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Welcome to The Village Oak Tree
I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.
Thank you for joining me once again.
This week I want to talk some more about all of the chaos taking place across the world with all of the tariffs, U.S. detentions of foreigners, Trump's ramping up of his war on climate change and a whole lot more.
Once I've finished telling you what I think about the things I've found in the video, I would ask everyone to stick around through my commercial break to hear another chapter of The Priest by Michael Campi
So come, pull up a chair, and let's talk about what's on my mind this week.
I've been watching and reading the news from all over the world as usual and I have no doubts anymore that the United States is in big trouble after last week and today.
Even if congress were to force Trump to go back on these executive orders now, the damage has already been done and there's no going back to where we were a month ago.
As I have said here before, some of the most famous economists have been predicting, rightly so, that Trump is going to push the U.S., and the world, into a recession. Odds are we will see this within the next six to eight months or so, according to the experts at JP Morgan Chase Bank, Goldman Sachs, plus a few others.
I'm preparing for a recession now. I'm not taking any chances with the economy. I've lived through recessions before so I know how to get ready. Depending on how long these tariffs remain in place, will determine how bad things are likely to get everywhere. As I live in the U.S, we will get hit the worst as countries close ranks and stop trading with the U.S.
We're seeing evidence from news outlets in Europe and the U.K., that this is going to start happening soon. The Canadians have already started. I watched a news video from CBC News last weekend about how travel to the U.S. has dropped by nearly 80% now. The Canadians and some European countries are issuing travel alerts for their citizens who may be planning trips to the U.S., which will slow things down even more.
Canada updates travel advice to warn of U.S. border officers' power to search electronic devices
Travellers have to decide 'how much privacy intrusion they can tolerate,' lawyer says
CBC News
As I said last week, tourism to the U.S. will take a huge hit to the tune of billions of foreign dollars as these people go on vacations to safer places. They're all running scared of customs and border patrol. The U.S. retail product boycotts happening in Canada and Europe will start taking effect on American exporters soon.
It's not only tourism but agriculture that's taking a hit. I found another article from CBC News about how the tariffs are choking out U.S. farmers from the northern states who have always done business with Canada in the past. Mostly, it's things like farm equipment built in or having parts made in Canada, that's now being taxed. It's about the potash fertilizer that mainly comes from Canada, now being tariffed, and the prices of their farm products going down against world trade.
Tariffs on Canadian goods having a 'devastating effect,' U.S. farmers say
'We've become such enemies just because of this one man': South Dakota Farmers Union president
Lauren Scott · CBC News
Then we have the Trump war on the National Parks. He wants to open up the parks for more logging, which only helps the logging companies in the short term, while ruining the environment in the long term by cutting down all of these old growth trees in the parks. This is one of the reasons why the country is having such a big problem with wildfires in the big forests lately. Canada is also experiencing wildfires in their arboreal forests over the last few years, that have caused massive evacuations around New Brunswick, Quebec, B.C, Yukon and the Northern territories. Mostly caused by global warming and logging.
The Trump Administration Issues Its Next Assault on the Nation’s Public Forests
The Department of Agriculture issued an “Emergency Situation Determination” that environmental groups say will speed the cutting of old-growth trees.
By Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News
I'm going on a long vacation this spring so I can see these old forests in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks before they're erased by Trump and his oligarchs. Can you imagine what these national parks will look like once they're clear cut by loggers someday?
If that's not enough to make you mad and sad, Trump wants to deregulate the laws on PFAS chemicals. So, between the deregulation of the fossil fuel industry, and now the toxic chemical industries, the toxicity of the soil, water and air in the U.S will now become so bad that people will start dying of cancers and respiratory issues by the thousands. They already are but this will magnify that beyond imagination.
Trump officials quietly move to reverse bans on toxic ‘forever chemicals’
EPA bids to change chemical risk evaluations, which could expose public to higher levels of PFAS and other pollutants
From The Guardian
And who tends to live near these heavily polluted areas? The poorest people, and most proportionality, people of color. Some are saying that this is on purpose in order to suppress voting from these areas that tend to vote democrat or independent. The underlying premise is that If the republicans kill off all of these people, they can't vote for the opposition.
There are more stories about the unlawful detention of foreign students. In a story I found, not only is ICE taking people off the streets without due process, they're denying people their medicines, which may be killing some of them. The Turkish PHD scholar who was videoed being taken off a Massachusetts street a couple of weeks ago, is being denied her asthma medicine. Without it, she could be permanently harmed or die. But ICE doesn't care about the people in their custody. They're just a bunch of dirty foreigners. So what if they die in their cages. Some of them have. But the government doesn't care, so main stream media doesn't care.
