Roundup of …
… unsettling news.
(1) I’ve written about it before, but I’ll say it again: I don’t like how Trump handled Iran, promising to help the demonstrators and then doing nothing when thousands upon thousands were murdered. Then again, it’s not over; perhaps he’s got good reasons or perhaps he (or the Israelis) have something up their sleeves. But right now I don’t see it.
Ace believes that the pernicious Tucker Carlson has an influence on Trump. It’s certainly possible, but I don’t agree. However, the jury’s still out on whether he has an influence with Vance.
(2) I also think the way the Gaza oversight is shaping up is quite dangerous. Turkey and Qatar? What??:
At the same time, a senior Israeli official said that including Turkish and Qatari representatives on the Gaza Executive Board, the council that would oversee Gaza’s reconstruction, was not part of the original understanding between Israel and the U.S., and it remains unclear what powers this new body will have and what its exact role will be. …
According to the senior official, the “inclusion of Turkey and Qatar was on Netanyahu’s head. This is Kushner’s and Witkoff’s revenge on him, because of his insistence not to open the crossing before the return of hostage Ran Gvili.”
To be blunt, that sounds like garbage from one of Netanyahu’s many critics/enemies.
More:
The cabinet’s decision comes against the backdrop of remarks made Monday evening by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset plenum, in which he said: “We are on the verge of Phase II, which means one simple thing: Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized, either the easy way or the hard way.” He added that “Turkish and Qatari soldiers will not be in Gaza. “We have a certain argument with our friends in the US on the makeup of the council of advisers that will accompany the processes in Gaza.” …
… Trump announced the establishment of the “Gaza Executive Board” and revealed its members. In addition to Witkoff and Kushner, the council will include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari official Ali al-Thawadi.
Also on the board are: Hassan Rashad, head of Egyptian intelligence; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Mark Rowan, the Jewish?American billionaire; Reem al?Hashimi, a minister from the United Arab Emirates; Nikolay Mladenov, former Bulgarian Foreign and Defense Minister and former U.N. special envoy to the Middle East peace process; Yakir Gabay, an Israeli?Cypriot businessman specializing in real estate, technology and international investments; and Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. representative.
This body will operate below the “Board of Peace” — and above the technocratic Palestinian government that is supposed to manage affairs on the ground in place of Hamas. The Board of Peace is headed by Trump himself, with Witkoff, Kushner, Blair and Rowan also serving, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel.
The technocratic government that will manage the Gaza Strip, called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, will include 15 Palestinians, led by Ali Shaath, who has held official roles in the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.
Who will actually control things, and who will be there just for show?
(3) Trump’s mild saber-rattling about Greenland gives his enemies ammunition for stirring up fear. I don’t really think he has any intention of boots on the ground on Greenland, but it’s part of the negotiating schtick.
(4) More Christians kidnapped in Nigeria.
(5) And then there’s Don Lemon invading a Minnesota church to scream about ICE:
The footage is disgusting. It was not a peaceful protest. It was thuggery and intimidation in a house of worship.
As a backlash rightfully mounted online, Lemon claimed in a follow-up video that he was not affiliated with the group and merely a journalist on the scene of a news event — and whined that he’s being criticized because he’s black and gay.
Blah blah blah.
A plausible explanation of Trump calling off the attack on Iran in the last minutes was that the US was denied use of it’s bases in UAE and Qatar for the attack, and the Saudis were reluctant. We needed extensive refueling capability because Iran is a very big country. I don’t know all the details, but I expect something fell through and made an attack too risky for the returns.
I wonder if Pam Bondi realizes that a failure to prosecute Lemon et al will result in the loss of her job. In a bit of serendipity, Lemon himself provided the evidence of his culpability in violating both the FACE Act and most ironically, his violation of the KKK Act… Both felonies with serious years of imprisonment. Of course, if he’s tried before an activist judge or D.C. jury… Lemon will get to crow, “Guilty as hell. Free as a bird.”
Concur with Chuck. But the pot is simmering. The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike force is moving westwards from the South China Sea, ETA strait of Hormuz area approximately 24 Jan (my guess). A USAF F15E Strike Eagle squadron was just deployed from the UK to Jordan. My guess is that President Trump is marshaling forces so that he has some “kinetic” options. Stay tuned.
(1) I’ve written about it before, but I’ll say it again: I don’t like how Trump handled Iran, promising to help the demonstrators and then doing nothing when thousands upon thousands were murdered. Then again, it’s not over; perhaps he’s got good reasons or perhaps he (or the Israelis) have something up their sleeves. But right now I don’t see it.
