(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Good News Roundup for Friday, August 2, 2024: Tipping Points [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-02 Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News! It is just glorious watching the enthusiasm: polls. delegates, rallies, donations and volunteers! Now, we can’t get complacent. The other side does not want to lose power. They will fight like mad, in legit ways and in crooked ways. Besides, this is our opportunity. We have the resources now to flood the zone. We’re at tipping points in multiple arenas. So much hinges on what we do now. The climate. Our country. A whole bunch of other countries. So come in, get rested, see what the good guys are doing. Because so many are working to make this country and this world. Then, arm yourselves with some ideas and some actions you can take, and let’s get to work. Regular Scheduled Programming No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember: 💙 There are more of us than there are of them. 💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED! 💔 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world. 🗽 Biden as President ! 🗽 Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Here are the last week’s posts at the White House briefing room. 👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍 👍 The hostages are home from Russia! x President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greet Paul Whelan as he steps off the plane pic.twitter.com/l1d2KK4UmB — Acyn (@Acyn) August 2, 2024 x “Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US, according to people familiar with the situation,” @JenniferJJacobs reports. pic.twitter.com/cEBV6z4CA5 — David Gura (@davidgura) August 1, 2024 Note that putin did not wait for tRump to get into office. Maybe he does not think tRump will get elected, or maybe he doesn’t think that much about tRump. 👎 Tennessee court strikes down power grab by GOP legislature Madeleine Greenberg Democracy Docket Over a year after the Republican-controlled Tennessee Legislature attempted to shrink the size of Nashville’s Metro Council from 40 to 20 members, a state court has blocked that plan for good. Ruling that House Bill 48 violates Tennessee’s Home Rule Amendment, yesterday the court held the power-grab law, which the plaintiffs argued waged “an unprecedented disenfranchisement of the voters of Metro Nashville,” will stay blocked. The council will remain at 40 members. The Metro Council is the legislative authority of both Nashville, the state’s most populous city, and Davidson County, one of the state’s most diverse counties that surrounds Music City. The council is incredibly diverse and is the third largest local council just behind New York City and Chicago. 👎 North Carolina court strikes down (GOP) law that would take away power from the Democratic governor Rachel Selzer Democracy Docket A unanimous panel of three North Carolina judges this morning sided with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), striking down a new Republican-sponsored “power grab” law that would have removed the governor’s authority to make appointments to the state board of elections and instead granted it to the GOP-controlled Legislature. In addition to stripping Cooper’s appointment power, the law would have required state and county boards of elections to have an even number of Democratic and Republican-appointed members, increasing the potential for deadlock. The now-struck down law departed from the current structure that allows a majority of state and county board members — three out of five — to be from the governor’s political party. 👎 Illegal border crossings down. Another talking point down. Yeah, the Rs will just lie. But when you try to solve problems, sometimes you do! x NEWS — Unlawful crossings by migrants along the U.S. southern border dropped for the fifth consecutive month in July, plunging to the lowest level since the fall of 2020.https://t.co/ALX4LkaUH1 — Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) August 1, 2024 👍 🌵 Laura Conover wins primary in Pima County, Arizona Jafel Serrato, AP via KVOA TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — The Associated Press is declaring incumbent Laura Conover as the winner of the Pima County Attorney primary race. About 40 minutes after results started coming in, Laura Conover declared victory. She will still be on the ballot in November, but with no Republican challengers, she's all but certain to serve a second term as Pima County Attorney. This is important to me (this is where I vote) because I suspect her opponent was funded by Republicans. 