Summary
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a private meeting inadvertently broadcast via a hot mic, warned that Donald Trump is seriously considering annexing Canada to secure its critical mineral resources.
Speaking to business and labor leaders, Trudeau claimed Trump’s administration is keenly aware of Canada’s resource wealth and sees annexation as a means to control it.
The comments, cut off after staff realized they were audible, underscore growing economic and political tensions.
He also stressed the need to diversify trade, noting, “Geography means we’re always going to both benefit and be challenged by trade with the United States.”
Trump is using Putins playbook. Constantly threaten to annex your neighbors. Neighbors take those threats seriously and start to build up a standing army at the border. Convince populous that the neighbors are threatening the nation and are preparing for an invasion. Yada yada yada. Start a “special military op“ and invade neighbor.
He inadvertantly told us what Trump has explicitly told us?
Ya know, even with all the apt comparisons to Hitler and Putin, one thing I didn’t have on my bingo card was him actually trying to expand US territory by invading and annexing other countries. I thought that was one big difference.
Everything else I could imagine is now in progress: Disregard/end of the Constitution and rule of law–check. Dismantling of democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship–check. Mass deportations and concentration camps–check. Full-on implementation of Project 2025–check. Blatant corruption, lawlessness and self-enrichment for trump family and oligarchs–check. Implementation of Christian Nationalist policies–check. Dismantling of federal agencies and beneficial aid programs–check (so far DOJ/FBI, USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Dept of Education).
As yet unchecked, but only a matter of time (it’s only been 3 weeks!): dismantling of additional agencies and programs: SNAP, medicaid first, then social security, medicare, all the stuff they hate. Use of military against civilians, requirement to carry ID papers with proof of citizenship, sham elections, and more!
Unanticipated by me: Musk given free reign to dismantle whatever parts of the US government he feels like, and now invasion and annexation of other countries and territories!?! In the sights: Panama Canal zone, Greenland, Canada, and Gaza. Could this really happen?
Fascists have to have an Enemy within…AND an enemy without.
trump has created the first
now he’s creating the second.
“United States declares war on United States after unprovoked attack on NATO ally Canada”
Two things to remember about that guy:
1)Trump is stupid
2)Trump is the president
Whatever we do, we all must work around those two things. Point 2 implies that he is not permanent, but who knows what the future might hold.
Yo, this won’t be an annex. It will be an invasion if he really wants it, same with Greenland. You think Canada will just roll over? Imagine if fucking Mexico decided to take back Texas. (At this point, please do, I could use some new leadership here)
I’m so sorry Canadians, yall just up there doing your thing and these assholes just trying to fuck your shit up.
I’m in the GTA. I’m ready to die for my country. Are Americans ready to say the same when their president gives them the order?
Rest assured you do not want to fuck with us Canadians. We are deeply embedded in your country. You would see terrorism the likes of which you have only seen in your nightmares. 9/11 will seem like happier times.
Seriously as a Canadian I want them to try.
A lot of Americans would come fight right alongside you. People are pissed.
Fun, totally unrelated to absolutely anything fact:
Three of the top ten longest confirmed sniper kills were Canadian.
It’s basically our military specialization
You have my understanding and support. Canadians please take care of yourselves.
You had our back in Afghan/Iraq, you have brothers and sisters in the US that will help.
It will take the unity to sabotage any Nazi/maga plans.
Fuck yeah brother, I’m with you
I’m building explosive filled toques.
No need to invade. The US can just tamper with our elections enough to get people in power that’ll just roll over and give them everything
I don’t know who downvoted you, but whomever did go check out Danielle Smith in Alberta. She sure likes Trump, and Ford over in Ontario used Roger Stone as a campaign advisor.
Trump has created a problem for the Cons, though:
“The start of a tariff war with the United States is changing voters’ moods. It’s harder to talk about a broken Canada when there’s a growing sense of patriotism,” another Conservative source said.
