Covid Journal, April 27, 2020

Donald Trump is criminally insane.

Drinking Lysol?

Injecting UV rays?

Thousands actually took him seriously – even though he pretended that he was trying to ‘bait’ a journalist (as in, WTF?) – and took it as a remedy. These are probably the same thousands of people in the US that don’t believe Covid is anything but a big giant conspiracy.

I went there for a little while, but I’m back and understand that the sooner we all do our part, the sooner life will be back to ‘normal’ … although we should all be asking ‘what’s the point of ‘normal’ when it really wasn’t that normal to begin with?

And when the hell are the leaders – the sane ones – of the rest of the planet going to get their shit together and just shut the US down because NO ONE there seems to have their heads in the right place?

Anyways, I needed to take a few days off because, well, I got sick of writing about Covid. I was trying to have a daily diary of sorts, but in account, I’m not sure anyone cares and in another, the days are certainly drawing out into weeks and months as each new update about when we’ll be ‘free’ gets extended another couple of weeks.

On a personal note, I filled my car with gas the other day. I was still a little pissed to see that the ‘premium’ brand was hovering around $0.90 per litre, but the reality is that it’s been about 6 weeks since I bought gas, so it would only make sense that the oil industry is being seen as ‘on the ropes’.

The article captures the basic economics of oil and identifies how Covid (and lack of driving) has (and will continue to) crushed the oil industry margins, making it an extremely risky business proposition.

Which is why now, more than any other time in the last 150 years of relying on petroleum-based products, we need to radically shift away from oil and derivative products and begin to end our reliance on oil. Some suggestions?

• No subsidies for the oil and gas sector
• A radical RRSP plan, similar to that proposed by the NDP, that would allow Canadians to withdraw funds without penalty in order install or create retrofits
• An overhaul of the municipal code to allow for ‘zero-eneregy’ or ‘off-grid’ building and construction to be the minimum as opposed to ‘unique’
• Installation of tens of thousands of charging stations across our most populated areas of the country
• Massive new incentives for electric cars and other vehicles
• Nationalization of the GM plant in Oshawa with the intent to retool it and implement the manufacturing of batter-powered electric vehicles
• A plan to eliminate our dependence on plastics, focusing on the full spectrum including packaging, recycling and manufacturing of recycled products. All plastics from this point on must be 100% recyclable and/or can be incinerated with a minimal impact on the environment

OK … so a few days’ rest gave me an opportunity to ‘recharge’, so to speak.

It’s time … let’s do it.