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:

These numbers blow my mind: Population of LA County: 9.33M Population of California: 38.97M Population of the US: 334.9M 1 out of every 36 people in the US lives in Los Angeles County. There are 22 US states with populations smaller than LA County. These fires affect all those people.

— Peggy K (@peggyk.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM

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

"There isn't a snowball's chance in hell Canada would become a part of the United States." (Prime Minister Trudeau) Believe me: the main, but unspoken, reason behind Trump's threats to Canada is he wants its Water, a key natural resource of our's, essential for our future, but lacking in the U.S..

— westcoastlouisa.bsky.social (@westcoastlouisa.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 3:28 PM

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

Guess he's Justout Trudeau now.

— LunarLiv (@lunarliv.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 10:17 AM

Is it just me, but has the transition from “Trudeau must resign immediately” to “How dare Trudeau betray and abandon Canada by resigning at this incredibly perilous time” from certain voices and media out there been absolutely lightning fast? I’m starting to suspect some bad faith out there…

— Brent Toderian (@brenttoderian.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 5:53 PM

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.

The stupid, it burns!

Oh, we're in trouble now. 

Trump is babbling about windmills again:

I’m normally against high taxes but I think we could balance the budget here via a 100-percent levy on morons

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— George Conway (@gtconway.bsky.social) January 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM

And Musk is obsessed with UK politics now:

Musk has been tweeting relentlessly about the UK govt for 7 hours straight

This is an incoming adviser to the US admin lest we forget, who basically lives in Mar-a-Lago

Musk’s radicalisation is intensifying, and still little sign Trump will dislodge him from his inner circle pic.twitter.com/ZlM99pkR1W

— Josh Self (@Josh_Self_) January 3, 2025

Writing I love: "We're All Made of Horrible, Beautiful Scars"

I found this piece of great writing last summer, when we were in the midst of our own heartbreak, and it was just so thoughtful and meaningful: 

Cole Haddon / 5 am Story Talk 

We're All Made of Horrible, Beautiful Scars 

Australian rocker Nick Cave, Native American activist/poet John Trudell, and a 14th-century Japanese shogun have thoughts about how to put ourselves back together through art 

It is a story told in anecdotes, about a teenager who fell off a cliff, about a fire that killed a man's whole family, about a 14th century Shogun, about Japanese philosophy, about the death of Haddon's father. I can't excerpt it - it needs to be read as a complete piece -- except I can explain this:

 ...  Kintsugi, or “golden joiner”, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer that’s been mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. It treats breakage — but, really, repair — as part of the history of an object. No attempt is made to disguise the “scar”, so to say. The cracks and repairs are, instead, part of the life of the object.... 

 In their own ways, all of the people in Haddon's stories found how to continue:  

My heart doesn't hurt anymore 

But my soul does, maybe 

That's what souls are for, to 

Take the hurt the heart can't take 

The heart can't take 

...But really, the act of putting ourselves back together through our art. The breakages, the scars, the hanging on lines on full display. Because nothing remains the same forever.

"Good Luck Trudeau"

Well, I don't know whether Trudeau will leave or not, but I for one would really miss him:

Genuinely one the funniest jokes I’ve seen played on Trudeau.

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— Steve Boots (@steveboots.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 10:49 AM

If Trudeau was only going to do one year-end interview, I'm glad it was with Mark Critch:

   

Epic!

An epic book forward, by Caimh McDonnell in his book Disaster.

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Getting ready for 2025

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Actually, this probably applies to 2025 also:

The eerie strip I published at the end of 2019, just before the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/uqbgCxQEpa

— Stephan Pastis (@stephanpastis) December 29, 2024

Crime-washing the Trump presidency: "We're finally on our own..."

I've been calling Trump's presidency "Trump 2: The Revenge Tour" and that is exactly what it will be. 

There is nothing so trivial that Trump can't feel insulted about it. 

This is a guy who insisted the National Parks Service endorse his "biggest presidential inauguration ever" claim in 2016. This is the guy who marked up a map with a felt pen then tried to get the press to report on how the National Weather Service actually HAD given him map showing Georgia would be affected by a hurricane - that was in 2018 I think. It was nuts. 

