Joe Heller is right, though obviously we can’t buy everything that we’re going to need over the next four years between now and January 20.
On the other hand, part of the strategy of hunkering down until the worst is over might include rushing to lock in any major purchases you had in mind.
Our trade with Canada was a large part of my work in the late 80s, the days of the Free Trade Agreement between our two countries, as well as a cross-border shopping spree that saw American developers building massive shopping centers just over the border as Canadians flooded in to take advantage of a favorable exchange rate.
As a business writer at a daily paper less than 30 miles from the border, I had to learn not just how to convert currency but about softwood lumber and the arcane rules around automobile production.
The auto issues seemed maddening: You could buy the same car for less in Canada, but you couldn’t get the sticker saying it met environmental standards, so it couldn’t be imported. Softwood lumber was even more arcane, having to do with stumpage and a bunch of other technical issues.
And there was something about bauxite that I’ve completely erased from my mind.
My job was to explain why things were so complex without being so complex that nobody’d want to read it.
It was a lot more fun to cover drug seizures and to interview truckers infuriated by delays during a work-to-rule strike by Canadian customs inspectors.
Which is a good opportunity to again point out that the vast majority of fentanyl coming into this country is being smuggled by US citizens, not migrants. Our paper covered a lot of busts of “mules” who had all their papers and visas in order and a load of cocaine either in hidden luggage compartments or in swallowed condoms. And, BTW, fentanyl issues are already decreasing.
It’s handy racist propaganda to blame drug traffic on the migrants, but if we’re going to tie up the economy with tariffs until the problem is completely resolved, we might want to try a more fact-based analysis.
Facts, of course, have nothing to do with it. As Bill Bramhall points out, Dear Leader was elected on a promise to end inflation and bring down the cost of living and his announced economic policies are going to do just the opposite.
There are all sorts of stuff that will be effected by Dear Leader’s 25% tariffs, including a lot of fruits and vegetables coming from Mexico, though we can substitute the American-based produce which will be rotting in the fields once we’ve deported all the braceros, or will cost more because we can no longer exploit undocumented workers with lousy wages.
While if our cars aren’t all being built in Mexico and Canada — an awful lot of them are — they’ll still contain imported parts which will have tariffs added to them.
And a whole lot of the type of petroleum that can be made into gasoline comes from Canada, so kick up those gas prices.
The MAGAts will demand we become energy independent and will insist that it’s well within our ability to drill, baby, drill, but their enthusiasm won’t change the nature of what comes out of the ground in this country.
Dennis Goris joins a hopeful chorus of people who expect the MAGAts to realize they’ve been had, and who will rise up against Dear Leader when the tariffs hit and the cost of living skyrockets.
I wouldn’t expect a major movement, though I do think there is an excellent chance that enough people will wise up that the 2026 midterms will see the Republican majorities in Congress fall, which would be enough to at least put a sea anchor, if not a complete block, on the would-be dictators.
As Kevin Necessary suggests, the True Believers will keep their faith right up to the last moment, to which I would add that I don’t know how turkeys respond to the ax, but the expression “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” is not empty folklore: They don’t run far but they do make an impressive scramble.
I wouldn’t count on some major reversal of political loyalties just because of a crisis in personal finances.
Juxtaposition of the Day
It’s impractical, and naive, to expect some turnaround in public attitudes, given that people will still be fed plenty of dubious slant.
Ramirez, for example, is horrified that the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. He adds some sort of cross-dressing homophobic whatever, but is specifically accusing the court of bias.
However, he fails to note that they also issued a warrant for the same thing, naming the head of Hamas. Now, granted, it is believed he has been killed in the war, but the fact remains that the ICC accused both Israel and Hamas.
It’s only “bias” if you either whitewash the overall process or assume that one side is completely innocent and the other side is completely evil.
Meanwhile, Kelley is outraged that Senator Bob Casey waited until the recount was completed before conceding defeat in a Senate race he lost by one-half of one-percent.
At least Casey didn’t say the vote count was fraudulent, that the entire race had been fixed, that busloads of people from New Jersey and Ohio had been brought in to vote illegally, and then rally his supporters to break into the capitol building in Harrisburg, smear feces on the walls and attempt to assault state legislators.
Or something.
Juxtaposition of the Antipodes
Australian climate protesters have been facing harsh laws, particularly in their protests at Newcastle, the world’s largest coal-producing area, where they have massed in the harbor, causing at least one ship to turn around and avoid the confrontation.
But Alex Hallatt’s suggestion raises a question: If peaceful protests draw two-year prison terms, would writing letters to legislators prove any more effective?
And Megan Herbert asks the more fundamental question of whether blocking the port is more dangerous than continuing to promote coal as a basic fuel and increasing its production?
Ask carefully or you might find yourself in trouble.
But don’t stop asking.