(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Thursday 11/16 Good News Roundup: Ho, Hum, No Govt Shutdown [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-16 Shutting down the government is off the table. But for a while there it was just the kind of boneheaded move that will add to our chances in next Roevember’s elections, and in special elections between now and then. Please proceed, Republicans. This is a Big Deal to me, but the MSM hasn’t made much of it. Oh, right, madness and chaos drive clicks and eyeballs. Getting stuff done is bo-ring. Amirite? Democrats and Senate Republicans team up to save Mike Johnson from a government shutdown The House of Representatives once again did the minimum in fulfilling its legislative mandate on Tuesday, voting 336-95 to keep funding the government past the deadline on Friday. It passed because of Democrats–209 of them. They did it without a lot of enthusiasm since the approach that Speaker Mike Johnson took on the continuing resolution is unproven and kind of bizarre, but they saved the day nonetheless. Nobody particularly likes this CR. Johnson chose to double the jeopardy of a future shutdown by having two funding expiration dates in this one resolution: Funding for military and veterans programs, Agriculture and food agencies, and the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development would expire on Jan. 19, and for the State, Defense, Commerce, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, among others, funding would expire on Feb. 2. That didn’t go over well with the White House or either party in the Senate initially, but since it doesn’t include the kinds of drastic funding cuts House Republicans have been pushing all year, everyone decided to give Johnson the help. We wanted a clean CR with no poison pills, and we had the leverage. Only a few of the most wackadoodle House Rs like Chip Roy of TX and MTG of GA haven’t gotten the memo that government shutdowns lose elections. Well, not their own elections, so why would they care? Good News for Us Biden’s Meeting with Xi of China, and Press Conference We are restarting cooperation between the US and the PRC on countering narcotics. We are taking action to significantly reduce the flow of [fentanyl] precursor chemicals, and pill presses. We are resuming direct military-to-military contact. Protecting the public, protecting Taiwan specifically and the world in general. Bangladesh has become the first country globally to officially eliminate visceral leishmaniasis. Rubella has been eliminated from North Korea. River blindness treatment now reaches 400 million people a year; in 2023, Niger became the first country in Africa to eliminate it; Senegal is now on track to become the second. Maldives is the first country to interrupt transmission of leprosy. India is extending its free ration scheme for five more years, covering 800 million people. Since April 2020, all poor families receive 5 kg of food grains every month. The Ivory Coast will construct 2,200 boreholes to bring clean drinking water to an additional 900,000 people. In 1999, a cyclone killed more than 10,000 people in the state of Odisha, India. Since then it has built over 800 cyclone shelters and 120 coastal watchtowers; 1,200 coastal villages now receive warnings; more than 100,000 volunteers have been trained; and it has successfully managed through two super cyclones. The US government is investing $16.4 billion into rail infrastructure between Boston and Washington. It’s rare to get a standing ovation at a scientific conference. But on 22 October, cancer researcher Thomas Powles received two, after announcing a new combination of treatments that cuts the risk of death in people with advanced bladder cancer by more than half—an unprecedented result in a cancer for which survival rates have been almost unchanged since the 1980s. Nature Bhutan has become the first country in the world to completely sterilise and vaccinate its entire stray dog population. The ‘triumphant’ restoration of Wullar Lake, one of Asia’s largest freshwater lakes, has resulted in the return of over 50,000 migratory birds last year. Among the sightings were black-headed gulls and long-tailed ducks, not spotted in the region since 1939. That’s just a sampling of what Future Crunch offered this time. Tuberville x The Senate Rules committee has passed a rules change that would advance over 300 military promotions after @SenTuberville blockade. Our military and national security need 9 @SenateGOP to step up immediately the longer we wait the more behind it will get. We don’t need weeks! pic.twitter.com/ZcINh9QyjW — Skyleigh Heinen (@Sky_Lee_1) November 15, 2023 The UN Security Council Agreed on Something! Well, close enough. There were 12 votes in favor, none against, 3 abstentions (US, UK, Russia) x NEWS: Security Council passes resolution calling for urgent & extended humanitarian pauses & corridors throughout Gaza, and immediate & unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas & other groups.https://t.co/NbQYc6KSBa pic.twitter.com/8GnTp531qq — United Nations (@UN) November 15, 2023 Bad News for Them Speaker Johnson creates pre-shutdown chaos Surreal week in the House shows just how broken the GOP is Republican moderates express frustration behind closed doors but refuse to act But then on Tuesday they passed a clean, but laddered budget resolution putting off the real budget bills to two separate dates in January and February, as explained above. Republican infighting escalates: MAGA wing takes aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson One day after House Speaker Mike Johnson passed a stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, right-wing Republicans tanked his spending bill—an opening salvo in the battle for retribution. What has the MAGA wing of the GOP fuming? It was Democrats who rescued Johnson, providing 209 votes and a majority of the ayes needed to pass the short-term bill. It's precisely the type of maneuver that landed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in hot water and eventually led to his ouster. Conservatives block spending bill in retribution over Johnson stopgap