Ayyy, remember how Canada capitulated on the digital service tax.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62553ywn77o
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/06/canada-rescinds-digital-services-tax-to-advance-broader-trade-negotiations-with-the-united-states.html

Then trump threatens new tarrifs?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg819n954mo

(I’m struggling to find new sources,. cause everything is about dropping the DST to allow further trade talks. Not the timeline of DST dropping and the further US tariffs. Maybe these are coincidental, maybe there was always gonna be more Canadian tariffs. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Canada got more blanket tariffs regardless of what they did. Speaks volumes to everyone else dealing with trump)

Trump is destabilising international trade. This doesn’t benefit the US. At all.

deleted by creator

Clearly you are not a bot if you can say smeeeee… Smeeehhhh… Smeeeeeee… Heeeeeeeaaaa…

G0 summits would represent a significant savings

So, we should be sending people to prison? Cause that’s what happened to people involved in dieselgate. Along with the affected cars being recalled and the owners compensated.

From the wiki, and I’m simplifying:
VW was handed over to the German government after being offered free-of-charge to Ford in 1948 by the British government (who ran the factory up till then).
In 1946 the produced 1000 cars per month. In 1949, 2 cars were sold in the US.
In 1952, 12 VWs were sold in Canada.
In 1955 they produced over 1 million Beetles.

So 3 years on life support being ran by the British. Dunno how long being run by the German government before becoming GmbH.

Over what sort of timeframe?
Couple months? Couple years? Couple decades?

And the news cycle can’t keep up or spend appropriate amounts of time/outrage on the things that are criminal, abhorrent and hurting people.
Throw a bunch of stupid shit to the media, let them feast. Sneak around while they are busy and get the truely hurtful stuff into law (or just skip the law part, and do it).

World Police

That was a day. A few hours, at least

I think we agree.
The intel trump used to order the strikes was wrong… The intel was wrong.
Presuming the buck stops with the president of course.

I doubt he actually cared enough about any briefing material. He probably went in with the mentality of “Iran is developing nukes, and should be stopped” then asked for intel according to that presumption.

I think trump would immediately throw a company under the bus for their “weak loser bombs” if they didn’t perform as designed.
I think trump would immediately “you’re fired” a general for spec-ing the wrong bombs.

I think the intel was wrong

Interesting. I might try them, or see if I can get them.
But I haven’t smoked in a decade, and I have no urge to smoke again.
I’m addicted to the nicotine now, instead of the habit of smoking. Which works for me.

Oh yeh. I wish smoking was just completely not a thing and never was a thing.

When I started it was very socially acceptable and cheap to smoke.
Then it got less socially acceptable (indoor smoking ban), and a big bump in price. I tried quiting a few times, but I always ended up smoking again.
Somehow, when working hard and under time constraints “going for a smoke break” was an accepted excuse to spend 5 minutes outside. Bonkers.

Anyway, a proper vaping setup, making my own vape juice and all that had me forget about cigarettes within a few weeks, and I vaped for 5 years. Maybe 8?
Still had an excuse to go for a break, but I felt so much healthier vaping than I ever did smoking. And I could still sneak a vape indoors if there wasn’t time for me to go outside.

Been on the pouches for 1.5 years now.

So yeh, increase the taxes on tobacco. A small bump for vaping nicotine (imo, safer than smoking but not risk free). And ideally no tax increase for nicotine products.

I could see a minor bump in taxes for snus/snuff/chewing tobacco. It’s still a risk to the consumer (because it’s tobacco), but it doesn’t pose a risk to 3rd parties (because it’s not burnt or aerosolised).

I hope it’s sensible with regards to tobacco derived products (ie nicotine).
I used vaping to quit smoking. And I’m now on the nicotine pouches and have quit vaping.
I know I’m just swapping 1 addiction for another, but each has significantly reduced the risk to me and those around me.

But if the pouches do get more expensive, I’m sure there’s some nicorette or some other official/medical nicotine thing I can swap to. I assume they won’t get a tax increase (cause if they do, then the tax is stupid)

A founding member of NATO…

In the cloud, obviously

“The United States has unilaterally and repeatedly provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating uncertainty and instability in bilateral economic and trade relations,” the statement said. “Instead of reflecting on its own actions, the United States has groundlessly accused China of violating the consensus, a claim that grossly distorts the facts.”

That is such a wonderfully diplomatic way of saying “stop being a fucking idiot, your words have meaning and these are the consequences. Grow up”.
Even just “grow up”, tbh.

As much as I dislike the amount of reliance the world has on China (for the labour conditions there, the nature of their government to impose dodgy practices, generally speaking not being a “good egg”), China seems like the only trading bloc (although not a bloc, I guess… Maybe “trading entity”) that can unilaterally stand toe-to-toe with TACO and win. So, good on china.

He will take it with him if he leaves office.
He will XO a charity gift to the newly found “Trumps School For Governments That Can’t Democracy Good”, and use it to fly around and give intimate talks at lavish dinners (not keynote speeches. Just be at a table)

Proper decorum demands also removing your pants