But the CBC At Issue panel persists in discussing “whither the Liberals?” in an academic way – they still don’t seem to where Carney is coming from or where he is going. He is saving Canada from Trump, and nothing else actually matters. To get a majority government so he can get his agenda passed without having to negotiate, then he’ll do whatever it takes.

PM Carney on Marilyn Gladu and abortion: “I had discussions and colleagues had discussions with Ms Gladu about those issues. She will vote with the government if there are votes relating to any aspect of that issue. As well as the rights of Canadians to be their whole selves, to love who they love.”

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— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 9:32 AM

Nobody is listening to Poilievre’s complaints

“Just kidding” – yeah, right

Watters: “This isn’t over. We still have Cuba, Greenland, and Canada. Just kidding.”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 7, 2026 at 6:06 PM

Melania talk
Melania Trump held an unscheduled press conference today to deny she had anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nobody could understand why she did it.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Melania Trump just dropped a full White House statement denying she was ever friends with Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell…

Completely out of nowhere.

Makes you wonder what she’s trying to get ahead of, doesn’t it? 😏

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 1:00 PM

This is gobsmacking. Not only did Melania Trump suddenly decide to give a televised address about Jeffrey Epstein, she’s calling on Congress to “act,” because Epstein was “not alone.” So she just threw a giant stick of political dynamite on the issue her husband despises! pic.twitter.com/DUi2qAupoZ

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 9, 2026

MacFarlane: If the first lady is trying to preemptively defuse a journalistic bomb that’s coming on the Epstein files, I know a lot of good PR practitioners would say: you don’t defuse a bomb by calling attention to the bomb

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 9:39 PM

Trump was doing everything he possibly could to distract from Epstein, which included starting another war, and Melania does a press conference about it without telling him.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 7:47 PM

Michael Wolff thinks he knows, even though the book he is talking about was published 8 months ago:

Trump talk 

Everyone thought Trump went completely crazy(er) today — he apparently didn’t know about Melania’s press conference before it happened, so afterward he blasted a plethora of Truth Social posts -including one about immigrants that includes a video of a woman being hammered to death.

The violenceporn aspect of this as well is notable

If you can’t see the connection between this and the many gruesome stories of wartime and political violence Trump *relished* describing (Iryna Zarutska, Venezuela helicopter pilot, etc etc) during his SOTU, you’re not paying attention

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— Dan Silverman (@dmsilverman.bsky.social) April 10, 2026 at 12:43 AM

These posts are a day apart. Yesterday, Trump was thinking he was going to go into the tollbooth business with the IRGC. Today, he doesn’t even remember yesterday.

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— VagabondVisions (@vagabondvisions.studio) April 9, 2026 at 4:05 PM

There still doesn’t seem to be any momentum now in Washington to hold Trump to account for his nuclear war threats against the world last weekend. Today the Democrats seemed to think it would be worthwhile to try to trick the Congressional Republicans into a vote to support the war. Meh!

Iran War talk
There are cease fire talks going on this weekend in Islamabad and in Washington (relating to Lebanon) but the United States couldn’t get a motion through the UN Security Council that might have given cover to any allied nation (like, say, Canada?) that might consider sending their navy to the Strait of Hormuz to escort ships through.

👺 Russia and China veto UN Security Council resolution on reopening Strait of Hormuz

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— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) April 7, 2026 at 11:09 AM

Rudy Martinez

…The veto matters for several reasons. It means there is no UN mandate for international naval escorts through the strait — something Germany, the UK, and other European states had conditioned their Hormuz contributions on, confirmed via CNN this session. German Chancellor Merz said Thursday his government was willing to contribute to securing Hormuz provided “there is a mandate and viable framework for doing so,” confirmed via CNN this session. There is now no such mandate. British Foreign Secretary Cooper called for the strait to be fully reopened with no tolls or restrictions, confirmed via NBC this session. NATO Secretary General Rutte, after meeting Trump at the White House Wednesday, said Thursday that “each country is now looking for what they can do” on Hormuz — but with no UN mandate, collective action is off the table, confirmed via CBS this session.
The veto also signals something about the ceasefire’s diplomatic architecture. Russia and China both welcomed the ceasefire publicly. Both voted to block the mechanism that would give it teeth on the waterway. Iran’s Araghchi thanked Moscow the same day his delegation arrived in Islamabad for Saturday’s talks. The ceasefire is being managed in a geopolitical environment where two permanent Security Council members are structurally aligned with Iran’s position on Hormuz, regardless of their public statements about wanting peace….

America is noticing that winning isn’t happening

Pope Leo talk
After that story came out about the Pentagon trying to muscle Pope Leo to support Trump — and in particular, that “Avignon Papacy” threat was startling —  I saw “Team Pope” posts all over .

A “Vatican source close to Pope Leo XIV” told NBC that the Pentagon meeting between Trump officials and the Vatican’s top American diplomat “was most unpleasant and confrontational.”

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— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 9:42 PM

Artemis II Briefing: Moon Joy all the way down
Two useful videos:

I didn’t find this until tonight – it’s Carney speaking to the astronauts on Wednesday:

Even from space, we can all agree that maple syrup belongs on pancakes.

Safe journey home to Colonel Jeremy Hansen and the entire Artemis II crew.

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— Mark Carney (@mark-carney.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 8:55 AM

These exchanges between the astronauts and Mission Control – I think that’s Canadian Jenni Gibbons as the “CapCom” – are really amazing:

Friday’s Splashdown summary

A great summary of the whole trip:

Rudy Martinez compares the Iran War and the Artemis II mission:

…They left on Day 31. They come home on Day 42. Between departure and return, the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, Israel killed 303 people in Lebanon in a single day, Russia vetoed a Hormuz resolution at the UN, and the IMF announced it was cutting global growth forecasts. The Moon was unmoved by any of it.
…Artemis II has served, for ten days, as the one story in international coverage that carried no grief — a place to put attention that wasn’t also a place to put dread. Jeremy Hansen’s achievement is a genuine national story in Canada. Christina Koch’s first has been celebrated across every country with women in its space programs, which is most of them. The crater Carroll — named for a commander’s late wife — has traveled in translation across languages not because it is politically significant but because it is humanly significant. In a week that produced some of the worst news of this war, four people went farther from Earth than any human before them and came back with photographs of the far side of the Moon….

And by the way:
Its going to be a “Hot Daddy Summer”!