Welcome!
Gnusies, Gnubies, lurkers, first-time visitors, anyone and everyone – come join us in our staunch community of heart-centered activists, where we share the news that doesn’t bleed or lead or generate clicks. But before I get started, I need to post a note from the management:
THIS IS A PIE-FREE ZONE!
Thank you.
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A personal note
Aside from the fact that we who gather at this little online oasis like to keep each other apprised of any significant life changes we may be experiencing, I think that this personal story is a good example of how bad news can turn out to be not as bad as we fear.
After a routine mammogram in December and a needle biopsy in January, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s the bad news. The good news that soon emerged is that the tumor was very small (under 1 cm.), that it was Stage 1, and that oncotyping classified it as non-aggressive, which means that the totality of my treatment will consist of a lumpectomy (already done and healing nicely), a brief course of radiation, and the need to take an estrogen-blocking drug for the next 5-10 years (the cancer, for those of you who speak this lingo, is ER positive, PR negative, and HER2 negative). No chemo!!
Another piece of good news, for which I’m most humbly grateful, is that I have exceptionally good medical coverage. (Yay, Medicare!) Example: my needle biopsy was on a Wednesday, I got the diagnosis the next day, and the following Tuesday morning (six days later) I was sitting down with all three members of my cancer team – surgeon, radiation oncologist, and medical oncologist – each of whom spent about 45 minutes with me. As I said, humble gratitude is the only appropriate response to this – along with my heartfelt wish that every American could have this level of care and my renewed commitment to fighting like hell to elect Dems up and down the ballot who will make that happen.
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Good political news (not candidate-specific!)
Bloomberg, as he promised, is now putting his obscene fortune to good use.
Bloomberg donates $2M to group looking to turn out black voters
From The Hill:
Former 2020 Democratic contender Michael Bloomberg gave $2 million to a nonprofit working to register black voters ahead of November's general election.
The donation was made to Collective Future, which is the nonprofit arm of the Collective, a political action committee dedicated to supporting black candidates nationwide.
The group is working to register 500,000 black voters in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.
The money will be put toward hiring field organizers "through partnerships with state-based and local Black-led grassroots organizations," in addition to recruiting and training black churches, civic organizations and students of historically black colleges and universities interested in becoming partners and volunteers.
And Bloomberg has also begun releasing anti-tRump ads, which as we know from how often his campaign ads ran, will be broadcast ad nauseam between now and November (but in this case, nausea – against tRump – is what we hope to provoke):
The next news story has already appeared in various iterations in Good News diaries and comments, but it can’t be emphasized enough, especially to anyone who believes the Dems don’t have a chance in November:
Democratic turnout surges on Super Tuesday
From The Hill (bolding mine):
Democratic voter turnout surged on Super Tuesday, exceeding 2016 levels in at least a dozen states and setting an all-time record in one of them.
In Virginia, the fourth most delegate-rich state to hold a primary Tuesday, more than 1.3 million voters cast ballots — a nearly 70 percent increase over 2016, when about 783,000 voted in the Democratic presidential primary. That surpasses a previous record set in 2008, when just under 1 million voters turned out.
In North Carolina, turnout was up by about 17 percent over 2016 levels. And in Texas, at least 45 percent more voters went to the polls on Tuesday than showed up four years ago, according to an analysis of vote returns.
Turnout also skyrocketed in contests in Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Utah, though those states switched from caucuses to primaries this year, making it difficult to compare Tuesday’s turnout to that of past election years.
DKos’s resident super-hero in a bathrobe, ShowerCap, came out with another diary Monday (one of his best, I think), and he noted how effectively the Gross Obnoxious Panderers undercut themselves when they try to “pwn” us:
Chief Thuglomat Mike Pompeo, who surely has a light schedule these days in his job as (squints) Secretary of State during an international pandemic, found time to share a jaunty little troll post on social media, poking fun at Elizabeth Warren’s famous “pinky swear” phenomenon, after she officially pulled out of the presidential primary. I get that “triggering th’libs” is pretty much all Republicans live for these days, but do they really not understand that what they’re “triggering” us into doing is donating, organizing, and ultimately, voting? It wasn’t so long ago they triggered themselves right out of their House majority, and if they’re so determined to refuse to learn this rather obvious lesson, well, I’m not in any hurry to hire ‘em a tutor, y’know?
So, again, tune out the Gloomy Guses and Debby Downers. We are fired up and ready to take our country back!
On that note, and in a hat tip to our dear Wolvie (who is taking a much-needed break), here’s OUR flag:
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
And while I’m tipping a hat to Wolvie, I’d like to give a hug to {{{{{karij}}}}} who is dealing with the aftermath of a horrific act of domestic violence that resulted in the death of her son’s ex-wife (the mother of karij’s grandson). Please hold her in your hearts.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
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Good news from around the world
Agave Power: How a Revolutionary Agroforestry and Grazing System in Mexico Can Help Reverse Global Warming
From Regeneration International:
Agave plants (the best known of which are blue agave, used to produce tequila), along with nitrogen-fixing, companion trees such as mesquite, huizache, desert ironwood, wattle, and varieties of acacia that readily grow alongside agave, are among the most common, prolific, and yet routinely denigrated or ignored plants in the world.
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Agave plants and nitrogen-fixing trees densely intercropped and cultivated together have the capacity to draw down massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and produce more above ground and below ground biomass (and animal fodder) on a continuous year-to-year basis than any other desert and semi-desert species. Ideal for arid and hot climates, agaves and their companion trees, once established, require little or no irrigation to survive and thrive, and are basically impervious to rising global temperatures and drought. Agaves alone can draw down and store above ground the dry weight equivalent of 30-60 tons of CO2 per hectare (12-24 tons per acre) per year. One hectare equals 10,000 square meters or 2.47 acres.
Now, a new, agave-based agroforestry and livestock feeding model developed in Guanajuato, Mexico promises to revitalize campesino/small farmer livestock production while storing massive amounts of atmospheric carbon above and below ground. Scaled up on millions of currently degraded and overgrazed rangelands, these agave/agroforestry systems have the potential to not only improve soil and pasture health, but to help mitigate and potentially reverse global warming.
The ‘London Patient’
From the NY Times:
In March 2019, doctors in London announced that they had cured a person of H.I.V. — only the second ever to have been freed of the virus. After much deliberation, the “London patient,” as he has become known, told The New York Times that he wanted to reveal his identity and to tell his story.
“This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position,” he said. “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”
His name is Adam Castillejo, age 40. Born in Venezuela, he has lived in London for nearly 20 years. The announcement of Mr. Castillejo’s cure last year electrified the scientific community and energized the pursuit of strategies for curing H.I.V.
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Mr. Castillejo was found to have H.I.V. in 2003, when he was just 23. … But as powerful antiretroviral drugs became available, he was able to keep his H.I.V. suppressed to undetectable levels and to live a healthy life, until 2011, when tests revealed he had cancer: Stage 4 lymphoma.
On May 13, 2016, Mr. Castillejo received a bone-marrow transplant to cure his cancer. The main goal of the transplant was to replace his immune system and clear the cancer. But the donor also carried a mutation that impedes the entry of H.I.V. into cells, so the new immune system was resistant to H.I.V., and cleared his body of the virus as well.
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“I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, you’ve been chosen,’” he said. “No, it just happened. I was in the right place, probably at the right time, when it happened.”
