World Health Day

Yesterday was World Health Day, and it’s more important than ever to pay attention to our health and the health of those we care about, not just on World Health Day, but everyday.

The United States is losing a lot of standing in the world as we gut the CDC and the FDA, the NIH and HHS, and it will take time for someone else to take up the mantle of research, development, and whatever else we are quickly dismantling. The alphabet soup of our departments are more than initials, acronyms, and governmental “overreach.” They are what keeps our food from poisoning us. They are what checks on the viability of vaccines; that prevents the next pandemic; that cures cancer.

Visit my new page: Election Connection – Resistance and visit the first table where there are resources for knowing what health issues are going on in the world. Follow Canada Health Watch and get their weekly emails – at least it’s something. As for the title, for anyone who thinks that health isn’t political hasn’t been paying attention.

Please add your own reliable links in the comments. We are a village, and we are responsible for one another even if one quarter of the country doesn’t believe that.

Election Connection 2025: Day 634

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Inauguration of the former and next President is in thirteen days, and the mid-term elections are in six hundred thirty-four days, and many of us will be counting the months, weeks, days, and hours until that election day.

We must resist in all our legal capacity, and we must be loud.

My two strongest focuses, in addition to holding onto our democracy by any legal means necessary, are combating antisemitism and trans-hate. Some of it is transphobia, but the majority of what I’m witnessing is ignorance and hate, and we all need to be allies.

The graphic below is useful in vetting news sources. In the coming weeks, this is going to be more difficult with opinion pieces masquerading as facts, with declarative statements masquerading as already existing in law. Two examples of this are:

The media continually calling Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel the next Secretary of Defense and Director of the FBI, respectively. They are not, and they will NOT be until they are confirmed by the United States Senate. They are merely nominees; not even designees yet.

The second is the acquiescing to calling Musk and Ramaswamy as any kind of official and calling DOGE anything other than wishful thinking. A new government department just doesn’t magically appear without Congressional approval, and these two numb nuts have no position within the government. They may still, but not yet.

We must not obey in advance.

Families Belong Together

Some Twitter resources for today as well as throughout this election year. None of these accounts are affiliated with the federal government or official accounts of the departments they talk about.

Immigration

Jacob Soboroff (journalist covering the border crisis)

RAICESTEXAS (helping reunite families)

Alternative Dept. Homeland Security

Alternative Homeland Sec

Ireallydocare.com (not a Twitter, but a list of non-profits helping (also listed below))

Al Otro Lado – serves indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Tijuana & Los Angeles

https://www.alotrolado.org

The Florence Project – providing legal & social services to detained immigrants in Arizona

https://firrp.org/

Neta – a Latinx-run progressive media platform telling the stories of what’s happening on the border

https://www.netargv.com

Innovation Law Lab – working in immigrant detention centers and hostile judicial districts; keeping the definitive list of kids being held

https://www.innovationlawlab.org

Fuerza Del Valle – organizing workers & immigrant communities in the Rio Grande Valley

http://www.fuerzadelvalle.org/

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights – promoting the best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children

https://www.theyoungcenter.org/

We Belong Together – women for common sense immigration policies

https://www.webelongtogether.org/

United We Dream – the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country

https://unitedwedream.org/

Womens Refugee Commission – advocating for the rights and protection of women, children, and youth fleeing violence and persecution

https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/

ACLU – fighting attacks through the legal system

http://www.aclu.org

Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) – protecting unaccompanied children who enter the US immigration system alone to ensure that no child appears in court without an attorney.

https://supportkind.org/

Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project – providing asylum seekers with legal aid and community support across the country

https://asylumadvocacy.org/

Human Rights First – helping refugees obtain asylum in the U.S.

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/

La Union del Pueblo Entero – founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, a community union that works in the Rio Grande Valley from the grassroots up

https://lupenet.org/

Committee for the Protection of Journalists

Indivisible Team

Rogue Senior WH Advisor

Alternative National Parks Service

Rogue NASA

Alternative Forest Service

Alternative EPA

Alternative DoJ

Alternative NOAA

Alternative National Parks Service

EPA Facts

Ungagged EPA

Not Alt World

Election Reflection – Self-Care

Here are a few links to help you be politically active but also take care of yourself. If you have any links or self care suggestions, please add them in the comments. We are here for each other; now more than ever.

How to Avoid Being Psychologically Destroyed by Your Newsfeed

How to Call your Reps when you have Social Anxiety

How to Get Out of the Cycle of Outrage in a Trump World

How to Stay Outraged without Losing Your Mind

Self-Care Ideas for a Trump Presidency

Watching Janelle Monae’s Women’s March Speech is your Self Care Homework for the Day

What to do when you’re so Overwhelmed by the Trump Presidency

Two of my Own:

Let’s Make a Coping Skills Toolbox

Make a Self-Care Thing

And this helpful graphic: