Greetings
Welcome, Gnusies! Today’s GNR will start with some encouraging quotes and go on to highlight stories from near and far about courageous people fighting back against all kinds of injustice, brilliant people making strides in medical and environmental science, and good people providing help wherever it’s needed. I also have some beautiful musical offerings, fun animal stories, and suggestions for how you can make a difference.
So grab a mug of your morning beverage of choice, find a comfortable spot to settle into, and let’s get started.
Opening
This is where I usually offer some personal thoughts on the week’s events. But this week I’ll open with quotes that are so apt, so perfectly stated, that there’s no way I can improve on them with my own words:
War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, goes the song, and in this day and age most people agree. But they didn’t always. Pre 19th century, Vox’s Dylan Matthews writes, “prevailing norms around war . . . were not just permissive but actively sympathetic to wars of conquest.” This is in stark contrast to attitudes today, something we should not take for granted. Our assessment of Russia’s actions as shocking and abhorrent is precisely because we have collectively agreed that war is unacceptable. ✂️
While the tragedy in Ukraine continues to unfold, we can find reassurance in the fact that our commitment to this norm has held fast. ...It may be helpful to remember this when you hear statements along the lines of “times like these.” Buried within them is an unconscious re-commitment to peace as the world’s status quo—bad times are only considered unusual when the times are usually good.
— Emma Varvaloucas, Progress Network
What could happen in Russia if the story became better known, the details clearer? What if Russians are eventually able to see the same graphic images that we see? What if the price of this pointless violence becomes tangible to them too? The unpopularity of this war is going to grow, and as it gets bigger, the other Russia—the different Russia that has always been there—will grow larger, too. The Russians who flooded the streets in 1991 to cheer the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians who protested fake elections in 2011, the Russians who turned out in large numbers all across the country to protest the arrest of Navalny in 2021, the Russians, rich and poor, urban and rural, who don’t want their country to be an evil empire—maybe their numbers will expand enough to matter. Maybe, someday, they will change the nature of their state too.
— Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
“Give me a reason to be optimistic?” By looking at my historical evidence, by thinking about the big picture, I have become more optimistic. … I’m trying to show that the key in history is not the big catastrophes but the positive political construction of an alternative, and this process started with the French Revolution, the U.S. revolution. This process toward more equality is more deeply rooted in our modern ethos and modern political cultures than most people believe.”
Despair is a delusion of confidence that asserts it knows what’s coming, perhaps a tool of those who like to feel in control, even if just of the facts, when in reality, we can frame approximate parameters, but the surprises keep coming. Anyone who makes a definitive declaration about what the future will bring is not dealing in facts. The world we live in today was utterly unforeseen and unimaginable on many counts, the world that is coming is something we can work toward but not something we can foresee. We need to have confidence that surprise and uncertainty are unshakable principles, if we want to have confidence in something. And recognize that in that uncertainty is room to act, to try to shape a future that will be determined by what we do in the present.
— Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian
"Hope is work. You have to put energy and time into it. You have to practice, repeatedly. You have to keep at it, keep moving, keep pushing. No one else will free you or fix you — except us, collectively through our power to imagine and build a better future. Hope is not in technology. Hope is in our humanity."
— Audrey Watters, Hack Education
* * * * *
Opening music
Valentyn Silvestrov, Ukraine’s most famous living composer, was forced by the Russian invasion to leave his home in Kyiv and move to Berlin. On the way there, and after his arrival, he wrote three pieces: Serenade, Waltz, and Elegy. This recording was made in Berlin with Silvestrov at the piano.
* * * * *
Good news in politics
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Jackson secures more Republican backers, clears hurdle
From Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson secured the support of two more Senate Republicans on Monday, as she cleared a procedural hurdle toward becoming the first Black woman to serve on the nation's top judicial body.
Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney joined Susan Collins in saying they would vote to confirm Jackson, 51, to a lifetime seat on the court later this week. They also supported a procedural 53-47 vote to bring her nomination to the Senate floor after the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 11-11 along party lines on whether to advance the nomination. ✂️
The three Republicans voiced concern over the increasing partisanship of the Supreme Court confirmation process.
"While I do not expect to agree with every decision she may make on the Court, I believe that she more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity," Romney said. ✂️
A final confirmation vote on Jackson was expected for Thursday or Friday.
Justice Department Seizes Its First Russian Superyacht
From Daily Beast:
The Department of Justice has seized its first asset belonging to a “sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday. At the request of the DOJ, a Spanish court issued an order freezing a superyacht, known as “The Tango,” owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg that is docked in Palma de Mallorca. The DOJ alleges Vekselberg used “U.S. dollar payments through U.S. banks” to buy and maintain the boat, including paying for mooring fees and rooms at a luxury resort in the Maldives. He used shell companies to hide his ownership of The Tango and avoid U.S. bank oversight, prosecutors added. Garland said the $90 million boat would be “forfeited as the proceeds of a crime.” The seizure is part of Task Force KleptoCapture, a U.S. effort to hold individuals accountable for enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden highlights trucking industry investments at White House event
From CNN:
President Joe Biden celebrated federal investments in the trucking industry during a White House event on Monday, highlighting strides the administration has made in implementing its "Trucking Action Plan," which was unveiled late last year.
Standing in front of two trucks at an event on the White House lawn, the President referred to truck drivers as the Americans who are making the economic comeback from Covid-19 possible. ✂️
The Trucking Action Plan focuses on "building supply chain resilience through better quality trucking jobs," White House assistant press secretary Emilie Simons told reporters Sunday. ✂️
The Biden administration is under heavy political pressure to unclog supply chain shortages and knock down soaring inflation. But despite continued inflationary pressures, the President on Monday largely sought to highlight recent economic victories, such as Friday's news that the unemployment rate
hit a new pandemic low. ✂️
The Trucking Action Plan introduced last year increased federal funding to expedite issuance of commercial driver's licenses, expanded outreach efforts to veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs, and established a joint initiative between the Departments of Labor and Transportation to expand recruitment and advocate for employees.
$2.6 million federal grant aims to boost economy in Pennsylvania coal communities
The Biden administration is keeping its promises. How refreshing! And boosting the economy in coal country is politically wise as well.
From The American Independent:
The Department of Commerce announced on Thursday that a $2.6 million grant funded by the American Rescue Plan is being awarded to Bedford County, Pennsylvania to construct a 24,000-square-foot building located in a business park. The building will be used to maintain space for existing manufacturing businesses in the area and to attract new business to the region.
President Joe Biden signed the Rescue Plan into law in March 2021 after it passed Congress with only Democratic votes.
Pennsylvania's Gov. Tom Wolf praised the Bedford County announcement, describing it in a release as an investment that will create and retain more than 100 jobs and grow the manufacturing sector.
"I'm grateful that the Biden Administration shares my commitment to supporting the diverse businesses and industries that power our economy in Pennsylvania while simultaneously creating new, good-paying jobs," Wolf said in a statement.
The grant is part of the Biden administration's "Coal Communities Commitment," which seeks to invest resources in regions that have been affected by the long-term decline of the fossil fuels industry. The commitment falls under the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration and accounts for $300 million of the $3 billion that the Rescue Plan allocated to the Commerce Department.
House votes to decriminalize marijuana, faces uphill battle in Senate
The more this effort is repeated, the sooner it will succeed.
From PBS:
Marijuana would be decriminalized at the federal level under legislation the House approved Friday as Democrats made the case for allowing states to set their own policies on pot.
The bill is unlikely to become law since it is expected to die in the Senate. That would mirror what happened when a similar House-passed measure removing marijuana from the list of federally-controlled substances went nowhere in the Senate two years ago. Still, Friday’s vote gave lawmakers the chance to state their view on a decriminalization push that appears to have broad support with voters across the country.
The 2020 election showed how broadly accepted marijuana has become, with measures to legalize recreational pot breezing to victory in progressive New Jersey, moderate Arizona and conservative Montana and South Dakota.
The House approved the bill Friday with a mostly party-line vote of 220-204. All but two voting Democrats backed the measure, while only three Republicans did.
The measure would require federal courts to expunge prior marijuana convictions and conduct resentencing hearings for those completing their sentences. It also authorizes a 5% sales tax on marijuana and marijuana products that would be used for grant programs focused on job training, substance abuse treatment and loans to help disadvantaged small businesses get into the marijuana industry.
Fox viewers are less likely to believe lies after being paid to watch CNN for 30 days: study
Jessiestaf included this extremely encouraging story in yesterday’s GNR, and I think it’s significant enough to repeat in more detail. Thanks, Jessie!
For me, the big take-away is that the widespread assumption that Fox is always simply preaching to the MAGAT choir is not borne out by the research: “In fact, it wasn't so much that viewers were tuning in because they already felt that way, their attitudes were actually being formed from the Fox network.” Which means that those viewers are potentially reachable and teachable!
From Raw Story:
A groundbreaking new study paid viewers of the Fox News Network to watch CNN for 30 days. What they found is that the viewers ultimately became more skeptical and less likely to buy into fake news. The early impacts, after just three days, showed that the viewers were already starting to change. The findings of the study, written by David E. Brockman and Joshua L. Kalla, explained that the experiment used content analysis comparing the two networks during Sept. 2020.
"During this period, the researchers explained that "CNN provided extensive coverage of COVID-19, which included information about the severity of the COVID-19 crisis and poor aspects of Trump's performance handling COVID-19. Fox News covered COVID-19 much less," said the study. The coverage of COVID-19 it did offer provided little of the information CNN did, instead giving viewers information about why the virus was not a serious threat. On the other hand Fox News extensively but highly selectively covered racial issues, and its coverage of these issues provided extensive information about Biden and other Democrats' supposed positions on them and about outbreaks of violence at protests for racial justice in American cities. CNN provided little information about either. The networks both covered the issue of voting by mail, but again dramatically different information about it (in addition to offering different frames)."
"It's far from obvious," they surmised, that viewing different networks would affect the beliefs and attitudes of the viewer. In fact, it wasn't so much that viewers were tuning in because they already felt that way, their attitudes were actually being formed from the Fox network. ✂️
At the three-day mark, the viewers took a survey. "We found large effects of watching CNN instead of Fox News on participants' factual perceptions of current events (i.e., beliefs) and knowledge about the 2020 presidential candidates' positions," they found. They discovered changes in attitudes about Donald Trump and Republicans as well as a large effect on their opinions about COVID. The viewers also evolved to believe that if Donald Trump made a mistake, "Fox News would not cover it—i.e., that Fox News engages in partisan coverage filtering."
The findings might suggest that the most cost-effective way for Democrats to win elections is to start running their own infomercials or commercials on the Fox networks.
🍿 Repellent Republicans Risking Irrelevance 🍿
Americans strongly disapprove of GOP pushback on Ketanji Brown Jackson
From The Washington Post:
At the start of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court hearings last week, Republicans made a solemn promise: They would not treat her as badly as Democrats had treated Brett M. Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearings — a set of circumstances Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called “one of the lowest moments in the history of this [Senate Judiciary] committee.”
The reviews are in. And not only do Americans support Jackson’s confirmation significantly more than they supported other recent nominees — they also view Republicans’ handling of it about as poorly as they view Democrats’ handling of Kavanaugh, if not worse.
Trumpian Conservatives Hold an ‘Emergency’ Meeting Over Russia
“Up From Chaos”? More likely “Down Into Chaos.”
From Politico:
...as Putin’s deadly and unprovoked assault drags on, the GOP is also going to war — against itself. As so often, the battle revolves around the America First doctrine first espoused by former President Donald Trump in April 2016, during the Republican primaries, at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, where he promised that he would perform a U-turn in American foreign policy by shunning military intervention abroad.
That promise never quite bore out. It was the Democratic President Joe Biden, not Trump, who ended up pulling American troops from Afghanistan. Throughout his erratic and volatile presidency, Trump never really gained control of his own national security advisers, hawkish thinkers such as H.R. McMaster and John Bolton who managed, from the perspective of Trump loyalists, to subvert his nationalist foreign policy. ✂️
...nothing provided a better window into the ideological ferment of the GOP — and the staying power of the Trump wing of the party — than the daylong [“Up From Chaos”] conference at the Marriott Hotel . Throughout, it became clear that the war on Ukraine is not prompting the Trump-aligned right to back down. Quite the contrary.
