From: punditster@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/26/2026 5:28 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >   
   > Is Canada the new Greenland?   
   > Trump backs off threatening Europe - and turns on Canada   
   > Julius Strauss   
   > Jan 26   
   >   
   > It was, for many, the speech that stole the show at Davos last week.   
   >   
   > Volodymyr Zelensky’s words may have received the longest ovation.   
   > After all his country has been fighting a Russian invasion for almost   
   > four years.   
   >   
   > And Donald Trump’s address might have topped the billing. In the   
   > event, however, it turned out to be inchoate, ill-mannered, and dull.   
   >   
   > Instead it was Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, who   
   > electrified the room.   
   >   
   This is when you realize it's a clown show and these are your clowns!   
      
   Let's be Frank. Canada will never be a province of the US because Canada   
   is already a province of China.   
      
   Canada is heavily dependent on the U.S. economically, with roughly 75%   
   of Canadian merchandise exports directed to the United States.   
      
   That's nearly one-quarter of Canada's GDP.   
      
   However, let me give out another shopping tip:   
      
   Those incense sticks you see at your local convenience store are   
   probably not real herbal incense. They may have labels that say Indian   
   Incense and they may look like Indian joss sticks, but they are probably   
   just pure punk dipped in China.   
      
   Don't be deceived!   
      
      
      
   > For the first time a western leader had the backbone to stand up to   
   > Trump’s new world without rules and offer a competing vision for the   
   > future.   
   >   
      
      
   > True to his roots as a former central banker, Carney’s speech was   
   > hardly a rabble-rousing appeal to the masses.   
   >   
   > But when he spoke of how the US had caused a rupture in the world   
   > order and was resorting to economic blackmail and bullying there was a   
   > sense that finally someone was speaking truth to power.   
   >   
   > Carney’s message was relatively simple: the western world has been   
   > living a lie.   
   >   
   > It was time to accept that the US was no longer a force for good and   
   > for middle powers to band together and create an alternative centre of   
   > global economic heft.   
   >   
   > Carney’s speech, cleverly, didn’t even mention Trump. Nevertheless   
   > pushback was not long in coming. Trump announced that he was   
   > withdrawing an offer to Carney to join his newly-minted Board of   
   > Peace.   
   >   
   > He then said if Canada went ahead with a proposed trade deal with   
   > China it had just negotiated he would slap 100 percent tariffs on the   
   > country’s exports to the US.   
   >   
   > Needless to say, given that three quarters of all Canadian exports   
   > head across its southern border, such a move could devastate its   
   > economy.   
   >   
   > What next then? Will Canada ratify the Chinese deal? And, if so, will   
   > Trump push ahead with his threat?   
   >   
   > Perhaps. And perhaps.   
   >   
   > But there is an issue at stake that goes beyond Canada. Carney has   
   > effectively dared other leaders to abandon their fawning in the face   
   > of Trump’s aggression and scorn.   
   >   
   > He has also set out a vision that is intelligent, calibrated and   
   > pragmatic at a time when Trump is doubling down on the use of force   
   > and his own grandiosity.   
   >   
   > It is a fair wager that Trump is now preparing to kick Canada even   
   > harder.   
   >   
   > The former property developer is notoriously vindictive - he is using   
   > the US justice department to go after several of his political enemies   
   > at home.   
   >   
   > His domestic woes are multiplying. His polling numbers are heading   
   > ever downwards and ICE agents have just shot and killed another   
   > protestor in Minnesota.   
   >   
   > He may decide that a whopper of a distraction would be very welcome.   
   >   
   > Amid all the brouhaha over US threats to seize Greenland last week,   
   > many thousands of words were written about Trump’s thinking.   
   >   
   > The US president said he was worried about Arctic security. But the   
   > notion that Russian and Chinese military ships were cruising the polar   
   > waters atop the island was a fanciful one.   
   >   
   > In any case, under a 1951 treaty with Denmark the US already has the   
   > right to beef up its military presence in Greenland. All it has to do   
   > is keep Denmark informed.   
   >   
   > The real reasons for the Greenland gambit were almost certainly more   
   > personal.   
   >   
   > According to Michael Wolff, a Trump biographer and commentator, the   
   > whole furore was only ever intended to give the president what he most   
   > wants in life: a place in the spotlight, preferably with other world   
   > leaders kowtowing to him.   
   >   
   > One of his White House sources apparently told Wolff that Trump set   
   > fires not because he has any interest in the fires themselves but   
   > because he liked to watch the fire engines.   
   >   
   > The second possibility is that Trump really did intend to seize   
   > Greenland - perhaps because it would count as the biggest acquisition   
   > of US territory in more than a century - but backed down as the stock   
   > market began to fall.   
   >   
   > He recently said in an interview that he wanted Greenland because it   
   > was important psychologically. Asked whether it was important for the   
   > US or important for him, he replied “Important for me.”   
   >   
   > Trump’s true motivation may turn out to be extremely important for   
   > Canada.   
   >   
   > If, as some claim, he sees the price of American stocks as a measure   
   > of his own presidential virility, the fact that a move to seriously   
   > menace Canada would send the markets tumbling may be enough to stay   
   > his hand.   
   >   
   > Indeed, if that is the case, the world may have finally found a way to   
   > hit back against Trump. European and other countries, after all, hold   
   > trillions of dollars worth of American stock.   
   >   
   > But if it is fire engines that Trump is after threatening to send   
   > troops to the Canadian border would be a surefire way of generating a   
   > whole motorcade of them.   
   >   
   > Either way Ottawa is sufficiently worried that, according to The Globe   
   > and Mail, it has drawn up contingency plans for a US invasion.   
   >   
   > (In recognition of the mismatch between the two countries’ militaries   
   > any defence is reported to be structured around an insurgency campaign   
   > rather than going toe-to-toe with the US on the battlefield.)   
   >   
   > Of course what the US president should really be doing is attempting   
   > to bring down inflation, build a deeper bond with his allies, and   
   > forge a credible strategy for dealing with Russia and China.   
   >   
   > Instead in the last month he has decapitated Venezuela, sent an   
   > aircraft carrier towards Iran, and threatened to invade a Nato ally.   
   > With Carney now in his sights would anyone be surprised if the next   
   > move he makes is towards Canada?   
   >   
   > Carney’s words were admirable and needed to be said. But as long as   
   > Trump is in the White House, Ottawa will have a supersized problem on   
   > its hands.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)