Distractions | Blogotariat

The Mango Mussolini has refused to rule out economic pressure or military action to take over Greenland. Greenland is currently one of the two autonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark; the other being the Faroe Islands1. Inhabitants of both of those territories are citizens of Denmark and as Denmark is part of the European Union, they are therefore European Union citizens2.

Denmark is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Article 5 of the NATO Treaty states that: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”3

So, under Article 5, if the Mango Mussolini ordered an attack on Greenland, the US and all other NATO nations would be bound to defend Greenland. This would, of course, see the collapse of NATO, which is precisely what Vladimir Putin wishes. With his apparent puppet as president of the United States, this would give Putin a free hand to invade other nations, not just Ukraine, to create another Russian empire as he seems to want to do4.

As part of the idiocy surrounding this Greenland brain fart, one of Trump’s idiot sons, Don Jr, visited the Greenland capital, Nuuk, and went to the Hotel Hans Egede for lunch with a group of people wearing MAGA hats where he put the Mango Mussolini on speakerphone. The latter told them: “We’re going to treat you well.” But Jørgen Bay-Kastrup, the hotel’s chief executive, said many of the ‘guests’ were in fact not Trump supporters but people Trump Jr’s team had met on the street and who only found out later who Trump Jr was. Describing many of the group as homeless people, he said: “[Trump Jr] had just met them in the street and invited them for lunch, or his staff did.”5 One online wag said that Trump Jr, who is reputed to be rather fond of cocaine, was disappointed that all the white stuff in Greenland was only snow.

Another of the Trump’s threats is to ‘take back’ the Panama Canal spouting the lie that Chinese soldiers were ‘operating’ the Panama Canal. He directly challenged the Panamanian government and stated that the US is paying too much in fees to use the canal, and added that if his demands are not met he would try to have the canal returned to the US (who finished the building of it in the early 20th century). He even suggested that military force might be used to acquire the canal.6. What Panama wants, given its awareness of the value of this geopolitical asset, is to balance U.S. and Chinese interests with its own desire to run the canal without undue influence from either Washington or Beijing.7

In addition to the idiocy above, Trump has suggested that the US could annex Canada and has suggested using ‘economic force’ to do so, such that it would be a peaceful transition. It would likely end up being a bloodbath as Canadians look upon the nation adjacent to them as a basket case.8

The economic force would consist of, at least in part, tariffs, but the Canadians have suggested that they would react by imposing their own sanctions, but target them at Republican states or states that voted for Trump9. One measure which has been suggested would be to impose a 100% tariff on Tesla vehicles.

It’s very unlikely Trump will get Canada, the canal or Greenland. It has been suggested that his strategy might be aimed at getting better deals for the US — perhaps a discount for American vessels transiting the Panama Canal, greater American access to rare earth minerals in Greenland and sea routes made navigable by melting polar ice, and perhaps a new trade deal with Canada to advantage US exporters. Trump would of course portray any of these massive wins, even if they end up being rather cosmetic like his first-term US-Mexico-Canada pact.10

One last stupidity is renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. One wag suggested that Trump wanted to name it after himself, but he couldn’t because the name ‘Bay of Pigs’ was already taken. Google has actually fallen into line, stating that they would change the name on their maps if and when it is officially changed11. That is an added reason to use Safari as a browser.

Some commentators seem to believe that these above idiocies are purely to distract his detractors from his plans for the US which apparently have been compiled in a manifesto named Project 2025. This really is an horrific manifesto in that it wants to entrench christofascism in the US. It proposes the following:

Replacing public servants with Trump loyalists
Slashing regulation
Closing the Department of Education
Removing the abortion drug mifepristone from the market
Data collection on abortion
Maintaining a biblically based, definition of marriage and family
Increased funding for a border wall between the US and Mexico
Eliminating some categories of visa, especially those for crime and human trafficking victims
Beginning the largest deportation programme in US history
Slashing funding for research and investment in renewable energy
Abandonment of carbon dioxide emission goals
Stopping the “war on oil and natural gas”
Slashing corporate taxes
Abolishing the Federal Reserve
Banning pornography
Eliminate from all laws and federal regulations, the terms “sexual orientation”, “gender equality”, “abortion” and “reproductive rights
End diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools and government departments
Giving parents control of schools

While Trump attempted to distance himself from this manifesto during the election campaign, there are many clear areas of agreement between the manifesto and the Republican platform, and many personnel are common to both12.

As an attempt to distract his detractors, his Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal, and Gulf of Mexico idiocies may partially work, at least for a while. However, an added reason for these ludicrous propositions is to distract his gullible MAGAt followers from the fact that he will do nothing to address their concerns, of which he made much in the election campaign. These include such things as bringing down the cost of living. This has been conspicuously absent from his first two weeks in office. He has even admitted that it is now not his top priority. In fact, he continues to ramble on about immigration being his top priority.13 I presume he hopes that his MAGAt suckers will now direct opprobrium at Canada, Denmark and Panama rather than Trump’s oligarchs who are the proximal and distal cause of most of their problems.

Initially, Trump said he would bring down food prices “from Day One”. Egg prices, for example, have been driven higher as a result of a deadly bird flu that has constricted supply; meat prices have been on the rise because of ongoing drought; coffee prices are expected to jump because of severe weather in South America.14

If you want to work out whether any of Trump’s promises in the election campaign will be honoured, ask yourself if such a promise will adversely affect the extremely wealthy or their corporations. If you believe the answer to be ‘yes’, then that promise will be abandoned.

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