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| It's still Lake Ontario in my book. But Trump, and now the National Weather Service, among others, are calling it "Lake American" to satisfy, Trump's temper tantrum over Canada. |
This is in response to our Crybaby In Chief renaming Lake Ontario and calling it Lake America. That's because Canada decided not to let Trump dictate its trade policy with other nations.
Kind of a "We'll show 'em. We'll rename the lake."
In a public information statement issued Monday, the NWS said, "Work is underway to update naming conventions as quickly as possible on online maps, weather products, websites and other materials across the NWS."
The National Weather Service, obviously, is part of the federal government. It's overseen by the Commerce Department, which is headed by Howard Lutnick, who is a classing Trump brownoser.
So the NWS really had no choice with this.
As Matthew Cappucci notes on X, that the National Weather Service now needs to adjust its software and map interfaces, for about 860 days anyway. Until the next president, hopefully much more sensible than Trump, will change the lake's name to its original Lake Ontario.
Same is true about the Gulf of Mexico. In January, 2025, Trump renamed it "Gulf of America." The National Weather Service had to go along with that one, too.
The private forecasting company AccuWeather said it would also call it Lake America. "As we have always done, we are adhering to the standards set by the U.S.Board on Geographic Names, which recently updated its standards with regards to Lake America."
As they ignore the politicization of place names under Trump.
Meanwhile, many new agencies, some mapping companies and virtually all the rest of the world still refer to the bodies of water as Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario.
For the record, I continue to call that body of water between Florida and Texas the Gulf of Mexico. And that big body of water west of Watertown, New York will continue to be Lake Ontario in my mind and in this here blog thingy.
"The organization and financial burden of the name change will likely all on the United States and its taxpayers. 'This adds another unnecessary one to US expenses which in total can exceed hundreds of millions of dollars annually,' said Usha Haley, Barton Distinguished Chair of International Business at Wichita State University. 'People have to divert time, another important resource, to manage these changes for different audiences.'
In other words, the most expensive temper tantrum ever.
The renaming of Lake Ontario will cause confusion among the public, especially late this autumn and winter when Lake Ontario generates those big snow squalls. Can you picture it? "Heavy lake effect snow bands are coming off Lake America?" Where the hell is Lake America?
It's even more confusing because the lake is that the U.S/Canadian border goes roughly through the middle of it. Canada, of course, will continue to call it Lake Ontario.
After all, there's no requirement that everybody goes along with Trump. Google and Apple caved to Trump and will refer to Lake Ontario to Lake America.
MapQuest has opted to continue calling it Lake Ontario. This company was considered a bit of a has been among the mapping companies, but this situation has given them a second life. The company saw a big surge in downloads after it announced it was sticking with Lake Ontario.
Note that, companies that want to kow-tow to Trump.
The Associated Press will continue to call it Lake Ontario.
"As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are recognizable to broad audiences," the news organization said in a statement,
In general and historically, news organization copy the style of the AP.
The AP continued to call Gulf of Mexico just that after Trump decided to rename it Gulf of America. Trump responded by blocking the AP from attending White House news conferences and other events.
This has turned into a First Amendment battle that is still going on in the courts
For what it's worth, Oswego County, New York has opted to continue to call in Lake Ontario, apparently because the county government is actually run by adults.
County officials said the name has historical and cultural significance, and they don't feel like saddling taxpayers and businesses with the cost of the rebranding. By the way, Oswego County is run by Republicans and the county is bastion of support for Trump in what is mostly a blue state.
While Oswego County, New York resident won't have to bear the cost of the name change in county taxes, we, and the rest of us will.
"The organization and financial burden of the name change will likely all on the United States and its taxpayers. 'This adds another unnecessary one to US expenses which in total can exceed hundreds of millions of dollars annually,' said Usha Haley, Barton Distinguished Chair of International Business at Wichita State University. 'People have to divert time, another important resource, to manage these changes for different audiences.'
In other words, the most expensive temper tantrum ever.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded on X, saying that Canadians would continue to call the lake Lake Ontario, a name that dates back over 400 years.
