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

bundesregierung.de

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

#81

Post by bitshiftfaced »

omnimus wrote: post #79
bitshiftfaced wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The imbalance comes from how VAT and US taxes work differently. A European car comes to the show floor free of VAT. A US car likely has sales tax still embedded into the costs, and tariffs get multiplied on top of it. I'm not saying that it's anyone's "fault", but it is an advantage for countries that have VAT.

Actually the european car comes to the show floor with VAT already paid by the store selling the car. VAT is end user tax, it's paid by last one in the chain. So it's only after the shop sells the car when they get the VAT back from the sale (and they get back only what VAT they paid before).

I was referring to European cars sold in the US compared to US cars sold in Europe.

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

#82

Post by Incipient »

Chance-Device wrote: post #50

I’ll put myself in the minority here by saying that I think Trump is probably right. Greenland can’t be credibly defended by Denmark, the EU or even NATO. Article 5 is an untested foundation myth. Greenland is far away. Political will matters. We might be heading towards an independent Greenland if we continue following the status quo, which would be influenced strongly by adversaries and would be a US security night…

If trump is actually deranged enough to use military force against Greenland we'll see how capable the EU is of defending it - and I suspect they'll put on a good show.

What the EU wouldn't be able to handle, I suspect, is would be a full ground invasion by China, not that China would/needs to do that.

If the US was genuinely concerned about the security of Greenland they should have discussed this with the EU and encouraged them to reinforce the island, and/or offered a joint base.

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

#83

Post by kcplate »

bicx wrote: post #5

As a U.S. citizen, I’m beginning to ask myself how to take more meaningful measures to help bring an end to this behavior. I’m not a political activist and generally try to mind my own business, but that mindset only worked when I felt I could trust the system to self-correct. It seems our judicial system can barely keep up, and Congress is doing next to nothing.

Start holding the opposing party responsible to run good candidates for office and adopt a platform that can appeal to independents.

The knee jerk reaction is to run your party’s candidates and platform to the opposite extreme. Instead you should move towards the center. I really hope the democrats realize this (some do and are speaking out) soon.

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

#84

Post by kcplate »

kurtis_reed wrote: post #10
bicx wrote: post #5

As a U.S. citizen, I’m beginning to ask myself how to take more meaningful measures to help bring an end to this behavior. I’m not a political activist and generally try to mind my own business, but that mindset only worked when I felt I could trust the system to self-correct. It seems our judicial system can barely keep up, and Congress is doing next to nothing.

Protest

To what end? I think this has become the “feel good that I am doing something about it” approach but it literally has almost zero effect beyond creating rhetoric from the politicians.

You need to hold your political leaders responsible with your vote. Don’t just automatically vote for the politicians that are “saying” the right things. Find out what your representatives are “doing” and hold them responsible for their actions or more importantly, inactions.

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

#85

Post by morkalork »

kcplate wrote: post #84
kurtis_reed wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protest

To what end? I think this has become the “feel good that I am doing something about it” approach but it literally has almost zero effect beyond creating rhetoric from the politicians. You need to hold your political leaders responsible with your vote. Don’t just automatically vote for the politicians that are “saying” the right things. Find out what your representatives are “doing” and hold them responsible for their…

Call your senator and congressman /s

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

#87

Post by tzs »

tzs wrote: post #73
rpiguy wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not how physics works. The amount of energy needed to get two tons of vehicle to move from rest is enormous and that energy was transferred to a human body. The force of a two ton vehicle moving even a couple MPH is substantial.

The energy needed to get something up to speed is not really relevant to what happens when the thing hits a person unless the person cannot move. Consider this thought experiment. Take a two ton car with a flat plate on front, accelerate up to say 2 mph, and hit someone. Now try the same thing but instead of a two ton car lets use a 20 000 ton freight train. The train takes way more energy to get up to 2 mph. At the…

Edit: one of those "kinetic energy"s in the 4th paragraph was supposed to be "momentum".

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

#88

Post by number6 »

bitshiftfaced wrote: post #56
kermitdekikker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the US feels practices are unfair they can go to the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organisation, or they could do whatever this madness is

And you could say the same about the tariffs mentioned in the article.

Did any of the taxes came to fruition? Weren't they cancelled by the US high courts?

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

#89

Post by tomhow »

rpiguy wrote: post #58
ben_w wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Facism starts with civilians who act as enforcers and intimidators, not with the police. Hitler’s brown shirts and Mussolini's black shirts elevated the Facists to power. The SS came afterwords. Antifa is far closer to the brownshirts than any other organization in the US. Power through intimidation and chaos. Facist. Here's a video of the people you refuse to recognise meet that exact description: https://en.w…

[flagged]

Please don't fulminate or engage in ideological battle on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#90

Post by optionalsquid »

Incipient wrote: post #82
Chance-Device wrote: post #50

I’ll put myself in the minority here by saying that I think Trump is probably right. Greenland can’t be credibly defended by Denmark, the EU or even NATO. Article 5 is an untested foundation myth. Greenland is far away. Political will matters. We might be heading towards an independent Greenland if we continue following the status quo, which would be influenced strongly by adversaries and would be a US security night…

If trump is actually deranged enough to use military force against Greenland we'll see how capable the EU is of defending it - and I suspect they'll put on a good show. What the EU wouldn't be able to handle, I suspect, is would be a full ground invasion by China, not that China would/needs to do that. If the US was genuinely concerned about the security of Greenland they should have discussed this with the EU and en…

> If the US was genuinely concerned about the security of Greenland they should have discussed this with the EU and encouraged them to reinforce the island, and/or offered a joint base.

This is where it gets stupid... well, stupider.

The US already has a base on Greenland, namely the Pituffik Space Base / Thule Air Base [1].

The US used to have a larger military presence in Greenland, including other bases, but choose to downscale their presence following the end of the cold war [2].

This presence was predicated on the 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement between Denmark (and later the autonomous government of Greenland) and the US, which allowed the US great freedom in establishing their military presence in Greenland [3].

If Trump had just wanted a stronger military presence in Greenland, then all he would have had to do was ask, and Denmark and Greenland would most likely have agreed. Denmark, in particular, has done its best to align itself with the US, and Greenland, prior to Trump, was also interested in a closer relationship with the US as part of their move towards greater independence from Denmark.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland#United_States_and_th...

[3] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp

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