This week on The Kinsella Cast, Warren is in the USA, interviewing ambassadors, academics and academics, and playing some music. Also, the Tories are doing well in the polls, and Mark Carney is winning the polls.
00:01:25.620Sleaford Mods, who I love, who I wanted to play last week, who I told you I was going to play last week and didn't, so I'm going to play them this week.
00:01:34.440And then I've got two really memorable bits.
00:01:37.720First thing, I've got a bit of The Clash playing Desmond Deckard's Israelites on a British TV show from 1979, I think, and they're doing it live.
00:01:48.100You can tell they're just working up the parts as the cameras are rolling.
00:04:14.880Polyev is now saying all the right things about Trump, but it feels like it's too late.
00:04:18.880Like, all the crap about Canada being broken, and the WEF, and convoy morons, and vaccine mandates, and globalists, and fake media, and blah, blah, blah.
00:04:29.560It's all too Trumpy, or it was too Trumpy.
00:52:31.760We can't dip into any under-the-radar bands that anybody else might like currently at the moment, maybe in the future.
00:52:36.640But let's start about, well, you talk about a song that's been dropped.
00:52:39.940Instead, it's candidates who have been dropped or, in one case, left on their own.
00:52:45.460The Paul Chiang story early in the week, creating news first with Mark Carney sticking with the candidate.
00:52:52.600And then, as we learned more of a broader investigation connected to his suggestions a political rival should be turned over to the Chinese consulate in return for a bounty Chiang, he left on his own.
00:53:04.520Since then, we've seen another liberal candidate ousted for comments made years past about Hamas and Hezbollah, some positive comments about those two terrorist organizations, and five candidates dropped by the conservatives.
00:53:18.940We saw a bit of a difference from the conservatives, especially early on, for how they handled these situations.
00:53:25.760But I'm wondering, and Carl, I want to start with you, because we've seen this quick movement and this response level over the course of this week after Chiang was creating problems for Mark Carney and the way that Carney responded to it early on.
00:53:42.960It seems to me, Carl, like this is all just turned into a bunch of noise that voters potentially might be looking past.
00:53:51.420Yeah, absolutely, and it's funny because when the Paul Chiang story broke last Friday, it seemed invisible that Paul Chiang was going to be, you know, dropped by the liberals eventually.
00:54:07.040It seemed clear to everyone but the liberal strategist and Mark Carney.
00:54:11.580And that story lasted like four days, and, you know, even when the prime minister, you know, was not doing media availability, you know, they had multiple opportunities to drop him, and they waited and waited, and you thought maybe on the, you know, the first time he comes out on Monday morning, Mark Carney will announce that guy is gone.
00:54:31.880But no, he defended him again and again and again.
00:54:38.300So in terms of crisis management, conservatives did better when, as soon as they found out there was a problem with one of the candidates, they were dropping them.
00:54:48.220But the problem is that they dropped so many.
00:54:51.020I mean, three in a day, I think, is a record in federal politics.
00:54:54.140And the problem for the conservatives is that even though the Paul Chiang story should be damaging, the fact that the conservatives had so much more, and the kind of comments that they made, and why they were dropped, reinforced the perception in Canadian voters that, you know,
00:55:12.180the people that are kind of people that are kind of the maple mega, that's the reason why we don't want to have a party of government in the mind of voters, that's reinforced that perception, even though they acted, it doesn't matter, why did they get there in the first place?
00:55:33.800It's not exactly like these posts and these podcasts that they were, you know, found guilty of, were a secret.
00:55:44.720That's the problem for the conservatives.
00:55:46.540Tasha, this is something that we've seen in recent years where it's a new reality.
00:55:50.140If you have any kind of social media past, well, guess what?
00:55:52.760A bunch of, all your political opponents are going to start looking for these, and if not them, then it's members of the media.
00:55:58.640It's a new reality, and I don't think many candidates have properly adapted to it.
00:56:03.860Well, I don't think they've adapted to it, and I think that parties also haven't fully adapted to it, because there is just so much.
00:56:10.700People start posting when they're, you know, in their teens.
00:56:13.660Now even kids are circumventing the age limits and posting things all over the place.
