this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
555 points (97.4% liked)

politics

18883 readers
3337 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Donald Trump told the president of the European Commission in 2020 that the US would “never come help” if Europe was attacked and also said “Nato is dead”, a senior European commissioner said.

Multiple news outlets said the exchange between Trump and Ursula von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020 was described in Brussels on Tuesday by Thierry Breton, a French European commissioner responsible for the internal market, with responsibilities including defence.

“You need to understand that if Europe is under attack we will never come to help you and to support you,” Trump said, according to Breton, who was speaking at the European parliament.

According to Breton, Trump also said: “By the way, Nato is dead, and we will leave, we will quit Nato.”

Archive

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

I like, less and less, thinking of the ‘elite’ as ‘individual actors’ when they’re ‘acting’ in favor of their shared interest.

But this can't be denied. A lot of these guys, particularly at the highest levels, might have a shared class consciousness but they aren't friends with one another. They routinely backstab and undermine each other for their positions.

There is a broad ideology that they all propagate, but when it comes time for a guy like Ted Cruz or Bob Menendez or Peter Thiel or Jamie Dimon to make a move, one will just as happily shiv the other to reach the next rung on the ladder. They aren't loyal to their countries, as illustrated by how frequently they'll sell everyone else out for a leg up. Nationalism is, at best, a defense mechanism behind which they can hide when they get caught doing something nakedly corrupt or socially destructive.

Are we arguing that a specific class of people are controlling* governments and propaganda, to control government celebrities (Trump and Putin) to sow chaos and enrich their combined interests?

Putin is, himself, under the thumb of a cadre of fellow plutocrats in his own home country. Guys like Lisin and Abramovich have at least as much impact on his decisions as the Ellen Chao's Foremost Group and Lachlan Murdoch's FOX Corp have on Trump's. And these players are all in an endless struggle for market dominance in their own spheres of influence, with Murdoch feuding against Brian Roberts of Comcast and Chao pitted against the Møller family that owns Maersk.

Yes, they all hate any kind of labor organizing. They all profit from the endless demand on their baskets of natural resources created by escalating conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. And they all want to have some kind of toddy in office, rather than a proper populist divorced from the demands of the wealthiest families.

But which toddy? Who gets the lion's share of the profits? Which batch of proles get to fill the ranks of middle managers at the expense of their regional neighbors? Those questions decide who actually commands the economy at large. And they are far from settled.