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Richard Switzer

@rswitz.bsky.social
508 followers 1K following 329 posts

Product guy & Torontonian. CBC, Globe and Mail, TWG, eCampusOntario, Bad Gateway, PaymentEvolution. Old hipster-> hip oldster.

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Reposted by Richard Switzer
Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 07/10/2026
"We don't want to turn into a banana republic, so we won't try to rein in corporations" is the kind of thing you say if you don't know what makes a banana republic a banana republic, and instead want to be a banana republic where the bananas are data centers.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Let’s hope we hear a lot more about Attribution Science in the next few years. Massive companies have externalized the cost of their harms to people in the planet for nearly a century through lobbying and propaganda. Their time is up. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/o...
Right now, more than 20 civil lawsuits have been filed in state courts by municipalities that attempt to hold the industry responsible for climate damages. Two tribes have filed similar lawsuits. Eleven state attorneys general are pursuing consumer fraud and related claims against the industry. All in all, several cases are now in the discovery phase and moving toward trial. In addition, Vermont recently passed a climate superfund law that, if it survives court challenges, could force fossil fuel companies to pay an assessment for climate damages. In Washington State, the first wrongful death lawsuit against fossil fuel companies is moving forward. The plaintiff is asking the courts to hold the companies liable for the death of a 65-year-old woman, Juliana Leon, who died in her car during a 108-degree heat wave.Most of these lawsuits were not filed by tattooed, vegan anticapitalists, but by sober-minded public officials desperate for money to repair sea walls, fight more intense wildfires and prepare their cities for a hotter world. Many are motivated by a lesson that many of us learned when we were children: You break it, you fix it. Why shouldn't that apply to fossil fuel companies whose products have ruptured the climate?
The Supreme Court's decision in Suncor v.
Boulder, depending on how broadly it is written, could kill many, if not all, of these cases. If it does, it could save fossil fuel companies hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and punitive awards and help them avoid high-profile courtroom showdowns in which they are cast as greedy, deceptive planet wreckers.The simple truth is, the climate
accountability genie is out of the bottle, and the Supreme Court is unlikely to jam it back in. Even if the court sides with Suncor, attribution science will continue to move forward, filling in the gaps between cause and effect in our understanding of how climate works
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
That’s @anandwrites.bsky.social right there.
bsky.app
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Haha thanks Siep. Check out Omar’s American War. or Automatic Noodle if you’re looking for something lighter about a bunch of misfit, sentient robots that open a restaurant.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Its shows that the object intended to create fear & blind compliance has a vulnerability, a thermal exhaust port into which an everyday citizen like Renee Good, Wilber Perez or Rev. David Black could fire a proton torpedo. Which I guess makes the book R2D2, in case you need another reason to buy it.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
…and unite neighborhoods around kindness and supportive communities. When ICE thugs showed up, Minnesotans were ready.   In a funny way, this book is like the blueprint to the Death Star:
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
… Rejecting the epidemic of spineless anticipatory obedience, Minnesota's 'organizing in advance' movement built resilient coalitions under the Greater than Fear banner, pulling in a wide swath of religious organizations, workers unions and grassroots orgs to counter divisive dog-whistle politics...
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Both authors found hope through understanding the mechanics of how the deeply weird, apocalyptic factions including Christian Nationalist end-timers, ethnonationalist extremists and tech oligarchs found common cause, and in so doing explore their deep, fundamental weaknesses.   Just one example:
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Was lucky enough to see @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social discuss their new book last night in Toronto, hosted by the perfect moderator in Omar El Akkad. Despite the title, this sounds like a positive book (bought it at the event) 🧵
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Reposted by Richard Switzer
Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 04/10/2026
A Haitian man legally immigrated to Ohio, then was given an ankle monitor bc Trump withdrew his status. He threw himself in front of truck. The trucker, who voted for Trump, is haunted. “Pierre was doing what he was supposed to do. We did not do right by him.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
theatlantic.com
A Reckoning in Springfield
A truck driver out on his route confronts what the country has become.
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Brigid Alverson @brigidalverson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I think it is crucial for the health of the Democratic party that the entire consultant class from previous administrations, including and especially Clinton, be told to go home and stop bothering people. They are wrong about everything and have been holding the party back for decades.
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Seems like some version of this runs every day
Like many of her neighbors, Ms. Vuittonet had been worried about the streams of new immigrants coming across the Rio Grande during the Biden administration and had trusted that Mr. Trump would stop them. Although some Trump supporters held signs calling for "mass deportations now" during the 2024 campaign, Ms. Vuittonet never thought such deportations would include people she knew who had lived in the United States for decades.
"I knew that he was going to start deporting people, but that he was going to go after bad criminals, like true hardcore criminals, rapists, killers," Ms. Vuittonet said, sitting in the small coffee shop she runs from the back of an antique store.
She thought of her six children, who range from ages 6 to 12. "Of course I want the streets safe."
But when her brother was taken to an immigration detention center earlier this year, just days after a scheduled check-in with an immigration official, she said it felt like a punch to the gut.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If a consortium of fossil fuel companies are investing $30B into something, do you think emissions and are going to go down? Or up? And natural gas prices for Canadians? Down or up? Australia holds the answer to both. bsky.app/profile/rswi...
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As you skim the announcement of the $30B expansion of LNG in BC today, consider this thread: “What we need is a massive clampdown on the influence of money over politics, including lobbying transparency, campaign finance reform, an end to the revolving door between politics and lobbying.”
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Right to Jail Meme
Alt: Right to Jail Meme
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
👀
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Music brings me so much joy. Last night saw these goofballs at Massey Hall and today a friend sent a link to a new double-length album from The Drin: open.spotify.com/album/7hX3zk...
Angine de Poitrine performing at Massey Hall in Toronto, September 22, 2026
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A lot of WH staff in the 1st Trump admin were dedicated civil servants there to serve the office and the people, not Trump loyalists. @oliviaoftroye.com was one of the many good ones, as the most minuscule bit of research would tell you. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_...
en.wikipedia.org
Olivia Troye - Wikipedia
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Standard regulatory capture playbook: Step one: Major fear mongering campaign. AI must be regulated! Step two: Who besides us massively overleveraged AI companies could possibly write the regulations??? Step three: Regulations shut out new entrants and open-source competitors.
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The moment the AI company is asking you for your bank account data, that’s what we call a “clue.” That’s the ore they’re mining from you. That will become the basis for surveillance-pricing you on everything you buy in the future. Including those groceries
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Finally found a product category Wirecutter doesn’t have any reviews on.
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James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Wow. I hadn’t realised how much LLMs had killed StackOverflow (the site where coders traditionally go to ask questions when they’re stuck): “Just before the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, there were more than 100,000 monthly questions asked on the site; last month, there were fewer than 1,500.”
ft.com
Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party?
Our obsession with AI code-writing tools is overwhelming the web’s unsung human caretakers
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The White House Press Corps should've walked out as soon as the Trump regime banned the Associated Press for calling the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of Mexico." That was Feb 15, 2025. The first month of Trump Term II. Not surprising that abandoning principles for weak acquiescence led to more abuse.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Senior CNBC econ reporter @steveliesman.bsky.social: “Insanity is not a strategy”
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 18/09/2026
When you use framing / communications tactics to re-frame presentation away from your true intentions, that re-framing starts to creep into your soul and your mind; backwards-infecting your ideology. So: renewable deployment *actually* stops being about climate. Fossil phase-out stops mattering.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
There is no “AI exemption”.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13/09/2026
Ossoff: "While the world burns & you pay more for everything, your tax dollars become royal family's wealth. Bc it pays to be a Trump, especially when the whole world knows daddy's a crook. Half a billion from the Emirati spy chief... the Mar-a-Lago mafia really has taken corruption to new heights"
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13/09/2026
Abdul El-Sayed: "Weijia, with all due respect, this is the third time you've asked about a Twitch streamer ... their whole game is to make us fight culture wars so that we don't pay attention to the fact the president has made $2.2 billion ... "
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matt | infovoy @infovoy.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Exactly. "Sandbox" my arse. It's only the public and media's ignorance about how all things computer actually work that prevents the AI industry's mix of incompetence, Machiavellian profiteering, and techbro fanboy fantasy-think being obvious.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
As usual, @doctorow.pluralistic.net provides a rational, oddly reassuring counterpoint to the broadly irrational coverage of this “incident”. Also the point that OpenAI quietly feeding the Skynet narrative helps them raise more investment is such a sign of the deeply weird times we are living in.
