Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff will be volunteering tomorrow in DC, transition says. https://t.co/PIsVUYa2xA
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) January 18, 2021
Yes, it’s a real thing:
Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. AmeriCorps has been charged with leading this effort for the past quarter century.
AmeriCorps is collaborating with the Presidential Inaugural Committee on the MLK National Day of Service…
And there’s many ways to serve:
Best thing I’ve heard all week: asked a National Guardsman at my corner if his team was being fed and taken care of. His reply: “Yes sir, @chefjoseandres already brought us something.”
Because of course.
— Doug Heye (@DougHeye) January 17, 2021
UPDATE from the @USCapitol where the @WCKitchen team is serving meals to the National Guard troops and everyone keeping us safe this Inauguration week…Thank you to @SpeakerPelosi for helping today! And thank YOU for supporting WCK’s efforts. #ChefsForDC #WeThePeople pic.twitter.com/tBsIpUdC6V
— Please wear a mask! Do it for the World please… (@chefjoseandres) January 16, 2021
*Won’t* it be lovely to have a functioning government again, instead of a kakistocracy!
BREAKING: U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office. https://t.co/rpHeD2bnLK
— CBC News (@CBCNews) January 17, 2021
On 1st day, Biden will rescind travel ban on several Muslim countries, rejoin Paris climate accord, extend pandemic limits on evictions and student loan payments, and order agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families at border. https://t.co/bPj007bw2w
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 16, 2021
And then there’s the GOP version of a public service…
Mary G
Don’t know what Joe will be doing, but I bet it’s not throwing field goals with paper towels.
Chyron HR
“Yeah, but he doesn’t really believe the Keystone pipeline is bad, so it doesn’t count.” – Some dumb asshole on Twitter doubtlessly
Bruuuuce
Despite the stain and degradation of it having been given inappropriately by Twitler, Chef Jose Andres deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
OzarkHillbilly
And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction – purpose and dignity – that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things.
Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
– Robert F Kennedy, March 18, 1968.
germy
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Biden inauguration: 25,000 National Guard vetted over insider attack fears as state protests fizzle
So yeah, they are worried and looking everywhere for any possible threat, as they should be, but so far it appears to be nothing more than a healthy sense of paranoia.
And now I gotta go. Have a good ‘un.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was only 7 when RFK was assassinated. I remember the events well but didn’t really understand the import. Every time I read something like that piece, the import hits me broadside. One of the biggest national tragedies of my lifetime, losing him.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
He’s been gone longer than he was here, but I still wonder – probably always will – how things would have gone if he hadn’t been assassinated.
p.a.
@germy:
This is a good opportunity to do an investigation. Don’t know what is legal or not abt checking military members’ soc media posts and discharges , due process etc. Of course any active duty at the putsch should get hammered. Retirees?
I know the Air Force was compromised: Colorado Springs is a fundy hotbed and I remember Jewish, Muslim, and female troops were harassed in the recent past.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Paranoia = ass covering. No one wants to be the one holding the bag if something goes wrong.
raven
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The first time I dropped acid was that day.
satby
And as an Americorps alumnus I have joined a service project almost every one of those years, but this year I have to work ?. So instead I’ll donate to WCKitchen and support their fantastic work. And pick up trash on my street, a lot of the community projects are trash cleanup, still, so it can be a solo experience if you prefer.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
JWR
@germy: Geez, what a country! Memories of the assassination of Anwar Sadat come unfortunately to mind.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
JWR
Crying Lib tears (of laughter.)
debbie
@germy:
She makes a good point.
Geminid
@satby: While traveling west on I-20 a couple years ago I got off at Vicksburg to grab a cup of good coffee. I was pleasantly surprised to see four young people with Americorps windbreakers at the coffee shop. That’s one program that could be expanded to staff climate change programs like home insulation for poor people, tree planting under the Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation program, and others. Green Infrastructure, if you will. Senator Warren put out an excellent package of climate initiatives during the primaries that would be a good template for these kinds of investment. The new Congress will put some of them through.
germy
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/01/troops-inauguration-pre-screened-extremism-says-dc-guard-commander/171456/
raven
@JWR: I posted that last night.
raven
@germy: This isn’t a surprise, the guard and military are simply a reflection of the society at large and maybe less so in certain branches.
This is from 2014 but it hasn’t changed much.
Ohio Mom
How do you vet thousands of guard members in a few days time? Doesn’t seem possible, unless you also have thousands of vetters.
raven
@Ohio Mom: They are called officers and nco’s. Yes, I know those could also be but that’s how they will do it. Remember this guard units are “citizen soldiers” and live and drill together in a given area. They know each other pretty well.
JWR
@raven: I figured somebody had. But with everything going on these days it’s so hard to keep up. ;)
germy
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ☕?
satby
@Geminid: Americorps is a great program, but funding has been slashed for years. Looking forward to a new administration that will value and fund it properly.
Baud
@satby:
That was a Clinton initiative, no? I remember when the GOP tried to kill it in its infancy.
Baud
Some irony in MJ blaming Twitter and Facebook for Trump this morning.
Amir Khalid
@JWR:
I wonder how close she is to being permanently smote with the banhammer.
satby
@Baud: Originally a JFK initiative as the Peace Corps and the domestic peace corps Vista program (I was a Vista volunteer). They were combined, along with the Civilian Conservation Corps ( now NCCC) and Senior Corps programs during the Clinton admin into Americorps. Something for everyone ?
raven
@JWR: Sure, some folks prolly don’t have a clue.
Geminid
@satby: I thought the Americorps program was ended until I saw those young folk in Vicksburg. Like you say, its funding was cut, but not the program was not eliminated. President Obama was able to build it up some, and I’m hoping the new administration and Congress can do the same
Among other initiatives, Senator Warren proposed expanding the Soil and Water Conservation program ten-fold. Her climate change package was characteristically detailed and pragmatic. While some parts would require government funding, her proposed green infrastructure bank would leverage government investment to secure large private investment in suitable infrastructure.
raven
@Ohio Mom:
raven
Nice story about Obama shootin the rock at Chapel Hill
germy
JWR
@Amir Khalid: She can go hang with Trump on the “new and improved” Parler, along with gunbunny Boebert, most probably.
Ken
@germy: I don’t suppose the Guard can authorize use of force?
EDIT: Non-lethal, although an argument could be made they are being subjected to potentially lethal assault.
Jeffery
My day of service was last Friday when I went around the corner from where I live to clean up the bottom of the stairwell from one lower street to an upper street. The space at the base is about 10 feet by 10 feet. Leaves, dirt, trash blow into this spot. People use it as a trash bin. I hadn’t done this in a few years. Whenever I used the stairwell the area would gross me out. Friday with a rake, broom, dustpan, trash bin and contractor bags I cleaned it up. Lots of breaks were needed. Getting old is a bitch. Not the great job I would have done in the past. It’s clean enough. I will be using the stairwell this morning to go to the corner store. Will see if anyone tossed new trash in it. My plan is to go back in Spring to do it again. It should be easier I hope.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank you. I came to this conclusion last night so that I could go to sleep.
Geminid
@JWR: I caught part of a Boebert interview on Sebastian Gorka’s radio show yesterday. What a motormouth! She ran with his first question for at least four minutes of fast talking garbage ending with, “Donald Trump is not just a man! We are all Donald Trump! We are all MAGA!” Gorka complimented her on her “passion,” lobbed her another softball, and she was off to races again. He didn’t even try to stop her at the hard break. One second Boebert was gibbering away, the next second some lady was selling mattresses. I did not stick around for the rest of the interview.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Geminid: Holy crap. You have a stronger stomach than I do just for listening to the first two segments of her babble
Bobby Thomson
Philabundance is a great organization and a good choice.
Betty Cracker
Does anyone besides educators, students and government employees get MLK Day off? I don’t think any company I’ve ever worked for observed it as a day off.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am pretty detached about these things. I’ve been following Boebert on local and Colorado state news since she beat incumbent Scott Tipton last summer. I usually skip Gorka when I’m scanning around, but I was curious. Aside from his rotten politics, Gorka is personally repulsive, so I guess one good thing about the interview was that Boebert didn’t let Gorka talk much.
Bruuuuce
@Betty Cracker: I work for a company that does desktop publishing contracted to an investment bank, and we have today off. Of course, since I work a swing shift, that means I start at 12:01 AM rather than 9 PM, but it’s a start.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Banks are closed. Here, anyway. Ditto for electric company and cable company offices. I know of at least one retail business (owned and run by friends) which closes as well on any holiday which the banks observe.
raven
@Betty Cracker: I worked for the university system here and we never got Veterans Day off.
Ohio Mom
Raven: Thanks. That sounds doable — the most rabid ones will be identified, and maybe the others will be cowed into behaving.
JWR
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Geminid:
Yikes, Gorka has a radio show? I’m so sheltered, not having cable or satellite radio. And the only time I listen to AM radio it’s for the 24 hour news.
germy
@JWR:
Steve Bannon has a show, too. Not sure if it’s radio or an online podcast.
