Welcome 😊 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
We’ve been searching for years for a pithy way to describe our party. I am using a suggestion made by WolverineForTJatAW, Democrats Deliver. (note that I heard Eric Swalwell use it on a podcast from the other night, after I started this diary, so maybe the phrase is spreading)
Here are just a few of the things the Biden presidency, working with the slenderest of margins in the House and Senate, has delivered to the American people and the world. A few examples:
- Best first year for jobs for any president
- Amazing roll-out of vaccines
- Working on approaches, large and small, to deal with real problems: climate; income disparities; gun violence
- Finally, movement on infrastructure
Of course, there’s a gazillion more things to do, like tackling inflation, racism, and putting some Jan 6 people in prison. Come on in, dear gnusies, and read about what we and our friends are doing to make the planet a better place for us, our kids, and the rest of Ceiling Cat’s creatures, great and small.
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, February 10, 2022: Readout of Roundtable Discussion with Cabinet Officials
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: Nominations and Withdrawals Sent to the Senate
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: Remarks by President Biden on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Work to Lower Healthcare Costs
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: President Biden Announces Presidential Delegation to Attend the Bicentennial Celebration of the Arrival of the First Free Black Americans to the Republic of Liberia
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: Statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Houthi Attack Against Saudi Arabia
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: PRICES WEEK FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Plan to Boost the Capacity of the Economy and Lower Costs for Working Families
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: Statement by President Biden on January Consumer Price Index Report
- Thursday, February 10, 2022: Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on the United States Hosting APEC in 2023
- Thursday, February 9, 2022: Remarks by President Biden at a Roundtable with CEOs of Electric Utilities to Discuss His Build Back Better Agenda
- Thursday, February 9, 2022: Statement by President Biden on the Introduction of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022
- Thursday, February 9, 2022: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, February 9, 2022
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Call with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Call with President Emmanuel Macron of France
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at the University of Minnesota
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Statement from Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh on Vice President Harris’s Travel to Germany
- Wednesday, February 9, 2022: Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Senior Officials from the Federal Republic of Nigeria
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, February 8, 2022
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: Readout of President Biden’s Meeting with Economists on the Benefits of Infrastructure Investment
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: President Biden Honors 117 Individuals and Organizations with Highest U.S. Award for Science and Mathematics Teachers and Mentors
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: Remarks by President Biden on Rebuilding Our Manufacturing to Make More in America
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: Remarks by Vice President Harris Encouraging All Americans to Take Advantage of Critical Tax Credits
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Ensuring Future is Made in America
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022: FACT SHEET: Vice President Kamala Harris Leads Biden-Harris Administration Day of Action to Ensure Americans Get the Tax Credits They Deserve
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Remarks by President Biden and Chancellor Scholz of the Federal Republic of Germany at Press Conference
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Readout of Stakeholder Call on the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Readout of President Biden’s Meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, February 7, 2022
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Remarks by President Biden and Chancellor Scholz of the Federal Republic of Germany Before Bilateral Meeting
- Monday, February 7, 2022: A Message to the Congress on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Situation in and in Relation to Burma
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to the Situation in and in Relation to Burma
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate
- Monday, February 7, 2022: President Biden Announces Key Appointees
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at the Community College National Legislative Summit
- Monday, February 7, 2022: White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment Report
- Monday, February 7, 2022: Background Press Call Previewing the German Chancellor’s Visit
- Sunday, February 6, 2022: Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Call with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel
- Sunday, February 6, 2022: Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Call with President Emmanuel Macron of France
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Statement by President Joe Biden on 900,000 American Deaths from COVID-19
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Remarks by President Biden at Signing of an Executive Order on Project Labor Agreements
- Friday, February 4, 2022: October 2021 Visitor Log Records Posted
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Executive Order on Use of Project Labor Agreements For Federal Construction Projects
- Friday, February 4, 2022: President Biden Announces 3 Key Nominees
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Remarks by President Biden on the January Jobs Report
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Remarks by Vice President Harris at Signing of an Executive Order on Project Labor Agreements
- Friday, February 4, 2022: Statement from President Biden on House Passage of the America COMPETES Act
- Friday, February 4, 2022: A Proclamation to Continue Facilitating Positive Adjustment to Competition From Imports of Certain Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells (Whether or Not Partially or Fully Assembled Into Other Products)
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
👍 Hooray for Susan Collins! (Not the senator) Neil Irwin Axios
Susan Collins, an economist and university administrator, will be the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, part of a wave of new leadership at the central bank.
