That was probably true from 2016-20, but as it’s become clear that there’s not much more Denmark can do for him, Trump’s 79-year-old idee fixe seems to have become Complete and Total Control.
Trump's position is now incoherent. He demands the total control of Greenland which he had anyway, but nothing will satisfy him but the juridical sovereignty which he claims to be meaningless. I think this is the point where his allies, of which my country is one, have to defy him.
But to Steve's point. Trump is thin-skinned and getting worse. He is utterly incapable of laughing at himself and also weirdly vain. He really cares what the prime minister of Norway thinks of him. I see that he is going to the Davos summit later this week, but I predict tariffs on Switzerland when he gets home. Contrast him with Reagan in the early years of his decline, still his sunny, optimistic self right up to the point where he could no longer go on.
I like Trump. We need him as a strategist - but I'm beginning to think it might be best if he stepped down. Going forward, JD Vance is the face of the new Republican party anyway. Let's get him started.
America is less white than any European country and more violent. It should be written off more than Europe. Islamization is a problem in Europe but far from the only one, non-Muslim non-white immigrants also cause problems.
Europe is lost case, not just because demographic replacement, but also because they have much less Judaic-Christian civilizational values from the start. With UK for example - how many years will need to pass before it is another Turkey?
Yep, that may be. There may be a negotiable swap between say Novorossiya on one side and Greenland on the other. And the EU (not just Ukraine) has no cards.
Protecting Greenland from China and Russia? It's a very long way from China, and undoubtedly very low on China's to-do list. As for Russia, the events of the past four years show its military to be a sick joke, incapable of fighting its way out of the proverbial paper bag.
China can have every last inch of Africa. They need population with today's announcement of record low birth rate. Africans can reproduce like fruit flies.
During the Cold War, the Arctic Ocean was completely frozen. That is no longer the case. Traffic, both commercial and military, will increasingly transit the polar region.
Northern Sea Route (NSR): This eastern route following Russian and Norwegian coasts is relatively easier for navigation due to lower overall ice extent and ice-free conditions in the Barents Sea maintained by warm Gulf Stream currents Wikipedia. Average sailing times have fallen from 20 days in the 1990s to 11 days in 2012-2013.
Transpolar Sea Route (TSR): Climate models project that the Central Arctic Ocean may soon become ice-free in summer for a limited window, opening a seasonally navigable route across the North Pole
For Polar Class 7 vessels from 2023 to 2040, the Northwest Passage excluding Baffin Bay is navigable from May to July, and from August to October the entire Arctic Ocean is navigable except for the eastern part of the Central Arctic Nature.
The period from 2025 to 2045 represents a critical navigability transition that may offer opportunities for maritime policy evaluation and revision
while it seems likely he really does want Greenland and that there are good reasons for it, the way he's pushing it seems like it's largely meant as a distraction from some other thing(s).
This. I've been arguing online with Europoors a lot lately and feel I almost know them personally. They're that manipulative roommate you had back in college or maybe right after college, the guy who left the shitter a mess, his dirty dishes in the sink and never paid his rent on time, but had an excellent talent for dissembling and deflection.
My favorite Europoor talking point of the moment is "you Yanks were the only country that invoked Article 5. We were there for you. Therefore you have nothing to say about NATO."
"We" never invoked A5, Nato did, but they ALL believe GWB, hands trembling, got on the hotline and screamed "please help us Europe, WE NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY." They really believe that. This is Mommie Dearest level shit.
Good stuff! Here’s a great story about the European concept of vacations compared to how hard working Americans experience it.
I was at a family Christmas party, and one of the cousins at the party lived in Germany but was in the US with her German husband for the party. He spoke English very well. As the evening wound down, I mentioned that I had to get going because I had to work the next day. He said to me “aren’t you on holiday vacation” and I said “no, I only took a 3 day weekend.” He looks at me confused and says “what’s a 3 day weekend?” I explain to him that I just extended the weekend by one day to save my vacation days for later. He was still confused and said to me “why didn’t you just take the whole week off?”
That’s the whole game right there. While we Americans are parsing out our precious days off one at a time, the Europeans wouldn’t even think of taking one single day off, they get so much vacation that they just take weeks off at a time instead.
Sadly, most Americans don’t know that because Americans subsidized Europe’s defense since 1945, the European countries spent their money on lavish benefits for their lazy citizens, and we freakin’ paid for it! Now with President Trump, this decades long grift ends once and for all. The Europeans are nothing but a bunch of lazy and ungrateful slackers.
Trump was the first one willing to move the Overton window on immigration and DEI, and I give him great credit for that. Now that the window is moved, it would be nice to have someone in charge who doesn’t make me cringe or roll my eyes on a weekly basis.
It would be great if Trump could be about 20% less Trumpy. He has already racked up a lot of terrific accomplishments, but unfortunately the people who swing elections are probably more influenced by him saying, "Quiet, Piggy," than they are by any of the important things. Trump said of Musk, "He’s 80% super genius and 20% he makes mistakes," but something similar could be said of him.
The sympathetic interpretation is that this is a clever, if not so subtle way to anger NATO into doing something which will give the Donald a justification for abrogating American treaty obligations. The more likely explanation is that the Donald is a bit off his rocker about this particular subject for some reason known only to him (the Norwegians aren't behind this).
To be fair, Steve's post indicates the Trump post was in response to the Norwegian Prime Minister saying something. It's petulant but it makes sense in context. I don't think this means he wants to take Greenland because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize he so deserves. He's more saying "you guys didn't notice I was President Peacenik for four years so you have no right to complain when I switch off that.".
Frankly I can see why Trump would be peeved by the lack of a peace prize especially if he was thinking about it to himself all those years. The fact that he didn't get one and I mean, shit, pick your terrible example of anyone who did, and you can see where he might want to twist the Norwegian Premier's tit a little if he's speaking up for peace. I don't know what he actually said to set this off.
Steve Sailer a couple years ago was writing of Biden's progressive young staff unleashed to go all woke by Biden's agedness. Probably a big element of the current administration's bellicosity is self-styled Secretary of "War" Pete Hegseth. He wants to lead an army at war, and Trump is happy to go along with that.
"Sink boats in the Caribbean? That sounds like fun, Pete. Drop an airborne division in Minnesota to quell the insurrection? I like the way you think, Pete. Invade Greenland and start a war with Denmark and NATO? Pete, you are such an enthusiastic young man. I love it."
For the first time ever, I purchased the Dilbert Page-a-Day Calendar for 2026 for the macabre reason that I didn’t think there would be a 2027 version. I have to say when I arrive at work each day it brings a smile to my face. I paid $22 for mine but when I just went on Amazon to see if the price went up, it no longer seems to be listed at all. The product was an Amazon exclusive and enterprising customers have listed them on eBay for $200
I think you nailed it. No person should be eligible to be president after 75. Too risky that they won’t go off the rails. Let’s see if any of his loyalists will tell him no.
Steve, consider why DJT ran for President to begin with: Obama tried to embarrass him at the WHCD and said something like “You say I’m a bad President. First you have to *be* President…”, and that was that!
> Steve, consider why DJT ran for President to begin with: Obama ... <
Trump has imagined himself as President for at least 40 years or so if not longer. He ran--briefly--as a Reform Party candidate in 2000, before anyone had ever heard of Obama.
Trump is probably 3SD or so out there in the narcissism department.
Someone with the personality disorder, like Meghan Markle, has to fake empathy, they're incapable. If Trump has been faking all these decades, he's awfully good at it by now.
Everything with Trump is a negotiating position. Best not pay attention until the end.
That was probably true from 2016-20, but as it’s become clear that there’s not much more Denmark can do for him, Trump’s 79-year-old idee fixe seems to have become Complete and Total Control.
I used to think that, but not anymore.
Trump's position is now incoherent. He demands the total control of Greenland which he had anyway, but nothing will satisfy him but the juridical sovereignty which he claims to be meaningless. I think this is the point where his allies, of which my country is one, have to defy him.
But to Steve's point. Trump is thin-skinned and getting worse. He is utterly incapable of laughing at himself and also weirdly vain. He really cares what the prime minister of Norway thinks of him. I see that he is going to the Davos summit later this week, but I predict tariffs on Switzerland when he gets home. Contrast him with Reagan in the early years of his decline, still his sunny, optimistic self right up to the point where he could no longer go on.
If Trump loses Greenland? So what. Its a large world.
Amongst all the vain and narcissistic things he's done, this might be at the top.
