Last Week Today Episode 183 Show Notes for Monday, January 27th, 2025
The US Driven International Trade “Crisis,” Canada Reacts to Possible US Tariffs, The Stargate AI Supercomputer, The Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force & Women Sold Lies
The US Driven International Trade “Crisis.”
Our first story tonight is about the elephant on the international stage, US president Donald Trump and his “America First,“ plans to essentially rebuild the power of the US around the world by promoting non-interventionism in foreign affairs, American nationalism, and utilizing a protectionist trade policy focused around tariffs to encourage American firms to return businesses and factories to American soil.
Trump reiterated those promises in a remote but very blunt presentation to the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday.
As outlined in the January 23rd, 2025 Associated Press post, “Davos 2025: Trump leaves an impression with his video address to the World Economic Forum.” the presentation was considered the highlight of the fourth day of the shadowy annual gathering of political and business leaders.
Trump’s views also shaped other sessions, from a panel on tariffs to a fiery speech by Javier Milei, the brash president of Argentina.
The full Trump presentation is available online as the January 23rd, 2025 The Mel K on Bitchute post, “Donald J. Trump’s Landmark Speech at the World Economic Forum: Special Address and Dialogue.”
The forty-five minute presentation is well worth taking a look at if only for its overview of how the “America First” policy directly benefits Americans and those who wish to locate their factories on US soil.
Trump’s ultimate target isn’t the EU, NATO or even the WEF.
It’s the BRIC’s nations, which are slowly attempting to build up the power needed to supplant the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
As outlined in the January 23rd,2025 Zero Hedge post, “BRICS Expands Footprint In The Global South,” BRIC’s officially welcomed Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia, marking a significant expansion for the bloc originally founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
But one of the US intermediate targets in the current trade war is Canada.
And for those of us in Canada who don’t believe the US possesses the will and the skill needed to enforce its “America First” policy, it’s worth checking out the January 27th, 2025 CBC News story “Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after tariff showdown with Trump,”
According to the post, the US president ordered 25 per cent tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would be raised to 50 per cent in one week, and other retaliatory measures after:
(Columbian) President Gustavo Petro's decision to reject two Colombia-bound US military aircraft carrying migrants after Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation.
Within hours, Columbia had backed down from its earlier refusal to accept the two military aircraft.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a late-Sunday statement that the "Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay."
According to the post, “the White House held up the episode as a warning to other nations who might seek to impede his plans.”
Also in the News this Week
Canada Reacts to Possible US Tariffs
As noted in previous programs, Columbia isn’t the only country staring down the barrel of an American trade war.
US President Donald Trump is threatening to impose 25% tariffs against Canadian and Mexican imports into the United States unless Canada and Mexico address the issue of drugs, particularly fentanyl, and illegal immigration crossing into the US from the Canadian and Mexican borders.
Trump's rhetoric suggests that these tariffs are seen as leverage to force Canada to take more stringent actions on these issues as part of a broader "America First" policy aimed at securing US borders.
By threatening tariffs, Trump aims to extract concessions from Canada in other areas as well, possibly in relation to the upcoming review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2026.
The US is Canada's largest trading partner, with over 75% of Canadian exports going to the US. Large tariffs on Canadian goods could push Canada into a recession and affect sectors like energy, auto, and manufacturing due to their integrated supply chains across the border.
These reasons suggest that the tariff threat is multifaceted, involving both domestic US policy objectives and international trade dynamics. The implementation of these tariffs could reshape North American trade relations with significant economic consequences for both nations.
The Canadian situation is complicated by lame duck Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the certainty of a wild and woolly campaign for his replacement and the positioning of several provincial premiers vying to become the head negotiators for Canadian trading interests.
Canadian Premiers wrapping themselves up as trade negotiators include:
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the only Canadian leader of any substance with resources the American’s might want. She’s embarked on an activist campaign to meet with US stakeholders and explain her position.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, officially a conservative mostly detested by other conservatives, who’s promised to call a snap election over his plan to initiate counter-tariffs to counter the US tariffs. But Ontario doesn’t have anything the Americans want, except for maybe Canadian automobile manufacturing capacity, and those factories will quickly move south when the American tariffs are put in place.
