Welcome!
Good morning, Gnusies! I’m subbing for niftywriter today while she continues to deal with some personal business. The best news for all of us who love her wonderful writing is that she thinks she’ll be back next Wednesday! 😊
Happily, I found lots of good news to share with you today. I always try to find some sort of common thread in the stories that make up my GNRs, and today what came up was the power of the people — us! — to create the changes we want. We can’t do it all, but we can do a lot, especially when we work together. And there’s nothing better to inspire us than reading about the success of other individuals and groups. I’m especially heartened by the resurgence of the labor movement.
So pour yourself a big mug of your morning beverage of choice, settle into a comfortable chair, and let’s get started!
Opening music
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Good news in politics
Biden’s policies continue to be massively popular, and he keeps coming up with new popular initiatives.
159 advocacy groups band together to push for Biden’s Build Back Better plan
From The American Independent:
While Congress has shifted its attention to more pressing matters, like Russia's growing aggression toward Ukraine and a vacancy on the Supreme Court, advocacy groups haven't forgotten about Build Back Better.
A coalition of 159 labor unions and advocacy groups led by the organization Invest In America is calling on Congress to advance the centerpiece of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.
The diverse array of advocacy groups includes Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the Economic Policy Institute, Faith in Public Life, Indivisible, Iron Workers, Latino Victory, the League of Conservation Voters, MomsRising, MoveOn, Our Revolution, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Sierra Club, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.
The coalition includes some of the country's largest labor unions representing millions of American workers, including builders, nurses, educators, and service sector employees.✂️
Despite the freeze on Biden's landmark social spending plan, 65% of voters still support Build Back Better, according to a January survey from Data for Progress, a progressive think tank. That includes 64% of independent voters who want to see the bill passed.
Biden administration announces crackdown on 'ghost guns' to curb violent crime
Note that there will be a 90-day comment period after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. Keep an eye peeled for the opportunity to comment — the gun-humpers will be all over it with their 2nd Amendment horseshit, so we need to make sure our voices are heard!
From The American Independent:
President Joe Biden's administration announced on Thursday that it has launched the National Ghost Gun Enforcement Initiative, tasking the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal law enforcement agencies with curbing the availability of the so-called "ghost guns" that are being used more and more in violent crimes.
Ghost guns refer to the use of kits to assemble guns. These kits do not require background checks to be purchased and the weapons created do not have serial numbers or other markings used by police to investigate crimes. ✂️
The Department of Justice said as part of the new initiative that prosecutors across the country will be specifically trained to address the use of ghost guns in crimes and that the department will distribute educational material about ghost guns to investigators and prosecutors.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said it would designate a "ghost gun coordinator" in each of its field divisions to serve as a resource for state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials and prosecutors.
The Biden administration has also proposed federal rules to regulate ghost guns. The rules would mandate background checks for the sale of gun kits as well as require serial numbers for those kits, closing the existing loopholes in the process. The rules are currently subject to public comment and are expected to face court challenges before they are implemented.
Biden restarts 'Cancer Moonshot' program, aims to cut death rate by 50 percent
From NBC News:
President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a relaunch of the "Cancer Moonshot" program started during the Obama administration … In a speech at the White House, Biden said the revamped initiative aims to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years and improve the experiences of patients and their families. ✂️
The president also announced a campaign to get more people screened for cancer, noting that more than 9 million cancer screenings have been skipped during the Covid pandemic. Biden, 79, received a colonoscopy in November. ✂️
Biden said that part of the Cancer Moonshot's goal would be to help people diagnosed with cancer navigate the overwhelming amount of treatment information and a bureaucratic health care system that can often leave patients feeling helpless.
"Despite all the progress, there’s still a sense of powerlessness," Biden said, drawing on his own experience with his son [Beau’s brain cancer] diagnosis. "Guilt that maybe you're not doing enough because you don't know enough."
And ICYMI in the DKos trending list, here’s a great diary from Merlin196357:
Turnabout is Fair Play: Democratic Virginia Senate Blocking Youngkin “Agenda”
Wherever they have any room to take action, Dems are fighting back against fascist Rethug policies.
Daily Kos, February 6, 2022:
Virginia Democrats are using their Senate majority to reject significant chunks of the GOP agenda and turn back attempts to undo legislation that became law under the previous two years of a majority Democratic legislature.
Despite last year’s Republican wins statewide and for control of the House of Delegates, Democrats are using their 21-19 edge in the Senate to stop GOP legislation on charter schools, the minimum wage, guns, social issues and some of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s tax proposals.
“We made generational progress over the last two years on a lot of issues, from access to health care, to education funding, to expanding voting, criminal justice reform, addressing climate change. And those are issues that are very important to us and are popular with Virginians,” said Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, the Senate Democratic caucus secretary.
“We expected the new administration and House Republicans to try to roll them back, but we’re standing firm to protect that progress.”
Can Dems defy history?
You bet we can!!
From Politico:
DOUG SOSNIK of Brunswick Group argues that “there would need to be a series of developments in order for the Democrats to defy history”:
- The virus needs to be contained with the country returning to a new normal.
- Inflation needs to start going down by summer.
- The economy and the stock market need to maintain steady growth, particularly as interest rates begin to rise.
- The supply chain needs to return to normal.
- There is not a global crisis.
- Biden’s job approval rating needs to be in the high 40s by summer.
- Republicans need to nominate unelectable general-election candidates and run lousy campaigns. They are capable of this and have done this in recent past cycles, choosing far-right candidates such as TODD AKIN or CHRISTINE O’DONNELL who ended up losing in the general election.
- Trump and Republicans need to keep talking about the 2020 election.
And Evan Hurst on Wonkette adds this:
Huh! That's a lot of factors, and if old Doug is right, it's a lot of things that would have to fall into place at the same time.
And yet.
