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D F Barr's avatar

Your talk of fentanyl and the City of London reminded me of HSBC which is headquartered in London now. Its beginnings can be traced to the opium trade and the vast amounts of money made then.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Exactly, but HSBC was fined $1.9 billion for money laundering in 2012.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

If that was the fine, figure that the amount of money they laundered was probably exponentially larger.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

@amuse @amuse

OH CANADA! The new PM of Canada just moved to Canada in January. He holds three passports and describes himself as ‘European’. He’s never run for office and no one in Canada heard of him before he was installed as PM. Weird.

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Nutmeg's avatar

He was the Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008-13. The US equivalent would be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

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Nutmeg's avatar

He was in a national position as Governor of the Bank of Canada. It wasn't like he was an obscure member of Parliament from the Providence of your choice.

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AmericanCardigan's avatar

Yeah, I read somewhere today that the Canadian people will most likely reject him either before October elections or during. The crown as you've referred to in the past has been revealed much closer than we (or I) thought.

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ROBERT Incognito's avatar

I am a free speech absolutist so my support for Trump is dampened by this policy. I was hoping for more introspection from him but his chosen team foretold the policy being implemented. This will hurt the MAGA movement’s big tent as well as give the left a legitimate and huge constitutional issue to fight back against conservative values. Looks like we’re back to the lesser of two evils argument which is so frustrating.

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dissonant1's avatar

Evil for a "good" purpose vs. evil for an "evil" purpose and the govt gets to make the call.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

BREAKING: Canada Caves: Ontario Premier Agrees to Suspend Surcharge on Electricity Exports to US a Few Hours After Trump Threatens Retaliation

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Mark Wauck's avatar

The Canadian province of Ontario will charge 25% more for electricity to 1.5 million Americans in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

BREAKING: Trump has said "Canada will pay a financial price ... so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come"

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johnycomelately's avatar

Great write up, the story not often talked about in Geopolitics is the use by state actors of criminal cartels as quasi satrapies dominating foreign territories.

The Vietnam war ended the Corsican French dominance of the Euro drug trade.

Post Soviet collapse the Chechen cartels ascended to dominance, hence Putin’s response.

One has to wonder who the British trained OSS/CIA works for.

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Tamsin's avatar

The core principles of our civilization.

Ouch ouch ouch.

I think there is a quid pro quo. We were not invited to the negotiation.

The quid was written up very nicely by Bill Ackman in January 2024, after the Harvard campus protests following October 7. He even quotes MLK,

https://x.com/BillAckman/status/1742441534627184760

The quid pro quo is that moneymen (consider Larry Fink and his ESG guidance for investors) will ensure that "it is okay to be white" in exchange for "it is not okay to criticize Israel. Unless you are an American with full right of return to Israel, approximately, then go for it, get it out of your system."

I fear we have traded the removal of one set of speech codes for the imposition of another set of speech codes. I hope I'm wrong.

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dissonant1's avatar

Kind of puts a different slant on "the revolution will not be televised." Too much of our societal transformation over the last 50-60 years has been under the auspices of government programs, money granted to corporations and NGOs, and executive orders.

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Francisco d’Anconia's avatar

It seems that these speech cases related to “antisemitism” Will make it to the Supreme Court and then we will see the outcome. It’s just posturing until then, and the admin needs to be very careful about how hypocritical they appear as their coalition isn’t unassailable from the left or the right. Trump 2.0 is fundamentally made up of disillusioned former democrats on the margin and we’re not loyal to him if he pushes this.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Unfortunately, it may not be *just* posturing--you do understand how long it can take to go through the appeals process, and how much that can cost? Yes, the SCOTUS can reach down and take cases "out of regular order", but who wants to spend a LOT of money on that wild ass hope? In the meantime, the speech of normal Americans is being chilled, institutions of higher education are being subjected to inquisition on RightThink as defined by persons who have purchased the right to judge normal Americans. Our education establishment has been way out of bounds in chilling speech all on their own, but two wrongs don't make a right. The chilling effect and harassment effect is real.

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Francisco d’Anconia's avatar

That’s fair, I guess my perspective is that we have been censored so much over the last decade that any loosening, selective or not, is an improvement. And let the ACLU litigate it like they’re supposed to. It’s a throwback to the old days of liberals fighting conservative censorship. It does expose a shocking level of hypocrisy.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Chilling of basic rights is a very big deal in constitutional law, so it is possible that challenges to this crazy EO could get fast track treatment. The terms of the order and the official rhetoric surrounding it should make it a slam dunk reversal. However, the chilling in the meantime is a serious thing.

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Mark Hazard's avatar

Re: Alex Krainer, please also consider...

Tom Luongo: Gold Goats 'n Guns Podcast

Episode #171 - Richard Poe and Why All Roads Really Do Lead to London

https://www.fountain.fm/episode/ikwOP4iMm4ZplgO3AeUs

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Richard C. Cook's avatar

The British Empire is alive. It aims to destroy the US. Drugs. Latino immigrants. High interest rates. Internet attacks on Trump.

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Marie's avatar

One of the youtubes I follow is from Canada. They have been saying in the past months, they (the regular youtubers) have been giving food to neighbors in need. They say there are lots of hungry people. I do not know, but it sounds like there aren't programs to feed those in need like here in the US. Also I wanted to comment that Vancouver was the site where shows like the X files and possibly Stargate were filmed. Now I don't know if activities like that have stopped due to the crime.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

He means The City of London:

BRICS News @BRICSinfo

JUST IN:  Russia says the United Kingdom is the "main instigator" of the conflict in Ukraine.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

In Response to Canadian Decision to Tax U.S. Electricity Consumers, President Trump Raises Tariff on Canada to 50 Percent and Pledges to Destroy Canadian Auto Industry

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/03/11/in-response-to-canadian-decision-to-tax-u-s-electricity-consumers-president-trump-raises-tariff-on-canada-to-50-percent-and-pledges-to-destroy-canadian-auto-industry/

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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

He is so silly.

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dissonant1's avatar

It may be silly but it worked.

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