Trump vs reality; the Greenland episode
Discussion
While the Tangerine Tyrant's wibblings about Greenland have been his usual fantastical fact-free, thought-free stream-of-unconsciousness b
ks, the articles about it have contained a common thread of what appears to be uncritically regurgitated rubbish; for example this Guardian piece mentions Rare Earths several times and has this as the last paragraph;
TL;DR if the US(or anyone really) dealt with thorium on a evidence/science-lead basis rather than as if it can be made into nuclear bombs(which it can't) the Chinese monopoly of RE problem could be made to go away, or at least be dealt with far more easily; wibbling about Greenland will do nothing about it at all.
Why the Chinese would want a port in Greenland is unclear, the reason presented is bks. Does anyone in medialand actually think about what they're writing, or is it just one ill-informed and very busy writer whose work gets cut-and-pasted into the Daily Bugle by Phil Space?
ks, the articles about it have contained a common thread of what appears to be uncritically regurgitated rubbish; for example this Guardian piece mentions Rare Earths several times and has this as the last paragraph;Grauniad said:
China sees Greenland as a possible source of rare earth minerals and other resources as well as a location for a port to ship through the Arctic to the eastern US.
China already has as much RE sources as it needs; you could make a devil's advocate argument that they might want to buy the rights to Greenland's RE deposits to keep other miners out, but REs are, contrary to their name, not very rare so buying up the rights to the world's RE deposits is a losing strategy even if it were possible. The same applies to the US or any other national or corporate player; buying the rights is pointless as the stuff is abundant. The bottleneck for the US is thorium; there's plenty of RE deposits in the US(indeed there are REs sitting in mine tailings, you don't even need to dig the stuff out of the ground), but as with REs more or less everywhere they appear with varying amounts of thorium, thorium is a source material and therefore regulated up the yingyang as though it's the same as uranium. Unmanageable liability via thorium caused US RE mines to either shut or never open in the first instance. Similar liability issues arise in other countries.TL;DR if the US(or anyone really) dealt with thorium on a evidence/science-lead basis rather than as if it can be made into nuclear bombs(which it can't) the Chinese monopoly of RE problem could be made to go away, or at least be dealt with far more easily; wibbling about Greenland will do nothing about it at all.
Why the Chinese would want a port in Greenland is unclear, the reason presented is b
ks. Does anyone in medialand actually think about what they're writing, or is it just one ill-informed and very busy writer whose work gets cut-and-pasted into the Daily Bugle by Phil Space?It isn't actually that ridiculous an idea.
The USA has purchased territory before, Louisiana from the French, Alaska from the Russians. Greenland costs Denmark a significant annual subsidy every year and the territory is worth more to the USA, due to strategic considerations, than it is to Denmark.
If the price were right it seems a sensible deal for Denmark, but no doubt dismissed out of hand because it is Trump proposing it.
The USA has purchased territory before, Louisiana from the French, Alaska from the Russians. Greenland costs Denmark a significant annual subsidy every year and the territory is worth more to the USA, due to strategic considerations, than it is to Denmark.
If the price were right it seems a sensible deal for Denmark, but no doubt dismissed out of hand because it is Trump proposing it.
Zirconia said:
No matter the price, what about the people living there?
Knowing who is in charge though they would buy it and declare them all biggly illegal aliens.
That’s part of the price though isn’t it. Pay people enough money and they’ll vote for anything. I suspect if the US said “have a million USD each, US citizenship and we promise not to mine within 100 miles of your communities” they’d get 50% of the vote.Knowing who is in charge though they would buy it and declare them all biggly illegal aliens.
It’s not like they’re being sold into Slavery, they’d just be governed by the US rather than Denmark.
rxe said:
Zirconia said:
No matter the price, what about the people living there?
Knowing who is in charge though they would buy it and declare them all biggly illegal aliens.
That’s part of the price though isn’t it. Pay people enough money and they’ll vote for anything. I suspect if the US said “have a million USD each, US citizenship and we promise not to mine within 100 miles of your communities” they’d get 50% of the vote.Knowing who is in charge though they would buy it and declare them all biggly illegal aliens.
It’s not like they’re being sold into Slavery, they’d just be governed by the US rather than Denmark.
JagLover said:
It isn't actually that ridiculous an idea.
The USA has purchased territory before, Louisiana from the French, Alaska from the Russians. Greenland costs Denmark a significant annual subsidy every year and the territory is worth more to the USA, due to strategic considerations, than it is to Denmark.
If the price were right it seems a sensible deal for Denmark, but no doubt dismissed out of hand because it is Trump proposing it.
Yes, it's the Trump haters now looking stupid, Greenland is a huge repository of much needed ores and minerals. The USA has purchased territory before, Louisiana from the French, Alaska from the Russians. Greenland costs Denmark a significant annual subsidy every year and the territory is worth more to the USA, due to strategic considerations, than it is to Denmark.
If the price were right it seems a sensible deal for Denmark, but no doubt dismissed out of hand because it is Trump proposing it.
Invading Greenland might have been the acme of tiny, totty Denmark's ambitions to
expand and build an empire , all the warm, verdant regions being pinched by Britain, France and Belgium.
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
Not-The-Messiah said:
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
We’ve got one here who can see.If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
He needs reprogramming.
Orange man bad.
You mean like when Obama and Clinton constantly said illegal immigrants had to go back but somehow weren’t racist or even made the news ? Or when Clinton was against gay marriage yet nobody made a fuss?
Not-The-Messiah said:
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
Exactly. If Argentina had embarked on a “hearts and minds” initiative 30 years ago, the outcome might be very different. The US could do the same with Greenland - inward investment, military assistance for SAR, oh you want super high speed internet - yeah, we’ve got a satellite for that. If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
Basically what the Chinese are doing in Africa right now.
Not-The-Messiah said:
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
Argentina now would struggle to find enough cash to buy the farm at Estancia - let alone the whole Falkland Islands If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
gazza285 said:
Cantaloupe said:
Yes, it's the Trump haters now looking stupid, Greenland is a huge repository of much needed ores and minerals.
Perhaps that reserve of ores and minerals is exactly why the idea of Denmark selling Greenland appears absurd to the Danish Government.As the ice melts and recedes, judicious and even distribution of, and competition for, mining rights will see Denmark set for years financially.
Trump's just trying to ensure the ice melts and he gets all the rights in the next 6 years.
It would take an awfully large amount of Pesos, wine and corned beef for the Argies to have played the hearts and minds game.
Falkland Islanders are fiercely British and have always been so. It would be like the Spanish having a charm offensive to Gibraltarians. It just wouldn't have ever worked.
Falkland Islanders are fiercely British and have always been so. It would be like the Spanish having a charm offensive to Gibraltarians. It just wouldn't have ever worked.
Not-The-Messiah said:
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
No it would still have been a daft thing to say and an even more daft thing to get pissy about when the Danes and Greenlanders laughed at him. The suggestion itself made me roll my eyes, his cancelling his state visit to Denmark because the PM had been “nasty” to him was the icing on the cake, what a simpleton that man is.If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
Pesty said:
Not-The-Messiah said:
I love how many people think that the Falkland Islands should be given to Argentina because it's closer to them than it is to use. And it's just a reminder of our colonial past. But the concept of America buying Greenland is crazy.
If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
We’ve got one here who can see.If Argentina had offered to buy the Falkland islands instead of forcefyul invading them. You never know they might have got somewhere.
Its another orange man bad story. If Barack Obama had suggested it it would have been a ambitious interesting idea.
He needs reprogramming.
Orange man bad.
You mean like when Obama and Clinton constantly said illegal immigrants had to go back but somehow weren’t racist or even made the news ? Or when Clinton was against gay marriage yet nobody made a fuss?
There's a certain irony that you can call Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and do quite well out of it it whilst if you simply say the suggestion of selling part of your country's territory is "absurd" the man throws a strop, calls you "nasty" and cancels a state visit.
It's weird behaviour.
It's weird behaviour.
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: There's a certain irony that you can call Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and do quite well out of it it whilst if you simply say the suggestion of selling part of your country's territory is "absurd" the man throws a strop, calls you "nasty" and cancels a state visit.
It's weird behaviour.
Indeed, which is why the dictators of the world are having a field day playing to his teeny mind and colossal insecurities.It's weird behaviour.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff