Big daddy Trump

[Ivan Denisovich]

^ The "Board of Peace" is just another (immense) bit of grift from the chump.

It can't be anything else considering who it comes from but even if it wouldn't be tainted by the source then inviting putler to it would still invalidate such idea.

[Rev. Rye]

Greenland has one of the highest suicides rates among young people in the world (7 times higher than the US) and a very high rate of depression and alcoholism:
 
https://borgenproject.org/suicide-in-greenland/
 
There is no sun at all in winter and summer is like the winter in the remaining parts of the world. Almost everything there is being imported. Nothing (other than fish) is being produced there.

In fact new US Military bases or mining companies would bring some heat and some action to the place but I don’t envy the lives of those soldiers or miners who will have to live without heat and without sun. (How does a human live in a place where there is no sun?)
 
ANd it’s not a “strategic” location (no more than Iceland, Norway or Alaska if you like). 
 
We need to find some scientific method to get us to January 2029 before somebody ending the world as we know it out of pure ignorance and foolishness.

What makes you think there’s no sunlight or heat in Greenland? Also, Greenland produces potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, meat, and animal skins/furs.

I suggest that your try getting in the habit of looking thing up before you post. It might make you look marginally less ignorant.

Boru

I think he’s talking about the Polar Night and Midnight sun. 80% of Greenland’s area is above the Arctic circle, so those parts don’t have any sunlight during the winter months. That said, the majority of the population actually lives below the arctic circle, so at least that point is moot.

[AFTT47]

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a thing. I suffered from it for the few years I lived in the Seattle area. Some people (like me) experience difficulties in environments which experience chronic low levels of sunlight. It is common in places like northern Europe. It's why a person like me who was born and raised in Massachusetts, US spent the majority of his adult life in Florida, Arizona and Guam in the Pacific. Living in Greenland would be Hell for me.

None of this is relevant to the current politics. Trump's ambition to acquire Greenland remains idiotic aside from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I just wanted to point out that SAD is real.

[Thumpalumpacus]

And still: Why does anyone want to take such a land?

There's good strategic reasons for it. Given that global warming is reducing the ice-pack and making the Arctic Ocean a potentially viable trade route (look up Great Circle routing for why), controlling the area makes some sense.

The problem I have as an American is that Trump pursuing this avenue for power-projection -- to wit, introducing fractures into NATO relationships -- is entirely unneccesary. We've had a long-standing treaty with Denmark that essentially allows us to build what we want where we want it. This Administration could gain the exact same benefits by a 75-year-old treaty that it is trying to gain by breaking up a 77-year-old alliance.

NATO already controls about 60% of Arctic shoreline. America going after Greenland at the expense of NATO relations doesn't change that number at all. It's a gratuitous own-goal. What might motivate Trump to make such a damaging decision?

[Fake Messiah]

Ah, just what we need, another thread about Trump.

All you idiots who said the military would never betray the constitution are about to get schooled. The day of the dictatorship is about to arrive. I told you so.

It seems that Trump himself is aware that the army and the police wouldn't betray the constitution and side with him, so that's why he created his own army/police called ICE.

This reminds me of riots in Serbia some 20 years ago when its president tried to become a full dictator and cancelled the elections. Protesters swarmed the streets, and he sent the police on them, but the police joined the protesters, and he had to resign.

When the police join the protesters, it's game over, but ICE would never join the protesters, so it may end up clashing with the police or the army when Trump crosses the last line because fumbling or even cancelling elections is something that would create civil unrest.

[Thumpalumpacus]

^ The "Board of Peace" is just another (immense) bit of grift from the chump.

It's a shit-ton of money that in the end will not be accountable to anyone.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What makes you think there’s no sunlight or heat in Greenland? Also, Greenland produces potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, meat, and animal skins/furs.

I suggest that your try getting in the habit of looking thing up before you post. It might make you look marginally less ignorant.

Boru

I think he’s talking about the Polar Night and Midnight sun. 80% of Greenland’s area is above the Arctic circle, so those parts don’t have any sunlight during the winter months. That said, the majority of the population actually lives below the arctic circle, so at least that point is moot.

Then he should have said so, instead of making that boneheaded, ill-informed claim. It’s also kind of a snark at the 280 000 000 people who live north of the Arctic Circle.

Boru

[Leonardo17]

BrianSoddingBoru:
 
- It’s not a lie. I exaggerated the facts to emphasize the fact that the arctic region is a very cold and depressive region of our planet where things like alcoholism, depression and suicide rates are significantly higher than more sunny regions of our planet.
 
RevRye:
 
- Yes that’s what I was trying to say. Thank you
 
Did anyone see “Hold of the Dark” (Jeffrey Wright – 2018)?
 
The aim of the comment was to point out to how difficult life is in the Arctic region and therefore how irrational it was to try to take away this land through force or by agreement. Sometimes I wonder if some people are really reading my posts.
 
Thumpalumpagus:
 
- I agree with these. I was a little more confused yesterday because of the statements that were made in the Davos Economic Forum. But things are much clearer today. Denmark and Greenland have no issue with military bases. On the contrary, these bases will probably boost the local economy.
 
The issue here is the environment. Denmark is a EU country and enforces EU laws for the protection of the environment. And I am hearing the Greenlanders are even more fervently attached to the protection of wildlife in their island. + in January 1968 a US bomber with radioactive material on it crushed in Greenland and some of the Danish workers who worked at the crush side where exposed to high level of radiation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule...B-52_crash
 
So mining activities in Greenland being already difficult because of the climate, these rare earth extracting US companies won’t be able to operate as much as when the Island would be the property of the US. And the Oil and Gas there will probably simply be left there because of the EU’s net-zero target that was set for 2050.
- So Mr. Trump saw the opportunity. Made his move (or series of moves), saw that the Europeans were serious, so he backed down.
 
/ But the least I can say is that that is not a serious way of doing politics. How can you respected if you say one thing today and do another thing tomorrow? How does anyone “get things done” if nobody trusts you anymore?
 
 
BrianSoddingBoru:
 
- Sorry I really don’t get it. I know I exaggerated a bit but where did you see an ill informed claim?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

@Leonardo17

BrianSoddingBoru:
 
- Sorry I really don’t get it. I know I exaggerated a bit but where did you see an ill informed claim?

I see two, in fact:  

‘How does a human live in a place where there is no heat and no sun?’

and

‘Nothing (other than fish) is being produced there.‘

Seriously, this is the Information Age. You have literally unlimited access to literally unlimited amounts of factual information. If you choose not to avail yourself of it, that’s on you.

And it wasn’t that you ‘exaggerated a bit.’ You stated false facts out of sheer, bloody ignorance.

On the plus side, I sincerely apologize for calling you a liar.

Boru

[Rev. Rye]

I think he’s talking about the Polar Night and Midnight sun. 80% of Greenland’s area is above the Arctic circle, so those parts don’t have any sunlight during the winter months. That said, the majority of the population actually lives below the arctic circle, so at least that point is moot.

Then he should have said so, instead of making that boneheaded, ill-informed claim. It’s also kind of a snark at the 280 000 000 people who live north of the Arctic Circle.

Boru

Wait, where are you getting the 280 million figure? I'm looking and I'm not seeing anything higher than 5 million.