Rivka

When I was a kid bald eagles were almost extinct, because of DDT. I didn’t see one for the first time until adulthood, but now they’re pretty common.

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

linkedin.comNorth Carolina A&T students march back to campus tonight after voting on the first day of early voting in North Carolina. The Guilford County Elections Board removed their campus early voting poll...North Carolina A&T students march back to campus tonight after voting on the first day of early voting in North Carolina. The Guilford County Elections Board removed their campus early voting polling ...

North Carolina decided that the largest HBCU in the country didn’t need an on-campus early voting site anymore. Reportedly, the nearest one is a 40-minute walk away. So they walked.

Kitt B Wild…@bklyndreams87.bsky.social

To be Young, Black and Gifted yall… Shout out to the students at North Carolina A&T University. They were stripped of their polling station on campus so they all marched together the nearest one to vote early. They are the future that gives me hope. 👏🏾🤩✨🇺🇸

youtu.beOn ChildrenYouTube video by Sweet Honey In The Rock - Topic

My 17yo submitted her application to my own alma mater (Reed College) last night and this morning we were both In Our Feelings about it. I made her listen to this song in the car and: good thing her eyeliner is waterproof. youtu.be/kYAkcL36aCE

@moviehooligan.bsky.social

In case this makes you think I’m a sadist, she played “Take It With You” by Cameron Winter first. Sample lyric: “You can love me from afar if that’s what puts you at ease, but you won’t be on my mind.”

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David C Bell

If you’re wondering what the vibe is going into the midterms the New England fall fair I went to today had a crochet guillotine for sale.

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NY Times Pitchbot

@nytpitchbot.bsky.social

My MAGA focus group felt betrayed by tariffs, high gas prices, and inflation. I asked if there was any way Republicans could win back their support, and they replied only if they could prove that the pain had fallen harder on Black people.

I know it’s easy to dunk on this absurd statement, but consider the dilemma he was facing. How else does he describe socialism without making it sound better *to his own supporters* than what we have now?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Q: How do you define socialism personally? JD VANCE: I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls' sports

The first book my now-21yo fell in love with was Jamberry. The rhymes made her laugh. The last book I read to her was Emma, by Jane Austen. I still read her bits of James Thurber sometimes when she’s sad. We all listened when Dad read Tom Sawyer in his TN accent. He’s missing the best part.

🎃👻🧙‍♀️ Vio the VVitch 🧙‍♀️👻🎃@viothevvitch.myatproto.social

this is so fucking sad

currentaffairs.orgMamdani’s “Richard Scarry Socialism” Can Make City Life Simple AgainThe NYC mayor is trying to build a city that functions like a city in a children's picture book, where people aren’t caught in a web of lies and scams.

Loved this. “The picture book city is a place of rough equality, where things are what they seem, and where people do things because those things are necessary for society, rather than because they further inflate a capitalist’s stock portfolio.”

@jasmineclarkforga.bsky.social

Goddamn.

David Roberts@volts.wtf

Holy shit.

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Rep. Dr. Jasmine Clark

Maryland just released its own vaccine recommendations based on guidance from established medical and scientific organizations instead of the Trump administration. With unqualified leaders at the helm, states can and—should—step up to protect their communities.

wypr.orgMaryland issues first-ever statewide vaccine schedule to push back against Trump administrationUnder new legislative authority, the Maryland Department of Health has issued a state-level vaccine schedule based on guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading independent e...

Every post pushing AI sounds like it’s written by someone who has never had a human interaction or understood why people would want to. My older kid’s stock refrain to this is “…and after that, you can tell the AI to fuck your wife for you.”

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Krista D Ball is once again Canada's Spooky Potato

Saw this horrorshow while I was on Red Cross duty. What kind of Luddite texts her own kids? Why model my values by doing something hard but vital that takes me away from them, when I could just upload my values to the parenting machine to deliver? Why have their *human father* nurture them?!

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Courtney Milan

@courtneymilan.com

19 Sept

Replying to @courtneymilan.com

The truth was that if United Health had an AI that was accepting a shitload of claims with a 90% error rate, United Health would stop using the AI in about 0.2 seconds.

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@kristadb1.bsky.social

17 Sept

That's enough RTing people. Bottom line: A bunch of Americans are upset that Canadians are treating blue state Americans exactly how blue state Americans have always treated red state Americans. 🚬

17 Sept

I live in a state with strong parents’ rights, meaning the law doesn’t prohibit us from getting medical treatment for our minor child. …Oh, is that not what it means? Huh. (“Parents rights,” like “religious freedom,” obvs only applies in one direction bc libs have neither kids nor religions.)

A.J. Wilden🏳️‍⚧️@wcwit.bsky.social

Ever notice how "parents know best" is never about supportive parents of trans kids and always about parents who want absolute control over the autonomy of not just their own kids but children in general? Funny that.

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Madame Hardy

@madamehardy.bsky.social

16 Sept

10 Sept

I feel like I’m losing my mind. The president of the United States is promising $5000 payouts if his party wins the midterms, and the discussion in the media is “but what about the deficit” rather than “vote buying is illegal”?

8 Sept

I gave vision and intelligence tests to baby monkeys. I think I got paid around $15K plus all the baby monkeys I could cuddle.

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8 Sept

My husband got me some blueberry honey at the Renn Faire today, so we’re trying it in cocktails. An Old Fashioned for him, with rye whiskey and Peychaud’s. A Bee’s Knees for me (and a half-strength one for Ms. 21). Lovely!

31 Aug

Raise your hand if your first reaction is to be proud that your religion was included.

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31 Aug

#therapistsky - this looks like a good resource for therapist self-reflection as well.

TransActual@transactualuk.bsky.social

With the increasing rise in transphobia and trans antagonism, it can be hard to know whether a therapist practices in a way that respects and affirms your identity and experience. That’s why TACTT have developed a new trans affirming therapist checklist!

I’m so glad Bluesky is having the “NGOs are racist, colonialist, and imperialist” discourse while I’m in the airport flying home from my Red Cross deployment.

Why the vest has pockets: this was my everyday carry, plus my phone. Not pictured: good teabags from home, because I used the last two this afternoon. On some deployments I’d have a tube of sunscreen in my pocket as well, but I wasn’t working outdoors this time.

Enamel pins are hugely important in the Red Cross. I have one from every DR I’ve worked. People look at my lanyard and can tell I’m experienced, which is handy sometimes. These pins are from my boss - a lovely gesture. One from her home region, one “mental health” pin they don’t even make anymore.

I’ve “out-processed” from my disaster service. My boss kindly had me switch to a hotel in Indianapolis tonight so I could book a morning flight home. This has been a grueling deployment. Mental health service is usually 10 days but this one was 14 and felt more than 40% longer. (1/2)

In some ways it’s been lonely; I only met another member of my team in person twice. There were plenty of other Red Crossers, of course, but a big part of my DR role is supporting and checking in on staff. (Disaster work is Hard and Has Effects.) So when I was with people, I was on the job. (2/2)

28 Aug

Something like 90% of Red Cross workers are volunteers, including almost everyone who deploys to a disaster zone (even the administration). It’s admirable, sure, but it also means our shelter clients experience transition after transition, and that’s hard. (1/2)

28 Aug

The clients at the shelter I’ve spent the most time at are having a hard time with me leaving. But also I visited another shelter that moved locations today AND their shelter staff rotated out yesterday. They know we’re gonna leave. We know we need to be interchangeable. But. (2/2)

thenesscenter.comThe Suicide Epidemic in Rural America: Understanding and Addressing a Growing Crisis – The Ness Center

27 Aug

So, you can *know* about the rural suicide epidemic from your big-city psychology practice, but it hits real different when you’re deployed with the Red Cross to an impoverished rural area of Indiana. (1/2)

27 Aug

There was a 36-hour period last week in which I talked to four different people who had lost a close relative to suicide. Does everyone have a gun just sitting in their house waiting for them to have a horrible idea on a horrible day? Thank you for asking. Of course they do. (2/2)

Yesterday was my ✨day off✨ and I spent it in or near my bed, except for a brief sojourn to pick up my laundry from the wash-and-fold and go to an Indian buffet. It was AWESOME. (Our standard is 12-hour shifts with a day off somewhere between day 6 and day 10.) Shockingly, much more energy today.

Also today, unusually good Deployment Eats consisting of bean soup with pork bits and cheesy potatoes. This is my small town site where the community is feeding people. The soup was heavenly.

In today’s episode of “that’s totally a mental health intervention,” I texted my brother who works for cooperative extension in IL and he helped me find info for a single mom whose well was contaminated by the floods (but is not “the normal kind of well” there are videos about online.)

22 Aug

I’m really starting to feel the strain of 12-hour days that involve trying to be in two places at once. I’m supporting two locations that both have a ton of need. The mission is starting to pick up - there are 200 Red Crossers in Indiana, although we’re spread all through the state. (1/2)

22 Aug

Trying something new tomorrow. Some locals who wanted this helped with the language. “Can I say coping? No? Can I say stress?” Stress is apparently okay to say. Focus is educational, about recognizing signs of stress “in your friends and neighbors” and ways to deal with it. #therapysky

21 Aug

This is the earliest I’ve ever shown up after a natural disaster; the floods hit on Thursday and I was on a plane Sunday. It’s been real different to be here while the operation is still standing up. This sign was new today. Shower and laundry options were new on Tuesday. We’re getting there.

21 Aug

Really good day of disaster work. I’ve been putting a lot of work into showing up and building relationships, and slowly people are starting to see me as a resource. I recognize I’m saying “slowly” when I’ve only been on the job four days, but I assure you each day has been a couple weeks long.

No fun Red Cross deployment stories or wise musings tonight. Talk amongst yourselves. I have removed all my role identifiers and taken myself out for a steak and a drink.

Twelve-hour shifts are more of a suggestion than a mandate in the Red Cross. I didn’t get back to my room until almost 10 tonight, but my reward was a gorgeous sunset. (It got even prettier, but not when I was in a place where I could safely pull over.) (1/3)

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I often wonder how it’s going to scale, as climate change makes once-in-a-lifetime disasters commonplace. This hands-on wrapping of a community in love, this retail, volunteer-driven personal intervention in lives that have been ruined… …how long can we keep doing that? (3/4)

@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social’s “A Paradise Built in Hell” is recommended reading - she shows the repeated emergence of heroics and mutual aid post-disaster, in the face of elite predictions that we’re all just a few good meals away from barbarism. And I see that too. But I wonder how it scales. (4/4)

A thing I say to disaster clients is: it shows you how many good people there are in the world. Community response is always overwhelmingly generous - literally; we drown in donations. Ppl are so moved when they find out the Red Cross volunteers helping them come from all across the country. (2/3)

18 Aug

Two things I did today that count as mental health interventions: I went to Dollar General to buy adult coloring books and colored pencils, and I sourced clothes so a kid could go to school. I also spent time gently teasing elderly rural men, which is a valuable disaster response skill. (1/2)

18 Aug

On my first deployment (this is #8) I learned not to say the words “mental health,” let alone IDing myself as a psychologist. I’m a disaster counselor. I’m wondering how your stress is. I’m here to check on how y’all are holding up. Just here to talk to people and find out what they need. (2/2)