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So, given all of that what incentive would Hungary and Poland joined most likely by Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltics have in even remaining in the EU at all?

And with the tumult in the U. Orban and Morawiecki opened up a big can of worms with this veto. They have to see the bigger picture here.

I know Orban understands where his potential allies are — Russia. Once Biden is inaugurated yes gods I hope not!

But for now the next choice on the European continent is a false one — a USSR reborn with a German and French flavor or perpetual debt slavery.

Both choices lead to the other happening. I guess the real choice is only in the order of operations. Join My Patreon if the true face of the EU frightens you.

Hey Tom. I am at the tail end of this so-called baby boomer entity that fills the war torn, traumatized nations of the World.

Psalms 2 is again playing itself out right before Our Eyes. Just saying. The perennial battle cry of the EU is that it has more clout in matters of trade as a bloc, including stupid canards like how can the UK, 5th largest economy in the world , survive if isolated.

But it seems that as the EU aggregates power, it also aggregates stupidity, burning bridges East, West, and North.

Hubris if you ask me. I think the EU surely has to fragment, and then maybe a far leaner, less politicized coalition of northern states might arise.

This is an excellent observation and a very likely outcome to this insanity. The inertia of bureaucracy will take another years to overcome, unfortunately.

And no great leap forward in human organizational thought and implementation ever occurred without bloodshed.

The only observation I would make is that the EU axis, the Franco-German alliance, seems rather contrived. It seems structurally much more fragile than a centralized communist command economy.

Despite the country's oil riches, Venezuela's economy has been in freefall for years due to a combination of government mismanagement and corruption, further exacerbated by international sanctions.

As Venezuela produces very little apart from oil, it needs to import goods from abroad, for which it needs access to foreign currency. But with oil production a fraction of what it once was, Venezuela's foreign currency reserves have been dwindling.

But the US, which does not recognise Mr Maduro's government, last year warned "bankers, brokers, traders and facilitators" not to deal in "gold, oil, or other Venezuelan commodities stolen from the Venezuelan people by the Maduro mafia".

Venezuela has reportedly continued to sell gold to its ally Iran, which is also under US sanctions, but even so its international reserves reached a year low at the beginning of this year, Venezuelan Central Bank figures revealed.

It badly needs hard currency and sees the gold stored in the vaults of the Bank of England as the solution. Venezuela first approached the Bank of England at the end of In January , the Bank of England refused the request.

All it said publicly was that it did not comment on customer relationships. At the same time, top US officials - for whom President Maduro has long been a thorn - were also lobbying their British counterparts to cut the Maduro government off from its foreign assets.

While the Bank of England never went beyond saying that it did not comment on customer relations it is thought that international sanctions on Venezuela and regulations on preventing money laundering influenced its decision.