News roundup, 7 March 2025

- The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the main agency responsible for cyberintelligence in Canada, is warning that some foreign powers (China, Russia, and Iran are specifically named) will "very likely" use artificial intelligence to try to influence the outcome of the impending federal election. No doubt this is a real risk, but it's kind of odd that they omit the United States from that list; if anything Trump has a much more direct interest in the outcome of the election than Putin, Xi, or Khamenei do. I guess they still find it too weird to say that, but they'd better get over it and start planning for it.

- Trump is once again pausing some of the tariffs imposed on Canada for another month. In response, the feds are deferring their second round of retaliatory tariffs, though the previous ones will remain in place for the time being. Manitoba premier Wab Kinew is not falling for it; the ban on US liquor in provincial liquor stores will remain in place, and Manitoba Hydro will be reviewing export contracts. Ontario's Doug Ford isn't falling for it either; he's slapping a 25% export duty on electricity from the province. BC's David Eby is slapping a toll on American commercial vehicles using the Alaska Highway. And Ottawa and the provinces have agreed to the free flow of alcohol between provinces.

- The CEO of Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniels, is quite indignant at Canadian provinces pulling his product from the shelves. He calls the move "worse than a tariff".

- Cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are worrying to Canadian weather and flood forecasters, who say this will impact their ability to predict dangerous situations.

- Denmark's division of PostNord (the postal service that country shares with Sweden) is completely eliminating traditional letter mail as of the end of this year, and will focus solely on parcel delivery. Pelle Dragsted, an MP with the leftwing Red-Green Alliance party, blames the introduction of competition from private companies for the decline in letter mail. This is at least partly correct, since private companies aren't bound by existing collective agreements and can thus pay their workers less. Of course, some of it is just cultural - Denmark is one of the most digitized countries in the world according to the article. Hardly anybody uses cash, and people have smartphone apps that serve as health cards and drivers' licenses. Even if the postal service didn't have to compete with the private sector, they'd still be having to compete with the digital world.

- Beckham Severight, the teen convicted of dangerous driving in the death of cyclist Rob Jenner, has been sentenced to three years in prison; this includes time served.

- Butterfly populations across the US have declined by 22% overall between 2000 and 2020. Some species had declined by as much as 50%; most worrisome though is the fact that there is no obvious pattern to the declines, though habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides are all suspected of being factors.

- The US Department of Defense is purging its websites of thousands of images that could be associated with anything that might offend the regime. Among the photos considered for removal is an image of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Whether the image is being removed for reminding the public that the US was the first and only country to use nuclear weapons in warfare, or for containing the word "gay", is not known.

News roundup, 6 March 2025

- The Trump regime is deferring some of its tariffs, specifically those on Big Three automakers, for another month. Whether this is a result of Trump seeing the impact of tariffs on share prices, or if it's just another move meant to confuse us isn't clear.

- The regime has stayed its decision to fire nearly 6,000 employees of the US Department of Agriculture, following an order from Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to reinstate the employees pending an investigation of the legality of the layoffs. Of course, knowing who we're dealing with, this might just mean the regime has to dissolve the MSPB before they re-fire them.

- The US has stopped sharing intelligence on Russia with Ukraine. Whether they are sharing intelligence on Ukraine with Russia is another question, of course.

- A Canadian teenager who was backpacking through Europe was recruited by the FSB after volunteering with what he initially thought was a humanitarian organization in Donetsk; he then went to Poland so he could make contact with the Polish military. He was caught after getting drunk and spilling the beans to hotel staff in Warsaw, and has now received a 20 month sentence.

- Manitoba's interim opposition leader, Wayne Ewasko, has belatedly apologized on behalf of the entire Progressive Conservative party for their stance in opposition to searching the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of murdered indigenous women. The fact that human remains now appear to have been found probably meant that the party's previous position was even less tenable than it was when they were defeated in the election in which they campaigned on that.

- Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham has rejected a recommendation from city administrators that the upgrade of the North End Sewage Treatment Plant be financed by hiking water and sewer rates. The upgrade definitely is needed; Gillingham favours a more modest increase to keep the work moving along while trying to find another source of revenue.

- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports an increase in the number of complaints about inaccurate or misleading country of origin labels in grocery stores.

- Two people have been arrested after driving their cars into a picket line at the Region of Waterloo International Airport. Nobody was seriously hurt.

News roundup, 5 March 2025

- The Trump regime, as expected, has imposed its threatened 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico; counter-tariffs are being imposed on some US exports. Justin Trudeau has stated something that many of us would consider at least plausible, namely the fact that Trump's tariffs are intended to soften Canada up for annexation. What's noteworthy is that in his standing up to the Americans now, Trudeau is showing more political courage than he has at any previous time in his career, much as Jean Chrétien declined to join the US and UK in their ill-conceived (not to mention criminal) adventure in Iraq only after he had announced that he would be retiring prior to the next election. That's the Liberal Party of Canada way, I think. But hey, we'll take it.

- Several provinces are already taking retaliatory action. Manitoba's Wab Kinew is focusing on "non-tariff countermeasures", including the removal of American alcohol from shelves as well as giving businesses the option to defer their payroll and sales tax. Ontario's Doug Ford has cancelled an agreement with Elon Musk's Starlink and banning US companies from procurement contracts; Ford is also exploring export levies on electricity and critical minerals. BC's David Eby is selectively pulling "red state" liquors, so you'll be able to buy California and Washington wine, but not Jack Daniels or Jim Beam. Nova Scotia's Tim Houston is not only pulling American booze but doubling tolls for US-registered commercial vehicles passing through the Cobequid Pass. Even Danielle Smith, one of only two premiers certifiably worse than Doug Ford, is now saying she "fully supports" the federal government's response and will be discussing her own government's response with her cabinet shortly.

- Tom Brodbeck is unimpressed with the level of resistance to Trump's policies in the US. Some say that this is actually a failure of the media to cover protests rather than an actual lack of protests; there are some photos of what look like big protests in this Reddit thread but I'm not sure how representative they are or even if they're being posted in accurate context.

- US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says that Trump is willing to meet Canada and Mexico "in the middle". Does that mean we'll have to settle for 12.5% tariffs? Or does it mean that Trump is getting spooked by crashing stock markets? Stay tuned I guess.

- Despite how Trump treated him the other day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not abandoning hope that Trump will come to his senses. Then again, the sad truth of the matter is that Trump and Putin hold all the cards. I suspect Ukraine will be forced to make major territorial concessions, unless Europe can somehow make up for the fact that the US has suspended all military aid to the country.

- The UK government is considering several possible alternatives to prison, including banning offenders from pubs and sporting events. I guess for many of the typical offenders such a punishment might be so devastating that it might make them think twice about reoffending?

News roundup, 4 March 2025

- The 25% tariffs on nearly all imports from Canada and Mexico ware going ahead. Canada, along with China who are being hit with 20% tariffs, are imposing a number of retaliatory measures in response; stock markets on both sides of the border have taken a beating. Doug Ford is vowing to cut off electricity exports to the US if this goes ahead. Perhaps an even more effective measure would be a potash embargo - they can find other sources of electricity a lot more easily than potash. Some also think that American fast food franchises could be replaced by Canadian ones; whether patriotism is enough to overcome marketing in the case of things like McDonalds or KFC remains to be seen, though.

- Following remarks by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that an agreement to end the war is "very far away", Trump has announced that he is pausing all military aid to Ukraine until Zelenskyy is able to satisfy him that Kyiv is "committed to good faith negotiations for peace". This will apparently be assessed entirely on Trump's subjective perceptions, just like every other judgment he makes.

- Trump has issued an executive order expanding logging on federal lands, and wants to use emergency powers to get around the habitat protection provisions of the Endangered Species Act.

- There was apparently a conspicuous lack of political expression at the Oscars over the weekend. Given that in the past people like Michael Moore often weren't shy about what they said while accepting their awards, it's kind of strange, if this report is accurate. And unsettling - it's a sign of how scared they are.

- WWE co-founder Linda McMahon has been appointed Secretary of Education by the Trump administration. They don't leave a whole lot left for the satirists to do, do they?

