monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

For the purposes of image-management, one who has been caught up and found guilty in such a matter must make a show of contrition. And likewise, re image-management for that other party who has made the indictment, it is salutary to appear the exemplar of Jesusian forgiveness.

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - In a victory for President Donald Trump, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected legislation to keep sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum firm Rusal.

Senators voted 57-42 to end debate on the measure, as 11 of Trump's fellow Republicans broke from party leaders to join Democrats in favor of the resolution, amid questions about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That result fell short of the 60 votes necessary to advance to a final passage vote in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority.

A similar measure will be brought up for a vote on Thursday in the House of Representatives, where Democrats control a majority of seats. But its long-term fate was uncertain. To keep the administration from lifting the sanctions, the measure must pass both the House and Senate and muster the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override an expected Trump veto.

Many members of Congress have been questioning the U.S. Treasury Department's decision in December to ease sanctions imposed in April on the core businesses of Deripaska - Rusal, its parent, En+, and power firm EuroSibEnergo - watering down the toughest penalties imposed on Russian entities since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Deripaska, an influential businessman close to Putin, himself would remain subject to U.S. sanctions.

The Trump administration pushed Republican lawmakers not to support the resolution introduced by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, which would have prevented the administration from lifting the sanctions.

"Forty-two Republican senators chose today to stand with Vladimir Putin," Schumer said in a statement. "I’m extremely disappointed that many of my Republican colleagues are too afraid of breaking with President Trump to stand up to a thug."

Senate aides said Treasury officials had approached senators and staff repeatedly in recent days to argue that it was appropriate to lift the sanctions because Deripaska had agreed to cut back his controlling stakes.

CONCERN OVER RIPPLE EFFECTS

They said the sanctions on Deripaska would punish him, but lifting restrictions on the companies would avoid potential effects on companies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

Rusal is the world's largest aluminum producer outside China. The sanctions on the company spurred demand for Chinese metal. China's aluminum exports jumped to a record high in 2018.

The Russian companies, along with some European governments, also lobbied for months for the sanctions to be eased.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney welcomed the outcome of the Senate vote, saying he hoped it would pave the way for sanctions to be lifted that affect the Irish company Aughinish Alumina, a Rusal unit.

"We respect different views in U.S. on sanctions, but our focus has always been on protecting jobs and livelihoods in Ireland and EU," he said on Twitter.

Democrats had been optimistic they would get 60 votes on Wednesday, after 11 Republicans made the unusual break from Trump policies and supported the resolution in procedural voting on Tuesday.

Backers of the resolution of disapproval said it was too soon to ease sanctions, given Russia's continuing aggression in Ukraine, the finding by U.S. intelligence that Moscow interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump, and Russia's support for the Syrian government in that country's civil war.

The U.S. military said on Wednesday that four Americans had been killed in Syria in a bomb attack claimed by Islamic State militants.

Deripaska had ties with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, documents have shown. Manafort is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy against the United States.

The Senate's Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, dismissed the Democratic-led resolution as a political stunt.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Polina Devitt in Moscow; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

On the same day that an ISIS-claimed attack killed US service members in Syria, Vice President Mike Pence declared that "the caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated."

Pence's remark to the Global Chiefs of Mission conference at the US State Department came about an hour after the US-led coalition confirmed that American troops had been killed in an explosion in Manbij.

"U.S. service members were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Syria today. We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time," the tweet from Operation Inherent Resolve said.

US Central Command announced Wednesday afternoon that "two U.S. servicemembers, one Department of Defense (DoD) civilian and one contractor supporting DoD were killed." The Pentagon confirmed that all four of the victims were Americans. Three additional service members were injured.

"Initial reports indicate an explosion caused the casualties, and the incident is under investigation," the CENTCOM statement said.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency said was carried out by a suicide bomber with an explosive vest.

Pence's press secretary Alyssa Farah tweeted Wednesday morning that he had been briefed and that he and President Donald Trump were "monitoring the situation."

The Vice President made no mention of the attack and did not offer condolences in his remarks.

A White House official said the administration had not "publicly confirmed the deaths at the time (Pence) spoke," even though the coalition against ISIS tweeted a message confirming there had been US deaths nearly an hour before his speech.

Pence released a statement Wednesday afternoon expressing condolences to "the loved ones of the fallen" and condemning the attack. However, the vice president maintained that the ISIS caliphate had been "devastated."

"Thanks to the courage of our Armed Forces, we have crushed the ISIS caliphate and devastated its capabilities. As we begin to bring our troops home, the American people can be assured, for the sake of our soldiers, their families, and our nation, we will never allow the remnants of ISIS to reestablish their evil and murderous caliphate - not now, not ever," it said.
Prior to Wednesday's attack, only two US service members had been killed in action in Syria since the start of the US campaign there in 2014.

The attack comes as the US prepares to withdraw troops from Syria -- a decision Pence defended in his Wednesday morning remarks.
"Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we're now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners and we're bringing our troops home," he said.

However, he said the US would "stay in the region and we'll stay in the fight to insure that ISIS does not rear its ugly head again."
"We will protect the gains that our soldiers and our coalition partners have secured," he said.

President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed on CNN Wednesday night that he "never said there was no collusion between the [Trump] campaign" and Russia — and that he has only ever said that Trump himself never colluded. Giuliani later added, "If the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago."

I've given up on image-management here a while ago, though I'll admit my ego stubbornly resisted for a few years. People think pretty little of me here now, to the extent they give it more than a shrug. OK.

Quote:

you've got to remember the criticism [Reagan] got for naming Russia as part of the Evil Empire.

It is probably just the ultra-militant-progressives. They're annoying me all over the internet.

This is at least the 10th time the denials have been watered down. It might be the most significant rollback.
[...]
1. November 2016: No communications, period
... ... ...
2. February 2017: There were no communications, “to the best of our knowledge”
... ... ...
3. March 2017: There were communications, but no planned meetings with Russians
... ... ...
4. July 8, 2017: There was a planned meeting at Trump Tower, but it was “primarily” about adoption and not the campaign
... ... ...
5. July 9, 2017: The meeting was planned to discuss the campaign, but the information exchanged wasn't “meaningful”
... ... ...
6. December 2017: Collusion isn't even a crime
... ... ...
7. May 16, 2018: Even if meaningful information were obtained, it wasn't used
... ... ...
8. May 19, 2018: There was a *second* planned meeting about foreign help in the election, but nothing came of it either
... ... ...
9. July 16, 2018: Trump couldn't collude, because Trump didn't even know Putin
... ... ...
10. July 30, 2018: Collusion isn't a crime, and Trump wasn't physically at the Trump Tower meeting
... ... ...
11. January 16, 2019: Trump didn’t collude, but no guarantees on others in the campaign
... ... ...

...."Forty-two Republican senators chose today to stand with Vladimir Putin," Schumer said in a statement. ....