Posted on 01/19/2022 8:07:46 PM PST by RandFan
Dr. Rand Paul Objects to Proposed Sanctions Against the Nord Stream II Pipeline
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BiXiden needs to bribe the XL pipeline guys to restart construction.
“This might surprise a few people (this was Ted Cruz’s bill)”
I’m with Rand on this. My main fear in that part of the world is that Europe (i.e., Germany), with no military to speak of, will decide to go toe-to-toe against Russia, and then coming begging to us to clean up their mess (which we may or may not be able to do, depending on the circumstances).
However, if the pipeline gets built, well then Europe (i.e., Germany) will have an ‘incentive’ to not push things too far with Russia.
I believe Blinken carried a bag of money to Ukraine on the last visit...200 million??
Germany already gets most of their natural gas from Russia. They’re not going to push anything except going belly up due to lack of energy independence.
Even Macron is pushing nuclear power. Germany is closing it down.
Not quite.
First of all it has been fully built already, the issue is paperwork.
Secondly, the way things stand now, Europe (and Germany in particular) depend on Russian gas with or without North Stream II.
If I were Putin I'd love someone blowing up NS2. It makes more sense to sell half of the amount of gas at twice the price. Or perhaps 10x the price before long.
“If I were Putin I’d love someone blowing up NS2. It makes more sense to sell half of the amount of gas at twice the price. Or perhaps 10x the price before long.”
Well, yes and no. OPEC got burned in the past, several times, by letting the price of oil get too high - driving its customers to look for new energy sources. Putin would be wise to avoid that even though, today, it looks as though the Europeans (i.e., Germans) are absolute IDIOTS on energy policy.
The risk is that Europeans (i.e., Germans) are very smart people and, eventually, will see through their Green Party and move to break loose of Russian domination. But if the Russians keep the price down, then the people there won’t have the incentive to stand up to the Greens and Putin can keep his stranglehold on them.
I’m a Russia/Putin hater, but standing in the way of trade deals like this is a loser. Obama/Petraeus killed over a million people and caused one of the largest humanitarian crisis’s in human history trying to stop Russia from providing gas to Europe (look up Operation Timber Sycamore). It’s over. Europe could solve their energy problems with nuclear power, but they prefer gas and dependence on foreign energy. Quit fighting a battle we lost. Worry about our own energy independence and quit obsessing on Europe. Thank you Rand for standing up for America First.
If the Germans want it, who are we to try and stop it?
There is no reason to complicate the pipeline.
Let it be.
Germany and Russia go to war. Half of Germany will lose power overnight. So that’ll shut their economy down. Advantage Russia. At that point, Russia would not even have to launch a strike against Germany to cause damage. The Germans are stupid for shutting down their nuclear power so they are dependent on the Russians. But like you said, it may be a good thing so nothing bad will happen.
We are ex-residents of Germany, having been there for decades. As Germany has moved through two chancellors to become connected to Russian gas, it is none of our business nor NATO's.
As always, however, the US wants to push militarily, in my opinion, because all the national issues for the Democrats are going so wrong, they are manufacturing a “possible war” with Russia in order to divert attention and still justify the massive defense spending of the corrupt military-industrial complex, of which Eisenhower warned.
Notice that the DoD chief was a Raytheon exec, and so the swinging door between military and military manufacturers continues at full speed under the Democrats.
I’m sorry, but we cannot allow our allies to become dependent on Putin for their energy supplies.
_Nobody_ in DC cares about Germans buying Russian gas. They only get mad abut Nordstream because it’s direct, Russia to Germany. Hard to get in the middle of that. DC likes it to go through Ukraine so they can get their sticky fingers on it and DC gets grifter/bribery employment for Hunter, Kerry’s and Pelosi’s sons, Romneys staffers, etc etc.
Half of DC is getting rich from Russian gas passing through Ukraine. They don’t want that gravy train to end.
Their country their problem, we may have to deal with the fall out but nothing we can do, worry about home not Germany.
Ukraine was our second choice. It was supposed to be a Saudi/Qatari pipeline though Syria and Turkey, but Obama failed to overthrow Assad.
It looks to me like Russia is the pushy one.
“It looks to me like Russia is the pushy one.”
But are they? I don’t think Russia has moved their lines forward since the Cold War end, and for almost 25 years, they were perfectly fine with Ukraine being left alone as as an independent country. It wasn’t until Hillary started playing politics there that Russia responded.
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