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Politics

Sunday Smiles

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Exploring the absurdities of modern politics and unexpected outcomes.

Elon Musk famously quipped that "the most entertaining outcome, especially if ironic, is most likely." 

Obviously, reality disagrees. Lots of very un-entertaining things happen all the time, but Musk did have a point: absurdities abound. For instance, who could have guessed that Twitter's decision to ban The Babylon Bee for a joke about Richard/Rachel Levine would result in Musk buying Twitter with a sum based on a marijuana joke, his becoming totally MAGA, and helping Donald Trump retake the White House? 

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Ban Babylon Bee>Musk spending $42 billion to buy Twitter>Musk MAGA>free speech>Trump election>DOGE>USAID disbanded>defunding much of the left. 

Serendipity. 

I thought of all this after I found out that, of all people, the relatively new Prime Minister of BELGIUM is a nationalist—a Flemish nationalist at that—who is willing to upend the European Union's plans and loves sticking it to the press in Trump-like fashion. 

I mean, can it get more delicious than the man whose country hosts the European Union and has been a symbol of transnationalism becoming the leader of a breakaway faction in the Union? And little Belgium, which is practically an occupied country, wins the day.

BRUSSELS ― For decades, Belgium has been Europe’s beating heart. That its current prime minister fought against the EU ― and won ― ushers in a dramatic new chapter for the bloc.

Even though the EU agreed to send Ukraine €90 billion after 16 hours of marathon talks that ended Friday morning, this disguises yet more fracturing of European unity. Bart De Wever’s belligerence means it’s another victory for an anti-establishment leader.

The plan to use frozen Russian assets to pay for the loan, for so long the only idea under consideration, is in tatters. De Wever, the Flemish nationalist whose career has been based on wanting to tear his country apart, held out for more than two months. Even as late as Thursday afternoon, many EU governments believed he’d back down. 

He didn’t.

“He basically got everything he wanted,” one EU diplomat said after the summit broke up in the early hours of Friday morning.

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I didn't even know there were Flemish nationalists, and I certainly wouldn't have guessed that a man whose life's work has been breaking up Belgium into smaller units was the Prime Minister of the country that hosts the most powerful group of transnationalists in the world. 

“Is Belgium alone? Is Belgium isolated? I cannot predict what will happen,” De Wever told Belgian lawmakers before taking the shortest of trips to his capital’s EU quarter. He knew it wasn’t.

The first camp of countries — by then led by Belgium with support from Italy, Bulgaria and Malta — opposed using Russia’s assets over fears of reprisals. 

Instead they wanted the EU to borrow money jointly. The fact that this idea was unpalatable to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Hungary’s Russia-friendly Orbán and yet turned out to be exactly what happened, shows the scale of De Wever’s victory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with European Council President Antonio Costa at the summit in Brussels. | Stephanie Lecocq/EPA

“Countries that live close to Russia … found it emotionally satisfying” to try to tap Russia’s frozen assets, De Wever told reporters after the summit. But “politics is not an emotional job,” and “rationality has prevailed.”

Leave aside the wisdom of De Wever's policy preference (there are good reasons not to seize bank assets from countries recognized by the international community with whom you are not at war), it's hilarious to see tiny Belgium lead a coalition that defeats the united power of France and Germany, along with their followers. 

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 It's more entertaining to see the PM spew bile at the press as if he were Trump. 

BEST OF THE BABYLON BEE:

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KITTENS AND PUPPIES AND RANDOM STUFF

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AND FINALLY...


David Strom

513 Blog posts

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