Hello, Friends. How are you? Did you have a good week? Ours hasn’t been my favorite. I’m not sure what it was but I found myself getting easily overwhelmed by big and small things.
The news this week has been a lot. Our daughter Maude has been sending pictures of blood red skies in Berkeley. I’ve been hearing from Instagram followers who are being evacuated in Oregon and are terrified. The news from Bob Woodward’s book is so depressing. It’s 9/11 today, and it’s hard for me to comprehend that loss in the context of a pandemic. It’s also my father’s birthday today (he died when I was pregnant with my first baby).
Closer to home, we’ve had a couple of setbacks with the house renovations that are leaving me discouraged. My website is acting up and I need to hire a WordPress expert. And our youngest child, sweet Flora June, is not feeling well (no signs of covid-19, but any sickness during a pandemic feels scarier than normal).
That’s a lot of complaining, but really, we are safe and fed and very lucky to be where we are. I’m glad it’s the weekend and I’ll be happy to take a break from my phone and laptop.
How are you doing? Were you overwhelmed this week as well? Or maybe this was a good week for you? (I hope so!) Are you ready for a link list? Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:
-Please spend some time with this gut-wrenching, damning portrait of hunger in America.
-He’s just so gross. Trump bragged to Bob Woodward that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. “I saved his ass,” Trump said in 2018. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone.”
-Women perform the lion’s share of the vital care that we now call “essential” work. At the same time, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, women have been laid off at an outsized rate.
-Why U.S. Marshals rescuing 39 children from a sex trafficking ring in Georgia wasn’t a bigger news story. (Spoiler: There was no sex ring.)
-Active shooter drills in schools have become a $ 2.7 billion industry (that is so gross to type that I might throw up), and new research shows they have almost no value in keeping kids safe and are responsible for an increase in mental health problems for kids, especially younger ones.
-But her emails! Melania joins long list of Trump officials who use private accounts for official government business.
-Have you ever read The Falling Man essay? Today is a good day to read it.
-Average pay is up 10.4%, the most in 40 years. How did this remarkable achievement happen? Not because people actually got raises. So many low-wage workers have been laid off that the average is skewed higher for everyone who remains.
-My coveralls have been so useful, we ordered some for Ben Blair too.
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
-Please read this thread about women on Instagram who spread QAnon conspiracies.
-Not keeping guns in your home is also suicide prevention.
-I appreciated this observation.
-So worried about the west coast fires.
–Agreed.
-You already know I’ve lost patience with Trump supporters.
-Hah! Read the responses to this tweet.
-The scandals pile up so quickly.
–Steve Kerr is a national treasure.
-OMG! People are hilarious and also petty. The responses here are epic.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend. I’ll meet you back here next week. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
