Trump administration 2024-2028

[PrairieFella]

How many corporations does our government own, control, have a minority stake in, etc? Start counting here. Knock yourself out.

A total strawman and you know it.

The Canada Arts Council and the Royal Canadian Mint aren't privately traded corporations and never have been private corporations. Nor do they have any competition. Nor can the government act to prioritize them over other privste corporations to snuff competition.

 

[Brad Sallows]

A total strawman and you know it.

The Canada Arts Council and the Royal Canadian Mint aren't privately traded corporations and never have been private corporations. Nor do they have any competition. Nor can the government act to prioritize them over other privste corporations to snuff competition.

Not half an hour ago I provided a link to an article that puts some perspective on the situation. Did you bother to read it? The point is that governments take ownership for reasons of policy. It's completely uncontroversial. And the Canada Arts Council is about nothing else other than interference; there would be plenty of art and culture without it, just not so much for the highbrows who think their tastes ought to be subsidized.

There's at least one bright lining to this round of sky-is-falling wing-nuttery: it's a sign of incipient socialism, not incipient fascism.

 

[McG]

"MAGA is too communist to be fascist" is not a great endorsement or silver lining.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Meanwhile, on the socials ....

More from MSM

Trump moves to use the levers of presidential power to help his party in the 2026 midterms

President Donald Trump has made clear in recent weeks that he’s willing to use the vast powers of his office to prevent his party from losing control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

apnews.com

Trump floats holding Republican National Convention before midterm elections

President Donald Trump announced he is considering holding a national Republican convention ahead of the midterm elections in an unprecedented move.

www.foxnews.com

Hmmmm, trying to fight the headwinds (precedent of President's party losing seats @ mid-terms + less-than-optimal POTUS popularity)?

Stay tuned - as others smarter than me have said, let's see what he does vs. what he says so far.

 

[McG]

Is he proposing for a Reichsparteitag or a Zа мир без нацизма?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Is he proposing for a Reichsparteitag or a Zа мир без нацизма?

Does he know that much history in that much detail?

 

[dapaterson]

 

[The Bread Guy]

How many corporations does our government own, control, have a minority stake in, etc? Start counting here. Knock yourself out.

As someone else said, who's buying stock in Crown Corporations? I stand to be corrected, but IIRC, during the 2008-ish financial crisis, Canada and Ontario bought some GM equity to help out, and ended up selling the equity off down the road.

We'll have to wait & see what the U.S. "does" with its share of Intel, and the powers the equity gives it.

 

[Brad Sallows]

"MAGA is too communist to be fascist" is not a great endorsement or silver lining.

I don't think the people who seize every provocation as evidence of fascism, socialism, or any other-ism are endorsing anything. The silver lining is the humour they provide.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Meanwhile, on the socials ....

Stay tuned - as others smarter than me have said, let's see what he does vs. what he says so far.

What Trump says or does is entertaining, but he isn't the moving part that matters. Pay attention to Democrats. Right now, they are doubling down on SOS even more strongly than the NDP in Canada. They're stuck in a "we weren't true enough to our principles/we didn't get our message out strongly enough" cycle.

 

[Brad Sallows]

As someone else said, who's buying stock in Crown Corporations? I stand to be corrected, but IIRC, during the 2008-ish financial crisis, Canada and Ontario bought some GM equity to help out, and ended up selling the equity off down the road.

We'll have to wait & see what the U.S. "does" with its share of Intel, and the powers the equity gives it.

• "Supply-chain reality: Chips are the new oil. Ensuring domestic capacity in leading-edge fabs is a national security problem first, a textbook market-failure second. Even critics of the Intel deal are arguing policy design, not pretending the stakes don’t exist."

That should be obvious, but the author of the article thought it was important enough to stress.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The government having a vote and stake is peak state capitalism. If the US wants to be the Peoples Republic of China Peoples Republic of America thats their business but lets not pretend its normal in a free market system. Whos to say they wont use the unlimited money supply of the government to buy another 10%? 20%? Where does it stop? Whats to stop the government from prioritizing all investment and policy to favour intel at the expense of competitors since thst is in their interest now?

