Trump’s Belligerent Nonsense: 4,000 Canadians Out of 40 Million Won’t Back His Absurdity
At the end of a day without watching television or online media, I read this: “President Donald Trump triggered a fresh wave of outrage on social media Thursday after he once again treated reporters to a rant about how Canada ought to be taken by the United States as a new state.”
Given that Trump is likely not to stop until he’s made to stop, perhaps in a straight-jacket, here’s what every American ought to understand, if they don’t already and if they care about their country.
President Trump’s ongoing rants about annexing Canada as the 51st US state has triggered widespread outrage and ridicule across Canada, east to west, north to south. Shoppers nationwide are now refusing to buy anything labeled Made in USA. I’m guessing that out of 40 million Canadians, Trump couldn’t find 4,000 who agree with his “belligerent nonsense,” let alone 40,000—unless he paid them to do so. This absurdity has reached a point where global leaders must stand up and tell Trump, ‘Enough is enough. Worry about your country, because it’s the one in deep trouble. You are not making it great again.’
Trump’s fixation on acquiring Canada and his obsession with Greenland and the Panama Canal apparently resurfaced today when he signed a new plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on countries with trade barriers. He repeatedly claims that Canada “has been very bad to us on trade.” He insists Canadians “need our protection,” saying, “Canada is gonna be a very serious contender to be our 51st state.” None of it is true.
Trade relations between the countries including Mexico are materially the same as when Trump himself signed the USMCA about five years ago. He knows there are dispute resolution clauses in the tripartite agreement, which he agreed to and was later signed into law.
The idea of Canada relinquishing its sovereignty is an utter joke and is instantly met with immediate and resounding backlash everywhere I look. I have read that sports radio’s Rob Guerrera said, “Why doesn’t anyone tell this guy Canada doesn’t f–king want to be the 51st state?” Canadian podcaster @GregOnSports dismissed Trump’s NATO spending claims as “easily dis-proven …., so F–k off.” Metro Weekly editor-in-chief Randy Shulman called Trump’s rhetoric “tiresome, if not humiliating.”
But this is concerning. Today, even former Deputy Director of US National Intelligence Beth Sanner acknowledged Trump’s comments are more than just trolling when she told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “When he repeats things over and over, it becomes more real.” She said that while Trump may not send troops to Canada, she believes he’s serious about the idea, using it as leverage in trade negotiations.
The only thing Trump is known to negotiate is bankruptcy. He’s the King of Bankruptcies.
We know American auto manufacturing will soon shut down because of a blocked supply chain issue if this matter gets worse. Americans import 65% of their crude oil from Canada and enough electricity to keep the lights on for 6 million American homes and businesses. Americans rely on Canada for steel, aluminum, and agriculture; American manufacturing and production stop for most part if it’s not received. We know that with Trump’s tariffs, Americans must pay for them one hundred cents on the dollar on receipt, which will immediately result in things that will get more expensive to consumers. Moreover, we know that most Americans have no savings and insufficient funds in bank accounts to make these problems an economic war reality. Why is Trump doing the things only a madman would do?
So, let’s conclude. Trump’s vision of Canada as a US state is not only delusional but his constant repeating of them also highlights his cognitive issues. It’s time for world leaders to firmly reject his absurdities and remind him to focus on fixing the deep troubles in his own country – if he still has the mental capacity to do so. It’s time for the responsible member of Congress to stand up and tell Trump you’re not going to take this stuff anymore.
At what point does America respond in kind to the Trump administration?
Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, wasted no time in her first week, announcing that the Department of Justice is launching civil charges against the state of New York, Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York’s DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder. The lawsuit, targeting New York’s “Green Light Law” that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, is yet another move in the creeping authoritarianism that now defines Trump’s America. While this is a civil case—no arrests (yet)—make no mistake: America is sliding toward dictatorship, and this is one inch closer to the edge.
Three hundred and thirty-five million Americans live in a country where Trump believes he can unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” mandating that all US mapmakers comply. Absurd? Yes. A Republican political platform and an action the majority of Americans wanted? No. It begs the question—what stops him from forcing those same mapmakers to rename Canada and Mexico the 51st and 52nd states? Ridiculous? Probably. But by prosecuting State Governors and Attorney Generals who carry out their mandates, my gut tells me the world is watching as the US quickly transforms into the United States of Trump.
This is not governance; it is rule by decree. Either the Constitution’s system of checks and balances still exists, or it doesn’t. When Trump installs a Fox Weekend personality as Defense Secretary, a conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, and an FBI Director who openly states he wants to arrest President Biden and Vice President Harris, the writing is on the wall.
If Congress doesn’t fund the so-called Department of Government Oversight (DOGE), who is bankrolling these people? And more importantly, who gave them access to the most sensitive private records of American citizens?
What truly baffles me is that my concerns—serious as they are—don’t even scratch the surface of what legal experts and independent journalists (not just the usual political opposition) are warning about daily. The level of authoritarian overreach unfolding in plain sight is staggering.
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to turn away from politics entirely, choosing instead to focus solely on what I love—financial markets. I don’t have the heart to watch a once-great nation being systematically dismantled by a convicted felon, one executive action at a time.
And let’s be clear: I am no socialist. I have been a fiscal conservative for decades—long before Trump hijacked the movement. I have long argued for ending wasteful spending that has driven America and its people toward financial ruin. But what Trump is doing is not conservatism. His words and actions cross every line; if he is not stopped, the next step is civil war.
jimg
February 12, 2025 9:22 am
#44768
Lacy Hunt: It’s Not Inflation But DEFLATION That’s The Real Threat To Our Economy
Trump and Trump’s Congress get nuttier and more dangerous by the minute.
Buddy Carter (R-GA) introduced a bill to rename Greenland “Red, White and Blueland” if Trump is able to absorb the Arctic island into the United States, which is his stated intention.
From MSN:
According to the Post, the act “directs the secretary of the interior’s team to ensure federal paperwork gets updated to the new name and gives a six-month deadline to complete that task.”
He continued, “President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal.”
According to The Post, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended the president’s goal of taking Greenland by highlighting U.S. military support for the island territory and a 1951 treaty to defend it in the event of an attack.”
Rubio said during a podcast interview, “If we’re already on the hook for having to do that, then we might as well have more control over what happens there. This is not a joke. This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved.”
The congressman also posted to social media, “RT for Red, White, & Blueland,” with a drawing of the territory sporting a “USA” sign.
This isn’t “Cringe.” This isn’t “Clown. Show.” This isn’t “Emarrassing.” — as critics are saying.
This is worse. This is how Hitler started.
Wake up America. Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Parliaments around the world are reacting to these malignant statements and actions, which keep coming from Trump and his acolytes, one after another, after another.
The United States is becoming an island surrounded by a world of enemies, minute by minute.
I’m more sanguine about Trump, his intentions, and a positive outcome for Americans. Most have suffered economically because of the globalist giveaways to off-shoring goods and services (most owned by Americans) and government waste and corruption. The world is awash with lawyers and government functionaries, and today, they are crying the loudest because their interests are being threatened. Things are moving very fast, and it is hard to keep up with events. I guess there will be no broad tariffs for Canada when the dust settles in a month or so. No 51st state for Canada, No Greenland, No Gaza re-development, etc., but also no war in Ukraine, no nuclear threat from Iran, no Man-made Global Warming, etc., and a more respectful arrangement with China.
Many of us would like to think so.
I have my doubts, but let’s watch this situation daily because investors are in the crosshairs.
jimg
February 9, 2025 6:11 pm
#44696
Could seriously affect our markets….
Trump Suggests Musk Found ‘Irregularities’ in US Treasuries
With Trump, you love him or hate him for whatever reasons. I take what he says the same as clickbait. Sometimes it leads to something meaningful but for the most part, he’s seeing how far the world will let him go. It’s up to the media to decide how much air time to give him.
Broadcast promotes him because he attracts the audience viewing that in turn attracts the advertisers.
As far as his knowledge of the Treasury, he wouldn’t recognize a T-bill unless it were printed with his name on it.
I am a bit out of touch with pop culture these days. So when I heard all this news re the Super Bowl halftime show and the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, it was all news to me. If you want a quick summary before the big game.
LOL. I learned about the beef last year by listening to ProFootballTalk podcast. Chris Simm’s son explained it to him, and then he explained it to the pod listeners.
Wow! Mahones played like a DEI hire! 40-22? 34-0 at half time!
Rap to me is boring and so I thought the half time performance was a flop. What I understand is the NFL thought Kamala would win 2024 so they signed the Lamar deal way before the Nov 5 elections.
Thomas Sowell, black professor at Stanford, credits rap music for destroying black morals and ethics. During ME TOO I wondered why rappers were not thrown in at the top with Harvey Weinstein. Meantime rappers get rich off poor black kids in ghettos buying their music. When is the “give back” part start? The ghettos in Chicago and LA and NYC are worse now than in the 1980s.
Supposedly this Lamar guy got a pulitzer prize? In 1998 the Pulitzer added in rap music. In 1904 it was journalism and novels. Then they started diluting the Pulitzer in 1945 and it got worse into the 1990s. What’s next a Pulitzer Prize for memes and graffiti? Maybe a Pulitzer for texting? Prestigious means nothing any more! Soros gets a Biden Medal of Honor or does the DNC hand out medals to all their billionaire donors? Where’s Klaus medal?
jimg
February 7, 2025 9:49 am
#44665
R&D lead of the Human Genome Project at MIT and Medicinal Genomics Founder Kevin McKernan:
“We have sequencing from a colon [tumor] biopsy from a patient who was 4 times vaccinated…we can find [DNA] plasmids in there a hundred copies per cell. They’re not exactly the same as Pfizer’s, which is a real head-scratcher, but they’re in there.”
Financial Times: Rapid trials prompt deals rush for Chinese ‘super me-too’ drugsWestern drugmakers look to Chinese trials for early data on treatments’ potential success
Western drugmakers are striking more deals in China to access “bio-better” treatments for diseases from obesity to cancer, taking advantage of the early data on offer from the country’s faster and more lightly regulated trials. Large pharmaceutical groups including GSK, Merck and AstraZeneca have each signed $1bn-plus agreements in the past two years to buy the rights to develop and sell Chinese drugs outside the country. Meanwhile, investors including Forbion, Bain Life Sciences and General Atlantic have ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into new biotechs that will develop Chinese assets for western markets, hoping to be bought by major drugmakers.
Will all our drugs come from China? “Every major drugmaker’s head of R&D has been to China at least once in the last year… AbbVie Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. have hosted dedicated partnering days in Shanghai to meet with local companies, while companies like Roche Holding AG, Bayer AG and Eli Lilly & Co. have opened or will open incubators to build relationships with early-stage startups. At a recent, widely watched trade expo, Pfizer Inc. announced it will invest $1 billion in China over the next five years, in part to work with local companies.”
Western biotechs that discover promising new targets for intractable diseases are finding that Chinese teams take their published ideas and beat them to generating clinical data. Some have noticed the increasingly “sharp elbows” of Chinese researchers scouring posters at Western medical conferences for the latest breakthroughs in recent years. When I ask people in business development what trend they think is likely to have the largest impact on the industry in the next 5 years they usually say the rise of Chinese innovators (artificial intelligence is usually #2 ).
According to press reports, House lawmakers were recently considering a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions to allow up to $5.5 trillion of net deficit increases, largely through tax cuts. With interest, we estimate it would add $6.5 trillion to the debt by Fiscal Year (FY) 2035.
If the Americans who voted for Trump and support him in Congress continue that support after watching the events of today, I will say here and now America will soon be in two wars. There will be wars abroad because countries will defend their sovereign rights, and there will be a civil war. At the very least, there will be a national strike of Americans who choose to stand up for democracy.
Was this the plan once the war started? All I know is there is a lot of bad juju in the region. Don’t expect me to vacation in Gaza in this lifetime. How will Iran and other neighbors react to this? While this news isn’t surprising, it seems a bit brazen.
Maybe the Mag 7 will be given incentives to build San Jose Middle East in Gaza.
“Trump wants US to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere”
Alexei published the DeepMind audio that NYUGrad produced and the Week In Review #4 that I produced. But Grammarly counts 624 issues. So, today, I will spend two hours cutting those to under 100. It’s not in my nature to leave things incomplete!
The edited WIR #4 is now up. I did a better job of typesetting the tables, standardizing the type font size, and removing almost 500 spelling and grammar mistakes. Grammarly says 138 issues remain, but I had no intention of correcting many.
Donald Trump’s presidency will be good for traders if you understand the underlying things that drive him. I have been in politics for many, many years. Not a politician, but high-level staffer where you see and hear a lot of things. I was posting here in 2007 that Barack Obama was the real deal when nobody knew who he was. Anyway, Trump is simple: he is driven by attention (ego) and greed which is not unique to politicians. However, he is unique in that he will disrupt anything with his words. It doesn’t cost him a dime and do favors for family and friends by letting them know what he is going to do. The man is for sale which is why all the Mag 7 chiefs are kissing the ring. I suspected that the great tariff proclamation was likely just another Trump grift for his family and friends to cash in huge market volatility and if there were any other beneficial consequences like getting Canada and Mexico to the table then great. This may seem too farfetched and simplistic but to me it’s Occam’s razor.
Chris, Most of us agree with the transactional aspect and personality quirks you point out. These are innate qualities that, like all of us, are almost impossible to change. We are what we are. Trump is still the same person he was before becoming a politician. We all would be.
Your opinion about his using words to entertain people is somewhat right. Trump does like to entertain and be the centerpiece, but I believe his words have a greater purpose. He wants to get things done. For example, when he talks about tariffs and making Canada the 51st State, he wants people to believe he will be tough at the negotiating table. He is sending a message, not making a joke.
My problem is that while the message may be proper, he is no longer a private person. As President, he holds immense power; all his words are important and have consequences. As a private person, he can say mean things to or about people; a few on the receiving end have hurt feelings, if they even care. As President, the feelings of tens of millions of people are impacted, and people around the world care.
Did Canadians misunderstand Trump as the White House statement said?
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is “serious” about President Donald Trump’s executive order on tariffs, but Canada has “misunderstood” it to be a trade war between the neighboring countries.
Canadians do not misunderstand anything said by Donald Trump, including his non-stop lies and reframing of narratives.
These are a few quotes that riled Canadians:
“I’m going to hurt them [Canada] so badly, so badly”
“Canada, you’re a disaster”
“We’re going to make Canada pay for what they’ve done”
Those are fighting words.
Trump finally realized the major auto plants across the US would be shutting down in a week and that lights would be going out in 6 million American homes and businesses. He must have listened to the 90-year-old former Prime Minister of Canada last week who said that if Trump pulled his stunt, he would be climbing up the stairwell at Trump Tower in NYC carrying a candle to get to his home and offices. Overnight, he saw the US stock market about to crash. He needed to change his story.
Trump’s words matter. When they are confrontational, they are mean. They hurt people. They are not misunderstood.
Trump’s tariffs of an equal amount based on the size of imports from the neighboring countries would have a damaging impact against the 130 million Mexicans but a catastrophic result on 40 million Canadians. So, Canadians stood up to him and told him how they were going to make him stop his threats. He will always resent that. But, Canada will not be bullied.
The funny thing about Canadians — and Americans know this — is the first thing they say in any encounter is “I’m sorry.” We laugh about it all the time. I’ve written about it on several occasions. But Trump made a mistake threatening Canada with mean-spirited fighting words. Canadians understand who he is, what he represents, and they won’t take his crap.
There is a time and place for tariffs. It’s after diplomatic relations break down over disputes involving international trade. It’s not when you break a sovereign treaty like Trump just has, a treaty Trump himself made in November 2018 and Congress signed off on (385-41 in the House of Representatives) and ratified by the Senate (89-10).
Every country has its law-breakers but, to be fair, Canadians are known worldwide for not breaking their word. This USA-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) is a sovereign agreement, one that contained a dispute resolution mechanism.
Dispute Settlement
USMCA maintains the NAFTA state-to-state mechanism for most disputes arising under the agreement and retains the binational dispute settlement mechanism to review trade remedy disputes.
Misunderstand Trump? The USMCA was signed by Trump himself, a convicted felon who is known to break his word. Nobody in Canada misunderstood him.
This President’s behavior offends me, as it does millions of Americans and obviously, Mexicans and Canadians, but most of his actions have been needed. For decades, every POTUS until Trump has allowed the size of government to rise and the deficits and debts to soar. Many agencies have become little kingdoms for the few senior bureaucrats in charge. These administrative agencies have become politicized. The public has been kept in the dark, and this President is suddenly stopping it. The free ride is over. Wasteful spending and WEF policies are getting scrapped.
From CNN and CNBC, I see that Trump has delayed the Mexican tariffs a month and will talk to Canada now.
I’ll tell you precisely what happened and why his behavior continuously offends me.
Trump woke up this morning with his team in panic, screaming that the market would crash — the futures were deep red — unless he made some changes. He put out the word there might be changes. He didn’t let the public know. Insiders knew. They told key people at HB&B and media friends not to panic. Equity futures came back a little. Then he spent time deciding how to make this situation look good for him, and that’s what the public will see.
The world has no clue how disingenuous he is. Right after the Potomac crash, the military told him it was a female pilot, so what did he do rather than talk to the public the way any POTUS would do? His first public utterance was, ‘DEI did this.’ The world wondered where in hell that came from, but he was turning a tragedy into a political win, ignoring the pain he was inflicting. That shows how despicable he is. Just one more example.
Now that Congress sees he considers them useless and irrelevant because he can rule by EO, and Musk is buying people’s compliance to kiss the Trump ring or threatening them, there should be more Republicans standing with the DEMs to criticize him. If not, they will face a clean sweep in November next year. Many of his voters never expected a dictator. If their wants are met, the rest of them don’t care.
We want and need a strong America, and Trump is the first President in decades to do that. If Congress prevents him from crossing the line from democracy to autocracy, we’re good. But maybe Trump can seek help from The Art of the Deal ghost-writer in preparing a script to eliminate his reprehensible behavior.
jimg
February 3, 2025 11:10 am
#44549
Panama exits China’s Belt and Road Initiative after US talks
That was known days ago, just as Canada’s statement today about its program is old news.
For some reason the White House is enjoying what they call a victory dance. I see only a b.s. narrative to try to make Trump look strong and his behavior normalized.
I think the honeymoon is almost over.
jimg
February 2, 2025 2:22 pm
#44522
This is the CME webpage that lists limit-down levels, updated everyday. Bookmark it. I have a feeling we are all going to need it…..
Conversation: Physicist Steve Hsu and TP Huang, AI engineer:
AI community overnight is basically testing the DeepSeek models out.
Six months from now there will be a huge shift, where there’s much less utilization of open AI models and much more utilization of really good open source models like DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek R1 is not beholden to the Open AI issues like how slow it is ( it is very slow because it takes so much time to think about questions ) and higher costs.
You can run it on your local computer if you wanted
OpenAI sometimes goes down intraday for four hours at a time.
If you’re a corporation, you’re already scared of sending private data to an AI firm, how can they trust a closed sourced AI?
Most Canadians can’t even imagine how extensive the country’s problem has become. When BC’s anti-money laundering inquiry released its final report in 2022, it estimated the national volume of funds obviously laundered to be around $100b annually as of 2018. Using a standard GDP multiplier, that works out to just over 6% of the economy.
Microsoft has introduced a stricter layoff policy, terminating employees without severance or extended benefits. Affected workers face immediate dismissal, losing access to company systems, healthcare, and other perks on their last working day
Top FBI officials (unknown exactly who or how many) told to resign or be fired as early as Monday morning. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the way into criminal investigations of Trump, not sure what his ultimate fate may be. Any Justice Dept officials linked to Smith, have already been fired.
Trump’s Belligerent Nonsense: 4,000 Canadians Out of 40 Million Won’t Back His Absurdity
At the end of a day without watching television or online media, I read this: “President Donald Trump triggered a fresh wave of outrage on social media Thursday after he once again treated reporters to a rant about how Canada ought to be taken by the United States as a new state.”
Given that Trump is likely not to stop until he’s made to stop, perhaps in a straight-jacket, here’s what every American ought to understand, if they don’t already and if they care about their country.
President Trump’s ongoing rants about annexing Canada as the 51st US state has triggered widespread outrage and ridicule across Canada, east to west, north to south. Shoppers nationwide are now refusing to buy anything labeled Made in USA. I’m guessing that out of 40 million Canadians, Trump couldn’t find 4,000 who agree with his “belligerent nonsense,” let alone 40,000—unless he paid them to do so. This absurdity has reached a point where global leaders must stand up and tell Trump, ‘Enough is enough. Worry about your country, because it’s the one in deep trouble. You are not making it great again.’
Trump’s fixation on acquiring Canada and his obsession with Greenland and the Panama Canal apparently resurfaced today when he signed a new plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on countries with trade barriers. He repeatedly claims that Canada “has been very bad to us on trade.” He insists Canadians “need our protection,” saying, “Canada is gonna be a very serious contender to be our 51st state.” None of it is true.
Trade relations between the countries including Mexico are materially the same as when Trump himself signed the USMCA about five years ago. He knows there are dispute resolution clauses in the tripartite agreement, which he agreed to and was later signed into law.
The idea of Canada relinquishing its sovereignty is an utter joke and is instantly met with immediate and resounding backlash everywhere I look. I have read that sports radio’s Rob Guerrera said, “Why doesn’t anyone tell this guy Canada doesn’t f–king want to be the 51st state?” Canadian podcaster @GregOnSports dismissed Trump’s NATO spending claims as “easily dis-proven …., so F–k off.” Metro Weekly editor-in-chief Randy Shulman called Trump’s rhetoric “tiresome, if not humiliating.”
But this is concerning. Today, even former Deputy Director of US National Intelligence Beth Sanner acknowledged Trump’s comments are more than just trolling when she told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “When he repeats things over and over, it becomes more real.” She said that while Trump may not send troops to Canada, she believes he’s serious about the idea, using it as leverage in trade negotiations.
The only thing Trump is known to negotiate is bankruptcy. He’s the King of Bankruptcies.
We know American auto manufacturing will soon shut down because of a blocked supply chain issue if this matter gets worse. Americans import 65% of their crude oil from Canada and enough electricity to keep the lights on for 6 million American homes and businesses. Americans rely on Canada for steel, aluminum, and agriculture; American manufacturing and production stop for most part if it’s not received. We know that with Trump’s tariffs, Americans must pay for them one hundred cents on the dollar on receipt, which will immediately result in things that will get more expensive to consumers. Moreover, we know that most Americans have no savings and insufficient funds in bank accounts to make these problems an economic war reality. Why is Trump doing the things only a madman would do?
So, let’s conclude. Trump’s vision of Canada as a US state is not only delusional but his constant repeating of them also highlights his cognitive issues. It’s time for world leaders to firmly reject his absurdities and remind him to focus on fixing the deep troubles in his own country – if he still has the mental capacity to do so. It’s time for the responsible member of Congress to stand up and tell Trump you’re not going to take this stuff anymore.
Now an official U.S. government website:
https://doge.gov/
DOGE – A Lawyer’s Perspective
https://tomrenz.substack.com/p/doge-a-lawyers-perspective
At what point does America respond in kind to the Trump administration?
Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, wasted no time in her first week, announcing that the Department of Justice is launching civil charges against the state of New York, Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York’s DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder. The lawsuit, targeting New York’s “Green Light Law” that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, is yet another move in the creeping authoritarianism that now defines Trump’s America. While this is a civil case—no arrests (yet)—make no mistake: America is sliding toward dictatorship, and this is one inch closer to the edge.
Three hundred and thirty-five million Americans live in a country where Trump believes he can unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” mandating that all US mapmakers comply. Absurd? Yes. A Republican political platform and an action the majority of Americans wanted? No. It begs the question—what stops him from forcing those same mapmakers to rename Canada and Mexico the 51st and 52nd states? Ridiculous? Probably. But by prosecuting State Governors and Attorney Generals who carry out their mandates, my gut tells me the world is watching as the US quickly transforms into the United States of Trump.
This is not governance; it is rule by decree. Either the Constitution’s system of checks and balances still exists, or it doesn’t. When Trump installs a Fox Weekend personality as Defense Secretary, a conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, and an FBI Director who openly states he wants to arrest President Biden and Vice President Harris, the writing is on the wall.
If Congress doesn’t fund the so-called Department of Government Oversight (DOGE), who is bankrolling these people? And more importantly, who gave them access to the most sensitive private records of American citizens?
What truly baffles me is that my concerns—serious as they are—don’t even scratch the surface of what legal experts and independent journalists (not just the usual political opposition) are warning about daily. The level of authoritarian overreach unfolding in plain sight is staggering.
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to turn away from politics entirely, choosing instead to focus solely on what I love—financial markets. I don’t have the heart to watch a once-great nation being systematically dismantled by a convicted felon, one executive action at a time.
And let’s be clear: I am no socialist. I have been a fiscal conservative for decades—long before Trump hijacked the movement. I have long argued for ending wasteful spending that has driven America and its people toward financial ruin. But what Trump is doing is not conservatism. His words and actions cross every line; if he is not stopped, the next step is civil war.
Lacy Hunt: It’s Not Inflation But DEFLATION That’s The Real Threat To Our Economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXg-9f7E8Q
Ultimately, AI presents a serious deflationary problem, but for now, the US tariffs are creating a short-term inflationary problem.
It’s all a matter of time and space.
Trump and Trump’s Congress get nuttier and more dangerous by the minute.
Buddy Carter (R-GA) introduced a bill to rename Greenland “Red, White and Blueland” if Trump is able to absorb the Arctic island into the United States, which is his stated intention.
From MSN:
This isn’t “Cringe.” This isn’t “Clown. Show.” This isn’t “Emarrassing.” — as critics are saying.
This is worse. This is how Hitler started.
Wake up America. Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Parliaments around the world are reacting to these malignant statements and actions, which keep coming from Trump and his acolytes, one after another, after another.
The United States is becoming an island surrounded by a world of enemies, minute by minute.
I received this reply tonight.
Many of us would like to think so.
I have my doubts, but let’s watch this situation daily because investors are in the crosshairs.
Could seriously affect our markets….
Trump Suggests Musk Found ‘Irregularities’ in US Treasuries
Bloomberg: https://archive.is/LjVoW#selection-1323.0-1323.59
How can anyone trust what they say? Trump fatigue has me wanting to move everything into gold and unplug from all media.
Aaron, thanks for participating.
With Trump, you love him or hate him for whatever reasons. I take what he says the same as clickbait. Sometimes it leads to something meaningful but for the most part, he’s seeing how far the world will let him go. It’s up to the media to decide how much air time to give him.
Broadcast promotes him because he attracts the audience viewing that in turn attracts the advertisers.
As far as his knowledge of the Treasury, he wouldn’t recognize a T-bill unless it were printed with his name on it.
I am a bit out of touch with pop culture these days. So when I heard all this news re the Super Bowl halftime show and the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, it was all news to me. If you want a quick summary before the big game.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/09/entertainment/not-like-us-kendrick-lamar-super-bowl-cec/index.html
https://youtu.be/QAPZCRQhHVI
LOL. I learned about the beef last year by listening to ProFootballTalk podcast. Chris Simm’s son explained it to him, and then he explained it to the pod listeners.
Wow! Mahones played like a DEI hire! 40-22? 34-0 at half time!
Rap to me is boring and so I thought the half time performance was a flop. What I understand is the NFL thought Kamala would win 2024 so they signed the Lamar deal way before the Nov 5 elections.
Thomas Sowell, black professor at Stanford, credits rap music for destroying black morals and ethics. During ME TOO I wondered why rappers were not thrown in at the top with Harvey Weinstein. Meantime rappers get rich off poor black kids in ghettos buying their music. When is the “give back” part start? The ghettos in Chicago and LA and NYC are worse now than in the 1980s.
Supposedly this Lamar guy got a pulitzer prize? In 1998 the Pulitzer added in rap music. In 1904 it was journalism and novels. Then they started diluting the Pulitzer in 1945 and it got worse into the 1990s. What’s next a Pulitzer Prize for memes and graffiti? Maybe a Pulitzer for texting? Prestigious means nothing any more! Soros gets a Biden Medal of Honor or does the DNC hand out medals to all their billionaire donors? Where’s Klaus medal?
R&D lead of the Human Genome Project at MIT and Medicinal Genomics Founder Kevin McKernan:
“We have sequencing from a colon [tumor] biopsy from a patient who was 4 times vaccinated…we can find [DNA] plasmids in there a hundred copies per cell. They’re not exactly the same as Pfizer’s, which is a real head-scratcher, but they’re in there.”
https://x.com/SenseReceptor/status/1863041263756624246
Full interview:
https://rumble.com/v5s0zbb-vaccine-contamination-and-fiat-science-kevin-mckernan-is-5.html
Financial Times:
Rapid trials prompt deals rush for Chinese ‘super me-too’ drugsWestern drugmakers look to Chinese trials for early data on treatments’ potential success
Western drugmakers are striking more deals in China to access “bio-better” treatments for diseases from obesity to cancer, taking advantage of the early data on offer from the country’s faster and more lightly regulated trials.
Large pharmaceutical groups including GSK, Merck and AstraZeneca have each signed $1bn-plus agreements in the past two years to buy the rights to develop and sell Chinese drugs outside the country.
Meanwhile, investors including Forbion, Bain Life Sciences and General Atlantic have ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into new biotechs that will develop Chinese assets for western markets, hoping to be bought by major drugmakers.
FT: https://archive.is/XHy8G#selection-2383.0-2391.238
Will all our drugs come from China?
“Every major drugmaker’s head of R&D has been to China at least once in the last year… AbbVie Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. have hosted dedicated partnering days in Shanghai to meet with local companies, while companies like Roche Holding AG, Bayer AG and Eli Lilly & Co. have opened or will open incubators to build relationships with early-stage startups. At a recent, widely watched trade expo, Pfizer Inc. announced it will invest $1 billion in China over the next five years, in part to work with local companies.”
Western biotechs that discover promising new targets for intractable diseases are finding that Chinese teams take their published ideas and beat them to generating clinical data. Some have noticed the increasingly “sharp elbows” of Chinese researchers scouring posters at Western medical conferences for the latest breakthroughs in recent years.
