Sirota Provides Clinton Foundation Study Notes

I have found that the consistently best reporting on the nexus between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation has been provided by David Sirota and International Business Times.

If you've lost the thread yourself or have friends who don't "get" the Clinton Foundation brouhaha, today's article is a good place to start -

Clinton Foundation Investigation Update: Key Details About Financial and Political Dealings

Sirota has provided a compendium of stories that have reported throughout the year and half or so - all by reputable sources: The International Business Times, The Wall Street Journal, the AP, Vox, The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, and The Intercept. In other words, no need to apologize in advance about the sources.

The topics covered include the actions of the State Department and the Foundation in the following areas: Arms exports, Donor Access, Oil, Uranium, Lobbying, Oil, Banking among others.

So if you haven't had the time and energy to follow all the various revelations in real time, here is your Reader's Digest summary.

Is it possible that the Clinton Foundation did some good work AND simultaneously stretched some fundamental ethical and political guidelines?

The good works most often cited have to do with the Health Initiative part of the Foundation and their work with distributing AIDs and malaria medications among other things, which I don't think is under much if any dispute. BUT, there are many moving parts within the Foundation and IMO it's a mistake to take as gospel that the good works in one arm inoculate against self-serving behavior or potential corruption in another arm.

The spokespeople for the Clinton campaign appear to have taken the stance that this is an either/or situation - they did good works and therefore had no ethical lapses or conflicts of interests and anyone who questions that premise is a morally challenged monster who is condemning the sick to early deaths. This viewpoint doesn't address the very real concerns people have about the integrity of their government and pay to play influences of corruption which over time will dissolve the entire fabric of public trust of the governed. In reality, people in positions of power can choose to do good deeds without feathering their own nests simultaneously, and thousands of elected officials all over the country make that very choice.

I applaud Sirota for his article at this time. The reporting on the Foundation has been piecemeal and spread out over time. If the conduct of the Clintons was above reproach during her time as SOS, why are they repudiating that same conduct if she is elected to the Presidency?

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Lookout's picture

was pretty interesting. He served as a Clinton lawyer at one time. (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6UUXI-AXY

He suggest they walked the legal line, but are unethical and immoral.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

They are both lawyers. They know what to say and what not to say, even to their lawyers. Also, if you have more than one lawyer, you don't have to tell any one of them everything. On top of all that, who says Curry is telling the truth? Other people seem willing to commit crimes for the Clintons, or at least for Bill. Susan McDougal did (contempt of court). So did Sandy Berger (theft of documents from National Archives). Did Sue and Sandy commit those crimes all on their own initiative, with no instigation from Bill Clinton?

At one point, the Clinton Foundation had received $10 million from foreign sources, but reported zero. How is that legal? After being found out, they claimed an oversight, but, if I did that on my taxes, I'd be typing this from a federal penitentiary. What about her classified emails? At the very least, she destroyed records. Granted, there is no punishment for that if you no longer hold a govenrment job, but it was still a violation of law.

Read between the lines of Comey's speech and look up the definition of "criminal intent." His conclusion that no crime was committed is belied by everything else he said and I think he knows that.

It's not that they never do anything illegal. It's that they don't get caught and, if caught, they don't get charged.

up
0 users have voted.
TrueBlueinWDC's picture

up
0 users have voted.

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

with all the blather and punditry now focused on instructing us that ALL politicians trade access for donations and there's nothing to see here. The key to the rebus in my opinion is some combination of:

CF donation=access to Hill =action by State/Hill=speech by Bill

or it could be

CF donation = speech by Bill= access to Hill= action by State/Hill

or it could be

access to Hill = CF Donation= speech by Bill = action by State/Hill

etc., etc.

But, no smoking gun! Because we need an email that says "You'll get all the uranium you want AFTER we see the G's!" or something like that.

If the system can be gamed as easily as that, there's something wrong with the system.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

... But, no smoking gun! Because we need an email that says "You'll get all the uranium you want AFTER we see the G's!" or something like that. ...

AND they have to be caught on video twirling their mustaches and laughing in a sinister fashion. Otherwise, it's all a right-wing conspiracy.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Lily O Lady's picture

sinister fashion, but they had no mustaches to twirl.

up
0 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Somehow, any technicalities work for them... and their powerful backers.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

can or by making it a "one day and gone" event.

