US Vice President J D Vace showed that diplomacy was an art beyond his reach yesterday when making a speech in Munich. He was speaking at an event on security. He took the opportunity to become the aggressor, saying:
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, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.
He continued, saying:
We must do more than talk about democratic values. We must live them now.
He then suggested that Europe had forgotten the lessons from the Cold War and the fight against oppression that it represented, saying:
To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way, or, even worse, win an election.
To make the issue very personal, he asked:
What you are defending yourselves for?
He then suggested:
If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.
If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg's 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.
There was more, but this is enough to get a feel for what he was suggesting. There appear to be three strands, at least, to his argument.
The first is that European governments are tyrannies.
The second is that they are ignoring the will of voters.
The third is that the US will not stand for this.
Those ideas need to be considered.
It is undoubtedly true that European governments are not good at:
- Listening to voters.
- Considering anything but neoliberal views.
- Respecting the rights of dissidents, most especially on the left.
- Protecting minorities and vulnerable groups from oppression.
- Planning for climate change.
- Delivering the basic services that people expect because far too many have been outsourced.
These charges are appropriate, but they are not the ones that Vance made.
In contrast, European governments have been, broadly speaking, good at:
- Upholding the rule of law.
- Protecting migrants (although there are ample enough exceptions to suggest things could be done very much better).
- Putting in place laws (even if they are not always upheld as I would wish) to:
- Prevent discrimination.
- Move countries in the direction of greater equality.
- Provide religious and intellectual freedom.
- Uphold free speech as long as it is not used to promote intolerance and abuse or promote threats to others.
- Allow free elections, albeit within forms of democracy that in some cases (the UK being the stand-out example) cannot fairly reflect the opinions of voters.
- Delivering stability, albeit as the neoliberal model fails that is beginning to look like a form of very stagnant inequality where opportunity for many is being denied.
I am not saying, in that case, that the governments we have in Europe are exempt from criticism. Far from it: I think that there is a great deal more that they can and should do.
But I do not think their failings are remotely like those that Vance, who is a participant in the fascist coup taking place in the USA in real-time right now, is suggesting. He would have us:
- Ban migration and remove those who have migrated.
- 'Other' minority groups in society.
- Remove the rights of women.
- Deny the rights of LGBTQ people.
- Deny the right to freedom of those who the far-right would wish to threaten and abuse.
- Grant the freedom to abuse.
- Permit market abuse and exploitation of the consumer.
- Remove the social safety net.
- End democracy.
- Deny climate change and take no action on it.
- Abandon the rule of law.
- Cease to care.
This is not my vision of a good society. I do care. If I am about anything, it is that. The lesson I have learned from life is that unless we care for the other, even if we do not agree with them or share their values, then tyranny awaits.
That is what, I think, most Europeans uphold. That is why they are so shocked by the far-right and its rise because the hatred, intolerance and callousness of their words and actions - which are deliberately designed to promote fear - are so alien to all that we think we are and should aspire to be.
And this is exactly what Trump, Vance, Musk and their cohort dislike about Europe. They hate that Europeans care when they do not care.
The only thing that matters to them is their own well-being. They will intimidate and directly threaten those that they do not agree with to get what they want. Their definition of freedom is that the right to threaten should be permitted. This is what Vance was suggesting yesterday, above all else.
Meanwhile, in the USA, the rule of law is being shredded.
We know Trump used violence - resulting in deaths to which he was indifferent - to try to stay in office in 2021. He has forgiven those who partook in that. Democracy is under direct threat.
And what Vance did was straight from the Goebbels handbook of fascist misinformation techniques. He accused Europe - who he casts as his enemy - of doing exactly that for which he is responsible.
Don't get me wrong. I have many criticisms of the way in which Europe is governed. I have considerable difficulty with their culture of neoliberalism, which is fast taking us on the road to nowhere.
I want radical reform so that people might really enjoy what is possible in this country and many others.
But never, ever confuse that criticism with what Vance might be saying. He is acting for a few at a cost to many.
I believe that the frustration in Europe is that the many are not getting what they deserve because there is an elite denying most people what is rightfully theirs to enjoy - an elite of which Trump, Vance and Musk are a part and whose interests they are pursuing to an extreme not yet seen in Europe.
I want government for people. Vance wants anything but that.
The battle lines are drawn.
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All true, especially the bit about caring. The favoured words of the right, woke, snowflake, virtue signalling, are all simply ways of saying ‘ I care less than you about other people ‘.
So much of the speech, especially the free speech stuff, was so easy to refute. But the right and much of the media just took it at face value. Even though they are always telling the left off for’. talking down the country ‘!
Fascists love creating fear about the enemy within. The more paranoid the population, the easier they are to manipulate.
Vance cited a person who was arrested for being within the exclusion zone of an abortion clinic. The rule is there to protect women from emotional blackmail. Vance of course, made a point of the man praying.
Yet there are states in the US who not only ban abortion but some who want to ban abortion in the case of rape forcing a woman to carry the rapist’s child. When that happened in the Balkan wars it was deemed a war crime.
This one example of the moral gulf that does exist between his morality and that of most of Europe. He might not recognise it but we can.
Note – and of extreme importance to the UK and its citizens – is that Trump et al have clearly decided that they may be able to break Starmer’s government away from our European allies – hence the news of a ‘friendly’ meeting being splashed all over the media.
And of course, Trump will offer Starmer some bribes (sorry, trade deals) as payment for that betrayal. Just as he’s done, and is doing, with Ukraine, and his buddies dictators elsewhere.
So we’re now going to see Starmer’s true colours. Are they the Stars and Stripes overlaying the Union Jack, or will it be the Union Jack laying with the many yellow stars of the EU.
Sadly, I think it’ll be the former.
I fear you are right.
You quoted Vice President Vance: ‘If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding …’
Could it be that his unconscious-self knows that Thunberg is saying something important? It is equally likely that her name was cleverly inserted by speech writers who love their children … and themselves.
Survival is more important than war, political domination or even ‘growth’.
The Doomsday Clock is now set at “89 seconds to midnight”. ‘The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) – which sets the clock annually – said nuclear threats, potential misuses of advances in biology and artificial intelligence, as well as climate change, were the key factors.’ They started it at ‘seven minutes to midnight in 1947. Last year, it was left unchanged at 90 seconds’.
In January, BAS said: “In setting the clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal.”
Might the many, increasingly obvious flaws of U K governance, and elsewhere, include a consequence of America pleasing obedience to America instigated Neoliberalism?
In their obsessions with following the philosophy of Neoliberalism, might European governments also be wishing to show themselves to be loyal members of the previously unstated American empire?
Might the Trump regime make the American Empire obvious and the long term, “ manifest destiny” American policy of World domination, obvious too?
Might this bring serious, short/medium term, difficulties and present longer term opportunities for transparent, equitable, non-dominant-groups-parasitic governance?
“Stay alert! Focus on your opportunities! Know where you really are at all times! Never let your guard down! Always travel with reliable associates, if not friends!” (From Kimberly Guilfoyle)
A clue as to why I could never have gone into the civil service or politics is that had I been there I would have walked out and given the ugly jute the finger on the way out as well.
Hegseth, Vance – they all look like thugs – ‘wise guys’- even before they open their whining, hectoring traps. And the abuse of language is incredible.
What is amazing is that there is no room at all for any other view. Trumps team is tumescent in its glory for sure. And so, they have already started to do what the cowering Neo-lib Left does – play at politics at the margins – but leave the mechanics that is actually causing the trouble intact. Because that is of course where ANY modern politician gets their power from – money.
They are going to do stuff like ban paper straws and go back to plastic! Turn back legislation on gender rights and makes sure that everyone poos in the right public toilet for their sex!! Stop immigration, turn ’em back (OK, this is really bad one I agree but it will be done badly) etc, etc.
And after all this, and it may take a little time, after all the niggly little things have been addressed as sops to their own venality, the American people might realise that they have been had – again.
