has been moving along rapidly, and I haven’t put much here because it’s moving so quickly that posting doesn’t keep up with the changes. Anyway, we’ve likely all heard of the non-government workers who are directed by an unelected, unsworn, non-government worker and are accessing US Treasury data bases and We The People’s personal and financial data. If not, well; it’s everywhere. Anyway, I spent a lot of time writing to my Rep, the one of my senators who’s not insane, and Sen. Chuck Schumer about this yesterday, and had more letters and calls (messages) about other business this morning. I’ve had 6 stories up to post only to find as I began to set up posts that something had changed, and they weren’t accurate news anymore. However, here’s a thing. Many people have been despairing of and finger-pointing to “the Dems” as being at fault for all of this. Here is where Dems’s actual momentum is at this time:
Senate and House Dem Presser Outside USAID Today (Video) – Please Watch And Share by Simon Rosenberg
Senate and House Dems forcefully challenge Trump/Musk’s illegal attacks on USAID and the US government Read on Substack
Above is the link to the video, and all of what Simon Rosenberg wrote. Here’s a snippet:
Friends,
I was really impressed with the House presser today and decided to send it along to all of you. Please watch and share with others you think might be interested. You all have wanted Dems to fight – well here you go!
Note that several speakers today talked about how important the calls are they’re receiving from constituents. These calls matter everyone. Keep working it!
(snip-go see everything, and if you’ve contacted your legislators, thanks and please keep it up! If not, I don’t know what it’s gonna take, but to me, we don’t want things to get worse than this, so now is the time. Unless you think this is all fine, of course, but I don’t think you’d be reading here if you did. Links to contact and phone numbers are right beneath.)
Here’s the only one of the tabs I was going to post, but it gives good background if someone needs a little more info in order to act: Musk’s Little Green Men
February 3, 1816 Paul Cuffee, a shipowner and a free negro (born to slave parents in Massachusetts), arrived in Sierra Leone with 38 African Americans intent on setting up a colony for free blacks from the United States. He had earlier set up the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a trading organization, to encourage commerce between England, the U.S. and the British colony on the Atlantic coast of Africa.
February 3, 1893 Abigail Ashbrook of Willingboro, New Jersey, refused to pay taxes because she was denied the right to vote because she was a woman.
February 3, 1964 In New York City, more than 450,000 students, mostly black and Puerto Rican, comprising nearly half the citywide enrollment, boycotted the New York City schools to protest the system’s de facto segregation. The Parents’ Workshop for Equality, led by Reverend Milton Galamison, had proposed a plan to integrate the city’s schools but it was rejected by the school board. Freedom Schools were set up for the kids during the one-day direct action.
February 3, 1973 Three decades of armed conflict in Vietnam officially ended when a cease-fire agreement signed in Paris the previous month went into effect. Vietnam had endured almost uninterrupted hostility since 1945, when a war for independence from France was launched. A civil war between the northern and southern regions of the country began after the country was divided by the Geneva Convention in 1954 following France’s military defeat and troop withdrawal. American military “advisors” began arriving in 1955. Between 1954 and 1975, 107,504 South Vietnamese government troops, approximately 1,000,000 North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front soldiers, and 58,209 American troops died in combat. The number of Vietnamese civilian deaths is unknown, estimated between one and four million killed, and millions more wounded or affected by defoliants such as Agent Orange.
February 3, 1973 President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, intended to avoid species extinction, especially through loss of habitat.
February 3, 1988 The U.S. House of Representatives rejected President Ronald Reagan’s request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, an insurgent group trying violently to overthrow the Sandinista government.
February 3, 1994 President Bill Clinton lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam, which had been in place since the end of the Vietnam war.
Good God, what a week. I’m guessing you’re ready for a little good news, and guess what? I’ve got some! Actually quite a bit. Remember: two things can be true at once. Things are very bad, AND good things also happened this week. Some of them are even outgrowths of the bad things.
So with no further ado, let’s take a look at what went right in a week that was otherwise exceedingly challenging. Please take this list in, savor it, and dwell on it for as long as you can. It isn’t doomscrolling, for a change — it’s goodscrolling! Enjoy! And then share this list with someone who needs the lift.
As usual, I’ve popped an 🪓 next to every item that everyday activists like you helped make happen, and a 🪣 next to every one that got done by lawmakers or administrations that we helped elect.
Read This 📖
This hopeful cartoon is from editorial cartoonist Kevin Necessary. [H/T Nancy Davis Kho]
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Virginia Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights to individuals with past felony convictions upon their release. If passed by both chambers next session, the amendment will go before voters for final approval. 🪣
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement with Novo Nordisk, securing insulin products for $35 per month in the state for the next five years. 🪣
A coalition of non-profits, public health leaders, and small businesses sued to block OMB’s late night attempt to pause all agency grants and loans. 🪓
Jim Acosta resigned from CNN, issuing a statement that said, in part: “It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant…Do not give in to the lies. Don’t give into the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope.” He then launched a Substack, which already has over 150K subscribers. 🪓
A Nevada judge dismissed a right-wing lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation that challenged voter rolls in Washoe County.
The White House rescinded its illegal “freeze” after a day of ferocious backlash. Nice job, y’all. 🪓
Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped a state Senate seat in Iowa in a special election on Tuesday. Zimmer prevailed 53% to 47% in a district that Trump carried 60% to 39% in November. AMAZING! 🪓
The normally quiet Reddit thread of federal workers at rfednews has exploded with defiance — “We will NOT Resign, we took an oath and we will keep defending it against foreign and DOMESTIC enemies!!” 🪓
Democrats easily held a state Senate seat in Minnesota. Democrat Doron Clark won this Hennepin County seat 91% to 9%. In November, Harris had prevailed 83% to 14%. 🪓
The Burbank, CA city council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to make Burbank a sanctuary city. 🪓 🪣
Solar and wind are now being installed at a rate that is five times faster than all other new electricity sources combined. 🪣 (Thanks, Joe Biden!)
In response to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, British Columbia Premier David Eby has directed the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch to immediately stop purchasing American liquor from Republican-led “red states” and remove the top-selling brands from public liquor store shelves.
SCOTUS allowed the federal government to enforce a money-laundering law that protects consumers by increasing transparency in corporate ownership.
Three days before Trump was sworn into the presidency, a private equity firm with a growing monopoly on anesthesia practices agreed to a federal settlement requiring it to back off its anticompetitive roll-up scheme that has cost patients millions more for vital services. 🪣
After years of litigation that delayed payments designed to combat the national opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family who own it agreed to pay $7.4 billion to settle lawsuits over the opioid manufacturer’s role in the crisis and give up their company ownership. 1
Sexual assault victims in New Jersey should be able to track their rape kits through the criminal justice system by late summer under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed last week. 🪣
Sacramento City Unified School District officials unanimously affirmed safety for undocumented students at their schools, saying they will refuse to cooperate with ICE or allow them on their campuses. 🪓 🪣
Senate Budget Committee Democrats boycotted the committee hearing on Russell Vought to protest his nomination. MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE!! 🪓 🪣
Costco is increasing pay for most of its hourly U.S. store workers to more than $30, per Reuters.
A New York appeals court restored the state’s Voting Rights Act, which expands voter protections, overturning a lower court’s decision striking it down.
China broke its own records for the installation of new solar and wind power last year, with installed capacity increasing by 18 and 45 percent, respectively.
Former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his conviction on bribery and corruption charges.
Two unions–National Treasury Employees Union and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility–are suing the president for his “Schedule F” executive order that would allow him to fire civil servants without due process. 🪓
A federal judge in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s freeze on all agency grants and loans. The judge also barred the Trump administration from issuing any further directive that emphasizes a funding freeze. Oh and he’s a judge Biden appointed. 🪣
A group of Quaker meetings, represented by Democracy Forward, filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s plan to enable ICE agents to enter houses of worship for their immigration enforcement actions. 🪓
The first step towards creating a Celtic rainforest – a now extremely rare habitat that once covered large swathes of the west coast of Britain – has been completed in Devon, England.
