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Good News Roundup for Friday, July 28, 2023 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-28
Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Goodable, whose posts I follow on the site formerly known as Twitter, made an interesting series of posts. I’m not going to put their actual tweets into the intro because they take up too much space, but here are the words of some of them:
We wanted to see just how addicted the world’s top news sites are to negativity, so we ran an audit. We focused on only the biggest news sites, which included: Apple Google Yahoo ABC CNN. Together, they have over a billion visitors per day. Here’s what we found: Of the top 30 news stories on Apple, only two were about positive things in the world. Just two. Their top headlines were about flooding and Ukraine. It got so depressing we had to stop. How did the other sites compare? Let's see. Of Google’s top 34 news stories, only ONE was about anything positive. Think about that.In a world with 8 billion people and amazing things happening everyday, Google only had one positive thing in their top 30 stories. That can’t be right. Yahoo on the other hand was better — but not by a lot. Only four out of their top 50 stories were positive.In other words, just 8%. Their top stories were about people fleeing Ukraine and a scathing review of Oppenheimer. No wonder everyone is depressed. ✂️ Overall, the total percentage of negative news was 94.8%. We ran the same analysis on the next day, and again, the results were 93.1%. The problem is that news is ubiquitous. It’s everywhere and the effect it has on our mental health is catastrophic. Imagine walking into a crowded room where 19 out of 20 people were shouting and made you feel angry or frustrated. Would you stay? How about a movie, where it was just misery after misery with no silver lining? That’s the unseen effect the news has on us everyday. ✂️ Humanity is capable of inflicting tremendous damage on the environment, the climate, even on each other. But we’re equally capable of achieving great things, like eradicating diseases and eliminating hunger. So how come we never see those things on the news? In tech, everyone wants to build a billion dollar company. At Goodable, we’d rather help a billion people.We decided to build something the world needs right now: A news platform that celebrates everything good in the world.
Now, here at the GNR we are overtly political, which means we sometimes applaud the downfalls of those who have been doing us harm. But we also recognize how much good news is needed, especially in times of darkness.
So pour your preferred beverage and come in for some good news!
Also, I have guests at the moment, and we will probably be out doing something fun when this goes live. My apologies for not being around, but you all know what to do!
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 week’s posts at the White House briefing room.
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
Youth poll shows that the young are strongly rejecting the right Greg Sargent Washington Post
Consider: Youth turnout exploded during the 2018 midterm elections under President Donald Trump. Then in 2020, energized opposition to Trump among young voters was critical to his defeat. And in the 2022 midterms, surging youth participation helped fend off the widely predicted “red wave.” Even some Republicans fear that expanding youth populations in swing states pose a long-term threat to the GOP. New data supplied to me by the Harvard Youth Poll sheds light on the powerful undercurrents driving these developments. Young voters have shifted in a markedly progressive direction on multiple issues that are deeply important to them: Climate change, gun violence, economic inequality and LGBTQ+ rights. ✂️ Then there’s the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, which underscores the tenuousness of Americans’ social rights in the face of a determined reactionary movement to roll them back. Data provided by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that while 54 percent of young voters believed in 2010 that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, that’s up to 69 percent this year.
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣
Small-town GOP torn over Biden energy incentives Jeff Stein Washington Post
One recent Tuesday morning, Zartman stood a few feet away as the three Republican commissioners of Fairfield County weighed the fate of a proposal to build a solar farm on central Ohio farmland worth more than $250 million. A Republican, Zartman had approved a major renewable energy project while commissioner of Paulding County, and for the past year, he has crisscrossed the state urging others to do the same. The Fairfield commissioners should put politics aside, Zartman urged, and approve the proposed site. Jobs would come. The money the company was providing for the project was real. Tax revenue would jump. “We have new parks; the school systems are flourishing with all the additional revenue; the roads are in the best condition they’ve been in,” said Zartman, 55, who has traveled to more than 40 counties across the state spreading this message. “I tell them, ‘I am a die-hard conservative, but I support renewables because they’ve just been amazing for us financially.’” For all Zartman’s evangelism, his arguments do not always carry the day in the red heart of Ohio. Like similar fights throughout conservative parts of the United States, the debate in Fairfield County reflects one of the central ironies of President Biden’s signature legislation, last year’s Inflation Reduction Act: Although it was drafted and passed exclusively by Democrats in Washington, the fate of the law will hinge in large part on the decisions of state and local Republican officials.
This is a real problem and we’ll see more of it as the fossil fuel companies campaign against the IRA. Sigh. More nose-cutting off to spite faces.
