The Rise and Fall of the EU

The Rise and Fall of the EU

European countries ruled the world for centuries.  Since WWII the fall from grace has accelerated.  Now it remains to be seen how Britain’s EU exit, and mass immigration, pan out.

Germany and EU have been handed over a declaration of war

Germany and EU have been handed over a declaration of war  By Pepe Escobar, The Saker, 220930

The sabotage of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipelines in the Baltic Sea has ominously propelled ‘Disaster Capitalism’ to a whole new, toxic level.

This episode of Hybrid Industrial/Commercial War, in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters signals the absolute collapse of international law, drowned by a “our way or the highway”, “rules-based”, order.

The attack on both pipelines consisted of multiple explosive charges detonated in separate branches close to the Danish island of Bornholm, but in international waters.

That was a sophisticated operation, carried out in stealth in the shallow depth of the Danish straits. That would in principle rule out submarines (ships entering the Baltic are limited to a draught of 15 meters). As for prospective “invisible” vessels, these could only loiter around with permission from Copenhagen – as the waters around Borholm are crammed with sensors, reflecting fear of incursion by Russian submarines.

Swedish seismologists registered two underwater explosions on Monday – one of them estimated at 100 kg of TNT. Yet as much as 700 kg may have been used to blow up three separate pipeline nodes. Such amount could not have possibly been delivered in just one trip by underwater drones currently available in neighboring nations.

The pressure on the pipelines dropped exponentially. The pipes are now filled with seawater.

The pipes on both NS and NS2 can be repaired, of course, but hardly before the arrival of General Winter. The question is whether Gazprom – already focused on several hefty Eurasian customers –  would bother, especially considering that Gazprom vessels could be exposed to a possible NATO naval attack in the Baltic.

German officials are already spinning that NS and NS2 can “potentially” be out of commission “forever”. The EU economy and EU citizens badly needed that gas supply. Yet the EUrocracy in Brussels – which rules over nation-states – would not follow, because they have been dictated themselves by the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder. A case can be made that this Euro-oligarchy should one day be tried for treason.

As it stands, a strategic irreversibility is already self-evident; the population of several EU nations will pay a tremendous price and suffer serious consequences derived from this attack, short, medium and long term.

Cui bono? 

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted that was “a matter of sabotage”. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen admitted “it was not an accident”. Berlin agrees with the Scandinavians.

Now compare it with former Polish Defense Minister (2005-2007) Radek Sikorski, a Russophobe married to rabid US “analyst” Anne Applebaum, who merrily tweeted “Thank you, USA”.

It gets curiouser and curiouser when we know that simultaneously to the sabotage the Baltic Pipe from Norway to Poland was partially opened, a “new gas supply corridor” servicing “the Danish and Polish markets”: actually a minor affair, considering months ago their sponsors were in trouble finding gas, and now it will be even harder, with much higher costs.

NS2 had already been attacked – in the open – all along its construction. Back in February, Polish ships actively tried to prevent the Fortuna pipe-laying vessel from finishing NS2. The pipes were being laid south of – you guessed it – Bornholm.

NATO for its part has been very active on the underwater drones department. The Americans have access to long distance Norwegian underwater drones which can be modified with other designs. Alternatively, professional navy clearance divers could have been employed in the sabotage – even as tidal currents around Bornholm are a serious matter.

The Big Picture reveals the collective West in absolute panic, with Atlanticist “elites” willing to resort to anything – outrageous lies, assassinations, terrorism, sabotage, all out financial war, support to neo-Nazis – to prevent their descent into a geopolitical and geoeconomic abyss.

Disabling NS and NS2 represents the definitive closure of any possibility of a German-Russia deal on gas supplies, with the added benefit of relegating Germany to the lowly status of absolute US vassal.

So that brings us to the key question of which Western intel apparatus designed the sabotage. Prime candidates are of course CIA and MI6 – with Poland set up as the fall guy and Denmark playing a very dodgy part: it’s impossible that Copenhagen was not at least “briefed” on the intel.

