Dear friends,
Yesterday afternoon, around 50 protesters gathered at Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis’ office in Bay Ridge to express outrage over her vote for to cuts to health care, among other things.
At least ten people spoke, including the woman above, about the impact of the cuts on their lives and the lives of others.
A young teacher from the neighborhood acknowledged that she does not rely on Medicaid or SNAP benefits.
But you know what?
I have students. And they have families!
And do you know what all of them have?
Bodies!
I’ve approximated her remarks, but you can see why they were memorable.
A few speakers connected the cuts to benefits that working people rely on with the dramatic increase in budget for immigration enforcement. One way or another, bodies are on the line.
“We’re standing up for our union siblings detained by ICE, and for every family under attack by cruel policies and billionaire greed.”
One of their initial goals was to stop the budget reconciliation bill. They are still demanding an end to ICE raids and the release of people who have been unjustly detained by ICE.
Offering silent prayer and meditation, they circle seven times around the Lower Manhattan building, which houses immigration courts and regional offices for the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. After the final time around, the group prays aloud, concluding with a prolonged scream.
Join the New Sanctuary Coalition’s Thursday morning Jericho Walk to send a spiritual message of resilience and resistance.
The regime’s immigration policies have not only sparked mass protests, but they have inspired the development of a new app, ICEBlock, designed by Joshua Aaron to let users alert people nearby to sightings of ICE agents in their area.
Aaron said he hopes those notifications will help people avoid interactions with ICE, noting that he does not want users to interfere with the agency’s operations.
Since it launched in April, ICEBlock already has more than 20,000 users. Spread the word.
"In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities," Salvadoran officials wrote in response to queries from the unit of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The UN group has been looking into the fate of the men who were sent to El Salvador from the United States in mid-March, even after a US judge had ordered the planes that were carrying them to be turned around.
This contradicts previous statements by federal officials.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun reinstating around 900 research grants yesterday moved to reinstate about 900 grants that a judge last week ruled had been canceled illegally because their of their topics, which included banning federal funds for topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion; racial health disparities; and transgender health.
The legal case was brought by a group of 16 Democratic state Attorneys General, and the restoration of funds applies only to the projects identified by the plaintiffs. Following the ruling, senior NIH official Michelle Bulls ordered compliance with the court and
told grants management staff not to terminate any additional grants.
There are another 1400 grants that have been canceled because of Trump’s executive orders. Perhaps even Republican states Attorneys General can find the backbone to sue the NIH on behalf of their research institutions.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the regime from executing its plan to cut 20,000 public health workers from the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that “dismantling” HHS hampered their ability to track infectious diseases and provide other public health services and that it violates mandates from Congress.
“both inside and outside the tolling zone, including sites that were predicted to have traffic increases as a result of tolling," the agency wrote.
Excessive exposure to fine particle air pollution, a pollutant found in vehicle exhaust, wildfire smoke and heating emissions, contributes to and worsens asthma and heart disease.
The data are preliminary, and still promising!
They have special wide wheels that allow them to travel over sand. And in the beach chairs, wheelchair users can travel up and down the shore — and even float.
Reserve a beach wheelchair in advance online.
Earlier this year, Ben Folds — a North Carolina-born singer-songwriter — resigned as artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra because of Trump’s decision to gut its bipartisan board and hijack the Kennedy Center; now, in an act of resistance, Folds has dropped a recording.
Before the Trump loyalists could take full control, he recorded Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, a record of what real art, untainted by regime influence, looks and sounds like. It dropped on Independence Day, a beautiful middle finger to authoritarianism.
The project fostered real relationships, cross-racial learning and grassroots coalitions, while exposing the systemic racism behind dramatic disparities in infrastructure and investment.
Angelique Kidjo, who is from Benin, has been a musical force in Africa and the world over four decades; she is being honored with star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Kidjo created a charitable organization, Batonga, which supports the education of young girls in Africa.
Here’s a great read from Anand Giridharadas, “A biblical flood, a girl's death, and a great-grandfather's legacy.”
May This Body Be a Bridge by Te Martin
May this body be a bridge, for the healing of the land
May the river flow through us, cleansing greed from our hands
We are, we are born from the water
We are, we are made from the land
Teach us, teach us, oh Great Mother
To bring, to bring peace to this land
with love,
L