Scrutable

Chris Preston wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:25 am Trump now has a Nobel Peace Prize medal.

It is really like watching a toddler in a lolly shop.

I have a Cycling Proficiency badge if anyone would like to share it

ICE agents ate at a Mexican restaurant and then returned at closing time to arrest the people who fed them.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/ice ... -just-ate/

Chris Preston wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:25 am Trump now has a Nobel Peace Prize medal.

It is really like watching a toddler in a lolly shop.

Apparently he's not the first person to have been given a Nobel prize by the winner.

Via Twitter

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) was a towering figure of Norwegian letters. He was also a Nazi sympathizer and supporter of the German occupation of Norway during the Second World War. In 1943, Hamsun sent his Nobel medal to Third-Reich propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as a token of his admiration and authored a reverential obituary for Hitler in May 1945. For decades, scholars have wrestled with the dichotomy between Hamsun's merits as a writer and his infamous ties to Nazism.

In her incisive study of Hamsun, Monika Zagar refuses to separate his political and cultural ideas from an analysis of his highly regarded writing. Her analysis reveals the ways in which messages of racism and sexism appear in plays, fiction, and none-too-subtle nonfiction produced by a prolific author over the course of his long career. In the process, Zagar illuminates Norway's changing social relations and long history of interaction with other peoples.

Trump has written to the Prime Minister of Norway complaining that Norway failed to give him the Nobel Peace Prize as part of his justification for taking Greenland.

Chris Preston wrote: Mon Jan 19, 2026 10:53 pm Trump has written to the Prime Minister of Norway complaining that Norway failed to give him the Nobel Peace Prize as part of his justification for taking Greenland.

Unfortunately, you can kind of see a Trumpish logic to it.

As Trump has discovered, even as the leader of a democracy, if he wants something badly enough he can make it happen. The Prime Minister of Norway would say he has no influence on the Nobel Prize. But Trump would say, those Nobel Prizes look fairly political to me. I bet if you'd wanted me to have the Nobel Prize badly enough, you could have made it happen.

And Trump would further say, what is important about Greenland is keeping the Russians and the Chinese out of it. And you have to want that really badly. And there is little sign of Europe wanting that badly enough. Giving me the Nobel Peace Prize would be a sign that you do understand that you have to want things badly enough to make them happen.

IvanV wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 10:35 am

Chris Preston wrote: Mon Jan 19, 2026 10:53 pm Trump has written to the Prime Minister of Norway complaining that Norway failed to give him the Nobel Peace Prize as part of his justification for taking Greenland.

Unfortunately, you can kind of see a Trumpish logic to it.

As Trump has discovered, even as the leader of a democracy, if he wants something badly enough he can make it happen. The Prime Minister of Norway would say he has no influence on the Nobel Prize. But Trump would say, those Nobel Prizes look fairly political to me. I bet if you'd wanted me to have the Nobel Prize badly enough, you could have made it happen.

And Trump would further say, what is important about Greenland is keeping the Russians and the Chinese out of it. And you have to want that really badly. And there is little sign of Europe wanting that badly enough. Giving me the Nobel Peace Prize would be a sign that you do understand that you have to want things badly enough to make them happen.

We all really badly want him gone and yet ...

The US has a military base on Greenland, Russia and China would have to be wanting a hot war with the US to invade even as things stand.

Trump's press conference yesterday was off the rails. Two hours of rambling, incoherent lies and b.llsh.t. Even worse than usual.

I've only seen highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DQAL5p8WIU

If you care to waste two hours of your life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBVfBGJPzg

Grumble wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 7:14 am The US has a military base on Greenland, Russia and China would have to be wanting a hot war with the US to invade even as things stand.

The US used to have many military facilities in Greenland, and has retrenched to just the one, in the far NW. So Russia and China would for a long time have tended to conclude that the US was moving out.

