Biden / U.S. Politics thread

[Guest CzarnaWisnia]

[KalamazooJay]

20 minutes ago, CzarnaWisnia said:

These are Trump like numbers. 

While I certainly never expected him to be the FDR the media wanted him to be, I'm blown away at how quickly he fell from the publics good will. I wonder if this is unfettered rage at the Democratic party as a whole more than him tho. 

[Cyber-Raga]

The midterms will be a bloodbath. The Dems have 10 month left to get shit done. 

[karbatal]

He’s far worse than Trump for the rest of the world. One year in the White House and he’s brought an alliance to confront China with war boats, create tensions with the EU and fell into the Putin trap. Stupid botoxed psycho.

 

[sotos8]

Umm pic.twitter.com/sGfyj4oYwR

— Lord Marco (@thelordmarc0) February 13, 2022

[karbatal]

4 hours ago, sotos8 said:

Imagine the telephone conversation with Putin. “If you invide Belorussia we will attack, Mr Yeltsin “.

[Genevieve Vavance]

7 hours ago, karbatal said:

He’s far worse than Trump for the rest of the world. One year in the White House and he’s brought an alliance to confront China with war boats, create tensions with the EU and fell into the Putin trap. Stupid botoxed psycho.

 

So true 

[Raider of the lost Ark]

At this point I am way more angry at the EU. With all things going on worldwide I had hopes the EU will finally grow some balls. I don't mind them confronting Russia, China and the US. If only there was a European leader to speak up and tell them to f*ck off. I don't even know where our German chancellor is. It feels as if he had disappeared. He is such a sleeping pill. And let's face it, he only won because the other candidate was so bad.

When will the EU realize that they are the biggest and most powerful economy and market in the world. A market the rest of the world wants and needs access to. Start to play the power game, stop with being nice and believing that if the EU plays nice the rest will play nice as well. How many times has Europe been f*cked over by China or the US because the EU thought those countries believe in partnership the way the EU does. Even worse, there are so many things the EU or countries of the EU have been warned about and they ignored all threats just to act surpised later. In Germany the government has been warned for ages that China is stealing German technology, they have been warned that they should not sell large parts of the German storage sites for natural gas to a company that belongs to Gazprom. And look where we are in 2022. The storage sites have not been filled properly, there are hardly any reserves, the gas price is through the roof with many people not knowing how to pay for heating and electricity, gas providers going broke or unable to deliver costumers. And China for many years bought German companies that were developing strategic technolgies, even defense before the government finally stepped in. I still remember 15 years ago, when the Chinese visited German technology fairs, they literally crawled under and into the machines and made photographs from every angle possible. It was as funny as pathetic. Well, it stopped being funny when a year later they sold cheap replicas of those machines or products. Again, everyone knows what's going on, everyone cries foul but the politicians in charge wont do anything, except another round of appeasement. 

Sorry for the rant. 

[runa]

7 hours ago, karbatal said:

He’s far worse than Trump for the rest of the world. One year in the White House and he’s brought an alliance to confront China with war boats, create tensions with the EU and fell into the Putin trap. Stupid botoxed psycho.

 

Not sure he’s worst than Trump, but he’s not better. He took many decisions, wrong on so many levels, I just don’t know where to start. What is happening behind closed doors, I don’t know, but something has to be done.

[KalamazooJay]

I think Trump posed a far greater risk to the U.S itself than Biden, while Biden poses a far greater risk internationally than Trump. 

[Guest CzarnaWisnia]

People still believe everything they read in the media, so it's easy to "manufacture consent" for overseas military "operations" (bombing and killing). A narrative is being built from the get go. It's not even subtle. "Your mission is ours." Indeed, Lockheed.

[karbatal]

1 hour ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

At this point I am way more angry at the EU. With all things going on worldwide I had hopes the EU will finally grow some balls. I don't mind them confronting Russia, China and the US. If only there was a European leader to speak up and tell them to f*ck off. I don't even know where our German chancellor is. It feels as if he had disappeared. He is such a sleeping pill. And let's face it, he only won because the other candidate was so bad.

When will the EU realize that they are the biggest and most powerful economy and market in the world. A market the rest of the world wants and needs access to. Start to play the power game, stop with being nice and believing that if the EU plays nice the rest will play nice as well. How many times has Europe been f*cked over by China or the US because the EU thought those countries believe in partnership the way the EU does. Even worse, there are so many things the EU or countries of the EU have been warned about and they ignored all threats just to act surpised later. In Germany the government has been warned for ages that China is stealing German technology, they have been warned that they should not sell large parts of the German storage sites for natural gas to a company that belongs to Gazprom. And look where we are in 2022. The storage sites have not been filled properly, there are hardly any reserves, the gas price is through the roof with many people not knowing how to pay for heating and electricity, gas providers going broke or unable to deliver costumers. And China for many years bought German companies that were developing strategic technolgies, even defense before the government finally stepped in. I still remember 15 years ago, when the Chinese visited German technology fairs, they literally crawled under and into the machines and made photographs from every angle possible. It was as funny as pathetic. Well, it stopped being funny when a year later they sold cheap replicas of those machines or products. Again, everyone knows what's going on, everyone cries foul but the politicians in charge wont do anything, except another round of appeasement. 

Sorry for the rant. 

Very interesting. 
 

To be fair we live a thousand times better in the EU with free healthcare and relatively cheap if not free education and workers protection precisely because we spend far less than USA in the military. That means we are clients of USA in terms of army. And it makes us incredibly dependent. I am totally with you. 
 

I had hopes in Germany in this Ukraine mess. Germany has spent billions to build that stream pipe to bring Russian gas and now the botoxed turd of the White House forbids it. And the EU has to bow and BUY THE AMERICAN GAS PRODUCED THROUGH FRACKING.

Not to mention all the fracking possibilities in east Ukraine that surely in the future will be bought from the EU and paid to USA companies after the country is destroyed. It’s Syria part II.

[karbatal]

1 hour ago, runa said:

Not sure he’s worst than Trump, but he’s not better. He took many decisions, wrong on so many levels, I just don’t know where to start. What is happening behind closed doors, I don’t know, but something has to be done.

 

59 minutes ago, KalamazooJay said:

I think Trump posed a far greater risk to the U.S itself than Biden, while Biden poses a far greater risk internationally than Trump. 

I think Biden is a thousand million times better for USA people but for the rest of the world it is worse. Just like Obama was a total nightmare who destroyed Northern Africa.

[karbatal]

If I were Ukraine I would make an agreement with Putin. He’s the worst but it would save the country from a devastating war.

[karbatal]

Oh and these issues are so very complicated that if anybody knows more or finds articles it will be interesting. I doubt anybody of us is an expert and surely we miss all the important data.

[Guest CzarnaWisnia]

Putin's Russia Does Not 'Give a S**t' About Sanctions Over Ukraine: Ambassador

BY KHALEDA RAHMAN ON 2/13/22

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-russia-ukraine-sanctions-does-not-give-st-ambassador-1678762

Russia "doesn't give a s**t" about the risk of Western sanctions if it were to invade Ukraine, the country's ambassador to Sweden has said.

"Excuse my language, but we don't give a shit about all their sanctions," Viktor Tatarintsev told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in an interview published on Saturday.

"We have already had so many sanctions and in that sense they've had a positive effect on our economy and agriculture," the diplomat said, according to the AFP news agency.

It comes as President Joe Biden told Russia's Vladimir Putin during a phone call on Saturday that the U.S. was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis. But he also warned Putin that the U.S. and its allies would respond "decisively and impose swift and severe costs" if Russia attacked Ukraine.

Tatarintsev said fresh sanctions against Russia are "nothing positive but not as bad as the West makes it sound."

"We are more self-sufficient and have been able to increase our exports. We have no Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we've learned to make just as good Russian cheeses using Italian and Swiss recipes," he said.

Moscow has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, but denies it intends to invade its neighbor.

