Welcome 😊 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
We are the defenders of democracy. We are standing up for truth, for justice, for compassion, and for reality. We are confronting the real problems: pandemic, climate problems, racial injustice, and all the stupid criminals in the GOP.
One of the many great things about President Biden — and we also acknowledge VP Harris and SOS Blinken — is that he has been reaching out to allies and coming up with ways to strengthen democracy, certainly this week with the democracy summit but also all along.
And Team Blue does not depend on just a few good people. Our team goes deep and true. Like AG James, in NYS, taking on the NRA and tfg. And many of us have learned to be stronger because of the creeps on the other side. (Here’s a link on dealing with bullies, with suggestions on when to walk away, when to confront, how to remember their anger is about them, not about you, and even a recommendation to take self-defense lessons. It won’t help against bullets but may assist in other situations.)
We know there are many problems, but we also have incredible people making progress, on so many, many fronts. Come in and see what our friends and allies are doing!
Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💙 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
🗽 Biden as President!🗽
Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Here are the last week’s posts at the White House briefing room.
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Background Press Call by a Senior Administration Official on President Biden’s Calls with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and European Leaders
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, December 9, 2021
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Remarks by President Biden in Meeting with Members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the Omicron Variant
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Readout of President Biden’s Call with the Leaders of The Bucharest Nine Eastern Flank NATO Allies
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Readout of President Biden’s Call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: President Biden Announces Key Regional Appointments for USDA, HHS, EPA, and HUD
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Remarks by President Biden at a Congressional Tribute Ceremony for Senator Robert J. Dole
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: A Proclamation on Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, 2021
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Remarks By President Biden At The Summit For Democracy Opening Session
- Thursday, December 9, 2021: Statement from President Joe Biden on Unemployment Insurance Claims
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Readout of the December National Climate Task Force Meeting
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Remarks by President Biden on How the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Delivers for Missourians
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: President Biden Announces Key Nominees
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre En Route Kansas City, MO
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: Remarks by President Biden Before Marine One Departure
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: FACT SHEET: President Biden Signs Executive Order Catalyzing America’s Clean Energy Economy Through Federal Sustainability
- Wednesday, December 8, 2021: FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Administration is Taking Action to Restore and Strengthen American Democracy
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, December 7, 2021
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Letter to the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Regarding the War Powers Report
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Withdrawal Sent to the Senate
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Statement of President Joe Biden and Nominee for Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with President Macron of France, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Draghi of Italy, Prime Minister Johnson of the United Kingdom
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Official
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Remarks by Vice President Harris at the Maternal Day of Action Summit
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Readout of President Biden’s Video Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the Summit for Democracy
- Tuesday, December 7, 2021: Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Plans for $11 Billion to End Malnutrition at Global Nutrition Summit
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Statement From Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson Symone Sanders on Vice President Kamala Harris’s Meeting With Black Women Leaders
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with European Allies
- Monday, December 6, 2021:Remarks by President Biden on Prescription Drug Costs
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, December 6, 2021
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on President Biden’s Upcoming Call with President Putin of the Russian Federation
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Nominations Sent to the Senate
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the U.S. Government Strategy on Countering Corruption
- Monday, December 6, 2021: Fact Sheet: U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption
- Sunday, December 5, 2021: Remarks by President Biden at the 2021 Kennedy Center Honorees Reception
- Sunday, December 5, 2021: A Proclamation on the Death of Robert Joseph Dole
- Sunday, December 5, 2021: Statement of President Joe Biden on the Passing of Senator Bob Dole
- Saturday, December 4, 2021: Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Biden’s Upcoming Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, December 3, 2021
- Friday, December 3, 2021: August 2021 Visitor Log Records Posted
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on New National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
- Friday, December 3, 2021: President Biden Announces Alaina B. Teplitz as Assistant Secretary of State for Administration
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Remarks by President Biden on the November Jobs Report
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Bill Signed: H.R. 6119
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on G7 Collaboration and Build Back Better World
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on Senior Administration Delegation Trip to the Middle East
- Friday, December 3, 2021: A Proclamation on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2021
- Friday, December 3, 2021: Fact Sheet: Advancing Disability Inclusive Democracy in the United States and Globally
- Friday, December 3, 2021: FACT SHEET: The National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (NAP)
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
For those who have been worried about progress on the insurrectionists, here’s some information from the January 6th committee:
💜💜💜 Troops receiving purple hearts (denied by tfg) Steve Benen The Maddow Blog
There are dozens of American servicemen and women who earned, but didn't receive, Purple Hearts after a ballistic missile attack early last year. As CBS News reported yesterday, it looks like the Army is putting things right.
The Army will award the Purple Heart to dozens of additional soldiers injured when Iran struck their airbase in Iraq with ballistic missiles in January 2020. The shift comes after a CBS News investigation last month found these same soldiers had not been recognized with the award and denied the medical benefits that come with it, despite appearing to qualify. In a statement to CBS News, a spokesman said the Army's Human Resources command, which oversees awards, approved 39 Purple Heart submissions for soldiers wounded in the attack. The command notified these soldiers on Wednesday.
For those who may need a refresher, let's review how we arrived at this point.
It was early last year when the United States launched a drone attack that killed a powerful Iranian general, Quasem Soleimani. Days later, Iran retaliated, launching a massive ballistic missile attack on U.S. troops stationed at the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq.
the cretin in the office at the time didn’t want to acknowledge that his move against Soleimani was too much, so he refused to acknowledge the injuries to our troops. Biden’s DOD has corrected this.
🎩 hpg. You have probably heard about this already, but it’s such a great example for this section, and a great photo, too:
💣 Republicans in Disarray 💣
The Rs and their mess in Georgia Eugene Robinson Washington Post
Anyone who thinks the Republican Party is some kind of well-oiled juggernaut ready to steamroll Democrats in November might want to check out what’s happening in Georgia, where the GOP is busy trying to steamroll itself.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who is seeking reelection, got bad news last week when he learned that his likely Democratic opponent will be Stacey Abrams, who came within a hair of beating him in 2018. He got worse news on Monday, when former senator David Perdue — defeated in his reelection bid in January — announced he will challenge Kemp in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
In what for decades has been a reliably red state, the Republican Party has lost both U.S. Senate seats to Democrats and stands a real chance of losing the governor’s mansion as well. And all of this reflects the GOP’s devolution into a cult of personality devoted to former president Donald Trump — a nationwide phenomenon that could affect key races elsewhere as well.
I thought Perdue was supposed to be in trouble for insider trading? However, when I did a (very brief) search into “Perdue insider trading,” the information was all more than a year old. Furthermore, in The Rachel Maddow Show from 12 8 2021, she indicates that Perdue does not even want to run for this position. So, are tRump and Putin blackmailing Perdue into running? I hope some journalists investigate pronto!
Note that even Bannon is not happy with Perdue:
Prediction that Nunes and the new media company will not end well Hayes Brown MSNBC
In effect, after these years of training, Nunes is taking the plunge from lying on behalf of a grifter to entering the world of grift himself. It’s quite the escape route for someone whose district looks a lot less friendly in the next round of redistricting, especially after nearly losing his seat in a string of close races.
And all too fittingly, in doing so he may have violated a law that requires members of Congress to publicly declare any job negotiations that take place while in office. And, naturally, the move was announced the same day that one of the companies involved in the Trump’s new company announced it’s under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I do not expect much from this move that will benefit Nunes. App stores are littered with the husks of social media companies promising total freedom of speech and finding themselves buried under an avalanche of racist invective and betrayed users fleeing after moderators are finally installed. So, too, has Trump made a mess of any company that he has founded that required anything other than use of his own name.
No, if history tells us anything, Nunes will not relish his time as the officially appointed patsy. When TruthSocial inevitably collapses, it will be Nunes that Trump blames for any failures. It’s Nunes who will have the most liability for the day-to-day uses and abuses of the app in the event of any future indictment. And it’s Nunes who I very much doubt will reap the sort of payday that he likely imagined when accepting the gig.
