#sick as a dog for trump

[tomorrowusa]

Donald Trump has never had a high regard for the health or even the lives of his supporters. We recall how he told them to take quack medicines during the pandemic emergency and retweeted anti-mask conspiracy freaks after he horrifically mismanaged the early response to COVID-19 in the US.

To Trump, nothing counts except Trump. His supporters are just disposable pawns in his political, legal, and business struggles.

He demonstrated this again by telling Iowa caucus goers that it's okay if they die — as long as they caucus for him first.

Donald Trump urged voters to get out to the Iowa caucuses even if they are “sick as a dog” in a defiant rally on the eve of his first major election test. The former president said that even if people “passed away” shortly after voting it would be “worth it”, and once again launched attacks on the New York judge who had denied him a delay in his civil trial so that he could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral. His remarks came during an in-person rally in Indianola on Sunday afternoon. Mr Trump was previously forced to swap out other planned events in Iowa with tele-rallies due to severe bad weather conditions in the state. “You can’t stay at home,” he told those gathered. “[Even} if you’re sick as a dog and you say ‘darling I can’t make it…’ “Even if you vote and then pass away it’s worth it.”

It wouldn't be surprising if somebody DID die because they were sick and were told by Trump to caucus for him in sub-zero weather. In Des Moines, not the coldest city in the state, the temperature at 7 PM CST is predicted by the NWS to be -7°F/-22°C. It may be even colder when people are returning home from caucus locations. If you're not in good health, you shouldn't be outside in such conditions.

Despite being a lying gluttonous adulterer who hasn't been to church in decades except for weddings, funerals, and political events, Trump is treated as a god by many nominal Christian fundamentalists. Trump is their Baal.

The only way to counter such irrational fanatics is to outorganize and outvote them. Despite their willingness to die for Trump, they are still a minority. If we remain focused, determined, and (most of all) united, we will fend off the threat to democracy in 2024.

[misteromalley]

Mister is the king of side-eye

[lenbryant]

Dogs know.

[thehonorablejudgewhitey]

[queerb]

Tis the month of stupid shit happening to me and the most expensive things in my life

[nagitoedit]

.

[chongoblog]

Hey all my fellow Americans.

Vote.

Like, seriously, if you can, vote.

Preferably for Kamala.

“But Kamala is really bad”. Yes she is, and I can guarantee you that the alternative is going to be worse. Trump is literally running “Mass Deportation Now” as a slogan and saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country with him and his VP knowingly spreading false rumors that Haitian are eating people's dogs and cats. And he’ll probably appoint even more religious zealots onto our Supreme Court who will last quite a long time.

“I’m sick of picking the lesser of two evils. She should EARN my vote” I agree. And in a just world she would have to do that. But of the two parties, one is FAR more likely to implement policies that will make it so she has to like Ranked Choice Voting.

“So you’re saying to support genocide?” Voting is not advocating for a candidate’s policies. ESPECIALLY in the dogshit political hellscape we live in.

"Voting for a Democrat isn't going to make the changes that need to be made." You're right again! Voting alone isn't going to make those changes. But between the two parties, I think one of them is going to be easier to organize under, and it isn't the one who said that cops should shoot protestors during the BLM protests.

"After all Biden's done with no promise of Israeli divestment from Harris, I simply can't bring myself to make that vote" And I understand that. The issue is that there just isn't a good choice available for that front, especially if you believe that Kamala and Walz can't be bullied. So you have to make the decision based on every other front. And whether it be the economy, rights for immigrants, rights for LGBTQ people, rights for women, foreign policy, or plenty of other issues, the orange man's platform is LEAGUES worse.

So I ask you, if you are able to, vote. It might suck, but at this point in time, it's something we can do.

[unforth]

I keep seeing posts comparing this to 2004 or other past election losses and how this feels the same or similar to those past times.

As another Old who voted in 2004 (and I missed voting in 2000 by a month and was furious about it) I really can't even put into words how vehemently I disagree.

In 2008, I remember very earnestly sitting down with some friends and saying that if somehow McCain beat Obama, I'd have to join the fucking revolution, because I couldn't believe that this country would elect a Republican AGAIN after the previous 8 years of bullshit. I look back now and think how incredibly naive I was, but I also look back now and think, damn, why aren't I 25 NOW? I can't join the revolution now, I'm 41 and I own a house and have two young children and one old parent depending on me.

Because honestly, truly, as someone who has been studying American history since I was 7, as a Civil War buff with expertise on the years before the Civil War, as someone who has at least some memories of every election since 1988... guys, this isn't the same as 2004. I was furious then. Swift Boat bullshit I swear to fucking dog. And I was and still am fairly convinced that the 2000 election was deliberately stolen. But also I still had every reason then to believe in the rule of law.

In 2004, I still believed term limits would be respected.

In 2004, I still believed a person who wasn't elected would demure gracefully to the winner.

In 2004, I still trusted the courts.

In 2004, I still believed that we'd made progress on bigotry.

I could go on, and to be clear, my point isn't "I thought these institutions were ~good~" in literally any objective sense. Y'all are cynical but my generation was raised by, surrounded by, Vietnam vets and trust me, there was no way to be a kid, seeing what the 70s did to this country, and not come out as cynical and furious as the best of um. (My grandfather was a World War 2 vet, as were his close friends. My father and both his brothers are Vietnam vets, tho my dad didn't go overseas.) But I did believe that even corrupt institutions, even broken racist systems, even fucking Republicans, would follow basic norms of democracy. They said they believed in the constitution and I believed them. I believed that, like Nixon, truly getting caught doing something insane would at least force a mea culpa and turn public opinion. I believed...

Well, I guess it doesn't matter.

Because I no longer believe any of that.

I have watched the guard rails disappear over my lifetime. I have watched the party who once spent 2 years pursuing a guy over a BJ in the oval office elect a convicted rapist. I have watched and at times I've participated and I've voted and I've organized and I've protested and I've read the news more days than not and I've lived and I've grown and I've learned.

I have been an adult, legally, for almost 24 years now.

Guys... there are no norms remaining on the far right. The guard rails are gone. The Fascists control the White House, the senate, the Supreme Court, and things aren't looking promising for the House.

The bus has no brakes anymore. They think they have a mandate - and I can't blame them, as horrifying as this mandate is, because if things had gone the other way and Harris had gotten these results I'd also think it was a mandate.

Please sit with what this means: Trump and the Republican party said, "hand us the reins and we'll make everyone you hate hurt," and more than half the people who bothered to vote said "sure buddy, here goes." We don't have a usurper this time. This is the country that the majority of Americans said they wanted. Whether they come to regret that or not, they saw open Fascism and went "oh yes, count me in." And it wasn't because of the electoral college this time. It was because this country is so bigoted and misogynistic that they'd rather have this than a woman of color in the office.

I'm sick of "well she didn't run a good campaign." (Lie.) I'm sick of, "well we didn't get a primary." (Who cares?) I'm *extremely* sick of "well, Palestine." (Yes! Democrats actions have made the suffering there so much worse! It fucking sucks! You know what's about to suck so much worse?)

15 million people who showed up for Joe Biden couldn't be fussed to place a vote for Kamala Harris. Whatever their reason for not voting, we all knew the outcome if she lost. And seeing open fascism didn't fire them up enough to make the effort, and that's fucking pathetic. The consequences of the worst happening mattered so little to them that they couldn't be fucking bothered to make the minimum effort to stop it, and now millions of people will suffer as a result.

Because here we are: the huge swathe of the country who wanted a strongman now have one.

Look, I don't know what happens next. But I do know, and remember keenly: after 2016, Trump did, or at least tried to do, most of the things he said he'd do. When he was stopped, it was often because of career government employees: judges, bureaucrats, etc. And this time, he's said he's going to purge those people. I don't know if he'll succeed, but I certainly believe he'll try.

This is not 2004 again.

This is 2024. The Republicans have ripped the mask to shreds, shredded apart the book of political norms, and empowered hate, and they've been handed a governmental mandate for stamped "have at with our blessing!" in exchange.

And now they'll use that mandate to make everyone they hate suffer: people of color, queer people, trans people, immigrants, non-Christians.

Don't assume the worst can't happen. I am a Jew, and I have a photo album full of black and white photos of dead people that constantly reminds me: the worst has happened and it can happen again.

Do not despair. Despair is enervating. Be furious. As we should be. These douche bags are repulsive. Be prepared to fight. Be prepared to flee. Be prepared to defend. Don't assume you simply can't do something. There's always something to do, and even the smallest act of defiance can help. There's never any knowing until after which acts of resistance will end up galvanizing the good and just out of their apathy. But that apathy is the enemy.

Because none of this is normal. None of this is "just like when..." Please stop saying it is.

And before anyone screams "privilege" at me, yes, I am in many ways. I'm white. I have access to some generational money even tho my own family lives paycheck to paycheck - we won't be rich but have enough of a support network to be comfortable. I live in a blue area of a blue state. But I'm also a woman (legally speaking, at least) married to another woman - since before Oberkfell, and yes I remember exactly what steps we had planned any time we wanted to leave our state. My wife has physical disabilities. We have two children. Both are biracial (half black). One is trans. We are caring for an elderly parent. I am Jewish and as my kids' birth parent, so are they. I own a publishing company that publishes the exact kinds of queer and kinky lit these people intend to ban. We tick so many boxes of what these people hate.

I know ya'll are scared. Trust me, I'm terrified. But fear is paralyzing. And that won't help. Whatever happens, don't lie down and take this shit.

When Gore lost I was one month shy of my 18th birthday and already in college. I have been fighting my entire adult life, and I'm exhausted. I'm much less able to fight now, much more tied down with responsibilities. But the fight isn't over. I'm checking our passports. I'm packing a go bag. I've convinced one vulnerable friend to move here and I have another who wants to and we're figuring out how to make that happen. I'm protecting who I can, starting with putting on my mask first. I don't know what will happen but if in the end all I can do is uproot my entire life to protect my children then I am preparing to do so. I can at least save them if no one else.

None of this is normal.

And I'm not sure, after Trump's in office, that anything will ever be normal again in the US. At least not the old normal. And there are ways that's a good thing, so many ways that the old normal sucked for so many people, and I'm optimistic that there's a bright future ahead, but man it looks far away right now. I don't want to go back to the old normal, and I want to be part of establishing a kinder, more just, more equal new normal, but we're a long way from there.

Whatever happens, we must endure. We must survive. We must support each other. We must find our allies and be prepared to compromise with them. Don't try to save everyone. You'll fail. Help even one person and you can change the world. Everyone things they can't do everything and so do nothing. That's insane. Do a single thing and it will be better than nothing. One phone call. One letter. One act of defiance. Very few people get the opportunity to grand gestures that matter, and the rest of us will die waiting for that moment. But the secret is that what makes those moments - the time when one person is in the right place at the right time for their action to matter - is built on millions of small moments by millions of people doing what little they can to make things slightly better. Think of every iconic photograph of a Sole Resistor you know of and think about every single tiny thing that had to happen for that moment to occur. Most of us will never me that one person, but that one person is a myth anyway. Countless tiny unseen moments create those myths. Doing literally anything is better than doing nothing.

And tooth and nail, quietly and loudly, in our homes and our towns and cities, during protests or when they come for our neighbors, we must fight.

[cryptidghostgirl]

What Can I Do For You? (Alastor x Reader)

Pairing: Alastor x Reader

Prompt: what if the deal restricting Alastor's powers is with you? haha, unless....

