Good Day, Gnusies! Today is a good day to remember that the only way we are going to get on the solid path to a better future is by working our way through the current challenges. Yes, there are lots of them and yes they are really big problems (a climate crisis, a threatened fascist coup AND a pandemic? COME ON!!). But, with our support, Joe Biden and the Democrats are equal to the task.
Thanks to Maru for reminding me of this song from long ago when I had little children. Enjoy a little giggle and a bracing reminder that although we are faced with all kinds of obstacles as we try to confront this monster (fascism) — can’t go over it, can’t go under it, can’t go around it — we will use our ingenuity (and bravery) and go straight through it!
News from Congress
Bi-Partisan support for Infrastructure
Lawmakers: Ida damage shows need for infrastructure upgrades, Matthew Daly and Hope Yen, Yahoo News, September 6, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shaken by haunting images of surging rivers, flooded roads and subways and other damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, lawmakers from both parties are vowing to upgrade the nation's aging infrastructure network. ✂️
Schumer and other lawmakers said the catastrophe is the latest example of why the nation needs the nearly trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed by the Senate last month. He and other Democrats also are calling for passage of President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion, partisan rebuilding plan aimed at helping families and combating climate change.
“It’s so imperative to pass the two bills," Schumer said. ✂️
Biden made a pitch Friday for the bipartisan bill, saying it “is going to change things on our streets across the country." He cited the bill's “historic investment" in roads, rail and bridges, as well as clean energy, clean water and universal broadband. ✂️
The bill would be the first to devote money for “climate resilience,” including $17 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to address backlogs in federal flood control projects.
Nancy Pelosi is really Good at her job
Of course it is going to be hard as hell to get the Infrastructure Bills passed, but I like our chances with Nancy Pelosi in charge — not wasting words, shepherding her causes, masterful and resolute.
Pelosi rejects Manchin's call for a 'pause,' shows little willingness to pare back $3.5 trillion bill, Manu Raju and Clare Foran, CNN, September 7, 2021.
"Obviously, I don't agree," Pelosi told CNN when asked about Manchin's
highly publicized demand for Congress to hit the brakes on fulfilling a bulk of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda this month.
"The number is the number, $3.5 (trillion), we can't go above that," Pelosi said. Asked about the likelihood she will have to go below that level, Pelosi responded, "Why?" ✂️
Pelosi downplayed the disagreements, and argued the bill would be "transformative" for women in the workplace.
"I'm pretty excited about where we are," Pelosi said. "Everybody's working very hard. The committees are doing their work. We're on a good timetable, and I feel very exhilarated by it."
January 6 committee is making MAGA nervous
Kevin McCarthy Really Doesn’t Want the January 6 Committee to See Those Phone Records, Daniel Strauss, The New Republic, September 7, 2021.
You can almost see the thought balloon:
”I’m f*cked”
The committee is seeking the phone call records of individuals, including some GOP House members, who are suspected of abetting the insurrection. Republicans, seemingly nervous about what the committee might unearth, are threatening retaliation against the companies if they take the majority in 2023.
And at the vanguard of those threats has been House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has cited conservative Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission to push back on the committee’s demand to preserve call records for about a dozen people in connection to the mob attack. The committee has specifically asked for McCarthy’s own records to be preserved as part of its investigation. ✂️
“The Select Committee has asked companies not to destroy records that may provide answers to the American people about what happened on January 6th and in the runup to that day. Subsequent requests for production of this material will comply with applicable legal requirements,” the aide said. “The Select Committee is mindful of the privacy interests of all of those involved in the investigation, which is reflected in our desire to maintain the confidentiality of the specific individuals identified in the preservation requests. Numerous outside legal experts have weighed in saying that Mr. McCarthy’s claim is baseless. His own explanation is that Congress can only obtain records if there’s a legislative purpose, which is in fact explicitly stated in the Select Committee’s mandate in House Resolution 503.”
Justice
It’s not just that Alabama is working on fixing its constitution after a 2-1 voter mandate to do so, it’s that the bipartisan panel is an example that there are counter-narratives to the anti-CRT stories that are getting all the MSM coverage:
Panel hones in on racist sections in Alabama Constitution, Mike Cason, Alabama.com, September 2, 2021.
Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, who sponsored the constitutional amendment starting the process and who chairs the recompilation committee, said the recompilation project is important.
“One hundred percent there’s value in what we’re doing, because that constitution sets up who we are as a state,” Coleman said. “It sends a message out about who we are. It is important for us to let folks know we are a 21st century Alabama, that we’re not the same Alabama of 1901 that didn’t want Black and white folks to get married, that didn’t think that Black and white children should go to school together. ✂️
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, a recompilation committee member, said it’s important that the constitution does not stand at odds with how Alabama is today.
“I think words matter,” Garrett said. “And I think we need to just clean the constitution up, make it a document that is relevant today. We have a history that we’re trying to address. And we’re trying to move from the past to the future. And I think this is an obstacle in many ways.
“I think it’s important that as a state with our history that we acknowledge where we want to go. And where we want to go is not where we’ve been necessarily.”
people powered economic justice
An excerpt is not going to do justice to this inspiring and informative article. I encourage you to click the link and read the whole thing:
Be Your Own Boss: More Co-op Businesses Are Returning Workers’ Power, Alissa Quart, Mother Jones, Sept-Oct 2021.
If someone in Selma, Alabama, mentions the Local Cooperative, they’re really talking about two food-related co-ops that sustain each other: the Local Farm Cooperative and the Local Restaurant Cooperative. Both were established in 2018, two years after community members set a goal of building local solidarity. All members of the Local Farm Cooperative are on their way to becoming worker-owners, and many, like Alfonza Greer, have personal roots in Alabama agriculture. “I think I can grow as good as any farm could grow if I had the land to work with,” says Greer, a third-generation farmer. “I like the peace and quiet. I like to watch plants grow.” ✂️
Opportunity Threads, a worker-owned cut- and-sew factory in Western North Carolina, specializes in customizing patterns and producing small runs of products. The mill belongs to the Industrial Commons, a larger network of worker co-ops launched in 2015 with the goal of building a “new southern working class that erases the inequities of generational poverty and builds an economy and future for all.” Employees are voted in as worker-owners after a 12–18 month vetting process. Most of the mill’s staff descend from Mayans who immigrated to the region from civil-war-ravaged Guatemala. ✂️
All day, 28-year-old Kegan White completes detailed tasks like fabrication and de-rusting as a technician at this cooperative auto service center in Norwich, Vermont. For his labor, White makes a competitive $23 an hour and receives dental and vision benefits, which he says are practically unheard of in the auto-repair industry.
The Norwich Service Station and its sister outlet, the Hanover Service Station in New Hampshire, are part of a large local cooperative that also includes three grocery stores and a community market and employs roughly 400 people.
Joe Biden is Pro-Union, and workers are getting bolder
This is another long article that cannot be adequately appreciated in an excerpt. I’ll try:
Labor’s Improved but Uncertain Prospects, Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, September 6 , 2021.
In terms of how workers are doing in the actual economy, the evidence is temporarily and fitfully hopeful. The refusal of millions of workers to return to the shit jobs that our economy has generated, even in the face of lingering high unemployment, has compelled even many of the most callous employers to raise wages and improve working conditions, to keep former, current, or prospective employees from jumping to better gigs. Last Thursday, even Walmart raised its hourly minimum to $12 and announced additional increases for hundreds of thousands of other employees. It’s notable that wages saw few if any such significant increases during the last years of the pre-COVID recovery, despite unemployment being lower than it is today. It’s only now, when workers themselves have concluded that they have some power to redirect their lives and ask for more, that wages have taken this jump.
In a nation where workers had a right to join unions that their government actually enforced, a concomitant surge in union membership would build on this dynamic. And in industries where workers can’t be easily replaced, the past year has seen just that, with a host of previously non-union media outlets, think tanks, and nonprofits recognizing the decisions of their employees to go union. Such industries, of course, encompass just a sliver of the overall workforce. In industries that employ tens of millions of largely low-wage workers, the ability of management to cow their workers into rejecting unionization remains intact, as Amazon’s victory over unionization efforts at its Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse made depressingly clear.
By the metric of government changing course to actually help American workers in their struggles for decent living standards, the three branches of federal government are charting radically different courses. Together, the Biden administration and the Democratic Congress seem bent on moving the nation in a more social democratic direction, though how far will depend on how much of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package they can persuade their most conservative members to support.
and joe’s american families plan will do a lot more
We don’t worry about - for example - military spending “paying for itself” (and it never does), but this will actually pay for itself in the long run, with better outcomes for human beings!
3.3 million people could be lifted out of poverty with a proposal in Democrats' $3.5 trillion social spending bill, Ayelet Sheffey, Business Insider, September 7, 2021.
The Urban Institute, a left-leaning nonprofit, released a report on Monday that found Democrats' proposal to boost the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program would lift 3.3 million people out of poverty and cut the poverty rate of SSI recipients by more than half.
To put that spending in perspective, US GDP in 2020 was $20.9 trillion, while the Treasury Department estimated the tax gap — the difference between what's owed to the Internal Revenue Service and what's collected — was $600 billion in 2019. If left unaddressed, Treasury says that gap could rise to $7 trillion over the next decade. There's money to pay for lifting people out of poverty, in other words, and the question is whether a fraction of $3.5 trillion is worth it. ✂️
According to the Urban Institute, these four measures in Brown's bill would significantly reduce poverty:
- Increase the SSI benefits for unmarried people to 100% of the federal poverty level, or $1,073 in 2021;
- Increase the SSI benefits for married couples who both qualify to 200% of the federal poverty level, or $2,146 in 2021;
- Increase the non-wage income exclusion from $20 a month to $128 a month in 2021;
- And eliminate the policy that considers recipients who live in someone else's home to be receiving "in-kind support," which would lower their benefit by a third.
Mexico leading the way on Gender parity
American women can look south for inspiration and encouragement as we face yet another setback in securing equal rights. With a Women’s March planned for October 2, I hope we will draw strength from what women in Mexico are achieving:
Mexico’s bold break with machismo: Congress is now half female and gender parity is the law, Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post, September 7, 2021.
HERMOSILLO, Mexico — When Claudia Pavlovich ran for governor of Sonora, a vast swath of cowboy country south of Arizona, not a single Mexican state was led by a woman. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation’s mayors were female. And the hot issue of that 2015 campaign wasn’t Pavlovich’s political platform. It was her lack of wrinkles.
“Yes, I’ve used Botox,” the veteran politician declared to a news conference, addressing the swarm of memes about her looks. Turning the tables on her opponents, she created a winning slogan in this corruption-plagued state. “Using Botox isn’t a crime,” she told voters. “Stealing money is.”
As Pavlovich finishes her term this month, Mexico is celebrating an unlikely success. In the six years since that misogyny-plagued campaign, the number of female candidates for state and federal offices has soared. A country steeped in machismo is emerging as one of the world’s leaders in gender parity — and far outpacing the United States.
♀ Justice in Reproductive Health News ♀
We could follow the lead of Ireland (!) and Mexico (!!), two majority Catholic countries who have thrown off the stranglehold of the church over the state in order to decriminalize abortion and establish human rights for their female citizens:
Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country, Mary Beth Sheridan and Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul, Washington Post, September 7, 2021.
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s supreme court voted unanimously on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations and a move that contrasts sharply with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas.
The vote comes as a powerful women’s movement is transforming Mexico, where female politicians now make up half of Congress. While abortion remains illegal in most of Latin America, there has been a surge in demonstrations demanding more rights for women, particularly focused on rising violence.
“This will not only have an impact in Mexico; it will set the agenda for the entire Latin American region,” said Melissa Ayala, coordinator of litigation for the Mexican feminist organization GIRE. She called the ruling “a historic moment for feminists and activists” who have pressed for women’s rights for years in Mexico’s state legislatures, health ministries and law schools.
Brief respite from the madness
It probably won’t last (there’s always another web host), but it is good news that these malevolent actors are having a hard time setting up their harassment site:
Texas abortion ‘whistleblower’ website forced offline, Kari Paul, The Guardian, September 7, 2021.
Troubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms.
The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups.
“For all intents and purposes it is offline,” Ronald Guilmette, a web infrastructure expert, told the Guardian. “They are having technical difficulties. My personal speculation is that they are going to have trouble keeping it online moving forward.”
Correcting disinformation
I hope lots of people (and hopefully MSM) will practice Truth Brigade techniques and get out the truth about this malicious manipulation of language and sciencey-sounding language to mold false public perceptions:
The Texas Abortion Ban Hinges On 'Fetal Heartbeat.' Doctors Call That Misleading, Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR, September 3, 2021.
"When I use a stethoscope to listen to an [adult] patient's heart, the sound that I'm hearing is caused by the opening and closing of the cardiac valves," says Dr. Nisha Verma, an OB-GYN who specializes in abortion care and works at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The sound generated by an ultrasound in very early pregnancy is quite different, she says.
This is not a “baby” with a “heartbeat”.
It is a human embryo.
"At six weeks of gestation, those valves don't exist," she explains. "The flickering that we're seeing on the ultrasound that early in the development of the pregnancy is actually electrical activity, and the sound that you 'hear' is actually manufactured by the ultrasound machine."
That's why "the term 'fetal heartbeat' is pretty misleading," says Dr. Jennifer Kerns, an OB-GYN and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
"What we're really detecting is a grouping of cells that are initiating some electrical activity," she explains. "In no way is this detecting a functional cardiovascular system or a functional heart.
Here’s a Novel first amendment approach
The Satanists are right: Texas' abortion ban is a direct attack on freedom of religion, Amanda Marcotte, Salon, September 7, 2021.
But this move by the Satanic Temple serves a higher purpose than trolling forced-birth advocates like Crenshaw. The Satanists are highlighting an issue that often gets lost in the debate over reproductive rights: The anti-choice movement is just one part of a larger effort by Christian fundamentalists to covertly turn the U.S. into a more theocratic state. ✂️
Abortion rights are often marginalized as a "woman's issue" in American political discourse. That's offensive in itself, as women are more than half the population and access to reproductive health care affects the lives of everyone, not just women. But truly, this Texas abortion ban goes beyond even these material questions about health care access. It cuts right to the heart of the struggle defining our era, between a secular, pro-democracy majority and an authoritarian minority who wants to force its racist, theocratic view of America on the rest of us.
The Satanists get it. No amount of right-wing lying about "science" will change the fact that this abortion ban is a direct attack on freedom of religion.
Another approach
Argue that women should have at least as much right over their bodies as corpses do. No, really — dead people have more bodily autonomy than pregnant people do.
Women’s March Approach
Opinion: To stop abortion opponents, the only solution is mass mobilization, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, September 7, 2021.
Because Republicans have chipped away at reproductive rights so gradually, it’s easy to underestimate this moment’s severity. As the Nation’s Elie Mystal put it, “I feel like people are waiting for the headline ‘Roe v. Wade Overturned’ … before they demand that Democrats do something to protect abortion rights.” To protect millions whose rights are already jeopardized, we cannot wait for that moment to act.
It’s time for those who care about preserving reproductive rights to reinvigorate the grass-roots mobilization of 2017, when masses of pink-hatted protesters filled cities nationwide. Immediately, we can lend assistance to vulnerable patients being turned away at clinic doors now that S.B. 8 is law — remembering that while safe abortion care remains a plane ride away for the affluent, poor and otherwise marginalized people won’t get necessary care without support.
Then, on Oct. 2 — two days before the Supreme Court reconvenes — 90 organizations, including Planned Parenthood, will convene another Women’s March in support of reproductive rights. Through demonstrations like this, we can show the justices that any attempt to further infringe upon these rights will be met with extreme resistance. And we can begin the push for the permanent changes we need to prevent this situation from happening again — reforming and expanding the court; voting for pro-choice candidates at the local, state and national levels; and passing the Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine the right to safe abortion care as the irrefutable law of the land. President Biden has promised support for such a law, but it won’t happen without pressure.
