Month: June 2026

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This is a rather long and involved post; however, the point is that Canada’s Department of National Defence and Prime Minister Carney better begin instigating a major drone manufacturing initiative. This is necessary to bolster the security of the world’s longest unprotected border, especially in light of Uncle Sam’s recent Middle East misadventures and the likelihood that the United States will dust off once again the Monroe Doctrine as a guide for hegemonic adventures in the Western Hemisphere.

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Following Post from December 5,2025.

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‘reassert and enforce’ USA style…

UPDATE: Excerpted/edited comments by Professor Robert Pape, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, from transcript of his conversation on The Bottom Line (Al Jazeera English), June 28, 2026.

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Chapter 4: A constrained global power

Al Jazeera: Really, what you’re saying is that Iran was never going to be a cakewalk. You were one of the earliest people to come and really game this out, saying, “This is not going to end well, and here are the reasons why. You’re going to propel Iran to a level of power and significance that it didn’t enjoy before.” But if you look at the Western Hemisphere, if you look at the Monroe Doctrine, if you look at Venezuela and the grab and snatch of Maduro from Venezuela, and now the rightward shift of even a lot of elections in the Western Hemisphere, you know, Donald Trump points to that as something that’s a clear win. That was a cakewalk. So, what do you think the peculiar characteristics are of when it’s a cakewalk and when it’s not?

Professor Pape: What you’re going to see, is that the Iran war is going to have a powerful effect in constraining America as a great power in many regions of the world. I call it a constrained great power. America will remain the number one most strong military in the world, China number two, and then Russia number three. But it is more constrained. In the case of the Middle East, we’re seeing the balance of power shifting right before our eyes. In the case of Asia, many people are thinking that what will happen is that we’ll pull back from the Middle East and we’re going to go to Asia. This is not right. That’s not a correct understanding of our future. The future is going to be that we are going to be more restrained because if we can’t keep our bases and carriers safe vis-à-vis Iran, imagine how we’ll hold up against China. This is not going to work out. In fact, I won’t be surprised if we start to think twice about building more carriers for Asia. This is going to be a situation where we’re going to be heavily constrained. And of course, you’re also seeing with Russia, Ukraine is now on its own mostly without any real new help, and with the drones, it’s going to do quite well. The opposite of what most people thought, again not understanding the precision air revolution that has been underway for years.

What that is going to mean, is that that thing called the Monroe Doctrine, as the US is constrained in the Middle East, as the US is constrained in Europe, and as it is constrained in Asia, it is probably going to focus more in the US region of the world. The US will become a more constrained power. And the countries in its western hemisphere ( Canada, Mexico etc.) are substantially weaker than China, Ukraine, and of course, Iran.

Court Painter, mischievously, challenged the studio resident scribe Corrosive Horatio Attila Thundershower (ChatGPT) to render in blank verse, selected Great Dominion headlines of the past week.

To provide a respite from all the reading, Court Painter has opened his vast storehouse of under appreciated gems from years gone by… offering a little eye puzzlement for your enjoyment.

The Week’s Tidings in Blank Verse

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Where mountain vows confront the nation’s heart,
The maple sceptre pleads for common cause.

A gilded tyrant toys with Fortune’s wheel,
And cracks the pillars holding markets fast.

The northern anthem, forged to summon strength,
Finds discord woven through its brazen chords.

The mason’s towers, trembling in the mist,
Await the monarch’s balm for wounded stone.

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Though wisdom crowns the scholar’s lofty brow,
The Commons kneel to subtler sovereigns.

A splendid chart adorns the economic sea,
Yet rudderless it drifts through listless tides.

Should fortress walls embrace the continent,
Their granite arms may prove a prison’s clasp.

The oil-fed tempests scour the nation’s purse,
Our own neglect has stoked the furnace flame.

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The builder’s rescue, cast in gilded terms,
Seems but a salve on fractures self-inflicted.

The summer sun shall assay rival steel,
Where patience tempers every claimant’s blade.

From Britain’s fallen minister there comes
A raven bearing prophecy in ash.

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The scaffold built to cradle vacant homes
Leans perilously beneath its borrowed beams.

Soft honey poured upon imperial ears
May sweeten wolves, yet sharpen hidden fangs.

Who fails to harvest promise sows regret;
The autumn counts what summer failed to reap.

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The western cedars murmur to the wind,
“Our grief bears equal weight beneath these skies.”

The Stampede’s laughter mingles now with dust,
As politics bestrides the bucking grounds.

Within the tents, where banners snap like sails,
Ambition locks its antlers in the smoke.

The cannabis vine, patiently entwined,
Still strains beneath the gardener’s iron hand.

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By measured words the northern helmsman steers
The tempest circling Trump’s uncertain wake.

