Nations ’round the globe are perking up their collective ears with Trump’s spouting off about his territorial expansion wishes, prompting Seth Meyers on his The Late Night show to throw in a few comments regarding Greenland, which Trump has been eyeing since his first term. Meyers goaded Trump with, “I’d like to say something to Donald Trump about his threat to take Greenland by military force that might take some of our viewers by surprise — DO IT!” Continuing his encouragement to Trump, he said, “Go get Greenland, you coward…don’t show me your face ever again…I’m calling your bluff. Stop making these crazy promises. Do it. I want it. Go get it.” In a taunting tone, Meyers added, “Why won’t you get it? You afraid of Denmark, bro? You starting to remember they got those big-ass dogs,” as he showed a picture of a tough-looking Great Dane. Meyers joked that Trump will “keep downgrading” his threats to “smaller and smaller countries,” predicting that “Russia’s going to do whatever it wants while he threatens Peru with, ‘We’re coming. We’re going to get Macchu Picchu back where it belongs.'” To Trump’s suggestion that NHL legend Wayne Gretzky should be Canada’s new Prime Minister, Meyers argued, “I think Trump picked Gretzky because that’s the only Canadian he knows,” suggesting that Trump probably wants the Prime Minister to Ireland be the Lucky Charms mascot. Many readers were delighted when The New York Post ran a front page cartoon of Trump using a pointer on a world map with a renamed Greenland as ‘Our Land,’ Canada as ’51st State,’ the Gulf of Mexico as ‘Gulf of America,’ and the Panama Canal as ‘Pana-MAGA Canal.’

What started as the MAGA-in-Chief’s calamitously ignorant, and incredibly exorbitant 25% tariff threats to our allies has degraded into his hazardous expansionist dreams. Canada was quick to defy his bullying over a new tax policy proposal. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau immediately became a target for Trump who called him “Governor Trudeau” with a suggestion that Canada become the US’s 51st state. Trudeau had been under tremendous pressure to resign, and after deputy prime minister Freeland resigned under protest, and with concerns over Trump’s tariff increases threat, the calls for him to step down became too overwhelming for him to ignore, so he made his announcement to resign. Immediately, Trump launched into posts on Truth Social, proclaiming what a great nation could result from a US/Canada merger, with no tariffs, reduced taxes, and security from Russian and Chinese threats. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proclaimed Donald Trump as ‘Canada’s liberator,’ accusing Trudeau of “tyrannical COVID abuse, destroying free speech, and being Zelenskyii’s biggest cheerleader. Trudeau RESIGNS!”

Elizabeth May, a Green Party member of Canada’s Parliament, recently held a news conference where she voiced a hard “NO…thanks, but no thanks,” to Trump’s proposal for Canadian statehood, citing his “monumental ignorance” of Canadian politics and the five different parties in their “sovereign nation,” which, by the way, has no need for “braggarts, bullies, or dictators.” “No one runs for Prime Minister in Canada!” she emphasized, referring to Trump’s Wayne Gretzky plug, and suggesting he borrow one of his grandchildren’s school books to brush up on his history. She proposed that perhaps California, Oregon and Washington might care to join their provinces where they have universal health care, safe streets, gun laws, and where women have health rights which are going by the wayside in the US…and that perhaps a Province of Vermont could be included? Also, no ‘Go Fund Me’ posts needed to rescue patients denied medical care by greedy insurance companies! May emphasized that the two countries, who have been good friends and allies, should continue to be trading partners, not combatants, since Canadian goods are a bargain for the US, based on the current exchange rates of their respective dollars, and that perhaps Trump might even prefer they join the EU! May goes on to say that if The Don’s 51st state proposal was a joke, it failed miserably, and that Trump is not acting as a president-elect should conduct himself with his disrespectful comments, and that she, for one, will not throw Mexico under his bus!

Trump has also used his threat to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico unless that country stops migrants and drugs from crossing into the US, suggesting that they are not currently cooperating to do so…a total lie particularly aimed at US voters. Mexico’s President Sheinbaum responded sharply with her claim that American gun trafficking to her country is fueling crime and violence among gangs who smuggle drugs into US markets. She noted, “Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demands in yours.” Sheinbaum suggests that the two nations’ interrelated national challenges underscore the need for cross-border cooperation rather than Trump’s insults and confrontational attitude. She uses US statistics to make her point that border crossings are down, since Mexico is acting to prevent travel across their own southern border, thwarting migrants who want to head to the US…hardly an “invasion” as Trump is claiming. As reported in both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the Mexican government security operations shuttle migrants back to the south and away from our border in what they call ‘El Carrousel.’ Experts see President Biden’s efforts at cracking down on illegal crossings as succeeding greater than any past efforts, all without tariffs.

However, Trump and his MAGA gang are ignoring the success, pretending nothing is being accomplished, while scamming behind the smokescreen of denial, a swindle that is focused on tariffs. Arianna Huffington wrote back in 2000 in her book ‘How to Overthrow the Government,’ “Our political landscape is so littered with duplicity and deceit, we’ve actually come to expect our leaders to lie. What once would have shocked us now barely registers. We’ve become inured to wrongdoing. So politicians mangle the truth — call it ‘spin’ — and the public lets it slide, too numb to care…it’s because, even though we don’t like it, we don’t consider it really damaging. Spinning sounds cute, almost constructive…something that should engender indulgent smiles rather than outrage.” Huffington said it should be termed ‘propaganda’ where the propagandist succeeds by claiming to be nothing more than the humble mouthpiece of ‘the people.’ The more the public is duped, the more its deceivers can claim to express the public’s will which only brings forth an orgy of euphemisms. “Humpty Dumpty would have been right a home,” Huffington declares, “when he told Alice, ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic, “All this paves the way for larger deceptions later. Bank on it: The moment Trump takes office, the lower apprehension numbers will magically become real metrics. Fox News will start trumpeting them and he’ll start claiming the border has achieved pacification due to his strength. Indeed, Trump very well may credit his current threat of tariffs with ‘forcing’ Mexico to make the lower numbers of border crossings a reality.” During a recent conversation between Trump and Sheinbaum, she explained to him Mexico’s strategy to address the migration phenomenon, observing human rights, while not closing the border but instead building bridges between government and people. But we find Trump crowing that she agreed to close the border, taking credit for something in which he hasn’t even been a participant. No need to let a troublesome thing like ‘reality’ get in the way of building a house of delusions, eh?

Brad Reed writes in Raw Story that some MAGAs are eager to start launching military operations inside Mexico to take out drug cartel leaders, though experts believe it would do little to stop the supply of drugs coming into the US. Mexico has found this approach to be a failure, which only started an explosion of violence within the cartel, so killing off capos within the gangs is not new, only a failed strategy. One military veteran declared the strategy as being, “Iraq all over again. We’re not fighting an army. We’re fighting poverty. Let’s fight desperation. Let’s fight hopelessness. That sounds a whole lot like what we did in Afghanistan for 20 years unsuccessfully.”

During his 1976 campaign for US Senator from California, Samuel Hayakawa said of the proposed transfer of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama: “We should keep the Panama Canal. After all, we stole it fair and square.” It should be noted that a few years later, Senator Hayakawa helped win approval for the transfer; but now we find that president-elect Trump is railing for a reversal of the ownership. Trump feels the Canal authority is charging “exorbitant prices and rates of passage” on US naval and merchant ships, demanding that fees either be lowered, or give it back to this country. The US is the canal’s biggest customer and Trump’s fear is that the passage is in danger of falling under China’s control as the second-biggest customer. Failing to get much attention is the outstanding tax evasion case against Trump, Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC, and Trump International Hotels who are accused of not paying the required 12.5% tax rate to the Panamanian government. The lawsuit alleges the companies kept the money, “intentionally evading taxes” and leaving the new owner liable for millions. According to Malcolm Ferguson in The New Republic, a tax audit of the hotels submitted as evidence found massive inconsistencies in the case still pending in New York District Court. In 2018, Panamanian officials stepped in, stripping the Trump name from the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower.

Co-president-elect Musk, donning his own global expansionist/interference cloak, is asking whether the US should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government” as he launched into a series of X posts to call for the release of a jailed right-wing activist, and the imprisonment of a junior minister of the Labour government. The Tesla head-honcho is calling for the jailing of Jess Phillips, a member of Prime Minister Starmer’s cabinet, calling her a “rape genocide apologist” over her handling of investigations into organized gangs accused of systematic rape of young women. The Labour government says it is focused on enacting recommendations of a 2022 study, which were not implemented by the previous Conservative government, as Starmer rebukes Musk for grandstanding, taking advantage of an “utterly sickening issue” for his own advantage: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.” A propagandist — neither more nor less?

Musk has spoken out for Islamophobic fascist activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by his pseudonym, Tommy Robinson. Robinson, a member of the fascist British National Party was convicted of mortgage fraud and assault for stalking a female journalist at her residence, and is now serving 18 months in prison for repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee. Musk disagrees with his incarceration, but MAGA-lover Nigel Farage of Britain’s right-wing Reform Party can’t abide Robinson. Farage’s outspokenness spurred Musk to call for his ouster as Reform Party leader. A few weeks ago, Musk meddled in German politics, endorsing the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, to which Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in an interview said he finds it “worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and large financial resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries.” So, it’s destined to be a complete Barnum & Bailey three-ringer — who’s next?