💉 Other Good Health News 💉
Great news for people who got Covid AND the Vaccine
New Studies Find Evidence Of 'Superhuman' Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals, Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR, September 7, 2021.
Over the past several months, a series of studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their bodies produce very high levels of antibodies, but they also make antibodies with great flexibility — likely capable of fighting off the coronavirus variants circulating in the world but also likely effective against variants that may emerge in the future. ✂️
In a study published online last month, Bieniasz and his colleagues found antibodies in these individuals that can strongly neutralize the six variants of concern tested, including delta and beta, as well as several other viruses related to SARS-CoV-2, including one in bats, two in pangolins and the one that caused the first coronavirus pandemic, SARS-CoV-1. ✂️
"This is being a bit more speculative, but I would also suspect that they would have some degree of protection against the SARS-like viruses that have yet to infect humans," Bieniasz says.
So who is capable of mounting this "superhuman" or "hybrid" immune response?
People who have had a "hybrid" exposure to the virus. Specifically, they were infected with the coronavirus in 2020 and then immunized with mRNA vaccines this year. "Those people have amazing responses to the vaccine," says virologist Theodora Hatziioannou at Rockefeller University, who also helped lead several of the studies. "I think they are in the best position to fight the virus. The antibodies in these people's blood can even neutralize SARS-CoV-1, the first coronavirus, which emerged 20 years ago. That virus is very, very different from SARS-CoV-2."
Also, here is a good link to information on how to ease back into fitness if you have had Covid-19: The Best Workouts To Do If You Had COVID-19, Colleen Travers, HuffPost, September 7, 2021.
New York’s new Guv Hits Ground Running
Ivermectin — Is it Useful or Not?
Great explanation from the lady who explains things on TRMS:
Meanwhile, from the Schadenfreude File
This Assh*le
Nazi Richard Spencer is being shunned in his Montana hometown. Ordinary Americans are saying No to hate, even in so-called “red” states:
How a Small Town Silenced a Neo-Nazi Hate Campaign, Elizabeth Williamson, New York Times, September 5, 2021.
Leaders in Whitefish say Mr. Spencer, who once ran his National Policy Institute from his mother’s $3 million summer house here, is now an outcast in this resort town in the Rocky Mountains, unable to get a table at many of its restaurants. His organization has dissolved. Meanwhile, his wife has divorced him, and he is facing trial next month in Charlottesville, Va., over his role in the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march there, but says he cannot afford a lawyer.
The turn of events is no accident. Whitefish, a mostly liberal, affluent community nestled in a county that voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020, rose up and struck back. Residents who joined with state officials, human rights groups and synagogues say their bipartisan counteroffensive could hold lessons for others in an era of disinformation and intimidation, and in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The best way to respond to hate and cyberterrorism in your community is through solidarity,” said Rabbi Francine Green Roston of the Glacier Jewish Community/B’nai Shalom, who now lectures other groups on how to ward off hate campaigns like the one Whitefish endured. “Another big principle is to take threats seriously, and prepare for the worst.”
Mayor John Muhlfeld agreed. “You have to act swiftly and decisively and come together as a community to tackle hate and make sure it doesn’t infiltrate your town,” he said.
and these assh*les
And this Assh*le, too
Oops, and these Assh*les as well
Kudos to Principal Vargo who kept her cool and is now going to press charges:
Cops Charge Zip-Tie Guys Who Ambushed School Principal Over COVID Rules, Justin Rohrlich, Daily Beast, September 7, 2021.
All three members of an Arizona trio who barged into an elementary school principal’s office with zip ties and threatened to place her under citizens’ arrestfor following public health guidelines have instead been arrested themselves, the Tucson Police Department confirmed.
“58-year-old Frank Tainatongo was cited and released for misdemeanor trespassing yesterday,” Tucson PD spokesman Sgt. Richard Gradillas told The Daily Beast. “He would be the third person cited and released related to this incident.” ✂️
Vargo asked the three to leave the premises. When they stayed put, she walked out and called the cops.
