Title: Trump Stumbles Into Europe’s Pipeline Politics – Foreign Policy
(Going along with last night’s email on all that Trump has done to abrogate treaties and International Law, and the insane, infantile, belief that another Trump regime will mean “Peace” [it will, but in the kind planned for by the Germans in the late 1930s, see Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025], here is more on what was obfuscated so much by both Trump opponents, and supporters. That Trump and Biden have a common ideological origin in Goldwaterism makes it almost impossible to distinguish them on so-called “National Security” grounds, but that should not be allowed to disguise that when it comes to Goldwaterism; Trump is the "True Inheritor of that Tradition.” As Traditional Conservatives so acclaim him for, following as he does in the acceleration of nuclear arms development and the “Diplomacy of Violence” which always went with Traditional Conservative foreign policy as promoted by Goldwater and his Conservative promoters of the Conservative Movement under the banner of National Review magazine from its founding in 1955 as a pro-Military Industrial Complex Influence Operation.)
That can be explained by the Democratic Party’s eagerness to paint Trump as “Putin’s Puppet” (while he escalated Special Ops against Russia throughout his term!). And by the “New Right’s” false narrative that he would “end the endless wars.” With the former benefitting Trump for the latter, as will be shown in the coming election. And the latter being already proven false when one understands that “War,” as defined by DOD, and Israeli specialists in it, consists of multiple “domains,” all of which but sending tanks across a border, but equally “war,” Trump actively escalated. With all “domains" having been employed by Trump in escalating the many wars the U.S. is engaged in, most noticeably against China and Iran, but also Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, and against any entity opposing Netanyahu! Like the ICC.
But the Guardian article at the link above is a more accurate rendering of Trump’s mentors on him than most:
BLUF: "To understand Murdoch’s relationship with Trump, it helps to understand his relationship with one of the president’s predecessors in the White House, Ronald Reagan, with whom Murdoch enjoyed surprisingly close ties, facilitated and fostered by the same man who links him to Trump: Roy Cohn.
Joe Conason, who covered Murdoch at the Village Voice throughout much of the 70s and 80s, called Cohn “the lynchpin” of Murdoch’s cozy relationship with Reagan. Cohn was very close to Reagan going back to the “red scare” in Hollywood, said Conason, adding: “Reagan did lots of favors for Murdoch when he was president at the behest of Cohn.”
"Reagan presidential library documents obtained by investigative journalist Robert Parry show Cohn was instrumental in facilitating Murdoch’s face-to-face meetings with Reagan, the first of which took place in January 1983, two years into the president’s first term. Parry, the founder of Consortium News and author of America’s Stolen Narrative, told the Guardian that he came across a photo of Cohn in the Oval office alongside Murdoch and Reagan by chance, while investigating another story. His subsequent request for documents mentioning Cohn revealed a series of letters in which Cohn demanded better treatment of Murdoch and his media properties by the president.
. . .
"Among the biggest gifts to Murdoch from the Reagan administration was the elimination of the “fairness doctrine”, which required political balance in broadcasting, allowing Murdoch a free pass in driving home his network’s brand of fierce conservatism. But other smaller relaxations of regulations were helpful, too.”
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So with that as evidence that Trump was not in any way a political neophyte, but was ideologically attuned to his two principal NYC mentors, one begins to understand the masterful “PsyWar” conducted by Trump and his Oligarchical backers, who were also experienced in conducting the same, for the same purposes, Charles Koch, Peter Thiel, and the Adelsons, to present Trump as a mere “transactionalist,” and not the ideologically motivated "Traditional Conservative" he really is. Using that term in its most negative sense, as its war-mongering ideologues of National Review magazine imported fascist ideas into the public sphere to undermine the U.S. Constitution. As is clear from the writings particularly of William F. Buckley and Willmoore Kendall; Trumpism’s “ideological precursors."
But there has been a “Conspiracy of Silence,” it seems, to suppress news of all that Trump did during his regime’s days in power in waging war against Russia, with Poland’s Duda as his partner in working to deny European access to Russian oil, among other things, tightening sanctions on Russia, and pre-positioning armaments in Poland for use against Russia when the “time was ripe,” after Trump’s massive military buildup had been completed. With the Heritage Foundation putting a Plan in Place to “Finish the Job” for that, for when Trump takes office. Though it’s almost impossible to see a distinction between the "Globalist Military Regime” Trump has in mind, and Biden’s, each so bent upon expanding U.S. lethality for war, and for “Diplomacy of Violence,” as Thomas Schelling called it correctly.
Ironically, it was left to Biden to be in office when Russia took its own “preemptive” offense for what Trump had escalated.
With the world on the abyss of nuclear Armageddon, and Biden as POTUS at the moment, and responsible for so much acceleration toward that, it might be well to review some recent history of “how we got here,” or as it might be titled someday, “The Origins of Earth’s Nuclear Armageddon.”
"In his Tuesday press conference, Trump also said he is considering a visa-waiver program for Poles traveling to the U.S. and renewed his attackagainst the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.”
"Trump said he agreed with Duda’s arguments that Russian actions, especially the seizure of parts of Georgia and Ukraine, warranted a tough response.
“I think it’s a very aggressive situation. I think that Russia has acted aggressively. They respect force. They respect strength, as anyone does. And we have the greatest strength in the world, especially now,” Trump said.
. . .
"Trump is reported to have ordered a review of costs of basing US troops in Germany, against a backdrop of poor relations with Germany. Diplomats in Washington says he is furious with German chancellor Angela Merkel about car exports and Berlin’s cooperation in the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia and western Europe. Trump has also pressured Merkel to buy US liquefied natural gas (LNG), but there is limited demand for it in Germany for cost reasons.
"Duda stressed Polish willingness to buy LNG and his government’s scepticism over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which he said would deepen European energy dependence on Russia. He also pointed out that Poland was buying US Patriot missiles for its anti-ballistic defences."
When I think of people who have some concern for what the U.S. is doing to the Russian people, and pin their hopes on a second Trump administration, the scene from “Charade” always comes to mind with James Coburn scoffing “Greenhorns” toward those of his confederates whom he believed had been duped so easily.
I know economists here will dismiss TSI as just an economic development program for “Old Europe,” and avert their eyes from the political dimension of Authoritarian Duda, and his collaborators to continue the project begun by fascist General Pilsudski in the 1920s to build a “Greater Poland,” allied today with those Israeli faccists whose forbears were so influenced by Pilsudski. Where are the “Realist Experts” when it comes to recognizing Trump’s aggressions? They’re off campaigning for him!
By lending support to the Three Seas Initiative, Trump wades into a complicated European fight over energy, access, and who calls the shots.
trump crop
Before reveling in a new clash of civilizations in his Warsaw speech Thursday, President Donald Trump cannonballed into energy geopolitics, committing the U.S. to combatting Russian energy bullying — at the possible expense of European unity.
During a lightning visit to Poland, Trump gave public backing to a new, 12-country plan to tie together Central-Eastern Europe, framing his support as a ploy to counter the Kremlin’s penchant for using supplies of natural gas as a cudgel against its neighbors.
“America will be your strongest ally and steadfast partner in this truly historic initiative,” he proclaimed.
The so-called “Three Seas Initiative” (TSI), dreamed up last year by Poland with an assist from Croatia, aims to take advantage of the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas to break Central-Eastern Europe’s isolation, especially on matters of transport and energy. Ukraine’s dismemberment at Russia’s hands helped jumpstart the plan, which parallels other U.S.-backed approaches to knit north- and southeastern Europe together into a bulwark against Moscow.
Trump likes the idea because he thinks it’s an opportunity to sell more liquified natural gas, or LNG, from America’s shale patch. “Whenever you need energy, just give us a call,” Trump told the assembled representatives of the Central and Eastern European countries that have signed onto the TSI. “The United States will never use energy to coerce your nations,” he added, in a not-so-veiled reference to the dozens of times since 1991 that Russia has curtailed energy supplies to cow neighbors.
Last month the first U.S. cargo of LNG arrived in Poland arrived. Croatia is working to construct a similar terminal in the Adriatic soon, which could help supply southern Europe. (The Black Sea is a bit tougher, at least within the TSI: Only Ukraine, which isn’t part of the club, has a gas import terminal there.)
But America’s international gas trade is business, not politics. Any “LNG projects will happen on a commercial basis,” said Piotr Buras, head of the European Council of Foreign Relations’ Warsaw office. In many cases, it is cheaper to ship Russian gas from Siberia to nearby countries via pipeline than it is to supercool the gas and ship it halfway around the world, though LNG prices have cratered in Europe and Asia.
When Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed hope that his country and U.S. firms would sign LNG deals soon, Trump responded, “Maybe we get your price up a little bit.”
In any event, U.S. support for alternative supplies of energy in Europe is nothing new — it’s been Washington’s line for years, and U.S. natural gas in particular was seen as a lifeline for Europe (as well as Asia).
More troubling, some say, is Trump’s willingness to support the year-old TSI, which reanimates an almost century-old semi-authoritarian plan to unite the people caught between Germany and Russia under Polish leadership. Known then as the “Intermarium,” the concept was first proposed by Jozef Pilsudski, the military dictator who dominated Polish politics between Worlds Wars I and II. (TP-and was the fascist leader whom the Jewish Revisionists like Menachem Begin looked to as a model. Read some history of their origins.)
What Trump’s backing might do, Buras notes, is “encourage the Polish government to politicize” the Three Seas Initiative. The plan isn’t just about breaking free from Russia’s energy orbit; it’s “also about trying to push Germany away from this part of Europe or at least to form a certain counterweight to Germany,” Buras says. And the current Polish government, lead by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) Party, sees itself as the vanguard of any such regional counterweight.
Matthew Kott, a researcher at Uppsala University’s Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, puts the Three Seas squarely in the “wave of populist illiberalism” that Trump, along with Brexit, helped usher in last year.
“In many ways, the Three Seas Initiative is ‘Poland First.’ They’re staking out a place where they can be the big fish in a small pond,” Kott said.
Already, some of the Three Seas members are getting wary. The Czech Republic declined to attend this year’s presidential-level summit because, in the words of one Czech diplomat, the plan too closely resembled the “concept of Pilsudski.”
Russia itself is torn. On the one hand, greater energy autonomy for Central and Eastern Europe could be a problem: Gazprom, the big Russian gas firm, does three quarters of its business in Europe. That’s why pro-Russia outlets like Sputnik have been playing TSI up as an attempt to recreate the Intermarium.
But the Kremlin also has an interest in seeing the Three Seas Initiative widen the divide between Poland, its Central-East European neighbors, Germany, and the rest of the EU. Poland’s lurch away from European norms has drawn plenty of knuckle-rapping from Brussels, and it has fought Germany tooth and nail over the latest Russian-sponsored pipeline.
That’s the vortex into which Trump stepped Thursday, perhaps not fully grasping the complexity of Europe pipeline politics — or, until fairly recently, what LNG even is.
He told his Polish counterparty Thursday, “I think we can enter a contract for LNG within the next 15 minutes.” Duda just laughed.
