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Two Prominent Black Intellectuals Just Delivered More Bad News for Clinton

by GabrielaN24 Posted on February 10, 2016

Mother Jones

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After a crushing loss in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton may be having an even worse morning. As her campaign turns to South Carolina, where she hopes to win the primary with the support of African American voters on February 27, two prominent black intellectuals issued forceful statements Wednesday morning that could boost her rival, Bernie Sanders.

“I will be voting for Sen. Sanders,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, a correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of the 2015 National Book Award winner Between the World and Me, said Wednesday in an interview on Democracy Now! Coates has written critically of Sanders recently for not embracing reparations for African Americans as part of his economic and social justice platform.

A much stronger rebuke of Clinton came from Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, who blasted the former secretary of state in an essay published Wednesday on the website of The Nation titled “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote.” In it, Alexander argued that the economic and criminal justice policies of the Bill Clinton administration, from the 1994 crime bill to welfare reform in 1996, were devastating to African Americans—and that Hillary Clinton was a force in that administration whose role should be scrutinized and whose current positions on criminal justice and racial equality are not strong enough.

Ironically, perhaps, Alexander cites Coates at the end of the essay in also critiquing Sanders.

This is not an endorsement for Bernie Sanders, who after all voted for the 1994 crime bill. I also tend to agree with Ta-Nehisi Coates that the way the Sanders campaign handled the question of reparations is one of many signs that Bernie doesn’t quite get what’s at stake in serious dialogues about racial justice. He was wrong to dismiss reparations as “divisive,” as though centuries of slavery, segregation, discrimination, ghettoization, and stigmatization aren’t worthy of any specific acknowledgement or remedy.

But recognizing that Bernie, like Hillary, has blurred vision when it comes to race is not the same thing as saying their views are equally problematic. Sanders opposed the 1996 welfare-reform law. He also opposed bank deregulation and the Iraq War, both of which Hillary supported, and both of which have proved disastrous. In short, there is such a thing as a lesser evil, and Hillary is not it.

Coates and Alexander are by no means the first black intellectuals to express skepticism of Clinton and endorse Sanders. Princeton University professor Cornel West, for example, has campaigned with Sanders. On Wednesday morning, Sanders traveled to Harlem to have breakfast with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the most prominent black politician in South Carolina, is considering endorsing Clinton. She still has plenty of backing in the black political establishment. But the comments from Coates and Alexander Wednesday are a sign that the degree of support Clinton is counting on from the black community might be slipping away, and that she may not be able to sew up the black vote in South Carolina, as her supporters have long predicted.

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Two Prominent Black Intellectuals Just Delivered More Bad News for Clinton

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Clinton Embraces Sanders’ Message After Big New Hampshire Loss

by GerardBoatright Posted on February 10, 2016

Mother Jones

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After a big loss to Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire Democratic primary Tuesday, Hillary Clinton used her concession speech to shift the focus to the South Carolina and Nevada contests and beyond, and tout her progressive credentials on issues that have dominated Sanders’ rising campaign—namely campaign finance reform and the power of Wall Street.

“We’re going to fight for real solutions that make a real difference in people’s lives,” she said. “That is the fight we are taking to the country. What is the best way to change people’s lives so we can all grow together? Who is the best change-maker? And here’s what I promise: I will work harder than anyone to actually make the changes that make your lives better.”

Clinton recalled that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was instigated by a conservative group attempting to air an anti-Hillary Clinton film in 2008—a point she hasn’t yet incorporated into her stump speech or raised in debates. “So yes, you’re not going to find anyone more committed to aggressive campaign finance reform than me,” Clinton told the cheering crowd, her voice hoarse from campaigning.

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Clinton Embraces Sanders’ Message After Big New Hampshire Loss

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Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds

by Myrna Posted on January 25, 2016

The first scientific census of the African population finds that there are nearly one million in communities threatened by encroaching societies. Taken from:   Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds ; ; ;

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Global Health: Deforestation Threatens Pygmies, Study Finds

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Should Bernie Sanders Support Reparations?

by OlenMcgehee Posted on January 20, 2016

Mother Jones

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A few days ago, someone asked Bernie Sanders if he supported the payment of reparations to African-Americans. He said he didn’t—and then, as with every other subject he’s asked about, used it as a springboard to talk about the “real issue” of poverty and income inequality. Ta-Nehisi Coates was pretty unimpressed:

Sanders says the chance of getting reparations through Congress is “nil,” a correct observation which could just as well apply to much of the Vermont senator’s own platform….Sanders is a lot of things, many of them good. But he is not the candidate of moderation and unification, so much as the candidate of partisanship and radicalism….Sanders should be directly confronted and asked why his political imagination is so active against plutocracy, but so limited against white supremacy.

Coates is unhappy that Sanders is so reticent about reparations, but this strikes me as an odd criticism. A couple of years ago Coates famously wrote an Atlantic article titled “The Case for Reparations,” and after reading it I concluded that he was reticent about reparations too. He certainly made the case that black labor and wealth had been plundered by whites for centuries—something that few people deny anymore—but when it came time to talk about concrete restitution for this, he tap danced gingerly. Here are the relevant paragraphs:

Broach the topic of reparations today and a barrage of questions inevitably follows: Who will be paid? How much will they be paid? Who will pay? But if the practicalities, not the justice, of reparations are the true sticking point, there has for some time been the beginnings of a solution. For the past 25 years, Congressman John Conyers Jr., who represents the Detroit area, has marked every session of Congress by introducing a bill calling for a congressional study of slavery and its lingering effects as well as recommendations for “appropriate remedies.”

….Scholars have long discussed methods by which America might make reparations to those on whose labor and exclusion the country was built. In the 1970s, the Yale Law professor Boris Bittker argued…$34 billion….Today Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law School professor, argues for something broader: a program of job training and public works that takes racial justice as its mission but includes the poor of all races.

….Reparations—by which I mean the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences—is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely….What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts. What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt.

What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.

If you say “reparations,” an ordinary person will almost certainly understand it in a very specific way: A disbursement of money to blacks to atone for slavery and its aftermath. But despite the provocative title of his piece, Coates never squarely endorses this. Instead, he suggests we pass a bill that would study slavery. He writes approvingly of Ogletree’s proposal for job training and public works. And he wants a “full acceptance” of our past along with a “national reckoning” about its consequences.

I’m not being coy when I say that after I read this, I couldn’t tell whether or not Coates supported reparations in the sense that most people understand them. And since I’m sure that’s the sense in which Bernie Sanders was answering the question, I’m not quite sure what Coates is criticizing here. To my ear, Sanders sounded a lot like Ogletree, who Coates seems to have no problem with. So what’s his problem with Sanders?

POSTSCRIPT: Since someone is bound to ask, I don’t support reparations myself because I don’t think they would do any good. But maybe I’m wrong. I can be convinced otherwise.

And if I am wrong, I’ve never thought that practical considerations are an insurmountable obstacle. A simple solution is to try to roughly equalize black and white net worth, which would require payment of about $50,000 to every black person in the country. That would be expensive but affordable over a course of 10 or 20 years. Nor would the supposedly sticky subject of “who’s black?” be all that difficult. About 95 percent of the cases would be easy, and the rest would go to an arbitration panel of some kind. The arbitration might be messy, but it would hardly be the first time we’ve done something like this.

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Should Bernie Sanders Support Reparations?

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8 Climate-Friendly Superfoods for 2016

by LamarMcLendon Posted on January 16, 2016

Superfoodsare gaining popularityand for good reason. They directlysupport the immune system, reduceinflammation, support mental health,pack a nutritional punch,and boost energy, stamina and longevity.

Here are eightsuperfoods to watch in 2016 that are not only good for you, but also good for the planet:

1. Crickets

Long-consumed in many parts of the developing world, crickets are makingtheir way into cookies, milkshakes and other food items in the U.S.Photo credit: Shutterstock

Crickets are loaded with protein. They also thrive in hotter climates and survive off decaying waste and very little water and space,Mother Jonesreported.For this reason, crickets and other insects havebeenhailedas the next climate-friendly superfood. They can be ground into baking flour or protein powder, and addedto cookies, brownies ormilkshakes.

While eating cricketsor any type of insect for that matterhasnt completely caught on in the U.S., its making progress. Last year, fast food chainWayback Burgersput outa fake press release as anApril Fools jokeabout insect-filled milkshakes, but the idea was so popular that theyrolled out theirOreo Mud Pie Cricket Protein Milkshake.

2. Pulses

Theyre the dried seeds of lentils, beans and chickpeasand the UN hasdeclared2016 to be their year. They already make up 75 percent of the average diet in developing countries, but only 25 percent in developed ones, according to the UN.

That could all change, though. Pulses contain 20 to 25 percent protein by weight, approaching the protein levels of meat, which average30 to 40 percent. They also require far less water than meat to produce.

3. Amaranth

Amaranth is a complete source of protein.Photo credit: Shutterstock

Amaranth is the new quinoa, trend expert Daniel Levine toldThe Huffington Post. Its a grain-like seed that cooks quickly and can be added to salads, soups and stews. Its a complete source of protein just like quinoa, and it is loaded withfiber,B vitamins andseveral important minerals. Additionally, its beenshownto reduce inflammation, and lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

4. Kefir

Kefiris the trendiestfermentedfood right now (sorry, kombucha and kimchi).Its high in nutrients andprobiotics, and is incredibly beneficial for digestion andgut health.Many people consider it to be a healthier and more powerful version ofyogurt.

To make it,grains (yeast and lactic acid bacteria cultures) are added to cow or goat milk. The concoction ferments over a 24-hour period and then the grains are removed from the liquid.

5.Teff

Sometimes written as tef or tef, this pseudo-grain (its technically a seed)has a high nutritional profile and a taste similarto that of amaranth or quinoa. Thisancient grainhas survived for centuries without muchhybridization or processing.Like most other ancient grains, its high in fiber, calcium and iron.

Traditionally cultivated inEthiopia and Eritrea, teff can be grown in a variety of conditions.Teff thrives in both waterlogged soils and duringdroughts, making it a dependable staple wherever its grown. No matter what the weather, teff crops will likely survive, as they are also relatively free of plant diseases compared to other cereal crops,Whole Grains Councilsaid.

Teff can grow where many other crops wont thrive, and in fact can be produced from sea level to as high as 3,000 meters of altitude, with maximum yield at about 1,800-2,100 meters high, the council said. This versatility could explain why teff is now being cultivated in areas as diverse as dry and mountainous Idaho and the low and wet Netherlands.

6. Moringa

Moringa can be ground intoa powder.Photo credit: Shutterstock

Its often called the the miracle tree or the tree of life, according toTIME. Its commonly found inAsian and African countries, and almost every part of itpods, leaves, seeds and rootsis edible. Its agood sourceof Vitamin B6, Vitamin C and iron. Not only does it pack a nutritional punch, its also afast-growing, drought-tolerant plantthat is a promising biofuel and medicinal source.

7. Kelp

Kelp grows super fast (up to two feet per day), and requires neither freshwater nor fertilizer. And rather than contributing to our carbon footprint, as many fertilizers and food sources do, seaweed cleanses the ocean of excess nitrogen and carbon dioxide,Mother Jonesreported. One kelpfarmer on the Long Island Sound evenclaimshesrestoringthe ocean while producing a sustainable food and fuel source.

8. Waste-Based Food

This isnt as weird as it sounds. In order to reducefood waste, restaurants are findingcreative waysto use the edibleparts of plants and animals that are often thrown out. Last year, award-winning chef Dan Barber held atwo-week pop-upat Blue Hill, his restaurant in New York City, where he cooked with spent grain, cocoa beans, pasta scraps andvegetablepulp.

Written by Cole Mellino. Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Racists Hate the Idea of Paying College Athletes

by JoesphOGXD Posted on December 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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Well, I’ll be damned:

Could racial prejudice also affect attitudes toward paying college athletes? There are good reasons to believe that it could.

….To find out whether racial prejudice influences white opinion on paying college athletes, we conducted a survey of opinions on “pay for play” policies using the 2014 CCES. In a statistical analysis that controlled for a host of other influences, we found this: Negative racial views about blacks were the single most important predictor of white opposition to paying college athletes.

….To check our findings’ validity, we also conducted an experiment. Before we asked white respondents whether college athletes should be paid, we showed one group pictures of young black men with stereotypical African American first and last names. We showed another group no pictures at all. As you can see in the figure on the right, whites who were primed by seeing pictures of young black men were significantly more likely to say they opposed paying college athletes. Support dropped most dramatically among whites who expressed the most resent towards blacks as a group.

Apparently this gap is also visible in ordinary poll results: “In every survey to date, blacks are far more likely to support paying college athletes when compared to whites. For instance, in the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 53 percent of African Americans backed paying college athletes–more than doubling the support expressed by whites (22 percent).”

I’m basically willing to believe that race and racial animus permeate practically everything of significance in America. But I wouldn’t have guessed this. I’m not sure why, but it just never occurred to me to think of big-time college sports as a “black thing,” even though it obviously is. It just goes to show how deeply our racial sickness infests us.

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Racists Hate the Idea of Paying College Athletes

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9 House Plants That Make Great Gifts

by TheronTracey5 Posted on December 11, 2015

Plants make great gifts because they last all year round. You don’t need to wrap them in anything fancy, other than maybe a bow. And depending on the plant you give, it will flower every year around December, reminding the person who receives it of you and your love or friendship.

Here are 9 house plants that make great gifts because they’re inexpensive, hardy, easy to care for, and either flower or smell great. Note: Poinsettias are not on this list, mostly because they don’t last very long and they really are mostly a Christmas plant.

1) Amaryllis Bulbs – These giant bulbs grow into magnificent flowers (pictured above) on stalks that may be over 2 feet tall. You can usually find them in grocery or hardware stores, in a box that comes with a pot as well as a “soil” disc. Put the disc in the bottom of the pot and add a couple of cups of warm water. The disc will absorb the water and expand to fill the pot. Bury the bulb so about a third peeks out at the top, water, and set in bright but not direct sunlight. Then watch the magic happen. Tall stalks will form first, followed by beautiful blooms. When the plant is finished blooming, you can cut off the stalk and store the bulb for next year.

2) Christmas/Thanksgiving Cactus – This plant will develop many flower buds and keep getting larger the older it gets. The flowers come in a variety of colors, from white to deep pink to flaming red and gorgeous coral. You’ll have to put it away in a darkish spot after it flowers, but then bring it back out in the fall next year and watch the flowers bloom again.

3) Rosemary Mini Bush – This is one of my favorite gifts, to either give or receive. You can get rosemary in a small bush, maybe 18 inches tall and 12 inches around. Pick from it all winter long whenever you need some rosemary to cook from. Dry it and put it into small jars you can take as a hostess gift when you go somewhere for dinner. Plant it in your own yard in the spring. It’s got many uses, all of them good!

4) Spider Plant – This plant is one that NASA determined was particularly effective in helping to purify the air. Plus, it’s just cool to watch it send out shoots that turn into mini plants. You can also cut off those shoots, pot them, and give them to someone else as a gift. Available in a variegated or striped life, or solid green.

5) Peace Lily – This plant, also known by its Latin name Spathiphyllum, is perfect for homes that don’t get a lot of direct sunlight, but still want to add some greenery to a living space. It’s also another plant NASA suggests is good for air purification. A couple of times a year, it will send up a shoot that turns into a beautiful white or pink blossom.

6) Indoor Windowbox Mini Herb Garden – This is a great gift for someone who enjoys cooking with fresh herbs. You can either buy an herb gift set, which comes with seeds, soil and little pots; or, you can make up a gift set yourself. One option is to box up three packs of different seeds; a small bag of soil; and three small pots that you can put on a tray or on a small saucer so they won’t leak when watered. Another option is to go ahead and plant the guide seeds in the pots so whoever gets them just has to put them in a sunny window.

7) African Violets – These beauties prefer indirect light, so they’re perfect for many households that don’t have a sunny window. Give one in a beautiful pot; or give three that have different kinds of leaves and varying flower colors. You may need to get some special fertilizer for this plant, and you need to water it so the leaves don’t get wet. You’ll find other growing instructions here.

8) Cyclamen – This plant is another fall and winter bloomer. It’s deep pink flowers make a gorgeous statement against the mottled green leaves. It will go dormant in the summer, but as long as you don’t overwater it, and you repot it in the spring, you should have a lovely plant for many years.

9) Ferns – Ferns have a way of filling up drab corners and bringing them to life. If you’ve thought ahead, you could have potted some ferns from your own garden to give as gifts. Otherwise, garden centers and even some big box stores will have a variety of ferns on hand that you can give as gifts. Caution: Before taking them out in the cold, even if you’re going from the store to your car, cover them lightly or put them in a bag so they won’t suffer shock from the elements. Here’s a good list of the 9 top ferns to grow as houseplants.

Related
15 Handmade Gifts for Animal Lovers
Feminist Holiday Gift Guide

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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9 House Plants That Make Great Gifts

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How Sharp is Justice Scalia These Days?

by MistyBlesing422 Posted on December 11, 2015

Mother Jones

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During Wednesday’s oral arguments in the University of Texas affirmative action case, Justice Antonin Scalia said this:

There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.

As many people have pointed out, what Scalia was haltingly trying to describe is “mismatch theory.” I’ll let a conservative explain this:

The argument is that students who are (1) not up to a college’s usual admissions standards and (2) nonetheless admitted for reasons wholly unrelated to their academic backgrounds are less likely to have good educational outcomes than if they had gone to a college for which they were more properly prepared and qualified. It’s not a new argument.

No indeed. In fact, several amicus briefs were filed making exactly this argument.

When I first read about Scalia’s remarks, I wasn’t surprised that he had brought this up. There’s considerable debate about mismatch theory, but it’s a respectable argument. What I was surprised about is the way he brought it up. Scalia had read the briefs. He has a famously keen mind. And yet, he sputtered and searched for words, and eventually described mismatch theory in the crudest, most insulting way possible.

I don’t think that was deliberate. I think he was just having trouble searching his brain for the right words. He’s also seems even more prone to outbursts of temper than usual lately. I wonder if Scalia is still as sharp as he used to be?

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How Sharp is Justice Scalia These Days?

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These Bats Look Exactly Like Teddy Bears and Cute Little Piggies

by RudolphMott Posted on October 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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Despite the fact that Dr. Merlin Tuttle, 74, has saved millions of bats around the world through his research and advocacy, and has taken hundreds of thousands of pictures of bats (sometimes shampooing them beforehand), he won’t judge you if you are afraid of them.

He won’t even get mad if you’ve tried to hurt one. In his more than fifty-year-long career, Tuttle has encountered just about every sort of reaction one could have toward a bat, and witnessed every horrible thing you could do to one. His reaction? To try to be understanding and then calmly list, as he did with me below, all the ways bats are amazing critters who will, in fact, make your life better.

Since he first discovered bats as a teenager in a cave close to his house in Tennessee, he has devoted his life to them, founding Bat Conservation International, the world’s leading bat advocacy group (which he has since left to found Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation); publishing more than 50 research articles on bats; and lending his work to several National Geographic features. Last week, he a released a charming memoir: The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals. In it he recounts his amazing adventures saving the stigmatized species from moonshiners in Tennessee caves, poachers in Thailand, politicians in Austin, Texas, and on and on.

He recently talked to Mother Jones about what makes bats so important, how he started photographing them, and why he is optimistic for their future despite the continuing threats facing the species.

On why people fear bats: It’s human nature and animal nature that we fear most what we understand least, and bats, because they are active at night, dart around unpredictably, it’s easy to fear them. But the more we learn about them the easier it is to like them. And most people are just amazed when they find out that there is this incredible variety and that they have highly sophisticated social systems, similar to those of primates and dolphins, and then they find out how valuable they are and probably most importantly learn that the bats just don’t go around attacking people and looking for trouble—even a sick bat is extremely unlikely to ever attack anyone. We all love our dogs and yet dogs are vastly more dangerous in terms of human mortality than bats are. Bats have one of the finest records of living safely with people of any animal in our planet.

In 55 years of studying bats on every continent where they exist, dealing with hundreds of species, sometimes surrounded by thousands, even millions at a time in caves, I’ve never once been attacked by a bat, I’ve never seen an aggressive bats, and I’ve never contracted any disease from a bat.

On why bats are valuable to humans: Bats contribute billions of dollars annually in protecting farmers against crops pests, reducing the need for pesticides that already threaten nearly every aspect of our lives. If you go to a tropical fruit market you’ll find that some 70 percent of the fruit on sale are pollinated or seed dispersed by bats. The whole tequila liquor industry is based on agave that is highly dependent on bats for pollination. Many of our most valued timber trees are dependent on bats for pollination or seed dispersal. If you go to the East African savannas, the famous baobab tree is highly dependent on bats for pollination. You go to Southeast Asia and the durian is so dependent on bats for pollination that you can’t even grow it in an orchard without bats to pollinate the flowers. And take the banana: all commercial bananas come form wild ancestors that continue to rely heavily on bats for pollination.

On the change in attitude towards bats since he started studying them decades ago: When I began devoting my life fulltime to bats back in 1982, just about everybody knew that bats were just ugly, dirty, rabid vermin that were dangerous, and now that is improved rather dramatically. At that time the most frequent call zoos got about bats was ‘Oh my god, I saw a bat in my yard last night, I’ve got children, what can I do,’ thinking that the bat was going to attack their children. And yet today those same institutions report that they are much more likely to get a call asking how to put up a bat house and attract bats to the yard. In fact, since the three decades since I introduced the idea of bat houses to North America there are now hundreds of thousands of bats living in people’s bat houses.

On how he got into bat photography: Back in 1978, because of my research on bats, National Geographic asked me to write a chapter in their new book Wild Animals of North America on bats. I worked real hard to write a chapter explaining to people that they didn’t have to be afraid of bats, that bats were actually quite valuable to have around. And then I went to Washington DC to meet with the editors and see the layout for my chapter in their book. All the pictures were just horrible! They were bats that were caught and tormented into snarling, and then photographed with their teeth bared.

I was rather shocked to find that after all my efforts to get people over their fear, they were going to put that kind of picture with my story. They agreed that that wasn’t a good thing and sent one of their staff photographers to go to the field for month with me to get some good picture of bats to go with the chapter. But bat photography is difficult, it’s definitely not easy. And in that month he just got three pictures that were really useful for the chapter, and by that time he realized there was as much involved with knowing bats as with knowing photography, and while he was with me I had hardly let him rest for a moment without asking him how and why he was doing what he was doing. So when he left he said look, you know what I know about photographing animals now, I’ve got some spare leftover film, let me leave it with you and why don’t you go out and buy yourself a little bit more equipment and see what you can contribute for the book. And I ended up being the second most used photographer in the book.

On the power of photographs to convince people of bats’ value: I began my photography strictly out defense of bats. It dawned on me that these pictures were incredibly powerful at changing people’s perception and so I got excited about photography. Without photography there would have been no real conservation progress in my opinion.

It’s so easy to change people’s minds about bats when you are armed with pictures. For kids that love dinosaurs, the dinosaurs all died out, there are bats still alive that are just as fascinatingly strange as any dinosaur, and yet if you like panda bears or something else that’s cute, there are bats that’ll run them stiff competition, too.

On other methods he used to convince people of bat’s benefit: I asked a Tennessee farmer one time for permission to go in his cave to study bats, and he said ‘Oh yeah, you’re very welcome, and just kill all you can while you’re there.’ He just assumed if i was a scientist i knew bats were bad and I would try to kill them. I came out and I said, ‘You know i really appreciate your letting me go in and look at your bats, I’m interested in learning exactly what all they are eating. You ever seen anything like these beetles?’ And he looks and goes, ‘Oh my god them suckas eat potato bugs?’ I said, ‘Well a colony the size of yours can probably ear 100 pounds in a night.’

I came back a month later to do some more research and he on his own decided each of his bats was worth 5 bucks and by George, anyone got near to doing anything bad to his bats was going to have a big problem with him.

That’s how it works, being able to listen to people no matter how crazy their fears are and trying to stand where they’re coming from, and then instead of getting upset when they tell you they’ve been killing them all their lives, just point out that we’ve all made mistakes in the past and that I’m not worried about what they’ve done in that past, but I assume that now that they understand bats, they’ll probably have a different attitude toward bats in the future.

On white-nose syndrome, the fungal disease that’s wiped out nearly 6 million bats in North America: There is no question that the fungus has had terrible consequences, particularly in the Northeast. We definitely need to help them rebuild. We probably never needed conservation action more than we do right now for bats. But the good side of this story is that because of this calamity, millions of people have learned about the value of bats, and learned to care about bats who didn’t know anything about them previously. Now, because of the spread of white-nose syndrome, I’m seeing programs starting up all over the country to monitor the status not just of a few endangered species in a few select locations, but to monitor bats in general and to track them as we do birds, and that’s a very, very important step in the right direction because white nose-syndrome is not the only thing we have to worry about. We can do a whole lot better at protecting bats in the future because of what we’ve learned through white-nose syndrome, and I’m optimistic in that regard.

Link:  

These Bats Look Exactly Like Teddy Bears and Cute Little Piggies

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Lots of People Still Aren’t Aware That Obama Wants to Give Them Cheap Health Care

by OYGBridget Posted on October 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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Covered California, my state’s version of Obamacare, announced some discouraging results yesterday. Among the uninsured, lots of people know about the tax penalty for not buying insurance, but a full third have no idea that subsidies are available to reduce the cost of buying coverage. Here’s what they’re doing about it:

Based on the survey results, as well as a review of research from a wide range of other sources (including those who have enrolled), Covered California has refined its comprehensive outreach campaign aimed at reaching the uninsured in their communities, through Navigator grants to community organizations; support for more than 18,000 Certified Insurance Agents; and promotion of storefronts where consumers can get free, confidential help enrolling.

The outreach campaign will include a new television, radio, digital and outdoor advertising campaign to reach multi-segment, Hispanic, Asian and African-American audiences. Details about the campaign and television ads, the route of the “Spotlight on Coverage” bus tour and new dental coverage will be released next week.

Meh. I have taken the liberty of creating a punchier campaign. Just running this up the ol’ flagpole to see if anyone salutes, you understand. Of course, we’ll need to rework the website too if we want to create a disruptive culture that appeals to people who like free money. And TV too. I’m thinking of a micro-targeting campaign that uses big data analytics to reach our SES demo, and impacts eyeballs with maximum penetration at minimal cost. And let’s not forget social media either. Those guys love free stuff. Let me know what you think.

Excerpt from: 

Lots of People Still Aren’t Aware That Obama Wants to Give Them Cheap Health Care

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