The new mineral “deal” pushed by the US.
Ukraine is supposed to agree to this now…
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In Trump’s first term Kushner failed his official background check but Trump, as is his Presidential right, granted him clearance anyway. It was considered only a niche story that the man who came to power on the back of concerns about the other candidate’s national security credentials would bypass the background check process to grant clearance with only a quasi government role and then give him such a broad foreign policy portfolio, one that included at least one case of seeming disclosure of US intelligence (it was believed MBS’ targets in the Ritz Carlton detainment were identified via US intelligence).
This time around he bypassed the FBI completely and hired a private company to do the “background checks” which essentially means giving a lucrative government contract to friends for them to file paper work allowing him to hire knowingly compromised people. Again, this is not much more than a niche story.
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U.S. President Donald Trump warned Thursday that he will impose additional tariffs on the European Union and Canada if they collaborate to “do economic harm” against their “best friend” the United States.
“Each of those two countries” 
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The rest of the world should just come together and impose a 500% tariff on all American imports, globally.
Watch Trump backtrack then.
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At least here, the government is not needing to do much. Consumption of American goods is plunging regardless of cost.
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Pure stupidity.
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What is going on with his trousers? Why are they so shiny?
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Is that a portrait of himself in some cricket gear in the background?
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Just clicked and saw a comment “Our president needs to be shimmed. Fantastic” 
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= douchey yacht club wear in American parlance
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Just got out of bed, still in pyjama bottoms.
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This boycott thing, I’m not religious about it, but it’s actually kind of interesting. For personal consumption it’s really only the streaming/internet stuff that is hard to replace, as far as I can tell so far. Even niche stuff, like analog photography film (I was told it’s not hipster if you’re just old) - I previously thought Kodak had pretty much a monopoly on colour film (even Fuji is now just repackaging Kodak films), but now found out that Ilford from the UK (classic B&W films) has a colour film and there is as a revitalised German product.
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A lot easier in Europe than here - my current problem is replacing a set of tires (vehicle has snow tires now, just about time to switch over). Manufacturing is so integrated that avoiding an American-made tire comes down to specifying precise models and serial number ranges.
It is clearly having an effect - I just got an email offer from Disney for $100 off per day for visiting Florida, plus CAD accepted at par to USD. Not interested. Flight traffic to the US is now down 70% year over year, and everyone I know who has gone has been required to for business or did not want to lose a deposit on a booking made in 2024. The people who were not taking it seriously have been convinced by the horror stories coming from the border crossings.
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The resorts are essentially where Disney make their money. The films are really just a promotional tool to get people into the theme parks and buying merchandise.
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Disney now getting attacked from all sides, anti-woke and anti-Trump Canadians/Europeans.
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About 20 years ago a good friend of mine from back home did a 6 month stint with a company on the Canadian side of Niagara. As is typical in that region day trips to to the other side are common from both sides, but on one her attempted day trips to the US it became apparent there had been an administrative fuck up on her previous border crossing where US CBP records showed her as never having left the US. They detained her and kept her in custody for the best part of a day before it was resolved. She fucked off the day trips the rest of the time she was staying there, but came back with her kids on a Disney trip about 10 years later, and they pinged her again for it. Again, another day wasted in detention before they finally admitted their mistake and let her on her way. About 2-3 years ago the next time she came here it happened again.
Up until now they have treated it as a frustrating cost of taking the kids to Disney and even plan their itinerary around the dad just getting on with things with the kids and her making her own way to the resort once she is released from detention. But now, they just wont risk it. They had tentative plan to come over this summer, but have decided the risk of being sent to El Salvador is non-zero and so the trip just isnt worth it. And no one can accuse her of having a hysterical over reaction.
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