00:56:18.320So you can find things that are years old.
00:56:21.920People may have even changed their minds, in which case they can't apologize.
00:56:25.640That other liberal candidate refused to apologize for a hip-hop segment he had filmed, in which Hamas and Hezbollah were praised, I think, 16 or 14 years ago.
00:56:36.440These kinds of things haunt you, and parties are supposed to find them.
00:56:40.360But the reality is they may not find every single thing.
00:56:43.440But to Carl's point, what it does show is who's going to join your team.
00:56:47.880So if you do have a raft of candidates who are all dismissed for the same type of social media posting, whether it is racist or whether it is misogynist or whatever it was, that speaks to the kind of people that you keep company with.
00:57:04.320And that's where voters can be uncomfortable and say, you know what, I don't feel comfortable being in that club.
00:57:40.160And despite number counts, Warren, it's still the biggest issue here still goes back to Chang.
00:57:44.960And even though we talk about it potentially creating just noise, it's still something that I look at as a chink in the armor for the Liberal leader who is perceived as the frontrunner right now.
00:57:56.040You know, in the case of the Liberals, they were aware of a problem and they tried to stonewall on it for a couple days at least.
00:58:05.140And it made Carney look like he was dithering and unable to make a decision.
00:58:11.240In the case of Polyev, he moved quickly, but he actually had so many candidates to get rid of, we can't keep track of them.
00:58:20.640And there's more to come, I guarantee you guys.
00:58:22.760It's like I, you know, I used to run war rooms for the federal Liberals and provincial Liberals.
00:58:29.160And the very first thing we do when we're dealing with a candidate, when we're checking them out, you know, they always say, oh, let's go get the other guy.
00:58:36.820And I always would say, no, we're going to check you out first.
00:58:42.200And like I say to my kids, you know, the Internet is forever.
00:58:45.720If you do something stupid, if you say something cruel or racist or sexist or homophobic, Warren or somebody like Warren is going to find it.
00:58:57.560All I need is enough time and a bit of a budget and I will find it.
00:59:02.000And that so what I don't understand with the Tories is how they greenlit so many lunatics and and let them through.
00:59:10.760And what I don't understand with the Liberals is how they had this guy in their caucus and they didn't know they had a problem.
00:59:17.840But, you know, with when Trudeau was there as leader, you know, he'd been wearing blackface for years, as he later admitted.
00:59:25.180And the party greenlit him as a candidate anyway.
00:59:28.680So it's it's a big problem for all of them.
00:59:33.540If I go back in time, for example, a couple of years and I see a candidate that says, you know what, I'm not a big fan of that song, Shays Long by Wet Legs.
00:59:41.880Sorry, they're completely out of the line as far as I'm concerned.
00:59:44.580The campaign, the campaign, once again, was upended in the middle of the week as we had a return, a reminder of the issue that is framing all of this.
00:59:52.020It's the United States with the escalation of a global trade war by Donald Trump, something that we have seen over the course of the last week in response to this.
01:00:00.380I believe we are getting more of an indication potentially of a dividing line between the Liberals and the Conservatives in terms of vision and where we go from here.
01:00:09.940A lot more from the conservative side, all the way down to Premier Doug Ford, in fact, talking about the potential for a zero tariff reality.
01:00:16.520But what we're hearing from the Liberals, for example, is a talk about, hey, we have to move on instead of having better ties or stronger ties with the U.S.
01:00:25.780Even saying things are going so far, maybe it's visionary, maybe it's also highly unrealistic, suggesting that if the United States doesn't want to lead the economic world and that's something that Canada could do, are we starting to see just a bigger dichotomy between these three parties, Tasha, on where we could be headed and what this vote actually means for our relations with our closest neighbour?
01:00:50.600Yeah, there is a bit of a dividing line in the sense that, you know, Carney's immediate reaction is to pivot overseas and to say, you know, the relationship is over with the United States.
01:01:02.480It was a very dramatic statement that he made.
01:01:19.820In fact, Pierre Polyev, Carney said he got a commitment from Trump to do that after the election, assuming he's in the chair.
01:01:27.740Polyev said that's the first thing he would do, actually, he said to French television this week, was to renegotiate Kuzma.
