By Any Means Unnecessary: President-elect Trump, R-Vitalis, is openly talking about taking certain territories, not the least of which are Canada, Greenland and select cuts of Panama — by force, if necessary. All part of the Trumpification of North America.
Hammer Thinks: Wow. Seems … pushy.
On the Other Hand: If he’s really going to do it, how about taking by force some things that are truly worth having, especially given what’s surely to be rampant bleating by all the existing residents?
Like, You Know: Paris. The Alps. Vienna. The spa-equipped parts of Iceland. Costa Rica. Etc. (Seems like we could get a list from Rick Steves.)
And What About: Hawaii? Oh wait, already been there, done that.
Big Picture: It ought not be forgotten that the USA has demonstrable trouble managing the territories it already stole. There’s such a thing as too much. So perhaps DJT should consider the rule imposed here in the Fourth Corner by Mrs. Hammer: For every newly acquired thing brought into the domain, something else has to go.
Hammer Suggests: Starting with Florida, moving on to Mississippi, and working in a straight line westward to the Pacific. Sorry San Diego and Reno, we hardly knew ye.
Closer to Home, Yet (Way) Farther Afield: Not sure about everyone else, but 2025 seems simply daunting. The Trump re-ascendency would be bad enough, with all these exotic new, previously unknown rare species being discovered all over the globe, then dutifully reported by The Bellingham Herald’s “X” social media feed.
Seriously: Should we be taking appropriate precautions from previously unimagined levels of novel bacteria — and/or search-engine optimization run amok?
Couple More Thoughts on That: It must be nice to have that sort of reporting reach and depth. And we can’t argue that this ongoing coverage truly does qualify as unique local news.
Collisions Pending: Two items of note from this week’s news coverage: The City of Bellingham discussing creative ways to seek and find more state funding for various programs. And everyone from the governor to the janitors in Olympia warning in no uncertain terms that the cash cow was long ago milked dry. It’s the ill-considered thought that counts, right?
Who Knew? Dept.: Trump’s blabbering about tariffs is causing justified dyspepsia along the northern border, largely due to scale: British Columbia imports as much as $7 billion in state goods annually (sorry, no, that’s not Canadian dollars.) And, as business writer Frank Catalano notes, another $5 billion in goods flows the other way, to the north.
You’re Way Ahead of Us Here: Yes, surely most of that cash flow is milk from the Bellingham Costco.
The Hammer, posted monthly and updated somewhat regularly, is the alter-ego and collective consciousness of CDN’s executive editor and staff, informed and inspired by the feisty, humor-capable readers of Cascadia Daily News. Don’t take him too seriously. Send comments, complaints or ideas for Hammer items to ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com.
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