Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.

Macron's Mini Summit In Palais de l'Elysée

by Oui Wed Feb 19th, 2025 at 02:13:29 PM EST

#WeAreUnited Unless ...

Zelenskyy: 'President Trump is living in this disinformation space' | DW News |

Volodymyr is not making himself, nor Ukraine loved by new dictator Trump living in the White House ... bad call.

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Ending the Bloody Russia-Ukraine War

by Oui Wed Feb 19th, 2025 at 08:18:54 AM EST

Luxury in the Other Part of the Universe

US, Russia hold 4.5-hour high-level talks, agree to push for ending Ukraine crisis | Global Times |

China welcomes all peace efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis: FM

After a several-year pause in dialogue, high-level delegations from Russia and the US met in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss the prospects for resolving the conflict in Ukraine and ways to break the impasse in bilateral relations, which according to TASS, lasted about 4.5 hours. 

Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and special envoy for the Middle East Stephen Witkoff were participating in the negotiations. The talks were held in one of the royal family's palaces - Al Diriyah in the Albasateen complex, TASS reported. 

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Principles of War by Clausewitz

by Oui Tue Feb 18th, 2025 at 10:49:28 AM EST

My diary a long time ago ...

Lt. Col. Syrsky to Further UA War Debacle | 10 Feb. 2024 |

Aggression by the Pentagon and DARPA to integrate Ukraine into NATO

I don't agree with b @MoA ... the battle stalemate is more like two beaten dizzy boxers hanging in the ropes, just clobbering one another. War is damn stupid where diplomacy would have prevented this war with two sides would have been willing to listen to one another ... read the UN Charter about the quest for peace between neighbours. NATO is not a neighbour, but an asset of US military aggression.

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Neocon Infested Bipartisan Foreign Policy Ends

by Oui Mon Feb 17th, 2025 at 09:56:16 AM EST

Question I put forward to AI search 😂 🤣

Neocon infested foreign bipartisan policy the ultimate demise of the United States and influence across the ME and Near Asia. With Trump May include some European states too.

The Rise and Demise of American Unipolarism: Neoconservatism and US Foreign Policy 1989-2009

Not quite as Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden continued a bipartisan hawkish foreign policy.

The End of Bipartisan Foreign Policy | Peter Zeihan - 3 Feb. 2025 |

After four consecutive presidents adopting a neo-isolationist mentality, the era of bipartisan globalization is coming to an end. So, what will the future of US foreign policy look like?

US foreign policy once sought to prevent any Eastern Hemisphere power from becoming too strong, but all semblance of strategic coherence has gone out the window. This is reminiscent of the pre-WWII era, where each administration adopted a new foreign policy. This is likely leading us down a path where a dollar diplomacy-esque system will return.

Along with all these changes, the US military's global influence is declining, and foreign policy is in a state of flux. I suspect we'll see more erratic and reactive policies in the coming years, as the US military is used to play checkers instead of chess. Hopefully all those alliances and infrastructure that have been developed will stick around for future iterations of US foreign policy.

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Zelynsky and European Leaders Xpress FEAR

by Oui Sun Feb 16th, 2025 at 08:03:35 PM EST

.

Zelenskyy calls for European army amid fears of reduced US support | Channel 4 News |

Hours, days, weeks, months, years to prepare for the return of the Avenger ... come far too short as Europe was leaving the bloodletting to Ukraine and Russia ... indefinitely.

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Weaponizing Disinfo Operation Mockingbird 2.0

by Oui Sun Feb 16th, 2025 at 07:57:52 AM EST

[Update -1 Propaganda to be revamped ...
a message from the militarization disinfo Operation Mockingbird 2.0]

USAID website temporarily unavailable

More below the fold ...

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Europe Not a Partner for Trump's America

by Oui Sat Feb 15th, 2025 at 06:28:08 PM EST

A complete reversal of policy ... Trump's first term already had the dna of his second term ... EU in Brussels is dumbfounded.

Members of the European Union are a playball for Trump to toy around with. See his refusal to accredit the ambassador to Washington from the European Union.

Europe will not sit at table for peace talks ...

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Top EU Diplomat Called Trump a New Chamberlain

by Oui Fri Feb 14th, 2025 at 08:57:00 PM EST

Another EU leader lost in the swamps of the Trump-Musk Confederacy

Lady Kallas dumbfounded by messages from Hegseth @NATO Defence Council

Top EU Diplomat just called Trump a new Chamberlain .. get out the popcorn 🍿

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America's Imperialism Denied

by Oui Fri Feb 14th, 2025 at 02:01:25 PM EST

"To my embarrassment I have to admit, Victoria Nuland is now
a colleague of mine @Columbia University."
-- Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs: Understanding the Ukraine conflict (minidoc)

Excellent presentation with not only arguments, but facts supported by historic evidence. Not a coup?

Always not sure in which role Robert Serry played in the coup d'état of February 2014, but the anti-Russia position of Dutch PM Rutte fits well in the total picture of his role on behalf of The Hague. Rutte was politically embarrassed after the one and only referendum voted down his proposal to invite the Ukraine into EU membership. The non-binding resolution was dropped in the paper-shredder.

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Trump Barks, Europe Caught Shadow Boxing

by Oui Thu Feb 13th, 2025 at 06:22:21 PM EST

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Trump Whisperer Hit By A Sucker Punch

by Oui Thu Feb 13th, 2025 at 09:06:19 AM EST

Trump whisperer in chief ...

EU Death Trap - Fast Track Ukraine As Member | 22 April 2022  |

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Trump Scraps NATO/ Zelensky's Victory Plan

by Oui Wed Feb 12th, 2025 at 06:05:08 PM EST

A peace deal to be negotiated wijl be from a position of strength on the ground in agreement as goal from both sides at the start of Biden's war against Putin ... it was quite personal of the anti-Russian warmongers from the past ... see Ivo Daalder and John Kerry in speeches @AtlanticCouncil.

Trump has no interest to spend his time on Biden's conflict. Damn ... unwrap the propaganda and NATO emperor Rutte has no clothes. As I predicted some time ago ... his tempest has no place in Europe ... Rutte has to go 😆

BREAKING NEWS

'It's unrealistic to think Ukraine will return to its 2014 borders',
says US defence secretary Pete Hegseth

The US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth tells allies that, with Donald Trump as US president, it is "unrealistic" to think Ukraine can return to its pre-2014 borders and America must focus on the threat posed by China and securing its own borders.

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Ceasefire? Torture and Abuse Continues by Israel

by Oui Wed Feb 12th, 2025 at 03:32:46 PM EST

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New Deal: Make Europe Great Again

by Oui Tue Feb 11th, 2025 at 06:04:46 PM EST

Frank's Story Index | 20 Nov. 2018 | [Updated into 2019]

The 585 articles I have posted on the European Tribune since Wed Nov 28th. 2007 are grouped somewhat arbitrarily under the 13 headings below with the latest listed first.

Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) ...
not if Trump-Musk demon duo can help it.

Soon Europe too will go head-to-head with the bullying of the New World and its strangulating economic sanctions, trade tariffs and Hollywood fake culture.

Make Europe Great Again (MEGA)

I used to write quite a lot about US politics - about 65 stories on the European Tribune alone. And then Trump got elected and I could face it no longer. Say what you like about the legitimacy of his election, but the very fact that a guy like that could get elected doesn't fill me with much hope for the USA as an advanced polity. And why write about him when so many there are much more qualified to do so?

I came of age politically through meeting some South African anti-Apartheid activists who inspired me to do my masters thesis on Apartheid. I couldn't bring myself to visit their country until Mandela was freed and elected President. I did not want to become complicit in the Apartheid regime by visiting the country while I would still enjoy the privileges of a white European under Apartheid. I feel almost as bad about visiting the USA now: lots of great people, but the system absolutely sucks.

And now, having written 170 stories on Brexit, I am beginning to wonder whether my interest in writing about the UK will survive a Boris Johnson victory in this weeks general election. Any country which could vote for Boris Johnson as its leader has to be seriously f*cked up... And yet all you hear and read in the media commentary about the election is of self-proclaimed former Labour voters deciding to vote for Boris because they can't stand Corbyn.

What is it they can't stand about Corbyn when he has been (a relative) voice for moderation and reason in an increasingly dysfunctional, corrupt and disintegrating political system?

[...]

