This Week in Gnuville
My homage, hat-tips, gratitude, love, and hugs for the co-creators, authors, and commenters of our global Good News community (see map below):
*WE* Make The Good News! Check out the AMAZING Fundraising Numbers: Saturday's GNR
GoodNewsRoundup
Since that awful day in 2016 when Trump was elected, we have all gathered here to share good news with one another, find community, find energy to fight, and find reason to hope.
But in addition to reporting good news, we make good news! We write postcards for campaigns. We make phone calls. We go door to door for candidates. We make a difference.
And if we can, we donate. And boy do we donate!
In mid-August we started a fundraiser for 38 of the most highly contested House races.
Why? Because although keeping the House is a longshot, it is also totally a possibility.
And it is important. I mean really, does anyone want to see Kevin McCarthy as Speaker? Or Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz chairing committees? Does anyone want to see Biden’s agenda ground to a halt and 24/7 hearings on Hunter Biden?
No one wants that.
So we fundraised for the House and you all donated over $80,000! More than $2,000 per candidate! Wow!
Here is that fundraiser: Save the House Part 1
That went so well that we made a second fundraiser with an additional 22 people. These were folks who had recently won primaries or had recently been moved into the “in play” category.
And lo and behold, you all donated over $45,000! More than $2,000 per candidate! Wow!
Here is that fundraiser: Save the House Part 2
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You all are amazing!!!
It is time to put together a third, and final, fundraiser, and we want YOU to nominate local candidates for us to support!
For the first two races, we stuck to only candidates that are rated as Toss Up or Lean R or Lean D. You can find some of those ratings here and here (scroll down for “Forecasting Each House Race”)
Who do you think we should fundraise for this time? Why? Are they in a seat that was rated as competitive? If not, why do you think we should include them anyway?
This can be someone we supported before or someone brand new.
Nominate House candidates in the comments! Explain why you think they should be supported.
If you see someone you support nominated by someone else, like the comment and add your two cents in another comment.
One of the candidates in our second round was Eric Sorensen.
Sorensen is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 17th Congressional District. The race for Illinois' 17th Congressional District this November is considered a true competitive toss-up.
Sorensen made climate issues a key issue during the Democratic primary. The candidate said he "100%" supports a federal bill to codify abortion access rights. He would also support expanding federal protections for same-sex marriage and contraception.
Sorensen is a former meteorologist born and raised in Rockford, IL. Sorensen will be the first out LGBTQ person elected to congress from Illinois!
Sorensen faces a major fundraising gap against his Republican opponent. The republicans think they can win this swing seat so they are throwing money at it (including piles of dark money). At the end of June, King's campaign reported more than $1.8 million on hand, compared to just $114,509 in Sorensen's coffers.
The race is neck and neck, but Sorensen can totally win. This newly drawn district even leans slightly blue. If he has the funds to GOTV, we can win that seat. This is a place where you dollars really can make a difference.
The funding situation is so important (and Sorensen is such a great guy) that he made this video thanking us for our help. Check it out:
So for today, while we figure out who should be included in our third (and final) funding push for these midterms, lets do a big group push for Sorensen!
I set up an ActBlue where we can do a flash donating activity today for Eric Sorensen, a great candidate who really needs more funds. Here is is:
Let’s put our money where it will make a huge, huge difference!
C’mon it’ll make you feel good :-)
[In one day, we raised $3,470 for Eric! Thank you. ~ 2t]
Good News Roundup for Friday, September 30, 2022: Act with Dauntless Hope
chloris creator
As I missed last week, I wasn’t here to comment on President Biden’s September 21 speech to the United Nations. Here are a few relevant bits:
Let me end with this: This institution, guided by the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is at its core an act of dauntless hope. Let me say that again: It’s an act of dauntless hope.
Think about the vision of those first delegates who undertook a seemingly impossible task while the world was still smoldering. Think about how divided the people of the world must have felt with the fresh grief of millions dead, the genocidal horrors of the Holocaust exposed.
They had every right to believe only the worst of humanity. Instead, they reached for what was best in all of us, and they strove to build something better: enduring peace; comity among nations; equal rights for every member of the human family; cooperation for the advancement of all humankind.
Fascism is having another go at humanity. However, now we’re seeing that it’s not just the women who are suffering. The men in Russia are being rounded up to fight a war they don’t want to fight. That’s where it leads, guys.
But lots of people are pushing back. The women in Iran. The arsonists in Russia. And we, too, must push back.
Come on in, my friends, and fortify yourself with the good news, and then let us know what you’re going to do in order to Get Out the f***ing Vote!
Fifth Thursday GNR: How Long Must This Circus Continue?
Mokurai
Thing0, 8-ring court circus. J6, I’ve lost count. Ukraine, fuggedaboudit, Pootie-Poot. Elections, here we go, six more weeks of meshugas. Then we GNUsies can start to feel slightly sane again. Not them, though. Their raging, shrieking, caterwauling denial isn’t going to reach its peak until they are actually irrelevant. They will keep getting louder, and try to get nastier, in proportion as their numbers dwindle. Just remember that all of that is the clearest sign that we are winning. So we have to hold on until their children and grandchildren replace them. We also have to hold on until the Oil and Gaslighting kleptocrats are swept away all around the world.
Now, in the rest of the world, we have by no means won yet. Russia, Hungary, Turkey, and now Italy have gone wockawockadoodliedoo, and there are the usual suspects elsewhere. Still we are making progress on poverty and the ills that go with it, more than most people suspect.
11 ways Biden has restored US leadership on the world stage - September28 GNR
niftywriter
Good Day, Gnuville! Phew! I am having a week! So, I’m going to bring you a twist on the GNR Potluck day. I’ll share some good news in a “then and now” kind of construction and I invite you to share even more good news in the comments!
TFG’s maladministration was excruciating in many ways but perhaps none more painful than the way he tried to destroy America’s reputation for leadership on the world stage. With his bowing and scraping before petty dictators, TFG was a source of constant embarrassment. All that changed after Joe Biden took office, thank the stars! What a difference a real POTUS makes!
Read on for a recap of some of the top ways Joe had already restored the USA as a world leader by January 2022 and further progress he has made since then.
But first, it would not be a nifty GNR without some opening music!
Good News Roundup for Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022 — Optimism leads to action
arhpdx
Good morning, all! I’ve rounded up a lot of news, but first I want to share two great quotes I came across last week, one recent, the other classic.
Hannah Ritchie, in an article in Big Think titled “An End to Doomerism”, clarified why optimism gets a bad rap and why we need to sharpen our definition of it:
Pessimism sounds smart. Optimism sounds dumb. ✂️
There is an “optimism stigma” that is pervasive throughout society. It’s why I often feel embarrassed to admit that I’m an optimist. It knocks me down in people’s expectations. But the world desperately needs more optimism to make progress, so I should stop being so shy about it.
The issue is that people mistake optimism for “blind optimism” — the blinkered faith that things will always get better. Problems will fix themselves. ... Blind optimism ...[is] not just stupid, it’s dangerous. If we sit back and do nothing, we will not make progress. That’s not the kind of optimism that I’m talking about.
Optimism is seeing problems as challenges that are solvable; it’s having the confidence that there are things that we can do to make a difference. “Urgent optimism,” “pragmatic optimism,” “realistic optimism,” “impatient optimism” — I’ve heard many terms for this concept.
...The definition of pessimism is “a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen.” Optimism, on the other hand, is “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something.” People mistakenly see optimism as an excuse for inaction. They think that it’s pessimism that drives change, and optimism that keeps us where we are. The opposite is true. Optimists are the ones that move us forward. ... Pessimism blocks solutions. If we always believe that the worst will happen, then what’s the point in starting? ... Follow the pessimists if you want the world to stagnate or regress.
The second quote is from Margaret Mead:
The earliest sign of civilization is not a clay pot, or tools made of iron, or the first domesticated plants. It is a mended femur. It shows someone must have cared for the injured person, hunted on their behalf, brought them food, served them at personal sacrifice. The first step to civilization is an act of human compassion, and it becomes the foundation to all the great achievements of humankind.
I’ve been thinking about both of these quotes for several days, and I think that together they offer inspiring support for progressive activism of the kind we celebrate here in Gnuville. When we fight for policies and leaders that improve the lives of all, when we speak out against oppression and cruelty, we illustrate the power of optimism, hope, and compassion. And we move the world forward.
So if you feel a bit more inspired, please take some action today, like donating to Goodie’s fundraiser (which blown past its goal!), signing up to write postcards or phone bank or canvass, or maybe writing a letter to the editor of your local paper making the case for Dem candidates. Every positive action moves us a bit closer to a better world.
From the GNR Newsroom, it’s the Monday Good News Roundup
Jessiestaf, Bhu, and Killer300
Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, where we bring you all the good news you need to start your week off. Before we get started lets take a moment to think about the brave people in Iran currently fighting for their freedom. We hope and pray for their safety in this difficult time and that they emerge victorious in their struggle.
Alright, now onto the news.
✂
Quantum batteries: Strange technology that can provide instant power
Edit: That link was apparently broken. Mokurai provide more links in the comments here. Thanks, Mokurai!
THE battery, as US comedian Demetri Martin pointed out, is one technology that we personify. “Other things stop working or they break,” he said. “But batteries – they die.” The observation is keener than it may at first appear. So beholden are some of us to smartphones, tablets and other digital technology, that our lives pretty much go on hold when they run out of juice. Even if it is just 30 minutes, we are apt to mourn the time lost to recharging.
If that seems like a laughable reaction, there is a serious side to this when it comes to the batteries that power electric vehicles. The fact that it usually takes hours to charge them is a major stumbling block to decarbonising transport, which is among the biggest global emitters of greenhouse gases. For humanity’s sake, charging times need to be slashed. Yet, with the fundamentals of battery science the same as they were half a century ago, the prospect of a drastic improvement looks slim.
Slim, but not impossible. Now, quantum physics could ride to our rescue. By leveraging the strange behaviour of subatomic particles, a quantum battery could charge itself much faster than any conventional device. As a handy bonus, the bigger a quantum battery, the better it performs. Although the concept is in its infancy, a recent experimental demonstration and some theoretical advances suggest that a world of uninterrupted portable power isn’t so far-fetched. One day, dead batteries could spring back to life in an instant.
I say it every week, but I love living in the future.
Sunday Good News Roundup of Roundups ☼ WineRev! ☼ 2 Polls: WWtW? AND Are you boosted?
2thanks
Congress now has full U.S. Indigenous representation!
"For the first time in 230 years, Congress has full U.S. Indigenous representation." @kylegriffin1
“Rep. Mary Peltola's election to the U.S. House of Representatives made history in several ways.
“With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, an Alaska Native and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States' Indigenous people for the first time, according to Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele of Hawaii. Now, there are six Indigenous Americans who are representatives in the House.”
Comments from last week:
“Many thanks to each of the writers of GoodNewsRoundups, you all keep getting better and better. You are inspirational and brilliant!!!”
✂
The launching of the Environmental Justice Office is especially good news — it’s the first time that the federal government appears poised to grapple with some of the worst inequities that minority communities have suffered from. Racist policies in the permitting of factories, mines, freeways, etc. have caused health problems and incalculable misery for those communities for over a century — it’s about time for this situation to be dealt with!
✂
Thanksx2, 2thanks! Kinda cool doing the same poll. I moved from the “looking forward to the booster” to “got mine, baby!”
May you find peace and health this Sunday. As always, may Good News brighten you day.
✂
And a comment from 2 weeks ago:
I don’t check in often but I wanted to drop in today to say how much I appreciate Good News Roundups. Thank you, 2thanks, and all the other Gnusies who keep this going! We need good news!!!
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 “2” all the other Thanks among your family and friends: the twin-thanks (naturally), the second-cousin thanks, the great-great (so 2) grandparents, the great-great (so 2) grand kids, and, of course, the granddaughter of the son of your cousin---making them your niece twice removed. In non-removed news, the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch & Lutheran Hot Dish Room are open for contributions and business, along with News, Sports, Weather and other reasons to sit down, order a breakfast beverage and a brunch-y plate of sustenance. Good News is tied onto the salt and pepper shakers, gets passed between tables on those side platters, and now and again floats down from the ceiling in a balloon drop, so come and soothe your soul and heart with the items in the Diary.
Science
Castle 2thanks: Recent additions to my battlements of to ward off Covid infection.
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: 776 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 450 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.
- 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 …
For those who can and care to, GoodNewsRoundup’s 2 fundraisers to Save the House Majority:
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:
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 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 stance. 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!
A Little Bit About Me
Grandfathering is great fun. Little pumpkin is about 4 months old, learning to sleep through the night. One day this week, he was at our house with just his Grandma and me. He was in his subtle early lip-trembling lip-pursing stage of hunger — His lips were waking up to the fact that they should be making milk-moving nipple-to-mouth motions pretty darn soon.
I started heating some refrigerated expressed milk for him, but his milk Mom called and said she’d be arriving soon, she needed to nurse, and we should avoid feeding him if possible.
I buckled him into his side-to-side swing, sat in front of him, and to distract him I played my flute for him for the first time, until his Mom arrived about 20 minutes later. He was utterly rapt. All he did was stare at me and the flute, wide eyed; he quit making the sucking-lip motions for the duration. No lip motions at all. He never launched into the loud and full-throated “I’m hungry, I want milk now” cry. I was quite amazed — I don't really play music, I just listen for the next sound. My fluting made him forget about his hunger!
Do you make music for babies?
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)