Good morning, Gnusies! I’ve found lots of under-the-radar good news (plus a few above-the-fold Big Stories) to share with you today, so I want to keep my intro short. This banner image from The Progress Network captures exactly what I hope you’ll take away from today’s stories:
We create the future with the actions we take today. Will we use our time and energy to wring our hands, feel helpless, give in to our worst fears, and let destructive policies and actions go unchallenged? Or will we use that time and energy to do something to move ourselves, our communities, and our world in the direction we want them to go, toward the new, better future of our dreams?
Many of our recent Good News Roundups have suggested that we’re at a tipping point, or at least a turning point, in our efforts to make the world a better place. So let’s begin with some inspiration from the great Nina Simone. (BTW, you’ll find a wonderful story about Nina farther down in today’s GNR).
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Good news in politics
Biden proposal would let conservationists lease public land much as drillers and ranchers do
This is a revolutionary change from the way the BLM has traditionally viewed public land use. It looks like the days of automatically bowing to pressure from fossil fuel and mining interests are finally at an end. Hallelujah!
From NBC News:
The Biden administration wants to put conserving vast government-owned lands on equal footing with oil drilling, livestock grazing and other interests, according to a top administration official who defended the idea against criticism that it would interfere with industry.
The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Companies could also buy conservation leases, such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere.
Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the proposed changes would address rising pressure from climate change and development. While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it, she said. ✂️
The pending rule also would promote establishing more areas of “critical environmental concern” due to their historic or cultural significance, or their importance for wildlife conservation. More than 1,000 such sites covering about 33,000 square miles have been designated previously. By comparison, about 242,00 square miles of bureau land are open to grazing livestock. ✂️
Opponents including Republican lawmakers are blasting it as a backdoor way to exclude mining, energy development and agriculture from land controlled by the BLM. The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies for the 380,000 square miles it oversees, an area more than twice the size of California. It also regulates publicly owned underground minerals, including oil, coal and lithium for renewable energy across more than 1 million square miles.
White House Unveils a New Climate Fix: Building Codes and Energy Retrofits
Another example of how the Biden administration keeps focused on helping folks on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
From Bloomberg:
The Biden administration announced a plan on Thursday to adopt new building energy standards for homes built and financed by the federal government, a move that officials said will result in energy savings of more than 35% for families.
The new building energy codes would apply to an estimated 170,000 new homes per year, including newly built or financed subsidized housing, both urban and rural — much of it meant for families of limited means who could particularly benefit from energy cost savings.
To complement the new construction push, the White House also introduced an $830 million purse for clean-energy building retrofits for existing homes, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
These updated building codes and retrofits are meant to set a higher bar for energy efficiency, performance and resilience for homes and apartment buildings alike. Two out of three communities across the country use building energy codes that lag behind the most current versions, according to the White House.
Wide adoption of these new codes could result in an average energy savings of $751 per household per year for single-family homes and $224 for larger multifamily buildings, according to the White House. And the Department of Energy has said it will result in hundreds of millions fewer metric tons of carbon emissions annually.
Voting Rights Attorney Nancy Abudu Confirmed to 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
🎩 to T Maysle for this piece of excellent news.
From Democracy Docket:
On Thursday, May 18, the U.S. Senate voted 49-47 to confirm Nancy G. Abudu to a lifetime appointment as a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Her confirmation is historic, as she is the first Black woman to ever serve on the 11th Circuit, which rules on appeals originating out of Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Before her nomination to the 11th Circuit, Abudu was a voting rights attorney, making her pro-voting perspective a crucial and exciting addition to the court. As a civil rights litigator she challenged Florida’s felony disenfranchisement law and omnibusvoter suppression law, Georgia’s omnibus voter suppression law and more. ✂️
Learn more about Nancy G. Abudu here.
Opinion | How should Americans think about Biden’s age? Like this.
A surprisingly positive statement from WaPo about the correct way to think about Biden’s age as a Biden/Trump rematch looms.
By The Washington Post Editorial Board:
If a reminder was necessary as to the potential stakes in 2024’s election, former president Donald Trump’s performance at a CNN town hall with New Hampshire voters on May 10 provided it. ✂️
The good news [regarding the question of Biden’s age] is that, after a long period of shunning the media, Mr. Biden has fielded questions on several occasions, including an April 26 joint news conference with the South Korean president. In that encounter, he acknowledged that voters are evaluating this historically unparalleled aspect of his candidacy: “I respect them taking a hard look at it. I’d take a hard look at it as well,” he said. That was the right attitude. By acting on it, Mr. Biden could reassure voters and shift the campaign to the contrast between his record and the GOP brand: Trump-style right-wing populism.
To be sure, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden are well-known figures about whom voters have already formed strong opinions. In a rematch between them, the age issue might change the votes of only a relative handful of people. Indeed, advanced age is a question mark for Mr. Trump, too, though one that’s overshadowed by his defects of character, temperament and extremism.
In an ideal world, the U.S. political system would enable a generational update among our presidential candidates. In the real world, it looks as if voters in 2024 will have to weigh Mr. Biden’s advanced age more or less as he proposes — not compared with the alternatives they wish they had but compared with the ones they do.
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Good news from my corner of the world
Funding picture for ODOT’s Rose Quarter freeway expansion [in Portland] looks bleak
This op-ed nails the absurdity of the attempt to expand the I-5 freeway in the heart of Portland. And a similar argument can be made against freeway expansion anywhere in the world.
From BikePortland:
When ODOT pitched the project to the legislature in 2017, it was all about congestion relief and “fixing the bottleneck.” Rural lawmakers said this section of I-5 was making it harder for their farmers to get goods to market and we heard the usual hue and cry about traffic backups. But once ODOT got into the local politics, they realized that it’s very tough to add driving capacity on a freeway in Portland’s central city — a place filled with politicians and activists who are proud of our freeway fighting legacy and who understand the terrible policy implications of freeway widening. So ODOT tried to shift to making the project about safety. But when called out on that rationale, they could not show a compelling crash and fatality history that would necessitate such an immense cost. Then the project became all about re-invigorating the lower Albina neighborhood (that the original freeway construction wiped out). But smart people realize it’s much easier and cheaper to rebuild lower Albina without expanding the freeway.
