Friday 29th of March 2024

landslide by the potomac sewer...

landslide

adding to the putrid sauce...

The measure will now go to US President Donald Trump’s desk. The president will have the option of signing into law the sanctions targeting Russia's energy, defense, and intelligence sectors or exercising his veto power.

The vote passed 98-2 but only needed a simple majority of 51 votes. The two US senators to reject the bill were Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of the sanctions bill on Tuesday. The chamber voted to attach Iran and Russia to a bill that originally targeted North Korea, which is what the Senate had requested. The bill passed by the Senate retains the stipulation that any attempt by the White House to lift or relax sanctions must go through the US Congress.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201707281055944803-senate-sanction-russia-...

the only response...

US diplomatic presence in Russia will be cut by 755 people, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

The president said that the cut will make the diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States working in the both countries equal.

"The personnel of the US diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side," Putin said in an interview with Vesti.ru channel.

Putin pointed out that he believes that the reduction is considerable given that over a thousand American personnel who currently live and work in Russia will have to go back to the United States.

"Because over a thousand employees, diplomats and technical personnel have been working and are still working in Russia, and 755 of them will have to seize their work in the Russian Federation. It’s considerable," Putin added.

Earlier this week, the US Congress approved a bill on new sanctions against Iran, North Korea and Russia, with the White House saying that Trump intended to sign it. The sanctions, if adopted, will impose further restrictive measures on Russia, particularly against the energy industry, due to Moscow's alleged interference in 2016 US presidential election and Ukraine’s internal affairs.

 

Speaking on the new sanctions, Putin said that Russia will not leave the Congress bill without a response. However, Putin noted, he opposes limitations in any sphere of joint activities with the United States that "could be sensitive" to Washington.

"We could imagine, theoretically, that one day a moment would come when the damage of attempts to put pressure on Russia will be comparable to the negative consequences of certain limitations of our cooperation. Well, if that moment ever comes, we could discuss other response options. But I hope it will not come to that. As of today, I am against it."

Putin said on Sunday that anti-terrorism fight, Syrian settlement and non-proliferation weapons of mass destruction are key areas of Russia's cooperation with the United States.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201707301056018566-putin-russia-755-diplomats/

NO PROOF...

 

Putin orders 755 personnel cut at U.S. missions in Russia in response to sanctionsRussian President Vladimir Putin’s action is the single-largest forced reduction in embassy staff since 1917 and a dramatic escalation in the Kremlin’s retaliation to sanctions over its meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. It also indicates that Russia has apparently abandoned its hopes for better relations with the United States under the Trump administration.

read more crap:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/putin-orders-cut-of-755-personnel-at-us-missions/2017/07/30/8a4b0044-7555-11e7-8c17-533c52b2f014_story.html


The Washington Post is wanking lyrical. Should there be ONE ounce of proof that Russia had interfered with the US Presidential elections, these elections would have to be declared null and void, forthwith. New elections would have to be called. Russia has not abandoned its hope of better relations with the USA. To the contrary. It could have thrown out 755 US citizen straight away by 10 o'clock tomorrow. But Putin has delayed the deed for ONE month. As well Putin still hopes that normal relation will happen with the USA in the near future, BUT THE USA IS PLAYING LIKE A SPOILED BRAT who did not get the Christmas toy he wanted. Wake up, you fucking morons at the Washington Post. What you write may feel you with the gloat of success, but you only succeeded in sinking below the surface of the putrid Potomac Swamp. You feed from the blood of people dying around the world under the US empire rectum dictums.

 

don't tell me that only two senators in the US are sane?

read from top...

 

With an Orwellian 99% majority that would delight the Kim dynasty in North Korea, the "representative democracy" Capitol Hill has bulldozed its latest House/Senate sanctions package, aimed mostly at Russia, but also targeting Iran and North Korea.

 

The White House's announcement — late Friday afternoon in the middle of summer — that President Trump has approved and will sign the bill was literally buried in the news cycle amidst the proverbial 24/7 Russia-gate related hysteria.   

Trump will be required to justify to Congress, in writing, any initiative to ease sanctions on Russia. And Congress is entitled to launch an automatic review of any such initiative.

Translation; the death knell of any possibility for the White House to reset relations with Russia. Congress in fact is just ratifying the ongoing Russia demonization campaign orchestrated by the neocon and neoliberalcon deep state/War Party establishment.

 

Economic war has been declared against Russia for at least three years now. The difference is this latest package also declares economic war against Europe, especially Germany.

That centers on the energy front, by demonizing the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and forcing the EU to buy US natural gas.

Make no mistake; the EU leadership will counterpunch. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission (EC), put it mildly when he said, "America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last."

On the Russia front, what the Empire of Sanctions faces does not even qualify as a hollow victory. Kommersant has reported that Moscow, among other actions, will retaliate by banning all American IT companies and all US agricultural products from the Russian market, as well as exporting titanium to Boeing (30% of which comes from Russia).

 

On the Russia-China strategic partnership front, trying to restrict Russia-EU energy deals will only allow more currency swaps between the ruble and the yuan; a key plank of the post-US dollar multipolar world.  

And then there's the possible, major game-changer; the German front.

The Fools on the Hill

Even without considering the stellar historical record of Washington not only meddling but bombing and regime-changing vast swathes of the planet — from Iraq and Libya to the current threats against Iran, Venezuela and North Korea — the Russia-gate hysteria about meddling in the 2016 US presidential election is a non-story, by now thoroughly debunked.

The heart of the matter is, once again, energy wars.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201707291055991504-us-russia-sanctions-germany-trump/

 

Read also: 

if you don't know why your country is at war, forget "democracy" and "freedom". think petrodollar...

the lynch mob...

 

Congress has overwhelmingly passed legislation imposing new economic sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran. There was some speculation that President Trump might veto the measure, both because of concerns that it would prevent an improvement in America’s troubled relations with Moscow and because of stringent limitations imposed on the president’s ability to wave sanctions in the name of national security. However, the White House announced that the president would sign the bill—perhaps reflecting just how much proponents of a new cold war with Russia have intimidated the Trump team. The extent and virulence of anti-Russia sentiment has reached alarming levels. Members of Congress and other opinion leaders in both parties have branded the alleged Russian hacking of the 2016 election as an act of war, and one congressman even explicitly compared it to Pearl Harbor and 9-11

Given such hysteria and the lopsided congressional vote in favor of the sanctions legislation, Trump’s reluctance to use his veto power was not necessarily a manifestation of political cowardice. Only three House members and two senators (Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders) cast negative votes. Even Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who usually is sensible on foreign policy issues, joined the legislative lynch mob.

The enthusiasm for the latest sanctions initiative ignores the longtime unimpressive record of that tactic. Some three decades ago, the seminal scholarly work of Gary Hufbauer, Jeffrey Schott, and Kimberly Ann Elliott, Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, demonstrated that sanctions rarely achieve their policy goal. More recent editions of the book confirm the basic conclusion. Sanctions may inconvenience the targeted regime—and create substantial suffering for innocent people in that country—but they seldom compel the regime to capitulate or even make major concessions. That is especially true when the issue in question is a high-priority matter for the country’s political leadership.

read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/washingtons-addictive-fo...

 

economic censorship...

 

YouTube stands accused of censorship, following the company’s decision to bar former Congressman Ron Paul and his online news program from receiving advertising revenue for a number of videos which Paul recently posted.

Upon “manual review,” the website has found a series of videos posted by the Ron Paul Liberty Report“unsuitable for all advertisers,” effectively denying Paul and his online news program potential revenue from views.

 

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called it “economic censorship,” noting that the ‘unsuitable’ videos featured the former congressman’s criticism of president Donald Trump’s decision to send more American troops to Afghanistan, as well as criticizing the US Senate Intelligence Committee for terming Wikileaks a hostile foreign intelligence service last week.

Dr. Paul, a 12-term ex-congressman and three-time presidential candidate, is known for views that often contradict those of Washington’s political establishment, especially on issues of war and peace.

“We have no violence, no foul language, no political extremism, no hate or intolerance,” Daniel McAdams, co-producer of the Ron Paul Liberty Report, told RT America. “Our program is simply a news analysis discussion from a libertarian and antiwar perspective.”

McAdams, who also is executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, added that the YouTube demonetization “creates enormous financial burdens for the program.”

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why it decided to exclude Paul’s videos from gaining advertising benefits.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/usa/401240-ron-paul-youtube-demonetization-censorship...

 

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he'll show up at the parade...

Senator Rand Paul took sharp aim at Saudi Arabia in his keynote speech at The American Conservative’s fifth annual foreign policy conference Thursday, in particular blaming the Kingdom for the destruction of Yemen, for spreading extremist ideology across the globe, and for the grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Republican senator from Kentucky is one of the leading advocates for foreign policy realism and restraint in Congress and often contributes to TAC.

In his speech, Paul discussed his efforts to rein in the Saudi war campaign in Yemen, which he called “a particular tragedy because they’re one of the poorest countries on the planet.”

Paul noted that Saudi Arabia’s role in the Middle East was overall a destructive one. Riyadh, he noted, has spent $100 billion exporting extreme Wahabbist Islam to places as far away as Indonesia and funding madrassas that teach hatred in nations like Pakistan and India.

“So if you ask me who’s the worst at spreading hatred and trying to engender terrorism around the world, it’s Saudi Arabia hands down,” Paul said. “And if you say which people is probably more likely to come to Western ways and more likely to train with us and like the West, it’s probably Iran.”

But just because he disapproves of Saudi Arabia doesn’t mean he supports slapping them with sanctions or even an embargo. He said he preferred that America respond by declining to repair the Saudi planes that are now wreaking so much havoc on Yemen, as well as stopping the flow of American weapons into Riyadh.

In that vein, Paul  refuted a popular talking point on America’s relationship with the Saudis.

“People say if you don’t sell them arms, Russia and China will,” he said. “They have all American planes. If they want to fly American planes and fix them with Russian parts, let them do it. It will be a quicker end to their air force than we ever could have imagined.”

When asked if he would be willing to re-engage the U.S. in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear agreement, he said he would be willing to consider it. He expressed disbelief that somehow Iran’s behavior was worth cutting off all negotiations in favor of crippling sanctions and a hard diplomatic freeze, while turning a blind eye to the Saudi’s regional aggression and humanitarian crimes. “I’m just not sure who’s more evil, Iran or Saudi Arabia,” he quipped.

Paul also addressed America’s relationship with Russia, which he said was being hampered by “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Even if Trump wanted to thaw American-Russian relations, it couldn’t be done because the electoral pressure from Democrats is too strong, he added.

Finally, Paul addressed Trump’s widely derided call for a military parade through Washington, D.C.

“I thought it was a dumb idea,” he said, “but I said, you know what, I’m for it. If you bring everyone home from Afghanistan, I’ll show up for the parade.”

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/rand-paul-saudi-arabia-...

 

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