I am wondering… (2/2/25)

I am wondering if, today, somewhere in the Pentagon, at the Department of State, or in the Ministries of Defense in Canada and Mexico, they are doing those “tabletop” risk simulations.

I am wondering if they are gaming out the probability and the possible timeline of a shift from tariffs, to trade wars, to cold wars (think “ice curtain” to the north, “sand curtain” to the south), to hot wars. (Yes, the shooting and bombing kind–the current SecDef says all options are on the table for Mexico, is everything also on the table for Canada too–after all, “the fentanyl”)

I am wondering what the Quebecois will do to resist being part of the 51st state?

I am wondering what all the other Provinces and Mexican states will do too?

And, I am wondering if they will simply cut off federal funds flowing to blue states. (I mean, they are already messing with our water. Easterners simply do not understand that you cannot mess with California water.)

I am wondering what that will do to our “union.”

I am wondering, actually, if they will go more “surgical” than that and punish us by voting district, sparing the red, cutting off the blue. Or, might they even access the data on how I voted and cut me off–everything from tax refunds to future social security benefits?

I am wondering who will respond, and how, when we (inevitably) march by the hundreds of thousands in San Francisco like we did before the Iraq war.

I am wondering if they will order us to be shot.

I am wondering who will do the shooting.

I am wondering if I will stand up and be counted.

I am also wondering how long it will take for the red to find out they were just cannon fodder, too.

And, I am (honestly) wondering if there is a pact–maybe explicit, maybe tacit–to divide the planet into spheres of influence. China gets Asia and Australia, Russia gets Europe, the US gets the Western Hemisphere and (of course) Greenland, and the “tech bros” who bid the highest get limited access to all of it in one way or another. And will there be fiefdoms in the Middle East that get fought over later? And how long will the pact last?

I am wondering which current craven Senators or Reps will be appointed proconsuls to these vast new territories when they come online.

I am wondering how much more bowing to power it will take for them to secure those jewels.

And, I am wondering if this is all just the plot of a near-future dystopian sci-fi that I read sometime last year.

And, I am wondering if Bruce Cockburn had all this in mind when he sang

Used to have a country but they sold it down the river
Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder

Yeah, I am wondering about all these things on 2/2/25.