​This is going to be pretty short, because the concept is extremely basic and easy.
 
Trump says that he wants to own Greenland because it’s necessary for the security of the United States.
 
The United States has military bases in Greenland.  Its treaty with Greenland allows the U.S. to put even more bases in Greenland.
 
Greenland is a territory of Denmark, and Denmark is a member of NATO.
 
The United States is a member of NATO.
 
The treaty between all countries in NATO is that if one country is attacked, then that means all countries are attacked, and all NATO countries will defend the country that was attacked.
 
So, if Greenland is attacked by Russia, or China or any enemies, then all of NATO together will defend it.
 
Therefore, the United States security is fully protected in Greenland.
 
This is a pretty basic and easy concept.
 
Unless, apparently, you have dementia, which is degenerative.

Trump's unrelenting fixation with Greenland is an obsession unattached to reality (as noted above), and it's hard not to suspect that such a deeply obsessive focus is related at least in part to his dementia. While he's mentioned often in the past that he wants the U.S. to somehow take possession of Greenland (keeping in mind that expert psychologists were writing in Trump's first term that he showed signs of dementia), his low-key, easily dismissed  obsession has grown significantly worse in recent weeks, and seemingly now is almost out of control -- reaching the point where Danish and Greenland government officials just yesterday had to rush to Washington for an emergency meeting -- because dementia is degenerative.

I don’t think it will go anywhere, that it’s all neurotic bluster.  Buy Greenland??  How?  Estimates are that it could cost over $1 trillion. The current U.S. budget deficit is $1.8 trillion.  So, where is the money going to come from?  We could certainly just print it, but I suspect Denmark knows it could make more such money by just buying a few boxes of Monopoly.  The fake cash would be worth about the same.  Even more to the point:  Denmark has repeatedly, relentlessly said it is not selling Denmark.  That seems a near-certainty.

Send troops to attack Greenland?  One of our staunchest allies for 80 years?  Defended by the European NATO members?  And with probably negligible support in Congress?  (Not just for national security and defense of NATO reasons, but political ones, being able to read polls and seeing massive public opposition, and so knowing they'd risk losing re-election)  Attack Greenland?  I seriously doubt it. 

BUT – BUT – this is Trump, and I have no idea what he would try to do, even under those improbable conditions.  And even if it’s just dementia-filled bluster, the unhinged rhetoric is damaging bluster that undermines the U.S. credibility on the world stage.
 
I don’t expect MAGOPs in Congress to say anything right now, when it's all just Trump ranting – though a few have.  That might change, though, if it looks like Trump is trying to make military moves.  But in the immediacy, I do hope that as many Democrats as possible say bluntly that they will not stand for this to happen, and that it’s insane.  If I had to guess, they haven’t done so yet because they haven’t expected this to be serious – but still, even if that guess is right, they should do so, to shut it down as soon as they can.  Because every time Trump opens his mouth on Greenland and his dementia pours out, it hurts national credibility, most especially for the next time we want to oppose an ally being attacked.

And not just Taiwan or Ukraine.

Buy Greenland??  Attack Greenland??

You might wonder why.  But why wonder, why wonder -- it's Greenland.  And it'll do fine.  It's beautiful.  And it's where it wants to be.  

​ 
There is an ongoing story the past week that I think is absolutely stupid.  And while the main part of the story is being covered by the news media, the absolutely stupid part pretty much isn’t. 
 
It’s hard to express just stunning to me how overwhelmingly stupid I think it is.  Actually, it’s really more "hypocrisy" that stupid – but it takes hypocrisy to such a deep level that transcends hypocrisy by so much that it’s morphed from mere, unearthly hypocrisy into sheer, utter, almost-incomprehensible stupidity.
 
What I'm referring to is Trump encouraging protestors in Iran to keep protesting against their government.
 
But it's much more insane than that.  And "that" is pretty full-fledged crazy.  However, it's not only that he has encouraged protestors in Iran and is still encouraging them, but that Trump is ratcheting up his encouragement, and doing it while his ICE agents are brutalizing the residents of Minneapolis and one agent even shot a woman, Renee Good, to death -- for not even protesting at all, but sitting in her car, telling the agent, “Dude, I'm not mad at you," and trying to drive away is all the more what makes this story so deeply hypocritical that it’s turned into monumental stupidity.
 
And the news media is pretty much only reporting Trump’s encouragement to the protestors.  The Iran protestors, that is.  Just to be clear.  Not the protestors in the U.S.  And if any news reports do mention the hypocrisy, it's only been in passing, and not putting it into full context -- which is the whole point -- to shows how profoundly stupid and unaware this is from Trump.  And "this" is not just his support of Iranian protestors, but his brutal, even fatal attacks on Americans, including those not even protesting.

Here is Trump's most recent statement yesterday on his social media site.  The Onion ​couldn't write more ludicrous satire than this.

Trump is the guy who, in his first term, wanted the military to “crack skulls” and “beat the fuck out” of protesters in Washington, D.C., who were marching against police brutality, and then adding "Just shoot them."  Before his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley explained that, no, you can't do that.

And the same guy who in this term insisted that the largely peaceful protestors in Portland were supposedly burning all the stores down and that the city was supposedly in flames -- despite reality being otherwise -- and therefore sent in the National Guard over the governor's wishes, in order to quash the protesting.

And here is Trump now telling Iranians to not only "KEEP PROTESTING"...but telling them that they should "TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!"

And not only that, saying that a list should be kept of all those in the government who are "killers" (!!) and abusers, who will "pay a big price."  It's almost as if the man had dementia and was totally unaware of what was going on around him, completely unaware of the killing and abuses that his own ICE and Border Patrol agents were doing to protestors.

And this guy who campaign on staying out of other countries, and avoiding national building and America First suggests he will be willing to sent the military into Iran!!  To assist protestors against the government!!!

This is just massively nuts, a pure lack of self-awareness, so clueless that it's beyond mere hypocrisy and...and...and you can't help by follow this and not think, "Man, this is just the absolute stupidest thing."

If it's any consolation to Trump, he should know that Democrats are pretty much following at least one of his admonitions -- and are keeping a list of the "killers and abusers" so that they "will pay a big price" when Democrats get back in control of at least the House of Representatives after the Mid-Terms.

Happily, the late night comedians all addressed this.  So, now if the news media could point out the mind-numbing hypocrisy and overwhelmingly stupidity of this, rather than just report it as support of Iran protestors and a bizarre, dangerous hint of a military attack, that would be cool, too!!

If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show, his Main Story was on -- not shockingly -- Trump's monumentally horrible weekend, basically covering the ICE shooting death of Renee Good, the attack on Venezuela, his plans for future attacks on Greenland, meandering aimlessly around during a public meeting, attempting to sue the Fed Chairman, and much more.  It's a furiously angry and wonderfully funny report.

​I swear, yes, this is true.

And in response --
​

​P.S.  As someone else responded on Twitter -- "Did we win?"

And another person replied -- "You can say Merry Protein again."

And by the way, was the White House not able to find a better picture of Robert Kennedy, Junior?  (At least, I assume that's Robert Kennedy, Junior.)

Not that I want to write a third-in-a-row article about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis, but it's a galling story that won't go away.  And in some way gets worse, as MAGOPs are twisting themselves in Gordian knots to defend the indefensible, to defend shooting someone because the police wanted to. 

Just the other day, VP "JD Vance" posted a video that he insisted proved murdering Renee Good was justified -- which is a ghoulish concept from anyone, but most especially from the U.S. vice president -- yet worse, the video showed that everything he was saying was wrong!  In clear, easy-to-see video.  Footage that, if this video was ever shown in court, would likely get the ICE agent sentenced to prison.  And MAGA supporters keep insisting that being an "activist" (never mind that there's no evidence that Renee Good was an "activist, and even if she was, being an "activist" is not actually a crime...let alone even wrong!) made murder justifiable.

But rather than write another long article, I thought I'd turn today's column over to three short videos from eminent speakers, and let them make compelling statements.

The first if from Tim Miller of The Bulwark, and a regular expert analyst on MS NOW, who breaks down that video from "JD Vance," and shreds it with video reality.

Next we have Jon Favreau, former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama and co-host of Pod Save America, who in one minute explains why no one, even ICE agents, get to shoot someone they think is against them.
​

And finally, we have Jason Kander, the former Secretary of State of Missouri, who I've written about periodically here, him being the nephew of my friend John Kander (who is not the Broadway composer of Cabaret and Chicago, but his nephew).  He reads a response from a friend of his, a police officer, about his reaction to the shooting, from the perspective of a person experience that was significantly worse.  It's a damning story.