Our Cons need bogeymen to rile up our Centrist voters. They rail about borderguards or evil carbon taxes (that are given back to the vast majority of Canadians) or whatever, only now we’re getting Nationalist Cons rising up, despite their favourite leader Harper being a vanguard of International Conservatism.
We have an absolute issue up here with our Con voters, (when Léger asked Canadians about the Biden-Trump match up in the fall of 2020, 41 per cent of Conservative voters sided with Trump.) and they are extremely susceptible to Russian propaganda:
Currently, Trumps team is just trying to get something boiling so that if/when polievre gets in power, the situation can be “resolved” without bloodshed.
Canadians are not as pathetic as us Americans, who’ve been rolling over for 50 years.
They will fight.
It’s sad that all I can do as an Aussie is buy some real maple syrup. It also says a lot about what Canada gives to the world. There’s a damn good reason that Americans put the Canadian flag on their backpacks. We say here that New Zealand is to Australia what Canada is to America. They are our better, kinder sibling, the ones who didn’t join the war, the ons with more honour and integrity. Go Canada.
Pump the breaks there buddy. Canada has done plenty of fucked up shit that mirrors America and in some cases were actualy worse. They’ve just got better PR.
Trump is clearly a fucking asshole facist but ask the First Nations how much better and kinder Canadians are.
Yeah we aussies know how badly we treated our indigenuos people too, the new zealanders were better, as I said. I’m still going to shill for anyone who stands up to trump. We live in the prrsent.
Americans genocided the indigenous people and created a whole genre of entertainment, cowboys and indians.
Not sure if that’s the best example to make.
Wait. Which war was Canada Not in? We don’t make a big show of it, but we’ve been in a few of them.
Nothing Trump says is a joke, unless he realizes he’s getting too much pushback on it for going too far. Then it’s a joke.
Trump has zero sense of humour. He never jokes. Every comment he makes is a serious possibility in his mind.
If you think about it. Have you ever seen him actually laugh or just smirk?
I just had this conversation with my boss yesterday. He said he thinks the comments are funny because he thinks he’s joking and just making everyone mad. I said no, he may present it as a joke to test how far he can go, but if there’s not enough pushback, he keeps going.
Still never a joke to him, that’s what his supporters say for cover.
‘I don’t kid’: Trump says he wasn’t joking about slowing coronavirus testing
Administration officials have scrambled in recent days to clean up the president’s remarks from his weekend rally in Oklahoma.
They had said, “Ha! He was making a funny!”
Rumours that the United States, in conjunction with Wile E. Coyote, are going to Nuke North Korea into Next Tuesday are GREATLY EXAGGERATED
Yea, everyone knows it’ll be Monday. The worst day of the week.
Damn, Wolf Warrior diplomacy is even more odious when the US does it.
We should join the EU, fast
You’re in NATO, if the USA betrays NATO and attacks NATO, they will presumably trigger the famous Article 5 and be at war with all of NATO.
Besides that, you’re also in the Commonwealth, and as such I expect the UK and her allies to come to your aid. Our government is spineless shite these days, but I expect we won’t shirk our most solemn of obligations.
Either way, if the fascist US invades Canada, it’ll be all out war between the US and all of NATO. Won’t end well for anybody, but it definitely won’t end with the US annexing Canada.
Might end with the Western world being an atomic crater (including the USA) with nations like Russia and China picking over our corpses to establish a new world order, but won’t end with Canada being annexed.
The US government would have to be suicidal to do this. Utterly suicidal, to the point of actually being traitors to their own nation.
That’s not enough. They should immediately negotiate an agreement with Britain and France to have British and French nuclear weapons stationed on Canadian soil. Have them there long enough until Canada can acquire their own domestic arsenal.
Canada needs the bomb. It sounds insane, but I am not joking. That is the obvious lesson of the Ukraine war. Canada is already an advanced near-nuclear state. They could have a domestic arsenal within a year or two if they wanted. And borrowing a few nukes from London or Paris in the meantime would provide cover to allow that.
