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US Tells Greece To Reject Putin Pipeline Marking Return To Cold War Politics
Over the course of Greece’s painful and protracted negotiations with European creditors, Athens has sought, at various times when a deal seems to be slipping away, to play the Russian pivot card. What began as a series of diplomatic overtures between the Tsipras government and Moscow quickly turned more serious once rumors began to swirl around Greece’s potential participation in Russia’s Turkish Stream pipeline which, as a reminder, will allow Russia to bypass Bulgaria by piping gas through Turkey, then through Greece, Serbia, and Hungary straight to the Austrian central hub.
In short order, it leaked that Moscow was set to advance Greece $5 billion against the future potential profits from the pipeline, a payment which we characterized as a get-out-of-Troika-jail free card and although conflicting reports emerged thereafter regarding just how soon money would actually be flowing from Moscow to Athens, discussions around the pipeline continued to move forward when Gazprom chief Alexei Miller visited Greece late last month to discuss “current energy issues of interest.”
That visit proved more than Europe could bear, and so the European Commission promptly filed antitrust charges against the Russian gas giant in an absurdly transparent attempt to punish the Kremlin for interfering in negotiations between the EU and its Aegean debt serf.
Now with negotiations between Athens and creditors still fraught with uncertainty, and with the IMF now reportedly at odds with the rest of the Troika over appropriate bailout terms, another interested party is stepping into the melee because, as NY Times reports, fresh off a humiliating political defeat at the hands of China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Washington is in no mood to see the birthplace of Western civilization co-opted by a Russian natural gas firm. Here’s more:
The United States, wading into the international efforts to shape Greece’s economic and geopolitical orientation, is pushing the leftist government in Athens to resist Russia’s energy overtures.
A State Department envoy in Athens urged Greece on Friday to embrace a Western-backed project that would link Europe to natural gas supplies in Azerbaijan, rather than agree to a gas pipeline project pushed by Moscow.
The dueling sales pitches, reminiscent of a Cold War struggle, come as debt-burdened Greece is desperate for new sources of revenue of the sort that a gas pipeline could bring.
In an interview in Athens on Friday, before meeting with Greek officials, the State Department envoy, Amos J. Hochstein, said Greece would increase its appeal to Western investors — and would help reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian gas supplies — if it declined to play host to a pipeline proposed by the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.
That pipeline would carry Russian gas to Europe through Turkey and Greece, bypassing pipelines that run through Ukraine…
The geopolitical tug of war over Europe’s energy supply is growing increasingly intense.
The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece about the Gazprom pipeline project on Thursday. And Mr. Tsipras’s office has confirmed his country’s readiness to take part in the construction of a Greek pipeline to transfer Russian natural gas from the Greek-Turkish border to Europe.
The Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, has said that the Greek portion of the Russian-backed project could be worth billions of dollars to his country…
While revenue from a new gas pipeline could be years away, such a project — whether with Russian or Western backing — would have obvious allure for Greece.
The Russian proposal is for a pipeline called Turkish Stream. It is intended to replace an earlier Russian initiative for a pipeline to Europe called South Stream, which Mr. Putin was forced to abandon late last year because of European Union rules that would have made the project unpalatable to Moscow by requiring Gazprom to share the pipeline with other suppliers. The South Stream pipeline, running under the Black Sea, would have brought gas into the European Union through Bulgaria.
Mr. Hochstein, the American official, said on Friday that the pipeline he was promoting — called the Southern Gas Corridor project — was farther along in construction. It would involve multiple companies, including the British energy giant BP, and countries including Georgia and Turkey, and it would bring together a series of pipeline projects stretching from Azerbaijan to Italy, through Greece.
The Southern Gas Corridor is a project aimed at “improving the diversity of the EU’s energy supply” — in other words, it’s an attempt to help break Gazprom’s stranglehold and this is of course why Washington is giving Greece the hard sell.
Essentially, the corridor will allow the EU to tap into Caspian gas via a series of connecting pipelines running from Azerbaijan to Italy.
Here is what the European Council On Foreign Relations has to say about the prospects for working closely with Azerbaijan:
Azerbaijan is the supplier best placed to respond to the EU’s strategy of diversifying gas supply away from Russia. Azerbaijan has long been cooperating with Western energy companies on projects such as the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Guneshli oil project and the Shah Deniz gas condensate project (both led by BP), as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipelines. Thus, the scope for increasing gas supply from Azerbaijan seems to be simply a matter of the economics of the potential supply projects.
The supply is expected to come from the second phase of the Shah Deniz project, with an estimated cost of over $45 billion, or $380-430/billion cubic metres at the Turkey-Greece border, and from the Umid gas field (SOCAR and Nobel Oil). The two projects could potentially supply up to 18-19 bcm per year of gas by 2020, with at least 6 bcm committed to the Turkish market and 10 bcm to Greece, Albania, and Italy. In 2014, the Shah Deniz consortium finally agreed to commit gas resources to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will bring Azeri gas to Europe through Turkey; although it has a small transport capacity, this project will certainly contribute to the EU’s diversification efforts.
And here is an amusing graphic which outlines the pros and ‘cons’ of various alternatives to Russian energy:
As the Times suggests, this is further evidence that Washington is becoming increasingly concerned that the world is rapidly shifting away from the US-dominated, unipolar model that has existed, in one form or another, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This consternation is beginning to manifest itself in the revitalization of Cold War politics.
Of course the official line is that the US is simply concerned about Greece's economic future and thereby feels it necessary to adopt a bit of well-meaning paternalism to assist the country — which clearly cannot make decisions for itself — in determining what is in its own best interests. Indeed, Washington is even brazen enough to assume that no one will see the hilarious irony in this assessment of Russia's Turkish Stream Pipeline: "It's not an economic project... it's only about politics."