Tatarintsev insisted Moscow was trying to avoid a war. "That is our political leadership's most sincere wish," he said. "The last thing people in Russia want is war."

But U.S. officials have warned that a Russian invasion could be imminent and urged Americans to get out of Ukraine immediately.

The U.S. has been working with allies to organize further economic sanctions to impose on Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet told the BBC on Sunday morning that those sanctions would be "crippling" for the Russian economy.

"As a first order, the economic sanctions that the Russian Federation would suffer under would be quite considerable," he said.

"And the United States and our European partners, the UK and the EU and others, have been working on a series of sanctions that would be crippling to the Russian economy when imposed."

Chollet also said that Biden made "very clear" to Putin that the U.S. and its allies would "continue to bolster and build military capacity along NATO's eastern flank."

A Russian invasion of Ukraine "would be a major strategic setback for Russia, it would leave Russia isolated in the world, it would bring tremendous economic hardship upon the Russians as a result of the sanctions and it would further divide Russia from Europe and it would strengthen NATO," Chollet added. "So all things that President Putin would not want."

Zakharova spoke about the militaristic psychosis of Washington

https://newsreadonline.com/zakharova-spoke-about-the-militaristic-psychosis-of-washington/

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that the West is using the OSCE mission for Moscow's provocations

Photo: Globallookpress.com

Moscow is concerned about the decision of some OSCE participating states to redeploy the monitoring mission staff in Ukraine; in the current conditions, one can state that the OSCE mission is being dragged into Washington's militaristic psychosis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Her comment was published on the official website of the department.

“These decisions [on the redeployment of staff] cannot but cause us serious concern. The mission is deliberately dragged into the militaristic psychosis [of the West] pumped up by Washington and used as a tool for a possible provocation,” the diplomat said.

Earlier it became known that American employees from the OSCE mission in Donbass left Donetsk on the morning of February 13. CNN reported that US citizens involved in the OSCE SMM in Ukraine will be withdrawn from the country. The DPR, in turn, stated that in this case, a significant part of the observers would leave the mission in Donbass.

[runa]

Russia has more than 100 000 troops near the Ukrainien border but it’s Washington who is psycho? Let me laugh,

[Raider of the lost Ark]

The Russian narrative is so ridiculous. If only the situation wasn't so serious.

What's next? Will Russia claim the U.S. or NATO forced Russia to invade Ukraine? 

And Putin doesn't give a sh*t about sanctions? Well, for him personally with all his billions and his palaces it will most likely have no consequence. But what if Russia will be cut off from the International payment system? It has never happened before. This will cause disruptions of epic proportions for the Russian economy. An economy that is overall on the level of a developing country. Except for natural gas and oil and some minerals, there is nothing this country produces that is of any interest for other countries. With no money going in or out, they may try to become self-reliant. Good Luck. 

I just don't get it anymore, what the f*ck is the problem of the Russian government. Is their pride really that hurt that they are no longer the size and have no longer the influence of the former Soviet-Union? I don't buy that they feel threatened by the NATO getting closer and closer to their territory and fear the NATO may invade Russia at some point. If history has shown one thing, the moment a country does have nuclear weapons there is no danger of an invasion. Never wondered why the U.S. did not attack Pakistan, although everyone knows that Pakistan is the true breeding ground for all Islamic terror? 

[Raider of the lost Ark]

3 hours ago, karbatal said:

Very interesting. 
 

To be fair we live a thousand times better in the EU with free healthcare and relatively cheap if not free education and workers protection precisely because we spend far less than USA in the military. That means we are clients of USA in terms of army. And it makes us incredibly dependent. I am totally with you. 
 

I had hopes in Germany in this Ukraine mess. Germany has spent billions to build that stream pipe to bring Russian gas and now the botoxed turd of the White House forbids it. And the EU has to bow and BUY THE AMERICAN GAS PRODUCED THROUGH FRACKING.

Not to mention all the fracking possibilities in east Ukraine that surely in the future will be bought from the EU and paid to USA companies after the country is destroyed. It’s Syria part II.

