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On Dominoes, WMDs And Putin's "Aggression": Imperial Washington Is Intoxicated By Another Big Lie
Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,
Imperial Washington is truly running amuck in its insensible confrontation with Vladimir Putin. The pending round of new sanctions is a counter-productive joke. Apparently, more of Vlad’s posse will be put on double probation, thereby reducing demand for Harry Macklowe’s swell new $60 million apartment units on Park Avenue. Likewise, American exporters of high tech oilfield equipment will be shot in the foot with an embargo; and debt-saturated Russian state companies will be denied the opportunity to bury themselves even deeper in dollar debt by borrowing on the New York bond market. Some real wet noodles, these!
But it is the larger narrative that is so blatantly offensive—that is, the notion that a sovereign state is being wantonly violated by an aggressive neighbor arming “terrorists” inside its borders. Obama’s deputy national security advisor, Tony Blanken, stated that specious meme in stark form yesterday:
“Russia bears responsibility for everything that’s going on in Eastern Ukraine” and “has the ability to actually de-escalate this crisis,” Blinken said.
Puleese! The Kiev government is a dysfunctional, bankrupt usurper that is deploying western taxpayer money to wage a vicious war on several million Russian-speaking citizens in the Donbas—-the traditional center of greater Russia’s coal, steel and industrial infrastructure. It is geographically part of present day Ukraine by historical happenstance. For better or worse, it was Stalin who financed its forced draft industrialization during the 1930s; populated it with Russian speakers to insure political reliability; and expelled the Nazi occupiers at immeasurable cost in blood and treasure during WWII. Indeed, the Donbas and Russia have been Saimese twins economically and politically not merely for decades, but centuries.
On the other hand, Kiev’s marauding army and militias would come to an instant halt without access to the $35 billion of promised aid from the IMF, EU and US treasury. Obama just needs to say “stop”. That’s it. The civil war would quickly end, permitting the US, Russia and the warring parties of the Ukraine to hold a peace conference and work out the details of a separation agreement.
After all, what is so sacrosanct about preserving the territorial integrity of the Ukraine? Ever since the middle ages, it has consisted of a set of meandering borders in search of a nation that never existed owing to endemic ethnic, tribal and religious differences. Its modern boundaries are merely the fruit of 20th century wars and the expediencies of a totalitarian state during the decades of its rise, rule and disintegration.
There was until recently a neighboring “state” of equally artificial lineage called Czechoslovakia. It was carved out of the German and Austrian empires by the vengeful victors at Versailles, urged on by scheming Czech nationalists who coveted the resources of the Slovaks. But notwithstanding revolutions, the Stalinist oppression, the Cold War, the Prague Spring and all the rest of the 20th century mayhem—-the machinations at Versailles didn’t birth a state that was viable or sustainable. Accordingly, separation has been had, and the parties are better off for it—as are its neighbors and the larger world.
And on the topic of partition there is the ghost of Yugoslavia–another state that emerged in whole cloth from the madness of Versailles. Yes, it has been partitioned now into half a dozen smaller states—-Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo and Bosnia. But the operative point is that the partitioner was none other than Washington and its European groupies who had no regard for those happenstance 20th century-made borders when it suited their purpose.
So the sanctimonious yelping from Washington about the sacred territorial integrity of the Ukraine is ahistorical tommyrot. In fact, however, it is a thin fig leaf for a far more insidious purpose. Namely, the self-aggrandizement of the Warfare State machinery that was left stranded in Imperial Washington without purpose or justification when the Cold War ended two decades ago.
So the Warfare State machinery—including its spy network, state department, aid agencies and NGO supplicants— invented enemies and missions to justify their continued existence and their massive dissipation of fiscal resources. Those are upwards of $1 trillion annually if you count everything including veterans and homeland security.
Thus, after arming the mujahedeen in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s, their Taliban successors were deemed our enemy after the cold war ended—even though they never poised a scintilla of threat to the citizens of Lincoln NE or Worcester MA. So too with our 1980′s ally Saddam Hussein, and also with Khadafy, Assad and the warring tribal potentates and cutthroats of Yemen, Somalia and Waziristan, to name just a few.
But it is in eastern Europe that the Warfare State machinery has most egregiously made an enemy and mission out of whole cloth. As the Cold War was drawing to a close in the late 1980s, then Secretary of State James Baker made a sensible deal with Gorbachev. In return for Soviet acquiesce in the reunification of Germany, the US would insure that NATO did not expand by a “single inch”.
Since then, of course, there has been a senseless bipartisan betrayal and stampede in the opposite direction. Starting under Clinton and extending through Bush and Obama, NATO has been expanded from 16 nations at the end of the Cold War to 28 countries today.
Yet the very recitation of its new members underscores the historical farce that this needless expansion amounted to. For better or worse, the formation of NATO in the late 1940′s involved what were perceived to be vital national security interests against a Stalinist policy that by the lights of the hawks and militarists of the day amounted to a violation of his Yalta obligations. Accordingly, NATO constituted an alliance of real nations—England, France, Italy and West Germany—-that could make a meaningful contribution to collective security against the perceived Soviet threat of the times.
But Albania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia? And that is not to forget Moldova, Georgia, Macedonia and the Ukraine—all of which are still coveted for membership by the NATO apparatchiks. What could these micro-states possibly contribute to American security? That’s especially the case since the Warsaw pact had been dissolved; the Soviet Empire has erased from the pages of history; and the Russian successor was left with an Italian sized GDP encumbered with the destructive legacy of a state-dominated economy that had been appropriated by a passel of thieves, opportunists and oligarchs.
In short, today’s Ukrainian crisis is the outcome of the mindless 20-year drive of the Warfare State to push an obsolete NATO to the very doorstep of Russia, and into the messy remnants of the Soviet disintegration. Stated differently, Putin has been in power for 15 years, yet during 13 of those years there was no hue and cry from Washington, London and Brussels that he was an incipient Hitler bent on sweeping conquest. Even the so-called invasion of Georgia in 2008 was a tempest in a teapot provoked by local pro-Russian separatists who did not want to be ruled by a de facto American interloper in Tbilisi.
In any event, it was the $5 billion that Washington spent during the last decade meddling in Ukrainian politics, and finally inciting and financing the February overthrow of the country’s constitutionally elected government that precipitated the current civil war. It brought to power a new gang of crooks and thugs who could not govern for a day without tapping the Washington/Western financial lifeline. Indeed, the civil war now raging, the brutal military attacks on civilian populations and the hundreds of thousands of refugees now streaming out of the eastern regions are the result of a crisis made in Washington, not the Kremlin.
So the rebels— who properly fear for their lives and property were the nationalists and neo-fascists who run the Kiev government to prevail—are not “terrorists” by any stretch of the imagination. That is just insipid Washington propaganda. Instead, they are the Russian speaking remnant of the Soviet empire who fear an ethnic cleansing and who noted well the fate of their kinsmen in the hands of Ukrainian thugs during the fire at Odessa.
Once again, the American Warfare State has confected a false narrative to justify policies and missions that have nothing to do with the safety and security of the citizens of Lincoln NE and Wooster MA. About 55-years ago such a false narrative arose in the form of the “domino theory” that lead to the carnage of Vietnam. Ten years ago it cropped up in the form of the WMD story that led to the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. Today, it is the preposterous story of Ukrainian territorial integrity, terrorists in the East and a latter-day Hitler in the Kremlin.
Unfortunately, false narratives are what the Warfare State does.
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Just another goddamn hippy malcontent who doesn't understand how the goddamn commies plan to conquer the world.
It was commie appeasers like Stockman that caused the USA to lose the Vietnam war. Didn't he ever hear of the goddamn domino theory?
?????!!!!!!?????
I am going to miss this site after they shut it down.
Wow, just wow
Love it or leave it, hippy. And get a goddamn haircut!
the chosenness is strong in this one.
Real men say hippie
"not a real American"
Geez, I sure hope so.
He sets a new standard for moronicity.
Our beloved nation can endure only so much assinine stupidity.
Get out of the closet, it´s ok, you do not need to look tough.
it'll be closed down alright, after the planet is one big smolderin' nuke ash.
