11 ms·
Good for Canada, quite a shame the EU folded so easily
by Phelinofist 1mo ago
Good for Canada, quite a shame the EU folded so easily
- linohh 1mo agoHe'll be nullifying any agreement within two or three tantrums anyway, eventually we will learn and retaliate.
- lukan 1mo agoAnd maybe the US will learn again, that a great deal is something that people can rely on?
- llm_nerd 1mo agoTrump believes everything on this planet is zero sum, and the only way you can benefit is if the other party hurts. His entire history on this planet betrays this, where he is an unreliable scumbag to everyone he has ever dealt with, to the point where the guy couldn't find vendors or a bank outside of Russia to deal with him. And then Americans said "this is the guy we should put in charge". It is a particularly interesting position when the US is trying to counter China. The only hope the US had was an alliances with other Western-style nations, but instead it has been nothing but attacks and diminishing.
- lukan 1mo ago"The only hope the US had was an alliances with other Western-style nations" Maybe Trump bets on his great relations with Putin and Kim instead.
- __s 1mo agoIf only things were zero sum stick-in-bicycle meme decision making would benefit others
- pjc50 1mo ago> It is a particularly interesting position when the US is trying to counter China. The US put countering China way behind on its priority list, below "owning the libs" and settling old scores. I am convinced that if the Iran decapitation had worked like Venezuela, which seems to have been what they expected, then Cuba would have been next.
- lukan 1mo agoAnd then greenland.
- myko 1mo agoIf the goal of a presidency was to destroy the country one could not do a better job than trump.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- soperj 1mo agoCuba doesn't have oil. The point is to prop up Putin.
- ben_w 1mo ago> The point is to prop up Putin. Attacking one of Russia's few allies and weapon suppliers is counterproductive to such a goal, even if higher oil prices also help the Russian state finances.
- llm_nerd 1mo agoThis ill-conceived, Kegsbreath-run operation depleted weapons stocks, gave enormous levels of intel on its systems (which both Russia and China are loving), burned through hundreds of billions in spend, and made Ameirca look like an impotent pathetic joke. Yes, the Iran operation 100% served Russia and China. It could not have gone better for them. And of course it helped Russia make hundreds of billions more on oil. Win win win.
- lupire 1mo agoNegative sum, not zero sum.
- sagarm 1mo agoTrump is the avatar of a segment of Americans that believe that all transactions are zero sum at best. They simultaneously believe they're "pro-capitalism." How are those two things squared? Capitalism to these people isn't about free markets, it's about privatized gains and socialized losses.
- enoint 1mo agoThe proof is trying to tell their solutions apart from socialism: - when the executive branch owns 11% of Intel. Can I get in line for them to buy 11% of my company, cash? - when “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls” can come from both Trump and Sanders, about the government manipulating consumer choices.
- inigyou 1mo agoNot "to these people". Capitalism isn't about free markets. It's about privatised gains and socialised losses. Capitalism and free markets, in fact, cannot coexist.
- k33n 1mo ago[flagged]
- llm_nerd 1mo agoWhat a bizarre comment. You seem to suffer some hysterical Trump derangement syndrome. I'm describing Trump's entire lifetime of actions, and it requires no reading of minds. He is famous for stiffing contractors and constantly changing the "terms" after other parties have delivered on their end of the bargain. It's why this rugpull barking clown grifter -- man, his act actually words on some hilariously stupid people -- failed in almost everything he ever did, and was only lifted by the lifts all boats of NY real estate. Trump is a pedophile rapist, is incredibly stupid, and by all evidence he is an utterly garbage human (the guy and his family stole from a charity. Jesus would hate that man, or anyone so vile they would support him). That he still has weird cultists like you is amazing. Like, do you guys not realize he has failed catastrophically at everything? Hey, remember when the economy was going to take off like a rocketship in the Q4 of 2025? LOL, that did not happen, and things have turned from bad to worse. Remember that the deficit would be eliminated, and hell it'll pay off the debt too! ROFL. $40 trillion. Debt rates spiralling, and things are looking dire. Now they're trying to make lemonade out of lemons and are talking up how great it'll be to no longer be the reserve currency...which, rofl. Enjoy being a fallen shithole. Cool beans, buddy. You guys are bizarre. It's like you've constructed some profoundly stupid delusion about this festering, rotten bag of shit. No one has been humiliated by Trump. We did underestimate just how many incredibly stupid, vile, hateful, racist pieces of shit live in America, and how far it has fallen.
- linohh 1mo agoNot in this administration.
- voidfunc 1mo agoNot with 50%+ of the country supporting this administration. Its the people that are the problem. These policies and politics will outcast Trump because middle Anerica and The South are filled with morons.
- bell-cot 1mo ago[flagged]
- toddmorey 1mo agoLuckily he does not enjoy anywhere close to 50% support
- jleyank 1mo agoMore bigots than morons. I’m folding American exceptionalism into bigotry along with all the usual aspects.
- fn-mote 1mo agoDisagree. Leadership matters. A different leader could take the country in a different direction - with the same voting base. Eg an actual policy of isolationism instead of instigating multiple foreign conflicts.
- hilariously 1mo agoAnd isolationism, how is that doing for any country that tried it?
- lukan 1mo agoIf you understand isolationism with consistent non intervenism, then swiss has done pretty well. If you understand it as really shutting yourself off from the outside world with literally destroying bridges - then North Korea is not doing so well.
- stevenwoo 1mo agoThe 65 percent approval rating from GOP voters right now says no, they are happy with immigration, culture war nonsense and trade chaos. Red states and rural areas would need to be targeted specifically and even then all interviews indicate those voters won’t consider choosing the other side, most of that GOP opposition will at best just not vote.
- airstrike 1mo agoThankfully 45% of people currently identify as independent so his approval among Republicans doesn't have the same impact you'd think it does. https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-politi...
- stevenwoo 1mo agoThat’s good news to hear but the analysis in that article points out that many of these are people who supported Trump the third time(possibly in a row), after the rape trial finished and all the evidence of the first Trump term - maybe can’t put them all in the same bin but independent voters in the USA are not into long term thinking from all appearances, a slight decrease in gas prices would sway them the other way.
- airstrike 1mo agoI understand how you feel I think you have to consider the lack of long term thinking is likely uniformly distributed among voters. Or said differently, if I read between the lines of what you're saying, I don't think dems are more capable of long term thinking. And even if they were, their failure modes are just as plentiful. Dems have failed to put forth a decent candidate in ages. Speaking as an independent non-voter.
- stevenwoo 1mo agoHey no love lost here for mainstream Democrats but we have a first past the post national and state systems. see independent voters polling don’t matter in the electiona since you don’t vote. /s
- oefrha 1mo agoThe guy still has like ~35% approval ratings according to every poll there is, and that’s after weekly displays of outright corruption from him and his family, and “winning” the same war dozens of times already with no end in sight. The number hardly even budged YTD. You’re telling me that this country is capable of learning?
- loloquwowndueo 1mo agoYou say it like a 35% approval rating is a good thing. It is not.
- sethammons 1mo agoThat a third or more still support him seems crazy to me.
- nilamo 1mo agoBut it's an approval rating. Of the people surveyed. Who chose to reply. A lot of extrapolations are made out of the 10 people who responded.
- rfrey 1mo agoYou do not believe in statistics as a discipline?
- nilamo 1mo agoI don't think most polling qualifies as statistics, without providing info like selection criteria or number of respondents. Otherwise we'll walk right into another situation like when Trump won an election while polling in near last place. Or maybe I want something a little more significant than "we asked around the newsroom, and 35% of fox news reporters approve of the current administration". Cool, thanks, but that's not helpful or even a useful datapoint.
- eru 1mo agoNo, not good for Canada. Free trade is optimal, even if its unilateral. The EU should abolish their tariffs and let the clowns in the US do whatever they feel like.
- Tepix 1mo agoNope, the EU should use the trade bazooka against the US.
- xdennis 1mo agoThe trade bazooka was an empty threat. This is somewhat similar to the trillion dollar coin[1]. It's a tool used for negotiations, not a real thing. If the trade bazooka was real, wasn't this the best opportunity to use it? What else could it be saved for? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion-dollar_coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillion-dollar_coin
- 8note 1mo agothe trade bazooka was made to threaten china, not the US. its just conveniently placed at the moment
- vidarh 1mo agoYou're not going to get free trade if it's unilateral, because you've then created an incentive for the other side to protect their own industries knowing you're not going to retaliate, while reaping the benefits of access to your market.
- eru 1mo agoUnilaterally not hitting you head against the wall is bad, because you remove the incentive for the other side to stop hitting their head against a wall? > while reaping the benefits of access to your market. Huh, what? Trade is a win-win situation: you and your people benefit from imports, too.
- ibic 1mo agoPity that for such an obvious fact that even peasants like me can easily see, the "elite" European political leaders are still playing ostrich.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- eigenspace 1mo agoThe EU didn't really fold, they blew him off. It was just a bunch of "yeah sure Donny, here's a bunch of meaningless promises we have no ability or mechanism to actually enforce". For example they promised to buy a bunch of gas, but the EU has no mechanism to make companies or even member states buy gas. The only real concession the EU made was just allowing Trump to tariff them at a certain rate, and not counter-tariffing back (with various escape clauses). While the EU response certainly wasn't a feel-good display of chest thumping, I think it was somewhat effective. He was able to strut around and feel big, and they were able to move on. The only reason the EU would really want to apply counter tariffs against the USA would be to either make a point, or because they are actually afraid that exports from the USA could outcompete EU products unless tariffed, but this just isn't really the case right now. ___________________ The only form of retailiation I think the EU should actually be pursuing is the equivalent of tariffs on US software. This is the area that the USA is a highly competitive 'exporter', and putting up barriers agaisnt these software services would be a good way to hurt the USA, and protect / stimulate domestic alternatives.
- shevy-java 1mo ago> The only real concession the EU made was just allowing Trump to tariff them at a certain rate No. Van der Leyen also promised EU investments into the USA. This is betrayal as well; that money should go into EU countries. Or Canada.
- watwut 1mo agoThat was kind of an estimated sum of investments european companies planned to make anyway. It is not like eu started to build up im us.
- myko 1mo agoTrue, though the prudent move would be to stop investing in the US entirely
- eigenspace 1mo agoThat's what I was talking about with the false promises. The EU has no mechanism to make those investments in the USA, and no mechanism to force any member state or company to make investments. They literally just made up a number and said "oh yes, we'll make a bunch of investments" with zero intention of doing anything to make it happen.
- eru 1mo agoNo, not good for Canada. Free trade is optimal, even if its unilateral. Canada should abolish their tariffs and let the clowns in the US do whatever they feel like.
- jambalaya8 1mo agonah
- plufz 1mo agoI guess it has a little to do with your goals. Optimal trade economically or avoiding giving something that looks like a win to this type of politicians with the goal of avoiding re-electing trump. I don’t know what science say here.
- wood_spirit 1mo agoYanis Varoufakis - aside from being radically left and becoming the finance minister in Greece after their financial crisis hit - is a professor in game theory and economics. He did a pretty good explanation of the difference between theory and practice in his Rest is Politics Leading podcast interview recently :). Sticks in my mind and well worth listening.
- eru 1mo agoThere's a reason his position ain't exactly the economic orthodoxy.
- intended 1mo agoIn a vacuum or thought experiment. China put tariffs specifically on the sectors that voted for Trump and depended on sales to China. When the other party is not playing the same game, or not playing in fairness, then the best game theoretical move is to cease cooperation and retaliate.
- twobitshifter 1mo agoit’s a repeating negotiation so that’s not always true, this tit for tat approach may work to make the US lower tariffs.
- whatsThisBtn4 1mo ago[flagged]
- atherton94027 1mo agoWhy put Zohran in the same bag as trump? From what I can see NYC is running pretty well
- blurbleblurble 1mo agoCause they're a bot
- gruez 1mo agoUS was also running "pretty well" under Trump 1
- whatsThisBtn4 1mo agoLook up the definition of populist demagogue.
- forestrywat 1mo agoDone. Now what? NYC is still being run pretty well?
- atherton94027 1mo agoIf fixing potholes and making the city run better is demagogy, I'd take than any day when the alternative is Cuomo or Adams. It's not like they were high-minded public servants looking at the long term
- nkrisc 1mo agoZohran is not a demagogue. He ran on a platform of fixing real problems that no one else was bothering to fix. And he’s actually doing things.
- seydor 1mo agoDemocracy is failing because people you don't like are being democratically elected. The opposite would indeedn be failure.
- chadgpt3 1mo agoThese countries need to grow a spine and make violating American copyright legal, or at least remove their anti circumvention laws.
- palata 1mo agoNo need to make violating American copyright legal. Just remove their equivalent of the DMCA. I can't understand why there isn't a single country that did that.
- jszymborski 1mo agoI think that's how you get the US to declare war :P
- bethekidyouwant 1mo agoEurope: here is a tome of regulations you need to follow to do business here. its kind a big deal. Also Europe: we don't care about copyright. how did you dream this up?
- AngryData 1mo agoThey could also diverge from the failed US drug policies if they really wanna throw shade.
- koonsolo 1mo agoMeanwhile in Belgium (EU), company owners are recovering millions from the US government, possibly up to billion dollars for all of Belgium. Don't assume EU is stupid. https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/08/18/voka-invoerheffingen-terugbetalingen-oproep/ https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/08/18/voka-invoerheffingen...
- kstenerud 1mo agoEach bloc is handling Trump in their own way according to their needs and circumstances. This isn't a pissing contest, and public perception of them "folding" or not is largely irrelevant (which is why we have actual experts handling this and not the public). Europe can afford to kick the can down the road and wring as much out of the remaining trade as possible while forging replacement deals with others in the meantime. They know how to buy time with Trump using flattery and sleight-of-hand, and are doing a pretty decent job of it given the rush. Canada has no such luxury, because Trump already views Canada as weak and exploitable, and so his assaults and "we've decided to change the deal" will never end. That requires a different response tactic, even though it will cause a lot of short-term pain. You'll also note the veiled threat in Carney's speech yesterday: "Canada fuels American growth: supplying 99 per cent of their natural gas imports, 85 per cent of their electricity imports, 60 per cent of their crude oil imports. I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy." Timing an energy war to November would be brutal.