“Elbows up” and knees bent. As expected given the nature of their dependency, the Canadian government has rescinded the digital services tax against U.S. tech companies.

The June 30th collection is halted and the Canadian government led by Mark Carney will be bringing legislation to rescind the tax entirely.

CANADA – […] Minister of Finance and National Revenue, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, announced today that Canada would rescind the Digital Services Tax (DST) in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States. Consistent with this action, Prime Minister Carney and President Trump have agreed that parties will resume negotiations with a view towards agreeing on a deal by July 21, 2025.

The DST was announced in 2020 to address the fact that many large technology companies operating in Canada may not otherwise pay tax on revenues generated from Canadians. Canada’s preference has always been a multilateral agreement related to digital services taxation. While Canada was working with international partners, including the United States, on a multilateral agreement that would replace national digital services taxes, the DST was enacted to address the aforementioned taxation gap.

The June 30, 2025 collection will be halted, and Minister Champagne will soon bring forward legislation to rescind the Digital Services Tax Act. (LINK)

In the bigger picture Canada has a serious problem.

(more…)

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that people on the ConInc side of the conversation also need to pretend not to know things.

There is an increased sentiment of frustration toward President Donald Trump being espoused, and obviously that will be amplified by those who want to use a narrative of “increased sentiment of frustration toward President Trump.”

The part that surprises me is the part where people seem to have forgotten the purpose of the U.S. Senate.

CONTEXT – Currently there is a Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) in the senate, the culmination of years of work by President Trump and his team together with politicians in congress. There is no smaller BBB, there is no modified BBB, there is only one big comprehensive package of initiatives and priorities for President Trump’s agenda. One Big Beautiful Bill.

That’s it. Just this one legislative priority that has all the stuff Donald Trump promised in the 2024 election. It’s all in one bill; all of it. As a consequence, President Trump needs this bill to pass congress; there is no fallback position; there is no alternative; there is no safer option. The BBB is an all or nothing swing for the fences.

GAINING VOTES – This BBB is the legislative package approach that President Trump accepted. As a consequence whatever it takes to get that BBB legislation passed, is exactly what we should expect to see done. Remember, this is a legislative construct that only targets REPUBLICAN VOTES. Republicans control every element of this BBB discussion.

People not happy about President Trump remarks about illegal-alien farm workers. Well, President Trump is buying gaining the votes of Big Ag state senators.

People not happy about President Trump support for Israel. Well, President Trump is buying gaining the votes of Big War senators.

People not happy about President Trump support for more Ukraine weapons against a peace initiative targeting Vladimir Putin. Again, President Trump is buying gaining the votes of the defense contractor senators.

These are just a few examples of stuff in the background.  The passage of the BBB is a priority for President Trump and every Republican senator knows this.  Every single republican senator is willing to blackmail President Trump to get support for their vote.

(more…)

The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another crawled to SWAT police officers in surrender Sunday after they located him in the woods near his home.  Vance Boelter was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder.

Boelter is accused of posing as a police officer and fatally shooting former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Authorities say he also shot Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette; both injured at their residence about 9 miles away.  Boelter’s capture brings an end to a nearly two-day search.

The dramatic flair in presentation; a combination of DOJ-Community Relations Service choreography and federal/state political emphasis amid the trained participants; has become too much. The dramatic effect is losing value now. The public has become increasingly numb to it.   WATCH:

.

(more…)

Many articles are being written and much typeset is being exhausted by people talking about the recent revelations that the FBI has a designated information silo called “prohibited access” within its record keeping system.  Allow me to jump this readership well into the future and give you a cliff notes summary of the logical conclusion(s).

The FBI needs a filing system for information designated “Prohibited Access” because the FBI handles extremely sensitive covert operations, including spies both foreign and domestic, within its agency.  The storage of extremely sensitive national security information is not the issue.

Prior to 2007, in the olden days, the files and information were under lock and key in secure rooms, with access only available to the FBI director.

The issue is that since around 2007, the “Prohibited Access” definitions have expanded as FBI leadership began using the designation to hide information that was detrimental to their interests.  The issue is the type of information hidden within the now electronic system, is evidence of activity the FBI conducts that they don’t want the American people to know about.

Jumping you ahead of the curve, there’s even a level of FBI information assembled that exceeds the “Prohibited Access” qualification.  That information is transferred to CIA vaults that are available due to the same legislative authority that empowers the CIA to operate without any oversight [other than the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)].  The CIA is the “sister agency” to the FBI.

(more…)

As we often remind ourselves, maintaining a leftist ideology is contingent upon pretending not to know things, and that applies even when you are discussing the opposition not doing something that you yourself never did.

During a recent podcast interview, President Obama’s former National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, takes the pretending to stratospheric levels needed in order to retain Obama-level pretending.  The criticism she rails against is so hilariously hypocritical I find myself wondering if anyone ever were to call her out, could she even respond.

Susan Rice complains about President Trump having a relationship with the duplicitous “Qataris,” who she proclaims are terribly nefarious and dastardly, and no President should have a relationship with Qatar.  Laughably, it was Susan Rice herself who constructed the “CIA Finding Memo” for President Obama to sign, which authorized sending Surface to Air missiles to Qatar, which would then be transferred by CIA Director Leon Panetta to Libya.  It was Susan Rice herself organizing covert operations inside our government using the horribly nefarious Qataris she now says are terrible.

That’s only one background reality amid more than a dozen points of gaslighting hypocrisy I could point out from this interview.  However, for the sake of recent headlines, the part where Susan Rice complains about President Trump not trusting or using the CIA’s Presidential Daily Brief is almost too funny {prompted below}.  President Obama famously didn’t put any value on the PDB and didn’t even want it, sending it to almost two-dozen staff so he didn’t have to bother with it.   Methinks Mrs Rice doth protest too much. WATCH:

.

We shall skip the entire Benghazi was the result of a YouTube fiasco, that Susan Rice was so well known for, and put it beside the infamous January 5, 2017, Susan Rice memo published on 1/20/17 pretending that President Obama didn’t know or authorize the FBI Russiagate operation.  lolol

(more…)

Those who followed the first-term trade negotiations will likely remember the challenges of dealing with the European Union and their entrenched dependency on retaining the Marshall Plan system; a one-way tariff process that enabled Europe to rebuild after World War II.

Unfortunately, as with all long-term financial subsidies, the beneficiary becomes dependent and retaining benefit is their only objective.

Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spent the majority of his time focused on trying to negotiate with the EU to remove these ridiculous trade benefits that have long exhausted their usefulness.  Enough is enough.

Term-two Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has the same regional assignment formerly held by Wilbur Ross, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in full support.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ASEAN nations as his primary regional focus, Lutnick’s primary region is the EU and President Trump is personally attentive to China and the USMCA.  USTR Greer then goes to the primary with the closest deal under consideration and organizes the paper construct, the technical aspects.  It’s an overall similar arrangement to term-1 only with a much bigger scope.

As would be expected from historic reference points in trying to break this insufferable one-way Marshall Plan system, the EU is once again operating in bad faith and will not give up their status.  When President Trump says the entire reason for the EU to form was to ensure their retention of this Marshall Plan benefit, he’s not wrong.  That’s the brutally honest background.

President Trump has announced today that a 50% tariff rate will be applied toward all EU imports until such a time as they come to the negotiation process willing to let go of their economic model dependent on the one-way benefit.  There really is no other way to break the Gordian trade knot, other than to cut it – forcefully.

President Trump (via Truth Social) – “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

(more…)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on NBC Meet the Press to discuss the current status of the trade negotiations, tariffs and pending trade deals. In addition, Secretary Bessent outlines the construct of President Trump’s tax proposals and the intended benefits therein to middle-class working Americans.  WATCH (Transcript Below) 

[Transcript] KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. There are new economic warnings after the credit ratings agency, Moody’s, downgraded the United States’ credit rating one notch from its AAA rating. Moody’s citing concerns over the nation’s rising debt. It comes as President Trump’s tax bill suffered a setback in Congress this past week. Joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.

SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to see you. Thanks for having me on.

KRISTEN WELKER: It’s wonderful to have you on after a long foreign trip. Thank you for being here. Let’s start right there with Moody’s downgrading the nation’s credit rating. And they do cite the debt. I want to read you a little bit of what Moody’s says. It says, quote, “If the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is extended, which is our base case, it will add around $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.” Several Republicans, Mr. Secretary, are citing similar concerns. Does the president’s tax bill need to do more to address the nation’s debt and deficit?

SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, Kristen, first – first of all, I – I think that Moody’s is a lagging indicator. I think that’s what everyone thinks of credit agencies. Larry Summers and I don’t agree on everything, but he said that’s when they – they downgraded the U.S. in 2011. So it’s – it’s a lagging indicator. And just like Sean Duffy said with our air traffic control system, we didn’t get here in the – in the past 100 days. It’s the Biden administration and the spending that we have – have seen over the past four years. We inherited 6.7% deficit to GDP, the highest when we weren’t in a recession, not in a war. And we are determined to bring the spending down and grow the economy.

(more…)

At first blush the question seems curious, but when you further think about it the question becomes rather important.  If Joe Biden was not cognitively aware of what was happening around the office of the president, then who exactly was controlling the use of his signature via the auto-pen?

In a functioning democracy with a purposefully curious media, the fourth estate would be demanding a congressional investigation to get the answers and context for who was really carrying out the agenda of the Biden administration.  Unfortunately, as a nation we lost that ‘fourth estate’ a long time ago, and congress is of no help.  President Trump:

…”Whoever had control of the “AUTOPEN” is looking to be a bigger and bigger scandal by the moment. It is a major part of the real crime, THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN! Millions and millions of people knew that, but the Radical Left Democrats waged a campaign of inoculation and innocence like none that had ever been waged before. THIS IS WHY THE UNSELECT COMMITTEE OF POLITICAL THUGS, WHO WERE GIVEN A FULL AND COMPLETE PARDON BY THE PERSON WHO WIELDED THE NOW ILLEGALLY USED AUTOPEN, DELETED AND DESTROYED ALL EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION FROM THEIR CORRUPT AND VICIOUS WITCH HUNT AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHER PEOPLE, WHOSE LIVES WERE COMPLETELY SHATTERED AND DESTROYED BY THIS HISTORICALLY CRIMINAL EVENT. Remember, it all began with DIRTY COP James Comey, Obama, a hapless and cognitively impaired Sleepy Joe Biden, and my now very famous ACCUSATION that,“THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!” Whoever had control of the Autopen is just the beginning. The biggest crime of all is that THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS RIGGED! I (MAGA!) WON THE ELECTION BY MILLIONS OF VOTES, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. GOD BLESS AMERICA, FOR THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGUN!!!” (source)

(more…)

If you listened to Ed Martin naming the people within the lawfare community of DC operatives who are actively working to weaponize the legal system to block and attack reform efforts within the DOJ, then you likely understand the origin of these latest maneuvers.

Outgoing USAO Ed Martin, and current head of the DOJ ‘weaponization working group’ has revealed that Lawfare operators have filed ethics complaints in an effort to challenge his legal license.   This is what happens when the U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, doesn’t face down the internal lawfare operation within Main Justice severely enough.

(VIA REUTERS) – The lawyer President Donald Trump tapped to serve as Washington, D.C.’s top prosecutor and then dropped in the face of Senate opposition, said on Wednesday he is facing a professional ethics investigation, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Interim Washington U.S. Attorney Ed Martin said in the letter sent to his staff on his last day on the job that he is under investigation by the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel. The office is in charge of investigating and bringing misconduct proceedings against attorneys in the district.

(more…)

As the Washington DC U.S. Attorney, Ed Martin was in position to address the known and documented activity of a variety of former DOJ officials. There’s a strong argument to be made that’s the reason why the DOJ’s corrupt allies in congress moved to eliminate the threat Martin represented. However, their collective result didn’t remove him, nor did it change the objective, it just changed Mr Martin’s title.

Washington DC USAO Ed Martin carried the authority of the Attorney General, in the changed dynamic special appointee ADAG Ed Martin now carries the authority of the President of the United States to investigate a weaponized DOJ/FBI apparatus. It became a serendipitous outcome.

In this episode of Tucker Carlson the former Fox News host interviews the head of the newly formed ‘weaponization working group’ Ed Martin. Within the interview Martin outlines the mysterious motives of the FBI handling of the J6 “pipe bomber” case, alleging that basic investigative steps were overlooked. “They didn’t interview some of the people that you would have said, ‘That might be a suspect.’ They hadn’t interviewed him,” he said. Raising concerns about the agency’s competence, he added, “The question becomes, ‘what’s happening here?’ Is it incompetence? It feels worse than incompetence.”

When asked by Carlson whether the DOJ is worse than people believe, Martin went further, declaring, “I think it’s worse than incompetence.” “The only way forward is not to describe what I think of the motives but to expose over and over again what’s happened. If you expose what happened and the truth gets out, then accountability is possible.” Martin then described the issues facing the DOJ as “much, much worse than people think.” WATCH:

Chapters:

0:00 Ed Martin’s Response to the Crazed Leftist Who Spit in His Face
7:21 Why Would Republican Senator Thom Tillis Want to Destroy Martin?
8:33 Tillis’s Mission to Lock Up January 6th Protestors
16:14 The DOJ Is a Much Bigger Mess Than People Realize

(more…)