When you combine a shaky rationale with an even shakier political footing and what seems like one controversy after another, you get a project that is in a lot of trouble. ✂️
Meanwhile, while ODOT tries to fundraise for a freeway expansion, the prospects for a separate plan to rebuild the Albina neighborhood over I-5 have never looked better.
In March the nonprofit Albina Vision Trust won an $800,000 “Reconnecting Communities” grant from the Biden administration to jumpstart a planning process with the City of Portland that help solidify their vision. And late last month, Nike founder Phil Knight and his family foundation pledged $400 million to the 1803 Fund, a new group that will spearhead investments in the historically Black neighborhood. The fund will be headed by Rukaiyah Adams, one of the founding board members of Albina Vision Trust.
Funding a project that will make the neighborhood stronger seems to be much more popular than funding one that would do the opposite. Go figure.
Voters shake up Newberg School Board following string of controversies
The extremist takeover of the Newberg School Board in the 2020 election is one of the sadder events in recent Oregon history. Newberg is a sweet small town in the heart of Oregon’s wine country, hardly a bastion of anti-gay, racist ideology. But the rightwing ideologues snuck in after disguising themselves as moderates and wound up horrifying Newberg parents with their high-handed decisions and dangerous policies. Last week’s election was the first chance for voters to get rid of them. I find it especially heartening that the coalition fighting the extremists saw themselves as reasonable people who could work together across political lines.
From KGW:
In Newberg, an early election count suggests that there will be five new school board members and all of them are endorsed by the Oregon CARES PAC. Three incumbents including Board Chair Dave Brown are losing in the initial results.
Although Newberg is a relatively small town, the school board stayed in the news for the past couple of years due to a string of controversies that started with an effort to ban gay and Black Lives Matter flags in schools in 2021. After that, the board fired one superintendent and hired another. There was a recall election with two conservative members on the ballot. The progressive board members resigned, citing a toxic work environment.
The district's dealt with quite a lot, which is part of the reason why James Wolfer ran for the school board in the first place.
"You know, I'd love if, after all this ...[we just] go back to being a normal, healthy school district that isn't making national headlines for this or that controversy," Wolfer said Wednesday. It appears many in the community agree with him. As of Thursday morning, the latest results show Wolfer four other candidate backed by Oregon Cares winning their bid. The group's largest donor is the statewide teachers' union. ✂️
"The five of us, they've tried to paint us as the progressives or whatever, and it it's really not. I'm an Independent," Wolfer said. "We had a Republican, we had three Democrats and all of us had just said we probably don't agree on some things politically, but that shouldn't matter. The five of us could work together to return it to normalcy, and return it to being about a healthy school district that's safe, physically and emotionally for kids."
Trailblazing Museum at Warm Springs celebrates 30 years, and looks to the future
It’s great news that tribes are reclaiming their artifacts and celebrating current art works.
From Oregon Public Radio:
In 1988, Warm Springs tribal members voted to allocate $2.5 million, which at the time was the most money a tribe had committed, toward building its own museum. A year later, Congress passed legislation aimed at changing how an elite cultural institution related to tribes, by requiring the return of human remains and funerary items held by the Smithsonian, and by calling for the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian.
The Warm Springs museum opened first — 30 years ago this spring — when it became a national model for tribally-led cultural preservation across the country.
“There was a recognition that our family heirlooms and different things were being sold out of the reservation, and the antiquities market of American Indian art was a multibillion-dollar industry,” said the Museum’s executive director, Elizabeth Woody, who is Navajo, Warm Springs, Wasco and Yakama.
Over the decades, Warm Springs’ collection of artifacts has grown to include contemporary art and beadwork. Woody said all these exhibits are connected to the surrounding ecosystem, with its flowing creek and cottonwood groves.
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Good news from around the nation
US states agree breakthrough deal to prevent Colorado River from drying up
This is a major BFD, which I debated putting into today’s political news, since it’s a huge win for the Biden administration, but I thought it would be more visible here.
From The Guardian:
A deal has been struck by Joe Biden’s administration for California, Arizona and Nevada to take less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River, in a bid to prevent the river dwindling further and imperiling the water supplies for millions of people and vast swaths of agricultural land in the US west.
The agreement, announced on Monday, will involve the three states, water districts, Native American tribes and farm operators cutting about 13% of the total water use in the lower Colorado basin, a historic reduction that will probably trigger significant water restrictions on the region’s residents and farmland. In all, 3 million-acre-feet of water is expected to be conserved over the next three years – an acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land, about the size of a football field, one foot deep. A single acre-foot is enough to sustain two average California households for a year.
Of these savings, 2.3m acre-feet will be compensated by the federal government, with $1.2bn going to cities, tribes and water districts. The rest of the savings will be voluntary, uncompensated ones to be worked out between the states.
The agreement averts, for now, the prospect of the Biden administration imposing unilateral water cuts upon the seven states – California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – that rely upon the river, a prospect that has loomed since last summer when the waterway’s two main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, hit perilously low levels.
“Today’s announcement is a testament to the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to working with states, tribes and communities throughout the west to find consensus solutions in the face of climate change and sustained drought,” said Deb Haaland, the US interior secretary.
Minnesota House passes taxes omnibus
🎩 to T Maysle for mentioning this story in Monday’s GNR comments.
When Dems are in the majority, good things get done. Of course none of the Rs in the Minnesota lege voted for this, and they’re now having fits.
From The Center Square:
Minnesota will use its $17.5 billion surplus and revenue capture measures that target the wealthiest in the state to deliver tax cuts in a bill the House of Representatives passed Saturday.
Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, sponsored the bill, which passed the House 69-63 Saturday evening along party lines, the House’s Session Daily reported. HF1938 includes $3 billion in refunds, aids and credits during the 2024-2025 biennium. It increases taxes on some multinational corporations and people who make more than $1 million in adjusted gross income or receive more than $1 million in investment income.
“We were really focused on who it is who needs help the most in this moment,” Gomez said, Session Daily reported. “The centerpiece of this bill is the governor’s child tax credit.” ✂️
Among other measures, the Child & Working Family Tax Credit provides up to $1,750 per child, which will impact more than 1 million families and reduce child poverty by one-third, according to a DFL Caucus news release. Married or joint taxpayers who earn less than $100,000 and single filers who earn less than $78,000 annually wouldn’t pay Social Security on state income. The exemption phases out at $118,000 for single filers and $140,000 for joint filers.
