Reflecting on COVID and my life

Bit of a different blog post. Everyone has their own unique story when it comes to COVID. Everyone struggled immensely last year, just as I did. I thought today, I would reflect on COVID’s impact on my life and what happened to me. As I’m nearing the end of 2021 and with things more or less being back to normal, I figured this would be an interesting philosophical and thought exercise of sorts.

So here it is, if anyone cares, the story of Andy St.John and COVID.

New Year’s Eve, 2019. It was like any other New Year, except it felt a little sad. I was celebrating and mourning the end of the 2010s, with all its ups and downs. I remembered the history I lived through. The Arab Spring, the election of Donald Trump, and the rise of social media. A more excellent call for action against climate change.The Occupy Wall Street movement. So many defining events of the 2010s happened in that short amount of a decade, particularly in 2016. But we don’t talk about 2016. Nearly the entirety of elementary school and high school and most of the university occurred in that period.

The 2010s were the decade I indeed grew up in. I spent the last minutes of that decade watching the movie Cats. And one of my friends wanted to treat it like the Room, making fun of a terrible movie. Little did I know, would that set a precedent for the year. I remember seeing a headline from the BBC at the time talking about a “mysterious type of pneumonia” emerging out of Wuhan, China. I didn’t take it seriously, nor did I think it would evolve to the current form.

I also happened to have watched the 2011 movie, Contagion about a month earlier. I remembered being shocked when it first came out as it was a gripping movie and felt like what a pandemic would be like. While COVID was nowhere near as bad as that movie, little did I know that I was about to go through the real-life equivalent of Cats. A real-life, horrifying fever dream I wished I never had to live through. But I did.

Fast forward to the week of March 9th, 2020. At the end of early February, I recall reading about the stock market crashing because of COVID. I thought that was weird, given how I thought COVID would be just like Ebola, isolated to one part of the world with some very little spread to other countries. I wasn’t apprehensive. The weekend of the 7th, I had gone down to Detroit and the University of Michigan to volunteer for Bernie Sander’s campaign. I got to see Bernie and AOC speak, which was really cool. And I learned a lot about the city of Detroit. I remember the news and looking at headlines at night at one of the places I was staying at. It was only around 900 cases at that time, and I still didn’t feel too concerned about it. Lying on that leather couch, though, where I slept, specific thoughts start to creep into my mind.

Thoughts of denial and doubt. Little did I know, it was about to escalate dramatically only within a week. The 9th was the date things started to change.

March 9th, 2020

After my brief sojourn to Michigan to volunteer, I was driving back home, taking a detour to my cottage as it was closer to us than Toronto. As we went somewhere in Southern Ontario, I opened up Facebook and saw a headline that would forever change the pandemic’s course. Italy, on March 9th, announced it was sending the entire nation into lockdown. This freaked me out.

I remember at the time, I was meant to go do an internship in South Africa that summer. My parents didn’t want to go because of COVID. In all of my denial of COVID, in the beginning, I said I wanted to wait and see what happened with COVID. Little did I know, international travel wouldn’t start to resume to some form of normality until November 2021.

The next couple of days blew by, and I don’t remember them very well. But March 12th, I will never forget.

March 12th, 2020.

This was the last day I had regular in-person classes. It was a Thursday, and I just remember sitting down and looking at social media, seeing E3 was not going ahead, followed by all the sports leagues canceling games. I scoffed at this first. Why were they shut down, I said?

We were filming Tik Toks that day, and I remember making one about Tom Hanks getting COVID.

The one thing that changed everything for me and convinced me to finally take COVID seriously was the announcement that Ontario was shutting down all elementary and high schools. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Oh shit,” I thought, “This is actually serious. Something is really going on.”

I remember going out with my friends afterward, walking down the Danforth and getting a bite of food to eat. Little did I know, I wouldn’t see the majority of them until the following year.

March 13th, 2020

The next day, university classes were canceled. At first, I was happy and thought I would get off two weeks and have a fun vacation. But this is also when a lot of anxiety started to sink in for me. Everything was shutting, beginning to shut down, and that fear of uncertainty was one of the scariest things I had ever seen in my life. All the major stores, restaurants, and everything else had started to shut down. Life, as I knew it, was beginning to shut down.

On that Friday night, I remember I drove around with some friends, and we went into our local Metro. For the first time in my life, I saw empty shelves and massive lines to buy supplies. I remember humorously at the time, laughing at people freaking about COVID, especially about the toilet paper.

That weekend, I went to see the movie Onward, which would be the last movie I would see in theatres until that July. The most significant impact on me, though, was the closure of gyms. I deal with minor OCD, and gyms have always been one of my primary sources of anxiety and one of my main coping devices. Suddenly like that, it was gone. I felt like I was up shit’s creek without a paddle. I didn’t know what to do.

That week following the 12th was one of the most stressful and life-changing events I had ever experienced in my life. I remember going on a three-hour bike ride down to Ontario Place to get some exercise. Seeing downtown Toronto shut down was a very surreal experience, I’ll never forget. Seeing it so empty was haunting.

Thankfully, I developed a perfect at-home workout routine, and that saved me. The two things that kept me more than anything was getting a job and Star Trek: The Next Generation. I got a part-time temp gig at Loblaws, which provided me with the structure I needed badly. But Star Trek was what truly helped me a lot. The job provided me with the social acceptance and connection I desired from people and have in school.

What does a sci-fi show from 30 years ago have to do with anything? Well, here’s what it did for me. TNG is a very gentle show, and it felt like a nice warm blanket to me. Seeing the adventures of Picard and crew was very comforting to me as it provided a lot of comfort at the time. But most of all, the message that humanity, after horrible events, was able to rise up and become something better was what made me believe that we would be able to get through the pandemic. It was just so positive and painted such a lovely and rosy vision of the future; it truly gave me hope that we would make it through it. Here’s a Reddit post I made on the TNG subreddit, just highlighting the impact it had on me.

“I started posting on this subreddit lot because I wanted to find a community of like-minded people, and I’m happy I did. TNG has just been such a blessing in my life, especially with the whole pandemic. Last year was so hopeless at some points, but the lesson TNG taught me was that despite horrible events and things, there’s always the promise of a better tomorrow, and the future is always bright, no matter what happens. Mankind will be able to overcome its dark qualities. Even after horrible events like a pandemic or a Third World War, in the case of Star Trek, mankind constantly improved itself and helped build a bright and beautiful utopian future. For lack of a better word, TNG is probably my favorite TV show and one of the best I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, even beating Breaking Bad, which is a hard thing for me to do. It just felt so gentle and loving and optimistic as again with the events of the last year. It just felt like a shoulder to lean on when I’m sad or feeling down. The characters, especially Picard and Data and Worf and pretty much everyone, just felt like old friends and almost family after watching them for seven seasons and four movies. I finished watching the series for the first time about a week ago, and I’ve wanted to post about it for a while to just express my gratitude for it. I’m so happy it’s been a part of my life, and my heart kinda feels empty without it.

It saved me, and I can’t think it enough.

COVID, over the next year of my life, had a considerable impact. I lived through two more lockdowns. I didn’t get the virus it’s self but I had people close to me get it and one of my old English teachers, Mr.Verduin from high school died of it. He was one of my favorites. In terms of COVID, it had a much bigger impact on my mental health.

But the main lesson I learned from COVID is that I am much stronger than I am and gained good job experience for the first time in my life. Notably, with my anxiety and minor OCD, I overcame a lot of personal problems I had. When I used to get anxious, I would shut down and not do anything fun. I wouldn’t read, watch movies, or Youtube. But I overcame that. COVID stripped me down to my bare essentials and made me reevaluate myself as a person. I learned to overcome not shutting myself down and to keep going. Shutting down only made me more anxious.

Looking back at everything else that happened from the George Floyd protests, the presidential election, the surge of COVID in India in the spring, January 6th, and the fall of Afghanistan is wild too. A decade full of events happened in the short span of a year. 4 million people died, with some estimates as high as 19 million and 780 million ( 247 million confirmed cases) cases according to the WHO. Never have I ever seen, or even in my parent’s lifetimes, an event that’s affected this many people. Billions more were affected by lockdowns and the economic turmoil. This was something that touched every single person on the planet. And 9/11 had been the most significant historical event of my life up until that point.

You could also talk about the massive rise of Tik Tok and OnlyFans as a platform for people to make money and all the other various memes that had an enormous impact on our culture last year.

But I have also witnessed some fantastic events such as the invention of the COVID vaccine, people’s strength, unity, and finally, something being done about systemic racism and discrimination.

What the next decade is going to be like, nobody truly knows. Given how the first two years of the decade have been rocky, here’s hoping it’s like the roaring 20s.

My Thoughts on the 2021 Canadian Election

Was this election pointless? Did Justin shoot himself in the foot by calling it? What will be the future of Canada be post COVID? These are the questions running through my mind right now.

I’m a Liberal supporter through and through, but I’m honestly struggling with this election. I find myself having a hard time understanding why it was called. In the beginning, it seemed like it made sense. A stronger government with a majority seemed like the best thing for Canada. Minority governments historically don’t last that long with the record being 18 months. Harper’s Conservative government from 2008 to 2011 was the lone exception.

For a lot of people, I think it was the timing. Cases are slowly rising back up across Canada and I personally don’t think it’s a big deal. Sure, it’s not good but what danger is there to vote in person? The United States held it’s most important election ever during the middle of all of this and it turned fine ( minus the mail in ballots and the events of January 6th). Sure it was incredibly tense and Trump being an absolute asshole with his lawsuits and threats of violence against voters, but there was no big dramatic showdown in the Supreme Court or a Second Civil War didn’t start.

It went way better than I expected and went far smoother than I expected, despite Trump. Having an election during an pandemic isn’t ideal, but it’s not world ending. We’ve all been living our normal lives, going to concerts and sports games with thousands of people, sometimes not social distancing. We’ve been seeing loved ones and friends without masks and no distancing. So, I don’t see the problem with going into a stuffy little room in some library or community center, fully vaxxed and masked and spaced out to vote. We’ve been living our normal lives to the best of our abilities and I find it hypocritical of people to say they’re angry about voting in person but they’ve been going out to massive parties not distancing. Those places you’re more likely to get COVID, not from voting in person.

And if it’s too much of an issue, you can vote by mail. Problem solved. It’s not perfect but again, not world ending. This whole idea of calling an election during a fourth wave, honestly kind of feels like an opposition plot to get votes.

But let’s look at the issue from the other side of the coin. During this fourth wave, it does seem kind of selfish to call an election, when a public health crisis is ongoing. It can seem like an unimportant power grab or selfish. I find myself struggling with why it was called. Rising cases brings rising anxiety over fears of new lockdowns and losing your livelihood and some of that anger is honestly very well placed and understandable.

To quote the Washington Post on the issue:

“The country’s 44th general election is unnecessary right now. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been doing his best to make the case that Parliament is dysfunctional and toxic, laying the groundwork to justify sending Canadians to the polls during a pandemic. In fact, during this minority government, Parliament has been inclined to keep the governing side accountable and to participate in shaping the policy agenda. Moreover, Trudeau maintains the confidence of the House of Commons and thus the right to govern. But the Liberals know this moment may be their best chance to secure a majority government before the vicissitudes of the fall and winter — and another coronavirus variant — change the political landscape.“

Despite the claim, that the government is toxic and dysfunctional, I can understand the meaning of the statement. I think given the We Charity scandal, the aftermath of SNC-Lavalin and the early problems with the vaccine rollout, people want change. I remember as a kid, the thing that popped into my mind, that Liberals were plagued by scandal and corruption. Looking at Paul Martin’s government with the sponsorship scandal and the gas plant issue with the Liberal government in Ontario, it’s unfair that they’ve developed this reputation. Any government, regardless of political party is capable of generating massive scandals and corruption. Look at some of the moves Doug Ford has made with COVID over the past year and his lack of inaction when it comes to that. Look at the NDP in the early 1990s in Ontario and how much of a disaster that was.

I think the main reason why people are angry is because they’re tired of the pandemic and the restrictions we have lived under for a year. And I can understand that. 30,000 Canadians are dead, millions lost their jobs and loved ones and businesses. But resorting to anger and violence is not going to do that.

This right wing, anti-lockdown, anti mask and anti vaccine populist movement has been fueled by social media and Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party. And to a lesser extent, Erin O’ Toole . I will admit O’ Toole is a good man and I agree with alot of his social stances as he’s socially progressive. But the biggest issue I have with him, is not mandating vaccine passports and saying that getting vaccines is a choice, not a responsibility. By saying this, he’s been able to tap into the anger of these mobs of people who are angry over the pandemic and not believing in science, but more subtly than Bernier.

This has created a very toxic political atmosphere in this election, with social media and Bernier contributing to a lot of this. I know Bernier is the leader of a minor party and he has no real chance of winning seats, but he still holds some sway with his actions. By being against lockdowns and mandatory vaccines and other COVID restrictions, he’s become a platform for this right wing populist movement of anti vaxxers and anti maskers. O’ Toole is indirectly benefiting from this, as by his statements and support of the vaccine being a personal choice for Canadians instead of a responsibility. Alot of the support and ideas of anti lockdown and anti vaccine rhetoric has been given a more socially acceptable and more glossy package under O’ Toole.

Therefore by tapping into this, O’ Toole may stand a chance at winning.

Who do I think is going to win this election? Right now, based on polls and uncertainty, I’m somewhere between I don’t know and O’ Toole might win. Polls have been proven wrong in the past, especially in the case of Trump in 2016 and 2020. but beyond those two blimps on the radar, they have been reliably accurate. But there still could be some surprise on Election Day or in the time in between or Trudeau gives a good debate performance.

The reason why I’m afraid of an O’Toole win is his party’s own lack of acceptance of climate change (despite his own personal beliefs), the idea of treating getting vaccination as a choice and more right leaning elements of his party influencing his policies. O’ Toole has used Trumpian like language in the past such as ” Take Canada Back Again”. But that’s issue to talk about at a later time. I will admit myself, I have struggled with the idea of mandatory vaccines as I believe it could lead to people being fired from their job unwarranted and lead to potential discrimination despite the fact I find some of their beliefs utter garbage and nonsense. And at the end, it is still a personal choice despite I believe and feel but I think there should be a balance between respecting people’s rights and public health imperatives.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed my late spiel about the Canadian election and please share your thoughts and leave constructive criticism down below.

Vaccine Passports: What’s the Deal?

As we are slowly emerging from COVID ( or could still be in the middle of things for all I know) with increased vaccinations, alot of questions have popped up regarding future waves of the disease. Given the current rate of vaccinations in Canada alone, there will not likely be a fourth lockdown. If there is anything, it would likely be reduced capacity again and bringing back face masks in parts of the country where the mandate was lifted.

But that doesn’t assuage the fears of many business owners and many members of the general public. Given the recent massive rise in cases in the United States, cities such as New York and Los Angeles have introduced the idea of vaccine passports in order to allow businesses to stay open and prevent further shutdowns. What vaccine passports are is that they are proof of you being fully vaccinated and they allow you to access services such as indoor services such as indoor dining, gyms, movie theaters, stadium events and more without impendent. It more or less acts as a form of insurance of business owners that their patrons are not going to spread COVID and to help preserve the safety of the staff and others by having proof of them being vaccinated.

This also applies to international travel, where people that are only vaccinated what that country’s approved COVID vaccines are allowed to travel freely into the country without quarantining.

The international travel issue is much more cut and dry than the domestic vaccine passport. It’s been a thing for centuries at this point for people to be immunized about certain diseases in order to enter a country. So it’s not unheard of. For example, children need to be immunized against certain diseases in order to attend schools and I see that as normal. Mandating COVID vaccines for international travel and school doesn’t bother me. Workplaces putting in place a mandatory vaccine policy in order to come back to work, with exceptions, doesn’t bother me.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-vaccine or anti-mask. I fully encourage anyone to get vaccinated as soon as they can with whatever dose they can get. While my second shot was a doozy in terms of side effects, if that’s the worst I suffer and it prevents me and my loved ones from getting COVID, I’m more than happy to pay that price.

However, here is where I struggle with the idea of the vaccine passport in certain settings. I hate anti-vaxxers and I don’t believe any of the crap they say. But I do believe in giving fair and equal treatment and not allowing everyone access to services under the law and denying them services doesn’t feel right . Providing them with appropriate alternatives is the way to go. What those will look like, I don’t know. But the one question I have is what about partially vaccinated people or people who haven’t be able to get their hands on because of barriers that may exist for them?

And for those who haven’t decided to get vaccinated or are anti-vax or vaccine hesitant can you outright deny them service in an indoor business setting? Does it go against their charter rights, even if I think their beliefs are false? This is where I struggle with the idea of the vaccine passport a bit. For the majority of the population of Canada, it shouldn’t an issue, as 80% of the population have received one shot with 60% over the age of 12 being fully vaccinated and by the time September rolls around, that number should be at 70%. Once we start vaccinating kids under the age of 12, we’ll be able to hit a stronger herd immunity. There will be future waves of COVID, but the idea is to keep people out of the hospital, prevent severe illness and make it more like the common flu.

With the issue of denying people service because of the fact they haven’t gotten vaccinated, creates two problems for me. For one, it could lead to the creation of two disctint classes, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. As I mentioned before, this creates a whole new set of class issues and for those who can’t easily access the vaccine.

There is where the idea of creating barrier free clinics comes into play. Allowing walk in, drop in appointments 24/7 or going door to door in various neighborhoods and apartments and other places of dwelling is the best way to solve this issue. Calling people or sending pamphlets to them or through social media allows more fair and equitable access to vaccines.

Dealing with anti-vaxxers and vaccine hesitancy is other issue all together. Solving that issue would be along the lines of managing misinformation on social media and running educational campaigns. Also, encouraging dicussion and education within local communities could also help combat the issue.

I’m not inherently against the idea of a vaccine passport, I just struggle with some of the legality of it. I am extremely lucky, in being fully vaccinated, compared to a lot of people around the world. Various provincial governments ( Quebec and Manitoba have created them with Nova Scotia and others along the way soon) and the federal government of Canada have mulling over the idea of mandatory vaccines and passports, but questions remain if they have the legal authority to do so. I’m so desperate to get back to normal life but at the same time I think we need to respect people’s rights and getting the vaccine is a personal choice. I don’t want to force anyone to get it. And the majority of Canadians have stepped up, which is good.

I don’t know how, but we need to find a balance between public health and respecting the rights and privacy of others. As Spock would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. But given how we have lost so much in the face of this pandemic when it comes to our economies, lives and mental health, how do we navigate these fundamental issues of respecting our democratic institutions and our rights but at the same time respecting public health and keeping people safe? I would love to hear your thoughts. This issue is a bit of a moral quagmire for some. Please feel free to comment down below and share your thoughts with me as I may include them in a follow up.

What if the Americans won the War of 1812, Part 1

Free State of Ontario, 1912.

Dear Professor,

I hope this letter finds you well. I’m writing a letter today from on behalf of the University of New Toronto. I’m writing this brief summary of the war for the assignment you have required me to write about the Ten Years War with the United Kingdom and the Northern Confederation of Free States, or as it was once known as the United States of America.

To briefly summarize what the war was, it was an American attempt at annexing British North America, otherwise known as the colonies of Upper and Low Canada. Manifest Destiny, it was called, their attempt at conquering and settling all of North America. They believed it was their destiny, quote on quote to rule all of North America. But that backfired trendmously. We are still seeing the effects of it today.

Until 1813, the war was a stalemate, either side unable to make major pushes into their respective domains. While, the Americans had managed to push all the way into Southern Ontario, they were stopped at York by the retreating British forces. But this was all soon to change. History would never be the same again

For some reason, when it would have the logical reason to retreat and set up a trap for the invading Americans, the British decided to have their final stand at Fort York. If it was vain attempt at stopping American troops or wanting to go out in a blaze of glory, it was sheer lunacy on their part. It is widely believed, however the turning point in favor of the Americans was at the Battle of Fort York. A failed attempt at trying to sabotage and kill American troops by blowing up a storehouse full of gunpowder and ammunition at the fort backfired, failed when it blew up prematurely. About 200 British troops were killed in the explosion and several American officers were severely wounded, it failed stop the American advance and they soon captured the fort.

The most important thing, was the survival of American general, Zebulon Pike survived, despite the fact he was severely wounded. It is widely believed now if he had died, the American advance would have severely weakened.

It took him two months to recover from his wounds properly to command again. The Americans were forced to retreat back to edge of Lake Ontario, around Hamilton, but something was awoken inside of Pike. Having healed from such a deadly injury from the blast, it awoke a passion in him. This drive to keep living, translated into fury and passion on the battlefield and it surely showed. Suddenly his mind was brewing with brilliant and innovate military techniques that allowed them to quickly defeat and overwhelm the British in battle. Years later, when the Great Emperor Napoleon was invading Russia, he even used some of the tactics to defeat the Russians in battle and they worked. Pike, today is seen as one of the greatest military masterminds of the 19th century. They are a many street, town, city and schools named after him.

Soon, in the next two years, Pike and his forces pushed deep in Ontario, cutting it off in the North from Owen Sound all the way to Kingston. Also, winning several key battles in the Great Lakes and repelling British attempts at capturing Detroit and the upper Michigan pensulia. Soon by late 1815, after winning a key victory at the Battle of the Maitland River in upper Huron, the remaining British forces were forced to retreat the far North of Ontario and to Quebec. With the Americans effectively controlling the Great Lakes, supply efforts were hampered greatly and many of these isolated troops starved and died of disease, waiting for reinforcements that never came.

However, the British not wish to surrender so easily. They were determined to hang onto Quebec and the Maritimes. Thanks to a decisive British victory at the Battle of Kingston and other smaller battles, the British managed to stop the American advance into Quebec. The British navy was something not to be trifled with still, and attempts to dislodge from the St.Lawerence and the Atlantic around the Maritimes. In order to stop the fast advance of the Americans into Quebec, the British were forced to divert more ships and troops from the homefront, despite it being against the wishes of the King.

