Good morning from Canada, a country whose border Trump has called an “imaginary” “artificial line” established by an illegitimate treaty. I’d like to be spared your nuanced “Were Trump voter’s racist with fascist inclinations or just low information voters with fascist inclinations?” debate today.

Is there anyone who will stand up for international law? The United States has become a rogue nation.

No illusions about what I can control. I did email Prime Minister Mark Carney asking for unequivocal condemnation of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela. Later I’ll go to the grocery store to buy food for the community fridge as I do every Saturday because people in Ottawa are hungry.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well the, I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes)” Walt Whitman I would like to see 2026 be the year of chickens coming home to roost and the year that we give people more grace.

May it be so for you.

So far today I’ve smashed the bodum and cut open my finger. Two separate incidents. So if we begin as we mean to continue I’m going to need someone to give 2026 a spanking.

Years ago when I was a kid I watched a program about a bunch of kids having a bake sale. It was to raise money for some worthy cause, actual cause not relevant. So brownies were baked, peanut butter cookies were pressed with the tines of a fork to make that little grid pattern on their back.

if i have one ask of people going into 2026 is to read a book, if you havent been reading already. its never too late to pick it back up and, no, you arent too stupid or have too little attention to try the cool thing about books is they are easy to pick up and put down in short bursts if u need

#OneOfTheTwo I generally don’t @ folks but I do make exceptions. @weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social Kiss my ass you punching down assholes. My loved ones will not protect themselves and you are part of the reason why.

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.

Merry Christmas ✨️

Am I supposed to have “goals” for 2026 when I’m living squeezed between the rock of ongoing Covid everywhere and the hard place of the climate crisis? Goals require hope and I’m finding hope to be in short supply.

Canadian COVID Forecast Dec 20, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026 ONTARIO HIGH [decreasing] About 1 of every 58 people is infected. Compared to lowest point of pandemic in Canada: -Infections: 10.5 x higher -Long COVID: 6.0 x higher -Hospitalizations: 8.7 x higher -Deaths: 8.3 x higher

COVID-19 increases your risk of heart attacks, blood clots, strokes, & more. The risk of heart problems from COVID-19 infection is significantly higher than the risk from vaccines. Protect your heart by getting vaccinated & taking other steps to avoid COVID & Long COVID. See the data: bit.ly/4kl36Mz

started / going

Casual reminder that the myth of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel hoax designed to convince poor people from all walks of life that the injustices they face are a result of their own actions, rather than an oppressive system rigged against them.

Solstice blessings. May the return of the light see better days for us.

People who aspire to be academics: I wish to live a life of the mind Actual academics:

I am convinced in the future we will look back and realise the sheer unimaginable folly of letting a virus that can cause immune dysregulation and cognitive dysfunction in humans infect and re-infect the global population over and over again. Worse still, that we encouraged it.

I love television. Love it. Great television is sublime and accessible. Abyssinia, Henry. The Body. Love’s Labor Lost. Ozymandias. College. This is to say I rewatched Long Long Time the other night and it is a beautiful gem. Also, totally balls out to take 1/9 episodes for a stand alone.

Friends, when you reach out to a practitioner a reminder that email is not a secure means of communication and you don’t know me. Perhaps save the intimate details of your medical history for when I’m actually your herbalist. #Herbalism

'Tis the season for the Salvation Army's We're Not Bigots Anymore PR blitz. Looking at their public facing material, you might start to believe them. So in the festive spirit, have a 2024 SalvationArmy.org article on how trans and gay people are one of Satan's "most insidious and dominating" plots.

This is bullshit. And if the Public Health Agency of Canada were on blusky I would be snitch tagging so fast. Photo taken yesterday in the washroom Halifax airport. #CovidIsAirborne

Niche Ottawa I’m an above average consumer of political news and yet simultaneously your average bear. No one in the halls of power has the slightest inkling of my existence. Mr. Carney will have his majority by next Friday.

So I’m home and for those playing along the Aranet topped out yesterday at 2646 ppm - mid flight. This morning I’ve got the balcony door open, sitting in front of it, 493 ppm. Mask off for coffee and breakfast. My mom (87) wants to know what the benefit of the open door is. I’m like fresh air.

