herid @herid@qoto.org

1/ CONQUERING CRIMEA: PART 1

Since 2014, Crimea has been under Russian control. Ukraine, naturally, wants it back. But what does history show about the challenges of reconquering it? In a series of threads, I'll look at the lessons of past wars.

Crimea's fascinating military history has been of interest to me for many years – I travelled there in the early 2000s to study its old battlefields, so some of this will be drawn from personal recollections and notes.

With all the talk of *waves around*, let's save a though for the extinction-level event percolating in the background...
https://globalnews.ca/news/9575793/bird-flu-pandemic-potential-canada/

Netanyahu is trying to subvert one of the core building blocks of democracy. That is the aim of authoritarians to be able to control their country’s judicial system. He must be fully stopped.

#Israel

@TheWolfe
"In the past 2 months, Doug Ford has made significant funding announcements for Magna [Kayla] & Runnymede Hospital [Kara]… and both just happen to employ his daughters in jobs that don’t require a University degree (but still pay extremely well). Ford also gave his nephew [Michael] a $166k cabinet minister position and gave cops (like his 2 son-in-laws) an exemption from #Bill124 to get higher raises than other public sector workers like nurses."
@TO_Resident
#nepotism #Dofo #onpoli

In another Ford fail, the #Ontario Cons this week patted themselves on the back for their “historic” deal with the province’s optometrists. If one only read the headline of the press release, which I expect is the most his supporters can read anyway, one would think this is good news after Ford spent years fighting against eye doctors and our eye #health.

As always, the devil is in the details. The new arrangement is in fact a significant cut in #OHIP-covered service.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2023/03/24/ford-government-cutting-back-ohip-covered-eye-services-for-some-seniors.html

We won’t act on climate change until our own comfortable lives are threatened — and that day is coming

https://www.independent.ie/news/environment/we-wont-act-on-climate-change-until-our-own-comfortable-lives-are-threatened-and-that-day-is-coming-42404197.html

#ClimateEmergency #pollution #ecology #environment #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe
#ClimateChange #Climate

#Toronto voices

Monthly cost of TTC Pass: $156
Monthly cost of a street parking permit $55-$77

"It’s time to look at the TTC as a vital service like roads, education, and health care. Not a nice-to-have service. And for the simple fact that there isn’t enough space to drive and park all the cars if everyone in the city drove"

#VoteTO #transit #priorites
@howsenchong

"What I do take issue with is Treasury/Fed/FDIC's claim that 'no losses will be borne by the taxpayer' as they make uninsured depositors whole. Not to put too fine a point on it, that's bullshit." https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/03/12/unlimited-deposit-insurance/index.html

"More importantly, based on excess mortality calculations there’s mounting evidence that the #COVID19 pandemic has taken a massive toll on global life expectancy. Not since the famine in China in 1959, have we seen such a sharp decline in life expectancy worldwide." #CovidIsNotOver

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/03/02/covid-19s-enormous-death-toll-worldwide-life-expectancy-has-experienced-a-steep-decline/?sh=6473d5f874df

1/ Mobilised Russians from Irkutsk are being sent "to slaughter" in Ukraine and have been told that they are "expendable". Their commanders have shot at them to 'motivate' them and their unit has taken so many casualties that it has had to be reconstituted six times. ⬇️

Give a man a gun and he'll rob a bank.

Give a man a bank and he'll rob everyone.

@Foodiekenobi @Nerdfest

Today, I was the only person in the pharmacy wearing a mask.

The UNMASKED person ahead of me was speaking to the UNMASKED pharmacist about the new rules for obtaining Paxlovid as their spouse at home was *quite ill*

#doomed #surreal #CovidIsNotOver
#Pharmacists

Geoffrey Oryema - Makambo

https://youtu.be/Huw8tu4Q-iI

#SongOfTheDay
#FavoriteMusic 86/

Drone footage published by the Russian state media showing the current state of Bakhmut. There's nothing left to fight over but ruins.

I dunno, I wonder why the Chinese govt. would want to prevent a decorated Chinese Canadian serving in the Navy from becoming a Member of Parliament.
#canpoli #SpaFY

https://twitter.com/KevinVuongMP/status/1623787188725874689?s=20

ChatGPT and AI could completely replace the need for StackOverflow for coders as long as it constantly told me my question was irrelevant, had already been answered, and berated me for not doing my own research first and then downvoted me.

Opinion | Russian Troops Know How Little They Mean to Putin - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/opinion/russia-army-ukraine.html