With the way Omicron busted through the population, even giving the vaccinated the sniffles, it's not hard to imagine the virus really could start settling down in the coming months.
And if the economy stays strong and the Biden administration keeps things like inflation and the supply chain under control, then the end of that list is just Trump and Republicans shooting their own dicks off and feeding them to each other. And what do Trump and Republicans love to do so much they can't ever stop? That.
We're not going to get into the weeds of specific candidates currently running, but with Trump continuing to require Republicans to kiss the ring and recite the Big Lie in order to get his endorsement, 2022's GOP candidates promise to be more batfucking crazy than ever. And Trump cannot, will not stop trying to rewrite the history of the day he officially became the world's biggest loser who ever was regrettably born on a shitty June day in 1946.
Yeah, it could happen.
🍿 Reckless Rethuglicans Risking Ruination! 🍿
McConnell pushes back on RNC censure of two lawmakers for role in probe of Jan. 6 Capitol attack
Ruh-roh...
From The Washington Post:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized the Republican National Committee on Tuesday for censuring two lawmakers for serving on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
In remarks to reporters at the Capitol, McConnell described the attack as a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.” ✂️
Asked whether he has confidence that RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will stay on in her role, McConnell told reporters, “I do.”
But he added: “The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC.”
Canada warns against 'foreign interference' after Republicans announce support for vaccine mandate protests
So are they really going to risk creating an international incident with this idiocy? How’s that going to play with the non-batshit American public and the traditional media?
From The Hill:
Senior Canadian officials have urged U.S. officials to stay out of the country's domestic affairs after some Republicans voiced their support for the "Freedom Convoy" protests in Ottawa, according to reports.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino responded to the comments over the convoy, according to Time Magazine, saying, "We need to be vigilant about potential foreign interference … Whatever statements may have been made by some foreign official are neither here nor there. We're Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them."
The convoy is protesting COVID-19 restrictions in the nation and has had a large presence in Ottawa for over a week.
Mendicino was responding to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) who have both voiced their support for the demonstrations after crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund the millions of dollars raised by demonstrators, The Associated Press reported. ✂️
Canada's minister of intergovernmental affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, blamed the GOP interference for inciting disorderly conduct and helping to fund groups that are in violation of Canadian law, the newswire reported.
Trump's operation is 'in a meltdown' as 'walls close in' and Pence revolts: former GOP lawmaker
From Raw Story:
Mike Pence's rebuke of Donald Trump on Friday was the beginning of the end for the former president, according to former GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
"I think what you're seeing is, the Trump operation is in sort of a meltdown," Comstock told CNN on Saturday. "Of course, Mike Pence is right — Donald Trump was wrong — and he basically also called him un-American, and he did it in front of conservative Federalist Society members who gave him a standing ovation." ✂️
After CNN host Jim Acosta played a clip of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz criticizing Pence on Steve Bannon's podcast, Comstock unloaded on the pair.
"These are the lowest of the low, these are the only people left in the Trump circle," she said. "Look at who didn't speak up yesterday. There were not people out on Fox (News) all day defending this resolution or pushing back on Mike Pence, or defending the former president and his talk of (Jan. 6) pardons. Republicans are now silent. So if you're Donald Trump, that means you don't have a lot of support. You may intimidate people, but these are all people who really ultimately hope you go away. … Republicans should not fear a man who has people around him you wouldn't hire to run for a dog catcher's race, so why would you fear these people now?"
I’ll end today’s politics section with a helpful hint:
How To Report Subversive Books And Teachers in YOUR School
Folks all over the country are having a ball punking Youngkin’s CRT tipline. Here’s a delightful little essay offering not only the email address to use but also some suggestions for what to say.
By Talia Levin, The Sword and the Sandwich:
I’m not even the first to suggest throwing the tipline wide open for any fleeting suspicion you may have that your precious white child is being taught about the actual horrors of the past! So I emailed a few helpful tips to helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov … I encourage you to also report anti-American subversion, ensure the patriotic loyalty of our schoolteachers, and the existence of nonwhite and gay people along with me! ✂️
To Sir Governor,
I sawe my Daughter’s Teachere Mrs. Johnson in a Conference with the Devyl and Many Demones and Karl Marxe was There and He Spoke Of Lascivious Thynges and Seizing The Means of Productyn As Well As Bottoms and Bosomes. I saw Beelzebub Himself and He Laughed At the Proceedings and Ate All The Dodgeballs For Gym Class. Please Burne Mrs. Johnson to Deathe for Her Wytchcraft, She Teaches Social Studies.
Yourse,
Mrs. Verna Brixton Blormton Barbon
Dungannon, VA
Dear Gubernatorial Task Force,
I saw C.R.T. himself stalking the halls of Wilberforth Jerg High School in the form of a ram, and the ram had black horns, and the ram spoke in a voice of dark music about throwing off the shackles of the patriarchy, and the ram’s breath was warm and smelled of apples, and the ram seduced the students into following him, and the ram made them all transgender, and then he flew away in a cloud of black and sulfurous smoke. Please send 10,000 policemen.
Yours Truly,
Genicle F. Harmblag
Iron Gate, VA
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Good news from my corner of the world
Oregon labor unions notch wins as membership, leverage grows
From The Oregonian:
...following more than five years of organizing, strikes and walkouts, and three years of negotiations — the Burgerville Workers Union celebrated a watershed moment in December when employees at five stores voted to ratify a labor contract, becoming the first fast food chain workers to be covered by a collective bargaining agreement. ✂️
In the weeks since the Burgerville workers inked their contract, a national unionization push at Starbucks has spread to seven locations in Oregon [more on that here]. Meanwhile, municipal trade workers for the city of Portland have voted to authorize a strike. They follow the lead of Nabisco, Fred Meyer and Kaiser employees who won contract concessions last fall after either striking or threatening to strike. ✂️
Union membership in the United States has been on the decline since the 1980s, especially in the private sector. About 20% of workers were represented by a union in 1983, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of last year, only about 10% of the workforce – and about 6% of private-sector employees – were part of a union. Those numbers have held relatively steady in the last couple of years, with union membership nationwide falling by half a percentage point in 2021.
Oregon union membership, though, has been rising for the last three years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union membership in Oregon rose by 43,000 to about 318,000 workers statewide last year, marking the highest number of union members in state history, according to the federal agency. Nearly 18% of Oregon workers are now represented by a union, making Oregon the fourth most unionized state in the country.
'I hope to be an inspiration': First female, Black, LGBTQ president selected at Lewis & Clark College
From KGW:
Multiple underrepresented communities will be represented for the first time at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, with a newly selected president.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity," said Dr. Robin Holmes-Sullivan.
Holmes-Sullivan will take over as the school's president in July…
Her appointment to the role by the Lewis & Clark board of trustees is historic.
"In our 155-year history here at Lewis & Clark, I'll be the first female and the first person of color to assume this role...I also identify as gay," she explained. "I hope to be an inspiration to young people who come from a variety of backgrounds to let them know they can dream big as well."
Holmes-Sullivan is Lewis & Clark College's current Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students. She has more than three decades of experience in higher education, spanning Oregon and California.
Oregon woman was first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military
From the Oregon Encyclopedia:
Hazel Ying Lee, who was born and educated in Oregon, was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military, one of two Chinese Americans in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)—the other was Margaret “Maggie” Gee from California—and one of thirty-eight WASPs who died in service. Known for her skill and courage, her peers considered her to be an excellent pilot. ✂️
Hazel Ying Lee was drawn to flying while still a teenager. She took a job as an elevator operator at Liebes Department Store in downtown Portland and saved money for private flying lessons. She later enrolled in the flying program sponsored by the Portland Chinese Benevolent Society and was flying by the time she was nineteen. ✂️
In the Fall of 1942, she heard about and applied for the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD)—which became the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in 1943. She was accepted into the program, and during a six-month training regimen in Texas learned to fly a variety of military planes.
… Shortly thereafter, the Women's Air Ferrying Service (WAFS) merged with the WFTD and was renamed WASPs. Lee was stationed at the Air Transport Command’s 3rd Ferrying Squadron at Romulus Army Air Base in Michigan, where she flew ferrying and administrative flights… . In 1944, Lee attended Pursuit School in Brownsville, Texas, becoming one of a select group of women qualified to fly high-powered, single-engine, fighter aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang. ✂️
Hazel Ying Lee died on November 25, 1944, as a result of injuries sustained in a collision on a runway in Great Falls, Montana. ...Lee’s service was typical of the over one thousand women who joined the WASPs. On average, they were paid less than men, had to pay for their own room and board and even their own uniforms. They did not receive military benefits; and for those thirty-eight who died in service, the U.S. Air Force did not pay for funeral expenses. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter gave WASPs veteran status. President Barack Obama awarded the WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010.
Farewell to a Portland icon
Last week, my favorite Portland mayor, J.E. “Bud” Clark, died at the age of 90. He was the quintessential “citizen mayor,” a bartender and pub owner who decided to run for office because he didn’t like how professional pols were governing his beloved city. The Oregonian published a lovely obituary for him. It’s a charming and inspiring read and really captures what a great guy he was. 🌹R.I.P., Bud. May your memory be a blessing for our city.
Bud celebrating his come-from-behind victory in the mayoral race, 1984. The setting he chose was the Crystal Ballroom, a rock and jazz concert venue. That rose in his lapel was one of his trademarks.
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Good news from around the nation
New York City offering free same-day delivery of COVID-19 antiviral pills
From The Hill:
Newly confirmed New York City mayor Eric Adams had plenty of good news to share at a press conference [on January 30th] where he touted more than 75 percent of all New Yorkers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which is more than 11 percent ahead of the national average. The mayor also announced that oral antiviral pills to treat COVID-19 infections were now available for free, same-day delivery through the city’s Health Department’s pharmacy partner Alto Pharmacy.
However, because the antiviral pills are on short supply, those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are at higher risk for severe illness will be prioritized in receiving the treatment.
Ted Long, senior vice president of ambulatory care and population health at New York City Health + Hospitals, said in a statement that “as a primary care doctor right here in the Bronx, for the past two years I’ve been fighting to help my patients with COVID, and dreaming of the day when I could give them a pill that could save their life,”
“Today, that day is finally here — and we’ll even deliver that pill to your home to remove all barriers to New Yorkers getting this life-saving treatment.” Long also said that those who don’t have a doctor that could prescribe them COVID-19 medication can still call the city’s hotline at 212-COVID19 for assistance.
Drug distributors, J&J to pay $590 mln to settle U.S. tribes' opioid claims
From Reuters:
The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $590 million to resolve claims by hundreds of Native American tribes that the companies fueled an opioid epidemic in their communities.
[The] deal [on Feb. 1] came after the distributors, McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc, along with J&J last year proposed paying up to $26 billion to resolve similar claims by states and local governments.
That proposed settlement, though, did not resolve lawsuits and potential claims by the country's 574 federally recognized Native American tribes and Alaska Native villages, which experienced disproportionately high rates of opioid overdoses.
Under Tuesday's settlement, the three distributors will pay nearly $440 million over seven years. That is on top [of] a $75 million settlement they reached in September with the Cherokee Nation. ✂️
"We're not solving the opioid crisis with the settlement, but we are getting critical resources to tribal communities to address the crisis," Steven Skikos, a lawyer for the tribes, said during a telephonic court hearing.
Where Immigrant Women, Usually Exploited by Fashion, Run the Show
From Reasons to be Cheerful:
“Sustainability has become a more mainstream part of the conversation in the fashion industry,” says Hoda Katebi, the founder of Blue Tin. “But labor is still this terrifying monster people don’t want to discuss. Everyone still relies on colonialism to produce their goods.”
Katebi launched Blue Tin as a response to this reality. An Iranian-American activist and author who was acclaimed for her political fashion publication JooJoo Azad, Katebi’s vision from the beginning has been to take the very people who are normally exploited by the fashion industry – immigrant and refugee women — and put them at the helm of it instead. ✂️
Now, the collective is launching a major expansion. This year and next, Blue Tin will crowdsource funding to build out a new $2 million home, 63rd House, an adaptive reuse of a 11,250-square-foot post office on the city’s working-class southwest side. The space will become both an economic anchor for the neighborhood and a model for truly sustainable manufacturing and labor practices. To Katebi, it is much more than a local concern. “Ultimately our long-term goal is to have the new space be a model that can be replicated by garment workers globally at scale,” she says. ✂️
By literally letting the world in, 63rd House will be the antithesis of the typical black box sweatshop where the vast majority of the world’s clothing gets made. It will include a room to showcase the work of designers seeking to work with Blue Tin, and airy, accessible, light-filled manufacturing spaces. Jeanne Gang, an acclaimed Chicago architect and head of Studio Gang, which designed the space, envisioned the facility with two key ideas in mind: micro urbanism, focusing on the power of small interventions and community spaces to impact a nearby neighborhood; and the belief that a small manufacturing space, typically outside the concern of big architectural firms, was a proper vessel for community change.
Secularism in the US is larger, more diverse and more dynamic than ever, but you wouldn’t know it from the media
🎩 to Monday’s Abbreviated Pundit Roundup for the link to this enlightening and encouraging story. Note that the interviewee is co-chair of the DNC Interfaith Council, a clear sign that the new DNC is walking their talk on inclusivity.
From Religion Dispatches:
“I’m done waiting for mainstream media to cover nonreligious people and secular issues fairly and accurately,” says Sarah Levin, a woman who wears a number of hats in the institutional secular world. “I’m done waiting for them to stop reinforcing the Christian Right’s framing on issues and failing to challenge religious privilege. And I am absolutely done waiting for them to start seeing nonreligious people as their whole selves, beyond our orientation around religion,” Levin goes on, speaking with RD in her role as director of advocacy for OnlySky Media, a new outlet focused on “exploring the post-religious perspective.” ✂️
On the issue of media representation of secularism and secular Americans, Levin, the founder and head of Secular Strategies and co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council, has a point. Nonreligious Americans are generally a pro-social bunch, and overwhelmingly in favor of the very rights the anti-social, anti-democratic Christian Right is actively working to take away, like voting rights, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights. Yet, according to the legacy media’s punditocracy, America’s rapid secularization is something we should all be terrified of.
Starting from the demonstrably false assumption that religion is essentially the only source of social cohesion, philanthropy, and pro-social behavior, prominent pundits and religion journalists (who should know much better) continually insinuate that secularization is somehow destroying the fabric of American civil society, and that the nonreligious are somehow to blame for American polarization. How, exactly, is unclear, and it could hardly be otherwise, given that both of these premises are entirely without factual basis.
Think pieces—and often even supposedly “straight” reporting—tend to ignore the empirically demonstrated fact that the social and political polarization that pervades these not-so-United States is asymmetric and significantly worse on the political Right. Not coincidentally, that side of the proverbial aisle consists largely of the conservative, mostly white Christians from whom the newly nonreligious are fleeing. These same conservative Christians, directly encouraged by their defeated president and a host of powerful Republican leaders, attempted to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by means that included a violent Christian nationalist insurrection in which people were injured and killed, very nearly destroying what was left of American democracy, such as it is. But, you know, there are problems with liberals and progressives too, so…
Call It ‘Codger Power.’ We’re Older but Fighting for a Better America.
🎩 to T Maysle for the link to this piece in a comment on Monday, Feb. 7.
The most important take-away: “What really should scare the corporate and political bad actors is the prospect of old and young people connecting, because there is real power if we work across generations.”
By Bill McKibben and Akaya Windwood in The New York Times:
[When Neil Young and Joni Mitchell quit Spotify for allowing Joe Rogan to push covid disinformation, they] signaled what could turn out to be an extraordinarily important revival: of an older generation fully rejoining the fight for a working future.
You could call it (with a wink!) codger power.
...over the last few months we’ve worked with others of our generation to start the group Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for progressive change. That’s no easy task. The baby boomers and the Silent Generation before them make up a huge share of the population — more nearly 75 million people, a larger population than France. And conventional wisdom (and a certain amount of data) holds that people become more conservative as they age, perhaps because they have more to protect.
But as those musicians reminded us, these are no “normal” generations. We’re both in our 60s; in the 1960s and ’70s, our generation either bore witness to or participated in truly profound cultural, social and political transformations. ...now we emerge into older age with skills, resources, grandchildren — and a growing fear that we’re about to leave the world a worse place than we found it. So some of us are more than ready to turn things around. ✂️
One of Third Act’s first campaigns, for instance, aims to take on the biggest banks in America for their continued funding of the fossil fuel industry even as the global temperature keeps climbing. Chase, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo might want to take note, because (fairly or not) 70 percent of the country’s financial assets are in the hands of boomers and the Silent Generation, compared with just about 5 percent for millennials. ✂️
What really should scare the corporate and political bad actors is the prospect of old and young people connecting, because there is real power if we work across generations.
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Good news from around the world
Canadian police make arrests amid ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests and seize fuel, vehicles
It’s good news that Canada is responding forcefully to this mindless vandalism.
From The Washington Post:
Police are clamping down on self-described “Freedom Convoy” anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations in Canada’s capital, making multiple arrests, issuing hundreds of tickets, and seizing vehicles and fuel as Ottawa’s mayor declared a state of emergency.
