Weekend funny stuff: The ridiculous weather: Our ridiculous politics; and Animal Crackers

Our weather here on the Prairies has been generally awful this winter -- cold cold and more cold, week after week since November.

Well, its going to be a little more springlike next week, apparently.

Next up -- politics!

It sounds like our premiers just made themselves look ridiculous in their much-publicized visit to Washington:

Dale Smith / Routine Proceedings

Roundup: Paying $85,000 for the privilege of being humiliated

As if that “big” meeting the premiers had with those mid-level White House officials who ended up trolling and humiliating them couldn’t get any worse, well, it did. It turns out, they paid a lobbyist connected with Don Jr. $85,000 to arrange said meeting, where they didn’t get properly briefed, and froze out the Canadian ambassador (who had a meeting in the White House with actual senior officials earlier that day) ...

I’m not sure that I can stress this enough—premiers have absolutely no business trying to conduct foreign negotiations. The federal government not only has been handling the situation, but they have told the premiers not to constantly react to everything coming from the Trump administration because it’s chaotic and incoherent, and then they went and tried to get their own meetings? ...

I’m also going to point a finger at the media for emboldening these premiers because they keep saying things like “there’s a vacuum of leadership” at the federal level and so on, which is not the case. Trudeau is still on the job, even if he’s on his way out. Ministers are still doing their jobs. We have an ambassador in Washington doing her job. They have explicitly told the media that they are not going to react to everything for very good reason. There is no actual need for the premiers to step in and start freelancing. Doug Ford’s “Captain Canada” shtick was him positioning himself before an election, and thanks to uncritical media coverage, waaaaaaaay too many people fell for it. But the media needs people to light their hair on fire at every utterance, and the premiers have been only too happy to step in and fill that role...

Canada's National Treasures: Elizabeth May - Craig Baird - Gurdeep Pandher - Wab Kineau, P.J. Akeeagok and R.J. Simpson - Canadian Hockey Fans. And Moose Art

Just a post to highlight some of our most impressive Canadians in these times. 

First, Elizabeth May is a national treasure:

Elizabeth May: "This is what you get: free health care – universal free health care....Those gun laws that your Congress is too afraid to pass because of the national gun lobby. We already got our strict gun laws." pic.twitter.com/f6edx09Ec9

— PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) February 13, 2025

Historian Craig Baird is doing outstanding work:

I'm sharing an image a day to celebrate the vibrant and unique culture and history of Canada.
Today, it is acclaimed Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis in her Nova Scotia home in 1965. #ProudlyCanadian

📸Bob Brooks pic.twitter.com/XSkrjgxRxu

— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) February 14, 2025

Yes, Carney actually did save us in 2008

The Cons are trying to re-litigate and downplay Mark Carney's role in protecting Canada from the world financial melt-down in 2008, and Scrimshaw is having none of it:

Mark Carney was an “invaluable support” to Jim Flaherty, who praised him relentlessly at their joint press conference to announce Mark’s move in 2012

This is crass bullshit https://t.co/QhL31yYfPX

— Evan Scrimshaw (@EScrimshaw) February 12, 2025

Things I learned today: Canada is really pissed; the "White Horse Prophecy"; "Leprechaun economics". And an excellent rant!

Doom-scrolling through social media today, I learned some things:

First, its always better to be pissed off than pissed on!

This is what is happening across all of Canada right now!
🇨🇦😊 pic.twitter.com/VgtW7rJvVU

— JustMePam (@PamelaApostolo1) February 12, 2025

The internet brightens the day, every day.
pic.twitter.com/TKwcb8pRya

— Beefeater (@Beefeater_Fella) February 11, 2025

Canada‘s biggest aluminum-producing province with a surprising threat to the U.S.: You want to tariff us? Okay. Maybe we’ll add to it with a surtax. And sell that aluminum elsewhere. And you’ll see who needs whom. https://t.co/zTAqJ2CvQr

— Alexander Panetta (@Alex_Panetta) February 13, 2025

That sound you hear is Canada cutting off intelligence sharing with The US. https://t.co/Ik5mIS6Jlc

— Dean Blundell🇨🇦 (@ItsDeanBlundell) February 12, 2025

Bending the knee

Media organizations in the US are expected to bend the knee now:

The money-grubbing pettiness is the point, I guess:

This sentence from @davidfrum captures perfectly why it’s so difficult to write about almost anything related to Trump:
“The situation was simultaneously too stupid for serious journalism and too shameful for wisecracks.”

