One day after signing the Russia sanctions bill, with a long signing statement complaining about it, President Trump is still critical of the bill, today declaring it to have put US-Russia relations at “an all time, very dangerous low.”
Trump is not wrong in that regard, as US-Russia ties have been progressively worsening in the past couple of years, and this latest bill led Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to warn that the US had effectively started an all-out trade war.
Yet President Trump’s declaration that this situation is all Congress’ fault rings hollow, since the White House has insisted for weeks that Trump would sign the bill, and he in fact did so, despite having such a huge problem with it.
Indeed much of the Trump Administration is continuing to steer into the Russia conflict at every opportunity, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blaming Russia for the worsening of ties, on the grounds that Russia retaliated against repeated US moves against them.
Trump’s own position is more in keeping with the position of improved relations he campaigned on, and with the reality of what’s driving growing tensions. At the same time, his talking points appear to stop just short of being willing to take any concrete action to resist Congress on the matter, or even to not overtly enable them by signing problematic sanctions bills.
There is a real and frightening situation in the “US Congress” which pretends to represent the citizens of the USA and one would hope their interests, when all but five of the members vote for a vicious, biased, dangerous and provocative law to “punish” their alleged adversaries, which seem also to include most of their allies in the EU.
International law is forgotten, US law has to dominate the globe as everyone else is a US vassal, and these are the “good guys”????
The fundamental error which candidate Trump made is that he had not assured sufficient anchors in the political establishment. He was not a politicians politician. He was a businessman and was as such not much liked.
It is true that successful (in terms of legislation) presidents such as FDR were aided by special circumstances but FDR was a politicians politician who had very widespread support in the nation.
FDR had a lot of pushback from the rich and influential who thought he was “betraying his class” in the efforts he put in place to help the people but also help capitalism. He was in the right place at the right time.
You’re absolutely correct, Dieter, candidate Trump made a fundamental error of not assuring sufficient anchors in the political establishment. He wasn’t a politician, period .. He was a businessman, and as such, wasn’t much liked.
FDR was, indeed, a politician’s politician, but he was also a conniver and deceiver. His administration was riddled with Bolsheviks, who were already plotting war against Adolf Hitler’s Germany, despite the fact that the US was still mired in the Depression and high unemployment.
The best and most admired POTUS in post-WWII America was John F. Kennedy. JFK was young and charismatic (he enjoyed making journalists and foreign leaders laugh with his jokes), and both he and his wife, First Lady Jacqueline, were greeted by huge, cheering crowds everywhere they traveled. He was also courageous, dismissing CIA Director Allen Dulles following the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba; then blockading Cuba to force the Soviets to remove their nuclear missiles from the island. His actions also made him a bulls-eye in the minds of the Trotskyists and other groups .. And on 22 Nov. 1963, he was assassinated as his motorcade traveled through Dallas and to Dealey Plaza.
Call or write your Congress Critters and Senators like I did. And let them know this march to War with Russia. That is based on groundless evidence. Is unacceptable and they will be voted out of office. They’re suppose to be working for us the American people and not the Neocons/Israel.
Call or write your Congress Critters and Senators like I did. And let them know this march to War with Russia. That is based on groundless evidence. Is unacceptable and they will be voted out of office. They’re suppose to be working for us the American people and not the Neocons/Israel.
You are right, and the call to Senator Gillibrand about the anti-BDS bill seems to have had an effect. All citizens, even those too discouraged to vote,need to keep their “reps” on their toes about issues-many do not even read the bills they vote for.
I am NOT an American so cannot do this. I live in France so you can imagine my lack of enthusiasm for the Micron(sic) and his team of pro-EU and especially pro-corporatist and pro-rich keen new cabinet members!
Meanwhile the Pentagon announces world-wide war games in preparation for dealing with Russia.
That sounds like Trump is actually right about this.
Getting Trump has taken priority over the national interests of the country. Partisanship over all. The Republicans did that for too long, and now they are all doing it.
These people need to get over themselves.
No Mr Fancysuit, your politics are NOT worth ending all life on earth.
Antiwar.com is partially to blame for pandering to liberals by taking the McCarthyite scare seriously. By doing this you assisted in the sanctions fever and the run up to nuclear war with Russia. Not very anti-war to me!
A genuine anti-war site would have deconstructed this McCarthyite propaganda a long time ago.
don’t read raimondo?