[Northern Light]

Yes sir! I hereby promise that going forward I will not express any heterodox viewpoints and that I will faithfully parrot the US State Department official doctrine.

Here's the thing.......

The U.S. as a nation, in respect of foreign policy, espionage, and military adventurism has far from clean hands. All but the most blind of U.S. patriots would concede as much.

So you needn't be the parrot of their official line at any given moment.

Some of the more conspiratorial things you allege on any number of subjects do have hints of truth in them, others are more far fetched, or exaggerated or at the least can't be fully corroborated.

There's nothing wrong w/being critical of U.S. government policy or asking pertinent questions that don't even require conspiracy or suspect motivations, just matters of competence. That's all to the good.

But if the value in such questioning is to actually affect change then you need to persuade others that are not currently in agreement with your take, and don't currently consider your 'alternative facts' to be proven or a given, then you need to take
a different tack.

May I suggest first, that whatever merit you see in the various positions you spout, if you post a conspiracy a day, virtually everyone will discount every one of them. Its too much. You need to focus your efforts on things other may be open to seeing nuance in, or perhaps even changing their mind on.........

From there, try not to be so emphatic or extreme. It wrecks the ability of people to see merit in a portion of your argument. You end up tying the defensible, maybe winnable position to takes or ideas that will get virtually zero uptake; and in so doing, people toss your entire argument, not just your conclusion.

You should also consider whether the information you present, if it were to persuade someone is actionable by them. If the answer is no, then perhaps its not something worth exhausting your credibility over. Again, why change someone's mind if it can't positively affect an ongoing situation?

 

[zang]

@EBT Do you mind spreading Russian propaganda elsewhere? I hear the new and improved Twitter is the place to be for "alternative thinkers" such as yourself.

Hell, Facebook is a close second these days.

 

[nightstreak]

Goods that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term are excluded from the tariffs.

Canada’s central bank says 100% of energy exports and 95% of other exports are compliant with the trade pact, known as USMCA. The Royal Bank estimated that almost 90% of Canadian exports appear to have accessed the U.S. market duty free in April.

I wish it were that simple. I can tell you objectively that goods that are compliant are being held at the border, are being turned away without processing and/or are being charged as much as 300% in duties and/or brokerage fees. In addition, the Canadian Government advises that anything that ships via Canada Post or otherwise ends up in USPS's hands via UPS or FedEx is charged full tariffs and brokerage fees, regardless of their CUSMA status.

Entire businesses are unravelling because the intention from the Trump administration is to muck up the gears and slow things down to inflict as much pain and frustration so that Americans choose to deal with US businesses and/or Canadian businesses invest in the US and/or so that the Canadian Government bows down to Trump. Little of what is happening is legal from a Global Trade Regulations standpoint but that is to be expected by an administration run by a convicted criminal and lifelong mob boss.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I wish it were that simple. I can tell you objectively that goods that are compliant are being held at the border, are being turned away without processing and/or are being charged as much as 300% in duties and/or brokerage fees.

My Canadian-owned employer now avoids much of this mess by switching production to US firms for the US market - which is what Trump intended I suppose. For Canada and other export (mainly China and Taiwan, a little India) we remain exclusively producing here.

 

[nightstreak]

My Canadian-owned employer now avoids much of this mess by switching production to US firms for the US market - which is what Trump intended I suppose. For Canada and other export (mainly China and Taiwan, a little India) we remain exclusively producing here.

I'm aware of full companies folding because their businesses relied on decades of easy cross border trade with the US. It has become simply impossible for them to operate.

The tariffs themselves aren't the true problem, it's the introduction of a bureaucracy that is deliberately holding up imports. The real issue has turned out to be the revocation of the de minimis. Sure, the $800 exemption was probably overly generous but now everything from a $50 vacuum part to a $7.99 colouring book is being subjected to extensive paperwork and processing and associated brokerage fees before entering the United States. This is just not viable.

The biggest irony that I've found myself chuckling about lately is that the solution is the Canadian Government investing in Canada Post as our response to this mess. Convert Canada Post into our national parcel courier with pre-clearance of CUSMA compliant Canadian goods that get sorted and processed in Canada, moved into the US in bulk and then redistributed to US couriers and USPS once inside.

We'd be giving into Trump's madness by spending on the processing that the US should have spent on massively scaling up its processing capacity but we have no choice but to deal with this madman and it would be in service of saving Canadian businesses and their associated jobs. Large industrial exports into the US are getting through just fine due to their size which makes expensive brokerage viable. Canada Post could act as a collective export processor for Canadian small businesses saving both the businesses and Canada Post itself.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I'm aware of full companies folding because their businesses relied on decades of easy cross border trade with the US. It has become simply impossible for them to operate.

They were likely the same damn fools I've known. I've worked for several Canadian-owned companies in my three decades career that have relied almost exclusively on the US market. My role was often the export manager for their non-US business, and it was always a fight to get the ownership to look away from the easy pickings across the border and to consider diversifying our global business. Export is hard work though, dealing with foreign regulations, modifying your product to suit foreign tastes and oftentimes much more demanding levels of quality, and a lot of travel for building long-term personal relationships face-to-face rather than by emails. For too long, Canada has maintained a long-standing dual dependence on resource extraction (forestry, mining, agriculture and energy production) sent mainly in unfinished form to the US market, and operating subsidiary offices or plants of US-owned firms (now at risk of being recalled home). My hope is the 2020s will push Canada to go its own way, to expand to new markets for the 2030s and beyond. The US represents only about 16% of global purchasing power (PPP) but represents over 70% of Canada's exports. By comparison, the US market is only 18% of Japan's exports, 12% of both the UK and Brazil's, and only about 10% of Germany's exports. Canada needs to diversify, asap. There's a whole world out there to sell to.

 

[nightstreak]

Some guy outside the Jays game:
“F*%K Carney stickers for five bucks!”

To nobody’s surprise, this guy looks exactly what you think he looks like. Nobody, including Mark Carney, wants to f*%k him.

I hate this political era.

 

[kEiThZ]

Just don't post outright propaganda that has no basis in reality and everyone will be happy.

Works fine for me

A ban for this would be much better. They've proven they can't help themselves. A month from now the talking points will be back. Or he'll be taking about somebody else deserves getting invaded.

Note the tankie hypocrisy of how invasions are acceptable as long as they aren't from the US or American allies. Can't wait to hear about how Taiwan needs to be freed by the Chinese.

 

[narduch]

We have people on this site that claim that Israel isn't committing genocide and then want to accuse others of misinformation.