spidermike007

It appears to some of us that America's isolationist policies and tariffs are alienating much of the world, so my question is will this be a golden moment for both Canada and China, amongst others? Trumps plan to make America great again has instead made Canada stronger, more independent, and more competitive than ever before. While American companies are struggling with higher costs and disrupted supply chains, Canadian companies are accessing new markets, forming new partnerships, and building new capabilities that will serve them for generations. This is where the story takes an even more dramatic turn because what happened next proved that Canada's transformation wasn't just about economics, it was about something far more fundamental, it was about respect, dignity and the right of sovereign nations to determine their own destiny. When Trump realized that his tariff strategy had backfired spectacularly, he did what he always does when faced with failure, he doubled down, instead of acknowledging that his approach had been counterproductive, he threatened even more aggressive measures, he talked about 75% tariffs, about complete trade cutoffs, about economic warfare that would force Canada to its knees. But this time something was different, this time Canada wasn't afraid, the reality is more devastating than anyone in Washington wants to admit. While Trump celebrates his supposed tariff victories, the true cost of his economic warfare is becoming impossible to ignore. American families are paying the price quite literally as companies like Walmart, Amazon and Subaru have increased costs and passed them onto consumers. But here's what makes this story truly remarkable, Canada isn't just weathering the storm anymore, they're thriving in spite of it. Mark Carney's brilliant strategic pivot away from American dependency has created something unprecedented, a blueprint for economic independence that other nations are now studying carefully, the quiet revolution that began with rejecting Canadian steel, has evolved into a comprehensive realignment of global partnerships. The numbers tell the story better than any political speech could, Canada's defense spending is surging toward NATO's 2% target but with a crucial difference, instead of funneling 70 to 80% of that money into American defense contractors as they've done for decades, Canada is building domestic capacity. The defense procurement agency is centralizing decisions, prioritizing Canadian steel, Canadian aluminum, far superior Canadian lumber, and Canadian critical minerals. It's economic nationalism, without the chaos, and strategy without the shouting. Trump's threats perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with his approach, this isn't alliance building, it's extortion. Carney's response has been swift and decisive, Canada is exploring Swedish fighter jets, European Defense Partnerships, and technological independence. The message is clear, if America wants to treat allies like customers, those allies will shop elsewhere. The transformation extends far beyond military procurement, as Canada's pivot to European markets has accelerated dramatically since Trump's latest tariff escalation. Trade delegations that once focused primarily on American partnerships are now establishing deep ties with London, Paris, Beijing and Berlin. The psychological shift is just as important as the economic one, for the first time in generations Canadian leadership is openly questioning whether an American partnership is worth the constant uncertainty and humiliation. What's most striking about Canada's approach is its discipline, there are no angry and undisciplined tweets, no juvenile public tantrums, no threats of retaliation, but instead there's methodical execution of a long-term strategy that slowly but steadily reduces dependence on an unreliable partner. Every canceled American contract, every new European partnership, every investment in domestic capacity represents another step away from the economic relationship that has defined North America for decades. And the ripple effects are already visible across other American allies. If Canada, America's most integrated partner can successfully diversify away from dependence on Washington what's stopping others from following the same path? European leaders are watching carefully as Canada demonstrates that there's life beyond American economic hegemony, the quiet Canadian Revolution is becoming a case study in strategic independence. Trump's tariff war was supposed to bring manufacturing back to America and force allies into submission, but instead it's accelerating the exact opposite outcome. American Supply chains are disrupted, costs are rising, and the most reliable partner in North America is quietly building an alternative future. The art of the deal has become the art of self-destruction, and the world is taking notes. Canada's trade war victory isn't measured in dramatic headlines or political theater, it's measured in steady progress toward economic sovereignty, and strengthen partnerships with reliable allies, and in the quiet confidence that comes from no longer needing to fear the next presidential tweet. As Trump continues his chaotic approach to international relations, Canada has chosen a different path, strategic, patient and ultimately more powerful than any tariff could ever be. If the Communist Party of China (CPC) has its way, the People’s Republic will emerge as the new global hegemon. China’s recently published white paper on national security, its first ever, offers a glimpse into the CPC’s plans. Reflecting President Xi Jinping’s “holistic national security concept,” the document articulates an expansive, integrated approach, encompassing political, economic, military, technological, cultural, and societal domains. And unlike previous defense-focused white papers, it establishes political security – specifically, the CPC’s leadership – as the foundation of national stability, essential to enable China to act as a stabilizing force in a turbulent world. That turbulence, China asserts, has provided a critical opening for China to position itself as a stable and certain actor in regional and global affairs, a champion of multilateralism, an investor in and defender of the Global South, and a just peacemaker. Within Asia, this vision has materialized in “treaties of good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation” between China and nine countries, and in China’s promotion of greater regional security cooperation, including with the ASEAN countries. More broadly, China is touting Xi’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), which was launched in 2022 as an alternative to Western-led security frameworks that can support broad-based, “win-win” cooperation on “complex and intertwined security challenges.” But as Trump’s America abandons that approach and alienates more of the world, China’s vision, focused on fortifying CPC control and building alternative frameworks for global engagement, has gained greater appeal.

A nitwit with power can cause alot of damage.

I wondered how many people were going to have to die before Kennedy finally admitted that there might be a way to prevent measles, just like there has been for so many decades. At least the dunce of the Kennedy family is finally doing something smart. I wondered when that would happen. Very unlike him.

Any older than that, and they really don't have much to talk about.

How does a supporter of his defend an incoherent and rambling statement like this one? There was ever any doubt about his senility this is empirical proof. This is the reply from the smartest and most articulate man in the world when asked about the 90 deals in 90 days that he promised. “Oh, we’ve spoken to everybody. We know every. It’s all done. I told you. I told you we’ll make some deals, but for the most part we’re gonna send a letter. We’re gonna say, ‘Welcome to the United States. If you’d like to participate in the greatest, most successful country ever.’ I mean, we’re doing better than ever. We have. I don’t think. And you’re gonna see these numbers soon. We’ve never had numbers like this. We’ve never had investment like this. Uh, we have more than 90. We’re gonna have much more than 90. But most of those are gonna be sent a letter. This is exactly what I said. Now, we’ve made a deal with United Kingdom. We’ve made a deal with China. We’ve made a deal. We’re close to making a deal with India. Others, we’ve met with, and we don’t think we’re gonna be able to make a deal. So, we just send them a letter. ‘Do you wanna, do you wanna play ball? This is what you have to pay.’ So, we’re, as far as I’m concerned, we’re done. We’re sending out letters to various countries, telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit depending if they have a, you know, cause. We’re not gonna be unfair about it. And actually, it’s a small fraction compared to what we should be getting. We should be. We could be asking for much more. But for the sake of relationships that we’ve had with a lot of really good countries, we’re doing the way I do it. But we could be getting a lot more. We could ask for a lot more than what we’re asking for.”

Yes my original thought of the day is how Mark Carney has completely outsmarted Trump, done a total pivot toward the EU, realigned Canada's priorities so that all their defense needs are going to be met through the EU, and announce major trading agreements with EU Nations and China, making America less relevant by the day. I know as a devotee it upsets you to hear these kind of things, but truth is truth as they say. If there's anything you can say about Trump it's that he dramatically overestimated his influence. The world is just saying NO thanks.

Evil does not even begin to describe what this man is. A reckless, callow, ungodly, black hearted narcissistic psychopath is closer to the mark.

President Donald Trump has avoided talking about his plan to scrap the federal disaster response agency after the catastrophic flash flood in Texas that killed more than 100 people, including children attending a girls-only camp. Asked shortly after the disaster whether he still intended to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Trump said it wasn’t the right time to talk about it. Nor did he mention such plans during a nearly two-hour meeting with his Cabinet on Tuesday. The flood and its devastation appear to have, for the moment, tamped down talk by Trump and Noem of scaling back FEMA, which helps states respond after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters by providing food, water and temporary housing and federal financial and other assistance. Real disasters? Assistence is still needed? Huh. Maybe is was a bone headed idea after all.

Better to sniff than to act on one's impulses. Don is as guilty as they come. He was even caught on videotape with Epstein saying how he likes them very young. How young? 15? Quite likely. He is sufficiently bent morally to embrace that sort of action.

I've never heard of a single expat actually choosing Cuba. I've been there many times and though I love the people and the culture, the place is so spectacularly dysfunctional, and the police are so heinous, I stopped traveling there 20 years ago. Around the time the chief cockroach started losing his mind. Before he croaked.

Yes. But only 4 months or so, per year. The rest of the time i'd be hopping around between southern Italy, Turkey, possibly Morocco, and several other spots. But since I'm not wealthy enough to support that kind of lifestyle, Thailand works for me 9 to 10 months of the year.

Sharia and any organization or group that supports Sharia must be stopped. And no rights whatsoever should be accorded to these organizations. The imposition of Sharia law is simply a way for those men, with little to no self esteem, to keep the women as repressed as possible. Nothing religious about anything in their game. It is all a big show. A rather heinous one, at that. This is 13th century, puerile, nasty, uncivilized, fake puritan nonsense. There is alot of confusion within the Muslim religion, and Sharia law, with regard to sex, fun, singing, dancing and joy in general. Very outdated and fairly ridiculous concepts, in this day and age. Let us be thankful we are not subject to such nonsense. Something must be done to keep out the extremist super freaks. Their religion may work for them in Saudi, Kuwait, Yemen, Sudan or Somalia. That same ultra conservative fanatislcism, is not wanted, needed, nor desirable in Western nations. Only moderates need apply should be the policy. And there should be a standard of willingness to assimilate, and the burden should be on the family to prove the burden is met. I believe immigration policy should be reformed to the point where it should be staged, and all Muslim families should show a willingness to assimilate. I also believe that families with Muslim daughters who are teenagers can start by proving that they have participated in a bikini contest, and for teenage boys they must show a burden of proof that they're not affiliated with any of the local madrasas. Are we serious about keeping our nation's safe from extremists, or not?

Stop trying to make the monkeys as useless as the politicians! It was a big mistake to get the Monkey Union involved. They are unfair negotiators.

This sums him up perfectly: Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: "A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.* You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of bull<deleted>. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W. look smart and articulate. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: 'My God… what… have… I… created?

He does not care one iota for the average American.

That's a good start. Now, let see if they can down 200 generals. That would likely win the war against the vermins. Victory to the people!

These lowlifes are likely responsible for countless crimes and breaches of social norms. They simply have too much power and it is likely that the law rarely pursues them. Hope this creep gets locked up.

This is the reply from the smartest and most articulate man in the world when asked about the 90 deals in 90 days that he promised. “Oh, we’ve spoken to everybody. We know every. It’s all done. I told you. I told you we’ll make some deals, but for the most part we’re gonna send a letter. We’re gonna say, ‘Welcome to the United States. If you’d like to participate in the greatest, most successful country ever.’ I mean, we’re doing better than ever. We have. I don’t think. And you’re gonna see these numbers soon. We’ve never had numbers like this. We’ve never had investment like this. Uh, we have more than 90. We’re gonna have much more than 90. But most of those are gonna be sent a letter. This is exactly what I said. Now, we’ve made a deal with United Kingdom. We’ve made a deal with China. We’ve made a deal. We’re close to making a deal with India. Others, we’ve met with, and we don’t think we’re gonna be able to make a deal. So, we just send them a letter. ‘Do you wanna, do you wanna play ball? This is what you have to pay.’ So, we’re, as far as I’m concerned, we’re done. We’re sending out letters to various countries, telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit depending if they have a, you know, cause. We’re not gonna be unfair about it. And actually, it’s a small fraction compared to what we should be getting. We should be. We could be asking for much more. But for the sake of relationships that we’ve had with a lot of really good countries, we’re doing the way I do it. But we could be getting a lot more. We could ask for a lot more than what we’re asking for.” America is sure in good hands.

We must maintain hope and the good youth of Thailand must maintain hope. It will happen, it's just a matter of time. Same applies to Burma and Cambodia.

Well if the Department of Justice and the FBI say it, it must be untrue. How are they to be trusted, especially when they're being politicized to the extent that they are right now? Trump has a lot to answer for, he had a decade long friendship with Epstein, who said on record Don was his closest friend in the world. There's countless amounts of information about Trump having spent an inordinate amount of time at the mansion, and there are flight records showing that Trump flew to Orgy Island at least seven times, possibly many more times than that, and we know what his penchant was for "very young women". There has been sufficient evidence that point towards the impossibility of committing suicide in one of those cells, you cannot hang yourself from a bunk that's 2 ft off the ground with tissue thin sheets, and high quality video equipment does not simply stop working on its own. There's virtually no chance that Epstein killed himself, just like there was no chance that Kenneth Lay died of a heart attack just before his trial.

Absolutely awful. Though they are a solid bike they're certainly not made for long distance travel, unless you are a very hardcore type, who does not mind punishing your body. If budget is the issue, I would step up to a Honda ATV 160, it's a far better bike, much better suspension, and a more comfortable ride, with a lot more power. Otherwise, the smallest bike I would consider touring with is a 350cc. Either a Forza or an ADV. While we're on the topic does anybody own a Zontes 368? I was wondering about them. Been hearirg good things.

I wonder if this had anything to do with the competition next door? What really happened? Sam Rainsy, the exiled former leader of Cambodia’s opposition party, has accused Hun Sen of exacerbating the conflict with Thailand because of its crackdown on the cyber scam operations as well as the criminal networks that run the casinos mostly for Thai visitors in Cambodia. Hun Sen’s outburst has nothing to do with protecting Cambodia’s sovereignty. It is about preserving the corrupt financial networks that keep his regime afloat,” Rainsy said on Facebook. Hun Sen purposely shared his recording of the phone call with Paetongtarn with around 80 officials under a Cambodian media law, knowing it would be further disseminated. https://tomorrowsaffairs.com/might-leaked-calls-and-protests-lead-to-another-coup-in-thailand

Wow that's quite an assumption. I wonder if it's founded upon anything even bordering on factual? It's not easy running a retail business, I see an awful lot of these cannabis shops that are not busy, overhead is high, upfront costs are high, and you can't just assume that most shops are making a lot of money.

One can only hope that this nation rises up and shows it's disapproval of terrible leadership one day soon. If the goons attempt to steal another election, hopefully millions upon millions will take to the streets and just shut this nation down until the toxic and spectacularly immoral elites step aside. There won't be another coup. There is no moral authority to condone one.

I feel the same way, the past is the past, we all have a past, some are truthful about it, most are not, and one just never knows. It barely matters if they are kind, well adjusted and seem to carry very little baggage.