#The globe and Mail

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Michael de Adder :: @deAdder :: The Globe and Mail

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 2, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 03, 2025

Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.

Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.

Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran, and they have little to no experience in government.

Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”

After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they're deliberately accessing, but it's also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”

USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.

Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”

Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.

Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”

DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, using President Donald Trump’s name, is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.

Today, Musk reposted a social media post from MAGA religious extremist General Mike Flynn, who resigned from his position as Trump’s national security advisor in 2017 after pleading guilty to secret conversations with a Russian agent—for which Trump pardoned him—and who publicly embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. In today’s post, Flynn complained about “the ‘Lutheran’ faith” and, referring to federal grants provided to Lutheran Family Services and affiliated organizations, said, “this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end.” Musk added: “The [DOGE] team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”

In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress, and its payment is required by law. Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies and grants toward religious organizations for years, and Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities.

South Dakota is the home of Senate majority leader John Thune, who has not been a strong Trump supporter, as well as Homeland Security secretary nominee Kristi Noem.

The news that DOGE has taken over U.S. government computers is not the only bombshell this weekend.

Another is that Trump has declared a trade war with the top trading partners of the United States: Mexico, Canada, and China. Although his first administration negotiated the current trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, on Saturday Trump broke the terms of that treaty.

He slapped tariffs of 25% on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, tariffs of 10% on Canadian energy, and tariffs of 10% on goods coming from China. He said he was doing so to force Mexico and Canada to do more about undocumented migration and drug trafficking, but while precursor chemicals to make fentanyl come from China and undocumented migrants come over the southern border with Mexico, Canada accounts for only about 1% of both. Further, Trump has diverted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents combating drug trafficking to his immigration sweeps.

As soon as he took office, Trump designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded that “all options will be on the table” when a Fox News Channel host asked if the military will strike within Mexico. Today Trump was clearer: he posted on social media that without U.S. trade—which Trump somehow thinks is a “massive subsidy”—“Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada—AND NO TARIFFS!”

Trump inherited the best economy in the world from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, but on Friday, as soon as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump would levy the tariffs, the stock market plunged. Trump, who during his campaign insisted that tariffs would boost the economy, today said that Americans could feel “SOME PAIN” from them. He added “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.” Tonight, stock market futures dropped 450 points before trading opens tomorrow.

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote, “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory,” and has promised retaliatory tariffs. China noted that it has been working with the U.S. to regulate precursor chemicals since 2019 and said it would sue the U.S. before the World Trade Organization.

Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $100 billion in retaliatory 25% tariffs and then spoke directly to Americans. Echoing what economists have said all along, Trudeau warned that tariffs would cost jobs, raise prices, and limit the precious metals necessary for U.S. security. But then he turned from economics to principles.

“As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago,” Trudeau began, “geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” He noted that “from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar,” Canadians “have “fought and died alongside you.”

“During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California. During the day, the world stood still—Sept. 11, 2001—when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.

“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship that has been the envy of the world…. Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.”

Trudeau said Canada’s response would “be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes. It’ll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. He assured Canadians: “[W]e are all in this together. The Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labour, Canadian civil society, Canada’s premiers, and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are aligned and united. This is Team Canada at its best.”

Canadian provincial leaders said they were removing alcohol from Republican-dominated states, and Canadian member of parliament Charlie Angus noted that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario buys more wine by dollar value than any other organization in the world and that Canada is the number one export market for Kentucky spirits. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has stopped all purchases of American beer, wine, and spirits, turning instead to allies and local producers. Canada’s Irving Oil, which provides heating oil to New England, has already told customers that prices will reflect the tariffs.

In a riveting piece today, in his Thinking about…, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote that “[t]he people who now dominate the executive branch of the government…are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation.” “Think of the federal government as a car,” he wrote. “You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”

On Friday, James E. Dennehy of the FBI’s New York field office told his staff that they are “in a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” He vowed that he, anyway, is going to “dig in.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[natlacentral]

How Kiawentiio went from a ‘little arty kid’ to the star of Avatar: The Last Airbender

You know that classic actor’s arc, painstakingly building from bit parts to bigger roles, withstanding rejection and despair? Yeah, that’s not Kiawentiio’s story. The Mohawk Canadian actor was cast in the first thing she auditioned for, the hit CBC/Netflix series Anne with an E. Her next role was the title character in Tracey Deer’s wrenching, semi-autobiographical film Beans, followed by a gig on Rutherford Falls. And now she’s the second lead in a gigantic Netflix series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, a live-action reimagining of the beloved animated series (2005-08), shot mostly in British Columbia, arriving Feb. 22. And she’s only 17.

We meet via video call, and even on that flattening medium, Kiawentiio sparkles. (Professionally, she goes by that mononym, pronounced Guy-a-wen-di-jou.) She’s poised and friendly, without any child-actor posing. Now and again she glances over her shoulder into a corner I can’t see; turns out her mother is there for backup.

Her Anne with an E audition was a lark – or as Kiawentiio puts it, “It came out of nowhere and happened randomly.” Growing up on the Akwesasne reserve on Kawehno:ke (also known as Cornwall Island), which straddles the Ontario/New York State border, she was “the little arty kid in the corner, who stayed inside at recess to paint and draw,” and dreamed of going to art school. Her dad chanced upon an open casting call on Facebook, and they thought, might as well try it. She was the last audition of the day.

Landing Avatar: The Last Airbender, by contrast, required more of a campaign. As a kid, Kiawentiio loved the animated series – its environmental and spiritual themes, its thoughtful depictions of Asian and Indigenous cultures, the battle scenes of Benders wielding the four elements, “the character arcs, the sheer craftsmanship. It would fill me.”

So when she heard rumours a few years ago about a live-action reboot, she had a feeling she’d be right for Katara, 14, a novice Waterbender, the last in her Southern Water Tribe, traumatized by the world war being waged by the Fire Nation, yet undaunted and hopeful. Teaming up with Aang, the title character (played in the series by Gordon Cormier), she begins to realize her potential. Kiawentiio asked her agents to keep an eye out, “just in case the universe is listening.”

The audition, when it came, was veiled in secrecy – fake project and character names, disguised scenes, all via Zoom. After a month-long series of “adrenalin-pumping” chemistry reads with other actors, showrunner Albert Kim delivered the news: Yes, it was Airbender; yes, they’d been searching the world for their Katara; and yes, it was her. She and her family burst into tears.

With her co-stars, Kiawentiio spent six weeks at “bending boot camp,” where each learned the martial art their movements are based on: wushu for Firebending, tai chi for Waterbending, Hung Ga for Earthbending and Bagua for Airbending. They shot on a cutting-edge mix of green screens, practical sets – Kyoshi Village was built in a working quarry in Coquitlam, B.C.; Jet’s hideout was filmed at WildPlay, a ziplining park in Maple Ridge, B.C. – and volume stages, including the world’s largest LED video wall studio, a near-circle lined with 2,500 LED wall panels and 760 LED ceiling panels, at Canadian Motion Picture Park in Burnaby, B.C.

“That stage was warm,” Kiawentiio says, laughing. “Wearing Katara’s big blue parka, pretending to be in the Arctic while being in a microwave.” Watching the animated series come to life was “surreal,” she continues. “When you see Appa in front of you” – a flying beast that combines bison, hippo and manatee – “or even small things like my necklace – I remember being almost in tears.”

Canada’s Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim’s Convenience) plays Iroh, brother to Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim); the actors playing Katara’s parents, Rainbow Dickerson and Joel Montgrand, also played Kiawentiio’s parents in Beans. But she didn’t get to hang out much – “I was in high school at the time, just trying to get through 11th grade,” she says. “Fun fact, I’ve never been to a first day of high school with my classmates. Every year I was doing something, travelling somewhere.” Now graduated, with a five-year option for possible future seasons, “I’m saving my next few years for the show and whatever else may come from it. But I plan on going to school in the future.”

Each of the four Airbender nations has real-world roots, including Omashu, Himalayan, Indonesian and Indigenous Arctic cultures; cultural consultants advised on folklore, history and mythology, as well as costumes, calligraphy and artifacts; and the series’ four directors are of Asian descent. That mattered, Kiawentiio says: “It’s 100-per-cent important to me that I represent where I come from, my people and my language. That comes with me to every character I portray.”

