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Joe Biden a good President

donbusch

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It is very frustrating to see people repeating some media BS

  • No business, especially traditional oil and mining is sustainable in a long run if it is not profitable. The Alberta oil sands are profitable at the oil price around 30-40$/ barrel (depends on how you count, current price of labor etc.). They would be much more profitable with Keystone pipeline with the switch from the crude to gasoline exports from Texas refineries. These now operate on similar heavy crude from Venezuela and other sources that in fact have lobbied WH to cancel Keystone.
  • The gigantic government subsidies to the oil sands industry are a myth. Most of these subsidies are in the form of tax breaks and other similar noncash initiatives and return to the government many times over through taxation of salaries, exports etc.
  • Sure, Russian gas is relatively cheap, though production is much more expensive than say in Quatar as it is mined above polar circle in very difficult environment. Nevertheless, it is much cheaper than shipping LNG and thus difficult to compete with. Therefore the pressure from LNG producers to limit the Russian gas exports.
Ah yes, all mainstream media is BS. True ‘freedom’ fighters shall refer only to approved right-wing websites.

No business is sustainable in the long run if it is not profitable? That’s what academics teach in Econ101. In the real world, it happens all the time. Want a more traditional industry than oil & gas? What about farming? US corn growers, European sugar beet producers, Japanese rice farmers have been subsidized by their respective governments for eons and the subsidies are still continuing with no end in sight. Want to make it even more sustainable? Then simply divert the taxes from productive parts of the oil & gas sector to the non-profitable sector.

Want to see if Alberta tar sands are truly profitable? See if profit-driven MNCs want to invest? ExxonMobile, Shell, ConocoPhilips, Marathon have all withdrawn from the Alberta tar sands industry at a loss. Only the Canadian oil companies are left, probably because they are better positioned to collect their own government’s subsidies that are disguised as tax breaks, training grants, rebates, low-interest loans, etc.

Qatar has lower extraction costs than Russia, what difference does that make? Both are petrostates making lots of money selling natural gas. As you yourself pointed out - Russian natural gas is extracted in difficult conditions & Qatar natural gas requires liquefaction to become LNG for shipping to faraway export markets. You don’t see Russia or Qatar needing extensive debate or govt commissioned white papers to justify the profitability of their oil & gas industries. The proof is in the money.

Back to topic on President Biden’s awesomeness - his plan to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

 

gaby

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Good to see REPS. and DEMS Senators could still agree on major issues......they ALL support BIDEN'S confrontation with RUSSIA...they desagree on technalities BUT sur le fonds..on the same page....congrats to MITCH for his leadership.
 

hryusha

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Nord Stream 2 (NS2) was built during Trumpy’s time. Trumpy made a big show of trying to stop it but he was never serious. Trumpy deliberatedly sabotaged his own so-called ‘anti NS2’ efforts by undermining then German Chancellor Merkel & the entire NATO alliance. After all, Trumpy has always been afraid of Putin.

End of the day, NS2 is about security and why should the Europeans trust Trumpy on NS2 when he kept casting doubts on the US commitment to NATO’s collective defense?

President Biden doesn’t have Trumpy’s flair for show biz but serious workers like Biden often work in the background. In less than a year, Biden has rebuilt the NATO alliance and even as we speak, he has convinced Japan to redirect its own natural gas supplies to Europe. Real work & governing is boring & tedious. Biden is also boring & tedious. But I much prefer actual results delivered by boring, tedious President Biden.


You are mistaken, there wasn't actually any NS2 during Trump time. There were pipes being laid down, yes, but the companies doing it were strangled with sanctions, insurance companies turned away, USA was producing enough oil and gas to sell to Europe and the Europeans were being forced to turn away from appeasing Putin. Oh, and let's also not forget that the prices were low, which makes most of Russian energy production unprofitable.
And then Biden won. He immediately promised to lift the sanctions on NS2, the construction immediately resumed.
I'm actually from Russia, and I can tell you that Putin is in a much stronger position today than he was, say 2 years ago. Biden has basically revived him, restored his access to unlimited sources of cash.
 

