Good News Roundups are a long-running every-morning series. Our writers collect upbeat news about the nation and world, news that down-beating traditional media for many reasons do not provide us. Not wishing to flee or freeze, with the help of Good News Roundups we engage. We don’t just passively wait for the future to arrive, we help build it. We know in our minds and hearts that doom scrolling inhibits the growth of our physical and mental health, and we therefore choose to invigorate and cleanse ourselves in a flood of good news. You can read more good news by our writers here and here.
Welcome to this Good News Roundup!
If you’re new to Good News Roundups, please check out our longer welcome.
Happy Mother’s Day!
I usually say something like this, and now enters zenbassoon to say it better than I ever have:
To all the women who sit in silence when someone asks for all the mothers to stand, I see you and stand with you.
I used to tell my sister “Happy Un-Mother’s Day,” and she loved that.
Thanks, zenbassoon! ❤
And Celebrating Motherhood in All Its Forms:
When I was a youngun, I never imagined the myriad forms of motherhood.
Recently I wondered: Is a transgender man who gives birth a mother? I found this:
Is a transgender man who gives birth a mother? Yes, says UK court
Reuters, September 25, 2019:
An individual who is born female but later becomes male and gives birth to a child should be legally regarded as a mother, England's High Court ruled on Wednesday.
Freddy McConnell, a transgender man, wanted to be recognised as the father of his son, who was born last year, on the official birth certificate but was told he would have to be registered as the mother.
He sought legal action to quash that decision, saying it breached his and his son's rights but in a landmark ruling, Andrew McFarlane, President of the High Court's Family Division, dismissed his claim and concluded that McConnell was the mother.
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"Whilst that person’s gender is ‘male’, their parental status, which derives from their biological role in giving birth, is that of ‘mother.’"
Okay then. Happy Mother’s Day to all Mothers!
Cheers and Jeers archive and future editions here. Way, way more than 2 thanks to The One, our Wicked Wizard of Wit and writer of Who Won the Week, Willhelm von kosland!
The transgender activists and allies who flooded with pro-trans messages a Utah tip line set up for people to report violations of the state’s discriminatory bathroom law
Stormy Daniels, the star witness who calmly revealed her sexual encounter with Trump, whose cover-up ultimately led to the election-interference indictments against him
The Pulitzer prize winners, including a record number of digital journalists/outlets
President Biden: opens new jobs-a'plenty data center in Racine, and draws red line with Israel on munitions sales over Rafah operation
Indiana's merry band of rebels, as more than 1-in-5 primary voters choose Nikki Haley over the blob currently getting his ass spanked in a New York courtroom
House Democrats, for saving Speaker Mike Johnson's bacon and showing him (again) that nothing gets done without their support
America's educators, who were recognized during National Teacher Appreciation Week for the often-underappreciated work they do
Judge Juan Merchan, for continuing to run a tight ship during the Trump trial, including saying no to several dumb motions by the defense lawyers
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, for upholding MAGA bottom-feeder Steve Bannon's contempt conviction and 4 month jail sentence for blowing off his January 6 committee hearing
Bill’s Friday poll is here.
Which item did you vote for? Why?
Who made a winning move after Bill's deadline on Friday?
ICYMU: This Week in Gnuville
In case you missed us: Miss a day or two? Need more Good News? Need a respite from ruin scrolling? New to Good News Roundups? Kicking the doom-scrolling habit?
Image: Three writers of Good News Roundups stand in front of a good gnu. Image titled "Good Gnus by 2thanks, chloris creator, and Mokurai." Created by Edward Song, 2024. Thank you, Edward! [Click for large view of image.]
The Five R’s of the Resistance:
- 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.
- Rest: Take care of yourself, we are in this for the long term.
WineRev’s Good and Goofy Notes
Watch for WineRev’s G&G notes in the comments to see what others went through, struggled with, and surmounted in the past. His G&G comments are mini Good News Roundups. You can find all his comments here, even today’s, once he posts it. Tech Tip: You can search for >>> in Roundups to quickly find his comments.
WineRev, yesterday:
Well Saturday is up and running, and that hum from the control room says GNR is beaming in the Good News from EVERYWHERE, no doubt starting with messages from Voyager 1. (There are other stories on sub-space radio, but GNR is not allowed to tell you those because she, while posted on our planet, is following the Prime Directive…...) Arriving Gnusies can see the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch has a pleasing combination of antique morning beverage producing equipment (stove top percolators, ski lodge hot chocolate machines with their whirring of whipping the hot water, etc.). Breakfast foods on the other hand, are (totally non-Prime Directive involved) providing eggs & all the trimmings, toasted goodies, baked wonders and so on in front of those little windows marked “Food Replicator” (the one marked “Transporter Room” only dispenses chicken soup…….).