* * * * *
Good news from my corner of the world
Portland Charter Commission proposes three big changes to how the city is governed
Glory hallelujah! Please keep your fingers crossed for us unfortunate Portlanders, who have been struggling with an antiquated system of government for too many decades to count — the city’s slogan, “The City That Works,” has long been a bitter joke. This new plan would be a godsend.
From KGW:
Late Thursday evening, a group that has been studying Portland's city government structure delivered a long-awaited pronouncement — that the members have unanimously agreed on a package of reforms designed to make "the city that works" work more smoothly.
The Portland Charter Commission said in a news release that it had reached preliminary agreement on three major changes that will ultimately go before Portland voters:
-
Allowing voters to rank candidates in order of their preference, using ranked choice voting
-
Creating four new geographic districts with three members elected to represent each district, expanding the city council to a total of 12 members
-
A city council that focuses on setting policy and a mayor elected citywide to run the city’s day-to-day operations, with the help of a professional city administrator
"This proposal will make Portland’s government more accountable, transparent and effective,” said Candace Avalos, a member of the Charter Commission who co-chaired the Form of Government Committee. “It positions us to get Portland moving in the right direction and address our most pressing challenges – expanding affordable housing, mitigating gun violence, building climate resilience and improving the city’s infrastructure.”
Members of the independent Charter Commission are appointed once a decade to evaluate Portland's governing structure and recommend changes. The current group has been at work since December of 2020.
What Oregon’s Death with Dignity settlement means for terminally ill patients from out of state
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Oregon officials have reached a settlement with a group seeking to allow out-of-state patients to use the state’s Death with Dignity law to end their lives.✂️
Oregon was the first state to allow its adult residents to voluntarily end their own lives, if they are terminally ill and mentally competent, by self-administering a lethal dose of an approved, prescribed medication.
Now it is the first state in the nation that will allow doctors to prescribe the drugs to out-of-state residents. With a lot of caveats.✂️
As a result of the settlement, the Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon Medical Board, and the Multnomah County District Attorney ordered their staff to stop enforcing the residency requirement in Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act.
In practice, that means that people who wish to use Oregon’s law will not need to obtain an Oregon driver’s license or lease to prove long-term residency before seeking medical help to end their lives.
They will still need to meet the rest of the Death With Dignity Act’s requirements. ✂️
Compassion and Choices [a nonprofit lobbying organization that has pushed to legalize medical aid in dying], ...has issued detailed guidance for doctors, patients, friendsand family members helping people who are terminally ill use the law.
The group’s recommendation: people from the 40 states that do not allow medical aid in dying may need to complete the entire process — and their death — in Multnomah County, to ensure their friends and family aren’t at risk of criminal prosecution in their home state. Compassion and Choices also recommends people consult an attorney.
Cascadia bullet train on track for big bucks to get rolling but uncertainty remains
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
For more than five years, Washington state, Oregon and British Columbia have collaborated on studies of a possible Cascadia bullet train to run between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. This winter, the Washington Legislature approved money for yet more studies. But state lawmakers also set aside a much bigger sum to attract federal support that could advance the bullet train dream toward being shovel-ready.
Project supporters envision a train with a top speed of at least 250 mph operating on a dedicated track. That could whisk travelers from Vancouver, B.C., to Seattle in one hour and from Seattle to Portland in another hour, in a climate-friendly manner to boot.
The current top speed of Amtrak trains in the Pacific Northwest is 79 mph. Those passenger trains are routinely delayed by congestion on a mainline shared with freight trains. ✂️
Democrats in control of the Washington Legislature tucked $150 million into a recently approved state transportation infrastructure package for what they are branding as “ultra-high-speed rail.” [Marko] Liias [Washington Senate Transportation Committee Chair] said the goal is to attract four times as much in matching dollars from the new federal infrastructure bill. If the federal Department of Transportation gets on board, that could total up to $750 million to get a Cascadia bullet train off the drawing board.
Bringing Oregon’s Kalapuya language back from the brink of extinction
Click on the link to read the interview with a Kalapuya woman and her granddaughter, who are working together on learning the Kalapuya language from dictionaries compiled by linguist Paul Stephen McCartney Sr.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
The tribes of the indigenous Kalapuya people have lived throughout Oregon’s Willamette Valley for thousands of years, with their own customs and languages. It’s estimated that there are 4,000 people who identify as descendants of the Kalapuya people living in Oregon today. But for the last half century, there have been no native speakers of the Kalapuyan language.
Now there’s an effort underway to preserve the Kalapuyan language. There’s a new dictionary, and some descendants of the Kalapuya people are now working to learn their ancestors’ language.
* * * * *
Good news from around the nation
How Two Best Friends Beat Amazon
We’ve all seen this wonderful story, but here are some delicious details. (I wish I could quote the whole article.) This is just the best David v. Goliath story ever! Remember this whenever you begin to doubt the power of righteous activism.
From The New York Times:
Derrick Palmer, in pink, and Christian Smalls, right, celebrate after getting the voting results to unionize at JFK8. They spearheaded the push for the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States.
In the first dark days of the pandemic, as an Amazon worker named Christian Smalls [and his best friend Derrick Palmer] planned a small, panicked walkout over safety conditions at the retailer’s only fulfillment center in New York City, the company quietly mobilized.
Amazon formed a reaction team involving 10 departments, including its Global Intelligence Program, a security group staffed by many military veterans. The company named an “incident commander” and relied on a “Protest Response Playbook” and “Labor Activity Playbook” to ward off “business disruptions,” according to newly released court documents.
In the end, there were more executives — including 11 vice presidents — who were alerted about the protest than workers who attended it. Amazon’s chief counsel, describing Mr. Smalls as “not smart, or articulate,” in an email mistakenly sent to more than 1,000 people, recommended making him “the face” of efforts to organize workers. The company fired Mr. Smalls, saying he had violated quarantine rules by attending the walkout.
