EU will go easy with Apple, Facebook punishment to avoid Trump’s wrath
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Either they don't get it or I don't get it.
El Presidente is going to take any action against the broligarchs as a personal affront; so why go with cringing half measures?
Even if the EU thinks that appeasement is worth it; starting with half measures seems like the precise wrong way to go about it. Trump appears to have a pretty weak sense of how good or bad a given deal actually is; but he is acutely sensitive to his impression of who is getting the good deal and who is getting screwed, who is dictating terms and who is being cowed into obedience: If the EU just says "We are doing this weaksauce thing; period." that will be interpreted as them imposing on him and trying to screw him. If, however, they say "We are doing this actual penalty" and then, once he expresses displeasure, they make a big show of agreeing to surrender everything but the weaksauce penalty out of fear and respect they will have imposed exactly the same sanction; but given Trump the impression that he has won and they have lost, rather than the other way around.
El Presidente is going to take any action against the broligarchs as a personal affront; so why go with cringing half measures?
Even if the EU thinks that appeasement is worth it; starting with half measures seems like the precise wrong way to go about it. Trump appears to have a pretty weak sense of how good or bad a given deal actually is; but he is acutely sensitive to his impression of who is getting the good deal and who is getting screwed, who is dictating terms and who is being cowed into obedience: If the EU just says "We are doing this weaksauce thing; period." that will be interpreted as them imposing on him and trying to screw him. If, however, they say "We are doing this actual penalty" and then, once he expresses displeasure, they make a big show of agreeing to surrender everything but the weaksauce penalty out of fear and respect they will have imposed exactly the same sanction; but given Trump the impression that he has won and they have lost, rather than the other way around.
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Yeah, I can't see Trump and kin taking this as anything other than vindication; America can throw their weight around, and Europe will mostly flinch.
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"EU will go easy with Apple, Facebook punishment to avoid Trump’s wrath"
This approach is doomed. It only feeds Trump's insatiable need for power, and will encourage even more bad behavior in the end. Trump will only get worse as he learns that bullying wins.
This approach is doomed. It only feeds Trump's insatiable need for power, and will encourage even more bad behavior in the end. Trump will only get worse as he learns that bullying wins.
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This talking point has been utterly daft for years, but now its metastasized and I can't wait to live through (or probably not) the American autarky. Thanks, ya twats.
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Sure, after all those American companies certainly do not earn any benefits from the European markets. The poor, poor things.
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If that was meant as a joke, I give it a 4/10 for lack of originality. If that was meant as a serious argument, well, I just hope you'll someday escape the alternate reality you appear to be living in
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Just fyi ... I had a delayed lol at this counterfactual propaganda.
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It's generally appropriate to use the /s tag when saying something so obviously bonkers that it might actually be taken at face value as something people actually believe.
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Come on, Europe, stand up to us. We need it. Trying to appease Trump will get you nowhere. The moment you're anything other than an obsequious sycophant, it doesn't matter how much you toed the line before that, you're his enemy.
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Please explain… one thing I do know is that American corporations, including apple use Ireland ( which is part of eu) as a place to park the paperwork for their operations and save billions in taxes. That seems like them treating eu as an atm. As usual the current stance of Trumpists is projection…
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Hand over Portugal today and Trump will demand Spain tomorrow.
Trump has just proclaimed that he is terrified that the EU will hit back against his billionaire supporters. How about opening the bidding with 25% tariff on US tech companies?
Trump has just proclaimed that he is terrified that the EU will hit back against his billionaire supporters. How about opening the bidding with 25% tariff on US tech companies?
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If only Trump, JD and those guys understood that this is the type of thing USA gets in return for having troops in Europe, along with so many other financial and geopolitical advantages.
I thought they knew and just pretended to be clueless to play up to their base, but those leaked signal texts made it clear that they are indeed completely clueless....
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We - the world - need to unite and not negotiate with the terrorist.
Trump's negotiation technique is to constantly break deals and try to extract blood from stone. If you agree to X, he will demand X+1 shortly.
He negotiated a trade agreement with Canada and now he's claiming he's being ripped off. He always wants more.
Fuck 'em. We should show him we are strong and stop giving him things.
This is a serial abuser and every time we accept it, we're empowering him to abuse us again.
If massive fines are what the law dictates, impose them. Let the man-child enact his tariffs, then react in kind. We can only make him stop by showing it doesn't work, even if we have to take a beating for a while to get the American people to recognize everything's more expensive when he's a dick.
Giving in does nobody favors but him.
Trump's negotiation technique is to constantly break deals and try to extract blood from stone. If you agree to X, he will demand X+1 shortly.
He negotiated a trade agreement with Canada and now he's claiming he's being ripped off. He always wants more.
Fuck 'em. We should show him we are strong and stop giving him things.
This is a serial abuser and every time we accept it, we're empowering him to abuse us again.
If massive fines are what the law dictates, impose them. Let the man-child enact his tariffs, then react in kind. We can only make him stop by showing it doesn't work, even if we have to take a beating for a while to get the American people to recognize everything's more expensive when he's a dick.
Giving in does nobody favors but him.
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Glad to see that justice is blind and can't be rigged. Or its just all theater...
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You know, FT, I can read regular paragraphs. You don't have to wear out your return key for no reason. Only two paragraphs in this whole article have more than one sentence.
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I have free advice for the US companies/Broligarchs - start following the EU rules with good intentions and you won't be fined by EU 
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Europe needs to create their own tech companies. I would love to use a European YouTube equivalent and EU based social media. Mastodon and its various ActivityPub protocol networks and apps are trying but they aren’t user friendly. Data stored in Europe only along with GDPR and other regulations are very attractive as a user. There must be some amount of tax policy and industrial policy that could make it happen.
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Fuck right off with this. American companies refuse to obey the rules of the territory they operate in and get fined. How it should be, everywhere. Just because the US is
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I thought they knew and just pretended to be clueless to play up to their base [...]
Sincere question, but how? His first administration is barely in the rear-view mirror!
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Name me one EU case against an American company which wasn't brought on by one or more ALSO American companies complaining about breach of EU regulations and delivering the smoking gun to the EU.
Yea thought not.
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It's already been said, but appeasement never works, especially when you're dealing with someone like Trump and his Gang of Grifters.
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If you're willing to trawl through the Technology page of Kickstarter, there are a number of EU-based teams trying to make social media sites. Of course, most of them will never get the funding needed to get off the ground, and the ones that do will probably flounder for a couple years before folding, but there are people trying.
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Appeasement cant work here either since the goal is to destroy NATO. The insults and attacks on Europe and CA will continue from the US until the alliance is dead. CA and EU will likely brush off as many as they can but eventually it hits a point where no reasonable human can remain being a doormat. Its arguably already there. Once NATO is gone Trump will stop caring about the EU any more than he cares about Zimbabwe or Thailand. His marching orders from his handler are to get rid of NATO and his behavior for the next 4 years will be towards that end.
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Well said. Don't play the facts, play the man-child's ego.
To riff on ars701's reference: "Fuckin figure it out."
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Overreach? Is it overreach to ask for laws of a sovereign nation to be respected? What the hell are you talking about? Nobody is forcing Meta or Apple to do business in the EU. If they want to do that, they have to respect the law. Plain and simple.
I'd like to see what you'd think of European workers with Green Card coming to the US and demanding that they are protected by EU laws on labour.
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I do hope we finally get tarrifs on digital services, to my surprise they appear to be excluded from trade imbalance calculations.
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