Celebrating 4 years of Roundups!
Congratulations to us! How shall we celebrate being 4 years old? Our reminiscences?
I’m celebrating the founding of Gnuville 4 years ago by reviewing the early days of Good News Roundups and how we got to be here: A strong, vibrant Daily Kos group which posts twice a day. Last week I invited other Gnusies to offer reminiscences too. 13 Gnusies posted recollections in last week's comments. In the order I found them: chloris creator, Stolibien09, JohnB47, WolverineForTJatAW, GDbot, azureazule, Wee Mama, Bill in Portland Maine, teej, maru, arhpdx, sdosch, and cindy mc. (If I missed your comment, please let me know!)
Loved authors, commenters, the founder of the Good News group, The Wizard of Wit, and two who stampeded with GoodNewsRoundup from FaceBook brought their touching wit, honesty, and reflections. One day, perhaps, I’ll add those comments to a stand-alone diary, but not today. For now, you have the links.
For Part 1 of my view of our origin, see this comment. Short version: GoodNewsRoundup started writing Good News Roundups here at Daily Kos in May 2017. Wee Mama welcomed her with open arms. I called GNR, and she listened to my community-building suggestions. Our community grew and evolved as I crafted my Welcome comment. Again, go here for a more detailed and poetic version of Part 1.
I wrote last week that I would continue with Part 2 this week, but unfortunately I have had tech issues, and I had to completely reconstruct this diary. Sigh. Fortunately, though, not from scratch. Therefore, due to exigencies of time, stress, and caution, I am going to postpone Part 2 until next week.
Please add your reminiscences in the comments:
What do you remember about the beginnings of the Good News Roundup group? What’s your story? If you are one of our dozen authors, when did you start writing Good News Roundups? If you already responded in last week comments, you need not necessarily write again, unless you wish to.
Up from the Comments #1
GDbot: ‘I can’t quite remember when I noticed the wisdom of the Good News Roundup approach to ‘Life in the Time of Fear and Loathing As a Method of Governance”. As a DKos addict [recovering] it was a time of high anxiety even though I knew that “There is no such thing as Good News” in the sense that it can’t help sell Newspapers. But I also know that we are making incredible progress despite our crazy loony DNA that seems almost self destructive. Search ‘Hans Rosling’ over at You Tube or TED. Dude is a Saint for helping me save my sanity. Things really are much better than a mere 50 to 75 years ago. AND! we have invented our greatest machine yet, the internet, which those younger than me will use to fix those spots that are yet still broken and in need of a Mother’s tender kiss to make the Fauci ouchie better. Thanks for helping me remember that I was here on the earlier under-50 map.
‘We got this. A short breather and then one more push against the Confederacy of Dunces part of our pea brain.’
Thanks, GDbot! I had never heard of my new friend, Hans Rosling. I searched our Internet for his name and found the following YouTube video (3.5M views): Global health has improved in the past 50 years. He has other videos.
“Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us have had their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, his work focused on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (as he pointed out) is no longer worlds away from the West. In fact, most of the Third World is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.” [Hans Rosling, global health expert, data visionary, Ted Speakers]
Image: Hans Rosling stands in front of a chart showing demographic changes.
The best stats you've ever seen | Hans Rosling
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Up from the Comments, #2
To celebrate the Evening Shade diaries, where Gnusies rest in the shade, talk about the day, and exchange cat pictures, I wrote a haiku and posted it earlier this week.
Evening Shade, Contentment
Under the vernal
moon's horns, a press of gnus drinks —
To life! To progress!
Copyright 2021 2thanks. All rights reserved.
Image: Crescent moon on black background - night sky. From the Daily Kos Image Library.
To my haiku, 88keys responded with this video:
To Life: Vanessa's Wedding Surprise by Lin-Manuel Miranda:
Poll #1: Who Won the Week?
Cheers and Jeers archive and future editions here. Way, way more than 2 thanks to The One, our Wicked Wizard of Wit and writer of Who Won the Week, Willhelm von kosland!
- Karma, as snot-nosed "Students for Trump" founder John Lambert gets sentenced to over a year in prison for fraud after scamming people by pretending to be a veteran lawyer
- The vaccinated: fed mask rule lifted for fully-vaccinated; U.S. hits 300M shots; 12-15ers get green light for Pfizer shot; fully vaccinated share Mom's Day in person with family (hugs courtesy of the Democratic party)
- NY Attorney General Letitia James, who can now go full-bore against the NRA for fraud and abuse after a judge shot down the gun-humping organization's attempt to declare bankruptcy
- The FAA, for ratcheting up fines to tens of thousands of dollars on covidiot/Trump cult passengers who refuse to wear masks and/or cause disruptions before and during flights
- Protection for America's infrastructure, as President Biden signs Executive Order to modernize cybersecurity, protect federal government networks, and beef up our response to attacks
- Equality in health care, as HHS reverses Trump's rules that allowed health care providers receiving federal funding to discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation
- The Muslims who made it through a month of fasting, as Ramadan comes to a close
- Ron Stroman and Amber McReynolds, confirmed as a members of the Postal Board of Governors, bringing postmaster Louis DeJoy two steps closer to getting booted
- That Bengal tiger in Houston that terrorized a neighborhood…and captured America's hearts
Bill’s Friday poll is here.
Who do you think won the week? Who made a winning move after Bill's deadline on Friday?
Science
For last night’s Overnight News Digest, Magnifico focused again on science stories. For some of these, I use Gnusie Mrmuni12’s framing: Not necessarily Good News, but we need to the facts to make good decisions. And remember, it’s never too late to Recommend!
- Scientists train honeybees to stick out their tongues when they detect coronavirus.
- Some mammals can breath through their intestines in an emergency.
