Given his infatuation with Putin, I suspect he’ll start threatening people with nukes like Putin has. And like Putin, watch as people stop taking it seriously after the first few empty threats.
Maybe it makes me an America-hating fuckstick, but I got teary-eyed watching Mark Carney break up with the US over Trump.
Elbows up, Canada. Lots of us are with you, with Greenland, with Panama, and with the EU.
I’m going to make myself a list of things (let’s be honest: alcohol - preferably whiskey) that we still import from Canada and that I just might need to try*.
I wanted this one, but it doesn’t look like it’s exported to the US:
Shame.
We’ve lost our country, and our country has lost its Got Damned mind, but please bear in mind how many of us are struggling to figure out what we can actually do to change this intolerable situation.
'Cuz we ain’t winning, here, either.
*I’m open to suggestions, particularly if you know that it’s generally available in the US. Fuck the tariffs. I’d like to take some of the economic sting out of this for our Northern neighbors in any minimal way I can.
ETA: I found that bottle online. Just ordered it. See, Canada? I’ll risk a hangover for you!!
My base advice is to simply survive, that is resistance enough, to endure. However if you have the strength and the means, show your anger. I can’t tell you how and when, these are to be decided minute-by-minute in the context of your life, but if you are angry then show it. Let people know you are upset.
For example, Trump uses his pulpit to subjugate people by aggressively attacking them and lying that they “owe him”. They owe him money, favours, respect, all sorts of craziness. So I make it a point to loudly and openly tell people that we do not owe anything. Not money, not land, not civility, not the benefit of the doubt, not respect, nothing. This is a VERY SMALL form of protest; but I’ve staked my flag on it. This is my project. “We are not slaves to Trump. We do not need to agree with his rules, nor the rules of his fascists, nor the rules of his countrymen.”
Everyone needs a hobby, being loudly obstinate towards Overton window shifting right-wing nutters is mine. Always has been.
This melodramatic interpretation is a little harder than any of the major Canadian newspapers report, and none of them are fans of Trump. The statements were made but the context is changed somewhat. Carney is not going to roll over, nor should he. But he is in election mode. When the fat hits the fire in early April we will see what happens. But Carney has little political choice except to go ahead with the expanded tariffs unless he and Trump can come to a smarter arrangement.
Carney might be unwise to insult Trump personally, though maybe that would make little difference. Poilievre telling Trump to “cut it out” is also very tough and macho, like every substitute teacher you ever had. It is good to know he will deal with Trump from a position of strength.
Oh, sure. Kayfabe is always a factor in these on-camera diplomatic negotiations.
Still … I like what I’m seeing from Carney and Ford right now. Sadly, I think it’s the only thing Trump could either understand or respect.
So, why was Canada excluded from the math-formula-based “reciprocal” tariffs yesterday?
Hypothesis: Trump and/or associates think a carrot and stick approach makes it more likely that Canada will surrender its sovereignty, so they decided to, from their POV, send a carrot.
Then where does Mexico fit? Not anywhere easily. My guess is that USMCA gave a convenient excuse for treating Canada differently, and Mexico was given their partial reprieve as a fit to the more significant Canadian program.
Greenland wasn’t even on the tariff list. Greenland media seems to think they were let off easily and will only get the 10 percent rate. If so, that fits my hypothesis.
That and, someone in his orbit figured out that they’ll need corridors for smuggling in tariff-free luxuries, so the rich people can still get their champagne and caviar while the poors suffer.
I don’t know if the Senate vote agreeing the “emergency” being used to sidestep USMCA was fictitious had anything to do with it.
Re last post, that’s plausible. But the 25 percent vehicle tariffs violate USMCA, and Trump isn’;t stopping them.
There may be several factors.
Perhaps because it’s targeted for conquest, not just tariffs.
Could it have anything to do with the fact that the tariffs on Canada have already been in place for weeks now? It’s absolutely incorrect to say that Canada was excluded.
The biggest one is nobody expects the House to approve the bill passed by the Senate. Still, it showed there is real opposition to his cunning plan.
Shots fired…politely.
“If the U.S. no longer wants to lead, Canada will.”
Video here:
Canada is already being hit with significant tariffs; the auto tariff is much more impactful to Canada than a 20% overall tariff is to most countries.
At least to Ontario for manufacturing and Quebec and BC for steel and aluminum. Not sure if it moves the needle in Alberta.
The provinces are all interconnected. Might hurt them LESS, but it will hurt us all.
Tariff on steel exports to US leads to lower prices for domestic steel leads to cheaper to build pipelines good for Alberta!!
There may be a non-zero chance some people in Alberta would believe that.
Danielle Smith will certainly be selling that line
Here is a quote from Marco Rubio, member of that crack team of Trump experts. It is worth noting well this was made now, and that markets had reached all time highs early this year.
“We have to reset the global order of trade,” Rubio said. “The worst thing is to leave it the way it is forever. I mean, this just can’t continue. We can’t continue to be a country that doesn’t make things.”
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
New motto: Let’s make a global recession together.
The USA is the second largest manufacturing country on the planet. The only bigger one has three times as many people.