My Post Grad Story @mypostgradstory - Tumblr Blog

“Let’s begin here: Biden and Democrats aren’t just in a tenuous position when it comes to their congressional majorities, it’s an unprecedented position. The Senate is divided 50-50, and Democrats have just a nine-vote margin in the House. Compare that with the majorities President Barack Obama had in 2009: 60-to-40 in the Senate, 257-to-178 in the House. Or President Bill Clinton in 1993: 57-to-43 in the Senate, 258-to-176 in the House. In fact, in the entire history of his party, going all the way back to its founding in the early 19th century and the presidency of Andrew Jackson, no Democratic president has come into office with congressional majorities as small as Biden’s. Not one. Given that fact, it’s almost a miracle that Biden has managed to sign any legislation at all. Now, let’s consider how progressives have operated since the lead-up to the 2020 election. Is it a story of progressives dragging Democrats toward an untenable and unpopular left-wing agenda? Was there a brutal internal conflict over policy that progressives won? Not at all. The party has unquestionably moved left — but not as far as the progressives have wanted. And it did so with the full cooperation of the party’s centrists, on all but some relatively minor issues around things such as the deduction for state and local income taxes. Right now, the focus of Democratic disappointment is two voting rights bills and the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. Have they failed to become law because the public rose up in disgust against them? No. There has been no popular revolt against voting rights legislation or BBB. All the latter’s key provisions are popular with the public, many overwhelmingly so. The problem has come down to two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have decided to stand athwart their party’s agenda.”

— Don’t blame the left for Joe Biden’s problems

mostlysignssomeportents

Resource Generation: rich kids who are determined to give away their parents' money to make America more fair and equal

Resource Generation is an organization of young people who inherited enough to be in the top decile of America’s wealth distribution, who are determined to give away those inheritances in ways that redistribute wealth and make the country more fair and equal. Their mission: “As part of a coordinated strategy to systematically redistribute wealth and repair the harm created by wealth extraction, RG asks our members to take bold action with the resources currently under our and our families’ control, moving toward greater alignment with humanity and the planet.””

The organization has 15 chapters of 18-35 year olds, and the chapters coordinate the dispersal of all or almost all inherited wealth and/or excess wealth to social justice movements.“

To avoid the trap of philanthropic laundering of their families’ reputations (as described in Anand Giridharadas 2018 book “Winners Take All”) the group focuses on donations to organizations that empower marginalized communities to decide how the money will be spent, rather than those that allow donors to direct the use of the funds.

The group attracts a lot of skepticism, but Norman Vanamee’s profiles of some of its New York members makes them sound like people who had the weird luck to be born into wealth, and the honest self-assessment to recognize that they just got lucky, and that their luck came at others’ expense, and that something must be done about it.

https://boingboing.net/2019/10/03/tony-benns-legacy.html

thehubby

With Stephen Hawking’s passing, today is a sad day for science. But amongst all his praise and achievements in the fields of physics, for me personally his biggest achievement was making a grand, full life despite the terrible misfortune of being diagnosed with ALS. It would have been easy to become a recluse, embittered with the hand he’d been dealt, a brilliant misanthrope. But this was a man who maintained his sense of humor and refused to be mentally beaten. Three years ago, he told One Direction fans that the theory of alternate universes could provide a reality where Zayn Malik was still in the band. He conducted an interview with John Oliver where his factual, deadpan delivery was funnier than his interviewer, managing the cheekiest grins as he did so. And let us not forget that Stephen Hawking is the only person to have ever portrayed themselves in a Star Trek episode (Next Generation, “Descent, Part 1″), where he appeared alongside actors portraying Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton, whom he proceeded to defeat in poker.

Hawking’s observations on black hole radiation, string theory, alternate universes and artificial intelligence are things that will probably forever remain beyond most of us. But we could all learn a thing or two from his humanity.

staff

The passing of Stephen Hawking is a devastating loss for humankind. He’s shaped the way so many of us think about space, about life, and about the universe. If you’re grieving today, we understand. May we suggest you click on the links in the post above? Reflecting on his mammoth wit, charm, and intelligence might make you feel a little bit better.

Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking.

I'm not cut out to be a teacher.

So I explained to my mom a Dx from a psychiatrist today. The psych says it's an adjustment disorder with anxiety. What's an adjustment disorder? When your body goes through too much at one time to process it all. So it takes longer than desired to ... adjust. So what does she say to do? She says the best treatment is a prescription of weekly therapy, medication won't do what therapy can. And what will a therapist do? Just talk to you? Partly, yes. And give tools and skills to well ... process the anxiety causing things. Okaaay...?

When people don't understand the basic principles of therapy...I just can't.

And it doesn't help that I don't seem to have a lot of patience to explain small things to adults when I feel that adults should get it.

fadiabh23

mypostgradstory

this rainbow includes pretty much all the things.

#things that matter #rights

orgasmic-humor

This is the funniest and saddest thing I’ve seen in so long

shiiimmer

i think it’s funny how men use myths of female inadequacy to cover for their own shortcomings.

like how women are supposed to be horrible drivers, when four out of five serious or fatal crashes in new york are caused by male drivers and research shows that young men (18-24) have a tendency to take high risks, over-evaluate their driving skill and disrespect the rules.

or how “women are stupid”, especially with regards to the debate of the wage gap, where men often claim that women earn less because they are less capable, when there are more women studying in higher educations, women are less likely to drop out of higher educations and are more likely to end up with a better degree than men.

or how men claim that women talk too much, when research shows that men talk 65% of the time within the family and are more likely to talk in long monologues, whereas women more often offer commentary. Men also are more likely to interrupt; in fact, during a political debate, the former (female) minister of state in denmark was criticized in the media and made fun of for interrupting the current (male) minister of state too often - study found that he had interrupted her 28 times, whereas she only interrupted him 13 times.

or literally uncountable other scenarios. the truth is, male pride today is so inflated and builds on so many lies that it would be laughable - hadn’t it been for the fact that these things affect women’s lives every day. these jokes mean that white women earn 78 cents to a white man’s dollar. they mean that women can be ridiculed even for the things they haven’t done. they mean that women, as a gender, are assigned less worth even in the fields where they succeed. they mean that women, as a gender, are devalued and disrespected in every aspect of their professional and private lives.

vancouverfoodmonster-deactivate

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean mental illness don’t exist.

mypostgradstory

This is so important that I can't even.

#mental health #mental illness

micdotcom

Watch: President Jimmy Carter tells Oprah America is no longer a democracy, it’s an oligarchy — and he’s not wrong.

#preach #Jimmy Carter #oprah winfrey

thebeastpack

Works Amazingly

mypostgradstory

No really. Do it, and focus on the physical sensation of the air filling your lungs slowly. Then on the feeling of your lungs deflating as you exhale. Then continue as you observe your limbs, starting with your fingers and toes and working your way to your head/neck. Focus on relaxing them, maybe alternating between flexing and relaxing if you have time. You will be super chill, mindful of your body and the control you and only you have over it, and feel a little more balanced and ready to face challenges with a clear head.

#mindfulness #progressive muscle relaxation #anxiety #stress

rewiredotnews

“No matter how much you shame and scare them, women will still come for abortions. Pretty recently I had this young woman, 15 maybe, and we did the procedure. I said, ‘Your uterus is empty, the procedure is over. I have to go check to make sure we got everything,’ and I left the room to examine the tissue. Then I came back and told her, ‘Everything’s fine, your uterus is healthy.’ And she said, ‘So … when are you going to use the steel ball?’ I picked my jaw up off the floor and said, ‘Steel ball?’ She said, ‘Well, I went to the crisis pregnancy center and they told me you’re going to put a steel ball that’s covered with sharp blades into my uterus and twirl it around.’ And this kid still came! I was thinking, How did you ever make yourself walk in the office believing I was going to do that?”

The First Legal Abortionists Tell Their Stories – The Cut (via rhrealitycheck)

Anti-abortionist scare tactics, all alive and thriving today. It's unethical and immoral to traumatize a young lady with such lies when she is already in a vulnerable state. And they call the pro-choicers the scum of the earth.

#pro-life #pro-choice #How about pro-it's-an-individual-woman's-body-not-yours-so-back-off-and-let-her-make-an-informed-and-thoughtful-decision

goodticklebrain

First of all, I apologize for this post being a bit late. I was JUST ABOUT to upload it when the internet at my house cut out. This should not have been a surprise, given all the various technical difficulties in the US yesterday…

Anyways… today’s comic deals with one of the more interesting topics in contemporary Shakespeare studies: Original Pronunciation!

O.P. and the amazing ways in which it has been reconstructed, deserve a lot more space than six stick-figure comic panels, but hey, barbarically reducing things of great literary and scholarly merit to their bare bones is kind of my “thing”. At the very least, now you know that when Hamlet tries to rhyme “move” and “love”, it’s not actually him pretending to be mad.

The super-linguist in question is David Crystal, whose praises I repeatedly sung. In his O.P. endeavors he has been ably assisted by his son, Ben Crystal, an actor who, armed with Shakespeare’s O.P., can make the prologue of Romeo and Juliet sound sexier and more piratical than you could have ever imagined. If you don’t believe, just take a listen:

Seriously. That’s gorgeous. Here’s a longer video, featuring Papa Crystal and Ben at the Globe:

It’s easy to get snobbish about Shakespeare and to believe it works only when performed in the elegantly trained received pronunciation of an Ian McKellen or a Benedict Cumberbatch. But, as the Crystals point out, received pronunciation is even further away from Shakespeare’s original accent than American are from it.

Shakespeare can be performed in any accent. English, Welsh, Scottish, American, Canadian, Singaporean, I don’t care. His words still have immense power. However, when you hear it spoken in O.P., you really get a sense of what it must have been like for those first groundlings at the first Globe Theatre.

goodticklebrain

So, this old post has picked up about 700 new notes in the past couple days, which makes me happy because the world needs (a) more appreciation of OP, and (b) more appreciation of the Magnificent Linguistic Crystals. Here, let me add on a couple more links:

Passion in Practice - Theatre company founded by Ben Crystal, does awesome OP productions. Or at least I assume they’re awesome, but they haven’t come on tour to Michigan yet. What’s up with that, Ben?

Original Pronunciation - Site run by the Crystals, including tons of great resources for people who want to learn OP.