We wonder how long it will be before Washinton "urges" Pakistan to tread carefully when cooperating with China on infrastructure development.
We'll leave you with Vladimir Putin's take on the issue:
"Just because Greece is debt-ridden, this does not mean it is bound hand and foot, and has no independent foreign policy."
* * *
Here's the official statement from the US Embassy in Athens:
Mr. Amos Hochstein, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, visited Athens May 7-8 for discussions with Minister of State Nikos Pappas, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias, Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis, and energy company officials.
Special Envoy Hochstein came to Athens to reaffirm Secretary of State Kerry’s and the U.S government’s support for Greek energy diversification, including support for key natural gas infrastructure projects such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB), and expanded use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
These projects will increase Greek and European Union energy security, reduce Greece’s dependence on a single supplier of gas, increase competition, and reduce prices for consumers. TAP will result in 1.5 billion euros in foreign investment in Greece, generate 10,000 jobs during construction, and provide many millions of euros in revenue annually over 25 years.
The United States is concerned that Greek consideration of an extension of a “Turkstream” pipeline across Greece will not increase energy diversification, may be of concern to EU competition authorities, and is not a long-term solution to Greece’s energy needs.
Mr. Hochstein discussed with Greek leaders Greece’s great potential to play a leadership role in being part of the solution to Europe’s energy security concerns.
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Sorry, 'Merkins...you pissed away that privelege some years ago.
Yes, we know. What we 'Merkins would ask of the world is the same thing we try to recognize in other countries- don't confuse what our citizens are like with how our government acts.
As people, we're just loud, boorish, insensitive and arrogant. But it's our government that will really piss you off.
Obama, you must provoke a war with Russia to blame them for the collapse of the Fed Reserve Ponzi Dollar scheme, otherwise 'Reggie' privileges will be 'withdrawn'.
Secret Council on Foreign Relations Directive to Whitehouse.
the biggest difference is...if u turn down vlad, i doubt he will start blowing ur country up in a year, stuffing democracy down ur throat...
looking at you david bremmer and afgahnastan...
The more difficult you make a product to be delivered to the end user, the more expensive it gets.
Here are a few examples:
Alcohol (the Prohibition)
Drugs (War on Drugs)
Prostitution
The list is endless ;-)
I fully understand OUR position (the US) on the gas rat-race in Europe, but why does EU make it so difficult for the cheaper gas to be delivered to its own members is beyond me.
These unelected EU-fuckers will end-up doubling the price of the Russian gas, while still being cheaper than our (or anybody else's) LNG.
Just my very humpable opinion ;-)
Looney
There is somethign amiss in the capital markets.
What is the biggest news you have heard out of the Silly Con valley lately? Crickets...
I can even speak of a situation close to me where fully term-sheeted, signed, transferred monies are not hitting accounts.
There might just be a glitch in the moon-ey matrix and the coming mercury retrogradeis not going to help any.
Muddle through through the 3rd week of June, then resolution leading to whatever everyone is fore-telling for this FALL.
Sonorama: Sequence 17...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BrvoWEw2J8
The next scenario is that ISIS will be reported in Greece, demanding the US immediately bomb the shit out of them... Of course it will all be on pay-per-view...
For now, I think it more likely that "ISIS" will remain exactly where it is: In Syria to overthroe Assad and allow the Qatari gas to flow through Syria to Europe (With Russian gas blocked in Ukraine). And in the US so that the Patriot Act can be re-approved.
absolutely
End of June beginning of July. The vote on extending the sanctions on Russia.
Greece stalling on making either EU or Russia deal.
Wants to keep veto on Russian sanctions vote. but doesn't want to accept bad terms with Troika.
Greece doing good job at stalling. like T-14 in parade rehearsal.
Russia is a state sitting on huge oil reserves with a population of 150m while the US - twice the population size - thinks shale oil will last forever. Oil is the lifeblood of the economy, not the US dollar.
That's going to change significantly, it's just that, it's going to cause serious financial losses to the oil corps who want to milk what they can while they can...
FREE ENERGY FOR THE WIN!!!
You think your ignorance, arrogance and shitty government aren't connected problems when they are as tightly coupled as cart and horse.
We all got that problem, friend.
We do but you didn't define the horse or the cart. Since the horse pulls the cart we can say the education system and media, which are controlled by a small group who also control the government, are the horse. The ignorance of the people is the cart. You can look at arrogance the same way.
How many people around the world, as a percentage, have heard the 4 million dead arabs figure? Do you think the percentage of Americans is higher or lower? Joe Blow thinks we've liberated half the arab world and has no idea how many people have been killed. It simply is not reported here by in-your-face media. Of the percentage who do not know but don't trust the government, how many do you think actually believe anything can be done about it when their friends and neighbors would look at them as if they had two heads if they so much as suggest the truth? This place is pretty locked down from a propaganda/disinformation perspective. There is no magic kill switch for Neo. There is no Neo. There will be war and we will fight and lots and lots of people will die. Then there will be a peace and another attempt at world governance. When that fails there will be war and we will fight and lots and lots of people will die.
Yeah, but...
Arabs all get excited about seeing Allah, so what's the harm in helping em out?
Arabstm - 4 Million served.
Please refresh my memory. A "Merkin" is the politically correct term for Cock-Blocker, yes?
The USSA has to salvage something out of the overthrow of the Ukraine, having lost the BIG strategic prize of Crimea. Without the pipelines, the Ukraine is good only for GMO, prostitutes and organ harvesting.
Kiev and Tel Aviv are world HQ for illegal sex trade and organ harvesting. No coincidence that Pornshenko , YATS et all are all Zionist Jews.
and Greeks replied yesterday :-
Greece does not intend to abandon the construction of the branch "Turkish flow" in the country. This Greek minister of industrial reform, environmental protection and energy Panagiotis Lafazanis said Friday after meeting with the special envoy of the US State Department and coordinator for international energy relations Amos Hochsteynom.
http://tass.ru/ekonomika/1958134
... and Nuland is on her way.
