From 2016 to 2020, Canada survived Trump by ducking a lot – Trudeau managed to save NAFTA mostly, we didn’t get pulled into any American wars, we quietly helped out the refugees who found their way across the border, and only once was Trudeau caught la…

Disappointing but not surprising to see the Liberals lose that Quebec by-election yesterday. I saw some commentary online to the effect that now Trudeau will just HAVE to resign. But today, Trudeau is basically telling Poilievre, Singh and Bl…

Just a few great animal posts I have seen recently:the perfect photo doesn’t exi- pic.twitter.com/nf4EOZJ7Ji— Punch Cat (@PunchingCat) September 13, 2024

Perfect.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/ZMVkyuQPws— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 4, 2024

Got…

I’ll bet Vance never thought the leopards would eat HIS face…      Listen to this closely. JD Vance is explicitly acknowledging that he’s using anti-migrant disinformation as tool for attention. This is an intentional fear-mongeri…

Absolute craziness in the United States now:First they came for the pregnant women
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a pregnant woman
Then they came for the Haitian immigrants
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Haitian imigramt
…
Th…

Back in 2016, Rick Wilson invented the hashtag #ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies) – and he is absolutely right. Every single time.

Every new Trump favorite has that wild eyed look in their eyes for a few days like they’ll be different from all the…

Not only is this an anti-progressive, anti climate position, but his stated basis for it is based on right-wing disinformation.Good job, NDP!— Emmett Macfarlane 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@EmmMacfarlane) September 12, 2024

If the carbon tax really does end up going down…

There is one thing that I still love about Twitter and other social media — how interesting people are still publishing interesting “long threads” where I learn about a new corner of the world, a new fascination, a new knowledge. Here are a few I…

Post by @renee.diresta

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And by the way, if you want to understand what tarrifs are and why Trump does NOT understand what he is talking about, read this thread about how tarrifs presently affect the price of a men’s suit:

Some misinformation in today’s US presidential debate about who bears the cost of tariffs. So let’s talk about how tariffs affect what you pay for a suit. 🧵

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— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) September 10, 2024 at 11:23 PM

Just eight more interminable weeks until the American election  I don’t know how I will get through it. The Harris-Trump debate is tomorrow night, and I suspect its the only one America will get.

Trump is now claiming tha…

An occasional series:The Great Flamingo Uprising From the Tumblr website “Zookeeper Problems” we find this story of the Great Flamingo Uprising of 2010:In addition to the aviary/jungle exhibit, our zoo has several species of birds that pretty much…

Aaron Rupar has popularized a new term for how the American media is reporting on Trump — “Sane-washing” Trump’s speeches are gibberish — stream-of-consciousness rambling whines about the 2020 election, interspersed with tariffs, ‘Sir’ stories, …

For years now, we have been told how successful the Canadian right-wing social media influencer pundit critics are. They told us during the Convoy how popular these yahoos were — because look at all the money they raised.  They told us how e…

Canada is still mystified by Singh’s decision to “rip up” his Supply and Confidence agreement with Trudeau. 
Funny, most of the time when people “rip up agreements” it’s because the other side didn’t deliver. Notice @theJagmeetSingh never once men…

…Misinformation about COVID vaccines, and vaccines more generally, has become so entrenched and normalized that it now regularly forms part of political platforms.

Given that vaccines, including COVID vaccines, are widely considered one of the greatest achievements of biomedicine – it has been estimated that over the past 50 years vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives – this is a deeply worrying trend. We need to recognize that the merger of politics and vaccine misinformation is doing grave harm….

given the strong, broad and international scientific consensus on the value of COVID vaccines, how did we get here? Obviously, there are many factors at play, but, alas, the embrace of vaccine misinformation is increasingly about ideology.

Political identity has become one of the most significant – perhaps the most significant – variable predicting vaccine hesitancy, the embrace of vaccine misinformation, distrust of relevant scientific institutions, perceptions of risk surrounding vaccines, and belief in the efficacy of disproven COVID therapies (e.g., ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine). Indeed, numerous studies have shown a strong and growing association between vaccination hesitancy and ideology. In the U.S., political partisanship matters more than race, age, insurance coverage or education in predicting vaccine uptake. Studies have consistently shown that those who identify as Republican are much more likely to not get vaccinated and to hold a dim view of COVID vaccines. A 2024 study found that even the reporting of vaccine adverse events is influenced by political identity, showing that in Republican states, “vaccine recipients or their clinicians” are more likely “to report COVID-19 vaccine AEs” than in Democratic states.

A similar trend can be found around the world, including in Canada. ….

…The harms of increasingly politicized vaccine discourse are not isolated to COVID. The hesitancy created by the spread of misinformation during the pandemic has spilled over to adversely impact the perceptions of other beneficial vaccines. A 2024 study found, in the words of the researchers, that “conservatives in the United States spread their negative attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccines to unrelated vaccines,” including flu, HPV, MMR and chickenpox. Studies show that politicizing public discourse about vaccines can also heighten equity issues and make it more difficult to counter harmful misinformation….

In The Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk As COVID surges, the high price of vaccine denial

…As of mid-August, about one in every 19 British Columbians were enduring an infection, with or without symptoms.

Although the media routinely dismisses all COVID infections as an inconsequential nuisance, that’s not what the science says. The virus remains deadlier than the flu and repeated infections can radically change your health.

Repeated studies show in the bluntest terms that the initial acute infection is only the tip of the iceberg. Even a mild bout of COVID can leave a legacy of blood clots, heart failure, diabetes, decreased brain function (see sidebar), long COVID (now affecting 400 million people worldwide) and immune damage that increasingly makes people more vulnerable to a plethora of infectious diseases and possibly cancers.

These problems can erupt three years after an infection and are especially prevalent in patients who’ve been hospitalized by COVID.

Which is why the U.S. immunologist and COVID specialist Dr. David Putrino emphasizes, “There is no such thing as a SARS-CoV-2 infection that does NOT have prolonged consequences.”…

on an annual basis COVID infections still account for 20 times more deaths than influenza.

The data is not complete but this death toll likely made COVID the second or leading cause of death in the country last month.

According to Moriarty’s data, the number of COVID deaths per infection remain highest in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan because they have older populations often compromised by serious medical conditions. They are also served by shrinking health resources.

…According to an increasing number of researchers, immune deregulation triggered by COVID probably plays a significant role in the dramatic global upticks in infectious diseases. The suspects include RSV, a variety of herpes viruses, whooping cough (now burning up the charts in Canada and England), scarlet fever, dengue fever, fungal infections and tuberculosis. Forty-four countries have now reported a 10-fold increase in the incidence of at least one of 13 infectious diseases compared to trends prior to the pandemic.

Although vaccine hesitancy, climate change and permissive travel have also played a role in this microbial wave, researchers strongly suspect that COVID’s disruption of the immune system has made it harder for many people to fight other infections.

…Here, then, is where we’ve arrived. We’ve entered a vicious cycle where more infections generate more COVID variants. The new variants have become more immune evasive. At the same time society has generally abandoned masks, testing and basic public health messages.

We could slow and suppress the cycle by facing the challenge squarely. For example, by cleaning dirty air the way we once tackled the disease-ridden spectre of cholera-infested water.

But public health officials are afraid to talk about clean air let alone the obvious: avoiding infection.

Beating back COVID requires hard work, communal wisdom and clear policies that markedly reduce the level of infection in society.

To date we have chosen viral denial, dirty air and a triumphant reign for long COVID.

I don’t subscribe to the Globe and Mail now, so I can’t link to this article, but Picard always writes well:

Which is worse: Infectious diseases or the denial of their danger? In the age of #misinformation, bugs are spreading with ease, by ⁦@picardonhealth⁩ via ⁦@GlobeDebate⁩ #COVID19 #infodemic https://t.co/cxPZWbP1KA pic.twitter.com/9DDf57Y29V

— André Picard (@picardonhealth) September 3, 2024

Finally, some good news:

New report of a nasal vaccine booster provides strong, durable #SARSCoV2 cross-variant protection—preventing infection— compared with shots in non-human primateshttps://t.co/nOV0afzw85@NatImmunol pic.twitter.com/BRJin06Y4y

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) September 3, 2024

Meanwhile, the United States has lost its mind:

BREAKING: Lifesaving medication for postpartum hemorrhaging is being pulled off emergency carts because of new Louisiana law reclassifying misoprostol as a controlled dangerous substance. My first @pulitzercenter StoryReach article for @IlluminatorLA https://t.co/RkmZd3n6V0

— Lorena O’Neil (@lorenaoneil) September 3, 2024

I haven’t been following the Paralympics as much as I should have, but here’s some great news:GOLD FOR CANADA 🇨🇦 Nicholas Bennett wins Canada’s first gold medal at the Paralympics.He swims his way to gold in the 100m breaststroke SB14. It’s his second …

Saturday, Aug 31 was International Overdose Awareness Day and in Saskatoon it was marked at Prairie Harm Reduction through memorial and remembrance. Here are photos and an article from The Star Phoenix:The photos show artist Kamisha Alexson …

Sometimes I have thought that bloggers like me are too “down” on the media.And then then I see how many in the American media persist in living in a myth world where they can pretend there is still a reasonable choice to make about whether Harris or Tr…

Why Poilievre wants an early election:

Ohhh THAT’S why Poilievre wanted the NDP to pull the plug on the Lib govt yesterday LOL. The Cons are in full panic mode: “Economy beats Bank of Canada forecast with 2.1% growthFastest growth since the first quar…

Two stories today in the “Christ, What An Asshole” news, and its not surprising they concern Pierre Poilievre and Donald Trump.

He calls him sellout Singh and then asks for a favour? What a fuquing loser!— Shawna little knock🇨🇦 (@shawna_knock) Aug…

Last week, Ekos published the poll above – here is the discussion:Conservative Party Sees Seven-Point Decline: The Harris Effect? Party still leads by 14 points, would likely win majority if election were held tomorrow

The Conservative Party has enjoy…

I suffer from”vellichor” myself!X is slowing down but I still find some great “long threads” posts.These comparison photos are fascinating:2. Big oak tree, Thomasville, Georgia, 1885 to 2020 pic.twitter.com/tHUe1j8fMZ— Time Capsule Tales (@timecaptales…

Listen to Republican H.R. McMaster straight-up confirm the basis of the *first* Trump impeachment: that Trump stalled critical military aid for Ukraine to try to get election dirt on the Bidens. Sheesh. pic.twitter.com/YHVvA2cr9X— Heath Mayo (@HeathMay…

David Rothkopf writes Navigating Bullshitworld How Do We Keep the Fires of the DNC Burning When So Many Seek to Douse Them With Torrents of Crap?: As the peaks of last week’s Democratic National Convention recede into memory I feel they are also a…

On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]

As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]

After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]

On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]

Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]