The EU thread

[crazy canuck]

Spain has drawn the Eye of Sauron.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to halt all trade with Spain, after the country barred the US from using its military bases as part of its operation in Iran.

In comments at the White House, Trump said Spain had been "terrible" and suggested "we're going to cut off all trade". "We don't want anything to do with Spain," he told reporters.

Can someone give me TLDR on Spanish politics. I pay more attention to weather forecasts and the menu when over there.

It was virtue signalling that has spectacularly escalated.

The Spanish gov is inmersed in a quagmire of corruption, plus the lack of an actual majority to govern, and is trailing in the polls by quite a big margin. But Spanish public opinion has always been very anti-Middle East excursions - our deployments in Irak were wildly unpopular - so he saw it as a way to score points.

Note that I think the attacks are an awful idea, but this is more a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Virtue signaling or just plain old politics?

[mongers]

Meanwhile Finland begins to clears internal legal barriers to it hosting and even possessing nuclear weapons.   

edit:
BBC article here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14m5llnrlpo

[Sheilbh]

Indication from Tusk too that Poland will pursue nukes, and who can blame them.

[Jacob]

I do wonder how much the various "we should build nuclear power for energy independence" in various EU countries has a subtext of "and coincidentally, it'll put us in a better position to build nuclear weapons should we decide to do so in the future".

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, in the case of Poland I'm not sure it's even subtext - Tusk earlier this week:

"We �are investing heavily in future nuclear power plants, and �Poland will not want to be passive when it comes to nuclear security in a military context," the prime �minister said before the start of Tuesday's government �meeting.

"We will cooperate with our allies... as our capabilities increase, ‌we ⁠will try to prepare Poland for autonomous action in this matter."

[mongers]

I do wonder how much the various "we should build nuclear power for energy independence" in various EU countries has a subtext of "and coincidentally, it'll put us in a better position to build nuclear weapons should we decide to do so in the future".

Well the first Western nuclear power plant, Calder Hall, was just an elaborate cover for the British to produce plutonium for bombs; they even roped in the Queen to open it, to give the civilian electricity ruse some credence.

[Duque de Bragança]

I do wonder how much the various "we should build nuclear power for energy independence" in various EU countries has a subtext of "and coincidentally, it'll put us in a better position to build nuclear weapons should we decide to do so in the future".

Well the first Western nuclear power plant, Calder Hall, was just an elaborate cover for the British to produce plutonium for bombs; they even roped in the Queen to open it, to give the civilian electricity ruse some credence.

Linked as well in France. Hardly a surprise or a revelation.