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Good News Roundup for Friday, November 17, 2023 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-17
Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
Thanks again, Mokurai, for swapping with me last week.
I continued my travels this week, which took about a day longer than expected; my flight was diverted due to weather problems. So, this week I will skip the attempt at an inspirational intro. Besides, most people here know what to do.
Come on in, dear gnusies, and see what the good guys are doing.
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 eight days’ posts at the White House briefing room.
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
👎 The end of inflation: Many food prices come down!
x Look at those bread prices! That’s it. I’m voting for fascism.
(This is a joke) pic.twitter.com/CbtMmsloCn — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 14, 2023
👍 The reappearing forests of West Bengal Moushumi Basu Reasons to Be Cheerful
Three decades ago, when Mira Mahanty arrived as a bride in her husband’s West Bengal village of Jharbagda, she immediately began to worry about the bare, stony hills that surrounded it. The barren, boulder-covered foothills reflected harsh heat waves at the village all summer long, and during the wet season monsoons sent rainwater tumbling wastefully into the gully below. “There were a couple of small, thorny bushes here and there, and just one tree on top of the hill,” recalls the 52-year-old mother of three. “Summers were unbearably hot then.” Coming from a family of traditional farmers, Mahanty was appalled to see how the rainwater could not be utilized or stored. She also noticed that the village’s farms were struggling. “It became hard to dig wells,” she says, noting that the region’s water table had plunged by 40 to 50 feet. Two decades ago, however, the region began staging a dramatic green revival. Propelled by the collective effort of over a hundred villages, the hills surrounding places like Jharbagda are now deeply forested with native trees that provide fruit, mitigate heat waves and contribute to water retention. With some 5,000 acres already reforested, their mission continues to this day.
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣
We all know George Santos is a crook, but it’s so bad that the House ethics committee is against him! Some details in their findings Justin Rohrlich The Daily Beast
Truth-allergic Rep. George Santos (R-NY) spent donor funds not on his improbable run for Congress but on personal extravagances such as Botox treatments, high-end clothing, and OnlyFans subscriptions, according to a damning report and associated documents released Thursday by the House Ethics Committee. “Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” the Investigative Subcommittee wrote in its findings. ✂️ One of the appendices to the report contains screenshots of text messages between Santos and his staff, offering a fascinating if somewhat disturbing peek into the congressman’s daily operations. In one, two unidentified Santos aides discuss a box of donuts their boss left outside his office for the “freaks” who cover him in the news media. “Gonna try to get you in here to meet him. He’s busy at the moment,” one says. “No worries,” the other replies. “I’m getting the gossip out here. Donuts were a hit… Need more. Chic fil a for lunch.” The second staffer continues, “We should keep the table and put flowers or pamphlets on it, with a mic under it. No expectation of privacy in the hallway. We will know what’s coming.” “Not the worst idea,” comes the response.
Still, I wonder why they are shocked, shocked, when this sort of grift has been what they do. I mean, he bought himself Botox -- unlike tRump, he was not selling nuclear secrets. But as Lawrence O’Donnell said on last night’s The Last Word, they are all scared of tRump but no one fears George Santos. In fact, he’s seen as an albatross.
Now that the ISC has done its work and determined Santos to be unworthy, perhaps representatives such as Jamie Raskin will agree that there is sufficient due process to expel Santos from Congress. The Ethics Committee members voted “present” at the last expulsion attempt, now they may vote to expel. We’ll see. It’s a high bar (67%) and the GOP does not want to make its slim majority even slimmer, so I don’t think they’ll do it, but some representatives think they will. It would happen after Thanksgiving, if it does.
And there may be more…
x BREAKING: House Ethics Committee will move to EXPEL George Santos from Congress — for fraud and theft.
Word on the Hill is that Matt Gaetz is next — for underage sex trafficking.
Republicans were punching each other and starting fights this week.
This is the Trump MAGA party. — Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) November 16, 2023
Donor funds, taxpayer funds — they’re just out to have fun!
x #TrumpTrainedHerWell Governor Huckabee Sanders sees public funds — taken from hard-working Americans — as her personal piggybank. Rather than spending the money on new roads or healthcare, she's funneling it into parties for her friends.
https://t.co/Zm73mGBGLQ — MaxineElizabeth1 (@Max111206) November 17, 2023
And apparently the ghost lectern money was used to pay for a holiday in Paris.
Markwayne Mullin has histrionic hissyfits in Senate hearings because thems Oklahoma values Evan Hurst, Wonkette
Last night (Tuesday), Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican obviously, ran whining to Sean Hannity, because that’s what they all do after a long day of playing with their poo. And he told Hannity that he had that silly crybaby temper tantrum at the head of the Teamsters union during a Senate hearing yesterday because that’s what Oklahoma voters sent him there to do. Which says a lot about the relatively low quality of Oklahoma voters in comparison to all others, if true. Hannity said it would have been “gutless” to react in any other way. (The Teamsters guy had made some mean tweets at Mullin months ago.) “What do people want me to do?” asked Mullin, apparently unaware that regular people who love themselves and aren’t cowfucking morons do not require their senators to try to start redneck fights during Senate hearings. “If I didn’t do that, people in Oklahoma would be pretty upset at me. That’s not how we raised, and I’m ‘posed to represent Oklahoma values!” Guess some states raise their children better than Oklahomans do.
And they seem to be fighting with each other:
x .@chrislhayes: "McCarthy is alleged to and in view of a reporter appears to have elbowed in the kidney of a colleague he was mad at. That is a wild thing to do, a grown man in a workplace. Can you imagine doing that in your place of work anywhere?" pic.twitter.com/IkdkhfwOCx — All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) November 15, 2023
And some more:
x BREAKING FOX NEWS: Capitol police have been called to a Republican closed door meeting. Sources report Rep Gaetz slapped Rep Greene & spit on Rep McCarthy & "Donnybrook" is in progress. Gaetz was spotted shooting middle fingers while being led from the building. Developing story. pic.twitter.com/yg9nslAXPE — Staff Sergeant Johnson (@PatMaguire10) November 16, 2023
And they’re not making each other happy, because they are getting nothing done:
x Best Democratic ad so far this cycle pic.twitter.com/JtkyqIwq8T — Mike Madrid (@madrid_mike) November 16, 2023
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
While the Rs are wasting money and time and literally hitting each other, the Ds are delivering. Jobs, inflation, infrastructure, leading on the world stage!
The I/P problem is tough, but:
x The largest poll - 12,000 interviews from @YouGov - conducted on US attitudes towards the Israel-Hamas conflict finds:
- Dems overwhelmingly approving of Biden's management of the conflict, 62-21.
- Support for Biden among 18-29 year olds, 45-30, is the highest of any age… pic.twitter.com/qSpAL1V91S — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) November 16, 2023
Democrats save government from shutting down again — maybe they should be running the House? Doktor Zoom, Wonkette
The House voted yesterday to pass new Speaker Mike Johnson’s weird two-step temporary funding bill, preventing a government shutdown and giving Republicans until the new year before their dysfunction puts the country at risk of another shutdown. The bill now goes to the Senate, which should be able to pass it quickly and get it to President Joe Biden in plenty of time to avoid a shutdown. Without passage of the “continuing resolution” (CR), the government would have run out of money at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The CR passed with a bipartisan 336-95 vote, with all but two of the “no” votes coming from Republicans. Johnson had initially promised rightwing Republicans that he’d never sink to allowing Democrats to help pass a CR. But those very same rightwing Republicans made clear they’d only vote for a bill that slashed federal spending, which wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance of passing the Senate. For all of Johnson’s weirdo rightwing beliefs and lack of experience in a congressional leadership role, it appears he can at least count to 218, so he suspended the House rules to allow an immediate vote on the bill yesterday, which prevented his fellow righties from blocking it from going forward. As the New York Times points out, the bill Johnson pushed through with help from Democrats “was a near-exact replica of the funding package he had opposed six weeks ago, when he was still an obscure lawmaker from Louisiana.” And unlike six weeks ago, it appears that however mad Johnson made his far-right House Freedom Caucus buddies, he won’t face a vote to defenestrate him, at least not for this bill. Check back again in January and February when this CR expires and we go through all this idiocy again.