In dismissing and smearing him, the company relied on the hardball tactics that had driven its dominance of the market. But on Friday, he won the first successful unionization effort at any Amazon warehouse in the United States, one of the most significant labor victories in a generation. The company’s response to his tiny initial protest may haunt it for years to come. ✂️
The union spent $120,000 overall, raised through GoFundMe, according to Mr. Smalls. “We started this with nothing, with two tables, two chairs and a tent,” he recalled. Amazon spent more than $4.3 million just on anti-union consultants nationwide last year, according to federal filings.
And here’s an equally beautiful related story:
The Amazon Labor Union Solidarity Fund
I love, love, love the idea of donating to this fund every time we make an Amazon purchase! I try to keep those to a minimum, but as 2thanks’ friend says, “most of us lapse from time to time.” This is a great way to put that occasional guilt to ground.
From a comment by 2thanks on Sunday:
My friend and political mentor sent me this:
I just donated to this GoFundMe. Would you be interested in supporting it too? Even a small donation could help the organizers reach their fundraising goal. And if you can't make a donation, it would be great if you could share the link to help spread the word.
Thanks for taking a look!
I suggest that every time you buy something from Amazon — and most of us lapse from time to time — make a contribution to the Amazon Labor Union!
Solidarity forever
Susan
That GoFundMe page has a lot of good information. I like the idea of a donation to the Amazon union with every Amazon purchase.
South Dakota Hotelier Sued for Trying to Ban All Native Americans
Another heartening story of folks standing up for their rights.
From The Daily Beast:
A South Dakota hotel that racially profiled Native American customers, specifically barring them from visiting the property, appears to have not only run off more business than it intended but also sparked a lawsuit.
On Sunday, Connie Uhre, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post, “Due to the killing that took place at the Grand Gateway Hotel on March 19, 2022… we will no longer allow any Native American on property,” according to a tweet shared Monday by Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender.
The Rapid City Journal reported Uhre added that she couldn’t tell “who is a bad Native or a good Native.”
In response, the NDN Collective, a Native American-based organization in South Dakota—filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the hotel, its parent company, Uhre, and her son Nick Uhre, a manager of the hotel, for “explicit racial discrimination.”
According to the Rapid City Journal, NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen said during a protest march, “We’re going to hold them accountable.”
Huffpost adds:
Meanwhile, tribal leaders issued a Notice To Trespass order to the hotel over the weekend, citing the hotel for being in violation of provisions of the “Treaty with the Sioux, April 29, 1868.”
The treaty states that “no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the [land north of the North Platte River or east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains]; or without the consent of the Indians first had and obtained, to pass through the same.”
The Great Sioux Nation is instructing the Grand Gateway Hotel to evacuate immediately.
“You are further notified that the Great Sioux Nation, in order to prevent further trespass upon said land, may … take possession, destroy, or remove said property at your expense,” the order states.
This Police Chief Is Hiring Female Officers to Fix ‘Toxic’ Policing
From The Washington Post:
[Officer Karen] Wrigley, 35, is one of a slew of female officers hired over the past year and a half in this suburb south of Omaha, part of a deliberate strategy by Police Chief Ken Clary to reduce the likelihood of misconduct and excess violence on the force.
Clary, a former Iowa state trooper, believes the research and his own experience, both of which tell him diversity makes for better policingand decreases the use of force against civilians, especially those who are Black. He’s rewritten the department’s rule book and promoted an officer to become head of recruiting, with an eye toward adding more women and police officers of color and making sure they stick around.
It’s too early to see significant changes in data generated by the 103-officer department. But officers say the personnel efforts have helped usher in a culture shift, which experts say is the key to long-lasting change.
Outsiders seem to be noticing. This winter, seeking to understand the police hiring climate in a post-George Floyd world, Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police President Jim Maguire asked the state’s 225 law enforcement entities whether recruiting was up or down. Each chief who responded said the number of applicants had shrunk dramatically. Except one: Clary. He told Maguire he had more applicants hoping to police the city of 53,000 than ever before, with officers transferring from departments as far as New Mexico. Many new arrivals were women. ✂️
Bellevue, the third-largest city in Nebraska, is experiencing “the complete opposite of what everybody else is dealing with,” Maguire said. “I don’t know exactly how Chief Clary is doing it. But whatever magic wand he’s been able to use down there, I would suspect that a bunch of other departments are going to try.”
Colin Kaepernick says 'I Color Myself Different' in his first children's book
I heard this sweet story in an interview with Kaepernick on a NPR broadcast last Saturday.
From NPR:
When Colin Kaepernick was five years old, his kindergarten teacher gave his class an assignment: Draw a picture of your family.
Kaepernick colored his entire family yellow. When he got to himself, he used the brown crayon.
"What I realized in drawing my family was that in my entire class, I was the only one who didn't look like the rest of my family," says Kaepernick, who is Black and adopted into a white family.
That simple-seeming assignment turned out to be a pivotal moment for how Kaepernick viewed his identity. It also became the inspiration, many years later, for his first children's book, I Color Myself Different.
In the book, a little boy named Colin reads on the floor, throws a football in the park, and in general thinks it's "supercool" that not many people look like him. "I have supercool skin, supercool hair, and a supercool family," Kaepernick writes. "Sometimes it's not easy, but being one of a kind sure is amazing.”
* * * * *
Good news from around the world
Lithuania becomes first EU country to cut off Russian gas
From Axios:
Lithuania has stopped importing gas from Russia as of the beginning of April, the country's ministry of energy announced on Saturday.
Why it matters: The former Soviet republic is the first European Union country to fully cut off supply from Russia's Gazprom.
What they're saying: "[T]his is the result of a multi-year coherent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions," Lithuanian Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys said in a statement.
"From this month on - no more Russian gas in Lithuania," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda tweeted. "Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the agressor. If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too!"
What's next: All of the country's demand for natural gas will be met by a liquified natural gas import terminal in the port of Klaipeda, the ministry of energy said.
Holland America cruise ship to house Ukrainian refugees
A good example of a company finding creative ways of helping Ukrainian refugees. I’m not into taking cruises, but if I ever decide otherwise, Holland America will definitely be my first choice.
