(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . GNR for Friday, June 14, 2024: Beyond Your Comfort Zone [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-14 Anyway, come on in and see what I could cobble together in this week of hotel with spotty internet. I dare all of you to come up with something or someone who makes you a bit uncomfortable, and to do it, especially if it is supporting the world we want to live in. Keep up the donations, the postcards, and so on, but also reach out to people who might have problems voting. Maybe they just moved. Maybe they’re older and housebound. Maybe they are young and have never done it before. Ask yourselves: what can you do that makes you a bit uncomfortable? For me it’s reaching out to people in person (that’s why I am talking to you on the internet). But this last week I did. I realized there were a few people who might find it difficult to vote. They are new expats, and they need assistance getting their ballots (it’s easy once you know how to do it). So I reached out to them, and they were actually happy that I did because they understand the importance. In the meantime, I was reflecting on some of President Biden’s words, and the words of the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin from the D-Day ceremonies last week. To win this thing, sometimes we need to give up some of the things that make us comfortable. Gnusies, I’m still in transit, and the internet is sometimes spotty, so I don’t know how well this GNR will turn out this week. 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 👍 👍 American Climate Corps now has a website that might be accepting applications Know a young person trying to start work? Send them to the ACC! 👍 Port of Baltimore reopens! White House Briefing Room I made clear that my Administration would move heaven and earth to reopen the Port of Baltimore – one of our nation’s largest shipping hubs. Today [June 12], thanks to the tireless work by the men and women in the Unified Command, the full navigation channel is now open to all vessel traffic, allowing a full return of commerce to the Port of Baltimore. Within minutes of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard arrived on the scene. They established a Unified Command the same day to support rescue and recovery operations, and worked with the Army Corps of Engineers around the clock to remove the wreckage from the channel. My Departments of Transportation and Labor and the Small Business Administration worked hand-in-hand with federal and state partners to limit supply chain impacts and keep costs down for Americans, and to support impacted workers and small businesses. I want to thank Governor Moore for his steadfast leadership, Mayor Scott, County Executive Olszewski, and the Maryland congressional delegation. The partnership between federal, state, and local governments, labor leaders like the longshoremen who keep this hub running, and the business community shows what we can get done when we work together. Our hearts remain with the families of the victims of the bridge collapse, and we will continue to stand with the community throughout this period of recovery. Thank you to the people of Baltimore for showing us what it means to be Maryland tough and Baltimore strong. Baltimore can count on us to stick with them every step of the way, and we will continue to have your back until the bridge is rebuilt. 👎 👍 US puts solar panels on old nuclear weapons sites, powering 70,000 homes Andy Corbley, Good News Network Across the nation, land set aside for the purpose of possibly destroying the world is now welcoming infrastructure meant to save it. Sites managed by the Dept. of Energy’s nuclear weapons division are now playing host to solar farms that should be able to power thousands of homes. As part of a government program called Cleanup to Clean Energy, the Idaho National Laboratory, though never having hosted nuclear weapons itself, will soon be the site of a 400-megawatt solar farm spread across 2,800 acres. 💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣 🐔 Will tRump chicken out of the debate this month? Hannity has tried to come up with an excuse (News Corpse) and tRump is making excuses in advance, saying he might try to lose on purpose David Edwards Raw Story "Maybe I'm better off losing the debate," Trump added. "I'll make sure he stays. I'll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I'll do something like that." Really, it’s time to start a betting pool! But tRump has not debated since 2020, when he lost to Biden twice. He skipped all the R primary debates. And he usually only goes to friendly venues (well, except for all that time in various courts). It looks really bad to skip it. But skipping it may look better than what would happen if he appears. Remember the saying: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt (Abraham Lincoln). Nancy Mace thinks Kevin McCarthy is trying to take her down M.L. Nestel Raw Story Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is convinced former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has it out for her. And she thinks it's based on settling a score for her being part of what he's dubbed the "Crazy Eight" — lawmakers who unceremoniously bucked him from his prestigious perch. Late last year, the House of Representatives (including Mace) passed a motion to vacate, with Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz spearheading the effort. If the campaign is getting so much money, why not spend it on venues? Also, photos. Hal Sparks: 3k max capacity at Sunset Park in Vegas - the entire area behind the press was empty- Trump said 20k showed up - people started leaving 5 minutes into the speech. Steady stream for the exits. x 3k max capacity at Sunset Park in Vegas - the entire area behind the press was empty- Trump said 20k showed up - people started leaving 5 minutes into the speech. Steady stream for the exits. pic.twitter.com/5SXsCi6sHK — Hal Sparks (@HalSparks) June 10, 2024 Again, in this speech, tRump was asking for votes, an indication he is behind in the polls. 🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚 Inflation is down! Simon Rosenberg: Inflation was zero in May. Groceries only up 1% over the past year, the prices of many items are failing. The spate of positive economic news in recent weeks has been remarkable. US economy is so strong, the "envy of the world." x Inflation was zero in May. Groceries only up 1% over the past year, the prices of many items are failing. The spate of positive economic news in recent weeks has been remarkable. US economy is so strong, the "envy of the world." https://t.co/KqZxpNAXOZ — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) June 12, 2024 Crime numbers WAY DOWN White House Briefing Rooms Violent crime is dropping at record levels in America. It’s good news for our families and our communities. Today, the FBI released preliminary data collected from over 11,000 law enforcement agencies around the country showing that, in the first quarter of this year, murders decreased by 26%, robberies by almost 18%, and violent crime overall by 15%. These large decreases follow major reductions in crime in nearly every category in 2023 – including one of the lowest rates for all violent crime in 50 years and significant declines in murder. This progress we’re seeing is no accident. My Administration is putting more cops on the beat, holding violent criminals accountable, and getting illegal guns off the street – and we are doing it in partnership with communities. As a result, Americans are safer today than when I took office. After we saw the largest increase in murders ever recorded during the previous Administration, my Administration got to work protecting the American people. My America Rescue Plan – which every Republican voted against – delivered $15 billion to cities to hire and retain more cops and keep communities safe. I took on the gun lobby and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, the most significant gun violence legislation in nearly 30 years. But there is more to do. I will continue fighting for funding for 100,000 additional police officers, and crime prevention and community violence intervention programs. Every American deserves to feel safe in their community – which is why I will continue to invest in public safety. 💜 Unity? 💜 G7 agrees to unlock 50 billion of the interest on frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine Le Monde (AFP) Group of Seven leaders have agreed to provide Ukraine with $50 billion via the use of frozen Russian assets by the end of the year, the French presidency said on Wednesday, June 12. "We have an agreement," a presidency official said, ahead of a G7 summit in Italy on Thursday that will focus on backing Kyiv's fight against Russia's invasion. G7 leaders had aimed to agree on a deal on using the profits from the interest on $325 billion of frozen Russian central bank assets to help Kyiv, using the profits as collateral for a loan of up to $50 billion. More support for Ukraine! x BREAKING: USA and Ukraine sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement. The U.S. will help: - Build Ukraine’s defence capability - Expand intelligence sharing - Enhance interoperability - Bolster Ukraine’s defense industrial base and more 🇺🇸🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/VLbZmgo8lC — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 13, 2024 Ukraine and Japan! x HUGE: Japan and Ukraine just signed a 10-year security pact. The agreement includes an initial provision of 4.5$ billion to Ukraine for defense assistance, humanitarian aid, and other cooperation. Very strong message to both China and Russia on Japan's commitment to democracy. pic.twitter.com/N5MI53cPOg — Kareem Rifai 🌐 (@KareemRifai) June 13, 2024 Bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously chooses Democrat as chair for two years Scott Bauer, Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The same Democrat who led the Wisconsin Elections Commission during the contested 2020 presidential election will be back in the helm in the swing state this year after being unanimously elected Monday by the bipartisan panel. Ann Jacobs was the only commission member nominated to serve as chair, reprising the role she had from 2020 to 2022. The unanimous vote included one from a Republican commissioner who attempted to cast Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Donald Trump in 2020 even though he lost the state. Hunter Biden’s family unites to support him Pilar Menendez The Daily Beast Hunter Biden has spent the last week in a Delaware federal courtroom listening closely as prosecutors reveal salacious details of his long struggle with drug abuse. And his family has been right there with him. First lady Jill Biden has attended almost daily, usually seated next to her stepson’s wife, Melissa, and surrounded by several family members and close friends eager to show their support. On Monday, at least 25 people made up Biden’s courtroom fan club—squeezing into three rows in the gallery and spilling into a fourth. 📥 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. 👀 Does anyone know anything about this? I think the idea is cool: x Love this billboard. Kinda surprised it got approved. But it did. It’s going up in a Cuban American dense part of South Florida. Help us fund it. They’re gonna love it. https://t.co/tLqBQPTE3X pic.twitter.com/cVyFp00sGb — Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) June 12, 2024 Efforts to protect Ozone layer a huge global success Cristen Hemingway Jaynes EcoWatch An international team of scientists say efforts to protect the ozone layer have been a “huge global success,” with damaging atmospheric gases declining more quickly than expected. According to the new study, the total amount of chlorine — which depletes the ozone — in all hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) peaked in 2021, five years earlier than the most recent predictions. “This has been a huge global success. We’re seeing that things are going in the right direction,” said Dr. Luke Western, lead author of the study and a Marie Curie Research Fellow at University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, as The Guardian reported. The reduction in HCFCs is largely due to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which introduced controls on the usage and production of ozone-depleting substances. HCFCs were once common in the manufacturing of hundreds of products, from refrigerators and packaging to aerosol sprays and foams. 