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[DemocratSinceBirth]

Last edited Sun Jul 23, 2017, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)

Dred Scott • 7 hours ago
• 1) Trump owes Blackstone/ Bayrock group $560 million dollars (one of his largest debtors and the primary reason he won't reveal his tax returns)
2) Blackstone is owned wholly by Russian billionaires, who owe their position to Putin and have made billions from their work with the Russian government.
3) Other companies that have borrowed from Blackstone have claimed that owing money to them is like owing to the Russian mob and while you owe them, they own you for many favors.
4) The Russian economy is badly faltering under the weight of its over-dependence on raw materials which as you know have plummeted in the last 2 years leaving the Russian economy scrambling to pay its debts.
5) Russia has an impetus to influence our election to ensure the per barrel oil prices are above $65 ( they are currently hovering around $50)
6) Russia can't affordably get at 80% of its oil reserves and reduce its per barrel cost to compete with America at $45 or Saudi Arabia at $39. With Iranian sanctions being lifted Russia will find another inexpensive competitor increasing production and pushing Russia further down the list of suppliers.
As for Iranian sanctions, the 6 countries lifting them allowing Iran to collect on the billions it is owed for pumping oil but not being paid for it. These billions Iran can only get if the Iranian nuclear deal is signed. Trump spoke of ending the deals which would cause oil sales sanctions to be reimposed, which would make Russian oil more competitive.
7) Rex Tillerson (Trump's pick for Secretary of State) is the head of ExxonMobil, which is in possession of patented technology that could help Putin extract 45% more oil at a significant cost savings to Russia, helping Putin put money in the Russian coffers to help reconstitute its military and finally afford to mass produce the new and improved systems that it had invented before the Russian economy had slowed so much.
8) Putin cannot get access to these new cost saving technologies OR outside oil field development money, due to US sanctions on Russia, because of its involvement in Ukrainian civil war.
9) Look for Trump to end sanctions on Russia and to back out of the Iranian nuclear deal, to help Russia rebuild its economy, strengthen Putin and make Tillerson and Trump even richer, thus allowing Trump to satisfy his creditors at Blackstone.
10) With Trump's fabricated hatred of NATO and the U.N., the Russian military reconstituted, the threat to the Baltic states is real. Russia retaking their access to the Baltic Sea from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and threatening the shipping of millions of cubic feet of natural gas to lower Europe from Scandinavia, allowing Russia to make a good case for its oil and gas being piped into eastern Europe.
Sources: Time Magazine, NY Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian UK.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/07/congress-russia-sanctions/534600/#article-comments

So Trump's goal is to " to maintain sanctions on Iran, so that Americans will pay more for fuel, which will serve to strengthen the Russian economy." *

No likey.





BTW, Russia is a strategic threat. Iran isn't.




*Thanks to Cracklin Charlie

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Mind if I tweak your conclusion a bit?

Trump's goal is to maintain sanctions on Iran, so that Americans will pay more for fuel, which will serve to strengthen the Russian economy.

I say eff that.

Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

[Honeycombe8]

2. Blackstone LP? It's not owned by Russians, that I see.

The owners (partners) all have American names, and the partnership is American.

Don't know about Bayrock.

[GreenEyedLefty]

3. Most likely it's part of a network of shell companies.

Layers and layers of shell companies.

This is an interesting documentary about Trump's business interests with Russia and worth watching:

[Honeycombe8]

4. No, it's not. Not that I see. Partnerships are wholly owned by the partners, who are not Russians...

in this case.

Note that the article said Blackstone is "wholly owned" by Russian billionaires. That is flatly not true. So that article is not true.

I don't know about Bayrock.

You are linking to a POST by some unknown person, so anything and everything said in that post is suspect. You might want to think about clarifying, to make clear that NOTHING in the post is substantiated or sourced and may not be true.

[Hoyt]

5. Good post. There is so much fake news on both sides that we need to check the facts.

Thanks for doing that and risking the ire of those who post stuff that just isn't true. It does not help Democrats.



BTW, I do not doubt Trump has ties and conflicts with Russia -- and a lot of other countries -- that could hurt us. I hope he is forced to resign, although not thrilled by thought of Prez Pence.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Oh, he and everyone in the W.H., that I've seen, has close Russian ties..INCL. THE NEW FBI Director.

It doesn't help to start citing silly stuff. We have REAL Russian connection stories to cite.

[Dem2]

6. You forgot the video

Granted, she doesn't use that particular lyric but it's close enough.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. When was that article actually written?

Rex Tillerson has been Secretary of State, not the nominee, for six months now.

[Honeycombe8]

10. That's not an article. It's a POST comment by an unknown person, unsourced. nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Ahh. I managed not to notice that.

But still, given the Tillerson comment, it's at least 6 months ago.

[spanone]

8. it appears the republican party didn't vet this guy at all.