Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

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theconversation.com

How the U.S. could in fact make Canada an American territory

How precisely Donald Trump could make good on his threat to annex Canada can be found in the U.S. Constitution. There is both potential and precedent in American history.
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Every Canadian needs to pay attention to this bit of American history. In one treaty, the U.S. annexed the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. It subsequently illegally invaded Indigenous territory in the west.

Read more: White U.S. citizens once flooded into Indian Territory, prompting calls for mass deportations

Canada could be next — perhaps not immediately as the 51st state, but quite possibly as a U.S. territory that would deny Canadians any voting rights for Congress or the presidency, allow only some autonomy and make questions of citizenship ambiguous. The constitutional architecture exists in the U.S. to make it happen.


Impossible? Unthinkable? Many pundits dismiss Trump’s bellicose rhetoric as hot-headed bargaining. It’s just tough talk, they say. Some have argued his bluster is simply part of his favoured “art of the deal” negotiating tactics.

That’s the wrong reading. How Trump could make good on the threat can be found in the U.S. Constitution. There is both potential and precedent for the U.S. to acquire territory through cession or subjugation.

Invading Canada​

The War Plan Red of 1930 was also drummed up by the U.S. Department of War on how to invade Canada if ever needed.

It included shocking details about kicking off the attack in Halifax with poison gas, quickly invading New Brunswick and then occupying Québec City and Montréal before claiming Niagara Falls.

Historically, America has made many Canadian leaders nervous. Queen Victoria felt that Ottawa, as a capital, would be sheltered from U.S. invasions. John A. Macdonald worried about Union forces attacks on Canada, as U.S. Confederacy spies and raiders were permitted to hole up in Montréal during the civil war.

In the 1911 election, when the Liberal party pushed for free trade with the U.S., they were shown the door by a wave of anti-American sentiment that backed Robert Borden’s Conservatives.

Treaties and congressional green lights​

Hypothetical paranoia aside, the ability of the U.S. to acquire territories is ingrained in the U.S. Constitution. It is straightforward. First, start with Article II, Section 2 of the constitution:

“He [The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…”.
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Treaties are the tools the U.S. uses to take “nothing by conquest” after the Senate ratifies those treaties by a two-thirds majority.

In 1848, President Zachary Taylor proposed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to Congress to annex Mexican lands. Even though some wanted to take all of Mexico, Congress ratified the treaty.

In 1898, Congress passed House Joint Resolution 259. It ratified President William McKinley’s treaty of the annexation of Hawaii. Due to protest, petition and dissent, it took 60 years for Hawaii to become an official state in 1957.

The American origin story of a country born in revolution only applies to a small piece of the country. The rest of the place came to exist through annexation. The U.S. expanded to 50 states and 14 overseas territories through a mix of cession, occupation and purchase.
 




Trump is playing a pretty clever game of angling to get credit if there are any positive developments prior to his inauguration (but no doubt blaming Biden for anything negative). But it is pretty unusual to have an “envoy” for the incoming President involved in a foreign policy matter like this.

 
www.nbcnews.com

Key senators receive Pete Hegseth's FBI background check days out from confirmation hearing

Democrats have expressed concern over the delay and how thorough the report on Trump’s embattled defense secretary pick will be.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

“…
Democrats on the committee that NBC News spoke with have been frustrated by the delay, and suggest the FBI report may not be thorough, particularly for a Cabinet pick that has been entangled in controversy. One person who worked closely with Hegseth in the past and another who was contacted by Congress regarding Hegseth told NBC News they are concerned the FBI has not reached out to them.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment. …”
 
nycfan said:




Trump is playing a pretty clever game of angling to get credit if there are any positive developments prior to his inauguration (but no doubt blaming Biden for anything negative). But it is pretty unusual to have an “envoy” for the incoming President involved in a foreign policy matter like this.

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Not identical of course but kinda has an Iran Hostage feel. Isn’t something that swayed the election but seems like something that could possibly happen right around inauguration to give Trump an early boost.
 
DiehardHeelFan said:
Not identical of course but kinda has an Iran Hostage feel. Isn’t something that swayed the election but seems like something that could possibly happen right around inauguration to give Trump an early boost.
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So in this case, the Israelis under Bibi are in the role of the Iranian mullahs who didn’t want Carter to get any credit and were willing to shove the knife a little deeper in his back by waiting until right after the inauguration to release the hostages? Sadly, that checks out.
 
So, Trump’s “envoy” is in Israel while Trump is likely calling Bibi and pushing ideas that run counter to American policy.
 

Trump border czar privately tempers Republican lawmaker expectations on administration’s initial deportation operation​



“… The discussions are part of a broader level-setting that is occurring among House Republicans, who are now coming to terms with the challenges of turning one of their key campaign promises into a reality. Republicans are also grappling with the harsh realization that most of their border overhaul measures are unlikely to be included in Trump’s massive agenda bill, given the strict rules around the reconciliation process that require proposals to either increase revenue or reduce spending, not change policy.

“Many members are only now beginning to understand that,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN. …”
 
We'll find out very soon, but I still wonder if in the end we're mainly going to see a lot of smoke and mirrors without much actually being done. Some dramatic raids and flashy deportations of relatively small numbers of illegals, but nothing on the scale that Dear Leader promised in the campaign. And they'll rely on right-wing media like Fox and OAN and Newsmax to fool their base into thinking that some major deportations and round ups are happening and that Trump's promises are actually being carried out. And the reason will be because too much of their base needs that cheap immigrant labor to survive - farmers, small-business owners, construction industry, and rich and upper-middle-class people who hire them for various jobs.
 


Bannon using the populist anti-billionaire tack here is mostly on brand for him, but note also that Bannon is promoting his personal brand of xenophobia as “anti-racist” in his attack on Musk, Thiel and others.

I guess he sees an opportunity to undermine Musk’s influence over the easily manipulated Trump.
 
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