sanctions

Image from Creative Resistance by Natasha Mayers, Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT)

McCain mutiny, echo chamber and 'The Empire Files' shutdown + this day in history w/the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan and our song of the day by Atreyu on your Morning Monarchy for August 27, 2018.

I felt it was too important to miss especially in these current sanctioned and trade tariff times. Pioneering this effort is an American company called Relex (RLX), the world’s first cryptocurrency-based real property development and investing group.
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In a recent speech made to Congress last week, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker has confirmed that the US Treasury has frozen Russian-owned assets in the United States worth hundreds of millions of dollars as part of Washington’s sanctions campaign against Moscow since 2013.

“The actions of the US Treasury have had significant consequences for the financial interests of individuals and businesses that were affected, including the blocking of hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian assets in the United States.”

Having warned several weeks ago it would impose sanctions on Russia for its alleged use of the Novichok chemical agent in the UK, on Friday morning the US followed through with the threat when the U.S. released a notice of sanctions, saying they will take effect when published in Federal Register on Aug. 27.
The sanctions will include foreign assistance, arms sales, denial of U.S. government credit through the ExIm bank, other financial assistance, and will remain in place for at least one year and until further notice.

The Iraqi government is worried about US sanctions imposed on Iran, which seem to have a negative impact on the Iraqi economy too.
There is currently political unrest in Iraq, as the protests calling for economic reforms have restarted.
Baghdad declared that it would ask Washington to exempt Tehran from the sanctions because the Iraqi economy depends on the Iranian economy.

On Wednesday August 22, the latest sanctions set against Russia by the US go into effect. These sanctions have already exacted a toll on the Ruble sending it into the high sixties against the dollar last week. At the time of this writing the ruble has only slightly improved from the worst level since the announcement, and this round of sanctions is the most painful since the Ruble hit a crippling level of 83 to the dollar in late 2015.

21st Century Wire says…
Last week, we told you about a new ‘Iran Action Group’ the US established to coordinate all of its anti-Iran policies – a brainchild no doubt of fellow neocons Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Sanctions left and sanctions right. Financial mostly, taxes, tariffs, visas, travel bans, confiscation of foreign assets, import and export prohibitions and limitations; and also punishing those who do not respect sanctions dished out by Trump, alias the US of A, against friends of their enemies. The absurdity seems endless and escalating exponentially, as if there was a deadline to collapse the world. Looks like a last-ditch effort to bring down international trade in favor of — what?  Make America Great Again? – Prepare for US mid-term elections? Rally the people behind an illusion?

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org: