It’s roundup time again
And again and again …
(1) The rate of inflation appears to have slowed since Trump took office.
(2) The House passed a continuing resolution, and now Senate Democrats face a dilemma:
After Magic Mike Johnson magically passed a continuing resolution through the evenly divided House, Senate Democrats are left in an impossible position: Vote for a continuing resolution that cuts $13 billion from non-defense spending… or shut the government down and let my friend, OMB Director Russ Vought, be in charge.
That’s right, if the government is shut down, the most hated man in leftwing circles and the face of Project 2025 will directly manage the government shutdown.
I am begging Senate Democrats… fight the Republicans, filibuster the legislation, and shut the government down!!
Of course, if Democrats spark a government shutdown, the left will suddenly consider government shutdowns to be good.
(3) New Hampshire’s Senator Jeanne Shaheen has announced she won’t run for re-election in 2026 (she’s 78 now, although being that old hasn’t stopped a lot of people). New Hampshire is a funny state and hard to predict, but there’s no question this could represent a GOP pickup in 2026. It depends, of course, on who runs – if it’s ex-Governor Sununu he would probably win, but I think he may really be through with politics and not eager to be a senator in a Trump administration. I’ve never understood Shaheen’s appeal. She’s extremely bland, runs as a moderate, and virtually always votes with the far left.
(4) Zeldin, head of the EPA, has ended this practice:
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin ended the $20 billion “gold bar” scheme set up by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The money went to people in the National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.
“20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight,” said Zeldin. “Doling out your money through just eight pass through, politically connected, unqualified, and in some cases, brand new NGOs. The money has since been frozen, and the Department of Justice and FBI have been investigating.”
(5) Greenland votes:
A political party in Greenland that favors an incremental approach to independence from Denmark came first in the Arctic territory’s parliamentary election. But a pro-U.S. party recorded its best result ever in a vote that took place in the shadow of President Donald Trump’s pledge to take control of the island.
The center-right Demokraatit party won 29.9% of the votes, up from 9.1% in 2021, ahead of the opposition Naleraq party, which seeks rapid independence and closer ties with the U.S., at 24.5%.
That’s a total of over 50%.
Wonder how many people remember the last time the US took over Greenland. And Iceland, too, for that matter…
Don’t know much about Greenland, but its story is likely similar to Iceland’s, both being Danish colonies at the outbreak of WWII. (Hard to imagine Denmark having colonies but it did and still does. The Icelanders, it should be said were not terribly fond of the Danes.)
WRT Iceland, I don’t believe the US actually took it over but rather they were “given” it by the Brits to administer after the latter occupied it following Hitler’s 1940 conquest of Denmark. The reason of course was that the Brits didn’t want the Nazis to take control of it.
This handover would have occurred at some point after the US entered the war, perhaps 1942 or afterwards.
Iceland (and I presume the same is true of Greenland) was essential mostly because of its weather stations, which provided the Allies and the convoys in the “Battle of the Atlantic” with accurate forecasts, along with a string of other weather stations in the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland (at that time still under British control).
These weather station forecasts played a huge role in the final decision to approve the Operation Overlord (D-Day) invasion during a slight but long-enough break in a spate of stormy weather on June 6, 1944.
Following the war, an impoverished Iceland was granted its independence. Greenland remained a Danish colony, but that story could be taking an unexpected twist.
I’m bullish on Greenland. I love the colorful photos of Greenland.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/photo-essay-life-in-greenland-as-residents-face-20218207.php
Whatever may happen, I believe Trump has planted a seed of change there.
836,000 sq.miles in Greenland, with 0.1 person/sq.mi, though it’s not stipulated whether that’s volume-person, mass-person, psyche-person or whathaveyou.
Following the war, an impoverished Iceland was granted its independence. Greenland remained a Danish colony, but that story could be taking an unexpected twist.
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In 1950, the following countries had a per capita product exceeding Iceland’s:
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United States
New Zealand
Luxembourg
Australia
Canada
Switzerland
Denmark
Great Britain
Sweden
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
==
The most affluent of the Scandinavian countries had a per capita product about 30% higher than Iceland’s.
==
Neither Greenland (population 23,000 in 1950) nor Iceland (population 141,000) were satisfactory candidates for formal sovereignty. One was more populous than the other by a factor of six and still is. I’ve not located satisfactory economic indicators on Greenland as it is a dependent territory. It appears to be heavily subsidized by Denmark. Iceland’s population is about 80% old Norse, about 18% other European, and < 2% Southeast Asian and East Indian. Greenland's population is about 90% aboriginal, 10% Scandinavian.
IMO, the occidental powers should have retained their low census dependencies, performed certain services for them, and left them to their own devices on the remaining matters of public policy. There are 60-odd territories in this world with populations under 3,000,000. With few exceptions, these should be protectorates or dependencies. Some more populous territories should arguably be under trusteeships (Haiti, Somalia, components of Equatorial Africa).
We have a history of making a hash of it supervising dependencies. Greenland is better off under Danish supervision.
are we talking guam or puerto rico, there might be indigenous reasons for same,
Greenland has far more ice than Iceland so there is that. The percentage of green land on Iceland is probably greater on Iceland than on Greenland. Someone else can provide the statistical breakout.
are we talking guam or puerto rico, there might be indigenous reasons for same,
==
Not talking Guam in particular. Federal minimum wage laws damaged the labor market in a number of insular dependencies. So did Kennedy-Johnson welfare policy. The Virgin Islands is suffering Detroit levels of homicide. The Canal Zone was an artificial society.
Greenland’s “Bluie West One” (Narssasuak I think, and I’ll get a handkerchief) is a fijord on the southwest coast with an airfield. It was important in ferrying longer range aircraft to the UK during the war.
Next stop for gas might have been Iceland, depending on the range of the aircraft in question. Usually, the longer-range ones would follow a heavy bomber with its navigator.
The “lost squadron” is a factor in creationist science,
From what I’ve heard, the locals in Greenland aren’t that happy,
with issues of suicide. Life is boring and with no likelihood of going anywhere in life.
If Greenland had some kind of formal connection to the US, various issues having to do with security in the Arctic could be less contentious than if, say, Denmark still claimed sovereignty.
The Dems will opt to shut down the govt. because it will give them more opportunity to hurl criticisms, invective’s and straight up lies about Trump.
The democrat puppet / propaganda arm – the media – will go all out to broadcast anything and everything the demokrat party instructs them to promote.
The demokrat plan is very straightforward and unbending; keep repeating the lies often enough until it becomes the truth. Every “new” policy Trump employs is just more ammo for the dems to attack.
The Dems cannot wait to shut down the govt.
The democrats could give a shite about the citizenry of this nation.. Their only goal is the attainment of absolute and PERMANENT power and they will use any and all means to achieve this.