#alabama vital

[collegefootballcountdown]

Put this man on the CFP committee

#ncaaf #ess eee see speed #alabama football #roll tide #dick vitale #dickie v

[kaijutegu]

Are you angry/scared/worried about potentially losing Roe vs. Wade? Do you want to help?

A lot of people are REALLY WORRIED about the leaked Alito draft, and for good reason. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, many states will enact trigger laws that revoke the right to safe abortion access. But that doesn’t mean that safe abortions won’t be possible. They’ll just be harder to access.

Fortunately, we aren’t powerless. There are things we can do to help preserve the right to abortion and, if Roe falls, help people get the abortions they need.

Here are some actionable things you can do to help!

Donate to your local abortion fund.

This is a financial commitment, obviously, but these funds are vital to helping people access abortions. There are different types of funds. Practical funds help with transportation, housing, and other practical needs. Clinical funds help with paying for the procedure. Both types of funds are necessary and helpful!

If you’re in a state with protected abortion access, see if there’s a practical fund in your state that you can donate to. These funds make it possible for people for other states to afford travel and lodging in your state. You might also want to consider donating to funds in states or regions that have trigger laws, like the Yellowhammer Abortion Fund, which helps people in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Deep South.

To find an abortion fund in your state, you can google “abortion fund + your state” or open up this google doc that’s a maintained list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-aDTsZXnKhMcrDmtcD35aWs00gw5piocDhaFy5LKDY/preview?pru=AAABgKwRCFs*fZxkvUyYtHx7T4KXmRnOLA

There’s also https://abortionfunds.org/, but as of right now (2 May 2022, right after the SCOTUS leak happened), their website is down. Too much traffic!

Volunteer with a hotline.

As of writing this, a lot of abortion fund websites are completely overwhelmed. Lots of people are rightfully upset and looking for some way to help. Many of these funds have hotlines that you can help out directly from your own phone! Google “abortion fund + your state (or your region) + hotline” and see what comes up. These hotlines are going to be SWAMPED soon and many orgs are going to be onboarding volunteers very quickly to help deal with the onslaught.

Donate to grassroots causes. 

I love Planned Parenthood as much as the next gal, but donating to them isn’t actually going to help as much right now as donating to an abortion fund. Smaller, grassroots networks are going to be more effective at allocating resources to the people who need it most. Independent clinics are also going to need substantial help. Independent clinics provide the majority of abortion care in the US, and many are the only clinics operating in hostile states. Check out https://keepourclinics.org/ if you’re interested in donating.

Make a list of resources.

There are a lot of people out there who aren’t going to have the time or energy or emotional bandwidth to deal with this dumpster fire. If you have the capacity to do so, then maintain a file somewhere with the following information:

- any abortion funds that serve your area with their contact info- email and phone and links

- any abortion hotlines in your area

- national care hotlines, ESPECIALLY RAINN because this is going to be really, really hard on survivors

-a list of crisis pregnancy centers in your area, clearly marked with their names, contact info, and primary links. Make sure that these are highlighted in a way that separates them from the actual abortion providers because these centers are highly predatory and manipulate people who are distressed and confused. If somebody has access to that list and know who’s operating in an area, it might help them avoid these places!

Have this file ready to go so that you can share it with people who are overwhelmed!

Help the safe havens.

Losing Roe feels inevitable at this point. It might not be, but the world is terrifying. However, some states are safe havens and will maintain abortion access, regardless of what SCOTUS eventually decides. Practical access funds in these states will need help because they will help people traveling from unsafe states to safe states. Refer to this map: https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/

Look for funds in states that are blue or yellow. This means they have expanded access or protection if Roe falls. But be sure to hover over and look at the summary of the protection– for example, Florida has abortion protection, but they just passed a 15-week ban. That’s basically protection in name only!

If you’re not sure which practical fund you’d like to support, I highly suggest the Midwest Access Coalition. MAC is based in Chicago and helps people from all over the Midwest come to the city for reproductive healthcare. A lot of the Midwest is really hostile to abortion, so MAC can help a lot of people. But there are many, many others!

In the coming days and weeks, there will be more to do. There will be marches, protests, and other organized action. But right now, tonight, these are things you can look into doing.

#abortion #reproductive rights #reproductive healthcare

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - March 13, 2023

🐝 - Did you hear about the honeybee vaccine? It's creating quite the buzz! But seriously, it's a major breakthrough in the fight against American foulbrood and could save billions of bees.

1. Transgender health care is now protected in Minnesota

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order protecting and supporting access to gender-affirming health care for LGBTQ people in the state, amidst Republican-backed efforts across the country to limit transgender health care. The order upholds the essential values of One Minnesota where all people, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community, are safe, celebrated, and able to live lives full of dignity and joy.

Numerous medical organizations have said that access to gender-affirming care is essential to the health and wellness of gender diverse people, while states like Tennessee, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Florida have passed policies or laws restricting transgender health care.

2. First vaccine for honeybees could save billions

The US government has approved the world's first honeybee vaccine to fight against American foulbrood, a bacterial disease that destroys bee colonies vital for crop pollination.

Developed by biotech company Dalan Animal Health, the vaccine integrates some of the foulbrood bacteria into royal jelly, which is then fed to the queen by the worker bees, resulting in the growing bee larvae developing immunity to foulbrood. The vaccine aims to limit the damage caused by the infectious disease, for which there is currently no cure, and promote the development of vaccines for other diseases affecting bees.

3. Teens rescued after days stranded in California snowstorm: "We were already convinced we were going to die"

The recent snowstorms in California have resulted in dangerous conditions for hikers and residents in mountain communities. Two teenage hikers were rescued by the San Bernardino County sheriff's department after getting lost in the mountains for 10 days.

