Good morning, Gnusies! I’m going to turn over the podium for this morning’s welcoming comments to journalist Amanda Ripley, whose article in the Washington Post (“I stopped reading the news”) really resonated with me.
She discusses the various ways that MSM news has driven away readers (“new data from the Reuters Institute showed that the United States has one of the highest news-avoidance rates in the world”) and then suggests what changes would fix that [the bolding is mine]:
I’ve spent the past year trying to figure out what news designed for 21st-century humans might look like — interviewing physicians…, behavioral scientists…, and psychologists… When I distilled everything they told me, I found that there are three simple ingredients that are missing from the news as we know it. ✂️
First, we need hope to get up in the morning. ...“Hope is like water,” says David Bornstein, co-founder of the nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network. “You need to have something to believe in.” ✂️
Second, humans need a sense of agency. ...feeling like you and your fellow humans can do something — even something small — is how we convert anger into action, frustration into invention. ✂️
Finally, we need dignity. ...treating people like they matter. ✂️
There is a way to communicate news — including very bad news — that leaves us better off as a result. A way to spark anger and action. Empathy alongside dignity. Hope alongside fear.
Of course, the readers and writers of the Good News Roundup know all this already, but it’s good to be reminded that we are making a difference by supporting our little oasis of good news here on Daily Kos.
So pour yourself a cup of your favorite morning beverage, settle into a comfortable chair, and start your day with a healthy dose of good news.
Opening music
Bernice Kennedy Reagon and Sweet Honey in the Rock put this classic gospel song into the context of activism and give it a rousing performance.
* * * * *
Good news in politics
Rep. Jody Hice subpoenaed in Georgia election investigation
Fani Willis is on it!
From The Hill:
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) has been subpoenaed in his home state to appear before a special grand jury investigating efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Hice was one of 10 congressional Republicans who attended a December 2020 White House meeting to discuss challenging the 2020 election results, according to testimony unveiled by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
'Historic Day' as Staff of 8 House Democrats File for Union Elections
It’s great to see the House Dems walk their talk on unionizing. I think this will have a very positive effect across the nation for other employee groups considering forming or joining a union.
From Common Dreams:
Staffers of eight Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday took a key step toward unionizing by filing petitions for representation at the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
Monday was the first day that congressional staff could make that move, after a resolution introduced in February by Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) passed the House in a May party-line vote.
Along with Levin's staff, the offices of Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Melanie Stansbury (N.M.) are seeking union elections. ✂️
Congressman Levin said in a statement that "I am so proud of the staffers who made a historic move today in seeking union recognition in eight offices with over 70 workers in the House, and I am incredibly humbled and honored to have played a modest role in helping realize the hard work of congressional staff who fought to make this moment possible."
In DC, Lawmakers Push ‘Common Sense’ Food Waste Solution
Fortunately, ending food waste is one of the rare issues that appeals to conservatives as well as liberals.
From Civil Eats:
The phrase “common sense” was thrown around repeatedly at an event...in the U.S. Capitol Building, where lawmakers, advocates, and business leaders gathered to garner support for the Food Donation Improvement Act. ✂️
Experts and advocates say the bill will make it easier for businesses and organizations to donate surplus food, thereby mitigating the climate impacts of food waste and providing food to communities in need. And it has garnered strong bicameral and bipartisan support: Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Dan Newhouse (R-Washington), Jackie Walorski (R-Indiana), Grace Meng (D-New York), Carolyn Maloney (D-New York), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia) all spoke or shared statements at the event. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) introduced a companion bill in the Senate last fall, and Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) provided a statement of support. ✂️
Unlike contentious food issues like SNAP that inspire party battles, simultaneously stopping food waste and increasing food donations comes with a moral halo that appeals to both sides of the aisle (and to the many nonprofits and businesses in the room, including Weight Watchers, GrubHub, and Bowery Farming). Every day, the U.S. wastes the equivalent of 1,000 calories of food per person—enough to feed more than 150 million people each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That waste of resources also produces huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, and food sent to landfills becomes an additional climate liability. Landfills are the country’s third-largest source of methane, a powerful climate-warming gas. Wasted food is the single largest category of material that ends up in landfills.
How to Rein in an Out-of-Control Judiciary
Jessiestaf included this in yesterday’s GNR, but I think it’s interesting enough to post again with a bit more detail. As Jessie pointed out, in order to put this — or any other — fix for SCOTUS in place, we need to elect more Dems.
By James Fallows, from fallows.substack:
A ‘Plan B’ idea for the Court.
Yesterday a group called Fix the Court released proposed legislation with a Plan A / Plan B structure.
—The main effect of the law, Plan A, would be to enact 18-year fixed terms for Supreme Court Justices, as many groups (including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and several U.S. Representatives) have proposed, and is long overdue.
—The innovation of the law is its “contingency” provision. The Constitutional validity of any term-limit rules might ultimately be appealed to the same Supreme Court whose members would be affected. And suppose they ruled against it? To keep themselves in their seats?
If that happened, according to this provision, Plan B would kick in: the Court would automatically be expanded, from nine members to 13. The logic of this approach was laid out by G. Michael Parsons, of NYU’s law school, in a detailed law-review article and an op-ed last year.
Parsons summed up the argument this way:
Popular plans [to reform the Court] get watered down to preempt legal concerns, while controversial policies dominate the debate based on their constitutional pedigree. For example, Fix The Court’s plan would require justices to take senior status after 18 years (a widely popular approach), but the plan exempts sitting justices to avoid potential legal issues. Take Back the Court, meanwhile, argues that packing the court is the only viable option because anything else might be invalidated.
