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You should see the carnage in crypto today
I fully expect Trump U-turns now that he 💩 the bed for his fanboys
It's interesting to note that French president Macron suggested in Washington today that a Ukraine truce could be just weeks away - Like him or loath him but thanks to Trump, Europe are for the first time talking about peace talks / cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. If Biden was still in power the words peace, truce etc would not be mentioned or considered - just more and more billions of Us $ being pumped into a pointless war that is just a stalemate with thousands of young men on all sides being sent to an early grave. (Ditto Gaza)
But it goes without saying that Ukraine will pay a high price for peace as they are currently paying for war, as the US is no longer supporting them militarily or otherwise they are in a no win situation. Their country may end up 20% smaller in size, their hope of becoming a full member of NATO is dashed. Trump is after their natural riches in oil, gas and especially their rare but precious minerals …………an he's not alone there. It could be argued that the world's super powers are dividing up the spoils of war between them - this may not end well as the Ukrainians are a proud and fearless people so a long drawn out gorilla war along the new drawn eastern border may be on the cards even if a UN peace keeping force is on the ground there.
Zelenskyy is, for the first time since the invasion, on a sticky wicket. If he agrees and signs unfavorable peace terms as dictated by Trump & co. he'll be a dead man walking politically speaking. On the other hand if he refuses to make peace and commits his people to years and years of an unwinnable war ………… his future looks bleak indeed.
As an aside but related to above Professor Jeffrey Sachs addressed the European Parliament just last week, I'm unable to provide a link here but it's available on you tube. His perspective on the Ukrainian war, on NATO's expansionism in eastern Eurpoe etc. is to say the least very interesting indeed and worth listening to.
I think it's more like that an American Faction seeks NATO support in a civil war than it is that the US withdraws from NATO.
From a purely hard nosed pragmatic view, it's insane that the oligarchs and corporatists are happy to allow Trump to destroy the mechanisms that ensure American supremacy. Even in the wildest Yarvin induced psychosis, America needs to remain the preeminent power in the Western world. Creating a situation that pushes Europe to wake from its post WW2 slumber to challenge American hard power and the Petro Dollar is so crazily self destructive.
The not yet 51st state getting it in the n*ts again from there neighbours downstairs. As one Canadian politician ( I think ) said .. Living in Canada at the mo is like living upstairs over a meth lab
The US specifically requested that Europe not re-arm in the wake of WW2, to avoid any escalation in the region again and to allow the US to focus on the growing threat of communism.
Over the years the question about Europes defences had come up but there was usually something else more pressing that would require cooperation - 9/11, 2008 crash etc. I think Obama was the first one to think about getting Europe defending itself as he really wanted to focus on China but various other items took precedence.
What Europe were not doing was sitting back and taking the Americans for a ride, and the idea that the US was happy to be taken advantage of is fanciful in the extreme.
NASDAQ is continuing its downtrend today. Here's the last 5 days -
Repeating it doesn't make it any more true.
Have you the faintest idea how many US bases there are in Europe? No one asked the US for them, they were built mostly during the cold war when the US very much wanted them as they amplified and extended their force projection to counter the Orcs.
These are just 2 of the US airbases in the UK - look at those antennae. They operate such facilities world wide, not because The UK has a hobby of collecting antenna but because the US needs them to make their global intelligence and comms apparatus work. The Globalhawks, MQ170 and MQ180 drones stay aloft for days and do surveillance almost anywhere - probably delete the 'almost' in the case of those last two. They are completely reliant on satellite communications and those satellites need secure ground stations in friendly, politically stable countries. A lot of US expenditure has basically been to buy the stability they need.
No one asked the US to be 'leader of the free world' they appointed themselves to the role and made sure they kept it for decades by being top dog in military spending and alliances. They made damn sure to fight tooth and nail to prevent nuclear proliferation, with we-got-your-back you don't need it arguments based on their unassailable military strength.
Your re-playing of Krasnov's mournful tune is completely ignoring history and the reality of things. Sure, in more recent years the US has had a growing deficit problem, largely because they keep electing stupid Republican presidents who run up massive debts, and they have started a bit of a whinge about European spending, but in no way have they any right to play the poor injured victim card. That belongs to all those the US keeps asking favours of and betraying, like the Kurds, Afghans, Palestinians and Ukrainians.
The US are backstabbing shits and hearing their pathetic little bleats about how much they spend screwing others over in their various schemes - remember WMD's? and the big oil grab? - hurts my ears.
I am all in favour of countries upping their defence spending it's in and of itself a very good idea and will better allow countries to say no to the US in the future and tell them to go do rude things, but not because those US arseholes are crying poor-mouth.
100% agree its overdue for European countries to step up, Ireland included, our "neutrality" is a naivety in today's world.
For all that, the Americans getting into bed with the Russians and North Koreans and Belarus's of the world is abhorrent also.
There seems to be a good few republicans, some noted on this thread already, vocally opposing any alliance shift that favours Russia.
If it does - The cult* party are in majority there too.
*I may have misspelled 🤭
Dictator for a day doesn’t need checks and balances
Unrelated Germans think Ukraine now has artillery parity with Russia
1:1.6 ratio but Ukrainian hits much more precise
Wouldn't a withdrawal from NATO require a vote by both houses though?
Like the other poster said, it is MAGA and how they do things.
American foreign policy has been the same for decades. Through Republican and Democrat presidents. Now the world has only had months (or weeks) to adjust to dramatically different and unpredictable policy.
And often only days or hours to react to a sudden shift.
Dictators were bad, now they are good. Allies are now enemies. Or not. Depends which day it is. Canada/Greenland/Panama are places to be annexed.
And the hastily arranged script is "well they should have been prepared"
For what exactly, the whims of a populist?
It can take years to facilitate national change and adjust, did previous US presidents take that into account? Of course.
Does Trump? No.
Maybe he'll leave NATO tomorrow, maybe he'll stay in 4 years. No one knows. But we can't magically alter to entire structure of NATO overnight to cater to his whims of someone who might say yes or might say no at a moments notice.
Europe does need to improve it's defense, it needs to do many things - but it also now has the added challenge of trying to handle a highly erratic circus of a schizophrenic WH that not even it's supporters can predict.
The EU is actually trolling President Krasnov. They are proposing their own rare earth minerals deal that's far more beneficial to Ukraine.
Z: 'Sorry agent Krasnov, someone offered us a much better deal.'
Australia should make an offer, South Korea, Japan - it would be much needed humour in these dark times.
It's absolutely true.
Now we see the panic on a continent that has been reckless with it's own defence and has no serious arguments to make.
I'm happy to see defence budgets will increase significantly in the coming years and America will no longer be taken advantage of.
This is in Europe's interests. America has bigger fish to fry in the Asia Pacific.
It doesn't mean America will abandon Europe. It means protection will be more fairly balanced in the future.
Revisionist BS.
Nope. It is MAGA.
For the umpteenth time, the USA designed the postwar world with itself firmly installed as global hegemon. It's not the fault of Europeans that Americans have handed their country over to plutocrats and oligarchs.
It's funny how MAGA-types never ever ever criticise either US corporations, the plutocrats or the disgusting subsidies that the federal government hands them year after year while said government ensures that the merest crumbs are handed to the American taxpayer.
You've unintentionally stumbled across the issue and you are wrong to say it's just MAGA.
Europe has lived off a peace dividend provided by the largesse of American defence since the end of the Cold War. Europe did not invest in it's own defence. We slashed defence budgets under the false assumption a country separated by two vast oceans would forever care enough to keep footing that bill.
American taxpayers are 100% in the right here. Europe has taken advantage.
You might not like the messenger. That does not mean the message is wrong.
European countries have to step up and take their own security responsibilities more seriously.
Agent Kraznov, I presume.
"Here is Europe. We have happily paid three times as much to Ukraine as the USA. We are not asking for anything in return and we are not extorting the Ukrainians while they are fighting for their lives. Because we are not assholes." - Rasmus Jarlov, Chairman of Denmark's Defence Committee.
A delightful slap in the face for the US.
Do you seriously think that the country that quite happily stomachs the killing of school children year-in-year-out (for the sake of the right to bear arms) would be the least bit bothered by the deaths of a few foreigners?
He'll likely gravitate a lot more towards Putin who will eagerly open all sorts of business opportunities to him - all drenched in corruption and Kompromat of course
Unacceptable? Everything russia has done to Ukraine could be considered unacceptable
Peskov reiterates comments made by Russian officials for months now that Nato peacekeepers are unacceptable. Pointless talking about peacekeepers when those seeking peace are months away from peace.
I'm not sure he'll be alive in 5yrs. He's pissing off an awful lot of people and it only takes one in a country full of guns to tip over the edge. Probably a betrayed MAGA head.
Musk is an interesting one, books will be written about how the MAGA mind virus took down one of the richest persons in world
He is playing with fire and he is too stupid to see it, he will either cut something critical which will cause an epic backlash from US public or/and Trump would get jealous that he is stealing spotlight from him (no one does that to Trump) and fires him
Where does that leave him? Tesla is now hated and being destroyed by China, X is a shrinking ever more toxic money pit, other tech giants are miles ahead of him in AI and robotics
That leaves SpaceX which either:
there’s a chilling third option where Trump goes full metal Putin and dismantles the US republic and Musk remains as the Prime Oligarch, tho that didn’t end well for Russian oligarchs either
There is no scenario where in 5 years Musk is better off, none, he’s fucked
Well maybe they think that Trump is on a mission from God, but he's leading them straight to hell..The internet is full of American's saying that , "Sure he was saying all these thing's, but we never thought thats what he actually meant..or it wouldn't affect them". By the time the mid-terms come round, no one can say that they didn't know what Trump is doing.
Good news but how many troops would that even be. A half a dozen maybe a dozen carried by that vehicle?
This is a critically important thing to be aware of. It's one thing for the average joe in America to get the their taxes raised and get screwed out of some money, Trump was always going to do that, but now he's going to start impacting bigger players. The likes of the tech bros are going to start realizing soon (minus Musk who seems to have gone completely in on supplying the US everything) that he's screwing them as well as the little guys. If other countries find the US hard to deal with, they will pull away. It's no surprise companies will want to appear more European with the recent surge they've had in the markets.