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Lanrick Bennett @lanrickbennett.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
✅ A prescription for food and housing w/ Jeff Yoo MD and Andrew Boozary MD h/t @uhn.ca #FridayFlex
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Flavio Volpe, C.M. @flaviovolpe.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We’ve been over this before: Every Global 7500 that Bombardier builds in 🇨🇦 has 2 GE engines built in Indiana, 🇺🇸. Every Challenger that Bombardier builds in 🇨🇦 has 2 Honeywell engines built in Arizona. 🇺🇸. Bombardier employs 3,000+ 🇺🇸s & has 2,800 🇺🇸 suppliers. Not so smart.
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Struggle to think of political writing in 2026 that can outdo this epic piece by Jan Gerson open.substack.com/pub/theline/...
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Jen the Feisty Librarian @feistywaters.com · 01/09/2026
Olivia Rodrigo: -planned successful all women music festival -raised 10 million for women’s charities -pro Palestine, anti ICE -is 23 years old Young woman pop stars can use their voices and platforms for change, if they want to.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
@jimbostanford.bsky.social Wrote a short thread here inspired by your CBC radio appearance a few weeks back. Includes Australia’s foray into LNG exports. which I’m sure you’re well aware of. bsky.app/profile/rswi...
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/08/2026
This attempt to demonize Piker & then hang him around the neck of every Dem could not conceivably be more transparent. It's very, very obvious what they're doing. And yet everyone is just dutifully playing their role. The cycle unfolds the same way it has dozens & dozens of times before.
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Calgary Climate Hub @calgaryclimatehub.ca · 31/07/2026
Quiet energy revolutions are happening every day with new, post-fossil technologies gaining huge popularity & uptake far faster than our pokey governments can hinder them. Plug-In or Balcony Solar makes it easier for ANYBODY to harness the power of the sun. www.podcastics.com/episode/4282...
podcastics.com
Plug-in Solar for the People
The Energy Revolution On Your Balcony
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Craig 🌎 🛩️ 💙🇨🇦 @bigdaddykreativ.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Canada's largest ice cream company used to source its fruits and nuts from U.S. suppliers — some for over 30 YEARS. Then, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian products. So, what did Chapman's do? They called Italy. They called Spain. They signed multi-year contracts with European suppliers.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“The United States’ … trade deficit only exists because the U.S. buys so much of its energy from [Canada]…. supplying 99% of their natural gas imports, 85% of electricity imports, and 60% of crude oil imports. I don’t think they want us to stop sending it.” share.google/QSLGPXz2zJPG...
share.google
Carney says Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
There is one obvious play here, and the established oligopoly won’t like it. bsky.app/profile/70sb...
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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Every time a right winger points and laughs at a socialist who was born rich, it should be understood as a desperate attempt to justify their own moral failure to themselves. If you grew up rich and are now a leftist and someone points that out, the proper response is: “Yes I am. Why aren’t you?”
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Canada believes in science!
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
They are commonly made with pecans, not walnuts fyi.
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
1/ "This is the pivot point in the energy transition folks. Fossil chaos drives people to electrotech, as this is the first oil shock with a superior alternative. " says @ember-energy.org @kingsmillbond.bsky.social We argued similarly last week at Wesleyan (slides here) tinyurl.com/PolycrisisWe...
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Carney: US’s narrow merchandise trade deficit only exists because US buys so much of its energy from Canada Can fuels US growth, supplying 99% of their natural gas imports, 85% of their electricity imports,60% of their crude oil imports I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
bsky.app/profile/robe...
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Would be interesting to look at how many former military are running for Democrat noms vs Republican this cycle compared to previous administrations.
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Richard Switzer @rswitz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
The Trump era will go down as one of the most astonishingly stupid political eras of our time. Gift Link: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/w...
nytimes.com
Carney Stands Up to Trump in U.S.-Canada Trade War (Gift Article)
Canada’s prime minister walked away from what he thought was a bad trade deal with the United States. Many Canadians are behind him, but it will be costly.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Astra Taylor and I wrote this book together because facing the monsters alone is just too scary. When we face them with friends, however, we don’t just get scared–we get mad, we get motivated, and we get organized.
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