God bless Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for having the diplomatic restraint to stand next to the absolute worst diplomat on the planet and retaining his cool.  Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stands atop her proverbial high-horse and pontificates a diatribe that only a smug leftist can deliver.

If you are familiar with world events,… and you don’t want a blood pressure cuff to explode,… then don’t watch this joint press conference. [Transcript likely later today]  If you’ve ever watched two diplomats pretend to have any commonality, while simultaneously jabbing each-other in the eye, this is an audio-visual exhibition:

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To say the Trump administration and Trudeau administration are ideologically oil and water would be the understatement of the year. The U.S. and Canadian, political, cultural, geopolitical and economic outlooks are entirely divergent.

That reality is one of the reasons why an open U.S. Ambassador to Canada position is unlikely to be filled.  Seriously, who wants to talk to these smug and condescending jerks?

The Canadian ambassador to the U.S. also recently resigned. There is just no point to it. Everything is pretend now; and neither country is very good at pretending. Under Trudeau Canadian political policy, and the downstream issues therein, just sucks.

Both nations pretending to the international community it’s just a trial separation; but the whole neighborhood knows it’s a divorce.

♦Within the press conference Minister Freeland starts by using the worn-out and tired talking points about how the U.S. and Canadian military have worked together, fought together and died together… blah, blah, blah.  It’s the same narrative positioning used by Trudeau/Freeland every time they clutch their parasitic pearls and demand equivocal status -in all things- from the U.S.

Minister Freeland literally stands atop her podium and spouts about the importance of NORAD and the U.S-Canadian military alliance within NATO… While simultaneously Canada doesn’t even live up to their NATO funding obligations:

Canada hides behind the skirt of the U.S. to inflate its self-importance, and yet it won’t even live up to its financial obligations.  Hubris thy name is !

Also keep in mind, Canada is in the G7 for no apparent reason other than the historic connection to the U.S. has allowed them presence on the world stage.

Why isn’t Brazil in the G7?

The Canadian economy is far below all other G7 members; they only exist in the G7 group because of their relationship to the U.S.

Fortunately and rightly, Secretary Pompeo jabbed Freeland and Trudeau over their lack of  NATO funding during part of his presser remarks.

Additionally, remember the big stink Trudeau and Freeland made about the Section 232 steel/aluminum tariffs President Trump put on Canada?  Well, Freeland was pontificating about that again today, only to her surprise a Canadian journalist caught her off-guard.

In the Q&A portion of the presser Minister Freeland was specifically asked about why Canada continues to allow Chinese Steel to be dumped into Canada, and how the Canadian Steelworkers were impacted by this never-stopped (despite promises) process.  The issue surrounds the Canadian LNG pipeline and export hub (port).   Trudeau and Freeland are allowing super-cheap (dumped) Chinese Steel for the project.

You think she would answer the question about her hypocrisy?  Oh, hell no… she spins a yarn about how LNG is so much better to save the planet; and never addresses the issue of the Canadian government allowing China to dump steel in Canada, which was the entire purpose of President Trump putting 232 tariffs on them in the first place.

Hopefully Canadians can get rid of this insufferable duo in their October elections.

It would be so much easier to like Canadians again if they could just get rid of these condescending leftist nuts that have taken over their government.

I digress.

Kudo’s to Secretary Pompeo for his restraint…. It was quite obvious during several moments that Pompeo was actively using that thumb tack he put in his shoe before the presser. (guessing)

Screen-grab at 19:19

According to the U.S. Department of Labor [data here] companies hiring American workers are not complying with the media “recession” narrative.   Yes, another day, and yet another data point reflecting the “unexpected” & continued strength of Main Street.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, suggesting the labor market was holding firm despite a manufacturing slowdown and concerns the economy is on a path toward recession.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 209,000 for the week ended Aug. 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The decline was sharper than expected. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims would drop to 216,000 in the latest week.

[…]  The four-week average for new unemployment benefits claims was lower than the corresponding week in July, a positive signal for employment during the month.

There are few signs a bitter trade war between the United States and China was spilling over to the national labor market, although growth in manufacturing jobs has slowed this year. (read more)

Most democrats, like most Wall Street media pundits, know absolutely nothing about how a free and independent U.S. Main Street economy works.

Seriously.  I’m not kidding.

CTH has been saying since Trump’s announcement in 2015 there’s almost two generations of people who have no concept of an independent U.S. economy; and all of the subsequent ramifications therein.

Now we are seeing an odd benefit to their lack of knowledge.  If the politicians don’t know how Main Street works, specifically during the reversal period where policy operates in the space between Wall Street and Main Street, then they can’t find a tool to ruin it.

The Fed is disconnected.

PS. With the continued devaluation, subsidy maneuvers and continued efforts at transnational shipping from China, it might be a good recommendation for President Trump to raise the initial steel tariffs from 25% to 35-40% range.