Nollaig Shona daoibh
Happy Christmas from The Village Oak Tree
I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill. This is my Christmas show, even though I don't typically celebrate Christian holidays.
As I said last week, this week's podcast is primarily going to be about this latest Trump tactic of taxing/tariffing the hell out of Canada and Mexico. Canada is running scared as a twenty five percent tariff on all imports from Canada to the U.S. would cripple the Canadian economy. I have several news stories from the CBC Canada news media along with a blog article from a young Canadian friend of mine, who graciously wrote the article when I asked her for a contribution on this subject.
I also have some other news stories to talk about that may also have an effect on everyone's lives after the holidays are over. So, stay tuned as we dig into the stories I have found for you.
After my commercial break, I found an inspirational Irish Christmas story to read to everyone as my gift to all of you who watch this video. I would ask that you give you appreciation to the author if you read along with me.
So, come sit you down by the crann nollag (Christmas tree) and listen to me tell you some tales about the world outside.
I realize that this year, the major Christian holiday, Christmas, is also celebrated today. But, as I am not a Christian, nor do I celebrate this holiday much, other than relaxing with family and cooking a special dinner, I am in keeping with my schedule of publishing this podcast every Wednesday.
More than half of my content today is about this current rift between Donald Trump (I won’t be calling him president anytime soon) and Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world to a lesser degree. Mostly Canada as Mexico’s new el Presidente has told Trump to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. Not in those words but, she has given Trump notice that he can either work with Mexico or not but she can get along without the U.S. since they have expanded their trade agreements with a lot of other countries now, most notably, China.
Don’t get me wrong but Mexico would take a serious economic hit by this twenty five percent tariff tax, if imposed, but Canada will take an even larger hit and that is my focus this week. Although Europe is also scrambling over this threat as well.
I found several news articles from the CBC Canada news that talks about how the provincial MP’s are gearing up to meet Trump’s demands for tighter border security to keep out the drug dealers and illegal immigrants, which are all good things. But Canada is struggling a bit to put this all together in a cohesive program.
The MP’s are implementing their own systems within their provinces, bypassing Ottawa for the moment, in a scramble to appease Trump. Trudeau is working on a federal response but the provinces aren’t waiting. Especially Alberta and Ontario.
The MP’s are upset that PM Trudeau went to Mar-A-Lago to try and convince Trump not to impose the tariff’s but all that did was convince the biggest bully on the planet to insult Canada even more. Calling Trudeau the governor of America’s 51st state, with Mexico the 52nd. Mexico blasted the notion and that was the end of it so far, but Canada? They took that insult pretty hard and are attempting to meet Trump’s standards at the same time, setting up retaliatory tariffs of their own in case they need them.
Canada exports four million barrels of oil a day to the U.S. Canada exports electricity and other energy products to 1.5 million U.S. customers from Minnesota to Maine. The MP’s could shut all of that off. They don’t want to and it would be a last resort scenario but the threat is there.
Canada exports a lot of raw ores to U.S. manufacturers, what few there are left, and they would take a huge hit if Canada were to impose retaliatory tariffs. I don’t think the U.S. corporate world will let that stand. If he doesn’t listen to anyone else, Trump does listen to the corporate billionaires when there are billions of dollars in profits at stake.
Canada also has other political problems as well. Their prime minister is very unpopular these days and the right wing nationalists under Poilievre are doing all they can to discredit poor Justin Trudeau and get him out of there. If the conservatives take over the federal government in Ottawa soon, Trump could see a different attitude from its northern neighbor and it won’t be a nice one. Canada’s conservatives are all about closing ranks against their aggressive neighbors to the south and telling Trump and company where to stick their 51st state idea.
To give everyone reading this a sense of just how the average Canadian views these insults from Donald Trump, I present a blog article from a Canadian writer who lives in the Canadian Maritimes. She doesn’t mince words and, although she talks about brotherly love, she says that ship has now sailed. Canadians from all spectrums of society are livid and stand behind whatever the Canadian government wants to do to preserve Canadian sovereignty and dignity.
Allies Divided: Canada and the United States
By Sam W. in her website blog, www.world-weary.com
What I am writing here is only a taste of everything I talk about in the podcast above. I invite everyone to watch the video to hear more.
In other news from across the world, Trump is also harassing Greenland once again with his bluster about purchasing Greenland for national security reasons. Not to mention all of the natural resources that the U.S. corporations would like to get their hands on. Greenland and Denmark have flatly refused once again but I have a feeling that this issue is far from dead.
He has also said that he wants to retake the Panama Canal back from the Panamanians because he thinks they’re charging too high passage fees on American shipping. Of course, the Panamanian president said no, but, will that stop a president who’s people wanted to invade Mexico over some tourists who got killed by cartel members?
For someone who professes to hate wars, Trump is sure going through the motions of starting something with his neighboring nations.
He is also pushing the EU to spend more on their national defense again. This time, he has upped the anti to five percent or more of each nations GDP. NATO chief Rutte from the Netherlands is leading the push as he continually sparks fear over a massive Russian invasion of all of Europe. Which Russia has refuted time and time again. Why would Russia want to be the caretakers of such a unruly lot?
On the other side of Europe, the Ukrainians assassinated Russian general Kirilliov outside of his apartment complex last week and now, Russia is publicizing news articles about why they think he was targeted now.
