US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5363

A Republican lobbyist and former Reagan administration official reportedly advised Donald Trump on his first major foreign policy speech at the same time he was promoting the interests of Vladimir Putin’s state-run energy corporation.

According to a Politico report out Friday morning, Richard Burt received $365,000 in the first two quarters of 2016 to advocate on behalf of the Nord Stream II pipeline. Gazprom, the Russian state energy corporation, owned a 50 percent share of the company behind the pipeline, New European Pipeline AG, when it paid Burt; it later took full ownership of the company.

In that timeframe, Burt helped shape Donald Trump’s first major foreign policy address, in which he said “I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia—from a position of strength—is possible.”

“Common sense says this cycle of hostility must end. Some say the Russians won’t be reasonable. I intend to find out,” Trump said on April 27, as the Russian ambassador listened in the front row.

The United States, Poland, and other European nations have taken official stances against the Nord Stream II pipeline, which would strengthen Russia’s energy presence on the continent.

Previously, two high-level members of the Trump campaign, campaign chairman Paul Manafort and foreign policy advisor Carter Page, resigned from the campaign after details about their own dealings with a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and top Kremlin officials, respectively, came to light.

Politico reports that Burt has in recent weeks began a tour of American think tanks to promote the pipeline. “There are huge holes in what he’s saying,” the article quotes one anonymous attendee saying of Burt’s presentation at the Atlantic Council, “but I can imagine that to many congressmen, senators and officials, it’s all very convincing.”

On October 07 2016 23:48 Doodsmack wrote:
It's not too far fetched a theory that Donald wants to lift the Russia sanctions for the benefit of his business.

On October 08 2016 00:34 farvacola wrote:
Lifting sanctions on Russia would do nothing to improve Russia's relations with other nations; most of them despise Russia for reasons only tangentially related to US foreign policy.

On October 08 2016 00:53 LegalLord wrote:
Half of Europe has age-old grudges with Russia that they would love to grind but they realize that it would be expensive to do so, so they have others do it on their behalf.

The other half really sort of got dragged along on the US FP train and has little in the way of a face-saving measure to normalize relations after the course of the actions in Ukraine, especially with MH17.

On October 07 2016 23:17 Kickstart wrote:
Are we ever going to reach a point where blaming minorities for things will fall out of fashion? Things like that should be career suicide in any sane world. How the base that that nonsense plays too hasn't figured out that politicians are just playing on their prejudice induced fears for votes is beyond me.

On October 08 2016 00:53 LegalLord wrote:
Half of Europe has age-old grudges with Russia that they would love to grind but they realize that it would be expensive to do so, so they have others do it on their behalf.

The other half really sort of got dragged along on the US FP train and has little in the way of a face-saving measure to normalize relations after the course of the actions in Ukraine, especially with MH17.

On October 08 2016 01:23 raga4ka wrote:


There is no official evidence that Russian authorities, have anything to do with MH17 or the destruction of the UN convoy in Syria, they don't benefit from any such kind of acts. Investigation said that there was a Buk that came and went back to Russia. It took two years to conclude something that main stream media had figured out minutes after the incidents. Even if those were fuck ups on Russia's part, well guess what US coalition just killed 80+ and injured more Syrian army soldiers, but again no one gave a fuck about them, because they are what just soldiers not humans or anything.

On October 08 2016 01:27 Plansix wrote:
The convoy was destroyed by an air strike. We didn’t do it and there are only two other powers in the region with an air force. Either it was Assad, the party Russia is sharing information with or Russia themselves. And its not like Russia was not aware of the convoy.

On October 08 2016 01:36 raga4ka wrote:


Again there is no official statement by the UN as there has neither been an investigation nor enough evidence to state this. And even if it was a fuck up on Assad/Russia part, there were no more then 15 people killed, while US coallition just killed 80 people by a "mistake". Since when does 15 people and 15 trucks weight more then 69-80 peoples lives and others injured?

On October 07 2016 22:07 Kickstart wrote:

This is where I don't understand this kind of partisanship. The fact of the matter is there has to be some sort of welfare systems in place. I mean most of the argument I want to make against what you just said can be summed up by the old utilitarian approach of "do the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people". Social programs do way more than the traditional push points from the right, like military spending. The government has to prioritize what to allocate funds to, and while it should, in my opinion, do what is best for the largest number of people, it often does what is in the interest of those with the most lobbying power.

Also not sure what you mean with this demographic manipulation. It wasn't that long ago that the right employed what we now call 'the southern strategy'. I'm rather liberal/progressive in my politics, but the only people the right can blame for their only solid demographic being middle aged or older white people are themselves. The natural effect of stirring up fear and resentment towards segments of the population in order to get votes is that the people you demonize aren't going to vote for you. You can't have a history of being against every minority demographic and then be surprised that the other party gets the majority of all their votes.

On October 08 2016 01:36 raga4ka wrote:


Again there is no official statement by the UN as there has neither been an investigation nor enough evidence to state this. And even if it was a fuck up on Assad/Russia part, there were no more then 15 people killed, while US coallition just killed 80 people by a "mistake". Since when does 15 people and 15 trucks weight more then 69-80 peoples lives and others injured?

On October 08 2016 01:41 GoTuNk! wrote:
By demographic manipulation I mean bribing people (trough the Welfare State) from 3rd world countries (Mexico mostly) to go live in the U.S., so you can later grant them cizitenship (their kids get it automatically) to vote Democrats.

On October 08 2016 01:41 GoTuNk! wrote:


By demographic manipulation I mean bribing people (trough the Welfare State) from 3rd world countries (Mexico mostly) to go live in the U.S., so you can later grant them cizitenship (their kids get it automatically) to vote Democrats.