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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The new Sanctions are particularly interesting, since several of the oligarchs targeted are major shareholders in Western Companies that do business with the US, and forces them to cut ties. This should have an effect.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which manages financial sanctions for the Treasury Department, issued two licenses granting American businesses and individuals a short window to unload equity or debt holdings related to these sanctioned companies and to wind down business relationships. The licenses signal that Treasury anticipates these seven oligarchs are extensively intertwined with American companies and capital markets. While U.S. businesses may find it complicated and costly to extricate themselves, that very entanglement also means that the subjects of sanctions may stand to lose their shirts. Time will tell...
edited 11th Apr '18 11:07:28 AM by megaeliz
@Angelus Nox: So we should let Assad continue to violate international treaties and gas his own people? Inaction in Syria except watching it from afar is what gave us the latest chemical attack and the free russian reign there, glad Trump went back on his decision.
Life is unfair...Another Trump tweet.
edited 11th Apr '18 11:31:29 AM by megaeliz
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If we were talking about a normal administration I would completely agree with you, but we're not. Trump is incredibly lazy and incompetent he is not the sort of President we need launching interventions or any form of military action.
Bluster aside, the question just comes down to whether we think we should be launching a strike now. Even normal presidents aren't military experts, most of the actual details of a strike would be left to various planners in the Do D. Trump wouldn't really have all that much say over the ins and outs of a strike once he authorized it.
His tweets today are odd.
These three tweets were all from this morning. Can anyone see which tweet is the odd one out?
edited 11th Apr '18 11:54:47 AM by megaeliz
Number two. It sounds like someone intelligent wrote it.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
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This. The DOD handling the day to day operations doesn't mean that military actions under Trump isn't something that wouldn't be counter-productive or myopic.
I was thinking #1 in that it's the only one that's combative towards Russia while the other two aren't.
edited 11th Apr '18 12:16:42 PM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangIn the wake of Ryan's decision to retire, 7 House seats have moved towards the Democrats.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/11/politics/house-race-ratings-ryan-retirement-update/index.html
Records relating to the Access Hollywood tape were a focus in the Cohen raid. Looks like they are looking for more coverups and potential fraud, etc.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/11/politics/michael-cohen-raid-access-hollywood/index.html
Man, this might balloon into its own scandal, fraud and bribery to suppress a ton of Trump's dirty laundry. And its probably easier to get charges on this than Russian collusion.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.You know, there's something that's been niggling at the back of my mind regarding Trump's tweeting style, primarily the overuse of parentheses in them. It just struck me today reading the "I (we)" tweet as to who it reminds me of - Chris-chan. And given how much attention that person gets, I'm suddenly far less surprised by how many are entertained by Trump's antics.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
It's entirely being handled by the New York Division of the FBI, acting on a tip that was directed to them by the Mueller team. The mostly likely reason is that they found evidence of a possible crime that was outside the scope of the Muller investigation. And since he and Rosenstein are good civil servants, they did their due diligence and directed it to the appropriate authorities.
As a bonus, this also means trump can't do anything about it.
edited 11th Apr '18 12:44:14 PM by megaeliz
Yeah, at the very least Cohen will get charged (or be threatened with charges in an effort to flip him, unlikely because as we've seen Cohen is personally loyal to Trump, and he's almost like family), most talking head lawyers on the news said that no judge would authorize a raid on the president's lawyer without a damn good reason.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
I did see this in an AP Article about him.
Cohen told CNN on Tuesday that the FBI agents were “extremely professional, courteous and respectful” but acknowledged the experience was “upsetting to say the least.”
During the campaign, he was involved with a plan to help the Trump Organization build a tower in Moscow and in October 2016 brought Trump a letter of intent from a Russian developer. Later, he sent an email to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman seeking help to advance the stalled project. He said he did not recall receiving a response.
Interest in his ties to Russia only intensified in February 2017, when it was revealed that Cohen had hand-delivered a Moscow-friendly plan to settle the dispute in Ukraine to Gen. Michael Flynn, then Trump’s national security adviser. Cohen later testified to Congress about the proposal and denied wrongdoing.
edited 11th Apr '18 1:10:42 PM by megaeliz
So according to CNN, Trump 's morning outburst meant diddly-squat as they are still deciding just what to do about Syria, as well as consulting with Macron and May about the possibility of a joint strike. However, some Rebublicans are concerned that such a strike may now not happen as Trump's tweet makes doing so that much more complicated, with more potential ramifications then there otherwise would be.
In other words, Trump's first tweet was basically Fire and Fury redux. Pure impulse with no actual substance behind it. But it was still enough to give everyone the willlies.
Trump seems to have no awareness whatsoever that his tweet storms sabotage his own policy options. It's bizarre, even for someone so deeply afflicted with NPD.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Which would make for great conspiracy fodder at that - "Trump gave Russia a heads-up before we were even done deliberating!"
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

Unless the seized/frozen assets branch into his properties, he's probably in the clear on that.