Most Americans don’t understand why Canadians are so angry about Trump’s actions and his talks of annexation.
I think hockey illustrates it well. Back in 2014 the American anthem singer’s mic failed at a hockey game. Canadians finished the song:
Just recently, fans at a Montreal game booed the anthem.
Here’s the thing: ordinary Canadians thought that America was Canada’s friend. They really believed this.
Thus, hearing Trump’s threats and seeing how many Americans back them and how they deride and insult Canada, they feel betrayed.
The opposition to joining the US is in super-majority territory: over 80%. Canadians like being Canadian and think our society and form of government is better than America’s. They know Americans think the opposite, but it never occurred to most of them that America would try and force Canada to give up its sovereignty, or economically attack America.
Of course this is foolishness. America has never had friends, and never will. It’s an antagonistic nation of bullies, with a record of invading and bullying other nations. But ordinary Canadians, like ordinary people everywhere, don’t really think such issues through. Americans are a lot like Canadians and Canadians consume a ton of American media and tended to identify with America.
Personally I’ve always been worried that America would turn on Canada, and since the 90s I’ve pushed for Canadian policy to recognize that. So, if we can avoid an invasion, I’m somewhat pleased that Trump has torn off the mask and shown the barbarian beneath. Even if the political elite is still in denial, it pushes us towards understanding the world more realistically. There is only one country that can credibly threaten Canada, and it’s been that way for as long as Canada has existed. Hell, since before Canada was formed.
Oh, and Americans, America doesn’t protect us from anybody but America. For Canada, NATO is and always has been nothing but an American protection racket. A proper Canadian military wouldn’t be an expeditionary force designed to help American overseas wars: it would be naval and air, with a lot of icebreakers and an army primarily trained for insurgency and to defend against the only country in the world which has ever been a threat to us.
But I agree. Canada should spend a lot more on its military. We just shouldn’t spend it on US tech, as Canadians have begun to recognize:
The United States controls many of the key systems onboard Canada’s new warships, allowing the Americans to hold this country hostage over future upgrades or even the provision of spare parts, defence industry officials warn.Taxpayers are spending as much as $80 billion on a new fleet of Canadian Surface Combatants to be constructed at Irving Shipbuilding. The heart of each of the warships is the command management system, which controls weapons, radars and other intelligence-gathering equipment.
Originally that high-tech system was supposed to be Canadian-made and under the full control of the Canadian government.
But that was switched out for made-in-the-U.S. technology called Aegis, allowing the Americans full control and oversight over the supply of parts, modifications or future upgrades, industry officials confirm.
“This is what happens when you exclude Canadian companies: You find yourself potentially being held hostage,” explained Alan Williams, the former procurement chief at the Department of National Defence. “We don’t control the (combat management) system; the Americans do. Who knows what they are going to demand from us?”
Other Canadian defence industry officials acknowledged the same concerns. They asked not to be named as they did not want to jeopardize ongoing contracts with the federal government.
You don’t make your military dependent on the good will of the country that is the primary threat.
Keith in Modesto
This sentence ends the sixth (or fifth, depending on how you parse it) paragraph:
“They know Americans think the opposite, but it never occurred to most of them that America would try and force Canada to give up its sovereignty, or otherwise economically attack America.”
It would make more sense to me if that read “… or otherwise economically attack Canada.”
TM
We are in the pool trying to emigrate from the UK to Canada, looking to settle in Saskatchewan where we have some existing family (naturalised Canadian citizen). We’ve started visiting fairly regularly over the past few years. One thing that struck me on our visits and drives through SK and AB as a tourist was the number of American flags flying, and American style political slogans displayed on the road side particularly in some of the rural areas of AB. It felt incongruous with the attitudes of other immigrants into Canada, particularly from African and Asian countries that were a lot more skeptical of the Americans and very proud to be, specifically, in Canada. When we visit again this year, I wonder if we will see this same split in attitudes, or if everyone will align more?
someofparts
I am so sorry about this.
Found out recently that a close friend I had not seen in a while is a Trump supporter. Naturally I am anything but that man’s supporter, so we agree to avoid talking about politics at all. Even so, a bit of political opinion pops up sometimes and we quickly change the subject and move one. However, in those brief glimpses, the picture of her thinking that emerges is sad and frightening. She really believes that Trump is bringing robust prosperity back to the country. Also does not think that this country ever interferes with anyone overseas.
