The First Thanksgiving: Separating Myth From Fact
Teen Vogue – November 11, 2020 – Ruth Hopkins
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/thanksgiving-myths-facts-mayflower-landing
Unfortunately, like much of U.S. history, the narrative surrounding the landing of the Mayflower, and what happened to the English settlers on board, has been whitewashed, diluted, or just plain fabricated. On the 400th anniversary of that fabled landing at Plymouth Rock, let’s delve into the reality of this famous event by sorting myth from fact… As Wampanoag Nanepashemet said, “We have lived with this land for thousands of generations — fishing in the waters, planting, and harvesting crops, hunting the four-legged and winged beings and giving respect and thanks for each and everything taken for our use. We were originally taught to use many resources, remembering to use them with care, respect, and with a mind towards preserving some for the seven generations of unborn, and not to waste anything.”
Give justice a seat at our tables of gratitude
The Washington Post – November 25, 2020 – E.J. Dionne Jr.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/give-justice-a-seat-at-our-tables-of-gratitude/2020/11/25/6c457634-2f37-11eb-bae0-50bb17126614_story.html
The social disparities that have existed on every Thanksgiving Day are more radical and more visible this year… In his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863 during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln urged citizens to “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it.” In our era, let’s acknowledge the wounds of social injustice. We can express our “appreciation and goodwill” by committing ourselves to healing them… My Brookings Institution colleague Molly Kinder has focused on the situation of these Americans from the beginning of the pandemic. She noted in a report last month that covid-19 “has laid bare the wide gap between the low wages that frontline workers earn and the essential value they bring to society.” She’s right that “it is a moral outrage that low-wage essential workers are risking their lives — and their families’ lives — for wages that do not even provide them the basic dignity of a family-sustaining wage.”
Abolish the electoral college
The Washington Post – November 15, 2020 – Opinion by Editorial Board
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/abolish-the-electoral-college/2020/11/15/c40367d8-2441-11eb-a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html
Mr. Trump’s near miss makes him a viable candidate in 2024. We draw a different lesson: It is alarming that a candidate came so close to winning while polling more than 5 million fewer votes than his opponent nationwide. The electoral college, whatever virtues it may have had for the Founding Fathers, is no longer tenable for American democracy… Americans are not going to be satisfied with leaders who have been rejected by a majority of voters, and they’re right not to be. It’s time to let the majority rule.
The Coup Stage of Donald Trump’s Presidency
The New Yorker – Novcember 20, 2020 – Masha Gesse n
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-coup-stage-of-donald-trumps-presidency
Across a reassuringly wide political spectrum, observers hold that Trump’s refusal to concede the election results is not tantamount to a coup attempt. In the Washington Examiner, Timothy Carney wrote, “Trump is a con man, and his insistence that he can overturn the election is his latest grift.” In The Nation, Jeet Heer argued that, while Trump’s behavior is concerning, “it is very different than a coup. It is more accurately viewed as a cover-up,” adding that Trump is “interested in keeping his con game afloat.” My colleague Susan Glasser posed the question “Is it a coup or a con?” to a dozen of her smartest Washington sources, and they, too, tilted the needle closer to “con.”… But, as is his way, Trump is succeeding even as he fails. His project all along has been to destroy the political order as we have known it… Trump’s bad con continues to show how easy it would be to stage a good one. Then we would call it a coup.
Trump’s plan to burn the civil service to the ground is moving forward at one major agency
The Daily Kos – November 25, 2020 – Laura Clawson
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/25/1998084/-Team-Trump-is-moving-forward-with-a-plan-to-purge-the-government-of-anyone-but-Trump-loyalists
A long list of good government and government ethics organizations sent Congress a letter urging lawmakers to block Trump’s executive order, writing “Our nonpartisan civil service has served as a model for other countries for more than a century. Since the passage of the Pendleton Act of 1883, civil servants have been hired based on their qualifications, and have been protected from removal based on political affiliation. These protections do not exist for the sake of the civil servants themselves, but rather to ensure the government delivers services insulated from undue political influence.” The executive order risks doing concrete damage to the function of government—as Team Trump no doubt intended.
A Scorched Earth Strategy on Iran
The New York Times – November 28, 2020 – Barbara Slavin
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/opinion/iran-nuclear-scientist-killed.html
The assassination of a top nuclear scientist isn’t about stopping a bomb — it’s about preventing diplomacy.