Future Crunch: “Good news you probably didn’t hear about”
This section of Future Crunch’s monthly newsletter is one of my favorite sources of good international news. And I love that they always provide links if you want to read more:
Following years of pressure from activists, Canadian company Teck Resources is pulling out of planned operations in the oil sands. NYT
Following years of pressure from activists, Norwegian company Equinor is pulling out of planned exploration in the Great Australian Bight. SBS
India says it will stop importing thermal coal in the next four years (no doubt Adani will never bow to years of pressure from activists). Economic Times
A landmark ruling by India’s Supreme Court means that women will now be granted the same rights as men in all the country’s armed forces. CNN
Colombia says it will allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants to legalise their presence in the country through work permits. Reuters
Between 1990 and 2017, the age-adjusted global death rate for cancer fell by 15%, mostly as a result of the worldwide decline in smoking. OWiD
Singapore has announced a ban on internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040, the first Southeast Asian country to do so. Next Web
China has implemented a complete and permanent ban on the eating, hunting, trading and transportation of all wild animals. SCMP
Blue whale populations are bouncing back. Observers have recorded ‘unprecedented’ numbers in the waters around South Georgia. Independent
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Good news from around the nation
Medicare For All Would Create Lots Of Jobs And Increase Wages
From Wonkette:
...people are still probably more nervous about the idea of single-payer Medicare for All [than they are about COVID-19] , largely because of the way people who are opposed to it for reasons have spent a lot of time and effort making sure people are very nervous about it.
One of the things that's been brought up a lot is the idea that all of these people currently working in the insurance industry, on billing for doctors offices, will lose their jobs. And that's fair! It's something we should all be concerned about...
But another thing to consider is a new study published Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank that analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals, which says that Medicare for All would help create a lot of jobs, increase wages for many, many Americans, and lead to a better functioning labor market in general.
According to the EPI, Medicare for All would:
- Boost wages and salaries by allowing employers to redirect money they are spending on health care costs to their workers' wages.
- Increase job quality by ensuring that every job now comes bundled with a guarantee of health care—with the boost to job quality even greater among women workers, who are less likely to have employer-sponsored health care.
- Lessen the stress and economic shock of losing a job or moving between jobs by eliminating the loss of health care that now accompanies job losses and transitions.
- Support self-employment and small business development—which is currently super low in the U.S. relative to other rich countries—by eliminating the daunting loss of/cost of health care from startup costs.
- Inject new dynamism and adaptability into the overall economy by reducing "job lock"—with workers going where their skills and preferences best fit the job, not just to workplaces (usually large ones) that have affordable health plans.
- Produce a net increase in jobs as public spending boosts aggregate demand, with job losses in health insurance and billing administration being outweighed by job gains in provision of health care, including the expansion of long-term care.
House passes bill to allow VA to fund service dogs for veterans with PTSD
From Stripes:
House lawmakers unanimously approved a bill that would lay the groundwork for the Department of Veterans Affairs to start funding service dog programs and connect veterans with canines that could be critical for their mental health care.
The Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act authored by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, would kick-off a pilot program to issue federal grants to nonprofits that provide service dogs to veterans suffering from mental health issues, and require the VA to assess the effectiveness of dog therapy.
“Our veterans fought for our freedom, and I’ve heard from many veterans who say that’s exactly what their service dog gives them – freedom. They’re free to go to restaurants, to fly on planes, to go to the movies, things that post-traumatic stress [disorder] had made impossible,” Stivers said.
This bill hasn’t yet been scheduled for a Senate vote (surprise! /s), so a call to your senators might be a good idea. You can make the point that this is an entirely non-partisan issue.
It’s always cheering to see karma at work:
Index card found in sunken ship helps implicate former Nazi concentration camp guard living in Tennessee
From CBS News:
The U.S. government said Thursday that it is deporting a 94-year-old German ex-Nazi who has been in the United States for decades after information was found in a sunken ship, implicating him as a concentration camp guard. An immigration judge ordered Friedrich Karl Berger's deportation on Feb. 28 after a two-day trial in Memphis, authorities said.
The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department traced Berger's Nazi service to an index card that was found in a sunken ship years after it was mistakenly bombed by the British Royal Air Force in May 1945. The card apparently documented Berger's work at the Neuengamme concentration camp system.
"What are the odds, you know, of that card having survived . . . and making it to us decades later?" Justice Department prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum told the newspaper.