Dr. Jo posts on Quora that despite Trump’s appointment of a lot of real clowns to his cabinet, creating the most dangerous circus in the history of the world, it’s not a circus…not even close. To wit: appearance and apparent clumsiness hide the fact that real circus clowns are capable and competent; circus acts are carefully scripted; circuses have rules and mechanisms for safety. Trump has initiated a reality show, with supporters who have yet to cope with his narcissism, as he sees the whole of reality as reality TV, himself being the hero, consequently, many of his selections are sycophantic Fox News presenters. But, however self-indulgent, it’s not totally a reality show which can be arbitrary and bizarre, with many people behind the scenes to capture and edit any bad things before damage control is needed. In Trump 2.0, we find that the safety nets are absent, wild animals are free to roam, emergency exits are blocked, fire hazards are acute…equipment wasn’t checked because nobody cares, appointees/performers are hardly competent…existing just for show — the competent ones have left or are about to leave, or will be fired by Musk, and no script…which is done daily upon the whims of Trump.

Dr. Jo concludes, however, that the reality show is funny…or will be funny when the “legion of spiteful, vindictive” Trumpers in the crowd realize what is really happening. Sooner, rather than later, almost everyone who voted for Trumpy McTrumpface will be quite surprised. They are currently sharing in the reality-impaired delusion…until they get a drubbing. Repeatedly, the US will be managed into the ground, just like Twitter X, until there is nothing left of value, except that anything of value will be in the pockets of Trump and his gang. Time to grab your peanuts, popcorn and cotton candy and watch from afar, preferably from a parallel universe, because it ain’t gonna be pretty.

TV host Stephen Colbert on The Late Show last week, reported that President Biden was in California, “doing what presidents should do: pledging federal disaster support to a stricken state.” At a press conference, Biden also announced that he was officially the first sitting president to become a great-grandfather, as is eldest granddaughter gave birth to a baby boy. “And with under two weeks left, there’s still time for Joe to set more old-man presidential records,” Colbert suggested, such as “most Malt-o-Meals consumed at 4 a.m., most rubber bands collected in an old cigar box, first president ever to fall asleep at a picnic and be carried away by ants.” As Nietzsche asked, “Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?”

Well, it had to happen…Donald Trump’s election victory was certified by a joint meeting of Congress presided over by his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, a thirty minute tragedy that was only delayed for a couple of minutes by unhappy Blue Staters trying to crash the proceedings by breaking down the doors…naaahhh, that didn’t happen! But the peacefulness and decorum of the process was in stark contrast to that of the “normal day in DC” of 2020, as now described by MAGAs of course. Those charged with crimes during the storming of the Capitol are in Trump’s sights to avoid accountability with his pardons…as many as 1500 may avoid charges, slates wiped clean from the ugliness of that day. As Representative Jamie Raskin, a former member of the House Select Committee said, “This is an asymmetry we’ve been pointing out from the beginning that there has been relative accountability up until this point for the people who smashed the police officers over the head with Confederate battle flags or speared them with Trump flags or stormed the Capitol and so on — vis a vis the masterminds behind the whole process.”

Trump’s indictments for his role in seeking to block the peaceful transfer of power in Georgia have hit a snag, and Special Prosecutor Smith’s request to dismiss the J6 case without prejudice, leaves the door open for possible refilings in the future, but admittedly, the likelihood fades with the passage of time. Representative Zoe Lofgren, another House Select Committee member, adds, “Trump won the election…it is pretty pathetic that the officers who defended our lives are so disrespected and that the criminal who egged them on is now going back into the White House. You know, he has vowed to pardon the criminals who attacked the Capitol. People died. I always make a point of calling some of the officers who were injured on the sixth so they know it’s not the whole world that has forgotten their sacrifice.” Federal prosecutor Mary McCord, former acting head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division warns, “There’s no question that some of the defendants are currently still very empowered, and you have to imagine that they’re not going to be nearly as deterred from engaging in behavior that violates the law — particularly something that Trump may want them to do — in the future.” Former federal prosecutor in the US attorney’s office in DC, Rizwan Qureshi, declared, “I think the bedrock of a true democracy is a peaceful transition of power. That’s why those who engaged in actual violent conduct on that date need to be held accountable…because accountability and respect for rule of law are necessary to deterring violence and preserving our democracy that I think we take for granted every day.”

