Trump vs Other Countries
This topic was continued by Trump vs Other Countries 2.
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12wonderY
Mind blown that he is taking a silly campaign point and making it official policy. I expect there will be more.
NATO Ally 'Utterly Freaked Out' After Donald Trump Call: Report
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mette-frederiksen-phone-call-greenland-202...
The officials briefed on the call said that the Danish leader had offered more cooperation on military bases and mineral exploitation, but Trump was adamant that he wanted the territory.
"The intent was very clear. They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode," one source told the FT. Another added: "The Danes are utterly freaked out by this."
NATO Ally 'Utterly Freaked Out' After Donald Trump Call: Report
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mette-frederiksen-phone-call-greenland-202...
The officials briefed on the call said that the Danish leader had offered more cooperation on military bases and mineral exploitation, but Trump was adamant that he wanted the territory.
"The intent was very clear. They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode," one source told the FT. Another added: "The Danes are utterly freaked out by this."
2kiparsky
This smells like part of the "flood the zone with shit" strategy. Broadly speaking, the idea is to create as much chaos as possible so that opposition has too many targets and becomes ineffective. The Gaetz nomination, for example, was never something they cared about but it seems that putting up a pedophile for Justice distracted people enough that he was able to get a Nazi sex pest and serial abuser in at Defense. I honestly think they were surprised that Hegseth got through, I'm pretty sure he was intended as a sacrificial nomination as well, so it seems the strategy is effective.
3prosfilaes
He's a nationalist demagogue in a globalist world. There's no possible way this could help the US in the long run, no matter who is defining what is good for the US in the long run. Even the people beside Trump probably consider this and other Trump absurdities a price they have to pay to get what they want.
42wonderY
In a U-turn, Colombia decides to send plane to bring deported nationals after US slaps sanctions
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/in-a-u-turn-columbi...
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has arranged for the presidential plane to repatriate Colombian nationals deported from the US, ensuring their dignified return. This follows US President Trump's imposition of 25 per cent tariffs and other sanctions after Colombia blocked US military deportation flights. Colombia aims to guarantee respectful treatment for deported citizens and is seeking humane migration solutions
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/in-a-u-turn-columbi...
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has arranged for the presidential plane to repatriate Colombian nationals deported from the US, ensuring their dignified return. This follows US President Trump's imposition of 25 per cent tariffs and other sanctions after Colombia blocked US military deportation flights. Colombia aims to guarantee respectful treatment for deported citizens and is seeking humane migration solutions
5davidgn
Yes, cf. Petro's response. https://www.librarything.com/topic/367863#8743393
6margd
Trump stretches trade law boundaries with Canada, Mexico, China tariffs
David Lawder | February 3, 2025
IEEPA {International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 1977} statute widely used for sanctions, untested for tariffs ... Courts have long deferred to US presidents on emergencies
... Trump declared a national emergency under IEEPA on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration. The law gives the president broad powers to impose economic and financial sanctions in times of crisis, including against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
"The courts have historically upheld the president’s power to take emergency actions, especially when they are related to national security," said Tim Brightbill, who co-chairs the international trade practice at the law firm Wiley Rein. "The question is, does that include tariffs, since IEEPA has only been used for sanctions" ... He added that companies or industry groups would be likely to seek an injunction but may face an uphill battle blocking the tariffs.
https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-stretches-trade-law-boundaries-with-canad...
-----------------------------------------------
Tariff On Canada Not Justified By U.S. Immigration And Drug Claims
Andy J. Semotiuk |Jan 31, 2025
...Illegal Immigration: The Numbers Do Not Justify the Tariff
President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Canada has allowed "millions and millions" of people to illegally enter the United States. However, with regard to Canada at least, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for Fiscal Year 2024 tells a different story. In that period, Border Patrol apprehended 23,721 people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border, representing just 1.5% of nationwide Border Patrol apprehensions. In contrast, at the U.S.-Mexico border, Border Patrol reported more than 1.5 million apprehensions in the same year.
... the migration flow is not one-sided. In 2023, the last year for which we have statistics at the moment, more people crossed illegally from the United States into Canada than in the opposite direction. With Canada experiencing a labor shortage and increasing economic opportunities, it is likely that the number of individuals moving north in 2025, both legally and illegally, will continue to surpass those moving south.
Fentanyl Trafficking: A Two-Way Street
... In Fiscal Year 2024, USCBP seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border, mostly smuggled from Mexico. In contrast, only 43 pounds were intercepted at the northern border. This means that less than 1% of all fentanyl seizures occurred at the U.S.-Canada border.
... Furthermore, drug flows are not a one-way street. In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized approximately 10.8 pounds of fentanyl coming into Canada from the United States. In comparison, CBSA reported that 17.6 pounds of fentanyl were smuggled from Canada into the U.S. ...
USMCA Consequences of the Tariff
...Canada is America’s largest trading partner, with over $700 billion in goods and services exchanged annually. Trade with Canada supports approximately 12 million American jobs, with 49 U.S. states counting Canada as one of their top export destinations...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2025/01/31/tariff-on-canada-not-justi...
David Lawder | February 3, 2025
IEEPA {International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 1977} statute widely used for sanctions, untested for tariffs ... Courts have long deferred to US presidents on emergencies
... Trump declared a national emergency under IEEPA on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration. The law gives the president broad powers to impose economic and financial sanctions in times of crisis, including against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
"The courts have historically upheld the president’s power to take emergency actions, especially when they are related to national security," said Tim Brightbill, who co-chairs the international trade practice at the law firm Wiley Rein. "The question is, does that include tariffs, since IEEPA has only been used for sanctions" ... He added that companies or industry groups would be likely to seek an injunction but may face an uphill battle blocking the tariffs.
https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-stretches-trade-law-boundaries-with-canad...
-----------------------------------------------
Tariff On Canada Not Justified By U.S. Immigration And Drug Claims
Andy J. Semotiuk |Jan 31, 2025
...Illegal Immigration: The Numbers Do Not Justify the Tariff
President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Canada has allowed "millions and millions" of people to illegally enter the United States. However, with regard to Canada at least, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for Fiscal Year 2024 tells a different story. In that period, Border Patrol apprehended 23,721 people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border, representing just 1.5% of nationwide Border Patrol apprehensions. In contrast, at the U.S.-Mexico border, Border Patrol reported more than 1.5 million apprehensions in the same year.
... the migration flow is not one-sided. In 2023, the last year for which we have statistics at the moment, more people crossed illegally from the United States into Canada than in the opposite direction. With Canada experiencing a labor shortage and increasing economic opportunities, it is likely that the number of individuals moving north in 2025, both legally and illegally, will continue to surpass those moving south.
Fentanyl Trafficking: A Two-Way Street
... In Fiscal Year 2024, USCBP seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border, mostly smuggled from Mexico. In contrast, only 43 pounds were intercepted at the northern border. This means that less than 1% of all fentanyl seizures occurred at the U.S.-Canada border.
... Furthermore, drug flows are not a one-way street. In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized approximately 10.8 pounds of fentanyl coming into Canada from the United States. In comparison, CBSA reported that 17.6 pounds of fentanyl were smuggled from Canada into the U.S. ...
USMCA Consequences of the Tariff
...Canada is America’s largest trading partner, with over $700 billion in goods and services exchanged annually. Trade with Canada supports approximately 12 million American jobs, with 49 U.S. states counting Canada as one of their top export destinations...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2025/01/31/tariff-on-canada-not-justi...
7davidgn
https://macleans.ca/society/canada-51st-state-america/
Why America Can’t Conquer Canada
Donald Trump’s nonsensical threats are an attempt to distract from his own country’s self-destruction
By Stephen Marche
January 9, 2025
Why America Can’t Conquer Canada
Donald Trump’s nonsensical threats are an attempt to distract from his own country’s self-destruction
By Stephen Marche
January 9, 2025
America is a threat but no enemy, which puts Canadians in a complicated position. We should fear American weakness rather than strength. And America has never been weaker in our lifetimes. It is barely in a condition to defend itself, or even to understand when it is being attacked. Sometime in the next four years, America’s enemies, rather than its allies, will pick their moment and pop the United States like a balloon. All it will take is a pinprick.
82wonderY
Tariff exemptions are already being processed for a donation
https://www.instagram.com/p/DFmR1O2tOxw/?igsh=MWZxZ2l1dzQ3dmQ1Zg==
https://www.instagram.com/p/DFmR1O2tOxw/?igsh=MWZxZ2l1dzQ3dmQ1Zg==
9margd
Trump tariffs on Canada and Mexico are merely on pause, as are retaliatory tariffs. What one cannot do is pause or call back individual actions, e.g., buy / travel Canadian.
Potential Results of Decline in Canadian Travel to United States (PRESS RELEASE) US Travel Association | February 03, 2025
... Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs. A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses...
https://www.ustravel.org/press/potential-results-decline-canadian-travel-united-...
--------------------------------------------------------
Made in Canada Grocery Store Guide
https://madeinca.ca/grocery-store-guide/
--------------------------------------------------------
When Heinz ketchup closed its 100YO operations in SW Ontario, Canadian consumers turned to French's and Primo ketchup, which battled for market share by burnishing their respective Canadian bonafides -- ownership, tomato sourcing & bottling. Small tomatoes you say? Canadian consumers revived SW Ontario agriculture, an experience that left them ready to flex their buying muscles when Canada threatened by the US Government. When Trump attacked Canadian dairy during 2020 negotiation of USMCA, many Canadian consumers began seeking out a little blue cow logo which signifies Canadian dairy. Response of Canadian consumers to Trump's 2024 tariff threats promised to be broader, and it is not yet clear whether they will reconsider, especially with only a 30-day "pause" from the other side.
Inside the ketchup war: what happened after the Heinz factory closed in Leamington, Ont.
CBC Docs | Last Updated: June 3, 2024
https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/short-docs/inside-the-ketchup-war-what-happened...
Heinz. French's. Primo. Who won the ketchup war?
Sharon Hill | Dec 30, 2016
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/heinz-frenchs-primo-who-won-the-ketchup-...
Potential Results of Decline in Canadian Travel to United States (PRESS RELEASE) US Travel Association | February 03, 2025
... Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs. A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses...
https://www.ustravel.org/press/potential-results-decline-canadian-travel-united-...
--------------------------------------------------------
Made in Canada Grocery Store Guide
https://madeinca.ca/grocery-store-guide/
--------------------------------------------------------
When Heinz ketchup closed its 100YO operations in SW Ontario, Canadian consumers turned to French's and Primo ketchup, which battled for market share by burnishing their respective Canadian bonafides -- ownership, tomato sourcing & bottling. Small tomatoes you say? Canadian consumers revived SW Ontario agriculture, an experience that left them ready to flex their buying muscles when Canada threatened by the US Government. When Trump attacked Canadian dairy during 2020 negotiation of USMCA, many Canadian consumers began seeking out a little blue cow logo which signifies Canadian dairy. Response of Canadian consumers to Trump's 2024 tariff threats promised to be broader, and it is not yet clear whether they will reconsider, especially with only a 30-day "pause" from the other side.
Inside the ketchup war: what happened after the Heinz factory closed in Leamington, Ont.
CBC Docs | Last Updated: June 3, 2024
https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/short-docs/inside-the-ketchup-war-what-happened...
Heinz. French's. Primo. Who won the ketchup war?
Sharon Hill | Dec 30, 2016
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/heinz-frenchs-primo-who-won-the-ketchup-...
102wonderY
Colombia’s president orders national oil company to cancel US venture over environmental concerns
https://apnews.com/article/colombia-ecopetrol-oxy-fracking-petro-254a102d26b3c17...
...
Fracking was the plan. Bravo!
https://apnews.com/article/colombia-ecopetrol-oxy-fracking-petro-254a102d26b3c17...
...
Fracking was the plan. Bravo!
11margd
Trump stretches trade law boundaries with Canada, Mexico, China tariffs
David Lawder | February 3, 2025
IEEPA {International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 1977} statute widely used for sanctions, untested for tariffs ... Courts have long deferred to US presidents on emergencies
... Trump declared a national emergency under IEEPA on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration. The law gives the president broad powers to impose economic and financial sanctions in times of crisis, including against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
"The courts have historically upheld the president’s power to take emergency actions, especially when they are related to national security," said Tim Brightbill, who co-chairs the international trade practice at the law firm Wiley Rein. "The question is, does that include tariffs, since IEEPA has only been used for sanctions" ... He added that companies or industry groups would be likely to seek an injunction but may face an uphill battle blocking the tariffs.
https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-stretches-trade-law-boundaries-with-canad...
-----------------------------------------------
Tariff On Canada Not Justified By U.S. Immigration And Drug Claims
Andy J. Semotiuk |Jan 31, 2025
...Illegal Immigration: The Numbers Do Not Justify the Tariff
President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Canada has allowed "millions and millions" of people to illegally enter the United States. However, with regard to Canada at least, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for Fiscal Year 2024 tells a different story. In that period, Border Patrol apprehended 23,721 people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border, representing just 1.5% of nationwide Border Patrol apprehensions. In contrast, at the U.S.-Mexico border, Border Patrol reported more than 1.5 million apprehensions in the same year.
... the migration flow is not one-sided. In 2023, the last year for which we have statistics at the moment, more people crossed illegally from the United States into Canada than in the opposite direction. With Canada experiencing a labor shortage and increasing economic opportunities, it is likely that the number of individuals moving north in 2025, both legally and illegally, will continue to surpass those moving south.
Fentanyl Trafficking: A Two-Way Street
... In Fiscal Year 2024, USCBP seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border, mostly smuggled from Mexico. In contrast, only 43 pounds were intercepted at the northern border. This means that less than 1% of all fentanyl seizures occurred at the U.S.-Canada border.
... Furthermore, drug flows are not a one-way street. In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized approximately 10.8 pounds of fentanyl coming into Canada from the United States. In comparison, CBSA reported that 17.6 pounds of fentanyl were smuggled from Canada into the U.S. ...
USMCA Consequences of the Tariff
...Canada is America’s largest trading partner, with over $700 billion in goods and services exchanged annually. Trade with Canada supports approximately 12 million American jobs, with 49 U.S. states counting Canada as one of their top export destinations...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2025/01/31/tariff-on-canada-not-justi...
David Lawder | February 3, 2025
IEEPA {International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 1977} statute widely used for sanctions, untested for tariffs ... Courts have long deferred to US presidents on emergencies
... Trump declared a national emergency under IEEPA on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration. The law gives the president broad powers to impose economic and financial sanctions in times of crisis, including against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
"The courts have historically upheld the president’s power to take emergency actions, especially when they are related to national security," said Tim Brightbill, who co-chairs the international trade practice at the law firm Wiley Rein. "The question is, does that include tariffs, since IEEPA has only been used for sanctions" ... He added that companies or industry groups would be likely to seek an injunction but may face an uphill battle blocking the tariffs.
https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-stretches-trade-law-boundaries-with-canad...
-----------------------------------------------
Tariff On Canada Not Justified By U.S. Immigration And Drug Claims
Andy J. Semotiuk |Jan 31, 2025
...Illegal Immigration: The Numbers Do Not Justify the Tariff
President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Canada has allowed "millions and millions" of people to illegally enter the United States. However, with regard to Canada at least, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for Fiscal Year 2024 tells a different story. In that period, Border Patrol apprehended 23,721 people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border, representing just 1.5% of nationwide Border Patrol apprehensions. In contrast, at the U.S.-Mexico border, Border Patrol reported more than 1.5 million apprehensions in the same year.
... the migration flow is not one-sided. In 2023, the last year for which we have statistics at the moment, more people crossed illegally from the United States into Canada than in the opposite direction. With Canada experiencing a labor shortage and increasing economic opportunities, it is likely that the number of individuals moving north in 2025, both legally and illegally, will continue to surpass those moving south.
Fentanyl Trafficking: A Two-Way Street
... In Fiscal Year 2024, USCBP seized 21,148 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border, mostly smuggled from Mexico. In contrast, only 43 pounds were intercepted at the northern border. This means that less than 1% of all fentanyl seizures occurred at the U.S.-Canada border.
... Furthermore, drug flows are not a one-way street. In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) seized approximately 10.8 pounds of fentanyl coming into Canada from the United States. In comparison, CBSA reported that 17.6 pounds of fentanyl were smuggled from Canada into the U.S. ...
USMCA Consequences of the Tariff
...Canada is America’s largest trading partner, with over $700 billion in goods and services exchanged annually. Trade with Canada supports approximately 12 million American jobs, with 49 U.S. states counting Canada as one of their top export destinations...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2025/01/31/tariff-on-canada-not-justi...
12margd
Panama denies State Department claim US government vessels can now transit canal for free
Lucas Lilieholm, Patrick Oppmann and Valeria Ordonez | February 6, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/americas/panama-canal-state-department-hnk-intl/i...
------------------------------------------------
US: https://x.com/StateDept/status/1887299247051317365
Panama: https://x.com/canaldepanama/status/1887352406955987056?s=46
Lucas Lilieholm, Patrick Oppmann and Valeria Ordonez | February 6, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/americas/panama-canal-state-department-hnk-intl/i...
------------------------------------------------
US: https://x.com/StateDept/status/1887299247051317365
Panama: https://x.com/canaldepanama/status/1887352406955987056?s=46
13John5918
Dozens of countries speak out against Trump sanctions on ICC (Guardian)
Governments around the world have rushed to defend the international criminal court (ICC) after Donald Trump launched sanctions against the global body, which is seen as a vital last resort to prosecute powerful individuals accused of atrocities including war crimes and genocide... Responding to the order on Friday, the ICC called on its 125 state parties to stand against the sanctions, describing Washington’s move as an attempt to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work”. Seventy-nine countries – including Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Mexico and Nigeria – released a joint letter that warned sanctions would “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law”. Longtime US allies have found themselves at odds with Washington, while the head of a leading global rights group called it “vindictive”. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said sanctions would “jeopardise an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars”. France said it would reaffirm its support for the ICC and mobilise with its partners so that the ICC could continue its mission. In London, a spokesperson for the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Britain supported the independence of the court. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the ICC gave “a voice to victims worldwide” and it “must be able to freely pursue the fight against global impunity”, while the main UN rights agency said Trump’s decision should be reversed...
14margd
Trump freezes aid to South Africa over controversial land law, claiming discrimination against White farmers
Eve Brennan and Alejandra Jaramillo | February 8, 2025
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at freezing assistance to South Africa over a controversial law that allows the government to seize farmland from ethnic minorities — namely White farmers — without compensation, as well as the country’s stance against Israel and its war in Gaza.
... Trump’s order also directs the United States to assist Afrikaners — an ethnic group descended from European settlers — who are fleeing South Africa due to discrimination {"including racially discriminatory property confiscation"}, including helping them resettle through refugee programs.
... According to the US Foreign Assistance website, {the US} said it would send nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, including more than $270 million just from the Agency for International Development (USAID).
... Trump also said in his order that South Africa had taken an aggressive stance against the United States and its allies through its position on Israel and reinvigorating ties with Iran.
South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in an unprecedented case at the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It said Israel’s leadership was “intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza” and called for the court to order a halt to Israel’s military campaign in the enclave.
... {South African President Cyril} Ramaphosa also spoke to Trump’s “first buddy” and South African-born Elon Musk earlier this week “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” emphasizing South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality,” a government statement at the time read...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/africa/trump-executive-order-freeze-aid-south-afr...
Eve Brennan and Alejandra Jaramillo | February 8, 2025
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at freezing assistance to South Africa over a controversial law that allows the government to seize farmland from ethnic minorities — namely White farmers — without compensation, as well as the country’s stance against Israel and its war in Gaza.
... Trump’s order also directs the United States to assist Afrikaners — an ethnic group descended from European settlers — who are fleeing South Africa due to discrimination {"including racially discriminatory property confiscation"}, including helping them resettle through refugee programs.
... According to the US Foreign Assistance website, {the US} said it would send nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, including more than $270 million just from the Agency for International Development (USAID).
... Trump also said in his order that South Africa had taken an aggressive stance against the United States and its allies through its position on Israel and reinvigorating ties with Iran.
South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in an unprecedented case at the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It said Israel’s leadership was “intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza” and called for the court to order a halt to Israel’s military campaign in the enclave.
... {South African President Cyril} Ramaphosa also spoke to Trump’s “first buddy” and South African-born Elon Musk earlier this week “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” emphasizing South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality,” a government statement at the time read...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/africa/trump-executive-order-freeze-aid-south-afr...
152wonderY
>14 margd: Land redistribution in South Africa
Described by a white South African
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFvRqzhind7/?igsh=YnloYzZ4d2lwNmJr
Described by a white South African
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFvRqzhind7/?igsh=YnloYzZ4d2lwNmJr
16margd
Sabotaging the Pax Americana
Paul Krugman | Feb 10, 2025
Trump and Musk are making us distrusted, friendless and weak...
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/sabotaging-the-pax-americana
* Nobel Prize economist, retired NYT columnist
Paul Krugman | Feb 10, 2025
Trump and Musk are making us distrusted, friendless and weak...
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/sabotaging-the-pax-americana
* Nobel Prize economist, retired NYT columnist
17John5918
How local humanitarian groups are navigating US aid freeze havoc (The New Humanitarian)
It can take years to build frontline aid organisations from scratch. It may just take a keystroke and an emailed stop-work order to shut some of them down. Local humanitarian groups are navigating the fallout from the sudden US aid cuts that have caused havoc in longstanding emergencies around the globe. As big aid groups suspend programmes and start to lay off or furlough staff en masse, the pressure is also growing on grassroots organisations still working in their communities. “We are scrambling for whatever limited resources that exist now, from food to medical to any lifesaving item,” said Gloria Soma, executive director of the Titi Foundation, a South Sudanese organisation that works with marginalised women.
International assistance has become a right-wing talking point amid US President Donald Trump’s aid freeze and the attempted dismantling of the government aid agency, USAID. Trump and allies like Elon Musk have tried to paint a uniform portrait of aid for a domestic audience: expat workers, Beltway contractors, big spending. In practice, the aid picture includes local organisations that range from tiny grassroots groups to national NGOs – in many cases, part of the communities they help, and delivering projects partly with funding passed through big aid agencies. These local NGOs make up more than 80% of the world’s humanitarian organisations, according to a tally by analysis outfit Humanitarian Outcomes. For many, the US funding freeze is existential: Some have shuttered nearly overnight, too dependent on intermediary funding and with no reserves or other donors to fill the gap...
192wonderY
HB 1161 introduced by Rep. Carter, Earl L. "Buddy" R-GA-1
To authorize the President to enter into negotiations to acquire Greenland and to rename Greenland as "Red, White, and Blueland".
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161
To authorize the President to enter into negotiations to acquire Greenland and to rename Greenland as "Red, White, and Blueland".
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161
20margd
Wonder when/if American companies "with standing" will challenge Trump's mis-use of authority given by Congress to levy sanctions -- like on Russia, for invading Ukraine -- to initiate trade war via tariffs.
Or if/when Democrats retake Congress, will they revisit the legislation? Surely by then, the cost to Americans, never mind rest of the world, will be clear.
--------------------------------------------------
Bloomberg @bloomberg.com | February 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM:
Ford CEO Jim Farley will travel to Washington on Wednesday to warn members of Congress that the 25% tariffs President Donald Trump has proposed on Canada and Mexico would “blow a hole” in the US auto industry
ww.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-11/ford-s-ceo-to-warn-lawmakers-of-devastating-tariff-impact
Or if/when Democrats retake Congress, will they revisit the legislation? Surely by then, the cost to Americans, never mind rest of the world, will be clear.
--------------------------------------------------
Bloomberg @bloomberg.com | February 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM:
Ford CEO Jim Farley will travel to Washington on Wednesday to warn members of Congress that the 25% tariffs President Donald Trump has proposed on Canada and Mexico would “blow a hole” in the US auto industry
ww.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-11/ford-s-ceo-to-warn-lawmakers-of-devastating-tariff-impact
21margd
>20 margd: contd.
More businesses "with standing" for class action lawsuit?
President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs — a blanket duty of 25% on all steel and aluminum imports — are expected to negatively affect the nation’s craft brewers by driving up the cost of critical materials used to brew, house and serve their beer.
US craft beers — brewed in steel, canned in aluminum — could get crushed by tariffs | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/economy/craft-beer-aluminum-steel-tariffs/index.h...
More businesses "with standing" for class action lawsuit?
President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs — a blanket duty of 25% on all steel and aluminum imports — are expected to negatively affect the nation’s craft brewers by driving up the cost of critical materials used to brew, house and serve their beer.
US craft beers — brewed in steel, canned in aluminum — could get crushed by tariffs | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/economy/craft-beer-aluminum-steel-tariffs/index.h...
22margd
The Emperor’s New Tariffs: Small, Ugly and Stupid
Trump is throwing a tantrum, but the damage will be real
Paul Krugman | Feb 12, 2025
First, these tariffs are a much smaller deal than what Trump seemed about to do last week ... a relatively small share of total imports ...
Second, while they’re small, they’re ugly ... gratuitously punishes allies who have done nothing wrong. Most steel and iron comes from nations that are or were American allies ...
Third, as an economic policy they are really, really stupid ... Steel and aluminum aren’t consumer goods. They’re “intermediate inputs,” used in the production of other things, notably cars and aircraft. Imposing taxes that raise the prices of these goods might encourage more U.S. production of metals (although that didn’t happen to any large degree the last time Trump imposed tariffs), but it will raise costs throughout the rest of U.S. manufacturing, making it less competitive and reducing employment. Even if we ignore indirect effects via interest rates, the dollar and so on, these tariffs are almost certain to reduce, not increase, manufacturing employment.
So what’s this all about? ... At some level Trump is aware that while he may have claimed victory over last week’s tariff standoff, everyone who actually knows anything thinks he got rolled. ... idea of annexing our neighbor, but the fierce pushback from the Canadians themselves and the ridicule he has received at home seems to have made him even more obsessive on the topic ... Trump keeps overstating the size of {Canada:US} bilateral trade imbalance ... Trump’s policies are going to make us poorer, in ways we’re only beginning to realize.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-tariffs-small-ugly
Trump is throwing a tantrum, but the damage will be real
Paul Krugman | Feb 12, 2025
First, these tariffs are a much smaller deal than what Trump seemed about to do last week ... a relatively small share of total imports ...
Second, while they’re small, they’re ugly ... gratuitously punishes allies who have done nothing wrong. Most steel and iron comes from nations that are or were American allies ...
Third, as an economic policy they are really, really stupid ... Steel and aluminum aren’t consumer goods. They’re “intermediate inputs,” used in the production of other things, notably cars and aircraft. Imposing taxes that raise the prices of these goods might encourage more U.S. production of metals (although that didn’t happen to any large degree the last time Trump imposed tariffs), but it will raise costs throughout the rest of U.S. manufacturing, making it less competitive and reducing employment. Even if we ignore indirect effects via interest rates, the dollar and so on, these tariffs are almost certain to reduce, not increase, manufacturing employment.
So what’s this all about? ... At some level Trump is aware that while he may have claimed victory over last week’s tariff standoff, everyone who actually knows anything thinks he got rolled. ... idea of annexing our neighbor, but the fierce pushback from the Canadians themselves and the ridicule he has received at home seems to have made him even more obsessive on the topic ... Trump keeps overstating the size of {Canada:US} bilateral trade imbalance ... Trump’s policies are going to make us poorer, in ways we’re only beginning to realize.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-tariffs-small-ugly
24John5918
Chaos as USAid contracts, grants in Kenya terminated (Business Daily)
Behind a paywall, unfortunately, but the headline says it all.
Behind a paywall, unfortunately, but the headline says it all.
25margd
So JD is to be the attack dog??
Zelenskyy calls for European army as Germany hits back at US over Vance tirade – Europe live
Olaf Scholz says Germany ‘will not accept’ people who ‘intervene in our democracy’ after US vice-president’s speech in Munich
JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders
Analysis: Vance’s speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/15/russia-ukraine-war-munich-sec...
Zelenskyy calls for European army as Germany hits back at US over Vance tirade – Europe live
Olaf Scholz says Germany ‘will not accept’ people who ‘intervene in our democracy’ after US vice-president’s speech in Munich
JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders
Analysis: Vance’s speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/15/russia-ukraine-war-munich-sec...
26margd
So JD is to be the attack dog??
Zelenskyy calls for European army as Germany hits back at US over Vance tirade – Europe live
Olaf Scholz says Germany ‘will not accept’ people who ‘intervene in our democracy’ after US vice-president’s speech in Munich
JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders
Analysis: Vance’s speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/15/russia-ukraine-war-munich-sec...
Zelenskyy calls for European army as Germany hits back at US over Vance tirade – Europe live
Olaf Scholz says Germany ‘will not accept’ people who ‘intervene in our democracy’ after US vice-president’s speech in Munich
JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders
Analysis: Vance’s speech laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/15/russia-ukraine-war-munich-sec...
27Molly3028
https://www.the-sun.com/news/13550475/zelenksy-army-europe-russia-putin/
ON THE MARCH Zelenksy calls for ‘Army of Europe’ to take on Russia without US as Trump urges him to make a deal with Putin
ON THE MARCH Zelenksy calls for ‘Army of Europe’ to take on Russia without US as Trump urges him to make a deal with Putin
28MsMixte
>24 John5918: the Republicans in Congress have already started whinging about how all this will affect THEIR voters, and want exemptions. "What about MY farmers? Who is going to buy their crops?".
Sure, you can 'trim the fat', but you will always affect someone downstream who just happens to be the person who voted for you because you were supposed to harm 'those' people, not ME.
This would be the 'for the want of a horseshoe nail the kingdom was lost'.
China is ready to step in.
Sure, you can 'trim the fat', but you will always affect someone downstream who just happens to be the person who voted for you because you were supposed to harm 'those' people, not ME.
This would be the 'for the want of a horseshoe nail the kingdom was lost'.
China is ready to step in.
30margd
So, so much damage. Who cares WHY or HOW US was providing support?? Or how little? (I once administered a couple teensy grant programs for natural resources: amazing how much good a teensy grant could leverage.)
Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Kanishka Singh | February 14, 2025
{U.S. District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia} ordered the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who argued that they were negatively impacted by a 90-day blanket freeze...
The order temporarily blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
... "At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs." ...
https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-orders-us-restore-funds-foreign-aid-programs...
Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Kanishka Singh | February 14, 2025
{U.S. District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia} ordered the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who argued that they were negatively impacted by a 90-day blanket freeze...
The order temporarily blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
... "At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs." ...
https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-orders-us-restore-funds-foreign-aid-programs...
312wonderY
Ukraine rejects Trump bid to take rights to half its mineral reserves
https://www.ft.com/content/b08b7258-7ae0-4bae-9499-e6d3183d5894
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a US bid to take ownership of around 50 per cent of the rights to his country’s rare earth minerals and is trying to negotiate a better deal, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, which came after President Donald Trump suggested the US was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance to the war-torn country.
…..
Sorry, first link is paywalled
Here is NBC story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-officials-us-owning-hal...
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGGXdTbPdae/?igsh=Zm05YnlkdGRkbHd6
https://www.ft.com/content/b08b7258-7ae0-4bae-9499-e6d3183d5894
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a US bid to take ownership of around 50 per cent of the rights to his country’s rare earth minerals and is trying to negotiate a better deal, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, which came after President Donald Trump suggested the US was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance to the war-torn country.
…..
Sorry, first link is paywalled
Here is NBC story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-officials-us-owning-hal...
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGGXdTbPdae/?igsh=Zm05YnlkdGRkbHd6
32margd
>31 2wonderY: Marshall Plan, not.
33Molly3028
via the DRUDGE REPORT ~
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/17/revealed-trump-confidential-plan...
Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold
Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations
Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.
The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.
***
In other words, agree to give Putin whatever he wants, or else.....
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/17/revealed-trump-confidential-plan...
Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold
Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations
Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.
The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.
***
In other words, agree to give Putin whatever he wants, or else.....
34margd
America is the first power in history motivated by a desire to expand freedom rather than its own territory.
- Marco Rubio
2:58 pm, 13 May 2015
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lifrpttmcc2v
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com | February 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM:
Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Panama, and Gaza could not immediately be reached for comment
- Marco Rubio
2:58 pm, 13 May 2015
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lifrpttmcc2v
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com | February 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM:
Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Panama, and Gaza could not immediately be reached for comment
35MsMixte
>34 margd: Also, WHEN did this 'desire to expand freedom' occur? I think Rubio was confusing a 'desire to expand freedom' with 'we're not letting them commies take over the USA'.
36John5918
>35 MsMixte:
Well said! And since the end of the Cold War reduced the prominence of "commies" as the USA's main excuse to project its own shadow side on to someone else, it has largely been replaced by, "we're not letting them Muslims take over the USA".
Well said! And since the end of the Cold War reduced the prominence of "commies" as the USA's main excuse to project its own shadow side on to someone else, it has largely been replaced by, "we're not letting them Muslims take over the USA".
37MsMixte
>36 John5918: Sadly, we know at least one person here on LT who is worried about 'commies' AND Muslims.
Oh, and throw in 'socialists'. I've never understood how Americans don't realize that, for instance, having fire departments is socialistic, or other endeavors which require a community to get together and actually get the task done.
Oh, and throw in 'socialists'. I've never understood how Americans don't realize that, for instance, having fire departments is socialistic, or other endeavors which require a community to get together and actually get the task done.
38lriley
If we want to be on the subject of Trump vs. the rest of the world I think BRICS should be part of the conversation which seems very much (to me anyway) to be a global economic alliance that is going to challenge American economic hegemony and maybe very very soon and possibly even upend it. So B for Brazil---world's 10th largest economy, R for Russia--world's 11th largest economy, I for India--world's 5th largest economy, C for China---world's 2nd largest economy, S for South Africa--world's 40th largest economy. They have been joined by Indonesia---world's 16th largest economy, United Arab Emirates--world's 26th largest economy, Iran--world's 36th largest economy, Egypt--world's 45th largest economy and Ethiopia--world's 56th largest economy. As well they've made partnerships with Thailand #30, Malaysia #34, Kazakhstan #49, Nigeria #57, Cuba #61, Uzbekistan #64, Belarus #87, Uganda #90 and Bolivia #96. The Saudis haven't joined or partnered yet but the offer has been out there for a while and they're considered to be cooperative. There may already be 20/30 other countries vying to join and if you look again at the list above---they are pretty much Eastern European, Asian---including southeast, African and South American. Not Western European countries (at least yet) and not North American---though it wouldn't surprise me if Mexico (a North American) country were asked or would ask to throw their lot in with them too. Hate to say it but much of the world looks at us as a rogue nation and yeah Trump makes that worse but it's not just him. We are the world's biggest gun runner. Sanctions, tariffs, deportations, our military industrial complex, hypocrisy have been the tools and weapons in our arsenal. All have been wielded by pretty much every one of our presidents. I think much of the world is sick and tired of United States belligerence.
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/12/25/brics-expands-9-partner-countries-pop...
Right now Brics nations represent about half the world's population and about 41% of GDP purchasing power.
The seeds of BRICS go back to 2006---second GW Bush term so it's not just Trump---it's pretty much all our presidents since Bush 2 up to and including Trump. The things that Donald is doing globally will only bring more countries into wanting to join this alliance---so pretty much spitting in your face stuff. Even so it's not like a lot of what Biden's administration was doing wasn't making enemies he didn't need to make either. For instance when you stand up in the UN and are the one vote that time after time derails what the rest of the world is asking for.
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/12/25/brics-expands-9-partner-countries-pop...
Right now Brics nations represent about half the world's population and about 41% of GDP purchasing power.
The seeds of BRICS go back to 2006---second GW Bush term so it's not just Trump---it's pretty much all our presidents since Bush 2 up to and including Trump. The things that Donald is doing globally will only bring more countries into wanting to join this alliance---so pretty much spitting in your face stuff. Even so it's not like a lot of what Biden's administration was doing wasn't making enemies he didn't need to make either. For instance when you stand up in the UN and are the one vote that time after time derails what the rest of the world is asking for.
39margd
"For eight decades, alliances have formed the bedrock of American foreign, trade and cultural policy. But not any more. Europeans, but also America's Asian allies, need to accept this new world, and learn how to live in it."
The End of the Postwar World
Trump and Vance are sending a dark message to America’s allies.
Anne Applebaum | February 20, 2025, 7:15 AM ET
... Europeans need to act in the same spirit and acquire some leverage too. At the start of this war, international financial institutions froze $300 billion of Russian assets, mostly in Europe. There are sound legal and moral arguments for seizing these assets and giving them to Ukraine, both to reconstruct the country and to allow Ukrainians to continue to defend themselves. Now there are urgent political reasons too. This is enough money to impress Trump; to buy weapons, including American weapons; and to spook the Russians into fearing that the war will not end as quickly as they now hope.
... Europeans also need to create, immediately, a coalition of the willing that is prepared to militarily defend Ukraine, as well as other allies who might be attacked in future. Deterrence has a psychological component. If Russia refrains from attacking Lithuania, or indeed Germany, that is in part because Putin fears a U.S. response. Now that the U.S. has become unpredictable, Europeans have to provide the deterrence themselves. There is talk of a defense bank to finance new military investment, but that’s just the beginning. They need to radically increase military spending, planning, and coordination. If they speak and act as a group, Europeans will have more power and more credibility than if they speak separately.
Sometime in the future, historians will wonder what might have been, what kind of peace could have been achieved, if Trump had done what he himself suggested doing a few weeks ago: keep up military aid for Ukraine; tighten sanctions on Russia; bully the aggressors, not their victims, into suing for peace. Perhaps we might also someday find out who or what, exactly, changed his mind, why he chose to follow a policy that seems designed to encourage not just Russia but Russia’s allies in China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Venezuela. But now is not the moment to speculate, or to imagine alternate storylines. Now is the moment to recognize the scale of the seismic change unfolding, and to find new ways to live in the world that a very different kind of America is beginning to create.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/trump-ukraine-postwar-...
The End of the Postwar World
Trump and Vance are sending a dark message to America’s allies.
Anne Applebaum | February 20, 2025, 7:15 AM ET
... Europeans need to act in the same spirit and acquire some leverage too. At the start of this war, international financial institutions froze $300 billion of Russian assets, mostly in Europe. There are sound legal and moral arguments for seizing these assets and giving them to Ukraine, both to reconstruct the country and to allow Ukrainians to continue to defend themselves. Now there are urgent political reasons too. This is enough money to impress Trump; to buy weapons, including American weapons; and to spook the Russians into fearing that the war will not end as quickly as they now hope.
... Europeans also need to create, immediately, a coalition of the willing that is prepared to militarily defend Ukraine, as well as other allies who might be attacked in future. Deterrence has a psychological component. If Russia refrains from attacking Lithuania, or indeed Germany, that is in part because Putin fears a U.S. response. Now that the U.S. has become unpredictable, Europeans have to provide the deterrence themselves. There is talk of a defense bank to finance new military investment, but that’s just the beginning. They need to radically increase military spending, planning, and coordination. If they speak and act as a group, Europeans will have more power and more credibility than if they speak separately.
Sometime in the future, historians will wonder what might have been, what kind of peace could have been achieved, if Trump had done what he himself suggested doing a few weeks ago: keep up military aid for Ukraine; tighten sanctions on Russia; bully the aggressors, not their victims, into suing for peace. Perhaps we might also someday find out who or what, exactly, changed his mind, why he chose to follow a policy that seems designed to encourage not just Russia but Russia’s allies in China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Venezuela. But now is not the moment to speculate, or to imagine alternate storylines. Now is the moment to recognize the scale of the seismic change unfolding, and to find new ways to live in the world that a very different kind of America is beginning to create.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/trump-ukraine-postwar-...
40bnielsen
I guess someone will soon be selling Danes t-shirts with "you are fully retarded" and a picture of Elon Musk. And then he'll be suing us because we won't buy Teslas anymore. Oh, well. I think I can do without a Tesla.
41margd
Me, too! X, as well. Publix grocery -- owner supplied Jan 6 buses. Gets tough, though -- so many common brands supported this mess. Costco kept its DEI policy, but Canadians are singling it out as US entity. So far, though, it's doing best it can?
42davidgn
>41 margd: Ah yes, Publix. That's where one of my cousins worked. Shot himself in the head in the front seat of his car in the parking lot, or so I hear.
43margd
>42 davidgn: How dreadful! As a CO in military, my dad handled suicides. I remember one trying day he told me that if you love your family, don 't choose that way to take your life... Hope your family survived okay.
44davidgn
>43 margd: Thanks. It was very rough on some of them.
45margd
Containers are shipped to coastal ports such as Halifax and NYC, as well as Montreal, but St Lawrence Seaway access to Great Lakes is limited to smaller ships, so transfer required. Trump's proposed tariffs would affect flow of goods from US coastal to Great Lakes ports (?) All but one(?) of the locks on the Seaway (St Lawrence + Niagara R) are Cdn, and all are vulnerable to sabotage. (That's one reason the US recently twinned lock between L Superior an Huron.) Another facet of the 'find out' phase of Trump economics... :( (In addition, proposed Montreal terminal would add to pressure on US lakers, which, due to pilotage laws like Jones Act and Cdn equivalent, are limited from doing business between Canadian ports.) In addition to Seaway, goods can be shipped inland from coasts via train, Mississippi, and truck, but these are arguably more expensive routes.
Quebec provides new funding for proposed Montreal terminal, citing US trade tensions
Michael Angell | Feb 20, 2025
Quebec’s government is putting C$130 million (US$92 million) into a proposed container gateway north of the Port of Montreal, saying the port has reached capacity and that tensions with the US necessitate the need for additional trade lanes outside of North America.
The provincial government said this week it provided the funds to the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) for the Contrecoeur project, a proposed 1.15 million-TEU terminal that would be developed about 43 miles up the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.
The project has been marked by on and off starts since Quebec first provided C$55 million ...
https://www.joc.com/article/quebec-provides-new-funding-for-proposed-montreal-te...
Quebec provides new funding for proposed Montreal terminal, citing US trade tensions
Michael Angell | Feb 20, 2025
Quebec’s government is putting C$130 million (US$92 million) into a proposed container gateway north of the Port of Montreal, saying the port has reached capacity and that tensions with the US necessitate the need for additional trade lanes outside of North America.
The provincial government said this week it provided the funds to the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) for the Contrecoeur project, a proposed 1.15 million-TEU terminal that would be developed about 43 miles up the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.
The project has been marked by on and off starts since Quebec first provided C$55 million ...
https://www.joc.com/article/quebec-provides-new-funding-for-proposed-montreal-te...
