One of the most fascinating relationships to think about is that between Martha Washington and Oney Judge. Martha, very homely, was first married off as a teen bride to an old man name Custis. He died and left her then-toddler son everything. Martha managed the fortune, inclusing 400+ enslaved people, and it grew.

The top 10 ways the US embargo of Cuba is exactly what narcissistic abusers do to partners who try to leave them:

A 🧵 Oh, the grandeur of American foreign policy! The blue suits, the wagging fingers, the rhetorical smoke rings blown with the smug precision of a carnival trickster. Nowhere is this phenomenon more on display than in the United States’ long-standing embargo against Cuba.

Here's what it was like checking into a hospital in Cuba, as an American. I waited three minutes. A nurse came to greet me. She hugged me and looked me in the eye and asked me if I felt well enough to walk. She wore an old fashioned white paper nurse hat. I followed her to an office. She handed me a small plastic tub containing new toiletries, a toothbrush, comb and towel in it. Like a hotel.

Alright, folks, let’s talk about two things we love in this country: drugs and money. Now, you might be wondering, "What do Mexican drug cartels and U.S. pharmaceutical companies have in common?" Well, pull up a chair, because you might be surprised. A tale of two drug dealers: One wears fancy cowboy boots and deals in illegal narcotics, the other wears a fancy suit and Thomas Pink shirts and sells you pills. But here’s the kicker—they’re both making a killing off of your misery. Literally.

Here's a brief but incomplete list of the things it is perfectly legal to put in your food in the USA because doing so makes rich people richer, but illegal to put in your food in Mexico because they make people sick:

A 🧵 Additives and Colorings

Synthetic Food Dyes: Certain artificial colorings like Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5, linked to hyperactivity and other health issues, are heavily restricted in Mexico while commonly used in the U.S.

Friend moved to Mérida, Mexico, 2 years ago, recently visited the US for 1st time since. What he noticed? 1. Food here tastes like chemicals. "Americans are being poisoned." 2. Everyone hates someone. "Everywhere you go, people are filled with hate." 3. Racism is everywhere. Before you decide to comment about how "dangerous" Mexico is, understand this: There is NOT ONE CITY in the USA that is safer than Mérida, a Mayan city which is the 2nd-safest city in North America, after Montreal. Your stereotypes will get you blocked immediately.

This is all nothing new for me. I was impeached as freshman class president, by the high school administration, in 1983, for organizing a sit-in at the mall to protest nuclear proliferation instead of hosting the bake sale the teacher advisor had suggested. At that same school that same year, I was shoved by Mr. Morrow, the algebra teacher, when I stopped standing for the pledge of allegiance, to protest the US invasion of Grenada and the US support of Apartheid in South Africa. I began ditching school to read Gogol & Tolstoy.

Within an hour of me posting my true views on the genocide on Gaza, Universal Content Productions called to inform me the studio will no longer be developing my novel, THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB, for a TV series.

This is the world we inhabit.

Please support my books. They are pretending there is some legal chain of title issue. But there isn't. They would never have signed the deal if there were. They magically pulled one out of their legal team within an hour of me saying I can't support any candidate that supports genocide anywhere.

The most fascinating thing?

HLA-B*15:01 is a genetic variant that protects people from being symptomatic with covid infection. They breeze through it. No symptoms

HLA-DRB1*11:04, on the same loci, damns people to the hell of Long Covid.

Miniscule shifts. Massive differences. These genes control, among other things, how a pathogen is seen by the immune system. Imagine the sars2 virus is a narcissistic abuser. HLA-B*15-01 is like, "Oh HELL nah," kicks his ass to the curb. HLA-DRB1*11:04 is like, "I dunno, I like a little danger. I can change him."

This is the most reliable genetic marker for Long Covid susceptibility they found. Lo and behold, I have it. Exactly as they described.
However, I do NOT have the second genetic risk factor, which might explain why my Long Covid, while debilitating, has been less severe than other people's.

This is live on 23&Me. Fwiw, by doing a shit-ton of science reading and diving into my own genomic sequences (in hooes of figuring out why I was still sick), I came VERY CLOSE to this same conclusion in 2022.

https://x.com/AlisaValdesRod1/status/1578592486557028352?t=1wPqmxfvls21vR3ZE5zTRA&s=19

I've written a biopic of classical composer Fanny Mendelssohn. I'm trying to find a producer and director now. Fanny lived in the early and mid 1800s, in Berlin. As research, I read books of letters she and her family sent to one another. A 🧵... They lived in a repressive and ominous time. Every member of the Mendelssohn household was a genius, talented, products of the enlightenment. Witty, compassionate, insightful. Fanny's father, Abraham...

Just saw an author friend's TikTok about the "notes" she got back on her latest book from copy editors at a big publisher. They are weeding out "ableist" DIALOGUE. Characters have to be allowed to speak like people, whether they offend people or not. Otherwise, it's unrealistic. If readers can't tell that characters aren't the author, we're fucked as a society. I'm writing a murder mystery. Why is the murder allowed, but having the murderer call someone "crazy" isn't? Because readers will now cancel writers if their villains say offensive shit.

Starting a thread on physical movement/elements that help keep my Long Covid in remission. This is not medical advice, just my story. It's part 4 of a 5-part protocol I created for myself. I have been symptom-free for 10 weeks. If I deviate from any part, symptoms return.

1/n Please note: I am aware of Post-Exertional Malaise in Long Covid. A recent and oft-cited study points to muscle abnormalities leading to worsening of symptoms with exercise in 25 people with LC compared to 21 people without LC.

But...

2/n

nature.com/articles/s4146…

Starting a thread on medications that help keep my Long Covid in remission. This is part 3 of a 5-part protocol I developed for myself. This is not medical advice, just my story. I'm symptom-free for 10 weeks now.

I will start with the medications & follow with rationale.

1/n I am not getting into dosages because that is highly unique, and no one should take any meds or supplements without medical supervision.

Daily: Xarelto, Famotadine, Cetirizine

Sometimes: Hydroxyzine, prednisone, Albuterol

Finished: Truvada, Metformin, Atorvastatin, Heparin
2/n

Starting a thread on supplements that help me manage Long Covid. This is part 2 of a 5-part protocol I developed over 4 years of trial and error. It is not medical advice for anyone. Just my story. Here's link to part 1, what I eat, if you missed it.

1/n

https://twitter.com/AlisaValdesRod1/status/1758894412246012304?t=HcA-DQ7EOwXgKfNmetaC3A&s=19

First, I will list the supplements. Then I will explain why I take them. I am not getting into dosages because those are highly unique to each person, and I am not asking anyone to emulate me. You should only take supplements under medical supervision.

2/n

Starting thread of how I eat in a day to keep my Long Covid in remission. Symptom-free for 9 weeks, I am not recovered. If I deviate from my protocol, symptoms return. This is not medical advice, just my story. 1/n First thing in the morning, I have a scoop (5 g) glutamine powder in a cup of warm filtered water. Let me explain why. 2/n

50 million Americans now have Long Covid. It isn't a prolonged recovery. It's a non-recovery caused by viral persistence that damages and dysregulates the immune system, leading to... 1/n chronic illness and pain, opportunistic new infections, new and accelerated cancer, heart disease, dementia, disability and premature death.

Anyone can get it. I have had it for 4 years. It has damaged multiple organs, given me... 2/n

Long Covid damaged my mitochondria and left my body unable to process and burn fat or create energy the way it did prior to my infection. This has led to weight gain and pre-diabetes, which in turn have begun to cause all the problems that go along with that...

🧵 1/6 ...including loss of kidney function, increased intracranial pressure (leading to cerebrospinal fluid leaks), and new artheriosclerosis that led to me having mini-strokes and a heart attack earlier this year.

2/6

People confused by Israel's genocidal behavior in light of the most recent (and other) genocides committed against the Jewish people might look to the history of the area we now refer to as Spain for an answer to the question: "With all they've been through, how could they?" 1/25 The region we now think of as Spain, once Catholic, was conquered by The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, under the leadership of Tariq ibn Ziyad, in 711 CE, initiating Muslim rein on the Iberian Peninsula, lasting about 800 years. 2/25

This quote, from the @nytimes review of the OPPENHEIMER film: "He served as director of a clandestine weapons lab built in a near-desolate stretch of Los Alamos, in New Mexico"...

It was inhabited by Hispanos. They were given less than 24 hr to leave. Their farms bulldozed. 1 Many of those families had been on the same land for centuries. The Oppenheimer's crew literally shot all their livestock through the head and bulldozed them. People fled on foot with nowhere to go. Land rich, money poor. Their land seized by the government. 2