And I say this as an American. I know Canadians may be loathe at the idea of a Canadian nuclear arsenal. But be realistic. It is the only way for Canada to ever be able to credibly deter a direct threat from the US. We can no longer be trusted.
Canada needs the bomb.
The fact that that your comment even makes a bit of sense is so completely fucked. Of course I don’t speak for everybody but I think it’s fair to say that most Canadians do not want to be a nuclear power. We do not want to hurt or threaten anyone, particularly our American brothers? When Pearl Harbour was attacked we declared war on Japan before America did ffs… shit is fucked up down there
When Pearl Harbour was attacked we declared war on Japan before America did
Must be nice having allies like that. Those are the kind of friends you should hold on to and not inflict ridiculous tariffs on or anything like that.
Unfortunately, this is not about what Canada wants. This is about what Canada needs. I do not want Canada to have to build a nuclear arsenal either. Realize, I am advocating for the construction of nuclear weapons that will be pointed at my own head. THAT is fucked up. I do not make this recommendation lightly.
Reality check. 90% of the Canadian population lives within 150 miles of the US border. An M1 Abrams tank can drive that distance in an afternoon. The Canadian military is woefully unprepared to resist such an advance. The Canadian military is not designed to resist the might of the US. It’s designed to provide some valuable but niche roles as part of the NATO alliance. And this is not some failure to plan on the part of my Canadian brothers. Frankly, Canada was never going to be able to develop such a capability. Canada has approximately 12% of the population of the US, and a vast territory to defend. Even if Canada become as militaristic as North Korea, Canada simply does not have the resources to develop the capability to militarily resist the US using conventional arms.
Do you think an alliance will save you? NATO membership means nothing in this context. When an outside country invades a NATO member, they can activate Article 5. However, nothing happens automatically. The NATO members then must convene to formulate a response, and any single member can veto the resolution. Greece and Turkey, both NATO members, have fought several armed conflicts while both being NATO members. NATO will not be coming to save you.
The Commonwealth? Could you dust that thing off and appeal to King Charles for aid? I’m sure he’ll send his dearest sympathies, but the redcoats will not be coming to save you this time. Compare the stats of the US Navy to the Royal Navy and let me know how that would go. I’m sure the Royal Navy’s 160 aircraft will be a formidable match for the US Navy’s 2600. We could also look at other military branches. But the disparities would be similar, and the forces of King Charles would have no way to get to Canadian soil. I’m sorry to say, but 1812 was a very long time ago. The forces of King Charles would struggle to resist, with conventional arms, a US invasion of the UK mainland. Realistically, if the UK wanted to offer any meaningful assistance to Canada, it would have to come in the form of thermonuclear weaponry.
What about the EU? Could Canada join the EU? Would that save you? First, it takes years to join the EU. But even if you could waive a magic wand and join tomorrow? The EU does have the population and economy to potentially stand up to the US. But they don’t have the defense sector necessary. There is no vast EU expeditionary army that is going to sail across the Atlantic and go to-to-toe against the US Army and Marines. There is no formidable EU Navy that’s going to serve as a credible threat to the Americans. In time, the EU could build that capability. But we’re talking, extremely optimistically, a decade to spin up that magnitude of a military industrial complex. US army soldiers will be fishing on the northern coast of Nunavut before the EU parliament even passes the budget appropriations.
Could Canadian irregulars resist the advance? Canada is not some war-torn country in the Middle East that has had insurgent fighting going on for decades. There isn’t some vast network of Canadian insurgent groups with the skills and resources to build improvised explosives and knowledgeable of insurgent tactics. There aren’t thousands of guerilla fighters that might credibly slow down a US invasion. How many suicide bombings has Canada had in the last year? Canada is not Iraq or Syria. I have no doubt that a fierce resistance movement would eventually develop after a US invasion. But irregulars would not be able to actually prevent such an invasion.
