Summary
Donald Trump reiterated his claim that Canada would be better as the U.S.’s 51st state, citing trade imbalances and lower taxes.
He also announced new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada, despite a recent 30-day reprieve.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has not formally responded, but a government source said they await official confirmation.
Trump criticized Canada’s defense spending and border security, despite recent Canadian commitments.
Canada previously retaliated against similar tariffs in 2018 before a 2019 trade deal resolved the dispute.
deleted by creator
What a deservedly scathing review of the US of A.
deleted by creator
As George Carlin said, selfish ignorant people elect selfish ignorant leaders.
Personally, talking to anyone about politics here is unnerving. Most people are in this fog where current events are only an ephemeral storyline that they tune into periodically like it’s a TV drama. Never a big deal, never anything that could affect them or those they care for. It’s a position of privilege, frankly. Maybe some of them are just that dumb. I think a lot of people, though, are scared, either of their ignorance or their powerlessness, so they simply avoid being involved or educated out of discomfort. That’s probably the nicest interpretation I have for my countrymen’s behavior.
Otherwise you are spot on. The uniquely tasteless brand of brash American chauvinism that we were globally lampooned for during the Invasion of Iraq has metastasized. We are long overdue for being knocked down a peg. I wish I could say the fallout from this painful reckoning would stay within our borders, but it most likely won’t. We have a very uncertain year ahead of us, let alone the next five years.
No, I think most people only have the spoons to handle what is in front of them for the next 3-7 days. Its a systemic problem, that’s been promoted by both parties: Keeping voters head’s spinning, and the cloak of darkness providing cover for what our oligarchs want to actually do.
I’ve recently had to explain this to another person: The further down you are, in getting your needs met on the Maslow diagram, the shorter your planning becomes.
If all your needs are met, you can plan for this year, next year, and make decent plans for beyond. If your basic physical needs like food, shelter, water, and housing aren’t being met, then your planning is reduced to 3-5 days, if that.
Its purposeful by design, for the working class to have their needs met partially only, at best, by the ruling class. So, we CAN’T plan further out.
Notice during the pandemic, when food, housing, water, etc were all being met better, due to a reduction in transportation costs, food distributions, moratoriums on eviction? We went from people re-learning to make bread, to “Fuck the system!” in a matter of a couple of months?
Most of the people I’m around are not rich by any means, but they are not living paycheck to paycheck. Rising cost of living is worrying, but manageable. They can afford to pay even the littlest bit of attention or concern, but they don’t. Because then they would have to admit that things are collapsing around them week by week, and that’s too frightening for them.
Frankly I’m tired of justifying the behavior of the average American with infantilizations like we are some lower form of life without sapience. At some point we have to own up to it, even if it’s painful, even if all we have is ignorance, cowardice, and apathy.
Most Americans are a single paycheck away from being destitute… Like, the average savings for a person in this country is 2K. That’s not even a single paycheck of mine, and hell, I even find it hard to make and plans past 8 or 9 months out.
Canadian here, can confirm. This is pretty much how just about everyone I talk to feels about the situation. And I work in the trades in Alberta. Even my dumbest trump friends don’t want to be American. There will be boots to the fucking ground if our government tries to allow America to annex us.
deleted by creator
Yeah I remember. I’ve seen maybe one MAGA hat in the last few years, and the dude wearing it was absolutely ancient. they were all over the place during the last election. After the Jan 6 stuff Albertans started to think maybe he wasn’t that great after all. There’s still a lot of “lesser of two evils” sentiment around the guy but nobody wants to join the US anymore.
Planes with Americans? Gander? As an European this sounds like there was a refugee crisis between Canada and the US. What happened lol?
Post Sept 11, (lots of) flights were grounded for several days.
deleted by creator
September 11, 2001, all planes were grounded in North America, and Gander has an airport under flight routes.
Reminds me a bit of how it was in Germany at the beginning of the Iraq war (2). Plenty of Americans saying we should be bombed back to the stone age for not going to Iraq, while our soldiers were dying in Afghanistan. I remember in all the bulletin boards people would kind of cheer for American losses, hoping secretly or sometimes openly that Iraq would win, and the schoolyard bully would get another bloody nose.
That’s the moment large parts of my generation became anti-american.
deleted by creator
About half of America would join Canada in fighting this tyranny. I think it would be a grave mistake for Trump’s presidency to follow through on these threats.
No they fucking wouldn’t. They would sit at home and watch the Superbowl and clap along like they are right now.
I think you greatly underestimate how many Americans are angry about what’s going on and like our neighbors to the North.
I think I know exactly how many Americans are protesting right now.
That’s cynical. Americans generally love Canadians outside Trump’s bullshit echo chamber. It’s horrifying to watch him shit all over Canada, and only strengthens our shared enemies, which is his goal. Many of us are standing up, contacting our representatives, and saying NO.
“being angry” is like “thoughts and prayers”… it really means nothing.
Only a minuscule part of Americans are actually <insert emotion here> to motivate them to do anything about it… half of those are not even doing anything useful…
Is that the same half that rose up to fight it at home? Because I must have missed that part.
Americans like to think of themselves as heroes, fighting for what’s right, upholding the constitution etc. But if you look at history Americans again and again chose to simply do nothing. You reached late Roman decadence.
Here a candidate voted with the far right and a week later, one million people were on the streets. Population adjusted that would be 5 million Americans. That was a small protest for us. And that’s nothing compared to the French. I looked at the biggest American demonstrations and this one demo, a regular Sunday for us, would have been the third biggest in the US, population adjusted, or the seventh biggest, not adjusted.
All these talks of civil war… You cannot even move your ass to go to a demo. You think regular Americans are actually going to look at a Bradley, who can kill all the inhabitants of a house with one shot, and go like “yep, time to strap on the suicide vest!”
Even those militia types… Look at them. How far do you think they can run on average? How far with a backpack? They are just LARPing. 80% will stay home, 4% will go back home after the beer runs out, 15% will rat the others out to the Gestapo.
Agree with you but I’ll also throw out- protests do fuck all here. Those in power ignore and then we move on with life. It’s just the truth.
Until you threaten their money or lives it won’t do shit and plenty of people are happy enough to hold signs and pat themselves on the back saying they made a difference.
deleted by creator
I don’t think that many would involve themselves in this war. Luckily, you don’t need that many when your are shitting on neighbors, partners, and other military and trade hegemonies.
Maybe not half of the entire US population, but I’d hazard “half” is a fair estimate for those living in border regions, like the Great Lakes.
Really looking forward to the day the orange buffoon drops
To be fair, Bagdad is half a world away. The logistics of maintaining something there is astronomically higher than in the same hemisphere, let alone our next door neighbor.
That being said I’m on team annexation… of Minnesota. Please take us!
Surprisingly I don’t think I’ve seen comments from people who live in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont on the subject online. I never realized just how close those states are to Montreal.
First we take Wisconsin… Then we take Mich-i-gaaaan
Thanks for the link and transcript
deleted by creator
That’s a lot of work, I appreciate it.
😘
I disagree with only one point there: while America as a political entity is like a crazy crackhead, it’s like a very heavily armed crazy crackhead. Treat the prospect of being invaded by the US the same way Ukrainians treated the prospect of being invaded by Russia. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, because the US military is really good at wrecking whole countries even if it sucks at occupying them.
deleted by creator
Excuse the naive question please, but how will Canadians know each other?
deleted by creator
You seem to be under the impression that I’m defending the idea of the US invading Canada. I am not. It’s a horrific thing to even contemplate and insane on many levels. My point is that the US might do it anyway, so Canada needs to be prepared. You really don’t want to be the next Vietnam or Iraq.
deleted by creator
Beautiful reference and mention of an insightful writer and author … now I have some more reading to do. Thanks!