Interesting Frank ... South Africa Apartheid and White Supremacy are teaming up to come after you ... signed Elon Musk ... frustrated in his youth living in

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NATO: Next Battleground South China Sea

by Oui Tue Feb 11th, 2025 at 09:25:00 AM EST

Dutch Naval ships sail through the Taiwan Straits as warning to China and its 1.4 billion inhabitants. Roughly a hundred-fold the size of the Low Country. The days of the VOC still clear in memory of the colonial power of the Dutch across Formosa, Indonesia, South Africa, Guinea, Brazil, Caribbean and New Amsterdam.

The Dutch East India Company and Its Taiwanese Legacy

Dutch Ship Ramming Spanish Galley (1617) by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom

Dutch-American Stories: Johnny Adams goes Dutch

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Judaism Means Life, Zionism Leads to Death

by Oui Sun Feb 9th, 2025 at 06:57:49 PM EST

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Carnegie: Peace Through Justice [Update]

by Oui Fri Feb 7th, 2025 at 08:51:28 PM EST

The Hague for over 100 years was meant to be the city of peace ... today the Dutch are manipulated the enter an era of violence and war ... contrary to the founding principles of the EEC ... the founding six included the Benelux, France, Germany and Italy. Successive administrations and U.S. Congress have managed to split the European Union in the established "Old Europe" and the ambitious "New Europe" with a bagage of hate, distrust and sometimes corruption. .. damn America and perpetual wars for economic gain ‼️

On the 11th of May 1903, the American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) donated a substantial capital for the founding of a 'Peace Temple' in the Dutch government city of The Hague. On 28 August 1913, the Peace Palace, home of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and later on the UN International Court of Justice was officially inaugurated in a grand manner. All over the city, bells were tolling half an hour prior to the start of the solemn inauguration. A more peace full world seemed to be on the horizon.

During the opening ceremony of the Peace Palace a choir performed and the Royal Military Chapel played cheerful music in the newly landscaped gardens. Worthy of note, is that one of the members of the orchestra - J.J.H. van Rosmalen - would receive a personal `thank you note' from the wealthy benefactor Andrew Carnegie about ten months later.

Earlier writings @EuroTrib key word | Peace Palace |

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Europe Failed the Litmus Test In 2009

by Oui Fri Feb 7th, 2025 at 10:49:02 AM EST

Damn ... how I miss his insights here @EuroTrib ... American policy and its affects on the Atlantic World were so predictable ... the electorate were misled by disinformation, media manipulation and so-called rise of extreme right parties and populism through social media.

30 years ago today: Kissinger on Russia & NATO expansion Dec. 5, 1994 PBS Newshour, w/ Jack Matlock

    "Every nation in every region now has a decision to make.  
    Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Jerome a Paris at his best 16 years ago ... today we are all suffering the failure of Brussels and the European Union.

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Denmark to Prosecute Israeli War Crimes

by Oui Wed Feb 5th, 2025 at 01:34:06 PM EST

Launches campaign to add legislation under constitutional law ..

Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 487 | Dawn |

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5. -- Reuters

Trump's 'immoral' Gaza plan includes `international crime': UN's Albanese

"It's unlawful, immoral and completely irresponsible," says Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, when asked about US President Trump's suggestion to remove Palestinians from Gaza and have the US take ownership, Al Jazeera reports.

"What he proposes is ... nonsense," Albanese said at a news conference in Denmark's capital Copenhagen. "It will make the regional crisis even worse.
"It's incitement to commit forced displacement, which is an international crime," she added. "The international community is made up of 193 states and this is the time to give the US what it has been looking for: isolation."

I have got an idea ... Trump 2.0

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Trump Prepared to Make a Deal with Ukraine

by Oui Tue Feb 4th, 2025 at 11:15:06 PM EST

One minor problem ... the rich districts are Luhansk and Donetsk ... recently annexed by Russia in NATO's proxy war of 2022 ... tens of thousands of lives sacrificed ... forget it Zelensky.

... the Zelenskyy government could present an even larger offer that might be far more enticing to businessman Trump. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are currently the front lines of the conflict, are overflowing with minerals and precious metals.

Donbas, a historically significant industrial region, is primarily known for its rich deposits of coal, including anthracite and coking coal, widely used in energy and metallurgy. In addition to coal, the region extracts iron ore, rock salt, mercury, limestone, and other construction materials, as well as natural gas, albeit in smaller quantities. These resources have played a key role in the development of the region's heavy industry, although extraction has nearly halted in recent years due to the war.

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News and Views

 February 2025

by Oui - Feb 1, 12 comments

Your take on today's news media - Open Thread



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