LOL . I'll spear that b***h .
No surprise that the criminal Obama cabal wants to shut down the Russian pipeline. The surprise is that even a conservative like Pat Buchanan is blasting away at the USA being in the "empire business." But talk is cheap and until the top American government officials who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks get what's coming to them, a walk up a scaffold and then a sudden drop (like the WTC "falling man"), nothing will change.
http://www.creators.com/conservative/pat-buchanan/on-a-fast-track-to-nat...
Though, like the alcoholic who does not realize his condition until he is lying face down in the gutter, it may be a while before we get out of the empire business and start looking out again, as our fathers did, for the American republic first. But that day is coming.
Uncle Sam is jealous of those sexy Greek Goddesses, Athena, Venus, and so on.
USA thought process....
Greece - Pipelines=Good
USA - Pipeline=Bad (keystone XL)
Got it pleebs. Now get back to voting for this two party cluster.
It would be nice to think that the US could recover, but I doubt it. The English colonies were founded by grifters whose only culture was getting rich quick, regardless of how they did it. Nothing has changed in 400 years.
The people of other countries, like Russia, China, France, etc., share a common culture that binds them together. The US does not have that. What thay have is a hodgepodge of subcultures that for the most part hate each other. The only common value is how much money you have, and it doesn't matter how you got it.
I think the more likely outcome will be an eventual breakup. Once dissolved, it will never be restored because there is nothing to pull it together, other than greed.
There may be some good to come from it.
Perhaps the Hawaiians will regain their country and take back their land from the Americans who stole it.
Alaska may return to its original country: Russia. Hopefully the Russians will agree to take Sarah Palin with it.
The south can form the theocracy they want. Perhaps they will call it something descriptive, like Jesustan, and have their laws based on the book of Leviticus.
South Florida would fit better as part of Greater Cuba, but I'm not sure that Cuba would want to take back all the little Batistas that pollute Miami.
Mexico can have the southwest, with the exception of the coastal states that should go to China.
Of course, everyone would be better served if the northeast went to the Inuit people of Labrador, since they would know what to do with the infestation of Kunlangeta that pervades that section of the empire and has caused so many problems.
Kunlangeta
I learned something new today in Southpark. Like the solution to solving the "inside the beltway" problem FOR STARTERS.
Thanks ZH !!
Interesting perspective. As I commented about a week ago, there is irony in the fact that Americans really like peaceful and successful former English colonies, like Canada, Australia and NZ.
Were it not for a bunch of Masonic rabble rousers (Washington & friends), who owned slaves and talked about "All men are created equal", the US could have been like those peaceful and successful countries -- who are also independent. Oh, the Irony. It burns.
what they like most
They all speak English. No hand help translators. No shouting to be understood.
Pat Buchanan is a paleo-con.
Fair trade and American interests first without the bombs. Vietnam opened his eyes.
I freelance over th? internet and earn about 80-85$ an hour. I was without a job for 7 months but last month my paycheck with big fat bonus was $15000 just working on my computer from my home for 5-6 hours. Here's what i have been doing... www.jobs-review.com
Will the Greeks continue to want to be slaves? They know how the EU/Germany treated them 60 years ago or so.
Mr. Panos knows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvl9N9GdraQ
Givi leading DPR tanks in the May Day parade in Donestsk.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d4d_1430890656
Come on dual shit-i-Zens Yats and Porky in corrupt Kiev - start some shit again. Givi and Motorola will gladly get you into another cauldron this Spring-Summer.
ZH is getting boring........post crash there was alot of insightfull info that was posted , both articles and comments , not so much now.
I freelance over th? internet and earn about 80-85$ an hour. I was without a job for 7 months but last month my paycheck with big fat bonus was $15000 just working on my computer from my home for 5-6 hours. Here's what i have been doing... www.jobs-review.com
The phrase "a day late and a dollar short" comes to mind.
What's Greece owe? About 280 billion? Janet could have that ready to go by 10am on Monday.
Not a bad idea. If the US wants to keep Greece from doing business with Russia, that's easy, just pay off all of Greece's national debt and maybe throw in a hundred billion or so to get their economy kickstarted.
It sounds like a lot, but it's not. It's pocket change compared to what the US gave to the banks. And unlike the banks, Greece never blew up the US economy.
Of course, that would present a moral dilemma for the US since it always takes, and never gives.
I can go full-Keynesian as well as the next guy.
Hell, I could fix Japan, too. Since they've got a severe demographics problem, why not pay women to have babies? What's a few more Yen when you're already a quadrillion in the hole? (And I mean they are LITERALLY a quadrillion in the hole, per recent ZH article.)
What's a few moar yen? They have been pushing on a string for years and you guys act like there will be no consiquences. Hyperinflation happens all the time. Look at all the currencies over the last few decades to hyperinflate, you think the yen and dollar are immune? They're not, it's just that the bubbles are waay bigger. And when they pop it'll make a loud noise.
POP!
:)
The US could take interest payments out of the pipeline in perpetuity. Since California looks to be reverting to nature we can also use some veggies.
A bit OT but revelent on the domestic energy front.
Maine senator unveils unprecedented federal distributed energy bill
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/maine-senator-unveils-unprecedented-federal-distributed-energy-bill/394599/
Distributed energy resources (DERs) are the focus of energy industry and policy debates across the country, but up to this point virtually all the action has taken place at the state level. Because state regulatory commissions typically govern the utilities in their jurisdiction, the battles over the interconnection, siting, and value of DERs have played out almost exclusively in the states. The federal government has had precious little to do with the issue.
