Donald Trump is projecting again, this morning telling Germany that they are controlled by Russia due to those countries’ collaboration on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline:
Trump, in his remarks, called out Gerhard Schröder, Germany’s former Chancellor, for his involvement in the pipeline project.
“It should have never been allowed to have happened,” Trump said. “But Germany is totally controlled by Russia. Because they’ll be getting 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline … I think it’s a very bad thing for NATO and I don’t think it should have happened, and I think we have to talk to Germany about it” [David M. Herszenhorn, “Trump Rips into Germany at NATO Chief Breakfast,” Politico, 2018.07.11].
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at breakfast with Trump. Chancellor Merkel grew up under actual Russian control in East Germany. She had to remind Trump of how little he knows whereof he speaks:
In less blunt language than the US president’s, the German chancellor made the point that she needed no lessons in dealing with authoritarian regimes, recalling she had been brought up in East Germany when it had been part of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence.
Arriving at NATO headquarters only hours after Trump singled out Germany for criticism, Merkel said: “I have experienced myself how a part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. I am very happy that today we are united in freedom, the Federal Republic of Germany. Because of that we can say that we can make our independent policies and make independent decisions. That is very good, especially for people in eastern Germany” [Ewen MacAskill, “Angela Merkel Hits Back at Donald Trump at NATO Summit,” UK Guardian, 2018.07.11].
But let’s apply Trump’s logic: since he approved the Keystone XL pipeline, he must be totally controlled by Canada. So is the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. Thank goodness—we need Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s steady hand and bilingualism to guide us back to sanity.
p.s.: PM Trudeau is asserting his country’s apparent dominance over ours by rebuffing Trump’s call for Canada to double its defense budget.
More trumpster magic thinking for the dumpster.
They are making tariffs on trade flows that do not exist.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-11/world-s-most-pointless-tariffs-target-cleanest-fuel-and-trout
They’ve no idea what they are doing in their trade war. They have no plan. Even if they had a plan, it becomes a nullity after the first shot is fired.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Eisenhower
“No war plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke, the Elder
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson
Co-opting the earlier posted-thought that some government growth is beneficial – especially when its a public investment to grow private jobs, and thus the economy.
Government regulations for organic foods grows private jobs and provides food consumers want but find difficult & expensive to purchase in our congressional-corporate-farm-industrial complex dominated economy.
Europe, for generations, provides the world’s highest food purity and quality. Those nations do so because of public demand and to help their economies.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-11/trump-s-usda-is-killing-rules-that-organic-food-makers-want
Great head fake by Trump, but no one but the cult will believe it.
Let’s discuss Uranium One, owned by the Russian state-owned enterprise Rosatom. This, of course, has some conservatives whining their fake concern because Hillary Clinton had a small part in approving the sale of Uranium One from a Canadian company, to the Russian-owned company. Uranium One mines uranium in Wyoming.
Despite all the panty-twisting among conservatives, and the calls for a fake “investigation” of Hillary over this issue, they have yet to put much pressure on Trump to shut down Uranium One, which continues to mine American uranium. Trump, of course, could have acted on this issue on day one of his administration, but he had other concerns that day, including forcing Sean Spicer to go out and lie for him about the number of people who viewed his inauguration. It’s been a year and a half, and that great conservative cult hero has yet to say peep to Putin about shutting down that mine.
trump and the Confederates think that Putin is not the enemy, but just some kindly competitor.
“MSNBC’s Peter Alexander played some cringe-worthy video.
Trump said, “I have NATO, I have the UK, which has been somewhat turmoil, and I have Putin. Frankly, Putin may be the easiest one of all, who would think?”
Trump has treated Putin like he’s Trump’s co-president.
Alexander asked, “Would you say Vladimir Putin is a friend or foe?”
Trump replied, “I really can’t say right now. as far as I’m concerned, a competitor. a competitor.”
So there ya have it. Stop spending so much on defense, Putin is our friend. Bring home the troops and use the Navy boats as coral reefs. Eliminate Elsworth and put in a skateboard park.
i’m all for eliminating elsworth, it has nothing to do with natl.security, just another way for our congressional crowd to siphon more federal bucks from our natl.treasury.it also helps the pentagon to keep supporting goofy weapons like the F35 7 B21BOMBER. remember the pentagon is the only major part of our federal budget the has not been audited as demanded by law.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/angela-merkel-donald-trump-immigration_us_5b2bbc25e4b00295f15a1d5d
Why should Drumpf care. He has openly been trying to undercut Merkel and get her out of power. Most likely as a favor to Putie Puppet Master.