But what if this choice between popularity and predictability is a false one? Rather than settling on one plan, Congress instead should use a rare legislative tool known as “backup law” to layer its policy preferences from most politically desirable to most constitutionally secure. If the court holds the first preference unconstitutional, the second will automatically take its place. ✂️
...once there's a Democratic leadership change, I think you'll have a chance of something going the distance. Clearly the term limits bill and the court expansion bill don’t have the support of the [Democratic] leadership now. But we need to think of creative proposals that might get their support, or get other folks to push the leadership on these existing proposals.
🍿 Repellent Republicans Risking Irrelevance 🍿
Republicans threaten Wall Street over climate positions
Anyone think this is going to turn out to be a good move?
From The Washington Post:
Republican officials across the country, tearing a page from the ongoing culture wars, are launching a broad assault on the movement by big financial firms to use their economic power to curb climate change and address other politically sensitive national issues. ✂️
State officials are moving more swiftly. This spring, Kentucky lawmakers voted to empower state officials to stop doing business with any firm that says it won’t invest in fossil fuels. The move drew praise from other Republican officials, although the state hasn’t penalized a firm yet. “Kentucky joins our growing coalition of states that have taken concrete steps to push back against the woke capitalists who are trying to destroy our energy industries,” West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore said after Kentucky adopted the legislation. ✂️
Preventing big firms from doing business in GOP states could come with a cost. A new paper by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professor Daniel G. Garrett and Federal Reserve Board economist Ivan T. Ivanov argues that Texas state entities will pay an additional $303 million to $532 million in interest costs on the $32 billion in borrowing during the first eight months following the passage of two laws last September.
And in more bone-headed Rethug moves, Ted “World’s Worst Beard” Cruz says legalizing gay marriage was “clearly wrong” and Louis “Still the Stupidest Person in Congress” Gohmert was the sole House vote against lifting the tax on imported baby formula. How’s that gonna play in Texas?
Ruh-roh! Missouri is confused about when a fetus becomes a legal person
Putting aside the questionable logic of not allowing a pregnant woman to divorce (because her fetus isn’t a person until it’s born), given the fact that that’s the law in Missouri [click here for a deep dive], wouldn’t you think the Rethugs might have taken it into account when they wrote a trigger ban that claims “The life of each human being begins at conception”?
Ah, well, logical consistency sure ain’t their strong point. Fortunately, there are brilliant minds out there in Twitterland eager to help us understand all this. (🎩 to Tara the Antisocial Social Worker for posting this gem in OHD’s Tweets of the Week on Sunday.)
Trump Tells Team He Needs to Be President Again to Save Himself from Criminal Probes
This strikes me as yet another of tfg’s delusional fixations. IANAL, but isn’t a felon still a felon even if he’s running for office or in office?
From Rolling Stone [🎩 to WineRev for the link in yesterday’s History Corner]:
In recent months, Trump has made clear to associates that the legal protections of occupying the Oval Office are front-of-mind for him, four people with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone.
Trump has “spoken about how when you are the president of the United States, it is tough for politically motivated prosecutors to ‘get to you,” says one of the sources, who has discussed the issue with Trump this summer. “He says when [not if] he is president again, a new Republican administration will put a stop to the [Justice Department] investigation that he views as the Biden administration working to hit him with criminal charges — or even put him and his people in prison.”
BTW, Al Sharpton had the best comment on this in an interview on MSNBC: “He’s not running as much for the White House [but] as a way of staying out of the Big House.” Bingo!
Pence endorses in Arizona governor’s race, putting him at odds with Trump
Yet more evidence of Republicans in Disarray™ It’ll be interesting to compare crowd sizes at these two rallies! 🍿
From The Washington Post:
Former vice president Mike Pence is endorsing Arizona gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, a developer who has long been involved in Republican politics, instead of former president Donald Trump’s chosen candidate, Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was “stolen.”
The endorsement illustrates the division in the party between Trump supporters who value loyalty to him over all else and those who want to move on from endlessly litigating the 2020 election, including those who are grateful that Pence and other Republicans blocked Trump’s attempts to overturn the results. Trump and Pence, who are each thinking about running for president in 2024, both plan to be in Arizona on Friday to campaign for their chosen candidates ahead of an Aug. 2 primary.
* * * * *
Good news from my corner of the world
Oregon gun safety measure poised to appear on November ballot
The petition signatures for this measure were gathered in record time, a good sign that it may have enough support to overcome the 2nd amendment fanatics in the eastern part of the state.
From Oregon Capital Chronicle:
Supporters of a gun safety ballot initiative say they have gathered more than enough signatures to guarantee a statewide vote on a law that would require licenses for all gun owners. ✂️
Mark Knutson, a Lutheran pastor in Portland and one of the chief petitioners, told the Capital Chronicle that the campaign started off slow because an increase in Covid cases and a rainy spring made it hard to collect signatures. But mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, in May spurred hundreds of volunteers to pick up clipboards and set up outside libraries and grocery stores. ✂️
The initiative would tighten Oregon’s gun laws, which allow gun ownership at 18 and requires criminal background checks before gun purchases, though a loophole in federal law allows firearms dealers to sell guns without a background check if it takes longer than three days to complete. The man who killed nine people in a racially-motivated shooting at a South Carolina church in 2015 acquired his gun that way.
If the measure were enacted, everyone would have to complete a background check, no matter how long it takes, and pass firearm safety training to obtain a permit before buying a gun. It would not apply to current firearm owners unless they purchase additional weapons after the law took effect.
The measure would also prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines that can contain more than 10 rounds, though people who already own large magazines could continue to use them on their property, while hunting or at shooting ranges.
Oregon teachers, students lead push for sweeping expansion of climate change curriculum
The kids are leading the way again. Adults in power need to get out of the way and line up behind them, like these teachers are doing.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Student activism around climate change has been ramping up in recent years, with students across Oregon and the country leading walkouts and protests. Students see climate change discussions on social media and they talk about it with their friends. ✂️
[Bend OR high school junior Olive] Nye and [Klamath OR senior Kate] Rodriguez are part of a statewide group of students and teachers pushing for more education on climate and sustainability, including place-based lessons schools can tailor to a community’s specific issues. The group, Oregon Educators for Climate Education, includes teachers from across the state. ✂️
Oregon Educators for Climate Education has drafted legislation that outlines objectives for students to learn about climate and sustainability in their core classes, including math, language arts and social studies. And they’re gaining traction. Earlier this year, the legislation received the support of the Oregon Education Association during its Representative Assembly, with OEA saying it will support the legislation, and offering a chance to work with the union’s lobbying team. ✂️
[A] group of [Eugene OR] educators created draft legislation, using the model of past legislative efforts to require teaching the history of Oregon’s tribes and lessons on the Holocaust and genocide. ...The bill requires instruction on historic and current Indigenous ways of living, the impact of garbage and emissions on communities and ecosystems, and the disproportionate impact of climate change on diverse groups within Oregon, the U.S., and around the world.
How two Oregon companies plan to help out-of-state employees access abortion
The logistics of providing access to abortions for employees living out of state are complex to say the least.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
When the constitutional right to abortion vanished, Kim Malek, the CEO of Salt & Straw Ice Cream, acted quickly. Within hours, the Portland-based company promised to pay travel expenses for employees who need to leave their home states to access abortion. Salt & Straw has about 100 workers at scoop shops in Florida, where a contested state law bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
“These sorts of restrictions put women’s health in jeopardy, for a lot of different reasons,” Malek said. “So, we sort of leapt in the deep end, knowing that we would figure it out as we go along.” ✂️
At Salt & Straw, chief people officer Todd Woodruff suddenly became their new policy’s chief mechanic.“We’re going to do this because it’s the right thing to do. Now we have to figure out how to do it,” he said.
Rick Watson wrestled with the same question at Northwest Confections, which makes cannabis edibles and CBD products under the brand name Wyld. ...Wyld is waiting to see if its insurer will add language covering travel if reproductive care, including abortion, isn’t available within a reasonable distance. Some insurance plans already reimburse medical travel when specialty care or certain procedures aren’t offered nearby. Under that scenario, claims would go through insurance. ✂️
Large companies may have an advantage here. Businesses such as Intel and Columbia Sportswear are self-insured, which means they pay their own health care costs. That gives them more flexibility to design their own health plans, which could include travel for reproductive care as a benefit. Federal law should shield those plans from state insurance laws that might forbid such reimbursement.
Portland’s ‘Hygiene Hub’ Goes Way Beyond Free Showers
The story of this terrific program to help those living on the street is so under the radar in its home city that I didn’t see it until Reasons to Be Cheerful picked it up. That’s what happens when your only city newspaper is an Advance Publications (formerly Newhouse) product with a conservative local publisher. Sigh.
All that said, this is some wonderful news from Portland, and I’m happy I saw it.
From Reasons to Be Cheerful:
Business owners in Portland’s Central East Side were concerned about what they said was an increase in homelessness, trash and biowaste. So they proposed forming an “enhanced services district,” known in other cities as a business improvement district. But when people experiencing homelessness and their advocates saw the district’s proposed budget, they were alarmed — their proposed budget dedicated significant funding to private security, policing homelessness instead of solving it.
“People don’t realize that these things happen because there’s an utter lack of infrastructure — there’s no place to dump household trash and in that 70-city block at that point there were a total of two public bathrooms,” notes Sandra Comstock, a sociologist and advocate for houseless people. She saw a logical alternative to an enhanced services district: Fund a safe space where people could access a hot shower, bathrooms, laundry and basic medical care, as well as dump trash.
To follow through took two years and a complex series of county and city permits, near constant fundraising and Covid-19. By the end of last year, the Hygiene Hub opened beneath the Morrison Bridge with portable toilets and a shower with hot water. This spring, the hub will roll out its clothing and bedding exchange. By late summer, a cadre of nurse volunteers will begin offering a full range of foot and wound care.
The hub is the first major project of Hygiene4All, a nonprofit founded by Comstock that facilitated weekly visioning and design meetings with unsheltered collaborators over the course of 2019 and 2020. “Conversations were about what safety looks like to you and the struggles of meeting hygiene and basic survival needs,” she recalls. “Out of that we designed the four pieces of our [Hygiene Hub] program,” meaning bathrooms, showers, laundry and medical care.
Oregon camp lets young women test out a career in firefighting
BTW Portland has a Black woman fire chief, who is absolutely wonderful.
From The Oregonian:
“[Portland Metro Fire Camp] is an amazing event for girls to experience and develop the skills needed to become professional firefighters,” said Christina Dizon, a camp instructor and firefighter with Portland Fire & Rescue.
Dizon, who assists camp director Terra Vandewiele, said 33% of the participants have become professional firefighters. ✂️
Women firefighters from the area as well as those from Seattle to Los Angeles volunteer to be instructors at two fire camps each year…
The camp has hands-on training in controlling nozzles, pulling hoses and using ropes and ladders. Loop Hi-Way Towing in Gresham donated wrecked cars for the young women to practice extrication by taking off the doors and hood, and cutting out windows. They also were instructed on safe search-and-rescue practices, and were given first aid information and job interview skills.
The camp hopes more women will consider entering male-dominated careers. “Having this exposure opens the possibilities,” said Dizon. “The cadre of females in firefighting is not large, but the tide is turning.”
* * * * *
Good news from around the nation
California becomes first state to implement Universal Meal Program for all children
California is again leading the way with enlightened social programs.
🎩 to Prism Guest Writer for putting this article into a DKos diary.
From Prism:
On July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Free School Meals for All Act, which pledges $650 million in ongoing funding to give about 6 million public school children in grades K-12 the option of receiving both a free breakfast and lunch every school day starting at the beginning of SY 2022-23. The bill was originally proposed by state Sen. Nancy Skinner and backed by a coalition of over 200 organizations.