The emergency declaration was designed to give officers more “flexibility” to respond to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of truckers and their supporters who are gathered in the streets to denounce coronavirus measures… ✂️
Ottawa Police Service said in a statement Sunday it had launched over 60 criminal investigations amid the ongoing protests — including thefts, hate crimes and property damage. At least seven arrests had been made as of 9 p.m. Sunday local time in relation to property damage and other acts of “mischief,” police said. “Multiple vehicles and fuel have been seized,” the statement said. Among the more than 500 tickets issued this weekend were notices of “excessive honking” and seat belt violations.
On Sunday morning, police said officers had issued more than 450 tickets since the day before, including to trucks with no insurance and obstructed license plates. Another 100 tickets were announced Sunday evening, including to people who were driving the wrong way or had alcohol readily available.
Police also said that it had issued a warning to the public that they could be subject to charges if they were found to be supplying demonstration trucks in the red zone with fuel.
The circus music is winding down for BoJo the Clown
Remind you of anyone??
By Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post:
Not for the first time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been unmasked and his true identity revealed: BoJo the Clown. ✂️
Johnson had denied for weeks that any pandemic rules were broken, at one point categorically assuring Parliament that no parties were held at Downing Street on a specific day — Nov. 13, 2020 — when Gray’s report says two such events were held. One convened in the upstairs apartment where Johnson lives.
Regarding a staff gathering that featured alcohol, Johnson has said he didn’t realize it was a party and thought instead that it was a work event. ... As for a surprise party to celebrate Johnson’s birthday in 2020, one of his allies last week offered the meme-worthy excuse that Johnson was “ambushed with a cake.”
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, demanded that Johnson step down. But of course he won’t. As Starmer noted, Johnson is “a man without shame.” Indeed, that is a fair reading of his record. He began his public career as a journalist and was fired by the Times of London for fabricating a quote. ✂️
He got what he wanted — he became prime minister — and he delivered on Brexit. The fact that Britons have seen none of the promised benefits has been obscured by his government’s erratic performance on quelling the pandemic. Which has now been overtaken by "Partygate."
Johnson has always managed to stay one step ahead of the law. But now the actual law — in the form of the police — is after him about the rule-breaking parties. He can keep running from the facts, but there appears to be no place left for him to hide.
Sweden combats fake news with new agency
From Optimist Daily:
The pandemic brought on a host of problems; however, it also gave us the opportunity to pay more attention to other issues that flew under the radar while we were busy getting through our hectic pre-pandemic schedules. One of these concerns is the dominance of misinformation or “fake news.” Well, Sweden has decided to take matters into its own hands by creating an agency focused on combatting the widespread problem of disinformation.
The agency, called the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, started up on the first day of the new year, and its mission is to “defend our open democratic society and free opinions by identifying, analyzing, and responding to inappropriate influences and other misleading information directed at Sweden or Swedish interests.”
It’s made up of different departments that “identify, analyze, and respond to the impact of undue information influence and other misleading information,” and “to develop and strengthen society’s overall capacity for psychological defense.”
The government authority “will provide support to the population, agencies, municipalities, the media, voluntary defense organizations, and civil society in general, as well as working for increased coordination between these actors,” but did not name any entities it suspects of spreading disinformation.
Thailand is on track to decriminalize marijuana
From Future Crunch (the full story, in South China Morning Post, is behind a paywall) :
Thailand is on track to decriminalize marijuana, with a proposal to remove the plant from the list of controlled drugs. Currently, the plant is a category-5 narcotic drug and possession can lead to hefty fines and up to 15 years jailtime. Medical cannabis is already legal and can be used in foods and cosmetics.
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Good news in medicine
Simple test finds undetected cancer
This kind of simple test will not only help people who have not previously been diagnosed with cancer, but also those who have completed cancer treatment but are left wondering if any cancer is lingering in their bodies and if it has begun to metastasize.
From Warp News:
Researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK have developed a new method where a standard blood test can show if a patient has cancer. The test also indicates whether cancer has spread through the body.
The researchers selected 300 patients with vague symptoms, such as fatigue and weight loss, and had them take the test. Following this, they performed traditional cancer tests on the patients and compared them with the blood test results.
It turned out that the new blood test identified 19 out of 20 patients who had cancer. The test was also correct in 94 percent of cases where cancer had spread in the body.
There are other available blood tests to detect cancer, but this test uses a new method and detects so-called NMR metabolomics.
"Cancer cells have unique 'metabolomic fingerprints' depending on the cells' metabolic processes. In a press release, it is only now that we are beginning to understand how metabolites produced by tumors can act as biomarkers to detect cancer", says James Larkin at the University of Oxford and one of the researchers behind the test.
Another advantage of this particular test is that it is cheap and could be used in cases where it's difficult to judge whether a patient has cancer or not. The test is also able to detect different types of cancer. The ambition now is to produce a cancer test that all GPs can easily order.
Phase 1 clinical trials for mRNA HIV vaccine have officially started
I lost several dear friends to AIDS in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, so I’ve been watching the news about the mRNA vaccine with great interest. It’s wonderful that it’s reached the clinical trial phase!
From The Optimist Daily:
Just over a year ago, we shared an article about how Moderna is using mRNA technology to develop an HIV vaccine. Last week, the Phase I clinical trials for this very vaccine began.
The company is conducting the trial in partnership with the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and hopes that the trial will confirm whether the vaccine can deliver HIV-specific antigens to the body to induce an immune response.
The 56 HIV-negative adult volunteers will be under the watchful eye of the researchers for six months. During the study, 48 of the participants will receive at least one dose of the primary vaccine, and 32 out of these 48 will also receive the booster. The remaining eight will receive only the booster vaccine.
“We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Moderna’s mRNA platform,” said the president and CEO of IAVI Mark Feinberg in a statement. “The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine.”
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Good news in science
Move over Medusa. Chemists turn carbon emissions into a solid—instantly
From Anthropocene Magazine:
Researchers in Australia have found a way to convert carbon dioxide into solid carbon that could be processed into other products or stored safely. The advance offers a way to address emissions from cement- and steel-making and other heavy industries. ✂️
“Finding ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions is important if we want to limit global warming,” says Torben Daeneke, a professor of engineering at RMIT University who led the work published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. “...turning carbon dioxide into a solid, rather than sequestering it underground as a gas or liquid, is in our opinion important in order to avoid leakage.”
The RMIT team’s technique relies on a chemical reaction between the greenhouse gas and a metal alloy that stays liquid around room temperature. It is a reaction they reported before, but they have now “significantly simplified the process and designed it in a way that is compact and clearly scalable,” Daeneke says.
They heat the liquid metal in a tube to between 100–120 degrees Celsius, and inject carbon dioxide into the vessel. As the gas bubbles up, it splits into carbon and oxygen within seconds, forming black carbon flakes. The oxygen reacts with the metal to form metal oxide, which can be regenerated into liquid metal for reuse. “The process is energy intensive,” Daeneke says. “Nothing in life is for free.” But the process still makes sense in many scenarios, “and the heavy industry sector seems to agree with us.”
Device Wraps Around Hot Surfaces to Turn Wasted Heat to Electricity
From the Good News Network:
The energy systems that power our lives also produce wasted heat—like heat that radiates off hot water pipes in buildings and exhaust pipes on vehicles. A new flexible thermoelectric generator can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and convert wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible, according to scientists at Penn State and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“A large amount of heat from the energy we consume is essentially being thrown away, often dispersed right into the atmosphere,” said Shashank Priya, associate vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “We haven’t had cost-effective ways with conformal shapes to trap and convert that heat to useable energy. This research opens that door.”
Penn State researchers have been working to improve the performance of thermoelectric generators—devices that can convert differences in temperature to electricity. When the devices are placed near a heat source, electrons moving from the hot side to the cold side produce an electric current, the scientists said.
99 million-year-old flowers found perfectly preserved in amber bloomed at the feet of dinosaurs
From CNN:
Flowers discovered perfectly preserved in globs of amber bloomed at the feet of dinosaurs, suggesting that some flowering plants in South Africa today have remained unchanged for 99 million years, a new study reveals.
Eophylica priscatellata, one of two flowers discovered perfectly preserved in amber.
The two flowers once bloomed in what is now Myanmar and may shed light on how flowering plants evolved...
Flowers are ephemeral: They bloom, transform into a fruit and then disappear. As such, ancient flowers aren't well represented in the fossil record, making these ancient blooms -- and the history they carry with them -- particularly precious. ✂️
The evolution and spread of flowering plants (angiosperms) is thought to have played a key role in shaping much of life as we know it today. It brought about the diversification of insects, amphibians, mammals and birds and ultimately marking the the first time when life on land became more diverse than in the sea, according to the study, which published in the journal Nature Plants
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Good news for the environment
”Rights of Nature” gaining ground
The story of Tamaqua, PA, is especially inspiring, since it’s “solidly Republican” yet enthusiastically behind an ordinance granting enforceable legal rights to their local environment.
By Jim Hightower in his Hightower Lowdown:
...the Rights of Nature idea has taken hold and is spreading...rapidly worldwide. In little more than a decade, national parliaments, courts, and even constitutions in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico City, Nepal, India, New Zealand, and Uganda have incorporated the concept into their legal systems, and campaigns are now underway to adopt versions of it in a dozen more nations.
But there’s no need to look afar. While US mass media have generally ignored the remarkable adoption of this principle around the world, it has quietly taken root across our own country. In addition to actions by various tribal nations (Ho-Chunk, Nez Perce, Ojibwe, Yurock, et al.), more than three dozen US communities have enacted enforceable Rights of Nature provisions. ✂️
Consider Tamaqua, a small town in Pennsylvania coal country. In 2006 it enacted the first Rights of Nature ordinance in the world. City council member Cathy Morelli was working with a growing group of locals outraged that their area had become “a sacrifice zone” for dumping toxic sludge and other industrial waste. Unsurprisingly, Tamaqua was suffering a devastating outbreak of rare, fatal cancers. Meanwhile, business and regulatory leaders insisted that tests found no environmental links to the diseases–and proposed even more dumping permits.
Realizing the regulatory game was just a runaround, Morelli urgently sought a real remedy and came across Thomas Linzey, a lawyer and activist who was thinking outside the traditional legal box. He helped the councilwoman draft an ordinance that included the novel method of bypassing regulators by extending legally enforceable rights directly “to natural communities” and ecosystems, empowering them to protect their local environment from corporate harm. Though the town is solidly Republican, the people backed the clear-cut, democratic directness of Morelli’s ordinance. Sixteeen years later, it remains in force. And not only has it helped deter more toxic dumping, but it has made Tamaqua an inspiration to the global movement for nature’s rights.
Solar on Superstores
From Environment America:
The United States has the technical potential to produce 78 times as much electricity as it used in 2020 just with solar photovoltaic (PV) energy. In order to achieve a future of 100% clean and renewable energy, America must capitalize on every solar energy opportunity, including on the rooftops of “big box” superstores.
The flat, open, sunny roofs of giant grocery stores, retail stores and shopping malls are perfect locations for solar panels. The United States has more than 100,000 big box retail stores, supercenters, large grocery stores and malls, with almost 7.2 billion cumulative square feet of rooftop space.
The rooftops of America’s big box stores and shopping centers have the potential to generate 84.4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar electricity each year, equivalent to the amount of electricity used by almost 8 million average U.S. homes, or more than 30,400 typical Walmart stores.
Putting solar panels on the nation’s superstores would be good for businesses, good for electricity customers, good for the grid, and good for the environment.
How “Cool Roofs” Are Helping Women Earn More in India
From Reasons to be Cheerful:
...Dilshadbanu Mohammed Jhilani Shaikh [is] a mother of four living in a shack in [Ahmedabad]. On May 19, 2016, Ahmedabad recorded a maximum temperature of 48.4C (119F), its hottest day in a century. That year, Shaikh decided to take action against the heat. She invested 120,000 rupees (USD$1,584) in a cool-roof technology module, borrowing the money from Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHST), an Indian nonprofit that works with grassroots collectives of women in the informal sector to improve their housing, living and working environments. ✂️
Tasked with domestic chores and often earning their income from home, women living in informal settlements are particularly susceptible to this type of heat-related stress. A study conducted by MHST found that increased indoor temperatures severely affect women home-based workers, with their productivity falling by up to 50 percent in summer, reducing their income. ✂️
MHST is working in seven cities across India — including Rajasthan, New Delhi and Jaipur — to help women like Shaikh tackle heat stress in their homes. More than 27,000 households across 1,066 slum settlements have been supported in installing sustainable cooling technologies.
No Magnets, Big Power: BMW’s Fifth-Generation Electric Motor
You’ll need to click to read the whole thing to get the full story. Suffice to say it looks like good news.
From Motor Trend:
Before we dive in..., if you're not familiar with the different types of EV motors used in vehicles, we have a thorough E-Motor 101 course. Feel free to open that in another tab and use it as a reference. But all electric motors rely on the properties of electromagnetism to convert electricity into torque to drive the vehicle. One pole of a magnet being attracted to the opposite pole of another, and like poles repelling each other, is what drives an electric motor. An easy approach is to use strong permanent magnets in the spinning part of the motor called the rotor, and an electromagnet (conductive wires wound around a ferromagnetic material) in the stationary "can" it spins in, which is called the stator. Reversing the electric polarity in the electromagnet reverses the magnetic polarity, and it's this switching that pulls the permanent magnets around. But the rare-earth materials that make permanent magnets are getting hard to find, so BMW is getting away from them by using electromagnets in both the stationary stator and the spinning rotor. It's relying on an old technology—brushed motors—to make this possible. ✂️
[Brushed motors] have been around since the invention of the electric motor and are called "brushed" because a set of brushes transmit electricity to the spinning rotor via what's called a commutator on the rotor. The rotor's electromagnetic windings are energized by the commutator. As power is applied, electromagnetic forces are created in both the stator and rotor, switching them both in such a way as to make the rotor spin. Increasing the switching speed within the electromagnets and increasing the current causes the speed to increase. ✂️
This fifth-generation BMW motor has no magnets. It operates as a three-phase AC synchronous motor using brushes and a commutator to provide power to the rotor windings...
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Being somewhat small herself but also definitely in touch with her inner wolf, Rosy was happy to see this story!
Gene mutation that makes dogs small existed in ancient wolves
From Science Daily:
Popular belief has been that small dogs, such as Pomeranians and Chihuahuas, exist because once dogs were domesticated, humans wanted small, cute companions. But in the journal Current Biology on January 27, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identify a genetic mutation in a growth hormone-regulating gene that corresponds to small body size in dogs that was present in wolves over 50,000 years ago, long before domestication.
The search for this mutation had been ongoing at the NIH for over a decade, but researchers didn't find it until Jocelyn Plassais (@JocelynPlassais), a postdoc in geneticist Elaine Ostrander's lab, suggested that they search for sequences around the gene that were positioned backwards and confirm if any were present in other canids and ancient DNA. With this approach, their team found a reverse form of the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) gene with variants that correlated to dog body size. "We looked at 200 breeds, and it held up beautifully," says Ostrander.
The researchers then collaborated with evolutionary biologists Greger Larson (@Greger_Larson) at Oxford University and Laurent Franz at Ludwig Maximilian University to look through ancient wolf DNA to see when the IGF-1 mutation first showed up. ...when the team looked at the DNA of a 54,000-year-old Siberian wolf (Canis lupus campestris) they found that it, too, possessed the growth hormone mutation. …
The finding holds not just for dogs and wolves, but also for coyotes, jackals, African hunting dogs, and other members of the family of animals referred to as canids. "This is tying together so much about canine domestication and body size, and the things that we think are very modern are actually very ancient," says Ostrander.
Here’s Nora’s pick. And she wants to remind everyone that a chip is your furry friend’s ticket back home.
Mom Finds Cat After 8 Months When She Recognized His Meow On a Phone Call
From Good News Network:
40-year-old Rachael Lawrence had been on the phone to Vets4Pets regarding another cat, Torvi, who had recently had an operation when she heard a meow in the background. The mom of three instantly knew the meow and asked about it, but was told the call belonged to a stray cat that had been brought in a week ago.
Rachael ended the call but couldn’t stop thinking about the meow and wondered if it could have belonged to her cat, Barnaby, who had gone missing eight months ago. She called back to ask if the stray cat was black with a distinctive white blotch of fur on his back foot, but couldn’t believe it when the vet told her the description matched. ✂️
During the lockdowns in 2020, Rachael had paid for an independent company to come to her home and chip Barnaby should he ever go missing. She paid for the service and registered the chip details online, but it wasn’t until Barnaby went missing that she discovered the chip had not worked.
On being reunited with her beloved pet, Rachael asked the vet to chip Barnaby there and then.
Rascal gets two stories this week! Crows being helpful (in exchange for treats, of course) and a same-sex pair of penguins successfully hatching and raising a chick.
