MOTHER JONES DAILY: A Trump Rule Paved the Way for Predatory Lending. The Window to Reverse It Is Closing., Researchers say they've uncovered a massive Facebook bot farm from the 2020 election, Labor law is stuck in 1947. It's no surprise companies keep winning., Watch: Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene combine forces at a rally in Florida, Moms have borne the brunt of pandemic turmoil at work and at home, “Queen Sugar” Author Natalie Baszile on How Black Farmers Can Help Save the Planet, Let Us Know How You Marked Mother’s Day 10MAI21

SUNDAY, 9 MAY 21, was Mother's Day, a day to celebrate, give thanks for and honor our moms. I am glad I and my siblings have a mother to be thankful for, to honor and to celebrate. Mom is in a home in Texas, she is blind and Alzheimer's is taking her farther away from us. I sent her flowers and my brother and sister-in-law who went to visit mom at the home said they were pretty and very fragrant. That  is what I stressed to the florist, they have to smell beautiful since she can't see them, and so the bouquet was lilies and carnations and stock. Mom still knows me when I call her and we laugh a lot and she tells me about the people she has gone to see or called and who has visited her and  the trips she has made and the good times she has had and that is all good even though all this is happening in her mind where she can see and move about without her walker or wheel chair. All the things she tells me about are good things and some are real memories of things she did. Sometimes she does tell me she is a little confused but then she forgets that too. I am thankful life is happy and good in her muddled mind and I hope and pray it stays that way until she leaves us, hopefully in her sleep. 

 

May 10, 2021

Where were you in 2004?

Me? I was in high school, a bored student with equally bored friends who couldn't wait to quit the suburbs. But lest you forget, as I certainly did, it's also the year that celebrity mega-couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez announced that they were splitting up, ending the ill-fated engagement known around the world as Bennifer. It was also the last time we heard from billions of cicadas, the insects that stay burrowed underground until nearly two decades later when it's time to do their thing.

Now, 17 years later, both phenomena are suddenly back, offering the perfect surprise to your Monday news cycle, which we all know could use a dose of serendipity. Some pep. 

"It's natural between them and the chemistry is unreal," is how a source close to Lopez described the Bennifer-is-back-in-action reports to E! News. While I have yet to read such a steamy assessment about the return of cicadas, an opinion piece from the Times today claimed "these cicadas will offer something more, a lesson we can all use about now: how to emerge from the darkness."

Wow, how poetic. Hopefully, Lopez, Affleck, and the cicadas have given you a reason to smile and reflect on the early aughts today. 

—Inae Oh

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A Trump Rule Paved the Way for Predatory Lending. The Window to Reverse It Is Closing.

The rule allows "rent-a-bank" schemes, which help lenders evade interest caps.

BY HANNAH LEVINTOVA

 

Researchers say they've uncovered a massive Facebook bot farm from the 2020 election

BY AJ VICENS

Labor law is stuck in 1947. It's no surprise companies keep winning.

BY NOAH LANARD

Watch: Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene combine forces at a rally in Florida

BY STEPHANIE MENCIMER

Moms have borne the brunt of pandemic turmoil at work and at home

BY DAN FRIEDMAN

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“Queen Sugar” Author Natalie Baszile on How Black Farmers Can Help Save the Planet

"Those old indigenous practices have everything to do with carbon sequestration."

BY JAMILAH KING

 

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SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE

Let Us Know How You Marked Mother’s Day

A year ago today, just two months into the pandemic, I wrote a Recharge headlined “The Radical Roots of Mother’s Day as a Pandemic-Fighting Movement,” a historical view long before “vaccine surplus” was a conceivable news story (and for much of the world, it still isn’t). I wrote then that for the millions of mothers working on the front lines and millions more incarcerated across America—80 percent of women in jail are mothers—spending Mother’s Day at a mandatory distance is a “test of resilience,” of “solidarity,” of many, many things. An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old had created an online newspaper with their mother called the Quarantine Times; a mother and a daughter had graduated that week in North Carolina together; doulas and midwives were organizing for workers’ rights; and 150 hospital staff got a musical surprise for Mother’s Day in the Bronx.

“Let us know how you view motherhood beyond Mother’s Day at recharge@motherjones.com,” we asked, promising to highlight your stories on “our new daily Recharge blog.”

New daily Recharge blog! A year and a blog and a vaccine later, we want to hear from you again: Is your family vaccinated? Did you see your mother or get seen by your mother? In person? Do you know the naming story and biography of our magazine’s namesake? (Are you a reader who addresses us in correspondence as “Dear Mother”?)

Mother’s Day has taken on new resonance as vaccine rates surge, but major challenges remain. The day is traceable to anti-war activist Anna Jarvis, blues pioneer Bessie Smith, voting-rights activist Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation”), and tens of billions of women throughout history. Share your 2021 stories of motherhood at recharge@motherjones.com.

