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Can you feel the winds of destiny shifting? Wednesday Good News Roundup [1]
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Date: 2022-12-14
Good Day, Everyone! This morning, look at the news from a wide perspective. I think you may see what I see. Things are shifting. Bad actors are being held accountable. Investigations are proceeding apace and justice appears to be coming.
Settle in and read all about it!
🎶 Opening Music 🎶
🇺🇸 January 6th Committee 🇺🇸
Top news (mark your calendars!):
January 6 committee chairman: Final public meeting will be Monday and full report will come out December 21, Annie Grayer, Sarah Murray and Zachary Cohen, CNN, December 13, 2022.
CNN — Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, told reporters the committee will hold its final public meeting on Monday and that the panel’s full report will come out December 21. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said the committee will approve the panel’s final report on December 19 and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public will not see the final report until two days later.✂️ Thompson said that in addition to criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, there could be other categories of referrals the committee makes such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.
👉 And if they’re thinking of trying that sh*t again, Democrats are way ahead of them:
Opinion: The plan to stop a future Trumpist coup moves closer to reality, Greg Sargent, Washington Post, December 13. 2022.
It turns out our political system might prove capable of defending itself against future subversion, after all. In a big step forward for protecting democracy, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Tuesday that he expects action in the lame-duck session on reform of the arcane law that Donald Trump exploited during his attempted 2021 coup.✂️ This is welcome news. The Senate version of ECA reform would clarifythe vice president’s role in counting electors as purely ceremonial, make it harder for Congress to invalidate legitimate electors and make corruption of the appointment of electors at the state level much harder. All these points would make a rerun of Trump’s 2020 effort less likely, in part because they would patch up ECA vulnerabilities that invited him to attempt it. He pressured his vice president to halt the electoral count, got Republican members of Congress to vote to cast out Joe Biden’s electors and pressed state legislatures to appoint sham electors for him instead.
🚨 Also, if you haven’t already, check out Talking Points Memo’s astonishing series this week — revealing and discussing Mark Meadows’ texts, including many that have not been published before now: Mark Meadows Exchanged Texts With 34 Members Of Congress About Plans To Overturn The 2020 Election, Hunter Walker, Josh Kovensky and Emine Yücel, Talking Points Memo, December 12, 2022.
DOJ and Special Counsel
New special counsel subpoena shows DOJ opening new front in Trump investigation: reporter, Travis Gettys, Raw Story (via Salon), December 13, 2022.
The recently appointed special counsel has issued a subpoena to Georgia's secretary of state for records related to Donald Trump's effort to overturn his election loss, signaling a new direction for the federal investigation. This man’s resolute face seems to declare: “Justice is coming.” Jack Smith, who was appointed to oversee Trump-related investigations for the Justice Department, asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for documents related to Trump's request to state officials asking them to "find" exactly the number of votes he needed to undo President Joe Biden's victory in the state — and NBC News correspondent Ken Dilianian explained the significance of this latest development. ✂️ "He's moving forward quickly and aggressively, in terms of the subpoenas to the state, if you look at the subpoena, there's a list of people," Dilanian added. "Almost everyone we know of who was involved in the effort to overturn the election, Rudy Giuliani, Cleta Mitchell, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn — the DOJ wants communications between those people and state and local election officials and they're vacuuming them up."
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
🏳️🌈 Yesterday’s really good news: Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act, reflecting his and the country's evolution, Domenico Montanaro, NPR, December 13, 2022.
The president spoke before a crowd of thousands gathered to celebrate the federal protections in the Respect for Marriage Act. "The road to this moment has been long, but those who believe in equality and justice – you never gave up," Biden said. That long road is one Biden and the country have been on together. In 2004, just 42% of Americans said they were in support of same-sex marriage, according to Gallup. Today, it's 68%, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll to be released Thursday.
🇺🇦 Biden Administration staunchly supports Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression:
Exclusive: US finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, Barbara Starr, CNN, December 13, 2022.
The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukrainethat could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official.✂️ Ukraine has been calling for the US to send the advanced long-range air defense system that is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles as it comes under a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks that have destroyed key infrastructure across the country. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for NATO nations in eastern Europe. It is not clear how many missile launchers will be sent but a typical Patriot battery includes a radar set that detects and tracks targets, computers, power generating equipment, an engagement control station and up to eight launchers, each holding four ready to fire missiles. Once the plans are finalized, the Patriots are expected to ship quickly in the coming days and Ukrainians will be trained to use them at a US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, officials said.
