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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 23m

Bad news for people who thought the EU would stop airlines charging extra for rolling carry-ons.

The Commission has rejected the Spanish court's interpretation that this violates EU law.

It means rolling carry-on charges coming to all airlines soon.

Hand luggage fees: consumer groups regret EU Commission's challenge of Spain airlines fines

Today, the European Commission opened a rule-breaking procedure against the Spanish government for fining five airlines for their unfair hand-luggage pricing practices in May 2024. The overall fine am...

www.beuc.eu

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 1d

VDL's geopolitical weakness isn't the reason for the censure motions, it's the reason why one could pass in coming months

The far right & far left are tabling just because they can. But if S&D/Greens/Renew etc join it would be because of climate & Trump surrender (as evidenced by leaders' speeches)

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 2d

Words cannot describe how tone-deaf it is to publish this article at this moment.

But The Economist has been consistently tone-deaf in their Europe coverage for years. They will never get over their obsession with America, even as the US descends toward dictatorship or civil war.

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Reposted by Dave Keating

Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 2d

Texas proudly invading Illinois.

It’s hard to describe the level of potential constitutional crisis here.

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 2d

🇪🇺President von der Leyen is facing another no-confidence vote in 🇪🇺 Parliament.

VDL will today defend herself from 2 no-confidence motions from the far left and far right. Then Thursday, MEPs will vote.

As I noted in my VDL profile in IPQ last week, the centre left could topple her if they join.

Ursula von der Leyen: Queen in the Commission, Servant in the Council

A year into her second term, the European Commission’s notoriously controlling president is attracting criticism for neutering her college of commissioners while blindly following the EU’s 27 national...

ip-quarterly.com

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 2d

🤦

French PM and government resign, pitching Macron into chaos

The new administration had been appointed less than 12 hours before resigning.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by Dave Keating

Zenalicious - Recovering beltway junkie and doom scroller. @confuzation.bsky.social · 2d

@thehill.com

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Reposted by Dave Keating

Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 2d

BOOM 🔥:

Judge Immergut issues a second Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting the relocation, federalization, or deployment of ANY NATIONAL GUARD FROM ANY STATE into the state of Oregon.

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

Why is there this cognitive dissonance between Europeans watching America slip toward authoritarianism or civil war but still dreaming of living there?

It is a result of 7 decades of cultural imperialism - the subject of my upcoming book "The Owned Continent", coming out soon.

Here's an excerpt:

Europe is a terrified child

There is a troubling psychology behind why Europeans are accepting their leaders' summer of subservience to "daddy" Donald Trump.

davekeating.substack.com

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

It's so great that 🇪🇺President von der Leyen's surrender deal with Trump brought us all this stability.

Trump's crackdown on Italian pasta: 107% tariffs on the way - L'Unione Sarda English

The United States accuses domestic producers of dumping, that is, selling below cost to gain control of the foreign market.

www.unionesarda.it

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Reposted by Dave Keating

Alice Stollmeyer @stollmeyer.bsky.social · 4d

🔥 Finally an EU leader says it out loud:

“We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies.”

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 4d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

A note to Europeans:

Telling an American in 2025 that your dream is to move to the USA is like telling a German in 1933 that your dream is to move to Germany.

I will assume you're either a fascist, or an idiot.

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

According to the US Secretary of Homeland Security, only US citizens will be allowed into the Super Bowl in February - and ICE will be there to enforce this.

Is it any wonder that foreign tourism to 🇺🇸 is plummeting?

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

This means yet another Trump ally inside the 🇪🇺Council (although these days, who can tell the difference between Trump's allies and the supposedly pro-European centrists kissing his ass?)

Also - one more PM from far-right PfE group of LePen/Wilders/Orban and one less for hard right ECR of Meloni.

Why a Trump-inspired billionaire could turn the Czech Republic against Ukraine

Opinion polls suggest Andrej Babis is poised to beat the pro-Western coalition that ousted him four years ago

www.independent.co.uk

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 3d

It looks like the EU is going to have a new bête noir within along with Orban & Fico.

