The Tarriff Hype.

pgs

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"The name "Ontario" is derived from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) word "oniatarí:io," which means "lake of shining waters," and it predates European settlement in the region. The exact date of the original naming is not specified, but it has been in use since before the 17th century."

The name Ontario predates Canada
So how about historicAl figures being cancelled , names are always changing and evolving .
 

Ron in Regina

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So how about historicAl figures being cancelled , names are always changing and evolving .
Are you in favour of that? Just curious…The federal government is replacing its counter-tariffs on seafood with 50 per cent levies on a series of other American goods, according to Finance Minister Frankie Bubbles office. Newly added to Canada’s list of counter-tariffs include:

Wood charcoal;

Printed matter, including printed pictures or photographs;

Articles of plaster or of compositions based on plaster, including boards, sheets and tiles;

Materials used in the conveyance or packing of goods, including bottles, flasks, jars and pots;

And copper wire.

…& no, I am not in favour of Canadian tariffs on American goods, though I do respect boycotting Products when possible, so Canadians themselves can vote with their wallets.
Ironically, all Trump branded merchandise is free from reciprocal Canadian tariffs because…apparently none of it is made in America.
 

petros

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I wonder if this.is personal? Carney was running the Bank of Canada in 2008 when the derivatives and subprime scam hit.

Canadian Banks armed with a CAD worth $1.15 USD and super low Carney bank of Canada interest rate swooped in and bought banks and real-estate for pennies on a superior CAD

Trump didn't fair well.

**Yes, Donald Trump reported large business losses around 2008–2009 tied to the broader economic fallout from the financial crisis (often linked to complex mortgage-related derivatives and the housing/credit markets), but these were primarily from his real estate and casino operations—not from direct personal trading or investments in derivatives.**

According to New York Times reporting on his tax records:

- He declared more than $1 billion in losses for 2008 and 2009, largely related to the final failure of his Atlantic City casino investments (Trump Entertainment Resorts faced ongoing problems and filed for bankruptcy in early 2009).
- Other sources describe total core business losses in the range of roughly $1.4 billion across those two years.
- He used these losses (under tax rules allowing carrybacks/carryforwards and refunds in some cases) to claim a roughly $72.9 million federal income tax refund of taxes paid in prior years (mainly 2005–2007, during peak *Apprentice* earnings). He paid no federal income tax in 2008.

Key problem areas during the crisis included:

- **Chicago Trump International Hotel & Tower**: Construction finished amid the downturn with many residences unsold. He had large construction loans (hundreds of millions, with a personal guarantee on a portion from Deutsche Bank). He sought extensions, then sued the lenders (claiming the crisis was a “force majeure”/act of God that should excuse payment and seeking damages), while the bank countersued. Debt restructuring and later forgiveness/write-downs occurred; some forgiven debt was reported as income but offset by other losses.
- Atlantic City casinos continued their long pattern of poor performance and high debt, culminating in another bankruptcy filing.
- Broader real estate and licensing deals were hit by the recession (slower sales, empty commercial space, etc.).

Trump was not a major player in derivatives trading or structured products like the big Wall Street firms, hedge funds, or banks that took direct hits from CDOs, credit default swaps, or related instruments. Public records and reporting from the period show no evidence of significant personal losses from derivatives speculation. His businesses were exposed to the real-economy effects of the credit crunch and recession (tighter lending, falling property values/demand, reduced travel/gambling).

He also generated substantial income during these years from *The Apprentice*, related licensing, and branding deals (tens of millions annually in that period), which helped offset some pressures. Forbes estimates of his net worth showed a dip around the crisis years before later recovery as the economy improved. He has publicly said he tends to do better in downturns by finding opportunities, though contemporaneous reporting indicates he was primarily focused on managing debt and distressed properties rather than making large opportunistic gains from the crisis itself.

In short, the crisis contributed to (and amplified) real operating and valuation losses in his core businesses that he reported on his taxes, but these were not losses from trading or holding the derivatives that were central to the Wall Street meltdown. Tax rules allowed him to turn those reported losses into significant refunds of prior taxes paid.
 