Giuliani won’t contest false statement allegactions Josh Kovensky, Talking Points Memo
Rudy Giuliani admitted on Tuesday that he made “false” statements about two Georgia election workers as part of a ploy to avoid turning over documents — and potential punishment from the court — in the case. The move could allow Giuliani to continue defending himself against defamation allegations in the civil suit without having to hand over a potentially critical batch of records to the two Georgia election workers, which encompass his communications during the time when Trump was trying to reverse his loss in the 2020 election. Giuliani has tried virtually everything to avoid handing the records over, with the judge in the case telling him this month that he risked “severe discovery sanctions” if he continued to refuse to comply.
Makes me think that whatever he is hiding must be super, super dangerous to him. Good.
I have brought this up before, but more information is coming out. Several GOP state parties are alarmlingly wonderfully short on money. Steve Benen, MSNBC
..If it makes Arizona Republicans feel any better, it’s not completely alone. The Detroit News reported two weeks ago, for example, that the Michigan GOP’s latest filing showed it had about $93,000 in its bank accounts — a total party insiders characterized as “alarming.” Around the same time, The Daily Beast reported that the Minnesota GOP’s latest Federal Election Commission filing said it had less than $54 cash on hand. What’s more, in May, The Colorado Sun reported that the GOP in the Rocky Mountain State was facing a financial crunch so serious that it “didn’t pay any employees.” The deputy chief of staff for the Colorado House GOP soon after characterized the state party as “bankrupt” and unable to afford rent payment on the party’s offices. The Republican Party at the national level is facing some serious challenges. In multiple states, the challenges appear even worse.
If you keep getting corrupt incompetents to run your party, what do you expect? And with such a wretched product message, things may not get better soon.
We have not been paying that much attention to George Santos lately, but he’s just as corrupt as ever. His “consulting” firm has been trying to siphon off funds from campaign chests. Matthew Chapman, Raw Story
When Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was running for Congress, he hooked up a fellow Republican candidate running against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with a consulting firm he had established — and immediately set about trying to plunder her campaign's bank account, reportedThe New York Times on Wednesday. ✂️ Tina Forte, a businesswoman from New York who has ties to the QAnon movement and has been accused of taking part in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, lost decisively last year running against Ocasio-Cortez — but not before Santos tried to squeeze her campaign for cash, The Times reported. The scheme involved Red Strategies USA, a company Santos set up. "Mr. Santos encouraged her to run against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ... according to Ms. Forte’s former campaign manager, Jen Remauro," reported Grace Ashford. "Mr. Santos told Ms. Forte that he knew of a great political consulting firm, Ms. Remauro recalled, and steered her to Red Strategies — failing to note that he was an owner of the company, as reported by The Daily Beast."
Conservative cries bitter tears when he learns tRump and allies were lying Travis Gettys, Raw Story. These are words from Steve Deace, a conservative broadcaster on Blaze TV, who apparently believed the stuff he was hearing.
"We are going to the mattresses for these people, we are offering them more accommodations, more chances, than we'd offer our own family members, for goodness sake," Deace said, "and for what? For Rudy Giuliani to go down to Georgia and admit that he lied? Have Jason Miller tell the Jan. 6 commission, 'Yeah, we all knew it was BS?' What is this? "Some of you don't like it when I use the cult word. When you like being treated like a schmuck, and ask for more, that is a cult. 'I'm the mark, I'm the sucker, I want to be such and I resent the person who tries to get me out of that.' Those are marks of groupthink, frankly." "How many people in this audience sent money to 'Stop the Steal' three years ago?" Deace continued. "How many shows did I waste your time talking about this three years ago? How many? I still have not recovered. Between election fraud and COVID, I probably have the lowest Facebook following of any major show in this industry. I will routinely post things on Facebook and get, like, two or three comments. It's, like, Facebook is like, 'We won't ban you because you'll whine about it and generate a bunch of publicity, so we'll just make it so no one sees your material at all." "Why?" he added. "Because I went to the mattresses on COVID and the election fraud issue, only to have Rudy Giuliani say, 'Yeah, I was lying,' and Jason Miller say, 'Oh, we knew it was all BS.'"
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
It’s hot out there. And unlike the Rs, who are still denying it — or Texas, where they are denying workers water breaks, the Biden-Harris administration is working on helping us get through it:
President Biden has asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue the first-ever Hazard Alert for heat, and DOL will also ramp up enforcement to protect workers from extreme heat. For years, heat has been the number one cause of weather-related deaths in America. ✂️ Additionally, the Department of Labor will ramp up enforcement of heat-safety violations, increasing inspections in high-risk industries like construction and agriculture, while OSHA continues to develop a national standard for workplace heat-safety rules. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is investing up to $7 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to improve our nation’s weather forecasts. ✂️ The Department of the Interior is investing $152 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand water storage and enhance climate resilience in California, Colorado, and Washington. This investment will help increase water storage capacity and lay conveyance pipeline to deliver reliable and safe drinking water and build resiliency for communities most impacted by drought.