Totally agree. The issue that Trump spoke and promised something and totally caved. There are now 20,000 dead Iranians and the best Trump can say is, “The Ayatollah’s Regime has promised not to hang 837 captured protesters.”
That’s it? We’re all good now?
Trump never should have promised what he did and the people that convinced him to threaten Iran and speak out did not remotely do their homework in telling Trump he could actually follow through on those threats. What were they thinking?
I will always give Trump the benefit of the doubt but it’s getting pretty late for him do something effective against Iran.
Two amazing things happened to me today.
1. I had to call the VA. I was on hold less than 2 minutes. Yes, that is right. And the person I talked with was very nice, and helped all she could.
2. I then had to call Social Security. I was on hold about 25 minutes, maybe less. Which is very very good for the SS. Again, they helped as much as they could.
If you have ever tried to go on to SS online, it is worse than pulling all your teeth at one time without pain killers. I still can’t do it. They have my old phone number, which stops everything. But, I am working on it.
GB,
I’ve about had it with Bondi…as they say in Texas, “All hat, and no cattle.” I’m not alone, many of the pundits I occasion also want to see actual arrests and perp walks. Geez…Biden arrested people praying outside a clinic. Not impressed with DOJ and FBI at the moment.
This native is restless.
Lemon should be charged with a crime but it won’t go far.
I have no idea what President Trump can or will do to Iran, he doesn’t often say and not do anything. But it has to be meaningful when someone does happen.
The kerfuffle in Minnesota prompts me to wonder about the contours of free speech under the First Amendment.
So Group One is meeting in a place of worship, exercising freedom of religion.
Group Two barges in and says “shame shame rubba rubba rubba what would Jesus say blah blah blah” and disrupts the service of worship. And then – and this part astonishes me – they dare lecture Group One about freedom of speech and their right to protest.
Competing First Amendment claims. Whose claim takes precedence?
More broadly, to what extent do we have a right to be left alone? And if someone refuses to do so, is that actionable?
“whined that he’s being criticized because he’s black and gay”
It’s so many people pushing those cards for all and anything that have led me to distrust all blacks and gays. Unfairly of course … but verify before trust. And trust is low.
Doesn’t Bondi have to get indictments from a grand jury for anything serious and haven’t the Klan grand juries shown an eagerness to indict their enemies while refusing to indict their own?
@Rick67:Competing First Amendment claims. Whose claim takes precedence?
According to MN’s Attorney General, interfering with a place of worship is not anything to do with the First Amendment and it doesn’t matter what reason you have for doing it.
When it’s a mosque.
Let’s remind ourselves straight off, what does it say, then what does it mean?
Looks to me that perhaps violations of other laws are in play here and not a First Amendment issue as such. Now, it is possible those “other laws” may be found (somehow) themselves in violation of the prohibition to Congress but that separate issue is now yet to be seen.
Let’s watch which laws will be invoked against the sanctuary invaders, how they are applied and ajudicated, etc.
“I’ve written about it before, but I’ll say it again: I don’t like how Trump handled Iran, promising to help the demonstrators and then doing nothing when thousands upon thousands were murdered. Then again, it’s not over; perhaps he’s got good reasons or perhaps he (or the Israelis) have something up their sleeves. But right now I don’t see it.”
I agree. He’s done that more than once…laid down an ultimatum and then failed to follow through.
I think tough talk is a negotiating tactic rather than an actual plan.
Not to say he doesn’t ever follow through, sometimes he does, but in my opinion, sometimes is not much better than never.
When the enemies think there’s a chance he won’t follow through on his threats, the threats are less of a deterrent.
I was raised to say what I mean, mean what I say and never, ever make promises I can’t keep.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Trump supporter and think he’s made some real progress, but that’s one of his traits that I really, really don’t care for.
I think criminal subpoenas have been issued in the Minnesota church invasion case. Yes, I think they have to get a grand jury indictment.
The USS Abraham strike group is on its way to Iran. This is what Trump was waiting for.
https://youtu.be/sPXWM3zUhO8?si=oQAj-iCQf00Y6ibZ
– SHIREHOME- for what’s it’s worth, we’ve had the same experience with the VA here in Michigan. My son who is a veteran recently lost his job and moved back in with us temporarily. With no insurance and several medical issues he was forced to use the VA for his medical care. So far it’s been a great experience for him. No problem getting appointments, competent and respectful medical providers, very nice staff. Not sure if it’s like that everywhere but that’s been his experience with the VA here in Michigan.
