News roundup, 10 Nov 2025

- A Montreal high school student was suspended after she posted "Fuck Israel" on her Instagram account in response to Israel's latest round of bombings in Gaza. The suspension was based on the English Montreal School Board's policy on "bullying"; the board's definition refers to the targeting of an individual or group of people, not a country, but board chair Mike Cohen says that the policy is applied based on the complainant's subjective feelings, saying that it applies "any time a student feels threatened by something another student does", and moreover can be considered "violence". Interestingly, there's a school of thought among some anti-racism activists that endorses this; ironically many of them would probably be opposed to these definitions being applied here.

- Some progress has been made towards ending the government shutdown in the US, now the longest in the country's history, after a deal was made in the Senate. The House of Representatives has yet to vote in favour of the deal, however. Democrats are divided; some (notably Elizabeth Warren) see it as a capitulation while others say this is a necessary evil in order to restore SNAP benefits. Meanwhile, states that have fully covered SNAP with the intention of reclaiming the money from the feds once the shutdown ends are being threatened by the regime. Presumably the Republicans don't want to have to explain to their supporters why these mostly blue states are able to keep the food stamps coming while red states can't.

- A conference held in Vancouver this past summer by an organization called Exiles of the Golden Age called for the formation of "Männerbunds", described as "disciplined groups of men" who could rebuild the world following a crisis. The conference drew the usual kinds of far right extremists; it also drew quite a few mixed martial arts coaches and gym owners, adding to fears that MMA could serve as a recruiting tool for the far right.

- Winnipeg police officer Elston Bostock has pleaded guilty to numerous charges, ranging from such mundane matters as voiding tickets in return for bribes to sharing a photo of a dead woman with other officers. Some defense lawyers are now poring over cases in which Bostock was involved, hoping to call his testimony into question.

- Winnipeg bus manufacturer New Flyer has reported a $140.9 million loss for the third quarter of this year. This is attributable to the company being charged tariffs on buses being shipped to the US as well as tariffs on raw materials being imported by its American facilities.

- The Qantas business class lounge at Melbourne airport was evacuated after a portable power bank spontaneously caught fire in the pocket of a passenger. The passenger was taken to hospital for burns; the lounge has since reopened.

- Police in Davenport, Iowa arrested a woman who was found hiding between walls of a business. The business owner had reported hearing noises coming from the ceiling or attic, and police eventually located her and took her into custody.

News roundup, 9 April 2025

- Many economists now think a global recession is almost inevitable unless the US changes course on tariffs. Of course, that probably won't sway the MAGA crowd; they'll just look for some outsiders to blame.

- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves are considering doing something that was unthinkable in the neoliberal era even for the Labour Party - renationalizing British Steel. Of course, steel is a key strategic material for running any modern society, and when knockoff effects from the Trump regime's tariffs threaten to possibly end domestic production of the stuff in a newly uncertain geopolitical climate, it concentrates the mind wonderfully. It would be interesting to see if they go ahead with this, and if so, whether other social democratic parties in places like the EU, Canada, and Australia might follow suit. For instance, it wasn't long ago (well, 54 years actually, but...) that the Manitoba NDP government under Ed Schreyer directed the Manitoba Development Corporation to take over a struggling bus manufacturer and keep it afloat, then rather controversially sold it (creating what is now known as New Flyer) after it became profitable. Soon they might want to consider doing that again, only maybe without that last part.

- A suspect has been charged in the case of the woman who was run down and severely injured while crossing Osborne Street last month. Curiously, they have only been charged under the Highway Traffic Act, despite the fact that leaving the scene of an accident is a Criminal Code offense as well. Her family expressed a suspicion at the time that it wasn't an accident at all; even if it was, though, it's interesting that they didn't use that obvious charge. The police did specify that the suspect is definitely not a cop; the fact that they went out of their way to say that while saying little more about the suspect's identity is rather telling.

- US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sees a lot of opportunities to bring manufacturing back to America without the problem of having to pay those pesky factory workers by replacing the latter with robots.

- Traffic at the border crossing between Emerson, Manitoba and Pembina, North Dakota has declined 17% compared to the same time last year. Once we get into times when there's more leisure travel the drop may well be considerably more, and people in the tourism industry in border states are getting worried. An odd footnote - an industry group, the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada, conducted a survey that's mentioned in the article. Of the possible answers to a question about reasons people don't want to travel to the US, 57% of respondents cited tariffs as a factor, 51% cited political leadership, and 34% mentioned the low Canadian dollar. The fact that nobody cited the orange monster's threat to take over our country as a reason to not want to visit seems only explicable if that wasn't listed as a possible reason; that seems like a strange thing to leave out of such a poll.

- Donald Trump has signed several more executive orders aimed at increasing coal production in the US, mostly reversing the policies of previous administrations but also one that allows the Justice Department to "investigate" states that are "discriminating" against coal for energy production. One interesting quote comes up here:

The president said coal miners want to mine coal, not work in high-tech jobs or other fields. 

"You could give 'em a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of job, and they'd be unhappy," Mr. Trump said, with the miners behind him. "They want to mine coal. That's what they love to do."

The thing is, there's actually an element of truth to that. There is a fairly large subset of the population that is so contrarian that they have made their backwardness and nastiness a huge part of their identity. These are the same kind of people who think that "environmentally friendly" is tantamount to "unmanly". And their response to society moving on is what Hunter S. Thompson called "an ethic of total retaliation". Unfortunately, most of those people can't be reasoned with; the best you can do is defeat them. Whether the latter is possible remains to be seen.

News roundup, 2 April 2025

 - A wide range of tariffs are set to be announced today by the Trump regime, taking effect immediately. Trump is calling this "Liberation Day". Some background info here. A resolution before the US Senate from Virginia senator Tim Kaine is expected to make things awkward for Republicans representing states expected to take a hit from the tariffs, but won't have a real impact even if it passes, since it is nonbinding.

- Mark Carney plans to carve out an exemption for New Flyer in the countertariffs imposed on US manufacturing; meanwhile the company is working towards all buses for the Canadian market being assembled here.

- Former parliamentary reporter Rachel Gilmore had been asked by CTV to do an election-related fact-checking segment on their morning show, but the network cancelled the segment after a single episode following pressure from the Conservatives and their fellow travellers.

- The cancellation of the carbon tax took effect yesterday. This is expected to bring some savings to consumers, but preventing backsliding on emissions will require measures that may well cost more overall in terms of public funds. The question I've never been able to find a clear answer to, though, is this: If tax relief is politically necessary, why not provide said relief by reducing or eliminating the GST (or PST for provinces) rather than the carbon tax? That way everyone sees relief, not just those who drive. I guess they're afraid of worsening the urban-rural divide, but I think that divide is basically beyond healing at this point anyway.

- The Trump regime has admitted that they shipped an innocent man to their contracted prison in El Salvador due to what they call an "administrative error". They say it's now out of their hands, though, as he's no longer in US custody.

- Wisconsin held an election for a vacant seat on the state supreme court yesterday. A liberal judge squeaked a victory despite Elon Musk having spent millions of dollars on her opponent's campaign.

- Western Australia's police force has repurposed a Maserati seized from a repeat driving offender into a publicity device to warn people not to drive like idiots.

News roundup, 28 Oct 2024

- Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has warned Russia that any attempt to annex his country would lead to war. Belarus has until now been seen as a pretty reliable ally for Russia, but there are suspicions that the annexation of the country is part of Putin's long-term plans. Others scoff at this; some in this Reddit thread think this is just a show for the West, or else Lukashenko trying to keep a door to the West open in case Russia's ambitions in Ukraine are thwarted.

- Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, speaking as the warmup act for a Donald Trump rally in Georgia, gave a rather graphic metaphor for what he hopes a second Trump presidency would mean for America:

“If you allow your hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter to slam the door and give you the finger, you’re going to get more of it,” Carlson said. “There has to be a point at which Dad comes home.” At this point the crowd erupted into raucous cheers.

“Dad comes home and he’s pissed,” Carlson continues. “He’s not vengeful, he loves his children. Disobedient as they may be, he loves them … And when Dad gets home, you know what he says? You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now. And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this. You’re getting a vigorous spanking because you’ve been a bad girl, and it has to be this way.”

Clearly this struck a chord with the crowd. Later, when Trump came on stage, they screamed “Daddy’s home” and “Daddy Don”. Sigmund Freud almost rose from his grave.

It's becoming more and more apparent that close to half of the American population is, to put it kindly, not of sound mind.

- The Washington Post has announced that they will not endorse any candidate for president this year, for the first time since 1988. Reportedly the editorial page editor, David Shipley, had approved an endorsement of Harris, but it was shot down by "management" (presumably meaning Jeff Bezos). The move sparked resignations from the board; the same thing also happened at the Los Angeles Times. This has led to speculation that management is scared of what Trump might do to them if he does win the presidency - or at least insufficiently scared of what he might do to other people.

- New Flyer Industries is significantly expanding their production of electric transit buses. This will enable some buses to be completely assembled at the Winnipeg plant; until now only the shells of the buses have been manufactured here, while the mechanicals have been added at a plant in Alabama. One hopes that some of these buses can be put to use on our own streets...

- A final seat count for BC's election last week is still pending as some 22,000 absentee ballots await counting.

- The robotics industry is now producing farm equipment that can harvest crops autonomously. This will help deal with the shortage of farm labour; it will probably also hasten the depopulation (and resulting decline in political influence) of rural areas.

- Chris Alexander, who served as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration under Stephen Harper, has accused Postmedia reporter David Pugliese of having been a Russian asset since the 1980s. The allegation was made during Alexander's testimony before the House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security on Thursday.

- A private member's bill introduced to the Ontario legislature by Liberal MPP Karen McCrimmon aimed to facilitate the conversion of vacant office space into housing. Unfortunately the government has shot the bill down; whether this is just the knee-jerk reaction of a government that doesn't want anything done that they can't take credit for, or whether they have a deeper opposition to the idea, is not clear. I could see Doug Ford not relishing an expansion of housing in the inner city, though, as such housing tends to be occupied by people less inclined to vote for his party. Not to mention, a disproportionate amount of Ford's base comes from people who work jobs that can't be done remotely, and some of those people are downright resentful of people who are able to do so.

11th hour salvation for automakers?

Maybe:

It would be "irresponsible" to hurt the economy by letting the Detroit Big Three automakers fall, a White House spokeswoman said Friday following the Senate's rejection of a massive auto industry bailout.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, press secretary Dana Perino said the White House is considering using money from the $700-billion US Wall Street rescue fund to support the domestic automakers.

Perino said the administration would not typically make such a move, but said the White House would consider the option due to the economic distress confronting the United States.

"While the federal government may need to step in to prevent an immediate failure, the auto companies, their labour unions and all other stakeholders must be prepared to make the meaningful concessions necessary to become viable," Perino said.

From the CBC. Whether this will help in the long run is hard to say; some are saying it's too late for GM. One thing is clear, though, the unions are getting a disproportionate amount of the blame for the automakers' troubles. For instance, ever hear that "$73 an hour" figure, about how much money the auto workers supposedly make? Well, it's misleading to say the least, according to no less authority than the New York Times:

Seventy-three dollars an hour.

That figure — repeated on television and in newspapers as the average pay of a Big Three autoworker — has become a big symbol in the fight over what should happen to Detroit. To critics, it is a neat encapsulation of everything that’s wrong with bloated car companies and their entitled workers.

To the Big Three’s defenders, meanwhile, the number has become proof positive that autoworkers are being unfairly blamed for Detroit’s decline. “We’ve heard this garbage about 73 bucks an hour,” Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said last week. “It’s a total lie. I think some people have perpetrated that deliberately, in a calculated way, to mislead the American people about what we’re doing here.”

So what is the reality behind the number? Detroit’s defenders are right that the number is basically wrong. Big Three workers aren’t making anything close to $73 an hour (which would translate to about $150,000 a year).

But the defenders are not right to suggest, as many have, that Detroit has solved its wage problem. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler workers make significantly more than their counterparts at Toyota, Honda and Nissan plants in this country. Last year’s concessions by the United Automobile Workers, which mostly apply to new workers, will not change that anytime soon.

And yet the main problem facing Detroit, overwhelmingly, is not the pay gap. That’s unfortunate because fixing the pay gap would be fairly straightforward.

The real problem is that many people don’t want to buy the cars that Detroit makes. Fixing this problem won’t be nearly so easy.

Get it? It's not because the Detroit Three are being bled dry by the unions. It's because too many of their cars suck.

But now for some good news. Not all vehicle manufacturers are doing badly:

New Flyer Industries has racked up more than $1 billion in orders over the last three months, driven by the recent spike in fuel prices and concerns about the economy.

It is the first time the Winnipeg bus maker has reached the $1-billion sales milestone during a quarter. The value of its order backlog has ballooned by 50 per cent this year.

The company said Thursday it is further evidence of the recession-resistant nature of the business.

Glen Asham, New Flyer's CEO, said the strong sales are a result of increased ridership throughout North America, spurred on at the beginning of the year by sky-high fuel prices and more recently by economic concerns.

"I would suggest the current recessionary environment we are in is causing people to watch their cash flow," Asham said.

The largest of the new orders was from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) which is purchasing up to 900 60-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses. Since 2002, CTA has ordered a total of 1,258 buses from New Flyer.

From the Winnipeg Free Press. Let's hope this last trend continues; maybe New Flyer could buy up some of those shuttered auto plants in southern Ontario and put some of the people back to work making vehicles for the 21st century rather than for the 20th.