Tag Archives: Howard Lutnick

Moments to drink to

So, as I took notice to the settings in the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/us-booze-bans-canadians-9.7300293) where we see ‘U.S. booze might end up back on Canadian shelves, but have we lost the taste for it?’ Where we see “Majority of Canadians say they won’t buy American alcohol if it becomes available again, recent poll shows” and that is merely the beginning. I (as an Australian) am also shunning American drinks and I am not alone in this. Optionally a fair share of people in the UK are on that same setting. And there are options for us. I for one am a fan of French Cognac (Martel/Hennessy), Australian Rum (Bundaberg), London Gin (Bombay Sapphire) Finnish Vodka (Finlandia), Swedish Vodka (Absolut) and there is Scottish Whiskey, prettier stated Scotch (Glenfiddich), Italian Limoncello (Villa Massa) and optionally Ice Wine from British Columbia (never had it, but I am curious) and there are plenty of Wine suppliers in Australia, Germany and France to have a clear setting of shunning American alcoholic goods. If there is 1-3 ‘essential’ drinks that are unique to the United States we can avoid them and shame all the friends who will go to that venue. That is the effect of the bully tactics with his 51st state remark. So even as we are given “So when she read on Friday that Canada was prepared to lift a ban on American alcohol sales as part of its trade negotiations with the Trump administration, Anderson says she felt disappointed. “But just because it goes back on the shelves doesn’t mean that sales are going to go back to where they were. The damage has been done,” she told CBC in an interview.” As such I am willing to bet that this was an empty point in the settings of the Prime Minster (Mark Carney), because he knew how much Canadians and Commonwealthians were shunning alcoholic good from the United States. A bully tactic that is costing that industry their foothold in several nations. So his beautiful big bill of bankruptcy is coming along fine. So when I see “Support for a continued boycott of U.S. alcohol was highest in British Columbia, where 80.9 per cent of respondents said they were unlikely or somewhat unlikely to buy U.S. booze again if it’s made available. That was followed by 74.7 per cent of people in Ontario and 73.9 per cent of Quebecers who said the same, the poll found.” I merely wonder how steep the decline is in the Commonwealth as a whole. So while we see “Trump has threatened to impose 50 per cent tariffs on some Canadian goods on Aug. 19 if Canada fails to lift some retaliatory trade measures against the U.S., including the alcohol bans. Those bans date back to early last year, when several provinces removed U.S. alcohol from the shelves at their respective liquor boards in response to Trump slapping a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian goods.” There is a larger setting because as industries are failing to make revenue, more and more brands shutdown and they can all put the blame on the Trump Administration and even as Canadians remember how Howard Lutnick was (almost crying) like a little girl, they feel no sympathy and they remember the words given to them in “U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticized the current version of North America’s free trade agreement on Friday, calling it a bad deal and taking aim at Canada’s trade strategy ahead of upcoming negotiations.” And as I see it, it was what there was, in light of the 51st state banter and they reacted. So whilst the Prime minister might concede to lifting that part, the population of Canada to buy it, is another matter, it could merely gather dust on the shelves, right next to the elves there who will not be called into service for another 14 weeks. As such I wonder what will be left of the America distilleries and breweries in December 2026. Let alone (I believe) that Monty Python remarked that American beers were like making love in a canoe, it was fucking close to water. As such they could resort to Canadian, German and Belgium beers and there Canada could make trade deals too. A setting that set disaster all before President trump opened his mouth and whilst we see another dump of tariffs, the legal side will prove him wrong twice again and that is the setting of another nail of defeat in the bat of midterms. It all could have been avoided with proper respect and tally the losses that the United States are currently facing. So, as the Financial times is giving us ‘Will US inflation be cool enough to trim bets on a September rate rise?’ We have to wonder what the story is with all this whilst we also see ‘Greenback drops as weak US jobs data pushes out Fed hike expectations’ and we see “The US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said, compared with economists’ expectations for an increase of 80,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll. The US unemployment rate fell to 4.1 per cent as the labour participation rate fell to a near five-and-a-half-year low of 61.4 per cent.” I am not sure what numbers to believe, but the overall picture puts the United States in a harmful place and the danger of self harm is clearly there, so whilst we get pumped up results in one area, the setting of ‘unfair treatment’ (a cry story from Howard Lutnick) give me the shivers, because if the media to a larger extent is pushing overhyped results in one area, whilst drowning out the negative stories on the other side there is seemingly no good US economy, it is (figuratively) an economy above a sinkhole and that tend to lead to disastrous settings. As I see it, the Trump administration should have played a different game from the start and as we see ‘The US has collected about $19b of Venezuela’s oil money. Where is it?’ (Source: AFR) with “The Trump administration has collected more than $US13 billion ($18.6 billion) in revenues from Venezuelan oil sales this year, according to FT calculations, but has said almost nothing about what has happened to the money.” The sinkhole it is set above is becoming more and more distinct and there is no escaping the fallout of that event and that is before the other elements start playing out, because they will come in the worst time possible. So we could say “We’ll drink to that”, but for the 340,000,000 citizens of the United States it is not good news. As such there is a rather large issue forming and it is not tendered to by American alcohol. Merely by other nations suddenly getting a windfall coming from American insults and those people at any given time will stand with Canadians and that lesson is about to hit hard in Washington DC. 

So have a great day this day.

