Christa (she/her)
@wordrascal.bsky.social
Author: #journalism, #essays, #fiction. Survivor of corporate life, self employment, & CPTSD, not necessarily in that order; n00b #civilservant exploring #emergencymanagement. Introverted ADHD'er. I stan #raccoons.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
My latest reprinted in @truthout.org. "Libraries represent the kind of infrastructure progressive leaders should fortify and defend at all costs, especially in this moment. Instead, libraries in Chicago are being hollowed out, while the police budget remains sacrosanct."
In the Fight Against Fascism, Libraries Should Be Defended — Not Defunded
Libraries represent the kind of infrastructure progressive leaders must fortify at all costs, especially in this moment.
truthout.org
December 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
My latest reprinted in @truthout.org. "Libraries represent the kind of infrastructure progressive leaders should fortify and defend at all costs, especially in this moment. Instead, libraries in Chicago are being hollowed out, while the police budget remains sacrosanct."
Peak corporate cringe is Sallie Mae emailing "Congratulations! You're invited to apply for a student loan" like taking on crippling debt is some grand goal to aspire to. Do the marketing types approving this shite really not know how ghoulish this sounds, or did they get laid off / replaced by AI??
December 4, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Peak corporate cringe is Sallie Mae emailing "Congratulations! You're invited to apply for a student loan" like taking on crippling debt is some grand goal to aspire to. Do the marketing types approving this shite really not know how ghoulish this sounds, or did they get laid off / replaced by AI??
"Don’t force your poem to be nice or proper or normal or happy if it does not want to be."
So if my essay is #ADHD AF making it hard for NTs to follow then... I should still let it be ADHD AF?
Greatly comforting but also I have concerns abt my reach & thus income potential. #writerproblems
So if my essay is #ADHD AF making it hard for NTs to follow then... I should still let it be ADHD AF?
Greatly comforting but also I have concerns abt my reach & thus income potential. #writerproblems
“Wherever life can grow, it will. It will sprout out, and do the best it can.”
Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks, who left us 25 years ago today, with her wisdom on vulnerability as strength and her advice to writers www.themarginalian.org/2017/04/19/g...
Remembering Gwendolyn Brooks, who left us 25 years ago today, with her wisdom on vulnerability as strength and her advice to writers www.themarginalian.org/2017/04/19/g...
Gwendolyn Brooks on Vulnerability as Strength and Her Advice to Writers
“Wherever life can grow, it will. It will sprout out, and do the best it can.”
www.themarginalian.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:23 AM
"Don’t force your poem to be nice or proper or normal or happy if it does not want to be."
So if my essay is #ADHD AF making it hard for NTs to follow then... I should still let it be ADHD AF?
Greatly comforting but also I have concerns abt my reach & thus income potential. #writerproblems
So if my essay is #ADHD AF making it hard for NTs to follow then... I should still let it be ADHD AF?
Greatly comforting but also I have concerns abt my reach & thus income potential. #writerproblems
Listen, I love the little boogers, but this is troubling for all sorts of reasons. Chiefly, they're too smart & easily bored to make good pets. They're like toddlers on speed. And, good lord, if they go from shorter snouts to opposable thumbs? We're seriously fucked.
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals
City Raccoons Are Evolving to Look More Like Pets
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals
www.scientificamerican.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Listen, I love the little boogers, but this is troubling for all sorts of reasons. Chiefly, they're too smart & easily bored to make good pets. They're like toddlers on speed. And, good lord, if they go from shorter snouts to opposable thumbs? We're seriously fucked.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
I call this a technology of coercion because it is almost entirely an upper-elite phenomenon being forced on unaccepting organizations, which frames how I approach “might as well learn how to use it” discourses
A study by Dayforce shows 87% of executives use AI for work, compared to 57% of managers and just 27% of employees.
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
I think this explains the massive disconnect we see in how CEOs talk about AI versus everyone else. It also raises the question of how useful it truly is for frontline work?
Execs are embracing AI more than their employees are, new research suggests
Research from HR software company Dayforce suggests that executives are leaning into AI far more than their employees.
www.businessinsider.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I call this a technology of coercion because it is almost entirely an upper-elite phenomenon being forced on unaccepting organizations, which frames how I approach “might as well learn how to use it” discourses
I worry constantly that the writing I'm engaging in these days, post-burnout & post-hiatus, is still "too ADHD" for people to be interested in reading, & yet.
My latest: post-disaster community-building for survivors of trauma, via 3 books: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-fema-goes...
My latest: post-disaster community-building for survivors of trauma, via 3 books: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-fema-goes...
If FEMA Goes Away, Could Communities Step Up?
Three books offer a vision of future disaster recovery – if we can come together in mutuality
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
November 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
I worry constantly that the writing I'm engaging in these days, post-burnout & post-hiatus, is still "too ADHD" for people to be interested in reading, & yet.
My latest: post-disaster community-building for survivors of trauma, via 3 books: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-fema-goes...
My latest: post-disaster community-building for survivors of trauma, via 3 books: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-fema-goes...
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
Lucinda Williams
Robert Cray
The Tragically Hip
Bruce Springsteen
Shinedown
Lucinda Williams
Robert Cray
The Tragically Hip
Bruce Springsteen
Shinedown
Introduce yourself with five concerts you’ve seen:
Adia Victoria
The Protomen
The Klezmer Conservatory Band
The Nields
Nine Inch Nails
Adia Victoria
The Protomen
The Klezmer Conservatory Band
The Nields
Nine Inch Nails
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
Kate Nash
Indigo Girls
Dolly Parton
Heart
Frankie Valli
Kate Nash
Indigo Girls
Dolly Parton
Heart
Frankie Valli
November 27, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen:
Lucinda Williams
Robert Cray
The Tragically Hip
Bruce Springsteen
Shinedown
Lucinda Williams
Robert Cray
The Tragically Hip
Bruce Springsteen
Shinedown
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
As a seasoned emergency manager who's overseen some of FEMA's biggest response and recovery plans, I can assure you this is nonsense. Reducing the 75/25 cost share and assuming states not ending in -orida have the capacity to manage major public assistance projects is naive and dangerous policy.
November 19, 2025 at 11:25 PM
As a seasoned emergency manager who's overseen some of FEMA's biggest response and recovery plans, I can assure you this is nonsense. Reducing the 75/25 cost share and assuming states not ending in -orida have the capacity to manage major public assistance projects is naive and dangerous policy.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
It's not just "consumer smart" it reduces environmental waste, key materials are often mined in slave conditions. The whole tenor of the article is wrong - why is the economy so dependent on us engaging in mass waste?
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/h... "please, buy new phone. the economy is dying" is an incredible gaslight
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing economy
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever before, and while it may be consumer smart, it comes at a cost to work productivity and the U.S. economy.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:17 AM
It's not just "consumer smart" it reduces environmental waste, key materials are often mined in slave conditions. The whole tenor of the article is wrong - why is the economy so dependent on us engaging in mass waste?
Really appreciating this thoughtful essay by @magencubed.bsky.social because of the way it describes so much of my own relationship to social media, notably the way I dropped off the map in 2012 bc of... well, read the essay. I'm still trying to figure out how to show up & still preserve my energy.
In my latest newsletter, I talk about the promise of the internet, the horrors of social media, the fear of performance, the desire to live publicly online, and how I'm trying to reconcile all of these contradicting realities
Living in Public and Other Modern Agonies
On growing up online and being an adult in an age of horrors.
buttondown.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Really appreciating this thoughtful essay by @magencubed.bsky.social because of the way it describes so much of my own relationship to social media, notably the way I dropped off the map in 2012 bc of... well, read the essay. I'm still trying to figure out how to show up & still preserve my energy.
When you stare into the void, the void... stares back demanding to know why it hasn't already been fed. #Saturday #officecat #morningvisitor
November 22, 2025 at 1:25 PM
When you stare into the void, the void... stares back demanding to know why it hasn't already been fed. #Saturday #officecat #morningvisitor
Yeah. A few yrs ago (having studied Russian in, you guessed it, college in the 1990s) I was watching Russian TV on Netflix & was quite surprised to learn how truly scary it was in Moscow then, while here in the West so many of us were pie-eyed & clueless as to the power vacuum or its ramifications.
"The outer shell of the empire fell off in 1991, and many mistook that for collapse. Like a matryoshka doll, within one 'prison of nations' another waited," writes Andrew Chakhoyan, an academic director at the University of Amsterdam, in this op-ed.
Why Russia cannot help but invade
The planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest has been shelved. The White House says there's no point meeting unless "we're going to make a deal." Some view this as a setback for diplomacy, but it may we...
kyivindependent.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Yeah. A few yrs ago (having studied Russian in, you guessed it, college in the 1990s) I was watching Russian TV on Netflix & was quite surprised to learn how truly scary it was in Moscow then, while here in the West so many of us were pie-eyed & clueless as to the power vacuum or its ramifications.
Neurodivergent tangent incoming:
My kid (also ND) is a new smoker. I hate that he's doing this to himself. But he hated how #ADHD meds made him feel. Smoking, he says, helps him focus even better than caffeine.
If we want to curb smoking maybe address underlying reasons why ppl take it up.
My kid (also ND) is a new smoker. I hate that he's doing this to himself. But he hated how #ADHD meds made him feel. Smoking, he says, helps him focus even better than caffeine.
If we want to curb smoking maybe address underlying reasons why ppl take it up.
Filters are a marketing trick to make 🚬 seem less dangerous.
⚠️Smoking kills, with or without a filter.
⚠️They make it easier to start smoking & harder to quit.
Filters have even contributed to an increase in a specific type of lung cancer.
Let’s call for a ban on filters! 👉bit.ly/47KasF2
⚠️Smoking kills, with or without a filter.
⚠️They make it easier to start smoking & harder to quit.
Filters have even contributed to an increase in a specific type of lung cancer.
Let’s call for a ban on filters! 👉bit.ly/47KasF2
November 18, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Neurodivergent tangent incoming:
My kid (also ND) is a new smoker. I hate that he's doing this to himself. But he hated how #ADHD meds made him feel. Smoking, he says, helps him focus even better than caffeine.
If we want to curb smoking maybe address underlying reasons why ppl take it up.
My kid (also ND) is a new smoker. I hate that he's doing this to himself. But he hated how #ADHD meds made him feel. Smoking, he says, helps him focus even better than caffeine.
If we want to curb smoking maybe address underlying reasons why ppl take it up.
Once upon a time I thought abt becoming an epidemiologist bc of investigations like this & the ones detailed in Berton Roueche's "The Medical Detectives," a collection of narrative journalism this skeet reminded me of. Outstanding.
NEW: We traced out a devastating outbreak of bird flu to its source: an egg farm in Ohio. Where the wind blew, the virus followed.
Within weeks, the farms downwind were about 20 times as likely to see outbreaks as those that weren’t.
Within weeks, the farms downwind were about 20 times as likely to see outbreaks as those that weren’t.
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vaccines could help, but the USDA hasn’t approved them.
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Once upon a time I thought abt becoming an epidemiologist bc of investigations like this & the ones detailed in Berton Roueche's "The Medical Detectives," a collection of narrative journalism this skeet reminded me of. Outstanding.
So, this week I'm finally off for my full 3-day weekend w/o any overtime or 2nd job. (I work 4 10-hour days currently.) While I'm catching up on #writing, I'm also chronicling my own habits of both procrastination and "procrastivity" -- the former = self sabotage, the latter = natural #ADHD.
November 17, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to the people.
Techbros, through AI, are stealing fire from the people and using it to warm themselves.
What precious fucking irony that is.
Techbros, through AI, are stealing fire from the people and using it to warm themselves.
What precious fucking irony that is.
Jeff Bezos will be co-CEO of AI startup Project Prometheus
Jeff Bezos will be co-CEO of AI startup Project Prometheus
Jeff Bezos has a new job.
buff.ly
November 17, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to the people.
Techbros, through AI, are stealing fire from the people and using it to warm themselves.
What precious fucking irony that is.
Techbros, through AI, are stealing fire from the people and using it to warm themselves.
What precious fucking irony that is.
New post published. In it, I discuss what led me to #emergencymanagement, how & why I took a break, & the NEMA webinar that has me rethinking how communities engage w current disaster response models:
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-disaster-...
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-disaster-...
If Disaster Response Shifts to States, How Can Communities Respond?
Waiting for rescue probably isn't sustainable for any of us
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
November 17, 2025 at 1:27 PM
New post published. In it, I discuss what led me to #emergencymanagement, how & why I took a break, & the NEMA webinar that has me rethinking how communities engage w current disaster response models:
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-disaster-...
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/if-disaster-...
