Everyone knows me but no one can tell me. No one knows me even though everyone has heard my name. Everyone talking together makes something that seems like me but is not me. Everyone doing things in the world makes me. I am blood in the streets, the catastrophe you can never forget. I am the tide running under the world that no one sees or feels. I happen in the present but am told only in the future, and then they think they speak of the past, but really they are always speaking about the present. I do not exist and yet I am everything.
You know what I am. I am History. Now make me good. – Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry For the Future
The idea that civil rights should depend on what state you live in is the single biggest load of pure distilled crap America has ever come up with. – Jim Wright, Stonekettle Station
1.
I’m home and back in my computer chair/saddle once again after a most enjoyable long weekend in the great northwest. I beat the northwest heatwave by a day (Connie had already been in Vancouver for several days). We stayed with our LFK friends Cima K. and Gary T., hit the beach, saw a production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost put on by Island Shakespeare Festival, and in general soaked up the Puget Sound air.
2.
Earlier this month an article on Gabby Giffords was published in the Washington Post just before the documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down was released in theaters July 16th across the country.
The storyline for the documentary as described on IMDB.com reads Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down tells the extraordinary story of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords: her relentless fight to recover following an assassination attempt in 2011, and her new life as one of the most effective activists in the battle against gun violence. Featuring extensive verite filming of Gabby and her husband, astronaut-turned-Senator Mark Kelly; interviews with Barack Obama and other friends and colleagues; and exclusive access to stunning videos taken in the weeks following her near-death, this film is the story of a rising star transformed by gun violence, and a close-up portrait of the marriage that sustains her.
I remember exactly where I was when I got the news about the shooting. I was just wrapping up a photo shoot for Namoli Brennet at her home in Tucson (Brennet has since relocated in Iowa) when the news broke. I think we were in a bit of a shock.
During the period after the shooting the amount of love that was shown for Giffords was evident in the ‘offerings’ both at the Medical Center and at her office, which was at Pima and Swan at the time. I documented both of those locations.
Her recovery work has been incredible and she is on the frontlines to speak up for gun control. As the Post reported, Their next mission did not come into focus until Dec. 14, 2012, the day a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 26 people, including 20 six- and seven-year-olds, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Giffords told me over email. “December 2012 was when I knew I couldn’t stand on the sidelines any longer. Even though I wasn’t able to speak more than a few words at a time, still I knew I had to use my voice to fight for change. That day, I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
The website simply titled Giffords was launched and joining with other groups, it has been part of an effort that has helped pass more than 460 gun-safety laws in 48 states and elect upwards of 350 winning candidates at every level of government. Its attorneys have filed more than 75 briefs defending gun-safety laws in the courts.
Your voice is also important as the WaPo article wraps up by saying “Words once came easily. Today, I struggle to speak. But I’ve not lost my voice,” she said. “America needs all of us to speak out — even when you have to fight to find the words.”
3.
Good lord and praise Jeebus! Looks like Manchin took the bribe. He reversed his earlier stance after much negotiation with Chuckles Schumer which will be, as Heather Cox Richardson penned, a $739 billion bill that includes price reforms for certain prescription drugs, lower premiums under the Affordable Care Act, money for the IRS to enforce tax laws, a corporate minimum tax, $369 billion of investment in climate and energy, and dramatic investment in reducing the deficit. There are no new taxes on families making less than $400,000 a year. This also includes a series of changes to tax law that would raise $739 billion over the next decade — enough to offset the cost of the bill while securing more than $300 billion for cutting the deficit. Democrats did this. Yes, Democrats.
Charles Pierce wrote By all accounts, this bill is a progressive Democrat’s dream shot. It’s the most money ever dedicated at one time to fighting the climate crisis. Democrats have fought for decades to give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices, which this bill makes possible. The bill modifies the egregious carried-interest tax loophole, the longtime bête noire of all financial reformers, and it drops a new minimum tax on corporations. If this isn’t Christmas in July, it is at the very least New Year’s Eve and the big electric ball has just started to drop.
Against all possible odds, the Democrats also put together a shrewd and cohesive strategy for passing this bill through the Senate. First of all, the negotiations somehow managed to stay secret, even from other Democrats in the Senate. It is a reconciliation package, which immunizes it against the filibuster; and it is being sold, under the name of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, as an anti-inflation measure, which it is.
Of course, our own DINO Kyrsten Sinema has yet to sign off on the package…
At the same time, Republicans shot themselves in the foot after killing the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which would have provided medical benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their military service. Republicans – working 24/7 to obstruct legislation that would benefit the American people. That’s who they are.
As always, Jon Stewart jumped into the fray writing on Twitter This is what it’s come to. Veterans. The sick, the dying. Fed up. Pulling an all nighter to support their fellow vets. This is the hell their service has brought them.
4.
Mmmmmm….popsicles!
5.
We saw the movie Fantastic Fungi when it was first released in 2019 at the Loft Cinema. It was an eye opener about the magical, mysterious and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth.
If you’re a subscriber to the New York Times, and you should be, there was a very compelling piece published Wednesday titled Unearthing the Secret Superpowers of Fungus – In the fight against warming, a formidable ally hides just beneath our feet.
The article focuses on the work of Dr. Toby Kiers, 45, an evolutionary biologist based at the Free University of Amsterdam. She is probing a vast and poorly understood universe of underground fungi that can be vital, in her view, in the era of climate change.
Some species of fungi can store exceptional levels of carbon underground, keeping it out of the air and preventing it from heating up the Earth’s atmosphere. Others help plants survive brutal droughts or fight off pests. There are those especially good at feeding nutrients to crops, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. In short, they are what she called “levers” to address the hazards of a warming climate.
6.
Most of you by now have heard of the smarmy remarks made by the also smarmy Matt ‘Pedophile’ Gaetz during a talk at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa. Turning Point USA (https://www.tpusa.com/) is another of neo-fascist Charlie Kirk’s organizations that strives to mold Stepford Wives and Husbands out of normal kids. Gaetz uttered the words “Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.” (other idiots to speak at the rally were Don Jr., the Boebert, Cruzy Cruz, and, of course, the orange man himself, rambling non-sequiturs as if gobbling hamberders)
According to the Washington Post, Gen-Z queer activist Olivia Julianna, days after being publicly insulted by Gaetz on Twitter, wrote him a tongue-in-cheek thank-you note on the platform. “Dear Matt, Although your intentions were hateful, your public shaming of my appearance has done nothing but benefit me.” In less than 48 hours, she raised nearly $170k, and the latest update, hot off the presses this morning, is $1.35 MILLION, over 10% of the annual budget of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Bwwaahaaaaahaaaaaa….
7.
If this doesn’t bring a tear to your eye…
And now…
Friday Homestead Dispatch
Chock full of greatness today, Mr. Mackender. The cool air did you good.
This MC with Hank enjoyed your music at the other MC last night. My site is: CoeWeaves.com