... very seriously and I am not using this expression lightly. Sometimes the scale of Europe’s catastrophe is obscured by ... well judge for yourself.

But this is just the part of the explanation. Remarkably, Trump’s (and the US) behavior towards Europe DID signify both: US still retaining the status of a diminishing but superpower, while Europe has been paraded as a collection of Imponent sheeple. Yeah, we may laugh at this, and this certainly makes sense but not all of it:

It is in Russian, but it gives a proper angle on Macron’s (and France’s) behavior in attempts (pathetic) to "recruit" China in developing US-European stand-off. I will just machine translate a piece of otherwise good article in Ria, with the EXCEPTION of a military part, but it comes with the territory for civilian journos. Here is Macron’s behavior in China a few days ago:

Macron, incidentally, quite rightly pointed to key sectors of the EU’s real economy, such as machine tool and engineering, which have seen their profitability plummet as a result of the severing of trade ties with Russia and the resulting energy shortage. The US administration, which practically blackmailed Brussels into signing an agreement with unilateral trade preferences, only worsened the situation. The final blow to the teetering European economy, weakened by military spending to continue the Ukrainian war, was dealt by Chinese goods. They literally flooded into European markets, increasingly displacing similar locally produced goods, weakened by the complex of negative factors described above. ... Macron accused China of "killing its competitors" by constantly increasing exports and evading counter-imports from eurozone countries. As a result, the trade deficit between China and the EU by the end of 2024 grew to $305.8 billion (up $8.5 billion from the previous year), while the trade imbalance in trade volumes increased by a quarter over the year, from 34.8 to 44.5 million tonnes. In retrospect, according to the European Commission, over the past ten years, the financial imbalance in China’s favor has doubled, while the trade imbalance has quadrupled.

Read the whole thing, with the exception of military part, although read it still but with a truckload of salt, because French military is a 1990s military which still depends on the US in critical systems such as Early Warning and other things related to ISR et al. And if you watch the video about France, you will understand why France is toast. Yes, Airbus (international consortium, BTW), yes, shipbuilding, but as correctly stated–manufacturing being 10% of national economy? That’s the third world, boys and girls. Yes, hand bag for the price of a small car or ... I write about it for years–Western economic indices are fraud as are people who concoct them. Today we all observe in real time how this house of Louis Vuitton handbags and services such as cleaning poo behind actual French bulldogs make otherwise pathetic economy look like a big one.

Meanwhile, while many people have been moved by the speech of the Russian pilot during the award ceremony in Kremlin, here is some interesting quip:

TASS reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the "Gold Star" medal to Andrey Shishov, Deputy Head of the Flight Test Center and Head of the Flight Service, a test pilot at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). He was the first to successfully launch the hypersonic missile "Kinzhal", according to materials from the state awards ceremony. "In 2017, he performed the first takeoff of the experimental MiG-31 aircraft (Product 08), and in 2018, as the crew commander, he performed the first flight of the experimental MiG-31 (Product 08) ‘Burevestnik’ with a new product, thereby confirming the correctness of the technical solutions and the possibility of performing takeoffs, landings, and the flight itself with this unique product. In September 2019, A. A. Shishov successfully performed the first launch of the hypersonic missile ‘Dagger’ at a sea target in the Barents Sea on a MiG-31K carrier aircraft, and in 2020 - on a MiG-31 (Product 06)", the materials say.

OK. Here is this thingy–no, not serially produced Petrel (Burevestnik) unlimited range cruise missile. No, the other one:

This is Izdelie-08 (Manufactured Item-08)–antisatellite weapon, which was shown to Vladimir Putin about five years ago.

The program continues and looks like Russia soon to deploy this thing. This is a mockup in 2018.

Shishov was awarded yesterday the title of the Hero of Russia. And in conclusion–today is the day of founding of my Naval Academy.

It is a sad day in a sense. But, that’s life ...