The boys were well-prepared for the hike but were not prepared for the massive amounts of snow that followed. They were lucky to survive, suffering from hypothermia and having to huddle together for three nights to stay warm.

Yosemite National Park has had to be closed indefinitely due to the excessive snowfall.

4. La Niña, which worsens Atlantic hurricanes and Western droughts, is gone

The La Nina weather phenomenon, which increases Atlantic hurricane activity and worsens western drought, has ended after three years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's usually good news for the United States and other parts of the world, including drought-stricken northeast Africa, scientists said.

The globe is now in what's considered a "neutral" condition.

5. Where there's gender equality, people tend to live longer

Both women and men are likely to live longer when a country makes strides towards gender equality, according to a new global study that authors believe to be the first of its kind.

The study was published in the journal PLOS Global Public Health this week. It adds to a growing body of research showing that advances in women's rights benefit everyone. "Globally, greater gender equality is associated with longer [life expectancy] for both women and men and a widening of the gender gap in [life expectancy]," they conclude.

6. New data shows 1 in 7 cars sold globally is an EV, and combustion engine car sales have decreased by 25% since 2017

Electric vehicles are the key technology to decarbonise road transport, a sector that accounts for 16% of global emissions. Compared with 2020, sales nearly doubled to 6.6 million (a sales share of nearly 9%), bringing the total number of electric cars on the road to 16.5 million.

Sales were highest in China, where they tripled relative to 2020 to 3.3 million after several years of relative stagnation, and in Europe, where they increased by two-thirds year-on-year to 2.3 million. Together, China and Europe accounted for more than 85% of global electric car sales in 2021

7. Lastly, watch this touching moment as rescued puppy gains trust in her new owners

By the way, this is my newly started YouTube channel. Subscribe for more wholesome videos :D

---

That's it for this week. If you liked this post you can support this newsletter with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Let's carry the positivity into next week and keep spreading the good news!

#best news of last week #Youtube

[reality-detective]

Apparently Alabama is sending deceased inmates home from prison with missing organs... Like brains and hearts.

In addition, Jacksonville State University seems to have a play in this... Who gave the university the authority to take these vital organs? Why are they taking them? What are they doing with them?

At this point, the way the world is... I wonder if these people had their organs stolen and they died afterward? 🤔

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think about it #think for yourselves #think for yourself #do your homework #do some research #do your own research #ask yourself questions #question everything #organ harvesting #human organs #crimes against humanity #unlawful #medical corruption #medical tyranny

[kafkasapartment]

Washroom and Dining Area of Floyd Burroughs' Home, Hale County, Alabama, 1936. Walker Evans. Gelatin silver print.

In 1936, 80% of American households owned radios, serving as vital sources for entertainment and news. Meanwhile, landline phones, less common at 40% of households, and were considered a luxury, primarily used for essential communication. There was long distance, but were very rare due to the expense of long-distance calls.

#photography #fotografia #fotografie #photographie #black and white #vintage #1930s fashion #walker evans #alabama #histoire #history #historia

[morallyinept]

A full transcribe of MAX PHILLIPS' dialogue/lines from the film BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS.

Includes full dialogue, and dialogue from any deleted/additional scenes available.

I've created this as a point of reference when writing for Pedro's characters, and I hope you find it useful. Even if you just want to read the dialogue. 🖤

FULL MASTERLIST OF PEDRO CHARACTERS DIALOGUE

☝🏻Dialogue has been fully transcribed by myself using reference to original scripts (if available), audio subtitles and using my own two ears. Therefore, mistakes can be made, however I have tried to be as fully accurate as I can. If you spot an obvious mistake, please kindly let me know. Where audio is not clear, I have marked with *inaudible* Scenes are separated for ease of reference.

FULL SCRIPT DIALOGUE:

Hey Evan! 

__________________

Question. What do we sell here? 

No, Michael. We sell dreams. 

Sales is… seduction. And when you seduce, do you say I have a 401k? Or I floss? No. You say, I love you. Because people make decisions from the heart. You want to sell a bunch of useless crap to fat losers in Alabama and bored housewives in Iowa, feed their dreams. Convince them. Their lives can transcend the pointless slog of being human. Give them hope. Open their eyes to something… bigger. Sink your teeth into their poor, pathetic lives, and give them life. And better abs. 

Our goal for this month is… one million dollars in sales. It’s aggressive, yes. I’m confident we can hit it. And if we don’t, Ted and I have already agreed we’ll be forced to kill all of you. 

__________________

Thank you, Gerry. 

Are those the employee files I requested? 

Listen, Amanda. I know you and Evan have a history, and I know that you care about him. 

Sure, sure, sure, tell you what. After I settle in, you and I can schedule some one-on-one and get to know each other. 

Hey, buddy! Just had a little HR talk. Thanks, Mandy, we’ll circle back round. 

Long time no see, am I right? 

Listen, Evan. I know you and I had a little falling out. But as far as I’m concerned, water under the bridge. Ancient history. ‘Cause it’s all about the company now, right?

Knew I could count on you. 

__________________

We’re going to get this place lean and mean, Theodore. We're gonna need to separate the meat from the talent. We’re gonna- 

Evan, Evan. Slow down! What’s up now? 

Ted, call security. 

Evan, this isn’t some way of stalling on the Fallowcite presentation, is it? 

We’re counting on ya, slugger. 

__________________

Dave, right? 

I hear you're the guy to talk to about office pools. Company’s sports zsar. 

Oh yeah? 

