Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Trade Sanctions Against Any Country That Offers Asylum To Snowden
from the is-that-sending-a-good-message? dept
Even as many in Congress seem to recognize just how useful it was for Ed Snowden to reveal how the NSA was misinterpreting the law to collect data on nearly everyone, some still seem to want to go overboard in trying to blame him for telling the truth. The latest is that the Senate Appropriations Committee has supported a plan to instruct Secretary of State John Kerry to work with Congress in issuing sanctions against any country that grants Snowden asylum. Remember now, that this is the very same US Congress that flat out passed a law to give a Swiss bank security guard (and his entire family) asylum after he did almost the exact same thing as Snowden. In that case, some of the very same Senators who are now lining up against Snowden went on and on about how brave and heroic Michel Meili was. And, yet, now they’re willing to start an entire trade war because some other country is willing to grant him asylum and protect Snowden against crazy attacks by grandstanding officials? How is that possibly a sane reaction?
Filed Under: ed snowden, john kerry, senate, senate appropriations committee, trade sanctions
Comments on “Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Trade Sanctions Against Any Country That Offers Asylum To Snowden”
History will not look kindly on those who seek to persecute Snowden.
Re: Re:
History looks kindly on the people that win.
Re: Re: Re:
Not always.
Re: Re: Re:
Stalin?
/Rhetorical
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Hurler actually….look where it got him.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Stalin won his war, Hitler lost his, and we were talking about history looking kindly on the victors.
Re: Avoiding responsibility for history
Its notable that the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted this resolution by consensus, which means that they didn’t have to go on record with their individual votes on the matter. The members will be able to squirm toward either direction and claim they were personally against it, or personally for it as they deem necessary as the fallout from the Snowden affair proceeds in the future.
Re: Re:
I don’t think that you are wrong, but how many centuries will pass before that way of historical interpretation will ensue?
It is time.
It is time to march on Capitol Hill. It’s clear that sitting on our assess whining won’t help.
Re: It is time.
What makes you think marching will help or even be allowed? They’ve just finished flatly ignoring the 4th Amendment, why should they pay attention to the 1st?
Re: Re: It is time.
Nothing. The last few times large marches and the like have happened that opposed what the mainstream media is trying to say, they got ignored to the point that most people don’t think they even happened or were as large as they were.
Marches and such are useful, but their time as the main weapon for change ended with the ’60s.
Re: Re: Re: It is time.
Wide scale sustained internet blackout.
Re: Re: Re: It is time.
Unless you’re willing to take a page from the Army and do your marching with assault weapons, yep.
Re: Re: Re:2 It is time.
Yeah, but that’s more “insurrection” than “protest march.”
Re: Re: Re:3 It is time.
Semantics, really. Like when the Army marches to object to a government policy, it stays the fuck protested.
Re: It is time.
I don’t think they’re going to be impressed with signs and chants.
We may have to mix stiffer libations.
Re: It is time.
It is time to march on Capitol Hill. It’s clear that sitting on our assess whining won’t help.
Talk’s cheap, Wally. Let us know what time your flight gets to Reagan National.
"How is that possibly a sane reaction?" -- Depends on goal.
IF, as I firmly believe, the Snowden “leak” is a limited hangout psyop that will result in hardening the surveillance state, then this is perfectly sane, though evil.
Not incidentally, one can read your first line, “recognize just how useful it was”, in that light.
this goes to show the measure of the people that are in charge of the USA! anyone and everyone that voted for this should be ashamed. anyone that just sits and let this injustice go unquestioned should be equally ashamed. what sort of country has the USA become? it’s disgraceful! and, more than anything, it is because in bringing the spying out into the open, it has embarrassed the US government. it has shown how little the government thinks of the citizens of the USA. how pitiful is that??
And soon the “Arab Spring” will become a worldwide phenomenon.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/give-it-revolution-lyrics-suicidal-tendencies.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q68AmOSsz4A
Re:
And it is unfortunately what is meant!
It would be hilarious if Snowden proceeds to land asylum with China. Trade Sanctions wouldn’t work all that well in that case.
Re: Re:
I kinda wish Canada would give him asylum now. I doubt we’d have done it before the threat, and we almost definitely won’t after the sanction threats. Still, I’d like to see if Obama has the stones to put sanctions on his biggest trading partner. On the straight numbers, we’d lose more than the ‘States would, but exports to Canada are worth almost 2% of the US GDP.
And then there’s the fact that the US bought almost three quarters as much oil from Canada last year as it did from all the countries in OPEC combined. Almost half again as much as it did from the entire Middle East.
It’s never going to happen… but I kinda wish it would.
Re: Re:
This is such a dickheaded move that it would put the entire US economy in a precarious situation, if a country like China offers Snowden asylum. But I guess, its better to double down than admit your mistake.
Re: Re:
I thought of that immediately myself.
Trade sanctions against China would probably get us into a shooting war with them though.
Re: Re: Re:
And the US is too chicken**** for that.
In other news, China offers Snowdenn Asylum
In other news, China offers Snowdenn Asylum, and tells the US to ‘bring it on’ if they want to start a trade war.
Re: In other news, China offers Snowdenn Asylum
OMG, of all the things to misspell I misspell Snowden, TWICE.
Keep on Digging
While Edward Snowden may have marked the outline, the US government seems determined to dig themselves into a deep hole. An isolated and powerless US is what the terrorist want, and the US government is now working hard to achieve this end.
Re: Keep on Digging
It’s high time the rest of the world gave the US government the middle finger. It would make the world a better place.
What happened to Putin’s balls? Even he’s starting to sound like a US lapdog.
Re: Keep on Digging
He didn’t even mark the outline. He just handed the US a shovel.
Re: Re: Keep on Digging
He didn’t even hand them a shovel, he just leaked the fact that the government had a shovel.
Culture Comin'
I had a bad/strange dream last night. I was wondering who would be the next ‘anarchistic’ songwriters, in the ilk of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, CSNY, etc. from the anti war movement in the ’60’s? For some reason Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Who’ll Stop the Rain is in my head, and won’t leave.
Songwriters: JOHN C. FOGERTY
Long as I remember the rain been comin’ down
Clouds of mystery pourin’ confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages tryin’ to find the sun.
And I wonder still I wonder who’ll stop the rain.
I went down Virginia seekin’ shelter from the storm
Caught up in the fable I watched the tower grow
Five year plans and new deals wrapped in golden chains.
And I wonder still I wonder who’ll stop the rain.
Heard the singers playin’, how we cheered for more.
The crowd had rushed together tryin’ to keep warm.
Still the rain kept pourin’, fallin’ on my ears
And I wonder, still I wonder who’ll stop the rain.
I take ‘rain’ as a metaphor for war.
Re: Culture Comin'
Now see.. This guys medication is working…
Re: Re: Culture Comin'
This guys medication is working…
And it’s legal now in a couple of states too!
It’s all well and good until the shoe is forced onto the other foot, eh? I’m sure the arm twisting by the white house must be epic at this point if they are truly running with this.
There’s that part of me that’s thinking why hasn’t these countries stop their trading with the US? After all the NSA has been spying on these countries, so why haven’t they stop trading with someone holding every little secret about them?
Well there are reasons, but really I’m thinking anyone with some sense might’ve gone with cutting relationships with the one holding all of their secrets.
Guess he better go to Cuba.
Snowden was not a government employee when he gathered the information he revealed. He has free speech rights just like anyone else. I don’t see what he has done wrong that can lead to anything other than losing his job. Private companies can sue you but not jail you for violating a nondisclosure agreement.
All the countries affected by US Spying should just trade sanction the shit out of the US. The bully needs a dick punch.
Sanity and government officials
These are two terms that just don’t work together…
Was reading Harry Potter and it’s amazing how much our Government sounds like the Ministry of Magic.
I think it is time to finally admit it.
We’ve become the bad guys. We may be good people by and large, but our leadership no longer is. We are bullies. We are aggressive. And we are deceitful.
Re: I think it is time to finally admit it.
‘Finally’? The US has been that way for years, they’ve just been a bit more blatant about it recently.
Re: Re: I think it is time to finally admit it.
See? Obama (and Bush, although he never claimed it) have increased government transparency!
Now I HOPE Brazil gives Snowden asylum. You know, a country that has a very good international relations and is well known everywhere. It would make things VERY interesting.
When they violated Bolivian sovereignty nobody paid much attention because Bolivia is not that known and stuff. But I’m very sure things would be very different if it was Brazil, India or maybe Russia.
Yeah, let shit hit the fan. Hard.
Re: Re:
Brazil might be the best (and worse for the USA) Country, it then might tip the balance in favour of a new monetary standard that is NOT based on the US dollar.. Like what Brazil and other countries have been pushing ever since America’s economy hit the skids affecting the other 95% of the worlds economic ability.
Re: Re: Re:
South Africa has designed and distributes the best monetary standard around. It’s called a Krugerand and contains one exact ounce of pure gold mixed with a bit of copper for mechanical strength. We need to get back to some hard standard (gold or platinum or palladium), and that one is as good or better than most. So we make the dollar to be 1/1000 of a Krugerand – forever. Yes, that drops the value of an ounce of gold somewhat(or rather raises the value of the dollar), but it’s way too variable and way too high right now.
The time has REALLY come
Mike:
Sanity has no part in any Congressional act. Congress has no ethics, only avarice. Congress has no morals, only greed. Congress has no sense of responsibility, only an overwhelming lust for power. Why do you expect anything else from them.
We all know that when (not if) our illustrious government alphabet soup agencies get their grubby hands on Snowden, he’s gonna disappear (maybe literally) in a puff of smoke. IMHO, I fully expect a covert snatch-and-grab operation to occur very soon, Russia or no Russia. As for the trade sanctions, a good way to start a real war with those folks.
We’ve all heard, from The Guardian at least, that Snowden has already released all of the documents to them and the Washington Post. The news organizations themselves are limiting the publication of them. With the way the US government is acting, it seems an excellent time for Snowden to release the passwords and get the documents out in the open – the sooner the better.
.
Hoo boy, the world’s scared NOW! Ooooh…
China, Russia and almost every other country is more worried about their economy than protecting Snowden. While Assange lives out the remainder of his miserable existence in the relative comfort of the Ecuadorian embassy. Snowden will wile away his days in the mens room of the Moscow airport.
Torture and murder still ok
So I guess torture of gay people is ok still.