We really shouldn’t be surprised. Trump reluctantly signed legislation named for the late Lindsey Graham imposing significant new sanctions on Russia last month but he had no intention of allowing them to be implemented. Sure enough, he’s signed an Executive Order pausing the sanctions with only a couple of days left to implement them. Between the deal to buy Russian diesel to give Putin a much needed cash infusion, then choking off intel and Starlink access to Ukraine so Russian missiles and drones could kill Ukrainians it was already clear Putin has told Trump he’d damn well better deliver and right NOW. With this newest betrayal Trump might as well announce once and for all he intends to deliver Ukraine to Putin no matter what it takes.
This is sickening. And it might just tip the surprisingly close South Carolina Senate race to the Democrats. Graham’s sister Darlene made a big deal about that sanctions package her brother Lindsey had worked on. She even talked about how she wished he’d lived to see it signed into law. Now she’s probably glad he’s not able to see what Trump, who he sucked up to for so long has just done. However there’s a tidbit in this article from The Guardian about Darlene meekly (yeah, she’s a Graham after all) making excuses. I’ll get to that but let’s deal with the main news.
Trump has told Congress it’s in the National Interest to hold up on the sanctions. Just who’s interest is he talking about because it’s sure as hell not ours. NATO knows full well what Trump has done will both prolong the war and buy more time for Putin to get lucky and somehow take over Ukraine. That means Poland would be next, and the dominos would continue to fall, fulfilling Putin’s dream of recreating the old USSR. How the hell that’s in OUR National Interest is a question Trump should be hammered with over and over again. But he’s given Putin a financial lifeline Putin/Russia desperately needs:
in an executive order on Friday, the US president said he was waiving many sanctions, restrictions and duties on Russia, in a move that comes as he has been publicly criticising Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including suggesting that Ukraine needs a new leader.
Trump signed the legislation last month, after Congress passed the measure in an act of rare bipartisan agreement. It sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fuelling Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The legislation – whose primary backer in Congress was the late senator Lindsey Graham – sanctions Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving and was due to be implemented in two days.
It also directs Trump to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports.
In the past week instead of throwing throwing three hard strikes at Putin, doing a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ number on him Trump has chosen to lob three batting practice speed pitches for Putin to hit out of the ballpark. Worse, it’s clear he will keep doing it as long as it takes for Putin to get the upper hand in Ukraine.
It will take a few minutes but I urge you to read the linked article. If you don’t have the time I want to expand on something I said I’d get to which is Darlene Graham and the South Carolina Senate race. When she was appointed to fill out her brother’s term she said that would be it. Of course, being a Republican she lied and is running for a full six years. Her campaign has been flat, and gaffe prone and while I wouldn’t have bet on it her challenger has made a race out of it. In case you forgot Darlene gave a dumbass answer on a foreign policy question saying she didn’t bother to keep up on such things as foreign policy and national defense. Right then and there the voters she assumed were hers said WHAT? And began to doubt her.
Lindsey had developed a love/hate relationship with voters there. It’s a state with strong military ties and also host foreign owned manufacturing. Lindsey was their guy because he delivered, and while they lost respect over his groveling to Trump once John McCain was out of the picture they loved their Trumpy Bear. Lindsey could sometimes get through to Trump on things they believe in and the combination of Russia sanctions and helping Ukraine were things they liked seeing him work on. Lindsey’s butt kissing might have bugged them but he got done what they wanted.
Darlene? She’s clearly got the butt-kissing part down pat:
The US sanctions legislation has also become a campaign centerpiece for Senator Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister appointed to serve out the remaining months of his term, who is also running to replace him in the Senate more permanently.
In a debate earlier this week with South Carolina Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, Graham – who has Trump’s endorsement and is expected to campaign with him in South Carolina next week – said she had been “so proud” to help get the measure passed but acknowledged it was Trump’s purview as to how he implemented it.
“It gives the president tools that he can use, if he so chooses, to end the war through economic sanctions,” Graham during the debate in Columbia. “So that’s up to him as to whether or not he wants to use it, or whether he wants to use something else, but I think the purpose of it is to bring down the gas prices and ultimately end the war. And when the war ends, gas prices will fall.”
Lindsey would have continued to fight FOR Ukraine and against Putin/Russia. Darlene it seems won’t. With voting now starting it’s going to be interesting to see if this costs Darlene Graham and the GOP that Senate seat. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
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