01:01:34.860So, you know, there's an agreement on that, that we will try and redo our trade deal with the U.S.
01:01:41.900But with the rest of it, there is a sense, I think, in the liberal camp that we've got to pivot overseas more and find other friends, whereas in the conservative camp.
01:01:53.100And I think this is just a reality, too, is that there is a more pro-American sentiment in general within the conservative camp.
01:01:59.620So Pierre Polyev cannot go as far as to say, well, you know, we're going to junk the U.S.
01:02:05.220Because people, some people are actually favorable still to what Trump is doing.
01:02:08.920I don't know how they are now with the state of the markets, quite frankly, but, you know, maybe that's just me.
01:02:13.020And we're likely going to see some additional changes, especially if we're deep in the red again on Monday and it's starting to hit Canadians.
01:02:21.220Remember, there's a lot of investment in the United States as well.
01:02:23.580Warren, talking about Mark Carney and the terms of the level of, I guess, optimism, if you suggest that Canada could be the economic leader of planet Earth,
01:02:35.560is that something that voters would gravitate towards, that kind of aggressively ambitious statement?
01:02:43.020Well, you have two kinds of statements in an election campaign.
01:02:46.460You have negative ones, you have positive ones, you know, you have hope and you have fear.
01:02:51.640So that one fell in the positive and hope category.
01:03:23.120But, you know, I noted that Polly Ev didn't attack him for saying that.
01:03:27.880You know, I saw Polly Ev speak to a Bay Street crowd in Toronto this past week, and he was saying similar things.
01:03:35.320And that's what I've been struck by with the two guys.
01:03:37.660Is that, you know, really, if you objectively, not as a partisan, but if you objectively look at what they're saying, there's not a meaningful difference between them on a lot of issues.
01:03:49.120Because they really sound, you know, Polly Ev's increasingly sounding like a progressive conservative.
01:03:53.720And Carney has always sounded like a blue liberal.
01:03:57.240So, you know, anyway, a bit of positive.
01:03:59.520Carl, something that I've noticed over the course of this past week is that when it comes to where the NDP has stood, the message that seems to be getting pushed the most is still one that's far away from – well, I'm not going to say far away.
01:04:10.820There have been remarks that have been made by Jagmeet Singh about Donald Trump, that's certain, but a lot of the general conversation is still centering around, well, the New Democrats, they're the party that will fight for workers versus what the other federal parties would do.
01:04:23.820And also several mentions of Brookfield and Mark Carney's past with that group.
01:04:28.400Is that the correct way to go for the NDP, given their position in the polls at the moment, to try to set out that different message and try to set themselves apart more versus the Canadian political parties instead of versus the United States government?
01:04:43.140Well, they have to try to chip away at the carny, shiny armor and part of the NDP is spending too much time still attacking Pierre Poiliev and reminding people of why a Pierre Poiliev government would be scary.
01:04:57.280So the shift needed to happen, and in terms of policy with regards to the Trump administration, they have put a few things in the window that are interesting.
01:05:10.740The problem for the Democrats is that they are not part of the main political narrative.
01:05:21.540And Poiliev did this pivot, but the truth is when Mark Carney is able to wear his act as Prime Minister of Canada, as opposed to the act of the Liberal leader, it's helping him.
01:05:35.600And in that sense, when Donald Trump comes out and makes these announcements, it's helping Mark Carney every single time.
01:05:42.640It's helping Mark Carney and the Liberal Party win, and we saw it this week, even though Canada was not specifically targeted with the reciprocal tariffs.
01:05:53.540It allowed Mark Carney to look prime ministerial, to look the part, to look serious, to show some confidence in our ability to get through this.
01:06:01.800And Canadians are looking at that, and they're saying, yeah, that's what we want.
01:06:05.320We do not want the other guy who looks too much like Trump, who acts too much like Trump, who has candidates that are Maple, MAGA, to reinforce all those perceptions we see on the campaign trail.
01:06:17.680Much like with Ontario Premier Doug Ford during the provincial election, it gives Carney a bit of an unfair advantage in some regard.
