Medical Speech-Language Pathologist

The ER were also a bit panicked until they ran some tests and went, "Oh Jesus, you have like no sodium in you," and proceeded to hook me up to multiple IV bags over the course of several hours while also giving me salty snacks to eat.

Turns out cutting out salt like my old doctor told me to hadn't been a good idea. Anyway. Can confirm, when you're dealing with an electrolyte imbalance it literally feels like you're gonna die but the minute you get that IV into you it's like being resurrected.

Your whole brain comes back online. Birds start singing again. You can remember the taste of strawberries and the way the sun kissed the green hills of the Shire.

If there's a single message I'd like people to take away from Good Omens it's from Adam:

″‘I don’t see what’s so triffic about creating people as people and then gettin’ upset ‘cos they act like people,’ said Adam severely. ‘Anyway, if you stopped tellin’ people it’s all sorted out after they’re dead, they might try sorting it all out while they’re alive.‘”

Me: "Oh. Uh, thank you. Uh..." [Opens my jacket to reveal the rest of the cutoff halter that says "I have no tits"]

Greater generational income inequality. “Boomers in their 30s [in  1990] owned 21.3 [%] of the nation’s wealth,” whereas “Millennials in their 30s today own 4.6% of the nation’s wealth.” 

Wage stagnation. This occurred because of “right to work” anti-union laws enacted in Republican controlled states. Of the 27 states that have passed these laws, 23 are below the mean U.S. household income, 8 are in the poorest national quintile (state rankings of 41-50), 6 are in the second poorest national quintile (state rankings of 31-40), and 9 are in the third poorest national quintile (state rankings of 21-30). 

Increased student loan debt and inability to wipe out debt via bankruptcy. Reagan led the way as governor of California in cutting aid to public higher education and in putting an end to “free tuition” at the University of California. “As president, [Reagan] began the methodical process of eliminating federal and state support for [college] tuition.”  Furthermore, in a massive GOP “gift” to banking, people can no longer “discharge student loans through bankruptcy.”

Price gouging (which contributes to inflation). “In 1983, President Reagan ordered the federal government to stop enforcing the anti-trust laws,” resulting in “merger mania,” which allowed for the growth of huge monopolies that “crushed” small businesses, including startups, and allowed for price gouging with impunity.

Increased individual medical debt (and bankruptcies), increased spending on healthcare, and lower life expectancy in the U.S. compared with other developed nations. This all occurred because the “Reagan Revolution” encouraged the end of state “nonprofit requirements” for “health insurance companies and hospitals,” to be replaced by “free market principles.” 

Excessive pharmaceutical prices. Because of the “Reagan Revolution,” drug companies were allowed to become “monopolistic monoliths” that could charge whatever they wanted for drugs.

Excessive housing costs. The GOP Congress under New Gingrich “’deregulated’ the financial industry.” That’s why today “trillion-dollar hedge funds and investment groups are purchasing as many as half…of the available-for-sale housing, so they can turn them into rentals and then, when they’ve cornered the market, jack up the prices.”

A large “transfer of real wealth” to the “top 1%.” “Reagan dropped the top income tax rate on the morbidly rich from 74% down to 27%, and cut corporate tax rates from 50% to functionally nothing […] This 42-year-long process, with Reagan’s original massive tax cuts amplified by trillions more in tax cuts for the morbidly rich from the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations, has produced a $50 trillion transfer of real wealth from the middle class to the top 1%.”

Hartmann also describes other ways that Republicans since Reagan have continued to destroy our nation (and in terms of climate change, potentially the planet):

Climate change denial. “Republicans, right across-the-board, continue to deny [climate change], in deference to the fossil fuel industry and its billionaires that funds their elections. They’ve put money and power above the fate and future of your and your children’s planet.”

Politicians for sale. Through the “Citizens United” decision, the Republican appointed conservative Supreme Court justices have allowed “billionaires and corporations” to virtually buy politicians–making it hard for anyone in Congress (especially Democrats) to pass any laws not approved by the oligarchs who “own” members of Congress [mostly Republican but some Democrats too]. 

Promoting autocracy, trying to overturn legal elections, and trying to rig future elections. Trump and his Republican cronies “tried to end our 240-year experiment in democratic self governance, and are now actively embracing neofascist autocracy, openly trying to emulate the rightwing strongman governments that have taken over Russia and Hungary.” Republicans are also attempting “to rig our elections by purging millions of minority, Boomer, and Millennial voters from the rolls.”

Limiting reproductive rights. [Republicans, through the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices have] “succeeded in overturning the right to abortion.” [Some Republicans, including Justice Thomas, are also threatening to go after birth control.]

“Openly embracing homophobia and misogyny.” [Hartmann didn’t elaborate on this but some ”Don’t Say Gay” laws and anti-trans laws have passed or are being considered in red states. Some in the GOP want to overturn Obergefell and Lawrence so they can do away with same sex marriage and can re-criminalize homosexual behavior. Not only are the challenges to reproductive rights misogynistic but many of the educational gag order bills/guidelines in red states prevent the discussion of sexism in public education.]

Gun culture run amok. [Thanks to the efforts of the gun lobby and the conservative Supreme Court Heller and Bruen decisions, pandora’s box has been opened and we are stuck with the] “400 million guns drenching our country [in] blood, and… Republicans [being] unified across-the-board to prevent any further action to stop gun violence in America.”

White supremacy, racism, and a “whitewashed” American history. “And now, these Republicans are trying to marinate your children in their white supremacy and racism by forcing teachers to push a false narrative about American history.”

Still, Hartmann tried to end this depressing narrative  of the “Reagan Revolution” legacy on a positive note. 

The good news, however, is that, increasingly, [Boomers and Millennials] are working together to throw Republicans out of office and elect progressive Democrats who understand these issues and know how to do something about it.

From the 80-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders to 19-year-old progressive candidate for the Ohio House Sam Lawrence… progressives are growing in political power at the same time America is waking up from the fog of bullshit Republicans have been crop-dusting over us since 1981.

All is not lost; change is in the air.

Get out there. Get active. Tag, we’re it!

________________________

My husband, at four years old, being introduced to Senator Biden, his mom’s friend Joe, saying his name was [Name] No!“ and being an adorable tow headed menace like the Good Omens Antichrist whose name he shared. His mother carrying an infant coffin through the halls of Reagan’s White House. They won.

Reagan was evil enough to try to prevent kids like my husband with dyslexia and ADHD and his brother with severe cerebral palsy and total blindness from being put in mainstream schools. It was literally a supervillain battle.

use tools

Can be taught to speak (like parrots)

Have huge brains for birds

like seriously their brain-to-body size ratio is equal to that of a chimpanzee

They vocalize anger, sadness, or happiness in response to things

they are scary smart at solving puzzles

some crows stay with their mates until one of them dies

they can remember faces

SIDENOTE HERE BECAUSE HOLY SHIT.  They did an experiment where these guys wore masks and some of them fucked with crows.  Pretty soon the crows recognized the masks = douchebag.  But the nice guys with masks they left alone.  THEN, OH WE’RE NOT DONE, NO SIR crows that WEREN’T EVEN IN THE EXPERIMENT AND NEVER SAW THE MASK BEFORE knew about mask-dudes and attacked them on sight.  THEY PASSED ON THE FUCKING INFORMATION TO THEIR CROW BUDDIES.

They remember places where crows were killed by farmers and change their migration patterns.

Every day, I would watch Buck from my window until one day I opened it and started talking to him. He was small and gangly and he couldn’t caw right. His feathers were all over the place and I felt a kinship. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he could do it, if he could fly, then I could find the strength to get up. Well… near the end of the season, after talking with him every day, I finally saw him get out of the nest. He went to the edge of his branch, braced himself, and jumped… and just before he hit the ground, he soared back up into the sky. I cheered harder than I ever had before.

That winter, Buck left the area. I was crestfallen. I felt like I’d lost a friend. But I was so damn proud of him. 

Cut to the next spring? I’m walking up the driveway one day when suddenly I hear a sound… a broken caw. I look up, and Buck is sitting in a tree above my head. He stared at me and puffed his feathers, then hopped down in front of me and cawed again. I was so damn thrilled, and I told him how proud I was of him. He ruffled his feathers and then soared off into his old tree. 

That summer? I heard two broken caws. One from Buck… and one from his chick.

i tried to get close and take a better look and one of them dived super low and tried to attack me. so i went back in the house and chopped some sliced raw meat and tossed it at him from a distance.

a few more times later, very soon after, they could tell i was trying to help, and did not attack me. i was “allowed” to walk up close and pick him up, he couldn’t drink water properly so i had to dip my finger in a bowl and stick it in his mouth.

i did this few times a day and it went on for about a week before he disappeared, i thought he recovered and left, but he came back the next day and lands on me, and i see him around the block quite often, and he would come sit on my shoulder for a few minutes and then fly away again. i feel like i’ve adopted a son.

As a side note, I volunteered at a rehab (Hope for Wildlife), where they were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing–who was named Russell Crow. He kept pulling his bandage off so a sleeve was cut off some old clothing and put on him like a little sweater. 

The poster who brought it to my attention, Scott Kullberg, said "I remember an old USENET post about a speech therapist's analysis of fannish speech. One of the things she noticed is that it's common and not considered rude to interrupt with this kind of correction."

Fascinating for me because a) it checks out in some ways, b) I wasn't at the event it describes but I could have been and c) reading the thread makes me nostalgic for an Internet that's been eaten by something else. (I also very much enjoyed Patrick Nielsen Hayden's contribution.)

not being able to swallow pills means you have access to less medication and insurance, if you have it, is less likely to pay for alternatives to tablets. also a lot of people are just not going to believe that you can't swallow pills and when they do so often it's "yeah i used to have swallowing anxiety too. when i was like 6. what you do is *unsolicited advice*" and this includes other disabled people

you need your diaphragm to blow your nose and cough up mucus and if you don't cough up mucus or find some other way to get it out it builds up and chokes you. not being able to blow your nose probably contributes to this but mostly it's 1 just annoying 2 can't really breathe thru your nose if it's just totally plugged

plus your diaphragm and esophagus are connected but i don't personally understand how. you get inadequate air distribution. i get like, gas going down my esophagus and i can't do anything about it

and if your eyelids are too heavy, if they droop too badly, you have to compensate by lifting your eyebrows. which leads to forehead wrinkles (probably)

or if you have one weaker leg you may become masterful at flinging yourself around like you're in a boat or a dance or something, just so you can stay on your feet at all. because you have no choice. i used to be really good at not falling until i started literally collapsing because i knew how to like, i guess work gravity to my advantage, because my right leg is weak and my left leg is weird

and i mean honestly your heart is a muscle. the stomach is a muscle. the uterus is a muscle. lungs are muscles

you need muscle strength to pee i really don't think people even know that. and to get rid of gas. ffs