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#Tariffs

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NEW EPISODE: "Cars Bad, Tariffs Worse with David Zipper"

Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico are causing chaos across the entire economy, but they’re hitting the auto industry especially hard. David Zipper joins us to discuss the effects Trump’s economic “policies” (if you can call them that) are having on one of the nation’s most important industries. This isn’t how anyone should want to win the war on cars.

thewaroncars.org/2025/03/18/ep

#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
Continued thread

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

"So what we're looking at right now in America, is waking up Monday morning and having $US3 billion ($A4.77B) worth of beef, pork and poultry no longer eligible to export to China,"

Export licences issued five years ago were meant to auto-renew, but that was not happening and it seemed to be on purpose.

Last year the United States sent 170,000 tonnes of beef to China that would need to find another market.

All of the sudden the only grain-fed beef on earth that China can buy is from Australia

#USPol #AusPol #trade #Tariffs #USA #Australia

abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/3-b

ABC News · US meat trade days away from getting 'kicked out' of ChinaBy Matt Brann

#Canada - Hudson's Bay says it will liquidate entire business if no financing can be secured

> The death knell is ringing for Canada's oldest company.

> Hudson's Bay announced late Friday evening that unless it finds a more viable path forward, it will begin liquidating its entire business as soon as next week, putting more than 9,000 jobs at risk.
cbc.ca/news/business/hudson-s- #economy #tariffs #saksfifthavenue #saks

CBCHudson's Bay says it will liquidate entire business if no financing can be secured | CBC NewsA closure of the entire business would mean job losses for 9,364 employees the company has in Canada across its Hudson's Bay stores, as well as three Saks Fifth Avenue stores and 13 Saks Off 5th locations it owns through a licensing agreement.

A Canadian artist has canceled his show, "Since 1957," which was due to open on May 2 in New York, over President Trump's annexation threats. "The United States is no longer a country that Canadians can trust, and I feel it would be unpleasant and wrong to mount a show in the U.S. at this time," Toronto-based Alan Belcher wrote on Facebook. Now, @ArtNews is wondering, is a cultural boycott brewing? This follows Canadian author Louise Penny's cancelation of the U.S. leg of her book tour.

flip.it/G_Tn.6

Artnet News · Canadian Artist Cancels U.S. Show Over Annexation Threats | Artnet NewsCanadian artist Alan Belcher has pulled out of a show at the Buffalo nonprofit Hallwalls over Trump's annexation threats.
Replied in thread

"Instead, he’s reducing the value of everyone’s life savings. And now, just in these last two weeks, the mood is changing. Independents are starting to peel away. It’s only a matter of time before a firm majority of Americans wrap their heads around reality—and maybe not much time, at that.

#Musk #Trump #destruction #FederalGovernment #firings #workers #tariffs #StockMarket #economy #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Congress #Republicans
/17

Replied in thread

"The MAGA propaganda network insisted last year that Trump was a master of economic policy, even though he kept telling us the precise ways in which he was going to wreck the economy. It got just enough people to believe that he would magically reduce the price of everything on the shelves."

~ Michael Tomasky

#Musk #Trump #destruction #FederalGovernment #firings #workers #tariffs #StockMarket #economy #billionaires #EconomicElites #TaxCuts #Congress #Republicans
/16

newsletter.tnr.com/index.php?a

newsletter.tnr.comTrump and Musk are getting their butts royally spanked in the courtsFighting Words. What got me...