The line remained static along the Ontario-Qubec border and the border with New York and the Upper New England states for about two years. Brief attempts at counteroffensives on both sides failed. But all of this soon changed, because of three decisive moments.

Under British control of Quebec, during this period of time, a harsh military rule was implemented. The freedoms the Quebecious had enjoyed under the British after the Seven Years War was being quashed. Many loyalists to the British crown had fled to Quebec from Ontario, wishing to not be absorbed by the Americans. Therefore, their culture and language was promoted heavily, along with their religion, Anglicanism, over the predominate Catholicism in Quebec as wartime progranda. The French language, the catholic faith and culture was being squashed in favour of the pre dominant English, Anglican culture that existed in Ontario. Quebec men were being forcibly recruited into the British army and were “required to be more English” and if they spoke French, they were punished severely. Anything that wasn’t seen as British, wasn’t patriotic and foreign was frowned upon as it could damage wartime morale. This lead to riots occurring, over the loss of religious freedom and language. Soon, with the help of American supplies and spies, Quebecois paristians were armed and started a mass uprising over the killing of a Catholic priest in Quebec City, as he disagreed with the war. They were the spark, that was needed for the Quebec Revolution of 1816.

The Quebecois were not pleased at the thought of having to ally with the Americans, but it was a wartime nessicity. They promised to ally with the Americans, if they were allowed to become independent and retain their cultural, religious and language in order to become an ally. They also asked to be protected against future British invasions and be their ally in perpetuity if another war arose with Britain or other European powers. To this day in the year of our Lord, 1912, Quebec is still independent as the Americans kept their promise. In exchange for a guaranteed of independence and protection, America asked for some lands of the Lower St.Lawerence to be annexed to Ontario and gain control of the Lower Maritime colonies while Quebec could retain Newfoundland and some of the Artic territory in exchange. While the Americans didn’t like the Quebec because they were Catholic, the enemy of my enemy is my friend in times of war. Soon, with the help of the Quebec rebels, America was able to dislodge the British from Quebec and the Maritimes, freeing nearly all of North America from the British, besides isolated territories in the Caribbean.

Another key turning point, was half a ocean away in Europe. At the time of the Ten Years War, Britain was war on the continent with the Great Emperor Napoleon. Napoleon sought to bring all of Europe under his political and economic control with the Continental System. While he had lost the decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar than he needed, this soon changed. Napoleon for the longest time had debated on invading Russia and Spain, but decided against as it was too costly. He figured if he focused all his attention on the British, the Prussians and the Austrians, he could make an example of them to the rest of Europe. Particularly, if he focused on Britain, France’s greatest rival and enemy and what was seen as the most powerful country in Europe besides France. Early on in 1807, Napoleon did not get involved in Spain.

According to many experts, this was seen as a wise choice as Spanish resistance would have been likely strong to the French. With the war in North America becoming a major embarrassment and more resources being diverted there, the United Kingdom it’s self was becoming less and less defended. Napoleon believed that a naval invasion of the United Kingdom was not going to work, rather a blockade was the way to go. Starting in 1817, a five year blockade of the United Kingdom was started, with the help of Napoleon’s European allies. The British did not give up easily. It took a major naval defeat at the Battle of the Irish Sea in 1819, which was won with the key help of the Ottomans and the new allied Russians, along with Swedish and Finnish allies to defeat and destroy the British Navy effectively. Napoleon also helped start a major rebellion in Ireland which bogged down British resources even more. Because alot of the British fleet was being sent to Canada to fight the Americans and protect the Carbbiean colonies, this was seen as a deadly mistake by many historians. British leadership believed it would be impossible to defeat “Fortress Britain” but this motive and self-assurance later proved to be their downfall

Thanks also to a French spy plot in London, many high ranking members of the British government and royalty were killed in a major explosion during a conference at Buckingham Palace discussing wartime statgery and possible terms of surrender to France in June 1821. While Napoleon regretted having to resort to such extreme measures to win the war, he believed it was the only way to effectively subdue the British due to their unwillingness to give up. This shock proved absolutely deadly to the nation, and soon many protests and riots broke against the war, with the majority of the British population fed up with starving and dying in a useless war. What soon remained of the British royal family and government, due to public pressure ( what little remained of it), drew up letters of surrender to the French on January 1, 1822.

This effectively ended the Ten Years War in America as remaining forces in Newfoundland and Bermuda were quickly brought back home to defend the homeland against a naval invasion. The Americans conquered the rest of Canada and Bermuda with no incident and little fighting. Many of the remaining Cabberibean colonies also fell under the control of America and Spain. The last remaining British garrison in North America, surrendered on June 2, 1822 in Halifax, symbolically ending the war.

Another major turning point was the unification of very Indian tribes that existed in British North America under General Tecumseh in an independent state in Northern Ontario and what is known as Manitoba. British attempts at trying to ally with them failed and they fought against both the British and the Americans for freedom. At the end of the Ten Years War, as a condition of stopping fighting, the Indians were granted a state and a buffer zone between the two powers was created between Fort Albany and Kenora. The Americans only really wanted the fertile lands of Southern Ontario and part of the St.Lawerence. Today, there is still very little contact between the two countries, due to previous treatment of the Indians in Canada and America. Despite, several close calls with settlers from America, and several border skirmishes, war has been largely avoided.

Napoleon, not wanting to completely destroy the British, decided to mercifully and still allow them to be nominally independent. However, they were forced to join the Continental System and a puppet Queen, Mary the III, a daughter of one Napoleon’s siblings was installed. Beyond that however, Britain was allowed to keep key colonies in North America, most of their colonies in India and were given several new ones in Oceania. The British were also allowed to still conduct their day to day affairs within their own country, but under the influence of the Napoleonic code. But Britain’s constitutions, laws and institutions were still under the control of the British and even foreign policy to a extent. But any drastic or dramatic changes in foreign policy or anything that seemed to go against France in English laws, had to be approved by Napoleon himself.

In America, after the war, the dream of Manifest Destiny was slowly coming true. With new captured lands in Ontario and the Maritimes and the Caribbean, major settlement and investment was created in this area. American pride and nationalism was at all time high. America, it seemed was the verge of becoming a major world power, maybe the greatest ever. But this hope and optimism was not to last. The issue of expanding slavery and ingreating these new lands into America posed a great challenge. One that would tear the country apart.

…

Thank you Professor for reading this first part of the essay. I promise to have the second part in by next week. next, I’ll talk about the ingreation of America’s newly conquered land into the Commonwealth, slavery and Napoleonic Europe duing this time and how it lead to the current modern day world we live in! Goodbye for now.

COVAX: Vaccine Equity and the Fight to Vaccinate the Developing World

We’re finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The COVID-19 Vaccine. One of the greatest medical inventions and advancements in the past 100 years. Particularly, the Pfizer and the Modera ones are ones to celebrate because of the m-RNA technology that was developed inside of it. Instead of having a weakened form of the virus or a similar virus like a traditional vaccine, the m-RNA is synthetic and sends info to your body to start producing COVID antibodies in your body. It’s like it’s sent an email to your white blood cells. This technology is revolutionary and could be used to fight cancer, malaria, Ebola and potentially even HIV and AIDS.

I was lucky enough myself to get the Pfizer vaccine last Monday, on May 10th. The only side effect I experienced was a sore arm. Also besides Bill Gates whispering in my head he was supreme ruler of the world, nothing bad has happened to me.

The vaccine rollout in developed countries, particularly Canada, Europe and the United States is picking up steam quickly. The United States has already vaccinated 60% of their population with one shot and over 30% with two shots. Canada has vaccinated over 18 million with one dose, but less than 4% with two. The UK sits at similar numbers compared to the States, with nearly 70% with one dose and 30% with two doses. Other countries in Europe like Spain, France, Germany and Serbia are close behind. No one has done better than Israel though.

While, all of this is great for first world countries and Canada where I live, it’s not great for the rest of the developing world. It’s estimated that 14% of the world’s population, which happens to be in developed nations, holds over 60% of the world’s COVID vaccine supply. Canada in particular has placed orders for 440 million vaccines from various different companies, and this includes vaccines delivered to Canada. Canada has promised to donate any leftover vaccine to COVAX.

What is COVAX, you may ask though? Well, COVAX is a United Nations sponsored relief effort to ensure COVID-19 vaccine equity around the world, particularly for third world and developing countries. Canada is part of it, and back during the height of the second wave, Canada requested Astra-Zeneca doses. This was kind of shameful, given the fact that Canada was guaranteed millions of doses in months. But we were also facing a deadly second wave with no domestic capability to create vaccines, so touché.

Well, the intentions of it are wonderful, the execution has not been great. Alot of developed countries still hold the majority of the vaccines. Vaccine nationalism and diplomacy have clashed particularly in the case of Europe. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have barely received vaccines or haven’t at all. But this also ties into more complicated issues of dealing with vaccines that need to be stored at very cold temperatures in parts of the world with poor infrastructure. As mentioned before, many of the first world nations in the world are hogging the vaccines for themselves and not sharing it with others, unless they’re close allies. Even among close allies in Europe have not fully shared all of their vaccines as seen with the dispute between AstraZeneca, a British owned pharma company and the European Union.

This creates massive problems as seen in India. While as of the past couple days, cases in India have decreased slightly, according to Google metrics, they are still seeing over 300,000 cases a day. Bodies are flowing down the river Ganges. Informal networks on social media try and help people find ICU beds and oxygen in India. The healthcare system has basically collapsed there. Places where bodies were burned for cremation, are seeing hundreds burned everyday. And they are running out of space everywhere. People are dying in the streets, outside of hospitals. Many places in New Delhi and other major cities or population centres in India have run out of oxygen. It’s easily the biggest healthcare crisis behind Yemen and Syria, I’ve seen in my lifetime. 4,000 people are dying a day. Case counts and death rates are likely to be 3 times higher than what is being reported by the government in India. India will suprass the United States quickly for most COVID deaths and infections in the world, already at 25 million cases and 280,000 deaths.

In the case of India, where they faced the first wave, it went alot better than experts and the government predicted. This put India into a sense of lull and false relaxation. India was also capable of producing massive amounts of the vaccine, particularly COVID-Shield, an Indian rebranding of the AstraZeneca vaccine they made within the country. This turned into an absolute diaster with Prime Minister Narenda Modi allowing traditional holy festivals to occur, such as the bathing in the river Ganges and massive political rallies he held, also contributing.

These became massive super spreader events which lead to the current baffling and nightmare second wave India is currently experiencing.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party in India, the BJP have also made India more autocratic and the rights of Islamic minorities and other ones have been under attack. This has also been seen in their response to COVID and refusing to bring in a larger national lockdown in India, which doctors have been screaming for. Also, low rates of vaccination, poor living conditions, lack of access to clean water and food, power and crowded living spaces in slums have played a huge part in the massive spread of COVID-19 in India. The biggest issue in India, is the creation of variants. A new variant of COVID in India called B.1.617, is likely 50% more infectious than the UK B.1.1.7 variant of COVID that’s swept across the globe. If it will spread like the UK variant, remains unknown at this time.

The reason why I’m talking about India so much, is this is a problem in developing nations with limited supplies of vaccines. The longer COVID goes uncontrolled, these variants will decimate the globe. B.1.617 has already been found in 44 other countries around the world, including Canada, the U.K and the United States. The P.1 variant that was found in Brazil was created under similar circumstances as in India. This types in a lot of bigger issues, including autocratic governments such as in Brazil and India with Jair Bolsonaro and Narenda Modi unwilling to crack down on the virus because of conservative and anti-science beliefs they hold. But this also ties back into the age old issues of second and third world countries developing and overcoming issues such as poverty, healthcare, and hunger and access to education.

The longer these places go unvaccinated, especially in developing and third world countries, the more these deadly variants will pop up and prolong the COVID pandemic. Variants have popped up in Nigeria for example. How do we solve this issue and the issues that are currently facing COVAX. Well, here are are a couple of suggestions.

Developing a cheap and easy to store vaccine is the number one way that vaccine inequity can be faced. The Pfizer, Modera and other vaccines like it are fantastic at stopping the spread of COVID but are hard to transport and store because of the extremely cold temperatures they need to be stored at. This is where stuff like the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine pop up. These vaccines can be stored in normal pharmacy fridges and made fairly cheap and sold very cheap. They are more like traditional vaccines, made of weakened forms of other related diseases or strains of COVID. The Johnson and Johnson is also fairly attractive because it’s a single shot. But their effectiveness against variants is still being determined. There has also been cases of rare blood clots, particularly in women forming with the AstraZeneca vaccine, with a rate of 1 in 100,000 doses in Canada. This has also occurred with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, to a much lesser extent. But these issues are extremely rare and are unlikely to slow down the purchase, development, shipping and distribution of these vaccines.

This also applies to Chinese made vaccines such as Sinopharm and the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, despite the dubious feelings I feel towards them

If we can quickly mass produce more of these vaccines and send them to these third world countries, the more we can get a hand on these variants.

Another less attractive option is countries with leftover doses, shipping them to these countries. President Joe Biden says the United States has 80 million doses to share with the world. Canada will soon be in a similar position with how the rate of vaccination is going. But this still leaves third world countries in the dark. If future waves of COVID pop up and more contagious and dangerous variants are created, they are likely to hoard the vaccine again.

There are many more options, but I think the first one is the most effective way of dealing with the issue of vaccine equity. Having a cheap to make and buy and variant resistant vaccine with high rates of efficacy like the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson ones, will help curb the spread of COVID-19. I’m not going to even tough logistical and manufacturing issues as that’s way too complicated to explain here properly. Other vaccines like the Medicago one being developed in Canada, along with the Novax one will also be of particular use. Addressing issues of distributing the vaccine warzones, disaster areas, ensuring fair and equal distribution of the vaccine for the most vulnerable and poor in these countries and countries with poor instrastructure are beyond my area of expertise. I would be interested in writing up a follow up piece about it.

Constructive criticism is appreciated and I look foward to hearing from you all soon. Have a great day.

Mac-Pacs: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War served as a prequel to World War II, for what was to come. The mass bombings, the tactics, the machinery and guns. Particularly the bombing of Guernica by the volunteer German Condor Legion foreshadowed the vast destruction by aerial raids that all of Europe would see in the coming World War. It also functioned as a proxy war with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supporting Franco and the Nationalists and the Republicans being supported by the Soviet Union, Mexico and France to a lesser extent. Every other country in the world, expect for the ones mentioned, maintained a policy of neutrality and a wish to not get involved in Spanish affairs. Many passed acts forbidding it and motions passed through the League of Nations prevented it from happening further.

Guernica after the bombing by the volunteer German Condor Legion

But this doesn’t mean that foreign countries get involved. It was not their politicians, but their own civilians. It was particularly those who held communist, republican or other types of leftist views that get involved in the war. Canada was one of these nations where it’s citizens fought directly in the war. But why do they do it, how did they serve and what happened them after the civil war ended?

Here’s a brief history lesson for those who don’t know what the Spanish Civil War was all about. After the Spanish-American War, Spain was in a heavy decline, having lost it’s two most important remaining oversea colonies to America. These were Cuba and the Philippines, along with Puerto Rico and Guam. Spain once was the world’s leading imperialist power, having pioneered settlement of the New World and exploration, along with their neighbor, Portugal. However, overtime Spain declined, particularly in the last part of the 19th century. Spain remained neutral during World War I but this didn’t help it in the long run. Starting in 1931, the monarchy in Spain was absolved and a republic was declared. But this republic wasn’t very stable and many groups on the left and the right of the political spectrum fought for control.

The tipping point that caused the Spanish Civil War was the introduction of radical, liberal reforms that upset the large, conservative Catholic population in Spain, particularly those in the military. With the collapse of various Republican led governments in the 1930s in elections and counter-coups, the military under Emilio Mola staged a rebellion in Spanish controlled Morocco. This was a Nationalist coup, it functioned as an attempt to stop the reforms and bring Spain stability and to take the country in a more conservative direction and to possibly restore the monarchy. They failed to gain control of any major cities, expect for Seville but this was enough for Spanish-Moroccan troops under the command of Francisco Franco ( that name will become very important later to land on mainland Spain. Soon, the country became split between the Republicans ( which contained various political groups such as communists, liberals, anarchists, and other various liberal groups) and the Nationalists ( which contained the fascists, conservatives, monarchists and others). Mola would later die in a plane crash and be succeeded by Franco as leader of the Nationalists.

Franco, leader of the victorious Nationalists

This is where foreign involvement in the war begins. Nazi Germany and Italy provided volunteers, training, military advisors and weaponry to the Nationalist side in order to secure the Meddiertrain and gain a useful Fascist ally. The Soviet Union and Mexico also did the same for the Republicans, along secretly with the French.

Major powers such as the United States, Britain and France did not wish to intervene as they maintained policies of neutrality, although they were all concerned about the rise of fascism or communism on the Iberian Peninsula. Among the populace of the various countries, particularly those with leftist views wished to get involved as they feared the rise of fascism across Europe and held sympathies with the Republican side. Famous people that get involved in the Spanish Civil War were Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell as reporters and both fought on the side of the Republicans. George Orwell was infamously shot during a battle, and this turned off from the idea of international communism, and inspired him to write an Ode to Catalonia and 1984.

Ernest Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War

This is where Canada comes in. Canada, by this time had an independent foreign policy from that of it’s colonial overlord, the United Kingdom with the passage of the Westminster Statue in 1931. Along, with the Balfour Declaration of 1926, Canada gained an independent foreign policy, where it could figure out it’s place in the world. Canada, like the United Kingdom maintained a policy of neutrality, although some in government held sympathies towards the Republican side. About 1,542 Canadians volunteered in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans, being the fourth largest groups of volunteers internationally to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

The Ilkka gun company, part of the Mac-Pacs, circa 1937

Canadians started pouring into the country in 1937, and at first assigned to the American volunteer unit, the Lincoln Battalion, which was made up of 2,500 troops. Wishing to separate themselves and not fight under the American banner, the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion, otherwise known as the Mac-Paps was created in July 1937 in Albacete, Spain. They named themselves after William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, two well known Republican and liberal figures from Canadian history. The Mac-Paps were part of the larger XV International Bridgade, which was made up of about 50,000 foreign volunteers from around the world. The largest group of volunteers were French, Yugoslavian, American, Canadian groups that held leftist or communist views. They chose the name of Mac-Paps in order to show their commitment to the Republican side and part of their Canadian national identity.

The first battle in which Canadians were involved was the Battle of Fuentes de Erbo, which they saw minor action. They were first under the command of an American, Robert G. Thompson. They soon had their first Canadian commander, Edward Cecil-Smith, a member of the Communist Party of Canada. He had written a banned play, Eight Men Speak which was about Canadian’s worker’s struggle against the capitalist society in Canada.

Edward Cecil Smith in Spain circa. 1937

Flag of the XV International Brigade

The Canadian volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War were not students and intellectuals like the ones from the UK and the United States and France, they were mainly working class men and women. They were particularly motivated to fight because of the collapse of capitalism and the Canadian economy in Canada during the Great Depression. Many members of the Mac-Paps were also members of the Communist Party of Canada like Cecil-Smith and were self taught about the conflict and were concerned the possible repercussions the war would have on the world and Europe at large.

Many of them travelled to Spain under false pretenses. In early 1937, the Canadian Parialment passed laws that forbid Canadian citizens from fighting in foreign wars as volunteers and they wouldn’t be considered veterans if they returned. This act was known as the Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act. But this didn’t stop many of them, as they met in sercet to be reruited.

To quote how the recruitment process occured, here’s a quote from Wikiepdia, highlighting how it was done:

“Volunteers usually went first to Toronto, where they met at the headquarters for the operation, located at Queen and Spadina streets. Applicants were screened. For the most part anyone intending to enlist had to have had a history of working for the left. Drunken and adventurous types were weeded out, leaving those who were ideologically committed to the politics of the fight against fascism. These factors, together with the comparatively mature age of the soldiers – 61.5% were over thirty – resulted in a powerful and committed force. From Toronto they traveled to Montreal or, more frequently, New York City, to depart by ships for travel across the Atlantic Ocean to France. They continued to Spain by ship or on foot across the Pyrenees.“

Also, an interesting note that most of the Canadian volunteers that enlisted were already first generation immigrants, mainly from the Ukraine and Finland.

In 1938, the Mac-Paps witnessed major action in several important battles during the Spanish Civil War. This included the Battle of Teruel and the Aragon Offensive. Both of these battles were Nationalist victories and lead to the eventual defeat of the Republican side in 1939. Other important battles that Canadians fought in include, the Battle of Brunete, the Battle of Jarama, the Barcelona May Days and the Battle of Erbo.

Photo of Irish volunteers from the Battle of Jarama, 1937-1938

To quote from the Wartime Experince, here’s a desription of the various battles that saw, particularly the Siege of Aragon, Mardid and Teruel:

“

Following the victory in Madrid, the republican government sought to take the city of Zaragoza, a strategic transportation hub with a population considered to be largely anti-fascist. However, they had to take several towns along the way. This campaign was known as the Aragon battles. There were three main towns held by the fascists that needed to be taken: Quinto, Belchite, and Fuentes de Ebro.

            The first town, Quinto, saw the British battalion lead the assault through the city street. Eventually, the last of the rebel forces were held up in the central town church. The remaining fighters held out despite point blank artillery fire and anti-fascist propaganda being bellowed out over loud speakers, to which the rebels replied to with bursts of fire. Paddy O’Daire, who lived in Canada from 1929-1934, had temporarily take command of the Battalion.

            Once the fascist forces who were held up in the church surrendered, they were quickly executed. One member of the International Brigades reported, “We had lost a lot of comrades, you see, because of those twelve guys… We just grabbed those guys, lined them up and shot them right there.”

            Meanwhile the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion was finishing three months of training. They were mostly led by American communists, such as Robert Thompson and Joe Dallet. However, one Canadian Finn named Niilo Makela oversaw the machine-gun company. Makela was highly respected by his men for his bravery and composure in battle.“

Here’s a description of the Battle of Teruel from the Canadian perspective:

   The battalion first saw action in the attack on the town of Fuentes de Ebro in Early October of 1937. The first day of the offensive saw massive Canadian casualties with official figures ranging from 46 dead and 200 wounded to 60 dead and 200 wounded. The battle was plagued by miscalculations. The Mac-Paps were supposed to enter the forward trenches under cover of darkness to achieve an element of surprise but were discovered by nationalist forces. Additionally, an artillery barrage was meant to hammer rebel defenses prior to the International Brigade’s assault but was forty minutes late and missed its mark. After the failed assault, casualty figures declined but did not stop, and, eventually, the International Brigades were pulled out in late October.

            The Mac-Paps retuned to central Spain and were deployed in villages surrounding the capital. However, just before Christmas of that same year the town of Teruel had been captured by government forces. A week later it was on the verge of being recaptured by nationalists, and the Mac-Paps were sent to help defend the city. Conditions near Teruel were cold and windy, and the Mac-Paps were forced to sleep outside with little provisions. Meanwhile, in the positions below them they could see Franco’s forces hammering the republican positions. After two weeks the Canadians were pulled out of Teruel. The nationals rebels had retaken the city.“

To focus more on the Battle of Teruel, there was a particularly famous Finnish-American gun company that held off the Nationalist forces and allowed the Mac-Paps and other international volunteers to retreat. The Battle of Erbo served as the final battle that the Mac-Paps served in and on September 21, 1938, the Spanish Prime Minister, Juan Nergin order the international volunteers to leave Spain and cease fighting in the war. Madrid fell six months later and 721 Canadians out of the 1,546 Canadians that had served had died. 9 Canadians died during the Battle of Jarama, which served as the battle with the most Canadian casualties.

The road home for these volunteers, was not easy.

“…The return of survivors to Canada was arduous. The Canadian government continued its policy of ignoring or prosecuting the veterans of Spain, in accordance with the Foreign Enlistment Act. They depended on friends and family to collect the money to get them home; some men were arrested in France. It was not until January 1939 that the government agreed the veteran combatants could return to Canada. Upon their return, many were investigated by the RCMP because of communist party affiliations. Some were denied employment. A good number of the Mac-Pap veterans fought in the Second World War, but a number were prohibited because of their history.”

Today, volunteers that fought in the Spanish Civil War are not officially recognized as veterans because of how Canada remained neutral during the war. They do not hold a place in national memory and military institutions. Their sacrifices are not even remembered or honored on Remembrance Day. Those who survived are not entitled to military benefits.

To quote Wikipedia on the further treatment and fight for recongition by the Canadian government, here’s how it went:

“

But since the late 20th century, a group known as the Veterans and Friends of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion have gained government permission and installed three monuments to commemorate these veterans. The first monument was erected in Toronto on June 4, 1995 at Queen’s Park. The monument is a large boulder transported from the battlefield of Gandesa, Spain. Attached to the boulder is a memorial plaque for the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.^[2] A monument to the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion was unveiled February 12, 2000 in Victoria, British Columbia.^[3]Detail of plaque of the Mac-Pap monument, Victoria

Another monument to the Mac-Pap veterans was erected in Ottawa in 2001 on Green Island Park. This effort was also organized and funded by Veterans and Friends of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. The monument includes the names of the 1,546 Canadian volunteers who served in Spain. This number includes all those who served in the Mac-Pap battalion; the medical, communications, transportation and translation corps; or in other brigades. The monument was designed by architect Oryst Sawchuck of Sudbury, selected in a juried competition by the organizers. It shows a figure of Prometheus raising his arm towards the sun, cut out of a five-metre-high (16 ft) sheet of steel. A 12-metre memorial wall is inscribed with volunteers’ names.^[4]

Dr. Norman Bethune, who greatly developed the use of mobile army medical units for the Republican side, is one of the few Canadians to be recognized for his service in Spain.“

Dr. Norman Bethune is the only Canadian recognized in national memory and it’s military institutions as a veteran of the Spanish Civil War because of his medical accomplishments. He would later see action in World War II in China, developing and pioneering more of his mobile medical units for armies and blood transfusions. He would later die of blood poisoning himself in 1939 in Hebei, China. He even gained the respect of Mao Zedong who wrote an eulogy for him.

Norman Bethune, the only Canadian honored in national memory for fighting in the Spanish Civil War

Jules Pavio, the last living member of the Mac-Pacs before his death in 2013.

The last member of the Mac-Paps d, Jules Pevio, died in 2013 at the age of 94. He fought for the rest of his life after the war, like many of his comrades for recognition by the Canadian government as veterans of a war. According to a speech given by Michaëlle Jean while unveiling the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion Monument,

Statue to the Mac-Paps in Victoria, B.C.

“No other country gave a greater proportion of its population as volunteers in Spain than Canada”

You may ask yourself, why did I write about this? Well, I’ve always been interested in learning more about the Spanish Civil War and the Canadian angle involved. The Spanish Civil War was a very important conflict in world history and served as the “dress rehearsal” for World War II with the mass bombings of civilians, the tactics and the technology and the clash of democracy and communism against fascism and nationalism. I’m always interested in finding out the role Canada played in various important conflicts, big or small. It gives me a sense of where Canada was during these conflicts.

I believe that the volunteers and veterans of the war should have at least been given veteran benefits, along with their remaining relatives. While, this does set an interesting precedent for Canadians that get involved in fighting foreign conflicts, this is different from others. I’m not calling for Canadians that fought for like ISIS or terrorist groups to get these benefits or be recognized in national memory, but these people were fighting against tyranny and weren’t promoting violent ideologies. I don’t think Canadians that volunteer to fight in present conflicts outside of the military or other legal forms should be recognized at the moment. But, the Spanish Civil War was over 80 years ago, I feel like it would be fair for those who struggled to gain employment and were perseucted because of their political beliefs at least deserve some form of compensation or veteran benefits for their families. I don’t think they be interned in national memory, but they at least deserve something. This could also include Canadians that fought in Vietnam, but that’s a different story. For other conflicts beyond the Spanish Civil War and Vietnam, I don’t think they should do anything. But that’s one too many headaches for me to figure out.

That was the story of the Mac-Pacs, otherwise known as the Mackenize-Paupieau Battalion that fought in the Spanish Civil War. I hoped you enjoyed this blog post and constructive criticism is appreciated.

Zach Synder’s Justice League Trilogy: A Missed Knightmare

The Snyder cut is finally out, finally after 3 and a half years. While I am a bigger Marvel fan, I still watch pretty much any superhero films that comes out, DC or Marvel. Shazam was a good movie and Aquaman was decent, and Wonder Woman was a great film. I even see Suicide Squad as a better movie than Batman vs. Superman. Birds of Prey was not that bad either and Joker was a great vehicle for Joaquin Phoenix. And of course, the Dark Knight is my favourite movie of all time.

Everyone knows the story behind the original cut of Justice League. A very troubled production, studio interference, the death of Zach Snyder’s daughter to suicide and Joss Whedon’s not so great cut of the film. While I did not hate the original cut, it felt very lacking. The brunch joke was probably the thing I enjoyed the most about the film. As of writing this, I have only watched the first half of the Snyder Cut and I enjoying it very much so far. I am not a fan of some of the super slow-mo. he does, it is a much better film, and it flows much better.

After the original release of Justice League in November 2017, fans were clamoring for the alternate cut of the film that originally aligned with Snyder’s original vision more. The film underperformed greatly at the box office, effectively destroying any chance of seeing a sequel made by Zach Snyder. It was expected to be a billion-dollar grosser, but due to mixed reviews, competition and bad word of mouth from fans, it only grossed $658 million on a $300 million dollar budget.

In the months and years after it, a massive fan campaign was started to bring the Snyder cut to life. A lot of people at the time saw as nothing but a pipe dream. There was footage that was shot was not included in the film that existed out there, but it would cost millions to finish the special effects. Also, there was parts of the screenplay that was never filmed, which did not help either.

But all of that changed when primary cast members such as Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill and Snyder himself, threw their support behind fan’s efforts to create Snyder’s original version on screen. Finally, last year in May 2020, it was announced that the Snyder Cut was finally a reality and would release on HBO Max on March 18th, 2021. Additional footage was shot to include Jared Leto as the Joker, also included Deathstroke, Martian Manhunter and an expanded role for Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. William Dafoe was also included along with Ray Porter as Darkseid and his servant, Daased. I was personally very pleased to see Darkseid finally on the big screen. With the film out now, it is secrets known, and a cliff-hanger ending, this recall, what would happened in the sequels? What was Snyder’s original vision?

Well, thankfully to a couple of leaks and Kevin Smith, we know what would happen in these sequels.

At the end of Justice League, in Snyder’s version, this is what happens.

“

After the battle, Bruce, Alfred Pennyworth, and Diana agree to set up a base of operations for the team, with room for more members. As the team establishes, Diana continues being a heroine, Barry acquires a job in Central City‘s police department which impresses his father Henry, Victor is inspired by a message from his father to use his abilities for good, Arthur continues protecting people on the seas, Superman resumes his life as reporter Clark Kent and as protector of Earth, and Bruce gets the Kent’s’ house back from the bank.

Lex Luthor, who escaped from Arkham Asylum, is visited by Slade Wilson, to whom Luthor reveals Batman’s secret identity. Bruce has a dream set in a post-apocalyptic world,^[c] where he, Victor, Barry, Mera, Wilson, and the Joker are found by an evil Superman.”

If you remember Batman vs. Superman, Batman has a nightmare where Darkseid has conquered the world and has Superman under his control, via the Anti-Life equation. What the Anti-Life equation is, it is a mathematical formula that can be used to subjugate and crush the free will of others, making them puppets to whoever controls them. This is Darkseid’s primary motive, and he seeks to bend the free will of everyone in the universe to his will using this. It is a dark, brooding timeline that is like a mix between Mad Max and DC comics (which are both owned by Warner Brothers, which is ironic). Explaining who Darkseid is, is much more complicated. I will link a video explaining his origins and his motivations as a villain below.

In the follow up to Justice League, we would have start to see Batman’s nightmare come to life. Here is how the plot would have played out. Here is what the leaked plot is, according to Reddit. If you do not want spoilers, then click away.

“

Having witnessed Steppenwolf’s defeat firsthand, Darkseid orders Desaad to ready his armada for an attack.

In Gotham, Batman stops a bank robbery led by Scarecrow. During the conflict, he is doused by the fear toxin and gets visions of a war-torn Earth dominated by an Evil Superman controlled by Darkseid. After stopping Scarecrow, Batman returns to the Batcave.

Meanwhile in Metropolis, Clark awakens to a similar nightmare where he sees Lois dead. Lois calms him down by telling him that she is pregnant. Happy but anxious about the future, Superman meets Batman atop the Metropolis Tower. They discuss Lois’ pregnancy. Batman is happy for them.

