How I spent my summer vacation

Here's the tweet of the week month:

Today is 3 wks in quarantine w/o sugar. Walking 3 miles a day, no meat, dairy or flour! I feel great! No alcohol & vegan diet! A 2 hr home workout everyday. Lost 14 lbs & gained muscle mass! I have no idea whose tweet this is but I’m proud of them so I decided to copy & paste it!

— Alison 🇨🇦🇿🇦 (@AckAlison) April 10, 2020

Strange Days Indeed

I wonder if John Lennon ever realized how prophetic his words would be:

Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed.

I never understood how a pandemic would destroy the world economy.  

Millions of people out of work. Millions with no paycheques, no income, and no prospect of getting any except for a few hundred dollars from the government. Millions who have no money, who cannot buy food, or medicines, or clothes, or pay their utilities bills or their rent. It is an economic disaster of a scale which the world has never seen before.

I used to live in a modern society. And I never wanted to live anywhere else.  But I just didn't understand how fragile that society really was.  

Now I find myself suddenly living in some kind of an alternate universe, one with no schools, no clothing stores, no book stores, no coffee shops. No health care, no dental care, no physiotherapy, no surgeries. No weddings, no funerals, no parties, no graduations, no concerts, no events. No bars, no restaurants. No sports. 

The idea I am seeing floating around now -- that this worldwide economic shutdown will just have to last for years, until we get a vaccine or a cure -- well, sorry, but that just ain't gonna happen. 

Not if all this pain is just for the sake of avoiding a virus which is, for most people, most of the time, a mild illness. 

And yes, of course I understand that our heedless and careless way of living wasn't sustainable because we don't know who will get COVID-19 next, and we don't know who will die, and if we are dying, its an awful death, and the problem is that caring for the people who are really sick is going to destroy our health care system unless some of us can postpone getting really sick until later.

But our situation right now isn't sustainable either. 

We need to figure out how we are going to get out of this.

I wrote a comment recently on Montreal Simon's excellent blog, to the effect that I am proud to be a Canadian during this crisis, because our leaders stepped up to the plate.  Someday I hope to understand better how Trudeau did it, how he put the right people into the right place to get us through this.

And now, they have to step up again, to lay out a plan of how we are going to get out of this.

And I think maybe it will start with a national testing program -- we have to know who has already had COVID-19 and who has not, so we can figure out who needs to continue to to isolate.

And then, gradually, our strange days might end.
UPDATE:  I'm starting to see stuff along the lines of: Social Distancing cannot fail, it can only BE failed!  In other words, we just have to keep doing it more and more and more, and Trudeau has to make it illegal for anybody to ever leave their house ever, and then, easy peasy, THEN it will TOTALLY WORK!
Hmmm.....

Friday Funfest

The COVID-19 news is so depressing, beaten only by the economic news, which is absolutely awful. So here's something a little more lighter-hearted, on a cold Friday. 

This is Toby he is now working from home... pic.twitter.com/RB6na9bUsT

— Stuart Antony (@STU_ACTOR) March 31, 2020

A true friend is someone who helps you in good & bad times, no matter what. pic.twitter.com/6UW6JNEhl1

— Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) April 3, 2020

How the livestock keep warm in Russia. pic.twitter.com/qlh8s8JuUB

— 🇷🇺Only In Russia 🇷🇺 (@CrazyinRussia) April 3, 2020

Math magic pic.twitter.com/eeAsHp6tpr

— Engineering (@engineeringvids) April 2, 2020

Sandra the orangutang started washing her hands because she saw all the zookeepers doing it repeatedly during the COVID-19 crisis.

Wash your hands.
Be more like Sandra.🌎❤️🧼🌎 pic.twitter.com/t8TTizDGeD

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 1, 2020

Grizzly bear casually fixing a fallen safety cone as they walk down the road pic.twitter.com/c4klDbdGOJ

— Nature is Lit🔥 (@NaturelsLit) April 1, 2020

Smooth recovery pic.twitter.com/z0eZmz2AIF

— Animal Life (@animalIife) March 14, 2020

And this thread wins the award for the funniest tweet of the week:

I think I just got a group of goats in Llandudno arrested.