The decision to implement universal free school meals is historic. Under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), students must qualify for free or reduced-price lunch based on household income level. The new bill, however, allows all children—regardless of eligibility—to receive food.
While talks regarding universal meals had been ongoing before the pandemic, it wasn’t until March 2020 that school educators and administration realized the categories surrounding income weren’t sufficient—suddenly, everyone was in need. ✂️
California’s decision has already inspired Maine to follow suit, indicating a more significant shift toward greater national food equity.
Women Are Taking Over the U.S. Labor Movement
It’s great to see women, who have been relegated to low-paying jobs for generations, step up as leaders to unionize those jobs.
From In These Times:
When [Ashley Manning] returned [to work after the pandemic and five months of short-term disability] early this year, negotiations between the union that represents her and 47,000 workers at several other Kroger-owned grocery stores in Southern and Central California were beginning to deteriorate. Their contract was up and both parties were far apart in the negotiations, which included demands for raises to account for cost of living and inflation increases over the last three years.
Kroger’s first offer: a 60 cent hourly raise.
By late March, 95 percent of workers who voted agreed to authorize a strike, Manning among them. Most of those workers were women, many of them women of color or single mothers like Manning, who were entering into the fight with their employer fueled by two years of turmoil that hit them — and, critically, their families — the hardest.
Over the course of the pandemic, the majority of essential workers were women. The majority of those who lost their jobs in the pandemic were women. The majority of those who faced unstable care situations for their children and their loved ones were women. And now the majority of those organizing their workplaces are women. ✂️
Over the past decade, about 60 percent of newly organizing workers have been women. Women now are also the faces of some of the largest labor movements in years, including the baristas who have unionized over a dozen Starbucks since late 2021, the bakery workers who recently went on strike for four months to secure their first union contract, the call center workers—mostly women of color—who went on strike in Mississippi, and the 17,000 Etsy sellers who went on strike last month to combat transaction fee increases.
Some Surprising Good News: Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse
That actual physical books and the quirky independent stores that sell them are both continuing to thrive in the age of Kindle is a paradox that never fails to delight me.
From The NY Times:
...more than 300 new independent bookstores...have sprouted across the United States in the past couple of years, in a surprising and welcome revival after an early pandemic slump. And as the number of stores has grown, the book selling business — traditionally overwhelmingly white — has also become much more diverse.
“People were hungry for a place focused on Asian American and immigrant stories,” said Ms. Yu, 27, who worked as a chemical engineer and supply chain manager before opening the store. “That’s something I was always searching for when I went to bookstores, and I wanted people to come here and not have to search.”
Two years ago, the future of independent book selling looked bleak. As the coronavirus forced retailers to shut down, hundreds of small booksellers around the United States seemed doomed. Bookstore sales fell nearly 30 percent in 2020, U.S. Census Bureau data showed. The publishing industry was braced for a blow to its retail ecosystem, one that could permanently reshape the way readers discover and buy books. Instead, something unexpected happened: Small booksellers not only survived the pandemic, but many are thriving. ✂️
...one unexpected outcome of the pandemic was the way many communities rallied around their local bookstores in a time of crisis. When in-person shopping plummeted during the shutdown, bookstores rapidly scaled up their online sales operations, and found other ways to keep their customers, including curbside pickup, home delivery, outdoor pop-up stores and bookmobiles. Readers, it turned out, were eager for print books during the pandemic, and the spike in sales continued into 2021, when publishers sold nearly 827 million print books, an increase of roughly 10 percent over 2020, according to NPD BookScan.
These corporations wrote 6-figure checks to elect governors who will ban abortion
No, definitely not good news. But I’m including it so that you can contact some or all of these corporations and demand that they walk their pro-choice talk.
From Popular Information:
Where does the [Republican Governors Association] get [the] money [they’re spending on air time for anti-abortion gubernatorial candidates]? A significant portion comes from direct corporate contributions. This includes large donations from corporations that claim to be committed to protecting reproductive rights for their employees.
[Here’s a list of some of these corporations and the amount of their donations:]
Microsoft: $250,000
DoorDash: $100,000
AT&T: $250,000 [plus $50,000 to DeSantis’s re-election campaign]
CVS: $280,000 [plus $10,000 to Mike DeWine’s re-election campaign]
Other companies writing six-figure checks to the RGA since 2021 while touting policies to cover abortion-related travel for employees include Amazon ($425,900), Cigna ($141,800), Comcast ($250,450), Google ($125,450), Intuit ($100,000), and Wells Fargo ($101,800).
* * * * *
Good news from around the world
Fiona Hill: Putin’s Running Out of Time
There’s no one I trust more on the subject of Putin than Fiona Hill. What she says in this interview is encouraging.
From Foreign Policy:
Foreign Policy: Several influential commentators are warning that the West is running out of time to defeat Russia. ...How should we assess these warnings given the West’s limited economic leverage and the threat of escalation?
Fiona Hill: The very fact that we framed it like this, which we have in most of the analyses, hides the fact that Putin, himself, may also be running against time limits. ...✂️
FP: It’s striking to think that Putin would be worried about reelection. ...Why do you think that he would be fearful of 2024?
FH: ...Russia is often ripe for protests, particularly on socioeconomic issues. Putin’s going to worry about that as we get towards 2024 for another reason: There are people around Putin who believe he’s not justified in having this next set of two terms. He was supposed to end his term in 2024. He extended his ability to run again for another 12 years until 2036, which will put him into his 80s. But the more weakened he is [and] the less legitimate he appears, the less it appears that he’s popular and the more incentive there is for others to try to maneuver around him to push on succession. Putin wants to get this conflict over with. He wants to seem legitimate. He wants us to be the ones who feel that we don’t have time—when he also has a clock ticking.
Ukraine, Allies Adopt Principles for Reconstruction
Rebuilding Ukraine will be an arduous and very expensive effort, so it’s good that so many other nations are stepping up with promises to help.
From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Dozens of countries have committed to support Ukraine through what is expected to be a long and expensive recovery, and agreed on the need for broad reforms to boost transparency and battle corruption.
Wrapping up a two-day conference in the southern Swiss city of Lugano on July 5, leaders from some 40 countries signed on to the Lugano Declaration, laying out a set of principles for rebuilding Ukraine. Signatories, including the United States, Britain, France, and Japan, condemned Russia's military aggression against Ukraine "in the strongest terms" and urged Moscow to withdraw its troops without delay.
Swiss President Iganzio Cassis, who co-hosted the conference with Ukraine, hailed the declaration as a "key first step on the long road of Ukraine's recovery….Our work prepares for the time after the war even as the war is still raging," he told the closing ceremony. ...This should give the people in Ukraine hope and the certainty that they are not alone."
The signatories welcomed commitments to provide political, financial, and technical support and launched the "Lugano principles" to guide the reconstruction effort, which Kyiv says could cost up to $750 billion.
Russia’s invasion is making Ukraine more democratic
Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian journalist and co-founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab, wrote this opinion piece for The Atlantic. It’s well worth reading in full for the personal stories Gumenyuk highlights, which I had no room to quote here.
As a Kyiv-based journalist working for Ukrainian and international media, I am very much a representative of the professional class, what many may call my country’s “liberal elite.” My circle of friends and I discuss democracy, accountability, and the rule of law, but we long believed we were a minority in Ukraine, that the majority of our compatriots did not care about these abstract terms. Yet in reporting on Putin’s invasion, in traveling through my country, I have heard fellow Ukrainians, without any prompting, explain these enormous concepts better than many academics. ...I watched as Ukrainians articulated their values and, more and more, I started paying attention to how they exercised them, how they interacted with the state, and how representatives of the state interacted with them. ✂️
Over time, I saw that the war hadn’t just forced us to defend our land and our freedom; it has accelerated our progress as a democracy. Ukraine was far from perfect when the war began—we struggled with corruption, mismanagement, and centralization of power. In responding to Putin’s invasion, however, we have become more democratic, more decentralized, more liberal. ✂️
...when the threat against us has been gravest, our country has emerged strongest. The things we considered our weaknesses—our political disputes, our multiculturalism, our lack of hierarchy—have turned out to be advantages.
Putin could still be right about one thing: that being Ukrainian is a political choice. Indeed, being Ukrainian has shown itself to be a conscious decision about values, about believing that a people with free will make their country better. His great worry is that this could be inspiring to others. Forty million Ukrainians have been brought up with this choice, and our decision cannot be undone unless we are exterminated as a political nation.
Brazilian court world’s first to recognise Paris Agreement as human rights treaty
A world that is not being destroyed by climate change is definitely a human right. Let’s hope that this ruling influences courts in other nations, as the various “rights of nature” legal decisions are already doing.
From Climate Home News:
Brazil’s Supreme Court has become the first in the world to recognise the Paris Agreement as a human rights treaty – a move with significant implications for national and international law.
The declaration was made as part of the court’s first climate change ruling, which ordered the Brazilian government to fully reactivate its national climate fund.
“Treaties on environmental law are a type of human rights treaty and, for that reason, enjoy supranational status. There is therefore no legally valid option to simply omit to combat climate change,” the ruling said.
The judgment last week was the culmination of a lawsuit filed two years ago against the Brazilian federal government by four political parties: the Workers’ Party, Socialism and Liberty Party, Brazilian Socialist Party and Sustainability Network.
They pointed out that the climate fund (Fundo Clima) set up in 2009 as part of Brazil’s national climate policy plan was inoperative in 2019; annual plans had not been prepared and money had not been disbursed to support projects that mitigate climate change.
Cooler, Cleaner Megacities, One Rooftop Garden at a Time
There are so many advantages to rooftop gardens, and they’re so easy to establish! This should be happening in every city in the world.
From Yes!
In megacities such as Cairo and Dhaka, Bangladesh, the lack of green space contributes to a host of problems: increased air pollution, higher air temperatures, and greater exposure to ultraviolet radiation, all of which are making these cities increasingly dangerous places to live. According to the World Health Organization, outdoor air pollution kills 4.2 million people every year, most in low- and middle-income countries. Outdoor air pollution is particularly deadly in dense urban environments in these nations. In Cairo, for example, researchers estimate that 19% of non-accidental deaths in people over the age of 30 can be attributed to long-term exposure to two common air pollutants: nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). That’s an estimated 20,000 deaths each year in this city alone.
Why do cities like these lack green space? The natural environment often plays a role: Cairo, for example, is in a desert; it’s not naturally lush. Rapid urbanization in recent decades has also led to the development of informal neighborhoods and other new construction projects, exacerbating the problem. But mostly, it comes down to planning. ✂️
But organizations like Urban Greens as well as Schaduf in Cairo and Green Savers in Dhaka are committed to greening their cities by weaving rooftop gardens into the crowded cityscapes. The inspiration behind their projects is simple: “We don’t have the space to plant trees, but we have 500,000 rooftops capable of taking the load of a rooftop garden,” says Ahsan Rony, founder of Green Savers.
Gardening on a rooftop is more than just a clever use of limited space, though. Rooftop gardens have substantial positive effects on air pollution and city temperatures. “Having a green cover is the best thing that could happen to this environment,” says Khaled Tarabieh, professor of architecture at the American University in Cairo.
How Indigenous Traditions Are Saving Zimbabwe’s Endangered Wildlife
Involving local communities in saving endangered wildlife is saving countless animals. It’s the strategy that Jane Goodall is most passionate about implementing.
From Yes!