When I ask people in business development what trend they think is likely to have the largest impact on the industry in the next 5 years they usually say the rise of Chinese innovators (artificial intelligence is usually #2 ).
https://atelfo.github.io/2024/12/20/will-all-our-drugs-come-from-china.html
Is China becoming dominant in Biotech?
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1887287672873373995.html
$CRVS ( Corvus Pharmaceuticals ) set up Angel Pharmaceutical in China, of which they own 49.7%.
Assets: – ITK inhibitor – BTK inhibitor – Anti-CD73 – A2AR antagonist – PPAR7
https://corvuspharma.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corvus-pharmaceuticals-announces-partner-angel-pharmaceuticals-0
https://www.angelpharma.com/en/our/
Chase Savings Account Interest
0.01%
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/savings/chase-savings-rates/
Their new 3 billion dollar building:
Inside JPMorgan Chase’s New Office Where Employees Are Returning 5 Days a Week in Person
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41QYeSa-3A
https://archive.is/c3p36
According to press reports, House lawmakers were recently considering a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions to allow up to $5.5 trillion of net deficit increases, largely through tax cuts. With interest, we estimate it would add $6.5 trillion to the debt by Fiscal Year (FY) 2035.
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/debt-gdp-growth-could-double-55-trillion-bill
https://archive.is/fm39G
If the Americans who voted for Trump and support him in Congress continue that support after watching the events of today, I will say here and now America will soon be in two wars. There will be wars abroad because countries will defend their sovereign rights, and there will be a civil war. At the very least, there will be a national strike of Americans who choose to stand up for democracy.
Trump crossed the line today.
Was this the plan once the war started? All I know is there is a lot of bad juju in the region. Don’t expect me to vacation in Gaza in this lifetime. How will Iran and other neighbors react to this? While this news isn’t surprising, it seems a bit brazen.
Maybe the Mag 7 will be given incentives to build San Jose Middle East in Gaza.
“Trump wants US to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere”
https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3
When the White House issues a statement that Canada, like Mexico, have bent the knee, people around the world are laughing.
Bad comedy does not replace sound fiscal management, which is what Americans need.
Alexei published the DeepMind audio that NYUGrad produced and the Week In Review #4 that I produced. But Grammarly counts 624 issues. So, today, I will spend two hours cutting those to under 100. It’s not in my nature to leave things incomplete!
The edited WIR #4 is now up. I did a better job of typesetting the tables, standardizing the type font size, and removing almost 500 spelling and grammar mistakes. Grammarly says 138 issues remain, but I had no intention of correcting many.
Donald Trump’s presidency will be good for traders if you understand the underlying things that drive him. I have been in politics for many, many years. Not a politician, but high-level staffer where you see and hear a lot of things. I was posting here in 2007 that Barack Obama was the real deal when nobody knew who he was. Anyway, Trump is simple: he is driven by attention (ego) and greed which is not unique to politicians. However, he is unique in that he will disrupt anything with his words. It doesn’t cost him a dime and do favors for family and friends by letting them know what he is going to do. The man is for sale which is why all the Mag 7 chiefs are kissing the ring. I suspected that the great tariff proclamation was likely just another Trump grift for his family and friends to cash in huge market volatility and if there were any other beneficial consequences like getting Canada and Mexico to the table then great. This may seem too farfetched and simplistic but to me it’s Occam’s razor.
And I think he also gets off on how much angst he is able to generate over these types of things. It’s just entertainment to him.
Chris, Most of us agree with the transactional aspect and personality quirks you point out. These are innate qualities that, like all of us, are almost impossible to change. We are what we are. Trump is still the same person he was before becoming a politician. We all would be.
Your opinion about his using words to entertain people is somewhat right. Trump does like to entertain and be the centerpiece, but I believe his words have a greater purpose. He wants to get things done. For example, when he talks about tariffs and making Canada the 51st State, he wants people to believe he will be tough at the negotiating table. He is sending a message, not making a joke.
My problem is that while the message may be proper, he is no longer a private person. As President, he holds immense power; all his words are important and have consequences. As a private person, he can say mean things to or about people; a few on the receiving end have hurt feelings, if they even care. As President, the feelings of tens of millions of people are impacted, and people around the world care.
Did Canadians misunderstand Trump as the White House statement said?
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is “serious” about President Donald Trump’s executive order on tariffs, but Canada has “misunderstood” it to be a trade war between the neighboring countries.
Canadians do not misunderstand anything said by Donald Trump, including his non-stop lies and reframing of narratives.
These are a few quotes that riled Canadians:
Those are fighting words.
Trump finally realized the major auto plants across the US would be shutting down in a week and that lights would be going out in 6 million American homes and businesses. He must have listened to the 90-year-old former Prime Minister of Canada last week who said that if Trump pulled his stunt, he would be climbing up the stairwell at Trump Tower in NYC carrying a candle to get to his home and offices. Overnight, he saw the US stock market about to crash. He needed to change his story.
Trump’s words matter. When they are confrontational, they are mean. They hurt people. They are not misunderstood.
Trump’s tariffs of an equal amount based on the size of imports from the neighboring countries would have a damaging impact against the 130 million Mexicans but a catastrophic result on 40 million Canadians. So, Canadians stood up to him and told him how they were going to make him stop his threats. He will always resent that. But, Canada will not be bullied.