With Alfred’s deceased, Bruce seeks the guidance of Diana in London. Together, they track down and visit Luthor, presently guarded by Deathstroke. Luthor reveals a coming invasion of Earth led by Darkseid. Wonder Woman stops Batman from engaging Deathstroke.

Bruce alerts the Justice League of his plans – to attack Apokolips pre-emptively, while they least expect it. No one is immediately onboard this plan. Bruce manages to convince Diana. Barry does not want to leave Iris, but she shows him reason. Cyborg evaluates the probabilities and weighs their chances of success at “50-50”.

Aquaman refuses because he has a kingdom to run. Mera convinces him otherwise. Superman does not want to leave Lois. He agrees to come if Bruce can guarantee her safety. Bruce gets Lois to the Batcave. He reveals his secret identity to Gordon and makes Gordon promise to take care of Lois at the cave.

The Justice League prepares to go to war. Cyborg has been steadily understanding how “boom-tubes” work. He reveals that they are methods of interdimensional travel and he can open one but cannot guarantee their destination.

Despite the odds, Cyborg opens the boom-tube and the League go through. They arrive at NEW GENESIS – a heavenly abode for the Gods. They are mesmerized by the technology. Eventually, they meet the Highfather who tells them that they must go back – there is a permanent peace treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips.

Meanwhile, Darkseid arrives on Earth with his entire armada. The armies of man cannot stand in front of him. Desaad orders Grail and Kalibak to quickly disarm the world’s nuclear arsenal. Despite that, nukes are fired, and cities are decimated.

Luthor (with Deathstroke) meets with Darkseid – hoping to be rewarded now that he has prepped Earth for the invasion. Darkseid tells Luthor that he has failed in his mission. Luthor tells Darkseid that he can have Superman if he kills his tether to humanity – Lois (who is in the Batcave). Darkseid kills Luthor regardless – Deathstroke manages to make an escape.

The Justice League contemplate returning to Earth. Before they can decide, Darkseid’s armada attacks New Genesis. They are defeated almost instantly when the Green Lantern Corps arrives (led by Hal Jordan) to uphold the peace treaty.

Meanwhile on Earth, Darkseid defeats a makeshift team of Earth’s Heroes (Shazam, Mera, Deadshot, Deathstroke and Atom). They fall one-by-one, unable to defeat the New Gods (Darkseid, Desaad, Grail and Kalibak).

Hal informs the League of the attack on Earth. Cyborg opens the boom-tube and the League heads back to Earth. Hal stays on New Genesis to assist in reparations. The League arrives to find the Earth largely decimated.

Superman flies off to find Lois. Desaad informs Darkseid that Superman has arrived on Earth. Darkseid boom-tubes to the BatCave. Superman arrives there as well. Darkseid informs Superman that he has found the secret to unlocking the Anti-Life Equation.

Superman is overcome with grief. Desaad arrives and shows Superman how his mother dies during Earth’s Invasion as well. Superman breaks down – losing the will to live. Desaad discovers the Anti-Life Equation’s birth in the Superman grief + the consciousness of Krypton that runs through his blood as the Codex.

The League arrives at the Batcave as well. They see Darkseid turning Superman into a being with no will of his own – completely subject to the commands of Darkseid. Batman orders everyone to evacuate. Diana volunteers to hold Clark off.

Batman, Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman run as Superman begins a battle with Wonder Woman. The battle rages on even outside the BatCave. Wonder Woman gives the League enough time to make a getaway. Even though she holds her own, it is not enough. Superman ends up killing Wonder Woman.

Darkseid imprints his giant omega symbol into the ground to commemorate the end of the Old Gods. He orders Superman to find and abolish all resistance on Earth. With that, the New Gods leave Earth to conquer other planets.

Superman is an Evil Dictator. Aquaman returns to Atlantis – to make sure that his family is okay. Batman, Flash and Cyborg are mentally defeated. Bruce blames himself and reactionary thinking. Cyborg tells them that there is only a 1% chance of saving Earth and humanity now.

Barry tells them to take that 1% chance as an absolute certainty and never give up. They all make a pact – that they will save humans, no matter what.

-U/ stagesofmylife on Reddit, February 18th, 2021

The media of course has picked up on this and it is all over the news. There were photos taken of a storyboard, and I will include a link to it, as it goes much more depth. I do not want to include photos of it here, as it has been taken down by Warner Brothers for other people. The storyboards contain different plot details and characters and goes much more into depth and includes villains from the various solo films. But it also contains the same plot as mentioned above. My personal thoughts on what Justice League would have been, it would have been insane and very different from any superhero film I have ever seen. It is more focused on worldbuilding and mythology that the Marvel films are, and I think the mythos that existed in, could have set it apart from Marvel. Here, we are seeing a version of Injustice Superman where he goes evil and tries to take over the world. It would have been a much darker version of the Empire Strikes Back and gives me Infinity War vibes, where the bad guy wins, and the heroes lose. This is one take on the second movie. This is what was included in the storyboards.

“The opening chapters of Justice League 2 would find the heroes had just managed to unite properly as a team, as well as achieving various milestones in some of their personal lives. Using the Lasso of Truth, Wonder Woman managed to “remember” the way back to Themiscyra, where she would become queen and lead the Amazons to rejoining world society. Aquaman manages to unite all seven kingdoms of the oceans. Cyborg evolves into a “modern day god of the digital age” and helps Flash – who has also freed his father from prison thanks to help from Wayne Corp’s lawyers – to master his powers, including the ability to be in two places at once. Although there are global tensions surrounding the potential political affiliations of the League, things look good. But not for long.

According to the storyboards, the post credit scene in the theatrical cut of Justice League – which saw Lex Luthor recruit Deathstroke – was intended as setup for Luthor creating the Legion of Doom, which would serve as a very deadly threat alongside the overarching menace of Darkseid. And I do mean deadly. Also recruiting previous DCEU villains Dr. Poison (who is still alive since WWI thanks to experimenting on herself), Black Manta, and Ocean Master, as well as Captain Cold and The Riddler (who were supposed to debut respectively in the original incarnation of The Flash and The Batman movies before all those plans changed), Lex’s Legion of Doom would go on to decimate the heroes.

The Riddler would kill himself in front of Batman after solving Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation, driving the hero to despair as he was unable to stop the suicide. Dr. Poison would track Wonder Woman to Themiscyra and kill her. Black Manta and Ocean Master would double-team against Aquaman and kill him in Atlantis. Captain Cold would also attack Flash in Central City prompting Cyborg to assist, only for the latter to be literally ripped in half. The Legion itself also would not be exempt from death. After finding and activating three Motherboxes to control the Anti-Life Equation, Luthor would instead just inadvertently summon Darkseid and his court to Earth. And while Luthor and his League of Doom would prove useful to Darkseid for a while, the dark god would eventually have a mind-controlled Superman heat-vision Luthor to death.”

 This is the extra stuff I talked about before.

Now, let us talk about the third movie. This honestly straight feels like Avengers: Endgame as it features elements of time travel.

Here is what the third movie would have been, according to Reddit:

All of this, in my view, sounds like the biggest movie of all time. It is even bigger or rivals Avengers: Endgame in a sense. I am not particularly a fan of Lois having a child with Batman. It just adds an unneeded wrinkle and I think if it were ever made, I hoped it would have been dropped or simplified. Superman and Batman, playing “Who’s the father” is just such a weird thought.

Well, those were the sequels to Justice League that Snyder wanted to make originally. But it never came to be, and it probably will not, at least under Zach Snyder. Snyder himself has said, it is unlikely to happen. He has also stated he had no future plans to make DC movies. Depending on how the Snyder Cut is received and performs, there is still a slight chance it could happen. The biggest thing in all of this is Snyder himself got closure. With the tragic death of his daughter, he was forced to step down from the movie to be able to grieve. With this film complete and dedicated in her memory, it allows him to move on with his life. It is a nice thought to think of, and unlike a lot of directors, he was able to come back and complete his original vision and use it as a vehicle to help process the death of his daughter.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, and I will see you guys next time.

What is happening in Myanmar?

The legacy of the British Empire casts a shadow far across the globe. While countries that were once part of the British Empire have tended to be a bit more stable than other colonies from other European powers, they are still not resistant to it. This is the case with the country of Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma popularly in the West. The country has received a lot of media attention in the past, but many in the West know very little about it. If you paid any attention to any news that’s happened in the past couple of days, there has been another military coup. But what is the story behind Burma and what led to the new military coup that’s taken place?

Myanmar, or Burma is a country in Southeast Asia, bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. The population of the country is 54 million and it’s capital is Naypyidaw and it’s largest city is Yangon. Myanmar, for thousands of years before was a centre of Buddhist beliefs and it’s one of the world’s multi-ethnic countries and once contained at one point was one of the largest kingdoms in Asia, the Taungoo Dynasty. 

Starting in the 19th century, the British East Indies Company seized control of the area, through a series of conflicts known as the Anglo-Burmese Wars. It later became a British colony and was lumped together with India as the larger colony they had over the Indian Basin. This also included Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

The British however were not very kind to the locals and suppressed their local traditions and cultures, particularly their Buddhist beliefs. This caused violent riots to break out and many people died or were displaced. Yangnon became a major trade hub for Britain as it served as a point between Singapore and Caluctta. 

During World War II, the country was briefly occupied by the Japanese and saw some of the bloodiest conflicts in the Asia-Pacific theatre in World War II. What the Japanese helped do though, was stir up a sense of nationalism among the Burmese as has been the case with Indonesia.

Following the war and the partition of India, representatives of the Burmese community negotiated with the British to create a multi-ethnic state. They were granted independence on January 4, 1948 and officially became known as the Union of Burma. 

However, given how the country was made up of various ethnic groups, this caused a lot of instability. The country did have elections starting from independence, but governing the country was hard because of the many different people groups that lived within it. Minority groups and others kept pushing for autonomy and a weak central government. 

This instability caused the military in 1962 to do a coup d’etat and install themselves as leaders of the nation. From that date onwards until 1974, the country was ruled by a revolutionary council and the military implemented socialist policies along the lines of the soviet economy and ruling system.   

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d’état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests. The military government finalised plans for People’s Assembly elections on 31 May 1989^. SLORC changed the country’s official English name from the “Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma” to the “Union of Myanmar” in 18 June 1989 by enacting the adaptation of the expression law.

In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years, and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e., 80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede powe^] and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011. On 23 June 1997, Myanmar was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On 27 March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named the new capital Naypyidaw, meaning “city of the kings”.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a key name in all of this. Her father was viewed as a national hero and unfortunately he was assassinated when she was two. She is a champion for democratic rights in Myanmar and was the de facto president of Burma, starting in 2011 and is seen as the face of the democratic movement in Myanmar. She was the key figure who pushed for elections in Burma, resisted military rule and brought out the end of the military dictatorship in 2011. However, she was prevented from officially becoming President because a rule in the constitution of Myanmar forbade anyone with children or marriage to someone who is of a foriegn nationality. She has a British husband and her children are British born.

A photo of Suu Kyi, circa. 2013.