donbusch

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You are mistaken, there wasn't actually any NS2 during Trump time. There were pipes being laid down, yes, but the companies doing it were strangled with sanctions, insurance companies turned away, USA was producing enough oil and gas to sell to Europe and the Europeans were being forced to turn away from appeasing Putin. Oh, and let's also not forget that the prices were low, which makes most of Russian energy production unprofitable.
And then Biden won. He immediately promised to lift the sanctions on NS2, the construction immediately resumed.
I'm actually from Russia, and I can tell you that Putin is in a much stronger position today than he was, say 2 years ago. Biden has basically revived him, restored his access to unlimited sources of cash.
Most of the NS2 was built during Trumpy’s time as president. This is from their website:

“Pipeline construction began in 2018. By the end of 2019, it was complete in Russian, Finnish and Swedish waters, with much of the work finished in German and Danish waters as well. Because Denmark was the last country to grant a permit for construction in its waters, most of the remaining work had to be done in that area”

Biden lifted the sanctions because it was merely symbolic and it was counterproductive to use sanctions to coerce our allies, the Europeans. Instead, Biden rebuilt the NATO alliance and now NATO is united against Putin

What does u claiming to be from Russia matter? I can claim to be from the CIA. Present some real evidence please.

 
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Fradi

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Biden revived NATO lol?
Biden has trouble remembering his own name.
With his catastrophic bungle of the Afghan pullout, he has made himself and the US a laughing stock nobody in Europe has an ounce of respect or confidence for that incompetent senile old clown.
 
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donbusch

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The unified NATO response led by Biden to the Russian build-up near Ukraine is clear evidence of a rejuvenated alliance.

Biden is old, not much plastic surgery with lots of liver spots and wrinkles and has a speech impediment. But I don’t judge by physical appearances alone. America is in a much better position now than when Trumpy was in charge.
 

sene5hos

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Fox News quickly attempts to blame Joe Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an effort that is foiled by some of Fox News' own reporters.

Lol, they think Biden is doing nothing because he wasn't tweeting all day about it.
Well, I for one am glad the president is actually talking to and working with world leaders on this issue apposed to tweeting all day about it.
 

sene5hos

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Biden is the reason Ukraine was invaded. Putin perceives weakness. That is how bullies operate. If they perceive weakness, the exploit it. Biden exudes weakness with every bone in body and every remaining living cell in his brain.
Before I agree, but not now.
 

EagerBeaver

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Any other President would have stopped Putin- Obama and Trump included. Biden allowed the invasion. He acquiesced to it and didn't stop it. He did all the posturing before the invasion to make it seem like due diligence but that was because he knew he had fucked up by not listening to his military leaders. All of the US military told Biden what to do and he didn't do it, and they blame him for this mess.
 
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STAEDTLER

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Any other President would have stopped Putin- Obama and Trump included. Biden allowed the invasion. He acquiesced to it and didn't stop it. He did all the posturing before the invasion to make it seem like due diligence but that was because he knew he had fucked up by not listening to his military leaders. All of the US military told Biden what to do and he didn't do it, and they blame him for this mess.
I would love to know what the US military told Biden to do. If it is the same kind of thing they told him before he pulled out of Afghanistan, hmmm :rolleyes: in that case the outcome could have been a total disaster. Posturing in front of a guy like Putin is a total waste of time. The US nor anybody else wanted to put boots on the ground. The first and only thing that was left to do was to provide serious lethal armements and share all the intel they have to monitor russians troops movement. Obviously there is a lot that we don't know.
I just hope that the Ukrainian got more equipment than what we can read in the news.
Back in the 80', american's Stinger were good enough to change the course of Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Now, I don't know. I hope they will get an upgraded version from Germany, Netherlands and Lithuania.
 

wetnose

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Biden set a trap for Putin:

His controversial decision to release Russian plans ahead of time worked. It let the world see Putin’s lies and aggression and prepare themselves and their peoples for it.

He then let nations come to the sanctions and support side of it at their open pace organically. Everything happened so quickly in the last 72 hours because everyone had already considered the options because of Biden’s intelligence release. Then democratic nations rallied behind Ukraine because people saw it coming.

His approach has gotten us stiffer, more organic, more comprehensive sanctions than imaginable.

Net Result since the start of invasion 5 days ago:

1) NATO now has been revitalized like never before - Germany has abandoned its pacifist stance of the last 60 years. Sets the stage for gradual drawdown of US involvement in Europe.
2) A world united against Russian aggression - all manner of aid is pouring into Ukraine in support.
3) Russia is now an international outcast - just 1 ally left (Kazachstan refused Russia's request for help), bank runs, crashing stock market, 30% drop in the ruble, BANNED from SWIFT, the billionaires can't even fly out of their country for Paris shopping
4) Finland and Sweden now considering NATO membership - something they haven't done since inception of NATO
5) Even Switzerland is freezing Russian accounts - think about it: they didn't even do that with Nazis.

Cost of American/NATO lives: 0. ZERO.

Not a single drop of blood has been spilled by NATO forces. Not even the paint scratched on any NATO vehicles or planes.

Risk of all-out war (or end of civilization): minimized.

Biden didn't make it about himself, or America. Putin is a danger but primarily a European danger. So working in concert with European allies, he has achieved far more diplomatically than any American President. This is a master statesman at work.
 
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STAEDTLER

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Wetnose,

I like your portrait of the situation. Interesting point of view. IMHO, it's too early to make any conclusion. Let's see what the next days, weeks and months will bring.
The fact that Putin accepted talks with the Ukrainians is a good sign that maybee he's starting to feel the heat... But with this kind of character, one should be very carefull with what come out of his mouth. It would be the first time that he blatantly lies in the front of the whole world. He says one thing but do the complete opposite. Yes, all politicians lies, but he brought that art to a mastery level.
 

wetnose

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In just 72 hours, Europe overhauled its entire post-Cold War relationship with Russia

Michael Birnbaum, Missy Ryan, Souad Mekhennet

The continent has in some ways leapfrogged the United States, which — though many policymakers credit the Biden administration for helping to coordinate — wasn’t prepared for the speed of the European change. And it has been dizzying for some of the continent’s Russia hawks, especially those in Eastern Europe who campaigned for tougher measures against the Kremlin for years but were ignored by bigger countries including Germany, Italy and France.

That’s how it felt to Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who sat down in his office in the Latvian capital of Riga late Sunday to take part in a video conference with fellow European Union foreign ministers. On the call they agreed to another round of sanctions that days prior would have been unimaginable. They included banning Russian state media in the E.U., harsh sanctions on Russian banks, and even using E.U. funds to pay for countries’ shipments of weaponry to Ukraine — a step so outside the ordinary operations of the 27-nation bloc that some policymakers didn’t realize it was an option.

“Right now I’m taking part in the E.U. foreign affairs council, feeling like the show ‘The Visible is the Unbelievable,’ ” a long-running Russian popular science program, Rinkevics wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of his computer screen showing a checkerboard of small video images of foreign ministers. “We’re deciding on things that seemed unbelievable a week ago.”

The countries taking action against Russia stretch around the world. Japan announced on Monday that it, like other countries, will impose sanctions on Russia’s central bank and on senior officials in Belarus. Australia meanwhile said it would sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian leaders and would supply weaponry to Ukraine.

Eight member nations of the European Union said they wanted to start membership negotiations with Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she’d be open to it, and on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky formally sent an application to Brussels.

“It’s the end of an era,” said former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was once dismissed by a Finnish leader as having “post-Soviet stress” for his hawkish approach to Russia.

“What you grew up in, the last 30 years, is over,” he said he told a group of college students late last week. “We are somewhere else.”

“The situation on the ground has led countries to understand neither Biden nor the East Europeans were crazy,” Ilves said.

Finland and Sweden, who have long held themselves apart from NATO, are seriously considering joining the defense alliance. A poll published Monday by Finland’s public broadcaster showed 53 percent of Finns favored membership. Even Switzerland, the mountainous redoubt of neutrality and hidden bank accounts, declared Monday it would freeze top Russians’ assets.

During a six-hour meeting in Brussels on Thursday night that included an emotional video call-in from Zelensky that left some E.U. leaders in tears, the presidents and prime ministers even discussed the possibility of unilaterally halting the purchase of Russian oil and gas upon which they depend. That could force European factories to close for lack of power — and the leaders set aside the discussion for the time being. But that the idea was floated was a measure of Europe’s new world.

Russia’s invasion “is against the values Europe believes in,” said Nathalie Tocci, the head of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and an adviser to the European Union’s foreign policy chief. “We see the risk that it could possibly tip beyond Ukraine itself. Faced with a 1939 scenario, we’d be crazy not to change paradigm. What we don’t know is whether it is sufficient. What is already crystal clear is that it’s necessary.”

