Ruminations
The Good News group is a community of activists and supporters. We gather every morning at 7 a.m. ET. Our active members are of course a subgroup of members of Daily Kos, but you do not have to be a member of Daily Kos to be a gnusie. On the masthead of every Daily Kos Front Page, we find the words: News, Community, Action. We are realists. We know that we live in difficult times. Yet we choose to focus on the incredible good things that are happening now. Please check out my long billboard at the top of every Good News comment section.
GoodNewsRoundup began writing the Good News Roundups (we know it’s confusing) soon after the 2017 inauguration in a time of severe national anxiety. She began by posting her roundups on FaceBook, and she started bringing her Good News Roundups to Daily Kos in May of 2017. She was immediately welcomed by Wee Mama, who had founded the Good News group many years before. GoodNewsRoundup recently republished her second Roundup. GoodNewsRoundup carried the roundups alone six days a week for a while, but gradually other writers have taken over specific days. (See below for a list of our authors.)
On Friday this week, I slowly became aware of a sense that we might have reached the falling-action side of the story of Putin’s puppet’s assault on us. I think the week’s amazing House hearings have led me to believe it’s possible that we’ve passed the climax of our nightmare. Does anyone else sense that?
Then yesterday, The Mayor posted This Twilight Zone Episode is Lasting WAY Too Long: Saturday's Good News in which she counted 14 whodunit suspects who have the potential to take down the popular-vote loser. Who are her 14 suspects?
- Suspect #1: The Democrats in the House
- Suspect #2: Trump… by boxing himself into a corner with this wall, racist BS
- Suspect #3: Mueller
- Suspect #4: The Investigation into trump’s Inaugural Committee (which appears to be shady AF)
- Suspect #5: Federal prosecutors in NY who are investigating the Trump Org
- Suspect #6: Trump Finances being investigated all over the world
- Suspect #7: The campaign finance investigation
- Suspect #8: The Senate Intel Committee
- Suspect #9: Shady links between trump and other countries
- Suspect #10: Obstruction of justice by Trump
- Suspect #11: Trump’s tax returns
- Suspect #12: New evidence of illegal hiring by Trump
- Suspect #13: Trump’s approval is in the tank. May be unelectable even if makes it to November 2020
- Suspect #14: Trump’s Pecker Problem
Later, in the comments, several Gnusies pointed to other suspects.
One of our favorite authors, niftywriter, left a note for GoodNewsRoundup in the comments yesterday:
"Thanks for this big juicy amazing Good News Roundup! I really enjoyed the delightful way you made it a “whodunit” — it is so refreshing to be able to smile in the midst of this horror show of an administration. Yes, indeed, the GNR reminders of the forces for good that are arrayed against these mobsters are necessary for my mental and physical health! Thanks!"
Here’s the link again: This Twilight Zone Episode is Lasting WAY Too Long: Saturday's Good News
Who Won the Week?
Bill in Portland Maine has again loaned us his well-researched list of the week’s Good News. The following items appeared in his Who Won the Week? poll in Friday’s Cheers and Jeers. Please enjoy Bill’s on-point analysis and wit, vote in his poll, Rec his diary, get on his bandwagon, send him money, and earn his blessing.
Bill is still undergoing every-other-week chemotherapy. While receiving chemo, he posts on Monday, sometimes Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. His Friday poll now has over 3000 votes. C&J archive and future editions here. Way more than 2 thanks to the incredible Willhelm von kosland!
- The Idaho Supreme Court, for ruling the voter-approved expansion of Medicaid is constitutional, so all the right wingers can just shut their pie holes and expand it
- The House Judiciary Committee, now led by Democrats, for holding the first hearing on gun violence since 2011, and then hurling rhetorical lightning bolts at acting AG Matt Whitaker
- New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), for withdrawing most of the National Guard troops deployed at the Mexican border, an appropriate rebuke to Trump's racist border crisis hoax
- The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, for overturning FCC chairman Ajit Pai's attempt to take broadband subsidies (the Lifeline program) away from tribal residents
- House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, for announcing a massive, 5-prong investigation into the Trump crime family and its enablers in the Republican party and Russia
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: introduces (w/ Sen. Ed Markey) landmark Green New Deal outline, and the film documenting her '18 campaign ('Knock Down the House') wins the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance
- The SOTU heroines: the Democratic "women in white," Nancy Pelosi for her masterful shame-clap, and Stacey Abrams for her universally-praised response that resonated long after Trump's speech was forgotten
- Candice Payne, who, with her husband and some friends, bought hotel rooms and transported over 100 homeless people to them during the deep freeze when Chicago was colder than Antarctica
- Gay, autistic World War II codebreaker and computer genius Alan Turing, who won the most votes during a live broadcast of the BBC’s "Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century"
- Joshua Trump, the kid invited to the State of the Union by the president, who promptly led the nation in falling asleep during it
Spoiler Alert! … top 3 items … The Democratic "women in white," Nancy Pelosi, and Stacey Abrams 24%; Adam Schiff & Co announced a 5-prong investigation into the Trump crime family 21%; Candice Payne and others rescued 100 Chicago homeless people 16%.
