66 Replies to “February 2, 2020: Reader Tips”

    1. Nancy, you piqued my curiosity. Any feedback?
      On your subject, there is a small town in China (population only 8 million, hehe, I doubt you heard of it, Wenzhou) that just passed an ordinance each family can only send one member out for groceries or whatever every other day.

      1. Just saw the late CTV NEWS –they showed how empty the streets are in Wenzhou. What nightmare!

        So far there are no cases of coronavirus in Alberta. The businesses are affected here though and traffic has slowed considerably in restaurants. How sad for them. ( I rarely eat out — brought a Lysol disinfecting wipe in a baggie to clean the grocery push cart handle, no one saw me, am I being overly cautious?)

        Now there’s a new tragedy– China is hit by a second disease outbreak as thousands of chickens are wiped out in Shaoyang. It is the H5N1 Avian flu. People can become infected by being in close contact with live or dead birds. This is getting more miserable by the day. Hope things get better soon before more people die.

        Here is my reply from Sat morning – thought of you and didn’t forget. Great poem OB. See reply below:

        http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2020/02/01/february-1-2020-reader-tips/#comment-1280517

        1. I made one change in the end of the fourth line:
          到約鎮英軍被圍困。暴政黜。
          Rather than Google translate, how about OB translate? Per my translation policy on poetry, there will not be meter or rhyme:
          The newly awakened democratic awareness was fiery hot
          Sent the Declaration of Independence to the British king to severe two countries’ relations
          Concord’s one shot the world knew
          Revere’s lone ride revealed enemy intelligence
          Until enemy troops were surrounded at Yorktown, to put down dictatorial rule
          By the patriots spilling blood, the separate states were united
          Adopted the Constitution, proving the United States is special
          The three branches connected to prevent dictatorship
          The ten amendments listing individual rights
          A country founded for the people and ruled by law will never be defeated

          Besides the three names in the notes, the line of patriots blood reflects what Jefferson said about requiring patriots’ blood to periodically water the tree of liberty.
          The third and fourth line in Chinese are couplets, word for word reflecting each other, as are the eighth and ninth lines. The rhymes use the rhymes used by the famous Sung general Yue Fei in his rendition of the same poetic form about defeating the enemy (Qin) and defending the country. Unfortunately, he was executed by the emperor who listened to the advice of the traitorous prime minister.

          1. The American Revolution —  It is a history that we in the West know so well. The way your words are knitted together is from the viewpoint of an outsider.
            There are no wasted words — the narrative is packed with description, shock and awe. I am in awe! Flattery intended.

            O B, you would probably enjoy this book and author:
            “The Concubine’s Children” by Denise Chong.

            More about her:
            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Chong

            I read this book a few years ago and loved it. You might like it because it is autobiographical and truly informs the reader of life in Canada from an immigrant’s point of view. Denise is the wife of Roger Smith, a former reporter from CTV NEWS here in Canada. She worked for the PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau’s father, the late former PM Pierre Trudeau back when he was Prime Minister.

          2. ” It is the H5N1 Avian flu.”

            – And dollars to donuts, it’s being spread deliberately. The great Chinese pork debacle continuing merrily apace, criminal gangs were using drones to drop infected pig manure on healthy farms, showing-up with health authorities to find it, and then buying-out all the farm’s pigs for pennies on the dollar.

            So, Chinese pork being a write-off, in all probability chicken is surging to take its market share – anybody else find it suspicious that now all of a sudden there’s a bird flu outbreak?

            – Nahhhh – total coincidence – move along, nothing to see here. “The mountains are high, and the emperor is far away.”

            (-_-)

          3. Nancy,
            Say rather written for an intended audience of outsiders.
            Thanks for the nice words, but the credit should go to the medium. “There are no wasted words — the narrative is packed” That is a feature of classical Chinese, very economical with words, especially its poetry. One of the reasons is because classical Chinese is packed with classical references. I have tried to use that feature, except of course the references are American. Hence the need for an addendum.

          4. ah the Revolutionary War.
            countless times I have pointed out the 13 colonies were THE. FIRST. group of citizens in modern times to shuck the yoke of oppression by a bloody foreign power.
            many other followed, with varying success, but is that great nation of self determined people who pitted their meager but fiercely determined numbers and resources to take a chance, take a gamble.

            ALL of civilization since that time is in their debt.
            what a incalculable leap democracy took.
            bravo America, ya, warts and all.

            God Bless The United States Constitution !!!!

          1. Whoa!! Kid’s gross!
            Think I’ll have to remember to bring a wipe every time I go to the store! Last week was a first for me but won’t be the last. If you wanna know — the used Lysol cloth didn’t look too dirty after using it but it was likely packed with g-e-r-m-s!

            Secretly tho’… great photo, ha!!

          2. I never touch a shopping cart handle without using sanitary wipes on it. Almost all stores provide them at their entrances. I have a messed up immune system and respiratory problrms. Never touch anything someone else in public has touched without hand cleaning.

          3. @ 9:23 pm Reply to JSBachLover
            The billionaire grocers in this country are cheapskates. Not all stores have sanitary wipes here.

  1. Hanging out in Red Deer at the moment hometown of backstabber and general pissant ron maclean. Heard a good story.

    Red Deer has a hockey rink that features a picture of the weasel. Somebody papered over his face with a pic of somebody else. It wasn’t Don Cherry which would have been fitting.

    maclean is/was a hero here but has obviously lost some of his luster. Being a disloyal prick has consequences.

          1. Nancy – OTT but Wayson Choy wrote “The Jade Peony” which chronicles the Chen children’s childhood in Vancouver in the 1930s and early ’40s.

          2. Nancy and Frances,
            I didn’t know about the books, apparently they didn’t make their way south. But there were a lot of similarities between immigrations to Vancouver and San Francisco. Here are some thoughts from Nancy’s Wikipedia link.
            Toi Shan is a county in Gwangdong (current transliteration) province, it and the surrounding counties (together are known as the Four Counties) were the most popular center for immigrants. They speak a country dialect of Cantonese, but the really native Toi Shan speakers are not mutually intelligible with Cantonese speakers. I could speak Toi Shan because of my maternal grandmother. (When we came to California, we found a whole clan of ready made relatives on my mother’s side, from the same township in Toi Shan and sharing her maiden surname. So suddenly I had a whole bunch of brand new uncles and aunts.)
            The immigrants called California Gold Mountain because of the Gold Rush. I guess that expression came to be used for all of North America, unless Vancouver had a gold rush of its own of which I am not aware.
            I think Poh Poh should be pronounced with the O as in oar or core. That would be very close to what the Toi Shan call the paternal grandmother. (Interestingly, that is what most of the rest of the country call the maternal grandmother.)
            The Toi Shan here call children who emigrated very young a Toi Shan dialect expression, which I think translates to “bamboo section.” It refers to a piece that is enclosed at both ends. In addition to being empty in the middle, it is not open at either end, knowing neither Chinese nor English. That is what I am. I am Toi Shan on my mother’s side, but Hakka (an entirely different Chinese Han ethnicity) on my father’s.
            As the link said, people came here to survive. However bad it was here, it was better than wars and famine. China was a horrible place to live from 1850 onward. Not that it was good before, but got worse thereafter. With the Tai Ping rebellion, the Boxer rebellion, the 1911 revolution, the wars between the warlords, the Communist revolt, the Japanese invasion, there was hardly a day of peace. Add to that periodic famines and floods (the latter killed literally millions). The protagonist came before the worst flood of 1931, which would not have affected Toi Shan, but still the whole country was in a whole state of turmoil. (Incidentally, that was the flood of the Yangtze and the Han rivers. The two rivers met at three cities now known collectively as Wuhan.)

  2. Mark Zuckerberg Backs Free Speech on Facebook

    Put your money where your mouth is, Mark. Unban Tommy Robinson.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orGRa8ZzF4
    —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
    L-Arkad Daily, another opinion piece from the erudite British Brexiteer.
    (bold, and ready to joust with the best of them)

    1. Larry..good catch.
      It remains to be seen..but I fear that organization is filled to the brim with the woke and far Leftist nazi types. Not about to hold my breath.

      Love Akkad..!!

  3. China is hiding Coronavirus deaths and illnesses. The rule is if they were not admitted to their overwhelmed hospitals, tested with the Coronavirus test strips and therefore confirmed as infected, they do not count. You can see the Bureaucratic Logic. They are not Coronavirus Illnesses and/or Deaths, they are General Pneumonia illnesses and deaths, and the Chinese Communist Party and local governors look better if there are fewer illnesses and deaths from Coronavirus.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/balajis/status/1223822006132494336

      1. Very interesting. Is there Scottish brogue hidden in the mix?  Listened to some of his other early songs and spotted the fact in his bio that he has a new CD coming out this month. It is prophetic, it’s called: “The Party at the End of the World”… does he know where this current scary coronavirus epidemic is headed? Perhaps his current home in Isle of Wight is unaffected.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Green_(musician)

        Never been there. I would love to go to the Isle of Wight!

        PS. Then we’re related.
        Mums said I was related to Angels.

    1. Maybe little mike and crystal freeland can get together and lobby for ‘risers’ . Afterall it’s a handicap being vertically challenged.

  4. The Unifor journalists at Blackie’s Globe and Mail finally admit that Great Leader Kim Sung Trudeau’s trip to Africa is all about getting that UN security seat. Apparently getting a UN seat is the most important issue facing Canadians today. After he burns jet fuel to Senegal he will be preaching about global warming and gender equity. I’m sure those are more important issues than muslims terrorizing Christians in that area.

    1. I’m sure African leaders would be impressed with Trudeau’s blackface antics especially the time when he stuffed a banana down his pants and Trudeau has the gall to lecture the nation about racism. Unbelievable.

    2. Trudeau in Africa? Sounds like a good opportunity for one of Kate’s contests. Name the country / organization and how much money Trudeau will be ‘investing’. Bonus points for the justification, ie climate change, middle class, francophonie.
      Prize? A UN seat

      1. Any bets that whatever African country Prinz Dummkopf might invest in will be an all-but-in-name Chinese colony?

    1. Saw CBC news coverage after the Rt. Hon. one’s speech. Host Michael Serapio had on one Amy Go, head of something called the China-Canadian Committee for Social Justice, to say why Justin Trudeau was completely right in his speech.

  5. Blackie’s new “Independent” senator for Saskatchewan is a long time donor to the Liberal Party and opposed Harper when he was in office. I guess this is how Great Leader Kim Sung Trudeau reaches out to the West. Story at True North.

  6. Hate to say anything positive about BBC news, but I will. Each day on its main page it carries an article on the coronavirus epidemic, simply listing all the factual information going on in China and the rest of the world. Articles like these are becoming exceedingly rare in Canada’s media.

    A case in point: this morning’s BBC article stated that experts say up to 75,000 virus cases now exist in Muhan, far more than the official China statements are saying. Here in Canada the corporate media just regurgitates the official Chinese line, and warn Canadians not to believe anything on the internet news.

    More and more the Toronto-based media are toeing the federal government line, and are saying there is nothing to worry about.

  7. Apparently there is a lot of poop in San Francisco and the people who live there (who are not drug addicts) are beginning to notice.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7956517/IAN-BIRRELL-tech-giants-turned-San-Francisco-dystopian-nightmare.html

    “Downtown visitors cannot fail to witness the distressing evidence. Almost instantly after I arrived, I saw three people smoking crystal meth through glass pipes, then others with the facial scabs and sores associated with this destructive drug. One man with matted hair sat slumped in a stupor wearing just grubby underpants. Another, clearly under the influence of heroin, had ‘nodded off’ and was static on a child’s bicycle. A third urinated on the street. A woman changed her clothes from a tatty suitcase on the pavement.”

    and then this…

    “The city authorities have a huge $12 billion budget, handing their 31,800 staff average annual pay and benefit packages of an astonishing $175,000.”

    I can’t find the link but I read of a new plan to fix the high cost of housing in San Francisco. City planners want to build sub-terrain housing consisting of a bedroom 10′ by 10′ in size connected to a hallway and shared bathroom. No windows. And only $1,350 per month. I won’t be showing that to my cleaner.

    1. $175k doesn’t cover rent in San Fran – especially after all the Cali-taxes are ladled on.

  8. From the CBC website: “Conservative millennials lay out a policy wish list for the party”
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/millennial-conservatives-1.5443425

    The choice of topics: “Poverty, Housing, The Future of Work”. No mention of the mass migration to this country initiated by the Liberals desire for a million immigrants every 3 years. Although I’d believe many, many more arrive yearly judging by personal experience.
    How can we accommodate a greater demand when it isn’t successfully managed currently ?
    Reading the article I can’t see any differences with the Liberal’s concept of political success.
    Canada: Get Woke, Go Broke.

    1. Right….and REAL Conservatives are going to not only read the CBC’s daily Bullshit, but buy into this so called wishlist….?? LMAO.!!

      There is no Conservative Party in this country, there hasn’t been one for decades and I see nothing on the horizon to say there will be one in the future. sorry Max…

      This country is broken and no amount of Anti Western-Anti American hatred Anti-Glue will put it back together. This should be painfully obvious to even the most obtuse.

      Get busy Mr Kenney..?? or get the Hell out of the way.
      WEXIT.

    2. “No mention of the mass migration to this country initiated by the Liberals desire for a million immigrants every 3 years.”

      Why should there be? This is not a problem and never was.

    1. Why not all three?

      With control of its borders restored, and the yoke of the European Court of Justice lifted, Britain is now free to expel its Muslims and hang terrorists. Needless to say, Londonistanis are unhappy about that.

  9. I was reminded that the digits for today’s date is a palindrome:

    2020-02-02

  10. And now your Canadians are racist bastards story for today. The Liberal Party’s Toronto Star website has the heartbreaking story of someone making racist virus remarks in a flower shop in Toronto owned by a Chinese couple. Obviously Doug Ford’s fault.

  11. Why Emmanuel Macron Is a Good President

    “The economic measures implemented by Macron and his team – Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, an irreplaceable asset for the government – have surprised experts positively. Unlike its neighbors, France does not rely as much on exports, and has been less affected by the economic slowdown that threatens the eurozone thanks to its high domestic consumption. Thus, it is likely to become the most robust economy on the continent, leaving the seemingly invincible Germany (in a technical recession) in second place.”

    https://panampost.com/priscila-guinovart/2019/10/23/why-emmanuel-macron-is-a-good-president/

    Article has a schlocky end and could use more specifics, but it’s right.

  12. The Liberal Party’s Toronto Star is excited that football player Colin Kaepernick is hosting an art show celebrating Black History month in Toronto. Hopefully no one will get shot.

  13. regarding Brexit:
    I repeat what I said to my 77 yr old liberal tenant:
    it is inordinately dangerous to trade away one’s autonomy for the promise of material benefit, ie trade deals, access to some far off zhob market, ‘standardization’, common currency, almost ALL the supposed benefits about MONEY.

    because once your freedom of choice is firmly GONE, the rest can very easily follow.
    with NOTHING in place to stop it.
    golly good show Britain.
    when the EU heaves itself into financial purgatory with some ill timed, ill conceived, untested measure,
    YOU will not be dragged into the black hole with them.

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