To help us Europeans in 1945, thousands of Americans had to fight their way from the bloody beaches of Normandy all the way to Berlin, under fire, in ice cold trenches, watching their friends die left and right.
But to help the Americans in 2026, we Europeans need to sit in our heated livingrooms and hit "end subscription" on streaming services that finance the American oligarchy — and of course no one wants to live through the horror, so fascism it is.
@livcomp potentially yes.
I earn a living from YouTube which has a monopoly that I cannot easily replace, but for me it was the easiest thing in the world to replace Prime Video with Sky Showtime, and to buy my products from Thomann instead of Amazon, and to not subscribe to ChatGPT, and to not buy a new iPhone, etc.
@randahl @livcomp Sitting down with my daughter to create a presentation for school, I was surprised to find that YouTubes monopoly is so huge. I have blocked access to YouTube on her computer, but it was impossible to find video material for our purposes from other sources.
On top of that, her teacher forces her to use Chrome and school uses Google Classroom. All very convenient, but questionable in face of current political realities.
@starluna Indeed they were.
The Europeans are better at managing their own affairs, for better or worse. How can Europe help in the face of a criminal POTUS with vengeance on his mind?
Fascism is merely what becomes of republics when they lose relevance. Instead of "our government" it's "the government".
@tuban_muzuru @randahl as we’re learning, a lot of the corruption we’re seeing in the US was driven/funded by Putin. I’d argue that Europe *and* the US failed to sideline Putin in the 90s when it would’ve been easy, and failed to confront him in the 00s/10s because it would’ve been hard. Especially the EU continued to pour money into his coffers long after It should’ve given up Russian oil and gas. And it’s not as if his tendrils aren’t all over far-right movements in the EU, as well as Brexit. I can’t give high marks for managing any of that. What’s happening in the US is not entirely home-grown, it’s a global effort to undermine democratic governments. Brexit was the same thing.
How can Europe help? Be swift to impose sanctions and treat the Trump government like the criminal state that it is. Freeze us out until there’s change. Some of this is happening already, but too slowly. Stop supporting Israel, too. Do support Ukraine as much as possible. The sooner Russia is defeated and Ukraine is whole, the sooner things start to improve.
Sanction Trump, Bondi, Miller, Bannon, and the rest. Refuse to let them travel in the EU. Same with Musk, Bezos, etc. If y’all’s intelligence services have things similar to the Epstein documents? Release them. Surely some government in Europe has a spy that can get hands on the documents, if you don’t have them already.
Pull out of anything hosted in the US. Stop traveling here until it’s safe. (Safe == Trump out, GOP out, ICE disbanded, etc.)
Hell, invite Trump for a peace award and then arrest him. 😂
@jzb this is the way.
1944: "Americans had to fight their way from the bloody beaches of Normandy"
2026: Europeans have to fight their way from the bloody b*tches of the White House 😉
@hetoug There is 1266 kilometers from Omaha beach to Berlin.
The American troops entered Berlin on July 4, after two months stationed 150 km west of the city.
You can argue that the US did not arrive early and fight alongside the Russians inside Berlin. But it does not change the fact that US troops traveled 1266 kilometers through a war torn Europe to defeat Nazism and end World War 2.
@randahl I'm sorry what? D-day was 6 June, so ice cold no.
With you on the rest, though. The reason AIPAC has worked to criminalize BDS in the USA is because boycotts work.
@harmoniousanger thousands of American troops were treated for frostbite in The Battle of the Bulge. Others froze to death.
The winter of 1944-1945 was exceptionally cold.
Randahl Fink
Dave Ackley
Toke Riis Ebbesen
Gerbrand van Dieyen
David S
Gytis Repečka
Nomdeb
Gondor
Dr Neenah Estrella-Luna
EQ
tuban_muzuru
Joe Brockmeier
Becca
hiphopheaven
François @Jura
hetoug
peter (not the famous one)