Trump blames Canada

Trump tears up relationship with America's best friend

Paul Waldman

The 1999 film “South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut” contains a rousing musical number called “Blame Canada,” in which parents of unruly children resolve to blame Canada for all their child-rearing problems.

The humor in the song derived from the fact that blaming Canada for anything seemed so absurd. They’re our kindly northern neighbor, a more polite version of ourselves! They gave us Michael J. Fox, and the Ryans Gosling and Reynolds, Bret “Hitman” Hart, and Shania Twain and Celine Dion! How could we ever be mad at them?

Today, our president is blaming Canada, in an escalating conflict driven by his most petty and vindictive impulses, doing nothing but harm to the citizenry of both countries. It’s not a complete breakup with our closest ally, but it’s drawing awfully close. And it isn’t hard to imagine it getting progressively worse as we slog through the next three years.

On January 20 in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a remarkable speech in which he all but declared the end of the post-war order that the United States and its allies created.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said. “Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumptions that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid.”

The “middle powers,” he went on, have no choice but to band together for their mutual interest, free of the delusion that they can rely on the great powers — or, more specifically, one great power. And rather than just lamenting what Donald Trump is destroying, he argued that it was always something of a lie.

“Stop invoking rules-based international order as though it still functions as advertised,” he said. “Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”

Not surprisingly, Trump didn’t take it well. The day after Carney’s speech, he said, “I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful — they should be grateful to the US, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

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Why the government is trying to make coal cute

Coal mining is bad for the environment and for its neighbors

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Can a lump of coal ever be … cute?

It’s a question no one was thinking about until January 22, when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted a cartoon of himself on X kneeling next to “Coalie” — a combustible lump with giant eyes, an open-mouthed grin, and yellow boots, almost like a carbon-heavy Japanese video game character.

It might seem like a strange mascot to promote what Burgum calls the “American Energy Dominance Agenda.”

“Especially for this administration, I would have expected a little bit more macho twist to it,” said Joshua Paul Dale, a professor of literature and culture at Chuo University in Tokyo, and the author of Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired Our Brains and Conquered the World. 

In Japan, Dale said, seemingly everything gets a cute character attached to it — not just in TV shows and games, but also as part of government public relations efforts. This ultra-adorable aesthetic, associated with rounded shapes and huge eyes, is so common it has a name: kawaii. Even the Tokyo police department has an orange, mouselike mascot, with a disarming cuddliness that serves to make law enforcement feel softer and less threatening.  

Coalie appears to do something similar, countering Burgum’s “mine, baby, mine” message with a kawaii-style innocence. “You know, it makes us feel more familiar,” Dale said. “It makes us want to get closer.” Those warm, fuzzy feelings come from how our brains are wired to respond to babylike characteristics. Give a character a round body, big eyes, and chubby arms and legs, and you can even make a lump of coal look huggable. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: I take this story very personally. For nearly 10 years, I was staff director for the Citizens Coal Council, a federation of citizens' groups spread across the US from the Navajo Nation to Pennsylvania, from Alabama to Montana. These groups were fighting to prevent damage to drinking water, streams, farmland and homes from mining practices such as blasting, subsidence, mountaintop removal and strip mining. With help from whistleblower mine inspectors, we changed legislation and exposed corruption. Our main target was the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) featured in this Grist article. There was no "Coalie" on my watch.  - Will Collette

Statins may help almost everyone with type 2 diabetes live longer

Benefits outweigh risks

American College of Physicians

A large long-term study has found that statins, a widely used class of cholesterol-lowering medications, significantly reduce the risk of death and serious heart-related problems in adults with type 2 diabetes. 

Importantly, these benefits were seen even in people who were considered to have a low chance of developing heart disease within the next 10 years. 

This challenges a long-standing debate over whether preventive statin treatment is worthwhile for patients who appear to be at lower cardiovascular risk.

Statins are commonly prescribed to lower LDL cholesterol, what many people know as bad cholesterol. High LDL levels are linked to clogged arteries, heart attacks, and strokes. People with type 2 diabetes already face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but doctors have not always agreed on whether statins are necessary for those whose short-term heart risk appears minimal. The new findings suggest that statins may offer protective effects for a much wider group of diabetes patients than previously believed. The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The research team, led by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, examined health records from the IQVIA Medical Research Data (IMRD)-UK database. Their goal was to assess both the effectiveness and safety of starting statin therapy for primary prevention. Primary prevention refers to preventing a first heart attack or stroke before any such event has occurred.

The study focused on adults in the United Kingdom with type 2 diabetes between the ages of 25 and 84. Participants were followed for as long as 10 years. At the start of the study, none of the individuals had serious heart disease or significant liver problems, allowing researchers to more clearly assess the effects of statins without interference from existing severe conditions.

The wealthiest 15 billionaires in America saw their wealth grow over 30 percent in 2025.

America’s Wealthiest Are Getting Even Richer

By Chris Mills Rodrigo

The top 15 wealthiest people in America are part of a very, very exclusive club: those with over $100,000,000,000 in net worth. After double checking those zeroes, we can confidently say that yes, there are 15 centi-billionaires living among us.

And, according to a new Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the Forbes real time billionaire list, the combined wealth of that 12-figure club grew from $2.4 trillion to $3.1 trillion over the course of 2025.

For context, that 30.3 percent rate of growth outpaced both the S&P 500 (16 percent) and billionaires in general (20.8 percent) over the last year. To put it succinctly, the wealthiest Americans are accumulating capital faster than everyone else.

The top 15 wealthiest billionaires aren’t the only ones doing well for themselves. Our analysis found that found that the number of U.S. billionaires increased from 813 with combined wealth of $6.7 trillion at the end of 2024 to 935 U.S. billionaires with combined assets of $8.1 trillion.

Donald Trump vs. Donald Trump

The Art of the Self-Deal

Robert Reich

Trump has sued the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion.

In the suit, filed in Miami federal court on Thursday, Trump alleges that the IRS was responsible for the leak of some of Trump’s tax documents to press in September 2020. The leak occurred by an IRS contractor.

The leaked tax documents revealed that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he first won the presidency, and paid no taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

The lawsuit claims that the leak caused Trump and his family “reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump.”

Oh please.

Trump has been unique among presidential candidates and presidents in refusing to release his tax documents to the public.

He’s also been unique among presidents in filing lawsuits against the government — his government, which is supposed to be our government.

He’s also been unique among presidents in turning the Justice Department into his own private law firm — at least unique since 1975, when Gerald Ford rescued the department from the clutches of Richard Nixon.

So how, exactly, is this $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS going to work? Who will represent the government — that is, you and I and every other taxpayer that would, in effect, have to shell out $10 billion if he wins?

How can the Justice Department represent us when Trump has directed the department to do whatever he wants it to do? If there are settlement negotiations with him, who’s going to negotiate the settlement with him? Who’s going to sign the final agreement with him?

This takes the “art of the deal” into a surreal new dimension. Trump will be making a deal with himself.

Forget hockey, Donald. Stick to golf

 

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Things gotta change

Microbes under the snow: The hidden (and vulnerable) world that fuels spring

There's life under all that snow

By Anna Gray

New research by URI soil microbiologist Patrick Sorensen reveals the vulnerable process taking place as snowpacks shrink.

When snow blankets the landscape, it may seem like life slows down. But beneath the surface, an entire world of activity is unfolding. “Unlike many plants or some animals, which tend to go dormant or are much less active during winter, soil microbes are actually very active under winter snowpacks,” says Patrick Sorensen, a soil microbiologist and assistant professor of soil ecology and biogeochemistry in the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Natural Resources Science.

All winter, soil microbes decompose organic matter, releasing nutrients that are critical for plants. By spring, these nutrients are perfectly timed to fuel new growth. Warming winters and reduced snow cover can disrupt this timing, allowing nutrients to wash into streams, escape into the air, or leave plants short of what they need.

Bamboo isn’t just fast-growing, it may be a powerful new superfood hiding in plain sight.

Scientists are rethinking bamboo as a powerful new superfood

Anglia Ruskin University

Bamboo shoots may be far more than a crunchy side dish. A comprehensive review found they can help control blood sugar, support heart and gut health, and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. Laboratory and human studies also suggest bamboo may promote beneficial gut bacteria and reduce toxic compounds in cooked foods. However, bamboo must be pre-boiled to avoid natural toxins.

The first-ever academic review focused on bamboo as a food has uncovered a wide range of possible health benefits. Researchers found evidence suggesting bamboo consumption may help regulate blood sugar, reduce inflammation, support digestive health, and provide antioxidant effects.

Bamboo is known as the fastest growing plant on the planet, with some species capable of growing up to 90cm in a single day. While China and India are the largest producers and bamboo shoots are already common in many Asian cuisines, the findings suggest bamboo could become an important food option for diets around the world.

After "Melania" flop and performer boycott, Trump plans Kennedy Center shutdown

Family of JFK Call BS on Trump Shuttering of Kennedy Center

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

The descendants of former President John F. Kennedy are denouncing Donald Trump’s order to shutter the Kennedy Center and calling bullshit on his reasons for doing so.

On Sunday, Trump abruptly announced on Truth Social that beginning on July 4, the performing arts center in Washington, DC, which he recently renamed after himself, would shut down for two years for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”

Trump said the decision was based on input from a group of “many Highly Respected experts,” who said the center was “tired, broken, and dilapidated” and needed to be shut down for a facelift.

However, the family of the center’s namesake said it has more to do with the recent pullout of talent in protest after it became the “Trump-Kennedy Center” last year and the president began asserting control over its programming, which included the world premiere of a hagiographic documentary about his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, this weekend.

In a post on social media, JFK’s niece, Maria Shriver, gave what she said was a “translation” of Trump’s comments about the center’s sudden closure.

She suggested the president meant to say: “It has been brought to my attention that due to the name change (but nobody’s telling me it’s due to the name change), but it’s been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right, and I have determined that since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer.”

Speaking as Trump, she continued: “I’ve determined that due to this change in schedule, it’s best for me to close this center down and rebuild a new center that will bear my name, which will surely get everybody to stop talking about the fact that everybody’s canceling... right?”

Trump's "Peace" Board is set to line his pockets

First get rid of the Palestinians, then let Jared Kusner build a giant Trump resort

Meanwhile, pay Trump a billion dollars!

Sabrina Haake

Trump Tower. Trump Steaks. Trump University. Trump Watches. Trump cologne, candles, coins, robes, ornaments, towels, pens, gerbils, and gold-tipped suppositories. It’s hard to think of anything Trump hasn’t tried to monetize.

And now, from his premier fantasy collection, there’s Trump UN.

Last September, while Trump was busy solving eight wars that leaders of those countries say never started, never ended, or had nothing to do with him, Trump hatched a plan to line his own pockets with the misery in Gaza. He came up with a Gaza Board of Peace vested with magical powers to maintain order while steering private investments to his friends and family.

Trump’s Billion-dollar racket

From a plan being circulated within the White House

For a mere billion dollar membership fee, you can join Trump’s Orwellian-themed Peace Board and dine with the world’s most brutal dictators.

Trump, who invested his dad’s money in Middle East real estate two decades ago, claimed last year that the U.S. would “run” Gaza, that he saw “long term ownership” possibilities there. His “Riviera of the Middle East” proposal with son in law Jared Kushner floated luxury tourism and an economic hub, describing Gaza as having a “phenomenal location, on the sea, the best weather” with “unbelievable” potential.

The only hitch? Someone would first need to relocate more than two million desperately poor Palestinians who have nowhere else to go.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no fan of international law or Palestinians, loved the concept. Arab leaders, not so much. Palestinians, leaders of surrounding Arab nations, and international organizations saw Trumps ‘Riviera’ as ethnic cleansing, ripe for war crimes under international law.