The bill, which is the largest tax cut in state history, prioritizes workers, families and seniors, who have experienced tighter budgets as their wages aren’t keeping up with inflation.
The writers’ strike’s top ally: an F-bomb-throwing Teamster with a Jimmy Hoffa tattoo
The studio heads are tough, but it looks to me like this woman is tougher.
From The Los Angeles Times:
Lindsay Dougherty has become one of the most prominent voices of the writers’ strike, fighting on behalf of Hollywood’s scribes. But she’s not a screenwriter. She’s a Teamster boss with a penchant for F-bombs, forceful rhetoric and a tattoo of notorious union boss Jimmy Hoffa decorating her left biceps.
The Teamsters Local 399 head took the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium stage May 3 to deliver a fiery speech to Writers Guild of America members, who’d just begun their first strike in 15 years. Dougherty received a standing ovation before rousing the crowd with an expletive-dappled barnburner, vowing that Teamsters would not cross writers’ picket lines.
“If we all want to get whats ours, we are going to have to fight for it tooth and nail,” Dougherty said. “If you throw up a picket line, those f— trucks will stop, I promise you.”
As the writers in the crowd roared and stomped their feet, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman threw her arms around Dougherty, whose union represents truck drivers, prop warehousemen and other workers essential to the physical aspects of film and television production. … And the trucks have stopped. ✂️
The WGA is counting on solidarity from not just the Teamsters and IATSE, but also unions representing actors and directors, to pressure studios to meet their demands for better pay and working conditions, particularly on streaming shows. The Directors Guild of America began contract talks with studios on Wednesday.✂️
Dougherty, who was uncontestedly elected secretary-treasurer of the Hollywood Teamsters last year (becoming the local’s first female head), has grabbed a lot of attention since the walkout started on May 2 for her strongly worded calls to arms and no-holds-barred tweets. Striking writers have made the second-generation Teamster into a meme on social media and embraced her as one of their own.
5 Indigenous Women Asserting the Modern Matriarchy
Do click the link to read about each of these amazing women and their accomplishments.
From Yes! Magazine:
One of the least visible groups in historical narratives are Native American and First Nations women. Aside from Pocahontas and Sacajawea—two women who became well-known for their associations with White men—it’s difficult to find the name of an Indigenous woman in a textbook. Now that Women’s History Month is coming to a close in the U.S., it’s a good time to examine this issue. ✂️
It is precisely because this historical narrative is biased that righting this wrong isn’t as simple as cherry-picking the names of notable Native women and inserting them into textbooks or other media. In order to truly improve public understanding of important indigenous women in history, the entire narrative has to be restructured. And who better to do that than Native women themselves?
Today, contemporary Indigenous women are taking the matter into their own hands and showing the public how to rethink, reframe, and relearn a new American-Canadian story that seamlessly incorporates the voices of Indigenous women. These women are living in the tradition of their ancestors, whose societies and nations were often matriarchal. They are reclaiming the tradition of female leadership and turning the old, White, male-dominated perspective of history on its head.
The Artists Turning Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Into a Creative Destination
This is a wonderful example of what a few motivated individuals can do.
From The NY Times (gift link):
Five years ago, [New York-based artist Rashid] Johnson partnered with three other prominent Black American artists — the conceptualist Adam Pendleton, the abstract painter Julie Mehretu and the painter, collagist and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher — to help bring [a] towering ancestor into focus: the genre-defying musical performer and civil rights activist Nina Simone. Simone’s childhood home, located in Tryon, N.C., a small town of 1,600 nestled at the base of the southern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was at risk of succumbing to age and neglect. Once the artists were made aware of this, they bought the house, for $95,000, in 2017. The following year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated it a national treasure.
The artists have an important partner in Brent Leggs, the executive director of the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Launched in 2017, the action fund aims to identify and preserve what Leggs calls “nationally significant projects that express the Black experience.” ✂️
It is fitting, if unexpected, that a group of visual artists — not musicians — came together to rescue Simone’s childhood home. They share common goals: that the home be preserved as a place of artistic creation and invention; that it support aspiring artists, particularly those pursuing the path from which Simone was excluded, in classical performance and composition. In the fashion of Simone’s classical compositional approach, the artists offer variations on these shared themes. Pendleton wonders if the home might function like a StoryCorps site, providing a space for oral history and reflection. Mehretu, 51, thinks it could “offer a refuge and a space of development” for creative people. Johnson, perhaps inspired by his travels to Ghana, imagines it as a site of pilgrimage — in both the physical and the virtual worlds. Leggs understands all of these visions and more coming together as part of the enduring legacy of the home, and ensuring that Tryon, as Leggs puts it, “has a Black future.”
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Good news from around the world
Thai voters choose democracy in a stunning election
In yesterday’s GNR, Jessiestaf mentioned this good news about some surprising progress toward true democracy in Thailand, linking to a story in Journal of Democracy. Here’s the coverage of the same story on Vox.
From Vox:
Progressives — and other members of Thailand’s pro-democracy opposition parties — scored a stunning victory in the country’s elections this weekend, dealing a major blow to military-backed incumbents. Their overwhelming success, which came as a shock to political observers of the region, indicated that Thai voters are interested in a change from the current military-led regime and sent a significant message in favor of a more representative government.
The progressive Move Forward Party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, is projected to win 151 seats in the House — the highest of any group — while the populist opposition party Pheu Thai, aligned with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, will likely win 141 seats. Collectively, the two parties will now hold at least 292 of 500 seats in the House.
“This is an earthquake, since Move Forward is the first party to directly challenge major Thai institutions like the monarchy and military — the first to call for real institutional reform,” Council on Foreign Relations fellow Josh Kurlantzick told Vox.
The military has long had a hold on Thai politics, a grip only strengthened by military coups in 2006 and 2014. That latter coup was led by current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who ushered in a new constitution that gave the military unprecedented power over government. One of those post-coup reforms threatens Move Forward’s coalition: 376 members of parliament are needed to elect a new prime minister, and the 250-person Senate was appointed by the military.