Warnings: THIS IS NOT SMUT. However, there will be some abusive/unhealthy relationship things obvi. One (1) bad word (I think).

Word count: 1,855

Master lists:

Master Lists 

Hazbin Hotel Master List

A/N this is just a reminder that I do accept requests if anyone is interested!

She was waiting there for him when he got back. Of course she was. Sitting in the chair of his recording studio, leaned back and casual. She acted like she owned the place.

It had been a few weeks since she'd sent him to the Hazbin Hotel. Alastor still didn't know the reasons but, him confirming the success of his appointment of the place had been the last time they'd spoken, it had been the last time he had seen her.

Quietly, Alastor pulled himself from the door way, his heart pounding frantically, halfway between anger and something akin to joy. He walked up to her, his hands placidly clasped behind his back. Stopping a few feet away, she turned to face him.

There it was, that sickly smile. Part of what had gotten him into this mess in the first place. There was a reason Alastor had avoided intimacy, love, complex feelings like that for so long and it was because he knew they made him weak. If he cared, he always thought, his enemies could use the object of his care against him. Simple as that.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think that it was the hypothetical person he might care for who would use his affections to their advantage. He had been naïve. He had been a fool.

The red light from the night sky crashed against her face, throwing her features into sharp contrast. She crossed her legs, the length of her skirt revealing her thighs just the slightest bit above her laced combat boots. She tilted her head slightly to the side. She was beautiful, just as beautiful as the day he'd met her.

That had all been part of the act as well, being small and afraid under the grips of that man. Alastor had heard her scream and found them in the ally. He had killed the man, reaching a hand out to the trembling demon. Hesitantly, she had taken it.

"I've been waiting." she hummed, her voice warm and inviting but with a cold sharp under-layer.

It was the voice someone had when they held a knife behind their back, knew they had the trump card, knew they couldn't loose. When he had first met the woman twelve years before, it had pulled him in. There was a curious depth to it he just couldn't help but want to uncover, need to uncover.

"My apologies." he softly replied, "If I had known, I would have come sooner."

Her smile widened, matching his own in its wildness. Sharp teeth, sharp eyes, sharp heart. Every fiber of his being told him to pick an option, fight or flight. He kept it all at bay, there was no other option. Not any more.

"I know." she hummed, taunting him, "You're quiet domesticated now."

There had been a time when her saying something like that might have made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. There had been a time where the word, domesticated, would have meant in love and together, not bound to her side for all eternity.

Now it just made Alastor feel sick to his stomach. Shame rose within him, making his cheeks glow pink. She chuckled at the sight.

"Now that's a sight that never gets old."

"What?"

"The feared Radio Demon, one of the most powerful overlords in all of Hell -- ashamed."

Alastor didn't reply. After a moment, she sighed, pulling herself to her feet. She circled him like a mad dog, like she was stalking prey. He didn't watch her, but his ears twitched, following the sound of her footsteps. She came to a stop behind him.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, clearing his throat.

She reached up, grabbing his shoulders gently in her hands. Even after all this time, all these years, all that had happened, he melted at her touch. That's what five years of building trust, forging love, did. Even if the seven after were hell, even if she had tricked him, betrayed him, time and time again, Alastor couldn't help it. He was weak and pliant beneath her skilled touch.

"What, I can't just check in on my favorite pet?" she asked innocently, rubbing his shoulders gently.

"Y/n..." Alastor sighed, letting his hands fall to his sides, "please, just tell me what you want."

She abruptly stopped in her movements at the sound of her name. It was a rare gift to hear it from someone's lips other than her own. Hell's Hunter Demon didn't share her true name, didn't reveal her face to anyone. It had been part of the trust building, the day she had finally given both to him.

When he had first met her, he had recognized her immediately from the stories. Alastor was on the verge of killing her, adding her voice to the broadcast to prove his power but, seeing the way she shook stopped him. He had smiled to himself, he had thought he had learned a secret about one of the most feared overlords in Hell besides himself. He had thought he had the upper hand.

"Say it again."

"Y/n."

She had been so sweet at first, so docile. He was set on getting her soul, making her subservient. The longer he had lain in wait to enact his little plan, the more he had gotten to know her. Y/n had a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue, she was clever and had a kind side to her that she hid well. It hadn't taken much for him to realize he was falling in love.

That had been terrifying, the first truly scary thing the Radio Demon had encountered since arriving in Hell. It had tortured him for months and he'd consulted every one he knew and trusted on the matter. Finally, Rosie was the one who had convinced him to just tell her, had told him she might feel the same way too. As much as he wanted to blame Rosie for that, Alastor couldn't bring himself to. She hadn't known, they'd both been in the dark, captivated by her sweet austere brilliance.

They had gotten a few happy moments together, a few blissful years. There had been time before she had revealed her true colors and what a lovely time it had been.

A shiver trickled down both their spines in the silence, the sound of his tongue forming the syllables of her name bringing back memories of brighter times. She took her hands from his shoulders, coming to stand before him once again.

Y/n was a book in a language he didn't know, an undeciphered code. Mouth drawn into a thin line, hands daintily placed on her hips, he watched her as she watched him. Unbidden thoughts, unbidden memories, the same ones as always, filtered into his mind. He couldn't help but wonder now, as he had a hundred times before, if it had all truly been a lie. If it had all been some ruse to get what she wanted.

Alastor had to admit, she had gotten him fair and square. Y/n had had him so absolutely wrapped-around-her-pinky-finger in love that she hadn't even been the one to bring up the deal. He had thought he was being sweet, romantic even. It was unfamiliar territory for the man and it had been important. He had fretted over the right way to ask her for weeks.

When he finally had, she was ecstatic at the idea of them joining souls, of giving themselves so fully and completely over to one another. A contract for each of them, an equal exchange.

