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Good News Roundup for Friday, November 11, 2022: Things We Cannot Accept [1]
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Date: 2022-11-11
cc's 275th GNR
Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
First, huge thanks to Andrew Cockburn for filling in for me last week, while I was traveling. I was especially grateful to have an excused absence right before the election, because my impulse was to hide under the covers.
Second, although we’ve got a young, attractive, blonde woman holding up the sign about changing the things we cannot accept, apparently the first person to say those words — or at least, to make them famous — was Angela Davis! Famous black activist, now 78, fighting the hard fight for decades now. I’m keeping the current photo for a while, because the torch is being passed on, but I wanted to give Ms. Davis credit, as she has reminded us of the things we cannot accept.
Now a few rambling thoughts.
Sometimes the words that I repeat every week surprise me. They’re so true! I mean, I know they’re true, that’s why I wrote them, but still, I get surprised by how true they are. For example: the Rs really do try to demoralize us. Those polls! I actually experienced one of those polls. Even though I was hostile to a pollster — the poll was obviously biased — he was desperate to continue. And that was because, so few people were answering their phones, and he needed the data point.
And I confess I was demoralized before the election, by precisely those polls, even though I understand statistics perfectly well and knew how flawed they were.
Nevertheless, everyone here should give themselves pats on the back. The tightness of the results shows that everything we did mattered. I know that gnusies were working hard: donating, postcarding, canvassing and more. And remember, we were fighting against a LOT of dark money and a media talking up bad polls and blaming inflation on Dems instead of on corporate greed and putin’s war. In fact, putin’s war is a good example. We’re starting like the Ukrainians who were expected to lose to putin in 3 days.
However, I believe there are things we could fight much smarter. (For example, why weren’t people freeway blogging the corporate greed with respect to inflation?) More thoughts on that in future GNRs, although please add ideas if you’ve got them!
Come in, dear gnusies, and see what some of us and our allies are doing. Also, happy Veterans’ Day! If you know any, why not reach out and thank them for their service?
Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💙 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
🗽 Biden as President ! 🗽
Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Here are the last TWO weeks’ posts at the White House briefing room.
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
👍 Voters send first Gen Z member to Congress Good News Network
“It’s time for poor, working-class, and young people to have a seat at the table,” said Maxwell Alejandro Frost while campaigning for the US House of Representatives in Orlando, Florida. And, his time will start in January when he’s sworn in as the first Generation-Z member of Congress, the month in which he turns 26.
👎 It looks like Sarah Palin will lose. Again. Yes, ranked-choice voting is awesome. Liz Dye, Wonkette
We will never get tired of watching Sarah Palin get her clock cleaned. That dingbat has been annoying us for almost 15 years, ever since Karl Rove foisted her on the John McCain campaign. Watching her debate Joe Biden was pretty much the cringiest thing ever. ✂️ There are still a lot of ballots to be counted in Alaska, but as of this writing, Peltola has 47.1 percent, while Palin is at 26.6 and Begich is at 24.3. There's no reason to think that Palin is going to do any better with Begich's voters than she did three months ago — and she's got a lot more ground to make up since Peltola gained vote share. Assuming Peltola doesn't get over 50 percent by the time they finish counting, the votes won't be retabulated without the also-rans until November 23. At which point, we can reconvene here to make fun of Sarah Palin again. It's a time-honored Thanksgiving tradition! Meanwhile Donald Trump's promised to torpedo Senator Lisa Murkowski's career for the dastardly crime of voting to impeach him and helping to stymie his efforts to deprive millions of Americans healthcare. Right now, Kelly Tshibaka, who thinks God anointed her queen of the fishes, is more or less tied with Murkowski at about 44 percent. But Democrat Pat Chesbro is clocking in with about 10 percent of the vote, meaning she's guaranteed to be eliminated — and clearly her voters aren't putting Tshibaka as their second choice.
