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Happy Halloween from the GNR Newsroom: Monday GNR [1]
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Date: 2022-10-31
Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, coming to you on my favorite holiday (and not just cause its my mom’s birthday). Its the scariest time of the year, a time for scary movies and candy and good clean scary fun.
Of course a lot of us have a different kind of fear to deal with, the fear of the Midterms next week. Things are looking good for our side, better than expected, but there’s still room for election jitters. Its enough to make someone scream, its like a nightmare elm street, but I think we’re gonna pull it off and turn next week into the GOP’s very own Friday the 13th. The Thing.
But before we start on with the good news curated from my associates Bhu and Killer300, I have the rare addition of my own to the GNR. This is late coming in, and I’m glad that I get to report it.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been elected the next president of Brazil, in a stunning comeback following a tight run-off race on Sunday. His victory heralds a political about-face for Latin America’s largest country, after four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration. The 76-year-old politician’s win represents the return of the left into power in Brazil, and concludes a triumphant personal comeback for Lula da Silva, after a series of corruption allegations lead to his imprisonment for 580 days. The sentences were later annulled by the Supreme Court, clearing his path to run for reelection. “They tried to bury me alive and I’m here,” he said in a jubilant speech to supporters and journalists on Sunday evening, describing the win as his political “resurrection.” “Starting on January 1, 2023, I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me. There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation,” Lula da Silva also said.
Yep, Lula is back in, and that Trump wannabe Bolsonaro is out. Hopefully we will see a smooth transition of power and Bolsonaro wont try any tricky bullshit (apparently he broke the bank trying to bribe his way to victory, didn’t work for him).
All over the world we are seeing the last gasp of far right extremism. Bolsonaro’s ousting, the continue implosion of the Tories in the UK, Putins continued failures in his bid to subjugate the Ukraine, the revolts in Iran, and next week we will contribute to this by voting to retain control of the house and senate and not bowing to the GOP and their stupid, pointless cruelty towards their fellow human beings.
And with the breaking news out of the way, onto the other stories this week.
In 2018, Blackfoot meme creator Arnell Tailfeathers from Manitoba made a post on Instagram which contained a simple phrase: ‘Land Back’. It caught on quickly, perfectly capturing the essence of Indigenous people’s long struggle to reclaim their stolen land across Turtle Island – what is currently called the US and Canada. In just a few years, the use of those two words would snowball as they quickly became a rallying call. Defining Land Back is both easy and complicated. Put most simply, Land Back is any action taken with the purpose of returning jurisdiction, authority, and resources to Indigenous people. This might include taking land back into Indigenous stewardship, restoring Indigenous people’s legal rights to their land, or the active refusal to follow colonial laws on traditional and unceded territories.1
This is a great message, I hope they do get their land back.
ens of thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest on Sunday evening to stand in solidarity with the nation's teachers and denounce the far-right government of President Viktor Orban. With over 80,000 marching in the demonstration it was the largest public display of dissent since Orban's reelection in April as a revolt by teachers—demanding better pay and increased funding for schools—continues.
all over the world people are getting tired of the little Trumps and puny Putins, and we’re gonna get rid of them one by one.
Since mid-September, Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini (who primarily went by her Kurdish name, Zhina). After morality police stopped her for being “improperly” dressed, Amini was taken into police custody — only to emerge days later in a body bag. Thousands across the country reacted with fury and mourning, uniting under the banner of “Woman, Life, Freedom,” a Kurdish freedom slogan repurposed to demand women’s rights in Iran and an end to dictatorship under the current regime. Triggered by the violent enforcement of a government dress code that includes mandatory headscarves for women, the initial outcry has morphed into the largest protest movement Iran has seen in years.
The whole world is marching towards a brighter future, a future free of tyranny.
f you tuned in to Tucker Carlson every night, you’d be told again and again that white supremacy is a hoax, invoked by liberals to smear the modern Republican Party and divide the country. But though the Fox News host has millions of viewers, his controversial takes may not accurately reflect the views held by a majority of GOP voters. A new VICE News/YouGov poll found that 60 percent of Republican respondents actually identified white supremacist extremism as a “problem” facing the U.S. ahead of the upcoming midterms (compared to 93 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Trump voters). A slightly larger percentage of Republican voters—63 percent—also consider “right-wing extremism” a problem in the U.S.
Yeah a reminder that most of the people who vote for these guys aren’t monsters, they’re folk like us. And they are also getting fed up with this bullshit.
“Everyone I know is doing better than they were two years ago,” someone told me this week. “Is that just because I’m a middle-aged white guy?” I laughed at the way the question was phrased, but it is a valid one. And the truthful answer is contrary to the common narrative. In a late September edition of this newsletter, we covered a Credit Suisse report that showed that the bottom 50 percent of the United States population got wealthier during the pandemic. At the time the only coverage of this we saw was from Axios. There may have been others, of course, but by and large this story hasn’t broken into major headlines. So this week, it was interesting to see The Intercept pick it up, illustrating data from the Federal Reserve—that we have also previously mentioned in this newsletter—that shows two things. One, that the net worth of the bottom 50 percent doubled during the pandemic. Two, that it’s the highest it has been in US history.
glad to see some people are making more money. I could use some right about now.
The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that it expects carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels to rise again this year, but by much less than in 2021 due to the growth in renewable power and electric cars. Last year saw a strong rebound in carbon dioxide emissions — the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming — after the global economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Okay maybe not great news but at least its starting to slow, that’s good right?
