CBC wants you to know 51st state status a tempting option

Just check out their home page right now. Top headline... Oh my God millions of jobs and trillions of dollars will be gone if our fabulous free trade agreement collapses... what to do what to do... well by golly wouldn't it be great to short-circuit all that nasty trade war shit and just be friends? Frankly, by accepting Trumps offer of statehood, we're just making official what's been de-facto reality at least since John Diefenbaker axed the Avro Arrow. We're looking at a most impressive record of Canadian politicians currying favour in DC while pretending not to. Elbows up and all that silly shit! Obviously the unspoken message that screams out is we gotta save trillions of jobs and millions of... oh, whatever! Just a few stories later we read that over 29,000 Canadians have petitioned our government to kick out the US ambassador. I can certainly think of reasons to do that, but defying the deranged occupant of the White House's threats to annex Canada wouldn't be one of them. Contrasting "threats to annex" to the kidnapping or murder of a head of state makes us look a wee bit unserious. It's hard to get revved up about petty side-shows when we're 100% silent on America's role in the Gaza genocide and we support the unprovoked and illegal war on Iran.

Trump and the ever-gushing firehose of horseshit

It’s comforting to imagine the dismay and disarray that has befallen our “Laurentian elite” since January 20 is part of an awakening to just how destructive to Canadian interests US domination of our economy and society has become. Alas, this elite has been all too comfortable with our vassalage, which has been undeniably obvious at least since John Diefenbaker killed the Avro Arrow in 1959. I don’t believe their sudden obsession with Canada’s sovereignty is anything other than nostalgia for the gentler pre-Trumpian days, when Uncle Sam picked our pockets clean while whispering sweet nothings into our ears. Trump, on the other hand, claims we’ve been sponging off the American Empire all along and demands we make it up to them. It’s a vulgar despoilation of the fantasy that we’ve always been besties. Recall it was merely three months ago that our pretty but undeniably stupid Foreign Minister announced the Canadian Arctic was henceforth to be known as the North American Arctic, and that we Canadians were in actuality members of something I’d never heard of; the “North American Homeland!” My view has consistently been that Trump’s political persona is an integral part of America’s Democracy Theatre. Insofar as there ever was a functioning democracy in the US, it has long ago ceased to be such. The billionaires who control the joint can’t just come out and admit that, hence the ever-gushing firehose of horseshit about values, human rights, democracy, and so forth. There’s an excellent essay on view at Naked Capitalism which is well worth a read. The writer argues that the perceived chaos in Trump’s Washington is nothing more or less than the rebranding of the American Empire to better reflect the interests of its owners. I’m inclined to agree.

Canadians tangled in web of hypocrisy

Latest twist in the General Dynamics "Canadian" $15B armoured vehicle sale to the KSA is that we're trying to get out of it.

There's a couple of salient features about Canada's ruling class that you should take note of as this fake drama unfolds.

Trudeau's gradual seeing of the light, that this deal has stunk to the heavens all along, is purely a response to the bad PR the story is generating. Trudeau wants to win an election next year. He has to balance the negative PR of dis-employing 2,000 General Dynamics workers in London, with the possibly even more negative PR of following through on the deal. Either way, his image is drowning in negativity just as he's coming up for re-election.

Desperate measures are surely called for.

Let's take a look at what was, at the time, ballyhooed as our biggest export "win" in history! The Harper Gang were pee-your-pants euphoric over what they'd achieved!

Canada didn't actually sell Saudi Arabia anything. This is a commercial deal between the US defence contractor General Dynamics and the government of Saudi Arabia. All Canada did was approve the deal, as it was expected to do, because the particular plant where those vehicles are assembled happens to be a GD branch plant in Canada.

Any attempt to abrogate the deal now will be horrendously expensive, and not just in the billions of dollars.

We have the rule of law in this country, as PM Fluffy has been reminding every TV camera in sight ever since the Huawei debacle hit the headlines. We can't go meddling around in stuff for purely political reasons...


Oops!

Let's not forget that the decision to render Canada a branch plant economy was taken by Canada's political class, who saw their personal interests more closely aligned with those of their betters in Washington than with working people in Canada. We've been paying the price for that since the days of the Avro Arrow.

Poor Fluffy is doubly flumoxed because this drama is unfolding against a backdrop of severe instability in the KSA. It's a power struggle between the old guard and the "reformer" MBS.  Washington's deep state are with the old guard. Better the devil you know...

Whereas Trump is backing, at least so far, this young whippersnapper who is a little "off the leash," as they say, not unlike Trump himself.

There's no happy ending possible here.


I wouldn't want to be Justin.