The news over the weekend had binary stories about the ongoing situation on the Ukraine border, where Putin is amassing tanks and troops.  On the one side, we have stories about Biden doing the tough guy thing, with his talk about troops on the ground and his orders that diplomats' families leave Ukraine.  However, on the other side, the European side, the two biggest E.U. nations are trying to set up their own peace talks with Ukraine and Russia.

In a separate post, which I won't repeat here, I discuss Biden's bizarre aggression toward Russia, a stance that does nothing to serve America and that may well be the trigger for a conflagration.  Over in Europe, the leaders of Germany and France (the two biggest E.U. nations) are approaching things very differently — so differently, in fact, that they don't want to have anything to do with Biden's belligerence:

The EU must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, has said as he warned of the prospect of the "most tragic thing of all — war".

In a wide-ranging speech in Strasbourg, Macron said it was not sufficient for the US to negotiate with the Kremlin over its threats to peace but that Europe needed to have its voice heard.

Macron said he hoped to revitalise four-way talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, known as the Normandy format, to find a solution to the escalating crisis.

And while Macron is planning direct talks with Russia, Germany is refusing even to talk to Biden:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz turned down an invite at short notice from U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the Ukraine crisis, German magazine Der Spiegel said on Friday.

The claim is that Scholz's schedule is too full.  Stacey Abrams made the same excuse when Biden came to Atlanta.  If Biden mattered, both Abrams and Scholz would have cleared their schedules.

Image:  The irrelevant Joe Biden (edited in befunky).  YouTube screen grab.

I can think of multiple reasons for the European Union nations' plan to exclude Biden from talks with Russia.  In no particular order:

1. In one year, Biden has so weakened America's prestige that it simply no longer matters on the world stage.  This is what Richard Grenell suggested in his tweet:

The new German Chancellor refused to meet with Joe Biden to talk Ukraine.

And now they have cut him out.

This is a crisis for America - and the europhiles at @StateDept haven’t noticed they aren’t respected. pic.twitter.com/JucuKUrp4l

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) January 23, 2022

2. Biden and the E.U. are cleverly engaging in a good cop/bad cop routine that will give Biden a way out that allows him to save face, something all-important in Russia.

3. The Europeans cannot risk losing access to Russia's fossil fuels, so they will do anything Russia wants.  (This might have been different if Biden hadn't ended America's status as an oil-exporting nation and announced that he won't support Israel's natural gas pipeline to Europe.)

4. The Europeans have a cultural memory of the horrors of both WWI and WWII, which were fought on their soil.  Even though America participated in both those wars, Americans themselves were spared.  Europeans, therefore, will do anything to avoid a repeat of what could become a continent-wide war.

I'm sure you've noticed that only one of my theories shines a positive light on Biden.  Otherwise, he has successfully achieved Obama's goal of ending America's status as the world's pre-eminent nation.  We are now a big nothing and can expect the world's hyenas to start nipping at us very soon.