The big picture: Collins adds to diversity in the Fed's leadership. She will be only the second Black president and first Black woman to head one of the 12 Fed banks in the century-plus history of the institution.
Why it matters: Collins will have a vote on monetary policy in the second half of the year on the powerful Federal Open Market Committee, which is likely to be in the midst of raising interest rates by the time she takes office.
👎 OK, this guy never actually made it in, so he’s not technically out, still, it matters: tRump’s EPA guy rejected by VA Senate Doktor Zoom Wonkette
Virginia's state commonwealth Senate voted yesterday to reject the nomination of former Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to the state's top environmental job, because "former Trump EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, are you shitting me? Are you seriously shitting me here?" At least I assume that's what all the Democrats in the Senate were thinking before Wheeler's bid to become the state's commonwealth's secretary of natural resources failed on a 21 to 19 party-line vote.
Now new Gov. Glenn Youngkin will need to find another nominee who manages to be just as awful as Wheeler, but perhaps isn't a literal former coal lobbyist who worked to dismantle a ton of important environmental protections like the Obama administration's vehicle fuel-efficiency standards or the Clean Power Plan, which would have required steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation stations. Our grandchildren can all thank Andrew Wheeler for playing a central role in delaying US action on climate, as they're dealing with the damage from a hotter climate and rising seas.
👎 And someone who really does leave her position in Virginia Bob Brigham Raw Story
"A top deputy overseeing election issues for Virginia’s new Republican attorney general resigned Thursday after The Washington Post questioned the office about Facebook posts she had made praising Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Former deputy attorney general Monique Miles also espoused unfounded conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election interference in more than a dozen Facebook comments that spanned months," the newspaper reported. "Four people who interacted with Miles on Facebook confirmed the authenticity of the posts."
Miles described inquiring about the posts she had made as a "character assassination to stir up controversy."
💣 Republicans in Disarray 💣
tRump trying to oust McConnell. McConnell shrugs Summer ConcepcionTalking Points Memo
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) isn’t losing sleep over former President Trump’s crusade to get him booted as leader.
That’s what the top Senate Republican told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday evening, while mocking the former president’s “Old Crow” nickname for him, which Trump adopted months ago as part of his ongoing ire toward McConnell.
“It’s my favorite bourbon,” McConnell told the Examiner, referring to the Kentucky hard liquor of the same name.
As discussed, it seems the list of laws tfdg did not break is shorter than the list of laws obeyed
💙 Democrats Being Cool 💙
Investment in FL Everglades Audubon Florida
The White House announced the largest ever investment of federal funds for Everglades restoration on January 19, 2022. Nearly $1.1 billion will be provided to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program to support projects this year. This funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that was signed into law in November 2021 and represents a sweeping investment in the world’s largest ecosystem restoration project – America’s Everglades.
"We are grateful for the unprecedented federal funding delivering $1.1 billion for Everglades restoration and think that additional funding through general appropriations for the EAA Reservoir would be a smart investment in America's Everglades,” says Audubon Florida’s Director of Everglades Policy, Kelly Cox. "It is clear that restoring this ecosystem is a bipartisan priority and will continue to be.”
Audubon Florida, our partners, and Florida’s Congressional delegation have been advocating for increased funding for Everglades restoration to support ongoing projects throughout the Greater Everglades ecosystem. The funding allocated to the U.S. Army Corps will allow already planned projects under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan to be expedited, hastening the completion of Everglades Restoration. These projects, like the Indian River Lagoon C23/24 Reservoir, the Biscayne Bay and Southern Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Project, and the Western Everglades Restoration Project, will improve the hydrology of the region, safeguard drinking water supplies for South Florida, improve water quality, and increase the region’s resilience.
Addressing a key issue re corruption and conflict:
🎩 MeteorBlades: Biden administration to reclaim Abandoned Mine Lands (press release from Department of Interior)
The Department of the Interior today announced nearly $725 million in Fiscal Year 22 funding is available to 22 states and the Navajo Nation to create good-paying union jobs and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands (AML) as part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law allocates a total of $11.3 billion in AML funding over 15 years, which will help communities eliminate dangerous environmental conditions and pollution caused by past coal mining. This historic funding allocation is expected to address the vast majority of inventoried abandoned mine lands in this country.
