Canada, Greenland, Mexico, etc - USA Tariffs / Trade War commencing March 2025 #4

[iamshadow21]

We have to rebuild the manufacturing plants and tool equipment first. I read this will take about 10 years.

And who is going to train the skilled workers to operate them?

MOO

 

[LoveyG]

You’ll either think I’ve drunk some bizarre kool-aid or you’ll see things a little differently by the time you finish reading this. Have fun! Apologies for the length.

The economy is suddenly a hot mess. This is not happening by accident or because Trump is stupid about tariffs (he is). Follow the money. Who benefits when the economy collapses? The billionaires who can buy up failed businesses cheap. This is planned destruction of the economy, educational system, federal bureaucracy, courts, etc so an autocracy can be put in place. Trump is surrounded by people who are moving things in that direction. “Move fast and break things.”

Look at the people who are involved. Do a little digging into J.D. Vance, his mentor Peter Thiel who financed his Senate campaign and introduced him to Trump.

JD Vance owes almost everything to Peter Thiel, a pro-Trump billionaire and "New Right" ideologue - Salon.com

Peter Thiel has been supporting JD Vance since before he entered politics

www.salon.com

Their beliefs echo those of Curtis Yarvin, a philosophical force in Silicon Valley. More names…David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar. Marc Andreessen—And while Andreessen’s role in the Trump White House is unofficial, The Washington Post reported in January 2025 that the executive “has been quietly and successfully recruiting candidates for positions across Trump’s Washington.” And of course we can’t forget Elon Musk. These tech bros are all intertwined and are seeking power.

This short Time Magazine article provides an introduction and is quite unnerving.

What We Must Understand About the Dark Enlightenment Movement

The “Dark Enlightenment” movement and Curtis Yarvin have curried favor with tech executives in recent years, writes Ed Simon.

time.com

Quoting:
Yarvin has become a kind of official philosopher for tech leaders like PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Mosaic founder Marc Andreessen. Not unlike the Futurists, Yarvin advocates for replacing democracy with a kind of techno-feudal state—for the government to be run like a corporation, with the president as its “CEO.” This new system is elitist—“humans fit into dominance-submission structures” Yarvin wrote in 2008; and it’s authoritarian—“If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia,” he said in 2012. There are shades of Yarvin’s philosophy in Thiel’s 2009 essay for the Cato Institute, where he wrote “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
BBM
——————-
I know it sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, but there are a lot of smart people writing about tnis.

Rachel Maddow— Rachel Maddow sounds alarm on JD Vance's pro-dictatorship influences

'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook

In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO”

www.thenerdreich.com

We are witnessing the methodical implementation of a long-planned strategy to transform American democracy into corporate autocracy. The playbook was written in plain sight and is now being followed step by step. Some dismiss the Yarvins of the world as unhinged nuts, but that's the point. These guys, with their bizarre and dangerous ideas, have gotten very far in 2025. Just look at the news.
BBM
Yarvin pitched his vision as a fictional or unlikely scenario. Unfortunately, it now appears to be our new reality. The press's failure to connect these dots isn't just a journalistic oversight — it's a critical missed warning about the systematicdismantling of democratic governance. By the time most Americans understand what's happening, the "reboot" – the destruction of government – may already be complete.
bbm

Paul Krugman is Wrong

Why don't liberal pundits understand what's happening?

danielpinchbeck.substack.com

One of the main architects of this descent into chaos is Peter Thiel. Thiel, along with his network of billionaire fellow travelers deeply embedded in the tech and crypto world, are among the key beneficiaries of Trump-era chaos. While Trump himself seems to act impulsively and without clear vision, he is actually the perfect instrument: A battering ram opening the gates for a new elite order and the fleecing of the U.S. populace who will no longer have functional institutions to protect them from fraud or corruption. The unpredictability of Trump’s tariffs make them even more effective weapons for weakening the foundations of liberal capitalism
BBM
JMO

I don't think you're crazy. This is where my brain has been too. Personally, I think you're too smart to be crazy.

 

[iamshadow21]

Next phase of Trump’s economic agenda takes a major step forward

Senate Republicans got closer to enacting Donald Trump’s tax cut agenda and increasing the debt ceiling that could inject a small degree of certainty into financial markets roiled by the president’s tariff policies.

www.afr.com

 

[Cedars]

We have to rebuild the manufacturing plants and tool equipment first. I read this will take about 10 years.

IMO that "we" is problematic.

Trump and MAGA haven't pledged to actually build any factories.

Why didn't Elon stand with him in the Rose Garden and declare "I'm going to close all my factories around the world and rebuild them in the US!"

The government, at any level, isn't going to build any factories.

Actual people such as residents of Ohio aren't going to build them.

So who are these "we" you're talking about?

Trump et al are "hoping" that, as the result of this new approach, corporations will swarm into the US and build those factories.

There are many hopeful ideas that have failed: 'if we make drugs hard to get, they'll become expensive, so then people won't buy them', is one example.

JMO

 

[iamshadow21]

IMO that "we" is problematic.

Trump and MAGA haven't pledged to actually build any factories.

Why didn't Elon stand with him in the Rose Garden and declare "I'm going to close all my factories around the world and rebuild them in the US!"

The government, at any level, isn't going to build any factories.

Actual people such as residents of Ohio aren't going to build them.

So who are these "we" you're talking about?

Trump et al are "hoping" that, as the result of this new approach, corporations will swarm into the US and build those factories.

There are many hopeful ideas that have failed: 'if we make drugs hard to get, they'll become expensive, so then people won't buy them', is one example.

JMO

I think they think the big businesses of the world will flood to manufacture in the US so they don't have their goods tarriffed.

That's ignoring that there's no infrastructure, no trained workers, higher minimum wages, and that much of the raw materials needed would still need to be imported, and so, would be slapped with tariffs.

So, instead, the items will either be hiked in price, or the company will drop the US market. I don't see many leaving off manufacturing in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc and setting up in the US.

And you can't make something from nothing - the US can't create rare earth minerals they don't have from the ether or grow coffee or cocoa where growing coffee or cocoa is a biological impossibility.

I'm a pensioner with a learning disability who failed out of my final year of high school. I can understand these things despite being unable to do short division, something a fourth grader is able to learn. Why can I get it but the US government can't?

MOO

 

[Herat]

IMO that "we" is problematic.

Trump and MAGA haven't pledged to actually build any factories.

Why didn't Elon stand with him in the Rose Garden and declare "I'm going to close all my factories around the world and rebuild them in the US!"

The government, at any level, isn't going to build any factories.

Actual people such as residents of Ohio aren't going to build them.

So who are these "we" you're talking about?

Trump et al are "hoping" that, as the result of this new approach, corporations will swarm into the US and build those factories.

There are many hopeful ideas that have failed: 'if we make drugs hard to get, they'll become expensive, so then people won't buy them', is one example.

JMO

Yeah

It's not like we've seen him out showing support by visiting new US manufacturing plants that are being built for all those new USAnian jobs and US products, is it?

He's just back playing golf and meeting visiting Saudi princes.

 

[Herat]

IMO that "we" is problematic.

Trump and MAGA haven't pledged to actually build any factories.

Why didn't Elon stand with him in the Rose Garden and declare "I'm going to close all my factories around the world and rebuild them in the US!"

The government, at any level, isn't going to build any factories.

Actual people such as residents of Ohio aren't going to build them.

So who are these "we" you're talking about?

Trump et al are "hoping" that, as the result of this new approach, corporations will swarm into the US and build those factories.

There are many hopeful ideas that have failed: 'if we make drugs hard to get, they'll become expensive, so then people won't buy them', is one example.

JMO

Bingo, Bingo, Bingo, Bingo, Bingo, Bingo, BINGO

It's as fake as the Fentanyl crisis excuse for Emergency Executive Order priviledges.

And how is reducing ticket prices to Kid Rock concerts going to solve any of these "Emergency" problems. ?

 

[Cedars]

Yeah

It's not like we've seen him out visiting new US manufacturing plants that are being built for all those new USAnian jobs and US products, is it?

He's just back playing golf and meeting visiting Saudi princes.

And, I forgot that Trump probably doesn't want too many factories just yet, because he wants the tariff revenue to offset his planned tax cuts...

 

[otto]

I think they think the big businesses of the world will flood to manufacture in the US so they don't have their goods tarriffed.

That's ignoring that there's no infrastructure, no trained workers, higher minimum wages, and that much of the raw materials needed would still need to be imported, and so, would be slapped with tariffs.

