Good News Roundup for Tuesday, December 20, 2022 — Special holiday edition

Good morning, Gnusies, and a good one it is!! The J6 Committee has made its referrals to the DOJ, and we have strong reason to hope that tfg and his minions will at last be held accountable under the law for their treasonous actions.

I'm leaving it to others to do a deep dive on this most important story of the day. Instead, I'm focusing, as usual, on the eclectic good news I've found on the back pages. And, also as usual, there's a lot of it! So make yourself comfortable in a cozy spot with something warm to drink, and let's share some good news!

Opening music

To get us into a holiday mood, here's a lovely rendition of the Ukrainian song "Shchedryk,' which we know as the Carol of the Bells.

Jan. 6 committee votes in favor of criminal referrals for Trump, others

Of course, the overwhelmingly important news today is the J6 committee's referral of charges yesterday against 'Donald J. Trump and others' for their roles in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. As I mentioned in my intro, I'll leave the analysis and predictions of the fallout from this momentous action to the skilled political writers on DKos and elsewhere. But if you were unable to watch the proceedings, here are a couple of video clips that I found especially powerful.

Although all the committee members and Chair Thompson have done heroic work, Jamie Raskin gets my vote as the most amazing of all of them. It's never far from my mind that the funeral for his 25-year-old son, who killed himself after suffering for years from crippling depression, happened on January 5, 2021, and that Raskin was at the Capitol on January 6 with his daughter and her husband — 'The reason they came with me that Wednesday, January 6th, is they wanted to be together with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family,' he said. I truly can't imagine anyone surviving the twin blows of the sudden loss of a beloved child and experiencing the terror of January 6th in person. But when asked about his feelings, what Raskin said was this: "I'm not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021. It's not going to happen."

Here he is laying out the charges:

Democrats will try to get more than $2 Million from Bankman-Fried

SBF also gave Rs money. Read Report: Prosecutors Contact Dem. GOP Recipients of Money From FTX's Sam Bankman Fried: Report. How likely do you believe the y're to return any of this money?

The Washington Post

Friday's announcement by the three major Democratic campaigns groups indicated that they will set aside more than $2,000,000 from Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced founder and operator of FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and eventually return the money to customers.

These announcements were made by the Democratic National Committee and two groups that help to elect House and Senate Democrats. They came just days after Bankman Fried was arrested in the Bahamas for violating campaign finance and securities laws. The Democrats' decision increases the pressure on a variety of political organizations, many which are yet to decide how they will proceed following the generous contributions of the founder of FTX during the 2022 election cycle.

Biden team plans to dramatically expand digital strategy in 2024

Biden's team has proven to be very adept at using digital platforms to their advantage, much to the surprise of many. It appears that they are planning to increase their presence in order to continue wooing younger voters.

The Washington Post

According to sources, President Biden's political advisors are developing a strategy to help him win his 2024 election. This strategy would significantly increase efforts to organize content sharing between supporters and friends on digital platforms like TikTok or WhatsApp.

The new plans, which build upon lessons from the 2020 campaign, are just one part of an expansive research effort funded by the Democratic National Committee to prepare for Biden's expected campaign launch next year. Top advisers have been testing ways to reactivate volunteers and donors, and they completed a review this summer of the shifts in how voters consumed political information over the last two years. ✂️

...much of the focus of party strategists has been on groups of voters who are increasingly spending time consuming information in private digital environments, mostly through their phones, or on public platforms where paid political advertising is not available, including chat threads and other smaller communities built around nonpolitical interests, like fitness. Democratic strategists have concluded that in many cases, volunteers can have more impact by creating or distributing content to their digital communities than by spending their time on more traditional canvassing operations.

'The idea is not just to meet people where they are, but it's to meet people everywhere they are,' said Jen O'Malley Dillon, a senior Biden adviser, speaking about the shifting media environment. 'And that's complicated and hard. ' ✂️

Biden advisers emphasize that the new techniques will not replace traditional field programs. Investments in door-to-door canvassing, for example, are expected to increase over what past Democratic campaigns did before the coronavirus pandemic.

Meet Biden's woman behind the bipartisan streak of success on Capitol Hill

Terrell sounds a lot like Pelosi — savvy, strategic, and indefatigable.

From CNN:

The Biden administration managed to rack up a long list of major legislative wins in its first two years despite facing one of the most closely-divided Congresses in history. From bipartisan action on infrastructure, gun safety and same-sex marriage to party-line bills tackling climate change and expanding health care coverage, it's a record President Joe Biden and Democrats on the ballot were all eager to tout on the campaign trail during the midterms.

But far from the spotlight is a woman who helped make all that happen: Louisa Terrell.

Terrell, 53 years old, is the White House Office of Legislative Affairs director. He leads a team that acts as the president's eyes and ears in Congress. Terrell stated that he is responsible for ensuring that Congress responds to issues and being proactive in figuring out what's going on inside the building.

She describes her role as a conductor for moving Biden's agenda through Congress.

'You want to be talking to committees, caucuses. Who's talking to leadership? Who ar