Raise your hand if your first reaction is to be proud that your religion was included.

Jonathan Ladd@jonathanmladd.com · 7d ago

In violation of the First Amendment and a direct court order, the secret police at ICE spied on at least 5 Lutheran, Baptist, and Unitarian Churches, in an attempt to crush religious protests against them in the Upper Midwest. religionnews.com/2026/08/19/d...

#therapistsky - this looks like a good resource for therapist self-reflection as well.

TransActual@transactualuk.bsky.social · 7d ago

With the increasing rise in transphobia and trans antagonism, it can be hard to know whether a therapist practices in a way that respects and affirms your identity and experience. That’s why TACTT have developed a new trans affirming therapist checklist!

I’m so glad Bluesky is having the “NGOs are racist, colonialist, and imperialist” discourse while I’m in the airport flying home from my Red Cross deployment.

Why the vest has pockets: this was my everyday carry, plus my phone. Not pictured: good teabags from home, because I used the last two this afternoon. On some deployments I’d have a tube of sunscreen in my pocket as well, but I wasn’t working outdoors this time.

I’ve “out-processed” from my disaster service. My boss kindly had me switch to a hotel in Indianapolis tonight so I could book a morning flight home. This has been a grueling deployment. Mental health service is usually 10 days but this one was 14 and felt more than 40% longer. (1/2)

Something like 90% of Red Cross workers are volunteers, including almost everyone who deploys to a disaster zone (even the administration). It’s admirable, sure, but it also means our shelter clients experience transition after transition, and that’s hard. (1/2)

So, you can *know* about the rural suicide epidemic from your big-city psychology practice, but it hits real different when you’re deployed with the Red Cross to an impoverished rural area of Indiana. (1/2)

Yesterday was my ✨day off✨ and I spent it in or near my bed, except for a brief sojourn to pick up my laundry from the wash-and-fold and go to an Indian buffet. It was AWESOME. (Our standard is 12-hour shifts with a day off somewhere between day 6 and day 10.) Shockingly, much more energy today.

I’m really starting to feel the strain of 12-hour days that involve trying to be in two places at once. I’m supporting two locations that both have a ton of need. The mission is starting to pick up - there are 200 Red Crossers in Indiana, although we’re spread all through the state. (1/2)

This is the earliest I’ve ever shown up after a natural disaster; the floods hit on Thursday and I was on a plane Sunday. It’s been real different to be here while the operation is still standing up. This sign was new today. Shower and laundry options were new on Tuesday. We’re getting there.

Really good day of disaster work. I’ve been putting a lot of work into showing up and building relationships, and slowly people are starting to see me as a resource. I recognize I’m saying “slowly” when I’ve only been on the job four days, but I assure you each day has been a couple weeks long.

No fun Red Cross deployment stories or wise musings tonight. Talk amongst yourselves. I have removed all my role identifiers and taken myself out for a steak and a drink.

Twelve-hour shifts are more of a suggestion than a mandate in the Red Cross. I didn’t get back to my room until almost 10 tonight, but my reward was a gorgeous sunset. (It got even prettier, but not when I was in a place where I could safely pull over.) (1/3)

Two things I did today that count as mental health interventions: I went to Dollar General to buy adult coloring books and colored pencils, and I sourced clothes so a kid could go to school. I also spent time gently teasing elderly rural men, which is a valuable disaster response skill. (1/2)

For those of you who haven’t tagged along on one of my deployments before, there are a few things you won’t get to see: (1) pictures of people’s destroyed homes (2) pictures of Red Cross clients (3) the tragic personal stories of people I help

My Red Cross gig has me in Muncie, Indiana. Here’s the story I’ve been told: “This area used to just get level 2 disasters, but for the past few years it’s been level 4 after level 4. We just finished up a long, exhausting disaster response on Sunday, and 36 hours later these storms hit.” (1/3)

20hrs after getting the first text, I’m at my gate. I never check a bag on Red Cross service. I don’t bring my purse, which means I spend the first couple of days looking for it every time I stand up. I did bring my collapsible teakettle, no worries there.

I got a text from the Red Cross this afternoon asking me to fly out tomorrow for a two-week deployment at one of the many sites experiencing a climate-driven disaster right now. Follow along if you’re curious about frontline disaster response, and feel free to ask me anything. #therapistsky

What do you think is a normal number of different types of cocktail bitters to pack for a week at church camp? Three?

There is no bottom to hit, apparently.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie@audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 2mo ago

something important imo that isn't mentioned in the Reuters piece is the fact that, in response to the NAACP suing xAI, Trump's DOJ is trying to *take over the lawsuit as plaintiff* and "voluntarily dismiss" the case ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Speech pathology majors be like

Wiredferret!@wiredferret.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Good morning. Baz started the day off by informing me he was considering becoming a Lisp guy. They need to give him something hard to do soon.

Thank god for @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social . “pursuit of the elusive vote of the working class […] is too often used by middle-class pundits and politicians to justify centering the needs, desires, and prejudices of white men while insisting that this is a very progressive position to take.”

Pod Save Patriarchy (or Whatever That Sorry Platner Spectacle Was)

For at least a decade we have been told that this and that and the other thing must be tolerated in pursuit of the elusive vote of the working class or the white working class which often means the wh...

meditationsinanemergency.com

This, to me, was one of the more troubling things about the whole ordeal.

Lucinda River Lantern@thewesterhazys.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Other than the OBVIOUS - the secondary thing about Platner that sucked was how all the loudest voices in his favor were excited, gleeful even, to throw off the supposed limits of being a “ladies” party and embrace a “real” man and that shit tells you quite a lot about who these guys really are.

let this be a lesson to deal with your feelings of gender anxiety and masculine inadequacy with a hobby or therapy or something and not a high stakes senate election

First time I’ve made myself the classic Maryland summer cocktail called an Orange Crush. So delicious.

The DC fireworks won’t start until 10:30 or 11 and will make so much smoke that it will be hard to see the fireworks from the ground. NPS says with this many particulates people should wear an N95 or stay indoors. Really striking how much this event is not designed for *people.*

This book is excellent, y’all. Clear, well-argued, funny, and includes concrete suggestions of where to go from here.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie@audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 12mo ago

The right wing has spent decades & $$$$ trying to convince us that constitutional interpretation is only legitimate if it comes from white men in robes who went to Yale Law & use Ouija boards to communicate w the spirits of dead slaveholders do not be bullied by ghosts! tinyurl.com/originalismt...

Words cannot describe how crushed I feel, as a bisexual woman, to know that Jesse Waters doesn’t find my orientation to be a turn-on. Anyone have words of hope? Something I can live for? Coping resources?

FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Fox News' Jesse Watters discusses his distrust of bisexual women: The whole bisexual thing—guys don't get into that. When a girl is bisexual, we don't trust her. The ones I've met are super weird. To say you're bisexual, it's not a turn on.

Okay, this may be the most Smalltimore thing that’s ever happened. I got to page 157 of the book and they started quoting “activist Carolyn Tyson.” “Carolyn Tyson?!” I said. “I have her punch bowl!” #baltimore

Rivka@rivka-otter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#baltimore folks, I strongly recommend Emily Lieb’s book about the highway to nowhere. It’s short, smart, and packed with detail. It expanded on what I already knew about redlining, blockbusting, and predatory lending, filling out more of the whole picture. (1/2) www.emilylieb.com/road-to-nowh...