Latest Posts by raggedcoyote - Page 13

i would stand here with some of you

I don’t know how to explain this well…but I’m 30 years old and I feel like I’ve had to ‘sacrifice’ my entire adult life to unprecedented times, the pandemic and daily anxiety over hateful politicians and whatever rights they want to take away on any given day and I’m just so fucking tired

Gerard du Bois

don’t let anyone on this website call you cringe they literally have a tumblr account

this blog hates donald trump

Look how many people hate him. I’m pretty damn happy about that 😁😁😁😁😁😁

The Captivating of The Gard, by Gail Wedgosky (American artist born in 1955).

coyote

If you see this on your dashboard, reblog this, NO MATTER WHAT and all your dreams and wishes will come true.

New gender-neutral bathroom just dropped

Mister Rogers

CHAPPELL ROAN • 67th Annual Grammy Awards (February 2, 2025)

Lady Gaga winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Die With A Smile” at the 67th GRAMMY Awards

what a beautiful day to remember that trans people of color exist and deserve better

An ad for your deepest desires :)

Calling Your Congresspersons

Not my post but please feel free to copy and paste to share with others

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FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR ANGER INTO ACTION, here's some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator. Re-posting from a friend of mine:

There are two things that we should be doing all the time right now, and they're by far the most important things.

You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.

1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.

2) But those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.

YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:

2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).

Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code. She said that Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.

So, when you call:

A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).

B) Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter — even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity.

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.

From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible.org has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.

Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.

**If you want to share this, please copy and paste so it goes beyond our mutual friends.**

I have added the following websites:

1. Find your federal and state legislators: Use reps.fyi (directs you to https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/ )

2. Use scripts from 5Calls.org

3. Use scripts from the Americans of Conscience Checklist (updates every 2 weeks) https://americansofconscience.com/checklist/

4. Join a local or virtual group at https://indivisible.org/

if you recently bought marketside broccoli from walmart, throw it out

https://www.wsaz.com/app/2025/02/03/broccoli-florets-sold-walmart-recalled-after-being-considered-deadly/

We're in another cold snap so here's a puppy enrichment activity that specifically targets impulse control and marking (gundog def: watching an object fall and marking where it fell in your mind).

Lots of dogs can benefit from eye-tracking skills, where they watch an object move and estimate a trajectory. Lots of dogs learn this from regular fetch with a ball but it's a skill you can foster even if you don't play fetch. Obviously this is most beneficial for working retrievers but any dog that enjoys using their eyes can learn the game.

For this game I'm using large kibbles, a patterned rug, and about 15ft of space. I set Rory up by my side, toss a kibble in an archive, let it bounce and come to a stop on the floor, and then release Rory to get the kibble. Some key points:

Work on impulse control separately, if your dog can't wait for the kibble to fall without rushing for it, work on that first. You can use a platform as an easier step towards steadiness if you need to.

Use something big enough to bounce or roll so the dog can practice eye-tracking it. If you use something small, it might get lost in their field of view.

Try to do this on a rug or floor with obstacles so your dog has to watch where it falls. One kibble on a bare floor is easy to pick out even if they're not paying attention, and the point of the game is to pay attention.

Don't ask for eye contact during this game, you want to release before they take their eyes off the kibble.

It's a simple game to work puppy brains and also run back and forth across the floor a few times.

just learned about something incredibly wonderful

It’s that month again folks! Happy February.

Shoutout to the U.S. embassies in Austria, Chile, India, and South Korea who have directly ignored orders from the Trump administration in flying the pride flag

i love this illustration i'm losing my mind

look at her. go crazy aaaaaa go stupid aaaaaa

Riot is home safe after surgery!