Happy Religious Freedom Day!
Frederick Clarkson proposed a Presidential Proclamation for Religious Freedom Day:
Today we commemorate the enactment of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of civilization. Religious Freedom is a corner stone of democracy. It is the first freedom of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
It is my distinct honor to commemorate on this day, the foundational work of my predecessors, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison whose inspirational words and legislative prowess provided us with a philosophical framework that allowed 13 different colonies with different histories and religious mixes and different established churches to form the United States.
These Religious Freedom Day diaries have already been published this year:
This year’s Religious Freedom Day diaries, so far
Find many other Daily Kos stories on Religious Freedom Day in the RFD Archive here.
Again, Happy Religious Freedom Day, dear Readers and Gnusies!
Gnusies Rocked Around the Week
When Your Worldview is too Big, The World Seems Overwhelming: Saturday's GNR
GoodNewsRoundup
Good News Roundup for Friday, January 14, 2022: A Marathon, Not a Sprint
chloris creator
Second Thursday Good News: It's Not Their Glass
Mokurai
Hump Day: Good News Roundup for January 12
Andrew F Cockburn*
Tuesday "BluesDay" - Good News Roundup - January 11
niftywriter
From the GNR Newsroom: Its the Monday Good News Roundup: Republicans in disarray special
Jessiestaf
Sunday Good News ¤ 2 Polls: Bill in Portland Maine's AND Omicron and you
2thanks
* Andrew is filling in for niftywriter on Wednesdays while dependable nif helps her aunt whose home does not have Wi-Fi.
Dana Nessel, Michigan's Attorney General, refers 12 GQP forgers/fraudsters to federal prosecutors
The unfolding story of the forgers and fraudsters who claimed to be federal electors:
"Michigan’s Attorney General refers the 16 Michigan Republicans who forged a certificate claiming that Trump won in 2020 to federal prosecutors for criminal felony charges that can earn them decades in prison." ~ Occupy Democrats
Huge Project to Construct US Bridges
"Today, we’re launching the largest bridge construction project since the interstate highways were built. This is an investment that will help connect entire towns and regions to new opportunities." ~ President Biden
Jessie Balmert and Laura A. Bischoff, The Columbus Dispatch: The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state's congressional district map Friday, saying Republicans violated the Ohio Constitution by drawing districts that favored GOP candidates.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor was, once again, a key vote in the 4-3 decision to reject the map, which could have given Republicans as much as a 12-3 advantage in a state that voted for President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump, twice.
That violated language overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018 to prevent a map that unduly favored one party or its incumbents.
"In striking down OH's legislative maps, the court's majority ordered districts to be as proportional to the state's 54%-46% GOP lean as possible. If the same order applied to congressional, might translate into an 8-7 Trump map (far cry from GOP 11-4 map)." ~ Dave Wasserman
“DirecTV plans to drop One America News Network, the conservative, disinformation-spewing channel.”
AT&T will stop carrying the far-right OANN on its DirectTV subsidiary. AT&T is responsible for 90% of OANN's revenue. OANN relentlessly pushed Trump's false claims that the election was stolen.” ~ Judd Legum:
And from Gnusie chloris creator, again:
DirectTV (that's AT&T!) dropping OANN: Tell them you approve!
“Here’s a contact page for AT&T, but you may want to reach out via your local establishment.”
Free at-home rapid Covid tests by mail
“The Biden administration announced http://covidtests.gov, a new website for Americans to order FREE at-home rapid Covid tests by mail. The site goes live Wednesday, but tests are expected to take 7–12 days to deliver.” ~ Jon Cooper
Science
“There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally, they credit the wrong person.” ~ Bill Bryson
Linda Geddes, The Guardian: Coronavirus loses 90% of its ability to infect us within 20 minutes of becoming airborne – with most of the loss occurring within the first five minutes, the world’s first simulations of how the virus survives in exhaled air suggest.
The findings re-emphasise the importance of short-range Covid transmission, with physical distancing and mask-wearing likely to be the most effective means of preventing infection. Ventilation, though still worthwhile, is likely to have a lesser impact.
“People have been focused on poorly ventilated spaces and thinking about airborne transmission over metres or across a room. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen, but I think still the greatest risk of exposure is when you’re close to someone,” said Prof Jonathan Reid, director of the University of Bristol’s Aerosol Research Centre and the study’s lead author.
“When you move further away, not only is the aerosol diluted down, there’s also less infectious virus because the virus has lost infectivity [as a result of time].”
HOUSTON, Dec. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine announced today that CORBEVAX™, a protein sub-unit COVID-19 Vaccine, whose technology was created and engineered at its Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch in India with other underserved countries to follow.
Dubbed "The World's COVID-19 Vaccine", it uses a traditional recombinant protein-based technology that will enable its production at large scales making it widely accessible to inoculate the global population. The initial construct and production process of the vaccine antigen was developed at Texas Children's Hospital CVD, led by co-directors Drs. Maria Elena Bottazzi and Peter Hotez and in-licensed from BCM Ventures, Baylor College of Medicine's integrated commercialization team, to Hyderabad-based vaccine and pharmaceutical company Biological E. Limited (BE).
Preventative COVID Nasal Spray Begins Clinical Trials In Australia Using Heparin.
Seashells, Daily Kos member: Trials begin for a COVID neutralizing nasal spray using the blood thinner heparin.
✂
Heparin is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world, cheap, shelf-stable, and well tolerated. Used as a spray it doesn't enter the blood stream but coats the nasal passage and prevents the virus from entering our cells.
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Heparin is a negatively charged molecule and sits next to ACE2 – the receptor the SARS-CoV-2 spike hooks onto to enter human cells. SARS-CoV-2 spike is positively charged. Thus, heparin attracts the virus spike that can then roll off onto the ACE2 receptor and find its way into the cell to replicate, causing the infection.
Our map of Gnuville: 709 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply to tljdk or silverfoxcruiser in the comments. 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. If you Follow us, our diaries will appear in your Daily Kos Stream.
Tech Talk for Kosacks
- 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. After that, you’re good to go. The “Load More” option also resets the user back to the display of the old-style, React comments.
- Got a Daily Kos tech question? Let us know.
- Solved a tech question recently? Please feel free to repeat 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.
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 p.m. CT. 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.
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 …
From 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 his diary on the California recall here.
From GoodNewsRoundup
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.
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?
Top Image: Starhawk created this diary’s top image of the rampant gnu and gave it to the members of the Good News Roundup group (Gnusies)! Thank you, Starhawk! This is a quite detailed sketch of a gnu drawn in brown, green, and black. A happy and dynamic gnu dances on its left hind leg in a classic rampant heraldric pose. Joyful letters prance above and behind the mane: “Happy Dance.” Signature: Nick Korolev, 2021.
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)