Trump Would Sell Off America's Energy Resources for a Pittance, Like Russia Did to Create Its Oligarchs @alternet:
"Maybe President Trump can’t help himself, but his 2018 budget and executive orders could lead to some of the biggest land grabs since America’s Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s and Russia’s natural resource giveaways that created many oligarchs in the 1990s. When looking at his budget for the Department of Energy and Department of the Interior—which oversee leases for oil, gas and mining, and own interstate electric transmission lines—Trump would set the stage for a return of the robber barons. The Teapot Dome—which historians say was America’s biggest scandal until Watergate—involved an insider deal over leasing Navy petroleum reserves for a pittance. Russia’s oligarchs, who include investors in Trump buildings, are seen as getting super rich by acquiring the former Soviet Union’s assets, especially energy and mineral resources, similarly for cheap. They privatized what were once public assets to make fortunes."