46margd
Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social | February 22, 2025 at 5:51 AM
Europe will need an additional 300 000 troops and an increase of defense spending by EUR 250 billion annually in case US withdraws from the continent - Kiel Institute for the World Economy & Bruegel⤵️
Source: ifw-kiel.de/publications/
Excerpts
https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3lir5ks74tc27
https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3lir5mdgd3c27
Defending Europe Without the US: First Estimates of What is Needed
Kiel Policy Brief (Policy Article, 12p)
Burilkov, A., and Wolff, G. | 02/2025
Europe must be able to defend itself against Russia, with or without the United States. Below we provide initial estimates of the additional weapons and troops that Europe will need for its defence, assuming an actual US withdrawal from Europe. We focus on land warfare because an invasion by Russia will remain the greatest security challenge for Europe for the foreseeable future.
We provide initial estimates of the additional weapons and troops Europe will need to defend itself, assuming an effective US withdrawal from Europe.
• Russia’s military production has ramped up: In 2024, Russia produced and refurbished an estimated 1,550 tanks, 5,700 armoured vehicles and 450 artillery pieces of all types.
• If the US withdraws from supporting Ukraine, the EU would have to spend only another 0.12 percent of its GDP to replace the US military contributions – a feasible amount.
• A US-Russian deal on Ukraine, resulting in a continued Russian military build-up would require an increase in European capacities equivalent to the fighting capacity of 300,000 US troops, with a focus on mechanised and armoured forces to replace US army heavy units.
• European defence spending will have to increase substantially from the current level of about 2 percent of GDP. An initial assessment suggests an increase by about €250 billion annually (or around 3.5 percent of GDP) is warranted in the short term.
{Most of article is in German.}
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/publications/defending-europe-without-the-us-first-estim...
Europe will need an additional 300 000 troops and an increase of defense spending by EUR 250 billion annually in case US withdraws from the continent - Kiel Institute for the World Economy & Bruegel⤵️
Source: ifw-kiel.de/publications/
Excerpts
https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3lir5ks74tc27
https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3lir5mdgd3c27
Defending Europe Without the US: First Estimates of What is Needed
Kiel Policy Brief (Policy Article, 12p)
Burilkov, A., and Wolff, G. | 02/2025
Europe must be able to defend itself against Russia, with or without the United States. Below we provide initial estimates of the additional weapons and troops that Europe will need for its defence, assuming an actual US withdrawal from Europe. We focus on land warfare because an invasion by Russia will remain the greatest security challenge for Europe for the foreseeable future.
We provide initial estimates of the additional weapons and troops Europe will need to defend itself, assuming an effective US withdrawal from Europe.
• Russia’s military production has ramped up: In 2024, Russia produced and refurbished an estimated 1,550 tanks, 5,700 armoured vehicles and 450 artillery pieces of all types.
• If the US withdraws from supporting Ukraine, the EU would have to spend only another 0.12 percent of its GDP to replace the US military contributions – a feasible amount.
• A US-Russian deal on Ukraine, resulting in a continued Russian military build-up would require an increase in European capacities equivalent to the fighting capacity of 300,000 US troops, with a focus on mechanised and armoured forces to replace US army heavy units.
• European defence spending will have to increase substantially from the current level of about 2 percent of GDP. An initial assessment suggests an increase by about €250 billion annually (or around 3.5 percent of GDP) is warranted in the short term.
{Most of article is in German.}
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/publications/defending-europe-without-the-us-first-estim...
47margd
Europe targets homegrown nuclear deterrent as Trump sides with Putin
Tim Ross, Laura Kayali and Nette Nöstlinger | February 21, 2025
“We need to have discussions with both the British and the French — the two European nuclear powers — about whether nuclear sharing, or at least nuclear security from the U.K. and France, could also apply to us,” said {Friedrich Merz, whom polls suggest is on course to become chancellor after Sunday’s German elections}.
Merz's comment heralds a major strategic shift for Germany, which has long resisted French plans for closer European military cooperation, especially on nuclear defense. Merz's Christian Democrats have traditionally fought to protect relations with the U.S. over calls from Paris for more "strategic autonomy" in the EU...
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-nuclear-weapons-nato-donald-trump-vladimi...
Tim Ross, Laura Kayali and Nette Nöstlinger | February 21, 2025
“We need to have discussions with both the British and the French — the two European nuclear powers — about whether nuclear sharing, or at least nuclear security from the U.K. and France, could also apply to us,” said {Friedrich Merz, whom polls suggest is on course to become chancellor after Sunday’s German elections}.
Merz's comment heralds a major strategic shift for Germany, which has long resisted French plans for closer European military cooperation, especially on nuclear defense. Merz's Christian Democrats have traditionally fought to protect relations with the U.S. over calls from Paris for more "strategic autonomy" in the EU...
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-nuclear-weapons-nato-donald-trump-vladimi...
48modalursine
Oh great! Now every country needs its own nukes to guarantee their own sovreignty because they can't depend on the US to cover their um..."backs".
Just what the world needs.
Anybody remember the "Great Filter" theory as aproposed solution to the Fermi "paradox" ?
Just what the world needs.
Anybody remember the "Great Filter" theory as aproposed solution to the Fermi "paradox" ?
49davidgn
David Betz with Louise Perry
The Coming British Civil War - David Betz | Maiden Mother Matriarch Episode 124
https://www.louiseperry.co.uk/p/the-coming-british-civil-war-david?r=35cxjq&...
cf. Civil War Comes to the West
David Betz - King’s College London, Department of War Studies
https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/civil-war-comes-to-the-west/
Both heavily cite How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
The Coming British Civil War - David Betz | Maiden Mother Matriarch Episode 124
https://www.louiseperry.co.uk/p/the-coming-british-civil-war-david?r=35cxjq&...
cf. Civil War Comes to the West
David Betz - King’s College London, Department of War Studies
https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/civil-war-comes-to-the-west/
Both heavily cite How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
50modalursine
This message has been deleted by its author.
512wonderY
Norwegian fuel supplier refuses U.S. warships over Ukraine
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/norwegian-fuel-supplier-refuses-u-s-warships-ove...
In a strongly worded statement, the company criticised a televised event involving U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, referring to it as the “biggest shitshow ever presented live on TV.” Haltbakk Bunkers praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his restraint, accusing the U.S. of “putting on a backstabbing TV show” and declaring that the spectacle “made us sick.”
As a result, the company stated: “We have decided to immediately STOP as fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports. No Fuel to Americans!” Haltbakk Bunkers also urged Norwegians and Europeans to follow their lead, concluding their statement with the slogan “Slava Ukraina” in support of Ukraine.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/norwegian-fuel-supplier-refuses-u-s-warships-ove...
In a strongly worded statement, the company criticised a televised event involving U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, referring to it as the “biggest shitshow ever presented live on TV.” Haltbakk Bunkers praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his restraint, accusing the U.S. of “putting on a backstabbing TV show” and declaring that the spectacle “made us sick.”
As a result, the company stated: “We have decided to immediately STOP as fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports. No Fuel to Americans!” Haltbakk Bunkers also urged Norwegians and Europeans to follow their lead, concluding their statement with the slogan “Slava Ukraina” in support of Ukraine.
52Molly3028
The televised Friday afternoon Oval office visit of the Ukraine leader must be causing all of the post WWII GOP presidents to spin in their graves. And if Bush 43 remains silent, he has no regard for his father's military service in WWII. The silence of VP Dan Quayle is also nausiating.
532wonderY
In an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, praised the president for his peacemaking efforts but said Putin was an “old school communist” and aggressor in the war with Ukraine.
“I think Vladimir Putin is an old school communist, a former KGB agent, and he’s not to be trusted, and he is dangerous," Johnson said. “The way I view this is that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are engaged in a new axis, Axis powers, and they are not on America’s side.”
“I think Vladimir Putin is an old school communist, a former KGB agent, and he’s not to be trusted, and he is dangerous," Johnson said. “The way I view this is that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are engaged in a new axis, Axis powers, and they are not on America’s side.”
54modalursine
Ho ho! Wanna bet on how long till he does a "Lindsey Graham 180" ?
55davidgn
So, Trump has pushed Prof. Jeffrey Sachs to spill the beans to the European Parliament. Mostly all of them, and all at once. Absolutely stunning.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/27/jeffrey-sachs-the-geopolitics-of-peace/
Speech of the century. Hands down. And I'm going to bet you will not read about it in any paper.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/27/jeffrey-sachs-the-geopolitics-of-peace/
Speech of the century. Hands down. And I'm going to bet you will not read about it in any paper.
56alco261
>54 modalursine: Lindsey Graham and 180 are too many characters - just calling the maneuver an "LG" should suffice. :-)
59davidgn
>58 John5918: I hope he manages to get Czech citizenship -- and state protection. He will no longer be safe in this country.
60modalursine
I believe his take on the direction of US Foreign policy and his characterization of it as being arrogant, ignorant and aggressive, is spot on.
I wonder though whether he is not getting carried away by attributing the overthrow of Yakoynavich and the whole Maiden square thing as all a put up job with no real agency by ordinary Ukrainians.
Timothy Snyder, who is after all a historian, speaks the language and has been there lots tells a different story.
Whatever Russia's attitudes were, oh say pre 2015; recent events and rhetoric out of Russia don't seem consistent with the rational "We just want not to have hostile powere bases next door".
The Russian's claim that they don't need to abide by Minsk II because they weren't combatants. Really? Anybody buy that one?
Still, if he is correct, despite the Russian propaganda line that there is no such thing as Ukraine, that Ukraine is just "little Russia" and all the "mission from God to save Christianity stuff a la Dugin, then the Russians should accept a peace deal that guarantees Ukrainian neutrality, thus answering theire alleged core concern.
I wonder though whether he is not getting carried away by attributing the overthrow of Yakoynavich and the whole Maiden square thing as all a put up job with no real agency by ordinary Ukrainians.
Timothy Snyder, who is after all a historian, speaks the language and has been there lots tells a different story.
Whatever Russia's attitudes were, oh say pre 2015; recent events and rhetoric out of Russia don't seem consistent with the rational "We just want not to have hostile powere bases next door".
The Russian's claim that they don't need to abide by Minsk II because they weren't combatants. Really? Anybody buy that one?
Still, if he is correct, despite the Russian propaganda line that there is no such thing as Ukraine, that Ukraine is just "little Russia" and all the "mission from God to save Christianity stuff a la Dugin, then the Russians should accept a peace deal that guarantees Ukrainian neutrality, thus answering theire alleged core concern.
61davidgn
>60 modalursine: It was both, to some degree. It always is. But what really cemented things was the massacre. And to understand that, you need to read/listen to Ivan Katchanovski -- The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine (open access and available here. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-67121-0 )
An example of a recent interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp26pD1l1w
And I'm not sure which Russian statements regarding Minsk II you're referencing, but you are aware of the history of its non-implementation?
Just a moment. I'll try to get you some links.
ETA: In a bit of a crunch. Here's what I've got for now. At the very least, there are some open questions. The other answers are also worth reading.
https://politics.stackexchange.com/revisions/77161/5
I'll also give you Chas Freeman's capsule history, which is very useful.
https://chasfreeman.net/what-can-we-learn-from-our-forever-war-in-ukraine/
ETA: And cf. his recent speech of about a week ago.
https://chasfreeman.net/the-end-of-peace-in-europe-and-the-western-dominated-wor...
An example of a recent interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp26pD1l1w
And I'm not sure which Russian statements regarding Minsk II you're referencing, but you are aware of the history of its non-implementation?
Just a moment. I'll try to get you some links.
ETA: In a bit of a crunch. Here's what I've got for now. At the very least, there are some open questions. The other answers are also worth reading.
https://politics.stackexchange.com/revisions/77161/5
I'll also give you Chas Freeman's capsule history, which is very useful.
https://chasfreeman.net/what-can-we-learn-from-our-forever-war-in-ukraine/
ETA: And cf. his recent speech of about a week ago.
https://chasfreeman.net/the-end-of-peace-in-europe-and-the-western-dominated-wor...
62modalursine
No question that Amrican policy was (should have said "and still is") predicated on the idea that the US should be pretty much "boss of the world" and that protestations to the contrary US policy following the collapse of the Soviet Union was aggressive and definitely "poked the bear".
The Azov group, good little nazis, as far as I know are still a part of the Ukrainian military.
So we've got a nice little inter imperialist proxy war going on with the Ukrainians in the middle.
How democratic, legitimate, or popular is the Zelensky government, and how does that compare on those measures vis a vis the Putin government?
I have a hard time though with the notion that the Russian state is the sole aggreived party, rationally acting as any sovereign power properly would to assure that hostile armies are not assembling on its borders, and with no intention of upsetting the pre-existing convention that nations do not forcibly acquire territory from other nations, and having no further imperial ambitions beyonds preventing an important neutral or friendly buffer state from becoming a member of the opposing camp.
I think we'll soon get an unambiguous reading of how things stand as we see the various peace proposals being floated by the Trump administeration and now (planned but not yet hatched) by UK, France and Ukraine, and how Russia aand the US react to them.
Will the Russian side be willing to settle for some sort of "Finland-ized" Ukraine? Will the US? Will the Ukrainians? To what extent are the Ukrainians "free agents" or maybe "somewhat free", or does the US have them by the short hairs, leaving them with no effective agency at all?
How much of the US story will turn out to be so much BS, and ditto for the Russian story?
Interesting times await.
The Azov group, good little nazis, as far as I know are still a part of the Ukrainian military.
So we've got a nice little inter imperialist proxy war going on with the Ukrainians in the middle.
How democratic, legitimate, or popular is the Zelensky government, and how does that compare on those measures vis a vis the Putin government?
I have a hard time though with the notion that the Russian state is the sole aggreived party, rationally acting as any sovereign power properly would to assure that hostile armies are not assembling on its borders, and with no intention of upsetting the pre-existing convention that nations do not forcibly acquire territory from other nations, and having no further imperial ambitions beyonds preventing an important neutral or friendly buffer state from becoming a member of the opposing camp.
I think we'll soon get an unambiguous reading of how things stand as we see the various peace proposals being floated by the Trump administeration and now (planned but not yet hatched) by UK, France and Ukraine, and how Russia aand the US react to them.
Will the Russian side be willing to settle for some sort of "Finland-ized" Ukraine? Will the US? Will the Ukrainians? To what extent are the Ukrainians "free agents" or maybe "somewhat free", or does the US have them by the short hairs, leaving them with no effective agency at all?
How much of the US story will turn out to be so much BS, and ditto for the Russian story?
Interesting times await.
63kiparsky
>62 modalursine: The idea that Ukraine is a proxy war seems like a weird throwback to the '80s. I know it's Jeff Sachs' running routine, which I've heard him deliver at length while talking to that miracle of perspicacity Tucker Carlson. Carlson seemed eager to believe it, although it was pretty obvious he wasn't following much of what Sachs was saying and mostly was just nodding along like a bobblehead doll.
The trouble with Sachs' position is that its supported only by the fact that Jeff Sachs said so. His argument, at least on the Carlson interview that I was obliged to sit through (things I do for family...) was essentially: I'm smart, and anyone who doesn't believe this is an idiot, ergo, it's true. He offered no actual support for anything he says, apart from oblique references to confidential documents that he "happened to see" and to Important People who tell him things that the rest of us are not privy to. Now, maybe those sources exist and he actually saw those documents and talked to those people. Anything's possible, so let's suppose it happened. Sachs does not seem to ask the first question that any journalist asks about a source, which is "why is this person telling me this?". If someone is leaving "secret documents" lying around for this guy to tell the world about, or telling him secrets that he's supposed to spread around on Fox News, then why are they doing this? Sachs' story is, basically, that someone wants him to be saying all of this, but he never says anything about who that someone is or why they want him to be telling you this. So: whose bidding is Sachs doing, and why doesn't he want to tell you about them? If you can't answer that, then it's probably wise to stand a bit back from Sachs' story.
So, back to the "proxy war" idea. It's not clear to me who the other side in the proxy war is meant to be - is this a war between Russia and the US, or is it between Russia and NATO, or is it between Russia and the EU, with the US sort of tagging along? What we don't get from Sachs is why the US would be interested in fighting - "provoking", if you buy Sachs' line - a war against Russia. There's nothing much to gain there, and if the US were going to engineer a war which was to be fought using US dollars and someone else's troops, it would probably have made sense to line up support for the "US dollars" part before going into it, which clearly did not happen. It's also not clear why NATO would want to "engineer" a war against Russia and stage it in a country not party to the Article 5 mutual defense agreements. If, as Sachs seems to believe, "they" (who?) somehow made this all happen (I want that magic wand that conspiracy folks always wave around, it seems like it would be very handy!) then you'd imagine they'd set it up to happen in Poland, which is covered by Article 5. So not NATO, which leaves the EU. And if someone wants me to believe that the US got the EU to provoke Russia into a war with Ukraine in order to expand NATO - which as near as I can tell is the only way to read Sachs' vague and flexible theorizing - there are a lot of details that have been left up Sachs' sleeve. Like, for example, all of them.
I'm not sure how this tracks. I can't actually see how these sentences go together, if I'm honest. Can you explain how the Nazi associations of the Azov group are connected to the idea that this is a "proxy war"?
The trouble with Sachs' position is that its supported only by the fact that Jeff Sachs said so. His argument, at least on the Carlson interview that I was obliged to sit through (things I do for family...) was essentially: I'm smart, and anyone who doesn't believe this is an idiot, ergo, it's true. He offered no actual support for anything he says, apart from oblique references to confidential documents that he "happened to see" and to Important People who tell him things that the rest of us are not privy to. Now, maybe those sources exist and he actually saw those documents and talked to those people. Anything's possible, so let's suppose it happened. Sachs does not seem to ask the first question that any journalist asks about a source, which is "why is this person telling me this?". If someone is leaving "secret documents" lying around for this guy to tell the world about, or telling him secrets that he's supposed to spread around on Fox News, then why are they doing this? Sachs' story is, basically, that someone wants him to be saying all of this, but he never says anything about who that someone is or why they want him to be telling you this. So: whose bidding is Sachs doing, and why doesn't he want to tell you about them? If you can't answer that, then it's probably wise to stand a bit back from Sachs' story.
So, back to the "proxy war" idea. It's not clear to me who the other side in the proxy war is meant to be - is this a war between Russia and the US, or is it between Russia and NATO, or is it between Russia and the EU, with the US sort of tagging along? What we don't get from Sachs is why the US would be interested in fighting - "provoking", if you buy Sachs' line - a war against Russia. There's nothing much to gain there, and if the US were going to engineer a war which was to be fought using US dollars and someone else's troops, it would probably have made sense to line up support for the "US dollars" part before going into it, which clearly did not happen. It's also not clear why NATO would want to "engineer" a war against Russia and stage it in a country not party to the Article 5 mutual defense agreements. If, as Sachs seems to believe, "they" (who?) somehow made this all happen (I want that magic wand that conspiracy folks always wave around, it seems like it would be very handy!) then you'd imagine they'd set it up to happen in Poland, which is covered by Article 5. So not NATO, which leaves the EU. And if someone wants me to believe that the US got the EU to provoke Russia into a war with Ukraine in order to expand NATO - which as near as I can tell is the only way to read Sachs' vague and flexible theorizing - there are a lot of details that have been left up Sachs' sleeve. Like, for example, all of them.
The Azov group, good little nazis, as far as I know are still a part of the Ukrainian military.
So we've got a nice little inter imperialist proxy war going on with the Ukrainians in the middle.
I'm not sure how this tracks. I can't actually see how these sentences go together, if I'm honest. Can you explain how the Nazi associations of the Azov group are connected to the idea that this is a "proxy war"?
64modalursine
>63 kiparsky: OK, the situation is complicated, (what is there in life that isn't ?) and maybe "proxy war" is too crude a model, but it does capture the idea that at least part of the way of understanding the situation is to see it as a story of "great powers" jostling for mutual advantage.
The US want's to tell the story that "our hands our clean and our hearts are pure", but when it comes to international politics that's never the case for anyone.
That doesn't mean that tables are reversed, that "bad hats" become the good guys and vice versa, that it's all the fault of the US or that snow wouldn't melt in Putin's mouth. It just means that while in this case, Russia is clearly the aggressor an in the wrong by invading Ukraine, they do have a legitimate kvetch or two and faced a situation not entirely of their own making.
One failure of the "proxy war" thing, is that it leaves out any story about the agency of Ukrainians themselves.
One of the complicating factors, is that it's not just Power A vs Power B, the Ukrainians have their own messy story.
I mentioned Azov to concede that whereas there are positive and even "heroic" aspects to Ukrainian nationalism, there's also a dark side. Having mentioned Azov on the debit side of the ledger for Ukraine, I suppose I should quickly remind myself of the Wagner group. Putin says he was just "fighting Nazis" (aka Azov), so he sends the Wagner Group. Hilarity ensures (though of a rather macabre kind, worse luck).
Now of course "A man is known by the company he keeps". I suppose that works for countries too.
We all know what sort of a fellow Agent Orange is, and what sort of a regime Trump2.0 is and aspires to be. That the Trump2.0 administration wants to be "Best Buds" with the Putin regime seems to me the best guide to what we should think of either.
The US want's to tell the story that "our hands our clean and our hearts are pure", but when it comes to international politics that's never the case for anyone.
That doesn't mean that tables are reversed, that "bad hats" become the good guys and vice versa, that it's all the fault of the US or that snow wouldn't melt in Putin's mouth. It just means that while in this case, Russia is clearly the aggressor an in the wrong by invading Ukraine, they do have a legitimate kvetch or two and faced a situation not entirely of their own making.
One failure of the "proxy war" thing, is that it leaves out any story about the agency of Ukrainians themselves.
One of the complicating factors, is that it's not just Power A vs Power B, the Ukrainians have their own messy story.
I mentioned Azov to concede that whereas there are positive and even "heroic" aspects to Ukrainian nationalism, there's also a dark side. Having mentioned Azov on the debit side of the ledger for Ukraine, I suppose I should quickly remind myself of the Wagner group. Putin says he was just "fighting Nazis" (aka Azov), so he sends the Wagner Group. Hilarity ensures (though of a rather macabre kind, worse luck).
Now of course "A man is known by the company he keeps". I suppose that works for countries too.
We all know what sort of a fellow Agent Orange is, and what sort of a regime Trump2.0 is and aspires to be. That the Trump2.0 administration wants to be "Best Buds" with the Putin regime seems to me the best guide to what we should think of either.
65modalursine
PS: This just in:
Timothy Snyder with some thoughts about negitiating the end to war in Ukraine:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-of-negotiation-video
I know nothing, so I'm the easiest guy to fool, but what he is saying seems true enough to me at the moment.
Is there anything he says that's flat out wrong, misleading or crucially incomplete?
Timothy Snyder with some thoughts about negitiating the end to war in Ukraine:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-logic-of-negotiation-video
I know nothing, so I'm the easiest guy to fool, but what he is saying seems true enough to me at the moment.
Is there anything he says that's flat out wrong, misleading or crucially incomplete?
67John5918
>63 kiparsky: proxy war
I don't think it has to be either/or, ie either the local protagonists have agency or it's only a proxy war. It's more often both/and. There are many conflicts in the world which have local roots but are also fought out as proxy wars for great powers. Likewise, recognising that a local protagonist's options and room to manoeuvre are influenced and often limited by geopolitics is not the same as denying all agency to them.
conspiracy folks
Recognising that there might be a dominant myth, a guiding narrative, widely promoted within power circles as well as the media, which has attained the level of being an unspoken assumption, a default position, which influences policy often without being questioned, is not the same as a conspiracy theory. I saw it myself amongst western ambassadors in Khartoum, who often lived in a diplomatic bubble and were reluctant to believe anything that didn't match what other ambassadors in that bubble were saying.
As for cabals in Washington DC, I don't know anything about most of those wars, but I do know about Sudan, which is one of the conflicts Sachs mentions. While there was clearly local agency - southern Sudanese began fighting against discrimination, marginalisation and oppression as early as 1955, long before most people in the USA had ever heard of Sudan - nevertheless the end game in which South Sudan seceded from Sudan was heavily influenced by a small group of people in and on the fringes of the US government who pushed a particular agenda.
I don't think it has to be either/or, ie either the local protagonists have agency or it's only a proxy war. It's more often both/and. There are many conflicts in the world which have local roots but are also fought out as proxy wars for great powers. Likewise, recognising that a local protagonist's options and room to manoeuvre are influenced and often limited by geopolitics is not the same as denying all agency to them.
conspiracy folks
Recognising that there might be a dominant myth, a guiding narrative, widely promoted within power circles as well as the media, which has attained the level of being an unspoken assumption, a default position, which influences policy often without being questioned, is not the same as a conspiracy theory. I saw it myself amongst western ambassadors in Khartoum, who often lived in a diplomatic bubble and were reluctant to believe anything that didn't match what other ambassadors in that bubble were saying.
As for cabals in Washington DC, I don't know anything about most of those wars, but I do know about Sudan, which is one of the conflicts Sachs mentions. While there was clearly local agency - southern Sudanese began fighting against discrimination, marginalisation and oppression as early as 1955, long before most people in the USA had ever heard of Sudan - nevertheless the end game in which South Sudan seceded from Sudan was heavily influenced by a small group of people in and on the fringes of the US government who pushed a particular agenda.
68davidgn
>65 modalursine: 100,000 Russian casualties a day? I'm really hoping he misspoke. That's complete bullshit, off by at least a couple orders of magnitude. It's hard to get the real numbers, but the Ukrainian front lines are buckling badly, and the Ukrainians are still outgunned (though allegedly less so than a year ago).
No time to go over in more detail just now, but perhaps when my personal situation improves.
ETA: But this is the version of Chas. Freeman's capsule history speech I had meant to share above, rather than the somewhat abbreviated recapitulation I wound up sharing. https://chasfreeman.net/the-many-lessons-of-the-ukraine-war/
And it really is worth the time to watch the whole thing, slides and all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gS09ogK4is
No time to go over in more detail just now, but perhaps when my personal situation improves.
ETA: But this is the version of Chas. Freeman's capsule history speech I had meant to share above, rather than the somewhat abbreviated recapitulation I wound up sharing. https://chasfreeman.net/the-many-lessons-of-the-ukraine-war/
And it really is worth the time to watch the whole thing, slides and all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gS09ogK4is
69modalursine
>68 davidgn: Ooh! That slid right by me. The average loss of troops in WWII on all sides was on the order of 10K per day, according to Mr Google.
I think a division is something between 5 or 10k troops (Military mavins can help me out here) so that's a division or two a day.
So if the Russians are losing as much as 10 or 20 divisions a day, that would be an umbelievably spectacular loss.
Let's see, that would be a million men every 10 days. Pretty soon, no more Russians (or Chechens, or North Korean's or whatever).
So yeah, the best that can be is a very unfortunate slip of the tongue (like saying billions when you mean millions); it's gotta be total malarky
So that's definitely a "ding" against Snyder. Could it be that they've lost 100K men in the war to date? Or in the last year, or something?
I'm sure the actual numbers are state secrets, but I'll betcha there are military analysts who can make a pretty good guess as what the number really are, at least roughly. Don't know where to go find that, thought.
Anything more?
I think a division is something between 5 or 10k troops (Military mavins can help me out here) so that's a division or two a day.
So if the Russians are losing as much as 10 or 20 divisions a day, that would be an umbelievably spectacular loss.
Let's see, that would be a million men every 10 days. Pretty soon, no more Russians (or Chechens, or North Korean's or whatever).
So yeah, the best that can be is a very unfortunate slip of the tongue (like saying billions when you mean millions); it's gotta be total malarky
So that's definitely a "ding" against Snyder. Could it be that they've lost 100K men in the war to date? Or in the last year, or something?
I'm sure the actual numbers are state secrets, but I'll betcha there are military analysts who can make a pretty good guess as what the number really are, at least roughly. Don't know where to go find that, thought.
Anything more?
70kiparsky
>64 modalursine: maybe "proxy war" is too crude a model, but it does capture the idea that at least part of the way of understanding the situation is to see it as a story of "great powers" jostling for mutual advantage.
Okay, I can see that. And I can accept it to a certain extent, namely, that Russia invaded Ukraine seeking to advance its interests and that the US and Europe supported Ukraine at least in part because allowing Russia to expand its territory by force would be contrary to their interests. There is presumably also some sense in which the US and European states want to be seen to stand up for the brave Ukrainians, which of course can be reduced to a matter of national interest (maintaining a global brand, as it were). We can always reduce all state actions to pursuit of interests, sometimes more sensibly than other times.
The part that I have the most trouble with is the idea, put forth by Sachs and others, that this conflict was somehow engineered by the US (or someone). This is the "I know a secret" move so essential to good bullshit, and it's a major claim that, if made, needs actual support, and as far as I've seen Sachs offers none at all.
I'm not going to argue that the US acts from "pure" motives - that would be silly. But not perhaps in the way you mean it to. It would be just as silly to suggest that the US acts from "impure motives", or to suggest that the motivations of any state are simple enough to be characterized in that childish sort of mode. Anyone who's spent time working in any group of people will have noticed that the actions taken by the group are the product of moves made by people in that group, and the larger the organization, the more complex the product of those moves will be. The US government is one of the largest organizations in the world, in fact it's large enough that it doesn't really even make sense to talk about it as a single organization. Trying to characterize its motivations as though it was a person (a common move among people with alternative interpretations backed up by imaginary facts) makes no more sense than trying to discuss federal budgeting as though the federal government were a small business or a family.
Now of course "A man is known by the company he keeps". I suppose that works for countries too.
Does it? If you were one of the people in the Ukrainian army's chain of command, and you were faced with an invading Russian army, would you really choose to stand down a portion of your armed forces because you didn't like their ideological leanings?
Okay, I can see that. And I can accept it to a certain extent, namely, that Russia invaded Ukraine seeking to advance its interests and that the US and Europe supported Ukraine at least in part because allowing Russia to expand its territory by force would be contrary to their interests. There is presumably also some sense in which the US and European states want to be seen to stand up for the brave Ukrainians, which of course can be reduced to a matter of national interest (maintaining a global brand, as it were). We can always reduce all state actions to pursuit of interests, sometimes more sensibly than other times.
The part that I have the most trouble with is the idea, put forth by Sachs and others, that this conflict was somehow engineered by the US (or someone). This is the "I know a secret" move so essential to good bullshit, and it's a major claim that, if made, needs actual support, and as far as I've seen Sachs offers none at all.
I'm not going to argue that the US acts from "pure" motives - that would be silly. But not perhaps in the way you mean it to. It would be just as silly to suggest that the US acts from "impure motives", or to suggest that the motivations of any state are simple enough to be characterized in that childish sort of mode. Anyone who's spent time working in any group of people will have noticed that the actions taken by the group are the product of moves made by people in that group, and the larger the organization, the more complex the product of those moves will be. The US government is one of the largest organizations in the world, in fact it's large enough that it doesn't really even make sense to talk about it as a single organization. Trying to characterize its motivations as though it was a person (a common move among people with alternative interpretations backed up by imaginary facts) makes no more sense than trying to discuss federal budgeting as though the federal government were a small business or a family.
Now of course "A man is known by the company he keeps". I suppose that works for countries too.
Does it? If you were one of the people in the Ukrainian army's chain of command, and you were faced with an invading Russian army, would you really choose to stand down a portion of your armed forces because you didn't like their ideological leanings?
71kiparsky
>67 John5918: It's true, global politics is always more complex than you've allowed for. But the declaration that the situation is "a proxy war" is much more reductive, suggesting that the conflict is basically between the US (or someone) and Russia, and only being fought on Ukranian territory, and that that's an adequate summary of the situation. I'm saying this is not in any way a satisfactory or useful understanding of the situation. Of course other parties who are involved have interests, which include (among others) a desire to prevent Russia from expanding its territory into Ukraine, and part of this is certainly an attempt to contain Russian power. I'm not contesting that, but I am contesting the bald and unsupported assertion that that is the only important motivation that we should consider, which is, as far as I can tell, the story that Sachs wants to tell.
To give the full context for the "conspiracy folks" reference:
If, as Sachs seems to believe, "they" (who?) somehow made this all happen (I want that magic wand that conspiracy folks always wave around, it seems like it would be very handy!)
I don't know if I can make it clearer that I was referring to the style of argument that Sachs indulges in, which is bluntly the style favored by purveyors of what is generally referred to as "conspiracy theory". This is notably not "theories about conspiracies", it's a mode of argument that relies on leaving out everything falsifiable and instead arguing by suggestions and implications, which the reader or listener is meant to fill in. This works because the audience, having done some of the work of inference (carefully guided by the purveyor) then commits to the desired interpretation and clings to it despite the fact that no support has been offered to sustain that interpretation.
Yes, there are actual conspiracies in the world, and since I don't know anything about the history of the conflict in Sudan I'll take your word for it that a small group of people connected with the US government were influential in the development of that situation. However, if you want me to believe it (rather than just taking your word for the sake of argument) you'd have to make a convincing argument, and not the sort that Sachs offers.
I find it interesting that most of the people who fall into conspiracy theory traps aren't interested in the actual examples of conspiracy which are pretty well known. For example, before any global summit diplomats and technocrats spend a lot of time negotiating privately about the details which are supposedly the subject of the discussion, so when the "summit" actually happens, pretty much everything of interest has been decided. This is, in a literal sense, a conspiracy, but it's not dark enough or mysterious enough to get the attention of the Sachses and the Chomskys of the world, who prefer to invent their own conspiracies, which have much better entertainment value, and also are conveniently not susceptible to refutation (since they didn't happen, nobody can argue sanely about the details of what didn't happen, and nobody bothers, which leaves the purveyors free to say anything they want, knowing that the more outlandish they get, the more their audience will tend to buy into it)
To give the full context for the "conspiracy folks" reference:
If, as Sachs seems to believe, "they" (who?) somehow made this all happen (I want that magic wand that conspiracy folks always wave around, it seems like it would be very handy!)
I don't know if I can make it clearer that I was referring to the style of argument that Sachs indulges in, which is bluntly the style favored by purveyors of what is generally referred to as "conspiracy theory". This is notably not "theories about conspiracies", it's a mode of argument that relies on leaving out everything falsifiable and instead arguing by suggestions and implications, which the reader or listener is meant to fill in. This works because the audience, having done some of the work of inference (carefully guided by the purveyor) then commits to the desired interpretation and clings to it despite the fact that no support has been offered to sustain that interpretation.
Yes, there are actual conspiracies in the world, and since I don't know anything about the history of the conflict in Sudan I'll take your word for it that a small group of people connected with the US government were influential in the development of that situation. However, if you want me to believe it (rather than just taking your word for the sake of argument) you'd have to make a convincing argument, and not the sort that Sachs offers.
I find it interesting that most of the people who fall into conspiracy theory traps aren't interested in the actual examples of conspiracy which are pretty well known. For example, before any global summit diplomats and technocrats spend a lot of time negotiating privately about the details which are supposedly the subject of the discussion, so when the "summit" actually happens, pretty much everything of interest has been decided. This is, in a literal sense, a conspiracy, but it's not dark enough or mysterious enough to get the attention of the Sachses and the Chomskys of the world, who prefer to invent their own conspiracies, which have much better entertainment value, and also are conveniently not susceptible to refutation (since they didn't happen, nobody can argue sanely about the details of what didn't happen, and nobody bothers, which leaves the purveyors free to say anything they want, knowing that the more outlandish they get, the more their audience will tend to buy into it)
72modalursine
>70 kiparsky: Yeah, well "Neccesity makes strange bedfellows" or something like that.
But I was thinking more of the Trump administration choosing to "hang" with Putin, Orban, and such rather than with the European Union.
Anything both Trump and Putin are for ....run away!
But I was thinking more of the Trump administration choosing to "hang" with Putin, Orban, and such rather than with the European Union.
Anything both Trump and Putin are for ....run away!
74davidgn
>72 modalursine: I'm with you there, actually. But failing to understand how we got here (including that the present Russia is a monster partly of our own making) won't help us deal with Trump's present arson and vandalism.
75bnielsen
>74 davidgn: I don't understand why Trump is pleasing Russia. Their economy is the size of Italy (or probably less after spending so much on a futile war). Is it really just the size on the map that counts?
76davidgn
>75 bnielsen: Well, apparently he has some idea of pulling a Reverse Nixon and triangulating Russia away from China. To which I say, good luck, you half-smart fool. That pooch has already been well and truly screwed.
Why Trump’s embrace of Putin is different this time
Being friends with Russia may be harder than Trump thinks.
by Joshua Keating
Mar 4, 2025, 12:20 PM GMT-3
https://www.vox.com/russia-ukraine/402389/trump-putin-russia-ukraine
It might be instructive to listen to the guy who actually translated for Nixon. Apparently this is Rubio's brainchild.
https://youtu.be/ZPyoLPEroOo?si=FRRL6CP0WYhdX9Ix&t=705
Why Trump’s embrace of Putin is different this time
Being friends with Russia may be harder than Trump thinks.
by Joshua Keating
Mar 4, 2025, 12:20 PM GMT-3
https://www.vox.com/russia-ukraine/402389/trump-putin-russia-ukraine
It might be instructive to listen to the guy who actually translated for Nixon. Apparently this is Rubio's brainchild.
https://youtu.be/ZPyoLPEroOo?si=FRRL6CP0WYhdX9Ix&t=705
77SandraArdnas
>75 bnielsen: Do people still expect sound reasoning from him? And attribute any kind of strategy, let alone a convoluted one? He is intellectually challenged and pretty deranged. It seems very obvious by now to me. Putin is perceived as mighty because he is an autocrat, which equals strength. The Ukraine debacle was preceded by making Canada 51st state and insisting on buying Grenland. Either way, if he does not give rise to WWIII before he's out, we can count ourselves lucky.
78davidgn
>77 SandraArdnas: Fuck this.
79modalursine
Here's a 2 minute video by Timothy Synder on his take for how to determine of peace talks are serious.
He posits 5 "tests"; basically 5 yes/no questions to ask:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/is-it-a-peace-process-short-video
Spoiler: When I try to answer his question based on the best info I've got available right now, it's not looking good.
He posits 5 "tests"; basically 5 yes/no questions to ask:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/is-it-a-peace-process-short-video
Spoiler: When I try to answer his question based on the best info I've got available right now, it's not looking good.
80SandraArdnas
>78 davidgn: Which part do you take issue with?
81davidgn
>80 SandraArdnas: Not what you wrote. The situation. I actually wrote something different before but thought better of it. Something about scenarios in descending order of preference, WWIII being at the bottom. I'd rather see the suffering contained as much as possible to the deserving and their unfortunate captives (which is to say, my own country).
Here's the Zeteo stream. God help us all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDk1BzSqNns
Here's the Zeteo stream. God help us all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDk1BzSqNns
82librorumamans
>68 davidgn: etc.
Perun, a pseudonym I presume, is a consulting defence analyst in Australia who has posted weekly detailed analyses of the war in Ukraine on YouTube. His latest discussion (from late February) of Russian losses and force generation can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6-espHVSE
Perun, a pseudonym I presume, is a consulting defence analyst in Australia who has posted weekly detailed analyses of the war in Ukraine on YouTube. His latest discussion (from late February) of Russian losses and force generation can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6-espHVSE
83margd
Polling Canada @canadianpolling.bsky.social | March 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM:
Your Canadian Public Aggregator For Polling, Data, and Other Related Canadian Content
Canadian favourability of the United States hits a new low
Graph: Oct 2002 (72%) - March 2025 (24%)
https://bsky.app/profile/canadianpolling.bsky.social/post/3ljl2rcjxm22r
Your Canadian Public Aggregator For Polling, Data, and Other Related Canadian Content
Canadian favourability of the United States hits a new low
Graph: Oct 2002 (72%) - March 2025 (24%)
https://bsky.app/profile/canadianpolling.bsky.social/post/3ljl2rcjxm22r
84margd
Interesting that Trump is thinking about Canadian banking. Banker Mark Carney* is a strong candidate to replace Trudeau as leader of the Cdn Liberal party, and is increasing in the polls against Trump's preferred conservative candidate, Pierre Poilevre**. One reason for Libs' improvement in polls is said to be US tariffs.
* Mark Joseph Carney is an economist and politician who was the 8th governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the 120th governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. Additionally, he was the chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. (Wikipedia)
** Pierre Marcel Poilievre PC MP is a Canadian politician who has been the leader of the Conservative Party and of the Official Opposition since 2022. Poilievre was born in Calgary, Alberta. (Wikipedia)
{Trump REALLY dislikes another Lib candidate, Chrystia Freeland, former Deputy PM under Trudeau and Cdn negotiator who faced Trump's Peter Navarro in negotiating USMCA, which tariffs can now be said to be violating. A woman (gasp), she is one tough cookie who laughed off KGB during her time in Ukraine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrystia_Freeland).}
--------------------------------------------------------
Fact check: Trump repeats false claim that Canada prohibits US banks
Daniel Dale | March 4, 2025
... Canada tightly regulates the banking industry, and it requires various government approvals before a foreign-owned bank can open in the country. But US banks have been operating in Canada for well over a century; the Canadian Bankers Association, an industry group, said in a February statement that “there are 16 U.S.-based bank subsidiaries and branches with around C$113 billion in assets currently operating in Canada” and that “U.S. banks now make up approximately half of all foreign bank assets in Canada.” ...
Tyler Meredith, former head of economic and fiscal policy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, noted on social media in February that Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, US Bank, JPMorgan, and Northern Trust are among the US banks with current Canadian operations ... “we take a very careful look at people who want to come into our banking sector, because we consider financial services to be a core asset to Canada and to the Canadian economy” and try hard to avoid the “cascading consequences” the world has seen with bank failures in the US {starting with S&L Crisis in 1980s and 90s} – “but there are existing American institutions, Chinese institutions, Japanese institutions, and European institutions” that have permission to operate in Canada...
... Jeremy Kronick, director of the Centre on Financial and Monetary Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute think tank in Toronto ... said: “Bottom line: there are trade-offs to each option {branch, subsidiary}, but foreign banks certainly can operate in Canada. A case could probably be made that the restrictions on both options prevent full competition with Canadian banks, but not that ‘Canada doesn’t even allow US Banks to open or do business there’ as Trump stated.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-repeats-false-claim-tha...
* Mark Joseph Carney is an economist and politician who was the 8th governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the 120th governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020. Additionally, he was the chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2011 to 2018. (Wikipedia)
** Pierre Marcel Poilievre PC MP is a Canadian politician who has been the leader of the Conservative Party and of the Official Opposition since 2022. Poilievre was born in Calgary, Alberta. (Wikipedia)
{Trump REALLY dislikes another Lib candidate, Chrystia Freeland, former Deputy PM under Trudeau and Cdn negotiator who faced Trump's Peter Navarro in negotiating USMCA, which tariffs can now be said to be violating. A woman (gasp), she is one tough cookie who laughed off KGB during her time in Ukraine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrystia_Freeland).}
--------------------------------------------------------
Fact check: Trump repeats false claim that Canada prohibits US banks
Daniel Dale | March 4, 2025
... Canada tightly regulates the banking industry, and it requires various government approvals before a foreign-owned bank can open in the country. But US banks have been operating in Canada for well over a century; the Canadian Bankers Association, an industry group, said in a February statement that “there are 16 U.S.-based bank subsidiaries and branches with around C$113 billion in assets currently operating in Canada” and that “U.S. banks now make up approximately half of all foreign bank assets in Canada.” ...
