Welcome 😄 to the Christmas🎄edition of the Good News Roundup
Niftywriter is with family, so chloris creator is hosting today. But as it’s Christmas, and I’m expecting a slow news day, I’m going to dispense with my usual format. Now, sometimes I wake up and find that I have to revise everything, but I’ll start with that assumption.
So instead of working on inspiring words of my own, I rounded up some inspiring words by others. And, of course, random emojis.
👿 👼 ⭐️ 🐴 🌻
🎄 “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
💜 “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one come to you without leaving happier.” – Mother Teresa
🍃 “The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.”- Charles Kuralt
😄 “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” — Willie Nelson
🐶 “Enthusiasm is the yeast… the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.” — Henry Ford
☀️ “Pessimism is a luxury of good times. In difficult times, it is a self-fulfilling, self-inflicted death sentence.” — Evelin Lindner
🌷 “When someone tells me no, it doesn’t mean I can’t do it—it simply means I can’t do it with them.” ― Karen E. Quinones Miller
🌺 “When life looks like it’s falling apart, it may just be falling in place.” – Beverly Solomon
🔎 “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
❤️ This may sound corny, but, love is the answer.” – Elon Musk
So, the government is shut down. My best guess is that Trump is doing it to appeal to his base — this is a reasonable assumption because he did it after listening to Coulter and Limbaugh. This is not completely irrational, as his base is the big leverage Trump has on the Republicans in office, who are terrified because they need that base.
What can we do? We can keep crying out the truth. Repeat, repeat, repeat. And do not lose heart. We WON the House. We got more votes for Senators. We ARE the majority. And we have TRUTH on our side.
This is not the time to give up.
A FEW NEWS ITEMS
💛 Even Republicans are shaken by the week of tumult
Criticism also came from voices who generally avoid public conflict with Trump.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is known for choosing his words carefully, sent out one of his most critical statements to date, saying he was “distressed” to read Mattis’s reasons for resigning. He added that Trump should pick a successor who shares Mattis’ “understanding” of the “vital principles” that he outlined in his resignation letter.
Why does this matter? It matters because the clearest path to getting Trump out of office requires the cooperation of the Republicans in the Senate. There are several other articles like the one above, signalling that this is being felt in other places as well.
Oh, and McConnell’s popularity is way down, too.
🍻 Corona Beer to Ditch Plastic Packaging
The Corona brewing company has just announced that they will be launching a pilot program in which they will be replacing their plastic 6-pack ring packaging with something that is 100% plastic-free and biodegradable.
The new plastic-free rings are being made from plant-based biodegradable fibers, with a mix of by-product waste and compostable materials.
🐟 Undersea Robot Just Delivered 100,000 Baby Coral Across Great Barrier Reef
In a world first, a small robot was deployed to plant thousands of baby coral in a mass repopulation project for the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The LarvalBot is a briefcase-sized underwater drone that recently dispersed over 100,000 microscopic heat-resistant coral larvae across damaged segments of reef.
In a bid to protect the marine life from climate change, the coral larvae was derived from species that have been shown to be especially tolerant of warmer waters. Scientists will monitor the reefs during the coming months to ensure that the larvae grows properly – and if it proves to be successful, researchers plan on developing the LarvalBot so that it can deploy millions more coral larvae in the future.
👩 Top 10 feminist moments when women stood up in 2018:
(1) Imagine feeling like you have no power and no voice," Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman said at the trial of disgraced doctor Larry Nassar. "Well, you know what
, Larry? I have both power and voice and I am only beginning to just use them."
In January, Raisman and 155 brave sister survivors testified against their abuser, sharing their harrowing stories of sexual abuse at the hands of the former USA gymnastics physician. Asked to submit victim impact statements at the trial, an army of women traveled to a Michigan courtroom to confront the serial child molester, knowing they were standing up for what could be an "infinite number" of unidentified victims. The result? Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced him to up to 125 years in jail. "We may suffer alone," Raisman said, "but we survive together."
Obviously, can’t copy it all here, but it’s a good review of how women and girls are no longer taking the sexism.
👎 CBS Board denies Leslie Moonves severance pay
The CBS board of directors has denied former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves any of the $120 million severance he was due under his employment contract after conducting a five-month internal probe of his conduct and the corporate culture at CBS Corp. ✂️
CBS’ longtime leader was forced out Sept. 9 amid a cascade of sexual assault and misconduct allegations. The probe reportedly found damning allegations of Moonves abusing his power as CEO and engaging in shocking instances of sexual misconduct with employees at CBS.
So, there will be arbitration and such, but things are changing.
Let’s make it so.
💙 Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working after cancer surgery 👼
Full-body scans taken before the surgery found no spreading of the cancer, and no additional treatment is planned.
We need to find a way to let this woman take off some time! But in the meantime she is an inspiration.
🐍 Trump brand has lost its mojo 🍎
While Manhattan condo prices have risen 29 percent since Trump took office, prices have fallen by nine percent in Trump’s Manhattan properties. ✂️
The overseas picture is not great either, with resorts in Scotland and Ireland continuing to hemorrhage money. And while Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club is among those being propped up by political spending, ”Revenue from his Doral golf resort in Miami, which generates the bulk of Trump’s golf revenue, is estimated by Forbes magazine to have plunged 26 percent last year.”
💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙
It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time. However, given that we have taken back the House, the tactics moving forward need to be different. Indivisible has ideas to share.
Indivisible 2.0
This Guide is for what comes next. The 2016 Indivisible Guide was about using constituent power to defend our values, our neighbors, and our democracy. This Guide is about using our constituent power to go on offense.
Offense is exciting, but it’s more complex than defense. We have the opportunity to use congressional oversight to hold Trump and his cronies accountable. We can set the legislative agenda with a bold progressive vision rooted in inclusion, fairness, and justice. But none of this is automatic — we have to demand it of Congress.
And some other ideas:
You can relax and recharge.
You can join protests and freeway blog.
You can help register new voters (especially if you are in Florida).
You can smile.
You can get out the vote for special elections.
You can reach out to upset Republicans. Remember, a lot of them crossed over in the midterms! Get them to feel good about being blue.
You can share your ideas below.
🌻
🍀 “My experience has been that work is almost
always the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.” 🍀
Eleanor Roosevelt
🔥 If you’re going through hell, keep going! 🔥
Winston Churchill
🌹 🌹 🌹
TRUTH MATTERS. LOVE MATTERS.