Links 1/13/2026

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1. .Tom January 13, 2026 at 7:25 am

   BREAKING: Trump Ordered the Military to Plan an Invasion of a NATO Ally

   The Generals Said No.

   The Mail on Sunday reports Donald Trump instructed the Joint Special Operations Command to prepare a detailed plan for invading Greenland.

   The Joint Chiefs of Staff are resisting.… https://t.co/RcaGJK9GAn pic.twitter.com/XNWczslEsc

   — Shanaka Anslem Perera

   Iiuc, JSOC is beyond the purview of the Pentagon and the joint chiefs of staff and has no congressional oversight. So Trump can get JSOC to do something the regular military resists.

   https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/03/the-reach-of-jsoc-the-presidents-private-army.html

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   1. Louis Fyne January 13, 2026 at 7:35 am

      JSOC, is not in the chain of command when it comes to operations.

      Greenland has 1/2 the population of Grenada (remember that?)

      funny how if the story fits a certain narrative, even the “Daily Mail” is deemed by people as a reliable source, lmao.

      If anything….the White House would be happy if generals disobeyed, easy way to fire/isolate peeps.

      be discerning of all stories.

      …..and, hypothetically, Greenland is a perfect place to send the 82nd Airborne/101st (with little or no planning, even less resistance than Grenada—and Grenada was a dumpster fire of an operation): seize the airport and water port, hold until the cavalry show up.

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   2. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 7:36 am

      I do not think it much of a stretch to say that Joint Special Operations Command and all the different special ops groups that they command are America’s Praetorian Guard. More so when you consider that it ‘is beyond the purview of the Pentagon and the joint chiefs of staff and has no congressional oversight.’ And that at about 70,000 troops, that is a huge force that does not have much supervision.

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   3. NN Cassandra January 13, 2026 at 9:09 am

      AFAIK with current treaties between Denmark and US, Trump has right to send whatever number of soldiers to Greenland it wants. So don’t call it invasion, just some routine forces redeployment to protect Greenlanders, and all is legal.

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2. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 7:30 am

   ‘Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡
   @shanaka86
   Russia supplied the hardware.
   China published the playbook.
   Iran just proved it works.
   Starlink: 80% packet loss.’

   It’s funny how right after the internet, some phone communications and here Starlink communications were cut, that all those protests started to die away. It’s like the hard core elements of those groups losing the ability to contact each other much less Tel Aviv and Washington collapsed all their plans. I read that the Mossad imported ISIS fighters and the like to do the heavy violence that we saw on TV and I can believe it. If I were them, I would be skedaddling back to the nearest border.

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   1. ilsm January 13, 2026 at 9:08 am

      The CIA/Mossad infiltrate-dens were hit in June 2025 after that attempted decapitation! Why try so soon?

      What is interesting: the disdain for the Shi’a, yeah they should have finished Israel and al Udeid in June, to think a tiny band of paid terrorists could topple a regime that has been targeted since 1979!

      Iran is not a banana republic where some ‘colonel’ can grab a radio station and say Trump “owns our oil”!

      The starlink story started in Donbas where RF watched and recorded signal intel.

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3. Adam1 January 13, 2026 at 7:51 am

   “Republican introduces bill seeking to make Greenland 51st state”

   I’m just guessing here, but I would suspect that Greenland would be a pretty blue state in electoral politics. Is that really what the Republican’s want or are they all just that dumb.

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   1. Pat January 13, 2026 at 8:35 am

      They are planning on all the migrant miners and oil workers from Texas and the Dakotas who are going to move there for the Trump jobs and make Greenland America Great oligarch support program overwhelming all the socialists who live in Greenland.

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      1. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 8:43 am

         Can’t wait to see those workers from Texas and the Dakotas get hit by their first Greenland winter. Do they know what they are signing up for?

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         1. chris January 13, 2026 at 9:07 am

            If they’re coming from the Dakotas, then yes, absolutely. If they’re coming from Texas, they’re hungry enough to survive whatever they have to in order to make money.

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         2. Pat January 13, 2026 at 9:08 am

            I think you may have underestimated how bleak the Dakotas can get pretty in the winter.

            But in truth I don’t know that what I believe the Republicans think is going to happen will happen. If the Oligarchs continue being stupid, and despite some oil companies have already shown they aren’t entirely delusional in Venezuela, those willing to take the gamble will probably not offer enough benefit to the workers to do it. They will only plan on only so much for infrastructure and labor and the overwhelming infrastructure costs will squeeze down the labor costs. And I don’t think illegal immigration is going to solve that in Greenland.

            IOW, as with so many of their failed plans this one will probably blow up in their face, but except for those who still think Iraq Greenland will welcome us with roses, cheers and open arms I really think this is how they believe those damn socialists will become a toothless minority.

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         3. ilsm January 13, 2026 at 9:12 am

            1974 to 976, I was posted in Alaska during the Alaska Prudhoe Bay pipeline boom.

            The Okies quickly learned how to work in 50F below! Dark most of the day until late February.

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   2. Kurtismayfield January 13, 2026 at 9:25 am

      Wait, doesn’t the territory need to apply for statehood? This is putting the cart before the horse here. Or are the “Struct Constitutionalists” playing fast and loose with it again?

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4. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 8:04 am

   ‘Peter FitzSimons
   @Peter_Fitz
   #Breaking. Adelaide Writers Festival has been cancelled for this year. And they apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented.’

   This is a story worth telling. The Adelaide Writers Festival is an annual gig that has international recognition. About a week ago the invitation to Palestinian-Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah was cancelled on the grounds her presence would pain Jewish people there because of what happened in the Bondi shooting last month. Turns out that Zionists were operating behind the scene to cancel a Palestinian voice and let’s just forget the fact that the Bondi shooters were ISIS maniacs and not Palestinians. At that decision, several members of the Board immediately resigned. And then the fecal matter hit the oscillatory rotary device. About 180 writers and guest speakers cancelled their appearances including ex-NZ PM Jacinda Ardern and economist Yanis Varoufakis at this injustice. With the whole thing sinking faster than the Titanic, they have now had to cancel the whole festival for this year and the whole board had to resign. Thanks Zionists. Trying to cancel a Palestinian voice has now blown up an international festival for writers and puts Jewish people in a bad light. No doubt during the upcoming Royal Commission, the Zionist will claim this as an example of antisemitism-

   https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/12/jacinda-ardern-pulls-out-of-adelaide-writers-week-as-fallout-over-randa-abdel-fattahs-axing-continues-ntwnfb

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   1. Huey January 13, 2026 at 8:10 am

      Damn Rev, you had me happy as a lark until that sober conclusion. Still glad to see the depth of the response was so big though.

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      1. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 8:19 am

         For that conclusion, I should have stuck a big /SARC tag after it. :)

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5. Huey January 13, 2026 at 8:07 am

   Good if the generals are resisting, I guess. Wake me up if they apply this to other illegal orders that have nothing to do with ‘allies’ like the NATO states.

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6. Abe Vigoda January 13, 2026 at 8:07 am

   RE Greenland: Looking back on Rob Reiner’s masterpiece, “North,” Elijah Wood is visiting prospective parents in Alaska when he discovers that they stick all the elderly on ice floes. I always thought this would be a fun thing to do to libertarians so they would no longer have society dragging down their greatness. Now it seems they are doing it to themselves!

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   1. vao January 13, 2026 at 9:16 am

      You could start with Ezekiel Emmanuel…

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7. AbbyM January 13, 2026 at 8:10 am

   The clown show with Powell is the kind of thing that gives me hope because they are so totally incompetent. No thousand year reich for these idiots. Powell will now stay for his full term as governor; SCOTUS won’t let Trump fire Cook; none of the other Biden appointees will even consider leaving during Trump’s term (not that they were); and they’ve basically made Hassett’s job impossible. Committee members all know he’s a total hack and are pissed by the way Powell and Cook have been treated. He will not be able to push through the big cuts Trump wants. The Fed chair has like dictatorial control over the inter-workings of the Fed, but for all policy decisions (Fed funds, IOR, discount rate) he only has one vote. They couldn’t have f-ed up more if they tried. I almost wonder if they f-ed up so much they won’t be able to get Hassett approved (that still might be a stretch though).

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8. Expat2uruguay January 13, 2026 at 8:15 am

   Does it feel dystopian to anyone else to have reporting of such incredibly frightening events here followed by three feel-good videos that are antidotes?

   Today I see the terrifying videos from Minnesota, but in the end I’m supposed to look at cute animal videos? It feels really weird to me, and has been bothering me for a while. Today just feels like too much.

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   1. flora January 13, 2026 at 8:22 am

      For me, the feel-good videos are a moment for me to catch my breath, breathe and then consider the bad news with some sense of balance. Sort of like Lambert’s bird songs in his afternoon postings. T will be pres for another 3+ years.

