Trumpwatch

[mr brightside]

That's a bobby dazzler if ever i saw one. Look at those sun rays, shame they can't capture the ones coming out of his arse. I'd like to see Philip Mould put a value on that.

[Mark]

The cricket jumper suggests his sporting interests ?

Although Musk's dad has said in a recent interview that he's interested in buying Liverpool Football Club....
LFC fans - known for their anti-establishment, anti-monarchy and generally left wing views are going into meltdown at the thought...

[BritDownUnder]

Of course the US already has a major military establishment on northern greenland, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base
formerly known as Thule air base and the most strategic nuclear defence site in the cold war, radar instalations giving the US the earliest warning of any Russian missile launches. Denmark still claims the site as part of its sovereign territory, but has made no attempt to reclaim it since they joined NATO. The US will also have lots of other smaller military/scientific outposts in the area.

This isn't about strategic defence, since the days of satellites the radars are secondary. It probably isn't about access to the substantial mineral resources which will become accessible as the polar ice melts. It is largely about distracting from the fact that the president elect is about to be sentenced for fraud in a US court of law.

Supposedly the Danes only joined NATO in the late 1940s because they knew the US was never going to leave Greenland.

I think covering the poles by satellite is a little more tricky as the satellites that orbit around the equator don't get the best view of the poles and have to be in a relatively high orbit to see the poles and those that do pass over the poles only do so for a small fraction of their orbit hence you will a lot of them so the poles may still need ground based radar coverage against ICBMs.

That portrait of Trump makes him look like someone who is about to go out and play a Test match. And he looks a lot younger.

[clv101]

The Danish PM says it's up to the people of Greenland? If there's a referendum of 56,000 people about whether to become a US state - it's a done deal. The US can promise jobs, education, healthcare, security, a million dollars per head, a percentage cut of future mineral wealth as annual personal payment...

[BritDownUnder]

The Danish PM says it's up to the people of Greenland? If there's a referendum of 56,000 people about whether to become a US state - it's a done deal. The US can promise jobs, education, healthcare, security, a million dollars per head, a percentage cut of future mineral wealth as annual personal payment...

According to Wikipedia there is a clear majority (64%) of Greenlanders wanting independence. Whether this independence turns into US statehood is another matter but it does seem like it is the Greenlanders choice and Denmark does not get a say. They just have to pay the bills.

I would expect that if Greenland gets independence and they join the Belt and Road or BRICS will result in a very quick US invasion.

A state of 56,000 people would be very unlikely though. Alaska became a state in 1959 and had a population of 220,000 in 1960. Being a US territory is not always a good thing - Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa. Regarding the million dollars I recall the scene in Austin Powers where he gets told about the effect of inflation on the value of a million dollars. I expect 50 million will be required.

If Greenland gets statehood it might start a cascading effect from Canadian provinces. I think Alberta has a lot of sympathies in joining the US.
However the US right needs to think about how this would affect the Senate balance of power particularly.

[clv101]

If Greenland gets statehood it might start a cascading effect from Canadian provinces. I think Alberta has a lot of sympathies in joining the US.
However the US right needs to think about how this would affect the Senate balance of power particularly.

Absorbing Canada would be tricky! As one state it's as big a California - that would be a lot of electoral college votes the GOP wouldn't be seeing. Respecting existing Canadian states/territories adding a dozen or so more states, most of which wouldn't be red.

Thing about Greenland is that there's so few people, they are easily bought off.

[BritDownUnder]

If Greenland gets statehood it might start a cascading effect from Canadian provinces. I think Alberta has a lot of sympathies in joining the US.
However the US right needs to think about how this would affect the Senate balance of power particularly.

Absorbing Canada would be tricky! As one state it's as big a California - that would be a lot of electoral college votes the GOP wouldn't be seeing. Respecting existing Canadian states/territories adding a dozen or so more states, most of which wouldn't be red.

Thing about Greenland is that there's so few people, they are easily bought off.

Well that's why it may make sense to adopt a piecemeal approach to absorbing Canada. Taking right-wing Alberta, also with good oil resources, would give him another 'red' state with two more Senators, the House of Representatives gets allocated by population but each state gets two Senators. Of course you might get 'blue' states vetoing Alberta's admission to the US. Taking the whole of Canada (maybe minus Quebec) might give another California in the Presidential electoral college and guarantee a 'blue' US. Trump needs to tread carefully with this. He would be better taking a few Canadian provinces that are more strategic or economic benefit - and much more importantly - right-wing, maybe Alberta and Newfoundland (I am not sure if Newfoundland is right-wing but it is very strategic). Interestingly Newfoundland was once independent from Canada as a separate Dominion and the British and Canadians were terrified they would join the US in the 1940s they had to give them a referendum that did not have joining the US as an option.
Then allow the rump Canada to be seriously weakened and then be admitted as a single 'blue' state. BC for instance is full of hippies and Asians and would be another Washington (state) style deep blue state. They might even want to be part of China given all the Chinese in Vancouver I saw even 20 years ago.

All very interesting and you can bet this Trump presidency will be memorable.

[Mark]

That portrait of Trump makes him look like someone who is about to go out and play a Test match. And he looks a lot younger.

Ah.., OK, stupid me....
I thought it was Musk posing under a picture of his younger self in true narcissistic fashion....
Makes more sense now, but still very creepy/weird...., not a very good likeness of Trump though...
Can't see it being too long before Trump and Musk fall out...

[BritDownUnder]

Maybe Trump is going to do a Dorian Gray?

Trump was much better looking as a young man. Now he is in a hurry.

Interesting to note that USA + Canada + Greenland entity would be about the same land area as Russia, well until China gets jealous and starts looking at Siberia.

[UndercoverElephant]

If you want a rough idea of where Trump's big thinkers want the US to go...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Project 2025 envisions sweeping changes to economic and social policies and the federal government and its agencies. The plan proposes taking partisan control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Commerce (DOC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and abolishing the Department of Education (ED), whose programs would be transferred or terminated.[20][21] It calls for making the National Institutes of Health (NIH) less independent, stopping it from funding research with embryonic stem cells, and reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuels.[17][22][23][24] The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts,[25] but its writers disagree on protectionism.[26] The project seeks to cut Medicare and Medicaid,[27][28] and urges the government to explicitly reject abortion as health care.[29][30] It seeks to eliminate coverage of emergency contraception[27] and use the Comstock Act to prosecute those who send and receive contraceptives and abortion pills.[30][31] It proposes criminalizing pornography and imprisoning those who produce it,[32][33] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,[33][34] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs[5][34] while having the DOJ prosecute "anti-white racism" instead.[35] The project recommends the arrest, detention, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.[36][37][38] It proposes deploying the military for domestic law enforcement.[39] It promotes capital punishment and the speedy "finality" of those sentences.[40][41] It hopes to undo "[al]most everything implemented" by the Biden administration.[42]

[Potemkin Villager]

I wonder what is the ratio of good folk this ambitious programme will please to those it will seriously piss off?

[UndercoverElephant]

I wonder what is the ratio of good folk this ambitious programme will please to those it will seriously piss off?

Really hard to tell. This is basically a US-Christian version of the Taliban. One gets the feeling they'd add banning education for girls to their wish list if they thought they could get away with it, so that probably tells us something about the limits of what they think is possible.

[clv101]

This video goes over some of the recent US economic data. The economy is in much worse shape than many assume just by looking at stock markets and strength of the dollar: https://youtu.be/zj_G6ods3PE?si=Te2XKwuIyX-cS2AA

[BritDownUnder]

This video goes over some of the recent US economic data. The economy is in much worse shape than many assume just by looking at stock markets and strength of the dollar: https://youtu.be/zj_G6ods3PE?si=Te2XKwuIyX-cS2AA

What's not to like? 30 plus trillion dollar debt, historically high wealth inequality, massive opioid crisis, producing most of their oil/gas from marginal, rapidly depleting fields, immigration crisis. And then you look at the UK and Europe and it is even worse.

I have started selling my Tesla stock.

Australia seems pretty good right now but we are about to become a gas importer in the Eastern states at least.

[Potemkin Villager]

Well he certainly is getting all the attention he craves at the moment.

His fan club at the various events yesterday are
reminding me more and more of a loony cult. The body language of the alien tech bros in particular was very strange, it certainly looks like they really do not like being physically close to one another.

Let the blow back commence!