The article talks then about the silliness of the Jan and Feb dates, making it twice as painful, but that would be in the R chaos section above. And, there’s a Daily Kos diary that explains how the GOP got played by the Ds on this. Apparently their side did not read the last draft, and so the dates helps the Ds, not the Rs.
💜 Unity? 💜
Working (and leading) countries of the Pacific White House Briefing Room
Today, President Biden announced key outcomes of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) that will create a stronger, fairer, more resilient economy for families, workers, and businesses in the United States and in the Indo-Pacific region. The United States is an Indo-Pacific economic power, and expanding U.S. economic leadership in the region is good for American workers and businesses and for the people of the region.
IPEF partners Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam represent 40 percent of the world’s GDP and are committed to advancing workers’ rights, facilitating high-standard trade and investment, and tackling pressing issues facing our countries, in particular: vulnerable supply chains; clean energy transitions; and corruption. In record time, the United States and our IPEF partners have negotiated first-of-their-kind agreements to help achieve these goals: The IPEF Supply Chain Agreement will help partners promote diversification and resiliency in their supply chains, better identify supply chain vulnerabilities, establish an emergency communications channel to respond to disruptions arising from crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and promote high labor standards that respect workers across regional supply chains.
The Clean Economy Agreement will help catalyze the economic opportunities arising from IPEF partners’ transitions to cleaner economies and, through cooperative work programs and the mobilization of public and private financing, will drive inclusive investment in the region and greater collaboration with the private sector.
The Fair Economy Agreement will enhance IPEF partners’ efforts to prevent and combat corruption, including bribery, and support efforts to improve tax transparency and tax administration, which will strengthen the investment climate in the region and ensure the benefits of economic growth are broadly shared.
President Biden and Leader Xi — Biden’s remarks White House Briefing Room
I’ve been meeting with President Xi since both of us were vice president over 10 years ago. Our meetings have always been candid and straightforward. We haven’t always agreed, but they’ve been straightforward. And today, built on the groundwork we laid over the past several months of high-level diplomacy between our teams, we’ve made some important progress, I believe. First, I am pleased to announce that after many years of being on hold, we are restarting cooperation between the United States and the PRC on counternarcotics. In 2019, you may remember, China took action to greatly reduce the amount of fentanyl shipped directly from China to the United States. But in the years since that time, the challenge has evolved from finished fentanyl to fentanyl chemical ingredients and — and pill presses, which are being shipped without controls. And, by the way, some of these pills are being inserted in other drugs, like cocaine, and a lot of people are dying. More people in the United States between the ages of 18 to 49 die from fentanyl than from guns, car accidents, or any other cause. Period. So, today, with this new understanding, we’re taking action to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the Western Hemisphere. It’s going to save lives, and I appreciate President Xi’s commitment on this issue. President Xi and I tasked our teams to maintain a policy and law enforcement coordination going forward to make sure it works. I also want to thank the bipartisan congressional delegation to China, led by Leader Schumer, in October for supporting efforts — this effort so strongly. Secondly, and this is critically important, we are reassuming military-to-military contact — direct contacts. As a lot of you press know who follow this, that’s been cut off, and it’s been worri- — worrisome. That’s how accidents happen: misunderstandings. So, we’re back to direct, open, clear, direct communications on a — on a ba- — on a direct basis. Vital miscalculations on either side can — are — can cause real, real trouble with a — with a country like China or any other major country. And so, I think we made real progress there as well. And thirdly, we’re going to get our experts together to discuss risk and safety issues associated with artificial intelligence. As many of you who travel with me around the world almost everywhere I go — every major leader wants to talk about the impact of artificial intelligence. These are tangible steps in the right direction to determine what’s useful and what’s not useful, what’s dangerous and what’s acceptable. Moreover, there are evidence of cases that — that I’ve made all along: The United States will continue to compete vigorously with the PRC. But we’ll manage that competition responsibly so it doesn’t veer into conflict or accidental conflict. And where it’s possible, where it is in our interests are — coincide, we’re going to work together, like we did on fentanyl. That’s what the world expects of us — the rest of the world expects, not just in — people in China and the United States, but the rest of the world expects that of us. And that’s what the United States is going to be doing.
Such a clear leader. Bolding mine.
But Biden, although trying to work with Xi, still considers him a dictator. And can call him that:
x Joe Biden can call Xi a dictator.
99% of elected Republican won’t admit Trump lost in 2020, including all the top tier candidates for President. — Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 16, 2023
Biden may not get the respect he deserves in the US but he sure gets it from others. Remember how he made Putin wait for him in Geneva? While tRump does Putin’s bidding?
Gains in construction jobs due to Biden’s (bipartisan) infrastructure law White House Briefing Room
✂️ The heavy and civil engineering industry comprises establishments that work on engineering projects, such as building utility systems, roads, bridges, and transit. Employment gains in this industry, especially road and bridge construction (which is often funded by the federal government), provide a good initial indicator of the effects of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In the latest data, since the President took office, overall employment in heavy and civil engineering was at a series high (data go back to 1990). Since the start of the Administration, the sector has added 92,400 jobs, with much of the recent growth coming from employment in highway, street, and bridge construction (Figure 1). ✂️ Looking at the more detailed sub-sectors, since January 2021, the highway, street, and bridge construction industry has added 38,300 jobs, 37,600 of which were added after the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed into law in November 2021 (Figure 2). In January 2023, employment in highway, street, and bridge construction finally surpassed its pre-Great Recession high, continuing to grow since and setting a new series high (data go back to 1990) in the latest data. This pace of job growth is notably strong; whereas from 2011-2019, the industry added an average of 700 jobs per month, over the past year, it has added four times that amount—2,800 jobs per month. ✂️ The construction of buildings industry is composed of establishments that are primarily responsible for the construction of buildings, including new construction, additions, alterations, maintenance and repairs. It is typically subdivided into residential building construction (single-family and multi-family homes) and nonresidential building construction (factories, offices, airports, warehouses, and more). Job gains in the construction of buildings, particularly nonresidential buildings like manufacturing facilities, airports, bus terminals, factories, and warehouses, suggest progress with implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the rest of the President’s Investing in America agenda. Like heavy and civil engineering, the industry has seen striking gains in recent years. Since January 2021, the industry has added 187,000 jobs, with job gains roughly evenly split between residential building construction (93,000) and nonresidential building construction (94,000). Whereas initial employment gains in building construction were driven by residential building, gains since mid-2022 have been driven by increases in nonresidential construction (Figure 3). Notably, as shown in Figure 4, nonresidential building construction employment has now reached a series high (data go back to 1990). The pace of job gains in nonresidential building construction also exceeds that of previous periods of growth; over the last year, nonresidential building construction has added an average of 3,800 jobs per month, well above the average between 2011 and 2019 of 1,800 and the average between 2004 and 2007 of 2,200. Notably, these job gains have come as spending on the construction of manufacturing facilities has hit record highs.
Yeah, this is in the bipartisan section because it did get some R support. But only Ds could deliver it in the first place.
📥 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 😈
This is good:
x BREAKING: DePape - who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer - has been found GUILTY on both counts by a jury that deliberated for less than a day. — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 16, 2023
Hunter Biden to subpoena tRump for evidence of political pressure Justin Rohrlich The Daily Beast
Hunter Biden on Wednesday filed a motion in federal court seeking internal documents exchanged between ex-President Donald Trump and top-level Department of Justice officials—including former Attorney General William Barr—that he believes could expose dirty dealings behind the gun charges he’s facing. The investigation into Biden began in late 2018, “during the administration of then President Trump,” the filing states. Since then, “public reporting [has] reveal[ed] certain instances that appear to suggest incessant, improper, and partisan pressure applied by then President Trump” on Barr, as well as Acting and Assistant AGs Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue, to investigate and prosecute the 53-year-old Biden, come hell or high water.
Good! The GOP keeps pretending we have weaponized the DOJ, while in reality it’s the usual projection. So many others can do this. As well as those who were subjected to colonoscopy-style audits by the IRS when tRump was in charge.
Ukraine officials who made up dirt about the Bidens are charged with treason Josh Kovensky Talking Points Memo
The group of Ukrainians who flung byzantine and self-serving allegations about corruption in the Biden family were hit on Monday with treason charges over the effort. The Security Service of Ukraine, the successor agency to the old Soviet-era KGB, said that it was charging several people with counts of treason and involvement in a criminal organization for allegedly taking millions of dollars from Russian intelligence services to spread propaganda aimed at discrediting Kyiv’s relationship with the U.S. during the 2020 election. That propaganda played a role in Trump’s first impeachment, as Rudy Giuliani in 2019 sought to smear the Bidens by dragging them into the muck of Ukrainian corruption scandals. Giuliani traveled to Kyiv during that effort, meeting with Ukrainian MPs Andriy Derkach and Oleksandr Dubinsky and praising the information he received from them. Now, Ukrainian authorities allege that Derkach, Dubinsky, and another key figure were literally bought and paid for by the Russian government as they were feeding Giuliani with allegations — and that the accusations they were hawking were the product of a $10 million propaganda network created by Russian military intelligence.
I always love it when liars are punished.
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
The fight of a single librarian Ruby Cramer Washington Post
Tania had planned to spend the rest of her career in the Osceola County School District. She was 51. She could have stayed for years at Tohopekaliga, a school she loved that had only just opened in 2018. The library was clean and new. The shelves were organized. The chairs had wheels that moved soundlessly across the carpet. The floor plan was open, designed by architects who had promised “the 21st century media center.” That was before the school board meeting on April 5, 2022, when Tania watched parents read aloud from books they described as a danger to kids. It was before she received a phone call from the district, the day after that, instructing her to remove four books from her shelves. It was before a member of the conservative group Moms for Liberty told her on Facebook, a few days later, that she shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near students. It had been 18 months since then. Nine months since she had taken Florida’s new training for librarians, a mandatory hour-long video, and heard the state say that books in the library must not contain sexual content that could be “harmful to minors” and that violating this statute would result in a third-degree felony. “A crime,” the training had said. “Districts should err on the side of caution.” It had been seven months since she began collecting Florida’s laws and statutes in a purple folder on her desk, highlighting the sections that made her mad, and also the ones that could get her fired. Six months since she broke out in hives, since eczema crept up the side of her face, since she started having trouble sleeping and got a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication. Five months since she stood in her house crying and her husband said it wasn’t worth it anymore. He could work two jobs if he had to. “You need to quit,” he’d told her. Six weeks since the start of another school year. Five weeks since she had given her notice. And sometime in the middle of all that, as she showed up every weekday at 7 a.m. and tried to focus on the job she had signed up for, which was, she thought, to help students discover a book to love, Tania could feel something shifting inside her 21st-century media center. The relationships between students and books, and parents and libraries, and teachers and the books they taught, and librarians and the job they did — all of it was changing in a place she thought had been designed to stay the same. ✂️ So they knew she was leaving, but did they know why? Did they know what was happening in Florida? Some of the students may have, because their parents had asked the school to restrict their access to the library. There were three students at Tohopekaliga who had no library access at all. Last year, there were 45 students with restricted access. They weren’t allowed to check out any of the books Tania had labeled “M” for mature. This year, the number was higher: 84 kids.
Wanted to point out how people who love truth are suffering in some places. Not everyone triumphs. It’s always a risk.
Here’s someone else talking the truth:
x This is worth watching. Every word. pic.twitter.com/3lywxqPPP8 — Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@NickKnudsenUS) November 15, 2023
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
🐶 A stranger helps the dogs of woman in a coma Sydney Page Washington Post (note I know this is the Washington Post, but I think this article is free and you can read it without a subscription)
The three dogs had been alone for days. Jeter, Pauly, and Snowy — all of whom appear to be Labrador mixes — were on their own in a house in San Antonio. Their owner, who lived alone with the dogs, was hit by a pick-up truck as she was jogging. She was placed in a medically induced coma, and someone had called the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services about the dogs at her house. ✂️ Missy Brown saw the plea on Facebook. “Why wouldn’t I help?” said Brown, who has two dogs of her own, and is a disabled veteran. “I have the opportunity to avoid a tragedy and alleviate some suffering when their owner does recover.”
Another dog story, and proof that the kids are all right:
x When he was four years old, Roman McConn learnt that not all dogs make it out of shelters alive. That's when he started making videos to help dogs in shelters find loving homes.
Now, 8 years later, he's helped more than 4,000 dogs get adopted.
The kids are alright.
🐶❤️ pic.twitter.com/UXhbkmDoQo — Goodable (@Goodable) November 15, 2023
📎 Odds & Ends 📎
Way to go, Portugal!
x Great Climate Alert:
Last week, Portugal ran on renewable energy for six days in a row.
Wind, solar, and hydropower energy produced a record amount of electricity for 149 hours, providing more power than the country used during that same time period. pic.twitter.com/vL4ysWmkwB — Goodable (@Goodable) November 16, 2023
Biden not to be indicted:
x Told ya.
No charges will be filed in the special counsel investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents.
https://t.co/bhTHFvKhYv — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 17, 2023
Domina creates 1st sperm whale reserve Andy Corbley Good News Network
Sperm whales are the ocean’s greatest nomads, but one island in the Caribbean is creating a permanent home for them. A roughly 300 square mile patch of ocean in the territorial waters of Dominica is the only place known on Earth where sperm whales can be seen regularly throughout the year when they arrive to breed, and it’s here that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of the island nation has established the world’s first sperm whale reserve. “The 200 or so sperm whales that call our sea home are prized citizens of Dominica,” Mr. Skerrit said. “Their ancestors likely inhabited Dominica before humans arrived. We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm and continue keeping our waters and our climate healthy.”
Hey, IBM does the right thing!
x This is great. IBM just announced it has suspended ALL their advertisements on this platform after Elon Musk re-posted an anti-semetic post yesterday & called him out for promoting “neo-nazi” & “pro-Hitler” views. FINALLY. We need to put pressure on every company to do the same. — Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) November 16, 2023
Wave-powered desalination might provide lots of potable water! Andy Corbley Good News Network
If a new Canadian startup is successful with its product, it could decarbonize the whole desalination industry, using only energy from the sea to turn seawater into drinking water. 300 million people rely on seawater from a global industry of 21,000 desalination plants, nearly all of which use fossil fuels to complete the energy-intensive process of thermo-desalination, or reverse osmosis—the two methods that can turn seawater into clean water at scale. The startup Oneka however uses modular machines that attach to the seafloor like buoys and convert the kinetic energy of 3-foot waves into mechanical energy that drives a reverse osmosis and creates 13,000 gallons of drinking water a day with the largest commerically-available module.
And, for panda fans:
x All I know is that Biden meets with Xi and we get more Pandas. Reason enough to vote blue right there.
BIDEN/HARRIS = MORE PANDAS 🐼
https://t.co/3dnIuZdrOP — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 16, 2023
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: the Crow Nickels (chronicles), a trilogy about crows who want to save birdkind from extinction: Hunters of the Feather, Scavengers of Mind and 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 — such as The Meryton Murders — and others based on history and Greek mythology, such as Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus, 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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