April 8, 2022
work from home for justice
Dear friends,
We have achieved Friday. The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
“Nobody’s going to steal my joy,” Senator Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia, said in remarks ahead of the vote. “I’m a senator, I’m a pastor. But beyond all that, I’m the father of a young Black girl.” He said Judge Jackson’s ascension to the nation’s highest court exemplified “the promise of progress on which our democracy rests.”
The joy is real, as is the cognitive dissonance. Jackson was confirmed after what the president of the NAACP called
weeks and weeks of racist, misogynistic and stomach-churning attacks.
At the same time, the January 6 select committee
has amassed deep evidence about the connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys in recent weeks after it obtained hours of non-public footage of the leaders of the militia groups in Washington ahead of the Capitol attack, the sources said.
The links between the white supremacists inside and outside of Congress are increasingly evident, and the committee is connecting the dots to the organizers of the Save America rally.
There's still time to participate in NYC's Participatory Budgeting (PB) process. Voting is open to residents who are at least 11 or in the sixth grade. If you're doing this with a young person, make sure to start at the beginning and first locate your council district. Note that not all council members participate in the PB process.
Sign in or create an account to vote on projects for your council district. Sunday, April 10 is the last day to vote!
There’s a lot to say about NYS’s budget, now that a deal has been reached, but I’ll need time to sort through the details.
On the positive side, there is a $7 billion investment in supporting child care. There is, however, plenty to gripe about, including the $180 million for a @#$%&! stadium in Buffalo. And there are rollbacks to hard-won bail reform:
Some additional crimes will be made bail eligible, as moderates had hoped, but legislators on the political left managed to block a proposal that would have expanded how judges could jail people pretrial based on their past arrest record or perceived danger to the public.
It is incredibly disappointing that the final deal for home care workers amounts to just $3/hour raises over the next few years, far short of the 150% of minimum wage that we were fighting for with Fair Pay for Home Care.
We haven’t lost until we give up. And we haven’t given up.
Earth Day is coming up, and the Climate Can’t Wait. There are buses to Albany for a day of action. The legislative session ends in June.
Sign up for a seat on the bus!
Enjoy this beautiful spring day!
with love,
L