. After the procedure they used a crutch, or perhaps even a prosthetic, to negotiate a difficult environment. Its gender is unknown, but most likely to be male. ✂️ “This unexpectedly early evidence of a successful limb amputation suggests at least some modern human foraging groups in tropical Asia had developed sophisticated medical knowledge and skills long before the Neolithic farming transition,” said Dr. Tim Maloney, of Griffith University, Australia. Animal attack or accident seems unlikely, as does punishment since the individual seems to have received careful treatment after surgery and in burial. “Furthermore, during surgery, the surrounding tissue including veins, vessels and nerves, were exposed and negotiated in such a way that allowed this individual to not only survive but also continue living with altered mobility,” added Dr. Maloney. “Although it is not possible to determine whether infection occurred after the surgery, this individual evidently did not suffer from an infection severe enough to leave permanent skeletal markers or cause death.”

Scientists Unearth Africa’s Oldest Known Dinosaur, Filling a Critical Gap in the Fossil Record

Finding this relatively little guy (6 feet long) is a big deal.

From Good News Network:

Paleontologists have discovered the oldest dinosaur ever found in Africa, and one of the earliest to ever evolve. ...The researchers hope the fossil can fill in critical gaps in the record. [The sauropod] found in northern Zimbabwe is estimated to have been 6 feet long with a long tail. It weighed anywhere from 20 to 65 pounds, and was missing only some of the hand and portions of the skull. Artist’s rendering of Mbiresaurus raathi “These are Africa’s oldest-known definitive dinosaurs, roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world,” explains Christopher Griffin, a graduate from VA Tech’s School of Geosciences, and member of the excavation. “The oldest known dinosaurs—from roughly 230 million years ago, the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic period—are extremely rare and have been recovered from only a few places worldwide, mainly northern Argentina, southern Brazil, and India.” Mbiresaurus raathi stood on two legs and its head was relatively small head like its dinosaur relatives. It sported small, serrated, triangle-shaped teeth, suggesting that it was an herbivore or potentially omnivore. Found alongside Mbiresaurus were an assortment of Carnian-aged fossils, including a herrerasaurid dinosaur, early mammal relatives such as cynodonts, armored crocodilian relatives such as aetosaurs, and, in Griffin’s description, “bizarre, archaic reptiles” known as rhynchosaurs, again typically found in South America and India from this same time period.

* * * * *

Good news for the environment

Finally, a heat-pump water heater that plugs into a standard outlet

From Canary Media:

[The] launch of Rheem’s ProTerra 120-volt heat pump water heater [in July] might not seem like a big step forward in the fight against climate change. But...an efficient electric water heater that can plug into a standard wall socket is a major advance in getting U.S. households off fossil fuels. It’s also an example of what climate activists, policymakers and big businesses can accomplish when they work together. ✂️ Back in October 2018, ...nonprofit [Building Decarbonization Coalition] and New Buildings Institute gathered state policymakers, utilities and representatives of major U.S. water heater manufacturers at a conference in San Francisco to start tackling a problem that was impeding California’s building decarbonization goals: More than nine in 10 of the 14.5 million water heaters in California homes burn fossil gas. Few of those homes are wired for 240-volt heat pump water heaters, which were the only models available at the time. Asking homeowners and contractors to undertake expensive rewiring or electrical panel upgrades to support these more power-hungry replacement units could have triggered pushback from customers and contractors, and left many smaller homes or renters locked out of the market altogether. So ​“we pulled together over 100 people and worked for six months on a specification for a ​‘retrofit-ready’ heat pump water heater,” [Panama] Bartholomy, [executive director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition] said. The goal was to provide a clear signal to companies that their work on a novel product would bear fruit, or as he put it, to do some ​“trust-building — the basis of any good relationship.” Now, more than three years later, that trust-building has paid off. Rheem’s ProTerra is expected to be followed by the launch of 120-volt heat pump water heaters from A.O. Smith, General Electric and Nyle over the coming year, said Amruta Khanolkar, senior project manager at the New Buildings Institute.

An architect asked AI to design skyscrapers of the future. This is what it proposed.

The first thing I thought when I saw these renderings was “Wakanda!”

From CNN:

The architect's conceptual towers were created using AI imaging software. Manas Bhatia has a bold vision of the future -- one where residential skyscrapers covered in trees, plants and algae act as "air purification towers." In a series of detailed images, the New Delhi-based architect and computational designer has brought the idea to life. His imagined buildings are depicted rising high above a futuristic metropolis, their curved forms inspired by shapes found in nature . But the pictures were not entirely of his own imagination. For his conceptual project, "AI x Future Cities," Bhatia turned to an artificial intelligence imaging tool, Midjourney, that generates elaborate pictures based on written prompts. Using a series of text descriptions -- featuring phrases like "futuristic towers," "utopian technology," "symbiotic," and "bioluminescent material" -- Midjourney yielded a series of digital images that Bhatia further tweaked by honing the prompts. ✂️ In another project, titled "Symbiotic Architecture," Bhatia imagined a future in which buildings are made from living materials. Using prompts like "giant" and "hollowed," he produced images of what he called a "utopian future" in which apartments are formed inside redwood-sized trees. ✂️ Bhatia also asked the AI software to imagine residential towers built into trees, which continue growing over time. "The inspiration (was the idea) of a building's 'skin' being organic and inspired by nature, and how evaporative cooling and transpiration takes place so that (towers can) regulate their own temperature throughout the day," Bhatia said adding: "If we could create building materials to be organic, and to live and grow, the building could ventilate itself through these natural processes."

