We've officially slipped over the edge and everyone should be scared as all hell. GOP lawmakers today broke ranks and filibustered even a straight vote to lift sanctions imposed by the US.Treasury last April on one of Russia's most wealthy Oleg Deripaska and other Russian companies. Democrats had voted to keep the sanctions in place on this Paul Manafort counterpart but GOP protected Trump to the extent that they're going to release those sanctions. This is all part of Putin's plan and Trump and these GOP Senators are boot-licking the Russians. We have built the Russians into our political platform. The are here, they aren't going anywhere. We all really need to be concerned about this. Today, Oleg Deripaska and Putin are jumping for joy. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/politics/senate-trump-russia-sanctions.html Democrats Fall Short in Effort to Rebuke Administration on Russia Sanctions WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Wednesday narrowly staved off an effort by Democrats to deal the Trump administration’s Russia sanctions policy an embarrassing rebuke. Eleven Republicans joined Democrats in a vote to enforce sanctions against the corporate empire of an influential ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, but the effort fell three votes short of the 60-vote threshold required to advance the measure. The vote was 57-42, with one Democratic senator not voting. The sanctions against companies controlled by the influential oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska, now seem destined to be lifted this week as part of a deal negotiated by the Treasury Department to reduce Mr. Deripaska’s ownership and control of the aluminum giant Rusal and two linked companies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Mine) Putin owns Trump and half the GOP Congress. Putin needed his oligarch's money, that's right...it's Putin's own oligarch's money on which Putin depends on. The U.S. Treasury put sanctions on these Russians for hacking the election and froze the assets of some of the wealthiest billionaires in Russia, all Putin's men. The republicans in Congress put up a vote to release those sanctions and give back Putin what he wanted to get him and his boys back in business. The democrats tried to block their bill that would release the sanctions. The republicans pulled a filibuster and bypassed the legislative process which overrides any blocking of their bill by democrats. I hope some of you on the right realize that this isn't fun and games anymore, this is serious stuff and our country is deeply infected with Russian influences.
There is more to this story. Basically, Trump admin promised to remove sanctions if Deribaska, the person who is being punished by these sanctions, gives up control of the company. It’s a major aluminum supplier in the world and sanctions hurt world supply. By the way, russian trolls were posting outrages here at the time this offer came up. They claimed Americans have no right to force owners to give up their property in Russia. I guess they were wrong.