If Canada wants to actually deter a US invasion, they need to consider a domestic nuclear arsenal now. They should have considered it the moment Trump started talking about annexation. Canada should negotiate with Britain or France to have British or French weapons stationed on Canadian soil. And that would provide a meaningful deterrent while Canada develops their own arsenal.
Now, the French or UK arsenals cannot come close to matching that of the US. Combined they have 500 warheads, while the US has 5,000. But nuclear weapons are the great equalizer of international politics. Even 50 nuclear warheads on Canadian soil would successfully deter any potential US invasion. It would mean that whatever the US might hope to gain from invading Canada would be dwarfed by what the US would lose in the conflict.
Sorry for the long response. But TLDR, Canada is hopelessly outmatched against the US in conventional military forces, and there is no realistic way its allies will be able to defend it using conventional weapons. A nuclear arsenal is the only way for Canada to ensure its survival as a nation against a US gone mad. And I write this as an American.
An M1 Abrams tank can drive that distance in an afternoon.
Just one thing…
No, it can’t. Took us 16 days to drive a squadron of them from Kuwait to Baghdad. Most of the time they spent on flatbed tractor trucks, because of the a) fuel consumption per mile (Like 15 gallons per mile or so) and b) maintenance. Those things throw tracks bad on asphalt. But, they slow down a lot on dirt.
OK, I just looked up the top speed and divided by the distance, but there may be logistics issues that make that impossible. But really, 2 weeks or an afternoon? It makes little difference.
Might help to remember he is at war with everyone who isn’t far right, even citizens. Canada is seen as a country of liberals. Your conservative party could fit in with some of the democrats that he calls far left lunatics.
He is open to doing things like denying disaster relief to blue states for not voting for him and sending in the military to force them into enforcing hate.
With him there is no moral standard or relationship that matters besides if he can personally profit off of you. If he knows he can do anything to you and there is nothing you can do about it he will exploit that. It’s not about ties between countries but ties between your country and him personally.
His support is a little less than a third of the country. The majority of Americans still look at Canadians as close friends.
Countries don’t have brothers, they have interests.
Certainly true for the US.
And domestic politics - moreso than interests, even. Kissinger and the “realists” were kind of full of shit because of that.
When Pearl Harbour was attacked we declared war on Japan before America did ffs… shit is fucked up down there
I had not heard that.
At the point in history their government was working at least as well as ours (for good or evil), so I don’t know what conclusion to draw.
I’m not an expert in WWII but by that point Canada had been at war in Europe for a few years already, and America was trying to stay out of it. I guess it took a day or two for the sleeping giant to wake up, or something to that effect
Oh, you mean we were already in WWII, not that we specifically responded to Pearl Harbour.
No, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Canada and Britain declared war on Japan before the US did.
Interestingly, though the United States suffered the most casualties and damage from Japan’s multiple attacks on December 7 (December 8 in Japan and east Asia), the American government wasn’t the first to declare war on the Japanese Empire. Even before President Roosevelt convinced Congress to approve a declaration of war, both Britain and Canada had declared war on the Imperial nation on December 7, 1941.
Oh, you do mean that. TIL, wow.
Wikipedia makes it sound like they basically just decided to do it really fast to make a point. I suppose already being in a state of total war also helps.
Fun fact: we used to have a secret one the Americans gave us.
You should watch Perun’s “All bling, no basics”. Maintaining a nuclear arsenal is expensive.
You’re assuming Canadians will be immediately granted American citizenship and representation. Most likely, Canada would become a US territory like Guam or Puerto Rico, and kept that way for at least a generation.
I really don’t think you can not give 41 million people the vote. Even trump when he says 51 state implies that it’s a merger, to use that word.
Why not? Denying 41 million a right to vote is a minor crime compared to forcefully conquering a peaceful neighbor that had been your closest neighbor. You’re talking about a conflict that would easily kill 10% of the Canadian population, and likely level every major Canadian city, by the time the resistance efforts were finally stomped out.
