subgenius wrote:MeDotOrg wrote:... seems to have a distinct preference to Russian Oligarchs over asylum seekers....
Literally have Obama on tape pledging cooperation to Russia and you are relying on what actual "evidence" to support your hair fire judgment of "seems"?
Oleg Deripaska and his sanctions.
When Manafort joined the Trump campaign, he owed Deripaska $20 million.
Politifact wrote:Here’s the quick backstory on the sanctions. Last April, the Treasury Department placed sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska, as well as a dozen companies the oligarchs either owned or controlled.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC — the Treasury Department’s sanctions arm — said in a report that "the action aggressively targeted Russian oligarchs and elites that further the Kremlin's global malign activities." The misbehavior included "attempts to subvert Western democracy, support for the (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad regime, malicious cyber activities, occupation of Crimea, and instigation of violence in Ukraine."
Among the dozen sanctioned companies were three that were connected to Deripaska, who the Treasury Department referred to as "a Kremlin insider." Deripaska held a 70 percent ownership stake in EN+, the holding company for the aluminum powerhouse Rusal, and energy company ESE.
On December 19th of last year, the Treasury department announced that it was lifting the sanctions.
On January 17, The House voted voted 362 to 53 to block the Treasury Department from lifting sanctions against the companies, which are controlled by Deripaska. That included the vote of 136 Republicans.
To make sure the House vote was symbolic, the day before, Mitch McConnell preemptively blocked the the sanctions in the Senate, 57-42.
On April 15th, Rusal, the aluminum company owned by Deripaska, announced it was investing $200 million in McConnell's home state of Kentucky.
David Vitter, the former Republican Governor of Louisiana who resigned in disgrace, was the lobbyist that helped defeat the sanctions. On April 16th, Vitter's wife, whose nomination as a federal judge had been stalled with no apparent life, was suddenly and somewhat miraculously confirmed by the Senate.
Does any of this make you mildly uncomfortable? Where in the continuum between happenstance and hair on fire would you place these events?