sanctions

Is the party over for the ruling class?
Mass complicity

With the likes of John Bolton and Elliot Abrams directing US foreign policy, the US government has abandoned all pretense of “plausible denial” for its illegal regime-change initiatives. The “humanitarian” bombs may not be falling but, make no mistake, the US is waging a full-bore war against the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.

Tony Cartalucci
21st Century Wire
The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently renamed US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports “freedom gas.” But freedom for who? For Europe who already has a cheap and reliable source of natural gas, but is being forced to switch over to more expensive US gas under the threat of sanctions? Certainly not.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a self-described “human rights” NGO (non-governmental organization), has been circulating a June 1 press release ostensibly urging the return of democracy to Venezuela.

In early May, MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow — known as one of the top promoters of the new Cold War and Russiagate in American media — emphatically endorsed regime change in Venezuela after she claimed that President Donald Trump’s hawkishness towards the South American country had changed, all because of a single phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Far from promoting geopolitical stability, the current Administration in Washington has instead chosen to agitate against Iran, after it discarded the 2015 landmark JCPOA nuclear agreement.   This despite the fact Tehran was in full compliance of the agreement. Since then, the US has only intensified its brutal economic sanctions regime with the aim of choking Iranian society and eventually overthrowing their current government.

While Trump threatens Iran and Venezuela with new wars, 400 Congress members, including leaders from both parties, want to intensify…
The post Bipartisan thirst for more war: 75% of Congress calls on Trump to boost intervention in Syria, to ‘pressure’ Iran and Russia appeared first on The Grayzone.

The US sent Energy Secretary Rick Perry to the inauguration of the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to announce the sanctions bill on Gazprom’s Nordstream 2 pipeline would pass.
I can’t tell what’s more pathetic at this point, the neocons in Trump’s administration thinking that sanctions actually achieve their goals or using them to suck up to a new president they don’t actively control yet.

President Donald Trump’s use of the most vicious aspects of economic warfare prompt another examination of the politics of starvation.

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — The U.S. government is preparing to levy sanctions against officials associated with Venezuela’s food subsidy program known as CLAP, the latest in a long list of unilateral coercive measures against the country.
The new sanctions follow a report by the Center for Economic Policy Research, which stated that 40,000 Venezuelans have died because of sanctions imposed by the Trump administration that prevent life-saving medicines and food from getting into the country.