Mexico’s economic minister announce last week that a new railway from Mexico to Canada for international trade is no longer going to come through Texas, but will cross into New Mexico, 20 miles west of El Paso.  The reason?  Texas is no longer considered “a reliable trading partner” after Abbott’s idiotic stunt last month that caused weeks of chaos at US/Mexico border crossings, costing Texas about $4 billion in lost trade and spoiled produce.  Now Abbott (Mini Trump) has cost Texas billions more by losing a rail line that’s going to connect the port of Mazatlan in Mexico to Winnipeg in Canada.  Laredo and Dallas were scheduled to be on the route, but no more.

Thanks for nothing, Shithead.

UPDATED:

We all saw it last week, Trump suddenly tweeting that he’s going to slap tariffs on all Mexican imports if Mexico doesn’t immediately stop illegal immigration into the US.  He tanked stocks from manufacturers to grocery distributors, probably after he leaked the announcement to his cronies so they could short those stocks to make a tidy sum.  Remember Carl Icahn dumping steel stocks just before Trump announced the steel tariffs?

Anyway, negotiators between the US and Mexico were supposedly in feverish negotiations to come to a border security deal, and yesterday, with great fanfare, Trump announced on the Twitter machine that he has cut a last minute deal with Mexico.

Then he announced that Mexico has committed to purchase large quantities of American produce:

All that is great, except for one thing.  The deal he breathlessly announced yesterday was negotiated with Mexico…wait for it…last March.  Some provisions in the agreement date back to December.  This negotiation has been completed for months.

So let’s recap – Trump creates a gigantic economic crisis by demanding Mexico do what it has already agreed to do.  He costs the US economy billions of dollars (probably creating a profit opportunity for his buds).  He ratchets up the rhetoric during the D-Day commemoration, even while sitting in the US cemetery in Normandy. He berates Mexico, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and even Bette Midler (I still haven’t figured that one out).  Then, with great fanfare, he announces that he’s saved the day by forcing Mexico to agree to a deal that had already been done.

Folks, this is gaslighting in its purest form.  Lie and create a problem that doesn’t exist.  Then lie again, claiming to have fixed a problem that really wasn’t a problem in the first place.  Then take credit for fixing the problem that didn’t exist.

Jesus.

UPDATE:

Trump also lied about a new farm deal.  This morning, he tweeted, “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!”

Three Mexican officials say, nope, no farm deal was negotiated; in fact, Mexico has no agricultural conglomerate to even do that.  Another day, another lie.

Once the transcripts of the phone conversation between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto were leaked, things got really weird.

The transcript shows that Trump admitted he knew damn well that Mexico was not going to pay for the wall and that he couldn’t make them.  So he whined to Peña Nieto.

Trump pleaded with Peña Nieto to not say publicly that Mexico wouldn’t pay.

“Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about,” Trump said, “but politically this might be the most important talk about.”

Peña Nieto insists he will continue to firmly say Mexico will not pay for the wall: “But my position has been and will continue to be very firm saying that Mexico cannot pay for that wall.”

Trump responds: “But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that.”

“He’s the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt,” that official quipped to Guajardo about Trump. “He speaks loudly and carries a small stick.”

Okay, I’m as confused as a billy goat on Astroturf.

Are we going to war with Mexico, Iran, Australia, or UC Berkley?

I suppose it’s only fair that Trump told President Peña Nieto that he has “bad hombres” in his country because in Mexico they say we have El Presidente del Inferno.

And I have to tell you that it takes a real special kind of goofy to get into a fight with the Prime Minister of Australia.  Somebody show Trump a map so he can see that China is an obvious trading partner with them. And they need stuff. Shuddup.

I’m guess I’m glad we put Iran on notice. I dunno, though, because I have no idea what “on notice” means. Are we gonna make them cry us a river or something?

And we’re going to cut federal funding to UC Berkley because after hours of peaceful demonstrations some damfool guys showed up and got violent?

We don’t even know who these guys are.  They may be Trump supporters trying to cause trouble.  Look, the speaker they were protesting, Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, has been banned from Twitter for cyber-bullying.  Not even Trump has been banned from Twitter for cyber-bullying.

Look, you don’t punish a whole institution for the actions of a few.  I hope Iran, Mexico, and Australia know that, too.