History didn’t have a lunatic like Trump in charge.
Just some ideas:
Canadian abortion clinics, pharmacies with cheap prescriptions, and trips north to both on Air Canada and Westjet. You’ll need something to eat while you’re there, so Tim Hortons, of course, but also Mr. Sub, Pizza Pizza, Harvey’s, and similar uniquely Canadian fast-food places. Besides, you might get the munchies after taking advantage of legal marijuana, so you’ll need to know where to go. Chain family restaurants: Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Montana’s, East Side Mario’s; again, all uniquely Canadian. Tourist boards pitching the wonders of their city or region (“Visit Banff!” “Bienvenue a Montreal!”), rental car companies, hotels and motels.
Obviously, the American listeners won’t need to know about the great deals on new cars at Northside Chevrolet, or how Swansea Realty can help sell your house. But they will need to know about things that are available to them if they visit, for whatever reason, but with an emphasis on, “We can supply you with what’s both legal and illegal in the United States.” Obviously, as indicated, I’m thinking of the availability of abortion on demand, and a lower drinking age (18 or 19, depending on province), but if it brings in more tourists of any sort, then there’s nothing wrong with that.
Governments would sponsor it (Radio Canada International, Radio Mexico). I think that the BBC World Service at one time broadcast from Canadian soil.
But jamming, or drone attacks on the antenna arrays, are all too practical. Maybe anti-VPN measures are also practical. But internet is probably the best option.
Yes, all good ideas. Trump’s rage would certainly lead him to ask for the EXACT SAME THING he asked to do back in his first term: bomb a neighboring country. (It was Mexico, then.)
Even if Trump doesn’t get his Big Event justifying martial law, anyone within a short drive into Canada is going to want to go there for all the things you suggest and more. If another pandemic hits and Canada has vaccines available—and the US, under nut-bar RFK Jr, has few—there will be even more attempts to cross that border.
All that seems quite credible.
ETA: On the comment about internet being (probably) the best option: this doesn’t take into account the reality that the internet is quite easy for an authoritarian regime to control. Sure, resistors work out codes and such to communicate. But for wholesale broadcast of ideas the regime doesn’t like, pirate AM radio stations are more likely to succeed. (Perhaps using something like the untethered balloons idea that @Jackmannii mentioned upthread.)
Want tourists? Stop making it so Goddamn hard to visit!
Seriously? Who do you think Trump would listen to - RFK Junior, or Big Pharma and the “let’s save the country…oh, and make a tidy profit while we’re at it” mentality?
As for the OP, if you want to organize a “Radio Free America,” it can easily be done on FM - by organizing the major universities’ campus radio stations. KALX (Berkeley) and KZSU (Stanford) immediately come to mind.
It reminds me of the time KALX announced that it was increasing its transmitting power, and the school’s regents responded by trying (unsuccessfully) to demand that no “alternative” music be played on it before something like 9:30 PM each night as a result.
Whomever told him what he wanted to hear. And it’s not like he’d care about Big Pharma making money; Trump isn’t Big Pharma, and it therefore doesn’t matter.
Major universities are critically dependent on federal funding. And T**** has already declared they are on his hit list.
I just warch the CBC and subscribe to the Vancouver Sun.
Indeed. Trump cares about his own wealth, not about whether or not unvaccinated Americans are clogging our hospitals.
Though in the original post, I could have said “If another pandemic hits and Canada has vaccines available” at a reasonable price–and have been more accurate. RFK Jr. is likely not to outlaw vaccines but instead to change Medicare and Medicaid so that vaccines are no longer covered, and also to encourage private insurers to decline to cover them. And that will mean fewer customers in the USA for vaccines, which in turn will mean much higher prices for those customers willing to pay out-of-pocket. Hence a pilgrimage to Canada for anyone able to get there (assuming Canada will sell vaccines to Americans who make the trek).
And without widespread vaccine adoption, Medicare and Medicaid will need to spend more on the resulting illnesses.
Don’t forget about RFK’s wish to ban fluoridation of water, and what this will do to future generations of dental patients. Since he’s anti-vax, I also wonder if he would try to ban fluoridated toothpaste and mouthwash, and oral supplements (which, unlike carriers that aren’t meant to be swallowed, do require a prescription)?
Amy Ray met LGBTQ youth in Salt Lake City broadcasting on guerrilla community radio and wrote “SLC Radio” to encourage them.
So I’m going to have to smuggle in toothpaste from Canada?
Actually, I’m confident this will not be needed. As illustrated by RFK Jr being forced to eat McDonald’s, Trump will have little patience for such. If RFK Jr really thinks he can go up against Big Toothpaste, he will not last long in that job.
I just heard a clip from rfk on MSNBC where he said that he felt that taking heroin made him a better person. Definitely the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that, and I hope the last.
Between that and his pro-choice stance, I don’t think he will be confirmed.
I wonder what kind of person he thinks he was before, and how his recollection, impaired by brain worms, heroin and who knows what else, relates to reality. If his assesment is truth-ish, he must have been a hell of an asshole before his habit.
Well, I did come up with a proposal to establish smuggling-themed shopping areas adjacent to border crossings, so yeah, we could add toothpaste to that.
Hell, when I’m up and running, I’d probably want to advertise on this 'Radio America-Free", or whatever you’re calling it.
"Come on up to Happy Hoarius’ Holesale House! We meet all your needs for bootleg abortion drugs, regular drugs, and Canadian Whiskey! Returning customers get a free T-Shirt, "I smuggled stuff in from Canada, and all I got was twenty Timbits!’ "
The statement is less than a minute in, and it doesn’t matter what the context is. Period.
I wasn’t sure whether to post this here or in Cafe Society, but R.E.M. has re-mixed their first single, “Radio Free Europe”, as a fundraiser for RFE. Enjoy!