GOP leadership immediately canceled votes for the rest of the week, as conservatives warn they could continue to hold the floor hostage. House Republicans are heading home early for Thanksgiving recess after a conservative revolt tanked plans to pass more spending bills on Wednesday. Hardliners sunk any chances of passage for two additional funding bills this week — marking a major setback for Speaker Mike Johnson less than 24 hours after working with Democrats to pass a bill that would thwart a shutdown deadline Saturday. Professor on 'Morning Joe': 'We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism' This turns out to be entirely not the case. The Wrong-Wingers are clearly aware of the plan, and are reveling in it. Our side is clearly aware, and doubling down on GOTV and messaging. These in between, especially the children of the Wrong-Wingers, are aware, and are increasingly turned off by the increasingly overt Nazism. Media Begins to Call Out Trump on His "GAFFES" at Rallies. Biden, DeSantis & Haley Follow Suit Kos wrote this the other day: ICYMI: Why does the media ignore Trump’s deterioration? The New York Times and Washington Post have both run stories now about Trump’s multiple verbal slips during recent rallies, pointing out that this is weakening one of his strongest attacks: Biden’s age. The Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time Republicans complained that Democrats were mostly reacting to decisions they didn't like from the conservative-dominated court, including overturning the nationwide right to an abortion. The proposal would require that justices provide more information about potential conflicts of interest. It would allow impartial panels of judges to review justices’ decisions not to step aside from cases and require public, written explanations about their decisions not to recuse. It would also seek to improve transparency around gifts received by justices and set up a process to investigate and enforce violations around required disclosures. They are lying as usual. The pointing and laughing and the increasing rage are both strong with our side. GOP in quest of the perfect pitch: Selling unpopular abortion policies Don’t listen to what they say. Look at what they do. Rachel Maddow The Feynman Principle, named for Richard Feynman’s father, is Names are bupkes. Only behavior counts. Yup. Got it. x The House GOP just voted to prevent the CDC from studying gun deaths and injuries. Hmm...I wonder why? pic.twitter.com/5hsESDAcWe — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) November 15, 2023 Tim Scott exits stage right from the race, and ain't nobody gonna miss him Science! Animals! Weirdness! x Women make up more than half the population. But for too long, they've been underrepresented when it comes to health research. That changes with the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. pic.twitter.com/slgZS1rD1F — President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2023 x Cats have a precise method of walking called ‘direct registering’. Their hind paws fall inside the place of their forepaws, minimizing noise and visible tracks, while ensuring more stable footing.. pic.twitter.com/vLwCLx15od — Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 15, 2023 The dark band in the middle of this image is the shadow of dust that is coming together into larger and larger bodies. x Amazing image of edge-on protoplanetary disk with JWST by Marion Villenave et al. Look at all those background galaxies in the ~40x40 arcsec field 😮https://t.co/1WAoEawIQ8 pic.twitter.com/04zN1DH4gM — Sebastián Pérez (@sebanube) November 16, 2023 x The VLT Survey Telescope has captured stunning imagery the Vela supernova remnant. These remains of a gigantic star are located about 800 light-years away from Earth. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team. pic.twitter.com/uPkTJseBQC — Erika #PlanetaryDefense 🎯 (@ExploreCosmos_) October 31, 2022 x Astronomers created the VLT: Very Large Telescope.... ... are currently building the ELT: Extremely Large Telescope... ... But that is not enough.... ... introducing today... ... the THE ULTIMATELY LARGE TELESCOPE!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 are we okay? #Science #Astronomy pic.twitter.com/T7hb94zJ7x — Dr. Heloise Stevance (@Sydonahi) July 8, 2020 The ELT is half complete. The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope was canceled. The Ultimately Large Telescope -- what kind of facility do we need to detect Population III stars? Observations will take place in the near-infrared and therefore a moon-based facility is proposed. An instrument needs to reach magnitudes as faint as 39magAB, corresponding to a primary mirror size of about 100m in diameter. Assuming JWST NIRCam filters, we estimate that Pop III sources will have unique signatures in a colour-colour space and can be identified unambiguously. There will be star-shattering kabooms. There were, that is. We will get to see star-shattering kabooms from pair-instability supernovas of stars with hundreds of solar masses from long, long ago, at red shifts >z=25. The first observable star is most likely to have formed 30 million years after the big bang (at red shift z=65). The last Population III stars formed millions of years later, possibly at red shift z=25. We think. Maybe. x Zebra striped sea anemone (Nemanthus annamensis). (Photo Nhobgood) pic.twitter.com/marFAPTaAl — Weird Animals (@Weird_AnimaIs) September 23, 2023 x Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat is an important pollinator in southern Africa. (Photo Merlin D. Tuttle) pic.twitter.com/a3rJX42545 — Weird Animals (@Weird_AnimaIs) September 22, 2023 Wednesday Woozles: Life With Woozles PWB Peeps: Moonday Furbutts Werkin' an' Playin' Around Funny or Fuggedaboudit x Tim Scott has dropped out of the presidential race. Try not to laugh. pic.twitter.com/4zzWgSymRw — Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) November 13, 2023 Mike Johnson on the cross [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/16/2205741/-Thursday-11-16-Good-News-Roundup-Ho-Hum-No-Govt-Shutdown?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/