Today's News: Some words of wisdom about Carney, plus some laments for the United States

I'm seeing so many good posts and comments over the last few days.  So tonight I thought I would just share a random selection. 

First up, I'm hearing about how Carney is doing now that Parliament is back.

Evan Scrimshaw / Scrimshaw Unscripted

Biggest Threats For Carney As Parliament Returns
On Freeland And Other Things
...The government’s got a very difficult balancing act to pull off this session - a combination of handling the American relationship and building a more resilient, and Trump-proof, economy, walking back the Trudeau era mistakes on criminal justice and immigration, rebuilding relationships and trust with the Jewish community and fighting against antisemitism while respecting free speech, and doing all in the backdrop of a UN General Assembly that is going to be almost entirely about Gaza and recognition of a Palestinian state. That would be a nearly-impossible task for a government running at full efficiency, let alone one full of rookies who still don’t know their briefs yet.
If the government is going to get its head out of its ass, it’s going to need to use this Freeland Cabinet resignation as an opportunity to reset not one face, but their entire attitude. The Take It On Faith approach that has marked this government so far has to end, and it has to be replaced by a government that views Canadians as adults who can understand a concept that’s more than 4 words long. At a time when the Conservatives are continuing to lean into Verb The Noun and other 3 word slogans - I guess this week’s is “Just Another Liberal” - Carney needs to respond by elevating the debate. You make the Conservatives’ sloganeering look like shit not by fighting fire with fire, but by showing them to be shallow morons who don’t understand the issues they talk about.
...Carney is objectively one of the smartest people to serve as PM of this country and frankly of most countries. He is also a political neophyte who, while running a good campaign in 2025, needs to remember that how you do things can matter as much, if not more, than outcomes. In the business world, skipping to the end of a process is a good thing. When you’re immediately sending a strike action to arbitration, you’re fucking the dog royally. There’s a political instinct that technocrats often miss, and that will be crucial.
If Carney wants to be a successful PM he will need to listen to the kinds of voices that Freeland and her old boss marginalized - progressive, but by no means sycophantically Liberal, voices who want the government to go well but also want good governance. Whether Carney can bring himself to listen to that dissent will decide the course of the next half decade. Let’s fucking hope he does.

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Moving on - some words about freedom, liberty, authoritarianism,

Ceding the concept of freedom to the Right is a terrible idea that will have terrible consequences.

— Detritus Books (@detritusbooks.bsky.social) September 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM

cant believe that this is the first-ever time that liberalism has been ill-equipped to stand up to fascism. crazy stuff that nobody could have predicted

— mattie lubchansky (@mattielubchansky.com) September 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM

Dave Karpf / The Future, Now and Then

The Authoritarian Transition Is Arriving Ahead-of-Schedule
...There are countries where critics of the regime are not safe. Where they are targeted, extorted, pressured, and disappeared.
There are countries where satirists steer clear of the government, for fear of being taken off the air. Where government censors approve the news.
I have never lived in one of those countries. I did not intend to do so. I don’t know how to behave in such a country. I am not one to keep my pointed opinions to myself.
Trumpism will eventually fail. The Trump regime won’t last forever. But its important to be clear-eyed about what is happening around us. We are not what we once were. It may take a long time to repair all the damage being done.

A grim reminder: these people will never be satisfied. There’s no point at which they will say “we’ve won, let’s enjoy life.” They will always be looking for someone else to punish, to revile, to dehumanize. They’re empty without that.

— Stand With Chicago Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 9:04 PM

Brett Devereux: we are not powerless and they have not won yet. We can shift that thin margin. We are already doing it in off-year elections, shifting by double digits. People hate what Trump is doing. JB Pritzker and some other politicians are doing the right thing. Si, se puede! We can do it

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— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM

How do people imagine he’d do it? With who? To match what Nazis had w the Brownshirts they’d need over 10m street fighters but they’re having a hard time hiring 10K more ICE agents Federalism is a thing He’s very unpopular We need to think about what they have the capacity to do & fight that

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 9:08 PM

Bending the knee to Trump:

They’re not touched by anything affecting 95% of Americans, they can just cash out whenever they want, & most corporate leaders don’t want public controversy but if it’s thrust upon them by Trump they think the solution is to mollify him & hope he leaves them alone.

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 11:25 PM

Trump will not rest until every show on the air is afraid to say anything bad about him. He craves State-Run Media. All Trump, All the Time. 100% approval ratings. Greatest President of All Time. All Hail our Benevolent Dear Leader. In other words. North Korea shit.

- Dreamweasel

Read on Substack

So far it feels more like I imagine 1204 felt like in Constantinople than what 1933 felt like in Germany

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— mtsw (@mtsw.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 10:42 PM

On social media Wednesday night, after Kimmel’s suspension was announced, The Onion’s Ben Collins wrote: “[it’s] Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love.” “The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment,” Collins wrote. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes.” Collins is right. The legacy media have all either put on the red cap and surrendered or they’re still playing nice hoping to avoid becoming next. Regardless, they’re history. It’s hard to accept, and it will take some time to adjust. But it ain’t coming back. It is long past time people on the left understood that.

- Adam Parkhomenko

Read on Substack

Purposful confusion:

Endlessly repeating “Criticizing Charlie Kirk is not the same thing as celebrating his death” feels a lot like endlessly repeating “Criticizing Israel is not the same thing as anti-Semitism.” The people who act like they don’t know the difference are conflating them on purpose.

- Dreamweasel

Read on Substack

Combine Trump’s moves to take direct government stakes in corporations with his moves against financial transparency and it couldn’t be clearer he is moving the United States toward a crony capitalism in which he, his family, and his loyal retainers will make out like bandits. The phrase “crony capitalism” was much-popularized by observers of Russia during Putin’s early years in power, so it is fitting that Trump is also pushing Putin’s approach to the rule of law in that era — which was, to borrow an old phrase, “for my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” The first time is tragedy, Marx wrote. The second, farce. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/business/trump-company-quarterly-reports.html?searchResultPosition=1

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Christopher Armitage / The Existential Republic

The Civility Trap: Why Being Nice Makes Things Worse
... Strategic incivility follows clear principles: impose social costs on norm violation, demonstrate that resistance is possible, and make the continuation of oppression more embarrassing than reform. When Kilmeade suggests killing the homeless, you don't debate. You make his position professionally untenable through coordinated campaigns of economic pressure and public accountability.
This conclusion is uncomfortable for many because because we've been neurologically and culturally programmed to value civility above justice. Moreso, they’re terrified of the reality we live in right now; they hope that if they keep acting “normal” then things will just go back to how they were. That time has passed.
The evidence is clear: in asymmetric conflicts where one side exploits civility while violating it, maintaining civility ensures defeat. This isn't a metaphorical defeat. It's real defeat, measured in rights lost, lives destroyed, and democracies collapsed.

And will wonders never cease?

by karl rove am i being pranked here

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— darth™️ (@darthbluesky.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 7:37 PM

But wait, there’s more

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— Dima (@dima7b.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 7:39 PM

There is some truth to this too:

Trump.and co literally just post all the fucking time and move on and nothing happens. It's the do.something presidency.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM

Building a post-American liberal order:

Latest article for @ForeignAffairs The US can no longer be considered a friend of democracy, as such the existing democratic states need to think strategically about protecting themselves and even starting a fightback. There is no point in pretending everything will be ok.

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— Phillips OBrien (@phillipspobrien.bsky.social) September 12, 2025 at 10:39 PM

And here's your moment of Zen:

Incredible achievement that the one price that the Trump administration has brought down notably is "cocaine."

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— David_j_roth (@davidjroth.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 9:54 AM