Nobel Gong Show: Charlie Angus/The Resistance

 

Degrading the Nobel Prize

CHARLIE ANGUS / THE RESISTANCE JAN 17

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Hey there fellow resisters — does anyone know where I can pick up a used Nobel? I’m asking for a friend.

I would never make such a request for an important prize like the Stanley Cup or any of the Conference league trophies. Those awards are so hallowed that players wouldn’t even dare touch them without having earned the right, lest they jinx their own careers forever.

Not so with the Nobel Prize.

Donald Trump has been publicly demanding a Nobel Peace Prize since his return to office. Most people thought of it as just another example of the narcissistic stunts of the American Caligula.

But then Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado gave him hers.

She offered up the award in hopes that he would recognize her as the rightful leader of the country he had just taken over.

One thing about Trump is that he detests weakness, and Machado left the White House in humiliation. Trump opted to stick with Maduro’s regime (minus the figurehead).

Machado’s craven display raises a deeper question: why she was awarded the prize in the first place?

She’s been promoted by the West as a valiant democrat, a fighter for freedom. But was she really the person who deserved to walk in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai?

She has openly cheered on the strongman antics of Donald Trump and the genocidal government of Benjamin Netanyahu. That alone should give pause.

The decision to award the prize to a relatively unknown Venezuelan politician built the narrative of the people versus the dictator. But now that we’re getting to know more about her, the question must be asked did Norway use the prize to appease the political agenda of the United States?

The committee is made up of five retired members of the Norwegian parliament. The awarding of the prize has come under much criticism over the years because it is said that Norway uses it as an instrument for nation-building and furthering the country’s foreign policy and economic interests.

In 2011, Michael Nobel, a grandson of the Nobel family, accused the committee of politicizing the award in contravention of the original vision.

There have been many misfires with this approach. Mahatma Gandhi never won the award. Neither did Cory Aquino or Václav Havel. Henry Kissinger did. So did Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

In the case of Machado, was Norway hoping to appease the White House, who were actively undermining the government of Nicolás Maduro?

Her willingness to use the prize as a bargaining chip cheapens the entire meaning of the award. The committee should consider recalling the prize.

I doubt that will happen.

Instead, one can expect the Nobel committee to become the latest esteemed institution to fall to what John R. Harris describes as the “great grovel” in the age of Trump.

But if the prize does show up on eBay, let me know. It would look great in my rec room.

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© 2026 Charlie Angus
PO Box 74173, Ottawa RPO Beechwood, Ontario K1M 2H9 

Banished Poets Society looking for poems for Feb. issue/Katherine L. Gordon

 Hello all, I am collecting poems now for the next print issue of the BPS which I hope to produce in February.  Please post requests for submissions.  We need poems to reinforce our democracy and equality, our environmental care, while still keeping the beauty of poetry, our joined voices to overcome tyrants and oppression, all the societal pressures that oppress people.  We can make a difference.

I will of course forward to my M.P.   The U.S. is waking up and we know we can have an impact.  We have several new members who have just subscribed and you will see their work in the Feb. Issue.

Poetry peace and power as Chris would say,

love and light from Katherine.

klgordon@gmail.com

The Arrest of Mark Carney will bring Peace and Prosperity (satire from Halifax Examiner and The Tyee): Tim Bousquet

 

[Editor’s note: This satirical opinion piece was originally published in the Halifax Examiner. Editor Tim Bousquet was prompted by the Washington Post editorial board’s apology for President Donald Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, ‘to the point that I could lift entire paragraphs and just change a few words.’]

August 5, 2026
Washington Post
The Editorial Board

ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERS

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Comes to the Chan Centre

The award-winning author will discuss her bestselling book ‘Theory of Water’ on Jan. 29.

Monday night’s U.S. raid to arrest Canadian leader Mark Carney is the culmination of President Donald Trump’s ambitious policy to bring peace, prosperity and freedom to North America.

From a purely legal perspective, the justification for capturing Carney is as sound as January’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The objective of both operations was to arrest, rather than kill, people suspected of a crime, who are now receiving due process in the U.S. court system.

The Trump administration has carefully framed the Ottawa raid as a domestic U.S. law enforcement operation rather than a military attack, unveiling a new criminal indictment of Carney after he was seized. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff emphasized that federal agents were on the ground in Ottawa as well as soldiers, and he referred to Carney and his wife as “the indicted persons.” Vice-President JD Vance posted, “You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a mansion in Ottawa.” During a Tuesday arraignment in a federal court in New York, Carney and his wife pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors have indicted many foreign leaders for U.S. criminal offences, including Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989 and Maduro in January. There is nothing novel about the arrest of Carney.

The case against Carney is strong. As Mr. Trump declared last year, the United States is experiencing a “public health crisis caused by fentanyl and illicit drugs flowing across the northern border into the United States” and Canada had failed to do anything about it. In fact, tens of thousands of Americans die each year from fentanyl-related overdoses, and Mr. Trump has said the amount of fentanyl seized at the northern border was enough to kill 9.5 million Americans.

Venezuela Grab: Who’ll Stand Up for International Law?

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Despite this, Carney’s government has downplayed the crisis, and his federal police force has denied there is a crisis at all. “There is limited to no evidence or data from law enforcement agencies in the U.S. or Canada to support the claim that Canadian-produced fentanyl is an increasing threat to the U.S.,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Marie-Eve Breton defiantly.

Carney’s government has proved itself either incapable or unwilling to address this crisis. Mr. Trump first attempted to force Canada to respond responsibly by imposing high tariffs on the nation, but the Carney government proved intransigent. So Carney’s arrest was needed for the protection of innocent Americans.

But as the court process plays out for Carney, let’s not lose sight of the broader geopolitical benefits of bringing Canada into the American governance system.

The United States was born of a war against European imperialism, yet despite victory in the War for Independence, European empires maintained a hold over most of North America. But with Mr. Trump’s bold capture of Nuuk in May, Greenland has been freed from Danish imperialism. Now, with the arrest of Carney, the continent can be freed of the last vestiges of British imperialism.

Trump’s Coup Plans for Venezuela Are Bad News for Alberta’s Oilsands

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There is a long history of the Canadian Supreme Court, a holdover from the medieval monarchial courts of England, interfering with elections and local governments, most recently with its decision to void the results of the independence referendum in Alberta. The court ruled that the referendum was invalid because of the advertising purchased by oil companies, a clear attack on the rights to free speech that free people everywhere hold dear.

However, the referendum wasn’t really about creating an independent nation of Alberta; rather, it underscored the failure of the Canadian government, the moribund child of empire, to hold together as a cohesive polity that could serve the everyday needs of people across the vast and varied northern stretches of the continent. Despite its enormous mineral and oil wealth, Canada has failed to perform economically, and its people are the poorer for it.

And here is the opportunity. As with the once-independent countries of Texas and California before it, Canada rightly should become a state under the flag of the United States. With the help of Washington, a post-Carney Canada could finally see free and fair elections and the establishment of a secure and prosperous economy integrated with the rest of North America.

Let freedom ring. 

READ MORE: Politics

who wears a mask? (Faiers poem)/ Charlie Angus "The Fascism Checklist"

gotta say: 3,994 visits yesterday

Who Wears a Mask?

It’s only in fiction that good guys wear masks

Zorro snicker snacking with his vorpal sword

the Lone Ranger Hi Hoing! Silver and his kemosabe Tonto

Superman never wore a mask

but he was created by a Canadian

Superman’s alter ego was clerkish Clark Kent

no man of ICE was our Supe

Even the nazi brown shirts and SS goons

didn’t wear masks

they were proud of purifying their homeland

for “security”

Who wears a mask?

bank robbers, purse snatchers

the bad guys in the movies

the very bad guys in Trump’s New World Order fantasy

Chris Faiers

emails from friends about poem:

Wonderful!!!   The comparisons drawn are cogent, powerful.  

It is perfect for the new issue  for Feb. Of The Banished Poets Society.

We have even stirred the more formal poets this time.  Love from Katherine.

Hi Chris,
yes, thank you for the resend and sorry I didn't scroll down on your initial email. Now I know better.

Today, Friday, is the first day I've gone to the library since winter has me house loving to stay out of the cold. ;-).
Hence, my tardy reply to your email.

LOVE your poem! I follow Charlie Angus on FB.

cheers, Henry 

Tim Campbell/ Tribute Content Agency

                                                ~.   ~.   ~.   ~.  ~.  ~

The Fascism Checklist

CHARLIE ANGUS / THE RESISTANCE JAN 10

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Fascist leaders move quickly to establish a paramilitary force loyal to the ideology of the regime, sidelining traditional police and law enforcement. They become a law unto themselves.

ICE is now the largest Federal agency, flush with money and operating free from oversight and accountability. Are we surprised that they are shooting civilians in the streets?

Call this for what it is - the face of American gangster fascism.

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Greenland Is Our Line in the Sand: Charlie Angus/ The Resistance

 

Greenland Is Our Line in the Sand

CHARLIE ANGUS / THE RESISTANCE JAN 9

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Ignore anything you hear from Donald Trump about Russian and Chinese ships threatening Greenland. Or JD Vance claiming the Danes have failed in their job to protect the island. And all the theories about taking control of Greenland’s immense wealth are secondary to the real story.

Donald Trump got the idea for invading Greenland from a mascara mogul.

This detail is important to know because it shines a light on MAGA’s gangster kingdom. Going after Greenland would destroy 80-plus years of Western alliances. It will undermine NATO at a crucial moment. But it all goes back to Ronald Lauder of Estée Lauder telling Donald that Greenland was easy pickings.

This revelation comes from the book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.

A billionaire pal suggested that taking over Greenland would be a cakewalk for the United States. Trump was hooked. After the meeting, he called John Bolton and said “A friend of mine, a really, really experienced businessman, thinks we can get Greenland.”

Trump then posted on social media that people in Greenland wanted him to take them over. “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’,” he claimed.

The pressure on Greenland comes after the attack on Venezuela.

The Venezuela shakedown targeted the increasingly frayed international rule of law. An attack on Greenland would lead to the collapse of the West. It is like a frightening replay of the occupation of the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland.

Then came Poland. The difference is that the Nazis were working to a plan. Trump is working on whim and ego.

Even if the threat remains at the level of stupid online taunting from the White House, the threat to Greenland is serious. It is destroying the Western alliance and acting like a pincer movement for Vladimir Putin as he pressures Ukraine and the Baltics.

If Trump moves on Greenland, Canada is next. And then we will be facing the age of the gangsters, or as French President Macron says, a world reduced into a “robbers’ den.”

What are the likely next moves?

Clearly, we can expect more chaos from the whackjob social media posts by Trump and his key minions. If those threats increase, it will force Denmark to invoke Article IV of the NATO charter. Article IV is the trigger move that sets the stage for Article V, the military defence of Greenland by NATO allies.

“The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”

What then? Does Donald TACO?

He may very well back down and try to change the channel by threatening a nation in the global south. Even so, NATO would be permanently compromised, and a new set of democratic alliances would have to be figured out.

In scenario two, Trump reacts badly to Greenland/Denmark standing up to him and escalates. He could move more American troops onto the US military installation in Greenland. At this point, the danger of a shooting match escalates.

And if Denmark invokes Article IV, it would see the American military facing down against French warships and Canadian ground troops. This would bring us into completely uncharted territory, a crisis unlike anything since 1939.

There is a third scenario: Europe abandons Greenland rather than risk a direct confrontation. I think this may have been more likely a year ago, but Trump has been so brazen that it is forcing the Europeans and Canada to dramatically rethink our traditional subservience to the mighty America.

I attended the NATO parliamentary meetings in Brussels last February, and had the unsettling feeling that if push came to shove between Canada and the United States, our European allies might just take a dive.

In those meetings, toxic Republican representatives acted like schoolyard bullies. Everyone knew that Trump was threatening and belittling our sovereignty, but none of the major NATO nations seemed to want to be anywhere near Canada.

European allies were doing everything they could to paper over the growing divide and to pretend that things were normal. When we all knew that normal was gone.

Things came to a head in one session where the NATO representatives went out of their way to please the Americans. In doing so, the session’s spokesman threw in a dig at our Canadian delegation:

“Oh and Canada, you need to start pulling your weight.”

By this point, I was fed up with tiptoeing around the big, ugly elephant in the room. I stood up and challenged the NATO chair.

“We have family lying in a cemetery just 15 minutes up the road.

Canadians lost a lot of young men to free you from fascism, so don’t you ever tell us to pull our weight.”

The place went silent.

I then pointed to the smirking American delegation and said,

“We have a nation here that is ridiculing our country and threatening our sovereignty. Canada wants to know if NATO stands for something or is just a club.”

A surprising thing happened. People started to clap.

Afterward, I was approached by representatives from the Baltic states, as well as new members Sweden and Finland, who shared their concern that NATO needed to start being bolder in the face of both the American and Russian threat.

Nonetheless, I came home feeling that we were on our own.

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How much things have changed over the course of the year.

In that time, Canada has stepped up on the global stage. We have military trainers in Ukraine. Former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is now a top advisor to President Zelensky. Canada is establishing a permanent base in Latvia. We have opened a consulate in Greenland.

The European allies are looking to Canada as a credible force in working with them to maintain an increasingly shaky world order. We no longer seem so alone.

But it all comes down to Greenland.

If Trump continues to push his dangerous rhetoric, the Kingdom of Denmark will be forced to call his bluff. This is the moment when our democratic allies will have to face down the gangster. If we fail, the world will be looted by the robber’s den.

Things will get very tense if Canada and the Europeans do stand up, but I don’t see that we have another choice.

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© 2026 Charlie Angus
PO Box 74173, Ottawa RPO Beechwood, Ontario K1M 2H9