The GOOD NEWS Thread

Kätzchen · 01-23-2021, 01:16 PM

Three cheers for President Biden axing the toxic roles of TP-crony's who infiltrated and domineered free-radio and other media networks across the globe.

____________________________

More heads roll at US-funded international broadcasters

by Matthew Lee

WASHINGTON (AP) — The heads of three federally funded international broadcasters were abruptly fired late Friday as the Biden administration completed a house-cleaning of Donald Trump-appointees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Two officials familiar with the changes said the acting chief of the USAGM summarily dismissed the directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks just a month after they had been named to the posts.

The changes came a day after the director of the Voice of America and his deputy were removed and the chief of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting stepped down. The firings follow the forced resignation of former President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice to lead USAGM only two hours after Joe Biden took office on Wednesday.

Trump’s USAGM chief Michael Pack had been accused by Democrats and others of trying to turn VOA and its sister networks into pro-Trump propaganda machines. Pack had appointed all of those who were fired on Thursday and Friday to their posts only in December.

The two officials said the acting CEO of USAGM, Kelu Chao, had fired Middle East Broadcasting Network director Victoria Coates, Radio Free Asia chief Stephen Yates and Radio Free Europe head Ted Lipien in a swift series of moves late Friday. It was not immediately clear if any of those removed would try to contest their dismissals.

The White House appointed Chao, a three-decade VOA veteran journalist, to be the agency’s interim chief executive on Wednesday shortly after demanding Pack’s resignation. Chao did not respond to phone calls seeking comment about her actions. The two officials familiar with the dismissals were not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Coates, Yates and Lipien, along with former VOA director Robert Reilly and former Cuba broadcasting chief Jeffrey Shapiro were all prominent conservatives chosen by Pack to shake up what Trump and other Republicans believed was biased leadership in taxpayer-funded media outlets.

Reilly and his deputy Elizabeth Robbins were removed just a week after coming under harsh criticism for demoting a VOA White House correspondent who had tried to ask former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a question after a town hall event.

Pack had created a furor when he took over USAGM last year and fired the boards of all the outlets under his control along with the leadership of the individual broadcast networks. The actions were criticized as threatening the broadcasters’ prized editorial independence and raised fears that Pack, a conservative filmmaker and former associate of Trump’s onetime political strategist Steve Bannon, intended to turn venerable U.S. media outlets into pro-Trump propaganda machines.

Biden had been expected to make major changes to the agency’s structure and management, and Pack’s immediate dismissal on inauguration day signaled that those would be coming sooner rather than later. Pack had not been required to submit his resignation as his three-year position was created by Congress and not limited by the length of a particular administration.

VOA was founded during World War II and its congressional charter requires it to present independent news and information to international audiences.

(AP article link)

easygoingfemme · 01-24-2021, 09:57 AM

I got my first COVID vaccine shot yesterday!

Had to drive about an hour and a half to get to a place that had supply but Daddy drove and it was pretty. It was at a university and they were very organized with many volunteers and Army there to help guide, inform, and clean. Small 5 minute wait to get to the first screening, two minute wait for the second screening, 1 minute wait to do paperwork, one more screening, then they scheduled my 2nd shot before giving me my vax. I was observed a little extra long just because of the cancer treatments I've gone through and the meds I take now for the cancer but I felt fine. First 24 hours I can say my arm is a little sore and I was wicked tired. I'm low energy today but feel okay. No fever or anything. One down, one to go!

~ocean · 01-24-2021, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by easygoingfemme

I got my first COVID vaccine shot yesterday!

Had to drive about an hour and a half to get to a place that had supply but Daddy drove and it was pretty. It was at a university and they were very organized with many volunteers and Army there to help guide, inform, and clean. Small 5 minute wait to get to the first screening, two minute wait for the second screening, 1 minute wait to do paperwork, one more screening, then they scheduled my 2nd shot before giving me my vax. I was observed a little extra long just because of the cancer treatments I've gone through and the meds I take now for the cancer but I felt fine. First 24 hours I can say my arm is a little sore and I was wicked tired. I'm low energy today but feel okay. No fever or anything. One down, one to go!

whewww good for you !! and good luck w/ the second shot ~

GeorgiaMa'am · 01-24-2021, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kätzchen

by Matthew Lee
. . .
VOA was founded during World War II and its congressional charter requires it to present independent news and information to international audiences.

Thanks for this article. I looked for a podcast for VOA, but wasn't able to find an English-language one. However, I discovered that VOA does have streaming apps available in the Google Play store. I assume iPhone has something similar.

GeorgiaMa'am · 01-25-2021, 11:28 AM

Champ and Major, the Biden's German Shepherds, moved into the White House over the weekend. Champ was a gift from Jill Biden to Joe Biden after Mr. Biden won the Vice-Presidency in 2008. Major was adopted in 2018, and is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.

