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barrykomar.bsky.social
@barrykomar.bsky.social
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Today, this seems a fitting read. @theatlantic.com #NoKings
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
America Needs a Mass Movement—Now
Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.
www.theatlantic.com
October 18, 2025 at 8:20 PM
"Developers, aided by city councils, are often “building the wrong kinds of housing, in the wrong places, for the wrong reason,” says the experts’ open letter.
That includes hundreds of new Metro Vancouver residential towers..." #VanRE #VanPoli

vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
Duelling B.C. letters to Mark Carney on housing crisis expose clash over way forward
A conflict over foreign investment in Canadian housing is just one that rears its head in two open letters to the PM, one from B.C. developers and another from 27 housing experts.
vancouversun.com
August 2, 2025 at 9:28 PM
@theglobeandmail.com highlights an obvious opportunity:
“We need to step out of the box of the Conservation Officer Services, & go the extra mile to try and keep these bears alive, instead of leaving them wandering around quite an inhabited island.” #BCpoli
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
B.C. First Nations offer haven for Texada grizzly, but officials say relocation not an option
The Mamalilikulla First Nation wants to bring the grizzly to their traditional territories, but the government spurned their offer
www.theglobeandmail.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:26 PM
@douglastodd.bsky.social on things wrong with Cdn housing.
#VanRE
"Palmquist adds the discouraging note that the federal government long ago stopped requiring builders to meet minimum residential design standards. Those standards stipulated how big bedrooms and kitchens must be to foster livability.
 barrykomar.bsky.social @barrykomar.bsky.social · Jun 21
"he has found that people are more depressed in towers, that mental illness increases at higher floor levels, that more crowding reduces the amount of neighbour support, that one’s sense of community attachment is reduced, & that, overall, people are less satisfied."
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
Why good family homes aren't getting built in Vancouver
Opinion: The short answer, alas, is avarice. This human weakness leads to construction of small, cramped units instead of livable dwellings.
vancouversun.com
June 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by barrykomar.bsky.social
"he has found that people are more depressed in towers, that mental illness increases at higher floor levels, that more crowding reduces the amount of neighbour support, that one’s sense of community attachment is reduced, & that, overall, people are less satisfied."
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
Why good family homes aren't getting built in Vancouver
Opinion: The short answer, alas, is avarice. This human weakness leads to construction of small, cramped units instead of livable dwellings.
vancouversun.com
June 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
"he has found that people are more depressed in towers, that mental illness increases at higher floor levels, that more crowding reduces the amount of neighbour support, that one’s sense of community attachment is reduced, & that, overall, people are less satisfied."
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
Why good family homes aren't getting built in Vancouver
Opinion: The short answer, alas, is avarice. This human weakness leads to construction of small, cramped units instead of livable dwellings.
vancouversun.com
June 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Trump knows full well that the midterms are coming. He is worried. But he might already be testing ways to protect himself that could end in subverting those elections’ integrity. @davidfrum.bsky.social @theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal
Ordering the National Guard to deploy in Los Angeles is a warning of what to expect when his hold on power is threatened.
www.theatlantic.com
June 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
“This isn’t a housing issue. It’s a drug issue. And it’s a mental health issue. People need off-ramps: treatment, long-term care. But we don’t offer them any of that.”
A sobering read. We can't do just more of the same. It isn't working.
@theglobeandmail.com
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
How fentanyl transformed Victoria’s Pandora Avenue from downtown hub to open-air drug market
One of B.C.’s premier tourist destinations has become another of Canada’s urban centres overtaken by the opioid crisis
www.theglobeandmail.com
May 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
"...America, by contrast, may end up as a profoundly diminished nation. Sheltered behind tariff walls, its companies will sell almost exclusively to domestic consumers. The loss of international sales will degrade corporate earnings..."
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/o...
Opinion | In the Future, China Will Be Dominant. The U.S. Will Be Irrelevant.
www.nytimes.com
May 19, 2025 at 3:54 PM
@helenlewis.bsky.social on podcasts and those calling them out:
"Murray admitted that he has struggled to listen to Cooper’s podcasts, because “it’s pretty hard to listen to somebody who says: I don’t know what I’m talking about, but now I’m going to talk.”
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Finally, Someone Said It to Joe Rogan’s Face
Should the star podcaster take any responsibility for how he uses his power?
www.theatlantic.com
April 26, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Link to the study quoted:
globaltradealert.org/reports/amer...
April 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
"what would happen to America’s trading partners if the country were to be fully closed to trade in 2025. That analysis predicts that, within the year, nearly 41 percent of U.S. trading partners would have fully recovered from the lost U.S. exports...".
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
There’s No Coming Back From Trump’s Tariff Disaster
America was the world’s economic anchor. Thanks to the president, it may never have that role again.
www.theatlantic.com
April 12, 2025 at 4:24 PM
"What has the country gotten for all of this chaos? Nothing. Trump tarnished the United States’ long-standing trading relationships and boosted the cost of imports, and evidently won zero concessions in return." @annielowrey.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...
The Cost of Chaos
The Liberation Day pause is better than the Liberation Day policy itself was. But Americans are getting a raw deal one way or another.
www.theatlantic.com
April 10, 2025 at 5:54 PM
“This is exactly what the American Revolution was fought to prevent,” said Wilentz, author of “The Rise of American Democracy.”

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...
An airport, Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill: Inside the GOP effort to venerate Trump while he’s still in office
House Republicans say they're honoring the sitting president with their unprecedented bills. Historians see something darker.
www.politico.com
March 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by barrykomar.bsky.social
thebulwark.com
If you want to play Atlas Shrugged, Elon Musk isn't Dagny Taggart or John Galt. He's a moocher and a looter. ICYMI Paul Crider:
Elon Musk Thinks He’s an Ayn Rand Hero. Nope: He’s One of Her Villains.
Recent years have revealed the Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs who worship Rand to be racists, fraudsters, and looters.
www.thebulwark.com
March 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Agree with @ayan604.bsky.social and besides, not sure listening to "US experts" on housing solutions is that smart - not like they have their house in order on that front.
March 2, 2025 at 12:26 AM
"If your business model relies on stealing your inputs, that's normally called not having a viable business model."

Amazing how "Disruptor" business models in too many cases are just a businesses that is breaking current laws.
benzevgreen.bsky.social Ben Green @benzevgreen.bsky.social · Dec 19
This is an older story, but worth keeping in mind through every step of the AI hype cycle. The whole business model relies on violating copyright law. If your business model relies on stealing your inputs, that's normally called not having a viable business model.
drownedinsound.bsky.social Sean | Drowned in Sound @drownedinsound.bsky.social · Dec 19
OpenAI is begging the British Parliament to allow it to use copyrighted works because it's supposedly "impossible" for the company to train its artificial intelligence models — and continue growing its multi-billion-dollar business — without them. futurism.com/the-byte/ope...
March 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by barrykomar.bsky.social
petebuttigieg.bsky.social
If you wanted to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, you would empower the inspectors general.

If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.
February 17, 2025 at 2:17 PM
"The first step in containing the damage is to see Trump’s & Musk’s goals for DOGE clearly: It is a project rooted in resentful arrogance, & its true objective is not better government, but destruction."

(Another) sobering ready by @radiofreetom.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Death of Government Expertise
Why Trump and Musk are on a firing spree
www.theatlantic.com
February 17, 2025 at 6:40 PM
“How will this affect communities? If the sense of community that makes Vancouver special gets lost, it’s very sad,”

"She and her husband share an 800-sq.-ft. one bedroom, They will only be entitled to a 550-to-650-sq.-ft. unit under the tenant relocation policy."
February 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Well, he is known for keeping to his word.
iandmorrison.com Ian Morrison 🇨🇦 @iandmorrison.com · Feb 11
He said state
February 11, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Unless they use Puerto Rico as the model - a territory of the United States. No Congressional or Senate representation, no electoral votes - doesn't minimizing the power of an annexed territory make way more sense?
@iandmorrison.com
georgetakei.bsky.social George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · Feb 11
The reality behind the whole 51st state thing.
A tweet from Ian Morrison, who has a Canadian flag in his display name, responds to a discussion about U.S. state additions. He states that it would add the "51st through 63rd states" and bring "40 million comparatively leftist voters, 52 leftist representatives, and 26 leftist senators," ensuring that "nobody like Trump would ever get elected again." He ends the tweet with, "Lastly, you can fuck right off."
February 11, 2025 at 11:31 PM
"But of the options I had, only one mayor promised to completely change the city.... At least he is doing something. It may kill a lot of people....But I respect a man of action, regardless of what that action is and whether or not it’s going to make things better or worse."
February 10, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Why not just an import ban entirely?
adamkinzinger.substack.com Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · Feb 2
Dear Mexico, Canada, Panama, and Europe:

100 percent tariffs on Tesla.
February 3, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by barrykomar.bsky.social
radiofreetom.bsky.social
I think it was the inevitable outcome of millions of people not understanding and not caring how their own government works
February 2, 2025 at 11:24 PM