Democratic socialism at work

 

They took him seriously AND literally

 

"Respected again"

 

Food for thought

 

Trump hasn't given up on Greenland

Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen, following a report that American citizens have been conducting covert operations in Greenland.

Denmark's public broadcaster DR quoted sources as saying the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US, although it was unable to clarify who the men were working for.

Danish intelligence warned Greenland was being targeted by "various kinds of influence campaigns".

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom [of Denmark] will of course be unacceptable", and the US charge d'affaires had been summoned in that light.

[...]

Trump has said several times he wants to annex Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Vice-President JD Vance has accused Copenhagen of underinvesting in the territory.

On a visit to Greenland a few months ago, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned the US that "you cannot annex another country".

[...]

Greenland has a complex relationship with Denmark. Despite having broad self-government since 1979, its foreign and defence policy is made in Copenhagen.

[...]

Denmark is a member of Nato and the European Union and has long seen the US as one of its closest allies, and Danes have been shocked by Trump's determination to control its semi-autonomous territory. The US president said this year he would not rule out seizing it by force.

[...]

Lars Lokke Rasmussen has already summoned the US charge d'affaires in Denmark this year in response to a separate report in May suggesting US spy agencies had been told to focus their efforts on Greenland.

[...]

The US currently has no ambassador in Copenhagen, so Rasmussen has summoned Mark Stroh, who as charge d'affaires is the most senior diplomat in the Danish capital.

[...]

The Danish foreign minister's latest decision to summon the US charge d'affaires amounts to a "diplomatic yellow card" unprecedented in Danish relations with the US, according to Jens Ladefoged Mortensen of the University of Copenhagen.

"This hostile attitude towards Denmark from the Trump administration is shocking," he told the BBC. "As a pro-American country we're asking why are you doing this."

  BBC

Usha goes to Greenland

Relations between Greenland and the United States sank further on Sunday as the Greenlandic prime minister erupted over what he called a “highly aggressive” delegation of senior officials the Trump administration said it would send to the island this week.

Usha Vance, the second lady, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, are among the officials headed to the island, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, though President Trump has vowed to make it part of the United States “one way or the other.”

Ms. Vance is scheduled to make a series of cultural stops after her arrival on Thursday, separate from Mr. Waltz. The national security adviser is supposed to be traveling earlier in the week with the U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright.

  NYT

After the boner he pulled today accidentally including a journalist on an invitation to discuss war plans over Signal app, he should be relieved of his job by Thursday.

The prime minister, Mute B. Egede, said on Sunday that Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

[...]

“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?” he asked. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”

“His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase,” he added.

Other Greenlandic officials complained about the inopportune timing of the visit, pointing out that Greenland had just held parliamentary elections and that a new government has not even been formed.

“The fact that the Americans are well aware we are in the middle of negotiations,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the most popular political party, “once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”

UPDATE 03/26/2025:

Despicable asshole Vance

 

The mob boss in the oval

He's going to pull out of NATO, though.

Jesus, put a candle in his mouth and call him Jack O'.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Great excuse not to shake the bastard's hand

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More on the Danish dust-up

Greenland used to be a Danish colony but now belongs to the people of Greenland—the Danish government could not sell the island even if it wanted to. Trump likely did not know that Denmark is one of America’s most reliable allies. Danish troops, for example, fought alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered 50 fatalities, and Danish forces were among the earliest to join the fight against the Islamic State.

[...]

It is one thing to float a cockamamie idea that no one believes is serious or will go anywhere. “Let’s buy Greenland!” Yes, very funny. A good distraction from the economy, the failure to deal with white supremacy, White House staff problems, or whatever is the news of the day. It is quite another to use leverage and impose costs on Denmark in pursuit of that goal—and make no mistake, canceling a presidential visit is using leverage and imposing costs.

[...]

This is the kind of thing the Russians and the Chinese do. It is territorial revisionism—the use of national power to acquire territory against the desire of its sovereign government and its people. The use of leverage would also call into question the U.S. commitment to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which is the cornerstone of stability in Europe. In it, all parties, including the United States, commit to “refrain from any demand for, or act of, seizure and usurpation of part or all of the territory” of all states in Europe.

[...]

One uncomfortable truth is already inescapable. Free societies and autocracies are at odds with each other—over human rights, the rule of law, technology, freedom of the press, the free flow of information, and territorial expansion. At this particular moment, it is not sufficient to say that the free world is without a leader. He has actually defected to the other side.

  The Atlantic

It's time to stop calling him the leader of the free world. That position is up for grabs. Or, perhaps it never should have been levied on any one country's leader.

“It’s an insult from a close friend and ally,” Michael Aastrup Jensen, a member of the Danish Parliament with the influential center-right Venstre party, told The Washington Post. He said Trump’s interest in purchasing Greenland took the country by surprise and was initially widely considered to be a joke, before Danes realized the full extent of “this disaster.”

Jensen said Danish lawmakers felt misled and “appalled” by the president, who “lacks even basic diplomatic skills,” he said. “There was no word [ahead of time] about: ‘I want to buy Greenland, and that’s why I’m coming.’ ”

[...]

Trump’s behavior reminded him of “a spoiled child,” Soren Espersen, foreign affairs spokesman for the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party, told Danish newspaper Politiken.

Martin Lidegaard, the chairman of the Danish parliament’s foreign policy committee and a former foreign minister, said in an interview that he hoped Danes would not take this “quite absurd” episode too seriously.

“Understandably, a lot of people are angry,” he said, “but we should not let Trump impact Danish-U. S. relations” in a negative way.

  WaPo

After all, he's only THE FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Something about Denmark

Respected again

At first, Trump's proposal [to purchase Greenland] had elicited incredulity and humour from politicians in Denmark, with former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen saying: "It must be an April Fool's Day joke." But the mood shifted to bewilderment following the US president's decision to scrap the September 2-3 visit.

Writing on Twitter, former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the US president's comments were "deeply insulting to the people of Greenland and Denmark".

[...]

Morten Ostergaard, leader of the Social Liberal Party, said: "Reality transcends imagination. It shows, more than ever, why we should consider the EU countries our greatest allies."

Rasmus Jarlov, a member of the opposition Conservative Party, said Trump should "show more respect", while simultaneously voicing his disbelief over the plans.

"Are parts of the US for sale? Alaska?" he wrote.

  alJazeera

The presidency.

Greenlandic politician Aaja Chemnitz Larsen said: "Good that Denmark has rejected Circus Trump".

Both the current and former leaders of the Danish People's Party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl and Pia Kjaersgaard, called out Trump, too.

Thulesen Dahl described the incident as a "farce", while Kjaersgaard said Trump's behaviour was "rude".

[...]

The trip to Denmark was part of a European tour that included a visit to Poland. Trump is still expected to visit Poland from August 31.

"Does anyone out there know if the government in Poland has definitively refused the US takeover of northern Poland?" Soren Espersen, a member of the Danish People's Party, asked jokingly.

"Otherwise, watch out for Warsaw when @realDonaldTrump lands, because he is - after the Greenland fiasco - roaring hungry in search of a new Arctic," he wrote on Twitter.

[...]

Twitter users in the Netherlands, meanwhile, offered to buy back Manhattan from the US. Manhattan was once a colonial Dutch trading post which came under the control of the British in the 17th century.

UPDATE:  The Stache zings in...

Impeach - it's the only answer

President Trump cancelled a planned trip to Denmark Aug. 20 after the Danish prime minister called Trump's proposal to buy the territory of Greenland "absurd."

[...]

Several things are immediately striking about this episode. First, it’s a measure of how low we’ve all sunk that, in trying to explain why the president of the United States is making a consequential decision involving an official state visit, we’re forced to choose between two competing rationales that have nothing whatsoever to do with international diplomatic considerations or our national interest.

[...]

Trump has now canceled his planned trip to Denmark, claiming he’s doing so because Denmark’s prime minister has shot down his “proposal” to buy Greenland.

[...]

Some observers have offered another possible explanation: Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, plans to visit Denmark at the end of September, and Trump feared the contrasting optics.

“Trump was scared of the likely contrast,” opined David Frum. “Trump knows Obama is bigger than he is, around the world as well as in the United States. That knowledge tortures Trump.”

  WaPo

I'm not sure he DOES know that. He may well be afraid of the resulting contrasting press, but he's a narcissist. I think he can easily believe he's more popular than Obama.

Notably, the official reason for the cancellation is nearly as saturated in narcissism and megalomania as the “less” flattering Obama-oriented explanation is: Trump is either angry that Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is not taking his suggestion seriously, or he’s embarrassed by it — or both.

[...]

Indeed, The Post reports that officials had discussed offering Denmark an arrangement in which the United States takes over its annual subsidies to Greenland, apparently because of wariness of Chinese and Russian expansion in the Arctic.

But even if this is so, Denmark and Greenland have declared they’re not interested in Trump’s idea, and Trump’s decision to cancel the trip on this ostensible basis is not rooted in any discernible sense of how this might be in our national interest.

Leading figures in Denmark are pointing out that Trump’s conduct will complicate relations and make coordination on all manner of issues — from climate change to the Mideast — more difficult. There’s zero indication that Trump gave any thought to such consequences.

[...]

Trump regularly bases major policy decisions on a zeal to undo whatever Obama did — as if blotting out the Obama presidency is a measure of his own success — even as Trump and his propagandists regularly go to extraordinary lengths to create the cult-like illusion that he’s loved everywhere.

This includes claiming that polls showing his deep unpopularity are media fabrications and regularly inflating and obsessing over crowd sizes. Trump’s hypersensitivity to how he’s received extends abroad, too: After his trip to London, Trump claimed that large protests there simply never happened.

So it’s at least plausible that one of Trump’s considerations in canceling the Denmark trip was Obama’s planned visit. Which brings us to an interesting tension in Trump’s approach to all these matters.

[...]

This is no longer funny. Danish troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 Danes died. The president dishonors the alliance and their sacrifice. On the same day he sought to appease Putin by supporting his return to the G8. — Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) August 21, 2019

[...]

Indeed, even if Obama has nothing to do with this decision, this tension is everywhere: Trump outwardly appears to welcome our allies’ contempt, while simultaneously being infuriated when it embarrasses him, particularly in contrast with treatment of Obama.

In the end, whether Trump’s rationale for the nixed trip is fear of Obama, or rage at his Greenland fiasco, or a desire to sow international disruption, at the core of Trump’s decision-making, moral emptiness and megalomania and total lack of concern for the national interest are all that’s left.

Impeach the motherfucker.

And there it is

You knew he couldn't contain himself over the Danish prime minister - a woman, no less! - saying his suggestion to buy Greenland was absurd.





LOL.  The asshat knows well and good she's not "talking to the United States."  She's talking to HIM.  And his nose is bent out of joint.

And he's not done yet.




UPDATE:

Indeed

When Hell freezes over.

He was fucking serious about buying Greenland!  What the hell is wrong with this nut?



LOL.



Yeah, this isn't really funny, is it?

Respected again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.  I bet the prime minister of Denmark is relieved she won't have to meet him.

UPDATE 8/21:  You knew he couldn't let this go.

UPDATE 8/21:  LOL, Kilgore Trout's Mom was spot on:

Cutting off weapons to Saudi Arabia

Denmark is the latest nation to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia, in light of the brutal killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives and the kingdom’s role in the war in Yemen, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday.

The move, announced by the Danish foreign minister, also covers so-called dual-use materials that can be applied to military purposes.

[...]

Germany and Norway have also stopped supplying arms to Saudi Arabia, and earlier this month, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau said he would weigh doing so.

  Times of Israel

Throwing more sales to the US, right Your Lardship?  Bonus!

How Dare You!

A tiff at the G7.

“There are two kinds of European nations,” [Danish finance minister Kristian] Jensen told the audience gathered for the Road to Brexit event in the Danish parliament. “There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realised they are small nations.”

He added: “It is a paradox that the country that once had an empire on which the sun never sets, that ruled the waves, that in its heart is truly global, is now drawing back from the world’s most successful free trade area. It is a paradox that I cannot get..."

[...]

“There is still this notion in some countries that because they have been the rulers of the 20th century they will continue to be that in the 21st century,” he said. “They [the UK] are a member of all these groups [G7, G20, UN permanent security council] but what has happened to the value of the pound since Brexit? What will happen in the coming years when the finance sector is perhaps looking to Frankfurt or Paris? What will happen when inflation rises? How will they be in the future? I am very concerned about Britain’s economy right now … I think France will be the spokesperson for the EU [on the security council].”

[...]

Her Majesty’s ambassador to Denmark, Dominic Schroeder, drew himself up to his full 1.8 metres (5ft 10in), puffed out his chest and gave the Danish finance minister a jolly good telling-off. Britain was a permanent member of the UN security council, a proud member of the G7 and the G20, and a bloody good egg.

[...]

With all the menace of a man on the brink of doing something he would come to regret, Schroeder added: “I think I’ll leave it there.”

[...]

“The rest of the world’s view of the UK is actually changing quite fast,” [Sir Nigel Sheinwald, a former British ambassador to the US and the EU who was a top adviser to Tony Blair when he was prime minister] mused. “We used to be known for a pragmatic, steely state craft, keeping calm and carrying on. But it feels a bit different today.”

  Guardian

Yes, what should Great Britain change their slogan to read?

“We have seen two British prime minsters make rather impulsive and potentially disastrous decisions in their party political interest, which it turns out have huge repercussions for our political stability, our prosperity and our place in the world.” Who knew?

Seems to be the politics du jour for Americans as well.  How's that working out for us?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Social Democracy

Check out this article on the socio-political differences between the US and Nordic countries.  It gets very interesting by the time you get half way through.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fast Food

Does Burger King sell a lot more in Denmark or something?




And, is the dollar value widely disparate between the US and Australia?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Danish Pre-Crime Police

A 15-year-old Danish boy has been taken into care after fears he would become radicalized and his Muslim father would send him to Syria. The boy had begun to attend the Grimhoej mosque, which has become infamous for not denouncing the Islamic State.

  RT

Sounds like the synopsis for a bad Tom Cruise movie.

”Infamous for not denouncing the Islamic State”?  Is that now a crime in Denmark?

[T]eachers at his school were becoming concerned at the boy’s radical leanings and changes in behavior. According to the Danish newspaper Iullands-Posten, he had told another boy at school that it is fine, “to kill Jews,” and “it is ok to be a suicide bomber if infidels are the target.”

Sounds like any number of redneck comments here in rural America.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.