Now Greenland

[mister_coffee]

POSUTUS, lolz

I'm kind of relieved that the Greenland situation is at least temporarily resolved, but I'm also kind of annoyed because I designed and ordered a Greenland-supporting sign for today.

Although I'm sure this won't go away and we'll be right back where we started on this topic in three months or so.

[Rideback]

In an interview with Fox News on Friday POSOTUS downplayed Canada's role in Afghanistan saying "we've never needed them" and claimed NATO allies stayed "a little off" the front lines in the Afghanistan war.
159 Canadian soldiers and 7 Canadian civilians died in that war fought on behalf of the US, and Canadiansoldiers had more than 2,000 non-fatal casualties.
In some instances the Canadian dead and wounded were a result of American friendly fire, such as the A-10 that strafed Canadians by mistake killing a former Canadian olympic athlete turned soldier and wounding 30; or the F-16 pilot that defied AWACS instructions to hold fire until the troops on the ground could be identified and instead dropped a bomb that killed 4 Canadians and wounded 8.

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"When the Eagle is dust'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ln5Pqbh5c

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Stonekettle Station:
"Trump: We have all the cards.
Yeah, about that:
A nation with a $38 Trillion debt, 30% of it owned by foreign nations, does not, in point of fact, hold all the cards.
A nation who imports 27% of consumer goods, 26% of capital goods, and 25% of its industrial supplies does not hold all the cards.
A nation that imports nearly every phone, every laptop, every server, every data storage device, every network communications device, outsources most of its software, and cannot function socially, militarily, or economically without those devices, does not hold all the cards.
A nation that imports over 90% of potash fertilizer without which its agricultural sector would fail within one growing season does not hold all the cards.
A nation that has to import eight to nine million barrels of oil DAILY in order to keep its refineries in efficient operation does not hold all the cards.
A nation that imports nearly 50% of its name brand prescription drugs and 90% of generics, and furthermore imports nearly 70% of active ingredients for domestic manufacture, does not hold all the cards.
A nation that depends on foreign allies, bases, airspace, sea lanes, supply, and assets to maintain a global military presence does not hold all the cards.
The only card Trump is holding at the moment is the Joker."

[Rideback]

"The Twitter MAGAsphere is in victory-lap mode today over Trump's announced "framework of a future deal" on Greenland after meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at Davos.
Here's what actually happened:
In a CNBC interview minutes after his Truth Social announcement, Trump described the Greenland framework as "the concept of a deal." Those of you with long memories will recall this phrasing from his 2024 debate answer on healthcare policy.
What does NATO say the "framework" actually contains? Per NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart: the framework "will focus on ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of Allies." Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States "will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold — economically or militarily — in Greenland."
This is pretty much exactly what NATO's position was before Trump threatened tariffs. That largely restates the standard Arctic security framing, not a detailed new treaty. Meanwhile, Denmark’s foreign minister said: “We will not enter into any negotiations on the basis of giving up fundamental principles.”
That is:
- The tariff threat has been withdrawn
- Denmark conceded nothing
- Trump declared victory anyway
Fairly standard 2026 fare, all things considered.
Meanwhile, Putin announced Russia "could send 1 billion US dollars from Russian assets frozen during the previous US administration" to join Trump's Board of Peace. The MAGAsphere is treating this as a diplomatic coup.
Again, to be clear: Putin is proposing to pay his membership fee with money the United States already seized from Russia. It's basically the geopolitical equivalent of telling you to buy me dinner with the wallet I just pickpocketed from you and gave back.
I genuinely can't tell if the MAGA influencer accounts pushing these narratives understand that they're being played, or if the epistemological closure inside the MAGA bubble is now complete enough that it doesn't matter." Joohn Choe

[PAL]

I think you are all confused. In his Davos speech, Trump said Iceland 3 times. So it's Iceland that he's really talkin' about.

[Rideback]

The statement from DJT's truth social post didn't match the ramble of the DJT who spoke at Davos which made me think that it was more of a cleanup on aisle 47 by his aides.

[mister_coffee]

Apparently some kind of "deal" has been reached with Denmark and the rest of NATO (except the Untied States) over Greenland. Something like existing US Military bases and some hypothetical future ones will be US Territory. Whatever that means.

Until two weeks from now when the whole thing blows up again...

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[mister_coffee]

Chickens coming home to roost:

You cannot bully or bluff or threaten or investigate the bond market.

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Greenland polar bears are up to the task

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DArpaDjS2/

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Military archbishop says it's ok for troops to disobey Greenland order

https://theintellectualistofficial.subs ... irect=true

[mister_coffee]

Ah no, grasshopper, June is too far away. Strike swiftly and very soon. Surprise! But it is hugely stupid for the US even to be entertaining this idea.
I don't think shots will be fired by the US, but if there are shots and our gov't are the first, will NATO fire back?
Oh and hey, Congress, where are you? Going to declare war?

I'm pretty sure NATO is going to shoot at us.

Even if they don't, we have around eighty thousand people in NATO countries that are trapped and immediately become prisoners of war. And all of our equipment there will probably be captured without firing a shot.

Keep in mind that the much tinier and much lower-risk operation in Venezuela still took us months to get everything in position.

[PAL]

Ah no, grasshopper, June is too far away. Strike swiftly and very soon. Surprise! But it is hugely stupid for the US even to be entertaining this idea.
I don't think shots will be fired by the US, but if there are shots and our gov't are the first, will NATO fire back?
Oh and hey, Congress, where are you? Going to declare war?

[mister_coffee]

That might be what is going on.

I am doubtful of a couple of things:

1. The military probably can't from a cold start go from "how can we do this" to issuing warning orders to do so in a handful of days.
2. All evidence is that senior military are pushing back on this whole idea, which makes it unlikely we'd get very far in the planning this fast.
3. Using a relatively small airborne force to do an opposed air landing at that distance from any kind of support seems high-risk to the point of insanity. Further, recent military experience in Ukraine shows that even very light forces equipped with portable SAMs can rip an air landing to shreds. I'm sure the NATO countries have already sent a planeload of SAMs to Nuuk.
4. Without some kind of logistics tail such an air landing would be a suicide mission. You all need to keep in mind that Nuuk, the capitol of Greenland, is about 1600 miles from Portland, Maine. A lot of the heavy equipment would have to be brought in by ship and that would take a long time, especially since we depend on Canada for icebreakers and we aren't on speaking terms with Canada at the moment.

Left unsaid is that we'd also want to get at least some of our people out of NATO countries before this goes down.

If this is how we are starting this war we are setting ourselves up to lose. And lose badly.

Or more realistic timeline for an operation that would not be a suicide attack would be June or July.

[PAL]

OK, get ready.

[Rideback]

Yes

[PAL]

Does this mean that instead of going to Minnesota they actually will be going to Greenland?

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[mister_coffee]

I'm wondering if we should just surrender pre-emptively. If that is even a thing.

My rationale would be that there would be no way we could defend ourselves against a determined NATO assault and the US Military isn't likely to be able to defend us in any event. So we might as well surrender and save ourselves the trouble. And at this point the Canadians will likely treat civilians better than our own government does.

[Rideback]

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news ... dium=email

[mister_coffee]

Does anyone else think that is a sign he is completely out of his mind?

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How is he not insane?

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Kinda thinking the people of Greenland value their independence from Trump's US

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1TPDDK9Qrq/