The Maple Leaf Lounge

[Timewalker]

Oh, believe me, I know how frustrating this news ban is on FB. It makes it nearly impossible to accurately refute whatever bullshit the UCP and their cult members spread.

Some people take screenshots of articles and post them as photos. It's awkward and annoying if it's a long article. And then up pops some twit claiming that "it's been photoshopped" (idiotic woman from Medicine Hat, denying that there was ever a border blockade near Coutts, even though she simultaneously said her husband was there "to support" the truckers).

And this whole thing is really frustrating when I'm in a group or on a page with a lot of Americans or Australians or people from various European countries. They think I'm BS'ing them when I tell them Canadians aren't allowed to read or post news on FB. I took a screenshot of that obnoxious message that we see, and use that as proof that if they want me to know about whatever article they're talking about, they need to describe it or post a non-clickable link so I can find it for myself. Or do a copy/paste of it.

 

[DEWLine]

We're not meant by Zuckerberg's people to be able to refute this nonsense. Guaranteed.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You know, one thing often not mentioned throughout all this are the unfortunate side-effects of the Online Media Act, aka Bill C-18. This was supposed to be something put in place to compensate news sites for news articles shared on social media platforms. In theory, it would have meant that each time an article was shared by someone from an official news site, the social media platforms would pay a fee to the news organization. This was a formula followed by what was being done in Australia. Well, Facebook among others balked at this and said, hell no, we won't have none of that! We won't pay!

As you have pointed out, the fault for this lies entirely with Meta, and I think it is in everyone's best interest to remember that. They could have followed the law, as they did in Australia, but they chose not to. It is not the government of Canada's fault that a private enterprise chose to discontinue a particular service in order to circumvent their legal obligations.

Remember, it is always an option to not support the oligarch.

I still wish Carney hadn't cancelled the Digital Services Tax.

 

[Timewalker]

As you have pointed out, the fault for this lies entirely with Meta, and I think it is in everyone's best interest to remember that. They could have followed the law, as they did in Australia, but they chose not to. It is not the government of Canada's fault that a private enterprise chose to discontinue a particular service in order to circumvent their legal obligations.

Remember, it is always an option to not support the oligarch.

I still wish Carney hadn't cancelled the Digital Services Tax.

It's nuts that I had to explain this in a group dedicated to a juvenile mystery series (Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators).

The talk got political there earlier tonight, and I'm half-expecting my most recent posts to have been deleted. This is a series of mystery novels that was recently rebooted by the original author's daughter and a "writing partner" (shades of what Brian Herbert did with his father's Dune legacy).

I don't know how much of the nuDune crap might be influenced by Brian Herbert's political views, but the daughter who rebooted her father's mystery series posted a substack post recently-ish, in which she boo-hoo'd over poor Charlie Kirk and said that she'd deliberately incorporated some of his views into the new, rebooted Three Investigators novels.

So at least now I know one of the reasons why they're crap (she released the first chapter of the first 6 novels in emails) and probably why it's got such a crazy publication schedule. She pre-wrote 26 novels, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet. They're nearly impossible to get outside the U.S. unless you're willing to pay an insane amount of money and she didn't write them with the intention of them appealing to the older fans (people of my generation who first encountered them in school libraries in the 1970s).

Then she wrote another substack post, whining that she'd gotten pushback for her views on Charlie Kirk, and gushed her thanks to those of us still subscribed, as we obviously must agree with her that it was just so awful that a fine, upstanding person like Kirk was murdered, and how wonderful that we all agree with her on Charlie Kirk's views.

Well, if the crappy writing hadn't made me steer clear of these books in the first place, these two substack posts definitely did the trick. There is no way in hell I'd ever buy her books, nor would I ever recommend them to anyone, fan or not of this series.

So that's basically what I can't post on FB. But apparently somebody else decided to toss in some references to MAGA and the 51st state that would probably whoosh over the heads of most American members of that group but are as subtle as a neon billboard at midnight to the Canadian members of the group. Looks like there are a couple of Maple MAGA sympathizers there.