The men took off before officers arrived. Rambaran was arrested a few hours later. Walker and Tainatongo were both arrested and released on Monday. Vargo later said she and her assistant would both seek restraining orders against all three, in addition to pressing charges. ✂️
Walker and Rambaran are due in court on Sept. 15. Tainatongo’s next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 20.
Extra Assh*le
More evidence that these people are part of an international conspiracy:
Ex-Trump Aide Jason Miller Detained in Brazil for ‘Anti-Democratic Acts’, Justin Rohlrich, Daily Beast, September 7. 2021.
Former Trump adviser and child support deadbeat Jason Miller was detained Tuesday morning at Brasília International Airport as he prepared to board a private plane back to the U.S. after appearing at Brazil’s version of CPAC. According to Brazilian media, officials intercepted Miller by order of Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes before he could leave the country, and questioned him for allegedly participating in “anti-democratic acts” while there. Matthew Tyrmand, a 38-year-old Polish-American who sits on the board of far-right activist group Project Veritas and whose writing has appeared on Breitbart, was part of Miller’s traveling party. He said Miller was being interrogated by “anti-Bolsonaristas” on Brazil’s Supreme Court. ✂️
In a statement, Miller claimed he and his companions were detained and questioned for three hours, but that they “had nothing to say.” Miller is the founder of Gettr, a social media platform created to provide Trump a platform after he was booted from Twitter and Facebook. Nearly 14 percent of Gettr’s users are in Brazil.
Sidenote on all these Magassh*les
There’s a lot of concern about a rally in Washington that people fear will be a repeat of January 6 violence. Those concerns are understandable and maybe this story will help to allay some of them: Proud Boys' main Telegram account warns against going to rally in support of MAGA rioters: 'You're an idiot if you go', Sky Palma, Raw Story, September 7, 2021.
According to reports, the Proud Boys and the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers are planning to show up at a rally in support of those jailed for participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But as The Washingtonian points out, a post on the Proud Boys' main Telegram account is warning its members that attending the rally is a bad idea.
"If you rally in DC right now, you're an idiot and you're going to get people thrown in jail or worse," one post reads.
"We aren't going and you shouldn't either because errbody (sic) going to jail. Sounds like bait," the group said, later adding that the event is a "guaranteed disaster." ✂️
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's Michael Edison Hayden, it's "too early to say exactly whether they will mount something on that date but it's certainly possible that there's too much heat on them to get such a thing off the ground."
🎶 Music for a Better World 🎶
🌱 Environmental News 🌱
Many thanks to Andrew Cockburn for posting this in yesterday’s GNR comments. I will excerpt but do go and read it. This global medical community is not mincing words:
Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health, Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, et al, New England Journal of Medicine (and others), September 5, 2021.
The United Nations General Assembly in September 2021 will bring countries together at a critical time for marshalling collective action to tackle the global environmental crisis. They will meet again at the biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, and at the climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Ahead of these pivotal meetings, we — the editors of health journals worldwide — call for urgent action to keep average global temperature increases below 1.5° C, halt the destruction of nature, and protect health.
Planet Earth (DK library)
Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades.1 The science is unequivocal: a global increase of 1.5° C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.2,3Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.
Reflecting the severity of the moment, this editorial appears in health journals across the world. We are united in recognizing that only fundamental and equitable changes to societies will reverse our current trajectory. ✂️
Cooperation Hinges on Wealthy Nations Doing More
In particular, countries that have disproportionately created the environmental crisis must do more to support low- and middle-income countries to build cleaner, healthier, and more resilient societies. High-income countries must meet and go beyond their outstanding commitment to provide $100 billion a year, making up for any shortfall in 2020 and increasing contributions to and beyond 2025. Funding must be equally split between mitigation and adaptation, including improving the resilience of health systems.
Financing should be through grants rather than loans, building local capabilities and truly empowering communities, and should come alongside forgiving large debts, which constrain the agency of so many low-income countries. Additional funding must be marshalled to compensate for inevitable loss and damage caused by the consequences of the environmental crisis.
As health professionals, we must do all we can to aid the transition to a sustainable, fairer, resilient, and healthier world. Alongside acting to reduce the harm from the environmental crisis, we should proactively contribute to global prevention of further damage and to action on the root causes of the crisis. We must hold global leaders to account and continue to educate others about the health risks of the crisis. We must join in the work to achieve environmentally sustainable health systems before 2040, recognizing that this will mean changing clinical practice. Health institutions have already divested more than $42 billion of assets from fossil fuels; others should join them.4
Dalhousie grad develops artificial reefs that could help save Nova Scotia's ocean ecosystems, Cassidy Chisholm, CBC, September 4, 2021.
Higgins said most concrete used in this [underwater/human] construction is held together with toxic binding agents that can damage local ecosystems and "burn the scales right off of the fish, which is a horrifying revelation."
Fish swim around Oceanite reef. (photo: Melanie Meijer)
"What we do is we use nano-encapsulation techniques to bind natural geological materials and minerals together, rather than using these toxic binders," she said.
"It's a completely novel way of thinking about underwater construction while still being able to hit the engineering specifications of infrastructure projects like harbours, like jetties."
Higgins said the materials for the Oceanite are sourced from each location and are later shaped into large rectangular slabs that stack on top of one another on the ocean floor.
The artificial reefs replace the previously damaged ecosystems and create a safe environment for marine species to thrive.
Way, Way Out in the (outer space) environment
I think this article’s title is a leeetle bit of an overreach, but this story is still really cool!
This Very Weird ‘Accidental’ Star Could Help Reveal the Secrets of the Cosmos, David Axe, Daily Beast, September 7, 2021.
The Milky Way galaxy just got a lot weirder. More to the point, our understanding of how weird the galaxy is got a lot better.
It’s possible the Milky Way is positively teeming with a startling number of dead stars, some of which might be nearly as old as the galaxy itself.
We have an amateur stargazer to thank for the discovery. Dan Caselden was playing the video game Counter-Strike late one night back in 2018 when a custom software program he’d created for analyzing data from a NASA star survey found something odd.
A huge cold object in space, moving fast 50 light-years from Earth. “The system enthusiastically pointed me to a place in the sky that had absolutely nothing interesting there at all,” Caselden told The Daily Beast. “But in the bottom left corner, there was a faint object just screaming across the screen.”
Because he’d found the object without really trying, Caselden named it… The Accident.
🐩 🐾 CGs Picks 🐾 🐩
We can’t let Pressley, Rosy, Rascal and Nora do all the heavy lifting in our pets’ favorites department! Curlygirl is prancing up to do her share! 🐩
How river otters are making a comeback on P.E.I. after 100 years, Nicola MacLeod, CBC, September 5, 2021.
The species is native to P.E.I., but was thought to have died out in the early 1900s due to a loss of habitat, poaching and trapping.
But since 2016, provincial wildlife biologist Garry Gregory says there have been reports of credible sightings.
"We may have a re-establishing river otter population that, you know, is resident to Prince Edward Island once again," Gregory said.
An otter (from DK library)
"This re-establishment appears to be of their own volition. There's been no deliberate reintroduction effort." ✂️
"In Kensington, some of their observations on the trail camera monitoring program suggest a family group. It appears to be an adult female, perhaps with young of the year. That's an encouraging sign that there is potentially successful reproduction occurring in the province," Gregory said. ✂️
Gregory said the best thing for Islanders to do if they see an otter is to report the sighting, so the province can better distribute resources and enact a management plan for the species.
Though he's never before observed native re-establishment in his career as a biologist, Gregory said it is not unheard of.
Lonely baby dolphin stranded in Louisiana pond by Hurricane Ida is rescued, video shows, Bailey Aldritch, Idaho Statesman, September 6, 2021.
A young dolphin trapped in a Louisiana retention pond since Hurricane Ida was released back to the ocean this week.
Dolphins (DK library)
The Slidell Police Department posted a video compilation of the Sunday morning rescue at the Schneider Canal, which it said took a “massive group effort” led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The rescue involved getting the dolphin out of the pond and to a research organization to be examined before being released.✂️
The IMMS said the juvenile dolphin got separated from its pod during Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29. It then got pushed into the retention pond by rising waters caused by Ida on Aug. 30, the institute said. ✂️
“IMMS will be tracking the dolphin’s location through the satellite transmissions,” the organization said. “Thanks to everyone for their support and concerns!”
🎶 Music 🎶
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ No Wonkette today, but here, have a fun poll! America’s Worst Right-Wingers: A TNR Readers’ Poll, The New Republic staff, August 25, 2021.
⚡️ Pandemic (or any time) mental health: What an enormous global study can tell us about feeling better during the pandemic, Brian Resnick, Vox, September 6, 2021.
⚡️ An exciting idea for indoor air: The Plan to Stop Every Respiratory Virus at Once, Sarah Zhang, the Atlantic, September 7, 2021.
⚡️ Smart, nuanced analysis: What the Sturgis rally shows us about the delta variant, Ashish K Jha, Washington Post, September 7, 2021.
⚡️The classic essay on unintended pregnancy: Men Cause 100% of Unwanted Pregnancies, Gabrielle Blair,Human Parts, September 24, 2018.
⚡️ Another classic truth-teller: I don't think abortion is murder, and neither do you, Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2018.
⚡️Works without the “Southern” TBH: Southern Republicans Cannot Be Trusted With Public Health, Margaret Renkl, New York Times, September 6, 2021.
⚡️Fall 2021 election strategy: The Trump Suburban Squirm, Edward-Isaac Dovere, the Atlantic, September 7, 2021.
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
Put your beautiful bleeding liberal heart into it! 🥰
Democratic litigation hero, Marc Elias was the legal eagle behind the 60 Big Lie losses after the election. Here’s his website, Democracy Docket. You can find information about current cases he is fighting to defend voting rights around the country, as well as actions you can take to help fight voter suppression at the link!
Write to voters around the country with Postcards to Voters. Progressive Muse usually posts an update on current campaigns in the comments and you can also check out the website. It’s easy, fun and it really works to GOTV!
🎩 Also, Goody posted a great list of links and I am going to borrow it because it’s great! 🎩
The only way they can win is by keeping people from voting. They are working like heck to make that happen and we need to do all we can to keep 2022 from being a year when they grab the Senate and House back from us.
How do we do that? Fight voter suppression!
What can you do?
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS:
U.S. House of Representatives:* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Find your member of Congress and contact him or her:
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
And remember, all politics is local and personal! Let’s work to flip state and local elected positions Democratic!
Sister District Project — organization that is working to help Dems win state legislature races.
Finally, whenever you feel your hope fading, read this again:
The 3.5% rule: How a small minority can change the world — and recall that we are a majority.
Also check this out:
The Albert Einstein Institution’s 198 Methods of Non-Violent Action
There’s a multitude of people all over this country — in both so-called “red” states and “blue” — who feel just as strongly as you do about this world and its future. We can do this!
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from Nifty manor for another Wednesday. Curlygirl has put herself to bed and it’s time for me to get some shuteye, too.
Curlygirl near Lake Michigan
Speaking of that, please get some rest. Sure, the work of keeping a republic is vital and ongoing — but it’s always been that way. History has never recorded a single era when humankind has been free of strife, even existential strife, so we are made for this work. We are in a peak of stressors for sure, and in the ebb and flow of the struggle for a better world throughout human history this may be one of those inflection points upon which history turns. It’s daunting and also exciting. What a time of potential and transformation!
So, you need your rest. Eat nutritious food and do your best to spend some time outdoors in nature every day if you are able. Try to remind yourself that although these are anxious times, this is actually a norm for human experience and we can and will survive it and even thrive as we tackle the problems and make gains in solving them. We know what needs to be done, and enough of us are determined to do it. It won’t be easy, but we just bested an international effort to thwart our presidential election, an attempted coup and are on our way to getting through a pandemic. We are tough. We are smart. We are strong, together, working toward a more just and loving world.
I like our chances, Gnusies!
Have a Happy Wednesday!