Oh, nonsense. Morale is vital to the health of any company. And you make an important contribution. Let’s pop into my man cave and you can give me the Vegas tips on NBA playoffs and dirt on upcoming events, you know, man stuff. 

__________________

Oh gosh, buddy, that hurts my feelings. I'm sure Amanda is great in a crisis, but don’t you think this call is more suited to 911? 

I just devoured her… fabulous Osso Bucco! Who knew she was such a demon in the kitchen? Absolutely open another bottle, as long as it’s red! 

Do I hear banging? On your end, I mean. There’s no banging happening here, yet. 

It’s Evan calling to tell us he’s absolutely crushing the Fallowcite presentation for tomorrow. Do you wanna talk to him? 

Sorry, buddy, you’re stuck with me. 

I think you better focus on your own problems, bro. But I’ll give Amanda your best. Actually, I’ll give her mine. It’s better. 

Where are we, is the more pertinent question?

You… have beautiful eyes. 

Don’t I know it... 

__________________

Ted. Ted, Ted. Let’s not be hasty. Andrew finished the job, but Evan laid down the groundwork. Look at this poor fella. He was just passed over for a promotion, he slept in the supply closet and he smells like a dead worn hooker. He’s just having a rough patch. Let’s give him a pass on this one, ‘kay? 

__________________

Poor, poor, Elaine. All ginger and no joy. 

Yes, you do! I want you… ssh. 

You all are. 

__________________

Corporate was threatening to shut down the entire branch, I simply presented Ted with an alternative. 

After your little stunt in college, the only school that would take me was this university in Romania. But it turns out, it had a very unique MBA programme. Whole new paradigm in business management. 

That is the worst part of this job! Firing people.

It’s true, Amanda. You gotta start working on your stubbornness if you wanna be a part of the team. 

Is that so? 

Oh. Okay. Well, show yourselves out. 

Bye, gang.

__________________

Oops. 

Oh no, no, no, no, no. I need you to learn how to delegate. 

Not if you kill them first, people. Learn how to take the initiative if you don't want me to micro manage! 

No, it’s a balancing act, to be sure. 

Well don’t worry about it. It’s mostly marketing. 

Still, a good manager knows when his staff is getting overextended. Be a dear and call downstairs for me, would ya? 

Yeah feel free, make yourself at home. 

Who am I going to get to stock the supply closet now? 

Ehh. I’ll make more. 

Not in the slightest. 

Oh honestly, guys. Did you really think it was going to be that easy? 

Oh come on! You think I'd attempt to take over this entire company without consulting Legal first? 

Amanda? A private word with you in my office, please. 

Hey, remember when I did this to your girlfriend in college without using supernatural powers? 

Evan, you can go home for the day. Frank. You can die. 

__________________

Oh, hey pal! I was just about to turn your girl and fuck her on Ted’s desk. 

Sorry, hahaha, my desk. 

Amanda. You need to focus on your job. HR is going to be swamped with all the new hires we’re going to need. 

My management style is effective! And refreshing. 

Evan. Do you remember what I said we sell here? 

Yeah. That was bullshit. We sell fear. 

Our customers are afraid. Afraid that life is passing them by, which to be fair, it is. And that is why you are perfect for this place, because you are a coward! 

You were afraid to tell Amanda you love her because of why? Because you work together? Because she earns more than you? 

You didn’t even have the balls to quit when this incompetent turd passed you over for the guy you hate most on the face of the earth. You are so afraid of life, haha, that you actually want to be sales manager in this shit hole! 

We are trying to have a conversation! 

And I’m not gonna change you. That’s right. I’m gonna keep you alive and stuck in this pathetic, pointless job from now until the day you die. 

This suit is bespoke! 

Sharing the desk with the photo printer whilst I stay young with the woman you love, immortal at my side! 

Yeah. Yeah. That’s the way it works. 

__________________

FULL MASTERLIST OF PEDRO CHARACTERS DIALOGUE

#max phillips #pedro pascal #PPCU #pedro pascal characters #max phillips bloodsucking bastards #bloodsucking bastards #max phillips dialogue

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 26 January 1944, Angela Yvonne Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama. A communist, civil rights organiser and the third woman to feature on the FBI's most wanted list, for a time Davis was also closely associated with the Black Panther Party. Davis worked at University of California, Los Angeles until being fired for her political views on the orders of governor Ronald Reagan. Soon after, Davis was arrested following the Marin county courthouse incident on bogus charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy of which she was later all acquitted at trial. Davis has also been a consistent advocate of feminism which takes into account factors like race, class, capitalism and transgender rights, and highlights the vital historical contributions of Black women: "When we speak of feminism in this country, there almost always is the tendency to assume that this is something that was created by white women… Women like Ida B. Wells, women like Mary Church Terrell, women like Anna Julia Cooper, are responsible for the feminist approach today that we generally call intersectionality… What I want to argue is for a feminist perspective that understands that we cannot simply reform institutions like prison and the police, because they are so embedded with racism and violence that, if we're ever going to extricate ourselves from that, we have to abolish prisons". * We only post highlights on here, for all our anniversaries follow us on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@workingclasshistory https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2195303000654838/?type=3

[a-queer-seminarian]

Hey all! I’m leading four Sunday school sessions on trans affirmation at my church this January, and you’re invited, and welcome to spread the news around! More info is in the video + below — please dm me with any questions. You can show up without an “RSVP,” but if you invite a larger group to attend via Zoom, please let me know!

This January, join Grace Presbyterian Church for four Sunday sessions on Loving Our Transgender Neighbors. How do we transform our minds, churches, and world not only to accept and protect, but affirm and celebrate trans persons as vital members of the Body of Christ?

Attend in person or via Zoom for as many classes as you are able. Each session takes place from 9:45 – 10:45am central time on the following dates:

January 8 — Transforming Hearts & Minds. Trans 101, current events, and why these things should matter to our churches.

January 15 — Transformative Scripture. Exploring trans-resonant narratives, from Adam and Eve to Jesus himself!

January 22 — Transforming Our Spaces. Practical steps that empower trans persons to participate fully in our churches and our world.

January 29 — Transformative Questions. We’ll cover any material we didn’t address in previous sessions — bring more of your questions and ideas here!

Accessibility: We ask that all in-person attendees wear a mask. Automatic captioning will be turned on in Zoom, and attendees are invited to participate via the chat feature as well as verbally. All visual imagery used in the classes will be described verbally as well. Please contact us with any further accommodation requests.

Avery Arden will be facilitating these courageous conversations. Watch the video to learn about them and hear more about what the classes will cover.

[Video Transcript:

I’m Avery Arden. I have a masters in divinity from Louisville Seminary; I’m a member of More Light Presbyterians’ national board of directors, and I’m transgender! I use they/them pronouns — and maybe you don’t know what that means, or you wouldn’t know how to use them in a sentence.  

Maybe you’re aware of the upswing in anti-trans legislation and rhetoric and you want to do something, but you don’t even know where to start.

Maybe you are trans, or a loved one is trans, and you don’t even know whether you have a place in the Church, let alone in the Kin-dom of God.

Wherever you are in your journey, I invite you to join me and Grace Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in person or via Zoom, for four weeks in January where we will explore all of these things and more. We will do some basic trans 101; we will cover a lot of steps that you and your communities can take not only to accept and protect trans persons, but also to affirm and celebrate them! Whether you can come for one week or all four, whether you have lots of questions or lots of ideas, I hope that you’ll join us, and discover that learning about gender and faith doesn’t have to be scary — it can even be fun! So, hope to see you there! / end video transcript]

#queer christians #affirming church #trans christians #log #spring 2023

[tanadrin]

so what the case seems to hinge on is this: City of Mobile v Bolden (1980) held that if you want to challenge the construction of voting districts on the grounds they violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as then written, you have to show not only racially discriminatory effect, but racially discriminatory intent. in 1982, in response to this decision, a bipartisan bill amended the VRA to explicitly ask courts to consider racially discriminatory effects, though not going to far as to require representation to be explicitly proportionally based on race (which is what some opponents of the racially discriminatory effect approach were worried about)

plaintiffs sued alabama over its bad districting maps which continue to have only one black-majority district (that district in itself the product of an even earlier lawsuit), even though they argue most reasonable maps can and should have two, even if you also take into account other principles of redistricting, such as trying to keep political subdivisions and major urban areas together, not producing contorted or splayed out shapes, and, of course, maintaining equal population. alabama has a pretty large contiguous area of black settlement--the Black Belt--which the current map seems to at least partially split up.

alabama’s argument for keeping the current map is 1) continuity with older maps (Roberts points out that maps have been discriminatory in the past is not a reason to keep using them); 2) the gulf coast portion of alabama is a vital community of interest that can’t possibly be split up (Roberts points out that Alabama’s evidence for this is very shaky), and 3) the theory the court should be using around section 2 of the VRA isn’t the one it’s used since Gingles, but something new they came up with, called the “race-neutral benchmark,” which is based on the likelihood of the "median or average” of majority-minority districts that would occur, if you used all the traditional redistricting criteria except race, and generated a large number of possible alternatives by computer. so long as the actual district map resembles the race-neutral benchmark generally in terms of majority-minority districts, the state cannot be construed to have denied anyone’s right to vote on account of race, at least through racial gerrymandering

roberts finds this theory uncompelling; specifically, in amending the VRA congress explicitly said that discriminatory effects matter, not just intent, and section 2 of the VRA requires that minority voters not “have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.”

Individuals thus lack an equal opportunity to participate in the political process when a State’s electoral structure operates in a manner that “minimize[s] or cancel[s] out the[ir] voting strength.” Id., at 47. That occurs where an individual is disabled from “enter[ing] into the political process in a reliable and meaningful manner” “in the light of past and present reality, political and otherwise.” White, 412 U. S., at 767, 770. A district is not equally open, in other words, when minority voters face—unlike their majority peers—bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter.

alabama’s theory of how this case should be decided doesn’t really make sense in light of either congressional intent in amending the VRA or the court’s jurisprudence since Gingles. the court has explicitly repudiated racial proportionality before (which is a concern alabama resurrects here), e.g., in Shaw v Reno (1993), where north carolina got a second majority-minority district out of its congressional map only by heavily gerrymandering that district’s borders. (north carolina believed this district was required by section 2 of the VRA, but the court disagreed. the difference is that the population in norht carolina brought together by this district was highly dispersed, whereas in alabama it is not)

roberts is content to reject alabama’s “invitation to change existing law” on the basis that alabama has misunderstood section 2 and the relevant past decisions of the court, but he’s also critical of how the benchmark would work in practice; section 2 doesn’t require redistricting to be a race-blind process anymore than it requires it to be perfectly proportional (indeed, it can be neither in practice, under existing law); the “race-blind benchmark” doesn’t actually reflect how redistricting is done in alabama (i.e., it isn’t a randomly chosen result that conforms to the properties of the average map of many randomly generated maps, it’s a product of deliberate design; and the benchmarks ignore certain traditional redistricting criteria, including alabama’s own districting guidelines); and the criteria alabama proposes as necessary to challenge a map that apparently conforms to that benchmark are insanely difficult to meet (e.g., requiring the plaintiff to prove the deviations between the state’s enacted map and race-neutral alternatives can only be explained by racial discrimination). alabama also tries to claim section 2 doesn’t even apply to single-member districts, but this is just flatly wrong

there are also some pretty lengthy shots at Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the footnotes, which are pretty satisfying to read if you’re into that sort of thing

[thepro-lifemovement]

Florida health authorities officially revoked the license of a Pensacola abortion facility Tuesday after state health authorities said three women nearly died from botched abortions.