- Few realistic scenarios left to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
- Restoring forests can reduce zoonotic diseases.
- Interstellar space hums.
- Worldwide coronavirus death toll undercounted by a staggering amount.
- New theory explains weird dreams may be training us for life.
- First genetically modified mosquitoes released in U.S. are hatching now.
- There’s a loophole in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
- Cats take “if I fits, I sits' seriously.
Our map of Gnuville: Over 629 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply in the comments to tljdk or silverfoxcruiser. Please include your city and state only, NOT street number and street. (Please persist, we are volunteers.)
Image: Two maps of the United States, one above the other. Both maps indicate the approximate locations of members of the Good News Roundup community. The lower map contains many more blue pin-markers than the upper map. Upper image: A map of Gnuville from February 15, 2019 with fewer than 50 Gnusie pins. Lower image: A map of Gnuville from March 21, 2021 with 582 pins across our orb. [Thanks Kluger2!]
If you join us regularly, are you Following us?
Tech Talk for Kosacks
- Got a Daily Kos tech question? Let us know.
- Solved a tech question recently? Please feel free to repeat in the comments.
- Repeat of excellent question from May 2, for users of desktops and laptops. [To be crisp, clear, and complete, I edited Ernest’s and Wolvie’s answers ~2t]
- Ernest T Bass:
- How do I disable the Load More buttons and get all the comments to display at one time? [Thank you, Ernest, for your delightful critique! ~2t]
- WolverineForTJatAW:
- Go to this url: www.dailykos.com/comments_beta/false. All you have to do is go there, and all comments should load after that without the Load More buttons. You’ll probably have to reload any already-open pages.
- Save the URL by any method (Favorite, Bookmark, copy to a text document, email it to yourself, tattoo), in case Fate mangles your computer's cookies. [Thanks, Wolvie, you saved a lot of us a lot of grief, and I learned something easy, beautiful, and useful! ~2t]
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:
- The Monday GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu). With their five, we survive and thrive.
- Alternating Tuesdays: NotNowNotEver and arhpdx.
- Wednesdays: niftywriter.
- Thursdays: pucklady the 1st Thursday, Mokurai the 2nd, oldhippiedude the 3rd, MCUBernieFan the 4th, and Mokurai the 5th (when there is one).
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup. Heart-stirring and soul-healing introduction and sometimes memes to succumb to.
- 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.
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. In the words of NotNowNotEver: “hpg ably continues the tradition of Evening Shade.” Find Evening Shades here.
oldhippiedude posts Tweets of the Week on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. PT— New time! Our second evening Gnusie hangout zone! In search of a TOTW diary? Look here or here.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
The 6 R’s of the Resistance
Joe Biden is now our President. However, we continue to stay vocal and active, we continue to pull Joe to the left, and we continue resist the GQP.
- Refresh and Rest: Take care of you, the hero: Eat well, exercise, and rest.
- 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.
- Rejoice: Joy promotes resilience and gives rise to hope.
How to Resist: Do Something …
Are you looking for a new focus now that we have good people in charge? Fighting voter suppression might be for you! Nothing is as important!
What can you do?
- Contact your local representative NOW to encourage them to pass the For the People Act. This link makes it easy to do!
- The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
- The League of Women Voters work year-round to combat voter suppression through advocacy, grassroots organizing, legal action and public education. You can get involved with them at this link
- Volunteer with Black Votes Matter at this link. They have on the ground work in 10 states and people from other states can write postcards, phone bank, fundraise, and text.
- Spread The Vote works to get voters IDs before voting begins. You can volunteer with them at this link.
- Finally, when it comes time to pass HR1 (the new voting rights act) the Democrats will have to end the filibuster to do it. It will not pass without that. 10 Republicans will not vote for it. So, when the time comes, you will need to call, call, call and call your Senators to push them to do this. If you live in Arizona, Montana, or West Virginia, you may want to put in for some vacation time to really devote yourself to it. It will be the only option. Get ready! [GoodNewsRoundup]
We welcome comments in Roundups every day regarding:
- National or local Good News.
- Links, stories, music, videos, quotes, tweets. (No tweets or images of the saffron chlamidiot, please.)
- Your resistance activity.
In my Sunday smorgasbord Roundups, I especially welcome the following types of comments:
- Who won YOUR week?
- Questions about Daily Kos tech issues or our map.
- Good News Roundups and you.
- How are you resisting?
Top Image: Starhawk created this diary’s top image of the rampant gnu and gave it to the members of the Good News Roundup group (Gnusies)! Thank you, Starhawk! This is a quite detailed sketch of a gnu drawn in brown, green, and black. A happy and dynamic gnu dances on its left hind leg in a classic rampant heraldric pose. Joyful letters prance above and behind the mane: “Happy Dance.” Signature: Nick Korolev, 2021.
The Roundup is almost open!
Thank you for fighting for truth and justice with all us Gnusies! 40% of our Readers don’t visit every day, 50% of us do, and 10% are here for the first time! We all do what we can. For 3-1/2 years, we’ve shared positive news, laughed, organized, resisted, rebelled, revolted without being revolting, relied, rested, mentored, created, crossed rivers, chewed our cud, puffed methane out both ends, and laughed. Here’s looking at you, kid, and standing upwind!
As always, please share more Good News than I can find or provide.
This is a group diary, and by my power I declare this Good Gnus Salo(o)n open! Let the good-news sharing and community building begin!
Power with, not power over ❤️ ✊ ❤️
If you enjoy my work on Daily Kos, I’d appreciate a gnusie bump, large or small, via PayPal or CashApp ($ipaywill). Gifts from supportive Kosacks help me pay for my wife’s medicines. If you sent me a gift recently, I am 2thankful!
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