Christopher Knowles

#troncefamily #anjunafamily #dancelikenooneislooking #wincity #familylawyer #therealclarkkent #dad #onpoli #canpoli

[CANMNT @CANMNT_Official]

Thank you, Prime Minister! We know EXACTLY what this means to the country 🇨🇦💪

#CANMNT #OurGameNow

[Lexi 👸🏼 @LexiBuffalo]

Everyone outside of the Western NY and Ontario, CA border is shocked that Buffalonians know the words to the Canadian National Anthem that are sung at every Sabres game. We’ve been deeply intertwined for decades and not just for a tight-knit hockey community- professional and youth.

Growing up along the WNY/Ontario border in the 80s & 90s meant no-fee border crossing, no ID req’d, and we were only asked to state our citizenship. Summer vacations were spent along Canada’s south shores, where many WNY families still own cottages. SO many memories were made at Crystal Beach & Amusement Park, Canada’s Wonderland, water parks, and African Lion Safari.

In our teens, we realized that Niagara Falls, CA puts the US side to shame. Lundy’s Lane is like a mini Times Square, except with full-nude full-bar gentlemen’s clubs, and Ontario’s legal drinking age is 19+! As teens we’d cross the border at 16 (still no ID req’d) and go to nightclubs showing fake IDs of drinking age.

As we got older, we discovered Toronto and all the incredible shopping, restaurants, and culture it offers, along with professional sports teams and can catch a game almost any day of the week. BUF-TO is only a 1.5 hr drive without traffic.

At least 25% of Bills fans in attendance at the games are Canadian, and many are season ticket holders!

Buffalo, the City of Good Neighbors. 🇺🇸 🇨🇦

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law.

[The Players’ Tribune @PlayersTribune]

Hey guys, it’s Ernie. Before the season starts, I had some thoughts for @BlueJays fans I wanted to share. Thanks for reading https://t.co/aDajNK1kJL

[Acyn @Acyn]

Reporter: What do you think of Sid Rosenberg using the term cockroach?

Mamdani: So Muslims in this city, for almost as long as we have been in this city, have had to deal with those with power and platform dehumanizing us — to be called animals, insects, to be called a jihadist mayor….

This language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker, but also as someone who was born in East Africa, and it is difficult to hear. There’s also a reminder that the silence that often greets this kind of bigotry, this kind of Islamophobia, is what allows it to fester — the temptation to treat it as politics as usual.

And I want to be very clear that I have far more urgent work in front of me than indulging the provocations of a man who trades in outrage and, frankly, fears the city that we are looking to build — one where every single New Yorker who lives here can call it their home.

I am not ashamed of who I am. I am not ashamed of my faith. I am not ashamed of being the first Muslim mayor in the history of our city. And there’s no amount of racism that will change the way in which I lead or the commitment that I hold to each and every New Yorker in this city.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war.  Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.

I am focused on making sure that every New Yorker is safe. I have been in contact with our Police Commissioner and emergency management officials. We are taking proactive steps, including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of caution.

Additionally, I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers: you are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders. You will be safe here.

[Yasmina @yasminalombaert]

Poland won't applaud Trump’s vanity project, the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today a major diplomatic row broke out between the U.S. and Poland because Włodzimierz Czarzasty (the Speaker of the Sejm) took a very public stand against Donald Trump.

The catalyst was a formal request from U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, asking international leaders to co-sign a nomination for Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Czarzasty flatly refused.

U.S. Ambassador Tom Rose responded by blacklisting Czarzasty, declaring that the U.S. Embassy would have "no further dealings, contacts, or communications" with him effective immediately.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the fray, telling the U.S. Ambassador that "allies should respect, not lecture, each other.

Roman Giertych then wrote a letter (see in the comments), escalating the rhetoric by comparing the demand for the Nobel Prize to the vanity of the Emperor Nero.

Here is what Włodzimierz Czarzasty said:

Włodzimierz Czarzasty: “Building new platforms like the 'Peace Council' by the United States is, in my opinion, deceptive. We must strengthen the European Union, NATO, the UN, and the WHO. Our security lies there.
President Trump, in my opinion, destabilises these organisations by representing a policy of force and conducting transactional politics. This often breaks principles, values, and international law.
His interpretation of history—for example, regarding the participation of Polish soldiers on missions—and his instrumental treatment of other territories, like Greenland, means I will not support the Nobel request for President Trump. He does not deserve it."

[Liberal Party @liberal_party]

We choose Canada.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

WOW!!!

Never thought we would hear this level of honesty from a Western leader, and certainly not Canada, given the direction of Canada in the past 25 years. Canada's shift towards multialignment is quite clear - and this level of honesty from Carney on Western "fiction" about the old order will be warmly welcomed in much of the Global South:

"We knew that the story about the rules-based order was partially false... We knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused and the victim. This fiction was useful [because of the goods provided by American hegemony]... So we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination."