ICE Is Reportedly Violating Detained Tufts Student’s Right to Medical Care
Democrats say Rümeysa Öztürk’s inhaler has been withheld and she has had repeated asthma attacks.
Sophie Hurwitz and Julia Métraux From Mother Jones.com
With the U.S. supreme court seeming to side with Trump, in a 5-4 split on nearly everything, Trump is going to go full on with deportations and continue to ignore the lower courts. His excuse, "The supreme court says I can."
In a story that I received late yesterday from Zeteo, Prem Thakker writes that the U.S. government, Ice, is coming down hard on all foreign students now. If any student has had so much as any interaction with the police at any time in their time within the U.S., their status is being revoked with no notification and they're being ordered out of the country ASAP. Remember when I told everyone in the last couple of weeks, that ICE would be coming for all foreign students eventually, regardless of their status? We're there now. So I reiterate my message. If you're in the United States on any kind of visa, for study or work, you're now a target. ICE will be coming for you eventually. Right now, as I mentioned before, it looks like they're using an AI algorithm to search student records for citizenship statuses and look for even the most minor infractions, for which they're revoking visas and green cards. They're forcing students to self-deport or be physically deported and we know what that looks like these days. A trip to a Louisiana or Texas gulag. I'm sorry but for foreign students in the U.S., your education is now being majorly disrupted. You're not safe anymore. Run while you still can as the court system is unable to help you very much anymore. Trump's government has seen to that also. I don't mean to create a panic as ICE is already doing that.
This is why Canada and the rest of the world are issuing travel alerts. Warning their people that their electronic devices are subject to search at the whim of customs and border patrol. Advising people to only bring a burner phone to the U.S. now, to try and prevent being locked up in an ugly detention center in Louisiana, Texas or Arizona for weeks, if not longer.
'Dark undertone': For some overseas, Trump policies put a dent in Lady Liberty's promise
From USA Today
This will have a dramatic effect on business travel as well, as researchers and business people will opt to hold their meetings virtually rather than in person within the U.S. borders now. They're all scared to fly into the U.S.
There is some good news on this front though. Canada is looking to recruit American scientists, academics, and doctors who have lost their jobs due to all of the federal job cuts in the U.S. They're hiring. You have to know that there is a serious brain drain going on in the U.S. right now with Trump and DOGE clearing house everywhere. It's not just Canada though. There are corporate and state recruiters from Europe poaching these highly educated people too.
Top American scientists just lost their jobs. Canada is rolling out the welcome mat
Manitoba, B.C., Ontario looking to recruit top scientists from the U.S.
Jennifer Yoon · CBC News
I've watched news reports of Jewish professors from Yale University leaving the U.S. for Toronto, Ontario out of fear of Trump's suppression of first amendment rights. Canada isn't messing around. They're reeling from all of this and this is how they're fighting back. It seems small right now, but they will gain some headway as soon as things settle down up there after the national elections on April 28th.
In other Canadian immigration news, I learned last weekend from a friend of mine in New England, that Canada is opening up its citizenship applications for another generation after April 25th. What this means is that for people who can prove they have a native born Canadian grandparent, they may be eligible for a Canadian citizenship certificate.
Since my brother and I fall into that category, we may qualify. We have a grandparent who was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada at about the turn of the 20th century so I'm in the process of researching this now.
Not that this means I'm planning on immigrating to Canada anytime soon, as this verification process is quite lengthy, but with dual citizenship, I might have a plan B if things go completely to hell here in the U.S.
Of course, if I'm looking into this, you have to know that thousands of other Americans are also looking into this. Canadian immigration is probably being flooded with applications right now, which will put the timeline for applying far beyond the current estimates on the Canadian immigration website. Currently listed as approximately 15 months but I expect that to be extended.
As my wife asked when I told her about this new revelation, “Would we be welcome in Canada as American refugees?” Given the sentiment up there right now towards Americans, that's probably a resounding no.
Not to mention having to leave family and nearly everything we've worked for here in the U.S. behind to start over in a different country that doesn't like us right now. I'm not ready for that yet.
Life in the U.S. is going to get bad but so will life for everyone else in the world that ever traded with the United States.
The U.K. prime minister is telling people that the world of globalization is finished. Trump just killed it. Now, according to people who know about these things, the world will likely divide itself up into smaller trading blocs, such as BRICS and the EU, cutting the United States out of the mix.
Starmer to announce end of globalization – Times
The UK PM will say that tariffs are wrong, but that he understands US President Donald Trump’s “economic nationalism,” according to the paper
From RT News
Mexico is charting a new course with the other Latin American countries and China, Canada is reaching out to east Asia and Europe to try and offset the loss of trade with the U.S. Europe is in talks to strengthen ties with China soon. Japan and South Korea are reaching out to China to make deals. Africa is cozying up to Russia and China, while snubbing the U.S. Especially after Trump's tiff with the South African ambassador a couple of weeks ago.
