Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, the weekly periodical where your trusted GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300 and Bhu) come together and bring you the good news to start your week off right.
Before we get to the regularly scheduled work, I’d like to share a little quote regarding the nature of fascism and why businesses that embrace it tend to fail. This quote was in response to the fact that the New TSR filed for chapter seven Bankruptcy this previous week. On this, fellow rpg.net poster TheMouse had this observation:
There's a certain irony to getting no cash for going fash.
The fascist world view is predicated on hierarchies. Some people just being better than others. Those people simply deserve more than others. More leniency from the law. More money. More chances. The world isn't fair, and it's naive to think that you get better than you deserve.
Individuals who hold this world view typically place themselves in or at the least toward the top of the hierarchy. Maybe they don't deserve to be the glorious leader, but they deserve to the glorious leader's buddy. They deserve the next rung down, and anyone who gets in their way deserves a punch in the mouth. That sort of thing.
This is the draw of fascism. A sense of superiority that needs not be justified to others, plus a vent for the anger felt at not getting what the fascist believes that they deserve. The whole thing works because angry people (usually younger white dudes) accept the premise that it's cool for them to find some group and punch that group until they (the fascists) get what they "deserve." Don't hate the player; hate the game.
So when fascist sorts see, for instance, that the upper echelon fascists get millions at a time in grift money, they figure they deserve the same. After all, they're not S tier, but surely they're A tier! A tier might not deserve millions, but maybe hundreds of thousands. At least tens of thousands!
And the irony part is that their failure confirms that there's a fascist hierarchy. But they're not A tier. They're just some low level foot soldier punching faces/ arguing on the internet/ whatever, in order to support the upper echelon folks. They're fighting to confirm and support a hierarchy in which they get shit, in which they deserve shit, and in which they'll ultimately just get stepped on by the next round of angry young fascists who are in turn convinced that they're maybe not S tier, but surely they're A tier!
In short, they're fighting to be shit that ultimately ends up on someone else's boot.
Its important to remember that evil is a destructive force, not a creative one. The things evil create are ultimately banal, insipid, and pathetic. Because they are too busy grifting and being assholes to be truly creative. They do not create, they only co opt and corrupt. Something to think about.
Now, onto your regularly scheduled good news.
In February, after five years of organizing under the radar, members of the nascent Harvard Academic Workers officially went public with their intent to unionize.
The road to going public wasn’t always straightaway. In January, as the group of non-tenure-track teaching and research employees moved closer to announcing their drive, union member Kara Fulton and her fellow organizers were having as many feelings of discouragement as they were elation. “It felt like we were kind of working on our own,” she said.
But then, later in January, other workers from across the Harvard campus and other Boston-area unions put fuel to their fire at a quickly organized roundtable event that the Harvard Academic Workers’ solidarity committee put together to draw insight and encouragement from other organizers, including Harvard dining-hall workers and Boston University graduate students.
The new era of unionization continues going strong! Lets see it keep going.
The pendulum is swinging back now. The Biden administration is betting big that renewing the American industrial machine will speed progress toward decarbonizing the U.S. electric grid by 2035, a crucial step toward addressing climate change. The White House also wants to use that clean electricity to power mass transition to electric vehicles, thereby tackling greenhouse gases from transportation.
Spurred by incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, a whole new Battery Belt is emerging in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, down through Kentucky, and out across Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. It makes sense that those northern states, the historic hub of the American auto industry, would attract billions of dollars for the next wave of auto manufacturing. The region began dipping its toes into battery and EV production over a decade ago, when then-Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm picked it as a strategic growth industry to help her state bounce back from the Great Recession.
More victories thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Before Howey started at Qcells, “I had no idea about solar,” he said. He was hired to be a “tabber operator” on the production line, where his role would be to watch over machines that solder silicon wafers together, an early stage in the making of a solar module. But he didn’t understand how his particular task fit into the overall process, which made him uncertain about how to do his job well. “I was really nervous about it,” he told Canary Media.