Tyler Meredith, former head of economic and fiscal policy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, noted on social media in February that Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, US Bank, JPMorgan, and Northern Trust are among the US banks with current Canadian operations ... “we take a very careful look at people who want to come into our banking sector, because we consider financial services to be a core asset to Canada and to the Canadian economy” and try hard to avoid the “cascading consequences” the world has seen with bank failures in the US {starting with S&L Crisis in 1980s and 90s} – “but there are existing American institutions, Chinese institutions, Japanese institutions, and European institutions” that have permission to operate in Canada...
... Jeremy Kronick, director of the Centre on Financial and Monetary Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute think tank in Toronto ... said: “Bottom line: there are trade-offs to each option {branch, subsidiary}, but foreign banks certainly can operate in Canada. A case could probably be made that the restrictions on both options prevent full competition with Canadian banks, but not that ‘Canada doesn’t even allow US Banks to open or do business there’ as Trump stated.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-repeats-false-claim-tha...
85margd
VA Democratic Senator Tim Kaine told Michele Martin (NPR's Morning Edition) that he and fellow Sen Mark Warner are filing a challenge to Trump's declaration of emergency (fentanyl) as basis for tariffs on Canadian imports. He expected a vote in the US Senate by the end of March. While Republican senators had yet to break with Trump, they were increasingly nervous about tariff impacts on their people, and so Kaine was hopeful for some of their votes.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine reacts to President Trump's joint address to Congress (7-min)
Michel Martin | March 5, 20254:29 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition {NPR}
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/05/nx-s1-5317682/democratic-sen-tim-kaine-reacts-to-...
------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Trump's "fig leaf"? (Opioid deaths have been declining.)
Trump could scale back Canada, Mexico tariffs Wednesday, Lutnick says
Kevin Breuninger | Mar 4 2025
President Donald Trump will “probably” announce a compromise with Canada and Mexico as early as Wednesday, which could scale back his new 25% tariffs on top U.S trading partners, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
The comments came after the U.S. stock market limped to a close for a second day of sharp declines.
The Trump administration enacted sweeping tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports after putting them on pause for a month...
After his remarks, U.S. stock futures tied to all three major averages rose...
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-tariff-compromise-canada-mexico-commerce-l...
-----------------------------------------------
Trump tariffs part of ‘drug war,’ not ‘trade war’: Commerce secretary
Lauren Irwin | 03/04/25
“...{Commerce Secretary Lutnick} said there is an April 2 deadline for a study about the tariff efficacy at the shared borders, and Trump will make a decision about how to proceed.
.. We need to see material reduction in autopsy deaths from opioids and that’s what the president is talking about,” he said on CNBC. “This is not a trade war.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5174938-trump-tariffs-drug-war-trade...
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine reacts to President Trump's joint address to Congress (7-min)
Michel Martin | March 5, 20254:29 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition {NPR}
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/05/nx-s1-5317682/democratic-sen-tim-kaine-reacts-to-...
------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Trump's "fig leaf"? (Opioid deaths have been declining.)
Trump could scale back Canada, Mexico tariffs Wednesday, Lutnick says
Kevin Breuninger | Mar 4 2025
President Donald Trump will “probably” announce a compromise with Canada and Mexico as early as Wednesday, which could scale back his new 25% tariffs on top U.S trading partners, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
The comments came after the U.S. stock market limped to a close for a second day of sharp declines.
The Trump administration enacted sweeping tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports after putting them on pause for a month...
After his remarks, U.S. stock futures tied to all three major averages rose...
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/trump-tariff-compromise-canada-mexico-commerce-l...
-----------------------------------------------
Trump tariffs part of ‘drug war,’ not ‘trade war’: Commerce secretary
Lauren Irwin | 03/04/25
“...{Commerce Secretary Lutnick} said there is an April 2 deadline for a study about the tariff efficacy at the shared borders, and Trump will make a decision about how to proceed.
.. We need to see material reduction in autopsy deaths from opioids and that’s what the president is talking about,” he said on CNBC. “This is not a trade war.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5174938-trump-tariffs-drug-war-trade...
86MsMixte
>85 margd: Why does anyone believe a word of what the lying liar says? "This is not a trade war" is an absolute lie. It's a trade war to bully other countries into caving. If deaths from fentanyl decrease (and they have already), another excuse will be found to continue tariffs if tariffs are found to be expedient in continuing the bullying.
87margd
>86 MsMixte:. I suspect Commerce Secretary is trying to find a fig leaf so Trump can cancel tariffs on Canada & Mexico, and not destroy the economy? Trump cabinet, courts, and Congress are our only hope since, as you say, Trump is impervious to truth or facts...
88MsMixte
>87 margd: Firing 100,000 federal employees may not seem like a lot of people out of work, but they are basic underpinnings of how government work.
Trump is so full of hate in his quest for revenge, that he doesn't care if the economy is destroyed. The Supreme Court is ready to indulge him when there's a 5-4 vote on whether or not monies already allotted by Congress should be paid out.
Members of Congress are still publicly backing Trump and President Musk.
I confess I don't understand the ultimate goal, since ruining the economy means that very few people will be able to afford to buy much of anything. It doesn't make a lot of sense to buy all the buildings and all the land if people can't afford to purchase your products.
If firing 80,000 VA employees comes about, how many veterans will die because of lack of care? How many people will die as a result of USAID being pulled?
These are all people who are consumers, in one way or another. Will the world be better off without them? Will the trillionaires care if their $100,000 vehicles don't sell because no one can afford to buy them, to operate them, to house them, have roads capable of being used?
Trump is so full of hate in his quest for revenge, that he doesn't care if the economy is destroyed. The Supreme Court is ready to indulge him when there's a 5-4 vote on whether or not monies already allotted by Congress should be paid out.
Members of Congress are still publicly backing Trump and President Musk.
I confess I don't understand the ultimate goal, since ruining the economy means that very few people will be able to afford to buy much of anything. It doesn't make a lot of sense to buy all the buildings and all the land if people can't afford to purchase your products.
If firing 80,000 VA employees comes about, how many veterans will die because of lack of care? How many people will die as a result of USAID being pulled?
These are all people who are consumers, in one way or another. Will the world be better off without them? Will the trillionaires care if their $100,000 vehicles don't sell because no one can afford to buy them, to operate them, to house them, have roads capable of being used?
90davidgn
>88 MsMixte: The calculation seems to be that they are defective consumers, as Bauman would say
https://sociologiacritica.es/2011/08/11/the-london-riots-%E2%80%93-on-consumeris...
-- if not already, then imminently as their jobs are replaced by automation and AI.
The rough consensus among the people leading this charge seems to be that the consumerist model is spent and that new models will surely arise to make the need for masses of consumers obsolete. The cognitive techno-elite will commune incestuously with their machines and AIs in a feedback loop of infinite productivity, and the mass of humanity will become superfluous. Why bother sharing?
And so we have their dark prophet Moldbug musing about whether the underclasses should now be converted into biodiesel to fuel urban bus fleets, or whether some more humane alternative of imprisoning them in permanent virtual reality environments might be imagined:
DARK REALM
Gil Duran
July 22, 2024
Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas
Yes, Peter Thiel was the senator’s benefactor. But they’re both inspired by an obscure software developer who has some truly frightening thoughts about reordering society.
https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authorit...
Yes, they actually seem to believe this, or something close. What actually happens when they try to impose this religion and wrestle with the other power bases that have allowed them to come to power is another question.
What mad syncretisms and mass ideologies for public consumption will we see?
The Frightening Intersection of Christian Nationalism and Techno-Fascism
For the cults of Silicon Valley, the end of our humanity is only the beginning.
Kelly Hayes
08 Aug 2024 — 14 min read
https://organizingmythoughts.org/the-frightening-intersection-of-christian-natio...
cf.
Gebru, T., & Torres, Émile P. (2024). The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence. First Monday, 29(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i4.13636
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636
and
DYSTOPIA
Tech Elites vs. Government: Katherine Boyle’s Strange Speech
The latest attempt by tech to adopt Republican talking points and pander to ultra-religious conservatives.
Gil Duran
26 Feb 2025 — 9 min read
https://www.thenerdreich.com/tech-elites-vs-government-katherine-boyles-strange-...
https://sociologiacritica.es/2011/08/11/the-london-riots-%E2%80%93-on-consumeris...
-- if not already, then imminently as their jobs are replaced by automation and AI.
The rough consensus among the people leading this charge seems to be that the consumerist model is spent and that new models will surely arise to make the need for masses of consumers obsolete. The cognitive techno-elite will commune incestuously with their machines and AIs in a feedback loop of infinite productivity, and the mass of humanity will become superfluous. Why bother sharing?
And so we have their dark prophet Moldbug musing about whether the underclasses should now be converted into biodiesel to fuel urban bus fleets, or whether some more humane alternative of imprisoning them in permanent virtual reality environments might be imagined:
DARK REALM
Gil Duran
July 22, 2024
Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas
Yes, Peter Thiel was the senator’s benefactor. But they’re both inspired by an obscure software developer who has some truly frightening thoughts about reordering society.
https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authorit...
Yes, they actually seem to believe this, or something close. What actually happens when they try to impose this religion and wrestle with the other power bases that have allowed them to come to power is another question.
What mad syncretisms and mass ideologies for public consumption will we see?
The Frightening Intersection of Christian Nationalism and Techno-Fascism
For the cults of Silicon Valley, the end of our humanity is only the beginning.
Kelly Hayes
08 Aug 2024 — 14 min read
https://organizingmythoughts.org/the-frightening-intersection-of-christian-natio...
The campaign to make Donald Trump a dictator would be nothing without religiosity. About 80% of white evangelicals supported Trump in 2020, affirming the religious right’s role as the linchpin of Trump’s base. Trump’s campaign is rife with religious rhetoric, including comparisons between himself and Jesus Christ, and claims that he survived an assassination attempt due to divine intervention. Trump supporters have rallied in shirts bearing the message, “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.” Unmoved by Trump’s hypocrisies and personal transgressions, evangelicals play a key role in a cult of personality that celebrates Trump’s attacks on political scapegoats, who Christian nationalists argue are destroying the moral fabric of the United States, such as trans people, immigrants, teachers, and librarians. Many people are aware that Trump’s political brand is a vehicle for Christian nationalism and that Christian supremacist politics threaten the freedoms and futures of millions of people. Far fewer people, however, are aware of the political intersection between Christian nationalism and the tech cults of Silicon Valley, which have incubated their own fascist politics. Now, following aggressive lobbying from Elon Musk and tech investors like David Sacks, JD Vance is Trump’s running mate. Vance is a protege of right-wing, post-democracy-minded tech mogul Peter Thiel, who has played a major role in funding and orchestrating Vance’s career. Vance is a product of Silicon Valley, and he is a vehicle for the hopes and dreams of tech founders and investors who hope to rule the world.(I'll stop quoting there, but it just gets more disturbing. These people have an eschatological bent.)
In the same way that Musk fetishizes interplanetary commerce that is beyond the reach of earthly laws, tech billionaires (and billionaire hopefuls) want a world, here and now, that is stripped of oversight, where tech corporations can not only consume every industry but also usurp governance itself. Corporate fascism is the political end game of these tech elites, with the United States and other nations divided into fiefdoms and ruled by tech leaders who have captured economies and the machinery of governance. You may be wondering what this has to do with religion, given that the techno-authoritarian fantasy I am describing sounds a lot like old-fashioned greed, domination, and conquest. Well, as history would usually have it, there is a religious element to all of this greed, domination, and conquest. Silicon Valley’s technological and philosophical evolutions in recent years have been heavily influenced by a bundle of ideologies that Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres have described as TESCREAL. TESCREAL is an abbreviation for transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism. “It's a mouthful to pronounce these large polysyllabic words,” Torres told me in a recent interview. “One way you could think about it is transhumanism is sort of the backbone of this cluster of ideologies,” they explained.
Torres is a philosopher and historian whose work focuses on existential threats to civilization and humanity. They have published on a wide range of topics, including machine superintelligence, emerging technologies, and religious eschatology, which is a branch of theology and philosophy that examines conceptions of “the end times” or the ultimate destiny of humanity and the world. They are also the author of Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. Two years ago, I spoke with Torres about the threat of longtermism, which is closely related to effective altruism. Now, as some tech leaders have become more public and aggressive in their right-wing politics, I wanted to talk with Torres again about how TESCREAL ideologies are manifesting themselves in the current political moment.
“All of the other ideologies grew out of transhumanism,” Torres explained. Transhumanism is a philosophical movement that advocates for using advanced technologies to enhance and re-engineer human beings, ultimately aiming to create a radically improved "post-human" species. Despite transhumanist PR focusing on the potential for medical advancements and the idea of “conquering” death, it is a foregone conclusion, amid historic levels of inequality, that the imagined “enhancements” of transhumanism would primarily benefit the wealthy. One might even characterize transhumanism as an effort to create a master race. As Umair Haque writes, “20th century fascists saw themselves as human, and everyone else as subhuman … Humans have become the new subhumans to the transhumanists.”
...
cf.
Gebru, T., & Torres, Émile P. (2024). The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence. First Monday, 29(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i4.13636
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636
and
DYSTOPIA
Tech Elites vs. Government: Katherine Boyle’s Strange Speech
The latest attempt by tech to adopt Republican talking points and pander to ultra-religious conservatives.
Gil Duran
26 Feb 2025 — 9 min read
https://www.thenerdreich.com/tech-elites-vs-government-katherine-boyles-strange-...
91margd
>88 MsMixte: Yeah, just saw Commerce Secretary backing off to one month and maybe just car industry relief for Canada and Mexico. No hope with this Cabinet...
Not Rs in Congress either. Listen to them yucking it up over takeover of Greenland territory of NATO partner, Denmark:
https://bsky.app/profile/brenttoderian.bsky.social/post/3ljnjx62acc2c
Tariff targets need to hurt Americans, unfortunately, in order for Sen Kaine to get the votes he needs.
{I have dual citizenship and tariffs + understandable Cdn responses are breaking my heart.}
Maybe still hope in Supreme Court?? IFF Comrade felon complies?
----------------------------------------------------
Supreme Court rules Trump administration must unfreeze foreign aid payments
Devin Dwyer | March 5, 2025
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration must comply with a district court order and pay out nearly $2 billion in foreign assistance funds to nonprofit aid groups for work already completed on the government's behalf.
The court ruled 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the liberal justices...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-orders-trump-administration-unfree...
----------------------------------------------------
But then, Trumpskins has not acted on judge decision that mass firings of probationary workers -- including the newly promoted -- is likely unlawful...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics/judge-mass-firings-federal-probationary-...
Not Rs in Congress either. Listen to them yucking it up over takeover of Greenland territory of NATO partner, Denmark:
https://bsky.app/profile/brenttoderian.bsky.social/post/3ljnjx62acc2c
Tariff targets need to hurt Americans, unfortunately, in order for Sen Kaine to get the votes he needs.
{I have dual citizenship and tariffs + understandable Cdn responses are breaking my heart.}
Maybe still hope in Supreme Court?? IFF Comrade felon complies?
----------------------------------------------------
Supreme Court rules Trump administration must unfreeze foreign aid payments
Devin Dwyer | March 5, 2025
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration must comply with a district court order and pay out nearly $2 billion in foreign assistance funds to nonprofit aid groups for work already completed on the government's behalf.
The court ruled 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the liberal justices...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-orders-trump-administration-unfree...
----------------------------------------------------
But then, Trumpskins has not acted on judge decision that mass firings of probationary workers -- including the newly promoted -- is likely unlawful...
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics/judge-mass-firings-federal-probationary-...
92John5918
Lesotho ‘shocked and embarrassed’ by mockery in Trump’s Congress speech, says foreign minister (Guardian)
Refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma camp clash with police after food supplies cut (Guardian)
Lesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister has said, vowing that the country was “not taking this matter lightly”. Trump called Lesotho a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid during an address to Congress on Tuesday. He singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho”. “Which nobody has ever heard of,” he added, as Republican lawmakers laughed... The country’s main LGBTQ rights organisation denied receiving funds from Washington, and which exact programme Trump was referring to remained unclear on Wednesday...The US government foreign assistance website did not list any financial support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million people. Instead, it indicated that about $120m had been spent on “health and population” programmes in the country in 2024, including $43.5m to tackle HIV/Aids...
Refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma camp clash with police after food supplies cut (Guardian)
Teargas fired during protest at reduced rations after US aid freeze wipes out half of World Food Programme budget... allocations would be cut to 40% of the basic minimum ration. The camp has 300,000 refugees, mostly from South Sudan but also from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia. Aid budgets have been stretched for several years, with the WFP having to cut rations in other emergency zones, but they have been hit further by President Donald Trump’s freeze on US aid spending, which provided more than half of WFP’s funding of $9.7bn (£7.5bn) in 2024...
93margd
Transcript: Trump Press Sec Blurts Out the Real Aim of His Tariff Scam
The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent / March 6, 2025
An interview with Rolling Stone {senior political} reporter Asawin Suebsaeng, who argues that Trump’s efforts to shake down Canada and Ukraine should be understood as a sign that his ugly imperialist intentions are real...
... Republican{s} ... saying for years—years before {Trump} stepped back into office—that the fentanyl crisis is more than ample justification for the U.S. to essentially invade Mexico to take on the drug lords and the drug dealers and the drug cartels. They very much on the record and publicly have said that they want another AUMF {Authorization for Use of Military Force} to apply the principles of the war on terror that we’ve waged to bombard other countries on the other side of the ocean to Mexico. Trump and other Republicans have talked openly about sending in special forces teams to do a bunch of really high-profile violence on Mexican territory. They talked about drone strikes.
So quite frankly, the administration in Mexico, whether it ends up happening or not over the next four years, is sure to fear an invasion or, as some Trump lieutenants like to describe it to me in my reporting, a “soft invasion” of Mexican territory. They would be out of their mind, it would be a dereliction of duty to their own constituents, if {Mexico} didn’t prepare for that and take the Republican Party in this country seriously.
... And how are Canadians supposed to process that bullshitty federal justification {fentanyl}... to justify a potential war on Mexican soil, you’re using that against us now while you keep “trolling” about making us the fifty-first state.
... this goddamn shakedown of Ukraine right now over minerals while they’re dealing with this brutal invasion is uniquely barbaric and monstrous in a way that I don’t think has had time to sink in with the American populace just because there is way too much going on.
... Nahal Toosi of Politico ... spoke to diplomats connected to our allies, and they told her that what they took from Trump’s speech to Congress is that it’s basically time to forget about trusting America as an ally from now on.
... America is an empire in decline.
... some people like to say, that, Oh, Trump is a different kind of Republican. He’s not George W. Bush. He’s not Dick Cheney. He’s not a neocon. He just staffs his administrations with people like that. But also they’re like, Even if you find his bombastic “art of the deal” mentality applied to the world stage as gauche or distasteful, he is trying to bring about peace through strength, ending out this war, etc. … all that propaganda is effusively stupid. And one of the many reasons it’s incredibly dumb to think or even see all that for a moment is, to bring it back to Ukraine, what he’s doing is not anti-imperialism. He is carving up the spoils of war with a fellow authoritarian guy, Vladimir Putin, who he considers his friend and a guy he has a great relationship with on the world stage. Trump, in the form of minerals, and Vladimir Putin, obviously in the form of territory and his own expansionist ambitions there, are just carving up a victim country for their own imperial gains. It’s a jointly imperial and imperialistic project.
... {Press Secretary} Karoline Leavitt essentially blurted straight out at ... press briefing? She basically said, Canada is ours for the taking if we want it, and they’d better figure that out, but quick, right?...
https://newrepublic.com/article/192397/transcript-trump-press-sec-blurts-real-ai...
The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent / March 6, 2025
An interview with Rolling Stone {senior political} reporter Asawin Suebsaeng, who argues that Trump’s efforts to shake down Canada and Ukraine should be understood as a sign that his ugly imperialist intentions are real...
... Republican{s} ... saying for years—years before {Trump} stepped back into office—that the fentanyl crisis is more than ample justification for the U.S. to essentially invade Mexico to take on the drug lords and the drug dealers and the drug cartels. They very much on the record and publicly have said that they want another AUMF {Authorization for Use of Military Force} to apply the principles of the war on terror that we’ve waged to bombard other countries on the other side of the ocean to Mexico. Trump and other Republicans have talked openly about sending in special forces teams to do a bunch of really high-profile violence on Mexican territory. They talked about drone strikes.
So quite frankly, the administration in Mexico, whether it ends up happening or not over the next four years, is sure to fear an invasion or, as some Trump lieutenants like to describe it to me in my reporting, a “soft invasion” of Mexican territory. They would be out of their mind, it would be a dereliction of duty to their own constituents, if {Mexico} didn’t prepare for that and take the Republican Party in this country seriously.
... And how are Canadians supposed to process that bullshitty federal justification {fentanyl}... to justify a potential war on Mexican soil, you’re using that against us now while you keep “trolling” about making us the fifty-first state.
... this goddamn shakedown of Ukraine right now over minerals while they’re dealing with this brutal invasion is uniquely barbaric and monstrous in a way that I don’t think has had time to sink in with the American populace just because there is way too much going on.
... Nahal Toosi of Politico ... spoke to diplomats connected to our allies, and they told her that what they took from Trump’s speech to Congress is that it’s basically time to forget about trusting America as an ally from now on.
... America is an empire in decline.
