Björk Wearing Hussein Chalayan (1999) Photography: Inez Van Lamsweerde

𝖉𝖊𝖋𝖙𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖘 - 𝖘𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖉𝖆𝖞 𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙 (𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔)

the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.

Anis Mojgani, from “Here I Am”, Songs from Under the River: A Collection of Poetry

Background: for the past 2 years or so I’ve been dealing with some health issues, that have progressively been getting worse. I’ve been tired all the time, sleeping for 12 hours isn’t enough, weak, had pain in all my joints and muscles (top to bottom), when I get home from work I lay on the couch until I get the strength to get ready for bed, and my most noticeable symptom is weight gain. Over the last 2 years I’ve gain almost 100 lbs in bursts, meaning I’ll gain 50 lbs in 3 months, 2 months later I’ll gain 70 lbs in 4 months, etc. obviously this isn’t normal and I needed medical attention.

Experience with doctors: over the past 2 years I’ve gone to about 5 doctors for these issues. They’ve refused me blood tests because these are all “symptoms” of weight gain, completely ignoring that my weight gain is a symptom. I even had a doctor refuse to treat me until I lost 75 lbs, he literally said he would even give me antibiotics for an infection if I didn’t lose weight! The same guy also told me “of course your joints hurt, you’re getting fat.”

Then, about 6 months ago I started getting horrible, can’t get out of bed, crying all the time depression and decided to seak mental health services. My psychologist is wonderful (we’ve talked about fat phobia and she told me she knows sometimes bigger people are worried about talking over these issues with her because she’s tiny, but she always tries her best to reassure us she is not a bigot and wants to help no matter what - she’s the best). My psychologist thought I could use some meds, so she referred me to a psychiatrist, who is also amazing and probably the best doctor I’ve ever been to. We started talking about mental and physical symptoms and he asked me why I hadn’t been to a doctor about the symptoms I was having, I told him the story, he became visibly angry, and said those people shouldn’t be doctors if they don’t want to help people! The psychiatrist tested my blood for everything, I had to give 5 tubes. Last week, after 2 years, I got the results. It turns out I have a significant vitamin D deficency, which cause all of these symptoms, both physical and psychological. All I needed were supliments that you can buy anywhere. I’ve only been taking them a week and I already feel amazing, including less hungry, no sugar cravings, and way more energy.

There are good doctors who will treat you, unfortunately some of us have to live with horrible pain for years before we can find them. I can’t help thinking that if I had started at 100 lbs instead of 180, I wouldn’t have had these problems getting treatment.

elon musk did a nazi salute twice at the inauguration, and republicans are defending him.

trump revoked executive order 11246, which prohibited discrimination.

trump put all dei employees on leave to be fired.

trump blamed the dc plane crash on dei.

trump banned all lgbtq+ flags from being hung in government buildings.

trump ordered the pentagon to cancel celebration of mlk jr. day, black history month, women's history month, holocaust remembrance day, asian american pacific islander heritage month, lgbtq+ pride month, juneteenth, women's equality day, national hispanic heritage month, national disability employment awarenessmonth, and national american indian heritage month.

trump proposed removing all palestinians from gaza, turning the area into a vacation resort called “riviera of the middle east”.

trump rolled back biden’s executive order to lower prescription drug costs for people using medicare and medicaid.

trump rescinded the $35 cap on insulin, and prices are expected to rise to $1500 a month.

trump ordered the national institutes of health to cancel their review panels on cancer research.

trump ended the guidelines to prevent ai misuse. the guidelines prevent many things, but notably it prevents production of ai child pornography.

when sean hannity asked trump about the economy, he said “i don’t care”, after campaigning with the economy as his main talking point.

trump has withdrawn the us from the world health organization.

trump is ordering health agencies to stop reporting on bird flu and halt publications of scientific reports.

trump has pardoned over 1500 people who stormed the capitol on january 6th.

trump changed denali back to mount mckinley.

trump signed an executive order to rename the gulf of mexico to gulf of america.

trump shut down cbp one, an app which granted legal entry to 1 million+ immigrants.

trump is allowing ice raids at churches and elementary schools.

trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the us-mexico border.

trump signed an executive order to expand the use of the death penalty.

trump disbanded the school safety board that works to prevent school shootings. it was comprised of survivors, educators, and gun violence prevention advocates and formed after the school shooting in parkland.

trump withdrew from the paris climate act.

trump revoked all protections for transgender troops in the us military.

trump rescinded executive orders made by biden that benefited and protected women, lgbtq+ people, black americans, hispanic americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, and pacific islanders.

trump is attempting to make it legal to refuse to hire or fire pregnant women.

multiple state legislators are drafting bills to allow the punishment for abortion to be the death penalty.

trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted under the freedom of access to clinic entrances (FACE) act for their anti-abortion activism, including oftentimes violent protests at abortion clinics.

trump signed an executive order allowing deportation of foreign students who they believe express support for hamas or hezbollah.

trump announced that the us government will from here on out only recognize male and female as sexes. intersex is not legally recognized anymore.

the trump administration paused health communications to prevent the fda from announcing food recalls.

andy ogles drafted a constitutional amendment to allow trump to be president for a third term.

the us senate confirmed russell vought, one of the main authors of project 2025, will lead the white house budget office.

andy biggs introduced a bill to abolish osha and completely eliminate federal workplace safety protections.

georgia republican congressman mike collins called for the deportation of new jersey born mariann budde, the bishop who urged trump to “have mercy” on the lgbtq+ community and immigrants during a service at the national cathedral.

six states (arizona, idaho, iowa, kansas, mississippi, and north dakota) are planning on challenging obergefell v. hodges, which would end same-sex marriage nationwide. about a dozen more states have representatives are also considering filing similar resolutions.

amazon revoked protections for lgbtq+ and black employees.

the cdc has removed their hiv prevention page.

the united states state department has officially changed its “travelers with special conditions” page which previously said “lgbtqi+ travelers” to “lgb travelers”, completely getting rid of the tqi+.

every single republican told us we were overreacting. trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025 yet continues implementing details outlined in it. not a single person has the right to tell us we’re being dramatic anymore.

hope “cheaper eggs and gas” was worth it.

EDIT: i removed the “trump refused to swear on the bible” point because it was being taken as me being an offended christian. i’m not christian, im agnostic. the reason i included it in the first place is because he’s the first president in history to ever refuse to swear on ANYTHING. meanwhile his “conservative christian” followers had no issue with this, and decided to continue to scramble for excuses instead of admitting he may not be as religious as he claims he is. i figured taking that point out entirely is probably better than filling this with an explanation in the middle of the other important issues.

Yo, correct me if I am wrong please, but didn't Hitler rise to power because he promised to fix the German economy and people really liked that so they looked past everything else he was doing??? Like exactly what's happening in America right now???

So many people said they voted for Trump, put a truly evil person in power, because he said he'd fix the economy, and a little voice in my head is going, "Isn't that what happened with fucking Hitler??"

But I've seen no one point that out so maybe I'm miss remembering???????

The Notebook (2004) dir. Nick Cassavetes

Timeless Cool