Patriotic Senators To Celebrate July 4th At Kremlin, As Jesus And Founders Intended
What the actual fuck?!?
Guess who's going on a field trip to Mother Russia next week? Which patriotic Americans will be celebrating Independence Day in Moscow with the traditional blinis and summer borscht? Whose PR team is about to have a really, really bad day?
Nice try, but it's not President Trump -- he's got his annual Moscow performance review later in July. (And anyway, his PR team is permanently located in the ninth circle of hell.) No, it's Senators John Kennedy (R-LA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), and John Hoeven (R-ND), who will be showing their love of the United States by decamping to Russia in the midst of an undeclared cyberwar. We shit you not!
Investigative reporter Julia Davis (whom you should be following!) posted a screenshot of the original Russian Interfax News Agency's article on Twitter.
Cool, cool. Russians are actively trying to hack our midterms, they interfered in 19 European elections, and they're still occupying Crimea. What better time to sit right down in Vladimir Putin's lap and tell him how much we value Russia's friendship?
In fact, a bipartisan group of senators, who might have objectively pressed American priorities, had planned to make the trip. But John Barrasso (R-WY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) decided not to go when Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) was denied a visa because of her strong criticisms of Russian electoral interference. Although, to be fair, Russians were perfectly willing to let her come in if we would just take one or two sanctioned oligarchs off our no-go list. Politico reports,
A spokesman for Russia's U.S. embassy said in a statement that Shaheen's visa was the only one denied because she is on a Russian "black list" created in response to U.S. sanctions issued against the country.
The "attempt to present this situation as if the visit was cancelled because of the Russian side is totally biased and untrue," said the spokesman, Nikolay Lakhonin. "In fact, we proposed different ways out of the situation, including reaching an agreement to issue visas to [lawmakers] in the 'black lists' on reciprocal basis. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected by the American side."
Did they offer up bouncy Russian babies, too? Emails stolen off Democratic servers? Interfax is silent on this point. But let's take a wild guess why one senator in particular was delighted to make this trip.
Remember back at Trump's inauguration when Michael Flynn was busy texting his buddy Adam Copson that their sweet deal to build nuclear power plants all over God's green earth was about to make them KA-CHING SO RICH once all those annoying Russian sanctions got "ripped up"? Can you guess where else Copson's company ACU was going to build a giant nuclear power plant when the sanctions were out of the way? Here's a hint from AL.com on October 26, 2016,
A proposal submitted at a uction to TVA for the unfinished nuclear plant in north Alabama outlines a U.S./Russian partnership that would build more than three dozen nuclear reactors in the Middle East.
That proposal also calls for massive financial investment in Jackson County for the completion of Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. That includes consideration of the area for a $5 billion heavy equipment manufacturing facility.
"Our proposal is entirely different and worth a lot more money to (TVA)," said Alex Copson, managing director for ACU Strategic Partners, the group that submitted the proposal.
Alabama? You mean Richard Shelby might want something from Russia if those sanctions just happened to magically disappear? WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
In an interview with AL.com, Copson repeatedly said "Alabama's two senators" could help pull the project together, though he never mentioned Sens. Richard Shelby or Jeff Sessions by name."
Alabama senators can help the next (presidential) administration move this project forward," Copson said.
Because what's a little election interference if Alabama gets a nuclear power plant, right? Craven whores, the whole lot of them!
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[ Politico / AL.com / Julia Davis Twitter / Wendy Seigelman Twitter / NY Daily News ]
You buried the lede. The fact that the one Democrat was denied a visa should have been grounds for the whole thing to be cancelled - regardless of all of the other reasons.
breaking news my dude: you can care about more than one thing at once. shocking, but true.