Illegal biolabs. There were U.S. funded labs in eastern Ukraine at the start of the war a couple of years ago, which were cleared out and moved to Africa apparently. Yesterday, RT News-Russia posted several articles about these so called scientific labs in Africa and southeast Asia that were labeled as health organization research labs but are, apparently, secret biological warfare research facilities.
According to the Russians, and this has to be coming from the dead generals research, they have evidence that these U.S. supported labs are researching bioweapons that can be used on battlefields of the future with bioweapons genetically engineered towards certain ethnic humans, such as Russians.
The Malaysian government shut those labs down in their country but there are quite a few African countries with these labs in them that are supposedly studying diseases like Monkey Pox, Malaria and other deadly tropical diseases. Which they may very well be doing. But, knowing the U.S. as I do, there is no doubt in my mind that the news about the U.S. researching and developing bioweapons is probably true and that is why the general was killed in an effort to stop the report. As we can see in the Russian and some European news, it didn’t work.
I also found an article about how much the Republic of Ireland depends on U.S. corporations and the U.S. government for it’s budget surplus. It seems that there are approximately 960 U.S. corporations operating out of Ireland and those taxes are a huge economic boost for their treasury. But they aren’t using it for the services that need it the most, such as housing and health care. Or not enough of it anyway.
As I alluded to in the podcast, are the senior party members of Fianna Fáile and Fine Gael taking some off the top from the yanks in order to keep the largesse going to their pockets? Are the likes of Michéal Higgins and Simon Harris getting a little under the table to keep the money flowing to places other than the people who just voted for them? There are some from the more rural counties who are starting to ask those kinds of questions, which said questions may eventually make their way to the Dáil (Irish parliament).
What we are seeing across the global north is a large surge in people wanting a change in their current governments. Mostly, the far right factions are getting the most attention right now in the media but the crowd noise is getting louder and louder. Big changes are coming and they probably won’t be so friendly anymore.
Big changes in North America are also coming and things are not likely to be all smiles there as well. Donald Trump and company will continue to keep stirring the pot for quite sometime to come and the soup will probably stink to high heaven until they are stopped. Even if Trump should go out with a medical discharge before his four years are up, we can expect his sidekick, J.D. Vance, to pick up the mantle and make things even worse, if that is even possible.
This is were I take my break in the video. After the break, I return and read a nice, feel good, Christmas story I found on Medium.com. I figured that everyone should have something nice to take with them after all of the bad news I laid out here in the first half of the show.
A Christmas Story
The true meaning of Christmas.
Li in Medium.com
Thank you for spending some time with me during your holiday celebrations. I hope you enjoyed it and that you will return again for more news and commentary about the world we live in.
Please like, subscribe, reply and share the videos or audio podcasts, however you watch or listen. The goal here is to resist the authoritarians who want to take our freedoms away from us. I appreciate everyone around the world, no matter who or where you are. Together, using independent media, we can resist the authoritarian oligarchs in the west.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish Christmas toast as we celebrate the holiday season. "Go mbeirimid beo ag an am seo arís" May we all be alive at this time next year. Slán go fóill.
References:
'We can't just roll over': Doug Ford doubles down on threat to shut down energy exports to the U.S.
'We're going to use every tool in our toolbox to defend Ontarians and Canadians,' premier says
John Paul Tasker · CBC News
Alberta unveils U.S. border security plan with sheriffs, dogs and drones
The province also announced a two-kilometre deep red zone to make arrests near the border
Andrew Jeffrey · CBC News
Government to detail $1.3B border security plan today: LeBlanc
Ottawa trying to sway Trump from imposing tariffs that could hamstring the Canadian economy
Catharine Tunney · CBC News
Canada to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports in new year
Tariffs will apply to solar products and critical minerals next year, more items in 2026
cbc.ca/news/politics
Trump's tariff threat could force Canada to face tough decisions on sovereignty
Trump's demands could squeeze Canada's sovereignty in many ways
Evan Dyer · CBC News
NATO tells members to divert social spending to militaries
Security comes above all else, the US-led bloc’s head Mark Rutte has said
rt.com/news
It’s the biolabs, stupid: Is this why Ukraine murdered a Russian general?
The world deserves answers – not just about Igor Kirillov’s death, but about the controversy he was investigating
By Nadezhda Romanenko, political analyst rt.com/russia
US fears exposure of illegal bioweapon projects in Africa – Moscow
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Pentagon is testing “dangerous pathogens” in over a dozen countries across the continent
rt.com/africa
British Royal Navy’s destroyer fleet hits historic low – Telegraph
Only two of the state-of-the-art warships are currently operational, the paper reports
rt.com/news
Ireland hears the call of Palestine, but is it free to answer?
Ireland’s economic dependency on the US appears to hinder its ability and willingness to stand with the Palestinians against colonial oppression.
Audrey Kissane Al Jazeera/opinions
Syria asks the world for help against Israeli aggression
HTS leader calls on the international community as Israel continues its operations in Syria
rt.com/news
Basic education levels sliding in OECD states – data
A study has pointed to a decline in adult literacy and numeracy in many developed countries
rt.com/news
Panama responds to Trump’s threat to retake vital waterway
The US president-elect has vowed to prevent the “US canal” from falling into “the wrong hands”
rt.com/news
Trump resurrects idea of buying Greenland
Controlling the world’s largest island is an “absolute necessity” for the US, the president-elect has said
rt.com/news
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