There are many types of evidence admitted in court besides eyewitness. Physical evidence is perhaps the best with documentary a close second. Circumstantial evidence is OK if it is voluminous enough to appear overwhelming to a reasonable person. There are instances when hearsay can be admitted as evidence.

The for-profit press demands for these high-mogul-people evidence beyond that which is needed to convict in a criminal trail. In a civil trial, only a preponderance of evidence is needed(51%) but for our Lords of Finance and Commerce(and military and intelligence) that standard does not apply.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Because no one is "following the money."

up
0 users have voted.

schools and medical facilities as acts of charity among US and Central/South American Native Americans in the '20-50s. To do this they had to deal with the 'key player's who ended up on their payrolls or got their beaks wet, said honchos working out resource control deals with the Rockefellers and their associates. In other words charity as a foot in the door towards vast riches. They knew the riches would come from the charity.
Same playbook here. One does marvel that foreign donors can't find local charity outfits to give to. Like the Sauds.

up
0 users have voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

charitable family Foundations in the past and the Clintons is that in the past the Rockefellers and the Mellons and such acquired the wealth first and then created the Foundation while the Clintons created the Foundation first and then acquired the wealth. So they have pioneered a new way to become personally wealthy through philanthropy although the guise is "speaking fees".

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Exactly. From 'dead broke and in debt' (showing very bad money management skills) and unemployed? from a 'meager' Presidential salary with expenses paid to the area of over $150 million and billions flowing to a Foundation used as a personal slush fund also lucrative to useful people, showing a clear and endlessly repeated pattern of corruption which would see virtually anyone else imprisoned... unless the entire system had become as corrupt as it has.

Will just add - fight the 'trade deals' and those who would impose them on the world.

TPP has yet to pass, and yet this - regarding one of the test cases bubbling up like tars and from the already-polluted ground - was in my inbox today:

I'll make it quick: the lawsuit that could take down Canadian public healthcare goes to trial in less than 3 weeks. Thousands of SumOfUs members have chipped in already to fight this, will you join them? Even a few coins will go a long way.
Donate now
Thanks for all that you do,
Angus, Emma, and the team at SumOfUs

The vultures are at our eyes, only because we let ourselves be staked out for them without fighting back for our very lives and the chance of survival of life on the planet on an immediate basis.

Does anyone think Hillary Clinton, who pushed these corporate coups initiated by Bush, will HELP her fellow-Americans after promoting these to virtually enslave everyone unwilling/unwittingly involved as 'the Gold(man Sach) standard?

As often happens, something vaguely appropriate was playing in my current mix, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrVMzDw7ncs&list=RDYGchlqCjj8A&index=27

Halestorm - Mayhem

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Could you provide a link or some background please? Let me guess - public healthcare creates some kind of noncompetitive disadvantage for some Pharma or other healthcare type company based outside of Canada?

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Yup, anything with the potential to reduce the expected maximized profits of involved corporations is at risk, this to be fully inclusive under the TPP and others to go through afterward. But NAFTA and other 'trade bills' also unconstitutionally claimed an ability for whoever had happened to be in public office at the time to allow corporations to sue the public as they pleased for such reasons.

So if I was hired and paid to run a family estate for a limited period, could I sign away the rights of the actual owners in a private agreement (in which they had no involvement) between myself and multiple outside self-interests to personally not only allow outside corporate profiteering and pollution of said estate, but create and give 3rd party 'rights' for the actual property owners to have to obey and submit to whatever was done to them and their property by these 3rd parties or be sued into bankruptcy?

Would this stand as 'legal' in any uncorrupted law court, if I was not a Clinton or otherwise suitably billionaire/corporate-backed and employed, as with any other (barring Bernie) potential Dem/Republican candidates?

But for this to set a precedent, (which can then be used everywhere,) one dirty judge could cause an awful lot of Canadians to suffer and die at, I may add, horrendously increased expense as a direct result of this, with little or no return, as happens to people in America - and shouldn't. And our taxes will naturally not be reduced with the further reduction of even more public services we happily paid them for in order to receive such cost-effective and once-universal overall benefits, but will go to fatten the corporations and billionaires while anyone here still has money to be drained up to the top.

Annoyingly, the wait times complained of (not quoted) were created with/for NAFTA, the beginning of the systematic starvation of the once-admirable Canadian health-care system toward privatization. Typically, the Greeds create the conditions they need to make a case for pirating the lot.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/04/17/Clinic-Lawsuit-May-Transform-Canada-He...

For-Profit Clinic Lawsuit May Transform Health Care
'Hard to overstate' impact of Brian Day's extra-billing challenge, doctors say.
By Andrew MacLeod 17 Apr 2014 | TheTyee.ca

... The case between Brian Day's Cambie Surgery Clinic and the B.C. government will test whether Canada running a public health care system that restricts extra billing is constitutional, Brcic said. A win for the clinics would spell the end of a system where services are based on need rather than ability to pay, she said.

With a few exceptions, the Medicare Protection Act prohibits doctors and other care providers from charging patients directly for services that are insured through the public system. The law says people should have "reasonable access" to care that is universal and unimpeded by user fees or extra billing.

In 2012, a B.C. Medical Services Commission audit found Cambie Surgeries Corporation and the closely related Specialist Referral Clinic (Vancouver) Inc. were guilty of extra billing on a "recurring basis" and had broken the act.

The Cambie clinic offers a variety of surgical procedures, including orthopaedic, eye and dental, with fees ranging into the neighbourhood of $15,000. The audit found nearly $500,000 in extra billing, and $66,000 in double billing within a 30-day period.

Day responded to the audit and the MSC's steps to stop extra billing at his clinic by launching the constitutional challenge. In a phone interview, he said there's no doubt the case is enormously important. ...

As can be seen, the lawsuit mentioned below was initiated under NAFTA. (Bolding mine) Under the new 'trade deals' beginning with TPP, the corporations have their own offshored law conducted in a corporate/billionaire 'trade court' where the maximization of corporate/billionaire profits is all that can be considered, while the public/environmental interest has no standing.

Ironically, their postulated profit base will be rapidly destroyed while, with totalitarian corporate control, skyrocketing pollution and ecological die-off rates will radically increase as the oxygen/potable water supply diminishes so that within a very few decades, there will be no outdoors there in which life can actually survive. What are they going to buy and sell to each other for fun and profit - or will the relative few simply predate on each other, as seems to be alreday occuring, beginning with investors.

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/conflicts-of-interest-in-international-...

Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration
3/5/2010
by
Melvin J. Howard

Ms Meg Kinnear was the original lawyer representing the Government of Canada in the proceedings between my companies and the Government of Canada. Over the course of these proceedings, she was granted the position of the Secretary General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”). Ironically enough, in this position she is the appointing authority of these particular NAFTA proceedings. That means she decides who the arbitrators for my case, if there is a challenge.Of the appointed arbitrators for the case, one was Mr Henri Alvarez.Prior to accepting his appointment, Mr Alvarez did a conflict of interest search on the parties involved in the case to ensure there was none. After performing the search, he claimed there was not conflict of interest.One thing he forgot to mention was that his law firm was involved a lawsuit between Canadian Independent Medical Clinics Association, Cambie Surgeries Corporation, Delbrook Surgical Centre Inc., False Creek Surgical Centre Inc., Okanagan Health Surgical Centre Inc., and Ultima Medical Services Inc. as the Plaintiffs and Medical Services Commission of British Columbia, Minister of Health Services of British Columbia and Attorney General of British Columbia as the Defendants. It is true, Fasken Martineau is a large law firm, and it has offices all across Canada and in other countries in the world. It is reasonable to assume that if Mr Alvarez was from the Paris law office, perhaps he was unaware of this case within his firm. However, that is not the case in this instance. He works out of the Vancouver law office, the very same office that this case was represented from.

http://www.canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca/Commentary/cdm-s-report-on-the-...

... Trans-Pacific Partnership Report Outline

Canadian Doctors for Medicare (CDM) calls on the federal government to undertake a comprehensive and transparent health impact analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement during the consultative period leading to the ratification deadline. Such an analysis should include but not limit itself to the potential impacts the TPP could have on the development of a national pharmacare program, which is currently receiving support from academics, organizations, and governments across the country, as well as three additional public health implications. These are:

1. Extension of patents to medical procedures

In its current form, the TPP agreement allows for the application of patents to medical procedures, including surgical techniques, medical tests, and other treatments. This represents an unprecedented development in Canadian health care, and would dramatically reduce the availability of medical innovations in crucial areas for other health care providers. The result would be less collaboration and knowledge-sharing both nationally and globally, with many patients blocked from accessing procedures with life-saving potential.

2. Strengthening of patents for pharmaceuticals

If ratified, the TPP will allow drug companies to extend patent terms under certain conditions. The resulting extensions will delay the development of generic alternatives to expensive, patent-protected brands, prolonging cost barriers to access for many patients, especially those without drug insurance plans.

3. Weakening of state regulatory powers

The TPP includes provisions that enable corporations to challenge foreign government policies that diminish their actual or potential earnings through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals. As has been shown under NAFTA and other agreements, ISDS tribunals empower multinationals to seek legal action when faced with regulation, thereby curtailing a regulator’s ability to act for the public’s benefit in the arena of public health. ISDS tribunals are not new to the TPP, but the agreement has the potential to diminish state regulatory powers beyond what has been experienced under previous trade partnerships. ...

http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/29/canada-trading-away-its-environment...

Canada is Trading Away its Environmental Rights

By Guest • Thursday, January 29, 2015

This is a guest post by David Suzuki.

In 1997, Canada restricted import and transfer of the gasoline additive MMT because it was a suspected neurotoxin that had already been banned in Europe. Ethyl Corp., the U.S. multinational that supplied the chemical, sued the government for $350 million under the North American Free Trade Agreement and won! Canada was forced to repeal the ban, apologize to the company and pay an out-of-court settlement of US$13 million.

The free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was never designed to raise labour and environmental standards to the highest level. In fact, NAFTA and other trade agreements Canada has signed — including the recent Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China — often take labour standards to the lowest denominator while increasing environmental risk. The agreements are more about facilitating corporate flexibility and profit than creating good working conditions and protecting the air, water, land and diverse ecosystems that keep us alive and healthy.

Canada’s environment appears to be taking the brunt of NAFTA-enabled corporate attacks. And when NAFTA environmental-protection provisions do kick in, the government often rejects them.

According to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, more than 70 per cent of NAFTA claims since 2005 have been against Canada, with nine active cases totalling $6 billion outstanding. These challenge “a wide range of government measures that allegedly interfere with the expected profitability of foreign investments,” including the Quebec government’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Quebec imposed the moratorium in 2011 pending an environmental review of the controversial gas-and-oil drilling practice. A U.S. company headquartered in Calgary, Lone Pine Resources Inc., is suing the federal government under NAFTA for $250 million. A preliminary assessment by Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement found fracking would have “major impacts,” including air and water pollution, acrid odours and increased traffic and noise. Fracking can also cause seismic activity.

According to the CCPA, Canada has been sued more often than any other developed nation through investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in trade agreements. Under NAFTA, “Canada has already lost or settled six claims, paid out damages totaling over $170 million and incurred tens of millions more in legal costs. Mexico has lost five cases and paid damages of US$204 million. The U.S. has never lost a NAFTA investor-state case.” ...

The US corporations never have lost, that is, but Americans in general are not intended to benefit, but be additional victims of corporate greed.

Do read this in full at source, as an example. (Doesn't copy well.) Especially the part about the Trade Act of 2002 stating that foreign investors should not have greater rights than any ordinary US citizen under US law - when, as I must point out, under the TPP, all citizens involved (over the objections of those aware of the atrocious and rapidly literally fatal-to-all terms within such secretive and unconstitutional private agreements) are to be unconstitutionally deprived of their own democracy and domestic law to be ruled by off-shored corporate law court for corporate use and abuse to maximize their own profits.

