Today's News: Demonizing "the Left", making a budget funny, and failing upward

Demonizing "the Left"

I am almost afraid to post this picture tonight, considering how "The Left" is going to be demonized now for the awful Charlie Kirk shooting. 

Almost. 

But it is going to be dreadful.

Charlie Kirk will be MAGA's Horst Wessel

— Cathie from Canada 🇨🇦 ✍🏻😷🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 (@CathieCanada) September 11, 2025

The hubris of Charlie Kirk is that he spent a significant portion of his career justifying the cruelty of these shootings as if he was somehow immune from them or could merely place the blame on other groups of people he deemed undesirable or uniquely violent

This affects us all pic.twitter.com/vncZECZFOx

— gregor samsung 𖢥 (@slimjosa) September 10, 2025

Bullets don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat. Reality is over 400,000,000 guns and too much hate. Political violence is happening to both parties. We need leaders to step up. Truly sorry for Charlie Kirk and his family. He was wrong. It is not worth it.

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— Fred Guttenberg (@fredguttenberg.bsky.social) September 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM

Roundup of good writing: Lorne Warwick, Steve M, Christopher Armitage, Charlie Angus, Colin Horgan, and a Epstein-gate update

There doesn't seem to be a "big story" tonight so I'm going to go through my "save for later" file to highlight some of the good opinion pieces I have seen lately, mainly about Trump's dictatorship.

The common theme is: "OMG, what the hell is wrong with us?"

Lorne Warwick / Politics and its Discontents

No More 'Good Guys'?
When we look at the world today, it is undeniable that the most powerful countries are led by evil men. Russia's Putin, Amerika's Trump and China's Xi JinPing readily come to mind, as does Benjamin Netanyahu leading the nuclear State of Israel. And I think it would be to declare the obvious that none of the aforementioned care about their people, except as means to certain ends.
While we expect authoritarian rulers to see their people as fodder, I have never really had a sense until now of a specific war being waged against the people of the U.S. by its government. To be sure, almost all American governments have cruelly abused their poor, their disenfranchised, their minorities. And of course that demographic has always provided the bulk of fodder in all of Amerika's post-WW11 military misadventures. However, one could almost have believed the abuse was rooted in the American disdain for the downtrodden (see the American Dream) as well as its historically racist nature.
However, to me it now appears that a wider battle is being waged by Amerika against its general population, a kind of social eugenics, in which a wide swath of a credulous population will be gradually eliminated, While it might seem a conspiratorial thought, there is evidence to support my odd thesis.
Consider, for example the changes at the National Institutes of Health, led by the unhinged Bobby Kennedy Jr. Unqualified ethically, morally, intellectually or temperamentally, Kennedy, with the tacit permission of Trump, is doing his damndest to undermine the health of Americans....
...Who benefits if there is a substantial die-off of Americans? It is the real movers and shakers of society, the powerful elite, who neither respect nor need "the masses" and really don't care for the 'burden' of taxation to take care of them. With large numbers ultimately eliminated, that burden will be much reduced.
You might quite legitimately ask, "But what if substantial numbers of MAGATS perish? Who will vote for Trump or his successor if not the credulous? To that I can only say such a question is predicated on the belief that meaningful elections will continue in Amerika. That is an assumption I am not, at this point, prepared to grant you.
Who benefits if there is a substantial die-off of Americans? It is the real movers and shakers of society, the powerful elite, who neither respect nor need "the masses" and really don't care for the 'burden' of taxation to take care of them. With large numbers ultimately eliminated, that burden will be much reduced. You might quite legitimately ask, "But what if substantial numbers of MAGATS perish? Who will vote for Trump or his successor if not the credulous? To that I can only say such a question is predicated on the belief that meaningful elections will continue in Amerika. That is an assumption I am not, at this point, prepared to grant you. 

Today's News: The Epstein documents will trigger America's gag reflex

Does anyone remember now that it was the release of Nixon's phone tapes transcripts on August 5, 1973 - with all the "(expletive deleted)" stuff - that finally turned America against Nixon? 

He resigned three days later. 

Well, tonight America is reading some Epstein documents released by the House Oversight Committee including the "birthday book" that celebrated Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003.

And they are just as appalling as the Nixon tapes were.
Trump's contribution to Epstein's birthday book fits right in with the smarmy, sleazy, leering frat boy tone of the cards in the book, page after page of pictures and drawings of pretty young girls with ugly old men.

Trump can’t hide from this and the Epstein files.

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— migas7.bsky.social (@migas7.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 12:06 AM

Page after page of photos and drawing of young girls, constant references to breasts and boobies and bums and massages and parties and sex:

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Being a child sex predator was such a part of Epstein’s life and personality that everyone he had even a casual friendship with felt compelled to mention it in a birthday card. Like writing “heh steal any burgers lately?” in a birthday card to The Hamburglar.

— Kristen (@kris10.bsky.social) September 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM

Sunday Funday: Another crazy week for America, some #ETTD and TrumpWatch. Plus some other funny stuff that is NOT about politics, and of course, Animal Crackers

It's been another crazy week 

Day by day the United States is swirling down the drain. The US economy is going to collapse under the global retaliation for Trump's ridiculous tariffs plus the ICE Gestapo's enormous waste of people and resources. 

They're spending millions militarizing their cities and they're likely going to go to war with Venezuela. Canada is trying to avoid getting sucked down into the maelstrom with them. 

And how is that going, you ask?

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Today's News: Carney goes yard; hits it out of the park

After that needless stumble with the awful Kevin Roberts invite -- described as a "Christo-fascist" by Dale Smith in a blistering column Thursday -- Prime Minister Carney hit it out of the park today as he announced his wide-ranging "Building Canada Strong" agenda. 

On trade:

PM Carney is rolling out a sweeping Buy Canadian policy, arguing the U.S. can no longer be trusted as a reliable trading partner. “What’s going on is not a transition, it’s a rupture,” said Carney.

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— Politico (@politico.com) September 5, 2025 at 10:16 AM

On helping Canadians affected by tariffs:

   

Today's News: This time it's the Liberals saying Never Mind; plus doomscrolling the US crazy

So Heritage Foundation fascist Kevin Roberts didn't come to Toronto after all 

Maybe Carney cancelled him after his Cabinet ministers told him what a poor decision it was. 

Or maybe Trump told Roberts to pull back because who knows why. Or whatever.
But looking at the larger picture, this whole misjudgement has done some damage to Carney's leadership.
I thought one comment my son made today was perceptive: 

He reminded me that one crucial error Obama made when he got elected president in 2008 was to think his interpersonal skills and magnetic personality would let him work productively with Republicans even though the Repubs wouldn't work with any other Democrat.
It took years before Obama really understood how naive this was, that Repubs saw him as just another Dem politician.
Likewise, Carney also has to avoid thinking of himself as someone to whom the usual rules of politics do not apply.
Carney may not realize quite yet the extent to which Canadians, particularly progressive Canadians, have given him the benefit of the doubt over the last six months - because he was so much better than Poilievre and Singh was hopeless anyway, and we were all terribly afraid of Trump. We dearly wanted Carney to be that Big Daddy that Canada needed to save us. Carney is smart and brilliantly educated and had a stellar career; he has a great sense of humour and he was born in the west and he played hockey; he works harder than everyone else, and he knows and is respected by people around the world.
But this doesn't mean that Canadian conservatives (small-c or large-C) will respect him or work with him. It doesn't mean the progressive left will give him a pass when he takes a corporatist approach to development. It doesn't mean that Indigenous leaders will allow their hard-won authority to be threatened. And it doesn't mean that Carney will never miscalculate or make a mistake.

Carney cancels invite for Project 2025 mastermind, wants fascist takeover of Canada to be more of a surprise

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— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) September 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM

Today's News: Canada is wondering why Carney's Cabinet needs a primer on Trump's authoritarian Project 2025

And if they do, here's one:
 

Tonight Canada social media was absolutely furious to find out that Carney has invited US

 Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts --- AKA a fascist Trump lackey -- to speak to our Cabinet at its Thursday meeting about Trump's authoritarian Project 2025 playbook.
Now, Carney explained that Cabinet needs to know about Project 2025 in order to understand what Trump is doing. 

But anyone who wants to understand Project 2025 can just read it. 

And here's a website that is tracking its implementation across the US government.
Besides, does any Cabinet minister think Roberts will speak truthfully about whether Project 2025 is necessary or successful?
All in all, it is a disappointing decision by Carney, to host this man and give credibility to his vile agenda by discussing it at such a high-profile meeting.

Today's News: Alberta says Never Mind!

I guess Alberta premier Danielle Smith is the Emily Litella of Canadian politics.  

Cole Bennett provides an excellent summary of the whole mess with Alberta's school library book weeding list: 

Cole Bennett / Cole.notcole

SMITH’S BOOK BAN BACKFIRES AS UCP UNRAVELS
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party government have been forced to backtrack on their controversial order to remove “sexually explicit” books from school libraries after overwhelming public opposition, including criticism from Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood, whose The Handmaid’s Tale appeared on one of the removal lists.
The UCP’s education minister originally framed the directive as a way to keep pornographic material out of schools. But the actual order was far broader, prompting Edmonton Public Schools to list more than 200 titles as unacceptable in order to remain compliant. The list included Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, both internationally celebrated works studied in classrooms for decades. [To see the list, click here]
The government’s attempt to sell the policy as child protection quickly collapsed once it became clear that the scope of the ban extended far beyond what was publicly claimed. Critics say the move was less about protecting children and more about appeasing ideological lobby groups that had pressed the government to impose restrictions.
Pushback against the order snowballed over the weekend, with Atwood publicly criticizing the government twice on Twitter/X. Educators, parents, and community leaders also condemned the measure as censorship that undermines public education.
By Tuesday, the government announced the directive would be paused. While Smith has tried to cast blame on school boards for “mismanaging” the rollout, the reversal underscores the growing perception that her government is increasingly out of touch with the everyday concerns of Albertans.
....With teachers on the brink of striking and Albertans facing rising costs of living, many are asking why the province’s leadership is preoccupied with censorship and culture wars instead of solving the problems that matter most.

When we told you you to ban all the books, we like totally didn't mean to _ban all the books_, sheesh #AbPoli #AbLeg

— Victor L. McConought (@vic4alberta.bsky.social) September 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM

Today's News: Our peaceful time is over

The peace and quiet was great while it lasted.

Canada has been enjoying a mostly-Poilievre-free summer. 

But its over now. 

Already we're getting inarticulate and inaccurate Poilievre blasts about how awful Canada is. 

And already our media are trying to turn back the mis-information tide with articles like this one: 

Campbell Clark / The Globe and Mail (gift link)

There is no flood of newcomers anymore, Mr. Poilievre
...Now net immigration is pretty much zero.
...The statement issued by Mr. Poilievre last week blasted the government for supposedly blowing through the 2025 targets for new arrivals of temporary workers only halfway through the year. It was repeated by the National Citizens Coalition lobby group and picked up by some pundits who chimed in. But they misinterpreted the statistics
Mr. Poilievre’s statement said that 105,000 new temporary foreign workers had come in the first half of 2025, when the government had set a target of 82,000 new arrivals. But the 105,000 figure included work-permit renewals. Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada reported there were 33,722 new arrivals.
Similarly, the Conservatives charged that the 302,000 work permits issued from January to June under the separate International Mobility Program exceed the target of 285,000. But again, many of the permits were renewals, and in this case, postgraduate work permits. According to IRCC, there were 85,512 new arrivals to Canada under IMP.
Postgraduate work permits and extensions are important if you want to understand what’s going on in Canada’s immigration system right now.
The big surge of temporary residents earlier in the decade came when Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals failed to realize colleges were recruiting vast numbers of international students. Many came with a guarantee that when they graduated they would get a three-year work permit. So international students who arrived in 2023 might be eligible for work permits through 2028 or 2030.
Now Ottawa has embarked on a process of reducing the numbers of temporary residents. One part is reducing new arrivals. The IRCC reports there were 214,000 fewer new arrivals of temporary workers and international students in the first half of 2025 than in the same period the year before.
But another part is an effort to turn temporary residents into permanent residents. Many of the 395,000 people to get permanent resident status in 2025 were already here.
In total, the immigration plan calls for slightly more people to leave in 2025 than arrive. Already, population growth in the first quarter of 2025, according to Statistics Canada, was 0.0 per cent.
The Liberals certainly deserve mountains of blame for the failures of 2021 to 2024, but Mr. Poilievre has no business pretending the number of immigrants is still going up.
... there is no flood of newcomers. Rapid population growth has stopped. There are other things to fix.

I find all of these numbers to be mind-numbing detail, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to deal with the Poilievre Three-Word Slogan approach to politics. Basically, all of these articles should just start with "Poilievre. Is. Wrong. Again." 

Sunday Funday: Lots of TrumpWatch, plus Newsom's Canada plane, other funny stuff and Animal Crackers

Time for my Sunday column and I've been looking forward to sharing all the TrumpWatch posts this week. 

"TrumpWatch" is what I call posts about the world's most anticipated event, and this week we reached a fever pitch.

Usually Trump never shuts up but he just about disappeared from Wednesday to Saturday - very unusual for him - and even the Saturday sighting was at a distance, without media chit-chat. 

The internet finally saw some Trump posts on Truth Social on Saturday, but they didn't sound Trumpy - no spelling errors, for one thing. 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, fingers crossed!

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The most surprising thing about his congestive heart failure is the presence of an actual heart.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) August 25, 2025

i don't think it's happening yet, but no one in the press corpse having seen trump for two days and him not even playing golf this weekend is... a little exciting

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM

Notes from the American Resistance: Hanging on by their fingernails

I realized today how prescient our Canadian leaders have been. 

Months ago, both Trudeau and Carney told us that Trump has turned the United States into an unworthy and untrustworthy ally. 

Now the rest of the world has realized how right they were. 

Trudeau in February: "You can't take our country and you can't take our game." 

Trudeau in March: “What Trump wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." 

Carney in March: "Canada's old relationship with the United States is over. The US is no longer a reliable partner." 

Carney in May: "Canada won't be for sale. Ever."

Now, everyone sees what is happening.
And the whole world is backpedalling away from the United States as fast as they can.

The American constitution and rule of law: hanging on by their fingernails.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Today's News: The tariff wars are getting real and its going to be a shitstorm

As a non-economist, I have found the constant on-again off-again tariff battles of the last seven months to be very confusing. 

But it seems like Trump's so-called tariff strategy has finally reached deadline velocity, and his tariffs are finally all happening. Mostly.
The Toronto Star is tracking what’s active, what’s coming and how Canada has responded

It’s a complex, tangled picture. Here’s a look at what tariffs are currently in place and why, what more is being threatened, and how Canada has reacted to the trade war so far:
Active U.S. tariffs against Canada
• 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., because of an alleged threat to American security. This tariff originally came in at 25 per cent on March 12, but Trump increased it to 50 per cent on June 4.
• 25 per cent tariff on auto parts imported into the U.S. kicked in May 3, except for those that comply with the 2018 Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the current North American free trade deal. Trump also imposed a 25 per cent tariff on all cars and light trucks not made in the U.S., including from Canada, which took effect April 3. Trump justified the tariffs again for national security reasons.
• 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods that don’t comply with CUSMA, and a 10 per cent tariff on energy products from Canada, which was first announced in February and came into effect March 4 at a lower 25 per cent rate on goods. On Aug. 1 the U.S. hiked goods tariffs to 35 per cent. Trump has tied these so-called border tariffs to claims of a national emergency over fentanyl and migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally from Canada. On March 7, Canada won an exemption to these tariffs for all goods that comply with CUSMA. RBC Economics estimated in an April report that, because of this exemption, about 86 per cent of Canadian exports could still cross the border without tariffs.
• 20.56 per cent tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, over alleged “dumping” of cheaper products into the U.S. market. The Trump administration increased the tariff in late July from 7.66 per cent.
• 50 per cent tariff on some copper imports as of Aug. 1.
Retaliatory Canadian tariffs
• 25 per cent tariffs on $29.8 billion worth of steel and aluminum products from the U.S., implemented March 13 in response to Trump’s tariffs on the same goods from Canada.
• 25 per cent tariff on fully assembled vehicles that don’t comply with CUSMA since they are made with less than 75 per cent North American content. This counter-tariff took effect April 9. Components of compliant cars that aren’t made in Canada or Mexico are subject to the 25 per cent tariff. The tariff targets about $35 billion worth of American vehicles brought into Canada.
Other Canadian actions
• Canada abandoned its long-planned Digital Services Tax on June 29, after Trump said he would walk away from trade talks over the tax that would hit American online giants.
• Canada removed its 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on American goods that comply with CUSMA, effective Sept. 1. The measure was initially implemented March 4 in response to Trump’s border tariffs.
Threatened U.S. tariffs
• Trump has threatened a “very high” tariff on pharmaceutical imports, possibly as high as 200 per cent.
• The U.S. is considering tariffs on semiconductors and critical minerals as part of national security reviews.