Georgia Quick Start, a state-funded workforce training program, gave him the guidance he needed. In a week of on-ramping, trainers walked him through all the steps of making a solar panel, instruction that gave him the confidence to start his new career. Quick Start, he said, was “a lifesaver.”
Clean energy is not just good for the environment, its good for business. Its a real job creator.
The U.S. energy transition is moving faster than ever — and it’s increasingly a Made-in-America affair.
Canary Media just published a series of in-depth articles digging into all aspects of the country’s clean energy manufacturing push, which was set into motion when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act last August. You can read all of our reporting on the U.S. clean energy manufacturing boom here.
But for the TL;DR version of our coverage, here are six of the most important things to know about clean energy manufacturing in the U.S.
Things are looking up for clean energy, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
More good inflation news - The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May inflation report this morning and in May prices rose 0.1%, 1.2% on an annualized basis. On an annualized basis inflation has only risen 2.4% in the last 3 months, well within the Fed’s target. Food prices have risen by less than 1% on an annualized basis over the last 3 months. The Fed appears to have done its job - inflation is down, and growth is strong.
As we’ve been writing it’s time for the country to find a new and better narrative about the American economy today (here, here here, here). Our recommendation is that it go something like this:
More good inflation news. I hope food prices might get under control soon.
But of the all GOP’s challenges, and there are so, so many, the most consequential may be the clear across-the-board success of the Biden Presidency. It is making the fictional “worst President in history” narrative the right-wing noise machine has invested so much in impossible to maintain. Let’s revisit some of their attacks/memes given recent events:
The GOP’s lies are finally catching up with them it seems.
Black, Brown and migrant workers at a major advertising firm that made anti-racism pledges after George Floyd's murder have gone on strike over pay.
Outsourced night cleaners at London’s Ogilvy UK – part of the global Ogilvy group – walked out today after the agency refused to negotiate on higher wages and full sick pay.
Good for them. I hope it works out for them. When we strike, we win.
he complaint in the groundbreaking climate lawsuit Held v. Montana reads like a history of grief and loss in the short lives of its plaintiffs. In it, displayed simply in a numbered list, are the ways the 16 youth have spent their childhoods watching the world burn. A rancher’s daughter recalls the sadness and stress of seeing a river cycle through droughts and floods, endangering and even killing her family’s cattle. Two brothers who love to hunt and fish recount how the forest they rely upon for food is deteriorating around them. A toddler struggles to breathe as wildfire smoke aggravates his asthma. A young Indigenous woman worries that inexorable changes to the seasons will cause her tribe to lose the ancient cultural traditions that have seen them through seasons of war, genocide, and dispossession.
Once again, I have to say it: The Kids are alright.
Batteries. New truck designs. High-powered chargers. And room on the grid to power it all.
A lot of things have to come together to make high-intensity electric truck charging a reality. And in states such as California that have mandated the switch from diesel-fueled to zero-emissions trucks over the next two decades, there isn’t a lot of time to make it all happen.
Just ask Matt LeDucq, CEO of Forum Mobility. On Tuesday, the Oakland, California–based company unveiled plans for its largest charging depot yet.
Every day the world gets just a little bit greener.
But in 2020, all that changed when Portland’s city council tossed out 60-plus years of low-density mandates by voting in favor of housing reform that ended single-family zoning. The new rules were game-changing: a package of zoning shifts known as the Residential Infill Project (RIP for short) laid the groundwork for more residential density than in most American cities. RIP made new single-family homes of over 2,500 square feet illegal. It erased bans on “middle housing” — a term describing duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes — across the city. And it allowed for two accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on any lot, removed residential parking mandates, and permitted three-story apartment buildings of up to six homes on any lot as long as they met deep affordability standards. It amounted to a transformation in Portland’s approach to urban density, and is, to this day, one of the most pro-housing reforms that any US city has passed.
If Portland can get its house in order we can do it anywhere.
You hear that in the distance? It can only be one thing: A GNR LIGHTNING ROUND!
What could go right? Beating cancer
Reanimated hearts post death work just as well for transplants
Can hospitals turn into climate change fighting machines?
