The Gulf of America? Greenland? Panama Canal?
So far, the only thing 2025 is delivering is a lot of extreme weather and false promises
What you’ll read about in this post:
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on fixing the economy, ending the wars in Ukraine and Israel, conducting mass deportations, and controlling the border. How come he’s talking about … colonialism?
West Virginia government behaving badly: misspent money, a threatening delegate, and maybe a threatening delegate in leadership.
The extreme weather is giving many teachers flashbacks to 2020 and remote learning. Education is not in a great place, for many reasons.
“What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.”
— Barack Obama
Manifest Destiny Reborn?
In 10 short days, Donald Trump will reenter the White House. He’s only the second person to serve two non-consecutive terms as president, and his 2024 campaign was marked with so many lofty promises. Deporting millions of illegal immigrants. Lowering prices and rates of inflation. Stopping the ‘woke’ liberal agenda (whatever that actually is). Cutting taxes. Lots of red meat promises for the conservative base and a very populist appeal.
While Trump and his transition team prepare to return to Washington, one might expect that they would be announcing plans to tackle those issues. But instead, Donald Trump gave a briefing last week where he rambled about a number of foreign policy takes that seemingly arrived out of nowhere.
Trump maintained that the United States wanted to buy Greenland, reclaim control of the Panama Canal, and annex Canada. If that wasn’t enough, Trump advocated for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. What? Why?
I don’t believe that Trump has any intention of carrying out these policies, but since he will become the president on January 20th, you can’t ignore his words. Moreover, it’s concerning that Trump said he would not rule out military force in achieving these ends. Trump maintains that Greenland and the Panama Canal are crucial to the national security of the United States.
Well, Trump is correct in asserting that Greenland does have an important geographic location in relation to the United States. It might be a concern if Greenland (largely autonomous but still part of Denmark) was an enemy, but it is not. Perhaps more importantly, the United States has maintained an air base in Greenland since World War II. We already have a presence to check any aggression.
With respect to the Panama Canal, it’s widely understood that this waterway provides an important shipping land through Central America that saves significant amounts of time and money. The canal generates billions in revenue for Panama annually, and it’s estimated that about 40% of the shipping traffic is American. However, the American government surrendered control of the canal to Panama in 1999. By what right can we demand a property we should have never controlled in the first place? (For additional information, read up on how Teddy Roosevelt supported Panamanian independence from Colombia in exchange for canal rights.) This entitled attitude is precisely why many nations don’t like the United States.
And adding Canada? Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t so popular these days but I’m sure his thoughts on an American merger were well received. He stated, “There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”
Trump’s rumination regarding the Gulf of Mexico is much like these other oddball statements. There are reasons why Trump is likely going off the reservation.
First, these antics are a distraction from the real issues within the United States. The nation has the ability to strike anywhere in the world at virtually any time. We maintain military bases in dozens of foreign lands, have no powerful enemies in the Western hemisphere, and possess air and naval superiority over virtually every nation on the planet. Our ability to protect ourselves is not a concern.
Trump’s choice of words also demonstrates an old tactic of throwing ‘red meat’ to the more rabid supporters of his unique right-wing politics. A segment of Trump’s voters have an ultra-nationalist perspective, and for them, this colonialist vibe is America’s destiny. It’s no different than Manifest Destiny, or the Roosevelt Corollary. They would love to see America assert itself and exploit weaker nations.
Politicians from differing perspectives claim that Trump is using these outrageous statements as a means of jostling world leaders. Trump has long claimed that other nations take advantage of the United States and this is his way pushing back. While I can’t say if this is true or not, it certainly is not a diplomatic approach which will win many friends.
Taking the approach of harassing neighbors will do more to push them away rather than bring them into the American orbit. The next four years should be … something?
West Virginia: Where leadership is lacking
State government is never dull in West Virginia, and we’re seeing some wild examples of that in the last few weeks. I doubt anyone envisioned seeing an Ohio based college receiving $5 million of West Virginia tax dollars, but that’s where we are right now.
The College of St. Joseph the Worker, a vocational Catholic school in Steubenville, Ohio, received a grant from West Virginia to expand into Weirton. That, by itself, might not have garnered too much criticism. Yet, the grant came from the West Virginia Water Development Authority (WDA). Yes, that really does say Water Development Authority. What does a vocational college from Ohio have to do with water development? Nothing, as far as I can tell.
