Hasta La Gadget!

Lawmakers in the Missouri Senate spent more than 10 hours in a closed-door special session last week to push through Senate Bill 5, a wide-reaching anti-abortion measure that—among other things—would roll back anti-discrimination protections for women in one of that state’s major cities.

The legislation would undo a relatively recent St. Louis ordinance that prohibits potential employers and landlords from discriminating against women based on their reproductive health history. In other words, if they’ve had an abortion. Or have used birth control. Or if they are pregnant. 

When the ordinance first passed last February, supporters hailed it as necessary protection for women living in a deep-red state that is considered to be “hostile” to abortion rights. Unsurprisingly, it also drew sharp criticism from several local religious groups and leaders who lamented its passage as a “terrible moment” for the city of St. Louis. In May, the St. Louis Archdiocese and several other organizations filed suit against the city of St. Louis, seeking to overturn the ordinance

Now, just months later, anti-abortion legislators in the state appear poised to topple the ordinance. The bill—which also includes other anti-abortion measures that would affect women statewide—passed the Senate late last Wednesday and is now being heard in the House Children and Families Committee. The Kansas City Star reports that it could be passed without changes and sent to the governor directly, or undergo revisions that would require the House and Senate to negotiate the differences in a special conference. 

NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri—the reproductive rights advocacy group, which fought for the anti-discrimination ordinance to be passed last winter—quickly announced it was launching an online and radio ad campaign criticizing Republican Gov. Eric Greitens who called the special session. (”Do you think your boss should be able to fire you for using birth control? Governor Greitens thinks so,” one ad claims.) 

A spokesperson for the group told HuffPost that before the ordinance passed last winter, NARAL had not heard of any specific cases in which women were discriminated against because of their reproductive history. But the group had not been tracking the data closely before then either. 

“Under the current political administration, we are seeing more threats against women for using birth control or having an abortion. We wanted to be proactive and protect them,” Kirstin Palovick, an organizing and policy associate with 
NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, told HuffPost in an e-mail. “Since the passage of this bill, we have had at least one person make a discrimination complaint based on their reproductive health care. We know the problem is happening, and we are beginning to hear more stories about it.”

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In the past decade or so, a subgenre of dystopian fiction has emerged to confront our changing planet: climate fiction, or “cli-fi.” In stories like Jeff VanderMeer’s “Southern Reach” trilogy, or Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Claire Vaye Watkins’ Gold Fame Citrus, characters confront floods, droughts and other environmental catastrophes.

But, as a recent post on the Smithsonian blog points out, these stories are swiftly becoming not just future possibilities, but present realities.

In an interview with HuffPost, VanderMeer noted that, “the solutions a fiction writer can provide, the speculation, is perhaps edging toward offensive in a policy context ― because we have scientists telling us what we need to do and they are the experts.”

A new cartoon anthology called Warmer addresses these issues and more. Co-edited by artists Madeleine Witt and Andrew White, the collection of works serves to provide support and hope to those who are mourning the damage done to the earth.

In an interview with HuffPost, White said, “As co-editors of Warmer, Madeleine and I wanted to make a book to offer comfort for those already fearful about climate change. So for the most part, Warmer doesn’t aim to convince anyone of anything. We imagined Warmer in part as a book that will function to encourage and support activists; to comfort those who, like ourselves, are wrestling with the grief of climate change.”

Below is a selection from five of the book’s contributors.

By Alyssa Berg

“This piece about humpback whale migration is the beginning of a collaborative project between me and my dear friend Catalina Jaramillo, a journalist who writes environmental/sustainability stories,” Berg said. “Through this collaboration I hope to express our shared love and respect for the ocean and its inhabitants.”

By Caitlin Skaalrud

“There’s beauty in just surviving despite everything, and real shame in so selfishly leaving all this to our children and grandchildren. And it won’t be far off in the distance — it’s already happening,” Skaalrud said. “I both feel helpless for my very young friends who will navigate climate change as it worsens, and still want to practically prepare them as much as I can. As I always say, ‘I can at least teach you to ride a horse, shoot a rifle, and start a fire.’”

She says that as an artist, she “can’t present a perfect argument or deeply considered treatise that would change anyone’s mind. I feel, if there’s anything I can do that will truly activate change, it’s touching people’s hearts.”

By Kimball Anderson

“Often in my work I engage with disability subjects, but when it comes to an issue as overwhelming as climate change, I think everyone of every ability is confronted with how limited they are,” Anderson said. “It’s always such a powerless feeling, such a moment of frustrated desire for control over your situation. We are ultimately still responsible for our part in this, even if we can barely do anything to fix it all. It’s a contradiction that can’t be resolved, a feeling of smallness in a moment where we need to be big.”

He continued, “Art has the power to expand our emotional understanding of the political, and this is an important form of activism. It’s a responsibility artists need to rise to.”

By Madeleine Witt

“For me, art and activism are two occasionally overlapping streams that come from the same source,” Witt said. “They both come out of a desire to see true things expressed, broken things healed, justice enacted. This comic, in particular, is a kind of meditative experience; the moment of quiet prayer before entering the battle, a necessary attempt to grasp the enormity of climate change and my own feeling about it. This comic is a piece of the reflection that necessarily precedes action.”

