The Titanic thread

[Dr Strangelove]

More people need to be talking about this.

Remember the classified documents case Trump made disappear the second he took office? The one he was facing 40 felony counts for? The one where a judge he appointed buried the Special Counsel’s report?

Well, Washington Republicans handed Congress documents last week to clear his name, and it backfired. BADLY.

Because those documents contained evidence that Trump was showing passengers on his private plane some of the most CLASSIFIED secrets in existence — material so sensitive that only SIX people in the entire U.S. government had clearance to see it.

This isn’t over.

[Dr Strangelove]

Oh don't threaten me with a good time.

[Dr Strangelove]

Senators Mitch McConnell and Chris Coons said in a joint statement that the United States will remain in NATO regardless of actions by President Donald Trump.

“NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. It has underpinned the security of the United States for more than 70 years.

The only time NATO has gone to war has been in response to an attack on America. NATO troops fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside American forces. The United States must not take this sacrifice — nor our allies’ commitment to make it again — lightly.

Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when NATO is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care. United States joined NATO in 1949 when the Senate voted to ratify the NATO treaty, and the United States will remain in it. The Senate will continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides America, Europe, and the World.”

[Dr Strangelove]

[Dr Strangelove]

NATO’s 31 members will ‘have to reexamine’ whether they can still afford to have the USA as a partner.
Let’s be honest about what is happening.

The United States, under Trump, is actively supporting Russia. Blocking weapons to Ukraine. Pushing for a peace deal that rewards Moscow. Calling Putin a partner. Washington’s National Security Strategy no longer even identifies Russia as a threat.
Russia is the only reason NATO exists. It has always been the only reason. And Washington is now on Russia’s side.

So the question is not whether NATO can survive without America. The question is whether NATO can survive with it.

And America has already started leaving. Rubio skipped the NATO foreign ministers meeting in December. Hegseth skipped the defense ministers meeting in February. Two top-level meetings in a row. It is rare for a US administration to miss even one.  They are not forgetting to show up. They are choosing not to. NATO noticed. NATO kept meeting. NATO kept working.

Macron said it anyway. “No intimidation or threat will influence us, neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world.”  Sweden’s Prime Minister was blunter. “We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed.” Good. Because NATO does not need permission.

Thirty-one nations. Nearly a billion people. The world’s largest collective economy. NATO militaries hardened by four years of watching Russia bleed itself dry on NATO’s eastern doorstep.
And here is what

Today it is not the Russia of 2022. That Russia is gone. Ukraine shot it to pieces. Up to two million men lost. Elite units wiped out entirely. Equipment inventories so depleted that Russian forces are pulling tanks from Soviet-era storage and patching them together with parts that belong in museums. The most combat-capable military in NATO’s history is now facing the most degraded Russian army since the Second World War.

NATO knows the enemy. It has watched it die in real time.
America’s own Secretary of State called NATO allies “cowards” and the alliance a “paper tiger.”  This from a country that just spent a month bombing Iran and achieved nothing. A country with a $39 trillion debt, a democracy rated below Mexico by international observers, and a president whose first instinct after re-election was to call Vladimir Putin.

Now look west from Washington. The Pacific. China. No NATO. No thirty-one allies who have trained together for 75 years, shared intelligence, and stood on the same walls. Just two oceans and a government that just told its only friends to go to hell.

America without NATO is not a superpower. It is a large, indebted nation with no friends, two oceans, and China on the other side of one of them.

NATO without Trump’s America is not weaker. It is stronger.

[Dr Strangelove]

The Erosion of NATO: The narrator contends that NATO is de facto "dead" because many European nations and Canada no longer view the US as a reliable partner regarding treaty obligations
European Adaptation: European leaders are increasingly calculating their future without the US, moving toward closer internal cooperation to address security and trade challenges independently
Shifting Global Trade: The video highlights how the US is becoming increasingly isolated in global trade. While the US disrupts systems like the World Trade Organization , other nations are forming new trade blocs, such as the CPTP
The Decline of Superpower Status: The narrator compares the current trajectory of the United States to the decline of the British Empire, arguing that the focus on the "cost" of alliances rather than their "value" is a hallmark of a nation losing its global preeminence
Future Uncertainty: The video concludes by anticipating an upcoming address from Trump, suggesting it will likely be a mix of incoherent rambling or dramatic, potentially destabilizing policy announcements

[Dr Strangelove]

Who do you think will pick up the slack and be the hero in the worlds time of need? China, if it can hold together, could make big plays to the post US future.

[al_keda]

[Dr Strangelove]

[Dr Strangelove]