“Should the armed forces split between pro- and anti-Trump factions, that is the way to civil war. It has happened once in American history. It can happen again.” - Canadian professor of international affairs @smsaideman.bsky.social

An Ontario woman studying in the USA was arrested, handcuffed, charged, and jailed by Georgia police because she was driving with a 🇨🇦 licence. The arresting officer either didn’t know or didn’t care about the relevant laws… just really fired up to arrest a foreigner. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Daniel Stid, American Enterprise Institute: "All these acts of submission, vituperation, and domination send clear signals to the President’s friends and foes alike. It is how competitive authoritarianism takes root." Competitive Authoritarianism Comes for Civil Society www.aei.org/op-eds/compe...

From the CPC platform: “A Conservative government would put an end to the imposition of woke ideology in the federal civil service and in the allocation of federal funds for university research.” A page taken directly from Trump’s playbook. www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/...

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.” - Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951

A French scientist was expelled from the US after a border agent searched his phone and found text messages criticizing Trump‘s handling of health policy & climate change. www.france24.com/en/americas/...

🇨🇦 woman Jasmine Mooney was detained & imprisoned by ICE for 12 days with no explanation. She was told she wasn't in trouble, but she had to leave 🇺🇸 due to visa issues. She sat down to book a flight home, and then: “The next thing you know, I was taken.” Yikes. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

Canadians are heading into the sketchiest macroeconomic environment in nearly a century. I hope we can sustain this elevated sense of unity & patriotism to ride this out. I hope and believe that Canada can be a strong & proud nation of nations. 🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦❤️

Concerned about the direction of society? Me too. I’ve launched a podcast to navigate this era of regression. The show features social scientists & other experts to help us unpack major issues affecting 🇨🇦 and the 🌎. Follow @civildiscourseplease.ca for clips.

And here we go… In one fell swoop, Trump fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & other top Pentagon officials including the head of the Navy, Vice Chief of the Air Force, AND the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Paving the way for loyalists. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/u...

GALLUP: 45% of Americans support the dismantling of their democracy news.gallup.com/poll/656891/...

The White House is actively dismantling checks & balances on its power. This excerpt is from an EO press release with the perverse headline: “Restoring Democracy and Accountability in Government.” www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

ANGUS REID: “Federal vote intention tightens to near-tie as Liberals and New Democrats rally around Carney.” Speaks to the relationship between leadership and brand value. angusreid.org/liberal-lead...

Populism, explained. Illustration by Will McPhail (2017)

Trump speaking to a Christian group in July 2024: “You won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians… I love you. Get out – you gotta get out and vote. In 4 years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...

RIP US rule of law.

This is gut wrenching to watch. www.wired.com/story/cisa-e...

The Washington Post Editorial Board appears to be hallucinating.

New study finds a ~50% increase in hate speech on Twitter/X after Musk takeover, quantifying what many of us saw anecdotally. My take: Growing incivility is a leading indicator of democratic breakdown. A healthy social fabric is really, really important. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

The FT Editorial Board understands the assignment: “Supposed efficiency drive is providing cover for a power grab by the executive branch” We seem to be nearing a tipping point where media outlets are finally calling it what it is. on.ft.com/3Qcl7P9 Musk’s assault on the US federal bureaucracy

E̶l̶o̶n̶ M̶u̶s̶k̶ I mean Tobias Lütke wants everyone to know that he’s okay with his e-commerce clients selling nazi merch. “Shopify says risk of fraud, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye West store takedown” via @thelogic.co by @muradhem.bsky.social & James Temperton thelogic.co/news/shopify...

“Democracy survived Trump’s first term because he had no experience, plan, or team. He didn’t control the GOP when he took office in 2017, and most GOP leaders were still committed to democratic rules of the game... None of those things are true anymore.” www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Honest question: How can the banning of “DEI” and related language shown below be interpreted as anything other than a modern version of white male supremacy? What other plausible explanation could there be? Of course many will say this is just anti “woke”, which is meaningless. Unpack that.

munich security report 2025: trump’s proposed “land grabs” mean the united states is no longer perceived as “an anchor of stability, but rather a risk to be hedged against.”

Trump wants to manage your investment portfolio. (Actually tho). What could possibly go wrong? www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/b...

Ethics? Nahhh Laws? Pffft Bribes? YAAAASSS

WSJ Editorial Board understands the assignment: “Mr. Trump clearly wants to intimidate the press” www.wsj.com/opinion/trum...

