Also this one:

How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk

And

It’s the kind of liberalism that acts progressive until it might actually make a difference, then flees to the right. Although Macron has never really looked progressive.

OK, here’s some information: the shooter was dressed in black with a white backpack and white hands. Can I have $10,000?

Hopefully it’s just something like this, not a scam.

A food cart vendor near the scene told NBC News that he did not hear any gunshots but saw police vehicles and two helicopters in the area.

Why is news media so stupid?

My dad (in his mid 80s) told me proudly that he had just bought Linux and installed it on his computer. It’s great that he wanted to try Linux but I wonder what malware-riddled scam distro he found, and how I’ll sort it out on my next visit.

They’re not talking enough of it, just piping it into a river near you.

Canadian media is almost wholly right wing and owned by billionaires. Where it isn’t (e.g. CBC) the Conservatives are intent on shutting it down.

Don’t assume Canadians are well informed. The right-wing media and the Conservatives lie to Canadians too, and people believe what they’re told. In Ontario they have voted in, and voted back in, a government that is determined to dismantle public healthcare, and the voters seem not to even notice. At the federal level the Conservatives dishonestly blame the federal government for issues they know are provincial government matters, and people go along with that too and are all set to elect the Conservatives despite their having no positive proposals or intentions. Voters are easily duped.

Ontarians and Albertans are already voting for Conservatives to dismantle their healthcare, and Canadians are about to vote in the furthest right Conservative federal government ever. As a wise man once said, people like Coldplay and voted for Hitler. You can’t trust people.

What is the weight of NATO without the USA? Especially against the USA?

Even so, it feels like Canada has to reconceive the purpose and scale of its military defenses. The USA can’t be trusted to always be an ally.

Mexico has already acted to reduce illegal immigrants entering the USA over its border by 76%, while Trump was lying about the problem being worse. None of it has anything to do with Trump, and he’s just making effective cooperative action more difficult with his bluster and threats.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-stick-with-policies-aimed-stopping-migrants-after-trump-win-2024-11-08/

Illegal immigration into the USA from Canada has increased but the numbers remain very small. Trump is lying when he claims it’s a big problem.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/illegal-migration-canada-united-states-1.7320623

That’s what I mean: the USA will be coming for Canada’s water.

If the USA invaded Canada, Canada would not be able to defend itself. Thankfully that idea has been unthinkable for a long time, but as the USA goes fascist, climate change kicks in and the water starts to run out, I could see that changing one day.

Elon Musk’s wealth is listed as about $337,000,000,000. If you earn $50K per year it would take you 6.74 million years to earn it, or 3.37 million years at $100K. If you earned a million dollars a year it would still take you 337,000 years. It’s an obscene amount of wealth to belong to one man.

The thing is, this care helps kids with gender dysphoria to get through their teenage years and make it to adulthood. It can’t simply be postponed until later without serious impact on the well being of the kid. We are talking about things like puberty blockers here, not surgeries:

Major medical associations agree that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults with gender dysphoria, which, according to the American Psychiatric Association, is psychological distress that may result when a person’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align.

Though the care is highly individualized, some children may decide to use reversible puberty suppression therapy. This part of the process may also include hormone therapy that can lead to gender-affirming physical change. Surgical interventions, however, are not typically done on children and many health care providers do not offer them to minors. (CNN)

Gender dysphoria is by all accounts a deeply troubling experience during teenage years, particularly if your body is growing in a direction that makes you ever more uncomfortable. Puberty blockers can help:

For transgender and gender-diverse youth who have gender dysphoria, delaying puberty might:

• Improve mental well-being.
• Ease depression and anxiety.
• Improve social interactions with others.
• Lower the need for future surgeries.
• Ease thoughts or actions of self-harm. (Mayo Clinic)

You can’t do this once you’re already an adult, and there are physical changes you might be deeply uncomfortable with that can be locked in by puberty and will now require more radical interventions as an adult. I know trans adults who really struggle with the feeling that they should have started medical treatments sooner, before puberty brought changes to their bodies.

These treatments aren’t prescribed lightly either, contrary to what some right-wing voices would have you imagine. From the same Mayo Clinic page:

In most cases, to begin using puberty blockers, an individual needs to:

• Show a lasting pattern of gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria.
• Have gender dysphoria that began or worsened at the start of puberty.
• Address any psychological, medical or social problems that could interfere with the treatment.
• Be able to understand the treatment and agree to have it. This is called informed consent.

Puberty blockers are not recommended for children who have not started puberty.

Maybe now they can forget all the expensive chipmaking and get back to their core business of stock buybacks.

Going to restaurants alone is one of my favourite things. All the same food and drink, but you can just enjoy it quietly and not have to keep up with conversation.

Is anyone safe under Trump?