good

this was insane.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/canada-pauses-applications-for-parent-grandparent-sponsorship/

the bridge deal is apparently that canada collects the tolls, pays everything down first (including the amount michigan owes) and then uses 50% of profits after that, for the first 15 years, in building infrastructure around the bridge, on both sides of the border.

ok.

i live here. i'm not opposed to that. more bike paths and more parks and better sidewalks and roads sound good to me. in fact, there was an infrastructure component in the initial deal, and i haven't been over it, but michiganders should take note that canada paid for all that development on the detroit waterfront. i'm happy to pay for more. i'll use it.

a discourse on middle powers is certainly not a waste of time. however, the discourse, as it exists, is often fraught with factual inaccuracies and poor level of empirical analysis.

the idea that american hegemony declined after the fall of the berlin wall, for example, is little more than russian propaganda. an empirical analysis demonstrates that american hegemony has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and especially since 2003. america is today dramatically more powerful than it ever was during the cold war, and has less rivals for global control than it did then (source: chomsky). arguments or projections otherwise are just not based in facts, they're magical thinking. they're nonsense.

further, the premise that american hegemony could exist without the american hegemon to enforce the hegemony, which is almost always what proponents of middle power collusion actually want, is absurd on it's face. this is the christian missionary trying to convert the lion. it's sheer stupidity. it's utter folly.

....but that doesn't mean that the model of the middle power within the system of american hegemony is without value. indeed, it's a system that many seek and would benefit from. those seeking independence of american hegemony generally don't take the time to understand exactly what exists outside this bubble they seek to escape from. the grass is always greener where the dogs are shitting, or so a dead rock star once said.

i'll volunteer to continue criticizing the advocates of middle power collusion. i agree that that's not going anywhere. but i'll hold to the value of middle powers on the world nonetheless.

the idea missing from the argument against middle powers is that america needs allies. all hegemons have allies. when you lose your friends, you lose your influence. you'd think a specious 80s capitalist like trump would tie together meeting friends and spreading influence. so, america needs the middle powers as much as the middle powers need america, and this denial needs to be addressed from both sides.

trump will be gone soon and we'll kiss and make up. but, in the mean time, it's actually valuable that we all take the time to understand the limitations of our theories and the mistakes inherent in our ideologies. we will be better off if we learn from this.

i strongly oppose any normalization of canadian relations with the fascist state in saudi arabia. i would support strong economic sanctions against the saudis for the perpetual future.

turkey is not a legitimate nation-state or a real country, it's a usurping military dictatorship enforcing imperialism and colonialism everywhere it goes. it has no indigenous turkish population. it has enforced it's language, religion and culture strictly through violence and it remains the sick man of europe, on the brink of historical cessation.

there was a time not long ago when turkey had imperial control over north africa, the levant, the arab peninsula, southeastern europe and mesopotamia, but a fundamental outcome of the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries was that turkey's imperial project was severely curtailed and reversed and many of these conquered and subjugated peoples rose up and declared independence for themselves. however, this process is incomplete. there remain subject kurdish, armenian and ionian populatons, and the longstanding illegal occupation of constantinople also needs to be addressed. further wars through the 21st and perhaps 22nd centuries will finish this process of the abolition of the turkish state, and return sovereignty to the remaining subjugated populations of greeks, kurds and armenians. it would appear that a new round of popular uprisings in this illegitimate usurper state is imminent.

the illegal occupation of constantinople remains one of the greatest injustices of modern history and it will be a day of great liberation when the turks are finally permanently expelled from the city, and the greeks take their rightful place as sovereigns of their own capital.

those who seek to align with the turks as a rising power are flat out stupid. turkey remains a collapsing empire and a sick society lost in backwardsness that has no future but elimination. the permanent and total cessation of the turks state is both imminent and desired by all freedom-loving peoples. those advocating for turkish power in the 21st century need to be wiped away, into the latrine of history.

bombing civilian infrastructure in iran will do nothing to generate the regime change that is required to put an end to the situation in the region.

the nazis had marches, too. it means nothing. it's irrelevant 

it's a child-like analysis intended for juvenile minds that want to differentiate periods of time into a false dichotomy of "war" and "peace", as though wars have definitive ends and there exists states of non-war between periods of states of war. only an ignorant child would see the world in those terms.

yes, war is perpetual. peace does not exist. that's pretty fundamental. you have to get over that basic point of fact if you want to sit at the grown up table.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/opinion/us-iran-forever-war-strait-of-hormuz.html

i wanted to eat this morning but it wouldn't fall below 141, it sat at 141.2. i woke u at 138.7. my target was 140.x. so, it's time to eat a bowl of bacon vegetable soup.

if the americans want to pay a premium for high quality canadian mushrooms, let them do that. what do we care?

i suspect american citizens don't want to pay a tax on canadian mushrooms and won't stand for it for too long.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/624671/U-S-moves-to-slap-more-tariffs-on-fresh-Canadian-mushrooms