Thanks so much for this reasoned look at an unnecessary conflict. At this point, though, Trump does not operate from a transactional standpoint on trade but a xenophobic one. Name a country that he DOES want to fairly do business with. His racism has spilled out over the edges and expanded to hatred of everyone not named Donald Trump.
It was easiest to start close to home, as he did in alienating Mexico and now our most reliable trading partner, Canada. It has nothing to do with trade and everything to do with xenophobic-driven humiliation. When you're as insecure as the poor little rich boy, everyone must be crushed in order to elevate yourself. What's funny is: that doesn't actually work. He's the same guy. You can't escape your failure, Donald.
Hey KKG, I was still formulating my comment in my head when I started reading your comment. You took the words right uut of my mouth and I cannot believe how much we are on the same wavelength! Great job, thank you.
It's funny, isn't it? Really glad to know you. Yep, none of these "trade" decisions are made to improve trade relations; quite the opposite. This is how he functions. Say you're doing one thing and do the opposite, then call everyone a liar who calls bullshit. That's fun for him and all, but it really serves no purpose and wastes brain cells and taxpayer money. Do you have children? Because I'm really glad I don't! Mister is throwing away money left and right that is really their nest egg.
I am really glad to know you, too. As they say, great minds think alike.
Yes, I have one son, he's 58 already. He had two sons, but the older one died from a burst brain aneurysm at 16 in 2010 and the younger one is going to be 29 soon. It doesn't look like he'll ever have kids, because he really suffered from the loss of his older brother. We all really miss him, he was such a gentle soul.
Its kind of you to share that. I learn so much from commenters, including how other people deal with what life hands out. Many of us have lifelong sorrows, so I can feel for your family. For me, the sorrow was my dad's loss of country after emigrating to America from Cuba in the 1950s. That he could never go home to see his relatives after the 1959 revolution and that the US has never made peace with this close neighbor has always hurt, and every time Trump threatens this poverty-stricken nation, the wound reopens.
But we find ways to lessen the hurt. I started a correspondence with my Cuban family whom I never met, back in the 1990s. I got to know them long-distance, and my involvement caused my dad to pick up the phone and speak to his brother in Havana after 30 years of silence. Keeping your grandson's memory alive is a way to channel that pain. Thanks, AB.
The orange convicted felon is a true dickhead and bully in what he does with Cuba. That nation is no danger to the US or anyone else. He does it just because he can and it's another way to show his cruelty. It makes me so incredible mad to see his actions making the people of Cuba suffer needlessly.
I am glad your dad has been able to speak to his family after all that time.
To Knock Knowck and Ark. Blue: you both have great empathy. But we're being ruled now by a despot who seems to have not an ounce of empathy or concern for a single other human being. I fear there is no reaching him.
You're right, DW, there's no reaching him, so we are reaching out to each other. Mister can't take away our ability to find cool people and hang out with them.
Not only am I angry, no livid, at what Trump has cost us with his stupid policies, bullying, and tantrums, I am angry with Republicans for allowing him to get away with it. It’s inexcusable because it’s clear what he’s done and continues doing to the global order and economy. Worse, he has led the world into believing he represents America. Anyone who is looking objectively can see the damage he’s done, along with his cabinet of clowns. He still doesn’t realize that it’s the American consumer who is paying the price. He’s a loser and always has been.
I'm with you, I have been at a rolling boil for 10 years, with my health and happiness suffering gravely. As you say, anyone can see what's happening. I keep blinking, hoping it will all be gone, but nope. Republicans are allowing it.
Well, it's transactional in a trumpian sense. Don the Con only knows winner-take-all, I win, you lose, types of transactions. His fragile ego and inherent sadism can accept no other kind. And he never, never does anything unless there's something in it for him. So in that sense, yes, transactional.
It so heartbreaking what this clown of a President has done to our core values. Our government is filled with people who put into action nothing but cruel goals. I fear we will never recover.
Unfortunately what this president had been able to do is precisely because of the core values which now seem to motivate us: greed, personal prosperity rather than the common good.
The oligarchs are trying to make their "values" into ours. They only value money, which doesn't care how it's used. Unfortunately, these few guys want to keep King Con's infantile rule to have immunity from laws in order to amass even more wealth.
Is it so hard for Americans to accept that their politics and society are broken and that America is no longer a country under laws? Donald Trump is a known lifelong cheat, scam artist, grifter, sexual predator and all-round bad character. He is a congenital liar and narcissist with no capacity for empathy, of known psychopathic tendencies and repeated criminal behavior. Incoherence, chaos, cruelty and corruption are his way of governing as he continually seeks to make billions in office, punish critics and enemies, destroy national monuments and parks, debauch the writing and teaching of history, trample on basic rights and freedoms, and place his name on everything. It is lunacy to expect truth, decency, fairness, or justice from a demented would-be strongman, with a crew of incompetent and corrupt opportunists as his cabinet, a cowardly Repubican Party, and a corrupt and ideological Supreme Court majority. America's greatness has passed, its military is weakened, the vast majority of Americans must tighten their belts while a very few wealthy men and corporations make their huge fortunes ever greater and buy Trump and other politicians. Cranks and crazies rule, society has broken into social media silos of private realities and fantasies where information is not to be trusted. Education, health, science, research all suffer, talent is driven away, terrible abuses occur daily at the hands of government thugs who treat detainees as vermin (Trump's word for immigrants). Canada is a victim which must defend itself from bullying. Even more than Canada, America is a victim of the de facto coup by its president, his continual shock and awe of brute power and criminality as the new way of running a country .
Trump’s need to dominate rather than actually accomplish anything is so evident in his dealings with other countries. We have lived in northern New England for decades and now spend winters in Arizona on the Mexican border. The tragedies of his administration for America are evident in both places. Canadians and Mexicans both shake their heads at this foolishness. American business thrives when everyone likes and trusts us. This is so basic to human relations. Is your best colleague the one you humiliate on a regular basis or the one you regularly help with anything they need. Being nice is not weakness. It’s smart.
Question: See below. Is this what conservatives and Republicans want? Is there an argument that we shouldn’t be important in the world, that we should let other countries be more important? That this would be in our best interests? I guess this is the kind of question that comes up when a political party has no platform. Every idea seems to start and end with Trump, so if we want to understand anything, our task is simply to understand Trump.
“But things are changing. U.S. significance is being diminished. NATO’s European members are putting up more money to supply Ukraine, U.S. foreign aid to developing countries is slowly being replaced, China’s trade with the world is growing, energy markets are responding to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and keeping oil and natural gas prices lower than expected. The world is learning how to get along without a vast U.S. role and presence.”
I noticed in the pic with Carney that Carney did not give that stupid thumbs up that we used to see in so many Trump photos. A thumbs down would have been appropriate.
For what it's worth, Canadian law never requires unilingual labels. It does require at least bilingual labels, instructions, warnings etc in French and English in equal-sized text on consumer products. Since NAFTA, these labels increasingly have Spanish text too.
The reason that Canada walked out of the negotiations is that the US inserted some drastically one-sided provisions - the article mentions a couple - at the last minute. Canada decided that the US was bargaining in bad faith. Trump confirmed this account a few days later, when asked about it. "It sounds like something I would do," he said.
"We were attacked", said Prime Minister Carney. Polls showed he had over 75% support in the country for his decision. That level of support is nearly inconceivable these days in Canada on just about any issue.
How lucky we are to have that border, which is not much more than a line on a map. The people on the other side are known for their civility, and their culture is similar in many ways to our own. Of course Donald Trump had to lift his leg on it, like the junk yard dog that he is. We will recover, but perhaps we will not ever be trusted.
The world would probably welcome a Democrat in the White House, although not wholly trusting. That's because another Republican could eventually come along and destroy everything the Democrat(s) did.
The big question is how this country can survive the narcissism, egotism, demagoguery and just plain stupidity of the most powerful man in the world. It's like letting a law defying, reckless driver shepherd a school bus full of children.
"If the president cannot impose his will on other people and countries — no matter the issue — he seems to view this as weakness" This is characteristic of an abuser and rapist. It's striking how the Repubs are so eager to protect them. Guardians Of Pedophiles, indeed.
While the post itself is accurate, "Ill advised" doesn't begin to describe Trump's moronic actions that are causing such long-term damage to the rule of law, democracy, science and education, public health, the environment, our economy, and international relations that they are indistinguishable from deliberate treason.
Excellent overview of Trump's actions towards our friends and allies, notably the one country that has always had our back, until now. I probably sound like a broken record, but the American people knowingly RE-elected a convicted felon, sexual abuser and probable pedophile to our most important political office. Not to mention a traitor and blatant violator of his oath to uphold the Constitution, whose response to losing the 2020 election was to instigate an insurrection! I will always blame Mitch McConnell (where the hell is he, anyway?) first and foremost for gross dereliction of his duty to this country by declining to prosecute and remove Trump permanently from our political landscape. Even so, the American people should have known what they were getting. To have expected anything more than the basest venality, narcissism, and egregious incompetence from this pathetic excuse for a human being was always nothing more than wishful thinking. It appears to me that in his entire life, Trump has never done anything that would justify any faith in him or his word.
What the world needs to see is the return of the centrist politician when they finally realize that extremism has a short shelf life. As politics and rhetoric have pushed politicians to the extremes, law and policy have become a shit show of epic proportions. They have become a way to satisfy the electorate's basest instincts instead of acting for the greater good. Carney's popularity and effectiveness demonstrate that. The right is trying to paint him as a leftist, which is problematic because his actions and policies are centrist. MAGA-style attacks fizzle out because Canadians aren't buying it and the results are showing.
As an aside, by-stander apathy is one of the factors that empowers bullies. Our citizens have sat back and been baffled by DJT’s bullying for far too long. He’s not quirky. He’s the threat within.
Thanks so much for this reasoned look at an unnecessary conflict. At this point, though, Trump does not operate from a transactional standpoint on trade but a xenophobic one. Name a country that he DOES want to fairly do business with. His racism has spilled out over the edges and expanded to hatred of everyone not named Donald Trump.
It was easiest to start close to home, as he did in alienating Mexico and now our most reliable trading partner, Canada. It has nothing to do with trade and everything to do with xenophobic-driven humiliation. When you're as insecure as the poor little rich boy, everyone must be crushed in order to elevate yourself. What's funny is: that doesn't actually work. He's the same guy. You can't escape your failure, Donald.
Hey KKG, I was still formulating my comment in my head when I started reading your comment. You took the words right uut of my mouth and I cannot believe how much we are on the same wavelength! Great job, thank you.
It's funny, isn't it? Really glad to know you. Yep, none of these "trade" decisions are made to improve trade relations; quite the opposite. This is how he functions. Say you're doing one thing and do the opposite, then call everyone a liar who calls bullshit. That's fun for him and all, but it really serves no purpose and wastes brain cells and taxpayer money. Do you have children? Because I'm really glad I don't! Mister is throwing away money left and right that is really their nest egg.
I am really glad to know you, too. As they say, great minds think alike.
Yes, I have one son, he's 58 already. He had two sons, but the older one died from a burst brain aneurysm at 16 in 2010 and the younger one is going to be 29 soon. It doesn't look like he'll ever have kids, because he really suffered from the loss of his older brother. We all really miss him, he was such a gentle soul.
Its kind of you to share that. I learn so much from commenters, including how other people deal with what life hands out. Many of us have lifelong sorrows, so I can feel for your family. For me, the sorrow was my dad's loss of country after emigrating to America from Cuba in the 1950s. That he could never go home to see his relatives after the 1959 revolution and that the US has never made peace with this close neighbor has always hurt, and every time Trump threatens this poverty-stricken nation, the wound reopens.
But we find ways to lessen the hurt. I started a correspondence with my Cuban family whom I never met, back in the 1990s. I got to know them long-distance, and my involvement caused my dad to pick up the phone and speak to his brother in Havana after 30 years of silence. Keeping your grandson's memory alive is a way to channel that pain. Thanks, AB.
The orange convicted felon is a true dickhead and bully in what he does with Cuba. That nation is no danger to the US or anyone else. He does it just because he can and it's another way to show his cruelty. It makes me so incredible mad to see his actions making the people of Cuba suffer needlessly.
I am glad your dad has been able to speak to his family after all that time.
To Knock Knowck and Ark. Blue: you both have great empathy. But we're being ruled now by a despot who seems to have not an ounce of empathy or concern for a single other human being. I fear there is no reaching him.
You're right, DW, there's no reaching him, so we are reaching out to each other. Mister can't take away our ability to find cool people and hang out with them.
Not only am I angry, no livid, at what Trump has cost us with his stupid policies, bullying, and tantrums, I am angry with Republicans for allowing him to get away with it. It’s inexcusable because it’s clear what he’s done and continues doing to the global order and economy. Worse, he has led the world into believing he represents America. Anyone who is looking objectively can see the damage he’s done, along with his cabinet of clowns. He still doesn’t realize that it’s the American consumer who is paying the price. He’s a loser and always has been.
I'm with you, I have been at a rolling boil for 10 years, with my health and happiness suffering gravely. As you say, anyone can see what's happening. I keep blinking, hoping it will all be gone, but nope. Republicans are allowing it.
Well, it's transactional in a trumpian sense. Don the Con only knows winner-take-all, I win, you lose, types of transactions. His fragile ego and inherent sadism can accept no other kind. And he never, never does anything unless there's something in it for him. So in that sense, yes, transactional.
It so heartbreaking what this clown of a President has done to our core values. Our government is filled with people who put into action nothing but cruel goals. I fear we will never recover.
Unfortunately what this president had been able to do is precisely because of the core values which now seem to motivate us: greed, personal prosperity rather than the common good.
Please don't insult clowns - their job is to amuse. :-D
The oligarchs are trying to make their "values" into ours. They only value money, which doesn't care how it's used. Unfortunately, these few guys want to keep King Con's infantile rule to have immunity from laws in order to amass even more wealth.
Is it so hard for Americans to accept that their politics and society are broken and that America is no longer a country under laws? Donald Trump is a known lifelong cheat, scam artist, grifter, sexual predator and all-round bad character. He is a congenital liar and narcissist with no capacity for empathy, of known psychopathic tendencies and repeated criminal behavior. Incoherence, chaos, cruelty and corruption are his way of governing as he continually seeks to make billions in office, punish critics and enemies, destroy national monuments and parks, debauch the writing and teaching of history, trample on basic rights and freedoms, and place his name on everything. It is lunacy to expect truth, decency, fairness, or justice from a demented would-be strongman, with a crew of incompetent and corrupt opportunists as his cabinet, a cowardly Repubican Party, and a corrupt and ideological Supreme Court majority. America's greatness has passed, its military is weakened, the vast majority of Americans must tighten their belts while a very few wealthy men and corporations make their huge fortunes ever greater and buy Trump and other politicians. Cranks and crazies rule, society has broken into social media silos of private realities and fantasies where information is not to be trusted. Education, health, science, research all suffer, talent is driven away, terrible abuses occur daily at the hands of government thugs who treat detainees as vermin (Trump's word for immigrants). Canada is a victim which must defend itself from bullying. Even more than Canada, America is a victim of the de facto coup by its president, his continual shock and awe of brute power and criminality as the new way of running a country .
Trump’s need to dominate rather than actually accomplish anything is so evident in his dealings with other countries. We have lived in northern New England for decades and now spend winters in Arizona on the Mexican border. The tragedies of his administration for America are evident in both places. Canadians and Mexicans both shake their heads at this foolishness. American business thrives when everyone likes and trusts us. This is so basic to human relations. Is your best colleague the one you humiliate on a regular basis or the one you regularly help with anything they need. Being nice is not weakness. It’s smart.
Question: See below. Is this what conservatives and Republicans want? Is there an argument that we shouldn’t be important in the world, that we should let other countries be more important? That this would be in our best interests? I guess this is the kind of question that comes up when a political party has no platform. Every idea seems to start and end with Trump, so if we want to understand anything, our task is simply to understand Trump.
“But things are changing. U.S. significance is being diminished. NATO’s European members are putting up more money to supply Ukraine, U.S. foreign aid to developing countries is slowly being replaced, China’s trade with the world is growing, energy markets are responding to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and keeping oil and natural gas prices lower than expected. The world is learning how to get along without a vast U.S. role and presence.”
I noticed in the pic with Carney that Carney did not give that stupid thumbs up that we used to see in so many Trump photos. A thumbs down would have been appropriate.
For what it's worth, Canadian law never requires unilingual labels. It does require at least bilingual labels, instructions, warnings etc in French and English in equal-sized text on consumer products. Since NAFTA, these labels increasingly have Spanish text too.
The reason that Canada walked out of the negotiations is that the US inserted some drastically one-sided provisions - the article mentions a couple - at the last minute. Canada decided that the US was bargaining in bad faith. Trump confirmed this account a few days later, when asked about it. "It sounds like something I would do," he said.
"We were attacked", said Prime Minister Carney. Polls showed he had over 75% support in the country for his decision. That level of support is nearly inconceivable these days in Canada on just about any issue.
How lucky we are to have that border, which is not much more than a line on a map. The people on the other side are known for their civility, and their culture is similar in many ways to our own. Of course Donald Trump had to lift his leg on it, like the junk yard dog that he is. We will recover, but perhaps we will not ever be trusted.
The world would probably welcome a Democrat in the White House, although not wholly trusting. That's because another Republican could eventually come along and destroy everything the Democrat(s) did.
The big question is how this country can survive the narcissism, egotism, demagoguery and just plain stupidity of the most powerful man in the world. It's like letting a law defying, reckless driver shepherd a school bus full of children.
"If the president cannot impose his will on other people and countries — no matter the issue — he seems to view this as weakness" This is characteristic of an abuser and rapist. It's striking how the Repubs are so eager to protect them. Guardians Of Pedophiles, indeed.
While the post itself is accurate, "Ill advised" doesn't begin to describe Trump's moronic actions that are causing such long-term damage to the rule of law, democracy, science and education, public health, the environment, our economy, and international relations that they are indistinguishable from deliberate treason.
A perfectly accurate way to call it what it is. It’s just like a divorce proceeding. It will take a while to get back into their good graces.
Excellent overview of Trump's actions towards our friends and allies, notably the one country that has always had our back, until now. I probably sound like a broken record, but the American people knowingly RE-elected a convicted felon, sexual abuser and probable pedophile to our most important political office. Not to mention a traitor and blatant violator of his oath to uphold the Constitution, whose response to losing the 2020 election was to instigate an insurrection! I will always blame Mitch McConnell (where the hell is he, anyway?) first and foremost for gross dereliction of his duty to this country by declining to prosecute and remove Trump permanently from our political landscape. Even so, the American people should have known what they were getting. To have expected anything more than the basest venality, narcissism, and egregious incompetence from this pathetic excuse for a human being was always nothing more than wishful thinking. It appears to me that in his entire life, Trump has never done anything that would justify any faith in him or his word.
What the world needs to see is the return of the centrist politician when they finally realize that extremism has a short shelf life. As politics and rhetoric have pushed politicians to the extremes, law and policy have become a shit show of epic proportions. They have become a way to satisfy the electorate's basest instincts instead of acting for the greater good. Carney's popularity and effectiveness demonstrate that. The right is trying to paint him as a leftist, which is problematic because his actions and policies are centrist. MAGA-style attacks fizzle out because Canadians aren't buying it and the results are showing.
As an aside, by-stander apathy is one of the factors that empowers bullies. Our citizens have sat back and been baffled by DJT’s bullying for far too long. He’s not quirky. He’s the threat within.