Good morning!
Regular readers know that Tuesdays are for good news. I’ve been thinking about my working definition of good news. It is expansive enough to include good things that have happened, promising things that are happening, indications of good things that might happen, revelations about bad things that didn’t happen, things that could be a lot worse, and things that might be good news.
So yes, there’s a bit of grasping, in spite of my not-very-fruitful efforts not to attach myself to the fruits of our efforts and those of our siblings in the struggle for justice. Sometimes, you just have to laugh (at me).
Let’s start with something that might be good news:
A while back, some of us signed a petition to let the NY Times know that the fossil fuel ads they post alongside reporting on climate change undermine their journalism and offend common sense. If you signed the petition, you probably got the same message I did, calling on us to follow up with tweets and letters to the Times.
I had seen the fossil fuel ads in the paper before reading Emily Atkin’s scathing take-down of the advertisements,
many of which are created for the industry by the Times. They attempt to sell readers not on a product, but on an idea: that fossil fuel companies are helping save the planet.
But I haven’t seen these ads lately, and I’ve been looking. Have you seen them? Today, I’d like to engage in a different kind of action…a little positive reinforcement, if you will.
Let the Times know that you’ve noticed the absence of ads for fossil fuel corporations alongside their coverage. Here’s a sample message.
Last night, I put on my fancy clothes and attended a fundraiser so that I could chat up some state legislators and the governor on the topic of fair pay for home care. If you know me at all, you know that this was not my scene.
Covid-caution required me to leave the over-crowded (vax-required) event after an hour, but I did manage to have an encouraging conversation with a policy staffer who is a “special assistant to the governor,” according to her business card. So I feel hopeful that the executive budget might include money to raise wages for home care workers. Let’s call this a good thing that might happen.
Also in the might-happen category is the new 15% global minimum tax, which the G20 will vote on later this month. This is significant because a global minimum rate will
crack down on tax havens that have drained countries of much-needed revenue.
Janet Yellen has advised the president to skirt the inevitable Republican opposition by including the measure in the budget reconciliation bill. I’m on board with maneuvering around obstructionists to get corporations to pay taxes.
My favorite example of a good thing happening comes from Colombia, where the Calm Line, a hotline for hotheads, is helping men confront their anger and get the support they need to change their behavior. The initiative, staffed by psychologists, is explicitly designed to take on the culture of machismo and to counsel men so that they can learn how to think and act differently.
There’s also some exciting labor news afoot, which we will be watching and supporting in any way we can. In addition to the huge strike of 10,000 workers at the John Deere plants that produce farm equipment, there are
2,000 hospital workers striking in Buffalo, New York; 1,400 production workers for Kellogg’s in four states; 450 steelworkers in Huntington, West Virginia; and a one-day walk-off of 2,000 telecommunications workers in California, all since October 1. One thousand Alabama coal miners, 700 nurses in Massachusetts, 400 whiskeymakers in Kentucky, and 200 bus drivers in Reno, Nevada, were already on strike, in addition to recently settled strikes by 2,000 carpenters in Washington, 600 Frito-Lay workers in Kansas, and 1,000 Nabisco factory workers at five plants across the country.
In the category of bad things that didn’t happen:
The former president — whose commitment to nepotism is unmatched, I believe, in contemporary American life — had planned to appoint his daughter, Ivanka as the head of the World Bank! Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin intervened. So while you may not love Jerome Powell, this is also in the could’ve been much worse category.
With the governor’s encouragement, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey “paused further action” $2.1 billion AirTrain to LaGuardia boondoggle. Instead, there is new hope for long-overdue accessibility upgrades to the LIRR station at Willets Point.
In the efforts to stop, acknowledge, and repair bad things that happened category:
The US Justice Department filed a brief yesterday, calling on the Supreme Court to block the Texas anti-abortion law, SB 8, until they can rule on its constitutionality. The DOJ’s argument is that the law is “plainly unconstitutional.”
According to the brief, the people who wrote the Texas law,
have candidly acknowledged that the law was designed to deter constitutionally protected abortions while evading judicial review.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board has recommended that 37 NYPD officers face severe discipline — suspension or termination — for their misconduct at protests. Less than half of the 313 complaints related to police misconduct at protests have been investigated thus far. The complaints cite
excessive force, lying to investigators, using offensive language and abuse of authority.
An additional 28 officers face lesser penalties. This, of course, also belongs in the good things that may happen category because even though
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea has pledged to abide by a new disciplinary matrix in determining penalties for officers who violated rules during the protests, its recommended penalties are non-binding.
World Health Organization held a ceremony in Geneva, with members of Lacks family, to honor Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1950s, doctors at Johns Hopkins turned over some of her cancer cells, taken during an invasive procedure without her consent, which led researchers to develop the HPV vaccine, among other major advances.
“Henrietta’s contributions, once hidden, are now being rightfully honored for their global impact,” Ms. Baptiste, a registered nurse [and great-granddaughter of Henrietta], said.
Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist at the W.H.O., said about 50 million metric tons of the cells, known as HeLa cells, have been used by researchers and scientists around the world.
And finally, in the brand new will-stupidity-save-us? category: the former president is calling on his devoted followers to abstain from voting until the 2020 election results are sorted out to their satisfaction.
Now you can laugh at him instead of me.
Have a great day!
with love,
L