Someone asked ... "And Maybe you should start a thread on McConell. You know the one you labeled Moscow Mitch."
So I decided this will be a good start to understand how Moscow Mitch got his name.
I'm sure the residents of Kentucky are tired of hearing about this aluminum manufacturing plant. It's been in their news for years now. Kind of reminds me of the Foxconn debacle. Lot's of sparkling headlines with very little of substance for the residents.
I'll start off with this older article. It's long, but very interesting.
A Kremlin-Linked Firm Invested Millions in Kentucky. Were They After More Than Money?
As a follow up to the story, Braidy Industries has removed the CEO, Craig Bouchard as of Jan. 31, 2020.
They "broke ground" on the construction June 1, 2018. As of today there is nothing there, except an open piece of land.
Sounds a little like the Foxconn hype in Wisconsin. All talk, no action.
There is also the claim this plant will produce 600 full time jobs. When ? Foxconn again comes to mind.
https://time.com/5651345/rusal-inves...aidy-kentucky/
So I decided this will be a good start to understand how Moscow Mitch got his name.
I'm sure the residents of Kentucky are tired of hearing about this aluminum manufacturing plant. It's been in their news for years now. Kind of reminds me of the Foxconn debacle. Lot's of sparkling headlines with very little of substance for the residents.
I'll start off with this older article. It's long, but very interesting.
A Kremlin-Linked Firm Invested Millions in Kentucky. Were They After More Than Money?
Last summer, it looked like things were finally about to change for Ashland, Ky. For two decades, the jobs that once supported this Appalachian outpost of 20,000 people on a bend in the Ohio River have been disappearing: 100 laid off from the freight-rail maintenance shop; dozens pink-slipped at the oil refinery; 1,100 axed at the steel mill that looms over the landscape. Then, on June 1, 2018, standing on a stage flanked by the state’s governor and business leaders, Craig Bouchard, the CEO of Braidy Industries, pointed across a vast green field and described a vision as though he could already see it.
There was just one problem: Bouchard still needed a major investor to make the vision a reality. After months of searching, the only option was problematic. Rusal, the Russian aluminum giant, was tailor-made to join forces on the project. But it was under sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department. Its billionaire owner, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s, was being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for his potential involvement in the effort to swing the 2016 presidential election.
To free itself from sanctions, Rusal fielded a team of high-paid lobbyists for an intense, months-long effort in Washington. One of the targets was Kentucky’s own Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who helped thwart a bipartisan push to keep the sanctions in place. Since May, two of McConnell’s former staffers have lobbied Congress on behalf of Braidy, according to filings. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, one of Rusal’s longtime major shareholders, Len Blavatnik, contributed more than $1 million through his companies to a GOP campaign fund tied to McConnell.
They "broke ground" on the construction June 1, 2018. As of today there is nothing there, except an open piece of land.
Sounds a little like the Foxconn hype in Wisconsin. All talk, no action.
There is also the claim this plant will produce 600 full time jobs. When ? Foxconn again comes to mind.
https://time.com/5651345/rusal-inves...aidy-kentucky/
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