That’s What Always Happens In Capitalist Societies. They Say That If You Don’t Want To Be Poor, There’s

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.

The cruelty of racist white men.

Amen

i think star wars only works because george lucas was so much better at casting actors than he was terrible at writing dialogue and giving acting directions. like for the OT, he found a pot dealing fuckboy, a scion of hollywood royalty, and the kindest young man around, and was like "great, roll camera," and when they asked, "how do you want this acted?" he just looked at them blankly like "acting?? why do you need to act?? just stand there and be you, and say the lines, fast and intense, thank you..." and somehow their charisma did in fact carry the film.

I own and love this game already. Feels really close to the kind of concept that could be elevated to something else for Gamechanger or another show.

🎲 TONIGHT! The series premiere of Parlor Room launches on Dropout at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

Join host Becca Scott to play Wavelength with guests: Paul Robalino, Demi Adejuyigbe, Raphael Chestang, Jordan Myrick, and Jess Ross.

Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it

When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.

Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.

I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.

Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.

All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.

But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)

Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.

Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.

The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.

Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.

Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.

This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.

Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.

Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.

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Attention Pennsylvania voters!

Senator Bob Casey’s race is now at a margin of 0.53%.

An automatic recount in PA is triggered with a margin of 0.5%. That’s a difference of 0.03% or a little over 2,000 votes. We need to make sure every ballot is counted here, and there’s thousands of uncounted ballots right now due to voter error.

Did you mail in a ballot? Check to see it was accepted here:

If it says anything other than accepted/counted/etc, your ballot needs your attention. A mistake in filling it out means that your ballot will not count unless you “cure” it. Check your county’s curing policies:

ACLU Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Counties' Notice-and-Cure Policies

Through Right-To-Know requests and analysis of SURE system data, the ACLU of Pennsylvania compiled the "notice and cure" policies of the com

See full instructions for curing by county here.

You have until November 12 to cure your ballot in PA.

Do you know someone who mailed in a PA ballot? Please pass these links on to them. You may be the difference between their vote counting or not in a super close race.

Everyone else, you can help PA voters cure their ballots. If you live in Pennsylvania, you can help canvass in your county (see links in this thread). If you are in another state, you can sign up to call voters and help them cure by phone.

Want to help another state? Sign up for a shift through November 19.

I have an enormous amount of ... Rage and frustration over the entire job search and career coach process I'm in the midst of after being laid off with a third child due in about ten days time.

Can someone just please validate that resumes, cover letters, building a personal fucking brand, polishing your LinkedIn ass dimensions and whatever other shit they ask is fucking performative peacocking to try and convince an algorithm and some rando whose preferences I don't actually know that I can do a task I am 100% capable of doing but I have to hope someone's dipwad familial connection hasn't already been promised the role and the job listing is not purely for legal reasons?

Like please tell me I'm mostly right and even if I'm not 100% correct, agree that the entire system sucks and my feelings ARE 100% understandable. Can anyone jump on that train for me?