Jørn Kyle Finnesand

Welcome to Norway, Prime Minister @narendramodi 🇳🇴🇮🇳 It marks a historic moment: the first visit by India's Prime Minister in over 40 years. I look forward to how Norway, the Nordics & India can strengthen cooperation on trade, green transition and our common global challenges.

Jeg har landet i Oslo i Norge. Jeg er takknemlig for den varme velkomsten fra statsminister Jonas Gahr Støre på flyplassen. Dette er det første besøket av en indisk statsminister til Norge på over 40 år. Jeg er sikker på at besøket vil styrke vennskapet mellom India og Norge. Jeg skal møte Deres Majesteter Kong Harald V og Dronning Sonja, og ha samtaler med statsminister Støre. I morgen, den 19., skal det tredje India-Nordic-toppmøtet holdes i Oslo. Det blir en god mulighet til å møte mine nordiske kolleger. @jonasgahrstore

Having foreign troops deployed along the contact line would make it very dangerous for Russia to begin a new war. They are afraid of supporting forces, bases, and international representatives. If we don’t have this presence, no words will stop Putin. And if we truly want to stop him, I am not sure that powerful countries can be mediators. If you are mediating, he doesn't feel guilt. This is a big problem. I'm not forcing anybody to pick sides. But the thing is, if we want to end the war, we have to tell Putin he is not right. I am not sure that dialogues built on compromise work. I think that President Trump, President Xi, Prime Minister Modi, and other big players in the world have to tell Putin he has to stop this war. They can't tell Ukraine “You have to stop the war”. We are defending. We are not aggressors. To stop what? All together, we must stop Putin. What does it mean to be a great leader? It means stopping the war through diplomacy. From an interview with CNN (2/3).

As always, a good and productive meeting with Prime Minister of Norway @jonasgahrstore. We discussed in detail our cooperation in the production and use of drones. Our experience is already being used in the Middle East and the Gulf. We are improving defense against “shahed” drones, and we believe this should also be done in Europe. Today, for this purpose, we initiated a Drone Deal with Norway and signed a Joint Declaration on Enhanced Defense and Security Cooperation. Now our teams will work out the details. We also focused on our joint production projects and cooperation priorities for this year, and not only in defense. We continue to work together with partners to strengthen our countries. I personally thank Jonas, Norway, and all Norwegians for their military and energy support for Ukraine, for strengthening our air defense, and for their readiness to continue support for the PURL initiative. We feel your support and are sincerely grateful for it.

Når pumpeprisen stiger, så stiger også momsinntektene til staten. Når prisen er over 29 kroner per liter så bør til og med en rød regjering vurdere å kutte avgiftene på drivstoffet. It's too much.

Statement by President George W. Bush on Robert Mueller: "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law. In 2001, only one week into the job as the 6th Director of the F.B.I., Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family."

NOW THAT I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AM OFFICIALLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (THANK YOU DONALD!), I HAVE MANY BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS TO MAKE! FIRST, EVERY TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER IS NULL AND VOID, STEPHEN MILLER AND EVERY TRUMP GOON IS FIRED, AND THE TRUMP CORRUPTION PROBE IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED! HEALTH CARE IS NOW FREE FOR ALL AMERICANS (NO MEASLES!) AND ALL MOMS GET FREE CHILDCARE SO WE CAN HAVE MORE BABIES!!! ALSO CANNABIS IS NOW LEGAL AND ABORTION IS BACK FOR WOMEN WHO WANT IT. I WILL SOON BE BANNING ALL TICKETMASTER FEES AND THERE WILL BE NO MORE COMMERCIALS ALLOWED DURING NBA AND NFL GAMES, AS WELL AS ALL BRAVO “REAL HOUSEWIVES” SHOWS (LONGER EPISODES!). EVERY AMERICAN FAMILY NOW GETS A “TARIFF AND GAS SPIKE REFUND” TO BUY A CHEAP ELECTRIC CAR! THE COUNTRY IS NOW RUN BY SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY COMPLETE A SENTENCE. AMERICA IS NOW “HOT” BECAUSE YOU HAVE A DYSLEXIC PRESIDENT INSTEAD OF A BRAIN-DEAD ONE. BIG UPGRADE!!! — GOVERNOR GCN

Just unpacking it here. Ukraine is helping us with Iranian drones, resulting from the war we launched against Iran. And we're easing sanctions on Russia because of the oil market fallout from the war we launched against Iran. And Russia is helping Iran with medical aid and intel, in the war we launched against Iran. And Trump is frustrated with Ukraine because it's still at war with Russia.

Mike Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, has sparked a serious international diplomatic incident with his comments on Tucker Carlson’s show. In a joint statement, the following countries, along with several regional and intergovernmental organizations, formally condemned his remarks. Jordan United Arab Emirates Indonesia Pakistan Bahrain Türkiye Saudi Arabia Syria Oman Palestine Qatar Kuwait Lebanon Egypt Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - A 57-member intergovernmental body representing Muslim-majority countries. League of Arab States (LAS) - regional organization of 22 Arab countries. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.

Hører på NRK at det foreslås høyere boligskatt for å..... Øke fødselstallene? Jaja, for en hammer er hvert et problem en spiker, og for sosialistene krever hvert et problem en skatteøkning.

@erlendwiborg Meget spesiell sak. Stortingsrepresentantene skal kunne etterforskes for eventuelle kriminelle handlinger utført i utlandet, men dette ser mer ut som plaging fra Tyrkia sin side. Om noe så er det vel Riksadvokaten som bør kritiseres for å rådgi politiet feil her.

Det at en norsk politiker blir innkalt til avhør hos Politiet for sine ytringer på anmodning fra tyrkiske myndigheter er uakseptabelt og farlig vg.no/nyheter/i/V6R0…

“We need Greenland for national security” “We need Greenland for natural resources” “Greenland is in our backyard” “The people of Greenland aren’t governed well” Now replace “Greenland” with “Crimea” and you have Kremlin talking points about Ukraine. This is a problem.

Maduro’s capture illustrates what I believe is one of the biggest problems in politics: people frequently treat principles as costumes—worn when convenient, discarded when costly. Over nearly two decades working in and around politics, I’ve watched the same pattern play out again and again—and today’s events in Venezuela put it on display in neon. The US military carried out strikes in Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, flying them to New York in what the administration is framing as a kind of “law enforcement” operation.  Look, there are plenty of people who never even pretend to have a core set of principles they cling to. They’re utilitarians and technocrats—ruled by polling, vibes, ambition, and career incentives. Fine. At least they’re honest about being wind vanes. But most people do claim to stand for a consistent set of ideas—constitutional restraint, limited government, “America First,” non-intervention, rule of law, due process, sovereignty, you name it. The problem is that they’re often inconsistent, especially when the outcome is emotionally satisfying. Today proved that again. People who claim to champion the Constitution suddenly ignore its restraints on executive power and, when pressed, point to court precedent, congressional statutes, and past presidential deviations as if those things are the Constitution. “But… the Barbary pirates!” “But George H.W. Bush removed Noriega in Panama!” “But the courts said XYZ!” “But Congress passed some statute in 199-whatever!” So I’ve asked a simple question, repeatedly, across social media threads today: Where, exactly, is the constitutional provision authorizing the president to invade another country and depose its leader? The replies come back empty, no constitutional provision cited. They can't, because it doesn't exist. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. No "targeted strikes" or anything of the like are separately authorized for the president to execute at his whim. That’s the whole point of written limits: the text is supposed to bind you. Instead, we get arguments that past presidents did it, and some lawyers said it was okay. This is tantamount to saying “Billy did it, so I thought it was okay for me to do it.” That’s playground logic, not constitutional rigor. And that’s my point: there is no rigor. There’s only precedent—meaning, prior lawlessness used to justify the next round of lawlessness. The administration itself appears to be leaning on the idea that indictments and “national interests” somehow transform regime change into a lawful “arrest mission.” Trump was elected in part because people were exhausted by foreign meddling. He was praised (by some of these same voices!) for resisting the interventionist itch. And now he’s kicking up dirt in Venezuela. “But Venezuelans are happy!” the commenters have repeatedly said. “They’re in the streets celebrating!” Yes. Sometimes they are. That’s not a serious argument. That’s the-ends-justify-the-means dressed up as compassion—again, playground-level reasoning. Guess what: Iraqis filled the streets when Saddam was deposed. “Baghdad Celebrates Saddam’s Fall,” read a headline in Voice of America, for an article describing dancing and cheering as thousands poured into the streets.  Then Iraq spiraled into insurgency, sectarian civil war, mass death, displacement, and the conditions that helped give rise to ISIS. Libyans filled the streets when Gaddafi fell. So then we got an article titled “Libyans celebrate Gaddafi’s death” in Al Jazeera, describing jubilant crowds and the “end of tyranny.”  Then Libya fractured into militias and rival governments, becoming a prolonged civil conflict and a humanitarian disaster. I could go on. You get the pattern. Here’s the deeper point that people keep refusing to learn: if your principles only apply when they’re easy, you don’t have principles… you have preferences. And preferences make terrible guardrails for state power. Every time you cheer an exception, you’re not just celebrating a moment… you’re authoring a precedent. You're excusing the next guy, in any political party, and for any reason, to do it too. If you’re applauding unilateral regime change today because the target is a villain, you’re also applauding unilateral regime change tomorrow when the target is someone you don’t want touched. Power doesn’t care about your intentions (or your preferences). It cares about the permission slip we seemingly always give it. To be clear: Maduro is no hero. He’s a tyrant who has presided over ruin and repression. But the question isn’t whether Maduro is bad (he obviously is). The question is whether we are governed by law or by appetite. Because “he’s bad” is not a constitutional argument, nor is "Venezuelans are happy and freer." It’s the (fake) argument every president uses when he wants to do something he has already decided to do. And this is why presidents since Washington have gotten away with exceeding constitutional limits: because the public trains them to. They learn that violating restraints can spark national pride, satisfy a thirst for vengeance, and earn adoration from people who swear they oppose unchecked power—right up until it produces an outcome they like. You want a country of laws? Then act like law matters when it’s inconvenient. Stop treating the Constitution as a decoration. Stop citing precedent as if it were permission. Stop excusing today’s overreach because you hate today’s target. Because the bill always comes due, and the payment is usually made by people who never voted for the war, never authorized the mission, and never wanted their country turned into the kind of thing it once claimed to oppose. So yes, we can answer James Madison’s question: “Will it be sufficient… to trust to these parchment barriers (i.e., the Constitution) against the encroaching spirit of power?” Obviously not. Parchment only restrains power when the people treat it as a leash—not a suggestion. When half the country cheers the leash getting snapped because their guy did it to their enemy, the paper might as well not exist. And that's the cycle we've long been in. Yes, Venezuela may be a little freer, for now. But listen to the triumphalism in Trump's announcement. In the same breath as announcing Maduro’s capture, he talked about sending in “our very large United States oil companies,” and about the U.S. “running” Venezuela's government “until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” This is the raw material of unintended consequences: blowback, corruption, and the kind of protracted entanglement that turns “just this once” into the next twenty years. Count me out. I've seen this story before, and I don't like how it ends.

2000: Saddam Hussein announces Iraq will sell oil in euros instead of dollars. 2001: Israel creates false flag attack on U.S. soil, Netanyahu comes to Congress and convinces U.S. to attack 7 middle eastern countries 2003: Iraq is invaded and oil immediately switched back to dollars. Saddam is lynched. 2009: Gaddafi proposes a gold-backed African currency called the "gold dinar" for oil trade. 2011: NATO bombs Libya. Gaddafi sodomized and murdered. Libya now has open slave markets. 2018: Maduro starts selling oil in yuan, euros, and other currencies (not USD) - Venezuela has 5x more oil than Saddam and Gaddafi combined 2026: Maduro and his wife are kidnapped and taken hostage - Venezuelan opposition leader announces immediate ties with Israel

Look, I know in this age of Trump the fundamental concepts of right and wrong no longer matter, the law no longer matters, the truth no longer matters, and here at home our Constitution no longer matters. So I’m probably just shouting into the wind, but…it doesn’t matter what you think of Maduro, what we just did in Venezuela is immoral, unconstitutional, and illegal. And it makes us no different than any other dictatorial regime that invades another sovereign nation.

Meanwhile, a senior international affairs columnist at the Financial Times wonders: "And if China conducts a special operation to capture the president of Taiwan, or Russia tries to do the same with Zelensky, what will we say? Is that not allowed? Is it illegal?" That's right, a precedent has been set. For Russia and China, any action is justified.

WARNING: LONG THREAD 🧵 Dear Americans, Your political and media class has sold you a very convenient fairy tale for decades - the tale of how your tax dollars pay to defend freeloading Europe. While it's an emotionally satisfying narrative, it's also wrong. THE U.S. DOES NOT SUBSIDIZE EUROPEAN DEFENCE. You are not running a charity, you are running an empire. And empires are costly. Your forward deployments, your bases, your carrier groups, etc. - they are the pillars of a global security architecture that mainly serves you: to protect your trade routes, your currency, your corporate supply chains, your ability to project force anywhere on the planet in hours and days, not months. Let’s walk through this like adults, and not emotional toddlers, shall we?

Det burde være enkelt å være enig i dette.

Noen sosialister vil aldri forstå hvorfor folk flytter. Det handler om å gjøre selskapene de eier konkurransedyktige. For å betale formuesskatt må pengene hentes fra et sted - som regel gjennom utbytte fra selskapet de eier. Da betaler man først 22% skatt på overskudd - dernest betaler man 37,8% skatt på utbytte til alle aksjonærer, til slutt betaler man formuesskatt på alle eiendeler og formue selskapene har. Dette tapper selskapene for likvid kapital som kunne vært reinvestert. Utenlandske eiere slipper. Det gir dem et konkurransemessig fortrinn. Vanskeligere er det ikke.

Jeg kan oversette: Regjeringen vil ikke gjøre noenting, skal ikke gjøre noenting og våger ikke gjøre noenting.