I’m tired of all the Bondi complaints, she can’t just wave a wand and send everyone to prison. Not to mention all make work congress stuck her with in releasing all the Epstein files. I’ll bet a lot of the complainers were also pushing for the Epstein files, of which there are millions of pages.
Bondi can’t wave a wand and instantaneously summon grand jury indictments, and Trump can’t wave a wand and instantaneously summon a carrier group for Iran and a force field to protect Israel from revenge attacks.
“I don’t like how Trump handled Iran, promising to help the demonstrators and then doing nothing when thousands upon thousands were murdered.” -Sailorcurt
Here is exactly what President Trump posted:
Low estimates of killings was 2400 and the high estimate was 12,000+ before January 13, the day Trump posted this on Truth Social. CBS reported that the death toll was between 12,000 and 20,000, also on January 13.
Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Update (January 12, 2026): Noted that “Western media outlets have reported death toll estimates in Iran ranging from 2,000 to 12,000” but emphasized that the actual toll was likely “significantly higher relative to the 1,500 people killed during the 2019 protests,” citing anecdotal reports of thousands dead. However, their core estimate aligned with lower confirmed figures around 1,500–2,000 up to January 12.
Before the January 13 post, Trump had been warning the regime not to kill protestors.
Very likely the mullahs were increasing the killings as a natural escalation in response to the fact the protests weren’t withering away. They had started killing protestors days before Trump made that statement. They were killing protestors and the protests were not stopping, so their strategy was to increase the number of killings until the protests stopped.
It’s not true that President Trump’s post caused thousands and thousands of deaths, since the number between 12,000 and 20,000 deaths was already reported before his post.
Do you have better sources than I have, which is just the public record.
I’m wondering if the church which was invaded had a security team.
It’s tragic that the number of deaths have occurred, but if this is a revolution, deaths are a consequence.
If the Iranian people are serious about overthrowing the regime, whether it happened last week or next week or month should be inconsequential toward their goal. The issues, Islamic repression, currency/economic collapse and infrastructure will still be critical for them.
It’s important that the citizens of Iran are overthrowing the Islamic regime, not the US or Israel. We are responding to the horrific repression of the Iranian people by their own leaders.
Unless we can sustain a level of force against the regime that is successful to help result in a regime change, the consequences to the Iranian people will be catastrophic.
President Trump would likely settle for a military coup against the Islamic regime if the subsequent government was secular, even if it were authoritarian. It would be for the Iranian people to sort out whether they want a constitutional monarchy. We are more likely to settle for a military dictatorship if it ends Islamic rule and stabilizes the country.
It’s likely we would use the opportunity to destroy their remaining missile stocks and destroy manufacturing facilities for drone/missile production.
@neo: I don’t like how Trump handled Iran, promising to help the demonstrators and then doing nothing when thousands upon thousands were murdered.
Me too, and hoping that will change shortly. I don’t know what the problem is, but there seems to be one.
Perhaps I’m a cockeyed optimist, but I don’t see Trump reneging on such a clearcut human promise. It’s bad negotiating.
— huxley
I’ve been afraid all along that it would end up coming out with the mullahs still in charge. Though granted this isn’t over yet.
Trump has many strengths and many weaknesses. One of his weaknesses is that he uses aggressive overstatement as a basic tactic. It often works in domestic policy, it’s much less viable in international. We saw him get in trouble with it already in Ukraine a year ago. Remember that farcical confrontation with Zelensky in the oval office? He ran promising a quick solution in Ukraine, and he simply could not deliver.
I’m afraid (not sure, but afraid) he’s done that now, too. Because I’m still not exactly sure what America can do to help the protestors. Not what we should do, what we are physically capable of doing that will actually help. I’ve been unsure about that all along.
Also, I’m sure he’s getting a lot of pressure from Israel and the Arab world not to risk a destabilized Iran, rightly or wrongly.
“Competing First Amendment claims”
Bullshit. What Lemon and his gang did was not “free speech” or “peaceable assembly” it was disruption and intimidation. ZERO 1st Amendment protection. Of course MN AG Ellison sees it differently. The only thing that would have made him splooge harder would have been if the Lemon gang had invaded a synagogue and murdered everybody. Because for Keith X of the NOI the only good Jew is a dead Jew.
Thanks, FOAF. Exactly my thoughts on the church assault!
What thugs they all were!!
I remember when neo hated, hated, HATED bad orange man the candidate in 2015 and predicted he didn’t stand a chance.
You can bet that “Trump’s mild saber-rattling about Greenland gives his enemies ammunition for stirring up fear.”
Promising to get your hands on a land legitimately belonging to another country who did nothing to you, and with which you could entertain any kind of joint collaboration, resorting to bullying from the beginning, is not a great strategy to win consensus and trust, to say the least.
The vast, vast majority of the people here in Europe is now convinced that Trump is a deranged buffoon bent on destroying everything in order to appease his ego: the media is immensely partisan, but why should they think differently? No one is normally interested in spending time understanding what’s really happening in the US, if the PotUS never tries to be diplomatic and his standard approach is “if you don’t obey I will punish you, because I only do my interests”.
On Greenland Trump is simply wrong: you can have all the legit reason to desire this land, but once you assert your **right** to it just because you are interested, what can you say to China or any Communist regime? The law of the strongest undermines everything, even private property.
In the fight for democracy, communication and moral foundations matter, a lot; I have more hopes for lasting changes from a possible Vance’s presidency in the future, than from Trump’s current one, because the VP showed to be able to explain, point out issues and give reasons – for instance when he addressed the unbelievable plight of Great Britain. If one thinks about Reagan’s successes, he realizes that he didn’t simply do things coupled with blunt slogans; he gave a political perspective, a reasonable foundation of how a healthy society works, and this was so powerful to cause the Iron Curtain fall – notably, by infusing courage and hope in eastern Europe dissidents and so creating future allies.
@ Chris B and SHIREHOME —
Wow!
That really is a change from the VA that was in the news (how many years ago?) for such slow service they were deleting appointments to meet their quotas of completed ones, delaying treatments so long that some patients died, and lying their heads off about all of it.
I forget now which president was in charge, but whatever reforms were made they seem to have worked.
Although, to be fair, I do remember some comments from people whose local VA office was doing fine, even while others were disasters.
There have been lots of stories about the church invasion, but I liked the phraseology at Neo’s link to the NYPost: “Lemon, who is no longer affiliated with a news outlet, enthusiastically embedded with the group that barged into the house of God, shattering the peace and security of a Sunday service and exhibiting behavior befitting a psychiatric ward at Bellevue.”
Only one story I read had a name for the associate pastor alleged to be an ICE agent, and we all know how often activists check to make sure that two people with the same name are the same person: never.
We will have to wait awhile to see if that is true; and even if it is, that is no excuse for what they did.
The church issued a nice statement, and ended with the notice that they are talking to their lawyers.
All of the posts noted that the right of free speech did not trump the right of religious worship, and entering the church like hooligans was NOT a Constitutional privilege.
Also, the FACE Act was focused on criminalizing protests at abortion clinics, but also criminalized the same thing at churches (no one said, but I suspect that was a logrolling inclusion; maybe some enterprising reporter will look it up).
As for whether or not DOJ is acting too slowly, a lot of commenters griped about that, but several pushed back.
One had a very nice long list of cases the DOJ has brought, although with varying success, mostly depending on the judge’s political bias.
Kurt Schlichter, a lawyer in his past life, covered the topic at length, noting that the justice system was exactly that, and we had to let the system work the way it is supposed to.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2026/01/21/being-emotionally-incontinent-does-not-help-n2669724
See also:
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/01/19/dojs-alina-habba-vows-doj-will-come-come-down-hard-on-minnesota-church-invaders-target-funders-n2198292#comment-6825945960
The list of cases I mentioned precipitate a long discussion, which I reproduce here because I found the back and forth to be interesting, and raised some points that might warrant further study.
eburke
2 days ago
Ok…so here’s the pattern.
Latest leftist outrage gets prominent coverage. Rabid right rightfully has a fit and demands immediate action.
Cases aren’t disposed of in the time frame of a 60 minute TV crime drama. Conservative media moves on to next outrage, never bothers to follow up on past outrages.
People with little to no knowledge/experience of the arduous, time-cosuming task of tying an event to a person to a statute to an indictment which will result in a conviction from 12 jurors whose life consists of watching The View and Jerry Springer re-runs piss & moan that nothing is ever done.
In view of that, before pitching a fit, I’d invite you to wander over to the DOJ website (or just Google DOJ obstruction charges) and take a gander.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lamonica-mciver-indicted-federal-charges-ice-new-jersey-rcna212221
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/milwaukee-judge-found-guilty-obstructing-203317751.html
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-two-cases-involving-judicial-misconduct-and-obstruction-law
https://apnews.com/article/brad-lander-nyc-immigration-court-arrest-6ed341297efab31a08a14421674d8ed8
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ice-protests-austin-5-arrested-charged
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/10-arrested-federal-complaints-charging-them-committing-violence-against-officers-and
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ut/pr/southern-utah-man-sentenced-damaging-ice-transit-van
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/man-and-woman-charged-obstructing-use-entrance-federal-property-and-related-offenses
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/five-individuals-charged-federal-court-chicago-assaulting-or-resisting-federal-agents
And that just scratches the surface.
