XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: bflatt3xz2@gmail.com   
      
   The only people applauding JD Vance’s blathering are the far right – and   
   Russia   
      
   The vice-president of the United States fired a broadside of half-truths   
   and conspiracy theories about his allies in Europe – a continent already   
   close to war with Russia – in a rallying cry that will be roared out and   
   multiplied by the far right everywhere.   
      
   In his keynote address at the Munich Security Conference, delivered to an   
   auditorium packed with ministers of defence, generals and leaders from   
   across Europe and beyond, JD Vance said: “The threat that I worry the most   
   about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other   
   external actor.”   
      
   “What I worry about is the threat from within,” he announced to the   
   assembled securocrats.   
      
   They would have walked into the hall pretty sure that it’s Russia’s open   
   military and violent designs on Ukraine, the Baltic nations, Poland, and   
   much of the rest of eastern Europe, that’s been keeping them up at night.   
      
   Nope. It was that a “European commissioner” had “sounded delighted” that   
   the Romanian [presidential] elections were annulled last year by the   
   country’s constitutional court after a hard-right, anti-Nato, pro-Russian   
   candidate of notable obscurity won the first round amid a surge in   
   mysterious backing on social media.   
      
   The EU is investigating funding for his TikTok campaign, and Calin   
   Georgescu's appeal against the decision was rejected by the European Court   
   of Human Rights.   
      
   Meanwhile, in Moldova, Russia has been exposed for spending –   
   unsuccessfully – €100m on a campaign to get a pro-Russian candidate elected   
   there.   
      
   “Romania straight up cancelled the results of a presidential election based   
   on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure   
   from its continental neighbours,” the US vice-president told Washington   
   allies.   
      
   He was also concerned about the prosecution of a British anti-abortion   
   campaigner for violating an exclusion zone around a clinic, which he saw as   
   an example of democracy being under attack.   
      
   As he went on, it became clear that JD was no longer a friend, and   
   certainly not an ally, of the kind of democracy Europe has enjoyed for 80   
   years.   
      
   “I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide   
   away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious   
   Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs,” Vance said.   
      
   “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”   
      
   He didn’t say so, but his main target seemed to be the EU’s Digital   
   Services Act, which can ban and fine internet companies for violating laws   
   within Europe – which include restrictions on hate speech.   
      
   This legislation, introduced last year, will affect Elon Musk’s X platform,   
   and the Meta companies Facebook, Instagram and Threads, led by Mark   
   Zuckerberg, who, like Musk, backs the Trump administration.   
      
   Musk, meanwhile, has been a vocal advocate of hard-right causes in Europe,   
   backing Germany’s far-right AfD party and amplifying and circulating   
   conspiracy theories along with outright lies on the social media platform,   
   X.   
      
   “If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you   
   guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk. But what German democracy, what   
   no democracy, American, German or European, will survive is telling   
   millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations,   
   their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered.”   
      
   Federal employees are currently being made to take loyalty tests to ensure   
   that their personal views are consistent with the aims of the Trump   
   administration at all levels of government, or face the sack. JD didn’t   
   mention that.   
      
   Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, had already driven a wedge between   
   the US and Europe when he arrived for the Nato gathering earlier this week   
   and promptly gave up some of Ukraine’s most important negotiating cards   
   ahead of a promised meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.   
      
   Hegseth said that Nato membership was off the cards for Ukraine, as was the   
   presence of any US troops to ensure Ukraine’s security, as part of any   
   peace agreement. On top of that, he said Ukraine could forget about getting   
   back all the land Russia has taken by force.   
      
   Keir Starmer’s office said that he had promised Volodymyr Zelensky that   
   Ukraine is on an “irreversible path to Nato” membership.   
      
   His stance was echoed by several other European officials who agreed with   
   the US position that Europe needed to spend more on its own defence.   
      
   That imperative becomes starker still, now that the US vice-president has   
   revealed that he’s not much of a friend. Now, Europe must consider the US   
   an unreliable ally – at best.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)