The American Family Planning has been closed since May when the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration suspended its license for “endangering the health, safety and welfare” of its patients. State health officials said the abortion facility had hundreds of safety violations, the worst involving nearly killing three women in botched abortions within a span of nine months.

The new order from the Division of Administrative Hearings permanently revokes its license and stops anyone with direct or indirect ownership of the abortion facility from ever applying for another abortion license in Florida.

Additionally, health officials fined the abortion facility $343,200, according to the Tampa Free Press.

Initially, the abortion facility appealed its license suspension; however, the two parties reached an agreement and a judge dismissed the case Jan. 6, according to the News Journal.

The abortion facility is connected to notorious abortionist Steven Chase Brigham, who has lost his license to practice medicine in several states. Operation Rescue reported seeing Brigham at the facility as recently as May 2020. It is not clear if Brigham was the one who performed the three recent botched abortions.

Within a nine-month period, state health officials said three women nearly died from abortion complications at the facility: one required resuscitation, another had parts of her colon removed and a third needed an emergency hysterectomy, the News Journal reported last year.

The three women’s cases are disturbing. State health officials said one woman had to be hospitalized in August 2021 and had parts of her colon removed after her uterus was perforated in a botched abortion. Another woman was found with “pools of blood on the floor” around her, according to their investigation.

In the case of the third woman, the abortion facility failed to monitor her vital signs when it gave her drugs and told her to wait in her car until the abortion procedure, according to the state health officials. Mid-abortion, the abortionist lacerated her cervix and possibly ruptured her uterus and had to stop the procedure, the report continues.

Rather than take her to the local hospital in Pensacola, the abortion staff told the woman’s husband to drive to a hospital in Mobile, Alabama, the health officials found. At the Mobile hospital, the woman had to be resuscitated after emergency room doctors found that she did not have a pulse, the state report continues. She also received a blood transfusion to “replace egregious blood loss,” according to the state health officials.

The Florida health agency also reported hundreds of other violations, including failing to document patients’ consent or follow the 24-hour waiting period.

#botched abortion #good riddance #abortion clinics #abortion clinic closures #prolife news #this place sounds like a horror movie #pro-life #pro life #prolife #anti abortion #abortion #florida

[gumjrop]

The Weather

Similar to this time last year, COVID wastewater levels in many states have decreased and now remain at low levels except for the states of Tennessee and Missouri, which are at high levels. Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, Minnesota, and Virginia have moderate viral levels detected by wastewater surveillance. This reminds us that it is important to continue the practice of precautions, especially among those most vulnerable to a COVID infection.

When considering trends in wastewater levels across all four regions, they have stopped decreasing as seen in the provisional data (gray shaded area). The national wastewater levels are indicated as “Low.” While lower wastewater levels indicate decreased spread, the risk for infection remains moderate especially as current wastewater levels remain slightly higher than previous low periods.

Wins

During the past few weeks, we have taken several actions against removing vital public health measures, especially the change in COVID isolation guidelines. This included the People’s CDC press conference from March 13, a recording and our press release are available. We also have a pre-proof of the People’s CDC External Review in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine Focus that additionally highlights the shortcomings of the CDC’s approach to public health and recommends a more equitable pandemic response. This week, we have assembled an expert letter asking the CDC to correct their COVID isolation guidelines.

Community groups continue to show us that it is possible to push back against corporate efforts to further privatize healthcare – and win. In Massachusetts, the Boston Center for Independent Living and SEIU 1199 led a successful drive to prevent cuts to publicly funded personal care attendants (PCAs) for disabled people. When we fight, we win.  

Variants

Currently, JN.1 remains the dominant variant in the US, and is 83.7% of circulating variants as of 4/13/2024, down from 88.5% on 2/3/2024. JN.1.13 has increased to 9.1%, up from 0.7% on 2/3/2024. Other variants comprise 7.2% of the remaining total. A recent study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, provided additional information on recent COVID variants that shed higher levels of wastewater; however, this cannot discount that COVID transmission remains at higher risk during rises in wastewater levels.

Hospitalizations

Total new hospital admissions caused by COVID have decreased to 7,318 during the week of April 6, 2024. Although the number of new hospital admissions are lower than the past, many counties in the US continue to experience increases in new hospital admissions. Over 25% of all counties are experiencing an increase in new COVID hospital admissions between the last week of March 2024 and the first week of April 2024. Most concerning, we still do not know the total number of hospital-acquired infections, since reporting over these numbers halted in May 2023. Despite this decrease in new hospital admissions and wastewater levels are currently at low levels nationwide, total hospitalizations do not completely reflect the current amount of circulating virus.

Prevention and Precautions

The CDC recently released guidelines to improve ventilation and implementation of air purification to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, specifically airborne pathogens. A group of scientists have also jointly published a policy statement in the academic journal Science supporting the establishment of higher standards for ventilation and the importance of air purification in indoor settings. Two studies published in the last month have validated the significance and value of both ventilation and air purification in schools and childcare centers to prevent the spread of COVID.