A new report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication finds that most registered voters support climate-friendly policies, think the US should use more renewables and less fossil fuels in the future, and support US participation in the Paris Climate Agreement.
A Franklin County, MO woman pardoned for her participation in the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for her role in a fatal drunk driving crash.
Economists at Georgia Tech reported in a paper published this month that by mid-2023, the 13 states with total abortion bans had suffered a combined net loss of an estimated 36,000 residents per quarter, or more than 144,000 per year.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by several voters who sought to remove hundreds of allegedly ineligible voters from voter rolls in Marin County, California without evidence. The judge ruled the voters lacked standing.
Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed (he wasn’t.) Courage—love to see it!
Officials have declared that the world’s largest hornet, dubbed the “murder hornet” for its killer stings, has been eradicated in the US five years after it was first spotted.
New York lawmakers are discussing a bill that would give Gov. Kathy Hochul more time to set dates for special elections, which could leave Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s red North Country seat empty until the summer.
Amazing PA rep Malcolm Kenyatta was just elected the Vice-Chair of the DNC! So was David Hogg! (The DNC has three vice-chairs.) Ken Martin will be the Chair, and although he wasn’t my choice he seems like he’ll be a competent leader. So the DNC has strong new leadership. No more “rudderless ship.” Yay!
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed Maria Elena Cruz to the Arizona Supreme Court. The state appellate judge from rural Yuma County will become the first Latina and the first Black person chosen for the state’s high court
In the mid-1800s, Ida Lewis’s daring sea rescues became a media sensation, leading to hundreds of telegrams, gifts, and marriage proposals. All Ida wanted to do was tend to her lighthouse.
The events that led to Ida Lewis being called “The Bravest Woman in America” began on the blustery night of March 29, 1869, on Lime Rock Island, after her mother Zoradia spotted two men clinging to an overturned boat in the churning waves and screaming for help. “Ida, O my god! Ida, run quick! A boat has capsized, and men are drowning. Run quick, Ida!” she yelled to her daughter.
Ida and her younger brother Hosea immediately ran out of the house and jumped into a small skiff. Taking the icy oars, she rowed against a high wind to rescue the drowning men. Despite the freezing, wintery weather, she and Hosea lifted the choking men into the skiff, rowed them back to shore, and brought them into their home. The men were soldiers from nearby Fort Adams. As told in Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, Sergeant James Adams was barely able to “totter up to the house” and Private John McLoughlin was unconscious, but once revived and fed both recovered. Later, Sergent Adams told Ida’s other brother, Rudolph, “When I saw the boat approaching and a woman rowing, I thought She’s only a woman and she will never reach us. But I soon changed my mind.”
Illustration of Ida Lewis rescuing Sergeant James Adams and Private John McLoughlin, from the April 17, 1869, issue of Harper’s Weekly (Mariner’s Museum)
That was not the first time Ida had saved lives. By then she had already rescued three schoolboys and two other groups of men from drowning; during one rescue, Ida had saved four men whose boat had capsized in Newport Harbor. She was only twelve.
The New York Tribune’s story on Ida Lewis from their April 12, 1869 issue (Library of Congress)Illustration of Ida Lewis from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, November 1881 (Newport Historical Society)
But her rescue of 1869 was so improbable that reporters flocked to Newport to interview her. On April 12, the New York Tribunecarried Ida’s story, followed by articles in Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, which printed an etching of Ida’s pleasant face, strong features and wide-set hazel eyes. Adding to the story’s sensationalism was her weight of 103 pounds. Readers were riveted and soon besieged Ida with hundreds of telegrams, phone calls, gifts, and marriage proposals.
Shy and modest, Ida recoiled from the attention. When asked what motivated the rescue, she explained it as a moral obligation. “If there were some people out there who needed help, I would get into my boat and go to them even if I knew I couldn’t get back. Wouldn’t you?”
Readers were so overwhelmed by her courage that they collected funds to honor her. On July 4, 1869, in a public ceremony in Boston, they paraded a magnificent rescue boat through the streets, which was then presented to Ida. Among the audience were politicians and military leaders like Ulysses S. Grant, General Tecumseh Sherman, and Admiral George Dewey along with many wealthy Gilded Age summer residents of Newport who were then building estates along the shore. To the audience’s disappointment, she refused to address the crowd, leading prominent abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson to explain, “Miss Lewis desires me to say that she has never made a speech in her life and…doesn’t expect to begin now.”
Later that summer, women’s rights leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton visited Newport and met Ida, whom they cited as a “young heroine” and an example of women’s unsung abilities.
Born on February 25, 1842, Idawalley Zoradia Lewis was the oldest of the four children of Zoradia and Captain Hosea Lewis of the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1854 after the Lighthouse Service appointed Ida’s father as keeper, young Ida routinely sailed with him from Newport to Lime Rock Island to help maintain the light. Three years later when a house was built on the island and the light relocated there in a special second floor “lanthern” room, the Lewises moved to Lime Rock. Tragedy struck four months later when Ida’s father suffered a paralytic stroke, forcing her mother Zoradia to assume his keeper duties.
Illustration of Lime Rock Island from Harper’s Weekly, July 31, 1869 (Wikimedia Commons)
By then everyone in the family knew Ida was dependable, had unusual strength, and was a skilled sailor. Her brother Rudolf bragged, “Ida… can hold one to wind’ard in a gale better than any man I ever saw, wet an oar, and yes do it too when the sea is breaking over her.” Consequently, after her father’s stroke, she rowed her siblings to school and returned to the island with supplies from Newport.
Over the next 14 years, Ida helped her mother tend the light until her father died in 1877. A year later, Zoradia, who was ill with cancer, also died, leaving Ida to serve as keeper, maintain the family home, and care for a frail sister.
Being a lighthouse keeper was demanding. It was a job traditionally done by men. The beacon came from an oil-burning lantern housed in a wooden or iron frame surrounded by thick panes of glass. A solid wick suspended from the top of the frame enabled the oil (which needed to be refilled two or three times a night) to burn through the darkness. A Fresnel lens 17 inches tall and 11 ¾ inches in diameter reflected the burning oil, its light beaming far out beyond Newport Harbor. Every evening before dusk Ida trimmed the wick and adjusted the glass vents of the lens to create a proper draft. During the day, she cleaned the delicate panes of the lens, inspected and cleaned parts of the lantern, and removed carbon and other impurities. Those duties had to be performed carefully. If not, and the beacon failed, the lives of sailors at sea could be endangered.
Since Ida never kept records, no one knows how many rescues she achieved. Besides the famous 1869 rescue, several others were well known. The first occurred on a February 1866 night when she pulled three drunken soldiers from the waters after they “borrowed” her brother’s skiff and capsized it. The second happened the next January when three farmhands herded one of tycoon August Belmont’s prize sheep down Newport’s Main Street. Unexpectedly, the animal bolted and plunged into the harbor. Panicked, the trio jumped into Ida’s brother’s skiff to capture it but then overturned the boat. Again, Ida leapt into her own skiff and saved the drowning men whose hands were so numb from the frigid water that they barely grasped the sides of the capsized hull.
In 1870 Ida was officially appointed the Lighthouse Keeper of Lime Rock and awarded a salary of $750 per year (about $17,000 today). That same year she married Captain William Heard Wilson but became so unhappy that she soon left him and returned to her duties at Lime Rock Lighthouse.
Later, she rescued two more soldiers from Fort Adams who had fallen through the ice, prompting the United States government to award her the Gold Lifesaving Medal in 1881. Decades later, in 1907, Congress bestowed the first American Cross of Honor upon the aging Ida.
But awards, even national ones, meant little to her. “The light is my child and I know when it needs me, even if I sleep,” she once said. It was only when Ida died at age 69 on October 24, 1911, that her light finally went out.
“The phrase “cute winter boots” is not about footwear. It’s a code phrase being used to discuss resistance to Trump and how to fight back against the draconian immigration policies his administration is enacting. Users talking about “cute winter boots” keeping people safe from “ice,” are referencing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Cute winter boots” is just the latest example of algospeak, coded phrases and words aimed at subverting algorithmic filters.”
The reason is a perceived idea – which may well have basis in fact – that actual discussion of how to combat ICE raids and so on will be demoted by the platform’s content algorithm. It’s also clearly a way of trying to avoid scrutiny from authorities. But it also reveals a strong knowledge of what the TikTok algorithm likes to promote:
“The videos discussing “cute winter boots” leverage the TikTok algorithm’s preference for product-focused content to amplify their reach. “What the algorithm likes is products,” said Diana, the admin of @/citiesbydiana, a TikTok account about urban planning. “It’s a way to talk about resisting the federal government in a way that will actually reach people.””
This is absolutely dystopian police state stuff, but at the same time, it shows a ton of initiative, and illustrates that people aren’t going to take any of this lying down. Power to them.
February 2, 1779 Anthony Benezet and John Woolman, both prominent Quakers (Society of Friends), urged refusal to pay taxes used for arming against Indians in Pennsylvania. Since William Penn established the state two generations earlier, the Friends had dealt with the Indian tribes nonviolently, and had been treated likewise by the native Americans. Benezet and the Quakers were also early and consistent opponents of slavery. More about Anthony Benezet
February 2, 1848 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in the Mexican city of the same name, ending the Mexican War. In 1845 Congress had voted to annex Texas, and President James K. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor and troops to patrol the border, newly defined by Congress as the Rio Grande, though it previously had been the Nueces River. Following an encounter between Mexican and U.S. troops, Polk called for Congress to declare war on Mexico. General Winfield Scott and troops eventually seized Mexico City.The treaty’s provisions called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory (present-day California, Nevada and Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona, and portions of New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado), and to recognize the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas, in exchange for fifteen million dollars in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican property. According to the treaty, U.S. citizenship was offered to any Mexicans living in the 500,000 sq miles (1.3 million sq km) of new U.S. territory. Land ceded to the U.S. after the Mexican War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 2, 1931 The first of well over 400,000 Mexican-Americans from across the country, some of them citizens and many of them U.S. residents for as long as 40 years, were “repatriated” as Los Angeles Chicanos were forcibly deported to Mexico. More on those deported, Los Repatriados
February 2, 1932 The Conference on the Reduction and Limitation of Arms, the world’s first disarmament meeting, opened in Geneva, Switzerland. Sponsored by the League of Nations, and attended by delegates from 60 nations, no agreement was reached. The U.S. delegation called for the abolition of all offensive weapons as the basis for negotiations but found little support.
February 2, 1966 The first burning of Australian military conscription papers as a protest against the Vietnam War occurred in Sydney, Australia.
February 2, 1970 Bertrand Russell later in life Bertrand Russell, mathematician, Nobel laureate in literature and philosopher of peace, died in Penryndeudreaeth, Merioneth, in Wales at age 97. Bertrand Russell at age 10 “Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.” — Bertrand Russell More of Russell’s wisdom
February 2, 1980 Reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation targeting members of Congress. In what became known as ”Abscam,” members suspected of taking bribes were invited to meetings with FBI agents posing as Arab businessmen, offering $50,000 and $100,000 payments for special legislation. Audio and video recordings of the meetings were made surreptitiously. Six members of the house were convicted of accepting bribes. Another member of the House and one senator were targeted but took no money. FBI agents in Abscam sting operation Actual FBI videotape of one attempted scam
February 2, 1989 Soviet participation in the war in Afghanistan ended as Red Army troops withdrew from the capital city of Kabul. They left behind many of their arms for use by Afghan government forces. They were driven out principally by the insurgent mujahadin, armed through covert U.S. funding. Read more “Charlie Wilson’s War” movie trailer
February 2, 1990 South African President F.W. De Klerk unbanned (lifted the legal prohibition on) opposition parties: the African National Congress (ANC), the Pan-Africanist Congress and the South African Communist party were officially considered legal. He also announced the lifting of restrictions on the UDF, COSATU and thirty-three other anti-apartheid organizations, as well as the release of all political prisoners and the suspension of the death penalty. This was the result of his negotiations with the imprisoned Nelson Mandela, a leader of the ANC. The ecstatic reaction to De Klerk’s beginning the end of apartheid on BBC video
February 1, 1960 Greensboro first day: Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond leave the Woolworth store after the first sit-in on February 1, 1960.
Four black college students sat down at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and were refused service because of their race. To protest the segregation of the eating facilities, they remained and sat-in at the lunch counter until the store closed. Four students returned the next day, and the same thing happened. Similar protests subsequently took place all over the South and in some northern communities. By September 1961, more than 70,000 students, both white and black, had participated, with many arrested, during sit-ins. On the second day of the Greensboro sit-in, Joseph A. McNeil and Franklin E. McCain are joined by William Smith and Clarence Henderson at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“Segregation makes me feel that I’m unwanted,” Joseph McNeil, one of the four, said later in an interview, “I don’t want my children exposed to it.”
February 1, 1961 On the first anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in, there were demonstrations all across the south, including a Nashville movie theater desegregation campaign (which sparked similar tactics in 10 other cities). Nine students were arrested at a lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and chose to take 30 days hard labor on a road gang. The next week, four other students repeated the sit-in, also chose jail.
February 1, 1968 General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes Nguyen Van Lem a NLF officer.
Saigon police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executed Nguyen Van Lem, suspected leader of a National Liberation Front (NLF aka Viet Cong) assassination platoon, with a pistol shot to the head on the street. AP photojournalist Eddie Adams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the incident became one of the most famous, ubiquitous and lasting images of the war in Vietnam, affecting international and American public opinion regarding the war.
January 31, 1865 The U.S. House of Representatives passed (119-56) the 13th constitutional amendment which abolished slavery, and sent it to the states for ratification (three-quarters of the states would do so by the end of the year). The Kentucky legislature didn’t vote to ratify until 1976. Mississippi’s legislature finally ratified it in 1995 but failed to submit the paperwork to the federal government until 2013. Text of the amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” More about the 13th Amendment
January 31, 1876 Sitting Bull: One of several chiefs who refused to comply. The U.S. government ordered that all Native Americans had to move to reservations by this date or be declared hostile. Most Sioux did not even hear of the ultimatum until after the deadline.
January 31, 1945 Eddie Slovik Private Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, and the only one who suffered such a fate during World War II.Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Slovik’s execution be carried out, he said, to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war. Eisenhower
January 31, 1950 U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen (fusion) bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic (fission) bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
January 31, 1971 The Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson’s motel in Detroit. Sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the three days of hearings were an attempt by soldiers who had served in Vietnam to inform the public of the realities of U.S. conduct in the war. The veterans testified that the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident, and that some American troops had committed atrocities. Among those who spoke about aspects of their service in Vietnam was John Kerry, a former Navy lieutenant and future senator and presidential candidate. More than 100 veterans testified to sometimes brutal acts. Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield later entered the transcript of the Winter Soldier hearings into the Congressional Record but, otherwise, the proceedings captured little attention. The term “winter soldier” is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776. He spoke of the “sunshine patriot and summertime soldiers” who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. Winter Soldier film watchthetrailer (appox 4 minutes) watchthe entire movie (1:35) VVAW/Winter Soldier Organization
January 31, 1993 300,000 Berliners rallied to protest attacks on immigrants, and against racism and renewed support for Nazism on the 60th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. During the previous year there had been 2,285 racially motivated attacks, including 77 against Jewish sites, and the death of two young Turkish girls in an arson attack.
The edits to the webpage offer a glimpse into how far the Trump administration will go in refusing to acknowledge today’s inequalities as it purges federal initiatives promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Vera Rubin was an astronomer who earned the National Medal of Science for her research on dark matter, an invisible substance that makes up much of the universe. Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Rubin Collection
During his first presidential term, Donald Trump signed a congressional act naming a federally funded observatory after the late astronomer Vera Rubin. The act celebrated her landmark research on dark matter — the invisible, mysterious substance that makes up much of the universe — and noted that she was an outspoken advocate for the equal treatment and representation of women in science.
“Vera herself offers an excellent example of what can happen when more minds participate in science,” the observatory’s website said of Rubin — up until recently.
By Monday morning, a section of her online biography titled, “She advocated for women in science,” was gone. It reappeared in a stripped-down form later that day amid a chaotic federal government response to Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
While there are far more seismic changes afoot in America than the revision of three paragraphs on a website, the page’s edit trail provides an opportunity to peer into how institutions and agencies are navigating the new administration’s intolerance of anything perceived as “woke” and illuminates a calculation officials must make in answering a wide-open question:
How far is too far when it comes to acknowledging inequality and advocating against it?
“Vera Rubin, whose career began in the 1960s, faced a lot of barriers simply because she was a woman,” the altered section of the bio began. “She persisted in studying science when her male advisors told her she shouldn’t,” and she balanced her career with raising children, a rarity at the time. “Her strength in overcoming these challenges is admirable on its own, but Vera worked even harder to help other women navigate what was, during her career, a very male-dominated field.”
That first paragraph disappeared temporarily, then reappeared, untouched, midday Monday.
That was not the case for the paragraph that followed: “Science is still a male-dominated field, but Rubin Observatory is working to increase participation from women and other people who have historically been excluded from science. Rubin Observatory welcomes everyone who wants to contribute to science, and takes steps to lower or eliminate barriers that exclude those with less privilege.”
That paragraph was gone as of Thursday afternoon, as was the assertion that Rubin shows what can happen when “more minds” participate in science. The word “more” was replaced with “many,” shifting the meaning.
“I’m sure Vera would be absolutely furious,” said Jacqueline Mitton, an astronomer and author who co-wrote a biography of Rubin’s life. Mitton said the phrase “more minds” implies that “you want minds from people from every different background,” an idea that follows naturally from the now-deleted text on systemic barriers.
She said Rubin, who died in 2016, would want the observatory named after her to continue her work advocating for women and other groups who have long been underrepresented in science.
It’s unclear who ordered the specific alterations of Rubin’s biography. The White House, the observatory and the federal agencies that fund it, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, did not respond to questions from ProPublica.
The observatory’s page on diversity, equity and inclusion was also missing Thursday afternoon. An archived version from Dec. 19 shows that it described the institution’s efforts “to ensure fair and unbiased execution” of the hiring process, including training hiring committee members “on unconscious bias.” The DEI program also included educational and public outreach efforts, such as “meeting web accessibility standards” and plans to build partnerships with “organizations serving audiences traditionally under-represented” in science and technology.
Similar revisions are taking shape across the country as companies have reversed their DEI policies and the Trump administration has placed employees working on DEI initiatives on leave.
If the changes to Rubin’s biography are any indication of what remains acceptable under Trump’s vision for the federal government, then certain facts about historical disparities are safe for now. But any recognition that these biases persist appears to be in the crosshairs.
The U.S. Air Force even pulled training videos about Black airmen and civilian women pilots who served in World War II. (The Air Force later said it would continue to show the videos in training, but certain material related to diversity would be suspended for review.)
One of Rubin’s favorite sayings was, “Half of all brains are in women,” Mitton said. Her book recounts how Rubin challenged sexist language in science publications, advocated for women to take leadership roles in professional organizations and declined to speak at an event in 1972 held at a club where women were only allowed to enter through a back door.
Jacqueline Hewitt, who was a graduate student when she met Rubin at conferences, said she was inspired by Rubin’s research and how she never hid the fact that she had kids. “It was really important to see someone who could succeed,” said Hewitt, the Julius A. Stratton professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It felt like you could succeed also.”
Rubin was awarded the National Medal of Science by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993. The observatory, located in a part of Chile where conditions are ideal for observational astronomy, was named after her in 2019 and includes a powerful telescope; it will “soon witness the explosions of millions of dying stars” and “capture the cosmos in exquisite detail,” according to its website.
Mitton said the observatory is a memorial that continues Rubin’s mission to include not just many people in astronomy, but more of those who haven’t historically gotten a chance to make their mark.
“It’s very sad that’s being undermined,” she said, “because the job isn’t done.” (Snip)
Scottie's Playtime 