🌵 🚗 One of the ways the next election will be attacked is through fakes. Here are some actions SoSs are taking to fight it Matt Cohen, Democracy Docket Over the past few election cycles, coordinated disinformation campaigns from domestic and foreign adversaries emerged as one of the biggest threats to election security. In the 2024 election cycle, those threats are higher than ever thanks to the evolution of generative artificial intelligence. “Generative AI is yet another tool in the arsenal of bad guys, but the actual weaponry is misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation,” Fontes told Democracy Docket in a recent panel on AI in elections. “And what generative AI does is it opens up this Pandora’s box of new tools to sort of broaden and deepen the way that these attacks against our democracy can be levied.” Along with the NewDEAL Forum — a national network of pro-growth progressive state and local elected officials that work together to address issues like voting rights and climate change — a coalition of secretaries of state are working together to develop tools and best practices to help raise awareness of generative AI disinformation this election season. The effort is led by Fontes — along with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon — to prepare election workers and voters in their states to be vigilante and savvy against the various generative AI threats. Those campaigns can take many forms, from that deepfake video of Fontes to a recent scheme in New Hampshire involving thousands of AI-generated robocalls using President Joe Biden’s voice urging voters not to vote in the state’s January primary election. 💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣 Biden and Harris have caused turmoil in tRumpworld Tara Palmeri Puck (paywalled) Predictably, the campaign’s loss of elevation has all manner of Trump courtiers and advisors blaming each other for the past week’s various fuckups and distractions—including at least one major unforced error by the principal, himself. “It’s just two weeks, and I’m like, what the hell is going on,” one stunned Mar-a-Lago denizen told me. In many ways, their frustration is understandable. For months now, Trump’s campaign has been lauded for its eerie proficiency under the co-management of political professionals Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. And yet, in recent days, Wiles has faced an unusual degree of criticism in Trumpworld, after she quickly jumped on the Vance train and was charged with vetting him. LaCivita, for his part, is getting lashed for publicly gloating about Trump’s ostensible path to 320 electoral college votes. Some detractors blame both Wiles and LaCivita for not having a backup plan for Harris (a source familiar countered that they were “exceptionally ready”); others are frustrated over the statement Wiles and LaCivita issued celebrating the resignation of Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, after Democrats made it politically toxic. “They danced on the grave after Dans resigned,” said one Washington insider. “It was a ‘Let this be a warning to anyone who claims to have the president’s ear,’ but with a knife.” Naturally, there’s an emerging consensus that this insider squabbling, reminiscent of an earlier chaotic era, is distracting from the race. In one pointed example, twenty sources took the time to blame Kellyanne Conway for leaking negative stories about J.D. Vance to The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo. “A lot of people are very frustrated. There are cracks within the ranks and team, why are the consultants knifing Kellyanne in the Bulwark?” said another Trump ally. “They should be focusing on Kamala.” A reminder about how ineffectual tRump is x Paul Whelan was arrested during THE FIRST HALF of Trump’s Presidency. December 2018. Trump didn’t get him out. Trump spent enormous effort trying to steal the election he lost. But he didn’t get Whelan out. Biden did. — TheValuesVoter (Also on Threads and BlueSky) (@TheValuesVoter) August 1, 2024 Melania is missing while Doug Emhoff is campaigning for Kamala Harris Mimi Racker The Daily Beast Doug Emhoff is putting Melania Trump to shame. For the past week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ adoring husband has been everywhere. Emhoff, who will celebrate his ten-year anniversary with Harris next month, has been hitting the campaign trail on a near-daily basis. ✂️ Emhoff’s omnipresence invites the obvious question: Where’s Melania? Amid the top-of-the-ticket switch-up, the former president’s wife has remained where she’s been all year: nowhere to be found. Melania Trump has barely appeared by her husband’s side as he campaigns to return to the White House, and she certainly hasn’t stumped for him. She turned down multiple requests to speak on the GOP’s biggest stage of the year, declining even to introduce her husband at the Republican National Convention earlier this month. She appeared, briefly and silently, only on the confab’s final night. I mean, I don’t really blame Melania. I wouldn’t want to be near tRump either. Also, reports are that she hated being 1st Lady, so why 🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚 🌵 Dems hitting GOP hard on the border issue — thanks, Senator Mark Kelly Steve Benen MSNBC As NBC News reported, some leading Democrats believe it’s time to refresh voters’ memories about what happened and why. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., on Wednesday went after former President Donald Trump over his role in sinking a bipartisan Senate bill as the former president seeks to cast Vice President Kamala Harris as a “border czar” who failed to secure the border amid record increases of migrant crossings. “This was not meeting the Republicans on the 50-yard line, this was meeting them on the 10-yard line,” the Arizona Democrat said during an appearance on MSNBC. “On their side of the field, we realized, we’ve got to get operational control over the border. I realized this, Kamala Harris realizes this, and this legislation was going to do that,” he added. “And our goal here was to get this legislation passed and then start working on comprehensive immigration reform. But this was stopped dead in its tracks by Donald Trump because he wanted to have this as an election issue. Like a lot of other Republicans, they don’t actually want to solve this problem.” We saw earlier how much they are down! x BREAKING: Seven new polls released today showed Kamala Harris defeating Donald Trump. This is why Trump and his campaign are panicking. Let’s go. — Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 1, 2024 We got the huzzahs! x BREAKING: The media might not say it, but Democrats are by far more enthusiastic about electing Vice President Kamala Harris as President than Republicans are about electing Donald Trump. Retweet so all Americans see the enthusiasm at Kamala’s rally today. pic.twitter.com/JO2lqfTpl0 — Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) July 30, 2024 UAW endorsement: x BIG NEWS: The United Auto Workers union has ENDORSED Kamala Harris for president: "Her historic candidacy builds on the Biden-Harris administration’s proven track record of standing with the UAW and delivering major gains for the working class." Story... https://t.co/hhiOFK7upI — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 31, 2024 💜 Unity? 💜 If you are worried about the Rs trying to steal the election, you are not alone. Because they are trying to steal the election. However, a lot is being done by election officials and organizations to keep this from happening. Also, there are many things we can do as well. I wrote a diary on it, with many practical suggestions. Here’s the link. (How We Can Stop the Ra******s from Stealing the Election) And a warning: @marceelias on officials who plan to refuse election certification: "If you're a Republican county official, do your job. If you're not prepared to do your job, to administer fair elections, to certify accurate results, now is the time to resign. Get out of office... But if you stay in this job, and you don't do your job, you're gonna get sued. And you're gonna lose. And you're gonna go down in history as one of the villains." x .@marceelias on officials who plan to refuse election certification: "If you're a Republican county official, do your job. If you're not prepared to do your job, to administer fair elections, to certify accurate results, now is the time to resign. Get out of office... But if you… pic.twitter.com/h84iXwrhcz — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 1, 2024 Some Rs are endorsing Kamala Harris: x BREAKING: Former Illinois Republican Governor, Jim Edgar, has announced he will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. High ranking Republicans are abandoning Donald Trump as his campaign seemingly implodes. — Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) August 1, 2024 Vice President Harris is the only one to qualify for the DNC roll call Elena Schneider Politico Kamala Harris will be the only candidate on the Democratic National Committee’s virtual roll call ballot for president, cementing her status as the party’s all-but-certain nominee. Convention delegates will begin voting on Harris’ nomination on Thursday and finish by Aug. 5, according to a statement released by the DNC Tuesday night. The vice president secured support from 3,923 delegates to appear on the virtual ballot. 📥 Actions You Can Take 📤 Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying? 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 help. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection. 👎 Defund the seditionists. Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to 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. 🔎 Want to check out what’s going on with campaign contributions? Check out this diary. 👀 🐍 Schadenfreude 😈 💰💰💰 Well, that was nice! x The one upside to Trump’s racist tirades: the response from grassroots donors. As of this hour $23,961,076 has been raised through ActBlue today, the largest fundraising day in the past week. Donations began spiking immediately following Trump’s NABJ interview. — Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 1, 2024 tRump’s gag order to continue. Too bad we can’t shut him up completely! x Trump’s “gag order” in New York criminal case will continue ===>https://t.co/nuMHAJyb3u — Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) August 1, 2024 😆 Too funny: John Oliver says the reason you always fing change in couch cushions is because “JD Vance always leaves a tip” x OMG, John Oliver says the reason you always find change in couch cushions is because "JD Vance always leaves a tip" 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/WPfzp8CS3J — BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) July 29, 2024 📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️ We’re honoring two people today. The first is Timothy Snyder, who has been taking on tyranny. He wrote a book on the subject that came out right after 2016 election, and he had 20 lessons, from “Don’t Obey in Advance” to “Be as Courageous as You Can.” This is the one on courage: Note this is not the presentation I mentioned in the intro. Here it is but it is more than an hour. Speaking of courage, we’re also honoring Scott MacFarlane. I like him because he really follows the J6 cases, and he’s planning to be there in the Senate hearing regarding what happened in Butler, PA. In case you don’t want to watch on X, he talks about the trauma that is still with so many people who were there on J6 — the police, the staffers, even some of the reps, because they were in what was supposed to be a safe space, the safest space, and then they were targeted by fellow Americans. x As important as ever …. Will track Jan 6 and cases of political violence. Until. Every. Case. Closes My latest ===> pic.twitter.com/y07TadLpF9 — Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 26, 2024 🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ Helping each other. I show many dogs helping humans, here are some humans helping a dog. x In a world full of insane hatred and cruelty - this gives me hope. https://t.co/rYUmqxAsyJ — jason hallett (@JasonHallett) July 28, 2024 📎 Odds & Ends 📎 Biden-Harris administration, NOAA, announce 575 million to make coasts more climate-resilient Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce are recommending $575 million for the funding of 19 projects to increase climate resilience in the country’s Great Lakes and coastal states and territories. NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge is part of the Investing in America agenda, a press release from NOAA said. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, it is a competitive program, with awards made under NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts and Communities Initiative. “As part of President Biden’s commitment to combating the climate crisis, we are investing $575 million to help make sure America’s coastal communities are more resilient to the effects of climate change,” Raimondo said in the press release. “This is a historic investment in our nation’s climate resilience, the largest in the history of the Commerce Department, and a key piece of the Biden-Harris Administrations’ ambitious climate agenda. Thanks to this Administration’s commitment to investing in America, we’re going to continue to help underserved communities across the country develop and implement new strategies to protect themselves from flooding, storm surge, and extreme weather events.” The program was announced in 2023 and has received almost 870 letters of intent seeking more than $16 billion in funding. Expanding London’s Low-Emissions Zone Has Led to Air Quality Improvements Cristen Hemingway Jaynes EcoWatch The London ULEZ, or Ultra Low Emission Zone, expanded in August 2023 to cover all of London’s boroughs in order to reduce emissions and air pollution. The results? A significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions from traffic and improved air quality within the first six months of the expansion, a new report has confirmed. According to the report, nitrogen oxide emissions from cars in outer London declined 13% with the expansion, and particulate matter emissions, or PM2.5, from cars and vans decreased around 20% in outer London since the expansion. As The Guardian reported, the overall impact of the 2023 expansion of the ULEZ led to emissions reductions equivalent to taking around 200,000 cars off the roads. I bet some places that are seeing life expectancy go back up have improved their air quality. 🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: the Crow Nickels (chronicles), a trilogy about crows who want to save birdkind from extinction: Hunters of the Feather, Scavengers of Mind and Familiars of the Flock (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — such as The Meryton Murders — and others based on history and Greek mythology, such as Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paid if you turn the pages. 💙 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. Current projects: Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters And some other ideas: You can relax and recharge. You can join protests and freeway blog. You can help register new voters. You can smile. You can say something nice to friend or a stranger. You can get out the vote for special elections. You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back. You can share your ideas below. 🌻 💙 “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.” 💙 President Joseph R. Biden 🌹 🌹 🌹 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/2/2258956/-Good-News-Roundup-for-Friday-August-2-2024-Tipping-Points?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/