- cross-posted to:
- ukraine@sopuli.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- ukraine@sopuli.xyz
Summary
After a tense Oval Office encounter with Donald Trump and JD Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a warm UK welcome, including an official audience with King Charles at Sandringham.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a defence summit with European and NATO allies to reaffirm solidarity with Ukraine, discuss unlocking frozen Russian assets, and counter the rift caused by Trump’s accusations of Zelenskyy’s ingratitude.
European leaders fear the spat endangers Western unity and peace efforts and are vowing no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukrainian involvement.
Events from yesterday are sad, not just for Ukraine or even Europe, but they will also hurt US long term.
US right now is on the path of losing its dominance. All the soft power US is losing, China is stepping in. Russia also believes it can once again become a superpower hopefully EU get’s its security seriously and won’t let them.
Russia can be a superpower if they didn’t rob the nations resources instead of investing in it and its people.
Aka Russia will never be a superpower. Russia history motto is “and somehow, it got worse”
That’s why they compromised trump.
Really tired of people saying “this is so bad for the US!”
Yea…no shit. That’s literally the whole point of all these insane actions.
And I’m also getting a little tired of them expecting me to be sad that this is bad for the US. A lot of the “woe is me, the US is losing influence!” Sounds almost as whiny to the non-American audience as some of the MAGA stuff about the world not being “grateful” enough for them.
The US’ international influence has been a mixed blessing for a long time. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what Europe manages to put together as a replacement. Could be a step up.
Yeah, but this assumes that the EU will be able to get itself together and act. Right wing governments are on the rise and the biggest bloxk opposing them in the EU Parlament are the conservatives. Europe is not known for its fast and swift decision making. Everything takes ages over here.
I just don’t see the EU acting in union enoth to be able to face the challenges “stepping up” brings with it.
“Step up” are the exact words Europe needs to take to heart right now. Fuck the US. We’re the worst of everything everyone says about us and we don’t deserve a moment’s sympathy. I mean it’s been literally decades since the last time we pulled Europe’s security out of the fire for them. So show us what you can do without leaning on us.
A lot of the “oh noes the US is losing influence” comes twofold from:
General sinophobia as China is often seen as the next viable global superpower.
Americans who deep down know exactly how good they’ve had it because of that influence and are suddenly scared that their own country could become the true corrupt, broke shithole it has always really been. We only ever had wealth because we dominated and stole it from the rest of the world.
I’m with you, US losing influence isn’t a bad thing. It’s only bad for US citizens, who need to get a grip on how comfortable and coddled they have really been, even if they are poor. US poor is not international poor, once again, because we stole so much wealth from the rest of the world. I say this as a US citizen who is daily disgusted by the selfishness and coddled ass attitudes of his fellow Americans.
A good example of why is how we took the worlds outpouring of compassion after 9/11 and squandered the fuck out of it by playing world police and killing untold millions in the middle east and Europe has been dealing with the aftermath for 20 fucking years now.
As someone living in Asia, the US losing influence is a really scary thing. China has been increasing their aggression in the region and the US’s presence has always been the counter to that. It was a good balance but a weaker US will tip the balance to China’s favour. Not to mention that the US has been a key factor in getting Korea and Japan to work together on security matters. Unfortunately, there’s no EU or NATO equivalent for us to rely on.
As an eastern European who knows what it’s like to have an angry belligerent neighbour next door, I feel for you. I don’t have much to offer other than hoping you and yours continue to be ok, and hoping that nearby countries in similar situations can organize somewhat to help eachother.
I would say this is a good time for you guys to make one. My home country is Canada, and I think it’d be great to see defensive pacts in both the Atlantic and Pacific - we’d be keen on joining both of them, I suspect. We’re threatened by Chinese influence too.
Very well said, and I echo the sentiment. Americans have been too comfortable their entire lives. Now, they may learn what it actually is to suffer and be poor.
Problem is, a lot of them already are suffering and poor. Look at the nightmare that is American health care, for example. They’re dead last among the developed world and people would rather risk death than call an ambulance because they fear it’ll put them and their next-of-kin into debt forever. Losing a job can mean death for some because their health insurance depends on employment.
And yet the propaganda reverberates back and forth among them; “The United States is the greatest country in the world! Land of the free and home of the brave!”
I’m Canadian, and Trump’s been Trumping a lot about how Canada should be forcibly made the “51st state.” He said, among other insane and offensive drivel, that Canadians would get better healthcare if that happened. I honestly think a lot of Americans believe that. They are deeply indoctrinated.
We’ve seen plenty of other countries where this kind of indoctrination works. People may live terrible lives of deprivation, but as long as they believe their enemies are worse off they love dear leader for the bounty they’ve been given.
Most Americans already know what this is like. But still they vote to make it worse.
So you think American poverty equates to levels of poverty seen in Africa?
Nothing does. The point is that America’s great “wealth” is not shared by most regular folks, the majority of whom are struggling to get by - albeit yes, with fucking sanitation.
The US has already lost its dominance. Anything you think you see to that end atm is general inertia. People are mentally prone to incredible inertia in behaviors.
The signs of power vacuum between first trump term and second trump term are there. China. Israel. Russia. And now the world is already rallying together against the new world bully.
Because that is who Trump is. A bully with a giant war chest. No one likes a bully. Incidentally, on the psych side, they usually have daddy issues and/or have been abused at home.
The brunt of it ends when Trump dies in his sleep from his medical ailments (he doesn’t look good). And then we see the real agenda of the people around him in this admin, in full force. Likely less erratic with the war chest though, and more focused on destroying any and all remnants of power and will to live in the working class.
What does it look like beginning with that rigor mortis?
It’s gone. The USA is a superpower only because of its allegiances. In the past week it’s been demonstrated that the US no longer wishes to be a part of that arrangement.
I wish it was given their current government, but it still is the number one military and economy, so they can do a lot of damage. It will depend on what happens after Trump, if they continue spiraling down or not.
Super powers in general should not exist.
In the same sense as cancer shouldn’t exist, but that won’t make it go away. We have to agree to keep them in check and somewhat sane. The USA lost all sanity.
Crazy how you wouldn’t think it was the EU and NATO countries.
Since, you know, the entire point of him going to see trump was to show them that they needed to fill the void.
Didn’t you notice all the “thank you” messages and how this visit was already scheduled…
The BRICS partnership (Of which China is a key player) encompasses almost 50% of the world’s population, and their Belt and Road initiative is a soft power wet dream.
The world has actually already become multipolar, but most Western media won’t make that clear because they are still stuck in the old Colonial mindset of Captialist-Democracy = 100% civilized / Not-a-Capitalist-Democracy = 100% backwards.
Trump is just switching gears from the slow decline harder towards the Capitalist-Not-a-Democracy segment BRICS’s most namesakes inhabit. He just doesn’t bother to mask the racketeering into something like the Belt and Road