No Car, No Vote: “Emergency” Georgia Registration Roadblock
Greg Palast website – November 25, 2020
https://www.gregpalast.com/no-car-no-vote/
On Monday, Georgia’s Board of Elections issued a directive that allows county election supervisors to block new registrations of voters who do not have a car registered in Georgia. I kid you not. This is a new impediment to low-income, urban voters and students, groups that vote overwhelmingly Democratic, just prior to the January 5 run-off election for Georgia’s two US Senate seats. The Board acted after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger quietly sent out a notice on Sunday afternoon calling for an “emergency” change of rules… Columbia University law professor Barbara Arnwine told us the no-car no-vote “emergency” regulation “is a clear violation of the NVRA,” the National Voter Registration Act. Arnwine, dean of America’s voting rights lawyers and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, said she suspected the state’s change from a “rule” to a “guidance” is to try to get around the NVRA’s prohibition on rule changes within 90 days of an election. However, she said, that’s a trick which fails the smell test. “It’s in substance a change of rules.”
Why Did So Many White People Vote for “Burn It Down” Trumpism?
Counterpunch – November 20, 2020 – Peter Montague
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/20/why-did-so-many-white-people-vote-for-burn-it-down-trumpism/
At last count, more than 73 million people voted to keep Donald Trump in the White House. Of these, just over 58 million, or about 81%, were white, according to a CNN exit poll. To preserve and protect democracy, we all need to understand why so many white people favored Trump. What sustains Trumpism?… When Case and her husband, Angus Deaton, also a Princeton economist, looked at the U.S. county by county they found increases in chronic pain correlated strongly with votes for Trump in 2016.
How do we avoid future authoritarians? Winning back the working class is key
The Guardian – November 24, 2020 – Bernie Sanders
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/bernie-sanders-working-class-win-back-from-donald-trump
For a president who lies all the time, perhaps Donald Trump’s most outlandish lie is that he and his administration are friends of the working class in our country. The truth is that Trump put more billionaires into his administration than any president in history; he appointed vehemently anti-labor members to the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) and he gave huge tax breaks to the very rich and large corporations while proposing massive cuts to education, housing and nutrition programs. Trump has tried to throw up to 32 million people off the healthcare they have and has produced budgets that called for tens of billions in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security. Yet, a certain segment of the working class in our country still believe Donald Trump is on their side. Why is that?… One thing is clear. If the Democratic party wants to avoid losing millions of votes in the future it must stand tall and deliver for the working families of our country who, today, are facing more economic desperation than at any time since the Great Depression. Democrats must show, in word and deed, how fraudulent the Republican party is when it claims to be the party of working families. And, in order to do that, Democrats must have the courage to take on the powerful special interests who have been at war with the working class of this country for decades.
The Government’s Human Cruelty Will Outlive Trump
The New Republic – November 25, 2020 – Laura Weiss
https://newrepublic.com/article/160365/ice-accountability-biden-immigration-justice
The abuses that have occurred over the last few years are anything but normal and, in many cases, have amounted to human rights abuses under international law, planned at the highest level of government. And the thousands of migrants and refugees who have faced irreparable harm, trauma, and death over the past four years as a result of those same policies don’t have the luxury of simply erasing these abuses from memory and moving on… What lies ahead as the major challenge to restorative justice for those immigrants victimized by the Trump administration is simply the fact that the structure of our immigration system, which is in and of itself founded on decades of human rights abuses, is likely to endure.
Inequality ‘baked into’ virus testing access as cases surge
AP News – November 22, 2020 – Christine Fernando and Carolyn Thompson
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-b9539d143bb54cb11e805186a59a5ffd
“People are just trying to get by, and they can’t be taking off work for a week to wait for results,” said Serulneck, who works at a spa. “People need rapid testing to be available and affordable.”… “All of it comes down to economics in the pocketbook at the end of the day,” she said. “It’s not that I can’t purchase the test. But you know, sometimes you don’t have that extra $100 to go out and get a rapid test.”
Rethinking Covid-19 Test Sensitivity — A Strategy for Containment
New England Journal of Medicine – November 26, 2020 – Michael J. Mina, M.D., Ph.D., Roy Parker, Ph.D. and Daniel B. Larremore, Ph.D.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2025631
It’s time to change how we think about the sensitivity of testing for Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the scientific community are currently almost exclusively focused on test sensitivity, a measure of how well an individual assay can detect viral protein or RNA molecules. Critically, this measure neglects the context of how the test is being used. Yet when it comes to the broad screening the United States so desperately needs, context is fundamental. The key question is not how well molecules can be detected in a single sample but how effectively infections can be detected in a population by the repeated use of a given test as part of an overall testing strategy — the sensitivity of the testing regimen.
The Coronavirus Is Airborne Indoors. Why Are We Still Scrubbing Surfaces?
