Retaliation

Plus: Capitalism blaming, desalination innovation, Houthis fire on Saudi Arabia, and more...

Canada slaps retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods: Starting today, clothing, cheese, metal, paper products, and wood imports from the United States—totaling roughly $20 billion—will be subject to tariffs in Canada. The new tariffs will also "double the rate of existing tariffs that Canadian businesses pay on imported American steel and aluminum products and affect about 700 products, including aluminum foil, railway locomotives and steel bridges," reports The New York Times.

These tariffs were enacted by the Canadian government in response to tariffs placed on Canadian goods by U.S. President Donald Trump. "Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us," Prime Minister Mark Carney said just weeks ago. "And I promised: 'That will never, ever happen.' We are keeping that promise." When asked by a reporter why his tone seemed so combative, Carney responded: "We were attacked. You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked."

Carney is making good on his threats, issued late last month after negotiations stalled, to retaliate "dollar for dollar" as the U.S. ratchets up tariffs on Canadian products. Polling indicates the prime minister has lots of domestic public support.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, fired back: "I don't think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who's 13 times larger than you are." Trump mused, last Friday, that the U.S. might "end all trade with Canada."

I must once again tap the sign: "Tariffs not only impose immense economic costs but also fail to achieve their primary policy aims and foster political dysfunction along the way." This way bad things lie. Why exactly are we souring our relationship with our northern neighbor? Is there any real reason for this?

Quick thread:
So in the last few weeks, we've seen the #TNOIIECBAFTATPPAAFPDATW tariff t-shirt up and come to life 1/x pic.twitter.com/79RHtRLx8r

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) May 3, 2018

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Scenes from New York: "In the harrowing months that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe," reports The New York Times. "But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records being released on Tuesday." The Mamdani administration is releasing "more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence among city officials. The records were stored in 68 boxes in a city office, shielded from public view for more than two decades." Apparently even city officials had misplaced the documents, discovering them only last year. (Hard to know the degree to which that's true.)

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QUICK HITS

• The art of capitalism blaming:

"Capitalism is why people have to work" is very silly thing to say, but it's part of a grand tradition of blaming literally everything, no matter how absurd, on capitalism.

A short thread: pic.twitter.com/s4LDj81V6H

— Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns) September 5, 2026

• "Desalination, turning seawater into water you can drink, transformed a desert into an oasis," writes Stephen McBride at Rational Optimist Society. "An hour up the road in Dubai the world's largest desalination facility pumps out enough fresh water to fill 890 Olympic swimming pools every day. Abu Dhabi alone makes close to a tenth of all the desalinated water on the planet. 97% of Earth's water is ocean you can't drink. First, you have to take out the salt.…'Desal' is one of the most under-celebrated successes of our lifetime. The cost of desalinated water has fallen more than 70% since 1990. And it's changed the fortunes of nations." The problem is, desalination plants take up a ton of space. What if you don't have that kind of capacity? Enter two former SpaceXers in Torrance, California, who invented a compact desal technology: "Access weighs 25 pounds and looks like a beer cooler. I lifted it one-handed. You drop a hose in the ocean, press a button, and get six gallons of clean, fresh water every hour."
• "Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen fired drones and missiles at a number of Saudi Arabia's southern energy facilities Tuesday morning, escalating the fighting on what has become a second front for the kingdom and sending oil prices back toward $100 a barrel," reports The Wall Street Journal. "Saudi Arabia confirmed the attacks, which the Houthis said targeted facilities in Abha, Najran and Jazan. The strikes hit gas and oil storage facilities including at a power plant in Abha and left the major refinery at Jazan aflame and off line, people familiar with the damage said. Output at Jazan had already been diminished by previous Houthi strikes."

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Canada slaps retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods...

THEY LOST TO THE UNITED STATES IN THEIR NATIONAL SPORT

[Fist of Etiquette]

Starting today, clothing, cheese, metal, paper products, and wood imports from the United States—totaling roughly $20 billion—will be subject to tariffs in Canada.

Don't they know they're only taxing their own citizens with this?

[DaveH]

A great opportunity for an adult in the room: Canada should retaliate strategically by going immediately to unilateral free trade.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tariffs not only impose immense economic costs but also fail to achieve their primary policy aims and foster political dysfunction along the way.

I blame the Founders.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Mamdani administration is releasing "more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence among city officials..."

And you were blaming the RoP for all the New York deaths.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Keep importing drivers who kill people on the streets...

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2097011166274802149

EXCLUSIVE: The driver who kiIIed Lisa Maldonado, 33, while backing up his truck on a highway ramp in Texas is Khasan Begbaev, who is from Uzbekistan, DHS confirmed to us.

Begbaev currently has residency status in the U.S. which will be REVOKED if he’s convicted, and make him eligible for deportation.

Begbaev allegedly LIED to police about the nature of the crash before they uncovered the dashcam video which contradicted his story.

Begbaev was charged with one count of manslaughter.

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2096790833102045213

Ohio Judge Tammie K. Hursh just sentenced Haitian illegal Yvio Michel to just 20 DAYS in jail after he caused a crash that kiIIed a father and his son

20 days for kiIIing Hurshel Gipson and his 11-year-old son, Michael.

--------------------------------------------

Title 49 Subtitle B Chapter III Subchapter B Part 391 Subpart B § 391.11

General qualifications of drivers.

(a) A person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Except as provided in § 391.63, a motor carrier shall not require or permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.

(b) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle if he/she—

(1) Is at least 21 years old;

(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;

(3) Can, by reason of experience, training, or both, safely operate the type of commercial motor vehicle he/she drives;

[Medulla Oblongata]

More COVID fraud.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/georgia-sisters-plead-guilty-roles-2m-pandemic-benefits-fraud-scheme

Two Georgia women have pleaded guilty to their roles in a scheme to defraud the federal government by causing pandemic unemployment benefit funds to be paid on ineligible claims that had been held or denied for suspected fraud.

Sisters Joirean Creel, 35, of Duluth, and Adriane Creel, 24, of Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Honest Services Wire Fraud. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan D. Greenberg accepted their guilty pleas Aug. 31.

According to allegations in court documents, the defendants were both hired to work as remote teleservices representatives through a subcontractor for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). The agency administered Ohio’s unemployment insurance program, which included federally funded unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of their jobs, the defendants were given access to an online system to process and manage unemployment benefits for the claimants. They were supposed to use the system only for their job providing customer service to claimants by phone. Instead, the two women abused their positions and system access to solicit and accept bribes and kickbacks that caused $1.96 million in benefits to be paid. However, the claims paid had been previously flagged as suspected of being fraudulent. The defendants used their system access to nullify and void the suspected fraudulent claims even though they were not authorized to do so. They also fraudulently obtained additional unemployment benefits for themselves by submitting applications in their own names. The defendants submitted their applications to other states including New York, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, despite being employed to help ODJFS administer the unemployment insurance system. In addition, investigators discovered that Joirean Creel was also employed by the U.S. Postal Service while claiming to be unemployed.

During the investigation, law enforcement seized and forfeited a Mercedes Benz GL450. In total, ODJFS lost more than $2 million as a result of the conspiracy.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Canada "I'm going to tax your imports at 400%"
America "okay, we will impose the same tax on you"
Canada"waaaaaaaa, that's not fair, your mean!"

Why does anyone take that trash country seriously

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Capitalism is why people have to work" is very silly thing to say, but it's part of a grand tradition of blaming literally everything, no matter how absurd, on capitalism.

The free market is why we have hippies and commies.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Access weighs 25 pounds and looks like a beer cooler. I lifted it one-handed. You drop a hose in the ocean, press a button, and get six gallons of clean, fresh water every hour.

Right into the datacenter.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen fired drones and missiles at a number of Saudi Arabia's southern energy facilities Tuesday morning...

Are the other A-rabs unable to form a defense coalition, a racist might ask.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Posting on X seems even less productive than posting here.

[Mickey Rat]

" "Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us," Prime Minister Mark Carney said just weeks ago."

And Carney further explained that his plan is for China to own Canada.

[jonnysage]

Desalination doesnt take up a ton of space, it takes up a ton of money, and electricity. The largest plant is about the size of a major shopping mall, 15 acres.

[Overt]

I think it is all of the above.

Nevertheless if you read the full article, space is just a proxy for "big and expensive" and the real problem is that Desal plants have traditionally needed to be made large for them to make sense. This meant only big governments would make them, which means cycle-time innovation is severely challenged. The Vital Lyfe Access really is a game changer in that it takes what was once a massive industrial project down to small units that cost $800. At that price, you can really change things.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Governor Carney is a petulant, entitled, spoiled little brat. And an America-hating communist who received his indoctrination in America-hatred and communism at Harvard (where else).

Well, pack up your shit and get out boy, you're on your own now because we're kicking your lazy, worthless, entitled ass out of the house and we're not letting you come back. Maybe your new "friends" the ChiComs will let you move in.

Good luck son, you and your people ate going to need it.

[Fu Manchu]

It's kinda funny how cultists don't give a shit about a person, but the moment he stands up to Trump all of a sudden the talking points download and he's a terrible person.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Poor sarc