it was clearly a tactical/strategic mistake for canada to avoid levying export taxes on the united states in an attempt to appease them. our liberals are appeasing donald trump. why would anyone have expected otherwise? we might have had leverage to trade something with the united states, to gain concessions and preferable outcomes. now, we have nothing to trade, so they're just going to bully us around and tell us what to do, instead.

carney has bent over backwards to do everything trump has ordered him to do, including changing domestic legislation, and it has had no effect on donald trump at all, other than to embolden him.

but, if we just give them the sudetenland, like they ask for, they'll surely behave more reasonably.

as the old saying goes, it appears as though we've been playing checkers, while the americans are playing a game of chess against us.

we don't just look weak and easily manipulated. we look stupid. 

and we don't even realize it.

it's not too late to levy export taxes in an attempt to gain leverage, but it won't have the same effect, it will look weak and desperate.

that being said, there is a smart analysis, here. what does donald trump want out of this? i think that if you're careful in your analysis of his behaviour, it's to conclude that the outcome isn't really the goal. trump is not driven by results. that is the part of this that the too rational liberal party can't get it's head around. if we're rational why isn't he rational, too?

logically, you ought to be able to give a lion hunks of meat everyday, and have a happy well-fed lion, but it won't act that way. the lion needs to be a lion; it needs to hunt.

for donald trump, this is all performative. he doesn't care if he gets the best deal for america, in the end. it doesn't matter if carney does everything ordered of him. trump wants to negotiate. that's why he likes the arabs so much, under the facade.

i am highly critical of middle eastern religion, and i am also highly critical of market economics. in fact, these things go hand in hand. it was carthaginian markets that ruled the mediterrannean before the romans showed up and burned them down. the romans intentionally destroyed their history, so we know much less about this than we should, but we know that if you show up at a market - a bazaar - in northern africa even today and you offer to just buy something at an advertised price, they will throw you out. paying an advertised price for something is insulting. no - they want to barter, they want to negotiate, they want to trade, they want to make a deal.

we need to stop appeasing donald trump and start arguing with him.

if we give him a good argument, a good tussle, a good fight, a sporting competition, but to be clear are sure to let him win in the end, we're much more likely to come out of this ahead than if we show up and prostrate ourselves and make ourselves look compliant and weak. 

trudeau's mistake is that he won the debate. carney's mistake is that he's not debating with him at all.

we have british liberals as our natural governing party in this country but we're not taking advantage of it and don't even realize that that's what donald trump is. we need to look at it like a good sprightly dog hunt.

send them john manley as the new ambassador and tell him to play his surname up a little.