YHK - yet another hacker news clone

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraines-future-in-nato-prec...

edit since I guess the timestamp isn't visible to everyone: Jul 12, 2023, 5:56 PM GMT+2

I believe the terms in human relationships are coercive control and social isolation.

158 Canadian soldiers died defending the United States at the US's request after 9/11. Canadian fighter jets helped to patrol the skies in the US at the US's request after 9/11.

The insults coming from the US Secretary of Defence and President are not unnoticed. They are logged and remembered.

A whole lot of Trump's psychology has always been "it's your fault I hurt you" for the longest time — it's a very clear undercurrent in how he treated his first wife.

He's an abuser. And now so is the USA.

Canada is bound to look for new trade opportunities in the face of that.

You make a deal with Trump, it's always worse than what you had previously.

Then, no mater what you do, he breaks the deal 3 months later with some kind of implied military threat if you complain.

All the comparisons with personal relationships here are silly. This isn't a marital split. This someone who thinks they're the only customer saying they don't want to buy something and the vendor saying fair enough, I'll sell it to someone else.

I don't think anyone really says it's an hostile act but both countries, Canada and the US will have to decide what it means for their ongoing relationship.

Canada is free to get closer to Europe and the US is free to be displeased about it.

Maybe it works out well for Canada or maybe it doesn't.

> Makes it all the more obvious that USA is Canada's abusive partner

Why anthropomorphize geopolitics?

This is just just a big fish throwing its weight around like all big fishes do. Russia does it with its neighbors, China does it as well and India and Europe are not shy about it either.

It's just the name of the game and its been happening since the dawn of time.

Some states use force, others bribe or cajole but in the end they all try to influence their neighbors in a way that suits their interests especially if these neighbors are smaller in terms of population/economy/military etc...

The fact that so many people are shocked by such news these days is because everyone drank the cool aid of the End of History and forgot that spheres of influence still exists and that the rule of law was nothing more than gentleman's agreement that could be thrown out of the window at a moment's notice without second thoughts.

If your ex starts dating your best friend directly after breakup, would you consider it a hostile act?

I'm not doing advocacy here, I'm giving pointers on how to come to a deeper understanding of what is going on.

It is also important to understand that the EU is directly attacking this doctrine with this proposal. You are free to agree with the EU. Again, I'm just giving something to guide people to a deeper understanding of what is going on beyond the surface level playground politics of it all. There's more going on than that.

(Personally I would say I "disagree" with the Monroe doctrine but the sort of national/international structure I would actually want is not even remotely on the table, so... my opinion is thereby of even less import than a random other opinion drawn from "the masses" for choosing "E, none of the above" when that was not given as an option in the first place.)

He somehow thinks that he's going to make the US more respected by constantly jabbing at his allies

Closer to home: there have been a record number of firefighter fatalities this year. It is partially climate change, and partially redirecting national guard troops to harass folks in DC and pick up litter.

According to this morning’s news, he’s also micromanaging of firefighting efforts to make them less effective, more expensive, more dangerous, and to maximize future fire risk.

Basically he’s dictated head on attacks to fire fronts, and complete suppression. All experts and firefighters agree it is better to contain the borders of the fires instead, and only fight fires on the interior if it makes ecological sense or protects buildings, lives, etc. (After all, the burn on the interior is necessary for forest health, and also removes fuel.)

Then there’s the NASA thing, where he didn’t want to pay $10M for building maintenance, so instead put $10B of active missions at risk, and threw out > $100M of specialized equipment (or auctioned it off at tenths of pennies on the dollar; probably to US adversaries).

Not sure what's meant by that... People won't start swimming over the atlantic ocean. And flights to Canada aren't really cheap, by any means.

Apparently, even Canadian conservatives are happy to grovel at the feet of the Burger Reich and their supreme leader.

If this is the motivation, it's a grossly undemocratic move.

I don't get how folks who hyperventilate about Trump being a threat to democracy can look at stuff like this and cheer.

what's that?

Do you think the referendum in question is not a political theater?

I don't know much, but it stands to me that the EU association is magnitudes more serious.

Alberta selling oil to USA is, by itself, like 20% of Canada's entire GDP.

And 70% of all other exports go to USA too. So yeah it is mostly just theater because there's a loud mouth idiot in the White house.

They're doing some lip-service and just hoping it will blow over when Trump is gone.

Many people on both sides of the Atlantic wrongly think Quebec is more compatible with Europe than the rest of Canada because they speak French, but almost the exact things Quebec separatists care most about are the things the EU wouldn't let them control.

As for the secession referendum, it's currently polling at 20-30% and it's not a real referendum, its a referendum to hold a referendum.

It would be lovely to get Europe off of Russian energy imports.

More critically, the Numbered Treaties (6, 7, and 8, and to a lesser extent 4 and 10) make the entire idea, for all practical purposes, a legal dead end. These are nation-to-nation covenants with the Crown and not with the province.

To leave with its borders intact, Alberta would have to negotiate constitutional amendments with Ottawa and the other provinces, while securing affected First Nations’ consent to any transfer or replacement of their treaty relationships with Canada in a situation where Alberta has almost no leverage.

Good luck.

They are a democracy, they don't have to get "everyone to go along with this" they just have to get the majority to go along with it.

Anyway, I would love it if Canada joins the free movement zone and Schengen eventually however despite not knowing what is this "associate member" thing is sounds like a stretch. Imagine though, how cool would be to travel to between America and Europe without your passport, like a domestic flight.

I'm really not fan of the trend to devide this rick in space into zones where you need a reason and permission based on that reason to travel. Can't be happier that there's a progress towards making the world a friendlier place.

Self-isolation (whether a nation or a person) is not a good solution to hypothetical bad actors. Society is built on cooperation and trust

Who are the adversaries?

And the opposite case is also a quick way to degenerate cases: if Canada devalued cooperation, what is the argument for provinces to not do the same? And thus it would only fuel Quebec and Alberta separatism.

You already see it with Brexit which is clearly opening further "us-vs-them" outlooks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

That is a strange take.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon

Do you support pursuing criminal charges for current members of the executive branch and their counterparts in private industry? Do you support pursuing maximum sentences, including asset seizure and the death penalty? Do you support suspending or otherwise not honoring presidential pardons? Will you cooperate with ICCC warrants?

If you think my litmus test is too harsh, consider the fact that the Bush family made its fortune by illegally selling to the Nazis, was caught literally organizing a military coup in the US, and was instrumental in ripping out a perfectly good national passenger train network.

In response they got a slap on the wrist and used their illegal gains to control the white house. Twice.