Even if John Stewart is Gone, We all Need to Keep taking on FOX and all the Media

Posted on September 8, 2009 by

I am going to put a lot of John Stewart videos in the comment section, like this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO_om3iK9kE

You probably heard the great news – after a few years of progressive activism, FOX finally cancelled Glenn Beck’s show–but the Boycott Must Go On!!

Ten years ago, Media Matters launched with a revolutionary mission: to systematically monitor the U.S. media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. We’ve been calling out right-wing lies for a decade — and we’re not done yet. Will you contribute now to help us raise $10,000 for our 10th anniversary?

Media Matters Timeline

For ten years, we’ve successfully fought back against the bad actors that poison our media with right-wing lies and smears. It’s been an amazing beginning, and we couldn’t have done it without your support.

We’re in this for the long haul. Make an anniversary gift today to kickstart the next ten years of media accountability.

Dear Kevin,
You probably heard the great news – after two years of progressive activism, FOX finally cancelled Glenn Beck’s show.
Beck was targeted after he slandered President Obama by saying, “This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don’t know what it is… This guy, I believe, is a racist.”
Activists at ColorOfChange, Media Matters, StopBeck, FoxNewsBoycott, and of course Democrats.com responded with a boycott of advertisers on Glenn Beck’s show. Ultimately over 300 advertisers pulled their ads from Beck, costing FOX over $40 million.
Advertiser boycotts work! And it’s time to boycott all FOX News advertisers:
http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
We’re starting our boycott of all FOX News with Proactiv, which sells acne medicine to teenagers and young adults. Why?
First, there are lots of other acne treatments. Second, young adults above all are hurt by FOX News, which promotes right-wing policies on race, education, healthcare, the environment, and war. Let’s get our future leaders to lead the fight against FOX News!
Sign the petition to Proactiv and enter the email address of every young adult over 18 you know:
http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
Beyond President Obama, FOX regularly slanders nearly everyone: Democrats, unionized workers, the unemployed (including veterans and 99ers), environmentalists, feminists, blacks, Hiics, Jews, Muslims, progressives, scientists, and any other group it disagrees with.
FOX News broadcasts rightwing extremist slander, incitement to violence, political propaganda, and outright lies to promote its rightwing political agenda. This is not “news,” but rather a never-ending “war on news” – and it’s all documented in our petition.
Why would any decent company want to fund it? Tell Proactiv to stop advertising on FOX News:
http://www.democrats.com/boycott-proactiv
Thanks for all you do!
Bob Fertik

GLEN BECK ADMITTED in 2007, “I Am RACIST and Barack Obama is very White” THIS MAKES Boycotting FOX NEWS needed NOW

By Kevin Stoda

Dear, American supporters of the Fascist Oddball Xenophobic (FOX) news networks.

AMERICANS are getting less tolerant of your racism and stronghold on our major media.

For example, we have noted that in his 2007 TV program from FOX (See on You-Tube), Glen Beck admitted he himself was racist. Further, Beck then, in contrast to 2009, called Barrack Obama much more white than black. (Apparently, Beck now he has other nonsense to mush men’s minds.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0tgvWxC_6A

Using a major news platform to promote racism and to tell people to disrespect a whole presidential administration through mixed truths, outright lies, and xenophobia, is not to be tolerated any more.

On Democracy Now today, Amy Goodman asked Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP what he thought of Wal-Mart’s pull-out from advertising on the Glen Beck program on FOX.

NOTE: Goodman had simply asked , “The whole attack by Glenn Beck that drove this (resignation)? In your response from the NAACP to Van Jones, it says, ´The only thing more outrageous than Mr. Beck’s attack on Van Jones is the fact that there are sponsors that continue to pay him to provide this type of offensive commentary.` Do you support the continued boycott of companies like Wal-Mart of Beck’s show on Fox?”

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/8/white_house_environmental_adviser_van_jones

This is a particularly important point because Glen Beck´s HATE CAMPAIGN ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION led recently to a great American policy maker, Van Jones, quitting the government this week.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/06/van-jones-resigns/

Mr. Jealous said, “We certainly support them (Walmart) choosing with their dollars who they’re going to support. I mean, it’s—Glenn Beck is somebody who’s told a seven-year-old girl, a seven-year-old black girl, that he would buy her a ticket back to Africa, that she needed to go back to Africa. And then he comes out, and he says that healthcare is the beginning of reparations. I mean, this guy plays the race card on a weekly basis. He does it very aggressive—you know, in a very hateful way.”

Recall, first, that Van Jones is one of the most important and thoughtful men in America—however, the FOX (Fascist Oddball Xenophobic) news network chose to support a man, like Glen Beck, rather than seeing that tens of millions of Americans need to get health care from promoters like Jones and that our America economy needs to move starting today to the kind of economy that its competitors worldwide are already doing.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/95963/what_will_the_green_economy_look_like/

Let’s quote the wisdom and influential words of Van Jones on the absolute necessity to green the American economy NOW!

“I think it’s really important to point out that we’re sort of at the end of an era of American capitalism, where we thought we could run the economy based on consumption rather than production, credit rather than creativity, borrowing rather than building, and also, most importantly, environmental destruction rather than environmental restoration.”

Jones continued, “We’re trying to make the case in this book that that era is over. We now have to move in a very different direction. And key to that will be basing the US economy not on credit cards, but based on clean energy and the clean energy revolution that would put literally millions of people to work, putting up solar panels all across the United States, weatherizing buildings so they don’t leak so much energy and put up so much carbon, building wind farms and wave farms, manufacturing wind turbines. We argue you could put Detroit back to work not making SUVs to destroy the world, but making wind turbines, 8,000 finely machine parts in each one, twenty tons of steel in each wind tower, making wind turbines to help save the world.”

Finally, Van Jones wisely noted, “So we think that you can fight pollution and poverty at the same time. We think that you can actually power our way through this recession by putting people to work, but we’re going to have to start building things here and re-powering, retrofitting, retooling America, and that that’s the way forward both for the economy, for the earth and for everyday people.”

Note: These statements came from a program on DN from October of last year:

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/28/van_jones_on_the_green_collar

Van Beck has written a book of the same title, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061650758/The_Green_Collar_Economy/index.aspx

America needs such voices as Van Jones in government leadership in America—not Fascist Oddball Xenophobic (FOX) types.

Clean up the American airwaves of all its fascism and racism, today.

http://www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com/a-petition-against-fox-conservative-host-glenn-beck.aspx

NOTE: One way to change the noise of Fascist Oddball Xenophobic (FOX) media moguls is to support alternative media organizations

http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/index

and alternative monitoring websites.

http://americas.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/64380

Another way, is to demand that local radio and TV channels put better programming on, such as Democracy Now or news sources promoted by serious progressive journalists:

http://www.tacomapjh.org/progressive_news.htm

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Was wisst Ihr von Querdenken?

Posted on June 18, 2018 by

Laterales Denken
Bildergebnis für Querdenken
Laterales Denken, umgangssprachlich auch Querdenken genannt, ist eine Denkmethode, die im Rahmen der Anwendung von Kreativitätstechniken zur Lösung von Problemen oder Ideenfindung eingesetzt werden kann. Wikipedia
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Here is where my wife and daughter went this weekend (Father’s Day) in Ft. Lauderdale–and it was free and fun

Posted on June 18, 2018 by

Secret Woods Nature Center

2701 W. State Rd. 84, Dania Beach, FL 33312
Phone: 954-357-8884 • Fax: 954-357-8885 • Email: SecretWoods@Broward.org

Wi-Fi available in the Julia Hall.

Broward County’s first nature center, which opened in September 1978, comprises three vegetative communities found along and influenced by the New River: an inland freshwater cypress/maple wetland, a pond apple/mangrove community along the river, and, farther inland, a laurel oak hammock. The 57-acre site is now designated as an Urban Wilderness Area.

 

The nature trail along the New River
Amphitheater

Nature Trails

                      Office

                           Julia Assembly Hall
Monarch Interpretive Center

Butterfly Island
A 3,800-square-foot walk-through butterfly garden where you’ll find more than 20 different species of plants that attract butterflies. A 250-foot mulched path winds through the garden and has three benches along the way where you can sit and relax. Among the butterflies commonly seen in the area are the monarch, zebra longwing, cloudless sulphur, queen, gulf fritillary, giant swallowtail, and atala hairstreak.

Julia Hall
Rustic charm is abundant in this 2,175-square-foot hall, which has tongue-and-groove walls and a ceiling with exposed wooden beams. The room will comfortably seat 75 for a banquet. There is a fully equipped kitchen off the main room, and the adjacent 100-capacity open-air amphitheater measures 2,400 square feet. Wi-Fi is available.

Rental of the facility includes chairs and tables (both 60-inch-diameter round tables and 72-by-20-inch rectangular tables are available), as well as use of the kitchen and the amphitheater, which can also be rented separately within 30 days of the rental date (provided the hall has not been rented. The Butterfly Glade is available as an addition to the Julia Hall rental for intimate al fresco ceremonies. The hall is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Rental times include setup and cleanup.

Laurel Oak Trail
A 1,200-foot mulched nature trail that takes you from a hardwood hammock through a tidal marsh area and back. When you begin your walk along the Laurel Oak Trail, you are surrounded by laurel oaks, live oaks, sabal palms, wild coffee, green- and red-tipped cocoplum, beautyberry, and white stopper. As you continue down the trail, you will come to a series of four bridges that will carry you through a tidal marsh. There you will see leather ferns, pond apple trees, white mangroves, and a variety of palms. You are also likely to see many birds, squirrels, crabs, and lizards. There are several seating areas along the way.

New River Trail
This 3,200-foot boardwalk trail, constructed almost entirely from recycled plastic lumber, will take you through three different ecosystems. Your journey begins in a hardwood hammock where you are surrounded by native Florida vegetation such as laurel oak trees, sabal palms, white stopper, wild coffee, strangler figs, and cocoplum. As you get closer to the river, you will come to a tidal marsh area. The boardwalk will then rise above the water line, and you will be able to walk through a tidal marsh area that is completely under water during high tide. There you will see leather ferns, red and white mangroves, pond apple trees, and cypress.

Monarch Interpretive Center
A 2,000-square-foot facility with interpretive displays and hands-on activities focusing on the nature center’s flora and fauna. The center opened in October 2002 and includes a working beehive, along with a reptile habitat with snakes native to the area. Three computer kiosks feature interactive programs about plant, animal, and marine life, as well as weather and soil. There are also displays of Native American artifacts, and a mural depicting Native Americans as they approach historic Stranahan House to trade their wares. The center’s video room offers presentations on the Everglades and other nature-related topics, available upon request.

Public Art and Design
The Monarch Interpretive Center is home to a project called Metamorphosis, a ceramic tile floor by Raymond Olivero that represents the flight pattern of the butterfly. The artist also designed brightly colored butterfly “fresco glass” doors to grace the building’s entryway. This site-specific, integrated artwork fuses nature with art and design. “I have taken the flight pattern of the butterfly as the basis for the pathway,” the artist says in a statement. “I chose the butterfly not only for its unique flight pattern, but also because it is featured at the park, particularly at its entrance area….I also chose the butterfly motif for the butterfly’s innate variety and beauty as well as its metamorphosis, which makes it one of nature’s mysteries and secrets. In short, the butterfly offers the greatest degree of aesthetic and metaphorical possibilities.”

Swallowtail Classroom
An environmental education classroom that can accommodate classes of up to 20. Nature center staff can customize a lesson plan to meet the needs of most groups looking to learn more about the local environment. The classroom can be rented for four hours for $120 plus tax. For program information and reservations, call the park office at 954-357-8884.

Pets
No pets are allowed within the nature center’s boundaries.

Broward County Transit
The nature center is accessible via Route #6.

A Little History
When the approximately 30 acres known as the Rebecca Cohen Subdivision were scheduled for rezoning to make way for a marina parking lot in 1971, there was an outcry from local citizens who wanted to preserve their “secret woods.” The rezoning was canceled and the Nature Conservancy (a nonprofit organization) bought most of the property. Broward County made an agreement with the Nature Conservancy to purchase the land back within three years. In 1975, and over the next decade, the county purchased additional parcels of land while also receiving some donations, to bring the park to its current size of 57 acres. A matching Land and Water Conservation Fund grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, was also used during the nature center’s development.

Wildlife
This nature center is home to wildlife. If you have questions regarding wildlife or wish additional information, please call the park number above. The following safety tips are recommended for our guests: 1. Be aware of your surroundings and avoid the water’s edge. 2. Alligators, snakes, and other animals live in this area. 3. Do not approach, feed, or taunt alligators, snakes, or other wildlife. 4. No swimming or wading except in designated areas. 5. Use common sense while in this nature center.

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I gave Dad a gift that will capture a lifetime of living—and become a treasured memoir! This year-long journey posed 12 intriguing questions per month, with space to record a personal answer.

Posted on June 18, 2018 by

ANOTHER MEMORY from my  DAD this Father’s Day 2018

           “How Great Thou Art” is a Christian hymn based on a Swedish traditional melody and a poem written by Carl Boberg (1859–1940) in Mönsterås, Sweden in 1885.           It was translated into German and then into Russian and became a hymn. It was translated into English from the Russian by English missionary Stuart K. Hine, who also added two original verses of his own. The composition was set to a Russian melody. It was popularised by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows during the Billy Graham crusades.[1] It was voted the United Kingdom’s favourite hymn by BBC‘s Songs of Praise.[2] “How Great Thou Art” was ranked second (after “Amazing Grace“) on a list of the favourite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001.[3]–Wikipedia

 

by Kevin Stoda

The ad or blurb for A Father’s Legacy: Your Life Story in Your Own Words (2006) , a journal I had given my own Dad a decade earlier now states on Father’s Day: “Give Dad a gift that will capture a lifetime of living—and become a treasured memoir! This year-long journey poses 12 intriguing questions per month, with space to record a personal answer. Topics explore family history, childhood memories, cherished traditions, spiritual adventures, and more. And the lay-flat spiral binding makes writing easier. “

One of the newer memories from my dad was presented as an answer to the questions in A Father’s Legacy: Your Life Story in Your Own Words (1996) was his favorite hymn or song.  (I did not read this semi-diary of my Dad’s until this year–a decade after his passing.)

Ronald John Stoda –that is my Dad– wrote one day in his copy of A Father’s Legacy that his favorite hymn was HOW GREAT THOUGH ARTH.  It is one of my favorites too–and recall that 

Here are some of the verses of the classic by Carl Boberg, written nearly 1 1/2 centuries ago.

Verse #1
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Verse #2
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze

Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Verse #3
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin

Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Verse #4
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”

Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

My family would occasionally watch the Kathryn Kulman programs on TV back in the 1970s and I heard the song often then, but came to love the text more and more over the decades.  This is the case–even though–I am not big on evangelism TV over the past 4 decades. (See video: Moment of Worship Kathryn Kuhlman )

I agree with the ad writer who once said, “There’s nothing like a good hymn to truly make you feel closer to the Lord. When you sing out those lyrics, it’s almost like His strength and love wash over us. And one of the most powerful hymns of all time is ‘How Great Thou Art.’ I just love hearing this amazing hymn and now that I know the story behind the song, it makes it that much more beautiful.”

Jason Soroski has written of HOW GREAT THOU ART’s history in The Story You Don’t Know behind How Great Thou Art.  He reveals the hymns journey from a poem in Sweden to a Swedish, then Russian, then Polish, and finally an English hymn–first made famous in Indian churches–decades before Billy Graham learned about it and played it in his crusades from 1954 onwards.

My dad was not an evangelical but both his wife’s were.  This him likely tied him to his wive’s spiritual  journeys.

What can you learn about your father this Father’s Day?

 

OTHER RELATED WRITINGS ON DAD AND MEMORY THROUGH JOURNALING

https://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/a-fathers-legacy-his-life-story-in-our-own-words-part-4/

https://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/a-fathers-legacy-his-life-story-in-our-own-words-part-5/.

A Father’s Legacy: His Life Story in “Our” Own Words ? (Part 6)

A Father’s Legacy: His Life Story in “Our” Own Words ? (Part 7).