The question now is, do strategists like Roger Stone and others understand this? And if so, what plans do the Republicans have to stop the great epiphany? What other big lies will come into play? Who else will get the blame and be victimised? What other democratic processes will be ripped up and trod into the bitumen?
And finally one other point: all the sides have guns. Lots of them. Let us see what happens when the next election comes around shall we?
The US is truly a place apart from Europe not given to revealing its true historical and cultural complexities when mediated simply through the liberal elites of NYC and DC or the celebrated dons of Ivy League colleges or Hollywood stars. Their gun culture is no exception. As for its federal governance crisis I expect the most likely flashpoint for the explosion of extreme civil conflict to flare up between libertarian patriots like Steve Bannon and the christian fundamentalist fanatics and their neo liberal global capitalist colleagues like Peter Thiel and his protegé Vance. A conflict with its roots in the founding of America’s Enlightenment Project, a reiteration of self proclaimed revolutionary freedom fighters taking on the corrupt oligarch owners of capital and people and religious oppressors. One that will cut across divisions of race, sex, class and politics in its dividing lines.
What Vance wants is Freedom to lie – the polar opposite of freedom of speech.
Freedom to lie => Freedom to brainwash => Extremists voted into power…
We need look no further than the 40-year decline in telling the truth in US media, culminating in Fox ‘News’, talk radio etc. where opinions are presented as fact, The effect on the US population of such ‘freedom’ should be seen as a grave warning in Europe.
Totally agree btw that neolib policies are the ‘gateway drug’ to people turning and listening to their lie-machine.
That’s rich, coming from someone whose boss is seeking to end the war in Ukraine by in effect rewarding Russia for its aggression, letting it keep the territory it has illegally invaded.
And he continued the misinformation by spouting rubbish about buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland, and the Scottish Government having written to residents within those buffer zones to warn them that private prayer in their homes (presumably praying for women using those clinics to change their mind) could be illegal. Never mind how ludicrous such a comment makes him look, those he is dog-whistling won’t care, but it is of course quite simply a lie. The only newspaper that has called that for what it is this morning is, unsurprisingly, The National.
The Trump regime’s interpretation of free speech is simply that they should be able to lie without restraint. Appropriate that JD Vance made this speech in Munich. Wrong part of Germany for him, but Goebbels would have been proud.
None of us expected we be living through this.
Many European leaders have pushed back on Vance. But not Starmer.
Trump allied with AfD in Germany , National Rally in France , Orban in Hungary, Meloni in Italy Reform in UK – rather not think about it.
Equally terrifying is the growing consensus that European countries need to rearm and get onto a ‘pre war’ footing . It could become a self fulfilling prophesy.
Where is the equivalent diplomatic/ economic strategy to build alliances, or at least relationships – to avoid war? .
Post cold war hubris led us to allow the Israel/ Palestine and Russian/Belarus/Ukraine to fester in plain sight.
Richard’s ‘government for the people’ model seems a long way off.
But what we have now is not viable either
Another excellent piece of analysis, Richard. Thank you.
Now that the beliefs and intentions of a Putin-led, global hard-right network are brazenly out in the open, the battle lines, as you say, are clearly demarcated.
So it has me wondering who is going to lead the defence here in the UK? (Assuming Reform surge into some form of government at the next election, which appears a reasonable possibility at this stage, given Labour’s abject showing in government so far).
At a party political level in this country, things have never seemed more hopeless in my lifetime. You could argue that the Green Party present the likeliest source of opposition as they are the only party willing to challenge neo-liberal ideology and are not hamstrung by a need to pander to the right-wing base of a voter coalition. It seems to me, however, that they don’t understand MMT, have largely ineffectual leadership and many voters would place household finance and public service provision above environmental concerns, leaving the party’s appeal limited. Will we see a group of Labour MPs breakaway and form a party of the people in the coming years? Where is the hope going to come from?
I can’t take credit for this comment, I saw it elsewhere, but against expectations Vance did a rare thing.
He managed to get the foreign ministers of Europe to unanimously agree on something.
They all agreed that Vance was an arsehole
Well, the foreign ministers of Mr Borrell’s Garden have for three long years been crying for more war, and are now on the brink of being handed over the levers of power to solve the problem. Therefore, they shall try to intimidate us, their constituents, about the Russian and Chinese perils that await us if we fail to fall for the 5% trap.
Mr. Vance seems to doubt that the Garden elite is equal to the task. He knows all about regime change, but did not expect the recipe to be dished out to the far right winner of the cancelled election in Romania; he knows his freedom of expression, but is rumoured to have been shocked by the dictatorial lengths to which the EU Digital Services Act renders service; and, to make a long story short, Washington may have balked at the prospect of having to face Mr Starmer’s 100-year propensities.
Mr Vance wants to admire us, Europeans, but is afraid we may defeat his expectations. Little does he know that our foreign ministers are now going to engulf themselves in a sea of recriminations; after all, we are equipped with twenty seven of them. We are ready for the Jungle.
Thank you Richard – I agree. I have been struggling with what can actually be done to cure the ‘cancer’ of ‘psychopaths’ the likes of Vance. How can people who care do to change this? Listening to George Monbiot on the James Kennedy podcast is a helpful education and call to action that gives me a tangible way forward – How we beat the invisible doctrine. What are your thoughts?
I have many – this who.e blog is part of that
So was the Green New Deal
And the Taxing Wealth Report
But there is more to come. That is my work for the next year.
At last the gloves are off. Vance unfurled the new American fascist banner and made it clear to all that Trump and Vance’s MAGA USA is not only no longer a depenndable ally, but is a declared enemy of what Europe stands for. There is doubtless worse to come, as Trump has already signalled in relation to Denmark/Greenland, Ukraine and that most European part of north America, Canada. And let us celebrate the straightforward, resolute and unvarnished response of the German Defence Minister, Pistorius who has called Vance and his master(s) out for seeking “to export their fascism” – which was precisely what Vance and Musk have been doing with their interference in the German election. No more fawning, please – and no more playing ‘mr nice guy’. Let us recognise their threat for what it is – the opposite of liberal democracy.
Agreed, entirely.
But Starmer is still fawning.
Yes indeed, this appalling speech from the liar Vance and the Trump government’s ludicrous proposal to ‘negociate’ with Putin and exclude both Ukraine and the rest of NATO proves the USA is no longer any sort of ally at all. Or indeed a real democracy.
All of Europe needs to acknowledge that. Including the UK. The only kind of special relationship we have with the US is now that of fawning to Trump’s ego.
Time to rejoin the EU and enter full cooperation on defence with the other European members of NATO.
Starmer’s pathetic delusion that the UK can act as a ‘bridgeway’ between the US and the EU needs to end. That ended well and truly with the insanity of Brexit, let alone the descent of the US into fascism under Trump.
BTW, isn’t it time the USA was booted out of NATO now that it longer wants to be a positive, active participant in the organisation, and is threatening two of its fellow members?
I think the US will shortly leave NATO, the UN, IMF and World Bank. We won’t need to decide but three will need to relocate.
Oops! Let me correct my post. The phrase in quotes, I apologise for having picked up from a report of the Pistorius response. I have now checked his complete text and he did NOT use those words. His response was blunt – but not that blunt. I do fear, however, that it is what Vance and Musk have been doing/attempting and they must be denied and confronted for the good of what Europe really stands for – and that includes the ‘U’ K too.
Any thoughts on the significance of the Trevethin and Penygarn Council by-election result?
Yes. The Tories let Reform in.
This from the Guardian, listing Reform’s main people:
“Richard Murphy was poached from Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) to run a new “centre of excellence for Reform candidates”
/s
I read that, and thought not all Richard Murphys are the same.
Vance: “We must do more than talk about democratic values. We must live them now.”
Hmm, does that including lying? all the time? Example:
Vance: Scottish government had distributed letters to citizens whose houses lay “within so-called safe access zones (abortion clinics), warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law”.
Scottish government “The vice-president’s claim is incorrect. Private prayer at home is not prohibited within safe access zones and no letter has ever suggested it was.”
The man is a perfect VP to Trump in that both are congenital liars – & one knows when they are lying – they open their traps and speak. Europe needs to treat the current USA gov as something (like the Russian gov) that lies all & every time. Given this reality, the less the EU & UK has to do with the USA, the better.
Agreed
“Given this reality, the less the EU & UK has to do with the USA, the better”. Agreed, Mike, but the UK is governed by a (so-called) Labour Party whose leaders lie routinely and embrace views that would have their Labour Party predecessors turn in their graves. Never mind their neoliberal policies, just their widespread brazen acceptance of all manner of bribes, (sorry, lobbying rewards), alone shows them to be more closely aligned to Trumpian values than European values.
Vance’s speech was completely post-truth populism. That is the governing ideology of America. I could go into detail and explain why Vance is wrong about the facts. Yet this would be entirely pointless because that is not how to deal with post truth politics. The best way to counter it is to have a better story than theirs. Just like Starmer and labour, Europe doesn’t have 1. This lack of political narrative leaves open the door to people like Vance who are much more strategic political operators than someone like Donald Trump. Europe is incredibly vulnerable.
Romania are in crisis because they have a bunch of politicians who fail to be leaders. Anyone could come a long promising absolutely anything and can ‘win’ an election. Like what happened last year. Inequality and economic hardship is out of control and all politicians can say is that there is “no money”. It is simply not good enough.
My concern is not in rhetoric but in the vast amount of US money flowing into this country, aimed at privatisation, exploitation and moral corruption. The current government is hopelessly compromised and corrupt, USA interests abound in Tufton St , Blackrock etc. There is no coherent opposition, with the Greens hopelessly marginalised and those on the left incapable of forming a front.
I hope you saw Zelenskyy’s amazing speech in Munich this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tC_5ryXY7U
On a more lighthearted topic, today’s song is something you said earlier! “On the Road to Nowhere”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQiOA7euaYA
Paul Krugman shared your musical taste this week
I will look at Zelenskyy
Currently the US is in secret negotiation with two war criminals.
Both lead countries that are in illegal occupation of another land, one has been so for 57 years and one for four years.
Neither are democracies but both have elections.
One has killed some 30,000 children over 14 months the other has seen tens of thousands of young men die fighting.
The UK Labour Party has long been a “friend” of the one reponsible for a probable genocide but is currently a sworn enemy of the other.
The English media portrays one as the victim of terrorist hatred and the other as an evil that cannot be appeased.
I can’t make sense of this.
Along comes J D Vance and adds another layer of bullshit.
Language itself is being debased and corrupted by the political class and the politicised media leaving brute force and power to reign supreme.
Vance said: “I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election.”
We should all also have been ‘struck’, indeed horrified at that. Blaming “Russian interference” was just an obvious pretext for annulling the ‘wrong’ democratic result. Yet Western intelligence agencies have a much more substantial record of interference in elections world-wide (including in Romania), via NGOs and so-called ‘independent’ media, vastly subsidised if not directly owned by regime-change organisations concealed beneath misleading names, such as the National Endowment for Democracy and USAID.
Vance is also right to be critical of Western governments’ restrictions on free speech and freedom generally. The pity is that he chose bad examples, probably ones that will play favourably back in the USA. Instead he could have focused on the censorship, smearing, harassment and arrests that climate activists, peace activists and anti-Zionists are being subjected to in the EU and the UK.
Vance is also correct in warning that democracy is placed in disrepute (and therefore in danger) when governments ignore or flout the views of their citizens. But again he chose as an example the “right-populist” issue of immigration (admittedly not without its problems, but these have been blown up out of proportion by unscrupulous politicians and media). Instead he could have focused, for example, on the disquiet among the public caused by growing inequality, declining public services, privatisation of essential utilities etc. In the UK neither of the main parties is addressing these legitimate concerns, yet public opinion polls repeatedly highlight these as being priorities for the public, who are looking in vain for action from the government.
