Now is the Summer of our Discontent... Plus today's updates on the World Cup and on Pride month

It just feels like 2026 will be The Summer Of Our Discontent.
And I do hope the rest of Richard's complaint will not come true:

... I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams...

First, it will be a Summer of Discontent in the United States, as Trump and his captive Republicans twist and turn to try to avoid the drubbing they can expect in the midterm elections this fall.
Their most recent tactic is to undermine confidence in elections by pretending that Republican losses are all just one big conspiracy theory. Americans do love their conspiracy theories - three centuries ago, they accused 200 people of being witches and killed 20 of them. Believing looney, ridiculous, evidence-free conspiracy theories is an American tradition!

The latest is All Elections Are Rigged Against Us (except the ones we win)!
Just look at all these reporters surrounding a babbling Speaker Johnson on Monday - smiling, nodding sagely, listening to his fantasy without even rolling their eyes...

At this point, the claims that elections are "rigged" are in the same realm as claims of demonic possession. The people behind this alleged conspiracy are clearly, in the GOP imagining, actual wizards, possessed of dark magic. That and also "rigged" means "they let Black people vote."

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— Amanda Marcotte (@amandamarcotte.bsky.social) June 8, 2026 at 3:18 PM

Trump should show up here at the L.A. County ballot processing center because he’d learn within five minutes this is democracy in action, not some conspiracy.

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— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff.bsky.social) June 7, 2026 at 4:30 PM

I'm not sure how this one can end - Trump is leading the way and dragging all the Republicans with him. Its prep for November. 

“.. an unusually clear preview of how he could greet any disappointing results for his party in November, when control of Congress is at stake.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/u...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) June 9, 2026 at 6:45 AM

Next, its the summer of discontent in Alberta. 

I found more good comments today on Alberta separatism, on Poilievre, and on Danielle Smith's Referendum Lite:

I’ve been thinking of a parallel between Trump’s declarations that he is heroically fighting to end the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, ignoring his role in causing it. But the ‘arsonist throwing water on the fire they set’ metaphor works nicely too!

- Lisa Young

Read on Substack

I have good neighbours who are now flying Alberta flags to signal their support for separatism. So I need to make something clear: they are, indeed, good neighbours. And I like them. Nobody can see inside the head of someone else or know how they process information or interpret experience. Good people can have diametrically opposed viewpoints. I don’t only like people who think like me. My separatist neighbours are family, and nothing is going to change that. Not even the manipulators trying so cynically to drive wedges and divide us. I detest the idea of Alberta separatism. I love Alberta like I love my family, because it is my family… but nothing about that could ever make me turn away from my country, because it is my country. I’m proud to be Canadian. So the fact that Danielle Smith thought it would be clever to blow on the embers of resentment until they burst into flame, simply to gain leverage in her constant effort to look smart and to keep her oil millionaire buddies happy, really, really makes me mad. She has chosen deliberately to divide my community, ruin my province, and weaken my country — all for nothing more than her twisted ego’s need to break things and blame others. She’s been doing it ever since she entered public life. But she will not succeed in turning me against my neighbours with their Alberta flags. She won’t get me to belittle their thinking or beliefs. I’ll despise the purveyors of separatism koolaid to hell and back, but not those who drank it. At the end of the day, the separatism movement will fail under the weight of its own illegitimacy, impracticality and goofiness. But me and my good neighbours will still be neighbours. And Canada will be stronger than ever. No glib-talking, double-dealing, smug, deceitful Premier-for-a-while can ever succeed at taking that from us. I can’t wait for her to retire to Panama and leave us to pick up the pieces. Together. As neighbours.

- Kevin Van Tighem

Read on Substack

In his Alberta Politics substack, David Climenhaga explores the costs of separation:

The folks who control the big bucks in Alberta must finally have realized what Danielle Smith’s separation referendum is about to do to their profit potential.
How else can we explain Premier Smith’s out-of-the-blue promise last week that her government would fully cost out separation by August and her observation at a news conference she was pretty sure the start-up costs would run into the “hundreds of billions of dollars”?
Who would be surprised to learn there have been more than a few strongly worded calls to the Premier’s Office from Albertans with enough clout to ensure someone picks up the phone when it displays their number?
In addition, as Alberta-based investigative journalist Charles Rusnell pointed out in The Tyee last week, it’s probably not a complete coincidence that Premier Smith’s “whiplash inducing” about face came after a former senior manager in Alberta’s Finance Ministry told journalists he’s been asking for records of any cost-benefit analyses of Alberta separation and getting no joy.
“They claim nothing has been prepared,” Lennie Kaplan said in a note to AlbertaPolitics.ca in late May. “I believe they (the UCP government) have not prepared anything because they don’t want to risk riling up the UCP base.”
Apparently, yes, in Alberta....

