Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

Today is the Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American community. 81 years ago today, when I was just a boy of four, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion the evacuation of people of Japanese descent from the West Coast and our long years of internment inside ten barbed wire prison camps.

We must never let such a thing happen again in America, and and we must strive everywhere to prevent the forced relocation and mass incarceration of innocent people. #NeverForget #NeverAgain

Mark Sumner writes,

"Just last month [Jimmy Carter] wrote a New York Times op-ed expressing his concern about the future of democracy. 'I now fear that what we have fought so hard to achieve globally—the right to free, fair elections, unhindered by strongman politicians who seek nothing more than to grow their own power—has become dangerously fragile at home,' wrote President Carter."

#JimmyCarter #democracy #authoritarianism

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2153743/-Prepare-yourself-Jimmy-Carter-is-not-going-to-be-with-us-much-longer

As you read this story about the Taliban banning contraception, recall that just last year, Republicans blocked the Democrats' Right to Contraception Act in the Senate. #news
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/feb/17/taliban-ban-contraception-western-conspiracy

Sure, after his presidency, Jimmy Carter could have just retired to a country club, put out petty diatribes insulting his "enemies," and played lots of golf. Instead, he decided to help build living spaces for people who needed them. He talked the talk and then walked the walk.

This is what it looks like to lead by example.

#JimmyCarter #HabitatForHumanity #Service #WeekendThoughts

On this day in 1942, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, relocating 120,000 Japanese Americans to concentration camps. On this #DayofRemembrance, I honor Nyogen Senzaki, one of the first #Zen #Buddhist teachers in America, who led meditation sessions at Heart Mountain camp.

Bird pins (brooches) made out of scrap materials by Japanese Americans held in internment camps during World War II.
From The Art of Gaman: Arts & Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946 by Delphine Hirasuna (Ten Speed Press, 2005).
Gaman is a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin which means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”.
#art #artmatters

White House criticizes Youngkin over menstrual tracking bill - ABC News
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/white-house-criticizes-youngkin-menstrual-tracking-bill-97312571

#Menstruation #Abortion #Politics #General_news #Government_and politics #Health

This is brilliant data-infused journalism:

Washington Post correlates terrible credit scores in the U.S. South with the refusal of state governments to expand federally funded Medicaid, creating vast amounts of medical debt and bankruptcies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/17/bad-southern-credit-scores/

Republican ideologues have made your states even poorer, and your citizens far worse off in all kinds of ways.

Of course, they're proud of it.

Day 2 of the #greatbackyardbirdcount is #today! We did two counts an hour apart. The first time we saw a murder of 16 #crows and a purple #finch, but #diversity was low. The second count, we saw a pair of downy #woodpeckers, white and red breasted nuthatches, a pair of geese, a cardinal, a junco and many chickadees. #birds #gbbc

Wow. WaPo digs into why the South has the lowest credit scores in the country (adding to individual consumers' borrowing costs, freezing then out of credit at all). The answer: Medical debt. Because the South didn't expand Medicaid.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/17/bad-southern-credit-scores/

Dr. Patricia Era Bath, 1981. Inventor of the Laserphaco Probe, used worldwide in eye surgery to remove cataracts. Bath founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.

She restored sight to millions of people suffering from cataracts. #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackMastodon

Upheaval Dome, Utah

Upheaval Dome in Utah is 3.4 mile-diameter bull’s eye-shaped feature in Canyonlands National Park so large it can be seen from space. The rock layers in the center form an eroded dome (anticline) exposing the oldest rocks in the center, surrounded by down-sloping younger rocks (syncline).

Despite some early debate, it has been determined that the feature was formed by the impact of a meteorite over 457 feet across as evidenced by shocked quartz grains, faulting, and other impact features.

More on the geology here: https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/geosights/upheaval-dome/

A beautiful aerial view of Upheaval Dome here: https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/04/upheaval-dome-in-canyonlands-national-park.html

Image from: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/7887/upheaval-dome-utah

Look at the consolidation of the meat industry.

Just 4 firms control 85% of the beef market, 66% of the pork market, and 54% of the poultry market.

The result?

-Lower pay for farmers.
-Bigger profits for monopolies.
-Higher prices for you.

With the Ohio train derailment in the news, here's a reminder that there are over 1,300 Superfund sites across the USA - areas of extreme pollutants with dangerous chemicals.

Maps and specific locations by state can be found at this site.

https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live

Ron DeSantis is requesting medical records of trans students

6 of 12 universities are confirmed to have complied with the request, regardless of HIPAA violations

If a liberal did anything similar, you’d head right wing media talking nonstop about their freedom being violated.

But for some reason, if you attack our at-risk communities or apply the word “woke” then fascism is a-ok.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

As mentioned above, it appears a hot box detector failed to alert the crew of problems 20 miles before the derailment.

Over the past few years, Norfolk Southern increased their profits by simply not having employees to maintain the hot box detectors.

"As recently as three years ago, Norfolk Southern employed five electronic leaders in the area of its rail network that includes East Palestine. Today, it employs zero..."

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/norfolk-southern-eliminated-key-maintenance-role-in-derailment-region-union-says
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I hope every student in Florida, no matter what they think about trans rights, will realize the threat their governor poses to everyone's privacy and safety -- and join this protest. Beyond the pale, but standard for a governor who acts more and more like a plain old fascist.

"USF students take a 'Stand for Freedom' in response to state request for transgender health records" https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/university-beat/2023-02-08/usf-students-take-stand-freedom-response-state-request-transgender-health-records

The story of my profile image:

I enjoy making shoji lamps in the shape of polyhedra. This one, the "Pentafleur," is a rhombicosidodecahedron, a polyhedron made up of 12 pentagons, 20 triangles, and 30 squares, a shape which is revealed by the lamp's main maple frame.

If you look at the patterns created by the mahogany inner frames, you also can see the outline of an icosahedron, a polyhedron comprised of 20 triangles, as well as a dodecahedron, comprised of 12 pentagons, and even a Catalan deltoidal hexecontahedron, comprised of 60 kite-shaped faces.

Each face is backed by translucent washi, a traditional Japanese paper. When the lamp is lit, the washi glows with the light passing through it and casts a soft, warm, rich light into the room.

One of the papers in this lamp was made by Mrs. Sayoko Furuta, a washi master who was continuing an unbroken line of artistry that stretches back for more than a thousand years. She held the title of National Living Treasure of Japan.