This Week in Gnuville
This week my hope came from YOU: Saturday's GNR
GoodNewsRoundup
Inimitable:
Once again, we had a week full of good news. Pour yourself a coffee (or other beverage) and settle in for it because there is a LOT to cover this week!
But before I get to all I gathered from the NYT, WaPo, etc, let me get to the thing that brought me the most hope.
My greatest hope this week didn’t come from the news, it came from all of you.
Exactly one week ago, right here in this GNR, I started a fundraising effort.
I made an ActBlue fund that divided up donations to the 38 House seats rated as most likely to determine control of the House. We win most of these seats and we continue Biden’s agenda.
We lose these seats and the agenda grinds to a halt … ✂
So, you know, big stakes and all.
Anyway, I set up this fund exactly one week ago. I debated where to put the goal — I usually start with $5000 and move up from there (if possible) but I thought $38,000 would be great since that would put $1000 in every campaign coffer. Remember, as well funded as Senate raises are, House candidates have a tougher time raising money.
I figured that $38,000 would give us a goal to work towards all the way to November. It would be aspirational.
By the end of the day Saturday, we had already raised $31,000.
As of last night, we have surpassed our goal and were at $47,000.
We have sent over $1000 to each campaign.
We did that in less than a week.
I have already had two campaign managers reach out to thank me and to find out who the heck we are. I am sure others are grateful as well.
Here is a letter from Josh Riley who is running to represent NY-19. It is a “lean red” district. He is running super close in a mostly rural area. He can win. He is in one of the districts we are helping. Here is his thanks to YOU:
[See the rest here. I added bolds and links. ~ 2t]
Good News Roundup for Friday, August 19, 2022: Better off than 2 years ago
chloris creator
A standard question of any opposition party is: Are you better off than you were X years ago? — where X is the number of years in the election cycle. Kevin McCarthy asked it last Friday.
Chris Hayes took up the challenge, and listed the many, many ways that we are better off. Covid way down. Employment way up. We’re tackling climate problems at last. A gun safety bill, the first in three decades, passed. And so much more.
We gnusies have known about many of the accomplishments of the Biden administration for a while, but what is adding glory to greatness (I’m trying to find the opposite of “insult to injury”) is the fact that Chris Hayes is talking about them. At last! (Embedded below)
Of course, serious problems remain. […] To quote President Biden, “victory is never assured.”
Nevertheless, on some days a happy end looks more likely. This is one of those times.
Come on in, friends, and see what we and our allies are doing, and strengthen yourselves for the fight.
Good News Round Up from Ancient Times unto Your Days Now and Hopes Ahead
WineRev
Good morning seekers of Good News for the living through of these days! Its early, but the door is now open, the awnings cranked out, sidewalks tables set with DRIED OFF tops and chairs. Coffee, tea, hot cocoa and the orange juicer/squeezer are all competing to scent the air. Over THERE along the side, the smiling bartender is finishing writing “$3 off this morning!” under the neon chalk sign that reads “Thursday Mimosas!”
Bring your Good News, your Good stories, your Good tales (and those Good four-foot-friends with TAILS are welcome here too) to add to the comments, while passing around these plates I have assembled for your Third Thursday. As Keeper of the History Corner you can take in significant dates from August 18ths from centuries past, and hopefully see if I have connected them to nuggets of Good News from the last few days.
Good News Roundup for Wednesday, August 17
niftywriter
Biden signs massive climate and health care legislation, Zeke Miller and Seung Min kim, AP, August 16, 2022.
The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.
The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.
In a triumphant signing event at the White House, Biden pointed to the law as proof that democracy — no matter how long or messy the process — can still deliver for voters in America as he road-tested a line he will likely repeat later this fall: “The American people won, and the special interests lost.”
Good News Roundup for August 16, 2022 — Persisting through an extinction burst
arhpdx
So what’s an “extinction burst?” I learned about this extremely useful concept from a blog post by author Martha Beck, whom a friend of mine follows. Titled “Outlasting the Extinction Burst,” it struck me as spot on and a great springboard for today’s GNR.
