The Buzz Nov 23 2024: The GST Holiday, Trump's Tariffs, and Scottish…

The Buzz Nov 23 2024: The GST Holiday, Trump's Tariffs, and Scottish Snowplows.

Welcome to Saturday morning and welcome to The Buzz.

So, imagine this. You are part of the PMO brain trust and you’re sitting in your strategy room trying to figure out the best path for your government’s recovery. Nothing seems to be working. You’ve tried cabinet shuffles, budgets, home heating oil carve-outs and the list goes on. There’s not much room left on the dart board. You’re trying to avoid that slot that says “resign” but it’s getting more and more difficult. It’s a tricky shot to manoeuvre around, especially when some of the crowd outside, your crowd, is suggesting that’s where the dart should go.

So, what’s left? Hey, there are two spots that show some promise. Maybe. One says, “GST Christmas holiday.” The other says “Mail out cheques.” Of course, both will cost money, like more than six billion dollars that would have gone to the treasury, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Now all cheekiness aside, there is no doubt this will come as welcome news to those who are having a very hard time making ends meet. But there is also no doubt that many people will get these benefits who do not need them.

And that’s the rub and that’s also why some people see this as the latest Liberal ploy to try to get voters back on their side. "Good luck with that" seems to be the response from most analysts, like Scott Stinson in the Toronto Star:

🔒Justin Trudeau’s shameless giveaway plan is incoherent, unnecessary and frankly embarrassing Read >

We sure talked a lot about this on Good Talk yesterday with Chantal Hébert and Bruce Anderson. You can catch our YouTube version by linking up at national.newswatch.com. Our numbers keep going up on the Apple podcast charts where we consistently rank as the top Canadian political podcast

It’s possible that you may be one of those who, for the past few months, didn’t believe that Donald Trump could win the US election.

And because you didn’t think that was going to happen, you probably decided you weren’t going to try and figure out the tariff issue. I mean after all, trade issues get complicated, and tariffs can get really complicated.

Too bad. He won. Tariffs are coming. So, thank you to the New York Times because here is a simple-to-follow, short piece on tariffs: what they are, how they work, and how those of us who trade with the US are going to be affected.

It's well worth the few minutes it will take to read it:

Trump’s Tariffs Read >

How bad are things at MSNBC? Really bad.

Their prime-time ratings have dropped 53 percent since the US election, 39 percent in their full-day ratings. That’s bad. The network that led the way on ratings before the election, pushing aside longtime rivals CNN and occasionally even Fox, was so anti-Trump that even some progressives found it tough to watch. “Fascist” and “the new Hitler” were commonly attached to Trump’s name.

Viewers who bought into those lines then abandoned the same shows and anchors immediately after the election just couldn’t stomach listening to any postmortems. And then two weeks after the vote when some started to trickle back, they got hit with a second whammy.

MSNBC’s two highly rated morning hosts who had trashed Trump day after day during the campaign using those descriptions above, dropped a shocker. They rushed off to do the “kiss his ass” or more politely “kiss the ring” trip to Mara A Lago to try and make up with the President-elect. Seriously. And now they’re paying the consequences. Nobody is enjoying this more than Fox News:

Media MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' sheds viewers as liberals rage at Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski over Trump meeting Read >

If there was one thing that was always clear about the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it was that she had very little time or respect for Donald Trump.

Now, read how delicately she tiptoes around the subject in her soon-to-be-released book:

Merkel eviscerates ‘emotional’ Trump in upcoming memoir Read >

On election night, some Americans devastated over Kamala Harris’s loss swore they’d quit their jobs, sell their homes and leave the country.

But really, how many were serious? Well for those who were, maybe they want to take a long look at this offer from a small town in Italy:

Italian village offers $1 homes to Americans upset by the US election result Read >

We call this kind of stuff “news you can use.”

This particular piece comes from the Telegraph in the UK, and while some of it only fits a British airline traveller, other parts work for us all:

Travel secrets of the world’s most frequent fliers Read >

Do you get upset about how much a coffee costs at some of the specialty coffee bars in your city?

Are you sitting down? Try this – in Scotland:

$344 for a coffee? Scottish farm is selling UK’s most expensive cup Read >

Here’s another Scotland story (yes, I love Scottish stories).

They’ve had quite a bit of snow, especially in the highlands this past week, and it has reminded Scots that they have names for all their 240 snowplows (or “gritters) as they’re called in Scotland. And the names are great…. Check out the list that Scots across the country, mainly kids, have contributed to:

- “Taylor Drift”
- "Sleetwood Mac
- "Melter Skelter"
- "Robert Brrrns"
- "Tam o' Salter"
- "Spreddie Van Halen"
- "Sweet Child O' Brine"
- "Creedence Clear-Road Survival"
- "She is a Melter!"
- "Skid Vicious"
- "Carrie Bradthaw"
- “Brinestone Ploughboy"
- "Freeze Witherspoon"
- "Spray Charles"
- "Grits You Thru"
- "Yes Sir, Ice Can Boogie"
- "Buzz Iceclear"
- "Betty White-Out"
- "Sir David Attenbrrrrrr"
- "Gritney Spears"
- "Snowing Me, Snowing You"
- “Gritty Gritty Bang Bang”

Scotland's Charming Tradition Of Naming Its Snow Plows — Including 'David Plowie' And 'Keanu Freeze' — Goes Viral Read >

Ahh, it won’t be long now for us. Enjoy the weekend and The Buzz will be back in seven days

The Buzz is a weekly publication from National Newswatch that shares insights and commentary on the week’s developments in politics, news and current affairs.