But that may be about to change if Sen. Angus King (I-ME) has his way. The senator, who caucuses with Democrats, plans to unveil the Free Market Energy Act of 2015 on Wednesday. An amendment to the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) of 1978, the bill could dramatically alter market structures and regulations for DERs nationwide.
The goal of the legislation, King told Utility Dive in an interview, is to codify a right of interconnection for DERs and guide states toward a policy framework to better assess their full value and encourage their proliferation.
==========
PURPA works just fine. I see a trojan horse here. There will be a lot of energy bills submitted this week and this needs to be watched carefully. Here is a recent PURPA case:
FERC Protects a QF’s PURPA Right to Sell Net Output
http://www.reedsmith.com/FERC-Protects-a-QFs-PURPA-Right-to-Sell-Net-Output-01-30-2015/
On January 22, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order reaffirming a qualifying facility’s (QF) right to sell all of its net output to a utility under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA). In an order partially granting a complaint filed by PáTu Wind Farm, LLC (PáTu) against Portland General Electric Company (Portland General) regarding PáTu’s rights under Section 210 of PURPA, FERC determined that Portland General had an obligation to purchase and compensate PáTu – a QF with variable output – for its entire net output, and could not use transmission scheduling requirements as a basis to avoid this obligation.1 This order could prove significant for QFs and utilities alike as FERC decided the dispute largely based on the more generally applicable mandatory purchase requirements under PURPA, rather than the transmission scheduling dispute that was the primary focus of the parties’ briefs.
PáTu’s Focus on Dynamic Scheduling PáTu sells power to Portland General pursuant to a Public Utility Commission of Oregon (Oregon Commission) standard PURPA contract for off-system, intermittent-resource QFs of less than 10 MW. PáTu relies on Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) transmission system to deliver its power to Portland General’s system at its Troutdale substation. BPA offered PáTu dynamic scheduling service, which would allow for scheduling and delivery of PáTu’s precise, instantaneous output to Portland General, while avoiding paying for BPA’s Generator Imbalance Service, Wind Regulating Reserves, Wind Following Reserves, and Wind Imbalance Service. However, PáTu alleged that Portland General would not accept PáTu’s deliveries via dynamic scheduling. PáTu alleged that Portland General also refused to accept 15-minute scheduling as an alternative to dynamic scheduling. Instead, PáTu alleged that Portland General would only agree to accept delivery of power by PáTu in hourly, prescheduled MW-hour blocks. According to PáTu, Portland General decided that when PáTu’s delivered power varied from its hourly schedule, Portland General, in the case of over-generation, would not compensate PáTu for any excess power delivered, and in the case of under-generation, would pay market index rates (rather than PáTu’s contract rate) for electricity provided by BPA to fill in hourly blocks. PáTu alleged these decisions by Portland General were driven by commercial considerations of Portland General’s merchant function and not its transmission function.
Free Market Energy Act of 2015
That is all you need to know it is anything but. You have to read it in inverse.
The reality is there is more than enough free energy to tap from the air to run a home without needing the federal or state governments in the first place.
This is one of the biggest reasons they won't let you own your own property outright. The can't monopolize the energy in the air even if they wanted to. If people knew how to tap it the governments would be rendered useless middlemen who provide no value in the goods and services industry.
Here is the good senator's involvement with wind and offshore banking:
King Wind Project Cited by Congressional Investigationhttp://www.themainewire.com/2012/03/developing-king-wind-project-cited-c...
" Angus King Is a Nice Guy" ~ Even Though He Legally Stole Your Hard Earned Money And Some Of Your Homes
http://www.lisbonreporter.com/2012/08/angus-king-is-nice-guy-even-though-he.html
On February 25, 2004, Angus King was appointed to the board of W.P Stewart & Co. Ltd., a Bermuda-based investment company. Not much is known about Angus's time at this mysterious Bermudian investment cartel which caters to the world's super-rich. Aside from the pink sand, that's one of the advantages of home-basing in Bermuda. What we do know is that by January 5, 2009, W.P. Stewart's value had declined so badly that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) delisted it. On June 3, 2010, the company announced that it was parting ways with King as part of a reorganization that favored a "more stream-lined corporate structure going forward" than the structure that King and his fellow board members had provided. Since then, the firm has been able to post much better results in its performance summary.
-------
NOTE: His son is a VP at a very large wind concern:
The Trust for Public LandAngus S. King III is Vice President for Mergers and Acquisitions at First Wind in Portland, Maine, an independent North American wind energy company focused ...
Speaking of propaganda matrix terms to cause emotional cognitive dissonance, free market is one them. It is an oxymoron.
A marketplace implies an exchange of something, there is always some sort of return on that exchange or interaction doesn't happen at all. There is no free exchange period, nature doesn't allow for it in any of the known laws to man.
See how those 2 ideas are bastardized in a emotional context to create a false meaning. It controls you emotionally on more than one level depending how the context, arena etc. it is used in.
Free is the key word. It is an emotionally charged word and the idea of something for nothing aka free is programmed into the core logic which the propaganda matrix uses. It is one of the oldest psychological tricks in the books used to control masses. This is how they get you to believe ego and self are intertwined. They aren't ego (lie) believes in fairy tales and it hurts to believe otherwise (emotion), self knows through learning (logic) and as such isn't susceptible to control through pain/pleasure. What is really you is true aka knowledge not what you feel. Programming or not they can never take away your experiences that define who you are.
"Programming or not they can never take away your experiences that define who you are."
Your experiences don't define who you are, let alone a programming. Who you are defines who you are.
Even if you lived in the midst of giraffes and only had a giraffe's experience of life, you'd still be a human being stranded amongst giraffes, without the smallest chance of ever becoming a giraffe. You'd make yourself sick by trying to become a giraffe, at best. At worst, you'd go crazy.
Wrong your genetics define what you are not who you are. The experiences in the environment, dealing with it define who you are not what you are. Self is defined through personal experience.
Any vague notion of 'Self' is only what our Creator gives us.
Enjoy the show while it lasts. No one knows what's next.
"Wrong your genetics define what you are not who you are"
Your genetics define not what, but who you are, and there's no escape from that. Your experience can either work to develop who you are, or hinder it - sometimes badly. In no case will experience change an atom of who you are. Who you are stems directly from what you are, and that can't change. We all have a destiny, personal abilities, etc. Whether we can develop those (and be happy) or not (and live a miserable life) is down to culture, environment and good or bad experiences.
Take an animal in a zoo. It'll behave differently than in its natural habitat, because its zoo experience will take it out of its true nature and force it into adapting. But in general, it'll be badly neurotic (either bored stiff, downright depressed or showing aberrant behavior). Which takes you miles into understanding why, for instance, so many Americans are obese. It's not the food, it's the unnatural, love*-deprived, dog-eat-dog, individualistic, unfit for humans environment.
*I don't mean sex. I mean love, as in "minding each other".
Your values define who you are... that is, if you have any.
Speaking of another one is the term free trade. Trade is never free since someone is giving up something in return for something else. There is no free involved in any transaction or exchange.
Gobbledegook.
Definitions of words matter and yours is wrong.
A free market mean a voluntary exchange, ie. free of coercion, where each party values the exchange to be more advantageous than without the exchange taking place.
I go to the barber and I exchange a set value for his service because I value that service more than that of the money in my pocket. The barber values the money higher than his time.
You just witnessed a free market exchange with no coercion or force used to effect transfer.
No blithering psycho-babble necessary.
Or Govt. grants for an academic study as well.
Noppedy nope. The barber doesn't value "money" higher than his "free time". No way. This so called "money" has a value, problem is that " value" is not set by the barber but by somebody else. Both "money" and "value" are vague ideas at best, that's why i put them in quites. The way the society is structured makes him want to earn this so called "money" in exchange for his free time. It's still coersion, through and through.
EDIT: My appologies shovelhead, I did not read far enough ahead. Well done /EDIT
I don't know if this is intentional misunderstanding to sell a point I am missing or not, but regardless perhaps this will help you a bit:
Free market = personal decision to exchange
More words, but you appear to need them to assist you in this translation from English words to actual referenced concept.
A 'market', is a place to exchange value; where 'free' in this instance is implying 'personal choice' as opposed to anything akin to 'costless' or 'resistance-less'.
Hope this helps.
MA/GRAV tech provides FREE energy, and America doesn't want it...
It taps excess energy produced by the earth naturally. It is free in the sense it is generated on a mass scale by natural planetary and solar processes. It costs you energy wise almost nothing to tap that natural stream.
Very interesting. But not surprising.
The Energy Industry Free Profit Act of 2015. Time to pay your "fair share" sheeple.
It is named appropriately. Think of it like a Terrorism Act if you will. They would not pass a Terrorism Act to promote terror but to combat it. Same for a "Free Market".
Russia should sanction BMW and Mercedes since EU is listening to evil USA on sanctioning their gas
Over 6 thousand german companies doing business in Russia. Ban them all and watch Europe collapse. China can and will make anything Russia needs.
I'm collapsing every day - sunny weather, sitting in the beer-garden and parties which doesn"t come to a close. It could be worse...
The German business with Russia is already on low levels - the effect (until now) seemes to be "Zero" - I'm sorry. Lates unemployment rate is near all-time low: About six percent - declining trend. Per definition "full employment" means a value between 3-5 percent.
Exporting olives only it could be different.
Too bad you are a shit for brains Americunt trying to act like a German,. You can't even spell Jawohl. True idiot.
May be Germany & Brussel should sanction Russian Gas in the EU.
There is enough shell-gas out their. After this there is no need to impose sanctions on BMW and Mercedes anymore.... :)
Ban Americans, they are always troublemakers...
vlad will rub our nose in it.
The best way to do that would be to motivate BP sell its stake in TANAP to a Russian firm as soon as the CapEx is complete. The Iranains could finally drill their half of South Pars/North Dome and the US would find itself saying "No we really didn't mean we wanted you to do what we said you should do...."
If the EU is going to play the "anti" monopoly game, the Russians should simply partner with the Iranaians, then it isn't a "Gazprom monopoly", its a multicultural oligarch kumbayah fest, and it will destabilize the plans of certain parties who are trying to currently destabilize both Syria and Iran.
Did you hear the joke about where the one of the largest US MIC oil firms spent millions of dollars to mobilize a offshore drilling rig into the middle of THE largest gas field in the world, and then proceded to drill one and only one well, and then simply gave up and quit, went home, and took a tax deduction, saying We can't find ANY gas here, them PhD petroleum engineers must have misunderestimated sumtin'...
It was a joke, until the sheeple believed it, and now we all pay the price.
Tsirpussy will cave on command. Turkish Stream is DOA
You are probably right; few have the courage to stand up to the pressure induced by being the fulcrum for 40 years of neglectful debt build-up in the western world.
Everyone hates a bully , thats why the USA is the most hated nation on earth,
Send the NWO to Mars then nuke em. Go on, get em outta here.
Just sending them to Mars would irradiate them enough to kill them. Why waste the resources to send nukes too? Sure, you might want to dispose of the nukes off world but the risk of losing a launch vehicle with payload sorta makes that a null prospect.
"... the risk of losing a launch vehicle with payload sorta makes that a null prospect."
A nuclear weapon is only as radioactive as its' payload. Most modern nuclear weapons have between 2.2 to 13.2 pounds of plutonium in their cores (pits):
http://bredl.org/sapc/Pu_ReportIII.htm
Fukushima has exploded - at a minimum - over 3,000 tons of plutonium and enriched uranium into Earth's atmosphere. At 2,000 pounds per ton, that's 6,000,000 pounds of the most lethal material known to man. This is equivalent to between 450,000+ and 2,700,000+ state-of-the-art nuclear weapons exploding into the atmosphere.
What didn't explode at Fukushima is now fissioning and flowing into the northern Pacific Ocean for global distribution.
And that 3,000 ton figure is most likely on the low side.
Now really enjoy the show.
Our "friends" - the Greeks - sended the only Western delegation to the Russian Propaganda.... - sorry - ...Victory Day. Or may be they celebrate together the occupation of Crimea and unsuccessfull searching of German Nazis in Eastern Ukraine in 2014/2015?
With respect to the Ukrain victims may be the Germans should celebrate the "ATM-day" by switching of the line to Greece for a while....
Du bist ein Scheisskopf und Arschloch.
Jawoll !
My special friend.
Sie sind nur ein weiterer Idiot Ukrainan Blogger demonstriert seine Dummheit
Mein beutlemaus ist verstopft!
Ukis sind ein Lumpenpack, Diebe, Luegner , Profiteure und Betrüger.
Es ist eine große Freude , in der Sprache von Goethe und Wagner zu schreiben ! Englisch ist so einschränkend sein Vokabular
Wie kann jemand verstehen österreichischen Wirtschaft, wenn man nicht Detsch lesen?
Du Mueckenhirn
''US tells Greece''...........goddam bullies. And if they don't then what?
Send in the drones.
Hey Greece - go with the Ruskies, probably the lesser of two evils right now.
Probably? US looks good maybe from the desktop abroad, but ask folks in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine, Yemen and Palestine. And the number of countries who are going to be fucked up by US will increase.
Because America is asking greece to cancel a economic deal with Russia, it means America is not just pushing for further economic sanctions but stepping it up.
Or trying.
The US is deeply hated by many Greeks, and they share a common religion with Russia. Having said that, if the Greek elites can be bought off by the US, then public opinion will matter less. The sad part is that the EU will be forced to pay far more for energy, and US nat gas will not solve their problems. In fact, the EU had no problems with Russia, until the USSA interfered.
Russia and the EU were doing ideal free trade of the Adam Smith variety. It was good for both parties. Russian middle class expanding. Buying more european goods.
But Amerika's dual shit-i-zen overlords want to control Russia as salves like Soros had with the oligarchs.
Wow.
1) This is the first I heard Russia canceled South Stream through Bulgaria because they didn't want to play nice and share. Always before, I had heard Bulgaria was simply told not to allow it. And with whom were they refusing to share? There isn't any other country in position to connect through Bulgaria. I think this attempt to blame Russia is risible on its face.
2) Seems to me Turkey is in the driver's seat on this. What's to stop Turkey from making both connections? What's to stop Greece from making both connections?
3) Based on how they've been treated by the EU, with acquiessence (or perhaps direction?) of the US and its banks, why would Greece trust this "offer," which really seems like a directive not to allow a Russian connection. If Greece accepts this "deal," what's to prevent the West from eventually using its "austerity" program to force Greece to "privatize" the gasline they construct.
If Tsipras accepts this, he is truly an idiot.
Greece as part of the new Soviet Union.
From our side there are no objections to it. Some Rubel-ATMs and Greece is perfectly integrated.
>>> If Tsipras accepts this, he is truly an idiot.
Or he is smart enough to see fingers on the triggers of pistols held to the foreheads of his family. (literally)
Or some Chris Kyle types can also have everyone on this list and their offspring in their crosshairs.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/89lxlz8e78occxj/CFR%20address%20list.pdf?dl=0
Knock... Knock. (Drones hovering.)
Just because you are right spot on with the shortest solution between two points does not mean that you will make it to more than just looking over that mountain. Tell Martin L. I miss his speeches when you see him.
Who will stand with the red hen ?
Or Tsipras is using this as a negotiating ploy with both (all) sides.
McCain aka friend of ISIS who's pappy sold out the USS Liberty was behind the threats to Bulgaria plus probably Hungary as well.
The Greeks need to wake up but their elites will sell them out to the EU.
Russia pulled out of the (Bulgaria leg of the)pipeline because of a threatened nati-trust law suit against Gazprom.
Turkey's contempt for the US and its Israeli concubine is palatable.
Except for the Nuland coup in Kiev, practically all of the major hostilities in the world involve the redistribution of crude oil reserves
"Oversupply of oil, thy name is dearth."
Greece to U.S.: Nuts!
Siege of Bastogne. I like the reference.
Greece should flip the US the Bird and side with Putin. Nuff said.
The US gov sure has been pounding a lot of sand lately.
Here is the complete list of CFR members and their addresses . Let them know
https://www.dropbox.com/s/89lxlz8e78occxj/CFR%20address%20list.pdf?dl=0
Let them know what? That they are inept at communicating with their foreign peers? These CFR types are too dense to hear anything except themselves talk.
Notice how many Jews are on that list
They must be the ones which start with "Z".
SO force Greece to go with the corridor plan, slow the project overall with EU regulation and planned controls, squeeze the shit out of the MULTIPLE nation partners needed, finally get the TPP into place and begin shipping LNG to NATO- Europe. From America and Canada. So the EU wont be under the Ruskies boot of stable, relatively low cost and vast supply. Freedom !
Good thing America is a reliable altruistic trading partner who honors agreements and the democratic rule of law. I can still hear Neuland's echo as Europe pays out the ass or freezes to the tune of the "new" master.
Can you smell what the squid chef is frying up in Greece ?
Long China and Russia with the endgame of the western empire of chaos and fascism.
Did you know that blowing up an LNG tanker is equivalent to millions of tons of TNT?
Let's prove them shits on Myth Busters.
Another example of soemone mixing up a gas explosion (deflagrating type, I.E. with a pressure front that expands slower than the speed of sound) and TNT (a detonating explosion where the shock wave expands faster than the air can accomodate, making a visible and unmistakeable shockwave as can be seen on fukushima and other high explosive detonations).
Oh wait...
Horrible fires, yes. Explosions, no.
https://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/02/ngt/Quillen.pdf
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/12/20/ap-lng-tanker-attack-would-be-de...
http://www.mhpa.co.uk/uploads/Marine_docs/lng_carriers.pdf
Since when has Greece been the 51st Soviet Republic of the USSA?
The symbol of the American Ego.
Greece should by now have learned that Greece is for the Greeks, not to be used as a pawn by the US ( NWO, CFR FBI CIA, or any other bunch of Fascists) .
If they opt for the Russian proposal they can give aggro to both O'Bummer and the half wits who think they run Europe.
If I was in the Greek government I'd bite Putins hand off and tell the others to fuck off.
Servile dogs never get the good meat.
"The two projects could potentially supply up to 18-19 bcm per year of gas by 2020, with at least 6 bcm committed to the Turkish market and 10 bcm to Greece, Albania, and Italy."
So that leaves 2 to 3 bcm per year for the rest of europe ?
Probably read it wrong.
Time for the US to restore democracy in Greece.
Or not yet.
Excuse me, but why is USSA poking its nose into Greek pipeline projects? Why the Greeks cannot go ahead with BOTH projects and need to choose just the one that the USSA says is "good", huh?! USSA want to sell their LNG to Europe? Most welcome... let's see how much that gas costs...
Poking noses into other peoples business is an American thing, like mom and apple pie,
Yeah the US is so fucking successful at solving all the worlds problems.
If it can't solve them, being the world's LARGEST ARMS DEALER, maybe the US can put things in their favor.
Fuck you US oligarchs, fuck you US government crony fucks, and plain and simply fuck you.
There you go; vent your frustration!
FUCK THEM ALL!
There... I feel better?
F#ck the US Neocons! Very good reason to say ¥€$ to the Putin Greek Pipeline! Start digging now and order the bloody pipes I say.
I don't think TPTB ever really abandoned the Cold War mentality. They just left it on the shelf for a couple of decades... Whatever helps to facilitate implementation of their NWO, no?
I thought this was about the US/EU wanting to pipe Qatari gas to Europe.
Ultimately, yes, but chaos in Iraq and Syria make that prospect rather dim atm.
The gas war against Russia is also a slap against our frenemies in Europe, who are sounding as if they are tired of being our poodles. Not enough to actually do anything yet, but loud enough to warrant a "gesture" on our part.
nope Azeri gas.
That is so last week.
Qatari gas through Syria
Azari gas through Turkey
It's really not hard to remember
It's Iranian gas. But in both cases, they just want someone else to get paid for pumping the gas.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/opinion/mikhail-shishkin-how-russia...
Another anti-Russian propaganda piece from *another* Russian Jew... why is it that so many of these are by Jews, Russian or not?
http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Pseudoscience/harvard_mafia.shtml
Odd that the writer leaves out that Bolshevik leadership was largely, perhaps mostly Jewish in a land where they were a small minority, and the oligarchs who economically raped Russia were mainly Jews too. And of course Nuland, Pyatt, and the rest of the leading neocons are mostly Jews.
These are facts.
Empirically verifiable.
Yet junks and perhaps some reference to nazis, etc. Likely follows.
So what is it junkers want apart from censorship?
'Anti-semitism' as an accusation seems to mostly about obfuscating wildly disproportionate power and influence ACROSS MANY NATIONS.
Maybe Henry Ford's book wasnt 'wrong' but too revealing?
And heres the thing - the Israelis are all over Azerbaijan.
and the state department.
I always laugh at the ludicrous inconsistency of the emotional response, I do not characterize it as thinking, of you nazi kooks.
Let's review your emotional reaction processes here...
Bolsheviks were Jews. This makes them bad.
Hitler was a misunderstood economic genius who hated both Jews and Bolsheviks. This makes him good.
An obvious end product of this line of thinking would be that what Putinistas refer to as the allegedly neo-nazi regime in Ukraine would be your ideal modern nation-state since it is a legacy of Hitlerite Germany and supposedly hates Jews and Bolsheviks.
But that isn't your conclusion at all. You hate Ukraine and instead worship Russia, which recently celebrated its costly triumph over the evil regime of Adolf Hitler and his nazis.
There are really only two potential possibilities:
That you are a very confused person on the order of a 7th grade girl in science class.
Or that Vladimir Putin is actually the modern-day incarnation of the nazi ideal (and c'mon, admit it, you know he is) and his efforts to characterize Ukraine as such are merely black propaganda efforts designed to mislead the simple-minded.
And here's the thing - when Stalin decided to cut a deal with Hitler and divvy up Eastern Europe between the two dictatorships, he needed to fire his Jewish Foreign Minister, Litvinov, in order to put the more palatable (to Germany) and agreeable Molotov in his place. The greatest war in human history started by getting the Jews out of the way so your heroes could steal other people's real estate.
Greatest genocidal mass murderer of the 20th Century -- the Jew Mao Tse-Tung
2nd place -- the Jew Adolf Hitler
3rd place - the Jew Josef Stalin
4th place - the Jew Pol Pot.
Now hurry up, or else you'll be late for science class.
"Yet junks and perhaps some reference to nazis, etc. Likely follows."
Q.E.D. - You addressed absolutely none of my points, merely unpacked non sequiturs.
Everyone who discusses disproportionate Jewish power is therefore a Nazi - is essentially your line of thinking {you didn't argue it, so I'll call it a 'line of thinking'}.
This is precisely done in order to try to get people to not talk about Jewish power.
You proved my point.
"I always laugh at the ludicrous inconsistency of the emotional response."
