Sunday, April 05, 2020

Palm Sunday

 




Next day, a great multitude of those who had come up for the feast, hearing that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem,  took palm branches with them and went out to meet him, crying aloud, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the king of Israel.


Justin angrily shakes his fist at Trump from behind the closed doors of the taxpayer-funded cottage where he is bravely taking refuge from the Chinese-spread virus that has (as of this writing) killed 277 people in Canada and infected over a million worldwide. He swears on the Chinese-funded foundation of his father never to retaliate against his mightier and harder-working foe who acted decisively where Canada decidedly failed but rather graciously accept shoddy equipment from China (at a price) and let the world know that no matter how much China may hurt the world, Canada will always be there to be its whipping boy:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is not considering retaliation after U.S. President Donald Trump told a manufacturer of medical masks not to export them to Canada.

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Canada is set to receive “millions” of medical masks from China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Saturday.

Trudeau made the comments from Rideau Cottage, where he is currently self-isolating.

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The Chinese-made “N95” respiratory masks were advertised online as having been certified by U.S. safety regulators — an important claim amid the global coronavirus pandemic, as front-line workers scramble for life-saving protective equipment.

But the masks were fake. And following an investigation by Global News, the counterfeits were pulled last week from websites in India, Pakistan and a half-dozen other countries.

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The majority of rapid test coronavirus test kits supplied by China to Spain and the Czech Republic are faulty, local news outlets reported.

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The Netherlands is the latest country to reject China-made coronavirus testing kits and other protective gear, calling the items substandard and raising serious questions about the quality of the supplies Beijing is selling to the world.

The Netherlands joins Spain, Turkey, Georgia, and the Czech Republic in their concerns over masks and test kits. The claims come as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surge in the United States and Europe, highlighting the dependence many countries have on Chinese imports.

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European Union health ministers are due to discuss the security of medical supplies on Friday, after warnings that the bloc faces potentially significant shortages of crucial components imported from China as the country attempts to get back to work after virus-related shutdowns. France has openly called for more manufacturing “sovereignty” from foreign suppliers, as it scrambles to guarantee the supply of masks and control the price of hand-gel to try to reassure the public.

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A number of countries have rejected China’s sale or donation of equipment designed to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. Thousands of testing kits and medical masks were below standard or defective, reported bbc.com Mar 30, citing authorities in Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands.

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A further word on masks:
“The government said Tuesday that it has inked deals with three Canadian companies — Thornhill Medical, Medicom and Spartan Bioscience — to make ventilators, surgical masks, test kits and other items, but the more than 60 million N95 masks it has ordered are all coming from foreign suppliers.”

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As the black market trade of its N95 respirator masks has continued to swell, pressure is mounting on 3M, which manufactures the masks and other protective gear, to crack down on price gouging among its distributors.

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As the global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) continues to grow amid the novel coroanvirus outbreak, Canada’s chief public health officer says the country is looking into whether or not some of these supplies can be reused.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Dr. Theresa Tam, said officials are “looking at multiple entities in Canada” that might be able to properly disinfect medical masks.

(Sidebar: this is the same broad who told people not to use masks.)


Now that it has been established that Justin et al went into a tizzy over everyone's else action and vigilance and he didn't, can the world move on now?


Also - indeed:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been leading an effort to get the province’s manufacturers to retool to make key pieces of equipment during the crisis. Speaking Thursday, Ford said that it’s time Ontario and Canada were self-sufficient in providing this gear.

“We’re going to start manufacturing them. We’re going to encourage hospitals to support these manufacturers. We can never, ever be put in this position again that we’re relying on countries around the world to support us with PPEs,” Ford said.

(Sidebar: Ford has been quite the little soldier in all of this, actually.)

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As said, we are providentially supplied with massive natural resources. Yet, we have hamstrung the most fundamental of our industries, put it under the most specious of restraints, collapsed a central sector, one absolutely vital to a modern economy. The energy industry has been made a pariah, and mining next to energy, absent both of which the world cannot function. The fact that the bountiful resources of a whole province are landlocked is and has been a true national scandal. It defies reason itself.


