Cut The Red Tape ✂️

Where news meets rational thinking

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, July 8th. In today’s news, Premiers Smith and Ford join forces to demand Ottawa cut red tape and support growth, US Department of Justice says there is no Epstein list and there are no more files, What the climate crusaders and DEI activists always forget, The Order of Canada has simply become a reward for political loyalty, and much more.

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Smith and Ford Join Forces: Demand Ottawa Cut Red Tape and Support Growth

This week in Calgary, Premiers Danielle Smith and Doug Ford signed two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to collaborate on new oil pipelines, rail lines, and trade infrastructure connecting Alberta’s energy sector with Ontario’s industrial base. The agreement signals growing interprovincial coordination on resource development and manufacturing—and an increasingly unified call for Ottawa to step aside.

The premiers say Canada’s regulatory environment is holding back investment, productivity, and long-term competitiveness. In their joint press conference, Smith called on the federal government to repeal or amend the Impact Assessment Act, lift the oil tanker ban, and drop proposed caps on oil and gas production. She also criticized the federal electric vehicle mandate, noting that Alberta—where only 4.2% of vehicles sold last year were zero-emission—would be hard-pressed to meet the 20% target by 2026.

Ford echoed her concerns, pointing to long timelines for mine approvals and the lack of certainty facing investors. “No one will invest in opening a mine if it takes 15 years to get to yes,” he said. “It’s time to end excuses and start building.”

The new MOUs outline plans for rail lines—built with Ontario steel—that would connect Alberta to Ontario’s Ring of Fire region and its emerging critical minerals supply chain. Pipelines would move Western Canadian oil and gas to southern Ontario refineries and expand export opportunities abroad. The two provinces also plan to launch a joint feasibility study to explore optimal routes, financing tools, and supply chain strategies for new economic and energy corridors.

Ford framed the deal as a strategic move to secure Canada’s economic future amid global instability and growing U.S. protectionism. “It’s never been more important for Canadians—from coast to coast to coast—to stand united,” he said, adding that Ontario has recently signed agreements with six provinces to reduce interprovincial trade barriers.

Smith said the Alberta-Ontario partnership is about creating the right conditions for prosperity. “Ottawa must answer our calls and remove federal barriers that have harmed Canada’s ability to grow the energy sector and other industries such as mining and manufacturing,” she said.

While the federal government has defended its climate policies as necessary, the message from the provinces is clear: they want to build—and they want Ottawa to let them.

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US Department of Justice: There is No Epstein List and There Are No More Files—Just Trust Us

So let’s get this straight—Ghislaine Maxwell is rotting in prison for trafficking underage girls to no one. That’s the official line now? According to the US Department of Justice, there is no client list, and no more Epstein files will be released. After years of public outrage, allegations, and supposed “binders of evidence,” the same government that once claimed a list was “sitting on a desk” now says… actually, there never was one?

This is either one of the greatest institutional cover-ups in modern history, or a blatant show of how money and power can smother the truth, or perhaps both. The government admits to possessing tens of thousands of files, videos, and images—including confirmed child sex abuse material—yet none of it will see the light of day, allegedly to “protect victims.” But the only people being protected seem to be the powerful men who may have been on Epstein’s client list.

What a sick joke. If Epstein really acted alone, why did someone need to clean up his tracks? Why did video footage of his suicide “malfunction”? Why is the public told to just trust that he killed himself and that no further investigation is necessary?

The message here is clear: there are two sets of rules. One for us. And one for them.

Maxwell trafficked children — but somehow, no one received them. Epstein had “tens of thousands” of disturbing files, but no one gets to know who or what’s in them. And the “client list”? A myth, apparently.

Either the entire system is lying to us, or it's too scared to tell the truth.

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What the Climate Crusaders and DEI Activists Always Forget

The people who claim they want to save the world rarely stop to ask if it wants saving, at least not on their terms.

Today’s social engineers—whether they come cloaked in climate justice, DEI policy, or gender theory—aren’t just advocating tolerance or compassion. They want to reorganize civilization itself. They believe human beings can be reprogrammed, society redesigned, and morality centrally managed. The slogans may change—“save the planet,” “dismantle systemic oppression,” “build inclusive futures”—but the underlying ambition remains the same: control.

The danger, then, isn’t just the authoritarian impulse to “make the world better.” It’s the delusion that people can be molded into a perfect state of harmony. That if you just impose the right rules, censor the right speech, or eliminate the wrong ideas, utopia will emerge. But the more we chase perfection, the more we justify coercion. The more we aim for engineered harmony, the more we destroy the individual.

And even if these social architects could remake the world exactly as they dream it—which they can’t—it still wouldn’t work. Dostoevsky saw this clearly. In Notes from Underground, he warned that even in a society where all needs are met and suffering eliminated, man would tear it all down—just to feel alive. Because the human soul doesn't want comfort. It wants freedom. It wants risk, struggle, and the right to choose—even to choose wrongly.

This is what modern ideologues fail to understand: the human condition. Beneath every person is a primal drive—not to obey or conform, but to overcome. Nietzsche called this the will to power—not the will to dominate others, but the internal drive to grow, to strive, to create, to assert one's individuality against chaos. To climb, fall, and rise again. This friction, this effort, gives life meaning.

Human dignity is not found in safety or sameness. It is found in the struggle toward something real. People need goals, effort, and the freedom to pursue them. Strip that away and they don’t become enlightened—they become depressed, neurotic, resentful. They lose the thread of meaning.