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redstateuser eburke
2 days ago edited
Good post. I pulled up the last one on your list and it spelled out the govt case. The update was one sentence, posted at the top in bold and all caps which at first made me think it was a headline:
THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT GRANTED THE GOVERNMENT’S MOTIONS TO DISMISS THESE CASES WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
It frustrates me that the reason for the dismissal request (requested by our govt, not by the defendant’s lawyers) is not provided.
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Az-Mt redstateuser
2 days ago
That’s what Bondi calls action.
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idalily eburke
2 days ago edited
So many small fish. No funds cut off. No big fish caught. Trump leaves office, no one’s in jail. Rinse, repeat. The “they need time to build these cases” argument ceases to have validity at a certain point. We are flirting with that line. To blame the American voters/taxpayers for being too impatient is pretty nauseating, IMO. I’ve been seeing strongly worded letters and lots of gavel pounding from the GOP for years but zero actual justice.
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eburke idalily
2 days ago
Included in that list is a U.S. Congresswoman and judge.
And I’ll take all the small fish because without the small fish, the big fish have no one to carry out their plans.
In addition, the bigger the fish the more difficult and time consuming it is to build a case which will survive the scrutiny of a trial. And on top of all the other challenges, in the cases of elected officials prosecutors have to pierce the veil of “limited immunity” which all elected officials possess.
McIver was stupid enough to actually commit a physical act of violence against an ICE agent. Rhetoric from elected officials is much more difficult to prosecute.
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idalily eburke
2 days ago
So, let’s recap:
It’s time consuming, so if no one gets convicted prior to Trump leaving office, well, there’s always Vance. Except that without justice, reform, and cutting off the Dems money supply, there will be no President Vance and no GOP congress to back him up. Ditto Trump’s agenda after the midterms.
Small fish are important, too: agreed, but small fish are completely and instantly replaceable because the money keeps flowing, and the result is…see above.
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eburke idalily
2 days ago
Some solutions are quick…others not so much. Obtaining a conviction based on what an elected officials says is a difficult hurdle to overcome. And our criminal justice system is, in the best of circumstances, slow. And the pace is determined by the Judicial Branch, not the Executive.
Look, I get the frustration. But what I’m tired of is the constant harping that Bondi and the DOJ are doing nothing. The Left has (purposely) launched a blitzkreig of litigation against the Trump administration in order to overwhelm them.
The DOJ has finite resources and a limited bandwidth. Just dealing with all the litigation and appeals in District and Appellate courts is a daunting proposition. And yet little credit is given to Bondi or the DOJ that they have yet to lose a case of any significance at the SCOTUS level. That is an amazing track record for which she/they get no credit.
As shipwreckedcrew opined, they have to pick the cases they know they can win and that fit within the bandwidth they have, a task made even more daunting by the presence of Deep State career prosecutors who have managed to keep their head low enough to escape notice.
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idalily eburke
2 days ago edited
All very reasonable, all very sensible, and yet the brutal truth remains: we better figure out a way around the roadblocks you outline here or we will lose. The midterms, the presidency, AND the Supreme Court. Time is something we just don’t have. It’s a bit like our treasury. Oh, we need more money, let’s print some! Whew, crisis averted. Perhaps this pattern, corruption, waste, fraud, decline and our eventual destruction, are inevitable. Or perhaps we can instill everyone on our side of the aisle with a sense of urgency that rids us of this bureaucratic inertia. I don’t know. But I do know one thing: we keep making excuses, however reasonable, for our inability to curb the left, their control of the country will become inevitable. And then it is game over.
More on the Church attack:
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/01/20/mn-church-that-was-stormed-by-anti-ice-agitators-releases-statement-last-sentence-is-terrific-n2198347
Link in that post led to this statement:
https://www.citieschurch.com/journal/a-response-to-the-disruption-of-our-january-18-worship-service
A commenter at that post listed all the ways that said legal counsel may proceed to soak the protestors aka hooligans for everything they own, including Lemon.
I didn’t include what he outlined; it’s a very long list.
Paul Hoffer
7 hours ago
Here is an outline of what civil and criminal actions Cities Church could potentially pursue under federal law and Minnesota law, based on the facts publicly reported about the January 2026 disruption at Cities Church in St. Paul.