The cognitive dissonance surrounding this is insane. I guarantee if our government had done this first, anti-communist/conservative people would be self-immolating in protest of Comrade Carney.

Edit: clarity, forgot a point.

You can prove anything if you make up your evidence. So far the US has acquired a 10% stake in a major corporation in a major strategic industry. There isn't much point riding the Slippery Slope Express all the way to the conclusions at the bottom.

 

[The Bread Guy]

• "Supply-chain reality: Chips are the new oil. Ensuring domestic capacity in leading-edge fabs is a national security problem first, a textbook market-failure second. Even critics of the Intel deal are arguing policy design, not pretending the stakes don’t exist."

That should be obvious, but the author of the article thought it was important enough to stress.

Oh I get the why - just staying tuned to see, like I said earlier, exactly how the powers are used & if any collateral damage ensues.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Oh I get the why - just staying tuned to see, like I said earlier, exactly how the powers are used & if any collateral damage ensues.

What some critics (other than those dipping into the "Socialism!" well) are writing is that it has the appearance of negating the commitment by which Intel was supposed to build some fabs in the US - has money for fabs become money for stock? And will Congress do anything about it (noting that some Democrats will love a pretext for more muscular government investment in equities)?

 

[RangerRay]

Completely normal.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Well the President of Portugal is getting into the fray and he's not pulling any punches.

"Objectively A Soviet Asset": European Country President Hits Out At Trump​

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/objectively-a-soviet-asset-european-country-president-hits-out-at-trump-9179160

European Leader Shares A Very Alarming Take On What Trump Really Means To Russia​

European Leader Shares A Very Alarming Take On What Trump Really Means To Russia

It's much stronger language than most European heads of state have used.

ca.news.yahoo.com

Not surprising I'm not seeing this picked up by any US news outlets as of yet...

 

[Czech_pivo]

This is the news that we’ve been hoping for.
Next step is the US Supreme Court, who has said that they will fast track this in order to address is ASAP.

Trump’s tariffs on Canada, other countries are illegal: U.S. appeals court - National | Globalnews.ca

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., in a split decision, said Trump exceeded his authority as president by imposing the tariffs.

globalnews.ca

 

[daftandbarmy]

A legend in his own mind...

The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled​

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was losing patience with President Trump.

Mr. Trump had been saying — repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly — that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be.

During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr. Modi should do the same.

The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.

Mr. Trump largely brushed off Mr. Modi’s comments, but the disagreement — and Mr. Modi’s refusal to engage on the Nobel — has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr. Trump’s first term.

The dispute has played out against the backdrop of trade talks of immense importance to India and the United States, and the fallout risks pushing India closer to American adversaries in Beijing and Moscow. Mr. Modi is expected to travel to China this weekend, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen people in Washington and New Delhi, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a relationship that has far-reaching implications for both sides, with Mr. Trump eroding ties with an important partner and India alienating its biggest trading partner as it tries to keep its economy afloat.

The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled

President Trump’s repeated claims about having “solved” the India-Pakistan war infuriated Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. And that was only the beginning.

www.nytimes.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

Trump continues to recklessly discard implements of American soft power. Today, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other similar pro-democracy media funded by the U.S. for many decades were gutted.

Trump guts staff at Voice of America and other pro-democracy, US-funded media organizations

The Agency for Global Media also sent notices terminating grants to Radio Free Asia and other programming run by the agency.

fortune.com

The gutting continues ....

Trump administration moves to fire most Voice of America staff

Termination notices have been issued to more than 500 employees of VOA and its parent agency.

www.bbc.com

 

[brihard]

The gutting continues ....

Trump administration moves to fire most Voice of America staff

Termination notices have been issued to more than 500 employees of VOA and its parent agency.

www.bbc.com

Bahahahahaha. If the rest of this administration was utterly boring and normal, the fact that Kari friggin’ Lake was given any responsibility or authority whatsoever would be a majorly eyebrow-raising red flag. I forgot they did that.