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Cornered: Trump intends to sign "final version" of illegal Russian sanctions bill


RT
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 16:45 UTC
Trump signing documents
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
President Donald Trump will sign into law new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, according to the White House.

According to a statement late Friday, Trump "read early drafts of the bill" and after negotiating "critical elements," has reviewed the final version approved nearly unanimously by Congress. The Senate back it 98-2 Thursday, and the House 419-3 earlier this week.

The president "has now reviewed the final version and, based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends to sign it," the statement read.

The sanctions target Russian gas and pipeline developments by codifying six of former President Barack Obama's executive orders implemented near the end of his term.

They also take aim at Russia's major defense, mining, shipping and railway industries.

Comment: The EU is not pleased. Russia will survive, but sanctions are still a nuisance. Trump wants better relations with Russia. But as long as 98% of the Congress and Senate are clinically insane, that will be hard to do.

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Magnify

RNC chairwoman calls Wasserman Schultz to testify before Congress regarding arrested staffer

Alex Griswold
The Washington Free Beacon
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 10:52 UTC
debbie/Ronna
© The Hill/TwitterDebbie Wasserman Schultz/Ronna McDaniel
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel on Wednesday called on Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) to testify before Congress on her recently arrested aide.

Wasserman Schultz, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, fired IT staffer Imran Awan on Tuesday, the night after he was arrested at Dulles Airport in Virginia trying to leave the country. Federal agents charged Awan with bank fraud, the result of a months-long investigation.


Comment: It is reported that Awan wired $283K to Pakistan just prior to arrest.


Awan was one of five House contractors under investigation for stealing equipment from members' offices, exposing House information online, and other, potentially illegal violations on the House IT network.

Despite Awan being stripped of his House IT access and under investigation since February, Wasserman Schultz kept him on her payroll. The Florida Democrat later demanded the Capitol Hill police return a laptop pertinent to the investigation, threatening "consequences" if they did not.

Comment: The DNC is full of secrets and is running out of places to hide.

See also: Daily Caller and Gateway Pundit report that Wasserman Schultz has been "an absolute wreck" since her partner in crime's arrest:
'Florida politicos who have known Wasserman Schultz for years are telling me she's a nervous wreck, barely able to function since Imran Awan's arrest.' reports John Cardillo.





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Attention

Fox alleges that Awan bros aided Wasserman Schultz in making threatening phone calls to class action lawsuit attorneys

Elizabeth Vos
Disobedient Media
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 16:23 UTC
wasserman schultz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Lt. Colonel Tony Schaffer alleged on Fox News this evening that the Awan brothers may have aided Debbie Wasserman Schultz in making bizarre voice modulated phone calls to the offices of attorneys currently pursuing a litigating a class action lawsuit against Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC. If substantiated, the claims may have significance for the DNC fraud lawsuit proceedings, and add to the growing controversy surrounding the recent arrest of Imran Awan on bank fraud charges.

Jared Beck, and attorney litigating the DNC Fraud Lawsuit noted on Twitter:
jared beck tweet

Comment: Bad day to be Schultz! Could the DNC finally get what's been a long time coming? We can only hope. See also:

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Clipboard

Moscow: Up to U.S. which diplomats to send home


TASS
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 16:14 UTC
us embassy moscow
© Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev
Moscow has not pointed to the US who of its diplomatic missions' personnel should leave Russia, a source at the Foreign Ministry told TASS on Friday.

"The provision is by September first they should fit into the limit - not more than 455 people," she source said. "How they will do it is their concern."

The US embassy in Russia did not tell TASS how many diplomats are in Russia or, thus, how many will have to leave the country.

The source irrelevant the question about how many staff members are at the US diplomatic missions permanently in Russia as this figure is changing. Among the staff members, the source said, there are many employed citizens of the Russian Federation, some represent various US authorities who come to Russia for certain terms - not for long, but neither for short (a few days) trips.

Moscow has proposed to cut the number of diplomatic and technical staff working in the US Embassy to Moscow and the Consulates General in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok to the exact number of Russian diplomats and technical staff members working in the US before September 1. "That means that the total number of the staff engaged in US diplomatic and consular establishments will be reduced to 455 people," the Russian Foreign Ministry explained.

Comment: Even when the Russians retaliate, they're cleverer than the Americans. Not only does this "retaliation" come across as fair ("you can have as many as we have"), it forces U.S. officials to be the ones to actually choose who gets fired! U.S. politicians have been massively triggered by this, but they should keep in mind that Obama's decision to seize the Russian diplomatic building last year was a violation of international law. They have no good reason for sore feelings. See:

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Dollars

Washington will sign its own death warrant: New Russia sanctions will ensure the end of US dollar dominance


Russia Insider
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 15:30 UTC
Putin and Jinping
Trump is just a stroke of a pen away from ensuring the downfall of the US dollar.

