@Arrow

No country can rest easy, knowing that any number of psychos in his circle -- or even an obvious misunderstanding, could convince the U.S. President to attack them tomorrow.

that the US is the worlds bully.

People are finally standing up to it.

@Arrow
It seems that they are standing up to us because the sanctions might penalize their firms.
I suppose that it's a start that they are saying that the sanctions might hurt their profits, but I wish that they were or had been standing to us because of our human rights abuses and our destroying country after country in our never ending quest for foreign resources.
The Nuremberg laws are very clear on when a country can take action against another country. But as usual, the winner gets to write the rules. Sigh.

that the US is the worlds bully.

People are finally standing up to it.

@Linda Wood
during WWII? When was it decided that profiting from wars was acceptable? Or was that a one time fluke just like when Bush1 put the savings and loan critters in prison?

Halliburton was slinking around in the shadows until the Iraq war looked too profitable for them to stay in the shadows. On top of that, they got no bid contracts and became even more profitable.

The banks got away with crashing the global economy, ruining people's lives and continuing on their merry way and continued doing whatever the hell they wanted.

Maybe we could enact sanctions against Germany for having persons who are in business with Russians. And China. And then us.

http://www.halliburton.com/en-US/locations/eurasia/halliburton-eurasia.p...

Halliburton Eurasia comprises Russia, Ukraine, Caspian West and Caspian East. This large area presents challenges that are quite diverse, including shallow water, environmentally sensitive North Caspian with deep, high pressure, H2S/CO2 oil wells; mature oil fields in Kazakhstan and Siberia; high flowrate gas fields in Northern Siberia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; and extreme weather conditions in the large part of the Eurasia region. While this region represents a tremendous variety of technical, logistical, and supply chain challenges, Halliburton's organization in this region, coupled with a strong national workforce, is well established to provide creative and innovative solutions. The potential of the resources and the diversity of the plays demand a great variety of new technologies. Halliburton Eurasia offers a well services portfolio designed to create sustainable value by delivering outstanding products, services and utilizing our Integrated Workflows.

Woohoo!

@MrWebster and when you compare the expenses, ie a pipeline verses a tanker fleet and facilities, only an insane person would choose the latter. The pipeline is extremely low cost in comparison.

That was an amazing announcement in its utter bluntness. No polite diplomatic talk. Right to their point that they believed the US was trying to force out the Russians and have Europe buy their natural gas from American suppliers.

But saw this article, and get this--economically insane. The blogger says the Senate should get a Darwin Award for what the sanctions contained. Here is a sample:

https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2017/06/15/flirting-with-disaster/
Flirting With Disaster

Consider; apart from the ruinous expense of constructing LNG terminals and processing facilities and getting planning and development permission (which I imagine could be shortcut pretty quickly if such a juicy prospect as seizing control of the European market seemed an achievable possibility), you need tankers to ship your product. The average LNG tanker which can dock at most terminals (remember, the tanker has to be able to get to the terminal as well as berth alongside it, so you may need to dredge a channel all the way through a shallow harbour) can hold a little better than 3 Billion Cubic Feet (BcF) of natural gas, which is mostly methane. That equates to about .85 Billion Cubic Meters (BcM). But Europe uses about 400 BcM per year. That would be more than a full tanker cargo every day, assuming LNG could supply the whole European market, which is of course unrealistic. Especially considering the entire global LNG shipping fleet consists of about 410 vessels. No LNG carriers are currently registered under the US flag, and if the USA plans to be a serious exporter it is going to need about 100 new LNG carriers over the next 30 years, something which is frankly not practically achievable considering it takes about 2 years to build one, at a cost of about $200 Million apiece. Of course, miracles can be made to happen if you pour enough money into them. But we’ve already somewhat nervously mentioned how much all this is costing – how does the likely return on investment shape up?

Plus the author notes that the Russians could simply drop the price which would sink any hope of an American LNG monopoly in Europe.

Given what the article said, in many ways the Europeans will be committing near economic suicide if they totally cut off Russian gas.

I imagine that the sanctions will not be enforced and will be mostly symbolic.

@dervish
Merkel sharpens attack on US sanctions against Russia

The normally cautious German chancellor went out of her way to back foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel’s strongly worded criticism of the US proposals. Her spokesman said she had “the same level of concern” expressed with “the same vehemence”.

Ms Merkel’s intervention on Friday shows her willingness to go public with criticism of the US after President Donald Trump’s outspoken attacks on Germany over defense, trade and international co-operation.

She appears increasingly ready to risk provoking Mr Trump and his political allies, although she insists she remains strongly committed to the transatlantic alliance because she believes vital German and European interests are at stake.

The prospect that the bilateral tension might overshadow next month’s G20 summit in Hamburg no longer seems to be holding back the veteran German chancellor, Europe’s most powerful politician.

I like the fact that Merkel (CDU) backs Gabriel (SPD). Me think the lady has had it.

Germany is incensed that the bill expands the justification for sanctions beyond Russia’s aggression in Ukraine — the original basis of a joint US-EU sanctions policy carefully crafted by Ms Merkel and Mr Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama. ... German officials are also angry that the draft explicitly calls on the US administration to “prioritize” American energy exports, “create American jobs”, and “strengthen” US foreign policy. They argue that this runs counter to the co-operative current joint sanctions regime, as the US is putting its own economic interests above those of its EU allies, even in European energy.

Oh well, as long as these are only trade wars ... Germany won't threaten to bomb, err, to be a disloyal US- ally, promised .../s

The G20 in Hamburg will be a disaster in the making. Rest assured the "Hamburgers" won't forgive this occupation to come.
Police, demonstrators prepare for G20 summit in Hamburg

Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of demonstrators are expected to turn up in Germany's second-largest city. Whether it is Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan or political populists, opposition groups said they have plenty of presidents to protest.

"We want to take the city back on these days and make clear that Hamburg does not want this summit," said Nico Berg. He represents a coalition of left-wing groups that view the G20 as a tool for a neoliberal market-driven agenda....

Many residents are considering leaving the city during the summit. Beiersdorf, a cosmetics company, has been the first to call on its employees to work from home during the summit, according to local media reports. ...

"It's a provocation to locate the G20 right in the middle of one of Germany's major cities," said Christoph Bautz, board member of Campact, a citizen's initiative that combines the interests of unions and environmental and human rights organizations. ...

Berg said the protests have another aim: Get in the way of world leaders.

"Blockage is the only word the Trumps and Erdogans will understand," he said. "We are calling for massive acts of disobedience. The police are not our enemy, but we will be where they don't want us to be."

Hamburg is a beautiful city. Too pretty to be messed with.

were Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders. The rest can go pound sand.

@dkmich Ain't that the truth?
gjohnsit is just a blogging beast.
And he is handsome! lol! just had to toss that in to make him blush!

Thank you so much for all you give to us.

@CB

And "vassal" is such an important distinction, that not using the word to modify most US allies misinforms the world every time it is omitted.

These vassals remain sovereign on their current lands only on conditions of homage and allegiance to the US.

Cuba seeks to become a vassal. The Philippines and Turkey are slipping off into dangerous territory. It's conceivable the US will intervene and remove their sovereignty, after sanctions have destroyed their economies. The people become refugees and migrants.

I could see Australia in that kind of trouble some day.

Vassals have no powerful protectors. The US is their Overlord, and they comply. The US recognizes no equals or peers.

If a vassal or "evil-axis" state has nuclear weapons, the game changes. It makes sense to become nuclear capable, if you don't want to be treated as a vassal of the US. They can even gain the upper hand, as in the case of Israel, and Pakistan to a lesser extent.

That's the way it appears to work, I'd say.

As long as Merkel is in charge, Germany will grovel and bend to Uncle Sam's desires. There's been a pimp/whore relationship between the two for a decade. She may mumble and grumble but come nightfall, she will be out on the street.