Cities Church may have strong grounds for both criminal prosecution (federal and state) and civil lawsuits against individuals who threatened, harassed, or forcibly disrupted a worship service, and—depending on evidence—against government employees who participated or knowingly allowed the disruption. Federal law provides especially powerful protections for houses of worship, including the Church Arson Prevention Act, which covers interference with religious exercise, not just arson. Minnesota law also criminalizes disorderly conduct, harassment, threats, trespass, and interference with religious worship.
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Another commenter noted this, which I hope is true:
anon-1udg Paul Hoffer
7 hours ago edited
If I understand correctly, the individual parishioners may (if they so wish) also sue each individual participating in this attack upon the church service for psychological distress? Some of those kids were without any doubt terrified.
But what is the FACE Act, I hear you cry.
Well, it’s a law that even AG Keith Ellison doesn’t know the details of, apparently.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/01/20/does-minnesota-attorney-general-keith-ellison-even-know-what-the-face-act-is-n2669761
smelting:
Your memory is mistaken. Memory can play tricks on you.
I never hated Trump, although I disliked him, did not trust him, and feared a Trump presidency. He turned out much better than expected – so far. But you are extremely incorrect when you write I “predicted he didn’t stand a chance.” Here’s what I wrote in August of 2015:
And shortly before the election I wrote that I agreed with the following prediction:
Paolo, greetings and well met:
Break out your Thucydides’ History to review the Melians’ contentions and fate, no? The Greenlanders will surely suffer the like, each man, woman and child becoming millionaires over a day-span! Horrible, poor creatures!
#2.
Seems that Pakistan is now in.
Sheesh…
#3.
Some essential, if screened, background on the Greenland issue:
“The Arctic Smokescreen;
“The most dangerous mistake about “Greenland is believing it is about Greenland.”—
https://x.com/wolfejosh/article/2013768012642349120
H/T Powerline blog.
Related:
“Lexington Institute Explains The Exact Event Which Caused Trump 45 To Want To Acquire Greenland”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2026/01/18/lexington-institute-explains-the-exact-event-which-caused-trump-45-to-want-to-acquire-greenland/
“Former MI6 Chief Says Trump Should Be Given Control Of Greenland In The Interests Of ‘European Security’”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2026/01/11/former-mi6-chief-says-trump-should-be-given-control-of-greenland-in-the-interests-of-european-security/
https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fbianca_nobilo%2Fstatus%2F2009317438463279484%3Ah0KuP4VsNtHkgXUGxITQJ6IxojE&cuid=932296
Aesopfan @417am:
Thanks for posting that great exchange. I still come down with “idalily eburke”.
Funny how the Ds have no problem ramping up all sorts of charges quickly against Trump, even if false. I’m not saying that we should do the same, but once again it seems the GOP is following Obama”s advice to bring a knife to a gunfight. “eburkes” last statement is worth repeating:
“All very reasonable, all very sensible, and yet the brutal truth remains: we better figure out a way around the roadblocks you outline here or we will lose. The midterms, the presidency, AND the Supreme Court. Time is something we just don’t have. It’s a bit like our treasury. Oh, we need more money, let’s print some! Whew, crisis averted. Perhaps this pattern, corruption, waste, fraud, decline and our eventual destruction, are inevitable. Or perhaps we can instill everyone on our side of the aisle with a sense of urgency that rids us of this bureaucratic inertia. I don’t know. But I do know one thing: we keep making excuses, however reasonable, for our inability to curb the left, their control of the country will become inevitable. And then it is game over.”
Too much drama and time will tell.
The grey days of January here in eastern Washington, high of mid 30s, low of mid 20s, completely cloudy, no sunshine.
I feel we are screwed.
People have the attention span of puppies — “Oh, look! a squirrel!” — and move on to the next cause over which they feel the need to express their “righteous indignation” regardless of how much it is based in reality. Trump (and Bibi) derangement syndrome has stopped all reason of the left. We have devolved into a country with pretty much four levels of justice: One for rich leftists, one for the “protected class du jour,” one for general rich people, and one for the rest of us. The “main stream media news” continues to report what they want, regardless of actual “news.” (Insert the Pravda / Izvestia joke here.)
I fear for the Iranians. They need help. It is a wonderful culture, chocked by almost fifty years of repression.
Has Trump sold out to Qatar? I pray not, but I fear that he is dazzled by their wealth. The Qataris should be nowhere near Gaza. (Nor should Turkey.)
