Do they even hear themselves?

Donald Trump and his team are considering “a range of options” in order to acquire Greenland — including “utilizing the U.S. Military,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC on Tuesday.

That’s not “acquiring”; it’s violently stealing. There’s no such thing as casually and cheerfully “acquiring” other countries, there is only invasion and imperialism.

Trump said Sunday that the U.S. needs Greenland for national security purposes, pointing to Russian and Chinese activities in the region near the Arctic island.

What the US needs or doesn’t need is irrelevant to whether or not Trump gets to annex Greenland by force.

There are situations where need is relevant. If a person using a cane or carrying … Read the rest

Trump thinks the January 6 rioters should be rewarded for their murderous rioting.

Supporters of some Jan. 6 riot defendants have championed the idea of a reparations fund to reimburse the criminal defendants — most of whom were pardoned by President Trump shortly after he returned to office last year — for the cost of their prosecutions and expenses.

Mark McCloskey, an attorney whose social media page says he is “championing the cause of J6 compensation,” posted on his X feed in August: “To all the J6 political prisoners out there- I’m doing everything I can to [expedite] the establishment of a claims resolution procedure so we can get you back on your feet and get you some real justice.”

Originally a comment by Athel Cornish-Bowen on Standpoint epistemology.

DTjr is seeking mineral rights interests in Greenland, so as to keep himself stocked up with cocaine for the rest of this life

Probably that’s right. A question that never seems to get asked by journalists and politicians is where the money comes from that drives the international drug trade. The answer is perfectly obvious, but as people don’t like the answer they don’t ask the question. The money comes from the pockets of the people, mainly in North America and Western Europe, who buy the stuff. No demand, no supply. The chaps in Colombia who grow cocaine wouldn’t bother if chaps like DTjr didn’t buy it. Here in Marseilles, … Read the rest

The Guardian’s defence and security editor tells us more about Greenland and the Nato crisis.

The idea that one Nato country could attack another – a US invasion of Greenland – is so alien that the most famous article in Nato’s founding treaty does not distinguish clearly what would happen if two of its members were at war.

Article 5, the cornerstone of mutual protection, dictates that “an armed attack against one or more” in Europe or North America shall be considered “an attack against them all”. Simple enough if the military threat comes from Russia, but more complicated when it comes from easily the alliance’s most powerful member.

A whole lot more complicated, I’m guessing.

“If the US

Trump’s Chief Goon says the US gets to tell all the other countries what to do. It’s the Playground Bully school of foreign policy.

Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, asserted on Monday that Greenland rightfully belonged to the United States and that the Trump administration could seize the semiautonomous Danish territory if it wanted.

In what sense does Greenland “rightfully” belong to the US? Please explain. Note: “Because Trump wants to” is not an explanation. Trump’s wants are not foreign policy or international law.

If Greenland belongs to the US then Trump’s Manhattan penthouse belongs to me. Hand it over, Steve.

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength,

David Frum writes:

Because the anti-Trump side cares about fairness, many of its most prominent figures hesitate to accuse Trump of corrupt motives until sufficient evidence emerges to support the accusation. That Trump has ordered the military to seize an alleged drug-trafficking Latin American head of state barely a month after he pardoned and released a convicted drug-trafficking Latin American head of state is suspicious, to say the least. But until and unless there’s something to back those suspicions, and perhaps recalling the readiness of Trump’s regulatory agencies to retaliate against Trump-critical speech, many on the anti-Trump side deem it unwise to voice them. The possibility that U.S. armed forces could have been deployed because Trump insiders bought into

Fox News hack declares war on Senator/military veteran.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday that he had issued a formal censure to Democratic senator Mark Kelly and initiated proceedings that could strip the Arizona lawmaker of his retired military rank and cut his pension, escalating a dispute that began when Kelly urged service members to resist unlawful orders.

Polite reminder: service members are required to resist unlawful orders. This is asking a lot, because service members are also required to obey orders from superiors, and unlawful orders are generally not labeled unlawful. All the same, that is the rule.

Meanwhile Pete Hegseth is a blob of cough-phlegm on everyone’s shoe.

Just days after a covert mission to capture

Bahahahaha Willz is enraged because the BBC reports on the prosecution of people who claimed that Brigitte Macron is a man and how awful it was for her, YET THEY DON’T DO THE SAME FOR MEN LIKE WILLZ!!!

Also, he consistently mispronounces her name. It’s not MACKronn, it’s MacRON.… Read the rest

Needing something is not automatically a right to have that something. That applies to everyone, not just everyone except Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has again proposed annexing Greenland, after Denmark’s leader urged him to “stop the threats” over the island.

Speaking to reporters, the US president said “we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security”.

We need a lot of things from the standpoint of a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean we get to have them, nor does it mean we get to take them by force.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had said “the US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom”.

Frederiksen added that Denmark “and thus

Circling the wagons.

Keir Starmer has publicly backed the Danish prime minister over Donald Trump after she demanded that the US stop its threats to forcibly take over Greenland.

Speaking after Mike Tapp, the migration minister, repeatedly dodged questions about threats by Trump and his allies to seize Greenland, Starmer told broadcasters that he supported Mette Frederiksen after she criticised US rhetoric.

“Well, I stand with her, and she’s right about the future of Greenland,” Starmer told Sky News.

