Dear friends,
This Tuesday requires a bit of cherry-picking to get to the good news, but I’m not above it.
The Ukrainian people are resisting with all their heart, winning the admiration of the entire world – and winning the war. Many dark days lie ahead. The Russians may still conquer the whole of Ukraine. But to win the war, the Russians would have to hold Ukraine, and they can do that only if the Ukrainian people let them. This seems increasingly unlikely to happen.
Putin’s big lie — that Ukraine is not a nation and Ukrainians are not really a people — is being exposed repeatedly. The people are united to an extent we can only admire.
Fun fact: Zelensky was the voice of Paddington in Ukraine. Check it out.
Also inspiring are the efforts of good people stepping up. According to a trusted source, the folks at Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights
have very longtime partnerships and are skilled in quick turnarounds (24 hours!) and getting money in to countries in conflict.
Support the Urgent Action Fund, which is “supporting women, trans, and nonbinary activists on the ground in and surrounding Ukraine by providing flexible funding and security support.”
Here’s some art of the moment from Mo Willems.
The pace of sanctions against Russia has also been impressive. Even the Swiss are freezing Russian assets, in alignment with EU sanctions.
The economic pressure has broad buy-in around the world and in the US. Some of it is symbolic, like clearing Russian vodka off the shelves.
Divesting funds from investments in Russia is more consequential.
Democratic Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski of Rockland County has called on the New York state comptroller’s office to divest $58.9 million in the state’s Common Retirement Fund from Sberbank of Russia and Rosneft OJSC.
Three of the city’s five pension funds have already divested from fossil fuel investments, but the pension funds for the police and firefighters have not yet done so. Comptroller Brad Lander is encouraging them to divest. He noted,
“Russia’s actions remind us that one of the best ways to curtail the power of authoritarian petrostate leaders is to reduce our global reliance on the oil and gas industry.”
My springling noted what a big deal it is that
people are calling Russia a petrostate and demanding renewables.
One of the lessons of this moment is that it is possible to act boldly if we can unify ourselves. Here in NYS, we are on track to meet some “important clean energy goals.”
New Yorkers are already getting more than one-quarter of our electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar farms. On the basis of contracts already signed by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, by 2030, more than 60 percent of our energy will be from renewables.
In a landmark decision, an arbitrator ruled that 42 home care staffing agencies must pay $30 million into a “special wage fund” to compensate workers who were underpaid for these shifts and for other assignments dating as far back as 2008.
As I noted yesterday, a new study from the Center for Court Innovation on policing shows that Black and Brown New Yorkers are prosecuted at a much higher rate for misdemeanor offenses. The good news is that on Thursday evening, a peoples’ coalition is holding a town hall to talk with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
Sign up to attend a town hall with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to discuss his plans to follow through on promises to reduce incarceration.
Call on the mayor and council speaker to reduce the size of the NYPD and reinvest funding to help — not harm — New Yorkers. This action comes from the ACLU.
We need to celebrate Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
When judicial deliberations include the viewpoints of people of color, however, other judges often begin to question their prior assumptions and sometimes even change their minds. A 2008 study observed that Black judges were substantially more likely to hold the government responsible for racial discrimination in voting. Incredibly, white judges who sat on panels with at least one Black judge were also considerably more likely to conclude that the government unlawfully restricted the voting rights of people of color, regardless of whether the white judge was appointed by a Democrat or a Republican.
If you’re one of those folks who feels duty-bound to watch the State of the Union (I am not…I’ll read about it tomorrow), you might enjoy this SotU Bingo game from Mom’s Rising. It is good to remember that the last president was and is a terrifying, ignorant, and dangerous man, and we are in better hands.
I did my best.
with love,
L