[ExI] My prediction

[Darin Sunley]

Trump has probably above average IQ ( a clinical moron can't run a real
estate company for decades, even poorly) modulo recent probable mild
age-related declines.

But he's the wrong guy to be looking at. He has surrounded himself with
people significantly smarter than himself. Vance is not stupid. Rubio is
not stupid. Hohman is not stupid. Miller is /especially/ not stupid.
Hegseth might be about (merely) average (you can't have articulate opinions
about US military policy - even wrong ones - if you're actually "stupid")
but his immediate advisers are not.

"Trump is stupid/mad" is brainstop - a meme specifically exploited by the
Administration to prevent its opponents from being able to model - and
thereby oppose it - effectively.

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026, 5:20 AM John Clark via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 9:35 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>
> *> Greenland would have some advantages if a deal can be worked out with
>> Denmark.  If US money could flow in there,*
>>
>
> *Huh? There is already a deal! If a US company wants to invest in some
> project in Greenland they are perfectly free to do so, and both Denmark and
> Greenland would be delighted if they did. And if the US military wants to
> establish more military bases in Greenland they are perfectly free to do
> that too with no objection from NATO ally Denmark. There is absolutely no
> need for the US to rule Greenland! The people of Denmark don't want that
> and neither do the people who live in Greenland. *
>
> *> it would be a great place to set up data centers. *
>>
>
> *Iceland might be a good place to set up data centers because electricity
> is cheap thanks to geothermal power that is available there, that's why
> several bitcoin mining factories are already there. But Greenland would be
> a lousy place for a data center because unlike Iceland it has no geothermal
> energy so electricity is very expensive in Greenland, and there are very
> few high-capacity optical communication lines to that country. But if some
> company wants to build a data center in Greenland anyway there's nothing
> stopping them, they can start building one today. However nobody is doing
> so because they aren't crazy.  I can't say the same thing about the current
> President of the United States.*
>
> *Spike, if Joe Biden had won the 2024 election and his Alzheimer's disease
> had gotten much MUCH worse and he started threatening military force unless
> loyal NATO ally Denmark gave Greenland to the US, would you still be
> defending such a bazaar ultimatum with vigor? I have my doubts. *
>
>
>> *>  **I don’t know if that whole thing is an intentional distraction,
>> like the Alcatraz business.  What I heard but don’t know if it is true: a
>> suggestion to reopen Alcatraz as a prison was an intentional distraction
>> used to test AI: protest groups sent mail to the White House, responses
>> were generated by AI, printed and mailed, with little or no human oversight
>> or intervention.  There was never any real intention of reopening Alcatraz
>> as a prison.  Sounds plausible I suppose. *
>>
>
> *Good heavens! With all your years of experience with finding excuses for
> Mr. I Lowered Drug Prices by 1600 Percent, I would've thought you could do
> better than that. Convoluted explanations using dubious logic is not
> necessary, I postulate that the reason the man seems to be stupid is quite
> simple, he really is stupid.*
>
>
> *John K Clark*
>
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