Jan Wilhelm

Ret. tcher, still passionate about public ed. & soc. justice. Wife to GNT; Mom to 2 great sons, 2 wndrfl. daughters-in-law, & one feisty Finnish Spitz. She/her.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

We don’t need four more years of arrogance and bumbling and bluster and division under Donald Trump.

America is ready for a better story – we’re ready for a President @KamalaHarris.

[Jan Wilhelm @janlw13]

@ASEBP My increase on my early retirement plan was over 10%! And they went up over 21% the previous three years. 😜 My pension over those three years went up 2.6%. At the risk of being crude… WTF?! Retirees beware.

[Boston Smalls @smalls2672]

Best take I've seen so far in regards to Trump's assination attempt.

[Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 @_CatintheHat]

COVID + THE BRAIN 🧠

There’s been a flurry of new studies published in recent weeks about Covid’s detrimental impact on the brain.

This is the aspect of Covid which concerns me most, but which many people seem to be blissfully unaware of.

So let’s dig into what we know… 🧵

[Dr Pнıʟ McRαε @philmcrae]

Put these charts together & you have a clearer picture of the state of education in Alberta.

Lowest investment in K-12 spending with class sizes that are waaaaay over the recommended thresholds. We’re not entering a crisis, we are in one #getca2024 #abed #ableg #yyc #yeg #epsb

[Gil McGowan @gilmcgowan]

New numbers are out from Stats Can. Despite our wealth, we’re dead last among provinces when it comes to education funding. Again. This is NOT an accident. It’s a choice — a UCP choice. They are deliberately trying to make our public health care and education systems fail.

[Jan Wilhelm @janlw13]

I agree with the sentiment. Would prefer a visual that doesn’t include a weapon.

[Canadianpoli 🇨🇦 #ViveLeCanada #TeamCanada @canadianpoli]

Dear Canadian women: Pierre Poilievre can't win without you. If you're a woman who is against Pierre Poilievre, retweet this. I'd love to see the women of Canada take him out. #WomenAgainstPoilievre #NeverPoiliever #VoteOutPoilievre

[Kari Whan @kariwhan13]

Danielle Smith would opt out of breathing if the liberals suggested or recommended it.

[Janis Irwin @JanisIrwin]

Without even knowing the specifics, the UCP have already decided they’ll opt out of the pharmacare program that includes coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medication.

Imagine being so ideological that you’d choose owning the Libs over the healthcare of your citizens.

[Rachel Notley @RachelNotley]

Christina Gray, Alberta NDP Deputy Leader and House Leader issued the following statement in response to Premier Danielle Smith’s televised budget address:

“The Premier had an opportunity tonight to keep the promises made to Alberta families during the last election, fix the chaos her government has created in health care and make life more affordable for Albertans, but she didn’t. 

“Instead, Albertans are missing out on at least $272 million in affordability measures Smith promised in the election, as well as any action on lowering utility prices, high rents, or even to offer relief on soaring insurance rates. The UCP has failed to fund and support our public education, and is moving forward with the dismantling of your already struggling health care system.

“This is unacceptable.

“It’s clear that Danielle Smith and the UCP are only willing to maintain the current state of chaos we see across our hospitals, schools, and in family budgets. 

“If we carry on the path Smith’s government is leading us down, things will only continue to get worse for everyday Albertans. The province’s inflation is the highest in the country and when you combine that with population growth, the UCP’s plan won’t cut it.

“Sticking with the UCP’s status quo in next week’s budget will mean another year of underfunded healthcare, overcrowded emergency rooms and hundreds of thousands of Albertans living without a family doctor. This understaffed health care system is barely being held together, and Danielle Smith’s big solution is to roll out higher parking fees at health care facilities. 

“The Premier’s plan also ignores public education, meaning another year of overcrowded classrooms and exhausted teachers. After cuts and a lack of new classroom spaces, the solution isn’t to turn to private options like more P3 schools. That kind of scheme will divert crucial dollars away from those classrooms into private pockets.

“Let’s also be honest about the Smith government’s failure to recognize just how expensive things have gotten. The UCP have been far too distracted with their risky gamble to leave the CPP.

“Next week in the budget, Albertans deserve public healthcare that is there for them when they need it. They deserve to have good schools in their communities, and they deserve to have an affordable place to live. Albertans deserve a government that focuses on a resilient and sustainable economy with good paying jobs that keep up with the cost of living.

“Alberta is a place of prosperity, and the government can and should be doing more to make your life affordable and to enhance the public services we all depend on.”

[Jan Wilhelm @janlw13]

@DanWuori And the comforting sounds! ❤️

[Jan Wilhelm @janlw13]

@gregmarshall59 @TakeThatNurses When I am masked and smile at actual babies, even they can tell that I’m smiling and will smile back. 😄

[Adam Piercey @adam_piercey]

I didn't really have a choice but to come out at school. I learned the word f****t when I was in grade 4, and it mercilessly haunted me. Coming out was the only thing that made it happen less - it took away that power. I did that at 13. 🧵1/x

[Shawna Gawreluck Insert $8 here @ShawnaGofABPoli]

We’ve been trained to point fingers at Trudeau, the C tax & Ottawa for inflation.

Intentional messaging to avoid the obvious culprit

Last reported yearly NET PROFIT:

Suncor 22.9B

Shell 93B

Loblaws 621M

Empire (Safeway,Sobeys) 184M

Their pockets are lined by your inflation

[Dr. Sean Mullen @drseanmullen]

Explain to me how this TikTok’r gets it and “public health experts” don’t. MDs don’t.

Share widely on multiple platforms.

Shout out to @michael_hoerger for breaking through to the younger generation.

h/t @sasswashere for alerting me to this most excellent video.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

As a clinical health psychologist, I notice that many people are using psychological defense mechanisms to downplay the risk of COVID.

These are my Top 7 examples:

🧵

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Steve Martin @UnrealBluegrass]

If Trump becomes president again, after all we know ,and you supported his campaign you will have participated in the end of American democracy.
You will not be rewarded by your leader beyond a rush you might seek for upending civility.
You aren't part of his plan.
He is the entirety of his plan and the future will belong to him.
Not you.
You won't get a thank you or a knowing nod.
He will allow you to buy trinkets with his image and name emblazoned.
Trump is a despicable example of human kind.
Devoid of compassion.
Devoid of any respect for knowledge and education.
Trump is the fully realized Id.
He will have no guardians , no guard rails and no shame.
He cannot tell the difference between what he is and what he wants.
There is none when you analyze the situation.
He flunks Descarte's building block syllogism automatically.
He can't think so no therefore.
Ego driven rage and revenge.
If you're inclined to assist him please rethink your reasons.
#Trump

[DKGray @TheRealDKGray]

Dave from Alberta, again our
Northern neighbours.

Before we embark on another day of fighting for the end of our Alberta Government’s black ops blackout advertising operation to ruin hockey broadcasts across the nation, a little background.

Unlike Dave from Canmore, I have done stuff. I was the Utilities Consumer Advocate for several years before the Office was neutered.

I’m an economist with 30+ years experience in electricity. I am not an engineer, but I’ve had a lot of them work for me. Some were pretty smart.

The problems we have here stem all the way back to deregulation. During the late 1990s, financial virtualization was all the rage. It led us to a bad market design.

Which was made worse by the PC Government in 2012, when they changed the rules to allow Economic Withholding.

If you understand OPEC, you understand economic withholding.

Hold back some product to drive the price WAY UP for the rest of your sales.

Our producers do this by pricing some product at the cap $1/kW.h driving up prices for the power they do sell

The NDP made an attempt to reform the market, but failed to finish. They did stop EW for a few years.

When the UCP took over, they let it right back in.

Some people think Jason Kenney is really smart.

The people like Jeff who are paying 32 cents per kW.h probably don’t think so.

Anyway, since January 1, 2021 four companies have been allowed to drive up the price FIVE TIMES HIGHER

And blackouts?

Smith was complaining that we had ten “emergencies” last year.

If you wonder how that was caused by future Federal regulations, you are not alone.

The very things that the ads warn about - blackouts and quadruple prices - have already been visited on Alberta electricity consumers.

Help us stop the psychological abuse that comes with being a sentient being in this hillbilly heaven.

Don’t believe a word Smith says on electricity.

She knows what the real problem is. She even said it - once - right after the election.

It’s economic withholding and bad market design.

It’s not Trudeau.

It’s not gas.

It’s definitely not coal.

It’s a callous and disgusting strategy to let four companies hold us all hostage.

And fuck, it makes me angry.

Time to repost something I had taken down after the election.

Thanks for helping us get the focus back on their incompetence by trashing these shitty ads, you absolute beauties.

Dave from St Albert

#BlackoutTheAds

Appropriate (foul) language ahead.

[Dr Pнıʟ McRαε @philmcrae]

We need help in classrooms! Class sizes are too large & the needs far too complex. We need BODIES - teachers - substitutes - EAs for extra support! Inclusion isn’t working; it isn’t resourced in Alberta to make it work. We’re on the verge of exodus. #abed #onted #ableg #yeg #yyc