Summary
Donald Trump reiterated his claim that Canada would be better as the U.S.’s 51st state, citing trade imbalances and lower taxes.
He also announced new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada, despite a recent 30-day reprieve.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has not formally responded, but a government source said they await official confirmation.
Trump criticized Canada’s defense spending and border security, despite recent Canadian commitments.
Canada previously retaliated against similar tariffs in 2018 before a 2019 trade deal resolved the dispute.
And of most of the people. That “Why wouldn’t you reject these people. They’re awful.” line is based on the fact that a majority of Americans allowed Trump to become elected. Either through actively voting for him or whatever excuse they want to use for not voting at all against outright fascism. First time he was elected an argument could be made that the people who didn’t vote or who voted for him were misled. At this point? It just became abundantly clear that our neighbors to the south genuinely don’t seem to care about anything or harbor a deep amount of hatred or ignorance within themselves.
Review should have gone a bit harder in my opinion. It isn’t just the government or the country itself that is an embarassment. Most of the people are too.
And let me be abundantly clear. If whoever is reading this voted for anyone other than Kamala, or did not vote at all, yes. You’re the awful people we’re talking about. You should really hate yourself as much as we hate you.
As George Carlin said, selfish ignorant people elect selfish ignorant leaders.
Personally, talking to anyone about politics here is unnerving. Most people are in this fog where current events are only an ephemeral storyline that they tune into periodically like it’s a TV drama. Never a big deal, never anything that could affect them or those they care for. It’s a position of privilege, frankly. Maybe some of them are just that dumb. I think a lot of people, though, are scared, either of their ignorance or their powerlessness, so they simply avoid being involved or educated out of discomfort. That’s probably the nicest interpretation I have for my countrymen’s behavior.
Otherwise you are spot on. The uniquely tasteless brand of brash American chauvinism that we were globally lampooned for during the Invasion of Iraq has metastasized. We are long overdue for being knocked down a peg. I wish I could say the fallout from this painful reckoning would stay within our borders, but it most likely won’t. We have a very uncertain year ahead of us, let alone the next five years.
No, I think most people only have the spoons to handle what is in front of them for the next 3-7 days. Its a systemic problem, that’s been promoted by both parties: Keeping voters head’s spinning, and the cloak of darkness providing cover for what our oligarchs want to actually do.
I’ve recently had to explain this to another person: The further down you are, in getting your needs met on the Maslow diagram, the shorter your planning becomes.
If all your needs are met, you can plan for this year, next year, and make decent plans for beyond. If your basic physical needs like food, shelter, water, and housing aren’t being met, then your planning is reduced to 3-5 days, if that.
Its purposeful by design, for the working class to have their needs met partially only, at best, by the ruling class. So, we CAN’T plan further out.
Notice during the pandemic, when food, housing, water, etc were all being met better, due to a reduction in transportation costs, food distributions, moratoriums on eviction? We went from people re-learning to make bread, to “Fuck the system!” in a matter of a couple of months?
Most of the people I’m around are not rich by any means, but they are not living paycheck to paycheck. Rising cost of living is worrying, but manageable. They can afford to pay even the littlest bit of attention or concern, but they don’t. Because then they would have to admit that things are collapsing around them week by week, and that’s too frightening for them.
Frankly I’m tired of justifying the behavior of the average American with infantilizations like we are some lower form of life without sapience. At some point we have to own up to it, even if it’s painful, even if all we have is ignorance, cowardice, and apathy.
Most Americans are a single paycheck away from being destitute… Like, the average savings for a person in this country is 2K. That’s not even a single paycheck of mine, and hell, I even find it hard to make and plans past 8 or 9 months out.