So imagine how angry he is now about the convictions for sexual assault and for his business shenanigans, the 34 felony convictions, the January 6 investigation, the Jack Smith investigation, the Georgia prosecutions, the Florida charges.  And this time, he is making sure that he will have subservient leadership in the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice, so he can sic them on everyone who "dissed" him over the last four years. 

So far it appears the American press is just going to go along with it. 

The reporters are likely scared too, of course. And we've already seen plenty of evidence that media ownership is terrified -- looking at you, LA Times, ABC News, the New York Times, the Washington Post...

Weekend funnies

Here's some funny stuff I found recently, as I was looking for something else:

   

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Playing the long game

Trudeau is speaking softly, playing the long game with Trump. This is his only response to all the "51s5 State" bluster from Trump:

Some information about Canada for Americans:https://t.co/EnI8CrF4cB

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 26, 2024

I’m still going to maintain Trudeau is right to not engage with the 51st State stuff, and as much as it would make us happy to issue a capital-T Takedown of Trump it’s pretty clear Trump’s trying to bait a reaction and it’s driving him nutty Trudeau isn’t biting

— Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) December 25, 2024

"People think that boxing is all about how hard you can hit your opponent. It's not. Boxing is about how hard you can take a hit and keep going. "
-Justin Trudeau #goingthedistance pic.twitter.com/UEEUbsC9Mr

— Bill Rice 🦋 (@2muchfun4me) December 27, 2024

Christmas cartoons and videos and stories. Enjoy!

In honour of Canada's posties - I'm so glad they're back, but I hope they can get the deal they deserve:

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Today's News: Could there be a method to Trump's madness?

So now Trump is talking about the United States invading Mexico, buying Greenland and taking over the Panama Canal as well as Canada. 

Its nuts.

For one thing, this:

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It seems like a joke:

Trump thinks he can buy Greenland, annex Canada, and is picking a fight with Panama. I can’t believe so many people decided they weren’t embarrassed enough the first time and wanted this fucking moron to be president again. 🤦‍♂️

— 😱 Scary Larry 😱 🇺🇦✊🏻🇺🇸🗽 (@aintscarylarry) December 23, 2024

But maybe he's not just babbling, maybe there is reason for this craziness.

Jeff Tiedrich / Everyone is entitled to my own opinion

oh look, Elderly Golfer is a geopolitical madman

Panama, Greenland, Canada and Mexico are all on Donny’s shopping list

...well, shove over, George, and make room — there’s a new worst president ever in town

Donny Convict is also being advised to achieve dominance by fucking shit up on a global scale — but he’s not listening to the neocons, who at least had some level of experience in foreign policy.

no, Donny has surrounded himself with a fucktangle of vainglorious lunatics who have no idea what they’re talking about, and no earthly clue how to achieve their batshit goals.

...on Saturday, Donny threatened to invade Panama and take back the Canal. we all had fun mocking the shit out Donny’s bluster, but he didn’t come up with the idea all by his lonesome.

this clusterfuck-to-come has the ketamine-addled cortex of President-Elect Elon Musk all over it — because you know who depends on global shipping lanes, don’t you?

...last night, Donny took to his failing app to announce that Ken Howery was to be his pick for Ambassador to Denmark — and deep down in the post was an ominous threat. “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

so now Donny’s not just asking Denmark to sell us Greenland — he’s demanding it. that’s nice.

this time around, there’s a reason for Donny’s northern land-grab: eventually, climate change is going to make all the Arctic ice go fuckity-bye, opening up new shipping routes at the top of the world. controlling Greenland would put the United States right in the thick of this new profit center.

...so when Donny “jokes” about annexing Canada, you have to wonder — is he really joking? because Canada is also going to be jockeying for primacy as new Arctic shipping lanes open.

...here where we stand today: a demented megalomaniac who will soon have access to a nuclear arsenal — and who would love nothing more than to crown himself King of the World — is being manipulated by one or more greedy plutocrats who have their own business interests at heart.

what could possibly go wrong?

our saving grace, once again, will be that the Sewer Cons are delusional clownfuckers with a track record of failure after failure, and have no idea what they’re doing.