27: India

How Canada Became an Enemy It’s not about trade, it’s about ego ........... while the murder of Pretti and its consquences are the most important issue for America right now, we shouldn’t let the attack on Canada slide. We are, after all, talking about a destructive rupture with a neighbor that was, until Trump returned to power, one of our closest allies and remains our second most important trading partner. And Trump and his minions are lying about the reasons for that rupture. ........... trade between the U.S. and Canada is roughly balanced, and cutting off this trade would be severely damaging to both economies ............... Trump declared both that Canada will become a “Drop Off Port” for Chinese goods to enter the U.S. market ........... China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life. ........ OK, if you think Trump really feels deep concern about Canada’s future, I have some Melania meme coins you might want to buy. As Phillips O’Brien points out, whenever Trump claims to care about other people, it’s a “tell” that he doesn’t care about the issue at all. ............ On Sunday Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary, tried to buttress Trump’s “Drop Off Point” claim: “We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S.” However, Bessent is corrupt, not ignorant; he has given up his soul but not, I think, his brain. So he has to know that what he’s saying is nonsense ............ By making a trade deal with China, Canada is somewhat reducing its dependence on the United States. ............ More importantly, this is about Trump’s ego. Although he will never admit it, Trump is obviously aware that the speech Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, gave at Davos was hailed around the world for its courage and clarity, while his own rant was widely seen as evidence of his cognitive decline. So Carney must be humiliated. ............. Gratuitously insulting foreign heads of state isn’t something you do if you’re trying to achieve policy goals, but it is what you do if your whole purpose in life is to dominate and demean everyone around you. ............. Trump is getting crazier by the day, promising vengeance on so many people and institutions that it’s unlikely that he or anyone in his administration can even keep track of his threats. Yesterday he threatened new tariffs on South Korea, another erstwhile ally. .............. If Trump does impose punitive tariffs on Canada, he will presumably do so by invoking the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, which means that his actions will clearly be illegal.

But the Supreme Court keeps enabling Trump by delaying a ruling on the legality of his tariffs.

..................... There’s no plausible explanation of this failure to act other than sheer cowardice on the part of right-wing justices. They surely know that Trump is exceeding his lawful power and that they will disgrace themselves if they say otherwise, but they are afraid to defy him. ............. Trump’s cowardly enablers are largely responsible for the abyss America has plunged into.