From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:48:07 -0800, dart200   
    wrote:   
      
   >On 1/26/26 5:28 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>   
   >> Is Canada the new Greenland?   
   >> Trump backs off threatening Europe - and turns on Canada   
   >> Julius Strauss   
   >> Jan 26   
   >   
   >bruh adding canada to the US mix would be like adding another california   
   >to the federal mix and throw the republicans out of power.   
      
   No doubt.  But, you know, getting the r's out of power is not our job.   
      
   >like i could support annexing canada based on that alone, and would love   
   >it for magatards to fall for it again   
   >   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   --   
   Noah Sombrero mustachioed villain   
   Don't get political with me young man   
   or I'll tie you to a railroad track and   
   <<>> to <<>>   
   Who dares to talk to El Sombrero?   
   dares: Ned   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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