“Advice (from a high-level staffer for a Senator) on contacting your representatives:

You should NOT be signing online petitions or emailing. They are essentially ignored or trashed. Instead…

YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY: 2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative. Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to.

Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (DC and local), and exactly how many people discussed said topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code.

Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1; closer to 11-1 regarding hot-button issues. Congressmen who may be on the fence to vote with the their party can be swayed by call volume. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.

So, when you call:

A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of the topic you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. Record names of staffers you speak with. Don't leave a message if at all possible.

B ) Give them your zip code even if they don’t ask for it. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

this particularly works with anything negative i’ve forecasted. “i woke up feeling like shit today, so my day is gonna suck” isn’t a particularly helpful thought, but “it’s a great day to be alive!!!!!” feels hollow and insincere when i have a pounding headache & am running on three hours of sleep

instead i’ll tell myself, “i really don’t feel good right now, but i’m open to the possibility that coffee and breakfast might perk me up a bit.” or “i’m in a lot of pain today, but i’m open to the possibility that my workday might still have fun parts despite that”

‘Polluted Water Popsicles’ (2017) by: Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui & Chen Yu-ti

A resident physician at the University of Ottawa's faculty of medicine who was suspended over pro-Palestinian social media posts says he's been reinstated but has no plans to return to the institution. Dr. Yipeng Ge, 29, was sanctioned by the university last November after it got several complaints about a series of pro-Palestinian posts he'd made, ones that included references to "apartheid" and "settler colonialism." At the time of his suspension, Ge had been a fourth-year public health and preventive medicine resident and was completing a residency at the Public Health Agency of Canada. His research has focused on Indigenous health, anti-racism and decolonization.

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His name is Ramzi Abu Redwan. During the time the picture was taken he was 8 years old. Today he is 36 and has become a world-class solo musician and composer, playing the Oud, Buzuq, Violin and Viola. 

here’s my personal fave of what i’ve heard so far from his top 5