Vaccine uptake remains limited. Only 22.8% of adults and 14.1% of children have received the updated COVID vaccine as of 4/11/2024 -  a slight increase from 21.1% of adults and 12.8% of children on 3/10/2024. The Bridge Program remains available for those underinsured or without insurance for no-cost access to these vaccines, but may end December 31, 2024.

Long COVID

Senator Bernie Sanders, as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, proposed draft legislation to address Long COVID. This proposal aims to allocate $1 billion annually for a decade to the NIH for Long COVID research, establish a centralized research entity and advisory board, create a rapid grant process for clinical trials, develop a patient data database, and enhance public education on Long COVID. We ask that you share your thoughts to their official contact by email specifically on allocating funding for effective treatments and specific measures in the prevention of Long COVID by April 23, 2024. Currently, Long COVID Alliance has compiled a list of active opportunities in studies and clinical trials that people with Long COVID may participate in, which may help the clinical community contribute knowledge of Long COVID and potentially support the development of effective treatments.

Take Action

An invaluable home-based program that supports testing, evaluation, and treatment for COVID, Test to Treat program, is ending on April 16, 2024. Send a letter to your local representatives to ask them to help save the program that helps so many at-risk people!

It’s been over a month since the CDC released new, irresponsible guidelines on COVID isolation which are not substantiated by scientific evidence. Our fight to take public health out of the hands of corporate interests and protect our collective well-being continues. As part of our strategy to push back, we’ve put together an expert letter to CDC Director Mandy Cohen telling her to reinstate science-based COVID isolation guidelines. We urge the CDC to consider the highly variable length of infectiousness in their recommendations and to adopt a test-based approach for ending isolation. This letter is for public health professionals, scientists, healthcare workers, disability advocates, and others who consider themselves experts in public health. Sign this letter asking the CDC to correct their updated COVID isolation guidelines.

Avian Flu (Awareness Update)

The People’s CDC is monitoring Avian Influenza (AKA “Bird Flu”) as it has been spreading in many avian and mammalian species around the world at alarming rates. The current strain of concern is subtype H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b and is highly pathogenic in poultry, causing systemic infections and rapid onset of illness and death among avian species (1). As such, this is called a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). This specific clade emerged in 2020 and has now been detected on every continent (2,3,4, 5). Over 500 species of birds and 360 species of other animals have been infected worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of wild animals have died from avian influenza since its emergence in 2020 (1, 6). Here in the U.S., at least 28 outbreaks have occurred in cattle farms (6, 7).

While human cases remain low, case fatality in humans has historically been around 50% (6). The outbreak among many non-bird animals is alarming and allows for opportunities for viral mutations that may lead to further infections among humans (1,6). The ecological consequences of such mass death around the world are currently unknown but guaranteed to be devastating as food webs are severely disrupted and conservation efforts suffer (1, 5). Humans are already feeling the direct impact of this as farmers are forced to cull entire flocks of poultry to control the spread, which may result in increased prices in the food supply (6). Humans will probably continue to feel the impacts of this historic spread, regardless of the number of human cases. We will continue to monitor the situation and share updates as the situation develops.

UC Davis

CDC

CDC

Viruses

Nature

Vox

BNO News

#op #covid19 #covid-19 #covid 19 #pcdc #covid #people's cdc #cdc #coronavirus #pandemic #sars-cov-2 #sars cov 2 #covid news #long covid #covid pandemic #covid isn't over #covid conscious #covid is not over #avian flu #bird flu #h5n1 #test to treat #uspol #covid prevention #covid levels #public health #coronavirus pandemic #links #img #described in alt text

[kathryn-helms-perspectives]

What people are saying about “Perspectives”

​"Kathryn Helms's poems are remarkable reflections on living thoughtfully in the world.  They show care, strength, and resolve.  And they are often bold assertions of the promise of new beginnings.  Helms's words - and the energy and vitality evident in her writing - are inspiring and suggest we will see great things from her in the future." - Michael S. Stephens, PhD, Editorial Director, Upper Room Books

"This bright, deep, and lively collection of poems by Kathryn Helms holds both sentiments of restoration and determination to be unbound.  Within each poem is a through line of finding balance, understanding, and seasonal awareness in both the individual's life and the natural world.  I expect this is just the first of may strong collections to come from Helms." - Jennifer Manley Rogers Author of Climate Hero Handbook, project editor for the University of Alabama Press, and owner of Catchphrase Publishing Services

"Kathryn Helms is a young person with her lights on! Profound insights are made even more provocative and captivating by clever, insightful, and self-aware poetry and inspired layout." - Stephen Graham-Ching, Business and Production Manager, Invite Press

"Bold perspectives that belie the author's young age.  Keep an eye on this one."  - Dr. Leonard Wilson Publisher, Invite Press

"The depth of thought and wisdom expressed by this young writer is astounding.  People like Kathryn Helms give me hope for the future." - Laurel Boone, J.D. Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Management, Saint Louis University

#poetry #teen author #fundrasier #charity #writing #cancer research #reviews

[beardedmrbean]

A small-town Alabama mayor died apparently by suicide just days after a conservative news site published pictures of him allegedly wearing women's clothes and makeup, officials said Sunday.

Smiths Station Mayor F.L. "Bubba" Copeland, who was also a pastor at First Baptist Church of Phenix City, fatally shot himself and was pronounced dead at 5:01 p.m. CT Friday, Lee County Coroner Daniel Sexton told NBC News in a statement.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

Thank you all for your prayers and expressions of sympathy and support," First Baptist Church said in a statement Saturday. "First and foremost, we ask that you keep Pastor Bubba Copeland’s family in your prayers today, and in the days ahead."

