Europe

Europe’s pre-revolutionary conditions are taking shape

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to address members of the European Parliament. Many of the things I said will sound familiar to regular readers of my column, but I believe I was able to deepen some of my thoughts, and would like to share them with you here.

Revolutions make for fascinating case studies in hindsight. We like to imagine them as eruptions of grand philosophical discontent, the oppressed masses rising against an unjust order in the name of some great principle. And there is always a philosophical dimension lurking in the background. But the spark that actually ignites a revolution is often far more mundane than historians care to admit.

Closer to home …

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Civil Unrest", "Civil War", Europe

It is not Europe’s war even when Iran hangs Europeans

Until we understand that weakness is not a virtue but a slow suicide, we Europeans will continue to take blows while responding with useless diplomatic notes that no one reads or takes seriously.

The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, was explicit: “This is not our war, we did not start it. What does Donald Trump expect a handful or two of European frigates in the Strait of Hormuz to be able to do that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot?”.

Europe is facing Islamic takeover and the elites are content with that.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"US Israel Iran War", Europe

The Iran war has divided Europe and shattered the Atlantic alliance

The war against Iran unleashed by the United States and Israel two weeks ago brings to the boil the clash of civilisations that has been simmering since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Despite the efforts of the mullahs to incite the entire Muslim world against the West, that conflict has so far been largely contained. Iran’s sporadic drone and missile strikes on the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have failed to provoke these states to distance themselves from the US, while the “Arab street” has remained quiescent.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"US Israel Iran War", Europe, European Union, USA

Trump and the truth about Europe’s ‘betrayal’, Part 2

RATHER like a concerned friend staging an intervention with an alcoholic, the Trump administration has again and again tried to save Europe from itself, to tell a friend drunk on delusions that it is time to sober up. The short-term high of progressive virtue comes with a long-term hangover of economic ruin, international irrelevance, and total societal collapse. Nowhere is this more abundantly evident than in the welcoming of, and indulgent patronage fading into submissive terror towards, third world Muslim populations who refuse to integrate with Western culture and values.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, USA

Trump and the truth about Europe’s ‘betrayal’, Part 1

WE ARE always being told by the more idiotic European and British political commentators that Donald Trump and his administration have betrayed something precious.

We are told that they have betrayed ‘the international rules-based system’. We are told that they have betrayed ‘the democratic norms’. We are told they have betrayed Nato. And we are told that they have betrayed their European partners.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, USA

Why Europe’s leaders have struggled to speak as one on Iran

Europe knew this may be coming. For weeks, leaders and policy makers watched the US military build-up in the Middle East. They heard the threats of the Trump administration to Tehran: Give up all nuclear aspirations – or else!

But since the US-Israeli attack started on Iran three days ago, this continent has looked at best uncoordinated, if not fractured and decidedly without leverage, caught up in the maelstrom of events.

Each European country is understandably angsting about its citizens in the region – whether and how they may need to evacuate what would be tens of thousands of people in total.

They fear the Muslims they have allowed to settle.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, Iran, Israel, USA

Facing Europe’s Decline

The very heart of the West is unstable, broke and impotent. What does this mean for the world – and Canada?

There’s a psychological concept called the sad-clown paradox. That those who try to bring joy and make us feel better, who seem unflappable, carry deep sorrow inside.

In one famous joke, a depressed man is told to see the clown Pagliacci. The patient responds, “But doctor, you don’t understand. I am Pagliacci.” Ali G, the comedic character, says of the burger mascot Ronald McDonald: “Even though him [sic] may seem like he’s always smiling, there’s a sadness in the eyes.”

Such were European leaders at the Munich Security Conference this month, the world’s premier geopolitics summit, where the elders of the Old World spent a weekend telling everyone it was all going to be okay.

Mr. Trump has said Europe faces “civilizational erasure” because it has “gone woke” on migration and climate change and because of its alleged suppression of populist voices. He both misdiagnoses the problem and presents questionable evidence.

The article is the old order grasping for relevance and finding all it can do is complain about Trump.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope

Trump threatens ‘obnoxious’ tariffs as UK and EU seek clarity on trade deals

Donald Trump has declared that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”, as the UK and the EU said they were seeking urgent clarity on the US trade deals they struck last summer.

Trump threatened to escalate his global tariff war on Monday, after a supreme court ruling last week that he had overstepped his legal authority to impose his “liberation day” measures last year.

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said he did not expect Trump’s new 15% global tariff – announced on Saturday – to affect the majority of a UK-US economic deal that was agreed last year.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, USA

Rubio’s charm conceals a brutal truth – Europe is on its own

What a difference a year makes. At this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was given a standing ovation for a speech that echoed what Vice President JD Vance had said so scandalously 12 months earlier. Rubio accused Europeans of trying “to appease a climate cult” that has impoverished the continent by forcing it to adopt catastrophic energy policies. Like Vance, he also criticised Europe’s immigration policies and its dogmatic commitment to global free trade, which he said has fuelled deindustrialisation and hollowed out supply chains. He even lamented the transfer of sovereignty to international organisations — a swipe not just at the UN and international legal bodies, but at the EU itself.

Europeans hated Vance’s speech. Yet they loved Rubio’s. The difference was tone. Unlike Vance, Rubio sugar-coated the message. “For us Americans,” he said, “home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.” Europeans just love it when Americans show respect for their cultural heritage. It flatters their sense of pride — and superiority.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, NATO, USA

The Phantom Stealth Fighter That Exposes Europe’s Deep Divisions Over Defense

Duplicated efforts, fragmented industry and soured collaborations are among reasons region isn’t getting more bang for its defense buck

It was billed as the answer to high-tech U.S. stealth fighters. Instead, an ambitious pan-European project has become a case study into some of what has gone wrong with the region’s defense push.

The French, German and Spanish Future Combat Air System project was meant to build a next-generation aircraft to catch up with the latest U.S., Chinese and Russian models. Now the venture has devolved into bickering between defense companies Airbus and Dassault Aviation—and between Berlin and Paris—over who gets to lead its development, with all sides now questioning its future.

This is who Carney wants us to hook up with, maybe he’ll make Canada a conduit for ChiCom IP theft.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, WTF?

Munich and the Fate of the West

Marco Rubio’s warning against civilizational suicide.

If you live long enough, you can trace the river of history apart from the smaller tributaries and streams. You’ve watched it rise or fall according to the acts of men. You’ve seen great leaders bend it where it wasn’t going, and bad leaders redirect it into the shoals. And you can tell what will lead to greatness and what will end in disaster. Which is how I know Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference was not only the finest of this century, but the most potentially consequential.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, European Union, NATO, USA

Why Europe’s elites have embraced sneering anti-Americanism

In recent months, anti-Americanism has emerged yet again as a respectable prejudice in Europe. It is widely promoted through the mainstream media and enthusiastically endorsed by the continent’s cultural elites. There are now even numerous campaigns to boycott American goods – most respondents to a survey in France said they would support a boycott of US brands like Tesla, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. As a piece in Euractiv put it, anti-Americanism is ‘in vogue across Europe’.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, Trump Derangement Syndrome

Rubio to Munich: Mass Migration Threatens Survival of European People

The “delusion” of globalism and the decision to allow mass migration into the West threaten the future of Europe and its peoples, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told attendees at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, NATO, USA