USA

Good Days for Trumpian Politics

It was barely a month ago when TV watchers across the globe saw a show in which new US president Donald Trump treated visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of those voodoo dolls made for pushing needles into, thus dodging a curse.

After the show, TV talking heads speculated that, having come to the White House dressed as a rock star rather than a statesman, Zelensky had angered Trump and thus deserved what he got.

Last week, however, Trump hosted another young man dressed as a rock star rather than a statesman, this time with obvious warmth and decorum.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

Maher: Environmental Laws Have Helped China Dominate Rare Earth Market

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that one reason why China has control over the global rare earth minerals market is because zoning and environmental laws have made it too difficult for America to mine for rare earth minerals itself.

Watch Carney on this file, my bet is that if elected he will help ensure China maintains its dominance by feeding the “environmentalist” efforts to halt rare earths mining in Canada.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", "Environmentalists", Canada, USA

Canada PM Mark Carney ramps up anti-US rhetoric: ‘We must react with crushing force’

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has amped up the anti-US rhetoric since swooping in to replace Justin Trudeau at the helm of the Liberal Party, saying this week the Great White North doesn’t need the US.

Carney said he’s looking to diversify trade partnerships with like-minded countries and that Canada stands to gain “far more than Donald Trump can ever take away” — a change in tone from Trudeau, who tried to get Trump to back off on tariffs by calling it “a very dumb thing to do.”

“We must react with a crushing force,” Carney said during a leaders debate in Montreal Wednesday, repeatedly calling the trade war “the most important crisis of our lives.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Trump is demanding universities change policies or face defunding. Would Poilievre do the same?

U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening to cancel funding for some universities unless they accede to his demands to change ideological policy, similar to a pledge Pierre Poilievre has made for Canadian post-secondary schools.

But so far, the Conservative leader has been sparse on details of exactly what kind of action he might take.

Trump’s demands, which have sparked condemnation about interference in academic freedom, made headlines this week after the White House said it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion US in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University.

Trump is simply refusing to fund whacko academics propagating whacko ideas.

That’s not a threat to academic integrity it’s common sense.

The whackos remain free to be whackos just not on the public dime but of course Carney’s CBC paints this as a conservative attack on academic freedom.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Conservative Party, Election 2025, USA

The Silver Lining in Trump’s Tariff Chaos

Behind all the drama of President Donald Trump’s tariffs lies the hope that they serve some clear purpose for American and global trade. But Trump’s signature inscrutability makes it hard to discern what that purpose is—or whether one even exists.

Either way, his actions threaten to unravel the global trading system that has been in place for the past 80 years. That unraveling would bring economic and financial pain—but also potential upside, given that the current system is ultimately unsustainable.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Liberation Day", Canada, USA

Canada has the critical minerals Donald Trump wants. So what should we do with them?

An ongoing trade war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s hunger for critical minerals have brought Canada’s rich mineral deposits into the spotlight, with federal and provincial politicians promising to accelerate natural resource projects.

Interest in the country’s critical minerals surged after Trump started musing about annexing Canada, experts say, and grew as the president’s global trade war intensified.

Surprise China! Here’s some good background on why Canada’s rare earth minerals remain in the ground.

‘You don’t control your destiny’: Why Canada’s rare earth deposits are staying in the ground

Somewhere on the outskirts of Montreal, Kiril Mugerman, chief executive of Geomega Resources Inc., aims to build a recycling plant that can produce rare earth oxides — the obscure set of elements that recently emerged as a flash point in the U.S.-China trade war.

Article content
Turning to recycling marks an about-face from the original game plan for his company, which spent millions of dollars trying to prove it could mine rare earths from a patch of land in northern Quebec.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Van Hollen Backtracks As El Salvador Stunt Backfires Spectacularly

Senator Van Hollen meets with MS 13 gang member in El Salvador

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is frantically backpedaling after his ill-conceived El Salvador publicity stunt blew up in his face. The Maryland Democrat, who initially trumpeted his mission to “rescue” a deported MS-13 gang member, is now desperately trying to rewrite the script of his adventure gone wrong.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, WTF?

Pentagon Review of Close Combat Training Standards Is Long Overdue

Ten years have passed since the Department of Defense initiated a social experiment with women in the military. Pentagon officials promised that female trainees headed for previously all-male combat arms units would have to meet the exact same standards as men.  Has the experiment played out as promised?

We are about to find out. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s March 30 Memorandum calls for a 60-day review to achieve high, uncompromised standards in combat arms units such as the infantry, Special Operations, and other occupations with extraordinary physical demands. 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMilitaria, USA

US ready to abandon Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress, says Marco Rubio

The US will abandon its efforts “within days” to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine unless there are clear signs a settlement can be reached, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said, as Kyiv says it has signed a memorandum with the US over a controversial minerals deal.

Speaking in Paris on Friday after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Donald Trump was still interested in a deal. But he added that the US president had many other priorities around the world and was willing to move on unless there were signs of progress.

Rubio’s comments are the clearest signal yet that the White House is ready to walk away from its diplomatic attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Last month Ukraine agreed unconditionally to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia", USA

Video shows Ice agents smashing car window to detain asylum seeker

A Massachusetts family is demanding answers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), complaining its agents smashed a car window with a large hammer and detained a man whom they say had applied for asylum.

A lawyer for the family also claims agents were not looking for the man in the car, Juan Francisco Mendez, when they grabbed him on Monday in New Bedford while he was driving to a dental appointment. He is now believed to have been taken into Ice detention.

The lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, told the Associated Press in an interview that the agents claimed they were looking for another man with a different name before they dragged Mendez and his wife out of the car.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

Attorney General Releases Police Records Detailing Abrego Garcia’s Criminal History

On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi released police records showing Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the “Maryland man” who was deported to his native El Salvador by the Trump administration, was in fact a member of MS-13 and was in the United States illegally.

Contrary to the assertions of Garcia’s lawyers (and many in the corporate press) that there’s no evidence he’s a member of MS-13 and that the cops just made it all up, the police affidavit from Garcia’s arrest in March 2019 shows that he was arrested with multiple other confirmed MS-13 gang members, was wearing clothing associated with the gang, and was identified by a confidential police informant as an MS-13 gang member with a rank and a moniker.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

China, Mexico, Canada Flagged in $1.4 Billion Fentanyl Trade by U.S. Financial Watchdog

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has identified $1.4 billion in fentanyl-linked suspicious transactions, naming China, Mexico, Canada, and India as key foreign touchpoints in the global production and laundering network. The analysis, based on 1,246 Bank Secrecy Act filings submitted in 2024, tracks financial activity spanning chemical purchases, trafficking logistics, and international money laundering operations.

h/t handy n handsome

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Canada, Crime, Mexico, USA

Leavitt Holds Powerful White House Press Briefing on MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Leaves the Media Stunned

There are some things that just leave you speechless, and what happened in the White House Press Room today is one of them. And it didn’t just leave me speechless — it left the reporter pool stunned, too.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that she’d be holding an impromptu press briefing with a special guest on Wednesday afternoon, and if you missed it, it was a doozy.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, USA

Trump Waved Off Israeli Strike After Divisions Emerged in His Administration

Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions.

Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran’s ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023", USA