🧀Biden wins Wisconsin, again…
💙 Democrats Being Cool 💙
You go, girl! I mean, Attorney General James! Letitia James has just announced she’s running for re-election as AG and has pulled out of the race for governor (the new governor, Kathie Hochul, was beating her in the polls). And this also means we’ll have continuity on all those cases against tfg and the NRA. Who should be nervous. Ja’han Jones The ReidOut Blog
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that she's dropping out of the state's governor's race after jumping in just weeks ago. She said she will instead seek re-election as the state's highest legal officer.
She announced her decision amid reports that her office is seeking to question former President Donald Trump under oath as part of its civil tax fraud investigation into the Trump Organization.
“I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general,” James tweeted. “There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job. I am running for re-election to complete the work New Yorkers elected me to do.”
Intolerant Left Refuses to F**k Conservative A-holes Who Hate Them Stephen Robinson Wonkette
Let’s look some more at these polling numbers:
71% of Democrats wouldn't go on a date with someone with opposing views, versus 31% of Republicans.
41% of women would go on a date with someone who voted for the opposing candidate, compared to 67% of men.
Maybe Republicans think that a relationship can survive if a couple’s only shared value is a love of Marvel movies. Republicans must think a lot of themselves if they assume Democrats are obligated to date people who consider it overly “woke virtue-signaling” to wear a mask and use someone’s preferred pronouns.
Women apparently are "more likely than men to take a strong partisan stance in their personal choices.” Good for them. Men who post their ideal age range on dating sites as "18 to 29" can’t really judge women who refuse to date men who think their wombs belong to the state. Historically, white men didn’t hesitate to have sex with the women they were oppressing. This also included enslaved Black women.
Some may think the above is intolerant of us. I think it shows that we actually have principles and are strong.
Biden is doing terrific work:
Note that one possible reason for a reduction in claims may be that the unemployment benefits of some people may have run out. Still, this is better than going the other way.
Hooray!
Amid fears of an invasion of Ukraine, Biden stresses support from allies Paul Sonne and Ashley Parker. Washington Post. Yeah, why is this in the Democrats are great section and not the unity section? Because it shows how much more the Ds actually care about our alliances. (There was a great bit on TRMS this week but they are behind on their transcript production.)
President Biden moved to solidify a unified position with Ukraine and U.S. allies on Europe’s eastern flank in a set of phone calls Thursday, part of an urgent effort to prevent and prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a call with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden emphasized American support for Kyiv, seeking to reassure a country that has seen Russian forces mass on its border in recent days. The White House is also trying to work out the shape of forthcoming talks with Russia on the Ukraine crisis and other security issues.
Biden also held a separate call Thursday with the “Bucharest Nine,” a group of NATO members on Europe’s eastern edge close to Russia, including the Baltics and Poland, that are particularly sensitive to aggressive moves by Moscow.
Thursday’s conversations took place roughly 48 hours after Biden spoke on a two-hour video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he warned the Kremlin leader that severe economic consequences would follow if he once again decides to invade neighboring Ukraine.
⚡️ California to become abortion haven Marissa Higgins Daily Kos ⚡️
💜 Unity? 💜
The United States has donated many vaccine doses to other countries. There was a discussion earlier in the week on The Last Word that we are leading the world in this regard, but MSNBC is behind in posting transcripts, so I don’t have the words on that. But from the State Department:
On May 17, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to leading an international and coordinated vaccine effort, announcing that the United States will provide 80 million doses of vaccines to meet global needs.
As of December 7, the United States, through coordinated efforts with Gavi and bilateral agreements, has delivered more than 300 million vaccine doses to over 110 countries.
To date, we have shipped millions of vaccines to over 30 African Union countries, roughly 25 countries in the Western Hemisphere, and to about 20 countries in Southern and Eastern Asia. This disease knows no borders and is affecting the entire world, and the U.S. is showing up, leading, and helping to bring an end to COVID-19.
Notice how we have overdelivered on this matter.
✈️ Justice Roberts refuses to block masks on planes Rebecca Falconer Axios
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday dismissed an emergency request to block the federal mask mandate for air travel amid litigation in the lower courts.
Driving the news: Michael Seklecki, a Florida resident, filed a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration on behalf of himself and his 4-year-old son, and Lucas Wall, from Washington joined the suit, all citing medical reasons.
NC Supreme Court delaying primaries and giving us a chance Cristina Cabrera Talking Points Memo
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed the state’s March primaries to allow more time for state courts to review and rule on two gerrymandering lawsuits challenging Republicans’ newly drawn district maps.
The primaries, which were to be held on March 8, 2022, have been pushed back to May 17 under the Supreme Court’s order. Additionally, the order temporarily suspends the candidate-filing period until the lawsuits are resolved, and the trial judges in the two cases are directed to issue their rulings by Jan. 11.
The Supreme Court’s order cited “the great public interest in the subject matter” of the litigation and “the need for urgency” in reaching a final resolution as soon as possible.
Finally, this stupid fight about the debt ceiling can be put to bed permanently. Other votes have made it pass, and it’s going to Biden for signature.
⚡️ Hundreds of HS students walk out in protest of racial slurs Daily Kos ⚡️
📥 Actions You Can Take 📤
Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are), you can support and contact these organizations:
ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union
Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election.
Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams
🌱Grass roots. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy.
🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can help. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection.
👎 Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists, and their current approach to supporting or not supporting the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others.
🐍 Schadenfreude 😈
tRump mad at Netanyahu Barak Ravid Axios
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. "I haven’t spoken to him since," Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. "F**k him."
What he's saying: Trump repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book, “Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East." The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result.
"The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. ... Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake."
— Donald Trump
Court rules against tfg and for President Biden
Yeah, we don’t need Spicer
Flynn and Powell are no longer buddies Asawin Suebsang and Will SommerThe Daily Beast
But one breakup within this crew of prominent, conspiracy-theory-peddling Trumpists that hasn’t gotten much attention is the chilling of the friendship between Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who had repped Flynn and also tried to subvert the 2020 presidential results on Trump’s behalf.
Not long ago, Powell was a hero to Flynn and to his family, and the two friends worked very closely in their joint mission to keep Trump in power against the will of the American voters. Now, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, the former Trump national security official and Powell are barely even on speaking terms.
The falling-out, which both Flynn and Powell have declined to air publicly, began as early as April, barely three months into the Biden presidency. According to the knowledgeable sources, tensions between the two began simmering over large sums of money, including the amounts fundraised for Defending the Republic, an organization founded by Powell. The group’s stated purpose, as it was pitched to conservative grassroots donors, was to fund Powell’s notorious “Kraken” lawsuits targeting the 2020 election outcome, and according to Defending the Republic’s paperwork, its board initially featured Flynn, his brother Joe, and Wood.
It was in those early months of the Biden era that allegations began emerging that Defending the Republic’s war chest was getting drained by Powell—not to advance the organization’s pro-Trump agenda, but to offset Powell’s ever-ballooning legal expenses.
A good question:
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
📚 Today let’s honor Reginald Betts, who is working to set up freedom libraries Allison Flood The Guardian
Malcolm X writes in his autobiography of how he spent hours reading in the library at Norfolk Prison in Massachusetts. Now the cell that the human rights activist is believed to have occupied is set to be transformed into a library itself, thanks to the work of the poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts.
Betts, who won a MacArthur “genius” grant worth $625,000 (£471,000) in September, was incarcerated himself after being tried as an adult for a carjacking at the age of 16. He has spoken of how, during the nine years he spent in prison, he was “writing every day, reading every day, imagining that words would give me the freedom to understand what got me in prison”, because “when you’re trapped in a cell, literally, words are your only lifeline”.
Betts is now working to set up 1,000 micro-libraries in prisons across the US through his charity, Freedom Reads, supported by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation. The first Freedom Library opened this month at the MCI-Norfolk, in the cell believed to have been Malcolm’s in the 1940s. While there, the activist, who had been jailed for robbery, spent many hours reading and studying the dictionary in the library and joining the debating society.
We also honor Catherine O’Connor, who turned in her grandson when she realized he was planning a mass shooting. More guardians need to do this.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
New and furnished home for an evicted Dunkin Doughnuts employee Joelle Goldstein People
Suzanne Burke told ABC affiliate WCPO that she knew she had to jump into action after learning that her friend, beloved Dunkin' employee Ebony Johnson, had recently been evicted from her Mount Healthy home.
"When she experienced this hardship, I just wanted to see if I could help her just improve her life and the life for her kids," Burke explained to the outlet. "I wanted to make sure that they had stable housing so that she could continue to provide the excellent service she does at Dunkin'."
With assistance from local organizations and designers, Burke was able to surprise Johnson and her kids with a new, fully-furnished home — just in time for the holidays.
📎Odds & Ends 📎
Eco-Friendly “Jelly Ice Cubes” Alisa Ross Good News Network
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a new type of cooling cube that could revolutionize how food is kept cold and shipped fresh without relying on ice or traditional cooling packs.
These plastic-free, “jelly ice cubes” do not melt, are compostable and anti-microbial, and prevent cross-contamination.
“When ice melts, it’s not reusable,” said Gang Sun, a professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. “We thought we could make a so-called solid ice to serve as a cooling medium and be reusable.”
The cooling cubes contain more than 90% water and other components to retain and stabilize the structure. They are soft to the touch like a gelatin dessert and change color depending on temperature
🚢 Reduction in 2021 in shipping emissions Eric Krebs Reasons to Be Cheerful
Until recently, the shipping industry trailed other carbon-intensive industries, like vehicles and electric power, in its commitments to reduce emissions. But 2021 was a pivot point. The push toward a zero-carbon shipping industry gained significant momentum, bringing the world closer to a future in which goods are sent across oceans with minimal impact on the climate.
In April, the Biden administration pushed the International Maritime Organization, which originally announced a plan to reduce shipping emissions by 70 percent, to go completely carbon-neutral by 2050. In October, a group of nine major retailers, including Amazon and Ikea, added pressure by committing to zero-carbon shipping by 2040. And at the UN Climate Change Conference in November, a group of 14 major shipping economies — including Denmark, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Panama — announced a pact to achieve zero-emission shipping by 2050.
These commitments from governments and corporate clients are made credible by the recent (and rapid) development of technologies that make carbon-free shipping possible.
“There isn’t anything technologically insurmountable here,” says Nishatabbas Rehmatulla, a senior research fellow at the University College London Energy Institute, where he studies decarbonization in the shipping industry. “The key barrier is cost.”
🍪 Can stem cells cure Type I diabetes? Andy Corbley Good News Network
Growing new pancreas cells from unprogrammed stem cells has possibly cured a man of type 1 diabetes.
One doctor told the New York Times that this is the biggest development in treatment for the disease since the discovery of exogenous insulin production 100 years ago.
64-year-old Brian Shelton got an infusion of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas—the kinds which can’t function properly in diabetes victims, after his wife signed him up for a trial run by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
❤️ Synthetic materical can repair hearts, muscles and vocal cords McGill University Science Daily
"People recovering from heart damage often face a long and tricky journey. Healing is challenging because of the constant movement tissues must withstand as the heart beats. The same is true for vocal cords. Until now there was no injectable material strong enough for the job," says Guangyu Bao, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University.
The team, led by Professor Luc Mongeau and Assistant Professor Jianyu Li, developed a new injectable hydrogel for wound repair. The hydrogel is a type of biomaterial that provides room for cells to live and grow. Once injected into the body, the biomaterial forms a stable, porous structure allowing live cells to grow or pass through to repair the injured organs.
"The results are promising, and we hope that one day the new hydrogel will be used as an implant to restore the voice of people with damaged vocal cords, for example laryngeal cancer survivors," says Guangyu Bao.
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and the sequel, Scavengers of Mind. (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time.
Current projects:
Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters.
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
💙 “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.” 💙
President Joseph R. Biden
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.