Trump 2 The Revenge Tour: Son of Sharpie-gate

What a shameful day - 67 people die and Trump makes it all about him. 

This is really just another "Sharpie-gate" -- remember in 2019 Trump insisted that he hadn't made a mistake when he panicked Alabama about a hurricane warning, by inviting reporters into his office just to show them a doctored hurricane map with a half-circle added over Alabama. It was pathetically obvious what he had done with a Sharpie pen.

So today, reporters got to see Trump babble and argue at a press conference, then sign a so-called "Executive Order" to blame Obama and Biden for the American Airlines-helicopter collision. 

I presume he used another Sharpie pen, too.

The American media should be ashamed to "cover" such tripe:

Mayor Pete says it:

BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg just said exactly what needed to be said in this moment. We need real leadership. pic.twitter.com/5w6Xp76XSm

— Trump’s Lies (Commentary) (@MAGALieTracker) January 30, 2025

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Turn-around? The Liberals are rebounding

 

Yes, I know, I know, the Foreign Interference Commission report is more important than a polling bump - and if you want some good reporting on that report, see Dale Smith and Wesley Wark and Scrimshaw. And the tariff questions. And the Ontario election.  All way more important.

But I just had to share about this polling - it's so delicious.  

Because the Liberals are turning it around:

EKOS Politics 

Major and Straight-Line Decline in Conservative Advantage over Past Month 

Rising national anxiety lifting Liberal fortunes? 

...The lead initially started narrowing after Justin Trudeau announced his retirement. The acceleration of this trend became clear in our polling about two weeks ago. It was contemporaneous with the entry of Mark Carney to the race which appears to be a factor. It was also reinforced by the dramatic announcements of potential 25 per cent tariffs from newly inaugurated Trump and repeated discussion of annexation of Canada. This seems to have captured the attention of Canadians, particularly the more recent recruits to the Conservative fold. Since then, that trend has continued and, in a roll-up of the past six days (since our last report), this gap has narrowed further to a remarkably thin three points. 

This dramatic and perhaps unprecedented movement has been focussed among women (where the Liberals now lead handily), the university-educated, and self-defined middle-class voters. Perhaps more importantly, the Liberals have erased a 20-point gap in Ontario and now have a slight lead. They are also much more competitive in Quebec, they lead in the Atlantic, and they are faring much better in British Columbia. In short, the race has morphed from a pro forma Conservative coronation to a highly unpredictable horse race....

As a lifelong NDP voter, I know what party I'll be voting for in the next federal election. I know a lot of you will be doing the same. Pierre Poilievre is the most vile, toxic, populist politician I've seen in Canada and I have no interest in him becoming our PM.#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/MDFFpz0EJi

— J Hunter🍁 (@MrJoKeR604) January 30, 2025

Poilievre, what is your reaction pic.twitter.com/pV0eyHgpEH

— #NeverPoilievre (@BillRobertson_) January 27, 2025

"Gargle my balls!"

Well, yes, maybe it's hopeless but we can still laugh.

"GARGLE MY BALLS!" will be my new battle cry. https://t.co/gkuezCaBtP

— Qiilu (@Qiilu1) January 29, 2025

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Weekend round-up: Great stories; FOTUS first week; Funny stuff; Outstanding stuff; and Animal Crackers

Well, it sure wasn't a pleasant week, really, but I still found a few good posts for everyone.

First, some great stories:

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Today's News: In our polite Canadian way, we're actually Mad as Hell!

In our Canadian way, we're all actually mad as hell at Trump and MAGA and the whole benighted American enterprise tonight. 

 

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Today's Commentary: Krugman on tariffs; WIRED on WHO; Black Cloud Six on illegal military orders; Dale Smith on Trump; and introducing "FAFO Watch"

Some useful opinions about the latest news:

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"Gather together to greet the storm"

 

A dreadful day.

Remember how MAGA was all wearing gold diapers last spring when the news "came out" about Trump's shitty smell and his diapers? 

Well today, Elon Musk - America's 12-year-old billionaire - gave Trump the Nazi salute at an inauguration rally. 

Twice.

And I fully expect by tomorrow the Nazi salute will be all the rage among the MAGA.