And Vance could also have linked the immigration issue to the disastrous and criminal previous policies of the USA and NATO in undermining and/or overthrowing governments (Iraq, Libya, Syria etc.), essentially wrecking countries and provoking millions to seek better and more secure lives in Europe.
Let’s be clear, Vance was not right.
He and the left do not have common ground.
I have problems with the framing you use fur that reason.
Vance was indeed overlooking the fact that the US itself is also up to its neck in such meddling and censorship, whether under the Democrats or his own Party – which signals that he was grandstanding for the benefit of his home audience. America is Great Again – here I am, bullying the rest of the world, and pretending that the US is the guardian of those values the West is supposed to represent (and very clearly does not).
Seems the Mango Mussolini is taking inspiration from another former European dictator, judging by his recent quoting of Napoleon: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” How can there be the slightest doubt now, that Trump is a fascist and a wannabe dictator?
Is World War 3 approaching?
I hope not
The ingredients for WW3 are all there, the move to the right in politics.The willingness to abandon diplomatic and trading relations to push isolation policy. No one willing to stand up and tell the U.S. your policies are making the world unsafe. For example the U.S. makes promises and when that policy doesn’t work they lose interest and seek to pull out. A good example is Ukraine where the U.S. promised them NATO membership and is now seeking to get out.Before making such a promise you would think the U.S. would try to find out how the Russians would respond,but no make the promise and to help with the consequences. Like you Richard I hope there’s no more wars but for some reason we’ve forgotten the lessons of how wars start.
Good question. I think at least two very large wars are getting closer, yes. Either or both could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
Firstly, there is the issue of Taiwan. China has been rapidly expanding and upgrading it’s Armed forces as it’s economy has grown for the last few decades to the extent that it may match the US. Given the chaos Trump is unleashing in the US this may well weaken the US forces opposing the Chinese in the Pacific which can only give further encouragement to the Chinese in their (stupid) obsession with “recovering ‘ Taiwan. Add to that Trump’s obvious dislike of China, and think it highly likely the Chinese will launch an attack on Taiwan before 2030.
And then there’s Ukraine. This is less certain, but given Trump’s disastrous submission to Putin, he’ll only be encouraged to continue his aggression. Which means Europe will rearm, if it can get it’s act together, and sooner or later an aggressive, totalitarian Russia will be going to war with a ‘rump’ NATO when Putin tries to get hold of the rest of Ukraine, or the Baltic states, or maybe the whole of Eastern Europe.
I think Trump is walking away from both places.
From Ukraine Richard, but not Taiwan. Trump is spoiling for a fight with China and in fact the US military has been changing it’s force posture and looking to get new weapons suitable for a conflict in the Pacific and the South China sea instead of Europe.
This started before Trump was elected BTW. When the USA had ‘serious’ governments the aim was to deter and if necessary fight an increasingly belligerent China in which the PRC has always made clear it’s desire to reunite Taiwan with the motherland to form ‘one China’.
Now it has a Trump clown government, the USA will be looking to fight China as an aim in itself, not as a means of defending Taiwan. Ironically, the looney DOGE project of Musk will probably substantially weaken the US military. Something the Chinese are probably awaiting with eager anticipation.
China.
China is ringed by American bases and forces. It’s not Taiwan that China seeks, you are mistaken. China seeks Taiwan and or a route into the Pacific Ocean. The Spratley Islands are now a Chinese base not unlike Diego Garcia, the challenge arises.
The Philippines, Malaysia Singapore are all vulnerable.
The Dragon will challenge the Eagle for Africa which is seen by China as a land for conquest.
Europe is not on Chinas shopping list.
I fully endorse your view, Mr. Murphy and would like to add that JD Vance’s speech seems to be dictated to him by someone else, given that he mentions “a threat from within Europe” and “Russia is not the threat”. Would that person be Elon Musk or Vladimir Putin ?!
Peter Thiel