Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News!
We can’t always control how we feel.
But sometimes we can.
The best way to feel hopeful, is to act hopeful. (And please see niftywriter’s amazing Tuesday intro about showing fear the door.)
So, if you’re worried about the election, spread good news about Biden and his deeds. Donate if you can. Make sure young potential voters are registered. Write some postcards. Do something.
And even if you don’t feel better immediately — and sometimes it takes a while before you actually feel better — you will know that you’re making a difference.
Come in, dear gnusies, and see what the good doers are doing!
Regular Scheduled Programming
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💙 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
🗽 Biden as President! 🗽
Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Here are the last week’s posts at the White House briefing room.
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Remarks by President Biden on High-Speed Internet Investments | Raleigh, NC
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on Today’s Justice Department Report on the Uvalde School Shooting Response
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby En Route Morrisville, NC
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and Commissions
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Remarks by President Biden Before Marine One Departure
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden on Today’s Justice Department Report on the Uvalde School Shooting Response
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications John Kirby
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: FACT SHEET: President Biden to Announce New Funding to Connect Thousands of Households in North Carolina to High-Speed Internet, Highlight Milestones in Lowering Costs, Expanding Internet Access to Everyone in America
- Thursday, January 18, 2024: U.S., Japan, and Republic of Korea Launch Cutting-edge Quantum Collaboration
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024: President Biden Announces Presidential Delegation to the Republic of the Marshall Islands to Attend the Inauguration of Her Excellency Hilda Heine
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024: Readout of President Biden’s Meeting with Congressional Leaders on Ukraine and His National Security Supplemental
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024: FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Improving Student Achievement Agenda in 2024
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024: Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Terrorist Designation of the Houthis
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden on the CFPB’s Proposed Rule to Curb Overdraft Fees
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at an Event to Celebrate Educators and Highlight the Importance of Educator Wellness
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: U.S. – UK Strategic Dialogue on Biological Security
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Readout of President Joe Biden’s Call with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: President Biden Announces Presidential Delegation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Félix Tshisekedi
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Statement from Communications Director Liza Acevedo on Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff’s Travel to Switzerland
- Tuesday, January 16, 2024: Remarks by Vice President Harris at NAACP South Carolina State Conference on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Monday, January 15, 2024: Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on the Inauguration of President Arévalo of Guatemala
- Monday, January 15, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden on the Occasion of President Arévalo’s Inauguration in Guatemala
- Sunday, January 14, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden Marking 100 Days of Captivity for Hostages in Gaza
- Sunday, January 14, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden Regarding the Abdication of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Succession of King Frederik X
- Saturday, January 13, 2024: President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Connecticut Emergency Declaration
- Saturday, January 13, 2024: Remarks by President Biden Before Marine One Departure
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Remarks by President Biden After Tour of Allentown Fire Training Academy | Allentown, PA
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Remarks by President Biden During Tour of Nowhere Coffee Co. | Emmaus, PA
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Letter to the Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148)
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby En Route Allentown, PA
- Friday, January 12, 2024: A Proclamation on Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2024
- Friday, January 12, 2024: A Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day, 2024
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Statement from NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Secretary Gina Raimondo’s Participation in the Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials and Senior Military Official on Developments in the Middle East
- Friday, January 12, 2024: Statement from President Joe Biden on Early Student Debt Cancellation for Borrowers Enrolled in SAVE
- Friday, January 12, 2024: FACT SHEET: President Biden Highlights Allentown, Lehigh Valley, and Pennsylvania’s Economic Comeback
👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍
☀️ More solar power coming!
👎 White House works to reduce bank overdraft fees White House Briefing Room
For too long, some banks have charged exorbitant overdraft fees—sometimes $30 or more—that often hit the most vulnerable Americans the hardest, all while banks pad their bottom lines. Banks call it a service—I call it exploitation. Today’s proposal would cut the average overdraft fee by more than half, saving the typical American family that pays these fees $150 a year. That would add up to save families $3.5 billion every year. Unfortunately, some Republicans in Congress continue to defend these exploitative fees.
This is just one part of my Administration’s broader plan to lower costs for hardworking families. We’re going to continue doing everything in our power to bring down costs and grow our economy from the middle out and bottom up, while standing up to extreme Republican attempts to provide more giveaways to the wealthy and big corporations and undermine competition.
