It was a really really really (really really really) bad week for tfg. I’ll get to that (and more). But I am in a poetry mood, so I hope you are ok with some poetry today interspersed with many reasons to celebrate and be hopeful from this week’s news.
You, If No One Else
TRANSLATED BY JAMES HOGGARD
Listen, you
who transformed your anguish
into healthy awareness,
put your voice
where your memory is.
You who swallowed
the afternoon dust,
defend everything you understand
with words.
You, if no one else,
will condemn with your tongue
the erosion each disappointment brings.
.
You, who saw the images
of disgust growing,
will understand how time
devours the destitute;
you, who gave yourself
your own commandments,
know better than anyone
why you turned your back
on your town's toughest limits.
.
Don't hush,
don't throw away
the most persistent truth,
as our hard-headed brethren
sometimes do.
Remember well
what your life was like: cloudiness,
and slick mud
after a drizzle;
flimsy windows the wind
kept rattling
in winter, and that
unheated slab dwelling
where coldness crawled
up in your clothes.
.
Tell how you were able to come
to this point, to unbar
History's doors
to see your early years,
your people, the others.
Name the way
rebellion's calm spirit has served you,
and how you came
to unlearn the lessons
of that teacher,
your land's omnipotent defiler.
.
Remember how,
from the first emptiness,
you started saving yourself,
and ask yourself what,
.
after all,
.
these words are good for
in this round hour now
where your voice strikes time.
Biden and the Democrats are doing great things
Biden is Handling the Russia situation amazingly well
President Joe Biden addressed the nation to update us on the threat of Russia’s launching another invasion of Ukraine. He emphasized that we and our allies stand behind Ukraine and pledge to continue diplomatic efforts to prevent a war, and yet will deliver “massive costs on Russia should it choose further conflict.” He urged Russia “to de-escalate and return to the negotiating table.”
.
Political scientist and journalist David Rothkopf tweeted that Biden is speaking as the leader of the free world. “It has been a long time since a U.S. president filled that role. His remarks were concise and pointed...and underscored Western resolve. But the headline: He is convinced [that] Putin has decided… to invade.”
.
Indeed, that was the big takeaway from the speech: Biden said that intelligence sources think Putin has made his decision. Biden said: “we have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week—in the coming days. We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”
.
Former director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chris Krebs pointed out that the advances the United States intelligence community has made in the last few years in counteractive measures have enabled the U.S. to head off plans “before they’re set in motion.” U.S. officials are alerting Putin to the fact there are leaks in his team, putting his plans at risk. This can cause strife and perhaps make leaders rethink their policies. As Krebs tweeted, it “[p]uts some sand in their gears, creates mistrust, and can slow down planning and operations…. The deliberate approach by western gov[ernmen]ts to anticipate Russian disinfo[rmation] & get in front of it is a positive evolution.”
.
We do not know where the next several days will lead, of course, but it is notable that the solidarity of the countries allied against authoritarianism, strengthened by U.S. diplomacy, is holding strong.
White House Takes Aim at Environmental Racism
this is really smart. The SC is not going to let anything stand that is race-based because they are awful. This is a way to tackle these disparities without calling it racial.
Worried that using race to identify and help disadvantaged communities could trigger legal challenges that would stymie their efforts, administration officials said they were designing a system to help communities of color even without defining them as such.
“We are trying to set up a framework and a tool that will survive, and one that still connects to what the on-the-ground impacts are that people are experiencing,” said Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the White House Council of Environmental Quality, which is designing the system. “I feel that we can do that based on race-neutral criteria.”
To step away from race, the Biden administration intends to identify towns and neighborhoods that need environmental help based on dozens of data points like household income, unemployment rates, air pollution levels and proximity to Superfund sites, incinerators and other hazards. Just not racial or ethnic demographics.
Biden will allow California to set climate limits on cars. The move could influence the rest of the country.
The Biden administration is expected to restore California’s authority to set its own limits on climate-warming emissions from cars, pickups and SUVs.
