The Conversation -- April 29, 2025
⭐Canada. AP: “The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation projects that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won Canada’s federal election. The victory Monday capped a dramatic turnaround for the Liberals fueled by ... Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty.” This is part of a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: “Canada’s Liberal Party won Monday’s national elections with voters giving a full term as prime minister to Mark Carney, according to the national broadcaster CBC/Radio Canada, choosing a seasoned economist and policymaker to guide their country through turbulent times. The full results should be available later Monday or early Tuesday. But the voters’ decision sealed a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party that just months ago seemed all but certain to lose to the Conservative Party, led by the career politician Pierre Poilievre. Mr. Carney has been prime minister since March, when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down. The election has been remarkable in many ways, with candidates and many voters describing it as the most important vote in their lifetimes. It has been dominated by ... [Donald] Trump and his relentless focus on Canada, America’s closest ally and trading partner. Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, pushing it toward a recession, and repeatedly threatened to annex it as the 51st state.” This is the pinned item on a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ Absolutely. Cannot. STFU. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has put his thumb on Canada’s pivotal national election taking place Monday in an extraordinary way, repeating his desire to make the country the 51st U.S. state. On Monday morning, just as polls were opening in Canada, he insisted, in a post on Truth Social, that Canadians should 'vote for the man' who would make their country part of the United States. He also called Canada 'a beautiful landmass' and referred to the border between the two countries as an 'artificially drawn line from many years ago.'... Observers struggled to interpret Mr. Trump’s Monday missive. Some felt it was veiled support for Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader, who is seen as a close ideological ally of Mr. Trump and has been criticized for being too Trump-like by many voters. Others thought Mr. Trump’s post favored — perhaps inadvertently — Mark Carney, the current prime minister and Liberal leader, who’s shaped his campaign on an anti-Trump platform.” (Also linked yesterday.)
I run the country and the world. -- Donald Trump to Atlantic reporters ~~~
Apparently you don't run Canada, Von Clownstick. -- Marie
~~~ Marie: I was hoping laura h. would post the following two gift links, and she did. Like laura, I have not read either article: ~~~
~~~ Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg introduces the issue's main story, by Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer, previously of the Washington Post: “As one might expect, they have developed complicated and intriguing ideas about the brain of Donald Trump and the nature of Trumpism. A simple question animates their story: How did Trump rise from political ruin in 2021 to seize the commanding heights of government and the world economy?... Trump himself has a capacious understanding of his power. 'The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,' he told Michael and Ashley. He was referring, it seems, to anyone who’d investigated him. 'And the second time,' he added, 'I run the country and the world.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer of the Atlantic: “Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.” The body of the story, which takes awhile to get to, looks worth a read. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ For funnier details on how Parker & Scherer scored the interview with Trump, see David Gimour of Mediaite. Akhilleus' frequent references to Trump's Fat Ass figure in. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steve M., as he always does, sees things differently, and we're the better for it: "Here's what's most striking about this story: Its authors [Parker & Scherer] are remarkably eager to to tell us how they were jerked around by Trump, and how they responded by writing exactly the story he asked them to write." (Also linked yesterday.)
While some pundits have pointed out that negative polls are not likely to cause Trump to alter his ludicrous policies, Steve Benen of MSNBC writes, “He’s actually lashing out at pollsters in new and ridiculous ways.... As this week got underway, Trump, shortly before sunrise, published an item to his social media platform that read, 'We don’t have a Free and Fair “Press” in this Country anymore. We have a Press that writes BAD STORIES, and CHEATS, BIG, ON POLLS. IT IS COMPROMISED AND CORRUPT. SAD!' That came shortly on the heels of a related item, in which he lashed out at 'FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.' The president added, 'These people should be investigated for ELECTION FRAUD, and add in the FoxNews Pollster while you’re at it.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Benen's observations fit in neatly with those of Philip Bump, whose post was linked yesterday. There is always a question, I think, of whether or not Trump believes with his Bubble Buddies are telling him, right down to the Big Lie, or if he knows what's going on. My current guess is that Trump hovers between true delusion/paranoia and rational angst.
Trump Broke It. No One Can Fix It. Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has made clear his intent to smash the reigning global economic order. And in 100 days, he has made remarkable progress in accomplishing that goal. Mr. Trump has provoked a trade war, scrapped treaties and suggested that Washington might not defend Europe. He is also dismantling the governmental infrastructure that has provided the know-how and experience.... Even at this early stage, historians and political scientists agree that on some crucial counts, the changes wrought by Mr. Trump may be hard to reverse. Like the erosion of trust in the United States, a resource that took generations to build.... Allies are working to strike trade partnerships and build security alliances that exclude the United States. The European Union and South American countries recently created one of the world’s largest trade zones. Canada is also negotiating to join Europe’s military buildup..., while Britain and the European Union are working to finalize a defense pact. China ... is seeking to ... better position Beijing as the defender of free trade and the new leader of the global trading system.”
It wasn't just the bright blue suit & tie. Trump also fell asleep during Pope Francis' funeral. (In fact, it appears he often falls asleep during public events, including during his Cabinet meetings.) AND he was using his cell phone during the ceremony. Everything about that guy is, at best, an embarrassment. (Also linked yesterday.)
Luke Broadwater & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed three more executive orders on Monday.... One order directs Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that the Trump administration considers 'sanctuary cities.'... It calls for pursuing 'all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures' against jurisdictions that continue to oppose the administration’s immigration crackdown. A second order instructs the Trump administration to provide legal resources to police officers accused of wrongdoing...; [and] provide military equipment to local law enforcement.... A third executive order ... requires the Transportation Department to place any [truck] driver who cannot speak and read English 'out of service.'... One of the orders also could hinder undocumented immigrants from getting in-state tuition for higher education. It directed federal agencies to stop the enforcement of state and local laws 'that provide in-state higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-state American citizens.'”
... the USA could become the fastest autocratizing country in contemporary history that does not involve a coup d’état and that the second Trump administration has already taken American democracy closer to a democratic breakdown. -- V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, abstract of article ~~~
~~~ How Little Marco Is Helping Trump Establish a Banana Republic. Eduardo Porter of the Washington Post: “When Secretary of State Marco Rubio shuttered the State Department’s office in charge of human rights..., it looked at first blush like just another way the Trump administration was turning its back on the world.... Here is a different interpretation: Prior U.S. commitments to uphold human rights are getting in the way of ... Donald Trump’s goals. Rubio, once an outspoken champion of upholding human rights around the world, is freeing the United States to become more like ... Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela.... Trump’s eagerness to deport migrants to a Salvadoran gulag ... portends, in my view, a darker scenario: something that looks more like Venezuela under ... Maduro, where forced disappearances are the order of the day.... The list of abuses the State Department is reportedly removing from its annual reports on human rights around the world ... includes denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly, retaining political prisoners without due process, forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution, serious harassment of human rights organizations, and involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: When Porter was a economics reporter for the NYT, I thought he didn't know much about macroeconomics. But I suspect his theory on Donald and Marco has legs. And I have to give Donald credit for seeing in Marco a weak guy who is easily manipulated and who has no principles he isn't willng to abandon for the smallest of personal advantages.
Now, over 100 attorneys decided that they’d rather not do what their job requires them to do, and I think that’s fine.... We don’t want people in the federal government who feel like it’s their pet project to go persecute [police departments].... The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology. -- Harmeet Dhillon, new head of the DOJ's civil rights division, to conservative commentator Glenn Beck
This is not simply a change in enforcement priorities — the division has been turned on its head and is now being used as a weapon against the very communities it was established to protect. -- Vanita Gupta, head of the division during President Obama's administration ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Hundreds of lawyers and other staff members are leaving the Justice Department’s civil rights division, as veterans of the office say they have been driven out by Trump administration officials who want to drop its traditional work in order to aggressively pursue cases against the Ivy League, other schools and liberal cities. The wave of departures has only accelerated in recent days, as the administration reopened its 'deferred resignation program,' which would allow employees to resign but continue to be paid for a period of time. The offer, for those who work in the division, expires on Monday. More than 100 lawyers are expected to take it, on top of a raft of earlier departures, in what would amount to a decimation of the ranks of a crucial part of the Justice Department.
