Today's News: Orange Shirt Day; embarrassments from Alberta Next, Trump and Hegseth; the return of "51st State"; and icing' out ICE

Luke Parnell, A Brief History of Northwest Coast Design, 2007 

Sept 30 is our Orange Shirt Day, officially the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

Here is PM Carney's speech in Ottawa: "Truth is the foundation of justice..."  

Carney told the crowd about the Parnell artwork that he had posted at the Cabinet room entrance, so it is what the members see every cabinet meeting. He promised "We will not fail you."

The federal government will "match remembrance with responsibility," Prime Minister Mark Carney promised on Tuesday, as he addressed the crowd assembled on Parliament Hill to mark the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/national/car...

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— timethiefmedia Canadian forever🍁🦫conservative never (@timethiefmedia.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM

I thought this is a good example of Carney's commitment:

Many appointees come from a business background but one council member in particular — Treaty 8 First Nations Grand Chief Trevor Mercredi — was a vocal critic of Carney’s major projects legislation.

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— Canada's National Observer (@nationalobserver.com) September 25, 2025 at 10:13 AM

Today's News: Keeping those Elbows Up!

So during the spring we all went a little crazy for "Elbows Up" and Canadian patriotism and all that, and then Carney was elected and for a while there is really seemed like everyone was onside with rapid economic development, accepting Carney's challenge to pull together and carve a new path for the country.
But we were told that it wasn't going to be easy, and turns out that is true, its all challenging and difficult and expensive and unknown.
Easier, really, to just retreat and regroup, just go back to our old ways - inter-provincial fisticuffs and endless development consultations and hold-ups, and everybody hating Ottawa but wanting more money from them. 

So I'm afraid our old patterns and annoyances are reasserting themselves.
Carney's first budget is going to be a test case, not just for him but also for us -- can we actually try to envisage a larger picture, to see what future the Carney Liberals are trying to achieve, and to decide from that whether we can get behind it or not? Or are we going to just nitpick the Liberals to death, along with their budget -- "what about MY program? How dare you give more money to THOSE GUYS instead of to ME? And if THEY got some then I have to get some too because otherwise its UNFAIR!" And "How can we trust them when somebody somewhere might take advantage of us?"

Sunday Funday: Cheering for the Jays, some odd stuff and funny stuff, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

Cheering for the Jays!

Sunday is the Jay's next test - if they win, then they get first in the AL East. If they lose, and if the Yankees win, then the Jays would have to win the wildcard to advance. 

Not a bad day for chaos watchers tomorrow. Yankees and Blue Jays tied for AL East. Guardians and Tigers tied for AL Central. One postseason spot open for either Mets or Reds.

— kat, ghost of helenruthsghost (@chaoskat.bsky.social) September 27, 2025 at 8:26 PM

Keep your fingers crossed!

Here is a beautiful logo - I wish it was official:  

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Today's News: Return of the Disruptor-in-Chief

Remember during the spring and summer, when everyone was talking about how federal and provincial politicians were all getting along so well.

Too good to last. Now that Poilievre is back, the debate in the House is deteriorating again.
He just has nothing to say, but he says it at the top of his lungs.

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Today's News: Some scary stuff about Russia & NATO & the US military command & Alligator Auschwitz & Canadian mining. With a laugh at Hoekstra

I know there's weeks to go until Halloween, but I saw some "scary stuff" in the news: 

First, Russia seems to want to provoke NATO now:

⚡️Europe, NATO ready to shoot down Russian jets, Bloomberg reports. European diplomats told Russian officials this week that NATO is prepared to respond in force to further airspace violations, including by shooting down Russian planes, Bloomberg reported Sept. 25.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) September 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM

President Trump told reporters that he was fine with NATO aircraft shooting down Russian aircraft should they enter NATO territory again. Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister responded to that with “Roger that.”

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— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 6:03 PM

Today's News: Carney says "there's a crack in everything, but that's where the light gets in"

(Lawren Harris Mountain Sketch)

Every time I hear Prime Minister Carney talk, I come away feeling smarter. Here is he talking to reporters at the UN: 

 

And after seeing Trump's ridiculous UN appearance, it is always reassuring that Canada has a grown-up in charge:

If Carney went to the United Nations to show the world that Canada and the U.S. have become sharply different countries, he can probably declare it mission accomplished. There's plenty of vivid examples of the two countries on diverging paths. #Opinion

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— Toronto Star (@thestar.com) September 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM

Today's News: Jimmy Kimmel socks it to Trump

In case your ABC station didn't carry it, here is Jimmy Kimmel's monologue after his show returned on Tuesday night:

   

Trump pushed Kimmel into going full resistance lib for the biggest audience he will ever have. Another masterclass from the president.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 23, 2025 at 9:54 PM

Tonight, the American people - in defense of free speech - returned a political satirist to the airwaves after a burgeoning fascist regime tried to silence him. It’s an historic night. I won’t forget it.

— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) September 23, 2025 at 11:15 PM

Nothing like watching free speech give censorship the middle finger.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 11:31 PM

Today's News: Winners and losers

Today, just a random selection of winners and losers:

Winner: Mark Carney

Cole Bennet reports: 

Yesterday, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia formally recognized the State of Palestine. Today six European countries, France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco joined in endorsing Palestinian statehood at the UN.
Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the United Nations today, delivering a speech identical to his news release the day prior. But inside the UN chamber, the reaction was far from routine: thunderous applause erupted when Carney declared that “Canada officially recognizes the State of Palestine.”

Sunday Funday: a Disney parody, some Funny Laugh-til-you-cry posts and some Funny Ha-ha posts, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

First, an hilarious clip from Netherlands talk show host Lubach, about Disney's new stories:

   

You know, sometimes I'm not sure whether something I want to post for my Sunday Funday is actually funny or not -- some are closer to "funny laugh-til-you-cry" than "funny ha-ha".  

Anyway, here are some posts from both categories this week.

Funny Laugh-til-you-cry
Tonight this happened:

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Today's News: the latest in "Elbows Up!" plus Ryan Broderick on revenge

This guy Hoosktra! This fucking guy!

MAGA ambassador Pete Hoosktra is telling Canada that he doesn't like the term "elbows up." He says it's anti-American. Sorry, Pete, your president might be able to fire Jimmy Kimmel, but you don't get to tell Canadians how to talk. Elbows up, Mother-stucker.

- Charlie Angus / The Resistance

Read on Substack

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Talk Show Hosts v. Trump: clips from Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert plus Brian Tyler Cohen

As Stephen Colbert observed tonight, rising autocracy is now targeting America's most vulnerable - talk show hosts. 

So on their shows tonight, all of the remaining talk shows were talking about Disney's gutless Jimmy Kimmel cancellation and they didn't hold back.

First, let's just remember what Kimmel actually said:

Not a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel, but if you think his show should be canceled for this, you’re a hack and a total fraud who should never pretend to care about free speech

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— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 6:17 PM

Personally, I think what made Trump explode wasn't what Kimmel said about Tyler Robinson, but what Kimmel said about Trump's own callousness "This is how a four year old mourns a goldfish". 

Here are the talk show clips from tonight: 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight:
Part one

Part two

Today's News: Some words of wisdom about Carney, plus some laments for the United States

I'm seeing so many good posts and comments over the last few days.  So tonight I thought I would just share a random selection. 

First up, I'm hearing about how Carney is doing now that Parliament is back.

Evan Scrimshaw / Scrimshaw Unscripted

Biggest Threats For Carney As Parliament Returns
On Freeland And Other Things
...The government’s got a very difficult balancing act to pull off this session - a combination of handling the American relationship and building a more resilient, and Trump-proof, economy, walking back the Trudeau era mistakes on criminal justice and immigration, rebuilding relationships and trust with the Jewish community and fighting against antisemitism while respecting free speech, and doing all in the backdrop of a UN General Assembly that is going to be almost entirely about Gaza and recognition of a Palestinian state. That would be a nearly-impossible task for a government running at full efficiency, let alone one full of rookies who still don’t know their briefs yet.
If the government is going to get its head out of its ass, it’s going to need to use this Freeland Cabinet resignation as an opportunity to reset not one face, but their entire attitude. The Take It On Faith approach that has marked this government so far has to end, and it has to be replaced by a government that views Canadians as adults who can understand a concept that’s more than 4 words long. At a time when the Conservatives are continuing to lean into Verb The Noun and other 3 word slogans - I guess this week’s is “Just Another Liberal” - Carney needs to respond by elevating the debate. You make the Conservatives’ sloganeering look like shit not by fighting fire with fire, but by showing them to be shallow morons who don’t understand the issues they talk about.
...Carney is objectively one of the smartest people to serve as PM of this country and frankly of most countries. He is also a political neophyte who, while running a good campaign in 2025, needs to remember that how you do things can matter as much, if not more, than outcomes. In the business world, skipping to the end of a process is a good thing. When you’re immediately sending a strike action to arbitration, you’re fucking the dog royally. There’s a political instinct that technocrats often miss, and that will be crucial.
If Carney wants to be a successful PM he will need to listen to the kinds of voices that Freeland and her old boss marginalized - progressive, but by no means sycophantically Liberal, voices who want the government to go well but also want good governance. Whether Carney can bring himself to listen to that dissent will decide the course of the next half decade. Let’s fucking hope he does.

