Let's go to Banff, Jasper, and Yolo! (Because YOLO!). Seriously. I've had enough of traveling to majestic nature in Red State political hellscapes, their voters actively destroying what brings millions to see those majestic, nature-y things. (Grateful I went to Big Bend in 2010. No plan to go back to those sortsa realms any time soon.)
I have an idea that Atrios is on to something with Trump's continuous tariff threats that drive the stock market down for a bit, allowing for deep pocket investors to buy on the dip, then withdraws the tariff threats, let's the stock market creep back up and then the deep pocket investors sell on the tip.
Buy on the dip, sell on the tip. It's the opposite idea of 'pump and dump', but works pretty good. If you're a deep pocket savvy investor with inside knowledge.
This is not Trump's idea - one or more of his evil minions have concocted this scheme - but he's glad to get the money.
Newsweek: “Russian Markets Surge Amid Reports Trump Set To Ease Sanctions”
BBC: “US stock markets fall amid trade war fears”
It’s clear that Donald Trump doesn’t work for the American people.
Make no mistake. What is happening right now is Putin’s retribution for America and NATO sanctioning Russia and providing aid to Ukraine. These things are not happening by accident or coincidence.
Let's not forget...deliberately crashing the economy is important to a number of the supporters of this maladministration. It not only causes pain presumably to the minorities they hate (at least so they think) but it also allows the wealthy to buy up assets cheap from desperate people. Remember, any time an American suffers is a good opportunity or profit and/or control.
This is also a favorite thing Americans love to do: give Republicans many years to destroy things, then give Democrats two, maybe sometimes four years to reverse generational damage.
This sort of thing was unthinkable to me as a kid. But alas this kind of thing happens because people prioritize their privilege, prejudices and yes...sometimes Internet clout. And in the end, this whole omnishambles is going to be swept under the rug in two years because Democrats need to be perfect...Republicans only need excuses.
The Dem establishment has to go. What we need is a party that (1) recognizes the GOP as an evil force that must be destroyed and treats them as such (no bipartisanship, no appealing to their better selves, call them what they are) (2) can unite around basic broad principles and (3) knows how to talk to normal people who don’t follow all this closely and need the elevator pitch. And it goes without saying that they would use every lever of their power, including PR, to achieve to goals and destroy the GOP.
The current crop is not up to it, and the fact that they wither if their candidate isnt “perfect” is an example of this. They’re like McClellan refusing to go to battle until every condition was perfect, rather than Grant who fought hard and smart with what he had.
I mean, the Democratic rank-and-file also has to share in that then because they definitely will cut people loose for optics. But you know, now is the time for the Internet faves that get the clicks to shoot their shot. Though I will say I am AOC over Jasmine Crockett because I'm tired of seeing talented Black women left twisting in the wind and shoved off a glass cliff. AOC is more of the Internet favorite so let's see what she does.
A lot of people (falsely, I maintain) believe the GOP can be destroyed. It can't because the important thing people ignore is that the GOP is the representative of those who have always had rights in America. And that conveys LARGE institutional advantages and deference. You don't get an official immunity ruling in your favor if you have a Democratic president. You don't get judges to ignore the law and not enforce rulings or conflict of interest if you have a Democratic president. And of course because of the wide swaths of unreconstructed land you have fewer Dems in safe seats who can do things like this. If AOC were in, say, the Southern Tier districts of New York she wouldn't be able to do her activity in Congress (and I would be surprised if the racists there would elect her in the first place).
And finally, I see the brickbats out for Jefferies, Pelosi and Schumer...even Connolly. I'm sitting that out because Americans decided they should be irrelevant by giving them even less power despite all their pleas...so honestly I don't even care. And some are even saying we need a Tea Party (ignoring that it's astroturf from billionaires). There IS a viable anti-Democratic establishment weapon and it's the rightwing media human centipede. You only need to tap into it. Each of those three can be dispatched in the same way that Democrats got rid of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. All you need are sustained whisper campaigns that are meant to imply wrongdoing on their part...even salacious and those can take off. All of them are up for election and are easy prey.
GOP can be destroyed in its current form if is reduced to a rump party of crazies. There’s always a demand for a Conservative Party but in its current form the GOP is authoritarian, cultish and reality-deprived. No reason a party like that should be able to regularly win majorities nationally.
I think Democrats could do better nationally and box out the GOP, but it requires very different leadership and a fresh approach to politics, policy and communication. As it is now, it can only hope to take power, briefly, after the GOP does massive damage to the country. And even then, sometimes!
Yeah, I can’t engage with the defeatist position that the GOP can’t be destroyed because white people are collectively racist, etc. I mean, liberals were talking about their new permanent majority in 2012! Liberals were scoffing at the idea that *any* Republican could win in 2016. No way the Blue Wall falls or a Republican wins Florida again.
So, I have to push back at Democrats who exhibit what I call a failure of imagination. It’s like the GOP is making billion dollar superhero movies and Democrats are sullenly thinking, “Oh well, no one will see a film with a guy who wears a cape.”
Yep. It also obscures that THIS current Trumpy GOP is outside the bounds of normal. You don’t have to love Reagan-Bush’s GOP to recognize that Trump’s party is uniquely threatening to our democratic and legal system. And a civilization we want to live in should not tolerate having a fascist party so powerful it can actually run the country.
Yes I’m very tired of the hypocrisy of the Democratic “purity test”.
I hope the Dems step up their filibustering and opposition so that everyone can see that we’re the party of freedom fighters. And I hope the next Dem regime (fingers crossed) doesn’t hesitate to reform term limits, enforce laws, and get money out of politics so that this can’t happen again.
We don’t have time to wait around for the mid-terms. We need a strong Resistance party, NOW. The Dems who attended that shitshow last night should have stood up and walked out with Al Green. Instead, all you see is Jeffries, et. al sitting behind him, shifting uncomfortably in their seats and murmuring amongst themselves.
Our party is failing us. The Democratic party is performing the deck-chair rearrangement while the Titanic sinks. I guess that’s so that, when we’re all good and sunk, they can still claim they went high when the Repubs went low. Their fecklessness and cowardice are only assisting King Donny and the MAGAts’ torpedoing of our democracy. They’re not built for this moment.
Dems need their own Tea Party movement. A powerful wing of partisans to put the scare into weak-willed officeholders, so they either get with the program or get replaced.
Well, somebody better be doing SOMETHING. Again, we don’t have time to wait two years for the cowardly donkeys to wake the fuck up. This has to start TODAY. I heard Michael Fanone say last night that at this point, perhaps the party needs to be led by the American people, rather than vice-versa. They are clearly incapable of leading a parade, let alone a political party.
Yep. I think it’s going to have to come from outside the party, grass roots or otherwise, because the anger is swelling and it either gets channeled or something awful will happen to make things worse.
My advice to Canada is to seek membership in the EU (Mexico too). The USCMA (basically NAFTA under Trump rebranding) is dead because we are not a stable or honorable trading partner. We are a nation of dishonor, no longer willing to honor any commitments or stick to any agreements. Accept it, you must function in a world without us.
And when Trump reverses course on this, tell him no deal unless he publicly admits he’s backing down. Otherwise he keeps playing this game (and your own voters will blame you for backing down if that’s how it’s framed). There will be pain but it’s inevitable now. And don’t worry about harming us anti-Trump Americans—we don’t blame you, we know who did this, and we all have to feel this if we are to do anything about it.
And know that Trump just made millions of us prouder of Canada than any Canadian ever could. You’re already standing up to him more than our own institutions ever did.
Er, as a Canuckistanian, got a couple of points to mention...
Our trade links with the US are deeply intertwined and not easily severed. Just dropping the US and joining the EU is a simplified solution that Orange Fuckface would think is genius.
We are each other's largest trading partners. Our trading and travelling corridors are oriented north south to the US rather than east-west across our country. The bulk of our population is within 200 miles (325 KM) of the US border. It is easier to truck or rail ship from Western Canada to the Pacific Northwest and also Toronto-Montreal to the Eastern US seaboard than from Alberta to Ontario. The highways, rail links, pipelines and power lines are all set up in this orientation as well.
All this is performative bullshit theatre so they can play the markets.
However we're finding a newfound sense of unity amidst our squabbling up here based on that threat that's pulling the country together in a way we haven't ever seen. The 'Buy Canadian' movement has taken off and major retailers are devoting space to it. Our rancorous provincial governments are all realizing that this is a bigger threat than scoring points against the Feds and even our Temu off-brand Greg Abbot Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is forced to publicly support the PM... I'm sure she's seething about that, but hey!
My personal belief is that all this performative shit and country threatening being done with Elon and Trump is covering the wholesale looting of the US into their pockets... like Hans Gruber in Die Hard telling the police that they're terrorists who want jailed dissidents freed (I read about him in Time Magazine) when all they're doing is a bank heist on the building.
He wants to declare victory and present it as Canada backing down. But if Canada agrees to lift its tariffs their own voters will turn on the government for being weak, and this just encourages Trump to pull it again.
Stay strong—make America learn the cost of electing trash. We earned this.
Canada - and Canadians - will not agree to lift the tariffs unless Trump goes first. It's honestly a weird thing, but Trump has made Canada more patriotic than I've seen in years.
Any kind of "Buy Canadian" program would normally fall completely flat in this country. We just aren't comfortable with that kind of outward display of jingoistic patriotism.
But he changed the game. And also has had an impact on provincial and federal elections in a way he wouldn't want, because he's a pompous ass and can't imagine that people up here just fucking hate him.
My point exactly. Alberta's premier - who has regularly sparred with Trudeau and has threatened to ignore certain federal mandates - came out in support of fighting back with tariffs.
The fact that she publicly supported the Liberal federal government is a MAJOR change. For our American friends, imagine if Gavin Newsome publicly supported Trump's illegal plan to end birthright citizenship. It's that level of "WTF?"
Ah yes, Danny-girl, our wanna-be MAGA Premier... who was sucking up to Trump, bashing Trudeau with ('we need diplomacy, not counter tariffs!) and flew to Roach-A-Lago last month, only to now say (eyes wide, credulous look) 'Trump's not dealing in good faith!!!'
Typical trump move - create crisis (whether he realizes that what he's done will create a crisis is debatable), sees his numbers drop (because he doesn't care about others, but he cares about his ratings), "solves" the crisis by backtracking, and claims victory. If the MSM called out his BS, instead of cheerleading him, he wouldn't have been elected again. Stephen is absolutely right to call out those enabling him.
"Canadians are also more likely to avoid “red” states..."
Smart move for anyone these days but that was something I did pretty much my whole life, even before they were known as "red states."
Let's go to Banff, Jasper, and Yolo! (Because YOLO!). Seriously. I've had enough of traveling to majestic nature in Red State political hellscapes, their voters actively destroying what brings millions to see those majestic, nature-y things. (Grateful I went to Big Bend in 2010. No plan to go back to those sortsa realms any time soon.)
Banff, Jasper, and Yolo are also high on my list! So many great spots up north.
I have an idea that Atrios is on to something with Trump's continuous tariff threats that drive the stock market down for a bit, allowing for deep pocket investors to buy on the dip, then withdraws the tariff threats, let's the stock market creep back up and then the deep pocket investors sell on the tip.
Buy on the dip, sell on the tip. It's the opposite idea of 'pump and dump', but works pretty good. If you're a deep pocket savvy investor with inside knowledge.
This is not Trump's idea - one or more of his evil minions have concocted this scheme - but he's glad to get the money.
https://www.eschatonblog.com/2025/03/stock-manipulation.html
a petition for Schumer and Jeffries to hand off to people willing to fight
https://chng.it/cdnTNdFhMw
Couple headlines.
Newsweek: “Russian Markets Surge Amid Reports Trump Set To Ease Sanctions”
BBC: “US stock markets fall amid trade war fears”
It’s clear that Donald Trump doesn’t work for the American people.
Make no mistake. What is happening right now is Putin’s retribution for America and NATO sanctioning Russia and providing aid to Ukraine. These things are not happening by accident or coincidence.
America First!
We’re watching our country fail so tragically; from humiliating our country on a global scale to screwing us all over.
I don’t know if I can even hear all the lies spewed by this mad man who so many people who thought this was a good idea.
God help us all.
Didn’t the Mad King rescind the tariffs already? It’s like they’re trying to “govern” by trial balloon.
Let's not forget...deliberately crashing the economy is important to a number of the supporters of this maladministration. It not only causes pain presumably to the minorities they hate (at least so they think) but it also allows the wealthy to buy up assets cheap from desperate people. Remember, any time an American suffers is a good opportunity or profit and/or control.
This is also a favorite thing Americans love to do: give Republicans many years to destroy things, then give Democrats two, maybe sometimes four years to reverse generational damage.
This sort of thing was unthinkable to me as a kid. But alas this kind of thing happens because people prioritize their privilege, prejudices and yes...sometimes Internet clout. And in the end, this whole omnishambles is going to be swept under the rug in two years because Democrats need to be perfect...Republicans only need excuses.
The Dem establishment has to go. What we need is a party that (1) recognizes the GOP as an evil force that must be destroyed and treats them as such (no bipartisanship, no appealing to their better selves, call them what they are) (2) can unite around basic broad principles and (3) knows how to talk to normal people who don’t follow all this closely and need the elevator pitch. And it goes without saying that they would use every lever of their power, including PR, to achieve to goals and destroy the GOP.
The current crop is not up to it, and the fact that they wither if their candidate isnt “perfect” is an example of this. They’re like McClellan refusing to go to battle until every condition was perfect, rather than Grant who fought hard and smart with what he had.
I mean, the Democratic rank-and-file also has to share in that then because they definitely will cut people loose for optics. But you know, now is the time for the Internet faves that get the clicks to shoot their shot. Though I will say I am AOC over Jasmine Crockett because I'm tired of seeing talented Black women left twisting in the wind and shoved off a glass cliff. AOC is more of the Internet favorite so let's see what she does.
A lot of people (falsely, I maintain) believe the GOP can be destroyed. It can't because the important thing people ignore is that the GOP is the representative of those who have always had rights in America. And that conveys LARGE institutional advantages and deference. You don't get an official immunity ruling in your favor if you have a Democratic president. You don't get judges to ignore the law and not enforce rulings or conflict of interest if you have a Democratic president. And of course because of the wide swaths of unreconstructed land you have fewer Dems in safe seats who can do things like this. If AOC were in, say, the Southern Tier districts of New York she wouldn't be able to do her activity in Congress (and I would be surprised if the racists there would elect her in the first place).
And finally, I see the brickbats out for Jefferies, Pelosi and Schumer...even Connolly. I'm sitting that out because Americans decided they should be irrelevant by giving them even less power despite all their pleas...so honestly I don't even care. And some are even saying we need a Tea Party (ignoring that it's astroturf from billionaires). There IS a viable anti-Democratic establishment weapon and it's the rightwing media human centipede. You only need to tap into it. Each of those three can be dispatched in the same way that Democrats got rid of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. All you need are sustained whisper campaigns that are meant to imply wrongdoing on their part...even salacious and those can take off. All of them are up for election and are easy prey.
GOP can be destroyed in its current form if is reduced to a rump party of crazies. There’s always a demand for a Conservative Party but in its current form the GOP is authoritarian, cultish and reality-deprived. No reason a party like that should be able to regularly win majorities nationally.
I think Democrats could do better nationally and box out the GOP, but it requires very different leadership and a fresh approach to politics, policy and communication. As it is now, it can only hope to take power, briefly, after the GOP does massive damage to the country. And even then, sometimes!
Yeah, I can’t engage with the defeatist position that the GOP can’t be destroyed because white people are collectively racist, etc. I mean, liberals were talking about their new permanent majority in 2012! Liberals were scoffing at the idea that *any* Republican could win in 2016. No way the Blue Wall falls or a Republican wins Florida again.
So, I have to push back at Democrats who exhibit what I call a failure of imagination. It’s like the GOP is making billion dollar superhero movies and Democrats are sullenly thinking, “Oh well, no one will see a film with a guy who wears a cape.”
Yep. It also obscures that THIS current Trumpy GOP is outside the bounds of normal. You don’t have to love Reagan-Bush’s GOP to recognize that Trump’s party is uniquely threatening to our democratic and legal system. And a civilization we want to live in should not tolerate having a fascist party so powerful it can actually run the country.
Yes I’m very tired of the hypocrisy of the Democratic “purity test”.
I hope the Dems step up their filibustering and opposition so that everyone can see that we’re the party of freedom fighters. And I hope the next Dem regime (fingers crossed) doesn’t hesitate to reform term limits, enforce laws, and get money out of politics so that this can’t happen again.
We don’t have time to wait around for the mid-terms. We need a strong Resistance party, NOW. The Dems who attended that shitshow last night should have stood up and walked out with Al Green. Instead, all you see is Jeffries, et. al sitting behind him, shifting uncomfortably in their seats and murmuring amongst themselves.
Our party is failing us. The Democratic party is performing the deck-chair rearrangement while the Titanic sinks. I guess that’s so that, when we’re all good and sunk, they can still claim they went high when the Repubs went low. Their fecklessness and cowardice are only assisting King Donny and the MAGAts’ torpedoing of our democracy. They’re not built for this moment.
Dems need their own Tea Party movement. A powerful wing of partisans to put the scare into weak-willed officeholders, so they either get with the program or get replaced.
Well, somebody better be doing SOMETHING. Again, we don’t have time to wait two years for the cowardly donkeys to wake the fuck up. This has to start TODAY. I heard Michael Fanone say last night that at this point, perhaps the party needs to be led by the American people, rather than vice-versa. They are clearly incapable of leading a parade, let alone a political party.
Yep. I think it’s going to have to come from outside the party, grass roots or otherwise, because the anger is swelling and it either gets channeled or something awful will happen to make things worse.
inside the party, outside the party, who gives a shit. It’s just US, now. That’s all that's left.
Excellent Seth. No notes.
I'm currently planning a weekend to Montreal in April, there's a fabulous Syrian restaurant there I'm really wanting to return to.
Canada is great and only about 3 miles away.....
My advice to Canada is to seek membership in the EU (Mexico too). The USCMA (basically NAFTA under Trump rebranding) is dead because we are not a stable or honorable trading partner. We are a nation of dishonor, no longer willing to honor any commitments or stick to any agreements. Accept it, you must function in a world without us.
And when Trump reverses course on this, tell him no deal unless he publicly admits he’s backing down. Otherwise he keeps playing this game (and your own voters will blame you for backing down if that’s how it’s framed). There will be pain but it’s inevitable now. And don’t worry about harming us anti-Trump Americans—we don’t blame you, we know who did this, and we all have to feel this if we are to do anything about it.
And know that Trump just made millions of us prouder of Canada than any Canadian ever could. You’re already standing up to him more than our own institutions ever did.
Er, as a Canuckistanian, got a couple of points to mention...
Our trade links with the US are deeply intertwined and not easily severed. Just dropping the US and joining the EU is a simplified solution that Orange Fuckface would think is genius.
