November 23, 2022

The Far Right Is Already Attacking the Club Q Hero

Richard Fierro, the Army veteran who tackled and disarmed the shooter inside LGBTQ Club Q in Colorado Springs, is currently receiving a torrent of hate and harassment from far-right extremists.

The far-right has is calling Fierro a “groomer” and a “f*ggot,” while questioning his sexuality for being at the Club Q drag show. Others even questioned the veracity of his entire story, according to an investigation conducted by VICE News and researchers at Advance Democracy Inc, a nonprofit that tracks online extremism.

Far-right troll Jack Pososbiec was one of the first people to do this. “Are we just not supposed to talk about the US Army Major taking his family down to the local drag club for a night out?” Pososbiec asked followers on multiple platforms Tuesday morning, including on Truth Social where he has 960,000 followers and on Telegram, where he has over a million.

“Heroes don't take their kids to drag shows,” one of Posobiec’s followers wrote on Telegram in response.

Others joined in: “So a married man, His Wife, Daughter and her boyfriend all go to Gay bar together? I’m gonna call bullshit on this,” a user on far-right Christian platform Gab wrote on Tuesday.

“If it’s not bullshit he’s helping to molest children and he’s all for it,” another Gab user wrote in response, adding: “F*ggot dad in closet.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93avba/colorado-shooting-club-q-richard-fierro

Jack Posobiec should be folded five ways...and I'll let you imagine the rest.

November 23, 2022

How to make Covid the last pandemic

By Kelsey Piper


This is a question that’s been haunting me since the early days of 2020, when it wasn’t clear exactly how deadly Covid-19 was. What is now known as SARS-CoV-1, after all, killed almost 10 percent of people with confirmed infections; MERS, another coronavirus, has had a fatality rate of more than 30 percent in confirmed cases. But neither of those viruses was very transmissible; SARS-CoV-2, better known as Covid, however, was from the start a highly contagious virus, and had it killed at anywhere near the rate of those earlier pathogens, the result would have been horrific.

In general, there are trade-offs between how infectious a virus is and how lethal it is, but it’s not an iron rule: smallpox was more contagious than Covid and as deadly as MERS. There’s also the question of which age groups are affected; the 1918 influenza disproportionately killed healthy young adults, unlike seasonal flu, and many viruses are particularly dangerous to babies. (I had a newborn in the early days of Covid, and one of the things we were most

I’m not reciting this litany to be as depressing as possible. We should be realistic about just how catastrophic a pandemic could truly get, but we’re also not that far away from a world where the answer to ‘‘What would happen if a pandemic much worse than Covid hit?” is “we simply squash it dead.”

That’s the message of a new Geneva Center for Security Policy report by MIT biochemist and Future Perfect 50 selectee Kevin Esvelt about what to do to prepare for the next pandemic. The key takeaway? We’re not helpless, whether against nature or malign actions by human beings. We do have to invest in actually being prepared, but if we’re prepared, we could weather even a worst-case scenario: a deliberate release of a human-made virus engineered to be both extra deadly and extra contagious.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/11/23/23475085/covid-pandemic-infectious-disease-virus-pathogen-illness-kevin-esvelt-genetic-sequencing

November 21, 2022

Baba Yaga: The greatest 'wicked witch' of all?

In fairy tales, women of a certain age usually take one of two roles: the wicked witch or the evil stepmother, and sometimes both.

A key figure from Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga certainly fulfils the requirements of the wicked witch – she lives in a house that walks through the forest on chicken legs, and sometimes flies around in a giant mortar and pestle. She usually appears as a hag or crone, and she is known in most witch-like fashion to feast upon children.

However, she is also a far more complex character than that synopsis suggests. Cunning, clever, helpful as much as a hindrance, she could indeed be the most feminist character in folklore.

