Friday Lift: What Our Media Ignored This Week
With the events that unfolded yesterday, what better time than now to have a recap of some of the more upbeat news stories largely neglected by our media? With little to no fanfare, here are some positive stories that show us the world isn't as scary and dysfunctional a place as our media makes it out to be.
Story #1 - Kamala's Kick-Ass Southeast Asian Tour
Unless you've been following the #Khive Twitter team, you've probably not heard much, if anything, about Vice-President Harris' first trip to Southeast Asia. As readers of this blog know, it was thanks to the twin scourge of Republicans and the "progressive" left that derailed President Barack Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would have elevated American involvement in the fastest-growing region in the world. Even though the TPP was enacted in February of 2016, it became a hot-button political issue with both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton eventually expressing concern over the legislation. With the election of xenophobic Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the TPP in early 2017 and the remaining 11 countries formed their own version of the pact, thereby ceding American influence in the region to China. With the U.S. on the outside looking in, this was a critical stop by the new Vice-President to reassert American influence and to reset the severed relationships set in motion by the Trump Administration.
Despite an American media more than happy to harp on every one of the Vice-President's "missteps", the truth is that Madam Vice-President knocked this tour out of the park, which was honestly to be expected. Vice-President Harris began her tour in Malaysia and worked to secure agreements there on cyber security, climate, and COVID-19 preparedness and vaccinations. She then went out to Vietnam, becoming the first sitting Vice-President to ever visit the country. While there, she gave a stiff rebuke of China, paid tribute to John McCain, and announced the imminent arrival of 1 million additional vaccines from the United States. Continuing her impressive string of engaging world leaders and advancing American interests abroad, Vice-President Harris showed once again that she belongs on the world stage and why she is such a huge threat to both Republicans and the far-left in this country. And she did so, naturally, with no media recognition of her successes, a consistent theme we have seen and will continue to see throughout the duration of her time as Vice-President.
Story #2: mRNA Vaccines Being Studied to Combat HIV and Malaria
From the science interwebs, a fascinating look at the implications of mRNA research from our friends at Moderna and BioNTech. Using the same research associated with their COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna has delved into studying the impact that mRNA can have on HIV. Starting in mid-September, Moderna will be conducting an 18-month study looking at the impact a potential mRNA vaccine could have on humans with HIV. This comes on the heels of BioNTech announcing last month that they were studying the impact that an mRNA vaccine might have on malaria, a disease that kills roughly 400,000 people worldwide per year. These clinical trials aren't expected to begin before the end of 2022 but they also offer a hopeful outlook on a disease that much like HIV has plagued our globe for far too long. Within the next 5 years, we may very well be adding both HIV and malaria to a list of eradicated diseases and it will all be thanks to the amazing scientists and their revolutionary mRNA work that grew out of the work they did to create the COVID-19 vaccines.
Story #3: Stacey Abrams and Black Women Helped Register 95% of All Georgians
Last and certainly not least comes news from Georgia that got lost over all the hullabaloo with Afghanistan last weekend. Thanks to both stellar on-the-ground organizing as well as new automatic voter registration laws, the state of Georgia announced last weekend that it now has 95% of all citizens registered to vote, a remarkable feat for a state whose governor and Republican leadership has consistently worked to make it more difficult to vote. While Black leaders like Stacey Abrams and LaTosha Brown can and should deserve credit for their efforts (let's give Abrams the Nobel Peace Prize already) it should also be noted that nearly 2/3 of all new voter registrations were a result of a 2016 Georiga law that automatically registered new voters when the registered their automobiles, allowing for an easy and seamless way for both younger voters and new residents to register to vote. What we've come to learn is that nonvoters that become voters in states like Georgia can stem the tide of both statewide and national elections and this is why the GOP is so committed to voter suppression. It is essential that we have not just on-the-ground committed leaders but also that we have Secretaries of State that believe in election integrity. If you don't currently have a Secretary of State who supports voting rights and access to the polls, now would be a great time to begin to rally opposition to this person and to identify a strong candidate to challenge them prior to the 2022 midterm elections.
Breathe, friends. There is a lot of good going on in this world. You just have to look a bit harder to find it.