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The Puck Stops Here

Canadian Election, Trump's Crypto

Dave Pell

Apr 29

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Canuck-nuck. Who's there? Donald Trump. Donald Trump who? Donald Trump who keeps saying he wants to turn you into the 51st state. Well, it turns out that Canadians didn't view that threat as a joking matter. Mark Carney won the vote for Prime Minister of Canada "by running against Trump every day for six weeks, delivering an anti-annexation message that allowed him to bring the Liberal Party back from the grave, a sudden, 30-point turnaround without precedent." Time: How Mark Carney Won Canada’s Pivotal Election.

+ "'As I've been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country,' Carney told supporters Monday night. 'These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never ... ever happen.'"

+ "Trump was the central figure in Canada’s election Monday—and voters were impressed by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s vision for standing up to him. In a campaign video released on Election Day, Carney laid out his closing message. 'The crisis in the United States doesn’t stop at their borders,' he says. 'But this is Canada and we decide what happens here. Let’s choose to be united and strong. Canada strong.'" How Mark Carney’s anti-Trump brand won him Canada’s election.

+ The obsession with Canada is at least in part driven by concerns about resources that will become more vital as climate change advances. One of the dark ironies in opposite world is that the more thirsty the Trumpers get for Canada, the more they work to deny the reality underpinning that thirst. NYT (Gift Article): All Authors Working on Flagship U.S. Climate Report Are Dismissed.

+ While elections have many drivers, it's pretty clear that our famously friendly neighbors to the North told Donald Trump to go Canuck himself. But the rhetoric and results also represent a stark reminder of just how much damage Trump has senselessly done to our relationship with our once closest friend and ally—which is part of a broader trend as we reach the 100 day mark of Trump 2.0. Our friends hold us in contempt and our enemies see an opportunity to remake the world order.

2

Master of the Coin

You'll be seeing a lot of assessments of Trump's first 100 days this week. And many will focus on the low poll numbers, the weak stock market, the failure to pass bills, and the general ineptitude of a team seemingly designed to be inept. But there are areas where Trump is thriving, bigly. For example, he's used memecoins and other crypto ventures to corrupt the system for personal gains in unprecedented ways. (Of course Trump would love a Memecoin, it's got the word Me twice.) NYT (Gift Article): Secret Deals, Foreign Investments, Presidential Policy Changes: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm. "Mr. Trump’s return to the White House has opened lucrative new pathways for him to cash in on his power, whether through his social media company or new overseas real estate deals. But none of the Trump family’s other business endeavors pose conflicts of interest that compare to those that have emerged since the birth of World Liberty. The firm, largely owned by a Trump family corporate entity, has erased centuries-old presidential norms, eviscerating the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in a manner without precedent in modern American history." (For the Trump family, the market is good and shelves runneth over.)

3

U-Turn

"One would think that venture capitalists, especially those with ties to the Trump administration, would be the most forceful champions of America’s research universities, given how much these institutions have fueled our careers and fortunes. Instead, many of us are scratching our heads as to why officials from the industry have turned their backs while the government chaotically terminates funding for this work. Harvard and Columbia have been in the headlines, but the hatchet has also fallen on Michigan State in the Midwest and the University of Hawaii farther west. It is as if the V.C.s in Washington had just enjoyed a fine meal in Silicon Valley and decided to skip out on the check." David Singer, a managing partner at Maverick Ventures, calls out his industry (by pointing out the ways many of them are working against their own self-interest). NYT (Gift Article): White House Tech Bros Are Killing What Made Them (and America) Wealthy.

4

Wax Figures

"It's orange, it's sticky, and it's probably the last thing you want to talk about in polite conversation. Yet earwax is increasingly attracting the attention of scientists, who want to use it to learn more about diseases and conditions like cancer, heart disease, and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes." BBC: What your earwax can reveal about your health.

5

Extra, Extra

Don't Ask, Don't Sell: "Amazon now denies reports it planned to list how much tariffs increased products' prices after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the move as a 'hostile and political act.'" (What could be more hostile to this administration than depicting reality with transparent honesty...) The apparent change of policy came after Bezos got a call from Trump.

+ Space Jam: "These satellites enable communications and internet access in remote locations, and in areas devastated by natural disasters or war. But the space around our planet is getting increasingly congested with both functioning satellites and the junk left behind by older missions — and the problem will worsen as more satellites are launched." The Verge: Starlink’s got company — and orbital overcrowding is a disaster waiting to happen.

+ He Said, Xi Said: "I have wondered in the past which course Putin would choose with Trump: Would he appease him, in the interest of strengthening an American president who shares his desire to destroy the liberal world order, or would he be more interested in humiliating the American president as a way of demonstrating conclusively that the U.S. can’t protect anyone and the era of American global leadership is over? Although Putin has done it with a smile and an outstretched hand, the humiliations have been consistent and plentiful." Robert Kagan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why Trump Is Giving Putin Everything He Wants. Putin isn't the only one who sees opportunity. "President Xi Jinping’s diplomats are fanning out across the world with a clear message for countries cutting deals with Donald Trump: The US is a bully that can’t be trusted." Xi Is Trying to Turn World Against US as Trump Cuts Trade Deals. (This would be impossible had it not been for the last 100 days and the team Trump has assembled.)

+ Lies Like Us: Nothing pleases enemies more than when you turn yourself into the enemy. WaPo: FBI, national security agencies using polygraphs for ‘leak’ hunts. (Might be easier just to sign up for Signal and friend Pete Hegseth...)

+ Dementia, Texas: "Nearly one in three people lives in poverty; a quarter lack health insurance. Chronic conditions are widespread—especially diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease—while access to care is limited: There’s just one primary-care physician for every 3,000 to 4,000 people, and few dementia specialists. Low education, language barriers, poor air quality, and extreme heat all compound the threat. These accumulate in cycles of grief and stress: The people I spoke with talked about deaths in the family followed by strokes that cascade into cognitive decline. Dementia isn’t simply a diagnosis. It’s a structural outcome." The Texas County Where ‘Everybody Has Somebody in Their Family’ With Dementia.

+ Pitch Perfect: "There was a time when the least popular people in English soccer were the American billionaires and MBAs who crossed the Atlantic to buy up the country’s oldest clubs. Often seen as clueless interlopers, they were as maligned as referees or Manchester United supporters." WSJ (Gift Article): American Owners Got Chewed Up by English Soccer. Now They Can’t Stop Winning.

+ Sewer Viewer: Wired: "Poorly maintained sewers can have disastrous consequences, but regular inspections can be time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. The solution: subterranean dung drones."

+ (S)ink Jet: An F/A-18E fighter jet rolled off the side an aircraft carrier and sank to the bottom of the Red Sea.

6

Bottom of the News

"A chorus of sea gull squawks and screeches could be heard in a seaside Belgian resort town on Sunday — but it was not coming from the birds. Competitors from 13 countries came together in De Panne, Belgium, to see who could produce the most faithful imitation of a gull sound for the fifth annual European Gull Scream Championship." To Win This Contest, Just Squawk Like a Seagull. (I do that every time I open the next news tab...)

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