Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time
Some of the most jarring ways the United States will feel the impacts of climate change began to reveal themselves this year.
The U.S. saw a record-setting 25 billion-dollar natural disasters. Maui experienced the country’s deadliest wildfire in the last century. Phoenix suffered temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 31 consecutive days. Vermont endured epic floods. Despite all this, the Biden administration reneged on its promise and approved the Willow oil project in Alaska.
But this year was also filled with news of encouraging, inspiring, and groundbreaking progress in the U.S., not least of which was its joining a global agreement to transition away from fossil fuels and pledging with its biggest rival, China, to accelerate renewables.
I love this story. Lauren Boebert has apparently seen the writing on the wall and now realizes she can’t be elected in her congressional district, Colorado’s 3rd. Too much interrupting Joe Biden’s State of the Unions, too many Beetlejuice handies, too many bonkers TV appearances. So she’s decided to run not in her own district but in the neighboring 4th district, which unlike the 3rd is solidly Republican. That district is available because incumbent Ken Buck is retiring.
She just announced the move in a Facebook video post this evening.
If you watch the video she rattles off a bunch of mumbojumbo about how her switch is right for her family, for the ‘movement’, for Colorado, whatever that means. But everybody can see that it’s just the right and possibly only move for her to stay in Congress. But don’t assume Boebert can just waltz into this seat. There’s always a long line of ambitious pols ready to move up the ladder when a safe district comes open. And there are already at least four Republicans from the 4th district who are running to replace Buck. The Colorado Sun got this statement from one of them, state Rep. Richard Holtorf: “If you can’t win in your home you can’t win here. She knew she’d lose in her own district and I’ll show her that’ll she’ll lose here too.”
Happily, I’ve found many things that are not only good for the planet, they make your life better. Based on the response to this column over the past year, millions of you want to do more in your own life about climate change.
Here are seven things I discovered in 2023 that can make a difference in your new year.
Climate anxiety is very real, but these good news stories from throughout 2023 prove there is hope for our planet.
...While there's a lot to be worried about when it comes to the climate and nature crises, we must not lose hope - because hopelessness breeds apathy.
The media has an important role to play in combatting climate doom. It's our job to be truthful and accurate in our reporting, not trying to downplay or greenwash the situation. But it's also our job to show that there is hope.
As you’re no doubt aware, 2024 is going to be a pretty intense year for politics. It’s looking more likely than ever that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are headed to a rematch, and that means our venerable mainstream institutions have to come up with another 10+ months of content. And while I’d be the first to cheer on a move to cover more policy, I think we all know by now that we can expect the standard horse race approach from our legacy media institutions.
Not convinced? Let’s take a look at the kind of stuff The New York Times has published in just the past week or so.
Let’s take a look at four recent headlines:
After Donald Trump said that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” drawing backlash for being a tad more Hitler-y than usual, the Times ran a piece headlined, “Trump’s Long Fascination With Genes and Bloodlines Gets New Scrutiny.” This is, as I hope is obvious, underselling this “fascination” of Trump’s, which has some major eugenicist overtones
“The Color Purple,” a vibrant adaptation of the book-turned-beloved-movie-turned-hit-Broadway-musical, dominated at the box office on Christmas Day.
The film has outperformed expectations with $18 million from 3,152 North American theaters. It’s the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009, and the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.
Those ticket sales were enough to lead the way on Monday ahead of two other newcomers, Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari” and director George Clooney’s inspirational sports story “The Boys in the Boat.” Warner Bros. impressively held the top three spots on domestic charts as “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “Wonka” swam to second and third place, respectively
And this, courtesy of the late, great,Tina Turner, is my message to 2024: "You Better Be Good To Me!"
I'll be happy to see 2023 in my rear view mirror. How about you? Tell us all about your year in the comments!
(And a happy new year to all!)