Metaneos

There's a disconnect in BC provincial politics between the problems and solutions of society. On the one hand, the province is stating it'll build 2,000 living units over ten years: " Province announces 'historic' agreement with Metro Vancouver, B.C. Housing to build 2,000 affordable homes ". However, on the other hand homelessness in BC is above 8,000: "Data collected from 25 counts conducted across B.C. in 2020 and 2021 showed 8,665 people identified as homeless, including 222 children under the age of 19 who were accompanied by a parent or guardian", B.C.'s homeless population expected to show increase when counts return in March . Just as importantly, even with an additional 2,000 public housing homes being built over ten years, there yet remains a significant amount of people earning below the recommended amount people need to earn to afford even the rent of lower-cost privately owned housing units. According to the BC Non-Profit Housing Ass...

The long tail of Covid-19 continues to coil around the throat of Western civilization, growing ever tighter, compressing the chest and stomach of society, inducing ever more and more death from heart attacks and strokes. We are witness to a spectacle observed very rarely in human history, that of the beginning of near-total collapse of civilization brought upon by novel virus. Once upon a time, smallpox spread across the continents of North and South America, bringing to the ground where the bodies were conveniently buried over in shallow graves the cultures and civilizations of North and South America. The colonizers were free to run roughshod over the ever decreasing survivors as though what had happened and what was still happening was not just inevitable but just in some form. The people of the West were anointed to spread across the landmass. It was destiny manifest. The lands were cleared with very little war and hardly any risk for the invaders. The greatest risk was encroaching...

Trudeau’s Money Heist: Emergencies Act Allows Seizure of Bank Accounts, Securities, Crypto of Those Suspected of “Links” to Convoy Members w/o Court Order   Just a reaction going off on a tangent from Yves Smith's thinking on this. She's misidentified what's important about the Liberal Party invoking of the EA. There's a sentiment that the protests are mainly American funded, and following the money will bring us to the doorstops of particular American groups of people with vested interests in ending restrictions and discrediting Covid-19 measures. The EA invoking is likely not about stopping the money (although certain individuals will probably be targeted to set examples, and the banks will play along with this as Canada retains far more control over its banks than the US does theirs). It's about discovering where the money's coming from. And getting these names will probably lead to certain discrete talks between Canadian and American officials about maybe ta...

I am returned. I suffered through a months long depression after the passing of a relative from Covid-19. My mood is lifting somewhat, and sparks of life return although in time to witness the nation of America fall into the madness of "herd immunity". There is no herd immunity for this virus. The more people it infects, the more chances it has at mutations. It is comparable to the common cold in only that regard. Otherwise, it is deadlier and attacks multiple organs other than just the respiratory system leaving behind if not a corpse than probably a disabled survivor. It is not the sort of disease that should be allowed to become endemic but political and business leaders have decided that this is what will be done, and so America (and Canada) have decided on this march into oblivion. At the rate of infection, and the rate of mortality from Omicron, it is likely millions will perish from it in less than a year in America alone. Canada—if it follows the American decision—wou...

It's been a while. I've been busy trying to find employment. Found some at last so I can carry on living this meagre existence, living month to month, hoping for some bit of improvement in my financial security. I am filled though with incredible sorrow. Grief and bereavement from the losses my family has suffered during this pandemic. And it just isn't stopping. It goes from one tragedy to the next. And people who should know better are falling into the cesspit of Trumpian lies about vaccines and masks although considering the American media's complicity in promoting lies, there's good reason to doubt anything it promotes now. There is no credibility to what is reported nowadays. But there should still be some credibility left somewhere. Vaccines are just simple things. Well, mRNA vaccines aren't but they're based on the same concept, just delivered earlier into the immune system where vaccines can do some good. They just raise a bit of defences against vir...

Global News I remember when Harper did his apology on behalf of Canada for residential schools, it bothered me for a long time. I realized later on it was because it did not acknowledge what happened in the residential schools as criminal. It was a "mistake" rather than anything intentional. In other words, Harper's apology was a non-apology apology: "Sorry you all suffered but Canada was trying to do the right thing." No, acknowledging it as genocide is the right thing to do. What would be steps for Canada in showing its sincerity in this acknowledgement? Reviving the Kelowna Accord? I should think with inflation, what was initially pledged should probably be bumped up to $15 or even $20 billion over a similar time frame. I think originally, it was $10 billion over ten years pledged to on-reserve development. A criminal investigation committee with prosecutorial, subpoena, and sentencing power is another thing. These were actual crimes of genocide. The broadcas...

Medicare for all, a contentious issue in the United State of America. There are some who'd have the whole system replaced wholesale, and some fewer who'd leave it in place as is forevermore. The former though are seemingly powerless against the votes of the latter, as proven by Sanders' loss to Biden in the Democratic Party primary, as both embodied the systems they wanted to bring about or leave alone. One is now president, and the other relegated to near obscurity in the Senate, destined to serve out the remainder of his term neutered and forgotten. Sanders was the Medicare for All advocate in the Democratic Party's primary, and on this issue he very nearly won. However, against the power and money of the current leadership of the party, he faltered midway, and so the battle for victory for medicare for all was delayed yet again. Perhaps as Ted Kennedy before him, he may likely pass on from this life without ever having fulfilled his lifelong goal of bringing to Amer...