The Left Network

COVID-19 can leave measurable, lasting effects on brain structure and function. ➡️ Growing research shows COVID-19 can cause lasting changes in the brain, even after mild infection. ➡️ Brain imaging and cognitive studies report declines in memory, attention, and processing speed. ➡️ Likely mechanisms include neuroinflammation, vascular injury, and immune effects. ➡️ These findings help explain #LongCOVID symptoms like brain fog and fatigue. gavi.org/vaccineswork/m…

It's wild how offended USians get when they are held even a tiny bit accountable for violent lies. "All I did was support a smear campaign that cost disabled people access to free Far-UVC and mask fit testing🥺" like that isn't eugenic, and being unfollowed is in any way proportional?

Honestly, if you are on here every day, telling people to mask, and you don't understand the difference a well-fitted respirator makes, you really aren't qualified to speak on the subject. If you do understand the difference it makes, and are ok with marginalized people being actively discouraged from accessing better-fitting masks based on misinformation from high-follower accounts, you are just as ablist as those who deny the effectiveness of masks and have no business speaking on the issue or calling anyone else out. Pushing HEPA or Far-UVC over nearly any respirators is irresponsible; pushing unfitted respirators over fitted ones is worse. Any respirator is the first objective, but more people in better-fitting respirators mean more lives saved. If you stand in the way of that, or support accounts with a follow who act against that, you are part of the eugenic campaign.

This is a video I wanted to share with you, my friends 🤍 It was 5 a.m. this morning. After we had our suhoor, Rafif woke up from her sleep, as if she was searching for something. They were only a few brief moments… but they were incredibly beautiful. Those simple moments are what give me hope. They are what give me the strength to keep going, no matter what. Please keep us in your prayers… and don’t forget about us 🤍

What I am pushing back on is not your story. It is the conclusion you draw from it. You are reading Vietnamese politeness and pragmatism as proof that the underlying structure has healed. For us, it is exactly the opposite: We learned to smile, trade, and coexist precisely because we understand what happens when you trust an empire with your future. Your comparison with Italy and Germany is important, but you are skipping the context that makes it possible. Italy and Germany reconciled: Inside a U.S.-led security architecture. Inside NATO. Inside a European project where former enemies were folded into a shared political and economic space, with a defeated Germany constrained, rebuilt, and partially atoning. There are memorials to the camps. There is official recognition of crimes. There are school curricula that at least attempt to name what happened. Vietnam did not get that. We did not get Nuremberg. We got Agent Orange that is still in our soil and a post-war embargo for two decades. The power that burned our villages was never tried. It was promoted to "leader of the free world." So yes, Italians can look at Germans today and say: we bled, we remember, but we live together in a structure that at least pretends to have learned something. Vietnam looks at the United States and sees a power that left our fields poisoned, then went on to do Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and now backs the destruction of Gaza while lecturing us about "rules." That is not an old grudge. That is a pattern. You are right that animosities are not eternal. I have no interest in teaching my children to hate Americans as people. They already meet Americans as visitors, friends, in-laws. They share grief. They share jokes. They share lives. What I refuse to do is tell them that the system called the United States is just another country, with just another foreign policy, that can be trusted the way you might trust a difficult neighbor. Because it is not. It is the core of a global order that still reserves for itself the right to sanction, bomb, and isolate anyone who steps outside the lines it drew. That brings us to China. You say, "I would imagine, given your history, you probably don't trust China either." I do not worship China. I do not worship any state. Vietnam's history with China is long, complicated, and blood-soaked in both directions: 1,000 years of domination. 1,000 years of resistance. War in 1979. Tension in the East Sea/South China Sea. Trade, culture, and a depth of entanglement that you cannot reduce to "trust" or "distrust." But here is the difference you keep erasing: China is a neighbor we have fought and negotiated with for over a millennium. The United States is an extra-continental empire that crossed an ocean, propped up a puppet regime, carpet-bombed our countryside, and then tried to erase the memory of it while repeating similar patterns elsewhere. I can distrust Beijing on specific issues and still recognize that it is not the one running hundreds of bases on every continent, weaponizing the global reserve currency, or sanctioning entire nations into humanitarian collapse. So yes, of course Vietnamese people are cautious about China. We are cautious about everyone bigger than us. But caution toward a neighbor in Asia is not the same as blind faith in a superpower that has treated our region as a chessboard. That is why I say: Vietnam must not forget. Not because we want to keep hating forever, but because forgetting in our position is suicidal. You are telling a story about reconciliation that works in a European space where the main predator is now framed as a "partner" and the architecture is built to keep former enemies inside the same tent. Our reality is different. We live in a world where the same state that once called us "dominoes" now calls us "partners" in its "Indo-Pacific strategy" that has nothing to do with our survival and everything to do with its rivalry with China. You hear that word and think: maturity, healing, moving on. We hear it and think: useful as long as we obey. So no, I am not arguing that animosity should be eternal. What I am saying is: Memory should be. Because empires rely on one thing more than anything else: The victims eventually agreeing that it was all "the past" while the same machine quietly adjusts its target and moves on.

