Marie Snyder

@mariesnyder.bsky.social

12261 Followers 9252 Following

Mask and relax with an N95! I post and repost about covid, climate, conflicts, cycling, psychology, philosophy, and politics. Longreads at https://apuffofabsurdity.blogspot.com/ and https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/author/mariesnyder

A similar-looking tortoiseshell cat with a mouse in her mouth.
A map of Ontario that indicates new (orange) and active (red) fires with little fire icons. It shows most of Northeastern Ontario covered in indicators, and several in Northeastern Ontario as well.
The movie poster for "Is This Thing On? with Laura Dern and Will Arnett facing each other, with Will holding a mic, as if doing stand up.
If you are using undocumented immigrants' tax records to find and kidnap them, then it was never about them paying taxes. If you are showing up at their place of employment, then it was never about them not working. If you are showing up at courthouses, then it was never about getting them to do it the right way. If you are kidnapping women and children, then it was never about criminals. If you're refusing to give them due process, then it was never about the constitution. If you're spending billions to do this, then it was never about the economy. And if you're doing all this in the name of a 34 time convicted felon, then it was never about following the law.
I used to think the “smart people” ..the PhDs, the MDs … knew they were screwed after the first infection. Watching their behavior, it looked like this: once they got infected, they stopped masking. I assumed that meant they understood SARS-CoV-2 as a persistent infection and had simply resigned themselves to it. But over time, I realized that wasn’t it at all. They weren’t shielding because they understood long-term risk. They were shielding because they were afraid of the first hit. Once they got infected, survived, and felt “fine,” they concluded they were safe. Protected. Done. They do not believe this 👇(see Tern’s thread) They do not believe a single infection has done them in or will haunt them later. They do not believe repeated infection is cumulative. They do not believe immune damage persists. They do not believe vascular and neurological injury compounds. That’s why I remain a Novid.
Section 1: Crossing the Floods. Aesthetic Healing by Kathleen M. Higgins; Lessons in Loneliness by Kaitlyn Creasy; A Life Beyond Performance by Boris Sotomayor; Who Crosses the Floods? On the Lack of Self by David Loy; Suffering, Ineffability and Radical Bodily Doubt by Havi Carel; Bearing Witness: On Animal Suffering by Rebekah Humphreys; Section 2: Conversations: Grief worlds with Matthew Ratcliffe and Kathleen M. Higgins; Living with dark moods with Mariana Alessandri and Kieran Setiya; and On anxiety with Samir Chopra and Maryam Aghdami
From Barry Hunt on Twitter: "Vaccines for flu and covid are about 30% effective this year against flu and covid. Respirators are about 100% effective this year and every year against flu and covid and RSV and colds and norovirus and measles and TV and so on."
Note to Self: "A lot of people in the media and on social media (all of us really) try to shame the radical right into behaving like responsible, moral, and ethical citizens based on the fallacy of fairness. The right's hypocrisy is a feature not a bug. In fact, a preferred tactic. Save your breath. Predators have no conventions, morality, values, standards or rules. The ones leading teh charge are indeed predators; those following are in denial-of-the-vile, or in it for self interested reasons of their own. How do you fight back? Do not underestimate for a minute the forces and organizations behind this dismantling of America. Do the research and study to become expert-knowledgeable about the subject, be creative - above all act. Be courageous and fearless, even if only because you have no choice. Saying truth is one thing, acting the truth is another. Act as if your life and future depend on it. It does. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be live."
A Skircle with my picture in the middle and many other pictures surrounding it. Sorry, but the original creation disappeared before I could get all their names.
A chart of Cuts to Ministry Expenses from the 2019 Ontario Budget. I'll just list the percentages, but it also list the amounts. Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs - 24%; Attorney General - 7%; Children, Community and Social Services - 2%; Environment, Conservation and Parks - 36%; Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade - 19%; Francophone Affairs - 3%; Municipal Affiars and Housing - 25%; Indigenous Affairs - 49%; Natural Resources and Forestry - 19%; Emergency Forest Firefighting - 67%; Seniors and Accessibility - 13%; Training, Colleges and Universities - 6%.