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Good news from Oregon
In the midst of more absolutely infuriating fuckery by the Grotesque Obstructionist Pinheads in Oregon’s House and Senate – i.e., another walkout denying the legislature a quorum and thereby blocking the passage of a cap-and-trade bill – there are some rays of light. Wish us luck, because the next step will no doubt be a slew of suits by the litigious Rethugs.
Oregon Emergency Board Approves Millions for Coronavirus Response, Climate Action
From KDRV:
Following a short legislative session that fell flat amid the acrimony over a bill aimed at capping carbon emissions, funding for a few budget measures that would have otherwise died with the untimely end of the session has been approved by the Oregon Legislative Emergency Board.
Alongside those unfinished funding measures comes $5 million for the state's response to COVID-19, now an official emergency following an announcement this weekend, and another $5 million that will likely form the foundation of Governor Kate Brown's executive action on carbon emissions.
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When the legislative session ended without a compromise between Democrats and Republicans on cap-and-trade, Governor Brown said that she would make good on a promise to deliver climate change solutions through executive action if a legislative route did not succeed.
“I have always been clear that a legislative solution was my preferred path to tackle the impacts of climate change for the resources it would bring to our rural communities and the flexibility it would provide for our businesses," Brown said last week. "However, I will not back down. In the coming days, I will be taking executive action to lower our greenhouse gas emissions."
On Monday the Oregonian/OregonLive reported that DEQ director Richard Whitman said Brown's executive order would be coming "very soon."
Update:
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Closing a loop on a pledge she made last year, Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order Tuesday that aims to sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions with a full-court press by government agencies.
The 14-page order comes less than a week after a Republican walkout killed Senate Bill 1530, Democrats’ signature proposal for a cap-and-trade system in Oregon. It contains ambitions that are at once equal to and much broader than that bill.
“The executive branch has a responsibility to the electorate, and a scientific, economic, and moral imperative to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the order says, “and to reduce the worst risks of climate change and ocean acidification for future generations.”
Click the link for a full run-down of all the changes this executive order will mandate.
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Good news from Portland
Portland firm leading a revolution in women's health care
From the Portland Tribune:
Fahti Khosrow never planned on becoming an entrepreneur.
But now, she and her company, Portland-based CEEK Women's Health, are poised to deliver to the market a new product expected to change the way women receive health care.
The women's health care market has been largely ignored when it comes to innovation. Until Khosrow's company decided to redesign the vaginal speculum, for example, the instrument had been mostly unchanged since it was invented — by a man — 150 years ago. The sector is now gaining new attention, however, for several reasons.
For one, the medical industry has discovered that gender is a biological variable for a range of medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and depression.
In addition, women increasingly are looking to take a more active role in managing their health care, even as they begin to become more willing to talk openly about female-related health conditions such as menopause.
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A lot of people who live in Vancouver WA work in Portland, and the commute between the two cities is brutal. So a ferry connecting them would be a great community benefit. (And I love the idea of a ferry station in Sellwood, which is my neighborhood!)
Portland passenger ferry leader says idea is ‘getting closer to a reality,’ eyes 2023 launch
From the Oregonian:
The organizers, financial supporters and volunteers hoping to bring passenger ferries to the Portland area said Tuesday they are making progress and still hope to launch the commuter transit service in spring 2023.
Susan Bladholm, founder of the nonprofit Friends of Frog Ferry group, said she also believes there’s still time to include public dollars for the ferry proposal in the Metro regional government’s $7 billion transportation package expected to appear on the ballot in November.
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The ferry idea calls for a roughly 100- to 149-person vessel that would transport passengers from Vancouver to downtown Portland. That trip would take roughly 38 minutes, with a shorter commute on the way back to Washington, given that the Willamette River flows north. Bladholm envisions a “scalable” approach that would potentially add up to 9 stations along the route, with stops in St. Johns, Sellwood, and potentially suburban points to the south like Milwaukie, Lake Oswego and Oregon City.
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Good news for and about animals
Stella McCartney goes wild to drive home animal-free message
From The Guardian:
The singer Janelle Monáe and actor Shailene Woodley were in the front row, but two rabbits, a fox, a horse, two cows and a crocodile stole the show. People in lifesize animal costumes, of the kind more usually seen at theme park parades than at Paris fashion week, joined models for the finale of Stella McCartney’s show, swinging their new-season handbags and posing for the cameras.
The optics were fun, but the message was serious – that there are animals on almost every catwalk, it’s just that they are usually dead. The half-moon shoulder bag carried jauntily by a brown cow here was made from a vegan alternative to leather, while other bags were created from second-life plastic.
“What we try to do here at Stella is to sugarcoat a powerful, meaningful message in a little bit of humour and fun, to make our point in a palatable and digestible way so that people listen,” said McCartney. “These animals are the ingredients of everyone else’s fashion shows. We are the only luxury fashion house in the world that isn’t killing animals on the runway. I wanted to make that point, but in a joyous way.”
Can Disease-Sniffing Dogs Save the World’s Citrus?
From Smithsonian Magazine:
...huanglongbing, or citrus greening, [is] a devastating and wildly infectious bacterial infection that slashed the United States’ orange juice yields by more than 70 percent in the span of a decade.
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Once they’ve begun to sport splotchy foliage and stunted fruit, trees can be diagnosed with a single glance. A symptomatic plant, Gottwald says, is a diseased one. Unfortunately, the converse isn’t true: Infected trees can appear normal for months, sometimes years, before visibly deteriorating, leaving researchers with few reliable ways to suss out sick citrus early on—and giving the deadly bacteria ample opportunity to spread unnoticed.
Now, [plant pathologist Tim] Gottwald and his colleagues may have a creative new strategy to fill this diagnostic gap—one that relies not on vision, but smell. They’ve taught dogs to recognize the telltale scent of a huanglongbing infection—an odor that eludes the attention of humans, but consistently tickles the super-sensitive schnozz of a mutt. Once trained up, canines can nose out the disease within weeks of infection, trouncing all other available detection methods in both timing and accuracy, the researchers report today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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A truly astounding video
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“I’m an artist, your rules don’t apply”
Activism in art is very inspiring to me, so I especially love this story. Of course, I also love the how wonderful this house looks covered with bright mosaic tiles, but Reichardt’s thirst for justice makes it even better.
Secrets of Carrie Reichardt’s Mosaic House in Chiswick
From Inspiring City:
As unique pieces of art goes, you are unlikely to find a more remarkable piece of public art in the city. The place is covered in head to toe, front and back with bright mosaic. Each section tells a story and it’s different phases have featured different players, influences and artists. along the 20 years journey each of whom have helped contribute in some way.
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As a campaigning artist Carrie Reichardt has long championed the cause of death row inmates in America. … Luis Ramirez was the first death row prisoner that Carrie got to know and they become friends. Somehow Luis managed to post his prisoner ID card to Carrie. It is contained in resin on the back wall of the house. Executed in 2005, a mosaic tribute to him can also be seen at the back.
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The Angola 3 are [also] commemorated on the building...They were Black Panthers in the sixties. ...Albert Woodfox and Robert King, are still alive. They visited the house for the first time last year.
You really should read the whole piece and savor all the wonderful photos.
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Spring is getting even spring-ier in my neighborhood
More flower pix from my recent dog walks:
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Closing music
Jim Pepper, a Kaw-Muscogee Native American who grew up in Portland OR, was a massively talented Jazz musician and a wonderful human being. I had the great pleasure of knowing Jim and hearing him perform live many times. His song “Witchi tai to” (based on a Native American Church peyote song he learned from his grandfather) is his best-known composition, covered by many other musicians. It reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart [in the recording] on which Pepper was the lead singer… and is the only hit to feature an authentic Native American chant in the history of the Billboard pop charts.
I’ve read that the water spirit mentioned in the lyrics is the bringer of spring rains, so aside from the fact that I want to share this song because I love it, I thought it would be an appropriate celebration of spring.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to each and every Gnusie for your smarts, your hearts, and your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE!💙❤️