Good Things Friday (298) and Link Love
November 8, 2024
1. We’re still trying to cure ballots before we run out of time to save the House, can you help?
Actions we can take: subscribe to independent journalism outlets not owned by billionaires and take away money from NYT, WaPo etc. The Guardian comes to mind, the Philly Inquirer refused to bend a knee, I’ve seen strong reporting out of Propublica now and again.
Caveat: I haven’t had time to dig deep on these yet so if you know of things wrong with them, please drop a line in the comments! Your thoughts are welcome in either direction. I’d bookmarked this list for future review.
I’m going to take a hard look at the budget to figure out how to balance our upcoming plans against the increased needs of vulnerable people. I’ve picked up two more Lakota families ahead of enough money coming in so if you’d like to help get a mom with a broken foot some shoes and clothes, and another elder a sewing machine for quilting, we could always use the help!
It sounds like there is a strong start at coalition building at worth fighting for.
How to survive the apocalypse (again)
Forty-three monkeys escape from US research lab – apropos this week.
“I’m so disgusted” seems to be the theme of this link love. The election, naturally. Ken White says much of what I’m feeling (minus the safe white dude part).
Canvassers for Elon Musk’s America PAC Were Fired and Stranded in Michigan After Speaking Out
Sam Alito Got Knighted… Just Like The Founding Fathers EXPLICITLY MADE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
America’s Top Archivist Puts a Rosy Spin on U.S. History—Pruning the Thorny Parts. Quoting large swaths because I don’t know how long the article will be available but what a terrible choice for the National Archives Colleen Shogan is. It looks like she’s making the National Archives over in the image of white men all over again. Shogan’s senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned “Step Into History” photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor-union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents.
The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr.
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After reviewing plans for an exhibit about the nation’s Westward expansion, Shogan asked one staffer, Why is it so much about Indians? according to current and former employees. Among the records Shogan ordered cut from the exhibit were several treaties signed by Native American tribes ceding their lands to the U.S. government, according to the employees and documents.
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Shogan and her top advisers told employees to remove Dorothea Lange’s photos of Japanese-American incarceration camps from a planned exhibit because the images were too negative and controversial, according to documents and current and former employees. Shogan’s aides also asked staff to eliminate references about the wartime incarceration from some educational materials, other current and former employees said.
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Senior archives leaders repeatedly told employees that museum exhibits needed to be relatable for the average visitor, including Iowa farmers. One former staffer was told to look for success stories about white people, according to current and former employees.
