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Crime is Down, Bidenomics is Working - Tuesday Good News Roundup [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-12-19
Good Day, Gnuville! I stink at writing introductions and after 7 (yes 7!😱) failed starts, I’ve decided to just jump right into the good news stories.
But first, a delightful holiday song to get your toes tapping and your fingers snapping. Pour yourself a beverage and settle in to enjoy!
💪🏾💙 Democrats Deliver 💙💪🏼
Biden and Team Save Economy
Everyone expected a recession. The Fed and White House found a way out. Rachel Siegel and Jeff Stein, Washington Post, December 18, 2023.
As 2023 winds to a close, Powell and his colleagues are far from declaring victory on inflation. They routinely caution that their actions could be thwarted by any number of threats, from war in the Middle East to China’s economic slowdown. Americans are upset about high costs for rent, groceries and other basics, which aren’t going back to pre-pandemic levels. The White House, too, is quick to emphasize that much work remains. Yet the economy is ending the year in a remarkably better position than almost anyone on Wall Street or in mainstream economics predicted, having bested just about all expectations time and again. Inflation has dropped to 3.1 percent, from a peak of 9.1. The unemployment rate is at a hot 3.7 percent, and the economy grew at a healthy clip in the most recent quarter. The Fed is probably finished hiking interest rates and is eyeing cuts next year. Financial markets are at or near all-time highs, and the S&P 500 could hit a new record this week, too.✂️ The Fed and White House fought inflation on their own distinct tracks using entirely different tools. But now, the central bankers, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and President Biden’s economic brain-trust are cautiously pointing out that they have been vindicated by data and developments dismissed as virtually impossible until quite recently. This month, Biden’s typically staid treasury secretary gave an unusually direct rebuke, telling reporters that economists who predicted that lower inflation would require widespread layoffs were now “eating their words.”
Biden Administration Getting Lead out of Water Pipes
Getting the Lead Out, Ramenda Cyrus, The American Prospect, December 18, 2023.
The EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) largely governs the abatement of lead in drinking water. The agency estimates there are more than nine million lead service lines delivering water to households across the country. The Biden administration has repeatedly made the removal of all lead pipes across the country a priority . The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allocated almost $15 billion to the removal of lead water pipes through revolving funds at the EPA, most specifically the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF and DWSRF). The process has been slow in the years since the 2021 passage of the IIJA. The update to the Lead and Copper Rule, which has been in place since 1991 and was last updated in 2021, gives water utilities ten years to replace lead water lines, dramatically speeding up the timeline.
Secretary Pete protecting passengers
Southwest will pay a $140 million fine for its meltdown during the 2022 holidays, Joel Rose, NPR, December 18, 2023.
"This is not just about Southwest," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition on Monday. "This is about the entire industry, sending a signal that you should not be cutting corners — because if you fail your passengers, we will hold you accountable." A major winter storm last December caused travel disruptions across the country as airlines canceled thousands of flights. But while other airlines recovered relatively quickly, Southwest fell apart. The airline ultimately canceled 16,900 flights, stranding more than 2 million passengers.✂️ Under the agreement announced Monday, Dallas-based Southwest is required to establish a $90 million compensation system for future passengers affected by significant delays and cancellations, which counts as part of the $140 million penalty. The airline will also pay $35 million in cash to the U.S. Treasury, spread out over three years. Southwest reported $193 million in profits during the third quarter of 2023. The civil penalty comes in addition to $600 million in refunds and reimbursements that Southwest has paid to travelers who faced disruptions. In total, the airline will shell out more than $750 million for the holiday meltdown, DOT said. "We're sending a message reminding airlines that there are very strong economic reasons to meet their requirements, in addition to it just being the right thing to do," Buttigieg told NPR. "We just gave them 140 million reasons to make sure that this never happens again."
🎶 Music for Democrats Who Keep Delivering 🎶
😡😩 Republicans in Disarray 😫🤬
More Evidence Emerges Re Clarence Thomas Corruption
More and more evidence is emerging about the unethical behavior of some of the Supreme Court justices and their benefactors. ProPublica has been doing great work on this story and one hopes it will help put pressure on. Thomas — at least — ought to have resigned when the first stories came out, but it appears that the brazen corruption of conservatives acknowledges no limits, so we need work like this to keep the spotlight on it until a tipping point is reached. The increasing number of these stories leaking out or being unearthed is indicative that the tide has indeed already turned on Republican corruption, and it is only a matter of time.
A “Delicate Matter”: Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign, Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, December 18, 2023.
In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV. At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked, and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign. ✂️ Congress never lifted the ban on speaking fees or gave the justices a major raise. But in the years that followed, as ProPublica has reported, Thomas accepted a stream of gifts from friends and acquaintances that appears to be unparalleled in the modern history of the Supreme Court. Some defrayed living expenses large and small — private school tuition, vehicle batteries, tires. Other gifts from a coterie of ultrarich men supplemented his lifestyle, such as free international vacations on the private jet and superyacht of Dallas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow. Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question. There’s no evidence the justice ever raised the specter of resigning with Crow or his other wealthy benefactors. George Priest, a Yale Law School professor who has vacationed with Thomas and Crow, told ProPublica he believes Crow’s generosity was not intended to influence Thomas’ views but rather to make his life more comfortable. “He views Thomas as a Supreme Court justice as having a limited salary,” Priest said. “So he provides benefits for him.”✂️ Thomas’ comments in 2000 were to Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns, a vocal conservative who’d been in Congress for 11 years and occasionally socialized with the justice. They set off a flurry of activity across the judiciary and Capitol Hill. “His importance as a conservative was paramount,” Stearns said in a recent interview. “We wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job and he was being paid properly.”
Note that the supporters who remark about merely providing “proper pay” for the ‘underpaid’ justice had no such concerns for the liberal justices on the court. This imbalance puts the lie to the veneer of ideological disinterest in the scheme, and is notable for the utter lack of embarrassment about this clear violation of any reasonable code of judicial ethics. Conservatives have got away with corruption for decades and now that they’re being exposed, they are pretending there was nothing untoward about their activities — “brazening it out”, as my mother used to say — pretending that ‘of course it is OK to do what they’re doing or they wouldn’t be so open about it’! This is a tactic that TFG uses on steroids, and people do fall for it. We expect people who do wrong to try to hide it. Open wrongdoing makes us hesitate and doubt our sense of what was right or wrong. But that tactic doesn’t work forever, and it is beginning to fail them at last.
More Questions About James Comer’s Business Deals
James Comer gets defensive when talking about an undisclosed land deal with a GOP donor, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, December 17, 2023.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) describes himself as a "simple farmer," but it was recently revealed he's using his own shell companies for business deals that he didn't report in his financial disclosure filings. Associated Press reporter Brian Slodysko explained to NPR that Comer "owns about 16,000 acres of land, and all of those he painstakingly details on his congressional financial disclosures, which all members of Congress are required to submit. That is, except this six acres of land he co-owns with a donor and are held through a limited liability company called Farm Team Properties. That is the exception. And that property, because it is held by this company, he does not have to reveal what the assets held by it are on his financial disclosures." ✂️ "The people are behind us 100 percent, but the media continues to attack me," he whined. "They're here in my little town as we speak in Kentucky trying to dig up stuff, trying to say I have a shell company, my LLC has a lot of assets. A shell company by definition has no assets or no purpose. They continue to just make stuff up. Not only are they attacking me, Trey, they're making stuff up to try to discredit me as an investigator!" Comer has been accusing Joe Biden of using an LLC or shell company to accept bribes from international companies and possibly even China. The allegations began with a claim that Biden somehow obtained $1.5 billion from China. Over the course of the House Oversight Committee's investigation under Comer's leadership, Republicans uncovered Biden helping his son buy a truck and his son giving him three checks to pay him back.
Comer’s bogus “investigation” of President Biden is ridiculous on its face, but I am beginning to wonder if it isn’t actually a scheme to try to desensitize the public to Republican crimes being projected onto the President. Maybe they are hoping that by prosecuting this farce of an impeachment inquiry, and its subsequent inevitable dismissal, they are hoping that similar accusations will be dismissed when they themselves come under scrutiny for actually committing the crimes they accuse the Biden's of committing. (sort of a flooding-the-zone scheme — hoping that the public will be heartily sick of such accusations and cynically believe its all trumped up like it actually is against Biden. Like their corruption in plain sight tactic, this will also fail, because such tactics only work as long as people believe the Republicans are operating in good faith).