01:06:24.420I'm actually glad that I can look at my computer screen today, because I've only recently put my eyes back in my head after they rolled out from Preston Manning's piece in the Globe and Mail this week.
01:06:35.320And by the way, if anybody at the tax board wants to call me out, if I accidentally call him Peyton at some point, then please do so.
01:06:43.020But when he had a headline that suggested that Mark Carney being elected to be a threat to national sovereignty, when in that very column, it is Preston Manning himself who made a threat about national sovereignty.
01:06:56.060With his remarks, which, by the way, echoes something that he said back in 2019, so he's just repeating himself.
01:07:02.880With Danielle Smith, the Alberta Premier, the Alberta Premier suggesting that if Carney wins, there could be a What's Next panel where, hey, maybe a referendum where Alberta leaves could be on the table.
01:07:15.220Well, Warren, I read these remarks, and I think, are you serious?
01:07:21.040Is this something that's really happening?
01:07:22.880And I can't, it's like, are they misreading a level of sentiment in the country?
01:07:27.140Or is this something that maybe there is some kind of a national unity crisis if we see another liberal government?
01:07:33.360No, they're trying to manufacture one.
01:07:35.220They're trying to manufacture a crisis.
01:07:38.200And basically, you know, any of us who've got kids have seen this before.
01:07:42.940You know, the kid who goes to the playground and it's not going their way, so they take their ball and go home.
01:07:48.080So that's what Danielle Smith and Preston Manning are.
01:09:46.620Like, this is the kind of behavior that is actually helping the other side, helping Mark Carney.
01:09:53.940And it's counterproductive, and clearly this week, and you add to that the trip of Daniel Smith going to, you know,
01:10:03.060to the United States trying to convince the Americans to help Pierre Polyev and to spread the news that we need to elect Donald Trump allies in Canada.
01:10:14.900Again, unhelpful for Pierre Polyev's campaign.
01:10:17.640I would still believe it's more harm to Danielle Smith's own standing.
01:10:22.220There are several conservative premiers in the country of Canada with different views.
01:10:26.960And Pierre Polyev, Tasha, this week, he did stand up, and he distanced himself from Preston Manning.
01:10:34.500It's like, provided that things don't continue and more conversations go along, I take a look at this.
01:10:39.580This is something that the CPC and Polyev can still push aside.
01:10:47.140I think it continues to – it's another layer, right?
01:10:50.180This is what happened to the campaign.
01:10:52.840It's a layer sort of build of trust or lack of trust.
01:10:56.680And this goes to, you know, we talked earlier about the five candidates who, for extremist reasons mostly, were let go.
01:11:03.460Now you have – on the same week you had Preston Manning saying that Mark Carney is dangerous for the country.
01:11:10.620Like, I mean, you know, that kind of statement, it's like, whoa, where does this – where does this – people are going to pay attention to that?
01:11:16.340Because there's such an out-there statement.
01:11:32.260Like, again, it becomes an ick factor and people just go, no, I'm just not – I'm not down with that.
01:11:39.540And it's also very Trumpian, the type of personal attack that, you know, like lock her up, that sort of thing that Trump was blaring about Hillary Clinton, such dangerous, bad, nasty woman.
01:11:51.500And the conservative style, Preston Manning's outing, Danielle Smith's statements, they're all in this kind of angry, circle the wagons, you know, pointing fingers, bad other guys.
01:12:03.240And I think in this context, when people feel that Canada is in legitimate danger but not from separatists, it's from danger from the U.S., that doesn't concord with the public mood.
01:12:13.020And so, to my colleague's statement, they misread the room on this.
01:12:16.560Everyone's misreading – unless they have another agenda.
01:12:18.480And I will say, you know, I will not put that past Daniel Smith's ambitions, other people's ambitions.
01:12:25.400They may be looking and saying, well, if Pierre Polyev bites the dust, who's next, right?
01:12:29.360So, who knows what's going on, but none of it is good for the conservatives.
01:12:33.340Okay, folks, we are desperately out of time.
01:12:35.120I'm going to head to the news and I'm going to crank a Wet Legs new single.
01:29:10.120I want to jump in into the breaking news we got in this morning about Canada job numbers.
