5 hours ago, rjshae said:

Unless DJT backs off, I think the one way this could work itself out diplomatically without damaging NATO is for the US and Denmark to agree on some sort of shared "Protected territory" status for Greenland. Let Denmark and Greenland handle the political state and economy, and the US handles most of the defense matters, along with special influence on minerals handling.

 

so what greenland have right now

clearly the point is not actually security of greenland

usa hope another colonial acquisition will boost their reputation and support at home

the fact resource greenland can not be exploited yet are not even a factor

7 hours ago, rjshae said:

Unless DJT backs off, I think the one way this could work itself out diplomatically without damaging NATO is for the US and Denmark to agree on some sort of shared "Protected territory" status for Greenland. Let Denmark and Greenland handle the political state and economy, and the US handles most of the defense matters, along with special influence on minerals handling.

You mean like what they do right now already?

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

You mean like what they do right now already?

This. the US already had free hands to expand their military presence on Greenland. Two problems with that... one, it doesn't distract from the still unreleased Epstein files and two, doesn't make Mango Mussolini look like a proper conqueror.

3 hours ago, Gorth said:

This. the US already had free hands to expand their military presence on Greenland. 

agreed. too little attention for this point.

Buy Greenland? Take It? Why? An Old Pact Already Gives Trump a Free Hand. Analysts say the Cold War agreement allows the president to increase the American military presence almost at will.

Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland. Right now, the United States has one base in a very remote corner of the island. But the agreement allows it to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”

It was signed in 1951 by the United States and Denmark, which colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs.

“The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen.

“I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted,” he said, adding, “if it just asked nicely.”

...

The fear was that Nazis could use Greenland as a steppingstone to America. The Germans had already established small meteorological bases on the island’s east coast and relayed information for battles in Europe. American troops eventually ousted them and established more than a dozen bases there with thousands of troops, landing strips and other military facilities.

After World War II, the United States continued to run some bases and a string of early warning radar sites. As the Cold War wound down, the United States closed all of them except one. It’s now called the Pittufik Space Base and helps track missiles crossing the North Pole.

end

at one time, the US had something like seventeen bases in greenland, although "bases" can be misleading as a few listening stations described as bases were likely a building or two manned by a handful o' people, but our understanding is that the people in greenland and denmark were, by and large, perfectly fine with the arrangement. no surprise as there isn't much meaningful industry in greenlandl, and the US presence meant there were business opportunities for greenlanders who is significant supported by government assistance programs. 

this is all so stoopid... unless you accept the equal ridiculous suggestion that the greenland nonsense is due to the fact greenland appears extreme large on flat maps, and trump wants to add the huge island to his real estate portfolio. longitude demarcations at the equator is +111 km apart and at the north pole they all converge and therefore is 0 km apart, so on many flat maps, greenland appears much larger than it is in reality. trump sees acquisition o' greenland as akin to the louisiana purchase or alaska, and he is convinced acquiring the property would be a major benefit to his personal brand. based on reporting from folks such as susan glasser, trump was just as obsessed with greenland in term 1, but the sane folks surrounding the President always managed to deflect his attention to something more meaningful, but there is far less sanity to be found in trump 2.0.

this is all just so dumb, and yet republicans in Congress and the trump administration who know better has decided to unapologetic go all in on what should be a comical emperor's new clothes bit, but even Gromnir is having difficulty seeing the humor in this idiocy. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 17Jan 17 by Gromnir

4 hours ago, Gorth said:

This. the US already had free hands to expand their military presence on Greenland. Two problems with that... one, it doesn't distract from the still unreleased Epstein files and two, doesn't make Mango Mussolini look like a proper conqueror.

It's like drugs and Maduro.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-denmark-european-tariffs-greenland-deal-rcna254551

"Trump also pointed to joint security exercises around Greenland between Denmark and other European allies, calling them a "very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet."

"Therefore, it is imperative that, in order to protect Global Peace and Security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly, and without question," Trump wrote."

So I guess these trade deals he made with UK are blown?

https://www.wypr.org/2026-01-16/irans-supreme-leader-acknowledges-thousands-killed-as-pressure-builds-on-clerical-rule

The Iranian supreme leader has admitted thousands of people were killed during the protests

" Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has acknowledged that "thousands" of people have been killed — some of them in what he called an "inhuman, savage manner" — during weeks of unrest across the country.

The rare public admission, which took place during a speech broadcast on state television, comes as international scrutiny of Iran's crackdown continues — and after Iranian officials had previously acknowledged significant casualties while blaming terrorists, foreign governments and intelligence agencies for fomenting unrest.

But human rights groups say the scale of violence has been far greater than authorities have — until now — admitted publicly.

The Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights estimates that more than 3,400 people have been killed nationwide since the protests began, while the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists in Iran group has also documented thousands of deaths and widespread arrests of demonstrators." 

 

And the global attention on the brutal crackdown is not going away

Obviously Russia and China vetoed any UNSC resolution on Iran but its now been refered to the UN Human Rights Council, I am very interested to see how South Africa will vote because we currently a member

https://unwatch.org/after-security-council-meeting-balks-on-iran-30-ngos-demand-unhrc-urgent-session/

"After yesterday’s Security Council meeting on Iran yesterday failed to produce any outcome resolution, a cross-regional coalition of 30 non-governmental organizations and human rights groups today sent an urgent appeal to 100 UN ambassadors in Geneva calling for an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council to address what they describe as the “horrific mass killings” of protesters by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Due to the veto power of China and Russia, the Security Council is blocked from taking action on Iran, but we know from past experience that if EU states take the lead at the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council — where there is no veto — they can adopt a strong condemnation of the Iranian regime’s massacre of protesters, and establish mechanisms of investigation, accountability and justice,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, an independent Geneva-based human rights group that plays a leading role in supporting Iranian dissidents.

Signatories to today’s appeal come from Australia, Cameroon, Canada, France, Gambia, Ghana, India, Japan, Latvia, Moldova, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States.

The coalition warned that Iran’s violent crackdown on nationwide protests that began on December 28 has resulted in grave, widespread, and systematic violations of international human rights law.

Thousands of protesters have been killed by Iranian security forces in recent weeks, with many more injured, arbitrarily detained, tortured, or forcibly disappeared. Protesters have been shot with live ammunition, detainees denied access to lawyers and medical care, and journalists, students, women, and minority communities deliberately targeted. Internet shutdowns and information blackouts have further concealed the full scale of abuses."  

 

 

^^

but Trump has their back right, i mean he said he would help, surely he would never lie. 

new florida man entry

am placing here 'cause this kinda willful (and quite possible performative) ignorance is increasingly normal in US politics. too many voters believe stoopid and being corrected about their stoopid makes 'em more likely to become angry with smarty-pants experts. people has always been stoopid. the difference is that in the past, people knew they were ignorant about a whole host o' subjects and issues, so they put their trust in experts. 'cause o' the internet, nowadays every yahoo believes their confirmation bias skewed research makes 'em experts on health, medicine, military tactics, tariffs and soros-funded space lasers.

politicians, some o' whom is as ignorant as voters, but many know better, embrace stoopid conspiracy theories such as chemtrails and seth rich because they know the libs is gonna aggressive correct 'em. obtuse voters who believe seth rich stoopid see one o' the politicians from their team being criticized by know-it-all reporters, experts and libs, and even if they don't particular like Congressman steube, they hate reporters, experts and libs. vote steube is a thumb in the eye o' experts, reporters and libs.

...

'course recognizing the problem ain't gonna stop us from laughing at the florida man stuff.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Gromnir

On 1/17/2026 at 10:48 AM, Gromnir said:

first, the placement o' the quotes as being from the first paragraph is irrelevant 'cause your context was, again, "And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days."

That is context. You'd have some sort of point if I'd pulled the quotes from elsewhere in the articles, but I pulled them from the place which every source (other than you) has as a summary giving what the author thinks was the most important facts. As I didn't, you don't.

In order for your claims to be relevant you have to show that there's  some unique property about Reza Pahlavi that makes articles about him different. We both know you won't, because you can't.

Quote

essential facts + hook ≠ a meaningful summary.

I mean, it does, in english, and for news articles. Hence it isn't sophistry from you, it isn't semantics, it's just refusing to concede something which is blatantly obvious and hoping the other person will just give up so you can 'win'.

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Zoraptor

Congress Clown Greg Steube needs to get out of Florida for a bit. Back in December we had three weeks of constantly overcast skies and a lot of fog. Very, very persistent fog. In fact so persistent, that we've gotten less than ten minutes of sunshine from December 1st to Christmas. Three entire weeks it looked like Silent Hill.

Nice shot from our office terrace.

So yeah, dunno, how long can water vapor stay in the air given the right conditions? Weeks of cloudy skies? Fog that won't go away for days and days?  

