The holiday season is upon us. It started with the first night of Hanukkah on Tuesday, and will, of course, end with my birthday on Jan. 23.
I think that my favorite celebration of the season is Hanukkah. What’s not to like about a holiday called “the festival of light?” Besides, you get eight nights of gift giving—suck it, Santa.
But more important is the Hanukkah story, which involves resistance against seemingly hopeless odds and the seemingly miraculous light that comes from that resistance with the belief in and dedication to a righteous cause.
So now we commemorate the sure knowledge that there is a shining light in dark times if we believe in it. In 19 days we will mark the fact that, while the long cold winter nights are upon us, the warm sun of spring is surely coming. And a week after that we will celebrate the new year, a time of new beginnings and new hope.
Happy holidays, everyone, and ah fraylichen Chanukah.
And now, how about some good news.
REPUBLICANS DROP WORK REQUIREMENT FOR FOOD STAMPS
For many years, the heartless bastards in the GOP have waited for the chance to impose unrealistic work requirements for Food Stamp recipients. But as with Obamacare repeal and many of their wish list items, they have been unable yet again to impose them.
Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. They have broad support in their party for tougher food stamp rules. And President Donald Trump, not usually known for policy detail, has tweeted about the need for new “work requirements” five times.
So it may come as a bit of a shock in the coming weeks when Republicans put forward a final farm bill compromise that does not include the GOP’s signature goal. ✂️
The Senate GOP was never as gung-ho as the House about requiring work for food assistance, knowing a farm bill would eventually need Democratic support in order to get the requisite 60 votes in the Senate for passage.
MICHAEL AVANETTI IS NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT
Having finally realized that Democrats are not as willing to vote for an egotistical grifter as Republicans are, Michael Avanetti has decided to abandon his run for President to spend more time with his family. Of course, he couldn’t make the announcement promising (threatening?) that he isn’t going away any time soon.
DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED HOUSE WILL INVESTIGATE THE FCC AND AJIT PAI IN CONNECTION WITH NET NEUTRALITY
The FCC, led by chairman Ajit Pai, used lies and obfuscation in its rulings against net neutrality, confident that Trump and a Republican Congress would turn a blind eye. Beginning in January, they will no longer be able to avoid the spotlight.
...now that Democrats are about to take charge of the House in January, lawmakers plan to force some accountability on Pai. FCC oversight is a top priority for the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the upcoming session, according to committee members.
“We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data security protections that are seriously lacking today,” ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who is running to chair the committee, wrote in a statement to Mother Jones. “It’s also important that the committee get back to conducting real oversight of the FCC, and that means regular oversight hearings with all commissioners.”
Congress won’t be lacking for things to look into. While many Trump favorites have been undone by their own extravagance, the FCC has managed to quietly undo decades of regulations, leaving a trail of backdoor meetings and potential ethics violations along the way.
Read the whole article when you have the time. The culture of dishonesty and corruption at the FCC is about to be challenged, and the fight for net neutrality is far from over.
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR-ELECT WILL WITHDRAW NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS FROM THE BORDER
Breaking with current Governor Jerry Brown, who happily cooperated with Trump’s “migrant caravan” hysteria, California governor-elect Gavin Newsom says he will withdraw the state’s National Guard troops from the border, and called for humanitarian aid for immigrants.
A month out from his inauguration, California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom is staking out his own ground when it comes to immigration policy and relations with Mexico, signaling he’s not interested in keeping National Guard troops at the border and that he intends to seek more state resources to address humanitarian concerns.✂️
“What’s the point of our National Guard being there at this point? I can’t see any,’’ he told POLITICO in a phone interview from Mexico as he prepared to attend the inauguration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He said he would review current National Guard commitments — those made by Brown under pressure from President Donald Trump. Those commitments are set to extend until March 31. But Newsom said he believed those troops could be far better utilized.
“There’s plenty for them to do on the Camp fire and recovery efforts,’’ as well as “on the humanitarian front’’ where the immediate need for shelter, food and medical care is clearly “not going away anytime soon,’’ he said.
Newsom said he will explore a role for California’s Office of Emergency Services to aid refugees who have already arrived in California and hopes to assist services being offered by nonprofit groups like the Salvation Army.✂️
He also said his visit to Mexico has convinced him that the coming state budget — the first draft of which is expected in mid-December — must include resources he said are clearly critically needed to address some of the health and welfare needs that are being ignored on the border at the federal level.
Specifically, Newsom called on state, local and regional officials to immediately address the plight of migrants, some of who are awaiting asylum claims, and whom he said he learned are being dropped off by ICE in San Diego without shelter, food or medical treatment. The situation, he said, has left many vulnerable to human trafficking, crime and health issues that could impact California communities.
This seems like a good place to drop this Willie Nelson song.
WORLD BANK PLEDGES $200 BILLION TO DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
As long as Trump and his Republican enablers refuse to face the existential threat of climate change, it will be up to the rest of the world to step up. This week, the World Bank announced that they were doubling their previous $100 billion commitment to the attempt to stave off global catastrophe.
The World Bank has just announced that they will now be offering a whopping $200 billion in financing for the fight against climate change between 2021 and 2025.
The organization made the announcement in lieu of the international climate summit that will be taking place in Poland this week. Governments from around the world will be working together to hash out an implementation plan for meeting the goals that were set during the Paris Agreement in 2015.
The World Bank’s $200 billion commitment is actually double the amount of its original 5-year investment plan that it set during the Paris meeting. Half of the money will come in direct financing form the World Bank while the other half will be spent in loans and alternative assistance.✂️
“We are pushing ourselves to do more and go faster on climate and we call on the global community to do the same,” said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. “This is about putting countries and communities in charge of building a safer, more climate-resilient future.”
DICK’S SPORTING GOODS WILL NO LONGER SELL HUNTING GEAR AT SOME LOCATIONS
Doubling down on its decision to stop selling firearms and ammunition, Dick’s Sporting Goods distanced itself further from the gun industry by announcing it would no longer sell hunting gear at 10 locations, with an eye towards expanding that policy to other stores.
Dick’s Sporting Goods already has removed guns and ammunition from its stores, but now the retail giant is taking its split from the industry to another level and removing hunting gear from at least 10 of its stores.✂️
...
Dick’s considers the entire gun industry on the decline — as evidenced by a slumping number of FBI background checks for gun purchases this Black Friday.
Now the company has removed nearly all of its hunting gear from 10 of its locations, company executives told investors on an earnings call Wednesday. That move could be replicated at other stores as well, according to USA Today.
Hunting as a sport is not necessarily evil, but IMO we need at least one major sporting goods store where we can take the kids shopping for camping gear and athletic wear without seeing displays promoting gun-related activities. If you still have some holiday shopping to do, they deserve your support.
FROM THE SCHADENFREUDE FILE: TRUMP—LORD, HE WAS BORN A RAMBLIN’ MAN
And here’s another Allman Brothers song for you. Let your soul shine.
TRUMP ORGANIZATION TAX RECORDS SUBPOENAED
One of the good news stories of the last few days was the host of subpoenas issued by attorneys general in Maryland and D.C. Among those subpoenas were demands for Trump Organization tax records, which could yield one of the Holy Grails of the Resistance—Trump’s corporate tax returns.
Subpoenas served on the Trump Organization and a dozen related business entities by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland on Wednesday include demands for tax documents -- raising the possibility that President Donald Trump's corporate returns could eventually be made public.
While the subpoenas don't ask for the President's personal tax returns, tax documents related to his businesses could begin to fill out a picture of the President's own finances by providing information about his main income sources.
The link is to a CNN story which includes a pretty good summary of all the state subpoenas issued to Trump businesses. Is it any wonder that Trump is looking increasingly dazed and confused these days?
SCIENTISTS DEVELOP METHOD OF PREDICTING ONE TYPE OF LEUKEMIA 8 YEARS BEFORE SYMPTOMS APPEAR
Republican extremists may hate science, but once again it has found a way to save lives.
A study of more than half a million blood samples has allowed scientists to pinpoint the risk factors for a rare type of leukaemia, enabling them to predict if someone will develop the disease eight years before symptoms appear and opening the door to preventative treatments.
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a rare cancer usually detected at an advanced stage. "It usually comes out of the blue," said Dr. Liran Shlush of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "Most patients survive just a few weeks or months after diagnosis."
Diagnosing the disease earlier so that patients do not become fatally ill has been the goal of leukaemia researchers for decades.
TWO WOMEN DONATE $1.5 MILLION TO ERASE MEDICAL DEBT OF OTHERS—AND YOU CAN TOO
The U.S. supposedly has the best healthcare system in the world, but try telling that to the thousands of Americans buried under crippling medical bills. Two New York women took a bold step to help those facing massive medical debt by donating a million and a half dollars to erase the debts of over 1000 people.
Judith Jones and Carolyn Kenyon are two New Yorkers who are passionate about the New York Health Act, a bill that would bring universal health care to the state. Jones and Kenyon are 80 and 70 years old, respectively, but according to the New York Times, they didn’t want to just wait around for that to happen—so they rallied their friends and neighbors and raised $12,500 for the non-profit R.I.P. Medical Debt.✂️
Coolest of all is that Jones and Kenyon did not just convince people to throw in some money, but tried to educate them on how medical debt can take over people’s lives. “We tried to get people interested in the seriousness of medical debt,” Jones said, “and lead them to understand that when the New York Health Act passes, that will be the end of medical debt because everyone will be covered.”
Now maybe you don’t have $1.5 million laying around, what with holiday shopping and all. But you can help people facing bankruptcy for no other reason than that they got sick or injured with a donation to R.I.P. Medical Debt. Then encourage you congress critters to pass a universal single-payer so organizations like that will no longer be necessary.
And I guess that will do it for today. As always you are encouraged to contribute to the finest comment section on the Internet by adding any good news you know of.
Better yet, if you need more good news, go out and make some of your own.
And Chag Sameach to each and every one of you.