So, instead, the items will either be hiked in price, or the company will drop the US market. I don't see many leaving off manufacturing in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc and setting up in the US.

And you can't make something from nothing - the US can't create rare earth minerals they don't have from the ether or grow coffee or cocoa where growing coffee or cocoa is a biological impossibility.

I'm a pensioner with a learning disability who failed out of my final year of high school. I can understand these things despite being unable to do short division, something a fourth grader is able to learn. Why can I get it but the US government can't?

MOO

That is exactly Trump's plan. Put a tax on imported goods until the manufacturer of those goods relocates to the USA. Then the tax stops.

Manufacturers that relocate to the USA would face numerous issues, primarily higher cost to manufacture the product. That is exact reason that the USA outsourced manufacturing in the first place: cheaper.

Someone posted here a week or so ago that Trump changed work eligibility to include 14 year olds. I think Trump expects families to send their children to work in manufacturing plants. Poor families should forget about an education when they can live off the wages of their children.

Trump has a very strange idea about him versus others. He expects other countries to lower quality standards to match those in the USA. He expects other countries to abide by his anti-woke ideology. If he wants something that another country or region has, he expects wildlife and people the to get out of the way so he can have what he wants. He sees rich people as deserving of an easy life, whereas the 99% majority should tolerate much less and be thankful.

 

[Herat]

And who is going to train the skilled workers to operate them?

MOO

And the specialized cutting and sewing equipment to make all these clothes, shoes, etc are all made in - wait for it-

They are all made in China.

 

[Herat]

That is exactly Trump's plan. Put a tax on imported goods until the manufacturer of those goods relocates to the USA. Then the tax stops.

Manufacturers that relocate to the USA would face numerous issues, primarily higher cost to manufacture the product. That is exact reason that the USA outsourced manufacturing in the first place: cheaper.

Someone posted here a week or so ago that Trump changed work eligibility to include 14 year olds. I think Trump expects families to send their children to work in manufacturing plants. Poor families should forget about an education when they can live off the wages of their children.

Trump has a very strange idea about him versus others. He expects other countries to lower quality standards to match those in the USA. He expects other countries to abide by his anti-woke ideology. If he wants something that another country or region has, he expects wildlife and people the to get out of the way so he can have what he wants. He sees rich people as deserving of an easy life, whereas the 99% majority should tolerate much less and be thankful.

The 14 year old child labor law changes are so very, peverse and strange. I find it devious, calculated, and intensely alarming.

Shouldn't we be making changes to preserve the mental health of 14 year olds, and their resistance to the drug culture? Shouldn't THAT be the priority now?

Searching (which ended up being an AI comment)
CANADA
"In Canada, the minimum age to work varies by province, but generally, children can start working at 14 years old in most provinces, though there are restrictions on the types of jobs and hours they can work, especially for those under 16"

MEXICO
In Mexico, the minimum legal age to work is 15, and employees are considered minors until they turn 18. Minors have a special set of employee benefits to protect them from burnout. Also, employers must always put minors' academic education before work."

Quite a surprise that, at least on the books, Mexico has a more stringent child labor law than the US or Canada.
Any Canadians know what jobs 14 year olds are allowed to do?

 

[iamshadow21]

The 14 year old child labor law changes are so very, peverse and strange. I find it devious, calculated, and intensely alarming.

Shouldn't we be making changes to preserve the mental health of 14 year olds, and their resistance to the drug culture? Shouldn't THAT be the priority now?

Couple that with demolishing the Department of Education.

It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots.

MOO

 

[musicaljoke]

IMO that "we" is problematic.

Trump and MAGA haven't pledged to actually build any factories.

Why didn't Elon stand with him in the Rose Garden and declare "I'm going to close all my factories around the world and rebuild them in the US!"

The government, at any level, isn't going to build any factories.

Actual people such as residents of Ohio aren't going to build them.

So who are these "we" you're talking about?

Trump et al are "hoping" that, as the result of this new approach, corporations will swarm into the US and build those factories.

There are many hopeful ideas that have failed: 'if we make drugs hard to get, they'll become expensive, so then people won't buy them', is one example.