 

Edited January 18Jan 18 by majestic

 

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

I mean, it does, in english, and for news articles.

actually, no it doesn't. more deception or ignorance. summary lede label describes the kinda lede.

"you're going to need a bigger boat." elderly cuban fisherman loses record-setting marlin to sharks.

is not a summary o' old man and the sea anymore than is most o' your not linked and not attributed quotes. heck, you claimed, with your typical ignorant certainty, that, "The first paragraph of an article is always a summary." 

*chuckle*

ledes is, by their nature and limitations, not meaningful summaries. a summary lede hooks and provides essential facts... though again, not all your supplied ledes were summary ledes. and 'course all you have been doing now for multiple posts is the hypocritical sophistry nonsense you complain 'bout--you never provided any genuine support for your confirmation bias reliant conclusion other than to state you lifted quotes from search engine results,

 

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

"And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days."

after which you added  a list o' rando quotes sans any attribution or links and no genuine support for how these rando links, by their mere existence, supports your conclusion that western media were active trying to "embiggen" pahlavi... a guy who has shown up 2x in four days based o' the first 60 search engine results each day for iran + protests in spite o' the fact he had an hour long news conference on the 16th... not to mention the fact that anybody reading the articles you did not link or attribute (bad zor) would realize just how equivocal and ambivalent they were insofar as pahlavi's newfound relevance to iranians. heck, we pulled quotes from al jazeera that were functional identical to the western quotes you found meaningful and egregious.

"anyone who has completed primary school," would mock your efforts as you did not link or attribute your rando quotes, and you didn't even meaningful support your hasty and overbroad generalization with anything but the list o' rando quotes produced by a search engine. the fact you thinks ledes = meaningful summaries, and your efforts to ignore how your own unattributed sources undermine your conclusion, would be derided by primary school teachers everywhere; again, no primary school teacher would give you passing marks for mindless quoting a lede verbatim as being equivalent o' summarizing an article. primary school teachers would chastise your efforts as lazy and deceptive, though no doubt they would use as a teaching moment regardless o' the scorn and ridicule your efforts deserve. and given that your only support for your initial conclusion following your initial flawed quote-list post is to argue semantics, am guessing the primary school education you received were either substandard or it didn't stick.

we lived in chicago, so we got a soft spot for clowns with a daily act, but...

am admitted curious to see just how many rakes zor will trip over before one o' us loses patience.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Gromnir

2 hours ago, majestic said:

Congress Clown Greg Steube needs to get out of Florida for a bit.

 

had same here at approximate same time.

that said, am thinking you are expecting too much from steube and/or his voters

everglades fog is the stuff o' legends, but asking folks to make the connection 'tween swamp fog or ocean advection fog (which is a common occurrence in florida with all that ocean frontage, yes?) and chemtrails is a bit like getting seth rich conspiracy believers to face facts.

offer facts and expert sources and you are simultaneous galvanizing florida man. it doesn't need to make sense.

HA! Good Fun!

ps got an unwanted cliff clavin trivia fact. am recollecting there is numerous florida indian tribes that have common creation myth elements. one such-- in the beginning there were fog. a few o' the florida indian creation myths start not like genesis with nothingness and darkness, but rather with fog.  am gonna go out on a limb and hypothesize the creek and seminole were familiar with persistent fog. 

pps we shouldn't have identified creek and seminole as indian tribes with the fog creation myth, but taking out now feels like cheating. our +20 year remote source mentioned "native americans" and "florida" so we reflexive thought creek and seminole, but am not certain 'bout which peoples o' florida shared the primeval fog myth.

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Gromnir

As much as I'm interested in theological archeology, I've yet to figure out the background for the Aboriginals (native Australians) creation myth, The Dream Time. It may have been covered in basic school, but I didn't go to school in Australia and a disproportional number (one third? I need to check sources) of schools is run by the Catholic Church and is more likely to teach kids, that we weren't here 6000+ years ago 🤔

Sorry guys, completely unrelated to Florida, just my absent and sometimes too abstract mind going off on a tangent

20 minutes ago, Gorth said:

 

Sorry guys, completely unrelated to Florida, just my absent and sometimes too abstract mind going off on a tangent

am clear not gonna complain about getting drawn into a tangential discussion, particular when is more intriguing than the ones am having indulged recent.

HA! Good Fun!

Tariffs are back on the menu, boys.

Real curious how much the stock market will tank on monday. Thinking of doing some purchases then, maybe it's just the usual grift again. Or we'll bomb each other to scraps, but then it won't matter anymore anyways.

5 hours ago, majestic said:

Congress Clown Greg Steube needs to get out of Florida for a bit. Back in December we had three weeks of constantly overcast skies and a lot of fog. Very, very persistent fog. In fact so persistent, that we've gotten less than ten minutes of sunshine from December 1st to Christmas. Three entire weeks it looked like Silent Hill.

Nice shot from our office terrace.

So yeah, dunno, how long can water vapor stay in the air given the right conditions? Weeks of cloudy skies? Fog that won't go away for days and days?  

 

We had a bunch of fog here too around the same time. The issues come when the air starts to smell when you open the windows... I promptly went and bought a couple of more air cleaners.

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

Tariffs are back on the menu, boys.

Real curious how much the stock market will tank on monday. Thinking of doing some purchases then, maybe it's just the usual grift again. Or we'll bomb each other to scraps, but then it won't matter anymore anyways.

The Supreme Court ruling is going to be a big one. 

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

The Supreme Court ruling is going to be a big one. 

 

at this point much of the world are numb to usa tariff threat

if supreme court rule them as legal it will have far more influence than if they rule against tariff

Edited January 19Jan 19 by uuuhhii

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

 

at this point much of the world are numb to usa tariff threat

if supreme court rule them as legal it will have far more influence than if they rule against tariff

Not at all, I wish US tariff threats were meaningless

USA tariffs threats are still a concern for most countries because most of the tariffed countries  rely  on heavy exports to the US

Only China has been able to more or less insulate itself from US tariffs because they learnt from last time 

But what we are seeing is countries building around US tariffs threats 

South Africa and almost all of Africa is very concerned with any tariffs from the US but AGOA looks like it will be renewed so thats good news, its gone through Congress and just needs Trumps signature with still some uncertainty specifically for South Africa 

https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2026/01/15/agoa-renewal-moves-one-step-closer-but-south-africas-eligibility-remains-uncertain

" The United States (U.S.) House of Representatives has approved a three-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), following President Donald Trump’s decision to uproot the duty-free agreement in October. 

Established in 2000 under President Bill Clinton, the preferential trade program offered 32 sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of exports.  

Despite a renewal receiving the majority vote, 340 to 54, participating states know reinstatement remains uncertain. The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate, which, if approved, will await final approval from Trump, who halted the 25-year agreement just three months ago.  "

 

 

 

"Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

Oh boy. 

Edited January 19Jan 19 by Malcador

Basically saying his only motivation to stop wars was to get the peace prize. No wonder he's been so tough with Ukraine, pushing them to sign a bad deal - trying to find the easiest way out.

On 1/17/2026 at 12:30 AM, Lexx said:

You mean like what they do right now already?

Not quite; DJT presumably wants control of the mineral wealth, including that which will be uncovered as the ice cap melts thanks to the (apparently ficticious) non-existant climate change.

10 hours ago, Malcador said:

"Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

Oh boy. 

am gonna suggest that's the portion o' the letter which resonates most with hardcore maga. the maga movement has been so successful 'cause it channels outrage and grievance o' white americans, particular white and working class americans. is the folks living in rural america who feel as if they has been marginalized and ridiculed for decades while the libs talk about reparations for slavery and the "feminazis" push dei programs. their manufacturing jobs go to mexico, vietnam and china and all the libs wanna talk about is white privilege? 

now the real trick is that trump has managed to convince maga that his personal grievances is theirs. whenever trump is mocked for saying something ignorant, or he is investigated for business fraud, the ultimate motivation behind those efforts by the deep state and george soros to diminish trump is the destruction of maga. 

it's not 4d chess. as long as trump is channeling outrage and grievance, the maga base will cheer for him.

HA! Good Fun!

23 hours ago, Gromnir said:

"you're going to need a bigger boat." elderly cuban fisherman loses record-setting marlin to sharks.

is not a summary o' old man and the sea anymore than is most o' your not linked and not attributed quotes. heck, you claimed, with your typical ignorant certainty, that, "The first paragraph of an article is always a summary." 

This is what is known as a straw man argument. to whit: make up something you wish had been said, then argue against that. Ironically, that is a summary of pretty much every single one of your arguments, going back a decade. 

It's clear that those quotes were part of a summary. I'm not arguing with you, I'm stating a fact.

Quote

am admitted curious to see just how many rakes zor will trip over before one o' us loses patience.

As last time, I don't really have any patience to lose since I'm not putting any effort into arguing with you. I'm just telling you you're wrong.

Edited January 19Jan 19 by Zoraptor