well-temperedforum.groupee.net    The Well-Tempered Forum  Hop To Forum Categories  Off Key    How about we buy Greenland
Page 1 2 3 

Moderators: QuirtEvans, pianojuggler, wtg
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
How about we buy Greenland
 Login/Join
 
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
posted
No, really.

quote:
President Trump made his name on the world’s most famous island. Now he wants to buy the world’s biggest.

The idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland has captured the former real-estate developer’s imagination, according to people familiar with the discussions, who said Mr. Trump has, with varying degrees of seriousness, repeatedly expressed interest in buying the ice-covered autonomous Danish territory between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea.

Some of his advisers have supported the concept, saying it was a good economic play, two of the people said, while others dismissed it as a fleeting fascination that will never come to fruition. It is also unclear how the U.S. would go about acquiring Greenland even if the effort were serious.

With a population of about 56,000, Greenland is a self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and while its government decides on most domestic matters, foreign and security policy is handled by Copenhagen. Mr. Trump is scheduled to make his first visit to Denmark early next month, although the visit is unrelated, these people said.

The White House and State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Officials with Denmark’s Royal House and the Danish embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials with Greenland’s representative office in Washington and Greenland’s prime minister’s office.

U.S. officials view Greenland as important to American national-security interests. A decades-old defense treaty between Denmark and the U.S. gives the U.S. military virtually unlimited rights in Greenland at America’s northernmost base, Thule Air Base. Located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it includes a radar station that is part of a U.S. ballistic missile early-warning system. The base is also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The U.S. has sought to derail Chinese efforts to gain an economic foothold in Greenland. The Pentagon worked successfully in 2018 to block China from financing three airports on the island.

People outside the White House have described purchasing Greenland as an Alaska-type acquisition for Mr. Trump’s legacy, advisers said. The few current and former White House officials who had heard of the notion described it with a mix of anticipation and apprehension, since it remains unknown how far the president might push the idea.

It generated a cascade of questions among his advisers, such as whether the U.S. could use Greenland to establish a stronger military presence in the Arctic, and what kind of research opportunities it might present.

Though it has vast natural resources across its 811,000 square miles, Greenland relies on $591 million of subsidies from Denmark annually, which make up about 60% of its annual budget, according to U.S. and Danish government statistics.

Though Greenland is technically part of North America, it is culturally and politically linked to Europe. Following World War II, the U.S. under President Harry Truman developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland and in 1946 offered to buy it from Denmark for $100 million. But Denmark refused to sell. And that was the second failed attempt—the State Department had also launched an inquiry into buying Greenland and Iceland in 1867.

At a dinner with associates last spring, Mr. Trump said someone had told him at a roundtable that Denmark was having financial trouble over its assistance to Greenland, and suggested that he should consider buying the island, according to one of the people.

“What do you guys think about that?” he asked the room, the person said. “Do you think it would work?”

The person described the question less as a serious inquiry than as a joke meant to indicate “I’m so powerful I could buy a country,” noting that since Mr. Trump hadn’t floated the idea at a campaign rally yet, he probably wasn’t seriously considering it. The person believed the president was interested in the idea because of the island’s natural resources and because it would give him a legacy akin to President Dwight Eisenhower ’s admission of Alaska into the U.S. as a state.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was scheduled to visit Greenland in May with the aim of discussing long-term peace and sustainable economic developments, particularly since “we’re concerned about activities of other nations, including China, that do not share these same commitments,” a senior State Department official said at the time. Mr. Pompeo was also scheduled to visit the New York Air National Guard in Kangerlussuaq, which supports U.S. scientists conducting research on Greenland’s ice cap.

His trip was called off at the last minute because of escalating tensions with Iran.

Kenneth Mortensen, a real-estate agent in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, said that the running joke in Greenland currently is that Mr. Trump is traveling to Denmark with the sole intention of buying their island. But he said Mr. Trump might run into some trouble.

“You can never own land here,” Mr. Mortensen said, as all land is owned by the government. “In Greenland, you get a right to use the land where you want to build a house, but you can’t buy.”