I have a book of articles by a WWII war correspondent, Kaye Boyle. She covered a war crimes trial of Nazis that took place in Frankfurt. She explained that the trial was important because it was local. The people who lived in the area knew the people who testified personally. This mattered because after the war average Germans did not trust any news they could not verify from their own lives, because they had been so unilaterally deceived by Nazi propaganda. The Nuremberg trials were about powerful people no average person had contact with, so regular Germans did not trust them.
These days I think of what is happening now under Trump as the Fourth Reich. It is just a continuation of the fascism of WWII that was not ended but only swept under the carpet. The US entered that war to stop the Russians, not the Germans, as I have come to see it.
I have hoped that maybe what is underway here would be the final end of fascism, but in a recent interview Michael Hudson pointed out that economic students he has worked with in China, as well as economists from Russia that he has spoken with, seem to be captured by dysfunctional aspects of neoliberal orthodoxy. I hope what is about to happen here will teach them not to follow our example, but if it doesn’t then maybe our species doesn’t deserve to survive and the final human battle will be lost when we are defeated by mother nature herself.
Revelo
Words like “friend” just add to confusion where geopolitics is concerned. The correct terms are suzerain (or local hegemon) and vassal. Suzerains want their vassals to be weak and easily controlled. Canada is geographically large and has been talking of importing enough south Asians and Africans to get their population to 100 million by 2100. This would make Canada far less manageable by USA than currently. Natural response of USA will be to break Canada up into more easily controlled subunits.
Right now English and French speaking Canadians ger along, but they didn’t always, so CIA should be able to arrange for them to start hating each other again. This will result in a color revolution in Quebec, which will become independent.
Native Americans / First Peoples can also be arranged to be filled with resentment at past wrongs, plus they can be easily bribed due to small numbers, so another color revolution in north Canada, which becomes a USA “protectorate”.
Alberta and Saskatchewan can be bribed by promises of lower taxes to join USA as one or more reliably Republican states, perhaps bringing Manitoba and most of British Columbia along.
Vancouver is full of liberals, which Republicans don’t want in USA, so CIA might arrange for that to declare itself an independent city state, with mass immigration allowed from Taiwan after Taiwan falls to China, so that Vancouver becomes similar to Singapore.
Ontario and the maritime provinces are full of liberals, so USA Republicans won’t want them as states, lest they add more Democratic senators.
Tallifer
Finland and Switzerland understood how to defend and maintain independence as a small country.
NR
Ian, perhaps this will offer a bit of perspective:
https://today.yougov.com/international/articles/51578-few-americans-support-us-expansion-if-it-requires-force
A recent poll found that only 4% of Americans favor the U.S. expanding its territory if doing so requires force. Given that you can usually get at least 10-15% support for pretty much anything in a poll, no matter how outlandish, 4% is a pretty telling result.
Of course that doesn’t mean that that number couldn’t change–propaganda is a powerful thing, and I wouldn’t put it past Trump and his cronies to stage some kind of false flag attack to justify an invasion. But as of right now at least, Trump has no popular support for an invasion of Canada, and I think you would see a lot of domestic resistance if he attempted one.
Daniil Adamov
“Oh, and Americans, America doesn’t protect us from anybody but America.”
The question is, can anyone but America protect Canada from America? The British Empire used to provide this service. No one else has the motive and I doubt the capability as well. Is Canada unconquerable? Some time ago you listed a number of defensive advantages it possesses, but I’m not sure they’d be enough if the Americans ever actually decide to crush Canada underfoot and the rest of the world stands aside. Fortunately, I don’t think they are very likely to actually go for it any time soon; even if they can do it, that doesn’t mean their gains would be worth the price of the operation. Unless, of course, they decide that Canada is in some way a threat, but it has gone out of its way to be nonthreatening.
someofparts
I am planning on telling my pro-Trump friend about this post. Maybe telling her that Canada hates us now will sow a little doubt into her Trump-positive perspective.
someofparts
D Adamov – I was wondering about that too. Could Canada hope for help from Russia or China if the US threatened? Canada and Russia both have long borders in the arctic. Could Asia come in with help from the north that the US couldn’t stop or monitor?
someofparts
This is tangential to the topic, but worth hearing
https://substack.com/home/post/p-157140023
Troy
This is such a mess to think about.