Here are a couple of comments from Andrew Coyne:

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And Dale Smith:

*sighs, pinches bridge of nose* So the champion Canada needs is someone who lies, invents grievances, and is making his support for unity conditional on his getting his own way politically? Are you fucking serious?

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) June 9, 2026 at 9:11 PM

At Canada's National Observer, lead columnist Max Fawcett talks about Poilievre's speech on Monday:

...The Alberta separation referendum is an opportunity for him to stand up for Canada, speak out against the politics of division, and show voters across the country that he’s a leader they can trust with their country. Instead, he chose to remind them why they haven’t done that yet — and probably never will.
His big pitch to voters, one he delivered in a speech in Calgary yesterday, is a continuation of the same message he’s been sending for years now: blame Ottawa...

In his substack today, FortBison was unimpressed by Poilievre's histrionics:

....His absence from the GG’s swearing-in signalled to the pissed off Alberta crowd a quiet contempt for the federal governing apparatus without having to utter a single unparliamentary word.
Poilievre doesn’t want to put out the fire of Alberta separatism. He needs it. He needs Alberta to stay absolutely, blisteringly angry. That rage is the raw fuel for his entire calculated, hopeful march to the Prime Minister’s Office. If the West cools down, his engine stalls.
So he stood on that stage- on that day of all days- and ticked every single grievance box on the Alberta separatist clipboard. He spoke of pipelines, of overreach, of Alberta autonomy, of gun culture, and in short, validated the Alberta separatist fury completely.
He patted them on the head and told them they weren’t the enemy. It’s those darn Liberals. His message was, I’m with you. I’m not a Liberal. I’m not out there in Ottawa watching a Governor-General getting sworn in. I’m as mad as you are.
His message was “stay mad, so you can vote for me.”
We have to ask: Have we really reached a point in Canada where the only way to run for the country’s highest elected office is to trash its institutions?...

Apparently the Alberta ballots will be colour-coded so Lisa Young has some suggestions for appropriate colours:

...Elections Alberta has its hands full at the moment, so as a good citizen I’ve done the work to pick out ballot colours that are sure to be approved by the provincial government.
Clearly, the Stay/Leave question needs to be on a Blue (Azure) ballot (Pantone 661 C) - the exact colour of the Alberta flag.
The five immigration-related questions should be printed on ballots reflecting a diversity of shades of white. My suggestions:
PANTONE 11-0601 TCX — Bright White
PANTONE 11-4001 TPG — Brilliant White
PANTONE 11-0602 TCX — Snow White
PANTONE 11-4800 TCX — Blanc de Blanc
PANTONE 11-4301 TCX — Lily White
Now the constitutional questions are a bit more complicated to colour code. Here are some thoughts to get the conversation started:
Question 6 (provinces appoint judges): Maybe the blue of a cloudless Alberta sky, reflecting the clarity of thought that only true Albertan judges could achieve? (PANTONE 14-4318 TCX — Sky Blue)
Question 7 (abolish the unelected Senate): It’s the red chamber. Enough said. (PANTONE 19‑1762 TCX — Crimson)
Question 8 (opting out of federal programs without losing funding): Now, this is a tough choice. My first thought was green, for all the money we’d get (PANTONE 362 C). But on second thought, this is really about killing the Canada Health Act, so maybe blood red (PANTONE 7621 C)?
Question 9 (giving provincial laws priority over federal laws): Maybe a mud grey, to mimic the clarity of the question? (PANTONE 18‑0912 TCX)
In the event that Water not Coal makes it onto the ballot, we’ll reserve coal black (PANTONE Black 6 C).

By the way, "Water not Coal" is ANOTHER petition campaign now going on, this one wants to stop coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
I'm starting to wonder why Alberta bothers with electing provincial politicians -- might as well just decide everything by petitions and referendums, and let the civil servants go to it.
And actually, could they do worse?

Moving on, some updates for today: 

The World Cup is rapidly turning into just another Trump shit-show, as US Customs and Border Protection Gestapo throw hissy-fits over "vetting concerns".

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Next, today's Pride update:

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