An important point: Political scientists are the ones who understand democracy best, and thus understand the dangerous path the US is on. It is therefore incumbent on them to speak up, and publishing on Substack isn’t going to cut it.

Of course this means the US government now only funds nonprofits that support Trump. We are watching a rapid dismantling of some of the key pillars of democracy. In this case, civil society is in the crosshairs.

IPSOS: Approx. 7 in 10 Canadians think less of America since Trump threatened to slap double-digit tariffs on all Canadian products.

Just last week someone told me Trump would never shut down USAID because it buys so much US grain and I said, "I wonder if he knows that"

As Elon Musk attacks & dismantles government #DEI programs, his board at Tesla is taking steps to address longstanding concerns about discrimination at the company. The board has promised to monitor “how Tesla recruits, develops and retains excellent talent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/b...

🇨🇦 Canada, this is not a drill. WSJ: “Trump’s CIA will have a greater focus on the Western Hemisphere, targeting countries not traditionally considered adversaries of the US… For example, the CIA will use espionage to give Trump extra leverage in his trade negotiations” www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

The US govt is attempting forced displacement & ethnic cleansing for the purpose of imperialist expansion, & likely for personal profit since Kushner will prob get dvlpmnt rights. I dont think it’s hyperbole to draw parallels between 1933 🇩🇪 & 2025 🇺🇸 Are Americans really just gonna roll with this?

A telling sign (among many others) that the whole anti-DEI & anti-“woke” backlash is just the new code for white male supremacy.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to suggest we are currently living through the most acute global information and accountability crisis of our lifetimes.  www.linkedin.com/pulse/keynot...

In all, this is unlike any other moment in the history of the American presidency, where on the eve of being inaugurated, the family of a president-elect sets up a money-making venture to take direct cash payments from people around the world. Read our story. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/u...

Elon Musk buying TikTok would give him a science-fiction-sized disinformation machine. Musk would be pulling the strings on algorithms that control the social media feeds of 1.6 billion people. The world needs what @freeourfeeds.com is trying to build.

Zuck says EU antitrust laws are “like tariffs” after his company was fined for breaching them, now asking Trump for a trade war with the EU We are on the brink of a new beggar thy neighbour era Can someone please trick Trump into taking an economic history course www.politico.eu/article/zuck...

2025 doomscrolling to 2020 doomscrolling: “Hold my beer.”

New study by University of Calgary economists has found carbon emissions pricing (e.g., carbon taxes) had a "minimal impact" on inflation since 2019, pushing up overall consumer prices by 0.5%. A tiny fraction of the 19% increase in consumer prices over that period. irpp.org/research-stu...

Important thread from international relations & security expert @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social She describes how the current wave of democratic backsliding & institutional turmoil is happening around the world, and that states lack the systems to handle it. An ominous moment for global governance.

Kash Patel’s confirmation as FBI Director would be devastating for American democracy. I fear for journalists & academics. Patel, “has previously suggested removing the FBI’s intelligence-gathering function and purging its ranks of any employees who do not support Trump.” on.ft.com/49jTnAP

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist." Another banger from Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)

“The problem with modern theories of progress is that they assume we know where we are going.” Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1958) Been reflecting on the idea of “social progress” via pluralism lately. The arc of human history shows progress is cyclical. It seems we’re entering a down cycle.

😵‍💫Bonkers: Alberta govt has introduced a motion to declare all energy companies’ GHG emissions data as “proprietary information and data that are owned exclusively by the Govt of Alberta.” This would crush 🇨🇦 energy companies’ access to global capital markets www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...

The economics team at BMO put together a helpful summary of Canadian exports to the USA, showing which sectors would be most impacted by hefty tariffs. economics.bmo.com/en/publicati...

A 🇨🇦vs🇺🇸 trade war would be destructive for both countries, and I see no plausible scenario where Canada ‘wins’. I sure hope Trudeau is listening to smart people right now.

World: “Canada must meet its NATO defence spending target ASAP” 🇨🇦 Govt: “We can’t afford it” Also 🇨🇦 Govt: “Hi all, please enjoy this $6B helicopter money tax holiday” Meanwhile, 🇨🇦 is egregiously unprepared for an increasingly unstable security landscape. Absurd. www.politico.com/news/2024/11...

US Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn): “I’m getting prepared for the worst… arrest warrants for members of Congress, shutdowns of not-for-profit organizations that are trying to cross Donald Trump. I’m legitimately worried about that… I’m spending most of my time thinking and preparing for dystopia.”