And:
The coronavirus pandemic and Saudi/Russia oil price war may be highlighting Canada’s lack of energy self-sufficiency, but its deficiencies were also exposed earlier this year when rail blockades cut off Quebec and Eastern Canada’s propane supplies for heating in the middle of winter.
 
“Those are longer-term problems that we’ve known about for a long time,” said Marla Orenstein, director of the Natural Resources Centre at the Canada West Foundation.

“One of the things being shown by this crisis is we don’t have clarity on what our national objectives are for energy. We don’t have a clear objective of what we want for our energy future. This crisis has shown, in high relief, the importance of getting this right.”

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Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, told the Financial Times he had held discussions with Washington about tariffs, as a global deal to reduce production appeared to be hanging by a thread.


AND - of course it's from the Pembina Institute:

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic may be a long way off, but analysts are already looking ahead to how Canada could hasten its recovery and position itself for a low-carbon economy.

“The main thing we need to be doing right now is protecting Canadians’ health and well-being,” said Josha MacNab of the Pembina Institute.

“Within that context, we’re starting to turn our minds to what does economic recovery look like.”
 
Five will get you ten that this mental midget doesn't rely on peat to warm himself or bee's wax candles to light his way.

What are single-use plastics in hospitals made out of, Josh?

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Those are nice ideas but they will never get off of the ground:

Pessimists will say private projects like these will not go ahead in this terrible COVID-19 economy — so approval no longer matters. Possibly. But most would go ahead. The world will still need natural gas — and oil — for decades to come according to the International Energy Agency: “Natural gas demand grew at a remarkable clip last year, increasing by 4.6 per cent, its highest growth rate since the beginning of the decade. Future growth will be more measured, supported by economic expansion in emerging markets — especially in Asia — and sustained policy support in the People’s Republic of China to battle air pollution.”

These projects build assets that will last 25 years. A short-term pandemic does nothing to change their viability. Even if investors decide to cancel one or two, the federal government would have done no harm to approve them.


 
Wow, people really have a handle on this coronavirus thing:

In Ontario’s Bruce County, librarians are being asked to trade checking out books for checking temperatures at the doors of nursing homes.

The county located along the shore of Lake Huron has offered library and museum workers the opportunity to keep earning their full salaries during the pandemic shutdown if they are willing to serve meals, clean bed pans and help residents with activities at two publicly owned long-term care homes.

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Migrant rights advocates say a COVID-19 outbreak that infected at least 19 temporary foreign workers at a Kelowna nursery was a “bomb” due to explode because federal officials aren’t doing enough to protect their health and safety.

Interior Health ordered a group of workers living in on-site housing at Bylands Nurseries to quarantine after 63 temporary foreign workers and 12 local workers were “impacted” by an outbreak of the virus. Nineteen of the temporary foreign workers have since tested positive for the disease.

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Nearly 60,000 of Canada’s 68,000 troops are now in isolation in advance of COVID-19 operations, Canada’s top soldier says.

Many of them have been ordered to do so to be ready to deploy across Canada to assist civil authorities to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, said Gen. Jon Vance said in an interview Thursday with Global News.

(Sidebar: Poland had martial law once.)

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Canada has put a call out for volunteers to support frontline healthcare workers and is offering full-time jobs to Canadian Forces reservists, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during an update to the country’s coronavirus response on Sunday.

“For those of you with specialized skills looking to help our frontline workers, we do want to hear from you,” said Trudeau, who spoke to reporters from Rideau Cottage where he is self-isolating.

(Sidebar: aren't there enough gender studies graduates for this sort of thing?)

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Oh, just be honest! If Canada didn't helm it, it's considered to be rubbish. There is the ugliest bit of national chauvinism one has seen in a long time:

But it’s a different story in Canada, where hydroxychloroquine and other potential COVID-19 medicines are being met more with a cautious interest than unbridled enthusiasm.

Canadian researchers are actively involved in several studies of the malaria drug and others, with the federal government spending millions to support them.

But in contrast to the FDA, health organizations here have discouraged their use except as part of those clinical trials — studies designed to carefully assess the drugs’ effectiveness and possible harmful side effects.

And some experts warn that widespread use outside of studies — which typically include a control group of patients who don’t receive the drug — could make it difficult to ever determine whether they work or not.

To be clear, I am not advocating rushing to judgment. I am advocating taking a keen look at empirical evidence and following it.

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I would take a good look at this guy:
A 104-year-old World War II veteran has become the oldest known survivor of the coronavirus outbreak after he defeated the disease in time for his birthday.

Bill Lapschies had a celebration with his family Wednesday to celebrate his birthday, less than a month after testing positive for the coronavirus.


Also - it's now the duty to die:

Physicians, meanwhile, are urging Canadians to consider now whether they would want the full panoply of ICU care should COVID-19 make them severely ill, especially given research showing survivors of such treatment often fare poorly over the long term.

“If someone felt like they were approaching the end of their life, dying on a ventilator with a viral pneumonia would be an undignified way to go,” said Dr. Michael Detsky, a critical care specialist at Toronto’s Mt. Sinai hospital. “I would be very supportive if somebody told me they didn’t want mechanical ventilation should they deteriorate.”

Some doctors are even considering whether to raise a more touchy issue, asking patients or families to consider giving up their chance at a ventilator for someone more likely to survive.


 
It's just an economy:
The report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says some 862,000 people ― or nearly one-third of the estimated 2.7 million Canadians who were unemployed at the end of March ― will get no help from either the Employment Insurance program or the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

(Sidebar: this benefit.)

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Last Thursday, most Service Canada centres across Canada were shut down as a result of workers calling in sick and the union encouraging them to walk off, and stay off, the job.

Service Canada is where more than a million new employment insurance claimants applied last week, with potentially millions more using that service soon. It’s where elderly Canadians apply for Old Age Security. By removing their ability to provide in person services, our public servants are ignoring society’s most vulnerable. ...

 I was initially hoping, when I heard the story, that the union would order their members to work. Instead, they instructed them not to work. I then hoped that the Liberal Government would order these civil servants to return to work on pain of discharge. Instead, the government closed down all centres across Canada and redirected employees to serve Canadians over the phone.
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The Canadian food service sector laid off 800,000 people in March as the coronavirus crisis forced shutdowns across the country, according to a survey released on Thursday.

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More than two million Canadians have applied for employment insurance in the past two weeks, says Minister of Employment Carla Qualtrough. All workers and employers will pay for pandemic-related claims through higher premiums in future years: “Our employment insurance system was not designed to address a public global health crisis.”

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This year’s deficit will top $130 billion, the highest in Canadian history, according to figures detailed yesterday by Finance Minister Bill Morneau. The shortfall is triple the modern equivalent of Parliament’s 1942 wartime deficit of $39.3 billion: “Extraordinary.” 



Yes, your Eminence, that does sound like a good idea:

One of the top leaders of the Christian faith in Asia has pulled up the Chinese government leadership for “primary responsibility” for the Covid-19 pandemic which has put much of the world under lockdown, reported cruxnow.com Apr 3. He has demanded that it write off the debts of other countries at the very least due to the economic hardship the pandemic has caused to them.

“The Chinese regime led by the all-powerful [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – not its people – owes us all an apology, and compensation for the destruction it has caused,” the report quoted Myanmar Cardinal Charles Bo, the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences [FABC], as saying.

“At a minimum it should write off the debts of other countries, to cover the cost of Covid-19. For the sake of our common humanity, we must not be afraid to hold this regime to account,” he was reported to have added.




There will be no wreath ceremony at the Vimy Ridge memorial this year:


Pandemic fears yesterday prompted the Department of Veterans Affairs to cancel a wreath-laying ceremony for the dead of the Battle of Vimy Ridge at the National War Memorial. A planned May 8 pilgrimage of Second World War veterans to the Netherlands is also cancelled: “These events would have resulted in the gathering of large groups.”



