US Foreign Policy For Sale -- Cheap

H_Arendt · October 19, 2019, 7:48pm

I am starting to think the real tragedy of Trump and Giuliani’s misadventure in the Ukraine is that a couple of Russian mobsters were able to buy US foreign policy for only $650,000. There probably isn’t a studio apartment in a Trump apartment building that you could get for that little. But that’s all US foreign policy now goes for. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

A couple of third-rate Russian mobsters (Parnas and Fruman) got some first rate Russian mob backing so they could make a move on the Ukrainian natural gas industry. They paid Rudy Giuliani $500,000 and donated $150,000 to Congressman Pete Session’s campaign and that was all it cost them to get Rudy to convince Trump to put Rudy in charge of Ukraine policy while sidelining the entire professional foreign policy establishment. Trump didn’t get any money in the deal, but he was promised dirt on a major 2020 opponent and the chance to revive a debunked denial of the Russian assistance he got in 2016.

So US policy costs $650K a shot. At those prices we could probably do a Gofundme to raise enough money to get Trump to back Kurdish independence.

When next we get a real President from either party in office, one of our goals has got to be to restore the cost of purchasing US government policies to a level that befits a great power. My sense is anything less than $5,000,000 says your country less than second rate.

I am curious what others think the right price ought to be. We don’t have enough visibility into the market to get a sufficient set of comparisons.

H_Arendt · October 20, 2019, 1:48pm

$650K may have been a steep price for hotel accommodations… but its a different game than policy changes.

I could probably scrap together $750K to pay Trump to implement the Green New Deal. All I need to do is find.a way to tie fighting climate change to finding the Hillary Clinton e-mail server.

FloridaYankee · October 20, 2019, 8:37pm

H_Arendt:

I am starting to think the real tragedy of Trump and Giuliani’s misadventure in the Ukraine is that a couple of Russian mobsters were able to buy US foreign policy for only $650,000. There probably isn’t a studio apartment in a Trump apartment building that you could get for that little. But that’s all US foreign policy now goes for. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

A couple of third-rate Russian mobsters (Parnas and Fruman) got some first rate Russian mob backing so they could make a move on the Ukrainian natural gas industry. They paid Rudy Giuliani $500,000 and donated $150,000 to Congressman Pete Session’s campaign and that was all it cost them to get Rudy to convince Trump to put Rudy in charge of Ukraine policy while sidelining the entire professional foreign policy establishment. Trump didn’t get any money in the deal, but he was promised dirt on a major 2020 opponent and the chance to revive a debunked denial of the Russian assistance he got in 2016.

So US policy costs $650K a shot. At those prices we could probably do a Gofundme to raise enough money to get Trump to back Kurdish independence.

When next we get a real President from either party in office, one of our goals has got to be to restore the cost of purchasing US government policies to a level that befits a great power. My sense is anything less than $5,000,000 says your country less than second rate.

I am curious what others think the right price ought to be. We don’t have enough visibility into the market to get a sufficient set of comparisons.

I’d settle for human rights and the free flow of oil on the open market while we work on economically feasible renewables. Anybody gives you money you are then beholden to them in some capacity.

H_Arendt · October 20, 2019, 8:52pm

FloridaYankee:

H_Arendt:

I am starting to think the real tragedy of Trump and Giuliani’s misadventure in the Ukraine is that a couple of Russian mobsters were able to buy US foreign policy for only $650,000. There probably isn’t a studio apartment in a Trump apartment building that you could get for that little. But that’s all US foreign policy now goes for. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

A couple of third-rate Russian mobsters (Parnas and Fruman) got some first rate Russian mob backing so they could make a move on the Ukrainian natural gas industry. They paid Rudy Giuliani $500,000 and donated $150,000 to Congressman Pete Session’s campaign and that was all it cost them to get Rudy to convince Trump to put Rudy in charge of Ukraine policy while sidelining the entire professional foreign policy establishment. Trump didn’t get any money in the deal, but he was promised dirt on a major 2020 opponent and the chance to revive a debunked denial of the Russian assistance he got in 2016.

So US policy costs $650K a shot. At those prices we could probably do a Gofundme to raise enough money to get Trump to back Kurdish independence.

When next we get a real President from either party in office, one of our goals has got to be to restore the cost of purchasing US government policies to a level that befits a great power. My sense is anything less than $5,000,000 says your country less than second rate.

I am curious what others think the right price ought to be. We don’t have enough visibility into the market to get a sufficient set of comparisons.

I’d settle for human rights and the free flow of oil on the open market while we work on economically feasible renewables. Anybody gives you money you are then beholden to them in some capacity.

You are forgetting a fundamental rule about who owns who when money flows. If a bank loans you $100K, they own you. If they loan you $100M you own them… a principle Donald Trump used repeatedly while his businesses failed.

FloridaYankee · October 20, 2019, 8:57pm

A good point lol. I still don’t want any part of it though.

H_Arendt · October 20, 2019, 9:26pm

I must admit that the thought of $100M sloshing through my hands is not without its temptations…