Let me explain... first, I saw this from inside a dark pub (the one I live in currently). I thought I was seeing things. So I took some video: pic.twitter.com/RtxYG6htLC

— Andrew Stuart (@AndrewStuart) March 27, 2020

So maybe next week will be better -- well, we can always hope!

#DieForTheDow is trending

Age-wise, I am on the wrong side of the "let's save the economy by throwing grandma to the wolves" argument. So I have to say, I disagree with it!

And with COVID-19, it won't work anyway. 

Because it isn't only the grandmas who get sick and die. Its the doctors, the nurses, the teachers, the stock brokers, the policemen, the bartenders, the teenagers on a beach. 

Many of the shitmonkeys advocating #DieForTheDow are legislators who have proven (but mysterious) ways of getting tested for COVID19 that your average person doesn't. Have NO doubt: these shitmonkeys will also have first dibs on increasingly scarce ventilators & other treatments. https://t.co/2HZJpqXDwM

— Sailin' Dame (@YerseniaP) March 24, 2020

If you need a wake-up call, here it is: My husband was on a large conference call of American med school deans last night. One asked about legal coverage for pulling people off ventilators to give to others more likely to survive. I.e., not being charged with murder. Here we are.

— Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) March 24, 2020

The choice is between:

- a very hurtful major recession caused by social distancing, managed by stimulus

or

- a economic collapse caused by the breakdown of our health system due to millions of deaths, tens of millions of hospitalizations, that cannot be managed by stimulus

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 24, 2020

At the end of all this, let’s try to remember that the geniuses who told us not to worry about coronavirus are the same geniuses telling us not to worry about #climatechange

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 16, 2020

Courage is found in unlikely places

Things are awful and they're going to get worse - the economy is going to tank, maybe worse than it did in 2008, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their jobs. 

To understand why the world economy is in grave peril because of the spread of coronavirus, it helps to grasp one idea that is at once blindingly obvious and sneakily profound.
One person’s spending is another person’s income. That, in a single sentence, is what the $87 trillion global economy is.That relationship, between spending and income, consumption and production, is at the core of how a capitalist economy works. It is the basis of a perpetual motion machine. We buy the things we want and need, and in exchange give money to the people who produced those things, who in turn use that money to buy the things they want and need, and so on, forever.
What is so deeply worrying about the potential economic ripple effects of the virus is that it requires this perpetual motion machine to come to a near-complete stop across large chunks of the economy, for an indeterminate period of time.

In spite of the billions that governments will spend to prop up the economy, our standard of living is going to decline. Or at least it will FEEL like it is declining -- we won't have the restaurants around anymore that we used to love, we won't be getting the variety and quality of food we are used to seeing in grocery stores because the agricultural and shipping industries are going to be in such disarray, we won't have sports or new TV shows or new movies or touring theatre companies or concerts or community events. For many of us, our retirement savings are taking a hit that we won't be able to recover. 

Not to mention, of course, the hundreds of thousands around the world who will get sick, and the tens of thousands who will die in the next 18 months to two years, before a COVID vaccine can be developed and put into production and reach the market.

Goodbye yellow brick road, yes indeed.

Someday maybe we will say "I remember when you could walk into a store and buy bananas any time of the year".

So in the meantime, I can only keep my spirits up by searching out some "good news" stories. Because once again, in a crisis, people have a remarkable way of pulling together, pushing though, helping themselves and each other to cope and to manage and to survive.

“But where shall I find courage?” asked Frodo.
“That is what I chiefly need.”“Courage is found in unlikely places,” said Gildor.
“Be of good hope! Sleep now!”

Beautiful. King Street, right? https://t.co/LkN6dqdqnj

— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 18, 2020

@CoronavirusCast

You wanted some positive stories.
Here you go. This man must be a listener.

Sask. First Nation chief prepared for COVID-19 pandemic weeks before it hit https://t.co/1zRd7e74O3

— Raptor Girl SK- We the Champs! (@raptorgirlSK) March 17, 2020

While our doors may be closed, we'll still bring the Gallery to you online.

During our closure, we’ll take you on a tour, gallery by gallery. Each day we’ll focus on one room and the works of art on view within it. #MuseumFromHome pic.twitter.com/VfI4Nm8kj5

— National Gallery of Art (@ngadc) March 14, 2020

We're better than our political leadership. https://t.co/ez9K1RChDP

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) March 16, 2020

Louis Vuitton is switching all its perfume & cosmetic manufacturing factories to make hand sanitizer gels. https://t.co/p6I5QC1s4d

— Krishnan (@cvkrishnan) March 15, 2020

Hope they were able to find some TP https://t.co/3gBnXKJAKB

— Kevin Smith (@Global_Smith) March 15, 2020

COVID Shakespeare

What’s the difference between Covid 19 and Romeo & Juliet?

One’s a corona virus and the other is a Verona crisis.

— Julian Lee (@JulianLeeComedy) March 14, 2020

One’s a pandemic disaster, the other’s Iambic pentameter

— folb (@SleepingAnnual) March 14, 2020

Omg. Now do Two Gentlemen of Corona.

— Steve Austin from Texas (@ResistTheLiars) March 15, 2020

With jokes like that you're just trying make us welcome death

— Tom (@_T0M_V_) March 15, 2020

ok isaac newton discovered calculus and william shakespeare wrote king lear while in quarantine but i bet none of them could eat 2 family packs of chips ahoy in 3 days while in quarantine so what the fuck

— Ryan Dils (@ryan_dils) March 15, 2020

COVID tweet-fest

I keep saving COVID-19 tweets and then before I can post anything, it all gets worse.  

So here's a few, but with the warning that they might be completely out of date by the time anyone reads this.

"These are all the predictable consequences of giving power to people whose only understanding of the role of government is to protect investment portfolios." https://t.co/RJNDb0Vdcu

— Anil Kalhan (@kalhan) March 13, 2020

Republicans made a bet that they could stick a moronic incompetent in the Oval Office and get their preferred policy outcomes without cost. They lost, and now the bill is coming due.

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 12, 2020

1. Trump has made clear - the administration will not save us. It is unable to turn, to acknowledge the severity of this crisis. No one is coming to help you. You must protect yourself and your loved ones on your own.

Here is what increases your chances of weathering this....

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 12, 2020

How canceled events and self-quarantines save lives, in one chart https://t.co/iFPcJrHdqM

— Raju Narisetti (@raju) March 10, 2020

Palate cleanser

One of our kittens is a bit of a drama queen pic.twitter.com/oklQb6eTae

— Kittens (@kittensfolder) February 27, 2020

I don’t think the sign is working. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/wjwLhRV0QZ

— You Had One Job (@_youhadonejob1) March 12, 2020

The sweetest thing

My sister is presently training one of our dogs in Rally Obedience, so I am trying to flag any tweets, etc about this sport. 

And here is one that I found, which isn't exactly about the sport, but more about how people in this sport act:

This beautiful little girl has autism. She brought her stuffed-puppy to the dog show.

One of the judges stopped, walked over to her, and asked if she wanted to show her dog as well.

This is what happened.

Humanity.❤️ pic.twitter.com/wkkcJCiIWC

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) March 6, 2020

Tweet of the Day

Here's a Friday palate cleanser for ya:

No way! 😲 pic.twitter.com/Sr4XeP3ngX

— CCTV IDIOTS (@cctvidiots) February 27, 2020

Wet'suwet'en update

He waited as long as he could, too long in the opinion of many.

He was obviously hoping that peaceful negotiation could bring down the rail barricades, in the best Canadian tradition.

But at last Justin Trudeau's patience was exhausted.The negotiations were going nowhere, because there were none.

"We can’t have dialogue when only one party is coming to the table. For this reason, we have no choice but to stop making the same overtures."

And for that the blame must go to these old men, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

Like Montreal Simon, I could not believe how lackadaisical and disrespectful the hereditary chiefs were being in refusing to respond to Trudeau's obvious respect.
They didn't seem to realize that the time to make progress was NOW, this week, when they had Canada's attention and a great deal of support across the country. 
What they cannot do is keep raising the ante.
While the story earlier this week was that the Wet'suwet'en had worked out a deal for RCMP to move back to Houston BC, the story today was that they wanted both the RCMP AND the pipeline company to leave, and then "nation-to-nation discussions with Canada and BC" should start.
And the tactic of leisurely visiting Mohawk reserves in Eastern Canada and holding news conferences instead of talking to the prime minister doesn't make any sense.

"We are waiting for Indigenous leadership to show that it understands," [Trudeau] said in a news conference. "The onus is on them."

Injunctions to clear tracks must be obeyed and the law must be upheld, he said, adding that it is pointless to continue making overtures to Indigenous leaders if they aren't accepted.

"Let us be clear: all Canadians are paying the price. Some people can't get to work, others have lost their jobs," Trudeau said. "Essential goods … cannot get where they need to go."

The situation "is unacceptable and untenable," he said.

Canadian support has started to evaporate when the chiefs could not seem to articulate what they wanted to achieve - no pipeline at all? a pipeline but on a different route? more negotiations for the existing route?  -- and when thousands of Canadians were being increasingly affected, losing jobs and fearing for their heating oil supplies. 

Also as predicted earlier this week, Canadian support for Trudeau's whole reconciliation agenda was disintegrating as the railway disruptions continued with no end in sight.
Trudeau appeared to realize this too, after talking to the Premiers on Thursday and to Cabinet today.

On Twitter, the usual suspects were berating Trudeau for not acting first and thinking later. But Trudeau tried to resolve the blockades with dialogue instead of immediately turning the dispute into a dick-measuring contest like Scheer and McKay wanted.
At least the Mohawks are clear about what they want -- the Mohawks have an agreement with Indigenous Services minister Marc Miller that the Ontario trains will run as soon as RCMP have withdrawn to Houston from Wet’suwet’en territory. 
As Manitoba Premier Palliser said today, no individual or group has an absolute veto on natural resource projects.

“Public opinion matters on these things,” he said. “This federal Liberal government has said that reconciliation is a priority. But if you want real reconciliation, then you have to do the real work of achieving it. And you have to establish some parameters. You have to put a fence around the discussion to some degree. And you don't do that if you don't make it clear that everyone does not have a veto.”

Wetsuweten protests- we don't get to choose the battle; we can only choose our side

Once again, I think we have reached the point in Canada where we don't get to choose the battle. We can only choose our side.

I can't say I understand the #Wetsuweten protests, but I am coming to realize that if Canada's usual suspects are against them, then the side I must choose is to support them.

I cannot yet see what the resolution will be acceptable to this impasse -- no pipeline at all? a pipeline in a different place? some kind of a joint economic development consortium between Wetsuweten and the government and the gas companies? I just don't know.

But I do know that I simply cannot support this kind of attitude:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheers says the "protesters" need to check their "privilege" and let the rail system open again. #Wet'suwet'en. pic.twitter.com/dQKZ6IKouU

— APTN National News (@APTNNews) February 14, 2020

This is civil war.

Military action is a must.

Retain / constrain as needed. https://t.co/aOlxSx5R3Y

— * W. Brett Wilson * (@WBrettWilson) February 14, 2020

Or this kind of frightening, provocative and unacceptable behaviour:

Wet'suwe'ten protester in RCMP gunsight pleads in video for police to put down their arms | CBC News https://t.co/6jtXi7vHzj

— Tantoo Cardinal (@tantooC) February 14, 2020

At least there is still a little humour to be found, too:

Oh well, just boil it, you’ll be fine 🤷🏻‍♀️#Ironic https://t.co/hSVXcjGoaT

— Janine Manning (@NewStarWoman) February 14, 2020

Montreal Simon is concerned that the blockade protests risk annoying and inconveniencing so many people in Eastern Canada who have no voice or choice in the matter, that support for reconciliation will be threatened -- and this is not an unlikely concern. Susan Delacourt also writes about how complicated the reconciliation issues have now become:

This is where Trudeau’s “most important relationship” gets complicated, maybe hopelessly so. It is not just about historic reconciliation. It’s also about economic circumstances, resource development versus the environment, and the populism arising from economic inequality — some of the most vexing, conflict-laden issues facing the federal government. Throw in contempt for the law and it’s easy to see why what looked important in 2015 can look impossible in 2020.

Here are some good tweet threads with more info:

OK, thread: For the last few days I've tried to learn what I can about an alternate route for the Coastal GasLink pipeline that was apparently proposed by #Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs and brought into the discussion by a Green Party MP. Here's what I've learned pic.twitter.com/hm4gAVCfyc

— Andrew Kurjata 📻 (@akurjata) February 16, 2020

Some thoughts on the "rule of law" that so many Canadians wish would end today's uncomfortable and inconvenient protests over a fossil gas (ie natural gas) pipeline crossing unceded Wet'suwet'en territory and RCMP action to drive it through. #Wetsuweten #CoastalGasLink

THREAD...

— Peter Fairley (@pfairley) February 14, 2020

Great tweets: politics or animals or maybe both

Here's some tweets I enjoyed this week.
And doesn't it always seem that January DRAGGGGS while February goes so FAST?

TAKE. NO. CRAP. 💅🏻

pic.twitter.com/iBVE1fuQNC

— Jay Arnold 🏳️‍🌈 (@JadedCreative) February 11, 2020

Expectation vs Reality. pic.twitter.com/0PDhoroVe8

— Darwin Award 🔞 (@AwardsDarwin) February 5, 2020

I'm not sure he totally qualifies as a Good Boi™ with that food theft at the end - 🤣🤣🤣 - but he's definitely both adorable and hilarious! https://t.co/1qpw17TXTm

— Julie Ritt (@faeryfancier) February 2, 2020

When you're trying to end an argument, but your bird won't let you. 🔊
(🎥: Imgur user MrPuckett) pic.twitter.com/KXYTv3Olq3

— Clare Logan (@withchillies) January 19, 2020

Good joke...

Interviewer asks Michael Bloomberg what he thinks about a possible situation where two billionaires are running against each other for the presidency

Bloomberg says " Who's the other one ? "

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) February 5, 2020

If we’re being honest about these democratic candidates not only would any of them be better than this president but any of their personal assistants would be better. So let’s get the primaries over with, try not to be too mean to each other & get this guy the hell out of office.

— Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs) February 10, 2020

Hooooly shit.

An audience member asks Warren if she ever wonders, “Who is going to be my Mike Pence? Who is going to look at me with adoring eyes?”@ewarren: “I already have a dog.”pic.twitter.com/svyS5dkCRw

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 10, 2020

Best moment at #SOTU

Great tweets of the day: laugh and the world laughs with you

Well, I guess there's nothing to do today really except laugh, so here goes:

I’m on the edge of my seat! pic.twitter.com/tn2MbABmZe

— Gillian OShaughnessy (@GillOshaughness) January 31, 2020

pic.twitter.com/wMoE3xGXx7

— Mr. Meowgi (@Mr_Meowwwgi) January 30, 2020

this is ringo, i think that it's safe to say that he likes to swim
(ringo.swims.alot IG) pic.twitter.com/yVwRUzlAVd

— Humor And Animals (@humorandanimals) January 29, 2020

When you're trying to end an argument, but your bird won't let you. 🔊
(🎥: Imgur user MrPuckett) pic.twitter.com/KXYTv3Olq3

— Clare Logan (@withchillies) January 19, 2020

An incorrectly assembled whippet. pic.twitter.com/CVAAOL3efV

— Jonathan Best (@jonnnybest) January 18, 2020

pic.twitter.com/A9iffpkQLy

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) January 17, 2020

Cat Latte Art by Japanese barista Kazuki Yamamoto
(https://t.co/rHxhzUgICI) pic.twitter.com/421iIHMN0H

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) January 20, 2020

Boing, boing, boing pic.twitter.com/jkisvk6bHV

— Life on Earth (@planetpng) January 28, 2020

Another poetry post

Darkest Hour was on, so I was able to watch this great scene again today:

Horatius  —Thomas Babington Macaulay

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods."