(cross-posted at Café Babylon.net)

climate refugees

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and r&b singer, songwriter, saxophonist and bandleader, Louis Jordan. Enjoy!

When Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced yesterday that we were conducting ground operations in Iraq "at the invitation of the Iraqi government", he made it sound like we are cleared this with the government of Baghdad.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has done a new analysis of the current situation with transgender health coverage. As you may know, while the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has started paying for transition-related healthcare for transgender people, many private insurers deny such coverage, judging it to be "experimental," purely cosmetic," "elective," or just plain icky...even though the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological association all consider the treatment to be medically necessary to be available for transgender people.

It's the same as saying if you have cancer, you need chemotherapy if you are going to survive.

--William Padula, Johns Hopkins

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Joe Hill was born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle, Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1902 and, at some point, began using the name Joseph Hillstrom. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World, most likely in 1910 in Portland, Oregon, and soon thereafter began writing songs under the name of Joe Hill, eventually becoming the most popular rebel songwriter of his time. His songs were published in the songbook, "I. W. W. Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent," famous then and now simply as the "Little Red Songbook."

By the time of his murder at the hands of the Utah (in)Justice System, Joe's songs were being sung on picket lines all across the nation, in Britain, Australia, and many other far and distant lands, where, after his death, his ashes were scattered to the winds. Perhaps, some fading flowers will yet arise to take up the cause of Industrial Freedom for which Fellow Worker Joe Hill so courageously gave his life.

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features delta blues piano player Pinetop Perkins. Enjoy!

It seems to be a day for skimming the news involving the trans community. What do we discover?

The PP shooter, Robert Lewis Dear, is not transgender, but this won't stop right-wingers from using the claim, or anything else they can grab on to in order to demonize transgender people as threats to public safety.

Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton has been found guilty of choking and then drowning transgender woman Jennifer Laude in Olangapo City, The Philippines.

(I’d indicated in Part I (here at the Café, and at Caucus 99%) that I’d say more about the 2 degrees C and 350ppm carbon tipping points in this part.) 

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features delta bluesman Mississippi John Hurt. Enjoy!

Mount Horeb Primary Center in Dane County, Wisconsin has a transgender student who has just come out. In an attempt to be inclusive and supportive of the trans girl a letter to parents was written and signed by the principal, the school psychologist and a counselor, informing the parents about the plan to have the students read and discuss I am Jazz, a book co-written by Florida transgender teen Jazz Jennings.

We believe all students deserve respect and support regardless of their gender identity and expression, and the best way to foster that respect and support is through educating students about the issue of being transgender.

It is our primary responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students. Please let us know if you have concerns about your child participating in this discussion; we respect the beliefs and convictions of all families.

--The letter

For some of the parents withdrawing their children from the discussion was not sufficient. They felt the need to contact the SPLC-identified hate group, The Liberty Council, which threatened legal action if the book was read to students, claiming that such action would violate parental rights.