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Ron in Regina

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…& Yet it was Carney that swooped in at Trumps request and brokered the Sweetheart deal between Qatar and Jared Kushner when he got in over his head with a real estate deal at 666 5th Ave. Carney is on both sides of the fence here. Brookfield Asset Management later reached a deal in 2018 to rescue the property by purchasing a 99-year ground lease and paying rent upfront.
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Investigations by journalists and inquiries from lawmakers like Senator Ron Wyden highlighted that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund (the Qatar Investment Authority) was a major investor in Brookfield Property Partners. Brookfield and Qatari officials maintained that the sovereign wealth fund had no direct involvement in or prior knowledge of the 666 Fifth Avenue transaction, and representatives denied any quid pro quo, then recently Qatar gifted Trump “Qatar Force One” not to the US government, but to the Trump presidential library so Trump gets to keep it after America gets to pay for all the upgrades to it. Balance in the universe?
(YouTube & Take a look inside Trump’s Boeing 747 Jet That Qatar Gifted)
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So…how much of what’s playing out in the media for us rubes is just game show showmanship smoke and mirrors?
 

spaminator

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White House propaganda backfires after goose outlasts eagle attack
'The goose fought back and came out of that, and survived the day,' said photographer Mervyn Sequeira

Author of the article:Bryan Passifiume
Published Aug 27, 2026 • 2 minute read
Image tweeted on Wednesday by the White House
Image tweeted on Wednesday by the White House Photo by screenshot /x.com

OTTAWA — The Donald Trump White House employed a little avian propaganda to flex on social media this week, but the image they chose doesn’t tell the whole story.


On Wednesday, a White House official posted an image to its X account of an American eagle standing atop a Canada Goose on a frozen lake, an attempt at commentary at the ongoing trade war the U.S. president is waging against Canada.

But the image, part of a series of photographs taken by photographer Mervyn Sequeira last year in Burlington, doesn’t depict how that encounter turned out.

“It was a 20 minute fight, the eagle kept repeatedly attacking,” Sequeira told CBC News in a March 2025 interview.

“The goose was hissing and pecking the best it could, defending itself.”





Eagle eventually tires and abandons fight
As the battle wore on, Sequeira said the two birds grew more and more tired.

“There were times when it seemed hopeless for the goose, the goose was under the eagle, I thought it was over,” he said.

“The goose fought back and came out of that, and survived the day.”

The eagle, clearly frustrated, eventually flew away, leaving the goose with ruffled feathers but otherwise intact.


Tensions between Canada and U.S. grow
The image was posted as a quote tweet to a previous post made by the White House, proclaiming that President Trump was “ending Canada’s free ride.”

In his latest flex against America’s northern neighbour, Trump on Thursday signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America.

That comes on the heels of the United States — using Canada’s supply management policies in the dairy industry, automotive quotas and individual provincial bans on the sale of U.S. alcohol as justification — enacted 50% tariffs on $28 billion in Canadian goods.

That prompted Ottawa to enact dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs to match the U.S. measures, which go into effect on Sept. 8.

Despite both Canada and the U.S. saying late last week that a deal had been reached in principle, the talks unravelled after American officials allegedly introduced a slew of eleventh-hour demands, ones that Prime Minister Mark Carney warned would severely impact key Canadian industries.

Among these last-minute additions were passages restricting Ottawa’s ability to negotiate independent trade deals with third-party nations, alongside demands for concessions on Canadian cultural and French-language policies, as well as streaming regulations.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

X: @bryanpassifiume
 
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Ron in Regina

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What was never on the table was a zero-tariff deal, according to three senior Canadian officials.That is something the prime minister first acknowledged last summer but never forcefully persuaded Canadians to accept. All along, he insisted that U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods were illegal and unjustified violations of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade (CUSMA), and that "no deal is better than a bad deal."

Trump has used several laws to impose tariffs on Canada and other allies, striking bilateral deals to reduce the duties only in exchange for major concessions and investment promises. Most Canadian exports were exempt from many tariffs if they complied with CUSMA rules, but Trump's so-called sectoral tariffs on "strategic" sectors hammered autos, steel, aluminum and lumber, and allowed no exemptions for Canada. Nor would his most recent tariffs, an unprecedented use of a 1930s trade law Herbert Hoover-style.
In the latest round of talks, the U.S. position was clear: "The United States has not done a deal with any country in the world whereby the U.S. pays tariffs going into a country," said one Canadian official. "That's just not in the cards.”

"They won't even talk to you if you start with that position, so you have to start out accepting that you're going to pay tariffs going to the United States, and U.S. exporters are not going to pay tariffs coming into your country."
The pitch to Canada in the recently collapsed trade talks was the same as Mr. Trump made last year to the Europeans, Japanese and others: Accept higher tariffs on your manufacturers and don’t retaliate, or we’ll hit you with even higher tariffs. We’re going to block some of your exports, but you can’t block any of our exports. We punch. You keep your hands down. We take. You give. Or else.
Herbert Hoover and Donald Trump share striking similarities in their business backgrounds, nationalist trade policies, and initial downplaying of severe economic crises. Both presidents used high tariffs to protect American industries from foreign competition.

Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which raised import duties. Trump enacted wide-ranging tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, and goods from China during his term. Economists often criticize both actions for worsening global trade tensions, so Trump himself then pulled out and dusted off the same century old Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act as his other attempts at imposing Tariffs where mostly found to be illegal by America’s own courts.

Both leaders faced massive economic shocks soon after or during their time in office. Hoover faced the start of the Great Depression in 1929. Trump faced the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, then as the “no new wars” came into his second term, he decided to declare military and/or economic war on pretty much everybody.

Both men initially tried to calm the public by claiming the crisis would be short-lived. Hoover stated that prosperity was "just around the corner” and Trump? Well, yeah.
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Many blamed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is influential with Trump and has jurisdiction over the so-called Section 232 tariffs applied to Canadian autos, steel, aluminum and lumber in the name of U.S. national security. Lutnick, who has long been involved in the back and forth over tariffs, showed up at the negotiations being led by Greer in Washington on Monday, Aug. 17.
The Canadian side described Greer as a professional negotiator who acted in good faith and believed a fair deal was at hand. But several sources said that Lutnick — who had urged Trump to stall the opening the Gordie Howe International Bridge for a better deal, and had said "car assembly is going to be in America" — pushed Greer to take a much harder line on autos and steel, and to offer no more compromises.
 

Ron in Regina

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A new proposal by President Donald Trump to open a 90-day, tariff-free quota of up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef for grinding, ⁠aimed at boosting supply and lowering ground beef prices in the U.S. claiming the imported meat will be sold at 25% below current market prices…
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…which has not made American cattle ranchers very happy. The administration has not named the companies or countries providing the beef or explaining how the retail-level price drop will be enforced. The policy shift has drawn steep criticism from both Republican lawmakers and rancher associations, such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
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Support for Trump and Republicans in general in turn from rural and agricultural voting blocks has fallen sharply since last year. Global turmoil from tariffs and the increased costs in diesel fuel and fertilizer among other things. Farm bankruptcies have risen sharply from 2025 to 2026. Trade disputes have disrupted markets for soy beans and corn among other agricultural commodities further exasperating the issue.
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Something or somebody needs to be scapegoated:
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Apparently part of the answer is to rename Lake Ontario (but only for US government entities) to Lake America, and the other portion of the solution is to allow U.S. Beef Ranchers to bypass the USDA inspection process? Earlier this week, Trump said on the Glenn Beck program that he would look into whether there are too many beef processing plant regulations.
Under current federal law, farmers and ranchers are already legally permitted to slaughter livestock they raise for their own household consumption, employees, and nonpaying guests. Selling that meat commercially—especially across state lines—requires passing sanitation and safety regulations overseen by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Republican lawmakers have warned in recent days that “flooding” stores with imports will hit US ranchers, suggesting that the move is a short-term solution that will hinder cattle farmers from building out their herd, amid a 75-year low due to drought conditions and the high cost of fertilizer and diesel fuel for some reason.🙄
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“For years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to food processing companies. “There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I?
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So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly.”

The USDA does not have the staff or resources to dispatch federal inspectors to millions of individual private ranches if self-processing for commercial sale is widely permitted anyway, so… as the Commercial packing plants are processing the imported beef, ranchers can figure it out for themselves…& if something goes wrong, then they can always blame Canada.😁
(YouTube & Trump’s Agriculture Secretary ADMITS she doesn’t know where the U.S. is importing beef from)
(YouTube & Secretary of Agriculture admits she doesn’t know where imported beef comes from)
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When reporters asked President Trump which countries are part of the deal, he declined to answer, stating only that he had "a few countries" in mind. Economic experts and industry groups “question” whether that much discounted beef is realistically available or will achieve the promised price cuts.
 