But, of course, psychic equivalence works both ways. A colleague told me that, as she was about to give her nearly two-year-old son a bath, he cried out in protest, furious to be put in the tub against his will. Apparently gripped by rage, he bit her, and then cried out once again, "Momma bited me!" Here the internal world -- of anger, then fear -- trumped the extrnal reality such that they become one.
AI Overview: No, it is not 2025. The current date is May 28, 2025.
A screenshot of a phone message from 1-888-242-1239 that says, "Contact Contact the client support centre please press nine Hello immigration office We have attempted to contact you multiple times, but you have not answered This is the final notice to contact the client support centre please press nine"
A pie graph of who all registered electors voted for in Ontario, 2022 with the Conservatives getting 18%, Liberals 10%, NDP 10%, other at 5% and "did not vote" at 57%
A colourful table comparing Trump and Ford with photos of them in a similar posture. "Doug Ford stated that he was 100% happy Trump won the presidency. Why? Ford & Trump share the same values & ambitions." The list has green checkmarks on these comparisons: LIAR: Trump: 40,000 & counting, Ford: Greenbelt, LCBO, cottage during Covid, Science Centre, allocation of $ for hospitals & schools, exaggerated Ontario surplus, buck a beer; MIA: Trump: always golfing, Ford: extended summer and Christmas breaks, frequent long absences form Queens Park, question period, during convoy protest; CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR: Trump: convicted criminal, Ford: RCMP criminal investigation into Greenbelt land, sold illegal drugs to minors when in high school; LAWSUITS: Trump: continual, Ford: continual multi-million $ lawsuits at taxpayer expense; both are friendly & do business with the very rich; both are friendly and do business with racists: Ford is going ahead with Musk's Starlink contract, has photo ops with and doesn't denounce right wing extremists, giving right wing Christian schools university designation; Trump is closing agencies that support public spending, and Ford has largest debt in Ontario history with small public spending, privatizing health care, cut funding to municipalities, shut down addiction & mental health supports, withholds money from health care, schools, and special education
Two cartoon drawings: In both a trolley is hitting a fork in the tracks, with one person able to direct it by pulling a lever. The trolley is headed for a track with five people on it, but pulling the level would move it to a track with just one person on it. In the first image, the person pulling the level is labelled "YOU," and it's titled "How you imagine the trolley problems. In the second cartoon, labelled "How it's actually going to be," that "YOU" label is now on the middle person of the five people on the track, and the lone person on the track and the guy pulling the lever both are wearing top hats and have several bags of cash. They're giving a thumbs-up to each other.
Orange background with white writing and a picture of Catherine Fife. It says, "Voters in Waterloo can vote early at Election Ontario's local office. In Waterloo, that's at 725 Bridge Street West. Voting times are as follows: any day from February 1-26, Monday to Saturday 10am to 8pm, and Sundays noon to 5pm. Advance in-person voting ends on February 26th at 6pm. Contact my campaign office: 365-589-0102 / catherine.fife@ontariondp.ca
From Julie Gray: "I see people posting that Elon was at Auschwitz this time last year - therefore, his recent 'gesture' is not antisemitic. I was there, too. Last year. With Elon. I am embarrassed that I have photos of this on my phone. My love, Gidon Lev, was the 'special guest' of this photo-op event. We thought, at the time, that it would be good publicity. But I would not share the photo today. I chatted with Elon Musk. I spent hours with him and walked with him through Auschwitz. I stood with him, looking at the nauseating heaps of hair, luggage, and shoes flooded with violet light meant to preserve it. Is Musk an antisemite? People, actually, it's worse - he doesn't care whatsoever. Elon, father of 'little X' as he described his freezing cold son to me, literally does not care. He was unmoved by the experience. For Gidon, to be in the place where his father, Ernst, died on a death march - whether shot by the side of the road or having simply collapsed - was a huge deal. Elon did not care. He was about his press junket and his bodyguards. I was 10' from him as he posed for the cameras of his entourage. He was utterly detached. He cared about how he looked. When he placed a wreath at Auschwitz and Gidon was overlooked, he walked away with the cameras whirring. This is Elon Musk. A sociopath, if ever there was one. To deduce, from this visit, that he is a friend of the Jews is desperately naive.