Long an environmental leader among states, California often sets precedent that the rest of the country follows. But when it came to combating climate change, the Trump administration hamstrung the Golden State by stripping it of the right to set its own rules around carbon pollution for the thousands of cars cramming the state’s freeways.
U.S. will ‘surge’ vaccine support to 11 African countries
The Biden administration will “surge” more than $250 million in coronavirus vaccine assistance to 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including several where the omicron variant was first identified, as it ramps up efforts to help vaccinate the world, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post and confirmed by global health officials.
Jan. 6 panel seeks phone records of security official employed by Alex Jones
The Jan. 6 select committee has issued a subpoena for the phone records of a security guard for pro-Trump broadcaster Alex Jones, a sign of the panel’s deepening interest in Jones’ contacts related to his involvement in Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, which preceded the violent attack on the Capitol.
Department of Education approves debt relief for students misled by colleges
The Biden administration will erase $415 million of student debt for almost 16,000 borrowers who were misled by their colleges, the Department of Education announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: These borrower defense discharges are the first to go to students who attended a university that is still operating, per the press release.
- "This is an important step because to date, all other discharges have come after institutions closed," James Kvaal, the undersecretary of education, said on a call with reporters Wednesday afternoon.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
.
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Progress in Canada
I have a friend who lives in Ottawa and the heartbreaking stories he has told about living in a city being occupied by the far right have kept me up at night. So an end in sight to this is great news
Police begin arrests, escalate efforts to end Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’
Police on Thursday evening arrested two key organizers of the self-styled “Freedom Convoy,” which has brought Canada’s capital to a standstill, and ramped up efforts Friday morning to disperse the illegal demonstrations and arrest holdouts, even as authorities continued to push for a peaceful resolution to the spiraling crisis.
Police said some protesters were “surrendering” and “being arrested” during a Friday morning operation as law enforcement began enforcing bans on demonstrating in the downtown core.
“I implore anyone that’s there: Get in your truck and we will navigate safe passage for you to leave our city streets,” Ottawa interim police chief Steve Bell said at a news conference Thursday.
Canadian truck drivers distance themselves from ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests
In just a matter of weeks, Canadian truck drivers protesting coronavirus vaccine mandates became the unexpected darlings of the global right wing.
But even as the vocal group of truckers, known as the “Freedom Convoy,” grabbed the world’s attention, many of Canada’s truck drivers were scrambling to distance themselves from the movement, which they view as radical and fringe.
“There is a vocal minority, which is trying to steal the headlines, but a silent majority has actually been working day and night,” said Manan Gupta, publisher of Road Today, a Canadian magazine for South Asian truckers. About a third of Canada’s roughly 180,000 tractor-trailer drivers are immigrants, according to the most recent survey, in 2016.
two of my favorite Canadians. This guy:
and these folks:
It is essential that Summer be grafted to
bones marrow earth clouds blood the
eyes of our ancestors.
It is essential to smell the beginning
words where Washington, Madison, Hamilton,
Adams, Jefferson assembled amid cries of:
"The people lack of information"
"We grow more and more skeptical"
"This Constitution is a triple-headed monster"
"Blacks are property"
It is essential to remember how cold the sun
how warm the snow snapping
around the ragged feet of soldiers and slaves.
It is essential to string the sky
with the saliva of Slavs and
Germans and Anglos and French
and Italians and Scandinavians,
and Spaniards and Mexicans and Poles
and Africans and Native Americans.
It is essential that we always repeat:
we the people,
we the people,
we the people.
2.
"Let us go into the fields" one
brother told the other brother. And
the sound of exact death
raising tombs across the centuries.
Across the oceans. Across the land.
3.
It is essential that we finally understand:
this is the time for the creative
human being
the human being who decides
to talk upright in a human
fashion in order to save this
earth from extinction.
This is the time for the creative
Man. Woman. Who must decide
that She. He. Can live in peace.
Racial and sexual justice on
this earth.
This is the time for you and me.
African American. Whites. Latinos.
Gays. Asians. Jews. Native
Americans. Lesbians. Muslims.
All of us must finally bury
the elitism of race superiority
the elitism of sexual superiority
the elitism of economic superiority
the elitism of religious superiority.