A mix of beliefs..., taboos and myths, passed orally from generation to generation, has been at the center of wildlife conservation in many parts of the Zimbabwe. ✂️
Poaching and destruction of habitats of animals and birds by farming and other activities are growing issues in the country. Tensions around conservation have risen particularly in communities living near wildlife conservancies and game parks.
However, Indigenous groups under traditional chiefs, including Zimunya and Marange in eastern Zimbabwe, have found other ways to limit hunting and activities that harm the animals. Local traditional leaders—village heads, headmen, and chiefs—strictly enforce the limits and taboos and impose heavy fines on whoever is caught breaking them. On the rare occasion a villager breaks the taboos, they are brought before the traditional leaders’ courts and forced to pay for the violation in the form of livestock: cattle, goats, sheep, or chickens, as well as grain. In some cases, the fines are used for the revered rainmaking and thanksgiving ceremonies or wildlife conservation projects in the area.
David Mutambirwa, executive director and founder of Mhakwe Heritage Foundation Trust, a Zimbabwe-based foundation advocating for heritage and culture preservation, says Indigenous knowledge systems are critical to wildlife protection. ✂️
...a study done at Zimbabwe’s Nharira community of Chikomba district reveals that conventional strategies of conserving wildlife and forest resources through fencing the protected areas or imposing fines on trespassers usually creates disputes between locals and the forest and wildlife management authorities. “When compared to conventional strategies, the [Indigenous knowledge] approach is better as it avoids such conflicts and requires less state resources for enforcing laws to protect wildlife and forest resources,” the study says.
British Novelist Vows to Give All U.S. Royalties to Abortion Activists
Just one example of someone using what tools they have to make a difference.
From Daily Beast:
Mark Haddon, the English author best known for The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night, is showing up to support abortion access in the U.S. He announced Wednesday that until Roe v. Wade is reinstated or “some equivalent action is taken,” all of his U.S. royalties for Curious Incident will go toward The National Network of Abortion Funds, an abortion rights group. The book had sold more than 10 million copies as of 2019. In a tweet, Haddon said he’s getting the ball rolling with a £10,000 donation. “It is one part of a wider judicial coup carried out by the Republican Party who have been doggedly undermining democracy while the Democrats play by the rules and place their trust in some nebulous ability the system supposedly has to right itself,” Haddon told The Bookseller. “I wanted to do more than loudly voice my opposition and I’m grateful that the sales of Curious Incident enable me to do that.”
* * * * *
Good news in medicine
Trial of potential universal flu vaccine opens at NIH Clinical Center
This is really promising, especially since the vaccine appears to work as well intranasally as via injection.
From NIH:
A Phase 1 clinical trial of a novel influenza vaccine has begun inoculating healthy adult volunteers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The placebo-controlled trial will test the safety of a candidate vaccine, BPL-1357, and its ability to prompt immune responses. The vaccine candidate was developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The single-site trial can enroll up to 100 people aged 18 to 55 years and is led by NIAID investigator Matthew J. Memoli, M.D. ✂️
BPL-1357 is a whole-virus vaccine made up of four strains of non-infectious, chemically inactivated, low-pathogenicity avian flu virus. A study in animals(link is external), led by NIAID investigator Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., and posted online as a pre-print, found that all mice receiving two doses of BPL-1357 vaccine delivered either intramuscularly or intranasally survived later exposure to lethal doses of each of six different influenza virus strains, including subtypes that were not included in the vaccine. Similar results were obtained in challenge experiments with BPL-1357-vaccinated ferrets.
In the Phase 1 trial, volunteers will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio into three groups and will receive two doses of placebo or vaccine spaced 28 days apart. Group A participants receive BPL-1357 intramuscularly along with intranasal saline placebo; Group B will receive doses of the candidate vaccine intranasally along with intramuscular placebo; volunteers in Group C receive intramuscularly and intranasally delivered placebo at both visits to the clinic. Neither the study clinicians nor the volunteers know the group assignments. Volunteers must not have received any type of flu vaccination in the eight weeks prior to enrollment and must agree to forego seasonal flu vaccination for approximately two months after the second vaccine (or placebo) dose.
Ultra-thin fuel cell converts blood sugar into electricity
Amazing news from medical researchers pops up almost every day. This item is truly astounding.
From Warp News:
One problem with medical implants and sensors that operate inside the body is how to provide the electricity they need. Today, a battery must be surgically inserted or wires must be routed from the sensor inside the body to the battery on the outside. Researchers at MIT in the USA and the Technical University of Munich in Germany have now developed a much more flexible alternative.
Researchers have built a very small fuel cell that is powered by glucose (blood sugar). By converting glucose into electricity, the body itself takes care of supplying power.
"Glucose is everywhere in the body and our idea is to use this generally available energy to power implants", says Philipp Simons, researcher at MIT and one of the researchers behind the development of the fuel cell, in a press release.
The fuel cell is only 400 nanometers thick, which is about one hundredth as thick as a hair. It can generate 43 microwatts per square centimeter and by combining several fuel cells, it is possible to get enough power to power a variety of implants and sensors.
"Fuel cells convert energy directly instead of storing it so you do not need all the volume needed to store energy in a battery. An implant can otherwise 90 percent consist of a battery", says Jennifer L.M. Rupp, another of the researchers behind the fuel cell.
The researchers used a ceramic material to build the fuel cell. The material can withstand temperatures of up to 600 degrees, which means that the battery can be built into the implant and sterilized together with the implant.
* * * * *
Good news in science
Beer yeast can purify water of heavy metals
I love how often science news makes me wonder how the researchers even thought to do the research in the first place. Beer yeast and heavy metals??
From Warp News:
The yeast S. cerevisiae can not only be used to brew good beer but it can also purify water of harmful substances such as lead. ✂️
...researchers from MIT in the US have shown that yeast can eliminate so much lead in the water that the water becomes completely harmless to drink.
The yeast is also cheap and easy to obtain. The researchers have, as an example, calculated that it would take 7,000 tons of yeast per year to purify all drinking water in Boston. Simultaneously, the Boston Beer Company brewery alone produces 20,000 tonnes of extra yeast in its processes.
The process that purifies the water is called biosorption and has already been available for a few decades, but it has never been used to purify water to the levels required for it to be used as drinking water. The researchers from MIT have now developed the process so that it can purify water even if there is no more lead than one part by weight per million (ppm). ✂️
The researchers will now proceed with trying to scale up the process and develop methods for reusing both the yeast cells and the lead they have extracted from the water.
Weird science!
🎩 to Wonkette for boosting this in their weekly “Tabs” feature. They gave it the following intro: “Japanese researchers have created snake-shaped robots that can kill you in creative ways when they go rogue.” Brrrrrr….
* * * * *
Good news for the environment
Stymied by SCOTUS, the EPA Has Other Climate Options
There are important details in this deep dive that I don’t have room to quote here. Do read the whole piece for the full, complex picture.
From Mother Jones:
On June 30, the Supreme Court decided that the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama had overstepped its authority by creating the Clean Power Plan that would force the U.S. to transition from coal to cleaner sources of electricity. ✂️
[The EPA] has a wide range of regulations already on the books or currently planned that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has proposed rules limiting methane emissions from oil and gas facilities and is targeting vehicle tailpipe emissions. The Supreme Court ruling expressly leaves the EPA with the authority to regulate pollution from the electricity sector — as long as it doesn’t order plants to switch from coal to renewable energy the way it would have under Obama’s plan.
[EPA Administrator Michael] Regan said that his agency also plans to tighten regulations that would force power plants to clean up pollution — in many cases, an expensive undertaking. He made it clear that he hopes that the owners of coal-fired power plants will decide to close dirty facilities rather than spend the money to clean them up. “They’ll see it’s not worth investing in the past,” Regan said. ✂️
Economics are playing a critical role here. Cheap, abundant natural gas, the rise of renewables and a crackdown on dirty coal by the EPA and some states have all combined to drive utilities away from coal, reducing carbon pollution from the electricity sector by a third, more than a decade earlier than EPA thought the Clean Power Plan would. Even after an uptick in coal use in 2021, the United States used only about half as much coal to produce electricity as it did 15 years earlier. Meanwhile, renewable energy has overtaken coal as a source of electricity.
Manure-Eating Worms Could Be the Dairy Industry’s Climate Solution
Another of those head-scratchers. How did anyone first think of using earthworms to filter harmful chemicals from groundwater??
From Inside Climate News:
Royal Dairy in Royal City, Washington, uses hundreds of millions of gallons of water per year. All that water, once used, carries animal waste, pathogens and environmentally harmful chemicals, like nitrate, that can contaminate groundwater and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
To prevent that from happening, though, Royal Dairy cleans and reuses its water more than 10 times before the water leaves the farm. The dairy has also cut its nitrate pollution and lowered its greenhouse gas emissions, all thanks to a new kind of wastewater filtration system powered by worms.
Every day, half a million gallons of farm wastewater is pumped through a gigantic bed of earthworms. The worms, wiggling in wood chips and shavings, feast on the liquid manure and wastewater, removing nutrients and harmful chemicals from the stream. The water then percolates through a layer of crushed rock, collects at the bottom of the worm bed, and travels out an exit pipe for Austin Allred, the farm’s owner, to use on the farm once more.
Allred is one of two dairy farmers in the United States currently using such a system, called a vermifiltration system, to manage wastewater. The system, installed by a company called BioFiltro, could be one solution to agricultural pollution problems, especially as states require dairies to implement better water management plans and eliminate nitrate from their wastewater. Some scientists even say that vermifiltration could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dairy farms by preventing the production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. As such, vermifiltration could be a possible alternative to manure digesters, controversial technologies that capture methane produced by manure ponds, then sell that methane as a fuel source.
Dead solar panels are about to become a lot more valuable
I’m reposting this great story even though Jessiestaf also covered it in yesterday’s GNR. Repitition is good, right? 😊
From The Verge:
In the coming years, recyclers will hopefully be able to mine billions of dollars worth of materials from discarded solar panels, according to a new analysis published this week. That should ease bottlenecks in the supply chain for solar panels while also making the panels themselves more sustainable.
Right now, most dead solar panels in the US just get shredded or chucked into a landfill. ...The value you can squeeze out of a salvaged panel hasn’t been enough to make up for the cost of transporting and recycling it. That’s on track to change, according to the recent analysis by research firm Rystad Energy.
Rystad expects the value of recyclable materials from solar panels to grow exponentially over the next several years, ballooning to $2.7 billion in 2030 from just $170 million this year. That’s thanks to a growing demand for solar coupled with an anticipated pinch in the materials needed to make panels. Technological advancements are also making it easier to extract more valuable materials from old panels, making recycling a sweeter deal financially.
Currently, solar energy makes up just over 3 percent of the global electricity mix. But the world’s energy systems are at the start of a drastic makeover to bring more renewable energy online. To keep the damaging effects of climate change at a more manageable level, the Paris climate accord commits countries to working together to quit releasing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels over the next few decades. To hit that goal, solar could account for upwards of 40 percent of the global power supply. It also helps that solar panels have grown super affordable, becoming a cheaper source of electricity than coal or gas in most of the world.
* * * * *
Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Family Left Stunned When Their Dog Escaped–Only to Return Later With a Ribbon From a Dog Show
Rosy said that if she ever gets lost, she definitely intends to come back with a ribbon — a blue ribbon!
From Good News Network:
An English family was left stunned when their dog escaped only to return later that day with a ribbon won at a local dog show.
Peter and Paula Closier became sick with worry when their five-year-old beagle-mix vanished on Sunday morning. They called the police, the dog warden, and looked all over their house in West Sussex—and their neighbors also joined in the search for little Bonnie. ✂️
Little did they know that John Wilmer had spotted Bonnie by the side of the road while on his way to a dog show in Surrey where he was entering his own two dogs.
Soon after, the family’s fears were eased when Paula spotted a Facebook post by John hoping to locate the pet’s owners. He was running late for the dog show and asked, ‘does anyone know this dog’?
John then decided to enter Bonnie into the competition. He thought “I might as well enter her into the ‘best rescue dog’ category”.
And she returned to her family with a third place ribbon!
Firefighters Save Kitten Stuck in an ATM – And His New Name is Cash
Cats do get into the craziest predicaments. This is one lucky kitten, and Nora applauds the rescuers.
From Good News Network:
Cats are known for getting themselves stuck in all manner of places, but for the staff at Fort Smith Animal Haven, an ATM was a first.
A grey tabby had to be withdrawn from an ATM by Fort Smith Fire Department in Arkansas, after someone probably heard a meow inside the machine.
After arriving at the shelter, “Cash” surprised everyone with his story.
“Probably trying to find shade is why, but I can’t tell you how,” Alexis Bloom, a cat and kennel tech at Fort Smith Animal Haven, told local news.
“This is actually my first experience with a cat getting stuck in an ATM,” added vet tech Ashley Deane. “You know, I never thought that somebody would be able to go up and make a withdrawal and get a cat out instead of some cash, so now we have both.”
Eagle Decides He Wants the Hawk For a Sibling, Rather than a Meal
Rascal often sees bald eagles from his perch next to the front window, so he’s happy to know that not all of them are as fierce as they look.
From Good News Network:
Is it dinner or is it family?
A camera pointed at a bald eagle’s nest caught a remarkable display of behavior recently when a mother eagle stole a baby hawk and presented it to her eaglet for dinner. However the eaglet never shows any interest in eating hawk, and 32 hours later, the orphan was sheltering from the rain under mother eagle’s wings.
The Eagle Nest Project at the Gabriola Rescue of Wildlife Society, or “GROWLS,” is a network of property owners and environmentally minded citizens who monitor eagle nest activities on Vancouver and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia.
...on several occasions it seem[s]...like the eagles are going to just start ripping this little fluffy red-tailed hawk baby to pieces.
But hour after hour, eaglet and baby hawk just continue to shift around in the nest, eating scraps of leftover food. ...as darkness falls, the two babies crawl under mama’s wings, and the next afternoon, she even feeds her hostage.
It didn’t actually take that long for mother and child to decide to welcome the little thing into their family.
* * * * *
Art break
Some gorgeous close-up photos of insects from National Geographic:
* * * * *
Hot lynx
www.washingtonpost.com/… How media coverage drove Biden’s political plunge. “[MSM’s] flawed coverage model of politics and government is bad for more than just Biden — it results in a distorted national discourse that weakens our democracy.” Not news, but an excellent overview.
www.yesmagazine.org/… Deradicalization in the Deep South. A former neo-Nazi makes amends by chatting with current neo-Nazis online. ““There have to be White role models for what it means to...begin to deal with our relationship with White supremacy.”
eugeneweekly.com/… Under a Microscope — Local Starbucks employees remain resilient despite union-busting tactics. A deep dive into employees’ experiences trying to unionize a Starbucks store.
www.bloomberg.com/… How the World’s Richest People Are Driving Global Warming. “Climate progress means first curbing the carbon output of the wealthier among us.”
www.bloomberg.com/… Why Isn’t There a Canadian Traffic Safety Crisis? “As roads in the US get more dangerous, Canada’s traffic fatalities have been going down. These practices and policies help explain why.”
inthesetimes.com/… Radical Is Now Rational. “When reality changes, only fools don’t change with it.”
* * * * *
Wherever is herd…
A tip of the hat to 2thanks for creating this handy info sheet for all Gnusies new and old!
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 and 2nd Thursdays, WineRev the 3rd, MCUBernieFan the 4th, and Mokurai the 5th (when there is one).
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup. Heart-stirring and soul-healing introduction and sometimes memes to succumb to.
- 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 6:00 p.m. Central Time — New time! 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.
* * * * *
Good News Sources
And two more from Mokurai:
And another recommended by commenter lynnekz:
* * * * *
How to Resist: Do Something …
Abortion assistance
Here’s an easy action you can take RIGHT NOW:
Donate to two organizations providing support to people in no-abortion states who need assistance getting abortions.
National Network of Abortion Funds
The Brigid Alliance
Both of these organizations provide help with transportation, medical fees, hotel stays, etc., for those who have to travel out of state for an abortion. NNAF is a central clearing house for that assistance, The Brigid Alliance does that work directly.
Get the truth out
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 all of the diaries in the Truth Sandwiches group on DK here.
Call out tax exempt organizations whose political stance violates IRS regulations
A suggestion from chloris creator:
new!!! Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. This has been filled out for the NRA, but, hey, you can use it for a lot 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?
“The process to get the NRA's tax-exempt nonprofit status revoked has become simpler. All you need to do is save this form and email it to eoclass@irs.gov. It's all filled out for you. You just need to click send.” Allen Glines
Note that the IRS protects your anonymity: The appropriate checkbox is already checked: "I am concerned that I might face retaliation or retribution if my identity is disclosed."
Goodie’s action steps
Donate to increase our majorities in the House and Senate in 2022. Your donation will be evenly divided between the closest races. We can do this and the optimists can lead the way!!
[Wow, we’ve topped Goodie’s original goal of $25,000 and as of yesterday have raised over $31,000! Let’s get to $40,000!]
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.
And I’ll add a recommendation for you to check out Activate America (formerly Flip the West), which is recruiting people to send postcards to Dem voters.
* * * * *
Closing music
Michael Franti never fails to give us great messages set to joyful music. Here’s one that’s perfect for today:
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️