She's the next US President, if an old socialist, a cowboy real estate hustler, and a bunch of emails can't stop her.
He already was the President.
They're married. Cue the dawn sunrise and violins for the beautiful
first couple of American politics. Wow. In a land where they're the
first couple, does anybody have tickets to sell for the next flight to
Mars?
Before I board my flight, what about the uranium scandal?
The what?
Before I quote a NY Times piece on this, consider---suppose, just
suppose the beautiful first couple has been running a kind of parallel
operation to the government, in the form of a foundation that is taking
in major chunks of cash from people who want political favors. Just
suppose. And a few donors who are ponying up those $$ want to sell a
company to the Russians. But because this company sells a very, very
sensitive product, and that product happens to come
out of the ground in
the US, agencies of the US government have to approve the sale. And
one of those agencies that
does approve the sale happens to be
headed up by half of that beautiful couple. And this sensitive American
product, well, the last person you'd want to control it is the head of a
place called Russia---he can sit in Moscow and have complete dominion
over this product that exists on US soil...and nobody thinks this is a
problem, as half of the beautiful couple runs for President of the
United States. It's a yawn. It was a big story for a day or two, and
then it sank below memory and everybody moved on. Forget about it. Who
cares?
Memory is short. On April 23, 2015, the
NY Times ran a story under the headline:
"Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal".
The bare bones of the story: a Canadian company called Uranium One
controls a great deal of uranium production in the US. It was sold to
Russia (meaning Putin and his minions). So Putin now controls 20% of US
uranium production.
From the
Times:
"...the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States."
From the
Times:
"The [Pravda] article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic
energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company [Uranium One]
with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American
West. The deal made Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers
and brought Mr. Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the
global uranium supply chain.
"But the untold story behind that story is one that involves not just
the Russian president, but also a former American president and a woman
who would like to be the next one.
"At the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian
mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors
of former President Bill Clinton and his family. Members of that group
built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that
would become known as Uranium One.
"Frank Giustra...a mining financier, has donated $31.3 million to the foundation run by former President Bill Clinton..."
"Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for
national security, the deal [to sell Uranium One to Putin] had to be
approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of
United States government agencies. Among the agencies that eventually
signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clinton's wife,
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three
separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow
of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One's chairman
used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35
million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the
Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama
White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to
the company made donations as well.
"And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a
majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a
Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin
that was promoting Uranium One stock.
"At the time, both Rosatom and the United States government made
promises intended to ease concerns about ceding control of the company's
assets to the Russians. Those promises have been repeatedly broken,
records show.
"Whether the donations [to the Clinton Foundation] played any role in
the approval of the uranium deal is unknown. But the episode underscores
the special ethical challenges presented by the Clinton Foundation,
headed by a former president who relied heavily on foreign cash to
accumulate $250 million in assets even as his wife helped steer American
foreign policy as secretary of state, presiding over decisions with the
potential to benefit the foundation's donors.
"In a statement, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton's
presidential campaign, said no one 'has ever produced a shred of
evidence supporting the theory that Hillary Clinton ever took action as
secretary of state to support the interests of donors to the Clinton
Foundation.' He emphasized that multiple United States agencies, as well
as the Canadian government, had signed off on the [uranium] deal and
that, in general, such matters were handled at a level below the
secretary. 'To suggest the State Department, under then-Secretary
Clinton, exerted undue influence in the U.S. government's review of the
sale of Uranium One is utterly baseless,' he added."
---The US State Dept. had to sign off on the deal giving Putin control
over US uranium. Hillary headed up the State Dept. Much money from
Canadian mining executives, who obviously wanted the deal to go through,
found its way into the Clinton Foundation. The Foundation concealed
these donations.
That's called a circumstantial case. Every such case is different, and
has to be judged by assessing probabilities. But for example, if an
examination of two involved prominent figures revealed they were serial
liars, it would strengthen a verdict of guilty.
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