Canada should just cut off non-vital trade to America until we have a new trade policy
My coworker loves Trump loudly and obnoxiously. But she’s mad about the tariffs and votes for the NDP here, but says he’s “doing good things for his country”, but can’t identify what. She doesn’t know anything about weaponized disinformation, Russian troll farms, or dark money, and I very gently explained these things to her today, and saw this dim light turning on behind her eyes. So many people don’t know how badly they’ve been suckered by weaponized disinformation and dark money.
It hurts itself in its confusion
I love seeing that video of a journalist asking trump about what he said about some tariffs and him responding “I think the other countries pay them”. He truly doesn’t know how they work.
In all fairness, a fringe economist told him that. Navarro still hasn’t been able to successfully explain to anyone why tariffs won’t raise prices. He gets as far as “they can’t raise tariffs on the largest market in the world” as if there weren’t high tariffs on the us before.
How dare you insult Trump. Next insult, and you’re gonna get tariffed!
He may be dumb but not as much as the people who voted for him
Trump: “Fuck framing lumber. All my homies hate imported timber for house framing.”
Governor? It’s he really referring to the Canadian prime Minister as though he is the governor of a state? And they said Biden was losing his grasp on reality.
Biden was
This isn’t trump not understanding the concept of a governor. This is him stating multiple times over and over that he wants to take over Canada.
The same way Putin knew it wasn’t a special military operation but an invasion. The language matters
Probably but I don’t think we’ve had an actual doctor come to any conclusion and probably won’t until he’s dead. Barring that Trump does the same shit but instead of freezing he just goes full word salad. It also seems like he’s having some pretty severe mobility issues.
Yeah that’s still fucking dumb because it’s not a state. You don’t call the car you want to buy “your car” because it just isn’t.
Well no, Putin couldn’t openly declare war without forcing Europe to get involved, if they claim it’s anything else we’ll that’s more grey.
He’s using serious channels and conventions to deliver deeply unserious ultimatums in order to consolidate attention and create confusion. He will do the same exact thing as the tariffs if it gets to a point of actual mobilization.
“Trump withdraws troops from Canadian border for fifth time this month”
And while everyone is reeling and scared and wondering what the fuck will happen tomorrow, Elon and his little cronies are literally hauling cash out the back door.
I see nothing to make me believe he is not serious.
Well he might seriously get us into a literal war with our neighbors, but it’s not because he gives a shit about politics or international anything. He’s doing a cash-grab right now with and for his donors and sponsors and his family. He is not serious about anything he says because he’s not telling anyone what his actual motivations are.
Serious in this context doesn’t mean “not joking” but rather means “with a real intention of affecting political change.”
I’m not convinced he’s not serious about what he says. I assume everything is a trial balloon. But more importantly, his entire cabinet nods along to his words and the media does not push back.
No one said it wasn’t, you’re taking offense to things that were never said.
At the top of this thread you were implying that Trump referred to the Canadian prime Minister as governor because he was losing his grasp on reality.
No. Trump is fully lucid when he explicitly threatens Canada.
Fanciful wishes are a loss of reality. Someone who thinks they are king is not likely to be sane in this day and age.
Yes he did, however this is just wishful thinking and talking shit. You know the general purview of the mentally unfit.
Until the 25th amendment is enacted, the orders of a sane president carry as much weight as those of an insane president.
I noticed Trump on his speech last night mis-spoke and paused for a split second then kind of half way changed the message to make his error a non error in the “new message”
You do if you want to steal said car and then turn around and tell everyone that it was actually yours to begin with
We know its a lie. He knows it’s a lie. Probably even the idiots who vote for him know its a lie. But if you say a lie enough times and people don’t tell you to fuck off, it becomes the truth.
The same way that people are taught that the american civil war was fought for states rights, not slavery, when we know that most of the states seceded because of slavery
No because it that situation you still did the thing, here he’s just playing about prosperity gospel shit where of you just believe it’ll happen.
It doesn’t though, that only works on very specific things that aren’t as easily disproven by something like the existence of an entire country.
No one is taught that in school, parents say that shit.
Man Palestine was an entire country up until 1947 and now you find people.saying that it never existed and was always Israeli land.
These lies do work, and they are used as justification after the fact. Again, very similar to how Putin also said Ukraine wasn’t really a country and was part of Russia.
Well no. Mandatory Palestine which specifically was not a country… Wasn’t a country.
It’s an effective lie because it includes hints of truth.
But it is literally the truth. Even Mandatory Palestine wasn’t “Palestine” as in “Free Palestine!” More importantly it’s irrelevant to Canadian sovereignty.
Honest question, although I don’t expect an answer, more food for thought. Should Canada invest more into our domestic defence industry? How picky should we be about who we sell weapons to? How about who we do business with? I think the answers will vary based upon how seriously you take Trump’s “jokes” about annexation, and there is certainly going to be lots of disagreement, but this is something we all should consider.
Another more pertinent consideration, how important is a politician’s commitment to Canadian sovereignty? I’ve been reflecting on this since Doug Ford won the Ontario election again, and contrasting him to Pierre Poilievre. I don’t know what your political preferences are, but would you consider Canadian sovereignty more important than say, education? What compromises and how much sacrifice is acceptable for continued sovereignty?
I’m sorry if I come across as aggressive, but Canada is getting knocked down a step on the metaphorical Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Nations. Certainly I support more trade with the EU and our CANZUK brothers. But what about China? I support Taiwan’s continued existence as whatever it is, but should we deepen trade ties with China if it helps support Canadian sovereignty? If so, how much?
It’s still early days, but we have to get our heads in the game. Again I don’t know your political inclinations, but I’m pretty sure for me, if you support Canadian sovereignty, than right now we’re allies no matter what else. For me there are limits on my questions above, but I don’t know where they are, they’re pretty far out. I’ll row on the left or right side of the boat, I don’t care so much right now so long as we are all rowing together.
August 24 isn’t that far away
It’s deliberately disrespectful. He has said that Canada should become a US state. This is convicted felon Trumps way to belittle both PM Trudeau and the sovereign nation of Canada
The funny thing is this is Trump’s way of trying to insult Canada and our PM, but he comes off sounding like an idiot who doesn’t know Trudeau’s proper title.
Like, come on USA. Your grandfather is wandering down the street with his pants off again. Can you come get him?
Can you come get him?
I don’t think we can. Not yet anyway. Cut off the power and throw enough tariffs to piss off US corporations we might be able to get people out in the streets.
That doesn’t make it less stupid and fanciful and that was my point dude.
God I’m exhausted.
At this point, we just need to cut it all off completely. Oil shipments, electricity, lumber, aluminum. All of it.
I know that that’s a hard ask for those industries that are affected, and if it means the federal goverment has to temporarily raise the deficit in order to subsidize those industries it’ll be crazy expensive and inflation will shoot up. But I’m convinced that that would be only a short amount of time that that would actually be needed.
Let the United States go one week without our stuff. 100%…fuck 'em. They’ll last one week. Maybe two. And when they quit their bullshit, make it clear that we are diversifying our business partners making it easier to pull it from them again anytime they let Trump open is fucking mouth.
Hold our resources hostage against them.
I mean, if we play all our cards at once, we have no cards left for the next thing, and in the process that might raise enough American political will to invade for real.
It should be and I think is all on the table, though, and I have no problem with it if they want to escalate, because we also need to raise political will to sever our ties for good.
we have no cards left for the next thing,
That’s the game, he’s bleeding you for cards.
If he’s going to attack you, he’ll bleed you first. There is no appeasing him permanently.
We have a deep deck (which is part of why playing the whole thing at once would be kinda nutty). Like every day someone mentions a new way to screw with them I hadn’t thought of. Cutting off power, cutting off water, taking their stuff and not paying, ignoring their intellectual property, cutting off Alaska…
Nobody is talking appeasement anymore, even Danielle Smith is getting muted about it. The question is how to help Trump ruin himself the best, politically and economically.
Who gives a damn about the deficit. When did that ever really matter?
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Economical MAD is not the answer here. It’s a very complex subject that is difficult to solve.
It’s a very complex subject that is difficult to solve
In a sane world, I agree with you. But we’re dealing with a man who himself doesn’t realise its complexity and only understands strategies that are “blunt and absurd”.
