Oh hello, this is my first post.

Welcome!

So this blog is probably going to be about everything without a ton of focus. Perhaps photography and diabetes related things will be themes, but so will gaming and politics. A bit of a mash up since my interests are pretty varied. I may also talk about our pets, both present and past. Yes, the past ones too, even if it makes me a bit sad to think about them. It is healthy to remember the things we had, the good and the bad - the history. The rest of this post will explain why that is important.

Lately, it is hard not to think about what is happening south of us in the states. A new leader has taken over and moved quicker in more directions than I think anyone was prepared for. He has brought nepotism to be common place and appointed friends to high ranking positions while also giving sweeping forgiveness to people that probably didn't deserve forgiveness.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has taken hold of the government by means of DOGE. Yeah, unless you have been living under a rock, he and a band of young men first took hold of the Office of Personnel Management or OPM. What is OPM you ask? Basically, a database of all federal government employees and all their information. The HR database if you would. Next, they have gained access to other government agencies like US Agency for International Development or USAID as it is called in the media, the Treasury Department, the Department of Energy and probably others by the time you read this. All this action probably supports the larger outcome of laying off specific parts of the federal government workforce.

A letter was sent to all government employees offering them packages to walk away from their employment the first week of Trump's term followed swiftly by a follow up reinforcing that. Now, the deadline is about to pass or has passed for people to accept those offers.

Numerous articles have highlighted that many agencies have been told to stop certain aspects of their work or all of their work. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) was told to stop any work with foreign nationals. I won't go into too much detail about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), but the effort to stop all related programs is widespread across the entire federal government.

One can't help think that the data that Musk's team is gathering will enable them to see who is compliant and who is not compliant - something that will guide them in who to target for layoffs. People used to only have to worry about their co-workers or micro-managing boss peering over their shoulders. Now they have to worry about DOGE tracking their information and potentially tracking what they are working on as they gain access to more and more data and IT systems. 

As is the case with any bureaucratic system, the speed at which the checks and balances respond to DOGE's actions has been slow. The justice system is responding, but all the machinery involved to get to the response takes time for all the individuals in that system to do their jobs and have the files work their way through courts to a judge that make a decision. A judge handed down a decision to pause the layoff of many USAID employees while another issued an order to block DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system. In another ruling, a judge did not block DOGE from accessing Department of Labour systems, which likely includes OPM systems. As you can see, action is being taken and the results go both ways depending on which outcomes you want to see. Regardless of the former rulings though, one thing is clear - DOGE had access to systems for an extended period of time and had the ability to harvest data. Whatever system or database DOGE is using, they likely now have that data and can use it for their own purposes.

Everything that is happening is going so fast. While the aforementioned things are occurring, we also have our own things to worry about here in Canada. Trump proposed tariffs and flip flopped on the timing multiple times before landing on slapping a large tariff on Canada that would have taken effect last week. In response, Canada agreed to a number of items that the Trump administration was looking for, although many of these things were already in motion for months on end. Trump saw it as a victory, but it is questionable as to how much of it was really new.

Trump has also mused about Canada becoming a 51st state for various reasons. Many people think it is because of Canada's vast resources that rival other parts of the world like China and Australia. What would that mean in practice? Who knows. It is pretty crazy to hear a sitting US President make that comment publicly and continue to reinforce that notion any chance he gets. This week, Trudeau got caught on a hot mic saying Trump is not joking about it.

I think you can assume that was an intentional hot mic given the swing in public opinion back here in Canada on the Liberals relative to the Conservatives. Yes, the swing in public opinion has happened rapidly. The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre continues to call for a snap election, likely paying close attention to public polling that erodes every day that parliament remains prorogued (not in session). I imagine the Liberals are also tracking that data closely to see when it would benefit them to call an election. Wait too long and public sentiment could shift again. Just last year, we were heading towards a massive Conservative majority. Suddenly, that outcome is in jeopardy each day an election does not occur. Wild times indeed.

What are your thoughts on everything happening?