COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2025.Back some two and a half weeks ago Canadian labour economist Jim Stanford noted a rising trend that has only moderately abated since, at best.

Stanford wrote : “The new McCarthyism is spreading into Canada. And it will have a group of very happy cheerleaders here. Worse than the 50s: back then you had to belong to something (a Communist Party). Antifa doesn’t even exist, making it easier today to target anyone they want.”|

We counterweights editors have noticed similar incursions on our Twitter/X account. And we have perhaps somewhat foolishly but often enough joined in the growing political wars (online and strictly in words of course), over what in Canada is finally the future of Canada, now (almost) engulfing social media in the fall of 2025.

The extreme right Trumpian position in this debate (apparently actually endorsed by some who live in Canada but do not seem to be having a very good time) is “Canada as the 51st State.” It is very clear that this is what Presidewnt Trump would like to see. (And if in doubt see the online video confirmation from his Secretary of State.)

At the same time, it also seems clear enough (so far) that even President Donald J. Trump II is not quite crazy enough (yet?) to actually invade Canada with military force. Or try to. We have long embraced the view of University of Toronto political science professor Aisha Ahmad, that any US military conquest of Canada would only initiate a long period of political violence and “guerilla warfare” on the northern US border, against some new US imperialist regime. So as Trump has actually acknowledged in public himself : “It takes two to tango.” And the Canadian people don’t want to dance!

At the same time again, the destruction of a substantial chunk of the White House, to make room for an absurdly large ballroom on a different and more grandiose model from the more democratic White House proper (the part of it still standing at any rate), can only symbolize just how much destruction of the old free and democratic American government President Donald J. Trump II has managed to get away with so far.

We’re impressed as well by an October 24, 2025 Twitter/X post from the irrepressible Keith Olbermann — who we remember from back when he distinguished himself as an early truth-teller about the hardcore conservative (if still traditional and more or less democratic) US federal regime of George W. Bush.

Many years later Olbermann has responded to Trump’s October 24, 2025 Truth Social claim that “Just in : Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost.”

Olbermann notes on Twitter/X : “It’s official: Trump is insane … All these events he claims happened in 2020 — when none of these people were in any position of power and when Trump, not Biden, was president … There are no documents, just the things Crazy Trump hallucinates.”

(For another report on all this, from Catherine Bouris at the Daily Beast (via Yahoo News) see “Trump Lines Up Next Targets With Wildly Inaccurate Claims.”)

Our conclusion here, for now, draws on former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich’s blessing on this traditional day of rest : “Sunday thought: We’re winning … These are terrible times, to be sure. But we will triumph.”

As suggested by the Gavin Newsom / Doug Ford / California / Ontario video clip on the 2025 World Series (which also more subtly recalls the Ford TV commercial on Ronald Reagan and free trade), when people like Robert Reich in California are winning, so are all of us standing strong and free for the founding UN member state of Canada. Meanwhile Happy Halloween at the end of this very busy week ahead for all we counterweights editors, here on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario.