Donald Trump had his ass handed to him by Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney in an excellent speech given in Davos

 

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Prime Minister Mark Carney Is the Crisis Manager Canada Needs

By Stephen Maher published in Macleans Magazine. 

 Over the last few months, Mark Carney seemed to drop his elbows. He gave up on counter-tariffs, expressed regret over Doug Ford’s pro-trade commercial and kidded around about sports in the Oval Office. For a while, it seemed like his strategy for dealing with Trump was a performative bromance.

But something changed. Trump’s musing about annexing Greenland maybe❓ Or a surge of confidence from Canada’s new deal with China❓ In any case, Mr. Carney’s speech at Davos was a historic one, positioning Canada as the leader of a middle-power alliance. “If we’re not at the table,” he said in an instantly famous line, “we’re on the menu.” 

Stephen Maher, who wrote a profile about Carney for Maclean’s last year, calls Carney’s speech “a masterful piece of persuasion, calm and carefully reasoned.”

Maher says: “At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Carney showed backbone at a time when the Europeans were being forced to demonstrate that they have spines. The impact was without precedent in Canadian history.”

The speech, which Mr. Carney apparently wrote himself, was a masterful piece of persuasion, calm and carefully reasoned. 

He started with an anecdote from a 1978, essay by Václav Havel—then a Czech dissident, later the first post-communist leader of the Czech Republic—about a grocer hanging a sign in his shop window reading “Workers of the world unite.” This sign in the window, in all the windows, meant that Czechs were “living within a lie.” Carney connected the horrors of Soviet communism with current American imperialism—a message that landed with great force in a room full of Europeans astonished and frightened by the bizarre demands of the American president.

As the central banker for Canada and then the United Kingdom, Carney became comfortable giving speeches at the World Economic Forum and wherever else Davos people gathered.

While I was writing my profile, I made myself watch his speeches and panel appearances—which I found dull, since they mostly had to do with the important but dreary world of bank regulation. It was striking, though, that the other economists, bankers and financial journalists were not bored when he spoke. They hung on every word. Carney was for years the most interesting person in every room at Davos, because he was the smartest person in every room, with deeper insight into the world financial system than literally anyone else alive.

When he entered politics—a demanding career shift to take at 60—I wasn’t certain that those skills would be transferable. Could he connect with people? Could he hide his arrogance? In other circumstances, it might not have worked, but in the fearful atmosphere that prevailed after the second election of Donald Trump, Carney was the calm and experienced crisis manager that Canadians needed.

In a way, Carney has been preparing for that moment for his whole life. Since he was a nerdy, hockey-loving Edmonton teenager hitting the books, he’s had his nose to the grindstone, mastering numbers but also, eventually, communications and power dynamics.

When he entered politics—a demanding career shift to take at 60—I wasn’t certain that those skills would be transferable. Could he connect with people❓Could he hide his arrogance❓ In other circumstances, it might not have worked, but in the fearful atmosphere that prevailed after the second election of Donald Trump, Carney was the calm and experienced crisis manager that Canadians needed.

At Davos, Mr. Carney warned the rest of the world against the “performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination,” showed backbone at a time when the Europeans were being forced to demonstrate that they have spines. The impact was without precedent in Canadian history, says Raymond Blake, author of Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity. “I cannot think of a speech from any other prime minister that had such an impact,” he told me on Wednesday. “Those are rare opportunities to capture international attention, and Carney knew that. He did not disappoint.”

But, apparently, he did disappoint Donald Trump, who responded afterward by saying, with typical imperial narcissism, that “Canada lives because of the United States.” Canadians may come to regret Carney’s leadership if Trump rips up CUSMA (the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement) and destroys our economy, but do we want to live on our knees❓💥🤢

Yet, for the near future, Carney can expect a political boost, which will likely translate, after (right wing) Pierre Poilievre survives his leadership review, in a few more floor crossings, giving him the majority he wants. Poilievre, who has been jammed ever since Trump was re-elected, is struggling to keep the pro-Trump and anti-Trump wings of his base happy, which is a problem he will be dealing with so long as Trump is in office.

In the long run, the triumphant speech will not ensure Carney will be a successful prime minister. Lester Pearson, who filled Canadian hearts with pride when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957, eventually found that laurels on the world stage did not translate to long-term political success. Everything depends on whether Carney can produce economic results for Canadians. For the moment, it still seems clear that he’s the best-placed person to try.

Maine Writer postscript- Given Mr. Carney's economic experience and international respect, I foresee him filling the leadership void created by the failed Donald Trump corrupt American administration. Merci! Thank you Mr. Carney. 

"Help is Here"! Thank you President Biden: Working while Republicans are stuck in culture wars

President Biden must work around the myopic #FormerGuy and the cult that refuses to let go of the results of the legitimate 2020 election! 

"...World Economic Forum ranks America’s infrastructure 13th globally. This should stand as a national humiliation..."

"...bring a divided country together around a big and necessary goal"

Opinion editorial board echo published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, in Kansas.

President Biden has proposed a progressive infrastructure plan worthy of a great nation.

Promises from presidents to overhaul America’s infrastructure have been made and broken so many times in recent years that the whole topic has taken on an aura of impossibility.

In America, the world’s richest nation, there should be nothing to prevent bringing all those crumbling highways into the 21st century, yet former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both watched their big goals on the topic run off the road. President Joe Biden must succeed where they failed — and if that means working around Republicans, instead of with them, so be it.

Biden last week formally unveiled a plan with a price tag of more than $2 trillion, to be funded by a modest rise in corporate taxes. Right on schedule, Republicans — who just a few years ago were willing to lard the deficit with almost as much to grant tax cuts to the rich — started howling about the expense. This even though, unlike their discredited notion that tax cuts pay for themselves, the benefits of an infrastructure overhaul actually will pay for themselves. It could also bring a divided country together around a big and necessary goal.

The necessity is beyond debate. The World Economic Forum ranks America’s infrastructure 13th globally. This should stand as a national humiliation in a country that thinks of itself as first in all things. Even in this era of political polarization, Americans throughout the nation and across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support an infrastructure overhaul.

Biden proposes paying for it by partly reversing the Trump administration’s corporate tax cuts, from the current 21% to 28%. This is still well below the 35% rate in effect before those cuts. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow last week that not a single Republican would support Biden’s plan effectively prioritizes corporate welfare over this pressing national need.

Biden’s plan would repair or replace 10,000 bridges and 20,000 miles of road, and would spend $100 billion for new or upgraded schools. In a recognition that infrastructure means a lot more today than in past eras, the plan would also address issues like broadband access, clean drinking water and climate-change mitigation. It would build 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles, while providing grants and tax incentives to bolster the electric-vehicle industry. It would offer other incentives for investment in clean energy like wind and solar.

In addition to giving America an infrastructure worthy of a great nation, the plan would provide millions of jobs for years to come. Biden isn’t wrong to woo Republican support, but he must avoid Obama’s mistake of endless concessions in a fruitless bid for bipartisanship. If Democrats must make this lift alone, as they did with the recent pandemic rescue package, it would provide just one more reminder to voters that one party works for corporations and the rich while the other is working for America.

America's labor shortage and help for farmers

Republicans are averse to investing in education and they also don't want farmers to have access to labor. There is no international company that wants to invest in helping Donald Trump when his only ambition is to make the rich more wealthy while farmers and middle class workers struggle.

Donald Trump was making a plea to the rich who gathered in Davos Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, because he wanted their money invested in the United States. 

Unfortunately, the rich people who can afford to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) won't be enticed to help Donald Trump to bolster the American economy. Anybody who believes otherwise is delusional. Those rich who gathered in Davos were looking for economic prosperity, to feather their own philanthropist or governmental nests.