🐍 Schadenfreude 😈 RW outlets promoting drinking raw milk during bird flu outbreak Justin Horowitz Media Matters Right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA is promoting drinking raw, unpasteurized milk to its followers during a bird flu outbreak among dairy cows. Drinking raw milk has always been risky, but a recent H5N1 bird flu outbreak now makes it even more dangerous. The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control have both warned against consuming the product, with a recent FDA post warning that raw milk “can pose serious health risks to you and your family” and has germs in it that can “seriously injure the health of anyone who drinks raw milk or eats products made from raw milk.” Additionally, cats on dairy farms have died after drinking raw milk from bird flu-infected cows. We really do try to prevent them from killing themselves, but they insist on doing it! The grand-nephew of Clarence Thomas is in trouble: Clarence Thomas who took care of his nephew from the age of six while Harlan Crowe paid for his tuition now sees his nephew facing serious criminal charges.This nephew is now facing decades in prison on drugs and weapons charges and of course Clarence who claimed he raised him as his own no longer has contact with him.I guess all the money from Crowe did nothing to turn him away from criminal activity. I’m sure Clarence’s own personal ethics influenced his nephew. x Clarence Thomas who took care of his nephew from the age of six while Harlan Crowe paid for his tuition now sees his nephew facing serious criminal charges. This nephew is now facing decades in prison on drugs and weapons charges and of course Clarence who claimed he raised him… — Prez (@PrezLives2022) June 12, 2024 Radek Sikorksi: Gazprom is now a loss-making corporation, which means Russia’s business model is collapsing. Putin is sending messages through intermediaries suggesting he wants to freeze the conflict. His original war aim - conquering the whole Ukraine - is no longer attainable. We must stay the course to attain a just peace. x Gazprom is now a loss-making corporation, which means 🇷🇺 business model is collapsing. Putin is sending messages through intermediaries suggesting he wants to freeze the conflict. His original war aim - conquering the whole Ukraine - is no longer attainable. We must stay the… pic.twitter.com/UK7SDknDtn — Radek Sikorski (@radeksikorski) June 11, 2024 Ruble likewise in decline: x BREAKING: Exchange rate for the ruble drop from 90 per dollar to 120-200. The new US sanctions were announced after close of business in Russia yesterday so it’s first now that the effects will really come into play. Russians are lining up in front of banks to withdraw money pic.twitter.com/Olnj57JCCZ — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 13, 2024 Maybe they’ll have less money to bribe our politicians. 📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️ This week we’re honoring ProPublica. They have been in this section before, but their great investigative reporting on SCOTUS merits a second appearance. We’re not the only one to notice! In May, they got their 7th Pulitzer Prize. From their website: ProPublica won the prestigious public service Pulitzer Prize for what the judges described as “groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct.” The prize is given to the staff of a news organization that performed “meritorious public service.” It is the seventh Pulitzer Prize for ProPublica. ✂️ The series began a national conversation about ethics and judicial reform of the Supreme Court. In response to ProPublica’s reporting, the court announced in November that it had unanimously adopted the first ethics code in its 234-year history. Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time acknowledged that he should have reported selling real estate to billionaire Harlan Crow in 2014, writing in his annual financial disclosure form that he “inadvertently failed to realize” that the deal needed to be disclosed. Thomas also disclosed receiving three private jet trips from Crow, two of which ProPublica had already reported. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to authorize subpoenas of Crow and conservative legal activist Leonard Leo as part of its ongoing effort to investigate ethics lapses by justices. Thanks again, ProPublica, and please continue. And they are: x Donald Trump’s campaign and the Trump Organization paid off nine witnesses called to testify in criminal cases against Trump, an explosive new report from ProPublica reveals. https://t.co/8GNV7wS4bV — The New Republic (@newrepublic) June 14, 2024 🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ Strangers help fund a woman with IVF — now she has a little girl Good News Network A woman who was facing only a 15 percent chance of conceiving a baby naturally was finally able to give birth to a child–after strangers donated $13,000 for her to undergo IVF. Gem Baker had always dreamed of being a mom, but she never met the right man with which to start a family. 📎 Odds & Ends 📎 🐘 Elephants call each other by name Cristen Hemingway Jaynes EcoWatch Elephants are some of the most intelligent, compassionate and social creatures on Earth, forming tight-knit family groups, social networks and an extended “clan structure,” the members of which not only care for each other, but, as new research shows, call each other by name. A new study by researchers from Save the Elephants — a conservation and research organization based in Kenya — ElephantVoices and Colorado State University (CSU) has found that when wild African elephants are called by their names, they answer back. They also address one another with name-like calls — a rarity among nonhuman animals. Insulin without needles! x Breaking Good News: Canadian Researchers have found a way to replace insulin injections with oral drops, eliminating the need for needles. The oral insulin drops are placed under the tongue are quickly and efficiently absorbed by the body. Full story on the Goodable App. pic.twitter.com/m5MYXv4RPz — Goodable (@Goodable) June 7, 2024 🐦 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. 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