Thread by @sunnshiiny

@karolcummins @sarahkendzior @AndreaChalupa @Teri_Kanefield @maddow @MalcolmNance @DeadlineWH @mitchellreports @JoyAnnReid @Lawrence

Witness Canadian grief. The longer Trump is in power, the more grief for US allies and other foreign nations he will create.

https://twitter.com/scott_gilmore/status/1215427324927266823

Other than a distraction from his impeachment, is this not the intended goal? To drive a wedge between the US and it’s allies.

Who does that benefit? Beyond Trump.

Guaranteed there are many Canadians intensely wrestling with hostility and resentment aimed at the US. Not merely at Trump or his administration, but squarely at the population that has allowed this monster to endanger the lives of our troops and kill innocents returning home.

But hasn’t it been the albatross of innocents unfortunate enough to find themselves at the whims of Trump’s decisions. Families seeking asylum, migrants seeking healthcare or education, Puerto Ricans, Dreamers, African & Native Americans, Jews, Brown people in general.

And citizens of other nations.

While the US population has allowed this man to menace his targeted victims, most of the US Congress has enabled him to attack and hurt countless thousands. And a reliable 40% fully support these actions, & audaciously call themselves Christians.

It wasn’t until the possibility that Trump may start a war disadvantageous to the American public that panic set in.

I realized then that my existence is tolerated by Americans, even encouraged. But not enough to stop a madman from hurting me and those I love.

It does sting when you realize an entire nation considers their northern neighbours second class. Where is the outrage? Where is the accountability?

A narcissistic sociopath set in motion a chain of events that ended up in the death of over 170 people, 63 of them Canadian.

He did this to change the narrative. To get the US electorate to stop focussing on his crimes and his recent impeachment. It worked. Who is talking about it now? Almost no one. Except those who are planning a sham trial in the senate.

This isn’t the first time that people have lost their lives because Trump made a horrible decision. How many Kurds are dead or displaced because of Trump? How many victims of white supremacy domestic & foreign terrorists are made when Trump inspires them with each rally?

The US is broken. A victim of your own self righteousness and your own perception of superior virtue. You’ve allowed free speech to include hate speech. Leaving it to the listener to either accept or reject hatred of other peoples for attributes they can’t control.

I found a quote that does not represent the US. But it does represent the Canada I grew up in. I remember a time when the intolerant were shunned and rejected. When norms and mores were common. When Canadian politeness was a feature of almost every Canadian.

That is no more.

It’s been replaced by an American version of tolerance. Where boorish, selfish and harmful behaviour isn’t discouraged. It’s tolerated.

I’ve agonizingly watched Canadian conservative politicians, mesmerized by the wealth potential, import greed and avarice from the US.

Selling its merits and commodifying anything that isn’t nailed down.

The US experiment has failed. From one decision. Tolerance of the intolerable.

Babies in cages, brown people abandoned by their state, foreigners treated like garbage, neighbours become collateral damage.

All the while the US electorate grumbles, but does nothing of substance. It can be tolerated. Only when the possibility it would inconvenience American citizens, impact US residents, possibly on US soil, did it become uncomfortable.

We’ve all watched for three years as Trump has dismantled the United States. Longer if you count the Bush Jr. years and Obama’s living nightmare of Republican obstructionism. And nothing. It’s all been tolerated. Allowed to continue. Ignored and griped about, but not stopped.

While Spider-Man is just a fictional superhero & merely entertainment, there is always a truth to be found in art. “With great power comes great responsibility.” I don’t remember an addendum to that phrase. Nothing about skirting responsibility if actions are tolerable.

But the US is not great. And hasn’t been great for quite some time. It is collectively deluded by memories of past greatness and relies on bullies to enforce its will on others, regardless of the cost. Lives of citizens from nations other than the US just don’t quite measure up.

Everyone else is expendable, except US citizens, or at least the right kind of US citizens. Everyone else is secondary, sometimes tertiary if they are tainted with multiple character flaws like brown skin or a different faith.

This is evidenced by the numerous claims of American lives that Soleimani had butchered. Never once has the thought that perhaps US armed forces shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Why were US armed forces in the Middle East? Was it weapons of mass destruction?

Was it peace keeping? Was it protection of a vulnerable democracy?

It’s oil.

How many other nations have spawned terrorists and the US is nowhere to be seen? But there is big money in fossil fuels and US bullies just had to get some for themselves. Because greed is good.

A working democracy was dismantled and a regent loyal to the US was installed. That was 1953. Whatever made Americans believe they deserved access to Iranian oil? What convinced so many they had a right to profit from another nation’s natural resources?

Thuggery and “might is right” has been a feature of American foreign policy for decades. How many have died defending US interests or as collateral damage?

The US has lost all claim to global hegemony. And two states wait in the wings with daggers at the ready. China & Russia.

The citizens of the US have allowed their leaders to pillage and bully the rest of the world. Because it affords them the standard of living they have grown reliant upon. Trump should have been removed within the first 6 months by mass protests.

But greed is good.

Well, this Canadian has had enough of the bully that lives next door. Your president’s actions just resulted in over 170 innocent people losing their lives. Sixty three of them from Canada. Almost half of those from my city, Edmonton.

I suggest your next course of action be to remove the corrupt Trump administration from power, post haste. Greed is not good. My life is as valuable as yours, and so were the lives of every person that died in that plane crash. Canadian, Ukrainian, Iranian, every life.