It's probably because no one wants to be destroyed economically:

While the virus has dramatically spread in countries such as the US, Italy, Spain and the UK, South Korea has successfully taken control of the situation – without even enforcing a lockdown.

Shops and cafes remain open, whereas countries such as India have enforced a “complete” lockdown, with all shops and workplaces shut. ...

South Korea had carried out 431,743 coronavirus tests as of Thursday.

However, Dr Youngmi Kim, an expert in Korean public policy from the University of Edinburgh, said it was the government’s speed at the beginning of the outbreak that made the key difference. ...

“Then again, it was not that late because they traced all these patients who got positive tests: where they visited and who they met. If they had visited supermarkets, shops or libraries, they closed those venues for two weeks and sanitised them. ...

“Originally people had to visit hospitals,” Dr Kim said. “Later, they developed further testing methods like a drive-through.

“They also have individual single booths so it’s much easier. They can test more than 150 patients with symptoms in one day. They can just walk into the booth and the doctor could test them. That helped speed up testing.”

“Also, they investigated all those people they had contacted and they had the same testing procedure.



How do you think people used to teach their kids?:

“I have an education degree but I don’t really think that actually is going to help me in this situation, I mean teaching your own children is a whole different animal,” said Julie Little, a mom of three in Fredericton.

I'll just leave this right here:

Abraham Lincoln: Sixteenth President of the United States Abraham Lincoln was also the first Republican president and pulled the country through the Civil War, ending slavery. Today, Lincoln is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history, but he grew up with much humbler roots. Lincoln famously lived in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky and only attended 18 months of formal school. Lincoln mostly taught himself under the guidance of his stepmother Sarah Bush Johnston and the local library. ...

 Albert Einstein: One of the most famous and influential thinkers of all time, Albert Einstein, is credited with discovering the special and general theories of relativity, relativistic cosmology, quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, and many more scientific theories and laws. Born in 1879 in the German Empire, Einstein eventually moved with his family to Munich, where he attended a Catholic school. But when he was ten, the Einsteins fell on hard times and paid a Jewish medical student named Talmud to tutor Albert in math, science and philosophy.



It's not a justice system but a legal one and it's awful:
There is no need for the federal lobbying commissioner to take another look at whether the Aga Khan broke the rules by giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a vacation in the Bahamas, an appeal court has decided.

In a newly released ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal says the commissioner’s original decision not to investigate a complaint about the matter is not subject to review by a judge, effectively making it final.

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A Pakistani court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of the main person accused in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and acquitted three other co-accused in the matter.




What fresh hell is this?:
A forest fire is burning in the evacuated area around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and is causing elevated radiation levels, authorities said Sunday.

The blaze has spread to about 100 hectares (250 acres), said Yehor Firsov, head of Ukraine’s state ecological inspection service.

The emergency services ministry said 130 firefighters and two planes were labouring to put out the fire. It said radiation levels had increased at the fire’s centre.

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A valley dam that authorities in Rwanda say could contain about 30,000 bodies has been discovered more than a quarter-century after the country's genocide in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.



 (Insert own "the world is warming!" comment here):

Scientists have discovered a dirty little secret about Antarctica: the frigid wasteland of a continent was once home to a swampy temperate rainforest when dinosaurs walked the Earth some 90 million years ago, according to an analysis of ancient soil samples.

Ferns, conifer trees and a wide variety of flowers once flourished near the South Pole during Earth’s super-warm Cretaceous Period, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The discovery is expected to reshape scientists’ understanding of the planet’s climate history and — potentially — the future.



Saint John Paul II on suffering:

“The image we saw on television is unforgettable,” Comastri said. “The pope, who had lost all his physical strength, holding the Crucifix in his hands, gazing at it with pure love. One could sense he was saying: ‘Jesus, I too am on the Cross like you. But together with you I await the Resurrection.’”

According to Comastri, “John Paul II was a true master of pain redeemed by love and transformed into an antidote to selfishness: a redemption of human selfishness. This is possible only by opening one’s heart to Jesus: only with Him can one understand and give value to pain.”


 
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bill Withers:





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