Just to give everyone a taste of how loyal these American corporations are to Trump, bunches of them are petitioning Russia to be welcomed back to do business but Russia is telling them, nyet. The terms are now a lot stricter. In this article from RT, they report that there are about 150 American companies still doing business in Russia, despite the gruesome sanctions, mostly in the energy sectors. But any of those who left because of the war, or for new applicants, Russia is checking them out very carefully.
Lots of US companies asking to come back to Russia – Putin envoy
Moscow will prioritize joint ventures and domestic firms, Kirill Dmitriev has said
From RT News
This is going to become the new trend for American businesses around the world. Because of Trump, American companies no longer have carte blanche or first dibs like they used to. Countries are now going to put their own companies first and the U.S. will have to wait in a long line, hat in hand, waiting to see if someone will do business with them.
Sir Starmer in the U.K. is telling his people that they need to develop better trading relationships with other, geographically closer countries from now on as the yanks are not dependable anymore. Ireland is thinking along the same lines.
All of this only leads to one thing. A recession or depression, whatever you want to call it. There's no longer any doubt. It's coming. Even if Trump pulls back next week, the damage is already done.
But, as we've seen, I doubt he'll change course. His MAGA republicans in the House and to a lesser degree, the senate, are okay to let him do as he pleases, for now. That attitude may be changing though. With all of the 'Hands Off" worldwide protests last Saturday, the word is out in republican districts. The people are angry. This will translate into votes for someone else, anyone else, who isn't siding with Trump and his MAGA politicians. They're not afraid of Musk trying to buy a candidate anymore either. Some MAGA politicians are taking notice.
In other domestic, MAGA news, the U.S. is fighting voter suppression everywhere, especially in the republican controlled states. In North Carolina, a candidate for their supreme court lost the election last fall, but because the MAGA republicans couldn't accept that a democrat won the seat, they ruled that over 68000 votes were invalid. These are mail in ballots that arrived after election day, even though postmarked well before the election, voters who didn't prove their citizenship and eligibility with the proper I.D's and such. The state appeals court sided with the plaintiff last Friday, a rich republican with dubious credentials. The sitting defendant has vowed to take it to a federal court, and this obvious voter suppression has been going on for over five months now. I hope she wins. If not, this sends a clear message to other republican controlled states that this is okay, and they will try to copy. That's a huge hit to democracy in these states.
North Carolina judges back Republican colleague in bid to toss votes and overturn election
Appeals court sides with Jefferson Griffin, who lost supreme court election and wants thousands of ballots thrown out
From The Guardian
This is one of the reasons why people are so angry. They see stuff like this going on, plus all of Trump's antics, coupled with Musk's antics, and they're mad. This is not what they voted for last November.
They also didn't vote to go to war with Yemen and Iran. This little fracas with Yemen has already become expensive, to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars as Yemen has taken out, so far, 16 Reaper drones, each costing about 30 million dollars each. Not to mention the cost of staging extra Air Force and Navy assets in the region lately. Assets like an additional carrier group, B-52's and B2 bombers in Diego Garcia, Kuwait and Qatar. The U.S.S. Truman carrier group just had their deployment extended, which will make a bunch of already unhappy sailors, even more unhappy, along with their families back home.
Trump and the pentagon just announced that the U.S. defense budget will exceed one trillion, with a T, dollars in the next budget consideration coming up soon.
All for what? To continue supporting Israel as they continue to ethically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank? As they bomb Syrian military installations so the Turks can't use them? As they execute aid workers and medics in ambulances and bury them in shallow graves, then try to unsuccessfully cover it up?
This is why the world doesn't like Trump and the United States. The rest of the world is shaking their heads while working at decoupling themselves from the U.S. China is giving themselves two years to divest itself completely. They're making better deals with more reliable partners. Now that Trump has dropped an additional fifty percent tariff on China, China will pretty much set up a trade embargo on the U.S. and that will be the end of that. The U.S. economy will slowly collapse over the summer months as stockpiles are used up.
For the rest of the world, it may take a bit longer, but a bunch of them are filing divorce papers now. It'll be a bitter split as Trump will continue to attempt to bully everyone he can in a temper fit. But, the handwriting is on the wall. The United States is unreliable and can't be trusted anymore. It's time to move on to a better place to play and let the bully kick all the dirt he wants in a soon to be empty playground.
Here is a link to Michael Campi’s continuing story, The Priest.
Thank you for joining me once again. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll return again to talk 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 people 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 like this, we can resist the authoritarian oligarchs in the west.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with another Irish rebellion quote as we wonder what to do next. "When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty." Slán go fóill.
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