Trump's Desire to Buy Greenland Proves Global Warming is Real

When we first heard about Trump wanting to buy Greenland it was surreal: it sounded too stupid to be true. Why would anyone want to buy a giant block of ice? 

Because, as Trump is constantly saying, global warming is a hoax, and if global warming is a hoax then Greenland is totally worthless glacier-covered real estate.

Trump was scheduled to make a presidential visit to Greenland, and initially denied that the trip had anything to do with Greenland:

Trump’s desire to buy Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, was first reported last week by the Wall Street Journal. Two people with direct knowledge of the directive told The Washington Post that the president has mentioned the idea for weeks, and that aides are waiting for more direction before they decide how seriously they should look into it.

Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark in two weeks, although he said Sunday that his visit is not related to his interest in Greenland.

Well, guess what? Trump was lying. What a surprise! The only reason he agreed to go to Denmark was to cut a deal to buy Greenland. Since Denmark has zero interest in selling out the semi-autonomous island and its citizens to a Putin sycophant, Trump is pouting like a baby and staying home.

President Trump on Tuesday night abruptly canceled a coming trip to Denmark, writing on Twitter that because the country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, “would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland,” they would meet “another time.”

Mr. Trump was scheduled to visit Copenhagen on Sept. 2 and 3, after being invited by Queen Margrethe II. The president was expected to participate in a series of bilateral meetings and meet with business leaders, and Ms. Frederiksen had underscored the importance of the session, calling the United States “Denmark’s most important and strongest ally in NATO.”

What's really going on? Greenland does have natural resources, which have until now been locked under miles of ice. That includes oil. A lot of it.

But the glaciers on Greenland have been melting crazy fast due to global warming caused by our burning fossil fuel -- July was the hottest month on record:

Last week, the world received yet another stark reminder of what's yet to come as temperatures at the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet rose above freezing and melted the snow there for the first time since July 2012 and perhaps only the third time in the last 700 years. The glacier-covered island lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in one day.

Yes, Greenland lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day.

Since Trump wants to buy Greenland it proves that he knows global warming is happening, and that it's happening very fast. But the ice sheet won't melt in the next two years; it'll take decades even at the rate 12.5 billion tons a day. So why the sudden interest? (Other than Trump's childishly short attention span?)

The value of oil company stock depends in large part on its portfolio of proven reserves. They have been pumping oil and gas for almost a century and a half, and all the easily obtainable oil and gas has been extracted. That means oil company stock will start tanking as it becomes obvious that their proven reserves are being depleted.

They're already using techniques like fracking to get the dribs and drabs that are still locked in the earth's crust, but that will only last for a few more years. After that's all gone oil reserves will drop precipitously, as will their stock prices.

So oil execs have to go to places in the arctic that are melting down (Alaska, Siberia and Greenland) to get new oil reserves on the books, to avoid a meltdown in their bonuses.

Everything about Donald Trump is a lie. Global warming is a hoax, he says. He doesn't want to buy Greenland, he says. He's going to Denmark, but not to buy Greenland. It is now clear that he wants to Greenland because he knows global warming is real, that it is caused by mankind, and that it is happening faster than anyone expected, faster even than Al Gore thought it would happen, and Trump wants to be first on the block to get this new real estate.

You have to wonder whether Trump, the oil companies and other climate change deniers are intentionally working to accelerate global warming so they can cash in on what they think will be the coming real estate boom in the arctic.

What they don't understand that global warming will put all the real estate that they already own along the east coast -- including Trump properties in Florida and New York -- underwater long before Greenland will be suitable for serious exploitation.

It will force people living on coastlines to move somewhere else, causing even worse immigration pressure than we're experiencing now as billions of people living in coastal cities are forced to relocate inland.

Donald Trump is a disaster, making all our problems worse. What does anyone like this moron?

The Truth About Antifa

Gun Humpers To Join A Militia

In the wake of yet another round of domestic terrorism perpetrated by gun rights supporters, writer Jeff Yang has proposed something I have been calling for in terms of a solution: make everyone who owns a gun required to join a militia. Thus, the original intent of the 2nd amendment would be fulfilled.

That's why I want to share a solution that should resolve the logjam blocking sensible reform of gun ownership in this country — one that by all rights should get overwhelming support among American patriots of both parties. I call it the "Military Induction for Licensing, Instruction and Training In Arms" Act — the MILITIA Act for short. The proposal is simple: Anyone purchasing a gun should be required to enlist for military reserve service, spanning the entire period of their gun ownership. Under this proposal, being granted a handgun license would simultaneously and automatically register you to serve as a reservist in the Armed Forces branch of your choice — it's that simple. And it should be that simple ... because it's what the framers intended.