Prescient as ever, as early as in April 2021 Russians were asking questions about the military security of Nord Stream.

The crucial vector is that we may be facing the case of a EU/NATO member involved in an act of sabotage against the number one EU/NATO economy. That’s a casus belli. Outside of the appalling mediocrity and cowardice of the current administration in Berlin, it’s clear that the BND – German intel – as well as the German Navy and informed industrialists sooner or later will do the math.

This was far from an isolated attack. On September 22 there was an attempt against Turkish Stream by Kiev saboteurs. The day before, naval drones with English language IDs were found in Crimea, suspected of being part of the plot. Add to it US helicopters overflying the future sabotage nodes weeks ago; a UK “research” vessel loitering in Danish waters since mid-September; and NATO tweeting about the testing of “new unmanned systems at sea” on the same day of the sabotage.

Show me the (gas) money

The Danish Minister of Defense met urgently with NATO’s Secretary General this Wednesday. After all the explosions happened very close to Denmark’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). That may be qualified as crude kabuki at best; exactly on the same day, the European Commission (EC), NATO’s de facto political office, advanced its trademark obsession: more sanctions against Russia, including the certified-to-fail cap on oil prices.

Meanwhile, EU energy giants are bound to lose big time with the sabotage.

The roll call includes the German Wintershall Dea AG and PEG/ E.ON; the Dutch N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie; and the French ENGIE. Then there are those which financed NS2: Wintershall Dea again as well as Uniper; Austrian OMV; ENGIE again; and British-Dutch Shell. Wintershall Dea and ENGIE are both co-owners and creditors. Their fuming shareholders will want serious answers from a serious investigation.

It gets worse: there are no holds barred anymore on the Pipeline Terror front. Russia will be on red alert not only for Turk Stream but also Power of Siberia. Same for the Chinese and their maze of pipelines arriving in Xinjiang.

Whatever the methodology and the actors who were in the loop, this is payback – in advance – for the inevitable collective West defeat in Ukraine. And a crude warning to the Global South that they will do it again. Yet action always breeds reaction: from now on, “funny things” could also happen to US/UK pipelines in international waters.

The EU oligarchy is reaching an advanced process of disintegration at lightning speed. Their window of opportunity to at least attempt a role as a strategically autonomous geopolitical actor is now closed.

These EUROcrats now face a serious predicament. Once it’s clear who are the perpetrators of the sabotage in the Baltic, and once they understand all the life-changing socio-economic consequences for pan-EU citizens, the kabuki will have to stop. Including the already running, uber-ridiculous subplot that Russia blew up its own pipeline when Gazprom could simply have turned off the valves for good.

And once again, it gets worse: Gazprom is threatening to sue the Ukrainian energy company Naftofgaz for unpaid bills. That would lead to the end of Russian gas transiting Ukraine towards the EU.

As if all of that was not serious enough, Germany is contractually obligated to purchase at least 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year until 2030.

Just say no? They can’t: Gazprom is legally entitled to get paid even without shipping gas. That’s the spirit of a long-term contract. And it’s already happening: because of sanctions, Berlin does not get all the gas it needs but still needs to pay.

All the devils are here

Now it’s painfully clear the imperial velvet gloves are off when it comes to the vassals. EU independence: verboten. Cooperation with China: verboten. Independent trade connectivity with Asia: verboten. The only place for the EU is to be economically subjugated to the US: a tawdry remix of 1945-1955. With a perverse neoliberal twist: we will own your industrial capacity, and you will have nothing.

The sabotage of NS and NS2 is inbuilt in the imperial wet dream of breaking up the Eurasian land mass into a thousand pieces to prevent a trans-Eurasia consolidation between Germany (representing the EU), Russia and China: $50 trillion in GDP, based on purchasing power parity (PPP) compared to the US’s $20 trillion.

We must go back to Mackinder: control of the Eurasian land mass constitutes control of the world. American elites and their Trojan Horses across Europe will do whatever it takes not to give up their control.

“American elites” in this context encompass the deranged, Straussian neo-con-infested “intel community” and the Big Energy, Big Pharma and Big Finance that pays them and who profits not only from the Deep State’s Forever War approach but also wants to make a killing out of the Davos-concocted Great Reset.

The Raging Twenties started with a murder – of Gen Soleimani. Blowing up pipelines is part of the sequel. There will be a highway to hell all the way to 2030. Yet to borrow from Shakespeare, hell is definitely empty, and all the (Atlanticist) devils are here.

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties. He’s been politically canceled from Facebook and Twitter. Follow him on Telegram.

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Note: more articles are available at the end of this post

EU is Now Deaf to Their Coming Defeat

EU is Now Deaf to Their Coming Defeat  By Thomas Luongo, Gold Goats ‘n Guns, 16 February 2020

Yanis Varoufakis once described negotiating with the European Union like you’re singing the Swedish National Anthem. No matter what proposal you put in front of them, they acted like they didn’t understand and simply reiterated terms.

But, at least then they heard something. It may have been gibberish to them, but at least sound waves made it to their ears.

Today, these people are like overwhelmed autistic kids needing noise canceling headphones to blot out the unwanted stimuli. It may be therapeutic but it doesn’t solve the situation.

Now that Brexit is complete the EU has gone one step further, blocking out the very real strategic and tactical disadvantage they are in dealing with the United Kingdom in trade deal talks.

The arrogance and intractability of the EU when it comes to negotiations is supposed to be their biggest weapon. They project a strange combination of strength and indifference that can only come from people thoroughly insulated from personal accountability for their mistakes.

Lead negotiator, the revealed to be inept, Michel Barnier has laid out his negotiating stance using the same language that was thoroughly rejected by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October, the so-called “level playing field” of “regulatory alignment” as the basis for any kind of trade deal.

Has Barnier learned nothing from his last failure? Does he really think he can cover his ears, curl up in the corner and hope this all goes away?

Because if he does then he’s catastrophically misread the state of the game board.

Moreover, he’s convinced the European Council and Parliament that the way to ultimately win is to keep doing the same things that just failed.

Since they just overwhelmingly approved Barnier’s strict negotiating demands to the U.K. further signaling that they have no idea of the hornet’s nest they’ve just whacked with a baseball bat, oblivious to the buzzing and warnings coming from the U.K.

Mr Barnier said: “Any future agreement will need approval from MEPs. The deadline for the transitional period can be extended but the UK is still insisting on a deal being done by December 31st.”

{Tom’s response: because it’s now U.K. Law Mike, or did you miss that too?}

He again warned that if there’s no agreement by then, the UK will leave the customs union and single market and go back to WTO terms, meaning quotas and tariffs on British products.

{Tom’s response: and so what? Y’all run a trade surplus with the U.K. Or are you economically ignorant as well as stupid?}

Michel Barnier said: “I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear to certain people in the United Kingdom bearing authority that they should not kid themselves about this – there will not be general, open-ended, ongoing equivalence in financial services.”

The EU would “retain a free hand to take our own decisions”.

{Tom’s response: Free to ignore reality at your own peril}

Barnier threatening the financial sector is an empty threat to get City of London bankers and traders to pressure Johnson into standing down. They were the loudest complainers during the fight over Brexit.

But Johnson understands something Barnier refuses to admit, because, as always, he doesn’t listen he just demands. Brexit was won in spite of London. Its political power is waning.

Without the support of the Midlands and the hollowed-out industrial north, Johnson isn’t Prime Minister. Barnier tried for three years to leverage City of London and failed.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mike Barnier, walking Einstein quote machine.

This is an empty technocratic threat issued by a career bureaucrat with an over-inflated sense of his own relevance.

The U.K. holds all the negotiating levers here and they’ve accelerated the time table while Barnier is oblivious.

Barnier has until the end of June to take off his headphones and let information into his brain that comports with reality. The collapse of the Remain coup in October was a strong message to the EU that they are vulnerable and that Barnier’s schtick is tired.

And because of this Boris Johnson has not only hardened his tone but also gone further than he did on the campaign trail, saying that even a Canada-style free trade deal may not be enough.

Now he’s invoking Australia as a proxy for a WTO-style ‘hard Brexit.’ And all Barnier can do is threaten tariffs and trade war. This is exactly the kind of idiocy that the British just fought three and a half years to divorce themselves from.

And this is coming from a political body with no hope of passing a budget this fall when a politically paralyzed Germany takes over the Presidency of the European Commission. A budget, I might add, that is staring at a €10+ billion hole thanks to the loss of the U.K.

The possibility of German political upheaval is causing the euro to crash uncontrollably. After a massive move up on the final day of January to avoid a technical breakdown the euro is not flirting with a crash to the 2017 low of $1.034

The fear here is a quick steepening of the German yield curve which is now flat to inverted out to 7 years. No wonder Mario Draghi restarted QE before he blew town to leave this mess to Christine Lagarde, without that in place there would be real trouble in European sovereign debt markets.Left of Bang: How the …Patrick Van Horne, Jas…Best Price: $12.13Buy

But a political disunion that is deaf not only to what its external critics are telling it but its internal ones as well has a limited self-life of invest-ability. Once momentum traders stop front-running the ECB and the euro’s weakness forces the unwinding of carry trades at that point someone will have to tap Barnier on the shoulder and tell him to listen to something approximating reason.

By this point, to be honest, it will likely be too late.

The Irish elections were a huge rebuke of the EU and how it handled Brexit negotiations. It was an outright embarrassment to have Sinn Fein coalesce the Irish Euroskeptic vote. And yet, the EU hasn’t learned a thing because they refuse to listen.

So what happens when we wake up one morning and Angela Merkel is no longer Chancellor of Germany, the Yellow Vests overthrow Emmanuel Macron in France or Matteo Salvini wins an Italian snap election from a jail cell in Rome?

Will they hear the populist barbarians at the gates then or will they continue to console themselves with dreams of Sweden?

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This Is the New Italy

This Is the New Italy  By Attilio Moro, Strategic Culture Foundation, 1 June 2018

Sesto San Giovanni, a town on the outskirts of Milan, used to be one of the industrial capitals of Italy.

With around 200,000 inhabitants (45,000 blue collar workers, and a robust middle class), it was the headquarters of some of the most dynamic Italian companies, including Magneti Marelli, Falck, Breda and many more.

Today Sesto is an industrial desert – the factories are gone, the professional middle class has fled, many stores have shut down, and the city is trying to reinvent itself as a medical research center.

Twenty-three kilometers (14 miles) to the north of Sesto, the town of Meda was the seat of various symbols of Italian excellence: Salotti Cassina and Poltrona Frau, both of which exported high-quality furniture all over the world and employed tens of thousands of workers and designers. They fed a number of small family-based companies providing parts and highly qualified seasonal labour. Today both companies are gone.

Montezemolo: Public enemy

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, a former chairman of Ferrari, Fiat and Alitalia, and now a public enemy because of his dismissal of the “Made in Italy” label, acquired both companies and moved them to Turkey, choosing profit over quality—and Italian jobs. Montezemolo, of aristocratic background, is a champion of Italian neoliberalism, having founded the influential “free market” think tank Italia Futura (Future Italy) in 2009.

Another victim is the town of Sora, with a population of 25,000, 80 km. (50 miles) east of Rome. Until recently Sora was an affluent commercial city, with medium-sized paper factories and hundreds of shops. Today, all of the factories are gone and 50 percent of shops have closed.

All over Italy, the neoliberal policies that led to the economic crisis and resulting social decadence have accelerated in the wake of the financial collapse of 2007.

Once The Stalingrad of Italy

Sesto San Giovanni used to be known as ‘the Italian Stalingrad’, due to the strength of its working class and the Communist Party receiving over 50 percent of the vote. Now the strongest party in town is the Lega (The League), a right wing, xenophobic party. This has been accompanied by a demographic shift, as Sesto has lost almost one third of its population, but acquired tens of thousands of immigrants, which today constitute almost 20 percent of its population.