Crows help rid this Swedish city’s streets of cigarette butts
From The Optimist Daily:
A startup in the Swedish city of Södertälje, which is located near Stockholm, has recruited the help of local crows to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the city’s streets and public spaces. ...According to the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, more than one billion cigarette butts are left on Sweden’s streets each year, which represents 62 percent of all litter. To clear the streets, Södertälje spends around 20m Swedish kronor (over $2,200,000), so the hope is that the birds can help cut these costs.
“They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis,” the founder of the Corvid Cleaning startup Christian Günther-Hanssen reveals. Each time the wild birds deposit a cigarette butt into a bespoke machine specially designed by Corvid Cleaning, they receive a little snack.
Günther-Hanssen estimates that, with the crows’ help, the city could save at least 75 percent of the costs associated with picking up cigarette butts in the city.
For now, Södertälje is trialing the project before setting the operation in motion across the city, paying close attention to the health of the birds, considering the kind of waste they’re being rewarded to pick up.
Research suggests that New Caledonian crows, a member of the corvid family of birds, have the reasoning ability of a human seven-year-old, making them the best bird for the job. “They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance of them learning from each other,” says Günther-Hanssen. “At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish.”
Two male penguins welcome hatchling as New York zoo's 1st same-sex foster parents
From NPR:
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., has at times used foster parents to incubate penguin eggs — but those couples have always been made up of one male and one female.
Last year, after testing their fostering capabilities, zoo staff decided to entrust one of those eggs to two males: Elmer and Lima. The pair welcomed a healthy chick on Jan. 1, making them first-time dads and the zoo's first same-sex foster parents to successfully hatch an egg. ✂️
The two paired up in the fall of 2021, building a nest and defending their territory. The penguin team then decided to test their fostering skills — which not all penguins have. "Some pairs, when given a dummy egg, will sit on the nest but leave the egg to the side and not incubate it correctly, or they'll fight for who is going to sit on it when," [zoo director Ted] Fox said. "That's how we evaluate who will be good foster parents — and Elmer and Lima were exemplary in every aspect of egg care."
The team determined on Dec. 23 that an egg laid by another couple — female Poquita and her mate Vente — had a viable embryo inside, and gave it to Elmer and Lima for incubation. It hatched on Jan. 1 and weighed 8 ounces at its first health check five days later. A spokesperson for the zoo told NPR that the chick is a boy and has yet to be named.
Fox said the male penguins took turns incubating the egg before it hatched, and have been warming and feeding the chick since. "It continues to be brooded and cared for by both Elmer and Lima, who are doing a great job," he added. "And once they have experience doing this and continue to do it well, they will be considered to foster future eggs."
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Hot lynx
civileats.com/...Black Farmers Are Rebuilding Agriculture in Coal Country. “Jason Tartt saw opportunity in the terraced hillsides of his native West Virginia, both for restoring the land and for other Black farmers.”
www.nationalgeographic.com/...The search for lost slave ships led this diver on an extraordinary journey. “Explorer Tara Roberts took up diving to learn about the human side of a tragic era. She wound up connecting with her family’s inspiring past.”
newrepublic.com/...The Case for Impeaching Clarence Thomas. Michael Tomasky argues that “The Supreme Court justice refuses to recuse himself from cases in which his right-wing activist wife, Ginni, has a clear interest. The Democrats should punish him for it.”
www.wellandgood.com/...Here’s Why You Should Strike the Term ‘Spirit Animal’ From Your Vocabulary. ”Even though ‘spirit animal’ isn't a term widely used in Indigenous cultures—if at all—it takes the concept of their sacred connection with and reverence for nature and twists it into a catchphrase and a commodity.”
www.goodnewsnetwork.org/...Higher Olive Oil Intake Associated With Much Lower Risk of Death From Various Diseases. Just 1.5 teaspoons a day can make a difference, but more is better!
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Wherever is herd…
A tip of the hat to 2thanks for creating this handy info sheet for all Gnusies new and old!
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: Mokurai the 1st and 2nd Thursdays, WineRev 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 6:00 p.m. Central Time — 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.
And our Gnusie friend Slideman asked me to help spread the word on his latest diary: From Me to TX Dem Rep Doggett & Beto to Abbott: Governor, You Have Failed This State! Messaging!
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How to Resist: Do Something …
The following invaluable list was put together by chloris creator:
Indivisible has created a Truth Brigade to push back against the lies.
Propaganda, false characterizations, intentionally misleading messages, and outright lies threaten our democracy and even our lives. We can effectively combat disinformation, despite the well-funded machines that drive it. They may have money, but we have truth and we have people. People believe sources they trust. When we share and amplify unified, factual messages to those who trust us, we shift the narrative. When we do this by the thousands--we’re part of the Indivisible Truth Brigade, and we get our country back. Join us.️
Our own Mokurai is a member. You can see all of the diaries in the Truth Brigade group on DK here.
From GoodNewsRoundup (aka Goodie):
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
And I’ll add two more recommendations:
- Check out Activate America (formerly Flip the West), which is recruiting people to send postcards to two categories of Dem voters: those who haven’t yet signed up for vote by mail where that’s established, and those whose GQP Representatives voted against the infrastructure bill. The messages are concise and easy to finish quickly.
- And from Progressive Muse:
Here’s an update from another group, Building Bridges for America.
The candidates that BB4AM is supporting are:
Jonathan Lovitz, US House PA D182, primary May 17, 2022
Lorenzo Sanchez, US House TX D70, primary March 1, 2022
Mario DeSantis, US House NJ D1, primary June 7, 2022
Imani Oakley, US House NJ D10, primary June 7, 2022
Dr. Luis Daniel Munoz, Governor of Rhode Island, primary is September 8, 2022
Dr. Terrance Ruth, Mayor of Raleigh (NC), election November 8, 2022
If interested, sign up HERE.
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Closing music
”My favorite colors,
My sisters and my brothers”
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️