So enduring is the legend of Baba Yaga that a new anthology of short stories, Into the Forest (Black Spot Books), has just been released, featuring 23 interpretations of the character, all by leading women horror writers. The stories span centuries, with Sara Tantlinger's Of Moonlight and Moss offering a dream-like evocation of one of the classic Baba Yaga stories, Vasilisa the Beautiful, while Carina Bissett’s Water Like Broken Glass sets Baba Yaga against the backdrop of World War Two. Meanwhile Stork Bites by EV Knight ramps up the horrific aspects of the myth as a salutary tale for inquisitive children.

Baba Yaga appears in many Slavic and especially Russian folk tales, with the earliest recorded written mention of her coming in 1755, as part of a discourse on Slavic folk figures in Mikhail V Lomonosov's book Russian Grammar. Before that, she had appeared in woodcut art at least from the 17th Century, and then made regular appearances in books of Russian fairy tales and folklore.

If you’re a film fan, you might recognise the name from the John Wick films starring Keanu Reeves, in which the eponymous anti-hero is called Baba Yaga by his enemies, giving him the mysterious allure of an almost mythical bogeyman. Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki used Baba Yaga as the basis for the bathhouse proprietor in his award-winning 2001 movie Spirited Away. Baba Yaga appears in music, too; Modest Mussorgsky's 1874 suite Pictures at an Exhibition features a ninth movement called The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga). She might well be making an appearance on the small screen soon, as well; Neil Gaiman used her in his Sandman comics for DC, the adaptation of which has just had its second season announced by Netflix.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221118-baba-yaga-the-greatest-wicked-witch-of-all

I was introduced to Baba Yaga tales as a child, when stories appeared in Jack and Jill magazine. I loved her! There is a wonderful book by Kathy Burford called Hexed in Texas which features her ending up there by accident and is hilarious.

November 21, 2022

Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship

Perched atop a fence at Badlands National Park, Troy Heinert peered from beneath his wide-brimmed hat into a corral where 100 wild bison awaited transfer to the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

Descendants of bison that once roamed North America’s Great Plains by the tens of millions, the animals would soon thunder up a chute, take a truck ride across South Dakota and join one of many burgeoning herds Heinert has helped reestablish on Native American lands.

Heinert nodded in satisfaction to a park service employee as the animals stomped their hooves and kicked up dust in the cold wind. He took a brief call from Iowa about another herd being transferred to tribes in Minnesota and Oklahoma, then spoke with a fellow trucker about yet more bison destined for Wisconsin.

By nightfall, the last of the American buffalo shipped from Badlands were being unloaded at the Rosebud reservation, where Heinert lives. The next day, he was on the road back to Badlands to load 200 bison for another tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux.

Most bison in North America are in commercial herds, treated no differently than cattle.

“Buffalo, they walk in two worlds,” Heinert said. ”Are they commercial or are they wildlife? From the tribal perspective, we’ve always deemed them as wildlife, or to take it a step further, as a relative.”

https://apnews.com/article/science-travel-health-canada-5a7f69c50b4df6a70cf6dbdc40a932b2

Restoring the balance, one animal at a time.

November 21, 2022

Bio of Polish statesman holds lessons on today's Ukraine

One hundred years ago, a revolutionary Polish patriot argued that Russia’s hunger for territory would continue to destabilize Europe unless Ukraine could gain independence from Moscow.

Poland’s Marshal Józef Piłsudski never managed to fulfil his hope for an independent Ukraine connected to Europe. But the farsighted and analytical statesman did manage to wrest his own homeland from the grip of czarism and from two other powers, Austria and Prussia.

At a time when many Poles had given up on the dream for full independence, Piłsudski put a sovereign Polish state back on the map of Europe at the end of World War I, after more than a century’s erasure.

Piłsudski’s story, complete with flaws, accomplishments and echoes of today’s war in Ukraine, is brought to life in a recent biography, “Józef Piłsudski Founding Father of Modern Poland,” by Joshua D. Zimmerman, a professor of Holocaust Studies and eastern European history at New York’s Yeshiva University. The book, published by Harvard University Press, also reexamines Piłsudski’s relationship to Ukraine.

Thickly mustached, with heavy brows and a hawk-like visage, Piłsudski lived modestly and inspired his troops by leading them in battle. He was celebrated at home and abroad in his day, but his memory outside of Poland has faded.

After proclaiming a new Polish republic, Piłsudski and his legionnaires fought a series of wars to define, secure and defend its borders, culminating with his greatest victory: turning back a Bolshevik army in 1920 that was threatening to drive all the way to Berlin and carry a Communist revolution to the heart of industrial Europe.

https://apnews.com/article/poland-ukraine-russia-history-d6d40af0a2a0ccf21961b126be8e2065

Someone we should all know about and respect

November 21, 2022

Buffy Sainte-Marie: 'I didn't know I was ahead of the pack at the time'

Buffy Sainte-Marie vividly remembers the reaction she would get in the folk clubs of the 60s whenever she would perform her song Now That the Buffalo’s Gone, which lists a litany of persistent sins committed against Native peoples. “I would see the faces of all these very smart white people turn ashen,” she said. “They didn’t know anything about Indians, and they were flabbergasted to hear that all these things were still happening on their watch – even in New York! They’d say, ‘Oh, that little Indian girl must be mistaken.’ I was gaslighted by them all the time on that. And it was terribly, terribly painful.”

Even so, when Sainte-Marie talks about vexing subjects like this today she exudes an abiding sense of calm, punctuating even her most withering observations with a giggle that brings the listener in, as if to say, “can you believe we had to put up with all this crap?”

“I don’t have a scolding attitude about these things for a reason,” Sainte-Marie said in a phone interview from her home in Hawaii. “A lot of people come at politics with their fists raised. But you really have to see through that in order to become effective. And to me, it’s all about being effective.”

Now, thanks to a comprehensive new documentary titled Carry It On, viewers can see just how effective Sainte-Marie has been in her eight decades of life. The documentary delineates most, but not all, of the “firsts” in her career, making clear how far ahead of the pack she was in the fields of music, film, television, technology and politics. At the same time, the film covers disturbing issues in her personal life, from sexual abuse by multiple family members to manipulation and confinement by a later romantic partner, to memos and calls made by people associated with various US administrations meant to discourage radio stations from playing her music in the 60s and 70s.

Sainte-Marie only found out about the government’s interference in her career years after it occurred. “They don’t tell you, ‘hey, you’re under surveillance,’” the singer said with a laugh. “I found out about it on a radio show in the 80s.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/21/buffy-sainte-marie-documentary-interview

Wonderful article!

November 21, 2022

In an apparent protest, Iran's World Cup players refuse to sing the national anthem (not sports)

Ahead of their first match in this year's FIFA World Cup, Iran's national team gathered for the national anthems, their players standing side-by-side, arms slung over each other's shoulders.

But rather than sing along, their mouths stayed shut — an apparent show of solidarity on the world's biggest stage with the human rights protest movement that has swept their home country. Players from the opposing team, England, sang their national anthem, as is customary.

For months, Iranians have taken to the streets in demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of the country's morality police. She had been detained for wearing her hijab improperly.

Iran's regime has attempted to crack down on the protests with violent police intervention. Human rights groups allege that over 1000 people have been arrested and hundreds killed.

Now, authorities are putting demonstrators on trial; Iranian courts have already sentenced six to death.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/21/1138259076/iran-world-cup-anthem-protest

This would be their equivalent of taking a knee and is potentially dangerous for the players.

November 21, 2022

Chicago Votes in Favor of Removing Police From Mental Health Crisis Response

In Chicago, the Treatment Not Trauma campaign won overwhelming community support for a non-binding referendum calling for investment in public mental health centers and a non-police crisis response system. Authored by 33rd Ward Alderperson Rossana Rodriguez and envisioned by a coalition of community groups and stakeholders, the ordinance calls for developing a Chicago Crisis Response and Care System within the Chicago Department of Public Health.

On November 8, residents in three wards said “yes” to the Treatment Not Trauma campaign, for an overwhelming win. The 6th, 20th and 33rd wards received 98 percent, 96 percent and 93 percent “yes” votes, respectively. The Treatment Not Trauma campaign — which includes the Collaborative for Community Wellness, Southside Together Organizing for Power, 33rd Working Families, DefundCPD, and most crucial of all, individual community members — sustained the effort through thousands of calls, conversations and doorknocks from mental health professionals, community organizers and residents.

The referendum results combat the idea that Black and Brown residents of Chicago are opposed to mental health investment and divestment from policing.

And Chicago isn’t the only city where organizers are fighting for non-police mental health responses and mental health care systems. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city council voted in April 2021 to invest $3.5 million in federal stimulus funding into a non-police mental health crisis response system. On November 4, the city officially closed its community engagement survey, which asked for input from residents in an effort toward community accountability.

Ann Arbor will hopefully create a system similar to models like CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon, the Street Crisis Response Team in San Francisco, MH First in Oakland, and B-HEARD in New York City. These cities use a non-police crisis response model and send a person trained in medical support to help people experiencing mental health crises, reducing the frequency of criminalization and harm. This role could be filled by an emergency medical technician (EMT), a social worker or a community member trained in deescalation. These programs have successfully treated mental health crises as a public health issue, not a public safety issue.

https://truthout.org/articles/chicago-votes-in-favor-of-removing-police-from-mental-health-crisis-response/

November 20, 2022

In the Mississippi Delta, a hospital anchors its community. Now it's in danger of closing.

Betty Sibley had just laid down to rest after a shower last month when she realized something was wrong.

There were hives bubbling up on her arms and her throat was beginning to swell shut. Both were signs that she was suffering from a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

A first responder injected her with an EpiPen in her thigh and an ambulance raced her to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, roughly 5 miles away, where emergency room staff took over, administering steroid shots.

“I would have died if it had not been for this hospital,” she said.

Now, the hospital she turned to in an emergency is struggling to keep its doors open.

In the past year, the rural hospital’s cash reserves have plummeted, and patient traffic has slowed. Many of those who do come are uninsured, meaning unless they pay out-of-pocket, or pursue some other form of financial assistance, the hospital is unlikely to be reimbursed for their care. And the Medicare loan that helped the hospital in the pandemic now costs Greenwood Leflore more than $100,000 per month.

Hospital leaders have tried to slow the crisis through layoffs and slashing services. Administrators scrapped pay incentives that had helped keep the hospital staffed. This fall Greenwood Leflore closed its labor and delivery unit because there wasn’t enough staff. On Nov. 30, the hospital’s pulmonology clinic will close, a decision made after low patient volume and poor revenue.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-delta-hospital-greenwood-leflore-rcna57949

This is happening to rural hospitals all over the country. More thoughts below.

November 20, 2022

In the Mississippi Delta, a hospital anchors its community. Now it's in danger of closing.

Betty Sibley had just laid down to rest after a shower last month when she realized something was wrong.

There were hives bubbling up on her arms and her throat was beginning to swell shut. Both were signs that she was suffering from a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

A first responder injected her with an EpiPen in her thigh and an ambulance raced her to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, roughly 5 miles away, where emergency room staff took over, administering steroid shots.

“I would have died if it had not been for this hospital,” she said.

Now, the hospital she turned to in an emergency is struggling to keep its doors open.

In the past year, the rural hospital’s cash reserves have plummeted, and patient traffic has slowed. Many of those who do come are uninsured, meaning unless they pay out-of-pocket, or pursue some other form of financial assistance, the hospital is unlikely to be reimbursed for their care. And the Medicare loan that helped the hospital in the pandemic now costs Greenwood Leflore more than $100,000 per month.

Hospital leaders have tried to slow the crisis through layoffs and slashing services. Administrators scrapped pay incentives that had helped keep the hospital staffed. This fall Greenwood Leflore closed its labor and delivery unit because there wasn’t enough staff. On Nov. 30, the hospital’s pulmonology clinic will close, a decision made after low patient volume and poor revenue.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-delta-hospital-greenwood-leflore-rcna57949

This is happening to rural hospitals all over the country.