The economy is doing well, thanks to Bideneconomics (normally I would not include that network, but even they had to mention it):
x Take a closer look at the United States' recent positive economic indicators.
For more:
https://t.co/hk5jU5MHHd pic.twitter.com/nmolm3oyBH — The Recount (@therecount) July 27, 2023
Colorado debts wiped away for defunct college Cheyenne Haslett ABC News
The Biden administration on Tuesday said it was canceling $130 million in federal debt for 7,400 students who went to a Colorado college that the government says lied about its successes. "These borrowers were lied to, ripped off and saddled with mountains of debt," President Joe Biden said in a statement. It's not the first time the administration has canceled federal loans for people whom the government believes were misled or short-changed by for-profit colleges: So far, the Department of Education has forgiven $14.7 billion in such debt, spread across nearly 1.1 million borrowers, including for those who attended Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute, both of which are now defunct.
Governor Whitmer bans conversion therapy Bridge Michigan
LANSING — Michigan is now the 22nd state to ban mental health professionals from performing conversion therapy on minors — a practice aimed to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the legislation into law Wednesday. “Today, we are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are,” Whitmer said in a Wednesday statement.
I am not looking for a new home in the US at the moment, but I would consider Michigan these days.
💜 Unity? 💜
Automakers join forces to increase fast EV charger network in US Julian Mark Washington Post
Seven major automakers on Wednesday announced plans to nearly double the nation’s network of high-powered electric vehicle chargers, an effort to address a key consumer reservation about EVs — that they may not have a place to power up on the road. The plan calls for adding 30,000 fast chargers in urban areas and along highways, according to a joint statement by General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz Group and Stellantis N.V. The U.S. network had about 32,000 such chargers as of July, according to the Energy Department. The first stations are expected to be open by summer 2024.
UPS management and teamsters reach agreement Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette
Thirty billion with a b. That’s how much the Teamsters say UPS is throwing at their faces to avert a strike by 360,000 UPS drivers that would have started July 31. The negotiations between UPS and its drivers culminated in an agreement (still to be ratified by the union’s members) that calls for raises of $2.75 an hour to start. Over the contract’s five year term, those raises will grow to $7.50 an hour. That means that for 2023, part time drivers will earn at least $21 an hour; full-time drivers will see an average top rate (I don’t know what that means either) of $49 an hour. In 2028, it will be … more than that! (Math.) Beyond the excellent raises, UPS has met the Teamsters’ and UPS drivers’ demands for health and safety — namely, air conditioning and cargo ventilation so drivers don’t literally heat stroke out when they climb in the back to get your Amazon schwag. They also won’t force drivers to come in on their days off, which duh yeah.
📥 Actions You Can Take 📤
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
Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election.
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.
🔎 Want to check out what’s going on with campaign contributions? Check out this diary. 👀
🐍 Schadenfreude 😈
Some superseding indictmentsn in the documents case Evan Hurst Wonkette
Did the news say today wasn’t indictment day? THE NEWS WAS A LIE. Or at least it was correct that there wouldn’t be any DC January 6 indictments out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. But there’s a superseding indictment in Jack Smith’s classified docs investigation, and y’all, he’s going to behead the pool boy, whose name is Carlos De Oliveira. Just kidding, but that guy is indicted. He’s the one who spilled the Mar-a-Lago swimming pool everywhere a couple months after the Mar-a-Lago raid, including on the server room where the surveillance tapes were kept! ✂️ Also, there are some new obstruction of justice indictments for Donald Trump, and also his co-conspirator Walt Nauta. Actually all three are in there together in these new indictments, which involve efforts to delete security surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, footage which had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. ✂️ So if you’re keeping score, that’s three brand new counts for Trump, two brand new counts for Walt, and three counts for Eric’s swim teacher the fuckin’ pool boy.
tRump’s calendar next year:
x When I was touring, being booked out a year in advance was hot shit. Not so much if you’re booked out for a year in advance with criminal and civil trials.