A single bar that starts with "work begins" with a long red part labelled "procrastinate," a shorter yellow bar labelled "panic," then a tiny green bar labelled "cram and work like hell while crying" and ending with the word "deadline"
The message says, "Use a layered approach to prevent serious illness during respiratory virus season: Consider wearing a well-fitting mask indoors; Stay up to date on flu and Covid-19 vaccines; Wash hands and clean surfaces often; Stay at home when you are sick." It's followed by a link: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/health-and-wellness/2019-novel-coronavirus.aspx - And then a poster with a man wearing a good quality mask (not a surgical mask), which says, "Protect yourself and loved ones from serious illness. Use a layered approach during respiratory virus season."
A bar graph showing the Angus Reid premier approval rating for December 2024: Manitoba's Kinew (NDP) at 67%, up 1. Nova Scotia's Houston (PC) 55%, up 14. New Brunswick's Holt (Liberal) at 54%, steady. Saskatchewan's Moe (PC) at 52%, up 7. Newfoundland's Furey (Liberal) at 46%, steady. BC's Eby (NDP) at 46% steady. Aberta's Smith (PC) at 45%, down 1. Quebec's Legault (CAQ) at 36%, down 3, and last and very least, Ontario's Ford (PC) at 34%, an increase of 3 since last month!
Letter to the Ottawa Citizen from Shelley Page, a senior writer who wrote about the Montréal Massacre: "My stories were restrained, diligent and cautious. For years, I remembered one of my sentences with particular pride. Reading it now, it shows everything that was wrong with how I covered the event: 'They stood crying before the coffins of strangers, offering roses and tiger lilies to young women they never knew.' I turned the dead engineering students into sleeping beauties who received flowers from potential suitors. I should have referred to the buildings they wouldn't design, the machines they wouldn't create and the products never imagined. They weren't killed for being daughters or girlfriends, but because they were capable women in a male-dominated field. I should have written that then.
From Moriarty Lab: Canadian COVID Forecast for Nov. 9-22, 2024 in Ontario is SEVERE. About 1 of every 28 people is infected. Long Covid estimate is 26 times higher, hospitalization from Covid is 23 times higher, and deaths from Covid are 15 times higher than at the lowest point during the Covid pandemic in Canada. There's a graph showing how closely Ontario lines up with Canada. Currently, we're just a bit below the Canadian average.
In 2020, Mount Sinai Hospital's chief executive officer told the city that 63% of his staff biked to work. He, along with other downtown hospital leaders, have been strong advocates for bike infrastructure at their doorstep. Mr. Ford doesn't see that. He sees, out his car window, bike lanes with lots of space. I see something else as someone who walks and cycles along Bloor and University regularly: crowds of cyclists who sometimes outnumber drivers. The advent of bike sharing and these lanes have changed my behaviour, and cycling is now my main mode of travel. This, experts say, is typical: "The more people have access to bike lanes, the more they come out of the woodwork and start biking" said Shoshanna Saxe, an associate professor in the U of Toronto's civil and mineral engineering department and Canada Research Chair in sustainable infrastructure. "In cities around the world, we've seen that people will bike when it's safe and convenient." Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, in an interview Thursday, pointed out that the city's Bike Share program has seen "dramatic" growth from 665,000 trips in 2015 to being on track for six million this year. "There's no doubt that there is a huge increase in people cycling, which is great, because that means they are not in a car, causing more congestion," she said.
An indication of each province covid risk rated based on several factors including hospital admissions and wastewater. All are severe except for Newfoundland. These numbers means that Covid is expected to cause that percent of excess mortality! Canada overall is at 24.1, Alberta at 22.3, BC at 20.3, Manitoba at 33.1, New Brunswick at 27.1, Newfoundland at 13.3, North at 24.9, Nova Scotia at 25.6, Ontario at 19.9, PEI at 16.4, Quebec at 29.3, and Saskatchewan at 29.9.
A cartoon conversation between a guy in a red hat and a woman. Guy: Your body, MY choice. The woman responds: This is the most self-c*ckblocking slogan in the history of slogans. Your desire to control our bodies because you can't get laid without coercion is straight up pathetic. The wannabe fascist podcasters who told you that other people's bodily autonomy was a threat to your masculinity forgot to mention how WEAK it makes you look.
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time- when the US is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few; and no one repesenting the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the peopel have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.