He had Rudy G. on as a guest recently.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
About twenty years ago we lived across the street from a really racist guy. I stopped talking to him after our first conversation because he was so unfiltered and ugly.
He worked maintenance at a senior center, so every MLK Day I’d see him puttering around on his day off.
I wanted to tell him “Go to work, motherfucker. Let yourself into the senior center and mop some floors or something. You don’t get this day off.”
Geminid
@JWR: Gorka has a second or third tier radio show. He turns up on my local station only on Sunday afternoons, a slow time for talk radio. Along with Hew Hewitt reruns.
germy
@Geminid:
From what I’ve heard of local conservative talk radio, they feature the nationally syndicated famous “big dogs” and also give air time to local radio personalities. The local personalities are often more offensive than the big dogs, because they’re ambitious and their dream is to one day achieve national syndication.
catclub
@OzarkHillbilly: the 9/11 attacks can now be seen as a very lucky one-off.
I don’t think that all the heavy security changes made it a one-off. More the change in attitudes.
The response now to the capitol invasion strongly reminds me of 9/11 as a one-off.
NotMax
Let us be thankful King (Jan. 15) did not share a birthday with Robert E. Lee (Jan. 19).
catclub
@raven: Thanks for pointing that out. Left out is the purposeful ignoring of right wing threats by the federal law enforcement up until jan 6., so the lists are likely woefully incomplete.
OTOH Senator ted kennedy was put on the no-fly list.
Also, gun purchase checks are thrown away so there is no record of who is buying LOTS of guns.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: @Geminid: My elder son was an Americorps VISTA after law school, doing poverty law focused on veterans and housing issues. This was not long after the Great Bush Recession, so the need was high.
One of the travesties of the program is that the volunteers are paid so little that they qualify for food stamps (SNAP). Seems to me a living wage would be in order.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I cut back on caffeine by drinking only one (large) cup of half-caff in the morning. Today, Einstein’s Bagel Store gave Mr DAW a free medium size cup of coffee with his order, and he brought it home to me. I am so buzzed on caffeine I feel like eyeballs are going to pop out.
Betty Cracker
@raven: No place I’ve ever worked observed Veterans Day as a day off either. I think all my past employers provided days off for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
Stacib
@Baud: I watch Joe every morning- have watched since he did Scarborough Country. He has conveniently forgotten his part in the demonization of Democrats. I was watching the morning he goaded Halperin into calling Obama a dick, and then they both giggled like school girls.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Most businesses and companies around here get the day off. Retail seems to be the main exception.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I used to live in the Shenandoah Valley, and I noticed that the large Mennonite population worked every day but Sunday. Christmas and Thansgiving were observed, but no secular holidays. I lived a mile from a big Little Debbie’s plant, close enough to smell the pies baking. They took some secular holidays off. The parent company is run by Seventh Day Adventists, and they do not even let contractors work on Saturdays. A serious war on diabetes could start with hitting that plant with some smart bombs on a Saturday.
mali muso
Happy to note that this is the first time in over 100 years in which the execrable “Lee-Jackson Day” is no longer a state holiday here in Virginia. It was swapped out for Election Day.
JanieM
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for this, and for the reminder.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker:
We always got MLK Day off when I worked for law firms in Virginia and DC. I wonder if firms celebrate MLK Day more the closer you get to the Mason Dixon Line?
Kind of thought of the holiday as “Saint Martin of the Slopes.” Good day to go skiing at one of the nearby resorts.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank you so much for that!
Patricia Kayden
VOR
@Stacib: Scarborough did a lot of heavy lifting on normalizing Trump in 2015-16. His show gave Trump a lot of free air time and publicity.
Low Key Swagger
My daughter’s law firm is closed for MLK Day.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, I’ve been 100% decaf for months. But my favorite local cafe reopened for takeout service, and so occasionally I get what used to be my standard drink, a large redeye (coffee with extra shots of espresso). I used to drink at least 1-2 of those every day. An eye-opener, literally.
I’ll probably go back to that habit eventually, post lockdown, but maybe I can learn to say the word “decaf” in a cafe.
Elizabelle
That last cartoon: GQP.
GQP.
I am calling them that from here out.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker: my doctor’s office (part of a large HMO) is taking today off. Quite logical when I think about it, as I am sure that many of the employees have children and would need the day off anyway.
Origuy
My large Silicon Valley computer company has MLK Day and Veterans Day as holidays in the US. I think a lot of Silicon Valley companies take at least one of the two as holidays.