News roundup, 3 March 2025

- Volodymyr Zelenskyy attempted to talk some sense into Donald Trump and JD Vance in a meeting at the White House on Friday. It did not go well; Trump and Vance spent the whole time berating Zelenskyy and trying to get him to grovel, and then kicked him out of the meeting without an agreement when he didn't. Europeans were appalled; Italy is calling for an immediate summit between the EU and the US, though it's doubtful that this will change anything. The Globe and Mail's Andrew Coyne has made no bones about the scale of the disaster we are seeing; he warns that we have always underestimated just how far Trump will go, and that we're going to have to learn fast. Now it's worth noting that Coyne is a liberal (his cousin Deborah Coyne ran for the Liberal Party leadership in 2013), and a centrist or centre-right liberal at that. So he naturally sees the potential collapse of the American hegemony as an unmitigated disaster. From a more leftwing perspective, it's a bit less clear. Some hope that this could lead to a more multipolar world, where instead of a single hegemon you have a number of major powers (perhaps the US, EU, China, Russia, and India) balanced against each other. That is indeed possible, and it could lead to a good outcome in the long run. On the other hand, another possibility (probably more likely) is the US and Russia both become sufficiently weak due to their own failings that China simply becomes the new hegemon - and while the Americans have been far from benevolent overlords in much of the world I don't share the confidence of some leftists that the Chinese would be better. A third possibility that no new stable equilibrium can form and the world degenerates into chaos and, eventually, nuclear war; a fourth is something not unlike the scenario created decades ago by science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle, in which the US and Russia (the USSR in the novels) form a political union called the "CoDominium" to maintain stability, which they do but at immense social cost. Given the friendly relations between Trump and Putin, and the fact that they seem to need each other, this last scenario actually starts to look sort of plausible.

- Jagmeet Singh is calling for Donald Trump to be "uninvited" from the G7 summit that Canada is hosting in Kananaskis, Alberta in June, and for the meeting to be refocused on building a "common front" against Trump's America. This seems to be a bridge too far for the federal government; energy minister Jonathan Wilkinson was particularly dismissive, calling on Singh to "find new advisers who could provide him with more thoughtful positions". See my comments above about liberals being unable to imagine an alternative to the existing world order; it seems that in Wilkinson's mind the only possible course of action is to continue doing CPR on the old order until rigor mortis sets in.

- A "guidance document" from the US Centers for Disease Control prohibits scientists employed by the agency from co-authoring papers with anyone employed by the World Health Organization. It further orders that employees who have co-authored papers with WHO employees that were submitted before the Trump regime took power must withdraw them, or remove their names from the papers prior to publication. Because "international" is a four-letter word to the MAGA crowd, after all.

- Tesla's sales in Europe have dropped by 45% since last year, even as EV sales overall increased by 37% over the same period. The company's stock has dropped by 23% since the start of the year.

- One of the many downsides of firing huge numbers of civil servants is that you end up with a lot of disgruntled people, who may become recruitment targets for foreign intelligence.

- Kash Patel, Trump's new FBI director, wants the agency to establish a formal relationship with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I guess he figures submission holds could be a useful technique for interrogating prisoners.

New roundup, 28 Feb 2025

- Doug Ford's "Progressive" Conservative Party has won its third straight majority, projected to win 80 seats (from 79 at time of dissolution) in the 124 seat legislature. The NDP holds onto Official Opposition status with 27 seats (previously 28). The Liberals are projected to regain official party status with 14 seats (from 9), but their leader Bonnie Crombie was defeated in her own constituency of Mississauga East–Cooksville. The Greens reelected their 2 MPPs, while only one of the six independent members in the old legislature, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, was reelected. Full results, including an interactive map, can be found here. One statement in the CBC article stands out as a bit weird though:

When Ford triggered the $189-million election he asked Ontario voters give him "the largest mandate in Ontario's history" to combat continued economic threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

On that front, it may prove a bittersweet night for Ford and his PCs, who are likely to return to Queen's Park with roughly the same number of seats after a campaign his rivals called a cynical and unnecessary power play.

I guess it's "bittersweet" in that he didn't win every seat in the legislature (which Frank McKenna actually did in New Brunswick in 1987) but for a government on its third time around, who have presided over the province becoming, by some measures, the worst province in the entire country to live in, the only way it could possibly be bittersweet for Doug and co. is because of the hangovers they'll have this morning for all the cheap American wine and bourbon they drank in celebration.

 - Donald Trump insists that the 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico will go ahead as planned, claiming that drugs are still "pouring" across the borders. Or maybe not. We'll know in a few days I guess. One note from the second article, though:

When asked if the Canadian government is doing enough to meet Trump's bar, Klobuchar, a Democrat, said she can't predict everything Trump is going to do, "but what I can say is that it's enough to meet my bar."

I can't say I find that particularly reassuring. Then again, Trump is so unpredictable that maybe he will let us off the hook - or defer it for another month. The thing about Trump and those influencing him is that, while they're nowhere near as smart as they think they are, they're smarter than they look - and far more cunning. I think Trump and Musk got where they are now largely by throwing their opponents off balance with chaos, and they'll keep doing so as long as it continues to work for them, probably longer.

- Manitoba has become the first province to sign onto the national pharmacare program. The province will receive $219 million over four years to cover diabetes medication, contraceptives, and certain other products. Contraceptives are already covered by the province but many more will benefit from this - assuming the Cons don't win the federal election and claw back the money.

- In Thailand, over 40 Uyghurs who had been detained for a decade after fleeing China have been deported back to Xi Jinping's welcoming arms. Of cousre it couldn't be Thailand caving to Chinese pressure, could it?

- Speaking of caving to a more powerful overlord, UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer seems to share Tony Blair's fear of doing anything, anything, to offend the United States, no matter who is in charge in that country. Starmer refused to answer questions about Trump's proposed annexation of Canada on a visit to Washington on Thursday, accusing the reporter of "trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist". And Romanian authorities have permitted Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to leave Romania as they await their trials for rape and sex trafficking. There had been reports of pressure from the Trump regime to allow this, though of course the Romanians are denying that this had anything to do with their decision.

News roundup, 27 Feb 2025

- A new poll from Nanos puts the Liberals at 34% and the Conservatives at 38%, with the NDP at 16%, and the Bloc at 8%, with the Greens and People's Party bringing up the rear at 4% and 2% respectively. The gap between the Cons and Liberals is not much more than the poll's margin of error.

- A major measles outbreak is spreading across Canada, with 95 cases reported in several provinces since the start of the year. Last year there were 147 cases total across the country; the disease was considered eradicated in Canada in 1998, but that was the year that Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent paper alleging a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism was published, and the rest is grim history.

- A Southwest Airlines flight attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport was forced to make a last-minute go-around in order to avoid colliding with a business jet that had strayed onto the runway. Fortunately, the crew's reflexes were faster than they would have been if they'd carried on like another Southwest pilot last month. Video of the incident, as well as some analysis, can be found here. And now there are reports that American Airlines had a similar close call on the same day at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

- Searchers at the Prairie Green Landfill in Rosser, Manitoba have found possible human remains. Families of serial killer Jeremy Skibiki's victims have been notified but the identity of the remains has not yet been confirmed.

- A parkade in Ottawa partially collapsed on Wednesday morning; fortunately nobody was hurt, in contrast to a similar accident at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake in 2012 which killed two people and injured over 20.

- David Shipley, the Washington Post's opinion editor, has resigned rather than preside over Jeff Bezos' new vision for the newspaper's opinion section. Bezos wants the paper to have a consistent rightwing libertarian stance and has declared that opposing views will no longer be published.

- Toronto's Pride festival is facing a substantial shortfall and is scaling back events for 2025 after several corporate sponsors pulled out. Evidently the sponsors decided, after reading the public mood, that they had more to lose than to gain by associating themselves with anything that might be connected to diversity. Organizers have not named the sponsors who pulled out, apparently hoping to avoid antagonizing them so as to win them back. If I were to guess, though, I'd assume that they're American, or at least do a lot of business in the US, and are more afraid of the MAGA crowd than they are of LGBT* folks.