Comment by embedding-shape
4 hours ago
> Doing it in a way that won't invite retaliation from the US Gov (which seems more and more like the PR arm of US big tech) is even trickier.
I'm thinking the opposite might be the way to go here.
We already know that "retaliation" comes from the US government regardless if you did something or not, so most of us (Europeans) have stopped pretending there is a way of preventing it.
Even more, if we piss off Trump enough, he might be dumb enough to try to block European access to CloudFlare, or something similar and maybe even dumber.
So with this, maybe the goal should actually be to try to piss off Trump and the US administration as much as possible, in order for them to start reacting and cutting off some stuff, so we (again, Europeans) basically gets forced off CloudFlare et al.
Lots of companies already finished moving away from storing their primary data in the US, lots of companies is in process of doing so (albeit some look like they'll take forever) but also lots of companies still aren't prepared for the future, would be nice if US government could make the decision a bit easier for them to make :)
While I theoretically agree, the issue is that Trump will connect economical issues to blowing up NATO Article 5, leaving NATO completely, or retracting intelligence or Starlink for Ukraine.
So for the most part, the EU has to work slowly and under the radar.
That said, my worry is that we'll be back to business as usual if the midterms look favorable. Even the urgency present during January's Greenland threats was gone after a few months. I fear that we don't have the long-term focus and planning to make sovereignty really happen. But I'd love to be surprised.
> So for the most part, the EU has to work slowly and under the radar.
How convenient. If it wasn't for the US, the EU would work really fast and in the open! That is totally believable.
I asked the Swedish Prime Minister this question almost verbatim on Reddit two days ago and he responded. The answer was ... understated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/comments/1w8p0z4/comment/p84...
Oh, I missed that. Interesting non-answer regarding AI, seems almost obvious by now they don't even consider it a concept in the real world. Back when I lived in Sweden the politicians were already pretty disconnected from the average person, but in regards AI they seem to be intentionally avoiding it and sleeping on it?
Machine translation and login-wall unblocker:
Question:
> Hello, Sweden (and Europe) is facing three almost existential risks over the coming term of office that we have never really had to take a position on to the same extent before. The climate. A new UN report from last week has shown that El Niño will probably contribute to between 3 and 4 degrees of warming in addition to last year's heat wave. I live abroad and we had 44 degrees warm for a couple of days this summer (2025). It was also over 30 degrees in Norrbotten for over 3 weeks. Unbearable. How do you prioritize this against the many other budget items? How should we now prepare for what will inevitably lead to an IPCC 3-4 degree scenario?
> AI. AI development is just going faster and faster. At my workplace, we have already replaced many employees with AI-driven processes. We buy all our computing capacity from the US and China. There are no European alternatives and it is not possible to buy Swedish. What do you want to do to, at the European level, prevent us from ending up in the AI lap of the US and China in 5 years? Where should we buy chips from when all manufacturing takes place in Taiwan, Korea, China and the US? We risk a situation where Swedish office workers are rarely replaced with US AI tokens. Surely this must be an initiative at EU level?
> American foreign policy. Trump's second term has been tumultuous, to say the least. We were probably as close to the brink of war in Europe (Greenland) as there is in living memory. Trade agreements are being torn up, sticks are being put in the works for Gripen agreements, etc. Even when he is gone, the illusion of America as a close ally has probably finally been broken in the eyes of many Swedes, myself included. What do you want to do to reduce Sweden's and the EU's dependence on foreign superpowers?
Answer:
> There is a lot in this. A completely unique geopolitical time - both militarily and economically - presents a small country like Sweden with important choices. NATO was one of them. We are now cooperating with all our neighbors around the Baltic Sea, for example our own defense build-up, another example, the largest since the 50s. And all the new free trade agreements when the United States messes up world trade.
> The climate is also one of these, and what the EU is now doing together is the single most important thing, in parallel with Swedish fossil-free energy. We can make ourselves completely national energy independent with the new Swedish nuclear power programme. German energy policy, I think, proves why this is needed, in addition to the wars in the Middle East.
> EU: no single EU issue is more important than our support for Ukraine and increasing European competitiveness in relation to both the US and China. And it starts with the internal market - where 70 percent of all Swedish goods exports end up. If it can be as good for services including digital services, it would be good for both the EU and Sweden. But I am genuinely concerned that Europe is lagging behind.
> last China: we will have an intense autumn regarding a common European response against China to get "level playing fields" when it comes to trade. Today's situation is not sustainable. even extremely free trade-friendly countries like Sweden see this. we should not have protectionism but the same opportunities for the EU in China as for China in the EU. We are not there now.
I don't think the EU has the capability to work fast and just is opting not to.
> Even the urgency present during January's Greenland threats was gone after a few months.
There are troops deployed on Greenland right now ready to defend the island. The threat is not gone from the minds of the people there or in the rest of Europe just because you stopped reading about it on CNN or whatever.
Edit: I got curious if this part is even possible:
> leaving NATO completely
Apparently not. Congress enacted a specific prohibition in 2023, now codified at 22 U.S.C. §1928f. It says that the president may not "suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw" the US from the North Atlantic Treaty unless either two-thirds of senators present consent, or Congress passes an Act authorizing it. It also prohibits federal funds from being used to carry out an unauthorized withdrawal.
Seems some parts of the US has indeed managed to setup defenses against such idiocracy.
Trump doesn't need to block European access to Cloudflare when Europe already blocks European access to Cloudflare on weekends. In Spain and Italy. And yet, this hasn't deterred European businesses from using Cloudflare and blocking their own customers.
Great, more misinformation. "Europe" doesn't block access to Cloudflare on weekends in either Spain nor Italy. Source: I live in Spain, and I'm affected by the blocks you're referring to, that happen because of shitty Spanish judges forcing Spanish ISPs to block access to specific Cloudflare properties.
Why not take even two seconds to check if what you're guessing about, might actually be correct or not? Or the goal is just FUD here?
> And yet, this hasn't deterred European businesses from using Cloudflare and blocking their own customers.
Maybe because the impact of these blocks aren't as large as you allude to? Things change, these blocklists get updated. What was blocked 6 months ago no longer is, when these anti-piracy blocks happen.
Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with these blocks at all, and AFAIK, they break both national laws and wider "rights", but lets not pretend it's bigger than what it is in reality.