The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

“last season’s 2024–2025 mRNA COVID vaccines reduced ppl’s risk of emergency dept visits by 29%, their risk of hospitalizations by 39% &their risk of death by 64%…. According to the study’s authors, COVID vaccination was effective in all age groups &‘in persons w/ or w/o major chronic conditions’”🛟🧪

every time you see a man with the pork sweats lecturing on what “women really want,” remember that the ideal father is whoever this guy is. i don’t even want kids but like: this is who you have ‘em with!

America 2025:

There was an old social media post that was like "antifa is organized in the same way that people who hate Dave Matthews Band are organized" and yeah that's about as fair a statement as you can make on it tbh

It is the greatest political lie ever told in American history. Not just some busted campaign promise, but an entire campaign on false pretenses. Literal cartoon supervillain behavior: waiting until you get in office and implementing a comic-book plan to annihilate US government virtually overnight.

There is not a single example in American history of a president doing something like this: having a secret agenda that's incredibly, unbelievably unpopular, spending the entire campaign pretending it's fake, and then, upon winning, going "psyche!" and not just embracing it, but expanding on it.

The story of 2024 is this: Trump had a plan to destroy American government called Project 2025, which had, literally, not a typo, a 4% approval rating. He lied constantly and said he wouldn't do it. Then he entered office and immediately implemented AN EVEN MORE EXTREME VERSION OF IT.

i looked at the methodology for this and it is a. sex addiction counseling group in texas did a surveymonkey and extrapolated the results to the entire us population which is the sort of research design that earns you an ff on an intro methods class (the extra f is for extra effort), and b. p-hacked

This is the kind of thing that government regulations exist to prevent. Remember when governments functioned?

My favourite thing about JK Rowling claiming she lived through poverty is the state provided her with a one-bedroom flat which she always refers to as “a glorified bedsit”. The “glorified” bit is: a separate bedroom and living room.

Getting very nervous about being able to find Novavax this year. If I have to get there other covid shots I'll need 3 days to recover and that's not an option with school right now.

Harris had a lovely sign name that was created by a committee of Black and Indian Deaf women in recognition of the historic nature of her candidacy, which is nice but not really about her at all. Meanwhile Bill Clinton’s is a C handshape doing the sign for “adultery”

One year there was an issue with the Chromebook licenses at our kid’s school, so the teachers had to start the school year NOT having the kids work on laptops, and—shocking, I know—the students learned a ton, said they preferred “hands on”/analog teaching, and asked for more laptop-free lessons.

Got these "know your rights"cards that are supposed to remind you what to say to ICE agents but honestly you could use this for a lot of people

a mother whose child is still missing: “For my family, these months have felt like an eternity. For [Camp Mystic], it seems like nothing more than a brief pause before business as usual … even if it means inviting girls to swim in the same river that may still hold my daughter’s body.”

Never be afraid to be silly. While Jim loved for television to teach, he also took great delight in ending sketches with Muppets getting blown up or eaten. "I've always been particular to things eating other things!" he said. Go blow some stuff up. (Metaphorically speaking, of course. Or not.) /10

Great article on autism. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

The updated COVID/histamine link thread because people keep tagging me in to explain it and I keep intending to update the post from 2023 (synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/805203.html) and just not having the capacity because of my own health shit so here is a thread I can pin

Thread on antihistamines for covid prevention, avoiding feeling like garbage after a covid vaccine, and recovering from covid

2. Antihistamines for COVID prevention It is VERY IMPORTANT that I start with: this is NOT a perfect preventative and should NOT be your only precaution. The best precaution against COVID is still wearing a well-fitting (K)N95 mask whenever you are around other people.

This underlying science results in two easy practical things you can do to make your life easier when dealing with COVID. The first is:

Final review for the project is on Monday and I was up until 2am laying out my file for laser printing building parts (in the foreground, I'm thankfully not modeling the large existing building). I'm exhausted and my body hurts. School is not set up for The Olds (over 25 according to the school!)

Glad everyone's canceling Disney+, but ask yourself this sooner rather than later: what is your plan for when something you really really really want to see comes to that platform in a month? What will take priority? Taking principled stands can be inconvenient and capitalism knows that very well.

What the actual FUCK

Also progressives are far, far more likely to be murdered for trying this kind of thing.

I feel like Jezebel taking down their story about the Etsy witches is a realllllll disturbing precedent for self-censorship 😬

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

The final paragraph of this article has the greatest quote I have ever seen a newspaper publish: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

When people say "We used to drink raw milk from our own cow and it was fine," That's... usually not the case! In families w their own cow, the mom usually boiled it before using. We just forgot bc that's a boring chore that mom did. And who pays attention to that? youtu.be/vKDPast9WFk

Does Orlando have a local chalk festival that might need a sudden change of venue to freshly painted asphalt?

People who don't want to hear about medical issues pertaining to The Bits, please look away now. Bartholin's cyst! Super annoying! But I'm taking 3 lil epson salt baths a day and it's kind of nice to just be forced to sit still in warm water for 20 minutes while scrolling or listening to a book.

this is gonna end up being one of the weirdest weeks of my life isn't it

Damn, be safe out there kids, don't touch wild animals!

Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be

FYI if anyone is considering getting a new US passport, I made an appointment at the post office just over a week ago and got my passport in the mail today. They said 4 to 6 weeks but it was much faster. I didn't pay for expedited service.

i am allergic to bananas and i also don't want this at the grocery store

For when your horse is getting up on the countertop again

Depression finally paying off for something!

School orientation pros: making a couple possible friends Learning more about the unwritten rules, how to get more scholarship money, etc. Cons: No food I can eat, repeatedly being told there are safe options and then arriving to find out there aren't Almost completely useless info sessions

And then in four years when DC’s streets are crumbling from the weight of these vehicles, MAGA will blame democrats for not maintaining the roads.

When the church reverses it beeps like a delivery van, just in case anyone forgets to pay attention to the direction of 1,252 tonnes of church and machinery.

The church has stopped for lunch.

My friend (and Empty the Pews co-editor) is moving her newsletter off Substack and could use some support if you're able to give it!

It's the evening before I start orientation for college so of course I'm at the emergency vet with my sibling's cat while they finish their work day. Pimento had a black stool today so we're looking for internal bleeding.

Introduce yourself with the last five concerts you attended: Bloc Party [EDC (so, a large number of EDM concerts all back to back)] Kraftwerk Death's Dynamic Shroud Molchat Doma Rezz And that's just this spring and summer