I came across some thoughtful comparisons of the political situations that led up to the Conservative debacle in Canada and which are now roiling Germany. Of course, there are those who maintain that, for the longer term, the election of shadowy Deep State figures in these countries work to Trump’s benefit. On the other hand, for the people of those nations it’s difficult to see a benefit—not if they want to preserve their sovereignty while reining in the Deep States. The other side of what AB is saying—that this should be a wakeup call to “EU leaders”—is this: Just who are these “EU leaders” and who are their masters? Consider:
What better proof do you need that in the eyes of the U.S., Europe is now no better than Latin American countries in which they routinely, and overtly, interfere with domestic politics?
This should be a massive wake-up call for EU leaders.
It should also be a wake-up call for the AfD, which risks making a major and extremely consequential strategic mistake by condoning and benefiting from such blatant foreign [US] interference.
Their brand, at least as I understand it, is in large parts about national sovereignty. Accepting such US support, which makes a complete mockery of Germany's sovereignty, would show they're willing to sacrifice their core principles.
This is precisely how Latin American politics became so vulnerable to external manipulation—parties that claimed to stand for national independence quickly abandoned those principles when U.S. support offered a path to power. The price paid is always the same: sovereignty surrendered and, ultimately, nations left to serve foreign interests rather than their own citizens.
If the AfD truly believes in the sovereignty platform they promote, they should be the first to reject this American meddling.
This is precisely how the Conservatives in Canada lost the recent election—despite a massive majority territory lead months prior.
On the China front, the question being raised is: Who lost Japan? This is a very big deal for US influence in Asia—Japan is now seeing the US as unreliable and possibly malign. This is happening in public in Japan—in the media and in parliament. It’s a major shift. Regardless of the need to rethink US foreign policy, the tariff Show and Awe approach looks increasingly poorly thought out:
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
In matters of geopolitics, failures hardly ever get clearer than this.
A mere 3 weeks ago, Scott Bessent's stated objective for the tariffs was to use them to get Japan to agree to a "grand encirclement" strategy to isolate China (https://bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-04-12/bessent-has-a-grand-encirclement-plan-for-china-bloomberg-new-economy?embedded-checkout=true…).
Fast forward to today and Japan is so antagonized that they're publicly calling US proposals "absolutely unacceptable" (https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade-war/Trump-tariffs/Japan-objects-to-US-trade-proposal-leaving-tariffs-on-autos-steel…) and are threatening, for the first time ever and on national TV, to sell their holdings of US treasuries as a tool of economic warfare against the US (https://ft.com/content/912f861f-26c8-4bcd-aca0-75a09e5767cc…).
In other words, a policy intended to isolate China is achieving the exact opposite outcome and isolating the United States instead.
10:39 PM · May 2, 2025
One more point of alarm regarding Trump 2.0.
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Canadian conservatives lost the election because MOST Canadians aren't picking up what PP put down. PP is a career politician who has spent 20 years accomplishing nothing but a reputation as an asshole and the nickname of "Skippy"..nobody on the world stage, certainly not Xi, Putin or Trump, would ever take him seriously. Beyond that, his last-minute platform didn't add up..he had 20 years to audition for a job that Carney clinched in four months.
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Ultimatel,y Europe will join with Russia - or be isolated miserable and bankrupt with no natural resources - they may as well start now -
Japan will join with China
US will join with Canada and South America
and then there is Africa -
3 world regions Russia China US coveting natural resources
and carving up African to rob them of what they have
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Canadian conservatives lost the election because MOST Canadians aren't picking up what PP put down. PP is a career politician who has spent 20 years accomplishing nothing but a reputation as an asshole and the nickname of "Skippy"..nobody on the world stage, certainly not Xi, Putin or Trump, would ever take him seriously. Beyond that, his last-minute platform didn't add up..he had 20 years to audition for a job that Carney clinched in four months.