Nevertheless, in Donald Trump's "straight jacket" teleprompter speech delivered to the attendees who bothered to listen (to quote the description of his delivery style, reported by Peggy Noonan on Morning Joe).....he said "America is open for business".

Unfortunately, what Trump forgot to tell the audience was that the US labor shortage is acute. In fact, it's been worsened by Republican cuts to education that have made it difficult for potential workers to access the training needed to meet the needs of many employers.  

Rich people are looking for places to invest where highly skilled laborers are affordable for their purposes. That's not here in America, because Republicans have taken away the tax revenues that would be available to invest in growing our nation's workforce. In other words, if you want to open a business in America, the company must train the workers on their own payroll, plus pay for their health care.  Again, anybody who believes rich international investors want to make this deal with Donald Trump, must be delusional, especially when China and India have the infrastructure to make their businesses profitable.

Yet, American farmers need the help of unskilled laborers and Republicans are preventing them from hiring the people who will work in the harvests.  

Here is the opinion on this under-reported subject described in an editorial "echo", published in America Magazine.  

What we owe America's farmworkers

U.S. agriculture is facing a silent crisis. 

The Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants has sown fear among farmworker communities, making workers harder to find than ever. 

Farm owners across the country are anxious about meeting their labor needs. Millions of dollars worth of crops are at the risk of rotting.

The present labor shortage reveals U.S. society’s dependence on farmworkers. The hands that pick what Americans eat are hands the country relies on. And with almost no native-born Americans willing to do the job, Latino immigrants have become indispensable. Even in the midst of the severe fires in California, farmworkers could not stop working lest harvests be lost.
Yet the nation’s collective reliance on farmworkers is not reflected in the way they are treated. In California, which produces two-thirds of the nation’s fruits, rates of food insecurity for farmworkers and their families range from 40 percent to 70 percent. Farmworkers’ low wages directly contribute to growers’ profit, but farmworkers regularly cannot afford to buy the food they pick.

Working conditions for farmworkers can be (and are often) harsh. 

Even under the best conditions, a day of work is one of hard manual labor, with long hours and often high temperatures. The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has approved the use of a pesticide known to be harmful to human beings. Farmworkers have already gotten sick on the job as a result.

Society’s failures toward farmworkers extend beyond poor working conditions. The children of migrant farmworkers endure seasonal displacement that can make staying in school difficult. 

Social mobility is weak for those born into farmworker communities, creating a generational cycle of poverty. State and local governments resist attempts by farmworkers to organize for greater protections. And despite being dependent on farmworker labor, many local communities are openly hostile to migrant workers.

It does not have to be this way. 

In 2016, California recognized the right of farmworkers to equal overtime pay. In Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers secured commitments from fast-food chains to buy only from agricultural sources that meet improved standards on pay and work conditions. That model of direct pressure on major companies is spreading. In Vermont, immigrant dairy workers just claimed victory in an agreement with the ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s.

It is curious that so many Americans care about eating ethically (vegan, vegetarian, organic or free range) but do not think as much about the poverty and exploitation among the largely Latino farmworkers who are making their meals possible. 

Labeling programs, including the Equitable Food Initiative label, the Food Justice Certified label and the United Farm Workers Union label, support the fair treatment of farmworkers, but there is little indication that products carrying those labels are sought out by consumers.

The United States must do more to treat farmworkers with justice. A huge step would be to lift the threat of deportation that looms over many farmworkers by passing comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes both the need for labor in the United States and those laborers’ right to dignity and opportunity. Rectifying the injustice of the 1930s—when farmworkers were excluded from new federal labor standards—and finally offering farmworkers the same labor protections as other workers is also necessary. Farmwork, like all work, carries an inherent dignity and should be a viable path for immigrant families into the American middle class.

The common thread in all the challenges farmworkers face is a lack of urgency. Perhaps every time Americans say grace before a meal, they could spare a moment to remember those who make that meal possible.