Distractions from Teh Stupid

Since Trump was elected, and the Tech Industrial Complex supported him, and here in Canada we saw Poilievre get to majority territory in Canadian polls, I have been consumed with worry about our democracy. 

But now I wonder, is it possible that their stupidity will save us all?

So today, and whenever I get totally disgusted with Trump and Poilievre and the awful MAGA disaster that is the United States, I will take refuge in scrolling non-political social media and commentary. 

Like these, for example... 

Terrible Maps is often hilarious:

Countries by Human Development Index if Human Development Index was determined by the number of wild penguins pic.twitter.com/lxuBoOGgBJ

— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) January 18, 2025

Weekend funny stuff: Trump freezes his inaugural off, plus some random posts and animal crackers

First, some funny posts about Trump's inaugural -- we might as well laugh, I guess. 

Most of us aren't even going to watch, on Monday or ever again. I think the marches and objections and outrage that we saw from 2016 to 2020 will be much reduced now -- the congressional Democrats are totally demoralized, and the American "resistance" is convinced there is no point because Americans aren't listening. 

So it could be that for a while,Trump and Miller and Elon and their boys will be able to get away with just about anything they want. 

Trump may reach America's gag reflex at some point, but I'm not sure anymore what it will take - maybe when he tries to get the Supreme Court to cancel the federal elections in 2026 and 2028, maybe that will that do it? We'll see...

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And yes, Washington is freezing over on Monday....

Well the great thing about moving Trump’s inauguration to the rotunda is that all of his supporters already know how to get there pic.twitter.com/yjSPBcUJly

— Doug Landry (@dougblandry) January 17, 2025

So Trump doesn't like the cold and thinks he can intimidate Canada and Greenland? 🤣

— Roddy 🇨🇦 (@RodKahx) January 17, 2025

Today's Roundup: announcement from Carney, betrayal from Smith, revenge from Trump, incompetence from the tech bros, and a Roomba story

Carney announces and Canada is deciding. 

I just hope Carney realizes quickly that he's not going to find any friends in Canada's media. 

Then again, neither will Freeland.

I’m with you, Stephano. I can’t help but think JT knew this all was going to happen this way.
Every little thing is gonna be alright!🎶🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/MCmewPzPV1

— BKBelton (@bk_belton) January 14, 2025

Here's a fascinating story:

Today's News: It's Carney vs Freeland

Wow, a thousand views of my last blog post, and 500+ "likes" on my Thread post about it! 

Just goes to show how much interest there is in Mark Carney, I think. 

Canadians really know very little about him, so that Jon Stewart interview was our introduction to someone who might well be the next Prime Minister of Canada, for a while I guess. 

Eric Grenier / The Writ

Liberal race firms up

Some big names are out, but the two biggest names are still in.

...Most of the news this past week came from potential candidates who have withdrawn their names from consideration. Arguably none of them were in the top tier that consists solely of Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, but some of them were just below that tier — candidates who had a real shot if one of the two frontrunners declined to run or flamed out on the (short) campaign trail.

... A second tier made up of Joly, Anand and/or Clark would have added an interesting dynamic to the contest and given party members some viable alternatives to the top two.

The decisions of François-Philippe Champagne and Steven MacKinnon not to run, combined with Joly’s, mean there will be no significant candidate from Quebec. It’ll be the first time that a contested Liberal leadership race hasn’t had a candidate either born in or representing a riding in Quebec among the top finishers since 1958.

It also means that there will be a bit of a gap between the frontrunning candidates and the rest of the field — at least at first...

Freeland is getting some endorsements, and so is Carney now. 

And people who thought the Liberals were toast are now liking Carney a lot (though of course, the bar for preferring the personable Carney over the grumpy Poilievre isn't really that high!)

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Today's News: Carney has an outstanding interview with Jon Stewart

I hadn't thought very highly of Carney before seeing this interview - and yes, I do believe now that he has the political skills and smarts to attract Canadians and beat Poilievre!

#cdnpoli #LiberalLeadershipRace
The fact Mark Carney has never held an elected position doesn't deter my support for his run for the Liberal leadership. Mark Carney, who has been former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's @cafreeland advisor has exactly the kind of skills… pic.twitter.com/Y4YA6JVJwk

— timethief 🇨🇦 progressive ABC strategic voter (@timethief) January 14, 2025

Think Canada is a pushover? Think again...

