Ra-ra-rasputin has ra-ra-resurected

You may like the book Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. It includes three indepth cases studies of tactics used by resistance movements.

You can either start with a general Internet search for doctors and read their reviews and check if they accept your insurance. Or start with your insurance company’s list of providers (which may be out of date) and then go read reviews for doctors. If possible, I highly recommend non-profit/university-affiliated doctors offices, and especially stay away from anything owned by private equity…they try to squeeze as much money out of patients and their employees as possible.

In the US, doctors aren’t allowed to share info about their patients with anyone without the patient’s permission. However, there are lists out there for people who try to circumvent controlled substance laws.

Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.

Why Civil Resistance Works by Eric Chenoweth & Maria Stephan

Check if your area has a Weed Warriors group/organization. They go around removing invasive plants that are smothering native plants. I find it fun and get a satisfaction of having done something nice while exercising.

If your area doesn’t have that, there’s most likely opportunities to volunteer with hiking trail maintenance at nearby state parks. Or just go hiking, start small and bring water!

I look at independent randomized controlled trials, not anecdotal evidence. Here’s a recent trial from Finland that didn’t have industry funding. They compared low-nicotine vaping vs varenicline alone vs placebo. Both varenicline and vaping resulted in about 40% of people quitting at 12 weeks, and 20% of placebo group. So add nicotine replacement therapy and behavioral therapy on top of varenicline and the rates should go higher. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies sell most of the FDA-approved cessation therapies, and in comparison the big tobacco companies sell vapes.

Check out SmokeFree.gov! It has great free resources that are science based. Quitting smoking is the number thing someone who smokes can do for their health.

The most effective methods to quit smoking include varenicline (aka Chantix), FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies (gum, patch, lozenge, inhaler, etc), and behavioral therapy. Combining all of these therapies in a clinical trials results in the most people quitting.

No vape is FDA-approved as a cessation therapy, because no company has applied. There have been some small academic run trials, which tend to show a decrease in smoking, but continued nicotine addiction. Probably because vapes have much higher nicotine content than FDA-approved therapies. While vapes expose people to a lot less carcinogens than smoke, there are some carcinogens and nicotine itself is harmful to vascular and mental health. So if the evidence-based methods don’t work, completely switching to vaping would be less harmful.

Why are you interested in the keto diet? Are there specific goals you’re trying to accomplish? It’s a tricky diet that is best done with medical supervision.

I highly recommend Harvard’s Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition information. They use accessible language and have recipes too!

Agreed! I feel like public discourse often forgets these efficiencies when talking about UBI. Include social security and education financial assistance and the numbers really add up.

The COVID-era stimulus checks and PPP “loans” proved its possible to provide a package this large, would just need to offset the spending with increased taxes on the wealthy to make it sustainable long term.

I have monthly recurring donations to several charities, I guess you could count those as subscriptions of a sort:

Subscription to rainforests: Coalition for Rainforest Nations (the operate globally with indigenous and local communities to do everything possible to protect rainforests and reforest areas)

Independent journalism subscription: ProPublica (no paywall investigative news organization that has really hard hitting reporting that holds corporations accountable)

Subscription to science-based political advocacy: Union of Concerned Scientists

Subscription to open information: Wikipedia

Subscriptions to a healthy community: Local food bank, urban green space advocates, and housing support orgs

Totally agree it’s important to engage all levels of government. But only the US Senate has the authority over nominations

Awesome!

It’s highly variable, and yes I absolutely agree money in politics is a big problem. I do have a direct experience where reaching out to my Senators led to them aggressively and successfully opposing a provision in a law that would have had a big impact on me. Don’t want to dox myself, but this real change to a bill made a huge difference to me and many others. So it is possible to make an impact.

I’m for larger structural changes, but I disagree that rolling over and allowing fascists to get their way in the current system is acceptable. Let’s do both

Why not use multiple tactics? It’s not all or nothing and yes I’m certain Senate offices care about hearing from constituents, far more effective than simply doom scrolling.

These tactics are not always a guarantee to have things go your way, but they increase the chances. For phone calling, numbers of people calling in matter the most, particularly at strategic times, including: right after big announcements, right before a committee vote, right before a floor vote. It’s also more effective before dominant narratives have arisen around a topic and there is uncertainty on how things could shake out.

Thought I’d add that mass phone calls are a tactic used by the NRA and other powerful lobby groups. Getting a lot of their group’s members to voice their opinion is the key to their success…perhaps to the point of making an office fearful of the backlash via phone calls for going against them.

Relevant John Oliver segment

Seconding Center for American Progress. There are also a ton of issue specific organizations and professional societies that are non partisan, but focus on improving policies that tend to be left leaning. For example Planned Parenthood is technically a nonpartisan nonprofit, but many other health or environment related non-profits have a policy team that tries to advance their cause the best they know how. Being nonpartisan means they aren’t limited to speaking with one side or the other and can keep a drum beat going on their issues regardless of the political winds. These orgs could use your donations now more than ever.

There is plenty of space for passengers and storage. We traded in a Ford Fusion sedan and the Ioniq 5 has much more storage space than that did. One of the long road trips I mentioned was a camping trip. We were able to bring two big tote bins, a big cooler, a canopy tent for the picnic table, folding chairs, sleeping bags, air mattresses, extra blankets, and two dogs on the back seat. As a bonus, we got an adapter that plugs into the charging port and can power a hotplate for boiling water faster than a camp fire (also serves as back up power for my house if the power goes out, can run an extension cord down to the freezer). There is a small frunk, we mostly use that for emergency supplies.

I’m above average height and can fully extend my legs in both front seats and never have issues with head clearance. I like the space between the two front seats as well being mostly open concept as opposed to the closed spaces in Teslas. Feels spacious for every day driving and on road trips can fit a soft sided cooler as well as a food bag.