We can use as nuanced and soft-toed strategies all we want and he’ll never get it through his orange head.
Yes, we’re dealing with a madman. You’re suggesting we act just like him. No, harming more people voluntarily is not the answer.
(not canadian, or american; take that as you will)
not acting like him: acting in retaliation with measures that hurt the US more than canada… things like IP and copyright protections, digital services, etc
his blanket measures don’t take into account trade that’s largely beneficial to US companies - they’re stupid blunt instrument crap because thought is too hard… trump hurt himself in his confusion
retaliating in precise ways can extract value from the US without harming the canadian economy nearly as much
As I saw someone link yesterday, John Bolton (noted warmongering piece of shit) said he was in the room during Trump round one when people were trying to explain tariffs to him. Bolton says he was unable to comprehend.
absolutely… and in those hands they can still be a damaging weapon, but they’ll never be as powerful as someone who knows how to wield them correctly. brains can win, or at least provide a formidable fight… but no matter what, both sides will feel pain
It’s not Mutually Assured Destruction though. It’s not even retaliatory. If Canada were to immediately stop all exports to the US and pivot to an EU/China based economy the fallout would disproportionately affect the US. The key to this is that Canada is the smaller and more insular trading partner.
Case in point
The destruction is mutual, but not assured and total (total just didn’t make it into the acronym). Nuclear war isn’t a good analogy.
Basically, do we want to continue relying on the US, or not? Not doing so has a cost, but we might not have a choice. Canada can survive without the US, if in a slightly poorer form.
Canada still has decent friends to trade and work with. Can’t say the same for the Fascist States.
I worry that Canada will not be able to export efficiently due to lack of port infrastructure, especially on the Pacific Coast. Massive industrial ports are expensive and take years to bring online.
Y’know, if you’re willing to make a few small concessions on who is ultimately in control of your country, I know this great authoritarian dictatorship that’s been investing in new port infrastructure projects all around the world.
Yes, me too. It’s really hard to find information on how much extra capacity there is, although I’ve seen indications it’s not zero.
Just skip to the end and stop all imports and exports between both countries, see how well that goes.
Fucked up Beyond All Repair.
All this could have been avoided if one guy had slightly better aim.
Time travelers can’t do anything right…
People were thinking about that probably a lot in the 30s and 40s
I think about this a lot actually. So close
The guy had a pretty good aim. It was down to luck.
I think the shittier part of this is that if that whole thing hadn’t happened, Trump might have not won. He got the best PR of his whole campaign during that one minute.
Eh he was gonna win whether or not that happened. It helped his image certainly, but he was already well on the way to winning and Biden was already increasingly unpopular.
If the guy actually shot him we probably would have been okay though cuz I don’t think Vance has the same pull with the Maga base
Bankrupting his country like he did with all his businesses, including a casino. Notoriously difficult to bankrupt.
3 casinos.
Also barred from running charities because he stole from kids with cancer, wasn’t it?
Yes, he’s banned from running charities. But not just him. His whole family is banned because they were all in on it.
Sadly it would probably have been way better for the world if they had stuck to defrauding kids charities. Its my belief that capitalism keeps evil people busy amassing money and fighting each other in the business sphere, rather than doing worse to amass power and influence.
Don’t forget his secondary handler FElong and how he tanked Twitter.
Looks like the Governor of the 47th Oblast is throwing another hissy fit.
Speech from Trudeau gave me “we’re at war” vibes.
It’s incredible at which speed things are falling apart.
They’re only falling apart because trump took a wrecking ball to them.
It’s all going to be used as an excuse to invade us. Oh look at Canada they made your lives more expensive. It’s Canada’s fault and once the people believe it, they’ll have their support and invade us.
It would be an uphill battle. Yes Americans are overall less educated because they don’t invest in education and let their media spread lies unchecked but invading Canada is a big leap (for now).
they’ll have hell on their hands after an invasion, good luck defending that border or stopping the insurgency with so much wilderness.
it would be Vietnam and Afghanistan rolled into one, but with easy strikes into their homeland.
Let them try it, we will spur the collapse of their fascist empire
The Geneva conventions need references to write new rules
The US military would never be able to recruit another volunteer again. Nobody hates Canada.
