Pretty good summary of the situation.
This bit stuck out too about threatening Germany with sanctions:
The State Department has already demanded an immediate cessation of work on the pipeline, which is 95% complete, warning that any company involved is at risk of sanctions.
Europe now pays about $2 billion a year in transit fees to the Ukraine, Slovakia and other countries for Russian natural gas, which provides about a third of its annual gas consumption. The Nord Stream II pipeline would reduce transportation costs substantially, at the expense of the Ukraine and others.
You can't just cut out my failson's dubious former employer jack!
Yeah, it's shocking how much US government corruption feeds off of Ukraine. They're gathered like hogs at a trough.
I remember an episode some time back where Matt made a joke about Ukraine being the place where the failsons of the US/EU political elite go with their money buckets and just take a big scoop off the top.
A while back they were seriously considering adding Ukraine to NATO. Insanity. They were trying to start a war. Still are.
That's why Germany wants Nordstream 2. Economic engagement decreases the risk of war.
I mean let's not ignore the material conditions of Russian resettlement in Ukraine. The history of Russian imperialism in the region unfortunately has a longer history than the length of the USSR. Russian chauvinists want their land, American chuavinists want in on the take. A rock and a hard place. Fuck the actual nazis in the Ukraine that the US supports, but if getting closer to the west means material protections from Russia can you blame the Ukrainians?
if getting closer to the west means material protections from Russia can you blame the Ukrainians?
As always with these sorts of questions: "yeah, but also no"
Washington is angry at Germany for building a natural gas pipeline with Russia, at India for purchasing a Russian air defense system, at Russia for mistreatment of President Putin’s opponents and at China for treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority.
lol yes that's why they're mad at China, deep concern for muslims
The Republicans will back any hair-brained interventionist agenda Biden adopts. The Democrats will call you a communist if you don't get in line. And mass media will do the 9/11 dance to stoke tension until Americans think the world is on fire and only they can stop it.
But, at this point, we're hitting a soft upper bound on how many resources we can commit. Pandemic, the economy stalling out again, domestic unrest, and a hard split on partisan lines mean you're risking marginal global hegemony on one more big roll of the dice if you keep ignoring domestic concerns.
Who cares about the voters? We'll never have a real election again, not after the disaster of 2016. They've already established a Green Zone in DC. What are we going to do? Rise up and overthrow them? Laughable.
I'm sure they see Germany doing the pipeline as undermining NATO and therefore "they struck first" in their minds.
Picture selection game is A+
Also, if this guy's analysis is correct about nobody being in charge, then perhaps our fears of the return of competent imperialism won't come true. Of course, it's still very early.
Typically when there's a leader with dementia, there's either a palace coup or endless infighting among the emir's advisors. Looks like we get the second. Yay.
Imperialism was never competent. Look how they fouled up Iraq. Syria. Libya. Where did they not screw things up? They just like launching wars, they're good at that. Winning them, not so much. They don't suffer the consequences of their actions, so why should they stop? I'm just glad and amazed Hillary didn't get a cabinet spot.
Imperialism was never competent.
Okay.
I'm referring to the old Trump vs. Biden comparison in which many folks believed that a Biden administration would result in a comparative cohesive foreign policy that is worse for the global south than four more years of a bumbling Trump administration that was hamstrung by factionalism within the administration, plus Trump himself who was, for example, skittish about retaliating against Iran for that drone that they shot down.
Looks like we aren't getting that cohesive foreign policy, at least not yet.
Democrats: "America is back!"
The world: "No your not. Fuck off!"
Joe Biden: "What is this malarkey? The Chinese emperor is a bad dude... Where am I? What are these stairs?"
Germany's just there like "man we all do human rights violations. I thought sanctions were for the poor and/or nonwhite and/or communist countries."
Nah, the Chinese will speak English.
Chinese is fantastically difficult and requires hundreds of hours of dull repetitive rote memorization. There are no shortcuts and you have to study for a long time before seeing any payoff. 95% of learners never get past beginner level.
Written Chinese is very challenging, but spoken Chinese isn't especially difficult.
It's revealing that the American "credentialed" libs are the only ones in the world that believe in Joe Biden and co. Shows just how shit "credentials" are.
Fucking laughable.