By Andrew White

“My piece for Warmer adapts several Yoko Ono instructions from her books Grapefruit and Acorn. For example, one piece that I adapted reads, ‘Walk in the footsteps of the person in front. 1. on ground 2. in mud 3. in snow 4. on ice 5. in water. Try not to make sounds,’” White said. “I found these pieces very moving. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. The instructions call upon the reader to go out into the world. Ono asks us to see the world as it is — to experience its beauty, its fragility, its splendor. So I aimed in my piece to both instill in readers that desire to reach out towards the world, and to communicate my own feelings about interacting with natural beauty when I fear that beauty might be fleeting.”

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Remains believed to be the missing teen’s were discovered on Sunday afternoon in a pond about two miles from the mosque, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. An autopsy will confirm identity and cause of death. 

Hassanen’s murder struck close to home for many Muslim Americans, who are celebrating the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.

“She was a baby,” Abdullah-Lardas told The Atlantic. “She could have been any of our children. It affects us deeply.”

Podcaster Makkah Ali wrote a thread on Twitter describing her own experiences of feeling targeted as a Muslim woman and the fear many are feeling in the wake of Hassanen’s attack.

“Last Friday, I also stood all night in prayer and walked with friends to a nearby diner at 2am for a pre-dawn meal,” she wrote. “Nabra is me.”

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Akeem Browder still grieves over the deaths of both his younger brother Kalief and his mother Venida ― but he is carrying on their legacy and fighting for change by running for mayor of New York City.

Browder confirmed to HuffPost on Monday that he is officially throwing his name into the ring ― along with several other candidates ― and competing against incumbent NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio. Browder, 34, believes he is equipped and more ready than he’ll ever be for the campaign. 

“I lost my mother, I lost my brother,” he told HuffPost. “I have nothing left to lose.” 

Kalief Browder died by suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 just two years after he was released from Rikers Island. He was jailed there for three years, nearly two of which he spent in solitary confinement, for allegedly stealing a backpack and was both unable to make the $3,000 bail and unwilling to take a plea deal. He experienced brutal beatings from both inmates and guards all of which is documented in stories and interviews of those who spoke to him before his death. Browder’s mother, Venida, who had been one of Kalief’s biggest supporters, passed away in 2016 at the age of 63 from a “broken heart” after suffering from complications of a heart attack.

Now, Browder said he is ready for political office and and running on the Green Party ticket. He said that he plans to be a strong competitor of De Blasio, especially on issues of criminal justice, saying that he disagrees with many of the laws De Blasio has introduced during his time in office. He thinks De Blasio’s 10-year plan to shut down Rikers Island is “lip-service” ― Browder believes the process can be completed in three years instead. As a candidate, Browder said he also takes issue with DeBlasio’s stances on immigration, education and poverty around the city. 

“It’s not a personal vendetta why I’m running for mayor but if we’re having someone represent the people, it better be someone who isn’t far removed from the people and better understands the people so they can better their lives,” Browder said. “Do what’s right by the people or get out of office, get out of the way of people who want to try and make a change.” 

As mayor, Browder said he plans to prioritize issues of criminal justice, such as identifying better ways to decrease criminalization, increase resources to inmates with mental illnesses and finding more effective ways for re-entry. He also plans to focus on homelessness and better managing the city’s public spending to allocate funds to those most in need. 

“I’ve been homeless before,” he said. “We as New Yorkers still criminalize and monopolize the homeless. To me that’s pathetic and I want to make a change, not just with the homeless but those who come from jail. There’s very little thought put into how we appropriate funds for people coming home and re-entering society.” 

Browder, who said he is a long-time activist, has been involved in several grassroots political projects. He helped to create the New York chapter for Black Lives Matter and the Shut Down Rikers campaign, and sits on an independent New-York based commission around criminal justice. He also helped to establish the Kalief Browder foundation in his brother’s memory. 

Ultimately, it’s Browder life experiences, struggles and successes that he believes make him best-suited to be mayor.   

“These candidates are far removed from the problems we face in New York,” he said. “They don’t understand what we go through. It takes someone who has been impacted by the law and justice system and has the info, knowledge and drive to reel it back in and put it back into the right channels.” 

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WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Monday dismissed near-universally accepted science, denying that carbon dioxide emissions from human activity are driving global climate change.

Asked by CNBC “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernen whether he believes carbon dioxide “is the primary control knob for the temperature of the Earth and for climate,” Perry said, “No.” 

“Most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in,” Perry said. “I mean, the fact is, this shouldn’t be a debate about, ‘Is the climate changing, is man having an effect on it?’ Yeah, we are. The question should be, you know, just how much, and what are the policy changes that we need to make to affect that?”

His comments echo those made by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, who in March told CNBC, “No, I would not agree that [carbon dioxide is] a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

Perry went on to defend his and others’ climate change denial, suggesting that those who question the scientific community’s findings are more intelligent. 

“This science — this idea that science is just absolutely settled and if you don’t believe it’s settled then you’re somehow another neanderthal, that is so inappropriate from my perspective,” he said. “I think if you’re going to be a wise, intellectually engaged person, being a skeptic about some of these issues is quite all right.” 

Ninety-seven percent of climate research supports the finding that climate change is real and that humans are the primary cause. 

President Donald Trump, who has called climate change “bullshit” and falsely claimed it’s a Chinese hoax, announced earlier this month he will withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris Agreement, an international accord aimed at cutting carbon emissions in an effort to ward off the worst effects of global climate change.

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