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On the Eve of the Election its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]

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Date: 2022-11-07

Welcome to the Monday Good News Roundup, where its the dawn of the final day. Yes tomorrow is the Midterm that will determine the future of the Biden Administration, and maybe the future of our nation as a whole. And honestly… I’m feeling pretty good about our chances. Simon Rosenberg helps with a lot of that, and I’ve been following his twitter as he attempted to talk some sanity into the gloom and doomers.

x So, here's my main Sunday update.



- Dems are kicking ass in the early vote

- Non-partisan media polls show close, competitive race

- Red wave may come, but its not here yet



Despite it all, we've got a shot.



Let's make history in the next few days! 1/https://t.co/MmzPVGIHIx — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) November 6, 2022

We’ve done so much to make this shot possible, out founder has been running those donation drives to help keep the house, everyone has been working and canvasing and getting out the vote. By comparison, I’ve done comparatively little; writing the GNR every Monday, posting it to Tumblr, reblogging Tumblr posts urging people to GOTV. But I think we’re really going to do it this time. The Blue wave is coming.

And even if it doesn’t, even if the GOP somehow manages a last minute turnaround, I promise I’m not going anywhere, none of us are. They only win when we give up, and I’m not giving up. Trump winning didn’t break me (Okay it broke me a little, but I got back up). I’m sure as Hell not breaking for fucking DeSantis of all people.

Anyway, onto the good news, once again shout out to Bhu and Killer300 for the news articles.

Control of the Senate rests on a knife’s edge, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College, with Republican challengers in Nevada and Georgia neck-and-neck with Democratic incumbents, and the Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania clinging to what appears to be a tenuous advantage. The bright spot for Democrats in the four key states polled was in Arizona, where Sen. Mark Kelly is holding a small but steady lead over his Republican challenger, Blake Masters.

If we retain or expand control of the Senate, then we can keep appointing judges and all of that. And if we expand enough to kill the fillibuster, then the sky’s the limit baby. So Get out there and vote!

Every November, Jennifer Seifert stared at her leftover Halloween pumpkins and felt one thing: guilt. “They’re still perfect and Thanksgiving is here. What am I gonna do with them?” she recalls thinking. So in 2017, while buying eggs from a farmer in her area of Loudoun County, Virginia, she asked if he might have any use for perfectly good, weeks-old pumpkins. “He said, ‘Of course, my animals would love them!’” This friendly conversation was the seed of Pumpkins for Pigs, an online list of US farms that take pumpkin donations. Five years later, though it’s still virtually a one-woman show (her friend lends a hand with design), the website now features 360 farms from 37 states. “Every day we get a couple more farms or animal sanctuaries. I’m hopeful we’ll get to 400 this year,” Seifert says. “I want people to realize how sustainable and do-able this is.”

Fun fact, pretty much every animal in nature loves them some pumpkin. No idea why, but its pretty consistent. In fact, have this video of a porcupine eating pumpkins.

(yes that’s the sound porcupines make its adorable).

We launched our movement to breathe clean air and end the reign of corporate power and pollution amid the Movement for Black Lives chanting “we can’t breathe” and a pandemic disproportionately killing Black people and lower-income people. After months of multiracial and multi-socioeconomic coalition building across the country, fierce pipeline opposition from Memphians, negative national press coverage about the pipeline and environmental racism, legislation being proposed at the county and city level, and court cases challenging eminent domain, the companies canceled the project. This cancellation sent shockwaves through the oil and gas industry. There was, in fact, strong resistance to pipelines and fossil fuels in Black and Brown communities. This story is not just about me or my community. Yes, we care a whole lot, because it was our hometown at stake. But we aren’t the only ones who live on planet Earth. We did it because we care about everyone. The Byhalia Pipeline win is about a bigger pattern happening across the country: Everyday people, who had no plans to become activists, are securing wins to keep oil and gas pollution out of their communities and our climate.

As I keep saying, oil is on its way out, this is just another sign of it.

California-based Enphase will launch its first U.S.-based clean energy hardware manufacturing thanks to tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Enphase leadership said this week that the not-yet-finalized tax credits, coupled with booming demand, made U.S. manufacturing the right move at this time. The company joins a growing list of clean energy companies that have announced expanded domestic production at least in part due to incentives in the landmark climate legislation. Enphase is a leading supplier of inverters for residential and small commercial solar; inverters are the crucial equipment needed to convert solar panels’ direct current output into alternating current for use in the home or for exporting to the grid. Enphase bucked conventional wisdom by miniaturizing them so they can snap onto each rooftop panel, hence the term ​“microinverter.” It grew that business to a $40 billion market capitalization and also sells battery packs for home energy storage.

And with fossil fuels going out, other energy forms are coming in. Which is a good thing.

