USA – Page 229 – Blazingcatfur

What I learnt on the front line of America’s civil war games

I’m trapped in the damp, dark stairwell of a nuclear power plant with the forces of the old US government when I begin to suspect that I’ve chosen the wrong side in America’s civil war.

A few hours earlier, I joined US Special Operations forces from the East Coast as they launched an assault to reclaim the building from renegade plant workers who had formed a militia to divert energy to their local community.

Now the two sides have teamed up against a shadowy group of foreign mercenaries, but it’s an uneasy coalition, and soon the guns are drawn on us.

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 17, 2025•0•USA

Poll shows 43% of young Canadians would take American citizenship

A recent poll shows a staggering 43% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 would vote to be American if they were guaranteed citizenship and had their assets converted to US dollars.

Across all age groups, 30% of Canadians would consider voting to join the US with the same caveats.

I have to ask – Which Canadians? Trudeau’s migrants? Whoever I can’t blame them.

h/t Mauser

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 17, 2025•0•Canada, USA

Canada preparing retaliatory tariffs to unveil as soon as Trump’s inauguration day

The Trudeau government is planning a first round of counter-tariffs that could be unveiled as soon as incoming U.S. president Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday, Radio-Canada has confirmed.

The counter-tariffs would apply to $37 billion in goods that would be less harmful to the Canadian economy.

Trump has threatened to levy a 25 per cent across-the-board tariff on Canadian goods. Experts and lawmakers have warned such a move would be devastating for the Canadian economy.

The Canadian government is also preparing additional retaliatory tariffs that would cover up to $110 billion, depending on the Trump administration’s actions. Those could potentially be more damaging to the Canadian economy.

Joly threatens a trade war on CNN. At this point one has to assume our Government is sabotaging us on purpose. pic.twitter.com/v4WKuJoeQt

— Ryan Gerritsen (@ryangerritsen) January 17, 2025

Food for thought … Good thread

Premier Danielle Smith just met with Donald Trump.

And I can't remember a time when a Canadian Premier met with a U.S. President.

Something's happening behind the scenes that we aren't seeing.

Here's what's really going on… pic.twitter.com/sYeJUeKCcw

— Shaun Newman Podcast (@SNewmanPodcast) January 16, 2025

h/t Mauser and XC

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 17, 2025•0•Canada, USA

Alberta should contemplate joining the US

In a wide-ranging column covering Danielle Smith’s visit to president-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Alberta oil exports, Trump’s tariff threats, and more, Calgary-based writer Gillian Steward, a contributor to the Toronto Star, an official propaganda rag of the Liberal Party of Canada, suggested Alberta should contemplate becoming the 51st state of the USA.

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 16, 2025•0•Alberta, USA

Chris Selley: Why did it take Trump to get us to take border security seriously?

Because Donald Trump is brandishing his 7-wood at us about fentanyl and illegal migration, Canada is leasing two Black Hawk helicopters for the RCMP and putting them on border patrol, and also bolstering the fleet of border-patrolling drones. That’s an accurate assessment of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and that’s more or less how media reported it: “Canada sending Black Hawks, drones to border as the clock to pacify Trump ticks down,” was one apropos headline.

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 16, 2025•0•Canada, USA

Trump can’t end Mexico’s cartel war

Drug networks are too complex

Most residents in the town of Jerécuaro in Central Mexico were asleep when the car bomb exploded in the plaza at 5.10 am on 24 October, blowing out the windows of stores and scattering debris. But when a second car bomb went off over an hour later in the city of Acámbaro, 30 kilometres away, many residents were heading to work and school. The explosive device blew up outside a police station and injured three officers. Mexico’s recently sworn-in security minister, Omar García Harfuch, blamed the car bombs on the drug cartels fighting a turf war.

Car bombs are one of the many terrifying weapons in the arsenal of Mexico’s cartels as they battle over territory, not only to traffic and sell drugs, but to steal oil from pipelines, smuggle migrants over the US border, and extort businesses, among other crimes. They also wield weaponised drones that drop makeshift bombs unleashing shrapnel and nails. They lay landmines that kill soldiers in their Humvees as well as farmers. And they build fighting vehicles known as “monsters” that look like they are out of Mad Max, with walls of bullet-proof steel and battering rams.

by Blazingcatfur•January 17, 2025January 16, 2025•0•Mexican drug cartels, Mexico, Mexico - Failed State, President Trump, USA

Poilievre pledges to roll back capital gains tax hike, retaliate against Trump tariffs

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will soon lay out his own strategy to confront U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada as part of a broader economic agenda that, if he becomes prime minister, will include a promise to roll back the capital-gains tax increase.

Mr. Poilievre told The Globe and Mail in an interview that he believes Canada must respond with tariffs of its own to counter Mr. Trump’s promise that he’ll levy 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods.

by Blazingcatfur•January 16, 2025January 16, 2025•0•Canada, USA

Trump’s tariffs are the price Canada must pay for freeriding on defence

Canadian political leaders have reacted to Donald Trump’s tariff threat with a stubborn lack of understanding about why the U.S. president-elect keeps targeting his country’s friendly neighbour.

They still seem genuinely perplexed by Mr. Trump’s seemingly anachronistic concept of international trade, which they see as rooted in 19th-century mercantilism.

This helps explain why most of them are still expounding on the win-win virtues of Canada-U.S. free trade, despite Mr. Trump’s endless protestations to the contrary. They still seem to think that he is simply misinformed or has a shaky grasp of economics.

by Blazingcatfur•January 16, 2025January 16, 2025•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, NATO, USA

Britain’s post-imperial delusion

We can no longer rely on our American Cousins

I only salvaged a few objects from my late dad’s home when it was cleared. But these included two that could be said to bookend his era of British history. The first was a barometer, presented to a Harrington ancestor “by his colleagues at HM Customs Harwich” in 1903. The second was a 1969 edition of the collected political speeches of Enoch Powell.

The barometer stands for Britain’s seafaring heyday, at which time most vessels would have carried one. Even for a bureaucrat such as my forebear, documenting the fruits of that seaborne trade in the Customs House in Harwich, this object would have been richly symbolic of the peculiar mix of risk-taking and scientific pedantry that characterised our island’s maritime tradition.

by Blazingcatfur•January 16, 2025January 15, 2025•0•UK, USA

Carson Jerema: Liberals to Trump — we’ll destroy Canada for you

Incoming American president Donald Trump has threatened “economic force” against Canada, crippling 25 per cent tariffs on all imports, and has repeatedly said that the country should be the 51st state. In response to Trump’s threats to devastate Canada, the Liberals have responded by promising to make things worse.

by Blazingcatfur•January 14, 2025January 14, 2025•0•Canada, USA

Defense sec nominee Pete Hegseth rips ‘false’ sex assault reports in fiery exchange with Dems at high-stakes confirmation hearing

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday at a hearing to confirm his nomination.

The former Fox News personality, 44, plans to hit back at criticism over his credentials — despite admitting he is an unorthodox pick for Secretary of Defense.

by Blazingcatfur•January 14, 2025January 14, 2025•0•USA

Media Waited Days After New Orleans Attack to Pivot to ‘Islamophobia’

Much as summer follows spring and lootings follow natural disasters in major cities, media narratives about “Islamophobia” quickly follow every Muslim terrorist attack.

How long it takes varies depending on the death toll, how shocking the attack is, and what else is in the news.

by Blazingcatfur•January 14, 2025January 13, 2025•0•"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, USA

Smith threatens ‘national unity crisis’ over Ottawa’s threat to cut off Alberta oil exports to U.S.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said there would be a ‘national unity crisis’ if Ottawa attempted to stop the flow of Alberta oil and gas to the U.S. in a potential trade dispute with President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods unless Canada resolves its border security problems. On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada is not ruling out the restriction of energy exports to the U.S. as a potential countermeasure.

by Blazingcatfur•January 13, 2025January 13, 2025•0•Alberta, Canada, USA

Donald Trump’s constant talk of annexing Canada is about forming an economic union, Kevin O’Leary says

Donald Trump’s persistent talk of annexing Canada is partly bombast and means he wants an economic union, Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary says.

Mr. O’Leary, also a reality TV star, has visited the U.S. president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago residence a number of times since Mr. Trump won the 2024 presidential election, most recently with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith this past weekend.

by Blazingcatfur•January 13, 2025January 13, 2025•0•Canada, USA