Jan: E Jean Carroll 1
Feb: fraud pyramid scheme
Mar: Manhattan DA criminal case
May: DoJ Espionage case
??: Coup
??: GA DA — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 26, 2023
Jury decides Ammon Bundy must pay for defaming Idaho hospital Kate Briquelet, The Daily Beast
Anti-government agitator Ammon Bundy must pay an Idaho hospital more than $50 million for defaming it and targeting it with protests while it cared for an associate’s grandson—who was taken into protective custody after child welfare officials determined he was malnourished. In March of last year, Bundy was arrested for trespassing outside of St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center, where 10-month-old “Baby Cyrus” was being treated. The then-gubernatorial candidate organized a week-long protest, claiming Cyrus was “medically kidnapped” over a “missed non-emergency doctor’s appointment.”
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
President Biden and Vice-President Harris are fighting the lies by honoring Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley. Some of their remarks:
Harris: ...Our history as a nation is born of tragedy and triumph, of struggle and success. That is who we are. And as people who love our country, as patriots, we know that we must remember and teach our full history, even when it is painful — especially when it is painful.
Today, there are those in our nation who would prefer to erase or even rewrite the ugly parts of our past; those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefitted from slavery; those who insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, who try to divide our nation with unnecessary debates.
Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget. We will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember.
Because we all here know: It is only by understanding and learning from our past that we can continue to work together to build a better future. Biden: You know, when I was preparing these remarks, I — I quite frankly — and my colleagues will understand this — I found myself trying to temper my anger as I was writing it. I’m not joking. I can’t fathom — I can’t fathom what it must have been like. It’s hard to believe. I was 12 years old, and I just — you know, I know no matter how much time has passed — how many birthdays, how many events, how many anniversaries — it’s hard to relive this. It brings it all back. ✂️ At a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we’re making it clear — crystal, crystal clear –(applause) — while darkness and denialism can hide much, they erase nothing. They can hide, but they erase nothing.
We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know. We have to learn what we should know. We should know about our country. We should know everything: the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation. That’s what great nations do, and we are a great nation. That’s what they do.
For only with truth comes healing, justice, repair, and another step forward toward forming a more perfect union. We got a hell of a long way to go.
I also want to commend Harris again for making the trip to Florida last week to talk about what DeSantis has been trying to do to education. She went to Jacksonville, which recently elected a D mayor. You can read her remarks here.
Also, in memorium, we honor Sinead O’Connor, who broke open the abuse in the Catholic church by ripping a the pope’s photo on TV. At the time I had not heard what was going on; I had no idea (I am not Catholic).
x Speak up even when your voice shakes. pic.twitter.com/rV06G2hzl9 — The Daily Beans Podcast (@dailybeanspod) July 27, 2023
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
Sometimes just wishing someone a Happy Birthday:
x In New York, this conductor thought nobody knew it was his birthday.
He was wrong.
This is how his orchestra surprised him.
It's the joy we need in the world right now. 🥹pic.twitter.com/pgDZV46Q3b — Goodable (@Goodable) July 21, 2023
📎 Odds & Ends 📎
Stepdad wins lottery and has good and bad news for his stepdaughter Kaitlyn Alanis, The Kansas City News / Yahoo News
An Arkansas man recently won $200,000 playing the Powerball — but instead of claiming the prize, he fulfilled what was once just a joke between him and his stepdaughter. “My stepdad plays the numbers of me and my daughter’s birthdates,” Cally Krisell told the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. “We always had a running joke that if he won big, he would give me the winning ticket.” ✂️ After realizing he won $200,000, the man surprised Krisell at her home, according to the release. He told her he “had something important to tell her,” lottery officials said. “He stated he had good and bad news,” Krisell said when claiming her prize. “He gave me the bad news first — I must start paying my own phone bill. The good news — I have money to pay it with, and then he gave me the lottery ticket!”
Vegan diets cut emissions and pollution Paige Bennett, EcoWatch
An analysis of diets and farms led by the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project at Oxford University found that vegan diets have a major reduction in environmental impacts, from land and water use to emissions to pollution. The study, published in the journal Nature Food, analyzed diets of 55,504 people and reviewed 38,000 farms based in 119 countries. What they found is that regardless of where or how food is produced, animal-based diets had higher impacts on the environment than diets of people who consumed less or no animal-based products. Vegan diets had about 75% less emissions and land use compared to diets with high meat consumption, defined as more than 100 grams of meat consumed per day. Vegan diets also had nearly 54% less water use than high meat diets and about 73% less water pollution via runoff. Plant-based diets also had less impact on biodiversity.
I need to do better myself at this.
🐦 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 sequels, Scavengers of Mind and the brand-new Familiars of the Flock (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 say something nice to friend or a stranger.
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
🌹 🌹 🌹
[END]
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