Professor Heather Cox Richardson's 2022 Wrap-up Letter from an American

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

I don't know how she does it but Professor Richardson's Letter from an American is a monumental contribution to political and historical education and commentary. Fresh writing on current and past events arrives via Substack in my inbox practically every morning and I am consistently in awe.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-30-2022

 

#Georgia: 🆘️💙🇺🇸 Reverend Warnock is a #climate champion. Send the climate-denier packing.

----- Forwarded message -----
From: Rob Moir <rob@globalwarmingproblemsolvers.com>
Date: Monday, November 21, 2022
Subject: Reelect a climate champion. Send a climate-denier packing.
To: 

The upcoming U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia is the culmination of all of our hard work this year to protect the planet and fight climate change. Climate champion Reverend Warnock is the real deal. He has a perfect record from the League of Conservation Voters. He has campaigned aggressively for climate justice because he knows there's no compromising with our future – we can absolutely save our planet while creating the jobs of tomorrow and while helping marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. This race is an opportunity to re-elect someone who is a proven climate champion in one of the highest-profile races in America. And, off the back of our big Senate wins this year, to increase our climate-friendly majority in Congress. Please support climate champion Raphael Warnock with a donation today. Donate Now If you've stored your info with ActBlue Express, we'll process your contribution to Raphael Warnock and Global Warming Solutions instantly: $5 $15 $25 $50 OTHER AMOUNT Warnock's opponent is Trump-backed Republican Herschel Walker. He believes climate change is a hoax. He has some head-scratching notions about the environment. "What we need to do is keep having those gas-guzzling cars. We got the good emissions under those cars." - Herschel Walker Walker has also warned that his state's "good air" has been floating over to China and has been replaced with that country's "bad air." This pseudoscience would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous. As I have shared before, for the sake of our environment, we must reelect proven climate champion, Raphael Warnock. Election Day is Tuesday, December 6. Reverend Warnock's margin heading into the runoff was less than 1%. That gives us only 15 days to lock this down. Re-elect a climate champion. Send a climate-denier packing. Donate right now. Rob Donate Now     Paid for and authorized by Global Warming Solutions IE PAC   This email was sent by Global Warming Solutions Email is an important way for Global Warming Solutions to keep supporters like you informed about critical issues and to build a winning grassroots campaign.  Questions or concerns? Contact us here. Global Warming Solutions P.O. Box 380349 Cambridge, MA 02238 United States

Galactic: What emits more greenhouse gas than 100 countries combined?

----- Forwarded message ----
From: Michael Galant <info@winwithoutwar.org>
Date: Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 9:36 AM
Subject: What emits more greenhouse gas than 100 countries combined?
To: 

Let's pile on pressure to stop Congress from fueling the climate crisis with more weapons and war.

The United States faced simultaneous wildfires, snow squalls, dust storms, and deadly tornadoes during just *one day* this week.

How did the Senate respond? By overwhelmingly approving a whopping $778 BILLION for weapons and war — the LARGEST peacetime war budget in history.

Weapons and war require massive amounts of fossil fuel — and not only is the Pentagon the world's single biggest institutional consumer of petroleum, it's also a HUGE source of greenhouse gas, emitting more than 100 countries combined. 

Continuing massive payouts to fund the Pentagon's mega-polluting pet projects as multiple weather disasters rock our communities? The disconnect is as infuriating as it is mind-boggling. 

But here's the thing: while this bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, is critical to set policy, it doesn't actually include "one penny" for the Pentagon. That happens through the appropriations process. And those negotiations are heating up NOW.

We've got just a few critical weeks to pull out all the stops to keep the pressure on Congress to push them away from fueling the climate crisis with more weapons and war — because believe us, they'll be hearing from ALL the special interest lobbyists on the other side. 

We're closing 2021 facing a steep end-of-year fundraising gap of $52,457. Less than 1% of those reading will give, but if everyone who can gives now, we could close this gap in seconds. Any amount will help fuel our work to cut the bloated Pentagon budget — can you donate $15 today?

If you've stored your info with ActBlue, we'll process your contribution instantly: $15 $22 $30 $45 $60 Other amount

U.S. agencies have already issued a collective warning that climate change is coming for us all.

This week, new reports confirmed temperatures in the Arctic have reached as high as 100.4 Fahrenheit. 