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   2. The Rev Kev January 13, 2026 at 8:24 am

      Not here. It can get really dark doom-scrolling because of recent events. I miss the days myself when I could watch the evening news without one mention of Donald Trump. But those short videos short-circuit the gloom and doom and remind us that life and all its antics still carry on. We only have to look for it.

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   3. nycTerrierist January 13, 2026 at 8:40 am

      understood. Also important to remember there’s beauty in the world, no?

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   4. Pat January 13, 2026 at 8:52 am

      For me it alleviates the dystopian doom that the news provides on a non-stop loop.

      In fact for my own sanity, there are days when those are the only things I check out. And no I am not missing much, in case you haven’t noticed it is only occasionally a new atrocity, it is most often more information or an expansion about the numerous almost endless continuing psychopathic actions I have no means of stopping or correcting. Just as I have no means of helping my friends and neighbors in their continuing battle for adequate healthcare for incurable advancing conditions that are a drain on insurance company profits in a society that has placed more value on the latter than the former. And that is just one example of things outside of the national and international sewer we live in that people must deal with on a regular basis that means they need a break even if it just five seconds of a new born lion cub with a tired mom, some reminder that everything hasn’t yet been destroyed.

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   5. AG January 13, 2026 at 9:00 am

      Yes these synchronies are odd.

      I had discussions over this with newspeople 20 years ago who were working for national radio.
      There was a show called “Jazz and Politics”. And it was just that: Gruesome political topics, although as decent analysis and not sensationalism, interrupted by Jazz numbers.

      But enough listeners seemed to tune in.

      Maybe it helps to think of the Shakespearean method of letting succeed scenes of fun upon scenes of murder and cruelty (Richard III. e.g.)

      As far as we can tell, the live audiences for whom these plays were created enjoyed it that way.

      For most of the history of popular movies this approach of “relief” has remained part of structuring stories, be it in US/European cinema, or in Asian traditions too.
      Even such “totalitarian” blockbusters as the Marvel fare are operating with this relief-trick.

      So maybe to be irritated as you are and yet have others who feel a desire for it is part of the, ahem, human condition.🙄

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   6. Nikkikat January 13, 2026 at 9:12 am

      Expat, those videos of the animals made me feel better! The news on here has been frightening and beyond bleak, to the point I have been thinking of quitting reading anything. I already am having trouble sleeping at night.

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9. .Tom January 13, 2026 at 8:15 am

   > Tech billionaires behind Greenland bid want to build ‘freedom cities’ Responsible Statecraft

   If that means their permanent exile to their freedom cities then I’m listening.

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10. flora January 13, 2026 at 8:28 am

    re: twt with embedded video of ICE agents.

    I’d be scared to death to go pheasant hunting with those yahoos. The way they’re all bunched up, waving their guns around this way and that. It looks like the guys in front are in some danger of getting accidentally shot by the guys behind them. No apparent awareness of safe long gun handling and barrel control. smh.

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11. upstater January 13, 2026 at 8:36 am

    Add this to Democrats en déshabillé:

    Newsom Vows to Stop Proposed Billionaire Tax in California NYT

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was working behind the scenes to block a proposed tax on billionaires’ wealth and was committed to defeating the measure if it reached the ballot.

    Gotta protect them donors, especially for future employment after spinning through the revolving door.

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12. Michael Fiorillo January 13, 2026 at 8:42 am

    I’m baffled by the lack of reference anywhere to Iran’s water crisis when discussing the ongoing political crises the Iranians are facing. Sure, it’s not quantifiable, and lacks the immediacy of Mossad ops to destabilize the country, but it’s got to be a major stressor and hard to feeding into the economic discontent which is said to have spurred the current round of protests. The government itself is saying that the capital city of ten million may have to be moved: that’s some serious s*^#…

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    1. NN Cassandra January 13, 2026 at 9:24 am

       There was/is finally some raining in Tehran, so for now the crisis is no longer acute. But I guess it will explode again in summer.

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13. Anon January 13, 2026 at 8:59 am

    The NYT article on the “Rural Congresswoman” Gluesenkamp Perez is interesting, packaging the “rural perspective” for NYT readers, but the presentation of Maine’s Jared Golden is extremely questionable. The article presents Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden as new iconoclastic representers of rural America… Golden, who recently said he was not going to run in the next election for District 2 here in Maine, is regarded as incredibly corrupt. He refuses to hold town halls, refuses to meet with his constituents, and generally seems to ignore his own voters altogether, while happily meeting with his wealthy donors. He takes an enormous amount of money from the Israel lobby (cf Aipac Tracker) and he and his family have taken multiple luxury trips to “the only Democracy in the Middle East.” I believe he’s gone a full term and a half without meeting with any of his voters, as someone from Arostook told me last summer. Frankly, I don’t understand how either Gluesenkamp Perez or Golden can justify raking in money from the Lobby while claiming to stand up for “real Americans.”

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14. chris January 13, 2026 at 9:12 am

    Interesting to see Europe move through their stages of grief with respect to Ukraine and Greenland. I’m sure there are better sources but Wikipedia suggests that the fighting numbers of the Bundeswehr are about 180k. There is currently about 50k US soldiers staffing Ramstein, not including civilian support. Germany doesn’t have the numbers to do anything. Neither does Denmark. I expect we’ll get to see the bargaining phase develop quickly.

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15. AG January 13, 2026 at 9:22 am

    re: Iran Marandi/Diesen

    Thanks for linking that. Listened to it last night.

    Indeed important.

    In the light of that DROPSITE´s news summary reads bit odd – (why should I care what Netanyahu says about all this?)

    “(…)
    Iran

    Death toll in Iran’s protests may be as high as 544: The death toll from Iran’s nationwide protest crackdown has risen to at least 544 people, including 496 protestors and 48 security force members, with more than 10,600 detained, according to the U.S.-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran, which warned the figures are likely to rise. The Associated Press said it cannot independently verify the toll with the internet shut down and phone lines cut off. Iranian state media reports at least 109 security officials have been killed but has released no comprehensive casualty figures.

    Unrest “under total control,” says Iranian foreign minister: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on Monday that the situation has “come under total control,” though the claim could not be verified with an internet and telecommunications blackout still in place. Araghchi made the comments to foreign diplomats in Tehran. He also claimed that western powers had turned peaceful protests “violent and bloody to give an excuse” for military intervention. President Donald Trump had previously suggested that the U.S. might intervene militarily if protestors in the country were killed. Iranian state TV broadcast footage on Monday of tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators after the country’s president called for a “national resistance march.” Araghchi said earlier today that internet services will be restored in coordination with security authorities.

    Iran’s army pledges to defend the country’s “national interests” amid protests: Iran’s army vowed on Saturday to defend the country’s “national interests,” with Iranian officials saying the protests are formally legal, while asserting that security forces are targeting arsonists and saboteurs rather than demonstrators. Authorities accused Israel and “hostile groups” of fueling the unrest, as security forces intensified the crackdown. Iran’s army warned in a statement that anyone suspected of arson could face capital charges as an “[enemy] of God.”

    President calls concerns of the protestors “legitimate,” but denounces “rioters and terrorists”: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the ongoing protests and said demonstrators have legitimate concerns in a statement on Sunday, while alleging that “rioters” and “terrorists” have killed security forces, emergency workers, and protestors. Iranian state media aired footage it claims shows attacks on police and acts of arson, including a deadly incident at a medical center. State television highlighted funerals held Monday—including that of a three-year-old girl in Kermanshah—while officials called for mass pro-government rallies Tuesday to condemn what they labeled “terrorism.”

    A “very bloody” state clampdown in Iran: Iranian expert and Quincy Institute Vice President Trita Parsi said evidence of a “very bloody” state clampdown in Iran is emerging from people who have connected to the internet via Starlink or left the country with videos, noting that even Iranian state television is now reporting from morgues showing large numbers of body bags. “Perhaps most importantly,” Parsi said, the state TV reporter acknowledged that, while some of the dead may have been violent or armed, “the majority of them are ordinary people, and their families are ordinary people as well.”

    Trump says Iran’s leaders have reached out to discuss a nuclear deal: President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One that Iran’s leaders have reached out to the U.S.to discuss arranging a meeting for a new “nuclear deal,” while warning Washington could act first amid Iran’s violent protest crackdown. The comments followed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s return to Tehran on January 9 for talks with Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi. Oman hosted indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that preceded the so-called “12-Day War.”

    Netanyahu is “closely monitoring” the situation: Netanyahu said Israel “strongly condemns the mass slaughter of innocent civilians” in Iran. He said he is “closely monitoring developments in Iran,” and added that he hopes that the “Persian nation will soon be freed.”
    (…)”

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