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Under Attack

That is at times the setting, especially when you look at the gulf states at present, but that is not what is the setting, the Commonwealth, specifically Canada is under attack. It is under attack from the United States and Russia. We might want to be in disbelief, but the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/russia-and-u-s-amplifying-alberta-separatist-narratives-to-stoke-division-distrust-report-9.7189604) and we are given ‘Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report’ where we see “Moscow’s influence scheme is covert, while Trump-aligned meddling is overt and public”, we here in the Commonwealth need to take notice of the plight that stalks and covertly attacks Canada. We are also given “Rather, researchers discovered the now defunct website and social media accounts likely came from a Russian covert influence network known as Storm-1516, known for making fictional websites that target audiences in various countries. And here, it targeted Canada and Alberta. Both Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading misinformation about Alberta separatism in the hope of fraying Canadian unity and sowing distrust in key institutions and authorities, warns a new report released Wednesday.” This report, written by Marcus Kolga, Jennie Phillips, Brian McQuinn, Bartel Van de Walle gives us the goods on this. Marcus Kolga is a journalist, human rights advocate, and leading expert of foreign disinformation and influence operations. We can go over the list, it makes sense to attach the PDF at the end of the story, so that you can read it for yourself. And as I see it, whatever President Trump cannot have, he disables and we see this with “US involvement in Alberta separatism is not covert — it is overt, escalating, and converging at multiple levels simultaneously. By overt, we are referring to official engagement, where senior US government figures have met directly with Alberta separatist leaders and made public statements validating their cause, while the US is led by a president who has repeatedly expressed interest in annexing Canada. By escalating, we refer to influencer amplification, where prominent MAGA-aligned media figures with combined audiences in the tens of millions have actively promoted Alberta separatism and normalized annexation narratives. By convergence, we mean that the line between US influencer activity and Russian-funded operations has, in at least one documented case, dissolved entirely. Three converging lines of evidence establish this case.” And I for one, believe that we need to up the disruption into the United States by taking away whatever commerce it had until recently. We (the Commonwealth nations) need to unite and stand together against these attacks on Canada. We could all stop buying alcohol from the United States, we could all put change out vacation destination to Europe, Middle East and Asia. As I see it, the loss of commerce and goods would push the United States right over the edge. It is not something I would like to do, but attacking our brothers in Canada (sisters too) makes it almost mandatory to stand by Canada and use these methods. As I see it in April 2026, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has taken a confrontational stance against Canada’s trade strategy, calling it poor and attacking Canadian officials like Mark Carney. These remarks, described as insulting, have increased tension regarding USMCA, tariffs, and potential impacts on tourism and trade relations. So how much more ludicrous will his position become when we all (United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) side with Canada and we all reject United States alcohol? From there we can reject all good from the United States? How long until their settings implode upon itself? You see, the MAGA setting was flawed from the very start, because a world founded on commerce cannot rely on export, without import it stops right quick. And now as we see that the United States is messing with Canada, we need to do something and until the senate hangs its 41st United States Secretary of Commerce out to dry, we need to stand firm, because Canada did not start this, whatever we see with his attacks on PM Mark Carney and all the rhetoric he wants, but the Commonwealth is over 2.5 billion people and even as the four nations are the important side, we could all refuse goods from the United States, you see it is our freedom to refuse whatever we want. It seems like U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has forgotten about that and the other nations that ‘revered’ American goods going back to the 80’s are now singing a different tune and a lot of them are a lot less positive about this administration and we have always been positive of the Commonwealth, as such people like U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are on a sliding slope that leads straight to an abyss. And now we see the Canada is under attack and anyone that sides with those attacking Canada can emigrate to the United States and make a new life, sounds fair doesn’t it?

I get that Russia wants to attack Canada (even as I don’t like it), the Commonwealth was a natural enemy of Russia going all the way back to 1850, so we have been having issues longer than I remember. But for the United States to attack Canada by giving us “Steve Bannon, former Trump advisor and prominent supporter of Brexit, has also inserted himself into the Alberta separatist issue, telling his War Room audience that Albertans “are getting out of the Canadian union” and arguing the United States should recognize Alberta as an independent country and place it “on the pathway” to becoming the 51st state” I have had my views on the debatable reasons of the 51st state. I still believe that the United States is so broke (read: insolvent) that the United States does whatever it can to get revenue through any means to keep the lights on (my paraphrasing that setting) First Canada, then Greenland, then Venezuela and now Iran. I see the people stating that this is an Epstein setting, but I believe that it is merely the icing on the cake and as the United States has less and less, I fear for our Canadian brothers and sisters. As such this PDF is also an essential reminder that behind the 41 million Canadians are over 100 million Commonwealthians ready to support them (I know the Commonwealth is over 2.5 billion), but as I see it, direct action is possible from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and optionally India too. So what happens when Howard Lutnick loses that population for commerce as well? Do you think he will cry like a little girl stating that Canadians are mean? We see “Democrats accused Lutnick of lying and evading their questions.” (Source: GlobalNews) we don’t need to lie or evade, we can just take our business elsewhere. We can order booze from Mexico (Tequila), Bermuda and Australia (Rum) and Gin from the United Kingdom, we have options and the United States better realise that we can do this to more than booze, cars from Japan and Europe, oil from Canada, Pharmaceuticals from India. That amounts to over a trillion in commerce lost. As I see it, the United States needs to reassess its actions and stop interfering in Canadian politics. Because as I see it, the United States pissed off Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and they are (my personal view is) extremely willing to make the United States Administration sing a different tune. But that might merely be me. So all hail PM Mark Carney (whether you are Canadian or not) and enjoy today as much as you can.

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