So we welcome you on the celebration
of 218 years Philadelphia. America.
So we salute you and say:
Come, come, come, move out into this world
nourish your lives with a
spirituality that allows us to respect
each other's birth.
come, come, come, nourish the world where
every 3 days 120,000 children die
of starvation or the effects of starvation;
come, come, come, nourish the world
where we will no longer hear the
screams and cries of womens, girls,
and children in Bosnia, El Salvador,
Rwanda...AhAhAhAh AHAHAHHHHHH
Ma-ma. Dada. Mamacita. Baba.
Mama. Papa. Momma. Poppi.
The soldiers are marching in the streets
near the hospitals but the nurses say
we are safe and the soldiers are
laughing marching firing calling
out to us i don't want to die i
am only 9 yrs old, i am only 10 yrs old
i am only 11 yrs old and i cannot
get out of the bed because they have cut
off one of my legs and i hear the soldiers
coming toward our rooms and i hear
the screams and the children are
running out of the room i can't get out
of the bed i don't want to die Don't
let me die Rwanda. America. United
Nations. Don't let me die..............
And if we nourish ourselves, our communities
our countries and say
no more hiroshima
no more auschwitz
no more wounded knee
no more middle passage
no more slavery
no more Bosnia
no more Rwanda
No more intoxicating ideas of
racial superiority
as we walk toward abundance
we will never forget
the earth
the sea
the children
the people
For we the people will always be arriving
a ceremony of thunder
waking up the earth
opening our eyes to human
monuments.
And it'll get better
it'll get better
if we the people work, organize, resist,
come together for peace, racial, social
and sexual justice
it'll get better
it'll get better.
Trump is circling the drain
Trump’s luck may finally be running out
It has often been tempting, but never a safe wager, to predict the demise of Donald Trump.
But maybe, just maybe, this time will be different.
That evidence includes a letter that may turn out to be, as a practical matter, the biggest blow Trump has ever suffered, even bigger than his six corporate bankruptcies and two presidential impeachments. A blow dealt not by prosecutors, plaintiffs, politicos or the press — but by his own longtime accountants.
As the judge noted, and as revealed in court papers filed on Monday by the attorney general, Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, sent a letter on Feb. 9 to the Trump Organization terminating its relationship with Trump. The letter was astounding in many respects.
Mazars said that 10 years of Trump’s financial statements, from 2011 to 2020, “should no longer be relied upon,” and that Trump should tell that to the people he gave them to.
And then they quit.
Translated from legal-accountingese, the letter was an unmitigated disaster for Trump, far beyond his possibly having to file late returns. By saying the statements “should no longer be relied upon,” the accountants effectively announced, You misled us. By “totality of the circumstances,” they likely meant, The prosecutors investigating you, and the case they’re making, are serious.
Trump’s legal woes deepen and could bring new political trouble
He might say he’s the master of the art of the deal. But Donald Trump’s real superpower is his talent for wriggling out of accountability after sailing close to the law and normal rules of politics, business and life in a way that would have destroyed most public figures long ago.
However, after he bounced back following a lifetime of business bankruptcies, scandals and impeachments, it might soon be time to consider whether the ex-President’s flair for impunity is starting to fail him after a string of legal defeats tightened a net of scrutiny around him.
National Archives confirms classified material was in boxes at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence
The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed in a letter Friday that it found items marked classified in boxes of White House records that former president Donald Trump took with him to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
The Washington Post reported last week that some of the Mar-a-Lago documents were marked as classified, including some at the “top secret” level — a revelation that seemed likely to intensify the legal pressure that Trump or his staffers could face.
Ferriero’s letter, though, provides the first official confirmation of classified material being in the boxes, and it is likely to reignite calls that the Justice Department investigate to see how the information got out of secure facilities, and who might have seen it.
Judge suggests Trump is culpable for January 6 and says lawsuits against the former President can proceed
Civil lawsuits seeking to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6 insurrection can move forward in court, and the ex-President doesn’t have absolute immunity from litigation, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Trump’s statements to his supporters before the attack on the US Capitol “is the essence of civil conspiracy,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a 112-page opinion, because Trump spoke about himself and rally-goers working “towards a common goal” of fighting and walking down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The President’s January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action,” Mehta said.