In most cases, crazies failed to take over the school boards Doktor Zoom, Wonkette
The far-Right culture warriors pushing to ban books, restrict any classroom references to LGBTQ+ folks' existence (or Black people in history for that matter), and possibly ban all rainbows too had only limited successes in school board elections Tuesday, at least as far as we can tell. We're sure a really rigorous nationwide analysis will emerge, from education researchers who aren't gleaning their data from Google on a deadline like some filthy politics blogger.
Many examples, so I’m not including them here.
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣
🌻 We know we did a lot better than expected when we see who is unhappy: the Russians. And yes, I include them in the Republican section because they get so much Russian money. Julia Davis, The Daily Beast
The midterm elections in the United States were a hot topic in Moscow. Convinced that the “red wave” was coming, Russian propagandists rushed to take credit for the anticipated landslide victory that would ensure Republican majority in Congress and Senate. ✂️ This plan to discredit the U.S. elections and convince the Republicans that the mighty Kremlin hand covertly helped push them to victory had backfired. On Wednesday, state TV propagandists were scratching their heads about the wave that turned out to be but a trickle. During the broadcast of 60 Minutes, host Olga Skabeeva asked an expert: “How are our guys in America?” Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov clarified with a chuckle: “Our Republicans.” Dmitry Abzalov, Director of the Center for Strategic Communications, noted that the outcome was much different than the predictions: “Even the Democrats predicted the red wave that will mow everything down, but it turned out to be quite modest.” Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov said, “The worst fears of the Democrats are now behind them. They easily won the states they were most concerned about.”
Note that some reasons why we did not do better is because we were fighting against the Russians, a lot of other dark money, not to mention their corporate-owned media.
No one showed up: tRump fails to get protests in Michigan Bob Brigham, Raw Story
At 2:28 p.m. eastern, Trump took to his Truth Social microblogging website to complain about voting in Michigan. "The absentee ballot situation in Detroit is really bad," Trump posted. "People are showing up to vote only to be told, 'sorry, you have already voted.' This is happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well. Protest, Protest, Protest!" Trump's call was not answered by his MAGA base. "Unlike in 2020, when similar cries from the then-president drew thousands of supporters into the streets — including to a tabulating facility in Detroit and later to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — this time, no one showed up," the newspaper reported. "After two years of promises from Trump and his supporters that they would flood polls and counting stations with partisan watchers to spot alleged fraud, after unprecedented threats lodged against election workers, after calls to ditch machines in favor of hand counting and after postings on internet chat groups called for violent action to stop supposed cheating, a peaceful Election Day drew high turnout and only scattered reports of problems."
As the magats own many more guns than the rest of us, we can be thankful for the violence that did not occur.
And Murdoch’s NY Post kicks tRump on his way down:
x NY Post: "What Tuesday night’s midterm election results suggest is that former President Donald Trump is perhaps the most profound vote repellant in modern American history." pic.twitter.com/FbGtTcsmEr — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) November 10, 2022
There have been several other examples in the WSJ and even on Faux News that demonstrate how the Murdochs are turning on tfdg.
❤️ this. I always write “Truth Matters” at the end of these diaries, because too many people act as if it doesn’t. Now we’re finally getting real punishment for some of these lies.
x Alex Jones was just ordered to pay $473 million to the families of Sandy Hook victims, after he spent years calling the tragedy a hoax. This comes on top of the $1 BILLION he already owed.
Defamation law is proving to be a vital weapon in the fight against right-wing media lies. pic.twitter.com/M5W4LLCuTg — Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 10, 2022
Hope we see similar responses to the Dominion cases and E Jean Carroll’s case against the creep.
💙 Democrats Deliver 💙
😄 President Biden’s remarks on the economy:
Today’s report shows that we are making progress on bringing inflation down, without giving up all of the progress we have made on economic growth and job creation. My economic plan is showing results, and the American people can see that we are facing global economic challenges from a position of strength.
It will take time to get inflation back to normal levels – and we could see setbacks along the way – but we will keep at it and help families with the cost of living. Americans are already paying around $1.20 less per gallon of gas than this summer. Today’s report shows a much-needed break in inflation at the grocery store as we head into the holidays. And millions of Americans shopping for health insurance plans are continuing to save $800 per year, thanks to legislation I’ve signed into law. In less than eight weeks, my plan to bring down prescription drug prices and energy costs goes into effect.
