rictus bix

The same people who are pearl clutching about “undermining the NATO Alliance” are the same people who never demand European NATO countries step up in a more meaningful way for the defense of their own continent. American taxpayers have provided a security umbrella for Europe while also subsidizing Europe’s social welfare programs for decades. It’s time for a rebalancing. I’m a Senator from the United States of America and I care about the American people more than the elites in Brussels.

The Gaza genocide is Europe’s Achilles’ heel. It’s fundamentally compromised its commitment to international law, alienated potential allies in the Global South, and divided the Europe’s left from its centre - opening the road for Trump’s allies to gain power in European states.

A terrible idea. President Trump is completely wrong to announce tariffs on the UK over Greenland. People in both UK and US will face higher costs. These tariffs will be yet another burden for businesses across our country. The sovereignty of Greenland should only be decided by the people of Greenland. On this, I agree with Keir Starmer.

He has gone too far. Trump arbitrarily, without legal authority, imposes tariffs on longstanding allies to compel the annexation of an ally’s sovereign territory. This cannot stand. Europe and the UK should respond with strength and unity by imposing counter tariffs. And all of Denmark’s NATO allies, including Canada, should respond by contributing troops to the joint military exercises in Greenland. The free world cannot abide economic warfare as a tool of territorial aggression. If the response is weakness and disunity, he will exploit it. A year ago he said that he would use “economic force” to “annex Canada.” He is now doing exactly that to annex a neighbouring ally. We should respond with confidence that he is only about to get weaker. The US Supreme Court is very likely to overturn Trump’s emergency tariffs within days or weeks. And Trump is almost certain to lose control of Congress a year from now, effectively making him a lame duck. If we do not act together to respond to this bullying, it will embolden him to go even further.

Carney’s pivot to China will only endanger Canadians in the long term. While Washington is currently an unstable and aggressive partner, this is a historical aberration and might easily change. Meanwhile, Beijing’s bad intentions towards the West are deep-seated and persistent.

Trump says on Feb 1 he will impose a 10% tariff “on any and all goods sent” to US from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, & Finland, increasing to 25% June 1 “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”

Canada has a trade deal with China. I wish what I'm about to say was painfully obvious, but it's apparently not, so I'll say it again. Countries around the world need to stop making this mistake: just because the US now seems like a less reliable partner, that should not make China a more reliable partner in comparison. Two simple reasons: --China is still a very unreliable trading partner. See rare earths, influence campaigns, IP theft, etc. --China can, and is, taking advantage of other countries seeing it as more reliable to become less reliable in ways that benefit its national interest.

Canadians who properly excoriate Trump for substituting an unprincipled "transactional" foreign policy viz Russia in the place of America's historic Nato solidarity will now have to reckon with their own PM adopting exactly the same transactional posture viz China. If Trump is a Russian asset, Carney is a Chinese asset.