Policymakers and analysts described a months-long campaign by the Biden administration to share intelligence briefings, pressure powerful countries that they might need to make sacrifices, and coordinate among a disparate group of 27 E.U. member states. Those countries range from the Russia-friendly — Hungary — to the Russia-fearful — many formerly Communist states — to those that have powerful business ties to Moscow, including Germany and Italy.

The Biden team negotiated economic measures and made countless phone calls to European officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv, Berlin, Riga and other European capitals.

The coalition that this week laid out unprecedented sanctions, the largest ever to target an economy of Russia’s size, “did not emerge out of nowhere,” said Ivo Daalder, a U.S. ambassador to NATO under former president Barack Obama who now heads the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs. “It had to be built.”

As far back as November, Daalder said, European officials were reporting that the Biden administration was pressing them hard on the need to prepare a coordinated sanctions package they hoped, at the time, might deter Putin from acting.

While there were cracks as recently as earlier this month among countries’ analysis — with the United Kingdom and United States for example predicting a major Russian assault and France and Germany taking a more skeptical view — those fissures disappeared when Putin moved into action.

Biden and Blinken “basically herded the cats, many of which were quite reluctant,” Ilves said. “Otherwise you’d have a lot of people running around in all directions.”

Doug Lute, who served as U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2013 to 2017, said American leadership was key in bringing NATO countries together to face a common threat.

Lute characterized Biden’s attempt in recent months to orchestrate pressure on Russia and encourage countries with deeper ties to Russia to adopt a stronger stance as a “diplomatic surge,” involving intelligence sharing, consultations on sanctions and more.

The last time NATO was as united as it is today was Sept. 12, 2001, when the alliance for the only time in its history invoked the Article V mutual defense clause in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States, Lute said.

A senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the Biden administration has sought as a guiding principle in its foreign policy to restore American engagement with the world. The official cited nearly five months of efforts by the administration to telegraph the threat it believed Russia posed in Ukraine and bring partners together in response.


“The fact you now have the world coming together, this didn’t happen by accident,” the official said. “This happened by dint of a lot of hard work.”

After the Russian invasion last week, Scholz felt the country’s path was clear, said his spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit.

Putin underestimated “the ability of Europe and the Western partners to show unity and resolve,” Hebestreit said. “We have decided on major sanctions, probably some of the sharpest sanctions that have been decided upon in modern times against [a] state.”

“The scales are falling from people’s eyes,” said Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and NATO deputy secretary general. “There are no more illusions or hopes about cooperating with Russia.”

The current moment might serve to alter the defense equation in Europe, adding gravity to Europeans’ sense of needing to protect themselves and potentially relieving the U.S. burden there if there is increased European spending and troop reinforcements on the continent. That would allow the United States to take up its long-planned shift toward Asia, said Vershbow, who is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.

In the end, many said, Putin made the choice simple.

“Putin made us realize that we really are dependent on each other and that we have to close ranks, which is what we did,” said Hannah Neumann, a German Green member of the European Parliament. “I think Putin is surprised that we really did it. And I can tell you, we are also a bit surprised by the extent and speed with which we really did it.”

And others said the transformation will endure.

“We have to accept as Germans that we have to pay for our security in economic terms, that we can no longer hope for Pax Americana — that we can make our business with whoever we want, and somebody else will pay the economic price for our security,” said Franziska Brantner, a state secretary at the German Economy Ministry who was involved in her country’s shift on defense spending and weapons deliveries to Ukraine. “These days are over.”
 

gallantca

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Imagine TFG still in office.

They guy that tried to dismantle NATO.
The guy that tried to drive a wedge between traditional allies.
A guy that held back aide to Ukraine in exchange for a "favor".

You watch all this unfold and can't help but wonder to what extent TGF was a pawn. Everything he was doing on the international scene was in support of Putin's move. Coincidence ?

Is Biden a good president. Probably not. Is there worst ? We have proof there is.
 

sharkman

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Biden is scheduled tonight (9 pm ) to give his "State of the Union Address" to the nation...just as his poll numbers are plumetting!

However, his speech may run way past his bedtime!
 
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