Reason #235,278,384 to Secede From the Union

Well, it looks like we won't invade Greenland after all.  Trump announced that a framework for a deal the benefits the United States was established with NATO that will make a war with Denmark over Greenland unnecessary,  I guess that means that, for now at least, I can plan my next trip to Europe after all.  But with every move Trump makes, it is becoming more likely that I will have to do what I should have done when I was in France and Germany last year - stay in Europe and send for my cats.

Trump didn't really want Greenland.  He just wanted to upset the apple cart.  As Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project said, the mere power play Trump perpetrated against Denmark only ruptured NATO, which was what Trump wanted.  It was never about Greenland.  Just as likely Trump doesn't want to annex Canada.  He wants to disrupt the relationship between Canada and the United States and sever the ties between the two nations.  He doesn't want peace, although he campaigned for the Presidency against forever wars in other parts of the world.   He wants more power over the Western Hemisphere, as his attack on Venezuela proved.  He wants hegemony over as much of the globe as he can acquire.  Quite, bluntly, he wants to do what Madonna (another Madge-Trump comparison) told Dick Clark on "American Bandstand" what she wanted to do - "Umm, I want to rule the world."

At Davos this week, other nations made it clear that they were not pleased with Trump.  Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made that much clear when he said that his nation would continue to preserve and protect its values and its commitment to human freedom and dignity in the face of a more belligerent American foreign policy, meaning that Canada and other second-tier powers had to stand up to superpowers like the United States.  Trump swatted away Carney's comments, insisting that Canada owes its existence to the United States (actually, Canada owes its existence to the British Commonwealth, but that's another story).  But Trump's direction is clear.  The trade wars he has started against Europe and Canada with his tariffs, coupled with his decisions to use hard power to enforce American priorities in not just Latin America and the Middle East but in other Western nations, make Trump and the United States a danger to the planet.  Which is precisely why Prime Minister Carney entered a new trade deal with China that freezes out the U.S.  And seventy-seven million people in the U.S. voted for all this in 2024.

Oh yeah, I ought to tell you about Trump's interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo, who, according to breaking news, still can't talk.  He told her that the United States has always carried the weight of defense in NATO and not only said that the U.S. doesn't need the military backing of its allies but added that their participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That came as a shock to British, German, French, Lithuanian, and yes, Danish soldiers who lost their lives coming to the aid of Americans after 9/11.  (Denmark lost more soldiers in Afghanistan than any other nation per capita.)  Is Trump aware that the United States is responsible for only 39 percent of NATO's defenses?  Is he aware that, even though the U.S. spends more on defense than it should, 39 percent is still less than half of NATO defenses?  I'm sure he is, because he's asked for a 50 percent increase in the already-bloated military budget, which would compensate for the loss of NATO support if the alliance becomes only a Canadian-European pact but would also starve America's already-emaciated social programs.

No sane politician at the state level, at least no sane Democratic politician at the state level, should want to be part of such a nation.  As for what the United States used to be, well, I'd like to recall what Kamala Harris said a year and a half ago: "We're not going back."  (Ironic, no?)

Oh yeah, don't forget Harris' post-election assurance that turned out to be a lie: "It's gonna be okay."

For my state and for several states in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the Pacific Coast to remain in the Union is suicide.  It's time to get out.  And hopefully, a wave of secession can break up the U.S. into separate countries so that no one post-U.S. nation can ever achieve the hegemony that the U.S. has long since had.   I am for the dissolution of the Union.  I am a secessionist.