Marie Snyder
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mariesnyder.bsky.social
Marie Snyder
@mariesnyder.bsky.social
11K followers 8.5K following 470 posts
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
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mariesnyder.bsky.social
Ontario Covid estimated cases are HIGH for the start of school:
September 1, 2025 at 10:40 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
With alt text. It's a quotation, but I can't find the original source anywhere, so it's possibly someone's call to action put in a poster.
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."
July 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
I was curious what this would look like! I'm pleased to at least recognize most of these accounts, but one big difference from the other place, for better or worse, is not posting within a regular group. I have to search for friends' post intentionally. Many of these likely won't know me at all.
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.
June 11, 2025 at 10:53 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Random reminder that Doug Ford cut Emergency Forest Firefighting by 67% back in 2019. #onpoli #canada
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%.
June 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Just reading about psychological development in children and came across this bit about pre-school kids in David Wallin's Attachment in Psychotherapy:
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.
June 7, 2025 at 12:52 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
I got a slightly different answer:
AI Overview: No, it is not 2025. The current date is May 28, 2025.
May 28, 2025 at 11:06 AM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Just got this call. Block this number in advance, and be careful with scams like this. The IRCC won't call you asking for money!
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"
April 29, 2025 at 10:50 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Then and now:
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 pie graph of who all registered electors voted for in Ontario, 2025 with the Conservatives getting 19.5%, Liberals 13.6%, NDP 8.4%, Greens at 2.2, other at 1.7% and "did not vote" at 54.6%
February 28, 2025 at 1:22 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Only SIX days left to #FireFord! Today's the LAST DAY to vote in advanced polls near you, but you can still vote at your local election office until Wed. at 6pm, and at your polling station on Thursday 9am-9pm. Details here: voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/en/election/...
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
February 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Do we want Ontario to be led by someone who will help as many as possible, or by someone with self-serving business interests in line with Trump and Musk?? We have SEVEN days to save Ontario's greenbelt, hospitals, LTC homes, education system... VOTE TODAY in advanced polls!!
#onpoli #FireFord
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.
February 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Some people still aren't aware there's a SNAP ELECTION for Ontario on Feb. 27th, but you can VOTE NOW in many regions!! Make sure to get out to vote so we're not governed by someone who just got 18% of votes, yet enough to form a majority!! Ford is hoping you won't show up. We can take this!!
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
February 5, 2025 at 7:09 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Elon at Auschwitz:
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.
January 25, 2025 at 12:26 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
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"
January 21, 2025 at 12:24 AM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Region of Waterloo Public Health is finally advocating for the use of well-fitting good quality masks/respirators (not surgical masks) to prevent Covid after years of putting handwashing first for an airborn virus!
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."
January 4, 2025 at 10:34 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Upcoming FREE events (or by donation) for January and February from @philosopher1923.bsky.social! #philosophy #philosophysky
Poster: On Philosophy Winter 2025 - Events are free via Zoom - Mondays 7-8pm UK / 2-3PM Eastern Time --> January 6th - On Awkwardness (Alexandra Plakias, Anthony Morgan); Jan 13 - The Open Society as an Enemy (J. McKenzie Alexander, Alexis Papazoglou); Jan 20th - Anxiety over the Passive Presence of the Historical Past (Jeffrey Andrew Barash, Nicholas Halmi); Jan 27th - Presentism, Uncertainty, Disorientation (François Hartog, Nicholas Halmi); Feb 3rd - Temporalities in Conflict (Stefanos Geroulanos, Nicholas Halmi, Andrés Saenz de Sicilia); Feb 10th - The End of History and the Loss of Temporal Resonance (Hartmut Rosa, Nicholas Halmi); Feb 17th - The Politics of Belonging (Avram Alpert. Alexis Papazoglou); and Feb 24th - Rachel Carson, Queer Love, and Environmental Politics (Lida Maxwell, Isabelle Laurenzi)
December 31, 2024 at 5:14 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Wab Kinew almost double the approval rating of Ford!
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!
December 12, 2024 at 12:30 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
35 years ago today. Never forget the femicide in Canada.
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.
December 6, 2024 at 3:14 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
To anyone seeing #TaylorSwift tonight or this weekend, you CAN have an amazing time AND wear an N95!! You can decorate it!! People can still hear you, and you won't end up sick for weeks, if not for life. About 1 in 28 people in Ontario is infected right now. Have fun, but take care of each other!
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.
November 14, 2024 at 3:08 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Image with alt text:
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.
November 13, 2024 at 3:06 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
According to Moriarty Lab (not here yet) almost all of Canada is at severe levels again. 1 in 31 people are currently infected. Be careful out there! Well-fitting N95s really help reduce the spread!!
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.
November 12, 2024 at 12:07 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
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.
November 9, 2024 at 3:21 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Carl Sagan, 1995:
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.
November 6, 2024 at 7:16 PM
mariesnyder.bsky.social
Ontario forecast for the next two weeks. Wear a mask and avoid any unnecessary indoor activity from Canadian Covid-19 Hazard Index: covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard...
October 21, 2023 at 8:52 PM