A single mom friend of mine is in a tough spot—needs ~$500 for essential meds, groceries, and new glasses after hers broke. She's staying anonymous for safety reasons I'm collecting via my Ven/PP @/ChrisAlvino to pass directly to her. Even $5 helps! RTs appreciated! #MutualAid

Rafif becomes the happiest little girl in the world when she gets the one thing she loves… Almarai strawberry milk. A simple joy, yet it means so much in the midst of everything we’re going through. And thanks to you, we—Rafif’s family—are able to buy what we need. Please keep sharing and donating to Rafif and her family’s campaign. ⬅️ The campaign link is in the bio.

I've never seen ANY group do more holiday fundraisers on here than SWers. The empathy and generosity they show—even while facing extreme marginalization—is amazing. Honestly, this is exactly why Jesus said prostitutes would enter the kingdom before religious leaders

A woman in Saskatchewan needs surgery for a parathyroid issue and is being offered MAiD instead. There’s no one in the province who can perform the procedure and the government won’t pay to send her elsewhere. This is why disability advocates warn about assisted dying

For a long time, I’ve been sharing campaigns for children and families in Gaza, always asking you not to donate to our own campaign, but to direct your support to those who needed it more. But today… Rafif’s family itself is in urgent need of your help. Our entire life here depends on this campaign — it has become the lifeline keeping us alive in these unbearable conditions. Any donation, no matter how small, can make a real difference in our lives. Please… share and donate to Rafif’s campaign and our family. chuffed.org/project/152540 paypal.me/mohammedjawad2…

I have a big lovable Golden Retriever/Husky mix who has never had a problem at the vet, but he has to have blood work this morning so they absolutely REQUIRE that he be doped up with medication beforehand. Supposedly this is because of the “no fear vet” certification 1/3

MTG’s pivot is essentially just “i can get behind mass deportations, institutional racism, and demonization of minorities, but i draw the line at trump being mean to me specifically”

The fact that Dick Cheney died of old age, free and probably surrounded by family, is a disgrace that this country will never escape. He made the world we now live in and suffered zero consequences. He won. We lost.

Alice was such a real one. She wasn't afraid to call out anything that went against disability justice (with a mouth like a sailor!) We were mutuals for a long time & I truly thought of her as a friend. To honor her memory, this thread will list my disabled comrades' fundraisers:

Everyone and everything is just performative lip service now. No one is even sharing this tribute post to Alice where I'm LITERALLY TRYING TO SAVE DISABLED PEOPLE'S LIVES. Like I'm honestly pissed seeing so much traffic for Alice's death being wasted on sobs instead of rallying

I'll make it for someone else in a similar situation when the Torch 2 is ready and donate it in @SFdirewolf's memory😔

I dream of seeing my daughter, Rafif, one day wearing her school bag and walking to her classroom in a safe place — a place with proper education and healthcare, just like any other child in this world. Rafif has the right to live… the right to enjoy her childhood as she deserves. Please, we are not asking for much — just keep Rafif and us in your prayers.

This part is something I haven't seen too many people talk about. One of the reasons we've been in such a downturn is bc we, as a society, did a piss poor job of educating the public on the benefits of ALL the public infrastructure and institutions that came before us

you can tell trans people aren't actually pedos cause if we were the republican party would be defending us

I’m in a severe spinal flare & a colitis bleed at the same time. I’m stuck in bed in extreme pain & need $300 for meds, copays, colitis safe food & electrolytes. Anything helps. Please share! CA: cash.app/$patbruck PP: paypal.me/pbruck Venmo: venmo.com/pbruck