AML reclamation projects support vitally needed jobs for coal communities by investing in projects that close dangerous mine shafts, reclaim unstable slopes, improve water quality by treating acid mine drainage, and restore water supplies damaged by mining. AML reclamation projects also enable economic revitalization by reclaiming hazardous land for recreational facilities and other economic redevelopment uses like advanced manufacturing and renewable energy deployment. As required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this funding will prioritize projects that employ dislocated coal industry workers.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to helping working families, often in rural and Tribal communities, who face hazardous pollution, toxic water levels, and land subsidence both during mining and long after coal companies have moved on,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's historic investments will help revitalize these local economies and support reclamation jobs that help put people to work in their communities, all while addressing environmental impacts from these legacy developments. We thank Chairman Manchin and the bipartisan coalition of members of Congress for their leadership in funding this transformational program.”
Moving people along!
Not so new, but noteworthy: Biden stops federal executions Inigo Alexander Newsweeek
President Biden is an opponent of the federal penalty and therefore reinstated a national freeze on federal executions, which had been in place for 17 years until former president Donald Trump ended the pause.
In July (2021), the Biden administration opted to restore the pre-Trump status quo and imposed a suspension on federal executions while the Department of Justice assesses the existing procedures and policies.
The pause does not enable the President to halt executions at state level, though the Biden administration has vowed to eradicate capital punishment at federal level.
Prior to Biden's pause, there had been 13 federal executions under Trump.
💜 Unity? 💜
📫 Many Rs joined Ds to pass a bill in the house for the post office:
The reason the USPS is “broke” is because of an insane retirement funding requirement, passed by a GOP House/Senate back in 2006, which this bill finally deals with. And, despite the words from the honorable representative, the Senate will probably deal with this, at least from a discussion on ALL IN the other night.
After all, many R voters are rural voters. And they want the post office too.
Newark cops and residents put down their guns to talk about shared trauma J. Brian Charles Reasons to Be Cheerful
In a handful of cities across the country, interactions between police and communities have grown so tense that municipal leaders have turned to conflict resolution sessions, where residents and the cops work with mediators to hash out differences. Los Angeles and Baltimore have operated complaint mediation programs since 2014 and 2016 respectively, allowing residents who file complaints to sit down with a mediator and the cops they have accused to work through the dispute.
Trauma to Trust is Newark’s spin on such a program, an attempt to get the two sides to better understand each other’s stress and trauma.
The city agreed to pilot the practice in the hopes it would help cool decades of conflict, tension, and strife. In 1967, Newark exploded in civil unrest after the police beat a taxi driver. Since then, the Newark Police Department has had routine brushes with controversy, from questionable shootings, to beatings, to discriminatory traffic and pedestrian stops. In 2016, Equal Justice USA, a national criminal justice reform nonprofit, partnered with the city to create the program. Trauma to Trust is fully funded through grants, and the city has not spent any of its municipal budget on the training. Organizers of the project encourage participants to confront the ways in which police contribute to the collective trauma of a community and understand the stress police officers endure on the job.
📥 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 😈
🚽 You can’t make this 💩 up, and now we know why tfdg had problems flushing Mike Allen, Axios
While President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet — and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper, Maggie Haberman scoops in her forthcoming book, "Confidence Man."
Why it matters: The revelation by Haberman, whose coverage as a New York Times White House correspondent was followed obsessively by Trump, adds a vivid new dimension to his lapses in preserving government documents. Axios was provided an exclusive first look at some of her reporting.
Haberman reports Trump has told people that since leaving office, he has remained in contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — whose "love letters," as Trump once called them, were among documents the National Archives retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.
could NC elections board disqualify Cawthorne? Cristina Cabrera Talking Points Memo
On Monday, the board filed a 31-page response in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina to Cawthorn’s lawsuit attempting to shut down a group of North Carolina voters who are pushing to get him disqualified from running for reelection. The voters, backed by the advocacy organization Free Speech For People, argue that the GOP lawmaker violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, the constitutional clause that bars individuals who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from entering office.
The elections board requested the court dismiss Cawthorn’s motion, arguing that pre-election challenges “serve the critical purpose of ensuring that only qualified candidates appear on the ballot and are voted on by the electorate, while promoting public confidence in the electoral system.”
The board noted that states have “long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges.”
“The State has the same authority to police which candidates should or should not be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the board continued.
tdfg’s social media app not on schedule and stock plummets Ja’han Jones The ReidOut
The firm partnering with former President Donald Trump’s fledgling (and floundering) social media company saw its stock plummet Monday due to Team Trump’s inability to launch the app on schedule, CNBC reported.
If you were waiting with bated breath for the horrendously named Truth Social, it looks like you’ll have to find somewhere else to complain about women discussing sports or the number of Black people in lead film roles.
Another ill-conceived RWNJ venture:
😄 🍅 Ok, this had me laughing:
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
This may seem odd, but I want to honor our intelligence community JenniferRubin Washington Post
Gone are the days when political hacks such as John Ratcliffe and Richard Grenell occupied the post of director of national intelligence. And we can put behind us suspicions that our intelligence findings had been infected with the defeated former president’s personal agenda.
Now, we can be sure we have a professional, reliable intelligence operation that, unique for such organizations, knows when to release information to the public. For proof, look to the raid in Syria this past week that took out Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and the revelations about Russia’s complex operation to create a false-flag video that would justify its aggression in Ukraine, complete with corpses and military props. ✂️
Senior administration officials revealed during a background briefing on Thursday that the United States worked “in concert with a global coalition of over 80 partners who are working to share intelligence, repatriate foreign fighters, prosecute ISIS leaders, and perhaps most importantly, de-escalate regional conflicts and stabilize former ISIS safe havens to ensure these groups cannot — never again resurge and threaten the American people.” Moreover, precise intelligence helped minimize civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the intelligence community ferreted out Russia’s propaganda scheme, briefed members of Congress and shared it with the public.
Given how well it has been working with other partners, I considered putting this in the unity segment. Or the fact that it is working at all, in the Democrats Are Cool segment.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
❄️ 80-year-old leads stranded motorists to his house during a blizzard Andy Corbley Good News Network
A retiree rescuer hiked half a kilometer through a winter whiteout to reach a woman that had used social media to alert the local neighborhood that she was stuck and afraid for her safety.
At 80-years old, Andre Bouvier Sr. is being hailed as a hero for rescuing not only the woman, but three other cars likewise stuck in an impassable blizzard which locals describe as a “Saskatchewan Screamer.” ✂️
Bouvier let the survivors sleep at his house, where they ate and laughed, and departed the next morning after he had plowed the driveway.
📎Odds & Ends 📎
Scotland aims to save salmon by planting trees along the rivers Andy Corbley Good News Network
With salmon spawning rivers in Scotland reaching record temperatures, the country has launched a mass native tree-planting campaign to cloak the shallows in shade in order to protect the frigid waters the salmon prefer.
Last spawning season for at least one day, the water temperatures in 70% of the spawning grounds were recorded as “too high” for salmon eggs to survive. But freshwater biologists discovered that only 30% of the riverine mileage had adequate tree cover to keep water temperatures cool throughout the day.
Scientists find a better way to recycle plastics Paige Bennett EcoWatch
Currently, only about 9% of plastics in the U.S. are recycled, in part because the chemical makeup of many plastics makes recycling difficult. When plastics are recycled, they often become weaker in their second life. But chemists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found a way to break down plastics and recycle them into an even stronger, more durable material.
The method breaks down plastics and alters the carbon-hydrogen bonds found in plastic polymers to make them tougher than the original plastic. This not only recycles the plastic, but also makes it more valuable. The team published their findings in the journal Science.
“Our approach views plastic waste as a potentially valuable resource for the production of new molecules and materials,” said Frank Leibfarth, assistant professor of chemistry in the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. “We hope this method could drive an economic incentive to recycle plastic, literally turning trash into treasure.”
A woman I admire a lot:
🌊 Oceans of Opportunity Agence France-Press translated by Raw Story
not just for cows!
It’s a nutritional food source, an alternative to plastic, has medicinal properties and can help to limit global heating: Marine algae might just be the next weapon in the fight against climate change.
From February 9 to 11, the French town of Brest is hosting the One Ocean Summit, the first international summit dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans. NGOs, scientists, business leaders and heads of state will meet in the Breton town to discuss how to protect marine ecosystems and promote sustainability.
Philippe Potin, a marine biologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and Vincent Doumeizel, a senior advisor and food expert for the United Nations Global Compact, speak to FRANCE 24 about what’s at stake at the summit.
There’s one point on which they are unanimous. “We have to invest in marine algae!” they say.
🐦 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.
