Tomorrow, September 29th, the U.S. ban on most Canadian alcohol imports begins. [XO Link]

Last year most Canadian provinces banned U.S. alcohol imports as part of the “Elbow-up” program triggered by Prime Minister Mark Carney in response to U.S. baseline tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos.  In early September of this year, the White House and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer responded with an import ban on Canadian alcohol that begins tomorrow.

The Crown Royal brand of Canadian Whiskey will not be impacted as it is shipped in bulk raw liquid to the U.S. where it is bottled, packaged and distributed.  Diageo Inc proactively saw something coming in 2025 and shifted its supply chain to avoid the conflict.  However, most Canadian brands of alcohol are not as fortunate.  [SEE BAN SECTOR LIST]

The Supreme Court ruled last year that while tariffs against products can -under certain conditions- be subjected to congressional approval, but when it comes to trade friction – bans of products outright are legally within the power of the President.  This ban on Canadian alcohol will impact approximately $854 million (usd) in imports. (SEE STORY).

It will be interesting to see if any last-minute intervention takes place.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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For the past week the collective lamestream media have been going through fits of apoplexy following President Trump denying White House access to three propaganda outfits, CNN, MSNow and Politico.  Whenever Washington DC media are criticized or dismissed, they react in outrage due to their delusions of grandeur, a genuine belief in their own importance.

Martha Raddatz from ABC takes aim at Attorney General Todd Blanche over the issue, then pivots to the second most important issue of the day for the stenographers – the AI doom narrative. Video and Transcript Below:

[Transcipt] – MARTHA RADDATZ – Good morning, and thank you so much for joining us this morning. Let’s get right to this. There was no TV pool coverage of the president’s trip to Tennessee this weekend. It was supposed to be CNN. They said they were banned from Air Force One.

What is the justification for denying access?

TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, the president hasn’t denied access. That’s not the right way to describe it. This is — what the president has said is that he is sick and tired of certain media outlets just refusing to report accurate news, and so — look, it is a — it is a privilege — it is a privilege to be in the White House for anybody.

And that — and the president — the president knows that it’s the people’s house, and what you saw play out over the past week was really not just not — even after the judge — even after the White House let the reporters back in, they still refuse to use pool coverage. They still refuse to, on their own, make a decision to start covering the president again with the video.

But a lot of people saw the president. The president was not hidden from the American people at the — at the football game in Tennessee yesterday. And really, the unfortunate and sad thing here is that after years and years and years of one-sided media coverage of the president from certain outlets, the president finally said it’s not fair to the American people that this is happening and did something about it.

There’s still obviously litigation going on, but the important thing, Martha, is to know that that being in the White House is a privilege. It’s not a — it’s not a right.

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Bumped, because I knew the media were going to use this NYT article today:

Bottom line, we are in an expanded information war. I’ll explain.

Several years ago, in explaining some of the site challenges CTH informed people of Google’s latest information control operation that was simply called “a spider crawl.”  The spider crawl was an automated instruction to search the internet and find information that was beyond the parameters of their “trust and safety” guidelines.  The automated search would crawl through the websites and comment sections, and report violations based on key words in the search parameter.

Spider crawling is essentially AI.  A technology tool to search databases and identify results based on parameters established by the individual who launched the search.  However, now in order to push a scare narrative around the hot topic of “AI” the spider crawling is much more in depth and advanced.

Now, instead of just searching the internet, advanced AI can find information and answer questions based on lengthy attributes described by the AI user.  AI can now go into proprietary databases and retrieve information to answer complex and complicated question (instructions).

If the AI launch, now called an “AI bot”, hits a gate, like a password access point, advanced AI can find workarounds to enter the database, extract the information and return the result to the AI user.  If you understand that process, then this headline has context.

[SOURCE]

The entire article is nothing more than taking something that is easily understood and adding jargon to make it sound complicated. The word “meddling” is used to describe the AI process of trying to get passed the gate.  When there were individual people doing this, we called it “hacking” now the process is automated via instructions to the software search.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Sunday Morning Futures now hosted by Larry Kudlow who has replaced Maria Bartiromo.  The primary topic of the conversation is the current state of the economy.

Secretary Bessent notes we have entered the phase of prior policy implementation where the economy now accelerates growth based on former policy changes including, targeted tax reductions, capital investment prioritization and expensing, regulatory changes and direct investment.  GDP growth now looks to achieve 5% or more.  WATCH:

Oil prices are the underlying friction within the economy creating higher gasoline and diesel prices.  However, when you take the energy sector out of the inflation calculation, the current rate of wage growth is exceeding inflation.

Bessent also notes, currently the only oil not coming through the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian oil.  Other than those supplies, oil flows through the Strait are at normal levels.

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Royal Airforce base Fairford, is a U.K-owned base operated by the United States under an agreement that goes back to the 1950’s cold war era. However, recently Airbase Fairford has been used by American strategic bombers for strikes against Iranian missile sites under an agreement with former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Overnight, at 12:45 a.m British police received a warning about three suspicious vans traveling toward RAF Fairford, with a tip that a coordinated terrorist attack was planned against the American base.

U.K police alerted the base, which immediately triggered threat alerts, then police intercepted the vans and arrested five males on suspicion of terrorism.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. police said Sunday that five men arrested in the middle of the night near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which takes the lead on potential terrorist activities, said police received a call at 12:45 a.m. related to the three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that is operated by the U.S. under an agreement dating back to the Cold War.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Thank you to all readers and members of the Conservative Treehouse fellowship for your continued support.  Without your help this little corner of the research and discussion internet just could not exist. I will always work earnestly to be deserving of that support and fellowship.

We are fortunate, blessed and protected by a loving God who has confidence in our stewardship.

As new visitors attest every day, the fellowship in this commenting community is unique, insightful, articulate, intelligent and funny.  I love you guys.

As many of you are aware, in 2024 we lost our primary Ad revenue because we refused to enforce Google moderation rules in our comment system.

The ridiculous demand for content control within our proprietary commenting system was actually the culmination of years of effort by Google and tech allies who were looking for ways to demonetize our platform and control information from this site.

As a direct and specific result without your direct support now, CTH cannot exist.

Retaining our ability to research, share and most importantly, discuss ongoing events, has been my #1 priority.  Thank you again for your insight, wisdom, humor, friendship and support.

There are currently two methods to support CTH 2.0, our ongoing mission and discussion. However, depending on your browser settings (and ad blocker software) the second option may not be visible.  There is a screengrab below showing what I am talking about.

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