Someone post that editorial comic from like the 1930s where every industry is portrayed as starving at a banquet, but government marked officials are overfeeding the caricature of 'War'.
“We are really at a historic juncture,” the senior EU official said, arguing that the double hit of trade disruption from U.S. subsidies and high energy prices risks turning public opinion against both the war effort and the transatlantic alliance. “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.”
See this everywhere, even here in the UK.
Nobody fucking likes America. Everyone has started to see them as a force that sticks their nose into literally everything. Fuck off and mind your own damn business. :amerikkka:
America sees Europe as a theatre of operations, and Europeans are starting to notice that.
Nah, EU/NATO countries couldn't have not sanctioned Russia. Amerika literally owns them. It owns their industries, their militaries, their entire governments. A prime minister of some EU country talking seriously about not imposing sanctions? They get a phone call from the CIA. Maybe an agent pays their family a visit. Still refuse? Boom, they're gone. Replaced by someone else who'll toe the line.
Even right now, with mounting public pressure and inflation, what Amerika expects these "national leaders" to do is shut up and get their people to comply. This article? This entire thing is just show. It's to let the people "feel" like their leaders are gonna stand up for them a little bit. But that's gonna be the extent of it.
They can't do anything as long as they stick with the free market neoliberal capitalism bullshit.
Nothing is really stopping the EU from collectively either nationalizing power companies(heck even temporary state control would be enough) or even just straight up subsidizing energy costs. Sure it would be expensive but it doesn't really matter, this is one of the times MMT would be perfectly good solution. Instead of a price cap on Russian shit, instead it should be a price cap on energy prices for consumers with the governments covering the remaining.
It isn't just a shortage of fuel but also high prices. The supply is still there, be it from the US or contraband from India/China. The real problem is the cost to consumers and they could easily fix that.
In other words, you cannot print energy. This makes them completely dependent on the whims of their supplier.
Russian oil is getting to Europe through India and China for months now(1)(2). Russia also never said they wouldn't sell to the EU, their only requirement is payment in rubles and their only opposition was the stupid price cap. It would be expensive but I still don't see why the EU can't subsidize energy prices and put a price cap to consumers.
The US must supply the EU with LNG, I don't think this is negotiable. It is all good fun trying to keep the EU hostage through energy dependence. But you must also not kill your hostage otherwise what is the point?
Sure US capitalists may think that is beneficial but the US alone can't consume let alone produce enough to outcompete China. They need to absorb the EU, not destroy it and a situation where the US refuses to supply LNG for whatever reason would be contradictory and stupid. It is possible, but it is also illogical.
France to announce details of EDF nationalisation.
Here is a breakdown of the individual EU countries policies so far. France is the only country with both retail and wholesale price regulation.
On July 6 2022, the French government announced a €9.7 billion public takeover bid to nationalise Electricité de France (EDF), by acquiring the remaining 16% share of the company. The government has also announced plans to spend €50 billion by 2030 to extend the lives of existing nuclear reactors at the top of President Emmanuel Macron’s plant to build six new ones by 2035 (for a further €50 billion).
On 4 August 2022, the French parliament passed another relief package, this one worth €20 billion. It offers a generalized set of subsidies instead of targeted support. It renews the cap on electricity price increases to 4% and freezes gas prices until the end of 2022.
On 14 September 2022, the government announced that the tariff shield, already extended until December 2022 for gas, and until 1 February 2023 for electricity, will be renewed in 2023. The package includes: capping the increase in gas and electricity prices at 15%; an average increase limit in bills of around €25 per month for households heating with gas; an average increase limit of around € 20 per month for households heating with electricity; support of up to € 200 is also provided for French people heating with oil or wood.
They could do it, they just don't want to.
I dream of the day that, instead of being coddled and catered to, Americans get shit on every time they step foot out of the country. I just hope this anger actually materializes enough to also cause some real damage to imperialism i.e. closing down US military bases like the one where that CIA ghoul ran over a kid on a bike and got away scot free.
Hopefully it actually leads to something and not just the old "I hate the government but love their entertainment. I want to live in LA" that I heard during the Bush years.
Dark Papist Brandon
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OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE
US is losing allies at a record rate?
Please, I can only cum so hard :bird-screm-2:
Nine months after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is beginning to fracture the West.
All of this could have been avoided if the West had simply not taken the bait.
Europe is also to blame for the situation. They were also training Nazis in Ukraine and giving support to the Nazi government.
The EU are America worshippers with no spines. Yes the US owns them and all that, but that hasn't stopped various countries in the Global South with a lot more to lose from switching to China. They still get shit on and everything but many have stuck to it. The EU is pushing away from both Russia and China, probably fueled by their own racism along with US worship. I don't feel all that bad.
nah, i think it's mostly the racism. dont think they're US worshippers, they'd just prefer to be a vassal of the white empire.
Wait a minute, are you saying that the USA isn't for this war exclusively because they just care about Ukrainian civilians so much??
I'm sorry, if you have any criticism of US foreign policy at any time after 2003, that's Putin apologia.
:PSL:
They'll talk tough but in the end they'll take it and ask for more by staying vassals of the US. This is to Europe what the Plaza Accords were to Japan and Japan certainly didn't stop being America's sycophants.
Europeans, did you know that in a pinch parliaments can be burned for warmth?
can you explain the plaza accords for japan real fast? wikipedia uses big words and I dont get it
The real short version is that Japan was outcompeting the US economically in the 80s and the US sought a way to kneecap Japanese competitiveness.
One of the reasons the Japanese economy was so competitive was because the Yen was cheap relative to the Dollar, meaning that a Japanese car or radio was usually cheaper to Americans than an equivalent American car or radio (in addition to often being better).
The Plaza Accords were a package of agreements that the US forced on Japan in which Japan promised to do things to raise the value of the Yen, which would make Japanese goods relatively more expensive. This was good for America, but terrible for the Japanese. In the same bundle of agreements was also the forced transfer of IP for things like microchips from major Japanese firms like Toshiba to US firms.
The consequences of the Plaza Accords (along with some questionable Japanese handling of said consequences) led to the Japanese economy stagnating for decades.
If you've been paying attention to Trump's trade war bullshit, you'll probably find the above very familiar because it's what he tried to push on China.
this is super interesting, where can I learn more about this kind of thing?
