Get ready, Western Hemisphere!

So, Trump has unequivocally shown his contempt for international law, just as he had already shown his contempt for American law, by committing an act of war against Venezuela.

Map of the Western Hemisphere by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez

He’s now denying that this is war, but he declared it himself only a month ago. (While I speak of Trump in this article, it is often of Trump the puppet as he is not the leader, as I explain later.)

Prof Christina Pagel has done a brilliant analysis of all the signs of the immediate build-up to the Venezuelan invasion - both the strikes and the supporting actions.

Trump and his allies may not have had any plan for Venezuela after invading it other than keeping control of its oil (perhaps more to prevent other countries from having it than using it itself) and perhaps other natural resources, but that has not stopped him from looking to expand his empire. His goal is to rule the entire Western Hemisphere - using his own definition of what that is. He has a sharpie. He’s not above redrawing the map to suit himself, though he needs to take care not to poach from Putin or Xi.

Trump made that clear in his “National Security Strategy of the USA“ as I describe in my article “National Security Strategy of the USA - part 3 of 3“.

Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are in the Eastern hemisphere but have territories in the Western hemisphere. The UK is mostly in the Western hemisphere with territories in the Eastern hemisphere. France and Spain actually straddle the border, as does the Mediterranean sea. More details in the Wikipedia page. The people who orchestrated Brexit have already gone a fair way to divide Britain from continental Europe. And I am sure that Trump would love to control our North Sea oil and gas.

Trump has already threatened many countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Greenland, Iran and Cuba. He also has his greedy eyes on the Panama canal and Canada. He’s attacked the UK, where I live, over its climate and North Sea oil & gas policies, illegal aliens and an alleged threat of sharia law.

One can admire the skill of the US military during the invasion of Venezuela - even if deals were made to ease its path - while deploring its actions. No doubt it would have more (but probably not total) success in carrying out further invasions for Trump. But clearly the decapitation of the JAG officers, the constant playing of Fox News on bases, and the Christian Nationalisation of the military have all led to the military’s failure to uphold the constitution that they all swore to protect, since they followed illegal orders.

Great Britain had an army of civil servants to run its colonies. Trump does not have that. However, Britain also had the help of corporations such as the East India company. No doubt multinational corporations like Palantir would be happy to help Trump, and they have already acquired much of the information and control that they need to do so. Will every invaded country be taken over by DOGE, leaving the people too poor to fight?

It’s all a plot

A variety of right wing documents have laid out right wing plans. The Trump administration has already achieved nearly half of the aims of Project 2025 in under a year.

Prof Christina Pagel’s article above shows just how many threads had to come together to successfully invade Venezuela.

The more all these threads tie together, the more I think that there is a powerful organisation arranging this. We have long known that the likes of the Heritage Foundation with their 4-yearly Mandate for Leadership have wanted an American hemisphere, but there is more and more evidence that somebody has taken their ideas and actually set in motion all the actions needed to achieve it. It is not Trump, he is just a useful puppet for this stage of the plot, and as he spends so much time tweeting and golfing, he clearly isn’t masterminding events. At the moment he is their most useful tool, but he is also a weak link with his erraticism and poor health and increasingly low popularity. No doubt they have a plan for if he fails. I think a lot of his senior people and supporting billionaires can be ruled out, as many have shown themselves to have their own agendas and to be too hot-tempered and/or ignorant. More likely there is a cool, calculating mastermind or group working quietly behind the scenes, like the wealthy businessmen behind the “Business Plot“, whose mistake was to try to recruit Smedley Butler to carry out their plans. This time, instead of trying to recruit an honest man, they have appointed their own people at the top of the military, and fostered right wing nationalism among its members so there would be compliance.

And perhaps the masterminds are from the same families and/or circles as the Business Plot participants.

What it means for Europe

Trump plans to take what he wants from Europe - Greenland, for example - and to let Putin have the rest. Greenland is the large island (the largest) to the north west of the UK. Trump has repeatedly threatened to take Greenland. One of the reasons is that Greenland is part of a NATO country, Denmark, and that act could be the end of NATO.

Britain, in the Western Hemisphere, has already been split off from Europe by the English Channel and by Brexit. It has oil and gas and the City. No doubt Trump wants it. Right wing organisations and influencers both American and British have been doing their best to weaken it for years, the same way that America was weakened, with the help of Putin. American-owned multinationals among others have been buying up - or buying their way into - British infrastructure, for example Palantir.

He intends that in any trade deals, America will be on the winning side. Wars can be economic, for example the cod wars.

By taking Putin’s side over Ukraine, Trump is ensuring that Europe will be at war with Russia, or preparing to be, and will not be able to fight on a second front against America. Why else would he take the losing side?

What to do

First of all, there is strength in numbers. European leaders, including Britain, should show a united front. This will not be easy since Hungary is on Putin’s side, for example.

Secondly, countries need to beef up their military hardware and troop numbers. As Ukraine has shown, sufficient quantities of hardware can make a big difference. Perhaps if they had got more, the Russians would have been beaten back. But it need not all be large, expensive equipment. Ukraine has managed to fight back with drones and ingenuity. After nearly 4 years and the loss of massive numbers of troops and amounts of hardware, Russia has not made any significant advances against a much smaller, weaker country in 4 years. On the other hand, Russia has in effect taken over America without firing a shot. Countries need to work on drones and cyber warfare, and defence against them, and to help each other.

Prof Christina Pagel’s article shows that it is possible to track Trump’s actions to get some idea of what he is going to do next - he often blurts out his plans, but without any indication of which plan he will carry out next. Actions speak louder than words. The arrival of American military planes in the UK may be in relation to a Venezuelan tanker, as news outlets suggest, but it ain’t necessarily so. Only looking at what else he is doing will give a clear idea, so intelligence is very important.

And European citizens should make their feelings known, to strengthen the resolve of their leaders, and make preparations for hard times with food shortages at times.

Make no mistake, everyone who has let this bully get away with anything during his life - let alone supported him - is, unless they were under a threat that they dare not risk, partly responsible for the mess we are in now. That goes for everyone from his parents and teachers to backers, toadies and current world leaders. Everyone should do whatever they can to deny Trump success and to protect themselves.