Democratic members of the House and police officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6 sued Trump, claiming he prompted his supporters to attack. Friday, Mehta wrote that the lawsuits could move to the evidence-gathering phase and toward a trial – a major loss in court for Trump.
“To deny a President immunity from civil damages is no small step. The court well understands the gravity of its decision. But the alleged facts of this case are without precedent,” Mehta wrote.
Trump Must Testify In New York Investigation Into Business Practices, Judge Says
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to comply with subpoenas issued in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Judge rules DC AG can question former Trump Organization CFO in inaugural committee suit
Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg will be questioned by lawyers from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office, which has sued the company and former President Donald Trump’s 2017 Inaugural Committee.
and this asshole: Durham Distances Himself From Furor in Right-Wing Media Over Filing
John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel scrutinizing the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference, distanced himself on Thursday from false reports by right-wing news outlets that a motion he recently filed said Hillary Clinton’s campaign had paid to spy on Trump White House servers
“If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government’s motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government’s inclusion of this information,” he wrote.
America come get your children
Leslé Honoré
.
America come get your children
The ones you are so proud of
The ones wearing Stars and Stripes
Buying guns like candy
The ones dripping with
White privilege
That you created with
Red blood from brown skin
.
America come get your children
Come get your kids
The ones flying flags of defeat
Of history long dead
Of a life they wish they had
Of superiority they believe they have
The lies you whispered in their ears
As you rocked them to sleep
“Look away look away look away Dixie land”
.
America come get your children
The ones terrorizing this country
The ones terrorizing the world
The ones never called a terrorist
.
Come get
Your rapist
Your misogynistic
Your appropriating
Hating
Bigoted
Offspring
You know...
the apples that didn’t fall far from the tree
.
America come get your children
The ones running the country
The ones too cowardly to speak up
The ones that shoot into protests
Churches
Light torches
Run cars into peace
.
Come get your diseased infants
Entitled children in men’s bodies
Jealous girls screaming in women’s voices
.
Come get this disgusting basket of
Deplorables
That you nurtured on
Manifest destiny
The pale pink faces
In utter disbelief
That even though you put your knee
On every Brown and Black neck you saw
.
We have fought back and risen
Casting shadows on your children
And they rage when they learn
That being a white mediocre man
Is no longer enough
America come get your children
Before they burn this stolen land down
And you with it
Other Good News
Democratic group launches super PAC to counter election deniers running for office
The Democratic organization American Bridge 21st Century said it is launching a new multi-million dollar super PAC targeting Republican candidates running for key state and local offices who have denied the results of the 2020 election.
"Our plan is to target extremist Republicans who want to overturn our democracy and expose their dangerous ideas," said Pat Dennis, vice president of research at American Bridge, in a video on Twitter, announcing the campaign.
The new group, called Bridge to Democracy, has already identified the positions in key states "that are most essential to election administration and to election certification in 2024," said Dennis.
Medical breakthrough for those with rheumatoid arthritis
When you have an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, finding the right therapy can often result in more pain. For those with rheumatoid arthritis, finding that therapy is often trial and error that can often lead to disease progression.
But now, a new blood test called PrismRA is changing the game.
A highway paved with recycled diapers may change the cloth vs. disposables debate
No, it doesn’t smell like poop.
We thought it’d be worth preempting the obvious question even before describing how, in what might be a world-first, more than 100,000 dirty, disposable diapers — or “nappies,” as they are called here — are being used to help pave a road in west Wales.
This is a pilot project with intriguing environmental implications. A proliferation of diaper highways could reduce landfill waste
10 feel-good shows and movies that will instantly lift your mood
We’ve reached the point of winter where we can see a glimmer of spring’s impending arrival (it’s no longer pitch black at 5 p.m.!) but it’s still too early to put that puffer coat in storage. If you’re feeling the winter doldrums, we’ve put together a variety of shows, movies and specials to help bring some sunshine in.
Adam Scott Teases the Long-Awaited Return of ‘Party Down’
Returning to the show, Scott says he realized not only how much he missed his co-stars, but also “how great it is to watch these ridiculous, fun, sweet characters back in action.” He adds that showrunner John Enbom “hasn’t missed a beat, and what he’s writing for everyone is just so terrific and funny.”
“So, so far so good!” he continues. “It’s been really, really, really fun.”
From Blossoms
BY LI-YOUNG LEE
.
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
I’m not crying you’re crying!
New this week: a section on heartwarming stories.
Driving to work, a restaurant owner saw a car stopped in the road. She went over — and delivered a baby.
Restaurant owner Stela Borbas was on her way to work in downtown Miami after yoga class when she came across a startling sight.
A car was stopped in the middle of busy South Miami Avenue during morning rush hour, and a distressed couple and their daughter were standing at the side of the road with an older woman. The younger woman’s bare legs were covered in blood.
The woman was in active labor. Her water had broken and she was apparently bleeding because her baby was about to make her entrance into the world, Borbas said.
“The 911 operator told me to take a deep breath,” Borbas said. “She told me, ‘I need you to deliver this baby.’ ”
Borbas is a mother of two children, ages 6 and 4, and had given birth naturally both times, she said.
“So I knew what that was like,” she said. “But deliver a baby? On a street curb? I told the woman helping me on the phone, ‘Wait! I didn’t even sanitize my hands.’ ”
She found her father’s segregated schoolhouse decaying in the Va. woods. Now, it is on the way to being saved.
The dilapidated wooden, one-room schoolhouse is more than a century old, with a torn-up floor, a precarious roof and missing windows.
It is an unexpected treasure Kimberly Morris found in the woods of Virginia’s Caroline County, the result of years of research about her ancestors. Her own father attended the school.
“This is my family’s history,” said Morris, a genealogy hobbyist from Richmond, who is working on a book about her family going back to the early 1800s, when her ancestors were enslaved.
“Here I was, looking at an important piece of my father’s past,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that the school he went to as a little boy was still standing.”
Now, because of her discovery of the 20-by-30-foot wood-framed school, it’s on the way to being preserved.
They weren’t looking for love. But they found each other in the bleakness of a fire evacuation center.
the Caldor Fire tore through her tiny California town, and the 54-year-old mother of four was sent to an evacuation center in late August.
Schlumpf spent several nights at the evacuation center, which was lined with rows of army cots and folding tables. Like other evacuees, she was riddled with anxiety that the blaze would scorch her home and decimate her neighborhood, where she has lived for just over a year.
Another evacuee at the center, Tim Warren, 62, had been a resident of Pollock Pines for eight years. While the small town has a population of less than 7,000, he had never met Schlumpf — who quickly caught his eye.
Warren was worried, too, about the fire and his home, yet his mind began to wander elsewhere. It wasn’t until the third day at the evacuation center that he mustered up the courage to introduce himself to Schlumpf. Once he did, everything changed.
Kindness
Naomi Shihab Nye - 1952-
.
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
On The Lighter Side
What can you do to save democracy?
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
The birthday of the world
BY MARGE PIERCY
.
On the birthday of the world
I begin to contemplate
what I have done and left
undone, but this year
not so much rebuilding
.
of my perennially damaged
psyche, shoring up eroding
friendships, digging out
stumps of old resentments
that refuse to rot on their own.
.
No, this year I want to call
myself to task for what
I have done and not done
for peace. How much have
I dared in opposition?
.
How much have I put
on the line for freedom?
For mine and others?
As these freedoms are pared,
sliced and diced, where
.
have I spoken out? Who
have I tried to move? In
this holy season, I stand
self-convicted of sloth
in a time when lies choke
.
the mind and rhetoric
bends reason to slithering
choking pythons. Here
I stand before the gates
opening, the fire dazzling
.
my eyes, and as I approach
what judges me, I judge
myself. Give me weapons
of minute destruction. Let
my words turn into sparks.
.
I am lucky and proud to be in this with you ✊🏾✊🏻💙💚💛💜🧡✊🏽✊🏻