True Venezuela

[Bereta_Eder]

i was just casually scrollign the chanels and fell on the the bbc, it had some speech by that corporate fascist that won the nobel price because she prefers to have children die of hunger than deprive american and venezuelan big corporate capiliasts of 1 cent of a petrodollar.

it was an experience

[Bereta_Eder]

also it is a golden opportunity for china to flood the country with military equipment through russia but of course they are eastern comfucian lethargic buddhas not the agrressive expansive european midnset

[Provost Harrison]

also it is a golden opportunity for china to flood the country with military equipment through russia but of course they are eastern comfucian lethargic buddhas not the agrressive expansive european midnset

Still, flooding with air defence systems is not an aggressive act. Fingers crossed eh?

[Dauphin]

Trump’s world view appears to be:

Let China have Asia/Africa.
Let Russia have Europe.
Let US have the Americas

To wit, if talks of war between European NATO countries and Russia are to be believed, he’ll be selling weapons, materials etc to Russia under that doctrine.

Ditto to China when it invades Taiwan. Already laying scene setters to say U.S. would lose a war to China over Taiwan, so we won’t do anything. Plus, stating that Taiwan owes him bigly on racketeering, I mean ‘insurance’ monies.

[Bereta_Eder]

I think it has become common knowledge both in the public and the elites that the EU is faced against three enemies that want its desctruction. US, Russia and China, with the most benign and easy to get on its side being China

While the US is basically shooting itself in the foot here it can redeem herself with a new leadership. And it is very weak to stand alone in this world. all the power it has its because noone cares enough to do anything and because it has allies because they think they can count on it.

Russia is a problem for the baltics and poland and that's as far as that country goes. We all know it. It's like it calls dips like it thinks they belong to it. it doesn't think italy or germany do, for example.

China poses zero threat to europe.

All this leads to the strengthening of the idea of the EU in the mind of the peoples. (that includes baltics and poland)

however it is not like the EU is a uniform enity of democracy and the health insurances and educational issurances taht characterize a democracy.

hungary poland and maybe slovakia are gone throught the deep end and can they come back? (not to mention italy)

meahwhile the bazzilions of billions being given to arms in europe will guarantee its safety. Trump is the best friend of european unification since the european founding fathers. add to that elon musk and you have a winner. they are the EU's best friend.

Turkey has been excluded from the defense contracts so Greece is happy. It would be a bit asking too much to fund someone who wants to hurt you. UK is also excluded from the EU arms money but I have no idea why.

Europe has the money all it lacks is a unified center of command, a european NATO which will if it materializes will freeze out the US and curtail its influence massively. why trump thinks russia will want to get along with the US and not Europe if it has tpo choose, is really very weird.

Unfortunately the scenario is that the US will continue to slide into insignificance and probably start a latin americna war or smoething and become completely detached from the world, russia will get along faboulosly with europe, but europe will sacrifice countries to do that? will it? I think it won't but I also think that Russia will not choose to test this.
China and Europe have nothing to divide them and can unite whenever US gets too uppity and wants folks to buy its hugely expensive natural gas or something.

[Geronimo]

I think it has become common knowledge both in the public and the elites that the EU is faced against three enemies that want its desctruction. US, Russia and China, with the most benign and easy to get on its side being China

While the US is basically shooting itself in the foot here it can redeem herself with a new leadership. And it is very weak to stand alone in this world. all the power it has its because noone cares enough to do anything and because it has allies because they think they can count on it.

Russia is a problem for the baltics and poland and that's as far as that country goes. We all know it. It's like it calls dips like it thinks they belong to it. it doesn't think italy or germany do, for example.

China poses zero threat to europe.

All this leads to the strengthening of the idea of the EU in the mind of the peoples. (that includes baltics and poland)

however it is not like the EU is a uniform enity of democracy and the health insurances and educational issurances taht characterize a democracy.

hungary poland and maybe slovakia are gone throught the deep end and can they come back? (not to mention italy)

meahwhile the bazzilions of billions being given to arms in europe will guarantee its safety. Trump is the best friend of european unification since the european founding fathers. add to that elon musk and you have a winner. they are the EU's best friend.

Turkey has been excluded from the defense contracts so Greece is happy. It would be a bit asking too much to fund someone who wants to hurt you. UK is also excluded from the EU arms money but I have no idea why.

Europe has the money all it lacks is a unified center of command, a european NATO which will if it materializes will freeze out the US and curtail its influence massively. why trump thinks russia will want to get along with the US and not Europe if it has tpo choose, is really very weird.

Unfortunately the scenario is that the US will continue to slide into insignificance and probably start a latin americna war or smoething and become completely detached from the world, russia will get along faboulosly with europe, but europe will sacrifice countries to do that? will it? I think it won't but I also think that Russia will not choose to test this.
China and Europe have nothing to divide them and can unite whenever US gets too uppity and wants folks to buy its hugely expensive natural gas or something.