Wind and solar power have made up a record 24% of the European Union’s electricity mix since Russia launched its war on Ukraine, a new report says, a boost that has also helped the bloc battle soaring inflation. The growth in renewable power capacity has saved the 27-nation bloc €99 billion ($97 billion) in avoided gas imports between March and September, which is €11 billion ($10.8 billion) more when compared with the same period from last year, according to the report published by climate think tanks E3G and Ember.
Putin is quickly learning no one wants or needs him, and that he should just go away (and leave Ukraine alone dammit).
Agrivoltaics - the practice of using land for both solar energy and agriculture - is on the rise across France. In the Haute-Saône region, in the northeastern part of the country, an experiment is being conducted by solar-energy company TSE. It is hoping to find out whether solar energy can be generated without hindering large-scale cereal crops. Previous attempts to experiment with agrivoltaics have been through smaller-scale projects. But, keen to see if it can thrive on an industrial level, 5,500 solar panels are being spread over this farm in the commune town of Amance by TSE.
Now that’s a real smart idea.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, thousands of hectares of land could one day become the world’s largest green ammonia plant. Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, is commonly used as a fertilizer. In the early 1910s scientists devised a way to synthesize it, but before then, the main agricultural fertilizer was guano, bat or bird excrement, which had to be obtained from tropical islands and was in short supply. Production of ammonia at an industrial scale allowed agriculture to boom, and according to a study from the University of Manitoba, without it, we wouldn’t be able to produce roughly half of the world’s food today.
Really neat news here. I hope this works out.
Not everyone saw the speed of these advancements positively: The belief that vaccines were “rushed,” for example, was one of the most common reasons that people delayed taking them. Many people believe that doing science quickly would mean doing away with standards and creating research that’s sloppy or even dangerous. But that isn't always true, and the urgency of Covid-19 led many people to adapt, produce, and improve research at a quality and speed that few expected. Not only could we avoid those trade-offs, but we could improve science in ways that make it faster—and the pandemic has shown us how.
Do you want it done fast or do you want it done right? Turns out you can have both!
This is Operation Bluestone. Its “Al Capone” approach to catching rapists puts suspects – not victims’ credibility – at the centre of investigations, say police, and aims to “disrupt” them by whatever legal means possible. Over two days, the Guardian was given exclusive insight into the workings of Bluestone, as well access to new data, the academics behind it, the people supporting victims, and the national police lead at its vanguard. The project – part of a wider police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) operation called Operation Soteria, after the goddess of safety and deliverance from harm – aims to tackle a crisis in rape prosecutions, which fell by 64% between 2016 and 2020 against a backdrop of record reports in England and Wales.
Wow, actually going after rapists instead of blaming the victim. And it actually works? Who would have guessed except everyone. Still, at least they’re doing it now.
Suicides across the active duty U.S. military decreased over the past 18 months, driven by sharp drops in the Air Force and Marine Corps last year and a similar decline among Army soldiers during the first six months of this year, according to a new Pentagon report and preliminary data for 2022. The numbers show a dramatic reversal of what has been a fairly steady increase in recent years. The shift follows increased attention by senior military leaders and an array of new programs aimed at addressing what has been a persistent problem in all the services, although it’s unclear what impact any of the programs had or if pandemic-related restrictions played any role in the decline.
Glad to see our fighting men and women are getting the help they need when they need it.
Reproductive health advocates and Democratic lawmakers are intensifying calls for the Food and Drug Administration to make contraceptives available without a prescription ahead of a closely watched advisory panel meeting next month. Why it matters: Health experts say making HRA Pharma's Opill pill available without a prescription will prevent more unwanted pregnancies, and the need for abortions. But that hinges on whether insurers will cover it and whether the drugmaker, part of the consumer products giant Perrigo, makes it affordable to those paying out of pocket. Driving the news: FDA advisers will meet on Nov. 18 to review the application for Opill, which has been available with a prescription in the U.S. since 1973. Two advisory committees will consider switching the drug from prescription to over-the-counter and weigh how the drug itself is used, said Susan Lee, a partner at the law firm Goodwin who specializes in the FDA's regulation of drugs and biologics.
HRA partnered with the research organization Ibis Reproductive Health, which also leads the Free The Pill Coalition, a group that advocates for greater birth control access.
Funny how Democrats are actually doing things that will lead to fewer abortions (making birth control available, sex education) while the GOP are just being assholes (which solves nothing).
Covid-19 or the flu? Although the symptoms of both viruses are practically indistinguishable from each other, as of this autumn it will be possible to tell the difference. For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe in early 2020, pharmacies are now stocked with tests that are capable of detecting both Covid-19 and influenza. These antigen tests are almost identical to the ones that have become so familiar during the pandemic, but now they are also able to detect the flu virus separately.
As someone who works in retail and usually gets the flu at least once per season, this is going to be handy for me I think.
And to close out this weeks GNR, some words of hope from Simon Rosenberg
x Happy Friday all. A thread w/things I'm seeing this am:
At this point in 2018 Rs had 300k early vote lead. Today Ds have a 2m vote lead. Turnout is 10% over '18.
Ds outperforming 2020 share in GA, MI, NV, OH, PA, VA, WI.
This is encouraging. 1/
https://t.co/BATKc8Kt46 — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) October 28, 2022
Early voting is up and heavily in our favor, the polls are turning in our favor again as well. I think we’re gonna pull this off you guys. And even if not, as we have seen far right extremism is on a downturn across the globe, the tyrants are on their way out and they know it.
Have a good week everyone, and a happy Halloween.
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