There is French territory just off the coast of Newfoundland too (see Saint Pierre and Miquelon), also Denmark is right next door because of Greenland. So while still pretty far fetched, there is some precedent for European territory in North America.

That too

It’s a code red snowflake alert

If we were living in a rational world I’d agree, but with all the ludicrous stuff we’ve seen in the last few months I’m not convinced we are. We really shouldn’t dismiss anything as impossible with Trump at the helm of the US. It’s a hope for the best, prepare for the worst kind of time.

When Doug Ford was going to tax the electricity going into the US, Trump said on Truth Social:

I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada.

I find that extremely worrying. With enough bluster and showing of force all it takes is one mistake to kick things off.

The new front page of the internet is upon us

Totally agree. If we can’t at least expect certainty out of the current arrangement, then we should stop with any sweetheart deals. It’s ironic that the gist of Trump’s views on international relations center on other countries pulling more of their weight, and it seems he will ultimately accomplish that, albeit by burning all the bridges established with said countries.

It seems to me like these proposed tariffs were just a way to get Canada and Mexico to come grovel and kiss Trump’s ring. Both countries naturally want to avoid such a destructive policy being put in place, so they’ll do what Trump asks for now. I expect these sorts of actions by Trump to continue throughout his term though. This begs the question, when will America’s historic allies finally have enough? I was thinking these tariffs would be the ripping off the band-aid moment that spurs Canada and potentially the rest of the west to start re-structuring its economy away from such an unreliable partner. I guess this tentative status quo will continue for now.

I was the exact same way. I could justify watching ads to support the people I watched, but then I learned how little compensation a creator actually gets from one view and decided my time was more valuable. Plus I just got too used to never seeing ads and could never go back.

This video sums up the sentiment you’re describing nicely.

I just got set up on Simple X Chat. From my cursory research it seems to have the best security going in a chat app right now. I find the UI really slick too. It has all the features I use in a chat app anyway. The only thing to be aware of is that all the messages are saved locally, so backup/recovery needs to be handled by you. There’s a couple videos an YouTube that go over the app.

All that being said, I still have WhatsApp on my phone. There’s still the same problem of getting everyone in your life to download another app.

Try not to cry when the door hits your bony ass on the way out

Someone will be smuggling microfiche behind the iron curtain…wait wrong century.

Bleach the skeletons and sell them to medical institutions H.H. Holmes style

I sincerely hope the European powers will overcome their internal politics and the rightward slide many of them seem to be on, and cooperate more closely for the world’s sake. I want to be hopeful for the climate and humanity.

Hopefully Canada will stick with Europe rather than the US ideologically, but with how things are going here we seem farther along on our rightward slide.

Trump also probably still holds a grudge against Ukraine for not manufacturing/finding dirt on Biden during the last election, or whatever the particulars were.