Joe Kent resignation is a blow for Trump

Trump shrugged it off and (very quickly) moved on to a new question in a media scrum yesterday, but the resignation of Joe Kent - the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center - is a big deal.

Not just because Kent was a Trump appointee and a high-profile MAGA guy (albeit on the non-interventionist wing of the movemement). But because he didn't just disappear quietly into the background, but rather defected very publicly, with an open letter explaining his reasons for resigning and the many reasons why Trump's war in Iran is wrong.

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." 

Ouch.

Don't get me wrong, Kent is a loose cannon himself and deep into conspiracy theories. But kudos to him for standing up to Trump and telling it like it is. The rift between the interventionist and non-interventionist wings of the MAGA base is becoming deeper and wider every day. Bring it on, I say.

Trump tries to bribe companies to abandon renewable energy projects

It's no secret that Donald Trump hates wind turbines, especially offshore ones. He has tried (and largely failed so far) to cancel a bunch of wind farms off the eastern seaboard that were already in progress.

Now, though, he is setting his sights on cancelling offshore wind farms that are permitted but not yet begun. And this time, there's a twist.

Trump wants to cancel two large wind farms permitted by the Biden administration to the French oil/energy company TotalEnergies SE, one off the coast of New York, and one off North Carolina. His ploy now - or at least that of the Interior and Justice Departments, which just seem to follow Trump's every whim, no matter how random, foolish or financially imprudent - is to basically bribe the developers. 

The New York Times has seen contracts drawn up with TotalEnergies that would see the company abandon the two wind farms (which would, between them, have powered over a million homes and businesses) and commit unspecified sums of money to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas instead. To make TotalEnergies happy with this intervention and their loss of income, the Justice Department would pay them $795 million to abandon the New York project and a further $133 million for the North Carolina development. And this, remember, in a so-called "energy emergency" that Trump himself declared last year.

So, that's nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money that Trump is making the government shell out just because ... well, we're not really sure why. There are no actual national security reasons or economic imperatives, whatever Trump may bluster. He has just decided that he doesn't like wind power, and his feckless administration humours him in it.

You can't buy veggie chicken in Europe any more

The EU comes in for a lot of stick from a lot of folks and for various different reasons. But, for all that, it remains one of the most sensible and civilized blocs in today's world. Yes, it has its problems (Hungary, anyone?) but, for the most part, it does a good job of providing a voice of sobriety and reason in today's increasingly weird and dysfunctional global politics.

Occasionally, though, it missteps. One such misstep is the latest policy decision to ban the use of words like "chicken", "bacon" and "steak" by vegetarian and vegan food producers, even if it is clearly qualified on the label as being vegetarian or vegan. Mysteriously, words like "burger", "nuggets" and "sausage" ARE still allowed, because ... well, I'm really not sure why. Where they stand on the use of "chick'un", "chick'n", etc, I'm also not sure. Incidentally, this ruling also applies to the UK, which - also mysteriously - is still subject to such EU commercial edicts.

Now, it seems pretty unlikely to me that anyone has ever picked up a pack of veggie bacon in a supermarket and been traumatized to find that it contains absolutely no dead animal. The "veggie" part is usually front and centre of their packaging and advertising - it's a positive selling point, after all. (A British survey suggests that 92% of shoppers say they have never mistaken "fake" meat for the "real thing".)

Either way, I think the EU overstepped their brief on this this one. Do they really have nothing better to discuss at the moment, like maybe global security, recession-spawning tariffs, existential changes in the climate?

No-one wants to help dig Trump out of his latest quagmire

Unsurprisingly, Trump's "demand" that other countries (like China, Japan, South Korea, France and the UK) help police the Strait of Hormuz is falling on deaf ears.

"I'm demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory", quoth he. Well, no it's not, actually. The Strait, which is as narrow as 20 miles (32km) at one point, is technically an "international strait" within the meaning of Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is bordered by Iran on one side and Oman on the other. Iran does not legally own the Strait, but it can effectively control it based on its physical proximity. However, it definitely does not belong to the USA, China or any other country that may happen to use it or want it.

Trump, whose "most powerful military in the world" seems to be struggling to assert control in the region, wants to drag other countries into his unilateral war. But, wisely, no-one is biting. Just because Trump has bitten off more than he can chew doesn't mean that everyone else should come flocking to his aid - quite the contrary. He needs to learn not to go around imperilling world trade and security based on little more than a whim and delusions of grandeur. 

After Trump warned - in his usual tone of veiled, or not-so-veiled, threat - that not doing as he "demands" would be "very bad for the future of NATA", one former British Chief of Defence Staff laid it out clearly: "NATO was created as a ... defensive alliance. It was not an alliance that was designed for one of the allies to go on a war of choice and then oblige everybody else to follow." Thus far, there have been few firm commitments (none confirmed publicly, despite Trump's claims). Canada, as always is playing it cagey, insisting that "there has been no formal ask of Canada". More bluntly, the UK's Keir Starmer asserts that the UK "will not be drawn into the wider war". German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was even blunter: "This is not our war. We haven't started it."

UPDATE

Stung by the deafening silence from the US's "allies", Trump launched into another bewildering speech in which he flip-flopped back and forth but eventually concluded (I think) with the rather tired line that America doesn't actually NEED anyone else's help - they're the most powerful country on earth, don't you know, with the strongest military anybody has ever seen, ever - and that he was only asking for help in the Strait of Hormuz to see who would respond, to see who his real friends are.

Unbearable man! I think he can safely say, after this little exercise, that he HAS no friends, and that he has managed to alienate pretty much the whole world in just one year.

Even teabags are full of microplastics

By now, we have pretty much come to understand that microplastics and nanoplastics.(collectively, MNPs) are everywhere, in the food we eat, the water we drink, the very air we breathe. Our bodies are therefore just full of them.

A recent meta-study shows just how many are entering our system through as innocent an activity as drinking a cup of tea. Setting aside MNPs in the water, MNPs leaching from the cup/mug/teapot, and MNPs from the packaging and processing operations, the studies show that the teabags themselves are a significant source of micro- and nano- plastics.

I try to avoid those fancy pyramid-shaped "silk" teabags, which are essentially made of nylon (i.e. plastic). Pour boiling water over them and you have to expect a flood of plastic bits to be released. But traditional "paper" teabags (which are actually primarily made of bleached wood pulp and abaca, a banana plant derivative) are also a source, made worse by the fact that many such paper teabags are treated with polypropylene, epichlorohydrin, etc, to help strengthen and seal them. Not even "biodegradable", "compostable" and PLA "bioplastic" teabags are exempt.

A single teabag, it seems, can release between 1.3 and 14.7 billion MNPs, depending on the study and the methodology. Those are huge and scary numbers, but they do not mean that teabags are killing us, merely that they are contributing to the plastic load in our bodies and the environment, which over time will degrade our health in subtle and opaque ways.

Makes you feel like throwing your hands up in despair and having a cup of tea, doesn't it? Oh, wait...

Trump's solution to the oil crisis is ... not actually a solution

Trump's gratuitous and illegal war in Iran has upended the world's trade in oil and gas and caused a record spike in prices

But, never fear, he has a plan. That plan involves lifting the restrictions that he himself imposed on other countries buying Russian gas. Not the most obvious solution, you might think. Not even a very effective solution. But, as treasury secretary Scott Bessant assures us, this really won't benefit Russia all that much: "It won't provide significant benefit to the Russian government", and is merely a "tailored short-term move".

Well, it turns out that this "tailored short-term move" will actually generate about $11.3 billion for Russia, money that Moscow will happily pocket and put towards its rapidly-depleting Ukraine kitty. India and China, neither of which greatly care about the morality of buying Russian oil, will be most happy to take advantage of this new loophole without being dinged by American tariffs. 

And this is somehow supposed to directly ameliorate the global oil price crunch? To rectify the economic chaos that Trump himself instigated?

Brilliant idea, Donny! Inspired!

Gambling in America goes beyond the pale

If you wanted yet more evidence that the United States is going off the rails, you need look no further than American gambling culture.

Gambling, including online gambling, in the US used to be pretty highly regulated. Sports betting was illegal until 2018, and betting on elections was off-limits until 2024. Now, though, gambling has become completely ingrained in American culture.

Most recently, in the morality-free milieu of Trump 2.0 and MAGA "philosophy", an even more problematic habit is taking hold: the so-called "prediction market", or betting on political or military actions. Under American law, it is still supposed to be illegal to bet on war, terrorism, assassination, or other illegal activities. But, of late, outfits like Kalshi and Polymarket have been taking bets on, for example, when Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be "out", military action in Venezuela and Israel, when US ground forces will enter Iran, even the chances of a nuclear detonation.

Yes, it is all supposed to be illegal, but there has been an estimated $44 billion in prediction market trades over the last year or so. Polymarket alone has hosted an estimated $500 million in bets on the Iran war, which is now just two weeks old. There does not seem to be much enforcement of the legalities.

There has been an outcry, though, and some of the companies involved have said they will dial back that line of gambling. There is even discussion of whether such speculation should come under the oversight of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. But in a country where you can bet on local elections, whether the central bank will cut interest rates, and when Jesus.Christ will return, there doesn't seem much likelihood of legal reform making a whole lot of difference.

Our complicated relationship with the USA

It hardly needs re-stating, but Canada's relationship with the United States is now on pretty rocky ground. What is perhaps less obvious is the contradictory nature of our attitudes towards our overbearing southern neighbour.

For example, in the latest polls, 49% of Canadians think that the US is no longer a trustworthy ally of Canada, and a further 27% "somewhat" believe that. That's 76% (three-quarters) of the population, compared to 22% who believe or somewhat believe that the US is still trustworthy.

As a result, 75% of us have responded to the Trump administration's predations by avoiding purchasing American goods or services, and 51% have cancelled travel plans to the US. That's how much we dislike them (or rather "him", although it's difficult to tease the two apart).

But...

A large majority still believes that, for better or worse, we are tied to the United States, at least to some extent. Thus, 81% think that the USMCA/CUSMA free trade agreement with the USA and Mexico has been a net positive for Canada, and 87% think it is important or somewhat important to preserve USMCA/CUSMA, and support Prime Minister Carney in his bid to renegotiate the agreement this year.

So, it's very much case of "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em". We would prefer to have nothing to do with the USA, but most people realize that's not actually practical.