pgs

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A new proposal by President Donald Trump to open a 90-day, tariff-free quota of up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef for grinding, ⁠aimed at boosting supply and lowering ground beef prices in the U.S. claiming the imported meat will be sold at 25% below current market prices…
View attachment 35508
…which has not made American cattle ranchers very happy. The administration has not named the companies or countries providing the beef or explaining how the retail-level price drop will be enforced. The policy shift has drawn steep criticism from both Republican lawmakers and rancher associations, such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
View attachment 35504
Support for Trump and Republicans in general in turn from rural and agricultural voting blocks has fallen sharply since last year. Global turmoil from tariffs and the increased costs in diesel fuel and fertilizer among other things. Farm bankruptcies have risen sharply from 2025 to 2026. Trade disputes have disrupted markets for soy beans and corn among other agricultural commodities further exasperating the issue.
View attachment 35506
Something or somebody needs to be scapegoated:
View attachment 35499
Apparently part of the answer is to rename Lake Ontario (but only for US government entities) to Lake America, and the other portion of the solution is to allow U.S. Beef Ranchers to bypass the USDA inspection process? Earlier this week, Trump said on the Glenn Beck program that he would look into whether there are too many beef processing plant regulations.
Under current federal law, farmers and ranchers are already legally permitted to slaughter livestock they raise for their own household consumption, employees, and nonpaying guests. Selling that meat commercially—especially across state lines—requires passing sanitation and safety regulations overseen by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Republican lawmakers have warned in recent days that “flooding” stores with imports will hit US ranchers, suggesting that the move is a short-term solution that will hinder cattle farmers from building out their herd, amid a 75-year low due to drought conditions and the high cost of fertilizer and diesel fuel for some reason.🙄
View attachment 35500
“For years I have heard that they have had a tremendous problem with the Big Processors, who many say are a nasty Monopoly,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to food processing companies. “There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I?
View attachment 35501
So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly.”

The USDA does not have the staff or resources to dispatch federal inspectors to millions of individual private ranches if self-processing for commercial sale is widely permitted anyway, so… as the Commercial packing plants are processing the imported beef, ranchers can figure it out for themselves…& if something goes wrong, then they can always blame Canada.😁
(YouTube & Trump’s Agriculture Secretary ADMITS she doesn’t know where the U.S. is importing beef from)
(YouTube & Secretary of Agriculture admits she doesn’t know where imported beef comes from)
View attachment 35507
When reporters asked President Trump which countries are part of the deal, he declined to answer, stating only that he had "a few countries" in mind. Economic experts and industry groups “question” whether that much discounted beef is realistically available or will achieve the promised price cuts.
Mean while my brought home a nice piece of New Zealand beef for supper tonight .Look at how cheap it is .
 

Ron in Regina

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Mean while my brought home a nice piece of New Zealand beef for supper tonight .Look at how cheap it is .
Awesome. Brought into Canada, through already in place arrangements with New Zealand, and it would’ve gone through Canadian inspection on the way in, and inspection in New Zealand before it left etc…right?
The USDA does not have the staff or resources to dispatch federal inspectors to millions of individual private ranches if self-processing for commercial sale is widely permitted anyway, so… as the Commercial packing plants are processing the imported beef, ranchers can figure it out for themselves…
These are two different things. Apples and oranges.
When reporters asked President Trump which countries are part of the deal, he declined to answer, stating only that he had "a few countries" in mind. Economic experts and industry groups “question” whether that much discounted beef is realistically available or will achieve the promised price cuts.
(YouTube & USDA recalls 30,000 pounds of imported beef)

Trump is announcing that because he’s going to import 300,000 tons of beef from somewhere that even his agricultural secretary doesn’t know where from…which is going to tie up packing plants in the US in this 90 day period, then US ranchers can butcher their own beef without having to have it USDA inspected and then be able to sell it commercially across state lines. Where does that beef go? One of the steps will be missing here.
 

Taxslave2

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And Canada’s heavy crude typically trades at a discount (call it the Friends discount?) to U.S. benchmark oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
This was turdOWE's gift to the US. By banning pipelines to either coast, oil producing provinces were forced to accept a lower rate for quality product. It was also his way of ensuring that the west does not gain financial and political power.
 

Taxslave2

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I’m not sure how official that really is, outside of Trumps MAGA-Stan with their cartographer in chief.
View attachment 35481
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" is official only for the U.S. federal government and does not have any international recognition. I’m still waiting on the renaming Lake Michigan into Lake Epstein.
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Trump, speaking in the Oval Office after signing the order, took the opportunity to once again criticize Canada’s trade policies and leadership but insisted he loves the country (?) and that renaming Lake Ontario was not about sending a message.🙄 Lake Ontario appeared on maps more than a century before the U.S. declared independence and long before there was a province called Ontario, but it’s probably just a coincidence.
Well, legally all US printed marine charts have to rename it lake Amerika. I believe this will also apply to all US flagged marine traffic in the lake. Or at least that portion that is US territory.