We need an accounting of what trump’s drunken spending spree has cost the last year and what the trump organizations have profited personally leveraging taxpayer airplanes, security, rally after rally, gas prices, tax cuts, stress to the system from incompetence, lack of planning, hurricane response, mass resignations, deportations, climate change and corruption. $500 M soy tariff loss in SD nears GOP EB5 $600 M churning in SD. Just one the SD crony CON JOBS.
So Canada controls us? Obviously. I shouldn’t have questioned. Do we call ourselves the United States of Canada now? And will Trudeau please please pretty please take over now!?! He can send pres Child Abuser and his pals to Guantanamo. I’m more than ready to be Canadian. I’ve been precticing my “eh” and “aboot” and “dawlors” daily, so I’m ready.
I have some Canadian coins US banks won’t honor so I could move to Winnipeg, Manitoba and die a Guess Who fan from iowa.
The reason Drumpf fears talks with Putin less than the other world leaders is he knows the rules with Putie. Putie speaks, Drumpf salivates like Pavlov’s and OldSferbrains dogs and wets the carpet so Putin can beat him with a rolled up Pravda paper. Wait til Putie takes Donnie to the Russian vet too get tutored, or was that neutered? Drumpf can’t hear when he is salivating all over.
John takes me harmlessly off-topic with his quotes about plans and their vulnerability to reality. There’s an interesting almost-paradox (quasidox?): the fact that no plan survives contact with the enemy does not justify not making a plan. Planning is an exercise in critical thinking. It’s practice, envisioning possibilities and responses.
Trump doesn’t seem to plan. He doesn’t envision “what ifs” or counterresponses. He just scratches his itch of the moment, throws things at the wall, then tweets off to the next random firestorm, into which too much of the press and America all too gladly follows him with great distraction.
In problem solving there are two planning groups necessary. The group that envisions all the things that can go wrong. And the group that envisions all the paths forward, planning for all the obstacles possibly encountered. On my team of ten planners I’ll have one from the first group and nine from the second group.
(Too many from the first group inevitably leads to the plan, “It won’t work. Let’s not even start.”)
That exchange between Jerry and Marvin brings up a policy debate that an intelligent Trump (oxymoron) could invite with his current foreign policy tack. Pretend with me for a moment a conscientious President were in Brussells with our NATO allies and on his way to a summit with Putin. A conscientious President could advance a coherent, pro-America agenda with the following strategy:
I think I’ve just thought farther ahead and more coherently about foreign policy in the last few minutes than Donald Trump has in his lifetime. I’ve certainly just written more on the topic than he ever has. He can’t get past 280 characters.
Nice knowing you, although we have never met, Cory. OldSferbrains will attempt to have you declared an enemy of the walkaway state and label you as dangerous. And he will do it in his customary off topic manner without manners.
Excuse me, it is nearing my bedtime and I have some serious reading to do before lights out.
The Germans are not using energy only when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing. Thus the dependence on coal or gas.
I suspect that underlying all of this is that Trump wants Germany to buy liquefied natural gas from the oil and gas interests of the United States, not from Russian pipelines.
Very good points you bring out there Cory. The problem with having peace is that then what? How do you stand down trillions of dollars in assets for Wall Street investments? There is only so much of that military hardware you can pass onto the civilian military police. How many Abrams tanks can they use? Aircraft carriers? Only in Wyoming.
The last line brings up the topic of defense spending. Is Trump’s goal to drum up more business for the billionaire’s in the war industry, or is his goal to have other countries pay more to allow the US to spend less? If NATO all come up to 2% of their GDP, would the US then shrink our spending to 2% – down from 3.5%? A country could pay for a LOT of health care with that redefinition of national investment.
Vladimir Putin may as well be U.S. President as he’s played a significant roll in molding yesterday’s conservatives into today’s Grade A self-destructionists.
The radicals on the right have ENORMOUS influence on the rest of the conservative base – because it’s a political party with an ideology for SUCKERS!
Trump represents Putin on the world stage more vigorously than he does the American people, and he is going burn in hell for all eternity when his life on Earth is over. And you what else? – his supporters are going have a harder time than the rest of us in avoiding a similar fate IF they don’t get their sh!t together pretty darn soon here.
Cory,
Did Putin threaten to cut off natural gas supplies to Europe?
The answer is yes.
Is the US a main exporter of oil?
The answer is yes.
What happens when NATO nations have to man up and spend their obligated money on defense instead of their healthcare?
It’s time the US stops spending money on other Countries and spend it on the US legal citizens.
Putie’s threat is always that he’ll cut off oil and gas supplies. The US is now the #1 oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia. But, are we ready to get our oil and LNG to Europe ASAP? I think not. How much time do we require to gear up enough to keep Europe humming? Perhaps the US energy sector ought to be focused on that, rather than sabotaging renewables.
Will Canada control us when Keystone II is built, or do they control us already after Keystone I?
The records show that foreign ownership will control the Keystone II when built, mostly by China. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/23/level-of-foreign-ownership-unclear-in-energy-sector-as-pm-seeks-more-cash-memo_n_9054716.html
So we have Russia controlling our political apparatus, while China and Saudi Arabia control our energy. Looks like we will need NATO to come in and save our captive behinds.
Jerry, your article doesn’t say foreigners will own the keystone II pipeline. Your reading comprehension is terrible.
China, for one owns the source, the tar sands. Saudi Arabia owns the Port Arthur refinery…the only place the tar sands can be refined. Russia made the pipe, along with India that goes under the ground that is protected by militiamen who order county sheriffs around. Sweet.
Prove China owns all of the tar sands Jerry.
The Keystone pipeline(s) are wholly owned by TransCanada Corporation, which as the name suggests is a Canadian corporation.
Unlicensed security guards only boss around county sheriffs on the Dakota Access Pipeline, Jerry.
Jason, you can’t be this stoopid, can you?
Jason
2018-07-12 at 09:53
Jerry, your article doesn’t say foreigners will own the keystone II pipeline. Your reading comprehension is terrible.
Keystone is owned by CANADIANS. CANADIANS are foreigners. Trash-CANADA is a CANADIAN CORPORATION! Flying Spaghetti Monster save us from evil and dumb.
https://www.google.com/search?q=+does+china+own+tar+sands&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab
Take your pick of articles depicting ownership of Canada’s oil sands. China owns some, but their invested 15 billion was ill-timed.
Koch bros own some. Several foreign nations do as well.
TransCanada is a public corporation that TransCanada is the largest shareholder in, and owns the general partner of, TC PipeLines. The company was founded in 1951 in Calgary.
The unlicensed security guards are paid by someone. Maybe militia was to strong a word to describe guns for hire.
Meanwhile, the controlling interest of the tar sands themselves, seems to be China, with a 40% controlling share, no different than the controlling share of TransCanada on the pipeline itself.
The kicker is Port Arthur, Texas and how it was sold to Saudi Arabia after trump was appointed by Putin. The largest refinery in America, foreign owned by the country that supplied the hijackers on 9/11. Funny how things turn out.
Putin’s threats to cut off nat gas to Europe go at least as far back as 2009.
US is a large oil exporter. The ban on exporting was lifted in 2015, long before Jason’s blowhard Russian puppet was installed as MIcro-Wienered Czar by Putin.
So China owns a minority interest. Trump is still laughing.
proud to have been of service,and until congress ,including our feckless 3,demands an accounting 0f the pentagon, we have to seriously question the spending for freedom & the lives of our young women & men in uniform. i suspect there is more criminal activity going on behind the pentagon’s walls than most places in the world.
i could be proven wrong by an honest auditing of the pentagon’s expenditures.then we could see how badly we need or do not need all our bases around the world. there are about 800 of them . some might call it imperialism !
Folks, Trump is aligning U.S. foreign policy with Vladimir Putin’s international agenda. This inherently suggests that Trump is CURRENTLY (not just leading up to the 2016 election) colluding and coordinating his actions with Russian advisors.
That’s the real story here. It’s time for the American people to get their heads on straight.
“Maybe militia was to strong a word to describe guns for hire.”
Jerry, I think the word you’re looking for is “mercenary.” Same as Eric Prince’s Blackwater “contractors,” more accurately known as “mercenaries.”
To be fair, the average security guard is someone looking to make ends meet. The people who attack nonviolent resistance with dogs, other weapons and various and sundry violence are definitely Mercenaries.
Adam is right. By electing Donald Trump, we have isolated ourselves from our best friends and customers. Russia is getting us right where they want us—alone and out of the global picture.
Whoa, mercenary me, oh
I don’t kill no folks for free, no
Best clients is US government
Voters wonder how their money’s spent, oh
Yeah, we get paid real good to kill
To do our job is such a thrill, oh
If we get caught we can’t be sued
Protected by congress feels mighty good.
Whoa, Mercenary me yeah, yeah, yeah,
Nothing beats a job like mine, see
Don’t waste time burying enemy
Requirements only retired miltary, oh
Whoa Mercenary me
Whoa Mercenary me
Whoa Mercenary me
Apologies to the late great Marvin Gaye Jr.
Blackwater founder makes new pitch for mercenaries to take over Afghan waBlackwater founder makes new pitch for mercenaries to take over Afghan war.
Blackwater’s chief is a brother to Uneducation secretary Betsy Devolved.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/396714-blackwater-founder-proposes-mercenary-takeover-in-afghanistan-amidst-mueller-probe
Here is the link.
Yeah, little Eric Prissy Prince and Betsy DeVoid of All Humanity make quite a pair of mercenary-type individuals. No morals makes them a perfect fit with pres Child Abuser.