He’s saying they would make a 51st state eventually. The US’s client state, Israel, denies the right to vote to nearly half of the population of the areas it controls. And we’re their greatest ally. Why can’t we deny the right to vote to 10% of the people in the territory we control? (Canada’s population would represent about 10% of the combined US-Canadian territory’s population.) Hell, we already disenfranchise millions due to felonies. And we disenfranchise millions through voter purges. And it was only in the 1960s that we stopped outright legally disenfranchising people due to skin color. You’re seriously trying to argue that a fascist government would have moral qualms about disenfranchising large numbers of people!
The US could quite easily even go far as to say, “all Canadian citizens in the occupied territories are resident aliens and will not have the right to citizenship. Their kids will have citizenship, but no one who has ever held Canadian citizenship will get US voting rights.” Every Canadian currently alive simply never gets to vote.
This is entirely possible. A right wing authoritarian government is not stupid. They’re not going to immediately grant voting rights to people that will immediately vote them out of office. The only way they would do that is if they were confident that elections were so utterly corrupted that giving Canadian’s American citizenship wouldn’t change the outcome.
They would try.
I’d consider supporting it, if there was a serious public discussion on the matter.
The one argument against it - besides the lame “that’s violent” or “we couldn’t actually need one” - is that saving this one nation isn’t worth the increased risk of a nuclear exchange.
I don’t think you have time for “serious public discussion on the matter”.
Once all the 2025 assholes are in place it’s go time.
Hmm… I’m actually not sure if the government could do this without passing a bill. If they have to pass a bill, you bet there will be public discussion during the debate period, and probably before as well.
The the government of the day could just do it, I guess it’s not impossible, although they’d have to be a Doug Ford-level blowhard.
saving this one nation isn’t worth the increased risk of a nuclear exchange.
If a nuclear exchange happens anywhere, I imagine every country on the planet is going to be affected by it, so you might as well protect yourself.
Risk as in risk of it happening, not risk if it does happen.
Nuclear proliferation is what we’re talking about, and the basic idea is that if you have n nuclear powers, that’s O(n2) potential conflicts that could start at any moment.
You must be smoking some good shit.
The US did not allow nukes in Cuba in the 60s. We very nearly had a nuclear war over it. You think the US will roll over and allow a second tier power like France to do it now?
The difference here is that we’re not in a cold war with Canada or France.
I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea it would be to allow nuclear proliferation at this point
Nuclear proliferation is always bad. I don’t give a damn about the second cold war.
I used to be like you, but then I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
No one said it was good. I said you’re too late. The proliferation is happening regardless.
If i were Taiwan or Iran or Ukraine it would be my top priority.
I cannot agree with you more, and i’m very sad to see so much upvotes in favor of nuclear intensification Bombs do not protect from bombs, guns do not protect from guns
Bombs do not protect from bombs
So, why are we letting Russia run roughshod over Europe?
guns do not protect from guns
Dead nazis agree.
That’s a nice and noble idealism, but what evidence do you have for it? Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, and look how that turned out for them. There is a reason Zelensky has been pushing so hard for NATO membership. It’s easy to idealistically reject nuclear weapons when you’re a nation that is comfortably protected by the nuclear umbrella of a friendly allied superpower. It’s easy to tut-tut, scoff, and say “bombs do not protect from bombs.” But I have yet to see a nuclear-armed nation ever face an existential threat of invasion from a hostile outside power. Despite how much you might claim they are useless, nuclear-armed countries sure do tend not to get invaded. Notice how Trump routinely talks about invading Iran, but no one talks about toppling the North Korean regime anymore? Or why haven’t the Western powers come riding to Ukraine’s aid like they did Poland in World War Two? Despite your idealism, as a practical matter, it is not possible to invade and annex a nation that has a nuclear arsenal.
Nuclear weapons, despite how distasteful they are, are the international relations equivalent of “high fences make good neighbors.” Canada has been protected by a nuclear arsenal for generations. But they’ve had the luxury until now of pretending they aren’t.
