Trump’s approach to Greenland has something in common with his (Cutting-)Board of Peace approach to Palestine: not even the slightest pretense of involving the people impacted. The residents of Kalaallit Nunaat were never asked about the existing permissions for the U.S. military to build bases in their land and are not being asked now about a “deal” made between Trump and, not even Denmark but, Trump’s servant, the Secretary General of NATO.

“Oh, what a relief to have a deal,” shout the corporate media, after Trump yet again threatens WWIII and then proposes something else. The something else has yet to ever be anything actually desirable.

The people of neither Greenland nor the Earth as a whole have been asked whether, as fossil fuel consumption and other human activities heat the planet and melt the ice, the U.S. military should seek out newly exposed Arctic areas in which to find more fossil fuels with which to finish the job.

The first of a series of “Forums for a Nuclear-Free New York” was held last week following New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposition for an expansion of nuclear power in New York State. Earlier in the week she called in a “State of the State” address for an additional four gigawatts of nuclear power in New York, the energy generation equivalent of four large nuclear power plantsThis continued Hochul’s nuclear drive through 2025 pushing for the state to become the center of a nuclear power “revival” in the United States and then proposing one gigawatt of new nuclear power in New York.

This first forum, a webinar on January 15, was titled a “Symposium for Safe and Affordable Energy in New York.” It was organized by a coalition of safe-energy and environmental organizations and moderated by Alec Baldwin, actor and nuclear power opponent. It featured Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program, and Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project. 

[Content Warning - Sexual Violence and Child Exploitation]

Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security likes to claim that every immigrant is a criminal. But a new list shows the real criminals work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, “As the government pushes to hire new agents rapidly, background checks and vetting processes are being tossed aside. How many more predators are in the process of joining these federal agencies? No one knows, and that is terrifying.” 

Judging from opinion polls, the American public has increasingly become largely disenchanted with the bizarre behavior of President Donald J Trump and the clownish entourage that surrounds and encourages him. Last week featured a meeting between Trump and the foreign minister of Denmark as well as his counterpart from Greenland’s legislative assembly. The meeting did not resolve the issue of Trump’s “unacceptable” demand that the United States must have ownership of Greenland, “buying it” if necessary, to maintain its national security against possible invasion coming from Russian and Chinese ships that, per Trump incorrectly, are already infesting Arctic waters to the north. To support his position, Trump has now announced that he is considering punishing with tariffs all countries that do not agree with his position on Greenland, which would be something akin to Washington committing international suicide.

Vladimir Putin is at the brink of igniting multiple global-scale atomic catastrophes at as many as 19 nuclear power plants in Ukraine.  

Putin’s primary stated goal is to deprive Ukraine of electricity, freezing and starving it in the dark.  

But as Newsweek has just reported: “The International Atomic Energy Agency said electrical substations ‘vital for nuclear safety’ were affected by the massive Russian strike on Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, leading the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to lose all of its off-site power. Other Ukrainian nuclear power plants were also impacted when their power lines were disrupted, the nuclear watchdog said.”