The world doesn’t need more social planning. It needs more space for people to be human—flawed, defiant, and free.

Has the Order of Canada Become Nothing More Than a Reward for Political Loyalty?

With Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Bonnie Henry now recipients of the Order of Canada, many are left wondering: what exactly are we honouring? These two public health officials were central to Canada’s pandemic response—a response that included sweeping lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and restrictions that upended lives, cost jobs, and left a deep scar on the country's trust in institutions.

Supporters hail them as dedicated public servants. But critics argue their policies were often coercive, unscientific, and deeply harmful, damaging not only individual livelihoods but also Charter rights. So when these same officials are awarded one of the country’s highest honours, it raises uncomfortable questions:

Is the Order of Canada still a recognition of service to the nation, or has it become a symbol of loyalty to the prevailing political class? Have we reached the point where enforcing government orthodoxy is seen as more honourable than defending individual freedoms?

And if that’s the case, has the Order of Canada lost the very meaning it was supposed to represent? More

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Trump Escalates Trade War on Japan, South Korea, and BRICS Nations

President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on imports from Japan and South Korea, effective August 1, to address trade imbalances and pressure these nations into trade agreements. The tariffs, part of his "reciprocal" trade policy, could increase if the countries retaliate or fail to open markets, with Trump emphasizing potential adjustments based on trade relations. Additionally, Trump threatened an extra 10% tariff on countries aligning with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others) due to their "anti-American" policies, following their criticism of unilateral tariffs at a summit. This move, affecting 14 countries with tariffs up to 40%, signals a broader trade war escalation, though a July 9 deadline was extended to August 1 to allow further negotiations. More

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Texas Flooding as Death Toll Reaches 104 - An unknown number of others remain missing, including 10 girls who had been attending a summer camp along the river. More

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Russian Minister Found Dead From Gunshot Wound in Apparent Suicide Hours After Being Fired by Putin - That makes two high-ranking members of Putin’s inner circle who’ve died by apparent suicide in just one week. More

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California Rejects Federal Push to End Transgender Participation in School Sports - More

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Gareth West, Ringleader of $30M Grandparent Scam Network Preying on Seniors, is Finally Arrested - More

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CBC Host Resigns, Saying He Could Not Continue at the Public Broadcaster 'With Integrity' - Travis Dhanraj accused the public broadcaster of 'performative diversity, tokenism, a system designed to elevate certain voices and diminish others.' More

Finance Minister Orders Major Spending Reductions—Can Liberals Deliver?

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has ordered all federal departments to identify billions in spending cuts, aiming to reduce program spending by 7.5% in 2026–27, 10% the following year, and 15% by 2028–29. Ministers have been told to submit proposals by the end of summer, including three priority initiatives that could be funded by reallocating existing budgets. The plan, pitched as a “long-term transformation” of government operations, notably avoids cuts to transfers, dental care, pharmacare, and childcare.

But skepticism is growing. After years of big promises and bloated bureaucracy, the question is: can the architects of the problem really be trusted to fix it? Or is this just more political window dressing ahead of the next budget showdown? More

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Tesla Loses $68 Billion in Value After Elon Musk Says He is Launching a Political Party - “Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note Sunday. More

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Amazon Prime Day Set to Lift US Online Sales by $23.8 Billion - Retailers compete for consumer dollars with extended sales, deep discounts, and AI-powered shopping tools during the key summer event. More

Earth-Like Planets May Be ‘Abundant’ Around Red Dwarf Stars

A new study using the CARMENES instrument in Spain has identified four new exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars—three of them Earth-sized—offering strong evidence that small, rocky planets may be far more common than previously thought. Red dwarfs, which make up about 80% of stars in the Milky Way and include 20 of the 30 stars nearest to Earth, appear to host an average of two planets each that are less than three times Earth’s mass. Since red dwarfs are long-lived and stable, and many of their planets lie in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist, scientists say we could be looking at hundreds of Earth-like worlds nearby, many of which might just be capable of supporting life. More

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New Study Claims the Universe Will Start to Shrink in Just 7 Billion Years - More

AI-Generated Band Gets Over 1 Million Spotify Listeners in Just Two Weeks

The Velvet Sundown, a psychedelic rock band that didn’t exist two weeks ago, has exploded on Spotify with over one million monthly listeners and two albums already released, with a third on the way. But the band isn’t real. It's an AI-generated project with synthetic band members, AI-made visuals, and music created with the help of artificial intelligence tools. Marketed as an “artistic provocation,” the project blurs the line between human and machine creativity, sparking debate about authenticity, identity, and the future of music in the AI era. More

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Wimbledon: Grigor Dimitrov Forced Into Heartbreaking Injury Retirement While Holding 2-Set Lead Over World No. 1 Seed Jannik Sinner - More

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Pacers President: Tyrese Haliburton to Miss All of Next Season - More

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Jake Paul Pursuing Legal Action Against Piers Morgan and Others Who Claimed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. FIght was RIgged - More

Unusual Bee Attack in France Leaves 24 Injured, 3 in Critical Condition in 30-Minute Swarm

A Rock is Expected to Fetch up to $4 Million in an Auction—It's the Biggest Chunk of Mars on Earth

On This Day in 1996, British girl group the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the UK ($50 says you're singing it in your head right now 😂)

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