Ursula von der Leyen and the Art of Unconditional Surrender!

The European Union, at first glance, appears to be a powerful geo-political entity.

Composed of most of the "democracies" of the Western European continent, including the economic powerhouse of Germany, it has tried to pose as one of the world's superpowers.

Only it isn't.

Comprised of frequently quarreling member states, possessed of a complicated and cumbersome constitutional framework that reveals its impotence daily in the European Parliament, its much-touted successes have always been dependent on the military might of the United States to protect it from itself and the threats to it posed by Russia and her allies.

NATO was supposed to act as a deterrent to Russian aggression, at which it has failed repeatedly.

Despite all of its economic and industrial potential, the European Union really only ranks as a second-rate power, although it has postured as something far greater.

Until yesterday.

European Union President Ursula von der Leyen surrendered unconditionally to US President Donald Trump to avoid a trade war that Europe would have been unable to win, despite all of her previous bluster.

A small woman with a big mouth and an enormous ego that has inflated her oversized head, Ursula was formerly Germany's Federal Defense Minister during Angela Merkel's chancellorship, at which she proved to be an unmitigated failure.

This did not prevent her from becoming, through shady manipulations, President of the European Union twice.

That alone should have alerted everyone to the rather peculiar nature of the European Parliament.

But it allowed her to continue to pose as an influential world leader, while proving that she is no such thing.

Her continued criticism of Russian aggression in the Ukraine, while apt, has provided no real help in that sphere.

Speaking of including Ukraine in both the European Union and NATO after Ukraine is victorious (and restored to its pre-2014 boundaries) while unable to provide Ukraine with enough money, armaments and manpower to win the war seems rather stupid on her part.

Russia is winning its war of aggression against Ukraine despite Ursula's blustering and her sanctions against Russia hasn't reduced Putin from continuing the war.

Even worse, some members of the Union do not concur with aiding Ukraine and continue to trade with Russia.

Worse was yet to come last week.

Ursula went to China to "reorganize" and "reimagine" the Union's trade relationships with that country, since the Union imports three times as many Chinese goods than China imports from Europe!

That didn't go down well, as China made non-committal replies to Ursula and Company, while lecturing them about the change in the global order.

Worse still was Ursula's attempt to get China out of its cozy relationship with Russia and stop supporting Putin's war in Ukraine, which went over like a lead balloon, and the half-hearted smile ran away from her face.

China gets lots of its energy needs met by Russia, which it needs to power its industrial might.

Faced with such public failure, Ursula and Company cut short their trip to China, only to meet up with US President Trump, who was golfing in Scotland.

Ironically, Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, which formally left the European Union under Ursula's presidency.

The United Kingdom has been begging The Donald for its place at the beggars' table as part of the so-called "special relationship" in which the US keeps propping up the UK's pretentions as a global power since Trump's re-election.

Laughably, it was "Sir" Keir Starmer's own Labour Party that sent volunteers to work against The Donald's re-election.

Understandably, The Donald doesn't like Starmer, so Starmer has found it necessary to kiss The Donald's ass repeatedly to shore up his own crumbling regime in the UK.

In Scotland, for all of her previous bluster, she finally capitulated to The Donald's demands for a "deal" regarding trade relations between the US and the Union.

There were NO negotiations. Ursula simply capitulated. And gave away hope for Europe's economic recovery.

The meeting and press conference took only forty minutes, less than a lunch break at school.

The "deal" benefits the US enormously. US manufactured products and other goods will be sold in the European Union without any tariffs imposed on them.

Products from the European Union with be subject to a 15% tariff in the US, while steel and automobiles will be subjected to a 50% tariff.

Ursula also promised to "invest" hundreds of billions of dollars in US industries located in America, as well as purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of armaments manufactured in the US!

This "deal" is great news for The Donald, his administration, US businesses and manufacturers.

It is a blow to European manufacturers and businesses, while Europe is desperately trying to reindustrialize and put some life in its sluggish economy and update its crumbling infrastructure.

Ursula and her supporters can argue that her capitulation averted a more serious trade war which, quite bluntly, would have hurt Europe far more than the US.

Ursula can also argue that her capitulation would bring calm to the world market and end all kinds of uncertainty among financial speculators.

That has yet to be seen, at least in Europe's stock markets.

What it has done is put Europe squarely in the pocket of the US.

While Italy's Giorgia Meloni stated that there is nothing really binding in this agreement, and that more needs to be worked out before it really can be put into effect, she herself went to Washington to pay court to The Donald hoping to swing a deal separate from the Union.

And Hungary's perpetually bloviating ingnoranus, Viktor Orban, stated that The Donald had Ursula for breakfast.

He is no fan of Ursula's and a major discordant note within the European Union, but he is correct.

The Donald chewed up Ursula and spit her out.

But then, Orban is a fan of The Donald and Putin...and of Turkey's Erdogan. His perpetual bluster suggests that he would like to emulate the three of them.

Back to Ursula and The Donald.

The videos of the two of them in Scotland showed it all. She didn't look delighted or relieved. It was hard for her to crack a real smile. 

The Donald didn't smile, either, because Ursula had defied him for so long.

He really doesn't like her and it showed for the whole world to see.

Ursula got her come-uppance.

She got a "deal" that really didn't benefit Europeans.

And the "deal" might just provide a temporary, uneasy lull, given The Donald's wild gyrations from one day to the next.

But that's what happens when Ursula's inflated ego got pricked by reality.

The European Union is simply not strong enough to take on the US.

Hence this horribly one-sided "deal" that will wreak havoc on Europe's economy, especially that of Germany.