RWG

Canucks won their play-in series against the Wild, 3-1. So now they're officially technically in the playoffs for the first time in five years. So glad Tanev got the OT winner. He and Edler are the only players left from the 2011 team that went to the final. I really liked how they won this series. They stood in there against a very defensively firm Minnesota team. They stood up for themselves in ways I'm not used to seeing from them. Pettersson even hit Ryan Hartman in the head. St. Louis is next. Poor McDavid. I guess no one put a gun to his head and told him to sign that contract. But from an NHL perspective, it's sad that all these stars go to Edmonton and then we never get to see them in the playoffs. I think Dave Tippett put it best: "we probably overachieved a bit in the regular season." They did, a lot. That roster isn't close to complete. The logo was... not very threatening. It was a bad attempt at merging Victoria's royal and marine identities. When the WHL decided to relocate into VIctoria, which forced the Salmon KIngs out, they just named the team the Royals. It's crazy that the Oilers, Penguins, Jets, and possibly the Leafs (Columbus is up 1-0 in the 2nd in game 5) all have a reasonable shot at Lafreniere. I can't imagine how livid people will be if the Oilers win yet another lottery. Minnesota is the only team in this lottery that truly deserves Lafreniere. Maybe Columbus if they lose. I'm surprised Friedman was allowed on the air without shaving. In the past, he's said on the 31 Thoughts podcast that he has to be clean-shaven for TV, but I guess the rules aren't in effect right now. I've been watching the intermissions more than usual because Kevin Bieksa is on, and he's actually insightful and entertaining. For Canucks fans, it's the equivalent of having someone on the supreme court.

That's a reasonable explanation someone with ties to Epstein could give. It gives me pause that Bill Clinton denies ever visiting the island when he obviously did. I don't think he did anything, but it seems likely to me that he would have known and not cared. Like all the other famous people who welcomed Epstein back into the fold after the settlement from the first round of charges. Trump obviously knew, but that's not a scandal for some reason.

Canucks beat Minnesota 4-3 last night. It was 4-1 until late. Goals came from Pearson, Miller, Boeser, and Horvat. Series is 1-1 now. Was worried we were going to join the Rangers as the only teams to go down 1-2-3. I feel bad for Lundqvist, having your (likely) game for the Rangers being that. Kind of like Vince Carter. Victoria, B.C., used to have an ECHL team called the Salmon Kings. Everyone hated it at first, but they eventually created a kind of culture around salmon. I like Rainiers for Seattle, but it sounds kind of more like a rugby team. Arizona is kind of surprising, but I guess anything can happen in a best-of-five. The stuff with their GM right before the tournament started was weird. I've never heard a team refer to their GM as "quitting" before. The statement the team put out sounded like it was written by a pouty teenager; at the same time, John Chayka is not the most professional individual himself. The "analytics" operation he and his sister run sounds kind of sketchy. I've heard the Calgary-Winnipeg series has been heated, but I haven't got to see much of it. I saw Paul Maurice saying that Tkachuk should basically be publicly hung for that kick of Scheifele. I did see this hilarious gif of Lucic whining that his goal got called back.

I don't like Kraken. If Liam Neeson doesn't say those three lines in the Release the Titans remake, are they picking that name? I don't think it will age well. Moreover, in mythology, the Kraken lived in the North Atlantic waters. I don't understand the connection to the Pacific Northwest. I feel like they got spooked out of Totems by the racial moment and didn't like Sockeyes because their main rival to-be has a whale as its logo. The summer factor is real. I'm going to watch all of the Canucks games, but I'm not staying inside on a nice summer day so I can watch all the games. The Flames-Jets series will be interesting. Calgary is much better, but Hellebuyck is good enough to steal a 5-game series. CSI? Are you living in 2005? I've been watching Homeland lately. How does Rogers Arena get flooded like two years after it was built? It's a brand new state-of-the-art arena... Canucks lost 4-1 in their exhibition game against Winnipeg. They play for keeps on Sunday in Game 1 against Minnesota. Most media people like Vancouver to win the series, but I'm not so sure. They do have more top-end talent and are younger, but Minnesota is much more solid 5-on-5 and deeper defensively. Canucks should definitely be underdogs.

I read earlier this week that Karen Bass was surging up the list of potential nominees. I don't think they needed to do too much of a scrub to cross her off. I know she addresses them in the second person, but the ad still writes itself.

I mean, this season basically has no integrity as it stands. Shortened schedules, new "divisions," no fans. And now games being cancelled every day. I'm basically just watching for fun. They kind of have to do the seven-inning thing for doubleheaders, because the amount of doubleheaders the players will have to do is going to consume them physically. We're just a week into the season, and they've already postponed 30 games. They have to contract trace, figure out how the players are getting sick, and determine if there are restrictions they can impose that would reduce reduce the cases. Absent any of that, the season cannot continue much longer at this rate. The league is going to be underwater with the number of games they have to make up, and eventually, players will get severely sick with long-term effects to their bodies, or worse. That would spell lawsuits.

I can't wrap my head around how the Marlins and Phillies were allowed to play yesterday. I assume if MLB teams weren't exempt from the exposure/quarantine rules all of these states and cities have, most of them would have been knocked out already. Until the players accept that they need to be in a bubble for this to have any chance of working, it's just doomed.

I agree younger people need to reign it in, but blaming the spikes on them is just giving in to a lazy media narrative. Our provincial minister of health is obsessed with new cases in people under 40, even though it's roughly equivalent to the population of Ontario that is under 40 (49%).

I'm from there but I've lived in Toronto the last four years. I was looking at moving back to Vancouver earlier this year, but then this whole pandemic thing happened.

It sucks for the Jays players that they won't have a major-league clubhouse to call home like all the other teams will. But at least they have a home. I don't know if I buy it, but I've heard arguments that they're only team that will have a home-field advantage, because they'll be used to crappy clubhouse facilities, whereas visiting teams might get annoyed by it. Jays beat the Rays 6-4 in their first game and are 1-0!

We're still in Phase 2, so just patio dining. Ford said we may or may not be moving into Phase 3 on Wednesday. I need to go to my optometrist who is in the mall, but they haven't reopened even though their mall has.

Sports leagues spend peanuts on lobbying compared to the airline industry. At least up here, airlines are the one industry I can think that has been completely exempt from any kind of restrictions during the pandemic. I bet fans will be allowed in the stands at some point during the upcoming NFL/MLB seasons. It's a question of whether the leagues would allow the competitive imbalance of some teams having real home games and others, ie. those in blue states or that play in a dome having to play in empty stadiums. I'm watching the Blue Jays/Rays game right now and it's odd to me how the coaches and some umpires wear masks but the players don't. It doesn't seem like it would make a difference. I think the idea is that you wear it when you're being seated, going to the washroom, or waiting for your food. Masks are at the city level, but that's what Ottawa's guideline says: masks in the restaurant but take it off to eat or drink. And that makes no sense for bars/pubs. I'm not taking a mask off and putting it back on between sips of my drink. I don't even get the sense there is much demand for indoor dining, at least with it being summer now. I've tried to support restaurants in my area with takeout orders, but I'm good waiting for a vaccine for indoor dining.

It's nuts that the season starts in three days and the Blue Jays do not have a home facility. The federal government made the right decision, but I don't know why it took everyone so long to get to this point. This whole thing is such a disorganized mess, mainly because of Manfred.

I don't think the "sniping" is related to the case counts so much as the fact many of these Republican governors had publicly downplayed the severity of the virus and resisted enacting any measures before their states eventually got hit. Letting it run its course might be an option, albeit not a good one, if there was more evidence that people who recovered had sufficient antibodies, but it doesn't look like recovering from it prevents you from getting it again for more than a few months. Hopefully that's not the case, but every antibody study I've read about suggests it is. Distancing and masks aren't perfect, but they're still the best tools we have right now.

Why do you think this is? What do conservatives understand about the virus that the rest of us don't?

Looks like the spigot is being turned off. Coronavirus hospital data will now be sent to Trump administration instead of CDC

I miss my neighbourhood pub and the gym, but yeah, no thanks. The restaurants and bars in my area that are all open for outdoor dining have the makeshift patios on the sidewalk, and none of them seem full or that there's a wait to get in. The city has been surprisingly good about closing down the outer lanes of traffic so that places can use them for seating. Obviously that won't work in the winter though. I don't know what part of the province you're in, but in every grocery store, drug store, etc. I've been in since they enacted the mask bylaw, everyone has been wearing a mask. And I haven't seen anyone making a scene about being asked to wear one either. (The obvious exception being these people):

I'd have guessed the BQ would be the party least likely to support a snap election. Most of those people currently have the best jobs they'll ever have. And for all their posturing, the Liberals couldn't care less how unpopular they are in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Their plan to get their majority back is by winning back the Quebec seats that went to the Bloc last election. I don't really know who the people who vote for the Conservative leader are or what their psyche is. But based on their last leadership race, the members seem to prefer the red meat candidates.

People in Europe are generally healthier (obesity rates, not just eating processed crap, exercise) but also because they have easy access to healthcare throughout their lives, without ever having to worry about the bills, unlike many Americans. They don't live with undiagnosed conditions. That, in addition to having a younger median age of the population, probably explains why the average death age from the coronavirus in the U.S. is much younger than in Europe.

They're pretty open-ended about what phase 3 entails. The language on the government website is "continue gradual re-opening with appropriate restrictions in place" yadda yadda. I don't think they'll go much further with bars and restaurants, given what a gongshow the U.S. has become with cases. The important thing is childcare/school.

^ I wonder how it affects their plan to call an election. Depending on who you listen to, they might have been getting close. I've been shocked by how bad McKay's performance in the Conservative leadership race has been. He really might blow it to O'Toole.

Another ethics scandal for Trudeau. What a bonehead. Trudeau’s family members received $283,400 to speak at events hosted by WE Charity We've known the Kielburgers were frauds for a while now; the walls had been closing in on them for at least a year now. And this comes right after Trudeau was forgiven by the voters for the SNC Lavalin affair. I really don't think this stuff clocks with him. He was born into the Laurentian culture in which rich and powerful people do favours for each other, and he's just not able to spot what's wrong with it ethically. This is the opinion of the BQ leader, but I wonder how much Liberal party kingpins think about this. Freeland Should Act As PM While Trudeau Investigated For WE Charity Deal: Blanchet

I'd guess that the virus isn't just ravishing seniors' homes anymore, and is now affecting younger and less vulnerable parts of the population. So the death rate isn't going to be 5-10% anymore. Speaking completely anecdotally, I know that in my city, a lot of people my age and younger (I'm 29) are still gathering in large groups to party like they would any other summer. But I still see seniors wearing masks while they're walking by themselves on the sidewalk.

Texas hospitals are starting to hit 100% capacity https://1010wins.radio.com/articles/abc-news/coronavirus-live-updates-some-texas-hospitals-at-100-capacity

Not Canadian politics, per se -- but this story is just insane. ‘Everybody’s afraid’: How biker gangs and organized crime muscled in on the GTA tow truck industry