Copeland died two days after the 1819 News published a story with photos of the mayor donning women’s clothes and makeup.

Copeland was best known for leading his town through a tornado that killed 23 people in eastern Alabama in 2019.

"I am so saddened at the death of my friend Mayor Bubba Copeland," Jones said. "He was a good man and a great mayor who led the small town of Smith Station through the tough times of a devastating tornado a few years ago."

Then-President Donald Trump visited damaged communities, and Jones said Copeland played a vital role in communicating the region's needs to the White House.

"I toured the destruction with him, helped him navigate the FEMA recovery efforts and made sure that he was able to plead his case directly to President Trump," Jones said.

The city of Smiths Station, about 80 miles east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, near the Georgia border, has a population of about 5,400 people.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support _________________________________

#nunyas news #cw: suicide #tw: suidice #the coverage on this one is all over the place #best i can tell guy wasn't trans #just liked wearing 'girl clothes' #poor guy nothing wrong with that #his church family is sad it seems too about the death not the other bit #don't seem to care about that

[reallyspecificanthstuff]

Puerto Rican Rock Art, Part 2

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my Puerto Rican Rock Art project! I will mostly be talking about Cueva Lucero (pictured above). I may mention other caves as well, just because there aren't many papers written about this specific cave. There are many others since about 81% of rock art found on the island is found in caves (Dubelaar 1994). I imagine it's just easier to talk about all the caves as a whole since they were all used similarly.

Cueva Lucero can be found in Juana Diaz in Puerto Rico. (Not from references).

However, due to fears of vandalism, the cave's exact location isn't listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In this same form, Cueva Lucero is deemed as important due to all the art found in it, this art shows us a part of the past we could have never seen without it. It is thought to be a place of religion or as a ceremonial site (Rodriguez et al, 2008). This cave was used around 600-1500 C.E., and represents mostly pre-Hispanic times and contains around 100 rock art images. That makes itself one of the best examples of pictographs in Puerto Rico (Rodriguez et al, 2008). While it has plenty of pictographs, it has petroglyphs as well.

The difference between petroglyphs and pictographs are that one is painted, and one is carved imagery. I included an example above.

There are three different types of landscapes that both these styles show up in:

A. Caves and rock shelters on the coast, created by the waves.

B. Caves and rock shelters found in the mountains.

C. Riverbanks and riverbeds.

As well, Puerto Rico has an extra type:

D. The petroglyphs found in Puerto Nuevo. They are engraved in flat sandstone ledge that run parallel to the coast (Dublelaar 1994). Pictured below.

Rock paintings found in Puerto Rico can be monochrome, bichrome and polychrome (Dubelaar 1994). They also can be found in a couple colors as well. Red, white, orange and black were most commonly used (Hayward et. al., 2009).

Cueva Lucero falls under type B, has most, if not, only monochrome paintings. Most are painted using the color black.

Here, you also see a lot of circles being used in their art. Obviously, using circles so much does suggest that the shape has importance for the community (Fewkes 1903). It can be seen as a sign of unity, which, is found in many other indigenous communities. Here are some examples of circle art found in Cueva Lucero.

Lots of circles.

That is about it for this cave. Cueva Lucero holds valuable knowledge about the past. Without it, the other caves, we wouldn't have been able to obtain as much knowledge from our Taino ancestors as we do now. This goes to show, these old paintings and carvings, sites we find on the island (sites where people lived, hunting sites), are vital to understanding our history.

All photos (unless otherwise stated) are pictures from Cueva Lucero. All but the very first photo are from Rodriguez et al. 2008.

My references:

Dubelaar, C. N. 1994. Prehistoric rock art in Puerto Rico. Latin American Indian Literatures Journal, 10(1): 78–82. 

Fewkes, J. Walter. “Prehistoric Porto Rican Pictographs.” American Anthropologist 5, no. 3 (1903): 441–67. http://www.jstor.org/stable/659123.

Hayward, M. H., Roe, P. G., Cinquino, M. A., Alvarado Zayas, P. A. and Wild, K. S. 2009. “Rock art of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands”. In Rock Art of the Caribbean, Edited by: Hayward, M. H., Atkinson, L. G. and Cinquino, M. A. 115–136. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

Lace, Michael J. “Anthropogenic Use, Modification, and Preservation of Coastal Cave Resources in Puerto Rico.” The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, vol. 7, no. 3, 2012, pp. 378–403., https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2012.729011.

Rodriguez, Yasha N. and Pedro Alvarado Zayas. 2008. "Cueva Lucero." National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. On file at Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Rouse, I. 1992. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus, New Haven: Yale University. 

#archaeology #anthropology #cave #cave art #cave paintings #art #rock art #taino #indigenous peoples #pictographs #petroglyphs #colonialism #colonialization #university #school project #blog #puerto rico #grug #monochrome #mountain #caribbean #circles #frog #bird #references #little guys

[wesleyhill]

On “Things Above”

A homily on Colossians 3:1-4 preached at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Alabama on the Friday after the second Sunday in Lent 2023

Yesterday I spoke to you from the third chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Colossian Christians in which he tells them: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

I wonder how you think about that exhortation. What exactly is Paul asking believers to do? What does it mean to have your mind focused on heavenly realities, rather than this-worldly ones? A hymn that we used to sing in the church of my childhood spoke of “the things of earth [growing] strangely dim” in heaven’s overwhelming, eclipsing light.

But has that ever really been your experience? For myself, as soon as I start trying to tear my gaze away from my house, my family, my job, my concrete experiences in this life and attempt to focus on God and heaven and eternity, I can quickly experience one of two things. The first one is sheer confusion: a kind of blank, inscrutable screen.