* * * * *

Good news for and about animals

Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.

Here’s Rosy’s choice:

Eebbers, TSA's oldest and cutest bomb-sniffing dog, retires after a decade of service

From NPR:

A Transportation Security Administration K9 named Eebbers has retired after nearly a decade of service, during which he earned the distinction of being the agency's oldest working bomb-sniffing dog, as well as its cutest. Eebers, an 11-year-old explosive detection canine, has retired after nearly a decade of service. This is an objective fact (though it's also true that every dog is the best dog): Eebbers won the TSA's "2022 Cutest Canine Contest" in August, shortly before he celebrated his retirement with a treat-laden sendoff at his home base of Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport (MSP). ✂️ "His ability to search out his trained odors amazes me every day," Jean Carney, Eebbers' handler and lifelong partner, told Minnesota's Star Tribune. She described him as smart, gentle and polite, adding that he'd be waiting at the stairs at 3:30 a.m., ready to go to work. ✂️ … [Eebers] and Carney celebrated their last day at work, with some special surprises. Eebbers' "do not pet" vest was replaced with a standard collar and leash, meaning he could finally get scratchies from his colleagues and admirers. He was showered with stuffed toys and celebrated with several bomb-shaped cakes, and both he and Carney received commemorative plaques.

Nora and Rascal found this story irresistible:

Cat is obsessed with his tiny love bird

x YouTube Video

And here’s a bonus, 🎩 to alamancedem who posted this in OHD’s Tweets of the Week on Sunday:

x Surf photographer Dave Nelson got a video of a seal chasing after a ball with his dog on the beach in Santa Cruz. pic.twitter.com/VU8KOmRaQZ — StrictlyChristo🇺🇦🌻 (@christoq) September 5, 2022

And another bonus, 🎩 to kos. It’s from his Ukraine Update Sunday night:

x The Ukrainian counteroffensive has been slowed down by a stubborn hedgehog. pic.twitter.com/UEIqAn0qCY — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 12, 2022

* * * * *

Art break

Giant Serpent Emerges From the Sea Off the Coast of France

From My Modern Met:

Just off the shore of the Loire estuary outside of Nantes, France, a slithering serpent rises from the water. Completed in 2012, Serpent d'océan is an impressive 425-foot (130 meters) sculpture by French Chinese contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping and is part of the Estuaire permanent public art collection along the estuary's 37 miles. The aluminum skeleton of the serpent is continually covered and uncovered by the tides, excavating itself as the water level decreases and revealing its archeological remains. The curving shape of the serpent's spine mirrors the form of the nearby Saint-Nazaire bridge, harmonizing the creature with its surroundings. Huang Yong Ping was a prominent figure in the 1980s Chinese avant-garde movement, and had many of his works banned by the Chinese government. In 1989, he moved to France and has since become a naturalized French citizen. Often addressing identity and the mixing of different cultures in his work, it's no surprise to see the artist introducing an animal related to Chinese mythology to Europe. Astonishingly, given its size and sturdiness, Serpent d'océean is filled with movement. Its skeleton terminates in a thin, whip-like tail that cuts gracefully through the water, seemingly propelling the serpent's body toward the shoreline. The work continually reveals itself in different guises depending on the time of day, both due to the changing tide and the light's reflection. And interestingly, over time, as algae begins clinging to its surface, the work takes on more meaning by showing the cycle of life and nature.

* * * * *

Hot lynx

www.theatlantic.com/… Why the Russian Military Brutalizes Ukraine. Hardly good news, of course, but I’m sure I’m not the only one here who has wondered where that brutality comes from. A very thoughtful and informative interview with a Russia expert who taught at the U.S. Naval War College.

www.newyorker.com/… How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London. A fascinating New Yorker piece from March that’s newly relevant.

lithub.com/...Luke Mogelson on the Far-Right, the Militia Movement, and the Threat of Trumpism​​​​​​. ​Mogelson is the reporter who recorded that amazing footage inside the Senate chamber during J6. “Right-wing militarism emerges from a sense of victimhood. Yet right-wing militants are overwhelmingly white heterosexual Christian men—no doubt the least victimized demographic in American history.”

www.newyorker.com/… The Work You Do, the Person You Are. A wonderful piece by Toni Morrison from the New Yorker archives about not confusing work with identity. “...since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.”

lithub.com/… Gut Feelings: How Does Intuition Work, Anyway? Another interesting article from LitHub. “Many studies in psychology tell us that intuition is a very real process where the brain makes use of past experiences, along with internal signals and cues from the environment, to help us make a decision.”

www.yesmagazine.org/… For a Healthier Society, Ditch the Myth of Normal. A powerful argument that we need to stop accepting the norms of our culture that are making us unhealthy physically and emotionally.

* * * * *

Wherever is herd…

A tip of the hat to 2thanks for creating this handy info sheet for all Gnusies new and old!

Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:

Closing music For this morning’s closing music, here’s a mind-boggling video from last year that I just discovered. If this tiny girl can shred drums like this, anything is possible! So let’s go do what the pundits are telling us is impossible: GOTV to create a crushing Blue Wave from coast to coast! x YouTube Video

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and

your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.

❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️

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