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ShazzieB

ShazzieB's Journal
ShazzieB's Journal
February 11, 2025

Elon Musk Hate Thread!

I can't begin to express how much I HATE Elon Musk right now! He's PLAYING with our government like a spoiled, entitled 10 year old with a brand new, exciting toy. And that's all it is to him: a fucking TOY! He and his flying monkeys are PLAYING with everything from our national security and standing among the world's nations to the lives of untold millions of peope, including American citizens as well as people in countries all over the world who depend on US foreign aid for their literal survival. Our government and all the citizens of this nation are nothing but toys to him, to be played with, manipulated, and used to suit his whims; and all the rest of the people in the world who are affected by America's policies and actions are even less than that to him

That Muskratfucker has NO concern for anyone but himself, and Trump has given him carte Blanche to rampage through OUR government like some kind of pillaging barbarian, because he donated huge sums of money to Trump's campaign AND (probably) because Trump is counting on him to pick up the tab for the huge sums of money Trump owes to E. Jean Carroll, the State of New York, and others. This is an OUTRAGE, and it has to fucking STOP!!!!!!!

I am so fucking angry right now that I can hardly stand it! If you feel the same way, please share your anti-Musk sentiments, images, etc. here!









February 10, 2025

Several Psychiatric Disorders Share The Same Root Cause, Study Reveals

https://www.sciencealert.com/several-psychiatric-disorders-share-the-same-root-cause-study-reveals

Researchers recently discovered that eight different psychiatric conditions share a common genetic basis. A new study has now honed in on some of those shared genetic variants to understand their properties. They found many are active for longer during brain development and potentially impact multiple stages, suggesting they could be new targets to treat multiple conditions.

"The proteins produced by these genes are also highly connected to other proteins," explains University of North Carolina geneticist Hyejung Won. "Changes to these proteins in particular could ripple through the network, potentially causing widespread effects on the brain."

In 2019 an international team of researchers identified 109 genes that were associated in different combinations with eight different psychiatric disorders, including autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia.

This may explain why so many of these conditions present with similar symptoms or turn up together, like the link between autism and ADHD. Up to 70 percent of people who have one have the other too, and they often both show up in the same families.


Tho article is blowing my mind. There are all kinds of mental illnesses and neurodivergency in my family, incliding schizophrenia, a variety of mood disorders, and ADHD. Knowing that each of these conditions can run in families, I always thought it was weird that my family tree has so many different ones. Finally, someone seems to be connecting those dots, and I feel so seen!
February 5, 2025

Joyce Vance: "Is it really a coup if it doesn't feel like one?"

Joyce says yes.

Is It Really a Coup?
Joyce Vance
Feb 04, 2025

Is it really a coup if it doesn’t feel like one? If your day-to-day life hasn’t changed? Can it be a coup if I can still write posts like this?

What we’ve seen over the last two weeks and accelerating over the weekend looks like a coup, a hostile, undemocratic takeover of government. Merriam-Webster says a coup is “a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.” No violence so far because this is a coup fueled by tech bros, not the military. But we’re watching the alteration of government happen before our eyes.

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat calls it “a new kind of coup,” writing in Lucid about Elon Musk’s seeming power sharing with Trump: “And here is where the U.S. 2025 situation starts to look different. The point of personalist rule is to reinforce the strongman. There is only room for one authoritarian leader at the top of the power vertical. Here there are two.” It is unusual, but it is still an effort to use extra-legal, undemocratic practices to radically alter American democracy, undoing the balance of power the Founding Fathers established between the three branches of government by consolidating power in the hands of the presidency as a complacent, Republican-led Congress looks on.

*SNIP*

So, “coup” is the correct way to label the transformation of government we are living through. But with so much continuing normally, it’s easy to doubt what you’re seeing. Even experiencing it from the perspective of historians who understand this moment through the lens of history, it doesn’t seem quite real.

*SNIP*

There is still plenty of fight left in our democracy, but it’s an all-hands-on-deck moment. This isn’t a coup with tanks in the streets and mobs overrunning government offices. It’s a quieter coup, a billionaires’ coup. Talk with the people around you about what’s happening and what it means if they’re not aware.