Canada needs the bomb.
Weren’t around for the Cold War?
War is just another game
Tailor made for the insane
But make a threat of their annihilation
And nobody wants to play
If that’s the only thing that keeps the peace
[Chorus]
Then thank God for the bomb
American here: yep. NATO is going to become effectively useless in short order, and it’ll be all our fault. Save yourselves; hopefully we can get our shit together at some point, but I’m not counting on it tbh.
there’s a reason France maintains a second, non-NATO, arsenal. there’s also a reason Poland is buying what France is selling
there’s also a reason Poland is buying what France is selling
Oooh. What’s the story there? Like literally buying equipment, or just suggesting some kind of new defence pact (that Canada should definitely join).
no longer trust their sources for USA licensed designs so drawing on the NATO compliant, but not NATO standard, French weapons. France has maintained those since the founding of NATO because they side eye us in all things. a behavior i bet they’re feeling pretty good about right now
France has maintained those since the founding of NATO because they side eye us in all things
Historically, the US shat on France every time we got the chance. Started about 2 years after they financed our revolution.
we’re the worst friends to have
Oh cool. Sweden also has some stuff.
We make armoured troop carriers… and that’s it AFAIK.
Um it’s still NATO. It’s just under their command.
My question is: when push comes to shove, what are you gonna do if Trump declares war on Canada?
I’ll oppose my own government then. With force, if required.
another American here: i’m gonna do my best to be a hindrance to my government. i fundamentally disagree with wars of expansionism
We’ll just rebrand as United Earth and welcome you with open arms.
We have a land border with denmark and a martime border with france.
The head of our government is a a European king.
Well, by that account… There’s a bridge linking France and Brazil.
Hans Island isn’t a colony.
St. Pierre and Miquelon has more direct ties to the French government.
Hans Island and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, respectively, for anyone head-scratching on this one.
Please do. Like, yesterday.
This might go very badly for Canada. I want it to go badly for the US, but let’s try to be real here for a second. Doesn’t a very, very large proportion of Canada live in like five cities? The USAF could have that paved in an afternoon, more or less by itself.
Edit: somebody pointed out that Canada has nukes. That could definitely change the equation.
Edit 2 edit boogaloo: unclear if Canada has nukes, citation needed. De-striking until I can find some proof.
Trudeau needs to take this shit serious and start looking into bringing EU and Aussie troops/armor/air defence over for long term “training exercises”. If you’re Canadian and reading this, you need to be preparing. Get out of the city if you can; if not, start preparing a bug out bag, keep your gas tank over half full, and start preparing enough supplies to shelter in place for at least three days for however many people are in your household. Count on losing power, water, gas, and other utilities. If you have a gun, make sure you know how to aim it, use it, clean it, clear any jams, etc. before you need it. If you don’t have a gun, give some real thought to it; ask yourself what Vasily Zaitsev would do. I hope it doesn’t come to this; I want to apologize that this is happening, though I know it’s not worth the pixels it’s printed on.
I have hope that it won’t happen. Most USians have a very positive view of Canada, and this anti-canadian rhetoric is way, way, way out of left field for a wide majority of us. I can’t see any but a very small minority of people thinking this is good. I have a small hope that our military will make the right choice if the time comes.
Don’t trust uncited information. I am sure we do not have nukes. Look up the nuclear nonproliferation treaty for Canada, we not only don’t have any, but haven’t stored them for any other country since 1984.
You can begin here as a starting point:
Thanks!
You are very welcome.
The air force isn’t bombing Canadian cities, GTFO with that.
Unlike Ukraine Canada has nukes, so yeah…
I am certain we do not. Do you have a citation?
Ah, I thought I had seen elsewhere that they didn’t. Good.
We don’t, I don’t know where the guy above got his info, but we ratified the nuclear nonproliferation treaty in 1969 and then completed deconstructing/removing them in 1984.
Someone can post citation otherwise, but I have lived here my entire life and remembered the articles from when they were all decommissioned.
As far as I know, we haven’t even stored nuclear weapons or relevant systems for other countries since we had some belonging to the US at CFB Goose Bay in Labrador. We had them removed as part of our stance against nuclear arms in 1984 as well.
at least they recognize the gravity of this insanity.
USA here. I believe (but I dont know for sure) that any “hot” attempt on Canada will bring forth blood on american streets.
just hang in there and defend yourselves by any means you can while we try to get hands on this beast and strangle it.
I am sorry.
edit: clarity
Doubt there will be anything “hot”; it’ll be threats of violence, being met with rational, thoughtful responses that will aim to save as many lives as possible.
I hope you are right. at this moment in time I put nothing past the cabal and the “official acts” empowered degenerative orange sack in the wh.
just 8 short years ago, could you have seriously contemplated that we would be engaged in this way on this thread?
But I’ve been told by American lemmy users that it’s not serious and that it’s just a distraction, and that I’m a moron for taking it seriously
An American calling you a moron isn’t the insult they think it is.
Hey now! … Well, yeah.
Agreed, it carries very little weight
American here. You’re definitely not a moron. Too many of our own people are for not taking the orange idiot seriously. He may be tremendously stupid, but he has more than enough malice and greed to make up for it. And the people staffing his regime are honestly worse.
According to people on Lemmy, everything Trump does is a distraction. When he starts loading people into box cars and sticking them in ovens, it will still be a distraction.
People give the moron too much credit as a strategic manipulator. He’s not that coy. If he says something, it is because he has no filter and he was genuinely thinking it. His people might talk him out of it (or distract him away from it after the fact), or his aging addled mind wanders off to other things, and only then will it have been a “masterful ploy” to misdirect, or rile up the libs, or gain compliance through threats, etc. Every stupid and evil thing he has said aloud, he meant wholeheartedly at that moment. The problem is he may or may not decide to have follow through on it later, so you don’t know if you should react to it. But if he said something threatening, it is a threat. It isn’t necessarily a threat that will be acted upon. But it absolutely is still a meaningful and serious threat.
Exactly. He has no concept of what a joke is. Or of humor in any way. Have you ever heard him laugh? I sure haven’t.
As his fans always tell us- he says what he thinks.
Sure, most of what he thinks is stupid and/or wrong, but he says what he thinks and it’s only “a joke” when it’s so embarrassing that even he realizes it on some level.
Most Americans don’t realize the scale at which their empire works tirelessly to oppress or subsume all other nations. Telling them about CIA interference in the '70s and '80s blows their fucking minds, let alone what’s going on today across the world. It goes against the narrative that they’re tough but fair stewards of the planet and not schoolyard bullies with nukes who have transformed the global economic landscape to benefit themselves, so it doesn’t make sense to them.
it’s a distraction, but it’s also very real. everything is a disraction from everything else. they’ll get away with whatever they’re allowed. use what power you have to sabotage the things you can and do your best to have faith that someone is doing the same for the things you can’t help. i with there was more to do. i really do. but right now the biggest, most dangerous force in the battle between good, evil, and indifferent are the indifferent. we’re stuck out here desperately trying to convince the indifferent that the news media is fully captured and that the onslaught minorities say is happening is really happening
There’s a lot of gaslighting on Lemmy, specially because of the nature of by and whom it was founded for. Troll factories play both sides: https://www.wired.com/story/russia-indictment-twitter-facebook-play-both-sides/
Well a lot of what he does is distraction. But yeah I think he wants Canada (even though it would shift things left, which he hasn’t thought about and likely won’t acknowledge) and Greenland, cuz big land.
It’s not going to shift things left if Canada was annexed. Even if they were given voting rights (which is doubtful), their population is both a magnitude smaller, and Alberta exists.
How much was the election won by? Pretty sure it was less than 41 million.
