This is embarrassing. The Associated Press reports,
President-elect Donald Trump told residents of Greenland that “we’re going to treat you well” as his oldest son visited the mineral-rich Danish territory that’s home to a large U.S. military base, heightening speculation that the incoming U.S. administration could seek to acquire it.
The president-elect later told a news conference he wouldn’t rule out using military force or economic coercion to take control of Greenland, saying that “we need it for national security.”
Earlier, the president-elect posted a video showing a TRUMP-emblazoned plane landing in Nuuk, the Arctic territory’s capital, in a landscape of snow-capped peaks and fjords.
“Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland,” Trump wrote. “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” Supporters later posted video of Trump speaking by phone to locals.
Just look at the headline on this mess:
The 56,000 inhabitants of Greenland must be getting alarmed. But was there some groundswell of demand for annexing Greenland I never noticed? Who other than Trump wants this? And what makes me suspect Putin put the idea in Trump’s thick head?
And, of course, he’s still talking about invading Panama and making Canada a state.
Anyway — in other news, Jack Smith was preparing to release his final report on Donald Trump by this Friday. This is a two-part report, one volume on J6 and one on stolen documents. Yesterday Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the Justice Department may not release the report. (Some news stories have her blocking the documents part, but other says she’s trying to block the whole thing.) I take it there is question whether Loose has the authority to block either part of the document. So we’ll see what happens.
Two fucking inches, two lousy fucking inches!
It was an act of God. Jesus reached our with a finger to deflect it.
There's a couple of things going on. First, Trump wants to be the center of attention. Jimmy Carter threatens to dominate the news (and should, particularly the contrast in style and ethics.) Second, Jack Smith may be able to release the reports on Trump and he's trying to suppress. But Trump not only wants to suppress the report, he wants the media to report something else.
The other cute tantrum was the suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America. Combine that with the threat to annex Canada and he's insulting both neighbors. I'm not sure but long after Trump has moved on to annoy other countries, the resentment will linger.
My observation about WWII is that Hitler proved he could beat anybody, but he could not beat everybody. Trump is doing a nifty job of uniting the world against the USA. I don't expect a military conflict but a global embargo against the USA will hurt the US more than it will hurt the rest of the world.
I moved to Bluesky and I'm trying to figure it out. But the Big-Z can kiss my fuzzy ass.
Good for you. Get out of the Nazi porn bar. Scott Galloway gets credit for calling the F***book a Nazi porn bar. He has much wisdom.
I'm on Bluesky, too. It's more like Old Twitter than Old Facebook, but I never really got into Twitter. So I'm not sure I'll ever be all that active on Bluesky, either.
I'm going to give Bluesky a try, too. The problem is that I have a long standing group page on Facebook dedicated to the people who were part of the opening of UCSC with me. I don't want to end it – and, from what I've read, Bluesky doesn't have that type of thing.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Fellow Slug here (1976-1985). What's the name of that FB page?
Mr. Trump may not have noticed that Denmark is in NATO and Denmark is a member of the European Union. An invasion of Greenland activates Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty and Article 47(7) of the Treaty on European Union. So in one swoop, Trump puts the USA at odds, more or less at war, at with 35 countries including Canada, its next door neighbour, and Türkiye, usually described as having the second largest army in NATO.
I have not checked trade figures but if we take the EU, plus those NATO countries not members of the EU, such as Canada and Türkiye, I suspect we are talking real money.
I don't think Trump understands international alliances or what NATO really does. He's always talked about NATO as if NATO countries are supposed to pay the U.S. to protect them. Right now he's on some kind of high thinking he's about to become all-powerful and unstoppable.
I don't *like* Trump's [baldly transactional] perspective on NATO, but he's not entirely wrong.
OTOH, Western European countries may have always thought it went the other way, that we were supposed to pay them for allowing huge US military bases in their countries (and for entertaining young US soldiers…).
If Trump is serious about annexing Greenland (and Canada?), it's not for Putin, it's for US Oil Corps. IMO, that makes the whole thing far more dangerous.
Global warming is turning the Arctic Ocean into a new theatre of The Great Game (superpower strategic competition). Until recently, it has generally been useless, impassable territory, but now it is becoming (1) a new, shorter, faster, cheaper route for maritime trade, and (2) highly valuable land for resource extraction.
US Oil Corps expect to find profitable deposits under and around Greenland as it melts (while ignoring the problems that will cause elsewhere…). I'm betting that they are the ones who put this bug in Trump's ear. It's an inevitable 'business decision'; they would violating their moral obligation to their Shareholders (blessed be their money) if they *didn't* give Trump a Billion Dollars in exchange for the Trillions they will get from drilling Greenland.