Perhaps we need a seperate thread to keep track of what is happening in Greenland.
What I noticed was that Germany sent troops to Greenland, part of the handful of troops Europe sent there to make sure the Amis stay where they are, and then withdrew them as soon as the Donald mentioned more tarifs for countries not on board with the US’s need for Greenland.
Duh!
But take a step back and ask why the US wants the island.
I doubt it is for Trumps vanity or as some suggested a deflection for Epstein or any of the other thousand speculations out there.
In my very humble opinion there is another reason.
The US failed to contain Russia and they certainly are unable to contain China, so the world as we know it will now becone a tripolar one. Asia will belong to the Chinese sphere of influence, Eurasia will fall to the Russians and the Americas along with Australia will be American, surprisingly this new world order will roughly follow the lines as portrayed in Orwell’s 1984.
And with the people refuting global warming melting the ice caps the routes into the Atlantic will be controlled by Greenland
Yeah, but that argument falls apart when you consider that the US had military agreements to put up as much military might as they wanted since 1951. They don’t need to “own it”. Greenland / Denmark has always maintained that the US pretty much has free rein to use it as a military outpost.
It was the Americans themselves which dismantled most of the bases, leaving themselves with the bare minimum.
EDIT - the Danes / Greenlanders have said the agreement is still in place and they still can have as much military presence as they want. Nothing has changed. Except the Epstein files are still awaiting release…
Why the US wants Greenland? Because Trump and acolytes are too old to figure out that the real business is in trading, not in doing the actual work of mining or operating maritime trade.
About that Special Relationship. How does if feel to wake up one day and realize that special friend was closer than imagined?
Back to the Russians, take a look at this opinion piece from the NZZ. In recent years, there has not been a better predictor of regime collapse than being supported by Russia. Armenia, Syria, Venezuela. Iran just got the kiss of death:
„Ownership is very important to me“
Donald J Trump
The US has no need for shipping routes across the Arctic Ocean
They apparently don’t have any ice breakers anymore either so until they can reliably count on climate change… Oh wait…
You were saying?
Trump. “Daddy I want Greenland!!”
https://www.popmatters.com/donald-trump-richard-iii-feature
It holds up if you consider that should the US pull back out of Europe, that then due to the diverging internal opinions the Euopeans will be unable to form a local block to keep Russia from dominating the continent one way or another and Greenland would be influenced by Moskau and not the US.
The yanks are just calling dibs should that scenario happen.
For a government not believing in CC, they sure are bringing the pawns in place.
Pretty sure they do believe in it. Admitting it is a whole different thing.
There are claims they were sent on an short “exploration mission” alongside other partner nations for Operation Arctic Endurance, at Denmark’s invitation.
Whether short meant 44 hours is open to debate.
As a NATO member it is claimed the US was also invited to join.
Ozempic (semaglutide) is manufactured in Denmark by the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk which might be a problem for the US fat boys if the Danes turn the tap off.
They also make 50% of the world’s insulin.
Russia is a long way from being a Superpower, it will always be a junior partner to China in this area.
China’s investment in Eurasia is growing amid a global downturn.
Over the past 18 months, Chinese investment in the Eurasian region increased by US $7.4 billion (+13% compared with 2023), while global FDI flows fell by 11% in 2024.
Russia is the main shareholder in the Eurasian Development bank, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has an authorized capital of USD 7 billion but only $1.5 billion in actual cash the rest is “callable” so dwarfed by China investment so far.
If there is a call then can Russia maintain its %holding?
What if all news and media organisations had a tacit agreement to not report on the Trump psychodrama. Treat him like that embarrassing, racist relative at the Christmas dinner table. If people want to read his twitter rants they can, but that guff shouldn’t be amplified by our media.
Trump operates less on persuasion and diplomacy and more on “constant visibility ” and “flooding the zone”. So rather than this constant cycle of outrage and rebuttal, just give him radio silence.
And that could be a horrendous mistake, if you look at all the dictators in the 19th and 20th century they all told everybody what they were going to do, just like Tdump.
And next week we will need a separate thread for Canada?
I don’t see that while Trump is destroying his relationship with his alies.
Canada was Trump’s biggest ally in the Americas.
Now Canada has signed a major deal with China.
The deal with China drops Canada’s levies on Chinese EVs from 100% to 6.1% for the first 49,000 vehicles imported each year. That quota could rise, Carney said, reaching 70,000 in half a decade.
In exchange, China will cut tariffs on Canadian canola seed to around 15% by 1 March, down from the current rate of 84%. Carney said Beijing had also committed to removing tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas
Trump has trampled all over the trade agreement he made in his first term with Canada and Mexico so they have little interest in going down that path again and this behaviour doesn’t encourage the others.
Edit: He also has the problem of a very narrow House majority.
Currently 218:213, really 217 until Indiana U.S. Rep. Jim Baird returns after his car accident on 6 Jan.
GOP US Representative Thomas Massie has had some fights with Trump so is not a guaranteed yes vote.
Jan 31 sees a House election in Texas that a Dem is expected to win.
Feb 5th House election in NJ also expected to be a Dem win.
And whats with Japan? 2nd biggest market in the free world.
If it is circled in, or “contained” by China then Japanese produce will be controlled by China.
India is a wild card and I would expect conflict over control of the Indian ocean.
Japan was one of US’s strongest allies until Trump hit them with tariffs.
Japan fixed the tariff problem by promising to invest $550 billion in the US.
That was six months ago but no money invested yet.
There is no information on how Japan will raise this money. It has a lot of US treasuries but selling that many would hurt the market unless they could persuade the US to buy them back. The US is $38 trillion in debt so adding another half trillion is not attractive.
Also what could they invest in?
Building factories in a high labour cost country is not prudent.
