A good thing to do if you are flailing a bit right now (as who is not??) is to get in touch with your own values, the things that you find life affirming and necessary in the world. Read some inspiring works about things you value - labor solidarity, scientific achievement, social justice.
I had, as it turns out, a voluminous quantity of words to say about the National Endowment for the Arts demanding fealty to Trump in their new grant guidelines
(with side tangents into Robert Mapplethorpe, the Eight of Swords in tarot, compliance and resistance, and why budgets are moral documents)
Adorno got it right in 1945
Remember: The oligarchs who control our economy and democracy seek to divide us so they can become more powerful.
They want us to turn on each other so we don't look up and see where all the wealth and power have gone.
Don't fall for it.
It's a horrendous flu season. It's killing kids, it's killing adults. It's killing people who were perfectly healthy before and people who, like most Americans, have chronic illness. It costs NOTHING to keep existing resources available. Our government is spending money to make Americans sicker.
I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world.
Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO
Idgaf I’m still fighting for guaranteed healthcare.
Aspiration is the answer. Not just “we’re not the bad guys.”
We need something more meaningful than that. I want a future worth fighting for. They have no vision. We do. Lean into our strengths and knock them out. 👊🏽
How Trump’s ‘fear factor’ is already reshaping American science
‘The number of cures we won’t get and scientific advances we won’t have as a result of these cuts are uncountable’
@matthewherper.bsky.social
@statnews.com
www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...
It truly breaks my heart that after we went through COVID, the burnt out OG public health workforce *and* new grads/early career folks who went into it all bc they saw how vital it was during a pandemic, are now being fired, losing their funding, & ultimately shown how little our field is valued
Please do not do this. The evidence is clear. SSRI/SNRIs save lives, save brains, save hearts. Untreated Major Depression is deadly and increases all cause mortality. It increases risk of dementia, specifically of the Alzheimer's type.
Benjamin was right"Whether we turn to children playing in the sand or tech billionaires offering us solutions while they build underground bunkers to survive the climate emergency, it matters whose imaginations get to materialize as our shared future."
The battle for our future starts in your mind.
CDC source:
“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.
They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”
Bernie Sanders: "They will use the enormous media operations they own to deflect attention away from the impact of their policies while they entertain us to death."
Radical idea: no one should have to choose between their life savings and saving their life.
The reason this place has such a good vibe, the reason it's so fun to be here, the reason why you came here, is because of the trans and queer people and Black people and weirdos and freaks and a lot of kind souls made it that way.
Marginalized people help make this site palatable and attractive.
Not the tech.
But the people. Just so many who just joined know.
Own your shit. Keep growing, healing. Apologize. Don’t hold grudges. Work really, really, really hard to see things from their perspective even when you don’t wanna. Make the boring stupid stuff fun when you can. Laugh a lot. Use your words. There’s no wrong way to marriage if it works for you both.
say, what's that on the chart right at the US's inflection point? Computer, enhance.
couldn't find newer stats rn but as of 2009, 44k Americans died annually because we have insurance companies instead of single payer www.reuters.com/article/busi...
Update: we win!
www.wfsb.com/2024/12/05/a...
Don’t let the desire to make “good” art stand in the way of making art.
Make bad art earnestly and joyfully. Pour your heart into poorly executed, derivative creations. And maybe it will end up “good” eventually or maybe it won’t, but either way you got to experience the magic of creating.
I cannot emphasize enough how much the ability to think flexibly will matter as we enter a completely different era in American society.
If you base your predictions, plans, and actions off what you know about the past you’ll be often both wrong and endangered.
Think creatively. It’s key.
Private insurance defenders, do you really believe that 1/3 of healthcare claims are for unnecessary or fraudulent things?
Who sang it while tracing this out? 🎶
“the working conditions of data labelers reveal a darker
part of that picture: that for all its glamor, Al often relies on hidden human labor in the
Global South that can often be damaging and exploitative…workers remain on the margins even as their work contributes to billion-dollar industries.”
Post a pic you took to add some calm to the timeline
Great to see you on here! Your music editorial leadership at the Riverfront Times (RIP) back in the day truly helped me learn & explore so much of STL’s rich underground music scene. Can’t thank you enough for that 😊
Super happy to see you continue to grow & thrive in your career!
