As a European, I hope that we will finally get our things together and stand up!
I share your view that the EU is fundamentally able and willing to emancipate itself from the USA!
But the EU is not the USA! We are much more inhomogeneous in terms of culture, language, history and economy! That is difficult and sometimes exhausting!
On the other hand, the states of Europe are a community of destiny.
As an American living in Europe, I'm glad to read your thoughts and hope that Europe can overcome iits language barriers and unify enough to at least block Russia.
Europe has tremendous potential, not only for economic or military power but potential to do good. Yes, the cultural differences can be messy - I'm dual French - and sometimes seem a little dysfunctional but Europe is used to working around and through them after a few centuries. You got this, Europe. You can do it!
I believe that the current globalization effort and perhaps civilization itself, including survival of an inhabitable planet may be dependent on Europe grabing tha baton and carrying it forward. The U.S.A. simply cannot carry the burden alone any longer. We are still a strong nation, but we do need to rest and reset. Europe making the effort to grab the bston and to carry it forward will inspire the people of the U.S.to conquer our current political malais more quickly. Otherwise we could get into a "sinkhole" as mentioned below.
That's true, Tom, and if this document I'm editing now is any indication, Europe and a surprising number of its major corporations have robustly embraced the efforts to contain climate change. This is not because European businesses like all the regulations, but because they understand the critical need for preservation, are accordingly rewarded with greater customer satisfaction and fidelity and, as appropriate, certain tax deductions and fiscal incentives. In the end, as you say, Europe's resolve may inspire us in the States to get back what has been absconded and harmed, and help us move forward again on the quest for a perfect union. After figuring out how to straighten out the mess, of course, AND what we need to do to discourage its recurrence, which may be some adjustments to actions that over the past years became taken for granted, unchecked, and then weaponized.
I am fully aware that the EU has carried a significant burden regarding Ukraine in particular and NATO has contributed significantly. But generally the UShas carried the majority of the burden for many years. In the US there is a strong feeling that the US has carried the vast majority of the global military burden since WWII. The US public does tend to regard Ukraine in particular as an European issue, which Europe should handle. To certain extent we feel protected by the oceans. Zelenskyy summed that up well. But one thing most Americans do not realize is that the US can not isolate ourselves from Europe. There are too many commonalities. There is also the historical fact that whenever Europe is in a general state of war the US gets involved at least peripherally. That extends back to before the US was founded.
One of the tenants of UK foreign policy historically is to standoff from the continent until such time as continental power becomes strong enough to potentially threaten Britain. That is once again true with Russia, so the UK is once again intervening in continental affairs. The same holds true for the US. An Europe in turmoil will affect the US and will likely drag the US into war. Also an Europe that is whole, free and unified can contribute mightily to global stability. So it is in the US enlightened self interest for Europe to be stable and as unified as possible. The US also has the false notion that we can stand alone.
One of the difficulties in America at this time is our leadership only thinks in terms of hard power, military and otherwise. It does not have any understanding of soft power. Europe excels at soft power. It is also true that China is a great power and deserves a place at the table. American leadership is locked into the concept of hard power confrontation. The conflict may require a military confrontation, so being prepared is wise. With smart diplomacy a military confrontation could be avoided. But with both China and the US locked into hard power concepts at this time, the global situation could be very dicy. Most likely a confrontation with China would be largely on the US.
With the global situation and the US being in a period when we need some time to get our own affairs in order, the US does need help from Europe. We cannot carry the burden alone. Though, I realize the importance of soft power, the US does not. Our current leadership because of their false sense of masculinity, will not admit that. But Europe must speak as a unified whole. Not as a loose confederation. It must also move towards development of a unified military force. An example would be being able to counter the Houthis threat to global commerce independently. As was stated in the Signal text chat that is so much in the news, the perception among many is that the US is maintaining freedom of navigation, primarily for Europe's and others interest. They do not realize that smooth commerce through the Suez is also very important to the US. As I stated these people do not understand anything but hard military power. In this case, Europe cannot put a naval fleet inin the Red Sea tlike the US can. Europe has the GDP to do that, but it must speak with a unified voice, with the credible military force to back that up.
At least that is my perspective and the reason for my phraseology.
Ah, I see. Thanks. I misread it to mean the climate efforts. :)
And I agree that before the invasion, Europe was far too little interested in Ukraine, and Russias continuing asshattery against neighbors, seemingly learning absolutely nothing. :P I was properly impressed by the galvanizing impact of the public intel dumping that the US did right before the invasion! It was an act of openness that worked just like ive noted openness does - it blows away all indesicion of what info to spread to your populations, because… its already out there. So everyone very quickly got a feeling of what the people wanted them to do. :) I think it was the first truly GOOD thing I ever have noted done by the CIA, using openness. ;)
And I got impressed and surprised that OUR government were far from as “peace damaged” as some voices call us…. but acted in time to send an awful lot of our AR4 “pansarskott” . <3 I dont think we would have managed to do that before covid trained us in making take life-or-death desicions fast and decisively. I worked IT at the vaccinations, and noticed that corrections of obvisously stupid stuff came out faster and faster during the process… so, we are not the same now as we were before.
… I also noted that EU HAS had a naval anti-pirate mission already, and Sweden has been running it. It felt kinda strange having war ships down there, but also good in this capacity... That’s maybe something to build on going forth.
Also, it would possibly be good if we could pressure Israel to quit beating up the palestinians now. The US do not seem prone to do it.
The rebuilding and talks about the future there will also need us to be present, I think. As europeans we have actually managed to QUIT the eternal fighting, (as we and the Danish/Norwegians fought too, for as long as England and France were enemies… :P ) - and that experience of how much better it feels to get over yourself and make friends and cooperation partners out of your neighbors, is something that we very much would want to spread.
Somebody must take the global progress seriously and actually admit that we WILL lose some power as everybody else gets more level with us… but that this can be for a tremendous amount of good, if we just handle it well and lands softly, and start cooperating and competing respectfully, on equal terms. That is the kind of competition we like here in Sweden… parallell experiments learning from each others to increase quality and decrease costs more than bloody economic murder with all means to gain market dominance and hopefully monopoly :P - that seems to put the US in the non-enviable position to save itself from oligarchy each 60 years.
Just look at Canada. We have profound regional divisions, MAGA-like conservatives running Alberta, a corrupt MAGA demagogue running Ontario, an intractable separatist movement poised to take power again in Québec, and a profoundly conservative corporate media oligopoly giddy at the prospect of an imminent landslide victory for federal Conservatives. Yet, almost overnight, Trump has irrevocably shattered how we view and deal with the US, united our entire country, resurrected the Liberal Party from the dead, and delivered a death blow to Québec separatism that Liberals had been unable to do despite 50 years of efforts.
If you think of necessity as the mother of invention, then I think Trump is dishing out plenty of "necessity" to all of America's former allies. Europe's newfound rhetoric needs to be followed by action, but existential threats make that action a lot more likely.
A little additional note: Almost every newspaper in Canada is owned by ONE corporation Postmedia which is majority owned by Chatham Capital Management-a hedge fund that used to own the National Enquirer.
They get supplemental $ from our Canadian taxes because they qualify as a Canadian company thanks to a shady dual class share structure.
The diversity of languages (as in Canada) is a competitive advantage. Unlike the unilingual USA, which remains in a self imposed bubble of ignorance about the outside world, Europeans tend to be multilingual, while using English as a lingua franca! And they tend to speak more literate English than the Anerican dialect!
I am hopeful that the European nations can coalesce and form a formidable defense of democratic values. Germany seems to be doing something radically different in terms of defense and all other European nations should do likewise. The US has betrayed its friends the world over. That one man and his cronies can destroy in months what took centuries to build shows how fragile democracies really are because they rest in honest and trusted relationships both national and international; not on power concentrated in a few, aka authoritarianism.
Yes and No. Strong man rule doesn't have staying power. Ultimate power corrupts. A "good king" starts out with good intentions then begins to see everything through their own eyes. They don't go to the trouble to find dissenting voices. (China was better off when they had a governing body and term limits.)
Then of course, there is the problem of succession. Democracy, as imperfect as it is, provides a corrective mechanism when things really go off the rails.
I can't imagine that we have a functioning democracy anymore. The people in charge don't believe in democracy and Trump has proven himself to be the sort of person who will use force to stay in power.
Yes, it certainly appears to outsiders that Germany is now doing radically different things in the defense sector.
But the truth is that until February 24, 2022, Germany did radically different things in the defense sector!
Like no other country in Europe, it has relied entirely on the USA for its defense! And it has severely neglected its military since the 1990s!
What we are seeing now is that Germany is desperately trying to make up for the shortcomings of the last 25 years in a hurry!
All this talk, especially in the Anglo-American world, that Germany is now „reawakening“ as a „military superpower“ just because it wants to invest a lot of money, couldn't be further from reality!
The hard truth is, that Germany would have to capitulate after 2-3 days in the event of an attack on its territory, because Germany would then have no more ammunition, after 2 days!
That completely ignores the historic reasons for germanys defense shortcomings in the last 80 (not 25) years. All other European countries asked for this and the US willingly benefitted from its prime location in Germany. That is going to change now. To the detriment of the US btw because it needed these locations to fight its middle eastern wars.
No actually that doesn't ignore the history of the German army over the last 80 years
At its peak in 1989, the German army had around 509k active soldiers and 1.3 million reservists. That was the goal agreed with NATO for the German armed forces!
The German army now has a strength of 180k active soldiers and 35k reservists. The numbers are now to be increased to 200k active soldiers and 60k reservists.
This means that Germany is far from being a military superpower!
You are right to provide that context. And it is true German military shrank after the mandatory draft ended. I still think there is the context of the Cold War that demanded more military simply because Germany was the front line. But it is true that the allies were behind the fact that Germany limited its military size and demanded US presence in the country. Not to protect Germany mind you. Particularly not after the Cold War ended.
Isn't Europe's diversity (particularly in language) a key reason why Big Tech is almost entirely American?
Online platforms tend to be very winner-take-all, and Europeans didn't have the USA's enormous linguistically-unified market to support them. As a result (French) Dailymotion was no match for YouTube and (German) XING was overshadowed even in Germany by LinkedIn.
Although we can note that even China (which is far more linguistically homogeneous than Europe) likely only has its own successful Big Tech platforms because it outright banned most of the US equivalents from its own territory.
That would also explain why Spotify (Swedish), which is much less dependent on user-to-user communication is the one European platform that is genuinely big.
(aside: Spotify had the advantage that it could initially negotiate rights on a country-by-country basis with the big music labels, and they were prepared to take a risk on their Swedish sales which they wouldn't have been with US sales, so they were in the unusual case where being in a small country was an advantage)
This is because Europeans still think far too narrowly within the borders of their own countries!
This has a lot to do with language and culture, but above all because the EU is seen as an economic union and not as a federal confederation of states!
Exactly. And the regional-national/cultural/linguistic differences are just things to work with and find common ground over (and pull each other's legs over, cheer football teams over...). But when it comes to a single compelling reason like we're seeing now, it's a bit easier set differences aside to come together.
So ironic that Putin grew NATO by trying to kill it and now he'll be unifying Europe by trying to separate it. I say this as a US "citizen" recognizing that the US regime is working for Putin now.
Considering that the US is mostly immigrants from all Europe’s countries in addition to the enslaved from Africa and our own indigenous I would challenge this thinking:
“We are much more inhomogeneous in terms of culture, language, history and economy”
Our diversity is just more diluted by the colonizers.
It's more that slavery basically wiped out whatever connection black Americans had to their ancestral African cultures (which is why "black Americans" are much more of an ethnic group in their own right than "white Americans" are) while the immigrant ancestors of other non-Native Americans were a self-selected minority of the populations of their respective ancestral homelands.
That’s what bullies and colonizers do. They have zero appreciation/respect/desire to know any POV or way of knowing other than their own limited view. Just another name for genocide, they wiped out entire cultures of indigenous peoples. I’m sure Africa is a continent of multiple diverse cultures, just because they share similarities between them and more melanin than most Europeans doesn't necessarily mean they are a single ethnic group. I’m losing faith that we’ll ever evolve to our best selves. Too many bullies reproducing more bullies!
Live and let live. Respect others. The pillar of every formal religion in our world is to love thy neighbor as thyself. It’s not as if many good folks haven’t tried to pass on to us the path to our survival and prosperity thru the ages. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️😢 The battle between the seven DEADLY SINS versus the Seven Virtues continues.
No, what I meant is that _slaves in the Western Hemisphere_ lost their connection with their ancestral African cultures, as a direct result of being enslaved and shipped across the Atlantic: I wasn't referring at all to the Africans _in Africa_. And many of the pathologies of black American culture are likely a result of centuries of white-supremacist rule: note that in Africa the worst violent crime rates are not in West Africa (from which the slave ancestors of modern black Americans came) but in South Africa as a legacy of apartheid.
Incidentally, because most hyphenated-American terms (eg "German-American" or "Chinese-American") imply a connection to the non-American culture, I'm not at all happy with the use of "African-American" to refer to American descendants of slaves.
Oh yes, I see. Thank you for clarifying. I’m quite sure the colonizers and enslavers were on a mission to separate all oppressed peoples from their culture and roots. (That reminds me of Alex Haley’s Roots) It is the strength given from our roots and strong cultural identity that builds our ability to resist indoctrination by these bullies. If you have not heard of the Adverse Childhood Events research you might check it out. In healthcare it has been a landmark study in understanding the adverse health effects of oppression. ⚖️
And thus Putin’s determination to not just indiscriminately murder all Ukrainians but to strip them of their remarkably strong cultural identity.
I wish I shared your optimism, but there is another reason why I have my doubts: Europe is rapidly aging and the population is shrinking. Any population growth will only come from immigration and most of the current immigrants are low skilled. I dont think aging and shrinking societies have the dynamism or willingness to become a superpower. I think we will more follow the path of Japan.
I think the concern is that a lot of Europe's low-skilled immigrants come from the Middle East and North Africa (unlike US low-skilled immigrants who come from Latin America) and are thus far more difficult to integrate successfully, in part due to the religious barrier but mainly because they have a very kin-centric culture resulting from a high prevalence of cousin marriage.
At first glance, a good objection! Because demography is a difficult problem!
But China fundamentally refutes your argument!
The birth rate in China is extremely low, 1.2 - 1.3 children.
For comparison, the birth rate in the EU is 1.5 children and that of the USA is 1.66 children
China's birth rate is lower than that of the EU and the USA! Nevertheless, no one can deny that China is on its way to becoming a world power and technology leader!
I have my doubts that a country that got busted copying Cisco routers because they had the exact same bugs and forbids ANYONE talking about Tiananmen Square and forbids depictions of Winnie the Pooh and has over 1,000,000 of its own people locked into forced labor camps because of their religion has the openness and diversity to become an innovation leader.
True, China and many others eventually have the same problem. But China as you point out currently has momentum with leading in several technologies. The USA has big tech. What is the largest company (measured in market capitalization) in Europe? LVMH. They make luxury products and I do find that telling for the state of the European economy.
I mentioned Japan as an example of a country that in my opinion is like 10-15 years ahead of us in a slow decline. Still an affluent country but nobody believes Japan is the future (they were in the 80s).
So the idea we are a sleeping giant that is awakening, and can become a world power and technology leader, I do not believe that. I think the best we can expect as an aging and shrinking continent is that we are able to maintain our current welfare states and living standards and that already will be a challenge.
Europe is still is a nice place to live and In do hope we become more independent from the USA though.
2. Volkswagen (Germany): 293.83 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
3. uniper (Germany):
288.98 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
4.totalEnergies (France): 184.63 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
5. Glencore (Switzerland): 203.75 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
6. BP (Great Britain): 164.2 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
And here you can see the biggest problem in Europe, all old industries that either earn their money with CO2 or have not managed to switch to new technologies (VW)....
BTW compare this with the market values of the top 10 in the USA, they are 10x bigger and almost all tech. China is different, less stock market orientated.
Even secular Israeli Jews have a (slightly) above-replacement birth rate, even if they're quite a bit less fecund than the Haredi welfare cases you're thinking of.
True. Americans have grown too passive about accepting unjust, illegitimate and illegal actions perpetrated against them by their government. In any other country, the streets would already be filled daily with protesters and there would be calls for general strikes and so forth. More Americans have to get off their asses and take stand.
This being said, one reason Trump wants to undermine democracy abroad is because he knows that American democracy has a better chance of surviving or resurrecting if vibrant democracies exist abroad to provide support and a blueprint. Crushing Canada may be as important to Trump's reign as killing Ukrainian democracy is to Putin's.
One reason why Americas may be less willing to protest in the "streets" is that US cities are built for cars rather than for people, and didn't many red states respond to the 2020 BLM protests by making it legal to run over protesters in the street?
Isn't one of the reasons why Western civilization is so powerful precisely that it hasn't had a single dominating "civilization-state" (as Russia and China are for their respective civilizational spheres) since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?
The diversity is different. Europe has so many literate nations with completely different cultures and educational systems in close proximity. The Americas have four main languages and cultures that are very spread out. Having spent time in both, I can only say they are very different.
I would say that being a settler-colonial society (like all the states of the Americas along with Australia and New Zealand) would affect the culture profoundly compared to Europe, but it would make those countries part of a fundamentally different civilization!
Up until the 18th century the territory presently imprisoned in Russia was a hodge podge of different peoples. Previous to that Russian ancestors were the most favorite slaves sold along the Spice Road by their Viking masters for centuries.
And many would consider Russia to still be uncivilized. Ask a Ukrainian.
By "civilization-state" I mean an imperial state that aspires to rule the entirety of a civilization (as for example the Arab Caliphate was for the Islamic civilization), as opposed to a "nation-state" which aspires to be the state of a single people.
You point out (correctly) that Russia rules many conquered non-Slavic peoples (Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Caucasian and Mongolic) but that actually agrees with my point rather than contradicting it. Moscow has historically aspired to rule the entirety of the Orthodox Christian world at most (hence its identification as the "Third Rome" and its historic push towards Constantinople) and at a minimum the Cyrillic-writing Slavic peoples. They thus consider the existence of an independent Western-aligned Ukrainian state to be an intolerable insult.
As an American, I doubt Europe is more diverse than we are now. I have no sympathy for and cannot understand Trump voters. They are utterly foreign and repulsive to half of us. Our environment has become toxic.
Thats exactly the problem with neoliberalism/libertarianism. You consistently forget to check how the worst off fare. :p the Democrats WILL need to to gather such info deliberately nowadays, or they will NEVER reach those people, and get info from them or explain why the things being done benefits them too.
... Hm, like this: , as a IT startup guy Ive seen a few *totally* unexplcable and absurd user rebellions - i think its the same thing as a peasants uprising in old Europe, or a suburb riot - angry people never talking and error reporting to you in a useful way, along the agreed-to ways - but instead showing their anger through mysterious actions, so you have to figure out the actual problem yourself. Because they CANT do ANYTHING your way anymore, before youve LISTENED to them on OUR initiative, to show them respect. We learned to expect it, and just go there and interview them..
Ive been sitting listening for 15 minutes with a teacher listening sincerely to angry utter garbage, and apologizing as needed, before she was so calm that she could tell me what the actual problems were. All of which were fixed the same day!
THAT is what the washington Democrats will have to do to in Kentucky to fix this Trump thing. and keep them in the loop, and fix the worst inequality. Then there will be ZERO problems for them tolerating others...they just CANT do it while struggling and forgotten. And they CANT ask for help, themselves, that would kill their Pride, and that is the only thing that keeps them up.
As i said , this is the roads end for neoliberalism. You will have to forget Nozick (he even changed his mind later but that never got attention.) and go back to Rawls fairness concept. The other ("tax is theft") has totally corrupted you.
You also have to factor in the 400-year history of White Supremacist ideology that has, alas, never gone away in the U.S. But having a basic moral compass is enough to reject that ideology, and failing to reject is not morally excused by watching Fox News or whatever. There’s a reason why some people readily accept white supremacist lies (which are obviously lies) and others reject them.
Can far-right politics be considered to be a type of affinity fraud, much like the ones which commonly ensnare Mormons, and which Bernie Madoff used to get American Jews to participate in his ponzi scheme?
I think it's a bit more of how the structural brain works. Sad to say, but when you are so prone to conspiracy theories, that is more than simple brainwashing, IMO.
Yes. We are parallelle experiments nearby, so we can learn from each others.
The biggest problem is the lack in acceptance in Sweden, for example... Far too many politicians have taken easy route to avoid a debate, and said "ok, its not our fault, its an EU desicion. :p instead of taking the opportunity to do some good old public education about why. :p
German, French and UK Defense manufacturers will be overjoyed--and more than capable--of stepping up to replace their high-end military kit with products that are 100% European. Many European systems, like the PzH 2000 SP artillery, and the Leopard 2 for example, are already as good if not better than their US equivalents.
Ironic how the lie that the EU was set up to screw the US leads to uninformed decisions, resulting in the EU uniting and positioning itself against... the US.
Guess that's what you get with a Dunning Kruger president. To ignorant to understand how wrong he is.
I read somewhere Frederic tRump sr used to yell at him "Donald, you moron!" I suspect detailed neuropsychiatric testing of The Donald would indeed show a 78 year old with an average IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s with EQ of a 3 year old.
A huge factor is toxic masculinity rather than abuse, in my opinion. I had a very abusive childhood which gave me nothing but empathy for the "losers" and became a human rights lawyer, but maybe as a woman I had no choice anyways.
Someone who has done a lot of Disability Evaluations can develop the ability to intuitively come up with a very close approximation of someone’s IQ in a well constructed interview. I used to tag-team SS Disability Evaluations with our clinic’s Clinical Psychologist. I was always within a couple of points of their assessment of the applicant’s overall IQ.
Dear Paul, I'm a newbie in reading your posts but I find them very sound and no-nonsense, with a kind of charming, homey inflection. I look forward to more.
Yes the We the Europeans sure know the clock is ticking. And we are also sure we can do it in time with our own skills and resourses. Heard a flight was 95% empty from Heathrow to NYC yesterday.
US is being isolated at their own grip. Canada is with us as is Aussie, Kiwis, Turkey, Japan, S Korea.
Canada may be with you, but Canada is not hearing much support from the rest of the world. We feel abandoned and left to our fate with an aggressive and unhinged former ally.
That‘s not true. Our (Germany's) foreign minister for example stated very unequivocally that the sovereignty of Canada is not up for debate and that Germany firmly stands with Canada at the last G7 meeting in Alberta.
After my partner died three years ago I had hoped to just live out my remaining years in peace and quiet. Now I lie awake worrying that Canadians will lose everything we hold dear. The rule of law is gone in the US and there's nobody to stop Trump.
Fifty years ago, when I first met my partner, he said to me that the biggest threat to Canada was the USA, coming for our natural resources. Now that may come to pass.
I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that Canada had allies other than the US, and these former non-US-allies abandoned you while your relationship to the US went bad?
If yes, who are these unfaithful allies, specifically? If no, what else do you mean?
We hear words of support, and of course are grateful, but what we NEED is assurances that if the US comes after us, we won't be abandoned.
Trump is unhinged and incompetent, but he has evil people whispering in his ear. He's almost fully dismantled US democracy in two months. He seems inclined to ignore the courts, and his Congress is flaccid with inertia. The guardrails fell off. There is nobody to stop him now.
Add to this a very plausible factor... Canada might soon tie our economy, defence, and political values to the EU. We are the ninth largest by GDP (et Ici on parle français). As we say in hockey "Elbows Up!"
Let’s not forget that for most of its history Europe was a war-torn, bellicose continent. What is now too easily labeled weakness was a hope for new way forward away from a cycle of violence.
Certainly hope you will be admitted back to the US. Coming from Europe this is a real risky business nowadays. Especially for a person not always agrreeing with the US government's actions..
He's starting with people who don't have a way to fight back. Such as gay, trans and poor people. It's disgusting and I never thought in a million years that the US could treat people this way. If I lived in a non-US country I would stay as far away from the US as possible.
To give you an idea how fast things move: yesterday the Education secretary of The Netherlands instructed the national science foundation (NWO) to create a fund for American Scientists that might consider moving to The Netherlands. In the official announcement of the Government:
the US is not mentioned (I guess to prevent a diplomatic response), but the trigger came a few weeks ago from the NWO itself (Marcel Levi) after the news of severe budget cuts at US Universities broke.
It’s like Trump is and has surrounded himself with sociopaths. They not only have no empathy they don’t even get embarrassed. When I read about the arrest of the German, the Frenchman, and the Canadian here I was embarrassed for the USA then angry. People need to wake up!
Musk's comments on Fox about the attacks on his dealerships, which I don't support, are unbelievable. You can see how Trumpian he is, and the utter inability to apply the same standards to himself and other people. He's just blind, and the aggression grows out of inconceivable and pathological self-centeredness. With Trump the aggression is integrated into his sociopathy in a different way, but they're both completely nuts, and apparently promoted by a sick political party into positions of power FOR their destructive capabilities. They're perfect choices for that. Way to go Republicans ...
Yes, Trump has awakened a sleeping giant, who may be world's last chance to stop the Moscow-Washington cabal. And in this article's fine print, the good professor points out that Europeans are rightly alarmed by American abuse of its tourists, even if Americans are oblivious to this threat. Guess what that is going to mean for tourism to America from Europe and Canada.
I haven't read about detained European tourists, but I'm not surprised that it's happening. When you allow and encourage people to let loose their worst selves it gets pretty ugly and self defeating.
Not completely. There will be a strong core of discontent. Purging everyone who remembers what we once were will be ugly and I'm not sure these people are up to it. Though I'm not counting on it. There are many different paths from here. Some are truly awful and none of them are what we could call "good".
A tremendous amount of long term damage has already happened. It will take a lot to figure out and then remedy the source of the madness.
Paul, thanks a lot for your input. With regard to technical giants, Europe does indeed have several. To name two, there is Novo Nordisk in Denmark and, smaller, but vitally important, ASML in The Netherlands.
I get a feeling that when people are talking about "tech" companies nowadays they mainly mean software companies and that is where Europe is unfortunately lagging. The biggest one we have is SAP from Germany.
I wish Canadians would quit talking about "winning" the trade war. We and Europe need to free ourselves as quickly as possible from our abusive partner. Whether the people of Canada and Europe will tolerate the transitional cost remains to be seen. Depends on whether they [continue to] view the US as an existential threat, regardless of what "concessions" Trump may offer.
Canada is already making moves to move closer to Europe. A report in the NYT yesterday said there is a plan for Canada to manufacture and use European military hardware.
Indeed. We have an election coming up (probably April 28) and if our new Prime Minister prevails, that trajectory will continue. It is not an accident that his first two foreign visits were France and UK. If Maple MAGA Poilievre wins, we'll see emulation and appeasement, not meaningful separation.
You're absolutely right, but also please consider supporting those of in the U.S. who are vehemently opposed to the Orange Führer. We need all the help we can get - both internally and externally.
I’m curious about what the graph would depict if you added Canada’s GDP to that of the EU + UK. I’m Canadian and I’m beginning to see a silver lining in Trumps bullshit.
English and still in agony over Brexit. I felt as if a part of my identity had been ripped away. Still do.
That’s the emotional bit. Yet how utterly stupid it seemed at the time and how even more stupid it seems now. It’s so obvious there’s no need to explain it. Yet the politicians still won’t even talk about it. Even now at such a crucial time.
I fear the same in the US. Trump has done awful things but what he has done won’t be addressed and won’t be fully reversed.
I really, really hope the EU can stand up to populism and continue to be decent and civilised.
"I really, really hope the EU can stand up to populism and continue to be decent and civilised."
Same here. Part of the reason I've been hesitant to leave the U.S. (even though I actually do have that option as a dual citizen) is that the fascist tide has been rising everywhere for more than a decade, so moving just feels like kicking the can down the road. I'd love to believe that the Trump government will be enough of a wake-up call to other people to stop the trend (apparently the first one wasn't), but, well, that's still just a hope at this point.
I think the fact that most European countries have a parliamentary system of government with proportional representation makes these countries a bit more resistent to complete far-right populist takeovers as has happened in the US. In these systems it‘s extremely uncommon for one party to achieve an absolute majority in parliament which means that if they want to govern they would need to find other parties willing to form a coalition with them. This means one of two things: either all the other big parties refuse to form a coalition with them and instead form their own coalitions among one another (as has so far always been the case in Germany for example), or other parties will agree to form a coalition in which case they can at least reign in some of the worst excesses of the far-right populists since they will need to govern together with a more moderate party.
The real question isn't really when Europe will stand up - they already are - so much as it is how long will it take for them to find their legs?
Europe has never stood up together as a nation before, but they'll have to now. It starts with baby steps, and over time develops into running the marathon. They have to work on being in it for the long run.
Well, it‘s still different since Europe and the EU are a collection of many sovereign nation-states and not one sovereign federation. Also, most Europeans still don‘t consider being "European" as being part of a European nation. So far there isn‘t really a European nation to speak of but only smaller nations that are cooperating on many matters. Maybe in the future the EU will federalize and Europeans will see themselves as being part of one big European nation but so far that‘s not the case.
That's true, >but<, European nations can still act in tandem and cooperate on beating down Russia. Europe doesn't have to federalize to make that happen any more than it needs to federalize to make the EU work.
It's pretty clear, and always has been - at least to some of us - that Making America great Again was never his intent. Just a clever bumper sticker slogan that he "borrowed" from Reagan, that he knew the "tribe" could "relate" to.
Quite the contrary, we can observe in real time his real intent is to >destroy< America, and all that it stands for.
As a European, I hope that we will finally get our things together and stand up!
I share your view that the EU is fundamentally able and willing to emancipate itself from the USA!
But the EU is not the USA! We are much more inhomogeneous in terms of culture, language, history and economy! That is difficult and sometimes exhausting!
On the other hand, the states of Europe are a community of destiny.
We actually have no other choice.....
As an American living in Europe, I'm glad to read your thoughts and hope that Europe can overcome iits language barriers and unify enough to at least block Russia.
Aah, most non-elderly people know english now.
English is widely used in Europe.
Bad hair day?
Rude.
Mastery 2 believes that criticism is worthwhile even when it is off topic. I wish I could find how to block such people.
I'm sure you'll share your wit with us presently.
Europe has tremendous potential, not only for economic or military power but potential to do good. Yes, the cultural differences can be messy - I'm dual French - and sometimes seem a little dysfunctional but Europe is used to working around and through them after a few centuries. You got this, Europe. You can do it!
I believe that the current globalization effort and perhaps civilization itself, including survival of an inhabitable planet may be dependent on Europe grabing tha baton and carrying it forward. The U.S.A. simply cannot carry the burden alone any longer. We are still a strong nation, but we do need to rest and reset. Europe making the effort to grab the bston and to carry it forward will inspire the people of the U.S.to conquer our current political malais more quickly. Otherwise we could get into a "sinkhole" as mentioned below.
That's true, Tom, and if this document I'm editing now is any indication, Europe and a surprising number of its major corporations have robustly embraced the efforts to contain climate change. This is not because European businesses like all the regulations, but because they understand the critical need for preservation, are accordingly rewarded with greater customer satisfaction and fidelity and, as appropriate, certain tax deductions and fiscal incentives. In the end, as you say, Europe's resolve may inspire us in the States to get back what has been absconded and harmed, and help us move forward again on the quest for a perfect union. After figuring out how to straighten out the mess, of course, AND what we need to do to discourage its recurrence, which may be some adjustments to actions that over the past years became taken for granted, unchecked, and then weaponized.
What, "alone"? :D I had the distinct feeling that we already do at least as much as the US.
At least here in Sweden, but in know the EU has done much too.
I am fully aware that the EU has carried a significant burden regarding Ukraine in particular and NATO has contributed significantly. But generally the UShas carried the majority of the burden for many years. In the US there is a strong feeling that the US has carried the vast majority of the global military burden since WWII. The US public does tend to regard Ukraine in particular as an European issue, which Europe should handle. To certain extent we feel protected by the oceans. Zelenskyy summed that up well. But one thing most Americans do not realize is that the US can not isolate ourselves from Europe. There are too many commonalities. There is also the historical fact that whenever Europe is in a general state of war the US gets involved at least peripherally. That extends back to before the US was founded.
One of the tenants of UK foreign policy historically is to standoff from the continent until such time as continental power becomes strong enough to potentially threaten Britain. That is once again true with Russia, so the UK is once again intervening in continental affairs. The same holds true for the US. An Europe in turmoil will affect the US and will likely drag the US into war. Also an Europe that is whole, free and unified can contribute mightily to global stability. So it is in the US enlightened self interest for Europe to be stable and as unified as possible. The US also has the false notion that we can stand alone.
One of the difficulties in America at this time is our leadership only thinks in terms of hard power, military and otherwise. It does not have any understanding of soft power. Europe excels at soft power. It is also true that China is a great power and deserves a place at the table. American leadership is locked into the concept of hard power confrontation. The conflict may require a military confrontation, so being prepared is wise. With smart diplomacy a military confrontation could be avoided. But with both China and the US locked into hard power concepts at this time, the global situation could be very dicy. Most likely a confrontation with China would be largely on the US.
With the global situation and the US being in a period when we need some time to get our own affairs in order, the US does need help from Europe. We cannot carry the burden alone. Though, I realize the importance of soft power, the US does not. Our current leadership because of their false sense of masculinity, will not admit that. But Europe must speak as a unified whole. Not as a loose confederation. It must also move towards development of a unified military force. An example would be being able to counter the Houthis threat to global commerce independently. As was stated in the Signal text chat that is so much in the news, the perception among many is that the US is maintaining freedom of navigation, primarily for Europe's and others interest. They do not realize that smooth commerce through the Suez is also very important to the US. As I stated these people do not understand anything but hard military power. In this case, Europe cannot put a naval fleet inin the Red Sea tlike the US can. Europe has the GDP to do that, but it must speak with a unified voice, with the credible military force to back that up.
At least that is my perspective and the reason for my phraseology.
Ah, I see. Thanks. I misread it to mean the climate efforts. :)
And I agree that before the invasion, Europe was far too little interested in Ukraine, and Russias continuing asshattery against neighbors, seemingly learning absolutely nothing. :P I was properly impressed by the galvanizing impact of the public intel dumping that the US did right before the invasion! It was an act of openness that worked just like ive noted openness does - it blows away all indesicion of what info to spread to your populations, because… its already out there. So everyone very quickly got a feeling of what the people wanted them to do. :) I think it was the first truly GOOD thing I ever have noted done by the CIA, using openness. ;)
And I got impressed and surprised that OUR government were far from as “peace damaged” as some voices call us…. but acted in time to send an awful lot of our AR4 “pansarskott” . <3 I dont think we would have managed to do that before covid trained us in making take life-or-death desicions fast and decisively. I worked IT at the vaccinations, and noticed that corrections of obvisously stupid stuff came out faster and faster during the process… so, we are not the same now as we were before.
… I also noted that EU HAS had a naval anti-pirate mission already, and Sweden has been running it. It felt kinda strange having war ships down there, but also good in this capacity... That’s maybe something to build on going forth.
Also, it would possibly be good if we could pressure Israel to quit beating up the palestinians now. The US do not seem prone to do it.
The rebuilding and talks about the future there will also need us to be present, I think. As europeans we have actually managed to QUIT the eternal fighting, (as we and the Danish/Norwegians fought too, for as long as England and France were enemies… :P ) - and that experience of how much better it feels to get over yourself and make friends and cooperation partners out of your neighbors, is something that we very much would want to spread.
Somebody must take the global progress seriously and actually admit that we WILL lose some power as everybody else gets more level with us… but that this can be for a tremendous amount of good, if we just handle it well and lands softly, and start cooperating and competing respectfully, on equal terms. That is the kind of competition we like here in Sweden… parallell experiments learning from each others to increase quality and decrease costs more than bloody economic murder with all means to gain market dominance and hopefully monopoly :P - that seems to put the US in the non-enviable position to save itself from oligarchy each 60 years.
As an American if you do that - hopefully it will turn USA around and not get into a sinkhole like Russia under Putin.
Just look at Canada. We have profound regional divisions, MAGA-like conservatives running Alberta, a corrupt MAGA demagogue running Ontario, an intractable separatist movement poised to take power again in Québec, and a profoundly conservative corporate media oligopoly giddy at the prospect of an imminent landslide victory for federal Conservatives. Yet, almost overnight, Trump has irrevocably shattered how we view and deal with the US, united our entire country, resurrected the Liberal Party from the dead, and delivered a death blow to Québec separatism that Liberals had been unable to do despite 50 years of efforts.
If you think of necessity as the mother of invention, then I think Trump is dishing out plenty of "necessity" to all of America's former allies. Europe's newfound rhetoric needs to be followed by action, but existential threats make that action a lot more likely.
A little additional note: Almost every newspaper in Canada is owned by ONE corporation Postmedia which is majority owned by Chatham Capital Management-a hedge fund that used to own the National Enquirer.
They get supplemental $ from our Canadian taxes because they qualify as a Canadian company thanks to a shady dual class share structure.
They ALWAYS endorse the Conservatives.
Didn’t know this. Thanks.
I’d like to see Trump try to take over Quebec. It might be amusing.
The diversity of languages (as in Canada) is a competitive advantage. Unlike the unilingual USA, which remains in a self imposed bubble of ignorance about the outside world, Europeans tend to be multilingual, while using English as a lingua franca! And they tend to speak more literate English than the Anerican dialect!
Isn't Canada outside Quebec de jure bilingual but de facto English-speaking, while Quebec is de jure unilingual in French?
Lingua franca, ha ha.
I am hopeful that the European nations can coalesce and form a formidable defense of democratic values. Germany seems to be doing something radically different in terms of defense and all other European nations should do likewise. The US has betrayed its friends the world over. That one man and his cronies can destroy in months what took centuries to build shows how fragile democracies really are because they rest in honest and trusted relationships both national and international; not on power concentrated in a few, aka authoritarianism.
Yes and No. Strong man rule doesn't have staying power. Ultimate power corrupts. A "good king" starts out with good intentions then begins to see everything through their own eyes. They don't go to the trouble to find dissenting voices. (China was better off when they had a governing body and term limits.)
Then of course, there is the problem of succession. Democracy, as imperfect as it is, provides a corrective mechanism when things really go off the rails.
I can't imagine that we have a functioning democracy anymore. The people in charge don't believe in democracy and Trump has proven himself to be the sort of person who will use force to stay in power.
Yes, it certainly appears to outsiders that Germany is now doing radically different things in the defense sector.
But the truth is that until February 24, 2022, Germany did radically different things in the defense sector!
Like no other country in Europe, it has relied entirely on the USA for its defense! And it has severely neglected its military since the 1990s!
What we are seeing now is that Germany is desperately trying to make up for the shortcomings of the last 25 years in a hurry!
All this talk, especially in the Anglo-American world, that Germany is now „reawakening“ as a „military superpower“ just because it wants to invest a lot of money, couldn't be further from reality!
The hard truth is, that Germany would have to capitulate after 2-3 days in the event of an attack on its territory, because Germany would then have no more ammunition, after 2 days!
! ! ! ! !
That completely ignores the historic reasons for germanys defense shortcomings in the last 80 (not 25) years. All other European countries asked for this and the US willingly benefitted from its prime location in Germany. That is going to change now. To the detriment of the US btw because it needed these locations to fight its middle eastern wars.
No actually that doesn't ignore the history of the German army over the last 80 years
At its peak in 1989, the German army had around 509k active soldiers and 1.3 million reservists. That was the goal agreed with NATO for the German armed forces!
The German army now has a strength of 180k active soldiers and 35k reservists. The numbers are now to be increased to 200k active soldiers and 60k reservists.
This means that Germany is far from being a military superpower!
You are right to provide that context. And it is true German military shrank after the mandatory draft ended. I still think there is the context of the Cold War that demanded more military simply because Germany was the front line. But it is true that the allies were behind the fact that Germany limited its military size and demanded US presence in the country. Not to protect Germany mind you. Particularly not after the Cold War ended.
Isn't Europe's diversity (particularly in language) a key reason why Big Tech is almost entirely American?
Online platforms tend to be very winner-take-all, and Europeans didn't have the USA's enormous linguistically-unified market to support them. As a result (French) Dailymotion was no match for YouTube and (German) XING was overshadowed even in Germany by LinkedIn.
Although we can note that even China (which is far more linguistically homogeneous than Europe) likely only has its own successful Big Tech platforms because it outright banned most of the US equivalents from its own territory.
That would also explain why Spotify (Swedish), which is much less dependent on user-to-user communication is the one European platform that is genuinely big.
(aside: Spotify had the advantage that it could initially negotiate rights on a country-by-country basis with the big music labels, and they were prepared to take a risk on their Swedish sales which they wouldn't have been with US sales, so they were in the unusual case where being in a small country was an advantage)
Yes, that's true!
This is because Europeans still think far too narrowly within the borders of their own countries!
This has a lot to do with language and culture, but above all because the EU is seen as an economic union and not as a federal confederation of states!
Exactly. And the regional-national/cultural/linguistic differences are just things to work with and find common ground over (and pull each other's legs over, cheer football teams over...). But when it comes to a single compelling reason like we're seeing now, it's a bit easier set differences aside to come together.
Agreed. All the shared history, and the borders changing hands multiple times, and population movements make the EU a very special organization.
So ironic that Putin grew NATO by trying to kill it and now he'll be unifying Europe by trying to separate it. I say this as a US "citizen" recognizing that the US regime is working for Putin now.
The old saying that necessity is the mother of invention comes to mind.
The world is changing rapidly at the moment and so one wonders what will arise out of these new necessities.
People can be amazingly innovative when forced to become highly focused on problem solving.
People who live in free nations have far more ability to come together and engage in this type of thinking.
Considering that the US is mostly immigrants from all Europe’s countries in addition to the enslaved from Africa and our own indigenous I would challenge this thinking:
“We are much more inhomogeneous in terms of culture, language, history and economy”
Our diversity is just more diluted by the colonizers.
It's more that slavery basically wiped out whatever connection black Americans had to their ancestral African cultures (which is why "black Americans" are much more of an ethnic group in their own right than "white Americans" are) while the immigrant ancestors of other non-Native Americans were a self-selected minority of the populations of their respective ancestral homelands.
I’m not sure that I follow…
That’s what bullies and colonizers do. They have zero appreciation/respect/desire to know any POV or way of knowing other than their own limited view. Just another name for genocide, they wiped out entire cultures of indigenous peoples. I’m sure Africa is a continent of multiple diverse cultures, just because they share similarities between them and more melanin than most Europeans doesn't necessarily mean they are a single ethnic group. I’m losing faith that we’ll ever evolve to our best selves. Too many bullies reproducing more bullies!
Live and let live. Respect others. The pillar of every formal religion in our world is to love thy neighbor as thyself. It’s not as if many good folks haven’t tried to pass on to us the path to our survival and prosperity thru the ages. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️😢 The battle between the seven DEADLY SINS versus the Seven Virtues continues.
The one that wins will be the one we feed.
Fuck the Felon. He is evil incarnate.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/03/americanism-us-writers-imagine-fascist-future-fiction
No, what I meant is that _slaves in the Western Hemisphere_ lost their connection with their ancestral African cultures, as a direct result of being enslaved and shipped across the Atlantic: I wasn't referring at all to the Africans _in Africa_. And many of the pathologies of black American culture are likely a result of centuries of white-supremacist rule: note that in Africa the worst violent crime rates are not in West Africa (from which the slave ancestors of modern black Americans came) but in South Africa as a legacy of apartheid.
Incidentally, because most hyphenated-American terms (eg "German-American" or "Chinese-American") imply a connection to the non-American culture, I'm not at all happy with the use of "African-American" to refer to American descendants of slaves.
Oh yes, I see. Thank you for clarifying. I’m quite sure the colonizers and enslavers were on a mission to separate all oppressed peoples from their culture and roots. (That reminds me of Alex Haley’s Roots) It is the strength given from our roots and strong cultural identity that builds our ability to resist indoctrination by these bullies. If you have not heard of the Adverse Childhood Events research you might check it out. In healthcare it has been a landmark study in understanding the adverse health effects of oppression. ⚖️
And thus Putin’s determination to not just indiscriminately murder all Ukrainians but to strip them of their remarkably strong cultural identity.
I wish I shared your optimism, but there is another reason why I have my doubts: Europe is rapidly aging and the population is shrinking. Any population growth will only come from immigration and most of the current immigrants are low skilled. I dont think aging and shrinking societies have the dynamism or willingness to become a superpower. I think we will more follow the path of Japan.
Low skilled immigrants get trained into high-skilled workers. Has happened for centuries.
Yes, it has.
I think the concern is that a lot of Europe's low-skilled immigrants come from the Middle East and North Africa (unlike US low-skilled immigrants who come from Latin America) and are thus far more difficult to integrate successfully, in part due to the religious barrier but mainly because they have a very kin-centric culture resulting from a high prevalence of cousin marriage.
At first glance, a good objection! Because demography is a difficult problem!
But China fundamentally refutes your argument!
The birth rate in China is extremely low, 1.2 - 1.3 children.
For comparison, the birth rate in the EU is 1.5 children and that of the USA is 1.66 children
China's birth rate is lower than that of the EU and the USA! Nevertheless, no one can deny that China is on its way to becoming a world power and technology leader!
I have my doubts that a country that got busted copying Cisco routers because they had the exact same bugs and forbids ANYONE talking about Tiananmen Square and forbids depictions of Winnie the Pooh and has over 1,000,000 of its own people locked into forced labor camps because of their religion has the openness and diversity to become an innovation leader.
Well, in a fair world that might be so, but then Trump wouldn't be president and Musk wouldn't be the richest man in the world
True, China and many others eventually have the same problem. But China as you point out currently has momentum with leading in several technologies. The USA has big tech. What is the largest company (measured in market capitalization) in Europe? LVMH. They make luxury products and I do find that telling for the state of the European economy.
I mentioned Japan as an example of a country that in my opinion is like 10-15 years ahead of us in a slow decline. Still an affluent country but nobody believes Japan is the future (they were in the 80s).
So the idea we are a sleeping giant that is awakening, and can become a world power and technology leader, I do not believe that. I think the best we can expect as an aging and shrinking continent is that we are able to maintain our current welfare states and living standards and that already will be a challenge.
Europe is still is a nice place to live and In do hope we become more independent from the USA though.
Lvmh is by far not the largest European group!
The largest are
1. Shell: 386.2 billion US dollars in 2022/2023.
2. Volkswagen (Germany): 293.83 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
3. uniper (Germany):
288.98 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
4.totalEnergies (France): 184.63 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
5. Glencore (Switzerland): 203.75 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
6. BP (Great Britain): 164.2 billion US dollars in 2022/2023
And here you can see the biggest problem in Europe, all old industries that either earn their money with CO2 or have not managed to switch to new technologies (VW)....
And then there is demography
It is actually Novo Nordisk now (2025) with $344 billion but LVMH is second with 328 billion (they often switch places).
https://companiesmarketcap.com/european-union/largest-companies-in-the-eu-by-market-cap/#google_vignette
BTW compare this with the market values of the top 10 in the USA, they are 10x bigger and almost all tech. China is different, less stock market orientated.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-10-largest-companies-in-the-u-s-europe-and-china/
And as you point out no new big European company has been listed at the stock market in the last 25+ years. We are sleeping indeed.
There might be highly skilled people from America who don't want to become part of the servant class and remember the benefits of democracy.
Besides, Japan is doing well adapting as it's circumstances change. I'd take Japan over where America is right now.
as is the USA absent immigrants (which Trump is deporting with great fanfare)
The only first-world country with a substantially above-replacement birth rate is Israel: what lessons do they offer to the rest of us?
Not so fast. The ones having all those children do not want to fight, just study the Torah and, of course, *uck.
Even secular Israeli Jews have a (slightly) above-replacement birth rate, even if they're quite a bit less fecund than the Haredi welfare cases you're thinking of.
It's your job now to preserve democracy and civilization itself. Here in the former USA, it slips away rapidly.
No its Not oure Job alone! Stand up and do somthing against!
True. Americans have grown too passive about accepting unjust, illegitimate and illegal actions perpetrated against them by their government. In any other country, the streets would already be filled daily with protesters and there would be calls for general strikes and so forth. More Americans have to get off their asses and take stand.
This being said, one reason Trump wants to undermine democracy abroad is because he knows that American democracy has a better chance of surviving or resurrecting if vibrant democracies exist abroad to provide support and a blueprint. Crushing Canada may be as important to Trump's reign as killing Ukrainian democracy is to Putin's.
One reason why Americas may be less willing to protest in the "streets" is that US cities are built for cars rather than for people, and didn't many red states respond to the 2020 BLM protests by making it legal to run over protesters in the street?
The Dark Age of German Macroeconomics (altering the title of a famous PK column) is over.
If we can gain ground again, FIX News needs to be nationalized and made factual.
There's an assumption here about US homogeneity and single-mindedness that I don't think can be counted on.
Isn't one of the reasons why Western civilization is so powerful precisely that it hasn't had a single dominating "civilization-state" (as Russia and China are for their respective civilizational spheres) since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?
The diversity is different. Europe has so many literate nations with completely different cultures and educational systems in close proximity. The Americas have four main languages and cultures that are very spread out. Having spent time in both, I can only say they are very different.
I would say that being a settler-colonial society (like all the states of the Americas along with Australia and New Zealand) would affect the culture profoundly compared to Europe, but it would make those countries part of a fundamentally different civilization!
Russia has NEVER been a 'civilization state'.
Up until the 18th century the territory presently imprisoned in Russia was a hodge podge of different peoples. Previous to that Russian ancestors were the most favorite slaves sold along the Spice Road by their Viking masters for centuries.
And many would consider Russia to still be uncivilized. Ask a Ukrainian.
By "civilization-state" I mean an imperial state that aspires to rule the entirety of a civilization (as for example the Arab Caliphate was for the Islamic civilization), as opposed to a "nation-state" which aspires to be the state of a single people.
You point out (correctly) that Russia rules many conquered non-Slavic peoples (Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Caucasian and Mongolic) but that actually agrees with my point rather than contradicting it. Moscow has historically aspired to rule the entirety of the Orthodox Christian world at most (hence its identification as the "Third Rome" and its historic push towards Constantinople) and at a minimum the Cyrillic-writing Slavic peoples. They thus consider the existence of an independent Western-aligned Ukrainian state to be an intolerable insult.
As an American, I doubt Europe is more diverse than we are now. I have no sympathy for and cannot understand Trump voters. They are utterly foreign and repulsive to half of us. Our environment has become toxic.
Europe is so much more diverse than the US. I have lived in both.
Thats exactly the problem with neoliberalism/libertarianism. You consistently forget to check how the worst off fare. :p the Democrats WILL need to to gather such info deliberately nowadays, or they will NEVER reach those people, and get info from them or explain why the things being done benefits them too.
... Hm, like this: , as a IT startup guy Ive seen a few *totally* unexplcable and absurd user rebellions - i think its the same thing as a peasants uprising in old Europe, or a suburb riot - angry people never talking and error reporting to you in a useful way, along the agreed-to ways - but instead showing their anger through mysterious actions, so you have to figure out the actual problem yourself. Because they CANT do ANYTHING your way anymore, before youve LISTENED to them on OUR initiative, to show them respect. We learned to expect it, and just go there and interview them..
Ive been sitting listening for 15 minutes with a teacher listening sincerely to angry utter garbage, and apologizing as needed, before she was so calm that she could tell me what the actual problems were. All of which were fixed the same day!
THAT is what the washington Democrats will have to do to in Kentucky to fix this Trump thing. and keep them in the loop, and fix the worst inequality. Then there will be ZERO problems for them tolerating others...they just CANT do it while struggling and forgotten. And they CANT ask for help, themselves, that would kill their Pride, and that is the only thing that keeps them up.
As i said , this is the roads end for neoliberalism. You will have to forget Nozick (he even changed his mind later but that never got attention.) and go back to Rawls fairness concept. The other ("tax is theft") has totally corrupted you.
You also have to factor in the 400-year history of White Supremacist ideology that has, alas, never gone away in the U.S. But having a basic moral compass is enough to reject that ideology, and failing to reject is not morally excused by watching Fox News or whatever. There’s a reason why some people readily accept white supremacist lies (which are obviously lies) and others reject them.
Can far-right politics be considered to be a type of affinity fraud, much like the ones which commonly ensnare Mormons, and which Bernie Madoff used to get American Jews to participate in his ponzi scheme?
I think it's a bit more of how the structural brain works. Sad to say, but when you are so prone to conspiracy theories, that is more than simple brainwashing, IMO.
Makes me think of Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations WITHOUT America
Yes. We are parallelle experiments nearby, so we can learn from each others.
The biggest problem is the lack in acceptance in Sweden, for example... Far too many politicians have taken easy route to avoid a debate, and said "ok, its not our fault, its an EU desicion. :p instead of taking the opportunity to do some good old public education about why. :p
German, French and UK Defense manufacturers will be overjoyed--and more than capable--of stepping up to replace their high-end military kit with products that are 100% European. Many European systems, like the PzH 2000 SP artillery, and the Leopard 2 for example, are already as good if not better than their US equivalents.
Ironic how the lie that the EU was set up to screw the US leads to uninformed decisions, resulting in the EU uniting and positioning itself against... the US.
Guess that's what you get with a Dunning Kruger president. To ignorant to understand how wrong he is.
Even more ironic that his administration was set up to screw the US.
Yep WS ,
Screwed over we be . I’m staking out my street
corner in advance to bring my tin cup along with
a sign that says : Brother, can you spare a dime - adjusted for inflation!
I'm accepting Canadian currency in my cup.
They don’t believe it’s less evil. They believe it will give them unlimited, perpetual power and wealth.
I read somewhere Frederic tRump sr used to yell at him "Donald, you moron!" I suspect detailed neuropsychiatric testing of The Donald would indeed show a 78 year old with an average IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s with EQ of a 3 year old.
I don't know about his IQ, but IMO his psychopathy is the cause of all his aberrant behavior. Age has only exacerbated it.
A huge factor is toxic masculinity rather than abuse, in my opinion. I had a very abusive childhood which gave me nothing but empathy for the "losers" and became a human rights lawyer, but maybe as a woman I had no choice anyways.
Someone who has done a lot of Disability Evaluations can develop the ability to intuitively come up with a very close approximation of someone’s IQ in a well constructed interview. I used to tag-team SS Disability Evaluations with our clinic’s Clinical Psychologist. I was always within a couple of points of their assessment of the applicant’s overall IQ.
thats what you get for electing a "king" who doesnt read anything :P
wins his own golf competition...and likely people lost intentionally not to offend the emperor
its so pathetic
Dear Paul, I'm a newbie in reading your posts but I find them very sound and no-nonsense, with a kind of charming, homey inflection. I look forward to more.
Thank you. and safe travels. Susannah
Reading Krugman is a great way to start the day! I find it grounds me & helps to put all the pieces in their place.
Yes the We the Europeans sure know the clock is ticking. And we are also sure we can do it in time with our own skills and resourses. Heard a flight was 95% empty from Heathrow to NYC yesterday.
US is being isolated at their own grip. Canada is with us as is Aussie, Kiwis, Turkey, Japan, S Korea.
Canada may be with you, but Canada is not hearing much support from the rest of the world. We feel abandoned and left to our fate with an aggressive and unhinged former ally.
That‘s not true. Our (Germany's) foreign minister for example stated very unequivocally that the sovereignty of Canada is not up for debate and that Germany firmly stands with Canada at the last G7 meeting in Alberta.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/germany-foreign-minister-voices-strong-support-for-canadas-territorial-sovereignty/
Thank you.
After my partner died three years ago I had hoped to just live out my remaining years in peace and quiet. Now I lie awake worrying that Canadians will lose everything we hold dear. The rule of law is gone in the US and there's nobody to stop Trump.
Nope Canada is family with europe
can imagine how scary it must be to live so close to an unhinged monster
Fifty years ago, when I first met my partner, he said to me that the biggest threat to Canada was the USA, coming for our natural resources. Now that may come to pass.
I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that Canada had allies other than the US, and these former non-US-allies abandoned you while your relationship to the US went bad?
If yes, who are these unfaithful allies, specifically? If no, what else do you mean?
We hear words of support, and of course are grateful, but what we NEED is assurances that if the US comes after us, we won't be abandoned.
Trump is unhinged and incompetent, but he has evil people whispering in his ear. He's almost fully dismantled US democracy in two months. He seems inclined to ignore the courts, and his Congress is flaccid with inertia. The guardrails fell off. There is nobody to stop him now.
Add to this a very plausible factor... Canada might soon tie our economy, defence, and political values to the EU. We are the ninth largest by GDP (et Ici on parle français). As we say in hockey "Elbows Up!"
From Amsterdam: Canadians are alway welcome. You liberated us from the Nazis in 1945. We will not forget.
Let’s not forget that for most of its history Europe was a war-torn, bellicose continent. What is now too easily labeled weakness was a hope for new way forward away from a cycle of violence.
There’s a good book about that called ‘Painted in Blood’.
Certainly hope you will be admitted back to the US. Coming from Europe this is a real risky business nowadays. Especially for a person not always agrreeing with the US government's actions..
If Der Führer tried that stunt it would make headlines. It would bring serious negative attention to King MAGA.
He's starting with people who don't have a way to fight back. Such as gay, trans and poor people. It's disgusting and I never thought in a million years that the US could treat people this way. If I lived in a non-US country I would stay as far away from the US as possible.
To give you an idea how fast things move: yesterday the Education secretary of The Netherlands instructed the national science foundation (NWO) to create a fund for American Scientists that might consider moving to The Netherlands. In the official announcement of the Government:
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/03/20/nederland-start-fonds-om-plek-te-bieden-aan-internationale-topwetenschappers
the US is not mentioned (I guess to prevent a diplomatic response), but the trigger came a few weeks ago from the NWO itself (Marcel Levi) after the news of severe budget cuts at US Universities broke.
The vultures are already circling overhead.
Good idea. It's hard to imagine the leaders of a country destroying the engines of prosperity, but that's exactly what's happening.
It’s like Trump is and has surrounded himself with sociopaths. They not only have no empathy they don’t even get embarrassed. When I read about the arrest of the German, the Frenchman, and the Canadian here I was embarrassed for the USA then angry. People need to wake up!
Musk's comments on Fox about the attacks on his dealerships, which I don't support, are unbelievable. You can see how Trumpian he is, and the utter inability to apply the same standards to himself and other people. He's just blind, and the aggression grows out of inconceivable and pathological self-centeredness. With Trump the aggression is integrated into his sociopathy in a different way, but they're both completely nuts, and apparently promoted by a sick political party into positions of power FOR their destructive capabilities. They're perfect choices for that. Way to go Republicans ...
Yes, Trump has awakened a sleeping giant, who may be world's last chance to stop the Moscow-Washington cabal. And in this article's fine print, the good professor points out that Europeans are rightly alarmed by American abuse of its tourists, even if Americans are oblivious to this threat. Guess what that is going to mean for tourism to America from Europe and Canada.
I am not oblivious. I am horrified. And furious.
I haven't read about detained European tourists, but I'm not surprised that it's happening. When you allow and encourage people to let loose their worst selves it gets pretty ugly and self defeating.
This is good news, indeed.
There is another sleeping giant I hope will wake up and that is Americans who want to see America remain a democracy.
I think that ship has already sailed and is vanishing over the horizon.
Not completely. There will be a strong core of discontent. Purging everyone who remembers what we once were will be ugly and I'm not sure these people are up to it. Though I'm not counting on it. There are many different paths from here. Some are truly awful and none of them are what we could call "good".
A tremendous amount of long term damage has already happened. It will take a lot to figure out and then remedy the source of the madness.
We the people will prevail. We shall overcome.
Paul, thanks a lot for your input. With regard to technical giants, Europe does indeed have several. To name two, there is Novo Nordisk in Denmark and, smaller, but vitally important, ASML in The Netherlands.
I get a feeling that when people are talking about "tech" companies nowadays they mainly mean software companies and that is where Europe is unfortunately lagging. The biggest one we have is SAP from Germany.
Just curious: is Nokia still a player?
Not really, they were well and truly clobbered by the smartphone revolution.
stop it already
I wish Canadians would quit talking about "winning" the trade war. We and Europe need to free ourselves as quickly as possible from our abusive partner. Whether the people of Canada and Europe will tolerate the transitional cost remains to be seen. Depends on whether they [continue to] view the US as an existential threat, regardless of what "concessions" Trump may offer.
Canada is already making moves to move closer to Europe. A report in the NYT yesterday said there is a plan for Canada to manufacture and use European military hardware.
Indeed. We have an election coming up (probably April 28) and if our new Prime Minister prevails, that trajectory will continue. It is not an accident that his first two foreign visits were France and UK. If Maple MAGA Poilievre wins, we'll see emulation and appeasement, not meaningful separation.
You're absolutely right, but also please consider supporting those of in the U.S. who are vehemently opposed to the Orange Führer. We need all the help we can get - both internally and externally.
Indeed. It is in all of our interests to do what we can to preserve the Western Alliance and also US Democracy. They are complementary goals.
I’m curious about what the graph would depict if you added Canada’s GDP to that of the EU + UK. I’m Canadian and I’m beginning to see a silver lining in Trumps bullshit.
Love the music video!
PMJ is a good rabbit hole to fall down. Music is one of the only things keeping me sane these days.
Anything constructive to add to the discussion?
Probably later in the threads when there’s something constructive to add. Yourself?
English and still in agony over Brexit. I felt as if a part of my identity had been ripped away. Still do.
That’s the emotional bit. Yet how utterly stupid it seemed at the time and how even more stupid it seems now. It’s so obvious there’s no need to explain it. Yet the politicians still won’t even talk about it. Even now at such a crucial time.
I fear the same in the US. Trump has done awful things but what he has done won’t be addressed and won’t be fully reversed.
I really, really hope the EU can stand up to populism and continue to be decent and civilised.
"I really, really hope the EU can stand up to populism and continue to be decent and civilised."
Same here. Part of the reason I've been hesitant to leave the U.S. (even though I actually do have that option as a dual citizen) is that the fascist tide has been rising everywhere for more than a decade, so moving just feels like kicking the can down the road. I'd love to believe that the Trump government will be enough of a wake-up call to other people to stop the trend (apparently the first one wasn't), but, well, that's still just a hope at this point.
I think the fact that most European countries have a parliamentary system of government with proportional representation makes these countries a bit more resistent to complete far-right populist takeovers as has happened in the US. In these systems it‘s extremely uncommon for one party to achieve an absolute majority in parliament which means that if they want to govern they would need to find other parties willing to form a coalition with them. This means one of two things: either all the other big parties refuse to form a coalition with them and instead form their own coalitions among one another (as has so far always been the case in Germany for example), or other parties will agree to form a coalition in which case they can at least reign in some of the worst excesses of the far-right populists since they will need to govern together with a more moderate party.
We never addressed the invasion of Iraq or the 2008 recession.
The real question isn't really when Europe will stand up - they already are - so much as it is how long will it take for them to find their legs?
Europe has never stood up together as a nation before, but they'll have to now. It starts with baby steps, and over time develops into running the marathon. They have to work on being in it for the long run.
Not as a nation, but as a community.
Same concept, just different semantics.
Well, it‘s still different since Europe and the EU are a collection of many sovereign nation-states and not one sovereign federation. Also, most Europeans still don‘t consider being "European" as being part of a European nation. So far there isn‘t really a European nation to speak of but only smaller nations that are cooperating on many matters. Maybe in the future the EU will federalize and Europeans will see themselves as being part of one big European nation but so far that‘s not the case.
That's true, >but<, European nations can still act in tandem and cooperate on beating down Russia. Europe doesn't have to federalize to make that happen any more than it needs to federalize to make the EU work.
It's pretty clear, and always has been - at least to some of us - that Making America great Again was never his intent. Just a clever bumper sticker slogan that he "borrowed" from Reagan, that he knew the "tribe" could "relate" to.
Quite the contrary, we can observe in real time his real intent is to >destroy< America, and all that it stands for.