Speaking of the Bogus “Impeachment”
Michael Tomasky opines that the Republicans’ transparent abuse of congressional power will backfire on them:
This Impeachment Will Do More to Reelect Biden Than Anything Biden Could Do Himself, Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, December 13, 2023.
The first has to do with those district meetings. This madness about Biden having done something corrupt is all they hear. As far as these constituents are concerned, to oppose the impeachment of Biden is the moral equivalent of voting to grant Charles Manson parole. But the second, and by far the main, reason has to do with Trump. He’s the one pushing this, and they just cower before their Orange Jesus. In addition, they know very well what a morally filthy reprobate Trump is. They know he’s a crook. They know he bilked contractors at his hotels. They know he lies as regularly as he breathes. They know he tried to steal the 2020 election. They know he took classified documents. They know that he’s committed sexual assault more often than they’ve had sex. That they possess this knowledge is precisely why they have to dirty up Biden. They have to confuse the country’s swing voters into not being sure which candidate is the more corrupt. They have to get low-information voters to think, “Well, you know, they both seem pretty skuzzy to me.” But they are, at all times, telling on themselves. ✂️ I’m old enough to remember how badly the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton backfired against the Republicans. At least then, they could point to a semblance of wrongdoing—though it was something more distasteful than criminal. Today, they have nothing. And the American people, outside of Kerrville and Joplin and Twin Falls, know it.
🎶 Musical Break 🎶
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Georgia Gov. Kemp still won’t play ball with TFG
Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia has been in TFG’s bad books for not going along with the stolen election lies after the 2020 election. The MAGA Republicans nevertheless continue to try to rope him in to their lies and schemes, but he is not having it:
'Same lies for 3 years': Brian Kemp spokesman crushes new MAGA conspiracy theory, Brad Reed, Raw Story, December 18, 2023.
A spokesperson for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp fired back on Monday after allies of former President Donald Trump started spreading a new conspiracy theory that falsely claimed the governor's office was launching an investigation into 17,000 "invalid" votes cast in 2020. ✂️ The AJC reports that Kemp and his allies are "fed up" that they still have to waste time debunking these false claims and Kemp Director of Communications Cody Hall came out swinging in a quote given to the paper. “Retelling the same lies for three years does not make them true, even when citing bogus online blogs,” Hall said. “The moon landing was real, Bigfoot does not roam the forests of North America, and the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
Just remember: as terrible as most of these people are (and Kemp is awful), for a few of them, there is actually a line that they will not cross in service to their ultra conservative goals. Whether they fear personal risk or they have actual ethics is uncertain, but the consequences for TFG and the rest of MAGA are important for democracy. Some Republicans will not go along with it, and while they are far too few in number, they may be just enough to help us keep their side from destroying democracy.
Late-breaking news — Mark Meadows
Meadows’s bid to move Georgia election case to federal court rejected, Holly Bailey, Washington Post, December 18, 2023.
ATLANTA — A federal appeals court on Monday unanimously rejected an effort by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move the Georgia election interference case against him from state to federal court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a lower-court ruling from September that found Meadows had not proved his alleged conduct charged as part of the sweeping criminal racketeering case was related to his official duties as former president Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff.✂️ In Monday’s 49-page opinion, written by Pryor, the court ruled the federal removal statute “does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows's official duties.” “Even if Meadows were ‘an officer,’ his participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties,” Pryor wrote, affirming the earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, who rejected Meadows’s removal effort.
Also in Georgia: Rudy is Ruined
Looks like Rudy Guiliani won’t be able to evade justice — at long last:
Experts have bad news for cash-strapped Giuliani: Even bankruptcy can't save him from $148M verdict, Areeba Shah. Salon, December 18, 2023.
The net worth of Giuliani's assets, which has reportedly fluctuated over the years, is currently believed to be less than $48.6 million, CBS News reported. His attorney Joe Sibley told the jury that awarding the plaintiffs tens of millions would be "the civil equivalence of a death penalty" for Giuliani. But actions with intent, such as defamation, “are not dischargeable in bankruptcy,” former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor, told Salon. Even if Giuliani were to declare bankruptcy, he would still be obligated to fulfill the debt. The election workers could obtain orders from the court clerk's office to “garnish any wages and place liens on his properties,” ensuring they receive proceeds from any sales, McQuade said. Last week’s verdict adds to the extensive array of legal and financial challenges confronting the former New York City mayor.✂️ Collecting the judgment against him is going to be “agonizing,” but given the substantial amount, the women should be able to find specialists who will track it down and put liens against whatever resources he does have, garnish his wages, and levy against his bank accounts, Fleischman said.
