Actually, its not really such a Terrible Map at all, is it.
World Juniors update
So on Wednesday, Canada confirmed it will NOT allow Russian teams into Canada for the World Juniors.Trevor Connors at Yahoo Sports writes:
... With the tournament set to kick off on December 26 in Edmonton and Red Deer, the political tension surrounding Russia's involvement has reached a boiling point.In a follow-up story on Wednesday, Connors writes
As reported by TSN's Gord Miller, the Canadian government has now formally communicated to both Hockey Canada and the IIHF that it will refuse to grant visas to any Russian players looking to participate in the upcoming World Juniors. On top of that, even Russian players who may already hold valid visas due to playing in the Canadian Hockey League have been deemed ineligible to take part, regardless of whether they would compete under a neutral banner.
...given the Canadian government's firm stance on visa denials, most observers now expect Russia to be unable to attend, which would likely result in Norway being reinstated to the event.
The broader implications here extend well beyond one tournament. The coordinated pushback from host nations, federations, and corporate sponsors signals that Russia's path back to international hockey remains blocked on multiple fronts, regardless of what CAS may have ruled. With the puck set to drop in just over a month, it appears all but certain that the 2027 World Juniors will proceed without Russian participation.
According to Russian hockey published Match.TV, the Russian Hockey Federation has appealed to the IIHF to have the 2027 World Junior Championships moved in order to facilitate Russian players....
As I said on my Tuesday post, thinking that the IIHC can resolve the issue by moving the tournament ignores the fact that Canada, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Czechia, Latvia, Switzerland, and Norway will refuse to play Russia anywhere. So even if the IIHF could move the tournament to some other country at this late date, the only teams willing to play Russia would be the USA and Slovakia.🔼 The Russian side's expected next step will be a request to the IOC to ban any sports events in Canada indefinitely.
— KHL & EURO 🏒 TALK (@vorkywh24) November 11, 2026
Oh, that will be fun, won't it.
On a side note, I'm not sure how the IOC comes into it at all. On his Substack, Dean Blundell has an excellent piece about Russia's threats. But I digress.
On a side note, I'm not sure how the IOC comes into it at all. On his Substack, Dean Blundell has an excellent piece about Russia's threats. But I digress.
In the article, Connors also provides some interesting but unsurprising background to the controversy. It explains why at least some people at the IIHC headquarters apparently wanted to welcome Russia back:
...Former IIHF president René Fasel has now floated the possibility of cancelling the 2027 World Juniors altogether if the international governing body cannot find a way to accommodate Russia. His comments, made to Russian media outlet Match TV, come amid growing tensions between the IIHF, the Canadian government, and several European hockey federations over Russia's attempted return to international competition.Too bad Ovi had to get into it too
But before taking Fasel's warning at face value, it's worth considering where he's coming from....
..."If they don't find a solution, they will have to cancel the tournament," Fasel reportedly told Match TV when asked whether the World Juniors could be moved out of Canada. He acknowledged that finding another country willing and able to host the event on such short notice would be extremely difficult, although he suggested the United States could potentially be considered.
...There is an important piece of context surrounding Fasel that shouldn't be overlooked.
The former IIHF president, who led the organization from 1994 until 2021, became a Russian citizen in 2023. His relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been well documented, with the two having appeared together at numerous hockey-related events over the years.
Fasel was particularly critical of the IIHF's original decision to suspend Russian and Belarusian teams following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He also previously defended the idea that international hockey should remain a bridge between nations, even during periods of intense political conflict.
None of that automatically makes his latest comments inaccurate, but it certainly provides some important context when evaluating his perspective.
It's also worth remembering that Fasel is no longer in charge of the IIHF and has no authority to decide the future of the tournament....
This. Russia is at war with Canada 🇨🇦 and there is zero reason to let Russians play in our country. Dr MacKay explains how Russia is attacking Canada on 🇨🇦 youtu.be/f57396H7Lvg?...
— Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 (@laura-babcock.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 9:08 AM
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Go the fuck home Ovi.
— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 2:27 PM
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Go the fuck home Ovi.
— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 2:27 PM
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Karma is a bitch
As the Trump administration crashes and burns, I think there will be enough stories every day so I can do a regular comeuppance roundup now that I'm calling "Karma is a Bitch".
Cry me a river, Russell...
We'll call him Senator Colom now, because he won the Mississippi Senate seat on Wednesday. Here's the backstory“Russell Vought, Director of WH Office of Management and Budget explicitly stated an intention to put federal bureaucrats in a state of trauma so that they would feel "traumatically affected" and no longer want to go to work” Karma’s a bitch
— Pat Bagley (@bagleycartoons.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 6:50 PM
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— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 5:18 PMThis is Senator Jackson, who defeated Susan Collins in Maine, starting a Democratic tradition I hope
So now Progressive is a buzzword?It’s an off-the-rack suit from a chain store, which stands out in a town of preening phonies. But note it’s a HAGGAR suit, a brand with a proud Dem tradition. Look up “LBJ orders pants” and contrast a real man’s demand for “ball room” with Trump’s prissy prattling about his precious “ballroom.”
— Betty Cracker of Florida (@bettycrackerfl.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 4:59 PM
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You gotta hand it to Alex Karp for rising so high in Silicon Valley without a functioning backbone www.businessinsider.com/alex-karp-pa...
— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 1:42 PM
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I wonder if now, finally, America's media will try to do more than just horserace coverage on the devastating damage the Trump administration is doing to America and the world.“I know more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet, and I absolutely believe Palantir — all of our products are essentially progressive,” - Alex Karp, Palantir CEO
— Ethan (@strangebirds.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 9:42 AM
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Hegseth's group taking selfies and laughing as they entered the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Arlington National Cemetery was bad enough, but people were stunned that CNN actually covered itI was thinking today how little of this we’re seeing. Relative to our fairly recent past as a media culture, there are so few widely shared pics of this project, of the damage to US bases in the theater of the Iran war, of the immigration detention archipelago Stephen Miller has built up … etc etc
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 8:37 PM
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The worst part of this is that Pete Hegseth is absolutely going to have this guard punished for daring to interrupt the secretary's photo op
— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 2:01 PM
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An American Hero. 🇺🇸
— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 7:01 PM
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I was thinking just today that it's been ten years since Rick Wilson coined the acronym ETTD - Everything Trump Touches Dies - and it continues to be truer than ever.
Praise for Carney
Since the budget last week, I've been seeing various attempts to label Carney as right-wing. So I appreciated the latest from Evan Scrimshaw
Kevin Boucher compares Carney's strategic thinking with Poilievre's tactical approach and argues that in choosing Carney, Canada will find it has avoided disaster
Since the budget last week, I've been seeing various attempts to label Carney as right-wing. So I appreciated the latest from Evan Scrimshaw
...The problem for critics of Carney is that he is pretty much doing what he said he’d do, which is follow and expand on the Trudeau government where they were right but fix the problems where there were problems. That means doing progressive things like $5B/year on Indigenous infrastructure, billions on culture and heritage, and billions for poverty reduction and ending homelessness. It also means making it easier to produce more energy, build pipelines, get major projects from application to action, and reversing some of the least successful criminal justice reforms. Carney is doing what he said he’d do.I think this is fascinating, from Way Yuhl at his Cultural Perspective substack
...Why do some complain about Carney seeking to curtail the size of the federal civil service while acting like Zohran didn’t look for cuts immediately as well? Why is every move from Carney seen through the worst lens possible, but even left wing Democrats are forgiven for their stances?
Carney is, objectively, one of the most progressive Prime Ministers Canada has ever seen. His budget has progressive ambitions the likes of which Chretien never had. When Chretien and Martin got a surplus, they cut taxes, while Carney isn’t even close to a surplus and is still talking about expansive social spending. But many of his critics on the left are addicted to the idea he’s a conservative and that supporting him makes you one. This is a man who recognized Palestinian statehood, believes in universal health care, has increased the main tax benefit for poor and working Canadians, and is at least rhetorically willing to contemplate nationalizing companies that fail to meet the obligations of deals they sign with Canada. This is not some corporate stooge of a PM.
And that’s why nobody’s getting anywhere attacking him. There is a reasonable line of debate against Carney, that the level of his rhetoric and ambition has yet to meet the level of his achievements, but that would require a very different set of skills....
... My problem with the Carney criticism isn’t that he’s infallible - Lord knows he’s not, and no fair reader of this site would say that’s my position. But it’s also true that the leftwing critics of Carney are out to lunch. They have failed to reckon with the fact that Trudeau was about to drive Canada into a ditch of Poilievre’s making, and that they give all the benefit of the doubt to Democrats while never doing so for Carney. And that’s why they’re fucked.
Kevin Boucher compares Carney's strategic thinking with Poilievre's tactical approach and argues that in choosing Carney, Canada will find it has avoided disaster
...Near the end of his interview, Snyder was asked what gives him hope. His answer started with us.
He pointed to a belt of democracies, the Canadians first, then the European Union, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Countries that have recognized things have gone badly in the United States and are working out how to manage without it. Not against America, he said. Without it.
That’s the strategy in a sentence.
It isn’t anti-American. Paine and Snyder are both Americans, and both are warning their own country. It isn’t lazy nationalism either. It’s what a responsible country does when its biggest partner becomes part of the risk. You keep the relationship. You stop depending on it for everything.
..... Canada had a choice in 2025. One option was a leader built for the tactical fight, running a borrowed American playbook at the exact moment that playbook was turning on us. The other was a leader thinking at the strategic level, about alliances, trade and sovereignty.
Pivot points are only obvious afterwards...I can’t prove Canada avoided one. Nobody can prove a disaster that didn’t happen. That’s Paine’s point about negative objectives.
But look south. Look at what superpower suicide looks like up close. Then look at where Canada is standing.
I think we stepped past it. And I think, years from now, we’ll be glad we did.
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