https://www.citizen.org/documents/CAFTAInvestmentFactsheet.pdf

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

As many people have stated, the TPP has nothing to do with trade, but to extend the power and profits of the corporations.
Your last paragraph was powerful and it's the reason why the TPP must be stopped from passing.
We the people are going to be unconstitutionally deprived of our democracy and Obama, Hillary, Kerry and anyone else who has worked on the TPP and those that vote for it are committing treason by giving away our national sovereignty over to the corporations.
Their job is to protect the constitution not the corporations.
And there are so many people who are unaware of not only the TPP but how dangerous it will be for everyone if it's passed.
First Clinton betrayed us with welfare reform, the crime bill, nafta and deregulation of the banks and Obama is betraying us with the TPP.
What does it take to sell out the people one promised to protect?
This article is just one of many that show how bad the TPP will be for us and the people whose leaders signed on to the TPP.
http://www.citizen.org/TPP
And remember that Obama decided that the slavery and human trafficking in Malaysia isn't that big of a deal as long as they will agree with the regulations of the TPP.
Unbelievable that the first black American president is okay with slavery.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

I've often noticed having trouble getting my recs to register and to stay on, but this is new:

0 users have voted, including you.

Sorry, snoopydawg, I tried, but the system was too much for me...

Edit: OK, now it says 'only you voted'. If it's trying to drive me crazy, it is so, so, sooooo terribly too late, lol.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

http://www.citizen.org/TPP

It will make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequality,
flood our country with unsafe imported food,
jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market,

empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards,
ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs,
roll back Wall Street reforms,
sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom,
and undermine human rights.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

karl pearson's picture

Having grown-up in Illinois, everyone knew about the infamous Paul Powell, a past speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and Secretary of State. His personal motto was, "There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one." When he passed away at the Mayo Clinic in 1970, oodles of $$ were found in shoe boxes in his hotel residence in Springfield, IL. Although Powell never made more than $30,000 a year, more than $800,000 was found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Powell_(politician)

up
0 users have voted.

hundreds of millions of dollars, but no influence peddling was involved?

This is another difference between Democrats and New Democrats. Harry Truman had to come, hat in hand, to Congress to get a small pension. He had offers for speaking engagements, but did not think it seemly to capitalize on his public service.

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/1C91AC0FA1A9E39E85257D...

up
0 users have voted.
k9disc's picture

of dollars (and billions under their control) from public office.

That does not happen in the 1st world.

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

karl pearson's picture

When Rockefeller died, he had an estimated $1.4 billion. He gave $540 million to charity, which would be about 40% of his wealth. Here are some of the results of Rockefeller's charity:

"John D. Rockefeller gave away approximately $540 million before his death in 1937 at the age of 97. With that money, he created two of the world’s greatest research universities, helped pull the American South out of chronic poverty, educated legions of African Americans, jumpstarted medical research, and dramatically improved health around the globe. It is not surprising that his biographer Ron Chernow concluded that Rockefeller 'must rank as the greatest philanthropist in American history'."
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/john_d._rocke...

Although many know about Rockefeller's connection to the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, he helped fund Spelman College in Atlanta. (Rockefeller's wife was Laura Spelman, an abolitionist.) Chernow's biography, "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr." is an interesting read.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

more trustworthy than the Clinton Foundation? Why do they seem like more actual charity happens there? Why does it seem like the Clintons figured out exactly what percentage of cash they had to spend on AIDS in order to be able to feasibly deliver the talking point on TV in response to their critics?

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

karl pearson's picture

Good points. John D. Rockefeller didn't want his name to appear anywhere at the University of Chicago. When I take a stroll on various university campuses, the buildings look like a roll call vote by the past U.S. Congress or a NASCAR race. It's sad.

up
0 users have voted.

according to Charity Navigator IIRC.

up
0 users have voted.

Besides, most of his estate passed to his heirs in trusts that were 100% tax free and "grandfathered in."

The richest man in the world could not pay living wages or provide safe working conditions?

We can put down the Clintons without elevating that greedy brute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rockfam.html

up
0 users have voted.
LapsedLawyer's picture

to bother with trying to save them, in yet another example of the "good work" the CF does.

up
0 users have voted.

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon

Bob In Portland's picture

Yeah, but Adolf Hitler was very fond of dogs so he couldn't be that bad a guy, you know.

(Yes, that was snark)

up
0 users have voted.
Bob In Portland's picture

It used to be if you were a politician and rich people gave you money you could presume some kind of quid pro quo.

up
0 users have voted.
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

People who wanted zoning changes, or building permits, a patronage job, a government contract, etc. and the money was discreetly delivered in used bills in attache cases (unless you're from Rhode Island and then brown paper bags are ok).

Now, there's a new frontier opened up - Would be recipient sidles up to politician and says "How much for a liquor license?" and the politician answers "Donate to my non-profit upfront and then double my normal speaking fee afterwards." No attache cases required. There goes the luggage industry.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Damnit Janet's picture

about people's families. "Oh we just talked about our families" when questioned about what he said to AG on plane.

In my mind I could easily see it as a threat. "Nice family you got there." Not scary, right? Until it's said by someone with a lot of power.

The implied, "it'd be a shame if something were to happen to such a nice family."

up
0 users have voted.

"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

It is hard to parse out what they do sometimes, but in reading about some of their work with African farmers, they will bring in consultants on how to be more efficient farmers. They definitively operate from a point of view of markets--in that some crops were pushed instead of others for export (neglecting foods for local populations from what I read). They do not as far as I can understand, give any direct aid such as farm equipment, food, computers, etc. Need help? Bring in some consultants Seems like their model is the Peace Corps.

up
0 users have voted.
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

myself and have done a fair amount of reading from a lot of different sources. The Clinton Foundation is an octopus with a lot of different arms and they have sub entities in different countries. I don't think they even have the same model within the different components.

I agree with you that they function sometimes as middlemen consultants or brokers matching corporate dollars with supposedly philanthropic outcomes or goals. I say "supposedly" because I think sometimes the goals were genuinely philanthropic and other times it seems like the outcomes were more beneficial to corporate coffers than they were to anything else - like facilitating no-bid contracts for donors and helping them create monopolies in certain countries in particular sectors. I have heard WJC refer to "admin fees" that they collect which sounds to me like almost a commission sort of arrangement.

I read that the Foundation actually created a private equity fund in Columbia which they were part owners of, that's not something that one generally would associate with a charity, is it? They were "not rated" at one point by Charity Navigator because CN said their model was not comparable to normal charity models.

It would take a really great economic reporter to try to unravel all the different pieces and players - like the guys who wrote The Smartest Guys in The Room. At the end of the day, I think you would find a lot of genuine good and a lot that would not pass a sniff test. That's my opinion of course.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Clinton supporters are trying to argue an either/or about the Foundation. When, as I think you are pointing out, it can be a conduit for good works and a conduit for bribes and corruption. The corruption part is not about simple acts such as a vendor giving a kick back to a charity official to buy and use their products. The facilitated corruption involved very acts of state with direct implications to not only Americans, but to people overseas. It is very distributing that our foreign policy was up for sale.

up
0 users have voted.

Didn't we read earlier that if you wanted a contract with the state dept. to provide aid to Haiti that you had to go thru the foundation first? And yes, I believe most/all of those contracts were sole source.

The Federal Govt has 7 and only 7 exceptions to sole source contracting. Going thru the Clinton foundation is not one of them.

And having to go thru the foundation first? That's shades of Darlene Dryen & her AF acqusition scandal.

up
0 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

Here is a good read on the "charity" they don't do.

https://medium.com/@ASterling/clinton-foundation-charity-grade-d-close-a...

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

It's all "big ag" advice. Expensive equipment, commercial fertilizers, etc. stuff people can't afford, designed for a big scale.

Other countries (such as Canada) provide much more practical advice/aid. I saw a program on CBC one time. If I recall correctly they had an aid program to provide electricity to communities - in Afghanistan iirc. This was not power plants that burned fossil fuel. They were solar plants, and they powered things like the lights in a rug factory, or a community water pump, or the school. Little to no recurring cost for the community to pay. The US wouldn't be caught dead going something like that. There's no profit in it for big energy/big ag, etc.

up
0 users have voted.

Wed, 08/24/2016 - 2:06pm — MrWebster

Clinton Foundation is a consulting business.