Shocking verdict against Rudy Giuliani serves as a warning shot for Donald Trump, Dennis Aftergut and Austin Sarat, Salon, December 17, 2023.
As those last two examples and Friday’s verdict show, the rule of law offers the best answer to those who seek to exercise unconstrained power over others. In a law-bound society, courts apply the same standards to powerful people like Giuliani as they apply to those without resources or influence. No one is above those standards or beyond the reach of law’s ability to defy bullies. Consider that foundational principle and appreciate what bad news the verdict is for Donald Trump. He faces a 2024 trial before another D.C. jury on his indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. No wonder he hides from accountability by seeking to delay it. Cardinal de Richelieu, chief minister to French King Louis XIII in the 17th century, saidthat “[n]othing so upholds the laws, as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime.” In the civil law context, we’ve just seen that truth in action. May we see it again in the months again, applied to the man accused of the greatest crimes against the country in its history.
Update: Unrepentant to the last, Rudy continued to defame Ms Moss and Ms Freeman. And now they are suing him again. Some experts say Rudy could go to jail for doing this again. 🤞🏼
TFG a loser...again
Trump's demand to dismiss fraud trial denied in scathing ruling: report, Kathleen Culliton, Raw Story, December 18, 2023. Judge Arthur Engoron Monday relentlessly mocked Trump, his attorneys and his financial expert in a scathing rejection of the former president’s fifth dismissal request in his $250 million fraud case, according to a new report. Engoron slammed accounting expert Eli Bartov, the NYU professor who reportedly paid nearly $900,000 to testify that Trump’s financial records, did not fraudulently inflate his worth, as is contended by New York Attorney General Letitia James, ABC News reports. "Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say," Engoron reportedly wrote.✂️ The New York City civil court judge then targeted Trump himself, concluding his claims were "misstatements at best and fraud at worst,” according to the report. “A lie is still a lie,” Engoron said.
TFG Will Not Win Next Year
Why Trump Won’t Win, Hussein Ibish, the Atlantic, December 15, 2023.
Trump’s flaws look far worse today than they did eight years ago. To take one example that should concern conservative voters: his behavior toward and views of service members. In the 2016 campaign, Trump’s attacks on Senator John McCain and on the Gold Star Khan family were bad enough. Now we have a litany of testimonies that he expressed contempt and disgust for wounded veterans—demanding that he not be seen in public with them—and that he debased fallen soldiers, describing them as “suckers” and marveling, “What was in it for them?” According to an Atlantic report, when he was scheduled to visit a World War I–era American cemetery in France in 2018, Trump complained, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” Trump has always posed as a patriot, but he has proved himself unpatriotic, anti-military, and ignorant of the meaning of sacrifice.✂️ Trump hopes that his legal troubles will prove a boon to his campaign, allowing him to paint both law enforcement and the judicial system as part of a massive conspiracy against him. He has even requested that his federal trial regarding efforts to overturn the 2020-election results be televised. That’s unlikely, but the more airtime these prosecutions get, the better. Among Republicans, Trump’s polling has improved since his indictments, but many other Americans simply won’t be impressed, inspired, or persuaded by someone who faces 91 felony counts, in addition to civil cases. Trump already has been found liable for fraud and sexual abuse in New York. To that may well be added a criminal conviction at the federal level. Even if none of the trials has concluded by next fall, much of the evidence that prosecutors have accumulated is already in the public record and will be powerful fodder for anti-Trump attack ads. And Democrats will benefit from the attention Trump draws to the election-subversion cases. Even many of Trump’s most ardent supporters are tired of relitigating 2020; voters would prefer to focus on the future, not the past. On top of all this, Trump has a strong record of electoral losses, with his 2016 upset, which apparently surprised even him, as the lone exception. His party suffered the standard midterm defeat in 2018. Then he lost the 2020 election. Then Republicans lost control of the Senate after Georgia’s runoff in early 2021. Then his party was denied the standard midterm victory in 2022, barely eking out a four-vote House majority thanks in large part to his own handpicked, election-denying candidates, almost all of whom lost in competitive races. There is no obvious reason that 2024 should constitute a sudden break from this pattern of MAGA defeat.
