Joan McCarter, Daily Kos Staff: Since early 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has demonstrated what good government is all about. Well, mostly—there was a real hiatus for it during the 2017-20 years in which every form of sabotage possible was thrown at it by Republicans. Nevertheless, the CFPB persisted and has come roaring back in defense of the American consumer. Their latest win is a big one.
The three big credit reporting firms—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—have agreed to strip tens of billions of dollars of many types of medical debt from credit reports. It doesn’t erase the actual debt, but it will mean that millions of people won’t have their credit trashed by having that debt. Starting in July, the companies will erase the history of medical debt that had been sent to collections and paid off. Those debts could stay on a credit report for as long as seven years, even after having been paid. The companies also announced that they won’t add new, unpaid medical debt to credit reports for the first full year after it has been sent to collections. Additionally, beginning next year, they’ll remove any debts of less than $500 from reports.
Earlier this month, the Biden-Harris Administration released the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, a roadmap to move the country forward safely and continue to fight COVID-19 as Americans get back to their more normal routines. Today the Administration is launching the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge, a key component of the President’s Plan, that calls on all building owners and operators, schools, colleges and universities, and organizations of all kinds to adopt key strategies to improve indoor air quality in their buildings and reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Science
“There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally, they credit the wrong person.” ~ Bill Bryson
First image snapped by iconic Webb telescope pushes limits of the 'laws of physics'
The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has released its first sharp image and it is a doozy — a spectacular view of a twinkling orange star that is focused with such sharpness that it pushes the limits of the laws of physics.
The image shows that the telescope's 18 separate mirrors are now accurately aligned and acting as one, and the photo is even better than scientists hoped it would be, NASA officials said in a
statement.
The Webb team released the photograph of the Milky Way star, designated 2MASS J17554042+6551277 and located roughly 2,000 light-years away, Wednesday (March 16). It was taken with a red filter to maximize the visual contrast between the star and the blackness of space, while dozens of other stars and distant galaxies can be seen in the background.
Our map of Gnuville: 737 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply in the comments to tljdk. Please include your city and state only, NOT street number and street. (Please persist, we are volunteers.)
Image: Two maps of the United States, one above the other. The maps indicate the approximate locations of members of the Good News Roundup community in 2019 and 2021. The lower map contains many more blue pin-markers than the upper map. Upper image: A map of Gnuville from February 15, 2019 with about 50 Gnusie pins. Lower image: A map of Gnuville from March 21, 2021 with 582 pins across our orb.
If you join us regularly, are you Following us? More than 400 Kosacks Follow us.
Tech Talk for Kosacks
- Load-More Workaround (Revised 3/15/2022): On a desktop or laptop, you may be able 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. However, you may need to come back here and click that link again in a few days to weeks. Per the DK Help Desk: The “Load More” option also resets the user back to the display of the old-style, React comments. This workaround continues to work for me on Windows 7 with Chrome, though others report it does not work for them.
- Got a Daily Kos tech question? Let us know. No question is insignificant.
- Solved a tech question recently? Please feel free to repeat it in the comments.
Tech-Talk Question from bkamr
Is there a way to shut off the Recent Commenters Pop-Up box? — It makes reading comments very difficult on a cell phone (e.g., iPhone 13 slim version).
Thank you in advance for any help. This is annoying the heck out of me and giving me headaches, since I can only close the Pop-Up box when I have the phone in the upright, vertical position. This means I have to read Daily Kos with 8-point print, and the small print gives me headaches. If I turn my phone horizontal or enlarge the print size, I can’t close the Pop-Up box. I’m not even certain what the purpose of the Pop-Up is? What’s the reason behind the darn Pop-Up box? [Question slightly edited, ~2t, editor]
Response from DHfromKY:
If you can get to the old version of “Edit Profile”, the “Auto Refresh Comments” dropdown should still appear. Click on, or tap, the icon at the right side of the screen — it may have the gray guy with the gray flag, or your avatar — and select “My Activity Stream”. That still uses the old format, so if you look for the “Welcome Back (NAME)” box on the right side of the screen, and click or tap “EDIT PROFILE”, it should take you to the old version of “Edit Profile”. Look for the “Auto Refresh Comments” dropdown, set it to “Off”, and click or tap the “Save” button. [Thanks to bkamr and DHfromKY.]
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 …
[Here I once again uplift chloris creator’s list of Actions You Can Take from her Friday diary. Take it away, cc! ~2t]
These are here every week, but this week I decided it was time to review them. So there are a few tweaks, with more information on “defund the seditionists” and “run for something.”
Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are), you can support and contact these organizations:
ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union
Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election.
Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams
🌱Grass roots. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy.
🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can still help.
New: Here’s what they said about 2021:
That brought us to year five, 2021 — which somehow, in spite of the odds and everything going on in the world, was Run for Something’s best year yet.
- Our candidate pipeline grew from 67,000 to more than 90,000–2021 was our best recruitment year yet.
This might feel surprising — but we know (and have been saying since day one) that it’s never been about Trump. Young people have been interested in running for office in order to make change, to stand up for their communities, and fight for their values. A few particular points that spurred recruitment this year:
- The combination of the wins in Georgia on January 5th and the insurrection on January 6th were the 1–2 punch of hope + rage that inspired thousands to raise their hands
👎 Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists, and their current approach to supporting or not supporting the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others.
New: The worst are those who have broken their promises, and include: AT&T, Cigna, Ford, Intel, Pfizer, T-Mobile/Sprint. Name, shame and blame, and don’t do business with them if you can help it. Also praise those who are on the good side: American Express, Charles Schwab, Eli Lilly, Eversource, Exelon, Hallmark, Holland & Hart, Nike, S&P Global, Sony Music Entertainment, State Street, Structured Finance Association, Universal Music Group, Viacom/CBS, Warner Music Group, Zillow.
On Daily Kos:
In comments of all Roundups, we welcome comments 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 comments of all Roundups, we do not welcome:
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.
- Your response to Good News Roundups.
- How are you resisting?
In my Sunday Roundups, to avoid visual clutter and prevent excessive scrolling:
- Please do not post more than one cat or animal picture, tweet, or video (per commenter). The inimitable, hard-working, and loved hpg welcomes such images in their Evening Shade diaries. I do not.
- Please do not post multiple comments with charts about predictions for state or national campaigns. However, please feel free to link to long lists of campaigns in the Evening Shade diaries. For the most recent updates of these charts, please refer to the comments of the Evening Shade diaries, where hpg posts them.
Top Image: Starhawk created this diary’s top image of the rampant gnu and gave it to the members of the Good News Roundup group (Gnusies)! Thank you, Starhawk! This is a quite detailed sketch of a gnu drawn in brown, green, and black. A happy and dynamic gnu dances on its left hind leg in a classic rampant heraldric pose. Joyful letters prance above and behind the mane: “Happy Dance.” Signature: Nick Korolev, 2021.
Our Roundup is almost open!
Thank you for fighting for truth and justice with all us Gnusies! 40% of our Readers don’t visit every day, 50% of us do, and 10% are here for the first time! We all do what we can. For 4 years, we’ve shared positive news, laughed, organized, resisted, rebelled, revolted without being revolting, relied, rested, mentored, created, crossed rivers, chewed our cud, puffed methane out both ends, and laughed. Here’s looking at you, kid, and standing upwind!
As always, please share more Good News than I can find or provide.
This is a group diary, and by my power I declare this Good Gnus Salo(o)n open! Let the good-news sharing and community building begin!
Power with, not power over ❤️ ✊ ❤️
2thanks (he, him)