Everybody needs a guardian. We’d certainly feel better if we had a few tons of guardian at the gate. There’s always a calamity headed someone’s way; we hope not yours. So many people on the edge.1
Some good news! Andy Levin’s became the first congressional office to unionize, with the staff voting unanimously in favor of. Unfortunately he lost his primary so the staff won’t be a bargaining unit anymore come January.2
Still, that’s quite something. Maybe if staff were treated better and paid better, they’d not be so quick to jump ship for the lobby shops.
The EPA just created a new environmental justice desk within the agency that will direct funds to the communities most vulnerable to climate disruptions and pollution from dirty industries.3
“This is a much-needed step to achieve environmental justice,” said Joan Casey, an environmental health researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in an email. “We must start with communities and progress is difficult without funding and federal support.”
The United Farmworkers Union successfully pressured California’s governor into signing a bill granting farmworkers greater organizing opportunities.4
The new law gives California farmworkers, who harvest much of the nation’s fruit and vegetables, new ways to vote in union elections beyond physical polling places on farm property. Proponents say that would help protect workers from union busting and other intimidation, while owners say such a system lacks necessary safeguards to prevent fraud.
One has to give Biden a hat tip here, as his support for the bill helped put the farmworkers over the top.
I know it was you, Fredo.
On balance, we think Cuba is a less imperfect society than the U.S. Probably be better if we hadn’t been trying to strangle it lo these many years.
The new code enacts sweeping advances in the rights of women, LGBTQ people, children, elderly people, and people with disabilities.
The Code promotes equal distribution of domestic responsibilities amongst men and women and extends labor rights to those who care full-time for children, the elderly, or people with disabilities. The code establishes the right to a family life free from violence, one that values love, affection, solidarity and responsibility. It codifies domestic violence penalties, and promotes comprehensive policies to address gender-based violence.5
We tend to view these breakthroughs as hospice care, but, still, nevertheless.
All new vehicles purchased in New York will need to be zero-emission models beginning in 2035, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced on Thursday.
“We’re really putting our foot down on the accelerator and revving up our efforts to make sure we have this transition — not someday in the future, but on a specific date, a specific year — by the year 2035,” Hochul said at a press conference in White Plains, N.Y.
The story describes Hochul as “careening into the Chester-Maple Parking Lot in a white Chevy Bolt,” which for some reason puts us in mind of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Iron Lady II showing signs of rapid oxidation.6
The latest Opinium poll shows a precipitous fall in Truss’s personal ratings after the fallout from her government’s mini-budget, and Labour surging ahead with voters across a whole range of issues.
The prime minister’s net approval rating has fallen from -9 to -37 in the space of a week, as voters took a dim view of many measures in her mini-budget and her subsequent attempts to defend them. The latest poll showed 18% approved of the job she is doing, with 55% disapproving.
Why do conservatives hate people so much?
That’s all we got. Report to the Socialist re-education camp nearest you.
We went with comfort music this morning, or comfort artists, anyway, starting with The Psychedelic Furs, “Talk Talk Talk.” Sampa the Great’s “As Above, So Below,” Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” — which has one of our all-time favorite tunes, It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry — and Henri Herbert’s “Boogie Till I Die,” the most recent effort from the boogie-woogie artist extraordinaire, completed the set.
The Guardian on new British PM Liz Truss
Eisenhower blew it when he refused to recognize Castro's government. They might not have gravitated to the Russians (Soviets in those days).