Move Forward said Monday that several parties have agreed to join its governing coalition, giving it control of 309 of parliament’s 500 seats. That leaves Pita Limjaroenrat 67 votes short of the majority needed to become prime minister. It’s unclear whether the Senate will work to cobble together a military-aligned minority government, or split its support between the two factions.
Pro-government rally in Moldovan capital draws tens of thousands
WineRev highlighted Moldova’s efforts to join the EU in his History Corner yesterday. It sure looks like the citizens of Moldova are enthusiastic about that prospect.
From Reuters:
Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied in the capital Chisinau on Sunday to support their pro-Western government's drive towards Europe amid what officials have said are Russian efforts to destabilise their country.
Moldova has been badly hit by the impact of Moscow's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, which Chisinau has repeatedly condemned, and applied to join the European Union.
President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of seeking to sabotage its European integration by fuelling anti-government protests and propaganda. Moscow denies meddling in Moldova's affairs. "Moldova does not want to be blackmailed by the Kremlin," Sandu said at the rally, which was organised by her government and packed a central square. ✂️
"We don't want to be on the outskirts of Europe anymore," she said, pledging that Moldova would become an EU member by 2030.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, on a visit to Chisinau, also addressed the rally, saying Europe would welcome Moldova "with open arms and open hearts".
[Russian] Feminist Antiwar Resistance wins 2023 Aachen Peace Prize
This is yet another clear message to Putin from the West about how seriously we take the issue of human rights.
From Meduza:
The Russian political movement Feminist Antiwar Resistance (FAR), along with Israel’s Human Rights Defenders Fund, has won the 2023 Aachen Peace Prize.
As the Aachen Peace Prize website notes, the Feminist Antiwar Resistance formed the day after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and protests the war, patriarchy, authoritarianism, and militarism. The movement also “fights the extremely conservative concepts, prevalent in Russia, of gender and family, as well as discrimination against and repression of the LGBTQ+ community.”
Since its formation, the movement has been at the leading edge of antiwar protest and is now the largest antiwar group in Russia, the prize committee adds. In December 2022, Russia’s Justice Ministry included the Feminist Antiwar Resistance on its list of “foreign agents.”
The prize comes with an award of 2,000 Euros ($2,204). “Closer to September, we’ll discuss what we should do with this money among the widest possible circle of FAR participants,” the activist movement writes.
Community health workers in Ethiopia set out to promote health - they’ve empowered girls too
More evidence that peer interventions, especially one-on-one, are the most effective way to move people away from harmful traditional practices.
From Gavi (🎩 to Future Crunch):
[Ethiopia’s] health extension programme was introduced in 2003. It is delivered by local health extension workers, who are mostly young women. They are recruited from the community based on their ability to speak the local language and completion of general secondary education.
The health extension workers promote routine medical check-ups at the local health post. They also use door-to-door household visits to educate families around health issues including family planning, youth reproductive health and child marriage. The programme has become a flagship intervention.
Many families in Ethiopia still place a high value on marriage and motherhood, especially in rural communities. The legal age of marriage is 18. However, child marriage and early pregnancy remain prevalent nationwide. The government aims to eliminate child marriage by 2025. Our study indicates that the health extension programme is likely to play an important part in achieving this.
... According to our study, receiving household visits from health extension workers is associated with a 70% reduction in the probability of child marriage, 75% reduction in the probability of early pregnancy, and 63% increase in the probability of being enrolled in education. There were also measured improvements in adolescent girls’ literacy and numeracy scores.
Our findings, along with other research by UNICEF and the Overseas Development Institute, suggest these effects are likely to be produced by health extension workers talking to families about the risks of child marriage and early pregnancy and the benefits of girls education. Health extension workers can modify families’ expectations for girls to marry early, and their reluctance to invest in girls’ secondary education. ...The workers are not just improving adolescent health. They are transforming adolescent girls’ opportunities to pursue their own aspirations for education, employment and family.
Octogenarian architect working to flood-proof Pakistan
I find it especially encouraging that Lari is using traditional, easily available materials for these homes and that she has designed them to look like the homes they’re already used to.
From The News (Pakistan):
At 82 years old, architect Yasmeen Lari is forging the way in fortifying Pakistan's rural communities living on the frontline of climate change.
Lari, Pakistan's first woman architect, has ditched a lifetime of multi-million dollar projects in the megacity of Karachi to develop pioneering flood-proof bamboo houses.
The few pilot settlements already constructed are credited with saving families from the worst of the catastrophic monsoon flooding that put a third of the country underwater last year. … Now, Lari is campaigning to scale up the project to one million houses made from affordable local materials, bringing new jobs to the most vulnerable areas. ✂️
Pono Colony, with around 100 houses, was developed just months before catastrophic monsoon rains arrived last summer and displaced eight million people. The village's elevated homes are protected from rushing water, while their bamboo skeletons — pierced deep into the ground — can withstand pressure without being uprooted. ✂️
They require only locally available materials: lime, clay, bamboo and thatching. With straightforward training to locals, they can be assembled at a cost of around $170 — around an eighth of the cost of a cement and brick house.
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Good news in medicine
WHO launches global network to detect and prevent infectious disease threats
It’s about time for this!
From WHO:
WHO and partners are launching a global network to help protect people from infectious disease threats through the power of pathogen genomics. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform to connect countries and regions, improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples, using these data to drive public health decision-making, and sharing that information more broadly.
Pathogen genomics analyzes the genetic code of viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing organisms to understand how infectious they are, how deadly they are, and how they spread. With this information, scientists and public health officials can identify and track diseases to prevent and respond to outbreaks as part of a broader disease surveillance system, and to develop treatments and vaccines.
The IPSN, with a Secretariat hosted by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, brings together experts worldwide at the cutting-edge of genomics and data analytics, from governments, philanthropic foundations, multilateral organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector. All share a common goal: to detect and respond to disease threats before they become epidemics and pandemics, and to optimize routine disease surveillance.
The goal of this new network is ambitious, but it can also play a vital role in health security: to give every country access to pathogen genomic sequencing and analytics as part of its public health system,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “As was so clearly demonstrated to us during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is stronger when it stands together to fight shared health threats.”
