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#tradewar

34 posts25 participants0 posts today
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“We tried again in 1812. Thomas Jefferson, the original Republican, described the acquisition of Canada as “a mere matter of marching.” This was incorrect. The United States launched eight or nine invasions of #Canada during the War of 1812, winning only one fruitless battle. The rest of the time, it got walloped.”

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

The Atlantic · Invading Canada Is Not AdvisableBy Eliot A. Cohen

#TradeWar Retaliation Will Hit #Trump Voters Hardest

As Trump imposes #tariffs on products from countries around the world, foreign govts are answering back w/tariffs of their own.

#China has targeted corn farmers & carmakers. #Canada has put tariffs on poultry plants & A/C manufacturers, while #Europe will hit American steel mills & slaughter houses.

#economy #USpol
nytimes.com/interactive/2025/0

The New York Times · Maps: Where Trump Voter Jobs Will Be Hit by TariffsBy Lazaro Gamio
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I don't want to go *too* far in praising this article, because there are still a large number of problems with the way it minimizes the danger of Trump literally annexing Canada, but its existence demonstrates that at least one US media outlet (NBC) understands that Trump is not joking, or playing the angles here, and is in fact dead serious about taking over Canada:

nbcnews.com/politics/donald-tr

Trump's quest to conquer Canada is confusing everyone

"Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump first mentioned his love for Canadians, including his “many friends” like hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Then he riffed about how Canada shouldn’t exist as a sovereign country before getting to what has increasingly become a fixation: wholesale annexation of Canada as a U.S. state.

"Canada only works as a state," Trump said Thursday. "We don’t need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible country, visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S. Just a straight, artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many many decades ago. Makes no sense. It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state."

"But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion?" Trump continued, adding, "And again, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now, there will be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry."

As I said at the top of this post, this is by no means a perfect article; NBC spends far too much ink focusing on Trump's personal animus towards Justin Trudeau (who is no longer even the Canadian Prime Minister) and allowing named GOP officials to pretend they're confused by Trump's annexation plan even as they enact his orders to try and make that plan a reality. Crucially however, this report *does* make it abundantly clear that Trump is dead serious and his minions know full well that he's not joking:

"Trump has been unapologetic in his quest to conquer the Canadians — an effort he said in January would be conducted by “economic force.” The result has been a disintegration of the relationship between the U.S. and one of its closest allies, and a stock market plunge over fears of ever-increasing escalation of a trade war. Both Canadian officials and Republicans initially thought the president was merely joking, ribbing Trudeau — a longtime foil — after they met at Mar-a-Lago in November. It was after that visit that Trump first publicly floated the notion of absorbing Canada. Few think he’s joking now, and the Canadians have stopped laughing.

A source with direct knowledge of the discussions told NBC News that Trump is heavily focused on Canada in conversations with aides, who believe he is completely serious about making the country the 51st state — even with Trudeau out of power and a new prime minister in place."

Unfortunately, and despite this refreshing frankness, I have some problems with the sloppy journalism and credulous naivety with which NBC states that nobody knows where Trump is getting the idea to annex Canada from, including Republicans in his government. The fact is that MAGA-connected fascist propagandists like Candice Owens (and others) have been advocating for taking over, or even invading Canada since at least 2021-2022 for a variety of reasons; including natural resources, water rights, climate imperialism (although they don't use that term,) and even to protect their ideological brethren in the larger Canadian fascist movement from legal repercussions for their own slow-moving coup attempt in Canada, the so-called "Trucker Convoy." I genuinely have no idea if US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has any clue what Trump is thinking, but fascist media personalities in Trump's orbit certainly do, and this regime has already shown a willingness to outsource official policy from raving nazi dipshits on YouTube, so I don't think "where Trump is getting this idea from" is the kind of puzzle you need Scotland Yard's finest detectives to solve.

NBC News · Trump's quest to conquer Canada is confusing everyoneBy Allan Smith

Friday thoughts.

1) Canada was historically divided until Trump started making invady-noises.

2) We are now experiencing a rally around the flag like nothing for generations. We have found a common enemy.

3) America is incredibly divided to the point where opposition to Trump seems paralyzed.

4) Is the solution: for Canada to invade Point Roberts by force*

This is an unserious Friday thought. You're welcome.
#tradewar #patriotism #trump #canPoli #cdnpoli

*force of Moose 🫎

Learned something new today! In that hour and a half or so between the time that Prime Minister Trudeau resigned and Prime Minister Carney was sworn in, Canada's leader was.... drumroll: 🥁

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Richard Wagner!
Also known as Boring Santa Claus.

OK... that last part is not true, he is definitely not Santa Claus, and just cuz he might be boring, doesn't mean he's not smart and respectful. 😜

Oh, and there was also a talisman delivered to Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Anita Anand. It's the Seal of Canada.

Then they sang OH CANADA and left to play political hockey!🇨🇦🏒

PLAY BALL

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Nice to see a black Canadian, Arielle Kayabaga sworn in as Minister Democratic Institutions and Government House Leader.

She is 34, Refugee of civil war in Burundi

She will not have much to do unfortunately, as the expectation is the House will not sit before the Election but this is a promotion for her from Parliamentary Secretary to Small Business.

ourcommons.ca/Members/en/11050

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Interesting to see Chrystia Freeland moved to Transport and Internal Trade. The talking heads say it is a demotion, and sure, it's not Foreign Affairs, Finance, or let alone Deputy PM, but in these times when Canada might have to completely reorganize its economy from north/south to east/west and negotiating with provinces to take down provincial barriers, Transportation and Infrastructure is going to be extremely important to get right.

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Carney smiles as he and the representative of King Charles in Canada, Governor General Mary Simon, stand for a photo.

It's pretty remarkable that he has achieved this position without *ever* being elected in any public office. That is new and historic.

Heard on the radio that it is expected Carney will go to Europe to meet leaders there *before* calling an election. So perhaps no election call next week, but it is still expected to come before Parliament returns on the 28th.