Trump is not enforcing the Russian sanctions
No new Russia sanctions yet, law working as intended – State Department
Under CAATSA, the US has been putting foreign governments and private entities “on notice,” warning them against “significant transactions” with Russia. This, according to the State Department, is pressuring Russia to address the allegations Washington has been throwing at Russia for the past few years: “aggression in Ukraine, interference in other nations’ domestic affairs and abuses of human rights.”
Could there be another reason for the sanctions? It looks like it.
The goal of the sanctions would be to deny Moscow the profits from selling Russian military and intelligence equipment, Nauert explained.
I'm sure you can imagine how this news has gone over on Twitter and on ToP.
More on Russia sanctions from State Dept spox. “When and if we have sanctions to announce, we will do so. ... should sanctions be imposed, they would primarily be on non-Russian entities that are responsible for significant transactions w/Russia’s defense & intelligence sector.” pic.twitter.com/HniwuXTwLv
— Elana Schor (@eschor) January 29, 2018
Hmm
We're saying plenty of words at State about this. There's more to come. And it's uglier still. We really have crossed the "let's see if we can get away with this" line.
— James Gow (@JG_NoPlanet_B) January 29, 2018
Comments
What I find despairing is the number of people who believe
that Russia did interfere with the election and that Trump isn't following through with the sanctions because he is beholden to Putin or that he's being controlled by him. Not only the election, but they hacked the DNC computers, the Vermont electrical grid and have Russian bots all over Facebook and Twitter. This propaganda attack has been very successful. People who once would question what the intelligence agencies said are now believing them. Even though Clapper has stated that there is no evidence of collusion. But the democrats have now spent over a year telling people that there is.
Flynn did lie to the FBI about talking to someone in Russia during the transition period, but that was about trying to get Russia not to vote against the illegal Israeli settlements. Bibi had Kushner ask Flynn to do that. As we are all well aware, Israel has not only been interfering with our elections for decades, but also our foreign policy. Where is the outrage over this?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Collusion Apparently Means No Evidence or Lying Witness.
Because that's all we got so far – 15 months in.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
The thorough brainwashing of the American people
...occurred entirely through the broadcast media monopoly cartel — in coordination with select national newsprint media. That complete capitulation to delusional paranoia generates a very bad prognosis for residents in the American Plantation. Even if the nation were handed to them, unencumbered and economically intact, they are simply unfit to self-govern and lack all credibility at the global level. Americans would soon clamor for their former Masters, or their proxies, and would eagerly turn the nation back over to them again.
US democracy was a premature birth within low-info race of violent zealots. There were, however, some promising moments along the way.
As for the Russia-related sanctions,
...it's not possible to discuss them sensibly outside the context of the Deep State freakout (at State and the Pentagon) over the steady rise of Eurasia's global success and influence against the backdrop of the plunging failure of the American Empire.
If parts of the Sanctions have not yet been implemented, it is out of fear of embarrassment on the world stage — and not the result of anything Trump did or did not do. For sovereign nations, suffering the effects of US sanctions is completely optional. There are now ample remedies to neutralize them available to everyone. For targeted oligarchs who do not have their money in the right banking systems, perhaps they had too much money to begin with.
Examples of the very public loss of legal influence for the US, abound. I am currently enjoying the view that focuses on Europe's dilemma surrounding the cooperative northern pipeline project they are engaged in with Russia. The project nears completion, both sides have invested enormous sums in it, and they desperately need a secure source of modestly priced gas to withstand the winters they face. Russia has always treated them fairly and efficiently in the transfer of this energy commodity to Europe, no doubt because Russia considers itself to be part of Europe, and thoroughly European. It's a natural partnership. But now the Europeans have been forbidden to do any more work on the pipeline. Instead they have been ordered to buy all their fuel supplies from private US oil corporations, who plan to deliver it in great big boats, COD in US Dollars.
It's a binge-watching moment in reality geopolitics as Europe struggles to discover exactly who owns their sovereignty. As big investors in Iran's new marketplace, they're starting to get a few clues. But it's still early in the season; plenty of time for the plot to thicken.
I believe Germans and Austrians plan to go forward Nordstream2
The first version of American sanctions would have targeted German and Austrian companies involved with building Nordstream 2. In fact, German and Austrian officials declared a trade war would start if the US attempted to punish their companies. Some pundits noted that the sanctions were not meant to punish Russia but sanctions are a tool to help American companies against Russian companies. The goal in one case seemed to be to take over the EU energy market with liquefied gas. I get the impression that Germany in particular is tried of taking the brunt of American imposed sanctions on Russia.
The US game strategy is a chimera
...that leaves them bedazzled by their own brilliance. They wear a banal smirk at the Poker table as they contemplate their awesome power.
They are so certain that everyone else at the table is stupid. It's breathtaking. That's what makes this such compelling geopolitical theater:
They might pretend to suffer, because the US so helplessly falls for that which it most desires. This provides the perfect blind where opponents can position themselves far ahead of the US economically, technologically, and strategically — as in the case of China, Russia, and Iran. They may pretend to suffer while they simultaneously develop the global banking tools that allow them to neutralize US sanctions at will. They may pretend to suffer while hosting continuous state visits where they make these tools available to all threatened nations, even to US allies, as in the case of the AIIB, where even Australia, the UK, and Israel have eagerly signed up.
My own hope is that the grand finale, when it comes, will prove to be anti-climatic.
Imagine how much money could have been spent on us
instead of just the MICC if this country had tried doing negotiations with the countries that we invaded with our military. Congress just gave the military $700 billion. The amount of money over what Trump asked for is the same amount as Russia's budget. when it could have gone to paying for everyone's college education or to boost our social programs. And why the Hell can't the corporations that get the resources pay for their own damn wars? And hire their own mercenaries?
As you stated, we're watching the BRIC countries doing negotiations while the US is still stuck in the quagmire of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and who knows how many countries in Africa? How much money is that costing us per hour? According to this we're spending $100 in less than 4 seconds. Look at how fast the money is spent. What could that money have gone for?
What is the end result of our marching to global hegemony and end stage capitalism going to bring us? It's not going to be pretty. We are already seeing America becoming a failed state with a number of social pathologies on the rise. 11 school shootings in 29 days and that isn't counting the two failed attempts here in Utah. Or the number of families that are killing each other. But hey let's keep bullying the rest of the world while they continue to have the things that we long for but can only dream about. And keep looking for Russians under our beds and behind closed doors, right?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Yup. And I'll bet they'll find a scapegoat to execute.
...like they did the Rosenbergs.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hznlp-DwgSw]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Wow, that video really laid it out...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Thats the biggest question
what will the end game look like. We have a militarized police force with a interconnected communications network at all levels, a sophisticated data mining system, numerous real time methods of tracking citizens and a massive overt and covert surveillance apparatus, a massive military with a government that works well for a small % of the population. It's all in place, just waiting to be used, for what?
If this was science fiction it'd be the time for the powers that be to crack open that jug of superflu, and get rid of the surplus population of jobless takers and useless voters.Think of all those shovel ready jobs digging mass graves.
Here is Obama telling us that our elections are safe
from outside interference. Funny isn't it that while he is collecting his rewards for his presidency that he hasn't found time to remind us what he said before he left office instead of watching the hysteria that has gripped the nation.
h/t gjohnsit
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Is the issue supporting new sanctions?
Have to sort it out, but the first part of the sanctions bill was to list companies and people involved with the defense and intelligence sectors. This list was about a month late in October. This looked to be a true sanctions list.
It seems the terms of the law was met by providing a list of names. But no sanctions imposed. It looks like a good part of the list was simply copying Forbes list of the richest Russians. And from there every major government official including Lavrov their foreign minister. Putin joked that he was disappointed he wasn't on the list.
https://europeansanctions.com/2018/01/30/us-publishes-russian-oligarch-l...
My speculation is that EU officials went to Trump and pushed him to stop new sanctions. As it seems the law required a list of any and all Russians with any association with the Russian government. The sanctions bill seems to be aimed at stopping any and all dealings with Russia from anybody.
Basically a list of people that would have prevented EU businesses having any dealings with Russia, and miss a market of over 150 million people. From everything I read, a number of EU countries significantly suffered when Putin imposed his own counter sanctions.
I believe that US corporations have more exposure
... to the ill effects of the proposed Russia sanctions than those in the EU. (Not the case for sanctions proposed for Iran, which would largely impact the EU.) US corporations are all in on joint ventures with Russia in the Arctic, for example. That could cause a delay in executing the next comedy of errors.
One never knows which unintended consequences will leave the US and its allies reeling and stumbling after US sanctions are imposed. For example, US Sanctions against China would make a victim out of Europe. Everyone else will do fine, especially China. The US hasn't figured out yet that the global economy is a "complex system", which often punishes the person holding the monkey wench.