It still makes my brain hurt to try to understand this.

Today's News: Poilievre is just an embarrassment, isn't he

What a goof!

First the Crowfoot boy Poilievre is complaining about how Carney makes "big promises without any action" and he picks the Port of Churchill development as an example:

Asked about developing the Port of Churchill  vt.tiktok.com/ZSAa7WK92/

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— Jeff's Fact Checker (@thunderbayed.bsky.social) August 27, 2025 at 8:26 AM

Today's news: Standing athwart dictatorship, yelling "stop!"

Today's topic is finding leaders who will try to stop dictatorship - I think we are doing it now.

Carney, for one -- he is rocketing around Europe now, lining up allies for Canada and for Ukraine, and he appears to be very effective. 

Shankar Narayan / The Concis

Canada's Checkmate: Why Putin's Betting on Western Collapse Just Failed
Canada finally has a leader. So does the world.
... Carney was clear and precise. He told Ukraine exactly what they would get, and when. No need to read between the lines.
Carney and President Zelensky signed a deal on drone co-production worth $680 million, set to begin next month. Canada also joined the PURL scheme — a funding pool where allies contribute money, Ukraine prepares a weapons list, and the U.S. supplies them.
More importantly, Carney declared that Canada will not rule out sending troops to Ukraine after a peace agreement. He didn't hedge. His words carried the weight of intent:

"In Canada's judgement, it is not realistic that the only security guarantee could be the strength of the Ukrainian armed forces in the medium term. So that needs to be buttressed. It needs to be addressed."

This wasn't vague diplomatic language. It was a signal to every NATO strategist in Europe: Canada is ready to move....
By declaring Canada's readiness to join a peacekeeping force, Carney cut through the diplomatic fog. He wasn't making a suggestion—he was staking out a position. NATO strategists in Brussels now have a concrete framework to build around. Berlin, which has been cautious about postwar commitments, suddenly has political cover to move forward. Paris, which has talked about troops but wavered on details, now has an ally willing to share the burden. London, wobbling under domestic pressure, has been handed a lifeline.
The signal to Moscow was equally clear: there will be no victory through waiting. Putin's calculation has always been that Western resolve would crack, that domestic politics would eventually force Ukraine's allies to abandon ship. Carney's declaration shattered that hope. A peacekeeping force backed by Canada, Britain, and France—with German support—isn't a negotiating position Putin can simply outlast. It's a permanent commitment he'll have to live with.
This is how leadership works in wartime: not through grand speeches, but through irreversible commitments that force everyone else to choose sides.
...If Putin once dreamed that Western support would dry up, those dreams are over....

Carney's other stops are also showing how Carney intends to connect Canada with Europe:

RIGA – Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will keep troops in Latvia through to 2029, as part of a mission to deter Russian aggression in Europe.

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— Winnipeg Free Press (@winnipegfreepress.com) August 26, 2025 at 11:04 AM

Today's News: Poilievre's humble pie, Carney's strategic approach to tariffs, plus some apt comments about America

Now that Pierre Poilievre has his job back, for the next several months at least, he is desperately trying return to his usual schtick of slamming the Liberals about everything all the time. 

I think Canadians are sick of it.

Poilievre’s problem isn’t just that Carney is well-liked - it’s that Poilievre isn’t. Simply waiting for Carney to shed popularity is more like a hope than a strategy for the Conservatives. bruce728.substack.com/p/let-pierre...

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— Diane (@dianeellison.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:55 AM