Trump wants to buy Greenland

[SaltyTiger 7,762]

2 hours ago, homersapien said:

But making the statement that Greenland is not melting because you flew over it and didn't notice it, is seriously stupid.

Does not look like it is melting to me. You guys seems exaggerate at times.   

[japantiger 4,051]

2 hours ago, AU64 said:

Let's see.....since it sounds like the residents own the place......or that Denmark has questionable ownership........how about offering every family $1 million, immediate US citizenship, lifetime exempt from Federal Income Taxes and extend their ownership rights to their existing property.  

Make an offer and encourage a referendum on the matter...…  Who knows, we might end up with the island. 

Pretty good deal.  It would be a bargain. 

[TexasTiger 12,808]

12 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Does not look like it is melting to me. You guys seems exaggerate at times.   

Greenland expert weighs in.

[homersapien 11,353]

16 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Does not look like it is melting to me. You guys seems exaggerate at times.   

Salty I really thought you were better than this. 

 

[SaltyTiger 7,762]

On 8/18/2019 at 1:13 PM, homersapien said:

Salty I really thought you were better than this. 

 

I guess not Brother Homer.

Very nice gesture of President Trump to be interested in buying Greenland. I mean we could just take it.

Understand it is rich in minerals and natural resources. May as well grab them before they melt. What do you think? 

[japantiger 4,051]

Priceless

 

Donald J. Trump

 

@realDonaldTrump

 

I promise not to do this to Greenland!

 

 

 

7:07 PM · Aug 19, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

[AU64 10,122]

Gentrification.....looks like Greenland could use a little of it.

[TexasTiger 12,808]

What a child:

 

[TexasTiger 12,808]

On 8/20/2019 at 7:22 PM, TexasTiger said:

What a child:

 

Dude is unhinged. Any reasonable person should be able to see that.

[homersapien 11,353]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:55 PM, SaltyTiger said:

I guess not Brother Homer.

Very nice gesture of President Trump to be interested in buying Greenland. I mean we could just take it.

Understand it is rich in minerals and natural resources. May as well grab them before they melt. What do you think? 

Yeah, I have given up on you.  Don't know if you have got progressively worse or if I've been too forgiving of your nonsense - maybe I just never really took you seriously.

Anyway congratulations.  I am now taking you seriously.  You are a genuine loser.  I feel sorry for you and yours.

[homersapien 11,353]

Trump’s Denmark saga of the absurd

First you get yourself invited to a state visit in a friendly allied country. Not just a visit of the usual sort: a state visit with a banquet by the queen and all the pomp and the ceremony that can be mustered. Hundreds of people start working on all the elaborate preparations necessary for these grand occasions. Monarchies take these things seriously. The palace is properly prepared to receive the dignified guest. Everyone starts polishing.

Then you suddenly launch the idea that it might be fun to acquire parts of the territory under that particular monarch. Just a simple property deal, really. You don’t actually inquire discreetly whether this idea would ever fly. Instead, you launch it straight out in public without any warning. Perhaps that’s the way property deals are done.

The authorities of the country in question are slightly taken aback. Losing territory wasn’t really on their agenda, and in these days, it’s not normally part of the concept of friendly state visits. They say in no uncertain terms that the land is not for sale.

Up until this point, it’s all pretty absurd, as was pointed out.

But then it goes beyond the absurd. The self-invited guest suddenly cancels everything and says if he can’t get his property deal and the territory he wants, he sees no purpose for the state visit. Everything is off. Tons and tons of preparations are just scrapped.

One could have thought this was something out of some saga from the Middle Ages. Whether it actually ever happened in those dark centuries I don’t know, but it is not entirely inconceivable. At least in the world of the sagas.

But it wasn’t a saga from a distant and bizarre past, but the present reality of the president of the United States and the queen of Denmark.

And in the modern world, I’m rather certain it is unique for one head of state to make an official visit to another head of state conditional on the latter being prepared to hand over some territory. It wasn’t just absurd — it was beyond the absurd. Rest assured that people all over the world have been shaking their heads in disbelief.

Apart from the surreal theater of the entire thing, and the profoundly insulting behavior toward a long-standing and loyal ally, the issues of Greenland and the Arctic are serious indeed.

But it’s certainly not exchanging territories that is the way forward. Greenland is not for sale, and neither is Svalbard or Iceland. Instead, the necessary way forward is developing cooperation between all the stakeholders of this vast and challenging region to address challenges that are common to all of them. And climate change and its effects are by far the most serious of them.

When the United States in the form of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turned up at the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council in Rovaniemi, Finland, he spent most of his energy attacking China and ended up vetoing the communique that had been agreed upon by everyone else. The reason? It mentioned climate change, and that was not acceptable to the Trump administration. All others had been discussing little but the rising temperatures, which are happening two or three times faster here than anywhere else on Earth.

All the others issued the paper agreed between them anyhow. Pompeo flew away, saying he was on his way to Greenland. He didn’t show up — he canceled the visit.

Canceling visits now seems to be what remains of Arctic policy for the United States. Perhaps just as well. All other countries are keen to try to prevent Greenland from turning green again. We would all suffer the consequences.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-denmark-saga-of-the-

absurd/2019/08/21/c6cc6880-c44c-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html

 

•  

[homersapien 11,353]

And the Idiot-in-Chief doesn't even understand that Greenland is not owned by Denmark in the first place.

 

Trump Has Defected

The president crossed an important line when he canceled a meeting with the Danish prime minister.

 

Yesterday, President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with the new Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, because she refuses to discuss the sale of Greenland. Greenland used to be a Danish colony but now belongs to the people of Greenland—the Danish government could not sell the island even if it wanted to. Trump likely did not know that Denmark is one of America’s most reliable allies. Danish troops, for example, fought alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered 50 fatalities, and Danish forces were among the earliest to join the fight against the Islamic State.

Many Americans may laugh off Trump’s latest outrage, but Trump crossed an important line. It is one thing to float a cockamamie idea that no one believes is serious or will go anywhere. “Let’s buy Greenland!” Yes, very funny. A good distraction from the economy, the failure to deal with white supremacy, White House staff problems, or whatever is the news of the day. It is quite another to use leverage and impose costs on Denmark in pursuit of that goal—and make no mistake, canceling a presidential visit is using leverage and imposing costs. What’s next, refusing to exempt Denmark from various tariffs because it won’t discuss Greenland? Musing on Twitter that America’s defense commitments to Denmark are conditional on the negotiation? Intellectual justifications from Trump-friendly publications, citing previous purchase proposals and noting Greenland’s strategic value and abundance of natural resources? (That last one has already happened.)

This is the kind of thing the Russians and the Chinese do. It is territorial revisionism—the use of national power to acquire territory against the desire of its sovereign government and its people. The use of leverage would also call into question the U.S. commitment to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which is the cornerstone of stability in Europe. In it, all parties, including the United States, commit to “refrain from any demand for, or act of, seizure and usurpation of part or all of the territory” of all states in Europe.

The cancellation of Trump’s visit to Denmark is part of a disturbing pattern. Trump regularly beats up on and abuses America’s closest democratic allies while being sycophantic to autocrats. His staff has followed suit. In July, for example, Trump hounded British Ambassador Kim Darroch out of his job. This followed two years in which Trump and his administration sought to undermine Prime Minister Theresa May’s government at every turn. Trump has been scathing in critiques of Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel. The U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, never misses an opportunity to criticize his hosts. The U.S. ambassador to Poland publicly called for U.S. troops to be moved from Germany to Poland. Trump has reportedly said the European Union is “worse than China, only smaller.” Several senior U.S. officials have also attacked the European Union, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

Meanwhile, Trump writes autocrats and wannabe autocrats blank checks. In May, Trump called a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to complain about a bipartisan letter asking the president to raise concerns about democratic backsliding in his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. When the two leaders met, Trump instead praised Orbán in front of the press and expressed no concern. He has also embraced the Brazilian strongman Jair Bolsonaro. The Trump administration has gone out of its way to help Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, ride out the storm following the brutal murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He can’t say enough nice things about the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He has done worse than nothing on Hong Kong, secretly promising Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would not condemn a crackdown and calling the peaceful protests by more than 1 million Hong Kongers “riots.”

And yesterday, on the day he canceled his visit to Denmark, he said he favored Russia rejoining the G7 without mentioning any preconditions, which would have the effect of abolishing one of the only forums for major democracies to meet with one another.

The Danes, like the British and the Germans before them, will downplay this latest episode. They value their alliance with the United States, and their governments will take whatever abuse Trump metes out to them in the hope that better days will come. However, this strategy may not survive if Trump wins a second term on his “America First” platform. At that point we can expect U.S. withdrawal from NATO and a partnership with Russia to be on the table.

One uncomfortable truth is already inescapable. Free societies and autocracies are at odds with each other—over human rights, the rule of law, technology, freedom of the press, the free flow of information, and territorial expansion. At this particular moment, it is not sufficient to say that the free world is without a leader. He has actually defected to the other side.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/trump-defects-autocrats/596518/

[SaltyTiger 7,762]

37 minutes ago, homersapien said:

 

But then it goes beyond the absurd. The self-invited guest suddenly cancels everything and says if he can’t get his property deal and the territory he wants, he sees no purpose for the state visit. Everything is off. Tons and tons of preparations are just scrapped.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/feb/04/ted-cruz-donald-trump-would-nuke-denmark-if-he-were-president-vid

Ted Cruz speaks to reporters in New Hampshire on Wednesday and asserts that rival Donald Trump is not fit to lead the country. The Republican presidential hopeful says that, if his fellow candidate were to be elected, ‘We’re liable to wake up one morning and [he] … would have nuked Denmark’. Cruz beat Trump by a narrow margin in the Iowa caucuses on Monday

[AU64 10,122]

Reading that the Danes were contacted about this issue quite a while before it became a media circus..  Apparently not interested and of course a polite "not interested" would have been a good response....not the snarky comments that came from some Danish pols.   

As for the trip.....if they have no interest to discuss the issue, there is no reason for DT to waste time and fuel making a trip to visit an otherwise relatively unimportant country.  JMO but why is that a big deal.....

[homersapien 11,353]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Reading that the Danes were contacted about this issue quite a while before it became a media circus..  Apparently not interested and of course a polite "not interested" would have been a good response....not the snarky comments that came from some Danish pols.   

As for the trip.....if they have no interest to discuss the issue, there is no reason for DT to waste time and fuel making a trip to visit an otherwise relatively unimportant country.  JMO but why is that a big deal.....

First, it was Trump who turned it into a "media circus".

Secondly, Greenland is a sovereign state with self-rule.  So if Denmark was previously contacted for a purchase - which I totally doubt - their response would have undoubtedly been we don't have the right to sell Greenland, you would need to first ask them.  (It is my understanding that Denmark was contacted with an offer for the U.S. to take over the subsidies Denmark provides Greenland. I don't know the results of that proposal.) 

Thirdly, the trip Trump was to have made to Denmark wasn't for the purpose of discussing the "purchase" of Greenland.  It was a state visit.

Finally, Denmark has been an ally to the US for over 100 years.  They had troops in Afghanistan in support of the US, many of whom were killed.

Trump committed an ignorant, undiplomatic faux pas by making this public.  The Danish prime minister was perfectly justified in calling it "absurd" because it was absurd.  Trump's reaction in cancelling his visit was immature and insulting.  It was not in our country's interest.  He was indulging his fragile ego.

Don't just suck up the administration's spin on this fiasco.

[homersapien 11,353]

Trump just nixed his Denmark trip. Does he fear Obama will humiliate him?

 

President Trump has now canceled his planned trip to Denmark, claiming he’s doing so because Denmark’s prime minister has shot down his “proposal” to buy Greenland. But is that the real reason he has nixed the trip?

Some observers have offered another possible explanation: Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, plans to visit Denmark at the end of September, and Trump feared the contrasting optics.

“Trump was scared of the likely contrast,” opined David Frum. “Trump knows Obama is bigger than he is, around the world as well as in the United States. That knowledge tortures Trump.”

Several things are immediately striking about this episode. First, it’s a measure of how low we’ve all sunk that, in trying to explain why the president of the United States is making a consequential decision involving an official state visit, we’re forced to choose between two competing rationales that have nothing whatsoever to do with international diplomatic considerations or our national interest.

Notably, the official reason for the cancellation is nearly as saturated in narcissism and megalomania as the “less” flattering Obama-oriented explanation is: Trump is either angry that Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is not taking his suggestion seriously, or he’s embarrassed by it — or both......

Read the rest at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/21/trump-just-nixed-denmark-trip-does-he-fear-contrast-with-obama/

 

[TexasTiger 12,808]

The man makes all his followers look stupid, weak, craven or some combination of the three.

[AU64 10,122]

JMO but sooner or later someone other than Denmark will own Greenland.....Russia and China are making serious efforts to gain control of key areas ….and the US is stupid if it does not try to own what is essentially part of North America. 

[TexasTiger 12,808]

44 minutes ago, AU64 said:

JMO but sooner or later someone other than Denmark will own Greenland.....Russia and China are making serious efforts to gain control of key areas ….and the US is stupid if it does not try to own what is essentially part of North America. 

That’s why the next President should seize all Trump golf courses around the world and trade them for Greenland.

[homersapien 11,353]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

JMO but sooner or later someone other than Denmark will own Greenland.....Russia and China are making serious efforts to gain control of key areas ….and the US is stupid if it does not try to own what is essentially part of North America.

Then we should approach the people of Greenland and their government with a proposition to join the U.S., not ask Denmark to "sell" it to us, which they don't have the right to do.  

 

[augolf1716 21,096]

4 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

That’s why the next President should seize all Trump golf courses around the world and trade them for Greenland.

His courses are worth about maybe $500 million would that be enough?

[TexasTiger 12,808]

1 hour ago, augolf1716 said:

His courses are worth about maybe $500 million would that be enough?

We may have to throw in Bryant-Denny.

[augolf1716 21,096]

12 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

We may have to throw in Bryant-Denny.

That would downgrade the overall worth of the courses