Law, Power, and Justice

January 2026

Wednesday 14 January 2026

      A representative from Denmark and one from Greenland made statements in Washington, D.C.  today.  They noted that the discussions between them and Marco Rubio and the el Crapo J. D. Vance ended without agreement.  It was a sad event to watch.  Neither Vance nor Rubio stood with them.  They were just left out there alone in front of some cheap steel-framed building to read their statements

The woman from Greenland had her brows so furrowed, there were deep lines on her forehead.  The diplomat from Denmark had evidently been at the diplomatic game for a long time and even though he didn’t look happy, he maintained a stoic expression.  You could tell it was taking a lot of energy out of him.

      It is just all so absurd.  The two representatives evidently had to assure the Americans that Chinese and Russian war ships were not cruising around right off Greenland’s shore.  I’m sure the U.S. intelligence community had no idea that Trump’s accusation that this was going on was false.  I mean, they would have told him, wouldn’t they?

      Because of the greedy, grasping nature of the rest of us, the Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet.  This means that the Arctic is more accessible and also a more strategic target for graphite, zinc and rare earths (Sengupta, Somini, NYT, 1/14/26).

      As a former Pentagon official said to the NYT: “His (Trump’s) fixation on Greenland is an admission that climate change is real.  And, of course, “some of Mr. Trump’s allies have invested in mining interests in and around Greenland.  Greenland, evidently populated with reasonable people has banned uranium mining because of the risk of environmental damage.  The same considerations have prevented Greenland from granting oil exploration licenses (noting also “economic common sense) (Sengupta, 1/14/26). 

NOTES ON GREENLAND (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     Greenlanders have free health care, free education and a strong safety net.

•     “Greenland still relies on hundreds of millions of dollars each year in Danish subsidies.”

•     “Under a Cold War treaty, American forces already enjoy almost unfettered military access” to Greenland.

•     Relations between officials in Greenland and Denmark are not always amicable.  In one meeting recently a Greenlandic official “raised her voice and pounded the table, accusing her Danish colleagues of acting neocolonialist.” (NYT 1/14/26).

•     Trump seems to feel that NATO should be the real estate agent helping him acquire Greenland.  “NATO should be leading the way for us to get” Greenland, Trump commented on the 14, the day of the meeting. (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     There is concern within NATO that if Trump were to invade Greenland, Russia might seize the opportunity to send forces into alliance territory (NYT, 1/14/26)

NOTES FROM THE NEWS (NYT 1/14/26)

•     Trump cuts $2 billion in federal funding for mental health and substance abuse.

•     Immigrant visa processing is to be halted for 75 countries.

Notes on the News: Georgia 2020 Election (Fausset, Richard and Danny Hakim, In Secret Testimony…” NYT, 1/13/26)

•     In 2023 Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, brought a case against Trump and 18 allies on election interference charges.  The case was dismissed in November.

•     Evidence was presented before a special grand jury which recommended indicting more than twice as many Trump allies as Willis eventually charted.

•     Quote from Lindsey Graham’s interview: “If you told him Martians came and stole votes, he’d be inclined to believe it.”

•     Ralston, the Georgia House Speaker received a phone call from Trump urging him to call a special session of the state legislature to overturn Georgia’s election results.

•     Kemp said that Trump had “urged him to convene a special legislative session, and to order an audit of ballot signatures.”  Kemp reportedly said in his interview of Trump:”I repeatedly told him…what the law was here.”

QUOTES OF THE DAY

•     Donald Trump: “My own mind.  It’s the only thing that can stop me.” (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     Jamelle Bouie: “Trump’s assertion of unlimited authority…is a total rejection of popular sovereignty and the logic of the Constitution.” (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     Jamelle Bouie: “Trump does not see himself as a constitutional officer.  His power, as he sees it, flows from his person – not the office and certainly ot the people, whose only role, in his view, is to legitimize his desires” (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     Jamelle Bouie: “The American public…is left not with a president but with a man who imagines himself master and behaves like a tyrant.” (NYT, 1/14/26).

•     Pipaluk Lynge, one of Greenland’s top officials: “We’re not going to sell our soul.  We’re not stupid.” (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     Donald Trump: We’re going to “do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.”  (NYT, 1/14/26).

•     Greenlander: “We’ve never heard anyone talk like that about another country before.” (NYT, 1/14/26)

•     “I think NATO is too important for the united States to throw it away.” (NYT, 1/14/26)

GOOD READS

Bouie, Jamelle (1/14/26) “This is Not how a Normal President Speaks.” New York Times.

Steele, Christopher (2023) “Unredacted: Russia, Trump, and the Battle for Democracy.”

Isikoff, Michael ()  “find Me the Votes.”