👍 Well, done Flint! Helping out pregnant people Robyn Pennacchia Wonkette
Earlier this month, the city of Flint, Michigan, launched a first-of-its-kind program to help parents and alleviate early childhood poverty by instituting something of a UBI program for pregnant people.
Since January 10, mothers in the city have been able to register with RxKids, a program that will give them $7,500, no questions asked, not means tested — $1500 in the middle of their pregnancy and then $500 a month for the first year of the child’s life. This is about twice as much money as parents got with the expanded Child Tax Credit, which lifted almost four million children out of poverty until West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin decided (literally) that parents would use the money on drugs and ruined it for everyone. (BREAKING, which we can’t wait to get to soon: The Senate and the House budget chairs just agreed to another expanded child tax credit. CNN calls it “a longshot,” but this is absolutely joyous news.)
Gosh, this seems much more pro life than threatening to lock up women who miscarry — or to let them die in the parking lot. Way to go, Michigan!
This is good:
💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣
Simon Rosenberg’s observations on the Iowa caucus (an email, so no link)
While we got more snow than expected, last night Republicans saw a lot less voters show up than expected. Turnout in the Iowa Caucuses last night was 115,000, down from 186,000 in 2016. Another election, another GOP struggle, another GOP underperformance - what we’ve been seeing again and again post Dobbs in election after election, in all parts of the country, for more than 18 months now.
I think the GOP has been struggling since Dobbs because this MAGA, Trumpy party is deeply unattractive even to many Republican voters. Trumpy candidates in the 2022 battlegrounds saw their party splinter, Republicans vote for Democrats and they lost, some times by enormous margins. Democrats then took away important things from Republicans in 2023 due to this ongoing GOP electoral struggle - a SCOTUS seat and outrageous gerrymandering in WI; Colorado Springs and Jacksonville - two of the largest GOP held cities in the country; the six-week abortion ban in Ohio; the state House and the hope of the 15 week abortion ban as a safe heaven in VA; and cities, city councils, state legislative seats and school board races across the US.
Short version:
Hooray!
House Republicans refusing to work on the border crisis Eugene Robinson Washington Post
If House Republicans refuse to fix the border crisis, nobody will be able to deny the obvious: The GOP is more interested in nursing grievances and stoking anger than actually solving problems. That’s exactly what Donald Trump has trained them to do.
Bipartisan Senate negotiators and the White House say they are close to a deal on legislation to alleviate what everyone agrees is an emergency. It would give Republicans much of what they want regarding the southern border — beefed-up security against illegal crossings, tightened asylum rules, provision for more detentions and expulsions, perhaps even limits on President Biden’s authority to “parole” certain groups of immigrants into the country.
The package would also approve billions of dollars in
military aid for Ukraine, which the administration says is urgently needed but some House Republicans oppose. This is how bitterly contested issues are resolved in Washington: One side gets some wins and makes some concessions, the other side does the same, and both sides claim they got the better of the deal. And maybe, in the end, some good gets done.
Not including examples, but I understand the GOP senate is pretty annoyed with the GOP house right now. And there’s this:
A continuing resolution was just voted on, so the government won’t shut down. But some of the Maga Rs are really unhappy:
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚
Biden has the Ds:
Democratic senators hold press conferemce on the suffering that has happened due to the overturning of Roe v Wade Jenna Glenza The Guardian
Senate Democrats underscored their commitment to abortion rights in a press conference on Wednesday, ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade. The now-overturned supreme court case provided American women with a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.
Experts at the briefing described Republican-backed abortion bans across the country as “cruel”, “extreme” and causing untold “suffering” for American women, thousands of whom are forced to travel across state lines for abortions or be forced to remain pregnant.
“Senate
Democrats will not let anyone turn away from the devastation Republicans have caused,” said Senator Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat. “And we will not stop pushing to restore the federal right to abortion.”
Even Fox is admitting the issue is terrible for Rs, and actually said something positive about Vice President Harris on the subject:
Great haul of cash! (sorry that it is on fox, yet again, but it is important for some of the audience over there to see it)
And the real winner of the Iowa caucus:
Students for Biden!
Kansas D governor Laura Kelly calling for Medicaid expansion bill Rachel Mipro Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — A Medicaid expansion proposal has been enrolled into state House and Senate committees despite continued opposition from top legislative Republicans.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has spent the months leading up to the legislative session rallying across the state for Medicaid expansion, called for a hearing on the bill by Jan. 29.
“It’s easy to sum up the Cutting Healthcare Costs for All Kansans Act: health care coverage for 150,000 Kansans, cost savings for everyone else. We protect our rural hospitals, and Kansas taxpayers pay nothing extra,” Kelly said in a Wednesday announcement of the proposal’s enrollment. “The legislature should listen to the over 70% of Kansans who support Medicaid Expansion and give this bill a hearing by Kansas Day.” ✂️
Medicaid expansion would unlock $700 million in annual federal funding and could potentially save 59 rural hospitals at risk of closing. Kelly unveiled her latest Medicaid expansion package in December, but Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins remain opposed to expansion, calling the move a way to expand the “welfare state.”
I don’t know if she will succeed, but it’s important to point out that she is trying.
Arizona D governor Katie Hobbs working to improve education in Arizona Stacey Barchenger, Arizona Republic
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Tuesday released her plan to renew for another decade a key measure that funds public schools, adding earmarks requiring money be spent on educator and support staff pay as well as school safety and security projects.
Hobbs proposes increasing the current draw from state land trust revenues for education from 6.9% to 8.9%. She wants a dedicated split of those funds in line with priorities announced last week in her State of the State address to fund education, teacher and support staff raises and school safety.
Hobbs is also working to rein in the state school voucher problem Mary Jo Pritzl Arizona Republic
Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to rein in the state's universal voucher program, a contrast to her stance last year when she called for repealing the program altogether.
Her plan calls for guardrails that she says will increase accountability and transparency in the year-old Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which is funded by taxpayer dollars.
Less than halfway through the current budget year, the ESA program exceeded its allocation by more than $40 million, meaning lawmakers will have to put more money into the program while they deal with a budget deficit. The program currently has 72,949 students enrolled.
💜 Unity? 💜
Government to stay open through March:
Americans pretty happy with their finances Felix Salmon, Axios
Americans overall have a surprising degree of satisfaction with their economic situation, according to findings from the Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
Why it matters: That's in spite of dour views among certain subsets of the country — and in contrast to consumer sentiment polls that remain stubbornly weak, partly because of the lingering effects of 2022's inflation.
- The Axios Vibes poll has found that when asked about their own financial condition, or that of their local community, Americans are characteristically optimistic.
Congress might do something amazing: help kids Catherine Rampell Washington Post
Help kids, help companies and pay for it all by reducing tax fraud. That’s the terrific win-win-win deal lawmakers are expected to announce imminently, according to a source involved in congressional negotiations.
For more than a year now, legislators have been hashing out a trade. Republicans wanted to renew a slew of corporate tax breaks that had recently expired; in exchange, Democrats demanded an expansion of a tax credit to
slash child poverty. Kids deserved at least as much as corporations, Democrats argued.
After seemingly interminable stagnation, something amazing happened over the holiday weekend: The haggling worked.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.), the leaders of their respective chambers’ tax-writing committees, are expected to announce a deal soon. It will include roughly $33 billion in business tax breaks and about the same amount in expansions to the child tax credit, plus about $13 billion for some other smaller measures (related to housing, natural disasters, etc.).
Here’s more on the deal, or at least the proposal. PBS
This is good:
📥 Actions You Can Take 📤
Special election!
Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying?
Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are), you can support and contact these organizations:
ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union
Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election.
Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams
🌱Grass roots. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy.
🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can help. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection.
👎 Defund the seditionists. Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others.
🔎 Want to check out what’s going on with campaign contributions? Check out this diary. 👀
🐍 Schadenfreude 😈
The IRS does so much better when its properly funded!
Justice gets 30.6 million from dishonest hospital and its investors Justice Press Release
Columbus LTACH, doing business as Silver Lake Hospital (Silver Lake), a long-term care hospital based in Newark, New Jersey, has agreed to pay over $18.6 million, plus interest, to resolve alleged False Claims Act violations for claiming excessive cost outlier payments from the Medicare program. In addition, certain Silver Lake investors have agreed to pay $12 million, plus interest, to resolve alleged Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act (FDCPA) violations for the fraudulent transfer of money by the hospital to its investors. The settlement amounts will be paid over a five year period, and the Silver Lake payment was negotiated based on the hospital’s lack of ability to pay.
In addition to its standard payment system, Medicare provides supplemental reimbursement to hospitals called “cost outlier” payments in cases where the cost of care is unusually high. Congress enacted the supplemental outlier payment system to ensure that hospitals possess the incentive to treat inpatients whose care may be unusually expensive. These cost outlier payments are made based on a formula set forth in the relevant regulations that attempt to adjust a hospital’s charges to the hospital’s costs by multiplying the hospital’s current charges by the hospital’s cost-to-charge ratios derived from the hospital’s previously submitted cost reports. Because the previously submitted cost reports may not reflect the hospital’s current cost to charge ratios, the Medicare program also provides for a retrospective reconciliation process, whereby after the hospital’s cost-to-charge ratio for the applicable time period is finalized, the hospital may be required to pay back excessive outlier payments that it received. This settlement resolves allegations that Silver Lake improperly distorted the cost outlier payment system by rapidly increasing its charges well in excess of any increase in its costs and far beyond what the hospital had the financial ability to repay once its Medicare cost reports were reconciled to account for these charge increases.
The settlement also resolves allegations that Silver Lake transferred millions of dollars in the hospital’s money to its investors without receiving equivalent value in return, at a time when the hospital had reason to believe that it would not be able to repay its debts to the Medicare program. The United States alleged that such conduct violated the FDCPA.
About damned time!
📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️
This week we’re honoring E Jean Carroll, who — after being sexually abused by tRump (he grabbed her by the p***y, a sort of action he bragged about to Billy Bush) — has had the courage and the fortitude to sue him in a New York courtroom — not once, but twice — for defamation. It takes a lot to see this through, and to come forward (most women do not).
Here’s some more on why this matters:
That’s what needs to be done. He needs to pay so much that he stops.
🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️
Kindness and flowers
This is sweet as well:
📎Odds & Ends 📎
Solar and wind capacity rose by 20% in 2023 in Southeast Asia Cristen Hemingway Jaynes EcoWatch
Utility-scale wind and solar capacity rose by 20 percent in Southeast Asia last year, as the region comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) brought its total capacity to more than 28 gigawatts (GW), according to a new Global Energy Monitor (GEM) report.
The increase means the region is in a good position to comfortably meet its renewables goals ahead of schedule, a press release from GEM said.
“The growth of renewables across the region is impressive, but so much more can be achieved,” said GEM researcher Janna Smith in the press release.
The report found that a difficult regulatory environment for renewable energy, lack of progress with starting new renewables projects and perpetuating reliance on fossil fuels were presenting challenges to the clean energy transition.
Cape Verde eradicates malaria! Andy Corbley Good News Network
Becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to eliminate Malaria in half a century, Cape Verde has gone three years without a single case of transmission.
Malaria kills most people who die every year, and now that the complex phenomenon of various parasites and various mosquitoes has been quelled, it should stay that way owing to the fact that Cape Verde is a nation of islands.
Indeed, all international travelers and migrants have free access to malaria diagnoses, which has been one of the nation’s strategies for controlling the spread of the parasite. Active mosquito control has also helped, as well as a general rise in the standard of testing and treatment.
A pothole saves a life! Andy Corbley, Good News Network
They breed anger and derision; they cause annoyance, discomfort, and even expensive repairs, but India’s famous potholes actually saved a life on Friday.
The ‘late’ Darshan Singh Brar was being transported to the Indian version of a wake after his untimely death from a chest infection at the age of 80.
Family, relatives, and friends had already gathered for a banquet and cremation, when the ambulance he was being caried in received a nasty jolt from a pothole on the roads in Nising, in far-Northern India’ Haryana state.
It was then that Mr. Brar’s grandson who was onboard the ambulance at the time noticed his hand moving. Checking his pulse and finding—to his great shock—there was one, he notified the driver to immediately turn toward the nearest hospital.
🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: the Crow Nickels (chronicles), a trilogy about crows who want to save birdkind from extinction: Hunters of the Feather, Scavengers of Mind and Familiars of the Flock (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — such as The Meryton Murders — and others based on history and Greek mythology, such as Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paid if you turn the pages.
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time.
Current projects:
Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters.
You can smile.
You can say something nice to friend or a stranger.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
💙 “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.” 💙
President Joseph R. Biden
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.