Regionally curated subscription box of artisinal apocalypses

As I mentioned before I switch my radio to the CBC (the national Canadian network) during noon to 3:00 on weekdays. Today was a special program, a day to listen to indigenous voices. That lasted all day, not just the three hours I tuned in. During the news segments they announced a third set of unmarked graves were found at a third residential Indian school. So this day was a time to listen to indigenous voices. That meant stories and music by them. Some of it was the traditional native music I’ve heard. There were also indigenous composers who wrote in the Western Classical idiom, including writing for orchestra. Quite an interesting musical journey. Some of the stories were by people who had lived through the residential school system or had worked to reclaim traditions that were close to being lost to those schools. One person was asked, why don’t you just get over it? She replied, we can’t. More grave sites will be found. It was cool to hear a national radio network lift up indigenous voices, to spend a day listening to those usually unheard. It was cool to hear a part of a national conversation about recognizing injustices done by previous generations. Alas, it wasn’t my nation. Lily Altavena, in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press, wrote about a couple cities in Michigan whose school board meetings were packed with residents demanding their children not be taught Critical Race Theory. The article is online, but for subscribers only. Of course, what the residents were talking about is the conservative talking points for their definition of CRT that has little to do with how CRT is taught in graduate schools. The talking points included how white children would be oppressed by teaching CRT. These school districts, Grand Ledge and Troy, have equity programs. The irate citizens had been told by conservative sources that these equity programs and CRT were the same thing. School boards had to explain the difference. An equity program wants to make sure all students, including children of color, those learning English, and those with disabilities, get the same opportunities as the white children. It looks at racial disparities and tries to correct them. It increases the use of texts written by people of color. It works to diversify the faculty and staff. It works to equalize the disciplinary practices. It does not declare white students are inherently racist. It does not teach them to hate America or to be ashamed of being white. Those claims of equity programs only serve to inflame parents. The school board meeting in mid June in Grand Ledge got so out of control the meeting was cut short. A week later people talked over one another, but the board managed to keep the meeting going. School boards are not used to this much rancor and chaos. And so much intentional misinterpretation of what they are actually doing. I wrote a while back about Christopher Rufo as the guy who has been pushing the redefinition of Critical Race Theory as a way of bludgeoning liberals. He did this through redefining the term in conservative language, then repeating it until his definition replaced the original. Jason Stanley quoted some of Rufo’s tweets and added:

Some people are out there using my work on propaganda and fascism as a how to guide. I know that Rufo is familiar with my work.

Jeremy Just added:

Every word ever written on totalitarianism - and that’s a lot of words - has been used by these grifters as a how-to guide. If only there was a similar body of work on the many efforts to counter it that have been undertaken over the years. How Counter-Fascism Works…

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported that Toyota has donated the most, by far, to insurrectionist lawmakers. The company says it doesn’t judge members based solely their refusal to certify the election. Instead, they donate based on issues important to the auto industry. Besides, there were a few they decided to no longer donate to. Customers are now declaring they will never buy another Prius. And Subaru is looking pretty good. A heat bubble over Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and sliding over the Rockies into Alberta. Seven inches of rain in Detroit – one highway was closed for a few days because a pumping station lost electricity and couldn’t pump away the water. The American West is drier than it has been in 1200 years (noted from tree rings). Wildfires in California. Moscow had so much rain subway stations were flooded. Leah McElrath tweeted:

Here’s what I don’t understand: Global warming and the resulting climate crises are affecting everyone. Every nation. All people. There is no where that is immune, no infrastructure that is prepared. Why won’t we work together to treat it like the global emergency it is? Moscow, Portland, NONE of our infrastructure is prepared for what is happening. Global warming isn’t just about temperatures rising. Global warming sets off a cascade of events that result in more intense weather events happening more frequently. The violence of the resulting systems is something no human can hide from. Even those who own survival bunkers.

Daniel Michelsen of the Kos community has started a series of posts about the things we already know how to do to end the climate crisis. That we don’t use them is a political problem. The topic of this post is building insulation. Instead of installing a furnace we could spend the money on enough insulation that the appliances and body heat would keep it warm enough. But we insulate only to the point where the heat costs less than the additional insulation would add to the mortgage. But that assumes three things that aren’t true: 1. Energy costs will never increase, 2. interest rates don’t change, and 3. emissions don’t matter. Thirty years ago when I lived in Germany I attended a house warming for work colleagues. This celebration was done before the new house was finished, well before the family was ready to move in. This house was billed as ecologically friendly. The walls were thick because they enclosed stacked bales of straw. Not a Wolf tweeted:

It’s not climate change, it’s a regionally curated subscription box of artisinal apocalypses. Each month you get a new, bespoke, reminder of the inevitability of our decline delivered straight to your door. For the low cost of blood and your future, you too could be stuck in traffic at the end of all things.

Aysha Qamar of Kos reported Sesame Street is doing its part to combat rising attacks on Asian Americans. In a recent show, Alan, who is Japanese American, and Wes, a black Muppet, talk to Analyn, a Filipino American girl, who was teased about her eyes. Alan and Wes sing a song about being proud of our eyes, that they tell us the story of our family. This is just one part of an ongoing series of scenes tackling bullying and helping families talk about racial justice. Guidance is provided by racial equity groups. A video of the scene is at the bottom of the post. In the comments Nanny Ogg included a video of the recent visit of a girl and her two gay dads to Sesame Street. Alas, this video is only 40 seconds, not the whole scene. At least we see they were there.