The Italian Communist Party, once the strongest in the capitalist world, has in the meantime disappeared, together with the working class. There is also the destitution of a dwindling middle class accompanying the breakdown of the social fabric with rampant corruption. All the traditional political parties have been wiped away.

Sesto San Giovanni: Once the Italian Stalingrad

They have been replaced by the so-called ‘populists’: TheLega and the 5 Star Movement, undisputed winners of the latest elections in March, who are now in the process of trying to form a new government. The Lega expresses the frustrations of the north of Italy that is still productive (fashion, services and some high quality products), and demands lower taxes, as Italian taxes are among the highest in Europe. They also want a parallel national currency, a reduction in circulation of the Euro (which slows down exports, especially to Germany) and limits to immigration.

The 5 Star Movement, which is partly considered to be the heir of the former Communist Party but with a different social base consisting of an undifferentiated lower class replacing the disappearing working class. It advocates a moralization of the political parties and a universal basic income of 750 euros per month ($875) for the poorest to reduce the effects of the social disaster which took place in the south of the country in the last 10 years: 20 percent unemployment, affecting 40 percent of young people, making the mafia and organized crime the biggest ‘employers’ in the most critical southern regions.

This is the new Italy. The old one, the Italy of Fiat, Cassina, small family-run businesses, the Italy of the Christian Democrats, the Communist Party and vibrant working-class culture is no more.

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Previous articles

  • Open letter to EU boss Jean-Clause Juncker, yes, break up America  By Jon Rappoport, 25 May 2018
  • The Myth of European Democracy  By Alex Gorka, 7 November 2017
  • The EU union of political elites is the enemy of democracy and freedom in Europe  By Mick Hume, Spiked Online, 28 October
  • The disaster of Greece typifies the EU  By Raul Ilargi Maijer, via Zerohedge, 16 Sept 2017
  • Understanding the EU, Angela Merkel’s red,green past. By David Archibald, for Autorenkollektiv, a writer’s syndicate based in Switzerland. 12 September 2017
  • The biological extinction of Europeans  From Sputnik news, 31 July 2017
  • The Strange Death of Europe  By Jon Hobrook, critique, 27 May 2017
  • France’s moral bankruptcy  By Adam Creighton, The Australian, 17 April 2017
  • Speech by Geert Wilders at the Europe of Nations and Freedom Conference  By Geert Wilders, 22 January 2017
  • The EU Vs. The Nation State  By George Igler, The Gatestone Institute, 30 December
  • doug-casey-on-the-collapse-of-the-eu  From Zerohedge, 14 October 2016
  • how-the-financial-troika-destroyed-greece-economy  By Michael Hudson, Counterpunch, 5 October 2016
  • why-the-eu-is-doomed  By Alasdair Macleod via The Mises Institute, 19 September
  • EU, adopt the brace position  By Charles Gave, Chairman, Gavekal, August 3, 2016
  • Is Europe Doomed By Vassalage To Washington  By Paul Craig Roberts, 28 July 2016
  • Brexit, Britain voted for the parliamentary democracy it invented  By Dominic Lawson, The Times, 27 June 2016
  • Brexit, Remainers are not pro-EU, they’re anti-democracy  By Tim Black, Spiked Online, 25 June 2016
  • Mises, Why Brexit Is Better For Britain  By Thorstein Polleit, The Mises Institute, 21 June 2016
  • It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s a fight for democracy  By Frank Furedi, Spiked Online, 11 June 2016
  • The EU is truly ‘Europhobic’  By Brendan O’Neill, Spiked Online, 14 May 2016
  • Brussels attacks, Europe is at war  By Tom Steinfort, The Australian, 24 March 2016
  • Europe’s civilisation death wish  By Mark Christian, The Australian, 13 February 2016
  • Paris attacks, the fall of Rome should be a warning to the West  By Niall Ferguson, The Australian, 16 November 2015
  • The death of Europe is in sight  From The Wall Street Journal, 23 October 2015
  • Why Europe failed, Part 8  By Oliver Hartwich, 14 September 2015