A combined 🇭🇺🇨🇿🇸🇰 opposed to 🇪🇺 helping 🇺🇦 could be hard to overcome.

🇦🇹 very nearly joined the club last year, which would have meant an AustriaHungaryCzechiaSlovakia resistance.

Babiš poised to triumph in Czechia, sending ripples through the EU

Right-wing populist’s ANO movement is well ahead with 35 percent of the vote in Czech election, with ballots counted in almost all electoral districts.

www.politico.eu

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 4d

"Von der Leyen has become the face of EU surrender, of a union powerless in the face of ever-growing global threats. It is an ironic position to be in for someone so obsessed with amassing power within the institution she controls"

My IPQ profile of VDL: ip-quarterly.com/en/ursula-vo...

Ursula von der Leyen: Queen in the Commission, Servant in the Council

A year into her second term, the European Commission’s notoriously controlling president is attracting criticism for neutering her college of commissioners while blindly following the EU’s 27 national...

ip-quarterly.com

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 4d

A report published today by ENTSO-E seems to rule out either a Russian cyberattack or renewable energy as being the cause of April's blackout in 🇪🇸Spain & 🇵🇹Portugal.

Instead, it was a perfect storm of coincidences following a not uncommon oscillation.

Neither Russia nor renewables caused the Iberian blackout - report

The right blamed it on wind turbines and the left blamed it on a Russian cyberattack. But an expert panel had concluded that it was actually the first-ever blackout caused by overvoltage.

davekeating.substack.com

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 5d

Following the closure of airports in Denmark and Norway due to suspected Russian drone overflights, last night 17 flights were cancelled and 15 diverted from Munich airport in Germany.

In Belgium, 15 drones flew over a Belgian army base last night.

Après l’aéroport de Munich, la Belgique a été survolée par des drones

A Munich, dix-sept vols prévus dans la soirée de jeudi ont été annulés et quinze ont été déroutés vers d’autres aéroports. Dans l’est de la Belgique, quinze drones ont été aperçus dans les hauteurs d’...

www.lemonde.fr

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 5d

By the way, in just 8 months, already half of Project2025 has been implemented.
www.project2025.observer/en

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 5d

Remember when Trump claimed he had nothing to do with Project2025?

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 6d

"Von der Leyen has become the face of EU surrender, of a union powerless in the face of ever-growing global threats. It is an ironic position to be in for someone who has been so obsessed wit›h amassing power within the institution she controls."

My IPQ profile of VDL:

Ursula von der Leyen: Queen in the Commission, Servant in the Council

A year into her second term, the European Commission’s notoriously controlling president is attracting criticism for neutering her college of commissioners while blindly following the EU’s 27 national...

ip-quarterly.com

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 6d

US generals were this week sent home from their European posts to be told that the military's focus will now be turned inward toward the American people.

It is now clear that if Russia invades the EU, America's focus will be elsewhere - perhaps dealing with its own internal war.

Trump has not ended 7 foreign wars - but he may start a domestic one

At Tuesday's unprecedented summoning of top US generals, the president told them to prepare for a "war from within." There's another term for that: civil war.

davekeating.substack.com

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Reposted by Dave Keating

The Debate - France 24 @f24debate.france24.com · 6d

If Washington walks away from European defence: EU still needs #NATO “NATO’s command and control structure is American-controlled" @davekeating.substack.com #F24Debate

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 6d

The 🇫🇷interception of the 🇷🇺shadow fleet vessel comes as EU leaders are meeting for an #EUCO summit in Copenhagen, the site of last month's drone incursions.

They are discussing the idea of setting up an EU Drone Wall on the union's Eastern front - but Western European leaders are sceptical.

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Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 6d

French authorities have boarded a flag-switching vessel in the Bay of Biscay suspected of having launched the mysterious drone attack on Danish airports last week. It is believed to be part of the 'shadow fleet' being used by Russia to circumvent European sanctions.

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