Jessica

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here.

HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻

archive.org/details/2025...

Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.

4/ Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context
5/ Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.

2/ Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.
3/ Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.

What now?
1/ Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.

3/ Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse. Traditional media can't keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage.
The result? Weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.

2/ Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.

1/ The flood of 200+ executive orders in Trump's first days exemplifies Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine"-using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual-it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.

Wise and important words from sociologist Jennifer Walter about what is happening in our country right now and what to do about it:
"As a sociologist, I need to tell you:
Your overwhelm is the goal.

Introducing…

Holidays are for the dogs…

I bought myself a childish microwaveable stuffed animal that is full of weighted stuffing of some sort with lavender. When heated it is warm and snuggly and smells good. It is relaxing and lovely to sleep with. I’m a grown ass woman and I recommend this wonder to all. It’s the simple things…

I made the same choice. Save the women - NOT the tatas. We are so much more than our breasts.

Also, life on this side (without boob sweat or bras) is pretty great!

This flattie loves your post!

I’ll feel like I’m in the clear in another two weeks, but as I return home on my last flight of a bush fall travel season I’m grateful to not have gotten COVID for the first time in three travel seasons.

It was a 49% to 48% election.

Fascism won by a hair.

And it took Russian and MAGA bomb threats, a hoax regarding battleground-state police raids, an illegal Musk-funded lottery, $600M given to Trump by just 15 people, Netanyahu meddling in our politics, and Democrats staying home for it to happen.

Documenting. 11/16/24, Columbus, Ohio (Short North area of High Street).

You don’t bury an ethics report that would exonerate Trump’s pick.

You don’t skip FBI background checks unless his nominees have something to hide.

See what they’re doing? Please tell me you see what they’re doing.

And today Nazis marched down High Street (the main street) in Columbus, Ohio. That didn’t take long…

This amuses me so much.

Please, if you are able, support Independent bookshops.

They are the literary & social hubs of our high streets and communities.

Without their continued support, we simply wouldn't be around to publish .

Thank you.

I’ve been poking around here a bit and it’s time to introduce myself. I care about the things in my profile and am looking forward to staying informed, learning, and sharing without trolls. Let’s hope this is that place!

Go Stare at the Ocean - emptywheel Go stare at the ocean and prepare to pick yourself back up again.

Go stare at the ocean.

www.emptywheel.net/2024/11/14/g...

How the CDC could change under the next Trump administration If the new administration embraces proposals to cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget and its mission, the public health agency could look very different than it does today.

If the new administration embraces proposals to cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget and its mission, the public health agency could look very different than it does today.

The Situation: Gaetz and Gabbard, Adjournment and Recess Will the Senate even get to vote on Trump’s bizarre national security nominees?

@benjaminwittes.bsky.social discusses the possibility of Trump using the presidential adjournment power to recess-appoint Cabinet officials, bypassing the Senate's confirmation process for his national security nominees.

When social networks silence activists, it’s on us to amplify each other’s voices. Share, repost, and ensure the truth spreads faster than they can suppress it.

Trump Threatens New York Times, Penguin Random House over Critical Coverage Legal letter follows complaints aimed at CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Daily Beast.

and so it begins...

www.cjr.org/the_trump_re...

The Department Under Musk (DuM) is a national joke

Not the funny kind, but the sort that willy-nilly fires a third of the work force of the largest employer in America—focusing on women, non-whites, and anyone without a science degree—causing unemployment to triple and then, soon after, a recession