XPost: alt.messianic   
   From: user7160@newsgrouper.org.invalid   
      
   On 1/7/26 5:12 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   > On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 17:05:49 -0800, dart200   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 1/7/26 12:57 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>> On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 11:24:20 -0800, dart200   
   >>>  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 1/7/26 10:27 AM, Dude wrote:   
   >>>>> On 1/6/2026 6:55 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   >>>>>> On 1/6/26 6:53 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   >>>>>>> On 1/6/26 10:21 AM, Julian wrote:   
   >>>>>>>> It was the Viking, Eric the Red who, in AD 986, first saw   
   >>>>>>>> Greenland’s potential. He wanted to colonise his newly-discovered   
   >>>>>>>> island, and in a blatant piece of tenth-century spin-doctoring hit   
   >>>>>>>> on a wizard wheeze to encourage other Norse people to come to this   
   >>>>>>>> bleak, icy and remote corner of the unknown world:   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> ‘In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found,   
   >>>>>>>> which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted   
   >>>>>>>> there if it had a favourable name.‘   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> More than a thousand years later, US president Donald Trump is   
   >>>>>>>> proposing something similar.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> ‘It’s a large real estate deal. Owning Greenland is vital for US   
   >>>>>>>> security… and economic security… It’s an absolute necessity and   
   I   
   >>>>>>>> cannot assure you that we would not use military or economic   
   coercion.‘   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> That may sound outlandish. But Trump’s ambition isn’t new. America   
   >>>>>>>> has controlled Greenland before: during the Second World War, it   
   >>>>>>>> became a de facto US protectorate. The US has also previously sought   
   >>>>>>>> to buy Greenland; in 1946, it offered $100 million in gold bullion;   
   >>>>>>>> around $7 billion in today’s money.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> For now, Greenland belongs to Denmark. But Denmark’s ownership of   
   >>>>>>>> Greenland is itself a piece of bare-faced colonialism, as a glance   
   >>>>>>>> at their policy of forced assimilation in the 1940s and 50s makes   
   >>>>>>>> clear. As a result, the Danes are much resented by most Greenlanders.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> Greenland has been moving towards independence almost as long as it   
   >>>>>>>> has been a colony of Denmark. They were granted Home Rule in 1979.   
   >>>>>>>> This was expanded to full self-rule with the 2009 Self-Government   
   >>>>>>>> Act – legislation that also handed Greenland the right to declare   
   >>>>>>>> independence. Today, Denmark retains control only of defence,   
   >>>>>>>> foreign affairs, and monetary policy. The 2023 Greenlandic   
   >>>>>>>> constitution explicitly commits the island to independence; and in   
   >>>>>>>> his 2025 New Year speech, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede,   
   >>>>>>>> called for an end to ‘the shackles of colonialism’ and a future   
   >>>>>>>> shaped by Greenlanders themselves.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> The final umbilical cord linking Greenland to Denmark is the annual   
   >>>>>>>> block grant of 3.9 billion kroner (roughly £410 million), making up   
   >>>>>>>> about 19 per cent of Greenland’s GDP. But to put that in   
   >>>>>>>> perspective, it is less than the amount annually spent by the US on   
   >>>>>>>> the city of El Paso, Texas. And it is minuscule compared to the   
   >>>>>>>> mineral wealth Greenland could one day command in partnership with a   
   >>>>>>>> deep-pocketed ally, of whom there are at least three: America, China   
   >>>>>>>> and Russia.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> China, in particular, has shown intense interest. At one point,   
   >>>>>>>> Beijing proposed a $2.5 billion (£1.8 billion) investment in a   
   >>>>>>>> Greenlandic mine (more than the island’s entire GDP), which would   
   >>>>>>>> have brought in 5,000 Chinese workers. Then they proposed massive   
   >>>>>>>> infrastructure investments, including a deep-sea port and two   
   >>>>>>>> international airports. These would require capital which would   
   >>>>>>>> leave Greenland beholden for all time. Denmark and the US,   
   >>>>>>>> unsurprisingly, blocked these plans.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> So why are the great powers so keen to own Greenland? Natural   
   >>>>>>>> resources are a big reason why. The great powers’ unashamed lust for   
   >>>>>>>> Greenland’s rare earths is but one element of a global race to   
   >>>>>>>> control the production of the strategic minerals which are essential   
   >>>>>>>> components of batteries, phones, electric vehicles and all modern   
   >>>>>>>> computing devices. It’s about silicon, germanium, phosphorus, boron,   
   >>>>>>>> indium phosphide, gallium, graphite, uranium, copper, lithium,   
   >>>>>>>> cobalt and nickel, among others. He who controls their production   
   >>>>>>>> holds the key to the digital globe.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> Odd as it may sound, it’s also about Taiwan. Taiwan manufactures   
   >>>>>>>> over 60 per cent of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90 per   
   >>>>>>>> cent of its most advanced chips. If China were ever to carry out its   
   >>>>>>>> threat to invade Taiwan (which some observers think may be imminent,   
   >>>>>>>> perhaps encouraged by Donald Trump’s daring raid on Venezuela), it   
   >>>>>>>> would gain near-total control of the global microchip supply. Do we   
   >>>>>>>> really want to be dependent on China for every phone, computer and   
   >>>>>>>> electric vehicle produced in the West?   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> The US needs to develop chip-making capabilities comparable to   
   >>>>>>>> Taiwan’s. To achieve this it needs reliable sources for the 50 or so   
   >>>>>>>> critical minerals required. And Greenland holds concentrated   
   >>>>>>>> quantities of 30 of them, amounting to a considerable chunk of the   
   >>>>>>>> world’s total rare earth reserves. But the reality is that with a   
   >>>>>>>> population of just 57,000 – many of them Inuit fishermen and hunters   
   >>>>>>>> – Greenland lacks the industrial infrastructure to extract these   
   >>>>>>>> minerals. Both China and the US would be keen to fill that gap.   
   >>>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> Another great attraction of Greenland is its strategic position. As   
   >>>>>>>> the ice melts – at a rate of as much as 270 billion tonnes per year   
   >>>>>>>> – several strategic sea routes are being opened up. The world is   
   >>>>>>>> waking up to the potential strategic value of Greenland, the largest   
   >>>>>>>> non- continental island on Earth. Greenland controls the top end of   
   >>>>>>>> the Greenland–Iceland–UK Gap. This area is crucial to Nato   
   submarine   
   >>>>>>>> surveillance and was vital in resupplying Europe during WWII. It   
   >>>>>>>> also hosts the Thule Air Base (now renamed Pituffik Space Base), an   
   >>>>>>>> essential part of US air defence and missile early warning systems.   
   >>>>>>>> Any Russian missile strike on the US would pass directly over   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)