From Cruise:
The cruise line Holland America has committed to housing roughly 1,500 Ukrainian refugees onboard their ship Volendam. The ship will be docked in Rotterdam Netherlands for the time being.
Holland America will be providing temporary home and shelter for Ukrainian Refugees for approximately three months. This arrangement from Holland America comes on the heels of the Netherlands’ commitment to accommodate 50,000 Ukrainians who fled their homes due to the war and ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
A statement from the president of Holland America Cruises Line, Gus Antorcha, “We are in a unique position to accommodate the immediate need for food and housing, so we felt it was very important to work with the city of Rotterdam and charter this ship.”
Included in the agreement with Holland America, the cruise line will provide three hot meals each day, private cabin accommodations, use of public spaces onboard the ship, fitness facilities, internet access, and housekeeping services to all refugees onboard. Also onboard during this time, will be 650 Holland America crew members. ✂️
The Holland America Group has additionally been working with its team and crew members who are Ukrainian. Team members from Ukraine can receive counseling assistance, free internet service in order to communicate with their family members, as well as scheduling assistance such such as early disembarkation, or an extension to remain in their posts onboard as required.
Update from World Central Kitchen
I’ve run out of superlatives for Chef Andrés and his team. We need to invent some new ones.
From WCK:
Hours after Ukrainian forces liberated the towns of Bucha and Irpin outside Kyiv, José and the WCK team were able to reach residents who had been trapped for a month. Traveling with the mayor of Irpin, they were the first new faces many had seen since the siege began. We brought hundreds of hot meals and 6,000 kilos of food for families to cook. Amidst images of horrific atrocities by Russian soldiers on civilians, José shared some reflections of his experience here.
While occupying forces pulled back from Kyiv, attacks increased in eastern cities like Kharkiv, where WCK CEO Nate is working with our local partners on the ground. We've been delivering tens of thousands of meals daily in the city and surrounding region to bomb shelters, hospitals, churches, seniors, and people trapped on the front lines.
WCK is now serving meals in more than 30 cities and towns across Ukraine, as well as delivering thousands of tons of food and supplies by truck and train. We've sent food to Zaporzhzhia, which is receiving evacuees from the devastated city of Mariupol, and this week we start serving Kramatorsk, on the edge of the Donetsk region where Russian forces are expected to ramp up attacks in the days ahead.
In Lviv, which remains the humanitarian hub for Ukraine and hosts over 200,000 evacuees, the WCK team continues to serve 75 shelters housing families who fled their homes. We're also delivering ingredients to shelters in nearby cities of Morshyn, Stryi, and Zolochiv.
During the past 5 weeks, our WCK Relief Team, local partners, and volunteers have served over 6 million meals. Thank you for standing with us in our fight so that during the darkest times, people are met with a comforting plate of food.
Donate here to help us continue serving hundreds of thousands of meals to those in need each and every day.
GlobalGiving is funding Ukraine relief organizations on the ground
Including help for Ukraine’s abandoned pets.
From an email, which I received as a recurring donor:
In the past two weeks, GlobalGiving sent an additional US$2.5 million to 36 vetted nonprofit partner organizations working diligently across Ukraine and countries in the region to meet the immense needs of the people most affected.
Below is a short description of some of the humanitarian relief you have supported with your donation:
- Odessa Charity Foundation Way Home is providing shelter, food, hygiene kits, and care packages for displaced families in Odessa. It is also working with older persons who need extra care during this crisis. For the children who live in its centers, the organization is facilitating therapeutic support activities. And for those who are leaving Ukraine, it is overseeing safe evacuations for them and their families to Moldova.
- Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights is committed to supporting women, trans, and nonbinary communities in Ukraine and neighboring countries. It is providing flexible funding, assisting with emergency evacuations and relocations, and offering legal, financial, and medical assistance. It is also increasing shelter capacity for children, women, and all other civilians, and enabling access to critical alternative communication channels by providing mobile internet, power banks, private networks, spare phones, and tablets.
- Polska Akcja Humanitarna (Polish Humanitarian Action) has an experienced team delivering humanitarian aid to people who have fled their homes both in Ukraine and Poland. Its assistance packages include dignity kits with essentials like soap, laundry detergent, menstrual hygiene supplies, and blankets. The organization recently delivered a shipment of assistance packages to hospitals and families in Donetsk Oblast.
- Fundatia ROLDA, located just 8 kilometers from Ukraine in Romania, is helping people and animals affected by the war. Many more animals are now roaming the streets and risk getting killed in the fighting or dying from neglect as homes are destroyed and people are forced to flee. ROLDA is caring for refugees and their pets as they arrive in Romania and also sending much needed supplies to animal shelters in Ukraine.
Volunteers Rally to Archive Ukrainian Web Sites
From Internet Archive:
As the war intensifies in Ukraine, volunteers from around the world are working to archive digital content at risk of destruction or manipulation. The Internet Archive is supporting several preservation efforts including the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) initiative launched in early March.
“When we think about the internet, we think the data is always going to be there. But all this data exists on physical servers and they can get destroyed just like buildings and monuments,” said Quinn Dombrowski, academic technology specialist at Stanford University and co-founder of SUCHO. ✂️
The Internet Archive is providing technical support, tools and training to assist volunteers, including those with SUCHO, who are giving of their time.
Through Archive-It, a customizable self-service web archiving platform that captures, stores, and provides access to web-based content, free online accounts have been offered to volunteer archivists. Mirage Berry, business development manager for Archive-It, has coordinated support with other preservation partners including the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, and East European & Central Asian Studies Collections librarian Liladhar Pendse at University of California, Berkeley.
“It’s so incredible how quickly all of these archivists have pulled together to do this,” Berry said. “Everyone wants to do something. You don’t need to have a ton of technical experience. For anyone who is willing to learn, it’s a great jumping off point for web archiving.”
SUCHO organizers anticipate after the immediate emergency of website archiving is over, there will be an ongoing need to stay vigilant with data curation of Ukrainian material.
To learn more and get involved, visit http://www.sucho.org.
Where Hunger Fell When Covid Hit
Here’s a world good news story from a different part of the planet that has lessons for all nations suffering from hunger. A similar solution has often been suggested for Haiti.
From Reasons to Be Cheerful:
The pandemic has changed the way we live — in some cases, by reverting it back to how it once was. Hakai reports on how some Pacific Islands, faced with market closures, have re-embraced traditional systems in which food is grown locally and used for sustenance rather than sale. These shifts have had an unexpected effect: hunger has fallen as communities have gone back to growing and sharing their own food, making sure there is plenty to go around.
A new study found that islands that remained reliant on imported food were nearly twice as likely to report food insecurity as islands that produced most of their own, such as Fiji and Micronesia. Bartering increased as well, with some communities giving the traditional practice a modern twist with digital tools. “The point is not to change too much,” said one of the co-authors of the study. “There’s a lot of management for resilience that’s been going on in villages for generations. So when the government comes in, it’s important to remember that things are already working in a certain way — and working pretty well.”
* * * * *
Musical break
This lovely meditative song won the Grammy for Best Global Performance. Arooj Aftab is Pakistani and studied at Berklee School of Music before settling in Brooklyn. Her work fuses ancient Sufi traditions with folk, jazz and minimalism. This song, “Mohabbat,” is based on a famous poem (a ghazal) by Hafeez Hoshiarpuri.
* * * * *
Good news in medicine and science
Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy
This is amazing news. My husband is struggling with hearing loss, and I can testify that it’s devastating. This promising new treatment would be life-changing.
From MIT News:
The biotechnology company Frequency Therapeutics is seeking to reverse hearing loss — not with hearing aids or implants, but with a new kind of regenerative therapy. The company uses small molecules to program progenitor cells, a descendant of stem cells in the inner ear, to create the tiny hair cells that allow us to hear.
Hair cells die off when exposed to loud noises or drugs including certain chemotherapies and antibiotics. Frequency’s drug candidate is designed to be injected into the ear to regenerate these cells within the cochlea. In clinical trials, the company has already improved people’s hearing as measured by tests of speech perception — the ability to understand speech and recognize words. ✂️
In Frequency’s first clinical study, the company saw statistically significant improvements in speech perception in some participants after a single injection, with some responses lasting nearly two years.
The company has dosed more than 200 patients to date and has seen clinically meaningful improvements in speech perception in three separate clinical studies. Another study failed to show improvements in hearing compared to the placebo group, but the company attributes that result to flaws in the design of the trial.
Now Frequency is recruiting for a 124-person trial from which preliminary results should be available early next year.
The human genome is, at long last, complete
This story has come up a lot in recent GNRs and in comments, but I don’t think anyone has provided a deep dive. Here’s one.
From The Rockefeller University:
When scientists declared the Human Genome Project complete two decades ago, their announcement was a tad premature. A milestone achievement had certainly been reached, with researchers around the world gaining access to the DNA sequence of most protein-coding genes in the human genome. But even after 20 years of upgrades, eight percent of our genome still remained unsequenced and unstudied. Derided by some as “junk DNA” with no clear function, roughly 151 million base pairs of sequence data scattered throughout the genome were still a black box.
Now, a large international team led by Adam Phillippy at National Institutes of Health has revealed the final eight percent of the human genome in a paper published in Science. These long–missing pieces of our genome contain more than mere junk. Within the new data are mysterious pockets of noncoding DNA that do not make protein, but still play crucial roles in many cellular functions and may lie at the heart of conditions in which cell division runs amok, such as cancer.
“You would think that, with 92 percent of the genome completed long ago, another eight percent wouldn’t contribute much,” says Rockefeller’s Erich D. Jarvis, a coauthor on the study who helped develop a number of techniques central to unlocking the final pieces of the human genome. “But from that missing eight percent, we’re now gaining an entirely new understanding of how cells divide, allowing us to study a number of diseases we had not been able to get at before.”
The Human Genome Project essentially handed us the keys to euchromatin, the majority of the human genome, which is rich in genes, loosely packaged, and busy making RNA that will later be translated into protein. Left untouched, however, was a labyrinth of tightly wound, repetitive heterochromatin—a smaller portion of the genome, which does not produce protein. ✂️
Jarvis and [Giulio] Formenti [a postdoc in Jarvis’ lab] hope that their [sequencing of heterochromatin] will not only help tie a bow on the Human Genome Project, but also inform research into diseases linked to the heterochromatic genome—chief among them cancer, which is associated with centromere abnormalities. Cancer cells divide wildly when certain heterochromatic centromere genes are overexpressed, and a complete understanding of the centromere genome may open the door to novel therapies.
Scientists Discover a Quantum Imprint Within Black Hole’s Gravity That Finally Resolves Hawking’s Paradox
This is kind of hard to wrap your head around (for me, anyway!), but it’s fascinating, and obviously good news.
From Good News Network:
An international team of physicists from the US, UK, and Italy, have co-authored two papers that finally resolve a problem confounding scientists for nearly half a century. With new calculations they have demonstrated that black holes have a gravitational field at the quantum level which encodes information about how they were formed. It is the missing key to Stephen Hawking’s paradox when he suggested there was no remnant of their past. ✂️
In the 1960s, eminent physicist John Archibald Wheeler expressed the fact that black holes are lacking any observable features beyond their total mass, spin, and charge with the phrase “black holes have no hair.” This is known as the no-hair theorem.
Having demonstrated that black holes do in fact have this additional characteristic, in their first collaborative paper Professor Stephen Hsu, [Xavier] Calmet, Folkert Kuipers, also of the University of Sussex, and Roberto Casadio of the University of Bologna have labelled their discovery as ‘quantum hair from gravity,’ in a nod to Wheeler’s phrase.
“Black holes have long been considered the perfect laboratory to study how to merge Einstein’s theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics,” Calmet explained. “It was generally assumed within the scientific community that resolving this paradox would require a huge paradigm shift in physics, forcing the potential reformulation of either quantum mechanics or general relativity. “What we found—and I think is particularly exciting—is that this isn’t necessary,” Calmet continued. “Our solution doesn’t require any speculative idea, instead our research demonstrates that the two theories can be used to make consistent calculations for black holes and explain how information is stored without the need for radical new physics.”
Robotic Dog Designed in Boston Patrols the Ruins of Pompeii to Help Preserve Relics
I love those Boston Dynamics robots, and this one is doing really important work.
From Good News Network:
The archeological site of Pompeii is employing a pair of robots to help monitor the state of preservation of ancient structures, and to gather information underground where it’s too dangerous or precarious for humans to go.
A robotic pooch built by Boston Dynamics to help archeologists in many ways, SPOT will spend most of the days wandering around Pompeii identifying structural and safety issues.
Pompeii is a delicate site, and in 2013 UNESCO almost placed it under the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
Not only are the ruins in need of constant monitoring for various forms of degradation, but over the years it’s also been lousy with graverobbers, or tombaroli who [dig] long tunnels underneath Pompeii to unearth artifacts to sell to the global antiquities market.
“Today, thanks to collaboration with high-tech companies and in the wake of these successful experiments, we wish to test the use of these robots in the underground tunnels that were made by illegal excavators and which we are uncovering in the area around Pompeii,” said Pompeii Director General Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
* * * * *
Good news for the environment
Methane-Eating Bacteria Converts Greenhouse Gas to Fuel (And Could Clean-up Fracking Sites)
From Good News Network:
Methanotrophic bacteria consume 30 million metric tons of methane per year and have captivated researchers for their natural ability to convert the potent greenhouse gas into usable fuel. Yet we know very little about how the complex reaction occurs, limiting our ability to use the double benefit to our advantage.
By studying the enzyme the bacteria use to catalyze the reaction, a team at Northwestern University now has discovered key structures that may drive the process.
Their findings ultimately could lead to the development of human-made biological catalysts that convert methane gas into methanol. ✂️
The enzyme, called particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO), is a particularly difficult protein to study because it’s embedded in the cell membrane of the bacteria. ✂️
...the team plans to study the enzyme directly within the bacterial cell using a forefront imaging technique called cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). ✂️
“If you want to optimize the enzyme to plug it into biomanufacturing pathways or to consume pollutants other than methane, then we need to know what it looks like in its native environment and where the methane binds,” Rosenzweig said. “You could use bacteria with an engineered enzyme to harvest methane from fracking sites or to clean up oil spills.”
An Airbus Jumbo Jet Just Completed Two Flights Powered by Cooking Oil
From Good News Network:
Having recently had time called on its 15 years of service, an Airbus A380 just completed some trial flights powered by cooking oil.
The largest passenger jet in the world, a double-decker behemoth just flew a three-hour intra-French test flight on Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF for short.
Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA)—SAF’s key ingredient—are definitely not what your doctor would label as a healthy cooking oil, but for powering the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine on board, it proved successful on March 25th on a French flight from Toulouse to Toulouse, and in a second on March 29th from Toulouse to Nice.
Far from being an introductory step, Airbus craft are already certified under both the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to fly commercially with a blend of 50-50 SAF and kerosene. Nevertheless, the company hopes to achieve 100% SAF authorization by the end of the decade.
“Increasing the use of SAF remains a key pathway to achieving the industry’s ambition of netzero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Airbus in a statement.
A Regenerative Grazing Revolution Is Taking Root in the Mid-Atlantic
From Civil Eats:
In September, a group of ag organizations [in Pennsylvania] launched the Dairy Grazing Project to help small farms convert to regenerative grazing systems. The project aims to recruit at least 40 dairies to achieve Regenerative Organic Certification to sell to Origin Milk, a small brand looking to expand its Regenerative Organic Certified supply chain.
Some of the same organizations are also involved in the Million Acre Challenge, which aims to implement healthy soil techniques—with regenerative grazing at the top of the list—on 1 million acres in Maryland by 2030. That initiative also overlaps with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture’s Soil Health Benchmark Study, which is quantifying the benefits of soil health practices, including regenerative grazing, on farms in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Most significantly, the Chesapeake Bay has long faced pollution from farm and urban runoff throughout its vast watershed, and many advocates and scientists see converting conventional dairies and commodity cropland to regenerative pasture-based farms as an important solution. As a part of its Watershed Implementation Plan under the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, the state of Maryland is about half way to a 2025 goal of implementing rotational grazing on 19,500 acres. Pennsylvania has implemented it on 30,000 acres with a goal of 169,000.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has been at the center of those efforts for years. In February, it released a report called “Farm Forward,” outlining how farms in the watershed can participate in improving water quality and mitigating climate change while also building economic resilience. And while the foundation included information on other practices—including buffers that farms plant along streams to prevent water pollution—it chose to zero in on the potential of regenerative grazing.
Genetic Lineage of Thousand-Year-Old Oak Trees Seed an Experimental ‘Super Forest’
Those of you who’ve read The Overstory will not be surprised that “within the genetic material of ancient trees, it was recently shown, lies the information whole forests need to stay resilient and long-lived, and to overcome climatic shifts and disease.”
From Good News Network:
Oaks with lives stretching back to the founding of modern England are being utilized to create “super forests” that support a new quality-over-quantity reforestation strategy. ✂️
The 400 acres [at Blenheim Palace and Estates in Oxfordshire], which are the subject of a major rewilding project, also contain the largest concentration of ancient oak trees [the oldest of which is thought to be 1,046 years old] anywhere in Europe. Blenheim recently received a grant from the British government of £1 million ($1.3 milllion) to plant 270,000 trees across nine separate locations totaling around 250 acres near the rivers Dorn and Glyme...✂️
Blenheim Palace has a chief forester, and a tree nursery for bringing up the descendants of its timeless residents. 2020 was a “mast year” for acorns, the term for a bumper crop in forestry science. The seedlings are currently turning into saplings, and the slow-growing hardwoods will form the anchors of a new method of reforestation, dubbed by the media as “super forests.” ✂️
The Blenheim project along the Dorn and Glyme will involve no fewer than 27 tree species. Conifers will soak up carbon more rapidly, while a mixture of hard and soft broad-leaf trees will host hundreds of species of insects, birds, and fungi. Parkland trees will line the borders of the forests and provide valuable timber to help the forests pay their own way.
The Blenheim oak saplings will become the most important part of the puzzle. They will provide the forests with teachers and knowledge, for contained within the genetic material of ancient trees, it was recently shown, lies the information whole forests need to stay resilient and long-lived, and to overcome climatic shifts and disease.
* * * * *
Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
The Newest Cadbury Bunny is… a Therapy Dog Named Annie Rose!
Rosy couldn’t resist this story about Annie Rose, who just won the honor of being Cadbury’s newest Bunny. Of course, Rosy thinks she would have won if she’d entered the try-out, and is thinking of doing that next year.
From Good News Network:
America has chosen an adorable dog as the winner of the fourth-annual Cadbury Bunny Tryouts.
Annie Rose will star in this year’s Cadbury Clucking Bunny commercial and will take home a $5,000 cash prize, along with plenty of bragging rights for when she visits local nursing homes in her home state of Ohio.
An English Doodle, Annie Rose is used to being in the spotlight. She loves bringing smiles to the faces of seniors—so much so that not even a global pandemic can stop her. When COVID-19 restrictions meant no visitors at nursing homes, Annie Rose didn’t give up. Instead, she dressed up, strutting her stuff outside the nursing home windows. ✂️
Cadbury also donated $20,000 to The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the ASPCA).
Watch the Love Between Men and Their Cats in New Film Purr-fect for Home Viewing With Your Pet
Nora was thrilled when she found this great story about a movie celebrating men who love cats. And it includes a trailer!
From Good News Network:
How much can a cat mean to a man? As it turns out, nearly everything, in the case of David Giovanni, a homeless immigrant and “cat daddy” living on the streets of New York City.
His struggle to hold onto his cat Lucky during the COVID-19 pandemic is the heart-wrenching subject of a new film Cat Daddies that explores modern masculinity through the lives of eight unique male cat owners.
The idea arose after director Mye Hoang noticed a softening of her husband after the pair adopted their first cat: a change deep down that was hard to understand. Taking to Instagram, she found a number of men hopelessly devoted to doting on their furry friends, and wanted to find out more; to document the changing conditions of masculinity in society.
But as COVID threw the country into disarray, and Giovanni went from being homeless, to homeless during a pandemic, to homeless in a pandemic with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, the film took on a more heartfelt direction and focused on the inestimable value of the companionship of the cat in our lives.
On Capitol Hill, Bird Walks Help Politicians Find Common Ground
Rascal is preening himself over having found an article for this GNR that combines birds and politics.
From Living Bird Magazine (Cornell Lab of Ornithology):
[Tykee James, the government affairs coordinator for National Audubon Society,] started [leading monthly bird] walks in 2019 as a way to forge connections with lawmakers and their staff who might work on bird-related legislation. But the coronavirus pandemic, and then Capitol Hill security concerns (when much of the National Mall was fenced off following the Jan. 6 riot), put the bird walks on a yearlong hiatus. Now the walks are back, and James says they serve another purpose: building common ground in a place that is perhaps more partisan now than it’s ever been.
In late October 2021, Tykee James (left) led a bird walk that included California Congressman Alan Lowenthal (right) and turned up 20 species within three blocks of the Capitol.
“If you take down the political barriers and you just bird a little bit, if you calm down, smell the flowers, and look for some feathers, then I think that you can genuinely find where people are coming from and that gives you a better opportunity to find where you can meet in the middle,” he says.
On this crisp October morning, James explicitly avoids talking politics: “I do no kind of lobbying on these walks.” Instead, he gives pointers on using binoculars, fields questions about the difference between male and female House Sparrows, and mimics the different caws of Fish Crows and American Crows.
It’s all part of a strategy.
“It’s not about me being an expert, it’s about me trying to find ways to connect people with the excitement of it all,” he says. “Being present for moments like this makes you feel connected to birds and to their issues.”
* * * * *
Art break
Artists in Ukraine who have been selling their work online can no longer send actual artworks to customers, so they are now offering virtual artworks. Many of these are sold on Etsy, and I’ve enjoyed looking at all the offerings and buying several of them. They’re very inexpensive ($3-$15), but they have a significant impact because all the money goes directly to the artists, and Etsy has a large international following. If you’re interested, go to Etsy and then ukrainian artists digital download.
The painting I used as the headline image for today’s GNR is one of these digital downloads. The artist, Julia Datta, made a point of allowing purchasers to use her images online any way they like, but not all artists give that permission. So I’ll show you some of my other favorites in thumbnail mode:
Artists clockwise from top left: Natalia Slizovska, Anna, Olga Asadulaeva, Galyna Ukrainian
* * * * *
Hot lynx
lithub.com/… An Argument for Requiring Americans to Vote. E.J. Dionne Jr. and Miles Rapoport argue that the time has come to make voting mandatory. “We see voting as a public responsibility of all citizens, no less important than jury duty. If every American citizen is required to vote as a matter of obligation...Those responsible for organizing elections would be required to resist ...voter suppression”
civileats.com/… How Nourish New York Is Still Feeding NYC. “A program created to support farmers and feed New Yorkers amidst the pandemic’s food crisis is here to stay.”
civileats.com/… Tracing Regenerative Farming to its Indigenous Roots. An interview with the author of a new book arguing “that carbon can be stored in the soil if we adopt ancestral land management strategies, many of which are held by communities of color.”
www.governing.com/… Why the Concept of Induced Demand Is a Hard Sell. “ Both the public and policymakers have trouble understanding why building more roads and highways does not reduce congestion.” An enlightening and important article.
www.yesmagazine.org/…
The Pursuit of Rest Under Capitalism. A thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation on how capitalism tends to rob us of joy and rest.
www.wired.com/…
A Big Bet to Kill the Password for Good. “After a decade of work, the FIDO Alliance says it’s found the missing piece in the bridge to a password-free future.”
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
How to Resist: Do Something …
The following invaluable list was put together by chloris creator:
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 Brigade group on DK here.
From GoodNewsRoundup (aka Goodie):
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
I’ll close with another beautiful tribute to Ukraine from composer Valentyn Silvestrov, “Prayer for the Ukraine,” performed here by the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir at a concert on March 25 to benefit the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the ‘Dumka’ National Choir of Ukraine.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
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! 💙❤️