Doctors performed brain surgery on a baby before she was born and now she’s thriving
Absolutely amazing. And what a cutie they saved!
From CNN:
A team of doctors in Boston successfully performed a novel fetal surgery to treat a rare brain condition known as vein of Galen malformation.
Although in utero surgery – performed before a baby is born – has been used for other conditions, this ultrasound-guided procedure was among the first for this condition. [It] occurs when the blood vessel that carries blood from the brain to the heart, also known as the vein of Galen, doesn’t develop correctly. The malformation, known as VOGM, results in an overwhelming amount of blood stressing the vein and heart and can lead to a cascade of health problems. ✂️
...when Kenyatta went for an ultrasound at 30 weeks into her pregnancy, ...she remembers her doctor sitting her down and saying she was worried. ...After more investigation, there was a diagnosis: VOGM.
...the Colemans had learned about a clinical trial run by Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s hospitals that could provide treatment before their baby was born. Kenyatta remembers being told about the possible risks – preterm labor, or brain hemorrhage for the fetus – but the Colemans felt there was no other option for them. They wanted to join the trial. ✂️
[Dr. Louise] Wilkins-Haug [division director of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,] explained they used a technique borrowed from previous in utero cardiac surgeries. Once the fetus is in the optimal position, it “gets a small injection of medication so that it’s not moving and it is also getting a small injection of medication for pain relief,” Wilkins-Haug said. From there, the doctors inserted a needle through the abdominal wall, carefully threading a catheter through the needle, so that the tiny metal coils can fill up the vein, slow the blood flow and reduce the pressure. The baby showed signs of improvement immediately, with scans showing decreased blood
Now, nearly two months after Denver was born, she continues to thrive, spending most of her time sleeping and eating. She’s not taking any medications for heart failure, and her neurological exam is normal. There’s no indication that she needs any additional interventions. “She’s shown us from the very beginning that she was a fighter,” Kenyatta said, “she’s demonstrated … “Hey, I wanna be here.’ “
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Good news in science
Chinese Scientists Create Way to 3D Print Ceramic Engineering Components Suspended in Air Without Support
As Jessiestaf likes to say, “I love living in the future!”
From Good News Network:
In a warp-speed technological advancement, Chinese scientists have developed mid-air ceramic 3D printing.
The team from Jiangnan University has enabled ceramic curves to be freely extended in space without support, opening a panoply of additional applications for the already-widely-used technology of ceramic.
Ceramics are used at high levels of engineering technology in aerospace, computer, and mechanical engineering because of their structural stability, wear resistance, and high-temperature endurance.
The team uses a photo-sensitive ceramic slurry for the 3D printing mixture that almost instantly solidifies when it comes in contact with near-infrared light from the sun or heat lamps, as seen in the image above.
“The printed curves can be freely extended in space without support. The printing process is smooth and continuous, without the need for heating or cooling,” Professor Liu Ren said in the paper.
With the new slurry, Liu Ren was able to print ceramic torsion springs at 3.5 millimeters thickness which retained their shape in mid-air.
For New Rover, NASA is Swapping Buggy Shape for a Giant Snake in Hopes it Can Explore Icy Moon of Saturn
You have to watch the video! It’s insanely cool.
From Good News Network:
NASA is testing an all-terrain slithering robot to explore tunnels, glaciers, and snowdrifts on Saturn’s icy moon of Enceladus.
The 13-foot-long (4 meter) machine is called EELS, or the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor, owing to theories that the icy-covered world of Enceladus may have a subsurface ocean of liquid water—one of the solar system’s best places to look for signs of extraterrestrial life.
For nearly 30 years, robotic rovers have retained the same buggy-shape and design, from the original Pathfinder Rover in 1996 to Perseverence in 2021. But these have been designed to travese deserts like the Moon and Mars—covered in a loose mixture of sand and crushed rock known as regolith. Enceladus presents an entirely different set of challenges. ✂️
Its designs will include technology to allow it to make its own decisions about how best to move over any given terrain, since telecommunications with the Earth would take multiple days.
Experiment Reveals How The Mediterranean Diet Works at The Cellular Level
This is quite a fascinating article, so I encourage you to click the link to read it in full.
From Science Alert:
Studies have shown that people on the Mediterranean diet – which emphasizes plant-based foods and fish, and not so much red meat or dairy – tend to be healthier in multiple ways, with lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and overall mortality.
… A study led by researchers from Stanford University...has revealed cellular effects of the Mediterranean diet for the first time, based on how one of its healthy fats influenced lifespan in nematodes, also known as roundworms. Finding this link is a big deal, the study's authors say, offering new insights on the health effects of various fats and the role diet plays in longevity. ✂️
The Mediterranean diet abounds with beneficial fats, also known as monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), found in foods like nuts, fish, and olive oil. The new study focused on one healthy fat, oleic acid, which is the main MUFA in olive oil and some nuts.
Using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, Brunet and her colleagues discovered two benefits of oleic acid: It protects cell membranes from damage by lipid oxidation, and it raises the quantity of two key cellular components called organelles.
Those effects make a significant difference, the researchers report, with roundworms fed oleic acid living about 35 percent longer than worms on a more traditional diet.
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Good news for the environment
A Biodiversity Hotspot Flourishes as Costa Rica Puts Nature on the Payroll
Finally, the indigenous guardians of some of Earth’s most important ecosystems are getting the assistance and respect they deserve.
From Reasons to Be Cheerful:
The Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica’s west coast occupies just 0.001 percent of the planet’s surface area, yet is home to an estimated 2.5 percent of all the biodiversity in the world. Inhabited by jaguar, tapir and close to 400 species of birds, the forests here — and others like them around the world — combat biodiversity loss and play a key role in capturing carbon and fighting climate change.
Importantly, recent research shows, such benefits come not only from keeping forests standing, but also from regrowing degraded and secondary forests. In this vein, the Osa Peninsula region has become internationally recognized for showing how financial incentives can lead to landscape restoration and protection, while also creating jobs and supporting rural economies.
“For us it has been important because before, we protected [the forests], we looked after them, but we didn’t receive anything for it,” says Lineth Picado Mena, a rural farmer living on the peninsula and participant in the government’s Payments for Environmental Services (PES) program. “Now we can support ourselves with what we have.” ✂️
By paying landowners for ecosystem services, the government incentivizes them to conserve the environment, [Carlos] Muñoz-Piña [an economist with the World Resources Institute] says. That counteracts the market forces that put pressure on landowners to convert tropical forests to farmland or other land uses.
In Costa Rica, the PES program’s annual budget is between $20 million and $25 million, of which 92 percent is funded from a sales tax on fossil fuels, while nearly six percent comes from water usage fees. This allocation is fixed and provides assurance that funds will be available each year.
‘Forest’ of carbon dioxide-sucking vending machines planned in Japan
The tech details here are kind of vague, but it looks potentially promising.
From Japan Times:
One of Japan’s leading beverage makers is planning an unorthodox way to cut its carbon emissions by utilizing a device that’s ubiquitous across the nation: the vending machine.
The soft drinks arm of Tokyo-based Asahi Group Holdings said it plans to start tests next month with the new machine, which contains a material that “absorbs carbon dioxide” as it sucks in air to cool or warm the drinks inside.
Described by the company as a potential “forest in the city,” the machines, which are being patented, will contain a white powder-like material made from a variety of calcium compounds. Once it has absorbed a certain amount of CO2, the powder will then be used for industrial purposes such as making fertilizer and algal sea beds. ...Each machine is expected to absorb approximately 60 kilograms of carbon dioxide — or 20% of the carbon emissions it produces — each year, according to company spokesperson Yoshiie Horii.
The company plans a broader replacement program for its 260,000 current machines by 2024, though Horii said a specific target for the total number of units to be rolled out has yet to be set. “The vending machine market is shrinking year by year and the market environment is difficult,” he said.
Discarded diapers lay the foundation for future homes – quite literally
It would take a lot of work to bring this idea to scale, but it’s good that researchers are tackling disposable diaper waste.
From New Atlas:
Finding low-cost, sustainable building materials is important for the environment and providing access to affordable housing. Researchers have created a composite building material by replacing sand in concrete and mortar with a common, non-degradable waste product: used disposable diapers. ✂️
Researchers from the University of Kitakyushu, Japan, looked for a way of maintaining the benefits of concrete but making it more environmentally friendly and cheaper to produce. They turned to a common non-degradable waste product: the disposable diaper. In undertaking this study, the researchers were driven by a desire to tackle Indonesia’s significant population growth and demand for low-cost housing. … According to Maritime Fairtrade, Indonesia is ranked sixth globally for disposable diaper usage. Many used diapers are tossed in the country’s rivers and waterways, causing pollution through leeched chemicals and microplastics. This research could address two important issues: cleaning up the environment and providing a low-cost construction alternative.
The researchers prepared concrete and mortar samples by combining washed, dried, and shredded used disposable diapers with cement, sand, gravel, and water. The samples were cured for 28 days. ✂️
They found they could replace 10% of the sand with disposable diaper waste in the concrete needed to form columns and beams in a three-story house. In a single-story house, that proportion increased to 27%. In terms of the mortar used to create partition walls, the researchers could replace up to 40% of sand with diaper waste. For the formation of floors and garden paving, 9% of sand could be replaced. They found that exceeding these proportions resulted in concrete unfit for construction. Overall, the researchers found that up to 8% of the sand in all concrete and mortar structures needed to build a single-story house with a floor plan of 36 m sq could be replaced with disposable diaper waste. That equates to 60 cubic feet (1.7 cubic meters) of waste.
Sea creatures found safe harbour in retrofitted rockpools
What a clever idea!
From Positive News:
They might look like crusty old sinks bolted to the sea wall, but for marine creatures on England’s southern coast they’ve become a welcome new home.
Researchers from Bournemouth University installed 114 artificial rockpools over three sites in 2020 – and have announced the results of the experiment.
All pools were colonised by sea creatures. At one site in Sandbanks, Dorset, researchers counted 65 different species, including a protected native oyster. “We didn’t know quite what to expect,” marine biologist Jess Bone told Positive News. “We even found one species – the Montagu’s Blenny – that had never been recorded in Poole harbour.”
Bone said the pools can be bought off the shelf from Isle of Wight-based Artecology, and help mitigate habitat loss caused by overdevelopment and rising sea levels.
“They’re great for wildlife conservation,” she added. “For coastal engineers who want to incorporate habitat into new developments, these retrofitted, bolt-on rockpools are ideal.”
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Rosy chose this story because she loves to accompany me and my husband to outdoor restaurants, and she’s always a Very Good Dog, lying quietly at our feet and not bothering other diners. So she wishes there weren’t any Bad Dogs making some diners unhappy.
More Dogs Could Show up in Outdoor Dining Spaces. Not Everyone Is Happy About It
From U.S. News:
Just in time for the summer dining season, the U.S. government has given its blessing to restaurants that want to allow pet dogs in their outdoor spaces. But even though nearly half of states already allow canine dining outdoors, the issue is far from settled, with many diners and restaurants pushing back against the increasing presence of pooches.
Restaurants have been required to allow service dogs for decades. But it wasn’t until the mid-2000’s that a handful of states — including Florida and Illinois — began passing laws allowing dogs in outdoor dining spaces, according to the Animal Legal and Historical Center at Michigan State University. Twenty-three states now have such laws or regulations. But the legal landscape is confusing. Michigan law doesn’t allow dogs in outdoor dining spaces, for example, but lets restaurants apply for a variance from their county health department.
So in 2020, the Conference for Food Protection — a group of food industry and health experts that advises the government — asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue guidance for states. It cited a 2012 risk assessment in Australia and New Zealand that found that the health risk to human diners from dogs was very low.
The FDA’s updated food code, issued late last year, says restaurants can have dogs in outdoor areas if they get approval from a local regulator. Restaurants should have signs saying dogs are welcome and should develop plans to handle dogs and their waste. They should ensure dogs remain properly restrained and provide separate food bowls so dogs don’t use plates or utensils meant for humans. ✂️
“Younger pet owners, Millennials and Generation Z, have incredibly strong bonds with their pets and they are willing to act upon that,” said Steven Feldman, president of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute. “They are more likely to frequent — and express a preference for — pet-friendly businesses.”
