A top White House official has threatened to redraw the Canadian border amid Donald Trump’s ambition to turn the country in America’s “51st state”.
Peter Navarro, one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, is pushing US negotiators to discuss reworking the border with their Canadian counterparts, The Telegraph can reveal.
“Navarro recommended revising the Canada-US border, which is just crazy and dangerous,” a source close to negotiations told The Telegraph.
Canada has now instructed its delegates to withdraw from negotiations with the US until Jameson Greer and Howard Lutnick, two incoming members of Mr Trump’s cabinet, are confirmed by the senate. Mr Greer and Mr Lutnick are viewed by Ontario as being less extreme.
“The Canadians have told their people to hold off negotiating with the US Government until Jameson Greer and Howard Lutnick are confirmed by the Senate and in post,” the source said.
Proposals also put forward by Mr Navarro include expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, the most important intelligence-sharing network in the world.
Mr Navarro, whose close relationship with Mr Trump has afforded him ease of access to the Oval Office, is “ruling the roost”, insiders say, with some staffers left feeling unable to challenge him.
“Peter Navarro is in post, and he is taking advantage of being there by himself with no one else in post to challenge his extreme positions. This will change as soon as the many other trade and economic positions are filled,” the source added.
When did your ancestors come here? Why did they come here? How easy was it for them to come here? Why should it be more difficult for others than it was for your ancestors?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
"In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold
A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia."
"The news media is being pressured. Lawmakers have been tamed. Career officials deemed disloyal are being fired. Prosecutors named by a president who promised “retribution” are targeting perceived adversaries and dropping cases against allies or others who do his bidding. Billionaire tycoons who once considered themselves masters of the universe are prostrating themselves before him.
Judges who temporarily block administration decisions that they believe may be illegal are being threatened with impeachment. The uniformed military, which resisted being used as a political instrument in Mr. Trump’s first term, has now been purged of its highest-ranking officers and lawyers. And a president who calls himself “the king,” ostensibly in jest, is teasing that he may try to stay in power beyond the limits of the Constitution.
Some versions of this are not new, of course. Other presidents have taken actions that looked heavy-handed or put pressure on opponents. No president in my experience at the White House, which goes back to 1996, particularly liked news coverage of him, and certainly there have been times when journalists were penalized for their reporting."
Looks like no flu vaccine this year: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/fda-flu-vaccine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0E4.BCg6.NQ9_8QTh2mFd&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
"The final version of the agreement, dated Feb. 24, establishes a fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of proceeds from the "future monetization" of state-owned mineral resources, including oil, gas, and related logistics. The fund will invest in projects within Ukraine.
The deal excludes resources that already contribute to Ukraine's state budget, meaning it will not cover operations by Naftogaz and Ukrnafta, the country's largest oil and gas producers."
The House manages to pass their draconian budget, 217-215. Massie votes no but probably because he thought the cuts were not draconian enough. My guess is that the Senate just goes supine and votes for the House budget on party lines or with 2-3 defectors (Vance as the tiebreaker) because having to deal with Democrats is a face worse than death
It looks like the results of the German election are going to be...the same unstable coalition with the CDU taking the Chancellorship instead of the SDU
Welp, Buffet took Berkshire Hathaway from a 14 percent cash position to a 33 percent cash position, this means he thinks the stock market will likely crash
The latest MUSK/DOGE emails seems to he going sideways. Some judges received it and maybe some politicians (I can't confirm the last part but Tina Smith wrote something about Musk not being the boss of her while calling it a Dick Boss Move)
"We’ve got a fascinating story unfolding with the new Musk email I reported on below. And yes, something can be fascinating while also being grave, dangerous and in its own way terrifying. Over the course of the evening top leadership at the FBI, the State Department, the VA, the Department of the Navy (to its civilian employees) and other parts of the government have explicitly instructed employees in their departments and agencies to ignore the email. Meanwhile the DOJ seems to be instructing its employees to follow it. (And yes, FBI is sort of under DOJ and that’s kind of weird but that’s where we are.)
It’s important to note that these emails are authorized or allowed if not directed by the President of the United States. And yet whole wings of the government are saying to ignore it. I mentioned to someone this evening that they’re treating a presidentially authorized email as some kind of insider threat. And this person says, we’re surprised that Trump is an insider threat? To which I said, yes, I’m surprised that his own appointees are doing so.
This is all a bit comical and also manages to be a certain degree of state disintegration we’re watching in real time. But it also seems clear that Musk has gotten a bit over his skis finally. We’ve been in this world of upside where a lone wolf is on a wilding spree through the federal government, clearly not operating at anyone’s direction but his own. And yet the President is at least okaying it all after the fact. And thus our system can’t really make sense of what’s happening. Yes, it’s almost all illegal even or in a sense especially if the President is authorizing it. But it’s also pretty clear that the elected President is in the backseat of this car if he’s in the car at all.
But here you have seemingly the first time where his own appointees are pushing back and in a fairly public way.
"Still, he said, “federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent — no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people.”
Judge Cooper said that he was denying the unions’ request that he block the Trump administration from continuing its downsizing efforts because the matter should be first addressed with the agency that adjudicates labor disputes between federal employee unions and management, known as the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Judge Cooper noted that if the unions lose in that venue, they could resume their court battle through the federal court of appeals."
So Trump's neat trick here is to illegally destroy the ability of the admin bodies to hold hearings on his mass firings and then get goo goo dumb dumb judges who express sympathy and concern but state it is very important for procedure to be followed, rule of law and all that.
1. I think 70-80 percent of the reason Harris did not win was the general inflation/throw the bums out trend that swept elections all over the world. Occam's razor and all that.
1a. The rest was death by a thousand cuts and I think Israel/Palestine was more of a reason than DEI and I think Israel/Palestine was barely one of the cuts.
2. Even given that, she lost very narrowly given only months to campaign and received more votes than Biden in four swing states: NC, GA, NV, and one more than I am forgetting.
2a. Trump won those states but his super-power is always getting low-propensity Herrenvolkists out who vote for him and often only him. Hence, the fact that he was only able to flip one swing state Senate race (PA). OH, MT, and WV are red states.
3. To the extent, people are saying DEI caused them to vote for Trump, they are still doing the innuendo version of "No snowball chance in hell you are getting me to vote for the Black-Indian Lady...."
4. I think very online people talking about DEI being bad are a select group of cranky middle-aged white guys who hate that a black woman made them feel uncomfortable and potentially contemplate things that they preferred not to contemplate. Or some guys seem to act like DEI means that one day their daughter is going to stop being Daddy's Little Girl suddenly and come home with a girlfriend with a shaved head and combat fatigues and say "Sorry Daddy but DEI taught me that the revolution is here and you have to be put up against the wall. Suzy here is going to pull the trigger."
Basically, it is a bunch of people with an ax to grind and using this as an opportunity, also why did Biden have to appoint all those non-white people like Julie Su and Lina Khan, can't we just go back to the Clinton 90s when all these pesky social issues were kept on the table please? Instead of American citizens, we should think of ourselves as employees for America, Inc, completely dedicated to increasing the GDP/Quarterly profits. I, Very Serious Pundit Man, will act as HR cheerleader. Everything else is just a distraction against the goal of America, Inc."
Yes, some DEI stuff is the closest thing liberals have to the right-wing wingnut circuit but people have a moral responsibility to think with straight heads and if Musk is out there talking about how we need pain/great depression to bring about his third-rate Shadowrun/Curtis Yarvin fantasy and Trump is talking about mass deportations, a person has a responsibility to take this seriously and literally. I'm not going to let people off the hook if there response to this is "Yeah,but I had to go listen to a lecture on implicit bias and structural racism..."
Well, I don't know what to say to these people but it sure as hell looks like Musk wants a deep, deep recession or worse.
Musk is apparently high as a kite at CPAC while waving around a chainsaw and Grimes is begging online for his attention because one of their three kids is in medical crisis.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/02/27/white-house-canadian-border-trump-trudeau/
A top White House official has threatened to redraw the Canadian border amid Donald Trump’s ambition to turn the country in America’s “51st state”.
Peter Navarro, one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, is pushing US negotiators to discuss reworking the border with their Canadian counterparts, The Telegraph can reveal.
“Navarro recommended revising the Canada-US border, which is just crazy and dangerous,” a source close to negotiations told The Telegraph.
Canada has now instructed its delegates to withdraw from negotiations with the US until Jameson Greer and Howard Lutnick, two incoming members of Mr Trump’s cabinet, are confirmed by the senate. Mr Greer and Mr Lutnick are viewed by Ontario as being less extreme.
“The Canadians have told their people to hold off negotiating with the US Government until Jameson Greer and Howard Lutnick are confirmed by the Senate and in post,” the source said.
Proposals also put forward by Mr Navarro include expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, the most important intelligence-sharing network in the world.
Mr Navarro, whose close relationship with Mr Trump has afforded him ease of access to the Oval Office, is “ruling the roost”, insiders say, with some staffers left feeling unable to challenge him.
“Peter Navarro is in post, and he is taking advantage of being there by himself with no one else in post to challenge his extreme positions. This will change as soon as the many other trade and economic positions are filled,” the source added.
On “From Fox News: AG Pam Bondi announces Epstein files will start to be released on Thursday the 27th”
Once again, the conspiracy theorists are disappointed.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
No, it isn't and shouldn't be.
"
When did your ancestors come here? Why did they come here? How easy was it for them to come here? Why should it be more difficult for others than it was for your ancestors?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
On “From Fox News: AG Pam Bondi announces Epstein files will start to be released on Thursday the 27th”
Trump cares about decency so much that he pressured Romania to release Andrew Tate
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/27/europe/andrew-tate-romania-us-intl-hnk/index.html
But as long as you get your conspiracy s$$ts and giggles, all is okay, is that right?
"
"In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold
A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/trump-putin-russia.html?rsrc=ss&unlocked_article_code=1.0E4.pb0U.r_TPLHt10mMI&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
"The news media is being pressured. Lawmakers have been tamed. Career officials deemed disloyal are being fired. Prosecutors named by a president who promised “retribution” are targeting perceived adversaries and dropping cases against allies or others who do his bidding. Billionaire tycoons who once considered themselves masters of the universe are prostrating themselves before him.
Judges who temporarily block administration decisions that they believe may be illegal are being threatened with impeachment. The uniformed military, which resisted being used as a political instrument in Mr. Trump’s first term, has now been purged of its highest-ranking officers and lawyers. And a president who calls himself “the king,” ostensibly in jest, is teasing that he may try to stay in power beyond the limits of the Constitution.
Some versions of this are not new, of course. Other presidents have taken actions that looked heavy-handed or put pressure on opponents. No president in my experience at the White House, which goes back to 1996, particularly liked news coverage of him, and certainly there have been times when journalists were penalized for their reporting."
"
Just the thing to distract from Trump and Co's Orbanification of the United States and the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Looks like no flu vaccine this year: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/fda-flu-vaccine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0E4.BCg6.NQ9_8QTh2mFd&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
"
For the record:
Personal Liberty means the right of movement and protection for Trans youth, trans people in general
Free Markets means competition and no monopolies.
"
You assume he means the same things with Personal Liberty and Free Markets you think these words mean.
"
Obamacare was very successful but thanks for trolling
"
https://kyivindependent.com/breaking-kyiv-washington-reach-agreement-on-minerals-deal/
"The final version of the agreement, dated Feb. 24, establishes a fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of proceeds from the "future monetization" of state-owned mineral resources, including oil, gas, and related logistics. The fund will invest in projects within Ukraine.
The deal excludes resources that already contribute to Ukraine's state budget, meaning it will not cover operations by Naftogaz and Ukrnafta, the country's largest oil and gas producers."
If this is accurate, Trump got played again
"
The House manages to pass their draconian budget, 217-215. Massie votes no but probably because he thought the cuts were not draconian enough. My guess is that the Senate just goes supine and votes for the House budget on party lines or with 2-3 defectors (Vance as the tiebreaker) because having to deal with Democrats is a face worse than death
"
Marcon gives a master class in rebutting Trump, right in front of his face: https://bsky.app/profile/fospheans.bsky.social/post/3lixklvkyn22f
"
It looks like the results of the German election are going to be...the same unstable coalition with the CDU taking the Chancellorship instead of the SDU
"
Welp, Buffet took Berkshire Hathaway from a 14 percent cash position to a 33 percent cash position, this means he thinks the stock market will likely crash
"
Lee Zeldin goes for the deep cuts: https://bsky.app/profile/maxkennerly.bsky.social/post/3lixlyduyus2g
"
Spmeone hacked TV's at HUD with some really interesting AI graphics. Consider this your trigger warning
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/17/2025”
The latest MUSK/DOGE emails seems to he going sideways. Some judges received it and maybe some politicians (I can't confirm the last part but Tina Smith wrote something about Musk not being the boss of her while calling it a Dick Boss Move)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/new-doge-musk-email-goes-seriously-sideways
"We’ve got a fascinating story unfolding with the new Musk email I reported on below. And yes, something can be fascinating while also being grave, dangerous and in its own way terrifying. Over the course of the evening top leadership at the FBI, the State Department, the VA, the Department of the Navy (to its civilian employees) and other parts of the government have explicitly instructed employees in their departments and agencies to ignore the email. Meanwhile the DOJ seems to be instructing its employees to follow it. (And yes, FBI is sort of under DOJ and that’s kind of weird but that’s where we are.)
It’s important to note that these emails are authorized or allowed if not directed by the President of the United States. And yet whole wings of the government are saying to ignore it. I mentioned to someone this evening that they’re treating a presidentially authorized email as some kind of insider threat. And this person says, we’re surprised that Trump is an insider threat? To which I said, yes, I’m surprised that his own appointees are doing so.
