Donald Trump’s US election victory is a “wake-up call” for Europe to slash red tape and boost defence spending, three of the bloc’s top officials have warned.
Germany and France’s central bank governors said a trade war that triggered the collapse of the Franco-German axis would be catastrophic for the single currency bloc.
Now, opinions could vary on whether that hanging would be a good thing or not – some would start to claim that capital punishment is immoral and all that – but that does seem to be what is being asked for. If we are to slash red tape then we do, rather, need to get rid of those who impose it.
By the way, this is not hang the commissioners – this is hang the whole Commission, that entirety of the Brussels machine. You do, after all, have to burn out the entire nest of vipers.
That we here, this band of brothers, have been soarguing for decades is one thing. But when it’s the proposed policy of those as boring, placid and taciturn as central bankers you know there’s a certain verve to the idea, right?
“soarguing” – I thought that was one of those fancy works that you use that I need to look up, then I realised….
They are not referring to themselves, that’d be turkeys voting for Christmas. No it’s all the other bollocks regulation they are talking about. Which is why it won’t happen.
I’m genuinely fascinated by Musk and Ramaswamy and their DOGE.
Their plans are extraordinary, not least in that they aim to have the whole thing done and dusted halfway through Trump’s second term – the department itself will supposedly cease to exist at that point.
My recent inclination toward the idea that there really is a Deep State, with global tentacles, leads me to think that ‘they’ will never allow this to happen.
But if any group of people can take the blob on then it’s an angry billionaire who has just been through eight years of defamation and lawfare, and very narrowly escaped assassination, leading the world’s richest man (who overspent on Twitter to return it to free speech, and immediately invited in a lot of independent journalists to read all the internal emails to prove government interference in users’ 1A rights), and another extremely bright billionaire tech entrepreneur who used his appearance on the Republican primary stage to burn his own campaign to the ground by deriding publicly the-then head of the GOP election machine for deliberately fucking up their chances, thus leading to her resignation and the appointment of people who actually wanted Trump to win.
Not to mention Vance, RFK Jr, Tulsi, the borders bloke, the likely FBI pick and all the others.
I might be (probably am being) naiive, but this is going to be interesting at least.
BTW, I mentioned yesterday that the Rogan podcast with Marc Andreessen (available on YouTube) is fascinatingly revelatory about the interference of the said Deep State in politics, business, communications etc.
Andreessen is obviously no dummy (though he has supported every Democrat from Bill Clinton to Hillary and then the 2020 Biden before finally realising his country was being fucked by these scum), and agrees with Musk, who said – also on Rogan, and I believe credibly – before the recent election that it was going to be the last meaningful election ever held if Shitfaced Cacklebrains got in.
(Another recent podcast worth listening to is that of Lex Fridman interviewing Milei about Argentina – these serious, long form , sometimes rambling interviews, disintermediated by twat journalists, are great.)
The French are going to slash red tape? I bet there’s a bunch of forms to fill in for that.
BTW, I mentioned yesterday that the Rogan podcast with Marc Andreessen (available on YouTube) is fascinatingly revelatory about the interference of the said Deep State in politics, business, communications etc.
For those interested, and who have the time, the interesting stuff starts at about 1hr 30min.
Also available on Apple podcasts and Spotify, which allows you to download and do other stuff (four tons of log chopping yesterday for me) while listening, as opposed to having to keep your browser open on YouTube.
My recent inclination toward the idea that there really is a Deep State, with global tentacles, leads me to think that ‘they’ will never allow this to happen.
Only recently? Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn got it right 40 years ago with Yes Minister.
If what Marc Andreessen was saying on the Joe Rogan podcast has any truth (and I think it does), then the liberal establishment were in the process of fucking over the venture capitalists through a combination of debanking and absolute control over AI developments.
So while Elon might be leading the charge wrt Trump, he wasn’t the only one and much of the Silicon Valley VC set felt threatened enough by both the current Biden administration and a potential Harris administration to support Trump.
I suspect the first target will be Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, since that is the unaccountable monolith driving the debanking action.
Musk Wants to Abolish Consumer Agency [LINK]
Elizabeth Warren is also a threat to the Crypto bros, so there are multiple efforts to eject her from the Senate, probably through a well-funded Democratic challenger rather than a Republican (since it’s Massachusetts we’re talking about).
Expect such measures to intensify.
I want that little DOGE to be a win for
Two angry and very rich rich males…
My recent inclination toward the idea that there really is a Deep State, with global tentacles, leads me to think that ‘they’ will never allow this to happen.
There really isn’t such a thing as a Deep State, Interested. What you have is an alignment of personal interests, so it looks like one. So what DOGE/Trump has to do is change the incentives so the alignment of personal interests are in a different direction.
All people are individuals & are motivated by what they perceive as their individual interests. It explains almost anything.
@Ted S
Only recently? Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn got it right 40 years ago with Yes Minister.
Yeah, maybe I was naiive. I mean, I was well aware of the existence of the bureaucracy. It’s the malignity and power of it that I have latterly seen.
@BiS
There really isn’t such a thing as a Deep State, Interested. What you have is an alignment of personal interests, so it looks like one.
This is a distinction with absolutely zero difference – an argument about its nomenclature.