Cicero, the famous Roman statesman who died a half century before the birth of Christ, tells a story in his treatise On the Nature of the Gods of the tyrant Hiero who demands that the lyric poet Simonides tell him about what it means for the gods to exist. Simonides begs for a couple of days to come up with an answer. When the two days pass and Hiero asks, “Well?” Simonides responds by asking for two more days. And this keeps going until finally Simonides confesses, “The longer I think about it, the murkier the answer seems.” And Cicero, the one telling the story, concludes that the nature of the gods — who or what and how they are, if they are — is a “very obscure question.”

The Protestant Reformer John Calvin, commenting on this story from Cicero, says that as soon as we begin to try to use our imaginations or instincts to picture God, we will “hold nothing certain or solid or clear, but [will] be so attached to confused principles as to worship an unknown God.”

But this experience of a blank, gray, faceless god can easily transition into a second experience, and that is the experience of fear. Onto the gray canvas there can start to seep, Rorshach-inkblot-like, disturbing images of a God who is cruel, vindictive, mercurial, capricious. Not just God as cosmic Santa Claus but God, as C. S. Lewis said he experienced him in the wake of losing his wife to cancer, as cosmic Sadist. God as not just obscure, but terrifying. Not just as One to be baffled by, but One to flee from.

Here, I think, it’s vital to read Paul’s exhortation in context: “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Notice: Paul isn’t urging us to try to cultivate some vague, ethereal kind of heavenly mindedness. He’s directing us to think about a particular person — “Christ,” the Messiah, Jesus, the one who died and is now alive with the one he called “Father,” who will come back and heal and restore us and the whole world. It's as if Paul is saying, “When I tell you to think about heaven, I’m telling you to think about that Jewish man named Jesus, who is now alive again and always lives to intercede for you.”

Paul spells it out in more detail in the great poetic passage with which he kicks off the whole letter:

He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

To “set your mind on things above,” rather than on earthly things, is to think about Jesus. And not just to think about Jesus in some general way but to allow the life of Jesus to affect and shape and define the way you think about God.

This is — we need to recognize — a claim that should sound more shocking to us than it probably does. Rowan Williams reminds us:

Paul is roughly the same age as Jesus, perhaps a few years younger; and twenty or so years after Jesus’ execution, Paul is saying that this person, his contemporary, somebody who was well known to people Paul knew well, is the image of God — that in him, as he just as startlingly puts it 1 Corinthians 1.24, is the power and wisdom of God; or that — as he says in 2 Corinthians 4.4-6 — in his face shines the glory of God, what the Jews called the shekhinah, the blinding radiance of God’s presence. In Hebrew Scripture, this presence is described as radiating so powerfully that it throws people to the ground; it’s like a dense fog of light that you can’t breathe in and you can’t stand in… And that glory, that stifling intensity of presence in holy places, is what you see and sense if you look at Jesus, so Paul claims: a strong claim, to put it mildly. Imagine for a moment what a leap of imagination would be involved in thinking of someone of your own generation and background in terms like that.

There are, it seems, two directions we could go at this point. One would be to think through what it might mean to say about a first-century Jewish man, whom we Christians believe to be now alive forever, never to die again — what it might mean to say that in this one individual human person “all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.” That would be to ask the question of “Christology,” the Christian understanding of the person of Jesus of Nazareth as God’s Messiah.

But the other direction travels from the ground up, so to speak: What does it mean now to talk about God (to “set our minds on heavenly things”) if we say that this particular human life and death and resurrection, the existence of the man Jesus from his birth to his exaltation to the right hand of the Father in heaven, tells us the true meaning and essence of what it means to be God?

How would it change the way you think about God, the way you pray, the way you worship and seek to obey God, the way you try to put God’s commands into practice in your Christian life, if you really believed that God is knowable ultimately, finally, climactically in Jesus?

The late Reformed theologian T. F. Torrance worked as a chaplain during World War II. One day on a battlefield in Italy, a dying soldier, only twenty years old, grasped Torrance’s arm and said, “Padre, is God really like Jesus?”

Isn’t that a terribly poignant question? And isn’t it also, ultimately, the question of life? Is the God whom I’m about to meet face to face, the One who made me and will judge me and determine my ultimate fate — is that God really going to turn out to be the compassionate Father Jesus said he is and showed him to be in his healings and his pronouncements of forgiveness and his assurance of mercy? Or am I going to find some more sinister character lurking behind the curtain of Jesus’ life and ministry?

Torrance said it was the great privilege of his life to have spent the rest of his theological career spelling out the answer he gave to the dying soldier on the battlefield that day: Yes. Yes. God is like Jesus.

There is… no God behind the back of Jesus Christ, but only this God whose face we see in the face of the Lord Jesus. There is no deus absconditus, no dark inscrutable God, no arbitrary Deity of whom we can know nothing but before whom we can only tremble as our guilty conscience paints harsh streaks upon his face. No, there are no dark spots in God of which we need to be afraid… There is only the one God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ in such a way that there is perfect consistency and fidelity between what he reveals of the Father and what the Father is in his unchangeable reality… God really is like Jesus, for there is no other God than he who became man in Jesus and he whom God affirms himself to be and always will be in Jesus.

Or as Archbishop Michael Ramsey once put it much more concisely: “God is Christlike; and in God there is no unChristlikeness at all.”

Jesus is, as Paul says in Colossians, the image of the God we cannot see. He is the perfect self-interpretation of God. He is the face of God turned toward us in love.

So, friends, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things — earthly idols, false images, distorted pictures of God. Seek the things that are above, where Jesus Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

To him be the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.