Funds from this grant program must be connected to economic development and infrastructure in some capacity, but I find it frustrating that there are places in West Virginia which do not have access to clean drinking water and our government gives an enormous grant to an out-of-state Catholic college.
Delegate Pat McGeehan (R-001) assisted St. Joseph’s in the grant application process, which tracks with the fact that McGeehan is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. McGeehan’s assist to a conservative religious institution makes sense in light of his Twitter feed, which frequently laments the death of the Western world.
Regardless, it’s an insult to the people of the state that a legislator would help guide funds to an area for which it was not intended. The Republican leadership has not seemed put off by McGeehan, whom the GOP appointed as the new House Majority Leader. Though McGeehan’s actions amount to a misallocation of money, this shines in comparison to his fellow party members.
Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call from the home of Delegate Brandon Steele (R-042) just days before Christmas. Apparently, Steele’s wife called police and reported that her husband was intoxicated and armed with a rifle. When police arrived to the Steele residence, the report noted that Steele was in possession of two AR-15 style rifles. The delegate explained to police he perceived vehicles driving by their home to be a threat. Regardless, alcohol and firearms do not mix. The situation was further complicated by the fact that news of this incident broke on the same day the Republican Party announced Steele would chair the House Judiciary Committee. They might want to walk this one back.
And finally, in the realm of insanity, the House of Delegates voted to vacate the seat won by Joseph de Soto, a Berkeley County resident who won a seat last November, but never had an opportunity to take his seat. De Soto is currently under home confinement, awaiting trial for making threats to other members of the House and their families. Last year, de Soto faced criticism for his false statements regarding his work, education, military career, and work history. Despite knowing this information, Berkley County residents still elected him. Good job, guys.
Education Problems Abound
Last week, the new year dumped several inches of snow and ice on Southern West Virginia. Counties implemented Non-Traditional Instruction Days (NTIDs), or a form of remote learning, for the entire week. It gave me flashbacks to 2020 and the pandemic. Not a fun time for teachers. The time away from the building also provided reminders about the problems in education. What are we seeing?
• AI is crushing students and teachers. If you aren’t familiar with ChatGPT and other software like it, it’s something to behold. For those late to the party, ChatGPT is a language model that has a compendium of information and access to information on the internet, so that you may type any question and it can provide the answer. The earlier versions weren’t as reliable, but the rate of improvement is impressive. More recent iterations of the software also include the ability to generate images based on a description, or to make a picture based off something a user uploads.
Students quickly learned to use AI software to their advantage. They not only ask questions, but use AI to write essays or complete other assignments or tasks they believe to be too menial.
This is obviously stressful for teachers, who now spend more time trying to determine if a student is actually completing work, or having a machine do it for them. This problem extends to students, as well. Children don’t see it, but they will need knowledge and skills in higher education and careers. Not learning now creates a steeper deficit and learning curve in the future.
• Remote / Online Classes do not work for most students. Most states offer a virtual school program which students can complete from home in lieu of attending a typical ‘brick-and-mortar’ school. However, children lack the self-discipline necessary to read, review, and complete the assignments prescribed.
We should have learned this during the pandemic, but for some reason, we haven’t abandoned this concept. Even at colleges and universities, online classes exist because they bring in a substantial amount of money.
• Society views education as an obstacle, rather than an opportunity. I have no idea when this happened, or how to cure it, but students look at assignments as boxes on a check-list that they just complete. They don’t see school as an opportunity to learn. It leads to students not putting the requisite effort into work. To a degree, the students are mimicking what they see from society.
• Schools are primarily social institutions now. Remember when the focus of a school was to educate students? That ship sailed a long time ago. For reasons I can’t fully process, society continues to require schools to help children in ways beyond teaching traditional academic subjects.
Schools teach children about financial literacy, sex education, job skills, suicide prevention, bullying, etc. Schools provide social services like a daycare for teenage parents. We have food and clothing pantries. Social workers and psychologists spend considerable time in the buildings. Many schools employ a resource police officer. Health clinics are built into new schools and see students.
Teachers spend less of their day instructing students about content with every passing year. I understand that kids need many of these services, but in providing those, we’re often doing so at the expense of the real mission of a school.
• Society won’t make the necessary changes to help education. This is the conclusion I’m left with, right now. Why not? Because it will require radical modifications to the current system, and that’s something society never tolerates well.