It is clear that rich American plutocrats are willing to punish poor people and America’s best neighbours, but intend to leave programs untouched if those schemes put more money into the pockets of wealthy Americans.

New York Magazine listed Trump’s Wildest Threats Against Canada:

• Trump has called Canada the “51st state” and Trudeau its “governor.”
• Trump was asked by a reporter if he would use military force to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. He responded that he would use “economic force” instead.
• [Trump questioned the validity of the 1908 treaty that established the border between Canada and the United States and that he wanted to “revise the boundary.”
• Trump wants control of the Great Lakes, which contain 21% of the world’s freshwater supply. The President also suggested moving British Columbia’s water to California.
• Trump wants Canada removed from Five Eyes, the intelligence alliance involving Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. It has existed since WW2.
• Trump threatened to end the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America.
• Trump blamed Canada for the USA’s street fentanyl supply, although evidence shows 99% of the drug comes from elsewhere.

Vladimir Putin used military power to occupy neighbouring territories (Georgia in 2008, Ukraine in 2014, Syria in 2015, and Ukraine again in 2022). Putin’s agent in the White House has his own territorial ambitions north and south of the USA. Until now, Putin and Trump’s nations were unlikely partners in imperialism. Comrades now, they aim to control the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Other nations will pay a heavy price.

Trump said this week, “Canada has been ripping us off for years…” He promised to retaliate if Canada and other countries react to the USA tearing up ratified trade agreements. This is part of Trump’s promised to annex Canada after applying economic pressure.

[Trump said] he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid and that he wants to revise the boundary.

The border treaty Mr. Trump referred to was established in 1908 and finalized the international boundary between Canada, then a British dominion, and the United States…

Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not least because he had already publicly said he wanted to bring Canada to its knees. In a news conference on Jan. 7, before being inaugurated, Mr. Trump, responding to a question by a New York Times reporter about whether he was planning to use military force to annex Canada, said he planned to use “economic force.”

How Trump’s ‘51st State’ Canada Talk Came to Be Seen as Deadly Serious

There is the theory that President Trump is still bitter about his Canadian hotel ventures that went bust…

And then there is the transactional view, that Mr. Trump sees the acquisition of Canada as the 51st state as the ultimate real estate deal that would seal his presidential legacy…

But Mr. Trump appears unfazed by Canada’s declarations of independence. He indicated last week that the United States was also prepared to sever ties with Canada without changes to the trade relationship between the two countries...

What’s Behind Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship With Canada

This subject emphasizes the level of control the wealthy classes exercise over governments. It is no surprise that the super-rich paid to elect Donald Trump. Forbes today these three guys are today worth C$1.1. trillion.

Musk’s minions inside the U.S.D.A. have most prominently targeted its nobler activities, including efforts to prevent wildfires and food contamination, respond to the avian flu, improve animal welfare and study methods to make agriculture more productive and less environmentally damaging. President Trump’s agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, suggested last month that the administration expects to make cuts to food stamps for low-income Americans.

Maybe they’ll find some waste in that program. But the real problem with the U.S.D.A. is that its subsidy programs redistribute well over $20 billion a year from taxpayers to predominantly well-off farmers. Many of those same farmers also benefit from subsidized and guaranteed loans with few strings attached, price supports and import quotas that boost food prices, lavish ad hoc aid packages after weather disasters and market downturns as well as mandates to spur production of unsustainable biofuels. 

Elon Musk Should Take a Hard Look at One Agency Truly Wasting Taxpayer Dollars