BACK WHERE I CAME FROM

Jimmy Carter with Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a reception for the National Association of Women Judges on Oct. 3, 1980. (Photo: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library)

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN! by Kathy Sherretts

Back where I came from
We can keep up with the appalling US political news from anywhere in the world, but there seem to be some things I hear about only on American soil. For instance, everybody is suddenly worrying and talking about Real I.D. —and I swear I never heard about it before.  
Also, there is this stupid new front in the culture wars: "Make Straws Great Again".
And I guess this commercial has been around for a couple of years, but I saw it for the first time this afternoon and have not gotten over it yet.
--Kathy Sherretts

Article:
Slate: Carter’s Quiet Revolution by Mark Joseph Stern 
President Jimmy Carter’s diversification of the judiciary is one of the most important and least acknowledged achievements in presidential history. Carter was the first president to alter the federal judiciary to look much more like the country it served. Today Donald Trump is undoing that legacy, nominating more white male judges from the Federalist Society's wish list.

Article:
ProPublica: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children by Ginger Thompson
With the agency under fire for holding children in deplorable conditions and over racist and misogynistic Facebook posts, one agent speaks about what it’s like to do his job. “Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal.”

Video:
CNN: Trump reacts to woman's harrowing survival story (3 min)
The president meets with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad, along with other refugees and victims of religious persecution.

Here’s an idea:
VNExpress: Vietnamese supermarkets go back to leaves, leaving plastic bags by Thi Ha, Dat Nguyen 
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Supermarket chains in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia are testing banana-leaf packaging. (Photo by Perfect Homes Chiangmai)

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Learn about the Green New Deal. If you missed our roundtable discussion, you can read the presenters' notes here. 
Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0, a new strategy for a new congress. 
Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas. 
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Learn more about solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a new group organized by members of American Resistance Sevilla and other community activists. 
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