Others, such as Quebec Premier François Legault, who seems mostly shaken up over the prospect of 600,000 Quebec jobs being impacted by a 25% tariff increase proposed by Donald Trump.
Part of a Canadian solution to the US tariffs might be the scrapping of internal free trade barriers. As outlined in the January 25th, 2025 CBC News post ,“Canada's premiers have wanted to scrap internal trade barriers for years. Why is it hard to do?” scrapping internal free trade barriers could help blunt the effects of the new US tariffs.
Then there’s the election of the new Liberal leader. Two people are currently in serious contention for the position and several more coming up the rear:
Former international banker Mark Carney, who keeps refusing to allow journalists from Rebel News and the Western Standard to cover his stump speeches. It’s also worth noting that Carney was once associated with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), an organization of bankers currently accused of “going to war” against the American way of life because of its climate activism, according to a report issued by the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust.
Carney is competing against ex-deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who seems to be running a close second in the race to become the next Liberal leader turfed from office by the inevitable conservative wave.
As outlined in the January 27th, 2025 CBC News post, “Liberal Party approves 6 candidates to run in leadership race,” notes Carney and Freeland, along with Burlington MP Karina Gould, Sydney/Victoria MP Jaime Battiste, former Montreal Liberal MP Frank Baylis and entrepreneur Ruby Dhalla, as being in the running for Justin Trudeau’s old job.
Most confusing is the Liberal party refusal to let Ontario MP Chandra Arya from running in its leadership race. As noted in the January 27th, 2025 Western Standard post, “Liberal Party blocks Arya's leadership bid, Carney gains more support,” Arya had previously drawn criticism for stating he did not speak French and questioning its importance for the role of prime minister.
The Liberals are hoping to hold at least a few of their seats in Quebec in the next election. They’re also hoping that the Trump administration doesn’t embarrass Canada on the world stage.
It helps the governing Liberals that most Canadians aren’t aware of the reasons for the Trump tariffs.
The current plan is for Ottawa to implement multi-billion dollar “pandemic style” windfall of funding for businesses and individuals affected by the imposition of any American tariffs.
The Stargate AI Supercomputer
The Trump administration announced a $500 billion US AI “Stargate” supercomputer will but built in Texas with Federal government funds to run AI applications.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.
During the announcement Oracle Corporation CEO Larry Ellison, standing next to Trump, talked about how they’ll use AI to make “custom mRNA cancer vaccines.”
The announcement sent shockwaves through Trump supporters, many of who equated mRNA technology with the failed and dangerous pandemic vaccines first rolled out in 2020.
Others were concerned over the panopticon aspects of a giant AI supercomputer hoovering up data from around the world and its effect on freedom.
No one is quite sure what the announcement means. At the very least, it suggests that the US government has decided to pick the winner in the current international battle to role out a useful AI application.
The Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force
The Alberta government has released its Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force.
The January 28th, 2025 Alberta government document, “Alberta's COVID-19 pandemic response : Alberta COVID-19 Pandemic Data Review Task Force : final report,” was tasked with examining:
…the quality, use, interpretation and flow of information and data that informed Alberta’s pandemic response to COVID-19.
The 269 page report wasn’t much liked by the legacy media.
The January 25th, 2025 Calgary Herald post, “Alberta's 'contrarian' COVID-19 review task force releases final report, including recommendation to halt vaccines,” notes that the Alberta government “is still reviewing and considering the report, and has not yet made any policy decisions related to its findings.”
The January 27th, 2025 CBC News post, “Alberta doctors push back on provincial COVID-19 task force report,” quoted the the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) which claimed “the document advances misinformation.”
Freedom Forum will be examining the report over the next two weeks and will report our finding in an upcoming broadcast.
Women Sold Lies
And finally tonight, here’s the January 12th, 2024 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “https://www.bitchute.com/video/0hl7e6ncD7j3.”
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