Keith Boag

@Joepatriot82 @johnkonrad I should have said 19 straight congressional elections, roughly half of which were midterms.

@KeithBoag @johnkonrad I stand corrected, thank you sir!

Dear Europe, I know you feel outrage. I have talked to many of you on the phone. I know politicians and media on both sides of the Atlantic are furious. I attended a conference with mostly Europeans. The worry and frustration was palpable. I get it too. You are dependent on Middle East oil and aluminum and fertilizer and shipping and LNG. Dubai is a vital travel hub for you. Vital. But don’t worry. Trump will lose the midterms and Congress will flip and side with you. Or maybe not… I live in the bluest town in the bluest state, where protests are practically a seasonal sport. I drove over eight hours across New England this week past the usual corners where outrage normally lives. This time? Nothing. Left, right, center. I’m hearing almost no one talk about this war. MAGA doesn’t even care. Ask someone and you’ll get the expected talking points. But in coffee shops, kitchens, real life? Silence. Hard truth: most Americans just don’t care. And since the weather warmed, not a single keffiyeh in sight. So when Trump says you need to go protect the ships and airports that are vital to YOU, I think he means it. Because the vast majority of Americans don’t care. And it’s not that we want to see you spin into an energy and food shortage. It’s that even the most TDS-inflicted liberal American is getting tired of your BS. Hating Trump is one thing. Almost half of America is OK with that. But your anti-American vitriol and arrogance and weakness is exhausting. Nobody likes a needy person who is angry and thinks they are better than you. It’s literally the worst combination in a person. And you might not want to admit it, but you are needy. You need us to reopen Hormuz. You need our banks and our markets. You need a lot. “We will not participate in this war” is fine. Nobody is asking you to bomb civilians. What’s weak is you won’t surge defensive missiles and planes to protect European-owned ships and property. When exactly did defense make you a participant? Defense of innocent life and property isn’t a “war crime.” And you DO own the majority of ships getting attacked. Ships that you are unwilling to defend maybe because you outsource the labor to Indonesia, the Philippines, and Ukraine. You are the wealthy lords who abandoned the mansion but told the help to stick around and defend it. So you might want to send a few warships and missile defense units to protect YOUR property. Or at least leave them at anchor and send the innocent crews home. You want us to defend the Strait because we started this mess? That’s reasonable. Problem is the reaction from most of America to your demands is: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@murraykcampbell @maureendowd It’s an endearing Dowd thing. She likes to sprinkle it in whenever there is an opportunity, as there was in her column this morning.

@KeithBoag @maureendowd Had to look up that word.

I, for one, am ensorcelled by @maureendowd ‘s speaking style.

@JoJoFromJerz @atrupar How else do you think she got where she is?

@atrupar A VISIONARY?!?!? 😂😂😂😂

Melania Trump glazes herself: "As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight. Often alone at the top, I follow my passion, listen to my instinct, and always maintain a laser focus."

The Leader of the Opposition clarifies that that the decision not to appear on CBC and other mainstream media was his. It was strategic and unproductive. “I'm just going to talk to everybody': Will Pierre Poilievre's new media... youtu.be/SIbhh5qUojM?si… via @YouTube

Travis Dhanraj aimed to reveal ‘editorial imbalance’ at the CBC. What the former TV host told MPs was more about him - thestar.com thestar.com/opinion/star-c…

@AtwinGracie2002 @karlykingsley Only if you think about it.

it must be so embarassing to still be maga at this point

@Cocolicquot Happy Birthday to you my friend! I hope you’re doing it up big!

@KeithBoag Yeay Keith!! Happy birthday!!!

@acoyne “I assume she’s a woman, she’s a Democrat,” is a level of wit Trump can only aspire to, but as pranks go, it’s a good one.

This has to be someone playing a prank. It HAS to be.

▶️ @petermansbridge, @KeithBoag, and Peter Nicholson: Remembering a titan, Elly Alboim | @TheHerleBurly youtu.be/iPKZwEigdW4

Martin, with precisely zero provocation, Trump said a year ago that he intended to “annex Canada” and make it the 51st state by applying “economic pressure;” - He imposed lifted, increased, decreased, re-imposed and repeatedly threatened tariffs on everything imported from Canada, in gross violation of the CUSMA agreement that he signed, calling it “the greatest trade agreement in history;” - He initially did so on the entirely specious grounds that Canada was a major source of fentanyl imports and illegal migration to the US, both claims completely contradicted by data, and US law enforcement agencies. The claims were so ridiculous - even for Trump - that he has not repeated them for the past ten months; - He has repeatedly said the US needs “nothing” from Canada, specifically mentioning our energy - He continues to maintain crippling sectoral tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and certain auto components in violation of CUSMA, tariffs that are costing the Canadian economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs; - Senior Administration officials (Greer, Lutnick et al) have been intimating for months that CUSMA will not be renewed; - Trump has repeatedly referred to the Canada-US border as “imaginary” and “fake.” - His insults and provocations are too many to list, but just in the last week he has said that Canada has been “completely taken over by China” because of a discrete tariff agreement requested by western provinces and initially *endorsed by Trump*; and insulted the honour and memory of our troops, claiming that they “stayed a little back from the front lines” in Afghanistan. Given all of that and more, you blame the Prime Minister of Canada for CUSMA being in jeopardy? WTH? After a year of this, how can we still have some Canadians blaming Canada for Trump taking a wrecking ball to the relationship? Under these circumstances, Prime Minister Carney has exercised remarkable restraint. What would satisfy you? Grovelling subservience? Giving the US total control over our trade relations with the rest of the world? We Canadians can and should debate the most prudent way to deal with the completely unpredictable and destabilizing threat from Trump. (I, for one, don’t support the recent deal with China.) But surely no reasonable person can conclude that Canada provoked or is any meaningful way to blame for this crisis.

We have a winner.

@DianeMcKenna22 @phildstewart Not true. He’s going to be very cross.

@phildstewart In otherwords if China does invade Taiwan he won't do anything, because he doesn't care.

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping what China does in Taiwan, the New York Times reported on Thursday. "He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper in an interview conducted on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that."

Try the test DJTrump brags about acing and see how you do. Here it is: geriatrictoolkit.missouri.edu/cog/MoCA-8.3-E…

I have trouble synthesizing the enormity of the Trump catastrophe. @coyne does not: theglobeandmail.com/opinion/articl…

The worst part about playing Monopoly is when you get to the last stretch where one person is obviously winning, everybody else is miserable, and every turn is just paying said person money.

Our guide to last year’s American election, former Washington correspondent @KeithBoag is back to give us his latest US political assessment. A year later with Trump - where are we and what’s changed? 🔊 on @CanadaTalks167 & podcast platforms at noon EST.