We don’t know that it was just “rhetoric” that Frederiksen criticized. From here it looks more like threats or promises. Trump is threatening and promising to annex Greenland. He’s not just talking; that’s been made shockingly clear.

Speaking on

So we’re going to war with Denmark now. That seems very sensible and useful.

Denmark is in “full crisis mode” after U.S. President Donald Trump once again set his sights on Greenland, following the strike on Venezuela.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you,” Trump said Sunday on Air Force One, echoing similar remarks made separately to The Atlantic magazine.

It has raised alarm in Denmark, which is responsible for the defense of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory.

“I have to say this very directly to the United States: It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the

The Genghis Khan de nos jours, but minus the charm.

In a telephone interview this morning, President Donald Trump issued a not-so-veiled threat against the new Venezuelan leader, Delcy Rodríguez, saying that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” referring to Nicolás Maduro, now residing in a New York City jail cell. Trump made clear that he would not stand for Rodríguez’s defiant rejection of the armed U.S. intervention that resulted in Maduro’s capture.

As if she were a toddler making too much noise while Daddy is reading the paper. As if he had any right whatsoever to make any head of government do what he orders. … Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog on It’s just common sense.

As to common sense, I laughed out loud when I was reading Rene Descartes’ “Discourse on the Method,” and ran across his assessment of common sense. He wrote something to the effect of, “Common sense must be the most abundant thing in the world, because nobody ever wants more of it than they already have.”

Also reminds me of my favorite Rene Descartes joke: Rene Descartes is drinking in a bar. Eventually, the barman calls for closing time. Barman: “Would you like one more for the road?” Descartes: [hesitates] “I think not.” And =POOF!= he disappears.

The Sinn Fein leader criticised a ­“limited but loud” group in society that

So…yeah.

Call me conspiratorial but I kind of think this is part of the point: A small number of strong men each holding their own sphere of influence, ceding the rest to the others to do as they want. https://t.co/7iVLByd7ao

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) January 3, 2026

… Read the rest

Sigh.

People need to cop on over trans issue, urges Mary Lou McDonald

Mary Lou McDonald has urged “calm, cop-on and common sense” on transgender policy, warning against division as Sinn Fein prepares to revise its gender identity stance.

The Sinn Fein leader criticised a ­“limited but loud” group in society that had sought to “divide, to demonise and ­marginalise” others — rhetoric which she said sparked a growing sense of fear within Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community.

Ah, ok, that kind of calm, cop-on and common sense – the kind that says men are women if they say they are, and women have to shut up and welcome them as sisters. I don’t really consider it common sense to think that … Read the rest

Amnesty International still intent on destroying women’s rights.

Trans people should have the same human rights as everyone else has. There are no special rights for trans people. Nobody has a right to be constantly affirmed as a planet or a porcupine or trapped in the wrong body. Men who pretend to be women are a threat to women’s rights in too many ways to list.

It’s interesting how careful Amnesty is not to spell out these purported rights that have been dealt a blow. What rights? There is no right for men to use women’s spaces or take jobs reserved for women or accept prizes for women or force people to call them women.

Trump on the one … Read the rest

From the Telegraph a couple of weeks ago:

Journal of Medical Ethics article defends female genital mutilation

The British Medical Journal Group has published an article defending female genital mutilation (FGM).

Researchers from 25 different global institutions claim the widespread condemnation of the practice is based on “misleading, often racialised, stereotypes” and “Western sensationalism”.

FGM involves the partial or total removal of a female’s external genitalia, or other cutting of the organs, for non-medical reasons.

Like the “Because Mohammed said so” reasons.

More than 230 million girls and women around the world have had their genitalia mutilated, mostly commonly in Africa, but also in parts of Asia and the Middle East, usually on historic religious or cultural grounds.

But they … Read the rest

With all its faults, twitterx is still a great place to find terrible people bluntly informing us on how terrible they are.

For Women Scotland are quoting Nicola Sturgeon:

She seems to forget that she is still paid £74,500 as an MSP to represent her constituency. Most MSPs are run ragged.

We can only assume that with all this reading, gig going, driving, and socialising, she's not really doing her job.

But she's taking our money.

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) January 2, 2026

… Read the rest

Yes yes yes by all means protect women’s rights, that’s important, yes indeed, BUT – first you gotta protect trans people, and then if there’s any protect left over, you can give that to women. Clear?

It’s the women and equalities minister again.

Bridget Phillipson has warned her critics that transgender people must not be used as a “political punchbag” amid accusations that she is blocking guidance on single-sex spaces.

The women and equalities minister’s comments come in the face of criticism that she is delaying the publication of the draft guidance, which was submitted to the government by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in September.

She’s told you: she has to read it first. That obviously … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on New York New York.

Israel is a political entity, a nation, one that is currently led by a far-right political apparatus that is unabashedly racist, and which is actively opposed by a large number of the citizenry under its present leadership.

Anti-semitism is a worldview, an ideology, that is held in deep disrepute — rightly — because it generalizes a heterogeneous group of people — those who identify as Jewish — as universally subhuman or evil. Antisemitism is almost superstitious in that it attributes negative forces to a group of people based on nothing but the almost-arbitrary line between who counts as Jewish and who doesn’t. The fact that the defining line between … Read the rest