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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    The U.S. is treating Europe like a vassal state

    Let's face it, not only Trump is an asshole but 99.9% of U.S. politicians are. When you look at the candidates who are trying to knock off Trump you know that the U.S. is a nightmare (Hillary was just the bginning).
    Actually, the whole White House should be impeached !
    What motives does the U.S. have to tell Europe where to buy their gas? MONEY!



    Trump signs off on sanctions against Nord Stream 2 pipeline

    President Donald Trump approved US sanctions against companies involved in building a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany. US lawmakers fear the project will give Moscow leverage over European allies.


    US sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany were signed into law on Friday evening after President Donald Trump signed off on a massive defense bill.

    The sanctions target companies that are involved in constructing the $11 billion (€9.93 billion) energy project that will transport Russian gas supplies under the Baltic Sea and deliver them directly to Germany.

    Under the sanctions, the Trump administration now has 60 days to identify companies and individuals providing services on the pipeline. The sanctions allow Washington to revoke US visas and block the property of these individuals. Those targeted by the sanctions would then have 30 days to wind down their operations.


    Germany, EU decry sanctions

    The bill describes Nord Stream 2 as a "tool of coercion and political leverage" that Moscow could use against Berlin — and risks significantly weakening US ties to Germany and other European allies. US lawmakers in both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved the sanctions.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has condemned the measures, urging the US not to meddle in European energy policy. "They affect German and other European businesses, and we see the move as meddling in our internal affairs," a government spokeswoman said.

    The sanctions are also opposed by the European Union.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin has also already vowed "reciprocal" measures against the sanctions.
    Ahead of the sanctions being signed into law, Swiss-Dutch company Allseas suspended its pipe-laying activities. The company was hired by Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom to build the offshore section.
    The pipeline was expected to become operational in the next few months, although the completion date for the project has now been thrown into doubt.


    https://www.dw.com/en/trump-signs-of...ine/a-51759319

    Well, let's see how this ends up.

  2. #2
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    Klondyke's Avatar
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    (why to buy from nearby and cheap? we can sell you from far and far from cheap)

    ‘Interference in domestic affairs’: Germany fumes at US sanctions on Nord Stream 2 pipeline

    21 Dec, 2019

    Berlin has rejected a package of sweeping US sanctions meant to halt the construction of the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, denouncing it as interference in its domestic affairs.

    Germany “has noticed with regret that the sanctions initiated by the US Congress against Nord Stream2 and Turkstream [pipelines] came into force after being signed by the US president,” deputy government spokesperson Ulrike Demmer tweeted on Saturday.

    The federal government rejects such extraterritorial sanctions. They affect German and European companies and represent interference in our domestic affairs.
    The sanctions are part of a 2020 defense spending bill President Donald Trump signed on Friday. They flag companies contributing to halt the construction of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline which spans between Russia and Germany.

    Under the legislation, US visas and American properties owned by those continues will be revoked and frozen. Allseas, a Swiss-Dutch company laying underwater tubes for the pipeline off the Danish coast, already announced it is suspending operations in the area.

    Berlin has been consistently opposed to the sanctions, with some politicians even calling for an in-kind response and a ban on imports of American liquefied natural gas to Germany.

    https://www.rt.com/news/476549-germa...eam-sanctions/

  3. #3
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    Swiss company freezes participation in Nord Stream 2 due to threat of US sanctions

    The Swiss company Allseas announced that it had stopped all work under the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline construction project.

    According to the Voice of America , this step, according to the campaign, was made due to the US defense budget, which provides for the imposition of sanctions on companies participating in the construction of the gas pipeline through which Russian gas should be delivered to Germany.

    Allseas also said that its future actions will be subject to relevant guidance and regulatory, technical, environmental clarifications from US authorities. See also Bild: Why is Merkel holding on to Nord Stream 2 so much? As UNIAN reported earlier, US Republican senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson warned the Swiss company Allseas about possible sanctions if it continued to participate in the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project.

    The penalties prescribed in the law “On the Protection of Energy Security of Europe” are aimed at ship operating companies, through which pipes for the Nord Stream-2 pipeline are laid across the Baltic Sea. In particular, they will be banned from entering the United States, and any property located in the country will be frozen. Allseas has been cooperating with Gazprom and Nord Stream 2 AG for several years. In 2016, she won tenders for pipe laying for two projects at once - Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream.

    https://www.unian.net/economics/ener...kciy-ssha.html

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    On the Protection of Energy Security of Europe
    I don't think any European country has asked US for that protection.

  5. #5
    I'm in Jail

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    Germany are treading a fine line between gas dependence with Russia vs getting their domestic self reliance sorted, at the moment Russia holds sway which gives them influence in Yermany but really the EU coz the Reich runs the EU. Don't know why Merica is worried as the EU is puting a defence force in place, sans UK, what could go wrong. Sausages ?,.

  6. #6
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    ‘They’ll soon demand we stop breathing’: Moscow slams Nord Stream 2 sanctions, says US hinders economic growth

    21 Dec, 2019

    The US, a country with a mammoth national debt, is trying to prevent others from growing their economies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said following actions taking aim at the Russo-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova lashed out at the US’ crippling sanctions regarding the pipeline this Friday.

    “A state with a $22-trillion national debt prohibits creditworthy countries to develop the real sector of their economies!” she wrote in a Facebook post, adding that the “American ideology of living on loan has not withstood global competition.”
    They will soon demand we stop breathing immediately. And many will obey, after all.
    The sanctions package specifically targets companies involved in building the last remaining leg of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that runs between the Russian and German coastlines through the Baltic Sea. Berlin has already expressed unease over the US’ move, calling it interference in their domestic affairs.

    https://www.rt.com/news/476550-zakha...-us-sanctions/

  7. #7
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    The US wants to dominate the world; militarily, politically and economically. Just bend over and lube up.

  8. #8
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    time to go to war with the US, and nuke them all

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat raycarey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HermantheGerman View Post
    The U.S. is treating Europe like a vassal state
    it will pale in comparison to what it does to the UK if/when Brexit actually happens.

  10. #10
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    this use of sanctions to assist american corporate interests is so last century - the tipping point will be reached soon enough

    the world markets are teetering on the edge with only massive money printing by the US fed keeping them from falling , so one false step will send them plunging

  11. #11
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    Until the EU grows some hair on it's tiny nad's, it is nothing more than a vassal- and thus equally as culpable as the Israel/US/Saudi axis for all of the evil it is promulgating in the world today.

  12. #12
    last farang standing
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    It does seem a little odd to be buying your energy from the country that you spend billions defending against.

  13. #13
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    ^It has escaped to my knowledge, please enlighten me. Can you elaborate the aggression to be defended against?

  14. #14
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    The worm has turned. The US, once a vassel of European states, now wields the power to get even. Just the way it is. Could be worse except for a guy named George Marshall.

    Here ya go.

    https://teakdoor.com/famous-threads/...aily-moan.html (Daily Moan)

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    The worm has turned. The US, once a vassel of European states, now wields the power to get even.
    Get even for what?

  16. #16
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lom View Post
    Get even for what?
    For starters.

    The U.S. is treating Europe like a vassal state-british-v-cherokee-carolinas-jpg
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails The U.S. is treating Europe like a vassal state-british-v-cherokee-carolinas-jpg  

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat lom's Avatar
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    ^ Well then take out the revenge on the Englanders and keep Europe out of it.

  18. #18
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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  19. #19
    I'm in Jail

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    Quote Originally Posted by Neverna View Post
    The US wants to dominate the world; militarily, politically and economically. Just bend over and lube up.
    Never gets it and I figure does't comply.

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    It does seem a little odd to be buying your energy from the country that you spend billions defending against.
    Alliances with current and future enemies is not uncommon, esp in today's upside down world where leaders make critical decisions based on their perception of what is best for them or their country over the short term.

    But even discounting the potential consequences of sleeping with the enemy in this case, what happens with Germany as Europe's energy hub under the Russian thumb when the EU goes pop?

    Nobody knows, so I guess we have to wait and see.

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NamPikToot View Post
    Germany are treading a fine line between gas dependence with Russia vs getting their domestic self reliance sorted, at the moment Russia holds sway which gives them influence in Yermany but really the EU coz the Reich runs the EU. Don't know why Merica is worried as the EU is puting a defence force in place, sans UK, what could go wrong. Sausages ?,.
    What most people don't know is the fact that, Germany was already importing gas from the U.S.S.R. in 1973 in the middle of the Cold War.
    Can you guess why the U.S. is now against it ?
    Need a hint ?

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today sent a letter to the CEO of Allseas Group S.A. (Allseas), the company currently engaged in installing deep-sea pipes for Russia's Nord Stream 2. In the letter, the senators warn Allseas that as soon as President Trump signs the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) - which includes Sec. 7503, Sen. Cruz's bipartisan legislation to stop the Nord Stream 2 - it risks crippling sanctions that could devastate the financial viability of the company.


    December 18, 2019
    Edward Heerema
    Chief Executive Officer, Allseas Group
    Route de Pra de Plan 18, Case Postale 411
    1618 Châtel-Saint-Denis
    Switzerland

    Dear Mr. Heerema,

    This week, President Trump will sign into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020. Section 7503 of that Act mandates that the President impose broad sanctions on foreign persons or companies involved in providing vessels for the installation of deep-sea pipeline for the Nord Stream 2 project. As of his signature, those activities are instantaneously subject to the full force of those sanctions.
    This letter is to put you, your employees, your company, and your shareholders on formal legal notice. This legislation was passed specifically to immediately halt your company's work on Nord Stream 2. The only responsible course of action is for Allseas Group S.A. and its employees to stop Nord Stream 2 activities immediately.
    We understand that Russia is paying Allseas a very substantial amount of money to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. However, the consequences of your company continuing to do the work-for even a single day after the President signs the sanctions legislation-would expose your company to crushing and potentially fatal legal and economic sanctions.
    Your contract surely contains an avenue to withdraw in the event regulations or sanctions prevent completion of the pipeline; with the passage of the NDAA, you have no reasonable choice but to exercise that avenue and immediately halt installing deep-sea pipeline for the Nord Stream 2 project.

