We’re getting snowed but I don’t mean the weather.
Posts in: Journal
Tuesday’s rally outside the Treasury Department building, along 15th Street NW between F and G.
Yesterday outside the Department of Labor
The blowback is going to come in all forms
A neighbor, whose org is largely funded by USAID, shared that they laid-off 70% of their staff and they who remain are there to close-up shop. The web site is reduced to a splash page. They helped farmers farm better and more sustainably, adopting new technology and adapting to new environments, enabled locally-controlled economic development and community banking, implemented clean water and sanitation programs, and facilitated medical services capacity building.
USAID shutdown reportedly styming anti-human trafficking direct service efforts
I worked for nearly a decade with the organization that currently runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline. I do not know the current specific details, but I believe it and am saddened by this news. I and my team supported some efforts to engage with some of the international partners alluded to if not mentioned in this reporting. I have all kinds of feelings about the space (and Polaris's unfortunate support for some very flawed legislation in the US), and I do not have an uncritical view of USAID, but it pains me to understand the many ways people just trying to help people are being crippled, seized-up and disrupted.
We finally got here—I’ve got a double Manhattan, a lit tree, most things cleaned and cooked before the holiday, only some wrapping (and lots of Santa-ascribed assembly) to sneak in tomorrow … so, eff it, now I will kick back and watch A Very Murray Christmas.
Tonight I’m remembering Phillip Wearne again. A friend in a chaotic time, and perhaps still also a missed opportunity to learn more from him. He introduced me to Graham Greene’s works, for which I’ll always be grateful.
It’s been a while since I posted an indulgent, vapid photo like this. Cheers, you filthy animals.
Long day, mostly night.
I watch us
in our last, most honest minutes
putting bread on credit, double-
bagging bleach and ketchup, trying
to keep what we love alive.