Pipeline Politics and Ukraine

It's important to note that President Biden is NOT the leading voice for war against Russia. In fact, he's the one dragging his feet to confrontation. The loudest voices are in Congress, and they are generally on the Republican side of the aisle.

russia_2.PNG

During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Ernst told host Chris Wallace that she believes Biden should reverse course after he waived sanctions against the operator of the near-completed pipeline in May in order to help repair U.S. relations with Germany. Ukraine, however, strongly opposes the pipeline that would carry Russian gas to Germany, saying it will be used as a geopolitical weapon to deprive Ukraine of needed natural gas imports.

They appear to be saying that they would rather have Ukraine as an ally than Germany.
Republicans in the Senate are so determined to have a military confrontation with Russia that they are crippling Biden's ability to appoint ambassadors, all in an effort to drop even more sanctions on anyone associated with Nord Stream 2.
All of this political pressure coming out of Congress has reached all the way across the Atlantic and into Germany's government.

(Reuters) - Germany is committed to safeguarding Ukraine's role as a transit route for gas into Europe, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday, as Russian troop movements along the Ukrainian border increased pressure on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

However, falling into line for the American MIC has a very high cost for Germany.

gasp.PNG

Gas prices across the UK and Europe are on course to return to record highs after Germany said a controversial pipeline from Russia could not be approved amid deepening tensions on the Ukrainian border.

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the Nord Stream 2 pipeline could not be given the green light in its current form because it did not meet the requirements of EU energy law.

I don't believe the "energy law" excuse for a second. But one thing is for sure, Putin will be in absolutely no rush to ship more gas to Europe this winter.

October’s record UK gas market highs ignited fears that factories would need to shut this winter to guard agains the financial blow of rocketing costs. The surge in prices is also likely to take its toll on Britain’s struggling energy supply market after the collapse of 24 suppliers in a little over 12 weeks and record hikes in home energy bills.

Eventually, somewhere in January or February the citizens of Europe are going to scream about cold homes, and that they don't give one sh*t about Ukraine while they are freezing.

Share
up
17 users have voted.

Comments

There are no shortage of democrats pushing against the startup of Nord Stream 2.

Blinken, NATO, The Baltic states are at the forefront of a confrontation with Russia. Novalny, Belarus, Ukraine are the means of accomplishing it.

up
12 users have voted.

@humphrey

There are no shortage of democrats pushing against the startup of Nord Stream 2.

Because if you judge by the blogs and youtube you would think that the Repubs are the voices of sanity compared to the Dem warmongers, when nothing could be further from the truth.

up
10 users have voted.

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit https://thehill.com/homenews/house/585568-gallego-leads-congressional-de...

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Ukraine over the weekend as fears grow about a possible Russian military invasion.

Gallego, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, told CNN on Sunday that he organized the trip to “get an in-depth understanding of what's happening in Ukraine.”

Gallego was joined by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) — all members of the Armed Services panel, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said on Twitter.

edited to add this image:

up
9 users have voted.

@humphrey and you are welcome to.

But at the end of the day the republicans are at least as bad if not worse, yet no one is talking about it

up
5 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@gjohnsit

at least as bad if not worse

Please just say

The same
up
7 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick
Traditionally Republicans are bigger warmongers than Democrats, although both are bad.
The fact that Biden got us out of Afghanistan is BIG.

I think its sort of weird how people on the left are reluctant to say that Republicans are worse than Democrats in many areas.
Because Republicans have no problem doing the opposite.

up
3 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@gjohnsit
pull the bullshit angle and say trump started the pullout.
I won't.
I also will never say that anything bidemytime has done is BIG.
Same bullshit, different party.

up
4 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick
The Republicans are worse, but the Dems are only marginally better, and there simply isn't a viable reason to vote for either of them anymore (except for the extremely rare individual).

up
5 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@gjohnsit

up
3 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Shahryar's picture

@gjohnsit

said it many times, the Repubs will kill you, and take your wallet. The Dems will kill you, take all your money out of your wallet and then throw the wallet back so your next of kin can get notified.

up
6 users have voted.

@humphrey
Especially seeing my Rep Seth Moulton. He is a complete tool of the establishment. Probably thinks that he will be President some day. Its rumored that he has the largest war chest of any politician in MA. He is a total hawk and completely empty suit. He continually played the Russian Interference card ad nauseum and promised to punish those evil Russians. He's really dangerous, and a complete AH. I will vote for anyone who runs against him next November. He's the jerk who flew into Bagram Air Base while everyone else was evacuating. Every Progressive that I know detests him. He stands for nothing and considers that his ambition and connections are enough to propel him in his political career. Let's hope not.

up
6 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

CB's picture

@humphrey
is behind the push behind cancellation of the North Stream 2. She was the main driver of the coup in Ukraine.

Nuland’s Mastery of Ukraine Propaganda
March 13, 2015 - Robert Parry
...
An early skill learned by Official Washington’s neoconservatives, when they were cutting their teeth inside the U.S. government in the 1980s, was how to frame their arguments in the most propagandistic way, so anyone who dared to disagree with any aspect of the presentation seemed unpatriotic or crazy.

During my years at The Associated Press and Newsweek, I dealt with a number of now prominent neocons who were just starting out and mastering these techniques at the knee of top CIA psychological warfare specialist Walter Raymond Jr., who had been transferred to President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council staff where Raymond oversaw inter-agency task forces that pushed Reagan’s hard-line agenda in Central America and elsewhere. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Victory of ‘Perception Management.’”]
...
Kagan’s Wife’s Coup

But Kagan is perhaps best known these days as the husband of neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, one of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former advisers and a key architect of last year’s coup in Ukraine, a “regime change” that toppled an elected president and touched off a civil war, which now has become a proxy fight involving nuclear-armed United States and Russia.
...
However, both of Nuland’s appearances place all the blame for the chaos in Ukraine on Russia, including the 6,000 or more deaths. Nuland offered not a single word of self-criticism about how she contributed to these violent events by encouraging last year’s coup, nor did she express the slightest concern about the actions of the coup regime in Kiev, including its dispatch of neo-Nazi militias to carry out “anti-terrorist” and “death squad” operations against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Nuclear War and Clashing Ukraine Narratives.”]
...
So, Nuland may have been a bit duplicitous when she phrased her testimony so that anyone hearing it would jump to the conclusion that the Russians and the rebels were to blame. It’s true she didn’t exactly say so but she surely knew what impression she was leaving.

In that, Nuland appears to have taken a page from the playbook of her husband’s old mentor, Elliott Abrams, who provided misleading testimony to Congress on the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s – and even though he was convicted of that offense, Abrams was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush and thus was able to return to government last decade to oversee the selling of the Iraq War.

up
11 users have voted.

Russia is benefiting from increased revenues from existing operational pipelines for natural gas. This offsets the lack of revenue from NS2. Meanwhile Europeans are paying outrageous costs for energy and face supply shortages this Winter. Storage levels of NG are at an unusual low for this time of year. Industry in Europe will be shut down first when supplies get dangerously low. Meanwhile there is so much energy in Russia that windows are opened twice a day or kept constantly slightly open.
The NG infrastructure through Ukraine was built by the Soviet Union and is well past its lifetime. Russia will shut it down regardless, and has consistently refused to make any guarantees. The argument from the West is that Russia owes it to the massively Russophobic government in Kiev to continue to supply transit NG. How is this in anyway logical?
Russia completes Europe. With prodding from the US, Europe has proven their utter stupidity to their own detriment.

up
9 users have voted.

Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

@The Wizard

Russia is benefiting from increased revenues from existing operational pipelines for natural gas. This offsets the lack of revenue from NS2. Meanwhile Europeans are paying outrageous costs for energy and face supply shortages this Winter.

In the last few years Russia has completed Turkstream and the Siberia pipelines. They've got billions locked in every year, not traded in dollars. Plus Russia has almost zero external debts, and almost all of their reserve assets are not in dollars.
Nord Stream 2 was the most expensive, but eventually Germany will approve it. Because they are going to get tired of being cold.

up
9 users have voted.

doing things contrary to my beliefs and interests, and I have never supported them. I have no expectations of better from them, so I am never surprised or disappointed.
The Democrats are often outflanking them on the right.
I am constantly dismayed, disappointed, to the point of being disaffected from my "people". I have never voted for a Republican, other than some local county election where no democrats were on the ballot.
I intend to write in Robert Kennedy, Jr., for president, should we both be alive next presidential election.

up
10 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Pricknick's picture

@on the cusp
I tend to vote for those who lose.
I have never yet voted for a loser.
I have also never voted for a name.
Such is a kennedy.

up
5 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick town dog catcher.
I will likely not vote for either party presidential candidates, and have added write-in votes for Mickey Mouse many times in the past.
The Kennedy name does not deserve to be discounted because of last name. I am no fan of dynasty.
The whole point of my comment was nobody D or R is worth the trouble, so I would simply write in the president I could admire.
I am surprised you didn't get my point, pricknick.
hope this clears it up for you.

up
9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Pricknick's picture

@on the cusp
And I really mean that.

The Kennedy name does not deserve to be discounted because of last name

No. But the family does. We need no Camelot.

up
2 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick means nothing to me. You can call me Ray, You can call me Jay...
RFK,jr, is the "radical" I am. And my parents. And my grand parents.
I intend to write him in if he he not died. That said, I cannot be sure that my votes for Micky Mouse in many past elections were discounted. Mickey may have died, but the CIA did not disclose it.

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

and it’s one reason we saw so many testify to congress during Trump’s impeachment. Schiff is as corrupt as any republican except for maybe Lindsay Graham. Don’t forget Biden’s son Hunter and the energy company there. Burisma . And Biden’s threat to fire the prosecutor who was looking into Burisma. "Son of a bitch they did." But I agree that both parties are just as warmongering. Jake Sullivan is an obnoxious little shit. It’s funny how Biden said the other day that no troops would be deployed to Ukraine, but Psakiopath walked that back today. Who’s running the Biden WH after all?

Russia has been busy letting countries know that they are close to crossing red lines. Moon of Alabama has a great essay on it. Lots of great links in the comments too. B mentions how Germany is screwing its people by driving up costs for gas because of Nordstream not being functioning. And why don’t Americans know how much gas we’re importing from Russia? Aren’t they supposed to be the bad guy?

Someone on MoA thought that if we went into Ukraine to back then up that it’d be a good time for China to settle the Taiwan issue, Iran takes on Israel, Syria and Iraq decide to kick us out of their countries and a few more decide that they have had enough of us. Wowzer that’d send a message. Smile
I would love to see our troops come home and park their buttocks instead of being in countless countries. Maybe we can fix America.

up
7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

Biden’s willing to lift some sanctions on Iran and maybe back to before Trump rescinded the deal. It’s all they have been asking for. I’m sure that will piss Israel off tho. Will they attack on their own or not if it is? Then what will Biden’s puppet masters do?

https://sputniknews.com/20211214/us-fully-prepared-to-lift-sanctions-inc...

up
6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg commitments.

Some would say that he is a congenital liar.

up
4 users have voted.