James L Turk

‘Elbows Up’ — Yesterday’s Slogan Home About

‘Elbows Up’ — Yesterday’s Slogan -- Judy Haiven is right that our apologetic (to Trump) Prime Minister uses the rhetoric of Canada charting its own course while pursuing policies that bring us evermore into the U.S. orbit. That leads no where good. open.substack.com/pub/judyhaiv...

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel Exclusive: In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Top AI assistants misrepresent news content, study finds | CBC News Leading AI assistants misrepresent news content in nearly half their responses, according to new research published on Wednesday by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC. The study also fo...

Leading AI assistants misrepresent news content nearly half the time according to a European and British study of 3,000 responses to questions about the news from leading artificial intelligence assistants. www.cbc.ca/news/world/a...

Trump threatens to cut US aid to Argentina if Milei loses election US president says ‘we will not be generous’ if leader fails to win key midterms after promising $20bn to prop up struggling economy

The opponent of foreign interference in U.S. elections is doing his best to interfere in Argentina’s

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US Cartooning Tradition in Peril in Trump’s First Year In the era of Trump, publishers are, for a variety of reasons, encouraging cartoonists to approach the president on bended knee.

The Trump Administration’s attack on freedom of expression is being particularly felt by editorial cartoonists. Some sad stories and great cartoons can be found in this article

fair.org/home/us-cart...

Alberta Returns to 17th Century Puritanism for Its School Libraries | Centre for Free Expression 17th Century puritanism has come back to life in the Alberta Government. Last week, its Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides signed a Ministerial Order that is jaw-dropping. Concerned that some...

Alberta Education Minister's ban of all books with any sexually explicit content from all school libraries will only hurt kids. We all learn about sex. Too bad there won't be access to the best books available -- which are sexually explicit in age appropriate ways. cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2025/07...

American Dachau Trump Takes the Next Step

Former Canadian MP Charlie Angus reflects on where MAGA's celebration of a camp built for the express purpose of dehumanizing and brutalizing migrants could lead. Unfortunately, his fears should be all our fears.
American Dachau open.substack.com/pub/charliea...

See How Trump’s Big Bill Could Affect Your Taxes, Health Care and Other Finances The wide-ranging domestic policy legislation could impact your taxes, clean energy choices, health care access and more.

Congress just passed the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history. All those well-intentioned poor and modest-income Americans who voted for Trump will pay a huge price. So will the United States.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Canadian legal & human rights scholars call on York Region to reinstate paramedic fired for Facebook comment critical of Israel; not altogether different from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmer's Haaretz op-ed “Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes.” tinyurl.com/3yz3vjud

Canada rescinds digital services tax in a bid to advance trade talks with US Canada has rescinded its digital services tax in a bid to advance trade negotiations with the U.S., Canada's finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Instead of the “elbows up” Priime Minister Mark Carney promised to be, he has shown only cowardice and capitulation to Trump’s threats. Last night’s cancellation of Canada’s Digital Services Tax, as Trump demanded, is a disgrace to Canada and Canadians.

www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Great source of recommended readings

Librarians and Educators Should Decide Books for School Libraries, Not Politicians | Centre for Free Expression On Monday, May 26th, 2025, Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that the government was bringing in new rules to ensure only "age-appropriate" books are available in school lib...

Decisions about what books should be in school libraries should be made by professional educators and librarians, not by politicians using children in their culture wars as is happening in Alberta. cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2025/06...

Vaccine safety, politics and the nocebo effect - Healthy Debate We must vigorously counter the misinformation and political spin that helps to fuel the accelerating vaccine concern vortex.

Studies consistently show a LARGE portion of vaccine related adverse events are caused by the nocebo effects.

Eg: Republicans & the hesitant experience more adverse events.

My take: Vaccine safety, politics and the nocebo effect healthydebate.ca/2025/04/topi... via @healthydebate.bsky.social

First Nations unity displayed at rally against Alberta separatism “Our Treaties are not relics. They are not documents to be shelved and forgotten.”

Premier Danielle Smith has found a way to bring Alberta's Treaty First Nations & the Calgary Chamber of Commerce together in common cause-denunciation of her coy flirtation/encouragement of Alberta separatism. tinyurl.com/5n7xur4d

First Nations unity displayed at rally against Alberta separatism

A fine statement of leading U.S. civil liberties' organizations. The surest protection against authoritarianism is active resistance by civil society - despair, apathy, cynicism, hopelessness are the authoritarian forces' best friends.

U.S. economy shrank in early 2025, as tariffs sapped growth GDP shrank in the first quarter, a new report shows, offering a look at how tariffs are reshaping spending patterns and changing the economy.

Breaking news: The U.S. economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, contracting by an annualized rate of 0.3 percent, a stark reversal after nearly three years of solid growth, as tariff-related uncertainty upended spending patterns and raised fears of an impending recession.

Government of Ontario wins national award for outstanding achievement in government secrecy - for using private cell phones and personal emails for government business - undercutting public access to information under Ontario law.https://tinyurl.com/4ye4xwhd

There is hope in this dark time when the higher education sector is standing up to the bullying tactics of the Trump Administration - quite unlike their cowardice during the period of McCarthyism in the 1940s and 50s.

There is hope in this dark time when the higher education sector is standing up to the bullying tactics of the Trump Administration - quite unlike their cowardice during the period of McCarthyism in the 1940s and 50s.

It is good that the higher education sector is standing up to the bullying tactics of the Trump Administration - quite unlike their cowardice during the period of McCarthyism in the 1940s and 50s.

The cruelty, short sightedness, and incompetence of the Trump administration is staggering.

Trump’s EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data From Most Polluters Climate experts expressed shock and dismay at the move. “It would be a bit like unplugging the equipment that monitors the vital signs of a patient that is critically ill,” one said.

NEW: Climate experts expressed shock at the Trump administration's plan to stop collecting American polluters’ greenhouse gas emissions.

“Not tracking the data doesn’t make the climate crisis any less real,” one said. “This is just putting our heads in the sand.”

By @fastlerner.bsky.social

Trump administration suspends dozens of research grants to Princeton | CNN The Trump administration has suspended research grants totaling $210 million to Princeton University as part of an ongoing investigation into antisemitism on campus, according to the White House and t...

Now the Trump Administration is trying to bully Princeton - withholding $210-million in research grants. Princeton's president Christopher Eisgruber's response is not the same as Columbia, thank goodness! edition.cnn.com/2025/04/01/u...

Funds cut for Cornell, Northwestern | LinkedIn One billion dollars in federal funds and grants to Cornell University and $790 million to Northwestern University have been frozen, the White House confirmed to CNN.

Federal government bullying of universities extended to Cornell (withholding $1-billion in federal funds) and Northwestern (withholding $790-million) to make them serve Trump's ideology. Giving in to bullies only empowers them.
www.linkedin.com/news/story/f...

Artist quits post after P.E.I. vet college tells him to remove painting based on U.S. politics | CBC News Christopher Griffin, the now former artist-in-residence at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, says administrators were trying to censor one of his paintings after complaints from Americ...

It is a sad day for Canada when our universities start censoring artistic work critical of how the US is treating Canada. The University of Prince Edward Island should be ashamed of driving its first artist-in-residence to resign. The University's behaviour is a disgrace. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

If you missed this conversation with Lawrence Hill and Debra Thompson on Wednesday, the video of it, and a list of readings and videos they recommend, are now available on the Centre for Free Expression website: cfe.torontomu.ca/events/we-ca...

Don't Believe Him Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2025-02-02 · 14m

Please take 14 minutes to listen to this Ezra Klein podcast about Trump. It is the first thing that has given me hope since Jan 20. Wonderful analysis.
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/d...

A Well-Connected NYU Parent Is Trying to Get Students Deported The founder of Mothers Against College Antisemitism says her 62,000-member Facebook group is influencing NYU policy.

As soon as you think things could not get worse at American universities, they do. At NYU, an enterprising parent sees a way to get pro-Palestinian students deported. theintercept.com/2025/01/31/n...

Not out of the realm of possibility that we could get such an email at UAlberta, given our far-right provincial govt hates EDI & our prez has signalled he’ll do whatever he thinks they want. This will be a challenge to sociologist in particular, given our discipline’s emphases & traditions.

RFK Jr. wanted a natural experiment of unvaccinated kids, which is messed up. But you know what's even worse? The result was unvaccinated kids dying of measles, and instead of the scientific conclusion that vaccination saves kids' lives, he concluded the opposite, and seeks to impose it on everyone.