But in recent years, she has massively fallen out of favour internationally and within her own country. In the mid to late 2010s and this crisis is still ongoing, a Mulism minority group within Myanmar, the Rohingya, a stateless group were subjected to a brutal military campaign that killed and displaced hundreds of thousands. It has widely been dencouced as genocide by the international communnity but Suu Kyi has stood by and defended the military for their actions, claiming that a genocide is not happening. 

Her actions and her defence of the military has caused her nearly all of her international credit and within her own home country. She was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship and many other honours she once had. 

If you want to read more about her, there’s tons of great articles and videos about her work. I’ll link some down below. 

The events of 2010-2011 are key to the current situation in Myanmar at the moment. Following years of ethnic conflict, the longest ongoing civil war ( which started right after independence) and military rule, the transition to a civilian government occurred. Starting in 2008 with the creation of the new Myanmar constitution and the following referendum, the military government started making reforms to transition the country to a liberal democracy. In 2010, the first elections occurred over 20 years, with the military backed party, the Union and Solidarity Party claiming victory, with over 80% of the vote. This was widely called into question by pro democracy groups and international observers of the election. The other major parties in the election boycotted the election.

Flag of the National League of Democracy

Logo of the Union Solidarity and Development Party

Despite this, this was one of the seven steps the country was taking to become a democracy. Laid in 2003, the UASP laid seven steps for Myanmar to transition to a democracy. The military junta or revolutionary council that had officially ruled since 1962, was dissolved on March 30, 2011. 

The current party that was in power was heavily favoured and backed by the military, and they still held a lot of sway over the government. But this did stop the coming tide of democracy to Burma. The country for the next year, starting implementing economic, democratic and social reforms, which have been met with mixed results. The social reforms completely failed, as seen with the current situation with the Rohingya. The military was still defacto ruling the country, but with more legitimacy. In 2012, the NLFD won 42 of the 45 seats they were allowed to run more, challenging the military’s rule even more.

All of this changed in 2015, where the UASP lost to Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. 2015 general elections

General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990, unlike the 2010 elections. The results gave the NLD an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[113] The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016, and on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962. On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of state counsellor, a role akin to a prime minister.

But all of this went down the drain because of the Rohingya genocide within the country. Suu Kyi was heavily criticized for her lack of action and her defence of the military. She also denied that a genocide took place. Various civil wars and rebellions are also still taking place within the country, with the many different ethnic groups, from the Chineses to the Karens, Shan, Lanu, Christian minority and non-government groups against the military and themselves. Al-Qaeda has also been involved in the conflicts, particularly the ones where Mulisms are involved. 

Combine this with the military having sway over the government still ( they are required to have three seats in the President’s cabinet as laid out in the constitution), this brought us to the events of 2020.

In November 2020, the country held another election and of course, Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide. The military backed party, the UASP, disputed the election, claiming it to be rigged and the results were inaccurate. 

The country had been struggling greatly because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the various economic woes the country fought. Rising food prices, high drug use, a weak currency and the loss of tourism because of COVID, the country is an absolute mess. The overall GDP of Myanmar is expected to decline 7% from 2019.

Yesterday, on February 1, 2021, the military detained and captured Suu Kyi and various other elected officials in midnight raids. Communication in and out of the capital and Yangon was shut down for several hours. The military’s motives for the coup remain unclear. Ostensibly, the military had posited that alleged voter fraud threatened national sovereignty. A few days before the coup, the civilian-appointed Union Election Commission had categorically rejected the military’s claims of voter fraud, citing the lack of evidence to support the military’s claims of 8.6 million irregularities in voter lists across Myanmar’s 314 townships.

Hlaing, the key figure behind the coup

Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as the new president of Myanmar as of today on February 2, 2021. Hlang is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces in Myanmar and is one of the most powerful figures in the country when it comes to politics. He immediately brought in military rule and declared that martial law  and military rule would be there for a year. Given Myanmar’s history, this is likely not the case, as it will likely last longer. 

The coup could have been motivated by the military’s wish to be able to influence the government still and the age of Hlaing would have been forced to retire under the law. Under the law, the government gets to choose the next Commander in Chief and this was seen as dangerous as the military could possibly finally come under civilian control once he retired. Hlaing, once was he retired could have faced legal action and jail over his handling of the Rohinyga genocide as he no longer would hold immunity. 

Many in the international community, particularly the US and its allies, Australia and the UK have threatened to reimpose sanctions on the country in response to the coup. ^] President Joe Biden denounced the coup as a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and rule of law” and said the coup “will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action. Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam explicitly refused to support a side, characterizing the coup as an internal matter. China has also decided to remain neutral, while expressing concern over the coup. 

Protests immediately broke out following the coup across the country, but they were quashed violently by the military. Healthcare workers and civil servants have also started up strikes across to protest the actions of the military.

This situation is still rapidly unholding and it’s unknown what will happen in the following weeks and months.

My honest thoughts on the whole matter are as follows. Of course, I denounce the military coup that is within the country, but I think Suu Kyi is not fit to be leader. Because of her actions and defence of the military in the Royghiga genocide, she needs to go. While she has done important work in bringing out democracy in Myanmar, her lack of action and defence disgusts me. She has also reportedly increased persecution and suppression of journalists within the country. Myanmar deserves a leader who cares about all the various different ethnic groups within the country and isn’t afraid to stand up to the military. The people who are responible for the genocide should be thrown in jail for all I care for the rest of their horrible lives. Suu Kyi should face some form of punishment over her actions, but she should have not been overthrown in an invalid military coup because they thought it was rigged and stolen from them ( *Cough Donald Trump *cough). 

This is how the current situation came to be in Myanmar and my thoughts on it. I have one last thing to say before I go. For the love of God, please don’t be like the girl in the dancing video, that’s gone viral online. She had no idea that a freaking coup was going behind her. It felt surreal, man. 

r/wallstreetbets: How Reddit beat Wallstreet at it’s own game

I’ve been using Reddit for over four years at this point. I probably spend the most time on the R/TNG subreddit and the r/pewdiepiesubmissions one. I barely know anything about economics or the stock market. I know about the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, TSX and that’s about it. Usually, the higher the stock market is, the better the economy. But that’s not usually a reflection of the average economic conditions for the citizens of that country though, as seen with lower standards of living in the United States occurring since the 1960s. Over the past couple days, there’s been some major waves occurring in the stock market and on Reddit. And it’s all thanks to one small subreddit R/wallstreetbets.

For those who don’t know what Reddit is or R/Wallstreetbets, here’s the rundown. Reddit is typically the frontpage of the internet. To quote Wikipedia,

“Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called “communities” or “subreddits”, which cover a variety of topics such as news, politics, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image-sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the site’s front page“\

Some very famous communities I’ve visited include r/askreddit, r/ama, r/tifu, r/funny, r/dankmemes, r/thedonald, r/movies and now of course r/wallstreetbets. Basically, it’s the ultimate meeting place on the internet for like minded people to come together and make a community about anything. Also, alot of the memes you see, such as the Bernie Sanders Mitten meme and the Lamar roast Franklin memes came from here. This is a wholesome, big chungus Keanu Reeves moment, as some users call it, making fun of the culture that exists on Reddit.

R/wallstreetbets is a subreddit with over 4,000,000 users and growing (including myself as of yesterday) where users come together to discuss stock and option trading. It was founded in 2012 and was pretty prevalent on the site, but in the past year, especially with the pandemic, it’s blown up. With low interest rates, people having nowhere to spend their money as a result of decreased consumer activity, because of the pandemic, it’s become the go to place on the internet at the moment to discuss and spend stocks and save money.

The logo of the subreddit

The subreddit, is known for it’s very aggressive trading practices which revolve around highly speculative, leveraged option trading. The subreddit, is also known for its profane and juvenile sense of humor, declaring itself ” if 4chan had a Bloomberg Terminal” where they call themselves, “autists” and “Degenerates”. This also goes on to include various other profane and politically incorrect terms I will not include in here.

A lot of the people on the subreddit are young retail types and investors who ignore basic investment practices and risk management techniques. In form, they work as a type of risky gambling.  The growing popularity of no-commission brokers and mobile online trading has potentially contributed to the growth of such trading trends. Members of the communities often see high-risk day trading as an opportunity to quickly improve their financial conditions and obtain additional income. Some of the members tend to use borrowed capital, like student loans, to bet on certain “meme stocks” that show popularity within the community.

This brings us to the present.

Gamestop.

What would a subreddit full of young people with too much money and time on their hands want to do with a failing retailer?

Gamestop, otherwise known as the formerly massive game and electronics retail chain, has hit some hard times recently. With the advent of online purchasing of games and streaming, the chain has struggled for the past couple of years. COVID has definitely not helped with the lack of people not being able to shop in stores with lockdowns and caps on the amount of people can be in a store.

Gamestop stock over the past month

Have you ever seen the movie, the Big Short? Well, it’s basically about the housing bubble that burst in 2008 and led to the following recession. People that couldn’t afford to buy houses were buying them with so-called ninja loans with little interest. These crappy mortgages they couldn’t pay off, were lumped together and branded as higher quality ones, rated A or AAA. Think of it as a very dangerous game of Jenga. When the wrong block is pulled out, the whole thing collapses and you have a housing bubble pop, because of people defaulting on their mortgages and not being able to pay it back.

To quote what short selling is, according to Wikipedia

Short-selling is a finance practice in which an investor, the short-seller, borrows shares and immediately sells them, hoping they can buy them back later at a lower price, return them to the lender and profit off the difference. The practice carries an infinite risk of losses, in contrast with regular stock trading, which can lead to a potential loss of the initial investment only. For an example, if the short-seller borrows shares equaling to $20, and then cover at $40 (the stock raised 100%), he or she lost $20 a share“

In the years leading up to the housing bubble bursting, various hedge funds and people betted against the housing and mortgage market led by Micheal Burry of Scion Capital. Using his own liquidity, he used it to short the housing market. He and others later made millions off of short selling the housing market and betting against it. He was one of the first to discover the housing bubble in the earlier part of the 2000s. He will become later involved in the saga of r/wallstreetbets.

Given how Gamestop was struggling much like the housing market before 2008, stock brokers and investors were doing the same thing to it. Short selling the stocks, because they were low and selling it back to make a profit. At one point last year, Gamestop stock was only worth $3.00 a pop. Like with the housing market, investors and people like Micheal Burry, sought to repeat the same actions they did back in the early 2000s.

This is where r/Wallstreetbets come in. When a comment made by Citron Research predicted the value of the stock would decrease, they jumped on the opportunity. Running up to the squeeze, approximately 140% of GameStop’s shares had been sold short. Users of the subreddit recognized the company was being significantly undervalued, and with such a high amount of the shares being short, they could short squeeze the stock. Reddit users could drive up the price as high as they wanted, forcing the big firms to buy it at their inflated price. One user by the name of u/deepfuckingvalue has emerged as the leader of this movement to short sell Gamestop stock and others. Throughout 2020, he kept encouraging people to invest in the holding company of Gamestop called GME and others. Starting off with a small investment, the value of the Gamestop stocks he holds now is worth USD $48 million and growing.

