Trump in Davos

In Roman days the Emperors surrounded themselves with flatterers who fawned over every word they said while the slaves and the overly ambitious were kept in their place through fear of the legions, the lash or crucifixion. But these “rulers of the world”, who were worshipped as gods, realised that terror was not enough. The generals and the patricians with their vast estates and hordes of slaves had to spread some of it about with free food, blood-soaked ‘games’ and the ferocious races of the arena to entertain the well-to-do and keep the poor and the slaves happy. These days the “leader of the free world” simply relies on brute force and economic blackmail to get his own way and gives little or nothing back in return.
Donald Trump, who seeks to “Make America Great Again” largely at the expense of his European allies, did little to mask his contempt for  them at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. At Davos he tried to belittle and brow-beat them into handing Greenland over to the United States. He’s now settled for some sort of deal that will give the Americans more military bases in the Arctic territory as well as exclusive rights to the mineral wealth that supposedly lies under the ice-caps of the Danish territory. 
Trump is getting on. He’s frail and may well be losing his marbles. But the hard-headed industrialists, hi-tech tycoons and the leaders of the energy corporations who stand behind him are not. They are well aware of the fact that Starmer and his friends in France and Germany are clearly hoping to stand-still all the American president’s initiatives until Trump’s final term of office ends to prolong the proxy war against Russia that the Europeans fear is going to be settled over their heads in secret talks with Putin.
These people put Trump into the White House in the first place. When Trump goes they’ll find another to do their bidding. They don’t want the Democrats or the “new world order” though we can see that they certainly want some sort of oligarchal “new order” for the United States.
Starmer and the leaders of Franco-German imperialism seem to think that they pulled one over The Donald by making him lose face over Greenland and boycotting his rubbishy “Board of Peace” which the White House wants to supervise the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. That, of course, remains to be seen.

Burnham’s call

The resignation of a Manchester MP has paved the way for a comeback for the Mayor of Greater Manchester at the by-election in a safe Labour seat which Andy Burnham needs if he is ever going to make his bid for the Labour leadership. Starmer’s gang and the ageing Blairites who surround him have already launched a whisper campaign against Burham who has done little to mask his political ambitions in recent days. But Starmer has been warned by backbenchers and union leaders that any stitch-up to prevent Burnham potentially returning to Westminster would split the party. If that happens the Greens and the Corbynistas are waiting to pick up the pieces...