Nora is definitely into her inner lion — actually, her inner panther — so she was happy, though not surprised, to see this story.
Learning to Love Your Cat’s Inner Lion
From Undark:
In his latest book, “The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa,” [Jonathan B.] Losos guides readers through the evolutionary history of felines, uncovering the ancestral roots of the modern housecat. ✂️
The earliest cats lived about 30 million years ago — the species we now call Proailurus lemanensis — but about 10 million years later, evolution “kicked into gear,” Losos writes, when felines diverged into two groups: the saber-toothed cats, which eventually became extinct, and the conical-toothed group, which evolved into today’s Felis catus. Genetically linked to the North African wildcat Felis silvestris lybica, the first domestic cats appeared about 10,000 years ago. Most researchers believe that living near humans in early agrarian communities, where cats presumably shared food and helped control rodents — a mutually beneficial arrangement — probably led to the domestication of today’s housecats. ✂️
“Look underneath the paint job — the variation in hair length, color, and texture — and most domestic cats are nearly indistinguishable from wildcats,” [Losos] writes. “The differences in anatomy, physiology, and behavior that distinguish most domesticated species from their ancestors don’t exist in cats.”
Losos goes on to spend a good chunk of the book explaining the similarities and differences between housecats and their wild ancestors. “Whereas dogs have diverged from wolves in many genes, domestic cats and wildcats differ in only a handful,” Losos writes. “Cats truly are scarcely domesticated.”
Why birds and their songs are good for our mental health
This story has gotten a lot of visibility, including on DKos thanks to T Maysle, but Rascal thought it was important to repeat it for any of you who missed it.
From The Washington Post [gift link]:
Research has consistently shown that more contact and interaction with nature are associated with better body and brain health.
Birds appear to be a specific source of these healing benefits. They are almost everywhere and provide a way to connect us to nature. And even if they are hidden in trees or in the underbrush, we can still revel in their songs. “The special thing about birdsongs is that even if people live in very urban environments and do not have a lot of contact with nature, they link the songs of birds to vital and intact natural environments,” said Emil Stobbe, an environmental neuroscience graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and author of one of the studies.
Recent research also suggests that listening to recordings of their songs, even through headphones, can alleviate negative emotions. ✂️
It is not yet understood how birdsong affects our brains, but neuroimaging studies have found brain responses of stress reduction to other forms of nature exposure.
Walking in nature vs. an urban environment decreased self-reported rumination, which is linked to a risk of depression and other mental illnesses, and decreased activity in a part of the brain’s prefrontal cortex associated with rumination. Viewing green scenery engages the posterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with behavioral stress responses and may help regulate the reduction in stress responses from nature exposure." Walking in nature vs. an urban environment decreased self-reported rumination, which is linked to a risk of depression and other mental illnesses, and decreased activity in a part of the brain’s prefrontal cortex associated with rumination. Viewing green scenery engages the posterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with behavioral stress responses and may help regulate the reduction in stress responses from nature exposure.
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Art break
Winners of the 2023 Close-Up Photographer of the Year Challenge: Minimal
The two images I chose are my favorites of the ones The Atlantic published, but you should click the link and look at all of them.
From The Atlantic:
Organizers of the Close-Up Photographer of the Year contest set up a challenge outside their normal competition, and this year’s theme was “Minimal,” aiming to “celebrate images with a minimalist style.” The winners of the challenge were just announced; Ferenc Kocsis’ image of Danube mayflies in flight took the top prize.
Gerrits: "In Varanger, Norway, a mountain hare (Lepus timidus) sits quietly in a snowstorm very close to midnight. It was a rough winter evening in the very far north of Norway. I was sitting down, and my goodness I was cold, chilled to the bone, waiting for signs of life. Thankfully, I got lucky. This hare seemed to have some form of piloerection (the equivalent of human goosebumps), which made its hair stand on end."
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Hot lynx
www.theatlantic.com/… Choose the Activism That Won’t Make You Miserable. “Focus on what you can do to ameliorate a situation rather than simply demonstrating your opposition to it. An enormous body of evidence shows that the right sort of volunteering leads unambiguously to greater happiness.”
www.nytimes.com/… ‘Everybody Is Welcome Here.’ ”Kaig Lightner founded the Portland Community Football Club to give local youth an inexpensive chance to play. When he came out as transgender, they gave him a place to belong.”
www.yesmagazine.org/… From Farmworkers to Land Healers. “Immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers in California reclaim the power of their labor.”
www.theatlantic.com/… The War on Poverty Is Over. Rich People Won. A review of sociologist Matthew Desmond’s new book, Poverty, by America, arguing that the U.S. view of poverty is unique. “You see a homeless person in Los Angeles; an American says, What did that person do? You see a homeless person in France; a French person says, What did the state do? How did the state fail them?”
www.vice.com/… Scientists Detect Brain Activity in Dying People Linked to Dreams, Hallucinations. “Our study may be as good as it will ever get for finding neural signatures of near-death consciousness.” Fascinating.
www.newyorker.com/… Joan Baez is Still Doing Beautiful, Cool Stuff. “At eighty-two, the folksinger has a new book of drawings and sleeps on a mattress in a tree.” Wow.
www.theatlantic.com/… Night at the Vatican. A riveting and lyrical description of the Vatican museums at night, by a writer given permission to wander the galleries, accompanied by a great photographer.
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Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
As noted last week, our lineup has changed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Thanks again to niftywriter for holding down truth and justice on Wednesdays!
- The Monday GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu).
- Alternating Tuesdays: NotNowNotEver and arhpdx.
- Wednesdays: 2nd MCUBernieFan, 3rd WineRev, 4th karij. 1st and 5th: lemay50, Andrew F Cockburn, DoctorStrange.
- Thursdays: Mokurai.
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup, the one and only!
- Sundays: 2thanks. A brief roundup of Roundups, a retrospective, a smorgasbord, a bulletin board, an oasis, a watering hole, a thunder of hooves, a wellness, a place for beginners to learn the rules of the veldt. For instance, we do not welcome grammar-police comments in Roundups.
hpg posts Evening Shade diaries at 7:30 p.m. ET every day! After a long day, Gnusies meet in the evening shade and continue sharing Good News, good community, and good actions. Find Evening Shades here or on the Trending List.
oldhippiedude posts Tweets of the Week on Sundays at 6 p.m. CT. Our second evening Gnusie hangout zone! In search of a TOTW diary? Look here or here or on the Trending List.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
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Good News Sources
🎩 to Mokurai for putting our old lists of sources together in alphabetical order!
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How to Resist: Do Something …
NEW! Donate to help Florida’s Gen Z defeat DeSantis!
From an email:
I'm Will Larkins, a 18-year-old student organizer from Orlando, Florida, an LGBTQ+ youth activist, and a proud member of Voters of Tomorrow.
I’ve made headlines for leading state-wide student walkouts against Ron DeSantis’ Don’t Say Gay bill & suing Florida for their attacks on LGBTQ+ youth. And now, my generation needs to go up against him AGAIN.
Right now, Ron DeSantis and the far-right are dismantling our education by banning books and censoring our curriculums – just so they can keep our generation silent and complacent.
The far-right is terrified of Gen Z, and rightfully so.
They know that we have the power to kick them out of office, and Voters of Tomorrow is going to make sure that happens.
We’re registering as many first-time voters as we can because our generation’s future is at stake, and if our leaders don’t protect us, we’ll vote them out. It’s that simple.
But we’re in high school and college. We’re ONLY grassroots-funded and we need your help to fuel our efforts! If we don’t catch up, we’ll have to scale back our youth voter registration campaigns. Can you chip in $27 to invest in Gen Z and turnout young voters? »
Write with Postcards to Voters
Now that we’ve succeeded in helping elect Donna Deegan as the first Democratic mayor of Jacksonville in decades (yay, us!!), Postcards to Voters is soliciting writers to encourage Vote By Mail in Seminole County, FL. 🎩 to Progressive Muse for the following info:
On this morning’s Postcards To Voters menu (no changes):
1 - Addresses for Florida Vote By Mail — Seminole County
As T Maysle mentioned, early voting and voting by mail hit a midterm election record last year, so voters are definitely interested. You can help us reach out to them.
Returning Postcards To Voters writers can use these methods to request addresses:
•Text HELLO to (484) 275-2229.
•
Email (if you have trouble with the linked address, you can use Postcards@TonyTheDemocrat.org instead, which will be answered by a human)
•
Slack.com
If you are new to Postcards To Voters, you can get set up by texting or emailing:
•Text JOIN to (484) 275-2229
•
Email
Get postcarding supplies
I like to buy my cards from PtoV because that’s one more way to support them. Here’s my favorite, which costs $18 for 100 cards:
And FWIW, these are my favorite pens — not too thin, not too thick, don’t bleed through: Stabilo Pen 68 Felt-Tip Pen. Even though the ink is water-based, once it’s dry you can get it wet and it doesn’t run.
Learn
🎩 to alamancedem for this very important link: 21 day anti-racism challenges. Challenge yourself to learn more, bring it to your workplace, share it with friends and colleagues. We can all benefit from sharpening our awareness of racism.
I’ll add another suggestion: a documentary titled “Traces of the Trade,” currently available to stream for free on Kanopy (a streaming service offered by public libraries around the country). Here’s the thumbnail description from Kanopy:
Katrina Browne uncovers her New England family's deep involvement in the Triangle Trade and, in so doing, reveals the pivotal role slavery played in the growth of the whole American economy. This courageous documentary asks every American what we can and should do to repair the unacknowledged damage of our troubled past.
This film especially asks what the legacy of slavery is for white Americans. It points to the fundamental inequity and institutional racism that persists and to the broken relationship between black and white Americans. It invites every viewer to consider what it will take to move beyond the guilt, defensiveness, fear and anger which continue to divide us.
Abortion assistance
Here’s an easy action you can take RIGHT NOW:
Donate to two organizations providing support to people in no-abortion states who need assistance getting abortions.
National Network of Abortion Funds
The Brigid Alliance
Both of these organizations provide help with transportation, medical fees, hotel stays, etc., for those who have to travel out of state for an abortion. NNAF is a central clearing house for that assistance, The Brigid Alliance does that work directly.
And here’s another resource for women seeking abortions which I discovered only recently: Women on Web. They provide abortion pills worldwide for women who need to use them immediately and also for women who want to keep a supply on hand. You can make donations on their website to further their work.
NEW! Please pass this info along to anyone you know who may become pregnant.
From the National Network of Abortion Funds:
Misinformation is an anti-abortion tactic designed to already confuse people who are trying to get an abortion. In addition to pointing people to abortion funds, you can help by sharing accurate and important resources with your community:
- If/When How's Repro Legal Helpline is a free legal resource for people seeking abortions who have questions about their legal rights. Helpline attorneys and advocates can be reached at reprolegalhelpline.org or 844-868-2812.
- People need to know their rights when interacting with the health care system. If/When/How and Physicians for Reproductive Health created this simple guide with everything you need to know about talking to a healthcare provider after a miscarriage or abortion.
Get the truth out
Indivisible has created a Truth Brigade to push back against the lies.
Propaganda, false characterizations, intentionally misleading messages, and outright lies threaten our democracy and even our lives. We can effectively combat disinformation, despite the well-funded machines that drive it. They may have money, but we have truth and we have people.People believe sources they trust. When we share and amplify unified, factual messages to those who trust us, we shift the narrative. When we do this by the thousands--we’re part of the Indivisible Truth Brigade, and we get our country back. Join us.️
Our own Mokurai is a member. You can see all of the diaries in the Truth Sandwiches group on DK here.
Call out tax exempt organizations whose political stance violates IRS regulations
A suggestion from chloris creator:
Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. This has been filled out for the NRA, but, hey, you can use it for a lot 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?
“The process to get the NRA's tax-exempt nonprofit status revoked has become simpler. All you need to do is save this form and email it to eoclass@irs.gov. It's all filled out for you. You just need to click send.” Allen Glines
Note that the IRS protects your anonymity: The appropriate checkbox is already checked: "I am concerned that I might face retaliation or retribution if my identity is disclosed."
Goodie’s action steps
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
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Closing music
I heard this track on our great local jazz station and was immediately riveted by it. Hypnotic and just beautiful.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️