Hindsite wrote:True, but that would be expected of a first time politician. His naivete was mainly in thinking he could get along with anyone and win them over with his personality.
My comment was based on my utter lack of political experience too, and that would have been one of the first acts as president would I ever be crazy enough to run and lucky enough to win. However, I would have been blindsided by the Russiagate thing too, which is why I think much of the government simply needs to be dismantled at this point. It's simply too corrupt to be saved.
However, Trump is an absolute master troll and he does it in a way to get the establishment to reveal their true character. That Westerhout gal is a case in point--why would you hire someone that was a fan of Hillary Clinton? Does't make sense.
Sivad wrote:It's not absurd, probably something like half of US soil was purchased from other countries.
Right. The Louisiana purchase, the Gadsden purchase and the Alaska purchase were substantial acquisitions of territory by sale. Louisiana and Alaska were entirely peaceful too.
Godstud wrote:The PM of Denmark called it absurd, and it is.
Denmark sold the US Virgin Islands to the United States. It's not without precedent even for Denmark. It's not like Denmark has done much with Greenland anyway. It's defense is dependent on the United States, like so much of Europe. If you want to talk about absurd, maybe start there.
Godstud wrote:Pretending the world, and geopolitics, is the same way it was 150 years ago, or further back, is absurd. Pretending otherwise is ridiculous.
Who's pretending? Denmark sold the US Virgin Islands to the US during WWI. In the last 50 years, borders have continued to change. The breakup of the Soviet Union spawned 15 different countries; yet, Russia simply seized and annexed Crimea during Obama's presidency. Now they don't get to go to G7 meetings, because the idea of a "rules-based" system doesn't seem to excite the Russians. The former Yugoslavia dissolved into 5 different countries. The US granted independence to the Marshall Islands, Palau and Micronesia. Czechoslovakia divided into two separate countries. East and West Germany re-united. Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia. East Timor declared independence from Indonesia. South Sudan broke off from Sudan. Things change all the time Godstud.
Maybe we should offer to give them Puerto Rico.
Sivad wrote:Buying territory is a hell of a lot more civilized than taking it by force and countries still do that.
I know. Right? Leave it to @Godstud to declare the most peaceful and equitable way to acquire land "absurd." It's how the private market functions on a daily basis.
Pants-of-dog wrote:What is absurd is to refuse to go on a state trip because the Danes did not treat it as a serious bid.
And the Danish government had no reason to treat it seriously since the residents of Greenland were not consulted.
He hadn't prepared a serious bid that we can ascertain. Trump comes up with unorthodox ideas, sometimes to troll his own staff to see if they will leak to the press. I posted on here some time ago that he could just come up with something outlandish and say it with limited people in the room and thereby figure out the identity of the leaker. Everyone but the leaker is in the know, and the leaker thinks it's a real idea. He got Westerhout out that way.
"We have put together the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."
-- Joe Biden