On January 22, 2021, users of the subreddit started a short squeeze on Gamestop, causing their stocks to increase by wildly high amounts. Gamestop stocks increased to 680% of the former value the stocks used to cost, reaching as high as $500 as of this morning. Over the period of 2020, the stock increased by 1500%. At its most stable peak yesterday, the stocks closed off the day at $347.50 a share, which is absolutely bonkers. Other “meme stocks” such as Nokia, Blackberry, AMC, KOSS, Build-a-Bear and more saw huge increases in prices for the worth of their stocks. Elon Musk even tweeted during this time a link to the subreddit, giving it a massive boost and acted as a form of promotion for the shorting.

However, all of this was not meant to last. As of this morning, popular trading apps such as Robinhood and TD Americtrade have prevented people from buying the various stocks listed above. They can only sell at the moment and the price of Gamestop stocks has decreased from it’s high down to $147.50 at closing as of today. These stocks became too violate for them to handle, delisting them from the market.

This has caused a wide scale impact on the market and in the media as well. Bloomberg estimates as of yesterday, US trading volumes exceeded the peak of October 2008, during the middle of the last major global recession. It was also the third highest in dollar trading in the past 13 years.

The immediate legal consequences are against Robinhood, the app that allowed for this trading to occur. One customer and various other people on subreddits have filed lawsuits against the company because of their prevention of buying Gamestop stock. r/wallstreetbets’ discord was banned “because of hateful and discriminatory language and behavior” that exists on the platform. The subreddit even went private for a few hours last night when I joined. There is widespread fear now that the sub will be banned because of similar actions taken by other subreddits over the years.

The political consequences have also been far reaching. Many in the media and in the world of politics have been comparing it to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The media has been mischaracterizing the subreddit, thinking they’re acting as one collective unit to designed to have a controlling hand in the stock market. This is from the truth. The subreddit has people from both sides of the coin arguing over trades and bets. The subreddit is just pure unorganized chaos at the moment and the moderators are having a hard time dealing with the influx of new users.

This is unacceptable.

We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.

As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary. https://t.co/4Qyrolgzyt

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

In the political world, officials such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Alexandra Ocasio -Cortez, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump Jr. Ted Lieu and Rashida Illab have all criticized the hedge funds and Robinhood for their actions by preventing people from buying more stock. Warren said this about the hedge funds:

“”have treated the stock market like their own personal casino while everyone else pays the price“

More or less what r/wallstreetbets did was beat them at their own game and gave them a taste of their own medicine. Micheal Burry, the man who originally shorted the housing market has called the experiment,

“Unnatural, insane and dangerous.”

This is very ironic coming from him. Other figures in the media such as Ben Shaprio, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Cuban have criticized Robinhood for their actions. The co founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian has spoken favourably of the moves against the firms saying:

“It’s a chance for Joe and Jane America- the retail buyers of stock – to flex back and push back on these hedge funds.”

The new press secretary of the White House, Jen Psaki and the United States Treasury Head, Janet Yellen are monitoring the situation as it changes. The SEC is even investigating r/wallstreetbets. This thing has become absolutely massive. Melvin Capital, an investment fund shorting Gamestop has also suffered massively as a result of these actions, according to Wikipedia.

As of January 28, 2021, Melvin Capital, an investment fund shorting GameStop, had lost 30% of its value since the start of the year. The fund received an emergency $2.75 billion investment before stating to CNBC that they covered (closed) their position on January 26. The exact amount was not disclosed.^[32][33] Reportedly Citron Research, another hedge fund, had also shorted the stock and claimed to have closed the position with a 100% loss.^[6][34] According to Morgan Stanley, a number of hedge funds covered their short positions and sold shares in their portfolio to reduce leverage and market exposure, in some of the largest such actions within 10 years.^[35] In contrast, BlackRock Inc., which owned about 9.2 million shares (13%) of GameStop as of December 31, 2020, stood to make gains of about $2.4 billion on the market activity.^[36] On January 26, 2021 it was reported that short sellers lost a total of $5.05 billion due to the squeeze

The saga of r/wallstreetbets is still ongoing and it’s been a wild journey. By the time I’m done writing this, it will be outdated.  With the current state of the economic world in ruins because of COVID, the world economy over the next decade will be in recovery. The US economy only grew by 4% last year, the lowest year of growth since 1946 after the end of WWII. I plan on following this story further and the world will be a very different place then it was at the start of 2020. Only time will tell.

My personal thoughts on the whole matter, is that I’m sympathetic towards r/wallstreetbets. They’re giving the Wall Street types and the Hedge fund guys a taste of their own medicine. Maybe, this can force Joe Biden and other economic types to bring about some well needed reform to the American finical system and allow for consumers to have more control over it. But it needs to be much organized than some random message board on the internet. Those are my thoughts on the matter.

To finish this off, I have one word to say.

STONKS.

The One Term Curse: What Trump is Facing in 2020

Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush Sr. They all have one thing in common. They were one term presidents. There have been many one terms presidents in US history such as Ford, Van Buren, Kennedy, and more. But we want to focus on the last 50 years. But why were they one term presidents and why is Trump facing a similar crisis to them?

Both presidents faced bad economies, but under different cirumanstances. Jimmy Carter was dealing with stagflation left over from the Nixon and Ford years and the 1973 oil crisis. But he didn’t help. What stagflation means, economic growth is stagnant and inflation is high, which the cost of living high but with high marks of unemployment. The economy was tanking, unemployment was high and the Democratic party was very divided. Carter faced a very strong primary challenge from Ted Kennedy, who represented the progressive wing of the party while a lot within the party viewed Carter as too conservative. He barely won the nomination. But most of all Carter ran against Reagan, one of the most charmastic presidents ever to exist.

Reagan in January 1981 after winning the election

Photo of an American hostage during the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1978

The Iran Hostage crisis where during the 1978 Iranian Revolution, 52 Americans were taken hostage because of the US’s support and granting of asylum to the deposed Iranian Shah, also played a major role in Carter’s defeat. Carter was all about austerity and tightening belts and ran a fairly negative campaign. Reagan ran a positive campaign and won in one of the largest electoral landslides in US history, with the Electoral College being split 484 for Reagan to 49 for Carter. This was the start of absolute conservative dominance in American politics for the next 12 years, and many Republicans today view Reagan as one of the best presidents and try to emulate his style.

The 1980 electoral map

Now, we come to George W. Bush Sr. I personally think more fondly on Bush Sr than Carter, as he did alot more positive things. He signed the biggest Civil rights bill since the 1960s in the form of the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, which prevents discrimination based on disability. His presidency was largely surrounding foreign policy as he faced the end of the Cold War. The USSR collapsed in 1991, Germany reunited, the Gulf War and the invasion of Panama occured, and signed NAFTA into force.

On the domestic side, there is where Bush struggled and it caused him to lose the election. With the end of the Cold War and an emphasis on less military spending and foreign policy, this caused the economy to go into a recession. But the main reason why Bush lost the election was because of one failed promise. I’m pretty sure you know what it is.

“Read my lips. No. New. Taxes.”

But guess what? He did. In response to the economic recession, he was forced to. With Bill Clinton, his main challenger, he played a positive campaign unlike what Reagan did back in 1980, while Bush’s campaigning was mainly seen as negative. When election day finally happened, Bush also lost because of the second strongest third party performance in American history by Ross Perot of the Reform Party, who won 18% of the popular vote. Some of these votes would have likely gone to Bush if Perot wasn’t running and he could have possibly won reelection.

Both presidents went on to have active post-presidencies with Carter being the most impressive and active of the two. This brings us to Donald Trump.

Presiding over the biggest crisis the nation has seen since World War II, the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has absolutely fucked up in the biggest way. Nearly 8 million American infected and 220,000 dead, with likely 30,000 more to die before the election. Absolutely abysmal leadership, no clear consensus or plan to beat the virus, playing down the virus and denying how deadly it is. This is despite the fact since the beginning of the year he knew how deadly it was. Spreading false information about the virus, saying masks don’t work and even getting infected with the virus himself. He keeps talking about wanting to reopen the economy, even when it’s not safe and has called for his supporters to help “liberate” states under lockdown, primarily by Democratic governors. The list goes on and on and the rage I feel over it is simmering. The man is so selfish, so disconnected from reality, he doesn’t care about the 220,000 dead Americans on his hands. While, the deaths aren’t exactly his fault ( look at New York, a democratic state with the most deaths at 32,000), he has played a large role in his handling of the virus and his divivise leadership. All of this has contributed to the deaths and how widespread the virus is. I could go on and on over Trump has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, but I feel it would better written by someone else, instead of me.

Trump has been one of the most unpopular presidents in US history, if not the most disliked. Many are calling him the worst president, and he somehow managed to top James Buchanan, which is a very hard thing to do. Embroiled in so many controversies, I couldn’t even list all of them. But I’ll go over the most important. Trump’s actions surrounding events in Charlottesville, calling white sumperiacists “fine people” and calling for the Proud Boys, a neo-Nazi organization to “stand back and stand by” during the first debate. Like what the actual fuck. Obstruction of justice and other high crimes because of Russian linked connections to his campaign and his calls for Russian inference into the 2020 election. His firing of James Comey, the FBI director and the Mueller Report. The 25 sexual assault and harassments allegations against him. His racist language and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The lying, the angry tweets. I could go on.

Trump in one of his update videos after his COVID diagnosis

Trump is the worst president in US history and I hope Joe Biden kicks his butt during the election. Trump, according to the polls is behind 10-12% points and he faces the worst economy since the Great Depression. With how everything is going and based on the precedent for the most one term presidents, they lost mainly because of a bad economy. I am 55% sure Trump is going to lose the election. But here’s where I have some doubt.

The partisan divide in America is the strongest it’s ever been in my life, or my parents. With Trump regularly calling into question the legitimacy of mail in ballots, active inference from world powers such as Russia, China and Iran in the election, the stakes around this election could not be higher. Trump has also called for the deployment of armed forces to monitor ballot boxes, which is a form of voter intimidation and he has called upon his supporters to go the polls and “make sure there is no inference on election day”. He wants to invalidate the election and if he loses, which he will, he’s going to refuse the results of the election. He refused to have a peaceful transfer of power occur in he loses the election. He most definitely file lawsuits in various states calling into question the validity of the results and it will go to the Supreme Court.

With the recent confirmation of Amy Comey Barrett just days away, with a conservative dominance now existing in the Supreme Court, it’s possible they could hand the election to Trump. But this is my absolute nightmare scenario and I don’t think it will happen. Given how Democrats are posed to win the Senate and maintain control of the House, they could prevent him from doing any more damage. And with Joe Biden leading in the polls, I think Trump is going to lose in a landslide and be dragged, kicking and screaming out of the White House. Given his approval rating, the economy tanking because of COVID, his handling of COVID and a strong performance of Biden in the polls, Trump is going to lose. Trump is facing the curse of the one term president. Hoover, Ford, Carter and Bush Sr. All faced bad economies or overwhelming backlash against their parties in the case of Hoover and Carter.

As one rapper named Ice Cube would say;