Please see my statement on the situation in Venezuela:

Please enjoy my cartoon for Wednesday's Toronto Star

This is the heart of our Arctic foreign policy and the rationale for the official opening of a Canadian consulate in Nuuk, Greenland in the coming weeks.

We’re being led by the anti-vaxxers of the legal sphere: People who’ve never lived without the protections of international law and domestic regulation, so they only notice the inconvenience, not the horrors prevented. When institutions work, their benefits become invisible, until they’re gone.

If the US holds Venezuela, we will seize 17% of oil -- yesterday's technology. If China uses this precedent to take Taiwan, it will own 60% of semiconductors -- tomorrow's technology. See what happens when you elect evil & stupid at the same time? Really American FB

Trump's bet on Venezuelan oil will require massive investments on the ground • Bringing country’s output back to where it was 15 years ago would require US$110bn in investments • This is twice the amount that America’s oil majors combined invested worldwide in 2024 www.economist.com/finance-and-...

codification and enforcement are based on law but are not run themselves the law. If we can't see that on a city street then we can't see it in Geneva, but that is our misunderstanding in both places

No, Kemi Badenoch, the US has not walked away from the World Trade Organization, not even "more or less". It has disrupted dispute settlement and Trump's tariffs violate WTO rules, but the US is active in much of the WTO's regular work and it has paid its contribution to the budget. #BBCR4Today

Despite Kremlin's bombastic claims, Russia's economy is far from booming • War and subsidies-fuelled growth could only last for a while and civilian economy is probably in recession • Kremlin never expected Ukraine war effort would last for so long and come at such price www.wsj.com/world/russia...

plus ça change... @coppetainpu.bsky.social

Canadians take note that some Americans are so misinformed that they think Canada lost leverage, but that doesn't change the facts: US refineries in the mid-west would need new pipelines to switch to Venezuelan crude, when greater quantities become available years from now, if they do.

This is superb, from Sen. Kelly. Please watch. __ Insider note: First sentence of Kelly's presentation is uncannily powerful echo of my favorite TV ad ever. "Imported from Detroit," 15 yrs ago Serendipity? Embedded memory by Kelly people? Perfect for both. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNIQ...

INBOX: Statement from Senator Kelly

great thread this does not end well

For those of us not in the cult, this is what we hear when anyone from the Trump administration speaks. For the people in the back, this is satire and so well done…

It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

Many people still think of poverty as something that happens when people don’t work. But the reality is different: majority of people who live in poverty in Canada are working or live in families who work. @gillianpetit.bsky.social and my 2026 chart to watch www.theglobeandmail.com/business/eco...

DIFFERENT WARS, SAME PROPAGANDA ...a montage showing the direct parallels between the rhetoric around the Iraq war & the current rhetoric around Venezuela. Jon Stewart 🎥 #IraqNeverAgain

"It is virtually certain that this Venezuela operation will turn into a big mess with a heaping side order of corruption. But it is also pretty clear that one of those giant errors can lead to further screw ups and even disasters."

On his first day in office, the Mayor of New York toured the crumbling apartment of one of his constituents. On his 348th day in office, the President of the United States shops for marble and onyx for a ballroom nobody wants.

Venezuelan oil will not bring a big pay off for Trump any time soon, if ever. Even more of a chimera than tariffs closing budget deficit. Canada has no reason to worry about displacement in its US markets. Excellent Forbes background h/t @ronsteenblik.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/rrapie...

Good analysis here from @snellarthur.bsky.social. The estimates you see of Venezuela’s oil reserves only really make sense at extremely high oil prices - much of it may end up being uneconomic to produce even before you factor in political, security and legal risks.

The Globe just went full Melian Dialogue.

Well, I have hit the wall. I do not want to be a “political communication” scholar anymore.

An immensely tired & uninformed take. Canada currently: - exports >4x Venezuelan crude shipments - that supply is linked to American refineries by pipelines that travel one direction (south) - no one is rushing into Venezuela to roll the dice *again* on whoever replaces Maduro

Their messaging is so fucking incoherent. Maduro was an illegitimate leader who lost in 2024, which is why we're replacing him with his VP instead of the person who won in 2024. We did this to stop fentanyl, which is why he's indicted for cocaine. We're also occupying Venezuela via Zoom call.

Oil and distraction Trump attacks Venezuela anntelnaes.substack.com/p/oil-and-di...

My quick take on the legality of the Venezuela invasion. open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

Please see my statement on the situation in Venezuela:

Canada's "Conservatives" showing true colours. Even if these claims are true, Trump action is a breach of international law and should be condemned. Supporting such lawlessness is hardly conservative

Hot takes are always unreliable, but I suspect Xi Jinping is pleased by Trump’s intervention in Venezuela. Another costly distraction for the US, won’t affect flow of drugs much, sets a nice precedent for his Taiwan ambitions, and makes US look like a rogue state. Win-win for Beijing.

“The women voting solely on abortion make me crazy,” (Jennifer) Ziemba said. “I’d gladly give up my abortion rights and my daughter’s for my son not to have to go to war. We’ll have peace with Trump.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

LOL

A deluge of work on regime change after the 2003 invasion of Iraq yielded strong (and rare) agreement in IR: it doesn't work & has terrible consequences. @profdownes.bsky.social's book Catastrophic Success lays it out, but it's right there in the title. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

try to make sense of it

fwiw it’s been about six weeks since Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted of trafficking drugs into the US

Canada: Our Prime Minster studied at Oxford and Harvard, was the Governor of both the Banks of England and Canada, and is recognized as one of the sharpest financial minds around. America: oh yeah? Our guy has to take dementia tests every week.

This report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

I remember Walter Cronkite. Evidently the current crew do not. Maybe they could name it something else too avoid confusion with what was once a great news show

What does it mean when your doctors keep insisting you redo the cognitive exam

The new year begins in Mexico with a new trade policy. As of midnight, tariff increases went into effect on 1,463 tariff lines from countries with which the Latin American nation does not have a trade agreement 1/2 english.elpais.com/economy-and-...

The story was always already about an impoverished unmarried couple facing a pitiless bureaucracy, having a baby in a barn, and then having to hide from a tyrant. The baby grew up to say that the poor were blessed and the neighbor is he who shows mercy. You can’t hide from the politics of all that.

Timezones are so weird. Australia is in 2026, Canada is in 2025, and the United States is in 1939.

My wish for 2026 is that Europeans will be as critical and vigilant about authoritarianism and racism in their own country as they are about them in the U.S. and that Americans will be as critical and vigilant about authoritarianism and racism in the U.S. as Europeans are.

No wonder the resident Trump propagandist at CBS didn't want us to see this. It is horrific and shows how deeply lawless and depraved the Trump/Miller administration is.

Are there Voice of Canada stations being set-up to broadcast accurate news into the US?

The minute by minute battle between people uploading the video and companies taking it down is a real early internet idealism information wants to be free cyberpunk situation

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5