I did not intend to write about Canada again, but I live in Minnesota.
Or am trying to.
If you are rolling your eyes reading this, you don’t live in Minnesota. The toxic smoke from the never-ending Canadian wildfires has, yet again, settled over the North Star State, so thick it is smothering.
Visibility is reduced. The horizon is a whitish-gray.
Years after the Black Lives Matter protests and attendant vandalism, looting and burning, the PBS News division is suddenly worried that masks….help people get away with crimes! Why the sudden interest? Well, it’s a way to indirectly fault ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) for criminals impersonating agents. Sunday’s NewsHour Weekend segment carried the online headline “Rise of ICE agents wearing masks creates opportunity for imposters to conduct crimes.”
U.S. President Donald Trump took to his social media platform just after midnight on Thursday to say he is not pleased with Canada announcing it will recognize a Palestinian state in September if the West Bank’s governing body agrees to make certain commitments.
“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed earlier on Wednesday that trade negotiations have not been finalized just two days ahead of the deadline.
Some premiers expressed support for closer trade ties with China last week as a way to reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States amid rising tariff tensions. There have also been recent newspaper commentaries echoing Beijing’s position that Canada should forge a closer relationship with China.
Some observers say there appears to be forces pushing Canadian politicians toward China amid tensions with Washington. Catherine Swift, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada, says profit may be a driving factor as corporations back closer ties with Beijing for access to economic opportunities and lower costs.
The Ford government has negotiated a break fee to cancel its $100 million contract for Starlink internet, Global News has learned, officially ending its deal with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX.
The now-defunct agreement between Ontario and SpaceX was first signed in November to provide satellite internet to roughly 15,000 homes in the north of the province.
Rep. Deqa Dhalac, a Maine statehouse Democrat and a Somali immigrant, recently stated that her priority is developing “our country of Somalia.”
Say what?!
“Our country of Somalia?!” Yes, forget about serving the American citizens who pay your salary … or at least put their interests on the back burner. What really matters is that you focus on Somalia.
Is that even Constitutional?
“I’m the first female candidate in San Mateo County history to run for sheriff. And if I’m elected, I would be the first Latina sheriff of the whole state of California,” Sheriff Christina Corpus told voters in one of the many flattering media stories promoting her candidacy.
A Chinese state-owned ship-building company has converted a bulk carrier into a floating farm that will produce 2,800 tons of fish a year.
The 225-meter-long Zhe Dai Yu Yang 60001 is part of a “marine bread basket” project that “aims to boost the nation’s food security by repurposing old vessels for use in aquaculture.” Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping is mobilizing state entities, including, in this case, China State Shipbuilding Corp., in his all-of-society effort to achieve food security.
Why should anyone outside China care about Xi’s obsessive drive? Because this effort is another signal that he is preparing to attack.
Mythology does not record whether Trojan priestess Cassandra took grim satisfaction in the vindication of her ignored warnings. I don’t. But I must say “I told you so” when events confirm my claims of some dangerous pattern in public affairs. Including from just last week about widespread disastrous resistance to systematic thought in Canada, from free speech to free trade, unleashing bad policy from muddled theory. Maybe Sean Feucht could sing about it… but not in Canada.
In case you had never heard of Cassandra, sister of Hector, she was gifted with prophecy, but cursed with never being believed. “Don’t take in the wooden horsey thing, it’s an obvious Greek trick,” she said, and the city burned.
@fancypants_s The dude wore suspenders and purple pants. https://t.co/J8G8aKdW0k
— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) July 29, 2025
h/t Patti Jo
OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump will accept nothing short of “completely open markets” to American goods in other countries, his commerce secretary said Tuesday, as uncertainty continues over whether Canada and a host of nations can reach agreements with the United States before Trump’s latest threatened tariffs are supposed to kick in Friday.
The statement comes as Canada’s cabinet point-person on U.S. trade talks, Dominic LeBlanc, travels to Washington for the second time in recent days for what Prime Minister Mark Carney described Monday as an “intense” phase of negotiations before this week’s deadline.
The United States of America owes credit for its birth in the 18th century and its survival during the Civil War to an unlikely source: Russia.
That narrative has taken hold in some circles inside the former Soviet Union, and it’s a viewpoint recently espoused by Russian President Vladimir Putin. This month, Mr. Putin went out of his way to highlight historical examples of what Moscow’s state-run media called “Russia’s contribution to U.S. statehood.”
For decades, Canadians have been, by a wide margin, the world’s largest buyers of cars and trucks made in the United States. In most years, four out of every 10 vehicles that roll out of Canadian dealerships were shipped from American factories.
But being the most important overseas market for America’s vehicle industry has not insulated Canada’s own auto industry from President Trump’s move to unravel the global trading system. On Friday, Mr. Trump threatened to impose a new 35 percent tariff on Canada unless the two countries struck a deal.
But even before then, Mr. Trump’s recent trade deals with Japan, Britain and the European Union meant that their auto exports would now be entering the United States at tariff rates lower than that on Canadian cars and trucks.
We need an official policy prohibiting removal of at-risk trans and non-binary people to the U.S.
The Canadian refugee process is often praised for its fairness, efficiency and commitment to human rights. It is the main avenue for trans and non-binary people around the world to seek safety after fleeing persecution in their countries of nationality. But for trans and non-binary Americans who fear for their lives in the United States, the ability to access Canada’s refugee system is far less clear. So far, it seems, the Canadian government is less willing to acknowledge the threats facing trans and non-binary people throughout the U.S.
On July 24, Egyptian-born Michael Youssef, senior pastor of Church of The Apostles in Atlanta and author of more than 50 books, including The Third Jihad, wrote that while visiting a Middle Eastern nation, he met with a highly placed Muslim official.
“He leaned toward me and said, ‘Doctor Youssef, can you tell me why the Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt – but is allowed to flourish in America?’ I said, ‘I can think of no answer except foolishness and ignorance.'”
Do not break out the champagne. The trade “deal” agreed this weekend by the United States and the European Union bears the familiar elements of President Donald Trump’s evolving vision of trade under Trumponomics.
What’s been announced is better than the worst-case scenario of a trade war, but worse than the status quo.