Somewhere, in a university laboratory, a rat sits by a machine, pressing a lever. Each push causes a pellet of food to drop from the machine. ...But then, without explanation, the pellets stop coming. The rat grows perplexed, then frustrated, then furious. Then it goes completely off the rails. It presses the lever faster, harder. It bites at the lever, kicks it, probably shouts little rat curses at it. But the pellet never comes.
And then, not all that surprisingly, the rat gives up.
This scenario, with its anticlimactic ending, is how an extinction burst works. It happens when we’ve been rewarded for a behavior, but then the reward stops. For a while, the frequency, intensity, and duration of the behavior increase.✂️
At the time that I’m writing this, civil rights in my country are being restricted to an appalling extent. ...We can all see instances where the United States seems to be moving away from equality, rather than toward it. For those among us who have a uterus, who are BIPOC or gay or trans, it’s a frightening time.
My hope is that it’s also an extinction burst. ✂️
An extinction burst only happens when the current system is threatened with, well, extinction. That’s why I’m not just horrified by the legal and political tumult in the US, but also a little optimistic. The rat is kicking and biting the lever. The toddler is shrieking on the floor. The power structure is throwing a tantrum. ✂️
We just need to make sure the extinction burst doesn’t scare us into capitulating, into giving bullies whatever it is they want. ...We don’t have to join in the violence, physically or emotionally. We don’t have to fight with our families, throw food at the wall like a toddler or an ex-President. We just have to remind ourselves that the extinction burst means something is about to disappear. We just have to remember that the rat eventually gives up.
We just have to stay the course. [My bolds. ~2t]
From the GNR Newsroom: It’s the Monday Good News Roundup
Jessiestaf, Bhu, and Killer300
Governor Whitmer Statement
“Today, Michigan is more free and fair than it was yesterday.
“The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled decisively to confirm that our state’s civil rights laws protect our LGBTQ+ community. This is a monumental victory that ensures our LGBTQ+ community is seen equally by state law and protected by it.
“As a mom, a governor, and proud ally of the community, I am so grateful for this ruling. It will save lives, protect families, and help ensure that every Michigander is treated with dignity and respect by law. For too long, LGBTQ+ Michiganders had been left out of our state’s civil rights protections. No longer. Because of this ruling, nobody can legally be fired from their job or evicted from their home because of who they love.
“For years, I have fought to bring our LGBTQ+ community under the protection of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and I am proud that today, history has been made. If we're going to attract the talented workforce our businesses need to create jobs and grow our economy, then we’ve got to get on the right side of history. I will keep fighting to make Michigan a safe, welcoming place no matter who you are, where you come from, or who you love.”
I’m not crying you’re crying. Okay I am crying too this is beautiful.
[I’m crying right along with you, Jessie. My home is in Michigan, and my daughter and her wife had a baby about 12 weeks ago. We are every one of us better for this expansion of Civil Rights to LGBTQA people . ~2t]
Sunday Good News Roundup of Roundups ☼ WineRev! ☼ 2 Polls: WWtW? AND Inflation 0%?
2thanks
America Wins Thanks to Biden:
White House tweet:
- Inflation Reduction Act
- CHIPS & Science Act
- PACT Act for Veterans
- First major gun safety legislation in decades
- Took out the leader of al Quaeda
- Historic Job Growth
- Historically low unemployment
- Expanded the NATO alliance
- American Rescue Plan led to fastest jobs recovery in history
- Confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
- Rallied our allies in support of Ukraine
- Once-in-a-generation infrastructure investments
WineRev’s Good and Goofy Notes
After WineRev posts his G&G comment, I’ll post a link here. His G&G comments are small but worthy Good News Roundups with a welcome, a good-news tidbit, another bold-faced and centered welcome, and his this-day-in-history notes. You can find all his comments here, in case you have a hankerin’ and missed one. Meanwhile:
WineRev, last Sunday: Good morning 2thanks and thank you for opening the Good News Sunday Round Up, complete with baptismal font/fountain/lap pool, the morning bread/wafer/single loaf washed down with the cup/individual glasses/at the rail/in the pews/one-by-one/en masse of juice of the grape (fermented or unfermented)….you know, the Gnuville Inter-denominational, Welcome Mat is Out for You Unless you want to be Self-Righteous, Basketball court for the Youth Program unless dribbling is Sacrilegious to Your Revealed Opinion….which makes for one heck of a (first page) of a sign outside the building. But thank you for getting things set up so we can await the latest revelations (a much church-ier word for Sunday than leaks) from the FBI and newest excuses (a nice, first Round Up of those excuses HERE.)
Science
Please share good science news with us!
(Especially JSWT, health, environment.)
Need more good news?
… arhpdx posted a list of good news sites toward the top of a recent Roundup, or you can find that same list in my comment: Good News Sources. Thank you, arhpdx and Mokurai!
[On a desktop, you could open that comment in a new Tab by clicking the timestamp, and then you could Bookmark that page or save it to your Favorites.]
Our map of Gnuville: 769 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply in the comments to tljdk or the map-building comment. Please include your city and state only, NOT street number and street. (Please persist, we are volunteers.)
Image: Two maps of the United States, one above the other. The maps indicate the approximate locations of members of the Good News Roundup community in 2019 and 2021. The lower map contains many more blue pin-markers than the upper map. Upper image: A map of Gnuville from February 15, 2019 with about 50 Gnusie pins. Lower image: A map of Gnuville from March 21, 2021 with 582 pins across our orb.
If you join us regularly, are you Following us? More than 400 Kosacks Follow us.
Tech Talk for Kosacks
- Load-More Workaround: On a desktop or laptop, to banish the Daily Kos Load More buttons, click this link, which opens the main Daily Kos page and shuts off the Load More buttons at the same time. You must Reload any open Daily Kos pages. After that, you’re good to go, but you may need to come back here and click that link again in a few weeks. The DK Help Desk asked me to add this: The “Load More” option also resets the user back to the display of the old-style, React comments. [Revised 3/13/2022]
- Got a Daily Kos tech question? Let us know. No question is too basic, even “What’s a Kosack?” or “What’s a Gnusie?”
- Solved a tech question recently? Please feel free to repeat it 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: Mokurai the 1st, 2nd, and 5th (when there is one), WineRev the 3rd, MCUBernieFan the 4th.
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup, the one and only!
- 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. For instance, we do not welcome grammar-police comments in Roundups.
Sun-High Good News Roundup: It’s a long dry trek between 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. ET. About half way between is noon or 1 o'clock. If you'd like to create a midday oasis post a Good News Group diary regularly at about that time, please let me know via kosmail. The team will support you. If morning is a better time for you, Mokurai says he can trade times.
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. Find Evening Shades here or on the Trending List.
oldhippiedude posts Tweets of the Week on Sundays at 6 p.m. CT. Our second evening Gnusie hangout zone! In search of a TOTW diary? Look here or here or on the Trending List.
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 …
Some of our Good News writers regularly post a panoply of fantastic action steps in every one of their Good News Roundups. If you don’t see a way to become active that suits your personality, your funds, or your time, please review their most recent diaries for many different options to volunteer and/or donate:
As you may have noticed, recently I’ve been posting three suggestions in the comments:
On Daily Kos:
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?
- How are you supporting Democratic candidates?
- Please let’s stick to Good News today, no mews or databases.
In the comments of all Roundups, we do not welcome Grammar Police or Debbie Downers.
Top Image: A quite detailed sketch of a gnu drawn in brown, green, and black on white. A happy and dynamic gnu dances on its left hind leg in a classic heraldric rampant pose. Joyful letters prance above and behind the mane: “Happy Dance.” Signature: Nick Korolev, 2021. — Thank you, Starhawk, for creating the top image of a dancing gnu and for giving it to us Gnusies!
Our 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 4 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)