Daily Caller
Let Them Eat Cake

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Bob Ehrlich
It is “lessons learned” season for the political class, but recent anecdotes reflect the left’s selective takeaways from the campaign and election of 2024.
— Former President Bill Clinton bemoans the advent of “zillions” of right-wing websites as a reason why the Harris-Walz ticket had such difficulties in reaching out to rural America.
— Donna Brazile insists (on Bill Maher’s show) that while the Democrats’ primary challenge remains poor communication, the voters still really do agree with the Party’s platform.
— Bernie Sanders (again) criticizes the out-of-touch “economic elites” presently in charge of the Democrat Party because…they are not progressive enough.
— The city council president in Erie, Pa., associates red-hatted supporters of President-elect Donald Trump with the KKK … and does not back down when confronted by the media and MAGA supporters.
— Actors Alec Baldwin and Sharon Stone deride American voters as “ignorant,” “uneducated” and “uninformed” at an Italian film festival.
These and similar storylines are illustrative but certainly not new. Indeed, I still remember following a Democratic member of Congress on one of the cable networks (in the aftermath of the 2016 election) wherein he lamented Hillary Clinton’s hemorrhaging of working-class voters — after which he assured the audience that his party would continue to protect sanctuary cities…
Some will write off these tin-ear reactions to post-election frustration or simple hardheadedness, but there is something more profound going on here. To wit, this generation of Democrats is far too captive to progressive ideology for them to conduct a detached, deep-dive postmortem on why so many people who work with their hands, do not subscribe to The New York Times and have never visited Martha’s Vineyard have become so turned off by woke values (some on the right diagnose it as a “mind virus”) and the progressive platform foisted on them these past four years.
Alas, there is another problem for the Democrats going forward that has far less to do with substance but far more to do with attitude. To wit: Flyover America has been paying attention and is now intimately familiar with the litany of “Let Them Eat Cake” Trump-era indictments that have spewed forth from members of the ruling class directed to the ways, means, tastes and preferences of middle America. (President Joe Biden’s “garbage” characterization of Trump voters and Mark Cuban’s weird but instructive charge that Trump lacks “strong, intelligent women” around him now joining Obama’s “bitter clingers” and Hillary’s “irredeemable deplorables” in the Democrats’ Hall of Shame.)
This mean but persistent and tone-deaf attempt to defame half the country may go over well in front of the appropriate crowd (Harris’ advising two pro-life protestors to leave her rally and go to the smaller Trump rally down the street comes to mind) but remains a major obstacle to any serious attempt to recapture Democrats’ support within working class America. Phrased another way, when so many people tell you what they really think of you over an extended period of time … you should probably believe them. And now — to the dismay of millions of self-righteous progressives — it appears church/synagogue/mosque attending, Walmart consuming, Second Amendment believing, woke rejecting, blue supporting America Firsters received the message loud and clear.
They voted accordingly.
Bob Ehrlich is a former governor of Maryland, member of Congress and state legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
Daily Caller
Amazon Rainforest Razed To Build Highway For UN Climate Summit

