Today's News: Canada battles terrible fires but we are keeping our Elbows Up! Trump speech is a Nothingburger. And some World Cup Stories

In Canadian news today, the wildfires are so terrible right now.

And we aren't the only ones fighting this battle.

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Here in Saskatoon we don't have smoke (yet) but lots of people east of us are in the soup right now.
Entire communities are burning, while some American politicians are trying just to score points!

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Except for Tim Walz in Minnesota:

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Meanwhile, in Canada:

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And this was tragic

A Canadian firefighter pilot just died fighting a US fire 🔥 💔🇨🇦💔 www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/vi...

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— 🌿Fern🌿 (@itmustbebunnies.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 3:26 PM

France appreciates Canadian planes:

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On a happier note, I'm glad to see Elbows Up! is still widely supported.
Its a small thing, I know, but today in Costco I didn't buy the US peaches. That decision is still being made across the country. Apparently travel to the US has increased a bit - though with the World Cup on, that doesn't surprise me. Here's a good post and a good visual too:

The Politest Economic Weapon Ever Deployed Eighteen months in, Canada’s boycott of American goods has gone from consumer tantrum to structural fact. Canadian spending on US goods and services fell by tens of billions of dollars last year. Canada imported 94,148 fewer American-made cars, a 12 percent decline. Travel alone has drained roughly $4.5 billion from the US economy, with more expected in 2026, and up to 42,100 jobs have vanished in border regions that once depended on Canadian visitors. Which brings us to Senator Adam Schiff of California, who took to X this week pleading that the boycott of California wine is causing devastating harm to winegrowers, after writing to Quebec’s premier about a lost $434 million market. Quebec’s answer, politely translated: the boycott stays until the tariffs go. That is the remarkable part. Nobody organized this. No leader, no campaign, no committee. Ninety-one percent of Canadians simply decided, and American senators are now writing letters asking them to please stop.

- Gandalv

Read on Substack

Nothingburger with a side of crazy sauce

So I was waiting to see if Trump announced anything important in his big speech Thursday night - like trying to throw some Democratic Senators out of the Senate or declaring the SAVE Act should be enacted by Executive Order or declaring war on Greenland or cancelling the 49th parallel or some such.

Nope.
I am still alarmed and concerned about what will happen after the Democrats sweep the Mid-terms. But the longer the Trump administration keeps fumbling around, the more I also think that Trump and his bully boys actually won't be able to carry through anything complicated or devious - look at their constant chaos and retreats around the Iran War.
I believe that Miller, Rubio, Vance and Homan have been trying to radicalize the situation and, in effect, declare martial law by trying to kick out Ossoff and Warnock out of the Senate and use Executive Orders to shut down the midterms. But in the end I think Trump TACOed and refused to go along with their schemes - for now, at least.

Nothing burger with extra “crazy sauce” on top

— Bobbi (@bobbifl.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 7:33 PM

Pretty strong summary from election security expert and former Justice Department official (under both parties) David Becker about Trump’s speech tonight “This wasn’t new information”

— Scott MacFarlane (@macfarlanenews.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 7:31 PM

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On his newsletter, Wesley Wark put up a great post about the speech: Trump goes to town on the deep state Or, a truly desperate man. He also includes a YouTube of the whole speech and links to the documents.
Wark writes:

...He had three targets. One was the People’s Republic of China, for what he claimed was massive foreign interference including compromises of US citizens’ personal data. But he stopped short of actually claiming that China had affected U.S. election outcomes.
The second target, and biggest by far, was the “deep state,” that shadowy cabal of anti-Trump officials in the U.S. intelligence community. Trump claimed that the deep state conspired to withhold crucial evidence of PRC election interference and covered up knowledge about the vulnerability of US election security. Trump promised to go after these “corrupt” officials (if any are left after all the purges conducted by his minions since he came into office).
The third target was the US “fake media.” Especially those TV channels that refused to broadcast his speech. Take away their licences, he thundered.
Trump promised to reveal all in a data dump of declassified records from the US intelligence community. Trump will try to cherry-pick and distort the findings of these documents as much as he can....
This was a speech of a desperate and floundering man, trying to float conspiracy theories and undermine confidence in the US electoral system in advance of the mid-terms in November.
As a prelude to what?

And if you want to see something really scary, here is an answer to Wark's question

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This was being discussed three days ago:

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But this would have been the reaction:

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That was averted because Trump didn't instigate it. Yet.

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I hate that this is true 😾

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— BeautifulPlumage (@beautifulplumage.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 9:19 PM

This turned out to be what happened:

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Meanwhile, Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio and Tom Homan have been giving speeches that echo Hitler. That's why I wonder if Trump's people had tried to convince him to declare World War III in his speech tonight and he just wouldn't do it. So now I expect they will be trying to do it themselves.

In a set of speeches on the supposed “Resurgence of Political Terrorism,” Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, and other top Trump administration officials labelled the political left as a “terrorist” threat and vowed to use all of the tools at their disposal to systematically destroy left-wing groups.

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— Truthout (@truthout.org) July 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM

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And it's not that I think we should stop making fun of Stephen Miller for being a hideous cuckolded vampire, because by his own rubric he is a freak among freaks who's terrified of being laughed at But this entire speech is straight up Nazi shit, and he means to make it reality

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— Laura Jedeed (@laurajedeed.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 1:51 PM

And Homan

Tom Homan: "It all go backs to the Dems ... there's still gonna be more bloodshed unless they shut their mouth and let ICE enforce the laws that they enacted."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 16, 2026 at 8:05 AM

Trump's Truth Social account is run by Miller or Dan Scavino or Steven Cheung, who post this type of provocative stuff:

Trump is promoting a Michael Savage video calling for democratic socialism to be made a crime and its leaders deported. I’m noting this in case anyone has any doubt that Trump wants to rule as a dictator. We need to take this stuff seriously.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) July 12, 2026 at 5:06 PM

And there was Tuberville, still blabbing to promote Trump's Senate fraud myth - I guess no one told him that White House meme memo has been withdrawn for tonight

Tuberville, for instance, lives outside the state he currently represents.

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— Sparky Clarkson (@sparkyclarkson.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 10:56 PM

The corruption starts at the top, and goes all the way down

vance? a grifter? i’m shocked

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) July 15, 2026 at 3:12 PM

I remember when it was all the MAGA rage that using a teleprompter meant you were stupid

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— Pat Bagley (@bagleycartoons.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 1:25 PM

World Cup Stories
Two games to go -- the third place match between England and France on Saturday in Miami, and the final between Spain and Argentina on Sunday in New Jersey.

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But there are still a few good stories to be found.

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Here's a fascinating little anecdote:

...One is considered by many to be the greatest soccer player of all time. The other, a prodigy thought to be soccer's next megastar.
Nearly 20 years ago, the former gave the latter a little bubble bath, complete with a rubber duckie.
Argentina's Lionel Messi, now 39, took photos for a charity calendar with Spain's Lamine Yamal, now 19, when Yamal was just a few months old. The two will face off against each other for the first time in Sunday's FIFA World Cup final.
"It is a true miracle of destiny," Joan Monfort, the photographer who captured the photos as part of an annual charity drive for UNICEF, told BBC Sport Thursday....

Here is one of those photos -- and TSN also noticed that IKEA Spain is quick off the mark to take advantage of how their baby bathtub was used for the bath in this story:

Alright, Ikea Spain... wasn't familiar with your game. 😂 #FIFAWorldCup

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— TSN (@tsnofficial.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 1:11 PM

World Cup final preview:

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— Rodger Sherman (@rodger.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 10:37 AM

Maybe they should just move the final to Vancouver - the Lions aren't playing at home until next weekend.