JMO

Trump is also deporting the pool of low income wage earners. The US economy depends upon a manufacturing industry that can create cheap products that will be resold for a profit. There simply isn't a supply of workers in the US to do this. My goodness, there already isn't even a pool of workers to pick oranges.

 

[IzzyBlanche]

New warning for Canadians travelling to the USA

"The federal government has quietly updated its online travel advice to remind Canadians to "expect scrutiny" from border patrol officers if they travel to the United States.

A website with official advice for travellers heading south was updated with a paragraph about the "significant" discretion officers have when it comes to deciding who enters their country — including the power to search phones and laptops.

"U.S. authorities strictly enforce entry requirements. Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices. Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities. If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation," the website now reads.
...

Schwartz said you can refuse a search, but officers can deny you entry to the U.S. They could also seize the phone and try to unlock it themselves or detain the traveller for several hours."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-us-border-phone-search-1.7502829

This is what Republicans meant by closing our open borders, I guess.

 

[otto]

Lots of protests today! Too little, too late.

They needed to react when Canada, Greenland, immigrants, scientists, students and universities, were victimized by the USA government, but they didn't. Now, like a domino in a long chain, they are the victim, but the ball has been rolling for a couple of months and it cannot be stopped.

“I came out because we have elected a clown, and now we have a circus,” she said as cars drove past beeping their horns in support of the rally."

Anti-Trump protesters gathered at hundreds of locations nationwide

Thousands protested Trump nationwide Saturday against Musk, budget cuts, tariffs; in favor of democracy, immigrants, empathy

www.usatoday.com

 

[otto]

The 14 year old child labor law changes are so very, peverse and strange. I find it devious, calculated, and intensely alarming.

Shouldn't we be making changes to preserve the mental health of 14 year olds, and their resistance to the drug culture? Shouldn't THAT be the priority now?

Searching (which ended up being an AI comment)
CANADA
"In Canada, the minimum age to work varies by province, but generally, children can start working at 14 years old in most provinces, though there are restrictions on the types of jobs and hours they can work, especially for those under 16"

MEXICO
In Mexico, the minimum legal age to work is 15, and employees are considered minors until they turn 18. Minors have a special set of employee benefits to protect them from burnout. Also, employers must always put minors' academic education before work."

Quite a surprise that, at least on the books, Mexico has a more stringent child labor law than the US or Canada.
Any Canadians know what jobs 14 year olds are allowed to do?

Sell over-the-counter pizza slices at football and hockey games. It might be handing the slice to the customer - not sure that children are allowed to handle money.

 

[detective.moon]

Lots of protests today! Too little, too late.

They needed to react when Canada, Greenland, immigrants, scientists, students and universities, were victimized by the USA government, but they didn't. Now, like a domino in a long chain, they are the victim, but the ball has been rolling for a couple of months and it cannot be stopped.

“I came out because we have elected a clown, and now we have a circus,” she said as cars drove past beeping their horns in support of the rally."

Anti-Trump protesters gathered at hundreds of locations nationwide

Thousands protested Trump nationwide Saturday against Musk, budget cuts, tariffs; in favor of democracy, immigrants, empathy

www.usatoday.com

100.000 people on the street in boston, that’s great! i hope the protests keep growing

Thousands of demonstrators march through Boston, protesting Trump and Musk - The Boston Globe

Protests are happening across the country, including in Boston and elsewhere in New England, against policies by the Trump administration.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[otto]

This is what Republicans meant by closing our open borders, I guess.

It's now a requirement that all Canadians entering the USA consent to the USA government downloading all their data from all their electronic devices. What is the USA government going to do with all that information???

 

[IzzyBlanche]

As it happened: Donald Trump's election and first 100 days

This live page brought you coverage of the 2024 US election and Donald Trump's first 100 days (or so). If you want to read from the start, tap on the "oldest/latest" tab below.

news.sky.com

• protests against trump planned in every US state today
• netanyahu (israels PM) will be the first foreign leader to discuss the tariffs in person with trump, on monday

question to the americans in this thread, are you planning to stock up on goods and/or protest today?

I've already been stocking up on good here and there, and I was going to protest today but I came down with a nasty sinus infection.

 

[iamshadow21]

It's now a requirement that all Canadians entering the USA consent to the USA government downloading all their data from all their electronic devices. What is the USA government going to do with all that information???

Feed it into AI, probably.

MOO