*Maybe* Russia would be pleased to see Europe "destroyed" but neither Trump nor the PRC would be especially pleased if it happened. What makes you think otherwise?

[Dauphin]

Russia is a problem for the baltics and poland and that's as far as that country goes. We all know it. It's like it calls dips like it thinks they belong to it. it doesn't think italy or germany do, for example.

I think there are many in Russia who would claim the 1945 demarcation to be reasonable. That puts Eastern Germany, and anyone else east of the old Iron Curtain back under Russia satellite status. Maybe even Vienna under the old Soviet occupied Austria. Then add the claims they would make on any nation with Slavic history.

[Dauphin]

*Maybe* Russia would be pleased to see Europe "destroyed" but neither Trump nor the PRC would be especially pleased if it happened. What makes you think otherwise?

My view is Trump's doesn't consider the consequence of any transaction on other parties (e.g. China or Russia). It doesn't enter his equations. Unless there is a knock-on secondary effect that would impact him. Therefore:

If Europe being destroyed meant he could get slightly richer (or ego stroked) he would be all for it.
If Europe being saved cost him a mere penny (or loss of face), he would not be willing to pay to stop it.

[Geronimo]

My view is Trump's doesn't consider the consequence of any transaction on other parties (e.g. China or Russia). It doesn't enter his equations. Unless there is a knock-on secondary effect that would impact him. Therefore:

If Europe being destroyed meant he could get slightly richer (or ego stroked) he would be all for it.
If Europe being saved cost him a mere penny (or loss of face), he would not be willing to pay to stop it.

mostly true in theory but probably false for all practical purposes because Trump doesn't want grossly unpopular events to happen on his watch. I think Trump would act to cause the total destruction of Europe to occur for very minor net personal gain *only* if he thought he could establish some kind of plausible deniability,

[Dauphin]

If the grossly unpopular event impacts his value that falls under my concept of selfish gain / avoidance of loss. I'm not limiting it to financial gain. He doesn't care what others have, only what he gets (directly or indirectly, tangible or intangible, financial or non-financial). He also seems to believe in zero sum, so if he makes a gain, he is winning.

[The Mad Monk]

Welp, we went ahead and seized a tanker hauling interdicted oil. I'm actually not sure how I feel about this; if this is one of the Russian 'shadow fleet' tankers on loan to Venezuela, it's possibly a good thing? Especially since Ukraine has started outright sinking them, as of a couple weeks ago. We could consider that as setting a precedent; OTOH, we are technically not yet at war with Russia, so it doesn't actually apply.

[Bereta_Eder]

it would come as no surpirse that there is a US plan to detach poland hungary and other far right countries from the EU
What we must do is revert them back to democracy and keep them

russia is not threatened by europe. russia is threatened by europe if it feels there is a US behind it.

take the US out of the equation and russia pacifies.

unfortunately the US has precious few things to attach itself to europe anymiore. their system has collapsed and was collapsing a long time before. no education, no health care no human rights no demo cracy, just some unedcuated overworked pawns to big money.

NOT ALL. they can still redeem themselves altjough it is high unlikley anymore. the brutes won.

it seems the clash of civilzations did happen and only europe was left standing

[Bereta_Eder]

https://www.ikiosk.de/shop/epaper/der-spiegel.html

I don't speak german but I can look at pictures

[Bereta_Eder]

I think there are many in Russia who would claim the 1945 demarcation to be reasonable. That puts Eastern Germany, and anyone else east of the old Iron Curtain back under Russia satellite status. Maybe even Vienna under the old Soviet occupied Austria. Then add the claims they would make on any nation with Slavic history.

I think you're wrong. what russia fears is that is broken apart, taken apart piece by piece and devoured.

The US must be treated as an active enemy to the democractic european govs and an ally of russia

Also it is ridiculous to think that just because NATO and the west failed to materialize any substantial aid to a country that didn't belong to neither the EU or NATO, that this somehow proves that russia is capable of taking on a collective european army (or that it even wants to)

it would attack with the backing of the far right carricature of its former self US andonly if it feels there is a weakness in unity. Divided we fall unkited we stand sort of situation.

But I repeat EU was always known for its soft power, the power to instill democratic values in former countries of the societ block. not forging insurections like US nuland's so eloqeuntly stated with its f the EU phrase. it has largely been succesful.
I refure to believe that there is a US which was not mendled in overthrowing the corrupt yanick gov in ukraine


We can' though allow US to use russia as a scapegoat to push its highly expensive natural gas to us. it has not even one value worth anymore. it is tobe vewed as latin american dictatorship.

I am adamant that russia fears the "west" only if the US is behind europe (and it isn't anymore) and would not engage in enlargment if not provoked.

does that mean that countries like ukraine will be screwd. they were screwd the moment the US changed sides

[Bereta_Eder]

disclaimer: i continue to cosnume american byproducts of culure and really do think that americna people the ones I met are nice people. but they are gone. At least that's what I think. I want to be proven dramatically wrong.