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 7, 2025

Our Tangled Border War -- comments by Charlie Angus, Wesley Wark, Dan Gardner, Paul Krugman. And new tariffs!

To illustrate this post, here is an artwork called Non-Sign II, which was built at the Peace Arch border crossing in 2010 - I think that messy tangled black border framing an empty centre is symbolic of our Canada-US border war today.

Here are some useful observations and comments:

    

Charlie Angus / The Resistance

The Power of the Boycott

Canadians Tell Trump To Stuff It

...As a tool of resistance, the boycott has a very long tradition. What makes the Canada 2025 boycott unique is that no one organized it. There are no leaders. There is no strategic team looking to use it as a negotiating tool. This resistance campaign has sprung from the determination of ordinary people to resist tyranny.

The boycott of products, alcohol, and vacation destinations is getting stronger all the time.

...Guys like Trump believe that intimidation and threats are the way of the world. It is the ideology of this new age of gangsterism. But what makes the power of the Canadian boycott unbeatable is that the more Trump threatens, the more people dig in. And it is starting to cause serious economic pain.

As I have said before, the MAGA crowd might love chaos, but capitalism doesn’t.

Once the impacts of the bourbon boycott, the grocery store actions and the cancelled travel bookings begin to pile up, you are going to see a lot of American businesses calling out the predator-in-chief.

As for Canada? Keep the boycott going. We will last one day longer and be one day stronger than the creeper in Washington.

Wesley Wark’s National Security and Intelligence Newsletter

You Got a Friend in Me

Or, the US National Security Adviser knows Canada like the back of his…?

...It now turns out that [National Security Adviser Republican congressman] Mike Waltz is an expert on Canadian public attitudes. He appeared on the US NBC News’ program, “Meet the Press,” on February 9, was asked about Trump’s annexationist remarks about Canada, and pressed about Prime Minister Trudeau’s comments at the recent business leaders’ conclave in Toronto. Waltz was reassuring, sort of —no plans for a military invasion of Canada. But then he went on to reveal his fulsome knowledge of Canada, saying he thinks that “the Canadian people, many of them, would love to join the United States.” This is clearly an evidence-free assertion, reportedly based on some random discussions with Canadian snowbirds in Florida (a flock that should rapidly thin itself, or maybe be asked rude questions by CBSA border officials on their post-winter return), or perhaps hangers on at Mar-a-Lago (you know who you are, Kevin).

OK, we can laugh at nutty comments like this, and no doubt will need to get used to them. But the less reassuring aspect of Waltz’s Trump-mouthpiece remarks was his note about the reassertion of “American leadership” in the Western hemisphere. He told the NBC

“that’s what we’re talking about, from Greenland, to Arctic security to the Panama canal coming back under the United States.”

...Canada will have to vigorously resist, at every turn, any such exercise of American “leadership,” especially in the Arctic.... You can’t play Canadian nice with these guys.

Weekend funny stuff: new maps & cartoons & football plays & funny posts & animal crackers, plus Mark Twain at the end

After this week, we need a little break:

First, some new maps for Canada to enjoy:

A comment on DEI:

Some comments on our times:

I don't plan on watching the Super Bowl - except maybe to enjoy the whole stadium booing Trump! - but here's a good football post:

View on Threads

Today's News: America is shooting the messenger

Coming soon to a university hospital in America:  

"Maybe us barbers have been wrong all these years to rely on ideas which have failed us. Maybe we should study the human body intently and make our observations on fact, not superstition. Perhaps this scientific method could extend to other disciplines, such as architecture, engineering, navigation. We may discover a bright new age... a Renaissance, if you will.

...NAAAH!"

I guess the Trump administration basically doesn't want to get any bad news from science ever again -- like Covid, like bird flu, like measles outbreaks, like climate change, like racism and sexism and gender roles -- so they've decided not to finance uncomfortable scientific research anymore. 

Easy peasy!

Here is a gift link to that Washington Post article

This is terrible news for the United States -- it will be a generational loss of scientists, researchers, writers, graduate students, post-docs, lab techs, research administrators and librarians.

What a week! "Imagine watching a documentary reenacting the burning of the Library of Alexandria set to the soundtrack of Yakety Sax"

 

Well, this has been a shit show of a week, eh:

Not only Canada, President Fuckface von Clownstick has lost the respect of most of the Western World and beyond. Not that he had much respect to begin with.

— Bubbe Wokestein 💙🇪🇺 🇨🇦✡️ (@veggieto) February 5, 2025

NEWS IN PHOTO: Fresh off unifying Canadians, Trump unites entire planet against his "turn Gaza into a Trump resort" plan pic.twitter.com/Sr48eS7GfI

— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) February 5, 2025

Today's News: Protests at last

I'm seeing many people running around with their hair on fire tonight, desperately trying to get the Democrats in Congress to stop bleating about bipartisanship and finding common ground, and to FIGHT BACK. The American people are slow to rouse, but I do believe it is heating up now -- particularly the anger against Musk and his short-pants bros trying to take over the government.

Steve M / No More Mister Nice Blog

WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE COUP, DADDY?

...We're in an all-out war to salvage what's left of America. The war can end one of two ways: with Donald Trump and his henchmen laying waste to our system of government, or with an effective fight on many fronts that pushes the totalitarians back, limits the damage they do, and begins the process of restoring what we had. If Trump's people win, it won't matter whether you chose this battle or that battle or a whole series of battles -- you'll be marked as a traitor. But if the good guys win, what people will remember is that you fought -- wherever and however you fought.

This is the central battle of our times. One way or the other, the first sentence of every prominent political figure's obituary will tell what that person did or didn't do in either the glorious Trump Revolution or the traitorous Trump Rebellion....

And its only been 15 days!

I am seeing real fear tonight in the United States. 

This sums it up in a few paragraphs:

Paul Krugman

What the Musk is Happening?

It’s a catastrophe, but what kind of catastrophe?

....Musk associates have been given access to the U.S. Treasury’s systems that control all federal payments, from grants to nonprofits to Social Security checks to salaries of federal workers.

The potential for mischief here is immense. The courts may have told the Trump administration that it can’t freeze spending mandated by Congress, but Musk’s people, who haven’t shown much reverence for the law, might well just ignore the courts and not cut the checks.

And they could go beyond cutting off programs the Musk/Trump administration doesn’t like. Imagine that you’re a federal contractor who has made campaign donations to Democrats; suddenly the government stops paying what it owes you and brushes off inquiries by saying that they’re working on the problem. Or you’re a federal employee who, according to somebody in your office who has a personal grievance, has expressed sympathy for DEI; somehow your regularly scheduled salary payments stop being deposited into your bank account. Or even imagine that you’re a retiree who canvassed for Kamala Harris, and for some reason your checks from Social Security stop coming.

Don’t say they wouldn’t do such things. We’ve seen these people in action, and of course they would if they could.

For the moment they probably can’t. The federal payments system is immensely complex, and like most government infrastructure has been financially squeezed for decades. So it’s cobbled together, much of it running on old hardware and even older software, kept functioning thanks to old hands and institutional memory. The 20-somethings Musk is deploying to take over, locking out those old hands and pushing aside the people who know how the system works, almost surely don’t understand enough to politicize payments right away.

As Nathan Tankus, the go-to expert on these matters, says,

I 100% believe that the primary barrier to Elon Musk gaining control of the Treasury payments system is COBOL.

For readers mystified by the reference, COBOL is a very old programming language that was once pervasive in the business world but in which hardly anyone under 60 knows how to program — yet is still widely used in government. (During Covid, the state of New Jersey put out a frantic call for people who knew COBOL to implement expanded unemployment benefits.)

But this observation raises another concern. What if the Musk people — Muskovites? — try to muck with systems they don’t understand, believing that they’re super smart and can master everything with the help of a little AI? It’s not hard to imagine the whole federal payments system — including, by the way, servicing of federal debt — crashing.

So much damage — to U.S. credibility, to the Constitution and the rule of law, and possibly even to the very functioning of the government. And Trump only took power 2 weeks ago.

And we were singing, bye-bye Miss American Pie

Well, what a day, eh?

...We all got up to dance 

Oh, but we never got the chance 

 'Cause the players tried to take the field 

The marching band refused to yield 

Do you recall what was revealed 

The day the music died?*

Here are some memes and cartoons and posts about this momentus day, the day Canada refused to yield. Some are funny, some heartfelt, some worried still. 

But Trudeau's message of solidarity and courage resonated with Canadians. and with Americans too, as the messages of a true leader always do -- today, I haven't seen a single post of anger toward Americans, just against Trump and MAGA. 

We booed the American national anthem but we aren't booing the people singing it. 

Today's News: American Tune - "...We lived so well so long.... I wonder what's gone wrong"

 

Does anyone still remember Paul Simon's American Tune? 