—Daniel King

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Mothers Can Change the World (VIDEO) from PLAYING FOR CHANGE 8MAI13

MOTHERS CAN AND DO CHALLENGE AND CHANGE THE WORLD EVERY DAY. Here is a short video about the work Playing for Change is involved in, empowering women in Nepal fight against human trafficking of women from Nepal to India to be sex slaves or domestics.

http://vimeo.com/65602618

Mothers Change the World

Your donation to the Playing For Change Foundation supports the Tintale Village Mothers' Society, and many other amazing people and organizations that are making a huge impact in their communities around the world. Thank you for your support!

When Playing For Change Foundation provided resources to the Mother’s Society in Tintale, Nepal, they knew there was a great need. Now, several years later, we all stand in awe of the creativity and courage of this group of women - and the girls who have joined them - who are using music, dance and performances to educate area villages about the risks of human trafficking, drugs and alcohol.

The society travels on a regular basis to perform and teach communities about the tricks human traffickers use to lure young women into the slave trade. The risks they address are real—each year more than 10,000 Nepali girls are stolen or sold to work in brothels in India. As a result of their performances, false promises of work, marriage and a better life made by traffickers are now recognized as a deceitful trap that can strip young girls of their freedom and future. Equally encouraging, the men of Tintale village fully support the project and have joined with their wives and daughters to help protect them and spread the word.

The cost for the Mother's Society to travel, perform, and deliver their urgent message to people in remote areas of Nepal is approximately $200USD per performance; this includes instruments, supplies, stipends for the performers, and a small administrative fee for the group's coordinator.

Visit Playing For Change Foundation's website to learn more about this organization and make a donation. You can be assured that your gift will support these remarkable women and girls who are committed to saving the lives of others and who are using music and performance to do it.

http://www.playingforchange.com/episodes/76

Remembering the mothers who have lost their children to war. 13MAI12

IN honor of the Mothers who bore the children sacrificed on the alter of war...

Support our work with a generous donation. Send us your feedback. This Mother's Day, we honor all mothers affected by war, in particular those who have suffered the ultimate loss of a child from war. These days, we must count the losses of our soldiers killed in action, but also those who die by their own hands both on and off the battlefield, as military suicides now exceed the number of combat deaths. IVAW is focused on ending the Afghanistan War, and our Operation Recovery Campaign is working to end the deployment of traumatized troops and fighting for service members' right to heal from war so no more mothers have to experience the losing a child to war. Today, we honor the origins of Mother's Day as an international call to end all wars. ********************************************************************************************** Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, 1870 Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God. In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace. *********************************************** In Solidarity, Iraq Veterans Against the War Afghanistan Veterans Against the War Committee

Iraq Veterans Against the War is a 501(c)(3) charity, and welcomes your tax deductible contributions

P.O. Box 3565, New York, NY 10008. All Right Reserved.

Who Nurtured Your Potential? from KIVA 3MAI12

I love Kiva, have made 34 loans so far and have not lost a single penny on any of the loans I've made. Most of my loans have been made using funds paid back from earlier loans. Check this out if you still aren't sure what to get your Mom for Mother's Day...

Nurturing Potential. Mother's Day is May 13th in 80 countries around the world. Mothers give us the courage to dream big. So do teachers, neighbors, friends, and mentors. Kiva gives you the chance to empower these nurturers to dream big for themselves and help the next generation realize their potential. This May, honor someone who nurtured you by giving them a chance to nurture someone else. Here's why. Empowering all Women Women make up the vast majority of the world's poor (over 75% of the 1 billion people living in extreme poverty are women and girls), yet mothers are hard at work every day shaping the next generation and striving to build a brighter future. Kiva and our Field Partners have their backs. Many of our Field Partners bundle loans with maternal health care and education, helping make an even larger impact on a mother's life. When you give a woman this support, her story changes-- and she has the power to change her family's life too: - When a woman contributes to her family's income, 80% goes to supporting and nurturing her children. - A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. This year, we're asking our lenders to look beyond the May 13th holiday to help us dedicate all of May to honoring the mothers and nurturers of the world. You can get started by sending a Kiva Card to thank someone who nurtured your potential, and in the process help borrowers realize their dreams. New Ways to Connect Aram from Armenia, on Instagram. Kiva is always looking for new ways to connect lenders with our borrowers, Field Partners, and staff. We love using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to engage with the community. However, never ones to resist cool new technology, we've got a few new ways to help share our stories with the world. In the past few months, we've set up a Tumblr, a Pinterest page, a Google+ page, and even a Instagram account! Repin us on Pinterest, reblog us on Tumblr, add us to your circles on Google+, or follow us on Instagram (whew!), and help us spread our stories even farther! We Want You! Kiva is seeking highly committed, remote volunteers to lead our dedicated worldwide teams of editing and translation volunteers. This committed corps of volunteers works tirelessly to review all loan descriptions that come in from the field and to prepare them for posting on Kiva. This is a great opportunity to use your professional skills to make an impact! Native-level English is required. Skills in Spanish, Russian, French, and Portuguese are highly desirable. Read more about the requirements and how to apply here.