Eventually society will be too dumb to face up to oncoming challenges. I know dumb sounds flip. Recently my colleague asked me 3 times on the same night if the salmon comes with lemon. She’s 19. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. #CovidIsAirborne www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/underst...

Reading this as I sit, masked (the only person), at gate 21 at the Ottawa airport. Aranet reading 548 so pretty good (hear hear for high ceilings). Excellent consolidation of best practices. #CovidIsAirborne

Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star (Wars or Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.

A Carney stan in my replies said I was a fascist because I don't like Carney. But as far as I can recall, I've never tightened immigration, expanded the military, or tried to make it easier for the cops to read everyone's mail.

Geneviève Bergeron Hélène Croteau Nathalie Croteau Barbara Daigneault Anne-Marie Edward Maud Haviernick Maryse Laganière Maryse Leclair Anne-Marie Lemay Sonia Pelletier Michèle Richard Annie St-Arneault Annie Turcotte Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz What is remembered lives.

Trump has *always* intended to make Canada a vassal state. Trudeau warned as much when he said that the US wants our minerals into a hot mic. But I don’t think it’s fully appreciated, not least by our PM, what exactly that implies: that US-Canada relations are now a zero-sum game.

Niche Ottawa. Who will be targeted by the “private security“ - the most racialized and marginalized members of our community. This, on top of the massive increase they are giving to OPS, is outrageous. To announce at a press conference before discussing with council? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Is it abstract? Maybe. Yet it is so clearly icebergs. Glowing with that colour ice has. National Gallery of Canada continues to nourish my soul. Lawren Harris Icebergs, Davis Strait

There are so many people living lives of quiet dignity despite horrific medical news or poverty or tragedy where every day they still wake up and try to be good people in the world even as the world pushes against them and it makes me even angrier at the absolute shitheads that rule over things

A still morning at Loch Maree

While you’re being distracted with nonsense & bile, this is what’s happening to the planet you & your family live on.

Everywhere you look it’s just mask off unvarnished racism.

I do better with loved ones who are farther away. I imagine them masking, protecting themselves/others. Tbh it’s a bit like when you tell kids that their beloved pet is gone to live on a farm. I’m nobody special but I’m the only person I know with the mental capacity to face what needs to be faced.

Bestie planning a trip with some other friends to celebrate turning 60. Sicily. Followed by a week in England to visit her elderly aunt/uncle who are in poor health. And my question is what, if any, strategies will she be adopting to reduce the chance she gives them Covid. Angry. #CovidIsAirborne

COVID is a systemic disease that can harm the brain, heart, immune system and more. Every reinfection increases the risk of Long COVID, chronic illness, disability and even death. If people understood the real danger, they’d take prevention seriously instead of accepting repeated infections.

Canada, abortion rights are under attack. The forced birthers are using the same strategies that worked in the U.S. open.substack.com/pub/vajenda/...

We do not have decades in which we can wait for Covid-19 to be brought under control. The deep harm from uncontrolled Covid-19 is increasing, week by week and month by month, and under current conditions it will overwhelm us, sooner rather than later. Strong action is needed now. #COVID19

Canadian COVID Forecast Nov 22 - Dec 5, 2025 ONTARIO HIGH [no change] About 1 of every 184 people is infected. Compared to lowest point of pandemic in Canada: -Infections: 7.8 x higher -Long COVID: 5.9 x higher -Hospitalizations: 6.7 x higher -Deaths: 10.2 x higher

In Monrovia, California, protesters are purchasing 17¢ ICE scrapers from Home Depot and immediately returning them to create long lines and slow down the entire store. Their aim is to disrupt sales and convey a message opposing ICE raids occurring in their neighborhood.

It’s the tiniest pebble in my shoe but my name is spelled with an e. It is right there in my email address! So I don’t know who this other person you’re addressing is.

Ah, the problem is not that we fail to provide everyone with adequate housing or services for people with addiction, the *real problem* is that the rest of us are forced to see the results of these things, under the label "social decay". Got it.

Respiratory virus season is here, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself and others from COVID-19, flu, RSV, and more! Masks, vaccines, good handwashing, and maintaining clean indoor air can help keep you safe and protect your short-term and long-term health.

Your spell has you trapped in the body of a frog? Problematic mage gap.