I Really Think People Have Forgotten Just How Bad Things Were Under The Trump Administration. Literally

[source]

Feb 4, 2025

Y'all we are down to the wire on "I hate vaccines and flouride, I love bird flu" RFK Jr's final appointment to Health and Human Services. 😬 I don’t want to panic anyone, so please quietly, calmly,

Contact your senators today so that someone sane will run HHS.

(Especially if you live in Alaska, Maine, Kentucky, or Louisiana!)

The Science and Families Engaging (SAFE) Communities Coalition has an easy call script and email template. Don’t worry abt what to say, it's not so much WHAT you say, it's HOW MANY of us say it.

Phone: Call the federal switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your state’s senators.

Email form via SAFE: Click here.

We can oppose this appointment but it's going to take a LOT of us. Trump, Kennedy, and their organized masses are pressuring the Senators who have doubts. Those doubtful Senators just need a quick call from us to give them some backbone -- Let's remind them we exist!

WaPo:

The Senate finance panel vote Tuesday morning fell along party lines, with the panel’s 14 Republicans voting to confirm Kennedy and its 13 Democrats opposed. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), a physician who had been openly wrestling with whether to support one of the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, opted to vote for Kennedy in a decision that could foreshadow the upcoming vote in front of the Senate.

NBC:

Previously, groups including Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy founded, and the National Vaccine Information Center had organized supporters to flood Cassidy's office with calls and emails urging his support for the nomination.

At the one of Kennedy's confirmation hearings last week, Cassidy acknowledged that his phone was being “blown up” by Kennedy’s “tremendous following”

WaPo again:

[RFK Jr's] nomination now will advance to a vote before the full Senate, which has not yet been announced but is expected to be scheduled for next week. If Democrats unite in opposing Kennedy, he can afford only three GOP defections. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) are viewed as pivotal swing votes, as is Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky).

The final confirmation vote is expected next week. Don’t be silent.

Please folks, if you have even 3 minutes, do this thing. 🥹 For a healthier you, for the health of your friends and grandparents, for a regular boring everyday normal medical system where vaccines are just good practice.

Make the call to (202) 224-3121, or send the email. It's super easy.

And tell a friend to do the same.

Thank you so much for reading.

I know there needs be a through line. And racing is fine but not my favorite. I stand by my original ask, though, and I want racing / theme quieter and the worlds to be louder.

Thanks for agreeing, @portisleft !

Good afternoon! I agree with the asker who preferred the “three worlds” to “racing”. I’d love more travelogue sets with a heavier emphasis on the worlds (kind of like how alara was five worlds all together)

If the focus is on the three worlds, there has to be a thematic (and mechanical) through line.

But like a Sailor before the mast of Davey Jones, judgment can absolutely be forestalled. And it has been for far too long.

Here's your good news post for the day.

A flavor cross section of Mother of Runes and and the many/ reprints of Samite damage prevention cards (which fell off hard after New World Order, as they are very intense in combat math), this card was a fun build around with color - changing (usually Blue) creatures. Even Transguild Courier didn't exist yet.

A fun, potentially powerful build around from a former era. Fun times for me, and still a view worth the climb today.

Samite Elder

Artist: Terese Nielsen TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

Psyched again for a follow up!

@ratyger

"If the focus is on the three worlds, there has to be a thematic (and mechanical) through line." Does the thematic have to allign and match between the worlds or can it be clashing thematics that work well together?

You want connective tissue. The different worlds can address the theme differently, but you need mechanical cohesion.

This is an old favorite build-around card of mine. The mini game of Flailing Soldier (turn one, first player) is fascinating and wonderful test case for testing both new and established players regarding card and strategy priorities, resource commitment, resource saving, risk assessment, and I think a few more skills not hitting me at the moment.

Where on the storm scale is "any player may activate this ability" type abilities?

I’d call it an 8.

Gulf of Mexico in Maps

As of me writing this, MapQuest shows GULF OF MEXICO, which is the correct name for a body of water named for Mexico. My knowledge of Mexico historically is a little dubious, and while I THINK most of Latin American ethnic background is a mix of Spanish, some Portuguese, a lot Native North and South American groups/ Empires (Mayans, Incans, Dine'), and dozens or hundreds of other people, that knowledge did stay my hand in calling a name change pure Colonizer Bullshit (as Mexico itself is a product of European colonizer and the name origin of Mexico I am unsure of), but I am certain the world does not need more American jingoism and/ or ethnocentrism and thus Gulf of Mexico should remain if for no other reason than that.

So... I'll be going back to MAPQUEST while Google and Apple boot lick. Waze seems to sidestep by showing (or not needing to show) bodies of water, as it is, in fairness, a driving-focused service.

I know I have, like, three followers, but to you three, I hope you enjoy this until I muster the discipline to get into small snippets of Magic the Gathering content that I derive joy from, interspersed with sharing things like this to try and display that we're not... alone.