Brad Plumer & Rebecca Dzombak of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country. The move puts the future of the report, which is required by Congress and is known as the National Climate Assessment, into serious jeopardy, experts said. Since 2000, the federal government has published a comprehensive look every few years at how rising temperatures will affect human health, agriculture, fisheries, water supplies, transportation, energy production and other aspects of the U.S. economy. The last climate assessment came out in 2023 and is used by state and local governments as well as private companies to help prepare for the effects of heat waves, floods, droughts and other climate-related calamities. On Monday, researchers around the country who had begun work on the sixth national climate assessment, planned for early 2028, received an email informing them that the scope of the report 'is currently being re-evaluated' and that all contributors were being dismissed....
“Under the Trump administration, [the] process [of writing, compiling and reviewing the report] was already facing serious disruptions. This month, NASA canceled a major contract with ICF International, a consulting firm that had been supplying most of the technical support and staffing for the Global Change Research Program, which coordinates work among hundreds of contributors.... [Donald] Trump has frequently dismissed the risks of global warming.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Well, isn't that special. This is a task mandated by Congress. But who would sue to force the Trump administration to produce the report? The Congress? Hah! States who relied on the report? And how can the courts force the administration to assemble a credible report? It would be like trying to get a recalcitrant fifth-grader to write a passable report on the history of Peru or whatever. Not gonna happen.
Elon Uncovers Voter Fraud! A Noncitizen Voted for Trump. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: “A 45-year-old Iraqi man [who lives in upstate New York] was charged on Monday with voting illegally in the 2020 presidential election, a prosecution that federal officials said had been assisted by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.... The [Justice D]epartment did not respond to an inquiry about what form [DOGE’s] help had taken.... [Donald] Trump has argued since 2020 that rampant voter fraud caused him to lose that year’s election to President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... Court filings in a lawsuit suggest that [Akeel] Jamiel is a Trump supporter. It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and studies have found that the practice is virtually nonexistent. Still, Mr. Trump and his allies have long claimed that large numbers of noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, vote or try to vote in U.S. elections.”
Oh, let's be real. Of course billionaires hang out together. They're a fun bunch and they have lots in common. Like lots of money. For instance, let's look at Jared Isaacman, the billonaire Trump picked to head NASA. Now, Trump himself may not have been a billionaire before he got into this cryptomeme scam thingee, but he is apparently a member of the club now. And Trump seems to have at least known of Isaacman for a long time: ~~~
~~~ Karen Friefeld of Reuters: " Donald Trump's nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, was arrested on fraud charges in 2010 and faced lawsuits in two states for writing $2 million in bad checks to casinos, according to government records and court filings. Isaacman is a billionaire pilot and astronaut who founded the Shift4 Payments (FOUR.N) company as a teenager and commanded the first civilian space crew in 2021 aboard a SpaceX capsule.... In a February 22, 2010 press release titled, 'Nevada Fugitive Captured at Canadian Border,' U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it arrested Isaacman on a warrant for alleged fraud at the Washington state line. He was taken to a county jail for extradition to Nevada, where Clark County, home to Las Vegas, had issued the felony warrant.... Isaacman said he resolved the matter in less than 24 hours and the charges were dismissed. The court records were sealed, he said....
[ALSO] "Court records from New Jersey and Connecticut filed in 2009 and 2010, respectively, allege the New Jersey native failed to pay casino debts. Civil cases were brought against him by Trump's now-defunct Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, according to court documents. The Trump Taj Mahal sued Isaacman in July 2009 in connection with a line of credit he got in November 2005. Isaacman wrote four checks in 2008 for a total of $1 million but his bank account did not have the funds for them to be cashed, according to the complaint. The case was settled in 2011 for $650,000." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ You may have inferred from that reference to SpaceX that Isaacman also hangs out with Elon. Well, yes, yes, he does. And they seem to do a lot of business together: ~~~
~~~ Mike Wall of Space.com: "Jared Isaacman..., [Donald] Trump's choice to lead NASA, keeps having to explain his ties to Elon Musk. The topic came up repeatedly during Isaacman's nomination hearing, which the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held on April 9. Multiple Democratic senators pressed the 42-year-old billionaire on his relationship with the SpaceX chief.... [Sen. Ed] Markey [D-Mass.] cited potential conflict-of-interest concerns.... Isaacman, the senator claimed, has 'deep personal and financial ties' to Musk, who leads a company that competes for (and often gets) NASA launch contracts. There certainly are, or at least were, financial ties between the two billionaires: Isaacman funded and commanded two pioneering astronaut missions with SpaceX.... [Isaacman's responses were evasive. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wa.)] noted that [Isaacman's company] Shift4 "maintains a financial relationship" with Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary.... [Isaacman wrote in an ethics agreement] that, if confirmed as NASA chief, he would resign from his posts at Shift4 Payments...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. If you ever watched a White House press briefing back in the day, you might have been struck by how stupid many of the questions were. Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite writes that now that Trump and Press Secretary Barbie have started picking the White House "correspondents" (i.e., right-wing podcasters & teevee guys) the questions are way dumber now. (Also linked yesterday.)
Aidin Vaziri of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Neil Young debuted a politically charged new song at a benefit concert in Los Angeles over the weekend to deliver pointed criticism of ... Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla. The track, believed by fans to be titled 'Let’s Roll Again,' opens with a rallying cry to American automakers: 'Come on Ford, come on GM/ Come on Chrysler, let’s roll again.'... Following a harmonica break, Young delivered his most biting lyric: 'If you’re a fascist, get a Tesla/ It’s electric, it doesn’t matter.'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below. ~~~
~~~ The audio isn't the best on this video, but you can make out the lyrics. The video is probably pirated, so it may get disappeared: ~~~
Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Representative Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, an eight-term Democrat, announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election and would soon relinquish his position as the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, as he faces cancer. Mr. Connolly, 75, announced late last year that he was being treated for cancer of the esophagus but planned to fight the disease while continuing to do his job in Washington, saying he was 'very confident of a successful outcome.' In a letter to his constituents on Monday, he said that the disease, 'while initially beaten back, has now returned,' prompting his decision to step aside and ultimately retire. Mr. Connolly said he planned to do 'everything possible' to finish out what he said would be his final term.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: Oh, I forgot about this: ~~~
Paul Waldman: “April 28th is Confederate Memorial Day in Mississippi and Alabama; similar holidays are also celebrated in South Carolina and Texas, where they call it Confederate Heroes Day (Democrats in the state legislature have tried to end the holiday, to no avail). In fact, in Mississippi the entire month of April is Confederate Heritage Month.... This is how we should always talk about it when this subject comes up, not just these holidays but any effort by Republicans to valorize or even excuse the moral abomination that was the Confederacy. Don’t for a second allow them to get away with saying it’s just about 'heritage' or 'history,' some kind of value-free statement that 'This is a thing that happened, and that’s all we mean.' That’s a lie, and it should never be entertained even for a second.... If it was just about understanding our history there would be a statue of Adolf Hitler in your town square and your kids would go to Osama bin Laden Middle School, since they were also important historical figures who made an impact on the United States.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Waldman took the words right out of my mouth. The Confederacy is to "American heritage" as Nazi Germany is to "German heritage." Both are unpardonable sins against their nations. Germany largely came to terms with its fascistic history, just as South Africa came to terms with apartheid. But the supremiscists are always going to want to bring back the unpardonable, be they avowed neo-Nazis or Nazi-adjacent pricks like South Africa's Elon Musk. the call "never again!" implies the vigilance it requires. Maybe a Truth & Reconciliation Commission would help here.
1 Comment
Reader Comments (1)
I'm bringing forward this comment Akhilleus wrote last night:
By AKHILLEUS:
Teslas are for fascists says Neil Young, in a new song that pleads for better products from American auto manufacturers. “Build us something that won’t kill our kids. C’mon America, get in the race. China’s way ahead in clean cars.”
Neil has pushed for cleaner cars for decades, a better world for everyone, and here he reminds listeners that we need that better world more than ever now, but if you’re a fascist, fuck it, buy a Tesla.
But…“If you’re a Democrat, taste your freedom!”
Cuz you ain’t gettin’ any with Fat Hitler and Chainsaw Elmo.
He also sang his anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World”, with his old band mate Stephen Stills at this event in LA the other day. That’s one of the songs thst Fatty tried to steal for his campaign, as if he has anything to do with rocking or a free world.
Here’s the song.
Keep rockin’ Shakey! You’re a miner for a heart of gold.