[The San Andreas Fault @sanandreafault]

You won’t bitch

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Shared today by Bev Perry in the Expand Dem Values in the House and Senate Facebook group.

I need to say something that's been bothering me for a while, and I'm saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right.
This isn't partisan. This is observation.
We've slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care.
Even as a USMC pilot, I went through six months of infantry training as an officer before flight school. I've worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you.
There's a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. You start seeing the environment differently. In the Marine Corps, that shift was appropriate because it's a combat culture and organization.
But these are American streets. American citizens. And we've got law enforcement dressed like they're kicking down doors in Fallujah to serve warrants in suburbia.
What happend to high standards and real policing tactics? Think Adam-12...Officers Reed and Malloy. Crisp uniforms. A revolver. A baton. High standards and professionalism. They looked like public servants because they were public servants. They de-escalated. They talked to people. They were part of the community.
Now? Tactical gear, beards, ball caps, Oakley sunglasses, sleeve tattoos, and a tactical kit that would make special operators jealous. And we've turned it into a fetish. We celebrate it. We assume that because someone looks hard, they must be a professional.
They're not.
I loved the Marine Corps. But I'll be honest, I was also blinded by it for a while. Mission first. Unit over everything. And that mentality made sense in that context.
But law enforcement doesn't get that critical examination. "Back the Blue" has become a shield against accountability. A blanket assumption that a badge plus gun equals hero. That tactical gear equals competence.
It doesn't.
Most people who join law enforcement aren't special operators. They're average people who desperately want to belong to something bigger than themselves. I understand that impulse deeply, it's why I joined the Marines. But wanting to belong doesn't make you qualified. Looking the part doesn't mean you can perform under pressure. And wrapping yourself in warrior aesthetics doesn't make you a warrior.
Old school law enforcement represented something. Standards. Bearing. Discipline. Professionalism that was demonstrated, not costumed. A revolver and a baton meant you had to rely on your training, your words, your judgment, not overwhelming firepower.
What I see now in law enforcement is the costume without the culture. The gear without the training. The authority without the accountability.
Are there good people in law enforcement? Of course. I know some personally. But this reflexive "law enforcement can do no wrong" mentality is lazy, dangerous, and intellectually dishonest.
A woman is dead. And before we sort ourselves into teams and start assigning blame, maybe we should ask harder questions:
Why do we accept a militarized police force as normal?
Why do we assume tactical gear equals tactical competence?
Why have we let "Back the Blue" become a substitute for actual standards?
I wore the uniform. I went through the training. I know what that gear does to your head.
It shouldn't be normalized on American streets against American citizens.
And we shouldn't pretend everyone wearing it is qualified to carry it. The fact that he called her a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times should be a huge red flag for all of us.

[Cory Booker @CoryBooker]

Today, many leaders will rightly condemn President Donald Trump’s unlawful and unjust actions in Venezuela, and I join them.

But just as glaring, and far more damning, is Congress’ ongoing abdication of its constitutional duty. For almost a year now, the legislative branch has failed to check a president who repeatedly violates his oath, disregards the law, and endangers American interests at home and abroad.

Time and again, Congress, now led by Republicans, has chosen spineless complicity over its sworn responsibilities. From the reckless leaking of classified information that put American troops at risk, to the illegal use of military force destroying vessels and killing people in the Caribbean and the Pacific without congressional authorization, there has been a stunning absence of accountability.

No hearings.
No serious investigations.
No enforcement of checks and balances.
No accountability.

Again and again, the president has exceeded his authority, defied congressional intent, trampled the separation of powers, and broken the law - while Congress looked away in cowardice and submission.

Republicans in Congress own this corrosive collapse of our constitutional order. With only a handful of honorable exceptions, they have bent themselves to the will of Donald Trump, afraid to state in public the feelings they often communicate privately. That submission, this abandonment of independent judgment and constitutional courage, now stands as one of the greatest dangers to our nation and to the global order America claims to defend.

Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator who has committed grave abuses. The United States military remains the most capable fighting force on Earth, and our praiseworthy service members carry out their orders with professionalism and excellence.

But none of that suspends the Constitution.

The Constitution is unambiguous: Congress has the power and responsibility to authorize the use of military force and declare war. Congress has a duty of oversight. Congress must serve as a check, not a rubber stamp, to the President. On this count, Congress has failed.

We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy. This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act.

They must stop behaving as partisan puppets and start acting as patriotic constitutional stewards.

What happened today is wrong. Congressional Republicans would say so immediately if a Democratic president had done the same. Their silence is surrender. And in that surrender lie the seeds of our democratic unraveling.