Yep. Let's see the gun humper haul their fat asses out for some fucking PT and "well-regulated" training with firearms. Anyone that fails to comply will be a felon.

We here a lot of bravado from gun humpers about the military and defense. Let's see if they can live up to those words. My guess is they can't because, in the final analysis, they are cowards.

My Message Today To Gun Humpers

Fear and Hate

This recent article in Newsweek summed up Trump and his supporters quite well. The daughter of segregationist George Wallace, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, was interviewed and drew some striking parallels and similarities between then and now.

"The two greatest motivators at (Dad's) rallies were fear and hate," said Wallace Kennedy. "There was no policy solution, just white middle-class anger."

Sound familiar?

Fat Asshole With A Gun

The one thing I would add to this meme is for this asshole and all the other gun humpers out there who look like this to JOIN THE MILITARY. I'd love to see how long they would last...

Trump Should Probably Not Be President Anymore

The New Motto of the United States: 45 es un títere

The incompetence of the Trump administration knows no bounds. This was emphasized at an event where Trump stood beside a fake image of the presidential seal that mocked him:

The real seal is on the left, and the one on the right was displayed at the event. The eagle has two heads instead of one (like the Russian double-headed eagle), it's got golf clubs instead of arrows in one claw, cash instead of a branch in the other claw, and the text reads "45 es un títere" (Trump is a puppet, in Spanish) instead of "E pluribus unum."

How did the White House let something like this go? How could they not have vetted the presentation? What sheer incompetence not to!

Trump is a clown. Trump's staff is packed with clowns. His cabinet is packed with clowns, half of whom are only acting clowns because so many of his administration have been forced to resign for ethical violations, or have resigned in disgrace for beating their wives or getting pedophiles off with a slap on the wrist, or have been fired because they won't stoop to Trump's level.

This presidency is a dumpster fire. I'm getting tired of repeating myself, but these people are all idiots who don't know what they're doing and don't care how much they screw up the country. The Republican Party is complicit.

I only hope that they haven't damaged the Republic beyond repair.

The person who made this seal should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, right after Trump leaves office and is indicted for all the crimes outlined in the Mueller report.

The Art of Redirection

A recent article in my local newspaper regarding Representative Jim Hagedorn, a Republican representing the 1st Congressional District in the southern part of my state, caught my attention because of this quote.

Hillary [Clinton] would have stacked the Supreme Court with radicals who would have taken away our individual liberties. In the next go-round, you’re going to see nothing different.

Let’s be clear on this tactic. It’s the same one used by the Nazis in the 1930s. Accuse the other side of the very thing you intend to do and demonize them while doing it. So, it’s not that liberals are the radicals. They actually want to uphold the rule of law. It’s the conservatives who are radical and want to install judges who will rewrite the law to their liking.

The problem is that "conservative" judges aren't all they are cracked up to be. Invariably, they are quite reluctant to overturn precedent. This is particularly true of Chief Justice John Roberts. It seems to also be true of Neil Gorsuch. Conservatives just like to know that a member of their tribe is in there and most of them don't care after that.

Liberals, on the other hand, do care that a good judge who understands the rule of law serves as a federal judge. Remember, we aren't tribal like the right. Our goal is reality and the truth.

This Is My United States-What's Yours?

America at Its Best

As I write this it is 50 years to the minute since man first walked on the moon. I was only 11 years old, and it was long past my bed time when I watched Neil Armstrong descend the lunar module ladder and set foot on the surface of another world.

I was always a fan of the space program, but at that point pretty much everyone on the planet was united in awe of what human beings can accomplish when they put their minds to it. The men who landed on the moon were patriots, but they too understood that this accomplishment was much bigger than planting American flags on the moon. The plaque on the LEM's leg said it all:

Here men from the planet earth
first set foot upon the moon.
July 1969 A.D.
We came in peace for all mankind.

After the initial flush of excitement, landing on the moon became old hat, and the Apollo program was canceled with Apollo 17, after six moon landings (Apollo 13 experienced an explosion in a tank in the service module and its landing had to be canceled -- the crew barely made it back to earth).

There was another time when we all felt united by the space program -- a much sadder time. In January 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, killing the whole crew. The mission had attracted a lot of attention in the press because a civilian, teacher Christa McAuliffe, was aboard.

It was horrible seeing the crazily winding plume of rocket exhaust on the screen, but the shock of the loss didn't really register in me until they showed a picture of the crew.

STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair;
(back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik

Three white guys, an Asian guy, a black guy and two women (one the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine). The Challenger crew represented the best of all of America. Not just entitled billionaires, white guys from Ivy League colleges, and hot-shot pilots.

This is what America is all about: anyone, from anywhere, can become an American and do anything if they work at it.

Now, that ideal has not always been met. And there are a lot of people these days who want to throw out that ideal completely, shut down our borders and kick everyone out of the country that they don't like.

The picture of the Challenger crew still brings tears to my eyes because of what it says about America when it's at its best. Donald Trump's Twitter account paid lip service to that ideal in a tweet a week after moving into the White House.

But it's clear that everything Trump has said and done since then has proved he doesn't believe any of it. He and his Republican lackeys represent America at its worst.

The Hillbilly Nuremberg

Welcome Those Who Flee Oppression

Anyone Can Be An American

Our Diversity Unites Us

Nativist and ethnic bigotry have been around since our country began. It’s not just nonwhites that been marginalized. The Irish, for example, have had a long history of being treated as subhuman. In Minnesota, Germans were persecuted during WWI simply because they were German. The CPS (Commission on Public Safety) patrolled the streets, arresting people for playing German music. The mayor of New Ulm was dismissed because he was German.

I say all this because we are all in this together. When people like Trump and his followers create a checklist for what it means to be American, we ALL lose, no matter what the color of our skin. It’s our diversity that unites us.

How To Propaganda

The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.

Political propaganda in principle is active and revolutionary. It is aimed at the broad masses. It speaks the language of the people because it wants to be understood by the people. Its task is the highest creative art of putting sometimes complicated events and facts in a way simple enough to be understood by the man on the street. Its foundation is that there is nothing the people cannot understand, but rather things must be put in a way that they can understand. It is a question of making it clear to him by using the proper approach, evidence, and language.   ---Joseph Goebbels, 1934.

Conservatives Are All About Identity Not Ideology

A recent paper from Cambridge political scientists confirms many assertions made on this site over the years. Conservatives don't have any sort of ideological convictions. They say they do but really it's all about identity and blindly following an authoritarian leader. Ironic, considering they rip the left for this, once again pulling the Goebbel's like propaganda move of accusing an opponent of the very thing of which they are guilty.

Barber and Pope specifically chose positions that Trump had taken that were polar opposites. The study showed that if Trump advocated the position, regardless of whether it was a conservative one or a liberal one, conservatives loved it. “The fact that stronger conservatives are the ones most likely to react to the treatment — regardless of the ideological direction of the treatment — suggests that the nearly ubiquitous self-placed ideology measure is less a measure of principled conviction and more of a social identity,” write Barber and Pope.

This would be why the debt is no big deal now. Or tariffs are now cool. They have zero policy loyalty and massive party loyalty. Consider all the foaming at the mouth we see on a daily basis from right wing media regarding "liberal fascism" and government taking over our lives. It's only bad when liberals do it. But this?

Just fine and dandy. After all, Trump is their dictator and that makes it OK!

Trump's Attempt To Distract and Divide.

At this point in the presidency of Donald Trump, it's child's play to figure out why he makes racist comments. First, as the puppet of Vladimir Putin, he seeks to divide this country and making racial remarks is the best way to do it. Second, he's shitting himself right now over what might come out about him and Jeffrey Epstein. Third, Robert Mueller has now been given 3 hours to testify before Congress next week. He will undoubtedly repeat his previous assertions that the president was not exonerated from obstruction of justice and, in fact, should be investigated further.

Trump is such a classic con man playing the shell game that it surprises me that his cult followers aren't picking up on this. They are pretty enamored with his ability to troll liberals so it's not really that much of a stretch. My hope is that the media and the twitter outrage mob ignores the substance of what Trump tweeted and focuses on the overall reasons why he did it.

It's an act, folks, and it's all about distraction and division.

The Paradox of Tolerance

Sorry, Trump supporters and other conservatives. The problem isn't us. It's YOU. Stop being intolerant assholes and then we will accept you. Until then, we are going to call you on your bullshit every single fucking day.

The Logic of the Right