Geographically, invading Canada is difficult. America, thankfully control any land north of the St Lawrence River, so invading via Quebec is probably out. And invading through or around the Great Lakes would be incredibly difficult, because there’s too way many bottlenecks. Canadian artillery would have a shooting gallery in both cases. And invading via BC would be a clusterfuck and a half. 100,000 soldiers could probably defend BC against a million invaders. So it would have to be invasion via the prairies. Which would be a bloody and muddy mess for both sides. Canadian forces would probably just do retreat, hide, and ambush tactics there. And the Americans would probably engage in saturation bombing tactics, which worked so well in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And the winters would probably delay battles as well as the muddy season.
Politically, Canada could probably build a fairly large army of volunteers if it opened up recruitment to all Commonwealth countries (and also opened up to volunteers from countries that despise America). It’d also be prudent to think about going into a mutual defense treaty with Mexico. But such a treaty would have to be on the downlow, because it’d be a massive act of aggression against the US. So it’d only be unveiled if American aggression became blatant. Further, with American aggression, all previous alliances would be null and void, and so Canada and Mexico would have the luxury of making trade deals with Russia and China openly. So Canada and Mexico could enter into arms agreements with Russia and China. And America would probably be bogged down in battles with Canada and Mexico for a decade or two. And if Canada entered into a trade deal with Russia, then Russia would probably undertake protection of shipping routes to Canada and Mexico. And the US would have to be mad or desperate to attack Russian military vessels.
Industrially, Canada would have to turn around its industry in less than a year. In a couple months, ideally. 24-7 shifts. If Canada can’t safely get arms or equipment from overseas, then Canada would need to build cheap and easy to assemble equipment inhouse in factories far from the frontlines. Something to fire or lob at American soldiers and give them something to think about when in the trenches and in their military bases. And to keep the skies free from American bomber jets and drones, Canada would need to saturate the skies with cheap drones that could choke the airways as necessary. It would also be prudent to bomb American airbases close to the Canadian border immediately with as much artillery as possible. Canada doesn’t need to put up with heavy bombing as Germany or Japan had to do.
In terms of success, all Canada (and Mexico) need to do is hold on. Hold the line. And drag the US into a war of attrition while keeping Canadian (and Mexican losses) to a minimum via asymmetrical warfare. Easier said than done, but it’s been done, and is doable.
But to even have to think about all this. Hopefully, policy makers in Ottawa are thinking about this as well as in the Canadian Forces.
different clue
If a counter-Trumpism counter-revolution could take hold and succeed here, and keep succeeding over a long enough term to purge the Federalist Society contamination out of the judiciary, purge the Republican embeds out of the Federal workforce, etc.; and then move on to push the White Power Christianazi MAGAnon Gilead fascists out of cultural respectability and prominence and back into the sewers and sewage lagoons from which they emerged; then the CounterRevolutionary Americans would have a chance to reveal whether they respect Canada or not.
Unless such a political and cultural conquest, wipeout and disinfection were achieved here, that question ( how many Americans really agree with “make Canada the Fifty First State) will remain moot.
I read on various Reddit threads comments from Americans saying they regret all this and they understand and respect Canadians’ reasons for staging a boycott of America and American goods and services. But I don’t know what percentage of Americans that represents.
Troy
Also, I almost forgot to mention, Canada has the luxury of stabilizing and destabilizing Blue and Red rule in specific states with its reserve currency. Canada is a rich country and can fund projects and programs designed to influence American opinion. This would probably only work until the US became a rule by decree nation, but it could delay and deflect American aggression for a time until Canada is ready to fight back if necessary.
Curt Kastens
Who did the Americans learn to be bullies from? Was it the Iroquis or the Algonquin? Or was it mostly the British, along with the Germans, French, Spanish and Portugese?
Did the influence of those named nations someone pass over Canada with out touching it?
Who got a standing ovaation in the Canadian Parliment not all that long ago? From where I stand Canada is also a nation of bullies. No maybe not every Canadian is a bully. But neither is every American. But collectively speaking in both cases the answer is a resounding yes. The Canadians have been, collectively speaking American ass kissers for decades. The only people who deserve more to be bullied by the United States are the British.
Curt Kastens
Crap, I had some problems with my keyboard. I guess that is how that word, someone, got inserted above where it makes no sense. Someone messed with my keyboard.
Purple Library Guy
Ehhh . . . define “help”. It would be very hard for anyone else to help Canada much, for the same reason that it would be very hard for anyone other than the US to be much of a danger to Canada: Big wide oceans. Even in the case of the Arctic, relatively small narrow oceans plus big trackless territory before you get to the key real estate.
Anyone trying to help Canada in any DIRECTLY MILITARY way would have to beat the US navy first. It is possible that in the arctic Russia and China combined could, if they went all out, succeed in that . . . but that would probably lead to WW III and it’s just not that important to them. Nobody else would have a chance.
More likely what we’d see is other countries hitting the US with trade barriers and sanctions, plus smuggling guns to us (“guns” broadly speaking, not just actual firearms). That could be fairly helpful.
Meanwhile, one thing that would make a US invasion of Canada different from all the other US invasions militarily is that it would be an invasion across a 5,000 km long land border. On one hand, it would not rely on all their force projection capabilities that they’ve worked so hard to build up–indeed, they might well have to pull back from a bunch of their international military bases to scrape up the forces they would need. But on the other, they would not be invulnerable to retaliation. Canadian insurgents would have no reason to spend all their effort on attacking the heavily armed invading troops. At least some of our attention would go to slipping across the border and creating chaos and death in the US itself. This might or might not be a huge problem militarily, but it would be likely to erode popular and political support for the war much more quickly than American support for their wars usually drains away.
And I firmly believe it would be a very nasty insurgency. Far worse than Afghanistan. Yes, the Afghans are tough, but one thing about the US occupation of Afghanistan was that its goals never included annexation (plus, it kind of took one side in a civil war, so it had a faction to rely on). So the basic question anyone in Afghanistan had to ask themselves was, which was worse, government by corrupt quisling Afghan politicians, or government by Koran-waving bloodthirsty Afghan hick anti-woman tribesmen. Your answer depended on where you sat; most urbanites and a lot of Northerners probably were resigned to the regime as being crap but better than the alternative on offer. So the US were able to maintain fairly safe urban bases, even expand a bit of safe-ish hinterland, at least for some time.
But a Trump-driven attack on Canada would be explicitly annexationist; the choice for Canadians thus would be explicitly between Canadian patriots and Trump-oriented traitors. EVERYONE would be against the US-dominated regime, in the cities, in the country, in the burbs, Anglophones, Francophones, First Nations, Inuit. There would be no safe city bases for the invaders, they would be in danger every single place they went. That’s not very tenable.
Going back to the article again, I do think Canadians are particularly pissed off because most of them saw the US as a “friend and ally” . . . and while this wasn’t really the case, the concept is one that has been a key part of North American discourse and propaganda for ages. Everyone has been TOLD that all their lives; doesn’t matter if it’s not really true. And Canada has ACTED as if it’s true, which has given the US the DIVIDENDS of having Canada as a friend and ally. So yeah, they see this as a huge betrayal and that makes them really mad.
And it IS a huge betrayal . . . just because Canadians are naive not to expect the US to be treacherous, doesn’t make the actions not treacherous. It being foolish to trust somebody does not excuse their untrustworthiness. Charlie Brown is a fool for continuing to kick Lucy’s football; Lucy is still a horrible person for the way she treats him.
shagggz
@Daniil Adamov,
“Unless, of course, they decide that Canada is in some way a threat, but it has gone out of its way to be nonthreatening.”
Anything less than total subjugation, the empire sees as a threat and will come around to addressing. You’re either with us, or against us. Neutrality is not an option. See: Ukraine
Mark Level
My response to the post, & to others’ observations–
A. Those Canadians glorifying U!S!A! in 2014 are demonstrating perfectly something known in Nietzche’s philosophy (cribbed from Plato mythologizing Socrates) as “Slave Morality.” I immediately tried to contextualize 2014 historically– so this was half a decade after the Greenspan Crash & Obama rewarding the Looters, after earlier protecting the Bush Torture and Murder (& Profiteer) crew. Now Obama had a false “glamour” (& glamour is often, if not usually false) which is pretty dead now, but I am thinking those who admired, openly, their Southern Big Brother were imbibing from this poisoned Chalice. Which leads me to Tallifer’s comment– So precious!! I got the biggest laugh, thank you. “Finland and Switzerland understood how to defend and maintain independence as a small country.” RotFLMAO, thanks!! So Sweden never had any recent problems with Russia, but becoming a NATO vassal will somehow bring Mojo to them as a nation? Dream on. I don’t think you have read much history, T, you are probably unaware that when some Finns allied with the Reich during WW II to attack the Russians, at least afterward they had the human decency to have War Crimes trials for their own collaborators. (They didn’t execute them a la Nuremberg, but they were at least punished.) 2+ generations on from that, Consumerism has crushed all the humanity the Finns used to have!! Inspiring indeed.
