All This and Greenland,Too!

President Donald Trump, always looking for the next big real estate deal to flaunt his already massive ego, is interested in purchasing Greenland.

Greenland is a massive island that sits on the North Atlantic with Canada to its south, the Arctic to its north and Europe to the east. Its population is the size of a small American city.  The polar ice sheet that envelops the island is apparently melting as we speak.  But it's what's underneath that interests Trump. If he's successful in his purchase, we could soon be seeing military bases, oil refineries (in addition to the ones that are already there), coal mines and possibly branded golf resorts.

But Denmark owns Greenland, and runs it as a quasi-independent entity with its own self rule.  They're not interested in selling, least of all to the United States.  And because they're not interested in selling, Trump has canceled his planned visit to Denmark following the G7 summit in France.  He even went so far as to call its prime minister Mette Frederiksen "nasty" for the way she reacted to the President's no-show.  This is not the first time Trump has reacted badly to women who are in a position to stand up to him, especially since he does not do diplomacy well.

In fact, Trump does not do well when things come between him and others who don't appreciate the power and the glory that is Donald Trump.

• He declares himself the "chosen one" in standing up to China on that ill-advised trade war of his, one that could cause a recession by 2021.  But he's not worried over that one either.
• Gets his pal Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, to deny American congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib permission to visit his country.  Then he calls any Jewish person who votes Democratic to be disloyal to Israel.
• Migrant families who came here illegally will now be held in detention centers indefinitely while their cases are being processed
• Backs off on his support of background checks in the wake of the most recent gun massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, following a nice little chat with Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association.
• The mystery of whether Trump had anything to do with billionaire and alleged pedophile Jeffrey Epstein got deeper after his apparent suicide in prison.
• A Fox News poll revealed that several Democratic candidates could beat Trump if the election were held today, not in November 2020.  Which means the President is not happy with Fox News right now, usually his main source of information.

Sixty years ago, Alaska and Hawaii were both admitted to the union as states.  Not so much for their scenic beauty, but for their strategic presence in the Cold War era.  Could Greenland be the 51st state for much the same reason?

El Paso and Dayton: Presidential Word Crimes

As the Decade of the Gun continues, 31 people (as of 8/7/19) lost their lives in El Paso, TX and Dayton, Ohio within hours on Saturday.  Lives lost because two young men with an agenda and a small arsenal took advantage of lax security to open fire on places where people would normally gather.

The aftermath has been almost as predictable.  Calls for Congress to pass new laws on guns that won't be heeded.  Finger-pointing from both parties blaming the other for "reasons" why shootings occur, including mental illness and video games.  "Thoughts and prayers" are delivered as loved ones bury their dead.  And life goes on.

Not every mass shooting is the same, of course.  El Paso resonates because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexican border, which has been the subject of President Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to keep bad hombres from crossing over, even if they happen to be families fleeing oppression and needing asylum.  The suspect in the shooting allegedly targeted Hispanics, who he believed were part of an "invasion" of Texas.

The alleged shooter and possibly others in the white supremacist movement must have gotten their ideas from President Trump, who has been a thorn in the side of minorities for a long time.  In recent weeks, he told four Congresswomen of color to go back to where they came from.  He slandered the city of Baltimore as "rat-infested", and its African-American congressman for not taking care of his district.  He has allowed the mistreatment of migrants who are currently being locked up in cages.  He justifies it all by using language on his Twitter feed and at his rallies that entertain his base, but scares the hell out of normal people.

If Donald Trump were anywhere but the White House and continued to use rhetoric like that, he would lose his career and his fortune like that.  But Trump is President of the United States.  As we know from the Mueller Report, Trump can't be prosecuted while in office, and his term still has over a year to go.  His Democratic opponents can say whatever they want about him, but he must be hoping public amnesia will lead to a second term.

And as long as Trump is President, we can expect more mass shootings--just like every President so far this century--and more excuses from politicians who know which side of bread theirs is buttered on.  It's all coming to a neighborhood near you.