But as our communities struggle through a year of wildfires, freezes, tornadoes, heat waves, and hurricanes, the Senate is STILL mired in a months-long debate over the Build Back Better plan — which would help fund energy and climate action.

What are they prioritizing? Here's just a peek and what they signed off on this week:

• 13 new warships (five more than the Navy wanted)
• 17 F-15E Strike Eagle jets (five more than the Air Force wanted) 
• 12 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters (that the Navy didn't include in its budget). 

(That's $25 BILLION on weapons the Pentagon didn't even ask for.)

These numbers expose the real reason we're in a nonsensical position of having one of the largest Pentagon budget proposals in history at the same time as we're ending wars like the one in Afghanistan and face existential threats like pandemics and climate change. 

It comes down to the defense lobbyists. 

Luckily, we've got game at defeating them. Last year, we helped block outrageous proposals to add additional funding for the Pentagon to the COVID stimulus bill, and this year we've blocked attempts to sneak these funds into the infrastructure bills too. 

Now, we're bringing this momentum to the next phase in our fight to stop a rubber-stamp of one of the biggest Pentagon budgets in history — and we need your help.

As we approach December 31st, we're just 35% away from meeting our end-of-year fundraising goal. Can you help us close this gap by rushing a $15 donation to help us double-down our work at this crucial stage of our fight to cut the massively bloated Pentagon budget? Together, we'll help get those funds to desperately underfunded priorities.

It's time we truly reconciled with what all this war spending costs us, got our priorities back in order, and put the PEOPLE first — and Win Without War is at the forefront of this fight. Please support our work now.

Thank you for working for peace,

Michael, Amy, Faith, and the Win Without War team

P.S. Want to understand more about the ins and outs of the budgeting process and what's at stake? Check out our new resource: 'Tis the Season: People Over Pentagon Activist Guide!

 

 

 

---

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© Win Without War 2021
1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005
(202) 656-4999 | info@winwithoutwar.org 

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USA: Federal Data Shows Firefighting Chemicals in U.S. Drinking Water Sources | KQED Science

source

This is worrisome:
Federal Data Shows Firefighting Chemicals in U.S. Drinking Water Sources | KQED Science

USA & beyond: Fillet of lion?

From: Leda Huta, Endangered Species Coalition <action@stopextinction.org>

Date: Thu, May 23, 2013 at 10:34 AM
Subject: Fillet of lion?

Help keep African lions in the wild, and off the menu.

Would you like a lion taco? How about "lion skewers"? I wouldn't either, but that has not stopped some restaurants in the United States from offering this on their menu. And it's completely within the law.
Right now, lions are being raised on "exotic game farms" for sale to restaurants, or virtually anyone else with a taste for lion. Because African lions are not yet federally protected, there is nothing to stop this gruesome practice.
Help us protect lions from being raised for their meat with a $20 donation today.
Lion cubs are raised for public-display purposes and adults from these breeders often end their lives in slaughterhouses. With lions in the wild rapidly disappearing, it's appaling that this remains legal. Lions have disappeared from over 80% of their historic range, and their population declined by nearly 50% from 1980 to 2002.
Alongside our member organizations, we are working to obtain long-overdue Endangered Species Act protections for African lions. But we're not there yet, the U.S. FIsh and Wildlife Service has yet to protect African lions.
Help take lions off the menu! Support our work to prevent this abhorrent trade.
The United States is by far the world's largest importer of both commercially traded African lion parts and lion trophies. This trend is only increasing. Allowing African lions to be raised, slaughtered, and sold for meat compounds this problem by increasing the market for lions and forces these lions into a life of suffering.
Help get lions the protections they deserve. Please donate $20 today.
With your help, we will continue to work to see that African lions are protected under the Endangered Species Act and that lion meat is off the menu.
Thank you for your ongoing support of wildlife and wild places.
Sincerely,

Leda Huta
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Pinterest
Links not working? You can support our work to protect African lions at this URL: https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/6014/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=10029

USA & beyond: A True Story to Remember

From: kay warner [mailto:kaywarner@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 2:05 PM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: A True Story to Remember

Share so we don't become complacent

This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago. Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.  And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'  (Lucy Burns)They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.  (Dora Lewis)  They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.  (Alice Paul)  When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.  Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving a 60 day sentence. Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. Miss Edith Ainge, of Jamestown , New York  All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. (Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate) My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.' HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco/Bingo night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. Conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at National Woman's Party headquarters, Jackson Place , Washington , D.C.  Left to right: Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right)) It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.' Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote. Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk , Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner,'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.'  So, refresh MY memory. Some women won't vote this year because - Why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? I'm so busy...I've got so much on my plate! Read again what these women went through for you! We can't let all their suffering be for nothing   Addendum:  According to Wikipedia 4/22/12, “ Wilson , after first sidestepping the issue, became a major advocate for the women’s suffrage.”  RK

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USA: Chimpanzees Need Your Help!