One steadfast soul receives the laurel’s light,
A catalyst whose spark outlives the flame.

Necessity may wear a courtly smile,
Yet flattery soon tarnishes its gold.

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Some trust that history mends its fractured clock;
Hope, unaided, keeps no faithful watch.

How dear the price to bind a restless realm,
When prairie winds unlace Confederation?

Across the seas old allies clasp new hands,
While treaties bloom like banners in the dawn.

Toward Arctic stars the compass turns again,
Where frost and strategy embrace as one.

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An embassy long absent leaves the realm
To read dark mirrors through a clouded glass.

The ballots wait like arrows in the quiver,
Their hour concealed beneath the statesman’s cloak.

What some call rescue others christen alms

Click link for Axios article

https://www.axios.com/2026/06/20/ai-tech-moguls-g7

New global order: AI CEOs as heads of nation-states

Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

Edited from Axios article:

It was a historic scene that captures a once-unimaginable geopolitical ordering. The world’s most powerful heads of state gathered in the French Alps this week for the annual G7 summit, with the CEOs of America’s dominant AI companies seated and treated like heads of nation-states themselves.  This is the future many leaders and AI CEOs envision — heads of state and the masters of tech in constant discussion, and sometimes conflict, over who controls AI, its rules, and its application to governing and world security. AI CEOs sat around the table with leaders of the world’s democracies, treated as peers. The companies, creating the world’s future economy and security infrastructure, are now the equivalent of nation states.

Court Painter was only able to capture in masterful portraits, a few of the Masters of Tech AI CEO’s physiognomies as his supply of pigment, politeness and patience ran out.

You dear viewer have to figure out who is who! (The Court Painter is on the right)

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Source : AI Mode Google Search

The AI CEOs and top tech executives who attended the 2026 G7 Summit working lunch in Évian-les-Bains, France on June 17, 2026, include: [1, 2, 3]

North American AI Leaders [1]

• Sam Altman – CEO of OpenAI
• Dario Amodei – CEO and Co-Founder of Anthropic
• Demis Hassabis – CEO of Google DeepMind
• Aidan Gomez – CEO of Canada-based Cohere
• Marc Benioff – Chair and CEO of Salesforce
• Alexandr Wang – Leader of AI operations at Meta (acting as Chief AI Officer) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

European AI Leaders

• Arthur Mensch – Founder and CEO of France’s Mistral AI
• Robin Rombach – Co-Founder of Germany’s Black Forest Labs
• Victor Riparbelli – CEO of the UK-based Synthesia
• Uljan Sharka – CEO of Italy’s Domyn [1, 2, 3, 4]

Asian AI Leaders

• Ren Ito – Representative from Japan’s Sakana AI
• Pratyush Kumar / Vivek Raghava

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Court Painter painted two suns for no particular reason.

Court Painter checks in on the crystal prognosticator

Electrification is a crucial driver in the global energy transition, aiming to lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency by powering transportation, heating, and industrial processes with clean electricity

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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/06/16/opinion/international-energy-geopolitics-iran-war

Excerpted from June 18th 2026 National Observer Max Fawcett article

In the last Cold War, it was easy for Canada to decide which side it backed. This time, it will be far more difficult. Yes, our economy still relies heavily on oil and gas development and it drives a lot of our capital formation and attraction. But China and its allies in Asia are actively re-wiring the global economy

Will the future be forward-looking, green and bravely planetary — or will it be backward-looking, carbon-intensive and stridently sovereigntist?

 Countries that import oil and gas — which is to say, almost all of them, especially in the parts of the world where demand is supposed to grow — are re-assessing their reliance on an increasingly unreliable product. And while Canada may look like a comparative source of calm and reliability compared to Iran or even the United States right now, we’re still in the same fundamental business of trying to sell more fossil fuels — one that faces the same existential threat. 

China, after all, isn’t building solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and other demand-destroying technologies because it cares about the environment. It’s capitalizing on a growing source of economic and especially geopolitical power.

THE MATH IS THE MATH

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• Meanwhile at the G7 :Political Fossil Fuel Theatre perhaps?
• Canada is poised to become a key and reliable supplier of energy to the G7 after leaders meeting in France embraced this country’s potential to deliver “significant additional capacity” to global markets to reduce dependence on oil and gas coming through the Strait of Hormuz.
• “We commit to accelerate the diversification of energy supply routes in order to reduce global vulnerability to the Strait of Hormuz and to increase our energy stocks,” said a joint statement by G7 leaders in Évian-les-Bains, France, on Wednesday.
• “We welcome the potential for Canada to deliver significant additional capacity to global markets in the coming years.”

Source CBC News

Markham Hislop sits down with National Observer columnist Max Fawcett to examine Mark Carney’s emerging energy and climate strategy, the global shift from molecules to electrons, and why Canada’s assumptions about future oil and LNG demand may be increasingly out of step with reality.

Click link for article

Iran Enlisted “Senior Psychologists” to Help Craft Messages to Trump Ahead of Agreement

An Iranian official told Drop Site that Trump’s “reactions improved noticeably” after the psychiatric professionals joined the negotiating effort.

JEREMY SCAHILL JUN 15/26

A few of the psychologists insights

1. Not the brightest light in the harbor.

2. The light’s on but no one’s home.

3. Not the brightest bulb in the box.

4. A few screws short of a hardware store.

5. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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6. A few cards short of a deck.

7. A few fries short of a Happy Meal.

8. About as sharp as a marble.

9. Only has one oar in the water.

10. Smart as a bag of rocks.

11. A burger short of a combo meal.

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12. The elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.

13. A few peas short of a casserole.

14. A few keys short of a keyboard.

15. Not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

16. The gates are down and the lights are flashing, but the train isn’t coming.

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17. As smart as a stick.

18. Fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

19. An intellect rivaled only by garden tools.

20. Has an IQ of room temperature.

21. Couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.

22. Not the brightest crayon in the box.

23. One twist short of a slinky.

24. Sharp as a sack of wet mice.

25. More numb than a frozen mukluk.

26. Not the sharpest crayon in the box

27. Not the sharpest tool in the shed

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28. They are depriving some village of its idiot.

29. A few threads short of a sweater.

30. A few sandwiches short of a picnic.

31. Driveway doesn’t quite reach the road.

32. The battery is not fully charged.

33. About as sharp as a bowling ball.

34. Dumber than a bag of hammers.

35. Two bricks short of a load.

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SpaceX made the biggest stock market debut in history on Friday after nearly two and a half decades as a private company. Public trading began around midday with a starting share price of $150, which quickly jumped by a double digit percentage and sent the company’s valuation above $2tn. The company’s initial public offering made the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire.

“It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever,” Musk said in an address at SpaceX’s headquarters. He reiterated the company’s mission to “make humanity multiplanetary” and “take the fiction out of science fiction”.

Executives rang the bell to open trading as Elton John’s Rocket Man played on the floor of the Nasdaq exchange.

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Meanwhile :Musk’s approach to humanity on planet earth: June 12/2026

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Elon Musk accused of amplifying anti-migrant content to more than 60 million on X amid Belfast disorder

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“As the owner of X and its most-followed user, Elon Musk has unparalleled power to shape what people see online. With that power comes responsibility for the content and conduct his platform promotes,” he said. 

“Yet our research shows that he used the Belfast tragedy to amplify anti-migrant narratives to millions of users, prompting endless calls for violence. While communities dealt with the consequences of brutality and disorder, no individual played a bigger role in spreading this content on X than Musk himself.”

Imran Ahmed, Founder & CEO of CCDH

Source: Independent

Court Painter & Trillionaire

Chrystia Freeland is returning to her writing roots with a new book named after a quip she made about the United States on an American talk show.

“Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider’s View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People” will be published in October.

Its title is a reference to a comment she made on “Real Time With Bill Maher” in February, saying that the U.S. is “not a very reliable boyfriend right now.”

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U.S. President Donald ‘Unreliable Boyfriend’ Trump is again saying the American economy does not need anything from Canada or Mexico and he is “not looking to renew” the continental trade pact.

Source Canadian Press  June 10/26

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Court Painter putting finishing touches on “Unreliable”

Bombastic is the title and description of Court Painter’s recent exhibition.It also could describe his irascible temperament and celebrity brand.

As an aside :(Stockholm, 27 April 2026) World military expenditure reached $2887 billion in 2025, an increase of 2.9 per cent in real terms over 2024. Military spending declined in the United States but rose by 14 per cent in Europe and by 8.1 per cent in Asia and Oceania. The top three military spenders—the USA, China and Russia—spent a combined total of $1480 billion, or 51 per cent of the global total, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 

-Court Painter seen holding a sparkler.

-Installation

-Installation

-Installation

-The Press Attaché to Court Painter is seen holding a purchase from the gallery gift shop.

-Court Painter in his studio

-Court Painter in his studio

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer & Flag Hugger

The Trump administration plans to impose new tariffs on dozens of trading partners, including Canada, over allegations the countries are allowing goods produced by forced labour into their supply chains.

The proposed new tariffs were announced by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer late Tuesday night, not long after he wrapped up an afternoon meeting with Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc in Washington. 

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable,” Greer said in a news release.

For a stinging analysis of the latest in American hypocrisy this is a must view with Tod Maffin.”Lectured by the Guilty”

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Court Painter & Double Trouble Portrait