- President Biden is expressing willingness to use his veto powers in the event that Congress passes H.R. 4468, a bill that would stop the EPA from limiting tailpipe emissions from vehicles.
- At a rally in New Hampshire in October, Trump told his supporters that they don't need to worry about voting, they just have to focus on "watching" (read: intimidating) other voters. Assuming Trump hasn't simply gone so far off the deep end that he simply no longer knows what he's doing (which is possible), one wonders what he hopes to accomplish by something like this; perhaps he's trying to set himself up to lose a narrow and controversial election, banking on the next coup attempt being more successful than Jan 6 was. Certainly he seems to have shed all pretense of believing in democracy; he happily shared a post from Republican representative Cory Mills on his "Truth Social" (a supporter of his) saying that a Trump dictatorship is "inevitable" and that supporters should "stop pretending" that there's a democratic route to power. And Steve Bannon is openly calling for purges in Trump's next term. One columnist thinks that the real strategy here is to demoralize opponents by making them think Trump is unstoppable, a popular tactic of authoritarian leaders in the past.
- The Indian government attempted to recruit an assassin to rub someone out on American soil, not realizing that the guy they were trying to recruit was employed by the DEA. Oops. Of course, broader political considerations (i.e. the perceived need to keep India on side against China) will probably limit the consequences of this.
- The City of Winnipeg is planning extra security for the ceremonial menorah lighting at City Hall this year, due to fears about the current political climate. In Moncton, that city's administration was all set to cancel a similar ceremony entirely, but the decision was reversed following a public outcry.
- The Kinew government has announced that the provincial deficit will be higher than anticipated, owing to a softening economy and worse than expected performance by Manitoba Hydro. This needn't be a catastrophic outcome, however they should beware how the opposition will spin this.
- The new president and CEO of Hydro, Ben Graham, previously served as the head of MPI, and according to leaked emails pushed back (unsuccessfully) against the previous government when they decided that insurance brokers should get commissions even for online insurance sales made directly through the corporation without the brokers' involvement. This speaks well for his own integrity, rather less well for that of then-premier (and longtime insurance broker) Brian Pallister.
- A recent global poll found that 4 out of 5 people say they're willing to do "whatever it takes" to limit the effects of climate change. The article points out (not without some cause) that there's a disconnect between this and what politicians are willing to do, but shies away from pointing out another awkward fact, namely that when people are angry with politicians, the "throw the bums out" sentiment all too often rules even when the likely successor is going to be worse (e.g. the apparent willingness of Canadians to replace the undeniably mediocre Trudeau with the much worse Poilievre).
- An Edmonton cop who beat the living crap out of a homeless man and then dumped him bleeding along the riverbank has been demoted. I guess that's better than nothing...
- Trevor Jacob, the YouTuber who deliberately crashed a plane for hits on his channel, has been sentenced to six months in prison for concealing evidence related to the crash.
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