Hello 'Pussy' it's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking:
You signed legislation on Wednesday imposing sanctions on Russia and limiting your own authority to lift them, but asserted that the measure included “clearly unconstitutional provisions” and left open the possibility that you might choose not to enforce them as lawmakers intended.
Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?
( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel,
' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )
Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
i'm very sad because I wasn't able to join Betty MacDonald Fan Club Royal Wedding Event in Stockholm.
I guess this was the most exciting Betty MacDonald fan club event ever.
Diana Rigg our ' Emma Peel ' is an excellent actor.
Did you ever see Diana Rigg as Arlena Marshall in Evil under the sun?
It's one of my favourite movies with Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith.
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Trump Signs Russian Sanctions Into Law, With Caveats
Trump Makes Sanctions Against Russia Official
Even before he signed the bill, the
Russian government retaliated by seizing two American diplomatic
properties and ordering the United States to reduce its embassy staff
members in Russia by 755 people.
By NATALIE RENEAU on Publish Date July 28, 2017. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed legislation on Wednesday imposing sanctions on Russia
and limiting his own authority to lift them, but asserted that the
measure included “clearly unconstitutional provisions” and left open the
possibility that he might choose not to enforce them as lawmakers
intended.
The legislation, which also includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea,
represented the first time that Congress had forced Mr. Trump to sign a
bill over his objections by passing it with bipartisan, veto-proof
majorities. Even before he signed it, the Russian government retaliated by seizing two American diplomatic properties and ordering the United States to reduce its embassy staff members in Russia by 755 people.
The measure reflected deep skepticism among lawmakers in both parties about Mr. Trump’s friendly approach to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and an effort to prevent Mr. Trump from letting the Kremlin off the hook for its annexation of Crimea, military intervention in Ukraine and its meddling in last year’s American election.
Rather
than the rapprochement Mr. Trump once envisioned, the United States and
Russia now seem locked in a spiral of increasing tension.
Unlike
other bills, Mr. Trump did not invite news media photographers to
record the event, nor did he say anything about it to reporters. He
ignored questions about the legislation at an unrelated event and
instead relegated his comments to two written statements, one meant for
Congress to describe caveats in his approval of the bill and the other
issued to reporters to explain his grudging decision to sign.
As
other presidents have in the past, Mr. Trump protested that Congress
was improperly interfering with his power to set foreign policy, in this
case by imposing waiting periods before he can suspend or remove
sanctions first imposed by former President Barack Obama while Congress reviews and potentially blocks such a move.
In
the statement to Congress, Mr. Trump said the bill “included a number
of clearly unconstitutional provisions.” Although he added that “I
nevertheless expect to honor” the waiting periods, he did not commit to
it. Moreover, he took issue with other provisions, saying only that he
”will give careful and respectful consideration to the preferences
expressed by the Congress.”
“This
bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on
the executive branch’s authority to negotiate,” Mr. Trump said in the
separate statement to reporters. “Congress could not even negotiate a
health care bill after seven years of talking. By limiting the
executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States
to strike good deals for the American people and will drive China, Russia and North Korea much closer together.”
“Yet
despite its problems,” he added, “I am signing this bill for the sake
of national unity. It represents the will of the American people to see
Russia take steps to improve relations with the United States. We hope
there will be cooperation between our two countries on major global
issues so that these sanctions will no longer be necessary.”
Like
Mr. Trump, who has offered no public comment or even a Twitter message
about the Russian order to slash the number of American embassy workers,
it appears that Mr. Putin has not completely given up on the idea of
establishing closer relations. The Russian government took its
retaliatory action before the president signed the bill so that it would
be a response to Congress, not to Mr. Trump.
After
Mr. Trump signed the measure on Wednesday, the Russian government
reaction was mild. “De facto, this changes nothing,” said Dmitri S.
Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, who was traveling with Mr. Putin in
the Russian Far East, according to the Interfax news agency. “There is
nothing new.”
He added that no new retaliation should be expected. “Countermeasures have already been taken,” he said.
A
senior Foreign Ministry official noted that worsening relations could
further unravel arms control cooperation, according to Interfax, but
seemed to suggest that would not happen. Noting that the two countries
are the world’s largest nuclear powers, Mikhail Ulyanov, the ministry’s
arms control director, said that “destroying indiscriminately everything
that there is in this sphere would be extremely unwise.”
Still,
for at least some prominent political leaders, the language on both
sides was caustic and offered little conciliation. Konstantin Kosachev,
head of the foreign affairs committee for the upper house of Parliament,
said Mr. Trump’s decision to sign the legislation showed that he
“caved” into pressure. “The U.S. leaves no chance for constructive
cooperation with Russia,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
And
Vassily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, said
the law would do nothing to change Moscow’s policies. “Those who
invented this bill, if they were thinking that they might change our
policy, they were wrong,” he told reporters. “As history many times proved, they should have known better that we do not bend, we do not break.”
American
lawmakers said the new law sent an important signal that Russia would
be held to account for its election interference and aggression toward
its neighbors. But the lawmakers expressed concern about whether Mr.
Trump would try to sidestep the measure.
The
president’s signing statement “demonstrates that Congress is going to
need to keep a sharp eye on this administration’s implementation of this
critical law and any actions it takes with respect to Ukraine,” said
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader.
Senator
Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Foreign
Relations Committee and a prime driver behind the legislation, said, “I
remain very concerned that this administration will seek to strike a
deal with Moscow that is not in the national security interests of the
United States.”
The Trump administration continues to send mixed messages about Russia.
Vice President Mike Pence, who has been visiting Eastern Europe in recent days to shore up allies nervous about an assertive Kremlin, told a group
of Balkan prime ministers on Wednesday that Russia sought “to redraw
international borders by force” and “undermine your democracies.”
“The
United States will continue to hold Russia accountable for its actions
and we call on our European allies and friends to do the same,” he said
in Montenegro, the latest Eastern European nation to join NATO. He noted that the president would sign the sanctions legislation.
“Let
me be clear, the United States prefers a constructive relationship with
Russia based on mutual cooperation and common interests,” Mr. Pence
said. “But the president and our Congress are unified in our message to
Russia: a better relationship and the lifting of sanctions will require
Russia to reverse the actions and conduct that caused sanctions to be
imposed in the first place.”
But
just a day earlier, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson offered a
somewhat different take, focusing on the potential for cooperation with
Russia in fighting the Islamic State and finding a resolution to the
civil war in Syria.
Rather than sounding unified with Congress, Mr. Tillerson complained
that lawmakers should not have passed the sanctions legislation.
“The
action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they
did, neither the president nor I are very happy about that,” he told
reporters on Tuesday. “We were clear that we didn’t think it was going
to be helpful to our efforts, but that’s the decision they made. They
made it in a very overwhelming way. I think the president accepts that.”
Follow Peter Baker on Twitter @peterbakernyt
Sophia Kishkovsky and Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Moscow.
Sophia Kishkovsky and Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Moscow.