More than 900 chimpanzees are locked in U.S. laboratories, where they have been intentionally infected with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis and forced to endure decades of invasive procedures as well as fear, loneliness, and pain.

Please click the link below to urge your congressional representatives to cosponsor and support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would ban invasive experiments on chimpanzees and other great apes.

To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
http://www2.peta.org/site/Advocacy?s_oo=tXzU-jiUYXRbkjz9RIzRUA&amp;id=3705
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

L112

4/29: Please like & follow the new page on Facebook Move-The-Bombing-Range-Dont-bomb-the-southern-resident-orca-whales
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Move-The-Bombing-Range-Dont-bomb-the-southern-resident-orca-whales/359429844093856

4/11 POST:

Orca whale L112 was known as Sooke photo by Cascadia Research

It is just so wrong.

Click for April 10, 2012 article in Vancouver Sun re investigation of cause of death of  three-year-old L112, one of an endangered species (Orcinus orca):
Did offshore war games kill endangered West Coast orca?

More info about L112 who was known as Sooke may be viewed at Whale Trail blog, with photos of her in life:
http://thewhaletrail.org/sad-news-about-l112


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Cosmetic?

Talk about an image problem. The people who have performed cosmetic tests on animals are insane, in my view. This week has been World Week for Animals in Laboratories. To read any scientific paper about how long it takes or how many milligrams it takes or how "significant" it is that rabbits or rats show hind limb paralysis or death after ingesting shampoo is mind-boggling.

When the "scientists" don't get the results they want, they re-do it or say that the data was mixed up or that they are inexplicable. For example, here is a paper from ~ten years ago and you can search for the word "rabbit" or "rat" to see the many instances and lengthy duration of insanity, torture or sadism or however you personally term it:

[PDF] Opinion of the SCCNFP on P81, zinc pyrithioneec.europa.eu/health/archive/ph_risk/committees/.../out225_en.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
SCCNFP has a specific working group on alternatives to animal testing which, in co- ....marketing history of zinc pyrithione containing cosmetic shampoos. ..... rabbits produced no adverse effects when ingestion was meticulously prevented. ..... ZPT administered orally to pregnant rabbits from Day 6 through Day 18 of ...

That these tests are still going on is incredible.

LUSH Cosmetics, The Humane Society of the United States and ...finance.yahoo.com/.../lush-cosmetics-humane-society-united-143000...
Apr 17, 2012 – "The beauty industry continues needless animal testing and it's time for it to stop," said ... "Consumers are largely unaware that some shampoos and lipsticks still involve chemical poisoning of animals such as rabbits and mice. ... A large proportion of the animals used in cosmetic testing are laboratory-bred ...

On YouTube I saw a documentary regarding the life of Henry Spira who led numerous media campaigns and steady protests outside the Museum of Natural History in NYC for TWO YEARS in the 70s relevant to the absurd and sadistic cat experiments the Museum staff had been doing for TWENTY YEARS. We haven't progressed far for FORTY YEARS on! I would recommend watching  

One Man's Way (~52 minutes) and draw your attention to the interview with Ed Koch, former Mayor of NYC, as he explains the cat experiments. They had no cosmetic or other purpose. Then, how much purpose does any cosmetic testing correctly serve? There is an excerpted version (~7 minutes) that also includes Ed Koch at Excerpts from the Activists-Portrait of Animal Rights Activist Henry Spira

For more info on World Week for Animals in Laboratories see:

In Defense of Animals World Week for Animals in Laboratories

And an April 17, 2012 article from a UK columnist:

Alistair Currie column in HUFF POST-UK

Image credit: Dutch Rabbit by http://animals.m-y-d-s.com/

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