I awoke pretty tired yesterday after the exertions of the day before but I am pleased to have the weekly shopping done and out of the way. But the world is waking up to the fact that Donald Trump is determined to get his hands on Greenland, if only for the self-aggrandisement of bring able to paint a map of America which is much bigger in terms of land mass than it is now. The US president knows no European nation would seriously try to stop him by force because they would lose. He is also probably gambling that Washington could get away with an Arctic land grab, as the rest of NATO needs the US more than he needs them. Of course, diplomatic charm offensives or backroom deals may yet prevail, but the uncomfortable truth when it comes to Trump’s calculations is that he has a point. Decades of over-reliance by most NATO nations on American fighting power, weapons, and technology mean the ability of the transatlantic alliance to defend itself without the US (let alone counter a threat from Washington) has become dangerously compromised. So we are living in a world that predates WWII in which military powers such as Hitler’s Germany thought they could overrun and annexe any adjacent territory at will. But the world as a whole is unwilling to confront Trump because in the last analysis there is no European force that could match the military might that Trump could bring to bear. The population of Greenland is only about 57,000 being the same size as a medium size town in the UK.
My Tai Chi classes are resuming tis week and it really was ‘touch and go’ whether I turned up to attend it. There were only five of us there this morning instead of the usual dozen and I gather that black ice had deterred some people from attending. After a break of at least a fortnight, I found the session left me with some aching muscles but, in the. event, I forced myself to go. After our session I had a coffee with a chap who is a similar age to myself and who since his wife died seems to open up the premises and act as a general caretaker most mornings. I was joined by a lady whose company I would not have actively sought as she seems to be one of lifer’s perpetual moaners whatever the topic of conversation turns out to be. She pointed out to be that since she had moved to Bromsgrove from elsewhere in the Midlands, she had found it very difficult to make any new friends and given her constant demeanour of always finding fault with the things and people around her, I was not particularly surprised. I paid a quick visit to Aldi to buy some more of the non-alcoholic wine I bought yesterday and given it was so cheap yesterday (and I suspect they had underpriced it by 80% according to a newspaper review I read of it) I was dismayed but not at all surprised to find that the entire stock had gone. After I returned home, I hunted out some of the risotto I made on New Year’s Day and that is my lunch for today.
The piece of video evidence that has emerged on the liberal social media channels in the US is genuinely shocking. It shows a mother, in Minneapolis aged 37 stopped in her car by agents of ICE (Immigration and Enforcement Control) who, when she reversed her car in a three point turn and tried to escape in her car, was shot three times (once through the windscreen, twice through a side window) The ICE agents refused to let a nearby doctor attend to her to see of she could be saved. The White House have immediately put out a tendentious statement, totally at variance with what the video clip displays saying that the woman had weaponised the car, was trying to injure an ICE agent and then they shot her ‘in self defence’ But the video clip shows an ICE agent attempting to open the door of a slowly moving car before the driver was shot and she had clearly panicked and was effecting a three point turn and then trying to escape. Naturally community tensions are now running very high and, in the opinion of many with a multitude of not well trained ICE agents roaming the streets of big American cities pulling in anybody who appears non-white, this was an accident waiting to happen. But what is so striking is the vicious condemnation of the shot woman and a justification for the killing which looks absolutely spurious when the video clip of the incident is played over and over again. I suppose if the residents of Minneapolis came out in their thousands, they could force the ICE agents off the streets but then a quasi-civil way would be in progress.
At the moment, we are all hunkering down and waiting for the huge storm to hit us later on this evening. According to the weather apps on our phones, we can expect the storm to start at about 8.00 in the evening and then carry on for most of the night. Storm Goretti – the first named storm of the year – hits the UK tonight and is bringing with it a ‘weather bomb’. The phenomenon, also known as explosive cyclogenesis or bomb cyclone, can result in snow and winds strong enough to bring down trees and cause structural damage. The process has been likened to when ice skaters spin faster by drawing their arms in, according to the Met Office. So no doubt we shall have to wait until the morning dawns to see what dump of snowfall we have had. I have just received through my email an invitation to join a group of U3A (University of the Third Age) members on a visit to Jodrell Bank radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in late March. I have filled in an email form for this but have to wait until I discover if I have been lucky enough to secure one of the (no doubt) coveted spaces.I joined the U3A group late last year after Meg’s passing but this is just the sort of organised trip which it really is too good to miss – we get transported there and back by coach leaving from Bromsgrove bus station to which I can easily walk (if I am fortunate enough to secure a place)