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UNFTR Weekly Roundup |
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GreeningLand To set the tone for MaxNotes, the first words go to author Michael Klaire from his 2019 book All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change.
“The region is also thought to harbor vast deposits of vital minerals, including iron, copper, uranium, and rare earths; Greenland is believed to contain especially significant deposits of such minerals, and prominent foreign mining firms—including some from China—have begun operations there. Many valuable fish species reside in or migrate through the region, representing an increasingly valuable source of animal protein. As the ice cap shrivels, moreover, the Arctic could provide a cost-effective shortcut for maritime trade between the Atlantic and Pacific. As these interests proliferate, American strategists believe, the risk of competition and conflict over the Arctic’s resource wealth is bound to grow.”
Is Trump crazy or crazy like a fox?
Don’t worry, I’m not going neoliberal on you. The cold political reality of this part of the world is that it is indeed coveted by friends (Europe and Canada), competitors (China) and foes (Russia) alike. We’re not the only ones with designs on extracting Greenland’s resources and opening up strategic military and trade outposts on this vast and nearly uninhabited expanse.
The U.S. military has been dispassionately tracking the impact of climate change on our domestic and international bases and outposts since the 1990s. For the military, climate change is a very real and ever present reality that is supported by science. There’s no debate, no hysteria, no arguments over science and pseudoscience. Just cold, hard observations that our rapidly changing world provides both new threats and new opportunities.
According to a U.S. Navy report from 1990, New Orleans will be under water by the middle of this century along with low lying areas in parts of Asia. Several of our bases will therefore be under water as a result. They believe that rising sea levels will be far more catastrophic for China than it will be for the United States. Furthermore, they estimate that enormous swaths of the Global South will be uninhabitable due to extreme heat and violent weather patterns.
These findings were made before Al Gore’s documentary but long after ExxonMobil scientists buried their own similar findings from decades earlier.
The resident bull in the world’s china shop is running amok and doing what he does best—smash things and make a scene. But the fact of the matter is that he will likely move forward with little authentic pushback from military advisors and members of Congress who have been privy to these reports for decades. They will publicly denounce Trump’s methods and behavior but make no mistake. We want Greenland. Behind closed doors, I gauran-fucking-tee they are cheerleading this development.
Forget the fact that Denmark, the official “owner” of this icy colonial outpost, is a founding member of NATO. Or, as the New York Times noted, “A treaty between the United States and Denmark, signed in 1951 at the end of the Truman administration, gives the United States broad rights to reopen the 16 or so military bases that it once had on Greenland.”
There are so many straightforward and productive ways to optimize our presence in the Arctic without blowing up NATO, getting into a trade war with Europe and showing our hand to the world that we want to build a massive missile defense system. Instead, Trump wants to purchase Greenland because it’s so fucking big and authoritarians love big prizes. In his mind, land grabs immortalize a president and all can be justified under the cloak of national security.
His behavior obscures the fact that this part of the world is indeed strategically important. Trade. Natural resources. Offense and defense. Oil and natural gas. It’s all on the table so it’s not unreasonable to be having a grownup conversation about strategy and national interests. But that’s not the point I want to make here.
Trump has once again managed to bury the conversation we should be having by putting himself in the center of it all. We’re talking about NATO. Defense systems. China and Russia. Boats that landed in Greenland 300 years ago. Self determination versus colonialism. Land rights. Mineral rights. Drilling rights. The 60,000 Greenlanders who want nothing to do with us. Trump the mad imperialist who will stop at nothing to overthrow countries and destroy alliances. The United States has gone mad. It’s a proper Trump shitshow that once again obscures the most horrifying aspect of this entire story.
We should be able to access this part of the world so easily.
The only reason Greenland is a point of contention is because the polar ice caps are melting around it. As Klaire points out, this area of the world has only recently become strategically meaningful because climate change has given the world a “new ocean.”
Donald Trump is so absurd that he has managed to overshadow this monumental information.
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Other things I’m obsessing over…
-Max |
Killer Left Take of the Week |
KLTW goes to Dark Kyle Kulinsky. I initially had a video lined up of Kyle bodying Gavin Newsom for getting crushed on his own podcast by Ben Shapiro. But then I saw clips of Kyle on the Piers Morgan show and decided to pivot. So honorable mention to the gutting of Newsom and full KLTW to this appearance instead. To be clear, I think Piers Morgan is a waste of space and his debate show is a waste of fucking time. That being said, it does produce some golden moments and this was one of them. If you’re not familiar with Michael Knowles you are living your best life and good for you. You can still enjoy this segment. If you are familiar with him then you will thoroughly enjoy this. I’m not sure what’s happening with the dark glasses but it somehow added to the fun when Kyle Kulinsky repeatedly dunked on Knowles and concluded a rant by making blowjob noises and calling him a cuck. Honestly, more of us should be handing out glasses of shut the fuck up for these guys to sip on.
