Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 3h

Why failing to reach a big, beautiful tariff-reduction deal is in fact a shrewd strategic move and so much better than having one — just ask the Europeans

(I write from Frankfurt-am-Main)

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Carney’s better off without a big Trump trade deal. Just ask the Europeans

There has been plenty of buyer’s remorse in countries that signed hasty agreements with Washington. Canada would be wise to wait

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 3h

Trump Ed Balls’d the Comey persecution

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 4h

They arrested Rosa Luxemburg!

Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 7h

"the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa"

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 4d

The recent rise of “shadow federalism” — groups of states replacing federal agencies abdicated or destroyed by Trump — combined with the president’s military targeting of those states makes an American schism a medium-term possibility for which we should plan

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: United States may split into warring federal entities. Let’s side with the better one

Recent developments contain the seeds of a United States divided into two competing federalisms – and even a potential civil war

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

From 2017. Pretty much spot on

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

Remember when the Boston Globe ran this supposedly over-the-top front page to attack the idea of Trump ever being president, and now this is just the news every day? We've fallen so, so far because of this man

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

When Trump referred to a congressperson as "low IQ" today, I didn't need to look up her sex and skin colour.

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

That’s pretty cool actually. I knew a Canadian Inuit who lived in Nuuk and was considered exotic by the Greenlandic locals — everyone signed up for her Wednesday throat-singing lessons to learn the whole Canadian arctic thing. Good to see more of this sort of interchange

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

OMG that’s mind blowing. Imagine signing off on that. At their salaries.

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Given that you can just about see Canada from parts of Greenland, it would be a good start to have even one flight between the two places, even once a week. At the moment you need to fly to Europe first

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Canada and Greenland can forge a new relationship

The Arctic will be a fulcrum of strategic and economic activity in the coming decades

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 2d

Tory Conference debate on free speech. You see? Sometimes being "cancelled" is a mercy.

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Not just this nonexistent paper by Dr. Franke but every source cited in this paper cannot be found in the real world — the whole paper, bearing the name of a possibly actual human named Andrew O. McLeese, is an apparent Large Language Model hallucination

Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 1d

And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.

www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...

And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.

#AIisnotresearch

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Due to the Chatham House Rule, nobody can report that I’m the one in the back of every meeting who yells “It’s not Chatham House Rules! There’s only one rule!” and causes everyone to groan

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

That one day when your avocado is edible? It was going to be today. He lasted until end of yesterday

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

One of the most serious consequences of Canada's low population density is the effect on our climate impact. Not only the extreme inefficiency of low-density homes, but the far greater number of private-automobile trips needed per person, etc. Underpopulation is climate catastrophe

Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 2d

The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on “Mapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

This makes Lecornu, at 27 days, the shortest-serving French Prime Minister since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. He even beats the shortest-serving British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, though minus her destruction of the economy (his cabinet was due to sit for the first time today)

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 2d

🚨 BREAKING: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his government have resigned.

Read the developing story: ow.ly/6uzZ50X6TAz

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Stephen Tustin @stustin.bsky.social · 2d

While #MarkCarney and the Liberals soften us up for their "austerity" budget, they do well to (re)read @dougsaunders.bsky.social book on population growth and Canada's future. #growth #immigration #newcomers #internationalstudents www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-a...

Review: Doug Saunders’s Maximum Canada argues the more the merrier

This important book provides a highly professional explanation of how we came to our present ‘crisis of underpopulation’

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

More needs to be done to put highrise housing in the "yellow belt," both to increase density for human and ecological reasons and to make these districts suitable for rapid transit. But there's still a quite a lot of room for higher-density housing growth eg near subway stations on existing lines

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

One of the most serious consequences of Canada's low population density is the effect on our climate impact. Not only the extreme inefficiency of low-density homes, but the far greater number of private-automobile trips needed per person, etc. Underpopulation is climate catastrophe

Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 2d

The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on “Mapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 2d

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government....

On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames

time.com/7323442/sout...

House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze

Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.

time.com

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

This interview was bad enough without the misleading "Baltics" headline. She strongly believes that the Minsk process was working and that Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine was reversible through negotiations, though it was obvious by 2019 that Putin would not be restoring borders under any terms

Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 2d

I am not a #Merkel fan (as many of you know), but the headlines following her interview with Partizan are complete nonsense.

She does not blame Poland or the Baltics at all.

Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 @reshetz.bsky.social · 2d

We do not hate merkel enough

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

François Heisbourg @fheisbourg.bsky.social · 2d

That was quick- indeed a speed record for the French Republic: Lecornu has resigned 13 hours after his government was formed. Next move is now Macron's. 3 options: a 6th PM of his term (maybe from the left; in all cases expect ultrabrief lifetime); snap elections (possible); prez resigns (unlikely)

François Heisbourg @fheisbourg.bsky.social · 2d

Looks like Lecornu's government may be stillborn. And Macron may find it impossible to name a 6th prime minister in less than three years

FRANCE 24 @france24.com · 2d

Gouvernement de Sébastien Lecornu, en direct : à peine nommé, déjà fragilisé

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

This makes Lecornu, at 27 days, the shortest-serving French Prime Minister since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. He even beats the shortest-serving British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, though minus her destruction of the economy (his cabinet was due to sit for the first time today)

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 2d

🚨 BREAKING: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his government have resigned.

Read the developing story: ow.ly/6uzZ50X6TAz

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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

This is an EU proposed policy with the benign-sounding name "Child Sexual Abuse Regulation" which proposes to screen private online communications using sketchy image-scanning algorithms. It is technically unworkable, and would be a privacy catastrophe, especially for those in authoritarian states

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 2d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Adrian Hiel @adrianhiel.bsky.social · 3d

Note the contrast in the public discourse in Canada compared to the EU in this piece from @dougsaunders.bsky.social earlier this week. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: United States may split into warring federal entities. Let’s side with the better one

Recent developments contain the seeds of a United States divided into two competing federalisms – and even a potential civil war

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Reposted by Doug Saunders

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 4d

Jesus Christ. DHS has held this guy in the hospital handcuffed to a bed and under constant guard for over a MONTH without ANY warrant or even ANY steps taken towards putting him into the removal system!

Petitioner’s counsel has requested documentation of a judicial warrant for his arrest, any charging documents, or other authority supporting his detention. See Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 18–20. ICE has provided no response. Id. To date, ICE has not placed Petitioner in removal proceedings, charged him with violating immigration law, set bond, issued a Notice to Appear, or otherwise processed him. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 49. In Respondent’s Opposition brief, the government states “ICE intends to take further action consistent with the laws prescribed under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) once Petitioner is released from medical care and it can conduct the examination as [prescribed] in 8 C.F.R § 287.3.” Opp. at 4. Neither Petitioner nor Respondents have provided the Court with information about Petitioner’s citizenship, whether he has violated any law or regulation, or any information that would suggest that Petitioner is a flight risk.

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