Call it what it is: A coup. Let’s make sure it doesn’t succeed. We’re in this together,

Joyce

Lots more here: https://joycevance.substack.com/p/is-it-really-a-coup

I agree with Joyce: it's definitely a coup, and it's scary as hell. Fortunately, the resistance is taking shape right before our eyes. I look forward to being part of it, in whatever ways I can.
January 10, 2025

I spent several hours this afternoon watching Jimmy Carter's funeral ceremony at the National Cathedral.

I wasn't able to catch it live, but in some ways, watching it this way was even better. It was really nice to be able to dwell on the parts I felt like dwelling on and fast forward through other parts that I found less riveting. (Though there honestly weren't very many times when I felt like doing that, it was nice to know I could if I wanted to.)

I found it to be very moving. Being able to immerse myself in all the beautiful tributes being paid to Carter turned out to be just what I needed right now. It was lovely to be able to focus for a little while on the life of such a kind, decent, and loving man and hear about the many ways he touched the lives of others and the love he inspired in them. It reminded me that good people still really do exist, even now, when we sit poised on the brink of whatever hell TSF is getting ready to plunge us all into less than 2 weeks from today.

Watching all the former presidents (and the current one) sitting there, I couldn't help wondering if the Orange Hellbeast actually understood a word of what was being said. Surely, I thought, all those words about Carter's humility, kindness, and selflessness must have fallen on TSF's ears like pebbles thrown at a windowpane, like "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal," mere, meaningless noise. After all, those people were talking about things of which he has no comprehension or appreciation.

One thing we do know for sure is that he hates having to sit though any event being held in honor of someone other than himself. It goes completely against his grain to have to listen to one person after another singing the praises of anyone who isn't him. I'd like to think he was bored restless, and resentful the whole time. (I'd also like to think it might have done him some good, except that I think he's too far gone to benefit from any such experience.)

The atmosphere in that cathedral radiated warmth and love and gratitude for the many gifts that great man had given to the world as a whole and to so many of the participants as individuals. I felt it myself, just watching a recording of it on this tablet, and I'm sure most of those present must have felt enveloped in it, like a warm, fluffy blanket protecting them tor a little while from the hate and meanness awaiting them back out in the cold, cruel world.

Except for TSF. His mind was too tiny and closed to grasp what was going on, and his heart was too wizened and shriveled to feel the warmth of that love even as it swirled all around him. What a tiny, pathetic creature he is, unable to either truly feel love or even recognize it when he's surrounded by it. I wouldn't want to trade places with him for all the money in the world.

I just hope and pray that I can remember what that cathedral full of love felt like in the coming weeks, and that remembering it will help me face whatever is coming. It's good to know I can watch and experience it again, whenever I need a fresh dose of that warmth.

January 9, 2025

I agree in principle, but there's a major power disparity in play here that can't be ignored.

In our warped and twisted "health care" system, the insurance companies literally hold the power of life and death over patients and tremendous power of another kind over health care providers and hospitals. No matter what the patient needs and the doctor wants to provide, it's the insurance company who gets to decide what actually happens, by providing or withholding coverage. Very wealthy patients who can afford to pay out of pocket when the insurance company says no are the only ones who are exempt from this unhealthy (pun intended) power dynamic.

Health care providers know this, and they have to battle it on a daily red.basis. I'm sure it has a huge impact on them. In this particular case, I suspect that the doctor felt it would be too risky to go ahead and complete the procedure without being sure that it would be covered, knowing that the patient could be thrown into a catastrophic financial situation thereby.

Also, most hospitals in the U.S. these days are (regrettably) "for profit" and would not look favorably on a doctor performing an expensive procedure for which coverage was not pre-approved and running up bills that might not get paid.

Like it or not, the health care of most Americans is now under the control of people without medical training who are sitting in offices miles from where the care is taking place and who are probably under incredible pressure themselves to decide in favor of maximizing the company's profits rather than providing the best possible care for patients.

The choice that doctor made to scrub out and take the call was far from ideal, but she may have felt that she was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea and literally had no choice. Would she have been able to get away with not taking the call right at that moment? Maybe? But the stakes were so high that she may not have dared take that risk.

It's incredibly fucked up, but that's where we are right now, here in the good old USA.

January 7, 2025

Since I and many others can't read this article, here's a no paywall link.

https://archive.ph/1ce7Z

Now that I've had a chance to read it, and everyone else can as well, we can all form our own impressions. I won't share mine except to point out that the events that transpired in that hotel room took place in August 1969, which was over 55 years ago. A year later, he was convicted and sentenced, he served out the time he was sentenced to, and Carter pardoned him more than a decade later, in January 1981. (Was it too light of a sentence? Maybe? But if so, that's on the judge. The point is, Yarrow had served out that time long before he was pardoned by Carter, so it's not like he got off scot free.)

So, imo, this is all water under the bridge at this point, and there doesn't seem to be any solid evidence that he was a serial offender. (Unsubstantiated allegations =/= solid evidence.) I therefore see no need to smear a man who is now dead and can't defend himself. I am sorry Winter's life has been so negatively affected by this, but I don't see how dragging Peter Yarrow's name through the mud posthumously would be helpful to her.

Furthermore, it seems to me that he still deserves credit for his contributions to the music world, as well for his decades of political activism. Whatever mistakes he made over half a century ago, this man gave the world a great deal, and I for one would prefer to focus on that.
January 6, 2025

My sister was in hospice care when she passed away almost a year ago due to kidney failure.

One thing I didn't know about hospice is that they don't just care for the dying person; they also care for the dying person's loved ones. The hospice that handled my sister's care at the end has sent me things in the mail all this past year about coping with loss and grief. The most recent one was a poem that I found very moving. This is the first time I'm sharing it with someone, but it won't be the last.

‐-------------------------------------------------
ON THOSE DAYS

On those says
When you miss someone the
most

as though your memories
are sharp enough
to slice through skin and bone

remember how they loved you.

Remember how they loved you
and do that
for yourself.

In their name
in their honour.
Love yourself
as they loved you.

They would love that.

On those days
when you miss someone
the most
love yourself harder.

Donna Ashworth
‐-------------------------------------------------

I'm still in the process of learning how to do this, but every time I try, it helps.

January 4, 2025

'Bravo': Liz Cheney's stinging rebuke to Trump earns cheers on social media

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) clapped back at President-elect Donald Trump, who raged about the never-Trump conservative on his social media app, calling her a "Warmonger of low intelligence."

*snip*

In describing her, the White House said she "raised her voice -- and reached across the aisle -- to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency."

*snip*

Trump — and his MAGA allies — bemoaned President Joe Biden giving her the Presidential Citizens Medal on Thursday, accusing Cheney of being "totally corrupt."

*snip*

On Friday afternoon, Cheney issued a terse response.

"Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember."

Lots more here:
https://www.rawstory.com/liz-cheney-2670736989/

NOTE: The article quotes extensively from Trump's hateful, lie riddled social media post. If you want to know what he said, you can go there to read it. I didn't want to waste space quoting his lies here.

No matter what anyone says, how awful her father is, or how many policy issues I disagree with her about; I believe Liz Cheney is a true patriot who cares about this country. If you don't believe me, I recommend reading her book, Oath snd Honor.

January 3, 2025

My husband and i were both involutarily retired.

In my case. It was the economy. In the crash of 2008, I lost a job where I'd been for over 10 years, at the age of 58. I continued working off and on for the next few years, but all I could find were temp gigs, with no benefits, sometimes with long empty stretches in between one job and the next. The whole experience was so demoralizing and soul-sucking that I gave up and started collecting SS as soon as I was old enough. I did take one more temp job after that, in the hope that it would turn into something more "permanent," but that did not happen. After I was laid off from that, I didn't have it in me to try again.

My husband worked a lot longer than I did, but was hoping to retire soon, when factory where he worked went bottom up due to some poor management decisions. Since then, we have been pinching pennies.

Of the two forced "retirements," mine was the most traumatic, financially and otherwise, but both sucked.

January 1, 2025

Happy New Year!



I know a lot of us are not looking forward to 2025 all that much, but we can at least celebrate making it through 2024 in one piece. Take that, Orange Hellbeast!



Profile Information

Name: Sharon
Gender: Female
Hometown: Chicago area, IL
Home country: USA
Member since: Tue Mar 26, 2013, 03:18 AM
Number of posts: 19,380
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