The Good Gnus group is a community of readers, writers, activists, supporters, community builders, and patriots. We begin gathering every day at 7 a.m. ET to celebrate national good news. Our most active members are of course a subgroup of members of Daily Kos, whose Front Pages celebrate “News, Community, Action.” However, you don’t have to be a member of Daily Kos to be a Gnusie.
We are realists, not fools, idiots, or ostriches. We know we live in a world where active, nefarious, and evil decision-makers do very bad things, and create stress and anxiety in us, our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, our allies, and destroy people and systems we hold dear. However, we choose to focus on the good news that people create around the country.
Sometimes we ourselves create Good News. Together we are strong and resilient. We return regularly to these pages to revitalize.
In a Good News Roundup, the weight of bearing good news is not borne by the author alone: Gnusies can be counted on to adorn the comment section with good news. Often commenters create three times as many comments as Recommendations! If you cannot linger with us for hours, I recommend you return in the mid or late afternoon, learn who your favorite commenters are, and Search for their names on return visits. We count on certain favorite Gnusies to bless us in the comments with humor, hope, history, and analysis every day.
We bring good news, and we create good news.
Tracking Weekly Polls: Vaccinations of Our Readers: Hoof Prints on the Vaccination Veldt
Since February 21, 2021, I’ve been asking readers to respond to this question every Sunday: What is your vaccination status? I’m pleased to present the results of that polling here, and I am very grateful to those readers and members of Daily Kos who have chosen to get vaccinated and participate in the poll every week. I know many agree with me: I’m elated to see these trends of readers, Gnusie, and Kosacks!
Results of the Vaccination Polls from Sunday Good News Roundups before May 23, 2021 (Percentages)
Image: Results of the Vaccination Polls from Sunday Good News Roundups before May 23, 2021 (Data). [Open in a new Tab to enlarge or visit my Google Sheet.]
Image: Results of the Vaccination Polls from Sunday Good News Roundups before May 23, 2021 (Chart). [Open in a new Tab to enlarge or visit my Google Sheet.]
Notes Repeated from Last Week:
- The green line, the sum of rows A and C in the database, represents the proportion of readers vaccinated.
- This chart reveals the proportion of our readers who are fully immune, i.e., 2 weeks after their vaccinations are complete. Simply check the results from 2 weeks prior. For instance, we can read the poll results of 5/2 and see that 85% of respondents received either both double vaccinations or the single. Therefore, we know that 2 weeks after 5/2, on 5/16, 85% of respondents will have reached full immunity.
- If you have difficulty reading the above images or if you want to nerd out over the data, you can access the above 2 images in my Google Sheet.
- The median age of Daily Kos readers is greater than the median age of Americans, and therefore we have been able to claim our vaccinations before most Americans.
- Percentages do not add up to 100 percent because of the many other polling options which I do not report in these data.
Thank you for getting vaccinated and participating in our continued polling! I hope you’ll vote (again) today [all the way down at the bottom of this diary].
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 the comments on May 9. 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. And on May 16, NotNowNotEver and meadowmist left recollections. (Again If I missed any such comments, 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.
Part 2. After
NotNowNotEver quit writing the Sunday Good News Roundups in order to return to real-world campaigning in early August 2018, I decided that I would have time to take over the Sunday slot. However, my schedule did not allow me to write long introductions, so I decided to offer a different type of Roundup. After using Good News Roundup’s sprouts-in-snow top picture for 3 Sundays, and after starting to refer to us as Newsies, by
early September, I had begun using an image of gnus as the top picture of my Sunday Roundups, to which chloris creator responded “
Oh, I was hoping so much that you would use one of the GNUs pictures. They’re so much fun, and they do signal that Sundays are a little different.” More recollections from my point of view 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.
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!
- Ed Gainey, who won his primary race after campaigning on equality for Black and poor residents, and is now all but assured to become Pittsburgh's first Black mayor
- Michael Kuperberg---reinstated as executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (coordinating climate research across 13 agencies), after he got fired by Trump
- The Maricopa County (AZ) Board of Supervisors, who demanded an end to the audit of 2020 election results because the "auditors" are incompetent right-wing hacks
- Roll Call photographer Tom Williams, for releasing a photo of Rep. Andrew Clyde---who called the Jan. 6 insurrectionists "tourists"---panicking as they tried to break into the House chamber
- The vise of justice, as the NY Attorney General's office announces that, along with the Manhattan DA, it's elevating its investigation into the Trump organization from "civil" to "criminal"
- Team Biden-Harris: boosts access to legal services for low-income Americans; signs anti-Asian-hate-crimes bill; puts pedal to the metal of "game changing" electric Ford F-150; 66% pandemic-response approval
- Antrim County (MI) Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, for dismissing a Trump cult election fraud lawsuit, shutting down an attempt to mimic a Maricopa-style audit in Michigan
- Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Hawaii, for becoming the first states where 70% of residents have received at least 1 vaccine dose
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was voted Person of the Year at the 2021 Webby Awards for getting accurate info on Covid-19 out across a huge swath of social media platforms
- The patriotic Americans in the House who cared about our country enough to vote for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 Trump cult insurrection
Bill’s Friday poll is here.
Who do you think won the week? Who made a winning move after Bill's deadline on Friday?
Up from the Comments
Great idea from the blue!
azureazule: “Hello! As a huge fan of [Good News Roundups] , I was wondering if it were possible to get email notifications for GNR posts. I've noticed Daily Kos emails me about stories sometimes, but really what I want in my inbox is GNR. I was hoping maybe you could help answer this. If email notifications are not something the group does, that's okay, I can do my best to remember to check every day. Thanks again for GNR!!!”
What do you think, Gnusies? Would you like to volunteer to collect email addresses and/or schedule email Roundup notifications for 7 a.m. ET?
Our map of Gnuville: Over 631 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please drop a comment or send one of the following a kosmail: tljdk, silverfoxcruiser, and keepiru. Please include 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.
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, good actions, and cats. 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 ❤️ ✊ ❤️
2thanks (he, him)