I wish Trump would approach the whole Greenland thing MUCH differently. Most people think it is just because he is some nut job obsessed with acquiring more land, like some meta-Risk game. It’s not just about Arctic access and proximity to Russia, but the rare earths and uranium there. China has been expressing interest in mining there, and Denmark has been more or less “Sure! Why not?” China already has about 90% of the world’s output. We don’t want to be under China’s thumb.
The election cheating has not been fixed. So in the next election, the Democrats will likely take the House and Senate. And at best, we will have a stalemate. At worst, they will roll back what little has been accomplished in drying to fix Washington.
The Overton Window has shifted so far left, and those idiot Democrats who can’t bring themselves to read anything OTHER than the New York Times, watch PBS, or listen to NPR, just nod in agreement with their news sources tell them. “Oh, those poor immigrants who just moved her for a better life….” Let the rapists, murders, child molesters stay… (That show that looks for child molesters to arrest can’t avoid sweeping up illegals.) And let the “poor immigrants” committing so much fraud just keep doing it. It is part of the culture, right?
We are so f***ed.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Paolo, greetings! I was not, until Trump began talking about Greenland, aware of what the U.S. had to do during WWII, after Denmark fell. What convinced me that a large U.S. presence in Greenland is essential to our defense is the polar map, showing projected ballistic missile tracks from both Russia and China directly over Greenland and into the U.S. east coast. I had previously thought of missiles coming in from the west. Wrong.
We don’t need to make Greenland into an American state. We do need a long-term large access for defensive reasons.
Numerous posts online recently have pointed out that, under Danish administration, large numbers of Greenlandic Inuit girls were involuntarily sterilized. Many Greenlanders say they want to be independent. Fine with us, if they can accept the large U.S. protective umbrella.
Ha-ha, let’s not forget the data-centers! For what is the mortal enemy of a data-center? Heat! And what does Greenland lack!? Heat! Let Greenland bristle with data-centers! And robots! Lots and lots of robots! Huzzah!
Well, my little mountain municipality is reviewing its zoning plans. One of its goals is to prevent data centers or solar farms. But we have people living here.
Think it ALL depends on whose side one is on.
Should be said at the outset that Mistah Schwab (and his elite coterie of ethical pygmies) is all in for the CPC…
And then there’s…
Starmer:
https://instapundit.com/770985/
Carney and his pivot to China.
Madmani:
https://instapundit.com/770955/
With Spanberger wasting no time, either, in several other realms…
https://instapundit.com/770919/
FOAF commented: Bullshit. What Lemon and his gang did was not “free speech” or “peaceable assembly” it was disruption and intimidation.
I don’t disagree. I was trying to look at this from the legal perspective. Group One has a claim. Group Two makes a claim. I agree Group Two’s claim is garbage. But if Group One takes Group Two to court and each presents their respective claims how does that play out in the judicial system?
Kate commented: We don’t need to make Greenland into an American state. We do need a long-term large access for defensive reasons. Many Greenlanders say they want to be independent. Fine with us, if they can accept the large U.S. protective umbrella.
Well summarized. The United States has a vital national indeed global security interest in Greenland. Hopefully President Trump and his team have that squarely in mind.
Oops. Missing link.
Carney…:
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2026/01/21/did-carney-just-signal-a-massive-shift-in-canadas-foreign-policy-direction-yea-its-called-the-brookfield-position/
Rick67, I just heard Trump talking about Greenland at Davos, making pretty much these points. No Scandinavian country, or the UK, has the capability to defend Greenland, or the U.S. if attacks come over that landmass. We’re the only ones who can do it.
All I know is that it does not matter what Trump does or does not do in Iran, it will be wrong, it will be decried and denounced from the rooftops, and will be the worst possible thing ever.
Iran is not Venezuela. There may be one Ayatollah, but there are many mad mullahs on that hydra ready to assume the head position should the current one be lopped off. Maduro also still had underlings in place when he was removed, but regime change wasn’t the ulterior motive, anyways. We had a beef with Maduro over drugs, and Biden had a price on his head, and so we went in and grabbed him. And the denunciations began – international law blah blah. But at least Venezuela is in our hemisphere, our backyard. A real worry for us.
Iran is not in our backyard. There are quite a lot of countries around Iran, including Israel, who have a lot more at stake if there’s an all out war.They probably have many different – and conflicting – ideas about what should or should not be done in Iran. Some of them may refuse us airspace, or landing space, and so limit what we could do.
Whatever you have to say about Trump’s promises, he’s the only major leader in the world (I think) who is openly and publicly supporting the Iranian people. Europe is pretending there’s nothing going on – they don’t want to anger their new migrant hordes. Russia and China I think are with the mullahs. The same people who criticize the US for nation building – Saddam Houssain’s and the WMD, Kuwait, Afghanistan – would have the same criticisms should the big Trump Baboon bully his way in to Iran guns abalzin’. Hell there was pearl clutching over his bombing their nuclear reactors. The man cannot do anything right. Sheesh.
Our own revolution was looking bad heading to worse for a long time before we got some help from the French. But we were serious about being free, and took our losses, and kept going. We got sneaky about it, and fought “unfairly” according to the British. Then others finally bet on us, and the tide changed (at least that’s how I learned it as a kid). The Iranian revolution is likely to get worse before it gets better, sadly. The mullahs have the support of most of the world, and they have all the weapons.
What’s that saying about when you strike at a king, you had better kill him? And what are the myths about killing hydras? We go in kill the Ayatollah and then what. We have to get rid of the other mullahs too – and what happens when civilians get blown up in the attacks, because these guys will be hiding with civilians? Lord have mercy – it’s Gaza all over again.
Maybe the “help” Trump promised is weapons smuggled in on the downlow so Iran doesn’t get wind of it, or providing more Starlink terminals, or targeting jammers to Starlink, or maybe just bribery to get an old fashioned military coup to overthrow the mullahs. Whatever he does or does not do, I think publicly supporting the Iranian people is huge. The real change is going to have to come from them though.
What convinced me that a large U.S. presence in Greenland is essential to our defense is the polar map, showing projected ballistic missile tracks from both Russia and China directly over Greenland and into the U.S. east coast.
Kate:
Exactly.
I’m quite sure Trump is thinking, not exclusively, of Greenland in terms of his Golden Dome proposal to provide a missile defense system for the US, particularly against Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_system)
Apologies, Rick, I know you were not necessarily advocating that point of view. But you did provide a convenient “sound bite” summarizing it.
One last comment on the church invasion: even the Westboro Baptist psychos stayed outside on the sidewalk. And that case was wrongly decided IMO for the same reason.
herr schwab has retired like a bond villain to his no 2, the head of black rock, which suggests network has become more true
much like the lore about vampires, you have to be invited in,
we could strike military bases on the periphery, but I don’t think that would stop the sepah and the basij, from retaliating against targets across the Gulf, recall the strike on Abquaiq in 2019,
but it does seem a little like Hungary in ’56, if not Souti hern Iraq in ’91,
I don’t trust the Qataris much, but they as well Erdogan are party to this deal, as are our feckless European allies,
qatar and turkey also have significant influence on those self same allies,
Trump will completely destroy two IRGC bases in Tehran and it will happen before this Sunday.
This thing is far from over.
FOAF: No worries. I appreciate the exchange.
🙂
AesopFan on January 21, 2026 at 4:14 am:
“… All of the posts noted that the right of free speech did not trump the right of religious worship.”
I don’t want to take your remark out of context, and I hope all of those posts noted the presence of incited or inciteful behavior to support that particular assertion. But in a nonviolent related situation, we might well want to question if free speech does not in some cases trump the right of religious worship. Stephen J Gould tried to separate the scientific and religious “magisterium”, but both aspects of human behavior occur within the human mind, however that mind may have evolved from earlier hominin species. I suspect both characteristics may have been necessary, or at least beneficial, for our species survival to become the dominant predator on the planet.
The battle between “I win-you lose” to win-win continues across our globe.
@ R2L, you raise an interesting point, but I’m not sure what kind of example you have in mind. Whose free speech, on what topic, with what effect on whose religious worship?
You may be thinking of Dissenters from some Established Religious Sect in a given location/era, where the government of the time served as an enforcement arm of the sect, and in that case you are correct that freedom to dissent is a form of speech that is protected in the Bill of Rights.
In any case, it isn’t relevant to the Church attack which was not at all nonviolent.
The Supreme Court HAS held that sometimes the public welfare trumps religious behavior (not belief), notably in upholding the Congressional bans on polygamy (LDS, 19th c. and later*), but allowing others (peyote use for Native Americans, animal sacrifice for some religions); and has not yet spoken on certain Islamic practices (female genital mutilation; honor killings) and assorted mandates (kill the unbelievers) that contravene established law).
*In light of the current state of marital arrangements now considered legal (if not yet acceptable by everyone in the country), the former Mormon practice of plural marriage (in actuality, not as so often depicted) was positively sedate.