Has anyone here heard anything new about MH-17? Specifically about:
- the autopsies by Dutch forensic experts
- the confiscated ATC recordings
- the black boxes - as in official news that is not from an unnamed source
- the reason why the police delegations cancelled a trip to the crash site due to safety concerns at the same time parents of one victim visited and walked around at the crash site and apparently stayed alive during the process
I have seen absolutely zero news since the article regarding the black boxes that was based on an unnamed source that said the plane suffered and explosive decompression - well no shit sherlock, what a surprise that was - but has any official information whatsoever surfaced since then?
8 ball sez: Igor Kolomoisky
Guilty.
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/new-mh17-sensation-german-experts-point-finger-at-ukrainian-air-force-jets/
MH 17 info
next one german, use google translate.
http://www.anderweltonline.com/wissenschaft-und-technik/luftfahrt-2014/schockierende-analyse-zum-abschuss-der-malaysian-mh-017/
interesting.
http://www.presseportal.de/mobil/story.htx?mobil&nr=2791311&firmaid=59019
more german based info.
no idea if true but who can tell these days?Thank you! Very interesting.
I so hope that the culprits do not manage to bury this story and all the evidence. Evidence that most likely can be understood readily by people with a relevant background and training. I hope those professionals will start asking a lot of public questions too.
stockman speaks his mind...
the man is entitled to provoke discourse,
is he not?
are we hear? at zh,... fearful of free speech, whether it be spot-on, as said article is... is
viva... Modus vivendi
It was commie appeasers like Stockman that caused the USA to lose the Vietnam war.
Are you fucking high?
He had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VIETNAM WAR YOU FUCKING IDIOT.
Stockman was born in Fort Hood, Texas, the son of Allen Stockman, a fruit farmer, and Carol (née Bartz).[2] He is of German descent, and his family's surname was originally "Stockmann".[3] He was raised in a conservative family, and his maternal grandfather, William Bartz, was a Republican county treasurer for 30 years.[4][5] Stockman was educated at public schools in Stevensville, Michigan. He graduated from Lakeshore High School in 1964[6] and received a B.A. in history from Michigan State University, East Lansing, during 1968. He performed graduate studies at Harvard University, 1968–1970 and 1974–1975. He attended Harvard Divinity School.[7]
Stockman was elected to the United States House of Representatives for the 95th Congress and was reelected by two subsequent elections, serving from January 3, 1977, until his resignation January 21, 1981, to accept appointment as Director of the Office of Management and Budget for U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
QUOTES
"(Social Security) has to be means-tested. And Medicare needs to be means-tested...Let the Bush tax cuts expire. Let the capital gains go back to the same rate as ordinary income."[21]
"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility. They're on an anti-tax jihad -- one that benefits the prosperous classes."[22]
"I invest in anything that Bernanke can’t destroy, including gold, canned beans, bottled water and flashlight batteries."[23]
Source: Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stockman
Get a Brain and stop concerning yourself with the length of people's hair you fucking moron.
My locks and goatee are like Buffalo Bill's and I am a long haired Country Boy you asshole. I wear a fucking ResistolTM and Shit Kicker Boots, one that needs to be placed against your fucking ass hard as I kick it, because you are a stupid fuck.
So fuck you.
...cough... sarcastician at work ...cough...
I think your sarcasm meter could use a little recalibration.
He's pulling your leg.
So to speak.
NaRmerican,
If your humor isn't mean or disparging, it is not going to get a good reception here.
"War Is Coming" by Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/07/28/war-coming-paul-craig-roberts/
War is coming is about the only way TPTB know of to bail out the U.S. economy. Not that the economy is their worry.
It's just that it is a opportunity not to be wasted after the manufactured financial crisis. TPTB always love wars.
It keeps their military complex invested dollars growing and keeps the price of oil up since demand has been squashed
in the 'Peak Oil' scam that's gone awry. Big money is: owning tankers of oil and toilet paper factories. Think Kock Brothers.
Yes I mispelled it on purpose.
Rocker,
Regarding your "peak oil scam:"
Look at the Bakken. See 1900 new wells year over year ($10B). See only $700M in additional revenue. See your head come out of its ass?
I think you're right that TPTB think war will save them. And that simplemindedness is the greatest condemnation of their intelligence possible. Zero willingness to dig a little deeper to understand why WWII led to the post-war boom for the US. Hint: it's an anomaly. A huge anomaly. But they are just too bloody simpleminded to care.
Will the species 10 million years from now get our physiology right when they try to recreate us from our skeletons as we now do with the dinosaurs? Because dinoland seems relatively cool when compared to what these geniuses have created and are about to destroy.
Someone in the "deep State" wants a war with Russia so bad they can taste it. Who benefits is the question to ask, follow the money in that answer and the warmonger will be exposed.
There is more than one who wants war with Russia; where are a bunch of 50-somethings with degrees in Russian and Soviet affairs, like Condoleeza Rice, going to get jobs if the "war" with Russia ends? However, that does not explain Obama. He is clearly encouraging this escalation toward war (and the Washington war machine does not need any encouraging). Why Russia? It is completely out of character for Obama. His tepid response to the military-industrial-complex efforts to scare up war in Syria and other muslim states,in China, coupled with his less-than-tepid support for Israel´s warmongering, his draw-down of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his decreasing the military budget all speak to a president who is not a war-for-the-sake of war guy. But with Russia, he is all-war all-the-time. It is personal to Obama, and frankly, I think it is the gay issue. There is no other real issue that is likely the cause of the intense and personal animosity he feels for Putin. I truly think Obama wants to go to war over Russia´s distaste for homosexuality.
Secretly, Obama wishes it was Vlad's balls slapping against his ass instead of Reggie, ROTFL
AGENDA 21
and this long history...the one hour version contains more factsor read the book by John Perkins
Confessions of an economic hitmanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsB07CcSNw
I keep saying it...Obama has no real power. He's an autocue reader reading what his handlers provide for him. What's more he doesn't care.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts ( who should know) says the neocons have always wanted to nuke Russia.
(They are still around and they surround Obama.)
What is it about these fucking neocon assholes?
Somebody clue me in.
You are right. Someone wants a big war. Why? Because a war would give a boost to the EU and .USA economies. The powers in Washington and Brussrls know that the money printing will not solve the economic woes. Real demand and production for war materials will create jobs, and unemployment will be further reduced when the draft is reinstated and all the unemployed youth will be killed as cannon fodder. Economic problems solved.
One of the many reasons I'm an anarchist.
"I am an Anarchist"... Dude, put down the pipe.
I agree as...
THERE ARE NO POLITICAL SOLUTIONS.
It's Worcester, MA. Odd I know.
Odder still is the fact it is pronounced Wooster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czw5sP2E7s8
nice catch... cd
Intoxicated is a good choice - Insensible not so much. Obomber must be completely insulated by Yes Men and Yes Lesbos.
GREAT ARTICLE!!!
People who seek national positions of power in ALL nations are dangerous. They genuinely believe that they are "right" and that their worldview is worth sending other people's kids to fight for. They are paranoid and delusional, and I use both those terms in their technical senses. This current group in Washington and the capitals of western Europe are so used to getting their way, they are even more dangerous than usual. They genuinely cannot see that they are evil. They don't understand it, because in their minds, by definition they are the good guys. And good guys cannot be on the wrong side of history. This is a great setup for the ongoing slide back (VERY far back) into a more primitive existence. Millions (probably billions) will die in the process. That's guaranteed. The only question now is how fast it happens, long slow bleed or rapid disease or war accounting. History suggests the more rapid version. We really are living the Chinese curse. There could not be a more interesting time to live.
Dear Washington,
Please refrain from starting WW3 right in the middle of the worst outbreak of ebola in human history.
that would just irresponsible.
regards,
marcusfenix
Nato needs a set of countries to act as a buffer between Europe and Russia.
Otherwise all of Europe's citizens will try and escape to Russia.
/?
They just need to keep people distracted with bizarre headlines, overfed on pink slime burgers and entertained by reality TV long enough to rip them off and line their own pockets.
Gay and lesbian socialist are going to start www.3, how did we arrive at this dark situation?. Oh yeah they are running out of other people's money
Uki military firing surface to surface Ballistic Missiles
In the past two days Kiev’s forces have launched several short-range ballistic missiles into areas in East Ukraine controlled by self-defense forces, CNN reports, citing US government sources.
http://rt.com/news/176484-cnn-ballistic-missiles-ukraine/
stopped reading at "running amuck"
If you kept a dictonary nearby, you could probably get through through the whole article.
He is not here to learn. He is here to push an agenda as he is a TROLL.
Everybody is a TROLL Tom it seems when they disagree with you, your world must be full of TROLLS, lol.
Blinken
War is upon us.
Here's The Big Lie, done by venal journalism, to our Red, White & Blue.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/condemn-venal-journalism-for-severely-fool...
David Stockman can’t seem to figure out why the U.S. is doing all of this stupid shit in Ukraine. Here’s part of the reason:
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko is the fifth and current President of Ukraine. Known as Chocolate King, Poroshenko is Jewish. Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi is a Ukrainian-Cypriot-Israeli super rich business oligarch of Jewish descent and the current Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Kolomoisky has publicly spoken of Ukraine as the “second homeland” of the Jewish people.
Here’s the other part:
http://henrymakow.com/2014/07/russian-sovereignty-under-attack.html
Read it and weep.
'The Putin `Doctrine'
Forward: since the Bolshevik revolution (oct/1917) and, the 'Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (nov/1918) the USSR Empire failed miserably (basically under Stalin's Iron`Fist from 1922/ 53 (Lenin's dies in 1922, and stalin dies in 1953 / ~31 years of Stalin's totalitarian rule!). Khrushchev tries his best, but subsequently fails, with the last of the 'Bolshev`hicans all dying off... because of a failure to communicate? The grand finale-- dec/1991... the once great, 'Marxist Socialist Project' had bid farewell (touching upon the proverbial cusp of 75 years young?),... the USSR was no moar?
From 1992/2011 the Russian Federation was passive and accomodating to the west. But, the Civil War in Syria brought out the 'Bear Claws!'. Why had Turkey and Qatar fomented this unnecessary war? Was Russia really worried about Qatar's natgas feeding into Europe via Iraq/Syria/Turkey?
Before I go any further, I'd like to retrace some exogenous events that precipitated the Syrian event (Syrian is a strong ally of Russia, perhaps the only ally it has in the ME since the early 60's?). There's this financial contagion crisis in the USSA 2007-08 that goes global in a nano second. Soon it would reach the shores of Cyprus and Greece. The 'Greece (the Greek Bailout 2012) Contagion'... rears it's ugly head on neighboring Cyprus (2012-13 Cypriot Financial Crisis), where Russian oligarch (black money?) held vast sums of money? Unfortunately they were Russian... you know, the bad guys laundering their dirty fiat`linen? They must be punished? So the USSA along with it's partners in crime 'INC' (WB/ IMF etel?) call for a bail-in, demanding an unheard of partial default of Cyprus (who the fuck caused it in the first place?!?). Needless to say, the Russian oligarch lose big-tyme.
My point here is the very fact that Turkey (was once an ally of USSA?) and the British both have strategic military bases on Cyprus ( Kennan containment with Cyprus and Greece), and now both Greece and Cyprus owe their very existance to? You guessed it, the USSA. Geographically they can box the Russian's coming from the Crimean Black Sea by way of Turkey's (Turkey is playing with fire!?!) 'Dardanelles Strait, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a narrow channel of water that connects the Aegean Sea to the Sean of Marmara (Note: during the 19th century the Ottoman's forced Austria, France and the UK... etel, to pressure Russia to capitulate, eventually ending in a Russian defeat in the Crimean War) which is vital for Russian (Int'l Freedom of the Seas) existence, period!
Which brings me to my(?) final conclusion... that, the 'Fuck the Europeans', Nuland's... one a Neo-con and the other a Dem`A-con could care less about the Ukraine revolution (Euromaidan Nov. 21, 2013) coup d`etat! Who cares if Nazi's or Fascist/ Despotic goverment rule the roost as long as the USSA's 'Triple-Play (Eisenhower/ Truman/ Monroe Doctrine) rule's the day!