The dogs are already popular. They have had a best-selling book written about them: _Champ and Major: First Dogs_ by Joy McCullough and Sheyda Abvabi Best is the #1 Best Seller in Children's Dog Books on Amazon. They also reportedly have a Twitter account, but a search of Twitter revealed so many possible accounts, it's difficult to tell which is the "official" one.

homoe · 01-25-2021, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

Champ and Major, the Biden's German Shepherds, moved into the White House over the weekend. Champ was a gift from Jill Biden to Joe Biden after Mr. Biden won the Vice-Presidency in 2008. Major was adopted in 2018, and is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.

The dogs are already popular. They have had a best-selling book written about them: _Champ and Major: First Dogs_ by Joy McCullough and Sheyda Abvabi Best is the #1 Best Seller in Children's Dog Books on Amazon. They also reportedly have a Twitter account, but a search of Twitter revealed so many possible accounts, it's difficult to tell which is the "official" one.

I can picture Major on the motivational tour circuit...

"Sure you think your life has no meaning, you may have even given up on life and are drinking out of toilet bowls, but you can be anything or go anywhere you want!

Look at me, I started out at a shelter and now I'm a main character in a book, I'm on Twitter, plus I'm prancing about the most famous house in America!

GeorgiaMa'am · 01-25-2021, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

Champ and Major, the Biden's German Shepherds, moved into the White House over the weekend. Champ was a gift from Jill Biden to Joe Biden after Mr. Biden won the Vice-Presidency in 2008. Major was adopted in 2018, and is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.

The dogs are already popular. They have had a best-selling book written about them: _Champ and Major: First Dogs_ by Joy McCullough and Sheyda Abvabi Best is the #1 Best Seller in Children's Dog Books on Amazon. They also reportedly have a Twitter account, but a search of Twitter revealed so many possible accounts, it's difficult to tell which is the "official" one.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Gemme · 01-25-2021, 09:34 PM

Joe is on a roll. President Biden lifted the ban on transgender troops in the military today! Now our brothers and sisters in arms can serve a POTUS that has their backs.

homoe · 05-29-2021, 08:55 AM

Fox News and Donna Brazile have quietly parted ways after she spent more than two years with the network as an on-air political analyst, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman confirmed Friday.

“When my contract expired, they offered me an additional 2-4 years,” Brazile told The Daily Beast in a text message. “But I decided to return to ABC.”

Brazile went on to add that over the past two years, Fox News had allowed her to make multiple appearances on ABC News’ Sunday news show This Week, adding that “all is good” between her and Fox.

The liberal pundit recently made her debut as an ABC contributor on this past Sunday’s broadcast of This Week.

The longtime Democratic strategist raised eyebrows in March 2019 when she announced she had signed with the decidedly right-leaning outlet, largely due to the fact that Fox News opinion commentators had previously made her a bogeywoman for her controversial tenure at CNN.

01-25-2021, 11:28 AM	#5
GeorgiaMa'am Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: High Femme Ma'am Preferred Pronoun?: Ma'am Relationship Status: widowed - involved, poly Join Date: May 2010 Location: Georgia Posts: 6,459 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 39,716 Thanked 28,528 Times in 5,828 Posts Rep Power: 21474858	First Pets Move into the White House Champ and Major, the Biden's German Shepherds, moved into the White House over the weekend. Champ was a gift from Jill Biden to Joe Biden after Mr. Biden won the Vice-Presidency in 2008. Major was adopted in 2018, and is the first shelter dog to live in the White House. The dogs are already popular. They have had a best-selling book written about them: _Champ and Major: First Dogs_ by Joy McCullough and Sheyda Abvabi Best is the #1 Best Seller in Children's Dog Books on Amazon. They also reportedly have a Twitter account, but a search of Twitter revealed so many possible accounts, it's difficult to tell which is the "official" one. __________________ -GeorgiaMa'am It's true that you are blessed and lucky It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you. -10,000 Maniacs

01-25-2021, 09:34 PM	#8
Gemme Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Queer Stone Femme Girl of the Unicorn Variety Preferred Pronoun?: She, as in 'She's a GEM' Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: The roads are narrow here Posts: 36,631 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 182,498 Thanked 107,925 Times in 25,666 Posts Rep Power: 21474887	Joe is on a roll. President Biden lifted the ban on transgender troops in the military today! Now our brothers and sisters in arms can serve a POTUS that has their backs. __________________ Gemme's Journal I'm misunderestimated.

01-23-2021, 01:16 PM	#1
Kätzchen Member How Do You Identify?: As a very feminine woman. Relationship Status: Unavailable. Join Date: May 2010 Location: Near smoke signals in the sky. Posts: 16,191 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 29,460 Thanked 33,606 Times in 10,705 Posts Rep Power: 21474868	Team Biden cleans up toxic alliances among Media News Outlets Three cheers for President Biden axing the toxic roles of TP-crony's who infiltrated and domineered free-radio and other media networks across the globe. ____________________________ More heads roll at US-funded international broadcasters by Matthew Lee WASHINGTON (AP) — The heads of three federally funded international broadcasters were abruptly fired late Friday as the Biden administration completed a house-cleaning of Donald Trump-appointees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Two officials familiar with the changes said the acting chief of the USAGM summarily dismissed the directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks just a month after they had been named to the posts. The changes came a day after the director of the Voice of America and his deputy were removed and the chief of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting stepped down. The firings follow the forced resignation of former President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice to lead USAGM only two hours after Joe Biden took office on Wednesday. Trump’s USAGM chief Michael Pack had been accused by Democrats and others of trying to turn VOA and its sister networks into pro-Trump propaganda machines. Pack had appointed all of those who were fired on Thursday and Friday to their posts only in December. The two officials said the acting CEO of USAGM, Kelu Chao, had fired Middle East Broadcasting Network director Victoria Coates, Radio Free Asia chief Stephen Yates and Radio Free Europe head Ted Lipien in a swift series of moves late Friday. It was not immediately clear if any of those removed would try to contest their dismissals. The White House appointed Chao, a three-decade VOA veteran journalist, to be the agency’s interim chief executive on Wednesday shortly after demanding Pack’s resignation. Chao did not respond to phone calls seeking comment about her actions. The two officials familiar with the dismissals were not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. Coates, Yates and Lipien, along with former VOA director Robert Reilly and former Cuba broadcasting chief Jeffrey Shapiro were all prominent conservatives chosen by Pack to shake up what Trump and other Republicans believed was biased leadership in taxpayer-funded media outlets. Reilly and his deputy Elizabeth Robbins were removed just a week after coming under harsh criticism for demoting a VOA White House correspondent who had tried to ask former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a question after a town hall event. Pack had created a furor when he took over USAGM last year and fired the boards of all the outlets under his control along with the leadership of the individual broadcast networks. The actions were criticized as threatening the broadcasters’ prized editorial independence and raised fears that Pack, a conservative filmmaker and former associate of Trump’s onetime political strategist Steve Bannon, intended to turn venerable U.S. media outlets into pro-Trump propaganda machines. Biden had been expected to make major changes to the agency’s structure and management, and Pack’s immediate dismissal on inauguration day signaled that those would be coming sooner rather than later. Pack had not been required to submit his resignation as his three-year position was created by Congress and not limited by the length of a particular administration. VOA was founded during World War II and its congressional charter requires it to present independent news and information to international audiences. (AP article link) __________________ “The way someone treats you is not a reflection of your worth: It’s a reflection of their emotional capacity,” — Jillian Turecki. “The smartest people are clearly the best listeners,” — Audible. I’m doing my part, as an American citizen, who is concerned about losing our Democracy: I boycott agencies and businesses and service providers who do not support the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Support Democracy: Vote Blue

01-24-2021, 09:57 AM	#2
easygoingfemme Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Lil' Miss Sassy Pants Preferred Pronoun?: She/her Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: My place by the river Posts: 3,692 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 7,023 Thanked 14,972 Times in 3,318 Posts Rep Power: 21474853	I got my first COVID vaccine shot yesterday! Had to drive about an hour and a half to get to a place that had supply but Daddy drove and it was pretty. It was at a university and they were very organized with many volunteers and Army there to help guide, inform, and clean. Small 5 minute wait to get to the first screening, two minute wait for the second screening, 1 minute wait to do paperwork, one more screening, then they scheduled my 2nd shot before giving me my vax. I was observed a little extra long just because of the cancer treatments I've gone through and the meds I take now for the cancer but I felt fine. First 24 hours I can say my arm is a little sore and I was wicked tired. I'm low energy today but feel okay. No fever or anything. One down, one to go!

05-29-2021, 08:55 AM	#9
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,548 Times in 14,914 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Fox News and Donna Brazile have quietly parted ways after she spent more than two years with the network as an on-air political analyst, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman confirmed Friday. “When my contract expired, they offered me an additional 2-4 years,” Brazile told The Daily Beast in a text message. “But I decided to return to ABC.” Brazile went on to add that over the past two years, Fox News had allowed her to make multiple appearances on ABC News’ Sunday news show This Week, adding that “all is good” between her and Fox. The liberal pundit recently made her debut as an ABC contributor on this past Sunday’s broadcast of This Week. The longtime Democratic strategist raised eyebrows in March 2019 when she announced she had signed with the decidedly right-leaning outlet, largely due to the fact that Fox News opinion commentators had previously made her a bogeywoman for her controversial tenure at CNN.