Her opportunity to embody authentic Indigenous characters has never been higher, as a spate of recent series attest: Reservation Dogs, Little Bird, Echo, True Detective: Night Country, the Yellowstone franchise. Lily Gladstone could well become the first Indigenous woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, for Killers of the Flower Moon. And Deer, Kiawentiio’s Beans director was an excellent role model: “Being able to see her be the leader, be so strong, opened my eyes to other things I can explore – directing, producing.”

But she doesn’t want portraying Indigenous characters to become its own kind of limit. “Those roles will always be at my root; they are what I can see myself in and relate to. That doesn’t have to be the end of what we’re capable of, though. We don’t have to just play the Indian friend, the Native guy. We can be just that doctor or teacher or lawyer, those regular roles. The days of just getting a role, and not The Native role, are still ahead of us.”

Now that Kiawentiio’s accidental career is skyrocketing, “it’s funny how weirdly normal it gets,” she says. “I understand how people can lose their groundedness. You’re in the air so much, how do you stay grounded? It’s helpful to keep my real life separate, with my family and friends, and have my work self be almost a persona.”

She’s always had a readable face, she realizes. “I can’t hide anything; it’s all in my eyes. But to be able to be in control of that to portray someone else is so interesting. My dad told me he’s never seen me light up the way I do when I’m on a set. That’s when I knew I should stick with it.”

[justsayyesmiss]

Non-US news sources:

[thecountiesinfo]

How to Fix 'Gmail Cannot Attach Files' Issue

In today’s digital age, email communication has become an integral part of our personal and professional lives. One of the most widely used email platforms is Gmail, developed by Google. Gmail offers a range of features to enhance user experience, including the ability to attach files to emails. However, there are instances where users may encounter difficulties when trying to attach files in…

[jbbartram-illu]

I’m mostly away from here due to my annual island break, but I’ve gotta pop in to say that my pottery is featured (alongside a bunch of other amazing potters) in the Globe & Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-ceramic-artists-are-using-social-media-drops-to-create-hype-and-its/

Some screenshots in case people from not-Canada can’t access the link properly (yes, I do namedrop tumblr! Of course I do!):

[choupistickfaitdesbetises]

I don't usually talk about this bullshit.

This family at best bores me, at worst... I prefer not to stoop to their level.

I simply wanted to point out this article... astonishing.

The tone is radically different from the usual articles that make no sense.

Here, there is reflection, which is rare enough to be noted.

Even if the trash media gets involved... it's the beginning of the end.

[digitalfossils]

Lotus Express (1987)

[dmcfadzean]

I have some illustrations in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob-magazine/article-best-managed-companies-2025-20-lessons/

[amethvysts]

Enzo Vogrincic empregado e como personagem principal numa série ainda...a quantidade de conteúdo que a gente vai ter, mds 🫦

E QUANDO ELE VIER PRO BRASIL PRA DIVULGAR HEINNNNN. gente vencemos MUITO! (e não só pelo enzo pq a história parece ser mto foda)

[porterdavis]

[mafaldaknows]

OMG pick a lane 🙄🙄🙄

[olganikolaevnas]

Group on car on Bay Street May 7, 1945 City of Toronto Archives - Fonds 1266, Item 96241 Description of Photo: "This shot was captured by John Boyd, a photographer for the Globe and Mail. It was taken on Bay Street on the day Germany unconditionally surrendered to the allies at the end of World War II." (x)

[ofkithandmckinney]

How the Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney landed the role of Mark Carney on 22 Minutes

J. KELLY NESTRUCK

PUBLISHED APRIL 7, 2025

Thanks to a social-media post that missed its mark, This Hour Has 22 Minutes has found its Mark Carney.

Mark McKinney from Kids in the Hall is set to debut his impression of the Liberal Leader on Tuesday’s episode of the the long-running CBC fake-news and sketch-comedy show.

“The only challenge with playing him is that is that if I don’t move my eyebrows, if I keep them as close to the tops of my eyes as possible, that’s the best,” McKinney said over the phone from Halifax, ahead of Monday night’s taping of the show.

“It’s a hard thing to do, when you’re performing a sketch, to try and make sure that your eyebrows are absolutely immobile.”

While 22 Minutes shared the news of his casting in advance exclusively with The Globe and Mail, McKinney has been tweeting on X, the site formerly known on Twitter, as “Canadian Prime Minister Mark McKinney” in recent weeks.

He changed his profile name as a joke after an account on X seemed to mistake him for Carney last month.

On March 5, Mark the Canadian comedian had posted a short message on the site: “How hard would it be to shut down X in our country and build out a Canadian Twitter? Asking for a friend. Wouldn’t that be a baller move.” McKinney included the hashtag popularized in part by fellow Canadian comedian Mike Myers after his SNL appearances as Elon Musk: #ElbowsUpCanada.

Shortly thereafter, an X user, @truckdriverpleb, posted that “Mark Carney and the Liberal Party are planning to ban X in Canada if they win the next election.” The impression left was that he had mixed up his Canadian Marks.

The tweet went viral after a community note was added pointing out that it was, in fact, the Canadian star of Superstore and Slings & Arrows who had made comments about airing out the Musk from social media in Canada.

An article on cracked.com soon followed, headlined: “People Are Confusing Canada’s Next Prime Minister With One of the Kids in the Hall.”

That bit of clickbait caught the eye of 22 Minutes executive producer and show runner Mike Allison, who decided to reach out to McKinney’s team to see if he would be interested in actually playing Carney on the show.

No audition was necessary, as “we knew he was a funny person,” Allison says. “He’s a legend, really, in this country.”

Since he got the gig, McKinney has been watching a lot of YouTube videos of Carney’s press conferences to prepare.

“He doesn’t have a lot of handles, but he’s an interesting cat,” McKinney says of Carney. (The “handles” in question referring to the angles from which a comedian might approach an impression or caricature.)

“He’s very measured – he almost has an Obama-like cadence,” the comedian says, slipping into an imitation of the Liberal Leader by slowing down his speech so each word of that sentence drips out one at a time.

“The best thing about him is his inability to speak French,” McKinney adds, before doing a devastating impression of Carney saying his French catchphrase, “Nous. Sommes. Maîtres. Chez nous.”

While on the phone with The Globe and Mail, McKinney was sitting in a hairnet with his hair slicked back. He was speaking after a busy morning that included extensive sessions with hair, makeup and costuming and a table read of the episode that would be recorded that night in front of a live studio audience to air on CBC and stream on CBC Gem Tuesday.

McKinney was confident the 22 Minutes professionals had got him physically looking like Carney.

“I didn’t realize he’s got an almost marine haircut – it’s really short back and sides with him,” he said. “He’s a weird combination of incredibly fit – he’s obviously a guy that played hockey in in college, I can see that – but also sort of skinny.”

Mark Critch as President Donald Trump and Mark McKinney as Prime Minister Mark Carney from CBC-TV’s "This Hour Has 22 Minutes”22 MINUTES/SUPPLIED

This isn’t the first time that McKinney – whose CTV reality show, Mark McKinney Needs a Hobby, is currently up for a Canadian Screen Award in the Lifestyle category – has guested to play a Canadian politician on 22 Minutes.

Back in 2013, McKinney flew in to play Doug Ford, then a Toronto city councillor and not yet the premier of Ontario. In the sketch, he was opposite Mark Critch’s Rob Ford, then Toronto’s mayor. Tuesday night’s episode will reunite him with Critch, a long-time cast member, who will pull out his Donald Trump once more.

22 Minutes only has two more regular-season episodes this month, and McKinney, a Canadian citizen who is currently working in Los Angeles, will be sticking around for a few days to shoot material for the season finale.

A 22 Minutes election special tacked onto CBC’s order when the writs were issued will follow on April 24, just four days before the election.

“We might shoot a couple of things to carry over,” Allison says. “It’s not out of the question that we bring him back in.”

McKinney is happy to take part: “It feels like a great time to be reconnecting with Canadian political satire – you know, if ever there was a year.”

[susiestamps]

US 2023 Snow Globe with Santa