Trump wanted to lift sanctions on Russia. Congress almost unanimously confirmed them

[Johan]

Congress has handcuffed Donald Trump on Russia


Nothing unites the parties like mistrust of the president.

Congress has handcuffed Donald Trump on Russia.
On Thursday night, sanctions legislation targeting Russia soared through the Senate by a margin of 98-2 just days after it coasted through the House of Representatives 419-3.
So it’s official: One of the first major pieces of bipartisan legislation to pass Congress during Trump’s presidency has been explicitly designed to sharply limit his powers.

The bill takes Obama-era sanctions against Russia that are in place under executive orders — that is, directives that only the president has authority to enact and rescind — and officially enshrines them in the law. It also establishes a new congressional review process that would allow Congress to block the White House from taking steps to ease sanctions if it wanted to. And it imposes a fresh batch of sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Trump now faces an awkward dilemma: veto the legislation and endure the humiliation of seeing Congress — controlled by his own party — override him with ease, as lawmakers in both parties have pledged to do. Or sign the legislation and endure the humiliation of agreeing to a bill that his administration lobbied against in its bid to cling to a key bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia.

Trump wanted to keep sanctions under his control as he angles to turn things around in the rapidly souring US-Russian relationship. Moscow despises US sanctions, and their removal would be central to any kind of major reset between the two countries.
But now that’s not happening, and Russia has already made its fury over the legislation plain: On Friday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was cutting the number of US diplomatic personnel in Russia down to a number that matches the number of Russian diplomatic personnel in the US.
Russia also says that within days it will seize a dacha, or country house, outside Moscow that US personnel use, as well as a storage facility.
“Any new unilateral actions by the US authorities to reduce the number of our diplomats in the United States will be met with a mirror response," the ministry promised in a statement.
Russia has lost interest in Trump’s outreach
The response is a major setback for Trump’s ambition to turn over a new leaf with Russia, and stands in stark contrast to Moscow’s response to the last time the US took strong actions against it.

Back in December, after President Obama announced a raft of new sanctions against Russia and the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats from the US as a penalty for its meddling in the 2016 election, Vladimir Putin refrained from retaliation. No diplomats were ejected from Russia; no compounds were seized. In fact, he went a step further, inviting the children of US diplomats to join Christmas parties in the Kremlin. And there was only one reason he did that: He was optimistic about Trump’s interest in warming ties with Moscow and wanted to give him a chance to reverse Obama’s sanctions.
That window of opportunity appears to have closed, and it’s Trump’s own fault.

The Republican Party has extraordinary strategic discipline. They haven’t been particularly keen on hitting Trump hard with investigations over his inner circle’s ties to Russia during the campaign, but they do realize how politically risky it is for Trump to have free rein to lift sanctions on his own while he’s being investigated.
Many of them also genuinely think that Putin will play Trump for a fool in any deal they strike, and want to make sure he doesn’t give away the US’s biggest bargaining chip without them having a say in it.

Now Trump has to decide how he wants to react to this. Will he veto the bill and then slam the GOP in the likely case that it overrules him, or will he sign it and try to claim that the bill shows he’s not in Russia’s pocket? One way or another, we should know soon: Once Trump formally receives the bill, he has just 10 days to make a decision.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/28/16055630/congress-trump-russia-sanctions-veto



So, Trump and Putin had a deal : Putin would help Trum to win the election and Trump would lift US sanctions on Russia. Putin delivered, Trump didn't. How will Putin react ?

Just remember : the Don Jr. thing broke up after a meeting between Trump and Putin.
My take is that, during that meeting Putin asked Trump to deliver his prt ofr the bargain then Trump answered he coudn't because congress was blocking him so Putin relased this to put some pressure on him, remeind him what happens ot those who try to make him a fool.
Now, not only Trump didn't lift the sanctions but he couldn't block congress from imposing new sanctions. Putin's not gonna like this...



Pee tape, pee tape, pee tape...

 

[meesterperfect]

Its got nothing to do with mistrust.

They want a cold war with Russia.
Why? Well mostly because it helps Israel.
The bullshit sanctions are about the "Russia Interfered With The Election" bullshit, of which there is to this day ZERO proof.

But dont worry, Meuller is still digging.
Couldn't find anything but he's still searching.
Sooner or later he'll find something even if they have to invent it.

