Doug Ford: We Sure As Hell Can, Bitch

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on a trade war with Canada: "There's no possible way it can really affect US well-being"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 24, 2026 at 5:20 PM

Much more than just electricity.

At Least The War Is Over

Our approach to all international disputes when anyone responds forcefully is "mommy he hit me back." I think most of even our dimmest jingoistic pundits have realized that isn't very convincing in this situation.

All of this began with the US murdering Khamenei and then blowing up a school for girls. I'm not sure what "taboos" are left that we can legitimately complain about.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Tehran would not bow to an escalating pressure campaign by the Trump administration, after one of the country’s top security chiefs threatened reprisals against countries that joined the United States’ “economic war.”

Everyone Should Scream At Alan Whenever They See Him

It's good fun.

Dershowitz and David got into an infamous altercation on Martha’s Vineyard in 2021 that resulted in the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld” creator calling Dershowitz “disgusting” to his face. Dershowitz, who was a member of Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein’s defense teams at various points in his career, confirmed the fight in a 2022 interview with The New Yorker and opened up again on his falling out with David in a new profile published by The Atlantic on Aug. 18.

“Larry David doesn’t talk to me anymore,” Dershowitz told the publication. “He screams and yells at me when he sees me.”

David responded by telling The Atlantic: “I don’t know why he’s still thinking and talking about me. I have lots of confrontations on my show but rarely in life. And then only if I think I can take them in a fight. Hence the Dershowitz dust-up.”

Alan's made lots of new friends recently. Isn't hanging with the MAGA crew enough for him? 

Haven't We Been Here Before

If they were smart, they would make Donald touch the stove.

TORONTO (AP) — Ontario’s Doug Ford tells AP Canada should be ready to cut electricity, critical minerals to US if trade fight worsens.

 

Trump still hasn't figure out what a trade deficit it is.  The quickest way to solve his problem is to refuse to sell things to the US.  Then he should be thankful!

Will We Though

Above my pay grade, like many things, but the global map of US military bases is always a horrifying thing to see and I suspect having fewer dots on that thing would be good.

In my judgement, the US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access the Gulf States. US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe. https://t.co/oG4aeEshab

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) August 22, 2026

Sunday Evening

Monday is tomorrow! I am sure there will be many quality posts to celebrate the new week.

When Canada Is Dead And Gone

Not that there was much chance of Canada acquiescing to the Mad King's desire to have it be the "51st state," but we can see that this would not have been some sort of merging of equals with appropriate representation (how many senators does Canada get?), but colonial conquest.

I know it is silly even to engage such ideas, but I suppose there are some who still imagine something other than demented and malevolent intentions are possible.

Everyone Gets To Use A Pencil

The flip side of President Deals never sticking with his deals is nobody else is obligated to, either.

About Time Someone Said It

I'm no Carney superfan, but he does seem to have figured Trump out.

After opting against a trade deal with American counterparts, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada's government 'recognized from the start' that the U.S. has changed. 'We recognized that sometimes its signature was written in pencil,' Carney said.

It is very funny that one of the dealbreakers was the US demanding they trash their various French dual language requirements. Like asking the US to cancel football.

Morning

Sunday funday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Coordination

This is illegal, but since laws aren't real anymore, we can at least laugh.

Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan's GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, triggering a rupture with the powerful but polarizing pro-Israel group.

Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers' Democratic rival, outspoken Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed.

I do remember when people in DC did take this stuff seriously, to the extent that certain people wouldn't be in the same room with other people. 

Soylent Beef Is Made Of PEOPLE

What is the mystery meat?

But when a reporter asked the most basic question about the arrangement — where exactly is all this beef coming from? — Trump refused to say.

"On the beef deal, which countries did you make the deal with?" a reporter asked Trump Friday afternoon.

"I don't want to say," Trump responded.

President Deals Strikes Out Again

Oh no was trump engaged in bad faith negotiations?

A fresh wave of US tariffs on a wide array of Canadian goods came into effect on Saturday after a last-minute breakdown in trade talks.

Announcing the suspension of negotiations shortly before the Friday night deadline, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he would impose reciprocal tariffs on US goods "dollar for dollar".

Carney said "last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal".

 

I saw the headline and was curious about what happened, given that all the recent reports had been about how Canada was going to cave and agree to some sort of deal. Unsurprisngly, willingness to deal with President Deals didn't work out!

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Ground Beef

Genuine question: are people concerned about beef prices concerned specifically with the price of ground beef?

Somewhat answering my own question: the internet tells me almost half of beef consumption is ground beef. Also this is about 2% of ground beef consumption so...

The Health Of Our Big Beautiful President

I know what excuses all the journalists will make, but there are endless hours of cable news to fill with speculation, endless hours that they often do fill with speculation, and they are not speculating about this.

So much not speculating that I suspect it is ordered from above that they do not.

Junk In The Trunk

The most convincing suggestion I've seen is exoskeleton mobility device.

Seriously, what is going on with Trump’s rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 16, 2026 at 3:43 PM

Sure Why Not

Or, more appropriately, what for?

The National Space Transportation Policy directs the Secretary of War, NASA, and other agencies to identify federal land for an additional reentry site within 90 days, part of a push to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries annually by 2030.

The policy also calls for priority airspace corridors, transparent range scheduling, and a "commercial-first" approach to national space transportation needs.

It directs NASA to facilitate commercial transportation to the Moon and robotic access to Mars, building on a separate executive order Trump signed in December outlining plans to return "Americans to the Moon by 2028 through the Artemis Program."

Elon and SpaceX are involved with Artemis - critical roles though not all of them - so good luck with that!

Blue Origin’s demonstration lander represents a number of the capabilities that will be featured in their Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, which will be used for crewed landings on the Moon’s south pole. The test lander doesn’t include the BE-7 engine of the Blue Moon Mark 2, but it does include a life support system and crew habitation area, which will allow the crew to live and work onboard while it’s docked with the Orion spacecraft.

After the two separate, SpaceX will launch its Starship Version 3 rocket, with a docking adapter on the nose of the upper stage. That Starship will be the target for Orion to dock, but because it won’t have a crew habitation area, the astronauts will remain onboard Orion while the two are mated.

“Now with respect to SpaceX, I think you’re what you’re witnessing, you’re seeing an increase in launch cadence, and that’s critical. If they’re able to launch again in early September after their last launch and continue to track inside the month, potentially every couple of weeks before the end of the year, that’s going to — we’re going to feel very good about their time to contribute to Artemis 3 next year,” Isaacman said.

SpaceX is so gonna be ready I promise I mean they're increasing cadence which is really critical and of course they're gonna be ready no lies no worries did I mention we're gonna feel very good if they do this thing which they're gonna do no really they're gonna do it.