This is all a bit comical and also manages to be a certain degree of state disintegration we’re watching in real time. But it also seems clear that Musk has gotten a bit over his skis finally. We’ve been in this world of upside where a lone wolf is on a wilding spree through the federal government, clearly not operating at anyone’s direction but his own. And yet the President is at least okaying it all after the fact. And thus our system can’t really make sense of what’s happening. Yes, it’s almost all illegal even or in a sense especially if the President is authorizing it. But it’s also pretty clear that the elected President is in the backseat of this car if he’s in the car at all.
But here you have seemingly the first time where his own appointees are pushing back and in a fairly public way.
This will get weirder."
"
Your beloved contrarian is addicted to trolling as Musk is addicted to Ketamine.
"
Harris lost most of her votes in blue states.
She lost nearly 1.9 million votes in California and about 700K in New York, another 400K in NJ.
She still won all these states pretty easily. NJ was the closest and it was still nearly 52 percent for her.
In CA, Democrats managed to flip three House seats R to D despite shedding 1.9 million votes from Biden to Harris.
It seems to be more parochial-municipal issues being turned into ire at national Democrats and not DEI.
"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/politics/federal-worker-firings-trump-ruling.html
Lawyer brain will be the death of us all:
"Still, he said, “federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent — no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people.”
Judge Cooper said that he was denying the unions’ request that he block the Trump administration from continuing its downsizing efforts because the matter should be first addressed with the agency that adjudicates labor disputes between federal employee unions and management, known as the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Judge Cooper noted that if the unions lose in that venue, they could resume their court battle through the federal court of appeals."
So Trump's neat trick here is to illegally destroy the ability of the admin bodies to hold hearings on his mass firings and then get goo goo dumb dumb judges who express sympathy and concern but state it is very important for procedure to be followed, rule of law and all that.
"
I'll be blunt.
1. I think 70-80 percent of the reason Harris did not win was the general inflation/throw the bums out trend that swept elections all over the world. Occam's razor and all that.
1a. The rest was death by a thousand cuts and I think Israel/Palestine was more of a reason than DEI and I think Israel/Palestine was barely one of the cuts.
2. Even given that, she lost very narrowly given only months to campaign and received more votes than Biden in four swing states: NC, GA, NV, and one more than I am forgetting.
2a. Trump won those states but his super-power is always getting low-propensity Herrenvolkists out who vote for him and often only him. Hence, the fact that he was only able to flip one swing state Senate race (PA). OH, MT, and WV are red states.
3. To the extent, people are saying DEI caused them to vote for Trump, they are still doing the innuendo version of "No snowball chance in hell you are getting me to vote for the Black-Indian Lady...."
4. I think very online people talking about DEI being bad are a select group of cranky middle-aged white guys who hate that a black woman made them feel uncomfortable and potentially contemplate things that they preferred not to contemplate. Or some guys seem to act like DEI means that one day their daughter is going to stop being Daddy's Little Girl suddenly and come home with a girlfriend with a shaved head and combat fatigues and say "Sorry Daddy but DEI taught me that the revolution is here and you have to be put up against the wall. Suzy here is going to pull the trigger."
Basically, it is a bunch of people with an ax to grind and using this as an opportunity, also why did Biden have to appoint all those non-white people like Julie Su and Lina Khan, can't we just go back to the Clinton 90s when all these pesky social issues were kept on the table please? Instead of American citizens, we should think of ourselves as employees for America, Inc, completely dedicated to increasing the GDP/Quarterly profits. I, Very Serious Pundit Man, will act as HR cheerleader. Everything else is just a distraction against the goal of America, Inc."
Yes, some DEI stuff is the closest thing liberals have to the right-wing wingnut circuit but people have a moral responsibility to think with straight heads and if Musk is out there talking about how we need pain/great depression to bring about his third-rate Shadowrun/Curtis Yarvin fantasy and Trump is talking about mass deportations, a person has a responsibility to take this seriously and literally. I'm not going to let people off the hook if there response to this is "Yeah,but I had to go listen to a lecture on implicit bias and structural racism..."
Well, I don't know what to say to these people but it sure as hell looks like Musk wants a deep, deep recession or worse.
"
The fact that no one seems to have a sense of perspective in worrisome.
Does everyone else see what is going on in the United States right now? And we are saying "Well, Democrats have a DEI problem."
F###ing Flying Spaghetti Monster
"
Musk is apparently high as a kite at CPAC while waving around a chainsaw and Grimes is begging online for his attention because one of their three kids is in medical crisis.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.