The funny thing about Canadians — and Americans know this — is the first thing they say in any encounter is “I’m sorry.” We laugh about it all the time. I’ve written about it on several occasions. But Trump made a mistake threatening Canada with mean-spirited fighting words. Canadians understand who he is, what he represents, and they won’t take his crap.
There is a time and place for tariffs. It’s after diplomatic relations break down over disputes involving international trade. It’s not when you break a sovereign treaty like Trump just has, a treaty Trump himself made in November 2018 and Congress signed off on (385-41 in the House of Representatives) and ratified by the Senate (89-10).
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10997#
Every country has its law-breakers but, to be fair, Canadians are known worldwide for not breaking their word. This USA-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) is a sovereign agreement, one that contained a dispute resolution mechanism.
Misunderstand Trump? The USMCA was signed by Trump himself, a convicted felon who is known to break his word. Nobody in Canada misunderstood him.
This President’s behavior offends me, as it does millions of Americans and obviously, Mexicans and Canadians, but most of his actions have been needed. For decades, every POTUS until Trump has allowed the size of government to rise and the deficits and debts to soar. Many agencies have become little kingdoms for the few senior bureaucrats in charge. These administrative agencies have become politicized. The public has been kept in the dark, and this President is suddenly stopping it. The free ride is over. Wasteful spending and WEF policies are getting scrapped.
From CNN and CNBC, I see that Trump has delayed the Mexican tariffs a month and will talk to Canada now.
I’ll tell you precisely what happened and why his behavior continuously offends me.
Trump woke up this morning with his team in panic, screaming that the market would crash — the futures were deep red — unless he made some changes. He put out the word there might be changes. He didn’t let the public know. Insiders knew. They told key people at HB&B and media friends not to panic. Equity futures came back a little. Then he spent time deciding how to make this situation look good for him, and that’s what the public will see.
The world has no clue how disingenuous he is. Right after the Potomac crash, the military told him it was a female pilot, so what did he do rather than talk to the public the way any POTUS would do? His first public utterance was, ‘DEI did this.’ The world wondered where in hell that came from, but he was turning a tragedy into a political win, ignoring the pain he was inflicting. That shows how despicable he is. Just one more example.
Now that Congress sees he considers them useless and irrelevant because he can rule by EO, and Musk is buying people’s compliance to kiss the Trump ring or threatening them, there should be more Republicans standing with the DEMs to criticize him. If not, they will face a clean sweep in November next year. Many of his voters never expected a dictator. If their wants are met, the rest of them don’t care.
We want and need a strong America, and Trump is the first President in decades to do that. If Congress prevents him from crossing the line from democracy to autocracy, we’re good. But maybe Trump can seek help from The Art of the Deal ghost-writer in preparing a script to eliminate his reprehensible behavior.
Panama exits China’s Belt and Road Initiative after US talks
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/panama-exits-china-s-belt-and-road-initiative-after-us-talks/ar-AA1yjY9c
Updated 15 mins ago –Business
Trump, Sheinbaum agree to pause U.S.-Mexico tariffs for a month
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/03/trump-tariffs-mexico-deal
Mexico will send 10,000 troops to U.S. border to avoid trade war
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/02/03/mexico-will-send-10000-troops-to-u-s-border-to-avoid-trade-war/
That was known days ago, just as Canada’s statement today about its program is old news.
For some reason the White House is enjoying what they call a victory dance. I see only a b.s. narrative to try to make Trump look strong and his behavior normalized.
I think the honeymoon is almost over.
This is the CME webpage that lists limit-down levels, updated everyday. Bookmark it. I have a feeling we are all going to need it…..
https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/price-limits.html#equityIndex
Conversation: Physicist Steve Hsu and TP Huang, AI engineer:
AI community overnight is basically testing the DeepSeek models out.
Six months from now there will be a huge shift, where there’s much less utilization of open AI models and much more utilization of really good open source models like DeepSeek R1
DeepSeek R1 is not beholden to the Open AI issues like how slow it is ( it is very slow because it takes so much time to think about questions ) and higher costs.
You can run it on your local computer if you wanted
OpenAI sometimes goes down intraday for four hours at a time.
If you’re a corporation, you’re already scared of sending private data to an AI firm, how can they trust a closed sourced AI?
https://stevehsu.substack.com/p/us-prc-tech-war-deepseek-ai-and-6th
Most Canadians can’t even imagine how extensive the country’s problem has become. When BC’s anti-money laundering inquiry released its final report in 2022, it estimated the national volume of funds obviously laundered to be around $100b annually as of 2018. Using a standard GDP multiplier, that works out to just over 6% of the economy.
https://betterdwelling.com/canada-cleaning-up-money-laundering-hits-gdp-the-same-as-tariffs/
Microsoft has introduced a stricter layoff policy, terminating employees without severance or extended benefits. Affected workers face immediate dismissal, losing access to company systems, healthcare, and other perks on their last working day
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/news/microsoft-enforces-tougher-layoff-rules-no-severance-immediate-termination
Top FBI officials (unknown exactly who or how many) told to resign or be fired as early as Monday morning. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the way into criminal investigations of Trump, not sure what his ultimate fate may be. Any Justice Dept officials linked to Smith, have already been fired.
Good!!!!!!!!