So what if Russia says, enough is enough regarding Syria, and now Ukraine. I'm glad for the Crimean people wisely choosing to Russian Federation annexation, in Mar/2014.
What all this tells me... is only about a personal vindetta with a certain communist?backdoor canadian transplant from Poland (Royalty I might add losing his inheritance is... a big fuck you to Zig`B). This 'Euroasian Chessboard' pollack that can't say when?, when he doesn't know that the table'd`clock has run-out on the 'Battle for Ukraine' circa 1997!!!
So, there you have it. The timeline of strategic roadblocks put in place for a country (Russia) with a determined leader but 14 years at the helm... in order to show that the USSA is truly exceptional!?!
great read
Thankyou Tyler
as always ' JMO"
A review of a brief period in Jewish history might be instructive with respect to the current times:
Zealotry was originally a political movement of the 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70). This was in high contrast to Jesus who famously told his Jewish followers, “… for all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matt. 26:52).”
The Zealots objected to Roman rule and violently sought to eradicate it by targeting Romans and Greeks and Jewish dissenters. Another group, related to the Zealots, were the Jewish Sicarii, who raided Jewish villages and homes and killed Jews who dissented from their views or who they thought might be collaborators. Josephus paints a very bleak picture of their activities as they instituted what he characterized as a murderous "reign of terror" prior to the Jewish Temple's destruction.
Sicarii (Latin plural of Sicarius "dagger-men") is a term applied to this extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots. The Sicarii carried small daggers, concealed in their cloaks, hence their name. At public gatherings, they pulled out these daggers to attack Romans or even Jews who wanted to live in peace with Rome, blending into the crowd after the deed to escape detection. Not surprisingly, Judas, one of the twelve Apostles, was a Sicarii.
At the beginning of the Jewish Revolt of 66 CE, the Sicarii, along with Zealot helpers, gained access to Jerusalem and committed a series of atrocities, in order to force the population to war [now referred to as “false flag” attacks]. In one account, given in the Talmud, the Zealots and Sicarii destroyed the Jewish food supply in Jerusalem so that the people would have no choice but to fight against the Roman siege instead of waiting it out and negotiating a peace. Normally, Jerusalem had enough food in reserve to endure a lengthy siege. However, the loss of these reserves led to a devastating famine. Josephus records that bands of cutthroats roamed the streets murdering entire families for even a morsel of food. Many resorted to cannibalism.
Somehow a number of the Zealot leaders escaped the Roman onslaught. Together with a small band of zealots, they made their way to the abandoned fortress of Masada where they continued their resistance to the Romans until 73 CE, when the Romans took the fortress. According to Josephus, the Roman soldiers found that most of the Zealots had committed suicide rather than surrender.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealotry
Some things never change. And the more they change, the more they remain the same. This is the mentality you are dealing with. They will use any means to get what they want.
thankyou for that history :-) , much appreciated
'an eye for an eye, leaves the world blind'
unknown author
False narratives have always been what the US has traded on since WW2.
And now the USD and US economy and debt signals the end of empire coming.....thus their extreme desperation and actions, they don't even worry of creating another global conflict as they think that might be good for them.
Through their owned media they maybe able to confuse and bullshit a sleep sheeple, but nations will know exactly what is going down. Right now there has be many US allies and cohorts who are wondering if it is worthwhile and the worth the risk following the US down its new madman path which undoubtedly hurt them more than the US.
The answer is execute all bankers after wars...mandatory....see how many wars happen then.
Hahahahaha, Russian embargo. What makes anyone think US companies will be out of pocket due to sanctions on Russia. from memory Iran sanvtions prevented banks from transacting business with them. From memory it was illegal to launder Mexican cartel drug money.
If Obama imposes a santion, which TLA department in the US government will actually police it.
Putin is laughing all the way to the Bank.....
Wahooo's Corollary: The bigger the government, the bigger the lies.
Sounds about right.