Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

Outrage as Arkansas tells high schools to drop AP African American course

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/15/arkansas-high-school-african-american-ap-course

Feeling like a newborn here, trying to locate fellow scientists interested in #octopus #killifish #developmentalBiology #evodevo #neuroscience #sciencefunding

This.

There’s more: https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article278237263.html #journalism #Kansas

Marion County, #Kansas Attorney Joel Ensey says his review of police seizures from the offices of the local newspaper, the Marion County Record, found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized. As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property."

Maybe Stephen Miller should get a real job.

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/08/stephen-miller-flips-out-over-gay-pop?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=78125

“We’ve been hungry since arriving last year. I don’t know where our next meal will come from, or which one of my children will die next.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-ukraine-war-refugees-no-food-water-1234805627/

Wow! Youth Plaintiffs win in Held v. Montana. They sued the state alleging that Montana's failure to consider climate change in decisionmaking violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment. This is big #climatechange and #environmentaljustice news!! Here is the (long) decision. Hundreds of detailed factual findings leading to the result.
https://westernlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023.08.14-Held-v.-Montana-victory-order.pdf

Settler Colonialism Introduction

A MUST READ for reconnecting Natives and non-Natives by #Mvskoke TEK academic and researcher Lara A. Jacobs, currently working on her Forest Ecosystems and Society PhD. [Update, now Dr. Lara A. Jacobs]

Detailed but easy to digest.

#Decolonization #LandBack #InstanceBack #Native #Indigenous #NDN #NativeMastodon #IndigenousMastodon #FourteenNinetyOne #TurtleIsland #TurtleIslandSocial

-->> https://www.patreon.com/posts/144181261

This is a great slideshow (inc. videos) from the Smithsonian Institution of Mvskoke history.

Before the Trail of Tears removal 23 pages.

During the Trail of Tears removal 15 pages.

After the Trail of Tears removal 17 pages.

#TrailOfTears #Mvskoke #MuscogeeNation #Native #Indigenous #NDN #NativeMastodon #IndigenousMastodon #LandBack #InstanceBack #FourteenNinetyOne #TurtleIsland #TurtleIslandSocial
-> https://www.patreon.com/posts/mvskoke-trail-of-144193187

The new U.S. majority isn't just young, tolerant and diverse. They vote. The right hates that, and it hates what it sees when it looks at something like U.S. women's soccer

They hate America AND democracy, and it's devolving toward violence.

If @willbunch wrote it, you should read it.© & I thread it. 1/...🧵

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/us-conservatives-embrace-authoritarianism-anti-democracy-20230813.html#loaded

Pathetic timidity from the most powerful journalism organization in the nation: The NY Times says the illegal, outrageous police raid and seizure of everything electronic at a Kansas newspaper merely "raises questions" about freedom of the press.

I will NEVER understand how people will twist themselves inside out to find the worst and most ludicrous conspiracy theories instead of simply admitting the most obvious things such as the terrible Maui fires: Abandoned pineapple farms which had previously destroyed native habitat and abandoned cattle farms both which had invasive non-native grasses take over, grow to huge heights and create micro-climates, then completely dry out. Temperatures on the island up to 6 degrees hotter in recent years due to greenhouse effect. Prolonged storm seasons with fiercer winds, stronger sundowner and downhill winds, unrelenting drought even on the "dry side". All of this is "climate change", some on a planetary scale, some on a localized scale. Add in a tiny fire department, no aerial fighting equipment and none that could do anything in 60 to 80 mph winds anyway. Power lines and poles. Wooden structures. Ember storm. All created a perfect storm for fire. This unimaginable horror is made worse by the fools making shit up, and ultimately making worse the denial and ignorance that will prolong the refusal to change human ways to zero fossil fuel use and less energy use.

#ClimateDisaster #ClimateChange #ExtremeWeatherEvents #GetPrepared

"Lost boys"

No. These are adult men who are making a conscious choice not only to engage in genocidal rhetoric, but to insert themselves into electoral politics to make that genocide a reality.

Stop infantilizing white men to excuse their violence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/opinion/masculinity-right-young-men.html

Amid the devastating Maui fires, I see many arguing, "it's weather, arson--anything but climate change." Let's set the record straight: climate change doesn't usually start wildfires; rather, it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn, and makes them much more dangerous.

Here's the easiest way to understand it. Imagine someone tosses a match into a pile of relatively green, wet wood. What happens? Not much.

Then, imagine they toss that same match into a pile of bone-dry kindling. What happens? It sets off a conflagration.

What determines the condition of the metaphorical* wood pile? Increasingly, it's climate change.

* I say metaphorical, because in reality we are talking about grasslands, forests, and other ecosystems here: not literal piles of wood.

For more on how climate change affects wildfires and how no, these fires are not being caused by climate change activists trying to "fake" the risks it poses to us nor by developers trying to clear land for wind turbines or lithium mining, I have a Twitter thread on popular myths here (one day when I have time I'll migrate my threads here but for now you'll have to bear with me!) https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1660473965981188096

For a good background on what the science says about the connection between wildfire and climate, see: https://www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfire/wildfire-climate-connection

If you want to know how you can help people affected by the wildfires, click here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-help-maui-wildfire-victims-donations/

And finally, for additional context on the specific weather and vegetation conditions that made the Maui fires so devastating and destructive, read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/10/maui-wildfires-why-weather-climate/

#Conservative Case Emerges to #DisqualifyTrump for Role on #Jan6

Two law professors active in the #FederalistSociety wrote that the original meaning of the #14thAmendment makes #Trump #ineligible to hold #government office.

#law #president #Constitution #originalism #insurrection #legal
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/trump-jan-6-insurrection-conservatives.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Horseshoe Crabs Saved from Extinction?
Thanks to Connecticut Gov. Lamont for signing into law yesterday a bill we drafted to end the hand capture and killing of horseshoe crabs by the bait industry that’s decimated them. May this measure prevent their extinction. Next we introduce the bill in NY .

Between Aug. 4 and Aug. 7, security guards for a palm oil company allegedly shot and wounded five Tembé Indigenous people, in the latest flareup linked to a long-running land dispute.

The incidents occurred in a part of the Amazonian state of Pará that’s been dubbed the “palm oil war” region, where Mongabay has over the past year documented the escalating tensions.

by Karla Mendes
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/indigenous-activists-demand-justice-after-5-shot-in-amazonian-palm-oil-war/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Brazil #Amazon #IndigenousRights #Indigenous