👩🏻⚖️ Inside Chuck Schumer's Long Game On Judges, Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, December 13, 2022.
Schumer has been helping President Joe Biden outpace past presidents with his judicial confirmations. The Senate has confirmed 96 of Biden’s lifetime federal judges as of Tuesday. That’s more than Donald Trump (85) and Barack Obama (62) had confirmed by this point in their presidencies. If the Senate tops 100 confirmations by the end of the year, which is Schumer’s goal, Biden will surpass former President George W. Bush, too. Perhaps more remarkable is the diversity Biden’s already put onto the courts. Of his 96 judges, 75% are women, 68% are people of color, 48% are women of color and 24 are Black women. That’s a huge departure from the nation’s breathtakingly white, male federal judiciary. His court picks are professionally diverse, too: some are public defenders, voting rights lawyers, and union organizers, in addition to historic firsts with Native Americans, Black women, LGBTQ picks and Muslim Americans. ✂️ Schumer has pushed through all of these judges despite significant challenges in the Senate. The chamber has been split 50-50, along party lines, for the entire time he’s been in charge. That has meant he hasn’t been able to lose a single Democrat when holding confirmation votes. COVID has made it harder to schedule votes. He’s had to take extra procedural steps to force some of Biden’s court picks out of the Judiciary Committee, where they were stuck after the panel tied along party lines. In one case, Schumer had to summon Vice President Kamala Harris to the chamber to break a tie to confirm Jennifer Sung, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
🎶💜 🌈 Music for Love 🌈 💜🎶
🫣😫 Republicans in Disarray 😡😩
LOL, House Republicans are fighting over whether to reinstate a rule that would allow them to boot him out at any time on any single member’s say so. Gosh, what a pickle for Kevin McCarthy!
House GOP divided over whether McCarthy should give in on ‘motion to vacate’, Lauren Fox, Melanie Zanona, Kristin Wilson and Sarah Fortinsky, CNN, December 13, 2022.
The House Republican Conference is still entrenched in an internal war over whether to reinstate an arcane rule that would empower any member to bring up a vote to oust a speaker at any time. The bitter divide is only heating up and has emerged center stage in House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s quest for 218 votes to win the position. For McCarthy’s backers, the so-called motion to vacate is seen as little more than a promise of hostage taking, a tool that could be used by the right flank to hamstring McCarthy’s ability to lead the conference and effectively govern. “There’s a reason [the motion to vacate] already got debated. You can’t govern with a gun to your head and that is what they are asking for. It makes us highly unstable, and it lays out the potential too for Democrats to take advantage of this and create absolute chaos,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, told CNN. “There is a reason people are against it. You can scream the word accountability all you want … in the end it’s just a path to chaos, not stability, and we are going to have to be very united and very stable if we are going to govern properly. “
Meanwhile, Qevin’s effort to round up votes to get himself elected Speaker continues to flounder. Even if he manages to eke out a victory, his tenure will already be immeasurably weakened by this spectacular display of disunity and internal warfare:
Despite Trump’s Lobbying, McCarthy’s Speaker Bid Remains Imperiled on the Right, Catie Edmondson, Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni, New York Times, December 13, 2022.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the most outspoken far-right member of his conference, is publicly vouching for Mr. McCarthy. The California Republican has made private entreaties and public promises to win over his critics, including floating the impeachment of a member of President Biden’s cabinet. And yet, Mr. McCarthy, who is toiling to become speaker next year when the G.O.P. assumes the majority, has so far been unable to put down a mini-revolt on the right that threatens to imperil his bid for the top job. ✂️ Should he fail to win a majority when the new Congress convenes, members would take successive votes until someone — Mr. McCarthy or a different nominee — secured enough supporters to prevail. But Republicans agitating against him have insisted that Mr. McCarthy would not be able to win election on the floor, warning that more defectors would emerge in the coming weeks. “I don’t think he has a plan, other than to hope that conservatives fold,” Russ Vought, the president of the right-wing Center for Renewing America, said of Mr. McCarthy in an interview. “And this is not the part of the Republican conference that folds.”
⚖️ Legal News ⚖️
Hopefully, this kind of case will discourage other would-be fraudsters from swindling people.
FTX founder charged in scheme to defraud crypto investors, Ken Sweet and Fatima Hussein, AP, December 13, 2022.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government charged Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes on Tuesday, alleging he intentionally deceived customers and investors to enrich himself and others, while playing a central role in the company’s multibillion-dollar collapse. Federal prosecutors said Bankman-Fried devised “a scheme and artifice to defraud” FTX’s customers and investors beginning in 2019, the year it was founded. He illegally diverted their money to cover expenses, debts and risky trades at the crypto hedge fund he started in 2017, Alameda Research, and to make lavish real estate purchases and large political donations, prosecutors said in a 13-page indictment. Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government, and remains in custody after being denied bail.