I do think a European Army is a must at some point and I don't even think it will be a huge financial burden that may result in negative effects on healthcare or education. European countries spent insane amounts of money on the most insane things, there is lots of improvement. And of course, let's tax those big companies properly. The EU needs to become independent from the U.S. in this regard. I don't mind the NATO. It is a defense alliance afterall and except for Afganistan after 9/11 NATO troups did never invade a country. And it makes perfect sense for some countries to become a NATO member. I wonder if Russia had invaded the Baltic countries already if it wasn't for NATO. While there are only very little NATO soldiers in those countries (under normal circumstances), it works to scare off Russia because they know, the moment they shoot a NATO soldier, the full alliance will fight back. 

Regarding Nordstream 2. As far as I know, the pipeline was fully financed by Russia. No money from Germany. That said, I blame Germany in part for the gas situation. As mentioned in a previous post, they were warned about storage sites and that there is potential for extortion. I don't know, it often feels a if German goverments are  way to naive to deal with countries like Russia or China. Time to realize, not everyone is acting in good faith. And yes, now we may need to import liquid gas from the U.S. Produced via fracking. All of this in times when we should concentrate on renewables. It's a shame. 

[Raider of the lost Ark]

3 hours ago, karbatal said:

Oh and these issues are so very complicated that if anybody knows more or finds articles it will be interesting. I doubt anybody of us is an expert and surely we miss all the important data.

THIS. 

[sotos8]

27 minutes ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

I do think a European Army is a must at some point and I don't even think it will be a huge financial burden that may result in negative effects on healthcare or education. European countries spent insane amounts of money on the most insane things, there is lots of improvement. And of course, let's tax those big companies properly. The EU needs to become independent from the U.S. in this regard. I don't mind the NATO. It is a defense alliance afterall and except for Afganistan after 9/11 NATO troups did never invade a country. And it makes perfect sense for some countries to become a NATO member. I wonder if Russia had invaded the Baltic countries already if it wasn't for NATO. While there are only very little NATO soldiers in those countries (under normal circumstances), it works to scare off Russia because they know, the moment they shoot a NATO soldier, the full alliance will fight back. 

Regarding Nordstream 2. As far as I know, the pipeline was fully financed by Russia. No money from Germany. That said, I blame Germany in part for the gas situation. As mentioned in a previous post, they were warned about storage sites and that there is potential for extortion. I don't know, it often feels a if German goverments are  way to naive to deal with countries like Russia or China. Time to realize, not everyone is acting in good faith. And yes, now we may need to import liquid gas from the U.S. Produced via fracking. All of this in times when we should concentrate on renewables. It's a shame. 

regarding Nato ,do you know why countries such as Austria and Sweden are not members of the alliance?

[karbatal]

11 hours ago, runa said:

Russia has more than 100 000 troops near the Ukrainien border but it’s Washington who is psycho? Let me laugh,

That’s precisely not what I said but ok. Let’s make this thread a Twitter mess if you want.

[karbatal]

9 hours ago, sotos8 said:

regarding Nato ,do you know why countries such as Austria and Sweden are not members of the alliance?

I didn’t know that! I thought all EU was part of NATO.

[karbatal]

10 hours ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

I do think a European Army is a must at some point and I don't even think it will be a huge financial burden that may result in negative effects on healthcare or education. European countries spent insane amounts of money on the most insane things, there is lots of improvement. And of course, let's tax those big companies properly. The EU needs to become independent from the U.S. in this regard. I don't mind the NATO. It is a defense alliance afterall and except for Afganistan after 9/11 NATO troups did never invade a country. And it makes perfect sense for some countries to become a NATO member. I wonder if Russia had invaded the Baltic countries already if it wasn't for NATO. While there are only very little NATO soldiers in those countries (under normal circumstances), it works to scare off Russia because they know, the moment they shoot a NATO soldier, the full alliance will fight back. 

Regarding Nordstream 2. As far as I know, the pipeline was fully financed by Russia. No money from Germany. That said, I blame Germany in part for the gas situation. As mentioned in a previous post, they were warned about storage sites and that there is potential for extortion. I don't know, it often feels a if German goverments are  way to naive to deal with countries like Russia or China. Time to realize, not everyone is acting in good faith. And yes, now we may need to import liquid gas from the U.S. Produced via fracking. All of this in times when we should concentrate on renewables. It's a shame. 

You are right! I thought Nordstream was a joint project but it’s a Russian investment. 
 

Just think how the botoxed psycho not only feels he has the right to decide if that pipeline is used. But he is obeyed. The EU should tell him fuck you right on his face.

[elijah]

18 hours ago, karbatal said:

If I were Ukraine I would make an agreement with Putin. He’s the worst but it would save the country from a devastating war.

Now imagine France wanted to invade Spain. Would Spain agree to give up 1/3 of its territory to escape war with France? Would the Spanish government hold such negotiations and how would the Spaniards react? Remember the Munich agreement- the West agreed to give to Hilter part of Chehoslovakia and yet this didn’t prevent ww2 - https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Agreement

[elijah]

And what would Ukraine negotiate on exactly? Never being part of NATO or EU? Shouldn’t this be a decision for the Ukrainian people and government on one side and EU and NATO on the other to decide? Why should Ukraine erode its sovereignty? What’s next? Agreeing to be part of revived USSR or facing war? What negotiation should Ukraine and Russia have? And what exactly on?

[elijah]

20 hours ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

At this point I am way more angry at the EU. With all things going on worldwide I had hopes the EU will finally grow some balls. I don't mind them confronting Russia, China and the US. If only there was a European leader to speak up and tell them to f*ck off. I don't even know where our German chancellor is. It feels as if he had disappeared. He is such a sleeping pill. And let's face it, he only won because the other candidate was so bad.

When will the EU realize that they are the biggest and most powerful economy and market in the world. A market the rest of the world wants and needs access to. Start to play the power game, stop with being nice and believing that if the EU plays nice the rest will play nice as well. How many times has Europe been f*cked over by China or the US because the EU thought those countries believe in partnership the way the EU does. Even worse, there are so many things the EU or countries of the EU have been warned about and they ignored all threats just to act surpised later. In Germany the government has been warned for ages that China is stealing German technology, they have been warned that they should not sell large parts of the German storage sites for natural gas to a company that belongs to Gazprom. And look where we are in 2022. The storage sites have not been filled properly, there are hardly any reserves, the gas price is through the roof with many people not knowing how to pay for heating and electricity, gas providers going broke or unable to deliver costumers. And China for many years bought German companies that were developing strategic technolgies, even defense before the government finally stepped in. I still remember 15 years ago, when the Chinese visited German technology fairs, they literally crawled under and into the machines and made photographs from every angle possible. It was as funny as pathetic. Well, it stopped being funny when a year later they sold cheap replicas of those machines or products. Again, everyone knows what's going on, everyone cries foul but the politicians in charge wont do anything, except another round of appeasement. 

Sorry for the rant. 

So true on all accounts. And high time for some kind of confederation or smith. Countries who do not wanna sign such a threaty should be trown out. High high time for EU army.

[runa]

8 hours ago, karbatal said:

That’s precisely not what I said but ok. Let’s make this thread a Twitter mess if you want.

I was not responding to you @karbatal, I was commenting the article above my post. Not sure why you say I want to make this thread a "Twitter mess" as I never post any Twitter on this forum... 

[LSD]

18 hours ago, Raider of the lost Ark said:

Regarding Nordstream 2. As far as I know, the pipeline was fully financed by Russia. No money from Germany. That said, I blame Germany in part for the gas situation. As mentioned in a previous post, they were warned about storage sites and that there is potential for extortion. I don't know, it often feels a if German goverments are  way to naive to deal with countries like Russia or China. 

Or bought off

Germany loses patience with ex-chancellor's Russia lobbying

Frankfurt (AFP) – Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's close friendship with President Vladimir Putin and lucrative business dealings with Russia have for years been reluctantly tolerated at home.

But as war clouds gather over Ukraine and allies question Germany's resolve, Schroeder is increasingly seen as potential liability to new chancellor and fellow Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, fuelling calls for a clean break with the pro-Kremlin lobbyist.

"Schroeder is a burden to Germany's foreign policy and to his old party," Der Spiegel weekly wrote. "He has clear goals. Not for his country, but for himself."

Schroeder's recent warning to Ukraine to stop its "sabre rattling" was met with widespread disbelief in Germany, even among longtime friends within the centre-left SPD party.

Last week's announcement that the 77-year-old is set to serve on the board of Russian state energy giant Gazprom did little to calm tempers, as did the revelation that Schroeder held talks about Russia with an SPD interior ministry official last month.

The controversy comes at an awkward time for Scholz, who faces a major test next week when he travels to Moscow for his first in-person talks with Putin since taking office.

Scholz has been accused of being slow to step into the diplomatic fray in the Ukraine crisis, and of muddying Germany's message of being united with allies against the Russian threat.

Nord Stream 2

After much prodding from the United States and other allies, Scholz recently toughened his stance on possible sanctions should Russia invade Ukraine, including halting the Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

It was Schroeder, chancellor from 1998-2005, who signed off on the first Nord Stream pipeline between Russia and Germany in his final weeks in office, and he currently heads the Nord Stream company's shareholders' committee.

He is also chairman of the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft.

In a TV interview, Scholz denied being influenced by Schroeder ahead of the Moscow trip.

"I haven't asked him for advice, he hasn't given me any either," he said. "There's only one chancellor, and that's me."

'A distraction'

Putin and Schroeder appear to have built "a genuine friendship, based on trust" back when Schroeder was in power, political scientist Ursula Muench told AFP.

But "it's problematic when a former chancellor uses his past political activities and contacts to make money," she said.

Germany's SPD has historically championed close ties with Russia, born out of the "Ostpolitik" policy of rapprochement and dialogue with the then Soviet Union, devised by former SPD chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1970s.

Successive chancellors continued the policy to varying degrees, including Scholz's centre-right predecessor Angela Merkel who focussed on the economic benefits of dealing with Russia -- a strategy known as "Wandel durch Handel" in German, or "change through trade".

But even among German politicians sympathetic to Russia and its longstanding grievance over NATO's expansion, patience with Schroeder -- who famously celebrated his 70th birthday with Putin in Saint Petersburg -- is running out.

SPD veteran Rudolf Dressler told Spiegel that Schroeder's behaviour was "embarrassing", and urged the party leadership to ask Schroeder to refrain from commenting on political matters in public.

Opposition politicians and those from the SPD's junior coalition party, the liberal FDP, have called for Schroeder to lose his privileges as ex-chancellor -- including an office with staff and a driver.

German taxpayers should no longer "finance Russian lobbying", MP Volker Ullrich from the conservative CSU party told Bild newspaper, suggesting Gazprom pay for Schroeder's upkeep.

Sudha David-Wilp, deputy director of the German Marshall Fund think tank in Berlin, said the latest Schroeder saga was "a distraction" in the Ukraine crisis, but nothing new.

"Everybody knows where Schroeder stands, everybody knows where he is getting his source of income from," she told AFP.

More interesting is how Scholz and the SPD choose to navigate relations with Russia in the future, she said.

"Is there now an understanding that 'Ostpolitik' or 'Wandel durch Handel' is a thing of the past? Or will they keep using the same formula?" she asked.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220213-germany-loses-patience-with-ex-chancellor-s-russia-lobbying

[karbatal]

7 hours ago, elijah said:

Now imagine France wanted to invade Spain. Would Spain agree to give up 1/3 of its territory to escape war with France? Would the Spanish government hold such negotiations and how would the Spaniards react? Remember the Munich agreement- the West agreed to give to Hilter part of Chehoslovakia and yet this didn’t prevent ww2 - https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Agreement

I think that if Ukraine became a bridge between west and east it would have much to win.