We are each other's largest trading partners. Our trading and travelling corridors are oriented north south to the US rather than east-west across our country. The bulk of our population is within 200 miles (325 KM) of the US border. It is easier to truck or rail ship from Western Canada to the Pacific Northwest and also Toronto-Montreal to the Eastern US seaboard than from Alberta to Ontario. The highways, rail links, pipelines and power lines are all set up in this orientation as well.
All this is performative bullshit theatre so they can play the markets.
Yes, but Canada might seriously worry about an unstable and unreliable governing party that is more in line with Russia than other European allies
Absolutely agreed...
However we're finding a newfound sense of unity amidst our squabbling up here based on that threat that's pulling the country together in a way we haven't ever seen. The 'Buy Canadian' movement has taken off and major retailers are devoting space to it. Our rancorous provincial governments are all realizing that this is a bigger threat than scoring points against the Feds and even our Temu off-brand Greg Abbot Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is forced to publicly support the PM... I'm sure she's seething about that, but hey!
My personal belief is that all this performative shit and country threatening being done with Elon and Trump is covering the wholesale looting of the US into their pockets... like Hans Gruber in Die Hard telling the police that they're terrorists who want jailed dissidents freed (I read about him in Time Magazine) when all they're doing is a bank heist on the building.
also, your last sentence is curious... Trump has made you prouder of Canada than any Canadian? Shurely you mean Trudeau...
I've never seen A Bronx Tale. What a moving scene.
As for the rest... things are moving quickly. Trump has already said he might drop the tariffs. I have no idea what comes next.
The DeNiro character is a striking Everyman in the film, not something I usually associate with him. I find it compelling.
I liked how the film made him flawed too, he was the one who opposed his son dating a black girl while the mobster was fine with it.
The meditations on race in the film are done very well.
He wants to declare victory and present it as Canada backing down. But if Canada agrees to lift its tariffs their own voters will turn on the government for being weak, and this just encourages Trump to pull it again.
Stay strong—make America learn the cost of electing trash. We earned this.
Canada - and Canadians - will not agree to lift the tariffs unless Trump goes first. It's honestly a weird thing, but Trump has made Canada more patriotic than I've seen in years.
Any kind of "Buy Canadian" program would normally fall completely flat in this country. We just aren't comfortable with that kind of outward display of jingoistic patriotism.
But he changed the game. And also has had an impact on provincial and federal elections in a way he wouldn't want, because he's a pompous ass and can't imagine that people up here just fucking hate him.
the Québécois are singing 'O Canada' and wearing Maple Leaf shirts...
The Québécois!! The ones who were a hair's breadth away from separating from the country in the 1990s.
My point exactly. Alberta's premier - who has regularly sparred with Trudeau and has threatened to ignore certain federal mandates - came out in support of fighting back with tariffs.
The fact that she publicly supported the Liberal federal government is a MAJOR change. For our American friends, imagine if Gavin Newsome publicly supported Trump's illegal plan to end birthright citizenship. It's that level of "WTF?"
Ah yes, Danny-girl, our wanna-be MAGA Premier... who was sucking up to Trump, bashing Trudeau with ('we need diplomacy, not counter tariffs!) and flew to Roach-A-Lago last month, only to now say (eyes wide, credulous look) 'Trump's not dealing in good faith!!!'
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/trump-tariffs-day-one-danielle-smith-analysis-1.7474718
A day late and a dollar short, but she listened to the oil and gas money in Alberta saying "this is bad, and you need to say so"
yep. I'm willing to take the hit if it shortens our stay in this terrible moment
Typical trump move - create crisis (whether he realizes that what he's done will create a crisis is debatable), sees his numbers drop (because he doesn't care about others, but he cares about his ratings), "solves" the crisis by backtracking, and claims victory. If the MSM called out his BS, instead of cheerleading him, he wouldn't have been elected again. Stephen is absolutely right to call out those enabling him.