...And I don't know a soul who's not been battered

I don't have a friend who feels at ease

I don't know a dream that's not been shattered

Or driven to its knees

But it's alright, it's alright

We lived so well so long

Still, when I think of the

Road we're traveling on

I wonder what's gone wrong

I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong

... And I dreamed I was flying

And high up above my eyes could clearly see

The Statue of Liberty

Sailing away to sea

And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call The Mayflower

We come on the ship that sailed the moon

We come in the age's most uncertain hours

And sing an American tune

Oh, and it's alright, it's alright, it's alright

You can't be forever blessed

Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day

And I'm trying to get some rest

That's all I'm trying to get some rest

Simon wrote it in 1973 during the Nixon presidency but it is a particularly apt accompaniment to the events in Washington this weekend, when the American government payment system has apparently been taken over by Elon Musk and his tech-bro putsch.

Trudeau's Finest Hour

 

I think this will go down in history as Trudeau's best speech -- warm but resolute, articulate, clear, telling America they are wrong without blaming them, reassuring Canadians they will be treated fairly without minimizing the pain, detailed without being pendantic, calm yet inspiring message of "true patriot love...we stand on guard for thee". 

Here are some of the best comments I read tonight:

Trudeau giving the best speech of his life right now. And I’m someone that has wanted him gone for years. Amazing job - Canada is important and we all need to stand together.

— Morgan Cameron Ross (@Morgan_C_Ross) February 2, 2025

Tariff Suggestion Box: Maybe we should just send Trump a few million?

So it looks like the tariffs are on, and the suggestions are coming thick and fast -- some funny, some serious: 

First up, maybe a bribe?

When I read Josh Marshall's comments today, it made me wonder -- since the Trump administration appears to be "open for business" so to speak, maybe Canada can get Trump off our backs if we just give him a platinum Visa card and build him some golf courses near Toronto and Banff? 

I'm sure Ford and Danielle Smith would kick in, too. 

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo 

Trump DOJ Rolls Out New Payment Plans (Yeah, In That Way…)

...the dawn of Trump’s second term now sees the rollout of a host of new Justice products and payment plans.

This week, matters took a degree of a step forward (or backward, depending on your metaphor) when Trump had his acting U.S. attorney abandon the criminal case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE). Fortenberry wasn’t some high-profile Trump ally. And his crimes weren’t particularly political or Trump-adjacent. He got caught taking laundered political contributions from a Nigerian billionaire and then repeatedly lied about it to the FBI. Pretty generic graft, pretty garden-variety political corruption. 

Then came word that the Trump DOJ is in “conversations” (how do these conversations go exactly?) with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan about dropping charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams. This is a criminal prosecution that is already underway and apparently going quite well. By all indications, they’ve got Adams dead to rights and the prosecutors have plenty of cooperators. ..

...New York City is the center of all Trump’s dreams and grievances. It is another way in which he coincides, albeit from very different points of origination, with the GOP ID. It’s hard to imagine a tableau more appealing to him than having the nominally Democratic mayor of the city admitting that Trump was right all along and inviting ICE in for bouts of wilding across the city.

 ...What’s novel here is that you don’t have to be a Trump ally any more to get protection from the law. You can open communications to become an ally after you get into trouble. And people are already responding to the new rules. The parents of disgraced crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried have begun sounding out Trump allies and lawyers about a pardon for their son who only just started his 25-year prison sentence, according to an article in Bloomberg News. They hardly come from traditional Trump stock. They’re both professors at Stanford Law School. 

It’s probably best to see their efforts in the context of the rapidly expanding Trump payment culture. We got a nice view of it in that glimpse of the new relationship between Trump and Mark Zuckerberg when the incoming president told Zuckerberg that a settlement payment (eventually agreed at $25 million) would be necessary to allow Mark to be “brought into the tent.” CBS/Paramount is now also trying to reach an agreement on a similar cash payment to the President.

A payment to Trump’s personal account to be “brought into the tent” isn’t the same as a cash payment for a pardon. But in the world of Trump they are probably best seen as slightly different versions of the same process. After all, coming into the tent is fundamentally about regulatory protection which in many of the most important ways is also centered in the Justice Department. It’s not too much to say that if you’ve got the money or the influencer bullhorn and you’re not asking for a Trump payment plan, you basically want to stay in jail.

Next, a serious suggestion - how about a science fund to lure all the suddenly-unfunded research programs?

Oh, just tariff the Douche-Panzer: