since 2015

Honestly, I’d say that a lot of Trumpism’s stuff is more-or-less in line with the stuff that the John Birch Society has promoted, and that goes waaaaay back. I mean, Trump talking about annexing Canada/Panama/whatever, no — in fact, that’s one of the few cases that I think that they’d take a dead-opposite position on, since they’ve a horror of the North American Union. But there’s a lot of overlap outside that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

The John Birch Society from its start opposed collectivism as a “cancer” and by extension communism and big government.[29][30] JBS publications referred to the fight against Communism as a spiritual war against the devil.[25]: iv, 156–157  Allegations that so-called “Insiders” have conspired to control the United States through communism and world government are a recurring theme of JBS publications.[31] The organization and its founder, Robert W. Welch Jr., promoted Americanism as “the philosophical antithesis of Communism.”[32] It contended that the United States is a republic, not a democracy, and argued that states’ rights should supersede those of the federal government.[33] Welch infused constitutionalist and classical liberal principles, in addition to his conspiracy theories, into the JBS’s ideology and rhetoric.[34] In 1983, Congressman Larry McDonald, then the society’s newly appointed chairman, characterized the JBS as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right.[35] The society opposes “one world government”, the United Nations (UN),[36] the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other free trade agreements. It argues the U.S. Constitution has been devalued in favor of political and economic globalization. It has cited the existence of the former Security and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards a North American Union.[37][38] The JBS has sought immigration reduction.

The JBS opposed the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.[16][39][40] It has campaigned for state nullification.[41][42] It opposes efforts to call an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution,[43][44] and it has been influential at promoting opposition to it among Republican legislators.[45] The JBS also supports auditing and eventually dismantling the Federal Reserve System.[46][non-primary source needed] The JBS holds that the United States Constitution gives only Congress the ability to coin money, and does not permit it to delegate this power, or to transform the dollar into a fiat currency not backed by gold or silver.[non-primary source needed]

Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14, declaring “We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” rejecting Donald Trump’s annexation threats.

Carney won the Liberal leadership with 85.9% of the vote despite having no elected experience.

In recent weeks, the Liberals have reversed a political freefall, sharply rebounding to such a degree that a previously expected Conservative majority in the next general election looks increasingly unlikely. The shift in the polls has been so dramatic that pollsters have struggled to find any historical precedent.

A newly released poll from Abacus Data showed the Conservative support had shrunk to 38%, with 34% going to the incumbent Liberals.

I don’t know what impact the Trump administration is having on the likelihood of conservatives having political power in the US in the future, but it sure isn’t having a positive effect on conservatives in Canada.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has a broad range of unorthodox views on medicine.

A survey of over 100,000 Germans revealed that 94% won’t buy a Tesla vehicle.

Ehhh…

So, normally, you want a random sample in polls, which is very unlikely to not be representative of the population as a whole. If they have 100k people, it very probably isn’t a random sample, because you only normally take something like 1k to 2k people for randomly-sampled polls; there’s a rapidly-declining value above that. If the sample set is self-selected rather than randomly-selected, you can get results that are pretty different from the population as a whole.

fires up Google Translate

While I can’t seem to get the survey page to load, the domain it’s on is apparently t-online.de; it sounds like it’s a reader survey, which won’t be random.

But it’s a world-renowned Kentucky product, bourbon, that’s become a prime target for retaliation. In Canada, some liquor stores have cleared American spirits from their shelves. Across the Atlantic, the EU will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans.

Those are targeted tariffs aimed at creating political pressure on Trump to stop the trade war.

If I drank Kentucky bourbon here in the US, I’d stop too. I mean, sucks for the bourbon guys — while some manufacturers no doubt wanted tariffs, those guys won’t have — but I want the tariffs stopped too, and given that elections are some time away, that’s really my only available near-term input on the tariff conflict.

I guess I eat beef, chicken and peanut butter. Can probably live without that for the duration; probably possible to get non-US-originating stuff, do my bit to increase pressure. Can probably get non-US-originating jeans. :-/

I wish that the Canucks would put up recommended alternatives.

goes hunting

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=imported+peanut+butter&i=grocery

Okay “imported peanut butter” seems to provide hits from Canada and the Netherlands.

I have no idea on jeans.

I doubt that it’s possible to easily get non-US-originating chicken in the US. The US is globally-competitive in chicken production, and it’s expensive to ship. Probably just need to eat an alternative.

EDIT: It sounds like most jeans manufacture moved out of the US some time ago, so if you’re getting jeans in the US, unless you’re going out of your way to get domestically-manufactured ones, they’re probably imports anyway.

https://toddshelton.com/blog/about-todd-shelton/made-in-america/best-jeans-made-in-usa

No more household names like Levi’s, Wrangler, or Lee

The Big 3: Levi’s, Wrangler, and Lee no longer make jeans in America. A few years ago, Levi’s and Wrangler sold a Made in USA jean for over $200—but a recent search shows both have been discontinued.

Even well-known brands like AG Jeans and Lucky, which still have a reputation for USA made jeans, no longer make jeans here.

People looking to buy American made jeans will need to be willing to get familiar with a new brand, because there are no more household names making jeans in America.

Adjusting to what an American-made jean should cost

For many readers who want to buy made in America jeans, adjusting to the higher prices will be a challenge.

Keep in mind, Levi’s and Wrangler sold made in USA jeans a few years ago and were priced at $250 and $275, respectively. Neither brand is known for high prices, but each did the math for what their American-made jean should cost—and both came up with a similar number.

The prices are higher because American labor and overhead are higher, and the scale that can reduce cost is no longer available for American factories.

The ones that they do list that still make jeans in the US are niche brands that I’ve never purchased from in the first place:

• Todd Shelton
• Raleigh Denim Workshop
• Shockoe Atelier
• Railcar Fine Goods
• Dearborn Denim
• Round House Jeans
• Glenn’s Denim
• Blue Delta

So probably I don’t need to do anything different there.

Maybe the Irish will increase taxation on it to make him happy.

Musk did some crazy brand management with Twitter, but the Tesla/Trump stuff has got to be unparalleled in the history of branding. He built a product that was an identity-broadcasting thing for liberals and then pulled a 180 and drove as hard as one could possibly imagine in the other direction.

Even if he had some idea of selling to conservatives, become the only EV manufacturer selling to that segment, he could have put out a different brand, which lots of manufacturers do, and mitigate losses to the original brand.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-sale-big-losses-second-hand-value-plunge-elon-musk-2025-3

Tesla owners offloading their cars over Elon Musk backlash are in for a nasty surprise

• Some Tesla owners are considering selling their cars as backlash against Elon Musk and DOGE grows.

• They may have to take a serious haircut, with prices for used Teslas plummeting in recent years.

• The average price of a pre-owned Tesla is now $30,000, nearly $10,000 less than a non-Tesla EV.

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gaining-republicans-loses-traction-democrats-stifel/

Stifel’s Think Tank Group data has shown that Democrats’ net favorability of Tesla fell to -15% from 7% since February 2024, while Republicans’ rose to 27% from 11%. Democrats’ net purchase consideration for Tesla vehicles also dropped to -42% from -31% since Musk endorsed Trump in August, while Republicans’ improved to -13% from -26% in the same period, per Stifel.

“There is a clear negative shift from Democrats, while Republicans willingness to buy a Tesla is rising… This backlash has surfaced anecdotally and on social media (people placing bumper stickers on their Tesla’s claiming they love the car, but not Elon, and other variations),” the analyst noted.

Rolling back a few years to an earlier Trump campaign, a select quote:

https://401kspecialistmag.com/how-trumps-401k-performance-compares-to-presidential-predecessors/

“If for some reason I wouldn’t have won the [2016] election, these markets would have crashed. That’ll happen even more so in 2020,” Trump told a rally-goers in New Hampshire last week. “See, the bottom line is… You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401k, everything is going to be down the tubes. So, whether you love me or hate me, you’ve got to vote for me.”