The charges against crypto's Bankman-Fried are piling up. Here's how they break down, David Gura and Lisa Lambert, NPR, December 13, 2022.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of the FTX crypto-exchange, was arrested at his home in the Bahamas on Monday night at the request of the U.S. government, which had filed a sealed indictment in the Southern District of New York. The indictment was made public Tuesday morning, showing that the government has charged the 30-year-old with committing fraud, conspiracy and other crimes. Meanwhile, the top U.S. financial regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — filed civil charges against him, FTX Trading and Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund, on Tuesday.
🧪🔬 Science, Nature and Technology News 🧪🔬
First, the stunning news that researchers have finally succeeded in making a breakthrough in the long-sought dream of nuclear fusion energy:
U.S. Government Scientists Confirm Major Breakthrough In Nuclear Fusion Energy, Alexander C Kaufman, HuffPost, December 13, 2022.
Since the 1950s, scientists around the world have sought to replicate the reaction that fuels the sun in search of a clean energy “holy grail,” a technology capable of providing nonstop electricity without planet-heating emissions or radioactive waste. ✂️ Blasting hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser had already yielded a “Wright brothers moment” in August 2021 when, for a brief 100 trillionths of a second, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California registered a historic burst of fusion energy. But the 1.3 megajoules generated was only about 70% of the energy fired from the laser. “Last week for the first time they designed the experiment so the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited and it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited,” Marvin Adams, the National Nuclear Safety Administration’s deputy administrator for defense programs, said Tuesday morning at a White House conference announcing the discovery. “About 2 megajoules in, about 3 megajoules out.”
More from NPR: U.S. reaches a fusion power milestone. Will it be enough to save the planet? Geoff Brumfiel, NPR, December 13, 2022.
🔭 Look up at the night sky! The Geminids peaked last night but will still be fun to watch through December 17. (Also, drat, it’s cloudy here!)
A spectacular meteor shower called the Geminids will peak on Tuesday evening, Roshan Fernandez, NPR, December 13, 2022.
One of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year will peak this week. The Geminids meteor shower, which streaks across the night sky every year in mid-December, will peak on Tuesday night and into Wednesday. Bright, intense colors are often associated with the Geminids, according to the American Meteor Society. They're visible across the globe, no matter your time zone, and will last all night.✂️ "Rich in green-colored fireballs, the Geminids are the only shower I will brave cold December nights to see," Bill Cooke, the lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said in a statement before last year's shower.✂️ NASA says the shower is one of the best opportunities for young viewers to see meteors since it begins around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.
Speaking of celestial phenomena. A trip to the arctic to (hopefully) witness the Northern Lights in all their glory is a top ten item on my bucket list (actually top 5 as I barely have five items on that list! 😂). I did see a little bit of aurora borealis in Newfoundland one winter (and my kids saw it, too, because I pulled off the road so we could all get out and look, so BONUS!):
x Reindeer and the Northern Lights.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/q8dW0LbCdz — Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) December 6, 2022
Cardinals are probably my favorite birds — although there are several other contenders 😁. Obviously, the flashy brilliant males have iconic appeal (and with good reason!), but the softer green and peach plumaged females are the quiet beauties, too. Any time you spot a bright red cardinal, look around for his mate — she is usually there, too, blending in with the shrubbery. Look for that brilliant orange/red beak and you’ll find her.
x Important announcement: We're designating the northern cardinal as the best holiday season bird. It just makes sense and we won't be taking any questions at this time. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/FyhzHWqHA7 — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (@USFWS) December 9, 2022
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirly! How are you today? I hope you are feeling happy and ready for some good stories about animals because I have some more for you!
🦁 First! Scary news from Lincoln Park Zoo! Well, ok, this is supposed to be good news. Mama told me it IS good news and I believe her but DO WE REALLY NEED ANY MORE LIONS IN CHICAGO? I say, no we do not! I think there are already too many lions in Chicago. But Mama says these lions are part- of- a -program- to- increase -a -genetically ---diverse -and -healthy -population -of- this -kind -of -lions- globally. Well, whatever. 🙄
All the same, since humans think this is peachy (and I expect lions think it’s dandy, too, but who knows with that lot), then I am pleased it is happening here in Chicago! Also, don’t forget we have that cool new lion habitat also at the LPZ — so I guess it might be fun to see some new cubs playing there (not me, of course. I won’t be going to see them — but others might enjoy that).
New cub(s) in town? Lincoln Park Zoo announces lion pregnancy, Zack Miller, Chicago Sun Times, December 9, 2022.
This is just any old lioness, not Zari. After observing behavior consistent with breeding, zoo staff members were able to confirm through hormone tests and an ultrasound that 4-year-old African lion Zari is pregnant. The zoo could be expecting anywhere between one and five cubs in January, officials said. “This is a very exciting time for the lion pride at the zoo but also for the entire zoo population,” Mike Murray, the zoo’s curator of mammals and animal behavioral husbandry, said in a statement. “A birth represents preservation of a species that has faced many challenges in the wild.”
🦄 Second! Someone scooped me on this in the Evening Shade but I asked Mama could I still put it in and she said,” Does it have unicorns?” and I said, “Yes — well one anyway!” and she said, “Of course it must go in!”. So here it is!
x Madeline wrote us a letter requesting permission to have a unicorn in her backyard. We issued her a preapproved unicorn license. Also, because they are indeed very rare to find, we gave her the unicorn pictured below as she continues her search. Why, yes we DO license unicorns! pic.twitter.com/SUosMLdzGY — LA Co Animal Care (@LACoAnimalCare) December 7, 2022
🐢 Third! Something that me and Mama really don’t like is the way that animals on land and sea can come to grief because of stuff that humans leave lying around or even put there on purpose — and then forget about them!! 😱Like traps or random floats. Here is a video of two humans who help a sea turtle who got stuck on a buoy. That thing had so many barnacles and stuff stuck to it, it maybe wasn’t checked for ages. I am glad the boys saw the turtle in trouble and I am also glad the boys took away that dangerous thing!
x Not all heroes wear capes pic.twitter.com/Vx7OU9BWul — Wu-Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 8, 2022
🐧 Fourth! Check out these funny nature pictures!
We're not lion: The 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are a good laugh, Ashley Ahn, NPR, December 10, 2022.
Talk to the flipper!
🎶 Music for CG’s Picks 🎶
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ If You Have 1,000 Extra Hours, TPM Is Publishing All Mark Meadows's Dirty Naughty Coup-Plotting Sexts, Evan Hurst, Wonkette, December 13, 2022.
⚡️ Brazil Moves One Step Closer to a Peaceful Transition of Power, Isabela Dias, Mother Jones, December 12, 2022.
⚡️ Sure, Marge: MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SWEARS SHE WAS ONLY JOKING WHEN SHE SAID SHE WOULD HAVE “WON” JANUARY 6, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, December 12, 2022.
⚡️ A prayer before dying: On the Republican Party's terminal illness, Rich logic, Salon, December 11, 2022.
⚡️ Republicans Are Breaking With the N.R.A., and It’s Because of Us, Dave Cullen, New York Times, December 13, 2022.
⚡️ THE OBVIOUS ANSWER TO HOMELESSNESS, Jerusalem Demsas, the Atlantic, December 12, 2022.
⚡️ On a lighter note: The 19 Best (and Cheesiest) Holiday Movies to Stream This Year, Fletcher Peters and Coleman Spilde, Daily Beast, November 30, 2022.
⚡️Gift link (no paywall): 3 Fun, Festive Candy Recipes That Are Worth the Effort, Claire Saffitz, New York Times, December 12, 2022.
⚡️ THE ATLANTIC 10; THE BOOKS THAT MADE US THINK THE MOST THIS YEAR, the Atlantic staff, December 13, 2022.
⚡️ In search of an attainable New Year’s resolution; How to actually improve your life, one small change at a time. Allie Volpe, Vox, December 11, 2022.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Wednesday. Remember to take good care of yourself. Eat nutritious food, take some time to be still and breathe in some fresh air (preferably outdoors if you can) and get some rest. It’s been such a long, busy and hopeful year. It’s ok to take a little breather and take stock of all we accomplished. There will be time to think about what else we hope to do after we rest.
In spite of all the worry, hope continues to shine. And you know what, gnusies? I am feeling excited about the future. I think things are on the right track and are going to get better and better. Yes, I know and you know and everyone bloody well knows that Republicans are stark raving mad and it will take some time to separate them from all the levers of power. But we have power, too. And we used it to put capable and caring Democrats into office. We’ve got this and they’ve got this. I can’t wait to see what the next few months and years will bring.
Have a great week, Everyone!
[END]
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