April 19, 2024

The Week the World Wept Over Kids Show 'Bluey'

There was a wackadoo of an international incident this week.

It was an event so shattering that adults around the globe were immediately reduced to tears. There is no known cure for the weeping that occurs surrounding this inciting party: a family of cartoon Australian dogs who might be moving out of their house.

The animated series Bluey, which streams on Disney+ in the U.S., is a phenomenon. But this week—in which the sheer number of grown adults allegedly crying along to its season finale has made headlines across the globe—the show reached a whole new level of relevance. And, now that I’ve seen the episode myself (and sobbed silently alone while watching) I have some thoughts as to why this show has become such a big deal—and a crucial, necessary part of pop culture.

The series first launched in 2018, about a 6-year-old Australian cattle dog named Bluey, her sister Bingo, and her parents Chilli and Bandit. The inherent whimsy of Bluey and Bandit’s wanderlust elicits giggle fits from children enamored by the characters’ rambunctious zeal for playtime. On the other hand, the breezy, yet meticulous capture of how parents relate to their kids on a daily basis, in all its big and small moments, has proven borderline jarring for adults. Understandably, most are unprepared to confront such pointed, accurate feelings in a cartoon meant to occupy their kids for a few minutes while they make dinner. The series crystallizes the experience of something that seems so amorphous and complicated: being a family.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/bluey-epic-the-sign-episode-why-the-whole-world-is-crying

Apparently the writers don't remember the week Sesame Street's Mr. Hooper died, or the time Big Bird lost his nest in a hurricane. Those are the episodes that made me and later my son cry.

April 17, 2024

'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski had late-stage rectal cancer and was 'depressed' before prison suicide, autopsy says

Ted Kaczynski, the imprisoned domestic terrorist known as the “Unabomber,” was diagnosed with rectal cancer in March 2021, and a month prior to killing himself in June 2023, “was noted to be depressed and sent for psychiatric evaluation,” according to his autopsy report obtained by NBC News.

Kaczynski was 81, and a senior law enforcement official had said at the time that he had been diagnosed with cancer, although its type and severity were unclear.

Now, 10 months after Kaczynski died and NBC News first filed a Freedom of Information Act request related to his case, his autopsy report offers new details into the health and final months of a man who, for two decades, waged a deadly bombing spree that killed three people and injured 23 others. It ended with his capture in the Montana wilderness in 1996; he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina lists the cause of death as hanging, with a shoelace used as a ligature, at Kaczynski’s solitary cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, northeast of Durham.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-late-stage-rectal-cancer-was-depressed-prison-rcna147819

How appropriate for the asshole that he was....

April 16, 2024

Can homeless people be fined for sleeping outside? A rural Oregon city asks the US Supreme Court

A pickleball game in this leafy Oregon community was suddenly interrupted one rainy weekend morning by the arrival of an ambulance. Paramedics rushed through the park toward a tent, one of dozens illegally erected by the town’s hundreds of homeless people, then play resumed as though nothing had happened.

Mere feet away, volunteers helped dismantle tents to move an 80-year-old man and a woman blind in one eye, who risked being fined for staying too long. In the distance, a group of boys climbed on a jungle gym.

The scenes were emblematic of the crisis gripping the small, Oregon mountain town of Grants Pass, where a fierce fight over park space has become a battleground for a much larger, national debate on homelessness that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

The town’s case, set to be heard April 22, has broad implications for how not only Grants Pass, but communities nationwide address homelessness, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. It has made the town of 40,000 the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis, and further fueled the debate over how to deal with it.

https://apnews.com/article/grants-pass-oregon-supreme-court-homeless-encampments-a8dcddb518bd76b11d409666c06701b8

Try spending your money to solve the problem, instead of making it worse!

April 16, 2024

Man who received college degree while incarcerated accepted into law school

Benard McKinley is going to one of the most prestigious law schools in the United States, just four months after he became a free man.

At 16, McKinley was arrested for a gang-related murder, and at 19 years old was sentenced to 100 years in prison. As he was being taken to a maximum security prison to serve his sentence, he made himself a promise.

"I promised myself before I got out of that bus that no matter what the outcome was that, you know, I was just going to try to do better for myself," McKinley, who said he takes full responsibility the mistakes he made at 16, told ABC News. "I knew that I wanted to better myself, and I did that."

McKinley will join the Northwestern Law School class of 2027 when he starts law school this fall at 39 years old

After seeing the financial stress that legal fees were placing on his family, McKinley decided to learn the law and represented himself pro se after obtaining his General Educational Development diploma, or GED, while incarcerated. He also helped those who lacked access or resources to legal aid.

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/man-received-college-degree-incarcerated-accepted-law-school/story?id=109254387

Kudos to him! More incarcerated people could do similar if given the chance.

April 16, 2024

'A roof over our people's heads': the Indigenous US tribe building hempcrete homes

When Earl Pendleton first heard about building houses out of hemp more than a decade ago, it seemed like a far-fetched idea.

To start, it was still illegal to grow hemp – the non-psychoactive strain of Cannabis sativa – in the US. Importing it from overseas was prohibitively expensive. But Pendleton, a member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community, was intrigued by early research that showed hemp could be transformed into non-toxic construction materials that allow for faster build times and result in low-carbon, energy-efficient houses.

Which was exactly what he saw his tribe needed at the time. Roughly half of the tribal nation’s enrolled members – about 1,120 people – are currently in need of housing. With his encouragement, the community started experimenting with hemp as a housing construction material – also known as hempcrete – back in 2016, even before it was decriminalized in the US. This month, the tribal nation is set to open the first vertically integrated hempcrete facility in the nation, complete with its own growing operation.

When the Lower Sioux’s 20,000-sq-ft, $6.2-m onsite facility opens in April, the tribal nation will become a leader in the growing green building movement.

But the decision to invest in hemp was first born out of the Lower Sioux’s commitment to sovereignty and self-determination. “The whole idea was just to be able to service our own needs, because we’re short at least 150 houses [on the reservation],” said Pendleton.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/hempcrete-indigenous-tribe-minnesota

A very cool idea which could be expanded nationwide, if not worldwide.

April 16, 2024

Revealed: how companies made $100m clearing California homeless camps

by Brian Barth

On an October morning, a small army arrived to evict Rudy Ortega from his home in the Crash Zone, an encampment located near the end of the airport runway in San Jose, California, Silicon Valley’s largest city. As jets roared overhead, garbage trucks and police squad cars encircled Ortega’s hand-built shelter. Heavy machinery operators stood by for the signal to bulldoze Ortega’s camp.

As the workers closed in, Ortega grew increasingly upset.

“They’re going to have to drag me out of here,” he said.

The camp, one of the largest in California, was cleared between 2021 and 2023 in part by a private company named Tucker Construction. Public spending on private sweep contractors is soaring across California.

In total, private firms have been paid at least $100m to clear homeless camps, an investigation by the Guardian and Type Investigations has found. The 14 municipalities and public agencies from which spending details could be obtained represent a small slice of such spending in the state.

Astrid Stromberg, who oversees encampment cleanups for Tucker, said its business has expanded dramatically since 2020. The company had about a dozen laborers working full-time on encampment cleanup. Now there are 30, and its clients include roughly a dozen municipalities and public agencies across Silicon Valley. “[Tucker] basically created the industry here,” she said. “I could talk about it for hours.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/us-homeless-encampments-companies-profiting-sweeps

This is sad and terrible. People are unhoused for many reasons, not just because they want to bel. This is no way to treat them.

April 15, 2024

'Where's Melania?': She's Not Standing by Her Man at Trial

As former President Donald Trump entered the courtroom on Monday for the first day of jury selection in his felony hush-money trial, he made a statement but took no questions—especially not the one about his current wife.

“Where’s Melania?” a voice called out.

Trump’s third wife did not show up at Manhattan Criminal Court this morning, and, if history is any guide, will not be present for any of the proceedings.

Melania Trump’s ex-East Wing aide Stephanie Grisham told CNN last week that the case—which centers on a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels so she would keep quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election—is “very, very embarrassing” for the onetime first lady.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/melania-trump-a-no-show-at-first-day-of-hush-money-trial?ref=home

If I were Malania, I'd take the jewels, the money (such as it is) , and the kid, and hightail it back to Slovenia

April 15, 2024

Nike's 'hoo haa' Olympic uniforms reveal everything, including sexism in sport

Paris has long been known for its avant garde fashion. Yet the couture scene would be hard-pressed to produce anything as confounding and controversial as the Team USA track and field kits that were unveiled in the City of Lights last week.

There was nothing to see when it came to Team USA’s men’s track uniforms: standard shorts and a tank top. But when it came to their female counterparts, there was everything to see, especially around the nether regions.

As reigning 800m Olympic champion and Nike athlete Athing Mu modelled the US team’s briefs (fellow participant Sha’Carri Richardson opted for shorts) the scene drummed up memories of the Rio Games: the new USA uniforms would be ideal for a Brazilian beach. Citius Magazine further highlighted the design flaw when it tweeted an image of a mannequin showcasing the uniform and suffering from some major camel toe.

The uniforms are a step backwards on multiple levels. Fashion-wise, they are a hybrid of the leotards worn by 1980s aerobic addicts and the costumes for Baywatch in the 1990s. Except the workout leotards were worn with tights and Baywatch was toned-down porn.

When it comes to the evolution of women’s sports, once again it’s one step forward, two steps back. A commenter on X said it best: “Men can worry about their athletic performance while women have to worry about chaffing, their genitals not falling out and getting a bikini wax. Definitely equal opportunities huh”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/15/team-usa-olympic-uniforms-briefs-paris-2024

They've already had serious problems with their MLB uniforms being see-through. Now they get comments like that from long jumperTara Davis-Woodhall memorably noting that “my hoo haa is gonna be out.” Back to the drawing board, and let WOMEN do it!

April 15, 2024

Clarence Thomas absent from US supreme court with no explanation

Clarence Thomas was absent from the supreme court on Monday with no explanation.

The 75-year-old justice was also not participating remotely in arguments, as justices sometimes do when they are ill or otherwise cannot be there in person.

John Roberts, the chief justice, announced Thomas’s absence, saying that his colleague would still participate in the day’s cases, based on the briefs and transcripts of the arguments. The court sometimes, but not always, says when a justice is out sick.

Thomas was hospitalized two years ago with an infection, causing him to miss several court sessions. He took part in the cases then, too.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/15/clarence-thomas-absent-supreme-court

AWOL without even a note from Ginni? What's going on?

April 15, 2024

We can make birth safer for Black mothers. Here's how.

Over the last 30 years, nearly every wealthy country in the world has made it much safer for people to have babies. Only one outlier has moved in the opposite direction: the United States, where the rate of people dying in childbirth continues, stubbornly and tragically, to rise. In 2021, 1,205 US women died from birth-related causes, up from 754 in 2019. Many of those deaths — a full 89 percent in one Georgia study — are potentially preventable with the proper care.

Black people who give birth are at especially high risk. Nationwide, the maternal mortality rate for Black women is 2.6 times the rate for white women. Some regions have even bigger disparities: In Chicago, the rate for Black women is almost 6 times the rate for white women; in New York City, it’s 9 times.

The causes are big societal problems: failing hospitals (or no hospitals at all), lack of access to affordable health care, and doctors and nurses who dismiss Black women’s pain. These issues may seem intractable, but activists, clinicians, and scholars around the country are already working on solutions: ensuring access to Black doctors and nurses, creating new models of prenatal care that give Black patients a bigger support system, and expanding Medicaid to make sure patients can get care from preconception to postpartum.

Karie Stewart, for example, started Melanated Group Midwifery Care three years ago to provide prenatal and postpartum care “for Black people, by Black people.” As a labor and delivery nurse in Chicago, Stewart said that she always noticed that Black patients were treated differently. “Their care was not even close to what their counterparts were getting,” she said.

To help combat those inequalities — and the dangers birthing people and babies can face when they get substandard care — Melanated Group connects each patient with a Black midwife, doula, nurse, and social worker. Together, they make sure that no matter what issues come up during or after pregnancy, patients always have someone to reach out to — someone who will actually listen to their concerns.

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24092448/black-mothers-maternal-mortality-crisis-solutions

I applaud this, wholeheartedly. However, we should be making childbirth safer for all mothers while doing this at the same time. The first instance of a death in childbirth that I knew was a white mother, not well off, married to a Black man and having her fifth baby. It seems to me that poverty may be the common thread here. Or maybe it was the Black father, in her case....