“Of course, buying Greenland is a different issue altogether,” he added. “I’m not sure about that.”


https://www.wsj.com/articles/t...reenland-11565904223


--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Axtremus
posted Hide Post
Will Greenland be a "state" with 2 Senators in the US Senate?


--------------------------------
www.PianoRecital.org -- my piano recordings -- China Tune album

 
Posts: 12682 | Registered: 01 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mary Anna
posted Hide Post
If he wanted a legacy like the admission of Alaska, he could spearhead admitting Puerto Rico as a state.


--------------------------------
Mary Anna Evans
http://www.maryannaevans.com
MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

 
Posts: 15506 | Location: Florida | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shut up and play your guitar!
Minor Deity
Picture of markj
posted Hide Post
I kind of like this idea of us gaining Greenland as a state in a mutually beneficial agreement between us and Denmark.

And Puerto Rico. Yes! Long overdue!

We might as well annex Cuba too. Free the Cuban Cigars and Rum!

Do it!
 
Posts: 13630 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
Picture of Piano*Dad
posted Hide Post
The idea of the US acquiring Greenland is not bozo stupid. See Truman, Harry, as the article mentions. But this isn't 1946, and the people of Greenland would have some say in this. It's not a simple real estate transaction like 1867 Alaska.

And we don't need idle speculation about Greenland to understand that Trump is unfit for office.
 
Posts: 12513 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
posted Hide Post
Just when you think things can’t get any goofier…


--------------------------------
Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34852 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of QuirtEvans
posted Hide Post
From Twitter:

"To be fair when I’m down in the dumps and feel like no one likes me I go shopping too"
 
Posts: 45725 | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
From Twitter:

"To be fair when I’m down in the dumps and feel like no one likes me I go shopping too"


hysteric


--------------------------------
Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34852 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Foregoing Practicing to Post
Minor Deity
Picture of RealPlayer
posted Hide Post
We could send all the white supremacists there and the rest of us could live peaceably.

And being closer to Scandinavia, they could pretend they're Nordic!


--------------------------------
“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray

 
Posts: 13780 | Location: The outer burrows | Registered: 27 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
posted Hide Post
quote:
Is Greenland up for sale?

As Greenland's foreign ministry pointed out, the island is not on the market.

"Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism. We're open for business, not for sale," it said in a statement shared on social media.

Greenland MP Aaja Chemnitz Larsen also dismissed the president's reported interest.

"No thanks to Trump buying Greenland!", she wrote on Twitter, adding that a "better and more equal partnership with Denmark" was the way forward.

Politicians in Denmark have ridiculed the idea of a possible US acquisition.

"If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad," foreign affairs spokesman for the populist Danish People's Party, Soren Espersen, told national broadcaster DR.

"The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous."

"Out of all things that are not going to happen, this is the most unlikely. Forget it," Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov wrote on Twitter.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49367792


--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Axtremus
posted Hide Post
Nah ... surely that's just a negotiation ploy to jack up the price.


--------------------------------
www.PianoRecital.org -- my piano recordings -- China Tune album

 
Posts: 12682 | Registered: 01 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
Picture of Piano*Dad
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Axtremus:
Nah ... surely that's just a negotiation ploy to jack up the price.


Ole
 
Posts: 12513 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
Picture of Piano*Dad
posted Hide Post
quote:
"The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous."


This is a bit of a Danish conceit. Of course "they" wouldn't be selling "their citizens."

What if a referendum of Greenlanders approved of the idea? Money paid from the US to Denmark would be a compensation for the lost value to Denmark of holding sovereignty over the territory.

As a self-governing territory or state, Greenlanders might be able to profit more than if it were to remain a constituent part of Denmark.

No, I'm not arguing for any such referendum. I'm just noting that the responses are mostly political strutting and posturing all around.
 
Posts: 12513 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of CHAS
posted Hide Post
Guess I won't be moving to Greenland to escape the US.


--------------------------------
Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.

 
Posts: 25677 | Location: Still living at 9000 feet in the High Rockies of Colorado | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
posted Hide Post
"Trump's Green New Deal"


--------------------------------
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2 3  
 

    well-temperedforum.groupee.net    The Well-Tempered Forum  Hop To Forum Categories  Off Key    How about we buy Greenland