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
When DHS dared to call its anti-immigrant racial profiling weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” I knew I was going to have to write about it.
Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...
Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...
November 17, 2025 at 12:41 AM
When DHS dared to call its anti-immigrant racial profiling weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” I knew I was going to have to write about it.
Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...
Tonight, at Law Dork, here it is: www.lawdork.com/p/gregory-bo...
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
Epstein survivors just dropped a powerful message for Congress, and it hits like a warning: no more waiting, the truth is coming, ready or not.
Watch till the end
@housedemocrats.bsky.social
@houserepublicans.bsky.social
Watch till the end
@housedemocrats.bsky.social
@houserepublicans.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Epstein survivors just dropped a powerful message for Congress, and it hits like a warning: no more waiting, the truth is coming, ready or not.
Watch till the end
@housedemocrats.bsky.social
@houserepublicans.bsky.social
Watch till the end
@housedemocrats.bsky.social
@houserepublicans.bsky.social
Off topic & yet not (bc that is just how my ADHD brain works): was just revisiting a webinar where the case was made for including economists in emergency management / planning. You know... planning for disasters that make vulnerable ppl more vulnerable. 😬
November 16, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Off topic & yet not (bc that is just how my ADHD brain works): was just revisiting a webinar where the case was made for including economists in emergency management / planning. You know... planning for disasters that make vulnerable ppl more vulnerable. 😬
My whole life as a longtime undiagnosed neurodivergent, summed up:
"Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism."
If you can't do things the way we say ("right") then you're wrong & deserve punishment.
"Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism."
If you can't do things the way we say ("right") then you're wrong & deserve punishment.
GM fellow #Sinners! Happy #Sinday!
To add to the article: Jesus rejected being made a king (vertical). He instructed us to take care of each other (horizontal).
Whatever TF MAGA worships, it’s not Jesus!
To add to the article: Jesus rejected being made a king (vertical). He instructed us to take care of each other (horizontal).
Whatever TF MAGA worships, it’s not Jesus!
What Drives MAGA Christians' Un-Christian Actions? Experts Say It Comes Down To This.
This framework reveals why some MAGA-aligned Christians act in ways that contradict Jesus’ teachings.
www.huffpost.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM
My whole life as a longtime undiagnosed neurodivergent, summed up:
"Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism."
If you can't do things the way we say ("right") then you're wrong & deserve punishment.
"Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism."
If you can't do things the way we say ("right") then you're wrong & deserve punishment.
I really really appreciate the way this skeet sorta blew up! I'm a neurodivergent abuse survivor writing about the complexities of navigating various forms of crisis here: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
November 14, 2025 at 11:01 PM
I really really appreciate the way this skeet sorta blew up! I'm a neurodivergent abuse survivor writing about the complexities of navigating various forms of crisis here: trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
I think it’s great that our media elites have decided that men in their 30s saluting Hitler are just rambunctious kids who got carried away, while 16-year old girls being trafficked and raped by billionaires are “underage women” making informed choices. Definitely reflects well on us as a society.
November 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I think it’s great that our media elites have decided that men in their 30s saluting Hitler are just rambunctious kids who got carried away, while 16-year old girls being trafficked and raped by billionaires are “underage women” making informed choices. Definitely reflects well on us as a society.
Reposted by Christa (she/her)
Never forget the same people defending pedophilia have spent years trying to convince the public that drag queens and trans people are a threat to children.
It’s all smoke and mirrors to allow the real predators to roam free.
It’s all smoke and mirrors to allow the real predators to roam free.
November 14, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Never forget the same people defending pedophilia have spent years trying to convince the public that drag queens and trans people are a threat to children.
It’s all smoke and mirrors to allow the real predators to roam free.
It’s all smoke and mirrors to allow the real predators to roam free.
So, that whole "difference between a 15yo and a 5yo" thing is why I wrote this reported essay (1st in a series of 5): trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/why-its-more... 🧵
Why It’s More Critical Now Than Ever to Tell Our “Not That Bad” Abuse Stories
Knowing what it looks, sounds, acts, and feels like before it becomes criminal can help us heal — and know what to look for. Our future may depend on it.
trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 AM
So, that whole "difference between a 15yo and a 5yo" thing is why I wrote this reported essay (1st in a series of 5): trauma-disaster-healing-recovery.ghost.io/why-its-more... 🧵