The House and Senate have foolishly and purposely made it almost impossible for the US to have any credibility in the eyes of the rest of the world. By passing new Russian sanctions with a veto proof majority, they have at least at the moment, completely eliminated any chance for the US and Russia to be able to work together to stop North Korea and China, and have severely damaged Trump’s ability to be commander-in-chief. They have ignored the century long strategy of balancing of the super powers, which has always been to side with Russia against China or China against Russia, but never allow Russia and China against the US. We have already begun to enter a trade war against China which is going to get very nasty, not to mention our differences with them in the South China Sea. I didn’t think it possible for any US House and Senate to be worse than during the Obama years, but I was wrong. I have never seen a more foolish, inept, ineffective and damaging House and Senate than the one we have today. Their conduct and actions over the last seven months have made the US the laughing stock of the world.

Russia warned that if the US passed sanctions and did not stop all this foolishness there would be consequences and unlike the US, these are not empty threats. They have now expelled 700-1000 US diplomats and seized US compounds and I guarantee you this is only the beginning. Russia is devastatingly better at intelligence gathering, espionage, negotiation and military strategy than the US. This move may very well go down as one of the worst mistakes the US House and Senate have ever made and hopefully will not lead to even greater consequences. The damage is not irreparable, however the whole politically motivated, meaningless and baseless Russian collusion investigation needs to cease, or the US will continue to descend into greater dysfunction and irrelevance at home and abroad.

Russia to Cut 755 U.S. Diplomats, Staff Amid New Sanctions (7-30-17) WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-force-out-755-u-s-diplomats-and-staff-1501447537
Vladimir Putin Expels More Than 700 U.S. Diplomats From Russia, Seizes U.S. Compounds (7-30-17) http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/30/vladimir-putin-expels-more-than-700-u-s-diplomats-from-russia-seizes-u-s-compounds/
China Parades New Missile in Warning to Rivals Abroad and at Home (7-30-17) WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-new-missile-a-warning-to-rivals-abroadand-at-home-1501409739?mod=nwsrl_asia_news&cx_refModule=nwsrl
Russia and China Hold First Joint Naval Exercises in Baltic Sea (7-25-17) Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-25/russia-and-china-hold-first-joint-naval-exercises-in-baltic-sea
Russian Scientists Design Stormtrooper Uniform for Military (7-1-17) Blaze http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/01/russian-scientists-design-stormtrooper-uniform-for-military-and-it-looks-incredible/
Is Putin the Preeminent Statesman of Our Times (3-31-17) American Conservative – Patrick Buchanan http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/is-putin-the-preeminent-statesman-of-our-times/

Contrary to most media reports, the G-20 Summit on Friday and Saturday was a great success.  Previous to the meeting most US media posted articles expressing fear that Trump would be taken advantage of by Putin, but the results and an EU body language expert point to an opposite conclusion.  Trump doesn’t get intimidated by anyone, especially the media.  Apparently, the G-20 Summit participants were intimidated by Trump, as he was able to change the G-20 member positons:

• Trump persuaded them to ‘agree to disagree’ on climate issues and soften the trade language associated with it
• He also helped protect the US steel industry from illegal and unfair trade practices of various nations, like China dumping steel and under cutting the rest of the world

His scheduled 30 minute meeting with Putin lasted 2.5 hours, and apparently the press has no idea what they talked about or you would be hearing about it.  The one thing we do know is that Trump and Putin in two hours did what the rest of the world hasn’t been able to do in two years, which was to establish a Syrian cease fire.  I have no doubt that much more will come from that 2.5 hour meeting.

 

In my July 1, 2017 Economic Update I wrote:

“The US House and Senate are focused on Russian conspiracies and alleged collisions, they can’t seem to get anything done and Russia and the rest of the world are laughing, not at Trump, but at Washington.  At the same time, whether deserved or undeserved, most of the western world is demonizing Putin and the last thing anybody wants is for Trump and Putin to meet face to face.  Although they don’t agree on everything, they both are disrupters and are not part of the global leader good old boy club.  The other G-20 leaders are very afraid of what could happen if two of the most powerful nations and leaders got together and started resisting their agenda. July 7-8, the G-20 nations will gather in Hamburg Germany and Trump and Putin will finally meet face to face, just like Obama & Bush did.  This certainly will be the most significant meeting in the G-20 gathering.”

It looks like that’s exactly what happened.

 

Body Language Expert Shows Who Dominated the Putin Trump Meeting (7.7.17) TheBlaze

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/07/body-language-expert-shows-who-dominated-the-putin-trump-meeting/amp/

Jobs, Climate and Steel Highlight Trump’s Effect on the G-20 (7-8-17) Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-08/ivanka-trump-sits-in-for-her-father-at-g-20-meeting-table

G-20 Leaders Find Trade Compromises but Are Split on Climate (7-8-17) WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/g-20-leaders-set-to-reach-compromise-on-trade-at-summit-1499513260

Trump, Putin Spar on Hacks, Act on Syria (7-8-17) WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-putin-shake-hands-in-first-face-to-face-meeting-1499423683?mod=nwsrl_world_news

G-20 Forges Trade Compromise as US Tariff Threat Lingers (7-8-17) Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-08/g-20-reaches-compromise-on-trade-after-wrangles-on-first-day