Just Gerver

While I appreciate the drive that athletes have to perform despite injuries and ill health, I always feel a bit strange about how we glorify continuing on when your body needs healing. I wonder how many permanent disabilities are the result of our insistence that pain is a weakness not a warning.

The aurora last night in Beaver, Alaska was just incredible. This is a real-time video (not sped up) of the crazy motion I saw. Also, look how BRIGHT it is, wow!

People can say they didn’t vote for this but people are liars

this disaster is terrible
and we may not survive it
our descendants may not survive it

but we are children of disaster
the ones that made us and the ones that nearly unmade us but did not

so we might

Top 15 US Billionaires Gained Nearly $1 Trillion in Wealth in Trump’s First Year The US has 935 billionaires, roughly a dozen of whom have jobs within the Trump administration.

More evidence of the grift of the United States, stealing from the poor to give to the rich
truthout.org/articles/top...

Dave Ruder, a man wearing a respirator and glasses, with shoulder-length hair, is surrounded by cartoon images of a red footed duck, James Worthy, a can of seltzer and a bee, and a sign that says “Don’t touch me.” There’s a music player with his album imposed on top of the other images. The text reads, “The Sick Times. Composing the “Long COVID album”: An interview with Dave Ruder. By Betsy Ladyzhets.”

"There’s a way that, I think, particularly for sick artists, for disabled artists, having that feeling of someone taking you seriously and not being alone in your illness and in your ailment is one of the best things that we can provide." - Dave Ruder, Composing the “Long COVID album”: An interview with Dave Ruder

"Like so many people who have had Long COVID, [I’ve had] this sort of slow realization... unsure if something is temporary or permanent… It took me a long time to feel comfortable saying that [I am disabled]."

Read @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social's Q&A with @daveruder.bsky.social bit.ly/4pO6Kjr

Since Congress passed a law requiring Trump to release the Epstein Files, Trump has:

- Tried to start a war with NATO over Greenland

- Threatened to use the military to suppress free speech in Minnesota

- Illegally withheld 99% of the files and heavily redacted the ones that were released

This is why I’m pushing for a state escrow account that holds federal funds before sending them on to Washington. If Trump wants to steal our tax dollars that were legally appropriated by Congress, then we should just be paying ourselves.

Here's the full list, according to a DOJ press release dated August.

In effect, every blue state except for Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, and Massachusetts (all except HI had Republican statewide electeds at some point since 2018) will have their funding withheld:

www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...

this is wildly illegal and the courts will rule it such, but congressional democrats should be thinking long and hard about the terms under which they will agree to continue funding this government

There is a new autistic barbie out, but no one is talking about her mother, undiagnosed computer engineer barbie about to get the surprise of her life when she starts to argue with the evaluator that these are all normal childhood behaviours that she had when she was the same age.

There are a lot of good lists out there. This is from someone who I trust to know who is who on the ground and how to best get resources where they need to go.

So, How’s the Occupation Going for You? What’s it like to live in America with a domestic military occupation? Minnesota has the answer.

I have young kids like this author in Minneapolis—I'm so gutted reading this

But despite being occupied by a massive force of DHS paramilitaries, civil society is alive and meeting the threat. We will owe our freedom to the people of MSP, thank you!

@taylorcarik.bsky.social @liberalcurrents.com

UPenn faculty condemn Trump administration’s demand for ‘lists of Jews’ Groups say EEOC demand for names and personal details echoes dark history and threatens safety and civil rights

Uh, hey, guys? Why is the Trump administration wanting to compile a fucking REGISTRY of Jewish people?

"These requests would require Penn to create and turn over a centralized registry of Jewish students, faculty, and staff"

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

GM 🖤

This is of course very bad.

And I feel like not enough of you know that having a disability has been grounds for denying visa processing since the late 19th century due to supposed risk of needing public assistance.

Four Oglala detainees located, three still in ICE custody - ICT The four Lakota detainees were reportedly sent to a former concentration camp used during the Dakota Wars

Three of the Ogala Lakota men who were taken by ICE are being held at a former concentration camp.

ICE has no jurisdiction over Native Americans.

They’re not breaking any laws. There’s nowhere to deport them to. They were here first.

They’ve been kidnapped.

As birthrates tumble, some progressives say the left needs to offer ideas and solutions The US and other countries face aging, shrinking populations. Conservatives have shaped debate over the issue. Some liberals say it's time for progressives to weigh in.

the left has offered solutions:
-raising wages
-universal healthcare
-affordable housing
-universal childcare
-paid parental leave
-action to mitigate the climate crisis

if only our leaders supported these wildly popular solutions. people don’t want kids in a world we’re struggling to survive in.

It boggles my mind that in 2026 people are still getting hospital acquired Covid.

They’re still having to choose between care and Covid.

They’re still having to risk their health to access medical care.

We can do better than this.

Clean air and respirators save lives!

It continues to astound the response to SARS2 is a collective shrug, as if no one’s aware previously there was a deadly SARS1. (It was contained at least in part because we had a functioning CDC then.) On top of that, the loss of smell & taste = NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE—not a simple “stuffy nose.” #COVID

“But what do you expect Democrats to doo-hooo?”

1) Refuse to fund this criminal government anymore.

2) EVERY one of them call to abolish ICE (and bonus, DHS). No more “they need training” shit. Promise prosecutions.

3) EVERY one of them call for Trump’s impeachment, relentlessly, EVERY day.

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents just launched flash bang grenades at protesters in front of federal building in Minneapolis—causing massive explosions. "It's terrorizing, this isn't the America I served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy," tearful protester tells us.

WE'RE LIVE NOW ⬇️

Abolish ice is about to become a centrist position

I’m sick of all the emotional grenades lobbed at people w/ ME—the articles/studies/books/guides w/ harmful information or both sidesing. I’m sick of feeling pressured to read things not bc I expect to learn anything helpful, but so I’ll be able to defend myself when it’s inevitably used against me.

Now the number of federal prosecuters in MN who've quit today is up to six.

I think this is bad news for Minnesota.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...

Anyone have recent leads on buying Aura N95s for cheap(er) these days? TIA!

Central Va. hospitals recommend masking in health care centers as flu, COVID-19 cases surge • Virginia Mercury Virginia experienced a surge in flu in the last weeks of 2025 and at the start of this year, hitting areas of Central Virginia and Northern Virginia especially hard, as noted by local hospital systems...

Central Va. hospitals recommend masking in health care centers as flu, COVID-19 cases surge virginiamercury.com/briefs/centr...

I'm reporting on Long COVID clinics closing across the UK and looking to understand what's driving this. I am also examining the state of care for ME/CFS.

If you're a patient (who has lost access to care/faced barriers accessing it), clinician, or advocate, DM for my WhatsApp.

I am a NIH RECOVER Patient Rep. Something that comes up frequently is the question of how to inform doctors so they will both take precautions and inform patients. Do you have any suggestions for how to get doctors to act on the knowledge of airborne pathogens?

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

Even though it's crisis #192308 in our current time, I don't think it's sufficiently sunk in with ppl in the academic community that getting federal funding for your research will primarily depend on whether Trump political appointees find you and your work useful
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...