An astonishingly daft bill is now sitting on Donald Trump's desk in the Oval Office-and signing it will all but guarantee the downfall of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Last night the US Senate almost unanimously approved the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Hailed by beacons of misery such as John McCain, the legislation is meant to punish Russia for all of its alleged election meddling.

In reality, by targeting Russia's energy sector, the bill will instead compel Washington's European vassals to abandon mutually beneficial energy cooperation with Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow will be free to solidify long-term economic and security cooperation with Beijing.

In other words: Washington is now insisting that Russia and China team up. Could anything be more short-sighted and self-defeating?
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Info

Shehbaz Sharif may be appointed Pakistani Prime Minister instead of dismissed brother


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 14:38 UTC
Shehbaz Sharif
© AP Photo/ Akira Suemori
The Pakistan Muslim League (N), the country's ruling party has approved Shehbaz Sharif the next Prime Minister after his brother Nawaz Sharif had been dismissed on July 28, Dawn publication reported Saturday citing sources.

At the same time, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was chosen as the interim prime minister for a period of about one and a half month, since Shehbaz Sharif, now the chief minister of Punjab province, should become a member of parliament in order to have the right to head the central government. The Pakistan Muslim League (N) party controls the majority in the parliament, so it is expected that there will be no problems with the formation of the government. Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman is expected to become the new head of the Punjab province.
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Chess

Trump faces down CIA, co-opts Pentagon on Syria (for now)

Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 14:18 UTC
obama syria cartoon
© Ben Garrison
The crazed, racist, stupid, boorish man in the White House "this summer defied the War Party and its corporate media mouthpieces, negotiating a cease-fire with the Russians in several regions of Syria, and possibly ending the CIA's not-so-covert role as Grandmaster of Islamic Jihad." Which makes him less dangerous to the human species than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

It's not like Donald Trump to "stifle" himself, as TV's Archie Bunker used to say, but the president has been relatively subdued about his decision, reportedly made last month, to terminate the CIA program that has armed, trained, directed and protected jihadist fighters in Syria. Trump's uncharacteristic reticence on the matter is understandable, given the agency's homicidal culture and history.

It is also likely that Trump's gaggle of White House generals, led by Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis and national security advisor H.R. McMaster, have kept the Pentagon in check, preventing a reprise of the mutiny that sabotaged President Obama's cease-fire and intelligence-sharing agreement with Russian forces in Syria, on September 17 of last year. In a blatant rebellion against civilian authority, U.S. warplanes killed 100 Syrian soldiers at Deir Ez-Zor, allowing ISIS to overrun half the city. The next week, with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at his side, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "The U.S. military role will not include intelligence sharing with the Russians." The Pentagon had "punked" lame duck President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry.
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Video

Nicolas Maduro interview: 'US-orchestrated violence in Venezuela, uses same model as events in Ukraine'


RT
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 14:12 UTC
Nicolas Maduro
© RT
The US is trying to "destroy" Venezuela and rob it of its resources with the model used in Ukraine's coup, but with violence "a thousand times worse," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told RT. He also explained how the National Constituent Committee was designed to reconcile the country torn by opposition riots.

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Radar

Pepe Escobar: When in doubt, nuke China

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 14:02 UTC
Scott Swift
© ReutersCommander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Brisbane, Australia, July 25, 2017.
A situation in which the US military feels 'unhampered' has precedent - and, as General MacArthur's endeavors in Korea prove, it's something to be afraid of.

The current collapse of the unipolar world, with the inexorable emergence of a multipolar framework, has enabled a terrifying subplot to run amok - the normalization of the idea of nuclear war.

The latest exhibit comes in the form of a US admiral assuring everyone he's ready to follow President Trump's orders to launch a nuclear missile against China.

Forget about the fact that a 21st century nuclear war involving great powers will be The Last War. Our admiral - admirably named Swift - is simply preoccupied by democratic minutiae, as in "every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us."

So it's all about loyalty to the President, and civilian control over the military - irrespective of the risk of incinerating untold masses of said civilians, Americans included (as there would be an inevitable Chinese response).
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Attention

South Korea and US missiles launched in response to North Korea test


RT
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 13:41 UTC
US and South Korea missile launches
© AFP
The US and South Korean militaries responded to North Korea's latest missile test with its own display of military strength, firing live surface-to-surface missiles from rocket launchers, amid renewed tension on the peninsula.

Videos posted by the South Korean Ministry of Defense show the US-made Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, as well as its own Hyunmoo Missile II.

The missiles hit the East Sea on Saturday morning, where North Korea's ballistic missile is believed to have landed, as part of a live-fire exercise to demonstrate its "precision firing ability," the US 8th Army said.

US Forces in Korea said two missiles were fired from the ATACMS along with two Hyunmoo system missiles.
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