From selling out to the US to admitting green-power failures to aiding the war on Iran, the bloc is wearing out its knee pads at a record pace
 
从向美国出卖国家利益，到承认绿色能源失败，再到协助对伊朗发动战争，欧盟正在以前所未有的速度磨损其护膝。
 
Hey, good news! The EU has found a new source of desperately needed gas amid the current energy crunch. The bad news? It’s in the US. So it will serve America, first. With Europe getting any sloppy seconds that Daddy Trump feels like overcharging it for when he isn’t threatening to invade.
 
嘿，好消息！欧盟在当前的能源危机中找到了急需的新天然气来源。坏消息是？它在美国。所以，首先供应的将是美国。欧洲只能分到特朗普老爹不威胁要入侵时，想宰欧洲的那些残次品。
 
It’ll be the French energy multinational, TotalEnergies, serving it up to the US like a waiter at a Montmartre bistro, forced to smile and bow while the guest pockets the silverware.
 
法国能源跨国公司道达尔能源将像蒙马特小酒馆的侍者一样，被迫面带微笑、鞠躬，而客人则将餐具收入囊中，为美国提供服务。
 
Even better? The company wasn’t even supposed to be over there doing that. They had planned to be building offshore windfarms. But instead, Trump’s Department of the Interior now says that they made a deal with the French company to spend roughly a billion dollars investing in American gas operations in exchange for getting about the same amount of cash back for agreeing to say goodbye to its green wind dreams in the US.
 
更离谱的是，这家公司原本根本不应该在那里做这些事。他们原本计划在那里建设海上风电场。但现在，特朗普的内政部却表示，他们与这家法国公司达成了一项协议：该公司将投资约10亿美元用于美国的天然气业务，作为交换，该公司同意放弃在美国发展绿色风能的计划，并获得几乎相同数额的现金返还。
 
Team Trump calls it an “innovative agreement driven by President Donald J. Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda.” But the CEO of the European company is making the cucking sound like a big win.
 
特朗普团队称之为“由唐纳德·J·特朗普总统的能源主导议程推动的创新协议”。但这家欧洲公司的首席执行官却把这种妥协描述成一次巨大的胜利。
 
“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this settlement agreements with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy. Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, while adjusting his knee pads, before continuing to service Trump via official US government press release.
 
“道达尔能源很高兴与内政部签署这项和解协议，并支持本届政府的能源政策。鉴于海上风电项目的开发不符合国家利益，我们决定放弃在美国开发海上风电项目，以换取租赁费用的补偿，”道达尔能源首席执行官帕特里克·普亚内一边调整着他的护膝，一边说道，随后继续通过美国政府官方新闻稿向特朗普传递信息。
 
“Furthermore, these agreements, under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of US gas production and export.”
 
“此外，根据这些协议，我们将把退还的租赁费再投资于里奥格兰德2900万吨液化天然气工厂的建设以及我们石油和天然气业务的发展，这使我们能够支持美国天然气生产和出口的发展。”
 
Hold up. So this company gave the US about a billion dollars in exchange for access to green energy. Then the US gave them back their money. And now they’re reinvesting it to serve Trump’s agenda? And publicly “pleased” about it?
 
等等。这家公司为了获得绿色能源，给了美国大约10亿美元。然后美国又把钱退给了他们。现在他们居然把钱重新投资到特朗普的政策议程上？而且还公开表示“很高兴”？
 
Well, good riddance to – er, I mean, so much for Europe’s green dreams, I guess. But at least it means they’ll get easier access to more desperately needed LNG, right? Since they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting. Not without securing a trade agreement on America’s terms, they won’t. Which is why they’re aiming to ratify a trade agreement with their tormentor.
 
好吧，真是除掉了一个大麻烦——呃，我的意思是，欧洲的绿色梦想算是彻底破灭了。不过至少这意味着他们能更容易地获得急需的液化天然气，对吧？毕竟是他们在做苦力。但如果不按照美国的条件达成贸易协议，他们就没戏。所以他们才想方设法和他们的“眼中钉”——美国——达成贸易协议。
 
Brussels had been concerned about the agreement that was struck with Trump back in 2025, named the Turnberry Agreement after the US president’s Scottish golf resort where it all went down. The deal was about tariffs. Specifically, it gave a huge break to the US with ZERO tariffs on some of its exports to the EU, while slapping a 15-percent tariff on EU imports to the US. Another master stroke of cuckoldry.
 
布鲁塞尔一直对2025年与特朗普达成的协议感到担忧，该协议以美国总统位于苏格兰的高尔夫度假村“特恩贝里”命名，而所有这一切都发生在那里。这项协议的核心是关税。具体来说，它给予美国极大的优惠，对美国出口到欧盟的部分商品实行零关税，同时对欧盟输美商品征收15%的关税。这又是一次令人啼笑皆非的背叛。
 
And yet Trump still won’t stop talking about how the EU is constantly stiffing America on trade. Which explains why the EU has been dragging its feet on ratifying it, worried that maybe it was putting too many eggs in a very unstable basket. Something that the US warned it against doing with Russia, being only too happy to step up to offer a costlier overdependency on itself instead.
 
然而，特朗普仍然喋喋不休地指责欧盟在贸易上不断占美国的便宜。这也解释了为什么欧盟迟迟不愿批准这项协议，担心自己把太多鸡蛋放在一个极不稳定的篮子里。美国曾警告欧盟不要对俄罗斯这样做，反而乐于接受代价更高的过度依赖。
 
The EU is doing the exact same with green energy, turning its back on nuclear power before its beloved green renewables were even ready for prime time. Which also went about as well as you might expect from these central planning geniuses. Calling it a screwup, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced the need to yank another €200 million from taxpayers to “support investment in innovative nuclear technologies.” The same ones they’d been busy vilifying until recently.
 
欧盟在绿色能源领域也如法炮制，在他们钟爱的绿色可再生能源尚未成熟之际，就弃之不顾核能。不出所料，这些中央计划天才们的所作所为也相当糟糕。
欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩最近称此举是“一团糟”，并宣布需要从纳税人手中再拨出2亿欧元，用于“支持对创新核技术的投资”。而就在不久前，他们还在大肆抨击这些技术。
 
“In 1990, one third of Europe’s electricity came from nuclear. Today it’s only close to 15%. This reduction in the share of nuclear was a choice. And in hindsight, it was a strategic mistake,” she said recently. Lucky for her, the wrath of taxpayer accountability is totally irrelevant for an unelected position like hers.
 
“1990年，欧洲三分之一的电力来自核能。如今，这一比例仅接近15%。核能份额的下降是一种选择。事后看来，这是一个战略错误，”她最近说道。幸运的是，对于她这样未经选举的职位而言，纳税人的责难完全无关紧要。
 
Hard up for gas, struggling to reverse course on nuclear – and now Trump is bribing them with their own money to forget about wind and invest in American gas. All that’s left now is to just hope that it’s enough for Daddy to not withhold the gas produced by their investment from them.
 
天然气短缺，核能战略难以扭转——现在特朗普竟然用他们自己的钱贿赂他们，让他们放弃风能，转而投资美国天然气。现在他们唯一能做的就是祈祷，希望特朗普不会扣留他们投资所产的天然气。
 
About the only thing they still have going for them is that the EU member states haven’t yet officially ratified the deal to totally sell themselves out. One can hope, right?
“A deal is a deal and we should stick to the Turnberry joint statement,” said EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.
Whoops, okay. Well, maybe not.
 
他们现在唯一还有希望的就是欧盟成员国尚未正式批准这项协议，以免彻底出卖自己。但愿如此吧？
“协议就是协议，我们应该遵守特恩贝里联合声明，”欧盟贸易专员马罗什·谢夫乔维奇说道。
哎呀，好吧。嗯，也许并非如此。
 
Wait. What’s going on over here in this other back room?
The German industrial city of Osnabrück is grappling with the idea that its embattled Volkswagen factory could be saved – but only if it switches from making cars to producing components for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, reports the Financial Times.
 
等等。这边后面的房间里在干什么？
据《金融时报》报道，德国工业城市奥斯纳布吕克正在考虑一个方案：其陷入困境的大众汽车工厂或许能够保住——但前提是它必须从生产汽车转而为以色列的“铁穹”防空系统生产零部件。
 
Oh, great. When can we expect a press release on Israeli government letterhead featuring Volkswagen celebrating an evolution from industrial champion carmaker to cuck for an actively genocidal regime? Second time’s a charm, right? From Hitler’s war crime economy to Israel’s is quite the swing.
 
哦，太好了。我们什么时候才能看到以色列政府用信笺纸发布的新闻稿，上面印着大众汽车庆祝其从工业巨头汽车制造商沦为积极推行种族灭绝政权的走狗？事不过三，对吧？从希特勒的战争罪行经济到以色列的经济，这转变也太惊人了。
 
Similarly, EU leaders have publicly wallowed in wishy-washiness when it comes to US-Israeli aggression in the Middle East. “Strategic ambiguity,” is what they call it. Which is cuckspeak for “talking out of both sides of my mouth.” But the Wall Street Journal has outed Europe for playing a key role in refueling and supporting the same US operations which they purport to denounce. So instead of acting to match their own words, they let Washington have its way, and then tell their own citizens that European governments will have to come up with a plan to pay for all the cost of living damage that is beyond their control.
 
同样，欧盟领导人在面对美以在中东的侵略行为时，公开表现得模棱两可。他们称之为“战略模糊”，这其实就是“两面三刀”的委婉说法。
但《华尔街日报》揭露，欧洲在为美国军事行动提供燃料和支持方面扮演了关键角色，而他们却声称要谴责这些行动。因此，他们非但没有言行一致，反而任由华盛顿为所欲为，然后告诉本国公民，欧洲各国政府必须拿出方案来支付所有他们无法控制的生活损失。
 
Please, won’t someone please help Europe off its knees, already? It’s getting to the point where it risks entirely forgetting how to stand up.
 
拜托，谁来帮帮欧洲，让它从困境中走出来？它现在的情况已经到了几乎忘记如何站起来的地步了。