CSotD: Ghosted
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News and commentary are full of coverage of Canada’s potential to become the first “associate member” of the European Union, and Loper provides a simple explanation of a complex situation. Misused and insulted by its nearest neighbor and largest trading partner, the geese are stretching their wings and seeking safe harbor elsewhere.
There have been a plethora of cartoons showing beavers and other Canadian symbols flipping Trump off, but I tend to avoid cartoons in which the vulgarity outweighs the wit. But Amorim got a laugh by placing the statement in the moose’s antlers, and enhancing the point by placing the moose in an EU boat, and making Trump furious and the moose blasé.
That’s the classic breakup — no fighting, just an empty closet and a note on the table. Or maybe no note after all: Ghosted.
Worst part is when your friends are happy about it and relieved to see a solution to a situation in which someone they liked has been getting a raw deal.
Stepping away from the metaphor, here’s Mark Carney getting a standing ovation at the European Parliament yesterday after a speech in which he praised the invitation to form a new level of partnership between the EU and Canada.
As MacKay indicates, the invitation is not pity on the part of Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. The EU and Canada may be separated by an ocean, but they are each threatened by active, greedy expansionists at their borders, and however the partnership may be framed, it represents nations that share a great deal, including a need to stand together.
Miles Taylor, who worked in the first Trump administration, has a solid breakdown on the proposed move, and he writes of Carney’s address to the group:
Canada was not proposing “a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners,” the prime minister said with a smile. His country simply seeks resilience “so no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.” He never uttered the name of the global bully who threatens Canada’s markets, sovereignty, and territory. He didn’t have to.
Moudakis focuses on Trump’s predictable but, in his opinion, childish response.
It’s worth remembering that Trump has long demanded NATO become less dependent on the US for protection, and the crossover between EU and NATO membership is solid enough that they have reached an agreement on mutual aid. This may not be what Trump wanted, but it may be what he is bringing about.
Juxtaposition of the Day
As for his threat to cut trade with Europe and increase punitive tariffs on the EU and Canada, Bok suggests he go back to Wharton and learn what he evidently missed the first time around, while Komarnitski portrays him as a monster whose tariffs are driving Canada and the EU, two major trading partners, away.
Taken together, they’re saying that his actions and policies are economically foolish and self-destructive.
Speaking of ill-considered moves, Ramirez reminds me of a time the editorial department — always eager to meddle in marketing — proposed to rename the street outside our complex in honor of the paper.
They’d gone as far as consulting with the city but thank goodness had not made any public announcement of their cunning plan before the business, advertising, and circulation departments informed them of the forms and stationery that would have to be reprinted, and the contracts that would have to be redrawn, including our mailing permits, a major factor in our profitability.
We didn’t come up with a final cost with which to bludgeon them, but we didn’t have to. Our publisher did what some brave soul in the White House should have and dashed their dreams.
It’s good to be in a position where nobody outranks you, but you’d better be right about that.
Otherwise, surprises can happen.
For instance, Dear Leader thought he outranked the Fed, and Rowe points out the mature, professional way in which Dear Leader took their unanimous decision to raise interest rates in order to fight inflation.
And now commentators are speculating over why Speaker Mike Johnson disbanded the House early. Most are assuming it was to avoid having to vote on a motion to impeach Pete Hegseth, but it may also have been to avoid a fistfight, given that some meathead had proposed calling off the federal gas tax until the midterms were over, which his colleagues pointed out seemed to be counting way too much on the gullibility of the electorate.
There is probably a really professional, drab both-sides news story about how the proposal went down, but Charlie Pierce has a much more entertaining explanation, and we could use a few more reporters like him.
In other news, they discovered a diplodocos fossil in Spain, the first such dino found outside North America, and Morland suggests that it’s simply an indicator of an ancient tendency of North Americans to head for Europe when things became unbearable here.
And Oliver Schopf names one such refugee, with a good capture of the attitudes of Carney, von der Leyen and Trump to the move, including the suggestion that Trump provided the springboard and thus has only himself to blame, assuming this move comes together. The papers aren’t signed yet, but the champagne has been put on ice, and the wild geese are ready to take off.
And Canada Geese deserve Canadian singers:
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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