I like Trump. We need him as a strategist - but I'm beginning to think it might be best if he stepped down. Going forward, JD Vance is the face of the new Republican party anyway. Let's get him started.
. . . wait at least 13 months so JDV can have two full terms
Is he that valuable?
No
Vance is likely much better than anything the Dems can cobble together. Huge advantage not having a bruising primary.
What’s his coalition that can overcome the mainstream media bias?
1. I don't think the Main Street media can take another three years of Trump without self immolating.
2. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should take care of the rest.
But seriously...I dont know. I'm banking on Trump's economy recovering from the never appearing recession. 9k S&P. Otherwise give the Dems their turn.
You like this mentally unstable Israel First tool and pedophile?
JD doesn't have good situative skills.
I’d like to think this is a preamble to getting out of NATO. Mostly, I’m just enjoying the show.
America is less white than any European country and more violent. It should be written off more than Europe. Islamization is a problem in Europe but far from the only one, non-Muslim non-white immigrants also cause problems.
Europe is lost case, not just because demographic replacement, but also because they have much less Judaic-Christian civilizational values from the start. With UK for example - how many years will need to pass before it is another Turkey?
Same with France before it becomes Algeria.
Yep, that may be. There may be a negotiable swap between say Novorossiya on one side and Greenland on the other. And the EU (not just Ukraine) has no cards.
The most gracious explanation to Trump would be "The Madman" thesis. But this seems inexplicable. We will see, not hopeful.
Protecting Greenland from China and Russia? It's a very long way from China, and undoubtedly very low on China's to-do list. As for Russia, the events of the past four years show its military to be a sick joke, incapable of fighting its way out of the proverbial paper bag.
Africa is a long way from China too and yet they've got quite a presence there.
China can have every last inch of Africa. They need population with today's announcement of record low birth rate. Africans can reproduce like fruit flies.
Thanks for the stating the obvious. If we didn’t need Greenland at the height of the Cold War, we don’t need it now.
During the Cold War, the Arctic Ocean was completely frozen. That is no longer the case. Traffic, both commercial and military, will increasingly transit the polar region.
Evidence?
From Perplexity:
Current Navigability by Route
Northern Sea Route (NSR): This eastern route following Russian and Norwegian coasts is relatively easier for navigation due to lower overall ice extent and ice-free conditions in the Barents Sea maintained by warm Gulf Stream currents Wikipedia. Average sailing times have fallen from 20 days in the 1990s to 11 days in 2012-2013.
Transpolar Sea Route (TSR): Climate models project that the Central Arctic Ocean may soon become ice-free in summer for a limited window, opening a seasonally navigable route across the North Pole
For Polar Class 7 vessels from 2023 to 2040, the Northwest Passage excluding Baffin Bay is navigable from May to July, and from August to October the entire Arctic Ocean is navigable except for the eastern part of the Central Arctic Nature.
The period from 2025 to 2045 represents a critical navigability transition that may offer opportunities for maritime policy evaluation and revision
while it seems likely he really does want Greenland and that there are good reasons for it, the way he's pushing it seems like it's largely meant as a distraction from some other thing(s).
Anything that confuses the EU, keeps them off balance, and makes them rollover like little lapdogs is fine with me.
Never, ever forget: Every American paid for every European’s extended Summer vacation for decades. The vacations WE never got to take. F them!
This. I've been arguing online with Europoors a lot lately and feel I almost know them personally. They're that manipulative roommate you had back in college or maybe right after college, the guy who left the shitter a mess, his dirty dishes in the sink and never paid his rent on time, but had an excellent talent for dissembling and deflection.
My favorite Europoor talking point of the moment is "you Yanks were the only country that invoked Article 5. We were there for you. Therefore you have nothing to say about NATO."
"We" never invoked A5, Nato did, but they ALL believe GWB, hands trembling, got on the hotline and screamed "please help us Europe, WE NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY." They really believe that. This is Mommie Dearest level shit.
Good stuff! Here’s a great story about the European concept of vacations compared to how hard working Americans experience it.
I was at a family Christmas party, and one of the cousins at the party lived in Germany but was in the US with her German husband for the party. He spoke English very well. As the evening wound down, I mentioned that I had to get going because I had to work the next day. He said to me “aren’t you on holiday vacation” and I said “no, I only took a 3 day weekend.” He looks at me confused and says “what’s a 3 day weekend?” I explain to him that I just extended the weekend by one day to save my vacation days for later. He was still confused and said to me “why didn’t you just take the whole week off?”
That’s the whole game right there. While we Americans are parsing out our precious days off one at a time, the Europeans wouldn’t even think of taking one single day off, they get so much vacation that they just take weeks off at a time instead.
Sadly, most Americans don’t know that because Americans subsidized Europe’s defense since 1945, the European countries spent their money on lavish benefits for their lazy citizens, and we freakin’ paid for it! Now with President Trump, this decades long grift ends once and for all. The Europeans are nothing but a bunch of lazy and ungrateful slackers.
Trump was the first one willing to move the Overton window on immigration and DEI, and I give him great credit for that. Now that the window is moved, it would be nice to have someone in charge who doesn’t make me cringe or roll my eyes on a weekly basis.
It would be great if Trump could be about 20% less Trumpy. He has already racked up a lot of terrific accomplishments, but unfortunately the people who swing elections are probably more influenced by him saying, "Quiet, Piggy," than they are by any of the important things. Trump said of Musk, "He’s 80% super genius and 20% he makes mistakes," but something similar could be said of him.
The sympathetic interpretation is that this is a clever, if not so subtle way to anger NATO into doing something which will give the Donald a justification for abrogating American treaty obligations. The more likely explanation is that the Donald is a bit off his rocker about this particular subject for some reason known only to him (the Norwegians aren't behind this).
To be fair, Steve's post indicates the Trump post was in response to the Norwegian Prime Minister saying something. It's petulant but it makes sense in context. I don't think this means he wants to take Greenland because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize he so deserves. He's more saying "you guys didn't notice I was President Peacenik for four years so you have no right to complain when I switch off that.".
Frankly I can see why Trump would be peeved by the lack of a peace prize especially if he was thinking about it to himself all those years. The fact that he didn't get one and I mean, shit, pick your terrible example of anyone who did, and you can see where he might want to twist the Norwegian Premier's tit a little if he's speaking up for peace. I don't know what he actually said to set this off.
I meant that he was a bit off his rocker about Greenland, not about not winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Other presidents offered to buy Greenland but Denmark turned down the deal
Andrew Johnson, William Taft, Harry Truman, and Donald Trump.
Guess who sold us the Virgin Islands?
Steve Sailer a couple years ago was writing of Biden's progressive young staff unleashed to go all woke by Biden's agedness. Probably a big element of the current administration's bellicosity is self-styled Secretary of "War" Pete Hegseth. He wants to lead an army at war, and Trump is happy to go along with that.
"Sink boats in the Caribbean? That sounds like fun, Pete. Drop an airborne division in Minnesota to quell the insurrection? I like the way you think, Pete. Invade Greenland and start a war with Denmark and NATO? Pete, you are such an enthusiastic young man. I love it."
Did we trade Senile Joe for Senile Don?
O/T
For the first time ever, I purchased the Dilbert Page-a-Day Calendar for 2026 for the macabre reason that I didn’t think there would be a 2027 version. I have to say when I arrive at work each day it brings a smile to my face. I paid $22 for mine but when I just went on Amazon to see if the price went up, it no longer seems to be listed at all. The product was an Amazon exclusive and enterprising customers have listed them on eBay for $200
I miss Scott. Such a useful and insightful commentator.
I think you nailed it. No person should be eligible to be president after 75. Too risky that they won’t go off the rails. Let’s see if any of his loyalists will tell him no.
Steve, consider why DJT ran for President to begin with: Obama tried to embarrass him at the WHCD and said something like “You say I’m a bad President. First you have to *be* President…”, and that was that!
Obama went after Trump at the WHCD because Trump was pushing birtherism.
> Steve, consider why DJT ran for President to begin with: Obama ... <
Trump has imagined himself as President for at least 40 years or so if not longer. He ran--briefly--as a Reform Party candidate in 2000, before anyone had ever heard of Obama.
Trump is probably 3SD or so out there in the narcissism department.
. . . more like 5SD imho, but he has a nearly equivalent empathy for the normal people so hated by the elites.
Someone with the personality disorder, like Meghan Markle, has to fake empathy, they're incapable. If Trump has been faking all these decades, he's awfully good at it by now.