the reason he hiked the tariffs is that we caved to pressure before. trump thinks kind of the same way that hamas does - if his tactics yield results, he increases them. this seems counter-intuitive to canadian negotiators, who expect a reasonable partner that's willing to make concessions. that's not how trump thinks. in trump's mind, he's proven that canada is weak, and can therefore be taken advantage of.

the mexicans have not caved to pressure. it's true that they haven't retaliated, but look at gdp per capita in mexico compared to canada. if the mexican government levied 20% taxes on american corn or beef, it might start a civil war. that's not what trump is reacting to. the mexicans haven't been as easily pushed around, so he's not pushing them around.

trump isn't looking for fights, he's looking for victims. he's identifying the easiest meat.

there's an old pink floyd song. it's one of my favourite records.

You got to be crazy, you gotta have a real need

Gotta sleep on your toes and when you're on the street

Got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed

Then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight

You got to strike when the moment is right without thinking

And after a while, you can work on points for style

Like the club tie, and the firm handshake

A certain look in the eye and an easy smile

You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to

So that when they turn their backs on you

You'll get the chance to put the knife in

You gotta keep one eye

Looking over your shoulder

You know, it's going to get harder, harder and harder

As you get older

Yeah, and in the end you'll pack up, fly down south

Hide your head in the sand

Just another sad old man

All alone and dying of cancer

Got to admit that I'm a little bit confused

Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used

Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off

This creeping malaise

If I don't stand my own ground

How can I find my way out of this maze?

Deaf, dumb and blind, you just keep on pretending

That everyone's expendable and no one has a real friend

And it seems to you the thing to do

Would be to isolate the winner

Everything's done under the sun

But you believe at heart everyone's a killer

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-tariffs-canada-carney-next-1.7599602

i've decided to move to dried dill and to add it to my other spices. 

fresh dill is good for cooking, but it has essentially no nutritional value. i should be using dried dill in salads, as it has a substantive amount of iron per tbsp.

i didn't post my quinoa recipe.

i do it like this.

- turn a burner on the stove on to full blast. highest setting. crank it to 11.

- measure a third a cup of quinoa and place it into a fine strainer. i use the basket from a broken coffee machine for this purpose. let it run under water for at least five minutes, moving it around every little while. the reason you rinse the quinoa is to remove the saponins, which may block the digestion of key nutrients.

- while the stove is preheating and the quinoa is rinsing, chop the following items and put it all into a big, serving bowl:

- one red pepper (or around 150 grams)

- one carrot (or around 110 grams)

- one beet

- 50 grams of broccoli florets

- one avocado

- two cloves of garlic

- one orange

- one lime

- when that is done, take the quinoa out of the strainer and put it into a sturdy pot

- add a tad more than 2/3 cups of water

- add a fair amount of frank's hot sauce. if you want to add other items to season, do it, but i just stick with the hot sauce.

- stir.

- put pot on stove and wait until it comes to a boil.

- when it's boiling, cover the pot.

- walk to your microwave and set it to 15 minutes.

- walk back to the stove and reduce the heat. i had a newer stove in my previous apartment, and i would set it to min. on my very old stove (70s) in this apartment, i set it to 3.

- while it is cooking, add the following to the bowl:

- a few strands of fresh dill

- 1 tbsp of paprika

- 1 tbsp of oregano

- 1 tbsp of sunflower seeds

- 1 tbsp of cayenne

- 1 tbsp of cumin

- a bunch of pepper

- 1 tbsp of hemp seeds

- 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

- 10 slices of medium cheddar cheese

- a lot of ceasar dressing

- a lot of frank's hot sauce

- while you're getting used to your stove, check on the quinoa periodically to make sure it hasn't boiled all the water off. it's done when the water boils off. don't overcook.

- if there is still water after fifteen minutes, you didn't cook it at high enough temperature. that's ok. stir and let sit until water burns off.

- when it's done, remove from burner and let sit, covered, for five minutes.

