Trump seeking to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine” is further evidence of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, experts and members of his administration say.
“Past administrations perpetuated the belief that the Monroe Doctrine had expired. They were wrong,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a speech on Saturday.
“The Monroe Doctrine is in effect and it is stronger than ever under the Trump Corollary, a common sense restoration of our power and prerogatives in this hemisphere consistent with U.S. interests.”
That strategy has been most visible in U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea since September, which have killed nearly 90 people so far, as well as a U.S. military buildup near Venezuela.
Source: Global News December 8/25
On January 3, 2026 the United States invaded Venezuela and kidnapped President Maduro and his wife. In honour of this breach of international law ,US President Trump has renamed the Monroe Doctrine the Donroe Doctrine.
Big Stick policy, in American history, policy popularized and named by Theodore Roosevelt 26th US President as an update to the Monroe Doctrine asserted U.S. domination when such dominance was considered the moral imperative. The Western Hemisphere remains a predominantly U.S.sphere of influence.
Source: Britannica
Excerpt from National Security Strategy of the United States of America November 2025
The Trump Corollary
A. Western Hemisphere:
The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.
Court Painter seems obsessed with painting more white elephants .
Meanwhile his trusty Press Attache AHM read and recommends this article by Max Fawcett where he sets up the premise that Prime Minister Carney knows the pipeline will never get built while achieving concessions that help advance his government’s climate agenda far more than anything the previous federal government managed to achieve in, and with, Alberta.
Premier Smith & Prime Minister Carney appear to tussle in the elephant room.
Click link for National Observer November 27th 2025article by Max Fawcett
‘This MOU strikes me as one giant wink to the climate community — one that commits Ottawa to supporting an oil pipeline Carney knows will never get built.
That’s because Smith and whoever steps up as its proponent will still need to negotiate with impacted First Nations.
They would have to negotiate with BC Premier David Eby, who will be looking ahead to the next election and the prospect of rallying his base around fighting back against another Alberta oil pipeline.
And, most importantly, they will have to convince the oil and gas industry to invest in the sort of high-cost growth projects that would be needed to fill the pipeline.
That isn’t going to happen.
Court Painter’s pictorial rendering of the reasons an oil pipeline will not get built.
The oil and gas industry may have deliberately cultivated a reputation for itself as a place defined by risk-taking and swagger, but today’s oil and gas sector is run by glorified spreadsheet jockeys who consistently shy away from even the smallest quantum of uncertainty.
And while they might support the political ambitions of Premier Smith and the UCP, but they have a legal fiduciary duty to their shareholders — one that requires them to seriously assess the prospect of things like peak oil demand and its impact on any new projects they might want to build.
The MOU, then, is textbook Carney. By telling a political adversary what they wanted to hear, he’s gotten them to agree to something he needs.
A white elephant
He’s effectively daring Danielle Smith to do the work required to get her coveted pipeline built, knowing full well she can’t actually do it.
But Smith’s concessions help advance his government’s climate agenda far more than anything the previous federal government managed to achieve in, and with, Alberta.
For a guy who wasn’t supposed to be a natural politician, he’s turning out to be pretty good at it — better, even, than the one he replaced. ‘
Alberta Premier Smith strikes a triumphant pose over a smiling PM. Carney
Court Painter resting after his prodigious pachyderm painting production.
Court Painter tried as best he could to follow the recent news of Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signing a major new energy co-operation agreement on Thursday, outlining the conditions that need to be met for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific to proceed.
However, Court Painter was distracted by a major commission for The Sourpuss Sceptic Society, which includes two paintings featuring a beautiful white elephant. The society is expected to eventually gift these works individually to the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada for a substantial tax write-off.
The Gilded Burden So let this serve as warning, all beware The venture that doth charm with surface show: For often hidden costs and ceaseless care Are all the fruit that such fine seeds will grow. Then shun this prize whose lustre is but gloss, And count thy greatest gain to bear no loss.
Author: Dee P. S. Eek (DeepSeek)
Governments of Alberta & Canada decide to share the white elephant.
GOP lawmaker demands $300B in defense dues from Canada
HALIFAX — Republican lawmaker Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says it’s all good and well that Canada is finally meeting its NATO defense spending commitments, but Canada should make up for two decades of back dues — to the tune of $300 billion.
“Can we do a makeup payment for the 20 years of shortfalls as well?” Tillis told a Saturday panel at the Halifax International Security Forum, a international gathering of defense officials and security professionals.
Court Painter and his entire studio team was royally roiled by this asinine assertion and promptly assembled a team of on-the-spot newly credentialed forensic economists to lay out some facts for Senator Thom “Twit” Tillis.
Court Painter operates the Canadian calculator with skill and accuracy!
The Court Painter Forensic Team including Press Attaché and forensic opinionist AHM, alongside part-time studio forensic economist Chatterley Histrionic Abernathy Thunderbuns (Chat GPT)—got out their trusty calculators to determine how the USA has and continues to siphon billions each year from the Great Dominion’s economy.
While it must be pointed out that economists traditionally enjoy a certain latitude with precision, the Court Painter’s forensic team nevertheless claims far more reliability than U.S. Senator Thom Twit Tillis’s much-discussed—but entirely fanciful—spreadsheet of “makeup payments” (which can readily be read as “made-up” payments) supposedly owed by Canada.
Court Painter points out the obvious Canadian response to US financial demands.
The CP Forensic Team confirmed that Alberta’s oil revenue losses are far from trivial. The culprit is the WTI–WCS differential—a price gap so volatile it could justify its own monitoring system. Because it constantly fluctuates, there is no single, stable figure for “how much Alberta loses by selling discounted oil to American buyers.” However, by reviewing historical data and applying standard industry analysis, the team found the losses can be severe: $10 billion to over $20 billion CAD in a single year during periods of significant disparity, with 2018 standing as one of the worst years on record.
For Alberta’s government, this translates into hundreds of millions—sometimes billions—in forgone royalty revenue whenever the differential widens dramatically.
Not content with examining a single economic pressure point, the studio’s crack forensic team of bright lights also turned to the impact of:
Removing Canada’s Digital Services Tax (DST). Designed to ensure major digital platforms contribute fairly to the Canadian marketplace, eliminating it would mean forgoing an estimated $1.2 billion in annual federal revenue.
To this, one must add the financially stressful imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminum, steel, lumber, and auto production:
Aluminum and Steel: These tariffs have cost Canadian producers hundreds of millions of dollarsin lost revenue, legal expenditures, and market instability.
Lumber: The recurring softwood lumber dispute has extracted billions from the Canadian forestry sector over the years, as duties disrupt trade and prolong legal battles.
Automotive: Threatened and actual tariffs on vehicles and components have destabilized a sector worth tens of billions, compelling manufacturers to adjust supply chains and absorb additional costs.
The Court Painter economic forensic team’s findings resemble a hybrid of swindle and shakedown!
Summary:
Oil discount losses: $10–20+ billion CAD annually in severe differential years
Alberta royalty losses: Hundreds of millions to billions
Eliminating the DST: $1.2 billion in federal revenue lost annually
U.S. tariffs on aluminum, steel, lumber, autos: Billions in cumulative economic impact
While the Court Painter economic forensic team readily acknowledges the imperfect nature of economic estimation and figure fudging, the financial consequences themselves remain unmistakably—and consistently—a substantial burden on the fine citizens of the Great Dominion imposed by policies of the United States of America.
PM Carney expected to respond to US back dues demand with a four letter word!
Hark, attend! For I shall speak of that stark duality known to mortal eyes as “black and white.”
In its most artless form, it is but the raven’s plume set against the driven snow, the inky scroll upon a page of purest parchment. Yet, this pairing doth oft escape the Court Painter’s pot to clothe the very stuff of his simple thought.(anonymous)
“In black and white,” for the Court Painter, harks back to a simpler time when… well… everything was simpler!
President Donald Trump met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
The Blood Bros’ hands intertwined before the world, a witness to their corrupt embrace!
Court Painter in a ruthless attempt to monetize the situation. quickly put up the still wet painting at auction.
President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fondle each other’s bloody hands as corrupt blood bothers hand in hand!
President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fondle each other’s bloody hands as corrupt blood bothers hand in hand!
As a reminder:
Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi[a] (13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist and editor. Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.[8][9][10][11] (Wikipedia)
Liberals clear high-stakes confidence vote to pass federal budget, avoid holiday election
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority Liberal government narrowly survived its third confidence vote in as many weeks on Monday, passing the federal budget by a vote of 170-168 and staving off a holiday election.
Court Painter captured the key vote that meant the Great Dominion would avoid a Christmas election.
The Hollow Men (1925) has had a profound effect on the Anglo-American cultural lexicon. An obituary for the author T.S. Eliot stated that the last four lines of the poem are “probably the most quoted lines of any 20th-century poet writing in English.”
This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.[1]
Source: Wikipedia
Which brings to mind…
Spicy Article Nov 17/25 by CAROLE CADWALLADR Peter Thiel Gets Out of Dodge
“Welcome to the Great AI Bubble, a metastasized trillion dollar tech tumour so massive it’s practically visible from space.”
And today, in a strange bit of timing, news lands that Peter Thiel – the closest thing the modern world has to a real-life Bond villain – has dumped his entire holding in Nvidia, the chip manufacturer. That’s the company which, alongside OpenAI, sits at the very centre of a trillion dollar…gamble. Or, as some people are calling it, a bubble. A bubble that could upend the entire US economy.
Naomi Klein wrote an entire book called “The Shock Doctrine” which detailed how all capitalism is “disaster capitalism”, an economic system that exploits global shocks and human misery to accrue ever greater wealth and power for the few. And this is what she posted this morning:
Michael Burry, the legendary investor at the centre of Michael Lewis’s book on the financial crisis, The Big Short, shocked the market last week. He also decided AI’s a bubble and he took action: shortselling not just Nvidia but also Palantir. And now Michael Burry has take even more dramatic action. He has closed his entire investment fund saying, “My estimation of value in securities is not now, and has not been for some time, in sync with the markets.” Business Insider reports he also left a “cryptic message” on Twitter:
This is the way the bubble bursts This is the way the bubble bursts This is the way the bubble bursts Not with a whimper but a bloody bleating bust!
Anonymous
Court Painter with recent image of Sam & Bubble Burst
Court Painter runs a prolific yet unprofitable celebrity portrait business.
With rumours of an AI bubble bust how can Court Painter protect his business interests if AI billionaire investor clients suddenly become mere millionaires.
Facing a bleak financial future for many of his inner circle of friends and clients, Court Painter has called upon the studio’s resident financial expert, D.Eep S. Eek (DeepSeek), to outline a business survival strategy, designed as protection from the impending bubble burst boosted by browbeating brainiacs.
Executive Summary: Post-Bubble Business Continuity Strategy for Court Painter
Situation: Court Painter faces significant revenue risk from potential client wealth reduction (“billionaires to millionaires”) amid AI bubble speculation. Current business model relies on high-discretionary-spend clients.
Core Strategy: Pivot from selling luxury portraits to offering irreplaceable experiences and tangible assets. Position as the “anti-AI” alternative emphasizing human craftsmanship and permanence.
Key Initiatives:
Brand Reinforcement
Amplify “human touch” narrative against algorithmic art
Document artistic process through content marketing
Emphasize material permanence and heirloom quality
Introduce tiered service offerings (Masterwork → Executive → Signature)
Expand to generational family portraits and corporate commissions
Value Proposition Enhancement
Reframe portraits as tangible assets with provenance
Maintain premium pricing for top tier as Veblen good
Highlight scarcity (limited output of single artist)
Financial Risk Mitigation
Implement 50% non-refundable deposits
Establish staged payment schedules
Include cancellation protection clauses
Outcome: Transforms business from vulnerable luxury service to resilient provider of enduring value, leveraging market contraction to strengthen brand positioning as timeless master craftsman.
Summary: The Pivot in a Nutshell
From (Bubble Economy)
To (Post-Bubble Reality)
Selling a Status Symbol
Selling an Heirloom Asset
Product: A Likeness
Experience: A Collaborative Journey
Client: The Nouveau Riche
Clients: Old Money, Institutions, Legacy Families
Price: Opaque & High
Value: Transparent & Justified (Tiers)
Reliance on Discretionary Income
Appeal to Permanence & Investment
By executing this strategy, Court Painter doesn’t just survive the bubble bursting; he thrives because of it. The crash would cleanse his market of competitors who are merely fashionable and reaffirm his position as a timeless master of a sacred craft. The newly “mere millionaire” clients will still want to commission him—they will just need a better, more profound reason to do so. He must give them that reason.
