Blackhawk wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 1:16 pm
The USA is deeply intertwined in the world. I think that a lot of the 'heads down' and silence is the world trying to figure out how to untangle themselves from us, to shield themselves from us, to isolate us. They're not ignoring Trump - they're working on plans to neutralize his influence and power outside of our borders.
If Trump actually crossed certain lines, the world would respond - especially in the case of NATO members.
Exactly, if they have their head down, it's not that they're ignoring him, but rather trying to figure out what the next step is, ie an action plan. Don't mistake their current silence for inaction. They've made plenty of noise backing Canada while harshly criticizing Trump's actions. This is why we have international laws. And supposedly Trump already violated laws by threatening Canada in the first place. You can be sure they would be watching Trump with a very critical eye in everything he is saying and doing. Doing things to his own Country is one thing... Doing it on a world stage is another.
If this is true then doesn't this make the point that international laws don't actually matter to him?
Unless I missed it, there are no consequences for this so it's defacto making it legal.
If murder is illegal but nobody ever gets prosecuted for it then having the law in the first place doesn't matter.
There are absolutely consequences if it goes beyond bluster. At best, economic sanctions that further isolate the US and cripple our economy by cutting off most foreign trade. At worst, World War 3 if NATO becomes involved on Canada's side against the US.
Both would be so devastating to all of the billionaires clustered around Trump that I can't imagine that he'll be 'allowed' to get past bluster. Before that happens, his one-percenter horde will either stop him quietly, oust him by pushing their influence in Congress, or arrange for him to have a nasty slip-and-fall. They aren't going to let Trump lose them billions.
Yep, this. And If you told me 10 years ago that World War 3 could be initiated by the U.S and that it would have involved Canada, I'd have told you it would be such an absurd scenario, but now... you have a President that has destabilized the status quo, and the fact that we've gotten where we are now without Canada doing anything to merit his ire, it would be considered an unprovoked attack if he were to make an actual move. It wouldn't be on his domestic soil anymore where he can manipulate the system, and that's important to note.
Now ironically enough, Trump's bluster seems to be having an opposite effect. I've been hearing reports of the Canadian economy doing better, as if he's given Canadians a kick in the pants and getting people to buy more from Canadian retailers.
waitingtoconnect wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 7:43 pm
IT can’t put out fires or run a domestic women’s violence shelter…
Huh? I don't...what's your point?
Edit: If I had phrased it as "I have seen management similarly incompetent in similar ways in IT", would that help?
Sorry I was agreeing with you. And was unclear.
IT folk think computers run the world but computers and IT can’t do physical tasks like fight a fire or do front line tasks like nursing at a Va hospital.
waitingtoconnect wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2025 7:43 pm
IT can’t put out fires or run a domestic women’s violence shelter…
Huh? I don't...what's your point?
Edit: If I had phrased it as "I have seen management similarly incompetent in similar ways in IT", would that help?
Sorry I was agreeing with you. And was unclear.
IT folk think computers run the world but computers and IT can’t do physical tasks like fight a fire or do front line tasks like nursing at a Va hospital.
To be fair, I wonder how effective those tasks would be without computers.
People who have been around longer might have it easier, but say the computers all go down at the VA or hospital, how many people would know how to handle physical charts? How fast could they switch? How much would get screwed up?
Right now, both go hand in hand.
Even for EMS/Fire. I wonder how many people could read a map if they needed to.
We have documented downtime procedures at our hospital, so in theory we could go computerless for several days if need be. The real problem is that once the downtime is over, all that data has to be reconciled back into digital form. So the longer the outage, the longer the reconciliation. And the current data isn't slowing down while you're trying to reconcile the backlog.
Hah, good point! I was thinking more in terms of technology being set back, not of the advantages. But then again, newer isn't always necessarily better And I'd assume it would be far harder to hide a stone tablet.
God damn he knows how to push my buttons. I really wish we'd win the game tonight, but given the difference in goal tending, that's not likely This one feels more trolling than some of his other ones though.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I'll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State. I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
4.04k ReTruths 21.2k Likes
Feb 20, 2025 at 9:51 AM
I haven't heard or read anything drumpf has said directly in over 4 years. It's better that way. I managed to understand your post without actually reading the quoted material. I'm getting good at this.
Not really news I was expecting to see, but I totally get it:
A new poll suggests that more than a quarter of Canadians — 27 per cent — now see the United States as an “enemy” country, while another 30 per cent still say they consider the U.S. an ally.
Another 27 per cent of respondents to the Leger survey said they consider the United States to be a “neutral” country.
That said:
The poll was conducted between Feb. 14 and Feb. 17 and surveyed 1,500 Canadians and 1,000 Americans. Because it was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.
IceBear wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2025 2:42 pm
God damn he knows how to push my buttons. I really wish we'd win the game tonight, but given the difference in goal tending, that's not likely This one feels more trolling than some of his other ones though.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I'll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State. I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
4.04k ReTruths 21.2k Likes
Feb 20, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Bah, it's really nothing more than his fantasy D&D campaign at this point. Pay it no mind.
In other news, I advance-voted-by-mail for the Ontario provincial election on Feb 27. Gotta do some democracy while we still can.
Provincially it looks like another 5 years of Ford, but my riding is likely a lock for the NDP. One sign of that is that the NDP candidate is the only one that has been out knocking on doors, here in my apartment building anyway. I'm kind of surprised that the Liberal candidate seems to be phoning it in, since historically the riding has sometimes gone to the Liberals. The NDP isn't running an incumbent (the current MPP is going to run in the next Federal election), so you'd think the Liberals would be working harder to attempt to pick up the seat. I'd be surprised if the Conservative candidate actually bothers campaigning at all since they never do well here. There's also a handful of fringe candidates whose names and parties I never even bothered to learn.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
I was watching a Canadian stream (SportsNet) for the USA-Canada hockey game tonight, and I noticed the "Protect Ontario" political ad. Ford talking about "standing up" to adversaries with the image of Trump on the screen and the whole "51st state" comments.
I was also very happy to see Canada win the tournament (it wasn't all political, there were 3 Colorado Avalanche players on Team Canada and none on Team USA)
Yeah, our riding is currently NDP as well. I'm in Northern Ontario, and the NDP is generally a better fit for our region. The conservatives are a party that generally don't pay much attention to us aside from giving us a list of promises that are never met.
This time around, the one incumbent is NDP. Sadly, the two other candidates for both the Liberals and the Conservatives are largely unknown. So good luck there. The Conservative candidate looks like a nice enough guy that owns the oldest pizzeria in the city. But the frustrating thing is that the Conservative policy of not allowing candidates to speak for themselves has created a disconnect by not allowing these candidates to connect with their constituents despite the fact that they may have done a lot of good for their community.
Our Liberal candidate was chosen at the last minute, with 10 days to go. Nicely done there.
I think the Ford assumes a little too much that he'll win, and for those places where Conservatives haven't been too popular, their tactic will surely backfire.
IceBear wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 3:55 pm
While there are many Canadian players playing on US NHL teams, Team USA only had American born players on it, so no Canadian ringers that I'm aware of
Unlike Canada, which fielded one American-born player on their winning roster.
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet." — Elontra
IceBear wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2025 3:55 pm
While there are many Canadian players playing on US NHL teams, Team USA only had American born players on it, so no Canadian ringers that I'm aware of
Unlike Canada, which fielded one American-born player on their winning roster.
True, he was born in the US but his parents are from Canada and he holds dual citizenship.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Just saw this on FB and it's worth sharing. It's a shame that Charlie Angus isn't going to seek re-election as I feel like we need people like him more than ever. I
---
Charlie Angus, a longtime Member of Parliament from Northeastern Ontario, published his observations about recent NATO meetings in Brussels. He will not be running for election this year which probably makes it easier for him to stand up and speak out. (Although to be fair, he has always been a man of principle and courage- he will be missed in Ottawa!)
“I didn’t think it would be like this. I was sure that when Donald Trump started shooting off his mouth about Ukraine and kissing up to Putin, the combined voices of NATO would speak up as a strong deterrent. When he began undermining his allies, I was convinced that Germany, the UK, France, Poland, etc., would rally together to remind the Americans that Europe would not be pushed around.
And I guess I was also hoping that our big European cousins would be there to reassure Canada that everything would be okay.
But that’s not how it went down at the NATO meetings in Brussels.
Even as Trump was tearing down the European peace around them, the senior delegations were trying to tiptoe around the obvious. They sat politely as American MAGA bros lectured them about their failure to defend democracy and listened politely as they were told that the United States was a superior country because everybody had access to a gun.
The Europeans were rattled. They were freaked out. They didn’t expect that Project 2025 would be aimed at them and the future of liberal democracy.
They just couldn’t believe that right before their very eyes the clock was being pushed back to the 1930s.
In Romania, JD Vance is interfering with the country’s election process. In Germany, Musk is promoting the extremist far right. In the Baltic states, there is a deep fear that Trump is going to sell them out to Putin. And in Ukraine, Trump is now blaming Ukraine for the war and pushing for an election to replace President Zelensky.
Coming from Canada, where our very right to exist as a nation has been called into question, I felt the diplomatic niceties were not the order of the day. And over the course of the meetings, I had a few choice exchanges with American Republicans.
In the official interventions that I made, I went hard at the duplicity of Trump and the need for allied nations to stand up for the rule of law.
This blunt language opened doors for representatives from many countries to approach me to discuss what could be done. I told them bluntly that now was the moment where we either stood up for the vision of a democratic West or allowed it to be torn apart.
In the final morning session, I shook up a staid presentation by pointing out that while we were talking about our shared values, two criminal leaders were meeting in Saudi Arabia to sell out the people of Ukraine.
Following my intervention, the Latvian delegation completely dropped the gloves and went hard on Trump. The hall erupted in cheers.
Afterward, the lead Latvian delegate came up to shake my hand, saying:
“We decided it was time to start acting like Canadians.”
I learned in Brussels that Canada has never been more alone than it is today.
Defending our nation from a gangster state is going to be an expensive and long-term commitment. We will have to hunker down and make tough decisions about our economy and national defence.
We are alone, yet we are not truly alone.
Many of our allied countries share our fears. They just don’t know what to do.
But we can resist the Trump/Putin plan. My hope is that in the coming months, nations like Europe, Australia, Japan, Latin America, and Canada can work together to oppose the Trump gang.
Trump is being reckless on so many fronts, and he will trip and fall. And this will be the opportunity in the United States to begin pushing back.
But my advice to fellow Canadians and our international allies is that we can’t wait or hope for America to get its act together. The resistance must start now.
I am hoping that a coalition from around the world will join Canada.
But if not, we will stand on our own.
Canadians will never kiss the gangster ring, no matter how hard the fight.”
Heather Jeffares, sporting an Edmonton Oilers cap and jacket, recalls using her paper route money to pay for Oilers tickets to watch Wayne Gretzky play and standing outside the church during his wedding.
But she is among the many Edmontonians whose view of Gretzky — an almost saintly figure in this city — has become complicated, amid political tension between Canada and the U.S. and increasing rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants to make Canada its 51st state.
"It's just confusing what side he's on," Jeffares said. "He's such an icon for Canada, you would think that people like that would rally behind the country right now. We need that."
Gretzky's tie to Trump is being scrutinized, particularly since Thursday night's 4 Nations Face-Off final between Canada and U.S.
The NHL, which held the competition to replace its all-star game, made Gretzky Canada's honourary captain ahead of the final. Before puck-drop in Boston, Gretzky wore a suit and tie — American honourary captain Mike Eruzione wore a U.S. jersey — and gave a thumbs-up to the U.S. team as he walked to the ice from their bench.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Another Ford majority in Ontario. Not unexpected, but incredibly disappointing.
I really don't understand the world I'm living in anymore. I'm questioning my own sanity. I know I have blind spots, but I have no idea how others are so easily manipulated and willfully ignorant.
Yeah, that is disappointing, and I think it only ends up reinforcing just how different the needs are in different ridings. I can't ever see our riding become a Conservative riding. The fact that the conservatives failed to even make themselves available for debates speaks volumes to how they'd be available for their ridings or even show support for them.
First-past-the-post is working as designed: 43% of the popular vote translates to 65% of the seats, while we see some real distortion in how the popular support for the Liberals and NDP is inverted in the resulting seat distribution. I'd guess that taking the time to review results in individual ridings would show the Liberals coming in second in a lot of races while the NDP support is more concentrated. You couldn't gerrymander a better advantage for the Conservatives if you tried.
This is probably a foreshadowing of how the oncoming federal election plays out as well.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Well, at least it seems like the NDP are in second place. Seems like the Liberals took quite a beating. It's interesting because I'd heard the opposite saying the NDP might be losing their official party status.
Funny thing is, I never received my voter card in the mail.
Last edited by Rumpy on Fri Feb 28, 2025 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And I'd assume it would be far harder to hide a stone tablet.
This one feels more trolling than some of his other ones though.
(it wasn't all political, there were 3 Colorado Avalanche players on Team Canada and none on Team USA)