From a Snowflake —
I'm just one white guy, and I do not presume to speak for Black people or white people. One of the best things I’ve found to fight racism is to listen to Black people. How can I learn to see through the fog-misted glasses of my white privilege if I don't do that?
Here on Daily Kos, the best place I’ve found to listen to Black people is in the Black Kos Community diaries. The BKC posts two outstanding group diaries every week. Some new readers are surprised that white people write more than half of the comments, as the demographics of Daily Kos predict. Everybody's welcome. However, if you are white and feeling angry, anxious, or defensive about a racial issue, I recommend hanging out in those group diaries, just to watch and listen, refraining from inserting your feelings into the conversation. Black Kos Community diaries post Tuesday and Fridays at 5 p.m. ET.
White Americans increasingly see racism as a major problem
Democrats have long viewed racism as a bigger problem than Republicans, but there used to be a smaller gap between the two parties. In 2017, Pew Research Center found that Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to view racism as a “big problem”: 76 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners vs. just 37 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners.
The Congressional Black Caucus Outlines Its Plans Of Action
The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus is confident that with a Democratic House majority, nine new caucus members, one caucus member serving as the majority whip, another as the Democratic Caucus chair and five others serving as House committee chairs, the Black community has a “tremendous amount to gain” during the 116th Congress.
✂
Five CBC members chair the House Committees on Financial Services; Oversight and Reform; Science, Space and Technology; Education and Labor; and Homeland Security. The members also happen to be among the Democratic firebrands.
7 Days — 8 Gnus lead the herd:
Resist
The Five R’s of the Resistance
- Resist: Protest on the streets, call senators and representatives, etc.
- Rebel: Run for office, GOTV (Get Out The Vote), support a progressive.
- Revolt: Change the laws, change the culture, build your communities.
- Rely: Trust that millions of others are fighting the good fight.
- Rest: Take care of yourself, we are in this for the long term.
What About You?
A Sunday Good Gnus Roundup is not much without you! What’ve you got to say?
- What’s your take on Good News for our country?
- What link, story, video, or tweet will you share?
- How are you resisting?
- What are your tech questions?
Signing Off
On Thursday, oldhippiedude spoke for me when he signed off with this:
Thanks to you all for the opportunity to share the good news with you and for the honor of being a part of the struggle for justice with all of you. And always, remember, if there’s not enough good news here, go out and make some of your own.
Power with, not power over,
2thanks
Addendum:
Thanks to tljdk, we now have a map of the far-flung gnusies!
First Draft of Instructions
- To drop a pin, you need to be signed into your Google account.
- I signed into my anonymous Gmail account (How to get an anonymous Gmail account).
- I searched for the town I wanted to use: Detroit, Michigan.* To keep your hometown secret, you could Search for your state’s capital city and place your pin there.
- Click on the pin at your location to open your information pane.
- Click on the pencil button to edit the display text.
- Insert the text you want to display in the top box: Please add your Daily Kos name if you have one; your town, city, or county; and your state.
- For example: 2thanks — Detroit, Michigan.
- Click the Save button.
- Click the X in the upper right corner to close the information pane.
- Voila! Check the list on the left to verify the name that appears on your pin.
- Fine print: You don’t have to be a member of Daily Kos to place a pin on this map. If you participate regularly in Good News Roundups in any way, and if you want to participate, please let us know where you are.
* I’ve said many times in Daily Kos comments that I reside in Detroit. I’ve campaigned for Detroit candidates on Daily Kos. (Go, Rashida!) Therefore, I don't mind pinning my location on this Google map as Detroit. I don’t actually live downtown, where my pin appears. (YMMV — Your mileage may vary.)
Call for map helpers!
It would be great to have a sub-herd of gnus who have gmail access who would be willing to post Gnusies’ locations. Some people will be able to post their own locations, and some will need to lean on other gnusies. We’ll get over the river.
Where are you located?
Updates:
A. Changed title:
- From ”Did we reach the Climax of the Trump whodunit? Is the action falling now? Sunday Good News Roundup”
- To “Did we reach the Climax of the Trump whodunit? New: Map of Gnuville! Sunday Good News Roundup UPDATE”
B. Added a section:
C. Edited the first two paragraphs.