Good News for your Saturday with links galore and toothsome reading material. All of these pair smoothly with elevated feet, cozy slippers, and/or long-planked tables a-roar with hearty extroverted morning people (the kind who are friends to all (“just some I haven’t met yet”) who spring into action with such vigor at dawn that their intake of caffeine should be sharply limited. Thank you GNR for the stories and the launch! We’ll get on it all day long with reading, comments, recs, links additions, digressions and snorting chuckles at your humor cartoons (a fine selection today for sure!) Yay!
Science
Please share good science news with us! (Especially JSWT, health, environment.)
A good place to look for science news if you are waiting for the Sunday Roundup is the archive of Overnight News Digest. On Saturdays, the OND always focuses on science, though not all of it is devoted to what I would call Good Science News.
Need more good news?
… arhpdx posted a list of good news sites toward the top of a recent Roundup, or you can find that same list in my comment: Good News Sources. Thank you, arhpdx and Mokurai!
[On a desktop, you could open that comment in a new Tab by clicking the timestamp, and then you could Bookmark that page or save it to your Favorites.]
Our map of Gnuville: 863 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply in the comments to tljdk or the map-building comment. Please indicate only your general location, NOT street number and street. (Please persist, we are volunteers.)
Image: Screenshot of the Google Map of the world showing locations of members of Daily Kos's Gnuville (the Good News Roundup group) on 14 May 2023. You can use the map’s zoom arrows to resize the view and focus on your pin to find neighbors. Please note that the Google Map, though convenient to operate, is visually inaccurate because, among other issues, it enlarges North America and shrinks Africa [Maps present a distorted view of the world by kos].
If you join us regularly, are you Following us? More than 490 Kosacks Follow us.
Tech Talk for Kosacks
- Got a Daily Kos tech question? Let us know. No question is too basic.
- Solved a tech question recently? Please
brag mentor in the comments.
Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
- Mondays The GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu)
- Tuesdays arhpdx and niftywriter
- Wednesdays: 2nd MCUBernieFan, 3rd WineRev, 4th karij. 1st and 5th: lemay50, Andrew F Cockburn, DoctorStrange.
- Thursdays Mokurai
- 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.
Nanny Ogg 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, good actions, and many cats. Find most Evening Shades 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.
How to Resist: Do Something …
Action Steps from Gnusies
Six of our Good News writers regularly post a panoply of fantastic action steps in their Good News Roundups. If you don’t see a way to become active that suits your personality, your funds, or your time, please review their most recent diaries for many different options to volunteer and/or donate:
On Daily Kos:
We welcome comments in Roundups every day regarding:
- National or local Good News.
- Links, stories, music, videos, quotes, tweets. (No tweets or images of the saffron chlamidiot, please.)
- Your resistance activity.
In my Sunday smorgasbord Roundups, I especially welcome the following types of comments:
- Who won YOUR week?
- Questions about Daily Kos tech issues or our map.
- Good News Roundups and you.
- How are you resisting?
- How are you supporting Democratic candidates?
- Please let’s stick to Good News today, no mews or databases.
In the comments of all Roundups, we do not welcome Grammar Police or Debbie Downers.
A Little Bit About Me
Stayed up late to see the Aurora Borealis last night. Had fun, although the display was rather faint.
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 5 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! Beginners, you are cordially invited to comment!
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)
About the Poll Below
xaxnar, member of Daily Kos: With plans for Amtrak expansion across the country thanks to Amtrak Joe and the Infrastructure Act, a lot of things are in motion. Part of the struggle to improve passenger service in America often turns on seemingly small choices and interactions between government at local, state and federal level.
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Now picture the kind of complicated interaction between parties with competing agendas in Portland and Mobile all over the place, and you can begin to appreciate how hard it is to get even basic rail passenger service upgraded at the modest levels we are trying to achieve today.
Add in the fact that passenger rail has been gone from some areas for decades and the way society has been built around personal cars, it’s a wonder there isn’t more resistance to bringing back rail service. Include the understandable perception that active railroads mean derailments and massive toxic waste/bomb train disasters, and it’s no wonder the rail trail movement is having so much success persuading communities to rip up rails everywhere.
That being said, there is a growing interest in seeing passenger rail return, and not just because of climate concerns.