01:29:15.800It's the biggest monthly drop we've seen since 2022, losing 32,600 jobs compared to about 10,000 that we were expecting to get.
01:29:25.280So our unemployment rate jumps to 6.7%.
01:29:28.360We have, or I certainly on my show, have been talking to companies, trucking, a lot of companies that we don't talk about a lot,
01:29:34.860but they've been shedding jobs in anticipation of these tariffs for quite some time.
01:29:38.940And now it's almost like, okay, here we go.
01:29:42.720Let me kick this off with you, Warren, because on the liberal side, Mark Carney, you know, he's going to, as the prime minister, where does this take the campaign?
01:31:54.860And I think, you know, Alex, he needs to get back to his, like, this was his bread and butter issue for so long against Justin Trudeau was tackling the Liberals, you know, inability to manage an economy effectively.
01:32:06.420And it's very tricky, but I think he has to get back to his roots and start talking the same way he did a couple years ago, just being relentless on the Liberal failures that led us to this point.
01:32:17.860Because right now the challenge is, I don't think Canadians are blaming the Liberal government for the tariffs.
01:32:25.080I don't think they're blaming the Liberal government or Mark Carney for the inevitable layoffs that came as a result of the tariffs.
01:32:32.520And that's unfortunately what we're seeing.
01:32:34.640But I think where Pierre needs to get back to, and I think they will get to that, is just let him run wild on the troubles that got us to this point.
01:32:44.460We were not a strong economy before Donald Trump took office, and we're an even weaker economy now.
01:32:49.640And I think he needs to get back to being relentless, attacking the Liberal government for their failed, you know, he talks about the lost Liberal decade.
01:32:56.800I think he needs to be a little bit more prescriptive of what that exactly means.
01:33:00.080You know, it's not a buzzword. It needs to talk about, you know, we were weak before this, and it was all their fault.
01:33:06.040Yeah, and it came out quietly, but, you know, we learned of our GDP numbers over the last 10 years,
01:33:11.880and it is a long line down showing that we are a very flattened economy, Jaskar.
01:33:19.300And it's concerning because these tariffs aren't going away, the instability is not going away, and the hit is going to start to accelerate.
01:33:26.060And we don't really know what the plan is other than, here's what we've got your back.
01:33:30.680Like, we have workers, Jaskar, who don't know when our EI is going to kick in for them because they've gotten no details on that.
01:33:36.820But we need to actually know, like, are we looking at this as a pandemic-style bailout?
01:33:40.800Because we don't have enough money for that. Like, how do you see this?
01:33:43.860Yeah, it's a very complex question because every industry is being hit differently as well, right?
01:33:50.280The tariffs are not necessarily just a blanket. We're all in it together if we're going to take from COVID language.
01:33:57.320The issue is that some industries are going to do this.
01:33:58.240But we weren't then, by the way, right? We weren't then. There's a lot of hurt.
01:34:02.420My point being is that, you know, some industries are going to be impacted far greater than others because of these tariffs,
01:34:08.340because of the policies coming out of America, and the decisions that our government's going to make.
01:34:11.680You know, if we look at the job numbers, you know, 60,000-odd full-time jobs are lost.
01:34:16.620Half of those came out of the wholesale retail trade sector, right?
01:34:20.320And you started this conversation by talking about the trucking industry.
01:34:23.400That's very near due to my heart as a Brenton man.
01:34:26.300Trucking's been shedding jobs for a couple months now in anticipation for a slowdown because of tariffs.
01:34:32.740And so there's different industries that are going to feel this a lot faster than others, but we know how this works.
01:34:37.300You know, it's the canary in the coal mine.
01:34:39.180You're going to feel this down the line.
01:34:41.320You know, all of a sudden, your housing is slowing down, your structures are slowing down, and people lose confidence in the economy.
01:34:49.140And it's a very tough position to be in, and the how do you address it is going to be, and it continues to be, the election question.
01:40:24.820You know, I made this joke yesterday after seeing this story come out, but, you know, if any one of Jagmeet's candidates was caught doing the same thing as what Jagmeet Singh did with this porn star, he'd be forced to give them the boot.
01:41:03.320The writing's been on the wall for Jagmeet Singh for what feels like a year and a half, two years now that the party's just been on a decline.