As a sign of good faith, a mistake he would never be making again, Alastor had offered to go first. When the green smoke had lifted from their clasped hands and he had first caught sight of her face, of her wicked grin, he knew he had fucked up.

Y/n stepped up to him. With a gentle hand, she wiped a stray tear from the corner of his eye. Alastor hadn't even realized it had been there, so preoccupied with his own pity. He held his smile strong as she examined the little drop of salt water on her finger, smiling ruefully.

"What do I want from you." she mused softly to herself, "Well, I think I already have everything, wouldn't you agree?"

A green chain materialized in her hand as she spoke, the tear hitting it, melding with the metal as it became solid and she grasped it firmly. With a tug, she sent Alastor to the floor. He fell to his knees harshly, the impact reverberating through his bones.

He had loved her once. Now, looking up at her, he loved her still. He was a fool, through and through. Not because of his persisting love but because of his persisting hope, the fact that he had trusted her. The fact that he still trusted her. The fact that after everything, it somehow still made him the slightest bit joyful to see Y/n smiling and know he was the cause.

More than anything, he wanted to ask her if she regretted what had happened, what she had done. Alastor held his tongue. Even if she was, it was too late. There was no point in asking.

"I can't keep doing this." was what he chose to say instead, his voice was barley more than a whisper.

Y/n's smile fell, her eye brows raised as she crouched down in front of him, pulling the chain tight between them. She delicately placed a finger beneath his chin, forcing his eyes to meet hers.

"It doesn't matter. You will."

He knew she was right. Curse or no curse, he would come when she called.

"What can I do for you?" he asked again, his tone resolute.

"You can burn."

And burn he did.

There was a reason Alastor had avoided intimacy, it was because he had been afraid of it. A secret part of him had always yearned, a secret part that even now still felt fulfilled at her gentle touch. All along, he had been right that love would destroy him. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that it would have happened in this way or, that after everything, he would still care for the woman in question, his captor.

"Ask me again." she commanded.

"What can I do for you?"

He had been naïve, a fool.

"You can rot for all I care. Ask me again."

He was a fool still. A fool in love, a fool destroyed.

"What can I do for you?"

His breaths were labored, his heart open and bloodied. Y/n held it in the palms of her hands, given willingly. She radiated power crouched before him, holding his head close to hers with the chain.

"You can obey. Will you?"

"Yes."

The metal, cold and heavy, tugged against his neck, bruising the bone of his spine.

"For how long?"

"Forever."

There was no hesitation in his voice. A smile split her face in two, wicked and hungry.

"Good."

[beardedmrbean]

"The Young Turks" co-host Ana Kasparian explained what drove her to ditch the Democratic Party while on Jillian Michaels' "Keeping It Real" podcast on Monday.

The progressive media host described feeling "politically homeless" over the past few years, as she started seeing an intolerance to debate and the free exchange of ideas as well as an embrace of soft-on-crime policies by the left that she believed were detrimental to society.

She ripped efforts to "demonize and even dehumanize the other side" while admitting she used to be a person who believed you could not be friends with conservatives or someone who supported former President Trump. Both women said they identified with disaffected Democrats who now feel unwelcome in their former party.

Kasparian said a turning point for her was when she was scolded by liberals after confessing she was fearful to leave her house after being sexually assaulted by a homeless man while walking her dog in Los Angeles in 2022. "Before I knew it, I started getting these messages, and it's really, really harsh stuff, about how, ‘You are painting a picture of the homeless community. How could you be like this? These are your unhoused neighbors and they need help,'" she said of the negative messages she received. "A few people  accused me of being racist, even though I had never disclosed the race of the individuals who did this to me. And in fact, they were White," Kasparian continued. 

"That woke me up," Kasparian said. "Some of the people that I've associated myself with because I thought they were the good people….They definitely have stereotypes in their head and are totally blind to the fact that they have those stereotypes and go around accusing others of being bad actors when they themselves need to do the work."

Kasparian said she also disagreed with the "defeatist mentality" shown towards minorities.

"At some point last year, the other thing that really hit me was the difference between my upbringing and what the Democratic Party espouses," Kasparian said.

She described being raised by "very tough" parents who taught her to work hard to be self-sufficient and create her own opportunities. While she acknowledged there are obstacles today that some younger people are facing that older generations may not have had to face, she still sees America as a land of opportunity, which she said goes against messaging from the Democratic Party.

"However, we all get to wake up in the morning and make choices for ourselves. And when I hear the Democratic Party constantly disempower people of color, because that's what they're doing," she said.

"They keep using this messaging that infantilizes them and makes them seem as though, you know, if it weren't for us White saviors, messing around with these laws and policies, they would never be able to survive. And I find that so gross," she continued. Kasparian gave examples of how a Los Angeles school district scrapped its honor student program because there wasn't enough Hispanic students enrolled in the program.  "That p---d me off," Kasparian said. "It's doing away with an opportunity rather than seeing what the flaws are in our education system and then rising to the occasion to help these students, where we do see the disparity, to get to where we want them to be. That's the right way to approach it. But there's just this weird defeatist mentality. And I'm honestly also very sick of White people going around being offended on behalf of marginalized people."

"They're just virtue signaling. It's disgusting," Michaels agreed.

"We should celebrate people who want to better themselves and better their lives," Kasparian said later in a discussion about the "fat-acceptance" movement on the far-left.

"Instead, there's this effort to basically tell people, ‘you're fine the way you are, you don't need to change a thing,' even if that thing is slowly killing you. It doesn't make any sense," she continued.

The pair also said they've seen their home state of California become "crazy" over time from when they were growing up.

Michaels, who left California in 2021, has previously shared how the deep blue state's soft-on crime policies drove her and her family to leave and move to Miami.

"Nothing was crazy like this right?" Michaels told Kasparian. "Homelessness, crime, advocating for medicalization of children, advocating for late-term abortion?"

Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading the "madness" in the state, Michaels said. "The concern is that it goes from California to a federal problem."

"Unfortunately, some of the failed policies we've started here have been exported to other states," Kasparian agreed.

Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom's office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.  _____________________________

Gotta be real far gone for someone like Kasparian, to ditch you.

[covid-safer-hotties]

The US Government Has Abandoned Us to Endless COVID. We Can Do Better. - Published Aug 10, 2024

The pandemic isn’t over. Why is it so hard to find accurate information about it?

This week, Nassau County, New York, passed a mask ban. Those wearing face masks will now face the possibility of up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine. Angry at the power of anti-genocide protests, lawmakers banned one of the most basic forms of disease protection just as the world is experiencing a record surge in COVID cases. While officials insist that the law will not be used against those masking for medical reasons, disabled activists protesting the move say they were intentionally coughed on during the city council meeting where the bill was passed.

In a world of airborne contagious diseases, everyone has a medical reason for masking. So why doesn’t our public health policy recognize that?

In 2020, at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, then-President Donald Trump was excoriated for saying that “when you test, you create more cases.” This statement was met with outcry by journalists and public health professionals and pundits from all major outlets.

Trump’s statements and policies on COVID were regularly and widely critiqued. In October 2020, CNN launched a tracker of “every time Trump said that the coronavirus pandemic was over, but it wasn’t,” which juxtaposed Trump’s words with the number of new cases in the United States.

Since President Joe Biden took office, many of the same things that Trump was excoriated for have been implemented as policy. In September 2022, Biden suddenly declared the pandemic over at the Detroit Auto Show, and in May 2023, Congress ended the federal emergency. Both moves were unrelated to any data about case numbers, yet no similar media outcry about premature or imaginary declarations has dogged the Biden administration.

Trump’s outrageous argument that if the U.S. collected less data, the picture would be rosier has been made into official policy under the Biden administration: As of May 1, 2024, hospitals are no longer required to report admissions, and most of the other data collection infrastructure on COVID test rates, like local dashboards and easily readable trackers on cases and deaths, has already disappeared.

By mid-July 2024, it was possible for Biden to have an active case of COVID and to claim that he is going home to isolate while simultaneously appearing on video in a group of people unmasked, without major media outlets blinking an eye about this contradiction. At this point in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website is no longer a go-to place for clear COVID information, but instead muddies the difference between COVID and the common cold in its prevention recommendations. As Caroline Hugh, an epidemiologist who volunteers for the Public Health Collective, told Truthout, it is hard to know what’s going on because the “picture has gotten a lot fuzzier and a lot more complicated.”

As Supports for COVID Sunset, Access Is Obstructed It is worth stating explicitly that the COVID pandemic is decidedly not over, despite the end of the U.S. federal emergency. The policy and response have changed, without any real relationship to changes in the illness and how it affects people.

The basic facts about COVID have not evolved that much: It is a highly contagious airborne disease, tight-fitting masks are effective, regular vaccinations are helpful in avoiding more serious illness, and isolation (some experts insist longer than five days) is warranted to avoid getting other people sick. It can cause death and long-term or permanent disability.

What has changed in the last four years is that it has become harder and harder for people to remain clear on this information and to put these basic guidelines into practice. The information about the risks of COVID and how to avoid them has gone from being mainstream advice to countercultural information that people have to search out. In this information-poor environment, the risks to disabled people, to those who work directly with the public (disproportionately BIPOC people) and anyone else with an increased COVID risk level are dramatically increased.

It is also now much harder to put this information into practice as government and institutional support for COVID safety practices has all but evaporated. Tools that were used earlier in the pandemic like free testing, masks and vaccines, have almost all been phased out, often shifting the financial burden for these to individual patients. The expectation to work while sick has been reimposed. The public has repeatedly been told “we have the tools,” but with tens of millions of people kicked off Medicaid in 2024, Paxlovid — a rapid treatment that reduces the risks of the infection — is difficult to obtain for most people, and expensive for almost everyone. Even the Bridge Access program, which funded COVID vaccinations for those without private insurance to cover them, is sunsetting this fall. “It is absolutely unaffordable to get COVID for the vast majority of working Americans, for people who are not working, who are retired and disabled on SSDI, on a limited income, on SSI. This is a catastrophic cost to be exposed to right now,” Beatrice Adler-Bolton, coauthor of Health Communism and co-host of the podcast “Death Panel,” told Truthout.

One of the ways that misleading information becomes normalized is by making it challenging for people to act on any other information.

“Immunity Debt” and Other Commonly Circulated Myths With the disappearance of supports and these changes to the mainstream media narrative, it has become harder to feel sure about COVID. The dramatic wind down of data available has been coupled with a major shift in framing from the CDC, which has communicated in ways that fail to counter the U.S. public’s widespread turn toward a mentality that is resonant with Trump’s misleading push for “herd immunity” in 2020.

While the CDC does acknowledge that “reinfection can occur as early as several weeks after a previous infection,” much of its recent messaging on COVID has tended to bolster the widespread public sense that hospitalization and COVID deaths have largely decreased because of immunity from prior infection or vaccinations. (Only 28 percent of adults in the U.S. are up to date on COVID vaccinations.) For example, PEW Research Center cited the CDC in its statement that “The vast majority of Americans have some level of protection from the coronavirus because of vaccination, prior infection or a combination of the two. This has led to a decline in severe illness from the disease.”

Adam Moore, a virologist working towards a Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis, says that while this claim is accurate, the overall framing is “dishonest” because it underemphasizes how quickly natural immunity can wane after a COVID infection. He also argues that this frame underemphasizes how COVID can have serious impacts on a person’s immune system and their ability to fend off any kind of illness.

Fundamentally, it is complicated to assess why fewer people are being hospitalized or dying of COVID despite continued high rates of circulation. The reason is not necessarily solely related to immunity (through exposure or vaccination), especially given the disease’s quick evolution that has resulted from the failure to contain it.

The data collection on who has been hospitalized or even died with an active case of COVID has also become less reliable, as many hospitals no longer report all COVID cases, but instead make a distinction between people hospitalized “with COVID” and people hospitalized “for COVID.” And, undercounting of deaths has been a pattern throughout the pandemic.

Most importantly, experts who spoke to Truthout emphasized that death and acute illness like hospitalization are not the only serious outcomes from an illness. Most of us would like to avoid serious injury, traumatic events and long-term disability that fall outside the purview of the basic and extreme indicator of death. Pandemic indicators and figures that do not tell us how many people are developing or living with long COVID, for example, fall far short of offering a complete picture of the risk of COVID infection.

The push for “herd immunity” to COVID is only one of several common misleading ideas about immunity. Another is immunity debt, the claim that if a person missed getting a cold or respiratory virus in 2021 they were more susceptible to getting sick in 2022. Immunity debt, although popularized in some media outlets, is not a scientifically accepted idea. The immune system is a not a “muscle that needs exercise to get stronger,” explained Moore.

COVID goes against a lot of what people in the United States have been told about viruses and what has come to be common sense. The most common viruses in the U.S. are seasonal, but COVID circulates year-round, more like tropical viruses. Moore highlights that this makes COVID fundamentally different from the flu and, crucially, the vaccination cycle for the flu, where annual vaccination works because it can account for the variants that have evolved in the opposite hemisphere. Since COVID circulates everywhere year-round, annual vaccinations are not enough to keep up on the latest variants. Beatrice Adler-Bolton adds that COVID surges in the United States are not related to seasons but rather to moments of intense travel, like Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, the holidays in November and December, and Spring Break.

Good Information Is Available — If You Know Where to Look The people who spoke to Truthout for this story recommended many sources of robust, trustworthy information about COVID. These sources are not invested in making sure the economy continues going as it is, which has been one of the biggest reasons government and mainstream sources misrepresent COVID data. Many also have a commitment to disability and racial justice and are actively organizing for improved public health information and infrastructure.

Recommended resources include Noha Aboelata and Roots Community Health’s “people’s health updates” on YouTube; Ground Truths, the newsletter of Eric Topol; The Sick Times, a weekly newsletter focusing on Long COVID; and Adler-Bolton’s podcast, “Death Panel,” which provides regular deep dives and analysis of COVID policy.

Local mask blocs are another good source of information. These local mutual aid groups provide low-cost or free masks to community members (via bulk purchasing), and they share a lot of locally relevant information about COVID (often on Instagram).

Nationally, groups like the People’s CDC, the Public Health Collective and the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative are synthesizing technical information and sharing it to a wider community with a disability justice lens. Hugh highlighted the importance of reading and combining a variety of information, rather than relying on a single source.

Repetition Is a Democratic Power The most powerful part of COVID disinformation is its simple repetition through multiple channels constantly, says Adler-Bolton. But repetition can work both ways. Those pushing for more accurate COVID information that allows everyday people to be in solidarity with one another can also use this power of repetition, but “we have to be relentless.”

Undoing the damage of bad information is difficult, because “breaking the mystification of disinformation” can’t be done by simply changing the information that goes through those same media channels, said Adler-Bolton. Instead, people must work with each other through personal connection. “There is a kind of trust that we can build between each other that goes further than the trust any one person can have with any media project, no matter how good the project is.”

Information that rejects ableism and white supremacy raises the stakes by asking people to reject the comforts they have been promised by racial capitalism. Sharing that information with each other is part of a collective struggle for disability and racial justice.

[labvet]

THIS IS A LONG POST BUT BEAR WITH ME IT’S IMPORTANT!!!!

I want to talk about something, and I’m going to start with something one of my professors shared on Facebook.

“The Silent Crisis That Could Shatter U.S. Public Health & Food Security

What if your grocery store suddenly ran out of meat, eggs and milk? What if a mysterious, untreatable infectionstarted spreading through hospitals? What if a deadly virus jumped from animals to humans, triggering a pandemic even worse than COVID-19—and no one saw it coming?

This isn't fear-mongering. It's what could happen if federal veterinarians start leaving their jobs in droves due to political instability and workforce cuts.

Veterinarians working for agencies like the @usdagov, @fda , and @cdcgov are the first line of defense against foodborne illnesses, zoonotic diseases, and agricultural disasters. They keep our meat and dairy safe, stop outbreaks of rabies, mad cow disease, and avian flu, and ensure that deadly viruses like African swine fever (ASF) don’t wipe out entire industries.

But if federal hiring freezes, layoffs, and policy shifts force them out, who will protect us?

- African Swine Fever could collapse the $20B pork industry, causing mass food shortages. Don't believe it? Ask Heather Fowler

- Bird flu could mutate and spark a pandemic like the Spanish Flu of 1918

- Rabies, brucellosis, and Q fever could spread unchecked, infecting thousands

Food Shortages, Economic Collapse, and National Security Risks

- The loss of federal veterinarians wouldn’t just lead to disease outbreaks—it would trigger a nationwide food crisis.

- Meat, dairy, and eggs could become dangerous to consume without proper safety inspections.

- Grocery prices would skyrocket, putting nutritious food out of reach for millions.

- International trade could shut down, as other countries refuse to buy U.S. meat and animal products.

- Even the U.S. military relies on veterinarians to keep food safe for deployed troops and care for army animals. Without them, soldiers could get sick from contaminated food, and security dogs could be left untreated.

The loss of these veterinarians wouldn't just be an inconvenience—it would be catastrophic for public health, food security, and the economy.