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By
Ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, developers are carving a four-lane highway through protected tracts of the Amazon rainforest to ease travel for attendees.
The highway, one of several infrastructure projects fast-tracked for the summit, is meant to ease congestion for the more than 50,000 attendees expected in November. The state government insists the road is a “sustainable” development with wildlife crossings, bike lanes and solar lighting, but local critics argue it contradicts the very mission of the climate conference, according to the BBC.
“Everything was destroyed,” Claudio Verequete, a local resident whose family depended on the açaí trees that once stood where the road now cuts through the forest, told the BBC. “Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family.”
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The highway, known as Avenida Liberdade, had been shelved multiple times in the past due to environmental concerns but was revived as part of a broader push to modernize Belém ahead of COP30, according to the outlet. State officials say the city’s transformation will leave a lasting legacy, including an expanded airport, new hotels and an ungraded port to accommodate cruise ships.
Adler Silveira, the Brazilian state of Pará’s infrastructure secretary, defended the highway project in a statement to the BBC, calling it an “important mobility intervention” that will benefit the local population long after the summit ends.
Satellite images of the area appear to show miles of cleared land where dense rainforest once stood. Conservationists warn that beyond immediate deforestation, the road could enable further illegal logging and land speculation, fragmenting ecosystems critical to carbon absorption, the BBC reported.
“From the moment of deforestation, there is a loss,” Silvia Sardinha, a wildlife veterinarian at a university near the site of the new highway, told the BBC. “Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.”
The annual UN Climate Change Conference gathers world leaders, lawmakers, scientists and industry representatives to negotiate global climate policy. Discussions typically center around greenhouse gas emissions, phasing out fossil fuel, adapting industries to climate benchmarks and enforcing international agreements like the Paris Accord, as well as topics like deforestation. At previous summits, speakers have advocated for policies such as taxing meat products and naming extreme heat events to create greater awareness of temperature changes. Taliban officials from Afghanistan also attended the COP29 in 2024, as UN agencies reportedly considered unlocking funds for the nation to combat climate crises. The COP28 the year prior included a discussion on sustainable yachting.
The Amazon rainforest, previously called the “lungs of the Earth,” now reportedly emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs due to rampant deforestation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Attendees of the 2025 climate summit are expected to include representatives from nearly every UN member state, as well as corporate leaders in the renewable energy industry such as Siemens Gamesa.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, remarked that “it’s a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon,” adding the conference will be “historic and a landmark” in a February press release. The COP30 summit is scheduled for Nov. 10 through Nov. 21.
Business
Ontario Premier Doug Ford Apologizes To Americans After Threatening Energy Price Hike For Millions

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologized to Americans Tuesday after he suspended a 25% electricity surcharge that he initially said he would be “relentless” in pursuing.
Ford implemented a 25% surcharge on electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota on Monday, but quickly rescinded the policy and apologized to Americans on WABC’s “Cats & Cosby” radio show the following day. The tariffs were initially a retaliatory measure against President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs against Canada since he assumed office.
Canada is highly dependent on U.S. exports, economists told CNN, and the planned electricity surcharge would likely hurt Canada’s energy industry much more than it would the U.S., although an estimated 1.5 million homes and businesses would have been affected.
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“I want to apologize to the American people. I spent 20 years of my life in the US, in New Jersey, in Chicago. I love the American people,” Ford said. “I absolutely love them … Secretary Lutnick and President Trump are brilliant businesspeople. They are hard negotiators. We need to put this behind us and move forward and build the two strongest countries in the world.”
Initially, Ford had a much more aggressive tone when he instituted the tariffs.
“We will not back down. We will be relentless. I apologize to the American people that President Trump decided to have an unprovoked attack on our country, on families, on jobs, and it’s unacceptable,” Ford said on MSNBC in response to Trump’s hiking of steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump, in turn, threatened to increase the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to 50%, with the increase going into effect the next day.
Ford then talked with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, with the premier describing the call as “productive.” Once Ford backed down on his plan to implement the export fees, Trump reversed his planned hike to 50% on steel and aluminum tariffs. Ford is expected to meet with Lutnick Thursday in Washington, D.C.
If a deal is not reached by the April 2 deadline, the tariffs will resume.
Ontario sold around 12 terawatt hours of electricity to America in 2023, with the U.S. being Ontario’s largest energy customer outside Canada. The tariff would have likely added “100$ a month” to the bill of Americans in the affected states, Ford claimed according to CNN.
The U.S. and Canada have entered into a contested debate over trade policies, with Canada announcing an additional $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs on American goods in response to Trump’s initial 25% steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump initially gained concessions from Canada in February, forcing them to aid in curtailing the illegal fentanyl trade in exchange for a pause on a 25% general goods tariff enacted Feb. 1. However, Trump eventually let the pause expire, with the tariff resuming in March.
“Canada is a tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer,” Trump said on Truth Social Mar. 10.
The Ontario Premier’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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