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@MaryMarasKittenBakery @cryptadamist I, like over 3/4 of Canadians, fully support retaliatory tarrifs on all American imports in response to all the shenanigans States-side. They are really the only meaningful weapon in our aresenal that can be rapidly deployed in this economic war. However our economy has been made dependent on American trade for decades so we should immediately begin working on correcting this dependence by creating more durable countermeasures to future attacks that will actually help our economic well being rather than harm it.

Next step should be a comprehensive emergency plan of the scale (if nor nature of actions) deployed for the pandemic or Great Recession to counter the damage the tariff war will bring. Support for counter-tariffs will will evaporate quickly as prices and unemployment rise unless government *truly* has our backs.

Ultimately though we must codify #AdversarialInteroperability into law and policies as @pluralistic describes. This is The Way...

@MaryMarasKittenBakery @cryptadamist I generally find the idea of free trade quite agreeable but as @pluralistic has pointed out what we have called "free trade" has been a sham. It is only free for large American corporations and nobody else, not even American workers.

You want free trade we'll *give* you free trade. Free to install apps on your devices from local software repositories without paying protection money to US companies. Free to repair your stuff without being forced by a treaty and anti circumvention laws to accept only "approved" American parts at inflated prices. We (Canada but everyone really) have to free ourselves from the global regulatory capture imposed upon us by the US.

Trump was of course not really joking with his 51st state nonsense. Sure he knows the idea is a political non starter, and he knows that "Pulling a Putin" on us would be catastrophic, but he *has* used the term "economic force" already. This is it. He's trying to make us a de-facto US state.