01:41:09.020But this is just literally the definition of hitting rock bottom.
01:41:13.620It's, I mean, how did they go so wrong, Jaskaran?
01:41:16.640They are the party, or they were supposed to be, of the worker, right?
01:41:19.900And all the workers are signing on to Pierre Paliyev, that whole private labor movement's gone over to Pierre Paliyev.
01:41:27.020Because the NDP, it's like they want to stand for something, but they stand for all the wrong, they stand on all the wrong sides of history these days.
01:41:38.340It just objectively is incredibly sad.
01:41:40.700And, you know, the shame for the NDP is, you know, the big policy wins that they did help secure and that are very popular on the pharma care and the dental care.
01:41:51.520You know, there's not even any people are camping on that.
01:41:54.720Like, how many people actually know that the NDP played the role they did in executing that?
01:41:59.680I don't think people do understand the role that they played.
01:42:02.740And that's just a shame of just poor communication.
01:42:04.660This is a party that I believe needs to really sit down and think about how do we place ourselves at the center of, to your point, the worker class.
01:42:17.580You know, the unions, the factories, the manufacturing, the labor jobs, the blue-collar workers.
01:42:24.400It appears that they've totally lost that to the right end of the spectrum, to the conservatives.
01:42:29.220And this is not a uniquely Canadian problem.
01:42:30.900You've seen this in America, where you see a lot of the blue-collar, rust-belt kind of areas of America start itching towards or swaying towards Republicans.
01:42:39.300And this is an ongoing issue for folks on the left, especially in the social democratic states.
01:42:51.120Again, I don't know what today's campaign picture will be like, but based on the last couple, it could be an interesting Friday.
01:42:58.700So let's then just kind of ask the basic question.
01:43:01.940And, you know, you're a war room guy, Warren.
01:43:04.700Who had the best week this week, right?
01:43:06.620Like, week number one was getting the cobwebs out and I think tripping and stumbling and Mark Carney making a big appearance and kind of establishing himself.
01:43:14.560And Pierre Polyev kind of dealing with the inner battles of Corey Tanike speaking on behalf of the whole party when he doesn't necessarily reflect the party.
01:43:23.040But what's the win this week and who's leading the way on that?
01:43:26.440Well, you know, in terms of stuff, in terms of things happening, like, it looked like Polyev did better.
01:43:33.780Even though Polyev had in one 24-hour period, he got rid of poor candidates.
01:43:57.040And it's like, in terms of the issue matrix, the thing that's sitting on top of everything, you know, whether it's dud candidates or, you know, social programs or healthcare, it's Donald Trump, right?
01:44:10.320He continues to be the elephant in the room.
01:44:13.460And for Canadians over about the age of 50, they see Mark Carney is absolutely their guy to deal with it.
01:44:21.380And what we're seeing at the rallies is Pierre Polyev is getting these amazing visuals, young people coming out because they're feeling the affordability crisis the most.
01:44:30.020But it's just not translating into the numbers and what we're seeing in the polls.
01:44:35.180So, I mean, for me, for hacks like me, you know, I just love elections and it's exciting and interesting.
01:44:40.940And, you know, and I think that Polyev still has a shot at winning this thing because he's hands down a better debater than Carney.
01:45:16.080You know, the Trump tariff stuff, notwithstanding, because I think, you know, everybody kind of responded the same.
01:45:21.040But I think you need to talk about how you're going to deal with the president of the United States.
01:45:25.520I think you need to continue to talk about how you're going to defend Canada's economy.
01:45:29.920I really do like, and it's very difficult for policy to break through in a campaign these days, but I really do like some of the bold, visionary ideas that the Conservatives have put out over the last couple days.
01:45:42.480You know, the reinvesting, the capital gains would be, I think, a game changer for our economy.
01:45:46.800The TFSA, just for Canadian equities, you know, when the economy bounces back is a great way for Canadians to invest in Canada.
01:45:54.660But I think the biggest thing that they need to figure out, and it's going to be a challenge, is they need to litigate the Liberal record and remind boomers that have felt comfortable shifting back to Mark Carney that they got us in this predicament in the first place.
01:46:09.320And that's the biggest challenge they have to overcome, is they need to rattle that cage.
01:46:13.200I think the debate's going to be an opportunity, because I think disproportionately the audience for that debate is naturally always going to be an older audience.
01:46:20.080And Pierre Pauly needs to remind those older voters that, you know, the Liberals got us in this mess, and he's the only guy that can get us out of it.
01:46:28.000I'm sorry, Jessica, I've got like 45 seconds.
01:46:30.560I'm not mean, I love you, but I've got that.
01:50:44.400Good morning, KinsellaCast. Good to be here or anywhere at this rate.
01:50:59.800Here's a little sum up of things that have caught my attention internationally this week.
01:51:03.960Trump's crazy train continues to seed paralysis in Ukraine and in Gaza.
01:51:09.080Ukraine, of course, sees fighting continue apace.
01:51:13.880Whatever truce or armistice had been established respecting energy and infrastructure targets has been abandoned.
01:51:21.320Young men and women continue to die on the front lines, not only in eastern Ukraine, but in two areas of Russia and on its border.
01:51:27.640Whatever negotiations were being facilitated by the U.S. through the Saudis with the inclusion of a variety of other countries have stalled and Trump is apparently pissed off with Russia, but he's done nothing about it.
01:51:41.460A lot of hubbub was made this week about the fact that Trump did not tariff Russia, but currently the U.S. barely does any trade with Russia, and the tariffs are exceeded by the sanctions that Russia suffers by not only the U.S., but by countries around the world.
01:51:56.620Meanwhile, down in Gaza, we're starting to see some Gazans protest and take direct actions against Hamas, but Hamas continues to run that roost, and Israel continues to fight that war unabated.
01:52:09.760Israel, of course, is in trouble this week for some of its tactics, including the death of, apparently, medical personnel and the targeting of civilians in its war in Gaza to secure peace on its border.
01:52:22.420Netanyahu, of course, is no prize, but Israel has every right to continue its war and protect its borders in the face and threat of adversity from many sides, which leads us to Yemen.
01:52:33.620Most people didn't know, by the way, that years ago, Yemen was a Jewish, well, a Jewish empire, of course.
01:52:39.580It has since then been colonized by five people, all of whom have recused to remove themselves.
01:52:45.380Yemen, of course, continues to get the shit bombed out of it by U.S., and for good reason, because it continues to interfere with the flotillas and the maritime trade that are essential that go by its straits and its seas.
01:52:56.860Meanwhile, 13 wars continue apace in Africa that nobody could name and nobody seems to give a shit about.
01:53:06.580On the European front, Europe, especially countries in Northern Europe, are abandoning landmine treaties, the Ottawa Treaty in particular, as they get ready and prepare for what they expect to be a Russian invasion, either during the Trump era or right thereafter.
01:53:22.140Germany, of course, to that end, continues to arm up, as expressly stated, plans on how they intend to get through Poland if that war continues and is starting to further expand its military capacity with the production of drones, attack drones, this week.
01:53:38.040On the other side of the world, J.D. Vance went to Greenland and utterly failed at any resolution, certainly failed any diplomatic or sort of protocol test, wasn't welcomed by the people there, couldn't wander around and had to leave immediately.
01:53:56.180Meanwhile, Canada, Panama, Greenland, amongst others, remain on the Trump I might take it list and haven't been taken off the U.S.'s possible imperial colonialist ambitions and their priorities.
01:54:11.780Finally, in amusing news, Taiwan, of course, remains under threat and duress from Chinese expansion.
01:54:21.720But little did we know what would come next.
01:54:24.040Youths associated with the main party in China and the Beijing regime are now talking openly about the fact that they believe Australia should rightfully be the prized possession of the Chinese empire as well.
01:54:36.500Maybe they're taking a page out of the handbook of Trump, which is to say, let's just take over any friendly country that's on our borders and see how far we can push this empire thing.
01:54:49.080So, in any event, finally, Trump and the Iranian empire win the award for most apocalyptic rhetoric of the week, with both sides expressing a desire, intention, and possible use of nuclear weapons in any fight that were to emerge out of the Yemeni-Gazan-Israeli conflagration.