At what point do we stop pretending that this long stream of horrifying bullshit just doesn’t matter and that it will just magically disappear in a couple of weeks with no real long term consequences?
I know this isn’t much comfort, but people in the U.S. have mostly ignored the name change, and I encourage you to do the same to the extent possible. As Slate said today, it’s treated as a sideshow down here.
His Oval Office pronouncement that the smallest of the Great Lakes in surface area has a new name has mostly been met with shrugs and eyerolls by an American public increasingly unimpressed by Trump’s attempts to be shocking. His tactics lose their effectiveness by their repeated use. Trump’s distractions were once effective because they could not be ignored. But if Trump makes the same outrageous statement a dozen times, it loses its effectiveness. It’s no longer novel. It’s repetitive and boring.
Of course, while Trump’s gambit is a sideshow in the United States, it is headline news in Canada. It is the story of the day for the CBC and the Globe and Mail. But then again, foreigners have less familiarity with Trump, often still assuming the president of the United States’ statements represent meaningful policy of the United States—and not just “the president is saying some stuff.”
I’m not saying take Beck’s advice to just ignore whatever Trump does. That’s a privilege of people who aren’t personally affected by the horrible actions he’s taking. Instead, focus on what does matter. The tariffs are going to have devastating effects, especially on Canada and the U.S. border states. Focus on that, not some idiotic name change that no one will pay attention to.
Wanna trade?
Yeah, nice job trying to compare Doug Ford to Trump. 
(Reply addressed to @keith1)
“Dismantling health care”? I still have the same excellent no-cost, no-copay health care I’ve always had. I still have the provincial seniors drug plan.
“Dismantling education”? Two new public elementary schools were just built in this neighbourhood, one the usual non-denominational, the other Catholic. Both funded by property taxes. AFAICT, kids are still being educated.
“Dismantling the environment”? I’m an environmentalist, but I consider it to Ford’s credit that he cancelled the biannual emission testing requirements that were such a total rip-off scam that my independent mechanic refused to have anything to do with them. The reasoning was that they were irrelevant for the vast majority of new cars on the road. Ford also cancelled all annual license renewal fees for non-commercial vehicles which were another unnecessary cash grab. This was groundbreaking as almost all other provinces and states still have annual license fees.
That said, Ford has arguably weakened conservation laws and defied some climate measures that are a federal responsibility anyway. So, no, Doug Ford is no shining examplar of an environmentalist, but he sure as hell is no Donald Trump.
Trump and his minions are unprincipled criminals who seek only to enrich themselves, screw everyone else, and particularly piss off progressives. Doug Ford tends to look after the common everyday citizen, but with conservative principles in mind. If you think the two are in any way the same you’re fucking insane.
Pretty sure I said nothing of the sort, and even clarified my remarks.
I’m pretty sure NY State has said the executive order doesn’t affect them. It certainly doesn’t affect the people who live next to lake Ontario. They will continue to call it lake Ontario. They will see a few annoying signs on federal highways (my tax dollars at work!) and will ignore the new name on Google maps. 
Now the tariffs… That’s going to really hurt a lot of people on both sides of the border.
There are no federal highways; they’re all owned by the states. So you’re not even going to see “Lake America” signs on the highways.
The only reaction that most people I know have is:
“Oh that’s sad. I am sorry for those poor Americans that have to deal with this.”
Really, it’s pity more than anything. It’s not pissing off anyone I know.
In Canada property taxes fund Catholic schools? Man, that’s rough. We might have something like that, possibly in Texas or something. But they’re fucked up in Texas.
Property owners get to choose whether they want their portion of school taxes to support traditional public schools or Catholic schools. It’s not both. In Ontario, the number of Catholic schools is only about half of the regular secular ones. There’s a long constitutional history behind the two disparate public school systems. Personally I dislike the religiosity of the Catholic bullshit, but there it is. Parents have no obligation to either fund or send their children to Catholic schools.
To me the weird part is the right to choose not to fund public schools. In my view, anyone can choose to support any school, in addition to their obligatory support of public schools.
I just downloaded Mapquest’s app. Reading the recent reviews is worth the time spent in the App Store.
Most of whom will also keep right on calling it Lake Ontario. So will New York State. Trump can only make the federal government change it; not the states or municipalities, let alone private businesses and individuals.
Unless of course the governors of those states align with Trump.
Only Trump’s home state borders the lake and they ain’t, in any way, aligned with Trump.
And have already announced they’re not changing the name.
Well, I’m going to do my part by driving to Vancouver tomorrow and pump some money into the local economy!
Really? Growing up in northeastern Ohio, near enough that our weather was strongly influenced by Lake Erie, I learned HOMES early on.
I just went to the mapquest webpage. I hope the app is better than this, because man, is that webpage fucked up.
Just for an example, near me is apparently the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which is actually located about 800 km away. But no, it’s in a residential neighborhood. A block from my house appears to be a Sushi restaurant that is actually located across town a good 20 km away.
Just down the street is an RV park, that is actually located about 700 km north.
This is all interspersed with a few actually accurate places, along with some businesses that closed a decade ago. And one that is in the right spot, but just opened two months ago.
It’s odd.