Post B2ZD6LwIOntS48xmls by divVerent@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) More posts by divVerent@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) Post #B2XP78bQHR6m7tQAGu by kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
2026-01-22T07:11:01.818780Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Danish CEO Lars Christensen posted the following statement about the change in US policy and I think it somewhat reflects how Europe sees the ongoing situation. There’s counter arguments to that - criticism in the Congress, the Senate, the individual States, and thin majority by which #Trump won in 2024. But there’s also arguments in support - support for Trump in the same Congress and Senate, and escalating ICE violence that marks a change in internal just as in foreign policy of the US. All following text is quote from Christensen without block quote for readability:The problem isn't Trump. The problem is the US. When the outside world observes Trump's insane behaviour and his threats against allies, and we at the same time observe that there is no real action from the US public, Congress, the US Supreme Court, or the US media about this insanity, we will all have to conclude that the US accepts this behaviour. The public in the US think the US is entitled to a certain position in the world where there is no room for decent behaviour and where there are no norms and rules. That means that we all have to conclude that the US — not only Trump — has betrayed the international order that the US, with its Western partners, were the main architects of after the Second World War. This is the conclusion that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney so clearly laid out in his speech at Davos yesterday. We simply cannot trust the US to play by the rules any more. Therefore, we also fundamentally have to ask ourselves — should we trust the financial and economic structure which is an integral part of the global rules-based order?Americans live in the illusion that the US can do everything on its own, despite the fact that the US for nearly 20 years has lived beyond its means. US private and government consumption has been funded by, among others, European central banks and pension funds. But we now have to ask ourselves — why would we trade in dollars? Why would we put our savings into US Treasury bonds? If the US is not a rules-based society, we cannot trust the dollar to be a stable currency, and it would be insane to hold dollars. As domestic US institutions are eroded and governance structures destroyed, the US will be turned into an emerging market economy — or more accurately, a de-merging economy. If the US threatens the territory of allies, then the US acts as an authoritarian bully nation. Nobody in their right mind would lend money to the US government. If the US doesn't live up to its international obligations and respect the sovereignty of other nations, why would we expect the US government to honour its debts? If Trump can tariff nations that will not give up their territory, then there is certainly no reason to believe that the US will not introduce capital controls. And if that is a risk, why would you risk investing in the US?It is not a question about Europe standing up to the US. It is a question about being prudent with our investments — about reducing risks.Every day Trump remains in office, distrust of the US increases, and the cost for the US will go up day by day. And this is irreversible. It takes years to build trust, but you can destroy it by your actions in minutes. Europe has now completely lost trust in the US. And so has Canada. It is up to the people of the US to demonstrate that Trump is an 'outlier', and it is up to the American people to stop him. If you don't do that, we will have to assume that this is what the US is about — whether the name of the President is Trump or something else, whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat.Source: https://x.com/mamomvpy/status/2014020721819...
(DIR) Post #B2Y2lBWqiTGizuMuvY by filiplachert@mastodon.social
2026-01-22T07:26:40Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@kravietz This part is key: "Americans live in the illusion that the US can do everything on its own, despite the fact that the US for nearly 20 years has lived beyond its means."15 years ago I was spending a lot of time with educated US engineers who were convinced that it was the US, not the EU that was fueling the rapid growth of Poland. No argument could convince them otherwise. Now that world-scale generalized absurd illusion of power has become mainstream and drives US politics.
(DIR) Post #B2Y3PwgSoXSUpVImFU by kravietz@agora.echelon.pl
2026-01-22T13:04:08.296498Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I’m replying collectively to @Arne @freediverx @CartyBoston as @devin_and_earth you all made very interesting and similar points about what’s going on in the US.I had many times myself highlighted that the state of United States is not the same as president Donald Trump, but here’s the catch:Citizens protesting definitely do count from moral perspective but what really counts at the end of the day is what the US institutions do. Because this is what will have a tangible impact on on both American citizens (what ICE does) and US alliances. If institutions hold, Trump will be a painful but just a lesson in populism and democracy.If institutions don’t hold, I don’t want to even think where this could go.And please note I’m speaking from a point of view of some one who had been watching the same process happening in Russia after 2000. I see a very clear pattern of what Trump is trying to achieve - subjugating law enforcement, media, judiciary and army to president, which would have disastrous consequences for American democracy, because that’s precisely what Putin was doing in that order.There’s critical difference - Russian society was always 90% passive or passively approving of Putin’s “strong man” course and entered the trap voluntarily. Those who protested were a honorable mention, but did not have any real impact - then they were exiled, bullied into submission, jailed or killed. So when you lose judiciary it’s game over and Trump will definitely try that - and remember that judiciary without law enforcement is just as toothless as ICC.I always believed that in the US the proportion would be exactly opposite, but now I see it’s probably more like 50/50 which makes the outcome very uncertain - and I’d love someone from the US to tell me “no, you got this completely wrong, and institutions do hold and people are taking things into their own hands”.
(DIR) Post #B2Y3Z4ZcqkIPuCSJAe by MichaelTBacon@social.coop
2026-01-22T14:45:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @freediverx @Arne Some of that is fair, and some of it is that this is a five alarm fire that is an existential threat to US democracy.And yes, the two big ones—Congress and SCOTUS—have rolled over in absolutely distressing ways.1/2
(DIR) Post #B2Y3Z6HcUf57Cw2xNo by MichaelTBacon@social.coop
2026-01-22T14:46:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @freediverx @Arne But the American public? The states? Are people really not hearing about Minneapolis? About blue state governors? The barrage of lawsuits?There's no guarantee we win. And that's VERY concerning. But there is a raging battle going on all over this country, so if I see "no real action," apologies, but my response is FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF. We're putting everything we have into this fight. Maybe find a way to help?
(DIR) Post #B2Y3Z7AZCN29xLkq1o by MichaelTBacon@social.coop
2026-01-22T14:47:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @freediverx @Arne Americans are literally confronting and disrupting heavily armed troops in the streets en masse. If that counts for nothing, I have absolutely no idea what you're looking for.
(DIR) Post #B2Y3Z7uISLc6FB9MJ6 by MartinClausen@mstdn.io
2026-01-22T15:23:15Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@MichaelTBacon @kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @freediverx @Arne I am sure many of your fellow citizens and yourself are doing all you can. That does not change the fact that Trump was ellected - twice. It would be deeply irrational for other countries to rely on the US as a rational actor in the foreseeable future.
(DIR) Post #B2Y3iBfVq9iaW4YUHw by freediverx@mastodon.social
2026-01-22T15:41:33Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@billiglarper @MichaelTBacon @kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @Arne > At the same time, there's still like 40% approval rating.Most people don't follow politics closely. Unless they live in an area being actively terrorized by the ICE Gestapo, many don't have a sense of what's really going on, and the complicit corporate media presents a distorted narrative that generally parrots the government's talking points.
(DIR) Post #B2Y3iIHfFDnj28S2aW by freediverx@mastodon.social
2026-01-22T15:57:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@billiglarper @MichaelTBacon @kravietz @CartyBoston @devin_and_earth @Arne 40% vote Republican, half of which are hardcore MAGA.Americans have lost faith in our uni-party political system where both parties are captured by the same moneyed interests. Trump won the election not because of a rightward shift in voter sentiment but because a significant number of left-leaning voters sat out the election due to Harris’ terrible campaign as a right wing Democrat.Blame the politicians, not voters
(DIR) Post #B2Y3yTFuDhMLh8LIbA by proscience@toot.community
2026-01-22T14:50:53Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@kravietz "The problem isn't Trump. The problem is the US."🎯 Two aspects need to be highlighted:The US tech fashs and other CEOs, i.e. in the terror organization that's the Heritage Foundation.And the lawlessness + terror of the regime against anyone they seek as not bootlicking enough *within their own system and population*.Lawlessness incl. murder is a feature, not a bug, and in essence no different to 🇷🇺 .The US are neither allies nor partners, neither competitors nor rivals.
(DIR) Post #B2Y4JDdRUWIzKXFFpI by devin_and_earth@mastodon.social
2026-01-22T13:02:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@kravietz His characterization of the American public is reductionist and unfair. Most of us hate was is happening. Protests against ICE and Trump are breaking record numbers. ICE is being chased away by angry mobs in Minneapolis. Any further escalation risks this fascist regime opening fire on crowds. People are already being blinded by rubber bullets fired directly at their heads. To say "we must be okay with it" is a juvenile, gross mischaracterization.
(DIR) Post #B2Y4JF6u0TSruC2INs by divVerent@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-22T16:25:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@devin_and_earth @kravietz I have my doubts there. Only a small amount of people really does anything. People always told me that the Americans have a provision in the constitution to use in case of emerging tyranny. Why is it not happening then? If not now, when then?Oh right. Because only the side that supports the tyranny has prepared. The other side has made it very difficult for their own supporters to prepare (instead of driving constititonal change that affects everyone equally).Sucks.Cleverly set up conflict between the two parties precisely on that issue has paved the way into tyranny.
(DIR) Post #B2Y9B0T73mn7wtJhxo by devin_and_earth@mastodon.social
2026-01-22T17:20:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@divVerent @kravietz To be clear, I'm not defending our ineffectual government whose members either actively support fascism or ineffectually watch it happen in order to perform respectability politics. And the core sentiment at the start of this thread is correct: do not do financial business with the USA. But to then also say "Americans must be fine with this" is absurd. Failing to stop tyranny with limited public options is not tacit acceptance or support of it.
(DIR) Post #B2ZD6LwIOntS48xmls by divVerent@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-23T05:38:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@devin_and_earth @kravietz 32% voted for this guy, 32% against. The other 36% tacitly accepted, or else they would have voted.Makes over two thirds of America who were fine with this, despite the first term, despite the "campaign promises" which are now being fulfilled one by one (except peace in 24 hours and prices going down).Sorry, I hate to break it to you, but those who are against this tyranny are a minority. You can't tell me over 18% of Americans have "flipped".