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Chart of the Week |
Well, it’s finally happening. The inflation crisis and rising bond yields in Japan are presaging capital outflows from U.S. Treasuries. |
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Source: MacroMicro
Looking at the inflation picture in Japan you might think these are relatively innocuous considering what we’re living through. But these are generational increases for the Japanese people who have been living in a stagnant and sometimes deflationary environment for a couple of decades. With real wages not keeping pace, there is a sense of shock among Japanese consumers who aren’t used to these trends. In an effort to put downward pressure on inflation the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has been steadily raising the benchmark interest rate. But as we have seen here in the United States, the bond market has its own ideas about where things are headed. |
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Source: MacroMicro
The issue for the United States, as we’ve been discussing since the summer months, is capital repatriation. For decades now investors have been taking advantage of a depressed Yen that provided an arbitrage play when converted to U.S. Dollars. Those dollars were then reinvested into U.S. treasury bonds, giving investors a slightly better bang for their buck. Or Yen.
Now that Japanese yields are offering higher returns, that money isn’t coming back to the United States. Not to mention the weakening U.S. Dollar. As one of the largest buyers of U.S. debt this is, shall we say, less than optimal.
Now is when the crosscurrents develop into a fog. With the titans of finance all gathering in Davos and Trump’s Greenland gambit sucking the energy out of the room, Japan’s 30-year bond just blew a gasket. |
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Source: MacroMicro
If you watch the players in Davos in interviews you can actually see the panic beginning to creep into their faces. This is officially a “situation” and it will undoubtedly change on a daily basis so we’ll leave it at that for today. Oh, but if you’re in the stock market I wouldn’t worry. The “Sell America” narrative is all about the bond market. The stock market is gonna do what it does because there are fewer and fewer places for big money to hide. |
Headlines |
On the streets and in the courtsI made the point in the “Unstoppable” episode that battling Trumpism is a multi-front fight. Now that he has unleashed his personal gestapo on American citizens and is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, our very lives are at risk in the streets. Non violent protest cannot be eliminated but citizens must take every precaution. The other battleground is in the courts where organizations like the ACLU are doing everything possible to slow the administration down. Supporting orgs like the ACLU goes a lot further than donations to the DNC.
From the article: “With immigrant rights, trans justice, reproductive freedom, and more at risk, we’re in courts and communities across the country to protect everyone’s rights — and we need you with us..”
ACLU: Defeat, Delay, Dilute: ACLU Versus President Trump
Onshoring NeoliberalismWhen neoliberalism works in our favor we look the other way. When the worst tendencies of it come home to roost, we cannot be surprised. You can be horrified and dismayed, but not surprised.
From the article: “One crisis eclipses another not because they are unrelated but because meaning itself is being strategically dissolved, emptied out, and walled into rhetorical silos. Violence becomes episodic, power becomes opaque, and citizens are trained to react rather than analyze, conditions that enable dangerous forms of authoritarian governance and fascist politics to take hold.”
Counterpunch: The Disconnected Present: Neoliberal Fascism and the Politics of Erasure
When the crisis turns existentialHistory offers glimpses into how the future might be saved. This article examines three distinct, albeit imperfect responses to crises, to show how coalitions can be built to beat back the most pressing threats to democracy. Even if they’re temporary.
From the article: “Facing the Great Depression — and under pressure from mass movements — President Franklin Roosevelt forged a coalition of labor unions, Southern Democrats, urban liberals and, eventually, parts of the Black electorate. Though rife with contradictions, the coalition delivered unprecedented reforms that reflected popular demands (to end widespread social misery) along with elite aims (to stabilize capitalism).”
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Resources |
Pod LoveAbby and Robbie Martin break down Trump's insane act of war against Venezuela–bombing Caracas and kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro.
Sometimes it’s just nice to hang with Abby and Robbie. - Max
Media Roots Radio: Three More Years of Neocon Hell Brought to You by MAGA
Book LoveDrawing on previously obscure reports and government documents, renowned security expert Michael T. Klare shows that the U.S. military sees the climate threat as imperiling the country on several fronts at once. Droughts and food shortages are stoking conflicts in ethnically divided nations, with “climate refugees” producing worldwide havoc. Pandemics and other humanitarian disasters will increasingly require extensive military involvement. The melting Arctic is creating new seaways to defend. And rising seas threaten American cities and military bases themselves.
All Hell Breaking Loose by Michael T. Klare
Unf*cker Comment of the WeekFrom @gfan099: “Plug for Working Families and DSA? I was unaware of your based-ness. You got a sub from me!” |
Progressive Corner |
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