Catherine Fowles

Remember always that a vital part of cultivating compassion is to practice compassion for yourself.

For people with trauma, mental illnesses, depressive personalities, and other emotional problems this can be really hard. But it's made such a difference for me.

Text on a dark background reflects on Halloween as a day of accepting strangers, asking why this kindness isn't everyday. By Steve Garnaas-Holmes.

Clinically vulnerable encompass a wide range of people. 1/3 of the UK is clinically vulnerable but the government has narrowed the definition, narrowed the offering of vaccines, even though statistically we remain at higher risk of hospitalisation/death even when vaccinated.

everyone: we don’t want kings

rightwing media: this is a confusing protest line, no one is claiming trump is a king

the entire trump administration:

1/
#LongCOVID #Stigma

@1goodtern.bsky.social

People think if you’re disabled your family must support you

They don’t understand how many folks are on their own

How many have families who can’t support them for various reasons

Everyone deserves help

Having your basic needs met is not “frivolous”

Lacking family shouldn’t be a death sentence

Millions of Americans may not get their SNAP payments because of the government shut down

Millions are in the streets for No Kings protesting the rise of fascism

What are the tyrants doing? Spending $172 million on private jets for Noem

Sending funds to Argentia

Shooting missiles into California

ICE *already* can't meet their detainment numbers without rounding up children, veterans, people born in the U.S., people with no criminal records, people at immigration hearings, plus academics and visitors with valid visas.

So who do they plan to detain with >10x the budget?

The answer is: you.

The Pope tweets: "The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty. #DilexiTe" Someone replies: "I was so hopeful I could be a Catholic again after the disaster that Francis was, guess we just get Francis 2.0 now and I am heartbroken. How do I stay a Catholic now...I don't want to lose faith but I am. You belong to someone else, not God."

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."

This makes me happy! Great initiative by @london.gov.uk & team.
At least 200 schools across London will receive HEPA filters.
We need to properly evaluate this -in relation to both PM2.5 & airborne infections- to help a wider effective implementation.

#LongCovid
www.london.gov.uk/mayor-invest...

remote work is like birth control or UBI atp where there’s overwhelming research consensus they improve quality of life for people they apply to, yet access is impeded or blocked by the ruling class because the thought of marginalized ppl having rich full lives makes steam come out their ears

No.

Our mask requirement is not "virtue signalling".

It's protecting a) the cancer patient and b) the child who is still too small to wear a mask.

And also--and I can't emphasize this strongly enough--you.

“Our primary message is that reinfections still matter, and you should do what you can to avoid reinfection..” — Yong Chen, University of Pennsylvania

Yes your taxes should support disabled people.

They should support homeless people.

They should support those living in poverty, children and the elderly.

This is literally the purpose of taxes, and I would far rather support those who need it than continue to enrich the elite.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...For when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, influential German philosopher, born #OTD 1844.
Jenseits von Gut und Böse 1886 | Portrait by Edvard Munch 1906, Thielska Gallery

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“We may be witnessing the emergence of a population-level acquired immune deficiency — not sexually transmitted, but airborne.”

That line isn’t from a tweet. It’s from a peer-reviewed paper in AJPM Focus (2025).

In the river
I saw swimmers
next to a sign which read:
“Warning
no swimming or diving,
undertow, shallow areas,
and hidden objects
may cause injury,”
and as I looked from the words
to the swimmers
I understood:
we always think
the warning signs
are meant for someone else.

"We live in a fascist police state now.

They just haven't gotten to you yet"

Dear liberals,

If you identify as a leftist who believes in intersectional justice & fighting fascism, please wear a mask in public. It’s one small act of solidarity with the millions living with long Covid - and a reminder that caring for others includes protecting their health

The Zionist consensus among US Jews has collapsed. Something new is emerging | Shaul Magid Two years after the 7 October massacre and the onset of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, American Jewry has been profoundly transformed

www.theguardian.com/world/commen...

I've lost 5 people in the last 2 years, more further back, & counting. It's speeding up as the crashing economy leaves the most vulnerable of us unable to meet their basic needs.

7 Years Later, Twin Peaks: The Return’s Most Shocking Episode Remains TV's Most Untouchable 58 Minutes Although the entirety of Twin Peaks Season 3 is considered a masterpiece of TV, there's one episode that stands out as one of David Lynch's best work

www.cbr.com/twin-peaks-t... @markfrost.bsky.social

Fear Itself Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Mask? A lot of people, it turns out

“To totally eschew the mask in an era of unending COVID waves is to believe that burying fear is the equivalent of burying what we fear. It is the strange alchemy of toxic positivity, the belief that belief is reality and reality is nothing.”

www.thegauntlet.news/p/fear-itself

US Congress building

US Congress building with a Spirt Halloween banner

September 30th October 1st

🕊️ The world has lost a revered conservationist -- a colossal power for what is truly good.

🕊️ Jane Goodall is a legend who helped open the door to science to the best humans among us: woman.

🕊️ She was brave, brilliant and introduced us to the best things among us: animals.

🕊️ I grieve her passing.

Pay attention to the way Trump & RFK Jr speak about people with autism and other disabilities.

They act like it’s a fate worse than death.

Like we’re an aberration that must be “corrected”.

Like disability is a failure that is not to be tolerated.

It’s not compassion, it’s eugenics.

This lethal screwup, specifically - probably the worst medical error in all of history.

This is why public health leaders won't talk about the long term impacts of COVID, or how you can prevent it with aerosol-appropriate PPE (respirators like N95s).

To protect you, they have to admit a mistake.