#Repost @myvetcandy”

These are aspects of vet med that a lot of people don’t think about, and we already have shortages of veterinarians in these departments. I can’t tell you the number of times I (and my peers) had military recruiters reach out to us during school offering to pay for us to finish our degrees if we agreed to join the military for so long afterward. (I even had a classmate actually go through with it who wasn’t already military). Also, the number of USDA vets I have seen begging people to join them. These people play critical roles in keeping us safe.

With the current avian influenza spreading through not only wild and captive bird populations, but cats and cattle and even jumping into humans from cattle, this is more critical to have these people now than ever before! This past year showed the first cattle to human transmission, something we never even thought was possible. Virus can be found in eggs and milk. These are the people in charge of making sure these products are safe to continue on for sale. If the Trump/Musk administration keeps cutting and firing people left and right, it’s only a matter of time before something happens (milk not getting properly pasteurized, sick animals accidentally ending up in line for slaughter, E. coli or Salmonella outbreaks not getting tracked, our troops overseas affected by severe food-borne illnesses, etc.).

So please, contact your senators and representatives. Beg them to stop this madness. Last week, it was a commercial airliner crashing into a Blackhawk helicopter, next month it could be an outbreak of Avian Influenza.

[lucifersresources]

stupid shit said in discord servers part four meme. ft special guests from my dnd party!

edit/alter/change pronouns etc as you see fit!  

i never wanna think a cop is funny.

flirty rat man was my nickname in college.

the moon sounds like a fun place to be.

thinking a cop is funny is a gateway drug to being a republican.

today i learned she would punch a seagull.

booty call via shared thoughts.

it's fallen angel math.

i want em gorgeous, awful and bloody.

the fuck did i just read.

i just didn't know what knotting was. i miss those times. i miss five minutes ago.

you're not an edgelord, you're just pathetic.

there will be no butt sniffing in my god fearing house!

wanna see how gay my kindle looks?

i saw a book review titled "unlikely travel companions fight their inner demons" and i just think that's all of us

come to america and we can lay down together with no spoons

sitting in vc with the two of you is probably a bit like couples therapy

i'm not a planner i'm a go with the flow-er

penguins are all non binary, confirmed

the world is a gay penguin waiting to fly

this is a win for the lgbtqa+ community, penguins are gay

new pride mascot just dropped: penguins

it'll be me shoving you in the PIT OF HELL

i'd push my friendguin off an iceberg for money ngl

penguins can accidentally end up in gay relationships

penguins are friends not food

they made weed legal in my state so now all the cop dogs are confused

they always stand there dick to dick

the giraffe wanted a pillow

have you smelt the grass?

like, sure, i am picking fights, but in an affectionate way

well now i'm contractually obligated to fight you

it's like a suburban mom's wet dream

NO ONE EVER TRUSTS WHAT I SAY. THATS LIKE GIVING ME THE NUCLEAR CODES

sure, i'm better than donald trump, BUT LIKE THAT ISNT SAYING MUCH

doe, a deer, a female deer. Die, a long long way to hell -

i know you're a bot but get a grip

the jerking off motion at you is flirting

i hate it when my upper body grippers don't grip.

have you tried the lower grippers?

having to explain my joke makes me want to murder you

don't take my inches away from me, i need all the ones i can get.

nevermind, I'm not an eldritch horror anymore

are you a pretty worm?

i'll airfry a ghost i'm not afraid

kinky. not into that though

gay stuff in the creepy basement causes swollen lips?

*eddie culz voice:* say it out loud.

my brain just imagined Edward Cullen in like a rap outfit

eddie culz before the beat drops: hold on tight spider monkey

but am i a pretty melon?

what is ur secret, thumb

you guys are both bullies, you dont count

i am a hole

not to be a hole about it, but me too.

i am become cheese

mm i'm so edible.

STOP THE LESBIANISM SHES TOO OLD FOR YOU

DON'T LICK MY ASS

i was eating my ass

sometimes it takes a dick to teach

when u don't get a regular boner but a fang boner

he fakes his death a lot

the threat is… unthreatening at best.

i imagined a finger waggle. it’s important.

the ghosts are still in *name* and *name's* head. fucking sick bro.

we see an exorcist fucking freak crawling along the ceiling...

Dora The Explorer: Madre, Pick Me Up I’m Scared Edition

Skel and the eTons make their debut into the world.

YOU GOT NOTHING IN YOUR BRAIN! HOLLOW MAN NO BRAIN!!!!

critique me, writing daddy

it's me and my guiding bolt against the world

humans can’t exactly lick their own assholes

[darkmaga-returns]

And, yes, this is pertinent to today's election results … there's a reason Donald Trump won that no one's talking about

Jennifer Margulis Nov 06, 2024

Childhood vaccines were originally developed to protect young children from virulent, sometimes lethal, diseases.

According to mainstream medicine, “Vaccines have played a crucial role in reducing the burden of infectious diseases.”

“A May study in the Lancet estimated that vaccines against 14 common pathogens have saved 154 million lives over the past five decades—at a rate of six lives every minute,” asserts Tara Haelle in a Scientific American article published this week called “The Staggering Success of Vaccines.”

At the same time, even the most diehard vaccine supporters found themselves ill at ease during COVID when they learned that unvaccinated children were being barred from public life and vaccine-hesitant people had to be bribed to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

People Were Bribed to Take COVID-19 Vaccines Jennifer Margulis · May 16 People Were Bribed to Take COVID-19 Vaccines Anyone remember this Oregon ad, paid for by our tax dollars?

Read full story At a rally I attended in support of healthcare workers who wanted vaccine choice, I stood with a group of doctors. I was holding a sign that read “Doctors AGAINST Forced Vaccination.”

An older man came up to me with angry tears in his eyes.

He pulled down his shirt to show me the massive scar on his chest from open-heart surgery.

“My cardiologist said I had to get it or he’d kick me out of his practice,” he cried. “I wish I hadn’t. I’ve been sick as a dog ever since.”