A Father’s Legacy: His Life Story in “Our” Own Words ? (Part 8)

A Father’s Legacy: His Life Story in “Our” Own Words ? (Part 9)

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Our Migrant Neighbors and Jesu

Posted on June 18, 2018 by

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

Once, in Negolas, Mexico, I walked with a crowd behind a young woman acting as Jesus’s mother Mary, sitting on a donkey in the rain under a purple umbrella, approaching the border wall and calling out, “Is there any room?” I can no longer read these passages of Mary’s impending labor and not think of our migrant neighbors. Jesus is still knocking on doors. Am I living my life in such a way that is working to get more of them open?
Britney Winn Lee is an author and Community Arts Director for a United Methodist Church in Shreveport, LA where she lives with her husband and son. She writes often about faith, community, neighbor-loving, and mercy-needing. Her work can be found on RLC, Sojourners, Off the Page, and Art House America. Britney is a Red Bud Writers Guild member whose first book, Deconstructed Do-Gooder: A Memoir About Finding Mercy the Hard Way, is currently being published through Wipf and Stock. Follow her on her blog (britneywinnlee.com) or on instagram/twitter (@britneywlee).
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Putting the Camera to 1% America and lack of Social Development due to skewed economic and human priorities

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

Dear Kevin,

THANK YOU!!! I am extremely grateful to so many people who came forward to support and help me recover from an assault and robbery by #JoggerJoe, the man who was caught on video dumping a homeless man’s possessions into Oakland’s Lake Merritt.1

One of the men who robbed and assaulted me while I was streaming on Facebook live — Henry Sintay aka #JoggerJoe — was taken into custody.2 Sintay’s arrest was the result of wide-scale community organizing, driven by an incredible commitment to the well-being of all of Oakland’s residents.

As a long-time social justice and housing rights advocate, I believe that Sintay should be held accountable for his actions, including the assault and robbery; polluting our lake; and harassing our homeless neighbor, who locally, is known as “Drew.”3 I also believe that #JoggerJoe was acting out inappropriately in response to a very real and serious crisis in our city and country: the lack of sufficient, safe, and affordable housing.

While what happened to me was horrible, it does not begin to compare with the daily mistreatment of our neighbors who are unhoused, homeless, or unsheltered. I believe that housing is a human right and I am deeply concerned with our unrelenting housing crisis. The unsheltered such as Drew are the visible homeless, and sadly, there are too many people like Drew sleeping on concrete, in abandoned buildings, and other non-residential spaces. Our area also claims another facet of poverty rarely seen or reported in the news: the epidemic of invisible homelessness. These are families, including moms with children, and working professionals like teachers, couch-surfing at grandma’s, on years-long waiting lists for very limited subsidized housing, sleeping in their cars, or living in dangerous housing conditions because there is no alternative.4

In addition to holding #JoggerJoe and others like him accountable, at Presente, we are committed to tackling this issue no matter how great a task it may seem. We’ve done this before with the mortgage crisis and were able to change a U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policy because of it. It’s time to flex our people-powered muscle again! Are you in? Would you be willing to contribute towards a public education and corporate accountability initiative to help tackle the U.S. housing crisis?

As a continuation of the bold steps that we took to address the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis, we plan to target the responsible parties at the very top: hedge fund and private equity mega-landlords. These are companies with the most to financially gain in displacing current residents and making our cities unaffordable. We intend to create the conditions for residents across the country, their neighbors, and those who act on behalf to do the right thing and support policies that will protect families over the profit interests of huge banks and private investment speculators.
Housing is a human right

We also hope to shift the assumptions and behaviors of people like #JoggerJoe who insist on blaming and scapegoating our most vulnerable neighbors for this country’s housing crisis. Our unhoused neighbors are not the ones to blame for our housing crisis. Greedy corporate landlords are. It’s time to flex our people-powered muscle and speak up! Please consider donating to Presente’s housing justice initiatives.

Recently, millions of people celebrated Oakland’s championship #Warriors basketball team, and if Oakland can bring home 3 championships in 4 years, we should be able to house everyone who needs shelter. Oakland can be a brilliant example of a dignified place to live for everyone, but only if we make it that way.5

CONTRIBUTE

Thank you for all you do for our families y ¡adelante!

– Matt, Elisa, Favianna, Erick, Reetu, Oscar, Erica and the Presente.org team.

P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.

 

References:

[1] “Jogger who tossed homeless man’s things arrested in cell-phone theft.” KTVU. June 12, 2018.
[2] “Is this that same dude?.” Facebook Post. June 9, 2018.
[3] “Oakland Jogger Who Threw Out Homeless Man’s Belongings Faces Related Robbery Charge.” The New York Times. June 14, 2018.
[4] “The Story of the Oakland Jogger Who Threw a Homeless Man’s Stuff Into a Lake Has Taken a Wild Turn.” Splinter. June 14, 2018.
[5] “Executive director of nation’s largest latinx civil and human rights organization responds to the arrest of one of the men who assaulted him.” Presente.org. June 13, 2018.

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Still another way Trump is Costing USA taxpayers–record number of lawsuits based on his cronyism etc.

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

Kevin: Again and again, President Trump has trampled American values, undermined civil rights, and harmed people’s lives with his reckless policies. But since day one of this administration, Democratic Attorneys General have been fighting back – and with just months until Election Day, they urgently need your support.
U.S. News & World Report: AGs “lead the charge” against Trump
  • Dem AGs came together to defend healthcare when the Trump administration refused to defend the ACA;
  • Dem AGs sued to keep the DACA program alive, protecting Dreamers from possible deportation;
  • Dem AGs are fighting back waves of GOP attacks on a woman’s right to choose, from the Trump administration to state legislatures;
  • Dem AGs have taken more than 80 actions to protect our environment from Scott Pruitt’s toxic agenda.
The Hill: Democratic AGs suing Trump at “record pace”
Dem AGs are leading the fight against Trump. But Election Day is just around the corner, and with 35 Attorney General seats at stake this November, we need every Democrat to commit to winning these critical races.

We still need 241 more 2018 members to hit our 1,000-member goal before tonight’s midnight deadline. We can’t keep up the fight against Trump without your support, but we just checked our membership records and here’s what we found:
Email: eslkevin1@yahoo.com
Supporter ID: 611768
Democratic Justice Fund Membership: PENDING
Click here to give $1 or more before tonight’s deadline to join the Democratic Justice Fund, elect Dem AGs, and stop Trump!
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Future of Grizzlies in Yellowstone

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

Grizzly 610 walks down a park road with her three cubs in springtime, April 13, 2012. (Photo courtesy of Thomas D. Mangelsen)
Yellowstone grizzlies could soon be hunted
The Yellowstone region’s iconic grizzly bears were illegally stripped of Endangered Species Act protections, so we’re suing to protect them.
READ MORE
HELP STOP THE GRIZZLY HUNT
We’re using the full force of the law to protect grizzlies and other endangered species. Help support these courtroom battles by June 30 and your gift will be matched $1-for-$1!
DONATE NOW
Thanks to advocacy by Earthjustice and other groups, New York will now require cleaning product companies to let the public know if the ingredients in their cleaners are linked to health problems. (Natali_Mis/Shutterstock)
What’s in our toilet bowl cleaner?
Cleaning companies now must come clean about their toxic ingredients thanks to a newly implemented law.
READ MORE
An access road for drilling rigs and heavy equipment would run through this landscape if two proposed mines are constructed near Yellowstone’s northern entrance. (Photo courtesy of William Campbell)
Yellowstone gateway more valuable than a gold mine
A district court ruled that Montana regulators illegally ignored impacts to water quality and wildlife when approving a gold mine project near Yellowstone.
READ MORE
Ronald Brittan, right, and others demonstrate in favor of solar energy in front in Las Vegas, Nevada. (John Locher/AP)
Putting clean energy in reach for low-income communities
For some, a lack of rooftop space or funds for solar panel installation can make clean energy unattainable. Fortunately, there’s a solution: community solar.
READ MORE
Central to Appalachian identity and heritage, West Virginia's mountains are being destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. (Photo courtesy of OVEC)
Stifling science in coal country
The Trump administration doesn’t want us to know what’s making coal country sick—and it lied about why it canceled a study of mining’s health impacts.
READ MORE
Quotable
“It all began with the brave individuals who spoke out when their health suffered in the FEMA trailers. They demanded that the federal government prevent a recurrence of this tragedy, and the protections are now a reality because the courts held the EPA to the law.”
— Earthjustice attorney Patti Goldman on the case to limit the amount of formaldehyde emitted from wood products.
READ MORE
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How I spent this Father’s Day Weekend as Pilgrim at MSD High in Parkland, FL

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

by Kevin Stoda

This morning I drove from my hotel in Ft. Lauderdale over to conclude a pilgrimage to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

All around the mile length of fencing around the front part of the now both infamous and famous high school were banners of encouragement to those who study and teach there.  The most common banner wording I observed around the fencing this 10am stated  #MSDStrong.  Similar signs were on the middle schools in the neighborhood, too. There were also trees for about a mile to the south with purple ribbons tied onto them.

At the high school, I thrice read aloud the 17 names of those murdered in the 14 February massacre. These names were listed on a white banner on the southeast gate entrance to the high school.

I took out a symbol of freshness and my own youth:  a box of white Tic Tacs. [1]

A tiny box of Tic Tacs contains about 17 Tic Tacs.  As I located and read each of the names of the 17, I dropped a white TicTac onto the ground at the bottom of the fence in remembrance of  each victim of the MSD Shooting.  I also prayed that the revolution against gun violence against Americans–especially youth–will be brought to fulfillment this year.

Finally, I put the one extra  (or remaining_ white TicTac (number 18 in the container) into my mouth to indicate a sense of shared community of fathers and community. Finally,  before ending my pilgrimage I looked around at the banners shared in all directions around the school.  I had ended a journey of some 1700+ miles from my own Kansas High School, where we had again been forced to conduct a safety drill just a day after the most recent massacre at a Texas High School very recently.

I had driven down from Kansas City, KS to this part of Florida over a 3 week period on the day we teachers had finished our end of the semester grading and paper work  at J.C. Harmon High School for this spring of 2018.

As both a father and a teacher, I feel for American victims of all stripes of violence–that leading to suicide, more bullying, and more trauma, & especially victims of mass shootings over the past 20 years.

However, being a witness to such trauma has not been enough, America.  So, we now look to new leadership in America to take over in 2018. If we include all the war related and terror related violence of American troops and abroad over these past decades, nearly every single American has been affected adversely by violence and guns since Columbine or Waco[2]

In the meantime, as a father (and it being Father’s Day), I plan to take my daughter out to play in the parks of this city in Florida this June 17, 2018 afternoon.

I also pray that by the time my own daughter (now 8 years old) attends high school, many of the American nightmares of the past 20 years in American schools and society will have finally been ended as the current status quo of the American way of Life must be seen as a NO GO, my dear brothers and sisters here in the USA.

Enough is Enough.

Do something this 2018–as a parent and as a human being here in America!

NOTES

[1]. Tic Tacs are a symbol of youth and even of run-amok presidential candidates and USA presidential shamelessness.  See:  Wattles, Jackie,  Tic Tac to Donald Trump: ‘Respect women’, http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/08/news/companies/tic-tac-donald-trump-washington-post-video/index.html

[2]. Gun Violence has affected lives of 1 in 3 Americans over the past 20 years. Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School survivors visit Naperville to talk about gun violence, http://abc7chicago.com/parkland-school-shooting-survivors-participate-in-gun-violence-town-hall-in-naperville/3611256/

 

 

 

 

 

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Some Fibro Patients can Hardly Get out of Bed, Day after Day

Posted on June 17, 2018 by


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Fibromyalgia News Today Weekly Columns

See below for a brief overview of last week’s columns, written by fibromyalgia patient specialists. Click through to read each piece in its entirety:

 

Getting Out of Bed Is the Hardest Part

Jun 13, 2018 09:00 am | Christine Lynch

bedNo matter what time I go to bed at night, I have difficulty getting up in the morning. Whether it’s 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. or 11 a.m., I always wish I could have more time under the covers. Some days I’m sure it’s fibromyalgia-related. Other days I’m just as sure it’s not. Often, my […]

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The Average Teacher Has 14 Years of Experience In the 2015-16 school year, teachers in public schools had on average about 14 years of experience and worked roughly 53 hours a week–compare that to experience that Donald Trump and many GOP Governors bring to their offices

Posted on June 17, 2018 by

who is the average teacher

Does This Sound Like You?

A new federal survey asked U.S. teachers about their backgrounds, salaries, job satisfaction — and how much of their own money they spend on classroom supplies. We share the highlights.

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NEA Crisis Guide

NEA Guide Aims to Help Schools Respond to and Recover from Crises

Created by educators for educators, this new step-by-step resource can make it easier to keep schools safe — before, during, and after a crisis.

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staff collaboration is key to a healthy school

Striking the Right Tone: Staff Collaboration Key to a Healthy School

At Kennedy Elementary, teamwork, camaraderie, and mutual appreciation are the pillars upon which the school operates.

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