    Section 7503 was the product of almost a year of bipartisan, bicameral, and interbranch efforts aimed at immediately stopping the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. It requires the President to report on and impose sanctions against individuals and companies that have "sold, leased, or provided" vessels that "engaged in pipe-laying at depths of 100 feet or more below sea level for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project." There is no discretion. It also mandates sanctions against foreign persons or companies that seek to circumvent those prohibitions by "facilitat[ing] deceptive or structured transactions to provide those vessels for the construction" of the pipeline.

    The prohibitions are immediate, and the sanctions are mandatory. Prohibited activities became sanctionable "beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act," i.e. when the President signs the NDAA, and the "the President shall" designate violators.

    Under the sanctions in Sec. 7503, violators will be fully cut off from the United States and have any and all assets within the U.S. blocked for 5 years. Any individual designated will be denied the issuance of a visa required for admission to the U.S. and will have any current visa or entry documentation revoked. Moreover, for both individuals and companies, the President is required to exercise all powers granted to him by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) "to block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property" to the extent they "are in the United States, come within the United States, or come within the possession or control of a United States person."

    Allseas has several vessels that, according to materials published by the Nord Stream 2 project, are engaged in the project: the construction vessel Pioneering Spirit (IMO: 9593505, MMSI: 249110000, Call Sign: 9HA4112), the pipelay vessel Solitaire (IMO: 7129049, MMSI: 249118000, Call Sign: 9HA4114), and the pipelay vessel Audacia (IMO: 9305130, MMSI: 249117000, Call Sign: 9HA4111). The Pioneering Spirit and Solitaire are currently in the Baltic Sea, and at least the Pioneering Spirit is engaged in deep-sea pipe-laying activities that are now sanctionable.
    If you violate the sanctions legislation, and your vessels enter U.S. jurisdiction, those vessels will become frozen assets.

    Allseas and its key personnel who knowingly sell, lease, or provide those vessels for the Nord Stream 2 project will be sanctioned if those activities do not cease immediately. For the next half decade your company and those personnel will be entirely barred from the U.S. In the meantime, any transactions they attempt to conduct with anyone who is in the U.S. or using the U.S. financial system will be blocked. Moreover, all property you have within our jurisdiction will be frozen, including assets related to Allseas USA headquartered in Houston, TX, any financial assets in U.S. banks, and any physical vessels or materials owned by Allseas that come into the U.S.

    It is important to reemphasize the immediacy required by Sec. 7503, because this aspect of the legislation has been broadly misunderstood and misreported. In two months, the President will report to Congress if Allseas ceased engaging in sanctionable activities and, if you did not, you will be sanctioned. Although the report is due in 60 days, your legal exposure is immediate from the moment of signing.
    To be sure, there is a 30-day "wind-down" period for which the President has the option of not imposing sanctions, but to exercise that option the President must certify to Congress that Allseas "engaged in good faith efforts to wind down operations." Rushing to finish the Nord Stream 2 project over that time would foreclose the possibility of that certification.
    If you were to attempt to finish the pipeline in the next 30 days, you would devastate your shareholders' value and destroy the future financial viability of your company. And, you would surely face billions of dollars in shareholder derivative suits for your breach of fiduciary duty.
    You face a binary choice: stop NOW, and leave the pipeline unfinished (the express intention of the sanctions legislation, which we authored), or make a foolish attempt to rush to complete the pipeline and risk putting your company out of business forever.

    The U.S. government knows that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is near completion and considers it a grave threat to European energy security and American national security. Top officials from the State and Treasury Departments have repeatedly emphasized the gravity of those threats and sought to forestall them. Sec. 7503 represents a whole-of-government approach to ensuring that the pipeline remains uncompleted and those threats are never realized.

    It's time for the Pioneering Spirit and Solitaire to find other waters in which to sail.

    https://www.cruz.senate.gov/files/do...seas%20CEO.pdf

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
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    Any questions ?



    Rafael Edward Cruz is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator for Texas since 2013.
    Four approved LNG projects to bring billions to South Texas
    Federal officials approved permits Thursday for four South Texas liquefied natural gas export terminals, clearing the way for projects that would pour tens of billions of dollars into the state economy, create thousands of jobs and solidify the Gulf Coast as a global hub of the LNG industry.
    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...o-14852848.php
    Last edited by HermantheGerman; 22-12-2019 at 01:28 PM.

  24. #24
    last farang standing
    Hugh Cow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    ^It has escaped to my knowledge, please enlighten me. Can you elaborate the aggression to be defended against?
    Eastern Ukraine
    Crimea
    Georgia

    Before we get into interfering in Britain (novachok) and others and before you start your standard "what about" obfuscation, the question was Russian aggression, feel free to start another thread on Aggression from other countries.

  25. #25
    last farang standing
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    For starters.

    The U.S. is treating Europe like a vassal state-british-v-cherokee-carolinas-jpg

    So I take it you are an American Indian or whatever the current PC word is Norts?

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