You sometimes wonder what kind of business people are running Bombardier. They got sucker punched by Boeing in the United States and they ran crying into the arms of Airbus. This was a desperation move and was too soon. Airbus smelled the fear and they ended up owning the Canadian
Continue readingTag: American politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Trump stands steadfast, Justin.
Prime Minister Trudeau dropped in to the White House to see President Trump the other day. It is likely that two minutes after Trudeau left the Oval Office, Donald Trump had forgotten what they had said. It is not just that the man has a short attention span but he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Americans bomb Bombardier.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and the prime ministers of both the United Kingdom and Canada are furious and have spoken out angrily about the proposed 219.6 per cent duty on Bombardier planes purchased by Delta Airlines. This is a direct and brutal attack on the North American Free Trade Agreement
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It will be news when Trump says it is.
For the longest time, Americans have been struggling with the concept of ‘Fake News.’ Is it fake if Donald Trump says it is fake? Or is it fake because Donald Trump says it? And if you are puzzled by the nuance between those two questions, you have a problem. In
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Use child psychology on Mr. Trump.
This is a bit of advice for our world leaders. It is very simple. It is not even difficult. It is the realization that we have been mishandling the president of the United States. We have been erroneously treating him as an adult. He does not seem to want to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is NAFTA circling the drain?
You always assume there is hope as long as negotiations continue—as they are for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) this week in Ottawa. The only problem is that the negotiators are not the decision makers. The final solution rests with an incompetent occupant in the White House. And
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who’s crazy?
Interesting editorial cartoon the other day. It is of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. The North Korean leader is shown pulling a child’s wagon with a small rocket on it put together with tape. The American president has an array of rockets behind him and he is wearing a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How’s the kitchen coming Chrystia?
Though not sure if the analogy of NAFTA negotiations being like renovating a kitchen comes from Canada’s foreign minister, by now she would disown the quote anyway. After meetings in Washington and in Mexico City, it is obvious that the discussions of North America’s trade agreements are going nowhere. By
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: By Jingo, by Trump.
That little putz with the freaky haircut who fronts for the North Korean generals is likely to lose his idiot smirk. American President Donald Trump seems to have run out of patience, out of diplomatic options, out of allies and out of restraint. He might just do what American General
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s nepotism confounds Palestinians.
American President Donald Trump seems to revel in trying to do things the hard way. He has added his own version of a Children’s Crusade to the peace process in the Middle East. To nobody’s surprise, what did not work in 13th Century does not seem to be working in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump marches up the Khyber Pass.
You sure cannot tell President Donald Trump anything. He must have missed the opportunity to read Rudyard Kipling as a child or he would have known the futility of sending troops up the Khyber Pass. The Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan have feasted on the rations of foreign troops
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau doesn’t have the chops.
It is often amusing when Canadian writers try to compare Prime Minister Trudeau with American President Trump. They seem to think that Justin Trudeau has been understudying for his current role all his life, while Donald Trump is an accidental politician and is only now learning that the job requires
Continue readingTrashy's World: Charlottesville – likely just the beginning
In the space of a decade or so, public debates over differences in policy in US politics have been replaced by mud-slinging over differences in colour, religion and heritage. Obamacare was the last time when an actual policy was the centre of public debate. It hasn’t disappeared entirely but it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In Beautiful Barcelona.
Barcelona is one of the finest cities for tourism in Europe. Its excellent hotels, broad boulevards and beautiful buildings also provide an excellent venue for international meetings and conferences. In the time I spent in Spain, the Spanish earned my deep respect for their civility, industriousness and kindness. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “My Trump, right or wrong!”
(We are playing a bit of catch-up here.) Not being a regular viewer of Late Night with Stephen Colbert, I had to watch the segment with Donald Trump’s friend Anthony Scaramucci on the Internet. I was still trying to figure out what this guy was doing passing himself off as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pollyanna goes to Washington.
They gathered in Washington this week to start renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland took along her plans for a new NAFTA. Just to throw another opinion into the mix, I think we might have sent our Pollyanna foreign minister to an autopsy.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Mad King of America.
You have to admit that it has been a summer of bounty for those who comment on politics. We have started to think of it as the Summer of Trump. The man never fails to suspend belief, never ceases to horrify and has proved conclusively that he has the political
Continue readingTrashy's World: Whether the USA survives as one nation and not two or several…
…is anyone’s guess. I ain’t no psychic. So. Something I’ve been saying since Obama was elected and the right-wing vitriol fallout is that this was the beginning of the end of the United States of America. I hoped I was wrong but am increasingly thinking that I’m dead on. A
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When Anger Transends.
The anger is in the air in the United States of America. It is frightening. It pits neighbour against neighbour and family against family. It seems to have something to do with a statue and yet has nothing to do with the statue. It reminds me in some ways of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s Presidential Pique.
It is not amusing. How long does the world have to put up with the childish back-and-forth of President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Neither of these men is competent enough to be allowed to play with firecrackers let alone weapons of mass destruction. It could be
Continue reading