Trump administration 2024-2028

[Jarnhamar]

I agree it is. I find it distasteful but I would defend someone's right to do so as long as it doesnt risk a larger fire.

Or like protesting soldiers funerals. A la Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church.

 

[PrairieFella]

Or like protesting soldiers funerals. A la Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Agreed again, I have my opinions of the Westboro Baptist Church but at the end of the day theyre inbred hicks from some podunk town trying to get a rise by doing awful shit. They get close to the line but dont seem to cross it into legitimate hate speech. They're saying that death was deserved, not calling for actual violence.

 

[HavokFour]

In the newest crazy shit to come out of the White House social media - unlicenced HALO:CE x ICE posters!

For those of the more baby boomerish persuasion here that may not be familiar with the HALO games, the Flood is a parasitic hivemind, much like the Borg.

Thats a neat thing to compare migrants when saying they must be destroyed.

The fuck is going on?

View attachment 96479

The parasitic hivemind that was originally "defeated" millions of years earlier by an ancient alien civilization, by wiping out all intelligent life in the universe to starve it. It was then accidentally (?) revived and unleashed again by the Covenant, a bunch of alien religious fanatics in their pursuit of the "Great Journey".

Going to be one hell of a lawsuit if Microsoft and Nintendo (the last video game ICE used was Pokemon) decide to team up.

 

[Remius]

Thought it's been pretty clear from the get go. Export O&G, more pipes south, east and west. Develop all other resources for export markets. No counter tariffs. Drop all policy that make it harder to do business in Canada, make it much easier and more profitable.

tariffs from the US are discouraging companies from doing exactly all of that.

Eliminate interprovincial trade barriers.

They are.

Do absolutely effing not insult the American leadership (which is easy to do with 47). No ads in US that counters their administration. Don't boo foreign anthems. Don't engage in foreign policy that is likely ultimately meaningless but will rile up the Americans (recognize Palestinian state).

So you admit they are a volatile bunch currently in place. More reason to increase our exports elsewhere.

Don't create symbolic wedges in a-political topics for political reasons. Make and follow through on principled commitments to international agreements like NATO.

Or you know, CUSMA? Absolutely. I’m not sure though that the US can be trusted to maintain any commitments to anything.

I don't know... pretty standard stuff for being serious and trying to prosper while engaging in difficult diplomacy.

Surrender Canada’s sovereignty then.

Got it. Do what they say and let them tariff our economy or anything else they want.

This is exactly Maple MAGA’s position. Most Canadians aren’t keen on any of that.

 

[Altair]

Thought it's been pretty clear from the get go. Export O&G, more pipes south, east and west.

Sure.

Develop all other resources for export markets.

Sure.

No counter tariffs.

Yes, wouldn't want to inconvenience the American overlords.

Drop all policy that make it harder to do business in Canada, make it much easier and more profitable.

I too want to get rid of hunger and have world peace. Oh, and solve cancer. Anything else to add to my miss Canada speech?

Eliminate interprovincial trade barriers.

Mostly done.

Do absolutely effing not insult the American leadership (which is easy to do with 47).

Yes, don't want to annoy our American overlords.

No ads in US that counters their administration.

See above.

Don't boo foreign anthems.

Boooooooo

Don't engage in foreign policy that is likely ultimately meaningless but will rile up the Americans (recognize Palestinian state).

Yes, don't want to annoy our American overlords.

Don't create symbolic wedges in a-political topics for political reasons.

See above.

Make and follow through on principled commitments to international agreements like NATO.

Currently happening.

I don't know... pretty standard stuff for being serious and trying to prosper while engaging in difficult diplomacy.

Oh, we do all of this and Trump drops the tariffs and Canada is prosperous?

Seems to me you just want things to go as easily as possible for the USA, despite them being the instigator in all of this, engaging in tariff wars with every country on the planet, threatening allies, using fentanyl and illegal immigration as the reason for tariffs and now raising tariffs because of a advertisement.

Yes, lets not hurt the feelings or pocketbooks of the precious Americans, that's the priority. We must vacation there and buy their products at all costs, them tariffing us be damned. At no point must the Americans be inconvenienced.

Glad that's settled.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Most Canadians aren’t keen on any of that.

Do you believe having a majority confirs a sense of rightness?

 

[Brad Sallows]

The parasitic hivemind that was originally "defeated" millions of years earlier by an ancient alien civilization, by wiping out all intelligent life in the universe to starve it. It was then accidentally (?) revived and unleashed again by the Covenant, a bunch of alien religious fanatics in their pursuit of the "Great Journey".

Going to be one hell of a lawsuit if Microsoft and Nintendo (the last video game ICE used was Pokemon) decide to team up.

Not the only one. Has anyone told Larry Niven someone partly borrowed the Thrint/Tnuctipun War?

 

[Altair]

tariffs from the US are discouraging companies from doing exactly all of that.

They are.

So you admit they are a volatile bunch currently in place. More reason to increase our exports elsewhere.

Or you know, CUSMA? Absolutely. I’m not sure though that the US can be trusted to maintain any commitments to anything.

Surrender Canada’s sovereignty then.

Got it. Do what they say and let them tariff our economy or anything else they want.

This is exactly Maple MAGA’s position. Most Canadians aren’t keen on any of that.

45 percent of conservatives if Ekos is to be believed.

 

[Remius]

Do you believe having a majority confirs a sense of rightness?

Define rightness.

 

[Lumber]

Riiiiiiight. No-one in Canada uses "MAGA" as a pejorative.

We're not talking about MAGA, we're talking about Maple MAGA, and we've primarily been focusing on its use here, not in Canada in general, but my claim about its non-derogatoryness would apply Nationally I suppose.

 

[Brad Sallows]

tariffs from the US are discouraging companies from doing exactly all of that.

That cannot be remotely true, unless Canadian companies are so bereft of spirit that they cannot envision anything except exporting to the US at their current prices within their current cost structures. Tariffs imposed on US consumers within the US are not reasonably capable of preventing us from improving our own internal trade or pursuing opportunities elsewhere. Trump's tariffs produce a certain amount of economic friction; made-in-Canada policies produce a certain amount, too. Watching Eby recently try to blame years of foolish policy on Trump's tariffs nailed home with indisputable finality that not only are our own governments complicit in economic discouragement, they are also so thoroughly spineless as to try to pass off their own failings as the fault of others.

Back when this all started, there were some think-tank estimates that a 2% of GDP contraction might result. There were also some estimates that between 1% and 2% of GDP might be gained by dropping all inter-provincial trade barriers. A rational thing to do, then, would have been to pull all the barriers, quickly, to offset as much of the potential contraction as possible. That simply hasn't happened. Governments in Canada have their own crony interests to prop up and ideological priors to preserve, and therefore proceed as slowly as possible hoping that the horse will sing due to someone else's efforts. That a few improvements have been made isn't evidence that we've tried very hard.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Got it. Do what they say and let them tariff our economy or anything else they want.

There are a lot of points between "do everything Trump wants" and "pick unnecessary fights". The first is a strawman for Trump critics to beat up when challenged to not do so much of the latter; the latter is just self-destructive stupidity.

 

[Remius]

There are a lot of points between "do everything Trump wants" and "pick unnecessary fights". The first is a strawman for Trump critics to beat up when challenged to not do so much of the latter; the latter is just self-destructive stupidity.

Self destructive stupidity is accepting everything.

The ad was about promoting free trade. There were no insults at all.

Cancelling all trade over it and MAGA apologists here justifying it only highlights that the definition of Maple Maga is accurate.

 

[Brad Sallows]

We're not talking about MAGA, we're talking about Maple MAGA, and we've primarily been focusing on its use here, not in Canada in general, but my claim about its non-derogatoryness would apply Nationally I suppose.

Sure. So if it's not merely a pejorative, there must be some objective, constructive definition of MAGA, so that there can consequently be one of Maple MAGA, so that the latter term can be objectively applied and not merely slung at someone who "sounds like" it fits, ending up in the trash bin with "fascist".

I've mentioned a couple of times that there is an actual sub-faction of US conservativism - "national conservativism", or nat-con - whose adherents describe themselves as such and align with the Trump agenda and manner of conduct (eg. willingness to use any dirty tactic in politics popularized by Democrats and eschewed by all other "decent" conservatives, and probably some new ones of their own making.) A name exists; a vague pejorative is unnecessary.

 

[Remius]

That cannot be remotely true, unless Canadian companies are so bereft of spirit that they cannot envision anything except exporting to the US at their current prices within their current cost structures. Tariffs imposed on US consumers within the US are not reasonably capable of preventing us from improving our own internal trade or pursuing opportunities elsewhere. Trump's tariffs produce a certain amount of economic friction; made-in-Canada policies produce a certain amount, too. Watching Eby recently try to blame years of foolish policy on Trump's tariffs nailed home with indisputable finality that not only are our own governments complicit in economic discouragement, they are also so thoroughly spineless as to try to pass off their own failings as the fault of others.

Tariffs on Canadian goods is exactly discouraging Americans from buying our things. It’s the whole point of them.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Self destructive stupidity is accepting everything.

The ad was about promoting free trade. There were no insults at all.

Sure, it was a 100% accurate reflection of the work from which it was extracted, and besides, no-one could reasonably ever imagine that the truth could be counter-productively provocative. And certainly it was the most constructive possible way to advance that message, at that time and by those means. That so few people are engaged in desperately trying to clean up the political mess and fallout indicates how prudent it was.

 

[Remius]

Sure, it was a 100% accurate reflection of the work from which it was extracted, and besides, no-one could reasonably ever imagine that the truth could be counter-productively provocative. And certainly it was the most constructive possible way to advance that message, at that time and by those means. That so few people are engaged in desperately trying to clean up the political mess and fallout indicates how prudent it was.

Remember when people said to chill out about the 51st state and governor of Canada stuff.

Brad: Chill out. So should they.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Tariffs on Canadian goods is exactly discouraging Americans from buying our things. It’s the whole point of them.

QV wrote "Export O&G, more pipes south, east and west. Develop all other resources for export markets. No counter tariffs. Drop all policy that make it harder to do business in Canada, make it much easier and more profitable."

and you wrote "tariffs from the US are discouraging companies from doing exactly all of that."

It's pretty clear QV wrote about things we could do on our side. Do you mean you weren't referring to Canadian companies, or even any kinds of Canadians, "from doing exactly all of that"?

 

[Remius]

QV wrote "Export O&G, more pipes south, east and west. Develop all other resources for export markets. No counter tariffs. Drop all policy that make it harder to do business in Canada, make it much easier and more profitable."

and you wrote "tariffs from the US are discouraging companies from doing exactly all of that."

It's pretty clear QV wrote about things we could do on our side. Do you mean you weren't referring to Canadian companies, or even any kinds of Canadians, "from doing exactly all of that"?

I’ll be more clear next time to avoid confusion. In relation to the US.

Hope that cleared it up for you.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Remember when people said to chill out about the 51st state and governor of Canada stuff.

Brad: Chill out. So should they.

Please to imagine laughter. I didn't know about this (yet another) latest iteration of Trump-spikes-everyone's-indignation-meters until returning from a few quiet days away from computers. Trump's foolishly upset, and people are upset at Trump that he's foolishly upset, and there's another round of unnecessary collateral damage victims because of Trump's tantrum. All of it avoidable, if anyone in a position of responsibility could remember that Trump is easily provoked and craft their messages less ham-fistedly. There is nothing left but to be amused by people who, after this long, still haven't figured out how to avoid unnecessary damage. Because National Pride, or something.