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Should we call this one "The War Between The Hates"?

 Dali - Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)

Some comments tonight on the possibility of a new American Civil War -- which, if it happens, I think we should call "The War Between The Hates" because the MAGA Right seems bound and determined to hate the Progressive Left with the fire of a thousand suns -- damn those "radical leftists" who want to stop school shootings and give everyone health care!

The ppl who keep calling for Civil War & saying we need more guns & pushing the racist Great Replacement Theory & who mocked the murder of George Floyd & the attack on Paul Pelosi & who are totally ok w/beating Capitol cops for a lie... ...want you to tone down your rhetoric.

- John Fugelsang

Read on Substack

THIS JUST IN: The people who are rounding up migrants and throwing them into concentration camps are deeply insulted by the liberals who call them Nazis

- Dreamweasel

Read on Substack

Today's News: Parliament opens without fireworks, plus a regional roundup of interesting news, and more about Charlie Kirk

First up, Parliament resumed sitting, and journalist Dale Smith thought Monday's Carney-Poilievre Show was a little less vile than the Trudeau-Poilievre Show had been. But give it time!

...Overall, it was not an acrimonious day, but one where the civility and friendliness was perhaps slightly more cutting than it appeared on the surface. Carney was gracious enough in welcoming Poilievre back to the Chamber, and Poilievre repaid it by saying that Carney is just like Trudeau. It was a day where the message tracks were laid out well in advance, and each side knew it. The Conservatives have been telegraphing for months that they will be trying to pin food price inflation on Carney, because he (stupidly) said that his effectiveness would be measured by the cost of groceries, and so they hammered that question over and over and over today, so that they could get clips of it. And how did the Liberals respond? Not by talking about the causes of food price inflation (mostly climate change), but rather by saying that housing was the biggest cost item in a household and they were bringing down those costs (and patting themselves on the back for it. They could have driven the point home with the Conservatives that climate change is the primary driver of those prices, and that’s why there is an economic cost to climate change, but they didn’t do that (maybe because that would force them to actually come up with a real climate plan after Carney has been dismantling what is in place). Suffice to say, it was weak as a response, and they just walked into the plainly obvious trap that was laid for them, so good luck with that.
Otherwise, it was just a bunch more slogans and tag-lines (“He’s just another Liberal prime minister,” “broken promises,” etc) because everything was about getting clips. As usual. Only one Liberal minister actually bothered to call bullshit on the question he was asked, which was Sean Fraser on the bail laws....

Conservatives demand that the government should have brought down food prices. How, exactly? Price controls? #ZapYoureFrozen #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM

Lantsman railing that Canadians are getting “fleeced” at the grocery store as if the problem wasn’t climate change affecting food-producing regions. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) September 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM

Sunday Funday: They're back! plus some Fear and loathing, Amazing stuff, Funny stuff, TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

They're back!

Looking forward to the resumption of Parliament on Monday, are we? 

Well, yes -- but NOT to the toxic rhetoric that ruined Trudeau's prime ministership last year. 

Now that Poilievre and the CPC are trending downward in the polls, I expect we will see an "extinction burst" of hateful and insulting speeches - Poilievre is a one-trick pony in this regard, he dials everything up to 11 because that's all he knows how to do. Maybe after that, sometime after Carney survives his budget vote, Poilievre may actually lower the volume.

Polling Canada Federal Model Update: 🔴 LPC: 187 (+18) 🔵 CPC: 125 (-19) ⚜️ BQ: 21 (-1) 🟠 NDP: 9 (+2) 🟢 GPC: 1 (-) (Seat Changes With 2025 Federal Election) - September 13, 2025 - Full model article here: open.substack.com/pub/canadian...

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— Polling Canada (@canadianpolling.bsky.social) September 13, 2025 at 8:46 AM

And Canada's right wing no longer gets to think that "everyone supports us" - not after the Christie Pitts debacle on Saturday:

Headline “anti-immigrant protest chased out of Christie pits” 👏🏼 BRAVO TORONTO! No space for hate here 🇨🇦 ❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA 🇨🇦🍁❤️

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) September 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM

Massive anti hate crowd in the pits. Small Canada first group is on the run.

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— Shawn Micallef (@shawnmicallef.bsky.social) September 13, 2025 at 11:06 AM