Cathie from Canada: Some good Venn diagrams, plus some good news updates

Starting with a few Venn diagrams:

The Artemis II astronauts met with Carney on Thursday
The group includes Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, together with their Canadian capcom (capsule communicator) Jenni Gibbons.

Lovely🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦❤️

– #Francesk🇨🇦

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Big thanks to the Artemis II crew who touched down at the Canadian Museum of Nature today to give us a quick tour of the moon — no space suit required.

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— Mark Carney (@mark-carney.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 3:12 PM

Wexit petition process declared illegal due to lack of prior First Nations consultations

Chief Allan Adam on Danielle Smith calling Alberta judge’s decision ‘undemocratic’: “It’s a good win for Canada, it’s a good win for Albertans. It is a democratic process because that’s what the Constitution is there for.”

– Scott Robertson

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The Globe and Mail explains the ruling:

…Justice Shaina Leonard of the Court of King’s Bench concluded that the province’s chief electoral officer was wrong to approve the separatist petition last year because it should have triggered First Nations consultations. The judge said such consultations must happen before starting a process that could trigger a binding referendum.
“As a matter of logic and common sense, there can be no doubt that Alberta’s secession from Canada will have an impact on Treaties 7 and 8,” the judge wrote in her decision.
“A requirement to implement secession without prior involvement of [First Nations] has the potential to adversely affect Treaty rights.”
Alberta government lawyers and pro-independence leader Jeffrey Rath, who is also a lawyer, argued in hearings earlier this year that the electoral officer was correct in his decision to approve the petition.
Government lawyers disputed the idea that a vote on independence would infringe treaty rights, arguing that there were numerous “off-ramps” through the referendum process to ensure treaties were respected. They also argued that consultations could happen after a referendum.
Mr. Rath described the notion that independence would violate treaties as “pure speculation.”
During her news conference on Wednesday, Ms. Smith questioned the judge’s conclusion that the government must consult with First Nations before separation can be put to the electorate.
“I think that the duty to consult is an obligation on government specifically when we’re talking about the impact on treaty rights over hunting, fishing, trapping and when we’re dealing with particular projects,” she said. “I think that that part of the law is very clear. This is pretty murky. That’s why we think it may be incorrect.”…
Justice Leonard is the second judge in the past six months to rule First Nations must be considered in the decision to call a referendum on provincial independence.
In December, Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby ruled that Alberta independence would contravene treaty rights. In that decision, he wrote: “First Nations, as founding partners in the creation of Alberta, cannot be ignored or bypassed as Alberta contemplates its future whether that is as part of Canada or not.”
Kevin Hille, counsel for Athabasca Chipewyan, the First Nation that brought the lawsuit, said Ms. Smith’s government is required to consult with First Nations if it wants to put independence on a referendum ballot.
“The government has to take ownership of this and engage with First Nations,” Mr. Hille said in an interview…

The CBC panel concludes that Alberta cannot vote on separation until its legality is decided:

Jordan Leichnitz: “You can’t expect Albertans to fairly vote on this question when it’s clear that the forces in favour of separation are cheating.”

– Scott Robertson

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Tim Powers reacts to Danielle Smith calling Alberta judge’s decision ‘antidemocratic’: “Let’s not forget the obvious fact we all learned in our civics classes: there’s nothing undemocratic about the judiciary — they exist in our system to provide a check and a balance in circumstances like this.”

– Scott Robertson

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With any luck, the Wexit push will fade away. There’s talk today that Carney and Smith have a pipeline deal – I hope so.

Carlene Variyan: “You want to attract a proponent to bankroll a $50B pipeline, and you’re asking people to take a look at the province of Alberta, and this is what they’re seeing in the news. Who’s putting their money into this province?”

– Scott Robertson

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Prospective Canadians who are Trans are getting their citizenship cases handled faster
This is such great news:

Trump doesn’t get the royal treatment in China
No, this isn’t good news relly, but it did serve him right:

I don’t know exactly how Trump will embarrass our country in China, but I think we can count on it happening.

— Steven Beschloss (@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 7:10 PM

The spectacle is almost surreal: Donald Trump, the man who built an entire political identity around demonizing China as America’s greatest enemy, now finds himself needing Beijing’s help to contain the consequences of a war with Iran. After years of tariffs, nationalist rhetoric, anti-China crusades, and warnings that Xi Jinping represented the central threat to the American order, the White House is suddenly staring across the Pacific hoping China can pressure Tehran, stabilize energy flows, and help prevent the Strait of Hormuz from becoming an economic chokehold on the planet. That reversal is not a sign of strength. It is a flashing warning light announcing the collision between political mythology and geopolitical reality. The United States can launch strikes, flatten infrastructure, and dominate the skies, but military supremacy does not erase geography, economics, or dependency. Iran understood this from the beginning. Its leverage was never matching America missile for missile. Its leverage was endurance, disruption, and the ability to turn global energy markets into a battlefield. And now Washington is discovering that when oil routes tremble, inflation spikes, shipping costs surge, and allies panic, raw firepower alone cannot stabilize the system. So the administration turns toward China — the same China it claims is the architect of America’s decline — because Beijing possesses influence over Tehran, enormous economic leverage, and a direct stake in Gulf energy stability. But China is not America’s subordinate partner. Xi Jinping understands perfectly that every week the United States remains bogged down in another Middle Eastern confrontation is a week Beijing gains strategic breathing room in Asia, gains insight into American military vulnerabilities, and gains diplomatic leverage over a desperate Washington. This is the brutal irony of imperial overreach: the more America tries to demonstrate absolute dominance everywhere at once, the more it exposes the limits of its power. Trump sold the fantasy that strength means never needing anyone, that America could coerce the world through intimidation alone. Yet here stands the “America First” presidency quietly hoping China helps rescue a global order that American escalation helped destabilize. That is the contradiction at the center of this moment. The empire that claimed it could dictate terms to everyone is now discovering that in an interconnected world, even superpowers can become dependent on their rivals.

Footnotes:

1) Reuters

2) Washington Post.

– Jamal X

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I thought this was an interesting interview with one of the Two Michaels:

Michael Kovrig on Trump’s visit to China: “Trump seems to treat this as a deal-making opportunity, but Xi sees it as a chance to reshape the strategic narrative of the whole relationship. Trump’s thinking about the press conference, Xi’s thinking about the next 20 years.”

– Scott Robertson

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And this was hilarious. China expert Brett Bruen, who was a diplomat in the Obama administration, posted a tweet that there were no China experts on the Trump plane to China. This was the mature, measured and authoritative response from the White House Director of Communications:

You have no idea what you’re talking about you slope-brained, mouth breathing moron. Stop calling yourself an expert in anything, aside from sucking. Anyone that hires you (not many!) should get an immediate refund and payment for wasting their time. https://t.co/gVPr2EUjFM

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) May 12, 2026