 

[Owain Taggart]

We're not meant by Zuckerberg's people to be able to refute this nonsense. Guaranteed.

That's what's so frustrating, because initially it wasn't supposed to be like this. It certainly wasn't intended or planned, but the effect is that of suppressing one's views. And in a sensitive time such as these ones, where our voices need to be heard more than ever, it feels quite hurtful. And how can this be legal?? It's not like we're China hidden behind some red curtain.

Oh, believe me, I know how frustrating this news ban is on FB. It makes it nearly impossible to accurately refute whatever bullshit the UCP and their cult members spread.

Some people take screenshots of articles and post them as photos. It's awkward and annoying if it's a long article. And then up pops some twit claiming that "it's been photoshopped" (idiotic woman from Medicine Hat, denying that there was ever a border blockade near Coutts, even though she simultaneously said her husband was there "to support" the truckers).

Yep, exactly. I've seen a lot of that as well, and it's the best workaround we have, and I do notice there will sometimes be Americans coming into threads and asking, well why aren't you just sharing links? They don't understand that we can't. Not that we don't want to, that we literally can't.

Remember, it is always an option to not support the oligarch.

I would likely just quit social media in a heartbeat, but I mostly use it to connect with friends and family on both sides of the border.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I would likely just quit social media in a heartbeat, but I mostly use it to connect with friends and family on both sides of the border.

There are other ways to stay in touch with people, though. Some of us get along without Facebook just fine.

 

[Timewalker]

I would likely just quit social media in a heartbeat

It's funny that I've had a FB account for a very long time (at the prodding of a RL friend I never talk to anymore), but only got really active there when the UCP formed government in Alberta in 2019.

So my time there is mostly political, but there's also a healthy dose of gaming, writing/fanfiction (had to find somewhere else after Kilby Blades ran NaNoWriMo into the ground and killed it), cats (there's a cat bereavement group that really helped last year after my Maddy died; it's a place where people can express grief and be as emotional as we want, and nobody judges because we've either all been there or are going through it at that time as well), and a miscellaneous assortment of other things.

Of course there's the crazy stuff, too. I can't fathom why there are hundreds of people who are absolutely convinced that Harry and Meghan's children aren't their kids. They insist that these kids are rented from some rent-a-child place and are only trotted out for photos - and these people get extremely irate that the kids' faces aren't shown. Well, given the hell that family has experienced with the paparazzi, I don't blame them for wanting to keep the kids as safe as they can.

 

[Timewalker]

So... trying to navigate the Alberta Health website to pre-order my covid shot. It's a maze. Hopefully I did it right, because trying to get through on the 811 health line is impossible. They don't even give you the choice to wait for an agent.

No wonder the ER rooms are clogged with people. They can't get through to talk to anyone for advice, walk-ins are often also clogged (last time I went to one was during covid and I really had to be firm with them over the phone that I would be showing up for help with my diabetes because by the time I got through with 811, I could be dead and they'd just tell me to go to a walk-in clinic anyway - so I decided to save 3 days and go anyway), and so ER is the one place where they can't hang up on you or turn you away.

It used to be easy to book an appointment with a pharmacist. I swear, Danielle Smith wants to kill off anyone who wants to be vaccinated. She's an absolute moron when it comes to degrees of anti-vaxxer ideology.

It's maddening, not to know when I can book an appointment. Apparently I have to wait for an email from the government to give me permission, even though I am in the group that qualifies for a covid shot, for free. Just inputting my health care number should bring up that information. And since I didn't get October's health care card before Canada Post decided not to deliver government mail...

Seriously, I hate this province.

 

[Owain Taggart]

There are other ways to stay in touch with people, though. Some of us get along without Facebook just fine.

Oh sure, like snail mail, oh wait...

But really, despite its faults, it's still the easiest way to keep in touch for specific reasons.

Seriously, I hate this province.

Have you ever thought about moving to a different Province?

 

[Timewalker]

There are other ways to stay in touch with people, though. Some of us get along without Facebook just fine.

There are very few forumers with whom I've shared my email address, and of course doing that lets them find out my real name. Trust has to be high for that. There's only one person on TrekBBS who has that information about me, maybe half a dozen on my gaming forum. And that's over a 20-year period.

Have you ever thought about moving to a different Province?

Frequently. It takes money and resources I don't have. Otherwise, I'd have moved to BC years ago.

 

[DEWLine]

I do believe that Danielle Smith would rather see vaccinated people die off than do anything helpful.

Same for Scott Moe and François Legault.

 

[Timewalker]

Well, she tried to make it basically impossible to get covid shots this time, but I managed to score one. I have an appointment next week, for a double-whammy of covid and flu shot. And it only took a crazy trip through a maze of government website crap and 3 days of trying to get through to a human on the public health line (in which I stated that I'd already spoken to my pharmacist and couldn't afford the $140 they were asking, and couldn't make heads nor tails of the website booking process). So she made an appointment for me at a clinic I'd forgotten existed (I did get a flu shot there years ago before I started getting them at Walmart and Save-On pharmacies). AISH clients are supposed to get them free, but apparently only at clinics. Pharmacies charge now.

And then last night I realized that I needed to book a bus ride to get there, and managed that as well.


Dang it, I might have been able to work an extra election shift if the vacancies had been in the city, rather than in the county. They're short a few DROs and PDROs. I'm qualified to do those jobs, but there's no transportation out to the rural polling stations.

Shopping tomorrow. If I wasn't right out of a few things, I'd put it off a couple of weeks, since I'm going to have to go to the mall anyway to vote (there are so many empty stores in the mall now that they use them as polling stations - very handy as I can do shopping and voting in the same trip).

 

[Marc]

François Legault.

that could depend on whether English or French is your primary language.

 

[Timewalker]

I just saw this Charlie Angus video. It's about how the universities in both the U.S. and Canada are being targeted. He talks a fair bit about the U.S. in the first part, and then about how Poilievre and Smith are attacking the Canadian academic institutions and book bans.

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[DEWLine]

Oh yeah. That is happening. I'd keep an eye on Saskatchewan, Ontario and Québec as well in that regard.

On a totally unrelated note, more a palate cleanser linkage, I am impressed by this one parrot in Saskatchewan:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/indian-ringneck-parrot-escape-saskatchewan-1.7650612

 

[Owain Taggart]

I just saw this Charlie Angus video. It's about how the universities in both the U.S. and Canada are being targeted. He talks a fair bit about the U.S. in the first part, and then about how Poilievre and Smith are attacking the Canadian academic institutions and book bans.

Oh, our own local university did that on their very own without help during Covid, and became the first University in Canada to declare insolvency, all due to mismanagement issues. Attacked from within until there was nothing left to stand on, and it's been taking years for them to get back to the point they were before.

But anyhow, it's really sad to hear that it's come to this with educational institutions.

Love Charlie Angus. He is an inspiration. He is so in tune with everything that is going on.

 

[Ovation]

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators

I loved those books back in the 70s. Sad to learn about the “next generation” version.

Sucks to have so many obstacles to getting the vaccine this year (seems my premier saw Smith and said “tiens ma bière”). Glad you managed to secure one despite the issues.

 

[Timewalker]

I loved those books back in the 70s. Sad to learn about the “next generation” version.

Sucks to have so many obstacles to getting the vaccine this year (seems my premier saw Smith and said “tiens ma bière”). Glad you managed to secure one despite the issues.

She put on a smirk when BC and Manitoba stepped up and offered free covid shots to Albertans, like everything had been solved. Thing is, if anyone takes them up on it, it's going to cost a lot more than the price of the covid shot to actually travel to BC or Manitoba or back.


A premature baby died of measles.

If only Law & Order were real. Jack McCoy could spin this into negligent homicide on the part of the premier. She's done so many harmful things over the years, that she most definitely has blood on her hands. And one of her victims wasn't even a month old.