Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 6:57 pm
The article you posted, Max, talks about his tariff threats to Denmark, and this makes me wonder, how much does the U.S trade with Denmark in the first place? Is it significant? I ask because I never considered that it would.
The U.S. is Denmark’s largest non-European trade partner. Among major Danish exports to the United States are industrial machinery, chemical products, furniture, pharmaceuticals, canned ham and pork, windmills, and plastic toy blocks (Legos). In addition, Denmark has a significant services trade with the U.S., a major share of it stemming from Danish-controlled ships engaged in container traffic to and from the United States (notably by Maersk-Line). Over 400 U.S. companies have subsidiaries in Denmark.
According to the OEC, in 2022 US exports to Denmark totalled $4.61B while Danish exports to the US totalled $13.1B. To put that in perspective, the World Bank says that total Danish exports in 2022 came to $129.8B, so trade with the US accounted for a little over 10% of their exports.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Max Peck wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 6:42 pm
Sure, but "Trump doesn't understand maps" is still pretty funny, and don't we all need a good laugh right now?
Yes and no. I'm sure we're all in the same place about that.
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
They come from Express Scripts. More than that, I do not want to know.
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
Kraken wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 10:08 pm
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
From what I've read, the people of Greenland want independence and autonomy. They want to be in charge of their own homeland and they are making progress toward making that a reality. Why would they want to throw that away to become second-class subjects of a racist authoritarian shithole dystopia like Magamerica?
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Kraken wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 10:08 pm
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
From what I've read, the people of Greenland want independence and autonomy. They want to be in charge of their own homeland and they are making progress toward making that a reality. Why would they want to throw that away to become second-class subjects of a racist authoritarian shithole dystopia like Magamerica?
Trump will promise them riches beyond their imagination. There are 56,000 people in the whole territory? For a few million bucks apiece they could be Puerto Rico, or even Guam!
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
They come from Express Scripts. More than that, I do not want to know.
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
To be honest, it almost sounds like the plot for a movie.
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
They come from Express Scripts. More than that, I do not want to know.
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
To be honest, it almost sounds like the plot for a movie.
"The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!"
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
They come from Express Scripts. More than that, I do not want to know.
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
To be honest, it almost sounds like the plot for a movie.
"The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!"
"Mute Swans!" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Wolverines!"
Honestly he'd have more luck prying Quebec out of the federation than anyone else, even Alberta. Let's hear more talk about woo'ing people who don't speak English as a first language (despite many of them speaking it better than the rest of us).
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
Primarily ozempic/wegovy on the pharma side, from Novo Nordisk. It's worh noting that primarily because of these two drugs, Novo's market gap is larger than all of Denmark's GDP combined.
Also worth noting, IIRC, that shipping services make up a large portion of Denmark's "exports" to the US. Maersk, mostly. If we tarrif those services, it will raise the cost of just about everything shipped in containers. Over and above any increases from tariffs on their originating counties.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "“I like taking the guns early...to go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.” -President Donald Trump. "...To guard, protect, and maintain his liberty, the freedman should have the ballot; that the liberties of the American people were dependent upon the Ballot-box, the Jury-box, and the Cartridge-box, that without these no class of people could live and flourish in this country." - Frederick Douglass MYT
All I know is that 10 years or so I was looking at a map and saw that Greenland has a peninsula called Jamesonland. I have since wanted to go there. Not likely now that I'll be viewed as an invader.
Kraken wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 10:08 pm
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
From what I've read, the people of Greenland want independence and autonomy. They want to be in charge of their own homeland and they are making progress toward making that a reality. Why would they want to throw that away to become second-class subjects of a racist authoritarian shithole dystopia like Magamerica?
Yeah, Trump Jr's junket tried to push the narrative that it was the will of the Greedland[ic?] peole. That's bullshit.
A MAGA visit intended to make Greenland look pro–Donald Trump appears staged from the bottom up.
...
Danish media reported Thursday that a series of photos featuring Kirk and Greenlandic residents in MAGA hats was staged. The MAGA cohort reportedly rounded up homeless people from the area—including one person from under a bridge—promising them a meal at the Hotel Hans Egede in exchange for their participation in the pro-Trump photo circuit.
Videos of the trip that circulated on X describe the Greenlandic participants as “the local community in Nuuk,” but several local sources that spoke with DR News described the photographed individuals as “homeless and socially disadvantaged” people who are often outside the supermarket directly across from the hotel where the Trump event was held.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "“I like taking the guns early...to go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.” -President Donald Trump. "...To guard, protect, and maintain his liberty, the freedman should have the ballot; that the liberties of the American people were dependent upon the Ballot-box, the Jury-box, and the Cartridge-box, that without these no class of people could live and flourish in this country." - Frederick Douglass MYT
Rumpy wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:17 pm
Oh, ok. Somehow I forgot about those two things completely. So Legos and Drugs. Both highly valuable.
I'm just not into Lego, so it completely skipped my mind. As for pharmaceuticals, I've never really considered where they come from.
They come from Express Scripts. More than that, I do not want to know.
From what I'm reading it seems like prying Greenland loose from Denmark isn't completely absurd. A substantial number of Greenies might be persuadable, if given a say in the matter.
To be honest, it almost sounds like the plot for a movie.
"The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!"
Hah, and you know what, we've actually seen that movie recently and it holds up incredibly well today, and seeing a young Alan Arkin is really quite a trip, and he is brilliant as the Russian leader.
Immediately discontinuing humanitarian efforts will cause the death of untold thousands of people around the world while barely having any effect whatsoever on the US federal budget (foreign assistance is less than 1% of the budget).
The cruelty is ALWAYS the point.
In his executive order, Trump claimed that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
However, one of the officials noted that assistance programs, such as those related to global health, which are targeted by the freeze, are in the US’ interest and had enjoyed bipartisan support.
“Making sure there are not pandemics is in our interest. Global stability is in our interest,” they said.
Trump would naturally disdain soft power, were he able to understand the concept.
My first reaction to this news -- well, second, after disbelief -- was consolation that we will no longer be financing Israeli aggression...but of course there's a carve-out for that. Of course.
Immediately discontinuing humanitarian efforts will cause the death of untold thousands of people around the world while barely having any effect whatsoever on the US federal budget (foreign assistance is less than 1% of the budget).
The cruelty is ALWAYS the point.
In his executive order, Trump claimed that the US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
However, one of the officials noted that assistance programs, such as those related to global health, which are targeted by the freeze, are in the US’ interest and had enjoyed bipartisan support.
“Making sure there are not pandemics is in our interest. Global stability is in our interest,” they said.
But there wasn’t even a carve out for health assistance, as far as I could tell.
Also worth noting that USAID has a pretty broad portfolio of capacity-building support outside of just public health in these developing countries (I.e. food production, water sanitation, education, women’s rights, governance, etc).
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
He didn't write any of the EOs, he just slaps his signature on them. The actual authors are people like Stephen Miller and the Heritage Foundation (dibs on that for a band name).
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
MEXICO CITY (The Borowitz Report)—The president of Mexico announced on Monday that her country was building a wall along its northern border to keep newly-pardoned January 6 insurrectionists from pouring across it.
“The United States is opening its prisons and releasing its most heinous criminals,” President Claudia Sheinbaum declared. “This leaves us with no choice but to build a wall and make the United States pay for it.”
Describing the January 6 convicts, she said, “When the United States sends its people, they’re sending people who have a lot of problems. They’re sending people who riot, vandalize government property, and attack law enforcement. They’re not sending their best.”
“If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
If Trump were assassinated, Vice President JD Vance would become president and would not necessarily be bound by any instructions left by his predecessor.