Portside – The New York Times – November 22, 2020 – Mike Ives and Apoorva Mandavilli
https://www.portside.org/2020-11-22/coronavirus-airborne-indoors-why-are-we-still-scrubbing-surfaces
Scientists who initially warned about contaminated surfaces now say that the virus spreads primarily through inhaled droplets, and that there is little to no evidence that deep cleaning mitigates the threat indoors.
Why the New mRNA Vaccines Are a Breakthrough and How They Work
Portside – The Conversation – November 20, 2020 – Sanjay Mishra
https://www.portside.org/2020-11-20/why-new-mrna-vaccines-are-breakthrough-and-how-they-work
By giving the immune system a preview of the most critical part of the virus without causing disease, the vaccine gives the immune system time to design powerful antibodies that can neutralize the real virus.
The Holidays, the Coronavirus, and the Marshmallow Test
The New Yorker – November 23, 2020 – Bill McKibben
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/thanksgiving-the-coronavirus-and-the-marshmallow-test
These holidays are going to be the real marshmallow test for Americans, the chance to find out, at the end of this terrible year, what we’re still made of. The famous Stanford psychology experiment has been an irresistible analogy for pundits ever since the coronavirus crisis began. Paul Krugman, for instance, wrote in the Times, in June, that measures such as imposing social distancing were much like offering a young child a marshmallow, but telling her that if she can refrain from eating it for fifteen minutes she’ll get a second one… Now it’s not having to contemplate a world without Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas: it’s having to contemplate a world without one Thanksgiving and one Hanukkah and one Christmas. Then, all signs indicate that, sometime next winter or spring, a pharmacist will stick a needle in your arm (twice), and things will start slowly returning to normal—and our job is to get through to that singular event.
‘No end in sight’: hunger surges in America amid a spiraling pandemic
The Guardian – November 25, 2020 – Nina Lakhani and Maanvi Singh
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/25/us-hunger-surges-spiraling-pandemic
Overall food insecurity has doubled since last year due to record unemployment and underemployment rates. For families with children, hunger is three times higher than in 2019, according to analysis by Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the non-partisan Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Now, as states across the country contemplate new lockdowns to slow down the rampant spread and record hospitalizations, the unprecedented demand for food aid is on the rise, according to the Guardian’s latest snapshot survey… Mike McDonald, CEO of the Southern Arizona Food Bank said it was imperative to shift away from expensive emergency relief – like food aid – to structural changes like a living wage and affordable healthcare which promote economic, food and housing justice. “We need investment in prevention and social maintenance so people’s lives are better and there’s a real safety net.”
How Biden could push companies further on climate
The Grist – November 13, 2020 – Emily Pontecorvo
https://grist.org/climate/apple-amazon-how-a-biden-administration-could-push-companies-further-on-climate/
While many companies haven’t yet matched their net-zero promises with specific action plans, that could change under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden. With the executive branch and the private sector pulling in the same direction on climate, experts expect progress on corporate pledges to continue… By making climate change a top priority, president-elect Biden is putting an end to that uncertainty and calling for real action… “I really want to see companies with transition plans with clear and specific milestones along the way for 2030, 2035 and 2040, for how they’re going to get there,” Murray said. [Tom Murray advises companies on reducing emissions for the Environmental Defense Fund.]
The technologies helping move agriculture indoors
ISRAEL21c – November 23, 2020 – Abigail Klein Leichman
https://www.israel21c.org/the-technologies-helping-move-agriculture-indoors/
Greenhouses and urban farm factories are expensive to set up but pay off in higher yield, quality and market value, growing all through the seasons.
How Renewable Energy Could Power Your State
Ecowatch – November 20, 2020 – Tara Lohan
https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy-states-2648995223.html
How much of U.S. energy demand could be met by renewable sources? According to a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance [https://ilsr.org/], the answer is an easy 100%. The report looked at how much renewable energy potential each state had within its own borders and found that almost every state could deliver all its electricity needs from instate renewable sources. And that’s just a start: The report found that there’s so much potential for renewable energy sourcing, some states could produce 10 times the electricity they need. Cost remains an issue, as does connecting all of this capacity to the grid, but prices have dropped significantly, and efficiency continues to improve. Clean energy is not only affordable but could be a big boost to the economy. Locally sourced renewables create jobs, reduce pollution, and make communities more climate resilient… I hope our research can inspire others who think maybe their state doesn’t have a lot of renewable energy capacity in their area to realize that they do, and it could provide for all that they need and more.
Water Main Geothermal
Institute for Local Self-Reliance – October, 2020 – Lilli Ambort and John Farrell
https://cdn.ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/report-water-main-geothermal.pdf
Could Existing Water Pipes Replace Dirty Energy Utilities?
Landscape of fear: why we need the wolf
The Guardian – November 24, 2020 – Cal Flyn
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/24/landscape-of-fear-why-we-need-the-wolf-rewilding-scotland
The wolf is considered a threat to our way of farming, but our fear may be misplaced. Perhaps predators are needed to bring nature back into balance.
Time for Democrats to drain the real swamp
The Washington Post – November 24, 2020 – Katrina vanden Heuvel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/24/time-democrats-drain-real-swamp/
Trump has run what essentially has been a shameless kleptocracy; without question it is one of the most corrupt administrations in history. His own self-enrichment is notorious. He staffed regulatory agencies and departments with lobbyists and executives from special interests that they were tasked to regulate: a coal industry lobbyist to protect air and water, an oil lobbyist at the Interior Department, a Raytheon lobbyist at the Defense Department and so on… Even more cancerous, however, has been the brazen corruption of policy and contracting… Meeting the challenges Americans face — declining wages, rising insecurity, soaring costs of health care and education, mass unemployment, evictions and foreclosures, catastrophic climate change and more — will require an active government, staffed by respected public servants and freed from the debauchery and corruption that subvert the public trust. Now is finally the time to drain the swamp.
How Poland’s women’s rights movement is maintaining momentum
Waging Non-Violence – November 20, 2020 – Craig Brown
https://wagingnonviolence.org/rs/2020/11/poland-anti-abortion-law-protests-womens-rights-movement-maintaining-momentum/
A further distinctive feature of the ongoing resistance to the abortion law has been the role of the Polskie Babcie, or “Polish Grandmothers,” although the group predates the current protests. One could be forgiven for thinking that the issue of abortion, as well as issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, might be highly divisive along generational lines, yet the bold actions of the grannies shows the situation is more complex.
Scotland becomes world’s first country to make pads and tampons free
USA Today – November 24, 2020 – Wyatte Grantham-Philips
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/11/24/scotland-first-offer-free-tampons-pads-addressing-period-poverty/6405418002/
The Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill — which is designed to create a legal obligation for the government to ensure sanitary products are free and accessible for all who menstruate, including tampons and pads in public facilities nationwide… “This is so often characterized as a women’s issue, but it is not. It is a social justice issue, an equalities issue, and a rights issue… Being financially penalized for a natural bodily function is not equitable or just.”
Amazon and Apple ‘not playing their part’ in tackling electronic waste
The Guardian – November 26, 2020 – Sandra Laville
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/nov/26/amazon-and-apple-not-playing-their-part-in-tackling-electronic-waste
Global retailers should help collect, recycle and repair tech products, say MPs.
Pandemic Lessons from Japan: A Tradition of Considering Others
Yes! Magazine – November 24, 2020 – Kaki Okumura
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/11/24/covid-japan-culture-consideration/
I first learned of the term jishuku (??). Jishuku is loosely defined as the practice of restraining from fun, luxury, and celebration in consideration of others who are going through a hard time. Then-Prime Minister Abe encouraged citizens to practice jishuku, to show camaraderie and support for those directly affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima disaster. Not just victims, but to show support for heroes as well—while volunteers and workers were going out of their way to rebuild homes and clean up radioactive waste, those who couldn’t directly help should at least show support by restraining from going out… Japanese jishuku has shown me that there’s a certain powerfulness to cultures that have traditions of sharing consideration and support during times of crisis, and I hope citizens of other nations can see it as so too. I love the freedom of expression and sense of individualism my upbringing in the United States has instilled in me, but with freedom comes responsibility, and to ignore this responsibility is not an act of exercising this right, but a choice that threatens it.
From Each According to Ability; to Each According to Need
Portside – The Conversation – November 27, 2020 – Luc Bovens
https://www.portside.org/2020-11-27/each-according-ability-each-according-need-tracing-biblical-roots-socialisms-enduring
Tracing the Biblical Roots of Socialism’s Enduring Slogan… The sentiments behind this slogan with Biblical origins animate many of the policies of the political left today… The sentiments behind these slogans are not confined to the ash heaps of history. Rather, many of the policies from the political left today fit under these simple slogans. “To each according to need” can be applied to the debate over health care. The aim is to take the provision of health care away from market forces and to make it freely accessible to all who need it. “From each according to ability” is what underlies a concern for the common good and a conception of society as a cooperative venture, with mandatory public service as a matching policy proposal… “To each according to ability” is at the core of equal opportunity – an ideal that underlies affirmative action legislation and various policies to increase the accessibility of college. “To each according to work” maps onto the ideal of equal pay for equal work and the push for minimal wage policies, mainly benefiting manual labor jobs. Two millennia in the making, these phrases illustrate what is said in the book of Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.”