Consequences of the US 2024 Presidential Election: Global Geopolitics Edition

I've had numerous discussions with a friend about this, and despite hand-wringing over "slippery slopes" there really need to be a few lines in the sand. Racist, misogynist comments in public? Want to propose legislation to that effect? Take a ten year timeout from political participation to think about whether it was worth it. Give money to people who do that? Take a timeout too.
I guess this is kinda the slippery slope you are worrying about, but we’d currently be dealing with our elected officials being banned for “Misogynist comments in public: supporting trans athletes” or “racism: supporting DEI.”
 

eisa01

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,089
Subscriptor
Norway is also becoming more positive towards EU membership. 40% for, 49% against, improved from 30 / 54 % last august

We've never had a majority for membership, and the yes share took a beating during the financial crisis. Started to recover slightly when the war broke out in Ukraine. Iceland is also discussing membership, if they join, the EEA only consists of Norway + Liechtenstein :)

https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/norge/2025/03/05/196071151/eu-kraftig-okning-for-ja-siden
 

N35t0r

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,182
Norway is also becoming more positive towards EU membership. 40% for, 49% against, improved from 30 / 54 % last august

We've never had a majority for membership, and the yes share took a beating during the financial crisis. Started to recover slightly when the war broke out in Ukraine. Iceland is also discussing membership, if they join, the EEA only consists of Norway + Liechtenstein :)

https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/norge/2025/03/05/196071151/eu-kraftig-okning-for-ja-siden
And Switzerland?
 
Speaking of that, is there a significant movement in the UK for rejoining the EU ? Or chances that the current events will create or help one ?

Not for now.

The UK on membership of the EU is like the US on well, everything right now. Not sufficiently committed to cooperation to be allowed in whilst Putin's local pet Farage is still influential in our politics.

The Reform party will need to collapse electorally before the EU can trust us to not be in one door and out the other like a particularly obstreperous cat.
 
Last edited:

wavelet

Ars Legatus Legionis
12,258
The UK papers are utterly slamming JD Vance this morning

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28geez0x1o

As no cutesy names are permitted, I cannot vote them fully, but this stands out



and this



Pot-shots at our clown-like politicians, or memes about bad teeth and cockney accents are all part of the game, but insult our troops, especially those that lost their lives defending the US and all the gloves are off.

JD Vance probably did more to sour UK/US relations in a single sentence than Trump has managed to do with his tariff lunacy
ROFL. Vance seems not to be aware that the US has only won a single war since WW2 (the 2nd Gulf war, and that was with assistance of lots of allied troops, more than a quarter of all troops). Korea was a draw, and in every other non-trivial engagement, the US military lost, badly. Afghanistan, Vietnam, First Gulf War...

OK, I'll give you Grenada, with a carrier group against a couple of hundred paramilitaries.
 

yd

Ars Legatus Legionis
21,781
Subscriptor++
ROFL. Vance seems not to be aware that the US has only won a single war since WW2 (the 2nd Gulf war, and that was with assistance of lots of allied troops, more than a quarter of all troops). Korea was a draw, and in every other non-trivial engagement, the US military lost, badly. Afghanistan, Vietnam, First Gulf War...

OK, I'll give you Grenada, with a carrier group against a couple of hundred paramilitaries.
vance is a couch warrior.....insert couch jokes here

That dude has all the charisma of a moist fart in a steam sauna.
 
vance is a couch warrior.....insert couch jokes here

That dude has all the charisma of a moist fart in a steam sauna.
True.

Though... it seems like a real problem that we're being beaten so soundly by the dumbest, laziest, cringiest motherf*ckers on Earth. We're fast approaching having to consider that they might be the only the second dumbest.
 

fractl

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,994
Subscriptor
True.

Though... it seems like a real problem that we're being beaten so soundly by the dumbest, laziest, cringiest motherf*ckers on Earth. We're fast approaching having to consider that they might be the only the second dumbest.
Look who owns/controls the vast majority of news/media: Rich bastards who always need more money and more power.
 
Look who owns/controls the vast majority of news/media: Rich bastards who always need more money and more power.
Yeah, but that's been an ongoing and obvious problem for many, many decades.

If we're standing on train tracks and see a train rolling slowly at us and we continue to blithely stand there until it just rolls over us, then that says something significant about us as much as it does about trains.

edit: This is of course also why we can't allow trains people to compete in track.
 
Yeah, but that's been an ongoing and obvious problem for many, many decades.

If we're standing on train tracks and see a train rolling slowly at us and we continue to blithely stand there until it just rolls over us, then that says something significant about us as much as it does about trains.

edit: This is of course also why we can't allow trains people to compete in track.
I don’t like this analogy. A person standing on the train track is intentionally being in, like, the one place that a train will go. The train is doing something useful most likely (carrying cargo or people).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neverm1nd
I don’t like this analogy. A person standing on the train track is intentionally being in, like, the one place that a train will go. The train is doing something useful most likely (carrying cargo or people).
I think the analogy is apt even given those considerations.

There was always only one place this media & propaganda train was going, and it was pretty obvious even waaaay back in the era of "Dittoheads".

Also, the train can be carrying people and not be useful, if it's carrying them to their final destination.
 
D

Deleted member 46272

Guest
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
 

GohanIYIan

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
9,409
There was always only one place this media & propaganda train was going, and it was pretty obvious even waaaay back in the era of "Dittoheads".
I don't think that's true. If you realized when Rush first went on the air and Mosiac hadn't been created yet that conservative talk radio would be one of the few forms of the media that retained a viable commercial business model in the aftermath of the internet's explosion in popularity and availability, congrats, but I think it's a pretty big stretch to say it was obvious at the time how that would all play out.
 

mHubs

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
112
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
It's not real life to them; it's just a game. They're just acting like social media influencers because it's worked for securing more power.
 

Yagisama

Ars Legatus Legionis
30,904
Subscriptor
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?

The Republicans have been terrified of their constituents for a long time now.
 

stdaro

Ars Scholae Palatinae
683
I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
I think its all kayfabe to them. its red meat for the base, keeping people riled up. there's been a lot of fucking around and not a lot of finding out so far. I'm really not sure, at this point, if there will ever actually be any finding out. Losing access to fertilizer, hydro electricity and stryker APCs might be a wake up call, or maybe it won't. maybe Trump will actually just go invade and annex Canada, and who's gonna call him on it? The US can just take all that stuff by force.
 

Nazgutek

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,039
I haven't seen it mentioned in-thread before, but it definitely feels like the Trust Thermocline has just been crossed by the US Government. And much like the equivalent in corporate-land where the C-suite ignore customers, the Republican edifice is unaware or actively doubtful that such a thing has come to pass.
 

stdaro

Ars Scholae Palatinae
683
I haven't seen it mentioned in-thread before, but it definitely feels like the Trust Thermocline has just been crossed by the US Government. And much like the equivalent in corporate-land where the C-suite ignore customers, the Republican edifice is unaware or actively doubtful that such a thing has come to pass.
in case anyone hasn't seen it: trust thermocline

and, yea, I think I agree. The US has been burning through stored goodwill, really, since 2016. We could paper over a lot of terrible history, from native genocide, through slavery all the way to disastrous meddling in our neighbor's business, with the perceived stability we brought. But Palin, MAGA and the obvious ease with which Russia undermined our democracy, proved that was an illusion.

To quote the chicks, "long time gone, and it aint comin back again"
 
D

Deleted member 46272

Guest
It's not real life to them; it's just a game. They're just acting like social media influencers because it's worked for securing more power.
There are al lot of politicians who are kept around because of their performances - Marjorie Taylor Greene, Christie Noem, Gaetz, etc. But they are being funded and promoted by people that field real influence and who make the real decisions.
So why Canada?
I think its all kayfabe to them. its red meat for the base, keeping people riled up. there's been a lot of fucking around and not a lot of finding out so far. I'm really not sure, at this point, if there will ever actually be any finding out. Losing access to fertilizer, hydro electricity and stryker APCs might be a wake up call, or maybe it won't. maybe Trump will actually just go invade and annex Canada, and who's gonna call him on it? The US can just take all that stuff by force.
And the instant the US invades Canada, they turn into a pariah state. The US is teetering on the edge of that already. Unlike Ukraine, Canada doesn't share substantial land borders with other nations that they can easily pull in as allies, and Europe has it's hands full figuring itself out now that the US pulled the rug out from under them. Canada should take this as an all-hands-on-deck existential threat. They would really benefit from aligning more strongly with Europe ASAP and make themselves a critical supplier of resources and energy to Europe.

The world is re-aligning rapidly and it's obvious that energy and resources will be critical for long-term survival. The US are being morons and pissing off both China (that has a ton of resources, is just about ready to invade TSMC Taiwan) and Canada (energy, minerals, wood). Europe needs access to both energy and minerals (they have too little of both). This looks, to me, like Canada and Europe would strongly benefit from teaming up.
 
D

Deleted member 46272

Guest
The Republicans have been terrified of their constituents for a long time now.
People are easily led by the nose through mass media. Look at how many times public opinions have been flip-flopped when it suited politicians. I don't think constituents are driving anywhere. They are being led, like lemmings, wherever they need to be led, including off the cliff if that's what suits them.
 
Paris Marx of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and dosconnect.blog published this piece last month, and this piece yesterday.

It highlights how the international reaction to America becoming a fascist shithole has to be one that treats America and its corporations as the adversary, because to be frank, we have been the adversary for a long time and hurt a lot of people, and have wielded our tech industry to do so.

From the latest article:
While Musk and his companies are very visible, the reality is that many countries — including Canada — have become far too dependent on US tech products, particularly the digital services and platforms we now rely on for so much of our work, communication, and entertainment. The global expansion of the internet facilitated the international dominance of US tech companies and the expansion of US power as a result. But that trade isn’t working, and as tech billionaires push the Trump administration to lash out at any countrytaxing or regulating US tech companies, it’s long past time countries fought back.

Instead of giving in to US pressure, governments need to become far more ambitious with tech regulation of many forms. Countries don’t need to buy into the disingenuous framing of “free speech” being pushed by Silicon Valley and the extreme right and should adopt stronger regulations to limit the deceptive information and conspiracy theories distorting the public’s understanding of the world around them. If US platforms won’t comply, they should face the consequences — as they are more frequently in Europe — but if they continue to refuse, they should face outright bans. Tech companies need to know they will be held accountable, and that means they must respect the rules and laws in the places they operate.
I am asking other countries: Fuck us up. Regulate our corporations. Ban them when they don’t comply. Tell the finger-wagging center-left think-tanks and Silicon Valley tech bro dipshits to go fuck themselves when they try and call actual good governance and consequences for bad behavior “censorship”.

Thierry Breton got fired from his job for being too correct and proactive on the issue of the EU wanting to, correctly, tamp down on conspiracy theories, misinformation, and hate. I feel like he deserves his job back.
 
D

Deleted member 46272

Guest
It would be great if there could be, like, a treaty organization, of nations around the north Atlantic, where allied democracies could coordinate mutual defense.

/s
I understand that this is, sadly, a joke. NATO is dead.
Europe needs to figure out who it's friends are, and fast, and draft up new treaties, fast. Doing this takes time, and it takes even more time to re-align military posture, training, manufacturing, technology, trade, logistics, etc.
 

DarthSlack

Ars Legatus Legionis
20,663
Subscriptor++
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?

Considering that Noem is someone who is proud of shooting an innocent dog, this kind of behavior is par for the course. Republicans put substantial value on being as offensive to others as possible. You know, like Jesus taught.
 

IncrHulk

Ars Praefectus
3,890
Subscriptor++
The EU also has several such missions ongoing. The idea that you need a carrier strike group to fight five guys in a rubber dinky is slightly funny.
When all you have is a hammer/aircraft carrier group, every screw looks like a nail/invasion.
 

stdaro

Ars Scholae Palatinae
683
I understand that this is, sadly, a joke. NATO is dead.
Europe needs to figure out who it's friends are, and fast, and draft up new treaties, fast. Doing this takes time, and it takes even more time to re-align military posture, training, manufacturing, technology, trade, logistics, etc.
the thing is, its only mostly a joke. NATO is right there, just use it. Trump wants out, and at this point, other members also probably wants the US out. It could be evolved to fit a new purpose without the US.
 

Ecmaster76

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
16,016
Subscriptor
ROFL. Vance seems not to be aware that the US has only won a single war since WW2 (the 2nd Gulf war, and that was with assistance of lots of allied troops, more than a quarter of all troops). Korea was a draw, and in every other non-trivial engagement, the US military lost, badly. Afghanistan, Vietnam, First Gulf War...

OK, I'll give you Grenada, with a carrier group against a couple of hundred paramilitaries.
I'm not sure how ROFLstomping Iraq all the way out of Kuwait with minimal losses in Desert Storm counts as "lost, badly" in your book...
 

IncrHulk

Ars Praefectus
3,890
Subscriptor++
Canada should take this as an all-hands-on-deck existential threat. They would really benefit from aligning more strongly with Europe ASAP and make themselves a critical supplier of resources and energy to Europe.
Oh, believe me, we are. As the saying goes, Elbows Up.
 
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
I have to wonder whether they read or watched "the handmaids tale", decided the creation of Gilead was a manual, not a warning and that the existence of Canada as a place for people to escape to was clearly an existential threat to be headed off at the pass. Can't have a still successful country directly to your north insulting you buy existing and threatening your "good name" by allowing people to escape your hell.
 

blindbear

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
8,049
I have to wonder whether they read or watched "the handmaids tale", decided the creation of Gilead was a manual, not a warning and that the existence of Canada as a place for people to escape to was clearly an existential threat to be headed off at the pass. Can't have a still successful country directly to your north insulting you buy existing and threatening your "good name" by allowing people to escape your hell.

Wasn’t that is the reason why Russia “needed” to invade Ukraine? You can’t have a successful democratic elected country next to you.
 

goates

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,679
Subscriptor++
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
We should dare her to do it again, only this time have the RCMP haul her off to jail for illegal entry when she crosses.
 
I'm not sure how ROFLstomping Iraq all the way out of Kuwait with minimal losses in Desert Storm counts as "lost, badly" in your book...
Yeah, I'd love to see the math on that one. Last time I checked, it was one of the most decisive military victories in history. When you kill a few thousand tanks, a few hundred airplanes and all that a the cost in the low dozens (and most of those due to blue on blue, mind you), what more exactly would you have your army do? The what, third or fourth largest army in the world essentially ceased to exist in the span of 3 months, and that was a loss? Okidoki.
 

N4M8-

Ars Legatus Legionis
18,419
Subscriptor
I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons.

Well, some are obsequious sycophants.
Others are amoral, self-advancers who seek to milk approval for going along for personal gain.
Oh, and there are the cowards who know better but don't want to lose their position for rocking the boat by objecting.

Anything which does not fit in the above four categories is statistically meaningless.
 
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
The US just took the mask off. They've physically invaded a couple of times and have talked about annexing Canadian territory since they revolted against Britain. First attempt at annexation was while they were still fighting the revolution.

Even the use of tariffs to force annexation has a history: https://time.com/7212675/tariffs-canada-american-state-backfired/

So yeah, it's not actually all that mind blowing.
 

wavelet

Ars Legatus Legionis
12,258
True.

Though... it seems like a real problem that we're being beaten so soundly by the dumbest, laziest, cringiest motherf*ckers on Earth. We're fast approaching having to consider that they might be the only the second dumbest.
US education has been going down the tubes ever since TV became prevalent and 24 hr/day. TV does indeed make people stupid (there's lots of research on this, e.g., Howard Gardner). The brief attention span with digital media is even worse.
 
Yeah, I'd love to see the math on that one. Last time I checked, it was one of the most decisive military victories in history. When you kill a few thousand tanks, a few hundred airplanes and all that a the cost in the low dozens (and most of those due to blue on blue, mind you), what more exactly would you have your army do? The what, third or fourth largest army in the world essentially ceased to exist in the span of 3 months, and that was a loss? Okidoki.
War isn’t decided by kill:death ratios, but whether the objective was accomplished. Iraq was part of the War on Terror. We lost (terror still exists) (declaring war on a concept was dumb).

I mean, my second sentence is a bit flip, but the first is basically true. We’ve been destroying conventional militaries and failing at occupations for ages.
 

blindbear

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
8,049
War isn’t decided by kill:death ratios, but whether the objective was accomplished. Iraq was part of the War on Terror. We lost (terror still exists) (declaring war on a concept was dumb).

I mean, my second sentence is a bit flip, but the first is basically true. We’ve been destroying conventional militaries and failing at occupations for ages.

The objective of Iraq war was fault to begin with. USA likes to use "War On". However, this is a empty sound bite. Without a clear objective, there is no way you can accomplish the goal. That is the problem with a lot of USA's policies.

PS: looking back, I do not know if Bush administration is stupid or malice. May be they actually though it is a easy "win"? or they just want oil contracts. Did they realize how stupid the stated objective was?
 
Last edited:

wavelet

Ars Legatus Legionis
12,258
"On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe."


https://www.thedailybeast.com/homel...m-insulted-canadians-in-bizarre-border-stunt/

Better link:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02...eaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/


It's mindblowing that the US would openly insult Canada like this. Canada and the US should, by all accounts, be BFFs. The US needs to secure access to minerals, resources and energy, all of which Canada has in abundance, but instead they are playing these idiotic games. I can kinda see why the GOP hates Mexico (in their eyes, the poor and brown immigrants tend to come from there), but Canada?

I refuse to believe that all Republicans are abject mouth-breathing morons. They may be greedy soulless slimebags with no morals, but not all of them are stupid, so what's the justification for this?
That's totally on Canada for not arresting her for as an illegal border-crosser, and then deporting her to, say, Haiti.
And I bet she doesn't speak French -- isn't that a capital crime in Québec?