Jean Chrétien / The Globe and Mail

Canadians will never give up the best country in the world to join the U.S.

...To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world – and make no mistake, that is what we are – to join the United States?

I can tell you Canadians prize our independence. We love our country. We have built something here that is the envy of the world – when it comes to compassion, understanding, tolerance and finding a way for people of different backgrounds and faiths to live together in harmony.

We’ve also built a strong social safety net – especially with public health care – that we are very proud of. It’s not perfect, but it’s based on the principle that the most vulnerable among us should be protected.

This may not be the “American Way” or “the Trump Way.” But it is the reality I have witnessed and lived my whole long life.

If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don’t know a thing about us. You don’t know that when it came to fighting in two world wars for freedom, we signed up – both times – years before your country did. We fought and we sacrificed well beyond our numbers.

We also had the guts to say no to your country when it tried to drag us into a completely unjustified and destabilizing war in Iraq.

We built a nation across the most rugged, challenging geography imaginable. And we did it against the odds.

We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness.

...Mr. Trump has accomplished one thing: He has unified Canadians more than we have been ever before! All leaders across our country have united in resolve to defend Canadian interests.

...The current and future generations of political leaders should remember they are not each other’s enemies – they are opponents. Nobody ever loved the cut-and-thrust of politics more than me, but I always understood that each of us was trying to make a positive contribution to make our community or country a better place.

That spirit is more important now than ever, as we address this new challenge. Our leaders should keep that in mind.

I am 91 today and blessed with good health. I am ready at the ramparts to help defend the independence of our country as I have done all my life.

Vive le Canada!

Weekend funny stuff: Some jokes and clips, Trump funnies, Poilievre funnies, and animal crackers

I could have written this - I didn't, but I could have!

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Next, aren't these terrific!

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Writing about the fires: "Her grief rose upwards and joined the blackness of the sky"

This puts the LA fires into perspective, I think. I hadn't realized the numbers were so large:

Quinn Cummings

Part One

Part Two

...we watched the TV until it was too overwhelming, at which point we’d…continue to watch it. If there was a fire in Griffith Park, the news might tell us faster than the alerts and we needed to know. Our family in the Palisades had no report on their house yet but they were starting to get the first reports of what had already been lost throughout the community. They had been happy there.

In less than a day, nearly every touchpoint had been decimated.

I thought about Hawaii, about North Carolina; I thought about how there is not a place on earth where humans have lived where the lesson of how easily peace of mind can be taken from you has not been learned.

The sun blazed orange against the black sky.

At two, my friend who lived in Altadena texted me:

It’s gone.

Quickly, I called her.

The kids were safe but the house and everything in it – her writing, her husband’s work, irreplaceable family keepsakes, the piano they’d had since before they were married – was obliterated. I had read the word “Keening” often enough and I sort of understood what that was, but I was wrong. To keen is to have the grief and the horror pulled from you, its claws dragging and scarring you every inch of the way and then you breathe in, and the tearing begins again. My friend was being torn apart alive, again and again. Her grief rose upwards and joined the blackness of the sky. I said nothing, because there was nothing to say. ...

"I didn’t have Trump becoming an open-border activist on my 2025 Bingo card, but here we are."

The quote is from David Moscrop's excellent piece today: 

 David Moscrop /

It’s Time for Canada to Get the Bomb (Not Really)

Threats against Canadian sovereignty from the incoming Trump administration should, however, focus the national mind on a plan for managing...whatever it is we're facing.

...Donald Trump is threatening to annex Canada with “economic force.” At a press conference earlier this week he said he wouldn’t use military force — what a relief! No, he’d stick to the economic tools in his toolbox as he takes aim at the border, which he called an arbitrary line. (I didn’t have Trump becoming an open-border activist on my 2025 Bingo card, but here we are.)

Politicians in Canada came out to say no way to Trump’s proposition-threat. Justin Trudeau, Pierre Poilievre, Doug Ford, Mélanie Joly, etc., etc., etc. Their statements are all variations on a theme: Canada is a sovereign state and will remain so. And that’s mostly and probably true.

Probably...

Moscrop then lists the areas that Canada needs to get serious about - sovereignty, culture, economy, national defense. He concludes:

...It’s time to surface assumptions, unspoken anxieties, worst-case scenarios and taboos about Canada’s relationship with the US and place in the world, and then debate them in plain view. Who do we want to be and what do we want to protect? With whom do we wish to do business and to what extent? How many baskets should we arrange for our eggs? Is this country worth defending and, if so, why, how, and to what extent and consequence?

If we can’t come up with answers to these questions, then that will be an answer in and of itself. But I think we can and should come up with answers — and we don’t even need the bomb to do so.

More responses to Trump's crazed babbling:

All clear now? Whatever the end game may be, this country is under attack. By our neighbours.
The basic assumption of Canadian history, that we would always have a stable, democratic ally to our south, is over. They are not stable, not likely to remain democratic for much…

— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 (@acoyne) January 7, 2025

Dark Justin is unleashed

Dark Justin is here! https://t.co/2FxRuJ5HAw

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 ✍🏻😷🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 (@CathieCanada) January 7, 2025

When I saw this Trudeau tweet just now, I couldn't believe it. 

Now that he has resigned, I think he feels unleashed -- he no longer has to parse his words, be cautious, be "prime ministerial". 

He can be as patriotic as he wants to be. And make no mistake, he wants to be.

Trudeau even dragged Poilievre into the fight:

Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.

We are a great and independent country.

We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of…

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 7, 2025

I would appreciate that anyone who is or hopes to be Prime Minister would find time in their busy schedule today to speak or post a rabid defense of Canadian sovereignty against the suddenly intensified threat to our independence.

— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) January 7, 2025

Because this is serious, I think

Laura, Laura, Laura...I respect your honest, clear-headed opinions...but Presidents can't just annex another country. That takes an act of Congress and they won't rubber-stamp it. We all knew #Trump was going to say batshit crazy things, why are we panicking when he does it?

— Ed the Sock (@EdtheSock) January 7, 2025

But Ed hasn't recognized yet that authoritarians like Trump never respect any limitations, including whatever a bunch of Democrats in Congress might not want to happen.

Today's News: Comments and analysis about Trudeau's resignation

It should not have ended this way,but Spring will come, the grass will grow and the Liberal Party will rise again .

— Michael Ignatieff (@M_Ignatieff) January 6, 2025

Trudeau is unpopular and there is *a lot* to criticize but, my god, when it's Carney vs. Clark vs. Freeland to replace him, there will be some nostalgia for his time in office.

— David Moscrop, mostly on Bluesky @davidmoscrop.com (@David_Moscrop) January 6, 2025

I saw that Liberal sources had told Global News they felt Trudeau had pulled the party “too far to the left” and they seemed to think that was the problem with his leadership

If that’s the takeaway the Liberals are going with, they are incredibly boned pic.twitter.com/6wdKlQnOzo

— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) January 6, 2025

Here's a roundup of commentary:

The rumour mill is buzzing about Trudeau tonight

   

The rumour is that Trudeau will resign today.

That typing you hear tonight is dozens of Canadian political journalists getting a jump on their "end of an era" political obits. 

But doesn't it strike you as odd that there is nothing - NOTHING - actually causing Trudeau to resign except for increasingly inexplicable "Trudeau fatigue" and falling poll numbers -- for a leader that crowds of Canadians still greet with enthusiasm? A leader respected around the world? And he is feared by Maple MAGA. And Elon. And Putin. And Trump. Who all worked so hard to undermine him.

Trudeau hasn't always been right, but he has always tried to be.

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I just hope Trudeau doesn't leave right away -- the usual Canadian pattern would be for him to announce a leadership convention in April or May, then stay on as Prime Minister until then. 

There is no particular reason for him to rush off right away -- no health issue, no scandal. 

And better to stay as PM until a new leader has a chance to get better known across the country. Also,

Trudeau really needs to stick around until the Foreign Interference report comes out the end of January. And until we see what happens with Trump's tariff threats. The longer we avoid an election, the more the Liberal programs (dental care, pharmacare, daycare, school lunches, Indigenous reconciliation, plus Ukraine support) will be entrenched, reducing the risk that a new Conservative government would immediately dismantle them.