 

[smithus]

I don't think that Russia really deserves any sanctions, it's just an attack on them doing their own thing

 

[JonesRick]

Johan:

As I am sure you know, even before president* trump was sworn into office, he and his team were attempting to remove the Russian sanctions, return the seized compounds, and allow the Russian diplomats/spies to return. However, members of the State Department in the outgoing Obama Administration attempted to head this off by notifying members of Congress (Senator Cardin, Senator Corker, and others ) that the incoming trump Administration was actively seeking to undermine the sanctions (for election interference as well as Crimea).

Thank You!

 

[Johan]

As I am sure you know, even before president* trump was sworn into office, he and his team were attempting to remove the Russian sanctions, return the seized compounds, and allow the Russian diplomats/spies to return. However, members of the State Department in the outgoing Obama Administration attempted to head this off by notifying members of Congress (Senator Cardin, Senator Corker, and others ) that the incoming trump Administration was actively seeking to undermine the sanctions (for election interference as well as Crimea).

Yep, as soon as they could they try to lift those sanctions. Guess that tells a lot about how much wanted the to be lfted. In wonder why ? Could it be because lifting them was his part oo a bargain he and Putin have ,

I don't think that Russia really deserves any sanctions, it's just an attack on them doing their own thing

Yeah, Russia doing their own thing such as lending money to Marine LePen's campaign, hacking Macron's campaign, hacking the DNC, having puppet leaders in former soviet republics -such as Georgia's Giorgi Margvelashvili- invading Ukraine, claiming Crimea is theirs to take, etc...

 

[sean miguel]

This is congress overstepping it's bounds. Obama issued these sanctions under executive order and it's President Trump's right to rescind them. I wonder if this ends up passing Constitutional muster in ultimately the Supreme Court. Trump should lift sanctions at that point out of spite. fuck the GOP and the Democrats. they can go straight to hell.

I hope Iran doesn't nuke D.C. one day to bring about their Mahdi. Sure it would vaporize The Swamp but that would just be terrible all around. Or addition by subtraction.

 

[JonesRick]

Johan:

This was reported in a number of publications like FP, National Interest, Politico, The Economist, WSJ, The Atlantic, NYT, and others ... I think the story just got drowned out by the (then) other news of the day and that is apparently why it is little known.

You're right - the first thing, and I mean the very first thing, they wanted to do is to lift those sanctions. There was NO mention of bargaining chips, improved relations with Russia, joint US/Russia Syrian initiatives, or any other such pretext at the time.

president* trump may not be afraid of the charges of collusion per se' but he sure seems to be deathly afraid of the possibility (and indeed the probability) that Mueller will look into his finances as well as those of his family and associates. Mueller may already have his tax returns in hand and trump would not even know.

I mean he even got the Republican Party to show some hint of a spine in working with Democrats to tie his hands on the issue: Senators Graham, Wyden, Durbin, Cardin, Corker, McCain as well as many others even not directly contacted by the State Department have shown that they do not trust him on Russia. He clearly did not want to sign the legislation and said so, directly and also with his often-used "get a better deal" misdirection ... but he had no choice as his veto would be emphatically overridden having passed both houses almost unanimously.

Now, I am someone who does not believe, generally speaking, that Congress should step on the powers of the Presidency, however, there are times that the Congress must act when presented with such a case as this in which a president so unhesitatingly ignores American national and constitutional norms.

He sure looks like he is hiding something ...

 

[sean miguel]

Johan:

You're right - the first thing, and I mean the very first thing, they wanted to do is to lift those sanctions. There was NO mention of bargaining chips, improved relations with Russia, joint US/Russia Syrian initiatives, or any other such pretext at the time.
...

and? This is like the lower courts divining President's Trump's real intent with his travel ban based on what he said on the campaign trail. It's within the President's authority to lift those sanctions just like it was Obama's to level them. Ignoring American national and constitutional norms? The president's aforementioned authority IS a constitutional norm as in it's CONSTITUTIONAL.

 

[Johan]

Another example of the hypocrisy of Trump supporters :
When an innocent man gets shot by police after he ran from an officer, they like to tell that, if that guy had nothing to hide, he had no reason to fear police. So, ih he ran away, he must have hd something to hide from police...
And, at the same time, they say the russia collusion thing is BS, investigations will find nothing and shouldn't even be.
Well, guys, if it's BS, you have nothing to fear, Mueller will find nothing the it will prove once and for all that it was BS. If Trump wants these investigations to end so bad, I guess it means there's something fishy...

 

[sean miguel]

Another example of the hypocrisy of Trump supporters :
When an innocent man gets shot by police after he ran from an officer, they like to tell that, if that guy had nothing to hide, he had no reason to fear police. So, ih he ran away, he must have hd something to hide from police...
And, at the same time, they say the russia collusion thing is BS, investigations will find nothing and shouldn't even be.
Well, guys, if it's BS, you have nothing to fear, Mueller will find nothing the it will prove once and for all that it was BS. If Trump wants these investigations to end so bad, I guess it means there's something fishy...

let's put it this way - would you be ok with a full body cavity search if you knew you weren't hiding anything to begin with? Why not? You've nothing to hide, right? Snap those gloves on and have at it officer. You wouldn't want to put an end to it? I dunno, maybe you wouldn't.

 

[xfire]

 

[Johan]

let's put it this way - would you be ok with a full body cavity search if you knew you weren't hiding anything to begin with? Why not? You've nothing to hide, right? Snap those gloves on and have at it officer. You wouldn't want to put an end to it? I dunno, maybe you wouldn't.

Why would a random citizen would have to go throught that cavity search and Trump would be exempted ?
Either you have everyone exempted or everyone has to go through it but you can't cherry pick those who will have to be seached and those who would be exempted

 

[sean miguel]

Why would a random citizen would have to go throught that cavity search and Trump would be exempted ?
Either you have everyone exempted or everyone has to go through it but you can't cherry pick those who will have to be seached and those who would be exempted

it's symbolic, or metaphorical. Trump is the hapless citizen and Mueller is the one with the glove. Like RickJames said, Mueller is digging into Trump's finances and may have his tax returns. This is the mission creep that we were warned of. Say Mueller uncovers some illegality in some business dealings Trump had years ago, what the fuck all does that have to do with Russia collusion 2016? Meanwhile, The Clinton Foundation. Russia Collusion is a hoax like anthromo ... anthromorphogr ... Al Gore climate change is.

fuck the left. suck my fucking dick. right here in this cock region.

 

[xfire]

 

[sean miguel]

exactly. the debate has been within factions of the cucked GOP. the democrats are on the sideline and irrelevant as they should be. I do admire the democrats in that they are at least united in their shittiness (see 2009). they're easier to lump together in ridicule.

 

[xfire]

exactly. the debate has been within factions of the cucked GOP. the democrats are on the sideline and irrelevant as they should be.

And you think Democrats are forever relegated to impotence? That pendulum will feel like a guillotine when it comes swinging back around.

 

[sean miguel]

And you think Democrats are forever relegated to impotence? That pendulum will feel like a guillotine when it comes swinging back around.

I admitted as much. It swings back and forth. it's no coincidence that congress has constant approval ratings slightly above syphilis. But as it stands now, the democrats haven't been worse off since the 1920's and of course the republicans are squandering it, the politicians that they are.

On that note, why is McCain allowed to hold his seat and cast votes? Didn't Gabby Giffords have to give up hers when she was shot in the head?

 

[xfire]

I admitted as much. It swings back and forth. it's no coincidence that congress has constant approval ratings slightly above syphilis. But as it stands now, the democrats haven't been worse off since the 1920's and of course the republicans are squandering it, the politicians that they are.

On that note, why is McCain allowed to hold his seat and cast votes? Didn't Gabby Giffords have to give up hers when she was shot in the head?

I don't know, because he's all mavericky and stuff? I'm no McCain fan, he should have voted to repeal as that's been his position since he lost to the ni... Obama.

 

[Jack Davenport]

I admitted as much. It swings back and forth. it's no coincidence that congress has constant approval ratings slightly above syphilis. But as it stands now, the democrats haven't been worse off since the 1920's and of course the republicans are squandering it, the politicians that they are.

On that note, why is McCain allowed to hold his seat and cast votes? Didn't Gabby Giffords have to give up hers when she was shot in the head?

Dont forget those 1200 seats nationally lost under Obama. If the pendulum is swinging back it is coming by way of mule.

The GOP with slim majorities will continue to struggle when cuck RINOS can cast deciding votes and fracture the party.

As I said in 2014, The GOP is a majority in name only. Retire the Democrats like Collins , Murkowski et al and things like repealing Obamacare will be easy as pie to accomplish.

We have a head start. Fate has even had enough and is retiring McCain for us

 

[sean miguel]

I don't know, because he's all mavericky and stuff? I'm no McCain fan, he should have voted to repeal as that's been his position since he lost to the ni... Obama.

yeah, that's what all criticism of Obama and Hillary comes down to - the N word. fuck off with you and your projection, backwoods fucking hick.