The rule of law was dealt a poke in the eye with a secretive Saturday night party at Mar-a-Lago, reportedly celebrating efforts to overturn the 2020 election…no publicity, no press invitations, just attended by the likes of John Eastman, Michael Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani, and Peter Navarro as they watched a documentary film about Eastman. Attorney Eastman was delegated to pressure Vice President Pence not to certify the results of the presidential vote of 2020, to the praise of Trump’s introductory remarks on Saturday. “I’m a big fan of John Eastman. Y’know, he was right. He happened to be right. That’s why they changed the law and nobody wants to talk about that. They said he’s not allowed to do it, he’s not allowed to do it, and they convinced him he’s not allowed to do it, our vice president, then right after the election they changed the law so he can’t do it.” Hosts of MSNBC Weekend, in discussing it on Sunday, prompted Michael Steele to ask, “What was the sense in this room, what was the purpose of this gathering, is it just an in-your-face-moment or just a tale of things to come?” Vaughn Hilyard’s take is that it was clear from Trump’s guest list that it was no coincidence about the purpose. Symone Sanders Townsend tersely responded, “Let’s just put a finer point on it, this is sickening! This is sickening, I am sick. Navarro, Clark, the people that went to the Capitol to take up arms against the US government, because the president at the time lied to them, that’s what happened. Those are not patriots. What Donald Trump did last night is a disgrace to the country and Constitution, and the fact that they didn’t tell anybody about it lets you know that they knew what they were doing was untoward, and they wanted to do it anyway.”

Steve Schmidt writes on The Warning that many have called for President Biden to issue preemptive pardons for the likely targets included in Trump’s promised retributions in his abuse of presidential powers. Schmidt is against such action, calling the Constitution and our own dignity as our protectors. Accepting a pardon means admitting a crime, and the necessity of opposing Donald Trump is not a crime. It is necessary, and will continue to be necessary, he maintains. Opposition to Donald Trump doesn’t need explanation or justification, so fight against criminalization of matters of conscience under a regime that doesn’t tolerate criticism or dissent. The fear that Trumpers have instilled throughout America “isn’t just unseemly…it is disconcerting, pathetic at some level and cynical at another,” Schmidt says. The premise that Biden should issue preemptive pardons is “among the worst ideas ever floated. It is a gateway to banana republicanism through a side door.”

Andy Borowitz writes in The Borowitz Report, “In a series of scathing Truth Social posts on Tuesday, Donald J Trump lambasted President Biden for issuing a pardon without being paid for it. ‘Pardoning someone for free was an incredibly selfish act,’ Trump wrote. ‘This will lower the market value of every future pardon I give. The framers of the Constitution gave the president pardon power for one reason: to make money,’ Trump continued. ‘I have too much respect for the Constitution to pardon people for free.’ In perhaps the strongest denunciation of Biden’s actions, he added, ‘Any decent father would have made Hunter ambassador to France.'”

In response to Trump’s promise of pardons, bootlicking Republicans are sucking up to him in a time-honored and traditional way: by being cowards. And, all those Senators and Representatives who hunkered down for safety on January 6, 2021, are all lined up to show him they can roll over for him. Senator Lindsey Graham said, “We’ll see what he does. I mean it’s been four or five years (since J6). The ones that hurt cops, they’d be in a different category for me, but we’ll leave that up to him.” Trump’s charge that the House Select Committee destroyed evidence that would have exonerated him, and fantasizing Liz Cheney before a firing squad, all seem to be fine with the GOP. The detailed events in the 850-page report from the committee were terrifying, illuminating and damning, and most voters oppose Trump’s plan to pardon insurrectionists, but what most voters want has never been the Republican Party’s bag, writes Walter Einenkel on Daily Kos.

Author Charles Pierce, in discussing presidents of his lifetime, says they were not perfect men, but for the most part, “they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate for the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.” Looking at our current prospect, he moans, “And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House. The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides…Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so…Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.”

As if to echo Pierce’s words, the president-elect will be attending an interfaith prayer service in DC the day before he is inaugurated — his wealthiest supporters are invited if they write a big enough check. This news is reported by Religion News Service, which gathered the information from Trump’s inaugural committee which has a list of different tiers of ‘benefits‘ for the various donor contribution amounts. On January 18, donors can get tickets to a ‘Make America Great Again Rally,’ a cabinet reception and a dinner with VP-elect Vance, to be followed the next day with the “pay-to-pray” event, so dubbed by RNS reporter Jack Jenkins.

Humorist Dave Barry had the perfect summation of the 2024 election season in his 2024 yearly wrap:  “But what made 2024 truly special, in terms of sustained idiocy, was that it was an election year. This meant that day after day, month after month, the average American voter was subjected to a relentless gushing spew of campaign messaging created by political professionals who—no matter what side they’re on—all share one unshakeable core belief, which is that the average American voter has the intellectual capacity of a potted fern. It was a brutal, depressing slog, and it felt as though it would never end. In fact it may still be going on in California, a state that apparently tabulates its ballots on a defective Etch-a-Sketch.”