Dear friends,
Here in the US, we are living through the great ungluing. It seems as though we cannot find much common ground, and that everything is in question.
We learned from the former president that elections are never over and that his supporters will only love him more if he’s a brazen criminal. From our Supreme Court justices, we learned that lying at confirmation hearings doesn’t count and that there is no such thing as settled law.
Salman Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly on Friday while
preparing to give a talk about the United States as a safe haven for exiled writers
at a center that is a refuge for learning and reflection.
This weekend, a Canadian friend sent a link to an article from La Presse, which forecasts a “very, very ugly”
No one — except Putin — wants to see the neighbor’s house go up in flames. (Our implosion may not be the most alarming thing going on, but even I can’t start Monday by contemplating the prospect of nuclear war, so I will just keep on with my topic.)
The author of the piece in La Presse notes that Attorney General Garland had to have anticipated the reaction to the search at Mar-a-Lago. The threats and denunciations of DOJ and the FBI are completely unsurprising.
Last Thursday, a Navy veteran and Trump supporter, armed with a nail gun, attacked an FBI field office; he was shot and killed by Ohio police. He had attended the January 6 rally in DC and the FBI had attempted to locate and question him.
Bryan Caskey, Kansas’s elections director, confirmed that
it would be the first recount of the votes on a statewide ballot question in at least 30 years.
Apparently, under Kansas law, someone can request a recount if they can demonstrate that they can pay for it.
“Normally, they reinforce the Election Day results,” Caskey said about recounts. “We stand by the results and will do the recount.”
What can be unglued can often be glued back together again, but it will not be easy.
In addition to three lawsuits in Idaho, the DOJ filed its own suit because
the federal government says that the Idaho law runs afoul of federal guidelines in providing health care when a pregnant woman’s health is at risk. That lawsuit, the first federal suit filed to try to protect abortion rights, is scheduled to be heard on August 22.
Obviously, we are rooting for the DOJ, which is having an eventful month.
The ruling marked a major blow to abortion-rights advocates and providers, who had hoped the ban would be blocked for a third time, allowing Louisiana’s three abortion clinics to begin performing procedures again.
The rulings in Idaho and Louisiana are reminders that we need to join the fight to protect reproductive rights wherever we can.
I only got about halfway through my plan to email all of the delegates in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Since they are not currently scheduled for a conference committee, it seems like a window of opportunity to influence legislators.
So far, two delegates have responded personally to me. They were both Democrats and they did not express much hope of a better bill. Nonetheless, I believe the win in Kansas and determination of pro-choice majorities could help to move the needle, especially if delegates are hearing from real people.
The WV House of Delegates has 100 members, 78 of whom are Republicans. They serve two-year terms.
If my plan seems quixotic, note that a few days after the vote in Kansas, there was not enough support in the Nebraska legislature to convene a special session to pass an abortion ban. The Nebraska legislature has 32 Republicans among its 49 members, but two Republicans did not support the initiative and they could not get the 33 votes they needed to reconvene.
Write to as many West Virginia delegates as you can. I encourage you to personalize the message I drafted. This is a ready-made action.
We glue ourselves back together by taking care of people.
Here in NYS, even with our significant legislative protections for reproductive health care,
The state Department of Health oversees these mergers. By allowing Catholic hospitals — which are limited in how they attend to women at risk of miscarriage and do not allow abortion, contraception, or sterilization — to ignore the medical needs of New Yorkers is wrong and dangerous. Their religious directives cannot be allowed to dictate the health care available to the public.
Contact Governor Hochul and urge her to work with DOH to stop hospital mergers that create reproductive care deserts. This is a 30-second action!
New York City’s housing crisis has been chronic. Folks in the city shelter system typically wait about 16 months to get an apartment.
A survey [earlier this year] by the Supportive Housing Network of New York, which represents social service providers, found that upwards of 10 percent of the city’s 25,000 apartments for homeless housing are sitting empty.
Apparently, part of the problem is an antiquated system for matching unhoused New Yorkers to available units for which they are eligible.
The situation is aggravated by a dehumanizing and ridiculous move by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Mayor Adams has rightly criticized Abbott for
us[ing] innocent people as political pawns.
Adams is not, however, taking responsibility for the underlying problems that are his responsibility.
In response to pressure from the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, the city’s Department of Investigation has begun looking into a possible coverup of violations by the city's Department of Social Services (DSS). The Deputy Commission for Public Information, Julia Savel, was fired last week by DSS Commissioner Gary Jenkins.
Email and text messages suggest that Savel had flagged efforts by Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins to conceal crowded conditions in the city's homeless shelter system from his superiors at City Hall, from the media and from the public.
In one text message dated July 20, Savel indicated to a City Hall spokeswoman that she was planning to inquire about moving to a different agency, saying "Just can't work for a commish who is ok with covering up something illegal."
Let the mayor know that you want transparency as well as systems in place to move people into available supportive housing and to prevent housing discrimination. This is a 30-second action!
There’s a bill before the NYC city council that would require folks who rely on round-the-clock home care to either forego overnight care or move into a nursing home against their wishes.
[Int 0175-2022] would set the maximum working hours that an employer may assign to a home care aide. The hours would be limited to 12 hours for any one shift, or within any 24 hours period, and 50 hours within a week.
Agencies would be subject to fines from the city when personal assistants work more than 12 hours per day, work 12 hours on consecutive days, or work more than 50 hours in a week, except in an emergency.
José Hernandez, a community organizer who is also a wheelchair user, explained how the bill would affect care recipients and caregivers. It would lead agencies to turn away clients who need 24-hour care, and
make it illegal for personal assistants, who are predominantly Black and LatinX women, to work overtime, even though many rely on overtime pay to be able to pay their rent and put food on their table for their children.
Jose noted that the city is prohibiting home care workers from working overtime, but spent $750 million last year to cover overtime pay for police officers.
There is a severe shortage of care workers, who frequently earn below $15/hour. This ill-advised legislation will create further hardship for workers and deepen the shortage that affects people with disabilities, older folks, and their families.
Contact your councilmember to vote NO on Int 0175-2022 to protect care workers and care recipients. This action is ready-made!
Care workers need to earn a living wage, so that overtime is a real choice. The campaign for Fair Pay for Home Care will relaunch in the coming months.
Voting is important AND it is not enough. We have glue this society back together.
with love,
L