US Dopers - how do you feel about Trump's threats to Canada?

Politics & Elections
221

I don’t think so. I think the whole thing was a narcissistic display of power by a wannabe tyrant who loves being able to control foreign governments and have their leaders beseeching him for mercy.

Last year CPB seized a total of nearly 10,000 kg of fentanyl at the US-Mexico border, coming in from Mexico. The total seized at the US-Canada border was less than 15 kg, IIRC. The fentanyl issue, just like the alleged yuuuuge trade deficit with Canada, is entirely in the imagination of the Orange Doofus.

ETA: Current headline on CNN: "Fact Check: Canada makes up just 0.2% of US border fentanyl seizures

222

Trump is going to hype this like Caligula flaunting his seashells after his “victory” over Neptune.

223

Have you seen him lately? He’s clearly so out of it that he has no idea what he’s doing. His handlers have to explain to him what they’re giving him to sign. He’s barely coherent when he speaks. He’s not even dying his hair anymore. Multiple Republican senators are now coming out against his “policies”.

Either he dies, suffers a debilitating medical incident, the Republicans turn on him, or the Vance/Musk cabal decides they don’t need a figurehead anymore.

224

Come on guy. Don’t do this to yourself again.

225

I don’t know how to reply to this in a different thread (to prevent a hijack), so I’ve done some copying and pasting to reply in this thread: Is Trump confused? - #3673 by Johnny_L.A

226

Oops sorry didn’t see what thread this was and that I was responding to an off topic hijack. Mea culpa.

227

He can find someone in the Ministry of Public Safety who’s already responsible for overseeing anti-drug-trafficking issues and slap a new title on them. Total cost: new business cards and letterhead for the new “czar” and a bit of time editing their email signature.

228

I think it’s part that, partly that Trump thinks it makes him look tough in front of his supporters and that that’ll keep them supporting him, and partly part of the blitzkreig. The more insane stuff they throw out at once, the greater the chances that they’ll succeed with part of it while people are busy stopping other parts.

(And then, once they’ve got the parts they got away with established, they’ll come back to the parts that got stopped and try to get them going again.)

And it’s also partly dementia; except that only explains Trump, and not the rest of his administration, who are busy doing their best to accomplish their own ends while relatively sane people are looking at something else.

229

But “the rest of his administration” was hand-picked by Dementia Guy, and they consist of a mix of criminals, sociopaths, and certifiable lunatics. FFS, the probably about-to-be Secretary of HHS is a rabid conspiracy theorist who by his own admission owes his dysfunction to a worm having eaten his brain. You can’t make this shit up.

230

I’d never heard of this MP before seeing him on The Meidas Touch, but I’m becoming a fan.

231

In the novelization of Star Wars: A New Hope, the Emperor (before George Lucas decided he was a cackling space wizard) was depicted as completely disconnected from the actual politics of the Empire while the military governors pursued their own agendae in his name.

That’s where we are right now with Trump and his Cabinet of Oddities.

232

Well yeah, this is true.

And the reason I am not a solipsist is that no I do not believe that I could make this universe up; there is way too much stuff that I would never have thought of. Much of it is fascinating and some of it is beautiful but the recent behavior of much of the USA is an excellent example of the horror end of the spectrum.

233

Never bluff when you’re dealing with international political matters. Trump is like the boy who cried wolf. If he wasn’t prepared to actually follow through on his threats, he shouldn’t have made them. Now Musk has lost a big customer in Ontario.

234

The contract is back on, pending a satisfactory solution.

235

I return to my axiom of “Trump is Trumpier than you think, in ways you haven’t seen, but will turn out to be unsurprising.”

Currently I believe that Trump really does not want to invade Canada nor annex it. Nor Greenland. Nor Panama.

He’s just doing the typical gangster thing of making threats and extracting concessions, with a side helping of insider trading off the movements of the affected securities.

Now, do I believe he could be willing to do tariffs, annex Canada, and maybe invade it? That’s a complicated question. I assume we’ve all seen a dog eating shit, why do they do that? There’s no desire or thought that goes into it. No planning. That’s just a thing they do when circumstances are favorable, the question of intent isn’t really involved.

He’s just like any other animal with a feeding strategy. When he approaches a situation, there’s an unthinking evaluation of a tree of probabilities, costs, and outcomes. Trump is just running a decision tree to see how much he can get out of it. As he works down the tree, he’ll get closer to invading Canada. He’ll have a better view of the pain it costs him and the possible payout he can get. If that seems like the best cost-benefit balance of all the other decision trees he’s running, then he’ll do that. If not, he’ll declare victory and move onto some other decision tree that at a minimum pays off by distracting from the last failure. And there’s always something.

It’s really not about what Trump wants to do, it’s about at what point does squeezing Greenland or Panama or some other weaker entity seem like a better risk/reward calculation than squeezing Canada. It’s all about wherever he can find the easiest payoff, whether that’s politically or financially.

Trump is Trumpier than you think, but the full meaning is only evident in hindsight, because his thoughts and motives are obscure, his behaviors erratic, and his decisions contingent on constantly evolving risk-reward calculations.

236

Contrary to what many Americans believe, Canadians do own guns. If the US tries to invade, I have no doubt that ordinary Canadians will respond as Americans often brag that they can: with firepower.

We might be mowed down, but at least we’re defending our country, and putting a monkey wrench in the invading Americans’ gears.

I’ve stocked up with ammunition, just in case.

237

And lose badly, just like Americans would. That’s why it’s the authoritarians who are always “guns, guns, guns”; they know it won’t work.

Explosives are how you fight a guerilla war against a modern army; avoid their superior firepower by not being there. IEDs will do more good than ten times as many rifles.

238

It’s too late for this Canadian. I’m still going to avoid buying American. Most people I know have started doing research, reading labels and making new choices. The only thing I was willing to purchase American was my cat food because my boy shouldn’t suffer because of human stupidity but, fortunately, it’s not American.

What I want to see happen are the trade barriers between the provinces greatly eliminated. It’s currently easier to trade with foreign countries than inter provincial trade. If inter provincial trade barriers were reduced, the economy would see a huge boost. International trade isn’t necessarily a bad thing but we’ve put too many of our eggs in one basket (America).

As for actually trying to invade/annex/whatever I and literally everyone I know, would die fighting for our freedom and our country.

239

That’s certainly…something. Yeah, that’s an amazingly self-destructive arrangement that should be fixed immediately. America or no America.

240

I wouldn’t even think about testing the truth of this, and I hope nobody does.