... some people like to say, that, Oh, Trump is a different kind of Republican. He’s not George W. Bush. He’s not Dick Cheney. He’s not a neocon. He just staffs his administrations with people like that. But also they’re like, Even if you find his bombastic “art of the deal” mentality applied to the world stage as gauche or distasteful, he is trying to bring about peace through strength, ending out this war, etc. … all that propaganda is effusively stupid. And one of the many reasons it’s incredibly dumb to think or even see all that for a moment is, to bring it back to Ukraine, what he’s doing is not anti-imperialism. He is carving up the spoils of war with a fellow authoritarian guy, Vladimir Putin, who he considers his friend and a guy he has a great relationship with on the world stage. Trump, in the form of minerals, and Vladimir Putin, obviously in the form of territory and his own expansionist ambitions there, are just carving up a victim country for their own imperial gains. It’s a jointly imperial and imperialistic project.
... {Press Secretary} Karoline Leavitt essentially blurted straight out at ... press briefing? She basically said, Canada is ours for the taking if we want it, and they’d better figure that out, but quick, right?...
https://newrepublic.com/article/192397/transcript-trump-press-sec-blurts-real-ai...
94margd
Trump 'planning to revoke legal status of 240,000 Ukrainian refugees' - key Ukraine developments
Harriet Sinclair | March 6, 2025
The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was reportedly under way before Donald Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.
... as soon as April ...
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-ukraine-refugees-us-russia-war-putin-development...
Harriet Sinclair | March 6, 2025
The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was reportedly under way before Donald Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.
... as soon as April ...
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-ukraine-refugees-us-russia-war-putin-development...
95davidgn
>94 margd: Hell reigns.
96SandraArdnas
>93 margd: Yep, attempts to undermine all international institutions that are in the way of openly imperialistic policy is yet another clear indicator that is exactly the plan. They want to do away with the UN, the ICC and anything else that has been built since WWII to foster dialogue and peace and hinder aggression and invasion. Not that the UN could stop them invading Iraq, but now they do not want to be subject to unnecessary public scrutiny at all. Those institutions are considered a nuisance to be removed.
972wonderY
French Senator speaking baldly, calling Trump a traitor:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG3d3W2u_LI/?igsh=MWF0NmJieHNoNng2Mw==
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG3d3W2u_LI/?igsh=MWF0NmJieHNoNng2Mw==
98davidgn
>97 2wonderY: Been meaning to share this. The Bulletin has a full translation. https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/for-this-french-senator-trump-is-a-traitor-and-e...
100margd
Ukraine opposition leaders confirm talks with US but deny plotting to oust Zelenskyy
Luke Harding | 6 Mar 2025
Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko denied they were part of a reported White House plot to remove Ukraine leader from power
...The former president Petro Poroshenko said he had held talks with US representatives but added that he opposed Trump’s demands for wartime elections. Poroshenko, who lost to Zelenskyy in the 2019 presidential vote, said a poll should only be held once martial law ends.
Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, said she also opposes elections while fighting continues. She said her team was “talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible”.
The online newspaper Politico reported that the secret discussions took place as part of an attempt by the White House to remove Zelenskyy from his post. Four senior members of Trump’s team were involved, it said, adding they believed Ukraine’s president would lose a vote...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/ukraine-opposition-leaders-confirm...
---------------------------------------------------
Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents
Jamie Dettmer | March 6, 2025
... The most recent poll shows Zelenskyy still comfortably ahead in the race for the presidency.
... The key to all of the plans under discussion via back channels is to hold presidential elections after a temporary ceasefire is agreed, but before full-scale peace negotiations get underway in earnest. The idea of an early presidential election is also being pushed by the Kremlin, which has wanted to be rid of Zelenskyy for years.
Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have publicly opposed holding elections before the fighting ends, as has Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Nonetheless, “Poroshenko’s people and Yulia, they’re all talking to Trump World, positioning themselves as people who would be easier to work with. And people who would consent to many of the things that Zelenskyy is not agreeing to,” a top Republican foreign policy expert told POLITICO, asking that his name be withheld so he could speak freely...
... Zelenskyy remains the most popular politician in Ukraine. Trump’s recent attacks on him have boosted his ratings, which are at 44 % according to the British pollster Survation this week. Poroshenko, an oligarch who was elected in 2014, receives 10% support, with Tymoshenko on 5.4%.
The second most popular potential candidate is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, who trails Zelenskyy by more than 20 points. A former head of Ukraine’s armed forces, he accused Trump on Thursday of sabotaging western unity...
... Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv school of economics, said ... “If the US wants a different president in Ukraine, they should be meeting with General Zaluzhnyi. But I have a feeling Zaluzhnyi would be even tougher for them to negotiate with than Zelenskyy.” ...
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-allies-secret-talks-volodymyr-zelen...
Luke Harding | 6 Mar 2025
Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko denied they were part of a reported White House plot to remove Ukraine leader from power
...The former president Petro Poroshenko said he had held talks with US representatives but added that he opposed Trump’s demands for wartime elections. Poroshenko, who lost to Zelenskyy in the 2019 presidential vote, said a poll should only be held once martial law ends.
Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, said she also opposes elections while fighting continues. She said her team was “talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible”.
The online newspaper Politico reported that the secret discussions took place as part of an attempt by the White House to remove Zelenskyy from his post. Four senior members of Trump’s team were involved, it said, adding they believed Ukraine’s president would lose a vote...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/ukraine-opposition-leaders-confirm...
---------------------------------------------------
Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents
Jamie Dettmer | March 6, 2025
... The most recent poll shows Zelenskyy still comfortably ahead in the race for the presidency.
... The key to all of the plans under discussion via back channels is to hold presidential elections after a temporary ceasefire is agreed, but before full-scale peace negotiations get underway in earnest. The idea of an early presidential election is also being pushed by the Kremlin, which has wanted to be rid of Zelenskyy for years.
Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have publicly opposed holding elections before the fighting ends, as has Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Nonetheless, “Poroshenko’s people and Yulia, they’re all talking to Trump World, positioning themselves as people who would be easier to work with. And people who would consent to many of the things that Zelenskyy is not agreeing to,” a top Republican foreign policy expert told POLITICO, asking that his name be withheld so he could speak freely...
... Zelenskyy remains the most popular politician in Ukraine. Trump’s recent attacks on him have boosted his ratings, which are at 44 % according to the British pollster Survation this week. Poroshenko, an oligarch who was elected in 2014, receives 10% support, with Tymoshenko on 5.4%.
The second most popular potential candidate is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, who trails Zelenskyy by more than 20 points. A former head of Ukraine’s armed forces, he accused Trump on Thursday of sabotaging western unity...
... Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv school of economics, said ... “If the US wants a different president in Ukraine, they should be meeting with General Zaluzhnyi. But I have a feeling Zaluzhnyi would be even tougher for them to negotiate with than Zelenskyy.” ...
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-allies-secret-talks-volodymyr-zelen...
101davidgn
Amb. Chas. Freeman and Col. Larry Wilkerson in a joint interview? Sharing on sight.
Col. Larry Wilkerson & Amb. Chas Freeman on Trump’s Plan to End the Ukraine War & NATO’s Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yawRhqOdp_s
Col. Larry Wilkerson & Amb. Chas Freeman on Trump’s Plan to End the Ukraine War & NATO’s Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yawRhqOdp_s
102davidgn
Singaporean diplomat extraordinare Kishore Mahbubani discusses his recent FP article (previously mentioned here), the future of Europe, and how the West should handle China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh1zmDi0qN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh1zmDi0qN0
103John5918
They lost 52 soldiers fighting alongside the US. Now they feel threatened by Trump (BBC)
All his adult life, Colonel Soren Knudsen stepped forward when his country called. And when its allies did. He fought alongside US troops, notably in Afghanistan, and for a time was Denmark's most senior officer there. He counted 58 rocket attacks during his duty. "I was awarded a Bronze Star Medal by the United States and they gave me the Stars and Stripes. They have been hanging on my wall in our house ever since and I have proudly shown them to everybody." Then something changed. "After JD Vance's statement on Greenland, the president's disrespect for internationally acknowledged borders, I took the Stars and Stripes down and the medal has been put away," Soren says, his voice breaking a little. This week before Congress, the US president doubled down on his desire to seize the world's biggest island: Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. "My first feeling was that it hurts, and the second is that I'm offended," Col Knudsen laments...
105John5918
US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms (Guardian)
The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms. Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia...
106davidgn
>105 John5918: They do good work. They're also one of my data points that suggests my first stop of Uruguay.
https://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings_2024/
URUGUAY DIGRESSION:
Real estate.
http://infocasas.com.uy/
And for the broke among us?
https://www.infocasas.com.uy/alquiler/casas-y-apartamentos/baratos/desde-6000/pe...
(Divide by 40-ish for USD, and note that (1) most of the "cheap" places in Maldonado Province (home to the very upscale Punta del Este) are actually mislisted daily/weekly vacation rentals, (2) the commercial stuff can be priced per square meter (about 10 square feet).
As you can see, rent starts around $200 US for a room or a hovel in an out-of-the-way city and goes up from there, which might give you an idea of just how broke it is possible to be and still make this work. Residency, meanwhile, is pretty easy with US$1500 monthly income (passive income visa if it's passive, or digital nomad visa if it's remote work). 5 years to naturalize, or 3 if you're married (doesn't matter to whom).
Real estate listings are pretty fragmented, though. For instance, here's an outfit that focuses on Colonia Province, which has strong ferry links via Buquebus and Lineas Delta to Argentina across the estuary (Colonia-CABA -- i.e. Buenos Aires proper, Carmelo-Tigre, and Nueva Palmira-Tigre -- Tigre being a suburb in the North Zone of Buenos Aires Province) and frequent bus service to the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. Quite a lot there that doesn't show up on InfoCasas or Mercado Libre, which seems a typical finding.
https://www.inmobiliariagv.com/
More useful info:
Crime rates:
https://observatorioseguridad.minterior.gub.uy/pentaho/api/repos/:public:observa...
Transport links:
https://www.urubus.com.uy/en/
The commuter rail on the central line from the capital isn't running anymore, but it may return. (Used to be on the red segments here). They're also working on light rail from central Montevideo out to El Pinar which will terminate right across the bridge from Neptunia in Canelones Province, and it seems like that project now has full commitment. The only passenger train in the country at present runs a few times a week from Tacuarembo to Rivera, on the Brazilian border. The "Peace Border" between Rivera and Santana do Livramento in Rio Grande do Sul is entirely open, with the positive and negative effects you might expect.
Maybe someone will appreciate that intel. Please message me if you're interested in more.
ETA: Spanish lessons, I can recommend online classes from the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba in Argentina.
https://www.lenguas.unc.edu.ar/cursosdeidiomas
Very affordable. Did an A1 course there last year that was more than enough to get me started.
https://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings_2024/
URUGUAY DIGRESSION:
Real estate.
http://infocasas.com.uy/
And for the broke among us?
https://www.infocasas.com.uy/alquiler/casas-y-apartamentos/baratos/desde-6000/pe...
(Divide by 40-ish for USD, and note that (1) most of the "cheap" places in Maldonado Province (home to the very upscale Punta del Este) are actually mislisted daily/weekly vacation rentals, (2) the commercial stuff can be priced per square meter (about 10 square feet).
As you can see, rent starts around $200 US for a room or a hovel in an out-of-the-way city and goes up from there, which might give you an idea of just how broke it is possible to be and still make this work. Residency, meanwhile, is pretty easy with US$1500 monthly income (passive income visa if it's passive, or digital nomad visa if it's remote work). 5 years to naturalize, or 3 if you're married (doesn't matter to whom).
Real estate listings are pretty fragmented, though. For instance, here's an outfit that focuses on Colonia Province, which has strong ferry links via Buquebus and Lineas Delta to Argentina across the estuary (Colonia-CABA -- i.e. Buenos Aires proper, Carmelo-Tigre, and Nueva Palmira-Tigre -- Tigre being a suburb in the North Zone of Buenos Aires Province) and frequent bus service to the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. Quite a lot there that doesn't show up on InfoCasas or Mercado Libre, which seems a typical finding.
https://www.inmobiliariagv.com/
More useful info:
Crime rates:
https://observatorioseguridad.minterior.gub.uy/pentaho/api/repos/:public:observa...
Transport links:
https://www.urubus.com.uy/en/
The commuter rail on the central line from the capital isn't running anymore, but it may return. (Used to be on the red segments here). They're also working on light rail from central Montevideo out to El Pinar which will terminate right across the bridge from Neptunia in Canelones Province, and it seems like that project now has full commitment. The only passenger train in the country at present runs a few times a week from Tacuarembo to Rivera, on the Brazilian border. The "Peace Border" between Rivera and Santana do Livramento in Rio Grande do Sul is entirely open, with the positive and negative effects you might expect.
Maybe someone will appreciate that intel. Please message me if you're interested in more.
ETA: Spanish lessons, I can recommend online classes from the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba in Argentina.
https://www.lenguas.unc.edu.ar/cursosdeidiomas
Very affordable. Did an A1 course there last year that was more than enough to get me started.
107John5918
>106 davidgn:
Interesting. A "record number" of US citizens are also seeking UK citizenship. "In 2024, more than 6,100 US citizens applied for UK citizenship, marking a 26% increase from 2023 and the highest number recorded since data collection began in 2004. The figures reveal a significant rise in applications during the final three months of last year, coinciding with Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, when there was a 40% year-on-year rise in applications" (link). The same is true of applications for Irish citizenship: "November 2024 saw an unprecedented spike in Irish passport applications from the U.S., with 3,692 submissions, the highest single-month total in a decade. This coincided with Trump’s election victory. Many applicants say they are seeking an exit strategy due to concerns about Trump’s policies" (link).
Interesting. A "record number" of US citizens are also seeking UK citizenship. "In 2024, more than 6,100 US citizens applied for UK citizenship, marking a 26% increase from 2023 and the highest number recorded since data collection began in 2004. The figures reveal a significant rise in applications during the final three months of last year, coinciding with Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, when there was a 40% year-on-year rise in applications" (link). The same is true of applications for Irish citizenship: "November 2024 saw an unprecedented spike in Irish passport applications from the U.S., with 3,692 submissions, the highest single-month total in a decade. This coincided with Trump’s election victory. Many applicants say they are seeking an exit strategy due to concerns about Trump’s policies" (link).
108davidgn
>107 John5918: Afraid to say Ireland looks the better bet at this point between those two, though the UK passport stands to remain usable longer than the US one as things stand (assuming that Trump is as good as his word and we start invading erstwhile allies). I wouldn't turn it down if it were an option.
NB: As of right now, Uruguayan passports for naturalized citizens are fairly useless for international travel due to an odd quirk of Uruguayan nationality law, but efforts to correct this are well underway now. Expected to be solved this year in the practical ICAO passport coding sense, with commitments to solve it shortly down the road in the legal sense.
cf.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/comments/1g1dxn5/naturalised_citizen_of_ur...
http://somostodos.uy/
https://www.cidh189nacionalidad.uy/
https://www.nacionalidad.uy/
So, *should* not be a problem. Emphasis on *should*.
NB: As of right now, Uruguayan passports for naturalized citizens are fairly useless for international travel due to an odd quirk of Uruguayan nationality law, but efforts to correct this are well underway now. Expected to be solved this year in the practical ICAO passport coding sense, with commitments to solve it shortly down the road in the legal sense.
cf.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/comments/1g1dxn5/naturalised_citizen_of_ur...
http://somostodos.uy/
https://www.cidh189nacionalidad.uy/
https://www.nacionalidad.uy/
So, *should* not be a problem. Emphasis on *should*.
109John5918
>108 davidgn: Ireland looks the better bet at this point between those two
I couldn't agree more. Many of us Britons with Irish ancestry are wishing that it was one or two generations closer so that we could claim automatic Irish citizenship. It would be great to have the benefits of EU membership again, which were so thoughtlessly squandered in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
I couldn't agree more. Many of us Britons with Irish ancestry are wishing that it was one or two generations closer so that we could claim automatic Irish citizenship. It would be great to have the benefits of EU membership again, which were so thoughtlessly squandered in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
110davidgn
>109 John5918: I'm also one generation too far removed. At least you have the Common Travel Area so you can vote with your feet if you really want to. Another reason to want a UK passport: the right to free movement between the Isles means "automatic" Irish citizenship in 5 years (maybe 3, if you're lucky), assuming you're willing to actually live there for that time period.
111John5918
Urgent appeal as major donors reduce life-saving funding amid Sudan crisis - Statement by the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan (Relief Web)
It doesn't name the "top government donors", but it's no secret that the USA and UK are top of the list of governments which have abruptly cut their aid funding.
Sudden funding cuts by top government donors are a catastrophic blow to humanitarian assistance in Sudan, a country in the grip of one of the deadliest humanitarian crises of our times. Key donors recently announced sweeping funding reductions and suspensions, cutting off significant support to humanitarian organizations working to reach about 21 million people in desperate need in Sudan this year. The reductions come at a time when the needs in Sudan have never been greater, with more than half of the population hungry and famine spreading...
It doesn't name the "top government donors", but it's no secret that the USA and UK are top of the list of governments which have abruptly cut their aid funding.
112davidgn
>111 John5918: UK as well? You're kidding me.
113lriley
Looks like Canada will put a banker---not a politician in the Prime Minister position until their national elections in October. His name is Mark Carney and he has international experience guiding the Bank of England through Brexit---something he was against. Specializes in economic crisis management. Carney says that the United States is 'a country we can no longer trust' that the United States is 'seeking to seize control of Canada' and that he (Carney) is for 'dollar for dollar retaliating tariffs' which sounds to me like it's probably higher than the 25% Trump has hit Canada with. China by the way has already congratulated him and looks forward to working with Canada.
I bring up China for a reason. Sometimes until something actually happens it might seem impossible--never going to happen. The US dollar as the world's currency to me is in a precarious position. I supposed this even during the last administration. I think a lot of nations are pretty sick of our shit. US belligerence can globally be seen in a bunch of ways. Stand alone vetoes against UN resolutions for instance or military threats on the behalf of one of our genocidal allies directed at world court judges. We are the rogue nation. It didn't just start a month and a half ago but since Donald's reemergence into power it's now on roller skates. The thing with roller skates or even rollerblades is you need to know how to stop and Donald doesn't know how to stop. I wouldn't be surprised if Canada and/or Mexico sometime soon applied to become a member of the economic alliance BRICS of which China is the most prominent member and which includes nations that we consider main adversaries like Russia, Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and that Venezuela also has tried to join. It's an alliance that also includes some of the world's largest and fastest emerging economies and the need for a new world currency has been knocked around in BRICS conferences before and that would be new world currency they're talking about if it happens ain't going to be the Eurodollar.
If an economic war does happen and I were going to bet who would win this war between a pretty much stand alone United States economy against an economic alliance of the major economies of the world I wouldn't bet on the United States. Just saying. We're a big fat bully full of bluster. We're driving neighbors and friendly economies into the arms of nations that we've decided are our adversaries. To me there's potential silver linings. No one likes to get knocked on their ass but it seems to me that's exactly what needs to happen to us. It will be painful on numerous levels but Britain lost the world currency to the United States and the United States is eventually going to lose it to someone else.
I bring up China for a reason. Sometimes until something actually happens it might seem impossible--never going to happen. The US dollar as the world's currency to me is in a precarious position. I supposed this even during the last administration. I think a lot of nations are pretty sick of our shit. US belligerence can globally be seen in a bunch of ways. Stand alone vetoes against UN resolutions for instance or military threats on the behalf of one of our genocidal allies directed at world court judges. We are the rogue nation. It didn't just start a month and a half ago but since Donald's reemergence into power it's now on roller skates. The thing with roller skates or even rollerblades is you need to know how to stop and Donald doesn't know how to stop. I wouldn't be surprised if Canada and/or Mexico sometime soon applied to become a member of the economic alliance BRICS of which China is the most prominent member and which includes nations that we consider main adversaries like Russia, Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and that Venezuela also has tried to join. It's an alliance that also includes some of the world's largest and fastest emerging economies and the need for a new world currency has been knocked around in BRICS conferences before and that would be new world currency they're talking about if it happens ain't going to be the Eurodollar.
If an economic war does happen and I were going to bet who would win this war between a pretty much stand alone United States economy against an economic alliance of the major economies of the world I wouldn't bet on the United States. Just saying. We're a big fat bully full of bluster. We're driving neighbors and friendly economies into the arms of nations that we've decided are our adversaries. To me there's potential silver linings. No one likes to get knocked on their ass but it seems to me that's exactly what needs to happen to us. It will be painful on numerous levels but Britain lost the world currency to the United States and the United States is eventually going to lose it to someone else.
114davidgn
>113 lriley: As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the world can't break our economy fast enough. Mad dog, mad dog. Old Yeller saved Europe, but he got bit.
115John5918
>112 davidgn:
The UK has announced a major cut to overseas aid in order to divert the funding to boosting European military capability in response to the USA's apparent distancing itself from its former European allies in NATO (here and here, for example). It has been widely criticised within UK, not only by aid agencies but even by former military leaders, who recognise that overseas aid helps to reduce insecurity in the world and increases the UK's "soft power" (here).
The UK has announced a major cut to overseas aid in order to divert the funding to boosting European military capability in response to the USA's apparent distancing itself from its former European allies in NATO (here and here, for example). It has been widely criticised within UK, not only by aid agencies but even by former military leaders, who recognise that overseas aid helps to reduce insecurity in the world and increases the UK's "soft power" (here).
116margd
I hope this is unnecessarily alarmist, but without pushback, who knows how far Comrade Felon will take his imperialist ambitions? Malcolm Nance's thought-exercise below has Canada and Denmark invoking Article 5 of NATO, civil war in US, Cdn irregulars blowing up cross-border infrastructure, e.g., powerlines, dams, pipelines, ship locks, bridges, etc. (Canada's military might be small, but it is exceedingly well-trained -- and its people know the U.S. well.) Trumpian imperialist ambitions must be slapped down hard -- NOW.
URGENT WARNING: Trump is Planning to Invade Canada & Greenland
The Regime’s Big Talk Indicates that the Decision Has Been Made; They Just Don’t Know How or When.
Malcolm Nance | Mar 08, 2025
... the details of Trump’s phone conversations with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have given me, and finally, the New York Times, an unambiguous intelligence indicator that the decision has been made to annex Canada. This is my assessment of the situation.
Bottom Line Up Front Assessment
The political rhetoric in the first five weeks of the Trump regime is giving clear indications that the United States fully intends to invade and seize Canada and Greenland at President Trump’s command. The possible timeline is 6-18 months of political destabilization to weaken the Canadian economy, split political parties, and carry out secret destabilization efforts, including identifying and making contact with Canadians who would betray their country...
https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/urgent-warning-trump-is-planning?r=z73e&...
* Fmr US Intelligence +36 yrs. Expert MENA/SWA & US Terrorists | x5 NYT Bestselling Author, Navy Senior Chief, Widower, Ukrainian army Intl’ Legionnaire.
URGENT WARNING: Trump is Planning to Invade Canada & Greenland
The Regime’s Big Talk Indicates that the Decision Has Been Made; They Just Don’t Know How or When.
Malcolm Nance | Mar 08, 2025
... the details of Trump’s phone conversations with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have given me, and finally, the New York Times, an unambiguous intelligence indicator that the decision has been made to annex Canada. This is my assessment of the situation.
Bottom Line Up Front Assessment
The political rhetoric in the first five weeks of the Trump regime is giving clear indications that the United States fully intends to invade and seize Canada and Greenland at President Trump’s command. The possible timeline is 6-18 months of political destabilization to weaken the Canadian economy, split political parties, and carry out secret destabilization efforts, including identifying and making contact with Canadians who would betray their country...
https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/urgent-warning-trump-is-planning?r=z73e&...
* Fmr US Intelligence +36 yrs. Expert MENA/SWA & US Terrorists | x5 NYT Bestselling Author, Navy Senior Chief, Widower, Ukrainian army Intl’ Legionnaire.
117John5918
>116 margd: Canada's military might be small, but it is exceedingly well-trained -- and its people know the U.S. well
Just yesterday I was chatting to a Canadian who divides his time between Alberta and Kenya, and he certainly believes that if the US does invade Canada they will get a nasty surprise at the level and sustainability of resistance to military aggression.
Just yesterday I was chatting to a Canadian who divides his time between Alberta and Kenya, and he certainly believes that if the US does invade Canada they will get a nasty surprise at the level and sustainability of resistance to military aggression.
118davidgn
>116 margd: Much as I have my disagreements with Nance, he's doing yeoman's work here. The scenario is not far-fetched. It needs to be treated as real.
120margd
>117 John5918: The joke used to be that Canada's defense strategy against the US was a phone recording in Ottawa, "We surrender". They didn't mention the other stuff: my Cdn-military dad once told me ~"Of course Americans have plans for invading Canada --they'd be derelict in their duty if they didn't." Left unsaid was that the reverse (plans for Cdn defense) was also true...
It would be SO bad for all of us, if the U.S., Russia, and China carved up the world into their spheres of influence -- not least because Trump and Russia (and even China which styles itself as a near-Arctic nation) seem to be invested in the Northwest Passage being free of ice -- climate change!
It would be SO bad for all of us, if the U.S., Russia, and China carved up the world into their spheres of influence -- not least because Trump and Russia (and even China which styles itself as a near-Arctic nation) seem to be invested in the Northwest Passage being free of ice -- climate change!
1212wonderY
>116 margd: I would guess chaos in the ranks of the US military as well. Such a move would be a slap in the face of their self concept.
122librorumamans
>113 lriley: Looks like Canada will put a banker---not a politician in the Prime Minister position until their national elections in October.
A federal election will likely happen in April. Carney will almost certainly call an election before Parliament is scheduled to resume on March 27 partly because it's difficult to be an effective prime minister without a seat in the Commons, but chiefly because he will want to avoid losing the vote of non-confidence which is pretty much unavoidable should Parliament actually resume sitting.
A federal election will likely happen in April. Carney will almost certainly call an election before Parliament is scheduled to resume on March 27 partly because it's difficult to be an effective prime minister without a seat in the Commons, but chiefly because he will want to avoid losing the vote of non-confidence which is pretty much unavoidable should Parliament actually resume sitting.
123margd
>121 2wonderY: Nance also anticipates governors of US states like Michigan and Maine would not allow National Guards to be called up... I would hope most US soldiers would balk at orders to cross the border, shooting Canadian customs officers and security, but there's apparently more Trumpians in the ranks than ever ...
Just saw a MD meteorologist's photo of US Customs at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Usually crammed at this time of the year (Spring Break) there is barely a student to be seen: https://www.facebook.com/100044212850201/posts/1188833205933763/
Trump is willing to risk recession for his economic war -- good time to stop him is NOW.
Just saw a MD meteorologist's photo of US Customs at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Usually crammed at this time of the year (Spring Break) there is barely a student to be seen: https://www.facebook.com/100044212850201/posts/1188833205933763/
Trump is willing to risk recession for his economic war -- good time to stop him is NOW.
124davidgn
>123 margd: Might be time to reactivate some State Guards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force
But yeah, potentially looking at civil war.
But yeah, potentially looking at civil war.
125davidgn
So, that's the link. Musk's grandfather was apparently the Canadian leader of Technocracy, Inc -- before facing prosecution in Canada and fleeing to Apartheid South Africa.
https://www.mind-war.com/p/technate-of-america-musks-game-of
Not the best sourcing. Anybody got alternatives?
80 years after Elon Musk’s grandfather led a movement to create a technocratic dictatorship spanning all of North America, his grandson crowned himself “Technoking of Tesla.”
https://www.mind-war.com/p/technate-of-america-musks-game-of
Not the best sourcing. Anybody got alternatives?
126lriley
>114 davidgn: Again contravening world opinion at the UN is bad enough. Talking shit about a military operation against World Court judges at The Hague is even worse. The judges at the World Court are from all over the world as representatives of their nations. When you're threatening them you're threatening the entirety of nations from around the globe. Who's the rogue nation? That recent threat came from the Biden administration (to be fair the original threat against The Hague came during the GWBush administration).....this Trump administration is even worse and I think they even have reiterated the threat. This kind of tough talk plays well to a lot of our politicians particularly republicans and a lot of our public like it but it's way out of line. I think it's going to be matter of time before the United States gets put in its place because no nation can go it alone. It's not how things work. This notion that we're the greatest nation on earth is bs anyway. We should be happy just to be good neighbors.
127margd
>120 margd: contd. Being close to US and Cdn military bases -- and the border -- we are used to training exercises and flyovers, but today's announcement was new for Kingston, Ontario's teensy civilian airport.
Military Police training planned at Kingston Airport – Kingston News
(Kingston, Ontario) The Canadian Armed Forces is advising that members of the Military Police from the Aircraft Security Officer Flight will be conducting training scenarios at the Kingston Airport .... carrying firearms ... firing blanks ...
https://www.kingstonist.com/news/military-police-training-planned-at-kingston-ai...
margd: Apparently, the Trans Canada Hwy was filled with military vehicles today...
Military Police training planned at Kingston Airport – Kingston News
(Kingston, Ontario) The Canadian Armed Forces is advising that members of the Military Police from the Aircraft Security Officer Flight will be conducting training scenarios at the Kingston Airport .... carrying firearms ... firing blanks ...
https://www.kingstonist.com/news/military-police-training-planned-at-kingston-ai...
margd: Apparently, the Trans Canada Hwy was filled with military vehicles today...
128LolaWalser
>116 margd:
Trump is simply the USA's uncovered id in action. You ARE the imperialists, ready to swoop wherever and whenever it strikes your greedy fancy.
He's not doing anything exceptional; it's just sooner than we expected.
Trump is simply the USA's uncovered id in action. You ARE the imperialists, ready to swoop wherever and whenever it strikes your greedy fancy.
He's not doing anything exceptional; it's just sooner than we expected.
129John5918
More than 80% of USAID programmes 'officially ending' (BBC)
The vast majority of the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) programmes have been terminated after a six-week purge, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced. On X, Rubio said that the initiatives "spent tens of billions in ways that did not serve" or harmed US interests. The remaining programmes - just 18% - will now be administered by the State Department. Humanitarian organisations around the world have warned that the controversial move to end long-running US aid programmes is already having dire consequences around the world, potentially endangering lives... In his X post, Rubio said that after the review, the US was "officially ending" about 5,200 of USAID's 6,200 programmes... USAID was tasked with a wide variety of missions around the globe, ranging from famine detection to polio vaccinations and emergency food kitchens in conflict zones. The freezes in funding and elimination of programmes is already having an impact. In Sudan, for example, the freeze in humanitarian assistance has led to the shuttering of over 1,100 communal kitchens set up to help those left destitute by the country's ongoing civil war. It is estimated that almost two million people have been affected. In Oman, dozens of Afghan women who fled the Taliban government to pursue higher education now face return after their USAID-funded scholarships were abruptly terminated...
130davidgn
Proposed bill would keep Trump from funding military invasion of Canada
Rhode Island congressman’s No Invading Allies Act also rules out Greenland and Panama Canal from hostile incursion
Author of the article:Kenn Oliver
Published Mar 10, 2025 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 2 minute read
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/no-invading-allies-act
Rhode Island congressman’s No Invading Allies Act also rules out Greenland and Panama Canal from hostile incursion
Author of the article:Kenn Oliver
Published Mar 10, 2025 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 2 minute read
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/no-invading-allies-act
A new House of Representatives bill introduced last week would ensure U.S. President Donald Trump — or any sitting president — from using federal funds for a military invasion of Canada.
At least, not without Congress’ permission.
Rhode Island Congressman Seth Magaziner’s No Invading Allies Act seeks to “prohibit funds for the Armed Forces to engage in operations to invade or seize territory from Canada, the Republic of Panama, or the self-governing territory of Greenland.”
131LolaWalser
At least, not without Congress’ permission.
lol
Now there's a bulwark!
FYI, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, The Vancouver Sun, The Gazette, The Province are American-owned media insinuating American lies and bias into Canadian space.
Join the boycott of the US.
lol
Now there's a bulwark!
FYI, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, The Vancouver Sun, The Gazette, The Province are American-owned media insinuating American lies and bias into Canadian space.
Join the boycott of the US.
132lriley
Tariffing (and then doubling the tariff) Canadian Steel and Aluminum industries---my guess is those industries will take a loss in the near term but they'll look to sell their product in other markets and other markets will want their product and then they'll have new and more reliable customers that won't tariff their steel and aluminum. They'll weather the storm. I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist of an economist to figure that out. A little harder I guess for those who bankrupt casinos and/or live off government subsidies to build the weirdest vehicles on the planet. Will it help expand United States based steel and aluminum industries? I don't know but what I'd guess is it will take some time to ramp up capacities (if they can or will) and in the meantime the short is going to drive up the domestic market price and once up it won't come down. Start with no problem at all and create two problems out of thin air.
133SandraArdnas
>130 davidgn: If the fact that a bill is needed to prevent the sitting President from invading an ally on a whim is not the alarm bell so loud it breaks the sound barrier, I will punch on the nose the next person who claims we are an intelligent species.
Newsflash, there are international laws prohibiting invading any country. Those should be enough if you put anyone even remotely responsible into positions of power. If you have to restrain them from starting wars, any wars, you've got a political lunatic asylum going. Not that there's a shortage of those around the world, but none actually tout themselves as the land of freedom and democracy.
Newsflash, there are international laws prohibiting invading any country. Those should be enough if you put anyone even remotely responsible into positions of power. If you have to restrain them from starting wars, any wars, you've got a political lunatic asylum going. Not that there's a shortage of those around the world, but none actually tout themselves as the land of freedom and democracy.
134lriley
United States armed forces weren't able or equipped to handle Vietnam when it was a much much much larger army---not able to significantly control Afghanistan or Iraq over many years of trying to occupy. Those also were conflicts where at the least at the beginnings the American public was on board. We have a much smaller military now and it's staged here, there and everywhere all over the globe. Our own military could maybe control a few of our larger cities at one time but I don't think much more.....they would the need complicity from a somewhat larger % of the population to manage a military takeover. Really and honestly for a large scale and sustained military operation I think the US military is something of a paper tiger. Trump and friends might think otherwise but these are people who send people to war not fight wars themselves.
Looking at Canada's landmass I think it would be pretty near impossible for us to win short of the nuclear.....fighting a trained armed force is only one problem.....fighting an irregular guerrilla force that has popular support which would almost certainly sprout up everywhere and would have knowledge of terrain way beyond our means would be just folly.
United States could reinstate the draft. I don't see that as likely. The military doesn't like it. They want enthusiastic rah rah B- high school student athlete types. Draftees are never happy. They're a drag. They question everything.....are training resistant and resent the discipline. They get into and cause trouble and they even sometimes spread their dissension to those who have volunteered. The population won't like it either and they get more interested when their sons and daughters start coming home in boxes or need knee and arm replacements and it will piss them off more when the oligarchs and the politicians who cheerlead us into these catastrophes won't send their own sons and daughters to die too.
Looking at Canada's landmass I think it would be pretty near impossible for us to win short of the nuclear.....fighting a trained armed force is only one problem.....fighting an irregular guerrilla force that has popular support which would almost certainly sprout up everywhere and would have knowledge of terrain way beyond our means would be just folly.
United States could reinstate the draft. I don't see that as likely. The military doesn't like it. They want enthusiastic rah rah B- high school student athlete types. Draftees are never happy. They're a drag. They question everything.....are training resistant and resent the discipline. They get into and cause trouble and they even sometimes spread their dissension to those who have volunteered. The population won't like it either and they get more interested when their sons and daughters start coming home in boxes or need knee and arm replacements and it will piss them off more when the oligarchs and the politicians who cheerlead us into these catastrophes won't send their own sons and daughters to die too.
135margd
>134 lriley: Given the location of Cdn population centers, military planners looking at maps of wildfire smoke -- or who suffered in wake of Quebec wildfires (2023) -- would have plenty of reason to not consider even a tactical nuke. Myriad other reasons, too, of course. However, Comrade Felon never saw a map a Sharpie couldn't fix. He is so removed from reality
He displayed huge weakness today. Confronted with Ontario surcharge on electricity, he had a tantrum on Truth Social, then doubled tariff on Canada's steel and aluminum. This is not a man with a plan. I suspect stock market will react accordingly?
He displayed huge weakness today. Confronted with Ontario surcharge on electricity, he had a tantrum on Truth Social, then doubled tariff on Canada's steel and aluminum. This is not a man with a plan. I suspect stock market will react accordingly?
136margd
>135 margd:. Sounds like both Ontario Premier Ford and Trump backed down?
137kiparsky
>134 lriley: You're not likely to want to use nuclear force if your intent is to occupy the territory. I think the whole military angle is sort of a red herring - in fact, I think the whole "51st state" thing is just Trump trying to be clever. He thinks he's good at "making deals", but he really only has one move, and that's to come in hard demanding everything and then make a big show of yelling at people before eventually taking basically the status quo, and declaring that to be a win.
So I expect that what we'll end up seeing will be very much like what we saw in his first disasterm: a "new deal" which is basically identical to the old deal, but with a different acronym, probably something like "The Donald J. Trump Is a Very Good Negotiator Trade Treaty". And that'll come after about a year of economy-destroying tariffs and sanctions, which he'll blame on Biden and some of his base will believe it.
Could be wrong, I suppose. We'll see what happens.
So I expect that what we'll end up seeing will be very much like what we saw in his first disasterm: a "new deal" which is basically identical to the old deal, but with a different acronym, probably something like "The Donald J. Trump Is a Very Good Negotiator Trade Treaty". And that'll come after about a year of economy-destroying tariffs and sanctions, which he'll blame on Biden and some of his base will believe it.
Could be wrong, I suppose. We'll see what happens.
138modalursine
>133 SandraArdnas: Of course there are laws, for selected meanings of the word "law".
Now, I'm certainly no expert, and perhaps those with specialized knowledge can correct my naive view, but it certainly seems apparent at tne moment that a law that can't or won't be enforced is not the same thing as the sort of law that citizens must obey upon pain of criminal sanction.
If the US were (goodness forbid!) to invade Canada (as in point of fact the US has in the past invaded Mexico), and the Canadians were to take their case to ....where? the World Court? The UN? ...the ICC? ... not sure which international body is the right venue...what do you suppose would happen?
My guess is either 1) The US ignores whatever adverse ruling might come dow, if indeed the whole thing couldn't be quashed by back room maneuvering of some sort, more or less as an elehant might ignore a mosquito , or 2) The FFOTUS wouldl make a big show of forming the mudra of defiance in the face of said judicial body.
In either case, the "strong" would do what they can and the "weak" would suffer what they must. and no US officials in high places would be the least bit discomfitted.
Now, I'm certainly no expert, and perhaps those with specialized knowledge can correct my naive view, but it certainly seems apparent at tne moment that a law that can't or won't be enforced is not the same thing as the sort of law that citizens must obey upon pain of criminal sanction.
If the US were (goodness forbid!) to invade Canada (as in point of fact the US has in the past invaded Mexico), and the Canadians were to take their case to ....where? the World Court? The UN? ...the ICC? ... not sure which international body is the right venue...what do you suppose would happen?
My guess is either 1) The US ignores whatever adverse ruling might come dow, if indeed the whole thing couldn't be quashed by back room maneuvering of some sort, more or less as an elehant might ignore a mosquito , or 2) The FFOTUS wouldl make a big show of forming the mudra of defiance in the face of said judicial body.
In either case, the "strong" would do what they can and the "weak" would suffer what they must. and no US officials in high places would be the least bit discomfitted.
139SandraArdnas
>138 modalursine: I wasn't trying to argue those are enforceable in the sense of effectively preventing it from happening. It obviously isn't the case or the Russians wouldn't invade Ukraine, the US and allies would not invade Iraq against the UN decision and so on to many less prominent cases. It was meant to highlight that when you violate those conventions, you're already outside the law. In other words, countries that aspire to be constructive and respected members of the international community do not do it. Period.
One of the scariest parts of the 'new US foreign policy' is exactly the repeated claims how the UN and ICC should be abolished, withdrawal from the Human Rights Council (Eleanor Roosevelt must be turning in her grave and getting ready to haunt the entire bunch of scums responsible) and the like, all of which indicate a desire to not to have to be even nominally accountable to anyone and reestablishing the pre-WWII might-makes-right as the guiding principle in international relations. I do not even wish to contemplate how quick this would escalate into full-blown dystopia not even the grimmest SF writers imagined given the current weaponry and ease of propaganda wars.
One of the scariest parts of the 'new US foreign policy' is exactly the repeated claims how the UN and ICC should be abolished, withdrawal from the Human Rights Council (Eleanor Roosevelt must be turning in her grave and getting ready to haunt the entire bunch of scums responsible) and the like, all of which indicate a desire to not to have to be even nominally accountable to anyone and reestablishing the pre-WWII might-makes-right as the guiding principle in international relations. I do not even wish to contemplate how quick this would escalate into full-blown dystopia not even the grimmest SF writers imagined given the current weaponry and ease of propaganda wars.
140davidgn
>139 SandraArdnas: Well, this wasn't really a far step from the Hague Invasion Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
That was 2002.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
That was 2002.
141Molly3028
https://apnews.com/article/trump-eu-tariffs-countermeasures-806a3b9bcc9cd4e45817...
EU retaliates against Trump’s trade moves and hits beef, whiskey, motorcycles with targeted tariffs
The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. EU officials have made clear that the tariffs — taxes on imports — are aimed at products made in Republican-held states, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska and wood products from Alabama and Georgia.
***
This is a very smart move. Foreign entities have to surgically retaliate by nailing states where the GOP/Trump voters are in the majority.
EU retaliates against Trump’s trade moves and hits beef, whiskey, motorcycles with targeted tariffs
The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. EU officials have made clear that the tariffs — taxes on imports — are aimed at products made in Republican-held states, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska and wood products from Alabama and Georgia.
***
This is a very smart move. Foreign entities have to surgically retaliate by nailing states where the GOP/Trump voters are in the majority.
142davidgn
>131 LolaWalser: Apologies. The Globe and Mail don't seem to have covered it. CBC just did.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6681040
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6681040
143davidgn
See also:
The U.S. has covertly destabilized nations. With Canada, it's being done in public
Intelligence experts say young, economically vulnerable people would be likely target
Evan Dyer · CBC News · Posted: Mar 12, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-annexation-destabilizing-canada-1.7479890
The U.S. has covertly destabilized nations. With Canada, it's being done in public
Intelligence experts say young, economically vulnerable people would be likely target
Evan Dyer · CBC News · Posted: Mar 12, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-annexation-destabilizing-canada-1.7479890
144SandraArdnas
Jon Stewart & Maria Ressa On the US’s Authoritarian Slide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsHoX9ZpA_M&pp=ygUMSm9uIFN0ZXdhcnQg
Interview with Nobel Peace winning journalist on decline of democracy, the misuse of digital platforms, global shifts, ways to protect American democracy and more. Highly recommended. This should really be on mainstream media. She is incredibly insightful, both from first hand experience in the Philippines and research done since.
Select quotes: "When you have no facts, the only government that can survive is a dictatorship."
"If you don't stand up for your rights now, you will only get weaker over time."
"Silence today means consent."
I would especially emphasize the insights into strategies to normalize what is to follow. In her own case, she was targeted with social media campaign trending #arrestMariaRessa for a year, and only then did the regime embark upon arrests and charges, all of them for things like tax evasion and the similar. So take note Americans (and everyone else around the world for what is to follow in many places if the US goes way to the dark side) both about normalizing talk about invading Grenland and Canada, as well as DOGE's mass scraping personal data that will be used to pressure dissenting voices through bogus charges or any other form of pressure they can come up with.
>140 davidgn: Ah, that is peanuts to what is sought now. I remember it was a relatively big deal at the time, but they are taking exception in the sense of jurisdiction, but are not really saying war crimes should not be prosecuted or only for some. It is a stance 'we will prosecute ourselves, butt off', but there's still acknowledgment of war crimes being war crimes. So this is a still a public atmosphere that pushes the US to not allow engaging in them, while giving the international public means of public pressure if they happen. Now, the intent is to cancel that part entirely by abolishing not just the institution with the authority to prosecute such crimes (ICC), but also the institution that is the platform for publicly debating international issues of any kind (the UN). In short, it is a preamble into 'no accountability' world order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsHoX9ZpA_M&pp=ygUMSm9uIFN0ZXdhcnQg
Interview with Nobel Peace winning journalist on decline of democracy, the misuse of digital platforms, global shifts, ways to protect American democracy and more. Highly recommended. This should really be on mainstream media. She is incredibly insightful, both from first hand experience in the Philippines and research done since.
Select quotes: "When you have no facts, the only government that can survive is a dictatorship."
"If you don't stand up for your rights now, you will only get weaker over time."
"Silence today means consent."
I would especially emphasize the insights into strategies to normalize what is to follow. In her own case, she was targeted with social media campaign trending #arrestMariaRessa for a year, and only then did the regime embark upon arrests and charges, all of them for things like tax evasion and the similar. So take note Americans (and everyone else around the world for what is to follow in many places if the US goes way to the dark side) both about normalizing talk about invading Grenland and Canada, as well as DOGE's mass scraping personal data that will be used to pressure dissenting voices through bogus charges or any other form of pressure they can come up with.
>140 davidgn: Ah, that is peanuts to what is sought now. I remember it was a relatively big deal at the time, but they are taking exception in the sense of jurisdiction, but are not really saying war crimes should not be prosecuted or only for some. It is a stance 'we will prosecute ourselves, butt off', but there's still acknowledgment of war crimes being war crimes. So this is a still a public atmosphere that pushes the US to not allow engaging in them, while giving the international public means of public pressure if they happen. Now, the intent is to cancel that part entirely by abolishing not just the institution with the authority to prosecute such crimes (ICC), but also the institution that is the platform for publicly debating international issues of any kind (the UN). In short, it is a preamble into 'no accountability' world order.
146modalursine
>139 SandraArdnas: " ... countries that aspire to be constructive and respected members of the international community ... "
Agent Orange nor the Elon have any such aspiration, so there you are!
Agent Orange nor the Elon have any such aspiration, so there you are!
147SandraArdnas
>146 modalursine: Yes, I'm well aware, haha, but their electorate is not. The political elites who brought them to their current positions also seem largely oblivious of the impact on the US international standing and the profound long-term consequences of that. Besides, calling a spade is a spade is very important for not normalizing the abnormal.
I hope there's enough public outrage each time he mentions invading anyone to prevent the public from resigning itself to this being a new normal. Besides that, I would personally focus on insisting on the promises he made to his electorate about bettering their financial situation as key areas of public discussion. That should keep him somewhat busy with things other than endless stream of international tantrums destabilizing the world at large.
I hope there's enough public outrage each time he mentions invading anyone to prevent the public from resigning itself to this being a new normal. Besides that, I would personally focus on insisting on the promises he made to his electorate about bettering their financial situation as key areas of public discussion. That should keep him somewhat busy with things other than endless stream of international tantrums destabilizing the world at large.
148davidgn
>145 LolaWalser: Wasn't saying you were. Thought you might want to see the interview with the bill sponsor. Thanks for the insight on the media ownership.
149davidgn
>144 SandraArdnas: That is how it was sold, yes.
But the seeds of the latter were always within the former.
But the seeds of the latter were always within the former.
150davidgn
Trump's Ireland Rant Leaves Leader Stunned!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDhOUCQhTjk
Watch Donald Trump meet Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the White House ahead of St. Patrick's Day. Despite initial doubts about the visit, the meeting went ahead. The discussion started smoothly but took a tense turn when a journalist questioned Trump about the EU. Trump claimed the EU was designed to undermine the US, then launched into a rambling rant about Ireland’s landscape, housing, and pharmaceutical industries. The Taoiseach appeared visibly uneasy—check out his reaction at the end and decide: was it Trump’s words or his delivery that threw him off?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDhOUCQhTjk
Watch Donald Trump meet Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the White House ahead of St. Patrick's Day. Despite initial doubts about the visit, the meeting went ahead. The discussion started smoothly but took a tense turn when a journalist questioned Trump about the EU. Trump claimed the EU was designed to undermine the US, then launched into a rambling rant about Ireland’s landscape, housing, and pharmaceutical industries. The Taoiseach appeared visibly uneasy—check out his reaction at the end and decide: was it Trump’s words or his delivery that threw him off?
151modalursine
>142 davidgn: The first I heard of that was right here. Why (as if I didn't know) don't the Dems as a party float more of those measures, doomed as they are by the congressional math of it all, publicise them and the Republican's outrageous capitulation to Ceasararism , shout down the house, make a big stink, and not leave it to individual brave souls to die alone on isolated hills?
152SandraArdnas
>150 davidgn: Quick question: how does the US media treat his rants on economic issues. E.g. does anyone call the experts who negotiated those deals and whom he calls stupid in front of the entire world to give their expert opinion on those deals, as well as the effects of his moves so far.
I'm not an economic expert by any stretch of the imagination, but even I can see he will eventually crash the US stock market if this continues.
I'm not an economic expert by any stretch of the imagination, but even I can see he will eventually crash the US stock market if this continues.
153davidgn
>152 SandraArdnas: I've just spent the last year bouncing around South America and I'm still in Mendoza at the moment, so I may not be the best person to answer that one generally.
That said, the thing to ask is: which part? U.S. media is so fragmented now that even if reporting exists somewhere, there's very little chance that the people who need to see it actually will.
If it's indicative, here's Fox. (Right) https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/trump-says-us-has-stupid-trade-not-free-trad... (which does a horrible job)
And here's CNN (Center, insomuch as that means anything) https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/13/economy/trade-wars-can-spiral-out-of-control/...
(which does merely a very bad job).
The kind of deep-dive, thickly reported background you're wanting is not always there. You do still get some of that: e.g.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/06/president-trump-trade-policies/
But if you're looking for direct, head-on refutations and explanations of why Trump is wrong, those kind of explainers are the exception rather than the rule across the broad sweep of the media landscape
That said, the thing to ask is: which part? U.S. media is so fragmented now that even if reporting exists somewhere, there's very little chance that the people who need to see it actually will.
If it's indicative, here's Fox. (Right) https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/trump-says-us-has-stupid-trade-not-free-trad... (which does a horrible job)
And here's CNN (Center, insomuch as that means anything) https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/13/economy/trade-wars-can-spiral-out-of-control/...
(which does merely a very bad job).
The kind of deep-dive, thickly reported background you're wanting is not always there. You do still get some of that: e.g.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/06/president-trump-trade-policies/
But if you're looking for direct, head-on refutations and explanations of why Trump is wrong, those kind of explainers are the exception rather than the rule across the broad sweep of the media landscape
154SandraArdnas
>153 davidgn: Thanks, unfortunately can't see the Chicago Tribune article, says not available in your region. From my limited insight into the situation with media in the US, I was not really expecting anything serious from major TV networks, but not necessarily from a number of respectable newspapers. To the extent I even know where to look, I'm often faced with 'subscribe to see the article' since many do not have the policy of allowing a certain number for free, so if anyone else has any more insight, I'd be much obliged.
155davidgn
>154 SandraArdnas: The Trib, archived. https://archive.is/MxAvW
156SandraArdnas
>155 davidgn: Thank you
157davidgn
Kill switch fears over US F-35 fighter jets in Europe | DW News
The shift in US security policy raises uncomfortable questions in Europe about the dependency on American weapons. One example is the F-35 fighter jet, made by American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. Several prominent voices linked to the defense establishment in Europe have suggested the US has built so-called 'kill switches' into the aircraft , which would allow Washington to remotely deactivate or limit the combat functions of F-35s sold to foreign allies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAfwk3Otno
The shift in US security policy raises uncomfortable questions in Europe about the dependency on American weapons. One example is the F-35 fighter jet, made by American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. Several prominent voices linked to the defense establishment in Europe have suggested the US has built so-called 'kill switches' into the aircraft , which would allow Washington to remotely deactivate or limit the combat functions of F-35s sold to foreign allies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQAfwk3Otno
158margd
>154 SandraArdnas: Sometimes google the title: other news outlets may have republished the exact same article.
159LolaWalser
Trumpists aren't going to look at anything that criticises Trump, and they apparently make the majority (even if slight) of the population. As for the rest, Americans like these participating in this group are in a small minority. It's a cliché, but perfectly true: Americans are some of the most apathetic, uninformed, deliberately "apolitical" people on earth. (Historical note: it wasn't always thus. Neil Postman, for example, gives a fascinating description of the early colonies' extraordinary literacy and relationship to media and political engagement in Amusing ourselves to death.)
I observed this endlessly when I lived in the States and was recently reminded most unpleasantly when I "dared" to make a thread dedicated to political discussion (or "current affairs") in the Club Read group. As many (or more) people expressed a cautious interest or at worst indifference to such a thread than outright opposed it. But because the Admin is one of the latter, we are not getting the thread. This, however, is the most striking point: despite such a thread being perfectly easy to Ignore, those opposing it are not satisfied with that, but impose their will on others, preventing EVERYONE from participating in a thread like that! (A few, myself included, post on political topics in our "personal" threads, and it was precisely one poster getting overwhelmed with such discussion--indicating the level of interest and need for such a thread!--that prompted me to make a general thread. Try to, anyway.)
So much for that most "American" of passions, "free speech"... it indicates a pathological avoidance of reality, to the point where these "freedom"-lovers think nothing of turning dictators at the least threat of infringement of their comfort. To repeat: THIS reaction came to them when the issue came up of a single thread that they could perfectly well ignore and never bother with or about AT ALL. It's not just that they don't want to engage with "politics"--they aren't above inhibiting such engagement to others.
Coincidentally, I was leafing through a book of cartoons the other day, Us and Them: What the British Think of The Americans; What The Americans Think of The British, it's from 2005.
I observed this endlessly when I lived in the States and was recently reminded most unpleasantly when I "dared" to make a thread dedicated to political discussion (or "current affairs") in the Club Read group. As many (or more) people expressed a cautious interest or at worst indifference to such a thread than outright opposed it. But because the Admin is one of the latter, we are not getting the thread. This, however, is the most striking point: despite such a thread being perfectly easy to Ignore, those opposing it are not satisfied with that, but impose their will on others, preventing EVERYONE from participating in a thread like that! (A few, myself included, post on political topics in our "personal" threads, and it was precisely one poster getting overwhelmed with such discussion--indicating the level of interest and need for such a thread!--that prompted me to make a general thread. Try to, anyway.)
So much for that most "American" of passions, "free speech"... it indicates a pathological avoidance of reality, to the point where these "freedom"-lovers think nothing of turning dictators at the least threat of infringement of their comfort. To repeat: THIS reaction came to them when the issue came up of a single thread that they could perfectly well ignore and never bother with or about AT ALL. It's not just that they don't want to engage with "politics"--they aren't above inhibiting such engagement to others.
Coincidentally, I was leafing through a book of cartoons the other day, Us and Them: What the British Think of The Americans; What The Americans Think of The British, it's from 2005.
160kiparsky
>152 SandraArdnas: I don't know if this is in the direction you're looking for, but the Times did run a piece a few days ago about how Trump's delusional babbling gives him "political cover".
Paywalled, but here's the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/us/politics/trump-third-term-gaza-contradicti...
Paywalled, but here's the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/us/politics/trump-third-term-gaza-contradicti...
161Molly3028
New York Times
President Trump Is Making Foreign Stocks Great Again
For years, the S&P 500 soared above the stock indexes of other countries. But since Trump’s inauguration, it has fallen 6 percent and is now trailing major markets in Europe and China.
President Trump Is Making Foreign Stocks Great Again
For years, the S&P 500 soared above the stock indexes of other countries. But since Trump’s inauguration, it has fallen 6 percent and is now trailing major markets in Europe and China.
162margd
US blocks Canadian access to cross-border library, sparking outcry
Guardian staff and agencies in Stanstead | 21 Mar 2025
US officials claim move was to curb drug trafficking while Quebec town says it ‘weakens collaboration’ among nations ...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/canada-cross-border-library
Guardian staff and agencies in Stanstead | 21 Mar 2025
US officials claim move was to curb drug trafficking while Quebec town says it ‘weakens collaboration’ among nations ...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/canada-cross-border-library
163margd
How a US-Russian Propaganda Machine is Targeting Canada’s Leading Political Threat
Dean Blundell* | Mar 17, 2025
Canadian law enforcement has issued a stark warning:
a massive, coordinated disinformation campaign is being unleashed against Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and a rising political star.
This attack isn’t random—it’s part of an orchestrated effort by Russian-affiliated networks, Trump-aligned forces, and radical right-wing operatives who see Carney as a direct threat to their authoritarian ambitions.
With Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives collapsing in the polls, the global far-right movement is going into overdrive to destroy the man poised to defeat them.
At the center of this operation is Rebel News, the Canadian far-right propaganda outlet notorious for its paid disinformation campaigns.
Known for its history of spreading conspiracy theories, Islamophobia, and climate change denial, Rebel News has now pivoted to its latest target: Mark Carney.
Their newest fabrication attempts to tie Carney to Jeffrey Epstein, using the same playbook of guilt-by-association tactics that the alt-right used against political figures like Hillary Clinton and Justin Trudeau.
Despite no legitimate evidence linking Carney to Epstein, Rebel News has churned out misleading articles, manipulated AI photos, and deceptive video content designed to plant the idea in the minds of right-wing audiences.
The purpose is clear: flood social media with the smear, rely on echo chambers to amplify it and let Poilievre’s supporters do the rest.
This is how modern disinformation works—not by proving anything, but by seeding doubt, weaponizing paranoia, and repeating the lie until it feels like truth.
Beyond targeting Carney himself, the disinformation campaign has set its sights on his family—especially his transgender son.
International media outlets aligned with Russia, Trump, and conservative religious lobby groups have begun a coordinated effort to attack Carney’s son in a bid to stir up transphobic outrage and weaponize the culture war.
Far-right influencers and political operatives have begun circulating doctored images, false claims about Carney’s parenting, and outright fabrications suggesting that Carney is part of a "globalist elite conspiracy" to push "radical gender ideology."
This is no different from the tactics used in the United States, where the far-right has repeatedly manufactured moral panics around LGBTQ+ issues to mobilize their base.
With the Conservative Party cratering in the polls, desperation has set in.
Key figures within POILIEVRE’S ’s TEAM, including MELISSA LANTSMAN, have started amplifying the false narratives, retweeting dubious sources, and dog-whistling to far-right networks.
The strategy is simple:
lean into the disinformation, give it legitimacy, and let the right-wing media ecosystem spread it further.
This mirrors the Trump model—weaponizing conspiracy theories, laundering them through pseudo-legitimate sources, and forcing mainstream media to "both sides" the debate.
Poilievre’s Conservatives aren’t just passively benefiting from this campaign but actively engaged in it.
Mark Carney represents everything the global far-right fears:
a competent,
widely respected,
centrist leader
who can appeal to moderates, progressives, and even disillusioned conservatives.
His potential rise to power threatens not just Pierre Poilievre’s aspirations but the broader authoritarian project that Trump, Putin, and their allies are pushing worldwide.
Carney’s lead in the polls signals a rejection of the extremist playbook that Poilievre and his backers have embraced.
This is why they are pulling out all the stops—
attacking him,
his family, and
his integrity
in a desperate bid to prevent his political ascension.
This campaign against Carney isn’t an isolated event; it’s part of a larger war on democracy.
The same forces that propelled
Brexit,
Trump’s Big Lie, and
Russia’s disinformation warfare
are now being deployed in Canada.
The objective is clear: undermine trust in institutions, delegitimize strong leaders, and create enough chaos to keep authoritarian-friendly politicians in power.
The question now is:
Will Canadians see through the lies?
Will mainstream media resist the onslaught of disinformation, or will they fall into the trap of amplifying it under the guise of "covering both sides"?
The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the battle for truth has never been more urgent.
I've marked this post Public so it can be shared.
https://deanblundell.substack.com/
* Media guy, content provider, dog whisperer, Canadian raconteur, muckraker.
Wikipedia: Dean Blundell is a former Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime "shock jock" morning host on CFNY-FM in Toronto, Ontario, in 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL. His show on Sportsnet was cancelled in February 2017.
Dean Blundell* | Mar 17, 2025
Canadian law enforcement has issued a stark warning:
a massive, coordinated disinformation campaign is being unleashed against Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and a rising political star.
This attack isn’t random—it’s part of an orchestrated effort by Russian-affiliated networks, Trump-aligned forces, and radical right-wing operatives who see Carney as a direct threat to their authoritarian ambitions.
With Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives collapsing in the polls, the global far-right movement is going into overdrive to destroy the man poised to defeat them.
At the center of this operation is Rebel News, the Canadian far-right propaganda outlet notorious for its paid disinformation campaigns.
Known for its history of spreading conspiracy theories, Islamophobia, and climate change denial, Rebel News has now pivoted to its latest target: Mark Carney.
Their newest fabrication attempts to tie Carney to Jeffrey Epstein, using the same playbook of guilt-by-association tactics that the alt-right used against political figures like Hillary Clinton and Justin Trudeau.
Despite no legitimate evidence linking Carney to Epstein, Rebel News has churned out misleading articles, manipulated AI photos, and deceptive video content designed to plant the idea in the minds of right-wing audiences.
The purpose is clear: flood social media with the smear, rely on echo chambers to amplify it and let Poilievre’s supporters do the rest.
This is how modern disinformation works—not by proving anything, but by seeding doubt, weaponizing paranoia, and repeating the lie until it feels like truth.
Beyond targeting Carney himself, the disinformation campaign has set its sights on his family—especially his transgender son.
International media outlets aligned with Russia, Trump, and conservative religious lobby groups have begun a coordinated effort to attack Carney’s son in a bid to stir up transphobic outrage and weaponize the culture war.
Far-right influencers and political operatives have begun circulating doctored images, false claims about Carney’s parenting, and outright fabrications suggesting that Carney is part of a "globalist elite conspiracy" to push "radical gender ideology."
This is no different from the tactics used in the United States, where the far-right has repeatedly manufactured moral panics around LGBTQ+ issues to mobilize their base.
With the Conservative Party cratering in the polls, desperation has set in.
Key figures within POILIEVRE’S ’s TEAM, including MELISSA LANTSMAN, have started amplifying the false narratives, retweeting dubious sources, and dog-whistling to far-right networks.
The strategy is simple:
lean into the disinformation, give it legitimacy, and let the right-wing media ecosystem spread it further.
This mirrors the Trump model—weaponizing conspiracy theories, laundering them through pseudo-legitimate sources, and forcing mainstream media to "both sides" the debate.
Poilievre’s Conservatives aren’t just passively benefiting from this campaign but actively engaged in it.
Mark Carney represents everything the global far-right fears:
a competent,
widely respected,
centrist leader
who can appeal to moderates, progressives, and even disillusioned conservatives.
His potential rise to power threatens not just Pierre Poilievre’s aspirations but the broader authoritarian project that Trump, Putin, and their allies are pushing worldwide.
Carney’s lead in the polls signals a rejection of the extremist playbook that Poilievre and his backers have embraced.
This is why they are pulling out all the stops—
attacking him,
his family, and
his integrity
in a desperate bid to prevent his political ascension.
This campaign against Carney isn’t an isolated event; it’s part of a larger war on democracy.
The same forces that propelled
Brexit,
Trump’s Big Lie, and
Russia’s disinformation warfare
are now being deployed in Canada.
The objective is clear: undermine trust in institutions, delegitimize strong leaders, and create enough chaos to keep authoritarian-friendly politicians in power.
The question now is:
Will Canadians see through the lies?
Will mainstream media resist the onslaught of disinformation, or will they fall into the trap of amplifying it under the guise of "covering both sides"?
The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the battle for truth has never been more urgent.
I've marked this post Public so it can be shared.
https://deanblundell.substack.com/
* Media guy, content provider, dog whisperer, Canadian raconteur, muckraker.
Wikipedia: Dean Blundell is a former Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime "shock jock" morning host on CFNY-FM in Toronto, Ontario, in 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL. His show on Sportsnet was cancelled in February 2017.
164librorumamans
>163 margd:
I fear this federal election will be the one whose integrity is most at risk, adding the US to the three other foreign actors who will want to sway the outcome.
I fear this federal election will be the one whose integrity is most at risk, adding the US to the three other foreign actors who will want to sway the outcome.
This topic was continued by Trump vs Other Countries 2.