Scientists beam solar power to earth from space for first time ever
Scotland’s first electric HGV starts making trips
Meta’s former CTO has new 50 million project: Ocean based carbon removal
MIT Motor could electrify aviation
NASA’s new X plane
Handheld device could 3D print organs and tissue in situ
Scientists develop new repellent that could stop 99% of mosquitoes
Delta unveils new plane seats that are wheelchair compatible
New Meningitis vaccine a game changer
Africa’s largest polio drive targets 21 million children
Inside the mental health movement for men
North Carolina Governor launches safe gun storage program
Supreme just handed surprise victory for voting rights
Australia to triple size of protected marine park to area larger than Germany
France to spend 2 billion to expand cycle ways
Meet the LGTBQ activist who challenged Caribbean anti sodomy law and won
How Chile’s stolen babies are finding their families
Mortality is declining? That’s an illusion
Dataset points to no kill progress
Pride 2023; what has changed since last year
GOP gun support turning off millennials and Gen Z
Wow, that may have been our longest lightning round to date. Lets back to regularly scheduled good news.
We’ve had a lot of good economic news in recent weeks. Let’s review:
Dems = growth, Rs = recession - Joe Biden is the third consecutive Democratic President who has brought strong growth, lower deficits and American progress. The last three Republican Presidents all brought recession, higher deficits, American decline. Source - With Democrats Things Get Better
They sure do.
He ended up selling his home through a real estate service launched last summer by the Dallas-based broker, Bob McCranie, who sought to help LGBTQ+ people list their homes in Texas and then connect them with an agent in another state or even a different country where they’d like to go next. McCranie initially called it “Flee Texas,” but soon changed the name to reflect a broader group of people expressing interest in the service.
“What we discovered was we got so much response from other states that we decided to expand and become ‘Flee Red States,'” McCranie said Tuesday. “We’ve helped 27 groups of people so far get out.”
When someone goes to the website FleeRedStates.com, a message reads, “As LGBTQIA+ citizens in Red States, many of us feel at risk. Current laws are highly discriminatory against trans youth and their families. Our marriages, our families, and even our safety are at risk. If you feel the need to leave the jurisdiction of a Red State, let us help you sell your property here and connect with you an LGBTQIA+ or ally agent in a better location of your choice. We are licensed in Texas and we have affiliates in all 50 states and several countries.” People can share their contact information to create an account and start the process of connecting with a real estate expert.
In these dark times, its always important to look for the helpers. This guy is a helper.
The Supreme Court on Thursday preserved a decades-old federal law that seeks to keep American Indian children with their families and tribes in custody proceedings.
In a 7-2 decision, the justices rejected a multi-pronged challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) on various grounds, keeping the law intact and handing a major victory to Indian tribes.
“But the bottom line is that we reject all of petitioners’ challenges to the statute, some on the merits and others for a lack of standing,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority.
More great news from the Supreme Court. Amazing I know.
The College Board released a letter Thursday putting its foot down on further demands from Florida to change any of its Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the latest development in the ongoing feud between the company and the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“[College Board] will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics,” the company told the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation.
More trouble for horrible turd man Ron DeSantis it seems. Good.
Form Energy, one of the best-funded startups tackling the challenge of long-term clean energy storage, closed a “definitive agreement” to sell its largest system yet to utility Georgia Power.
Form is in the process of commercializing its iron-air battery, which it says will economically store clean power for delivery over 100 hours straight. If successful, this new technology will take the ups and downs of renewable power production and turn it into a steady source of power for days on end. Researchers have found that some form of dispatchable clean energy like this is necessary to keep the grid reliable while maximizing the share of renewables.
More great energy news it seems.
Roscoe Wind Farm is a prime example of how the wind energy revolution is quietly, or perhaps not so quietly, going about its business, blowing away renewable energy goals. Although renewables like solar and biofuels may receive more attention, wind power is at the center of the transition to a more sustainable energy system. Every year wind energy production records are being broken as the price is plummeting.
Great news to hear wind power is over performing.
Speaking of wind, I think its time I blew off as well. Always leave them wanting more as they say, and there will be more to be sure next week. See you then!