By MARY CLARE JALONICK and LISA MASCARO, apnews.com
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a punishing Russian sanctions package Friday, the result of a yearlong campaign by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham to reinforce U.S. support for Ukraine and try to force President Vladimir Putin’s hand as the grinding war drags on.
The bipartisan legislation, which passed 86-11, would penalize countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports seeking to deprive Putin of revenues fueling the war. It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Capitol last week following Graham’s funeral, met with senators from both parties and watched from the gallery as the Senate took the first procedural votes.
“Today, President Zelenskyy is watching from Ukraine — and Putin is watching from Moscow,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who had worked with the late South Carolina senator on the package.
“I would like to think Lindsey Graham is watching, too,” he said. “Today we say to the people of Ukraine: You are not alone. And today we say to Vladimir Putin: You will not conquer Ukraine.”
The sweeping show of force from the Senate is the most substantial move yet during President Donald Trump’s second term to shift the dynamic of the four-year war, which has now churned longer than World War I. Congress has struggled to ensure the flow of U.S. funding and munitions to Ukraine, but Trump has given a nod to the package, which includes his push for sanctions on Iran, pressuring the House to pass and send it for his signature.C
Claire's Observations: And if passed by the House, this will be enforced.....how, please?!?
Will the US Congress be supporting interdiction, which is tantamount to an act of war, against any ship potentially carrying Russian oil?!?
The White House is looking desperately for some kind of distraction away from the Iran debacle; will some kind of military conflict against Russia be next?
This kind of move by magicians is called "misdirection" where attention is drawn away from the manipulation which creates the magical effect. And in a magician's act, most generally, nobody gets hurt.
But in terms of potential military US conflict with Russia, many, many people, on both sides of such a conflict, will die, or be maimed for life.
Would this actually be something Trump might actually order, to attempt to recover from the mess he created with Iran?!?
At this moment in time, I don't know. All we can do is stay" tuned in",and be aware of what is going on around us. And right now is not a bad time to be reading the foreign press in English, if you are not already doing this. Even if one mightily disagrees with a journalist's premise, or wonders what the agenda might be, it is at least useful to know what people outside the US, may be thinking about the US's role in current world events.
Of course, right on cue, we have the following breathless headline from (who else?!?) wsj.com, dateline 7 August, 2026: https://Wall Street Journal — “U.S. Intel Finds Putin Could Test NATO’s Resolve With Limited Incursion” And not to be outdone, in the tabloid dailymail.co.uk, dateline 8 August, 2026, we are "informed": https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16038937/Royal-Navy-steps-Russia-patrols-US-warns-Putin-attack-NATO.html
So the question which must be calmly, factually, and intelligently asked, and answered by thinking netizens is the following: are Europe the US being, in essence,"prepared" for some kind of alleged "false flag" attack against either or both of them, to be blamed on Russia right now?
Unfortunately, this might be a distinct possibility.
I hope like hell I am absolutely wrong about this; but the existence of these two articles, one day apart, doesn't seem accidental to me. Possibly those in the bowels of power in Europe and the US are waiting to see if overnight polling shows any support for this idea.
But Putin has his own domestic problems, which make any serious incursion into Europe at this point, most probably one big, tack, hairy no-no, starting with the general Duma elections coming the end of September of this year.
Throck, my AI, describes it this way:
"I would say that August 2026 looks considerably more uncomfortable for Putin domestically than the Kremlin's public messaging suggests. The combination of the war reaching Russian territory, economic pressure, increasing costs, elite-management problems and the approaching September election creates a potentially dangerous accumulation of pressures.
And there is one particularly interesting question here: whether Putin is now facing a choice between ending/limiting the Ukraine war and accepting the political consequences of doing so, or continuing it and allowing the domestic costs to grow. That is potentially the central political dilemma confronting him right now."