B. People rightly, for the most part, decry Trump’s blatant ignorance and misstatements, but in truth the dumbest Libs can challenge that any day. When Tony Blinken insisted that 51 sacred “Intelligence Agents” spread his Lie that “The Hunter Biden laptop is not real, it’s a Russian (presumably) plant,” they all fell into line, repeating George Tenet’s guaranteeing to Bush Jr. that “It’s a slam dunk that Saddam has WMDs!”, multiplied by 51. All those traitors (I’m no Trump fan, but lying to the public so utterly shamelessly, to install the likes of Brain-Bleed Biden and his crew had devastating effects, which caused a majority of the voters to switch to Trump!!) All I can say, quoting li’l Bush, is “Heckuva Job, Brownie!” And all those lying shlubs reaped the whirlwind and are now fired, as on the Apprentice. Yes, Revelo’s Suzerain & Vassal applies every bit as much as the Greco-Nietzschean version.
C. someofparts, you call it just right on post-War Germany, at least among the smarter minority (I would assume– that country was clearly never de-Nazified) grew up and started trying to think for themselves. As to the Michael Hudson video, I assume it was the same one I saw with Glenn Diesen hosting and Alexander Mercouris as the 2nd guest, on why the Trump tariffs will not work– they only worked when it wasn’t Rentier Capitalism but we are too far gone down that rat-hole now, & assuming Trump ever puts up on the tariff threats, I’d bet it will make the BidInflation look like nothing. But that is “our system.”
D. Speaking of “Democracy” and “our values”, human rights, Due Dissidence did a stunning piece on renewed German fascism today– They have outlawed any/ALL demonstrations in favor of Palestine, and grab people off the street to jail, etc. Since the DD guys are both Jewish, they have a real issue with this kind of stuff, and the most informative part of the film was when 15 or more Black Clad (Black Shirt?) Cops, the usual fat meatheads like we have here, but also a blonde woman, were chasing down a tiny boy of about 6 or 7 years old who was waving a Palestinian flag. Their narration was classic, how this was like every Nazi film we’d ever seen not even as tragedy, but as farce. (I hope they clip this separately so I can share it on a future post.) So the Germans are FINE with sending weapons to actual Right Sector/ Azov Nazis with swastika and Black Sun tattoos, but a child waving an “Arab” flag is actually the “real Nazi”!! The little boy was trundeled alone into a van, I have to wonder if he’s getting the kind of treatment that the Palestinian civilians get in the Israeli rape & torture gulags? The Ukrainians murdered Gonzalo Lira after robbing and sexually abusing him, despite his being a US citizen. I’d hope the Germans wouldn’t murder a child, but they may accept the Israeli tenet that “little terrorists should die so they can’t become big ones.” Or more likely they will act like CPS and take the child away from his bad Lefty parents (like Pinochet did to the children of those they murdered, adopting and raising them as Chilean fascists.)
E. As to the D. Adamov point, I will simply note one of the (few) times Ian was spectacularly wrong, back during the Biden admin when he predicted a possible US draft to raise enough Troops to save Ukraine. I pointed out at the time that this would not only not work, it would generate tremendous backlash. That jibes well with NR’s “only 4%” would support expanding the US borders via force. Others have covered (far better than I could) the public health problems in the US, especially among the young. Diabetes, (often caused by) Obesity, high rates of Autism, Trauma, chronic diseases from an early age, substance abuse problems or addictions to the Screen, etc. Alan Moore wrote well about how his generation was only the 2nd in England to be raised on good food and a health regimen, something the Brits started to ramp up during WW I and intensified during WW II, not out of caring for their population, but in order to fight for the Empire and subdue the Subjects. (The USA similarly did the same; in the Great War, many troops were too scrawny and weak to be good canon-fodder.) The Empire failed against Goat Herders in Afghanistan, most of whose culture is only at Iron Age levels. I’d trust that Canadians could fight back effectively even in the short and medium term against the American Plague. I doubt such an “invasion” could even go long term, BUT they might be able to grab small, strategic areas. The most sensible plan I heard was grabbing the West Coast to reach the Arctic Circle, the real goal.
F. In closing, those who imbibe too deeply from the Narrative are simply performing an auto-lobotomy. Now don’t get me wrong, if somebody wants to destroy their own brain, just as if a mentally or physically sick person decides to end their life, I believe they should have every right to do so. How could they be forced not to anyway? . . . That said, I think those of us who have some education in philosophy, sociology, history, basic metaphysics, and other central ideas of real culture have a real advantage, summed up by the old “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King.” I was looking for a favorite quote from an Adept that summed this up, couldn’t find it for now, so will mis-quote from memory as best as I can. “Those who read from the trivia of the day will look at those reading the eternal classics, and lament: Oh, look at these Fools!! They are reading this ancient nonsense and pretending to understand it. Woe onto them.”
Well, Woe onto those who poison & stupify themselves with dim-bulb propaganda– This leads (almost seamlessly, since I couldn’t find the real quote just above) to my closer–
G. A Darwin Award to this Dimbulb Deutschlander invoking the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” while supporting the extermination of the people of Palestine, at the Munich Security Conference earlier this week. (Gosh, what other unfortunate events began in Munich? I can’t quite put a finger on it.) Mean old J.D. Vance informed him that Tinkerbell/ Ukraine is NOT coming back from the dead, & he can’t help but tear up. I’m so glad we have a Culture of Therapy for failed Predators like this gent, so everyone could tear up with him and give him hugs. (Reminds me of a scene from Downfall.): His breakdown is at the start, then about 2/3rds of the way thru the short clip– https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BhNy0u5-ijY
Failed Imperialists need Hugs & Love too, don’t forget!!
mago
Tipacanoe and Tyler too.
I think Trumpola is throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
But maybe not.
I know nothing.
Anyway, come on. Canada’s too close to the arctic circle for this North American.
Just fooling around at the end of the day, kids. Don’t mind me.
Joan
As an American I am saddened by this turn of events and feel like the Canadians used to: that we are friends or that I wanted us to be.
different clue
It looks like the boycott is being effective in this one produce section of this one store.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1it5nan/canadian_grocery_store_produce_shelves_empty/
If it is like this in every produce section in every store in Canada, then that level of boycott discipline is pretty effective. If so, then Canadians are responding to this as their “Pearl Harbor Moment” . Will this spread to non-produce areas? Travel?
I have gone to the annual Acres USA conference many times over the last many years. Not every year, but many. And every year, the second country most heavily represented by attendees after the US itself is Canada. Will Canadian farmers avoid next December’s Acres USA conference? Will Canadian subscribers to Acres USA cancel their subsriptions or let them lapse? If they do all that, that will show just how deep, broad and hard the “revenge for America’s Pearl Harbor attack on Canada” has become.
I will miss the Canadian attendees if that happens. I am ‘conference friends’ with one of them.
One wonders if Canadians will begin to wonder whether this aggression is MAGAnazi-specific, or if it is all-American in general. One wonders if some Canadians will begin to look for fissures and cleavage planes within America and begin crafting targeted boycotts to widen those fissure and open those cleavage planes.
different clue
Hmmm . . . . what if all the Canadians who would have gone to Florida were to go to Cuba instead? If my geography is correct, they could fly from Gander Airport straight to Cuba without having to enter American Airspace, which means it could be done in theory.
That would be a travel boycott targeted against a MAGAnazi Trump state. Would that begin a deMAGAnazification process in Florida?
different clue
Hmmm again . . . what if all Canadians and people from further-away countries who had thought of visiting America were to look at the state or states they were planning to visit and see if these states went for Harris or Trump? If they decided to visit states that went for Harris, would that strengthen or maintain the economy of those states? If they decided to avoid those states which went for Trump, would that weaken or attrit or degrade the economy of those states?
I wonder about that because I anticipate years or decades of slow grinding culture war in this country between Trumpists and nonTrumpists. Picture two pythons in a bottle, each fighting to be the one which kills and eats the other one. It is not a quick or easy process. If any foreign friends feel they “have a dog (python) in this fight”, do they think that precision targetted boycotts designed to weaken the python they fear or fear more would be worth doing? If not, then not. Its just a thought, as Beau of the Fifth Column used to say. And as Belle of the Ranch says now.
In a lighter vein, what if Prime Minister Trudeau were to start referring to Musk as “President Musk” and referring to Trump and Vance as ” Assistant Vice President Trump” and “Assistant Vice President Vance”? What if the next Prime Minister were to do that. What if the next Prime Minister were to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Canada? ” If Trump can, so can we.” What if the PM of Canada and the President of Mexico were to get together and agree that it is now the Gulf of Mexicanada? What if they were to ban from their countries and economies any entity they could if it refused to go along? ( Like lock Google out of Mexico and Canada unless Google Maps calls it the ” Gulf of Mexicanada” on all its maps shown in Mexico and Canada?) Or at least ban such an entity from their press conferences?
Jessica
https://theconversation.com/why-annexing-canada-would-destroy-the-united-states-249561