Forced vaccination a red flag The worldwide push to vaccinate every human on the planet with a highly experimental new vaccine technology connected to an array of poor health outcomes (including but not limited to life-devastating tinnitus, myocarditis, turbo cancer, vulvar aphthous ulcers, and Antiphospholipid syndrome) gave many thinking people pause.

These newcomers to the vaccine safety conversation started to wonder—sometimes aloud to their friends and family, sometimes to the public via social media, and sometimes, even, in the peer-reviewed scientific literature—if the COVID-19 vaccines were as safe, effective, and necessary as they had been programmed to believe.

Michelle Mamby’s husband, a medical doctor, died four days after getting a COVID-19 booster.

“I did everything I could to try and talk him out of it,” Michelle wrote on Facebook.

“Watched him decline with each injection. Once he realized what was happening, it was too late. Now, myself and our children have to live without him. We’re in hell.”

[camoftarakas]

Gonna be super for real, here is my masterpost of why its important for me that you take advantage of your right to vote to choose Kamala Harris.

Section 1: Personal Issues

I am a transgender person. I live where i'm pretty sure it will be safe to do so for the next 4 years, but not only should i not risk it, i shouldn't be willing to send my trans family into danger, especially the young ones. Republicans are making a big point out of removing the Trans agenda from schools. what the fuck does this mean? right now the target is that teachers, counselors, school faculty who hear a child is trans will be obliged to report it to their home. this is a direct danger to the next generation. If you do not hide who you are, it may be ripped out of you. Children will feel they are better dead than being out. and adults who abuse queer kids will not be held accountable.

I am an autistic and disabled person. Donald Trump and his cronies think vaccines cause autism. this is absurdly hateful, but beyond that they call for pullbacks and regulation for vaccines. For an incredibly safe, incredibly guarded piece of protection against disease, regulation means less access to medicine. More epidemics, more sick people, shorter lives for the disabled.

Section 2: Domestic Issues

the full access to abortion and childcare must be restored. the two are forever linked, and both are essential healthcare. people in my life benefit from this, your neighbors benefit from this, human beings benefit from this.

whoever is in charge has the sole ability to appoint supreme court judges for 4 years. The court can not become further packed against us, whoever you are, because they are not shy about infringing the rights of your neighbors or your family on party lines.

the ability for people to only just get by under a Republican presidency will be gutted. tax cuts for the wealthy are not just immoral, but the government can not operate on less income. The burden comes down on those who deserve it least. Hunger, homelessness, freezing, overheating, death.

voting rights are the target of Republicans, especially for the most reliable opposition: Black and Latino Americans. this is happening now in states desperate to suppress minority voices, or to assimilate them into a regressive white culture of last century. If that isn't bad enough, voter suppression is sure to expand to any dissident population. The future is on the line.

Section 3: Global Issues

Donald Trump uses dog whistles to express israeli support. He calls democrats "Hamas", claims they are "Destroying Israel", calls jewish people delusional for supporting them. There isn't a perfect palestinian candidate. that is all but explicitly banned in politics. Vice president Harris will be clipped out of context saying that she vaguely supports Israel's right to self defense, because that is the most she can say without causing panic and confusion. If elected, Kamala Harris would be the most pro-Palestinian president ever, and it's not any amount of praise to say that. But she seeks solution, the end of Israel's control of them, the acknowledgement that what is happening there is unconscionable. MAGA has trained us to think that a vote to a candidate is a total endorsement of all their actions and word-of-mouth values, but it is the NORMAL and DECENT thing to do to demand better from the person you elect. Donald Trump is in Netanyahu's pocket, you won't get anywhere asking him not to rain terror on Palestine.

Ukraine has a right to self-governance as well. Republicans would pull support, and hold more conferences with Putin than with our allies across the world.

Republicans will refuse investment into clean energy. Trump's last presidency saw a resurgence in Coal, and ramblings about dead birds. Republican control will hold back any responses to the climate disaster another 4 years.

Section 4: Closing Thoughts

A US president can not fix the world. A US president can't even fix their own country. But god damn it don't give in to assured worsening. don't vote for third party; they're not gonna win, they're not gonna win next time, the point you want to make will fall on deaf ears; the time and place is not now or here. don't skip voting, 1/3 of americans don't vote because they don't think their voice makes a difference. vote in every category, there are important issues left to you. You may not turn your state, but you can turn a policy, or your city, or your county, or your representative, or make sure people in your district get a fair trail with a good judge, or that a good person is in charge of your schools. vote like your neighbors life depends on it; it does. vote like the world depends on it; it does. vote like it's the least you can do; it is. You have to participate in this one simple task, flawed as it may be, to not be a hypocrite when you ask for change, when you ask for progress, when you ask for justice. You can elect people who serve you, not who demand you serve them. You can choose to take a step forward, instead of standing still while you're dragged backwards with the rest of us. you can save lives, real lives! you fucking matter, every time, but please for the love of god, do the bare minimum at least this time. And after we're done, we'll go out, and ask for more, ask for better, because government is for us and they need to listen to us, forever, whoever.

[parabiota]

Pretending elected dems have done anything but roll over like lazy dogs within the past decade is laughable. They didn’t codify roe v wade. They aren’t physically stopping musk. Half of those EOs have been completely illegal & the most threatening they’ve been was do push lawsuits which will take years. They’re claiming to be against trump while they are entirely complicit in what is happening.

I’m sick of pretending they’re the ‘good guys’ or the ‘lesser of two evils’ while they sit back and shake eachothers hands and pass money back and forth. They’re all capitalists, they’re all against the American people, they all profit from Trumps coup, & they are sure as fuck not going to go out of their way to stop it in any meaningful capacity. If we are lucky they will be shaking their heads and saying ‘this is bad! Remember to vote democrat or this will happen!’ before turning their backs and shrugging it off.