america DOESN'T like us anymore

Image: Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone

US to its allies, including Canada:
"I don't want to play in your yard; I don't like you anymore ..."

Video from movie Reds.[YouTube]
Once there lived side by side Two little maids, Used to dress just alike, Hair down in braids,
Blue gingham pinafores, Stockings of red, Little blue bonnets Tied on each pretty head.
When school was over, Secrets they'd tell, Whispering to themselves, Down by the well.
One day a quarrel came ... (more)

Nice to be reminded of a song I used to sing when I was a little girl. And I imagine the US will continue to holler down our rain barrel whenever it suits them.

(Also: I learned a new (to me) catch-phrase today in an unexpected place: It's "self-licking ice cream cone".)

Strategic Culture: It's Time for America to Cut Loose Our Useless So-Called ‘Allies’

• The US ‘needs’ allies for the sole purpose of defense against purported threats not to us but to those very same allies. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone.
• In his own unvarnished, zigzaggy way, Trump may well be doing what he said he would: putting America and Americans first. As he has said, that does not mean hostility towards other countries, whose leaders have a duty to put their countries and peoples first as well. It means both stopping our allies’ sandbagging us, while restoring to them their unsought-for – and for many of them, undesirable – sovereignty and independence.

Despite the exceedingly rough edges, the old American narcissism remains. It seems to have been especially aroused by the tariffs issue raised at the G7. The impression left is that other countries (including Canada) are getting an easy ride at the largesse of Uncle Sam's reps.

In other words, you and I, fellow Canadians, are welfare cases who need to "get a job".

Like the Coke commercial: "I'd like to teach the world ..."

At first I thought, "I'm going to have to stop reading Strategic Culture's articles if they're going to be insulting in such a coarse, Trumpish manner. But then I thought, well, actually, being pro-Trump doesn't seem so bad when it's not rabidly anti-Russia.

And I do have to agree somewhat with this headline:
‘Not a Single Adult in the Room’: How G7 Was Reduced to Infighting, Arm Wrestling & Anti-Russia Hysteria

Trump clearly wasn't the only dolt in the room. Whatever happened to the dignity and sagacity we used to expect in world leaders? Traits, I might add, that Putin and his ministers unfailingly demonstrate under the most trying circumstances.

As to the "self-licking" catch-phrase, I believe the most accurate meaning is: "has acquired a life of its own", as seen here, and which, although written in 2011, refers to the still-raging war in Yemen.  One commenter pithily stated: "*cough* $ *cough*"  Looks as if I'm not the only one who doesn't believe America has inserted itself in that battle as a reluctant display of magnanimity.

If the average American household is deprived  of some necessaries by the gaping maws of their purported allies, you can be sure that certain non-average Americans are being lifted even higher on the hog, or else the wars would cease in a heartbeat. As it is, the Saudis buy a lot of weaponry from the good old US of A. And so does Israel, after receiving its huge annual handout (see image below).

You can't convince me that America is protecting Canada from anything at all. And if their displeasure with us came to blows (it's not as if we haven't been there, done that before -- and WON!), I bet Russia would give us a hand. That is, if we could get rid of the Russia-bashers in Parliament, one of whom is also the latest ouch in Trump's butt re NAFTA, and has been roundly called out herself by another Strategic Culture writer -- not to mention having allowed herself to be photographed at her witchiest.

Maybe Minister Freeland ought to reconsider her hatred of Russia?

I've probably said this before, but, for me, the best scene in the movie Reds was where Journalist Jack Reed, played by Warren Beatty, was invited to a rich old boy's club and asked to speak about "what this war is all about". He stood up, uttered a single word, "Profits" and sat down again. And the look on his face when he said it was,"I can't believe you're asking me this."

Time to re-read "War is a Racket" by Major General Smedley Butler:

• A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of  the  very  few,  at  the  expense  of  the  very  many.  Out  of  war  a  few  people  make  huge fortunes.

Whoever is the driving force behind Trump has long-range plans that, in fact, do appear to include Russia, regardless of Trump's current pretense. The US is not retiring its chimera "ISIS" (or by any other name) until Russia is surrounded on as many sides as possible.

​Because US hegemony is a self-licking ice-cream cone.

Image: http://stoptheblankcheck.org/