But here is the biggest reason why TFG won’t win next year — we already have the best President in generations — and I’m predicting in the top ten (five?) of all time — Joseph R Biden!
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☺️😀 MORE Good News 😊😃
Pope Francis changes Church doctrine on blessings for same-sex unions
Pope declares same-sex unions can be blessed by the church in ‘radical change’: report, David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement (via RawStory), December 18, 2023.
Unlike previous pronouncements the Pope has made that were favorable to LGBTQ people, only to have the Church walk them back, this "radical change," as the Associated Press calls it Monday, comes as a policy change through the Vatican’s doctrine office. “Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God,” the document said, according to the AP. “The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.” The Vatican document states both that requests for blessings from same-sex couples should not be denied, and a priest blessing a same-sex union cannot be confused with support for same-sex marriage or civil unions. It also, the AP notes, "stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding."
Like Rudy, Alex Jones cannot hide behind bankruptcy
Alex Jones proposes a payment plan to make good on Sandy Hook judgment, Kelly McClure, Salon, December 16, 2023.
On Friday, Jones made his first real step towards fulfilling his obligation in this matter after hiding behind claims of bankruptcy for months. According to The Guardian, the Infowars conspiracy theorist submitted a 30-page payment plan, offering to pay a lump sum of at least $5.5m a year, to be shared among the plaintiffs. Per their reporting, "the payment would also be accompanied by a percentage of his personal annual revenue, and a slice of Infowars revenue," effectively satisfying his debt after 10 years.
With our excellent leadership, we will safeguard democracy
Democracy Was on the Docket in 2023, and It Won, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, December 14, 2023.
Over the last few years, we have experienced a never-ending series of attacks on our democracy by a man who stands for nothing other than his own power. We have seen one of our two major parties turn its back on the American experiment in favor of raw power. For the last several years, the most powerful check on these efforts has been the courts. As imperfect as our judiciary is, it has undeniably been the strongest bulwark against the anti-democratic plot to curtail voting, rig election rules and subvert the outcome of free and fair elections. In the run-up to 2020, the courts protected the right to vote in the face of a world-wide epidemic. After the election, the judiciary rejected more than five dozen lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies to overturn the election results. In the years that followed, courts sided with voters against a tidal wave of new voter suppression laws. Despite these victories, 2023 began with a dark cloud hanging over our democracy. Two critical cases were awaiting decisions in the conservative 6-3 Supreme Court. Pundits and prognosticators predicted the worst — that both cases would be lost and voting rights would be set back for a generation. They were wrong. The courts did their job. Democracy was protected.
✌🏻🚨 Crime is down 🚨✌🏾
America’s Peace Wave, David A. Graham, the Atlantic, December 17, 2023.
In 2023, murder rates in the United States dropped at an astonishing rate, probably among the highest on record. That’s according to data gathered by Jeff Asher, an independent criminologist, from cities with publicly available numbers. In the sample of 175 cities, murder is down by an average of almost 13 percent this year. And it’s not just murder. FBI data for the third quarter show that every category of crime except for motor-vehicle theft is down, some of them sharply, year over year from 2022. (As for the car thefts, they seem—in one of the weirdest data flukes you’ll ever see—to have been driven almost entirely by TikTok videos showing the ease of breaking into certain Kias and Hyundais.) Two years ago, as worries about soaring crime resounded, I wrote that America was in the midst of a violence wave, not a crime wave, as property crime continued to sink even while violent crime rose. Now America seems to be experiencing a peace wave. “The quarterly data in particular suggests 2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the United States in more than 50 years,” Asher wrote in his Substack newsletter. The drop is unlikely to get the same attention that the increase did. Last month, Gallup found that the percentage of Americans who believe that crime in the United States is a very or extremely serious problem has risen sharply, from 54 to 63 percent, since fall 2021, when I noted the violence wave—even as most types of crime have declined over the same period.
The bolding in the above excerpt is mine — because you know what we need to do, Gnusies! Let’s spread that good news around! I’ll start … oh, I already did by printing this here!
🎶 Music for Spreading Good News 🎶
🌂🧵 Bits and Pieces 🧶👟
Surviving holiday gatherings with your MAGA relatives
Most of us have at least one or two — and some unlucky Gnusies have a whole hassle of MAGA relatives. It makes family gatherings a bit problematic, to say the least, because even when progressives try to leave politics at the door and just focus on congratulating cousin Sue on their darling new baby, the MAGA relatives seem to have the need to confront, goad and annoy. When Adam Serwer wrote “the cruelty is the point” he made the crucial case that MAGA thirsts for the thrill of “owning the libs”. That’s a big part of their psychology here, so this is why they can usually be counted upon to arrive at gatherings with the opposite intention of their progressive relatives. Where we try to avoid discord and celebrate the best parts of family, they see the get-together as an opportunity to get a rise out of their liberal relatives. It’s annoying AF.
But there is help on the way! This excellent article will give you important insight into how to employ your own brain power to derail the attempts by agitators in your family. There is a lot more detail in the article, and I hope everyone can read it at the link. There was not way to provide a gift link (that I could find).
A neuroscientist’s guide to surviving Christmas with Trump-loving relatives, Bobby Azarian, Raw Story, December 18, 2023.
Let’s leave the antics to our pets!
Theirs are funny! But what if I told you that an understanding of the relevant concepts holds the key to not just surviving these encounters, but potentially bridging family divides? The goal isn't to convert but to converse, and to plant seeds of thought that might, in time, bear fruit.✂️ The first thing we need to know is that two distinct yet interdependent cognitive systems govern our decision-making processes. System 1, the intuitive and automatic pilot, reacts without conscious deliberation, guided by emotions and entrenched biases. It’s the system that flares up at the mention of Trump, fueling heated debates with reactionary zeal. Contrast this with System 2, the reflective and analytical mind, which involves active engagement with conscious reasoning and rational thought, akin to a chess player contemplating the board. It’s this system that allows for nuanced discussion, helping you dissect the layers of Trump's policies and rhetoric without devolving into tribalistic fervor. By learning how to stay in a System 2 state of mind, and how to induce the same state in our conversation partners, we equip ourselves with a powerful tool for fostering more constructive dialogues.
Holidays are often like this (and we still love them):
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩
Really, Mama? REALLY?! (lol I dug up an old picture
that CG prefers to forget ever happened! 😁)
Hello, Everybody! It’s me, CurlyGirl! We have been super duper busy over here at the Nifty household because did I tell you last month that we were moving? Well, we finally did move and everything was really topsy turvy for quite a few days as Mama was unpacking so many boxes and putting things in cupboards and generally trying to turn a strange new space into our home. And she has mostly succeeded! YAY! My daytime bed is right by her chair again and my nighttime bed is right by her bed again, so all is right with the world!
There is a big holiday coming up that our family celebrates — Yule/Christmas — and some of my human brothers and sisters are traveling here to spend it with Mama. So we are even more busy trying to get the new apartment ready for company AND for the holidays. I’ve done my best to just lie low and keep out of the way — except when I help Mama by providing snuggles and company!
We like holidays around here. We read about them all — not just the ones our family grew up with, but all the various holidays that humans have celebrated and continue to celebrate. Last week was Hannukah. This week, we are entering the season of Yuletide and it is still Advent — Advent goes on for a long time. And next week will be Christmas and Kwanzaa...what a busy month is December! I’m going to help everyone celebrate the holidays with a picture! (OK, not the best one, but maybe it will make you smile! 😊 I think I look like Eeyore)
My most important job, though, is to gather up some nice stories about animals for today’s GNR. So without further ado, here are some stories and videos for you to enjoy!
An owl for Christmas?
🦉 Me and Mama like owls. Well, actually I think they can be kind of scary with those big eyes and big talons and stuff, but Mama thinks they are cool and I guess I do, too (from a safe distance). Here is a story about a family who had an owl in their house for FOUR WHOLE DAYS before somebody noticed. I am embarrassed for my species to report that the family even includes 3 dogs, not one of whom alerted the family to the owl’s presence. (Oh, the shame of it! 😞).
A Kentucky family gets an early gift: a baby owl in their Christmas tree, AP, December 15, 2023.
This is not a picture of an owl. It came up when I looked for a picture of an owl and I liked it so well, I kept it! Lexington resident Michele White told WDKY-TV that it’s a tradition for the family to pick out a Christmas tree every year and this year seemed no different. They had the tree in their home for four days and didn’t notice anything unusual. ✂️ Bobby Hayes, who owns Magic Carpet Cleaning and was at the home while the family was out, first noticed the bird after plugging in a piece of equipment and seeing the tree start to sway. “The owl was literally sitting on a lower limb here,” Hayes said. “It crawled up into the tree further,” Hayes said. “It took me several minutes to even find it.” He sent photos to White, who said she was glad he was there to deal with the animal. Hayes said he was able to safely release the owl in the family’s backyard.
Christmas Queen Uniek
🐴 We still follow the daily life of Queen Uniek, her foster colt Rising Star and all the gang at the Friesian Horses channel. Last year, I found this video of Uniek getting a special spa grooming day and becoming the stable’s Christmas Queen!
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🐕 Dogs helping incarcerated humans
The dogs doing this work are helping the humans learn new skills while the humans are helping the dogs learn new skills, too! This is a great idea!
How man’s best friend is helping rehabilitate inmates in England, Paul Stafford, Positive News, October 16, 2023.
In November 2021, Dovegate became the first adult men’s prison in England to run a full-time dog training course. Using a team of professional dog handlers (and foster volunteers who care for the dogs on evenings and weekends), the programme trains assistance dogs for the community. At the same time it gives men who are serving significant sentences the skills and qualifications to become dog trainers and handlers. Assistance dogs support disabled people with daily living tasks, such as unloading washing machines and opening doors. The animals need to be highly trained, which can take up to two years.✂️ Dan is part of the inaugural intake. Previously a drug dealer inside prison, the opportunity encouraged him to give all that up “overnight”. “What’s really going to reduce the likelihood of me reoffending is not wanting to reoffend,” he says. “You need to reduce the want to use drugs with a meaningful activity. This keeps me grounded.” The qualifications from the course and the skillset he is learning paint a picture of what a crime-free life outside the prison walls could look like. ✂️ On the outside, the programme’s first graduate dog, Nika – trained in part by Dan – was placed into the care of Alfred Peterken, a young man with autism, in 2022. “Nika’s brilliant,” says Alfred’s mother, Tabitha Peterken.
That’s all I have for you today. Except for a video of a fun carriage ride through a village! But that’s all for this week! Bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾
x YouTube Video
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Ask a Doctor: Our 10 best tips to help you live better, Trisha Pasricha,MD, Washington Post, December 18, 2023.
⚡️ Six ways to make your life easier and more peaceful – by using stoic principles, Brigid Delaney, the Guardian, November 23, 2023.
⚡️ How Zinc Helps You Fight Off Infections, Including Colds, Diana Kwon, Good News Network, December 18, 2023.
⚡️ WHAT IF FRIENDSHIP, NOT MARRIAGE, WAS AT THE CENTER OF LIFE? Rhaina Cohen, the Atlantic, October 20, 2020 (this is a gift link and has been reprised in their latest online edition).
⚡️ The 47 Best Gifts Under $100, Samantha Schoech, New York Times, October 2023.
⚡️ The Best Last-Minute Gifts for Teenage Girls, According to Teenage Girls, Arielle Avila, New York Magazine, December 18, 2023.
⚡️ A 2023 gift guide that will strike a chord: 10 ideas for the music lover in your life, Maria Sherman, AP, December 18, 2023.
⚡️ Is SCOTUS Finally Losing Patience With the Far Right’s Bogus Cases? Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, December 17, 2023.
⚡️ Interview with Sen. Chris Murphy, A Coming Left-Right Convergence? Michael Tomasky Talks With Senator Chris Murphy, Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, December 13, 2023.
⚡️ An interesting take on why people still don’t believe the economy is OK: A Moral Theory for Why People Don’t Like Bidenomics, Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect, December 15, 2023.
⚡️ Unsurprising, enjoyable article: Conservatives Have Lost the Culture War, David Atkins, Washington Monthly, December 13, 2023.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from CG and me for another Tuesday. I hope you are all feeling well and taking good care of yourselves. Remember to eat enough nutritious food, get some rest and try to get outdoors every day if you possibly can. It may seem cliché, but a change of scene — in particular outdoors and even better if in a green space — really can brighten your perspective, lift your mood and improve your health. Try to make it a daily habit to take outdoor breaks, if you are able.
I’ll be back in the New Year and I’ll have an updated list of ways you can help save democracy as soon as I can in January.
Happy Tuesday, Gnusies!
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