It is hard to parse out what they do sometimes, but in reading about some of their work with African farmers, they will bring in consultants on how to be more efficient farmers. They definitively operate from a point of view of markets--in that some crops were pushed instead of others for export (neglecting foods for local populations from what I read). They do not as far as I can understand, give any direct aid such as farm equipment, food, computers, etc. Need help? Bring in some consultants Seems like their model is the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps wasn't quite what sprang to my mind, I must admit. Are they told by Clinton Foundation consultants to be more efficient farmers by going broke and poisoning themselves and the Earth with Monsanto/Dow etc. GMOs and toxic chemicals?

There must be a reason why Monsanto is so eager to have Hillary elected, as one might say, over the sometimes literally dead bodies of those objecting/drawing attention to the corruption and cheating involved.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

edg's picture

You wrote "they did good works and therefore had no ethical lapses or conflicts of interests" as if that's a bad thing. I once helped an old lady cross the street. Then I knocked her husband down and stole his wallet. But my good works obviously cancelled that tiny ethical lapse. Or so I would think if I were a Clinton.

[That sounds like a good topic for an open thread: If I were a Clinton...]

up
0 users have voted.

Personally, I wouldn't be a Clinton for all of the money in the world.

Oooooo, wait - unless, of course, I got to redistribute it according to need. I'd also need to be psychic and capable of instantaneous teleportation and time-bending, though, so that's getting rather complicated, lol.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

janis b's picture

than Trump, acquiring money that is. He sells himself as a brand, one that you can’t afford not to ‘buy’. He beats Hillary’s ‘charitable’ endeavours. We have two master shoplifters running for president.

up
0 users have voted.

The Cintons were/will be again "public servants". They are held to a higher ethical standard.

Trump is a private business man. The profit motive is what drives business. I don't think he's much better than a used car salesman, but then you know what you are getting with a used car salesman.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

for a new car from either.

up
0 users have voted.
LapsedLawyer's picture

from the Clinton crowd, you know, the ones that keep telling us HRH HRC will get Citizens United overturned; their argument here uses the same logic the Court used in that slimy ruling.

Oh, and the whole good works thing? It's a non-sequitur when you're talking about the corruption of the State Department.

up
0 users have voted.

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon

lotlizard's picture

At least, Matt Wuerker has posted none of his cartoons at TOP since then.

April 23, 2015 lampooned Clinton Inc. and triggered the “what are you doing here, this is a Democratic site” reaction. The next week, April 30, 2015 was about Charlie Hebdo and that was the last one.

up
0 users have voted.

They haven't promised to shut down the Foundation if she becomes President. They've said only that Bill will step down as head of the foundation if she becomes President--as if the identity of the CEO of the Foundation were the only problem! They haven't even said the Foundation will not employ other Clinton family members or friends, like, oh, I don't know, Chelsea or her husband. Moreover, taking someone off the payroll and letterhead does not solve a thing. No matter what, Bill will get those speaking fees and pull the strings behind the scenes.

Cheney either sold his Halilburton stock or had it in a blind trust when he was President. Does anyone actually think whatever formal compliance step Cheney took made all the difference in the world? Hillary was not technically part of the Foundation when she was SOS and Abedin was not on the foundation payroll then, either. Which problems did those technicalities avoid?

These people have no boundaries. Bill Clinton was the first President to set up a "war room" in the White House dedicated to his own re-election. He also started the Lincoln Bedroom Bed and Breakfast for his big campaign donors. Gore got in trouble for making fundraising calls from the White House. It's their party. You can cry if you want to, but that's about all you get to do.

It's a good thing government throws us a bone every now and again, because so many of these clowns should be tarred and feathered, if not blindfolded and lined up in front of a firing squad.

up
0 users have voted.

http://www.naturalnews.com/050842_Hillary_Clinton_Foundation_campaign_do...

Monsanto gave around 1MUS$, chump change in those circles I suppose, but enough to keep the Clintons promoting GMO seeds around the world. I have never understood why Sanders did not make Mrs. Clinton's promotion of biotech more of a campaign issue.

Be aware that one of part of Sirota's CV is working for AIPAC. That does not mean his articles are not worth reading, but there might be some details left out.

up
0 users have voted.

Mary Bennett