- dump, hot, into bowl.

i eat the quinoa with a tall glass of fortified, sugar-free soy milk.

i did that twice yesterday with no substitutions. however, i'm now out of quinoa and have three bags of lentils. i'll be trying it with lentils as a sub for quinoa over the next week.

i believe that lentils are cooked the same way as quinoa (and rice), but i have no recollection of ever making or even ever eating lentils at all so i'll have to look into that.

this salted caramel coffee is a little too salty for my tastes. i'm not sure who'd be into this, but it's not me.

dumping the caffeinated instant coffee into a cup of already potent brewed hot coffee has also created an extremely powerful mixture that is making me a little oozy. the fact that this isn't that yummy aside, it's a little too much caffeine.

i'm going to put some water in it.

this article is a bit of a primer to get you up to date. i found it helpful.

it's really in the west's benefit to support continued decentralization in syria. we don't want a centralized islamist state in syria, we want to divide and conquer. from a leftist perspective, i also want to support the right of more liberal regions to self-determination, including the christian and alawite groups, which are not discussed in this article. 

the ideal outcome would be multiple autonomous regions, most of which are not islamist. if a couple get off the ground, it could help alter the culture in the area by giving more liberal voices a vehicle to organize and govern through.

the kurds have their problems, but they remain a model for self-governance in the region that is outside of the rubric of islamic fundamentalism. 

https://jamestown.org/program/do-the-suwayda-clashes-in-syria-signal-future-clashes-between-the-kurds-and-the-new-syrian-regime/

if the end result of this mess is that non-baathist secular arab nationalist forces are able to retake damascus and expel the islamists and set up a non-baathist secular arab nationalist democracy in a way that reunifies the country, maybe this wasn't so bad, and maybe this is how it had to happen.

but, we've been supporting the bad guys in syria for decades, and it's never too late to change sides.

there's a reason assad hung on so long against the odds, which were so stacked against him. he was hardly some kind of military dictator. he was a figurehead that was trained as an optometrist and only went back to syria because his brother, who was supposed to be the ruthless dictator, died before seizing power. the form of government in syria for the last 20 years has been a military junta, which assad was trying to convert into a european style democracy. both he and his wife spent their formative years in britain, and apparently liked the british form of government enough that they wanted to implement it in syria.

this isn't hypothetical. there were multiple referendums in syria on a new constitution that was meant to transition military rule into a democracy. this was what assad was actually doing, as leader of syria - trying to dismantle the junta.

the dominant opposition to democracy in syria, and the key entity fighting against assad, was saudi arabia. the saudis vehemently oppose any form of democracy in any arab state.

it's not exactly that the syrian people were in favour of the baath regime, so much as that they overwhelming stood with the form of government called "secular arab nationalism", which the saudis have been trying to get rid of for over 50 years. to our great shame and discredit, we have supported the saudis in their quest to wipe out democracy in the middle east.

assad hung on so long because the people of syria don't want to live in an islamic theocracy run by nazis governing the country out of the back of a koran, and this fascist government won't last long for that reason, not even with heavy turkish backing.

when an ideology is as unpopular as islamism is in syria, it simply can't govern.

western governments should be sending arms to these opposition groups fighting to overthrow the nazi coup, not sending aid to the nazis, themselves.

my own solidarity is certainly with those looking to overthrow the regime in damascus and reassert a secular state.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250803-renewed-clashes-in-syria-s-druze-majority-sweida-kill-four-people-monitor-says?dicbo=v2-sGxzBg6

why are western governments talking with these nazis?

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250722-syria-investigation-finds-more-than-1-400-killed-in-march-sectarian-violence

i wouldn't support this.

the kurds should seek to distance themselves from the nazis currently in control of damascus and instead seek regional integration with iraqi and iranian kurdish factions, or even with israel.

syria is a failed state that should be dismantled.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250725-paris-to-host-talks-on-integrating-kurdish-administration-into-syrian-state

i actually strongly support this, and i don't think it's right-wing.

i think that telling jews they can't mumble at their own wall is right-wing. the liberal position should obviously be that everybody has equal rights to mumble at the wall, and any attempt to limit access should be seen as reflective of an extreme right-wing position.

but, this is the era of orwell, and all our language is backwards and confused.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250804-far-right-israeli-minister-sparks-outrage-by-praying-at-flashpoint-al-aqsa-mosque-compound