If we want to be economic masters in our own house, then “buying Canadian” to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to attack our sovereignty through a tariff war, while admirably patriotic, isn’t enough.
Nor is there any instant solution to this ongoing threat posed by an aggressive and often irrational Trump administration that we’re going to have to deal with for the next four years, based on its first two weeks in office alone.
Philosopher Eric Hoffer once wrote, “Nothing is so unsettling to a social order as the presence of a mass of scribes without suitable employment and an acknowledged status.”
As President Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency get on with their business of trimming waste, fraud, abuse and graft from the federal budget — a business that is vitally important, given the government’s parlous financial outlook — they need to keep this in mind.
Less than two weeks in, DOGE teams poring over federal spending records are discovering all sorts of problems.
Hi @DOGE, I think we found another one.
Open borders NGO “Make The Road NY” has received over $16,000,000 in government grants while actively training illegal aliens how to avoid deportation and lie to ICE agents.
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) February 4, 2025
h/t XC
Justin Trudeau woke up Monday morning believing that the Donald Trump tariffs were inevitable.
As the prime minister admitted on Saturday, he had not been able to speak to the U.S. president since the inauguration on Jan. 20 and the threat of tariffs had become reality over the weekend with the signing of an executive order.
A man suspected of carrying out the ‘worst mass shooting’ in Sweden’s history has been pictured for the first time.
Swedish outlet Expressen shared an image of Rickard Andersson, 35, who it reported is suspected of shooting ten people dead in a shocking attack at Risbergska School in Örebro’s Västhaga district on Tuesday.
The man is said to have turned the gun on himself following the rampage, according to police.
h/t Canminuteman
A Canadian “kink-allied” psychologist who worked with vulnerable youth in Calgary is facing child pornography charges following his arrest on January 30 by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams’ (ALERT) internet child exploitation unit. Dustin Hrycun, 45, worked to treat both adults and troubled youth at Rising Sun Psychological Services.
A Canadian psychologist who specialized in "kink, queer, and trans" counseling for youth has been charged with the possession of child pornography.
Dustin Hrycun, 45, has been released into the community pending a court hearing.
READ: https://t.co/mpInShpAzO pic.twitter.com/cUoAk5OQ6e
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) February 4, 2025
h/t XC
At a trial that begins on Tuesday in upstate New York, a district attorney will rise to tell the story of an attempt to murder a man in his seventies who was sitting on an amphitheatre stage four miles from the courthouse.
Jason Schmidt is known to be an accomplished prosecutor, quick on his feet, and even the most prosaic description of the alleged crime would be laced with drama. Yet it may be hard, in an opening statement, to match the account of the attack that has already been set down by one of the most famous writers of the age, who was also its victim.
Can we stop pretending that the Ontario election has only one issue, which is authorizing Premier Doug Ford to spend tens of billions of dollars to protect Ontario from American tariffs?
U.S. President Donald Trump took much of the urgency out of Ford’s pitch Monday by delaying his onerous tariffs for at least a month. While the president’s end game remains unclear, the delay means Ford had to backtrack for now on crowd-pleasing announcements like pulling American booze out of LCBO stores and cancelling a broadband contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink company.
Climbers ascend to the highest peak of Poland and find a cat at the summit pic.twitter.com/SOcutu9u0J
— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) February 3, 2025
The Trump administration has notified more than 1,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency that they could be dismissed immediately.
Workers who’ve been at the agency less than one year received an email last week notifying them that they had been identified as employees that were likely on a “probationary/ trial period,” according to an email reviewed by NBC News.
H/T DS
"Musk & AOC: A Billionaire and a Congresswoman Walk Down the Aisle – Chaos Ensues!" pic.twitter.com/3mtrfCbomD
— The United Spot (@TheUnitedSpot__) February 5, 2025
It may harm the perps!
Related …
How many more chances do repeat violent offenders get before meaningful change happens? Thanks to @TPS22Div Major Crime unit for re-arresting this individual. 397 total charges, including assault, assault with a weapon, dozens of break-and-enters, and multiple failures to comply.… pic.twitter.com/pBE0Cms8XM
— Toronto Police Association (@TPAca) February 4, 2025
Trump’s Gaza plan: bluff or not, one man benefits
As President Trump laid out his plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts”, Binyamin Netanyahu sat next to him, smiling wordlessly and nodding along.
Many commentators agreed that the proposal was too audacious to take seriously. But in pledging a US takeover of Gaza, the president handed the Israeli leader a political lifeline.
Netanyahu, in Washington on a week-long diplomatic mission, has faced threats back home from far-right members of his cabinet to quit the coalition underpinning his government if the war ends with Hamas still in control in Gaza.
Meanwhile …
Trump’s Gaza plan will be seen as flying in face of international law
When US President Donald Trump began speaking 10 days ago of Gaza as a demolition site, calling to “clean out that whole thing”, it wasn’t clear how far these were off-the-cuff remarks.
But in the lead up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, in his Oval Office comments before the meeting, and in the press conference itself, it’s now clear he is profoundly serious about his proposals.
They amount to the most radical upending in the established US position on Israel and the Palestinians in the recent history of the conflict; and will be seen as flying in the face of international law.
The Guardian Squeals! – Trump’s declaration US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip sparks global condemnation
‘New world order’ or ‘dangerous delusions’? Israeli officials react to Trump’s Gaza plan
Senior Hamas officials call Trump’s proposal for Gazans to relocate from the Gaza Strip “racist” and “a move that could lead to chaos and tension in the Middle East.”
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford has reneged on his vow to tear up a $100 million agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink after U.S. President Donald Trump paused his tariff threat on Canada for 30 days.
Ford confirmed on Feb. 3 the Starlink agreement with Musk will proceed for the time being and other retaliatory measures planned by Ontario, such as banning U.S. alcohol from LCBO stores, will be put on hold.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Chief Science Advisor Dr. Mona Nemer spent more than $300,000, three quarters of her annual salary, on travel from Tokyo to Oslo, according to records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Science can be everywhere,” Nemer, a University of Ottawa biochemist, earlier told MPs.
“I am a science advisor.”
“I appreciate that science can be everywhere.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has come under scrutiny after tech billionaire Elon Musk chose the agency as the first target in his campaign to reduce ballooning government costs and root out progressive ideology from within the executive branch.
Musk’s decision to first declare war on USAID in his role as head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency should come as no surprise, given the agency’s long history of wasteful, ideologically driven spending.
Established in 1961 under the Kennedy administration, USAID is meant to oversee humanitarian, development, and security programs, doing so in over 100 foreign countries. As originally conceived, the agency was meant to distribute aid in a way that advances U.S. interests, ideally without antagonizing the local population.