It has been a hard two years to recover from where things were in January 2021. But our economy has reopened, new jobs are being created, new businesses are growing, and now, we are seeing progress in getting inflation under control – with additional measures taking effect soon. I will work with anyone – Democrat or Republican – on ideas to provide more breathing room to middle-class and working families. And I will oppose any effort to undo my agenda or to make inflation worse. We are on the right path – we need to keep moving forward to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out.
Too bad we didn’t have the CPI report ten days ago; that would have made Tuesday easier! But it was really good, and the stock market responded.
💜 Unity? 💜
💜 Americans vote to keep abortion access Evan Hurst, Wonkette
The funniest thing has happened ever since Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito declared himself and his creeper god to be co-emperors of our underpants and decided to destroy everybody's right to decide whether they want to be pregnant. When it's put to a vote, Americans tell Alito to fuck off and get his nose outta there. When candidates have emphasized abortion rights in special elections, they've won. ✂️ Kentucky's legislature tried to ban abortion. Constitutional Amendment 2 ended up on the ballot to do the same, and Kentucky voters said fuck off. The "no's" had it with 53 percent of the vote. Voters in Vermont were asked if they wanted to enshrine abortion rights in their constitution. Fuck yes, they did. They approved Article 22 to the tune of 72 to 22, as of this writing. (As always with election results, exact numbers could change, like if they count more votes, or if one of Dinesh D'Souza's mules shows up and says "EEEEEEE HAW, WONKETTE! I AM THE OFFICIAL MULE OF DEMOCRACY!" Usually the numbers change after that.) Michiganders were asked to put abortion rights in their constitution and get rid of Michigan's old-balls 1931 ban. They said you bet and approved Proposal 3, by 11 points.
There are additional results, or at least preliminary indications, all in the same direction, but fair use demands I stop here.
💜 Americans voting in elections don’t like election deniers Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
One big factor for the Democrats’ performance: Up and down the ballot, voters demonstrated that they’ve had enough of election deniers and authoritarian bullies. Again and again, they chose candidates who take their oaths and commitment to democracy seriously. The group of Republican nominees for secretary of state who banded together under a banner of election denial were soundly drubbed. Kristina Karamo (Michigan), Kim Crockett (Minnesota) and Audrey Mendonca-Trujillo (New Mexico) all lost. Arizona nominee Mark Finchem is trailing. And Nevada nominee Jim Marchant is barely ahead as of this writing but running behind the Republicans’ gubernatorial and Senate nominees. By contrast, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the key Republican who upheld President Donald Trump’s loss in his state in 2020, won reelection easily.
💜 The American election unfolded with remarkable grace RtBC staff, Reasons to Be Cheerful
Though it will take days or even weeks for all the ballots to be counted, fears of widespread disruption or confusion proved largely unfounded. In the run up, watchdogs had warned of the potential for voter intimidation, legal challenges and conflict at polling stations, yet aside from a few isolated incidents, few of those fears have been borne out. In fact, the combination of high voter turnout and reasonable wait times suggested a best-of-both-worlds outcome: an unusually large number of people seamlessly exercising their democratic rights.
Note the original article is in the NY Times but I am not giving them money these days.
📥 Actions You Can Take 📤
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ MAKE SURE TO SUPPORT WARNOCK IN THE GA WARNOFF AND OTHER CANDIDATES WITH RECOUNTS!!!
Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying?
Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are), you can support and contact these organizations:
ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️VERY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW! Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election. There’s this page on how to cure a problem in your ballot. Forward to those who might need to do it.
Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams
🌱Grass roots. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy.
🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can help. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection.
👎 Defund the seditionists. Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others.
🐍 Schadenfreude 😈
I really enjoyed seeing this. I have a half-uncle who lives in PA. I barely know him — my grandparents divorced, but after years I tracked him down. Still, for family reasons I follow him on FB and occasionally check out his posts. I suspect he’s got MAGA leanings. Well, one of his posts was all about the folly of voting early and trusting your ballot to the US mail (OK, I can understand some hesitance with DeJoy at the helm). And so many of my uncle’s FB friends agreed with him (I kept silent)!
x Watters: What happened in Pennsylvania?
Graham: Early vote killed us pic.twitter.com/hbQ8p9h6ip — Acyn (@Acyn) November 10, 2022
There are a gazillion reasons to vote early, what with armed protesters, things that can go wrong at the last moment, and making sure you get it done. The Rs only like it because they hope to stop the counting.
Musk is having trouble with advertisers at Twitter Noah Kirsch and Emily Shugerman, The Daily Beast
Amid a mass exodus of advertisers, “Chief Twit” Elon Musk took to his newly purchased social media platform on Wednesday to assure companies that Twitter will remain a safe space for their brands. In an hour-long livestream, known as a “Twitter Space,” Musk cajoled advertisers with promises of robust content moderation and account verification practices. The billionaire faces a formidable challenge: shoring up Twitter’s revenues without alienating the highly vocal band of right-wing users who initially celebrated the acquisition. Twitter lost—either temporarily or permanently—at least nine of its major advertisers in the two weeks after Musk took the helm, including big names like General Mills and Volkswagen. Many of the brands suggested they were concerned about potential changes to the platform’s content moderation policies, and whether their ads would be placed next to racist or hateful speech. (Musk, meanwhile, blamed the exodus on the activists organizing a boycott of the platform.) ✂️ In his tweets, Musk has developed a reputation as a provocateur, posting (then deleting) a fringe conspiracy theory about last month’s attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, engaging repeatedly with right-wing users (including several interactions with one named Catturd), and making reference to the numbers “69” and “420,” the latter of which is associated with marijuana. During Wednesday’s call, Musk sounded far more subdued, perhaps in an effort to appear responsible and even-keeled to advertisers. The billionaire has acknowledged that Twitter quickly suffered a “massive drop in revenue” after he took over, helped by activist groups urging companies to pause or cease spending. He suggested this week that he has grounds to sue the organizers of those boycotts, but the activists (and legal experts) don’t seem to be taking him seriously.
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
This week I have to give thanks to Simon Rosenberg, who kept me sane with his analysis of numbers during the time leading up to the election. Who knew that the polls really needed to be unskewed? But they did; many were complete BS.
Here’s an example of Rosenberg’s work:
x Yes, we called bullshit on the red wave, the GOP flooding the zone w/crappy polls campaign, the people don't care about abortion argument.
But we also have been calling BS on "Hispanics fleeing to Rs" narrative. This needs much more attention. See 👇 5/
https://t.co/bdPxHwpPbF — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) November 9, 2022
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
🍵 Some of us needed to be talked off the ledges this week! Here’s someone who does it all the time:
x This is Don Ritchie.
He lived across from a cliff in Australia known for suicide attempts.
Anytime he saw someone standing at the cliff, he would walk up and invite them to his home for tea.
He single-handedly saved 180 lives — just by showing kindness. pic.twitter.com/hnn6Tf47hF — Goodable (@Goodable) November 9, 2022
📎 Odds & Ends 📎
🐶 Alabama opens no-kill rescue shelter for dogs Andy Corbley Good News Network
These are Macon County Kennels, the largest no-kill rescue shelter in the U.S., and newly opened in Alabama to help combat a pet overpopulation crisis in the southeastern United States. It was renovated from an old greyhound training center into a facility that has the capacity to save, rehabilitate, and adopt out up to 5,000 dogs per year. Located in Macon County, the intention of the founders were to service a region encompassing eight states including Florida, and to help dogs find new homes across America.
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and the sequel, Scavengers of Mind. (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paid if you turn the pages.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time.
Current projects:
Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters.
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
💙 “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.” 💙
President Joseph R. Biden
🌹 🌹 🌹
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