What do you get when you combine a fleet of electric buses with solar panels, backup batteries and microgrid control systems? For the transit agency in Montgomery County, Maryland, the answer is a self-sustaining island of power when the grid goes down and low-cost, self-generated energy when the grid is up to help the agency meet its clean power and transportation goals.

Bus travel is already great for the environment, now it gets even better.

The Supreme Court has denied Sen. Lindsey Graham’s emergency bid to block a subpoena from Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. The court, with no noted dissent, agreed that Graham can be required to provide testimony to a grand jury about matters that aren’t related to his official congressional work. Anything on his legislative business would be off limits, the high court’s order said.

I really don’t understand why Graham is still insisting to hide in Trumps ass like some sort of horrible tapeworm. But he continues to go to bat for the big orange doofus. But it seems like this time its not gonna work. Let this be his legacy, as a pathetic lackey and stooge.

This is Norway, the land not only of fjords, but of more waterfalls than I’ve ever seen at one time, trickling and rumbling down towering glacierized cliffs deep into slowly shifting valleys. On a detour during a recent Holland America Line (HAL) shore excursion, we ascend onto the largest naturally eroding plateau in Europe, which also happens to be Norway’s biggest national park. Hardangervidda, scientists realized only two years ago, formed as a result of a massive glacier collapsing during a rapid temperature rise in Earth’s final Ice Age. And it’ll happen again in the arctic, first in Greenland and eventually along Norway’s fjords, if greenhouse gasses aren’t reduced. Today, Norway, which has already protected 17 percent of its country (Hardangervidda and 46 other national parks), aims to bump that number to 30 percent by 2030, along with more than 100 other countries. In an effort to halve its 1990s carbon emissions by then, the government announced a proposal last fall to establish 10 new national parks along the western edge of the country. That includes designating four brand new national parks and upgrading six existing conservation areas to national parks. (The proposal also includes the expansion of eight existing national parks.) If approved by each individual municipality, Norway will join a growing number of countries, including Scotland and Costa Rica, vowing to protect the land through the creation and expansion of national parks with the sole purpose of combating climate change.

more parks sounds absolutely fantastic. Way to go Norway.

Germany's health minister on Wednesday unveiled plans to decriminalise the possession of up to 30 grammes of cannabis and allow the sale of the substance to adults for recreational purposes in a controlled market. A question mark remains over whether the plan approved by the Cabinet will go ahead because the government first wants to be sure that it is compatible with European Union law. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said it will only go ahead with legislation if that is the case.

Another amazing victory for drugs in the war on drugs. Keep it up guys. (Also surprised Weed wasn’t already legal in Germany).

The European Union is set to propose tougher legal limits on toxic air pollution, according to the bloc’s top environmental official. The proposition also includes rules that would make pharmaceutical companies pay to clean up wastewater that is polluted by their products. Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters on Wednesday that three laws are being proposed to target damaging air and water pollution. This includes a requirement for EU countries to meet new legally binding air pollution limits by 2030.

Sounds good, I hope we can get some cleaner air in Europe.

Bike buses” — adult-led group bike rides to school — are taking over neighborhoods. Many families are ditching cars for a sweatier morning ride with friends, biking miles in organized clusters led by grown-up volunteers. The effort is a call to combat climate change, encourage exercise and reduce school drop-off traffic. And, parents and kids both say, it just makes the children happier.

This is a really neat idea. I hope there aren’t too many hill on the way to school though.

Zimbabwe says it is on the brink of its biggest wheat harvest in history, thanks in large part to efforts to overcome food supply problems caused by the war in Ukraine. But bush fires and impending rains are threatening crops yet to be harvested. Like other African countries, Zimbabwe has for decades relied on imports to offset low local production. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in global shortages and price hikes, the country wanted to ensure “self-sufficiency at all costs,” Deputy Agriculture Minister Vangelis Haritatos told The Associated Press this week.

Way to go Zimbabwe! That is definitely a record worth setting.

Open for business At the peak of New York City’s pandemic, 83 miles of city streets were closed to traffic to give city-dwellers more public space for social distancing. According to a new analysis, the Open Streets program had financial benefits, too: Patrons flocked to outdoor dining along these car-free stretches. The city says restaurants and bars on popular Open Streets made more money than those on trafficked roads. And those same streets saw new eateries open even as pandemic shutdowns threatened businesses everywhere.

Its time to take back the streets that were so rudely snatched from us by the automotive industry. Lets do it.

Anyway, we leave you with two little musical interludes.

First, some calming ambient music to maybe help you de stress a bit:

And second, my personal marching tune when going to the polls:

This was my marching music for a couple of elections (Which granted did not go very well, but I’m not blaming the song), so I think it works here.

In any case have a good Monday, and hopefully the rest of the week goes well as well, and remember, get out and vote Tuesday if you have not already. Lets make the blue wave a thing.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2022/11/7/2134157/-On-the-Eve-of-the-Election-its-the-Monday-Good-News-Roundup

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