Live data from Hacker News

Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

presidentti.fi

411–420 of 604 posts

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#411

This isn’t really about Greenland’s strategic value; it’s about the category error. You can trade goods, sign treaties, and negotiate basing rights. You can’t “buy” a people or their sovereignty especially when they don’t consent. That’s why Europe responds with process and principle: normalize coercion-as-bargaining among allies and you’re reviving a pre-1945 model of politics Europe built institutions to prevent. I…

Warren Buffett once said: "You can't make a good deal with a bad person" Which is exactly the case as long as Trump is POTUS. There's no good deal to be made for Denmark, Greenland, or Europe in general. Trump is a bad person, and can not be trusted. Any deal that is made will either be altered or voided. And he'll continue to move the goalposts. There are two outcomes with Trump: 1) He tries to bully someone into su…

Regarding option (2), isn’t SCOTUS supposed to rule on the legality of Trump’s tariffs soon?

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

As an Army veteran, I find this kind of keyboard warrioring to be insanely cringe. The “last time” was 20 years after Mexico had secured their independence from Spain and a few years after fending the military was worn down fending off incursions from France. Mexico was barely able to control or defend northern territories from indigenous tribes at the time, never mind a full country’s military. It was also nearly 18…

it is still extremely doubtful that Mexico will fare well in a conflict with the United States

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems there is a path to a referendum? https://www.voanews.com/a/greenland-unveils-draft-constituti... Here's more on that constitution: https://www.naadsn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/26jan-2023-...

It doesn't seem to discuss Trump's "offer". Voting independence from Denmark is different from being given the option to join the United States. As Chomsky would say "whenever there are multiple pictures, the darkest one tends to be closer to the truth". What if natural resources would be more expensive (for both US and EU) to buy if Greenland were independent, than if it were still half-colony of Denmark. Then EU an…

unsurprising that Chomsky has a reverse Occam's Razor that assumes the worst in any (western) action

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#414
post #98
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t an aberration, it’s a continuation. Trump has repeatedly done things that would have been disqualifying for any normal president: threatening allies, undermining institutions, abusing power, normalizing coercion. The reason this moment feels different to some people isn’t that the behavior changed, it’s that they’re finally among those bearing the downside. That normalization, enabled by years of “it doesn…

That's only part of it. It feels worse now because everything is visible. Information moves instantly. Evidence is public. Financial trails can be followed. Citizens now expect ethical behavior from their leaders as a baseline rather than a bonus. In earlier eras, people slept better largely because they didn’t know what was happening, not because leaders were more virtuous. For decades now, elite self-dealing, insti…

Watergate, Iran-Contra, Vietnam, and the Pentagon Papers were all exposed through mass media, and they triggered resignations, prosecutions, and electoral consequences. Nixon resigned for conduct far narrower than many of Trump’s actions. Reagan officials went to prison.

Trump didn’t reveal hidden corruption, he openly violated constraints that previous leaders still treated as binding. Calling him a “stress test” misstates causality. Stress tests expose weaknesses, they don’t require millions of people to excuse norm violations because the harm initially falls elsewhere. This wasn’t inevitability or opacity, it was a collective decision to lower standards.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#415
post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

>>The US needs control of arctic sea lanes I literally couldn't care less about what US "needs". Russia "needs" Ukraine and similarly no one should be respecting them for it. You Americans think you own the world - you don't. >>This is pure national security and economic security pragmatism. Yes and I'm sure Putin sells his war in the same way to his citizens. >>and I don’t want my country to collapse economically or…

Of course it was in our interests to do so. No empire acts otherwise.

We do not own the world, but we do own the worlds reserve currency, largest economy, are the guarantors of safe naval passage for most of the world, are the defenders of North America, Europe, and to a lesser extent Japan and South Korea. We send re-usable rockets to space. We are amazing.

Does any of this give us a direct claim to Greenland? No, but what claim did Denmark have over the native people when they invaded?

Roosevelt honestly thought the Soviets would be good partners post-war. He was wrong. Very wrong.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warren Buffett once said: "You can't make a good deal with a bad person" Which is exactly the case as long as Trump is POTUS. There's no good deal to be made for Denmark, Greenland, or Europe in general. Trump is a bad person, and can not be trusted. Any deal that is made will either be altered or voided. And he'll continue to move the goalposts. There are two outcomes with Trump: 1) He tries to bully someone into su…

Regarding option (2), isn’t SCOTUS supposed to rule on the legality of Trump’s tariffs soon?

Are people expecting to SCOTUS rebuff Trump? So far it seems that they're good to go on any Trumpian designs.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#417

This isn’t really about Greenland’s strategic value; it’s about the category error. You can trade goods, sign treaties, and negotiate basing rights. You can’t “buy” a people or their sovereignty especially when they don’t consent. That’s why Europe responds with process and principle: normalize coercion-as-bargaining among allies and you’re reviving a pre-1945 model of politics Europe built institutions to prevent. I…

The US has some grace here as most of the negative feelings towards it dies with it's government. You're going to pick better next time, right?

Trump's passing and his admin getting tossed won't erase the memory that a good third of America was always happy with him and wanted what he actually did. America is now branded with MAGA in a way that will take generations to fade.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#418

This isn’t really about Greenland’s strategic value; it’s about the category error. You can trade goods, sign treaties, and negotiate basing rights. You can’t “buy” a people or their sovereignty especially when they don’t consent. That’s why Europe responds with process and principle: normalize coercion-as-bargaining among allies and you’re reviving a pre-1945 model of politics Europe built institutions to prevent. I…

The US has some grace here as most of the negative feelings towards it dies with it's government. You're going to pick better next time, right?

You have to be incredibly naive to give that much credibility to the US system. A lot more than just a switch of parties would be needed.

Personally I highly doubt a possible democratic would return a conquered Greenland. And even if it did, it would have to ensure that kind of derailment doesn't happen again. The opposition so far seems to be about as ineffectual as centrist parties across Europe at dealing with the far right.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#419

Even all of the purely imperialistic stated reasons for taking Greenland make no sense. National security? We already have the right to station as many troops there as we want! And we have actually removed troops recently. Mineral rights? America is already richly endowed - its just impossible to access what we have when permitting is almost impossible. If there were actually valuable lodes in Greenland, it would pro…

There is a conspiracy theory Trump is under active control by blackmail by the Russian government. Moments like this make you wonder.

Re: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,Norway,Sweden,UK

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry, we've not funded our government for a while now. National debt out front should have told ya

You are reliant on the kindness of strangers to fund your government spending.

It's not kindness, it's interest. Those rates are about to go up up up.
Post reply on HN