There are still three years left in this administration. From the pardoning of individuals who violently attacked police officers while attempting to overturn our election to this latest extrajudicial assault on another nation’s sovereignty, the damage will continue unless it is confronted.

Enough is enough.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

My statement on President Trump’s actions in Venezuela.

[Yasmina @yasminalombaert]

When Claude Malhuret speaks, you know you're not going to get the usual political spin. This is a man—a doctor, a former head of Doctors Without Borders, and a French politician—who has seen the world from the front lines and knows the difference between comforting lies and painful truths.

He is here to give us a necessary, perhaps even brutal, wake-up call about the most serious challenges facing Europe. He’s cutting through the noise to tell us exactly what we need to hear, not what we might want to hear.
Claude Malhuret lays out the unvarnished urgency of the current moment.

"Mr. Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen ministers, I will not talk to you about strategy tonight. I will talk to you about urgency. And the urgency today can be summed up in one simple sentence: If Ukraine loses the war, Europe will find itself in direct confrontation with Russia and under the worst possible conditions.
The conclusion is clear: Ukraine must not lose this war.
'Worse than the executioner is his valet,' said Mirabeau. [ French politician and orator, one of the greatest figures in the National Assembly that governed France during the early phases of the French Revolution. ]
Those who are not yet convinced that Trump is putin’s valet should reflect on the latest events: an American peace plan drafted in Moscow. Witkoff advising the Russians how best to maneuver his boss, an obsession with sidelining Europeans from negotiations, a near-total halt to economic and military aid, a new national security strategy implacable against Europe and complacent toward Russia.

Today, at best, Europe is alone, at worst, it faces two enemies: Russia and Trumpism.

Tomorrow, in history books, we will no longer say 'Munich,' we will say 'Anchorage”.
We will no longer say 'Daladier' or 'Chamberlain,' we will say Trump, who is in the process of offering the Russians through betrayal what they are failing to conquer by arms—without forgetting, of course, to enrich his family and cronies in the process. In Europe, a president with such conflicts of interest would be immediately impeached.

The MAGA system is breaking all American values and forcing us to rethink all our strategic reflections, and worse still, to do so in uncertainty, at the mercy of daily changes in course based on the boss's moods. The only continuity in this senseless policy is to repudiate, humiliate, and vassalise all allies.

Churchill said that there is only one thing worse than fighting alongside allies, and that is fighting without them.

Trump and his real estate developers masquerading as diplomats will realise this the day they find out, at their expense, on a crisis ground, that no power in the world can do without allies.
Everyone has known this since the defeat of Athens against Sparta.

putin’s strategic objective is not Ukraine, it is the return to Yalta. He announced it in Munich in 2007, saying that NATO must return to its 1997 borders.
Listen to Karaganov today: 'The war will only end when we have defeated Europe.' putin’s goal is not to take territory, it is to take revenge on the West and its right, to return to a world ruled by force—a Concert of Great Powers: Moscow, Washington, Beijing.

Alas, this is also Trump's vision. For this, they must finish off NATO and the European Union. And the world of NATO and the EU, which seemed unshakeable, is revealing itself to be a colossus with feet of clay.

Europe is alone, and for three years, anaesthetised by three decades of tranquility, hampered by its divisions and the clumsiness of its procedures, weakened by its deindustrialisation, and terrorised by putin’s threats, it has barely managed to avoid the worst.

Thanks primarily to the heroism of the Ukrainians, it is time to regain control.

1/3

[Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk @LukaszukAB]

Today, I submitted 456,365 Albertans’ signatures to Elections Alberta, petitioning the Premier to do the right thing, avoid a divisive and economically harmful referendum, and allow MLAs to vote and reaffirm that Alberta’s future is in Canada.🇨🇦

Alberta is #ForeverCanadian

[TSN @TSN_Sports]

WORLD RECORD! 🥇

Canadian swimmer Josh Liendo breaks the short-course world record in the men’s 100m butterfly, clocking 47.68 seconds at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre! 🇨🇦🏊

[Toronto Blue Jays @BlueJays]

MAD. MAX.

HANG IT IN THE LOUVRE 🗣️

[Christopher Knowles @knowles2077]

Thinking of all the amazing shows ive been to this year:
@anyma_eva & @SolomunMusic @aboveandbeyond and so many more @ultra; A&B @djoliversmith and the Anjuna crew @EscapadeMF; A&B @ericprydz (CirezD) & @adriatiquemusic @ElectricIsTO; @sultanshepard @majesticdetroit 🥰

[Montreal Expos @Montreal_Expos]

Je me souviens

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

Not one single day goes by I’m not grateful and proud to be a Canadian.