The question is: whose ‘personal interests’ are ‘aligning’?
In a supposed democracy (or a republic) under the rule of law, no-one working for the state officially should have any personal interests, certainly not (in the US) interests which are unconstitutional, aimed at political opponents, and completely obscure.
In the States, unseen and unidentifiable people inside the state are (among other things) instructing banks that they may not do business with supporters of one of the two main parties, with no hearing, no right of appeal, no due process whatsoever – just a door slammed in their faces without explanation.
The definition of a conspiracy is something done against others in secret.
The definition of the Deep State is unknown and uncontrollable forces with state power which are unamenable to legal or political scrutiny.
Arguing about what this should be called is risible.
This just in, Mark Zuckerberg has visited Mar al Lago to apologize to President Elect Trump.* A lot of the tech bros are abandoning the Democrats now that the wind has changed.
What scares the left and the deep state /w/s/hitless is that Trump actually follows up on his campaign promises. This is unheard of in their world.
*When I typed the word “President”, the autocorrect wanted to insert “Harris” after that! So I guess Google Android is still Deep State captured.
All people are individuals & are motivated by what they perceive as their individual interests. It explains almost anything.
Unless you can identify every individual’s “interests”*, that’s not very useful for predicting the future. “Why did you do X?” “Because I was pursuing my own individual interests.” It explains precisely nothing.
* spoiler alert: it isn’t always and solely money
@Mohave Greenie – “So I guess Google Android is still Deep State captured.”
Yup. Like a supertanker, it takes a fair amount of time to change direction, especially when you’re talking about “the algorithm”, which is just a fancy way of describing the heaps of code that holds the Googleplex together.
It also illustrates that there are competing groups within the Silicon Valley set, some of whom were enabled by the Democrats (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn) and those who were threatened by them (Elon, AI investors, Crypto bros).
Then again, seeing the amount of funding that the Harris campaign blew away for no real gain, it doesn’t seem like election funding was the issue.
As in 2016 with Hillary, if the candidate is just disliked by enough of the electorate, all the money in the world isn’t going to change that.
@John Galt
It also illustrates that there are competing groups within the Silicon Valley set, some of whom were enabled by the Democrats (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn) and those who were threatened by them (Elon, AI investors, Crypto bros).
At risk of repeating myself, John, The Joe Rogan/Marc Andreesson interview makes it all fairly clear.
You only really need to listen to 15 minutes from about 1h 32min (though the whole thing is absolutely fascinating): he explains that he and various other tech entrepreneurs were literally called in by the government and read their tea leaves, in ways which frightened them.
It became clear (he says) that the government was going to control the AI space, and that the US was headed in fairly short order for a China style social credit system governed by AI with permanent tracking and control of the citizenry.
He says words to the effect of at that moment I realised we could not support Kamala Harris or the Democrats.
It didn’t help that he knew 30 start-up entrepreneurs personally who have been debanked for getting on the wrong side of the Dems.
As in 2016 with Hillary, if the candidate is just disliked by enough of the electorate, all the money in the world isn’t going to change that.
If you can control the vote counting system, this is irrelevant of course. I believe personally that is what happened with Joe Biden in 2020. It’s to me impossible that he could’ve gained the most votes in history while campaigning as a slightly confused and angry man from his basement.
But because of that this time round the Republicans were ready with thousands of poll watchers, lawyers, and legal challenges.
The Democrats almost pulled off Plan B, which is to take advantage of the electoral college system and the fact that a very small number of counties in the swing states, with relatively tiny vote percentages, control the outcome of the election.
They were flying and busing illegal immigrants to these swing state counties in order to overwhelm the American voters (and openly calling for those immigrants to be legally allowed to vote, just in case the fact that voter ID is not required in many states didn’t have the desired effect).
If they had succeeded, I think it is no exaggeration to say that all future American presidencies would have been decided at the Democrat primary stage.
I firmly believe this was the most consequential election of my lifetime, and perhaps any living person’s lifetime.
“ This just in, Mark Zuckerberg has visited Mar al Lago to apologize to President Elect Trump.* A lot of the tech bros are abandoning the Democrats now that the wind has changed.
What scares the left and the deep state /w/s/hitless is that Trump actually follows up on his campaign promises. This is unheard of in their world.”
Apart from the tech bros growing up, I think a lot of what has changed in their world view since 2016 is AI. It’s energy intensive and the net zero drive towards renewables that the Dems would have pursued scared them, they’ve seen what happens to energy intensive industries when energy prices went up in Germany.
And as for the EU – leopards and spots. They believe their comparative advantage is their world class regulatory environment and it’s hard to see that changing.
Where’s the money coming from, to rearm? We’re already highly indebted and taxed.
Thankfully, there is a solution: ditch net zero and watch the economy soar, reduce immigration and watch people earn their way out of the cost of living crisis and maybe young couples will even be able to afford homes again someday.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Net Zero has to go. Instead, frack and dig and drill, baby drill. Build hydrocarbon and small scale modular nuclear asap. Double down on plummeting energy prices increasing productivity and margins (and tax revenue). Sovereign, cheap energy for the UK and Europe means you’re less dependent on both Putin and Trump! If you want to be super gay about it, plant a bunch of trees while you’re at it to keep the fern fondlers happy.
Simples.