They can influence the popular vote, but that legitimately means nothing as far as presidential elections are concerned. For example, if they give the entire country 2 electoral college votes as a state, it’s voter base is effectively irrelevant to the outcome of any future election.
Should Canada be turned into a state and not just controlled as a puppet, they would more likely be given one vote per province, which is 13 votes. With a couple of their provinces being heavily conservative already, as far as shifting things left goes, that would be more like 10 votes. And for context, the state of Florida has 30.
If it were to happen the way it’s “supposed” to, if Canada were admitted as one state it would instantly become the largest state and gain FIFTY electoral votes, as a state gets the same number as they do Senators and Representatives combined. Again, barring the very shenanigans that would likely be the only way this could happen, those fifty votes would be Democratic-leaning for at least a generation. Alberta and the Prairies combined don’t have many more people than the GTA.
You could mitigate the presidential-electoral hit by letting them in as 13 provinces, but then you’re probably adding 16-18 Dem Senators versus 8-10 Republican. The only real hope is to get the Canadians to vote against their interests and split their Electoral votes when almost no other states (and no other large states at all) do so.
That’s assuming it happens aboveboard, of course, which naturally it wouldn’t, and would instead plunge the entire continent into violent misery if not outright war.
Thank you for adding more detail.
Yeah, I’m running under the pessimistic assumption here that incorporating Canada into the United States would not be done fairly or reasonably if it happened. I suspect that they would get a pittance in terms of political representation, justified by the xenophobic and nationalistic guise that “all those Canadian immigrants shouldn’t be influencing American politics.” Probably using talking points like,
- They haven’t been here the whole time.
- They don’t understand our politics.
- They have a different (read: socialist) culture.
- They’re the newest State(s)
Administratively it wouldn’t be one state, it would be 10 states because of the 10 provinces. You have 10 provincial governments that run pretty much the same as state governments. If you didn’t do that you’d have “state” level for the country, and then a second State level for the province, before you get into counties and lower. Canada can not run as one state, as states are set up.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/United_States_annexation_of_Canada
The primary reason for the annexation were Canada’s natural resources, considered vital to the American military effort in the Sino-American War.
The tipping point came in 2072. As the U.S. escalated its exploitation of Canada’s resources, her people took to the streets. Protests and riots erupted in several Canadian cities and an attempt to sabotage the Alaskan pipeline by unknown forces was foiled, but provided the U.S. Government an excuse to officially annex Canada.
When pictures of the atrocities committed in the name of the United States made it over the border, they sparked unrest and protests from the American public. Both sides thoroughly armed, it had little impact on history, as former Canadian land provided much-needed resources for maintaining the war effort, and the country was overrun.[Non-game 5][Non-game 6]
In a statement to the press, Buzz Babcock, commander of U.S. forces in Canada, cited security concerns as the primary reason for the annexation. He also stated that “Little America” was always the property of the United States and the U.S. military announced the official annexation of Canada on June 3, 2072.
Even among the military, the annexation was met with mixed reactions. For some, the act was considered criminal.[5] Open warfare between the opposing armies across the former nation commenced, with the Yukon becoming one of the many fronts alongside Anchorage in the Resource Wars.[6] Despite the outcry, the military initiative forged ahead. Propaganda portrayed the annexation as a “liberation”, with comic series such as Tales from the Front and cartoons such as Armor Ace and the Power Patrol championing U.S. occupation forces while vilifying Canadian resistance; for instance, the villainous “rogue robots” of the Yukon Five in the Armor Ace board game Cold Steel were explicitly described as part of the “Yukon Uprising.” Vault-Tec in particular sought to bank on the annexation as they began building and advertising available Vaults in “newly-annexed Canada.”
Fallout is supposed to be over-the-top dystopian parody, but here we are.
Just… don’t show any of this to the administration, hm?
Turns out people were pretty good at guessing what the end of America would look like.
I’m pretty sure this is just the playbook now.