Hey a small minority has financial, political and media power far larger than their numbers would suggest - in both the UK, US, Russia, and elsewhere. I can talk about "whites" and their power... but I must not talk about Jewish power, because some fucking half wit like you will immediately rush in to try to interject 'Nazi' into the argument - because they are too stupid and/or juvenile to have an adult, intellectual discussion about power structures.
You're still sore because I called you a fucking idiot the other day.
In my defense, you are not an intelligent person. You deal viretually exclusively in platitudes, canned responses, false analogies, ad hominem and red herrings.
And that is all you do.
Cookie?
Jews Boast of Owning Hollywood—But Slam Gentiles Who Say the Same
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/commentary-says-amount-of-us-political-money-coming-from-jews-is-staggering
So Jewish periodicals, and Jewish writers, can discuss Jewish political/campaign contributions, or how they've kept Hollywood as a virtual Jewish closed shop for 80 fucking years in contravention of the "diversity" preached everywhere else - but if *I* do it, I'm a "Nazi"?
You literally have to be stupid to believe that to be the case.
And *that*.... is one of my most basic points. The other is that Jews obviously have disproportionate power/influence and "anti-Semitism" is used to prevent discussion of said disproportionate power.
Q.E.D.
https://ia802707.us.archive.org/16/items/TheInternationalJew_655/TheInte...
That is because you can't comprehend. You are binary in your thinking, and he pointed out to you the biggest murderers in world history were not jews.
Going back even further, England, France, Spain, the Dutch, and Portugal were all non Jewish kingdoms, who in fact persecuted Jews, all ravaged the third world through their desire to control the world's resources. Oh, and don't forget the Turks, then before hem, the Romans, then the Greeks, ten the Assyrains, then the Persians, then Egypt.
These are facts, and not subject to your Anti Semetic fantasies.
Oh, I am not a jew, but my family enjoyed the Hospitality of Hitler, and then Stalin et al in Eastern Europe. You better truly know who your enemy is.
nope, you are missing the point, too. Re-read - slowly... and don't read to generate a response. Read exactly, and only, what I wrote.
Because I mean what I wrote - and both of you insist on responding to something I did not write.
I'll try to take you seriously, but not if you play the usual game of crying nazi antisemite hitler.
I'm presuming that we should take the free speech latittude we have to discuss uncomfortable issues that are sometimes prohibited.
Here - nutshell - it is not about ancient history, or anything else - it is about POWER STRUCTURES.
The sort of power structures that let this woman become a justice minister:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/07/the-new-face-of-israel-hard-right-ne...
And prevent the US media from jumping all over her like they would if a French or German or Russian minister has said something even remotely equivalent.
Again, your cognitive bias is preventing you from simply reading and understanding what *I wrote* - not what you expect or infer I 'really mean'.
I am significantly more intelligent than you are likely to expect. Racism or group hate per se is logically inane.
If I supported nazis or thought the set of people called 'jews' were intrinsically bad, etc. I'd say so.
For fuck's sake - did you read at least the bolded link?
That walks you through an example pretty well.
Oh, I am not a jew, but my family enjoyed the Hospitality of Hitler, and then Stalin et al in Eastern Europe. You better truly know who your enemy is.
hahaha! sez you....and youre likely lying: the old "IM not an X but if i were, i would do Y"
>>>You're still sore because I called you a fucking idiot the other day. lol
you hit the nail on the head
Exactly, all athiests to boot. Plus, Hirohito from Japan, the land of the rising Jew. LOL.
A1 interesting and entertaining assortment of totally insane ramblings. *slow clap*
$ 5 billion is a drop in the bucket. Greeks have over $300 billion of debt to finance ... if Putin was serious about this he'd take over all Greek Euro debt in exchange for permanent naval and airforce bases in Greece.
The USA got Gitmo for a lot less than that ...
Not to mention ALASKA.
Biggest mistake Russia ever made?
They'll never make up for that mistake.
Suddenly, after denying Russia the gas pipeline, Greece miraculously 'finds' enough Euros in order to make their debt payments for the next 6 months. It's a miracle!
The Greeks should let both pipelines pass through and collect transit fees from both.
What difference to them would it make who Europe buys from? They collect either way.
The problem for Greece is they need money now so they're not exactly in a great bargaining position in regards to exclusivity clauses.
If they bite at Gazprom's deal, I'm sure Vicky and her cookies won't be very far behind it.
"Take the gold or get the lead."
Totally agree with you on that one. Its in Greece's best interest to have both pipelines that way they get to hedge their bets just in case one or the other screws them over.
Shouldn't the US talk to Turkey instead? Turkey could block all Russian pipelines to Europe if they wanted...
Its promotion of the Azerbaijan pipeline is clearly part of the US grand strategy (promoted by Brzezinski and the neocons) to isolate and weaken Russia at every opportunity. This is clearly an intra-European matter in which the US has no business meddling. Russia wishes to bypass the Ukraine at least as much because it is a thief and deadbeat as it wishes to exercise political influence over it. But it may find that Turkey is not the best alternative, with the latter's determination to remove al Assad from Syria and to cooperate with Islamic fanatics in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Bulgaria, on the other hand, is a traditional ally of Russia and has a relatively stable government. IMO, it would be in Russia's best interest to find a compromise with the EU and participate in the South Stream project, which involves only itself and Bulgaria.
Greece to USSA: SHOVE IT.
Things are stirring up in Macedonia (FYROM) as well. Terrorist attack on the police there. 6 dead and 30 wounded. Still ongoing. Kosovo allover again.
Agreed. Even before independence, Macedonia probably had an Albanian majority, as accurate statistics were not available, and they were mostly ignored by the Macedonian leadership. Historically, Albania was once much larger, so there is, no doubt, revanchism involved in the current violence. There is little evidence that, although muslim, Albanians are Islamic fanatics. Their history is one of isolation with some Turkish influence.