USA

What’s Trump’s endgame with global tariffs? Canadian officials say they have a clearer idea

After a lengthy meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade officials on Thursday, Canadian representatives say they have a clearer understanding of the rationale behind Trump’s insistence on tariffs — not just on Canada but on the whole world.

“Tariffs are now a global policy of the United States,” said David Paterson, Ontario’s representative in Washington. “And this is a historic change to global trading patterns, and [the Americans are] very aware of that.”

This says commitment to tariffs as the new normal.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Canada reconsidering F-35 purchase amid tensions with Washington, says minister

Payment for first 16 aircraft already made

Canada is actively looking at potential alternatives to the U.S.-built F-35 stealth fighter and will hold conversations with rival aircraft makers, Defence Minister Bill Blair said late Friday, just hours after being reappointed to the post as part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet.

The remarks came one day after Portugal signalled it was planning to ditch its acquisition of the high-tech warplane.

The re-examination in this country is taking place amid the bruising political fight with the Trump administration over tariffs and threats from the American president to annex Canada by economic force.

h/t Mauser

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Canadian Forces seeks sole source deal for U.S. weapons while Trump continues attacks on Canada

Canada’s military leadership is pushing for yet another sole source deal for American equipment despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s vow to economically damage this country and eventually annex it as the 51st state.

The Canadian Forces wants the Liberal government to purchase the U.S.-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or HIMARS, according to defence industry officials.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, USA

US launches wave of air strikes on Yemen’s Houthis

The US has launched a “decisive and powerful” wave of air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, President Donald Trump has said, citing the armed group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

“Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at US aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies,” Trump wrote on his Truth social platform, adding this had cost “billions of dollars” and put lives at risk.

h/t DS

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, Yemen, Yemen - Houthi/proxy war

Lutnick on if U.S., Canada Ending Tariffs on Each Other Is Possible: We Want to Bring Jobs Back

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded to a question on if it’s possible to get to a place where the United States and Canada reciprocally end tariffs on each other by stating that “we want to bring back those jobs to America.”

Lutnick said, “Canada exists leaning on our economy. Let’s face it, cars used to be made in America. Why did Michigan’s cars move to Canada? To break out of the UAW. That’s just unfair to American workers and American union workers…

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Draft List for New Travel Ban Proposes Trump Target 43 Countries

The Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, according to officials familiar with the matter.

A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries whose citizens would be flatly barred from entering the United States. They are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, the officials said.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

We want to live in America’s 51st state: The Canadians pledging their loyalty to Trump

To many Canadians, talk of joining the United States is simple apostasy, but for some the idea is appealing

On the sunlit porch of a farmhouse in the Canadian province of Alberta, Don Casselman planted his feet, gripped a laminated document and began to read aloud.

“I hereby declare an oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all fidelity to any foreign prince,” said the former industrial electrician, facing towards a Star Spangled banner gaffer-taped to a pole.

Around his neck, Mr Casselman had thrown another American flag – and he tugged it carefully into place before pledging his loyalty to the government of the United States.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

US expels South Africa’s ambassador, saying he hates Trump

South Africa

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said South Africa’s ambassador to Washington is “no longer welcome” in the United States.

Rubio, in a post to X, also accused diplomat Ebrahim Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hated US President Donald Trump.

In his post, Rubio linked to an article from the conservative US media outlet Breitbart, which commented on remarks Rasool made Friday during a South African think tank’s webinar.

According to Breitbart, Rasool said that white supremacism was motivating Trump’s “disrespect” for the “current hegemonic order” of the world.

h/t Mauser

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inSouth Africa, USA

Some countries aren’t retaliating against Trump’s tariffs. Should Canada ‘turn the other cheek’?

Faced with tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, some countries have, so far, responded by turning the other cheek, and not retaliating with their own duties.

Canada, however, continues to hit back in the trade war with its neighbour to the south. But it also raises the question of whether Canada absorbing the blows from U.S. tariffs, while painful, might be preferable to the overall economic damage from a full-scale trade conflict.

It’s an issue, perhaps unsurprisingly, on which economists have varying views. Some say Canada has no choice but to retaliate, even if imposing tariffs on U.S. goods will increase prices for Canadians. But others suggest those moves may have little impact on the U.S.

The people who flooded Canada with cheap foreign labour to undercut worker wages are the same people who shipped your job overseas at the first opportunity under free trade agreements.

Now these same folks, who only ever have your best interests at heart, want you to believe that all tariffs anytime not just Trump’s are Satan’s handiwork.

This is why I regard our current annexation hysteria with its accompanying ready-to-assemble Ikea flat pack patriotism loyalty oath kits with a jaundiced eye.

We need a Trump.

Why Tariffs Are Good

The claim that tariffs are inherently misguided and inevitably harmful does not stand up to scrutiny, especially when it comes to U.S. trade with China

and …

Trump Is Right About Our Trading Partners Imposing Excessive Tariffs

h/t patthedog

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, USA

LYTLE: The real reason Ford backed down, the US actually doesn’t need Ontario

In 2018, I sat on a regulatory panel to assess the plans of Manitoba Hydro to build an interconnecting high tension power line into Minnesota to replace electricity from coal powered plants in the US Midwest.

The evidence presented to the panel was valuable as a fascinating lesson in Canadian history but it also identified the significant, idled power generating capabilities of the United States. This was, in fact, the business case that George Soros used to justify the purchase of a majority position in Peabody Coal, one of the largest owners of idled, coal-fired, electricity generation. I assume that, seven years later, things have not changed very much.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

The Danes and the Greenlanders: How They See Trump’s America

I am afraid that the Danes are in danger of losing their good old-fashioned judgment, especially when it comes to the U.S.A. and its people.

I am in Denmark, and the other day, I listened to a podcast from a popular Danish radio station where the guest host claimed that Donald Trump was the worst thing that could happen to the world and that Denmark should end its alliance with what he called “Trump’s U.S.A.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

U.S. ‘outlined a path’ to ease tariffs during Ford’s meeting — but the president’s dislike of Trudeau hurt relations

Amid the pain of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Premier Doug Ford sees an opening to ease the sting of a global trade war.

Ford’s meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington on Thursday provided a road map on how to proceed, sources told the Star.

… Trudeau was mentioned by the Americans as an irritant and an impediment to resolving the trade standoff, insiders said.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

CHARLEBOIS: Canada keeps losing at geopolitics, and farmers pay the price

Canada has walked itself into an unnecessary trade war with the United States’ biggest geopolitical rival, China.

The consequences are clear: new retaliatory tariffs from China are directly targeting our farmers, affecting over $3-billion worth of agrifood commodities and products.

These measures are a direct response to Canada’s decision to impose a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in October, a move designed to align with U.S. trade policy and shield the North American auto sector from low-cost competition.

h/t patthedog

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

Muslim group CAIR long linked to Hamas accused of ‘financial irregularities’ with $7 million taxpayer cash now unaccounted for

A Muslim charity with links to Hamas was awarded more than $7.2 million in taxpayer cash, which has now disappeared, according to a watchdog group.

An “immediate investigation” needs to be launched into The Council on American-Muslim Relations’ (CAIR) California chapter’s use of funds, according to the watchdog, who sent a complaint to the Department of Justice Thursday.

According to the Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN), a California-based, non-partisan advocacy group, the money was given to the chapter to help re-settle impoverished immigrants in California between 2022 and 2024.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, USA

Canada’s new PM on Trump’s 51st state talk: ‘It’s crazy’

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney shut down President Trump’s talk of Canada potentially becoming the U.S.’s 51st state, characterizing it as “crazy” and vowing the North American neighbor will remain independent.

Carney, a former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor who was sworn in as Canada’s leader on Friday, succeeding his predecessor Justin Trudeau, said Canada and the U.S. are “fundamentally different” nations and that Ottawa “expects respect from America and Trump.”

“We will never in any way, shape or form be a part of the U.S. America is not Canada,” Carney said.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, USA