Jon Stewart, hitting the nail on the head once again.
"This is hardly the first time that Republicans have latched onto deliberately amorphous terms to convey a sense of outrage while evading responsibility to define what exactly the hell they are on about. "Marxism," "socialism," "political correctness," "demonic," "sexualization": The world of right wing propaganda is rife with terms that mean nothing, and so can be applied to everything. A Republican loves an empty signifier. Specificity invites rational discourse. Rationality is the death of reactionary politics."
The fact that this is 80 fucking years ago but still just as relevant is terrifying.
Sertraline/Venlafaxine/citalopram/mirtazapine/fluoxetine/escitalopram/klonopin/buspirone/abilify/quetiapine/propranolol/amitriptyline the list goes on!
So if you're unlucky enough to know what these tablets are or know a loved one who takes them, then I don't have to describe to you what this post is regarding. But if you don't I will fill you in.
That medication allows people to deal with a normal day to day life. Although most days it leaves them tired, spaced out and emotionless. Crazy right? 🤷🏼♀️Why would anyone want to feel like that. Well this is why.
You see some people suffer from depression, anxiety, ocd, ptsd and borderline personality disorder.
In their brain it doesn't sit right, something seems different. They notice little differences that 'normal' people wouldn't notice.
That comment you didn't tag them in, but you tagged other people? They see that, and say to themselves why didn't you tag me? What's up with me?
You read that message they sent and they see that you did, but you didn't reply.. why didn't you reply? And they feel like they have done something to upset you?
You didn't say I love you on the phone.. do you not love them anymore? Do you love someone else instead?
They just made a comment about them was it a joke? Was that person supposed to laugh? Or did they mean it? Are they being nice? Are they talking about them? Do they talk about them? And they then think I bet they don’t like me really.
They say sorry all the time. They feel like they annoy everyone. Are you mad at me? Because they feel like you’re mad at them ALL.THE.TIME!
And for all those questions they will spend hours trying to answer. Let it all build up in their mind, until it sends them to tears...... it's mental isn't it!!! They see things that way.
It's not only mental changes, but physical changes. They don't eat a lot, mainly rubbish, because they need it now and need the energy from lack of sleep. Insomnia, up all night answering questions to situations that don't even exist, or sleep too much and waste half their day still feeling tired.
They still smile and they have every excuse for when you ask why.
But the tablets can help them.
Because they know when they start to feel this way or think this way, they need help.
They know that when their behaviour starts to change, they need guidance.
And they understand that they don't need to be ashamed. They don't need to be understood. They just need to be accepted. Everyone is fighting a battle and sometimes you need to be kinder.
So I may just be another person who's talking about mental health....
Living with this illness is hard, but trying to understand it, is even harder. It’s also 100 times harder if they have another condition on top of this.
Don't suffer in silence.❤
There Are 96,000,000 Black Balls In This Reservoir!
“In her dissent, Kagan underscored the political mechanics underlying the majority opinion in usually bald terms for a justice on a Court so prizing comity and respect. She traced the conservatives’ recent rulings, in which they give themselves enough excuses to toss Chevron since it’s become outmoded anyway. In each, the majority grasped for novel reasons to ignore the precedent. In a one-two punch, Kagan also pointed out that this kind of behavior, reverse engineering a string of cases to get a hall pass to overturn long established precedent, has become habitual. “This Court has ‘avoided deferring under Chevron since 2016’ because it has been preparing to overrule Chevron since around that time,” she wrote. “That kind of self-help on the way to reversing precedent has become almost routine at this Court.””
—
Supreme Court Executes Massive Power Grab From Executive Branch In New Ruling
That’s the entire game.
The stolen SCOTUS majority is throwing out precedent and overturning decades of settled law. It is taking rights and protections away from all Americans, and rightly has its lowest approval rating in history. It is almost finished making itself into an unelected, unaccountable, untouchable Star Chamber. It has become the enforcement arm of the people behind Project 2025. I fully expect them to rule in favor of Trump’s outrageous immunity claim, because they are fully on board with everything he did and intends to do if he seizes power again.
This SCOTUS majority is a direct and existential threat to everything we think of when we hear “the American way of life”, laws and precedent be damned.
As far as I can tell, the only way to do anything about this is to expand the Court to nullify them, and I just don’t see that happening any time soon.
As some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April.
Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:
1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home’s entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can’t immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon.
This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY “cold-like” symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this (edited: animal)-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it.
Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.
I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share.
Good luck to all of us! James Robb, MD FCAP
Jesus: If there is only one lesson that you take away from my teachings, let it be to love all people of the earth unconditionally.
Modern Evangelicals: …Unless of course they’re BIPOC, right?
Jesus: I’m sorry, what?
Modern Evangelicals: Or if they identify as anything other than straight or cis?
Jesus: Wait, no, that’s not what I-
Modern Evangelicals: Or, worst of all, if they have a different opinion than us, or they try to question our way of thinking, or if they dare to challenge the corrupt leaders that we blindly worship, or if they-
Jesus: No, no, no! STOP IT! The whole freaking point of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE is that you love and respect people regardless of their differences, because at the end of the day you have to realize that they are a human being just like you, made in my father’s image, and loved dearly by my father. So when you hate that person, you might as well shout out that you hate me and my father, the very people you claim to worship and love with all your heart! Is this starting to make sense now?
Modern Evangelicals: …
Jesus: …
Modern Evangelicals: …
Jesus: …
Modern Evangelicals: Fuck off hippie.
Jesus: Well, I tried.