Russia and China are masters of gradually chipping away at things. Look at the South China Sea. First, China drew a vague dashed line on a map in an atlas. Then it began to assert that was the official map of China's borders and complained about people failing to draw "proper" maps. Then they sent small fishing vessels there. Patrol boats turn up to protect them when there is any trouble about it. They started building small stuff on islets. They send larger fishing vessels there. They start kicking out other people's fishing vessels. Finally they started building big stuff on islets, and having confrontations with other countries' military vessels. All this played out over about 60 years.

In Greenland, you can imagine the scenario. First you open a mine there. It has a port and an airstrip. You put some "communication" facilities there. Gradually you can introduce intelligence and military items. And because Greenland has no roads, very little population, there is space for various countries to be up to that kind of thing.

So far there is no sign of anything like that. There is only one major operating mine in Greenland, and a couple more in preparation - unclear whether they will open. And neither China nor Russia, nor even the US, have taken much interest in mining there because it is just so expensive and difficult, and they have huge and much cheaper opportunities elsewhere.

IvanV wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:58 am

Grumble wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 7:14 am The US has a military base on Greenland, Russia and China would have to be wanting a hot war with the US to invade even as things stand.

The US used to have many military facilities in Greenland, and has retrenched to just the one, in the far NW. So Russia and China would for a long time have tended to conclude that the US was moving out.

Pituffik Space Force Base is also the site of the Greenland Telescope, one of the antennas in the Event Horizon Telescope (I formerly the instrument scientist for it).

IvanV wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:58 am
So far there is no sign of anything like that. There is only one major operating mine in Greenland, and a couple more in preparation - unclear whether they will open. And neither China nor Russia, nor even the US, have taken much interest in mining there because it is just so expensive and difficult, and they have huge and much cheaper opportunities elsewhere.

However, one of Trump's advisers does have personal business interests in mining there.

dyqik wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 12:40 am

IvanV wrote: Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:58 am
So far there is no sign of anything like that. There is only one major operating mine in Greenland, and a couple more in preparation - unclear whether they will open. And neither China nor Russia, nor even the US, have taken much interest in mining there because it is just so expensive and difficult, and they have huge and much cheaper opportunities elsewhere.

However, one of Trump's advisers does have personal business interests in mining there.

Hello Howard Lutnick. His family company (now mainly controlled by his sons), Cantor Fitzgerald, has a share in BVI registered, NY headquartered, Critical Metals Corp (CMC).

But CMC has a controlling shareholder, with over 60% of it, being European Lithium. Despite their name, they are an Australian company. Which is probably why Greenland mining interests come up as predominantly not US. CMC has a licence to develop a rare earth metals mine at Tanbreez in the far south of Greenland. It is geologically one of the best rare earth sites on earth.

But CMC is not yet building a mine at Tanbreez. There are suggestions a mine will open there in the next few years, but so far no clear sign of it happening. Probably they aren't all rushing in because there are economic impediments in the form of whether it would actually make money. It would have high operating costs of extract ore. Currently most rare earths are extracted as by-products from materials already mined for another main purpose, mainly the residues of zinc mining. So mining only for rare earths is an additional cost, although the material may be better.

But the main impediment to developing rare earths outside China is the very high cost of processing the rare earths out of the ore. China has a rather higher share of that processing capacity, over digging share. And thus a substantial proportion of material dug up elsewhere tends to be sent to China for processing. It is hard to compete with Chinese processing, because China's leadership has so far been willing to impose on local populations - mainly in Inner Mongolia - the high environmental costs of doing it cheaply and very dirtily.

Tanbreez is about 20km from Qaqortoq, the largest settlement in the south of Greenland. It's not so far from the Nalunaq gold mine, which reopened in 2024 as the one major operating mine in Greenland mentioned above. That mine is operated by Amaroq, whose largest investors are mainly Danish and Icelandic.

I wonder what a Trump take-over of Greenland could do for the miners? Well, the Greenlanders are a bit fussy about environmental standards. They refused the development of a uranium mine over pollution worries. Trump doesn't stand for that kind of "nonsense". But no one is going to be processing the ores in Greenland. Trump is letting Musk get away with illegally polluting electricity generation on US soil for his AI centres. But I doubt Trump will let people do rare earth processing to Chinese environmental standards on US soil. The Greenlanders are also a bit fussy about shipping in overseas workers, enclosing them in compounds, paying them non-local wages, and applying non-local conditions of labour, safety, etc. What we can call the merchant shipping model of employment. Trump comes over as strongly opposed to that kind of low wage employment practice, at least on land within the US. At least as demonstrated by ICE picking up and deporting low cost undocumented workers from the US. But maybe it's different when it's mines in Greenland. Perhaps when he thinks about it, Trump would be wanting to possess Greenland on the Puerto Rico model, where US standards don't apply, rather than becoming the 51st state of the union.

IvanV wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 2:15 pm ... rather than becoming the 51st state of the union.

That would never happen - if it's ridiculous for Wyoming (0.16% of US population) to have 2% of the Senate, it would be ludicrous for Greenland (0.016% of the US population) to have the same.

Just for a change, a different Trump (son of) in the news

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... rumiantsev

Gfamily wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 4:20 pm

IvanV wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 2:15 pm ... rather than becoming the 51st state of the union.

That would never happen - if it's ridiculous for Wyoming (0.16% of US population) to have 2% of the Senate, it would be ludicrous for Greenland (0.016% of the US population) to have the same.

Particularly while Washington DC (~0.6% of US population) and Puerto Rico (~1% of US population) are not a states.

IvanV wrote: Thu Jan 22, 2026 2:15 pm Perhaps when he thinks about it, Trump would be wanting to possess Greenland on the Puerto Rico model, where US standards don't apply, rather than becoming the 51st state of the union.

The population of Puerto Rico are citizens of the United States, with same rights as those in the 50 states. Except for voting rights.

Led by Donkeys take on the board of peace.

https://youtu.be/3rK7N_il7bo?si=pCsCBAb3k_ExNiTX

Apart from which . . . if Greenland, or worse still, Canada were "new" states of the union - imagine how many Democrats they'd send to DC. Never. Going. to Happen.

Lew Dolby wrote: Sat Jan 24, 2026 1:15 pm Apart from which . . . if Greenland, or worse still, Canada were "new" states of the union - imagine how many Democrats they'd send to DC. Never. Going. to Happen.

If there is a plan, I guess it would be a Puerto Rico approach.

jimbob wrote: Sat Jan 24, 2026 6:52 pm

Lew Dolby wrote: Sat Jan 24, 2026 1:15 pm Apart from which . . . if Greenland, or worse still, Canada were "new" states of the union - imagine how many Democrats they'd send to DC. Never. Going. to Happen.

If there is a plan, I guess it would be a Puerto Rico approach.

Of course it is - the people aren't important to him, so they wouldn't dare give them electoral rights.

As well as murder, ICE has managed to allow the suspect of a $100M jewelry heist to take voluntary deportation to Ecuador and disappear, so his trial has collapsed and hope of recovery of the loot is now gone. He volunteered and nobody bothered to check.

FlammableFlower wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 9:47 am As well as murder, ICE has managed to allow the suspect of a $100M jewelry heist to take voluntary deportation to Ecuador and disappear, so his trial has collapsed and hope of recovery of the loot is now gone. He volunteered and nobody bothered to check.

That’s kind of hilarious

Grumble wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 11:48 am

FlammableFlower wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 9:47 am As well as murder, ICE has managed to allow the suspect of a $100M jewelry heist to take voluntary deportation to Ecuador and disappear, so his trial has collapsed and hope of recovery of the loot is now gone. He volunteered and nobody bothered to check.

That’s kind of hilarious

It does sound like something from a movie. Any more details? It's such a good story I feel the urge to share, but I'd like to be on firmer ground.

Martin Y wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 3:22 pm

Grumble wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 11:48 am

FlammableFlower wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 9:47 am As well as murder, ICE has managed to allow the suspect of a $100M jewelry heist to take voluntary deportation to Ecuador and disappear, so his trial has collapsed and hope of recovery of the loot is now gone. He volunteered and nobody bothered to check.

That’s kind of hilarious

It does sound like something from a movie. Any more details? It's such a good story I feel the urge to share, but I'd like to be on firmer ground.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... elf-deport